Campaign Diary - Werewolf? Therewolf! (THE END)

Location - The Moon Cave, 10 miles northeast of the town. Little Plains, a town halfway between Ptolus, Slune, and almost equidistant from Dorhinthas in the south of the empire.

Party in Play

Rae - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4.  One of the original members of the party that originated in the town of Little Plains. She is somewhat of a strategist and creative tactician always looking for an edge when the situation gets dicey.

Wulfe - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 4. Originally from a small town north of Ptolus near the Moonsilver Forest, he wandered westward to satisfy his curiosity about the frontier areas of the empire. Joining the group early in their adventuring career he has been a steadfast companion and effective in any dangerous situation. He wields Cheval, a Faery forged longsword known for occasional bursts of radiant energy.

Korved - Human. Cleric 4. An itinerant priest, he arrived in Little Plains hoping to come to grips with his recent experiences. He had joined the Gaen faith at a young age and over time found his thinking more in line with her masculine aspect Hannan. The non-violent and amicable split in the church was his signal to explore the world.

Sparky - Human. Fighter 4. She's a force to be reckoned with in a toe to toe fight. Recent life as a sword for hire had led to some less than respectable jobs and little in the way of pay. Joining an adventuring group seemed a wise choice.

Celestia - Elf. Fighter 1/ Wizard 2. A bold and confident adventurer, she puts forward an unfearful countenance. A recent addition to the group Celestia is making herself at home as if she were there all along despite lacking the experience of the other members.

Jill - Human. Fighter 3. A sell sword by trade, she has recently been down on her luck and in need of work. Hired to deliver a bag of coins to this group she ended up joining as a means of escaping from the butt end of the empire. Capable with sword and bow Jill is a good fit for the team.

Jackalope - Human. Fighter 3. A stranger in Little Plains that arrived about the time the wolf attacks began. Staying at the Brown Dog, Jackalope approached the party after overhearing their intent to go north. Volunteering additional information about the wolf problem, the party agreed that an extra sword arm might be in order.

Sadly this campaign ended 3 and a half years ago. Since this much time has passed, the decision was made to just call it quits instead of hoping it would continue.

Maybe we'll start something new eventually. Possibly some Shadowdark.

Shadowdark: Trolls are Dangerous Again

 If you were paying attention to this blog (unlikely) then you know that both of my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns stopped abruptly a little over three years ago. The two groups were using 5th edition D&D, one group in a homebrew world, transitioning to Ptolus, and the other already in Ptolus. I am now preparing to start a new campaign using the Shadowdark RPG. 

There is an interesting mechanic for driving activity in the game by giving light an even greater importance to survival than in many other games, especially 5e D&D. Torches burn out after about an hour of real time, with variance and depending on other factors. Delving is risky in the light, but becomes terrifying in the dark. Characters have limited encumbrance and space meaning choices of what to carry and how much can be the difference between life and death. Characters in Shadowdark do not have darkvision, unlike almost all of the species in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. When they run out of light sources the real fight for survival begins.

This is where trolls enter the discussion. We all know that fire is one of two certain ways to finish off a troll and prevent their regeneration. Acid is the second method, but it comes with the risk of exposure and damage if the vessel it is carried in breaks. Fire is therefore the most likely resource at hand for combatting trolls. Using up torches battling trolls depletes that very valuable resource. Now trolls aren't just deadly in combat, they're deadly afterward as well. 

Many of the creatures inhabiting dungeons will make an extra effort to douse light sources and trolls have more reason to snuff torches. So, when your players chuckle at the thought of trolls, smile and watch their expressions when the light goes out.

 

Mad God's Key - Dungeon Magazine 114

Mad God's Key is a starter adventure for a campaign beginning at 1st level. It is an urban adventure that is perfect for introducing characters to a larger city, taking PCs on a trip through various districts. Originally written for D&D 3.5, it is another one that easily lends itself to conversion into other editions including 5e.

Fits like a glove . . . This can be put almost anywhere from Greyhawk (the setting it is written for) to Waterdeep, or in my case, Ptolus. While most of it takes place inside the city, there is one part that occurs outside. In the case of Ptolus that doesn't have to happen and the small dungeon is a great match for the district where I'll be placing it.

