About the Campaign

Tales of the Yawning Portal is a compilation of seven popular dungeons throughout the history of D&D. Instead of having a campaign of all seven dungeons at once, I wanted to have whole campaigns based on each of the individual dungeon. For right now, five of the seven dungeons are applicable, with The Sunless Citadel being first.

The campaign design will be made in successive issues, and summarized here.

The main outline

Issue 1 breaks down this campaign into five main quests, and then into numerous subquests, following "The 5 x 5 Method" shown in Dragon 429. The current outline, which is in progression, follows:

Main Quest 1: The Sunless Citadel Proper.

This part is pretty much cannon, even with my adjustments. I’m combining [Kheldell and Oakhurst—you probably have seen parts of this already—as well as including a Hex Grid between Kheldell to the dungeon.

I have a preference on campaigns starting with “The Tarantino;” that is, with a sample encounter. In this case, it’ll be with a couple twig blights so that the players can figure out their characters while they have an easy fight to get the juices flowing. I’ll let the players make some initial re-adjustments before they enter the first city:

1A Kheldell

As I said, I’m incorporating Oakhurst into Kheldell, thanks to its connection with the Dusk Circle. The Mind Map shows where the Oakhurst NPCs fit in Kheldell.

It’s also here where I create a customized variant of the Teleportation Circle which I borrowed from the Diablo series. I felt the need for the party to have a quick egress from any dungeon, especially when the party needs to bail to avoid a TPK. I transferred the “[Scroll of Town Portal](onenote:Things.one#Scroll of Town Portal&section-id={F5A8A380-EC5A-48D2-96CA-8BA52ABF406F}&page-id={E973E764-6E1D-4B7E-9E41-36344F437BAB}&end&base-path=D:\Documents\One Note\FoxForReal\Foxfire Forgotten Realms)” from the Diablo series into my games a few years ago with my first run through Princes of the Apocalypse and I’ll expand it here. It’s basically a useful egress of last resort, but not one that the party should depend on, especially at latter stages when the party needs to consider the cost of using it.

This scroll will be explained better in Æthercoil Magazine. Each of the key cities will have a Teleportation Circle hidden in a safehouse somewhere. Someone in town will sell the Scroll which, when read, will open a portal to that circle. There is a limited range on the scroll—about 50 miles in any direction, including up and down, so that you can’t use them to warp from city to city. That’s what a wagon is for. Once used, the party will need to buy another scroll. The first one in any campaign will be free, but every time it’s used, you need to buy another one, starting at 100 GP and increasing by 100 GP for every use thereafter. I’ll be doing this to every major city (such as [Red Larch](onenote:Places.one#Red Larch&section-id={E1F636EF-358F-4E81-B055-5406E6B04E7A}&page-id={CA4BAEA5-8343-40D4-AE3D-0A88876AA693}&end&base-path=D:\Documents\One Note\FoxForReal\Foxfire Forgotten Realms)) but with a different starting price.

And before you ask, no, the Town Portal doesn’t go both ways. The party will have to return to the dungeon the long way.

1B Hex Crawl to Dungeon

According to Volo, there is an elven castle that once stood in the dell at the heart of the Westwood, west of Kheldell, with a route marked by Moonglow markings. I will be making use of this castle as the site of the Sunless Citadel, where it fell because of the original battle with Gulthias (Note to self: Design the hero who took him down so long ago. Maybe a Belmont type; I’ll avoid using Van Richten. Maybe I’ll have him related to Madam Katarina?)

Whatever or not I turn this into an exploration part depends on how much time I have in the sessions. In the shortened Encounters tables, I’ll just have the party wait til night and follow the glowing path. In longer sessions, throw in the Hex Grid. The path might be lit (at least this time, the party will go through here at least twice) but they might want to do some exploring: The Temple of Mielikki can be found and if they do, the goddess will grant them a boon. Maybe a bless effect for the whole party until their next extended rest.

1C The Dungeon Proper

This dungeon will be run stock, right up to the Boss Fight.

