TEXT: W0 
  Adventure Module W0 
  The Wizard’s Amulet 
  by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb 
  The Wizard’s Amulet is a short, introductory adventure for six newly created first-level characters. The adventure revolves 
  around Corian, a fledgling Sorcerer. While an apprentice, Corian discovered a letter written by a wizard named Eralion, who 
  it is said some years ago attempted to become a lich—and failed. Accompanying the letter was a mysterious amulet with 
  strange markings. Joined by newfound companions, Corian set off in search of Eralion’s keep and his supposedly unguarded 
  treasure. But Corian is not alone in desiring to unlock the mystery of Eralion’s fate. Darker, more evil forces have designs on 
  the secrets reputedly hidden with Eralion—forces willing to stop at nothing to obtain...The Wizard's Amulet. 
  NCG 1000 
  If you enjoy this module, look for more releases under the d20 system by Necromancer Games. 
  Necromancer Games 
  “Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel” 
  www.necromancergames.com 
  Requires the use of the  
  Dungeons and Dragons® Player’s Handbook,  
  Third Edition,  
  published by Wizards of the Coast® 
  ENNIE 2001 Winner 
  Best Free Product 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 2 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  acters for your players’ use. Now sit back, relax, break 
  out the chips and dip (since the pizza is probably gone) 
  and follow these steps. You should be playing within 
  15 minutes! 
   
  First, read the sections entitled “Notes for the DM” 
  and “Adventure Background” to yourself, spending a 
  few minutes becoming familiar with the plot line and 
  the main non-player characters. Also, read Corian’s 
  Supplemental Information found at the very end of this 
  module. 
   
  Second, pass out the pre-generated characters that you 
  can download from the Necromancer Games web site. 
  (See the section entitled “Pre-generated Characters” at 
  the end of this adventure.) You can do this one of two 
  ways: you can either pick which six characters you 
  want your players to play and let the players divide 
  those six as they wish. Or you can show them all of the 
  pre-generated characters and let them choose which six 
  to play.  
   
  You must include Corian, the Sorcerer, in the party. 
  You also should include Galdar, the Cleric, in the 
  party, though he is not essential.  
   
  If you decide to choose the six characters yourself, we 
  recommend that in addition to Corian and Galdar you 
  include at least two of the primary fighters as well as 
  either Helman, Phelps or Flarian the Bard because of 
  the importance of having a character with stealth skills. 
  Playtesting demonstrates that this party composition 
  gives the best chance of success. You should use no 
  more than seven or eight total characters—with six 
  being the optimal number. If you add more characters 
  you may have to increase the number of monsters en-
  countered to keep the combat challenging. If you have 
  fewer than six characters or if your players choose pri-
  marily non-combat characters, then you will have to 
  reduce the difficulty of the encounters. Notes are pro-
  vided to cover these situations.  
   
  Once the players have selected which characters they 
  will play, you should give the player who is playing 
  Corian a copy of Corian’s Supplemental Information, 
  found at the very end of this module. Make sure to 
  keep the information private, since the contents are to 
  be revealed at Corian’s discretion. 
   
  Third, have the characters familiarize themselves with 
  their characters. The person playing Corian should pay 
  particular attention to his or her back-story and to the 
  letter from Eralion. 
   
  Fourth, read the section entitled “Player’s Introduc-
  tion” to yourself so you understand it and then read it 
  aloud to your players.  
   
  There you have it—fifteen minutes and you should 
  already be adventuring! 
  Fifth, once you have read the Player’s Introduction 
  aloud, turn to the section titled “Running the Adven-
  ture” and play out the acts and scenes of the adventure 
   
  The Wizard’s Amulet 
  by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb 
   
   
  Adventure Overview 
   T 
  he Wizard’s Amulet is a short, introductory 
  adventure for six newly created good-aligned 
  1st-level characters. The adventure revolves around 
  Corian, a fledgling Sorcerer. While an apprentice, Co-
  rian discovered a letter written by a wizard named Er-
  alion, who it is said some years ago attempted to be-
  come a lich—and failed. Accompanying the letter was 
  a mysterious amulet with strange markings. Joined by 
  newfound companions, Corian set off in search of Er-
  alion’s keep and his supposedly unguarded treasure. 
  But Corian is not alone in desiring to unlock the mys-
  tery of Eralion’s fate. Darker, more evil forces have 
  designs on the secrets reputedly hidden with Eralion—
  forces willing to stop at nothing to obtain...The Wiz-
  ard's Amulet. 
   
  This adventure is designed to be used “out of the box,” 
  meaning you can download it and run it right away 
  with little preparation time. The Wizard’s Amulet is 
  the perfect adventure for new DMs who want to try 
  their hand at running their first adventure. Just follow 
  the steps outlined in the section entitled “Using this 
  Adventure” and you should be playing your first Third 
  Edition game within fifteen minutes! 
   
  The adventure itself covers several programmed en-
  counters that Corian and his comrades face on the road 
  from Reme to Fairhill, the purported location of Er-
  alion’s keep. The adventure culminates in an ambush 
  by Corian’s nemesis Vortigern who tries to capture 
  Eralion’s amulet by force. The adventure uses a rigid 
  Act and Scene format to facilitate ease of use with little 
  preparation. Veteran DMs should feel free to flesh out 
  the adventure and include events on the road not cov-
  ered in this module. 
   
  Using this Adventure 
   
  This adventure requires that Dungeons and Dragons® 
  Player’s Handbook, Third Edition, published by Wiz-
  ards of the Coast. We presume you as the DM have 
  spent some time familiarizing yourself with the new 
  rules. We presume you have called over a bunch of 
  your friends and ordered some pizza. We also presume 
  you have secured a good table as well as paper, pencils 
  and all those funny dice we gamers love so much. You 
  should also have a dry erase board or some other way 
  to draw up the “battle map” for any encounters your 
  character will face. A big pad of paper will do in a 
  pinch. If you have lead figures or some other way to 
  represent the characters we suggest you use them. We 
  recommend that you print a hard copy of this adventure 
  for your reference and copies of the pre-generated char-
  Third Edition Rules 
  This module requires the use 
  of the Dungeons and Drag-
  ons® Player’s Handbook, 
  Third Edition, published by 
  Wizards of the Coast.® You 
  won’t be able to run this 
  adventure without it. 
  Fighters 
  Make sure at least two of 
  your players select combat 
  oriented characters. There is 
  going to be plenty of fighting 
  in this adventure and the 
  party will need to be able to 
  handle it. 
  Make sure someone plays 
  Corian; encourage someone 
  to play Galdar; don’t hand 
  out Corian’s Supplemental 
  Information until after the 
  players have selected their 
  characters. 
  Character Selection 
  Generally you should stay 
  out of the character selection 
  process, but if two players 
  want to play the same char-
  acter resolve it the old fash-
  ioned way: roll for it! The 
  one rolling higher on a d20 
  gets to play the character. 
  DM Tip 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 3 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  These side boxes contain 
  DM Tips, highlights of new 
  rules, monster notes, trap 
  mechanics and other mate-
  rial helpful to you, the DM. 
  You can use blank space 
  between these boxes for your 
  notes. 
  in the order provided. You are officially under way. 
   
  Sixth, at the end of the night use the section entitled 
  “Concluding the Adventure” to wrap things up.  
   
  If you want more information about continuing the 
  story started by this adventure, about the d20 system or 
  about Necromancer Games and our products, sections 
  addressing these topics can be found at the very end of 
  the module. 
   
  As a final matter, remember the Necromancer Games 
  “golden rule”: use what you want, discard or change 
  the rest. We have presented this adventure in a strict 
  step-by-step format to make it easy to get that first 
  game going without any hassle. But if you want to 
  change some things around, go right ahead. In fact, we 
  hope ambitious DMs will use this adventure as a cam-
  paign seed. Feel free to flesh out the city of Reme and 
  to roleplay Corian’s discharge from his apprenticeship 
  and his investigation into Eralion and the amulet. Go 
  ahead and play out the meeting between the various 
  characters. Draw up an overland map and handle all the 
  travel rather than just the programmed encounters pro-
  vided by this adventure. Maybe even throw in a few 
  non-player characters of your own. It’s your world. 
  Your players are just playing in it. 
   
  Notes for the DM 
   
  This section is primarily aimed at newer DMs, though 
  reading the tips in this section may remind veteran 
  DMs of how they learned these same lessons through 
  much experience. Your players will be mighty wizards, 
  devout clerics, stout fighters and cunning rogues. But 
  you are in a sense above even the greatest of these, for 
  you are the shaper of the world in which your players 
  adventure. It is your job to breathe life into these writ-
  ten words and make for your players a fictional reality 
  into which they can immerse themselves. 
   
  Though players cannot function without a DM, it is 
  also true that a DM cannot function without players. 
  Thus, the best advice for a new DM is this: always re-
  member that your adventures should be like coopera-
  tive stories written by both you and your players. You 
  must work together for everyone to have fun. That 
  doesn’t mean you should break rules to make your 
  players happy. What it does mean is that, like an en-
  lightened ruler, you should adjudicate your games with 
  fairness and graciousness. Your power should be un-
  questioned not because it is frequently exercised but 
  rather because it is not. You should never be “out to 
  get” your players. If your adventures are challenging 
  and you run them fairly you will be heralded as a great 
  DM. 
   
  You have many hats to wear as the DM. First and fore-
  most, as already mentioned, you are the fair arbiter of 
  the rules. But you are also the person who plays all the 
  monsters and non-player characters (NPCs) that the 
  players encounter. Where the players play one (or at 
  most two) characters, you will play many: the person 
  met at the inn or on the road, the vile orc, the mischie-
  vous leprechaun, the evil cleric, the friendly wizard, 
  the power-mad king and all the gods. You are, in short, 
  everything except the player characters. When you are 
  the thief, be cunning and dishonest, when the orc, cruel 
  and chaotic, when the paladin, noble and chivalrous, 
  when the town guard, loyal and stern. Inject as much of 
  your own personality into your roles as possible. Al-
  ways remember, however, to be fair both to the charac-
  ters and to yourself. As one of the best DMs to ever run 
  a game once said: “When playing a monster or an 
  NPC, temper your actions with disinterest in the final 
  outcome and play only from the viewpoint of that par-
  ticular monster or NPC.” Being a DM is challenging—
  requiring more skill than that of the best player—but it 
  is equally rewarding. Learn to wear all of your hats 
  well, and to be fair while doing so, and your players 
  will enjoy themselves immensely. 
   
  To assist you, we have provided “Side Boxes”—
  material in the margins which are specific DM notes 
  deserving of special attention. Here you will find im-
  portant things to remember, monster tactics, trap sum-
  maries, highlights of rule changes in the new edition 
  and other material of specific use to you as the DM. 
  We hope these notes make running this adventure as 
  easy as possible. 
   
  We have also provided “Boxed Text”—pieces of narra-
  tive to be read directly to your players to describe key 
  encounter areas and events. Normally, we believe that 
  DMs should describe encounters in their own words. 
  However, since this adventure is designed to be used 
  “out of the box” with little preparation time by novice 
  DMs, we decided to include the boxed text. You 
  should, of course, use your own words if you desire. 
   
  Also, because this adventure module is designed for 
  people using the new edition of the game rules for the 
  first time (both novice and veteran DMs) we have pro-
  vided a large amount of step-by-step material to help 
  you make sure you are using the new rules properly. 
   
  One final note: Do not let disputes swallow the gaming 
  session. Since this adventure is designed to be one of 
  your first adventures under the 3rd edition rules, there is 
  a greater chance that you or your players will not be 
  entirely familiar with all the new rule changes. If a dis-
  pute arises, listen briefly to the party’s complaint. If 
  you can remedy their problem without unnecessarily 
  bending the rules then do so. The point of the game is 
  for everyone to have fun. If you intend to rule against 
  the party, explain to them that after the session you can 
  all discuss the matter at length but that you need to 
  make a decision now and continue play. Then make the 
  decision. Remember that your decision for that session 
  is final. Continue with play. If, after discussion follow-
  ing the session, you determine that your decision was 
  incorrect then you should do your best to remedy the 
  faulty ruling. Either let the players replay the particular 
  encounter or, if a character was killed, allow that char-
  acter to return to life. Rules exist for a reason. They 
  must be enforced. But not at the cost of damaging 
  Side Boxes 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 4 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  friendships and ruining everyone’s fun. A good DM 
  needs to be firm in his or her rulings but at the same 
  time not afraid to admit he or she was wrong and cor-
  rect that wrong. Remember, as DM you are a fair 
  judge, not an opponent. 
   
  But most of all have fun. 
   
  Adventure Background 
   
  Long ago, Eralion was a good and kind wizard. He 
  was devoted to his patron deity, a god of law and right-
  eousness. As the shadow of his death grew long and he 
  began to sense his own mortality, Eralion’s heart dark-
  ened and his desire for power and fear of death became 
  greater than his devotion to his god. He turned his at-
  tention to ways to lengthen his fading life. He learned 
  the rumor of the fabled Mushroom of Youth in the 
  dungeon of Rappan Athuk, the legendary Dungeon of 
  Graves, but he lacked the courage to enter those deadly 
  halls. He researched wish spells, but he did not have 
  the power to master such mighty magics, being himself 
  a mage of only meager power. 
   
