DM-Rocco
Explorer
Okay, here is a rework of the intro and stuff. Rread areas are inserts fro the Dungeon guidelines for writing so you can compare how they do it to what we have. Feel free for comments.
Introduction
The adventure’s introduction should begin with a “teaser,” a short paragraph that summarizes the theme and plot of your adventure and serves as a hook to catch the reader’s interest. Think of the teaser as your best chance to catch a DM’s eye, and come up with something representative of your adventure that encourages the reader to read the rest of it.
The second paragraph should indicate what game system the adventure utilizes (at this time, DUNGEON publishes adventures for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS only, but you should still indicate this), what level of characters the adventure is designed for, and what game world the adventure is set in. If the adventure is tied to a specific location in a world, indicate where the adventure takes place. If your adventure utilizes material from non-core books like Complete Warrior or Fiend Folio, you don’t need to mention this here; simply mention usage as it appears in the text with a short sentence.
Introduction
The winds buffeted horribly this high up the Spire. By rights, they should have thrown the old Wizard to an impossibly long plummet, bereft of his magic as he was. But the wizened old man did not reach level 100 without some cunning.
“Forward! Up!” he bellowed at the great beast he rode, though he doubted it could hear him over the wind's howl. Prodding it forward, he slowly made his way up the Spire at the center of the Heartlands, climbed the very heart of the multiverse. Haggard, cold, and wind-shorn he reached his destination. The No-Priest was already waiting for him at the top.
“You look uncomfortable” the No-Priest chuckled. “Unbuckle and come sit with me, enjoy the view.”
The Wizard frowned. “We have work to do, this is no silly matter.”
“Come now,” the No-Priest was smiling, but there was a hint of steel in his eyes. “You should at least take one last look at what you're about to destroy.”
They sat upon the Spire, watching the Heartlands below them spreading out into the horizon, into all the planes of existence. Above them the lights of Sigil were just barely visible, but they could almost see the fine net of portals it wove, poised like spider at the center of the multiverse.
After a long time, the Wizard shifted. “Come on” he said, “we have a multiverse to destory.”
Upon the spire at the center of everything, where even a God's power is quelled, the two impossibly wove their spell, and the foundations of existence begun to crumble.
It's The End Of The Cosmos As We Know It is a Dungeons and Dragons adventure for level 100 characters, with a prelude for level 20 or higher characters that will culminate in increasing the character's level to 100. It is not set in any particular world, and could be easily worked into any campaign where the Spire may exist. Although it is designed to be usable as part of an ongoing campaign, it is primarily designed as a one-shot adventure. The adventure can be run with your own characters, but the pregenerated characters that were used in play test are provided and recommended. During the adventure the characters should gain enough XP to raise several levels, and downtime will be provided for the manufacture of magic items or spell research. The whole adventure is designed to take about [??] 4 to 6 hour sessions to complete.
__This adventure uses the epic level rules as defined in the System Reference Document, which are a mixture of the rules in the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide and additional content from the 3.0 Epic Level Handbook (ELH). It was necessary to impose some further guidelines and interpretations, within these rules, as otherwise the variability in power level is too extreme to accommodate (see Character Creation, below).
__In addition to the core and epic rules, the adventure uses rules from Deities and Demigods, Faiths and Pantheons, and a few additions from the Book of Vile Darkness, the Book of Exalted Deeds, and the Epic Insights section from Wizards of the Coast's website. Faiths and Pantheons is all but required for the statistics of some deities, but for the most part the portions used from the other books can be understood without them or fairly easily replaced.
__This is a one-shot adventure, produced with no intention of making a sequel. As such, it accepts the epic rules as they are, without making compromises or changes that may enhance a longer campaign. If you are interested in continuing play in high epic levels, the Immortals Handbook from UpperKrust and CRGreathouse should make for fine reading material if it is published in your lifetime. INSERT WEB ADDRESSES
Preparation
To play this adventure, you must have access to the core and epic rules. Access to Deities and Demigods, Faiths and Pantheons, The Book of Exalted Deeds, The Book of Vile Darkness, and the occasional other sourcebook used can be useful, but lack of these books can be circumvented with less or more work.
__The adventure may begin with “lowly” level 20 characters, but turns to level 100 fairly quickly. The players can use the pregenerated characters, which are provided at level 20 and 100, or create their own characters. Making a level 100 character is great fun, but very time consuming. Make sure that you are conversant with the epic rules before setting down to make one, and be prepared to dedicate four hours or more to character generation. It is imperative that the characters will be created in accordance with the character creation guidelines below, or the adventure will need to be retrofitted on the fly to accommodate them.
Character Creation
In order to create an adventure for level 100 characters, you have to impose some limits during character creation. The variability is otherwise so high that no single adventure would be able to match the party's capabilities. Even with the following limitations you can easily “brake” the game, so when creating a character try to keep her capabilities in line with the pregenerated characters provided. Significantly more or less powerful characters would require the DM to significantly modify the adventure to fit the party, which at this power level entails a lot of work. You should be especially leery of exploiting “combos” or loopholes to achieve optimal tactics; this is especially true for spellcasters. With the right choice of spells and feats, for example, a level 100 wizard can do in excess of 1,000,000 hit points of damage in one round. The adventure does not cater to such power levels.
__The primary statistics that the adventure is built to expect are as follows:
* HP should be around 3000 for front-line combatants, 1000 to 2000 for secondary combatants and other characters.
* An AC of 60 is needed to have any chance of being useful against even non-combatants. ACs of 100 to 110 are needed to function in combat, with 150 or so needed for a decent chance to evade attacks from front-line combatants.
* An Attack bonus of +100 or so is needed for secondary combatants, and frontliners can reach +140 or so.
* The adventure assumes that most characters will have 50% concealment, and that they will be able to overcome most sources of concealment.
* Saving throws are assumed to be around +100, with +70 or so being weak and +135 or so being possible.
* Spell DCs of non-epic spells reach 70 or so, so saving throws against non-epic spells will often succeed. Monsters are designed and chosen with this in mind.
* Skills are assumed to reach up to +200 to +300 in the character's focus. The adventure tries to make use of all skills, including Knowledge and Perform skills, Diplomacy and Bluff, Sense Motive, Hide and Move Silently, Listen and Spot, Search and Disable Device, Open Lock, Spellcraft, Concentration, Climb and Jump, and more.
* A reasonable optimal damage/round output is around 1000 hp/round, around 3000 hp/round is deadly and below 500 hp/weak is weak.
The pregenerated characters do not use Level Adjusted races or templates. Some of these may be problematic at high levels, in particular the Paragon, Monster of Legend, or Magister templates. Consider carefully before allowing non-PHB races or templates whether their effect at level 100 is problematic; this is often the case with templates that improve based on HD.
