The Beginners Cave

The player characters, all assumed to be new members of the Guild of Free Adventurers, are advised by the Irishman to take the guild's training course which is set up in a cave several miles south of Evenhold. Arriving at the site, the adventurers get instructions from the Knight Marshal William Misslefire who tells them the cave presents simple problems to overcome and low-level creatures to defeat, and shouldn't pose any significant danger.

Venturing into the cave, the party initially finds things to be just as Misslefire said, encountering what they discover to be magically summoned creatures (a swarm of rats and an angry gorilla) in two early chambers, and a trained, flesh-and-blood mimic in another. However, they also find a transient who suggests things in the cave may be amiss; he mentions that dark figures were moving around the deeper parts of the cave last night.

Moving farther in, the party encounters damaged chambers that don't properly summon their intended creatures. They also uncover a hidden passage leading to a small underground temple where a cultist is performing a ritual near a bound girl. After subduing the cultist, the party finds that the girl is Cynthia Luxom, daughter of Duke Luxom, who has been kidnapped for ransom and brought here by pirates. She says she was transported by boat. The cultist may reveal he was hired by the pirates, and that the ritual he was performing was to hide the girl from magical detection, since the duke's agents are using divinitation to locate her.

The party finds a ransacked library, then a side passage that descends to Pirate's Cove where the leader of the pirate band waits by his boat. The leader wields a dangerous magical sword, but can be defeated by the combined efforts of the party. They learn that the leader didn't mastermind the kidnapping but is following orders from his commander, and that Cynthia was targeted not just for a monetary ransom but to coerce her father the duke into ordering ships away from an important sea-lane near Evenhold to allow a pirate vessel to pass through.

The party may retrace their steps to the entrance; alternatively they may find concealed steps in the cove's walls that lead back to the top of the bluff, where they meet up with the surprised Misslefire. He praises the party for their discovery of the pirates' incursion and initiative in thwarting the kidnapping, and all return to Evenhold. The players receive a monetary reward from Duke Luxom for Cynthia's safe return and are allowed to keep possession of the pirate leader's sword.

The Guild has owned and operated the Beginners Cave for many years, and venturing through it has become a standard rite of passage for new recruits.

The official responsible for its operation is Krovyn Mawr, better known around the Main Hall as the Warlord, an ex-mercenary commander and highly skilled summoner who now serves the guild. To avoid the costs and logistical challenges of stocking the cave with flesh-and-blood creatures, the Warlord used his expertise to build a tidy and nearly autonomous system that regularly summons conjured creatures using magic. A stone font of conjuration, installed in a hidden service chamber near the entrance, detects when people move along the tunnel and casts several Summon Beast spells that bring a selection of low-level creatures into existence at set points (marked by runes inscribed on small metal plates). The creatures persist for an hour after summoning, then dissipate, and the effect can be triggered once per day. One creature, a juvenile mimic, is a real, non-summoned creature that has been trained to avoid inflicting deadly attacks.

The entrance to the Beginners Cave is situated near the top of a bluff not far from the sea, which lies to the southwest. The adventurers can hear gulls and distant surf, and can smell the fresh, salty air blowing off the water, but the sea is not visible from this vantage point. The area has scattered trees but mostly consists of exposed, lichen-covered rock mixed with patches of heather, fescue grass, and gorse. Other than a small wooden shelter for the knight marshal, there are no nearby buildings and the closest settlement is miles away.

The cave entrance itself is a dark opening that angles gently downward into a large outcropping of rock. It has no gate, just a wooden sign above it that reads "beginners only". Tethering posts with enough rings for six horses stand nearby. One horse (the knight marshal's) is already tied there.

Though formed naturally millennia ago, the small set of tunnels and caverns has been worked over the years into usable passages, stairways, chambers, and cells. The caves all slope gradually down toward the sea, and one passage winds all the way down to the foot of the cliffs that surround the nearby cove, but the guild walled off this entrance when it converted it into a training course.

