Welcome to Tales from the Yawning Portal. Within this book you will find seven of the deadliest dungeons from the history of D&D, updated for the current edition of the game. Some are classics that have hosted an untold number of adventurers, while others are newer creations boldly staking their place in the pantheon of notable D&D adventures.
Just as these dungeons have made an impression on D&D players, so too have tales of their dangers spread across the D&D multiverse. When the night grows long in Waterdeep, City of Splendors, and the fireplace in the taproom of the Yawning Portal dims to a deep crimson, adventurers from across the Sword Coast-and even some visiting from other D&D worlds-spin tales and rumors of lost treasures.
- A wanderer from the distant Shou Empire speaks of strange, leering devil faces carved in dungeon walls that can devour an explorer in an instant, leaving behind not a single trace of the poor soul’s passing.
- A bald, stern wizard clad in blue robes and speaking with a strange accent tells of a wizard who claimed three powerful weapons from a city on the shores of a lake of unknown depths, who spirited them away to a slumbering volcano and dared adventurers to enter his lair and recover them.
- A one-eyed dwarf spins tales of a castle that fell into the earth, and whose ruins stand above a subterranean grove dominated by a tree that spawns evil.
These are only a few of the tales that have spread across the Sword Coast from the furthest reaches of Faerûn and beyond. The minor details change with the telling. The dread tomb of Acererak shifts its location from a dismal swamp, to a searing desert, to some other forbidding clime in each telling. The key elements remain the same in each version of the tales, lending a thread of truth to the tale.
The seeds of those stories now rest in your hand. D&D’s deadliest dungeons are now part of your arsenal of adventures. Enjoy, and remember to keep a few spare character sheets handy.
Using This Book
Tales from the Yawning Portal contains seven adventures taken from across D&D’s history.
The introduction of each adventure provides ideas on adapting it to a variety of D&D settings. Use that information to place it in your campaign or to give you an idea of how to adapt it.
These adventures provide the perfect side quest away from your current campaign. If you run published D&D campaigns, such as Storm King’s Thunder, the higher level adventures presented here are an ideal way to extend the campaign beyond.
About the Adventures
The Sunless Citadel
The Sunless Citadel, written by Bruce R. Cordell, was the first published adventure for the third edition of the D&D game. It is designed for a party of four or five 1st level player characters.
Ever since its publication in 2000, The Sunless Citadel has been widely regarded as an excellent way to introduce new players to the game. It’s also a great starting experience for someone looking to be a Dungeon Master for the first time.
The Forge of Fury
The Forge of Fury, written by Richard Baker, was published in 2000 shortly after The Sunless Citadel. Characters who succeeded in that mission and advanced to 3rd level were now ready to take on the challenges of a ruined dwarven fortress.
Like its predecessor, The Forge of Fury is tailored to provide increasingly tougher threats as the characters make their way through the fortress. Those who survive the experience can expect to advance to 5th level-seasoned adventurers ready to strive for greater glory and renown.
The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, written by Harold Johnson and Jeff R. Leason, made its debut under the title Lost Tamoachan at the Origins game convention in 1979, where it was used in the official D&D competition. The first published version of the adventure was produced in 1980.
The updated version of the adventure presented herein is designed for a group of four or five 5th-level player characters.
White Plume Mountain
Lawrence Schick, the author of White Plume Mountain, related in the 2013 compilation Dungeons of Dread that he wrote the adventure as a way of persuading Gary Gygax to hire him as a game designer. Not only did he get the job, but White Plume became an instant favorite when it was first published in 1979.
The version of the adventure in this book is tailored to a group of characters of 8th level.
Dead in Thay
Dead in Thay, written by Scott Fitzgerald Gray, was created when the fifth edition D&D game was in the testing stages. In its original form, it was used as the story of the D&D Encounters season in the spring of 2014. Featuring an immense and lethal dungeon known as the Doomvault, the adventure serves as a tribute to Tomb of Horrors, Ruins of Undermountain, and other “killer dungeons” throughout the history of the game.