__Only the core and epic rules were used for the pregenerated characters. You may include other material, the exemplars were kept core mainly for simplicity. Of course, we strongly discourage including material that is not balanced by Level Adjustment, such as divine ranks and some 3.0 templates.
Here are the rules for actually making your level 100 character:
Choose your Ability Scores from the Elite Array, or use a 30 point buy (DMG, page ??). All abilities automatically benefit from a +5 inherent bonus across the board. A character may be of any age.
__Your character may have one base class, one prestige class, and one epic prestige class. This is just to keep things simple for both the player and the DM. You should avoid dipping into several classes to cherry pick class special abilities, if you enter a class pursue it to a significant amount (usually to its non-epic end, at least). Cherry picking will just increase your power beyond what's appropriate for your level, and unbalance the adventure. You are limited to the core and epic rules and classes unless your DM says otherwise; think carefully before allowing non-core classes.
__When calculating skill ranks keep a close eye on your Intelligence. Skill ranks are not retroactive. You can decide when your character gets his +5 inherent bonus to Intelligence, but it can't be before level 15.
__Use average rolls for hit points (maximum at level 1) and other variables. There is a lot of die rolling, the adventure is designed for average die rolls. (In fact, there is so many die that it's not reasonable that you'll get a significantly different result from rolling them.)
__Do not take the Leadership feat. The main problem with this is the cohort, as running two high-epic PCs is very difficult. Note that we do have one pregenerated character with this feat - his cohort was intentionally made as an epic commoner to alleviate this problem (and for fun).
__You have 250,000,000 gp to purchase personal gear. (A level 100 character should actually have 277,777,770 gp; assume the rest goes to the inherent bonuses, supporting a few kingdoms, and so on.) All magic items in the DMG and the ELH are allowed. Custom magic items can, and should, be created to fit the character; use the following guidelines:
* No single item should exceed a 50,000,000 gp market price.
* Increasing an ability score is capped at a +30 enhancement bonus. Only enhancement (and inherent) bonuses are allowed.
* Skills increases are capped at +100 competence. Only competence bonuses are allowed.
* Weapons are capped at a +50 total bonus equivalent, with up to +25 enhancement bonus and +25 in special abilities.
* Spell Resistance is capped at 112. SR items cost x10, like other epic items and not like the Mantle of Spell Resistance suggests.
* No custom item should not provide divine, sacred, morale, or other miscellaneous bonuses; leave those to spells. Armor class should be increased by armor (and enhancement), shield (and enhancement), natural armor (and enhancement), and deflection bonuses; saves should be increased with resistance bonuses; and so on.
You can deviate from these guidelines, but try not to stray too far. For example, the epic commoner has a multitude of epic classes, but that's because there is no Epic Commoner class. The most important thing is to keep the characters within the expected power level of the adventure.
__When designing PC epic spells, keep their power level in mind. In general, mitigating factors should not be used. The exception are weak spells, such as Energy or Destroy spells, that need the boost, and cases where it is thematically appropriate and not overpowering. Some seeds should not be used to their extreme (e.g. Armor and Fortify).
The fastest way to generate a level 100 character is as follows:
* Make a single-classed level 20 character, using the Elite Array (15,14,13,12,10,8) and the core-rules only, with no gear.
* Add a +40 epic bonus to your base attack (but do not increase iterative attacks!) and saves.
* Add 20 level-based ability increases, and a +5 inherent bonus to each ability score.
* Add 27 epic (or non-epic, if you choose) feats, plus more based on your class: 40 for an epic Fighter, 26 for a Cleric or Paladin, 20 for a Rouge or Wizard or Sorcerer, ... This can take time; to speed it up, you can focus on taking one or two types of stacking feats (such as Improved Spell Capacity or Improved Sneak Attack) and only take a few other feats to complement it; this will lower the number of choices, and hence the time.
* Add your class's special abilities. Rouges add +50d6 sneak attack and +30 against traps, ...
* Set aside 250,000,000 gp and whittle it away by acquiring magic items. Set your sights on the power levels described above. This can take a lot of time, so if you want to keep things simple just focus on getting ability score enhancement, competence, resistance, natural armor, and deflection bonuses to bring you to the needed power level, add in a weapon or two, and a mantle of SR 112, ring of universal energy immunity, and shield of greater reflection. You're set.
* Decide on when your Int was raised and by how much, if at all, and calculate skill ranks appropriately. Allocate skill ranks according to your class skill list.
Put it all together, and congratulations – you have a (single-classed) level 100 character in a (relatively) short time.
Why play/design a 100th level module?
It has been asked many time of us, “Why would you play a 100th level module?” For us the answer is simple: because we can. The module originally started as a conversion of the original 100th level module H4 - The Throne of Bloodstone. H4 was designed under first edition rules, where the main difference between a 20th level player and a 100th level player was hit points. It quickly became clear that the module could never be converted into 3.5 for one main reason, hit points are the lest of things that a 100th level 3.5 character gains over 80 epic levels.
__We quickly came together as a group of PCs and DMs to design 3.5s version of a 100th level module.
__This module is not for everyone. Many have told us that they would never play in such a module, however, many who have said they would not play in a 100th level module also stated that they don’t play D&D above level 9 because the game gets too crazy for them. If you like low magic or low level gaming, then this module is not for you. If you love stories of Gods and mortals who can do fantastic feat, then this may be for you. The ELH has many skills, feats and spells that can’t be used until much higher levels. This module is designed to exploit the seldom-used abilities of the ELH and push the limits of the game to the max.
Adventure Background
This section provides the DM with a clear, brief summary of events leading up to the adventure, including
any pertinent historical details and villainous machinations. The main thing to keep an eye on in this
section is length. If you can’t present an adventure background in 500 words, it’s probably too complex
and should be simplified. As a general guideline, the adventure background should be no more than 5% of the adventure’s total length.
Adventure Background
The Spire is the heart of the outer planes. It resides in the center of the Out Lands underneath the ring of the City of Doors, Sigil, the self proclaimed center of the planes. Magic fails the closer you get to the Spire until even the Gods lose all divine powers at the base of the Spire. It seems an unlikely place for two spell casters to make a home, but that is exactly what has happened.
Two spell casters, one a cleric and the other a wizard, both of epic power, have spent eons in study at the home they built at the base of the Spire. Shielded from the prying eyes of the Gods by the protection of the Spire the strived for a means to ultimate power through the destruction of the planes.
Through careful study they have found a way to activate magical events (as detailed in Dungeon Master’s Guide II) in magic dead zones. The base of the Spire still prevents the use of their powers, but they have found out that magical events can be used while at the top of the spire, if only for a limited time. As the adventure begins, they are at the top of the Spire and have started the first of many magical events. They have burned their house at the base of the spire to protect against those who would eventually come to investigate the events at the top of the spire. They also have packs with many creatures of the Out Lands to prevent others from flying to the top of the Spire.
