AD&D FR-Storm Riders.pdf

by Troy Denning

Table of Contents

Introduction ....................................... .2

New Monsters .................................... ...6

Part I, A Fabled Land ................................. 8

Part II, The Rainbow Falls ............................ .24

Rainbow Falls Map ............................... .29

Part III, To Ra-Khatis Frontier ......................... 42

Part IV, Kushk and the Sixfold Path ..................... 49

Cover

Rainbow Falls Interiors Map ................. inside panel

Deserted City of Kushk Map .................. inside panel

NPC Cards ................................... gatefold

Credits:

Design: Troy Denning

Editing: Timothy B. Brown

Cover Art: Brom

Interior Art: Paul Abrams

Graphic Design: Roy E. Parker

Cartography: Diesel

Typography: Angelika Lokotz

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Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distribu-

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ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, FORGOTTEN REALMS, PRODUCTS OF YOUR

IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc.

9281

ISBN 0-88038-834-X

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United Kingdom

Introduction

In all the unex-

plored vastness of

Toril, it would be

pleasant to believe

that one small cor-

ner was free from

the strife spawned by warring lords and the suf-

fering begot by power-hungry potentates. It

would be comforting to know that in some dis-

tant land, roguish knaves and remorseless mis-

creants did not prey upon honest men, that in

some distant place thieves found no profit in

stealing and murderers had no call to lift their

bloody weapons.

In fact, though few know of its existence, there

is such a place within the Realms. It lies deep

within the Katakoro, an enormous range of

mountains situated along the southern edge of

the wilderness separating the lands of Faerun

from those of Kara-Tur. Located south of the cara-

van routes connecting the east and west, the fa-

bled nation of Ra-Khati is hidden from view on

three sides by the Katakoros lofty peaks. On the

fourth it is protected by a deep river gorge.

The dominion of Ra-Khati is a fertile land with

an abundance of mineral resources. By anyones

standards it is a rich and bountiful country. Food

and building materials are plentiful, so no man,

however modest his station in life, goes hungry

or lacks a roof over his head. Gold and jewels are

so common that they have lost their value as jew-

elry and money. Among the Ra-Khatians, greed

has become an all but forgotten human emotion.

Ra-Khatis wealth is a mixed blessing, however.

It is a tiny country that could easily be conquered

by almost any large nationwhich would cer-

tainly happen if her wealth were common knowl-

edge. Ra-Khatis leaders have responded to this

danger with subtlety rather than force: they have

closed its borders, hiding its very existence from

all who might wish to bring it harm.

Ra-Khatis ruse has protected it from harm for

centuries, blanketing the land in shrouds of se-

crecy. But Toril is a wild place, driven by the enor-

mous aspirations of rapacious men. The time has

come when the Hidden Kingdom can hide no

longer, when it must meet the brutal world of

which it is part.

Oddly, Ra-Khatis fate will fall to a small group

of explorersyour player characterswho must

make sure that this meeting does not destroy the

worlds one peaceful corner.

Black Courser and Blood Charge adventures.

The Empires Adventure Trilogy is a series of

AD&D® game adventures set in the

FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign setting. They

concern events derived from the Empires Novel

Trilogy: Horselords, Dragonwall, and Crusade,

also published by TSR.

Storm Riders contains a 64-page adventure

book (youre reading it now), a color mapsheet,

and a cover gatefold. The gatefold contains de-

scriptions of three important non-player charac-

ters. If you wish, carefully use scissors to cut the

gatefold off the cover, then cut along the dark

lines to separate each character onto an individ-

ual card.

The color mapsheet shows Ra-Khati, Solon, and

the surrounding rugged country. For this adven-

ture, only Ra-Khati is important, but the sur-

rounding terrain will prove important should your

party venture outside the Hidden Kingdoms bor-

ders. This map also shows in greater detail some

of the terrain discussed in The Horde campaign

set.

The 64-page booklet is the heart of Storm

Riders. Before beginning play, read this book to

familiarize yourself with the plot of the adven-

ture. Dont try to memorize the entire thing, how-

ever. Simply familiarizing yourself with the story

and organization of the book will insure an enjoy-

able adventure. If you dont have enough time to

read the entire adventure, read at least the intro-

ductory material and, before each session, the

encounters you plan to use.

Portions of the adventure are made up of a se-

ries of encounters. Each encounter is divided into

sections: boxed text, GMs notes, and statistics

(when needed). As an encounter begins, read the

boxed text aloud. This sets the scene for the

players.