The version of Dead in Thay presented here is modified for use in home campaigns. It is designed for characters of 9th to 11th level.
Against the Giants
The three linked adventures that make up Against the Giants were created and originally released in 1978, during the time when Gary Gygax was still writing the Player’s Handbook for the original AD&D game. Despite being (in a sense) older than the game itself, these adventures continue to hold a special place in the hearts and memories of D&D players of all ages.
The compilation of Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King was published in 1981 as Against the Giants. The version presented here is designed to be undertaken by characters of 11th level.
Tomb of Horrors
Before there was much of anything else in the world of the D&D game, there was the Tomb of Horrors.
The first version of the adventure was crafted for Gary Gygax’s personal campaign in the early 1970s and went on to be featured as the official Dungeons & Dragons event at the original Origins gaming convention in 1975. The first publication of Tomb of Horrors, as a part of the Advanced D&D game, came in 1978.
As a proving ground for characters and players alike, fabricated by the devious mind of the game’s cocreator, Tomb of Horrors has no equal in the annals of D&D’s greatest adventures. Only high-level characters stand a chance of coming back alive, but every player who braves the Tomb will have the experience of a lifetime
Running the Adventures
To run each of these adventures, you need the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. Before you sit down with your players, read the text of the adventure all the way through and familiarize yourself with the maps as well, perhaps making notes about complex areas or places where the characters are certain to go, so you’re well prepared before the action starts.
Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud or paraphrased for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circumstance, as described in the text.
The Monster Manual contains stat blocks for most of the monsters and NPCs found in this book. When a monster’s name appears in bold type, that’s a visual cue pointing you to the creature’s stat block in the Monster Manual. Descriptions and stat blocks for new monsters appear in appendix B. If a stat block is in that appendix, an adventure’s text tells you so.
Spells and nonmagical objects or equipment mentioned in the book are described in the Player’s Handbook. Magic items are described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, unless the adventure’s text directs you to an item’s description in appendix A.
Creating a Campaign
While these adventures were never meant to be combined into a full campaign-over 30 years separates the newest from the oldest-they have been selected to provide play across a broad range of levels. With a little work, you can run a complete campaign using only this book.
Starting with The Sunless Citadel, guide your players through the adventures in the order that they are presented in this book. Each one provides enough XP that, upon completing the adventure, the characters should be high enough level to advance to the next one.
The Yawning Portal, or some other tavern of your own invention or drawn from another D&D setting, provides the perfect framing device for the campaign. The characters hear rumors of each dungeon, with just enough information available to lead them to the next adventure. Perhaps a friendly NPC drawn from the upcoming adventure visits the tavern in search of help, or some element of a character’s background pushes the group down the proper road. In any case, these dungeons are designed to be easily portable to any campaign setting.
The Yawning Portal
Amid the bustle of Waterdeep, within the Castle Ward where barristers, nobles, and emissaries battle with word and contract, stands an inn not quite like any other. Before there was a Castle Ward or even what could be recognized as an ancestor of the City of Splendors, there was a dungeon, and in that dungeon begins the tale of the Yawning Portal.
In ages past, the mighty wizard Halaster built his tower at the foot of Mount Waterdeep and delved deep into tunnels first built by dwarves and drow in search of ever greater magical power. Halaster and his apprentices expanded the tunnels they found, worming out new lairs under the surface for reasons of their own. In time, their excavations grew into the vast labyrinth known today as Undermountain, the largest dungeon in all of the Forgotten Realms. Halaster eventually disappeared, as have all his apprentices, but the massive complex he built remains to this day.
For untold years, the secrets of Undermountain remained hidden from the surface world. Everyone who entered its halls failed to return. Its reputation as a death trap grew to the point that criminals in Waterdeep who were sentenced to die were forcibly escorted into the dungeon and left to fend for themselves.
