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AN ADVENTURE FOR CHARACTERS OF 7
TH
- 10
TH
LEVEL
Mike Mearls • James Wyatt
™
Credits
Introduction
In the depths of the Winterbole Forest, the Pyramid of
Shadows waits. This extradimensional prison catches and
holds creatures from all planes of existence. Within the
pyramid, factions rise and fall, carving out territories and
surviving without hope of escape . . . all except for one
longtime prisoner, who needs the unwitting aid of some
adventurers to free himself from the pyramid.
Pyramid of Shadows
is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game
adventure for characters of 7th to 10th level. You need the
Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual,
and
Dungeon Master’s
Guide
to play.
Design
Mike Mearls and James Wyatt
Editing
Michele Carter
Development and Managing Editing
Bill Slavicsek
Mechanical Design and Development Manager
Andy Collins
Story Design and Development Manager
Christopher Perkins
Background
In centuries past, a tief ling wizard named Karavakos
made a fatal bargain. The twin threats of monsters of
the wild and rebellion from within threatened his iron
grip over the lands of his petty kingdom. In desperation,
Karavakos summoned a devil and asked for aid. A legion
of infernal soldiers came to march under his command,
and he stepped up his efforts to restore order—and a harsh
justice—to his domain.
The legion of devils came at a very reasonable price.
They would fight on his behalf and obey his orders with-
out question. If he ever led them to defeat, however, they
would abandon him and he would be cast into eternal
captivity. Only an error made by the wizard could result in
the devils’ defeat—no army in the world could defeat them
on the field of battle.
Karavakos led his legions on one conquest after
another. What had been a small kingdom grew into a
mighty nation to rival the great human empire of Nerath
that held sway over much of the land at this time.
With winter’s arrival, Karavakos called a halt to his
campaign of expansion. He returned to his palace with
the eladrin princess, Vyrellis, who was to be his bride.
Together, he proclaimed, they would rule a new empire,
and with spring’s dawning his armies would march into
the Feywild, extending their rule across two worlds.
When spring came, the devil armies marched through
the thin border between worlds. In the Feywild, though,
the devils met their match. Invincible on the battlefields
of the natural world, the devils had no such protection
once they stepped into the Feywild. Fey spears and arrows
felled the legions, putting an end to Karavakos’s dreams
of conquest—and severing his diabolic bargain. Karavakos
was imprisoned in the Pyramid of Shadows, his eladrin
princess at his side.
The Pyramid of Shadows is one of many infernal pris-
ons created to confine powerful beings. Just like a prism
splits light into its component colors, the pyramid split
Karavakos’s life force into free-willed splinters, each one
containing a fragment of his power. With his power spread
among various splinters, Karavakos couldn’t hope to break
free from the prison. Enraged, he lashed out at the only
Director of RPG R&D
Bill Slavicsek
Art Director
Karin Powell
Graphic Designer
Soe Murayama
Cover Illustration
William O’Connor
Interior Illustrations
Ben Wootten, Attila Adorjany, Brian Hagan, Lucio Parillo
Maps and Diagrams
Mike Schley
Publishing Production Specialist
Angelika Lokotz
Imaging Technician
Travis Adams
Production Manager
Cynda Calloway
Special Thanks to Brandon Daggerhart, keeper of Shadowfell
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, d20, d20 System, WIZARDS
OF THE COAST,
Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide,
Monster Manual,
all other Wizards of the Coast product names,
and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the
Coast in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Wizards characters,
character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are
property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This material is protected
under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any
reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork
contained herein is prohibited without the express written
permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.
©2008 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
300-21863740-002 EN
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Printing: August 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7869-4935-9
Visit our website at www.wizards.com/dnd
and www.dndinsider.com
2
person he could blame for his failure—Vyrellis, who he
claimed tempted him into his ill-fated attack on the Fey-
wild. He cut Vyrellis’s head from her shoulders and threw
it into the charnel pit at the heart of the pyramid.