  Finally, in his darkest moment, Eralion turned to Or-
  cus, the Demon-lord of the Undead, imploring the 
  dread demon for the secret of unlife—the secret of be-
  coming a lich. Orcus knew that Eralion lacked the 
  power to complete the necessary rituals to become a 
  lich, as Eralion had barely managed the use of a scroll 
  to contact him in the depths of the Abyss in his Palace 
  of Bones. Orcus smiled a cruel smile as he promised 
  the secret of lichdom to Eralion. But there was a price. 
  Orcus required Eralion to give to him his shadow. “A 
  trifling thing,” Orcus whispered to Eralion from the 
  Abyss. “Something you will not need after the ritual 
  which I shall give to you. For the darkness will be your 
  home as you live for untold ages.” 
   
  In his pride, Eralion believed the demon-lord. He 
  learned the ritual Orcus provided to him. He made one 
  final trip to the city of Reme to purchase several items 
  necessary for the phylactery required by the ritual. 
  While there, he delivered a letter to his friend Feriblan 
  the Mad, with whom he had discussed the prospect of 
  lichdom—though only as a scholarly matter. Feriblan, 
  known for his absent-mindedness, never read the letter, 
  but instead promptly misplaced it and its companion 
  silk-wrapped item. 
   
  Eralion returned to his keep and locked himself in his 
  workroom. He began his ritual, guarded by zombies 
  given to him by Orcus—sent more to make sure Er-
  alion went through with the ritual than to offer him aid. 
  As he uttered false words of power and consumed the 
  transforming potion he realized the demon’s treachery. 
  He felt his life essence slip away—transferring in part 
  to his own shadow, which he had sold to the Demon 
  Prince. Eralion found himself Orcus’ unwitting ser-
  vant, trapped in his own keep. And there he would 
  have stayed, forgotten to the world, had it not been for 
  the actions of a lowly apprentice.  
  Some twenty years later, a young wizard’s apprentice 
  named Corian learned of Eralion accidentally. During 
  his final days under his uncle’s tutelage, Corian and his 
  master had traveled to the library of Feriblan the Mad 
  in the city of Reme. Corian was never pleased to visit 
  Feriblan, for while there he was always forced to have 
  contact with Vortigern, Feriblan’s apprentice, and his 
  loathsome raven familiar—Talon. Luckily for Corian, 
  this day he managed to avoid Vortigern. While perus-
  ing mundane documents in an outer sitting room as his 
  master and Feriblan studied ancient scrolls, Corian 
  nervously fiddled with a clasp on the back of a small 
  reading stand. Quite to his surprise, a secret compart-
  ment opened which contained a small, bound piece of 
  parchment and an item wrapped in silk cloth. Checking 
  to see that his actions were unobserved, Corian slipped 
  both items into the folds of his robe. The parchment 
  proved to be the letter Eralion had left for Feriblan on 
  his last visit before his ritual, and the item wrapped in 
  the silk cloth an amulet of some unknown design.  
   
  Corian’s actions, however, did not go unnoticed. Vorti-
  gern was fast becoming a wizard of some power. It was 
  whispered that had the old wizard Feriblan not been 
  mad, he would have discharged Vortigern from his 
  apprenticeship long ago. It was believed—correctly—
  that Vortigern had learned all the skills of an appren-
  tice and was remaining with Feriblan under the guise 
  of an apprentice in order to have continued access to 
  Feriblan’s legendary library. Among the many musty 
  volumes and forbidden tomes, Vortigern discovered a 
  tract describing  how to call forth an imp from the 
  lower planes. Sacrificing the familiar that Feriblan had 
  called for him, Vortigern summoned the small, devilish 
  creature in secret to act as his familiar. The imp took 
  the form of Vortigern’s prior familiar—a raven—to 
  prevent suspicion. It was this imp familiar who, while 
  in raven form, saw Corian take the amulet and parch-
  ment. Talon reported what he saw to his master, though 
  neither knew the significance of the letter and the amu-
  let at that time. 
   
  Freed from his apprenticeship, Corian returned to Feri-
  blan. Taking the risk of asking a direct question of the 
  addled wizard, Corian learned that Eralion was no-
  where near powerful enough to become a lich. 
  “Eralion! A lich?!” the old wizard exclaimed. “He was 
  no apprentice, my son, but neither was he a mage with 
  the mastery of the eldritch powers necessary for such a 
  dangerous undertaking! If you have heard such rumors, 
  boy, I shall put them to rest. The magics required for 
  such a transition were far beyond his grasp.” Once on 
  the topic of his old friend, Feriblan spoke at length, 
  though in a disjointed fashion. He told Corian of Er-
  alion’s keep near the village of Fairhill. Feriblan made 
  reference to a staff that Eralion possessed which appar-
  ently had magical powers. He also mentioned that Er-
  alion had never returned several valuable magical 
  tracts and spell books. Corian left the old wizard deter-
  mined to find this tower and the items it contained—
  for if Eralion was not a lich, the items should be there 
  for the taking! 
   
  Once again, Corian’s actions did not go unobserved. 
  You should become familiar 
  with each of these non-
  player characters: Corian, 
  Eralion, Orcus, Feriblan the 
  Mad, Vortigern and Talon. 
  Cast of Characters 
  Orcus is a greater demon 
  prince, depicted as a huge 
  bat-winged, 
  pig-snouted, 
  goat-hooved beast wielding 
  a skull-tipped wand which is 
  rumored to slay any mortal it 
  touches. He dwells in the 
  Abyss in his Palace of Bones 
  and he commands hordes of 
  undead. He is a creature of 
  utter chaos and evil. He also 
  happens to be the official 
  Necromancer Games mas-
  cot. 
  Orcus 
  The most powerful and evil 
  form of undead, a lich is 
  created when an evil wizard 
  or cleric of high level volun-
  tarily transforms himself into 
  an undead creature to extend 
  his life span and increase his 
  power. The evil being who 
  so transforms himself be-
  comes a hideous skeletal 
  creature, but retains his spell 
  casting powers. 
  Lich 
  Talon is an imp, a devilish 
  familiar from the lower 
  planes. As an imp, Talon 
  can take the form of a raven 
  at will. Corian does not 
  know that Talon is actually 
  an imp in the guise of a 
  raven. 
  Talon 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 5 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  Vortigern commanded his imp familiar Talon to watch 
  the old mage and Corian as they met together. And so 
  it was that Talon overheard their conversation. Once 
  informed by Talon, Vortigern guessed the connection 
  between Corian’s visit and the purloined letter and 
  item. To solidify his suspicion, Vortigern commanded 
  Talon to consult his devilish patron—Dispater—who 
  confirmed that the amulet Corian possessed was some-
  how a link to Eralion’s sanctuary within his keep. 
   
  Readying himself with the necessary equipment for 
  travel to Fairhill, Corian visited a local tavern—the 
  Starving Stirge. There he posted a notice seeking the 
  aid of able-bodied adventurers willing to join him in an 
  expedition to a wizard’s tower. Promising an equal 
  division of all gold recovered, he soon gathered a 
  group of comrades-at-arms eager for adventure and 
  glory. Corian was also joined by Galdar, a priest of  
  Cuthbert, who was instructed in a vision from his god 
  to seek out Corian and to follow where the amulet led 
  him. Someone or something, it appeared, had angered 
  the god of Retribution. Corian was glad for his com-
  pany.  
   
  But Corian was reluctant to give the full story to his 
  new friends, having on more than one occasion seen 
  Talon, the familiar of Vortigern, peering into his cham-
  ber window in raven form. Corian, worried that his 
  theft of the amulet and letter had been seen by the 
  wicked bird, did not wish to risk further discovery 
  while still in Reme. The party set out from Reme some 
  four days prior to the start of this adventure, with light 
  hearts and heavy packs—only Corian nursing the nag-
  ging fear that Vortigern and his loathsome bird some-
  how knew of his goal. 
   
  Their hearts would not have been so light had they 
  known of Vortigern’s plotting, for Vortigern had not 
  been idle. While Corian gathered his allies, Vortigern 
  assembled several magical items and two unsavory 
  companions. Delayed with his magical preparations, 
  Vortigern and his henchmen set out from Reme two 
  days behind Corian and his band, intent on recovering 
  the amulet at any cost. And that is where our story be-
  gins… 
   
  If you choose not to locate this adventure in your own 
  world, the following description of the area will help 
  you describe the setting to your players. Reme is a 
  large port city on the eastern coast of an Inland Sea. 
  The tradeway—a merchant road—runs directly east 
  from Reme to the city of Bard’s Gate and on towards 
  the forest kingdoms of the east. North of the tradeway, 
  and running parallel to it, lie the Stoneheart Mountains.  
  South of the tradeway, and also parallel to it, is the 
  river Greywash. The vale between the river and the 
  mountains through which the tradeway runs is verdant 
  green and dotted with pine forests, though the forests 
  have mostly been cleared back from the road. Fairhill 
  lies just north of the tradeway about 8 days march from 
  Reme, approximately half way from Reme to Bard’s 
  Gate. Hawks and falcons are a common sight, as are 
  larger eagles. The vale is plentiful with game. 
   
  Player’s Introduction 
   
  Read the following text to your players: 
  Running the Adventure 
   
  Now that you have read the Player’s Introduction, pro-
  ceed through the adventure presented below in Act and 
  Scene format. Each Scene begins with a section of 
  boxed text to be read to your players. It then contains 
  information for you to use to run the particular Scene. 
   
  Act I—A Safe Haven 
   
  The First Watch 
  The party makes their camp to get out of the rain. Draw 
  up a map of a small clearing against the base of a hill, 
  amidst a grove of trees. The small clearing is about 20’ 
  in diameter. The hillside is steep and gives protection 
  from the wind and rain, and the light trees give some 
  protection from the rain as well. Stress that the charac-
  ters should take off their armor and stow their weapons 
  to keep them dry. Make a point of mentioning rust and 
  the problems of sleeping in armor. Ask the players 
  what they do with their other equipment. Figure out 
  where they build their fire—if they build it in the open 
  of the clearing, they will have trouble keeping it lit. 
  The better location would be either against the hillside 
  or by one of the trees under cover from the rain. Re-
  gardless of what your players decide to do, draw a map 
  of the camp they set up. Ask the party if they set a 
  watch and if so in what order the characters stand 
  You have traveled four days from Reme with your 
  newfound companions. Rain and cloudy weather have 
  marred your travels since you left, slowing your pace 
  and forcing you to keep off the main road and travel 
  under the eaves of the light woods to the north of the 
  tradeway. It seems odd at this time of year to have such 
  strange weather. Sunshine can be seen on the far hori-
  zon, and you all have a feeling that something is amiss, 
  as if a dark cloud is following you from Reme. Each of 
  you thinks back to the Starving Stirge—the Inn where 
  you formed your fellowship. You shift your packs, 
  which seem even heavier in the rain, and recall Co-
  rian’s notice: “Seeking Fellow Adventurers,” it read. 
  “Companions to share in glory and gold and adven-
  tures unnumbered.” As you look down at your muddy 
  boots, you think to yourself that you would gladly trade 
  Corian’s promises of gold for dry clothes and a warm 
  fire. 
  Weary from the long walk, you finally find a nice shel-
  tered area and build your campfire. One of your scouts 
  makes a quick catch of a small brace of conies and 
  soon the smell of roasting rabbit wafts through the air. 
  Each of you feels as if you can finally relax, rest your 
  sore feet and change into dry clothing. It appears your 
  luck may be changing. 
  Act and Scene Format 
  Now all you have to do is 
  proceed through the adven-
  ture scene by scene. Veteran 
  DMs should feel free to flesh 
  out actions between scenes 
  as they see fit. 
  Setting 
  The Wizard’s Amulet is 
  designed to fit easily into 
  any fantasy campaign. If you 
  wish, you can use the setting 
  provided here. This is the 
  default setting for many 
  Necromancer Games prod-
  ucts. For a more detailed 
  treatment of this area, see 
  The Crucible of Freya and 
  The Tomb of Abysthor, 
  available from Necroman-
  cer Games. You can read 
  about these product at our 
  web site:  
   
  www.necromancergames.com 
  The new rules provide that if 
  a character sleeps in armor 
  with an armor check penalty 
  of –5 or worse (which in-
  cludes all heavy armor and 
  chainmail) then the character 
  is at –2 Str and Dex the next 
  day and can’t charge or run. 
  See the PHB. 
  Sleeping in Armor 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 6 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  watch. Make them arrange their characters on the 
  map—where they will sleep, etc. Once this is deter-
  mined, darkness begins to fall, leading to the next 
  scene. 
   