The GMs notes detail the action of the encoun-

ter, describing such things as combat tactics,

non-player character personalities, and treasure

to be found. Often, the GMs notes are divided

into subsections by bold subtitles.

The statistics are located at the end of the

encounter, where you can find them easily. Note

that the statistics sections do not include infor-

mation on the monsters morale. Unless indicated

otherwise, all monsters in Storm Riders attack

until destroyedor until the party is destroyed!

Some special magical items are also described in

the statistics sections. These items have unusual

properties and it may be necessary to consult

their descriptions at a later point in the adven-

ture.

Finally, two special creatures, Gaumahavi the

Purple Dragon and Sandiraksiva the Black

Courser, are described following this introduc-

tion.

How to Use This Book

Storm Riders is the first installment in the Em-

pires Adventure Trilogy, which also includes the

Because the territory in which Storm Riders

occurs is closer to Kara-Tur than to Faerun, many

of the characters and monsters the party meets

will be of an oriental nature. In many instances,

you will find it useful, but not necessary, to refer

to the Oriental Adventures reference book. Some

spells listed for the NPCs in Storm Riders are from

Oriental Adventures if necessary use spells you

feel are appropriate from the Players Handbook

instead.

A few terms that might be confusing if you

have not read Oriental Adventures are defined

below:

Sohei: Sohei are warrior priests, though more

warrior than priest. They protect monasteries

and sometimes have limited magical ability.

Wu-jen: Wu-jen are sorcerers and magicians.

Shukenja: Shukenja are holy men or priests.

Lamellar armor: This is a form of armor made

of successive layers of protective material,

such as hardened leather and small metal

plates. A person wearing lamellar armor usually

has an AC between 7 and 4.

Dalai Lama into

yielding his daugh-

ter and the Black

Courser. With Prin-

cess Bhrokiti in his

control, the Raja

feels he will be in a

position to black-

mail the Dalai Lama into making concessions

that will result in the eventual capture of the Hid-

den Kingdom.

Unfortunately, however, the Dalai Lama does

not realize that the Raja is lying. With great reluc-

tance, the Dalai Lama agrees to send the tribute.

He loves his daughter, and is not anxious to part

with the Black Courser, but Ra-Khatis feeble

forces cannot defeat 40,000 warriors-especially

with the purple dragon ready to reinforce them.

At this point, the Dalai Lama makes a proposal

to the player characters. In return for delivering

his daughter and the Black Courser safely to Am-

buchar Devayam (or, alternatively, destroying the

Raja), the Dalai Lama will grant them their

freedom.

The rest of the adventure concerns the partys

journey to the deserted city of Kushk, where they

are to meet the Rajas emissaries. Along the way,

they meet a group of humanoid deserters from

the barbarian horde and may learn that the army

does not belong to the Raja. They also meet

Gaumahavi, who tries to convince them to re-

lease the Black Courser. (There is a special rela-

tionship between Gaumahavi and the Black

Courser, described in New Monsters.)

When the party finally reaches the deserted city

of Kushk, they find the Rajas emissaries slain.

They have been killed by the barbarian army,

which, until recently, was camped outside Kushk.

Upon investigating the deaths, the party learns

that the emissaries were carrying a small trea-

sure in magical items that were to be given to the

princess as bridal gifts. When the Tuigan army

appeared, the emissaries hid these gifts in a red

tower that overlooks the city. Bhrokiti insists

upon recovering her gifts. Forced to leave the

Black Courser behind (if they still have him), the

player characters begin a perilous trip through

the deserted city.

What the party finds in the tower is much more

important than the gifts, however. As it turns out,

the city was destroyed by Gaumahavi over 50

years ago. At the last minute, the abbot devel-

oped a powerful magical item, the Prism of

Kushk, which he believed was capable of captur-

ing the purple dragon. Unfortunately, he perished

before testing his theory, leaving the prism be-

hind. The party now possesses that potent

weapon which they can employ in defending

DMs Synopsis

Read through this synopsis before beginning

play of Storm Riders. It gives a complete overview

of the flow of events for this adventure.

As the adventure begins, the player characters

are chased into the Hidden Kingdom by an army

of barbaric horsemen. They are rescued by a

band of monks and taken to see the Dalai Lama

of Ra-Khati, who assumes the army belongs to his

archenemy, the Raja Ambuchar Devayam of So-

lon. The Dalai Lama thanks the party profusely

for alerting him to this danger, then promises to

repay them with many fabulous gifts.

Before the party receives its reward, however,

they learn that the Dalai Lama has decreed they

can never leave Ra-Khati. When they attempt to

confront the Dalai Lama over this issue, however,

they are interrupted by a messenger from Solon.