I'll be using this to start things off in the city of Ptolus when the characters arrive. The characters in my campaign are already quite a bit above the levels the scenario is designed to handle. Some adjustments are being made, but there's no harm in leaving some segments as an easier challenge as long as the story progresses properly. 

No detailed spoilers are included in this post. It'll all come out when the game session write ups are posted in the future, but some things will be mentioned.

The adventure begins in the Guildsman District when characters become involved in recovering a stolen key (the title of the adventure gives that much away). The trail leads to the Docks, to the Warrens, to Oldtown, to the Temple District, and then the Necropolis. The opportunities opened up by this progression make showing off what Ptolus has in store easy. There are more districts in Ptolus that are not touched on in this adventure, but something needs to be left for later. 

NPCs fall into place almost seamlessly for organizations within Ptolus. Later plot possibilities can be set up as if they belonged there the whole time. 

There is not a clock ticking to get things done, but it feels that sooner might be better than later, and sooner makes more sense for the course of events as some take place the same day that things get rolling. Spots do remain available to squeeze other stuff in between events, but you will want to keep the players involved in the plot so keep outside influences to a minimum.

As I write this post I am trying to goad myself to get on with painting a number of miniatures and pieces of terrain that will make for a good 'welcome to Ptolus'. Anyone that has followed this blog for any amount of time likely knows that motivation is often a weak point for me. At least I have them ready to be primed.

If you can land yourself a copy of Dungeon Magazine  #114 get it for this adventure.

Magic Item - Mercilinda's Beautiful Boots

"Whoa, quit stomping in cow manure! You'll ruin your nice new boots!" Embuk looked perturbed as Mercilinda stomped in her third cow turd.

Mercilinda grinned and kicked a particularly juicy clod of shit in Embuk's direction. "Not to worry, these beautiful boots are magically protected from getting dirty."

These boots are made from the finest white leather, polished to a bright shine. With a permanent Prestidigitation cantrip of cleaning, these boots can be used in the filthiest of conditions and never get dirty.

Item Availability: Common. User: 1st level or higher. Cost: 50 to 100 gold pieces.

Practical Magic - Dungeon 113

Practical Magic is an adventure full of personality. Many personalities in fact. 

A necromancer whose work is focused on making skilled undead even better at their jobs, he sees corpses that aren't being put to productive purposes as wasted material. He gets wind of another spellcaster with a sense for putting magic and inventions to practical uses and sees an opportunity for the two of them to work together, bettering both their efforts.

He sends an invitation to meet, but the message doesn't arrive because her boyfriend is breaking up with her. So the necromancer has his very smart undead servant kidnap the wizard.

The boyfriend is a dominated servant of a mermaid vampire. So is his cousin. 

The mermaid vampire has the boyfriend lure the downtrodden, poor, or depressed to her lair under the guise that she is a fortune teller that can help relieve them of their burdens. She then convinces the victims to go out of the world in an exotic way . . . as her food.

The boyfriend's cousin has turned evil and now wants to become a vampire.  

The ghast that kidnapped the wizard is addicted to fine clothes and fancy furnishings. He owns a Hat of Disguise that lets him pose as himself before being turned into a ghast, and allowed him to pull off the kidnapping.

The kidnapped wizard has heard out the necromancer's idea and come around to giving it serious consideration. She however has her own plan for how things should work.

Much of the adventure takes place in the two hidden lairs and will require time spent in the water. 

Now we just need to figure out where everything is and who else might be involved.

According to the module the mermaid vampire's lair is about 300' off the coast in about 20' of water, with a bunch of sharks around it. This could be almost anywhere as long as it stays not too far from Ptolus. Victims need to be able to reach the lair and her agents need to be able to return to the city fairly quickly, but it all needs to remain unnoticed. At first I thought to put it south of Beacon Island, but reading further into the adventure made it more likely that the necromancer's lair is under the south end of the island. Two major lairs that close together doesn't work for me.

Then I looked north of the docks. It might work, but it starts to come close to the territory of the Covenant of Blood and their Sahuagin allies. it could certainly work. She might be one of the 6 vampires in the Covenant. She's good with sharks and so are the Sahuagin. The drawback is that PCs that defeat or drive her away make enemies of the Covenant, the Sahuagin, the Balacazars, and all of their other allies. That's a lot of weight bearing down on the player characters. Maybe the mermaid vampire is viewed as unwanted competition by the Covenant and they'd like to see her gone, one way or another. 

