The Black FortressComing Soon from Black skull Games...

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Doomsday...armagedon...The third demon war has begun and with it the end of all existence in the known universe should the forces of chaos succeed in pulling netherworld into the abyss, making it the thirteenth layer controlled by one master. Alliances will be forged, empires will crumble and the fate of the world rests in the hands of an unlikely champion. The final battle begins between the forces of order and the forces of the most pow-

erful of the demon lords, the lord of the thirteen...

holofax.

free from the forces of Chaos for the time being, the necro-mancer Underhill, the last Death Master of the Black For-tress now begins maneuvering the pieces of a plan that was set in motion over a thousand years and fourteen lives ago. The first step was reclaiming his base of operations deep in the heart of the Negative energy plane and now he must move cautiously as he begins the second phase. A phase that will lead him into the Abyss itself and an audience with the only

being powerful enough to create undead demons...The Demon Lord Orcus.

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The Black FortressDeath Master Version 2.0

Written by Christopher Lee RowanRevised in August 2010

Cover Art by Wayne Reynolds

Interior Art, Cartography, and Layout by Chris Rowan

Playtesting by Bakari Bullock, Scott Mester, Jeremy Moyer, and Samuel Torres

Based upon the Netherworld Campaign Setting and Characters created by Chris Boyce.

Special Thanks to Charles and Selina Johnson, Joanne and Mark Rowan, Tom Baker, Ivan Albrecht, Nick Aristovolous, Vincent Dimattio, Ed Jankowski,, Craig Branson, Doug and Jamie Dietz, Alex

Dinkle, Charlie Connell, Frank Saragusa

Black Skull Games Presents

This product requires the use of the Dungeons and Dragons® Players Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast®.

“d20 System and the d20 System Logo” are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast® and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0. A copy of this License can be found at <www.wizards.com/d20>. Dungeon and Dragons®, Dungeon Master, and Wizards of the Coast® are Registered Trademarks of Wizards of the Coast®, and are used with Permission.

2007 Black Skull Games LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Black Skull Games, Black Skull Games LLC, the Black Skull Games logo, and The Black Fortress: Death Mas-ter, are all trademarks of Black Skull Games LLC. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places, items, art, and text contained herein aside from those designated as open gaming content in accordance with the Open Gaming License and d20 Trademark Licenses of Wizards of the Coast® contained in the Legal Appendix on the last page are copyrighted by Black Skull Games. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark of copyright concerned.

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Introduction Page 6 Where Are We: A Brief History of Arlanyn Page 7 What Are We Doing Here: Adventure Hooks Page 8

Chapter One: From Dark Beginnings Page 9 Map of Bjalnord’s Dale Page 10 1A: Kipper’s Feast Page 11 Strange Visitor Page 11 Persuasion Page 12 1B: Party Time Page 13 1C: Portside Page 13 1D: Sperner’s Café Page 13 1E: Magistrate’s Manor Page 14 1F: Underhill’s Tower Page 14 1G: Fernier the Blacksmith Page 15 1H: Uncle Arpad’s General Store Page 15 1I: Boyce’s Best Page 15

Cemetery Gates: Bjalnord’s Dale Cemetery Page 15 Area A: Front Gate Page 16 Area B: Gatehouse Page 16 Area C: Standing Stones Page 17 Area D: Green Mausoleum Page 17-18 Area E: Blue Mausoleum Page 18 Area F: Western Crypt Page 18 Area G: Bjalnord’s Rest Page 20 Area H: Queen’s Cairn Page 18 Area I: North Gate Page 18 New Magic Weapons- PC Weapons Page 18-19

Bjalnord’s Rest Page 20 Level One Page 20 Area A: Entrance Page 20 Area B: Stairway Page 20 Area C: Hall of Aspirations Page 21 Area D: Hall of Heroes Page 22 Area E: King’s Chamber Page 23 Level Two Page 24 Area F: Sub Basement Page 24 Area G: Hidden Basement Page 25 Area H: Hidden Pool Page 25 Area I: Well Page 25 Level Three Page 26 Area J: Catacomb 1 Page 26 Area K: Catacomb 2 Page 26 Area L: Subterranean Lake Page 26-29 Back to Town Page 29 Death of a King Page 30

