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A
SSAULT ON
N
IGHTWYRM
F
ORTRESS
™
AN ADVENTURE FOR CHARACTERS OF 17
TH
- 20
TH
LEVEL
Bruce R. Cordell • Robert J. Schwalb
™
CREDITS
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Design
Bruce R. Cordell and Shawn Merwin
Development
Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Jeremy Crawford
Shadow dragons haunt crumbling cities and sunken pal-
aces within the Shadowfell, voraciously hoarding food,
wealth, and power. They are driven to commit atrocities
to satisfy their appetites, pitilessly enslaving other beings
to work as soldiers and servants. Most shadow dragons
live far from settlements and are content to prey on those
who dare the deepest darkness beyond the dim light of
civilization.
Some time ago, the shadow dragon Urishtar Night-
wyrm discovered an ancient structure in the Shadowfell,
one whose foundation predated the rise of the Raven
Queen. Urishtar claimed the site for herself and renamed
the dread place Nightwyrm Fortress. Within its cham-
bers, Urishtar learned much—too much—about the passage
of mortals from life to death. She turned her newfound
knowledge to capturing the life energy of just-slain mortals
as they raced through the Shadowfell toward their ulti-
mate destiny. By diverting life energy from its proper fate,
the dragon risks the wrath of the Raven Queen. Urishtar
cares not—she has her own goals in mind.
Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress
™
presents a DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS
®
game adventure for player characters of 17th
to 20th level. You need the
Player’s Handbook
®
, the
Monster
Manual
®
, and the
Dungeon Master’s Guide
®
to play.
D&D
™
Dungeon Tiles
and
D&D
®
Miniatures
can also be used to
enhance your play experience.
Editing
Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes
Additional Development and Managing Editing
Bill Slavicsek
Mechanical Design and Development Manager
Andy Collins
Story Design and Development Manager
Christopher Perkins
Art Director
Jon Schindehette
Graphic Designers
Soe Murayama, Brian Dumas, Breanne Miller, Robert Jordan
Cover Illustration
Jesper Ejsing
Interior Illustrations
Eric Belisle, Matias Topia, Todd Lockwood, Vincent Dutrait
Maps and Diagrams
Jason A. Engle
Publishing Production Specialist
Erin Dorries
Prepress Manager
Jefferson Dunlap
Background
Following hints in dreams and clues born from fever
visions, the shadow dragon Urishtar discovered an ancient
structure in the Shadowfell. The structure first appeared
during the wars between gods and primordials. In its
lightless galleries, Urishtar discovered dread lore origi-
nally reserved for divine agents and necromancer lords.
Flush with newfound power over the afterlife, Urishtar
began to explore the limits of these abilities. Few in the
natural world or the Shadowfell were aware of her activi-
ties until she began to steal the departing life force of the
recently deceased.
Jothan Ironspell, a prominent adventurer of the
southern regions, died defending the natural world from
marauding demons. After the demons were finally van-
quished, Jothan’s corpse was recovered and returned to his
home town of Vaester. Jothan’s father, Sir Halumoor Iron-
spell, arranged for a Raise Dead ritual that would restore
Jothan to life. However, when the ritual was concluded,
Jothan did not return. The ritual caster, a priest of Pelor
named Beldan, reported that he’d made tentative contact
with Jothan’s spirit and that the hero wished to return. But
something was holding his life force back.
Grief-stricken, Sir Halumoor paid for the ritual to be
performed again and again—four times in all. None suc-
ceeded. According to Beldan, contact with Jothan’s life
Imaging Technician
Ashley Brock
Production Manager
Cynda Callaway
Special Thanks to Brandon Daggerhart, keeper of Shadowfell
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, d20, d20 System, WIZARDS OF THE
COAST,
Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual,
all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective
logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A.
and other countries. All Wizards characters and the distinctive
likenesses thereof are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC. This
material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States
of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material
or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express
written permission of Wizards of the Coast LLC. This product is
a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations,
places, or events included herein is purely coincidental. Printed in
the U.S.A. ©2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC.
620-21892740-002 EN
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Printing: March 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7869-5000-3
Visit our website at www.wizards.com/dnd
2
NTRODUCTION
force grew fainter each time he cast the ritual, as if it had
slipped farther and farther away. On the final attempt,
Beldan reported that Jothan was finally and truly gone.
