Warcraft D&D Adventures

The following adventures are taken from a custom homebrewed campaign of D&D 5E. The setting is the world of Azeroth, a few years before the story of Warcraft 3. The story differs significantly from official Warcraft Lore.

Episode 1

Our story begins with a party of adventurers staying in a small town. Gruff, a charismatic dwarf hunter, leads the party. Jet the elven priest travels with them, as does Kyle the good-hearted and sharp as a marble human paladin, and Caden the human warrior who would do anything to be considered a hero.

After recieving a notice from Brytus Stonebridge hiring the party to kill gnolls that have been harassing the city of Hearthglenn, the party travels north to get rid of said clan of gnolls. After a brutal fight, Gruff the dwarf hunter intimidated the gnolls into retreating. One gnoll was taken captive, befriended, and joined the party. The gnoll was then arrested upon entering Hearthglen, just after Gruff took an arrow for him. The party bought armor and rested at the inn, knowing that on the morrow their friendly gnoll, whom they promised to protect, would likely be executed.

The party is awoken when Kyle, the paladin, receives a dream telling them to seek out a scoundrel named Flint. The party does so, exchanging gold for invisibility and polymorph potions. Despite their plans to the contrary, the party is able to rescue their gnoll friend, Snarlpaw, by agreeing to hunt down bandits hiding out in the mine to the north. The party ventures to the mine, where they collapse one of the entrances and kill several bandits. They are forced to retreat when the bodies of the dead begin to rise against them, and it is revealed that the leader of the bandits is a necromancer They return to mardenholde Keep, speak with the general Bartus Stonebridge, and discover that rumors of a cult of necromancers have been on the rise. The general agrees that he and his army will deal with the bandit threat in the mine, perhaps with the help of the party. In the mean time, the party should rest.

After receiving a letter from General Stonebridge, the party decided to help defend the nearby villages while the armies of Mardenholde Keep hunt down the bandits and their necromancer leader. The party tamed a bear when Gruff decided to ride on it. Then the party went to a village, learned that a cult has been on the prowl, and began examining the cemetery for clues. All they have found so far are footprints from a kobold. Kyle, the paladin, also showed his prowess by chopping down a tree and helping the nearby lumber mill. The workers at the mill have offered to pay him for his services, should he ever return.

The party is convinced to enter a dark crypt in the graveyard in search of treasure and the strange hooded figures that the locals talk about. They briefly consider entering through a hole in the wall, perhaps polymorphed as a sheep, but manage to solve the riddle of the front door and unlock it. After trying to barge their way in, of course.

They create a makeshift torch and enter the crypt, where they find coffins, bones, chewed corpses and giant rats. After killing the rats and plundering some treasure from a coffin, they move to the next floor.

On the second floor, they are forced to go through skinny hallways filled with dirt and sand. The bones lying about are harder to see, but the party manages not to step on any. They also discover more gold and equipment hidden in a nearby coffin.

They sneak down the stairs to the third floor. They overhear a conversation between two people, at least, until Gruff fails a stealth check and stumbled down the stairs.

The party rushes down a hallway and into a chamber where a hooded figure stands waiting for them. The figure pulls a lever, and the pathway behind the party is blocked by rubble. At the same time a green ooze begins to flood from a pipe in the ceiling.

Kyle the Paladin raced up to the figure and smote off its head with one mighty blow, preventing the necromancer from raising the nearby skeletons. The party manages to pull the lever and close the ceiling pipe, but half of the floor has been covered, in the acidic slime.

As the party tries to escape, Gruff steps on a bone, bringing the piles of bones to life as skeleton warriors.

By now, the slime has come to life as a sentient creature, and has harmed Caden the warrior multiple times, burning his armor and his skin.

Gruff manages to dig a hole through the rubble in an attempt to escape, and the others dispatch of the skeletons by sword and by throwing them into the acidic slime.

With the slime still alive, after a brief fight, the party manages to throw a dagger into the slime's "brain", killing it. They search the ruins, and find pamphlets for a cult that worships Ner'zhul, an unknown God. There are also notes and items used in alchemy and toxin making.

As the party goes to leave, a voice whispers in the mind of Kyle the Paladin. It ends up leading the party to an obsidian runeblade that improves the all wielders stats by 1. It has elven runes on it. Kyle decides to take the sword, but insists on telling the rest of the party about the talking sword.

The party escapes the crypt, and decides to return to the village.

The party returns to the inn, where Caden and Gruff buy drinks while Kyle and Jet go rest. Snarlpaw and Gruff's pet bear are forced to sleep outside. The inn gives the drinks and the room to the party for free, as a token of appreciation for cleaning out the crypt.

In the morning, the party also remembers that they found a talking sword when the sword begins berating them inside their heads. When questioned, the sword identifies itself as the soul of Lohen Emberheart, an ancient elven hero who sacrificed himself to save his kingdom and was rumored to still exist, his soul bound to his sword. Oddly enough, Kyle the Paladin is the only one who has heard this tale before.

