A Guide To Tales From The Yawning Portal Psrpg V1

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Credits
Author: Sean McGovern
Art:
Cover: Homage to 1e back cover: Vasiart
(pg 5) Sorcerer having a drink at the Yawning Portal:
Kagurachi
(pg 9) Belak the Druid: Kagurachi
(pg 16) Nightscale emerging from the lake: Kagurachi
(pg 25) Tloques-Popolocas (Room 7, pg 67) pulling his
berserker axe out of the wall: Vasiart
(pg 40) Jumping in the geysers and chains room
(Room 7, page 100): Kagurachi
(pg 45) Tarul Var: Vasiart
(pg 69) King Snurre wearing his white dragon cloak:
Vasiart
(pg 89) Acererak: Vasiart

Notes
This material is based on articles from my blog,
Power Score RPG.

Thank You! I want to thank everybody who has either sent me a kind word, given me a like on twitter,
or bought one of my other pdfs on the DMs Guild.

Emirikol’s Guide to Devils. I am right now polishing up a gigantic DMs Guild pdf that I’ve been working on for 5 months. It is Emirikol’s Guide to Devils, a
devil guide that has stats for about 40 monsters, a
chapter full of magic items converted from old editions, and of course my stab at statting out the Lords
of the Nine, the archdevil rulers of hell.

Being a Dungeon Master. If you are reading this,
you are probably at the very least considering being
a Dungeon Master. Being a DM is hard! When a session doesn’t go well, it feels terrible.
Remember, every single one of us goes through this.
Often, the sessions you think weren’t so great were
loved by the players. Don’t get discouraged, just keep
an open mind and try not to be too critical of yourself!

How to Run Tales
From the Yawning
Portal

n this guide, we are going to take a look at
Tales From the Yawning Portal and do our
best to prepare it.

We’re going to start off with going over the basics,
in case this is one of your first times DMing. Then,
we’ll go chapter by chapter and prepare this thing.
There is a lot of work to be done as a DM, and I
tried my best to do it for you.
At the end, I’ve included a sample outline of a
campaign to show how you could connect all of
these adventures together.

Adventure Anthology
This book is a collection of 7 adventures that were
originally made for previous editions (with different rules). These have all been updated to the 5th
edition rules.

Legendary Adventures
Some of these adventures are very famous in D&D
circles. White Plume Mountain is known as a “funhouse” dungeon, a place full of weird and wacky
rooms. The Tomb of Horrors is a dungeon full of
traps (and almost no monsters at all) designed to
kill almost anyone. Gary Gygax himself made this
dungeon and it is meant to be the ultimate challenge.

Begin With the Sunless Citadel
If you are going to start a group, you’ll want to use
the Sunless Citadel first. That’s for brand new, 1st
level characters. This adventure came out right
when 3rd edition was released. 3rd edition was really popular at the time, and a lot of people played
it.
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It’s a good dungeon for new players and DMs, because it was designed for them. It starts out a bit
basic, and grows in complexity as you go on.
You begin by entering a dungeon that’s inhabited
by feuding kobolds and goblins. At the bottom of
the place is a druid and a tree tainted by the blood
of a vampire.

Preparing an Adventure
If this is the first adventure you’ve ever run, you
should know that you need to read the whole chapter. The most important thing to keep in mind is
that you need to look up monsters and stuff beforehand. If you look up everything at the table, everybody will get bored. It is important to be prepared.
You want people have fun, not fall asleep or wander away.
Cheat Sheet
You might want to get a piece of paper or something and write down stats for a kobold, goblin,
and a twig blight. Also, write down what some
spells that are in the adventure do. That way, when
you’re running the game, all you have to do is look
at that sheet and you can just keep right on going
with no break in the pacing.
Don’t Worry
Also remember that every DM makes mistakes every single session. It’s no big deal. Just roll with it.
It doesn’t matter, all that matters is that everyone
has fun.
Keeping the Game Moving
If your players are new, certain things can slow the
game down. Make sure everybody knows their
plus to hit, how much damage they do, their spell
attack bonus and the DC for their spells. It gets real
old when the same player keeps having to figure
out their bonus to hit and it drags the game down.
Also, I think people running casters should, at the
very least, write down the page number each of
their spells is on.
CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RUN YAWNING PORTAL

Setting up the Adventure
Check out the hooks on page 10. You might want
to talk with your players before the game to see if
they have any ideas as far as their character’s backstory. The missing adventurers could be relatives
or mentors to a character. A character might need
the magic apple to heal a sick loved one who is going to die soon without it.
Vampires
If there’s a player that is into vampires, you could
play up the story of Gulthias and work that in.
What might be cool is to say that if you make a
stake out of the wood of the Gulthias Tree, maybe
it does special things to vampires. Normally a
stake paralyzes them, maybe this obliterates them
or turns them into petrified wood or something. Or
maybe a character knew Gulthias and through the
tree they can get something from Gulthias that they
need, like a drop of blood or the answer to a riddle,
or the location of a lost family heirloom/magic
item.
Meepo
On page 16, there is an NPC named Meepo, who is
something of a famous character. Most people who
play this adventure have some weird or funny
Meepo story to tell. Sometimes Meepo joins the
group and goes on many future adventures with
them.
Your Style. Meepo is an opportunity for you to
showcase your style – your brand of D&D. Every
DM does something different. Sometimes he’s a
traitor, sometimes he’s a coward, sometimes he’s a
brave but weak ally. You might want to put some
thought into how you want to run Meepo. That’s
the cool thing about being a DM, you’re like a director of a movie. Tim Burton would portray
Meepo very differently than Quentin Tarantino or
Michael Bay. You get to to do whatever you want.

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Pacing
This is a big dungeon. It might get boring. Do not
be afraid to junk rooms or move things along. If
exploring a certain section is becoming a drag,
make some of the rooms empty and get to the end
of it. There’s no “right” way to run a dungeon. The
authors expect you to change it, so don’t feel like
you’re doing it wrong. It’s impossible to do it
wrong. You can change it however you like.

Forge of Fury
Let’s say you’ve been running your group through
a bit of Phandelver from the boxed set, or maybe
you’ve just been making stuff up on your own. The
group is 3rd level and you want to run the Forge of
Fury.
If you can, set it up a bit in advance. While you’re
running whatever you’re running before forge, slip
in some mentions of the legendary black dragon
Nightscale, have someone find one of those ancient
dwarven weapons crated by Durgeddin. Maybe
you can have the group go to Oakhurst and fight
some orc raiders who actually came from the forge.
It’s always good to plant seeds ahead of time if
possible. If the group has been hearing about
Nightscale the dragon and how terrifying she is,
they will be much more pumped up when they actually realize that they are going to have to fight
her at the end.
Warn the Players
I also recommend telling your players before they
start that the monsters in this place don’t act like
monsters in a video game. The whole dungeon will
attack them at once if the group isn’t careful. We
are specifically telling them this because the very
beginning part of this dungeon has a very involved
encounter with the orcs, who have a detailed strategy on how they handle intruders. If the group is
not careful, they are going to get their asses kicked.

CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RUN YAWNING PORTAL

That beginning part is not easy. They’ll need to be
quiet, cautious and smart. They probably won’t
survive if they just barge in. It’s fair to give them a
warning, especially if they are new and don’t understand how the game works. The monsters can
do whatever they want just like the characters can.
The monsters aren’t tethered to a room.
Pacing
This dungeon is really big and it is likely that it
will start to drag and feel stale/boring. Do what
you have to do to move past it. Get rid of boring
encounters altogether if you think it’s going to
make the game suck. The point of the game is to
have fun. Bottom line, the players aren’t going to
want to play anymore if it’s really boring. Nothing
in this book is written in stone, DMs change stuff
all the time.
Rivers
The trickiest part of this adventure is the fast-flowing rivers. The explanation is spread out over a few
pages and it can be a little difficult understanding
how everything fits together. Make sure you get a
good handle on that and jot down some notes beforehand if you need to. That river goes from bad
to worse and it is very deadly. You want to make
sure you run it right, because if a character dies,
you don’t want it to be because you forgot something or made a mistake.

The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
This one is hard to prepare. The details of the
rooms are very intricate, you’ll need to set some
time aside to make sure you understand how some
of the rooms work. It’s very easy to forget that the
whole bottom area is full of poison gas, so make
sure you note it somewhere if you can. That gas is
there in part to put pressure on the players. They
can’t just keep taking rests! They’ll die. That’s part
of why it’s there, to prevent groups from just taking a long rest after every room.

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White Plume Mountain
This is just an epic adventure. If you can, plant legends about the artifacts well ahead of time. Blackrazor in particular is just a ridiculously cool
weapon. They’re all extremely powerful. Maybe
the ancestor of a character had Blackrazor and
eventually got their own soul sucked out.
Maybe a character is the descendant of Keraptis,
the bad guy who made this dungeon. Snarla the
werewolf wizard has always stuck out as a memorable NPC. Maybe the group knew Snarla before
she became a werewolf. You could work that into a
prior adventure, where in the end she becomes a
werewolf and runs off with Burket (page 101) to
the mountain.

Dead in Thay
There’s actually an adventure that sets up Dead in
Thay. It’s Scourge of the Sword Coast for D&D
Next, which is the playtest version of 5th edition.
You might have to change a few things, but it had
some cool stuff in it.
Dead in Thay is really big. You might want to
streamline it a bit and have the glyph keys take the
group to the areas you want to run.

Against the Giants
This is really high level, so I would assume you
don’t need much advice on this. I think that part of
the key to bringing this to life is to make sure you
emphasize that the giants are "giant." Their footsteps shake everything, the door handles are way
up in the air, just getting onto one of their chairs requires a climb check and maybe a rope and grappling hook. Even their loot is gigantic.
Killing a Giant
Killing them means their massive body falls to the
ground, causes a big tremor and kicks up dust. You
could say that the group needs to make a DC 10
acrobatics check when a giant dies to see if they
fall prone. Also, there’s a chance the dead giant
CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RUN YAWNING PORTAL

falls on a hero, right?! That would do damage! Dex
save DC 10. Fail: 7 damage and restrained? Need a
DC 10 escape check to free themselves?
That could add a lot to the game, but make sure
that you don’t use it against the players. Keep it
fair and random. This is meant to impress upon
them the “giantness” of the giants, not a weapon to
use against them. It’s just something to add to the
fun and danger. The uniqueness of battling a giant.
The scale of what they’re doing is enormous (ho,
ho) and thus they are that much more heroic and
impressive when they defeat the giants.

Tomb of Horrors
Technically you could run this for characters of
any level. But low level characters have absolutely
no chance whatsoever of defeating Acererak. They
could, however, get pretty far into the tomb just by
being clever and cautious. The thing about this
dungeon is that it’s somewhat random and arbitrary. In some cases, you can’t figure out the
“rules” of the room because there are no rules. This
is a cruel place that messes with your head.

beloved character is probably going to have horrible, horrible things happen to them.
Be Clear. Some players will love it. Some will hate
it. Make sure you know before you decide to run
this, because one unhappy player will ruin the entire session. Everybody has to know what they’re
getting into and they should definitely be allowed
to make up a character to go in rather than use their
normal one.
Options. You could have each player make 3 characters, so that way if one dies, they can bring in another one. Or, maybe you could have it where an
NPC owes them a wish. That way, if something
terrible happens to the group, they can use the wish
to undo it and wash their hands of the tomb (or
courageously decide to return without the safety
net of the wish spell!).

Not For Everyone
Also.. I can’t stress this enough. There are a lot of
players who will not enjoy this adventure. There
are plenty of D&D players who really hate the
lethality and cruelty of this place. To some people,
it feels like it’s the DM vs. the players, which is
never a fair battle because the DM can do whatever
they want. Some players just do not handle it well
when their character dies or they suffer some kind
of horrid setback (like losing ALL OF YOUR
ITEMS and appearing naked at the start of the dungeon).
Nobody wants to lose all their magic items, that
does suck. So generally, sending characters who
have clawed their way up to 12th level or whatever
aren’t a good choice to send here unless the player
is cool with it. They need to know that their

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CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RUN YAWNING PORTAL

and social interaction. They’re pretty linear. There
is a lot of wackiness and puzzle-solving, which is a
lot of fun.

Character Backgrounds
Linking characters to things in the adventures can
get the players more into it.

Downshadow (Sunless Citadel)
The character lived or grew up in the povertystricken shanty town of Downshadow, a community of vagabonds actually located in Undermountain.

Friend of Geradil (Forge of Fury
In the Forge of Fury, there are two captives,
Geradil and Courana on page 39-40. It says they're
from a town near Blasingdell, but you could say
they're from wherever you want if you want to link
them to the group somehow.

The Yawning Portal

nlike the other adventure books,
this one doesn't have a single, long
story line. This is a collection of
classic D&D adventures updated to
5th edition rules.

You could link them together. It might take a bit of
work, but we can make that happen.

Undermountain
It might be fun to try to place these adventures in
Undermountain, the mega-dungeon connected to
the Yawning Portal. That way, your group can stay
at the Yawning Portal and we can make a whole
campaign out of this.

Dungeon Crawling
Just keep in mind that most of these adventures are
dungeon crawls. There's not a lot of roleplaying
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Dwarven Descendant (Forge of
Fury)
A dwarf character might want to say they are a descendant of Durgeddin or another dwarf who lived
in Khundrukar before the orc wiped them out.
There a few named dwarves:
Borgl the Old, Gharin Orc-Doom, Numik the Unlucky (pg 47)
Arundil (page 54) a mage who created a lot of animated objects. Arundil was Durgeddin's trusted adviser. The character won't know this part: When the
orcs attacked, Arundil was a coward and teleported
away. When he came back, everyone was dead. He
went insane, animated some tables and skeletons,
and he summoned a succubus that killed him.

The Ancestor (Tamoachan)
Late in the Hidden Shrine in room 52, page 91,
there is a room where a character can have a vision
of an ancestor. You could do a ton of things with
CHAPTER 2: THE YAWNING PORTAL

this. If the character is searching for some secret or
the location of a lost family heirloom, this is how
they could learn it.

Spawn of Keraptis (White Plume)
The character could be the son or daughter of Keraptis. Keraptis is not found in this dungeon, but the
character might want to try to lay claim to this
place as their birthright.

Soul of Blackrazor (White
Plume)
Blackrazor offers a million possibilities. Maybe the
soul of a loved one is trapped in the blade, and the
character is determined to free them.

The Chosen (Dead in Thay)
It might be really cool to say one of the characters
is a Chosen. They are a special representative of
their god, and they have special powers. Maybe
this character was captured, but escaped the shrine
with the help of Sylvanna. Now the character
wants to recruit others to help go in there and free
the other Chosen.

The Rescuer (Against the Giants)
We could use the captured princess in the Hall of
the Fire Giant King in the Cell Complex on page
201. Maybe the hero is on a quest to rescue her.
You could use the 4e information. In that version,
she is Princess Moonshadow, a spellcasting adventurer.

The Journal (Tomb of Horrors)
We could say that the character knew someone
who died in the Tomb of Horrors. They need to
find the body, because the person had something of
great value on them. Maybe a magic item, or a
journal with information that would exonerate
someone, or perhaps a journal full of clues that can
help the group navigate the traps of the Tomb of
Horrors.
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The Yawning Portal
The book starts off with a couple of pages about
the tavern known as The Yawning Portal.

Essential Information
There's a few main details to know:

Dungeon Entrance
This tavern is famous for the well in it that leads
down to Undermountain. The well is 140 feet deep.
If you fall, that's 14d6. Not good!

Immortal Owner
The bartender/owner is a retired adventurer named
Durnan who has lived for hundreds of years. He
was one of the first people to explore Undermountain and survive.

Entrance Fee
The heroes will be charged 1 gp each to be lowered
into the well. They will also be charged 1 gp each
to be lifted out. Durnan will not let people up if
they don't pay.

Getting Lowered Down
There is a large winch-and-pulley contraption that
controls a thick rope with stirrups. The adventurers
put their feet in the stirrups and are lowered down.

Getting Out
A bucket will be lowered down. The heroes must
put their gold in it before they will be let up.

Patrons Gamble on You
The people in the bar like to bet on whether or not
adventurers will survive. When someone pays to
enter the well, the patrons cheer, share rounds of
drinks and give the adventurers a going-away
party.

CHAPTER 2: THE YAWNING PORTAL

Secret Entrance
There's actually another means of entry into Undermountain in the cellar of the Yawning Portal. It
is a steeply-sloping hallway that leads to a cistern,
a staircase, and a well shaft that has its own bucket,
winch and rope. Durnan himself doesn't know it is
there.

Map
There is a sweet poster map of the Yawning Portal
that comes with the 4e Halls of Undermountain
book. I think it is worth getting if you’re going to
use the inn a lot.

Flavor Text
There is some great flavor text describing the tavern in Halaster's Lost Apprentice that you can use:
“The warm atmosphere of the Yawning Portal tavern offers a blessed relief from the bitter winter
chill outside. Here, pipesmoke and the scent of
spiced wine mingles with dozens of dialogues
bleeding into one, while the snowy world lies
trapped outside the heavily fogged glass.
In the midst of the folk talking and dancing is a
wide circular well lit by everburning torches: the
eponymous Yawning Portal, which, the legend
holds, is an entrance to Undermountain, the legendary dungeon.
Intent on adventure—whether for sheer thrills or
for matters material and financial—you settle into
the smoky common room, looking about for a
wealthy patron or a rumor of treasure to be found.”
There is also flavor text for being lowered down
into the well:
“The staff of the Yawning Portal straps you oneby-one into a harness attached to a winch and pulley, then lowers you through the great well into the
gloom of Downshadow, the shallowest depth of
Undermountain. You journey down, trying hard not
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to think too much about the creaking old leather or
the straining ropes.
Finally, it is over and your feet touch cool, wet
stone. Before nerves can get the better of you, you
wrench the harnesses free and tug on the ropes to
signal them to be raised.”

NPCs
I dug up some NPCs from old products you can
use to flesh out the tavern.

Durnan the Sixth
Descendant of Durnan. He is practical and doesn't
tolerate violence.

Kelsie
Durnan the Sixth's wife. She is a "pleasant-faced
woman" whose mother was a cook at the Yawning
Portal.

Kids
They have 9 kids, the oldest of which is Durnan
the Seventh.

Endroth Knag
Member of the city watch being pressured to retire.
He ponders unresolved cases as he sips ale.

The White Lady
An elderly elf wearing plain white robes. She
comes in every night and whispers cryptic statements over and over.

Brother Sepulcher
A bald priest who wears grey robes and long, white
gloves who likes to stare at a skull he keeps with
him. He worships Jergal, the exarch of proper
burial. Brother Sepulcher likes to record the name
and description of each person who enters Undermountain.
CHAPTER 2: THE YAWNING PORTAL

Old Stannoc
An elderly halfling who is a gambler and odds
maker. He tries to evaluate each adventurer before
they go down so he can set proper odds.

Downshadow
There is actually a community of people who live
in Undermountain. They are "coin-shy" and down
on their luck. They have a shanty town of about
200 people known as Downshadow.
There are some shady people down there, including a doppleganger and thugs who keep a pet giant
scorpion on a chain.

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CHAPTER 2: THE YAWNING PORTAL

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This book only uses Monster Manual kobolds. You
might want to switch in some Volo's kobolds
(Volo's pg 165-167), as they seem like a lot of fun.

The Lost Adventuring Party
This adventure involves another adventuring party
who went in and never came out. I made a list of
their names and what happened to them:
•

Karakas the Ranger (pg 21) Killed by
rats

•

Talgyn (pg 25) Killed by Durnn the
hobgoblin

•

Sharwyn (pg 30, stats pg 242) Controlled by Belak

•

Sir Braford (pg 30, stats pg 243) Controlled by Belak

Resting
If the heroes rest in the citadel, the monsters move
around and reinforce cleared rooms. You might
want to note the important rooms that they'd want
guarded ahead of time.

Treasure
Each kobold and goblin has 2d10 silver. You could
just say it's 10 silver to speed things up.

Ambush at Night
On their way to the citadel, if the heroes rest for
the night, they'll be attacked by twig blights (MM
page 32).

Dwarven Graffiti
You might want to come up with some amusing
dwarven graffiti. You could probably use:
"Evil breeds in the guts of the lazy."
"It is easy to fool a goblin, but even easier to kill
one."

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Descending the Rope
No check! We don’t really want them to fall, right?

1. Ledge (Page 12)
Giant Rats: MM page 327.
This is all the way at the top of the map on page
13.

3. Crumbled Courtyard (Page 12)
The heroes need to walk over rubble. Dex save DC
10, if they fail by 5 or more they fall in to a little
cavity/pit. No damage. Climbing out is a DC 10
STR (Athletics).
The noise has a 10% chance of attracting more giant rats. I would say just use common sense instead
of rolling. If they're loud, the rats come.
On top of that, there is an actual pit trap. The hero
will just fall in unless they have a passive Perception of 15 or more. They don't give a DC for getting out. Maybe they can't get out without help?
The trap door shuts after one minute!

4. Tower Shell (page 13)
There's a hard-to-find secret door here that's
trapped with a needle. No save! Needle does 1
damage.
The graffiti mentions Ashardalon. Ashardalon is a
massive red dragon who is the main bad guy at the
end of the adventure path that was part of in 3rd
edition. You might want to change the bad guy to
someone that makes sense for your campaign
world.

Secret Pocket (page 13)
3 skeletons (MM pg 272).

6. Old Approach (page 14)
A keyhole in the mouth of a dragon statue on a
door. Arcane lock (PH pg 215) is cast on it. To

CHAPTER 3: THE SUNLESS CITADEL

open this door, you must use a knock spell or make
a DC 30 STR (Athletics).
The key to this thing is in the mouth of another
dragon carving in area 21.

7. Gallery of Forlorn Notes (page
14)
When the group gets in here, make sure you know
where they are positioned. You'll want to know
how close to the door they are when the charm
hits.
This thing sends you running back to area 3, probably into the pit trap. If you look at the map, PCs
who have a speed of 30 can almost make it there in
one round. The rubble in 4 might actually save
them.

8.. Pressure Plate (page 14)
This trap will go off every time the plate is stepped
on! +5 to hit, 5 (d10) piercing.

9. Dragon Riddle (page 14)
Answering the riddle opens the secret door. The
heroes might find the secret door, but there is no
other way to open it.

If the group doesn't attack him for some reason, he
could cut them a deal. He'll tell them about the secret door to 12 if they will hit him one time (and
only once!).

11. Secret Room (page 15)
The crawlspace is a really amusing/scary time for
an unbound Jot to cause mischief.

12. Tomb of a Failed Dragonpriest
(page 15)
If the group opens this thing, they're facing a weakened version of a troll (MM pg 291):
Troll AC 15 HP 30 +7 to hit 11 (2d6+4) slashing
dmg. Regen 5 at start of its turn. Acid/fire shuts
this down. Acid or fire must be used to kill it for
good.
Scrolls (DMG pg 199-200): If the spell is on your
class list, you can cast it. If it's higher lever than
you can cast, you must make an ability check DC
10+spell's level.
I used the chart on DMG pg 200 to figure out the
bonus to hit and DC:
•

Command (PH pg 223): DC 13

10. Honor Guard (page 15)

•

Little tracks lead to an open, obvious spiked pit.
Falling in causes a total of 2d10 piercing and d6
falling. Jot the quasit (MM page 63) is lurking
nearby.

Cure Wounds lvl 2 (PH pg 230): 2d8 +
spellcasting modifier.

•

Inflict Wounds lvl 2 (PH pg 230): +5 to
hit, Hit: 4d10 necrotic! Not too shabby.

•

Guiding Bolt lvl 2 (PH pg 248): rg 120,
+5 to hit. Hit: 5d6 radiant and the next
attack against the target has advantage.

Jot. You could have Jot be invisible, and wait for
the heroes to look in the pit. Then he could his
scare power to frighten them, and you might rule
that heroes at the edge of the pit must make a Dex
save or fall in.
Remember, Jot wants to be attacked by 2+ people
or be hit once so he'll be free of his magical binding. He might lurk nearby and heckle the group as
they explore if that sounds fun to you.
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14. Enchanted Water Cache (page
16)
Ice mephit (MM page 215), steam mephit (MM
page 217)

CHAPTER 3: THE SUNLESS CITADEL

15. Dragon Cell (page 16)
Meepo the kobold (MM page 195) was in charge
of a white dragon wyrmling named Calcryx, but
the goblins stole it. Meepo is quite distraught over
this.
Meepo is a very famous D&D NPC. People play
him a lot of different ways. It seems like a lot of
times, he ends up as a sidekick to the heroes.

16. Kobold Guardroom (page 17)
The door is trapped and is very easy to spot (DC
10 perception). It is likely the group will spot it
with passive perception. The wire is on the other
side, and when set off it drops a bucket of dragon
poop that will actually poison you for a minute.
Poisoned = disadvantage on attack rolls and ability
checks.
There's 3 kobolds (MM page 195) in here. If
Meepo is with the group, he can just yell "Ticklecorn," the kobold safe word.

17. Dragon Chow (page 17)
Swarm of rats (MM page 339)

18. Prison (page 18)
Four goblin (MM page 166) prisoners. These
things will beg to be free and are quite treacherous.

19. Hall of Dragons (page 18)
If the group doesn't Ticklecorn their way through,
we have a tough fight here:
3 kobolds (MM page 195) With 7 hit points instead of 5.
Round 3: Yusdrayl (page 248) and her 2 more
kobolds with 7 HP guards from Area 21
Round 5: 3 Kobolds from area 16.

I would guess that Yusdrayl would hang back and
fire off chromatic orbs (PH pg 221) and burning
hands (PH pg 220) spells.

20. Kobold Colony (page 18)
A surplus of kobolds:
3 Kobolds (mm pg 195)
7 "kobold commoners" (MM pg 345): AC 10
HP 3 +1 to hit, 1 (d4-1) bludgeoning dmg.
14 no-stat kobold riff raff

21. Dragon Throne (page 18)
Yusdrayl (page 248) and 2 kobolds (MM page 195)
Yusdrayl can give the group a lot of info: The goblins and the twig blights serve an outcast named
Belak, who is 'down below'. The kobolds believe
they belong here because of the dragon paraphernalia.
There are a lot of keys here.. they go to areas 7, 15,
18, and 24. Treasure:
Quaal's feather token (DMG pg 188-189)
(Tree): This can only be used outdoors. It makes a
tree, with bark and everything.
Elixir of health, 3 doses (DMG pg 168) Removes disease/poison/blindness etc.
Mage armor (PH pg 256), spider climb (PH pg
277) knock (PH pg 254)

23. Underdark Access (page 19)
3 kobolds (MM pg 195). The tunnel is linked to
whatever you want. It could be caved in if you
don't want to use it. This might be a way to connect
to the Forge of Fury. We'll check that out soon and
see.

Round 8: 3 Kobolds from area 23.

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CHAPTER 3: THE SUNLESS CITADEL

24. Trapped Access (page 19)
It looks like if the group isn't cautious, the people
in front are falling in to this pit trap: no save, d6
damage.

26. Dry Fountain (page 20)
Say "let there be fire" and get yourself a potion of
fire breathing (DMG pg 187) Once you drink it,
you can do this three times: (bonus action) rg 30
one target makes a Dex save DC 13. 4d6 fire, half
on a save.
The door to 27 has some traps. If a hero tries to
open it, a scythe comes out of the ceiling and slices
you: +5, 4 (d8) slashing. To open the door, you either need to use knock or turn undead.

27. Sanctuary (page 20)
5 skeletons (MM pg 272), Night Caller the magic
whistle (page 228-229), Animate dead (PH pg 212)
Potion of resistance (fire) (DMG page 188) lasts
one hour

28. Infested Cells (page 20)
3 giant rats (PH pg 327)

29. Disabled Trap (page 21)
Let there be death! Poison mist Con save DC 10.
Fail: 5 (d10) poison and poisoned for 10 minutes.
Succeed: 1/2 dmg and poisoned for one minute!

30. Mama Rat (page 21)
3 giant rats (PH pg 327), Potion of healing (pg
188): 2d4+2
Guthash the Bloated One: AC 12 HP 16 +5 to hit,
4 (d4+2) piercing dmg. Has advantage when an
ally is adjacent.

31. Caltrop Hall (page 21)
2 Goblins (MM pg 166). When the door is opened,
a bell rings, alerting the goblins in 32

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Caltrops (PH pg 151) If you move at half speed,
you're fine. If you move normally, DC 15 Dex save
or stop moving and take 1 piercing. Until you regain at least one hit point, your speed is reduced by
ten feet.
Cover The 3 foot high wall must give them cover
(PH pg 196). I'd say they have at least half cover,
so +2 to AC and DEX saves.

33. Practice Range (page 22)
3 goblins (MM pg 166)

34. Goblin Stockade (page 22)
Prisoners.. 3 kobolds (MM pg 195), 3x: Bless (PH
pg 219), Cure Wounds (PH pg 230, Sanctuary (PH
pg 272)
Erky Timbers, Gnome Acolyte: AC 10 HP 17 +2 2
(d4)

35. Trapped Corridor (page 23)
Another pit trap! No save, d6 damage. This will
alert the goblins in 36. They'll be here in 2 rounds.

36. Goblin Bandits (page 23)
3 goblins (MM pg 166). If they can, they'll knock
the group out and bring them to 34.

37. Trophy Room (page 23)
Hidden in here is Calcryx, the white dragon wyrmling (MM pg 102)
The Map. If you plan on running Forge of Fury,
definitely put a map that leads to Blasingdell or
Khundrukar in the sealed scroll case in room 37.

38. Goblin Pantry (page 24)
Mmmm... elf pudding.

39. Dragon Haze (page 24)
Noise draws goblins from 36 and 40.

CHAPTER 3: THE SUNLESS CITADEL

Lightly Obscured (PH pg 183): It's hard to see in
here... disadvantage on perception checks using
sight.

40. Goblinville (page 24)
Cavalcade of goblins:
3 goblins (MM pg 166)
10 "Goblin Commoners" (MM pg 345): AC 10
HP 3 +2 1 (d4-1) dmg

2 Robed Skeletons (MM pg 272): AC 12 HP 13 +4
to hit 3(d6) shovel dmg

43. The Great Hunter's Abode
(page 27)
1 bugbear (MM pg 33) 2 giant rats (MM pg 327)

45. Rift Node (page 27)
Fire snake (MM pg 265) not an easy stat block to
find!

20 no-stat Goblin Freeloaders who want free stuff
from the government.

47. Belak's Laboratory (page 27)

41. Hall of the Goblin Chief (page
25)

8 "Goblin Commoners" (MM pg 345): AC 10 HP
3 +2 1 (d4-1) dmg

3 hobgoblins (MM pg 186), Twig Blight (MM pg
32)
Grenl the Goblin Chief: AC 15 HP 10 +4 5 (d6+2)
(bonus action) Disengage or Hide.
+3 spell attack, DC 11
At will: Poison spray (PH pg 266), Thaumaturgy
(PH pg 282)
2x: Bane (PH pg 216), inflict wounds (PH pg
253)
Durnn the Hogbgoblin (MM pg 186): AC 19 HP
11 +3 to hit 6 (d10+1) dmg +7 dmg if an ally is
adjacent to the target.
Shaft: The adventure likes the idea of someone
getting pushed into this shaft. DEX save DC 15 or
take 8d6 damage!
Chest: Poison needle Dex save DC 15 or 1 piercing
dmg and CON save DC 10 or 3 poison. Potion of
healing 2d4+2, Faerie Fire (PH pg 239), Expeditious Retreat (PH pg 238)

42. Central Garden (page 27)
Twig blights (MM pg 32)

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2 goblins (MM pg 166),

Rat Disease: You grow tumors that look woody
and fruit-like.
Healer's Kit (PH pg 151): 10 uses, auto-stabilize
someone who is dying.

