d20 Goodman Games Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower.pdf

RUMBLE IN THE WIZARD’S TOWER

By Luke Johnson

Cover Art: Slawomir Maniak

Concept Design and Cartographer: Jeremy Simmons

Graphic Design: Alvin Helms

Interior Art: Nick Greenwood

Editor: Elizabeth R.A. Liddell

Editor-in-Chief: Luke Johnson

Publisher: Joseph Goodman

Playtesters: Brandon Crowley, Jason Feidler, Brian Hayward, Seth House, James Johnson,

Jennie Mar, David McFarland, Dee Mike, Scott Moore, Brian O’Neil, Chris Pettit,

James Sullivan, Ray Teetsel, John VandeBrook, and William Westoven.

www.goodman-games.com

RUMBLE IN THE WIZARD’S TOWER

INTRODUCTION

Y our adventures are already exciting. Characters explore dun-

Elton then turned to his son, Valdeez Morrick. Valdeez had

trained in the army for a time, and gone out adventuring, crush-

ing monsters, for half a year after that. Elton wanted Valdeez to

be his commander-in-chief, and his ﬁrst duties would be hiring

soldiers, training them, and stationing them appropriately in the

tower to serve as guards and sentries.

To help his son, Elton poured money into the crafting of two

mighty, magic axes for Valdeez. Ever paranoid, Elton added an

enchantment so that the axes’ magical properties would func-

tion only for Valdeez — unless he died.

Elton sank much of the rest of his money into his real plan for

taking over the city: the capturing of a ternion, an extraplanar

being related to the control of time. Ternions’ exact powers are

unknown, but most scholars believe they can execute what they

call a “ternion ﬂare.” This ability allows the creatures to slow

time for speciﬁed individuals within a large area, allowing those

affected to move with superhuman speed, dodging arrows and

landing crushing blows. Elton’s plan was to use this power for

himself and his soldiers. With time as his weapon, Elton could

easily subdue the City Watch, militia, and anyone else who might

resist.

Elton captured the ternion. He held it in a magic ﬁeld atop Mor-

rick Tower.

Elton was working on ways to force the ternion to do his bidding

when something happened that he did not expect. He had been

careful, trusting no one but his son — but that was a mistake.

Valdeez blamed Elton for the death of his mother, who had died

ten years ago, while Valdeez was in the army. Valdeez had sworn

he would avenge her memory.

So he killed his father while he was asleep one night.

Valdeez then sat at the foot of the bloodstained bed and

thought. The soldiers were loyal to him; he was (and is) a good

leader. And he now had control of the ternion. Clearly, Valdeez

thought, his father, who would kill his own wife, wasn’t ﬁt to

rule his own household, let alone a city. But Valdeez… he was. He

took the title “warlord” and set about doing so.

Warlord Valdeez spent the last of his father’s money on distrac-

tions to get the various power players (i.e., high-level NPCs) out

of the city or otherwise distracted so they couldn’t stop him. The

key way he did this was by capturing Sayanna, the king’s newest

wife. Sayanna is the princess of the neighboring nation of

Davinia (or whatever nation you’d like to substitute in your cam-

paign), and the marriage had secured a long-needed peace be-

tween the kingdoms. With Sayanna gone, war threatens to break

out again.

Valdeez planted clever hints and used a variety of magic scrolls

to mislead the high-level investigators, who are now spread

across the kingdom — and beyond — searching for Sayanna. In

fact, she’s in Morrick Tower with Valdeez. More sinister yet,

Valdeez didn’t need to capture her — she went willingly, hoping

that her home nation would grow upset enough to start a war,

and she and Valdeez could storm the castle as ﬁghting raged on

the front. She and Valdeez are partners and lovers now.

Valdeez is trying to force the ternion to do his bidding. The being

is alien, trapped, and suffering, and has little intention of coop-

erating with its captor. Still, Valdeez will soon succeed by bribing

it with its freedom. With all the big guns gone, it’s up to a new

breed of up-and-coming heroes to stop Valdeez. It’s up to your

heroes.

geons, crush monsters, and score loot. But maybe you want

your adventures to be more. Maybe you want adventures that

are over-the-top, in-your-face, BADASS THRILL RIDES! Maybe

you want adventures that are things of LEGEND! Maybe you

want adventures that are WICKED SICK! That’s what Wicked

Fantasy Factory gives you: axes hacking, spells exploding, and

blood spewing. Don’t just crawl through dungeons — make

them sorry they ever met you!

Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower is a Wicked Fantasy Factory

adventure for six to eight heroes of 1st level or four heroes of

2nd level; a party of 3rd level heroes will ﬁnd the adventure an

appropriate challenge, as well. The party’s total levels should be

8–12. All characters will have a good time in this adventure; the

party should include at least one healer (like a cleric) and one or

two characters with serious combat potential (ﬁghters,

barbarians, paladins, and so forth).

Though it’s designed for characters of around 2nd level, you can

easily adjust the adventure to challenge heroes of higher or lower

level. See the “Adjusting the Challenges” sidebar for ideas.

Adventure Summary: In Rumble in the Wizard’s Tower, the heroes

assault Morrick Tower to stop a calculating warlord from over-

throwing the kingdom! They bludgeon the warlord’s hired goons

and come nose-to-nose with strange creatures and effects left

over from the wizard who once called the tower home. Mystic

traps and powerful minions — including the warlord’s ﬂame-

ﬂinging lover and the ghost of his murdered father — also con-

front the heroes. Finally, the heroes face Warlord Valdeez

Morrick on the rainswept rooftop, the silver light from a cap-

tured extraplanar being lighting the battleﬁeld . In Rumble in the

Wizard’s Tower, even time is juiced up: drawing on the powers of

this extraplanar entity, characters enter the fantasy equivalent

of bullet time!

ADVENTURE

BACKGROUND

O ne year ago, Elton Morrick, a wealthy merchant, embarked

on an ambitious quest. He was wealthy to the point where

money had lost much of its importance — but he knew he could

turn his gold into power. His plan was to use his wealth as a tool

to take over the city of Almack, capital of the Kingdom of Sun-

dan (or whatever city and nation you’d care to substitute in your

campaign).

Elton was paranoid and careful. He started by purchasing a

hulking tower in the city’s center. This tower was once home to

a powerful wizard, and rumors said that it was haunted — it had

stood vacant for decades. Its location was ideal, though, so

Elton moved his home there and renamed it Morrick Tower. The

tower would be his base of operations, his stronghold, his cap-

ital. To ensure no enemies could foil his plans, he added traps

and other defenses. He also boarded up sections of the tower

where weird wizardly stuff still happened — he would deal with

that later.

RUMBLE IN THE WIZARD’S TOWER

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