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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Out of the Box D&D Encounters  > Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #37 – “Ambition”
Out of the Box D&D

Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #37 – “Ambition”

Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #36 - "Ouroboros"
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #38 - "Shadowboxing"

Out of the Box introduction

I cannot recall how many times I have heard either myself or someone else say “how much do you want it?” This marketing clarion call has crept into a lot of different aspects of our lives, but it’s rarely heard in the tabletop roleplaying game environment. I think the reason for this is based on the easy access to things like healing, magic, and experience in a fantasy setting. There’s always an assumption of the access, and if the party has none within their ranks, then they almost always expect a Dungeon Master to facilitate that access. Whereas this is not a universal practice or outlook, it is a very common one.

This creates a very welcoming environment for newer players, but it fails to challenge them on a very base level. Players who are challenged more tend to build into smarter and more adaptive players, and thus equally challenge their DMs to grow along with them.
The following encounter is intended to not only challenge player characters, but create a dynamic wherein they will take choices in and out of combat more seriously. This will be accomplished through a reward. That reward will then continue to challenge the PC who wields it, and indeed, anyone who is responsible for healing said wielder. Hit points have often been discussed as a resource. This encounter results in creating a dynamic where that concept becomes a reality.
How? A magic item from my own table: The Sword of Ambition. (see below). This sword will make the PC who wields it ask themselves, “How much do you want it?”

 

Out of the Box D&D magic sword

Did someone say something about a reward? A big ol’ hoard like that could very well hold a magic sword of great power.

Environment

Dungeon

Level

Any (recommend 4-5+)

Description

The door to this 20×30 ft. chamber reveals an odd scene. What would be a richly appointed den or private chamber is dust filled and fallen to ruin. A long and elliptical low table, perhaps only 5 ft. wide and easily 15 ft. long would have been opulent in its day. Its carved surface, resembling an intricate floral pattern, appears chipped and rampant with dry rot. Tatters and remnants of an embroidered rug appear here and there all over the floor, with rusted and broken rods suspending tattered tapestries of hunting scenes decorate the left wall. What would have been four finely carved chairs with pillowed seats lay in pieces in front of these tapestries. A long bookcase, perhaps 10 ft. long and maybe 6 ft. high at its prime is collapsed at one end, with only the tattered and faded remnants of what remains of a few books lay about its base. A plush armchair rests in the far right corner, tilted from one broken leg. Its originally plush and red covering more resembles dried blood from the staining and brown that remains. A fine stonework fireplace dominates the far wall, cold and unlit. Its stonework is mainly intact, which is a good thing. The heavy marble mantle sitting atop this stonework is partially cracked, but mainly intact.
Hanging above this mantle atop two brass hooks is a web-covered and dusty longsword.
This room is full of opportunities for investigation and exploration. Your PCs will ask many questions which will all require checks and movement into the room. However, there is a catch.
This longsword is the Sword of Ambition, (see below) and it is not alone. Those who enter the room and move closer than the near edge of the elliptical table toward the sword will awaken two ghosts (as per the Monster Manual, page 147). These ghosts, Sir Guthrie of Mulrond and Davras Syn, will manifest as noble warriors of wealth and respect. They will appear with their hands and feet bound, and with their mouths gagged. Neither will use their Horrifying Visage and will avoid their Withering Touch attacks.
They will wail and attempt to convince the approaching PCs to move no closer. Although physically weak, they will attempt to Grapple (use Dexterity) with an approaching PC by essentially phasing their bound arms and legs around a target, using their Possession ability to inhabit those who they cannot prevent from getting closer to the sword after this first attempt. Those who they possess will be walked out of the room and then freed. If questioned who they are, they will stare fearfully at the questioning PC and attempt to say something, but will be unable to due to their ghostly bindings.
Those clever enough to use some form of telepathy will get a very loud, almost screaming voice like one trapped in a small prison cell crying out for freedom. It will say “It feeds! It endlessly feeds! You too will fall to its endless hunger! Flee!” (Feel free to change the narrative up if you wish, but the theme of an unending appetite should prevail).
They will not wish to harm the PCs, but will be very persistent in their goal. They will only bring the full arsenal of their abilities to bear if they are assaulted, and only in self defense. Sir Guthrie and Davras are good aligned (Lawful Good and Chaotic Good respectively), so they will behave accordingly with regard to the PCs and their treatment of the ghosts. If the DM so chooses and wishes to add flavour and history to their setting, an inquiring PC who succeeds on a DC 20 Intelligence (History) check recalls both their names from the past as great and noble swordsmen. Each will have a tragic tale ending as they were taken down in the height of their power by either taking long odds or risking too much for what they wanted or loved. The details of those stories should be up to the DMs in question to better fit them into their worlds.
If the ghosts fail to prevent any PC from reaching the fireplace, then the next stage of the encounter will begin. The fireplace will billow an ice-cold black smoke that will fill the 5 ft. square by 8 ft. high space directly in front of it, and every PC in the room will hear a loud whisper which travels around the room like a cold wind. It will say
“Emptiness is filled again……!”
This smoke will quickly manifest into a black and smoky warrior, 7 ft. tall and in black plate armor. A blade of black smoke will issue from his right hand like a smoky icicle, and he will point at the approaching or nearby PCs. This is Lord Blackmoore, a wraith. (Monster Manual, page 302). He will attack anyone who is within the room, attempts to take the sword, or refuses to immediately retreat father than 300 ft. away from the sword. The ghosts will vanish when he appears or if someone successfully grabs the weapon by the grip.
Out of the Box D&D