All of that changed with the arrival of two men, a warrior named Durnan and a ne’er-do-well named Mirt. The duo were the first adventurers to return from Undermountain, laden with riches and magic treasures. While Mirt used his wealth to buy a mansion, Durnan had different plans. Durnan retired from adventuring and purchased the land on which sat the deep, broad well that was the only known entrance to the dungeon. Around this well he built a tavern and inn that caters to adventurers and those who seek their services, and he called it the Yawning Portal.
Some of the magic Durnan looted on his successful foray into Undermountain granted him a life span that exceeds even that of an elf. And for decades Durnan left delving into Undermountain to younger folk. Yet one day, something drew him back. Days of waiting for his triumphant return from the dungeon turned to months and then years. For nearly a century, citizens of Waterdeep thought him dead. But one night, a voice called up from the well. Few at first believed it could be Durnan, but folk as long-lived as he vouched it so. The Yawning Portal had passed into the hands of his ancestors, but Durnan returned with enough riches for them to quietly retire. Durnan took his customary place behind the bar, raised a toast to his own safe return, and then began serving customers as if he’d never left.
Adventurers from across Faerûn, and even from elsewhere in the great span of the multiverse, visit the Yawning Portal to exchange knowledge about Undermountain and other dungeons. Most visitors are content to swap stories by the hearth, but sometimes a group driven by greed, ambition, or desperation pays the toll for entry and descends the well. Most don’t survive to make the return trip, but enough come back with riches and tales of adventure to tempt other groups into trying their luck.
The Green Dragon Inn
The Yawning Portal is not the only renowned tavern in D&D lore. In the Free City of Greyhawk stands the Green Dragon Inn, which has been the starting point for some of the most successful expeditions to Castle Greyhawk and beyond. The place is crowded and smoke-filled. Patrons talk in low voices, and anyone attempting to strike up a conversation without making a clear intent to pay can expect a cold reception. Paranoia and suspicion run rampant here, as befits a free city that stands at the nexus between a devil-haunted empire, a vast domain locked in the iron-tight grip of a demigod of evil, and a splintered, bickering host of kingdoms nominally committed to justice and weal. In the battered, weary world of Greyhawk, profit and power take precedence over heroics.
Features of the Yawning Portal
The Yawning Portal’s taproom fills the first floor of the building. The 40-foot-diameter well that provides access to Undermountain dominates the space. The “well” is all that remains of Halaster’s tower, and now, devoid of the stairways and floors that formed subterranean levels, it drops as an open shaft for 140 feet. Stirges, spiders, and worse have been known to invade the Yawning Portal from below.
Balconies on the tavern’s second and third floors overlook the well, with those floors accessed by way of wooden stairs that rise up from the taproom. Guests sitting at the tables on the balconies have an excellent view of the well and the action below.
Entering the Well
Those who wish to enter Undermountain for adventure (or the daring tourists who just want to “ride the rope”) must pay a gold piece to be lowered down. The return trip also costs a piece of gold, sent up in a bucket in advance. Once the initial payment is made, a few stairs takes one to the top of the waisthigh lip of the well. The rope that hangs in the center of the well is levered over to the lip by a beam in the rafters, and when those who have paid are ready, they mount the rope and take the long ride down.
Oddities on Display
A staggering variety of curios and oddities adorn the taproom. Traditionally, adventurers who recover a strange relic from Undermountain present it to Durnan as a trophy of their success. Other adventurers leave such curios to mark their visits to the tavern, or relinquish them after losing a bet with Durnan, who likes to wager on the fate of adventuring bands that enter the dungeon. Occasionally, something that strikes Durnan’s fancy can be used to pay a bar tab.