This tragic news has many convinced that Vaester suf-
fers under a dreadful curse. Several other Raise Dead
rituals have failed since Beldan’s attempts to revive Jothan,
and rumors claim that the Gentle Repose ritual now fails
to preserve corpses. Desperate to find the answer, various
casters performed Speak with Dead rituals. They report
that many of the recently dead who were able to be called
back to life have splintered memories of a terrible vision—a
dragonlike entity of black mist reaching toward them and
plucking the light from deep within them.
A close friend of Jothan, Moyshanna, believes some ter-
rible creature akin to both dragon and wraith made off
with Jothan’s spirit. She has pledged to learn the truth.
When the shadow dragon dies, the diversion of mortal
life force ceases. The swirling darkness at the tower’s
zenith slowly dissipates and this threat comes to an end.
Urishtar’s role in a larger plot is revealed in the next
adventure in the series,
E1: Death’s Reach
.
HOW TO USE THIS ADVENTURE
Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress,
a paragon-tier adventure for
the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Roleplaying Game, consists of
three parts. It takes a group of five player characters (PCs)
from 17th to 20th level. You can use this adventure as
the culmination of the series of paragon tier adventures
(which kicked off with
P1: King of the Trollhaunt Warrens
™
and continued with
P2: Demon Queen’s Enclave
™
), or as a
stand-alone adventure in your own campaign.
The two booklets included in this adventure are for the
Dungeon Master (DM). If you’re planning to experience
the adventure as a player, stop reading now.
The
Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress
adventure contains
these components:
Adventure Synopsis
The adventurers arrive in Vaester, hearing something
about the trouble the locals have had recently with the
viability of Raise Dead rituals. By speaking with various
people involved in these events, the adventurers learn
about the entrance to the Gloomdeeps and the Tomb of
Sartine that lies within (see “Supporting Characters,”
page
5
). After learning that something seems to be interfering
with the natural process of life and death, the PCs might
be inspired to follow the trail of stolen spirits into the
Gloomdeeps.
The
Gloomdeeps
consists of a series of caverns under-
lying a line of ridges near Vaester. The upper caves contain
threats typical to the Underdark, and the adventurers
should be able to bypass these and descend quickly to
the area containing the Tomb of Sartine. Within these
strangely shadowed tunnels, greater dangers stand
between the PCs and Sartine’s tomb.
The
Tomb of Sartine
is the final resting place of a
once-powerful shadar-kai warlock. It is infested with death
traps of all sorts, as well as several guardian creatures. The
adventurers can discover a powerful artifact, the
Skull of
Sartine
. In the end, they pass through a dark portal into
the Shadowfell.
Upon breaching the portal, the adventurers appear out-
side the walls of a massive fortress, its spire poised directly
beneath an ominous swirling cloud in the shadowy sky.
Here is where the stolen life force gathers.
The adventurers must seek the
soul rings
that provide
access to the keep. Captains stationed in the outer walls
each possess one of these items, and each captain presents
a deadly challenge. These captains are under the com-
mand of the larva mage Magrathar, whose defeat is also
required to attune the rings to new owners.
Once they obtain and attune the
soul rings
, the adven-
turers must battle their way across catwalks (a fight that
includes a brush with Urishtar) to reach
Urishtar’s Keep
.
The party must defeat the challenges that protect the top
of the spire and win one more showdown with Urishtar.
1.
Adventure Book One
(this booklet) provides the Dun-
geon Master (DM) with an overview of the adventure. This
includes descriptions of the three adventure areas—the
Gloomdeeps (including the Tomb of Sartine), Magrathar’s
Teeth, and Urishtar’s Keep. This booklet also provides illus-
trations of key locations and adversaries for the DM to
show to the players, descriptions of several new monsters,
and new magic items.
2.
Adventure Book Two
contains the bulk of the adven-
ture, including many possible encounters within the three
adventure areas described in
Adventure Book One
.
3. A poster map depicting two of the adventure’s most
important encounter areas, rendered in a scale that allows
you to place your
D&D Miniatures
directly on the map.
4. A folder to hold the booklets and the poster map.
If You’re the DM . . .
Read
Adventure Book One
first, and familiarize yourself with
the Adventure Overview map on
page 5.
It represents a
conceptual flow chart of the adventure. Then read through
the overview sections in this book, as well as the first few
encounters in
Adventure Book Two
. Read the rest of
Adven-
ture Book Two
at your leisure; you need to read ahead only
a few encounters at a time.
Getting Started
Begin the adventure by providing your players with one or
more hooks from “Adventure Hooks” (
page 4),
and then
proceed to Encounter A1: The Failed Ritual (
page 6).
3
ADVENTURE HOOKS
Quest XP:
1,600 XP (minor quest) for traveling to
Vaester and participating in the events of Encounter A1.