  A Voice in the Darkness 
   
  Read the subsection entitled “Encounter Modifica-
  tion,” below, and determine what monster your players 
  will encounter. Then determine who has the first 
  watch. If you decide not to use the leucrotta, read the 
  boxed text provided under “Encounter Modification.” 
  If you choose to use the leucrotta, then the person on 
  watch has the following encounter: 
  Encounter Modification: If you are a new GM and 
  running the leucrotta encounter seems too complicated, 
  then replace the leucrotta with 3 stirges. Note, how-
  ever, that 3 stirges are more dangerous than one young 
  leucrotta. Obviously, since the leucrotta are no longer 
  involved, the player on watch is not lured away from 
  the fire. Instead, the three stirges come flying in with a 
  horrible buzzing, concentrating their attacks on the 
  character on watch. If the players encounter stirges 
  they do not encounter the leucrotta and if they encoun-
  tered the leucrotta they don’t encounter the stirges. One 
  encounter is enough for first-level characters! If you 
  decide to use the stirges, read the following to your 
  players: 
  We are going to presume for the following description 
  that you have chosen the leucrotta encounter. If you 
  haven’t, turn to the end of this section for information 
  on running the stirge encounter. 
   
  Running the Leucrotta Encounter 
   
  OK, so here it is. The first encounter. If you are a new 
  DM, this is probably your first time refereeing a com-
  bat. So you might be a little concerned about running 
  the encounter properly. Even if you aren’t a new GM, 
  the recent edition of the rules is probably new to you. 
  For these reasons, we have provided a substantial 
  amount of detail on how to run this encounter step-by-
  step, so that novices and experts alike will feel com-
  fortable running the encounter under the new rules. 
   
  The person lured away from the camp has been drawn 
  ten feet into the woods surrounding the clearing in 
  which the party has made camp and there has been 
  attacked by a young leucrotta. The mother leucrotta is 
  making the noise of the crying child, drawing the char-
  acter on watch right by where the baby leucrotta is hid-
  ing, ready to spring. As the character passes by its hid-
  ing place the young leucrotta jumps out of the darkness 
  to strike. Though the boxed text makes it seem as if the 
  character has been surprised by the leucrotta, that has 
  yet to be determined. 
   
  Starting Combat: The first thing you need to do is 
  determine if the character lured into the woods is aware 
  of the leucrotta prior to the attack. If he is not aware of 
  the leucrotta then it gets a free round to act, known as 
  the Surprise Round. Have the character roll to see if 
  he has spotted the leucrotta as he passed by it. To see if 
  he spotted the monster, the character has to roll against 
  his Spot skill. His Spot check is an opposed roll (see 
  Table 4-3). To know if he makes the Spot check, you 
  first have to know how well the leucrotta is hiding. 
  Roll 1d20 for the leucrotta and add his bonus for his 
  Hide skill, plus a modifier of +2 (+4 for his small 
  size, -2 for his hideous stench) for a total of +4 to the 
  1d20 check. If the character rolls a higher modified 
  number on his Spot check than the leucrotta did on his 
  Hide check then the character sees the leucrotta before 
  it attacks and he is not surprised. If he fails his roll then 
  he is surprised and the leucrotta gets a free Surprise 
  Round. You do not have to roll for the other leucrotta 
  (the mother) because she does not enter combat ini-
  tially. 
   
  Surprise round: If the character is surprised then the 
  young leucrotta gets a free Surprise Round. In that 
  round, the young leucrotta will make a 5’ move out of 
  Before you read the boxed 
  text, determine which en-
  counter you are going to 
  use—the leucrotta or the 
  stirges. 
  Wait! 
  Darkness falls, and the fire begins to die down. As the 
  characters not standing watch drift off to sleep, a 
  child’s voice can be heard, crying in the darkness. Tak-
  ing a brand from the fire, [the person on watch] leaves 
  the fireside to investigate, when suddenly he is at-
  tacked from the rear by a hideous stag-like creature 
  with the head of a badger, large, yellowish-gray fangs 
  and demonic red glowing eyes. The beast smells of 
  rotting corpses. Twenty feet away is another, much 
  larger than the first, crying in the voice that you 
  thought was the child’s. You are stunned that such a 
  beautiful and innocent sound could come from so de-
  monic looking a beast. 
  The player ambushed rolls a 
  Spot check. The leucrotta 
  rolls a Hide check at +2 to 
  his skill. Unless the charac-
  ter ambushed rolls higher, he 
  is surprised. Until a combat-
  ant acts, he is “flat footed” 
  and loses his Dex bonus to 
  AC. Any combatant that can 
  act during the surprise round 
  is limited to partial actions 
  and a 5 ft. move. See the 
  PHB. 
  Determining Surprise 
  With a horrible buzzing, three strange flying insects 
  the size of large rats with bat wings, grasping claws 
  and hideous mosquito-like snouts swarm all around 
  you. You shout to wake your comrades as the gro-
  tesque monstrosities are upon you—seeking your 
  warm flesh with their evil beaks. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 7 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
   
  hiding and attack the character from the rear with its 
  bite. This is a partial action, since the leucrotta has 
  been readying, waiting for the character to walk by. 
  Remember, that during the Surprise Round, all sur-
  prised characters are “flat footed” and do not receive 
  their Dex bonus to their AC. In addition, persons (and 
  monsters) acting during the surprise round can only 
  make partial actions. And don’t forget that the 
  leucrotta’s bite is armor piercing—see its listed Special 
  Attack. Because the attack in the surprise round is from 
  behind, the armor piercing bite effects the target’s ar-
  mor, not his shield. 
   
  Initiative: After the Surprise round or if the character 
  is aware of the leucrotta you need to roll initiative. All 
  combatants aware of each other must roll 1d20, adding 
  their initiative bonus if any. The higher roll moves and 
  attacks first. If there is a tie, the combatant with the 
  higher Dex moves first. Record the order of initiative. 
  Persons who subsequently enter combat roll initiative 
  and are added to this ranking. Remember, a person 
  remains “flat footed” (without their Dex bonus to AC) 
  until they have actually acted. So if the character lured 
  into the woods loses initiative he remains flat footed 
  until he acts. 
   
  What the Young Leucrotta Will Do: If the character 
  is not surprised, the leucrotta will still take the action 
  described above—do a 5’ move and attack. The 
  leucrotta will then, next round, turn around and retreat 
  at full movement, using its special attack “Retreat Dou-
  ble Kick.” It still hasn’t mastered this attack technique, 
  so its rear kick is at a minus (already reflected in the 
  monster stat block for the young leucrotta). If the 
  young leucrotta won initiative, then remember that the 
  victim is still flat footed. After this initial attack and 
  retreat, the young leucrotta will make a full movement 
  to move around behind the character to try to attack 
  him again. However, since it is still young, the baby 
  leucrotta has not yet learned the importance of focus-
  ing its attack on one victim. If it encounters another 
  person it will forget about the initial victim and launch 
  an attack against the new target. If there are other per-
  sons nearby then they are just as likely to be attacked. 
  You should randomize the victims of the young 
  leucrotta’s attacks. 
   
  What the Mother Leucrotta Will Do: The other, 
  larger leucrotta is the young beast’s mother, who 
  stands and watches the fight, while the baby moves in, 
  bites and leaps out kicking. The mother is interested in 
  seeing whether or not the youngster is properly using 
  Jump in and bite; don’t for-
  get the bite is armor pierc-
  ing; then retreat and use the 
  retreat double kick; people 
  kicked have to save or fall 
  over like a Trip attack; then 
  run away and circle around 
  the character for another 
  attack two rounds later. 
  Lather, rinse, repeat. 
  Playing the Leucrotta 
  If the combat is going poorly 
  for the players (more than 
  one 
  player 
  is 
  seriously 
  wounded or one player is 
  unconscious), and the baby 
  leucrotta is still alive, then 
  the mother and the baby 
  retreat, having had enough 
  practice for one night. 
  Escape Hatch 
  Leucrotta, Young: CR 1; SZ Small beast (4 ft. tall 
  at shoulder); HD 2d10; hp 15; Init +1 (Dex); Spd 40 
  ft.; AC 13 (+2 natural, Dex); Atk +1 melee (1d6+1, 
  bite, slashing, armor piercing), -2 melee (2d6, double 
  retreat kick, bludgeoning); SA armor piercing bite, 
  double retreat kick; SQ mimic voice; AL CE; SV Fort 
  +1, Ref +3, Will +0; Str 9, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 6, Wis 
  5, Cha 8. 
  Skills: Hide +2, Listen +2, Move Silently +1. Feats: 
  Sure-footed. 
  SA—Armor Piercing Bite (Ex): The bony ridges that 
  a leucrotta has for teeth can chew through metal or 
  wood. In addition to inflicting damage on the character 
  attacked, compare the damage rolled against the hard-
  ness rating of the character’s shield or armor (see Ta-
  bles 8-12 and 8-13). Subtract the hardness from the 
  damage done. Then subtract the remainder from the hit 
  points of the item (see Tables 8-12 and 8-13). If the 
  damaged caused by cumulative leucrotta bites exceeds 
  the hit points of the shield or armor it is utterly de-
  stroyed. Sustaining more than half its hit points renders 
  a shield useless. Initial attacks are against a shield. 
  Subsequent attacks, or attacks from the rear, are against 
  the victim’s armor, which is handled in the same fash-
  ion (again, see Tables 8-12 and 8-13). 
  SA—Retreat Double Kick (Ex): When a leucrotta 
  turns to flee it instinctively kicks with both of its rear 
  legs. Only one attack and damage roll is made for both 
  legs. This is a free action. This attack also counts as a 
  “Trip” attack in that the person kicked can be knocked 
  over. 
  SQ—Mimic Voice (Ex): A leucrotta can mimic the 
  voice of a man, woman, child, or a domestic animal in 
  pain. This is often used to lure a victim into attack 
  range. The young leucrotta has not yet mastered this 
  ability. 
   
  Leucrotta, Mother: CR 3; SZ Large beast (6 ft. tall 
  at shoulder); HD 6d10+6; hp 38; Init +6 (Improved 
  Initiative, Dex); Spd 40 ft.; AC 14 (+3 natural, Dex, -1 
  size); Atk +5 melee (3d6, armor piercing bite), +7 me-
  lee (2d6, double retreat kick, crit 19-20); Face 5 ft. x 10 
  ft.; SA armor piercing bite, double retreat kick; SQ 
  mimic voice; AL CE; SV Fort +3 Ref +6 Will +2; Str 
  14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 9, Cha 8. 
  Skills: Hide +2, Listen +6, Move Silently +5. Feats: 
  Improved Initiative, Sure-footed, Weapon Finesse (rear 
  kick), Spring Attack. 
  Special Attacks and Qualities: As above, though this 
  full-grown beast does 3d6 damage and is thus much 
  more likely to ruin armor and shields then is the young 
  leucrotta. 
   
  Description: A leucrotta is a horrible, unbearably 
  ugly beast. It has the body of a stag, the head of a 
  badger and a lionine tail. It has bony, yellow-gray 
  ridges for teeth and burning, feral red eyes. Their bod-
  ies are tan, darkening to black at the head. The stench 
  of rotting corpses surrounds the beast and its breath 
  reeks of the grave. A full-sized male can reach seven 
  feet tall at the shoulder, though they average six feet. 
  Other animals shun this foul creature. Leucrotta are 
  very intelligent for beasts and speak their own evil lan-
  guage. They are wicked and malicious. Because of 
  their mountain goat-like surefootedness, leucrotta nor-
  mally make their lair in treacherous, rocky crags acces-
  sible only to them. 
  Initiative is only rolled on 
  1d20 once for each creature 
  (modified by their Initiative 
  modifier), when they be-
  come aware of their foe. 
  When another creature be-
  comes aware, their initiative 
  is rolled and they are added 
  to the initiative order. Ac-
  tions are taken in decreasing 
  order of initiative—highest 
  goes first. Ties go in order of 
  higher base Dex. 
  Initiative 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 8 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
   
  You should get into the habit 
  of drawing up the night’s 
  campsite on the battle map 
  even if you know there 
  won’t be an encounter. Oth-
  erwise, players will quickly 
  figure out that you only draw 
  the map when there will be 
  an encounter. Keep them on 
  their toes. Don’t ignore 
  drawing up the map just 
  because you know there is 
  nothing special about this 
  hill.  
  the hunting techniques she has taught him. She will 
  remain some 20 feet away watching his actions. The 
  mother only joins in if the baby is killed outright or if 
  she is attacked. The party would be foolish to attack 
  her. If the mother does attack, she differs from the 
  young leucrotta in one important aspect—she has the 
  ability to do a Spring Attack, as the Feat of the same 
  name. This means she can move before her attack and 
  then move again, retreating and using her kick attack, 
  as long as she moves in total no more than her full 
  movement. A nasty attack combination. If someone 
  attacks her she does just that. Then she calls for her 
  and the baby to flee. If the baby has been killed she 
  will not cease her attacks until she is killed or until 
  every member of the party is dead. 
   
