They’re there to surprise players and let them know that, hey, you’re entering dangerous territory and can expect to be attacked. Ever since its publication in 2000, The Sunless Citadel has been widely regarded as an excellent way to introduce new players to the game. This one is a great example of how failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and of other ways to encourage players to explore: The narrow stairs empty into a small courtyard, apparently the top of what was once a crenellated battlement. Digital items are not returnable or refundable. Room 2. This circular area is cobbled with cracked granite, upon which sprawl the bodies of four goblins, apparently slain in combat. Explore these posts. I completely gave the Sunless Citadel a miss during its first release, back in the early days of 3.0. It’s the first time the players encounter something that isn’t a rat. Warning: This article contains spoilers for Sunless Citadel.The Sunless Citadel was a fortress within the Warring Woods that was uncovered and explored soon after the Silence of the Gods. First introduced in 3rd Edition, the Sunless Citadel has proved to be a fantastic introductory adventure for many a hero. Huh, wonder what that’s all about. A much simpler DC 10 Investigation check clues the players in to the narrow catwalk around the pit, as well as figuring out how the mechanism of the pit works. It’s a DC 15 Perception check to spot it, which is still within the range of possibility for first level characters, though by no means guaranteed. You may also purchase individual magic items. I am looking for 3-4 players who are unfamiliar with the adventure. The Sunless Citadel: re-imagined to the latest edition of D&D! The Tower at last. One corpse stands with its back against the western wall, the spear that killed it still skewering it and holding it upright. It has a special ability that doesn't necessarily translate well into Fifth Edition without a bit of extra thought. This image is licensed under Creative Commons NonCommerical 4.0. Lurking in this room are three giant rats, who hide iand ambush the characters if they become aware of them. Modules included are: The Sunless Citadel … The party has now completely explored the first level of The Sunless Citadel apart from a few rooms in the kobolds' territory. Author pukunui81 Posted on August 9, 2017 June 3, 2020 Categories The Sunless Citadel Tags 5e, Calcryx, D&D, goblins, kobolds, Meepo, Sunless Citadel, white dragon Leave a comment on Exploring the Citadel To the Sunless Citadel. D&D 5E Next Game Will Be : 1591052400: Total Players Needed : 6 ... Now known as the Sunless Citadel, its echoing, broken halls house malign creatures. The ledge is wide but rough. Really wish I could apply to play but 6:30pm is a little early for my schedule. The skeletons animate and attack. D&D: The Sunless Citadel Is Free On Popular Online Platforms. First up there’s the combat component: this one is interesting in that combat may never happen in the room. These are the first non-rat monster the players can encounter. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). This is an eight module adventure path. Here are some examples. If your players are new, this is a pretty simple encounter, and one that they will likely win–which is good. As for the fighting, the rats aren’t much of a threat–but they’re not meant to be. It carries consequences, and gets them attacked by rats (possibly) but the fall never deals damage directly, it just sort of allows the players to fail skill checks in a very low stakes environment. This post extrapolates on an encounter in the early areas of the Sunless Citadel for DnD 5th Edition as found in Tales From the Yawning Portal. And though it’s easy to find, it’s still rewarding to the players. Here was a lookout station for the Sunless Citadel. The skeletons of three long-dead archers slump against rubble-filled arrow slits along the east and south wall. Embers crackle in the hearth of the Driftwood Tavern as the sun sets, painting the horizon with the beautiful, deep reds and purples of a summer sunset. 1 Dramatis Personae 1.1 Heroes 1.2 Allies 2 Plot 2.1 Lowater 2.2 The Citadel 2.3 Goblin Kingdom 2.4 Grove of Twilight The adventurers hailed from Sang City, having been part of the Lord … Dragonlance. It’s also a great starting experience for a new DM. If they cautiously pull on the lever, they’ll see the trap before they even set it off (and can thus deactivate it) and even if they don’t it only deals 1 point of piercing damage. Here are some notes for my use. It’s a DC 10 check–so odds are good that even if the players don’t have someone proficient in survival, they’ll pass the check. Moving the goblin that’s pinned to the wall reveals the word Ashardalon in draconic runes (Ashardalon, in addition to having a board game all about him, was the big bad of the campaign [of which the Sunless Citadel was only the first in a long line of adventures]). It’s great for players and GMs alike–there’s a little of everything in this dungeon. On Krynn, the citadel was once part of Xak Tsaroth, and it harbored worshipers of Takhisis. Alex Lockhart (alexlockhart7) United States Ohio. A wizened old man clad in a simple brown cloak and hood