"One thing about living in Ptolus I never could stomach is all the damned vampires."

Studying necromancy is not technically illegal in Ptolus, but creating undead or bringing undead into the city is outlawed. This is reason for the necromancer to have a hidden lair off shore. The lair is fairly large so he needs a big place to put it and under the south end of Beacon Island seems perfect. The island already has a reputation of being haunted. The necromancer is a known entity, and has in the past aided in fighting off pirates, so while dealing with unsavory things, nobody has gone out of their way to try and put an end to his practice.

Interesting is a great way to describe this adventure. It is possible for characters to make enemies of just about everyone in the module if enemies aren't killed. They could also end up with some bizarre semi-allies depending on their own sense of morals.

Satanic Panic

 

The Queen With The Burning Eyes - Dungeon Magazine 113

Evil cultists lead by a monied individual, check. Weird creatures within a section of Ghul's Labyrinth, check. A key to Dwarvenhearth, check. Evil delvers lead by a necromancer that want the key, check. This scenario plays well in Ptolus. The cultists might work as worshippers of Father Claw.

The real challenge here falls on people without the Eberron setting information about the monsters. You'll have to build some of them yourself, but that's fine because you'll have a solid understanding of how they work in combat when you finish construction.

The basics of the plot involve a bit of construction work/excavation work that is a cover for the monied cultists to operate in the labyrinth dungeon below. Some people are getting kidnapped, others mugged, burglaries of nearby homes and shops happen, etc, since the underground was opened to the surface.

Locating the dungeon is simple and it fits well in the Guildsman district. 

I used part of this with some of the characters in my first Ptolus campaign, but it never was fully completed. When the characters got a look at the Naga the cultists were sacrificing people to, they bolted from the dungeon. 

Pour a Potent Potion into one of These.

 Time for more shameless self promotion. The blog's Zazzle store has these mugs and some other things for sale. Follow this link to see what's available. If you like something order it. Thanks!

http://www.zazzle.com/tdaalmerch*     <----- Link

Below are the designs on three other mugs. Pardon the duplication of images. The banner design mug image copied fine, but the rest came out, well, not as mugs.

There are cards with these images, you can send to folks for whatever reason or to invite them to a special game session. 

Also there are a banner pin and a banner magnet available.

The Stink - Dungeon Magazine 105

Now who doesn't want to root around in and under the Middens and the sewers beneath them? You don't? What about your player characters?

This adventure will require some changes to play well with Ptolus, but the concept is solid.

Evil Locathah, non-evil Locathah, lot's of nasty encounters and dangerous filth. What's not to love?

Diseases are at the root of this adventure. Included in the scenario are 6 new diseases, described in juicy detail. 

The evil Locathah are worshippers of a god of disease and have chosen the midden and the sewers and caves below to set up a lab for incubating more and more virulent disease strains. 

You may have to put some effort toward getting the player characters involved in this mess, but a couple of options are put forward. A missing friend is one possibility, but I like the second option better because it can be developed with more detail. An important item, maybe a family heirloom has been accidently dumped into the vastness of the Midden and because of its nature the owner is willing to pay for delvers to go and get it back. There are also some missing people being held down below so the PCs might be pursuing that lead.

You can easily combine this with other scenarios like the one with Ularis Gadare offering a reward to go in and retrieve something he wants.

Racing the Snake - Dungeon Magazine 105

If there's something I enjoy it is challenging terrain, and this adventure delivers. Racing the Snake would make a great vacation outside the confines of Ptolus and the dungeon. 

After restructuring the opening act to work with the setting and city, the overland journey becomes very interesting with time-keeping used to see if the party can stay ahead of their foes.

A war between some merchants is underway and it has reached the point where the less scrupulous of them is hiring assassins to take out his rival and/or his rival's family.

The restructuring: 

The evil merchant is a fellow named Dajoud we can place in the Uraqi city of Rashadar. His targets are in Ptolus. Dajoud has sent a ship with some Uraqi mercenaries to the city to harass and kill employees of Trend and to try to kill Trend's daughter Felicia. Dajoud also tried to have Trend assassinated, but failed and now the target has shifted to Felecia. 

Player characters get involved by stumbling into a group of Dajoud's mercenaries attacking an employee of Trend in North Market. It's possible they might know this bard from some tavern or from the Joden Temple.

