The Standing Stone.pdf

Table of Contents

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

Preparation ......................................................2

Adventure Summary........................................3

Character Hooks................................................3

The Megalithic Monuments............... .............3

Beginning the Adventure ....................................5

Scene 1: The Old Forest Road ............................5

Scene 2: Shelter for the Night... ..........................6

Scene 3: The Chapel of Nine Cods ....................8

Sidebar: Hobyahs ............................................8

Scene 4: Ossington ...........................................10

Sidebar: Ossington. ............................. ..........10

Sidebar: Faux Humans of Ossington ...........11

Sidebar: Encounter Skills ..............................12

Scene 5: Information ..................... ....................13

Sidebar: Using Magic ............................... .....13

Scene 6: Assassination.................................. ....14

Scene 7: Dyson's Tower ....................................16

Sidebar: Ruined Elven Village ................... ....16

Scene 8: Into the Woods................................ ...17

Scene 9: The Horseman Returns...................... 18

Scene 10: Hobyahs by Night.... .........................19

Scene 1 1 : The Warlord's Tomb .........................1 9

Scene 12: The Fey's Last Stand.........................23

Scene 13: The Horseman's Rest.. ....... ..............24

Scene 14: Showdown ........................................25

Conclusions .......................................................26

Appendix 1: NPC Statistics................................28

Appendix II: New Monsters ......... .....................31

Appendix III: New Magic........................ ....... ....32

620.T11 HI

INTRODUCTION

"In this decayed hole among the mountains

In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing

Over tumbled graves, about the chapel

There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.

It has no windows, and the door swings,

Dry bones can harm no one."

—T. S. Eliot, "What the Thunder Said"

reasons no longer remembered, attacked the site,

destroying the druid community and leaving a large

part of the forest to the north of the circles a burnt

waste. The sole surviving druid, Dydd the Wise, trans-

formed some of the forest animals into humanoid

form to aid her in the resettlement and restoration of

the region. In case history ever repeated itself, she

had the requisite spells carved into the stones of the

circles themselves, lest the necessary knowledge be

lost. Most of "Dydd's people" chose to retain human

form, intermarrying with true humans and leaving

behind descendants who have populated much of the

region.

In the quiet centuries since, most of these events

have been forgotten or have passed into folklore. A

small village grew up within the circles, concerned

only with their yearly harvests. Recently, however, a

tiefling sorcerer named Dyson learned of the spells

inscribed on the stones and decided to use them in a

long-term plan he had. Creating a servitor race that

looked human gave him the perfect tools to use in

infiltrating society in preparation for a fiendish inva-

sion by his demonic allies.

In company with a vrock bard (his liaison with the

fiends), a druid priestess (who provided access to the

spells carved on the stones), and a cat familiar (which

he soon transformed into a companion and body-

guard), he settled in the little village and soon took it

over completely. Within a year, he had replaced virtu-

ally all the original townspeople with transformed

animals. All those who stood in his way have been

ruthlessly murdered. A nearby tribe of grugach (wild

elves) whose members protested the disruption

caused by his removing so many animals from the

forest were lured into a parley and massacred; the few

survivors now stalk all humans with a burning ven-

geance. A wandering paladin who investigated

rumors of trouble was murdered and buried in uncon-

secrated ground; his unquiet spirit now roams the

forest roads, seeking to achieve in death what he

could not in life.

Now Dyson is ready to place his agents throughout

the region, once he gets rid of the elves and the

ghostly paladin. Attacking them directly might cost

him valuable cohorts, so he has been casting about

for someone to do his dirty work for him. Enter the

player characters....

In The Standing Stone, player characters (PCs) who are

called upon to rescue a small woodland community

from a ghostly horseman and vengeful elves discover

that the real danger comes from the villagers them-

selves and their dark master's sinister plot.

Encounter Levels: The Standing Stone is designed

for a party of four 7th-level D&D* characters who

should advance through 8th level by mid-adventure

to the cusp of 9th level at the end. Since they will face

very dangerous foes, Dungeon Masters with inexperi-

enced or small groups may wish to modify some

encounters to give PCs a better chance of survival.

_______PREPARATION

As Dungeon Master (DM), you need a copy of the

three core D&D rulebooks to use this adventure: the

Player's Handbook, the DUNGEON MASTER'S Guide, and

the Monster Manual.

In the adventure itself, the shaded boxes provide

player information for you to paraphrase or read

aloud when appropriate. Sidebars contain important

information for you, including special instructions.

Information on nonplayer characters (NPCs) appears

in abbreviated form in any scene in which the PCs

meet them; see Appendix I for full NPC statistics.