sits at a table in the … That brings me to the puzzle component of the room. So here the puzzle element is fairly easy–it’s the Survival check to spot the footprints (and potentially the perception check to spot the rats). Our heroes for The Sunless Citadel include:. ©2021 Wizards. After all it’s only a DC 10 acrobatics check to make every 10 feet (and failing by 5 or more is needed before you fall in, so odds are this will never happen). Sunless Citadel just makes it easier to do that to beginners. By placing your order, you agree to our, ©2021 D&D Beyond | All Rights Reserved | Powered by Fandom Games. Room 3. Go AD FREE today! But the exploration does yield more information–sometimes that’s enough. This initial post is is to gauge interest. This pit is hidden a little more thoroughly. Next we get the narrative component. And yet…. By this point the players will have had some combat, had a chance to search for traps, secret doors, and learned that their actions carry consequences (though not always game-ending ones) and by the time they’ve gotten actually inside the dungeon, done everything they’ll need to succeed in the dungeon at least once. This “room” is mostly narrative–it adds the sense of depth to the citadel. Now let’s look at the narrative aspect of the room. When that city was destroyed during the cataclysm, it fell into a rift that opened in the earth. I realize we’re a couple of years into the release of Dungeons Dragons 5e and that Sunless Citadel was meant as an introductory adventure to a previous edition but, they still do bill it and praise it in Yawning Portal as a brilliant beginning adventure. There’s also a lone, non-random giant rat here, though it is hidden in a pit trap. It has the following druid spells prepared: Three wooden doors lead from this area. They’ll find two skeletons (which suggest goblins have been here a while) and a much fresher goblin which is a preview of the things to come. With its combination of dungeon crawling, puzzle solving, and secret door finding, it’s a great lesson not only in what D&D expects of its players, but what it expects of its GMs too. This does a couple of things–it rewards them with a little bit of extra narrative information (there are rats here, which they might notice before they get attacked) and it alerts them to the fact that they aren’t the only humanoids to come through here recently. What game system are you running? Even when not actively being used, it’s important to consider how players might interact with a room. As the party approaches the … No combat component in this room, but man talk about some narrative components. The Sunless Citadel is one of the greatest intro adventures in all of D&D–and now you can try it for free on D&D Beyond, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, their respective logos, and all Wizards titles and characters are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. Another way you can think of this is–what purpose is the room. This is the hardest fight yet at CR 3/4 (total)…but by this point the players will likely only be down a few hit points, so they should still succeed–but this should be the first time they’re not certain from the outset. The Sunless Citadel is one of the greatest intro adventures in all of D&D–and now you can try it for free on D&D Beyond, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds. This encourages fledgling GMs to look at how the rats might become aware of the players. Puzzles can be traps, secret doors, actual puzzles, anything that rewards the player for thinking or interacting with the world in a not necessarily combative way. And finally, there’s an old ring of stones that was once a firepit. It’s a tutorial level, but a well-done, disguised one that lets the players experience these things organically. Flipping to their stat block, they have a +0 perception bonus–but unless the players are being especially stealthy, the rats’ passive perception of 10 should be more than enough to hear the players’ approach. The Sunless Citadel, written by Bruce R. Cordell, was the first published adventure for the third edition of the D&D game. Three giant rats are a grand total of CR 3/8…they do an average of 2 damage with any given attack, and are hitting AC 15 (which is a pretty good baseline) only on a 13+, so they’re only hitting 35% of the time. Though it means little now–it’s great foreshadowing and is unique enough to make the players take notice. It gets them thinking and on the lookout. And the narrative component here is manifold. And then there’s the puzzle component. A dungeon crawl through a published adventure … This sentence teaches you so much about running the game–for starters, it encourages you to think about the monsters as an active force in the game. Then they hide–which is a simple +2 and since the GM will just have thought about their passive perception, it should be relatively easy to figure out if the PCs have spotted the rats or not. So already it begins building a mystery. Little details like that add to the overall cohesiveness of the dungeon. This serves as a teaching moment to players. Get the 11 monsters from The Sunless Citadel for use on D&D Beyond. Don't miss out on the conversation at Geek