The Speaker In Dreams.pdf

The S peaker in D reams

James Wyatt

Credits

Editor: Roger E. Moore

Creative Director: Ed Stark

Art Director: Dawn Murin

Cover Illustration: Jeff Easley

Interior Illustrations: Dennis Cramer

Cartography: Todd Gamble

Typography: Erin Dorries

Production Manager: Chas DeLong

Project Manager: Josh Fischer

Graphic Design: Sherry Floyd

Playtesters: Julia Martin, Bill Baumann, Eric Haddock, Jason Iha, Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel, Brooks Peck,

Pat Ryan, Dave Gross, Rob Stewart, Bryan Kinsella, Barbara Walker, Christopher Perkins and Matthew Sernett.

Resources: Based on the original D UNGEONS & D RAGONS ® rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson,

and the new D UNGEONS & D RAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams,

Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison. Other sources include The Castle Guide , Cities of Mystery , City System ,

City of Splendors , The Illithiad , P LAYER ’ S O PTION ™ Spells & Magic , and The Gates of Firestorm Peak .

Table of Contents

Introduction...........................................................2

The Town of Brindinford .......................................4

Events and Encounters: Part One ........................5

Events and Encounters: Part Two.......................18

Concluding the Adventure ..................................26

Appendix: Statistics.............................................27

New Creature: Wyste.......................................31

Sidebars:

Cohorts, Followers and Hirelings .....................4

Characters and the Law ....................................5

Exploring the Fair ..............................................6

Splitting Up .......................................................6

Area Effect Spells in Town Streets ....................7

Curse of Lycanthropy ......................................13

Maps:

Adventure Flowchart .......................................32

Brindinford Overview Map ......inside front cover

The Bell Tower ..........................inside front cover

The Reality Wrinkle ...................inside front cover

The Temple of Pelor..................inside back cover

The Manor House ....................inside back cover

Maze of Alleys ...........................inside back cover

Heironeous’s Shrine .................inside back cover

Abandoned Warehouse ............inside back cover

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INTRODUCTION

I ntrOductiOn

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret

reveries that you were born to control affairs.

—Andrew Carnegie

who summoned a devil into the heart of Ilkkool Rrem.

The gelugon broke its magical bonds, slaughtered the

beholder, and went on a wild rampage through the

illithid city. Although Ghaerleth Axom’s involvement in

the plot was never proven, remaining in the city became

increasingly dangerous for him. Shortly after that inci-

dent, he fled, an outcast from his kind.

He wandered the Underdark for many years, until he

set his sights on a great challenge: the infiltration of a

human town on the world’s surface. Ghaerleth Axom

strode out of the Underdark and into Brindinford.

Under cover of darkness, he moved through the town,

gathering allies and thralls around him as he had done

in numerous subterranean cities before. With their help,

he plants the seeds of a new illithid empire.

The Speaker in Dreams is a D UNGEONS & D RAGONS ® adven-

ture featuring a mind flayer’s attempt to establish a slave

empire, starting from a town called Brindinford.

Encounter Levels: The Speaker in Dreams is suitable

for four 5th-level player characters. Player characters

could reach 7th level by the adventure’s conclusion.

In a city adventure, it is relatively easy for player

characters to rest in safety, regain hit points, and find

curative magic. As a result, encounters in this adven-

ture are skewed toward slightly greater challenges,

assuming that the characters can meet each one rela-

tively fresh.

ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS

The Speaker in Dreams brings the player characters to

Brindinford, a town besieged by evil forces within its

walls. Ghaerleth Axom has amassed great power during

his stay here; he and his gangs are a force to be reckoned

with in every part of the town. Grimlocks terrorize the

lower-class neighborhood of Southspur. A cabal of mad

sorcerers, called Those Who Hear, has taken root in

West Hill, the middle-class buffer zone between South-

spur and well-to-do Silver Hill. A diabolical cult draws

its members from Silver Hill and threatens the estab-

lished temple of Pelor in Ford North, the temple dis-

trict. A pack of wererats extorts protection money from

the merchants of Chatterstreet Market. All these vil-

lains report to Ghaerleth Axom. Only the baron’s keep

seems free of his influence—for now. As the annual

street fair begins, promoted by wandering halflings

who make Brindinford a regular stop, Ghaerleth Axom

moves to solidify his power and seize control of the

town—from the top.

The adventurers arrive here during the street fair. The

fair is disrupted, however, by a wererat attack that serves

twin purposes: distracting the town guard while Ghaer-

leth Axom enters the baron’s keep, and thinning out the

ranks of the guards. The player characters are near this

disturbance and can help dispatch the wererats.

