Dwarven commoners have dug a little too far! There is a magical beast that lurks in their new tunnel. It wraps darkness around itself and by the time the dwarves can get close enough to see it, death comes swiftly! When large groups of dwarves examine the area, they can only find stalgmites.
Remember the Darkmantle has +11 to Hide. Good luck in the hunting!
While travelling in the Underdark, the PCs come across a tunnel that was not there the last time they passed this way. Upon further investigation, the walls have some kind of acid on them and it is still slightly corrosive. If the PCs go down the tunnel, they will, eventually, encounter a delver making its way peacefully. As they observe the creature, it is suddenly attacked by a group of derro.
Note: This is intended as a follow-up to the entries for Demon - Glabrezu, Demon - Nalfelshnee, and Demon - Marilith.
The party has defeated the demons and can finally relax. If there is a paladin or good-oriented cleric amongst them, they will want to take the book to the appropriate theological authorities. If not, the Church of Pelor (or whomever) will offer a substantial sum or a magic item of suitable power for the book. However, all is not well. A balor has heard of the book and knows roughly where the party is. Foolishly underestimating the group, the balor teleports in, summons dretches and teleports back home, not wanting to bother with the party (or, to be accurate, not wanting to risk the party getting in a lucky shot).
The balor is now known to the party and as such he can be scried. The party may still be out of their league, but there is a chance they can pull this off. This balor (who is named K'zall) has the bad habit of keeping his +1 vorpal greatsword hanging on a mantle within easy reach. However "easy" reach does not mean "instantly". K'zall will wait a day after the party has dispatched the dretches, and try again with a summoned nalfeshnee. If that does not work, he will attend to matters himself. However this gives the party a two day window to go on the attack.
K'zall's habits and tactics can be known to the party if they make a Knowlege (planer) check of DC 20.
If the party suceeds the Book of Names is finally theirs to hand over free and clear.
Note: This is designed to be used in conjunction with the entry for Demon - Dretch
A bebilith has begun stalking the wizard's newly-bought familiar. The demon attempts attacks and retreats, and all the time the familiar is acting strange. In truth, the familiar is a dretch which another mage polymorphed to hide it from the bebilith, and then put for sale! The creature will begin using his demon powers when it needs them to save his life, at which point things should become interesting for the party wizard. The PCs could kill the bebilith, but then what would they do with the dretch they even paid for?
This is best used when a higher level player has lost a familiar.
A powerful wizard polymorphed a dretch into a (insert type of familiar here) for a large fee to hide it from the bebilith it has crossed. He is now waiting in a familiar shop to be purchased, but who knows how long it will be until he feels threatened enough with an adventurer to use his spelllike abilities and draw the attention of his fearsome overlord?
Note: See also the entry for Demon - Bebilith
While looting the library of a recently slain wizard, a thief finds a book that is guarded by several traps. After disarming the traps, the thief takes the book, called The Book of Names, which the truenames of several creatures and people. Unfortunately, the thief fails to find the last trap in the book which summons a Glabrezu to deal with the thief.
Note: See the entry for Demon - Nalfelshnee for a continuation.
A hezrou has been called via a planar binding to the material plane, but the summoner was careless and the hezrou escaped and slayed him. Now it dwells in a cave beneath the sewers of the city the wizard lived in, where a group of troglodytes has fallen to worship it. Moved by their crude adoration (and enjoying their mutual stink), the creature has decided to stay.
Note: This is intended as a follow-up to the entries for Demon - Glabrezu and Demon - Nalfelshnee.
The party, upon finding out the identity of their malefactor, hires a sage to get them some information of the Reaver in Scarlet. The sage finds out that the Reaver has an ancient enemy named Enidicozyys or "Enid"-a marilith of some power. The party sets out to try and summon "Enid" to help battle the Reaver.
Note: See the entry for Demon - Balor for a continuation.
Note: This is intended as a follow-up to the entry for Demon - Glabrezu.
The heroes manage to defeat the Glabrezu and escape with the Book of Names. Unfortunately, there was a back-up ward on the Glabrezu itself. Upon its defeat, the demon lord Jannex the Hunter was alerted.
