2 MONTE COOK PRESENTS: IRON HEROES FREEThe ADVENTURE: King Must Die! An introductory Iron Heroes scenario for 5th-level characters, by Mike Mearls. Requires use of Monte Cook Presents: Iron Heroes, published by Malhavoc Press. Requires use of the Dungeons & Dragons® Third Edition Core Books, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This book utilizes updated material from the v. 3.5 revision. THE ENCOUNTERS The encounters of this scenario are as follows: Battle at the Stone Well: Fate brings together an unlikely band of heroes. At the stroke of midnight, six heroes gather at the ruins of an ancient fortress. There, they must open a stone well and follow its long passage to the dungeons of the Demon King’s castle. Unfortunately for the heroes, the Demon King has dispatched a mob of outlaws to guard the entrance. The PCs must fight off the bandits while the well slowly opens. The Great Stone Idol: In his boundless vanity, the Demon King has transformed the crypts beneath his castle into a monument to his unending reign. The player characters must scale a great statue of the Demon King to access the secret passage leading to his main court. Unfortunately, a pack of horrid ghouls stands guard over the crypts. The Hall of Many Veils: The heroes next venture through the Demon King’s harem. The fiendish lord’s consorts are far from blushing, perfumed beauties. Rather, he keeps a trio of he King Must Die is designed to introduce new players flesh-eating she-werewolves as his concubines. Here, the PCs T to the Iron Heroes variant player’s handbook. It fea- encounter the Demon King, his concubines, and his coterie tures encounters designed to highlight the new sys- of followers while they are engaged in a terrible debauch. The tems and combat options available in Iron Heroes. It was first player characters must slay the king and rid the world of his run as an event at Gen Con Indy 2005. evil in this great chamber, a hall crisscrossed with dozens of This adventure consists of three encounters and an thick tapestries and curtains. optional interlude. The first two encounters give the players the chance to try out the rules, while the third one lets THE STORY them apply everything they learned in one final grand The King Must Die emphasizes the action that takes place dur- melee. ing play, rather than before play begins. Thus, there is little This scenario includes six sample 5th-level player charac- backstory here, aside from the characters’ background details. ters, as well as tokens for use with their token abilities. If The Demon King has ruled the land for centuries. Tonight, on you want to run this adventure as a convention event, it is the Night of the Blood-Dimmed Moon, his power shall ebb to built to take roughly four hours. For a continuing campaign, its lowest point. This is the one chance the heroes have to The King Must Die serves best as an example of how to create slay the Demon King and break his rule. The six characters an adventure in the Iron Heroes mold. The encounters are who assemble to topple this cruel tyrant are united only by built so you can easily remove any of them from the adven- their shared goal to kill the despot. Fate has brought them ture and use them as the backdrop for an encounter in a together—and fate may be all that stands between them and different story. bitter defeat. Note that this adventure starts on page 2. There is no page 1. THE KING MUST DIE 3 THE CHARACTERS GETTING STARTED All the NPCs and monsters in this adventure are statted out To use The King Must Die, you need a copy of Monte Cook following the scenario. Brief descriptions of the six sample Presents: Iron Heroes published by Malhavoc Press and six 5th- 5th-level player characters included with this adventure level characters (such as the ones provided in this adventure). appear below for your reference. Because four of the characters have special class abilities Danila the Archer: Danila’s birth fulfilled an ancient prophe- called “token pools,” you also may want to cut out the coun- cy that supposedly foretold the fall of the Demon King. As a ters that appear after the characters, to serve as tokens during young child, she trained in archery with a small sect of warrior the game. (Rules for using the tokens appear on each charac- monks. Sadly, her years of training proved insufficient against ter sheet and in Chapter Three of Iron Heroes; brush up on the Demon King when he and his men attacked the monastery them as needed before play begins.) You’ll need a battle mat and burned it to the ground. The prophecy was a fake, a