Opus Operandi Dark Side of the Sun.pdf

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DARK SIDE OF THE SUN

Chronicle Adventure Module 1

A d20 adventure by David Sharrock & Wyn F Dawkins

for 4 to 8 characters of levels 3 to 6 Challenge Rating 5/6

By David Sharrock and Wyn F Dawkins

Illustrated by Maciej Zagorski, Pawel Dobosz and Wyn F Dawkins

Maps and icons by Wyn F Dawkins, Cover art by David Sharrock

Opus Cartography by David Sharrock

Paravelly and related writing by Steve Dean

The Opus setting is based on an original idea by Suzanna Hope

This document is protected by UK and international copyright laws

PDF format Opus Operandi ~ Dark Side of the Sun, First Edition

Distributable in pdf format only. No alterations, No redistribution.

No unauthorised use of images and/or text. Copyright infringements may lead to prosecution.

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Introduction

Contents

Opus Operandi is a fantasy campaign setting for the

d20™ sysem, but and expored enrey hrough

adventure modules. The setting has been designed in

this piece-meal fashion in order to avoid the usual

overload of information placed upon GMs and players

when introducing a game group to a new fantasy

world. An explanation of the world in brief is provided

at the end of each adventure, for the GM to print and

keep handy behind his/her GM screen. This single

page reference sheet is all the GM needs in order to

run an Opus Operandi game. Everything else the GM

needs can be ound n he d20™ sysem reerence

document.

Introduction

Author's Foreword

Chronicle Series

Thaumatourgos

Player Introduction

GM Overview

The Notes

Outcomes

Player Printout

The Greymist Mountain Region

The Jejune Flatlands

Inglenook Woods

Bleaktonne

Orktusk Hills

Talus

There are no limits or set order in which to play the

Opus Operandi adventure modules, however some

adventures will be more suited to certain experience

levels than others. Where applicable, challenge ratings

are supplied.

Author's Foreword

The Greymist Mountains

The Alpine Forests

Rumours Abound

Player Rumours & Map

Stantionbridge Map & Key Details

The Barbarian Horde Scenario

The Mohan Trail Scenario

Mohan Trail Map & Key Details

The Wizard of Talus Scenario

An Interview With Ulnar

The Thaumatourgos Tomb Scenario

The Caves Map & Key Details

Dark Side of the Sun introduces an interesting new

twist to the Opus setting which is sure to inject your

campaign with some uniqueness. This is a very non-

linear format, so be prepared for that make-it-up-as-

you-go-along element. Where possible we've tried to

cover most eventualities.

David Sharrock/Wyn F Dawkins.

Chronicle Series

The Orb of Evocation

Continuing From Here

NPCs/Enemies

Dark Side of the Sun - Printable Version

Map of Opus

101

Printable Map of Opus

102

The Realm of Opus

103

OGL License

104

Each Opus adventure highlights and introduces a

different aspect of the Opus world. Dark Side of the

Sun explores an historical aspect of Opus and is the

first in the Chronicle series. Other sets include the

Pantheon series (introducing one of the Opus religions)

and the Locus series (focusing on an Opus location).

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One day, a prominent member of the Order of Mohan

was approached by a woodsman local to the swamp in

which the brothers lived. He seemed agitated and

spoke of bright lights and strange sounds in the depths

of the swamp, specifically in the region where the

wizard bothers' hut was known to be situated. He knew

of the Order, and of the twins being members. He

numbered among those rare individuals who

considered themselves friends to the brothers, and thus

had they told him where to go should a violent or

unexpected fate befall them.

Thaumatourgos

Sensing trouble, the wizard called other members of the

Order to his side and together they stalked into the

depths of the swamp, there to discover the laboratory of

the twins apparently empty of all furnishings. The

walls, ceiling and floor were smeared in a strange red

mass which oozed and trickled with the consistency of

congealed blood. The brothers were conspicuous by

their absence. Indeed, upon testing the substance, the

wizards were horrified to discover that this mass

constituted the remains of the pair, each mixed with

wood, metal, glass and fabric reduced to mere particles,

so that the result seemed like a paste spread thickly

upon every visible surface.

Thaumaturgy is a word embedded in legend. Magic

users of Opus refer to their art as thaumaturgy. Items

resonating with magical energies, spell scrolls or items

imbued with magic are known as thaumaturgic

artefacts. Thauma is even the name given to the

goddess of magic, sorcery and illusion.

A search of the house ensued and revealed, among

other things, the nature of the twins' most recent

experiments and a variety of newly constructed spells.

The wizards were tentative in testing each spell, afraid

they would suffer the same fate as Earheart and Graya.

Eventually, however, and through cautious trial and

error, they identified the spell responsible for the

wizard brothers' annihilation and endeavoured to test it

themselves. The wizards of Mohan wished to

understand the nature of the magics the

Thaumatourgos twins had been dabbling in and sought

to recover as much of the brothers' work as they could,

testing it with safer methods and in so doing compiling

a steady picture of the spell responsible for their deaths.

From this spell came numerous other spells and the

crafting of a single magical artefact, the Orb of

Evocation. The Orb was activated and the magic of

Thaumatourgos tested. A secret was revealed.

Earheart and Graya Thaumatourgos were surprisingly

unassuming wizards, given the magnitude to which

their name has grown in the centuries since their death.