48. Garden Galleries (page 28)
Bugbear with glaive AC 16 HP 27 +4 to hit, 13
(2d10+2) dmg + surprise attack gives it +7 dmg

49. Arboretums (page 29)
Many things in alcoves: Goblin (MM pg 166),
Twig blight (MM pg 32), Potion of healing: 2d4+2,
Fire snake (MM pg 265)
3 "Goblin Commoners" (MM pg 345): AC 10 HP
3 +2 1 (d4-1) dmg
3 skeletons AC 12 HP 13 +4 to hit 3(d6) shovel
dmg

50. Ashardalon's Shrine (page 29)
Shadow (MM pg 269)
Alchemist's fire (PH pgs 148, 151): (Action)
Throw it up to 20 ft, make rg attack, d4 fire dmg at
the start of each of its turns. Creature can end the
dmg with a DC 10 DEX check.
CHAPTER 3: THE SUNLESS CITADEL

51. Dragon Library (page 29)
Scorching ray (PH pg 273), Melf's acid arrow (PH
pg 259)

Treasure:
•

3 Potions of healing 2d4+2

•

Antitoxin (PH pg 151) Advantage on
saves vs. poison for one hour.

•

Wand of entangle (page 229)

53. Belak's Study (page 29)
Glyph of Warding (PH pg 245) 20 foot radius
sphere, DC 12 DEX save, 5d8 cold dmg, half as
much on a save.

Braford and Sharwyn are going to die in 24 hours
because they are linked to the tree now.

Entangle (PH pg 238), protection from poison (PH
pg 270)

54. Grove Gate (page 30)
4 goblins (MM pg 166), 4 twig blights (MM pg 32)

55. Twilight Grove (page 30)
10 twig blights!(MM pg 32) d4-1 ("minimum 0")
more arrive every round if there's noise.
Briars: Small creatures are fine in here. Large and
up have problems...
Normal Speed: Large creatures moving through
the briars must make a DC 10 CON save every ten
feet or 1 piercing
Slow Down: Spend two feet of movement for every one foot moved, no check.

56. The Gulthias Tree (page 30)
If the group destroys the tree, the NPCs and the
blights turn against Belak. In the second round, the
giant frog launches into the fray! Big battle, lots o'
creatures:
Belak the Outcast (druid, MM pg 346)
Sir Braford (pg 242) Tries to use Shatterspike
(pg 229) to shatter weapons!
Sharwyn Hucrele (pg 243)
3 twig blights (MM pg 32)
Kulket the Giant Frog (MM pg 325)

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CHAPTER 3: THE SUNLESS CITADEL

Hooks
There's a few hook ideas for this:
•

The group finds a map

•

Orcs are raiding Blasingdell. They are
coming from Stone Tooth/Khundrukar.

•

Baron Althon hires the group to go to
Khundrukar and recover as many of
Durgeddin's weapons as possible. He'll
pay them 100 gp if they map the place
out, too.

Durgeddin’s Creations
If the group is going to try to find the creations of
Durgeddin, here they are:

Forge of Fury

here was an underground dwarven settlement called Khundrukar where the
dwarf leader, Durgeddin, made
weapons and magic items. It was
overrun 100 years ago and now, monsters live there.

Layout
There are 5 levels to this place:

•

+1 longsword is in 22 on page 46.
(1,000 gp)

•

+2 greataxe is in 53 on page 58. (6,000
gp)

•

Handaxe is in 14 on page 43. (500 gp)

•

Warhammer is in 23 on page 46. (500
gp)

The Mining Town of Blasingdell
It s located 30 miles from Stone Tooth/Khundrukar
•
•

Constable Dara Whitewood
Store Tolm's Superior Outfitting and Dry
Goods
Inn The Griffon's Nest Inn and Tavern
Church Temple (of a deity chosen by you) run
by Sister Alonsa.
Orc Prisoner Captured, charm person got it to
give directions to Stone Tooth

•

The Mountain Door: Orcs

•
•

•

The Glitterhame: Troglodytes

•

The Sinkhole: A river

•

The Foundry: Forge with many duergar

The Orc Prisoner

•

The Black Lake: Nightscale, the black
dragon

It might be fun for the heroes to kick this thing off
by fending off the orc raiders.

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CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

Claw of Luthic
I also think it might be cool if the orc captive was
female, maybe an orc claw of luthic (Volo's page
183). They have beneficial spells like cure wounds
and create food and water.
With a bit of effort, the group could befriend her
and gain a trusty healer ally who can give them a
lot of insight (info dump) on this scenario.
Poor Treatment
You could run it where her jailers treat her poorly,
humiliate her. You can have one constable who's
just a real jerk, an orc-hating sadist.
They charm her, they get the info they want out of
her, and then intend to visit every cruelty they can
think of upon her for months or even years. The
group can step in, defend her, and give the constable their comeuppance.
Maybe the group realizes that the constable plans
on scamming the town out of the swords once the
group has obtained them.

Travel from Blasingdell to
Stone Tooth
This will take 2 days if the group travels at normal
speed ("Forced March" PH pg 81). It's 30 miles
away, and they can cover 24 miles in 8 hours.
Hustling
If they want to hustle and get there in one day, that
takes 10 hours total. They would need to make a
CON save DC 11 (hour 9) and DC 12 (hour 10).
Each failure means they gain a level of exhaustion
(PH pg 291).
Getting Lost (DMG pg 111)
If the group doesn't take the path up to Stone
Tooth, they might get lost (DMG page 111). The
party's navigator makes a DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. +5 if the group is moving slow, -5 if
the group is moving fast. If the check is failed, the
group is lost for d6 hours, then they can roll again.
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Exploring the Forge
This is one of those adventures where a lot of
thought went into monster reactions. There is a
good chance that the group is going to have an epic
battle right in the beginning if they are not careful.
Definitely spend time looking over "Mountain
Door Defenses" on page 37.

Stealth Checks in Armor
I always forget that people who wear certain armors have disadvantage on Stealth checks. That's
padded leather (!), scale, half plate, ring mail,
chain mail, splint and plate. That might be vitally
important here.

Captured Heroes
Captured heroes end up in the cages of area 6 (pg
39)

Entry Points
Ways In:
•

The Mountain Door: Leads to area 1
(page 36)

•

The Chimney: Leads to area 7. This is
risky. 80 foot drop, DC 15 Strength
(Athletics). Fail by 5 or more make a DC
10 Strength save or fall and take up to
8d6 damage +3 fire dmg (yes, you land
in fire).

•

Orc Tunnel: Leads to area 21

•

(The Dark Mere) The adventure doesn't
want this used.. The group would skip
right to the end of the adventure. But it's
there.

CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

(page 36) 1. End of the Trail

(page 38) 3. The Rift Hall

2 orcs (MM pg 246)

2 orcs (MM pg 246) who have half cover (+2 to
AC and DEX saves) from rock outcroppings.

Stealth?
If the group doesn't stealth their way in, they are
looking at either being locked out of the building
or fighting most of the orcs here in one shot. That's
an ogre, an orog, an orc Eye of Gruumsh, and 16
orcs.
Attacking the Guards
If the group attacks the two orc guards, they run:
•

Round 1: The orcs shout a warning and
run inside.

•

Round 2: The four orcs in room 4 shoot
through arrow slits that are 15 feet up on
the wall (longbows, +3 to hit, 5 (1d8+1)
dmg). They've got three-quarters cover
(PH pg 196) which means +5 to AC and
Dex saves.

•

Round 3: The 2 orcs run across the
bridge in 3. One archer runs to 2 and
bars the doors shut.

•

Round 4: Two orcs get to 5.

•

Round 5: Orcs cut the rope to the bridge
in 3! 4 orc archers continue shooting.
The orc Eye of Gruumsh shows up to
help the archers.

•

Round 8: Orcs (and the orog?) from 14
show up in 5.
Round 12 Great Ulfe and the 4 orcs from
11 set up in 5.

(page 36) 2. The Dwarf Door
If the door is barred, it's a DC 20 Strength check to
open.

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Crossing the rope bridge is not good if you're under attack. Make a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics).
•

Success Move at half speed.

•

Fail No movement. Fail by 5 or more:
Fall 200 feet into a river and make a new
character!

Cutting the Rope Bridge
It has AC 11, HP 8. The orcs has +5 and does nine
damage. So one hit takes out a rope!
One Rope Cut. The Bridge-crossing DC is now 12.
Both Ropes Cut. 7 bludgeoning damage, and a DC
12 Strength or Dexterity saving throw. Fail: Fall to
your doom.

(page 39) 4. and 4a. Archers' Stations
4 orcs (MM pg 246)
The arrow slits are at least 15 feet up! Not good for
the heroes.
Sneaking Past the Arrow Slits. Dexterity
(Stealth) vs. Orc passive Perception of 10
If the group makes noise, they might hear the prisoners in 6 calling for help.

(page 39) 6. Prisoner Cave
2 commoners (Geradil and Courana)

(page 40) 8. Orc Commons
Remember that the passage to 10 is blocked with
plunder, and after that there's a locked door to get
through. Burdug keeps her "little stirgies" safe.

CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

(page 40) 9. Shaman's Lair
Orc Eye of Gruumsh (MM pg 247) , 2 orcs (MM
pg 246)
Burdug’s Strategy
1. Round 1. Command (PH page 223) on a
fighter-type, DC 11 Wisdom save. Probably go with Grovel: The target falls
prone and ends their turn.
2. Round 2: Bless (PH pg 219) All 3 bad
guys get +d4 to attacks and saves. This is
a concentration spell.
3. Round 3: (bonus action) Spiritual
weapon (PH pg 278) +3 to hit d8+3. She
can use this as a bonus action each
round.
Emergency. Burdug might chuck some alchemists
fire (rg 20 +5, d4 fire at the start of each turn, end
it with a DC 10 Dex check), run to 10 and sick the
stirges on the group.

(page 41) 10. The Grand Stair
4 stirges (MM pg 284)
There is a really brutal trap in here. It goes like
this:
Open the dwarf face door, napalm hits all in 15
feet. All within 15 feet of the door make a DC 10
Dex save.
•

•

Fail: Take 10 (4d4) fire and they take 5
(2d4) fire at the start of each turn.
Succeed: Half dmg and 5 (2d4) fire at the
start of each turn.

Stop, Drop and Roll. Use an action to make a DC
10 Dex check. Success doesn't end it, it reduces it.
Now you're taking 2 (d4) fire at the start of each of
your turns. Another DC 10 DEX puts it out.

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After Two Rounds. The door slams shut and the
trap resets.
Here's the Worst Part. There's nothing in there!
Just some gunk that you might be able to make
some alchemists fire (PH pg 148) out of.

(page 41) 11. Orc Quarters
4 orcs (MM pg 246)
Shoving. The orcs pair up, each attacking one
hero. One orc tries to shove (PH pg 195) a hero
prone, that's +5 vs whatever the hero rolls on an
Athletics or Acrobatics check. If the orc wins, the
hero is prone and the other orc attacks with advantage.

(page 42) 12. Great Ulfe
Modified ogre (MM pg 237), 2 dire wolves (MM
pg 321)
The door's heavy! DC 17 Strength to get in.
Great Ulfe. AC 11 HP 59 +6 to hit 17 (2d12+4)
slashing
Potion of Climbing (DMG pg 187) Gain a climb
speed equal to your normal speed for one hour.

(page 42) 13. Dwarven Statue
Get Within 5 Feet of the Statue: 15 foot cone of
poison gas DC 12 Con save until... a short rest!
Wow. It resets after 1 minute. Run away from this
statue. Far away!

(page 43) 14. Bunk Room
Orog (MM pg 247 ), 4 orcs (MM pg 246), Potion
of healing: 2d4+2
He Healed Himelf!
There's nothing characters hate more than a bad
guy who drinks a potion of healing. That's 2d4+2!

CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

We’re in the Glitterhame
This place is very sparkly, but it probably smells
horrible because of the troglodyte stench.
The troglodyes have chameleon skin, letting them
blend in with their surroundings. Their stench actually poisons you.
Studying Troglodytes
Check out MM pg 290 for full info on troglodytes.
Basically, they are simple-minded, they live in
filth, they love to hunt humanoids. Other traits:
•

They don't tolerate weakness among
their own kind. They actually kill and eat
the weak.

•

They are very into armor and weapons
(even though they don’t use them), and
will fight each other over even a regular
longsword.

•

They worship Laogzed, a demon lord
toad/lizard who sends them dreams.

•

For a troglodyte, the plumper you are,
the more content with life you will be.

(page 43) 15. The Cold Stream
Heroes must make a DC 8 Athletics or acrobatics.
Fail by five or more, fall downhill and take 3 damage.

(page 45) 17. Troglodyte Cavern
2 troglodytes (MM pg 290)
You might want to use their chameleon skin to hide
and get surprise. Maybe play up the gross weirdness of the carcass. The heroes might focus on that
and boom, troglodytes. If they don’t take the bait
and spot the trogs, then they are engaging in what
some might call excellent play.
If a noisy fight occurs, the troglodytes in 18 block
the door, PCs need a DC 15 Strength check to open
it

(page 45) 18. Troglodyte Warren
Total of 11 troglodytes (MM pg 290)
First, if a battle breaks out, one trog runs to alert
Kaarghaz in 19. You could have him cast invisibility on himself, scope out the battle and blindside
the adventurers with a scorching ray.
Second, this is one of those "orc babies" moral
quandaries that doesn't go over so well with some
groups. If you think it might upset people or something, just get rid of them.
•

NW: 2 sleeping trogs

•

SW: 6 troglodytes and hatchlings

•

SE: 3 trogs relaxing

(page 41) 10. The Grand Stair

(page 45) 19. Chieftain’s Cave

(page 44) 15a. Stirge Colony: 6 stirges (MM 284)

Kaarghaz and a giant lizard (MM pg 326)

If the group makes noise, d4 of them come out of
the cracks each round until there's a total of 6.

Kaarghaz. AC 13 HP 39 +4/+4 to hit, 4(d4+2)
dmg/ +4 (d4+2) dmg

(page 44) 16. High Cavern

•

Spell save DC 12, +4 spell attack

4 stirges (MM pg 284), they're up on the ceiling.

•

Spells. Burning hands (PH pg 220),
shield (PH pg 275), sleep (PH pg 276),
invisibility (PH pg 254), scorching ray.
(PH pg 273)

Getting to 17 is cramped and torches are likely to
go out.

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CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

(page 46) 20. Scaly Lair
Giant subterranean lizard (page 236) it swallows
people! That's always fun.

(page 46) 21. Orc Tunnel
2 troglodytes (MM pg 290), 1 brown bear (MM pg
319)
Two trogs are hiding here, they have +2 to their
stealth checks with advantage. They will release a
bear from a cage.
The tunnel here goes outside. The troglodytes go
out at night to hunt.

(page 46) 22. Fungus Cavern
That sword is one of the four Durgeddin items.
Grab it: Spores!
This mold really overdelivers big time. Touch a
moldy skeleton. Spores in a 10 foot cube, Con
save DC 15. Fail: 10 poison dmg and poisoned for
one minute and then, once the condition ends, another 17 poison damage!

(page 47) 24. The Glitterhame
2 gricks (MM page 173)
They're hiding in a pile of rubble and will try to
ambush the characters.

(page 47) 25. Long Cavern
This one's really fun.
It looks simple, but it is actually incredibly involved. You might want to go over the water rules
which are spread out: PH pgs 182, 184, 198 and
DMG 116.
Swimming (PH page 182)
When swimming, each foot of movement costs one
extra foot. So, half speed, basically. Swimming in
rough water will require an athletics check.

plain and simple. They'd have to roll really badly,
though:
Perception
If they think of it, PCs could make a DC 15 Perception or Survival check to notice the slipperiness.
Try to Cross
Try to cross the slope: DC 12 Acrobatics
Fail?
If you fail, you fall prone and slide toward the
stream at half your speed. If you look at the map,
the character will be no farther than 15 feet away
from the water line.
Over the Waterfall!
When you slide into the stream, make a DC 10
Strength save or else you go over the waterfall!
That’s 10 bludgeoning damage and one level of exhaustion (PH pg 291), which means disadvantage
on ability checks. The exhaustion is important – it
gives disadvantage on ability checks that are are
crucial and they have low DCs.
Not Over:
Then! They’ve fallen into room 28 and the current
has still got them.
Try to Swim
The character makes a DC 10 Athletics check. Success means they get pulled 30 feet down the river
and they can swim at half speed toward the bank.
The river's not that wide, so I think they just get
out. Getting out costs five feet of movement.
Fail Again?
If you fail, you are dragged 60 feet down the river
and make a DC 10 Con save. Fail means you gain
a level of exhaustion (PH pg 291). Level 2 exhaustion: Speed is halved!!Not good.

OK, so now we'll go through this step-by-step. If
the dice go cold here, characters are going to die,
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CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

Alone
Also, being pulled 60 feet means that the character
is far away from the group, out of sight and in the
tunnel to room 29.
Swim Speed
If the character has a swim speed from a spell or
something, they can make a move action to dash
and get out.
Dragged to Doom
If the character fails what looks like 3 or 4 checks,
they get pulled into an airless underground cavern
and take d6 bludgeoning from hitting the walls.
They also begin the suffocation process (PH pg
183).
Suffocation
You can hold your breath for 1+Con mod in minutes (minimum 30 seconds). If they are still underwater when that time ends, they drop to 0 and start
dying.
Hold Your Breath
Since a round is 6 seconds, no character would
start dying for at least 5 rounds.
Surprise! You’re Dead!
Here's the problem.. this tunnel runs underground
for 5 minutes. You are dead and the group probably
will almost certainly never find your body!

(page 48) 26. Grick Lair

Don’t Drink the Water
Con save DC 10, fail means you're infected. No
symptoms until the next day. Once the next day
hits, you have a fever and gain a level of exhaustion (pg 291). After every long rest, make another
DC 10 Con save. Fail means you gain another level
of exhaustion, success means your exhaustion level
is reduced by one. If you hit exhaustion level 5,
you're paralyzed until someone cures your disease.

(page 50) 33. Roper's Cavern
1 roper (MM pg 261), ring of spell storing (DMG
pg 192)
It looks like a stalagmite and there's a good chance
it will surprise the heroes. It will actually try to
dump characters in the river.

(page 51) 35. Chamber of Statues
Hey, there’s two doors in here. Fake doors! Make
sure you know where the heroes are standing.
Open fake door, axe chop: +5 to hit 9 damage.
The entrance is actually a secret door behind one
of the statues. The tunnel beyond it has a magic
mouth that will shout out an alert.

(page 52) 36. The Great Hall
2 duergar (MM page 122), 1 duergar spy (page
234), potion of healing

Same 2 gricks from above (MM page 173)

If the magic mouth in 35 shouted an alert, the duergar are invisible.

(page 49) 30. Old Storeroom

(page 53) 37. The Bladeworks

Gray Ooze (MM pg 243)

Snurrevin, 2 duergar (MM page 122), rat (PH pg
335), potion of hill giant strength (PH pg 187: 21
Strength for 1 hour)

What looks like wet floor is actually moist ooze!

(page 49) 32. Flooded Storeroom
Potion of water breathing (DMG 188), potion of
invisiblity (DMG pg 188)

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Snurrevin: AC 16 HP 45 +4 6 damage (11 if enlarged) DC 12, +4 spell attack
Spells. Color spray (PH pg 222), shield (PH pg
275), silent image (PH pg 276), hold person (PH
pg 251), shatter (PH pg 275)
CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

(pg 53) 38. The Chasm

(page 55) 44. Looted Rooms

More water. If you fall in, you go over the falls and
take 42 damage. You land in room 50.

Roll a d10. If you get a 10, roll on DMG on page
134. Here's some 10 gp gems if you just want to
place them and skip the rolling:

There's a chain ladder hidden here that you can use
to climb down. No check when climbing it.

(page 53) 39. Council Chamber
Duergar (MM page 122) and Nimira the duergar
(below)
There's one duergar guard in here. If a battle breaks
out, Nimira pops out from room 40 and joins the
fray.

•

Blue quartz (transparent pale blue)

•

Lapis lazuli (opaque light and dark blue
with yellow flecks)

•

Rodochrosite (opaque light pink)

(page 55) 45. Skeleton Room
6 skeletons (MM page 272)

Nimira. AC 17 HP 52 +4/+4 9 damage, or 16
when enlarged.

Dwarf Skeletons! Animated by Arundil long ago.

(page 54) 41. Kitchens

Ghost (MM pg 147)

Animated table (page 230)
The table won't attack dwarves.

(page 56) 46. Common Area
(page 56) 47. Arundil's Chamber
Rug of smothering (MM pg 20)

(page 54) 42. Desecrated Shrine

The rug doesn't attack dwarves.

Wight (300), two ogre skeletons, scrolls of web
(PH page 287) and spider climb (PH pg 277)

(page 56) 48. Looted Armory

The creatures lie inert until someone enters the
room. None of the monsters can leave this room.

Won't attack dwarves.

2 Ogre Skeletons. AC 11 HP 59 +6 13 dmg Speed
40
•

Vulnerable: bludgeoning.

•

Immune: poison and exhaustion

(page 55) 43. Entrance to the
Dwarf Halls
Ghost (MM pg 147)
Arundil is here, and he's an insane ghost.

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Animated armor (MM pg 19)

(page 56) 49. Idalla's Den
Succubus (MM pg 285). Scrolls of alarm (PH pg
211), enlarge (PH pg 237), disguise self (PH pg
233), and shield (PH pg 275).
The group enters and sees a dark-haired human
woman reading. She weeps and tells the group
she's a prisoner here. A wizard is using her as a test
subject form magic that prolongs life.
This is your classic “damsel/monster in distress”
encounter. She’s a succubus and wants to make out
with the heroes until they die. She is not bound
here, she comes here because there’s lots of traffic.
She can shift into the ethereal whenever she likes.

CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

(page 57) 51. Dwarven Bridges
The group crosses the first bridge, no problem.
Second bridge collapses! DC 10 Dex to grab onto a
ledge.
•

Fail: Fall in, take 7 damage and you are
dragged by the current like river above. The
water travels "east to west", so that's away
from the dragon's lair.

I kind of like the idea of the current pulling them
right up to dragon.

(page 58) 52. Nightscale's Lair
Young black dragon (MM pg 188)
Pre-Roll Stealth
You should roll the dragon's stealth (+5) ahead of
time. If you roll it at the table, the group might be
alerted in a meta-game way.
Passive Perception
Make sure you know the group’s passive perception scores. If the dragon rolls low, they'll see her
in the water.
Location of the Dragon
The dragon is probably ready. If the bridge collapses, she hears it. If not, she's actually sleeping
on her pile of treasure on the island (area 53).
Bridge Collapse
I imagine most groups will collapse the bridge,
which is good because this is a very cool fight. If
they didn’t collapse the bridge, then that is yet another example of excellent play.
Underwater
If the group made any commotion, the dragon is
underwater close to those three stones by the number 52 on the map. The dragon can breathe underwater so there's no hurry.

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She Attacks
Her head comes out of the water (she has threequarters cover: +5 to AC and Dex saves). She's
20-30 feet from the heroes. She breathes acid. It's
in a line, so it's a bit tricky for her to hit multiple
people. If she sets up near the actual number 52 on
the map, she'll have a good angle. The group's on
the ledge, so they're going to be in a line.
Start of Combat
Once she breathes, we can roll initiative. Surprise
(PH pg 189) goes like this: The heroes can't take a
move or an action in the first round of combat, no
reactions until your first turn ends.
Hit and Run
On her turn, roll the recharge. If she gets it, she'll
breathe again, dive underwater and swim away
(swim speed: 40!).
Wait for Recharge
If it doesn't recharge, she swims around underwater
waiting for her breath to recharge. It’s “the black
lake,” so I assume the group can’t see her when
she’s underwater and so she has total cover and
can’t be targeted. I think she might swim behind
the island at 53 until the recharge.
Too Much Damage?!
It is entirely possible that she breathes, the group is
surprised, she recharges and breathes again. Then
she swims away. Two breath weapons, that's up to
98 acid damage to multiple characters right at the
start! That's a little scary, depending on your DM
style.

(page 58) 53. Nightscale's Hoard
Wand of magic missiles (PH pg 211), potion of
healing 2d4+2, potion of flying (DMG pg 188)
Combined total of money and gems: 2,140 gp

CHAPTER 4: FORGE OF FURY

The Hidden Shrine of
Tamoachan

like this has to happen, I tell the players ahead of
time: "You're going to fall in the beginning. It's
how the adventure starts."

If you change the ending of this adventure, which I
talk about all the way at the end of this chapter,
foreshadow it now by describing the tribe that is
chasing them and maybe let the group get a
glimpse of the Bat Queen.

his adventure begins with the characters falling into what turns out to be an
Aztec-themed dungeon. The group
needs to get out before the poison gas
that fills the bottom level kills them.
This one has a lot of very detailed rooms and traps
that require a lot of attention.

Falling In
Right off the bat, you have a potential hurdle. This
adventure famously begins with the ground giving
way beneath the group's feet and they fall into the
dungeon.
If you run this in a way where the group has a moment to react, there's a good chance some of them
are not going to fall in. In general, when something
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Tribe

Collapses
There's a really cool feature of this dungeon that is
very easy to forget about. If an adventurer casts
thunderwave or fireball, there's a 25% chance that
part of the ceiling will collapse.
You could roll these in advance, so you'll know already exactly when it will happen.

CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

Tool of a Villain
Another option is to just have a bad guy trigger it.
They cast fireball and cause the collapse. That
makes it one less thing you have to worry about.
Narrate it
You should definitely foreshadow it a few times in
advance, build the tension a bit and reward those
who pay attention. The best places to foreshadow it
are rooms with nothing in them, like some of the
hallways, the alcove in 11, etc.

Poisonous Gas
A good portion of this dungeon is filled with poison gas. The effects:
•

Take 3 damage every hour.

•

Inhabitants of the dungeon are immune.

•

Starting a fire normally has a 50%
chance of failing. Torches and etc. are
only half as effective as normal.

Light Sources
The gas affects light:
Torch
Torches burn one hour, provides bright light in a
10-foot radius and dim light another 10-feet.
Bullseye Lantern
Lasts 6 hours, 30-foot cone and dim light 30-feet.
Hooded Lantern
Lasts 6 hours. 15 feet and dim light 15 more feet.
Candle
Lasts 1 hour. 2.5 feet and dim light 2.5 feet!
Amusing but almost completely useless.

Vision and Light (PH pg 183)
You'll probably have some heroes with Darkvision.
It goes like this:
Dim Light
Lightly obscured. (disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks
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Darkness
Heavily Obscured. You're blinded! (PH pg 290)
You have disadvantage on attack rolls, creatures
have advantage to attack you. Auto-fail any check
that requires sight.
Darkvision
It bumps everything up by one. Dim light becomes
normal light. Darkness becomes dim light for
them.

Dried Potions
Dried potions are very cool. Mix with water, half
effect. Mix with wine, full effect. Snort the powder
(!) 1 in 8 chance it's a potion of poison (DMG pg
188). You take 3d6 poison, then you roll a Con
save DC 13 or be poisoned. From there, you take
damage at the start of your turns and save at the
end of your turns. Each successful save lessens future damage by 1d6. Repeat the save at the end of
each of your turns.

Before You Start
A couple of things to consider:
Gloves
You might want to ask the group who is wearing
gloves. You'll want to know this in advance, as area
5 and 11 have lime that does damage if bare flesh
touches the walls.
Conceal Your Intent. To conceal what you want to
know, ask each player if they have any of these:
Hats, boots (what kind?), scarf, rings, gloves, goggles, necklaces or belt pouches.
Act Interested. All you care about is the gloves,
but act like every detail is important. That should
prevent some degree of meta-gaming and the players will also be very alarmed..
New Rules
Also! You might want to warn the players that this
adventure doesn't "play buy the rules." It is written
more for players to imagine themselves being there
CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

and explaining exactly what they do. For example,
the adventure actually describes the mechanisms of
a trap and what you'd have to do to shut it down.
There are also a lot of encounters that operate by
their own set of rules.

The Door
It looks like there's no handle or lock. Perception
DC 20 allows you to spot a keyhole. The key is in
the diorama. The group can also try peeling it open
with pitons.

Liquid Light. As an example, there's one where
liquid light covers you over the course of 20
rounds (and then you die). The only way to stop it
is to immerse it in water. This is something that is
not at all obvious. In instances like that, the players
should experiment and ask a lot of probing questions of the DM. In that situation, if they pour
some water from their canteens on the light, you
could describe that the liquid light melts away a
bit.

Marching Order
Once the group is ready to leave this room, have
them tell you the marching order. It will matter
right away!!

Wrath of Tamoachan
OK, here we go.

(page 64) 1. The Vault of Chicomoztoc
Tribal warrior (MM pg 350), scout (MM pg 349),
mastiff (MM pg 332), panther (MM pg 333), commoner (MM pg 345), cult fanatic (MM pg 345).
If any of these figures touch the floor, they grow,
animate and attack. They're constructs.
Dig Up, Stupid
Try to get out the hole, it collapses. 2 damage to
each digger and Dex save DC 13 or be buried and
take 7 more. If you fail by 5 or more, you are
trapped and can't breathe! Without help, that person can make an Athletics check DC 15 once per
minute to get out.
Suffocation (PH pg 183)
Hold breath for minutes equal to 1 + Con Mod,
minimum 30 seconds. Once that runs out, you drop
to 0 and start dying.

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(page 66) 2. The Hall of Thrashing
Canes
Step on pressure plate, get swatted by logs. Spotting the plate is tough: Perception DC 20.
Within the Lines
It's a little confusing. I guess once 3-4 heroes are in
the 6 squares between the red lines, the trap goes
off. They automatically take 7 damage and are
pushed five feet.
The logs stay and act as a barrier. The group will
have to break it or something.

(page 66) 3. Roost of the Conch
Giant crayfish (page 235), Kalka-Kylla (page 238)
Interrogated by a Crayfish
So the crayfish demands to know what the group is
doing here. Kalka Kylla, the crab, is asleep. If a
fight breaks out, Kalka-Kylla wakes up and joins
in. It's slippery in here, if you dash or engage in
combat, you must make a Dex save DC 10 or fall
prone (before you make the attack!)
Slipping Getting up from prone costs half your
movement. So if a hero slips, they can get up and
try again. If they fail again, they will either attack
from the prone position or get up and not be able to
attack this round.
Prone: Disadvantage to hit, creatures have advantage to hit you if they're within 5 feet, otherwise
they have disadvantage.
CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

(page 66) 4. Mud-Filled Doorway
I don't think too many groups will figure out how
to clear this silt. Who knows, maybe they will.

(page 67) 5. Tomb Stone and Wet
Lime
The group sees a huge block that can be pushed in
to access a room. The block is covered in lime.
Touch the lime, take 1 damage. Leather armor will
lose 1 AC after an hour.
Pushing the Block
Pushing it requires 4 characters to have a total of
48 strength.

(page 67) 6. Rubble-Filled Staircase
More potential collapsing like in room 1!
Digging Again
2 damage to each digger and Dex save DC 13 or be
buried and take 7 more. If they fail by 5 or more,
the character is trapped and can't breathe! Without
help, that person can make an Athletics check DC
15 once per minute to get out.
Suffocating. PH pg 183 hold breath for minutes
equal to 1 + Con Mod, minimum 30 seconds. Once
that runs out, you drop to 0 and start dying.

(page 67) 7. The Sepulcher of Tloques-Popolocas
Vampire spawn (MM pg 298), ring of protection
(DMG pg 191), bracers of defense (DMG pg 156)
+2 to AC if no armor/shield, ring of resistance
(fire) (DMG pg 192), ring of animal influence
(DMG 189)
Berserker Axe +2 to his and damage (see below)

(PH pg 251), dried potion of invisibility (PH pg
188), elixir of health (PH pg 168).
Sleep Gas
Picking the lock on the double doors disable the
trap. Smashing the doors open fills the area with
sleep gas. Roll initiative. If a character ends their
turn in here, they must make a Con save DC 10 or
become poisoned and unconscious for 5,000 years!
Seriously! If magic is used to cure the poison, it
only blocks the poison for one hour. The only way
to get rid of it for good is to have someone cast dispel magic at 7th level or higher.
The vapors don't disperse for a month!!
The Axe
In the actual room, there's an axe stuck in the wall.
It casts a weird shadow and if you get close, you
feel cold. It is impossible to pull this axe from the
wall. Nobody can pick it up until Tloques has been
slain.
The Glyphs
This tomb can't be opened until the group figures
out the glyphs. I find this very confusing, but I
think I've got it.
Same Glyphs, Same Order. The tomb has 4 main
glyph markings on it, right in a row (it's a day, date
and year). At the base of the block, there are rows
of glyphs. among those rows are the same glyphs
that are on as does the wall. If the group touches
the glyphs on the rows that match up with the ones
on the tomb in the same order, the tomb is unlocked and the lid can be removed.
The Corpse
The body inside is loaded with treasure. If the
group takes the mask and the pendant, we go
through a very intricate process round by round.