The messenger demands that the Dalai Lama pay

tribute to the Raja in the form of the Dalai Lamas

daughter, Princess Bhrokiti, and his favorite

horse, the fabled Black Courser. Otherwise, the

messenger threatens, the Raja will invade Ra-

Khati with the mighty army assembled on. the

border. To add more weight to his threat, the mes-

senger also reports that his master has awakened

the purple dragon, Gaumahavi.

The Raja is bluffing. Though he has awakened

the purple dragon, the army on Ra-Khatis border

does not belong to him. It is actually the south-

ern flank of an immense horde of barbaric horse-

men moving to attack Ra-Khatis northern

neighbor, Khazari. When the Raja heard of the

armys presence, he decided to try bluffing the

Ra-Khati and them-

selves, as neces-

sary.

Unfortunately, as

they leave the city,

the barbarian army

returns. The bar-

barian general,

Hubadai, conscripts the player characters as

guides, for he wishes to pass through Ra-Khati

with his army undetected. To accomplish this, he

needs to make use of the Princess knowledge.

As the general explains his plan, the party dis-

covers that he is ultimately Gaumahavis master.

When he claims the Black Courser for himself as

well, Gaumahavi turns on her captors and, mad

with rage, begins slaying all humans within sight.

The party must use the Prism of Kushk to capture

her.

The adventure ends with the barbarian general

offering his gratitude to the party-but still in-

sisting that they lead him through Ra-Khati, the

subject of the next adventure in the Empires Ad-

ventures Trilogy, The Black Courser.

Karma Curse (Charm)

(7th Level Priest)

Range: 1 yard/ level

Components: V,S

Duration: Permanent

Casting Time: 1

Area of Effect: 1 person/ level

Saving Throw: None

A karma curse gives the caster a tangible guar-

antee that the person affected will not commit a

breach of ethics against him.

Specifically, the caster must decide when cast-

ing the spell which of these areas of ethics it will

secure: truth, theft, murder, or the breaking of a

promise. A person affected by a karma curse in-

suring truth cannot lie to the caster. If the karma

curse insures against theft, he cannot steal from

the caster. If it insures against murder, he cannot

murder the caster. If a karma curse is placed on a

person who has made a promise to the caster, he

cannot break that promise. If the person af-

fected by a karma curse violates its conditions, he

will suffer an experience point loss of 100 points

per round until he stops violating it. If the action

committed cannot be reversed, he will lose only

enough points to drop one experience level. The

curse still exists, however, and future losses of

experience points will still be possible. While los-

ing experience points, the victim will be aware of

what is happening, but perhaps not why unless

he is aware of the curse. Experience points can

only be regained by performing an act of contri-

tion equivalent, in the DMs judgement, to the act

which resulted in the activation of the curse in

the first place.

The caster is not required to tell the target

about the spell, but must inform him that he is

expected to behave in a manner that will not acti-

vate the spell (example: I expect you to keep

your word, my friend).

Karma curses cannot be removed by remove

curse spells. Due to the personal nature of the

spell, a karma curse cannot be cast for anyone

but the caster.

Karma curses can only be cast by non-evil cler-

ics. On Toril, only followers of the Padhran faith

utilize this spell, though other deities may grant

it to followers demonstrating a genuine need for

its peculiar properties.

New Spells

Ra-Khati is a strange and mystical land with its

own gods and magic. Two new priest spells are

introduced in this adventure. Since they are de-

rived from ancient traditions unique to Ra-Khati,

you may not wish to allow common use of them

in your campaign.

Smoke Bridge (Elemental, Fire)

(5th Level Priest)

Range: 300 Yards

Components: V,S,M

Duration: 1d4 turns

Casting Time: 4 rounds

Area of Effect: Special

Saving Throw: None

To create a smoke bridge, a priest (usually a

shaman) calls upon the elemental spirits of fire.

The material component of this spell is the

smoke of a burning fire, which the priest shapes

into a bridge of the desired shape and length (but

no more than 300 yards long). Once the bridge is

shaped, it becomes as solid as a comparable

bridge of stone, and stays that way for the dura-

tion of the spell. Note that the spell can also be

used to create a similar staircase or ladder of

equal length and stability.

When the spell ends, the smoke returns to its

original gaseous form and slowly drifts away.

Beginning the Adventure

Ra-Khati is located in the middle of the unex-

plored mountainous wilderness between Faerun

and Kara-Tur. In order to begin the adventure,

your player characters party must somehow be

moved from their present location to the middle

of this mountainous region.

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