Adventure Synopsis
This section provides a clear, concise summary of the adventure for the DM. Outline surprises and plot
twists here, not during the course of the adventure. Introduce key NPCs here, and indicate both what the
central conflict of the adventure is and detail the most likely way the PCs can resolve this conflict.
Adventure Synopsis
Chapter one - the Gods in peril
The story starts with the party receiving a warning from there Gods so strong that it wakes your character, whether you are sleeping, in a coma or even from the grave. A wizard and cleric of surprising power have evaded the premonitions of the Gods by plotting and planning events for a powerful magical event. They evaded the divine power of the Gods ability to see into the future by planning for this event at the base of the Spire in the Outlands where the God cannot see. They have climbed to the top of the Spire and began their magical event by creating a Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra. For those of you not familiar with Magical Events, see chapter 3 of the DMGII.
The Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra is just the beginning, but they have also started a new magical event, an Elemental Swarm (new one I made up for this adventure) that prohibits magic from those not protected in a certain way, and as it is a unique event, only the wizard and the cleric have this power, not even the Gods understand it. The top of the Spire is also the site of a circle with the Spirit of Nature’s Rage. The burning eye is slowly growing, so those who teleport to Sigil find the city in flames and also discover that the Lady of Pain is occupied trying to hold the city together from the vast amount of magical energy forming on the Spire tip.
No way can be found from Sigil to get to the top of the Spire, you have to go to the Outlands and travel from the outer most part of the plane towards the center to the Spire. Every God is concerned and has called a truce of sorts, so every race is represented and all of the Gods have gathered in the Outlands to try and come to a solution. The progressive failings of magic as you get closer to the Spire means that most won’t get to close and most of the Gods will not come closer than 301 miles from the spire as they will lose their divine ranks. A few will deem this threat powerful enough to venture to the top of the Spire itself, however.
Once the party over comes the problems to get to the top of the Spire, should be fun without magic, a third magical events begins. The party sees the wizard and the cleric standing under the Burning Eye of Al-Ghantra on either side of a Sphere of Annihilation . There may or may not be an encounter where the evil doer’s can monologue and/or fight, but before the party gets to crazy, the wizard and cleric complete the next magical event and open a Consuming Vortex of Traal right behind the Sphere of Annihilation. The area if flooded with Negative and Positive energy. Once a few of the Gods enter the area, something unexpected occurs, the Magical event of the Elemental Swarms falters and an Elder - Mega Xag-Ya and an Elder - Mega Xeg-Yi, (energons page 168 of the MotP), enter the area and once they see each other they converge on each other and explode, causing the wizard and the cleric to lose control of the Sphere of Annihilation which gets sucked into the Consuming Vortex of Traal and then pulls in the Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra, causing a massive explosion across the cosmos.
Confused yet? It really isn’t that complicated, just sounds like it.
Chapter 2 - Strange Days
The party is flooded with power, both from the Gods and the energy of all the planes combined. Basically they are recreated, atom by atom, but on the plus side, for the time being, they have the power of 100th level characters, yeh . They can also temporarily be a different race, remember they are parts of many different races, but no divine ranks. Now they make their 100th level character. Please no leadership feats
The Wizard and Cleric were trying an experiment but with the Gods interfering, they created a rift in the cosmos and destroyed the whole of the current cosmos, throwing everyone, or mostly everyone, into an alternate cosmos.
Adventure hook, you must figure out how to reverse the effects of the Magical Event and restore your old Cosmos or have the deaths of a googolplex beings on your conscious. Deal with that. Parts of this chapter can deal with some fun differences between the old Cosmos and this one, like some old enemies are now your friends and your best friend is a back stabber.
Chapter 3 - The Ajah Armory
As a 100th level guy, you have the same gear you did when you were 20th level, plus a few extra items, but we will have rules for continuing to pimp out your current 20th level gear, this will reduce the massive power or way to much disposable income of a 100th level character, some anyway. Also, you will have access too The Ajah Armory. In this chapter you have a run in with Ay-Gax, a small child, is wondering around the planes, or other location. He is really the Xag-Ya, but he does not know it, and the party should not at this point either. He is healing the sick and curing maladies in Limbo and forces the demons and devils to stop the blood war. He eventually teleports to Sigil
The Ajah Armory
Created under the working name of recursive co-terminal multi-functional all terrain interdimensional closet of useful things by Mizledorf, the Patron Saint of Gnomes Everywhere, Founding Liege of Kirpah Nasmong- a Gnomish Utopia (Male Celestial Gnome/Bard 33, Illusionist 33, Tinker 33/N). One day Mizledorf realized the name was too long (everyone else would just tune him out when he started to say "recursive"), and he said "Ah hah!" with great triumph. However, his yiddish accent made it sound like "ajah!" And thus his culturally bankrupt allies dubbed the armory the Ajah. Convinced it was flawed, Mizledorf gave it to his friends (the 100th level party) as a gift, and set about improving its design. That's Mizledorf for you, one parts gnome, two parts perfectionist.
How it works: Once attuned to the Ajah, a character need only concentrate as a standard action and whatever piece of equipment they desire appears equipped on them. They make a requisition check: d20 + Concentration. The check is made against the purchasing DC of the requisitioned item. Items worth 35,000 gold or less (DC 40) have no effect on the Ajah. Items (or collective "purchases") worth more cause the Ajah's new wealth to decrease until said items are returned. The wealth loss for a single requisition equals = 1/3 (purchase DC - wealth bonus) rounded up. The Ajah has a base wealth bonus of 40.
Chapter 4 - Iy-Xeg
Iy-Xeg is the Xeg-Yi in human form and he has just slew an epic dragon and is picking through the remains with a stick, like a creepy kid would a dead cat. The PCs encounter him starting an over throw of the heavens and other such suggested encounters for the DM. He eventually teleports to Sigil.
Chapter 5 - The Wizard’s madness
Originally Posted by Philip
Unknown to the players when they try to teleport they are thrown into a dream plane of the Wizard’s mind and has split up into multiple personalities who are battling each other across his own mindscape. Unknown to them the PCs are pulled into his mind and must battle the personalities across an ever-changing landscape.
Without warning the PCs are suddenly the only living creatures left in an utterly barren universe. They have to find out what happened. Perhaps one of them did it inadvertently or they have a traitor amongst them?
The Cleric saves the party at the last minute, as she is trapped in here as well, but not before the PCs have many tribulations and trails.
Chapter 6 - the Cleric redemption
The Cleric knows that things have gone wrong and wants to help make things right, but the Gods don’t know this and they have surprises in store for the cleric, and now the PCs.