Yawning Portal Taproom Curios
| d20 | Item |
|---|---|
| 1 | A key carved from bone |
| 2 | A small box with no apparent way to open it |
| 3 | A mummified troglodyte’s hand |
| 4 | Half of an iron symbol of Bane |
| 5 | A small burlap pouch filled with various teeth |
| 6 | Burnt fragments of a scroll |
| 7 | A lute missing its strings |
| 8 | A bloodstained map |
| 9 | An iron gauntlet that is hot to the touch |
| 10 | A gold coin stamped with a worn, hawk-wing helm crest |
| 11 | A troll finger, still wriggling |
| 12 | A silver coin that makes no noise when dropped |
| 13 | An empty jar |
| 14 | A clockwork owl |
| 15 | A blue, glowing crystal shard |
| 16 | A statuette of a panther, wooden and painted black |
| 17 | A piece of parchment, listing fourteen magical pools and their effects when touched |
| 18 | A vial filled with a dark, fizzy liquid that is sealed and cannot be opened |
| 19 | A feeler taken from a slain rust monster |
| 20 | A wooden pipe marked with Elminster’s sigil |
(See also Template in the next Story)
A Typical Evening
On quiet nights, guests in the Yawning Portal gather around a large fireplace in the taproom and swap tales of distant places, strange monsters, and valuable treasures. On busier nights, the place is loud and crowded. The balconies overflow with merchants and nobles, while the tables on the ground floor are filled with adventurers and their associates. Invariably, the combination of a few drinks and the crowd’s encouragement induces some folk to pay for a brief trip down into Undermountain. Most folk pay in advance for a ride down and immediately back up, though a few ambitious souls might launch impromptu expeditions into the dungeon. Few such ill-prepared parties ever return.
Groups seeking to enter Undermountain for a specific reason generally come to the tavern during its quiet hours. Even at such times, there are still a few prying eyes in the taproom, lurkers who carry news of the comings and goings from Undermountain to the Zhentarim, dark cults, criminal gangs, and other interested parties.
Starting the Story
Kicking off a dungeon adventure can be as simple as having a mysterious stranger offer the characters a quest while they are at the Yawning Portal (or some other tavern). This approach is a cliché, but it is an effective one. Use the following two tables to generate a couple of details, then tailor the particulars of the quest and the quest giver to suit the adventure you plan to run.
Mysterious Stranger Quest
| d8 | Objective |
|---|---|
| 1 | Recover a particular item |
| 2 | Find and return with an NPC or monster |
| 3 | Slay a terrible monster or NPC |
| 4 | Guard a person while they perform a ritual |
| 5 | Create an accurate map of part of the dungeon |
| 6 | Discover secret lore hidden in the dungeon |
| 7 | Destroy an object |
| 8 | Sanctify part of the dungeon to a god of good |
Mysterious Stranger Secret
| d8 | Secret |
|---|---|
| 1 | Intends to betray the party |
| 2 | Unwittingly provides false information |
| 3 | Has a secret agenda (roll another quest) |
| 4 | Is a devil in disguise |
| 5 | Has led other parties to their doom |
| 6 | Is the charmed thrall of a mind flayer |
| 7 | Is possessed by a ghost |
| 8 | Is a solar in disguise |
(See also the Template below)
Durnan
The proprietor of the Yawning Portal is something of an enigma. Blessed with a seemingly limitless life span by treasures he brought back from his expedition nearly two centuries ago, he is as much a fixture in the tap room as the well.
Durnan is a man of few words. He expects to be paid for his time, and will offer insight and rumors only in return for hard cash. “We know the odds and take our chances,” he says, whether he is breaking up a card game that has turned violent or refusing the pleas of adventurers trapped at the bottom of the well who are unable to pay for a ride up. Despite his stony heart, he is an excellent source of information about Undermountain and other dungeons, provided one can pay his price.
Personality Trait: Isolation
It’s a cruel world. All people have to fend for themselves. Self-sufficiency is the only path to success.
Ideal: Independence
Someone who can stand alone can stand against anything.
Bond: The Yawning Portal
This place is my only home. My friends and family are long gone. I love this place, but I try not to get attached to the people here. I’ll outlive them all. Lucky me.