  Ending the Combat: If the baby takes a cumulative 
  total of 6 hit points of damage or more, the pair will 
  retreat into the night. Also, if more than three persons 
  show up to fight against the young leucrotta, the 
  mother will call out in their foul language and the two 
  will retreat. Finally, if the fight is going poorly for the 
  party, the DM in his or her discretion can decide that 
  the beasts have had enough practice and have them 
  retreat (mercifully). If any of these occur, the DM 
  should have the mother “tease” the party for the next 
  two nights, but not really attack them. They will con-
  tinually hear a baby crying off in the distance or a 
  wounded animal in pain. 
   
  Running the Stirge Encounter 
   
  The stirges are not particularly quiet. The character on 
  watch can make a Listen check (DC 12). If successful, 
  he is aware of the stirges’ approach and is not sur-
  prised. In addition, he can make a Spot check (DC of 
  14) to see them coming. The stirges concentrate on one 
  victim until they drain enough blood to sate their thirst, 
  at which time they will detach themselves and fly away 
  at one-half their speed—bloated from their recent feast. 
  If an attached stirge sustains a hit and takes damage—
  even if not enough to kill it—that stirge will detach 
  itself and fly away seeking less resistant prey else-
  where. See the Running the Leucrotta Encounter 
  section above for information on Initiative and Sur-
  prise and Surprise Rounds and other general advice. 
   
  The Smiling Skull 
   
  This is a red herring, and has nothing to do with this 
  adventure. In fact, it is an homage to a classic old ad-
  venture, which had just such an arrangement of stones 
  on the hill in which a certain tomb was located. The 
  party may wish to waste a lot of time and energy here, 
  but there is nothing to find. One of the rocks, however, 
  has been enchanted with a Nystul’s magic aura, detect-
  ing as abjuration magic (DC 18) if the party casts a 
  detect magic spell. 
   
  Act II—A Bird in the Hand 
   
  A Pleasant Camp 
  A touch attack ignores the 
  armor and shield bonuses of 
  the target, though the target 
  retains their Dexterity bonus 
  and any magical bonus. A 
  stirge’s initial attack is a 
  touch attack. 
  Touch Attack 
  Some attacks such as poison 
  or stirge bites do temporary 
  damage to an attribute. A 
  character reduced to 0 Con-
  stitution from such damage 
  dies. Brutal! 
  Temporary Damage 
  You have driven off the beasts, though some of you are 
  wounded. You know that you must get out of this wil-
  derness soon. You travel for two more days, and finally 
  you believe the beast’s haunting childlike cry is behind 
  you. At last, the weather starts to clear, and as you stop 
  for a water break along a stream, you see a strange rock 
  formation atop a hill to the west. You can’t be sure, but 
  from your current angle it looks as if the rocks have 
  been placed purposefully. You venture closer and dis-
  cover that someone has arranged large rocks on the top 
  of the hill in the shape of a grinning human skull. 
  DM Tip 
  Stirges (3): CR 2; SZ Tiny beast (2 ft. wingspan, 1 
  ft. body length); HD 1d10; hp 6; Init +4 (Dex); Spd 10 
  ft., fly 40 ft. (poor); AC 16 (+2 size, +4 Dex; AC 12 if 
  attached); Atk +6 melee (1d3, touch, plus special at-
  tack blood drain on subsequent rounds); Face 2 ½ ft. x 
  2 ½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.; SA attach, blood drain; AL N; SV 
  Fort +2 Ref +6 Will +1; Str 3, Dex 19, Con 10, Int 1, 
  Wis 12, Cha 6. 
  Skills: Spot +8 (acute sense of smell), Hide +14. 
  Feats: Weapon Finesse (touch), Darkvision (120 ft.). 
  SD—Attach (Ex): If a stirge hits with a touch attack 
  (target’s armor bonuses ignored), it uses its eight pin-
  cers to latch onto its target’s body. A stirge attaches 
  itself with incredible strength and cannot be pulled off. 
  You must kill a stirge to remove it. If an attack is made 
  against an attached stirge, that attack is at –4 because 
  the other person must be careful not to hit the victim. 
  The victim does not suffer this penalty. An attached 
  stirge has AC 12. 
  SA—Blood Drain (Ex): An attached stirge drains 
  blood, dealing 1d4 temporary Constitution damage 
  each round it remains attached. Once it has drained 4 
  points of Constitution, it detaches and flies off to di-
  gest its meal. Temporary Constitution damage is re-
  gained at a rate of 1 point per day. 
   
  Description: Stirges are an obscene cross between a 
  bird, a bat and an insect. They feed off the blood of 
  living creatures and are universally feared. They have a 
  long beak-like proboscis that they use to drain blood. 
  They have four or six insect like legs that end in in-
  credibly strong pincers they use to attach to their vic-
  tims while at their vile feast. They normally feed on 
  animals or children, though they are known to attack 
  humans when hungry. Because of their enhanced sense 
  of smell and the range of their darkvision, it is difficult 
  to surprise a stirge unless they are sleeping and digest-
  ing after drinking their fill of blood. When they sleep 
  they hang upside down like a bat. 
  Today’s travels were a pleasant change from the previ-
  ous four days. You even found some fresh blueberries 
  and two of your group downed a small deer. You make 
  camp in the open, near a copse of trees, and bask in the 
  warmth of the late afternoon sun with full bellies and 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 9 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  At this point, draw up a camp on the battle map. Feel 
  free to modify the clearing map provided for the previ-
  ous encounter. Talk about a proposed watch order, as if 
  you are going to proceed to spending the night. Once 
  those matters are all settled, continue on to the next 
  scene. 
   
  Corian’s Tale 
  This Scene is entirely for the players, and you should 
  stay out of it as much as possible. Let the player who is 
  playing Corian tell as much or as little of Corian’s 
  back-story as he or she wishes. Encourage the player to 
  speak to the group contemporaneously rather than sim-
  ply reading from the provided background sheet. But 
  remember that this is probably the first major block of 
  role playing in this adventure and that it is being done 
  with pre-generated characters, not characters the play-
  ers made themselves, so the Corian player will have 
  less of a connection than usual with his or her charac-
  ter. Let the other players ask questions of Corian. The 
  length of this Scene should be dictated entirely by the 
  interaction of the players. Just sit back and watch. You 
  should only intervene if the Corian character makes an 
  obvious mistake. But even in that situation, don’t cor-
  rect it immediately—the player may be having Corian 
  lie on purpose. Let them bring the Scene to a conclu-
  sion—not you. Just as they seem to be coming to a 
  comfortable conclusion, shift immediately to the next 
  scene. 
   
  Talon 
  There is no way the PCs can kill Talon now, and he 
  automatically gets away in the round it takes the char-
  acters to grab their weapons. Let them take several 
  shots at Talon if they want (DC of 35). Play up the fear 
  of the impending attack which never comes and make 
  them hear plenty of “things that go bump in the night” 
  for the rest of the night (2-3 noises disturb the watch). 
  Vortigern, however, remains a day behind the group 
  and will not appear until Act III. He sent Talon ahead 
  to scout…successfully, it seems. 
  The characters may be frightened into traveling at 
  night—which is unwise. If they do, halfway through 
  the night they are attacked by 3 stirges. The stirges are 
  completely unrelated to Vortigern and Talon and are a 
  random encounter. The party will not have this encoun-
  ter if they remain in their camp through the night. Use 
  the stirge statistics from the alternate encounter de-
  scribed in the “Encounter Modification” section of the 
  “Voice in the Darkness” scene, above. 
   
  Stirges (3): CR 2; hp 6,5,5. See the stirge descrip-
  tion above.  
   
  Act III—Vortigern’s Trap 
   
  The Farmhouse 
  You need to draw this map. Depict a simple farm 
  dwelling with one door and several windows, as well 
  as a barn, with an open front and small three-foot high 
  wooden-fenced pen enclosing the front area. The gate 
  in the wooden fence is open allowing the animals out 
  of the barn and pen. The farmer’s body lies in front of 
  As the sun drops below the horizon and the fire dims, 
  Corian asks you all to gather. You have been waiting 
  for Corian to explain more of his purpose behind the 
  formation of your group, wondering at his true mo-
  tives. Before tonight, he has always rebuffed your 
  questions, saying that he will speak further when you 
  are far from prying eyes and ears in Reme. It appears 
  that time has come. 
  Just before Corian finishes speaking, one of you no-
  tices that you are not the only listeners. About fifteen 
  feet away is the largest raven you have ever seen, and 
  it’s eyes glow with red fire. You jump up, frightened, 
  as the raven flies off into the night with a shriek. This 
  must be Talon, the familiar of Corian’s nemesis, Vorti-
  gern. You fear that your enemies are near at hand. 
  You have traveled two days and nights since the de-
  monic bird disturbed your camp, drawing within two 
  days travel of Fairhill. Finally, you feel as though your 
  enemies have lost your trail. You see a farmhouse off 
  in the fields, near the woods, and you decide to see if 
  the farmer will let you rest in his barn for the night. As 
  you approach the small dwelling, you notice that some-
  thing is terribly wrong. The farmer—or what is left of 
  him—lies in the front yard of the home, half eaten and 
  missing one arm. His wife, and three small children lie 
  in various contorted positions, the smallest boy com-
  pletely disemboweled. Blood covers the hay in the 
  yard, and a chicken pecks at the corpse of a young girl 
  lying in front of the barn. 
  DM Tip 
  There is a really cool picture 
  of the farmhouse on the next 
  page. You should show it to 
  your characters as they ap-
  proach. Hey, we give you 
  this art for a reason. Use it! 
  Drawing the Map 
  Use the farmhouse picture 
  on the next page and the 
  description here to help you. 
  Make sure that off to one 
  side of the farmhouse (we 
  suggest off to the left, a little 
  to the back) you place a 
  copse of trees about 60 feet 
  away—this is where Vorti-
  dry clothes. You figure your party is still four days 
  travel from Fairhill. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 10 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  his home. His wife’s body and two of their children lie 
  just inside the door to the farmhouse. Their young 
  daughter’s body is inside the animal pen in front of the 
  barn. 
   
  Examination of the bodies by a healer or any fighter 
  familiar with combat wounds easily determines that 
  they were all killed with swords or axes and that the 
  murderers were enthusiastic in their work. If a healer or 
  cleric with healing powers makes a successful Heal 
  check (DC 15) that character discovers that two of the 
  children have dagger-like wounds that drip a strange 
  poison. Allow any character with the Heal skill to 
  make a check (DC 28) or any person with Knowledge 
  (Poisons) skill to make a check (DC 24) to evaluate the 
  poison. If, somehow, they make the roll, tell them it 
  appears to be poison from some magical creature. If 
  the roll is failed (which it should be), tell them they 
  have never seen such poison before. 
   
  Searching the House: The house and barn have sev-
  eral animals running around: 4 pigs, 30 chickens, and a 
  draft horse. In the trees a few hundred feet away—in 
  the opposite direction of Vortigern—are 3 cows. There 
  is little of value in the house, but an old short sword 
  hanging above the fireplace is in fact a +1 short sword, 
  though it has no outward appearance of being magical. 
  A hidden compartment in the bed (DC 20 Search check 
  unless they specifically search the bed, then DC 15) 
  contains 22 silver and 45 copper pieces. Two lanterns 
  and numerous other dry goods are about as well. If the 
  party buries or consecrates the bodies, they will not 
  have to fight zombies when Vortigern springs his trap 
  (see “Ambush!,” below). If they wish to search or bury 
  bodies, let them do so. As soon as they either make 
  camp at the farm or leave the farm to make camp 
  somewhere else, proceed to the next scene immedi-
  ately. Don’t let the party get set up inside the house. 
  The encounter with Vortigern is at hand… 
   
  Ambush! 
   
  All right, here it is—the grand finale. But before we 
  begin the fight itself, a little background is in order. 
   
  Vortigern’s Plan: Vortigern orchestrated this encoun-
  ter to get the amulet from Corian. He has underesti-
  mated the party and believes he can simply take the 
  amulet by force. Vortigern and his thugs have been 
  following behind the characters for some time. Using 
  Talon as a scout, Vortigern learned the party’s direc-
  tion of travel. Projecting the party’s path, Talon 
  scouted and found this farmhouse. Vortigern and his 
  thugs came here and slaughtered the farmers, figuring 
  that would draw Corian and his comrades to investi-
  gate—setting the perfect trap. So far it has worked ex-
  actly as Vortigern envisioned. Vortigern plans to sum-
  mon undead to surround the characters while he and 
  Once the characters start to 
  make camp, or start to bury 
  the bodies of the farmers, 
  you need to think about 
  having Vortigern spring his 
  trap as detailed in the next 
  scene. Take a break (it will 
  put your players at false 
  ease), read the next section 
  and decide what you want to 
  do. 
  Ambush! 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 11 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  This encounter can kill char-
  acters. So before you run it, 
  you need to pick the diffi-
  culty level. The default level 
  of difficulty is “Average.” 
  Don’t use the “Difficult” 
  level without good reason. 
  Difficulty Level 
  his thugs hide in the nearby trees and fire missiles and 
  spells at them. He then intends to send Talon to re-
  trieve the amulet from Corian. In preparation for this 
  encounter Vortigern cast a number of spells on him-
  self. He is protected by the following spells: resistance, 
  shield, mage armor, and protection from arrows. See 
  his description for more details. 
   