Originally Posted by Ozmar
I think this is a good time to introduce the Gods for the PCs to fight and also to have them face mass assaults from armies and such. A good chance for them to really flex their massive abilities by slaying hoards of demons and devils and angels and undead and whatever else we choose.
Chapter 7 - The Lady of Pain’s Revenge
The child incarnations of the Energons have been playing with the PCs throughout the module, playing tricks on them and healing their enemies and starting fights. They are pure energy from the positive and the negative plane and have no emotions, they are, for the first time, free to experiment and they are very good at it, whether it is stopping the blood war or killing all the angels in the heavens, they are just children having fun, without a peer or parent to stop them.
If the PCs attack them, consider them only to have 6 in all stats, but they have the knowledge and power of 1000th level characters, and can cast any spell, including epic spells and they don’t need others to do a ritual with them, so, even if they die, they come back in a single round and can and will use a powerful effect on the PCs. Most of the time however they just act like children, carefree and only thinking of themselves. It should also be noted that bringing the two together simply won’t reverse events, in fact, it gives them purpose. Where before they were content with minor experiments, now they feel whole when together (remember, alternate cosmos, things working backwards) and they begin to terrorize the cosmos.
The Energons are now in Sigil and the Lady of Pain has forced the PCs into Sigil to deal with them. Whatever happens, the PCs must fight the Lady of Pain, even if it is only for a few rounds. She will most likely overwhelm them, but the PCs might get the jump on her, either way she forces or begs the PCs to act and get the Energons out of her city. The Energons are not willing to leave such a fun city, unless the PCs can find a new place for them to have fun.
From Sigil, you can see the massive castle of the Wizard and Cleric that has formed in the center of the ring of Sigil. Actually, all you can see is a giant black sun which seems to absorb light, and everything else, it is a very large sphere of annihilation growing from the top of the Spire. It is so massive that it can almost be reached with very tall ladders from the streets of Sigil, no wonder the Lady of Pain is so upset.
Chapter 8 - Crating the Epic Spell of Reseeding
One of the places the PCs can offer the Energons to play in is the Observatorium. From here, and also with the help of the Library of Lore (Boccob’s Library), the PCs can create an Epic Spells to recreate the cosmos. While there are hard at work, the PCs can slowly see the warriors of the Ex-Blood War slowly taking control of the cosmos. The demons and the devils, without wasting energy on each other, have grown very powerful, enough of a challenge for 100th level PCs and from time to time they try to invade the Observatorium, or wherever the PCs are.
Chapter 9 - Assault on the Castle in the Void
Basically, everyone seemed to like the storyline by Turanil but I wanted something that made everyone happy, so while it may have to be scaled down a bit from your original idea, here is where you get to add your castle/dimension/epochs thingy. The wizard and the cleric however are in the castle, not just a Chronomancer, but the wizard can be a Chronomancer in addition to a wizard . Note, the Castle in the Void is actually inside a sphere of annihilation, which should make for some great fun in-and-of-itself. Also, the PCs must face the Lady of Pain and get her to let the Gods in the city so they can temporarily open a way into the sphere of annihilation.
Once the cleric and the Wizard are defeated, and they can and do summon some terrible stuff to deal with the PCs, the PCs can then place the energon children at the center of the Castle in the Void and cast the Epic Spell to reseed the time stream. Pretty much the end at that point.
What do you guys think?
Here is the rest of Turanil's idea:
Synopsis: A Chronomancer* (who was but 20th level), using wishes and chronomancy spells, created major time paradoxes which resulted in himself becoming a demi-god, but also creating a mess of dimensions and epochs. Now (inspired from the Amber novels), he resides in a castle at the junction of four planes and a dozen timelines. The world is slowly destroyed by this mess however, and is going to be soon obliterated in a giant sphere of annihilation (due to the time paradox and what not, this sphere is now growing fast, and if not stopped soon enough will devour the planet).
So the PCs will first have to figure out what happens, then get to the mighty castle at the junction of planes and epochs. Of course, other epochs mean they will have to fight villains from the future (with modern weapons) as well as from the past.
Adventure Hooks
This section helps DMs lead the PCs into the adventure. Although it’s fine to structure the adventure so
that one of these hooks is the preferred way to start the adventure, all adventures need at least three
different hooks. At least one hook should be simple and straight-forward (“Deliver this message to the
high-priest of St. Cuthbert in Homlett”). Others can exploit alignment, class, race, or society. Hooks
should not presume anything about the PCs’ actions, nor should they follow the standard adventure hook
that presumes they are mercenaries available to the highest bidder. The hooks don’t necessarily need to
be associated with the adventure’s plot. Adventures for 1st-level characters should include some hooks
that assume that the PCs don’t yet know each other.
One adventure hooks in particular we’ve seen quite enough of are those that have a relation or friend of
a PC call for help. You should also avoid hooks that rely on the coincidence of the PCs’ presence in the
area for the adventure to start. The party should always have a reason to go on an adventure.
Adventure Hooks
The Adventure’s Encounters
At the start of the adventure’s encounters, you can include additional sections that detail rumors,
background information the players can uncover in research or by using bardic knowledge checks, town
statistics, the time of year the adventure takes place in, and other relevant bits. If the adventure is for
higher-level characters, include information that can be learned by divination spells as appropriate.
The adventure itself consists of a series of planned encounters keyed to a map, timeline, or flowchart.
Each encounter can include any or all of the following sections: Read-aloud Text, General Description,
Creature(s), Tactics, Trap(s), Treasure, Development, and Ad Hoc XP Adjustment. Do not include sections
that are unnecessary for a given encounter. For instance, an area devoid of traps does not require a Trap
section. If you find that you don’t have anything to say for any of these categories, the area is not an
encounter and should not be assigned an encounter number. The editors greatly dislike printing the words
“This room is empty,” in DUNGEON.
Each encounter should be rated with an Encounter level (EL #) in the main encounter header, allowing
the DM to quickly assess the possible threat to his or her PCs. The EL is the properly calculated CRs of all
creatures and traps in a particular encounter (see page 49 of the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide). A sample
encounter header would appear thus: 23. Vampire’s Den (EL 13).
Certain encounters are structured so that the threats are not felt simultaneously. It’s one thing if the pit
trap is in the center of the room and the hill giant keeps bull rushing its enemies into the pit—calculating
the total EL by using the CRs of the monster and trap is expected. But if the trap is on a chest hidden in a
closet and never makes itself felt during a fight, reasonably that trap’s CR should not be figured into the
EL (unless its CR is higher than the monster’s CR, in which case the reverse holds true). Likewise, if an
encounter is designed such that NPCs initially encountered are friendly, but on a repeat visit are revealed
as a threat, the EL in the encounter’s main header should not give the EL based on the second visit,
because it is not true for the first visit to the encounter.