Adventure Background

Centuries ago, druids gathered from across the land to

build a double stone circle deep in an ancient forest.

Consecrated as a holy site, it provided a sacred place

immune to scrying by outsiders, wherein they could

hold their most important yearly rituals.

Long afterward, but still long ago, the area was the

site of two great battles in which Saithnar the Warlord

defeated invading armies but perished as a result of

the second battle. The massive barrow raised in his

honor is still a local landmark, standing a few miles

northwest of the stone circles.

Then came the disaster that devastated and depopu-

lated the area. The great dragon Ashardalon, for

ADVENTURE SUMMARY

The theme of The Standing Stone is misdirection. Ini-

tially Dyson, his allies, and the transformed villagers

portray themselves as victims and seek to use the PCs

to destroy the only forces that are keeping them bot-

tled up in this vicinity.

The adventure begins as the PCs approach Ossing-

ton, the besieged village, and witness several villagers

being attacked by a ghostly horseman. Once they

reach Ossington, the locals plead for help from the

murderous elves and evil rider. That they have seen

the horsemen kill unarmed peasants with their own

eyes should provide the PCs with firsthand evidence

of the villagers' desperate plight. Any attempts they

make to contact the elves are met with sniper's

arrows; the elves have been fooled by one betrayal dis-

guised as a parley and will not make that mistake

again.

While Dyson may initially be surprised by the PCs'

appearance, he's smart enough to know that someone

was likely to come along sooner or later and has

planned for this eventuality. He seeks to manipulate

them into destroying the ghostly paladin and remain-

ing elves. The best possible result from his point of

view is that they arrive, remove his foes, and depart,

having achieved their "mission." If they seem likely to

discover anything approaching the truth, his plan is

to distract them with legends of the warlord's barrow,

full of treasure guarded by a sinister undead

gravewight (see Appendix II). In his experience, the

combination of treasure, undead, and a dungeon to

explore should lure any adventurers away from inves-

tigation of what he doesn't want them to find. Should

the PCs figure out the full extent of his deceit, he

seeks to destroy them, though he flees—leaving his

more expendable minions behind—rather than risk

losing everything in a futile gesture of revenge.

Note that it's quite possible that the adventurers

will arrive, battle the elves, ghostly horseman, and

warlord, and then depart again with the villagers' grat-

itude and the warm glow of a job well done. It's also

possible that the PCs may get wise to Dyson's schemes

early on and ally themselves with the few surviving

elves and the undead paladin for an all-out attack on

Dyson and company. Either works equally well. Let

events take their own course, directed by the path the

PCs choose to follow.

CHARACTER HOOKS

Each DM knows best how to intrigue his or her

players in an adventure. The following are sugges-

tions that the DM should feel free to modify in what-

ever way seems best, playing upon themes most likely

to interest his or her players and their characters.

• Passing through a small town on their travels, the PCs

overhear two locals talking in the market about how

it's odd that nobody from Ossington came to the fair

this year. Questioning reveals that Ossington is an iso-

lated farming village deep in the nearby forest.

Usually a few Ossington folk visit the town about

once a month, but two or three months back they

stopped showing up. Some of the townsfolk are curi-

ous about why all contact has ceased, but everyone is

busy enough with their own affairs that no one has

undertaken the three-day trip to Ossington to find

out.

• A local noble, Lord Carroway, has heard rumors of

trouble and hires the PCs to quietly investigate.

Worried by rumors of an elven pogrom ("just like in

the Lendore Isles"), he needs to know if the elven

kingdom on the other side of the forest has begun

plans for a hostile campaign against the humans who

live on this side of the forest or is merely seizing the

neutral territory that lies between.

• Haunting ballads have recently begun to circulate,

retelling stories of events from the distant past. These

ballads—The Coming of Ashardalon, The Saithnasmal

("Saithnar's Last Battle"), Dydd's Farewell, The Deeds of

the Lady Durnsay, and others—allude to ancient events

in great (if sometimes confusing) detail. Someone

somewhere has either unearthed some long-forgotten

songs or else has discovered a source of information

on a period of great deeds now almost lost to history,

and every bard, historian, antiquarian, and treasure-

seeker in the land would like to know who.

• The PCs are drawn to the area by rumors of lost magic,

a sacred druid site whose exact location is forgotten, or

a magical sword of great power last seen in the area.

This might even include links to The Sunless Citadel or

The Forge of Fury if the characters participated in these

adventures.

________MONUMENTS

These monuments are centuries old, made by the

original human inhabitants of this land (long ago dis-

placed on most of the continent by invaders from the

THE MEGALITHIC

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