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PREPARATION
To run this adventure, you’ll need the Player’s Handbook
(PH), Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), Monster Manual (MM),
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Monster Manual III (MMIII), and the E BERRON Campaign Setting warforged scorpions were brought to the area to sup-
(ECS). In addition, the adventure draws heavily from plement the defense. The drow knew, however, that
the new Secrets of Xen’drik sourcebook. You don’t need a their greatest defense would be secrecy, and so they
copy of that book to run this adventure, but you’ll worked to camouflage their very presence.
understand the adventure as a whole and its setting a Elders among the drow of the scorpion realized that
lot better if you have access to it. even camouflage would not be sufficient, and one
To get started, print out the adventure, including night about twenty years ago they magically moved the
the maps. Read through the scenario at least once to entire creation forge to a new site deeper in the inte-
familiarize yourself with the situation, threats, and rior of Xen’drik. They then created a massive illusion
major nonplayer characters (NPCs). Some text is des- of the forge where it stood and left the drow at
ignated as player information that you can read aloud Caledaith unaware of the change. Thus, the drow
or paraphrase for the players at the proper times. today guard an illusion of the forge.
ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS
The PCs are exploring along the river Hydra when they
are attacked by the drow from an advance scouting
base. Searching this camp leads the PCs to Caledaith,
where they can explore and fight drow and warforged
scorpions. They can find the creation forge, discover
its illusory nature, and perhaps find clues to where it
might have been taken.
ADVENTURE HOOKS
The adventure begins deep within the jungles of
Xen ’drik, alongt her iverHy dra.If y ouha veth ema p of
Xen ’drik from Secrets of Xen’drik, you can begin this
adv e n t u r ea nywhereb etween numbers1 3a nd 11on the
map. If you don’t have the map, look at it or download
it from the Wiza r ds of the Coast website. Because the
adv e n t u r e begins in the wilderness, the PCs are alread
y
ADVENTURE BACKGROUND t h e re for some reason. Thus, you can take two
approaches to setting the hook for this mini-adventure.
The war between the giants and the quori caused dev-
First, the PCs could be on their way to some other
astation across Xen’drik and even to the far reaches of
destination and come across the drow in the first com-
Eberron. After the giants banished the quori, magical
bat as a “random encounter” of sorts. Their primary
plagues and curses swept the land for a thousand years.
mission is left to you, but some suggestions include the
During this time, the giants’ drow slaves threw off
following.
their chains and rebelled against their masters. Their
battles for freedom were hard and often futile, but
• They could be rescuing someone important from
their smaller size and their knowledge of magic aided
Stormreach who was kidnapped by yuan-ti, giants,
them. Eventually they won their freedom, and the
drow, or something else.
giants found themselves reduced to savagery.
During the war for liberation, some drow found the
• They may be exploring on behalf of House Cannith
creation forges left behind by the quori and learned
for quori sites that might contain creation forge
how to use them to create warforged scorpions. The
technology that has not been discovered yet. Quori
drow appropriated a number of creation forges and
created constructs like the warforged, and perhaps
moved them to secret bases where they would not be
some creation forges have not been found on the
found. The secret for creating these creat u r es rema i n
s
vast continent.
with a small enclave of drow deep in the interior of
Xen ’drik, though few of the creat u
r es are created any-
• Perhaps they’re prospecting for mineral wealth or
mor e. However, most of the creation forges were lost in
other natural resources on behalf of Khorvairan
battles, natural disasters,ormon steratt acks.
merchants or a dragonmarked house.
About a hundred years ago, a group of drow was
exploring near the river Hydra in central Xen’drik
• They may be looking for ancient ruins to loot.
when they came upon a ruined ziggurat from the time
There are countless giant and quori ruins scattered
of the giants. While exploring it, they found that it
across the huge continent just waiting to be found
covered a deep cavern that contained a working cre-
and to have their treasures taken. That is, if the PCs
ation forge. Eager to seize such a prize, they estab-
can overcome any dangers surrounding them.
lished a settlement at the ziggurat site that they named
Caledaith, and they sent word to other enclaves of
• They may be finding their way back from getting
drow. Soon powerful artificers came to study the forge
lost. Xen’drik is a vast and mostly unmapped
while the settlement of drow was expanded and some
wilderness, and it is easy to go astray.