  Encounter Difficulty: Now that you know the basics 
  of Vortigern’s plan, you will have to decide how diffi-
  cult you want the combat to be. 
   
  Difficult: This level of difficulty should be used only if 
  your players are veterans and if they are relatively un-
  injured going into the combat. Now is a good time to 
  remember the GM advice we gave you at the beginning 
  of the adventure—don’t be out to get you players. Only 
  use this level of difficulty if your players can handle it. 
  If you decide on using this level of difficulty: 
  •  Vortigern springs the trap at the most strategically 
  advantageous time—just as the characters are bury-
  ing the farmers’ bodies (which veterans will cer-
  tainly do). 
  •  Vortigern will lean towards attacking after dark if 
  the players are still outside, since he and all his 
  allies have Darkvision.  
  • Vortigern will know the whereabouts of every char-
  acter because Talon, who has been flying around 
  invisible, is telling him this information telepathi-
  cally. This will let Vortigern summon a ring of 
  skeletons around the characters and will allow the 
  zombies to rise up within the circle.  
  • The thugs will fire right into the circle of skeletons, 
  since they are immune to piercing weapons. The 
  party will have to deal with zombies inside their 
  group, skeletons circling them, thugs firing arrows 
  at them and Vortigern casting offensive spells at 
  Corian, trying to kill him.  
  • Vortigern will use all his offensive spells against 
  Corian, starting with magic missiles and leading up 
  to melf’s acid arrow. Vortigern will save his flare 
  spells for use on any characters that charge his lo-
  cation.  
  • Vortigern will also command Talon to use his 
  stinger on Corian and to pry the amulet from him 
  once he is dead.  
  This is probably the most true to what Vortigern would 
  do in this situation. It is also probably going to result in 
  one or two dead characters. Don’t worry. If you con-
  tinue on to The Crucible of Freya, Shandril the priest-
  ess can raise them from the dead. Though there might 
  be a small price… 
   
  Average: This is the default level of difficulty and the 
  one that you should use unless your players are veter-
  ans. You may even use this level of difficulty if your 
  players are veterans but several of the characters are 
  injured. The general set up is the same as above, with 
  the same number of foes, except: 
  •  Don’t send Talon out to use his stinger on Corian. 
  Send Talon out invisibly to retrieve the amulet.  
  •  Have Vortigern use his magic missiles on Corian, 
  but have him reserve his acid arrow for his own 
  protection if someone charges him. He will use 
  flare on other fighters.  
  •  At this difficulty, Vortigern has not been using 
  Talon as an invisible spy, so he might not know the 
  location of all the characters. He, therefore, might 
  not spring the trap at the best strategic time—
  meaning that all the characters may not be inside 
  the circle of summoned skeletons.  
   
  Easy: If your players are all new or if they have some 
  experience but several of the characters are injured, 
  you should use this level of difficulty. At this level of 
  difficulty: 
  •  Vortigern only has one thug with him.  
  •  Vortigern doesn’t cast any offensive spells at Co-
  rian.  
  •  Vortigern sends Talon out to steal the amulet, but 
  Talon will be visible.  
  •  Vortigern will not have gotten all the characters 
  within the ring of summoned skeletons 
  •  There will only be 4 skeletons, not 5.  
  •  The farmers, also, will not rise as zombies.  
  •  If someone charges Vortigern’s location, the thug 
  with Vortigern will flee rather then defend him. 
   
  Starting the Encounter:  
   
  Watch what your players do around the farmhouse. 
  When it seems like a good time to spring the trap, read 
  the following text: 
  Summary of Tactics:  
   
  Before we spell out the combat step-by-step, here is a 
  summary of what the various combatants will do. 
   
  Vortigern: Vortigern will use his spells from a dis-
  tance, focusing first on taking out Corian, as detailed in 
  the difficulty level you selected. He uses the trees on 
  the fringe of the farm as cover, which gives him +4 to 
  his AC. See his description for more details. As men-
  tioned above, Vortigern has prepared himself with sev-
  eral spells prior to the encounter—see his stat block for 
  details. He should be nearly impossible to hit from 
  For more information on 
  The Crucible of Freya see 
  the 
  section 
  entitled 
  “Continuing 
  the 
  Story,” 
  below. 
  The Crucible of Freya 
  As you move about the farm, Corian suddenly hears a 
  familiar voice. He looks over and sees Vortigern and 
  two large men with bows drawn, just inside the cover 
  of the surrounding woods some 60 feet away. Vorti-
  gern has his familiar—the devil-eyed raven—perched 
  on his shoulder and he is reading a scroll. As Vortigern 
  finishes reading the scroll, the raven transforms into a 
  small, devilish, winged creature and with a hideous 
  shriek flies off Vortigern’s shoulder and immediately 
  goes invisible. Instantly, the ground comes alive. 
  [Select the names of two PCs other than Corian] 
  scream in terror as skeletal hands claw through the 
  ground and begin to encircle the party. (Read the fol-
  lowing only if the farmer’s bodies were not buried and 
  if you are not using the “Easy” difficulty setting) The 
  corpses of the dead farmers also rise and move slowly 
  towards you. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 12 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  distance. If the battle goes against him, he will use his 
  dust of disappearance to escape. In addition, if Talon 
  recovers the amulet, Vortigern and Talon will flee, 
  using his dust of disappearance. See the section enti-
  tled “Escape?” below. 
   
  Vortigern’s Thug(s): Vortigern’s thugs are an NPC 
  class known as Warriors, which are essentially lesser 
  fighters. Neither of Vortigern’s thugs will engage the 
  party in hand to hand combat unless directly attacked. 
  They prefer to fire their missile weapons into combat, 
  letting the summoned undead handle melee. Vortigern 
  and his thugs take advantage of the natural cover pro-
  vided by the grove of trees. If any members of the party 
  break through the ring of undead and charge Vorti-
  gern’s location, the two thugs will drop their bows and 
  engage any such characters to prevent them from 
  reaching Vortigern. They will foolishly protect Vorti-
  gern with their lives. He, of course, would not hesitate 
  to leave them behind to save his own skin. 
   
  The Undead: The summoned skeletons emerge from 
  the earth in a ring around the player characters, encir-
  cling them. If the party is in the process of burying the 
  farmers when Vortigern animates them, they will rise 
  as zombies and the party attack inside of the ring of 
  skeletons (unless you are running the encounter as 
  “Easy,” in which case there are no zombies. The skele-
  tons and zombies (if present) attack the characters 
  mindlessly. Remember that the zombies will not be 
  present if the characters buried and consecrated the 
  bodies of the farmers prior to Vortigern launching his 
  trap. Of course, Vortigern would most likely have 
  sprung his trap before letting that happen… 
   
  Talon: Vortigern will telepathically command Talon to 
  attempt to steal the amulet from Corian—or whoever 
  else obviously possesses it. If you are running the en-
  counter as “Easy” then Talon is visible, otherwise he 
  uses his invisibility. Talon must roll against a DC of 16 
  to steal the amulet if it is exposed. Once he has suc-
  cessfully grasped an exposed amulet he will fly away 
  with it. If the amulet is tossed to the ground or to an-
  other character Talon will chase after the amulet since 
  retrieval of the amulet is his primary goal. If you are 
  running the encounter as “Difficult,” Talon will try to 
  kill Corian with his stinger if he can’t find the amulet. 
  But even at “Difficult,” if Talon sees the amulet go 
  somewhere else, he will chase after it. Aside from 
  stinging (if you are running the encounter as 
  “Difficult”) or trying to snatch the amulet, Talon will 
  not fight directly unless wounded or cornered because 
  Vortigern has commanded him not to. If frustrated in 
  his attempt to obtain the amulet and injured in combat, 
  Talon will flee to Vortigern. He does not want to risk 
  being killed—that would damage Vortigern and would 
  result in his imprisonment in Hell for 66 years before 
  he would be allowed to serve as a familiar again, and 
  he likes his current job here on the material plane. If 
  Talon does get the amulet, he will go invisible and re-
  turn to Vortigern. The two will flee. See the section 
  entitled “Escape?” below. 
   
  Running the Combat:  
   
  You got a taste of running combat with the leucrotta/
  stirge encounter. But now things get tricky—multiple 
  opponents, missile fire and NPC spell casters. If you 
  can run this encounter then you have definitely gradu-
  ated from the novice GM ranks. It’s our job to help you 
  do it. So here are step-by-step instructions on running 
  this encounter. Even experienced GMs should appreci-
  ate having this encounter spelled out. 
   
  Determining Surprise: At this point, the characters 
  can make a Spot roll and a Listen roll both at DC 20 
  (includes distance, cover and other relevant modifiers). 
  If any character makes either skill check, then they may 
  act during the Surprise Round. If this happens, roll 
  initiative for all combatants that are aware of each 
  other. 
   
  Surprise Round: Vortigern more than likely surprises 
  the party. He and his thugs are hiding in the trees some 
  60 feet away from the farmhouse. They are out of sight 
  until Vortigern springs the trap. Talon is either flying 
  around invisible (“Difficult” level) or is outside of the 
  trees watching the characters. Once the characters are 
  outside the farmhouse in a group, Talon telepathically 
  tells Vortigern. He motions to the thugs to get into po-
  sition. Vortigern then reads his scroll of animate dead. 
  This scroll, which Vortigern purloined from Feriblan’s 
  library, contains an unusual version of the spell and 
  brings 1d6 skeletons (in this case it has been predeter-
  mined to be 5 skeletons) in addition to animating the 
  zombies. Vortigern and the thugs stay inside the cover 
  provided by the fringe of trees. 
   
  During the surprise round, Vortigern finishes reading 
  his scroll, and the skeletons and zombies (if appropri-
  ate) rise from the ground. The skeletons appear on Vor-
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 13 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
   
  Remember that Talon has 
  damage resistance against all 
  but silver or magic weapons. 
  Also, both Talon and Vorti-
  gern (because of Talon) 
  regenerate 1 hp per round 
  and have Spell Resistance 
  10, 
  which 
  even 
  applies 
  against magic missiles. 
  Resistance and  
  Regeneration 
  Spell Resistance 
  This is handled differently 
  under the new rules. To 
  penetrate a target’s spell 
  resistance, the spell caster 
  must make a roll of 1d20 
  plus caster level that is equal 
  to or greater than the sub-
  ject’s Spell Resistance DC—
  its like a magical Armor 
  Class. Make it and the spell 
  gets through. Miss it and the 
  spell is wasted. 
  tigern’s initiative. The skeletons and zombies cannot 
  attack this round as they form, nor can they make at-
  tacks of opportunity at characters who try to run by 
  them this round (if any of the characters can move, that 
  is). The skeletons are flat footed until they act next 
  round. The thug(s) take one bow shot each into the 
  melee. Talon shrieks, goes invisible and flies towards 
  Corian at double his movement. If (by some miracle) a 
  member of the party is able to act in the surprise round 
  then he or she can move out of the forming ring of 
  skeletons without provoking an attack of opportunity.  
   
  First Round of Combat: All persons now should be 
  aware of their opponents (unless there is some charac-
  ter inside the farmhouse). Make sure everyone who 
  hasn’t done so yet rolls initiative, including the mon-
  sters. Make the initiative list in order of initiative from 
  top to bottom. This round, Vortigern casts a magic mis-
  sile at Corian (unless you are using the “Easy” level of 
  difficulty, in which case he just watches). The thugs 
  reload, stay behind the trees and fire another round into 
  melee. The skeletons and zombies attack. If any char-
  acters try to run past the skeletons or zombies they 
  open themselves up to attacks of opportunity, even if 
  the skeletons or zombies have already attacked! 
   