Spells
Glyph of warding (PH pg 245), passwall (PH pg
264), burning hands (PH pg 220), gust of wind (PH
pg 248), bestow curse (PH pg 218), hold person
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CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

Coming back to life:
1. Round 1. The bones begin to knit together and the creature sits up. He looks
around. He has AC 12 and 27 hit points.
If the group puts the mask and the pendant back, he falls inert again. Technically he's prone, so if the heroes are adjacent, they have advantage to hit him.
2. Round 2. AC 12 and 27 hit points. Same
thing.
3. Round 3. AC 17 and 54 hit points. Two
claws: +6/+6 (disadv) Hit: 8 (2d4+3) or
grapple (escape DC 13). He is still
prone, though, so he has disadvantage.
4. Round 4. AC 17 and 81 hit points. Two
claws: +6/+6 (disadv) Hit: 8 (2d4+3) or
grapple (escape DC 13).
Player Reaction
So once this starts, I'd say you should ask your
group what they do. If they don't answer fairly
quickly, narrate his body coming together a bit, and
now we're in round 2. Ask again. Round 3: Now
he's starting to look like a person! Round 4: He's a
pale-skinned dude.
Slack-Jawed Gawkers
If the group does nothing: Here's how I'd do it.
Tloques looks at the group, confused. He staggers
out of the crypt, maybe he falls and the group can
catch him and help him up. He coughs dust and
nods thanks. Hobbles over to the axe. Stands there
for six seconds (summoning bats). Pulls the axe
out as the bats show up and now we have ourselves
a combat.

The Berserker Axe
Berserker Axe (requires attunement) (DMG pg
185 - altered)
•

+ 2 to hit and damage

•

12 charges, regains d6+4 per day.

•

(5) Passwall (PH pg 264)

•

(2) Gust of Wind (PH pg 248)

•

(1) Burning Hands DC 15 (PH pg 220)

•

You keep the axe within reach at all
times.

•

You have disadvantage on attack tolls
with other weapons unless all enemies
are at least 60 feet away.

•

When a hostile creature damages you,
make a DC 15 Wis save. Fail: You're
berserk. You must use your action each
to make all possible attacks against the
creature nearest to you. You're berserk
until no creatures are within 60 feet of
you that you can see or hear.

Problem Axe
The axe seems like it could cause problems out of
game. You might want to tweak it if you think a
player might be a jerk with it.
Keeping It
The group could make it work, I guess, as long as
they stay away from the wielder. But after the bad
guys are dropped, the group will need to deberserk the character. If the wielder is blind and
deaf, the berserk goes away. So if the group puts a
thick hood and earmuffs (?) on the character, that
would do it, right?

(page 69) 8. Courses of the Gods
More lime! 1 acid damage.

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CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

(page 69) 9. Stone Statue
The 12-foot tall statue has gem eyes and a magic
sword! Climb it, it tips. Dex save DC 15 or 7 damage.. and a secret passage is revealed! Not too
shabby.
+1 longsword, +2d6 damage to plants.

(page 70) 11. The Court of Cemanahuac

Crafty Villain
'Tis a lady! Chac the eel is hidden in the water. The
nereid is flirty yet brimming over with chaos and
evil. If she's in big trouble, she'll offer the group
her treasure in the water. I'd imagine she'd kiss a
wizard, as then they won't be able to speak for a
minute/cast most spells. She's got the magic shawl
which can be destroyed and will hurt her badly.

(page 72) 15. The Great Hall

Tecuziztecatl (page 245), swarm of rats (MM pg
339)

The true exit to this room is a secret door behind a
sun painting.

Water
2 feet deep. Costs 3 feet of speed for every 1 foot
travel (So speed 30 means the hero moves 10 feet).

To the characters, this is one long hallway. If they
traverse it and pass under the arch, they walk into a
wall. Optical illusion! If they look around a bit,
they might set off a trap that will bar them in to a
little alcove. Get out with ten minutes of work.

Like earlier, if you dash or have a combat, it's a
Dex save DC 10 or you fall prone (before you
make the attack). Half your speed to get up.
Moat
It's 12 feet deep. I guess the character slips a bit
and starts swimming.
The Slug
He brags in an ancient language, but when he's
getting hurt badly, he surrenders and will make a
slippery slug-bridge for the heroes to get over the
moat.

(page 71) 12. The Tomb of Hurakan
When they open the door, they take 2 damage and
make a Str save DC 15.
•

Fail: Be washed down the hall and make a
Dex save DC 15 or drop whatever you're
holding. You're dumped in the moat in 11.

(page 72) 13. Child of Zotzilaha
Nereid (pg 240), giant lightning eel (page 236),
gloves of missile snaring (DMG pg 172), dried potion of clairvoyance (DMG pg 187)

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(page 73) 17. Hall of the Great
Spirit
Bracelet of rock magic (page 228)
There's a magic bracelet sitting in the mouth of an
eagle head sculpture. Touch the bracelet, the mouth
clamps down (no save). No damage, you're just
stuck there. AC 16, 25 hit points. The victim takes
1/4th of the damage dealt to the sculpture.

(page 73) 18. Hallway of the Ancients
Zombies (MM pg 316)
15 corpses line the hallway. Once someone is halfway down the hallway, they animate and attack!
Once the battle is over, anyone who took damage
must make a Con save DC 11 or get a modified
version of sewer plague:
Sewer Plague (DMG pg 257)
Con save DC 11. Fail: Infected.. it takes 1 hour to
kick in. Then you get 1 level of exhaustion (PH pg
291), only regain half hit points from spending hit
dice and gain no hit points from a long rest!! At the
CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

end of each long rest, make a Con save DC 11.
Fail. Gain a level of exhaustion. Succeed. Remove
a level of exhaustion.

(page 74) 19. Silver Coffer
Group goes in, steps on the alcove, trap goes off.
The hallway tilts, forming a ramp. The group tumbles into the alcove and takes 3 damage. They're
sealed in. They can get out by chipping out a locking mechanism, but it takes a long time and remember, we're in poison country! 3 damage per
hour.

(page 74) 20. Spirit Guard of Ayocuan
Wight (pg 300), amulet of protection from turning
(page 228)
There's two amulets in here. One on the floor, and
one on the wight. If the group moves the bronze
and chrysoprace lamp, the wight will pop up out of
the floor.

(page 75) 21. Stone Block
The group will probably have to push this block all
the way up. I don't quite get how they get past it at
the top. I guess you could say the tunnel is a bit
wider at the top than it is depicted on the map.

(page 75) 22. Chamber of the Nacehual
Martial arts adepts (page 240)
Mix the Potion and Drink
Con save DC 20 or you sleep for 5,000 years!
Magic that cures poison staves it off for one hour.
The Sleepers
If either sleeper is disturbed, they will karate chop
the crap out of you.

(page 76) 23. Light Ahead

(page 76) 23a. Triangular Stone
The wisp passes through the obstacle. The group
needs to cross the pit and realize that the stone can
be pivoted.

(page 76) 24. Sandbox
Will-o'-wisp (MM pg 301)
The wisp leads the group further. If 3-4 characters
stand on the ten-foot square section, portcullises
drop on either side of them. Each has AC 15 HP
100. Lift it: Str check DC 25 (with disadvantage)!
Or 20 and no disadvantage with a crowbar.
Once 5 Rounds Pass
Holes open in the ceiling. Dust trickles from them.
5 More Rounds
Two things happen, First, sand stats pouring
through. It fills 2 feet per minute. The area will be
completely full in 10 minutes. Second, the will-o'wisp attacks!
3 Ms More
Once 3 minutes pass, there's all these rules about
choking from dust and being restrained. That's 30
rounds, so I imagine whatever was going to happen
to the group has happened already.

(page 77) 25. The Nest of the Warriors
Giant fire beetles (MM pg 325)
The beetles are docile and won't attack unless the
group starts bullying them. The group might find
the most poorly-made +1 dagger of all time. On a
natural one, it falls apart.

(page 77) 27. Stairs
Time for the classic rolling boulder trap! 30
pounds or more on the pressure plate, here comes
boulder.

Will-o'-wisp (MM pg 301) The wisp tries to lead
the group to 23a.
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CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

Passive Perception 14
Check and see if anyone has a passive perception
of 14 or higher. If so, they're not surprised.

glowing effect. Once that happens twice, a horn
sounds and the ball stops attacking. Goals begin to
glow on either end of the hall.

Roll Initiative
The boulder has a +10! Most of the group will be
surprised, so they can't act on round one.

The Game
It is trying to get into the south goal, the group
wants it in the north goal.

Boulder Rolls 60 Feet
Anyone in the way rolls a Dex save DC 15.

•

Hit the Ball. It moves 15 feet towards your
goal.

•

To Score. The ball must be within 15 feet of
the goal and the player must say that they
are trying to score. Roll to hit. You need to
hit AC 17 to score.

•

Fail means they take 27 damage and 50%
chance they drop anything they are carrying, which will be destroyed (I'd say magic
items don't break in my game).

•

Fail by 5 or More: Max damage!! That's 50
damage and prone.

•

The Door
Once the boulder gets at the bottom, it smashes the
door and might make the giant fire beetles angry.

If the Ball Scores. Magic missiles hit the
group. 1 missile per character, 3 damage
each.

•

If the Group Scores.The ball returns to the
middle of the corner to play for the next
point.

•

To Win. The group needs to have 2 more
points than the ball.

(page 77) 28 The Arc of Nanahuatcuin
Gas spore (MM pg 138)

(page 78) 29. The Tomb of Pelota
Lift the capstone, there's treasure! If you take the
treasure, a curse hits you in one hour. Disadvantage
to either Dex or Str checks/saves. This curse lasts
until magically removed. The pelota ball comes to
life.
Pelota Ball: AC 13 HP 50 +5 to hit 1 (1d4-1) dmg
•

It flies up to 30 feet per round

•

Immune to everything except: acid, fire,
force, piercing and slashing.

•

It can be grappled or restrained.

•

Has +5 to skill checks.

Pre-Game
Roll Initiative. The ball attacks. When a character
hits it, it bounces off the back wall, triggering a
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Victory
The group gets some fabulous prizes and an eagle
whistle (page 228).

(page 79) 30. The Guardian Beast
Weretiger (MM pg 210)
If the group messes with anything here, the statue
comes to life as a bonus action and attacks. It has
surprise!
Comes Back in One Day
If killed, it becomes a statue again. It comes back
to life in one day. To truly kill it, you need to destroy its heart, which is hidden in a stuffed tiger.

(page 79) 31. Calendar Stone
Scroll of protection - feline beasts and feline lycanthropes (DMG pg 199)

CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

The scroll gives you a protective barrier in a 5 foot
radius that lasts for 5 minutes. It can get in if it
makes a DC 15 Charisma check,

(page 80) 32. The Portal to Death
The door by the "T" on the map is trapped. Arms
pop out and grab the character. Getting out requires
either a Dex save DC 20 or two characters can pull
it open only if their combined Strength is a 30!
Slow Motion Pit Lid
If 5 rounds go by, a pit slowly opens up under the
trapped character. It takes 2 rounds to open. Then
the arms let go and you fall in and take 11 damage.
The spikes are fake?! So you just hit the floor.
The Door
The door at the other end must be bashed open
with a Str check DC 20. Success means you teleport to area 15, which is a one-way trip.
Double Doors
When opened, 5 crossbows mounted in the ceiling
of the next room fire. +6 to hit, 5 damage. Two
crossbows aim at the left square, two aim at the
right, and one goes down the middle. It seems like
if one character opens them, they get targeted by 3
crossbows.

(page 80) 33. The Tomb of Tlacaelal

Treasure Chests
With these chests you’re going to want to know
who is standing where when they are opened.
Some of them have traps that hit people on each of
the four sides.
1. (505 gp) Jammed lid, no big deal
2. (494 gp) Wow. You reach in, Dex save
DC 15 or a vise traps your arm(s). Roll
init. It acts on init 0. Needles come out
of the sides of the pyramid. 1 dmg, Con
save DC 15, 21 poison dmg, half on
save. Either way, you’re poisoned with a
special type: Any poison damage you
take from this can’t be regained for at
least 5 days. You save every 24 hours,
take 3 damage. Once you’ve made 5
saves, you’re cured. It looks like others
can force the save with a heal check as it
says “five successful saves against it.”
3. (876 gp) I guess the perfume (harmless)
and the 4 darts go off at the same time.
+6 to hit, 5 damage.
Other Treasure: 905 gp
Grand total value of treasure in this room: 2780
gp

(page 82) 33a. Sacrifice to the Sun

Doppelganger (MM pg 82), scroll of stone shape
(PH pg 278), hat of disguise (DMG pg 173)

Stone of ill luck (page 229), 90 gold worth of aztec
dealies

When someone steps in, wall of fire is triggered.
That’s 5d8 fire damage.

(page 82) 34. Guardians Bar the
Way

Doppleganger
Then we have a doppelganger who tries to kill and
replace a member of the party. That’s very hard to
pull off in a meta-game sense. I think your best bet
is if you have a player who might be up for it, set
this up with them in advance. Their character is
killed and they play the doppelganger.

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Step on a pressure plate, the halberds block your
path. Touch them. You take 5 lightning damage
and make a DC 15 Con save or be paralyzed! You
can try a Dex save DC 10 to get by them. I think
the idea here is that you touch them, you are paralyzed and continue to touch them until somebody
is able to free you.
CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

(page 82) Xipe’s Audience Chamber
(page 82) 35. Xipe's Audience Chamber: Panther
(MM pg 333), oni (MM pg 239), detect magic (PH
pg 231), dust of disappearance (DMG pg 166.
The panther can’t see the group unless they attack
it.
Climbing up the Hole
There’s a hole in the ceiling above a well full of
liquid light. You can’t climb the walls, you have to
get a grappling hook up through the hole.
The Oni Catches it. The heroes don’t know that
the oni up there catches the rope/grappling hook
and once the character is halfway up the rope, the
oni starts reeling them in.
Choose. The character has a choice: Get reeled in
or let go and fall into the well.
Falling into the Well. The liquid light clings to
you and spreads to cover your body over the
course of 20 rounds. Once it gets over your mouth
and eyes.. you’re going to die. To get rid of this
stuff, the hero must be immersed in water. A darkness spell will cause it to be inert for one hour.

(page 83) 37. Bed of Xilonen
Roper (MM pg 261), wand of lightning bolts
(DMG pg 211)
He’s a “gigantic variety of polyp.” He’s got treasure in his insides!

(page 84) 38. Barred Pit

The Process
The thorns:+3 to hit, 8 damage and the character
must make a Dex save DC 14 (6+the damage: 8) or
fall into the 25-foot deep pit, take 3 damage and
land on a slinger’s adhesive blossoms. Grappled,
escape DC 11 with disadvantage, when grappled
take 3 acid at the end of each of the slinger’s turns.

(page 84) 39. Chamber of the Second Sun
Giant constrictor snake (MM pg 324), baboons
(MM pg 318)
Snake Ambush
Hey we’re above the poison gas! Here’s your reward: A giant snake jumps out and bites you and
rocks fall from the ceiling at the start of each character's turn +5 to hit, 3 dmg. Once the snake is
killed, 4 baboons drop down through the ceiling.
Seriously, baboons.

(page 85) 40. Dragon Breath
Stone golem (MM pg 170)
The Trap
When someone gets to the top of the stairs, the
statue breathes. At the same time, the floor gets
slippery, DC 10 Acrobatics or fall prone. It
breathes up to 4 times.
Dragon Statue. AC 17 HP 178 Breath: 30 feet
long, 10 feet wide. Con save DC 15 7 fire, half on
save.
•

Immune: Non-magic weapons, poison,
psychic, charmed, exhausted, frightened,
paralyzed, petrified, poisoned.

•

Immune to any effect that would alter its
form.

•

Has advantage on saves vs. magic

•

Its attacks are magical.

Thorn slingers (page 246)
Crossing the Pit
The adventurers have to cross this pit by walking
on thin bars while thorn slingers shoot thorns at
them. The 3rd and 6th bar might collapse (roll a 5
or less on a d20 and it happens).

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CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

(page 85) 41. Fire Gold
Yellow mold (DMG pg 105)
Yellow Mold
Fire destroys this stuff immediately. Touch it. 10
foot radius spore cloud. Con save DC 15 or 11 poison and poisoned for 1 minute. While poisoned,
take 5 poison at the start of each of your turns. You
can save at the end of each turn to end the effect.

(page 86) 42. The Chapel of
Kukulkan
Couatl (MM pg 43), helmed horror (mm pg 183),
phantasmal force (PH pg 264), arcane lock (PH
page 215), detect magic (PH pg 231), wall of force
(PH pg 285), balance of harmony (page 228), mirror of the past (page 228), periapt of wound closure
(DMG pg 184), dried potion of healing (mm pg
188)
You might want to print out/draw a map of this
room to show the players. There’s a free one right
here (the room is on the bottom right corner of the
tier 2 map).
Lots of stuff in here. Quick summary:
•

Get Close to Mirror. One character
might get locked into an illusory battle.

•

Touch Mask. One character might get
trapped behind steel bars.

•

Touch Other Items. The exit might get
arcane locked (PH page 215, DC 25 to
bash it open) and a couatl tells the group
they’ve been poisoned.

•

Three Challenges. The group must complete three challenges to find the cure.

•

Once the challenges are done, they either
fight the couatl or they do not. If they
don’t, it gives them magic items.

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The Mirror
The first character to come within 10 feet of the
mirror rolls a Wis save DC 15. Fail, and they are
attacked by an (illusory) feathered warrior (+6 to
hit and 3 damage). The rest of the group sees their
ally suddenly stop moving. There is no feathered
warrior.
Snapping out of it. If allies disturb the hero, the
save can be re-rolled. Phantasmal force (PH pg
264) The player can make an Investigation check
DC 15 to see if it's an illusion. Success. The effect
ends. Any damage they take counts, it doesn't go
away when the spell ends.
The Couatl
Couatl is on MM pg 43. To make this "poison" feel
more real, you might want to have the group roll
initiative. At the top of each round, tell them
they’re getting weaker. Trouble breathing, wobbly
legs, heart palpitations, that kind of thing.
Careful Roleplaying. You might want to play the
couatl in a way that is more friendly. If you make
the couatl really annoying and cruel, the group will
definitely want to fight it. We want to give the
group at least a chance to get those magic items at
the end.
Weakness
To effectively narrate the progressively worse
weakness, maybe model them after exhaustion,
like this:
1. Hands trembling
2. Legs weak
3. Dizzy, uncoordinated
4. Arms weak, hard to lift things
5. It takes great effort to move at all
6. Trouble keeping eyes open.

CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

Three Challenges
I would say, after each of these are completed, declare a new stage of weakness.
1. Destroy the helmed horror. MM pg 183
2. Bypass the crystal wall. This one could
be a problem because the solution is so
odd. Maybe describe a few indentations
in the ice that look like holes. That way
the group might touch their stuff to it.
3. Bypass the invisible wall of force:
Maybe tell any clerics/paladins they
sense unholy energy coming from the
glyph.
These are very abstract and don’t operate by normal D&D rules, which is something that might
fluster some players. Make sure you give them the
information they need.
Fighting the Couatl
Look at its stats (MM pg 43). AC 19! It bites you,
and if you fail your save you are unconscious for
24 hours! This is definitely a TPK situation so proceed with caution.

should describe the mirror as if it were a pane of
glass with water on the other side, like an aquarium. That gives the group a good chance of understanding that they need to smash it.
Golden Liquid
Turns objects into gold for one hour. I’d say if you
are generous, maybe have it make two smallish
items permanently gold.

(page 88) 44. Sun of Motion
Otto's irresistible dance (PH 264)
We have us an octopus statue with a gem on it.
Touch the Gem
Wis save DC 16 or dance until you release the
gem.
Touch the Statue
Your hand gets stuck to it, the statue spins around
and around, smashing you into walls. 3 damage at
the end of each turn. Escape DC 15, take 2 more
damage upon escaping.
•

To Stop the Spinning. Destroy the gem.

C(page 88) 45. Mictlan

(page 87) 43. The Smoking Mirrors

Heat metal (PH pg 250), fear (PH pg 239)

Ochre jelly (MM pg 243), command (PH pg 223)

Error. There’s a typo here. The chute goes to room
47, not 48.

Red Mirror
See yourself killed. Touch the mirror, take 2 fire.
Maybe base the visions on upcoming rooms.
Black Mirror
You see an ancient ancestor. Touch the mirror.
Cha save DC 13 or all your money/valuables turn
to glass. Yikes.

Dioramas
The floor of this room contains a massive diorama.
There are miniatures depicting all sorts of things. If
you stay on the path, you’re fine. If you step into a
diorama, bad stuff happens.
•

White Mirror
Wis save DC 13 or stunned until the end of your
next turn. An ochre jelly (MM pg 243) attacks you.

Hill. Con save DC 15 or be pushed off, and
prone.

•

Blue Mirror
You see water. Touch it. Cha save DC 13 or you’re
teleported into the water. I would say that you

Burning Sands. Con save DC 15 or take 1
damage per round from a nosebleed until
you leave the area.

•

Grassy Plain. Cha save DC 15 or you
won’t want to leave the area. If you take

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CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

damage or you wait 24 hours, you can repeat the save. Each time you fail, the DC of
the save goes up by 1!
•

•

Flames. Your equipment becomes red-hot.
Take 3d8 fire damage per round. Make a
Con save DC 15 or drop what you're holding.
Ice. Your equipment goes ice cold. You take
3d8 cold damage per round. You can’t drop
held items because they’re frozen to your
body.
Marshes. Shortness of breath for 3 rounds
and then suffocate (PH pg 183). You can
hold your breath for 1+Con mod in minutes
(minimum 30 seconds). Then you drop to 0
and start dying.
River. Int save DC 15 or forget where you
are and why you’re here. Spellcasters forget
all spells of one level for each point they
failed the save by.
Pit of the Worms. Wisdom save DC 15 or
fear: You are frightened (disadvantage on
ability checks and attack rolls). You must
dash and move away using the safest route.
If out of line of sight, you can make another
save to end the fear.

C(page 89) 47. Spider in Hiding
Giant spider (MM pg 328)
The Chute
You go up the chute 30 feet at an angle. Make a
Perception check DC 17 or the spider surprises
you.
Fighting in the Chute
You have disadvantage on attacks because it’s so
cramped. When you are hit, you must make a DC
11 Str or Dex save. Fail. You slip 5 feet down the
chute for every point you failed by. After 30 feet,
you fall into room 45.
•

Falling. I’m not sure how high the ceiling is in room 45, it’s anywhere from 2040 feet high. Let’s say 30 feet. So that’s
3d6 damage and the adventurer probably
ends up in one of the diorama areas.
There’s 8 of them, you could just roll a
d8 to see which one.

(page 90) 48. Hound of the Bat
Water weird (MM pg 299)
Under the crayfish shell is a key to 53.

(page 90) 49. Sacred Chitza-Atlan
Centaur mummy (page 231)

Climbing the Hole
No handholds, but climbable. This leads to 47.
There’s a giant spider in there!

The mummy does nothing until a character tries to
leave the room. Then it attacks. Don’t forget that a
character hit by the hooves gets mummy rot. They
lose 10 hit points per day from their max total!

(page 89) 46. Tlazoteotl

(page 90) 50. Jade Wall

Gibbering mouther (MM pg 157), dried potion of
hill strength (DMG pg 187), +1 rod of the pact
keeper (DMG pg 197)
Eat the heart, talk to snakes! Pretty cool.

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The wall might fall on you. Dex save DC 10, 9
damage. No biggie.

(page 90) 51. Wind Tunnel
Again, not sure how high the ceiling is, which is a
problem because the hatch is up there. I guess
we’ll say 30 feet. Make sure to describe the area
beyond the hatch as an empty room or something.
CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

The only thing to do here is get out. Once the wind
starts, it never stops.

4. Miska is battling a wind duke. You have
advantage to attack it.

Start Your Turn in the Wind
Str save DC 13. Fail. Thrown 10 feet, prone, and
take 3 damage. You might want to describe the
wind as much less strong when a character is prone
so that the group has a clue that if they stay prone
they can get out of there without making saves.

5. Miska’s blood hits the rod of law and it
shatters into 7 pieces, covering you with
white light. Now the character is petrified.

Monitor Reactions
Some players will love this room and some will
hate it, so make sure it doesn’t ruin the session.

(page 91) 52. The Hidden Room of
Nahual
Doppelganger MM pg 82
Once a character grabs the scepter, they have visions of a great battle. You might want to make up
a little scenario, as if it is kept vague the player is
definitely going to drop it, right?
Vision
Here's an example. We could say that the character
has visions of the Battle of Pesh, which is where
the rod of seven parts was created. The Queen of
Chaos (she is a woman whose body has an octopus
lower half) and Miska the Wolf Spider are fighting
the wind dukes of Aaqa (blue-skinned humanoids).
There’s other ancient obyriths there, including
Cabiri (an eye-god kind of thing) and Bechard (a
demon whale, seriously). We have to fill 30 seconds, so that’s 5 rounds. Give the character a situation each round, like:
1. A Wolf spider lunges at you (describe the
chaos of battle, let the player reorient).
2. The Queen of Chaos tries to grab you in
her tentacle.
3. A wind duke stabs her, frees you (if necessary), you can get a shot on her if you
want.

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Sweaty Palms
While the player is going through this, each round,
tell the other players that the hero is getting sweaty
and staring off into space.

(page 91) 53. The Valve
3d6 damage if you fall in the pit.
Pick the Lock on the Secret Keyhole?
I’d say yes but it’s up to you. I wouldn’t want the
group to go look for the key. That could make
things very boring as they re-explore old rooms.

(page 91) 54. Temple Ruin
Giant hyena (pg 326)
We’re outside!!! Climbing over rubble might cause
some damage. Dex save DC 13 Fail: 7 dmg. Fail
by 5 or more: Buried.
Monster
A giant hyena is lurking here.
Treasure
The entire altar can be lifted (combined strength of
30), as there’s stuff underneath. Dex save DC 15,
the sharp wings slice at you for 13 damage. Under
it is a pit full of treasure. It’s all money and valuables, no magic items.
(page 92) Total Value of Treasure: 5,500 gp
Changing the Final Encounter
If you want a more epic ending to this adventure,
you might want to use the idea from the 4th edition
version of Tamoachan from Dungeon 209.

CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

The creatures/tribesfolk from the very beginning of
the adventure attack in waves. Let's say the group
of heroes is 7th level at this point. Let's do 3 waves
of bad guys.
Let's also say it's getting dark out, so we have dim
light.
We'll use tribal warriors (MM pg 350). They have
a challenge rating of 1/8. According to kobold fight
club, 16 of them is EASY for the heroes. So let's
do that. Players love it when they get to wade in
and destroy lots of mooks.

Possible Finish
If you want to give the group a fun final finale,
have her misty step over near a huge pile of rubble.
They could cause it to collapse on her, which I
think would be a suitable ending.

Beware!
This one was really tough to prepare. Each thing is
so complicated. Definitely be ready if you decide
to run this!

Wave 1
16 tribal warriors. It sounds like a lot, but they're
really weak.
Wave 2
2 lizardfolk shamans and 8 tribal warriors. We'll
just re-skin the lizardfolk and say that they are human (or whatever) shamans.
Wave 3
Coaxoch the Bat Queen (kraken priest), 3 giant
bats, 2 swarms of bat.
Coaxoch
Coaxoch wears a cloak of the bat (DMG pg 159).
Let's make her the Queen of the Olman
Tribe/Zotzilaha worshipers or whatever you want
them to be.
Spells:.We'll re-skin a kraken priest from Volo's
page 215. They can cast call lightning, which
makes for a dramatic final encounter. We'll need to
change some of her 3/day spells. Let's go with fireball, misty step and shatter.
New Flavor: Let's re-flavor Voice of the kraken to
“voice of the bat.” It's a big sonar screech kind of
thing. DC 14 charisma save or be frightened.
Bats. Let's have her call on Zotzilaha for aid. Out
of the sky comes... bats!

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CHAPTER 5: THE HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN

Muddy Floor
Most of the floors of this dungeon are covered in
muck that is one foot deep. It cuts speed down by
one third, and makes sneaking difficult.

(page 96) The Wizard’s Mouth
This cave “breathes,” pushing steam out of the
cave and then drawing air in. The entrance to the
dungeon is in a hatch in the mud. You need a Str
check of 20 to open it.

(page 98) 2. Riddling Guardian
Gynosphynx (MM pg 282), Wall of Force (PH pg
285) It is immune to all damage. It extends into the
ethereal plane, too.
A lot of the sphinx's spells are not really combatoriented. But if it casts greater invisibility and
claws the crap out of the group (with legendary actions, that's 5 claws per round, up to 65 damage per
round) that's pretty good.

White Plume Mountain

ne of the most famous D&D “modules” of all time, White Plume Mountain is a dungeon crammed full of all
sorts of challenging rooms and powerful artifacts. This one is just pure
fun. It is easy to prepare, and it will take the group
quite a while to get through it.

The Region
If you look at the overview map, you can see other
locations near the mountain. Dragotha has her lair
detailed in a number of D&D products. Like Dungeon Magazine #134 (it is extremely high level).
The other areas on the map are detailed in the little-known sequel, Return to White Plume Mountain by Bruce Cordell.
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(page 98) 3. Hidden Slime
Green slime (DMG pg 105)
It’s hidden under the water, so we’re looking at
some damage: 5 acid damage. You take the damage
again at the start of your next turn until it is
scraped off or destroyed.
•

It does 11 acid to wood and metal.

•

Cold, fire, and radiant damage destroys a
patch immediately.

•

If you know it's there, you can make DC
10 Dex save to avoid it. Otherwise, it
just hits you, no roll.

(page 98) 4. Glass Globes
Shadows (MM pg 269), fear PH pg 239), air elemental (MM pg 124), potion of flying (DMG pg
187), gray ooze (MM pg 243), hold person (PH pg
251).
CHAPTER 6: WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN

Sealed in a room, smash the spheres to find the
key.

(page 99) 5. Numbered Golems
Make sure you tell the group you are going to time
them in real life to give them a fair chance.
Using the Golem
In the original adventure, the golem could join the
party. It was very powerful and looked like it
would unbalance everything. That’s probably why
this has the vague comment about the golem becoming an ally but not giving it stats.
Flesh Golem
The first thing that comes to mind is that you could
say that the flesh golem is falling apart due to
standing in this steaming place for so many years.
Each time the golem does something, more stitches
come loose. You can keep in your head that once
the golem does 5(?) things, such as attack, lift, take
damage, whatever) then it falls apart.
Berserk. Looking at the flesh golem stats (MM pg
169), look at "berserk." Once it is down to 40 hit
points, it has a chance of attacking the nearest creature it can see..!
Jumping
The most amusing thing about actually using the
golem is that there is no way whatsoever that this
golem will make it through the frictionless room or
the hanging chain/platform jumping room. Just
thinking about the flesh golem in those rooms
makes me laugh.
Be Cautiouses
Whatever you do, think carefully because it could
ruin the game. Maybe give yourself an out by describing that its "power" flickers on and off, and
that it could shut off at any time. If things get unbalanced: Oh look! It shut off.

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(page 100) 7. Geysers and Chains
I love this room.
Geysers
Two geysers go off at 3 minutes and 5 minutes.
That’s 30 rounds and 50 rounds. You should definitely keep that in your head while the heroes are
discussing what to do.
Timing
It’s entirely up to you when the geysers go off to
start with. You could just have one come right at a
character if you want. I think you should decide in
advance the conditions in which the geysers
launch. Such as: The first character to get above
the first geyser, or… 10 rounds after the group enters.
No Skill Checks?
You do want drama though, although really, even
without the geysers this is a very deadly room.
We’re looking at 10 jumps here. The weird thing
is, there’s no skill check at all for these jumps. You
just do it and succeed. That doesn’t seem right, but
then again, who is going to succeed on 10 checks?
You could make the DC really low, such as a 5.
That way, certain characters won’t be able to fail,
but others will have a small chance.
Alternative. You could also make it one check for
every 3 platforms.
Spells
At 8th level, the group is probably going to have
some way around the platforms. When I ran this a
few years ago, the wizard had spider climb but the
rest of the group was so excited (they were mostly
kids) that they drowned her out. They proceeded to
get geysered like crazy and she calmly crossed to
the other side safely.