Galina, the bard, thanks the party for the rescue (assuming your players aren't the type to ignore obvious plot points), and notices that one of them resembles Felicia. She offers them 500 gold pieces to meet with Trend and hear a proposal from him. The meeting will take place that night at a warehouse he owns in the Docks district (come fully prepared).

Galina informs Trend of the coincidence of a look-alike and has a plan to send the party and the double on a false trail to lure the assassin off of Felicia's actual trail. When the party gets to the warehouse, they are paid up front and then Trend brings them up to speed on the plan and offers them 6,000 gold pieces if they sign on.

They are to leave immediately that night with their party member disguised. They will be travelling north into the Moonsilver Forest and finding their way along a narrow canyon/ravine for part of the trip. There's nothing saying such a thing can't be there since it is a small section and unimportant to the setting. They'll then move into an underground river and eventually come up through smugglers tunnels into Carper's Bay

They are to do everything in their power to string out the deception so the assassin keeps reporting back that he's still on the trail of "Felicia" so that Dajoud won't have reason to detect the ruse and hire more assassins to go after the real Felicia. Under almost no circumstance is "Felicia" to display any martial or magical talent.  

Meanwhile Trend and his daughter will be taking a different route to Carper's Bay to wed Felecia to another merchant's son, cementing their relationship and giving them more trading power to oppose Dajoud.

Trend cannot have Dajoud killed since he is against bloodshed mostly, and because Dajoud is very well connected making trade in Uraq very difficult afterward.

The assassin is a Yuan-ti Abomination that has a handful of Kobolds (3 of them sorcerers) working for him. The assassin will get wind of the party leaving Ptolus on the way to the wedding, and will hasten to follow.

That's when the fun of the journey begins. From there most of the module can be used with minimal adjustments.

As long as the party can maintain the ruse and avoid killing the Yuan-ti, Dajoud will remain ignorant and things will go as Trend and Galina planned. Dajoud is also a sorcerer and keeps in touch with the killer a couple of times each day by a Sending spell. He also knows if his employee is alive or dead thanks to a magic ring each of them wear.

There are plenty of obstacles along the way that smart players can turn against the enemy, and some encounters they might find a way to use to their advantage as well. There are notes in the locations and encounters indicating how the pursuers can be delayed further or catch up sooner depending on choices made.

After completing the scenario the characters may have made two merchant families as strong allies, and even some residents of the Moonsilver Forest. (Maybe the Viridian Lords)

The Sinkhole - Dungeon Magazine 103

What if an inn got sucked into some caverns that were part of the Shadow of Ptolus?

The scenario as written involves an inn falling, mostly intact, through a sinkhole into a cavern infused with the plane of shadow. Instead of a sinkhole, what about a magical translocation? 

Such an event would certainly fit into the lore of the setting. You could develop any number of reasons and make them plot hooks for something bigger.

The translocation of the inn turns it into another location behaving just like Kadmiel the Shade Tower. It doesn't exist in the real world, but occasion ally casts a shadow of itself on bright moonlit nights.

Among the many dangerous encounters are also hazards like pockets of gas, cave-ins, and any number of shadow related afflictions you could invent and apply.

The goal is to get everyone out of the shadow caverns and back to Ptolus proper. The hungry shadow infused monsters have other plans.

The adventure assumes the player characters are staying at the inn when everything starts. They could be there for any number of reasons, meeting a client, seeking information about something else they are investigating, etc. This works as a drop-in (pun intended) concurrent with other plot threads.

Strange effects for spellcasting would be appropriate with anything shadow or illusion related. Light could be dimmed. 

Going back to the Why?:

1) There could be someone at the inn that is a target of someone powerful enough to have the inn and everyone present shunted into the Shadow of Ptolus. Could Renn Sadar be involved somehow? It's unlikely he would be the target or even present since as powerful as he is and as connected to shadow magic, the PCs wouldn't have much work to do (unless he was in a coma the whole time).

2) Maybe a magic item is present that causes the shift.

3) Could a deity be behind it? Maybe Destor pushing his luck?