Native. The Sunless Citadel is an adventure module for the 3rd edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The adventure is widely regarded as an excellent way to introduce players to D&D. Introduction In Sunless Citadel, one of the major pieces of loot is a magic weapon called Shatterspike. Should you play it ... for instance, Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D 5e Starter Set. Each of the skeletons has a quiver containing a +1 arrow, which granted, is not the fanciest thing to write home about, but these arrows will come in handy later on in the dungeon. Ultimately the PC's get to face the Great Wyrm Ashardalon. There are traps, secrets to discover and puzzles to solve. Check it out: Room 1. The goblins have all been dead a while and have been looted, making players wonder “by who? The staff has 10 charges and regains 1d6 + 4 of its expended charges daily at dusk.. March 3rd, 2016, 14:20 #2 The Sunless Citadel: #5e #DnD One-Stop Stat Blocks #rpg @bandofmisfits March 23, 2017 June 21, 2020 Frylock Leave a comment As promised yesterday, I’ve completed the one-stop stat blocks for the recently-released preview of the Sunless Citadel, as it will appear in the upcoming Tales of the Yawing Portal . The last fleeting rays of daylight silhouette the Neverwinter skyline, while patrons clink their mugs in merriment in the common room. !” while adding to the sense of immersion–the PCs aren’t the only ones with apparent agency in the world. Only now it looks like someone was fighting them. First introduced in 3rd Edition, the Sunless Citadel has proved to be a fantastic introductory adventure for many a hero. Sunless Citadel is one of those moduels that I would always hear about but never got the chance to play. Making the check is a victory, plain and simple–and little victories like these are great training tools to try and subtly encourage the players to search the rooms they’re in. From there it’s a DC 15 check with thieves’ tools to try and disable the pit, either by jamming the lid shut or jamming it open. So with three rats, it’s likely that they’ll output 2-4 damage per round between the three of them–which isn’t even a threat to a wizard anymore. You have the skeletons who were clearly hanging out for a purpose. As the room puts it: They try to hide if they become aware of the characters, and they ambush the first character who arrives on the ledge without being quiet about it. The modules are loosely tied together by having clues and hints to the power and history of the Dragon. This is how you make your dungeon feel real–it’s an element that helps immerse players in the world of the game. In Room 12 the players encounter the Tomb of a Failed Dragonpriest, who was imprisoned for delving into profane magic and turning himself into a troll. So let’s take a look at what’s at work here. In this room, it’s a hidden pit trap. The stairs led to a paved courtyard (a part of the roof of the sunken Sunless Citadel). You have been warned. There are SPOILERS below for the SUNLESS CITADEL below! I use a simple spreadsheet to track monster hit points during encounters to save a little time and keep my sha And fighting three means that in a standard party they should be dealt with in no more than two rounds or so–but there should be enough to give everyone a chance to do something. But note that failing the check doesn’t really impede their progress. This isn’t the normal world anymore–something happened here. But it’s equally likely they haven’t picked up on that yet. Sand, rocky debris, and the bones of small animals cover it. There’s a reason the room is here, and that these particular monsters are in it. This is a great prompt for players. The rats aren’t just there waiting to activate when the players arrive. I wanted to write up a "Session Report" on our latest fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons session. What 'type' or variant of game will it be? A hollow tower of loose masonry reaches thirty feet into the air, but the intervening floors and stairs are gone, except for a couple of crumbled ledges. Your welcome to use it for non-commercial games. A lone tower standing to the west. It also teaches the players that sometimes the monsters can be hiding–and if they are ambushed, it might teach them to try and be stealthy. In which our protagonists begin their first quest. I may run it again for a future group; actually, that would be fantastic as this is really a lovely adventure. Please enable JavaScript to get the best experience from this site. The 16 questions: 1. The room is littered with debris, and if players can’t pass a check, they fall into a debris lined cavity. I'm doing prep work and needed a map of Oakhurst for the Sunless Citadel I couldn't find one to my liking, so I quickly made one in Campaign Cartographer. It’s also a great starting experience for a new DM. This one is much simpler. This site works best with JavaScript enabled. This 32-page book begins with a two-page introduction. Shatterspike in 5e. Its evil makes beasts visibly uncomfortable while within 30 feet of it. What gives this encounter a sense of place and purpose? Raven Flare, female tiefling rogue (urchin); Kalitni, female human ranger (hermit); Xuri, female