Lessons Learned - Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde 3e to 5e Conversion

Hi ho, Hearty Adventurers! All the way back in 2018, I began running a D&D 5e campaign for my friends, and being the lazy bastard innovatively efficient DM that I am, instead of coming up with my own adventure, I converted The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde from D&D 3e (well, 3.5e) into 5th edition. While I may be a lazy bastard (fine, I admit it), I'm at least enough of a team player that I am willing to share my notes so if you want to run SGoS in 5e yourself, you don't have to work too hard at it. I mean, you have to buy your own copy of the adventure (I suggest getting the DM's Guild PDF copy instead of shelling out upwards of $50 for a physical copy), but after that, smooth sailing!

Quick review of SGoS - it's not the best adventure out there, but still a neat little story, with some interesting set pieces, and was generic enough that I plopped it into my own campaign world and the setting for the adventure (Valley of the Obelisks) became my party's "home away from home" for the next 3 years of playing this campaign. It's great for 1st level adventurers, and lasted for 4 months of almost weekly game sessions for my group, so if you're looking for something to ease your new PCs into harder adventures, this is a good choice.

My notes (we're almost to the conversion, promise!) are pretty sparse, as I wrote these for myself and not originally for public consumption, so I will try to explain my mad ramblings with new notes, which I will place in italics after every section. Where I pulled monsters from the Monster Manual, I marked those MM followed by the page number; XGtE for Xanathar's Guide to Everything; VGtM for Volo's Guide to Monsters; MToF for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes; and I even pulled some stuff from the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). With no further ado, The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde!

The Other Stuff

There is a bunch of stuff the WotC staff put into SGoS, like specific races and classes found in the Valley of the Obelisks (the physical setting of the adventure) and a bunch of 3.5e-specific prestige classes and faction-specific magic items... and I didn't use any of them. Sorry. I really liked 3/3.5 Edition prestige classes, but they really don't fit into 5e well, as the power curve is much steeper in 3e. As you'll see further down, I was still pretty new to the 5th Edition rules and was trying to jam 5e into my 3e expectations, but I didn't even bother trying to fit this section in as I didn't need them for my homebrew world I was plopping the Valley of the Obelisks into. They're pretty interesting and give you a feeling for the lands surrounding the Valley of the Obelisks, so if you're looking to add some more flair to your game world, you won't go wrong adding in what you can, flavor-wise, like new factions and groups, but I strongly warn you away from trying to copy things in stat-for-stat.

In the Beginning

-travel to Valley of Obelisks NOTE: I had other things before this, but they were boring, like "Session Zero" and "get party into Dogpack" (their Patron organization, back before Eberron and Tasha's came out and I realized what I was using was a Patron).

-the route is 10 days, danger rating of 1/3 (protected lands, have to roll three consecutive ones to experience an encounter), resources and navigation are automatic, and discovery is 1 (fairly civilized and well explored) NOTE: this is referring to a system for determining when an encounter happens during overland travel I got from The Angry GM. He does great analysis of the game, and comes up with some pretty neat systems to use in the game. This one I need to pick back up again, but as my current group is doing urban adventures in an Eberron campaign, I'm not too sure when I'll have the opportunity to use it next.

-random encounters along the way (XGtE93), forest (1-2), grassland (3-4), hill (5-6)

-arrive at the Valley (city of Sumberton starts pdf page 29)

-Master Teagallow dies of natural causes NOTE: Master Teagallow was a NPC from my homebrew world and a part of the Patron organization the party belonged to. The kingdom they were from, Toklan, was looking to annex the Valley of the Obelisks through non-military means, and had sent the party to guard the kingdom's negotiator, Master Teagallow. He was this grumpy, old, former adventuring halfling, who promptly died of natural causes when the party arrives at the Valley of the Obelisks. The party was then ordered to take over negotiations, which is why this note and several others pertain to nothing in the SGoS adventure text.

-PCs find Sending Stone (DMG199, except these are once each way per day) and talk to Prime Magistrate NOTE: more tie-in to my homebrew world, Prime Magistrate is the leader of the Patron organization.

-PCs must continue the mission to the best of their ability, replacement negotiating team is at least 2 months out

-meet with the Lord’s Council in Sumberton

-halfling leader is Vintra Marktunsel (for joining Toklan); human leader is Lord Bariss Carstellan (against joining Toklan), sons Jarrik and Thrann; dwarven leader is Harunio Quell, mine owner at Silvermont (neutral); elven leader is Anastrianna Shul Shennek, leader of Oakwood (neutral) NOTE: since I was leading the party into the main plot of the adventure from a different way than the book has you go, I needed this info up front and handy to roleplay this first scene with the party.

-get first adventure lead from Marktunsel (Slaughtergarde pg22)

The Laboratory

-travel to the lab is half a day, only one hour off the road, no foraging is required, and no encounters or discoveries will occur NOTE: this points back to that wilderness travel and encounter system I was using from The Angry GM.
-outside the Laboratory, the party will either run into or be ambushed by a light patrol of 4 goblins (MM166), 200xp NOTE: here's the important stats for this monster encounter - who/what they are, where I can find the stats, and what the total Experience Points for the encounter are, as I was not doing hallmark leveling, actually counting out the XP the party earned for overcoming enemies (they don't have to fight, just overcome and still get the XP), solving puzzles, accomplishing missions, and whatnot. I also now write all my monsters and NPCs on 3x5 index cards so I don't have to keep flipping back and forth in all the various monster books.
-the Laboratory (pdf page 82, map on pdf page 38)

-DC formula: (oldDC-10)/2+10 = newDC NOTE: this was important enough I wanted it bolded so I could reference it on the fly, but as you can see further down, I just put the adjusted DCs right into my notes. This formula doesn't work 100% of the time, but is close enough to work most of the time if you are doing your own 3e to 5e conversion.