4) For some unfathomable reason the Soul Riders took control of half a dozen of the mightiest spellcasters in the Inverted Pyramid, including Renn Sadar, to work a ritual that threw the inn and occupants into the Shadow of Ptolus. They'll only vaguely recall bits of their actions and aren't likely to admit lacking control. The Soul Riders may want access to something within the shadow. If one of your players is absent you may want to use them as an NPC under the control of a Soul Rider. Perhaps that character is present when the shift into the Shadow of Ptolus occurs and is there to get whatever the Riders are after.

Escape as written is as simple as finding a certain cave-in and digging out, but for our purposes that would not be in keeping with the Shadow of Ptolus, and much too simple. Alternately you could let them dig out a passage into the second level of Kadmiel, the Tenebrous Abode, but that still isn't a way out. Spells like Plane Shift, Gate, and Etherealness, or items that work similarly could allow exit.

The Chasm Bridge - Dungeon Magazine 101

An evil wizard whose delving party left him behind when he lost a leg has taken up residence by a natural bridge over a chasm in the caverns below Ptolus. He attracted some monsters who now work for him, and he charges a steep toll to cross his bridge. The only other bridge over the same chasm is controlled by some mean Gargoyles he has a shaky truce with.

That's mostly it. It's a location that can be dropped into any cavernous dungeon if you need a little something else for the characters to interact with.

 

Prison of the Firebringer - Dungeon Magazine 101

An epic challenge, Prison of the Firebringer begins with wilderness locations and caravan attacks. It might work better for Ptolus if the wagons and outdoor locations get replaced with pack lizards and caverns. Cultists are behind these attacks as they search for a caster of lawful bent to force into casting the ritual to free the demon.

The story is that an academy of powerful mages summoned and trapped a Slaad Lord before they themselves fell. Slaad are creatures of chaos so it works from that standpoint, but in the adventure it is possible to negotiate with or even try to fool the powerful prisoner. To me, that aspect might rule out a Galchutt. Instead I would consider a powerful demon. Now some cultists and their powerful allies want to break the demon out.

Who are these cultists? Chaos cultists have been done to death so something fresh is needed. As written, one of the leaders is a Durzagon, basically a half-fiend/half-dwarf. That could make the cultists some wacked in the head dwarves. Initially Duergar came to mind, but they're lawful devil worshippers, not chaotic demon worshippers.  Derro? They are chaotic evil, but are not in the 5e Monster Manual. Well, just dwarves that are nuts.

The player characters get dragged into things when they come upon the survivors from an attack who tell them what happened and ask the party to help rescue those that were taken by the Acolytes of the Hidden Flame. 

The caravan could have been going from the surface down to settlements below. Now all that's left are a bunch of fried lizards and the dead delvers that were guarding the caravan. The wizard from the named adventuring group is missing and could easily be someone whose name the PCs recognize. The cloth and wine the lizards were carrying are as toasted as the lizards themselves.

Placing the location of the academy into the dungeons below the city means determining who this cabal of powerful spellcasters were. Let's keep things uniform, they were dwarves, the lawful sort, who in desperation summoned and bound a demon in order to fight off a Drow invasion.

Among the locations of interest in the scenario are an observatory. At first this seemed a bit tough to work with and then I just decided that there's no reason powerful wizards and the like couldn't have an underground observatory. Magic is magic after-all. The observatory is the lair of a Beholder, so things get tough fast and the Beholder is untypical, being able to cast spells.

The Beholder wants someone to get rid of the bonkers dwarves and will point the party to where they can be found if asked politely.

Other locations include another ambush site complete with a dead pack beast, also cooked. A passage with a blood trail from a wounded pack animal. A campsite above the passage from where some cultists and a demon will attack the party. Another camp where some cultists can be talked to and maybe the party will get jumped by a half-fiend Minotaur cleric and another demon.

The cultists are crazy, but not zealots so it is possible to get information those captured.

After all of that the group will reach the dungeon and may face some Fomorian giants at their camp.

Inside the dungeon are some rooms with ghost guards.

In the original module there are numerous Slaad, but I might replace them with various types of demons.

 As things progress one might get the impression that the original occupants were lawful, but just as crazy as the cultists. They used plenty of undead to guard the place.

Turns out the demon prisoner isn't alone, his mount, a fiendish Pyro-Hydra is trapped here as well. It happens to be a Legendary creature.

Bazin-Gorag is a two headed demon, maybe you could make it an aspect of Demogorgon.