A wraith as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

Those who might try to communicate with Lord Blackmoore will find him antagonistic and threatening. He will spit curses and challenges, and threaten them to stay away from his prize. If or when he successfully strikes a PC, he will hiss “Emptiness awaits” (or similar threats). He will not pursue PCs out of the room so long as the sword remains, but will certainly chase down any PC who takes the sword from the room. He will do this endlessly until he is finally destroyed. Should any PC also choose to try and remember whom this wraith was in life, a successful DC 20 Intelligence (History) check will remind them of a young and ambitious noble who was willing to assassinate family, enemies, or friends to achieve success. His reign came to an end when he was challenged to single combat with a more skilled swordsman who also died in the final fight. Hubris and ambition were Blackmoore’s undoing.
Should the PCs reign supreme, they can easily investigate the room unimpaired. The table is riddled with dryrot, something anyone with proficiency in carpenter’s tools can tell with a successful DC 10 check. The scraps of rug on the floor have no value, but can be discerned to be of elvish manufacture with a successful DC 15 Intelligence (History) or weaver’s tools check. The tapestries are so decrepit as to fall apart at a touch. However, in their day, they would have been fantastic and obviously masterwork pieces of hunting scenes. The smaller chairs are in complete ruin, as is the bookcase. The books will fall to small scraps of paper as their bindings fail upon being lifted off the floor. Any trace of ink has long faded to time, mildew and bookworms. (DM’s discretion: add clues to your campaign on scattered pages deep in the centre of the tomes)
The armchair by the fireplace stinks of mildew and is of no value as a furniture piece, but hides an ivory pipe deep in it’s cushions. The scrimshaw designs make this pipe a collector piece, and might be worth 50gp to the right buyer.
The mantle is the real mundane treasure here. It is heavy (500 pounds), and it 5 ft. long and 11 ft. wide. Despite its few cracks, if the PCs can get this entire piece back to a mason or other dealer in such goods intact, it might fetch up to 250gp.
However, the real price is the longsword. This weapon is the Sword of Ambition, and is the weapon wielded by each and every lost soul in this room. Each and every one of them came by this weapon through a deep seeded desire to reach their goals, good or bad. Because of that, when they died, their souls became trapped in the blade. Sir Guthrie and Davras sought to prevent a new wielder from suffering their fate, and Lord Blackmoore refused to give up ownership of the blade, even in death. Two regretted their ambition and the cost of it, and one refused to learn from it. Such is the way of things.

Monsters

“Sir Guthrie” and “Davras Syn” – Ghosts (2) as per Monster Manual, page 147
Lord Blackmoore – Wraith (1) as per the Monster Manual, page 302
Treasure
Scrimshaw ivory pipe (50gp), marble mantle (250gp), and the Sword of Ambition. (see below)