-L2 - hobgoblins (MM186), half-plate AC+2, breastplate AC+1, 375xp NOTE: I was trying to stay true to the monster stats in SGoS, but it didn't take me too many sessions to realize that the minor changes I was making to the 5e monsters, like these noted here, really didn't affect combat all that much and I run pretty much standard monsters now for all your low level minions and non-special encounters. You'll see later, I do get pretty fancy if the encounter deserves it.

-L3 - goblins (MM166), studded leather AC+1, 225xp

-L4 - complex trap (XGtE119), spotted on a 15 DC skill check (perception or investigation)

-trigger: someone steps on any square in the room

-initiative: acts on 20 (fast)

-active element: scythes (roll 3d8 to determine which lanes, doubles and triples don’t count, nor do 8s), +3 attack bonus, dealing 1d8 slashing damage

-dynamic element: scythes reset every round

-countermeasure: can be blocked (must pile up 400lbs of solid material), or destroyed (AC 8, 5hp), or turned off (search DC 15, panel in corner in lane 1, other side from L3) 

-if PCs break off a door in this room, the hobgoblins in L6 hear it and are waiting in the room between L4 and L6

-XP is 250 for this encounter NOTE: as you have probably already guessed, I am translating the trap to the new trap system found in Xanathar's. But wait, you say, this room isn't that wide! For this campaign, I changed the scale of the map, instead of a one inch square equaling a 5 foot by 5 foot square, my squares were 3 foot by 3 foot. I felt that was a bit more "realistic", in a game with magic and talking animals and whatnot. I did not continue this into my next campaign, it was fun and gave each battlefield a different set of tactical considerations, but in the end, it was too fiddly and did not change combat drastically enough to be worth it.

-L5 - goblins (MM166), half-plate AC+4, 200xp

-L6 - hobgoblins (MM186), half-plate AC+2, 250xp

-L7 - goblins (MM166), studded leather AC+1, 225xp

-L8 - howler

Large outsider XP: 700xp

HP: 30 AC: 16 Initiative: +4 Speed: 60’ (20 squares) has darkvision 60’ Melee: bite +7 (2d8) and 1d4 quills +3 (1d6, DC12 Dex save or suffer -1 on attacks, saves, and ability checks per quill, DC15 medicine check or it deals another 1d6 damage upon removal)

Howl: free action; if heard for an hour or longer, DC 10 wisdom save or suffer 1 temporary point of Wisdom damage, check every hour NOTE: I can't remember where I got these stats, if I made them up or found someone else's conversion online, though I suspect the latter rather than the former (remember, lazy bastard), but whatever it was, my players feared it enough, because I built it up over a couple of rooms, that they went nuclear on it and I did not get to use half the cool stuff in its stat block. It happens that way, sometimes.

-L9 - giant rats (MM327), 75xp

-L10 - ankheg (MM21), 450xp

-L11 - goblins (MM166), half-plate AC+4, 200xp

-L12 - maug - if the PCs fight it, they die

-XP of 100 if they talk to the maug and don’t try to attack

-XP of 50 if they observe it destroying a goblin and decide to run and don’t talk to it NOTE: yes, I typed that ("if the PC's fight this they die") on purpose. Go look up the maug's stats in 3.5e, this is a good aligned celestial, but so far above where the party was at by this point in the game (1st, maybe 2nd level), power wise, that I didn't waste any time trying to convert the maug or find someone else's conversion, I just wrote that note. Trust me, my players may have pulled off killing this maug one time out of a hundred, and I was betting on the 99. My party did not even try, they did talk to it, and got bonus XP for sending it back to its home plane.

-L13 - giant lizard (MM326), 50xp, 100xp if they use the mushrooms to not fight it

-L14 - DC 12 dexterity check to cross

-L15 - goblin boss (MM166) 200xp, hyena (MM331) 10xp

-spellbook: burning hands, cause fear, charm person, ray of sickness, comprehend languages, longstrider, mage armor, magic weapon, protection from good and evil, ray of enfeeblement, ice knife, snare NOTE: this was just me replacing what spells the adventure mentioned that had translated over to 5e, plus some others replacing the spells that hadn't translated well.

-L16 - skeletons (MM272), count as hobgoblins, 150xp

Nambrakh Hobgoblin, cleric (3) of Magublyiet (war domain)

HP: 23 AC: 14 (chain shirt, Dex+1) Initiative: +1 Speed: 30’ (10 squares) darkvision 60’ Melee: mace +1 (attack +2, damage 1d6+2)

Spells: cantrips (3) - sacred flame, mending, 1st level (4) - shield of faith, bane, inflict wounds, 2nd level (2) - magic weapon, spiritual weapon, 3rd level (1, through icon on altar) - animate dead

XP: 700 NOTE: I was still pretty new to 5e and my last edition had been 3e, so I was still trying to give monsters class levels. I have long since learned it is just easier to give the monster what you want it to have, whether it be magic items, spells, or abilities, and worry about the CR on the fly. You don't have to stick to the same rules your players do, but you have to be willing to adjust on the fly if you made the monster too powerful. If your players ask why something is, wave "jazz hands" at them and say "MAGIC!"