But Vyrellis didn’t die. Her life energy, too, was splin-
tered upon her arrival in the pyramid. Her splinters are
not animate, but have instead been imbued into gemstones
and an orb spread throughout the pyramid. Vyrellis is now
driven by a burning thirst for revenge against Karavakos,
matched only by her desire to reunite the fragments of her
life force and escape the Pyramid of Shadows.
HOW TO USE THIS ADVENTURE
Pyramid of Shadows
is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS adventure
that takes a party of five player characters (PCs) from 7th
level to 10th level. You can run this adventure either as the
culmination of the series of heroic tier adventures (which
started with
H1: Keep on the Shadowfel
l and continued with
H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth
), or as a stand-alone adventure
in your own campaign.
The two booklets included in this adventure are for the
Dungeon Master (DM). If you’re planning to experience
Pyramid of Shadows
as a player, don’t read any farther.
Pyramid of Shadows
contains these components:
The Pyramid of Shadows
The Pyramid of Shadows is a bizarre extradimensional
space full of weird monsters and strange magical effects. It
exists beyond space and time, appearing in multiple places
in the world and planes beyond. The space within it knows
nothing of the passage of years. It’s a prison, designed to
keep whatever is trapped within it from escaping.
Each of the pyramid’s three levels (in addition to the
sanctuary at its apex) is home to multiple factions of crea-
tures. Each new arrival tries to find a place among the
existing inhabitants, or to carve out its own living space.
Eventually, the pyramid adapts to the creatures trapped
within it, providing a living space approximating their
natural environments. Since its prisoners don’t need to
compete for resources (see below), they coexist in an
uneasy truce.
1.
Adventure Book One
(this booklet) provides the Dungeon
Master with an overview of the Pyramid of Shadows.
This includes descriptions of important nonplayer char-
acters (NPCs), descriptions of key locations, illustrations
of places and adversaries, background information, and
several new monsters.
2.
Adventure Book Two
contains the bulk of the adven-
ture, including many possible encounters within the
pyramid.
3. A poster map containing depictions of three important
encounter areas. The map is rendered in a scale that
allows you to place your
D&D Miniatures
directly on the
map.
Features of the Pyramid
The following features are common to all areas of the
Pyramid of Shadows unless otherwise noted.
✦
4. A folder to hold the booklets and the poster map.
Sustenance:
The prisoners don’t need to eat or drink
(though many do out of habit). In addition, everything
within the pyramid ages so slowly as to appear effec-
tively immortal, due to the extradimensional nature of
the prison.
If You’re the DM . . .
Read
Adventure Book One
first and then familiarize yourself
with the first part of
Adventure Book Two
to get a sense of
the pyramid’s layout and the flow of the adventure.
Getting Started
The adventure starts with Encounter A1: The Clearing in
the Forest, on
page 6
of this book.
✦
Illumination:
Unless otherwise noted, all areas of the
pyramid are filled with ambient dim light. This light
does not come from any specific source and owes its
existence to the pyramid’s magical nature.
✦
Doors:
Unless otherwise noted, the doors in the pyra-
mid are made of heavy wood. A DC 20 Strength check
allows a character to break one down. The doors have
AC and Ref lex defense 10, Fortitude defense 15, and
20 hit points. A destroyed or damaged door is restored
after 24 hours. The magic that sustains the pyramid
allows quick, minor repairs to its interior structure.
3
Adventure Synopsis
Karavakos desperately wants to escape from the Pyramid
of Shadows. He has been using his considerable arcane
abilities and the vast amount of time available to him to
put a long-simmering plan into motion. He has gained
limited control of the pyramid, and is able to inf luence
where it appears in the natural world. In addition, he has
developed the ability to send brief visions to other arcane
power users outside the pyramid. With these two tools at
his disposal, Karavakos has been working on a means of
escape.
Karavakos is a mighty wizard, but his power within
the pyramid is severely limited. His life force—and with
it, his power—is divided among three splinters scattered
throughout the pyramid, each pursuing its own plan of
escape. The true Karavakos is locked iwthin the Sanctu-
ary of Light at the pyramid’s apex. He can’t harm the other
splinters, but he knows that their destruction is the key
to his escape. When a splinter meets its end, the power
it holds is transferred to him. When all of the splinter
Karavakoses are destroyed, the wizard believes he will be
mighty enough to escape from the pyramid.
