Advanced D ungeons&Dragons: Sor two to six chatacters of levels 10 A Hews Cale by Monte Cook Table of Contents Introduction . Adventure One: Haggash’s Secret. 1st-3rd level Adventure Two: Chain gang. 3rd-4th level. Adventure Three: At the Races. 4th-5th level. Adventure Four: Web of Death. 5th-6th level. : Look of Love. Sth-6th level. Frost and Thorn. 6th-7th level Adventure Seven: The Mistake. 7th-8th level. Adventure Eight: The Covey. 8th-9th level sw.nn Adventure Nine: The Abados. 9th-10th level. Credits Editing: Steve Winter Cover Illustration: Jeff Easley Interior Illustrations: John Snyder, Arnie Swekel, and Stephen A. Daniele Cartography: Roy M. Boholst Graphic Design: Greg Kerkman Typography: Gaye O'Keefe Art Director: Stephen A. Daniele Special Thanks: Sue Weinlein, Keith Strohm, Bruce Cordell TSR Ltd 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Cambridge CBI 3LB United Kingdom, TSR, Ine 201 Sheridan Springs Road Lake Geneva,Introduction “So it’sa tale you want then, eh? So be it. But you'd stop a man before he goes rambling on—as | tend to do somewhat—wouldn’t you? I don’t want to embarrass myself or bore you youngsters.” The old man stroked his neatly-trimmed white beard and stared into his mug of coffee. Thadeus's body was slightly stooped now, but you could see that he once had been a large, muscular man accus~ tomed to physical endeavors. “Yes, let's see... certainly had my share of adven- tures. Made a number of good friends. We all saved each other's lives so many times you needn’t even. bother counting,” Thadeus said, his eyes beginning to fill witha life not seen in a while, “Oh yes, there was Alvarm the wizard, sneaky Tiarath—liked to call himself a rogue, but we all knew he was a thief through and through. Then there was poor old “Mynios, a dwarf warrior from Giant's Pass. And then came Hira, a priestess of the Blue Goddess who joined usa little later on, Not many of us, but we were capable, and not just alittle lucky.” ‘A wistful smile crossed his lips—one that ‘would appear many times as his tale was told. “We started out in the land of Narthillan, south of the Pellonese Forests. This was before the Great Conjunction, so the Pellonese was still fairly safe. Anyway, we had nothing but what a few coppers. could buy, a few horses, and more than our share of foothardiness “Alvarm had heard about an old, ruined castle outside of South Hartford, where there was said to bea fair amount of treasure still buried in a vault. Turned out the tales were true, and we struck it rich. Of course, we had to fight our way out— seems some priest of old put a magic spell on the place and once we entered the vault, the whole castle was crawling with undead. Too bad Hira wasn’t with us then. She'd have sent them back to the nether regions where they belonged. I didn’t yet have my sword, Phantom Reaver, either, but then, I'm getting quite ahead of myself, aren't I? “So, Alvarm’s quest proved fruitful and we were quite a bit wealthier and (for better or worse) had gained a reputation as heroes. For that reason, we found ourselves on the road north, to the Great Keep, ‘On the way, we passed a horrible litte place called Haggash. Yes, Haggash—that’s where this tale really needs to begin...” A Hero's Tale is an anthology of short adventures for AD&D* game players. These scenarios were written to be inserted by the Dungeon Master into a larger, ongoing campaign. Each will serve as an evening's gaming session. That is, most of the sce- narios, if not all of them, can be completed by a ‘group of players in a few hours. They are perfect as interludes between longer adventures or during quests. Many of them are written to be side encounters as the player characters travel to another objective or destination. Suitable to this “fill-in” role, most are easily adapted to any loca- tion or clime. While place names are given, these can be freely changed to fit the tone of the DM’s campaign. Alternatively, these adventures could be used as “one-shots,” appropriate for an evening's gaming outside of a standard, continuing campaign. Many players find such games entertaining and interest- ing changes of pace, allowing them to play differ- ent characters than those they use in long-term campaigns Additionally, these adventures are suitable for smaller groups of players. Most can be played with only three or four player characters of the levels specified. Larger groups can attempt the adventures at lower levels, or the DM can adjust the difficulty to make them more appropriate to a larger party of PCs. For obvious reasons, the rest of this product is meant to be read by the Dungeon Master only. The Hero’s Tale At the beginning of each adventure, a brief excerpt from the tale of Thadeus (later known as Thad Bravecloak) tells how he and his comrades came upon the situation detailed in that chapter. The DM can gain various ideas about how to fit the adventures into an ongoing campaign by read- ing these passages. Using These Adventures Together Browsing through the adventures or the table of contents where the appropriate character levels for ‘each scenario are presented, the DM will see that each is written for PCs of different levels. These adventures were intended to be used all in the same campaign, for the same continuing group of