Black Rain

1 Black Rain A short adventure for four 16th-level player characters CREDITS Design: Monte Cook Editing and Typesetting: Sue Weinlein Cook Editorial Assistance: Penny Williams Cartography: Dennis Kauth Web Production: Julia Martin Web Development: Mark A. Jindra Graphic Design: Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege Playtesting: Michele Carter, Sue Cook, Jesse Decker, Erik Mona, Chris, Perkins, Sean K Reynolds, and Keith Strohm 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, MONSTER MANUAL, 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 likeness- es 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. 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. ©2002 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. Made in the U.S.A. When the dreaded black rain falls, all those who revere deities or rely on them for power and protection cringe in fear. The black rain forms a wall between the mortal and the divine and thus, when it falls, clerics lose all their abilities to cast spells and work miracles. Only the foulest of villains would use this opportunity to strike against the near-helpless clerics of an other- wise powerful temple. When the black rain falls, the temple of St. Cuthbert comes under siege and a magical barrier prevents anyone from helping the beleaguered clerics and temple defenders inside. Someone has to find a way to aid them, and quick! PREPARATION You, the Dungeon Master (DM), need a copy of the Player’s Handbook, the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide, and the MONSTER MANUAL® to use this adventure. Shaded text is player information, which you may read aloud or paraphrase when appropriate. Boxed side- bars contain important information for you, including special instructions. Monster and NPC statistics are provided with each encounter in abbreviated form or, where appropriate, the proper page in the MONSTER MANUAL is referenced. This adventure uses a modified version of the Castle map from the September 2000 Map-a-Week feature on the D&D website. It is available for download at . The relevant portion of the map is reprinted here for your convenience. DMs should place this adventure in their own cam- paigns wherever appropriate. The best place would be in a very large city, preferably one where the player characters (PCs) are known or have some influence. THE BLACK RAIN Imperfections mar the beauty of creation. In a battle among the gods themselves untold aeons ago, a dis- charge of divine might changed the weather patterns of the world so that once every few decades, an oily black rain pours out of particularly dark clouds. Whether by design or by mere mischance, this rain signals a period during which inviolate power severs the link between the mortal and the divine worlds. Even the gods themselves can do nothing to remedy this. Clerics lose all spellcasting ability, wards are sup- pressed, and so on. 2 During the time of a black rain, all characters lose the ability to cast divine spells or use divine spell com- pletion items. Clerics lose the ability to channel posi- tive or negative energy, and divine-based classes such as the paladin or druid lose supernatural or spell-like abilities (in the paladin’s case, for example, this includes detect evil, divine grace, lay on hands, divine health, aura of courage, smite evil, remove disease, and turn undead). Further, divine spell effects currently active when the rain starts, including permanent divine spell effects such as glyphs of warding, hallow, or bull’s strength cast on a character, are all suppressed for the duration of the rain. BACKGROUND Terrid Fomgarten was a cleric of St. Cuthbert until his fellow priests found him extorting money from local merchants to protect them from criminals and evildo- ers. He was kicked out of the church and even spent some time in prison for his misdeeds. For years, he stewed in humiliation and regret, spending his waking hours training in martial skills to pass the time. Terrid was not an evil man—at least not to start with. Being a former Cuthbertian, however, he was prone to thoughts of retribution. Eventually one day, an erinyes devil named Yallathancia approached him in disguise. Over a fine dinner and a bottle of wine, she gave him two important bits of information that led him down the road to evil. She told him where he could find two artifacts of evil power and she let slip the date of the next black rainfall. With this informa- tion, Terrid set upon his own plan for revenge against the church of St. Cuthbert. In his quest to get the artifacts, the iron rods, he encountered a powerful hydra and a number of crea- tures called bloodtrolls. Once he gained the rods, he used their power to master