The other option is that the PCs could be looking
for this drow enclave specifically. They took a job in
Stormreach or somewhere on Khorvaire to seek out an WHY AN AMBUSH?
enclave of Vulkoor-worshiping drow because the Why do the drow bother to ambush the PCs in the first
sponsor knows that the drow have creation forges that place if they are trying to keep their presence a secret?
no one else knows about, and these forges are proba- For two reasons, actually. The first is that the PCs are
bly working ones at that. House Cannith is a perfect close enough to the encampment that they may find it,
sponsor for this kind of quest, but other factions and that would be bad. The second is that the drow
would like to acquire the means of creating their own need the PCs’ equipment, since magical goodies don’t
construct guardians. The PCs have, therefore, been to come through the jungle to them every day.
Stormreach and gained some clues to point them in
this general direction. However, they have not found
the drow yet, so they continue to search the area when
they are attacked. The firebringer begins the combat invisible and
stays out of the fighting as best as he can. If approached,
he uses inv i s i b i l i t y to conceal his movement to a new loca-
tion and attacks again. He casts has t e on his comrade s
AMBUSH (EL 12) early on, when they are still within 50 feet of him, and
The PCs have spent a day traveling through the jungle he uses other buffing spells as appropriate. He does not
(or fruitlessly searching for drow) and have camped leave himself withouta t least five powerfulat tack spells,
for the night. They may or may not have PCs on watch. though.He retr eats ifhe runsoutofspe lls.
A group of drow scouts from the nearby encampment The drow retreat and heal if the tide turns against
has detected the PCs and ambushes them here. They them, knowing that they can see much farther at night
have had one of the raiders watching the PCs’ camp than the PCs probably can. If they retreat, they attack
since nightfall from a distance of 100 feet (+10 modi- several hours later in the same fashion (though with
fier to Spot and Listen check DCs to detect the spy). fewer spells).
This drow has pass without trace active as well, and he has Creatures: The attacking drow are a moderately
left no tracks leading to his current position. Just sized scouting group consisting of a leader, a sorcerer,
before the attack, he sneaks off and reports the PCs’ and four raiders.
positions in camp so that the drow can plan their Drow Kaxat (leader): hp 68; see Appendix.
ambush (hiding his tracks when he does so, since his Drow Firebringer: hp 19; see Appendix.
spell expired while he was watching the PCs). Drow Raider (4): hp 27; see Appendix.
The kaxat and the raiders surround the camp as best Treasure: The drow have the equipment listed for
as they can, moving slowly (+2 DM’s friend bonus on them in the Appendix, and an additional four wands of
Move Silently checks) and using trees for cover. They cure light wounds among them for healing injuries.
attack using ranged weapons for maximum surprise, Development: All the drow have pass without trace
and then use divide-and-conquer tactics against the active when they approach the PCs’ camp except the
PCs (focus on one PC until he or she is down, and then kaxat and the spy. They are hiding their tracks.
change targets). The others attack spellcasters, espe- Tracking the drow therefore requires a DC 23 Survival
cially clerics or other healers, prefe r entially to weaken check at night (or DC 20 the next day). The tracks
the PCs’ ability to heal. They are not above selecting a eventually lead to the drow encampment, which is the
sleeping PC for a first-round attack if that PC is an site of the next encounter. Though they all bear lay
obvious spellcaster or healer (taking out the healer in symbols of Vulkoor, the drow do not bear any tribe or
thefir stroun dw ould beanide al strategyfor them). clan markings, and they do not carry anything that
would point back to the encampment (such as a map).
