DnD Adventures Karameikos

Dungeons and Dragons – Mystara

Adventures in Karameikos

Introduction
Character Creation
Getting Characters Together
Campaign Progression
Basic Adventures
Expert Adventures
Companion Adventures
Master Adventures
Adventures in Print
Content Updates

Introduction

In this section, we’ll give you a lot of adventure ideas grounded in Karameikos.

First, though, we’ll talk about what adventures are for at different character levels, and how your campaign can “grow up” with its characters.

Character Creation

As new characters are created for your Karameikos adventure, you need to be deeply involved in the character generation process. The player rolls the character up, decides on his class and other details – you need to help him with his history and background.

In the “Players background”, the player will be rolling up and deciding upon;

his Family Social Standing
whether the family is Traladaran or Thyatian
his character’s Home Town
his name, age, spells, languages and background

Important Note: Though the text tells the players to roll their ethnic background (Traladaran or Thyatian) and Home Town, you can always let them simply decide where their family is from and whether it’s Traladaran or Thyatian.

When the player has this rough character in hand, it’s now your responsibility to relate the character to his background. Take the character sheet and begin making notes on the character. You might want to keep all your character background notes in the same place for convenience.

Ask the player what he has already imagined about his background and family; maybe he wants to be an only child, or perhaps he’s invented one or more NPCs he knows in his home town. Unless there’s a reason to reject his input, take it and expand upon it.

Create NPCs who belong to his family, who are his friends, etc. Most will be normal men and women. Some – such are mercenaries in the family, magical and clerical tutors, etc – will be high level.

If any of the NPCs for the “Characters” section are likely to know this character, tell the player so. If the character is from Threshold, for instance, he will definitely know Patriarch Sherlane Halaran and Aleena Halaran – by sight, if not personally.

If the character comes from one of the large communities given in the “Communities” section, bring out the map and give him a brief tour of the city. Don’t explain all the secrets; they’re for discovering in the course of the adventures.

Once the characters embark on their lives of adventure, don’t just drop their background and families into a trash can. Their families and old friends can be useful to you throughout the campaign.

Old friends can crop up to help the characters at difficult times – often with information or technical skills the characters may not possess. They can also find themselves in danger from time to time – and will turn first to their old friends the PCs.

The character’s family is similar; the character can often turn to his family for help, and they often turn to the character for aid.

Don’t let the character’s old friends turn in to millstones – if they’re always in trouble, always asking for help, he’ll grown to resent them. If they also act as friends and family would – supporting him, helping him when he’s in trouble – then he won’t consider them burdens to be abandoned.

Getting Characters Together

Once you have all the characters backgrounds in hand, assuming that the characters are now scattered all over Karameikos, you need to figure out some way from all these far off heroes to come together into an adventuring party.

First, you want to relate all the characters you can to one another.

For instance, if two characters come from the same city and have compatible background, you can decide that they’re old friends. When talking with each one about his family and friends, mention the other character’s name as an old friend. The player may assume that the other character is an NPC – until the first game session.

If two characters are magic-users, you can have them apprenticed to the same experienced magic-user. If two characters are clerics of the same church, they can have been taught in the same clerical school. If two character are thieves, you can (one hopes) contrive things so that they’re members of the same guild.

Then, when you have some ties of background or friendship established, you can run an adventure which brings the characters together in a cooperative venture.

Campaign Progression

The D&D game is presented in five tiers to reflect the different stages of an adventurer’s career.

Basic Level Adventures (Tier 1) are the character’s first adventures, when even a Rat, Giant is a threat. In these adventures, the characters should be facing low-level opponents, learning about their world, and making friends and enemies (who may last throughout their adventuring careers).
Expert Level Adventures (Tier 2) are the middle period of the characters careers. In these adventures, the characters grow to be well-known and respected adventurers. Their adventures are of increasing importance to the nation – they’ll be combatting greater menaces, threats which could imperil the government and sometimes the entire population. They’ll begin to earn the respect – or enmity – of the important people of Karameikos, such as Duke Stefan, the barons, the important guild masters and ministers.
Companion Level Adventures (Tier 3) Eventually the character will begin to establish strongholds – being granted titles by the Duke, establishing or protecting communities from enemies and monsters. At this time, they’re interacting on an equal level with the title NPC’s from the “Characters” section.; they should already have met most of these persons and established their relationships with them (friend, enemy, neutral, etc). The majority of stories revolve around the characters efforts to protect and expand their holdings, and around their relationships with the important personalities of Karameikos. Eventually they will be leading their own armies to war, fighting opponents of staggering power, and beginning to explore the limits of this reality – and travelling beyond the limits into adventures in other planes.
Master Level Adventures (Tier 4) take place at the end of a characters (mortal) adventuring career. The character is now aware than he has a chance to gain immortality, and most of his adventures should progress him towards his goal, down the path Dynast, Epic Hero, Paragon, or Polymath. Not all the characters will achieve their goals, and these events take place over decades (even, perhaps, centuries) of game-years. The characters will also be spending more and more time in alternate dimensions of reality; the management of their dominions should be left in the hands of their descendants or most trusted subordinates.
Immortal Level Adventures (Tier 5) are not really within the scope of adventures in Karameikos; when he achieves immortality, the character enters a new realm of playing, where his old world seems a small and malleable thing and where great danger comes from unknown dimensions and other Immortals.