  Subsequent Rounds of Combat: Here is what the 
  combatants will do: 
   
  The Undead: The skeletons will continue to stay in a 
  Vortigern and his Allies 
   
  Vortigern, Ex-Apprentice to Feriblan the Mad, 
  Male Human, Wiz3 (Wiz4 with Imp familiar): CR 
  5; SZ Medium-sized Humanoid (5 ft. 7 in. tall); HD 
  4d4+4; hp 17; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 23 (robes, +1 
  ring of deflection, Dex, +4 from mage armor, +4 from 
  one-half cover from trees, +4 cover from shield); Atk 
  +2 melee (1d4, dagger, crit x3); SQ telepathic link with 
  Talon, regeneration (1 hp/round), darkvision (120 ft.); 
  damage resistance (10/+1 vs. arrows from protection 
  from arrows); spell resistance (10); AL LE; SV Fort 
  +3, Ref +6, Will +5 (includes +1 each from resis-
  tance, -1 each after 1 minute; also includes +3 Ref 
  from shield); Str 10, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 10, 
  Cha 12.  
  Skills: Alchemy +9, Concentration +8, Gather Infor-
  mation +3, Intimidate +3, Knowledge (Arcana) +10, 
  Listen +1, Scry +7, Search +5, Spellcraft +10, Spot +2. 
  Feats: Brew Potion, Empower Spell, Scribe Scroll, 
  Spell Mastery.  
  Arcane Spells Memorized (4/4/3): 0—resistance, 
  daze, flare (x2), 1st—mage armor, shield, magic mis-
  sile (x2), 2nd—protection from arrows, darkness, 
  melf’s acid arrow. Vortigern cast the spells in bold on 
  himself just prior to encountering the party. 
  SQ—Telepathic Link (Su): Telepathic link to Talon 
  if he is within 1 mile. 
  SQ—Regeneration (Ex): 1 hit point/round (from 
  Talon). 
  SQ—Darkvision (Ex): 120 feet (from Talon). 
  Possessions: Robes, 2 daggers, potion of healing, 
  scroll of animate dead, a map to Rappan Athuk (a ne-
  farious dungeon set somewhere in your game world), 
  dust of disappearance (2 uses—each use renders one 
  man-sized object invisible for 30 minutes), ring of de-
  flection +1, imp familiar (disguised as a raven), 102 
  gp, 58 sp, 3-20 gp gems. 
   
  Talon, Vortigern’s Imp Familiar: CR 2; Tiny Out-
  sider [Evil] (2 ft. tall); HD 3d8; hp 18; Init +3 (Dex); 
  Spd 20 ft., fly 50 ft. (good); AC 18 (+2 size, +6 natu-
  ral); Atk +6 melee (1d4, sting plus poison); Face 2 ½ 
  ft. x 2 ½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.; SA spell-like abilities, poison; 
  SQ damage reduction (5/silver or +1), poison immu-
  nity, fire resistance (20), regeneration, darkvision (120 
  ft.), polymorph, spell resistance (10); AL LE; SV Fort 
  +3 Ref +6 Will +4; Str 10, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 
  12, Cha 10. 
  Skills: Hide +15, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, 
  Search +4, Spellcraft +4, Spot +5. Feats: Alertness, 
  Dodge. 
  Spell-like Abilities: An imp can use the following 
  powers at will, as 6th-level sorcerers (save DCs, where 
  applicable, are 10 plus the spell level): detect aura, 
  detect magic, and invisibility. Once a day, an imp can 
  use a suggestion effect, also as a 6th-level sorcerer. 
  Once each week, an imp can cast a commune effect. 
  The imp can ask 6 questions of its patron devil. Other-
  wise, the power works like a commune spell cast by a 
  12th-level cleric. 
  SA—Poison (Ex): Hits from an imp’s stinger cause 
  the opponent to make a Fortitude save (DC 13) or suf-
  fer 1d4 points of temporary Dexterity damage. One 
  minute later, the opponent must make another Forti-
  tude save (DC 13) or suffer an additional 2d4 points of 
  temporary Dexterity damage. As a person’s Dex is re-
  duced, they suffer the effects of the lower Dexterity—
  minus to AC, minus to Dex based skills, minus to 
  ranged attacks, minus to initiative. A person reduced to 
  0 Dexterity or lower falls into a paralytic coma. 
  SQ—Poison Immunity (Ex):  Imps are never harmed 
  by poison. 
  SQ—Fire Resistance (Ex): Imps are resistant to fire. 
  They are immune to non-magical fire. Each round that 
  they suffer damage from these attacks, they ignore the 
  first 20 points of damage inflicted upon them.  
  SQ—Regenerate (Ex): Imps regenerate one point of 
  damage each round. They suffer lethal damage from 
  acid, holy water, and blessed weapons (provided they 
  are also made of silver or enchanted). 
  SQ—Polymorph (Ex): An imp can polymorph itself 
  at will. This works like a polymorph self spell cast by a 
  12-level sorcerer except that the imp can only assume 
  the form of a raven or a giant rat. 
   
  Description: Imps are small, lawful evil denizens of 
  the planes of Hell. They are, on occasion, sent by their 
  arch-devil masters to the material plane to serve as 
  familiars for lawful evil wizards and priests. Imps aver-
  age 2 ft. in height. They have leathery, bat-like wings, a 
  barbed tail, and sharp, twisted horns. Normally an 
  Firing into Melee 
  Normally, if you shoot into 
  melee you do so at a –4 to 
  avoid hitting your allies. The 
  thugs don’t suffer that minus 
  because they don’t care 
  about hitting the skeletons or 
  zombies. It’s nice not to 
  have a conscience! You 
  may, however, treat the 
  skeletons as partial cover for 
  the characters. 
  Attacks of Opportunity 
  A major addition to the new 
  rules, attacks of opportunity 
  occur when a person moves 
  through the threatened area 
  of another combatant. Even 
  if the combatant has already 
  attacked, they get an attack 
  on 
  the 
  person 
  moving 
  through 
  their 
  threatened 
  area. However, unless a Feat 
  allows for more (such as 
  Combat Reflexes), a com-
  batant only gets one attack 
  of opportunity per round 
  even though several persons 
  may move through their 
  threatened area. See tables 8-
  1, 8-3 and 8-4 and the Com-
  bat chapter. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 14 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
   
  circle around the characters, attacking them. They will 
  take attacks of opportunity on any that pass by them—
  always taking the first attack of opportunity. They are 
  too mindless to delay their attacks of opportunity. The 
  zombies also will continue to attack.  
   
  The Thugs: The thugs will continue to reload and fire 
  bow shots at the characters. If any character has broken 
  free from the circle of skeletons, they will focus their 
  shots on those characters. If a character moves within 
  30 feet of their location, they will drop their bows and 
  draw their weapons. They will remain in front of Vorti-
  gern and protect him.  
   
  Vortigern: Vortigern will fire another magic missile at 
  Corian, unless he is being charged then he will cast a 
  flash at the person charging him. If a person gets close 
  enough to engage in melee with his two thugs, Vorti-
  gern will step back into the woods, out of view of the 
  ring of skeletons. If things get tough, he will use his 
  dust of disappearance. He will not flee until Talon 
  recovers the amulet, Talon is injured and forced to re-
  treat or his thugs are killed. Then he will flee. See the 
  section entitled “Escape?” below. 
   
  Talon: Talon will finish his movement to Corian and 
  will try to obtain the amulet. If Corian isn’t wearing it 
  openly, Talon will use his innate ability to detect magic 
  on Corian to see if he has it. If he doesn’t find the amu-
  let on Corian he will sting him if you are playing the 
  imp’s skin is a dark red and its horns and jagged teeth a 
  gleaming white. Talon is slightly different. Talon was 
  sent by Dispater, an arch-devil that rules the second 
  plane of Hell from his Iron Fortress of Dis. Talon, thus, 
  is steely-gray and his horns and teeth are the color of 
  cold iron. Talon can assume the forms of a raven or a 
  giant rat at will. The imp confers some of its powers 
  upon its master. A telepathic link connects the two 
  whenever they are within one mile of each other. This 
  enables the master to receive all of the imp’s sensory 
  impressions, including its darkvision. The master also 
  gains the imp's inherent spell resistance and is able to 
  regenerate just as the imp does. If the imp is within 
  telepathic range, the master acts as if he were one level 
  higher than he actually is. 
   
  Grenag and Slaaroc, Male Half Orc Thugs, 
  War2: CR 2; SZ Medium-sized Humanoid (5 ft. 7 in. 
  tall); HD 2d8+2; hp 14, 12; Init +1 (Dex); Spd 30 ft.; 
  AC 18/15 (+3 armor, Dex, +4 due to cover/with +1 
  shields out of cover); Atk +3 ranged (1d6, short bow, 
  crit x3, range 60 ft.), +5 melee (1d8+3, longsword, crit 
  19-20) +5 melee (1d8+3 battle axe, crit x3); SQ darkvi-
  sion (60 ft.); AL CE; SV Fort +4, Ref +1, Will –1; Str 
  16, Dex 12, Con 11, Int 9, Wis 9, Cha 8. 
  Skills: Ride +3, Intimidate +2, Listen +1, Spot +1. 
  Feats: Weapon Focus (sword and axe respectively). 
  Possessions: Studded leather armor, small shields, 
  long sword/battle axe, short bows, 20 arrows, 23 gp, 16 
  sp each. 
   
  Skeletons (5): SZ Medium-sized Undead (6 ft. tall); 
  HD 1d12; hp 8; Init +5 (Dex, Improved Initiative); Spd 
  30 ft.; AC 13 (+2 natural, Dex); Atk +0 melee (1d6, 
  short swords or hand axes) or +0 melee (1d4 [x2], 
  claws); SQ reduced damage, undead; AL NE; SV Fort 
  +0, Ref +1, Will +2; Str 10, Int —, Wis 10, Dex 12, 
  Con —, Cha 10. 
  Skills: None. Feats: Improved Initiative. 
  SQ—Undead (Ex): Immune to mind-influencing 
  effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, and 
  necromantic effects; not subject to critical hits, sneak 
  attacks, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain; 
  immune to anything requiring a Fortitude save. 
  SQ—Reduced Damage (Ex): Skeletons are not dam-
  aged by piercing weapons (like arrows) and take only 
  half damage from slashing weapons (like swords). 
  They take full damage from bludgeoning weapons (like 
  maces). 
  Possessions: Small shields, short swords or hand 
  axes. 
   
  Zombies, Common (2): SZ Medium-sized Undead 
  (6 ft. tall); HD 2d12+3; hp 17, 16; Init -3 (Dex, -2 poor 
  reflexes); Spd 20 ft.; AC 11 (+2 natural, Dex); Atk +2 
  melee (1d6+1, claw); SQ undead, poor reflexes; AL 
  NE; SV Fort +0, Ref -1, Will +3; Str 13, Int —, Wis 
  10, Dex 8, Con —, Cha —. 
  Skills: None. Feats: Toughness. 
  SQ—Undead (Ex): Immune to mind-influencing 
  effects, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, and 
  necromantic effects; not subject to critical hits, sneak 
  attacks, ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain; 
  immune to anything requiring a Fortitude save. 
  SQ—Poor Reflexes (Ex): Zombies have very poor 
  reflexes and thus have reduced initiative. Unlike most 
  creatures, they can move or attack during their action, 
  but cannot do both. In game terms, they can only take 
  partial actions. 
  Possessions: None. 
   
  Zombies, Children (3): SZ Small undead (3 to 4 ft. 
  tall); HD 1d12+3; hp 10, 8, 7; Init –3 (Dex, poor re-
  flexes); Spd 20 ft.; AC 12 (+2 size); Atk –1 melee 
  (1d6-2, claw, slashing); SQ undead, poor reflexes; AL 
  NE; SV Fort -1 Ref -3 Will +0; Str 6, Dex 8, Con —, 
  Int —, Wis 8, Cha —. 
  Skills: None. Feats: Toughness. 
  SQ—Undead Immunities (Ex): As above. 
  SQ—Poor Reflexes (Ex): As above. 
  Possessions: None. 
  Initiative for Monsters 
  Don’t just make one initia-
  tive roll for all the bad guys. 
  You should make one roll 
  for each group of monsters: 
  one for Vortigern, one for 
  Talon, one roll for both 
  Thugs (since they have the 
  same modifier), one roll for 
  the skeletons and one roll for 
  the zombies. 
  Cover 
  Cover provides a bonus to 
  AC. See table 8-9. In this 
  case, Vortigern and 
  the 
  thugs get the benefit of one-
  half cover and get a +4 to 
  AC because they are firing 
  from behind trees. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 15 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  Escape Hatch 
  If things are really going 
  poorly for the characters, 
  consider using an “escape 
  hatch.” 
  “Difficult” level. Otherwise, he will use his detect 
  magic ability to locate who has the magical item. Of 
  course, if another member of the party has a magical 
  item, Talon will not be able to differentiate which one 
  has the amulet in particular. He will check all of the 
  persons who are carrying magical items. Talon will try 
  to take the amulet from them if he can see it. Regard-
  less of difficulty level, if someone other than Corian 
  has the amulet and they have the amulet hidden on 
  their person so that Talon can’t get it, Talon will sting 
  that person. This means if he detects that two people 
  have magical items hidden on their person, he will 
  sting both of them. He will then search their corpse(s) 
  to retrieve the amulet. Talon will always immediately 
  go invisible after attacking unless you are playing the 
  encounter at the “Easy” level of difficulty. If he is in-
  jured, Talon will flee back to Vortigern. Vortigern is 
  more concerned with keeping Talon alive than finding 
  the amulet at the price of Talon. 
   
  Killing Talon: Since Talon is Vortigern’s familiar, if 
  Talon is killed, Vortigern will lose 4 levels (becoming 
  0 level), and fall into a coma. Note that this is different 
  from the standard Familiar rules because Talon is not 
  your normal familiar. Vortigern will also lose the 
  power of regeneration and his Spell Resistance. 
   