Jannex called upon the Reaver in Scarlet, a Nalfelshnee experienced in dealing vengeance upon Jannex's enemies. Jannex sends the Reaver to retrieve the Book of Names, a relic Jannex has long sought since it contains the true names of several powerful celestials.
The heroes now must contend with the Reaver in Scarlet and his retinue of lesser demonic minions, a cadre of half-demon/half-gnoll ranger/assassins.
Note: See the entry for Demon - Marilith for a continuation.
Recently, a rash of cat and dog deaths in the city Slums has begun to attract attention. The cats and dogs were found partly eaten and stashed away in piles of garbage or in cesspits (gutters?). The deaths are the result of a quasit that was summoned to be a familiar and escaped because a stray cat crossed the Summoning circle. It is trying to get its bearings before deciding what it should do.
(With a nod of appreciation to James Cameron and everyone's favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger...)
Through powerful prophetic scrying magics, a great demon lord has seen into the future and discovered a human hero who, in years to come, will destroy the demon lord's cult on the material plane, hunt the demon down in the Abyss, and, in vengeance for years of torment against his people, slay him.
To stop this before it can happen, the demon lord sends a powerful construct--a retriever with advanced hit dice--to hunt down the hero-to-be while he is still a child. The retriever has orders to return the child to the demon lord, alive if possible--the better to corrupt the heroics he might one day have attempted--but dead if necessary.
A powerful balor has feasted for years on the best and brightest of all the species. As a paladin in the group reaches 11th lvl and his mount gains the ability to command creatures of its own kind, the balor notices it and sends his 2 favorite retrievers to gather it unharmed for a snack on a summer's day.
Any level of force required has been allowed the retrievers save two: the horse must be unharmed and the paladin should be left alive so that his grief will make the meal sweeter.
Time was not kind to Seneca the succubus and her beauty was fading. Faced with the horror of losing her youth, Seneca launched her new career (in human form) in politics. If she could become mayor of the capital, her ego would be appeased, but now she must find a group of adventurers to serve as her bodyguards during her campaign and afterwards, in a city fraught with assassinations and backstabbing. With the rewards great, what will the party do when the truth of the identity of their patron is revealed in a town so vile that a succubus might actually be the least of all evils...?
While exploring a dungeon, the PCs trigger a trap which summons a vrock. The vrock is summoned not into the same room as the PCs, but the room after the next. This room has an illusionary ceiling, which the vrock can see through from above. Written directly in front of the vrock is a set of instructions, written in abyssal, on the conditions which will free the vrock, as well as schematics of the battlegrounds, including other, more mundane traps, and general tactics. Vrocks, being followers and not leaders, will probably follow the tactics after reading them. On the round the vrock is summoned, it can read its geneal purpose, and each round after the vrock will discover more secrets and tactics for the up and coming encounter.
Any adventuring party underground can come upon this one.
A destrachan has taken as its lair an underground cavern of basaltic glass. After a long period of occupying this area, the destrachan knows every nook and cranny perfectly -- including which areas of the ceiling are most likely to collapse if it wishes to attempt this tactic.
Rumors come from the Forest of Deeping Shadow that a mystical nexus has opened a gate to the Nine Hells. The local leaders scramble to organize a party of adventurers to investigate. The party travels to the nexus and find that the rumors are true -- to a point. Roaming around in the glade are hundreds of lemures and imps that seem only interested in battling each other. After allowing them to fight for awhile, the party kills the rest and closes the gate.
The party is contacted by a frantic king whose bride's soul has been taken and must be retrieved -- quickly. Success earns the group the king's gratitude and knighthood; failure earns banishment and causes the king to go mad with grief.
A local volcano has become active again, and the group of minor league clerics sent to investigate and make appropriate scarifices has disappeared. Upon investigation, it appears that the heat from the volcano (and the demonic remains within that helped form it) has mutated a small clan of digesters, who spit molten fluid instead of acid*.
*Best used against a party that has done some research and prepares themselves with some acid resistance.