Basic Adventures

Basic Adventures (Level 1-5)

Davinos’ Complaint – see Mystery of Davinos
Into the Wilderness – see Explore – Karameikos
The Gnome Caravan – see Mystery of the Great Gnome Caravan
Millennium in the Streets – see Mistaken Identity – Gambler
Poisoners in the Night – see Mystery of the Torenescu
The Discovery of Lavv – see Relic Hunter – Lavv
The Missing Rose – see Mystery of the Missing Rose
The Sins of Talko Tisza – see Mystery of V
Toys of the Madman – see Black Eagle – Escape

Expert Adventures

Expert Adventures (Level 6-10)

Escape from the Black Eagle – see Black Eagle – Escape
Into the Wilderness – see Explore – Karameikos
Knight of Luln – see Mystery in Luln
Koriszegy Keep – see Mystery of the Duke’s Road Massacre
On the Road to Ylaruam – see Skirmish at Castallan Keep
The Capture of Flameflicker – see Mystery of Flameflicker
The Gnome Caravan – see Mystery of the Great Gnome Caravan
Toys of the Madman – see Black Eagle – Escape
Valen’s Flight – see Explore – Karameikos

Companion Adventures

Companion Adventures (Level 11-15)

Holy War – see War in Karameikos – Part 3
Inheritance Contested – see War in Karameikos – Part 2
Into the Wilderness – see Explore – Karameikos
Stronghold – see Land – Karameikos
The Black Eagle Banner – see War in Karameikos – Part 5
The Marilenev Uprising – see War in Karameikos – Part 1
The Pirates of Halag – see War in Karameikos – Part 4

Master Adventures

Master Adventures (Level 16-20)

Into the Wilderness – see Explore – Karameikos

When you get into the realm of the Master Adventures, the Karameikos importance begins to fade from the campaign. You should be aware, though, that the Duchy has its own patron immortals – Halav, Petra, and Zirchev, its epic heroes.

Halav was a high level fighter, Petra a high level cleric, and Zirchev a high level magic-user in the time of the great beast-men wars. Though Halav perished in the final battle, Petra cast a raise dead fully upon him later. The three of them decided to begin their paths for immortality.

All three eventually gained immortality – Halav as an Epic Hero, Petra as a Dynast, and Zirchev as a Paragon. Since their ascension, they have continued to work together, and when their time allows they observe events in Traldar lands (now Karameikos).

As PCs begin to follow their own paths, it is probably these three who will be their patrons – unless the PCs distinctly prefers and Immortal introduced by you or in another Gazetteer.

Adventures in Print

There are a few adventures already in print which are of particular importance to a Karameikos-based campaign. They are:

B6 – The Veiled Society: This is the adventure which introduces the Veiled Society criminal organisation, and showcases the struggles between the Radu, Torenescu,a nd Vorloi families. It elaborates on the members of these families, describes the Festival of Lucor in more detail, and presents a more elaborate picture of life in the city of Specularum.
B10 – Night’s Dark Terror: This adventure introduces the village of Rifllian and the Lake of Lost Dreams; the Callarii and Vyalia elves are descried in greater detail; the Lost Valley of the Hutaaka, with its degenerate Hutaaka and Traldar, is showcased; the Iron Ring criminal society is introduced, as are several creature types (including the Chevall). It is also valuable for the detail provided on the nonhuman tribes of eastern Karameikos, particularly tribal names and symbols.
X10 – Black Arrow, Red Shield: This adventure theoretically takes place 200 years in the future of this world. (It was originally written for the current day, but later pushed further ahead in the chronology because of the massive changes that the war described would create). If you don’t mind dealing with these changes, then you can run X10 (and its predecessors, X4 and X5) in the current day – but be prepared to allow for massive political alterations as this “First World War” is waged and concluded.
X12 – Skarda’s Mirror: This adventure introduces Retameron Antonic and Halia Antonic of Verge, provides the map of Duke Stefan’s hunting lodge – located west of the Estate of Sulescu – and provides for an adventure in which Tier 2 PCs can prevent a kidnapping of Duke Stefan by the mad wizard Skarda.