the monsters. Then, he bided his time for a few months, waiting for the moment when his foes would be at their weakest— during the coming black rain. Yallathancia showed him how to construct special rugs with teleportation circles on them. These special circles connected to each other like two-way gates. He kept one in his home, and one near the ruins where he found the artifacts (where his monstrous retinue stayed, including even Yallathancia). He made one to take to the temple with him on the day of the coming rain. Finally, the day he waited for came… CHARACTER HOOKS Use one of the following hooks to get the player char- acters involved in the attack on the temple of St. Cuthbert: • Although the exact time and place of a black rain is (almost) never precisely divined, its coming is often seen in omens, portents and divinations. Churches all over go on high alert when they learn that such an event is coming—the PCs might be involved in preparing, and thus be on the scene, in the city, when the events of the adventure occur. • The initial call of alarm might be all it takes for true heroes to come to the aid of the St. Cuthbert tem- ple in its hour of need. If this is the case, all that is required is that the PCs be present in town. • If the PCs are of some repute, known for their skill and their generosity, the town leaders may send a messenger to them specifically to request their aid. If need be, the leaders can offer the PCs some mon- etary reward—perhaps even a small plot of land within or near the city itself. • The PCs count either Bishop Jeard or Terrid Fomgarten as a friend or acquaintance. They are thus personally interested either in saving the Bishop or in saving Terrid from himself. CALL OF ALARM The city wakes to rain—a black, oily rain that gathers in tiny, fetid pools. Animals flee under cover where pos- sible, and people do too. While it does not seem harm- ful or poisonous, the black rain smells a bit like pitch and is in no way pleasant. It does not take long, however, for a call of alarm to rise through the city. The temple of St. Cuthbert is under attack! If the PCs go to investigate, read the following text to them: The temple of St. Cuthbert is a single-story build- ing with a high, pointed roof. A bell tower is near the rear and an open, flagstone-paved courtyard is at the front, with the deity’s symbol—a cross within concentric circles—displayed promi- nently at the entrance of the yard. Currently, however, a translucent red nimbus of energy sur- rounds the entire building. Outside this hemi- sphere of power, a large, restless crowd stands in the pouring black rain. City guards are every- where, occasionally subduing someone in the crowd, but mostly just looking at the temple in curiosity and fear. 3 The city’s chief constable (LN female half-elf, Ftr7) is in charge of the operation outside the strange energy field surrounding the temple. Her troops attempt to disperse the crowd for their own good, but folks are fearful, upset, and ultimately resistant. If approached by the PCs with Diplomacy (DC 20), she tells them all she knows. She needs help and fast. If the PCs cannot get her inside the temple (and at this stage, they cannot), she eventually ignores them. What the constable knows: • A man named Terrid Fomgarten was seen going into the temple carrying two strange iron rods about twenty-five minutes ago. • Shortly afterward, a huge, multiheaded dragonlike beast was seen in the open courtyard. • Briefly, some large red-skinned creatures were seen fighting with some of the templars (temple defenders) through the open doorway. She has seen no sign of the defenders or anyone else in the temple since. Gather Information or Bardic Knowledge Check If the PCs take the time to ask about Terrid, or if a bard is present, they can attempt to discern more informa- tion. Result Information DC 10 No one knows very much about this individ- ual. He keeps to himself most of the time. Wasn’t he in prison a few years ago? DC 20 The PCs learn of Terrid’s general background and where he lived. DC 25 There was a fire at Terrid’s house a few days ago. It was badly damaged. DC 30 Terrid has long been promising revenge against the temple of St. Cuthbert. He was recently poking around some old ruins to the south, returning eventually with a pair of strange rods. The Energy Field Terrid used a wish to create the red energy field around the temple. No one can teleport into it, breach it in any way, or use divination magic to see what is going on inside. The only ways in involve the magical gateway teleportation circles in Terrid’s home and near some old ruins far to the south (these ruins are not detailed in this adventure, but the DM could develop them further if