blue dragonborn sorcerer (wild magic; sage); Sir Dain (NPC), male hill dwarf paladin (knight); Last time, the party entered the Sunless Citadel, fought a number of monsters, then took refuge in a secret room while they rested and healed. The Sunless Citadel, by Bruce R. Cordell, was originally published in 2000 as a beginning adventure for the third edition of the D&D game. Starting with the combat encounter–there are three giant rats that await characters who come rushing in. As most readers undoubtedly recall, there was far more than enough D&D material to spend money, even before the OGL content glut. Evil has taken root at the citadel’s core, which is deep within a subterranean garden of blighted foliage. My group has now wrapped up the Sunless Citadel. The Sunless Citadel. It’s the first chance they have to investigate something interesting in the environment. Players who don’t spot the pit fall in when they step on it, getting trapped in a 10×10 pit with three dead goblins and a giant rat. This dungeon teaches you everything you’ll need to succeed in the first five rooms. It has been lightly retooled for 5e in Tales from the Yawning Portal, which is a great book with some really odd up-front decisions that I can’t resist … Especially since the rat had climbed into the pit to feed on the goblin–another moment for the GM to pick up on how the creatures might interact with the dungeon–they are an active part of the environment. Either way, it again reinforces the idea of checking for traps–and even players that fall in the pit and get trapped there with the rat will likely survive (though they’ll take more than a little damage after falling 10 feet and being nibbled on). A successful DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check reveals humanoid footprints, as well as rat tracks of unusually large size. There’s a hard to spot secret door in here–it takes a DC 20 check to find it. Kyle Maxwell Adventure 2017-08-08 10 Minutes. People have been here before and used it–the firepit is still ringed with stones and ash…but it’s abandoned. But there’s plenty of potential here. I can’t say enough good things about this dungeon, here’s why. Meepo's tribe are eager to have their captured dragon returned. No I said pit tra–actually this gives me an idea…. That floor stretches away to the north and south, composed of a lyer of treacherous, crumbled masonry which reaches to an unknown depth. By now the players might be on the alert–cautious players who’ve either fallen in the masonry, or been ambushed by rats might want to search the room. Finally, five rooms in, we come to our first real reward. If the staff is broken or burned to ashes, its wood releases a terrible, inhuman scream that can … The Sunless Citadel isn’t just a crawl with monsters, though. The first place that we come to is a Ledge overlooking the Sunless Citadel–a fortress that sank beneath the earth long ago. Subscribe to BoLS Prime. Something that’s only hinted at by the “faint trace of rot.” It’s connective tissue, sure, but it follows up on the “zig zag staircase” mentioned in the first room. A tower stands on the west side of the courtyard. Each time a character does this, there’s a 10 percent chance that 1d4 giant rats (who infest the rubble field) will be drawn to the characters and attack. Get the 3 magic items from The Sunless Citadel for use on D&D Beyond. There’s a lot to unpack in this room. All is quiet, though a cold breeze blows up from below, bringing with it the scent of dust and a faint trace of rot. The adventure is widely regarded as an excellent way to introduce players to D&D. Also worth noting is the sentence: They aren’t dangerous to traverse, however, except that combat while on the narrow path can be risky. The druid is a 4th-level spellcaster. Room 4. I am interested in potentially running The Sunless Citadel, out of Tales from the Yawning Portal. 30 Jul 2018. This dungeon has a reputation for being one of the best intro to D&D modules you can pick up. This is another recreation of the Sunless Citadel by Bruce R. Cordell. The Sunless Citadel is designed to be easily located in what-ever setting the DM prefers. Room 5. The players walk down to the top of the fortress–again reinforcing the monumental collapse that brought it here–and then they are immediately given a destination. All of these are great lessons to learn, but the dungeon doesn’t beat you over the head with it–it just lets players learn the lesson (likely the hard way) but when the stakes are nice and low. Rasroth led the novice adventurers into the ancient, sunken citadel. Players who found the pit trap–or who find the cryptic writing on the walls might then be tempted to look for more secret things. Now there’s no monsters in this area–this is just a transition room, but it suggests to the GM that hey the players might move here during the fight (how many fights have you had that stayed central to a single room). The buried citadel has sunk so far into the earth that the battlement is now level with the surrounding floor. There’s no tangible reward component to this room–nothing worth writing home about. This is where they really play up the sunken citadel motif. With ready to be used maps filled with monsters that