-L17 - zombies (MM316), 200xp

-L18 - darkling elders (VGtM134), 900xp

-if the PCs find all the missing Chicane Guild crates (L3, L5, L15), the party is awarded 100xp for securing the primary mission

-if the PCs search deeper into why this laboratory is here (talk to the maug, study the mirrors in L11, read the books in L15, piece together the statue in L16, examine the shattered gate in L17, and read the papers in L18) award the party an additional 50xp per piece of the puzzle explored, for a total of 300xp

 

Interlude

The PCs should take their findings, including the notes they can’t decipher, back to Vintra Marktunsel, who will take a few weeks to research it. If the PCs aren’t level 3 or 4 yet, have them take care of some of the wilderness encounters (Slaughtergarde page 28) while they take care of business in Sumberton (pdf page 33)(DMG125)(XGtE130). Eventually they will be approached by the captain of Lord Carstellan’s home guard, Sir Armin Harrak, who wants help with locating the next part of the puzzle (page 22). Due to the PCs not being part of the local political landscape and them finding the evidence that leads to the Surrinak lodge (plus the recent drow surface raids in the area), the PCs are asked to go into the Temple (page 108, map pages 39-40). NOTE: the DMG and XGtE references are to the Downtime rules. If you want to do Downtime activities, which I do like, stick with the XGtE activities, they update the DMG activities and work better. I took this a step farther and picked up Pathfinder v1's Ultimate Campaign book and allowed the party to build a home base in the Valley for their Patron (a military/law-enforcement organization called the Foxes & Hounds, or colloquially the Dogpack), as well as one of the PCs saved up his gold and built a tavern in the Valley.

The Temple

Fiery demon arches - see T14 (pg127) - disabling an arch or taking damage from it passing through it the first time 700xp, disable DC is 12, up 1 for every disabled arch, damage is 2d6, plus 1d6 for every disabled arch NOTE: here are the arches, their current status, how much damage they are doing, and what the DC is to disable them; as the PCs move through the dungeon, I changed it in the document to keep track of what was going on.

T10 - on, 3d6, disable DC 13

T5/T13 - off

T14 - on, 3d6, disable DC 13 (off)

T16 - on, 3d6, disable DC 13 (off)

T23 - on, 3d6, disable DC 13 (off)

T25 - on, 3d6, disable DC 13 (off)

-T1 - drow (MM128) w/breastplate (AC 17), longsword (1d8+2), longbow (1d8+2), 200xp

-T2 - grimlock (MM175) w/greataxe (1d12+3), 200xp

-T3 - drow (MM128) w/breastplate (AC 17), longsword (1d8+2), longbow (1d8+2), 200xp

-T4 - drow (MM128) fghtr lvl2, dueling, 2nd wind (bonus action regain 1d10+2hp), action surge (gain another full attack once) w/full plate (AC 18), lance (1d12+2), longsword (1d8+2), hp30, 700xp, initiative +2, to hit +2

- lizards, AC 14, hp30, speed 39, climb 39, initiative +2, to hit +3, 2 attacks, bite (2d4+4), claw (1d3+2), 700xp NOTE: again, in 5th edition, you don't have to create monsters as if they were PCs. This drow and the lizards are a good example of this - for the drow, I could have left out the level and the fighting style (dueling) but left everything else in and he would have played exactly the same. But the lizards are just fine, I gave them the HP, AC, and attacks I wanted them to have, no wasted space, and they worked just fine. And yes, the speed the lizards have is based on 3 foot by 3 foot squares, not 5 by 5. Just raise the speeds to 40 feet and everything will be fine in your game.

-T5 - arcane guard (drow, MM128) fighter 1/wizard 1, dueling, 2nd wind (bonus action regain 1d10+2hp), adamantine chain shirt (AC 15, no crits against), flail (1d8+2), cantrips: Fire Bolt, Poison Spray, Shocking Grasp; spells: Expeditious Retreat, Ray of Sickness, Shield; hp30, 700xp, initiative +2, to hit +1 NOTE: yes, yes, way too much work. Leave out the levels and classes, the fighting style (yes, I know it has an effect, but I could just bump the Attack bonus and be done), and I would prune Expeditious Retreat, and pick two from the Cantrips list to also get rid of. These drow aren't particularly tough, so they're only getting one spell off before they go back to swinging sharpened steel at the PCs, but I still like to have some options.

- hobgoblins (MM186), 200xp

-T6 - quaggoth (MM256), 450xp

-T7 - arcane guards (drow, MM128) fighter 1/wizard 1, dueling, 2nd wind (bonus action regain 1d10+2hp), adamantine chain shirt (AC 15, no crits against), flail (1d8+2), cantrips: Fire Bolt, Poison Spray, Shocking Grasp; spells: Expeditious Retreat, Ray of Sickness, Shield; hp30, 1,400xp, initiative +2, to hit +1 NOTE: I can tell that I had not read through Salvatore's Drizz't novels anytime near to when I ran this game (I am currently reading back through all of them, up to The Thousand Orcs as I type this), as I would have done these drow so differently than what I did then. Yes, like before, leave off levels, but add in a good Stealth roll, keep the melee combat stuff, and only two spells, Faerie Fire, Globe of Darkness, and Levitate. Plus hand crossbows with a poison feature and a Blindsight. Or, maybe I wouldn't have, these are likely very low level house guards and wouldn't have all that fanciness of a scion of one of the bigger houses in the Underdark.