Flaw: Heartless
If you want sympathy, the Temple of Ilmater is in the Sea Ward. No matter how bad things are, you’ll be gone in a blink of an eye.
Other Denizens
The Yawning Portal is host to a variety of regular visitors, most of whom offer services to adventurers. Chapter 4 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide provides plenty of resources for generating nonplayer characters. The following table provides some possibilities for why an individual is visiting the Yawning Portal.
Denizens
| d10 | Denizen |
|---|---|
| 1 | Devotee of Tymora, encourages adventures to seek out quests, can cast bless |
| 2 | Bored, retired adventurer, claims to have explored dungeon of note and can describe first few areas (20 percent chance of an accurate description) |
| 3 | Heckler, mocks cowards and makes bets that adventurers won’t return from an expedition |
| 4 | Con artist, selling fake treasure maps (but a 10 percent chance that a map is genuine) |
| 5 | Wizard’s apprentice, carefully making exact sketches of various curios at her master’s command |
| 6 | Spouse of a slain adventurer, who pays the toll for anyone wanting to exit Undermountain and plots against Durnan |
| 7 | Zhentarim agent, seeks rumors of treasure, tails any folk who return from Undermountain and notes their home base for future robbery |
| 8 | Agent of the Xanathar, ordered to “steal the hat worn by the eighth person to enter the taproom this night” |
| 9 | Magically preserved corpse in a coffin leaning against the bar; if asked about it, Durnan says, “He’s waiting for someone,” and nothing more |
| 10 | Elminster, incognito; 10 percent chance he is on an errand of cosmic importance; otherwise, he’s pressing Durnan for gossip |
White Plume Mountain
White Plume Mountain has always been a subject of superstitious awe to the neighboring villagers. People still travel many miles to gaze upon this natural wonder, though few will approach it closely, as it is reputed to be the haunt of various demons and devils. The occasional disappearance of those who stray too close to the Plume reinforces this belief.
Thirteen hundred years ago, the wizard Keraptis was searching for a suitable haven where he could indulge his eccentricities without fear of interference. He visited White Plume Mountain, going closer than most dared to, and discovered the system of old lava-tubes that riddle the cone and the underlying strata. With a little alteration, he thought, these would be perfect for his purposes. The area already had a bad reputation, and he could think of a few ways to make it worse. So he disappeared below White Plume Mountain and vanished from the knowledge of the surface world.
Today, the once-feared name of Keraptis is not widely known even among learned scholars. Or it was not widely known, that is, until several weeks ago, when three highly valued magic weapons named
Keraptis
Search ye far or search ye near
You’ll find no trace of the three
Unless you follow instructions clear
For the weapons abide with me.
North past forest, farm and furrow
You must go to the feathered mound
Then down away from the sun you’ll burrow
Forget life, forget light, forget sound.
To rescue Wave, you must do battle
With the Beast in the Boiling Bubble
Crost cavern vast, where chain-links rattle
Lies Whelm, past water-spouts double.
Blackrazor yet remains to be won
Underneath inverted ziggurat.
That garnered, think not that you’re done
For now you’ll find you are caught
I care not, former owners brave
What heroes you seek to hire.
Though mighty, I’ll make each one my slave
Or send him to the fire
All the notes were signed with the symbol of Keraptis.
White Plume Mountain has tentatively been identified as the “feathered mound” of the poem. The former owners of
Running the Adventure
This version of White Plume Mountain is designed for a group of 8th-level player characters. Your players will need both brains and brawn to successfully complete their mission, as there are situations here which cannot be resolved by frontal assault. If your players are unused to hack-proof dilemmas, they may find this adventure frustrating or even boring. But if your players are used to using their wits, they should find this an intriguing balance of problems and action. Unless you are used to mastering lengthy adventures, it will probably take more than one session for a party to investigate all three branches of the dungeon. If this is the case, it would be best if the party were required to leave the dungeon and reenter upon resumption of the game. If they stay in the nearest village (several miles away) they will be relatively safe, but if they camp near White Plume Mountain it would be a good idea to roll for random encounters.