Karavakos has been sending visions of the pyramid, its
location in the natural world, and promises of power asso-
ciated with the pyramid. The adventure begins when the
player characters encounter the pyramid and are drawn
into its timeless depths. From that point on, Karavakos
encourages the adventurers to destroy the splinters of his
life force so that the power each possesses returns to him.
With his power fully restored, Karavakos plans to perform
arcane rituals that will set him free. The fate of the adven-
turers matters not to the wizard, just so long as they serve
their purpose and destroy the false expressions of Karava-
kos’s life force.
As all of this occurs, the true Karavakos waits safely in
the Sanctuary of Light.
Vyrellis remains the f law in the wizard’s plans. Her
life force lingers within an artifact, an obsidian orb in
which her disembodied head drifts in and out of view.
She longs for freedom as much as Karavakos does. More,
she hungers for revenge, and the adventurers provide her
with an opportunity to attain it. Presenting herself as an
ally, Vyrellis guides the adventurers toward the Sanctuary
of Light and urges them to destroy Karavakos—all of the
splintered versions of him as well as the true wizard—and
win their freedom in the process.
Over the course of the adventure, the player characters
explore the bizarre halls and chambers of the Pyramid
of Shadows, fight its hostile inhabitants (including the
splinters of Karavakos’s life force), collect the three keys
needed to open the Sanctuary of Light, and finally face the
true Karavakos in a pitched battle—with death or eternal
imprisonment the price of failure. Along the way, Vyrellis
also guides them to collect the splinters of her life force
from the gemstones that hold them in hopes of restoring
herself once she is freed from the pyramid.
Adventure Hooks
Use one or more of the hooks below to provide the player
characters with motivations for seeking out the pyramid
and to give them a reason to get into the adventure. Using
these hooks provides the PCs with opportunities to gain
experience by completing the associated quests.
Hook: The Mysterious Map
If the adventurers experienced the events of
H2: Thun-
derspire Labyrinth
, then they discovered a map among
Paldemar’s possessions.
The map shows a glowing pyramid within a lush forest,
about a week’s travel north of Nentir Vale. Notes scribbled
on the side of the page read: “Place of power.” “Vast magic
for the taking.” And “Seek Karavakos.”
This discovery alone might be enough to send the
adventurers in search of the Pyramid of Shadows. If not,
see the “Alternative” below for additional motivations.
Alternative:
The Mages of Saruun, impressed by the
actions of the adventurers and worried about the implica-
tions of the notes on the map, provide one more incentive
if the adventurers agree to take on this quest. “Find this
place of power and seek out Karavakos,” the mage tells
them. “Return with information that reveals the secrets of
this place, and we will reward you with a powerful magic
item (a level 12 item) and 2,500 gp.”
Quest XP:
1,500 XP (major quest).
Hook: The Dream Vision
Wherever the adventurers happen to be prior to the start
of this adventure, a local wizard, scholar, or sage has been
troubled by strange and compelling visions every night
when he or she sleeps and dreams. In these dream visions,
the tief ling wizard Karavakos appears to the dreaming
mage and whispers about the power and secrets waiting
within the Pyramid of Shadows.
The visions have grown more frequent, more urgent,
and the local wizard or sage is growing more and more
inclined to set everything aside and seek out the place of
power and Karavakos. Indeed, the mage often awakens
from the dream vision with a sheet of parchment and a
quill to find notes scribbled over and over that he or she
has no memory of writing. These notes include the oft-
repeated phrases: “Place of power.” “Vast magic for the
taking.” “Seek Karavakos.” There is also a crude sketch of a
map that shows a stylized glowing pyramid deep within a
lush forest about a week’s travel from this location.
The local wizard or sage is intrigued by the visions
and anxious to claim the promised power. He or she is
also suspicious of these dreams, and as frightened by the
implications as he or she is desirous to fulfill the impulse
to follow the dream.
Hearing of the exploits of the adventurers, or perhaps
knowing them as friends or colleagues or acquaintances,
the wizard/scholar/sage asks them to look into this matter.
4
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