Lest Darkness Rise

1 LEST DARKNESS RISE A Short Adventure for Four 7th-Level Player Characters CREDITS Design: Owen K. C. Stephens Editing: Penny Williams Typesetting: Nancy Walker Cartography: Todd Gamble and Rob Lazzaretti Web Production Julia Martin Web Development: Mark A. Jindra Graphic Design: Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and on the new edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, and Peter Adkison. D&D, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUNGEON MASTER are registered trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The d20 logo is a trademark owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All Wizards characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ©2004 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. Made in the U.S.A. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. This Wizards of the Coast game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20. For more DUNGEONS & DRAGONS articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards.com/dnd Lest Darkness Rise is a short adventure for four 7th-level characters. In keeping with the season, it has a stronger horror theme than most D&D adventures. This scenario can be used as the climax of a series of adven- tures featuring its secondary characters, or it can simply be a site-based adventure that the PCs stumble across at the right moment. The scenario is set in a semi-civilized area in the far north, far from cities and churches, where winters are harsh and summers never get very hot. These inhos- pitable conditions have resulted in a low humanoid population. The scenario need not be set in such a wilderness; a rural farming community far from cities works just as well. The only real requirement is that the area have few settlements. The action takes place in the small town of Night Falls and a nearby necropolis of tombs, mausoleums, and graves known as the Tomb Steppe. As always, feel free to adapt the material presented here as you see fit to make it work with your campaign. PREPARATION You (the DM) need the D&D core rulebooks—the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual—to run this adventure. This scenario utilizes the D&D v.3.5 rules. To get started, print out the adventure. Read through the scenario at least once to familiarize your- self with the situation, threats, and major NPCs (partic- ularly their motivations). Lest Darkness Rise also uses two of the Map-A-Week entries from the online D&D map archive. These maps are reproduced here for your convenience. Text that appears in shaded boxes is player informa- tion that you can read aloud or paraphrase for the players at the proper times. The details of the new monsters and magic items used in Lest Darkness Rise are located in appendices at the end of the adventure. ADVENTURE BACKGROUND Centuries ago, a necromancer of modest ability known as Arathex practiced his art in the wilderness. Though he was as evil as the next necromancer, many believed that he took up animating the dead out of sheer laziness, as a means to create a cheap labor force to serve him. Because he lacked the ambition that drives most necromancers, Arathex constituted a threat only to outposts and towns near his stronghold, 2 and he drew little attention from the powerful forces of the world. Those few heroes who knew of him considered him a joke—more a nuisance than a true villain. Arathex even aided the occasional hero who sought a way to defeat some particular undead monster—after all, powerful undead are difficult to control, and the necromancer had no greater desire to have such creatures roaming about than any sane commoner would. As he reached middle age, however, Arathex real- ized that his life would eventually come to a close, and his eternal reward was unlikely to be pleasant. In hopes of escaping eternal damnation, he began gath- ering the power and knowledge required to make himself a lich. But he knew he had waited too long and couldn’t possibly complete all the research himself in his remaining years. Thus, he decided to steal as much of the lore as possible from older, more experienced necromancers. Since he was a coward at heart, he decided to lay traps for his targets rather than face them directly. THE TOMB STEPPE Choosing a small steppe that had not been developed for any other purpose, Arathex used his own undead labor force to create a complex of crypts, graves, and mausoleums, which he named the Tomb Steppe. Then he built extensive defenses—both magical wards and special guardians—into his new graveyard. Finally, in the guise of a cleric dedicated to a god of peaceful rest, Arathex touted the area as a place in which the remains of necromancers and defeated undead could safely be laid to rest. He maintained his guise for some