Complications

Wraiths are nobody’s pushover. Turning PCs into spectres is a distinct possibility if they do not take this villain seriously. To make matters worse, he will pursue any who steal the Sword of Ambition without defeating him first. Because Lord Blackmoore is undead, he wil require no sleep, rest or food to pursue his prey. Futhermore, because he is incorporeal, passing through locked doors will not present much of a problem. If your players are too heavily challenged by this villain, feel free to have him only move upon them at night. He cannot benefit from movement swifter than his flight speed of 60 ft., so his pursuit might be confounded by rapid travel over long distances by other means (fast horses, airships, etc.). Also note this may not stop him from pursuing, but may buy the PCs time to seek help or arrange for their own fortified defenses of a magical or holy nature.
The Sword of Ambitino itself will present its own challenges based on how it functions. It can chew through a PC’s hit points in short order if they truly want to take down foes with greater speed, even at risk to their own safety. Allow the PCs to do this. The sword is the sword, and does what it does. The user needs to learn to balance their ambition to win with the need to survive. A wise and experienced player will learn these lessons when Sir Guthrie, Davras and Lord Blackmoore did not – or so one might hope.
SWORD OF AMBITION
Weapon (long sword), rare (requires attunement)
This magical longsword feeds on the ambition to be victorious and feeds that power with the wielder’s blood. Once attuned, this sword is a magical weapon, but has no attack or damage bonus.
However, for every round the wielder feeds the sword its own hit points (up to three max per round) the sword will gain an attack and damage bonus equal to the hit points sacrificed. Therefore, feeding it one of the wielder’s own hit points grants it a +1 to hit and damage bonus for that round. Sacrificing 2 hit points grants it an equivalent bonus to hit and damage.  The loss of hit points due to sacrificing them to the blade to create a bonus to hit cannot be prevented by any spell or effect, and do not come off temporary hit points or additional hit points like those created by the Aid spell. The to hit and damage bonuses are always the same, so one cannot sacrifice two hit points and gain a +4 to hit, and no magical bonus to the damage, for instance. This hit and damage bonus, if any, created by this sacrifice of hit points only lasts until the end of the wielder’s turn. If they wish to gain magical to hit or damage bonuses from the sword not based on any other outside effect (like spells or abilities), they must sacrifice the appropriate amount of hit points again. Please note this sacrifice, if any, only affects the to hit and damage bonus of the sword itself. Ability score modifiers, as well as any outside modifiers, if any, still apply.
The more hit points fed, the redder the blade becomes. One hit point fills the fuller with blood. Two hit points turns the blade red save the edge. Three hit points turns the blade entirely red and it drips with blood.
Any attuned wielder who dies while wielding the blade cannot be revivified, raised or resurrected as their soul is now trapped in the blade. A Hallow Spell (Everlasting Rest) (Player’s Handbook, page 249) cast upon the blade will free all trapped souls and allow for a Raise Dead (Player’s Handbook, page 270) or Resurrection (Player’s Handbook, page 272) spell to be cast, so long as the body (or part of it in the case of the Resurrection spell) are available and the time remains to do so (see each spell for these time limits).
[NERDITOR’S NOTE: You can also find the Sword of Ambition on D&D Beyond in the public homebrew section. Turn on the homebrew slider and content sharing for your campaign and give it to one of the characters in your campaign to see how ambitious an adventurer they are.]

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Mike Gould

I fell into gaming in the oddest of ways. Coming out of a bad divorce, my mom tried a lot of different things to keep my brother and I busy and out of trouble. It didn't always work. One thing that I didn't really want to do, but did because my mom asked, was enroll in Venturers. As an older Scout-type movement, I wasn't really really for the whole camping-out thing. Canoe trips and clean language were not my forte. Drag racing, BMX and foul language were. What surprised me though was one change of pace our Scout leader tried. He DMed a game of the original D&D that came out after Chainmail (and even preceedd the Red Box). All the weapons just did 1d6 damage, and the three main demi-humans (Elf, Dwarf and Halfling) were not only races, but classes. There were three alignments (Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic). It was very basic. I played all the way through high school and met a lot of new people through gaming. My expected awkwardness around the opposite sex disappeared when I had one game that was seven girls playing. They, too, never thought that they would do this, and it was a great experiement. But it got me hooked. I loved gaming, and my passion for it became infectious. Despite hanging with a very rough crowd who typically spent Fridays scoring drugs, getting into fights, and whatnot, I got them all equally hooked on my polyhedral addiction. I DMed guys around my table that had been involved in the fast-living/die young street culture of the 80s, yet they took to D&D like it was second nature. They still talk to me about those days, even when one wore a rival patch on his back to the one I was wearing. We just talked D&D. It was our language. Dungeons and Dragons opened up a whole new world too. I met lots off oddballs along with some great people. I played games like Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Car Wars, Battletech, lots of GURPS products, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Twilight 2000, Rolemaster, Champions, Marvel Superheroes, Earth Dawn...the list goes on. There was even a time while I was risiding with a patch on my back and I would show up for Mechwarrior (the clix kind) tournaments. I was the odd man out there. Gaming lead to me attending a D&D tournament at a local convention, which lead to being introduced to my paintball team, called Black Company (named after the book), which lead to meeting my wife. She was the sister of my 2iC (Second in Command), and I fell in love at first sight. Gaming lead to me meeting my best friend, who was my best man at my wedding and is the godfather of my youngest daughter. Life being what it is, there was some drama with my paintball team/D&D group, and we parted ways for a number of years. In that time I tried out two LARP systems, which taught me a lot about public speaking, improvisation, and confidence. There was a silver lining. I didn't play D&D again for a very long time, though. Then 5E came out. I discovered the Adventurer's League, and made a whole new group of friends. I discovered Acquisitions Incorporated, Dwarven Tavern, and Nerdarchy. I was hooked again. And now my daughter is playing. I introduced her to 5E and my style of DMing, and we talk in "gamer speak" a lot to each other (much to the shagrin of my wife/her mother...who still doesn't "get it"). It's my hope that one day she'll be behind the screen DMing her kids through an amazing adventure. Time will tell.

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