Emberheart explains that he was taken captive by a dark wizard, who tried to corrupt his soul and force him to serve the Wizard. That wizard, and the other necromancers who work for him, were laying plans to destroy the kingdom. Emberheart explains that he saw snippets of the dark wizard's mind, and needs to be taken to someone that can help save the land. The party, uncertain if they believe the sword, are distracted when someone knocks on their door. There is a messenger waiting downstairs for them, who explains that the mayor wishes to speak with them all and thank them for their heroic deeds the night before.

Gruff and his bear stay behind for a moment, while the rest of the party follow the messenger to the mayor's home.

The mayor congratulates the party, and explains to them that he wants to sponsor them as the village champions to participate in a tournament that will be held in Andorhal only 3 days later. The winners receive 1,000 gold, and the village they represent will receive 5,000 gold.

Meanwhile, Gruff is approached by Linda, the owner of the village orphanage, while on his way out the door from the inn. She explains that the orphans could really use positive role models, and Gruff agrees to go visit the orphans. When he arrives, he and his bear entertain the children with many tales of what it means to be a hero, and after a few minutes Linda goes to grab a drink.

Her scream comes from the kitchen, and Gruff goes to investigate, making sure to keep the orphans in his line of sight and safe. He gets ambushed by a woman sorceress, and while he manages to shake off her first spell, the second one puts him into a deep sleep.

The rest of the party is on the way back to the inn when a woman comes screaming that her orphans have been kidnapped. They go investigate, and they find the house ransacked, the pet bear drooling on the carpet, and obvious signs of a struggle between the bear and the captors of the children.

They follow some tracks headed towards the forest when they are, met by Rob, a town guard and militia. Rob is very full of himself, but quickly shows his incompetence and fear when Snarlpaw accidentally frightens him.

They travel to the woods, and after an hour or so, they come across a group of bandits stationed near a campfire. Near the campfire, there is a large wooden cage filled with the orphans as well as Gruff. Gruff is still groggy, but the rest of the party is in position to flank the bandits.

Instead of attacking, however, Jet the priest and Rob the guard decide to negotiate with the bandits. They are ordered to lay down their weapons, and do so. Once disarmed, the negotiation begins. The Sorceress appears, and states that she wants 5,000 gold in exchange for the prisoners. She gives the party a 48 hour ultimatum, and tells the party that the mayor of the village has the money and must give it to them, otherwise the prisoners will be executed and the bandits will burn the village to the ground. The party notices that most of the bandits seem inexperienced in combat, and frightened. Some shake when holding their weapons.

Jet manages to convince the bandits that they are surrounded, except for the sorceress who sees through his deception and reveals the hiding location of the rest of the party.

With no real alternative short of fighting a vastly larger number of enemies, the party returns to the village to speak with the mayor.

Gruff, still in his cell, manages to befriend the bandits, warming them up to him with his singing and dancing. Before long, he is speaking freely with them, and they with him.

He finds no way to escape his cell, but he persuades the guards to feed himself and the children. He also learns that many of the bandits grew up in the streets and in poverty. One was even an orphan in the very same village they were currently exhorting. All of them had been found by the mysterious sorceress, who gave them a place to live and a family to belong to.

Back in the Mayor's office, the party confronts the mayor about the hostage situation and the bandits demands. They begin to suspect that the Mayor is corrupt or greedy. When the mayor refuses to give them money, at first the party decides that they will earn the money by winning the upcoming tournament. However, as their conversation becomes more and more heated, the mayor calls for his guards to kick the adventurers out.

Emberheart then whispers to the party, and helps them manipulate the mayor by threatening to expose some secret from his past about how he became the mayor. Outraged, but frightened, the mayor agrees to give the party 5,000 gold to free the orphans, so long as the party keeps their mouth shut about the mayor's past and wins the money back for the village by winning the Andorhal tournament.

Around this time, Emberheart is able to communicate telepathically with Gruff, although the connection is hazy. Gruff has learned that the bandits have unfavorable views of the mayor, seeing him as greedy and corrupt.

The party returns to the woods, where they exchange the gold for the prisoners. The exchange is amiable enough, and the party even asks a favor of the sorceress, who takes a look at two powerful artifacts in the party's possession. The first is a communication orb. When activated, the orb shows the face of an old, gray bearded human with red eyes. She then disenchants the orb, and explains that whoever that was could have easily been spying on the party this whole time. She also takes a look at the vial of liquid from the crypt, and confirms it is toxic and magical in nature.

The sorceress also looks at Emberheart. She confirms that the blade is indeed the legendary runeblade, but that it has been damaged and is far less powerful than it once was. It could be cleansed, but it would require someone more powerful than her.

As a token of appreciation, or perhaps a moment of weakness on her part, the sorceress hints that she may do something to help the party win the upcoming tournament. Then she casts a spell, and she and her fellow bandits disappear entirely.

Rob is already way ahead of the party, taking the horse and wagon full of orphans back to the village. The party catches up, and they all travel back to town. In many of their minds, they are uncertain who the real villain was today, and some secretly hope that they will see the mysterious Sorceress again.