Troubleshooting: To continue the adventure,
rather than just having this ambush turn into a ran-
MODIFYING FOR DIFFERENT LEVELS dom encounter, you need to make sure that the PCs
OF PCS find the tracks of the drow ambushers. The reasons
that they might not are that 1) they don’t bother to
• 8th-Level PCs (EL 10): Eliminate the kaxat. look, or 2) none of the PCs has the Track feat (because
anyone at 10th level with the Track feat can make the
• 12th-Level PCs (EL 14): Add 4 drow raiders, 2 Survival check DC to find the tracks if they look). If
drow poisoners, and 1 drow shaman. See Appendix none of the PCs have the Track feat, then you have to
for drow statistics. fall back on Search checks to find tracks. The PCs
won’t be able to follow them, but you could make the
Incorporate the new tactical possibilities and spells tracks easier to follow by making the Search check DC
into the drow preparation and attacks. The poisoners 10 (so that Search checks can be used to at least have a
work together to make the best use of their sneak attack chance of finding them now and again [see the Track
ability. The shaman casts shield of faith on himself, casts feat on page 110 of the Player’s Handbook for a better
bless on the group just before the attack, casts bull’s idea of options]). Alternatively, you could allow an
strength on the kaxat, and casts divine power on himself NPC with the Track feat to come along with the group.
during the surprise round. If the PCs refuse to look for tracks, you can try
again to get them into the adventure by throwing a sec-
ond ambush (same stats) at the PCs a couple of nights
later. They should get worried if drow keep trying to here. The scouting parties also use this as an advance
kill them. However, if they still don’t bite, then you packing and staging camp. The clearing is dominated
may need to have them run across the encampment by a large fire pit in the center. On the river side clos-
(below) if you want to be blatant, or just give up on the est to the collapsed bridge, the drow have built a small
adventure until some later time and try again. You shed to hold supplies.
shouldn’t force PCs into an adventure. If any drow from the ambush escaped, the drow
here have set a little ambush of their own. They are
arranged to draw the PCs toward the rocky areas where
they can push them over the cliff and into the river.
THE ENCAMPMENT Creatures: The camp is always occupied by a group
If the PCs follow the tracks of the drow that attacked of drow, who are the first defense for the fort in case
them, they reach the encampment after about 2 hours’ of attack from that direction. They fight to delay any
travel. The area is dense jungle, and movement is slow intruders and make enough noise to alert the fort
(consider the whole area to be difficult terrain). before falling back into the jungle so that they can
If the PCs eliminated all the drow in the ambush, come up later and support the drow at the fort.
then the camp is not on guard against them. If any Drow Poisoner: hp 23; see Appendix.
drow escaped, then the encampment is prepared to Drow Raiders (4): hp 27; see Appendix.
fend off intruders. Notes about preparations if warned Treasure: In addition to the gear on each drow,
are included with each encounter area. the PCs find a lot of camp supplies and foodstuffs in
Use the Primitive Camp map (from Secrets of Xen’drik) the shed.
for this section of the adventure. The PCs approach Development: If a battle is joined here and not
the camp from the right side of the map. The trails covered with a silence effect, then the fort goes on alert
that lead to area 1 and to the ruined bridge in the if it had not done so already. If it was already on alert,
water meet up just off the map image. then the trail trap at area 3 is manned.
MODIFYING FOR DIFFERENT LEVELS In fact, they have been made to look that way on pur-
pose, so as to slow intruders. The bridges have been
OF PCS reinforced from below. A DC 20 Spot check is
• 8th-Level PCs(E L 8):E liminate thed rowp oisoner required to see the reinforcements under normal cir-
and1 drow raid
e r . cumstances. In the rushed situation of the PCs attack-
• 12th-Level PCs (EL 12): Add 1 drow kaxat. ing the camp and chasing drow, the Spot DC is 25 (the
PCs are distracted).
MODIFYING FOR DIFFERENT LEVELS
OF PCS
• 8th-Level PCs (EL 11): Eliminate 1 monstrous
scorpion, the drow firebringer, and 3 drow raiders
• 12th-Level PCs (EL 15): Add 3 huge monstrous
scorpions and 2 drow kaxat.
