Copyright August 2002, Matthew J. Finch, all rights reserved. No claim is made to any intellectual property of others, including WOTC.

All content is Open Game Content other than names, artwork and non-game specific descriptions.

The Black Book is an adventure for four D&D 3E characters of 6^th to 8^th level, generally of good alignment.

DM Summary: The party discovers a notebook containing the journal of an expedition to destroy an evil temple. The expedition was either captured or killed. It is a long way to the nearest temple of Pelor, and some of the original expedition might still be alive (nope), so the party should follow the clues to the Temple and attempt a daring rescue. The adventure can begin near any rural hamlet or settlement, but it has to be small enough not to contain a temple or a cleric of Pelor. Statistics for the small settlement of Diffryfaine (DIF-ree-fayn) are included here.

Adventure Background: In days gone by, followers of Erythnul, the god of slaughter, built a small underground temple in the remote hills. The builders, a sect known as the Creators of Destruction, occupied themselves with inventing instruments of destruction, tools of war and mayhem, and other such devotions to their bloodthirsty master. The sect came to have a reputation for great intellectualism among the bugbears, trolls and other such followers of the same dark deity, and the temple, though small, became a focus for considerable mayhem directed against nearby human settlements. Eventually, word of the temple came to the clerics of Pelor and Kord, who set themselves against the temple, stormed it, and laid the evil to rest. These events were so minor and took place so long ago that the temple has all but faded from human memory. Unfortunately, divine memory, even the memory of a god insane by human standards, remains deep and abiding. Three years before the events of this adventure, a minotaur cleric of Erythnul began having visions of a ruined temple near a needle-like rock spire. The minotaur and his followers, guided by visions, soon found and reoccupied the temple. Our story begins two years after the reoccupation of the Temple of the Needle Spire. Three clerics of Pelor (Adelard, Breed and Cadfrain), and an apprentice bard named Surris, discovered the existence of the temple and decided, rashly, to cleanse it of the evil reawakening inside. All four adventurers perished in the attempt. The hags concocted a plan to bring more good-aligned victims to the Temple. They dipped Surris’ notes on the expedition into ink, leaving the cover page undamaged so as to permit the notebook to provide identification. They did not realize that once the ink dried, some of the original text would also remain visible. And it is this notebook which falls into the hands of the party. . .

The Hamlet of Diffryfaine (yes, technically it’s a not even big enough to be a thorp, but they call it a hamlet)

Population: 15, on the three farms of Densfarm, Roakshief, and Whitegate.

Densfarm: Duroon, patriarch of Densfarm (Com4), his wife Mercilinn (Com2), their three children Warden (Com1, age 20), Wallace (Exp2, age 18), and Wade (Com1, age 15).

Roakshief: Barton of Roakshief (Com3), his wife Linsayne (Com3), their children Winifred (Com1, age 18), Keith (Com1, age 16), and Hailinn (Com1, age 14).

Whitegate Farm: Murdoch of Whitegate (Com3), his wife Jainacyn (Exp1/adp1), their children Annafryd (Com2, age 20), Merton (Com1, age 17), and Lissa (Com1, age 16).

If the party wants to try and track the visitors, or proceed directly to the Temple, one of the villagers, Wallace of Densfarm, will be willing to help with tracking (and will recognize the landmarks described in the notebook), but will not participate in combat or even enter the Temple.

Wallace of Densfarm, male human Exp2: CR 1; Size M (5 ft., 4 in. tall); HD 2d6+2; hp 14; Init +2 (+2 Dex); Spd 30 ft.; AC 12 (+2 Dex); Attack +1 melee, or +3 ranged; SV Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +5; AL NG; Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 8.

Skills: Climb (+2 Rank) Hide +7 (+5 Rank, +2 Dex), Listen +2 (+2 Rank), Move silently +2 (+2 Dex), Profession (hunter) +2 (+2 Rank), Sense motive +2 (+2 Rank), Spot +0, Swim +2 (+2 Rank), Wilderness Lore (+5 Rank), Use rope +4 (+2 Rank, +2 Dex); Feats: Track, Run.

Adventure Start: The evening is darkening into twilight, and you come across a small cluster of stone cottages with thatched roofs, nestled against a hillside. The villagers are gathered around a bonfire outside, and one of the commoners removes his hat and approaches the party. "Good morrow, Master adventurers. Welcome to Diffryfaine. I am Duroon of Densfarm. Would you be good enough to consider doing a small favor for our little hamlet?" If the party expresses any interest (or leaves Duroon the opportunity to keep talking) he continues: "A week ago, two men and a woman came to the hamlet carrying a leather bag as large as a tall man. They told us to make sure that the bag was delivered to a Temple of Pelor, and that if we didn’t, a terrible doom would come upon us. But we only see a cleric of Pelor every few months, when they come here. We can’t send someone traveling through the wilderness. Can you take the bag for us?"

