The Mines of Bloodstone - 1st Edition.pdf - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons { 1st edition} - R5700

OFFICIAL GAME ADVENTURE

The Mines of Bloodstone

by Michael Dobson and Douglas Niles

Table of Contents

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

Maps

Chapter 1: A Hard Winter .......................... 4

The Caverns of the Orothiar Dwarves ................. 12

Chapter 2: The Big Valley ........................... 11

The Village of Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter 3: The Bloodstone Mines .................... 15

Waukeshire of the Halflings ......................... 14

Chapter 4: Kingdoms of Deepearth ................... 20

The Temple of Orcus (Pull out) .................... 23, 26

Chapter 5: Council of War ........................... 30

The Dungeons of the Duergar (Pull out) ............ 24, 25

Chapter 6: The Temple of Orcus ..................... 33

BATTLESYSTEM™ Scenario 1 ....................... 32

BATTLESYSTEM Scenario 2 ...................... 32

Epilogue ....................................... 43

Test of Illusion (Area 33) ............................ 37

Test of Steel (Area 35) .............................. 38

Pregenerated Player Characters

.......................

Test of Speed (Area 36) ............................. 39

New Monsters .................................... 47

Legion of Undead (Area 59) ......................... 41

CREDITS

Editing: Mike Breault

Cover Art: Keith Parkinson

Interior Art: Graham Nolan

Cartography: Dave LaForce, Tom Darden, and Gloria Habriga

Typography: Betty Elmore

Graphic Design: Cohen OMalley, Dennis Kauth, and

Stephanie Tabat

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INTRODUCTION

The Story

Indeed, the Witch-King made peace, but

had long been rumored to be hidden in the

on his own terms. He took the rich northern

Galenas, reached out to organize the bandits

provinces for his own, then generously

of the mountains. Soon a virtual army (allied

The information contained in this section

granted independence to the southern lords,

with Vaasa, of course) had built a camp in the

may be read aloud or shown to the players, or

as long as they paid tribute and acknowledged

canyon that once held the mining operations.

it may be revealed in the course of the adven-

the Witch-Kings power. This was a shrewd

The poor citizens of Bloodstone knew nothing

ture as the player characters explore the area,

political move, for each petty noble conspired

of this until the army began demanding trib-

conduct research, or ask those whom they en-

against the others for scraps of power and

ute of gold, food, and finally slaves.

counter.

wealth, throwing the entire south into politi-

Baron Tranth, Fifth Baron of Bloodstone,

cal chaos.

was discouraged and worn from long years of

hardship and defeat. His oath to protect and

For generations, the cold northern wastes

A steady stream of refugees moved south,

supported a scant population of hunters,

searching for an ever-elusive safety and leav-

defend his people had kept him going

trappers, and poor farmers. These hardy

ing economic chaos in their wake.

through each successive disaster. . . even the

souls scrabbled a meager living from the

Hardship and poverty were no strangers to

personal tragedy of his wifes death in child-

stony soil, and barely endured the long

one small barony. The barony of Bloodstone,

birth. He had counseled that his people give

dark winters.

so named for the deep-green chalcedony

tribute to the banditsanything, just to keep

flecked with red jasper that was mined there,

surviving. But slavery was worse than death,

That was before the coming of the Witch-

had once been a prosperous province of Da-

and so he resolved to fight back, even at the

King, Zhengyi, who formed the Kingdom of

mara, located in a verdant valley in the Galena

risk of losing all.

Vaasa and built the mysterious, evil Castle

Mountains. In addition to the gems that were

H e needed helppowerful help, but

Perilous atop a lonely crag near the sea.

its trademark, the barony gave its name to

where could he turn? There was no treasure

Some said that Zhengyi had enlisted the aid

Bloodstone Pass, the major route through the

with which to buy mercenaries. He could only

of powerful demons, and this must have been

Galenas to points north and west.

beg. Garlen and Garvin, two cousins, were

true, for the Kingdom of Vaasa soon raised a

At approximately the time the Witch-King

sent south just before the fall harvest to seek

powerful army of human and nonhuman

came to power in the north, the first of three

the aid of powerful adventurers who might

warriorsfar more than the northern lands

disasters befell Bloodstone.

save his people.

could possibly support. And with this army,

Once the bloodstone mines produced

To his amazement, his prayers were an-

Vaasa became a power to be reckoned with in

stones worth well over 100,000 gp annually.

swered. Seven brave and powerful adventurers

the Realms. Soon the Witch-King had closed

Human and dwarven workers toiled side by

came to the barons aidfor the princely sal-

the passes through the Galena Mountains,

side beneath the earth, providing a steady

ary of five silver pieces per day.