1D The Boss Fight

Either right after the Beliak is killed or the party is about to cut down the fruit—it’ll be the summer version—Ghelkyn will appear, warning the party not to kill the thralls: Focus Fire on Belak.

Once Belak is killed the thralls freeze in their tracks, and the 24-hour timer begins. The tree, at this point impervious to damage, will drag the body into the earth. Once he sees who the thralls are, he tells the party to get the fruit and bring the Thralls to him. Either by walking back through a cleared dungeon or through a Town Portal. Ghelkyn takes the party to Quest 2A.

Main Quest 2: Undoing the Thralls.

This begins the instant Belak is defeated. I’ll stop the party from killing the thralls (If possible) and the quest switches to undoing the Thrall process, restoring Sir Braford and Sharwyn to their normal selves. This will involve the Fruit, which will be the Summer variety for this campaign.

2A Gentle Repose

Ghelkyn has researched the Gulthias Tree enough to create a Gentle Repose like effect using the juice of the Gulthias Tree. The Fruit is large enough to create preservatives as well as juice that can be combined with a Hit Dice worth of blood.

Another tweak in my campaign is the use of Hit Dice as a resource, both in some spells and rituals but also as drain-based attacks. You’ll see a monster stat block where I reword an action to drain Hit Dice instead of Maximum Hit Points, and when that becomes zero, the PC dies. I’ll elaborate on that more in Æthercoil Magazine

The combination of Gulthias Fruit and blood will have the Gentle Repose effect, as per the spell. The party now has 10 days to reverse the Thralls, and Corkie and Ghelkyn knows of someone who has a way to do so.

It is here where Corkie will also tell the party, “You realize that, when we were selling all the previous fruits, we’ve set loose several more of these abominations upon the world, both blights and thralls. Who knows what these twisted plants and poor souls are doing now.” Foreshadowing much?

2B Red Larch

The two refers the party to [Lady Meriele Ambercrown](onenote:People.one#Meriele AMBERCROWN&section-id={210805A3-74F6-4D63-B08E-AFDF9616CA18}&page-id={665CB0E2-2A8F-4690-98F6-A9D8DEBEEBA9}&end&base-path=D:\Documents\One Note\FoxForReal\Foxfire Forgotten Realms), the co-Mayor of Red Larch, who is much more of an expert with the Gulthias tree than they are. It’s in Red Larch where they will learn all the lore about the tree, either in a piecemeal fashion (Merielle will need to get back to her notes) or all at once. But the first business will be to make a potion that, when poured over the thralls, will return them to normal.

Unfortunately, the ingredients the party needs are in the [Temple of the Elements](onenote:Places.one#Temple of the Elements&section-id={E1F636EF-358F-4E81-B055-5406E6B04E7A}&page-id={F0B219A6-E440-4C2F-8037-5FB48DCADDD1}&end&base-path=D:\Documents\One Note\FoxForReal\Foxfire Forgotten Realms)! (The megadungeon in P[rinces of the Apocalypse](onenote:#Princes of the Apocalypse&section-id={09FCDB63-E1EC-4B6A-913B-38261212122C}&page-id={2BA3F1C1-ED7B-41DE-B802-F716604DC70D}&end&base-path=D:\Documents\One Note\FoxForReal\Foxfire Forgotten Realms\Storylines.one))

At this time, I’d like to tell you that while this is being planned, I’m going to DM another run of Princes of the Apocalypse, and since I’m running them and this at the same time, insert evil grin here, I’ll have the two campaigns run at the same time in the campaign world. These two campaigns will eventually spill over into each other, with Empowered Blights and Elemental Cultists swapping tables, and ultimately the two adventuring parties will meet each other!

This ties into my belief in Persistence in my campaign world, where nothing happens in a vacuum, and actions will have effects not just in your game, but the whole campaign setting, even effecting campaigns you’re not even in!