-T8 - gargoyle (MM140), 450xp

-T9 - zombie (MM316), 100xp

-T10 - giant bat (MM323), 100xp

-T11 - wererats (MM209), 900xp

-T12 - Garanaach, young black dragon (medium), MM page 88, 900xp (paragon) 

HP: 33 & 33 (2 hp pools) Initiative: +4 initiative on first, see below.

Paragon Fortitude:  The dragon has multiple pools of hit points, each of which is tracked separately. All damage suffered and healing gained during a round must be completely applied to only one pool. When a pool is reduced to zero, all ongoing conditions and effects affecting the dragon end. Once a pool is reduced to zero, that pool cannot receive any healing until after a long rest. If all hit of the point pools are reduced to zero, the dragon is killed.

Paragon Wing Sweep: When the first hit point pool is exhausted, occuring as a reaction immediately after the damage that reduces the pool to zero occurs, Garanaach sweeps her wings around. The effect is treated as a DC20, level 1 Thunderwave spell, any PC failing the save are also knocked prone.

Paragon Exhaustion: The dragon may take one complete turn in each round of combat for each hit point pool it has above zero and receives one reaction between each of its turns. When a pool of hit points has been reduced to zero, the dragon loses one turn each round thereafter. The dragon determines initiative normally for its first turn, though it gains advantage on the roll. Each subsequent turn is inserted immediately after any one PC’s turn in the initiative order (roll randomly to see which PC). NOTE: this is another little something I stole, er, borrowed from The Angry GM, the Paragon. Think big bad in a video game - you hit it so often, it changes form and attack pattern, repeat a couple of times, and then it dies. This is the same idea.

-T13 - yuan-ti malison (per Slaughtergarde, but refer to MM309), 1,800xp, cast Fear as a 15ft radius centered on Garanaach

-T14 - wererats (MM209), 900xp

-T15 - drow rogues (MM128), rogue 3 (assassin), cunning action (dash, disengage or hide each round as a bonus action), sneak attack 2d6, assassinate (any creature that hasn’t acted this combat you get advantage against; critical on surprised opponents), AC15 (studded leather+1), hp18, rapier+1 (+5 to hit, 1d8+4), hand crossbow (poisoned, +4 to hit, 1d6+3+1d4 poison, Con save 13), initiative+3, 900xp

-T16 - Lanthurrae (drow cleric 5, war domain)

-spell save 16, spell attack +8, AC17, hp31, make three extra attacks as a bonus action, make +10 to one attack once, turn undead, destroy undead ½ or lower, chanimail +1, whip +1 (+3 to attack, 1d4+2, double reach), spells: 3rd - Bestow Curse, Spirit Guardians; 2nd - Magic Weapon, Spiritual Weapon, Hold Person; 1st - Shield of Faith, Inflict Wounds, Divine Favor, Command; 2,300xp

grimlock (MM175) w/greataxe (1d12+3), 200xp

-T18 - drow (MM128), 6 instead of 3, 300xp

-T19 - giant spiders (MM328), 600xp

-T20 - giant spiders (MM328), 600xp

-T21 - as per pg136 of Slaughtergarde, 2,900xp

-T22 - 4 magmin (MM212), 400xp

4 magma mephit (MM216), 400xp

-T23 - stirges (MM284), 150xp

-T24 - death dogs (MM321), 800xp

-T25 - clockwork abomination (ToB59), 1,800xp

 

Armory

NOTE: SGoS is a strangely laid out book, I have no idea why the last part of the adventure is placed first in the book, and the other two dungeons are in their own section separate from the rest of the adventure info. No idea folks, just how it is. Extra note - the Fiery Gates in this section are so easily bypassed by the party searching for and finding the Slaughtergarde Medallions on the monsters they encounter, that I didn't even bother putting them into my notes to keep track of them. If the ones back in the Temple section become too onerous, just give the baddies the Medallions as well, which does make sense for them to have, and just skip it. The Fiery Gates are an interesting bit of dungeon decoration, but get old pretty quick.

-wandering patrol - Fang of Yeenoghu (MM163), 4x Flesh Gnawers (VGtM154) NOTE: for the monsters and NPCs in this and following campaigns, I was using the excellent paper standees from Rich Burlew of Order of the Stick fame. The standees are called A Monster for Every Season. The funny thing about this is that Yeenoghu is one of those copyright protected names that Wizards of the Coast owns, so Rich renamed these creatures as Fangs of You-know-who, which sounds like the commonly accepted pronunciation of Yeenoghu. Sorry, thought that was funny.

-A1 - 6x Hunters (VGtM154)

-A2 - 4x Hunters (VGtM154)

-A3 - Venom Troll (MToF245)

-A4 - Hill Giant (MM155)

-A5 - half-fiend ogre per Slaughtergarde, 2,300XP NOTE: when I originally ran the game, I honestly can't remember what I did with this, but apparently I tried to use this half-fiend ogre straight from SGoS. Looking at the stat block in SGoS, I would probably go with something from 5e that was CR 6 instead, quite likely a Vrock (MM64) and just describe it as a half-fiend ogre as described in SGoS.

-A6 - White Abishai (MToF163)

-A7 - per Slaughtergarde, 700xp NOTE: again, I can't remember exactly what I did here, but again, I wouldn't try to use the 3.5e monsters, but instead build a combat encounter that adds up to 700xp. 14 troglodytes would do it, but this room is too small and the combat would be boring. You could go the easy route and do one water weird (MM299), which fits the location pretty well. I'd probably do 2 troglodytes (MM290) and 3 giant toads (MM329), fits the location and keeps the CR correct.

