This is the 25th encounter in my 4E conversion of The Sunless Citadel. Now that I have access to more content through DDI, I’m making a greater effort to replace some of the spell scrolls included in the original treasure with official alchemical formulas or rituals that are either exact translations, or produce similar results.
Encounter 25: Ashardalon’s Shrine
Encounter Level 1 (175 XP)
Overview
A shrine to the red dragon Ashardalon is guarded by an undead spirit. Defeating the guardian will allow the PCs to discover potent magic still contained within a statue depicting the likeness of the great wyrm. A crumbling library off the shrine contains arcane and draconic lore that can aid the heroes. An underpass leads from the library to the sanctum of the Outcast. This encounter includes the following creature:
- 1 shadow spirit
Area Description
Read the following to the players when they first enter the shrine:
Dragon-carved tiles of granite comprise the walls and ceiling of this chamber, though many are crumbled and broken, creating small piles of stony debris on the floor. A huge, marble statue of a rearing dragon still stands in the curve of the western wall. A red glow lingers in the dragon’s eye sockets, suffusing the room with a reddish light that casts inky shadows. A redstone tile inset in the floor before the dragon is carved with runes that form a circle along the tile’s inner edge.
Read the following to the players when they enter the library north of the shrine:
Leaning and fallen stone bookshelves fill this chamber, though a clear path runs from one wooden door to the other in the opposite wall. Torn and burnt pages, bindings, and scrolls form piles of litter in the corners of the room.
The features of this area include:
- Illumination: Dim lighting.
- Dragon statue: An Arcana check (DC 21) reveals a strong magical aura emanating from the statue. A Nature check (DC 10) will allow a PC to recognize that the statue resembles a red dragon.
- Redstone tile: An Arcana check (DC 21) reveals a strong magical aura emanating from the statue. The runes are Draconic, and read, “Ea serpenta rau kaluva nyawisti” (let the sorcerous power illuminate my mind). Anyone who stands within the circle of the runes, and speaks the words aloud–they must be able to read Draconic–summons the magic of the dragon statue. A puff of spectral flame envelopes the creature standing on the tile, and grants them a temporary bonus to Charisma. The creature gains 1d4+1 points to their Charisma score. This bonus lasts until they take an extended rest. Once the magic is activated, it cannot be reactivated for 24 hours.
- Treasure: A Perception check (DC 18) in the main shrine reveals a loose stone in the wall behind the statue. Hidden behind the stone is 34 gp and two flasks of alchemist’s fire. The flasks’ stoppers are clay, shaped like a dragon’s head. Three separate, successful Perception checks (DC 20) in the library will uncover a ritual scroll of pyrotechnics, a scroll of alchemist’s acid, and a tome of dragon lore worth 150gp. A character fluent in Draconic can study the tome to gain a +1 knowledge bonus on a Nature check related to dragons.
Tactics
The shadow spirit hides behind the dragon statue (Perception DC 30). It attacks the first creature to come within 1 square of the redstone tile.
Hey, nice work. What programs do you use to draw maps and monster stats?
Hi, Jonas. I used Adobe Illustrator to draw the maps. It was a lot of set up and work. I found a program called Masterplan, which includes a feature that allows you to create maps using dungeon tile images created by the RPG community, and will likely use that instead for future projects.
The monster stats were built using the DDI Adventure Tools Monster Builder.
Masterplan is awesome.Easily my favorite 4E aid out there. It’s so comprehensive it is just staggering.
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