The bag is leather, and very heavy. It clanks when it is moved. It is found to contain three suits of full plate armor decorated with symbols of Pelor, three maces, four skulls, and a leather-bound notebook that appears to have been dipped in black ink. The first page of the book seems to have been kept out of the ink deliberately, and reads, "Journal of our Quest to Find and Destroy the Temple of Erythnull referred to in Carthail Crall’s last letter." As you flip further through the book, however, you notice that in some places the color of the original ink shows faintly through the more recent coating of black.

DM Note: The first thing is to make sure the players open the bag! If it looks like they might not, Duroon can mention that the villagers opened it already, and that the contents are very strange. Try not to let timorous players run the party back to a temple of Pelor for instructions; the members of the lost expedition might still be alive, held in durance vile! If they do insist on finding a temple, though, efforts to speak to the priesthood of Pelor will not yield results; the three clerics were a traveling adventuring company and did not inform any other clerics of their plans to attack the temple. The temple will ask the party to recover the clerics, if possible.

Contents of the Black Book

The cover page of the journal is entitled, "Journal of our Quest to Find and Destroy the Temple of Erythnull referred to in Carthail Crall’s last letter."

Pages One through Three: The four…set out…who seems a bit…long journey…won’t bother to record all of the quaint settlements and interesting people…getting very irritated with peasants. …from the stalk of stone north to the broken tree at the edge of a cliff. Yesterday…hungry…bear ate my rations. Stupid clerics don’t talk in iambic pentameter. The priests with me won’t talk the way they should. Temple was originally … sect of Erythnul … Creators of Destruction … like tools and weapons.

Page Four: West from broken tree to deep ravine. Now north to the needle spire. Here at last, I think…just south of a standing rock with a hole like the eye of a needle. A group…bugbears carrying a goat…out later.

Page Five: Holy crap! I mean, by Pelor! …the riddle… "Named from the …, deadly am I. Named for the dawn, … spawn. Light in the night, at your … in a fight." stupid riddle. shadows…weapon? …like blood spattered tops. …idol. Must keep the hags apart. Oops, more later! [last entry].

If a member of the party succeeds at a Decipher Script check, they will be able to decipher the entire riddle: Named from the sky, deadly am I. Named for the dawn, ruin I spawn. Light in the night, at your right in a fight. (see text at location 2 for answer).

General notes: Although the hags and the minotaur are expecting a party to come and attack them at some point, they are utterly confident in their ability to deal with such an attack whenever it may come. The novelty of their little trap has worn off, and they are no longer keeping a particularly close watch on arrivals. Moreover, as the entrance to the Temple provides its own security, the party will find that they have not set off an alarm by entering the complex. There is no organized defense prepared (these are chaotic evil monsters).

Player Description: As you follow the directions to the Temple of Erythnul set forth in the ink-stained journal of Surris the Bard, the land becomes progressively rougher and more barren. The book’s landmarks are taking you higher and higher into the hills, and into an area of stunted trees and strangely gnarled scrub. Most of the ground cover is rough gorse and heather, with the occasional thistle or hollybrake providing a meager variety. Finally, as you are searching the horizon, your eye settles upon an unusual rock formation – a spike of rock with a hole near the top, just as described in the black book. Nearby, there is a great black iron door in the side of the hill, recessed about two feet from the rock face into which it is set.

1. Entrance: The image of a bestial, grinning face is set upon the iron door in the side of the hill. (A knowledge (religion) check at DC 16 will allow the player to identify the face as one of the many symbols of Erythnul). The door is hard to open due to its weight, but it is not locked (DC 12 Str check). A Search check at DC26 will reveal that there is some sort of remote closing and opening mechanism magically built into the door (the door closes when a party enters room 2, and can only be reopened by a lever in room 10). This trap cannot be disabled.
2. Antechamber of Shadows. The short hallway enters into a large chamber with a stone door on the north wall, directly across from the hallway. There is a crack in the floor of the northeast part of the chamber, about six feet long and a half-inch wide. Once the party has all entered the chamber (and the north door cannot opened until they do so), read the following: Suddenly, the southern iron door to the complex slams shut behind you. Fiery letters appear over the top of the stone door, reading as follows: Named from the sky, deadly am I. Named for the dawn, ruin I spawn. Light in the night, at your right in a fight. Beneath the words, there is the outline of two hands, almost like buttons. As you read the riddle, you suddenly notice a dark, insubstantial shape oozing into the air above the stone fissure."

