Forgotten Terror - Introduction

Look deeply into the ruby. When you gaze through it,
all the world is awash in blood. But who is to say
whether this is the blood of the living or the dead?
And, indeed, is there a difference?

- Dr. Rudolph van Richten,
11 December 745

This adventure is designed for play in conjunction with Castle Spulzeer, an adventure for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It can, however, also be played as a stand-alone adventure, so that Dungeon Masters (DMs) may run it without playing the Realms scenario.

The Forgotten Terror is a unique crossover adventure for the RAVENLOFT and Forgotten Realms campaign settings, designed for a party of four to six player characters of 10th through 12th level. The party should contain at least one character capable of employing wizardry and one character skilled in the use of priestly magic. These characters may be anchorites and arcanists or spellcasters from other worlds.

At the start of this adventure, the characters are all imprisoned within a gemstone set into the hilt of a magical dagger. Exactly how they came to be in this place depends upon whether the Dungeon Master has chosen to run this adventure as the sequel to the Forgotten Realms adventure Castle Spulzeer.

The events that took place in Castle Spulzeer are summarized in Appendix Two of this book under Chardath Spulzeer's character description. (Those events brought both him and the player characters to Ravenloft simultaneously.) For those Dungeon Masters using The Forgotten Terror as a stand-alone adventure, a suggested alternate beginning appears below.

Aggarath, the magical dagger in which the player characters are trapped, functions very much like a mirror of life trapping. Those who die by this blade find their spirits trapped within its ruby hiltstone-a floating domain in Ravenloft. The domain of Aggarath is a hostile one, however. As its occupants move around within the domain, the crystalline prison drains away their life energy. If the player characters do not escape quickly, they will lose the ability to do so.

As if that situation were not bad enough, the Mists have embraced the mad Chardath Spulzeer and made him into the lord of this domain. All the facets of that madman's shattered psyche are reflected in the faces of the gem.

The gemstone universe over which Chardath rules has no physical reality. In game terms, it can be considered a nondimensional space similar to that found within a bag of holding. As far as the heroes are concerned, however, they experience the place as a series of "facets," or levels. Each of these regions is a distinct universe which mirrors various aspects of Chardath's mind. As this is an insane mind, some of the facets are most torturous.

The heroes begin the adventure in the First Facet. As they travel through the facets of Chardath's madness, they gather the knowledge and power that they need to escape from the stone (see "The Enchanted Rubies," below). The adventurers must be quick, however, so as to escape before being reduced to level 0 and consumed by the gemstone universe.

Along the way, the party is aided by a mystical presence who offers advice in exchange for a promise of aid: The heroes must take him out of Aggarath when they exit. In truth, this adviser is the telepathic voice of Maleffluent, the evil intelligent weapon that Chardath Spulzeer carries with him. In the Forgotten Realms, he all but dominated Chardath. Here, however, he is unable to bend the demilord's will. To a powerful spirit like Maleffluent, this state of affairs is unacceptable. He will do everything he can to see his master destroyed and himself released from Aggarath.

Of course, Maleffluent has every intention of dominating the heroes if they are foolish enough to bring him into the outside world. Still, they may have no choice but to strike a devil's bargain with this potential ally.

The majority of this adventure details the efforts of the characters to explore the gemstone domain of Aggarath. As they do this, they gather the tools and clues that should enable them to escape before the parasitic land completely absorbs their life essences.

Scattered throughout the domain of Aggarath are a number of rubies. These look more or less like normal gems, each an inch or so in size. They glow softly with magical power; a detect magic spell will confirm their nature. No two rubies are the same shape, however, making it possible to tell them apart easily.

Only by gathering at least three of these rubies will the heroes be able to escape from the gemstone universe at the end of the adventure. The means of recovering particular stones is presented in each facet description. "The Twelfth Facet" section details how to use the rubies to escape Aggarath. In addition to the rubies, the heroes also need a key that Chardath holds.

Once the heroes escape Aggarath, their bodies are magically reconstituted. Any levels they may have lost during the adventure are restored.

Before beginning play, Dungeon Masters are advised to read the appendices of this product, which relate important background information about the domain of Aggarath, movement between facets, the demilord Chardath Spulzeer, the evil axe Maleffluent, and other key characters and concepts.

If this adventure is not being played in follow-up to Castle Spulzeer, the Dungeon Master needs to make a few minor adjustments. The most important of these is finding a means of trapping the characters in the gemstone universe of Aggarath.

The easiest way of accomplishing this is for the heroes to be murdered by someone wielding the weapon Aggarath (described in Appendix One of this book). The Dungeon Master can begin the adventure by having the characters hired to investigate a series of brutal killings. In every case, the body of the victim is nothing more than a withered husk. This is a side-effect of the life-draining ability of the dagger.

As the characters investigate events, the trail leads them to what appears at first to be the hidden lair of a dangerous madman. In truth, however, the heroes have stumbled upon a deadly cult of dangerous fanatics. The cultists have been carrying out these murders as part of a terrible ritual which will, they believe, free the powerful spirit trapped in the knife. Clearly, they understand only a fraction of the truth about the weapon that they hold.

The heroes are then taken unawares and become the next victims of the deadly Aggarath. These events lead directly to the arrival of the party in the First Facet.

Note: This lead-in requires tinkering with a few rules and assumptions elsewhere in the adventure. These are minimal, however, and can be easily dealt with or even ignored during play.