Consult Appendix IV for a sample encounter written in the DUNGEON style.
Introduction
Introduction
The adventure’s introduction should begin with a “teaser,” a short paragraph that summarizes the theme and plot of your adventure and serves as a hook to catch the reader’s interest. Think of the teaser as your best chance to catch a DM’s eye, and come up with something representative of your adventure that encourages the reader to read the rest of it.
The second paragraph should indicate what game system the adventure utilizes (at this time, DUNGEON publishes adventures for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS only, but you should still indicate this), what level of characters the adventure is designed for, and what game world the adventure is set in. If the adventure is tied to a specific location in a world, indicate where the adventure takes place. If your adventure utilizes material from non-core books like Complete Warrior or Fiend Folio, you don’t need to mention this here; simply mention usage as it appears in the text with a short sentence.
Introduction
The winds buffeted horribly this high up the Spire. By rights, they should have thrown the old Wizard to an impossibly long plummet, bereft of his magic as he was. But the wizened old man did not reach level 100 without some cunning.
“Forward! Up!” he bellowed at the great beast he rode, though he doubted it could hear him over the wind's howl. Prodding it forward, he slowly made his way up the Spire at the center of the Heartlands, climbed the very heart of the multiverse. Haggard, cold, and wind-shorn he reached his destination. The No-Priest was already waiting for him at the top.
“You look uncomfortable” the No-Priest chuckled. “Unbuckle and come sit with me, enjoy the view.”
The Wizard frowned. “We have work to do, this is no silly matter.”
“Come now,” the No-Priest was smiling, but there was a hint of steel in his eyes. “You should at least take one last look at what you're about to destroy.”
They sat upon the Spire, watching the Heartlands below them spreading out into the horizon, into all the planes of existence. Above them the lights of Sigil were just barely visible, but they could almost see the fine net of portals it wove, poised like spider at the center of the multiverse.
After a long time, the Wizard shifted. “Come on” he said, “we have a multiverse to destory.”
Upon the spire at the center of everything, where even a God's power is quelled, the two impossibly wove their spell, and the foundations of existence begun to crumble.
It's The End Of The Cosmos As We Know It is a Dungeons and Dragons adventure for level 100 characters, with a prelude for level 20 or higher characters that will culminate in increasing the character's level to 100. It is not set in any particular world, and could be easily worked into any campaign where the Spire may exist. Although it is designed to be usable as part of an ongoing campaign, it is primarily designed as a one-shot adventure. The adventure can be run with your own characters, but the pregenerated characters that were used in play test are provided and recommended. During the adventure the characters should gain enough XP to raise several levels, and downtime will be provided for the manufacture of magic items or spell research. The whole adventure is designed to take about [??] 4 to 6 hour sessions to complete.
__This adventure uses the epic level rules as defined in the System Reference Document, which are a mixture of the rules in the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide and additional content from the 3.0 Epic Level Handbook (ELH). It was necessary to impose some further guidelines and interpretations, within these rules, as otherwise the variability in power level is too extreme to accommodate (see Character Creation, below).
__In addition to the core and epic rules, the adventure uses rules from Deities and Demigods, Faiths and Pantheons, and a few additions from the Book of Vile Darkness, the Book of Exalted Deeds, and the Epic Insights section from Wizards of the Coast's website. Faiths and Pantheons is all but required for the statistics of some deities, but for the most part the portions used from the other books can be understood without them or fairly easily replaced.
__This is a one-shot adventure, produced with no intention of making a sequel. As such, it accepts the epic rules as they are, without making compromises or changes that may enhance a longer campaign. If you are interested in continuing play in high epic levels, the Immortals Handbook from UpperKrust and CRGreathouse should make for fine reading material if it is published in your lifetime. INSERT WEB ADDRESSES
Preparation
To play this adventure, you must have access to the core and epic rules. Access to Deities and Demigods, Faiths and Pantheons, The Book of Exalted Deeds, The Book of Vile Darkness, and the occasional other sourcebook used can be useful, but lack of these books can be circumvented with less or more work.
__The adventure may begin with “lowly” level 20 characters, but turns to level 100 fairly quickly. The players can use the pregenerated characters, which are provided at level 20 and 100, or create their own characters. Making a level 100 character is great fun, but very time consuming. Make sure that you are conversant with the epic rules before setting down to make one, and be prepared to dedicate four hours or more to character generation. It is imperative that the characters will be created in accordance with the character creation guidelines below, or the adventure will need to be retrofitted on the fly to accommodate them.
Character Creation
In order to create an adventure for level 100 characters, you have to impose some limits during character creation. The variability is otherwise so high that no single adventure would be able to match the party's capabilities. Even with the following limitations you can easily “brake” the game, so when creating a character try to keep her capabilities in line with the pregenerated characters provided. Significantly more or less powerful characters would require the DM to significantly modify the adventure to fit the party, which at this power level entails a lot of work. You should be especially leery of exploiting “combos” or loopholes to achieve optimal tactics; this is especially true for spellcasters. With the right choice of spells and feats, for example, a level 100 wizard can do in excess of 1,000,000 hit points of damage in one round. The adventure does not cater to such power levels.
__The primary statistics that the adventure is built to expect are as follows:
* HP should be around 3000 for front-line combatants, 1000 to 2000 for secondary combatants and other characters.
* An AC of 60 is needed to have any chance of being useful against even non-combatants. ACs of 100 to 110 are needed to function in combat, with 150 or so needed for a decent chance to evade attacks from front-line combatants.
* An Attack bonus of +100 or so is needed for secondary combatants, and frontliners can reach +140 or so.
* The adventure assumes that most characters will have 50% concealment, and that they will be able to overcome most sources of concealment.
* Saving throws are assumed to be around +100, with +70 or so being weak and +135 or so being possible.
* Spell DCs of non-epic spells reach 70 or so, so saving throws against non-epic spells will often succeed. Monsters are designed and chosen with this in mind.
* Skills are assumed to reach up to +200 to +300 in the character's focus. The adventure tries to make use of all skills, including Knowledge and Perform skills, Diplomacy and Bluff, Sense Motive, Hide and Move Silently, Listen and Spot, Search and Disable Device, Open Lock, Spellcraft, Concentration, Climb and Jump, and more.
* A reasonable optimal damage/round output is around 1000 hp/round, around 3000 hp/round is deadly and below 500 hp/weak is weak.
The pregenerated characters do not use Level Adjusted races or templates. Some of these may be problematic at high levels, in particular the Paragon, Monster of Legend, or Magister templates. Consider carefully before allowing non-PHB races or templates whether their effect at level 100 is problematic; this is often the case with templates that improve based on HD.
__Only the core and epic rules were used for the pregenerated characters. You may include other material, the exemplars were kept core mainly for simplicity. Of course, we strongly discourage including material that is not balanced by Level Adjustment, such as divine ranks and some 3.0 templates.