In hindsight, it might be best to keep the Slaad instead of demons, but still use the bonkers dwarves as cultists.

Besides defeating this epic opponent, the adventure provides options for other outcomes that have repercussions later.

Critical Threats Homnar Thest - Dungeon Magazine 100

Most of these Critical Threats from Dungeon Magazine, I find rather boring. Not this one. Homnar Thest would fit right in around Ptolus.

Master Thest as some call him is a weretoad, and a nasty one. He runs a smuggling and kidnapping operation with some fellow weretoads. He sells victims into slavery. Sounds like he could be part of any number of groups in the city. He would work well with the Ennin.

There's no adventure attached to the NPC villain, but the personality and nature of this beastly fellow almost writes one for you.

On the surface he comes off as a prosperous merchant. He's very portly, yet agile. He wears expensive cloths, jewelry, etc. He's a glutton and greedy to boot. Oh, and he eats people when he can get away with it.

In Giant Toad form he can swallow targets whole. If he catches a character alone things could go very badly, or result in a kidnapping. Have a player you know will be missing a couple of sessions? This could be a reason their character isn't around, and the ransom might be expensive.

Blind Man's Bluff - Dungeon Magazine 97

This is one of the many Side-Treks mini scenarios Dungeon Magazine was fond of publishing. There's not a lot to change. It can be moved into the dungeons below Ptolus easily enough. 

The short of it is that some Grimlocks are seeking help to rescue a leader of theirs trapped in the cave of an undead (wight) Ettin. They plan to double cross the party once their leader is safe. That's really all there is to it.

You can toss this in while the group are on their way to do something else down below.

Expanding the encounter shouldn't be too difficult since the background given mentions a Mind Flayer causing the Grimlocks to be in the situation to begin with. It ordered them here and then abandoned them when the wight kicked their collective backsides.

A wight by itself is a pretty tough fight for a lower level party. An Ettin that's a wight should be a bit tougher. Since in 5e humanoids killed by wights rise as zombies, you could up the difficulty by having the 4 slain Grimlocks already zombified.

The lair could also be a place to put a plot hook for later down the line, among the treasure.

Lord of the Scarlet Tide - Dungeon Magazine 85

In Dungeon Magazine issue #85 is an adventure titled Lord of the Scarlet Tide. Written for 3rd edition it is simple enough to convert for 5e. While the adventure as written is somewhat bland, the core elements can slide into a Ptolus campaign with little adjustment.

The premise revolves around a trapped powerful aberration being partially freed. I'm changing things so that someone took a magical tablet (one of five) that holds the necessary information for keeping it imprisoned. The creature causes a fungal disease to spread from its prison far below the city. Getting the tablet back where it belongs and performing the ritual to recapture the creature or defeating the monster is the goal.

The ideas and some encounters lend themselves easily to Ptolus. The big bad could easily be Galchutt. There’s also a non-typical mind flayer using what can pass perfectly as chaositech. Infected townsfolk, a behir, kuo toa (who originally imprisoned the thing), and ghosts are encounters to be had.

I originally intended to use this in my first Ptolus campaign for one of my two groups. Never got around to it before the campaign came to a halt.

I planned to have Castle Shard send the characters to a high end auction being secretly held. They would be told as cover to bid on whatever they chose (limited budget of 2,000 gold) while remembering everything being auctioned and report back. That is where they would learn about the tablet and its connection to the disease, or similar info that helps put the clues together.

Coffee? Don't Mind if I do!

 Time for more shameless self promotion. The blog's Zazzle store has these mugs and some other things for sale. Follow this link to see what's available. If you like something order it. Thanks!

http://www.zazzle.com/tdaalmerch*     <----- Link

Below are the designs on three other mugs. Pardon the duplication of images. The banner design mug image copied fine, but the rest came out, well, not as mugs.

There are cards with these images, you can send to folks for whatever reason or to invite them to a special game session. 

Also there are a banner pin and a banner magnet available.

Magic Item - Dagger of Mourning

The blade sank deep into the goblin's chest and it dropped lifeless to the cavern floor. Without any obvious explanation Narmen dropped to his knees and began weeping and wailing about what he had done to the poor goblin. 

"Get it together , man. We're in a fight! What's wrong with you?!" Embuk stepped close to his grieving friend just in time to shove his rapier through the eye of a charging goblin.