time, providing heroes who intended to fight such creatures with good advice and even weapons designed specifi- cally to work against them. Though at first only a few such adventuring groups brought the remains of their kills to the Tomb Steppe, it eventually became a popu- lar solution to the problem of where to put dangerous corpses. This result was just what Arathex wanted. Though the graveyard was safe from forces both outside and inside its borders, Arathex spoke with the restless spir- its of those buried within on a regular basis. As the fame of the Tomb Steppe grew, other necromancers came to steal corpses from the tombs for their own work, but Arathex captured and questioned them as well before adding them to the graveyard’s population. These techniques were far from perfect as research methods went, but they paid dividends. Arathex’s necromantic power increased dramatically, and he managed to acquire enough other spells and magic items to maintain his priestly façade as well. ARATHEX’S UNDEATH At last, in the twilight years of his life, Arathex under- went what he hoped was the process to become a lich. He used the knowledge he had obtained to brew potions and cast spells, then killed himself in a dark ritual under the light of a full moon. But his research had been incomplete, and he failed to achieve lichdom. Some adventurers who made regular use of the Tomb Steppe found his body and assumed that their priestly “ally” had died at the hands of the evil necromancers he had spent his life fighting. They buried him with hero’s honors in the lowest crypt of the largest tomb in the graveyard. But Arathex had not completely failed. Though his body was irrevocably dead, his spirit had indeed found a form of unlife. The necromancer had become a wraith—a powerful evil spirit that could steal the life forces of others. Unfortunately for him, the wards placed to keep undead out of his tomb served to keep him locked inside it. But because he was the creator of the defenses, he was able to gain a small measure of freedom. He eventually discovered that he could escape into the world for three days each year, during the time of winter’s first full moon, when he had originally built the wards that secured the tomb. But each daybreak, he automatically reappeared in his own crypt, no matter where he had roamed. Arathex realized that he needed the aid of another to help him break free of his prison forever. During his periodic sojourns outside the tomb, he tried to convince mourners or passers-by to aid him through both threats and promises, but they all refused. When word of his nocturnal wanderings spread, the Tomb Steppe became unpopular as a repository for undead, since it obviously no longer afforded the protection it once had. After some years, only the local villagers still used it, preferring to inter their lost loved ones in its remaining empty graves rather than dig new ones. THE CULT With the decline in traffic, Arathex changed tactics. Though he could not overcome the wards that held him within his crypt all but three days a year, he did manage to make contacts in the outside world by sending forth his thoughts. By this means, he managed to contact a charismatic but impressionable evil priest who had built a cult of undead-worshipers. Eventually, he 3 convinced the priest to use the Tomb Steppe as his home base. Arathex convinced the cult to build him a new body from the body parts of those interred in the tombs. He hoped to possess this flesh golem and thereby become solid once more, but as before, he had not done suffi- cient research. The possession attempt failed and the cultists were slain by a group of adventurers shortly afterward. But Arathex, who was actually the creator of the golem even though he could not perform the phys- ical construction, commanded it to lie quietly in an unused tomb during the attack. As he had hoped, the adventurers overlooked it, believing it to be a normal corpse. NIGHT FALLS As the years passed, the tales of undead activity in the Tomb Steppe faded into legend, and colonists began to move into the lands nearby. The town of Night Falls was founded a short distance from the graveyard, and it grew quickly into a thriving trade center and farming community. Realizing that the Tomb Steppe was safe enough during the day, the citizens began burying their dead there rather than building new crypts on pristine farmland. Because this method of interment was cheap and easy, people from many surrounding communities brought their dead to the town as well. The business of burial brought new prosperity to Night Falls, and a guild called the Funerary House sprang up to control the trade. A NEW APPRENTICE A few years ago, Mior Harken, head of the Funerary House, realized that his waning years were upon him. He sank into a deep