-A8 - per Slaughtergarde, 2,300xp (cleric) and 1,100xp (thugs), see Lanthurae above for spell selection NOTE: again, trying to jam PC class levels onto monsters like we used to in 3.5e, for this I would reskin the conjurer (VGtM212) to look like a troglodyte as it has the spellcasting I need for this group, and then for the thugs, I'd reskin the stone defender (MToF126) to look like troglodytes. Yes, just straight up reskin, and trust me, your party won't really notice.

-A9 - per Slaughtergarde, 1,100xp NOTE: again, I'd use stone defenders (MToF126) for these troglodytes.

Tybalt - fighter 3, Str+3, Dex+2, Con+3, AC17, hp31, Great Weapon Fighting (reroll 1 or 2 on damage die), Second Wind (1/day regain 1d10+3 hp), Action Surge (1/day gain another action), Champion (Improved Crit, 19 or 20), Glaive+1 (+6 to hit, 1d10+4, heavy, reach, 2-handed) NOTE: I played this guy straight and my players completely did not trust him, immediately sent him back to town. The instant distrust helped them later in this dungeon, but oh so untrusting my players were. Not really pertinent, but I found it funny then, still do, thought I'd share.

-A10 - Chimera (MM39)

-A11 - Tieflings per Slaughtergarde, 2,100xp NOTE: you need two melee combat baddies, so two veterans (MM350), and for the spellcaster, the illusionist (VGtM214)

-A12 - Fang of Yeenoghu (MM163), Pack Lord (MM163)

-A13 - Fang of Yeenoghu (MM163), 6x Witherlings (VGtM155)

-A14 - 2x Fangs of Yeenoghu (MM163)

-A15 - Oni (MM239) NOTE: I didn't like the troll here, so I just swapped in an oni, whole cloth. It worked really well.

-A16 - 1 Derro Savant, 3x Derro (MToF158&159) NOTE: this encounter and the one before it and the following encounter, read the notes in SGoS thoroughly, and just have fun with these encounters. The oni outside the door is a tough fight and the party probably won't be able to sneak up on her, and the fight with the derro is fun with all the moving parts in the foundry, followed by a tough fight that the party is better off running away from. However, the derro yelling encouragement through the doors is hilarious, play it up and have fun with it.

-A17 - Fire Elemental (MM125)

-A18 - Succubus (MM285) NOTE: again, played this straight, played her like she was another adventurer like poor Tybalt above, trapped down in the dungeon. And really, this succubus just wants to go back to her home plane as she has had all the death and destruction from this little group of gnolls and drow as she can stand. It's been swell, but the swelling's gone down. But yet again, my players weren't buying it, yet she managed to talk her way into the next room and escaped back through the opening gate and managed to distract some of the baddies on the way out.

-A19 - Mezzoloth (MM313)

-A20 - Hezrou (MM60)

-Flind (VGtM153)

That is the end of it. Of course there are other bits to this adventure that I added in to fit better into this homebrew world I was making. Things like the party, if they successfully close down the Gates (d'uh, if they fail, they're all dead) they convince the people of the Valley to be annexed by the Kingdom the party is from/work for, and how the party's Patron (Dogpack) was stationing the party in the Valley since they did such a good job.

As you can probably guess, I am a big proponent of homebrewing but still using adventures and stats that are already available instead of working to build everything from scratch. To that end, while typing this up, I used the 5e Monster List found over on the Donjon website, just one of many handy references they have for us DMs to utilize. I also use the Adventure Lookup database, a very useful tool to find adventures with... you know, I am going to let Matt Colville explain this one, he does a much better job at describing it than I am currently capable of. I also used Google Drive - if you have a Google account, which is very likely, you have access to this, and if you don't already have one, the account is free, so why not? - to organize my notes and also set up a folder for all my players that I drop pertinent info into. I have toyed with the wiki-style repositories like Obsidian Portal, and those are definitely interesting, but it is so much easier to use Google Drive. I think if one or more of my players had been into keeping their notes in a wiki, I would have used one, but as it was, it was just easier to do the Google Drive folders. 

This is a pretty fun intro adventure, easy to use, and it shows off a lot of the basics of the game - you have combats with a bunch of different monsters, you have exploration and puzzles to solve, and some decent roleplaying opportunities scattered throughout. Is it perfect? No, but what adventure(s) would you call perfect? No, SGoS is good enough and hopefully you can learn something from this post to run it yourself, either in original rules, the newer 5e rules, or in some other rules you prefer. Hope this helps you out, fellow Dungeon Masters and Game Masters (and Referees and Storytellers and...), have fun running games for your friends.

Wiskaria

  The two prisoners were brought before the Lord, bound at the hands, and thrust to their knees before him. He looked down at the pair, the rough hewn edges of the ancient desk offsetting the understated elegance of his office. The prisoners, for their part, merely looked back at the aged figure before them.

“Karzent and Wisendon,” the Lord began. “Fomenting rebellion amongst your fellow slaves again?” Many would have quailed before this gaze, but these two, frequent visitors to this august presence, did not. “It has become apparent that the standard punishments are no impediment to the two of you, so I believe something different may be in order. We may even be able to get some use out of you.” The Lord smiled at this last.

The prisoners exchanged a look. Nothing that pleased the Lord boded well for them and their fellows.

The small band crouched at the lip of the ridge overlooking the valley. They had started on this adventure with ten, but now there were only eight, as two of their number now shared a common grave with the fell beast that had ended them. It had been distasteful to most of the band, but those in charge had decided that mere slaves deserved no better.