The Riddle: If a member of the party places his hands on the handprints and answers "morning star," the stone door (but not the iron door) will open, and the shadows (see below) will be sucked back into the void from which they were summoned. If the party is utterly failing to answer the riddle, allow a cleric or paladin to remember what he knows about Erythnul by looking in the PH (where it is mentioned that Erythnul’s weapon is a morning star).

Monsters: The shape emerging from the fissure is a shadow. Another shadow will emerge after three rounds, and another every three rounds thereafter until the riddle is answered. Allow each player one guess at the riddle per melee round, but don’t give them too much time to mull it over. If this process is reducing the party too far, stop the new shadows from emerging. Shadow: CR 3; incorporeal; HD 3d12 (19 hp); hp ; init +2 (Dex); Spd 30 ft, fly 40 ft; AC 13 (+2 dex, +1 defection); Atk Incorporeal Touch +3 melee; Dam 1d6 temporary strength; SA: Strength damage, create spawn; SQ Undead, incorporeal, +2 turn resistance; AL CE; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Wil +4; Str --, Dex 14, Con --, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 13. Skills: Hide +8, Intuit Direction +5, Listen +7, Spot +7. Feats: Dodge.

Treasure: none.

3. Chamber of the Blood Conciliation (EL 7). At the far end of this room there is a huge iron idol, ten feet tall, illuminated by a red fire burning in a bowl held in the idol’s lap. The statue has an oversized head with rows of fangs in a chubby, feral face. It has eight arms: two holding the firebowl, two holding unspiked morning stars, two holding skulls, and two pointing at a mosaic on the floor immediately in front of the doorway you just entered. On the floor just inside the door, there is a circular mosaic of a complex, irregular pattern. Through the chamber there are four large stone pillars, each with two long-handled morning stars dangling from iron rings at a height of about four feet. Once the party has entered the chamber, read the following: as the last of you steps into the chamber, the stone pillars begin to spin, whirling faster and faster until the morning stars chained to them begin to rise from the centripetal force of the spinning. The eyes of the idol ignite with a cold red fire, and its mouth drops open. A deep laughter issues from the idol’s mouth as the pillars bounce out of their mountings and begin to move randomly around the room, cutting huge arcs of air with the whirling morning stars. The spinning pillars are animated objects known as Stone Quintains (see New Monster, below), and they will de-animate only if blood (of any kind) is splashed upon the stone mosaic on the floor, where it will be sucked into the stone as if by a sponge. This may happen by accident, either from wounds sustained from the shadows or if a character is badly wounded while standing on the mosaic. If the Stone Quintains are accidentally deactivated, make sure that the party sees both their original animation and realizes that the blood stopped the battle (just to maintain the cinematic feel). Monsters: Stone Quintains (large animated object – see the end of the adventure for stats). Once the Stone Quintains are deactivated or defeated, the iron idol at the back of the room slides forward to reveal a door behind it. The idol: the idol will register if the party detects magic, but it is nothing more than a ten foot tall, enormous, iron, everburning torch that moves magically when the stone quintains are deactivated or defeated.
4. Dining Hall. This room contains two huge stone tables, with some wooden chairs set around them. A pile of wood by the east wall is clearly the broken remains of several chairs similar to those around the tables. The room is empty, but a Listen check at DC 28 will detect the hag in room 6. The hag should also make a listen check to detect the party!
5. Clerical Dormitory. This room contains several stone beds, only three of which have mattresses. At the far end of the room stands a troll, his hand held to his ear, and an idiot grin upon his hideous face. This room was once the dormitory for lesser clerics of Erythnul, but it is now occupied by a troll. The troll was brought here as an offering by his tribe, to keep him from eating the other trolls. The hags decided to keep him as a guardian for the complex, and quartered him here with two first-level goblin clerics. He ate the goblin clerics, and is currently the only occupant of the dormitory. There are two incomplete goblin skeletons in the room, gnawed upon, each wearing a holy symbol of Erythnul (the troll left these out of a vague respect for the deity). A combat in this room may alert the hag in room 6. The troll will attack halflings by preference, but not if this puts him at added risk (eg., he won’t risk attacks of opportunity to do so).