story or graph paper to draw the maps included here as well. planted by the Demon King to draw out his enemies. Danila The concept of “combat zones” is a new rules subset that escaped the attack and, though the prophecy was false, she appears in the Mastering Iron Heroes supplement. Even if you still aims to fulfill it by killing the Demon King. don’t have that product, enough rules are provided Eskar the Berserker: A year ago, Eskar was here that you shouldn’t have any trouble using nothing more than another terrified peas- the zones. ant toiling under the Demon King’s For monsters and other rules, you’ll cruel reign. Then, the tyrant’s were- need a copy of the MM and DMG as wolf brides descended upon his vil- well. If you like using miniatures, we lage and slaughtered his family. recommend the official Iron Heroes Since then, Eskar has sworn to kill miniatures line from Magnificent the Demon King. Driven by his Egos; there’s one figure for every endless rage and an old crone’s PC provided in this adventure. mysterious prophecy, he seeks The maps in this adventure were vengeance on this blackest of created with Dundjinni software. For nights. more information, visit <www.dund- Ser Johann the Man-At-Arms: jinni.com>. Free character sheets and A bitter, black-hearted knight, Ser other material to augment Iron Heroes Johann uses every dirty trick in the book appears on Monte Cook’s website. To find to defeat his enemies. He owes his soul to the links to these free web enhancements, the witch Nasgra. Only the death of the visit <www.montecook.com/ironheroes>. Demon King can free him from this bond. The If you want to run The King Must Die as a conven- witch’s prophecy has led him to this place. tion scenario, have the players pick the characters they want Toothpuller the Executioner: Toothpuller is a feral mad- to play from the options provided in this document. Give the woman consumed by visions of demons and angels. As a players a few minutes to read their character sheets. While small child raised by a fanatical cult dedicated to the defeat they are looking over their PCs, go ahead and set up the first of the Demon King, Toothpuller grew up like a beast trained encounter area (see map, page 4). The adventure begins in for battle. Her vision and dreams have driven her to this the thick of the action, as each of the heroes arrives at the place. ruined fortress. Badabaskor the Thief: Badabaskor is a dashing, charismat- Unlike a traditional roleplaying scenario, The King Must Die ic rogue with a price on his head in every kingdom in the is linear in nature. This scenario is designed to show off the region. Only in the Demon King’s lands can he travel openly, rules. Hopefully the story proves interesting and the charac- yet this realm is far from an appealing sanctuary. His bravery ters fun to play, but the key to this game is to show the players propped up by a dozen mugs of ale, Badabaskor decided to how to use the new Iron Heroes combat options and their slip into the Demon King’s castle, kill him, and claim the characters’ abilities. To help support this aim, the encounters throne as his own. Unfortunately for Badabaskor, the ale wore give you some options to introduce new dangers or unexpect- off just as he arrived at the old stone fortress. ed events that allow each player character to shine or to keep Tharlane the Weapon Master: A wanderer from the dis- the game rolling, so that everyone has a chance to try some- tant south, Tharlane has sought the world’s mightiest warriors thing interesting. to duel with him. A worshipper of the Seven Winds of Fury, he This adventure is protected content except for items specif- allows his feet to take him where they will. His wanderings ically called out as Open Game Content in the legal state- brought him to the ruined stone fortress just as the other ment at the end of this document. For full details, please turn heroes arrived. As luck would have it, the Demon King is a to the Open Game License on that page. Open content is not more than worthy foe for Tharlane’s blades. otherwise marked in the text of this adventure. 4 MONTE COOK PRESENTS: IRON HEROES ENCOUNTER ONE: Yet, already your plan has undergone an unexpected change. You BATTLE AT THE STONE WELL intended to face the Demon King alone—yet here stand five others who seek his death. Read or paraphrase the following text to players: At this point, each player should introduce his character by It is a night foretold by prophets and madmen, the Night of the describing the PC’s appearance and perhaps offering a few Blood-Dimmed Moon.