Tales from the Gnarled Hills

in Brineven Campaign

Here are the Tales from the Black Quartz. A set of stories looking at what adventures and situations the companions not on the main quest get into.   The first tale is called Kobolds of Ironspike Mine and can be found below.  

GM Notes

I like the idea of fan-fiction stories. Either I write them, or party member sends me a story to post. Rob suggested a "play-by-email" scenario where someone GMs and the others relate what their characters do in that situation. While I think it's a great idea, I don't want to be the "PBE" GM as well as the main GM.   If we end up using a PBE type alt game, treasure would be included in the "module" the PBE GM is using. For the fan-fiction stories. I would add some randomly generated treasure using the Hoard Tables from the DMG to each page. If someone wants to do the PBE, please keep the treasure within 5E guidelines. Older edition modules tend to hand out WAY WAY WAY too much treasure, not as bad with 3E, but off the scale with AD&D and 4E modules.   Paul also made reference to what each character wants to do in town to advance backstory, etc. Thinking about that, it might be easier to add an editable page under each character in Roll20 as a way of communicating that info. I am going to try it and if it doesn't work, we can try something else.    

Story Ideas

So I have been collecting adventures for 30+ years, and with my OCD personality, I have been keeping an excel spreadsheet of every adventure I have either digitally or hard copy. I think I could keep this campaign going until about the low-teens level (say 11-14). So I went through the database and just picked the descriptions of ten low-level adventures, then 10 mid-level adventures, and 10 more for good luck that seem to "fit" the Korlon Hills area. Feel free to use these for inspiration, or if you want to read one (especially if you are thinking about PBE), I can probably send it digitally. Names should be changed to protect the not-so-innocent.    

Ten Adventure Hooks (Levels 1-4)

1. When the party defeated the kobolds at Ironspike Mine, they found a map to an abandoned silver mine. The kobolds have labeled it as dangerous. What secrets does it hold?
2. The orcs kidnapped the local priest on their last raid and you need to rescue him, but he senses a more powerful evil deeper in the dungeon
3. A ghoul haunts the tombs below the city
4. A very successful and wanted goblin war party is led by a boss with a quasit "adviser".
5. Goblins again threaten local caravans, and their trail leads to an abandoned mine with an evil all its own
6. A decayed temple lost to time, some decades ago it was breached by some blights and they still use it as a resting place and a trap for adventurers. Best used in a forest setting.
7. Once a thriving silver mine, Big Gorge mine became infested with diseased bats and zombies
8. An ancient ruin centers around a tower haunted by restless dead and greedy cultists
9. Deadly attack at local village leads to a dark cult seeking forbidden magic
10. A map to a forgotten giant barrow mound

   

Ten Adventure Hooks (levels 5-8)

1. The party explores a paladin's burial sanctuary, disturbed by an ancient evil
2. Explore a lost dwarven mining complex to find the heart of darkness which must be stopped before its influence can spread
3. The players track a missing child into the tomb of an undead sorcerer.
4. Young adventurers explored the cave and never returned, will you give the families closure
5. While seeking work the PCs are contacted by an artificer named Vynthis Targain who offers them a job investigating an ancient tomb complex. He is convinced the site contains information pertaining to the location of three relics known as the dream rods. He also believes that these artifacts are hidden somewhere within, but his own research has proven fruitless.
6. Clear out an abandoned stockade inhabited by bugbears. After clearing the bugbear stockade, find map to tombs which could be another base for the armies. Confront the lord of the armies in the Howling Hills
7. A century ago a splinter group of assassins used these subterranean chambers as a secret lair and shrine to their vile goddess. More than 70 year ago a rival cult wiped them out; today the chambers should be unused and forgotten, hidden behind the collapsed entrance tunnel. Recently however, an ogre named Hendor the Cursed accidentally fell through the roof of one of the chambers. Today Hendor’s gang uses the chambers, although they have not been able to open all the secret doors within.
8. This complex was once home to kind druids but some years ago monsters attacked, decimating the peaceful occupants and seizing possession of their former home. The trolls and their leader have since settled in the region causing periodic problems and wreaking general havoc.
9. Deep in the forest, the heart of a demon lord once again comes to life and begins to draw all manner of evil to it
10. Something has awoken in the Mistwood Mines and evil stretches its tentacles across the hills

   

Ten More Adventure Hooks (levels 8-12)

1. Miners have awoken an ancient guardian, which guards not only the mine, but a demonic pendant.
2. An undead scourge threatens the town, does an ancient shrine hold the key to salvation
3. Scouts have located what they believe to be the headquarters of a growing band marauders in a fortified tower on the river.
4. A tremor opens up a chasm, carved into the massive iron portal at the bottom, "Behold the Temple of the Iron Codex".
5. The Black Monastery was once a thriving force of evil, now it appears in the countryside intermittently, still haunted by the remnants of evil power.
6. Investigate Renkilk's Cranny, thought to be the lair for a band of trolls.
7. Three illithids have taken a dwarven mine.
8. You find a map to an underdark lair of the fomorian giants.
9. Followers of earth deities worship the ground they walk on and have always built belowground shrines. A school of four gnome mages called the Earth Barons was no exception, constructing one such holy place where a desert met a range of rocky hills. However, recently a visiting dignitary turned out to be a suicide assassin that broke a fully-charged staff of power in their midst wiping out the mages. The PCs find the unsealed capstone to the shrine.
10. An ancient mage had stolen various treasures as part of a deal with a dragon, the dragon incinerated the mage and took up residence in his fortress, which overlooks a thin veil between Arith and the lower planes.