Karzent lowered the spyglass and handed it over to Wisendon. “I don’t see anything living, but some of the markings are fresh.” Wisendon looked through the glass, but not having the tracking skills of his partner just nodded in agreement. “I’ll go tell their Highnesses.” Wisendon snorted, but kept looking through the glass.

Karzent scrambled down the backslope, to where the horses and pack animals waited, along with Karzent’s minders. Despite her comment, the two minders were not royalty, but they were pure bloods, sent to mind their half breed slaves and make sure of their completion of mission. The slaves had not slipped blades into their backs, despite many opportunities, as the two did have their uses, and the mission was grim enough to require all the help they could get their hands on.

“We are there,” Karzent announced.

“And? Speak up, slave.”

“There’s something there, the signs are clear.” Karzent was used to being addressed as such, and had long stopped reacting to it. “Not sure how many, but it does not look like more than two or three.”

“Well, let us go see.” They deigned to dismount and climb the hill. Karzent would have demanded they keep low, approach the top below the brow and but peek over the top of it, but she was more than sure that whatever resided below had either already detected the band, or had no need of forewarning.

The castle was ancient, a legend and a nightmare. Built into the side of a now inactive volcano by the tyrants that once ruled the entire land, its current resident or residents were purported to have cast them down, long ago when the flow of lava had stopped and the fields of fire had died to ember and then to ash. Even though it had been generations, the area was still a blight in the heart of the land, for all who traveled through it were never seen again. All expeditions to find the missing never returned themselves. Eventually all of the surrounding city states learned to avoid the area entirely, counting the extra travel time spent going around a small price to pay.

Built to massive, nay gigantic proportions, the defensive works of the keep dominated the landscape. The lush greenery feeding off of the plain of volcanic residue would have overwhelmed and hidden works built by the smaller races, but here the towering giants of the forest just served to show how massive the walls and towers truly were. Even surrounded by the undisturbed vegetation of generations, it dominated the landscape.

“Should we wait until night?” asked Wisendon. They all looked to Karzent, her years of experience tracking and hunting in the wild making her a natural leader of the band.

“No point,” she answered immediately. “Whatever is down there already knows we’re here.” She turned down the hill towards the horses. “Or they don’t care.”

It was nothing more than luck that had saved them. The tyrant at the heart of the fortress had let the party come deep into his lair and played with them for most of a day, all the while killing them one at a time. Only when Karzent and Wisendon were left did he stop the games, and confront them directly. The dark giant, his skin covered in runes of power, was ancient beyond measure. The last of his tribe, they had defeated the former masters of the keep and enslaved them. They had lost control of the once great kingdom the previous masters had, but they cared not. Their slaves had served them as long as they could, but their new masters, more powerful than they had even imagined, ground their entire tribe to dust, and then themselves had succumbed to the vagaries of time. Until there was just one left.

He had gloated as he chased them, telling them of the vast expanse of history he and his tribe had been witness to. How insignificant the half-breeds were, how only because he had nothing to occupy his time and had no one else to speak to in a long while was he deigning to speak with such lower beings. One does not hold conversations with rats, one merely kills them, do they not? Karzent’s arrows and blade had bounced off the steel-like hide. Wisendon’s best magics slid off of the giant like so much water. The rest of the party, slave and master alike, their efforts had been similarly futile. He had laughed, time and again, at their impotence, and continued to hound them in and around buildings built at a scale almost beyond their comprehension.

In the end, age and luck, bad luck, had done the tyrant in. Karzent had managed to trip the tyrant and it had fallen against an aging wall, and its protective spells, weakened by time, had reacted with the monster’s own runes, bringing enough weight down to crush the tyrant. The last of the party, they had not survived without wounds of their own. Only by searching the body of the fallen giant and drinking deeply of several healing draughts they had found did they manage to survive. They both had lost parts of themselves, but they still lived and huddled in the still ruins to gather themselves.

“We won,” said Wisendon, his remaining eye closed against the pain. “But for what? So our pure blood masters can expand their control and grind us further under their heels?”

“Yes, Wis, that’s exactly why I came here, to lose half my leg and watch you hover near death just so that goblin’s dung heap of a Lord can clamp down on trade with the south even more,” Karzent said. They were tucked into a corner of a long cold hearth, many times the size of the shacks they and their fellow slaves enjoyed back home. A small fire crackled before them, the wood hacked off of a chair that had towered above them both. “Though I have to admit, watching that monster squish those two uppity bastards like so many mice under his sandal, that was almost worth all of this.” They were quiet for a little while. “What do you suggest we do, Wis? We barely made it here with ten of us, and everyone had all of their legs and hands.”

“Don’t forget eyes,” said Wisendon. “The hand was bad enough, but at least I don’t appear to need it to manipulate magic.”

“I’m sorry, Wis, I am,” said Karzent, and sat silently for a long, miserable while. “You know, we could just build a home here. If we didn’t tell anyone all the giants are dead, who’d come looking for us here? We could settle down, stop the constant moving, raise a family…”

“Karz, I’ve told you, while our people live under the lash…”

“...of pure-blood hatred and oppression, you do not have the time nor the interest in any type of relationship,” Karzent quoted at Wisendon, having heard the sentiment far too many times. “I know, but I’m on the old side of middle-aged, Wis, and a girl won’t wait for…”

“Wait,” he said, “what did you say about building a home here?”