Adventure Start
The party has arrived at White Plume Mountain, which stands alone in a vast area of dismal moors and tangled thickets. They will probably arrange to leave their horses and possessions either at the nearest village (about 5 miles from the mountain) or hidden in the Dead Gnoll’s Eye Socket, a small natural cave in the side of a hill about 2 miles from the Plume. There is really no other shelter available. The villagers know about the cave and may have mentioned it. If the party leaves no guard, they will just have to trust the villagers not to steal their belongings. (Dishonest villagers will have to weigh their fear of White Plume Mountain against their certain belief that the party will never be seen again.) The cave is easily barricaded to keep out unintelligent wandering monsters.
White Plume Mountain is an almost perfectly conical volcanic hill formed from an ancient slow lava leakage. It is about 1,000 yards in diameter at the base, and rises about 800 feet above the surrounding land. The white plume that gives the mountain its name and fame is a continuous geyser that spouts from the very summit of the mountain another 300 feet into the air, trailing off to the east under the prevailing winds like a great white feather. The spray collects in depressions downslope and merges into a sizable stream. Steam vents are visible in various spots on the slopes of the mountain, but none of them are large enough to allow entry.
Map 4.1 depicts a cross-section of the mountain, showing the lava pool and the shaft of the geyser. The numbers refer to key areas inside the mountain, showing their orientation with respect to one another.
The only possible entrance into the cone is a cave on the south slope known as the Wizard’s Mouth. This cave actually seems to breathe, exhaling a large cloud of steam and then slowly inhaling, like a person breathing on a cold day. Each cycle takes about 30 seconds. Approaching the cave, the party will hear a whistling noise coinciding with the wind cycle. If it were not for the continuous roaring of the Plume, this whistling could be heard for a great distance.
The cave is about 8 feet in diameter and 40 feet long. At the end of the cave, near the roof, is a long, horizontal crevice about a foot wide. The air is sucked into this crack at great speed, creating the loud whistling noise and snuffing out torches. Shortly the rush of air slows down, stops for a couple of seconds, and then comes back out in a great blast of steam. This steam is not hot enough to scald anyone who keeps low and avoids the crevice, but it does make the cave very uncomfortable, like a hot sauna bath interrupted by blasts of cold air.
The ceiling and walls of the cave are slick with the condensed steam that runs down them. The floor is covered with several inches of fine muck. Only careful probing of the muck near the back of the cave will reveal a small trapdoor with a rusted iron ring set in it. Once the muck has been cleared away, a successful DC 20 Strength check is required to pull up the encrusted door. Magic such as knock or passwall can also help open or bypass the door.
Directly beneath the door is a 20-foot-square vertical shaft and the beginning of a spiral staircase that leads down.
Placing the Adventure
White Plume Mountain is located in the Greyhawk campaign setting, in the northeastern part of the Shield Lands, near the Bandit Kingdoms and the Great Rift.
Here are suggestions for where you can place the mountain in another world. Wherever you place it, the party may be required to journey to the vicinity through the wilderness. How they get there is up to you.
Forgotten Realms
The mountain can be placed near Mount Hotenow in the region of Neverwinter.
Dragonlance
Found near Neraka in the Khalkist Mountains, the mountain might be a place of interest not only to adventurers, but also to the armies of Takhisis.
Eberron
On the continent of Xen’Drik, the mountain could stand in the range known as the Fangs of Argarak.
Dungeon: General Features
All corridors in the dungeon are 10 feet in height, and have been carved out of and, in some places, seemingly melted through solid rock. Unless otherwise noted, doors are 8 feet by 8 feet, made of oak and bound in iron. Though the doors are swollen by the dampness, and thus difficult to open (requiring a successful DC 15 Strength check), the wood is not by any means rotten.