The reach the cave, the party will first need to decide on transportation since it lies about ten miles south of town. As free adventurers they can rent horses from the guild stables for a modest fee: 1 gold piece for the day, due back by sunset. (The usual deposit is waived for members in good standing.) If they want to save their coins they can try to convince a driver to give them a free lift on one of the many goods wagons that regularly depart the city. They might also try "borrowing" horses that belong to others, but this risks attracting the unwelcome attention of the guards who regularly patrol the streets and is not advisable.

The party will exit the south gates of the city and travel down the busy Coast Road, along with a diverse mix of travelers making their way in wagons or carriages, on horseback, or on foot. This can be a good chance for players to chat and get to know each other (if they don't already). After about five miles a small, dusty side-road — little more than a trail — branches off to the right, and after five more miles on this trail the party will reach the cave. See an interactive map of the surrounding area.

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Summary: Making their way down the rough passage, the party finds a side-tunnel that leads to an underground temple. There they encounter a cultist performing a mysterious ritual with a kidnapped girl.

Finding the hidden passage

As the party makes their way south along the broken passage, any player whose passive Wisdom (Perception) is at least DC 13 will sense "a faint whiff of sweet-smelling smoke."

Once noticed, all players may roll active Wisdom (Perception) against DC 13 to trace the smell to a section of wall on the east side of the passage.

Players may then roll Intelligence (Investigation) against DC 15 to find the seam of a hidden door concealed in the rough stone wall, noticeable from a slight draft coming through a thin gap.

Running your hands across the rough, uneven stone of the wall, you detect a very slight gap. Following it with your fingers, you realize that it surrounds a skillfully concealed door. Pushing firmly against it, the door silently moves, swinging slowly inward to reveal a dark side-passage beyond. The smell of burning incense and herbs becomes stronger.

Entering the temple

The dark passage...

The Nameless Ritual

The purpose of the priest's ritual is to invoke the power of The Nameless to temporarily hide the kidnapped Cynthia from magical detection. It has three phases: preparation, offerings, and invocation. The first two have already been completed by the time the players arrive. Cynthia was listening and can relate the details.

Now, as the party nears the temple, the priest begins the third and final phase: the invocation of the Nameless. The process requires incantations (shouting and singing syllables in an unknown tongue) alternating with somatic movements (sweeping motions of the arms and shapes made with the hands). Growing darkness suggests to the players that the process may take four rounds to complete. If left uninterrupted, the ritual will progress like so:

Round 1: Invocation begins.

The light in the temple dims slightly, even though the flames on the torches and in the burning bowl haven't lowered. Shadows around the edges of the room deepen and seem to creep inward. Sound begins to dull slightly.

Round 2: Ritual intensifies. The light dims further; shadows thicken and draw in toward Cynthia and the burning bowl. Some of the shadows move independently of any bodies in the room.

Round 3: Ritual nears climax. The temple feels oppressive and strangely dim. Voices are audible but muffled. Players may sense an additional presence in the room but no visible source.

Round 4: The ritual finishes. A deadening darkness and silence smothers the room, within which a presence is sensed by the party though none can physically see or feel it. After a few long moments it begins to dissipate and disperse like smoke, revealing the kneeling and exhausted priest, his arms still upraised, the extinguished bowl, and the frightened but unharmed Cynthia.

For the next five days any form of magical divinations used to locate Cynthia will fail. Scrying will reveal only blackness.

Interrupting the ritual

The team can interrupt the ritual in several ways:

• Stop the priest's incantations;
• Prevent the priest's movements;
• Remove Cynthia from the dais;
• Extinguish the burning bowl;
• Remove Cynthia's possessions from the golden altar;
• Wash Cynthia's blood from the blood altar.

Other things can slow but not stop the ritual:

• Spilling the bowl and the burning oil
• Erasing any of the ritual boundary markings on the floor

The priest will struggle with all his strength to continue speaking the incantations and making the ritual movements, even if grappled or injured. While doing movements instead of incantations he's free to converse and will scream threats and warnings at the party.

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