CHAPTER 6: WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN

(page 101) 8. Coffin

•

Vampire (MM pg 297), Whelm (DMG pg 218), potion of mind reading (DMG pg 188, you gain the
effect of detect thoughts: PH pg 231), conjure minor elemental (PH pg 226), dispel magic (PH pg
234), magic mouth (PH pg 257)

Supernatural Awareness: You automatically notice secret doors within 30 feet
of you.

•

Spells. (1/Day) Detect Evil and Good
(PH pg 231), Locate Object (PH pg 256)

•

Personality. Whelm is lawful neutral
and was made to protect the Dankil
dwarf clan.

Darkness
This room is under the effect of magical darkness:
Remember, darkvision doesn't work in magical
darkness and non-magical light doesn't affect it.
Blinded. They're going to be blinded: The
adventurers have disadvantage on attack
rolls and the vampire has advantage to hit
them. With many spells, the caster can't target what it can't see.

•

Stake to the Heart
This is its resting place, so if it is reduced to 0 hit
points here, it's dead. If it is reduced to 0 hit points
outside of this room, it turns to mist and reforms in
the coffin, and will be paralyzed for one hour. If
the group drives a stake through its heart, it is paralyzed until the stake is removed.

Whelm (DMG page 218)
•

+3 to hit and dmg

•

Fear of the Outdoors. You will develop
a fear of being outdoors. When outside
during the day, you have disadvantage to
attack rolls, saving throws and ability
checks.

•

Range 20/60. When thrown, it flies
back to your hand. It does +d8 dmg
when thrown, +2d8 vs. giants.

•

(1/Day) Shockwave. Each creature of
your choice within 60 feet must make a
Con save DC 15 or become stunned for
one minute, saving again at the end of
each of their turns.

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(page 101) 9. Pool and Drain
There's a tiny chance the group might find the
hatch protected by an illusion. If so, they go to the
exit where two efreet wait to beat them up.

(page 101) 10. Deceptively Deep
Room
Kelpies (page 238)
Yikes, look at that charm power. Each kelpie could
wait until adventurers start swimming, charm two
of them.. and they immediately start drowning.
Looking at the suffocation rules (PH pg 183), that
means that the character skips holding their breath
and immediately drops to 0 and starts dying.

(page 101) 11. Spinning Cylinder
Remember that the oil can be set on fire. It gets
ugly.

(page 102) 12. Burket’s Guardpost
Veteran (MM pg 350), werewolf (MM pg 211)

(page 102) 13. Snarla’s Sanctum
Snarla: AC 11 (12 in hybrid) HP 58 spd 30
Bite/Claw +4 6 dmg and Con save DC 12 or be
cursed with lycanthropy, 7 damage. Immune to
non-magic weapons that aren't silvered!
Spells
Looking at her spells, not too much going on there.
I guess stinking cloud on the group when far away,

CHAPTER 6: WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN

and maybe some pumped-up magic missiles (level
3 missiles would be 5d4+5)
Spellbook
Snarla’s spellbook is guarded by a glyph of warding: PH pg 245 20 foot radius explosion Dex save
DC 14, 5d8 fire or half as much on a save.

(page 103) 17. The Boiling Bubble
Giant crab (MM pg 324 - modified), Wave (DMG
pg 218)
There is not a lot of space in this bubble, although
the scale of the map is 10 feet, not 5, so they’ve got
space to play with. It looks like no matter where it
is placed, a fireball would destroy the bubble. It
deflates and comes apart in d6 rounds. It looks like
it does 44 fire damage and then another 44 for each
turn that the character starts its turn in the water.
Giant Crab AC 15 HP 161 +9 to hit, reach 10 ft.,
27 (4d10+5) bludgeoning and the target is grappled
(escape DC 14). It can grapple up to two targets.
•

Blindsight 30 ft.

•

Immune: Charmed, frightened, paralyzed

Total treasure. 11,935 gold

Wave (DMG page 218)
You must worship a god of the sea to attune to this.
•

+3 to hit and damage

•

Critical. Target takes extra necrotic damage equal to half its hit point maximum.

•

Trident of fish command. (DMG pg
209) dominate beast (PH pg 234)

•

Weapon of Warning (DMG pg 213)

•

Cap of Water Breathing (DMG pg 157)

•

It can speak to animals and telepathically
include you in the conversation

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(page 104) 19. Metal-Heating Corridor
The gimmick here is that some characters will need
to take off their armor to get through this hallway.
Remember that taking off plate mail takes 5 minutes, and putting it on takes 10 minutes. The armorless characters will then be ambushed by the
ghouls emboldened by the sight of meaty warriors
with an AC of 10.

(page 104) 20. Ghoul Ambushers
Ghouls (MM pg 148)
They can’t be turned due to amulets that they wear.

(page 104) 22. Frictionless Trap
This is an awesome room that doesn’t play by the
rules. You can’t fly or teleport. You have to go
across physically. Someone is going to have to
brave the friction! There are two pits that need to
be crossed.
No DC?
There is no DC for jumping the pits! I’d imagine it
would be a 15 or 20. Probably a DC 20, right?
Super--Tetanus
Super-Tetanus! It’s no joke. DC 15 Con save or
you take 11 dmg at the start of each of your turns,
and you don’t get a save again for one minute!
That’s 10 rounds or 110 points of damage! Someone will need to cure it or at least heal the character. If you are jokey like me, maybe put a tetanus
shot in somebody’s healer’s kit.

(page 104) 23. Floating Stream
Kayaking on a floating stream. It takes the group to
Bluto’s guardpost, where bad guys are waiting with
nets.

CHAPTER 6: WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN

(page 105) 24. Sir Bluto’s Guardpost
Champion (page 231), knights (MM pg 347), boots
of springing and striding (DMG pg 155)
Surprise
The bad guys are ready. The group is probably going to be surprised. So roll initiative, and the characters don’t go in round one. The bad guys throw
nets on the heroes and drag them out. Is there a roll
for that?
Nets. Nets are found on PH pg 148.
•

Those hit by a net are restrained until
freed (Restrained: Speed 0, disadvantage
on attack rolls, creatures have advantage
to hit you).

•

A creature can use an action to make a
DC 10 Str check, freeing itself on a success.

•

5 slashing damage will destroy the whole
net!

(page 105) 26. Terraced Aquarium

(page 107) 27. Luxurious Prison
Blackrazor (DMG pg 216), potion of greater healing (heals 4d4+4), scroll of protection (fiends)
(DMG pg 199), armor of vulnerability (slashing)
(DMG pg 152), ring of protection (DMG pg 191),
ring of spell storing (DMG pg 192)
Oni
Qesnef the "halfling" is an oni. His job is to guard
the treasure. He's got cone of cold and he can become invisible at will. He can fly innately, too. The
question is how tall is the ceiling? Hallways are ten
feet high. It says it's a large room. 20 feet?

Blackrazor (DMG page 216)
•

+3 to hit and damage

•

When you reduce a creature to 0 hp, it
devours their soul and you have temporary hit points equal to their hit point
max, and you have advantage on attack
rolls, saving throws and ability checks
until those temp hit points are gone.

•

If you hit undead with it, you take d10
necrotic and the target regains d10 hit
points. If this damage reduces you to 0
hit points, Blackrazor devours your soul.

•

Immune to being charmed and frightened

•

You can sense creatures within 60 feet.

•

If the sword doesn't feed on a soul for
three days, a conflict (DMG pg 216) occurs. That means an opposed Charisma
check (it has +4 to the roll). It could theoretically take control of the wielder.

Giant crayfish (MM pg 235), giant scorpions (MM
pg 327), manticore (MM pg 213)
This is a classic room that is very hard to describe.
This book has a fantastic picture of the room that
you should show the group if you can.
Ranged Attacks
The manticores have their wings clipped. The heroes could just stand at the top and launch ranged
attacks. Remember that the 6 crayfish can get out
of the water and attack the heroes, they have a
speed of 30.
Glass. AC 15 HP 20, broken with a Str check DC
15.

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(page 107) Escaping the Dungeon
The adventure says you can make up a dungeon if
you want. If you’re not going to use the next chapter, just steal a section from Dead in Thay. There’s
a lot of cool stuff in there.
CHAPTER 6: WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN

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Szass Tam
Big bad guy who has captured a bunch of Chosen
and is siphoning their power in the Doomvault to
try to become a god.

Disrupting a Gate
Disrupting a number of black gates is essential to
getting to the phylactery vault.

Imprisoned Allies

action to make a DC 15 Arcana check. Fail: 7 force
damage.

There are two imprisoned NPC allies in the Doomvault:
Shalendra Floshin
She’s in room 2, page 119
Kelson Darktreader
He’s in room 31 on page 132

How to Disrupt. If you have a glyph key, use an

The Gatehouse
This area is controlled by Syranna, the rebel red
wizard who is helping the heroes. It has teleportation circles that Syranna can use to send you to
many sectors of the Doomvault:
•

Area 1 (Abyssal Prisons)

•

Area 23 (Blood Pens)

•

Area 33 (Masters’ Domain)

1. Destroy the creatures in the Doomvault

•

Area 38 (Far Realm Cysts)

2. Get to the Phylactery Vault

•

Area 49 (Forests of Slaughter)

3. Destroy the phylacteries

•

Area 61 (Ooze Grottos)

•

Area 77 (Predator Pools)

Objective
Find the phylactery vault and strike a deathblow to
Szass Tam.

Moving About
The dungeon is divided up into 9 sectors. Each of
them are protected by a dimensional barrier. You
can’t teleport through or bypass them by going
ethereal. The only way to get from one sector to
another is to use the white and black gates.

Glyph Keys

White Gates

One glyph key allow you to travel to one sector,
and use a number of white gates.

A circle of runes and quartz with a luminous white
mist. Someone with a glyph key attuned to the area
can use it to pass through to another zone.
Without a glyph key, you take 5 damage and are
pushed 10 feet back.

Black Gates
A circle of runes and black onyx that exudes
smoke-like shadow energy. You can use a black
gate to teleport to different areas, including the
gatehouse, which is a fairly safe place to rest.

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Magic crystal pendants on a bronze chain.
When you get a key, you automatically know
where it is attuned to and what that sector is called.

Passing Attunements
If you have two glyph keys, you can make a DC 15
Arcana check to pass the attunements. For example, if you have a key to the Ooze Grottos and another to the Predator Pools, you can make a check
so that you can make the ooze grotto key also work
on the predator pool key. So basically, you can load
up one glyph key so that you don’t have to carry all
of these different keys.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

The key doesn’t lose attunements, so in theory you
could end with a big pile of keys that are all attuned to all of the sectors.

Contact Stones
These are sort of like telephones. You can contact
Syranna through a contact stone and she can attune
glyph keys through it.

Pit Traps in 5e
It is weird how some 5e adventures allow for Dex
checks to avoid falling into a pit trap, and others
don’t. In this adventure, it goes like this:
Dex save DC 15 or take 7 bludgeoning and 13
piercing. The lid closes magically after 5 minutes.

Temples of Extinction
This is the area the heroes need to get to. It is
where the Chosen are being held. There are four
keys attuned to this area. They are found in:
•

Area 10

•

Area 25

•

Area 31

•

Area 63

Resting
The adventure doesn’t want you to rest because
this mission is time sensitive. It’s a huge dungeon,
though, the group will have to rest. There are some
areas in the dungeon that give the group magical
benefits as if they took a long rest.

Creature Notes

I was able to do most of them right here in the
guide.

Dread Warriors
These are cool, but complicated. The red wizards
can control them and cast spells through them. Any
time the group fights a dread warrior for 3 rounds,
Tarul Var becomes aware of it and takes control of
one. Tarul Var’s stats are on page 244. He could
drop a level 6 fireball on the group and do 11d6 to
them, yikes.

Thayan Potions (page 115)
Thayans have d4-2 potions. The adventure wants
you to roll on the potion chart. You might just want
to place those in advance to save time rolling and
looking up stuff. Remember that the bad guys can
use those potions, which can add a lot to an encounter.

Soul Binding
Anyone who dies in the Doomvault has their soul
siphoned for Kazit Gul to use. One very cool option is, if your character dies, you can bring them
back to life as a soul-bound entity tied to the
Doomvault. Over the course of a few weeks, you’ll
turn into a wight. There is a place in the dungeon
(Area 31) that can put you back to normal.

Let’s Begin!
The group starts with the players map and a glyph
key. You, the DM, get to pick where the group
starts. You could start out at room 1, though I
found the first couple of rooms to be kind of weak.
It should start off with a bang, right?

There are a couple of things to keep in mind:

(page 119) 1. Chandelier Chamber

Reduced Threat Monsters

Vampire spawn (MM pg 298), wight (MM pg 300),
zombie (MM pg 316), quasit (pg 63)

These monsters are weaker than the normal version. They have half hit points and a -2 to pretty
much everything. They’re never bigger than Large.

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CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 119) 2. Arena

(page 120) 5. Succubus Vault

Vampire (pg 297), vrock (MM pg 64), commoners
(MM pg 345), knight (MM pg 347)

Succubus (MM pg 285), Thayan warriors (page
246)

Any creature who gets within 10 feet of the fighting pit must make a Wis save DC 13 or they must
fight until the vrock is destroyed.

You can do whatever you want with Pencheska.
She could be an ally, a traitor, whatever. Pencheska
was in the “prequel” to this adventure, Scourge of
the Sword Coast. In that scenario, she teamed with
a ghostly pit fiend named Baazka. She infiltrated
the government of Daggerford and was manipulating the mayor. She has a glyph key

Reduced Threat Vrock AC 15 HP 52 +4/+4, 8
dmg/12 dmg
•

Spores: 15 foot radius, DC 12 Con save,
3 poison

•

Stunning Screech: Each creature within
20 ft., DC 12 Con save or stunned until
the end of the vrock's next turn.

Issem has a glyph key. He’ll hand it over if he can
drink someone’s blood:
Vampire Bite
Vampire Bite: +9 on a willing creature. 7 damage
plus 10 necrotic. The target's hit point max is reduced by the necrotic damage taken (10). This lasts
until a long rest.

(page 119) 3. Issem’s Vault

(page 121) 6. Elemental Furnace
Fire elemental (page 125)
The group could free this thing and get themselves
a fire elemental ally:
Fire Elemental AC 13 HP 102 +6/+6 10 fire and
the target is set on fire. Speed 50!

(page 121) 7. Chaos Rift
This room has a really cool map.
It’s possible that the heroes might enter another
plane for a round (or more). Here's some ideas:
•

(Acid) The Murkendraw, a swamp in
the feywild. We can say that swaths of
the swamp are acidic. This is where
Baba Yaga spends a bit of time, so the
heroes might spot her famous dancing
hut surrounded by 50 necrophidius
golems.

•

(Cold) The Plane of Ice. Maybe they
spot Bloodmire, the lake of frozen blood.

DC 15 to pick the door, DC 20 to force it.

•

The group enters, and for 3 rounds nothing happens. At the start of round 4, a random circle
glows. At the end of round 4, Lightning fills the
room. DC 10 Dex save.

(Fire) The City of Brass in the Elemental Plane of Fire. Fire genies everywhere
haggling, dragging their poor slaves
along.

•

(Lightning) Pandemonium, a chaotic,
dangerous realm with floating rivers,
earthmotes, and firewalls all jumbled to-

Wraith (MM pg 302), detect magic (PH pg 231),
comprehend languages (PH pg 224), greater
restoration (PH pg 246)
Each character makes a DC 13 Wis save. For each
failure, one wraith emerges from the prisms. Don’t
forget that the pit traps are Dex save DC 15, 7
damage and 13 piercing.

(page 120) 4. Mystic Circles

•

Fail. 7 lightning damage. Every two round
it happen again.

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CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

gether. They might see the Spawning
Stone in the distance, with hundreds of
slaads flying around it hacking each
other to pieces.
•

(Thunder) The Astral Plane. You could
have the characters float in the void and
see the city of Tu'Narath in the distance.
It is the home of the githyanki, a city
built on a dead god.

(page 121) 8. Summoning Chamber
Dread Warrior (page 233), wights (MM pg 300),
zombies (MM pg 316), hezrou (MM pg 60), quasits (MM pg 63), vrock (MM pg 64), manes (MM
pg 60)
The demons beg to be released, they are trapped in
the confines of the magic circles. All a character ha
to do is scuff up the circle a little bit and see what
happens…

(page 122) 9. Dead End
This is cool trap. Open the doors, darkness pours
out and make a DC 15 Charisma save or take 7
damage and be paralyzed. You might have the
whole group trapped in the shadow.
Darkness
Darkness: It says “darkness” and I assume that
means darkness like the spell? It snuffs out the
light of torches and light spells of 2nd level or
lower. You're blind (disadvantage on attack rolls,
fail any ability check that require sight)

(page 122) 10. Tarul Var’s Quarter
Tarul Var (page 244), dread warriors (page 233),
potion of mind reading (DMG pg 188), loadstone
(page 228)
Tarul Var is hiding out here. Remember that he
casts spells through the dread warriors.

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The truename box is trapped: All within 10 feet
make a Dex save DC 15 or take 21 force damage
on a fail and half that on a success.
Devil Truenames
Devil Truenames: This thing has truenames of minor devils in it, which is cool. With a truename,
you can force a devil to serve you. Whenever you
use the truename as part of the casting of the spell,
the devil is much more vulnerable to it. Here’s
some minor devils from old products:
Gurdansk, a cornugon who is encased in greenish metal that absorbs magic missiles. He wields
the spear of the guardian, a magic item which gives
him truesight and allows him to never be surprised.
Ezu, a spined devil with a pet poisonous snake
that delivers messages in the city of Sigil.
Allea, a half-fiend bard who is secretly the
daughter of Mephistopheles. She’s currently spying
on Baalzebul.
Erinyes: Ustyrinjah, a heavily-scarred erinyes
who is incredibly paranoid. She has the ear of Dispater.

(page 123) 11. Torture Chamber
Wight (MM pg 300), skeletons (MM pg 272),
glabrezu (MM pg 52)
Reduced Threat Glabrezu: AC 17 HP 78 4 attacks:
Two Pincers +7/+7 to hit 14 damage & grappled,
Two fists +7/+7 to hit, 5 damage x2
Can’t cast spells or summon allies
Can only attack those within 5 feet
(page 123) 12. False Pit Gauntlet: We have open
pit traps in front of the doorways. If you jump over
them, you trigger the reverse gravity, take 10
points and are restrained on the ceiling for one
minute.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 123) 13. Sorlan’s Haunt
Ghost (MM pg 147) Fake locks! Make sure you
know who is standing where. All within 10 make a
Con save DC 14 or take 5 damage and fall prone.

3 warriors and 4 apprentices are asleep. They wake
up in 2-3 rounds if there’s a battle. Sitting on the
throne fills the room with insects for a minute. I
could see one of the bad guys sitting on it if the
fight is going poorly for them.

You could bust out the ghost's horrifying visage,
possibly aging some characters d4x10 years!

(page 126) 19. Walkway Pen

(page 124) 14. Demon Cells

Deathlock wight (page 233), skeletons (MM pg
272), spy (MM pg 349)

Conjurer (page 232), deathlock wight (page 233),
Thayan apprentice (page 245), hezrou (MM pg
60), quasits (pg 63), vrocks (pg 64)

(page 124) 15. Maze of Undoing
Glabrezu (MM pg 52)
This is one you might need to draw a map for. It
would be hard to fairly decide when a hero steps
on a teleportation trigger.
(page 124) 16. Gallery of Swarms: This is a cool
room, but it seemed to annoy my players. You have
a choice:
Walk through the 2 feet of dead insects and risk
falling in a pit trap.
Try to use the platforms and roll a DC 10 Con
save or be swarmed, taking 5 damage and 5 poison
AND making a Dex save DC 15 to see if you fall
off into the husk pile.
That’s 14 platforms to get to the double doors that
lead nowhere! Maybe stick a magic item in there to
be a chum.

(page 125) 17. Crawling Hall
Thayan apprentice (page 245), Thayan warriors
(page 246), giant spider (MM pg 328), giant centipede (MM pg 323)

(page 125) 18. Barracks
Thayan apprentices (page 245), Thayan warriors
(page 246), wight (pg 300)

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This is another one you might need to draw a map
of. It’s possible a character will touch a pillar, fall
unconscious, fall into the pig pen and get swarmed
by the pigs, taking 6 damage per round. You could
have Drevin, the friendly polymorphed pig, fend
off the other pigs to help the fallen adventurer.

(page 126) 20. Abbatoir
Skeleton (MM pg 272), wight (pg 300), deathlock
wight (page 233), otyugh (MM pg 248)
The Otyugh might try to break the chain. It has +3
and the DC is a 20.

(page 127) 21. Egg Chamber
Enchanter (page 234), dread warrior (page 233),
skeletons (MM pg 272)
Be ready for the possibility that the heroes will
want to keep the eggs, especially the wyverns (to
raise them as flying mounts). Also make sure your
players are OK with the eggs being destroyed in
combat, little monster babies are still babies.

(page 128) 22. Hatchling Pens
Transmuter (page 247), Thayan apprentices (page
245), Thayan warriors (page 246), remorhaz (MM
pg 258), basilisk (MM pg 24), darkmantles (MM
pg 46), ettercaps (MM pg 131), carrion crawlers
(MM pg 37), behir (MM pg 25), hook horrors
(MM pg 189), wyvern (MM pg 303)
All the caged monsters are reduced threats. That’s
half hit points and -2 to attacks, dmg, DCs, etc.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Blood Vines
The undead just go about their business while the
blood vines restrain and injure the heroes. Each
vine has AC 15 HP 8. They attack: Dex save DC
13 11 dmg and restrained. Escape DC 13, start of
each round take another 11.

(page 129) 23. Dark Garden
Zombies (pg 316), wight (pg 300)
The undead just go about their business while the
blood vines restrain and injure the heroes. Each
vine has AC 15 HP 8.
They attack. Dex save DC 13 11 dmg and restrained. Escape DC 13, start of each round take
another 11.

( page 128) 24. Pale Garden
Skeletons (MM pg 272), shambling mound (MM
pg 270)
The shambling mounds hide until a character
moves more than 15 from a doorway. Whenever a
plant is damaged, the pillars react and do 5 lightning damage to all within 5 feet of it.

(page 128) 25. Dreaming Garden
Enchanter (page 234), dread warriors (page 233),
zombies (pg 316), black dragon wyrmling (MM pg
88), fly (pg 243), potion of poison (DMG pg 188),
potion of healing (2d4+2)
Standing in the garden for 1 minute triggers a Wis
save DC 12 Fail. Knocks you unconscious

Masters’ Domain
(page 129) 26. Temple of Light

4-Armed Gargoyles AC 15 HP 63 +4/+4/+4 to hit,
5 (1d6 + 2) damage
•

Spd 30, fly 60

•

Resistant to non-magic weapons

(page 130) 27. Temple of Shadow
Wraith (pg 302)
Touch a Pillar. Take 5 necrotic and 5 cold. The
pillars give the wraith 5 temp hit points.
You can use an action to make a DC 14 Wis or Cha
check to block out the wailing/disadvantage on attack rolls.

(page 130) 28. Temple of Blood
Vampiric mist (page 247)
Slippery Blood. Moving more than half your speed
is a DC 10 Dex save to fall prone.
Touch a Pillar. You’re restrained and must make a
DC 15 Con save or take 5 necrotic (-5 to your max
hit points until a long rest!)
We’re losing hit points from our max like crazy in
here! That’s what vampiric mists do.

(page 130) 29. Conditioning Court
Illusionist (MM pg 237), Thayan apprentice (page
245), Thayan warriors (page 246)
If the group just passes through, they’re fine. If
they make noise or kill the chained-up Thayans,
roll a d4+1 to see how many rounds it takes for the
bad guys to come out of their cells. The illusionist
comes out in one round, the apprentice comes out
the round after that.

Gargoyles (MM pg 140)

(page 131) 30. Training Floor

If you touch a pillar you gain 5 temp HP.

Evoker (page 235), Thayan warriors (page 246),
dread warrior (page 233), skeletons (MM pg 272),
armor of vulnerability (DMG pg 142), ring of protection (DMG pg 191)

There’s an unconscious red wizard named Vorja
here who can be helpful to the group.

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CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

All the bad guys except for Lahnis have half their
max hit points. Lahnis is willing to turn against his
allies as he is sympathetic to Syranna.

(page 134) 35. Dread Legion Barracks

(page 132) 31. Undying Laboratory

Thayan warrior (page 246), orcs (MM pg 246),
gnolls (MM pg 163)

Necromancer (page 241), deathlock wight (page
233), wights (pg 300), potion of water breathing
(DMG pg 188), scroll of darkvision (PH pg 230)

The stone wall confused me for a minute. The wall
is 15 feet high, but you can take the steps from 34
to this room.

This is the place where you can transform soulbound characters back to normal.

Far Realm Cysts

Kelson Darktreader is here, getting his soul
sucked out.

(page 134) 36. Dark Water

Reduced-Threat Wights. AC 14 HP 45 +4/+4 5
(1d6 + 2) necrotic and DC 13 Con save or hit point
max reduced until long rest

Water Globes. You can control one with a DC 10
Int check. If someone else tries to take control, you
make an opposed INT check.

•

Throw Urn. Range 10/20, +4 to hit, 3
(1d6) damage and a DC 17 Con or Wis
save or take 10 (3d6) necrotic and become paralyzed for one minute. Repeat
the save at the end of your turns.

(page 133) 32. The Wizards’ Court
Thayan apprentices (page 245), evoker (page 235),
tome of the stilled tongue (DMG pg 208)
These are the same bad guys from #29.

(page 133) 33. Cavern Guard Post
Thayan warrior (page 246), gnolls (MM pg 163),
orcs (MM pg 246)

Aboleth (MM pg 13)

If the globe touches someone else, that person
must make a DC 15 Str save or be drawn in and
can’t get out until it uses an action to make a DC
15 Int check. When you’re inside the globe, you
have half-cover (+2 to AC and Dex saves).
Reduced Threat Aboleth AC 17 HP 67 +9/+9/+9
to hit, 10 damage and a DC 12 Con save or unable
to regain hit point unless underwater.
•

(3/Day) Enslave: One target within 30
feet makes a DC 12 Wis save or it is
charmed by the aboleth. The save can be
remade once every 24 hours whenever
the target takes damage.

(page 133) 34. Shard Cavern

(page 135) 37. Compelling Light

This is a cool room. One round after you go in
there, Dex save DC 15 or 14 damage! Shards are
flying everywhere every round, and now the path
is difficult terrain. It resets when the room is
empty. I assume the path would stay difficult terrain when it resets.

Wights (pg 300), dread warriors (page 233), zombies (pg 316)

This will alert the horde of bad guys in room 35.

End Your Turn. When you end your turn in this
room, you take 10 necrotic.

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See the Light. DC 13 Wis save, fail means you
walk in and gawk at the light while the bad guys
start pounding on you. You get another save when
you take damage.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

action, not both. Lasts 1 minute, save at
the end of each of your turns.

(page 135) 38. Sinkhole Cavern
Zombies (MM pg 316), ogre zombie (MM pg 316)
Sinkhole. You just fall in, no save. You’re restrained (0 speed, disadvantage on attacks and ene-

•

Enervate: DC 14 Con save. Fail: take 34
necrotic, half on save.

mies have advantage to hit you). Escape. DC 13
Str or Dex check. Small creatures have advantage
on this check.

•

Telekinesis: DC 14 Str save. Fail: It
moves you up to 30 feet and you're restrained until the start of the beholder's
next turn.

•

Sleep Ray: DC 14 Dex save. Fail: Fall
asleep and remain unconscious for 1
minute. You wake up if you take dmg or
someone uses an action to wake you.

•

Petrify: DC 14 Dex save. Fail: Restrained and at the end of your next turn,
save again. Success, you're not restrained. Fail: You're petrified.

(page 135) 39. Beholder’s Domain
This injured beholder might fight the group for two
rounds, but then it will question them. It hates the
red wizards.
Start Your Turn. When you start your turn in here,
make a DC 12 Wis save or roll on the eye ray chart
on page 136.
Floor Problems. The slimy floor is difficult terrain
and there’s a sinkhole! You just fall in, no check.
This time you’re restrained (0 speed, disadvantage
on attacks and enemies have advantage to hit you)
and you are unable to breathe (you can hold your
breath a minimum of 30 seconds aka 5 rounds).
Thaxalia, Reduced-Threat Beholder. AC 18 HP
90 +3 to hit, 12 damage
Eye Rays. 3 random rays at up to 3 targets within
120 ft:

(3/round) Legendary Actions (Do this at the end
of other creatures' turns): Use a random eye ray.

(page 136) 40. Slime Slaves
If you start your turn prone on the slime floor, take
4 poison.

(page 136) 41. Garbage Transfer
Skeletons (MM pg 272)
These skeletons are doing janitorial work and
won’t attack. If destroyed, they re-assemble in one
minute.

•

Charm: Wis save. DC 13 Fail: Charmed
for 1 hour or if the beholder harms you.

•

Paralyze: DC 14 Con save. Fail: Paralyzed 1 minute, save on end of each of
your turns

(page 137) 42. Otyugh Lair

•

Fear: DC 14 Wis save. Fail: Frightened 1
minute, save at the end of each of your
turns.

Stench. At the start of your turn make a DC 10
Con save. Success: Immune to odor for 1 hour.
Fail: Poisoned until the start of your next turn.

•

Slow: DC 14 Dex save. Fail: You're at
half speed and can't take reactions, and
can only take either an action or a bonus

Reduced Threat Otyugh-Young AC 14 HP 57
+4/+4/+4 10 dmg and DC 13 Con save or poi-

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Otyugh (MM pg 248), reduced-threat otyugh
young

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

soned. You can save every 24 hours. Fail. Your hit
point max is reduced by 5.
•

Tentacle. +4 to hit, 5 dmg, 4 piercing,
and grappled (escape DC 13 (No tentacle
slam, no restrained in tentacle attack)

(page 137) 43. Summoning Chamber
Disable the Circle. DC 20 Arcana. Fail. Each creature in the area makes a DC 15 Int save. Fail. Disadvantage on Int/Wis/Cha checks and initiative.
Also can’t maintain concentration. This lasts until
the end of a long rest!

When a soul is in an item, the wielder can communicate telepathically with it.

Forests of Slaughter
Boredom Alert. This whole section seems like it
could get really boring. It’s just rooms full of monsters. I think if you play up each of their motivations (some want to be fed, some want your glyph
keys, etc.) that might keep the campaign snappy.
Also, don’t forget the trees! They have some pretty
nasty effects.

(page 137) 44. Chaos Lair

You might need to use a map for this section, because stuff happens if you end your turn next to a
tree, and there’s a whole lot of trees.

Gricks (MM pg 173), gibbering mouther (MM pg
157), grell (MM p 172)

(page 138) 46. Hook Horror Nest

Magic Field. When you fail an attack
roll/save/skill check, all of your spells and magic
items lose their power until the end of your next
turn.
Gibbering. Don't forget that anyone within 20 feet
of a mouther must make DC 10 Wis save. Fail. No
reaction and roll a d8:

Hook horrors (page 189)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. You can’t see hostile creatures (Blind: disadvantage on attack rolls, they have advantage to hit
you, fail any ability check that requires sight) for
one minute, repeat save at the end of each of your
turns.

•

1-4: Nothing.

The heroes have advantage on stealth because the
horrors are complacent. They defend their eggs.

•

5-6: No actions, use all movement to
move in a random direction.

(page 138) 47. Cockatrice Roost

•

7-8: Melee attack against a random creature within reach or nothing if no one
nearby.

(page 137) 45. Eldritch Altar
Enhance a Magic Item. Place an item on the altar.
After one minute, it glows purple. Changes item's
appearance randomly, and a random creature
within 50 feet has their soul sucked into the item!
No save! If you put the item in the hand of the
soul-sucked hero, they are revived, but only as
long as they hold the item.

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Cockatrices (MM pg 42)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. You can’t see hostile creatures (Blind. Disadvantage on attack rolls, they have adv to hit you,
fail any ability check that requires sight) for one
minute, repeat save at the end of each of your
turns.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 139) 48. Gorgon Lair

•

Drink Twice per Tenday. Hit point max
is halved for a tenday!