Conclusion to Chapter One Page 31 New Magic Item: Ebon Key/Obsidian Stone Page 31

Chapter Two: Dark Labyrinth Page 32 Special Rules for the Courtyard Maze

and the Black Fortress page 32-33 Random Encounter Chart Page 33 Section 1: Entrance Page 34 Section 2A: Red Portal or Right Path Page 34 Section 2B: Blue Portal or Left Path Page 34-35 Section 3A: Orange Portal or Right Path from Section 2A Page 35 Section 3B: Indigo Portal Page 36 Section 3C: Left Path Page 36 Section 4A: Yellow Portal or Right Path Page 36 Section 4B: Green Portal Page 37 Section 4C: Left Path Page 37

Village of the Damned Page 38 Geledorn’s House Page 39 Surgeon’s Shack Page 39 Gathering House Page 39-40 Interruptions 40 Section 6: Base of Darkness Page 41

End of Chapter Two: Dark Labyrinth Page 41

Chapter Three: The Black Fortress Page 42 Rules for the Black Fortress Page 42 First Floor page 43 Entrance Page 43 Entrance Interior 44 Tower Staircases Page 44 Rooms 1-4 page 44 Basement Page 45 Second Floor Page 46 Inner Hallway Room 1: North Page 47 Room 2: North East Page 47 Room 3: East Page 47 Room 4: South East Page 47 Room 5 South A Familiar Face Page 47 Room 6: South West Page 48 Room 7: West Page 48 Room 8: North West: Page 48 Outer Hallway Room 9: North Greenhouse Page 48 Room 10: Alchemical Lab I Page 48 Room 11: Storage Room Page 49 Room 12: Storage Room Page 49 Room 13: Balcony Page 49 Room 14: Storage Room Page 49 Room 15: Storage Room Page 49 Room 16: Alchemical Lab II Page 49 Third Floor Page 50 Room 17: Barracks Page 50 Room 18: Armory Page 50 Room 19: Exhibit Hall I Page 51 Room 20: Hall of Testing Page 52

Table of Contents

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Room 21: Exhibit Hall II Page 52 Room 22: Arsenal Page 52 Fourth Floor Page 53 Room 23: Bedchamber Page 54 Room 24: Bedchamber Page 54 Room 25: Gallery Page 54 Room 26: Eastern Tower Page 55 Room 27: Shrine Page 55 Room 28: Gallery Page 55 Room 29: Western Tower Page 56 Room 30: Bed Chamber Page 56 Fifth Floor page 56 The Great Library page 56 Sixth Floor Page 58 Portal Room Page 58 Seventh Floor Page 59 Room 31 Colonnade Page 60 Room 32 Observation Deck Page 60 Final Confrontation Page 61-62Ending the Adventure Page 63-64

Appendix I: BestiaryAbomination Page 65 (Lesser and Greater)Animated Stone Statue of Bjalnord Korganmar Page 66Black Fortress Guardian Page 67 (Guard, Lieutenant) Page 67 (Captain and Stone Wardens) Page 68Black Fortress Librarian Page 69Cobalt Behemoth Page 70Dark Harvester Page 71Enhanced Flesh Golem Page 72Fiendish Dire Tigers Page 73Gladiators Page 74Half Unliving Template Page 75 (Annabelle) Page 76Kthuloi Template Page 77-78 Kthuloi Hunting Party Page 79-80 Q’xelarterus Page 81Peat Imps Page 82(Personal Guards) Skeletal Guardians Page 83Unliving Template Page 84 Assassin Vine (Unliving) Page 84 Athach (Unliving) Page 84 Gargoyles (Unliving) Page 85 Shambling Mound (Unliving) Page 85

Appendix II: Non Player CharactersBjalnord Korganmar Page 86Duladora Summersong Page 87-88Citizens of Bjalnord’s Dale Galtspeare Page 89 Jerynn Murdeck Page 89 Modrigalien Summersong Page 90 Morgrimm the Red Page 90