Here are the rules for actually making your level 100 character:
Choose your Ability Scores from the Elite Array, or use a 30 point buy (DMG, page ??). All abilities automatically benefit from a +5 inherent bonus across the board. A character may be of any age.
__Your character may have one base class, one prestige class, and one epic prestige class. This is just to keep things simple for both the player and the DM. You should avoid dipping into several classes to cherry pick class special abilities, if you enter a class pursue it to a significant amount (usually to its non-epic end, at least). Cherry picking will just increase your power beyond what's appropriate for your level, and unbalance the adventure. You are limited to the core and epic rules and classes unless your DM says otherwise; think carefully before allowing non-core classes.
__When calculating skill ranks keep a close eye on your Intelligence. Skill ranks are not retroactive. You can decide when your character gets his +5 inherent bonus to Intelligence, but it can't be before level 15.
__Use average rolls for hit points (maximum at level 1) and other variables. There is a lot of die rolling, the adventure is designed for average die rolls. (In fact, there is so many die that it's not reasonable that you'll get a significantly different result from rolling them.)
__Do not take the Leadership feat. The main problem with this is the cohort, as running two high-epic PCs is very difficult. Note that we do have one pregenerated character with this feat - his cohort was intentionally made as an epic commoner to alleviate this problem (and for fun).
__You have 250,000,000 gp to purchase personal gear. (A level 100 character should actually have 277,777,770 gp; assume the rest goes to the inherent bonuses, supporting a few kingdoms, and so on.) All magic items in the DMG and the ELH are allowed. Custom magic items can, and should, be created to fit the character; use the following guidelines:
* No single item should exceed a 50,000,000 gp market price.
* Increasing an ability score is capped at a +30 enhancement bonus. Only enhancement (and inherent) bonuses are allowed.
* Skills increases are capped at +100 competence. Only competence bonuses are allowed.
* Weapons are capped at a +50 total bonus equivalent, with up to +25 enhancement bonus and +25 in special abilities.
* Spell Resistance is capped at 112. SR items cost x10, like other epic items and not like the Mantle of Spell Resistance suggests.
* No custom item should not provide divine, sacred, morale, or other miscellaneous bonuses; leave those to spells. Armor class should be increased by armor (and enhancement), shield (and enhancement), natural armor (and enhancement), and deflection bonuses; saves should be increased with resistance bonuses; and so on.
You can deviate from these guidelines, but try not to stray too far. For example, the epic commoner has a multitude of epic classes, but that's because there is no Epic Commoner class. The most important thing is to keep the characters within the expected power level of the adventure.
__When designing PC epic spells, keep their power level in mind. In general, mitigating factors should not be used. The exception are weak spells, such as Energy or Destroy spells, that need the boost, and cases where it is thematically appropriate and not overpowering. Some seeds should not be used to their extreme (e.g. Armor and Fortify).
The fastest way to generate a level 100 character is as follows:
* Make a single-classed level 20 character, using the Elite Array (15,14,13,12,10,8) and the core-rules only, with no gear.
* Add a +40 epic bonus to your base attack (but do not increase iterative attacks!) and saves.
* Add 20 level-based ability increases, and a +5 inherent bonus to each ability score.
* Add 27 epic (or non-epic, if you choose) feats, plus more based on your class: 40 for an epic Fighter, 26 for a Cleric or Paladin, 20 for a Rouge or Wizard or Sorcerer, ... This can take time; to speed it up, you can focus on taking one or two types of stacking feats (such as Improved Spell Capacity or Improved Sneak Attack) and only take a few other feats to complement it; this will lower the number of choices, and hence the time.
* Add your class's special abilities. Rouges add +50d6 sneak attack and +30 against traps, ...
* Set aside 250,000,000 gp and whittle it away by acquiring magic items. Set your sights on the power levels described above. This can take a lot of time, so if you want to keep things simple just focus on getting ability score enhancement, competence, resistance, natural armor, and deflection bonuses to bring you to the needed power level, add in a weapon or two, and a mantle of SR 112, ring of universal energy immunity, and shield of greater reflection. You're set.
* Decide on when your Int was raised and by how much, if at all, and calculate skill ranks appropriately. Allocate skill ranks according to your class skill list.
Put it all together, and congratulations – you have a (single-classed) level 100 character in a (relatively) short time.
Why play/design a 100th level module?
It has been asked many time of us, “Why would you play a 100th level module?” For us the answer is simple: because we can. The module originally started as a conversion of the original 100th level module H4 - The Throne of Bloodstone. H4 was designed under first edition rules, where the main difference between a 20th level player and a 100th level player was hit points. It quickly became clear that the module could never be converted into 3.5 for one main reason, hit points are the lest of things that a 100th level 3.5 character gains over 80 epic levels.
__We quickly came together as a group of PCs and DMs to design 3.5s version of a 100th level module.
__This module is not for everyone. Many have told us that they would never play in such a module, however, many who have said they would not play in a 100th level module also stated that they don’t play D&D above level 9 because the game gets too crazy for them. If you like low magic or low level gaming, then this module is not for you. If you love stories of Gods and mortals who can do fantastic feat, then this may be for you. The ELH has many skills, feats and spells that can’t be used until much higher levels. This module is designed to exploit the seldom-used abilities of the ELH and push the limits of the game to the max.
Adventure Background
This section provides the DM with a clear, brief summary of events leading up to the adventure, including
any pertinent historical details and villainous machinations. The main thing to keep an eye on in this
section is length. If you can’t present an adventure background in 500 words, it’s probably too complex
and should be simplified. As a general guideline, the adventure background should be no more than 5% of the adventure’s total length.
Adventure Background
The Spire is the heart of the outer planes. It resides in the center of the Out Lands underneath the ring of the City of Doors, Sigil, the self proclaimed center of the planes. Magic fails the closer you get to the Spire until even the Gods lose all divine powers at the base of the Spire. It seems an unlikely place for two spell casters to make a home, but that is exactly what has happened.
Two spell casters, one a cleric and the other a wizard, both of epic power, have spent eons in study at the home they built at the base of the Spire. Shielded from the prying eyes of the Gods by the protection of the Spire the strived for a means to ultimate power through the destruction of the planes.
Through careful study they have found a way to activate magical events (as detailed in Dungeon Master’s Guide II) in magic dead zones. The base of the Spire still prevents the use of their powers, but they have found out that magical events can be used while at the top of the spire, if only for a limited time. As the adventure begins, they are at the top of the Spire and have started the first of many magical events. They have burned their house at the base of the spire to protect against those who would eventually come to investigate the events at the top of the spire. They also have packs with many creatures of the Out Lands to prevent others from flying to the top of the Spire.