needed). TERRID’S HOME The PCs’ only realistic hope of getting into the church is by investigating Terrid’s home. Terrid lived in a two- story apartment-like house, on a floor that he shared with three other single men (a family of five lives on the floor above). Of the other three, only Gart Herson (N, male human, Com1) is currently home. Gart is a weak-willed, fearful, slovenly type who is usually lacking in funds. He is afraid of the strange rain outside, and almost certainly even more afraid of the PCs when they show up at his door. Inside, the smoke stains of a recent fire are still visible on the white plas- ter of the walls. One room was clearly the most dam- aged in the fire. (Terrid set the fire in haste, hoping to destroy the teleportation circle in his room, but he failed—residents put out the fire faster than he antici- pated.) Gart can be convinced to tell what he knows (Diplo- macy, DC 15), and he can even more easily be intimi- dated (DC 10). What Gart knows: • Terrid was a quiet man, always brooding and depressed. Not a bad fellow, but not too enjoyable to be around. • Terrid disappeared for two weeks about three months ago, right around that time he seemed to acquire a very beautiful girlfriend (this, unknown to Gart, was the erinyes). He has acted strangely ever since. (This refers to the adventure in which Terrid discovered the iron rods.) • Terrid talked about getting his revenge on the Church of St. Cuthbert all the time. No one took him very seriously. • Terrid’s room caught fire yesterday, but the room- mates managed to put it out rather quickly. The whole place could very well have gone up in flames if not for their quick action. No one has seen Terrid since. Terrid’s Room A Search of the room (DC 20) reveals an important clue, and the way into the temple. Clue: In the desk, amid burned and charred papers, there’s an unfinished letter addressed to “Yallathancia.” Marred by fire, this room is a blackened, charred mess. A bed, a desk, a chair, and a wardrobe fur- nished the room, but now they are all damaged beyond use. 4 In it, Terrid talks about his gratitude toward her for helping him explore “the ruins” and find “the rods.” He hopes the power boost he gave her adequately demon- strated his thanks. It also mentions “keeping the blood- trolls in line until the rain comes” and future plans to destroy the “gateway” in a fire. The way in: There’s a strange rug, slightly black- ened and singed from the fire, rolled up under the bed. Unrolled, it displays a magic circle drawn in what appears to be blood, with many magical runes around it and two yellow stones woven into the rug itself. If one stone is pressed, the circle glows with power. Anyone stepping onto the rug ends up standing on a similar rug out in the wilderness south of the city. The remains of a crude campsite are close by, and the ground is littered in gnawed bones, trash, and dung. If the other stone is pressed, the circle also glows. Anyone stepping onto the rug ends up standing on a similar rug in the courtyard of the temple of St. Cuth- bert (see Area 1). Note that all three rugs work the same way—all of them lead to one of the other two, depending on which stone is touched. No matter what, however, all three rugs lose their power in 1d3 weeks. TEMPLE OF ST. CUTHBERT OF THE CUDGEL Under normal circumstances, this would be a standard temple to the lawful neutral god of retribution. Temple Features The outer walls of the temple are smooth stone, 5 feet thick (hardness 8; 450 hp; Break DC 50). The DC to climb them is 20. The interior walls are 1 foot thick (hardness 8; 90 hp; Break DC 35). All doors are wooden (Wooden Doors: 2 in. thick; hardness 5; hp 20; AC 5; Break DC 23). The ceilings are all 15 feet high unless described otherwise. The temple is mostly windowless, except for some small windows in Areas 2, 3 and all rooms marked 4 and 5 (although the windows in Area 5 rooms look into the courtyard only). 1. Paved Courtyard (EL 15) Once he used the wish function of the iron rods to create the energy barrier, Terrid set up the special tele- portation circle rug here in the courtyard, next to the wall, between the doors to Areas 3 and 5. He com- manded the hydra to guard here, and his bloodtroll allies then raced into the temple and began overcoming the templars and priests within. Creatures. Terrid tamed a powerful hydra on his adventures and brought it through the teleportation circle from the ruins once he established the energy barrier around the temple. It has killed and eaten a few of the people who were at the temple, but it is still quite hungry and immediately attacks anyone other than Terrid or his allies. In fact, if anyone (even Terrid) comes into this area wounded, the smell of blood drives the hydra to attack. This beautiful courtyard is paved with flagstones and decorated with planters full of small trees, shrubs, and flowers. Two normal sized doors lead off to either side of the yard, and a pair of impos- ing double doors leads into the temple straight ahead. A few small windows on the sides look into the courtyard. A terrifying, blue-scaled beast, 20 feet long, with a dozen snarling, draconic heads, stomps around the south part of the yard. A few bloody spots on the ground mark the grisly remains of what must have been recent meals for the creature. 