Troll: CR 5; SZ L; HD 6d8+36 (63 hps); init +2 (Dex); Spd 30ft; AC 18 (-1 size, +1 dex, +7 natural); Atk 2 claws +9 melee (1d6+6), bite +4 melee (1d6+3); SA: rend 2d6+9 (when both claws hit) SQ regeneration 5, scent, darkvision 90 ft; AL CE; SV Fort +11, Ref +4, Wil +3; Str 23, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 6, Wis 9, Cha 6. Skills: Listen +5, Spot +5. Feats: Alertness, Iron Will.

Treasure: The troll’s treasure is haphazardly accumulated in a big bag next to one of the beds in the room. The treasure includes: 1,000 sps, a shiny metal button (0gp), a black star sapphire (1,200 gp), a promissory note "Note of Hand" made a year ago by one Othno Fastwise, halfling, promising payment of 600 gps and 4 goats within a fortnight to one Thuzgrud the troll (nontransferable and nonassignable)(0gp based on disclaimers in the text of the note), a large lump of amber (130gp), and an irregular pearl (16gp).

6. Kitchen. This twenty by twenty five foot chamber reeks of soot and grease. The ceiling and top portion of the walls are caked with a crust of soot. The room contains a large wooden table and some racks for iron pots and pans. This kitchen served the clerics. At the moment, one of the three hags (annis) is in this room feeding upon the remnants of a slightly roasted pig. If attacked, she will try and get to the troll in room 5 for help. Alternatively, if she has warning of the party’s approach, she may change self into the form of an attractive woman and quickly wrap her wrists with some cloth (if the party cuts the cloth, she won’t be detected, but if they try to untie it, they may discover that there is no knot).

Annis (1): CR 6; Large Monstrous Humanoid; HD 7d8+14; hp 45; init +1 (Dex); Spd 40 ft; AC 20 (-1 Size, +1 Dex, +10 Natural); Atk 2 claws +13 melee (1d6+7), bite +8 melee (1d6+3); Face/Reach: 5x5 ft / 10 ft; SA: Improved Grab (see pg 9 of the Monster Manual), Rend 2d6+14 (add’l damage when hitting with both claws), Tear (automatic hits with all melee attacks while target is held), spell-like abilities (change self and fog cloud 3/day); SQ: steely skin (piercing damage reduced by 1 point per hit, bludgeoning damage increased by 1 point per hit); SR 19; AL CE; SV Fort +6, Ref +7, Wil +7; Str 25, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 10. Skills: Concentration +12, Hide +7, Listen +11, Spot +11. Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Casting.

Treasure: the slightly roasted pig (Win some, lose some. Anybody hungry?)

7. Creation Chamber. This funnel shaped room has a door on the far side of the chamber, directly across from the entryway. The room contains four tables, with strange and interesting equipment piled up on three of them. There is also a pile of rusted scrap metal on the floor in the southwest corner. This was originally a laboratory for building engines and tools of destruction. Table One: there is a large apparatus constructed of blades and gears on the table. It is badly rusted. In a pile of trash in the corner there is a crank that can be used to make the blades turn. Anyone sitting on or putting a hand into the machine while it is turning will take 1d4 hps of damage per round. How the players could make use of this is anyone’s guess, but they’ll probably love it if they can make it work. It is hard to carry, requiring a DC check (Str) at a DC of 16 every ten feet traveled. Dropping it makes a loud noise. Table two: This table is empty, but there is a hole all the way through the tabletop where an extremely corrosive or burning substance ate its way through to the floor. Table three: this worktable seems to have been used recently, for the various bottles and materials on it are not nearly of the antiquity of the various bladed and mechanical devices elsewhere in the room. The three hags use this table as a shared workspace for dabbling in poisons and other noxious experiments. Table Four: This table is piled high with rusted springs, gears and blades, but in the middle of the pile is a tube with a bell shaped mouth and a lever. This is a primitive gun, which can be fired once and only once, doing 1d20 hp to everything in its path for a range of 30 feet, and 1d6 to the person firing it. The person firing it will also be knocked back five feet and will begin the next round prone (unless making an Str check at DC15).
8. Storage. The walls of this room have built in shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling, although most of the shelves are empty. This was the storage room for the laboratory at (7). The storage area contains five bottles labeled "Alchemist’s Fire," but they are so old that they have a 10% chance of failing to ignite. A large bag contains flour (this was recently left here by the hags), a second bag, the size of a belt pouch, contains forty human knucklebones, disturbingly and messily fresh (belonging to the unfortunate expedition of Surris the bard and his clerical compatriots).
9. Hag Nest (EL 9). This large room is littered with particularly noisome debris, most of which is gathered into nine large piles, almost like nests. There are three of the nests at the very back of the room, and six closer to the front. There are also six ogres rising up to attack, and at the back of the room are two giantesses, slightly larger than the ogres. This large room was an audience chamber for the High Priest of Erythnul during the days before the temple was destroyed. It is now the nest of the hags and six ogres who serve the hags as paramours and bodyguards. Unless one of the hags (initially located at location 6) has escaped the party and gotten to this room, only two hags of the covey will be here.