Adventure Synopsis
This section provides a clear, concise summary of the adventure for the DM. Outline surprises and plot
twists here, not during the course of the adventure. Introduce key NPCs here, and indicate both what the
central conflict of the adventure is and detail the most likely way the PCs can resolve this conflict.
Adventure Synopsis
Chapter one - the Gods in peril
The story starts with the party receiving a warning from there Gods so strong that it wakes your character, whether you are sleeping, in a coma or even from the grave. A wizard and cleric of surprising power have evaded the premonitions of the Gods by plotting and planning events for a powerful magical event. They evaded the divine power of the Gods ability to see into the future by planning for this event at the base of the Spire in the Outlands where the God cannot see. They have climbed to the top of the Spire and began their magical event by creating a Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra. For those of you not familiar with Magical Events, see chapter 3 of the DMGII.
The Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra is just the beginning, but they have also started a new magical event, an Elemental Swarm (new one I made up for this adventure) that prohibits magic from those not protected in a certain way, and as it is a unique event, only the wizard and the cleric have this power, not even the Gods understand it. The top of the Spire is also the site of a circle with the Spirit of Nature’s Rage. The burning eye is slowly growing, so those who teleport to Sigil find the city in flames and also discover that the Lady of Pain is occupied trying to hold the city together from the vast amount of magical energy forming on the Spire tip.
No way can be found from Sigil to get to the top of the Spire, you have to go to the Outlands and travel from the outer most part of the plane towards the center to the Spire. Every God is concerned and has called a truce of sorts, so every race is represented and all of the Gods have gathered in the Outlands to try and come to a solution. The progressive failings of magic as you get closer to the Spire means that most won’t get to close and most of the Gods will not come closer than 301 miles from the spire as they will lose their divine ranks. A few will deem this threat powerful enough to venture to the top of the Spire itself, however.
Once the party over comes the problems to get to the top of the Spire, should be fun without magic, a third magical events begins. The party sees the wizard and the cleric standing under the Burning Eye of Al-Ghantra on either side of a Sphere of Annihilation . There may or may not be an encounter where the evil doer’s can monologue and/or fight, but before the party gets to crazy, the wizard and cleric complete the next magical event and open a Consuming Vortex of Traal right behind the Sphere of Annihilation. The area if flooded with Negative and Positive energy. Once a few of the Gods enter the area, something unexpected occurs, the Magical event of the Elemental Swarms falters and an Elder - Mega Xag-Ya and an Elder - Mega Xeg-Yi, (energons page 168 of the MotP), enter the area and once they see each other they converge on each other and explode, causing the wizard and the cleric to lose control of the Sphere of Annihilation which gets sucked into the Consuming Vortex of Traal and then pulls in the Burning Eye of Al-Ghautra, causing a massive explosion across the cosmos.
Confused yet? It really isn’t that complicated, just sounds like it.
Chapter 2 - Strange Days
The party is flooded with power, both from the Gods and the energy of all the planes combined. Basically they are recreated, atom by atom, but on the plus side, for the time being, they have the power of 100th level characters, yeh . They can also temporarily be a different race, remember they are parts of many different races, but no divine ranks. Now they make their 100th level character. Please no leadership feats
The Wizard and Cleric were trying an experiment but with the Gods interfering, they created a rift in the cosmos and destroyed the whole of the current cosmos, throwing everyone, or mostly everyone, into an alternate cosmos.
Adventure hook, you must figure out how to reverse the effects of the Magical Event and restore your old Cosmos or have the deaths of a googolplex beings on your conscious. Deal with that. Parts of this chapter can deal with some fun differences between the old Cosmos and this one, like some old enemies are now your friends and your best friend is a back stabber.
Chapter 3 - The Ajah Armory
As a 100th level guy, you have the same gear you did when you were 20th level, plus a few extra items, but we will have rules for continuing to pimp out your current 20th level gear, this will reduce the massive power or way to much disposable income of a 100th level character, some anyway. Also, you will have access too The Ajah Armory. In this chapter you have a run in with Ay-Gax, a small child, is wondering around the planes, or other location. He is really the Xag-Ya, but he does not know it, and the party should not at this point either. He is healing the sick and curing maladies in Limbo and forces the demons and devils to stop the blood war. He eventually teleports to Sigil
The Ajah Armory
Created under the working name of recursive co-terminal multi-functional all terrain interdimensional closet of useful things by Mizledorf, the Patron Saint of Gnomes Everywhere, Founding Liege of Kirpah Nasmong- a Gnomish Utopia (Male Celestial Gnome/Bard 33, Illusionist 33, Tinker 33/N). One day Mizledorf realized the name was too long (everyone else would just tune him out when he started to say "recursive"), and he said "Ah hah!" with great triumph. However, his yiddish accent made it sound like "ajah!" And thus his culturally bankrupt allies dubbed the armory the Ajah. Convinced it was flawed, Mizledorf gave it to his friends (the 100th level party) as a gift, and set about improving its design. That's Mizledorf for you, one parts gnome, two parts perfectionist.
How it works: Once attuned to the Ajah, a character need only concentrate as a standard action and whatever piece of equipment they desire appears equipped on them. They make a requisition check: d20 + Concentration. The check is made against the purchasing DC of the requisitioned item. Items worth 35,000 gold or less (DC 40) have no effect on the Ajah. Items (or collective "purchases") worth more cause the Ajah's new wealth to decrease until said items are returned. The wealth loss for a single requisition equals = 1/3 (purchase DC - wealth bonus) rounded up. The Ajah has a base wealth bonus of 40.
Chapter 4 - Iy-Xeg
Iy-Xeg is the Xeg-Yi in human form and he has just slew an epic dragon and is picking through the remains with a stick, like a creepy kid would a dead cat. The PCs encounter him starting an over throw of the heavens and other such suggested encounters for the DM. He eventually teleports to Sigil.
Chapter 5 - The Wizard’s madness
Originally Posted by Philip
Unknown to the players when they try to teleport they are thrown into a dream plane of the Wizard’s mind and has split up into multiple personalities who are battling each other across his own mindscape. Unknown to them the PCs are pulled into his mind and must battle the personalities across an ever-changing landscape.
Without warning the PCs are suddenly the only living creatures left in an utterly barren universe. They have to find out what happened. Perhaps one of them did it inadvertently or they have a traitor amongst them?
The Cleric saves the party at the last minute, as she is trapped in here as well, but not before the PCs have many tribulations and trails.
Chapter 6 - the Cleric redemption
The Cleric knows that things have gone wrong and wants to help make things right, but the Gods don’t know this and they have surprises in store for the cleric, and now the PCs.
