PZO9515 D4 Hungry are the Dead.pdf

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Are
the
Hungry
a 3.5/ogl aDventure for level 6
D4
Dead
module
By Tim Hitchcock
Hungry Are
tHe DeAD
TM
Pathfinder Module d4
d series adventure
Design:
Tim Hitchcock
Development and Editing:
Christopher Carey, Sean K Reynolds, and James L. Sutter
Editorial Intern:
Claudia Golden
Art Director:
Drew Pocza
Cover Artist:
John Gravato
Interior Artists:
Concept Art House
Cartographers:
Rob Lazzaretti and Chris West
Managing Art Director:
James Davis
Vice President of Operations:
Jeff Alvarez
Director of Marketing:
Joshua J. Frost
Paizo CEO:
Lisa Stevens
Corporate Accountant:
Dave Erickson
Sales Manager:
Chris Self
Technical Director:
Vic Wertz
Publisher:
Erik Mona
Special Thanks:
The Paizo Customer Service and Warehouse Teams
D4: Hungry Are the Dead
is a
Pathfinder
Module designed for four 6th-level characters. By the end of this module, characters should reach
7th or 8th level. This module is designed for play in the
Pathfinder Chronicles
campaign setting, but can easily be adapted for use with any
world. This module is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular
fantasy roleplaying game.
The OGL can be found on page 29 of this product.
Paizo Publishing, LLC
2700 Richards Road, Suite 201
Bellevue, WA 98005
paizo.com
Product Identity:
The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a, Section
1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts, places, etc.), dialogue, plots,
storylines, language, incidents, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress.
Open Content:
Except for material designated as Product Identity (see above), the contents of this Paizo Publishing game product are
Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No portion of this work other than the material
designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Game License
and the d20 System License, please visit wizards.com/d20.
Pathfinder
Modules are published by Paizo Publishing, LLC under the Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
All other trademarks are property of Paizo Publishing, LLC. ©2008 Paizo Publishing.
Printed in China.
module d4
Hungry Are tHe DeAD
sun and stars have winked out, or when another Starfall plunges the world into final
darkness, the undead will be here, studying ancient lore and researching new magic.
How could a scholar choose anything but undeath?
—Drazmorg the Damned
O
ur human nature leads us to speculate upon death. It stalks us, from the
moment we are granted self-awareness—we somehow sense that we can and
will someday die. But undeath is forever. With necromancy you can exceed
the normal human lifespan by decades, or centuries, or even longer. When the
2
Hungry are the Dead
Adventure BAckground
Drazmorg was an unremarkable wizard who dabbled in
Nethys’s religion. At the High Academae he acquired the
moniker Drazmorg the Drudger, for he carried himself
as a stodgy student of lost lore and antiquated rituals, so
enraptured with past events, it kept him from reaching
into the future. In particular, his gratuitous pursuit of
non-secular magic delayed him from learning those
powerful spells his peers had long mastered. Though his
diversity was unrivaled, his studies fell woefully behind—
or so his colleagues believed. Drudgery, its seemed to
Drazmorg, was found in death, not studies. While other
students sought power, Drazmorg sought immortality.
Thus began his romantic fixation with the foolish works
of obscure wizards and priests who also sought such
impossibilities, and so it was that he stumbled upon a
seemingly innocuous copy of an ancient text called the
Whispers of the Immortal.
Within the obscure tome’s faded
pages, a disciple of Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant,
documented his master’s journey from life into undeath
and on to divine ascension. When he queried his superiors
as to the origin of the text, they said they’d purchased it
from an adventurer who claimed to have found it in an
ancient, trap-laden crypt ruin in the Fangwood Forest. In
their esteemed opinion, the authenticity of the text could
hardly be held credulous.
Conversely, Drazmorg was thrilled, though he kept his
exuberance masked with his usual dry countenance. The
location corroborated early research concerning several
covert locations, established by an elite circle of powerful
members of the Shining Crusade, designed to protect
the arcane seals binding the Whispering Tyrant in his
prison beneath his tower. Immediately, Drazmorg took a
sabbatical to travel to Andoran. In Almas he hired a team
of professional adventurers, and set out to excavate and
explore the lost dungeon in search of the fabled seal.
His search for the secret location didn’t take long. As
he’d cleverly deduced, the elite members of the Shining
Crusade chose to hide the seal deep under an old dwarven
monastery on the edge of Darkmoon Wood. Finding the
place overrun by kobolds, they hacked and blasted their
way past the scaly inhabitants to reach the lower levels.
Discovering the Seal, Drazmorg’s investigations created
several undead shadows that immediately obeyed him.
Annoyed by the noise and occasional attacks from their
kobold neighbors, Drazmorg sent the shadows to harass
the scaly humanoids, eventually convincing them they were
cursed. These events are the cause of Pathfinder Module
D1 Crown of the Kobold King,
where King Merlokrep kidnaps
children of the townsfolk to use their blood to break the
curse on his tribe. The PCs or another group of heroes find
the kobolds, free the children, and slay their king.
Meanwhile, after much tampering and spellcasting,
Drazmorg finally uncovered the occult secrets of the seal’s
Though this adventure has many ties to Pathfinder
adventures
D1 Crown of the Kobold King
and
D1.5 Revenge
of the Kobold King,
you can use this without having played
through those books as long as the PCs are in a town near
a strange wooded area. Undead attack the town, the PCs
rebuff the undead, and the path of staggering zombies
leads to the forgotten graveyard and beyond to the old
dwarven monastery. The place might be empty, filled
with monsters, or scattered with maimed kobold bodies
killed by previous heroes. You can also skip the zombie
encounter and simply attach the two dungeon levels
presented here to wherever the PCs are exploring.
Making this a Stand-Alone
Adventure
locking mechanism. What happened next was entirely
unexpected—the breaking seal triggered a massive
explosion of negative energy. Drazmorg took the worst
of the backlash. So potent were these forces that they
destroyed Drazmorg’s lower half, yet he survived and in
this incarnation believes himself the risen embodiment
of Tar-Baphon. Delusional or not, the threat he poses
is significant. Bolstered by his newfound power, he
reanimated the remains of Merlokrep and some of his
tribe. The undead kobolds immediately began crafting a
plan for revenge against their slayers and relocated to an
Azlant burial site (which causes the events of
D1.5 Revenge
of the Kobold King).
This exodus leaves the levels above
Drazmorg’s lair uninhabited (though the PCs may see
one or two of Drazmorg’s shadow minions flitting about,
spying on intruders rather than attacking).
Meanwhile, necromantic energy has been bleeding
out of the broken Seal and seeping into the surrounding
lands, sapping them of life and transforming creatures
and corpses into undead. Most of the new undead come
from the town’s graveyard northwest of town. Some
of these skeletons and zombies wander near Falcon’s
Hollow and attack (precipitating the first encounter of
the adventure), others are drawn to the source of the
power and shamble to the broken seal (leading PCs to
the remainder of the adventure). These effects are just
incidental to the real threat—if Drazmorg explores the
vault further, he might just discover the existence and
location of another such seal, bringing the Whispering
Tyrant one step closer to freedom.
Adventure Summary
If the PCs have played through
D1 Crown of the Kobold
King
and
D1.5 Revenge of the Kobold King,
this adventure
takes place shortly after
Revenge.
Having dealt with the
reanimated kobolds, the PCs return to Falcon’s Hollow
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