Ashenveil Cavern

1st-level 4e-compatible Encounter

As many of you know, I have been trying to put together 4e-compatible¹ encounters for a while now. It has been slow-going. Partly because I am trying to navigate the assorted copyright challenges, but mostly because I simply do not have as much time to spend on D&D as I would like.

My original plan was to put together full adventures and publish them as PDFs on DriveThruRPG. But that took way more time than I had to work with. I realized that I work best when I can focus on a single encounter at a time—so that is what I will do. I plan to string some encounters together with a connected story, but I will release each encounter as I finish it. Much like the Dungeon Delve² book, these encounters are designed to work fine as one-off encounters when you need one or as part of a larger story.

The monsters in this particular encounter will look familiar as I had previewed them a few posts back. I will tweak the formatting along the way, but I have to start somewhere. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Encounter Background

Worshipers of a kobold priestess have been emboldened by her power and started raiding nearby villages. Many citizens have lost their possessions to these clans and some have been killed in the battles.

During one raid, the invaders determined that a human sacrifice might bring them good favor with the priestess. They kidnapped Tobin Greenfield and have been beating him for fun until they can get an audience with the priestess.

Tobin’s abduction did not go unnoticed. He is popular in the town for his generosity and outgoing personality. The villagers immediately put out a call for help and the party has answered. The villagers do not care what happens to the worshipers or their treasure, but they want Tobin returned safely.

Encounter continues after this message…

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Environment

The heat in this cavern is overwhelming. A river of lava flows through the center with a stone bridge crossing over a small section. The heat can be unbearable for creatures that are vulnerable to fire.

Air currents in the cavern cause the ash and smoke from the lava to collect near the entrance.

• Lighting The lava emits an orange glow that fills the cavern and provides bright light.

• Ashenveil This cloud of ash and smoke forms a wall that obscures the view to the opposite side. Creatures can move through the cloud without a movement penalty, but the air is toxic to breathe and touch.

  When a creature enters or starts their turn in a square containing the Ashenveil, the veil attacks with +4 vs Fortitude. On a hit, the creature takes 1d8 + 3 (7) poison damage.

• Lava The river crests about a foot below ground level and flows toward, and into, the southeast wall. The bridge rises two feet above the lava at its highest point.

  When a creature enters or starts their turn in a square containing lava, the lava attacks with +8 vs AC. On a hit, the creature takes 1d12 + 3 (9) fire damage.

Map Bundle

The map bundle for this location is available at DriveThruRPG. It contains four different variations of the cavern so you can use the location in your own encounters. Each map is scaled to work in Roll20.

Creatures and Tactics

Fire Zealot Thugs are the first line of defense. They each attack their nearest enemy and swing their greataxes with reckless abandon. Whenever possible, they let enemies come to them so they can take advantage of their Like a Rock trait.

The thugs will use their Feel the Heat ability as soon as they are in melee combat with another creature.

Kobold Archers scurry around the battlefield and try to stay at least 2 squares away from enemies. They try to move at least 3 squares at the start of each turn to get their Mobile Precision bonus.

The kobolds value hits over damage so they use Tactical Strike on every attack until the target is bloodied.

Tobin Greenfield is injured and has only a single hit point. He is in no shape to assist in the battle. The enemies mostly ignore him once combat begins.

Treasure

• Each cultist has a pouch containing 2d8 gold

• One cultist has an amulet with a red gem at the center. The amulet is worth about 30 gold and has no magical properties.

• Each kobold has 1d4 gold

• If Tobin survives, he offers the party 30 gold and a hot meal when they return to his farm.

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Let me know your thoughts on this encounter.

If you use it in your adventures, I would love to know how it went.

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Legal Information

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

1. Visit my website for additional SRD 5.1 license details

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