and during the Wolf Winter of 1137, his evil

stream of wealth. But one day, miners extend-

Operating under a cloak of secrecy and

gaze wandered south, toward the Kingdom of

ing a shaft awoke a nameless evil, and death

aided by the powerful magic of the seven he-

Damara.

stalked the mines. Only a few workers re-

roes, the village prepared for battle. First, a

The armies of the Witch-King struck with-

turned to tell the tale. Many brave souls tried

party of tribute collectors was ambushed and

out warning and seemed unstoppable at first.

to enter the mines to defeat the evil, but to

wiped out. The villagers, long used to defeat,

But the army of Damara was brave and well-

this day none have returned.

were elated. Then came a battle on the open

trained, and soon the tides of battle turned.

The Wolf Winter of 1137 was particularly

field, and a punitive expedition by the bandit

For 10 long, bloody years, the forces of Vaasa

hard on the citizens of Bloodstone, for the

army was defeated!

and Damara fought, neither able to achieve

major source of their wealth was gone. Many

But then came a night of horror, when a

final victory. Many thousands of brave warriors

people starved in that long winter, and those

priest of Orcus conjured the dead of the

and fell creatures died, and their bodies rotted

who dared hunt for food became fodder for

Bloodstone graveyard to unholy life, and

in the fields.

the dire wolves of the Galenas.

corpses shambled the streets. A simultaneous

Then, in the summer of 1147, King Virdin

The second disaster struck when the Witch-

sneak attack by enemy cavalry resulted in the

burning of much of the village. The people of

faced the Witch-Kings cohorts at the Ford of

Kings armies closed the passes through the Ga-

Goliad in what would be the final engage-

lenas, cutting off the barony of Bloodstones

Bloodstone were sore afraid, but resolved to a

ment of the long war. Some say it was the

treachery of the Kings chief lieutenant, Felix

remaining source of wealth. Many families left

man that death was preferable to subjugation

for the south that year, and the population of

and slavery.

(who was reputed to be a secret member of the

the valley was only a scant fraction of what it

Then came the final battle, as the Grandfa-

Guild of Assassins, in league with the enemy),

had been. The remaining humans gathered

ther of Assassins himself took the field. The

who betrayed the young King to his death,

close to the Village of Bloodstone, abandoning

aged, the women, and the children took up

and his army into utter defeat.

the outlying areas. The dwarves, halflings, and

arms, and all the enemys might could not

The Witch-King and his secret ally, the

centaurs who shared the valley became clannish

sway them. The bandit army was broken, and

Grandfather of Assassins (whose mysterious

and insular, and withdrew to their own com-

the Grandfather of Assassins retreated by

mountain citadel is reputed to be somewhere

munities. Poverty settled in the valley. Bandits

magic to his mountain fastness.

in the Galena Mountains), moved quickly to

and strange creatures began to infest the passes

to the south. Escape was no longer possible; the

Yet even in the moment of victory, the

consolidate the victory. In a single night, the

baron realized that very soon winter would set

most loyal and powerful nobles of Damara

valley of Bloodstone was now completely iso-

in. Even now, the cold northern winds were

were slain by sword and by poison, leaving the

lated.

bringing the first frost to the valley. . .

craven, the incompetent, and the disloyal to

Then the third disaster struck. The Grand-

sue for peace.

father of Assassins, whose mysterious citadel

Notes for the

Dungeon Master

Set-Up #1:

On the Road Again...

Set-Up #2:

Bloodstone Redux

The Mines of Bloodstone is a campaign and

dungeon module for high-level (15+) player

characters. It is a sequel to H1, Bloodstone

Pass and the second part of the Bloodstone

Pass campaign series, although it can easily be

run as a stand-alone module. Two set-ups are

provided: one for newly-arrived PCs and one

for PCs who adventured in H1.

This adventure uses many of the newer

AD&D ® game books and accessories, includ-

ing the Dungeoneers Survival Guide (DSG),

the Wilderness Survival Guide (WSG), the

BATTLESYSTEM Fantasy Combat Supple-

ment, and the Book of Lairs. However, none

of these accessories are necessary to play this

adventure. Wherever possible, we have pro-

vided options that only use the traditional

core rules; in other cases, the sections that

would require the new rules can easily be

omitted.

Pregenerated characters are provided for

those players whose characters are not yet of

sufficient level to handle this challenge. Cer-

tain situations are built around the specific

abilities of these characters, but handling

those situations will pose no challenge for the

experienced Dungeon Master. These charac-

ters have been assigned skills in accordance

with the DSG system.

