To Save A Kingdom: A Broad Overview
The Kickstarter for To Save A Kingdom is fast approaching. Let’s take a quick look at the three adventures which comprise this gorgeous hardcover adventure path which takes the heroes from 3rd to 13th level. These adventures, originally published for O5E, have been greatly updated and expanded for A5E!
To Slay A Dragon
This grand adventure leads from the sleepy town of Hengistbury on a journey across the land to challenge a red dragon who dwells in a volcano lair called Kás Firadon, or more commonly known as Skull Mountain, but the journey is not so simple. To get there and succeed the party must win the hearts and minds of townsfolk, best fey of all sorts, overcome the trickery of fiends, fight corruption in ancient forests, travel the tunnels of Underland, and much more as they equip themselves with powerful artifacts for the battle of a lifetime!
Holdenshire is a peaceful county. Ruled by Lord Pemberton, the villages of Hengistbury and Thornbury exist in a friendly rivalry.
Winter is over, and Hengistbury is experiencing a warm, dry Spring. The summer county fair is already being organized, the Fair Committee headed as always by Lady Sybill Pemberton, and the village is its usual bustling, cheerful self.
All is not well, however. There have been problems of late! Children have been disappearing into the Weirwood; howls of an unearthly nature have been echoing across the Fogmoor; and Three-Fingered Jake, the county’s itinerant bard, has been speading rumors of treasure and hauntings in the ruins of Brockendale Castle. And that’s not to mention the lizardmen aggression or the bandits upriver!
All this aside, however, tonight is a warm, balmy evening. Many of the villagers are gathered in and outside the Bleeding Heart Tavern (originally called the Beaming Hearth, until some children vandalized the pub’s sign), and any troubles seem far away.
Well, except for that dragon in Skull Mountain.
To Stake A Vampire
The PCs find that the peoples of Hengistbury and Thornbury have suddenly turned dour and agitated. Once the meddlings of one vampire are revealed, the adventurers discover the first of several tombs of defenders against the undead from long past. Can they find the source of primordial wickedness before it engineers an even darker age to enshroud the world? What lies ahead includes spooky sandbox settlements, several dungeon crawls, and a dangerous finale filled with intrigue.
The dead leaves of autumn’s passing are nowhere to be seen in the blustery cold of the harsh winter that grips the countryside. Windows and doors are shuttered against the elements, and the few townsfolk walking the hills and paths in Holdenshire are bundled up tightly, moving at a brisk gait that warrants no interruption.
A dismal sense of despair permeates the very air in Hengistbury and Thornbury, turning the once friendly townsfolk into standoffish shut-ins. Bats, rats, and wolves are becoming more common in the once safe hills and valleys of Holdenshire. Perhaps worst of all, Lord Pemberton has fallen ill and governance of the land has waned during this harshest of seasons.
Can the heroes uncover the cause of the curse, and defeat the evil infecting the land?
To Smite A Fiend
After a reign of malevolence that’s become known as the Dark Winter, it seems as though the realm has earned a bit of calm. The peoples of Elissar have returned to their normal selves, the recent curses across the countryside now but a painful memory. This peace is soon to be shattered however as the local dabbler of the arcane takes his studies too far, undertaking rituals that will endanger not just Holdenshire or Endora, but Elissar itself!
The macabre horrors of the Dark Winter have passed with the changing of the seasons and now Holdenshire County is preparing for an idyllic summer—a respite that will be denied. For a long time the reclusive Kalle Sirkesalo has been studying in earnest, delving into the nuances of magic as his servant Roland acquires secretive packages from afar each filled with rare and exotic reagents for arcane experiments. Now his research is nearly complete and the most critical phase has begun: the wizard is prepared to permanently summon divine beings to be his servants. The mage's ambitions are greater than his mastery however, and before long he brings much more to the realm than he ever intended.
Great evil once more looms over Holdenshire as Hell is unleashed on the countryside by the wizard Kalle Sirkesalo’s reckless ambitions. It is up to the adventurers to put a stop to it, but as before they’re not alone in the fight and this time help comes from the very heavens above. The divine war so unbalanced by the mage’s summonings has taken nearly all of the Angelic Fane’s resources, but if the party is able to defeat some of the greater blasphemies spread across the realm, the celestials can transform the power from those broken entities to grant the PCs potent blessings.