The water on the floor is about 1 foot deep, and the floor itself is covered with slippery mud. Except where flights of steps lead up out of it, this scummy water covers the floors of all rooms and corridors. The water and mud reduce average movement by one-third (speed 30 becomes 20, speed 20 becomes 15), and will necessitate continuous probing of the floor by the party as they advance. It will be very difficult to keep silent, run (without falling), or depend on invisibility (waves and foot-shaped holes in the water give one away).
Random Encounters
Check once every 10 minutes for random encounters by rolling a d12; an encounter occurs on a roll of 1. If an encounter is indicated, roll a d6 and refer to the table below.
| d6 | Encounter |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 black pudding |
| 2 | 1d4+1 bugbears |
| 3 | 2 gargoyles |
| 4 | 1 invisible stalker |
| 5 | 1d3 ogres |
| 6 | 1d2 wights |
These are monsters that Keraptis has released into the dungeon specifically for the purpose of giving the intruders a hard time. All will attack immediately. The ogres and the bugbears are magically controlled and cannot be persuaded to betray Keraptis.
About the Original
White Plume Mountain, by Lawrence Schick, was originally published in 1979 as an adventure for the first edition of the D&D game.
Schick related in the 2013 compilation Dungeons of Dread that he wrote the adventure as a way of persuading Gary Gygax to hire him as a game designer.
The Legend of Keraptis
In the original publication of White Plume Mountain, “The Legend of Keraptis” was presented on the inside back cover. Although these details of the wizard’s former life don’t play a direct part in the adventure, a DM who shares this information with the players can deepen the characters' understanding of the situation and strengthen their motivation for delving beneath the mountain.
Well over a millennium ago, the wizard Keraptis rose to power in the valleys of the northern mountains, bringing the local warlords under his thumb with gruesome threats-threats that were fulfilled just often enough to keep the leaders in line. Under Keraptis’s overlordship, the influx of rapacious monsters and raids from the wild mountains decreased markedly, dwindled, and then almost stopped. Seeing this, the populace did not put up much resistance to paying the wizard’s heavy taxes and tithes, especially when stories were circulated of what happened to those who balked. Any nobles who protested disappeared in the night and were replaced by the next in the line of succession, who was usually inclined to be more tractable than the previous lord.
Gradually, as dissension was stilled, the taxes and levies became even more burdensome, until eventually the wizard was taking a great piece of everything that was grown, made, or sold in the valleys, including the newborn young of livestock. Around this time, numerous reports arose in the land concerning sudden madness, demonic possessions, and sightings of apparitions and undead. Furthermore, monstrous incursions into the settled lands began to increase as raiding parties of humanoids assaulted villages, and evil and fantastic monsters appeared from nowhere to prey upon the harried peasants. At the height of this unrest, Keraptis’s tax collectors came forth with word of a new levy: one-third of all newborn children were henceforth to be turned over to the wizard.
That edict turned out to be the tipping point. As one, the people rose up to overwhelm the wizard’s lackeys and marched on his keep, where, led by a powerful and good cleric and his ranger acolytes, they destroyed Keraptis’s final guardians. The great wizard barely managed to escape, accompanied only by his personal bodyguard company of deranged and fanatical evil gnomes.
Keraptis fled to the cities of the south and west, but wherever he went, his reputation preceded him, and he was unable to stay anywhere for long. Once again moving north, he came to the shores of the Lake of Unknown Depths, where he heard tales about haunted White Plume Mountain. After investigating further, he at last found the refuge he was looking for in the tangled maze of volcanic tunnels beneath the cone. He and his gnomes vanished into the shadow of the Plume, and humankind heard no more of the evil wizard.
That was almost thirteen hundred years before the present day. Now, seemingly, the hand of Keraptis is once again interfering in human affairs. If it is in truth the ancient wizard at work here, can he be thwarted before his power grows once more? What is his purpose in presenting this bizarre challenge to the world’s heroes? There is only one way to find out.