•

Drink Three Times per Tenday. Harm:

Gorgons (MM pg 171)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. You can’t see hostile creatures (Blind: Disadvantage on attack rolls, they have adv to hit you,
fail any ability check that requires sight) for one
minute, repeat save at the end of each of your
turns.

(page 139) 49. Gate Cavern
Helmed horror (MM pg 183), wight (pg 300)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. When you deal damage, the target gains 5
temp hit points per successful attack. Lasts 1
minute, repeat save at the end of your turns. It
looks like the temp hit points come after the damage is dealt.

(page 139) 50. Barghest Range
Barghests (page 230)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. When you deal damage, the target gains 5
temp hit points per successful attack. Lasts 1
minute, repeat save at the end of your turns. It
looks like the temp hit points come after the damage is dealt.
Determined Barghests. They’re hiding in the tall
grass (DC 20 Perception to spot) and they want
glyph keys.

(page 140) 51. Pool of Recovery
Harm (PH pg 249)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. When you deal damage, the target gains 5
temp hp per successful attack. Lasts 1 minute, repeat save at the end of your turns. It looks like the
temp hit points come after the damage is dealt.
•

Drink. Gain benefits of a short rest.

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DC 15 Con save. Fail. 14d6 necrotic and
hit point max reduced by that amount for
1 hour. Success. Half damage.
Can You Put Some in a Waterskin? Most players
will have the idea of taking some of this water with
them. Would that work? I guess it’s up to you. I’d
let them, because they can only use it once every
ten days. Honestly, if they take some, it’s going to
hurt them. It’s almost like you should say no just to
protect them from themselves.

(page 140) 52. Displacer Beast
Dens
Displacer beasts (MM pg 81)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Wis save.
Fail: When you deal damage, the target gains 5
temp hit points per successful attack. Lasts 1
minute, repeat save at the end of your turns. It
looks like the temp hit points come after the damage is dealt.
Reduced-Threat Displacer Beasts AC 13 HP 42
+4/+4 to hit, reach 10 ft., 7 bludgeoning damage
plus 3 piercing.
Displacement Attacks have disadvantage
against it. If it is hit, this trait is disrupted until the
end of its next turn.
Avoidance When hit with saving throw effects,
takes half damage on a failed save, no damage on a
success.

(page 140) 53. Peryton Roost
Perytons (MM pg 251)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Con save.
Fail: You can’t regain hit points for 10 minutes.
CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Reduced-Threat Peryton AC 13 HP 16 +3/+3 to
hit, 5 dmg/6 dmg

it’s an imitation. They do triple damage on a critical with their hooves!

•

Spd 20, Fly 60

(page 141) 58. Pool of Renewal

•

Flyby: Doesn't provoke opportunity attacks
when flying out of reach.

End Your Turn Next to a Tree: DC 15 Str save.

•
•

Dive Attack: Fly 30 feet toward a target and
hit with melee: +9 (2d8) dmg.
Resistant to non-magic weapons.

(page 140) 54. Troll Cavern
Trolls (MM pg 291)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Con save.

Fail. Paralyzed for one minute. Repeat the save at
the end of each of your turns.
Drink: Greater Restoration (PH pg 246) Removes: Charm/petrify or curse or ability score reduction or reduced hit point maximum.
Drink Twice per Tenday: Hit point max cut in
half for a tenday.
Drink Three Time per Tenday: Harm (PH pg

Fail. You can’t regain hit points for 10 minutes.

249) DC 15 Con save. Fail: 14d6 necrotic and hit

The female is dominant and has a glyph key. They
want slaves or food.

point max reduced by that amount for 1 hour. Suc-

(page 140) 55. Pool of Consumption:

(page 141) 59. Choker Grotto

End Your Turn Next to a Tree. DC 15 Con save.
Fail: You can’t regain hit points for 10 minutes.

End Your Turn Next to a Tree: DC 15 Str save.

Drink. You take 22 (4d10) necrotic. This pool
heals undead.

(page 140) 56. Behir Lair
Behir (page 25)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree DC 15 Con save.
Fail: You can’t regain hit points for 10 minutes.

cess: Half damage.

Chokers (page 232)
Fail: Paralyzed for one minute. Repeat the save at
the end of each of your turns.
Four are in the trees and will try to pull the characters into the trees +5/+5 to hit, 5 dmg plus 3 dmg
and grappled (escape DC 15)

(page 141) 60. Owlbear Grove
Owlbears (MM pg 249)

It might be asleep and it won’t attack if awake.

End Your Turn Next to a Tree: DC 15 Str save.

(page 141) 57. Leucrotta Lair

Fail. Paralyzed for one minute. Repeat the save at
the end of each of your turns.

Leucrotta (page 239)
End Your Turn Next to a Tree: DC 15 Str save.
Fail. Paralyzed for one minute. Repeat the save at
the end of each of your turns.

Reduced-Threat Owlbear: AC 13 HP 28 +5/+5 to
hit, 8 dmg/12 dmg

They call out as if they were humans in pain. A
hero can make a DC 14 Insight check to tell that
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CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Ooze Grottos

•

Spd 20, climb 20 Blindsight 60

Ooze Prod. Attack an Ooze with it: 1d4 force dmg
and the ooze’s speed drops to 0 until the end of its
next turn.

•

Immune: Acid, Cold, Fire, Blinded,
Charmed, Deafened, Exhausted, Frightened, Prone

(page 141) 61. Bone Room

•

Slashing or Lightning Damage: It splits
into two puddings, each with half hit
points.

•

Hit it with melee within 5 feet: You take
4 acid and nonmagic weapons gain -1 to
damage (cumulative).

Ochre jellies (MM pg 243), wight (MM pg 300)
Bone Pile. You take 4 acid dmg when you enter or
start your turn there.

(page 142) 62. Ooze Temple
Deathlock wights (page 233), ochre jellies (MM
pg 243), gray oozes (MM pg 243)
Spilled Ooze: Difficult terrain, end turn in it: 4 acid
dmg.

(page 142) 63. Spawn Vats
Deathlock wights (page 233), skeletons (MM pg
272), transmuter reduced threat black pudding
(MM pg 241), gray ooze (MM pg 243) and ochre
jelly (MM pg 243), dispel magic (PH pg 234),
greater restoration (PH pg 246), potion of greater
healing (DMG pg 188), potion of heroism (DMG
pg 188)
Ooze Prod: Attack an Ooze with it: 1d4 force dmg
and the ooze’s speed drops to 0 until the end of its
next turn.
Fall in Vat: Take 5 dmg, DC 11 Con save or paralyzed until the start of your next turn.
Villainous Speech: Sarkalla is crazy and will stop
mid-battle to give an epic speech about how the
heroes should join her and usher in the dawn of the
Ooze Age. Together, they will sail on a sea of
slimes towards prosperity, health care and equality
for all.
1-2 Reduced-Threat Black Pudding: AC 7 HP 42
+5 to hit, 4 dmg plus 16 acid. Nonmagic armor has
-1 to AC (cumulative).
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3 Reduced-Threat Gray Ooze: AC 8 HP 11 +1 to
hit, 2 dmg plus 5 acid and nonmagic armor gains
-1 to AC (cumulative).
•

Spd 10, climb 10 Blindsight 60

•

Resistance: Acid, Cold, Fire

•

Immune: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened,
Exhausted, Frightened, Prone

•

Hit it with melee within 5 feet: You take
4 acid and nonmagic weapons gain -1 to
damage (cumulative).

4-6 Reduced-Threat Ochre Jelly: AC 8 HP 22 +2
to hit, 7 dmg plus 3 acid.
•

Spd 10, climb 10 Blindsight 60

•

Immune: Lightning, Slashing, Blinded,
Charmed, Deafened, Exhausted, Frightened, Prone

•

Resistances: Acid

•

Reaction: If it has 10 HP or more and is
Medium or larger, when hit with slashing
or lightning, split into two jellies

(page 143) 64. White Maw
White Maw (page 248)
When the heroes enter: The exits are sealed with
“white stone” (the gray ooze that fills the room).
CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Touch the Black Pillar: 9 psychic dmg and prone.

3. Then! Make another DC 15 Wis save.
Fail. You can’t willingly move away
from the arch until after the start of your
next turn (where you’ll be making another DC 15 Wis save to run through
again).

(page 143) 65. Red Master
Ooze Master (page 241)
Start Turn Within 10 ft of Pillar: DC 15 Con
save, or 7 acid. If this drops you to 0 hit points,
you turn to ooze and merge with the pillar.
Reaction: Don’t forget, he can make characters attack each other with his reaction.

(page 143) 66. Black Elder
Black pudding (MM pg 241)
This one’s scary. The whole group might get
blinded.
Start Turn Within 20 ft of Pillar. Regain d6 hit
points. If you were wounded and it heals you to
your hit point max, make a DC 15 Con save or become blinded until a short rest!

(page 144) 67. Laboratory Barracks
Transmuter (page 247), Thayan apprentices (page
245), specter (MM pg 279)
They’re asleep, they’ll tip cots over for cover (+2
AC and Dex saves)
Get Within 5 Feet of Mirror: DC 15 Wis save or a
specter emerges and attacks. Life drain!

(page 144) 68. Arch of Blades
Transmuter (page 247), Thayan apprentices (page
245), skeletons (MM pg 272)
Get Within 5 Feet of Arch: All of this happens
right in a row:
1. DC 15 Wis save or run through the arch.
2. Make a DC 15 Dex save. Fail. 33 slashing Succeed. Half damage.

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(page 144) 69. Spawn Cavern
Transmuter (page 247), Thayan apprentices (page
245)
Ooze Prod: Attack an Ooze with it: 1d4 force dmg
and the ooze’s speed drops to 0 until the end of its
next turn. The prod suppresses the spawn pool until
the end of your next turn.
Start Turn Next to Spawn Pool: DC 13 Dex save
Fail. 7 acid.

(page 145) 70. Battle Pool
Transmuters (page 247), Thayan apprentices (page
245), black pudding (MM pg 241)
Ooze Prod: Attack an Ooze with it: 1d4 force dmg
and the ooze’s speed drops to 0 until the end of its
next turn.
Ooze Pool: Difficult terrain, enter or start turn in it:
13 acid dmg. Every time you move 5 feet, a pudding gets an attack on you: +5 to hit, 4 dmg plus 16
acid. Nonmagic armor has -1 to AC (cumulative).
•

Round 2: Pudding comes out. These puddings attack everyone..

•

Round 4: Another pudding comes out.

•

Round 6: Another one!

Reduced-Threat Black Pudding: AC 7 HP 42 +5
to hit, 4 dmg plus 16 acid. Nonmagic armor has -1
to AC (cumulative).
•

Spd 20, climb 20 Blindsight 60

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

•

Immune: Acid, Cold, Fire, Blinded,
Charmed, Deafened, Exhausted, Frightened, Prone

Jelly Pit: 3 feet deep, difficult terrain, enter or start
turn: 9 acid. Each 5 feet you move in it provokes
an opportunity attack +2 to hit, 7 dmg plus 3 acid.

•

Slashing or Lightning Damage: It splits
into two puddings, each with half hp.

Reduced-Threat Ochre Jelly: AC 8 HP 22 +2 to
hit, 7 dmg plus 3 acid.

•

Hit it with melee within 5 feet: You take
4 acid and nonmagic weapons gain -1 to
damage (cumulative).

•

Spd 10, climb 10 Blindsight 60

•

Immune: Lightning, Slashing, Blinded,
Charmed, Deafened, Exhausted, Frightened, Prone

•

Resistances: Acid

•

Reaction: If it has 10 HP or more and is
Medium or larger, when hit with slashing
or lightning, it splits into two jellies each
with half hp.

(page 145) 71. Dead Pool
Start Turn in Here: DC 10 Con save. Fail: 2 acid.
You can hold your breath to avoid this dmg (you
can hold your breath for at least 5 rounds before
you have problems).
Ooze Pool: Enter/Start Turn: 9 acid and 9 poison.
I’m just saying.. you could have part of the ledge
collapse to add a little drama. DC 12 Dex? Or fall
in?

(page 145) 72. Ooze Duel

Predator Pools
This is a water area, so let’s bust out the water
rules: PH pgs 182, 183, 198 and DMG 116.

Transmuter (page 247), dread warriors (page 233),
thayan warriors (page 246), gelatinous cube (MM
pg 242)

Swimming (PH page 182)
When swimming, each foot of movement costs one
extra foot. So, half speed, basically. Swimming in
rough water will require an athletics check.

You could roll out the fight between the Thayans
and the cube beforehand in case the characters
creep around a bit. The cube will attack the
Thayans and the heroes indiscriminately.

Underwater Combat (PH page 198)
Melee has disadvantage unless it is a dagger,
javelin, short sword, spear or trident.

(page 145) 73. Jelly Pit
Transmuter (page 247), Thayan apprentices (page
245), ochre jellies (MM pg 243)
Roll: Maybe pre-roll the d4s so you know what
round the oozes will come out.
Ooze Prod: Attack an Ooze with it: 1d4 force dmg
and the ooze’s speed drops to 0 until the end of its
next turn.

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Ranged has disadvantage to hit unless a crossbow,
net or javelin/spear/dart etc. Auto-miss if target is
beyond normal range.
Water Globes
You can control one with a DC 10 Int check. If
someone else tries to take control, you make an opposed INT check.
If the globe touches someone else, that person
must make a DC 15 Str save or be drawn in and
can’t get out until it uses an action to make a DC
15 Int check. When you’re inside the globe, you
have half-cover (+2 to AC and Dex saves).
CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 146) 74. Kraken Pool

Ghouls (MM pg 148)

Malformed kraken (MM pg 197)

If You Do Radiant Damage: DC 15 Wis save or
compelled to jump in the pool, take 9 necrotic
dmg.

The kraken attacks anyone who looks over the
ledge.

(page 146) 75. Dragon Turtle
Prison

(page 147) 79. Bone Pool

Reduced threat dragon turtle (MM pg 119)

Start Your Turn in the Pool: DC 10 Con save or
you’re poisoned until the start of your next turn.

Chains: When the dragon turtle moves, its chains
might hit a character: DC 12 Dex save or knocked
prone.
Reduced-Threat Dragon Turtle: AC 20 HP 170
+10/+10/+10 to hit, 24/14/14
•

Resist: Fire.

•

Speaks Aquan and Draconic (it has an
Int of 10)

•

Tail: +10 24 and DC 18 Str save or
pushed 10 feet and prone.

•

(Rchg 5-6) Steam Breath: 60-foot cone,
DC 16 Con save. Fail: 50 fire dmg. Success: Half dmg.

(page 147) 76. Naga’s Den
Spirit naga (MM pg 234), commoners (pg 345),
detect magic (PH pg 231), identify (PH pg 252),
lesser restoration (PH pg 255), remove curse (PH
pg 271)
Glyph: DC 15 Wis save or disadvantage to hit the
naga, naga has advantage against saves caused by
you. This lasts until the naga dies!

(page 147) 77. Scrag Pool
Trolls (MM pg 291)
Make a Dex Save within 5 Feet of the Pool: Fail:
Fall prone. Fail by 5 or more: Fall into the water.

(page 147) 78. Undead Pool
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Merrow (MM pg 219)

Spawn Pools
Spawning Essence:
•

Drink it: Gain the benefits of a short
rest.

•

Drink Twice in 10 days: DC 15 Wis
save or suffer confusion (PH pg 224) for
1 minute, repeat the save at the end of
each of your turns.

Spawn Pits: Enter or start your turn: 2 piercing
damage.

(page 148) 80. Black Gate Pool
Kuo-toa (MM pg 199)
This is one of those unfolding combats. You’ve got
5 kuo toa to start with, with 4 more sleeping in the
water, and potentially a dread warrior, 2 wights and
4 zombies coming in from 81!
You might want to not involve the sleeping kuo
toa, because the black gate is underwater with
them. When the group dives in… kuo toa wake up.

(page 148) 81. Spawn Hall
Dread warrior (MM page 233), wight (MM pg
300), zombies (MM pg 316)
Scenes of demons and humanoids engaging in debauchery! Maybe you should come up with some
scenes, just don’t creep your players out. Maybe
the debauchery is strip poker or something.
CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 148) 82. Sea Hag Lair
Merrow (MM pg 219), sea hag (MM pg 179), giant
crabs (MM pg 324), staff of charming (DMG pg
201), potion of water breathing (DMG p 188), water walk (PH pg 287)

(MM pg 345), aid (PH pg 211), bless (PH pg 219),
dagger of venom: DMG pg 161
The Priestess: Lots of notes on the priestess:
•

Chanting: The priestess doesn’t stop
chanting unless she takes 20 damage or
more.

•

Dagger: The priestess has a dagger of
venom she could use. Using it would go
like this: As an action, she can coat the
blade with poison. Then:

•

Dagger Attack: +4 to hit, 3 (1d4+1)
piercing damage and when she hits with
it, the target must make a DC 15 Con
save or take 2d10 poison and become
poisoned for one minute.

•

Spells: She can cast mass healing word 3
times: Up to 6 creatures gain d4+4 hit
points.

•

Sacrifice Boon: If 3 rounds go by and
she pulls off the sacrifice, the sahuagin
on the altar gain aid and bless: +5 to hit
point max and current hit points, +d4 to
attacks rolls and saving throws for 1
minute.

The hag wants to team up to take out Ilhanvas (the
naga) in area 76.
Start Turn in Debris Pile. DC 10 Con save or poisoned until the start of your next turn.
North Pool Magic Circle. It takes 3 arcana checks
DC 20 to get it active. It teleports you to a location
deep underwater in an ocean, which sounds like
death to me. It is apparently linked to the sahuagin
mentioned in “Blood Pools" on page 149. High
water pressure, sahuagin, sharks.
You could connect the portal to anywhere you
want, I guess. Maybe you could have it connect to
some kind of secret, awesome room of your own
devising.

(page 149) 83. Baron’s Court
Sahuagin (MM pg 263), sahuagin baron (MM pg
264), hunter sharks (MM pg 330), potion of
diminution (DMG pg 187)
End Turn on Top of a Pillar (marked “x”) Con
save DC 15 or paralyzed for 1 minute and you fall
into the water and sink to the bottom. I’m not sure,
but that could mean that you can’t hold your breath
(because you are paralyzed) so you immediately
drop to 0 hit points and begin making death saves.
It says that you keep saving vs. the paralyzation at
the end of each of your turns, so maybe not. I’d say
they can hold their breath because otherwise that’s
almost certain death.

(page 149) 84. Altar Pool
Sahuagin (MM pg 263), sahuagin princess (MM pg
264), hunter sharks (MM pg 330), commoners

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Prisoner: He is catatonic until taken out of this
room.

(page 149) 85. Prisoner Cavern
Dread warrior (page 233), skeletons (MM pg 272),
commoners (MM pg 345)
Get Within 20 Feet of the Black Shrine: DC 15
Int save. Fail: -1d6 to Int, Wis and Cha. Once you
have a score at 2 or lower, you’re paralyzed until
taken out of the room.
The Prisoners: Catatonic until taken out of this
room.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Golem Laboratories
(page 150) 86. Hall of Teleportation
Helmed horrors (MM pg 183), reduced-threat flesh
golem (MM pg 169)
The creatures come to life if someone gets within 5
feet of the pillars.
Get within 5 feet of Pillar: DC 17 Wis save or 5
lightning damage and be teleported to random
space next to another pillar. If result is the same
pillar, 10 dmg instead of 5. The creatures activate:
Reduced-Threat Helmed Horrors AC 20 HP 30
+4/+4 to hit, 7 dmg.

Examine the Unguents: DC 15 arcana: They’re
worth a cool 1,500 gp.
The golems can’t be activated. You’ll probably
have players who really want to activate them or
sew an extra arm on their body or something. That
seems like a lot of fun, so maybe mull it over in
advance. Having a lumbering golem sidekick could
be fun, especially if an NPC dies and they stick its
head on there. That would be pretty awesome.

(page 150) 88. Black Prison
Wight (pg 300), zombies (pg 316), deathlock wight
(page 233)
There’s 1 wight and 8 zombies not in cages. These
cages aren’t locked. The undead can get out if they
want. Those cages heal them (and hurt you if
you’re in there for 1 minute or longer).

•

They can fly! Fly 30 ft.

•

Advantage on saves vs. spells

(page 151) 89. Transmutation Pits

•

Immune to fireball, heat metal, lightning
bolt.

Transmuter (page 247), priest (MM pg 348), clay
golem (MM pg 168)

Reduced-Threat Flesh Golems AC 9 HP 46 +5/+5
11 dmg

Start Turn in Clay Pit: DC 13 Str or Dex save or
5 dmg and restrained until the start of your next
turn. Escape: Make the save and then make a DC
15 Str or Dex check.

•

Immune to nonmagic weapons!

•

Fire dmg gives it disadvantage to attack
rolls/ability checks until the end of its
next turn.

•

Lightning damage (which it is immune
to, anyway) heals it.

•

Advantage on saves vs. spells.

•

Berserk: Start turn with 40 hp or less,
roll d6. On a 6, it attacks the nearest
creature and continues to do so until destroyed or healed back to full.

Step on Teleport Circle: 5 force dmg (you only
take this dmg the first time), pushed 10 feet and
knocked prone. (These circles are connected to the
cursed skull room in 91, but people can only travel
from there to here.)
The bad guys need to use an action to activate the
golem:
Reduced-Threat Clay Golem: AC 14 HP 66 +8/+8
to hit, 14 dmg and make a DC 13 Con save or reduce hp max by amount of dmg taken.

(page 150) 87. Golem Vault

•

Speed 20!

Necromancer (page 241), thayan apprentices (page
245), skeletons (MM pg 272), ghoul (MM pg 148)

•

(Rchg 5-6) Until the end of its next turn,
the golem has +2 to AC, can use a slam

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CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

attack as a bonus action and has advantage on Dex saves.
•

Advantage on saves vs. magic

•

Acid dmg heals it.

•

Berserk: Start turn with 60 hp or less,
roll d6. On a 6, it attacks the nearest
creature and continues to do so until destroyed or healed back to full.

(page 151) 90. Golem Pits
Clay golem (MM pg 168)
Brightness: In this room you have disadvantage on
ranged attack rolls, and checks involving sight.
Start Turn Next to Pillar: DC 13 Con save and
blind until the start of your next turn.
Glyphs:
•

Study: Make a DC 10 arcana check to
understand them.

•

Shut Off: Use an action: Touch one,
make a DC 15 arcana check and shut off
for a minute.

•

Subdue: You could also subdue them
with a DC 10 arcana: Lowers the pillar
to a DC 8 Con save but it also heals the
clay golem 5 points per round.

(page 151) 91. Hall of Skulls
I don't even know what to say about this one. It's
way out there and it is very brutal.
Get Within 5 Feet of Mist: 5 dmg, Pulled into
room 91, knocked prone.
Walk Into a Skull Mouth: Roll d6 for random
skull. Roll a DC 15 save, depending on which
skull. Fail: -d4 to checks/saves tied to the ability of
the skull. If a Character ends up with a -5 to
checks/saves, they also gain the secondary trait.
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Stench trait of a Troglodyte (MM pg 290): Any
creature that starts its turn within 5 feet of you
makes a DC 12 Con save or is poisoned until the
start of their next turn. Success: Immune to your
stench for 1 hour.
Turn the Black Gate On: DC 20 Arcana check.
The DC goes down by 2 each time a character goes
into a skull mouth.

(page 151) 92. Timeless Prison
Gargoyle (MM pg 140), deva (MM pg 16)
Each round, two things happen:
Gargoyles Appear: Each round, a 4-armed gargoyle comes out of a pillar until 6 have come out.
Adjacent: Anyone next to the pillar the gargoyle
came out of must make a DC 12 Dex save or take
10 dmg from falling rubble.
6 Gargoyles Total: On Round 6, the last gargoyle
comes out and touches the deva statue. The deva
becomes real and screams. Roll init for her. On her
turn, she attacks whoever is closest. A DC 15
Charisma check will set her straight.
4-Armed Gargoyles AC 15 HP 63 +4/+4/+4 to hit,
5 (1d6 + 2) damage
•

Spd 30, fly 60

•

Resistant to non-magic weapons

Lumalia seems like a really cool NPC. She’s now
chaotic good and will fight alongside the heroes.
She is very powerful and can deal out tons of healing.
Lumalia: AC 17 HP 136 +8/+8 to hit, 7 (d6+4)
dmg plus 18 (4d8) radiant.
•

Advantage on saves vs. magic, Resist: Nonmagic weapons

•

1/Day: Raise Dead

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

3/Day: Healing Touch: Regain 20 (4d8+2)
hit points and freed from any
curse/disease/poison/blindness/deafness.

•

Shapechange into any humanoid or beast
challenge 10 or lower.

•

(page 153) 93. Stone Quarry
Stone giant (MM pg 156)
Seems like the group can get surprise on the giants
or sneak past them if they want.
The Pit: The area 10 feet around it is difficult terrain. Pit is 30 feet deep with sloped sides.

(page 153) 94. Golem Assembly
Transmuter (page 247), thayan apprentice (page
245), reduced-threat stone golem (MM pg 156)
Walk Through Arch: Thrown ten feet, DC 15 Con
save or take 5 force dmg and fall prone (you only
take this the first time you go through an arch).
Touch a Copper Panel: 2 lightning damage, you
can walk through arches with no bad effects until
the end of your next turn.
The transmuter can activate the golem with an action and a DC 15 Arcana check (he has a +6):
Reduced-Threat Stone Golem: AC 17 HP 89
+8/+8 to hit, 17 dmg
•

Advantage on saves vs. magic

•

(Rchg 5-6) One creature within 10 feet
makes a DC 15 Wis save. Fail. Half
speed, no reactions, only one attack on a
turn. Can only take an action or a bonus
action on a turn, not both. Lasts 1
minute, save at the end of each of your
turns.

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(page 154) 95. Efreet Prison
Efreeti (MM pg 145)
The heroes enter, the efreet demands to be freed
with a dispel magic, gust of wind, or knock spell.
He is bound here by chains of smoke.
If they free him: He rampages through the dungeon killing Thayans (he doesn’t need glyph keys).
If they don’t: He attacks.
You could have him offer the group a wish as per
the wish spell (PH pg 288), which might be fun but
could also be a headache. Maybe have him offer
them a specific reward, like a house in the City of
Brass or an arranged marriage with one of his
lovely children.
The Other Efreet: There’s another Efreet in room
97 (page 155). You could say that this is the
efreet’s relative or significant other. It would probably want to go there to free the efreet, but someone needs to break the charm person on that efreet.
Gout of Flame: Jump it: 2 dmg. Enter/start your
turn in it: 21 fire dmg.
Molten Pool: Enter/start your turn: 35 fire.
Urns: They are binding vessels for efreet? Be
ready for heroes who might try to use them to trap
the efreet inside. When Broken: Any creature
within 10 feet gains resistance to fire for 1 hour.

(page 154) 96. Fire Vortex
Ash Floor. 6 inches deep, difficult terrain.
Step into Center of Room. 5 rounds of fire! Each
round: DC 15 Dex save. Fail: 21 fire dmg. Success: Half dmg.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 155) 97. Golem Forge

•

Conjurer (page 232), thayan apprentices (page
245), efreeti (MM pg 145)
Tip the Crucible: (You can move it 5 feet with a
DC 20 Str check) DC 15 Str check: Molten metal
fills a 30 ft. x 30 ft. area. Anyone in that area takes
21 fire dmg and must make a DC 15 Con save or
fall prone (!). For the next five rounds, anyone in
this area takes 10 dmg. For the 5 rounds after that,
they take 3 fire.

Temples of Extraction
This place is really cool. There's a "Chosen" exarch
of a deity trapped in each room having their power
siphoned. They're in these special shrines:
Figuring Out Shrine Effects: DC 10 Wis check.
Enter a Shrine
DC 10 Cha check. Fail: 5 force dmg and knocked
prone. Succeed: Difficult terrain. Succeed by 5 or
more: Normal terrain.
Disable a Shrine
Stand on the shrine, make 3 DC 15 checks, choosing from these options (Fail a check: 5 force dmg,
knocked prone):
•

Strength Check DC 15: Smash Pillars

•

Dexterity Check DC 15: Disable Runes

•

Intelligence Check DC 15: Disrupt the
flow.

Once Six Shrines are Disrupted
You can use a glyph key to go to the Phylactery
Vault.
Helpless Chosen Stats: AC 10 HP 5 +0 to all
checks/rolls.
•

The Chosen don’t need glyph keys.

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Some of them are monsters with different stats that attack as soon as they're
freed.

Shrines of Binding
(page 156) 98. Temple of Poison
Necromancer (page 241), helmed horror (MM pg
183), yuan-ti malison (MM pg 309)
Dark Mist. Start Turn in Here: DC 15 Con save or
stunned until the start of your next turn. Success:
Immune to this effect for a day and gain +5 poison
dmg with weapon attacks.
Oussa: Chosen of Zehir, serpent god of poison,
darkness and murder. Oussa will attack the party
like an idiot.

(page 157) 99. Temple of Suffering
Enchanter (page 234), Thayan apprentice (page
245), 2 dread warriors (page 233), wand of binding
(DMG pg 209)
Suffering Aura: When you hit with an attack in
this room make a DC 15 Wis save.
•

Fail: You take damage equal to 25% of
the damage you dealt out to one target.

•

Success: Regain 25% of the damage as
hit points!

Kieren: Chosen of Ilmater, god of suffering, martyrdom and perseverance. He’s a lawful good dude
who offers encouraging words.

(page 157) 100. Temple of Pain
Deathlock wight (page 233), wraith (pg 302), shadows
Web of Pain: Start turn in this place: DC 15 Con
save. Fail: Creatures have advantage to hit you and
you have disadvantage on attacks and on Str and
Dex saves/checks until the end of your next turn.
CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Irisoth: Chosen of Loviatar, the Maiden of Pain.
She’s a lawful evil half-elf, what you do with her is
up to you.

(page 158) 101. Temple of Ooze
Transmuter (page 247), wight (pg 300), gray oozes
(MM pg 243), ochre jellies (MM pg 243)
Start Turn within 15 Feet of Walls: Opportunity
attack with advantage: +3 to hit, reach 15 ft., one
target. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) dmg plus 7 acid and nonmagic metal armor gets -1 to AC.
Therzt: Chosen of Ghaunadaur, god of oozes.
Therzt is a chaotic evil drow who kills himself
with Melf’s acid arrow (PH pg 259): +3 to hit,
reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6+1) dmg plus 7
acid and nonmagic metal armor gets -1 to AC.

When You Take Damage in Here: DC 15 Wis
save or 5 poison and blinded for 1 minute. Repeat
the save at the end of each of your turns to end the
effect.
Ashdra: Chosen of Ibrandul god of darkness and
the underground. He is a comforter and protector.
Ashdra is a chaotic evil human drow.

(page 158) 103. Temple of Fortune
Necromancer (page 241), flesh golem (MM pg
169)
This room is all about critical hits and misses:
•

Attack Rolls: Roll a 1: You take the dmg
from your attack. Roll a 20: Roll the extra dmg dice twice instead of once.

•

Saves: Roll a 1: Suffer max dmg/worst
possible effect. Roll a 20: The caster suffers the effects of the spell, not you.

•

Ability Checks: Roll a 1: Worst possible
outcome. Roll a 20: Spectacular outcome
(backflips).

He Might Miss: The funny thing here is
that he has to make an attack roll and he

•

has +0 to hit. Hit: 4d4 acid and 2d4 acid a
round later. Miss: Half of the 4d4 acid and
that's it. It is possible he will live.
If He Dies: If he dies, it causes two gray
oozes to come out of the walls to attack.

•

(page 158) 102. Temple of Shadows

Curran Corvalin: Chosen of Tymora, goddess of
luck. Curran is a chaotic good male halfling. He
thinks he has good luck.

Shadows (MM pg 269)

(page 159) 104. Temple of Savagery

If you have a light spell of 3rd level or higher going, then it’s dim light. If not, it’s dark in here.
We'd better dig out the light rules again:

Evoker (page 235), dread warriors (page 233),
shadow (MM pg 269), wight (pg 300)

•

Dim light (lightly obscured): Disadvantage on Perception checks.
Darkness (heavily obscured): Blindness. Creatures have advantage to hit
you, and you have disadvantage to hit
them. You fail any ability check requiring sight.