How am I going to implement this will have to wait for Issue #2

2C The Temple of the Elements

Fortunately, the party only need to go through the first level of the dungeon, and those four maps {A, B, C, E} are connected to each other, so they only need to go around. (I’ll also work on the surface maps {H, K, M, V} because the party will use one of them to get to the place. Ditto with a Hex Grid for the surrounding areas.)

Also, there is no cultists in this campaign; so I’ll be either reducing their numbers or taking them out. I can always say that they’re busy with other parties. But they’re not by any means abandoned. There will be monsters about while they search for the ingredients, one for each of the mentioned maps.

Issue 2 will have to include at least the first two floors of this complex, the four on the surface, and the four Temple Dungeons.

2D Making the Potion

If everything runs right, the party will have enough time to make the potion and deliver it to Sharwyn and Braford, provided they don’t dawdle. Unfortunately for the party, someone or something has an inkling on what is going on and launched their first reprisal. A couple tree thralls who are too far gone to be saved attack Red Larch, right in the middle of Meriele’s potion brewing! Something rather ominous is afoot.

2E Restoring Sharwyn and Braford

This will consist of a boss battle along the way back to Kheldell, with the made potion and the rest of the ingredients. I’ll have Belak return as a Tree Vampire; a common villain the party will fight multiple times, in increasing levels, in the campaign. (Another common theme for me; a villain will come back unless the party is sure that he’s dead. Multiple times.)

Kheldell has reports of several blights (and owlbears) attacking the village, so they used their spare supply of logs to build a wall around the village.

The potion will be a success once poured on Sharwyn and Braford. The two, once reunited and whole, will tell of a harrowing situation: As Thralls, they were in tune with the spirit of Gulthias, and he wishes to be reborn from the tree!

Main Quest 3: Researching the Blights and finding the right pruner.

These blights will become above your normal cannon fodder as they grow in number and strength. A weapon made especially for this purpose will need to be found—or created—to deal with them. I’ll also design additional blight-based monsters for the party to deal with.

3A Back to Red Larch

If they haven’t learned the origin of the Gulthias tree, they will by now. That’s when they’ll hear about the hero that killed Gulthias in the first place. I will have him be an ancestor (probably a great grandfather or somewhere in the timeline) of Madam Katarina (Madam Eva from Curse of Strahd fame!!) who stabbed the vampire through the heart. Unfortunately (and not mentioned now,) the stake he used came from a living tree, and still had tree sap in it. That’s what created the Gulthias Tree. They found out that he retreated to a house somewhere that became haunted, and he left a journal.

3B Finding a Journal

Trudging through the haunted house—dealing with Balak again(!)—they find the journal, and the answer: Since tree sap was the thing that created the Gulthias tree, finding a way to remove the sap will destroy that tree, as well as any generated blights and—of course—kills the blights before you can restore them. The hero has indeed made such a weapon: The Hallow Scythe.

Of course, they must find, and get to, said haunted house.

3C-3D The Hallow Scythe

Here’s where I initially have two parts that eventually come into one. I designed the Hallow (Sometimes spelled ‘Hollow’ but it’s still early) Scythe to be a weapon that not only cuts fauna like a Ninja Blender but also drains the sap from the plants, causing them to dry off and die almost instantly. Because of this, druids hate the weapon. We’re talking Free Speech Advocate in Berkley hated.

So naturally, it’s going to be found in the hands of someone who has. Had. Facking. Enough! Of the pointy-eared, tree-hugging bastards who would want to behead anyone who isn’t an elf. Enter my favorite common baddies, the Eldreth Valuuthra. I’ll find a location where the elvish supremacists are raging over a group of ranchers just trying to make an honest living, and one of the ranchers has the Scythe!

3E The Blights Return, and we’re ready!

Considering how nasty the Eldreth Valuuthra can be, it would be quite satisfying to see then get jumped by blights and dragged away. They’ll return as Thralls that nobody would mind killing (although you might reform them if you do restore them instead.) Also in this battle, you have the Hallow Scythe, and it can be used.