Village of the Damed and the Courtyard Maze Fallorne Page 91 Geledorn Page 91 Meryck Firstborn Page 92The Black Fortress Crowley the Mad Page 93-94 Geddiaff the Corrupted Page 95 Guanier the Hunter Page 96 Kyl’essa Widowmaker Page 97 Kraven Page 98Underhill (the Younger) Page 99The Death Master (Underhill the Older) Page 100

Appendix III: Player CharactersDraphea of the Dawn Page 101Jeremiah Arclight Page 102Orm Grymbolde Page 103Xerxes Meridis Page 104

Appendix IV: Magical ItemsThe Black Skull Staff Page 105Figurine of Wondrous Power (Raven) Page 106Token of Fear Page 107

Appendix V: Feats and SpellsMist Form Mastery Page 108Vampiric Rage Page 108Calling the Spirits of the Fortress Page 108Deadbolt Page 109Spine Demon Page 109Second Chance Page 109Soul Wrack Page 110Prismatic Aura Page 110Underhill’s Time Loop Singularity Theory P age 110-111

Appendix VI: Encounter MapsParty Time Page 112Underhill’s Tower Page 112Village of the Damned Page 113Final Battle Page 113

Appendix VII: Odds ‘n’ EndsDeath Slayers Page 114Demon Slayers Page 115Open Gaming License Page 116

*The following entries in this appendix are considered open gaming content and are free to be used according to the Open Gaming License created by Wizard’s of the Coast® Abomination (lesser and greater),Cobalt Behemoth,Dark Harvester,Peat Imps,Enhanced Flesh Golem, Figurine of Wonderous Power (raven),Token of Fear, Mist Form Mastery, Vampiric Rage, Spine Demon, Soul Wrack, and Unliving Template. The remainder of this appendix is considered product identity and is owned by Black Skull Games LLC.

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Introduction“This is the end of all things, and all things being in a circle lead back once again to me.” -Death Master

In The Black Fortress: Death Master, PCs or player char-acters, must travel to the Negative Energy Plane in order to defeat a mysterious and powerful necromancer known as the Death Master, who is attempting to open a portal to the Chaos Realm and give chaos and other creatures of aberration, a foot-hold for an invasion of the rest of the planes. Along the way they will encounter an NPC (non player character) known as Underhill, who needs their help recovering a powerful artifact known as the Ebon Key, which is the only thing able to open the Obsidian Gate, the only portal to the fortress. PCs will have to travel through the monster infested catacombs of Bjalnord’s Rest in search of the Key, survive the maze of the Courtyard without being captured by the Twelve Chosen, and make their way inside of The Black Fortress for an ultimate showdown with the Death Master himself. Oh and don’t forget the hordes of undead.

This adventure is written with a 4 person party of 8th level D&D characters in mind who should achieve at least 10th level by the time they get to the upper portions of The Black Fortress. As the Dungeon Master (DM) you are free to adjust the encounters according to the power level of your players as necessary.

The Black Fortress: Death Master begins in the port town of Bjalnord’s Dale and is set in the realm of Netherworld on the continent of Arlanyn but is also adaptable to your own personal campaign with very little alteration.

Preparing For AdventureIn order to play The Black Fortress: Death Master you should have copies of at least the three core D&D rule books: The Player’s Handbook, the DMG and the MM as reference mate-rials. Although The Black Fortress: Death Master was written to be easily adaptable to any campaign, various monsters and feats created for this module were inspired by events and ad-ventures originally taking place in the Netherworld Campaign Setting. However, most pertinent information has already been included in this module in order to limit the need to stop game play to look up things. Throughout these pages you will also find descriptions in gray boxes that are meant to be read to the PCs. Any “for your eyes only” information which is meant for the Dungeon Master (DM) will appear either as a side bar or immediately after the gray boxes.