Annis (2): CR 6; Large Monstrous Humanoid; HD 7d8+14; hp 45; init +1 (Dex); Spd 40 ft; AC 20 (-1 Size, +1 Dex, +10 Natural); Atk 2 claws +13 melee (1d6+7), bite +8 melee (1d6+3); Face/Reach: 5x5 ft / 10 ft; SA: Improved Grab (see pg 9 of the Monster Manual), Rend 2d6+14 (add’l damage when hitting with both claws), Tear (automatic hits with all melee attacks while target is held), spell-like abilities (change self and fog cloud 3/day); SQ: steely skin (piercing damage reduced by 1 point per hit, bludgeoning damage increased by 1 point per hit); SR 19; AL CE; SV Fort +6, Ref +7, Wil +7; Str 25, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 10. Skills: Concentration +12, Hide +7, Listen +11, Spot +11. Feats: Alertness, Blind-Fight, Combat Casting.

In covey: 3/day animate dead, bestow curse, control weather, dream, forcecage, mind blank, mirage arcana, polymorph other, veil, vision. Cast as by 9^th level sorcerer (save DC+spell level). Must all be within ten feet, full round action.

Ogres (6): CR 2; large giant; HD 4d8+8; hp 24; init -1 (Dex); Spd 30ft; AC 16(-1 size, -1 Dex, +5 natural, +3 hide); Atk Huge greatclub +8 melee; Dam Huge Greatclub 2d6+7;Reach 10'; SQ none; AL CE; SV Fort +6, Ref +0, Wil +1; Str 21, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 7. Skills: Climb +4, Listen +2, Spot +2. Feats: Weapon Focus (greatclub).

Treasure: Ogres: 9,000 sps, 3 40 gp gems, 100 gp gem, arcane scroll of misdirection (150 gp market value, caster level 3), wand of ghoul touch, market value 4,500 gp. Hags: 6,000 sps, amulet of natural armor (+1), market value 2,000 gp.

10. Minotaur Room. This large room is carven from the living stone of the hill, with several deeply incised pictures of a grossly fat, many-armed god brandishing a round, stone-tipped morning star over his fanged head. In the northeast of the room there is a statue of the same god, carved from stone. Rich carpets cover the stone floor. This room contains the minotaur and the lever to release the outside doors. The lever is located beside the statue of Erythnul. Pulling it is the only way to open the iron door of the complex (at location 1. If the party has been in the complex for more than a day, Ha-Aiman will eventually notice that the lever has been moved from open to closed, and will either come looking for the intruders (50%) or flip it back to open (50%).

Conclusion of the Adventure: The party should be well hacked-up by the time they finish the adventure. They might choose to travel back to a Temple of Pelor with the remains of Surris and the clerics, or they might just wander on into the mists of the evening. After all, the road goes ever on. . .

Stone Quintain (Large Animated Object)

Large Construct

Hit Dice: 4d10 (22 hp)

Initiative: +0

Speed: 20ft.

AC: 14 (-1 size, +5 natural)

Attacks: 2 morning stars +5 melee

Damage: Morning star 1d8+4

Face/Reach: 5ft by 5ft/10 ft

Special Attacks: none

Special Qualities: Hardness 8 (subtract from damage), Construct (no mind influence, poison, disease, critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain or death from massive damage)

Saves: Fort +1, Ref +1, Will -4

Abilities: Str 16, Dex 10, Con --, Int --, Wis 1, Cha 1

Skills: --

Feats: --

Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground

Organization: Solitary (according to the MM)

Challenge Rating: 3

Treasure: None

Alignment: Neutral

Advancement –

A stone quintain is a stone pillar with morning stars attached to it by iron rings. When the quintain is activated, it spins like a top, causing the morning stars to whirl around, hitting the quintain’s targets.