Originally Posted by Ozmar
I think this is a good time to introduce the Gods for the PCs to fight and also to have them face mass assaults from armies and such. A good chance for them to really flex their massive abilities by slaying hoards of demons and devils and angels and undead and whatever else we choose.
Chapter 7 - The Lady of Pain’s Revenge
The child incarnations of the Energons have been playing with the PCs throughout the module, playing tricks on them and healing their enemies and starting fights. They are pure energy from the positive and the negative plane and have no emotions, they are, for the first time, free to experiment and they are very good at it, whether it is stopping the blood war or killing all the angels in the heavens, they are just children having fun, without a peer or parent to stop them.
If the PCs attack them, consider them only to have 6 in all stats, but they have the knowledge and power of 1000th level characters, and can cast any spell, including epic spells and they don’t need others to do a ritual with them, so, even if they die, they come back in a single round and can and will use a powerful effect on the PCs. Most of the time however they just act like children, carefree and only thinking of themselves. It should also be noted that bringing the two together simply won’t reverse events, in fact, it gives them purpose. Where before they were content with minor experiments, now they feel whole when together (remember, alternate cosmos, things working backwards) and they begin to terrorize the cosmos.
The Energons are now in Sigil and the Lady of Pain has forced the PCs into Sigil to deal with them. Whatever happens, the PCs must fight the Lady of Pain, even if it is only for a few rounds. She will most likely overwhelm them, but the PCs might get the jump on her, either way she forces or begs the PCs to act and get the Energons out of her city. The Energons are not willing to leave such a fun city, unless the PCs can find a new place for them to have fun.
From Sigil, you can see the massive castle of the Wizard and Cleric that has formed in the center of the ring of Sigil. Actually, all you can see is a giant black sun which seems to absorb light, and everything else, it is a very large sphere of annihilation growing from the top of the Spire. It is so massive that it can almost be reached with very tall ladders from the streets of Sigil, no wonder the Lady of Pain is so upset.
Chapter 8 - Crating the Epic Spell of Reseeding
One of the places the PCs can offer the Energons to play in is the Observatorium. From here, and also with the help of the Library of Lore (Boccob’s Library), the PCs can create an Epic Spells to recreate the cosmos. While there are hard at work, the PCs can slowly see the warriors of the Ex-Blood War slowly taking control of the cosmos. The demons and the devils, without wasting energy on each other, have grown very powerful, enough of a challenge for 100th level PCs and from time to time they try to invade the Observatorium, or wherever the PCs are.
Chapter 9 - Assault on the Castle in the Void
Basically, everyone seemed to like the storyline by Turanil but I wanted something that made everyone happy, so while it may have to be scaled down a bit from your original idea, here is where you get to add your castle/dimension/epochs thingy. The wizard and the cleric however are in the castle, not just a Chronomancer, but the wizard can be a Chronomancer in addition to a wizard . Note, the Castle in the Void is actually inside a sphere of annihilation, which should make for some great fun in-and-of-itself. Also, the PCs must face the Lady of Pain and get her to let the Gods in the city so they can temporarily open a way into the sphere of annihilation.
Once the cleric and the Wizard are defeated, and they can and do summon some terrible stuff to deal with the PCs, the PCs can then place the energon children at the center of the Castle in the Void and cast the Epic Spell to reseed the time stream. Pretty much the end at that point.
What do you guys think?
Here is the rest of Turanil's idea:
Synopsis: A Chronomancer* (who was but 20th level), using wishes and chronomancy spells, created major time paradoxes which resulted in himself becoming a demi-god, but also creating a mess of dimensions and epochs. Now (inspired from the Amber novels), he resides in a castle at the junction of four planes and a dozen timelines. The world is slowly destroyed by this mess however, and is going to be soon obliterated in a giant sphere of annihilation (due to the time paradox and what not, this sphere is now growing fast, and if not stopped soon enough will devour the planet).
So the PCs will first have to figure out what happens, then get to the mighty castle at the junction of planes and epochs. Of course, other epochs mean they will have to fight villains from the future (with modern weapons) as well as from the past.
Adventure Hooks
This section helps DMs lead the PCs into the adventure. Although it’s fine to structure the adventure so
that one of these hooks is the preferred way to start the adventure, all adventures need at least three
different hooks. At least one hook should be simple and straight-forward (“Deliver this message to the
high-priest of St. Cuthbert in Homlett”). Others can exploit alignment, class, race, or society. Hooks
should not presume anything about the PCs’ actions, nor should they follow the standard adventure hook
that presumes they are mercenaries available to the highest bidder. The hooks don’t necessarily need to
be associated with the adventure’s plot. Adventures for 1st-level characters should include some hooks
that assume that the PCs don’t yet know each other.
One adventure hooks in particular we’ve seen quite enough of are those that have a relation or friend of
a PC call for help. You should also avoid hooks that rely on the coincidence of the PCs’ presence in the
area for the adventure to start. The party should always have a reason to go on an adventure.
Adventure Hooks
The Adventure’s Encounters
At the start of the adventure’s encounters, you can include additional sections that detail rumors,
background information the players can uncover in research or by using bardic knowledge checks, town
statistics, the time of year the adventure takes place in, and other relevant bits. If the adventure is for
higher-level characters, include information that can be learned by divination spells as appropriate.
The adventure itself consists of a series of planned encounters keyed to a map, timeline, or flowchart.
Each encounter can include any or all of the following sections: Read-aloud Text, General Description,
Creature(s), Tactics, Trap(s), Treasure, Development, and Ad Hoc XP Adjustment. Do not include sections
that are unnecessary for a given encounter. For instance, an area devoid of traps does not require a Trap
section. If you find that you don’t have anything to say for any of these categories, the area is not an
encounter and should not be assigned an encounter number. The editors greatly dislike printing the words
“This room is empty,” in DUNGEON.
Each encounter should be rated with an Encounter level (EL #) in the main encounter header, allowing
the DM to quickly assess the possible threat to his or her PCs. The EL is the properly calculated CRs of all
creatures and traps in a particular encounter (see page 49 of the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide). A sample
encounter header would appear thus: 23. Vampire’s Den (EL 13).
Certain encounters are structured so that the threats are not felt simultaneously. It’s one thing if the pit
trap is in the center of the room and the hill giant keeps bull rushing its enemies into the pit—calculating
the total EL by using the CRs of the monster and trap is expected. But if the trap is on a chest hidden in a
closet and never makes itself felt during a fight, reasonably that trap’s CR should not be figured into the
EL (unless its CR is higher than the monster’s CR, in which case the reverse holds true). Likewise, if an
encounter is designed such that NPCs initially encountered are friendly, but on a repeat visit are revealed
as a threat, the EL in the encounter’s main header should not give the EL based on the second visit,
because it is not true for the first visit to the encounter.
Consult Appendix IV for a sample encounter written in the DUNGEON style.
Introduction
