Dragonbane: The famous Path of Glory campaign!

About the adventure

This is a fantastic adventure in 3 Acts! A thousand years ago, the demon prince Sathmog came into the world of the Free Peoples and forged a demonic realm. It was also a time of incredibly rapid human expansion at the expense of the firstborn peoples – dwarves, elves, orcs, and halflings. Opposition to Sathmog grew, and one day a young human hero named Eledain summoned the ancient dragons and finally defeated Sathmog. The demon’s physical form was destroyed, but as his final act he cast a curse that would spread a sickness throughout the world. One of Sathmog’s secret servants, the dwarf prince Kalin who had been driven into the demon’s service by envy and resentment of his sister, Queen Gwinna, managed to save the demon’s Dark Heart from destruction. As long as the Heart of Darkness remained intact, the curse of the demon's Dead Forest could not be broken. Sathmog was defeated, but human expansion continued. The firstborn peoples watched in horror as humanity left a changed world in its wake. In their eagerness to out-­do each other, the humans became blind to what they were trampling, razing, breaking, and burning. Dwarves, elves, orcs, and halflings gathered one last time in a council where they decided to go their separate ways and return to their old realms. Queen Gwinna of the dwarves decided to bring her people back to her underground kingdom and close its gates to the outside world. These Gates of Power were locked with three magical keys which were given one each, to the elves, orcs, and halflings. The elves forged a pendant with a poem explaining how the keys worked. If the need ever arose, the four firstborn peoples would gather again. With all three keys, the Gates of Power could be reopened. That is where the heroes come in. The player characters are adventurers and fortune hunters who arrive in the Dead Forest, lured by rumors of the riches supposedly waiting behind the Gates of Power – the entrance to an ancient and long-­lost dwarven kingdom in the area. Legend has it that the key to lifting the curse placed on the Dead Forest by Sathmog can also be found behind the Gates of Power, but opening them requires three keys, lost in the mists of time. In their search for the three keys, the player characters explore everything from ancient temples and tombs to deep swamps and filthy hobgoblin caves, encountering both friends and foes along the way, minotaur brothers, hobgoblin chiefs, witches, mystic monks and mages, Black Knights, an undead army horde, nightwargs and shadow wraiths, and even a dreadful necromancer spreading terror beyond the mountains. Rescue captive allies and face betrayal! If they can find the Keys, learn to use them, find the Heart of Darkness and the weapon needed to destroy it, they will still face a final challenge - the demon lord Sathmog himself, making a desperate attempt to break into the world. Will destroying the Heart of Darkness cost their own lives??