Content Updates

2020-10-21 – Linking and format cleanup.

Karameikos

D&D Adventures

By Country (3/3) – Glantri, Karameikos, Ylaruam

Introduction: (13/13) – Alfheim, Atruaghin Clans, Broken Lands, Darokin, Ethengar, Five Shires, Glantri, Ierendi, Karameikos, Minrothad, Northern Reaches, Rockhome, Ylaruam

Annual: (6/11) – Atruaghin Clans Ascension, Ethengar Totems, Land of Black Sands, Mystery (of the Duke’s Road Massacres, of the Forgotten Dungeon, of the Hidden Kingdoms of Dragons)

Phase 1
(Tier 1 – Introduction 11/46)

AC 1000 (Year 1) – (2/8) – Lord of Lance Rock, Relic Hunter (Dragon Hatchery)

AC 1001 (Year 2) – (1/8) – Relic Hunter (Tomb of Moving Stones)

AC 1002 (Year 3) – (3/9) – Business (Bargewright Inn), Cult (of the Feathergale Knights), Mystery (of the Missing Delegation)

AC 1003 (Year 4) – (3/10) Cult (of the Riverguard Keep), Mystery (in Atruaghin’s Palace, of the Iceshield Orcs)

AC 1004 (Year 5) – (2/11) – Cult (of the Sacred Stone), Mystery (in the Silver Sierras), School Assignment (Lupins or Werewolves)

Phase 2
(Tier 2 – Investigation 16/50)

AC 1005 (Year 6) – (12/19) – Rheddrian’s Investigation Bureau, Cult (of the Scarlet Moon, of the Valley of Death), Mystery (in Aegos, in Sundsvall, in Thyatis City, of the Alphatian Duellers, of the Dead Elf, of the Great Gnome Caravan, of the Magic Mirror, of the Missing Pilgrims), Relic Hunter (Dinosaurs)

1006 AC (Year 7) – (6/12) – Mystery (Dinner Assassins, in Radlebb Woods, in Ringrise, in Wendar, of the Dual Memories), Time Travel Castle Amber

1007 AC (Year 8) – (6/17) – Mystery of the Dying Trees, Thanatos and the Azcans, Thanatos and the Milenians, Thanatos and the Nithians, Thanatos and the Shahjapurs, The Day Magic Died

1008 AC (Year 9) – (0/6)

1009 AC (Year 10) – (0/5)

Phase 3 (Tier 3 – War 28), Year 11 – 10, Year 12 – 5, Year 13 – 4, Year 14 – 4, Year 15 – 4

Phase 4 (Tier 4 – Conclusion 7) Year 16 – 3, Year 17 – 2, Year 18 – 1, Year 19 – 1, Year 20 –

Phase 5 (Tier 5 – tba)

Phase 6 (Tier 6 – tba)

D&D 5E in Mystara

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WRATH: Campaign, Design

Game Management – Annotated Stat Block, Character Creation, Choosing a New Campaign, Gaming over Skype, GM’s Luck Roll, Tracking Experience

Class Builds –
Artificer – Bombardier (Tinkerkin),
Barbarian – Totem Warrior (Plamin, Camdu),
Bard – College of Valour (Sunfey),
Druid – Circle of Dreams (Woodfey), Circle of the Tree of Life (Seasonfey),
Fighter – Battlemaster (Seashire), Eldritch Knight (Kerendan), Weapons Master (Lani), Weapons Master (Stonebound),
Monk – Way of the Elements (Tidal),
Paladin – Oath of Radiance (Sunfey), Oath of Vengeance (Firechild),
Sorcerer – Wild Magic (Shadowfey),
Warlock – Celestial (Llewell),
Wizard – Bladesinger (Nerye),
Dragon – White (Calcryx).
Multiclass – Cleric/Wizard (Xhall), Rogue/Cleric (Dracnomir), Rogue/Sorcerer (Yodrey), Wizard/Rogue (Traladaran)

Floorplans – Thyatian

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