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Once Battle Begins: If you don’t deal damage in a
round, you take 5 psychic damage.
End Your Turn in Here: DC 15 Cha save. Fail:
You can’t use reactions, you’ll make an opportunity attack on anyone and you get advantage on the
roll.
Torlin Silvershield: Chosen of Bhaal, god of assassins. Torlin is a wight and he attacks right away.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

(page 159) 105. Temple of Plague

•

Necromancer (page 241), deathlock wight (page
233), dread warrior (page 233), zombie (pg 316)
Death Saves in Here: You have disadvantage on
death saves!
Start Your Turn in Here: DC 13 Con save:
•

Fail: 5 poison dmg and incapacitated
(can't take actions or reactions).

•

Three Failed Saves: You lose your poison dmg (15) from your hp max.

•

Three Successful Saves: You are immune
to this mist for 4 hours.

Bandagh: Chosen of Yurtrus, orc god of disease.
Bandagh is a neutral evil orc with pockmarks/scars
from disease. He is too weak to oppose the group
in any way.

(page 159) 106. Temple of the Forest
Wraith (pg 302), will-o’-wisps (MM pg 301), druid
(MM pg 346)
Invisible Will-o’-Wisps: They’re invisible at the
start!
Move More than Half Speed or Miss a Melee Attack: All creatures make a DC 13 Str save or restrained (Spd 0, attack rolls vs you have advantage,
you have disadvantage on attack rolls and Dex
saves).
Eira: Chosen of Rillifane Rallathi, elf god of nature. She’s not that hurt and she wants to join the
group. She’s a druid with half her max hit points
(MM pg 346).
•

Her max hp is 27, so she has 13 hp.
She'd better cast barkskin right away
(AC 16).

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She has merged with a Chosen of Talona
and shifts between evil and good, arguing with herself. If/when she dies, she
turns to ash.

(page 159) 107. Temple of Winter
Evoker (page 235), thayan apprentice (page 245),
yetis (MM pg 305), deathlock wight (page 233),
Robe of Summer (page 229)
Start Turn with Metal Armor/Weapon: DC 13
Con save. Fail: 5 cold dmg. Fail by 5 or More:
Disadvantage on Str/Dex attacks/saves/checks until
start of your next turn.
The Red Wizard Has Cold Resistance: She takes
half damage from cold because of her robe of summer.
Hedrun Arnsfurth: Chosen of Auril, god of winter. Hedrun is a deathlock wight (page 233) and she
immediately attacks.

The Phylactery Vault
Gargoyle (MM pg 140), demilich (MM pg 48)
This place is really cool, but confusing. The group
appears in a place like the inside of a hollow pyramid/4-sided die. The gravity is such that you can
walk up the walls. Your job here is to open all 12
sepulchers (each full of lich phylacteries!!) and
then kill Kazit Gul (destroying all of his gems).
•

Moving Around: Walking up a wall requires a DC 13 athletics or acrobatics
check. Fail: Prone.

•

Ranged Attacks: Disadvantage to attacking creatures on another side.

•

Flying: Landing on a wall is a DC 10 Acrobatics check or fall prone.

CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

Sepulchers
1. Open the Door: Either DC 17 Dex check
to Pick it or DC 20 Str check to break it
in.
2. Once It’s Open: All three doors on this
floor turn into gargoyles and attack.

•

It can use life drain to suck hit points out
of three people to regain that many hit
points.

•

At the end of other turns, it can drop the
hp max of every creature within 30 feet
by 10 points!

3. Disrupting the Sepulcher: In each of the
12 sepulchers, you need to make three
successful DC 15 Arcana or Religion
checks.
4. Fail: You take dmg equal to the amount
you failed by!
You get a +1 to the check for each glyph key that
you hold.
Once You Disable the First Sepulcher: Kazit Gul
shows up (flavor on the bottom of page 163).
Once Kazit Gul is Defeated: His 8 diamonds need
to be crushed.
Once Kazit Gul is Killed and at Least Three Sepulchers are Drained: The place starts to collapse.
The group will need to make it to the magic circles
to get out.
Dark Pools: Start your turn, take 9 necrotic and
can’t regain hit points while in it.
Pedestals: They hurt undead, but not Kazit Gul.
4-Armed Gargoyles: AC 15 HP 63 +4/+4/+4 to hit,
5 (1d6 + 2) damage
•

Spd 30, fly 60

•

Resistant to non-magic weapons

Kazit Gul: If you look at the demilich stats, you
will see some scary stuff:
•

(Rchg 5-6) Howl: All within 30 feet make
a DC 15 Con save or drop to 0 hit points!

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CHAPTER 7: DEAD IN THAY

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Random Encounters (page 167)

(page 168) 5. Maids’ Chamber

You might want to pick some random encounters
in advance. My favorites are Grutha coming to find
her pet bear (is it hiding under a bed or something?) and the two drunk hill giants going to sleep
it off.

1 hill giant (MM pg 155), 3 “ogres” (hill giant servants), potion of healing (DMG pg 188), potion of
superior healing (DMG pg 188), potion of poison
(DMG pg 188), potion of mind control (page 229)

Intoxication
This one starts off pretty fun. The giant guards are
drunk and taking a nap. The group can do all sorts
of fun stuff here.

(page 167) 1. Front Gate and Foyer
Hill giants (MM pg 155)
Listen at the door: The group might hear snoring.
They are drunk and passed out. If they survive a
round of throat-slitting, they will call out for the giants in 1b. You might want to put a giant cup of ale
as large as a character here, just to see if one of the
characters will swim in it or something.

(page 167) 1B. Tower Guard
Hill Giant (MM pg 155)
He is also dozing and drunk!

(page 167) 2. Subchief
Hill Giant (MM pg 155)
She is sleeping, too. DC 8 Stealth to sneak by without waking her.

(page 168) 3. Dormitory
12 “orcs” (MM pg 246)
These giants use orc stats, and they are goofing
around.

(page 168) 4. Barracks
2 hill giants (MM pg 155)
They’re snoring. Maybe they are spooning.

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The matron wants the heroes dead, but the maids
aren’t too keen on fighting and will actually help
the group a bit if the matron is taken care of. They
might even give the group their magic potions.

(page 168) 7. Chamber of the
Chief’s Wife
Polar bear (MM pg 334)
Grutha’s pet bear is here. It might be a fun wrinkle
to have Grutha comes down the hall, calling for her
bear.

(page 168) 9. Arms Room
Javelin of lightning (DMG pg 178)

(page 168) 10. Small Dining Room
The manticore hide is pretty cool, the group might
want to make a cloak or vest out of it.

(page 168) 10a. Secret Room
The group can find a note written in giant, signed
by Eclavdra (Lolth’s agent). It contains the attack
plans for the hill giants. If you’re not using the
drow, you might want to get rid of it or adapt it to
your story.

(page 170) 11. Great Hall
Frost giant (MM pg 155), hill giant (MM pg 155),
polar bear (MM pg 334), stone giant (MM pg 156),
cloud giant (MM pg 154), ogre (MM pg 237)
There’s a total of 27 creatures in here. This is a
pretty scary situation. Some players will have some
ill-advised ideas. Definitely give them a warning to
make sure they understand just how dangerous this
is. I love the idea of the heroes poisoning the food,
though. That would be really intense.
CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

In 4e, the stone giant emissary is named Laerthar

(page 171) 17. Kitchen

Total Treasure (average of possible total): 15,420
gp

29 commoners (MM pg 345), ogre (MM pg 237),
orc (MM pg 246)

(page 171) 13. Weapons Room

They will run from any conflict.

We have a +1 warhammer in here and a hammer
that heckles dwarves. I find the idea of a magic
weapon that makes fun of everybody to be quite
amusing. You could google some Don Rickles
jokes and go nuts. Just make sure you don’t hurt
any real-life feelings and be willing to let the hammer get its comeuppance.

(page 171) 19. Servants’ Quarters

(page 171) 14. Main Guest Chamber

Ogre (MM pg 237), hill giant (MM pg 155)
The servants are flirting with this handsome hill giant, who will want to show off.

(page 171) 20. Orc Slave Quarters
Commoners (MM pg 345)

Waythe, the sentient greatsword is detailed on page
229.

These orc slaves will help the group, and tell them
that the orcs below are rebelling and can be helpful
as well.

Waythe

(page 171) 21. Ogre Quarters

Waythe (requires attunement – it takes goodaligned characters just 1 minute to attune to it)
•

+1 to hit and damage

•

+2d6 damage vs. giants and they must
make a DC 15 Strength save or fall prone

•

Functions as a wand of enemy detection
(DMG pg 210) 7 charges

•

Enemy Detection: Use an action/spend a
charge and for the next minute, you know
the direction of the nearest creature hostile
to you within 60 feet, but not its distance
from you.

•

It regains all charges daily at dawn

•

No risk of it crumbling if you use the last
charge.

•

Int 12 Wis 2 Cha 14

•

It has hearing and darkvision 120 feet.

•

Waythe is courageous to the point of foolhardiness, and does not like being wielded
by those who are timid or evil.

Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.

Ogre (MM pg 237), potion of storm giant strength
(DMG pg 187), potion of invisibility (DMG pg
188)

(page 172) 22. Open Yard
Dire wolves (MM pg 321)

Dungeon Level
Ceilings: Are 15-20 feet high
Random Encounters: If you use the 12 rebel orcs,
just be prepared to use them in combat against the
giants. That is a lot of die rolls and it can really
slow the game down. You might want to consider
making them into a two 6-orc “swarms of orcs”.
Just use their stats and add their hit points and
damage together. Once it is at half hit points, 3 orcs
die and the damage gets cut in half.

(page 172) 2. Chamber of the
Keeper
Stone giant (MM pg 156), potions of water breathing (DMG pg 188)

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

The Keeper is a big, evil, pale hunch-backed giant.
He has two pet apes. Both have modified stats:
The Keeper: AC 17 HP 126 reach 15, +10/+10 to
hit, 20 (3d8+7) slashing dmg
•

Spd 40

•

Rock Catching. If a rock or similar object is hurled at The Keeper, he can make
a DC 10 Dex save to catch it and take no
damage from it.

Apes: AC 12 HP 30 +5/+5 6 (1d6+3)

(page 174) Obedient Slave Quarters
Orcs (MM pg 246), commoners (MM pg 345)
All of these creatures are demoralized and offer no
resistance or aid.
•

9. Barracks: 24 unarmed orcs (MM pg
246)/commoners (MM pg 345)

•

10. Barracks: 30 unarmed orcs (MM pg
246)/commoners (MM pg 345)

•

11. Barracks: 25 unarmed orcs (MM pg
246)/commoners (MM pg 345)

Spd 30, climb 30

(page 173) 3. Cell Block

(page 175) Unruly Slave Quarters

Bugbears (MM pg 33), noble (MM pg 348), knight
(MM pg 347), wight (MM pg 300), orc (MM pg
246)

Bugbear (MM pg 33), orc (MM pg 246), commoners (MM pg 345)

1. Cell 1: Insane noble

Some of these people might aid the group
•

12. Barracks: 48 unarmed orcs (MM pg
246)/commoners (MM pg 345)

3. Cell 3: Elf knight, will fight alongside
the heroes

•

13. Barracks: 24 unarmed orcs (MM pg
246)/commoners (MM pg 345)

4. Cell 4: Skeletal remains wearing jewelry
on the floor. If the group enters, they get
up. They’re 3 wights!

•

14. Barracks: 16 unarmed orcs (MM pg
246)/commoners (MM pg 345)

2. Cell 2: Human engineer/dungeon builder

5. Cell 5: Five orc rebels want to get escape

In 4e, there is one orc named named Javoc who
fights valiantly alongside the heroes.

(page 173) Bugbear Complex

(page 175) 15. Torture Chamber

Bugbear (MM pg 33), bugbear chief (MM pg 33)

Hill Giant (MM pg 155)

•

4. Outpost: 8 bugbears (MM pg 33)

Two dozing hill giants.

•

5. 9 sleeping bugbears (MM pg 33)

(page 175) 16. Armory and Smithy

•

6. 8 sleeping bugbears (MM pg 33)

•

7. Bugbear chief (MM pg 33)and 4 bugbears (MM pg 33). They all do 11
(2d8+1) slashing

Fire giant (MM pg 154), commoner (MM pg 345),
veteran (MM pg 350)

•

8. Outpost: 6 alert bugbear guards (MM
pg 33)

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There are 5 dwarves being forced to work in here
with 2 fire giants overseeing things.
In 4e, the fire giant smith’s name is Smolderheart

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 175) 17A. Weird Abandoned
Temple
Ring of mindshielding (DMG pg 191)
Touch a Pillar: DC 15 Con save or poisoned for 1
hour
Gaze at the Wall: DC 15 Int save or cursed with
permanent insanity (as per the symbol spell, PH pg
280)
•

Insanity: Can't take actions, can't understand what other creatures say, can't read,
speaks jibberish. The DM controls their
movement. The character is pretty much
screwed unless someone has remove
curse, greater restoration, heal, etc.

In 4e, this temple is linked to Tharizdun and the Elder Elemental Eye.

(page 176) 19. Natural Cavern

(page 177) 25. Wine Cellar
Drink the Wine: DC 15 Con or Wis save. Fail:
Drunk (poisoned) for one hour, roll the save again
in an hour. Fail that one: Unconscious. Once
awakened, drunk for another hour, then gain one
level of exhaustion.

(page 177) 28. Stone Giant Miners
Stone giant (MM pg 156)
Not interested in fighting.

(page 177) 29. False Treasure
The group sees a pile of loot in coffers. Touch
them: Bars drop and seal the entrance and the other
bars that lead to 30 lift up. The manticores in room
30 attack.

(page 177) 30. Imprisoned Guards
Manticore (MM pg 213)

Orog (MM pg 247), orc (MM pg 246), commoners
(MM pg 345)

(page 178) 31. Minor Treasure
Room

78 orcs ready to rebel

Potion of poison (DMG pg 188)
•

Chest 1: Copper

•

Chest 2: (Trap+7 to hit, 10 (3d6) slashing) Silver

•

Chest 3: Electrum, unlabeled potion
(poison) (DMG pg 188)

(page 176) 21 Lizards’ Lair: Giant crocodiles (MM
pg 324), giant lizards (MM 326)

•

Chest 4: Copper ingots

(page 176) 23. Cavern of the Carrion Crawlers

•

Chest 5: Empty

•

Chest 6: 11 ivory tusks

•

Chest 7: Locked (Trap: Take 1 dmg and
11 poison dmg, and make a DC 13 Con
save or poisoned for 1 hour. Fail by 5 or
more: You are also unconscious. Wake
up if you take dmg or if someone spends
an action to shake you awake). 325 gp
worth of gems.

(page 176) 20. Troglodyte Cavern
Troglodyte (MM pg 290), kobold (MM pg 195)
23 stranded troglodytes

(page 36) 1. End of the Trail

Carrion crawler (MM pg 37)
Treasure table is on DMG pg 137. You should roll
this in advance if possible.

Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

Poison Needle, DMG pg 123, Drow Poison DMG
pg 258
Total Gold Value: 5,208 gp

(page 178) Chief’s Secret Treasure
Room
Flame tongue (DMG pg 170),
Finding the room goes like this:
Either you fall in and take 11 (2d10) dmg and a DC
15 Con save. Fail 22 (4d10) poison, Success: Half
dmg.
Or:
1. Detect the trap: DC 15 perception.
2. Prod the lid open: DC 10 Str check
3. If you want to wedge it shut so you can
safely cross it: DC 15 Str check
Illusory yellow mold: Just in case: (Yellow mold
DMG pg 105) If touched, it ejects spores in a 10
foot cube. DC 15 Con save or 11 poison and poisoned for 1 minute, taking another 5 poison at the
start of each turn until you make your save.
•

Large Chest: 8,000 gp

•

Iron Box (locked): 1,000 platinum

•

Small coffer: Gems

•

Another Coffer: 7 pieces of jewelry

•

Under the Illusion: 11 +1 arrows, +2
spear, flame tongue shortsword that detects gems and jewels

•
•

Broken Barrel Illusion: Map to frost giant lair and…
Obsidian Box: A chain and instructions
on how to use it to teleport to the glacial
rift of the frost giants.

Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.

The Glacial Rift of the
Frost Giant Jarl
Stuff to Remember:
Travel on the Surface of the Rift: Random PC
must make a DC 1 Acrobatics or fall in, taking d6
to 15d6 dmg, depending on what area they are on
above.
Flying: It’s too windy to fly. Roll a d8 for random
direction traveled.
Visibility: 150 ft
Down Below: It is actually more windy at the bottom of the rift. Visibility is 30 ft. Advantage on
stealth checks here.
Light: The entire upper level is lit by a natural
greenish light, no torches needed.
Slippery: If you are hit by an attack or you move
more than half your speed, make DC 10 Acrobatics
check or fall prone.
Fire: Fireball and other fire spells cause 5 minutes
of fog that makes the area heavily obscured: You're
blinded! (PH pg 290) You have disadvantage on attack rolls, creatures have advantage to attack you.
Auto-fail any check that requires sight.

(page 181) 1. Guardroom Ice Cavern
Frost giant (MM pg 155)

(page 181) 2. Guardroom Ice Cave
Frost giant (MM pg 155)
If a fight breaks out, calls for the giant on room 1
to help.

(page 181) 3. Empty Ice Cave
Noise means ceiling collapse: DC 15 Dex save.
Fail: 16 dmg. Success: Half dmg.
CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 181) 4. Small Ice Cave

(page 183) 12. Lower Bone Cave

Winter wolf (MM pg 340), dire wolf (MM pg 321)

Giant ice toads (page 235)

(page 181) 5. Ice Caverns

They worship a gem on a “protuberance.” Seems
like there’s potential for shenanigans with that.

Staff of frost (DMG pg 202), scroll of protection
(elementals) (DMG pg 199), ring of resistance
(fire) (DMG pg 192), Armor of vulnerability
(DMG pg 152)
Noise Causes a Cave-in: DC 15 Dex save. Fail: 16
dmg. Success: Half dmg.

(page 182) 6. Provisions
Cure wounds (PH pg 230)

(page 182) 7. Cavern
Ogre (MM pg 237)
The sleeping ogres are under covers and probably
won’t be noticed right away.

(page 182) 8. South Cavern
Ogre (MM pg 237), potions of healing (DMG pg
188)
Six ogres
The armband under the skin is a token of free passage, meaning the group can move around in here
without being attacked as long as they are not aggressive.

(page 183) 13. Ice Cavern
Yeti (MM pg 305), frost brand (DMG pg 171)
The yeti leader wields the frost brand: 11 (2d6+4)
slashing plus 3 (1d6) cold dmg

(page 183) 14. Misty Ice Cave: Maybe
narrate the deep cracks in the ice to give the heroes
an extra chance not to lose their stuff.
Slippery: If you’re hit or you move more than half
you speed, DC 10 Dex save. Fail: prone. Fail by 5
or More: You drop what you’re holding in a crack
and lose it forever.
Fog: Heavily obscured: You're blinded. (PH pg
290) You have disadvantage on attack rolls, creatures have advantage to attack you. Auto-fail any
check that requires sight.

(page 183) 15. Ice Cave
Tiger (MM pg 339)
They’re on a ledge and will try to surprise the adventurers.

Total Value of Treasure: 2,788

(page 183) Barracks Complex

(page 182) Cavern Guard Post

These giants aren’t sleeping, they are getting ready
for a raid.

•

9. Northwest Chamber: Frost giant (MM
pg 155)

•

16. Outer Sleeping Area: Frost giant
(MM pg 155)

•

There’s a total of three more armbands that can
give the group free passage here.

17. Upper Sleeping Area: Frost giant
(MM pg 155)

•

(page 182) 11. Cave of Bones

18. Middle Sleeping Area: 2 Frost giants
(MM pg 155)

•

19. Lower Sleeping Area: Frost giant
(MM pg 155)

•

10. Southeast Chamber: Frost giant
(MM pg 155)

Piles of bodies and refuse, almost nothing of value.
Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only.

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 183) 21. Ice Cavern
Brown mold (DMG pg 105)
The brown mold covers a 10 foot square, when you
get within 5 feet of it: DC 12 Con save. Fail: Take
22 cold dmg. Success: Half damage.
•
•

It is immune to fire and extinguishes fire
within five feet.
It is instantly destroyed by cold damage.

(page 183) 22. Guard Ice Cave
2 Frost giants (MM pg 155)

(page 183) 23. Guard Cave
2 Frost giants (MM pg 155)

(page 183) 24. Visitors’ Cave
Hill giant (MM pg 155), ogre (MM pg 237)
There’s a gold skull with a parchment inside. The
parchment is a token of free passage to the fire giant hall.

(page 183) 25. Visitors’ Cave
Stone giant (MM pg 156)
They don’t fight unless they are attacked.

(page 185) 26. Special Visitors’
Cave

Lower Level
Boulders: Some areas are blocked by boulders: DC
20 Athletics to move them.
Light: Lit by torches and fire beetles in little cages

(page 185) 2. Vaulted Cavern
Young white dragon (MM pg 101), potion of poison (page 188), potion of resistance (fire) (DMG
pg 188), potion of diminution (DMG pg 187), potion of growth (DMG pg 187, enlarge (PH pg 237)
Two dragons! One is on the gold pile, the other is
30 feet up on the ledge. It’s likely the group will
see one dragon, plan, and attack, only to be blindsided by second dragon, at which point it will be
utter chaos.
In the 4e update, these dragons are given names:
Caulstfax and Engdreth. They are brother and sister.
Total Treasure: 19,900 gp (including the gems in
2a).

(page 186) 4a. Stone Rubble
The skeleton is holding a map to a secret tunnel.
It’s a fake. If you want to kick it up a notch, maybe
have the digging cause a cave-in and then draw in
the toads from 4b, if they are still alive.

Fire giant (MM pg 154), hill giant (MM pg 155)

(page 186) 4b. Hungry and Hopping

(page 185) 27. Winter Wolf Pack

Giant ice toads (page 235)

Winter wolf (MM pg 340)

(page 186) 5. Entrance Cavern

(page 185) 28. Snow-Covered Dome
of Ice

Frost giant (MM pg 155)

Remorhaz (MM pg 258)

(page 185) 29. White Pudding
Black Pudding (MM pg 241)

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He’ll grab a horn and spend an action to blow it,
alerting the giants that there is trouble. That could
feasibly draw in a lot of creatures:
The oni and four ogres from 6, and eight ogres
from 9. I don’t think the cloud giant in 7 would
join in. The storm giant in 8 is chained up.

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 186) 6. Emissaries’ Cavern
Oni (MM pg 239), ogre (MM pg 237), necklace of
fireballs (DMG pg 182), potion of mind control
(frost giant) (page 229), potion of cloud giant
strength (DMG pg 187 – Str of 27!), bag of holding (DMG pg 153)
Fireballs: The oni has a necklace of fireballs with
5 beads left. The oni could throw all 5 if it wants to
(although all it does is raise the level of the spell
by one for each extra bead). So if you used all 5,
that would be a DC 15 Dex save. Fail: 12d6 fire.
Success: Half dmg.
•

Fireball Fog: Remember, the fireball will
cause five minutes of fog! Heavily obscured: You're blinded. (PH pg 290) You
have disadvantage on attack rolls, creatures have advantage to attack you. Autofail any check that requires sight.

The heroes can win her over by speaking well of
her father and pointing out that her behavior reflects on her people.
If they make her angry and she gets away, she destroys a settlement linked to the group or some location they value.
Giant Ally: Making her an ally might feel weird –
it might make the adventure too easy. I say give it a
try, but give yourself an out. Maybe have her receive a sending spell from her father, who tells her
to come home at once. Maybe she could meet the
group at a later time and reward them with some
storm magic thing.

(page 187) 9. Servants’ Quarters
Cavern
Ogre (MM pg 237)

(page 187) 10. Antecavern

(page 187) 7. Guest Cavern

Frost giant (MM pg 155)

Cloud giant (MM pg 154)

(page 187) 11. Great Cavern of the
Jarl

This guy has made an alliance with the Jarl.

(page 187) 8. Prison Cavern

Frost giant (MM pg 155)

Storm giant (MM pg 156)

There’s 2 frost giants, one on A and one on B.
They’re 30 feet up and can chuck rocks.

In the 4e version, the prisoner’s name is Elektra.
There’s some good flavor for this:
"Trapped behind a heavy wooden portcullis is an
18-foot-tall female giant with purple skin and hair
as dark as a thundercloud. She wears heavy iron
manacles on her wrists and has a large ball-andchain clamped to her right ankle, belying the finery
of her garments. “Did my father send you? Finally!” she says with a sneer, stomping her chained
foot. “Get me out of here!”

(page 187) 13. Guard Area
Frost giant (MM pg 155)

(page 187) 14. Kitchen
Hill giant (MM pg 155), ogre (MM pg 237), commoner (MM pg 345)
The four humans are in a cage, they’re going to be
food! If you can, work in a Soylent Green reference that nobody under the age of 80 will get.

The frost giants are trying to ransom her off to her
father, Lord Krombaalt, ruler of the storm giants.

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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 187) 16. Common Quarters
Caverns
Frost giant (MM pg 155), hill giant (MM pg 155),
ogre (MM pg 237)

(page 187) 17. Kennel Cave
Polar bear (MM pg 334)
With 65 HP

Caverns of the Jarls
(page 188) 18. West Chamber
Frost giant (MM pg 155), hill giant (MM pg 155),
ogre (MM pg 237)

strength (DMG pg 187, Str of 29!), potion of poison (DMG pg 188), oil of slipperiness (DMG pg
184), potion of healing (DMG pg 188), philter of
love (DMG pg 184), scroll of protection (fiends)
(DMG pg 199), delayed blast fireball (PH pg 230),
finger of death (PH pg 241)
Don’t forget the two winter wolves, they’re way
down at the bottom of the entry.
Jarl Grugnur: AC 18 (AC 20 vs. ranged) HP 200
+12/+14 to hit, reach 10 ft., 23 (3d8+10) slashing
dmg.
•

Spd 40

•

Arrow-Catching Shield: If someone
makes a ranged attack against someone
within 5 feet of the Jarl, he can use his
reaction to become the target instead.

(page 188) 19 East Chamber
Frost giant (MM pg 155), hill giant (MM pg 155),
ogre (MM pg 237)
I assume that it was just an error that the frost giant
servant was not listed as a hill giant and the two
young frost giants are ogres.

(page 189) 20. Jarl’s Antecavern
and Trophy Hall
All sorts of cool stuff on the walls. The group
could take some hides and have special armor
made.
•

•

Shield +1 (Trapped): Take the magic
shield off the wall: Spear! +10 to hit, 10
(3d6) piercing dmg.
Walrus Tusks (Trapped): If you touch the
tusks, the dragon head starts shouting
“Alarm! Robbers!”

(page 189) Jarl Grugnur’s Private
Caverns

Estia: AC 16 (+2 vs. ranged) HP 200 +12/+12 to
hit, reach 10 ft., 23 (3d8+10) piercing dmg.
•

Spd 40

•

She wields a +2 morningstar and wears a
saber-tooth tiger hide cloak

(page 189) Hidden Tunnel
Glyph of Warding (PH pg 245), cloudkill (PH pg
222), pearl of power (DMG pg 184), Nolzur’s marvelous pigments (DMG pg 183), wand of paralysis
(DMG pg 211)
There’s an iron bar sticking out of the wall. If
pushed downwards, it teleports all in the alcove to
Snurre’s hall in the Hall of the Fire Giant King!
Invisible Box: It’s way up on a ledge. Glyph of
Warding DC 17 Cloudkill: 20 foot radius cloud of
poison fog: DC 17 Con save. Fail: 5d8 poison.
Success: Half dmg.

Cloud giant (MM pg 154), winter wolf (MM pg
340) arrow-catching shield (DMG pg 152), potion
of speed (DMG pg 188), potion of superior healing
(DMG pg 188, heals 8d4+8), potion of storm giant
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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

Hall of the Fire Giant
King
This dungeon is huge, full of monsters and it is
front-loaded. You’ll fight the fire giant ruler, King
Snurre, almost right away. The group is supposed
to be looking for the evil mastermind, so they
should keep going. Level two has a red dragon,
and level three has Eclavdra and her drow minions,
the true villains of the scenario. There’s even a few
mindflayers at the end.

Dungeon Notes
Lots of little things:
Bigly
This feels too big. You might want to junk some of
the empty rooms. I can see groups getting bored
fighting ropers and piercers.
Safe Cave
The group can use a cave 2 miles away to rest in.
Each time they do so, there is a greater chance that
the giants learn of it.
Front Doors
They’re massive! 29 feet tall, 10 feet wide. The
group needs to make a combined athletics check of
25! Or, there’s a 50% chance the door is ajar, but a
fire giant is watching it.
Secret Entrances?
There are none! If the group goes poking around,
all they will find is vent holes that spew flaming
gases that 7 points of fire damage.
Doors
The doors inside require a DC 15 athletics check to
open. They don’t swing shut on their own.
Starting Point
On the map on page 190, the front doors are on the
bottom left corner. There’s another number 1 on
the right, but that’s something different.

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(page 192) 1a. Alcove
Fire giant (MM pg 154)
Right as the group comes in, there’s a giant hidden
behind a tapestry to the left. He’ll blow a horn and
the group will have problems. These creatures will
be coming:
2 Ettins from area 2, 2 hellhounds, 2 fire giants and
maybe King Snurre himself from area 3, 2 fire giants from area 18, 8 hellhounds and 3 more fire giants from 21-25.
If the Group Runs In and Hides: The ettins are
closest. I’d imagine that if the group scrambles inside and tries to lose them, Snurre’s 2 hellhounds
would try to sniff the heroes out with their advantage on perception using hearing and smelling, +5
to the roll.
Returning: Once the group leaves and comes
back, a ballista will be set up. It fires multiple bolts
at once! One for each hero. That’s +6 to hit, 11
(2d10) dmg. Ballistas take 3 actions to reload, so
either there’s a bunch of flunkies next to it re-arming it, or the bad guys will just get that one shot
off.

(page 192) 2. Grand Hall
Ettin (MM pg 132)

(page 192) 3. Throne Room and Audience Chamber
King Snurre, fire giant (MM pg 154), hell hound
(MM pg 182)
On the map, 1 and 2 are the giant. 3 and 4 are the
hell hounds.
In the 4e version, there's a drow named Taz'zt here.
He’s keeping an eye on Snurre for Eclavdra. This
might be a nice way to make sure the group continues through the dungeon rather than leave because
they killed the king.

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

If Snurre runs, he will go to room 5 (page 207) and
huddle up with other escaped major NPCs.
King Snurre: AC 18 HP 187 +11/+11 to hit, reach
10 ft., 28 (6d6+7) slashing and 7 (2d6) fire dmg.
•

Spd 30, Immune to Fire, Resistance to
cold

•

Speaks Common and Giant

(page 193) 4. Chamber of the
Queen’s Servants
Hill giant (MM pg 155)
Servants: AC 13 HP 105 +8/+8 to hit, reach 10, 18
(3d8+5) slashing

(pages 193 – 194) 5. Queen’s Chamber
Fire giant (MM pg 154), Mirror of seeing (gem of
seeing) (DMG pg 172), poisonous snake (MM pg
334), giant weasels (MM pg 329), potion of resistance (fire) (DMG pg 188), potion of mind control
(mammal) (page 229), potion of mind control (fire
giant) (page 229)
Queen Frupy will flee to room 5 (page 207) if
things go bad. Many a treasure to be had:
4 Copper Coffers: Each has a poisonous snake in it
Bronze Caskets: Copper
Iron Casket: Trap: Glyph of Warding (PH pg 245),
Fireball: DC 15 Dex save. Fail 8d6 fire. Success:
Half dmg. Jade box.
Scrolls with two random 7th-level spells. I
picked some that you could use:
Wizard: Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion (PH
pg 261), Prismatic Spray (PH pg 267)

(page 194) 6. Chamber of the
King’s Guards
Fire giant (MM pg 154)
These two are hanging out, eating cheese.