Identical twins and both members of the wizarding

Order of Mohan, the pair were young sorcerers, each

eager to learn, but unwilling to share their discoveries

with other wizards. Their peers recognised them as

magic users of considerable skill, and men of many

qualities, but unlikely to achieve greatness, particularly

in the fields of magic they endeavoured to study. The

brothers lacked any compunction to confer with the

gathered minds of their own order, and in so doing lost

out on a great well of arcane knowledge which might

otherwise have provided them with the vital methods

and spell-crafting techniques their flawed experiments

sorely needed.

So great was this revelation that the name

Thaumatourgos would soon become synonymous with

magical discovery and excellence. In crafting their

spell, though the casting had killed them, Earheart and

Graya had unveiled the foundations of one of the most

astounding secrets ever to be uncovered through

sorcerous dabbling.

Where most of the order occupied impressive stone

towers or enigmatic citadels constructed on high peaks

in the Greymist Mountains, the Thaumatourgos twins

lived in a small wooden hut in the middle of

Marshdown swamp, an impish familiar and the

occasional passing local their only company. There

they developed spells based on their favoured subject,

gravity and the energy force they named 'gravitas'. In

their efforts the twins were largely successful, and

many of the levitation or anti-gravity based spells used

by modern-day magic users have a firm basis in the

early works of Earheart and Graya, though very few

magic users are actually aware of the fact.

Nobody knows what became of the wizards of Mohan,

though it is likely they eventually suffered the same fate

as the twins. The true nature of the secret was never

fully revealed, or passed on, though a select few were

probably privy to limited versions of the truth. Through

these few, rumours somehow filtered down to the

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CHRONICLE INFORMATION

general populace of Opus, and rumours became a kind

of truth, embedded in the collective memory of a

world, languishing as uncertain yet fantastic tales in

folklore and myth, emerging in the words of bardsong,

or appearing in the occasional line of mythical poetry.

but this worthy and his cohorts somehow managed to

convince them to let him in. Oberon wonders if the

shifty stranger isn't some kind of wizard and he gained

access across the moat by using magic on the guards.

Thaumaturgy is the craft of magic and evocation is the

tapping of potent and mystical energies. Both terms

derived from the time of the twins and the unveiling of

a great but long forgotten secret.

The front door of the inn bursts open at this moment

and the stranger enters. A group of thugs accompanies

him, each man brandishing a weapon of some sort.

They glare at the player characters with unconcealed

menace.

Read aloud to the players:

Player Introduction

His voice barely louder than a whisper, the stranger

sneers, "so, here are Agrovar's pets at last, scurvy

dogs upon my heel. Taller than I expected, which, I

suppose, is why you have done well to cover such a

distance in so short a time." you are struck by the

dark colour of his face and the sharpness of his

features. There is something of the hawk about this

man, with his hooked chin, beaky nose and beady

eyes. His hair too, thick and lustrous, flows away

from his head like the downy feathers of a bird and

his cape billows around him like nothing less than

a pair of long black wings, albeit wings more akin

to that of a bat than a bird.

The party are travelling in the shadow of the Greymist

Mountains when they happen across a small settlement

named Stantionbridge, a village of diminutive thatched

cottages huddled together within a wooden palisade

upon a circular island, surrounded on one side by a

natural moat in the shape of a horseshoe, and sheltered

on the other by the jagged wall of the Greymist

Mountains. A large raft, which must be called from the

inner bank by ringing a large bronze bell situated on

the outer bank, ferries visitors across the moat, which

itself joins a river running south into the mountains.

Even as the party profess their innocence and try to

explain that the stranger has them mistaken for

somebody else, locals will scramble out of the way and

the thugs will draw weapons. A fight is unavoidable as

the PCs' protests fall on deaf ears.

The village is a welcoming spot and the local tavern

(The Turning Mere) serves decent food, making a nice

change from the trail rations to which the party have

probably grown accustomed. The barman is a bear of a

man named Oberon Fordkeeper who runs the tavern

with his two wide-shouldered sons Frith and Penfirth

and his wife Meredrith. He welcomes the group into

his premises and serves them free ales as a symbol of

friendship. In return he asks them for news of the

outside world and any locations they may have passed

through on their way to Stantionbridge.

Oberon Fordkeeper will vault the bar and join the fight

on the side of the player characters. He will attack the

stranger, who will subsequently deal him a mortal

blow, killing him outright. The stranger will then turn

and flee, his cohorts closing ranks behind him to

prevent the PCs giving chase.

Once the battle is won and players have rushed out of

the tavern to find the stranger, they will learn that an

agitated man dressed in a black cape was seen racing

out of the tavern just moments before. He promptly

transfigured into a great bird of prey and rose into the

air, flying south toward the mountains.

The group may be surprised to learn that they are not

the only strangers to visit the village this day when

Oberon points out a cloaked figure seated on the far

side of the bar. Local patrons are giving him a wide

berth and he sits alone, sipping carefully from a flagon

of ale.

At this point the players will have a motive to give

chase, but no lead to go by (unless one of the thugs has

been spared for interrogation- see below). Even the best

tracker among the player characters could not follow a

bird. However, Frith and Penfirth are enraged by the

murder of their father and soon deem to set off along

the Mohan trail into the mountains to find the evil

'shape-shifter' and bring it to justice. It is likely the

players will opt to take up with them on their journey,

however if they do not, they will shortly be approached

The figure spies the party and suddenly leaps to his

feet, hurrying from the tavern by a back door. Oberon

explains that the stranger came to Stantionbridge

earlier that day, accompanied by a group of ruffian

types who, at this time he believes, are resting and

watering their horses behind the tavern. Normally, the

guards who operate the ferry would never allow such a

group of obvious cut-throats passage across the moat,

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