Dagger of Mourning (cursed)

This ornately decorated Adamantine dagger +2 is an enemy of both goblins and golems, doing an extra 1d4 of damage on any strike against these foes, but it comes with a dangerous curse. The dagger influences the carrier to choose it over other melee weapons in a fight. (DC15 Wisdom saving throw to resist). If the dagger scores the killing blow against any opponent the wielder must succeed on a DC15 Wisdom saving throw or be instantly overcome with intense grief at the killing or destruction of the victim. The user will cease all activity and begin loudly crying and lamenting the enemy's death. The saving through may be repeated at the end of each turn.

Item Availability: Rare. User 5th level or higher. Cost 501 - 5,000 gold pieces.

Dungeon of the Fire Opal - Dungeon Magazine 84 (part 8: areas 39 through 41)

The final segment of restocking the dungeon. We cover areas 39 though 41.

Unless otherwise stated, all areas are unlit.

Unless otherwise stated ceiling height is 10 feet. 

All secret doors require a DC14 or better perception to spot.

All areas other than 0, 1, and 3 are grey stone.

Should you decide to have random encounters in the southern part of the dungeon, the following are suggested: 2 Toruk Rul, 1 Sorn Ulth, both, the sound of clicking in the distance, a sudden breeze that stops just as suddenly. 

Toruk Rul and Sorn Ulth are in the 5e update of the Ptolus core book pages 598 & 599.

Area 39: At the bottom of the flights of stairs a wooden door has been propped open. (you can determine where the open door leads) Coming up the stairs are 2 Toruk Rul. If combat breaks out at either areas 39 or 40 the other group rushes to join the fight. These Toruk Rul carry a total of 37 silver pieces.

Area 40: Note: Replace the secret door between areas 38 and 40 with a Blue Steel door. The cost to pass through is to forsake the respect of another. After the initial cost, the password that character becomes the name of the one who has lost respect for the character.

Pausing here before tackling the Blue Steel door is a group of 4 Toruk Rul and 1 Sorn Ulth. If combat breaks out in either areas 39 or 40 the other group will rush to join the fight. These Toruk Rul carry 161 Gold, 250 silver, and 19 copper pieces. The Sorn Ulth (Durgg) carries 2 gems worth 250 gold pieces each.

Area 41: Completely shrouded in magical darkness, this cavern chamber is cold and damp. At each of the cardinal points stand upraised sarcophagi, draped in calcium accretions. The lids are open. In the center of the room is a stone plinth atop of which is a sheathed dagger. (see blog post Magic Item - Dagger of Mourning)

Encounter: 4 Shadows. 5e Monster Manual page 269.

Magic Item (Legendary) - Crown of Harrowing

One of many powerful tools available to Ghul and his minions, this is the original Crown of Harrowing created by Ghul himself. A number of Lesser versions exist.

Made of iron and set with dozens of bloodstones, this is a weapon of intimidation, domination, and murder.

The wearer has the following abilities:

Intimidation attempts receive the wearer's Proficiency Bonus. This may double the Proficiency Bonus for using this effect.

The Crown has 7 charges that may be spent for the following effects:

1 charge - Causes 4d8 Psychic damage to a single creature. For each additional charge it affects one additional creature, Creatures must make a DC17 Wisdom saving throw. Success results in half damage.

2 charges - Inflicts 1 level of exhaustion on a single creature. Targeted creatures must make a DC17 Constitution saving throw. Failure results in accumulating 1 level of exhaustion.

3 charges - Casts Charm Person on up to 8 creatures within 30 feet of each other. DC17 Wisdom saving throw. Success avoids the effect.

4 charges - Casts Dominate Person on a single creature with the effect lasting 8 hours. Targeted creature is entitled to make a DC17 Wisdom saving throw to avoid the effect.

Regains 1d6 charges each midnight. If all charges are used in a 24 hour period roll 1d20. On a result of 1 the crown rusts and crumbles losing all magical function.

Curse: The wearer begins to lose their hair in patches over the course of a month. All Charisma based skills such as Diplomacy, Persuasion, Perform, etc, with the exception of Intimidate which is enhanced, suffer disadvantage on the attempt. Remove Curse cast on Hallowed Ground is required to undo this permanent affliction.

Item Availability = Legendary. User 17th level or higher. Cost 50,001+ gold pieces.