Dark Obelisk 1: Berinncorte: Adventure Book (5E)

Please note that this is the Adventure Book.  In order to run this adventure in a Fifth Edition/5E context, you MUST also have a copy of the accompanying Dramatis Personae & Bestiary (DP&B).

Due to publication restraints, this 5E edition of the Adventure Book (AB) is only partially converted.  When used with the DP&B--which is fully, 100% converted to 5E rules--and using the notes found within the AB, it is entirely usable, but awkward.  As a result, this product has been heavily discounted from what would normally have been its price.

Berinncorte is a typical, medium-sized medieval fantasy village.  It's a wonderful place to live, work, and explore, either as a citizen, or as an adventurer passing through town.

One day, the entire city is thrown into chaos as a cataclysmic explosion destroys much of Town Square.  A purplish-black crystal of bizarre design erupts from the aftermath, and hordes of chaotic, evil, and undead monsters wade out of the obsidian depths beneath it.  A third of the townsfolk are slain in the eruption and the first few minutes of monsters emerging. 

What the PCs do, both before and after the explosion that tears the earth and the city's way of life asunder, will set in motion events beyond their understanding or comprehension.

Dark Obelisk: Berinncorte is a massive, urban sandbox adventure that begins an ambitious and epic Adventure Path.  

Although a fully-detailed and realized campaign setting is planned, you may easily "place" Berinncorte (and this adventure!) anywhere in your existing campaign.

Why Should You Care?  

What makes this adventure different?  Or noteworthy?  Well, in no particular order:

• The entire Adventure (Adventure Book plus Dramatis Personae and Bestiary) is over 1,000 pages long.  So that's kind of interesting.
• Part One of a 4-part Adventure Path.
• Fully-realized, detailed adventure setting, complete with fleshed-out NPCs, motivations, plots, side-plots, and tons of full-color maps.
• NPCs who "feel real": The author has been a novelist and storyteller for more than 20 years.  The backstory and secret motivations of any of the 59 multi-page-detailed NPCs could be its own adventure or adventure path.
• A standalone adventure that can be played on its own, completely out of context of the larger Adventure Path.
• Tools to make the adventure dynamic, and play differently every run-through.  (For those who have played Ravenloft, think of the Tarot-like game the GM played in secret to randomize item locations and motivations, but expand it to many other aspects of the adventure path as well).
• Dozens of additional books are planned in the mythos and campaign setting in which Berinncorte sits.  10 additional Adventure Paths are already outlined.

By the Numbers

...not that quantity always means quality, of course:

• 16 Factions
• 59 Key NPCs
• 20 NPC Deaths
• 2 Religions and Gods
• 10 Common NPCs
• 56 Monsters
• 4 Villains
• 157 Tables
• 127 Maps
• 18 FlexTables
• 76 Quests
• 22 Items
• 92 Rumors and Lore
• 23 Fully-Mapped and Detailed Buildings & Places of Interest
• 1,067 Pages
• 578,000 Words
• 1 Partridge in a Pear Tree (partridge not included)

Innovation

This adventure incorporates several innovative and creative tools your gaming group can use to use the content for a party of any size, and any level.  These approaches also enable a great deal of flexibility in portraying richly-detailed NPCs, and tracking interactions with them.

Infinium Game Studio has released several free booklets as rules accessories to help GMs understand (or to help prospective buyers experience) these tools:

Attitude Trackers:

Get it for free here.

Quadded Statblocks for Variable Challenge:

Check it out here.

Reward Stars:

Why not obtain a zero-price copy here?

FlexTale:

You guessed it--free.  Here, that is.

Attitude Trackers for Dark Obelisk: Berinncorte:

This is an optional, companion GM aid for this adventure, available for free here.