The drow have a specific route that they use to cross
the bridge at full speed. It is somewhat convoluted and
not at all necessary since the bridge is strong everywhere.
However, seeing the drow take a weird route should con-
tribute to the mental idea that the bridge is dangerous.
Memorizing the exact route while a drow is running it
requ i r es a DC 25 Spot check and full concentrati o n
whilet heq uarryis u singt hep ath.
For PCs trying to cross the bridge, require DC 5
Balance checks once in the middle of the bridge. Make
it seem like the DC is higher, though, and don’t forget
to add in creaking bridge planks that feel like they
might give under the PCs’ feet.
the drow that arms the trail trap in area 3 also closes
Area 3: Trail Trap (EL 8) the fort gate. Then the drow raiders and the fire-
The path is 5 feet wide, and the drow have built a trap bringer take to the towers for missile and ranged spell
along this trail that is armed if the camp is warned of defense while the shaman and the scorrow wait inside.
danger. Thus, if any drow escaped the ambush, or if The scorrow calls its monstrous scorpion pets from the
enough noise is made in area 1 to alert the camp, a nearby forest as soon as the intruders begin to break
drow raider activates this trap before the PCs reach the through the gates or walls, and they arrive at the top of
spot (and then returns to the fort). the wall at the end of the next round.
At the spot on the trail where the river touches the Creatures: A sizable force of drow occupy the
west side of the trail, the drow have set up a tripwire. If camp, along with some other creatures. Some of the
tripped, a mass of branches and logs falls from the drow are out on scouting duty, but the remainder are
trees on the east side of the trail onto the trail and any in the fort or at area 1.
PCs there. It is constructed such that any PCs hit by Scorrow Leader: hp 75; see Appendix.
debris suffer the effects of a bull rush. Anyone who is Huge Monstrous Scorpion Pets (2): hp 75; MM 287 .
pushed 5 feet or more falls into the river 10 feet below. Drow Firebringer: hp 19; see Appendix.
Falling Debris Trap: CR 8; mechanical; touch Drow Shaman: hp 42; see Appendix.
trigger; no reset; Atk +20 melee (10d6 debris); multi- Drow Raiders (6): hp 27; see Appendix.
ple targets (all creatures within a 20-foot length of
path starting 5 feet ahead of trip wire); bull rush (+14 Area 5: Watch Towers
to opposed Str check, 1d6 falling damage for those A ladder from the fort below ascends to each watch
pushed into the river); Search DC 25; Disable Device tower. The towers offer cover against enemy attacks, or
DC 10. full cover if one drops prone inside. The drow in these
Development: PCs pushed into the water must get towers are included in those listed for area 4.
out again, and this causes a delay that allows the fort to
better prepare. Climbing the wet bank requires a suc- Area 6: Scorrow’s Quarters
cessful DC 15 Climb check, or DC 5 with a rope assist. The scorrow leader had his own building, chiefly
because no one else wanted to be anywhere near the
Area 4: Camp Fort (EL 13) half-scorpion creature. The building contains six
Built back in the Age of Giants, the fort (walls: hard- rooms, though it appears that some relatively recent
ness 5, 360 hp) was in a ruined state until the drow
rebuilt it.
The drow use the area around the heads for fight-
ing practice and for exercising mounts. These drow do
not know the significance of the heads at all. However, Modifying for Different Levels of PCs
if one could roll the heads over, one would see the • 8th-Level PCs (EL 8): Eliminate1 warforgedt itan.
name of a giant deity (written in Giant) and the name • 12th-Level PCs (EL 12): Add 4 warforged scorpi-
of the ruined city where the heads came from carved ons (hp 85, see Appendix) that hide in niches
on the bottom of the necks. around the room until nondrow enter. They also
cannot see the illusion of the forge.
A huge glowing machine that stands 40 feet tall
dominates the center of this room. The bottom of
it is surrounded by a circle of control panels, and
lights on the panels flash and glow. The forge is 50
feet in diameter total, leaving a circle 25 feet
across all the way around it. The machine emits a
low hum.