(page 194) 7. King Snurre’s Private
Quarters
Hell hounds (MM pg 182),
There’s not much of value in here, but it’s a cool
room. 39 skulls of various creatures, room lit by
flaming jets of a gas and a huge iron brazier with
glowing coals.
(page 195) 8. Hydra Cave
Hydra (page 190)

(page 195) 9. King Snurre’s Treasure Cave
Poisonous snake (DMG pg 334)
Trunks:
1. (Locked) Trunk 1: Silver
2. (Locked) Trunk 2: Empty
3. Trunk 3: Jewelry
4. (Locked) Trunk 4: Trap: Blade +11 13
(3d8) slashing. Silk.
5. (Locked) Trunk 5: Valuable wood.
6. Trunk 6: Electrum.
7. (Locked) Trunk 7: Ivory tusks.
8. Trunk 8: Invisible poisonous snakes!! Invisible jewelry. I guess you can’t sell it
until you cast dispel magic on it.

Cleric: Resurrection (PH pg 272), Etherealness
(PH pg 238)
Total Value of Treasure: 6,508 gp
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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

Chests:

Coffers:

1. Chest 1: Trap: Gas 10 ft radius DC 15
Con save. Fail: Poisoned until short/long
rest. Empty!
2. (Locked) Chest 2: Rocks.
3. Chest 3: Trap: All within 10 make a DC
15 Dex save. Fail: 7 acid. Success: half
dmg.
You get to roll on a bunch of charts (starting on
DMG pg 144), accepting only potions and scrolls
(other results mean you just move on to the next
roll). Table A x4, Table B x2, Table C x2, Table D
x1, Table E x1.
Here’s what I got: 3 potions of healing (DMG pg
188), scroll of compelled duel (PH pg 224), potion
of animal control (DMG pg 187), potion of growth
(DMG pg 187), potion of diminution (DMG pg
187), oil of sharpness (DMG pg 184), Potion of
storm giant strength (DMG pg 188)
I also rolled a Heward’s handy haversack (DMG
pg 174). I know you’re supposed to disregard it,
but it’s a pretty cool item.
•

Chest 4: Trap: All within 15 feet
have spikes hot at them: +11 to
hit, 7 piercing. Empty!

•

(Locked) Chest 5: Empty!

•

(Locked) Chest 6: Trap: Lock and
handle covered in oil of taggit
(DMG pg 258): DC 16 Con save
or 3 poison dmg and poisoned.
Repeat the save every 24 hrs. taking another 3 poison on a failed
save. The poison dmg can't be
healed! It takes 7 successful saving throws to end this effect!

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1. Coffer 1: Trap: Poison needle does 1
dmg and purple worm poison (DMG pg
258): DC 19 Con save. Fail: 42 (12d6)
poison. Success: Half dmg. 3 gold rings.
One is a ring of protection (DMG pg
191).
2. (Locked) Coffer 2: Copper (platinum
hidden under it)
3. (Locked) Coffer 3: Hot spices!
4. Coffer 4: 6 unholy statuettes/ Each
linked to a stat. Whoever carries it has
disadvantage on ability checks to that
stat.
5. (Locked) Coffer 5: Piles of gems
Total Value of Treasure: 22,011 gp

(page 196) 10. Arsenal Complex
Fire giant (MM pg 154)
The giant will get the chimera from 11 if possible.

(page 196) 10a. West Arsenal
+1 longbow, twenty +1 arrows

(page 196) 10b. East Arsenal
Shield of missile attraction (DMG pg 200)

(page 196) 11. Chimera Pen
Chimera (MM pg 39)

(page 196) 12. Advisor’s Quarters
Gnoll (MM pg 163)

(page 196) 12a. Obmi’s Study
Assassin (MM pg 343), dwarven plate (DMG pg
167), gauntlets of ogre power (DMG pg 171), ring
of invisibility (DMG pg 191)

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

Obmi (in 4e, his full name is Obmi Ironwhisper)
was a major villain in Gary Gygax’s real-life Greyhawk campaign. He lived in Castle Greyhawk and
continuously escaped from the heroes because he
had boots of speed and he was very clever. Obmi is
meant to be a very devious NPC.

(page 197) 14. Door Guard

Obmi pretends to be a prisoner. and will flee to
room 5 (page 207) if things go poorly for him.

In the 4e version, the cook’s name is Sulfuria

Obmi: AC 15 HP 78 +10/+10/+10 to hit, Hit: 7
(1d6 + 4) and DC 15 Con save or 24 poison. Half
dmg on a success.
•

Assassinate: During his first turn, he has
advantage on attack rolls against those
who have not taken a turn. Hit: Critical
hit.

•

Sneak attack: +13 dmg when he hits with
advantage or when the target is within 5
feet of an ally.

•

Evasion: On Dex saves, it takes half
damage on a fail or no dmg on a success.

Obmi stats with his items: AC 23 HP 78
+11/+11+11 to hit, Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) dmg
•

Ring of invisibility: He can turn invisible.

Fire giant (MM pg 154)

(page 197) 15. Kitchen
Fire giant (MM pg 154), hill giant (MM pg 155),
gnoll (MM pg 163)

(page 198) 16. Guest Chamber
Rakshasa (MM pg 257), potion of superior healing
(DMG pg 188), potion of mind reading (DMG pg
188), potion of invulnerability (DMG pg 188),
zone of truth (PH pg 289), true seeing (PH pg 284),
darkness (PH pg 230), cure wounds at lvl 4 (PH pg
230), symbol (PH pg 280)
Remember that the Rakshasa is immune to spells
lvl 6 and lower! Looking at the rakshasa stats, it really doesn't have a lot of offense. Its best tactic is
probably to charm or dominate the most powerful
character in the party.
In the 4e version, the rakshasa is named Ka'vir. He
disguises himself as the elf princess trapped further
below.

(page 198) 18. Barracks
Fire giant (MM pg 154), Hill giant (MM pg 155)

(page 197) 13A. West Alcove

They are sharpening their weapons.

Move the chest, 6 arrows! + 11 to hit, Hit: 5 (1d10)
dmg and DC 11 Con save or 10 (3d6) poison.

(page 198) 19. Servants’ Quarters

There are some tokens of free passage in this room
that can allow the group to move about safely.

(page 198) 20. Communal Quarters

(page 197) 13b. South Alcove
The group is ultimately looking for who is motivating the giants, and it is Eclavdra. If you can, try to
play this up a bit. Maybe describe the writing,
maybe there’s a bit of webbing stuck to it. Just
something to get them thinking about who or what
Eclavdra is.

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Hill giant (MM pg 155)

Hill giant (MM pg 155), ogre (MM pg 237)
The “ogres” are fire giant kids. You might want to
remove them if you think it might be unpleasant
for some of your players.

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 198) 21. Entry Hall of the
Kennels

(page 199) 3. Visitors’ Chamber

Hell hounds (MM pg 182)

(page 199) 4. Storage Room

The kennel keeper and his wife from 23 will come
running if there’s a commotion.

Hill giants (MM pg 155)

(page 198) 22. Kennel Chamber

Stone giant (MM pg 156)

Wow, Chief Nosnra of the hill giants will be here if
he survived. He has frost giant stats with an AC 17.

Hell hounds (MM pg 182)

(page 199) 5. Community Quarter

(page 198) 23. Kennel Keeper’s
Quarters

Fire giant (MM pg 154), hill giant (MM pg 155),
ogre (MM pg 237)

Fire giant (MM pg 154), javelin of lightning
(DMG pg 178), hellhound cloak (page 228), sword
of vengeance (DMG pg 206)

(page 201) 6. Smithy
Fire giant (MM pg 154), Troll (MM pg 291)

(page 198) 24. Guardpost

The fire giant will try to toss the mace into the lava
just so the group can’t have it.

Fire giant (MM pg 154)

This dude is known as Zarkad in the 4e version.

(page 198) 25. Barracks

(page 201) 7. Torture Chamber

Fire giant (MM pg 154), hill giant (MM pg 155)
Fire Giant with Magic Axe: AC 18 HP 162
+13/+13 to hit, 22 (3d8 + 9) dmg

Second Level
(page 199) 1. Hall of the Dead
Sarcophagi of ancient giant kings and queens! This
is screaming out for a fire giant mummy encounter
but there’s nothing going on in here.

Fire giant (MM pg 154)
Short Version: So it looks like the giant can grapple a character and move next to the iron maiden
on one turn. On its next turn, it can put the character inside the maiden.
Long Version: The torturer will try to put someone
in the iron maiden. It goes like this:
•

Grapple rules are on PH pg 195

•

The giant makes an athletics check vs. the
hero, who can make either an athletics
check or acrobatics check. If the giant wins,
the target is grappled:

•

Grappled: Speed 0, it ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach
of the grappler

•

Move the grappled target: The giant can
move with the grabbed target, but at half
speed. So that's Spd 15 for a fire giant.

In the 4e version, there are fire giant death knights,
which is pretty awesome. Maybe you could stick
them here.

(page 199) 2. Ettin Guards’ Chamber
Ettins (MM pg 132)
In the 4e version, there are a pair of 2-headed fire
giants, the result of crossbreeding between the giants and ettins.

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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

•

Just put the person in the maiden! 55
(10d10) piercing. The victim can’t open it
from within. That’s pretty horrible.

The Well: The torturer will grab someone and
throw them in the well. They’ll fall 90 feet into an
underground pool of water. They should probably
take a little damage, just from hitting a wall on the
way down or something. Maybe 3d6?

5. 5C. 2 centaur nobles. In 4e, no centaurs.
Instead, it’s Fonkin Hoddypeak! The pregen! It turns out that one of the pregens,
Gleep Wurp, was a traitor who works
with the giants. Sadly, Cloyer Bulse was
eaten by the giants. Fonkin can join the
group, but he’s a coward.
6. 6C. Empty.

You know what would be really crazy is if they
threw the iron maiden down into the well so it
lands on the characters in the well.

7. 7C. 2 gnolls who were insubordinate.
There’s a dead gnoll, too.

The Headsman: AC 18 HP 162 +13/+13 to hit, 22
(3d8 + 9) dmg

9. 9C. An insane troll who is tortured often.

(page 201) Cell Complex
Fire giant (MM pg 154), empyrean (MM pg 130),
wererat (MM pg 209), Noble (MM pg 348), commoner, centaur (MM pg 38), gnoll (MM pg 163),
troll (MM pg 291), assassin (MM pg 343), arrow
of giant slaying (DMG pg 152), cloak of elvenkind
(DMG pg 158), boots of elvenkind (DMG pg 155).
Cells:
1. 1C. Elf noble who promises to reward
the group with magic items. In 4e, she is
Princess Moonshadow. She is shackled
and she has a sack over her head. She
likes to be in charge and she hates the
drow. She’s a spellcaster and wants to
join the party.
2. 2C. 8 elves awaiting sacrifice. In the 4e
version, these are Moonshadow’s guards.
3. 3C. A merchant being held for ransom.
In 4e, this is Dram Blighthammer: The
dwarves tried to raid the giants and he
was captured. His dad is the wealthy
merchant.
4. 4C. Empty. There’s a secret door in here.

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8. 8C. Empty

10. 10C. 7 gnolls who committed employee
theft.
11. 11C. Two inert skeletons.
12. 12C. A female assassin who pretends to
be an adventurer. She will rob the characters if she can.
13. 13C. Boldo the fire giant, accidentally
insulted Snurre.
14. 14C. Empyrean who was poisoned. It’s a
child of a god. You pick which one!
The guard is hanging out here talking with three
human women (they’re actually wererats).

(page 202) 8. Secret Room
Wererats (MM pg 209), oil of taggit (DMG pg
258), Drow Poison (DMG pg 258), potion of poison (DMG pg 188), scroll of protection (lycanthropes) (DMG pg 199), ring of shooting stars
(DMG pg 191), potion of healing (DMG pg 188),
potion of diminution (DMG pg 187), pipes of the
sewers (DMG pg 185)
Poison needle does 1 dmg and the character has to
make a DC 16 Con save or 3 poison dmg and poisoned. Repeat the save every 24 hrs, taking another
3 poison on a failed save. The poison dmg can't be
CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

healed. It takes 7 successful saving throws to end
this effect.
Third chest: Trap: Two poison darts: +8 to hit 2
(1d4) DC 13 Con save or be poisoned for 1 hour.
Fail by 5 or more: Unconscious as well. You wake
up if you take damage or if someone spends an action to shake you awake.
Whoever reads the scroll of protection must make
a DC 15 Wis save or contract lycanthropy. The details of becoming a lycanthrope are on MM pages
206 and 207. As a wererat, the character gains a
Dexterity of 15.
Then there’s some do-it-yourself treasure. You can
use this if you want:
Spell Scroll of 7 Cleric Spells: Let’s do one of
each level. (1) Protection from evil and good (PH
pg 270), (2) Protection from poison (PH pg 270),
(3) Remove Curse (PH pg 271), (4) Death Ward
(PH pg 230),(5) Raise Dead (PH pg 270), (6) True
Seeing (PH pg 284), (7) Symbol (PH pg 280) ...Resist the urge to give your group a scroll of fire
storm inside the fire giant dungeon!
4 Potions: Potion of Storm Giant Strength
(DMG pg 187), Potion of Growth (DMG pg 187),
Potion of greater healing (DMG pg 188), Potion of
longevity (DMG pg 188)

DC 15 Wis save or effects of fear spell (PH pg
239): Drop whatever you're holding and become
frightened.
•

Frightened: Disadvantage on attack rolls
and ability checks, can't move closer to
source of fear.

•

You must take the Dash action and move
away on each of your turns.

•

Once you don't have line of sight to the
source of your fear, you can make a save
to end it.

11. Priests’ Area
This one gets pretty wild.
Large Pillar: If you touch the right glyphs, you
teleport to room 18.
Touch the Altar: It fades in color for 3 rounds and
then become amethyst. Touch it again: DC 15 Wis
save or paralyzed for one hour.
Beat the drums, ring the chimes and strike the
triangle: A huge eye appears. Each creature must
roll a d12 to see which symbol they are hit with.
•

1. Death: DC 15 Con save or 10d10
necrotic mg. Success: half dmg.

•

2. Discord: DC 15 Con save or bicker
and argue for 1 minute. During this time
you have disadvantage on attack rolls
and ability checks.

•

3. Fear: DC 15 Wis save or frightened
for 1 minute, drop what you're holding
and move at least 20 feet away.

•

4. Hopelessness: DC 15 Cha save. Fail:
Full of despair, can't attack or target any
creature with any kind of harmful
attack/spell etc.

(page 202) Temple of the
Eye
9. Giants’ Worship Area
Murals of giants worshiping

10. Servants’ and Thralls’ Worship Area
Touch Pillar: OK, here we go...

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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

•

5. Insanity: DC 15 Int save. Fail: Insane
for 1 minute. Can't take actions/understand others/read, you speak in gibberish, DM controls your movement.

•

6-12. No effect

Tentacle Rods: If the group has three tentacle rods
when playing the instruments: An elder elemental
god appears, tries to drag a character into the altar
and destroy them utterly. +11 to hit, reach 20 ft.
Try Again: If the group for some reason tries
again, there’s a different chart to roll on.

(page 205) 12. Drow Clerics’ Area

Inner Chamber: Drow priestess of Lolth (MM pg
129), tentacle rod (DMG pg 208), glyph of warding (PH pg 245), insect plague (PH pg 254), gate
(PH pg 244), divine word (PH pg 234), greater
restoration (PH pg 246), potion of poison (DMG
pg 188), potion of mind control (giant) (page 229),
potion of growth (DMG pg 187), potion of heroism
(DMG pg 188), philter of love (DMG pg 184)
In the 4e version, her allies are detailed:
•

Virchiln: Her consort

•

Nalice: Captain of her house guard

•

Raeme and Sziraz: Sycophantic underpriests

•

Taz'zt: Spy who watches Snurre (probably dead now)

•

Jiryzne: A yochlol who is undercover

•

Gleep Wurp: The pregen traitor! How
could you?

Ropers (MM pg 261)
Wall of Tentacles: AC 20 HP 186 Each round it
gets 2 bite attacks and 8 tendril attacks:
•

+7 to hit, reach 5, Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4)

•

Tendril: +7 to hit, reach 20, Hit: Grappled (escape DC 15). While grappled,
you're restrained and have disadvantage
on strength checks/saves.

(page 206) 13. Guest Chamber

•

Reel: It can pull a grappled creature so
that it ends up 5 feet from it.

If Jarl Grugnur survived, he’s here with his wife
and one more frost giant.

•

Tendrils: Each can be attacked (AC 20
HP 10) but they grow back the next
round.

(page 206) 14. Guest Chamber

•

Resistance to nonmagic weapons

•

Dispel magic does 50 dmg to it.

•

Disintegrate does 100 dmg to it.

•

Once it is at half hit points, it casts darkness (PH pg 230) Creatures with darkvision can't see in it. It goes out 15 feet.

Frost giant (MM pg 155)

Cloud giant (MM pg 154), lion (MM pg 331)

(page 206) 15. Trolls’ Chamber
Troll (MM pg 291)

(page 206) 16. Thrall Pen
Gnoll (MM pg 163)

(page 206) 17. Thrall Pen
Gnoll (MM pg 163)

Outer Chamber: Drow elite warrior (MM pg 128),
drow mage (MM pg 129), tentacle rod (DMG pg
208), Scroll of word of recall (PH pg 289)
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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

Third Level

It should have lair actions, right? Those are on
MM pg 99

(page 207) 1. Cavern

Treasure Total: 26,434 gp

Roper (MM p 261)

(page 208) 8. Cave

(page 207) 2. Glowing Cave
Giant fire beetles (MM pg 325)

Drow elite warrior (MM pg 128), drow (MM pg
128)

(page 207) 4. Cave

(page 208) 9. Wide Passage

Hell hounds (MM pg 182)

Piercer (DMG pg 252)

(page 207) 5. Cavern

(page 208) 10. Singing Chamber

Fire giant (MM pg 154)

Gray ooze (DMG pg 243)

One giant is resting and one is keeping watch.

11. Troll Annex

This is where Snurre and Frupy and even Obmi
will flee to.

Troll (MM pg 291)

(page 207) 6. Great Vaulted Cavern

Troll (MM pg 291)

Gorgon (MM pg 171)
It’s a dragon! (illusion) There’s a gorgon in here
who will just hang out until a character gets within
30 feet, then it breathes.

(page 207) 7. Treasure Trove Cave
Adult red dragon (MM pg 98), Dragon slayer
(DMG pg 166), brazier of commanding fire elementals (DMG pg 156), potion of resistance (fire)
(DMG pg 188)
To get in here, you must roll a boulder aside. In the
lair, it’s magically vast. Brazzemal, the dragon,
will wake up. If the group hands over a pile of
magic items, the dragon will let them go.
The adventure makes it like the group can’t beat
this thing, but I think they could. You might want
to have the dragon slayer sword sticking out and
gleaming with light. Maybe let a character grab it
and use it. Its breath does 63 dmg.

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12. Troll Central
13. Troll Heaven
Troll (MM pg 291)
Why is this troll heaven? What’s going on in here?
Dominant Troll: AC 15 HP 120 1 bite: +7 to hit, 7
(1d6+4) dmg and 2 claw: +7 to hit, 11 (2d6+4)
dmg
Regen: Regains 10 HP at the start of its turn. Fire
and acid shuts this down.

(page 208) 14. Narrow Cavern
There’s slime on the ceiling and in the pool.
Green Slime (DMG pg 105) It drops from the ceiling, If you are unaware of it, no roll.. it just hits. If
you are aware: DC 10 Dex 5 (1d10) acid, you take
dmg again at the start of each of your turns until it
is scraped off. It does 11 acid to nonliving material,
so it will likely destroy the scraping tool.
Cold/fire/radiant/sunlight/cure disease destroys it.

CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

(page 208) 15. Gray Cavern
Drow (MM pg 128), drow elite warriors (MM pg
128), drow mage (MM pg 129)

(page 208) 16. Small Cavern
Drow (MM pg 128), drow elite warriors (MM pg
128), drow priestess of Lolth (MM pg 129), staff of
swarming insects (DMG pg 203)
You will probably trip on the tripwire. If so, iron
balls hit the floor: DC 10 Dex save or fall prone.

(page 209) 17. Jeweled Cavern
Mind flayer (MM pg 222), Tome of clear thought
(DMG pg 208)
The box the tome comes in is amusing. You have
to be really smart to open it: 18 Intelligence!

(page 209) 18. Small Cavern
Drow (MM pg 128), drow elite warriors (MM pg
128)

(page 209) 19. Salamander Central
Salamander (MM pg 266)
Get within 10 feet of lava: 11 (2d10) fire dmg.
Fall in lava: 33 (6d10) fire dmg and more at the
start of your turn

(page 209) Council Chamber and
Drow HQ
Drow (MM pg 128), drow elite warriors (MM pg
128), hold person (PH pg 251), blindness (PH pg
219), stinking cloud (PH pg 278), potion of speed
(DMG pg 188), potion of superior healing (DMG
pg 188)
In the 4e version, Krombaalt the storm giant lord
(father of Elektra, who the group may have freed
and befriended in the frost giant adventure) gives
the group a reward: A flying tower!! Pretty awesome.

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CHAPTER 8: AGAINST THE GIANTS

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Animal Sidekicks
Animal companions always get forgotten. They
will make a big difference in here because they are
one more target, one more thing that can trigger a
trap.
Animals are unpredictable. Make sure you establish how the animal acts immediately so that the
group doesn’t feel like you’re using it to screw
them. If a donkey gets nervous due to loud noise,
make sure you show that off right away.

Perception
There’s a lot of searching in this adventure. You
might want to cut to the chase and say: “You thoroughly search the area and find nothing.” If you
have the players describe how they do it, where
they look, and roll for every nook and cranny, the
game will come to a halt and the players might get
bored.

Roll it Yourself
If you have a group that could conceivably decide
to try to wedge traps shut, you should secretly
make the roll for them to see if it works. If a player
rolls low, they know it didn’t work. Their character
wouldn’t know that, so if you roll it, it eliminates
any chance of meta-gaming.

Excellent Play
I was joking in an earlier chapter about excellent
play, but at the time this adventure was written,
“player skill” was what this adventure was ostensibly testing.
That means that if your players are clever and what
they’re doing is both legal and feasible, don’t block
them. They’re using their real-life player skills!
How do you Define What a Good Player is?
The big problem with judging “good play” is that
nobody knows what the criteria is. What Gary Gygax thought constituted good play might not be
what you think it is. The important thing is that
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your players know your mindset. They know how
you run your game, your house rules, and what
flies and what doesn’t at your table.
New Players
If you are playing with new people, you should tell
them what you think will lead to success in this adventure. Definitely tell them if you plan on handling traps in a detailed “you are there, what do
you do?” way, or if it’s just a die roll.
Communication Between DM and Player
Make it clear that the onus is on them to make sure
you know where they are positioned in a room or
hallway. If you don’t hear it or acknowledge it, it
doesn’t count. If they don’t tell you where they are,
you’re going to have to decide and that could be a
life-or-death decision. If you’re torn, just roll and
let the dice decide for you. High is good, low is
bad.
Let’s Do This Thing!
Going over all of this stuff will likely get your
players fired up and ready to go. They will be
alarmed and intrigued when you tell them about
the real-life reputation of the Tomb of Horrors.
This isn’t any normal adventure, this thing is a
meat grinder and their successes are true achievements. It can be a lot of fun with the right players.
Let the dice fall where they may!

Begin!
The beginning of this adventure is weird. The
group comes to this hill and they know it contains
the entrance to the tomb. They have to poke
through the dirt and dig out the entrance. But what
they don’t know is that there’s three entrances, and
only one is the real one.
All of the entrances are on the same side! How do
you fairly decide which entrance they find? I say
roll a d6. 1-2 is area 1, 3-4 is area 2, 5-6 is area 3.

CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

(page 212) 1. False Entrance Tunnel
Make sure you know who’s in the tunnel before
anything happens.
Open the doors: DC 15 Dex save. Fail: 27 (5d10)
bludgeoning dmg. Success: Half dmg.
You could use the Tamoachan rules for being
buried and suffocation. I mean, this is a deadly adventure, right?

(page 214) 2. False Entrance Tunnel
You need to know who is where before this happens.
When Someone Moves Past the Block
Roll initiative. On each count, the block slides six
inches toward the opposite wall. So that means the
group can pretty much avoid being trapped. I’d say
that at initiative count 4, there’s two feet of space
left. So if you have a player who rolled a 2 or a 1
for initiative, they’re the ones who are in real trouble.

Message From Acererak
Those who study the floor can put together Acererak's riddle/clue thing. It’s something of a trap all
on its own.

(page 214) 4. Fresco of the Wizardly Work Room
Chest Sticking Out of the Wall: Poison Needle: 1
dmg and DC 15 Con save or poisoned for 1 hour
(disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks).
What’s in the Chest?
A rod! Pull it.. A pit trap opens underneath you: 3
(1d6) dmg, 11 piercing, DC 15 Con save. Fail: 22
poison.

(page 214) 5. The Arch of Mist
If you just walk through the arch: You appear in
room 7.
If you press the stones and walk on the path
through the arch: Room 11.
If you press the stones and do not walk on the
path: You go to 3 (The entrance to the tomb).

(page 214) 3. Entrance to the Tomb
of Horrors

If a character walks through: Don’t jump to what
they see. Let the group react. You want to know
how many rounds that character is alone for. Wait
until the rest of the group has declared whether
they’re going through or not, and if so, how long
they’re going to wait. Then you can jump to the
character, knowing who will arrive to help, and
when.

This is a legendary location. This hallway is full of
dangers, including probably the most famous trap
in D&D history.

6. The Face of the Great Green
Devil

The other thing here is that the group might hustle
to get to the doors. Then they’re trapped in a tiny
area with some fake doors. Can the group move the
block back? I guess not. If they have digging
equipment they could probably dig around it.

Covered Pits
No save or die roll, you just fall in: 3 (1d6) dmg
plus 11 (2d10) piercing dmg and DC 15 Con save
or 22 (4d10) poison dmg, half dmg on a successful
save.

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Sphere of annihilation (DMG pg 201)
This one is famous:
•

It obliterates any object other than an artifact.

CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

•

Stick your hand in there: 4d10 force
dmg.

•

If you jump in, you’re dead/annihilated.

(page 219) 7. The Forsaken Prison
Inside one of the pit traps in the entrance hallway
is a secret 3-foot diameter tunnel that leads to a
door. This is a magical one-way door. You go
through, you can’t come back out.
It leads to a room with no exits, just three levers:
•

•

Push all three up: A trapdoor in the ceiling opens up.
Pull all three down: The whole floor
gives way. You fall, taking 10d6 dmg.
You have ten minutes to climb out before
the exit is sealed off.

(page 216) 8. Gargoyle Lair
Gargoyle (MM pg 140)
The gargoyle animates as soon as someone enters.
4-Armed Gargoyle: AC 15 HP 63 +4/+4/+4 to hit,
5 (1d6 + 2) damage
•

Spd 30, fly 60

•

Resistant to non-magic weapons

(page 216) 9. Complex of Secret
Door
This one is a pain. You have to find secret doors as
darts shoot at you. Roll initiative and at Init 20 roll
the 50% chance that the darts fire away. Remember, it’s one dart in each room. The group will be
spread out, so that’s a lot of darts.
Darts: DC 20 Dex save. Fail: 5 (1d10) piercing
dmg.

(page 216) 10. Great Hall of
Spheres
It’s just illusions concealing crawlspaces.
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Archway
Make sure you don’t say what happens when
someone goes through. Wait and see what the rest
of the group does. Once you know who is going
through and how long the others wait, then you can
jump to the player who went through.
So you go through.. you appear in area 3, naked.
Your gear goes to 33. Tomb of Horrors!

(page 217) 11. The Three-Armed
Statue
Gem of seeing (DMG pg 172)
Its hands are out. There are depressions in the
palms.. gems would fit in them perfectly! Put three
gems in.. they’re crushed. If the group keeps going,
once they get to 10 gems, an invisible gem of seeing appears in the hand of the broken arm.
This gem only works 12 times, then it shatters.
This item is extremely useful in this dungeon. It
can detect things that are otherwise almost impossible to detect.

(page 218) 12. Trapped False Doors
Open a fake door, a spear shoots out: +11 to hit, 9
piercing dmg.

(page 218) 13. Chamber of Three
Chests
Swarm of poisonous snakes (MM pg 334), ring of
protection (DMG pg 191), giant skeleton (page
236)
These chests are a middle finger from the tomb to
the players. Chests:
Gold (plate covering iron): SNAKES
Silver (plate over iron): There’s a ring of protection. Say, a secret compartment in the bottom! d4
DARTS: +11 to hit, 3 (d6) dmg each.
Oak Bound with Thick Bronze Bands: GIANT
SKELETON! I think it would be cool to say that it
CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

was a pile of bones that animates rather than it teleporting in.

(page 218) 14. Chapel of Evil
Again, you need to know who is where. Especially
who is in the center aisle.
Pews
You can open the pews and find treasure inside.
Open the front row of pews: Poison gas fills the
whole room in 2 rounds. DC 15 Con save. Fail:
Poisoned for… 48 hours! Poisoned: Disadvantage
on attack rolls and ability checks.
Touch the Altar
A lightning bolt shoots down the center aisle: DC
15 Dex save. Fail: 8d6 lightning. Success: Half
dmg.
•

Then the altar turns red. Touch it
again, it explodes: Fireball DC 15 Fail:
8d6 fire. Success: Half dmg.

Walk Through Archway
Your gender and alignment reverse.
•

•

Exit and re-enter: 3 psychic dmg, alignment is restored.
Go in again: Gender restored, you appear in area 3, naked. Your stuff is in
room 33. Tomb of Horrors!

Mysterious O
It’s a hole that you can fit a coin or magic ring in.
Put a ring in it, and a passage to the hallway that
leads to 16 opens up. That hallway is crucial, as it
is the secret entrance to the entire second half of
the tomb.

(page 219) 15. Stone Gate
Stick a magic ring in it, passage to the hallway.
The ring is destroyed forever!

The Hallway
Three doors. Each time you open one, make DC 15
Dexterity save or d6 dmg plus 11 piercing and
make a DC 15 Con save or take 22 poison.
The 3rd Pit
This has the door to the rest of the dungeon.

(page 219) 16. Locked Oaken Door
Opening the Door
You have to destroy it. It has 100 hit points!
Again, know the marching order. The first three
heroes are screwed. The floor tilts down toward the
lava.
Roll initiative:
•

On initiative count 10, they fall prone
and slide 10 feet toward the pit.

•

Scramble up: DC 10 athletics. Fail by 5
or more: You slide 5 feet toward the pit.

•

On the 4th Square: You take 3 fire dmg

•

On the 5th Square: You take 11 fire
dmg.

•

Fall in: You’re dead. It’s lava, you’re
just dead.

(page 220) 17. Magical Secret
Door
I hope the group has detect magic or that gem of
seeing. It says you can’t detect this door normally,
only with magic.

(page 220) 18. Corridor Protected
by Fear Gas
Fear Gas: DC 15 Con save or frightened for 1
minute. You just run back to 17 until you make
your save or it wears off.
Opening the secret door gets rid of the gas.

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CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

(page 220) 18A. False Crypt
Greater zombie (page 237), web (PH pg 287), potion of healing (2d4+4)

(page 222) 21. The Agitated Chamber
Poisonous snake (MM pg 334)

This fake Acererak really hams it up. You can pick
up the mace. Once you hit him three times, he is
defeated and the entire tomb begins to shake and
collapse! The heroes can run out to safety. The collapse is an illusion. This is just a way to try to trick
the group into thinking they defeated Acererak.

This one’s wacky. Roll init. At the end of each
round, roll a die. Odd: The room begins bucking.
DC 10 Dex save or 1 dmg.

(page 221) 19. Laboratory and
Mummy Preparation Room

Green Slime (DMG page 105)
It drops from the ceiling, If you are unaware of

Ochre jelly (PH pg 243)

aware of it: DC 10 Dex 5 (1d10) acid, you take
dmg again at the start of each of your turns until it
is scraped off. It does 11 acid to nonliving material,
so it will likely destroy the scraping tool.
Cold/fire/radiant/sunlight/cure disease destroys it.

Three vats:
1. Western Vat: Dirty water (you can cook
hot dogs in it)
2. Middle Vat: Slow-acting acid. It takes a
round to kick in, does d3 acid dmg. This
acid damages magic items! There is half
of a golden key at the bottom. Getting
the key.. I think mage hand would work,
right?
3. Eastern Vat: Ochre Jelly! And the half of
the golden key.
The Key: Once assembled, this is known as The
First Key. As noted on page 226, when this key is
made, Acererak’s soul is called back to the material
plane.