5 d Twelve-headed lernaean cryohydra: hp 140, see MONSTER MANUAL p. 122. Terrid used the wish function of the iron rods to increase the beast’s Strength to 24, giving it a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls. 2. Refectory/Priests’ Common Room The corpses are those of clerics killed quickly by the bloodtrolls. All of their valuables were taken. 3. Library This room has gone mostly undisturbed by the fighting so far. A secret door (Search, DC 25) behind a bookshelf is trigged to pivot when someone pulls a fake book from its position. The passage leads to the sacred Areas 10 and 11 as well as the main sanctuary, Area 8. 4. Priest Cells The six medium-ranked clerics of the temple lived in these apartments, two to a room. Five of these clerics are dead. Their cells hold nothing of value or interest— just holy texts, candles, priestly garments, and personal belongings. Each of these rooms has a small, high-placed window in the outside wall. Creatures. Hiding in the southernmost room is Nester Falinash, a mid-ranking cleric of St. Cuthbert. She is having an extremely bad day. First, her link to her god is severed. Now, most of her friends are killed, her temple is defiled, and her life is in extreme danger. She bides her time here, waiting for an opportunity to strike at her foes or go get help (although she can see a strange red glow out her window, she remains unaware of the energy field’s actual function—she does not know she cannot get out and that help cannot get in). She knows that “some strange man with iron rods is tormenting Bishop Jeard in the sanctuary,” but she fears she cannot get to him in time. Nester willingly tells the PCs the basic layout of the place, including the secret doors that might allow them to get to the sanctuary. She does not know about the wall of force in Area 8 (since Terrid just put it up). k Nester Falinash: Female human Clr6; CR 6; Medium-size humanoid; HD 6d8+3; hp 30; Init –1; Spd 20 ft.; AC 19, touch 9, flat-footed 19; Atk +6 melee (1d8+2, +1 heavy mace); SA Turn undead 3/day; AL LN; SV Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +7; Str 13, Dex 9, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 11. Skills and Feats: Concentration +7, Craft (woodwork- ing) +9, Diplomacy +8, Scry +8, Sense Motive +5; Combat Casting, Maximize Spell, Power Attack, Toughness. Cleric Spells (5/4+1/4+1/2+1; base DC = 12 + spell level): None currently prepared. Deity: St. Cuthbert. Domains: Law (cast law spells at +1 caster level), Protection (protective ward 1/day). Possessions: +1 heavy mace, full plate armor, mas- terwork large steel shield, scroll of lesser restoration, potion of levitate, potion of cure moderate wounds, holy symbol, 13 gp. This simple room has two beds, a chest of draw- ers, a small table with an incense burner on it, two chairs, and a wardrobe. A small bookshelf hangs on the west wall, near a large holy symbol of St. Cuthbert. Filled with packed bookshelves, this room is clearly a library. A few chairs\ next to tables with oil lamps sit in the middle of the room. This room has two long tables girded by wooden benches, as well as a few chairs, end tables, and divans clustered in the south part of the room near a pair of bronze braziers. A stack of dirty dishes is piled on one of the long tables. Two dead people, a male half-elf and a human woman, dressed in priestly garments, lie near the door to the courtyard. Adventuring in the Black Rain Obviously, fighting in the black rain is difficult, for all divine spellcasters and characters are bereft of much of their power. Fortunately, all such characters still possess a respectable amount of combat skill, and thus still have plenty of ability to back up their friends. The real danger is the lack of healing. Curative potions suddenly become extremely important. At some point during the climactic encounter with Terrid, the divinely-powered PCs should realize that the rain has stopped—the powers that they had been denied return. This proves particularly effective if it happens just as Terrid seems to have the upper hand and all is lost. During the black rain, all EL ratings should increase by 1.