A Note on AlignmentsThroughout this module, which represents only a fraction of the realm of Netherworld, you will find that there has been a loose and liberal interpretation, but not an alteration of, the

standard alignment rules found in The Player’s Handbook. The reason for this is because in many worlds of fantasy and science fiction most people you encounter do not fit neatly into only one moral or behavioral category. A lawful/good paladin may in fact do deeds that others may consider rather heinous (i.e. Salem Witch Trials or Crusades) if he is a zealot and be-lieves he is doing the right thing, just as not every neutral/evil creature is incapable of performing good deeds (Jack Spar-row from Pirates of the Caribbean is a perfect example) That having been said, whenever an alignment is given for a PC or NPC it is merely a loose guideline for their behavior and not a restriction on individual role-playing. Remember if you took the time to make an original character or an original bad guy then he should act that way regardless of his listed alignment. Also the use of the various detect alignment spells are altered slightly to reinforce this idea. Detect Evil will also reveal evil intent if it is present or not so that characters can make their own decision as to how to react to it, instead of just blindly at-tacking NPCs or reacting poorly to them simply because their “bad guy” radar went off.

In Other Words You will also find white text folllowing some of the descrip-tions of certain areas throughout this module and these are the notes from the play test group that first went through the game. These notes are not intended for instructional purposes but are meant only to help illustrate what solutions and actions were done by that first group of PCs and their results.

Warning: The Black Fortress: Death Master was written with a consid-erable time travel thematic element in its back story so some of the information, events, encounters, and NPCs in this module owe some of their behavior based upon Underhill’s Time loop Singularity Theory. For more information regarding Under-hill’s goals and what the PCs have actually gotten themselves into please see the Appendix Entry on Page 110-111. If you do not want to worry about your PCs altering the fabric of your world’s reality then feel free to disregard it completely as this module can be run without it. It has been added to allow you as the DM to understand Underhill’s motives better.

A Final Note On EncountersThe enounter levels (ELs) in this module have been calculat-ed for a party of 4, 8th-10th level characters and many of the enounters described herein have the ELs included even though it may not be in the party’s best interest to solve them through combat. This is to allow the DM as much flexibility regardin-ing a situation’s outcome as possible.

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Where Are We?A Brief History of the Continent of Arlanyn

Greetings traveler, it has been many a year since mine old eyes have witnessed such a lot as ye and I bid thee sit, stay a while and give an ear to an old man’s tale of adventure. The tale is not long in the telling, but does require some things to be in the knowing, they say, before ye can begin it.

My name is Arydan Teluvryean and as old as I may seem to thy own young eyes, rest assured that as this land holds many strange and terrible wonders, I am far older than I appear. For many lives of mortal men have I walked this world, across the great continents of Rathmoore, Nethasia and Arlanyn. I’ve dwelt low under the Black Mountain and engaged in conversations with both Grim’lor and Shadowlock, journeyed far across the Nether Sea to the Ports of Pleasure, spoke with rulers upon the high towered walls of New Dolanthus, fled across the dune sands of the Tharkanian Desert, and, if the gods will it, will continue to do so, for many centuries more. It is my charge as servant of my Lord Lorecrypt, founder of the Grey Librarians, to search for hidden things much like the followers of Shokoru-khan, wherever they may lie, learn of them and keep them. It is also my charge to chronicle and document all that I see and hear. Although he has shown me I am to share some things with you, perhaps I will learn some of your secrets before the tale is through

Who is Shokoru-khan? Well that is a story for another time perhaps, but know only he is the King of Secrets, the God of Mysteries and Hidden Knowledge and those are two secrets I will give you for free, but also know that any other will surely cost you one of your own.

I am a teller of tales, a singer of stories, a lyricist of long forgotten lore, and a chronicler of current events. On any other world of this great Multiverse, I may be called a skald or folklorist and even yet on others a bard or minstrel, but here I am Arydan Teluvryean and nothing more. As you spend more time here you will come to see a few things are different in this place than in any other, but on to my tale.

Thousands of years ago, long before the army of the Black Emperor Perdivius Xal spread across the lands corrupting everything in its path like a plague, before Old Dolanthus was laid waste by Dol the Undying, and even before the human king Rath led his people out of slavery to the Snake Lords and smote his best friend Sesser’raath down upon the mountains of Belnack Ridge, our world was covered in the mists of antiquity. . Like other worlds through out the Prime, Netherworld was forged by the Great Creator from beyond the Void, who being pleased at what he had wrought decided in His wisdom to create lesser beings to inhabit the world and greater beings to watch

Introduction

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