(page 221) 20. Huge Pit Filled with
Spikes

The exit is behind a tapestry. The problem: The tapestries are made of green slime and brown mold.

it, there is no saving throw, it just hits. If you are

Brown Mold (DMG page 105)
The brown mold covers a 10 foot square area.
When you get within 5 feet of it: DC 12 Con save.
Fail: Take 22 cold dmg. Success: Half damage.
•

It is immune to fire and extinguishes fire
within five feet.

•

It is instantly destroyed by cold damage.

Treasure: It doesn’t say how many coffers there
are. Maybe say 12? You roll for each one, it’s just
gems, coins, or… poisonous snakes!

(page 222) 22. The Cavern of Gold
and Silver Mists:

It’s an open spiked pit. You have to get in and
climb out to continue onward.

Siren (page 243), potion of greater healing (DMG
pg 188), bracers of defense (DMG pg 156), ring of
feather falling.

Stepping on the last 5 feet of the pit causes all of
the spikes to shoot up into the air. Everybody in the
pit: +11 to hit 11 (2d10) piercing dmg. New spikes
replace the old ones.

This is zany. Enter the room: DC 15 Int save. Fail:
You have an Int and Cha of 1! You can’t do much
other than walk around and protect your friends.
This effect goes away once you leave the room

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CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

Siren
There are two sacks in front of her. If the group
touches them, they disappear.
She magically tells the group her story. She can't
indicate this, but her curse is broken if the group
invites her to come with them. If the group does
this, they can touch one sack. The other disappears,
but this one’s got some loot.
Siren is with the group now. She’s not especially
helpful. She does have greater invisibility. Also,
she just seems like a really fun NPC to run.
If the group tries to touch both sacks at the
same time, both sacks disappear, along with Siren.

(page 222) 23. False/True Door
It’s a false door.. with a secret door inside it. Tomb
of Horrors!

(page 223) 23A. Knockout Corridor
Sleep Gas
DC 15 Con save. Fail: Fall unconscious for 2d4x10
minutes.
Every ten minutes, roll a d4. On a 4, a stone juggernaut rolls over everyone and they die!

(page 223) 24. Adamantine Door
Stick 3 swords into it. Boom. Done.

(page 223) 25. Pillared Throne
Room
Touch a Pillar
You float (the cure for this is to wear the crown)
and are sucked toward one of the two devil faces:
•

Northwest Face: You are teleported to
room 6 naked. Your stuff appears in 33.

•

Northeast Face: You are teleported to
27A.

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The Gem: You can cast wish with it! Evil, Tomb of
Horrors wish, that is. Whatever the wish, it’s distorted and horrible. Then, roll initiative. On initiative count 1, it explodes, killing everyone within
15 feet.
The Crown
The crown turns floaters back to normal, but it is
stuck on your head. Worse, you’re blind when not
in this room. To take it off, you touch the scepter to
it. Which end?
•

Gold: Crown comes off.

•

Silver: You turn to dust and you’re dead.

Exit: Sticking the silver end of the scepter in the
throne reveals a secret passage.

(page 224) 26. Small Room with a
Door of Electric Blue:
Mummy lord (MM pg 229), ring of resistance
(fire) (DMG pg 192)
Take the gem: The mummy (lord) attacks.

(page 224) 27. The Portal of Scintillating Violet
Flying sword (MM pg 20)
The flying swords attack and are invulnerable to
everything except these 4 spells: Telekinesis, heat
metal, disintegrate, magic weapon.

(page 224) 27A. Chamber of Hopelessness
Potion of diminution (DMG pg 186)
If you leave this room, all 6 sets of swords attack.
That’s 12 nearly-invulnerable flying swords.

CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

(page 225) 28. The Wondrous
Foyer

(page 225) 30. False Treasure
Room

Antipathy/Sympathy (PH pg 214)

Efreet (MM pg 145), wish (PH pg 288), Staff of
the Magi (DMG pg 203)

Look at the Key
Wis save DC 17. Fail: You’re frightened and run
away from the key. This condition always remains.
Any time you see the key, you run.
This is the Second Key. You need this key to get to
Acererak. When the group obtains this key, Acererak prepares for battle in his room.

(page 225) 27. The Valves of
Mithral
Ochre Jelly (MM pg 243), wight (MM pg 300)
The door has a sort of keyhole. Different things
happen, depending on what you do with the door:
•

Use the first key: Take 5 lightning dmg.

•

Use the second key: Take 10 lightning
dmg.

•

Use the golden end of the scepter:
Doors open!

•

Use the silver end of the scepter: You
are teleported to 6, naked. Your stuff appears in 33. Tomb of Horrors!

Slash or Pierce the Door
You might want to narrate this as if a wound has
opened up. A huge torrent of blood pours out and
fills the area in 20 rounds. Fire turns it to poison
gas – you just die (A character in the 5 foot wide
passage can make a DC 17 Con save to live). Remember.. lit torches! Fire!

No spells/magic items work in here.
Move statue: You find a secret door that lets you
go on.
Bronze Urn: Three wishes! Like the wish spell?
The Staff: The staff of the magi is broken into
pieces. Can it be fixed? I’d say yes, but it’s got
some quirks. This is the fake treasure right? Maybe
roll on the wild magic table every time it is used.
Chest: Triple locks, each with a poison needle: Poison needle does 1 dmg and purple worm poison
(DMG pg 258): DC 19 Con save. Fail: 42 (12d6)
poison. Success: Half dmg.

(page 226) 31. One-Way Doors
You open the door and a pit trap appears beneath
you: d6 dmg, 11 piercing and DC 15 Con save.
Fail 22 poison. Succeed: half dmg.

(page 226) 32. Secret Door
The only way to open this is with the First Key

(page 226) 33. The Crypt of Acererak the Demilich
Demilich (MM pg 48), ghost (MM pg 147), defender (DMG pg 164), sword of vengeance (DMG
pg 206), berserker axe (DMG pg 155), spear of
backbiting (page 229)
You must use the second key to access this room.

You can “turn off” the blood by casting cure
wounds spells on the door.

When the key is used: Roll init. On init count 10,
anybody still in this hallway is crushed to death.

There’s a big list of spells that do different things
to the blood. Disintegrate will save you, as will
raise dead.

Just treasure and a skull…. No discernible threat.

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•

Touch the treasure: A dust-thing forms.
It doesn’t attack, it just hovers there. Any
CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

attack against it gives it 1 hp, spells give
it 1 hp per level of the spell. If it gets to
50 hp, it becomes a ghost and attacks.
•

Touch the Skull: It floats into the air and
looks the group over. This is Acererak.

Fighting Acererak
This fight is really brutal. It seems like Acererak
can win in a single round. He has his legendary actions and his lair actions (MM pg 49).
Lair Actions: Knock prone, create a personalized
antimagic field, or make it so that nobody can regain hit points for a round.
Then he’s got this:
(Rchg 5-6) Howl: Everybody makes a DC 15 Con
save or they drop to 0 hit points!
And he has this:
Trap Soul: DC 19 Cha save. Fail: Your soul is
trapped in a gem. Success: 24 necrotic dmg. If this
drops you to 0 hp, you're soul is trapped in a gem.
If Acererak is defeated, crushing the gems frees the
souls.
The closest that any group I’ve run through this
tomb has gotten to Acererak is room 27, with the
levitating pillars. As far as I know, there’s still a
brother and sister team huddled in 27A trying to
figure out a way past those flying swords.

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CHAPTER 9: TOMB OF HORRORS

Making a Yawning
Portal Campaign

et’s take a stab at placing all of these adventures into one cohesive story. This is just
meant to be an example of how you could
do it. If you can, set up the basic framework
beforehand. Know the motivation of of the
villain, and know where the dungeons are and what
their purpose is.

Undermountain
Let’s put all this stuff in Undermountain! I mean,
why not, the entrance to Undermountain is in the
Yawning Portal, right? The one tricky thing here is
that it seems a bit unfeasible to put the giant lairs
down there. You could, but it doesn’t feel right.
The glacial rift in a dungeon underground? We’ll
work around it.

First Session
So let’s start off with the group at level one. They
are in Waterdeep. It’s entirely up to them if they
know each other or not. All that matters is that it’s
night time and they happen to be in the same general vicinity.
Suddenly, shouts and explosions. Waterdeep is under attack! The red wizards have gated in to the
city and seem to be going after certain targets. So
we’ll start off a bit like Hoard of the Dragon Queen
started – the heroes are in a settlement under siege.
The most difficult thing here is that they’re going
to rub elbows with high level bad guys that they
have no chance of defeating. We’ll have to be real
careful. The true purpose of this is for the players
to get a look at all of the bad guys they are going to
have to kill in this campaign. We are going to build
anticipation so that the group will be extremely ex-

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cited when they finally get to try to take them
down.
Twig Blights
The group sees a bark-skinned guy (let’s make this
Karakas the Ranger, who is on page 21 – let’s say
he was transformed by the Gulthias Tree instead).
The bark-skinned guy orders some twig blights to
swarm a lone guard of Waterdeep. The guard has
no chance without help. Hopefully the group helps,
if not the blights are coming for them next, anyway. If possible, Karakas runs away.
Nightscale
With that done, and hopefully with the guard
saved, the group hears the flapping of wings over
the screams and clatter ringing throughout the city.
There is a black dragon, Nightscale, swooping
down toward them! It’s not going for them, it
breathes acid on a building. The building partially
collapses. The group hears the cries of those still
trapped inside. They can try and rescue them before the place collapses completely.
Centaur Mummy
With that done, they see a surreal sight. The centaur mummy from Tamoachan is leading a few
zombies (the zombies from page 73) toward a band
of brave but skill-less citizens trying to protect
their city. We should have the mummy touch one
of them, so the group can get a look at the mummy
rot effect. The group can take down the zombies,
they’re just zombies. The mummy has bigger fish
to fry and rides off down a street.
Blackrazor
On a rooftop, the group can see a wight wielding
Blackrazor (the wielder’s soul has been drained,
Blackrazor controls the wight). Guards are coming
at Blackrazor, but they’re getting cut down left and
right. We want to play up the ridiculous badassery
of Blackrazor here.

CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN

Blow Him Up. The group is safe, and they can use
range attacks or clever ideas here to help the
guards. They could try to knock Blackrazor off the
roof, or collapse a portion of the roof. Actually, it
might be really cool if the heroes see that the building that Blackrazor is on has a bunch of barrels of
elemental fire in it. The store sells magic unguents
or residuum or something. They can blow the
whole building up with a fire spell or flaming arrow. Blackrazor’s fate is unknown. That would be
fun.

Acererak
Before the group can do anything else, another
heroic figure appears – Elminster the legendary
wizard. He tells the red wizards to unhand the
deva. Tarul Var craps his pants. The group is more
than welcome to stand with Elminster and maybe
get some shots in or nasty words. But what they
don’t know is that this attack is all about drawing
out powerful individuals, so that they can be put in
the shrines (dead in thay, temples of extraction
page 155).

Red Wizards
At that point, the group’s luck runs out. Tarul Var,
the red wizard, comes upon the group. He is
clearly one of the people in charge of this assault,
calmly issuing orders to sub-ordinates. He tells one
of them to “Tell the giants to attack.”

Elminster Trapped. A flash of light appears behind the group. It’s a floating skull with gem eyes.
Acererak! The demilich drains Elminster’s soul
into a gem. Then perhaps Acererak looks the group
over – a chance for them to interact with the ultimate villain of the entire campaign. Then he’ll tell
Tarul Var, “We got what we came for” and they all
teleport away.

Nearby, an old woman is holding the symbol of her
god, praying for aid. Tarul Var looks down at her..
Tarul Var. The group could hide and observe. If
they don’t, Tarul (stats on page 244) can address
them. The group is no match for this guy. He can
counterspell and paralyze like crazy. He might paralyze one character and then detect thoughts on
them, curious.
Lumalia. Whatever happens, suddenly, a shaft of
light appears and from it steps a deva. Lumalia
(page 153) shows up, answering the woman’s
prayer. Lumalia starts kicking ass and urges the
group to help, either get the woman to safety or
take some some shots at the red wizards.
Giants
Whatever the group does, the giants are outside the
city and they rush the walls and chuck boulders. A
massive boulder hits a building that collapses,
kicking up dust everywhere. Any characters who
look for her see that Lumalia is down and the wizards have her. She’s gonna be a statue in room 92,
page 152.
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The Yawning Portal
The group can catch their breath, and then they
hear cries from a nearby building – the Yawning
Portal. There’s some twig blights in there, twig
blighting it up. The group can run in and save the
town drunks, earning the appreciation of the
owner, the mysterious Durnan (page 6).

Resting at the Inn
As a reward for their help, Durnan can offer the
group a room to stay in for free. Let's make it a
cool suite kind of thing to maybe entice the group
to accept the offer. There’s a few wounded citizens
that could use healing. The group can interact with
the NPCs here and realize that they can live here if
they so desire. They’ll see the well and we’ve got
our setup for the campaign.

Regulars at the Yawning Portal
We’re going to have some NPCs, regular customers, here in the Yawning Portal for the group to
interact with.
CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN

Pencheska
Pencheska: She is an entertainer that really likes to
drink. The truth – she’s one of the succubus spies
who report to Acererak (Pencheska’s in room 5,
page 120). We’re going to try to keep her deal secret for a long time, so play it cool. If the group
figures it out, good for them! There’s another succubus spy elsewhere in the city. She is Idalla, the
dark-haired woman from room 49 on page 56.
Endroth Knag
Member of the city watch being pressured to retire.
He ponders unresolved cases as he sips ale.
The White Lady
An elderly elf wearing plain white robes. She
comes in every night and whispers cryptic statements over and over.
Brother Sepulcher
A bald priest who wears grey robes and long, white
gloves who likes to stare at a skull he keeps with
him. He worships Jergal, the exarch of proper burials. Brother Sepulcher likes to record the name and
description of each person who enters Undermountain.
Old Stannoc
An elderly halfling who is a gambler and odds
maker. He tries to evaluate each adventurer before
they go down so he can set proper odds.

The Missing Adventurers
We should also make it a point to note that the adventurers who went to the Sunless Citadel are:
Karakas the Ranger (pg 21), Talgyn (pg 25), Sharwyn (pg 30, stats pg 242), Sir Braford (pg 30, stats
pg 243)
They went into the Yawning Portal well a week
ago and haven’t been heard from since. We
changed Karakas, so have it where the group does
not find his body or his stuff on page 21.

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The Next Day
The next day, the city is in extreme disarray. The
group learns that the bad guys specifically targeted
the Harpers (a vast, secret organization of good
guys). They killed as many Harpers as possible.

Spies
The heroes don’t know this, but Idalla and Pencheska, the succubus spies, have spent the last year
identifying as many harpers and harper strongholds
that they could. The bad guys want to kill all the
heroes to draw out the most powerful heroes so
they can stick them in those shrines in the temple
of extraction (we’re getting rid of the Chosen and
doing this instead).

The Meeting
All adventuring types of the city are gathered together. The giant army must be defeated. Durnan
knows more than most (he’s practically immortal).
He knows the real problem is down in Undermountain, not out in the giant lairs. Their lairs aren’t too
far from Waterdeep. It’s assumed that the red wizards are operating from there as well. If the group
goes to the gathering, they are not accepted as part
of the giant-slaying force. If you want, have Acquisitions Inc be there, ready to lead the charge.
True Purpose of This
The point here is to answer the question of “why
are we dealing with this rather than higher level
heroes in the city?” All NPC heroes of level 3 and
higher are out hunting the giant army or are following orders to guard and protect the city. Nobody is going to indulge Durnan’s wacky ideas.
And anyway, Durnan knows the deal. He knows
the group can do it, that’s how this adventuring
thing works.

Durnan’s Story
Durnan tells the heroes that he once went down
into Undermountain (he was in there for two
CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 100

years). He faced off with Acererak – he tried to get
into Acererak’s tomb alongside his friend Mirt.
Durnan says that the tomb was like hell. They entered a hallway full of horrible traps. They came
into a series of rooms where darts kept flying at
them. They had no choice but to flee. Let’s have
Durnan show the group his scars. His chest is covered with over a dozen holes/scars.
Scary Tomb!
We’re saying here that the Tomb of Horrors is so
deadly that Durnan and Mirt only made it through
the first area, and then they had to run away. That
way, when the group gets there, they’ll say: “This
is that hallway. Oh no.” And they’ll be looking for
the darts, which is good because that area is really
brutal and they deserve a warning.

The Black Gates
Durnan explains that Undermountain operates
through gates, contact stones and glyph keys.
These are from Dead in Thay, we’ll use them
throughout the whole campaign. We’ll put black
gates in every dungeon in this book. This is how
Acererak and Tarul Var communicate and coordinate with their allies. They communicate through
the contact stones.
Free Stuff
Durnan urges the group to go down below. He offers up some of his old gear – an ancient +1 sword
(with the seal of Durgeddin from forge of fury on
it), maybe some dust of disappearance or something, and two potions of healing. He tells them
that he has a friend in Downshadow who can help
them.
He also gives them a glyph key. They can attune it
to the gate in Downhadow.

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Downshadow
Downshadow is this collection of poor people who
live in Undermountain close to the well. Let’s put a
black gate here, so the group can teleport back here
when they complete a dungeon.
Let’s stick an NPC linked to each dungeon here so
the group can get clues and learn a little about
them if they want.
(Sunless Citadel) Bianca
A woman who was a thrall of the vampire Gulthias
and misses him. She’s crazy, creepy and spaced
out. She still has the fang marks on her neck and
she wears gothic clothes.
(Forge of Fury) Shakla
A half-orc who abandoned the orcs in the forge of
fury. She is quite happy in Downshadow
Xiyatyl
A mysterious woman who claims that her parents,
Cipactonal and Oxomoco, have been asleep for
centuries and she is waiting for them to wake up.
Then, it will be her turn to sleep. Her parents are
the sleepers in room 22, page 75. We should have it
where she plays Pelota (page 78) with the scamps
and sad sacks of Downshadow. Any characters
who take the time to learn the game and play a bit
should get special bonuses once they get to room
29 of Tamoachan.
(White Plume) Geddi
A dwarf with horrible burn scars. She once wielded
Whelm, but it was taken from her by Nix and Nox,
the efreeti of White Plume Mountain. She suffered
permanent injuries and now spends her time beating people in drinking competitions. She is a direct
descendant of Durgeddin and is the rightful owner
of the Forge of Fury.

CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 101

(Dead in Thay) Bart the Beggar
Let's say that Bart was a red wizard who really
didn't like the things that were happening in the
Doomvault, so here he hides.
(Against the Giants) Ruby
Ruby: A powerful, red-haired half-giant. She’s an
unwanted daughter of King Snurre. She also likes
it in Downshadow and is the unofficial protector.
(Tomb of Horrors) Adenian
An ancient elf who went into the tomb of horrors
and has never gotten over it. He’s shellshocked
still, muttering about a green devil face. When he
trances, he has flashbacks. Every time the group
visits him, he gives them another clue to the tomb
of horrors. We’re going to use him to help the
group get through that adventure. He should tell
them that they NEED the gem of seeing from the
gargoyle statue and he’ll hand them 10 gems. He'll
also tell them to make sure to extinguish all fire
near the double doors and that healing the doors is
the key, and do not approach the lava pit - there is
nothing there but death. Add more, whatever things
you think the group might need to know. It’s up to
them to take this advice, but we want to give them
a real chance to get through the tomb. It would
suck for this campaign to end in a TPK and we
want to help them in a way that doesn’t feel contrived. This way makes sense. Adenian survived
the tomb. He can give them clues.
Then a few utility NPCs:
Shara Shaana
Cleric of Amaunator. She can heal the group,
maybe.
Izzy the Appraiser
An elderly gnome. He can appraise stuff and identify magic items.
Let’s say that the group has to pass through Downshadow to get to the Sunless Citadel.

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Sunless Citadel
So the group goes to the sunless citadel, goes
through all that stuff. There’s a black gate by the
entrance and a black gate in the final room.
Maybe you should change the white dragon wyrmling to a black dragon – it’s the spawn of
Nightscale, of the forge of fury.
The heroes defeat the druid and the tree. They see a
black gate down there. The druid has a glyph key
that is attuned to the forge of fury.
Let’s also say that the bark-skinned people don’t
die in 24 hours. We want to use Karakas and it
could take more than a day to get to it.

Resting at the Inn
I would say that when the group sleeps at the
Yawning Portal after this, bark-skinned Karakas
the Ranger tries to kill them in their sleep. How did
he get up the well? Pencheska. The group won’t
know this for a while, ideally.

Another Attack
The next day, the giants and Nightscale the black
dragon attack Waterdeep again. Nightscale is here
to take out to take out some straggler Harpers and
to hopefully draw out another powerful hero that
they can put in a shrine in the temple of extraction.
It works.. This time they get Farideh the tiefling
warlock, the star of the Brimstone Angels novels.

Mysterious Durnan
If we can, let’s also show a clue that Durnan is really old and potentially really powerful. Maybe
they notice him lifting something that only someone with giant-strength could lift.

Pencheska is your Friend!
Also, let’s establish that Pencheska is the one who
operates the winch that raises and lowers people in
the well. She just likes doing it. That’s true, but
CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 102

we’re setting it up for her to sabotage this thing
later in the campaign.

Forge of Fury
There’s a black gate near the entrance and in the final room. That’s going to happen in every adventure. The group can use the gates to go back to
Downhadow, which is close to the well and the
Yawning Portal.
We go through the forge of fury. Epic battle with
Nightscale. When Nightscale dies, try not to mention her bones. We are hoping that the bad guys
can make an undead dragon out of her. If the players mention her corpse at all, we should say that
her hide has been mangled by their spells and
blades and there’s no dragon parts left worth harvesting, except maybe the heart and eyes. The hide
is too damaged to make armor out of.
Remember, if the group ever comes here again –
the corpse is gone. The bad guys have stolen the
remains of Nightscale. They’re animating her and
making her the guardian of the Phylactery Vault.
We find another glyph key and black gate. That
one leads to strange caverns which ultimately lead
to Tamoachan.

The Rightful Heir

hated Nightscale and she is impressed. She wants
to get a look at the heroes and see exactly what
they are doing down in Undermountain.
Blackrazor
But right when the heroes have made friends with
her (or whatever), there is a ruckus. Yup, the bad
guys are back. It is Blackrazor, Nix and Nox, and
more of those tamoachan zombies. Elia assumes
her dragon form to fight them off. Maybe the
group takes out the zombies and fights a few terrifying rounds with Blackrazor. Then, once again,
Acererak appears and draws the soul of the silver
dragon. Mission accomplished – they are teleported away.

That’s German for “The Bart,
The”
At this point, Bart of Downshadow is looking for
the group. He wants to admit to them that he
knows the plan of the red wizards. But before he
can get to them, Pencheska kisses him and kills
him. The group will find his shriveled corpse and
can be told that he wanted to talk to them.

The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

Once the group has slain the dragon.. now they
have the attention of the bad guys. The group also
finds a deed that shows that Geddi of Downshadow
is truly the rightful heir to the forge. If they give it
to her, she gathers up dwarves from Waterdeep and
starts the forge back up, perhaps making weapons
and equipment for the group.

Then we go through Tamoachan. In that room on
page 91, if you sit on the throne, you have visions
of the past. Let’s have it where the character who
sits on it sees an ancestor, a hireling alongside Mirt
and Durnan. This is over 1,000 years ago. The
character watches them dig out an entrance to the
tomb of horrors (one of the false ones). Then the
vision is over.

The Silver Dragon

Next Glyph Key

At the Yawning Portal, the group has a visitor. It is
a beautiful, silver-haired woman named Elia. She
is secretly a silver dragon named Otaaryliakkarnos.
She works with the Council of Waterdeep, and she
got word that the group took out Nightscale. She

At the end of Tamoachan, another glyph key, another black gate. Each black gate takes us down a
level of Undermountain.

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CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 103

Origin of Durnan
At this point, the group might question Durnan.
He’s got quite a story. Maybe he spills the beans
and confesses that he became immortal through a
wish granted to him by an efreet (one of the
trapped efreeti in Dead in Thay).

Meet the Council of Waterdeep
A messenger enters the Yawning Portal looking for
the group. Their presence is requested right away
at the town square or something. It turns out that a
solar (angel) has come to Waterdeep looking for
Lumalia, the deva. The group can explain what
happened to her.

Recognition
At this point, there is a crowd and Waterdeep officials here. The ruler of Waterdeep, Lady Laerel Silverhand is here as well. She is very powerful in her
own right. We have a discussion where Laeral realizes that the group is a bunch of badasses and that
they are on the right track. So the whole city
knows now that the group killed Nightscale and
they might be the Waterdeep’s best hope to end
these attacks. The beautiful Idalla is nearby. She
tries to catch the eye of one of the heroes. She’s the
other succubus spy, and she knows that the group
needs to die.
Return of Blackrazor
Suddenly… a portal opens up and a horde of bad
guys pour through. It’s a chaotic melee in the
square. Red Wizards everywhere, Nix and Nox,
Blackrazor. The group can fight some wizards, or
Blackrazor. Don’t worry too much if the group
grabs Blackrazor. We can just have it injure and reject the wielder, but do it in a way where it is clear
that Blackrazor could change its mind down the
road.

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White Plume Mountain
OK.. time for White Plume. It’s underground. In
Undermountain. It’s an underground volcano, I
guess. Who cares, it’s an awesome dungeon.
The group goes through White Plume Mountain. If
the wight wasn’t destroyed, we can have it be in
the room with Qesnef. The group loots the place
and defeats the bad guys. Another glyph key, another black shrine.

Whelm and the Forge of Fury
Whelm wants to defend the forge of fury. That’s
what it did long ago. The group can hand it over to
Geddi, or they can keep it. A character in the group
gets Wave, the artifact nobody in my groups ever
wanted.
Just a Panther, Nothing to See Here
As the group returns from their successful mission
and are heading down the tunnel to the well that
leads up to the Yawning Portal, they pass by a
weird thing – a panther. It’s a famous panther, but
they probably won’t know that.

It’s a Trap!
The spies have laid a trap. Idalla is ethereal at the
bottom of the well. Pencheska operates the winch
and cranks the heroes up. But she’s pre-sabotaged
it. Once the group is up 120 feet of the 140-foot
well, the rope snaps. The heroes plummet and take
12d6 dmg, or none if someone has feather fall or a
clever idea. The idea here is that they fall and then
Idalla surprises those who are still conscious, and
kisses them to death.
Drizzt
We have a failsafe here. The panther is owned by a
fellow named Drizzt Do’Urden, the famous drow
adventurer. If necessary, he emerges from the shadows and helps them fend off and defeat Idalla the
succubus.

CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 104

New Ally
Durnan can fix the winch and attach a new rope.
He’ll get the group up in no time. Pencheska will
act sad and will bolster the idea that Idalla must
have messed with the winch. She sees Drizzt, her
eyeballs explode and she knows Acererak needs to
get here ASAP. But she’s got to play it cool for at
least a few hours to smooth things over, if necessary.

Another Attack
Drizzt wants to sit down with the group and go
over what they know. He can commend the group
on the work they’ve done. He’ll be incredibly
alarmed if one of the group has Blackrazor, but
hey, it’s a cool item.
The group probably knows the deal by now. Acererak is going to snatch Drizzt. So let’s let them
think that and do something different.

The Rebel Red Wizard
Let’s introduce Sylvanna, the rebel red wizard.
She’s against what Tarul Var and Acererak are attempting. She meets with the group covertly in
some dark location of Waterdeep. Unfortunately,
she’s being watched. A portal opens, in comes the
red wizards and that adult red dragon from the Hall
of the Fire Giant King!
The roof gets blown off the place if necessary. The
group is in an epic battle. They see something in
the night sky flying towards them.. then, nearby,
Acererak appears. Oh no, he’s going to get the soul
of Drizzt! Wait, that thing in the sky is the Acquistions, Inc airship. Jim Darkmagic flings a bunch of
autographed portraits and gets ready to launch
spells. Acererak assumes Jim is a powerful wizard,
sucks his soul, and the bad guys bail out. Acererak
is soon after disappointed in Jim, but sticks him in
a shrine anyway.

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Drizzt Out 6-8 Weeks Due to Hip Flexor
Drizzt Out 6-8 Weeks Due to Hip Flexor
During the battle, let’s have Drizzt really get his
butt kicked. The dragon breathes on him, all sorts
of stuff. The rest of Acquisitions Inc, Drizzt and
the group go back to the Yawning Portal. The Acq
Inc guys talk about the giants a bit. They foreshadow Snurre and the Frost Giant Jarl.

Dead in Thay
Now it’s time for the big one. Dead in Thay. In our
version, the Doomvault is acquiring souls for Acererak, not Szass Tam. Acererak is the one trying to
become a god. Remember that Pencheska is not
down here, so take her out of the room.
The group will have the chance to rescue Lumalia
from her transformation into a statue. If they do,
she’ll join them and become a trusted ally.

The Efreet
The heroes can free the efreet who made Durnan
immortal. I say the efreet offers the group one wish
as per the spell, with one additional choice: One of
them can become immortal like Durnan. This
doesn’t mean they can’t be hurt, it means they
don’t age anymore. Let’s say that the efreet can
only grant this wish once every 500 years, as per
the orders of the Sultan of the City of Brass. The
Sultan reviews all granted wishes issued by the
efreeti and he’s already going to be angry that this
efreet didn’t put a sinister twist when granting this
wish, but will let it go because the red wizards
dared to enslave a mighty genie.
The Rescue
The heroes get to rescue all the NPCS – Elminster,
Farideh, Laerel Silverhand, Elia, and Jim Darkmagic. They’re all drained and weak, and they will
be for some time.

CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 105

Phylactery Vault
The end is tricky. We can’t have Acererak die in
the Phylactery Vault. He’s the bad guy at the end of
the Tomb of Horrors. So in the final fight, we'll
have the opponent be Nightscale, who has been
made into an undead dragon!! Now we’re talking,
right?! She could be a skeletal dragon, a ghost
dragon, whatever.
The group might wonder why Acererak isn’t here.
They’ll find out when they get back to the Yawning
Portal.

Now it’s Personal
When they get home, the heroes find the place to
be trashed. A huge fight took place and there are
dead bodies all over. Acererak finally realized the
best time to steal NPC souls is when the group is
busy in a dungeon. He attacked, maybe with the
red dragon again.

Pencheska the Traitor
The group spots Pencheska leaning over Drizzt’s
body. What’s she doing? Kissing him! Draining his
lifeforce! The group finally sees that she is a succubus spy. They need to stop her right now before
Drizzt is dead forever.
Durnan Gone
After the fight, the group might wonder where
Durnan is. He’s in one of Acererak’s gems. There
are no more shrines because the group cleared the
Doomvault. That means that Durnan is just an eternal prisoner in the gems of Acererak. The only way
to save him is to take down Acererak.
So there’s two things left to do. Take down the giants and then go destroy Acererak for good. The
group learns that the giants are the only ones with a
glyph key to the Tomb of Horrors.

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Against the Giants
We go through Against the Giants. We can change
the notes from Eclavdra to Acererak if you want.
We can just take the drow out of the final adventure – the dungeon’s way too big, anyway. Or, if
you want, keep them in. Maybe they’re looking to
finish what Acererak started.
The group kills the giants, kills Snurre, and finds
the glyph key and a black gate in the lair of the red
dragon.

Tomb of Horrors
The group can use any black gate to go to the
tomb. When they’re ready, they go. They brave the
tomb of horrors and hopefully destroy Acererak
and shatter his gems. Hopefully with the clues
Adenian was giving out, the group can survive the
most deadly traps. They can rescue Durnan, go
back to Waterdeep and be hailed as heroes.

Reward
Maybe this incident has spurred something in Durnan. He wants to wander again. He hands over
ownership of the Yawning Portal to one or all of
the heroes.
Good luck! I hope your games go well!
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon
ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, D&D
Adventurers League, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective
logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All
characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast. This
material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any
reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is
prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast.

©2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707,
Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured
by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800
Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro Europe, 4 The Square, Stockley Park, Uxbridge,
Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK.

CHAPTER 10: YAWNING PORTAL CAMPAIGN 106

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