While travelling through the jungle on a river raft, the party goes over a set of falls into a giant valley. Living in the valley, seemingly Lost out of Time, are dinosaurs. The party has many madcap adventures before they finally find a way home from a lizardman adept that wants them to leave his once-tranquil Eden.
In a strange magical explosion whilst the party is inside a wizard's normal animal zoo, the party is shrunk, and the animals are enlarged. Suddenly comfronted with dire animals that are 4x bigger than they should be, they draw weapons and do their thing.
The party is approached by a young NPC whom they have previously befriended. She is extremely distraught. After being calmed down and taken to a private place, she changes before the PC's eyes... her features vanishing, her flesh becoming grey and inhumanly liquicent: a doppelganger. She begs the PCs for help... because as far as she knows, until two days ago, she was a human!
Has the PC's friend been replaced by a magically mind-warped, insane, or particularly bold, doppelganger? Or is it possible that this -is- their friend, perhaps exhibiting the effects of her previously unsuspected doppelganger heritage. If so, other doppelgangers may come to bring her 'into the fold'.
Deep in a corrupted fen, a black dragon has been mystically enslaved by a coven of hags, or perhaps a band of lizardfolk led by a cabal of powerful sorcerers. They are directing the dragon to attack nearby communities, either for extortion or to drive the humans away. Do the heroes try to take the dragon head-on, a recipe for suicide? Do they try to free the dragon by slaying its captors? Maybe it'll leave, but it might just decide to remain, causing devastation on its own behalf. Or can they deal with it, making it agree to leave if they free it? And if so, can they force it to abide by its word? Can they prevent its masters from learning of the deal?
A caravan route has been harrased by "shocker lizards and strange noises" for some months now. When the party goes to investigate they will see the shocker lizards grouped near a cave entrance, which they disappear down into, and they will hear the lowing of camels inside(actually the blue dragon imitating a camel). When the party enters the shallow cave, the blue dragon emerges from under the sand behind them to protect its fragile pets...
A green wyrm approaches the party as they are making their way through the forest in order to slay him for assorted crimes against the local elven kingdom. The dragon says he knows of the treasure's location, and will give the players a map in exchange for a favor: the dragon wants to join a druidic circle, and assumes that the party can use their standing as respectable citizens to give him a ticket in. The dragon seems to be quite repentant for all of his evil deeds (at least until the suggestions wear off...)
A mated pair of adult red dragons has moved into the area around where the PCs are staying. The female has laid her egg clutch and the male is going about and getting food for her (read: people). The PCs must stop them before the eggs hatch in a year.
It rises from the plain like a glittering jewel: a shining tower of refractive ice, fused together into a monument of extreme beauty and extreme danger. This is how white dragons mate, you see; the males built towers of ice to attract the females, and the largest ice towers attract the best mates.
Unfortunately, this tower is raised by a stunty little white dragon with unaccustomed smarts and magical power. The poindexter of the dragon world, this male is half the size he should be, but he has used his spells and smarts to raise a tremendous mating monument. Can the PCs stop him before he attracts a host of females?
A young adult brass dragon fancies himself a bit of a bard. He is very fond of trapping unwary adventurers in a long canyon and pressing them for stories, which he retells as song (very poorly).
If the party plies him with gifts and manages to fake a liking his terrible tunes they can pass safely. If they flatter him enough he has some terrible songs with valuable information hidden in them.
So old that even she has forgotten her orignal name, Shar sits on the desert rocks basking in the suns rays. At night she slowly slumbers down in her cavern deep under the desert. Shar has done this only once in the last 10 years as she sleeps a good deal of the time. Now a group of adventures must find an item of power located a level below Shar and they must do it without waking her for dispite her good alignment, she is old and does not deal with trespassers kindly.
While searching for the command word for a Wand of Fire the PCs found, they visit an old, friendly, jovial sage. The sage is very engaging and talks to the party at length about many topics. Alas, he does not know the command word, but the party enjoyed the visit just the same. The sage is, of course, a polymorphed copper dragon ...