“We could build a house here. Only we know the giants are all dead, and since everyone avoids the area out of fear, we’d get at least a couple of years alone. Just you and me and...” She stopped and looked at him intently. “What’s going on in that head of yours, Wis?”

“I think you’re right,” he said, his eye open and staring intently at the ceiling of the hearth, many feet above him. “I think we could build a home here.”

The journey back had been harrowing, but they made it, and more importantly, without running into any of their masters or their minions. They slipped into the slave slums and word spread quickly through all of the camps, for fear of their masters catching word from one of their many spies. The word was such a shock to the community that several such spies revealed themselves in trying to run to their masters, a boon to the slaves as it allowed them to eliminate those leaks and gain more time. The slower, more careful spies were too cautious, and by the time the slaves made their move, it was too late.

The slaves revolted, along with many of their former guards. Even in a land of slave and master, many of the so-called masters were treated not much better than the slaves they guarded. They escaped into the night, half of the land on fire and in chaos, Karzent and her fellow trackers obscuring the trail and misleading the pursuers in many different directions. Tens of thousands of slaves, from the old to the newborn, all vanished into the wilderness.

They could have left years ago, generations ago, but they had nowhere to go to. Bastard half breeds of two proud races, unwanted by one and enslaved by the other, they had tried going to the other races in the surrounding lands, but beyond weapons and equipment, supplied more to twist the nose of their masters than out of a sense to help them with their plight, no one was willing to open up their own lands to these unwanted children. Now, with an entire fortress, the most recent owner dead at the hands of their own with no one else the wiser, they had that somewhere to go, somewhere to call their own. And took it they did.

The fortress, built to the scale of giants three times the size of its new occupants, had been crafted by masters of stonework and magic, protective energies woven into the near seamless stonework to make it as indestructible as anything else worked by mere mortals. As such, the new inhabitants could not alter the structure, they had not the skill nor the equipment to rework the bones of the fortress, bring it down and build it back to suit their size. So they left the stone as it was, and built everything else to their scale. Hallways became two story dorms and apartment blocks. Kitchen ovens became smithies and forges. Extra steps added onto every staircase made them accessible, while the unused portions of the stairs were used for market stalls. The mighty forest that had grown up in the nutrient rich volcanic ash was quickly cleared, first to provide lumber for all of the projects, and second to provide planting area to grow crops. Used to the hard labor under the lash of their former masters, the people worked even harder to build and grow what was now theirs.

The delegation from the Lords Under the Mountain entered into the grand hall of the new nation. The hall had been built into the old inhabitant’s own great hall, but with so much extra space, much of the upper areas of it and the sides of the hall were being walled off and made into offices and apartments. The delegation was met by the council of the new city state and quickly escorted into the feast hall for a welcoming meal. The grizzled head of the delegation’s guard excused himself from the meal, and with two of his guards left the hall for one particular, newly-built apartment overlooking the hall. He knocked and stood with his hands tucked into the belt under his prodigious gut.

“Yes?” asked the face behind the door.

“I would like to talk with the Lady Karzent and the Lord Wisendon, if they are not indisposed,” the grizzled veteran said pleasantly.

“I’m sorry, they don’t live…” he tried, before the man before him snorted and gently, but inexorably, moved him and the door out of the way and walked into the cozy domicile. The man attempted to protest but stopped when a voice from the next room stopped him.

“Let them in, Lenet.”

Lenet bowed the grizzled veteran in, while he motioned for his own men to stand in the hall outside.

“Stay here, boys, I’m sure if they wished me harm, you couldn’t stop them anyway,” he smiled at his men and motioned for Lenet to accompany them. “You too, kind sir, I hold no harm in my heart for your master nor your mistress, and I assure you they will have no trouble from me, as I don’t wish to perish anymore than you do.” Lenet bowed at the grizzled man’s sincerity, and left. When Lenet had secured the door behind them, he walked into the next room to find a very pregnant Karzent reclined, with her foot and jewel-bedecked wooden leg propped up.

“Lady Karzent, I presume?”

“I’m not a Lady of anything, in this nation or the next,” she said, her eyes peeking out from under a damp cloth. “The council runs things, we did our part, igniting the revolution and bringing our people here, and they honor us by letting us work for our new country.” 

“Nor am I a Lord,” said Wisendon, coming down the staircase, “but you are, aren’t you? Not some mere guard from the Under Mountain, are you?” Wisendon stopped behind his wife and began to massage her shoulders.

“You have me there,” he said, setting his bulk down gently upon a plain, but comfortable chair. “May I? The wife and I have ten of our own, adopted more than a few, and have more grandchildren and great-grandchildren than I care to think about, and even starting to get some great-great-grandchildren.” He began to massage her remaining foot and ankle, his massive callused fingers gentle on the swollen appendage. “But you are correct, I am no mere guard. I am Hlerzod.”

“Hlerzod? One of the Five Lords Under the Mountain?”

“Aye, that I am,” he continued to massage, even though both Wisendon and Karzent had stopped and stared with intent. “Let the delegations talk and look pretty to each other, I wanted to come out here, see this new nation for myself.”

“But, your Lordship…” began Wisendon.

“Please, if you both are neither Lord nor Lady, then here, in this time, I am not Lord anything either,” he smiled, continued to knead away. “We Under the Mountain, we may live in darkness, surrounded by those who hate us, inwardly focused on our mine works and projects, but we hear things even still. You are bastard children unwanted by both of your parent races, except to be slaves to your former masters. Your leaving has crippled one of the largest and oldest countries, upset trade, and nearly started three separate wars. The whole western half of the continent is in an uproar thanks to your little revolution, which is the only reason no one has shown up to see exactly how impenetrable this ancient fortress really is.”