are waiting for adventurers, items that you can give to party and traps ready to be sprung, this companion will allow you to focus on the … A sandy ledge overlooks a subterranean gulf of darkness to the west. Plot summary. What could be more inviting to adventurers? The Sunless Citadel: A D&D 5e Session Report. See more ideas about sunless, dungeons and dragons, fantasy map. The subterranean citadel, though impressive, seems long forgotten, if the lightless windows, cracked crenellations, and leaning towers are any indication. Leave an insight in the comments below and get to know people. This is the first place you get to see the impact of the citadel’s collapse–evident from the ruined tower–but there are also four goblin bodies. You may also purchase individual monsters. It is designed for a party of four or five 1st level player characters. Sunless Citadel, Day 3 First & Second Game Session The party followed a staircase that descended into the ravine from the ledge. The encounters are dynamic, there are traps, and things get fairly complex, but there’s a definite build towards the difficult fights. Finally we have a secret chamber where skeletal archers await our heroes: This pocket chamber is damp and cold. From a distance, this room isn’t all that much–it’s a 5×4 square piece of dirt at the outset of the dungeon, and the only combat encounter here is a few rats–but look at how everything’s presented. Sunless Citadel Monster HP Tracker (5e) - Hello! Ashardalon is a Colossal Dragon so you get to break out that D&D Miniatures Colossal Red Dragon miniature at the end of this path. Again, not deadly, but a good lesson that “hey, you should check for traps.”. The Sunless Citadel: A D&D 5e Session Report Nimlothiel the elf druid, Kimora the human sorcerer and Rasroth Nethezar the dragonborn paladin adventure into the famed Sunless Citadel in search of fame, glory, and treasure. Welcome to 3.5e Adventure Companion for Sunless Citadel This companion is designed to help you easily run one of the Classic adventures for 3.5 edition of worlds most popular RPG system. They were the archers on guard duty, hanging out in a room filled with arrow slits. And as of today it’s free on D&D Beyond, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds until May 14th. The player characters explore the Sunless Citadel, where they encounter a kobold named Meepo. They might become aware of the characters–and if they do, the GM gets to have them ambush the players. Sunless Citadel Maps Outdoor and overland maps my brain can work out how to do, for some reason dungeon maps I might as well be using crayons and construction paper. The difference between mine and all the other recreations though, is … How does it fit into the world? We want that. In this room, it’s the sense of being at the precipice of adventure. They signify that something bad happened here–these archers were cursed with undeath when the citadel sunk. And once you find it the door is trapped–although not very severely. Look at the language–it’s meant to evoke abandonment and decay, both things that key the players into the themes of the dungeon. D&D 5e 2. Running the Sunless Citadel. Keep me in mind if you ever DM a game that takes place just a little later in the evening. After tallying the sizable XP award for this session, and dividing by 5 because Erky is with them, they ended up 63 XP short of they needed for 3rd level. Just to make sure that any players who never set off the pit trap still get the foreshadowing of goblins in the Citadel. The layers of dust convey a sense of time–little sensory details like that can draw a player in, evoking the sense that, they’re the first to step into this place in a while. Spellcasting. His pet white dragon wyrmling was stolen by goblinswho live deeper in the ruins. The Sunless Citadel, by Bruce R. Cordell, was originally published in 2000 as a beginning adventure for the third edition of the D&D game. The trap is placed right outside the tower door, so that there’s no way for players to avoid interacting with it. Nov 3, 2020 - Explore Chris Reyna's board "Sunless Citadel" on Pinterest. The party battles or parleys their way through t… This purchase unlocks the entire contents of the book version for use with D&D Beyond, including the adventure in digital format in the game compendium and access options from the book in the searchable listings, character builder, and digital sheet. This is another little bit of narrative mixed in here. Posted by Alex Lockhart. A rough-hewn stairwell zigs and zags down the side of the ledge, descending into darkness. To the west looms the surviving structure of what must be the Sunless Citadel. It’s a switchback staircase with a series of landings that leads up to the fortress: A fortress emerges from the darkness. Anyway, players who succeed in spotting the pit will have a much easier time. Made from the branch of a Gulthias tree (see the blights entry of the Monster Manual), a Gulthias staff is a spongy, black length of wood. Finally we’re getting to the Sunless Citadel–by now players have had plenty of time to warm up to the idea of what they’re exploring, and have hopefully been getting excited.
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