14,000 XP (major quest) for tracing the hero’s missing
spirit to Urishtar’s Keep and killing Urishtar. In addition,
the grieving Sir Halumoor pays a reward of up to 1,000 pp
for the return of his son’s lost life force.
Involving the player characters in this adventure can be a
straightforward affair or the result of long planning, with
seeds of the over-arching plot laid in earlier adventures.
This section provides possible adventure hooks. Use one or
more of these, or fashion one that serves the needs of your
campaign. If possible, introduce a hook into your game
before the characters finish their current adventure.
The adventure hooks described below presume the PCs
begin their inquiries in Vaester. Encounter A1: The Failed
Ritual on
page 6
introduces relevant NPCs who can pro-
vide useful information.
Hook: Death Cult Redux
Marla of the Great Church, a priest of Pelor, contacts the
adventurers. (They might have interacted with Marla
long ago, at the beginning of their adventuring careers in
H1: Keep on the Shadowfell
.) Marla studies matters associ-
ated with death, both natural and unnatural, with an eye
toward ferreting out death cult activity.
Normally the spirits of the dead travel first to the
Shadowfell, using it as a conduit to their final destiny.
Some are claimed by the gods and carried to divine
dominions, while others join the Raven Queen. A few
refuse to go gracefully and become undead.
Marla has learned of a disturbance in the Shadowfell,
localized so far, but growing in scope. Some new factor is
interfering with the natural order of things: Raise Dead
rituals have failed for one or more high-profile people in
the outpost town of Vaester. Marla suspects death cult
interference and asks the party to go and investigate.
Alternative:
An old enemy from a previous adventure
shows up out of the blue, attacking the adventurers in a
well-orchestrated ambush. When the PCs defeat this foe
and search through his or her belongings, they discover
their enemy was part of a new death cult that believed
they could gain power by murdering mortals in Vaester’s
vicinity, because those killed near there cannot be raised.
The enemy believes Orcus is claiming the life force, but
offers no conclusive proof.
Quest XP:
1,600 XP (minor quest) for traveling to
Vaester and agreeing to get to the bottom of things. 14,000
XP (major quest) for journeying to Nightwyrm Fortress
and putting an end to Urishtar’s operation.
Hook: The Failed Ritual
If the adventurers experienced the events of
P2: Demon
Queen’s Enclave
, they can continue that storyline with
this adventure. Despite the PCs’ success in dealing with
Zirithian, a band of rampaging demons made it to the
surface. There they ran amok, killing many, before Jothan
and other defenders were able to slow the creatures down.
PCs who return to the surface discover the result of the
demonic rampage as they come upon the town of Vaester
and witness the failed ritual.
See Encounter A1 on
page 6
for details.
Hook: Mourning a Friend
The adventurers have come to pay their final respects to
their old friend Jothan Ironspell. When news of his death,
reaches the PCs, they make the trip to Vaester to attend
the funeral and wind up arriving just in time to experi-
ence Encounter A1: The Failed Ritual.
Alternative:
If one of the players lost a character in the
previous session and wants to create a new one, then the
old character’s life force instead suffers the fate ascribed to
Jothan in the adventure background. It is that character’s
funeral and failed ritual attempt that makes up the setting
for Encounter A1: The Failed Ritual (see
page 6).
URISHTAR THE SHADOW DRAGON
Shadow dragons are not common, even in the Shadowfell,
and most are content to lurk in the shadows (literally and
figuratively). Of those known, Urishtar Nightwyrm stands
out for her grand aspirations.
Urishtar has dreams. These dreams guide her, inspire
her, and even at some level frighten her. Still, she follows
her dreams. They led her to a region of the Shadowfell
that others fear to tread. There, Urishtar found the place
she now calls Nightwyrm Fortress. Along with the power
that has come to her through this discovery, there have also
come nightmares. The dreams of guidance and inspiration
have deserted her, and she now refuses to sleep in order to
avoid the nightly visions and urgings,
Urishtar now suspects the dreams that led her to her
current lair might not be the guiding hand of fate, as she
first told herself. Rather, she believes they are the machina-
tions of a being far more powerful than herself, who might
be weaving subtle threads of opposition against the Raven
Queen. Urishtar has no desire to draw the ire of the dark god
of death. On the other hand, she enjoys the boons granted
to her each time she diverts the life essence of a mortal
from its intended destiny. The dreadful aperture that gapes
in the topmost spire of her keep hungers always for such
offerings, pulling them to a fate that even Urishtar shudders
to imagine.
4
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