  Ending the Combat:  
   
  Basically, you just have to play this out until one of 
  four things happens: everyone in the party dies, all of 
  the bad guys are killed (which would be quite an ac-
  complishment), Vortigern and Talon get away with the 
  amulet or Vortigern and Talon get away without the 
  amulet. Once any of these conditions occur, go to the 
  next section entitled “Escape?” Everyone will agree 
  that the first ending (the party dies) is not very fun. So 
  how do we avoid that result without using some cheesy 
  “bolt from the blue” to save the party? Easy—use an 
  “escape hatch.” 
   
  Escape Hatch: OK, so what if things are really going 
  poorly for the party? Here are a few suggestions:  
  • If it has been several rounds of combat, you could 
  have Vortigern’s animate dead spell expire (the 
  party doesn’t know this isn’t the normal spell dura-
  tion) and have the undead fall to the ground in 
  pieces—leaving just Vortigern, Talon and his thugs.  
  • You could have Vortigern’s thugs flee because they 
  are cowards at heart. After all, the hardest thing 
  about being a bad guy is that “good help is hard to 
  find.”  
  • Or you could have the skeletons and zombies start to 
  attack each other or turn to go after Vortigern and 
  the thugs. Make a die roll behind your GM screen 
  and look disappointed, as if the fact that the undead 
  might fight each other is actually some legitimate 
  part of the spell effect. 
   
  We don’t mean for you to use these escape hatches just 
  because it looks like Vortigern and Talon are about to 
  escape with the amulet—that’s OK. That just leads to 
  more adventure. Escape hatches are for situations 
  where it looks like the party is about to get wiped out. 
  Here is a good rule of thumb: if two or more characters 
  are dead use an escape hatch. Or, in this particular ad-
  venture, if Corian dies use an escape hatch. 
   
  If you do decide to use an escape hatch, whatever you 
  do—and this is a key GM skill—don’t let on that you 
  are saving the party. That’s just between us. Don’t 
  worry, everyone has done it. But remember these two 
  important rules: first, give them a full and fair opportu-
  nity to win on their own—meaning, don’t use the es-
  cape hatch too early. And second, don’t do this often. 
  Your players need to understand that death is a conse-
  quence of adventure. You can’t let your players come 
  to expect that you will always save their bacon. A dead 
  character isn’t the end of the world. In fact, in this 
  case, a dead character is incentive for the party to get to 
  Fairhill as soon as possible…which leads right to The 
  Crucible of Freya. 
   
  Escape? 
   
  If Talon manages to snatch the amulet: 
  If the tide of battle turns against Vortigern and Talon 
  and they have the opportunity to escape without the 
  amulet, read the following: 
  In either case, Talon will use his innate invisibility and 
  Vortigern will use his dust of disappearance to render 
  himself invisible. Neither will stay to harass the party. 
  They will immediately flee the area. If they have the 
  amulet, they will proceed towards Fairhill, though they 
  will not enter the village. They have abandoned their 
  henchmen, but should the thugs manage to survive, 
  Vortigern and Talon will link up with them. Vortigern 
  will have Talon use his ability to contact Dispater to 
  learn the location of Eralion’s keep. With this informa-
  tion, they head towards the keep. If Vortigern and 
  Talon are forced to flee without the amulet they will 
  head towards Fairhill. These events are detailed further 
  in the Necromancer Games adventure module The 
  Crucible of Freya. Proceed to the section entitled 
  “Concluding the Night’s Adventure,” below. 
   
  If the party vanquishes Vortigern and Talon and his 
  evil minions, which should be a tale well worth retell-
  ing, your should congratulate the party and read the 
  following: 
  Vortigern’s devilish familiar seizes the amulet and 
  with a shriek flies off, becoming invisible. Vortigern, 
  too, ducks back into the surrounding woods escaping 
  from your sight. You search everywhere, but you can-
  not seem to locate the evil apprentice. Yet his laughter 
  is all around you. 
  Sensing defeat, Vortigern yells a command to Talon, 
  his devilish familiar. Leaving his henchmen to finish 
  the battle, Talon and Vortigern disappear into thin air. 
  You search everywhere, but you cannot seem to locate 
  the evil apprentice. For the time being you have pre-
  vented Vortigern from obtaining the amulet. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 16 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
   
  Obviously, your players will want to search the bodies. 
  They find all the items listed under the Equipment sec-
  tions of the various foes. Once they do so, proceed to 
  “Concluding the Adventure.” 
   
  Concluding the Adventure  
   
  Following the final encounter with Vortigern, regard-
  less of the ending, read the following text to your play-
  ers: 
   
  If any of the party was slain in the encounter with Vor-
  tigern, remind them that Fairhill is two days away. 
  Suggest that perhaps there is someone there who can 
  aid them and that possibly the party could trade some-
  thing or pledge their service in return for having their 
  friend restored to life. 
   
  Awarding Experience 
   
  Finally, after you handle any healing and any other 
  record keeping, you can determine experience for the 
  night’s session. The new edition of the rules handles 
  the computation of experience differently. It uses a 
  “Challenge Rating” system for each monster. Here is a 
  scene-by-scene breakdown of experience: 
   
  First Watch: If the party made a good camp and were 
  smart about their preparations, let them split 50 XP.  
   
  A Voice in the Darkness: If the party encountered the 
  young leucrotta and drove him off without having to 
  fight the mother, award 300 XP plus 200 XP for avoid-
  ing the mother for a total of 500 XP. If the party had to 
  fight the young leucrotta and the mother, then award 
  1200 XP (the monsters’ CRs are 1 and 3, worth 300 
  XP and 900 XP respectively) to be divided equally 
  between the party. If you had to use an escape hatch, 
  subtract 200 XP. If the party only encountered the stir-
  ges, their value is 900 XP (3 stirges at 300 XP each).  
   
  The Smiling Skull: Award 50 XP to be split between 
  the party for searching around the hill and finding the 
  rock with the Nystul’s magic aura.  
   
  Corian’s Tale: This award is for good roleplaying. 
  Give anyone who did a good job 25 XP. If Corian did 
  well, give him or her 50 XP.  
   
  Farmhouse: Making a roll to identify the poison is 
  worth 25 XP. Evaluating the cuts on the farmers gets 
  10 XP. Deciding to bury and sanctify the bodies gets 
  25 XP per person involved in doing so; 50 XP for a 
  good-aligned cleric.  
   
  Ambush!: Actually making your Spot roll or Listen 
  roll to avoid being ambushed is worth 25 XP to any 
  character who made the roll. Calculating experience for 
  the main combat is tricky. The thugs are a total CR 2. 
  The CRs for Vortigern and Talon depend on the diffi-
  culty level of the encounter. If you used the “Difficult” 
  level, then Vortigern is CR 6 and Talon is CR 2. If you 
  used the “Average” difficulty level, then Vortigern is 
  CR 5 and Talon is CR 2. If you used the “Easy” diffi-
  culty level, then Vortigern is CR 4 and Talon is CR 1. 
  Note that no extra experience is given for the skeletons 
  and zombies because Vortigern summoned them and 
  thus they are calculated in his CR value. Thus, the final 
  XP value is as follows for the final encounter: Diffi-
  cult—3900 XP, Average—3000 XP, Easy—2250 XP.  
   
  Escape? If Vortigern and Talon escape with the amu-
  let, subtract 400 total XP. If they escape without the 
  amulet, subtract 200 total XP. If you had to use an es-
  cape hatch to save the party, subtract 200 XP. If the 
  party manages to kill both Vortigern and Talon, award 
  an additional 300 total XP.  
   
  A party of six characters who roleplay well (using the 
  final encounter at “Average” difficulty) should earn 
  about 3600 XP, or about 600 XP each. 
   
  With the dawn, Fairhill awaits two days march ahead. 
  What will your characters find there? What will be-
  come of the Wizard’s Amulet? What secrets lie buried 
  with Eralion? 
   
  Continuing the Story 
   
  The story line started in this adventure can be com-
  pleted in The Crucible of Freya, available from Nec-
  romancer Games. In The Crucible of Freya the char-
  acters finally arrive in Fairhill and learn rumors of Er-
  alion’s nearby ruined keep. The village of Fairhill is 
  fully described and mapped, including details of all its 
  important NPCs. The characters quickly become in-
  volved in assisting Shandril, a local priestess of Freya, 
  in recovering a stolen holy item which eventually leads 
  them to Eralion’s keep. Of course, Corian’s amulet 
  unlocks the secret to the keep. The ruined keep is 
  Corian’s worst fear has come to pass. But now your 
  encounter with Vortigern and his minions is over. It 
  has become too dark to look for other lodging, so you 
  light the fire in the fireplace of the farmhouse and bar 
  the door. You clean the blood from your blade and 
  tend to your wounds as well as those of your comrades. 
  You set watch, and each of you says a silent prayer to 
  your respective gods that the spirits of your foes find 
  their rest and trouble you no further this night. You 
  eventually drift off to sleep, but your sleep is fitful—
  filled with Talon’s devilish screams. You wake to the 
  sound of rain and gray skies. The sun, even hidden 
  behind the clouds, is a welcome sight. 
  Your foes are defeated. Talon, Vortigern’s devilish 
  familiar, writhes and smokes as he dissolves into a 
  stinking mass of slime. The hired thugs, routed or 
  slain, shall trouble you no more. And the foul undead 
  conjured by Vortigern have found their final rest at the 
  end of your blade. This farmhouse, previously a scene 
  of slaughter, is now a scene of vengeance. 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 17 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  mapped as are the levels beneath it where Eralion re-
  sides—tricked by Orcus into his horrid fate. If Vorti-
  gern escaped the final encounter in this adventure, The 
  Crucible of Freya provides ideas on using Vortigern as 
  a continuing antagonist for the party—as he will travel 
  to Fairhill himself to seek Eralion’s keep, possibly run-
  ning afoul of the party a second time. Unlike this ad-
  venture, which was tightly scripted and linear to ac-
  complish the goal of playing without much prepara-
  tion, The Crucible of Freya can be run either as a tight 
  story continuing this adventure or it can be used as a 
  sourcebook for GMs to run their own adventures in 
  Fairhill. 
   
  Of course, you are free to develop the story started here 
  without following up with The Crucible of Freya. Er-
  alion’s lair can be placed in any keep or tower near 
  some small out of the way village in your own cam-
  paign world. Eralion would not have set up shop in a 
  highly visible area—he sought privacy. Place a secret 
  door somewhere in the tower or keep that is enchanted 
  so that only Eralion or a person who possesses the 
  amulet can open it. You should detail a small wizard’s 
  lair, which is now haunted by Eralion. Perhaps the ru-
  mors are wrong. Perhaps Eralion did succeed in be-
  coming a lich but is somehow trapped in his lair—the 
  limiting enchantment on the secret door no longer al-
  lowing him to pass since he is no longer truly Eralion, 
  nor is he a lich. Perhaps he has some task for the party. 
  Or perhaps he wishes to undo what he has done. A 
  party of first-level characters encountering a lich and 
  being asked by him for aid would certainly make an 
  interesting adventure. Or maybe he is some other 
  twisted form of undead. You are free to draw this up 
  on your own. Or you can check out The Crucible of 
  Freya, where we have already done it all for you (and 
  more). And remember—this adventure was FREE. 
  Imagine what you’ll get from a product you actually 
  have to pay for. It boggles the mind. 
   
  Pre-generated Characters 
   
  Pre-generated characters can be downloaded from the 
  Necromancer Games web site. They are provided for 
  your players’ use. All the characters are male by de-
  fault, but any one can easily be changed to female, as 
  there is no statistical difference. You may notice there 
  are no Halfling Paladins or Dwarf Monks. Sure, the 
  Third Edition rules allow them, but we at Necroman-
  cer Games won’t have any of that nonsense. Remem-
  ber: “3rd Edition Rules, 1st Edition Feel.” 
   
  Credits 
   
  Initial Concept: Clark Peterson and Christoper 
  Laurent 
  Written By: Clark Peterson and Bill Webb 
  Art: John Massé 
  Page Layout: John Massé and C. J. Land 
  Adobe® Acrobat® Publishing: Clark Peterson 
  Play Testing: Bill Webb, Clark Peterson, C. J. Land, 
  David Peterson, Christopher Laurent, Karl Harden, 
  Nicolas Laurent, Ken Hommel, John Ackerman, Mike 
  Weber, Chip Schweiger, Louis Roberts, Karl Johnson, 
  Jesse Briggs, Sean Jones, Jennifer Chalfan and Betty. 
   
  Special Thanks to: Ryan Dancey at Wizards of the 
  Coast, Eric Rowe and Dustin Wright at the Wizard’s 
  Attic, Eric Noah for the 3E board, Susan Webb, Rolfe 
  Bergstrom at Wargames West for doing us right, Jason 
  Klank of MAG, Kyle Charon of Fiend Games, Hyrum 
  Savage of Otherworld Creations, Brad Thompson, 
  John Bacon, Alec Burkhardt, Tim Duggar and all the 
  people on the d20/OGL mailing lists. 
   