In the Bloodstone Pass campaign, one of

our objectives is to provide a role-playing con-

text for PCs to become lords and rulers of a

kingdom of their own. In module H1, Lady

Christine, daughter of Baron Tranth of Blood-

stone, falls in love with the fighter with the

highest Charisma. If the PCs are successful in

restoring the wealth and power of the barony,

one of the PCs may marry Lady Christine and

thus become heir apparent. The baron will

then offer to retire in favor of his son-in-law,

and that character will become the Baron of

Bloodstone. He can then knight the other

PCs, as he chooses, and assign them leader-

ship roles in the realm. As the campaign

evolves, opportunities will arise to expand the

realm, and to ennoble the other PCs as lords

in their own right.

High-level modules are inherently open-

ended, because of the vast range of options

available to powerful characters. It takes skill

and a firm hand to run such adventures suc-

cessfully and to handle the unforeseen in the

context of the evolving plot: Good luck, and

good adventuring!

If you are bringing characters from an exist-

ing campaign into this module, you should

arrange for them to visit the ex-Kingdom of

Damara. Tell them about the Vaasan War and

Damaras defeat, and play up the chaos in the

southern provinces. The roads are choked with

refugees, giving you lots of opportunities to

have a refugee tell the PCs about events. Plant

a rumor or two about the amazing bloodstone

mines in the Galena Mountains, and suggest

that great wealth might be obtained there.

That should be enough to get most adventur-

ers on the right track. If that doesnt do it, an-

other refugee might know about the

Bloodstone War (the H1 story, as revealed on

page 2), and tell the parry rumors about great

battles to come. Be creativemost groups are

just looking for an excuse to go after adven-

ture!

If you are starting a new campaign with this

adventure, your players can either create their

own 15th-level characters or use the pregener-

ated characters provided herein. The charac-

ters would naturally know the history of the

war, if not that of Bloodstone Pass, and might

even be refugees. You can start the party with

the Obligatory Tavern Scene (Youre all in

this tavern, see, and you introduce yourselves,

and one of you says, Gee, lets find some

monsters to kill! and. . .), but we hope youll

be more creative than that. If you have a copy

of H1, look at The Circus of Doctor Trun-

dles for an alternative way to introduce a

group of new characters to each other.

To get characters from the southern prov-

inces of Damara to Bloodstone Pass, they

must go into the Galena Mountains. Module

H1 has a route map and some encounters, but

an easier way is to use REF3, The Book of

Lairs, and run some of the short adventures

thereinthey are much more exciting than a

list of empty random encounters. No map is

necessary.

When the characters get into the valley, use

the gatefold map on the cover of this module

to trace their final route into the village. The

encounters on the inside cover can be used as

desired;

In the village of Bloodstone, the PCs can

get an audience with the baron (or talk to

Stephan the Innkeeper if they prefer), find

out the recent history of the pass, and go di-

rectly into Chapter 1.

If you are continuing the campaign begun

in H1, the adventure continues as follows:

If the forces of evil won the war, the PCs

must return and defeat them somehow. They

can recruit mercenaries from the Duchy of Ar-

cata, try to organize the nonhumans in the

valley, use guerrilla tactics against the camp,

or anything else they can think of. If they suc-

ceed, they are proclaimed as heroes, and the

war finally ends. If they fail utterly, the adven-

ture ends here.

On the other hand, if the forces of good

won the war, Lady Christine can become en-

gaged to one of the characters. Hold off on the

wedding and the characters assumption of

the barony until the successful conclusion of

this adventure. Have Baron Tranth appoint

the other characters to positions of responsi-

bility and honor. Those who have not been

knighted receive knighthoods. Possible jobs

for the characters include Court Wizard, ab-

bot of a new church (the character is responsi-

ble for financing and building the new

church), Knight Commander of the Baronial

Army, Seneschal of the Barony (good for a

player who enjoys paperwork and administra-

tion), Master of the Hunt (to get food for the

village, a good choice for a ranger), Bard Lau-

reate, or even Ambassador Plenipotentiary

and Extraordinarydo not let anyone feel left

out.

The war ends in late fall, just before the first

snows set in. Spend part of a playing session

exploring daily life in Bloodstone. This can be

a pleasant change of pace for your campaign.

Introduce some of the minor characters who

did not get a chance to become known during

the war; let the characters find places to live

and create a role in the community for them-

selves. Have the characters visit the nonhu-

man communities to build better relations.

Let a month or two of game time pass, but

watch the amount of real time you spend.

Some players enjoy role-playing everyday life;

others get bored quickly. When you feel that

ennui is setting in, move quickly into Chapter

1, A Hard Winter.

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