Recovering the White Hammer

An Adventure in the South Isles

By Christopher Gams

Introduction

This AD&D adventure was written for a low to medium level group of of 5-7 characters levels 4-6. A balanced party is important to the successful completion of the adventure. Including at least one dwarven character will help with adventure motivation. The party will need at least one magical weapon to complete the addventure.

This adventure can be played on its own, or it can be part of the South Isles Series available on the Realms of Adventure Web site. If played as a series, the events take place after Shipwreck! and Pirate Justice (coming soon).

The Adventure begins in the City of Rastgoth, and will take the characters to the South Isles. The origin can be changed to any of the large port cities on the Western Continent. It can also be adapted easily to fit other campaign settings.

Adventure Background

Many Dwarvish generations ago (perhaps as much as 500 years ago) a Clan native to the northern climes worked with a human wizard to create a weapon that could help defeat the White Dragons plaguing the area. Together they created the White Hammer, an intelligent, oversized war hammer with powers specifically geared toward combating cold-using creatures and dragons in particular. They were victorious. After the dragons were defeated, there was little need for the hammer, and it was all but forgotten about. Eventually, the Hammer was stolen by a renegade dwarf who called himself The Nightforger.

Nightforger was an ambitious dwarf, and curious about magic. In fact, more curious than his clan thought was prudent. He was an outcast, a pariah of dwarven society. Still, he had knowledge of a great many things. So he was allowed to remain and learn about all of the things that dwarves fear and loathe the most. As time grew, Nightforger began to resent the fact that, as a dwarf, he could not cast magical spells. He left the clan, taking with him the White Hammer and many other valuable magical items belonging to his people, and went in search of a sage or wizard that could give him what he wanted most -- magic of his own.

Garius Legit was a fabled mystic, collector, sage, and a skilled sailor. He roamed the known world collecting items of power, knowledge and wonder. Eventually, he found a home for his collections in the South Isles. His empire of knowledge spanned several of the islands in the Dragon Spines archipelago. Rumors persist of a fabulous library where his most important secrets where laid to rest.

One of the islands that Garius called home was a small island at the north end of the chain now known as Ogre Island (Garius may have brought the first ogres to the island as pets). Generations ago, the Nightforger put off his racial fear of traveling the sea, and journeyed to the South Isles to find Legit. His hope was to offer the sage items of power in return for his help. Whether the Nightforger was successful in this quest is not known. He died on Ogre Island, and his secrets were interred there with him.

Recently, a group of adventurers found the final resting place of the Nightforger while visiting Ogre Island (this same adventuring group, if this adventure is being played as part of the South Isles Series -- see Shipwreck!). They brought back news of the the discovery which has finally founds its way to Clan Stonefist, the ruling clan of the dwarves of the Iron Mountains. The discovery has caused quite a stir.

Adventure Hook

Recently and far to the south of the origin of the White Hammer, a nation of Dwarves finds themselves in need of a weapon to battle a new menace. An army of humanoids lead by -- or at least with the help of -- several White Dragons, has invaded the lands around their ancestral home, the Iron Mountains. Rumors abound that the Ancient White Dragon has three consorts, and they are looking for a suitable place to lay a clutch of eggs.

Clan Stonefist, the ruling clan, has scoured the depths of its historians' knowledge, looking for a weapon to help combat the menace. Deep in dwarven lore, they have learned of the Nightforger, and his theft of the the hammer. Now that the remains of this renegade dwarf have been discovered, a faction of the Clan Stonefist is very interested in tracing the renegade to discover where the weapon is, and how it can be recovered.

Clan Stonefist is divided on how to attack their current problems. The more xenophobic members argue that the Clan has always managed to care of its people, and that talk of outsiders is an outrage. Other, mostly younger members, will argue that the Clan has never seen a challenge such as the one that now faces them. This faction, lead by War Chief Mogidin, has sent messengers and a few representatives to major port cities in search of news of the Nightforger. Their desperate search has been timely rewarded. Mogidin "The Vigilant" and his followers have journeyed to Rastgoth, were news of the Nightforger first surfaced, to hire a group to to journey to the South Isles and recover the hammer.

For the DM

The White Hammer was stolen by the Nightforger as legend states, and offered to Garuis Legit. It remained in Legit's hoard for many years until it was given to an abbey on the White Island. Years later, with the abbey in ruins, a group of adventurers seeking to recover the hammer found it, and took it with them to an Island in the archipelago now known as Safari Island. From there, they were to wait for a ship to take them home. They did not meet that ship. The group fell prey to Tarukalan, a Black Dragon that lairs in the marshes on Safari Island.

Mogidin is not the only person that has heard of the discovery of the Nightforger's grave, or heard of the existance of the White Hammer. News travels fast, and far in Rastgoth. Major pirate factions in the South Isles employ spies in the major port cities and news of an expedition -- especially a treasure hunt -- can travel halfway across the sea.

On Billikan Isle, the mage Marcus Semschit Legit, who claims ancestry to Garius Legit, will hear of the group's mission before it is complete. He has made it known in the Isles that he claims any item discovered in Garius' ruins to be his by ancestral right. Marcus Legit will have put a bounty out for the group, and the return of the White Hammer (see Part III -- Safari Island). Since Legit is the right-hand-man of perhaps the most powerful pirate leader in the Isles, there will be lots of captains anxious to fill the bounty.

To complete the mission, the group will have to discover that the hammer has been given away by visiting the "tomb" of Garius Legit in Part I – Ogre Island. Next the group must find a remote island and battle the hermit of the White Island in Part II – the White Island. Finally, the group will evade bounty hunters and and confront Tarukalan in his lair on Safari Island in Part III.

[ Part I - Ogre Island ] [ PartII – The White Island ] [ Part III – Safari Island ]