  Information 
  About 
  Necromancer 
  Games 
   
  If you enjoyed this adventure, please visit our web site: 
  www.necromancergames.com. Tell us what your play-
  ers accomplished. Tell us what you plan on doing to 
  continue the story. And let us know how we can make 
  our products more useful for you as either a GM or 
  player.  
   
  In addition, check the Necromancer Games site for 
  Product Support information. We will frequently up-
  date our site with user and player comments, new en-
  counter areas, more pre-generated characters, alternate 
  endings and various other materials for you to use with 
  our products. We will also in the future provide prod-
  uct-specific chat areas. Some of these add-ons will be 
  available to everyone. Most products, though, will have 
  their own “product update password” that you can use 
  to access the chat sessions and bonus materials related 
  to those specific products. 
   
  Product Update Password for The Wizard’s Amulet: 
  Talon. 
   
  All contents ©2002 Necromancer Games, Inc. All 
  rights reserved. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Open Game Content 
  This adventure is pub-
  lished under the Open 
  Game License and the 
  d20 System Trademark 
  License. 
  It 
  contains 
  “Open Game Content,” 
  meaning it contains stuff 
  that is being used from 
  the System Reference 
  Document from the d20 
  System. 
  What does all that mean? 
  Nothing much, really, 
  unless you are a game 
  designer. But if you want 
  more 
  information 
  on 
  Open 
  Gaming, 
  you 
  should see the Legal Ap-
  pendix to this adventure 
  and you should visit the 
  Wizards of the Coast d20 
  Page at: 
   
  http://www.wizards.com/
  D 2 0 / m a i n . a s p ?
  x=welcome,3 
   
  and you should also visit 
  ENWorld, where every-
  thing having to do with 
  open 
  gaming is 
  dis-
  cussed. You can find 
  ENWorld at: 
   
  http://www.enworld.org/ 
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 18 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  Legal Appendix 
   
  This printing of The Wizard’s Amulet is done under version 1.0a of the Open 
  Game License, below, and version 1.0 and/or 3.0 of the d20 System Trademark 
  License and d20 System Trademark Logo Guide. Some of the Open Game Content 
  used herein comes from a draft version of the System Reference Document by 
  permission from Wizards of the Coast by and through Ryan Dancey and/or An-
  thony Valterra. Subsequent printings of this work will incorporate and comply 
  with final versions of the System Reference Document. 
  Notice of Open Game Content: This product contains Open Game Content as 
  defined in the Open Game License, below. Open Game Content may only be Used 
  under and in terms of the Open Game License. 
  Designation of Open Game Content:  
  Subject to the Product Identity designation below, the following portions of The 
  Wizard’s Amulet are designated as Open Game Content: All creature and NPC 
  stat blocks; skills; feats; special attacks; special qualities; spells; spell names; 
  monster names;  
  Designation of Product Identity: The following items are hereby designated as 
  Product Identity as provided in section 1(e) of the Open Game License:  
  1. The name “Necromancer Games” as well as all logos and identifying marks of 
  Necromancer Games, Inc., including but not limited to the Orcus logo and the 
  phrase “Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel”; 
  2. The Necromancer Games product names “The Wizard’s Amulet,” “The Cruci-
  ble of Freya,” “Rappan Athuk,“ and “Dungeon of Graves,” except for their ap-
  pearance within Section 15 of the Open Game License; 
  3. All artwork, illustrations, or graphic design including any text contained within 
  such artwork, illustrations, or graphic design.   
  4. The proper names of all characters (including the names of the pregenerated 
  characters included in the accompanying Pregenerated Characters download), 
  NPCs, places, locations and things, including but not limited to: Corian, Galdar, 
  Eralion, Feriblan, Orcus, Vortigern, Talon, Reme, Fairhill, Bard’s Gate, Stone-
  heart Mountains, Starving Stirge, River Greywash, tradeway; as well as all mate-
  rial contained under the “Corian‘s Supplemental Information” and “Eralion‘s Let-
  ter heading.” 
  OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a 
  The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and is Copyright 
  2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ("Wizards"). All Rights Reserved.  
  1. Definitions: (a) "Contributors" means the copyright and/or trademark owners 
  who have contributed Open Game Content; (b) "Derivative Material" means copy-
  righted material including derivative works and translations (including into other 
  computer languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, up-
  grade, improvement, compilation, abridgment or other form in which an existing 
  work may be recast, transformed or adapted; (c) "Distribute" means to reproduce, 
  license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise distrib-
  ute; (d) "Open Game Content" means the game mechanic and includes the meth-
  ods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent such content does not embody 
  the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any additional 
  content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means 
  any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works 
  under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity; (e) "Product Iden-
  tity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including 
  trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic ele-
  ments, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, like-
  nesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other vis-
  ual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchant-
  ments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, loca-
  tions, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or 
  effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered 
  trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Iden-
  tity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content; (f) "Trademark" 
  means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor 
  to identify itself or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open 
  Game License by the Contributor; (g) "Use", "Used" or "Using" means to use, 
  Distribute, copy, edit, format, modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative 
  Material of Open Game Content; (h) "You" or "Your" means the licensee in terms 
  of this agreement.  
  2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a 
  notice indicating that the Open Game Content may only be Used under and in 
  terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content 
  that you Use. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as 
  described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any 
  Open Game Content distributed using this License.  
  3. Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your 
  acceptance of the terms of this License.  
  4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, 
  the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive 
  license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.  
  5. Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original 
  material as Open Game Content, You represent that Your Contributions are Your 
  original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by 
  this License.  
  6. Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
  portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of 
  any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You 
  must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the 
  COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.  
  7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including 
  as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, inde-
  pendent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You 
  agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Reg-
  istered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content 
  except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of 
  such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in 
  Open Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Prod-
  uct Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall 
  retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity.  
  8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate 
  which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Game Content.  
  9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated 
  versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to 
  copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under 
  any version of this License.  
  10. Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every 
  copy of the Open Game Content You Distribute.  
  11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open 
  Game Content using the name of any Contributor unless You have written permis-
  sion from the Contributor to do so.  
  12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the 
  terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to 
  statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open 
  Game Material so affected.  
  13. Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply 
  with all terms herein and fail to cure such breach within 30 days of becoming 
  aware of the breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License.  
  14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, 
  such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforce-
  able.  
  15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE  
  Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.  
  System Reference Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; 
  Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material 
  by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.  
  The Wizard’s Amulet Copyright 2000-2002, Necromancer Games, Inc., Author 
  Clark Peterson and Bill Webb. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
  The Wizard’s Amulet—Page 19 
  www.necromancergames.com 
   
   
   
  Corian’s Supplemental Information 
   
  You have chosen to play the character of Corian, the Sorcerer. You are 
  the motivating force behind the formation of the party. For that reason, 
  you have additional background information. Read the following infor-
  mation so that you will be better able to play your character. It is up to 
  you whether or not to reveal this information, and if so whether you re-
  veal all or only some of the information contained here.  
   
  Initially, if the other characters press you for information, rebuff them by 
  saying “We are not yet far enough from Reme,” or “There are still too 
  many ears that may hear us.” Be cryptic. At a specific time later in the 
  adventure, you will be prompted by the GM to reveal your story. Again, 
  even when that time comes, it is up to you how much to reveal and 
  whether or not to tell the truth. You should begin to think now about 
  what you will tell the group later so that you will be prepared. 
   
  Your Background: During the final days under your uncle’s tutelage, 
  you and your master traveled to the library of Feriblan the Mad in the 
  city of Reme. You were not pleased to visit Feriblan, for while there you 
  are always forced to have contact with Vortigern, Feriblan’s apprentice, 
  and his loathsome raven familiar—Talon. Luckily for you, this particular 
  visit you managed to avoid Vortigern. While perusing mundane docu-
  ments in an outer sitting room as your uncle and Feriblan studied ancient 
  scrolls, you nervously fiddled with a clasp on the back of a small reading 
  stand.  
   
  To your surprise, a secret compartment opened which contained a small, 
  bound piece of parchment and an item wrapped in a silk cloth. Checking 
  to see that your actions were unobserved, You managed to slip the amu-
  let and parchment into the folds of your robe. The parchment proved to 
  be a letter from a person—apparently a wizard—named Eralion. It ap-
  pears that Eralion left this letter for Feriblan on his last to visit to Reme 
  before some “ritual” that he spoke of in the letter. The letter apparently 
  also refers to the amulet you found with the letter. A copy of the letter 
  from Eralion can be found at the end of this section. You should read 
  that letter now. 
   
  Intrigued by the letter, you returned to visit Feriblan some months later, 
  once you were freed from servitude to your uncle. Figuring the old mage 
  was addle-brained you took the risk of asking him direct questions about 
  Eralion. You learned that Eralion was nowhere near powerful enough to 
  make the transition into a lich. “Eralion! A  lich?!” the old wizard ex-
  claimed. “He was no apprentice, my son, but neither was he a mage with 
  the mastery of the eldritch powers necessary for such a dangerous under-
  taking! If you have heard such rumors, boy, I shall put them to rest. The 
  magics required for such a transition were far beyond his grasp.” Once 
  on the topic of his old friend, Feriblan spoke at length—though in a dis-
  jointed fashion. He told you about Eralion’s keep, which was located to 
  the east of Reme some six days travel, near the village of Fairhill. Feri-
  blan made reference to a staff that Eralion possessed which apparently 
  had magical powers. He also mentioned that Eralion had never returned 
  several valuable magical tracts and spell books. You left the old wizard 
  determined to find this tower and the items it contained—for if Eralion 
  was not a lich, the items should be there for the taking! 
   
  Readying yourself with the necessary equipment for travel to Fairhill, 
  you visited a local tavern—the Starving Stirge. There you posted a no-
  tice seeking the aid of able-bodied adventurers willing to join with you 
  in seeking out a wizard’s tower. Promising an equal division of all gold 
  recovered, you soon gathered a group of comrades-at-arms eager for 
  adventure and glory. Quite unlooked for, you were also joined by Gal-
  dar, a Cleric of St. Cuthbert, who was told in a vision from his deity to 
  seek you out and to follow wherever the amulet led. The god of retribu-
  tion and justice, it seems, has business with Eralion. 
   
  You have been reluctant to give the full story to your new friends, not 
  for lack of trust in them but rather because you have on more than one 
  occasion seen Talon, the raven familiar of Vortigern, peering into your 
  chamber door. Nevermore will you believe your theft of the amulet and 
  letter went unseen by the wicked bird, and you don’t wish to risk further 
  discovery while still in Reme. Who knows what spells Feriblan or Vorti-
  gern might have at their disposal to read your thoughts or hear your 
  words? You promised your new friends that you would reveal more to 
  them once you had left Reme. So you and your companions set out from 
  Reme some four days ago, with light hearts and heavy packs—only you 
  harboring the nagging fear that Vortigern and his loathsome bird would 
  somehow know of your goal: Eralion’s keep and its unguarded treasure. 
   
  Eralion’s Letter 
   
  My Dear Feriblan— 
   
  I must confess to you—my closest friend—that I was not entirely truthful 
  with you at our last meeting. I feel compelled now to tell you of it, as 
  this may be the last time I write with mortal hands. Do you recall our 
  discussion some months past regarding liches and how users of the ar-
  cane arts might achieve that particular state? I must admit to you that 
  the topic for me was not entirely scholarly, as I led you to believe. And 
  for that I am sorry.  
   
  I know that you, my friend, have gazed into darkness in the name of 
  knowledge. That is why I sought your learned counsel. For I too have 
  gazed into darkness. And like you, I found knowledge—knowledge be-
  yond imagining. From the demon-lord Orcus himself I have wrested the 
  secret to lichdom, and I plan to move beyond scholarly talk and bring 
  myself immortality. Imagine it, my friend! An eternity to study the arts, 
  to master arcane power! 
   
  As I pen these words I have arrayed before me unguents and phials, 
  instruments and tomes, all necessary for my transformation, save only 
  one—an arcane phylactery of elaborate design. The ingredients for that 
  item will bring me once again to your city.  By the time you read this 
  letter, I shall have retrieved the necessary items and shall be on my way 
  back to my keep.  
   
  Yet, as I begin to prepare my mind for my wondrous fate, my thoughts 
  turn to you, my oldest friend. Accompanying this missive there is a small 
  silk pouch. In that pouch is an amulet—an amulet I have created for 
  you. I know of your thirst for knowledge. With this amulet, you will have 
  access to my keep where I shall reside in immortality. If you wish to 
  learn that which I have learned, you may visit me. 
   
  Long have others of our kind called you “mad.” Perhaps it is I whom 
  they will now call mad. But I do not care for their appellations. Let them 
  say what they will. I have won something far greater than words—I have 
  won immortality, and with it, power. I shall share that knowledge with 
  you, my friend. Visit me soon. Gaze into the darkness again. 
   
  Eralion 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/D&D 3.5/Necromancer Games/Adventures/W0 - The Wizard's Amulet.pdf