depression that kept him from sleeping at night, and he took to roaming the area around the Tomb Steppe, contemplating death. During one of these midnight vigils, Arathex found him and spoke to him, offering him the secrets of eter- nal life through undeath. At first Harken refused, but Arathex had planted the seed in his mind, and it took root. Months later, Harken went to Arathex’s tomb and took up the conversation again. Within weeks, Harken had become Arathex’s apprentice in the dark arts of necromancy. Arathex demanded much of his apprentice, refusing to give him the true secret of lichdom until he had released his master. (The wraith didn’t tell his servant that he had never actually discovered this secret, or that Harken was too weak to make use of it if he did know it.) But the wards set within the tomb were no easy matter to break, so Arathex gave Harken command of the flesh golem to aid him in the task. Only after Harken had dispelled the wards and the flesh golem had broken the stones on which they were inscribed did Arathex’s true situation become clear. Though he could now leave the tomb at any time, he still returned to it at daybreak. Arathex sent Harken to speak to various sages, from whom he gathered bits of information and learned opinions until the truth of the matter became clear. The irony of a villain buried as a hero had angered some god, who had placed a curse on Arathex. It was this curse that brought him back to the crypt each morning—not some corruption of the wards, as he had previously believed. The only way to break the curse is for Arathex to slay heroes, like those he once cooperated with, on the broken remains of the old wards. Though Arathex would like to build himself an undead army and take over the region, the curse has thus far kept him from doing so. Why create an army of wraiths when he is bound to one spot? Any group of powerful heroes could easily find and destroy him in his crypt should he attract their notice with a move so obvious as a killing spree. So he waits with growing impatience for a group of relatively weak adventurers to visit the Tomb Steppe so that he can kill them. Harken has recently hit on an idea by which he can lure some heroes to the mausoleum. Arathex monitors the roads into Night Falls and has noted the approach of an adventuring group that does not look too power- ful. Harken enticed his gravediggers to goad one of their apprentices into visiting the Tomb Steppe the night before the adventurers were due to arrive. During this visit, Harken arranged for him to see the wraith. The villainous pair hopes that this sighting, combined with the story Harken has planted in the village, will bring the adventurers to the crypt. ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS While the PCs are in Night Falls, a terrified gravedigger runs into town yelling that a ghost is loose in the Tomb Steppe. Upon hearing the story, the local sage announces that the legendary Master of the Skull Tomb has nearly broken free of his old wards. If the tomb remains open until the next dawn, he will be free to leave his ancient dwelling forever. The townsfolk ask the PCs to go and reseal the tomb, since none of the locals believe they can survive the attempt. Upon reaching the Tomb Steppe, the PCs must face its normal guards (weepers; see Appendix 1), then penetrate Arathex’s tomb, wherein they face both the corrupted wards and the other denizens of the crypt. Upon reaching the final ward, they must fight Arathex, who has lured them there to kill them. If the PCs prevail, they find ample evidence that Harken was behind the effort to free the wraith. Either the evidence of Harken’s actions or the golem he currently commands leads the PCs back to the Funerary House, where a horrified Harken decides that they must die because they clearly know his secret. Only when Arathex, Harken, and the golem are all destroyed is Night Falls finally safe. ADVENTURE HOOKS The plot of Lest Darkness Rise assumes that the PCs are either good-aligned adventurers or mercenaries, and that they happen to be in the town of Night Falls when the adventure begins. Possible reasons for their pres- ence are given below, although you can also simply place the town along the route from the PCs’ last adven- ture to their next destination. • An ally or hireling of the PCs has died and is to be buried in the Tomb Steppe. Alternatively, a family member or friend of a PC’s cohort dies, and the latter asks the characters to come along for the funeral. • A friendly church or wizard’s academy asks the PCs to investigate claims that an old evil from the Tomb Steppe may be stirring once more. • A rumor the PCs pick up elsewhere suggests that great treasure lies in the Tomb Steppe, awaiting those clever enough to find it. (This tale is one of the