Investigating the wererats leads the party into a web of

secret allegiances. Evidence appears to show the wererats’

leaders are the sorcerers of West Hill. These sorcerers

babble about an alien master who speaks in their dreams,

but no indication exists of an actual, corporeal master. In

defeating the cabal and its apparent minions, the charac-

ters have every reason to believe that they have success-

fully completed the adventure. The townsfolk believe so,

too, and give a feast in the characters’ honor.

After the celebration, the characters discover that

the threat to Brindinford has not been abolished, when

they become the targets of an assassination attempt.

The baron then declares martial law to crack down on

lawlessness within the town. He announces that the

diabolists will be the enforcers of this new order, insti-

tuting a reign of fear and mistrust. The town guards

and the baron turn against the characters, who must

PREPARATION

You, the Dungeon Master (DM), need a copy of the

Player ’s Handbook , the D UNGEON M ASTER ’s Guide , and the

Monster Manual to use this adventure.

Text that appears in shaded boxes is player informa-

tion, which you may read aloud or paraphrase as appro-

priate. Text in sidebars contains important DM notes, for

you, offering insight into issues peculiar to city adven-

turing. Monster and nonplayer character (NPC) statis-

tics are provided with each encounter in abbreviated

form. Full monster statistics for standard monsters are in

the Monster Manual , while statistics for citizens, unusual

monsters, and unique individuals are provided in the

Appendix at the end of this booklet. You should review

all of these statistics before the game starts to refresh

your memory of the creatures’ abilities. Each encounter

is given an encounter level (EL) to let you know how

challenging it should be for the adventurers.

ADVENTURE BACKGROUND

Far below the surface of the earth, in the lightless cav-

erns of the Underdark, a weird and alien city broods on

memories of ancient glory. Long ago, the mind flayers

ruled a mighty empire that spanned hundreds of worlds

until it met its downfall in a slave rebellion. Every mind

flayer in the underground city of Ilkkool Rrem dreams,

plans, and schemes for the restoration of the illithid

empire, the crowning achievement of their kind.

Ghaerleth Axom is one such mind flayer. His

dreams are grand indeed: In his vision, the hub of the

reborn empire will be none other than himself,

Emperor Ghaerleth Axom, Ruler of Worlds. Not only

human thralls, but illithids too will bow and grovel

before him. He will report to no god, no illithid Elder

Brain—all will report to him. He will be a god, and

even devils will serve him.

This dreaming frequently bears dangerous fruit, such

as Axom’s ill-considered alliance with a beholder mage

INTRODUCTION

find unlikely allies as they strive to overcome the cult

and its infernal cohorts. At last, the characters con-

front Ghaerleth Axom, the true mastermind, freeing

the baron from Axom’s influence and returning order

to Brindinford.

The Speaker in Dreams is a combination of event-based

and site-based adventuring. The primary “map” of the

adventure is a flowchart that allows you to track the char-

acters’ actions and their repercussions; the party’s physical

location is less important. Certain actions lead the charac-

ters to key sites within (or below) Brindinford, detailed on

separate maps and keyed in the same way a site-based

adventure would be.

kBrindinford is famous for its annual street fair. The fair

originated when a large clan of nomadic halflings

made the town a regular stop in their travels. Now the

halflings are settled around the town, but the fair

offers a healthy dose of halfling culture at its finest.

Halfling characters may be particularly drawn to the

fair, but any character will find it worth visiting.

kOne of the characters is originally from Brindinford

and has friends or relatives there. The character

could be returning home to rest, bringing compan-

ions along, or coming for the funeral of a relative.

Perhaps a young sibling has gotten involved with

shady characters and needs help. (The sibling could

be an infected wererat, a mad sorcerer, a diabolist,

or a member of a gang of thieves—later instrumen-

tal in winning the gang’s assistance for the party in

Part Two.)

kA mentor of one of the characters lives in Brindin-

ford, but has not been heard from in an unusually

long time. As Ghaerleth Axom prepares to cement

his hold on the town, he has eliminated a number of

higher-level characters who could muster significant

opposition to his rule. The mentor could be one of

his victims, or one of Axom’s controlled allies.

CHARACTER HOOKS

The player characters need not arrive looking for adven-

ture in Brindinford. One advantage of the setting is that

adventure can find the characters while they are busy

doing other things. Each character may have a different

reason to visit the town, they may be united in a

common purpose, or the group may follow one charac-

ter with a compelling reason to travel here. Consider the

following motivations for going to Brindinford.

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