Through age and combat, the defense forces of giants have become thin. The ancient goldie sends out word of a contest. Straight grappling, anyone who can beat his champion can choose to live a life of splendor amongst his guards or choose one item from his horde. Of course, just finding out the location of the lair is pretty darned difficult and a test into itself.
His horde of choosable items will not have his best pickings, but his sense of fairplay will allow a wiley adventurer to at least bargain for an unseen item, perchance something needed in his quest.
And you don't wanna know what happens to the losers...
Several cities and large towns in the far north have been attacked several times by a large dragon. Though initial reports indicated it was white, as befits the region, closer examination on the part of experts (or perhaps the characters) indicates that the attacking dragon is in fact silver!
Why is a silver dragon attacking cities and wreacking havoc like one of it's chromatic cousins? Is it charmed? Has someone tricked it into believing the people nearby are evil, and if so, how? Is it truly evil itself, one of the rare exceptions to the standard alignment? Or is there truly some hidden evil amongst the local populace, something so horrid the dragon is willing to sacrifice thousands of innocents to destroy it?
"Hey, fellow party memeber, what ever happened to that pet turtle you released into the wild when we were 1st level?"
"GAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!"
"[CENSORED]!"
A/several dragonne[s] (There are enough that violence should look unwise, though not unthinkable.) has a herd of unusual goats. The dragonnes apparently just deem them food, but somebody else thinks they have a much better use and wants to cut a deal with the monster, offering more of more common goats or a steady supply of free meat, or... Of course, direct dealing with a creature known to eat people is not for the faint of heart and the party is hired to deal with the situation.
The party will have to bargain with creatures who will have a rather dim view of the idea and avoiding trouble should be difficult. But any good idea that can be shown to benefit the dragonnes should be possible. )Since dragonne have an INT of 6 and WIS of 12, they may be easily conned by the right pitch, but will catch the party if the pitch is just a bit different. In any case, if the party does get away with something, they had best stay out of the area thereafter.)
After having defeated the giants and on their way to the Vault of the Drow, the party gets hopelessly lost in the Underdark. They are ambushed by a Drow scouting party and are about to get destroyed, when 3 Driders attack the Drow and help to drive them away. The Driders are uncooperative with the party, but they know where the Vault is located and if the party can somehow convince them, they will be able to get back on the right path.
While the royal entourage was traveling between the winter and summer homes, the king's tailor has been captured to design clothes for the Seven Woodland Sisters in preparation for their annual ball. This event signals the beginning of a yearly rash of kidnappings of young men in the surrounding countryside.
The 'Seven Dwarves' mining syndicate loses one of their members in a cave-collapse. Because six is an inauspicious number, and doesn't sound as good (not to mention the fact that the victim was their more or less indispensable gem-expert), the surviving dwarves hire the party go forth and seek a seventh dwarf replacement to join them at their (highly profitable) mining venture.
Of course, dwarves are notoriously stubborn and slow to change their ways (including their venues of work), and the Seven-Syndicate hasn't made many friends over its long and successful career... so it is likely that the party will start to pick up the (quite accurate) rumors that the mine collapse was no accident before they succeed in their task.
The adventurers need to retrieve something from the ocean bottom, left behind from a shipwreck. Getting there is hard enough, dealing with the rare aquatic deep dwarves who feel that anything that touches the ocean bottom is rightfully theirs is tougher.
If the party has an animal companion or familiar who goes wandering...
The spellcaster sends his trusted friend to go scouting - as usual - but the connection is lost and the creature does not return. The party finds the creature's last known position (if land based can track with DC 15, air DC 40 from landing on branches and the like). They spy a small opening in the rocks that lead underground. If they persue they will find a band of Derro who plan to use the creature as a slave in the near-term, but eventually as a sacrifice to their perverse diety of magic and cruelty.
The party, while investigating the disapperance of a reknowned dwarven fighter (and drinker), discovers him living peacefully in a mountain dwarf enclave, writing poetry. It seems as if the mountain dwarves have gotten tired of so-called "stereotypical dwarven behavior", and are capturing and re-educating those who display it.