wraith’s previous attempts to lure greedy adventurers to his crypt.) BEGINNING THE ADVENTURE Lest Darkness Rise is an event-based adventure that incor- porates one keyed site (the Great Mausoleum in the Tomb Steppe). The adventure begins when the charac- ters reach the town of Night Falls (see encounter A, below). A. NIGHT FALLS Read or paraphrase the following when the PCs reach Night Falls. Creature: The young man is Felix Ackob (N male human commoner 1), a gravedigger’s apprentice. He has just been to the Great Mausoleum, where Harken arranged for him to see the wraith in residence. DD Felix Ackob: hp 3. A1. FELIX’S TALE A crowd gathers around Felix while he tells his story in a voice loud enough to be heard throughout the town square. Read or paraphrase the following aloud. If asked, Felix confesses that he never saw the figure outside the tomb. He simply assumed that it had pursued him. Development: The townsfolk are alarmed by this news, and a general uproar arises as they speculate about what might have happened. “I know I had no business going there alone,” confesses the young man to the gathering crowd. “But the other gravediggers said I was a wimp who was too scared go to the Tomb Steppe. So I decided to go there alone, to prove myself. “I went all the way to the Great Mausoleum, figuring that I’d chalk my name on the doors to prove I was there. I couldn’t just say so, after all— I needed proof. “But the doors were open when I got there. I wondered if some grave robbers had made it past the wards, so I decided to check. I went in and saw several bodies, all decomposing, in the main tomb area. Above the pile floated a wispy ghostlike thing with glowing red eyes. Well, let me tell you, I really was scared then. I didn’t think twice—I just ran!” The town of Night Falls is like no other. From the Funerary House Guild, with its sigil rune of crossed shovels, to the Gravedigger’s Tavern and the mourners-for-hire on every street corner, the entire town seems geared to profit from death. And the profits have obviously been good—the town’s wealth is evident in its well-lit streets, liver- ied town guards, and well-maintained buildings. But despite the dour nature of its chief business, Night Falls seems a happy, prosperous place, and its people seem content. Just when the sun is close to setting, a young man runs into town, waving his arms wildly. “The Great Mausoleum!” he yells. “The Skull Tomb is open! The ghost is free!” 4 5 A2. HARKEN’S TALE Let the PCs talk with the townsfolk for a few moments. Then Genning, the town’s chief elder, calls for Mior Harken to come forth and discuss the issue. Continue with the following. Everyone begins looking around, and eventually many gazes fasten on the PCs. Creatures: Genning (N male human expert 4), Harken, and most of the townsfolk approach the PCs if they’re still present, or seek them out if they’re not. Genning pleads with them to undertake this time- sensitive mission and offers the group a reward of 4,000 gp. If the PCs dicker, Harken offers to add up to 1,000 gp to that amount. DDGenning: hp 14. DDHarken: hp 27; see encounter E for statistics. Development: If the PCs accept the mission, Harken explains that according to legend, the ghost cannot escape his burial chamber even briefly unless a physical ward within the tomb is broken. Since Felix saw it outside that room, the ward must already have been compromised. If the heroes can find the ghost’s burial place within the mausoleum and rebuild the ward outside it, the ghost can be contained, even if the seals on the door are not reinstated. In fact, Arathex will not be set free if morning dawns on the broken wards, but the townsfolk think he will. That aspect of the story is a lie spread years ago by Arathex and his minions. Harken is as helpful as possible, offering the PCs maps of the necropolis, as well as crowbars and shovels from his private stock—all marked with the rune of the Funerary House. But he refuses to accompany the PCs to the site, insisting that his limp and his personal cowardice would hamper their progress. If the PCs insist on a guide, Felix offers to accompany them, though he is just a 1st-level commoner. If the heroes suspect Harken’s involvement, use the notes from encounter E to work out his response. He comes clean if captured at this point, but he also warns that within a day or two, Arathex will stop waiting for the PCs and attack the town anyway. The flesh golem is currently in Harken’s shed, though it leaves for the Great Mausoleum shortly after the PCs do. Harken has ordered it to follow the PCs and be ready to serve Arathex if he emerges, or return if he doesn’t. B. THE TOMB STEPPE Reaching the Tomb Steppe from Night Falls takes about an hour on horseback. Once there, the PCs can encounter a group of guardians or have a