Provided someone’s proficient in Martial Melee Weapons, that is. Having someone proficient in Scythes will be a good idea. And some downtime spent in learning how to use a Scythe may need to be made available.

Main Quest 4: Dealing with the Blights.

This will be a campaign setting crawl where the blights are roaming about. I’ll have a card reading a la Curse of Strahd to randomly place the blights. However, the party will discover a pattern.

4A And Bring on the Boss Blights

By now the blights become more organized, and because of this, larger and more powerful blights must come here, some of them would even be boss creatures. Five of them needs to be hunted down and killed with the Scythe.

4B Madam Katarina

That’s where our Tarokka-reading Vistani mistress comes into play. She’ll come in and randomly place the five bosses in the overworld. This will be designed in the next couple issues.

4C Getting the Thrall Cure Back

I made an error in the Mind Map. I told you this was the first brainstorm of this campaign, did I?

There will be the time for the party to get some more of the Thrall Cure. When they do, let them know that the cure is in a very limited supply. If the party doesn’t deal with the problem, the region would be overrun with blights and thralls.

4D Taking out the Boss Blights

As the party take out the Blights, and deal with whatever Thralls they can, they find out the truth about the blight’s activities. They’re going back to the Sunless Citadel, to raise Gulthias from the original Gulthias tree!

Along the way, while they’re out and about, some parties might consider a legacy plan, where the players set up a headquarters where all of their future characters come from. A Homesteading plan might come out, or they would adopt a city as their own.

Main Quest 5: Stopping Gulthias’ Return.

As the party goes through these quests, they find out about the origin of the tree, and that it is possible for the vampire to come back. The unhunted blights will return to the Sunless Citadel and reform the Gulthias tree, and in turn remake Gulthias himself. Stopping this vampire, the right way this time, will complete the campaign.

5A The Blights' Migration

Before the end of 4D the party would see blights just moving en masse toward a certain location. They would need to question a former Thrall to figure out what they remember from their time as thralls, but eventually they discover the final location, an upgraded Sunless Citadel and a boss using Strahd von Zarcovish’s stat block.

5B Prepping

If they’re smart, they would research how to deal with vampires and prepare appropriately. A Vampire Hunting kit would be a good idea. If nothing else, we can toss in another Vistani, Ezmerelda d’Avenir, who is more expert in hunting vampires. As a Vistani, much like Madam Katarina, she can travel through campaigns.

5C Returning to Kheldell

As they approach the village, the party would notice things going gothic horror on them. While the mists and darkness—and random undead—are Ravenloft-style, this shouldn’t be as if they’re crossing over into Barovia. There is an ancient, evil, and local presence that is returning to the world, something that should be stopped. The entire Dusk Circle is missing to boot; they have grouped up to head into the Sunless Citadel and haven’t been seen again.

It becomes apparent when they reach Kheldell, which now sports a wall, blocking the mists from spilling into the village. Everyone’s at edge and the party is called on to finish the job they started. Would the Town Portal scrolls still work in this version, maybe…maybe not?

5D Return to the Sunless Citadel

This time, use the hex grid on the way, and the moonglow symbols are gone. The locations and the path may be changed and there’s a lot more enemies to deal with.

When the party reaches the dungeon proper, the kobolds and goblins are now replaced with zombies, skeletons, wrights, vampires, thralls, and a lot more undead. If you wish to really be a dick about it, toss in a death trap or two, especially one in the main path.

5E Back to the Gulthias Tree

When they arrive at the tree, they find out what happened to the druids: To the party’s shock, they have all turned into Thralls, and by now the party is out of cure! They will have no choice but to dispatch them before Gulthias himself comes out from the tree. After the boss battle, use the Hallow Scythe to fell the tree. Of course, both tree and Scythe are destroyed.

5F Aftermath

It would take a while for the woodlands to heal after the ordeal. The vampiric effect stripped the green off of everything. The leaves and flowers will return in the next springtime and the animals in the year after that. A new group of druids would have to be formed to protect the woods, and the party is invited to be part of it.

…and was that blasted Scythe actually destroyed?