“We just wanted to be our own people, have our own place,” Wisendon said. “It’s been almost ten generations since any ‘slaves’ were born due to infidelity between the races. My parents, Karzent’s parents, almost every parent of the half-children in this place were half-breeds themself. We aren’t bastards, merely Master Hlerzod, we are a new race, a new people that have bred true. We are not mules, unable to reproduce, we are a people!” Wisendon’s face was suffused now, the fervor that fired the entire revolution shining through.

“It matters not whether or not you are a race, not-a-Lord Wisendon,” Hlerzod said, “that is not the question. No, the question at the heart of the matter, is whether or not you are a country and can remain a country.” He stood, slapping at his vast belly. “Can the other nations trust you, can they count on you, to keep and hold any treaties with you a generation from now? Two generations? Three generations? Three years? Three months?” He paced around the room, studying the items the pair had gathered over the years. “It’s not that we, the other countries around you, that we care not for your plight, but we have our own problems and issues and enemies, and the most any of us can do is sit back and watch.” He turned to the pair. “Well, most of the countries in the area can only watch. We Under the Mountain can possibly do more than just watch, but you can’t expect us to sacrifice our own country, own safety and stability, just to prop yours up. We can provide instructors and weapons to build up your army and defenses, markets to trade your goods for, and I think, most importantly, someone to recognize your legitimacy, confirm to the whole continent that you are indeed a nation in your own right.” He sat again and looked at the two younger leaders.

“I don’t know which promises any of us can give you, sir,” Karzent said, “all we can do is try.”

“Well, you have a better start than I did,” Hlerzod said. “What? That surprises you, that I struggled and had a start? How do you think I became one of,” and here his voice swelled, “The Five Lords Under the Mountain?” He smiled at that. “No, I certainly was not born into it, and while it seems a long time to you and yours, it has not been all that long when me and mine moved and settled a new mine away from our home shafts.”

“What now? Where do we go from here?” Wisendon asked after a few moments of silence.

“I go back to acting like a guard, for form’s sake, and once my delegation returns home, the Five Lords will decide to extend you the copper nugget of friendship.” Hlerzod stood, creaking and groaning, and slapped his ample belly. “We may not be able to keep you safe, but for nothing else, tweaking your former masters’ collective noses is worth the help we can give. And,” he continued, “we need every friend we can get. It doesn’t hurt that this will open trade with you and your very skillful craftsmen, but will also open up another trade route and byway to us. Until you two killed the tyrant in this keep, we had despaired of ever using the old lava tubes on this side of the peak.”

“Pretty quiet trip up into our deepest basement, was it?” The delegation had indeed come up into the lowest levels of the keep, as the original builders had tapped directly into a lava flow underneath their keep, possibly to use the lava in their workings, or to commune directly with fire elementals who had lived in the volcano. As both the volcano and the original builders were long dead, the current occupants did not know for sure, but the lava tubes underneath the dead volcano proved to lead almost directly to the caverns of the Under Mountain.

“Pretty quiet, aye,” Hlerzod said, rubbing his face, “and it will get quieter still the more we travel it and clean it up. There are a few chasms that we will need to fortify to keep the very deep ones from using, especially now that they don’t have the tyrant of the keep to fear.”

“That’s what my trackers told me,” said Karzent. “Do you really think we have a chance?”

“My dear lady,” Hlerzod said, smiling, “if any of us have a chance of giving our children, and their children, and their children, a better world than the one we were born into, it is you, here.” He paused, thoughtful for a moment. “By the by, what are you going to call it, this new country of yours?”

“They want to call it Wiskaria, for Wis and me, but…”

“Wiskaria, hmmm. Yes, I think you should let them give you that honor. It may just serve as a warning to not attempt to enslave your people ever again.”

WISKARIA: LAND OF BASTARDS AND HALF-BREEDS

When I originally wrote about Wiskaria, I had just grown tired of always finding that half-elves (long my favorite race, pretty much thanks to Weis and Hickman’s Tanis Half-Elven) were the bastards, the unwanted children of the world, despised by most and ignored by the rest. I wanted these half-breeds to have their own place in the wider world, and roughly at the same time that was percolating through my brain, another idea of a city built into the ruins of a castle built into the ruins of a giant’s castle was also rustling through my subconscious (too many sources to cite them all here, though Terry Pratchett - the Nomes books and the Carpet People - comes immediately to mind), and Wiskaria was born.

I kept the history above as vague as possible so that you could pick just about any half-breed race to be the base Wiskarian, any race to be their new allies Under the Mountain, and modify the rest of the background as you see fit. In my version of Wiskaria, the people are half-elves, who have recently escaped their elven slavemasters, and settled halfway between the elven lands and the human lands. The humans, of course, care little for the half-elven slaves, mostly because the half breeds have been slaves for so long, their human parents have all died out and they have been breeding true amongst themselves for several generations now. Once they are free, they settle in the now abandoned castle, former center of a fairly large fire giant kingdom that had fallen, after the volcano had gone dormant and deprived the fire giants of a lot of their power, to the depredations of a tribe of rune giants. The rune giants (yes, completely stolen from Pathfinder, you're welcome Paizo) in turn had slowly died out over the centuries, until the last one fell to Wisendon and Karzent. The Five Lords Under the Mountain are dwarves that have recently (in their terms) settled a new mine under the mountain range the castle’s cinder cone is a part of.