Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 2

The Exciting Sequel to the ENNIE Award-Winning Gods of the Forbidden North has Arrived!

Gods of the Forbidden North is a massive, three-volume mega-adventure series written for the Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy tabletop role-playing game by Necrotic Gnome. It details a campaign setting, a wilderness hex-crawl, a sprawling underworld connecting to multiple entrances on the surface, and most importantly, an enormous megadungeon.

• Volume 1: The first book covers the arctic frontier's settlements, cultures, religions, and its vast wilderness regions. It includes 1 urban starter quest and 5 low-level dungeons.
• Volume 2: The second book details the underworld below the continent's surface, plutonian settlements, 4 mid-level dungeons, 1 urban investigation adventure, and 1 high-level dungeon.
• Volume 3: The third book explores the last undescribed hex on the wilderness map (hex 10.02) that contains the legendary Castle Thar-Gannon megadungeon, its upper and lower halls, 3 mysterious towers, and 3 vast dungeon levels. It also includes the Cyclopean City of Chaos, with 23 unique tower dungeons, plus the secret entrance into the Tesseract of Time.

The 532-page second volume is designed for a heroic party of 6-8 adventurers to begin at 5th level and reach a minimum of 9th level by the book's conclusion, although most parties will hit 10-12th level if all underworld encounters are exhausted. Though the mega-adventure was originally designed as a sandbox campaign, it also supports episodic adventure path playstyles, as well.

Adventure Summary

This second volume begins with the heroes returning to Kangkul after dealing a fatal blow to Ashuraga in the Tower Vartoriak. In “Diggers of Dul’ghuun,” the adventurers rest in a popular tavern called The Beating before heading off on their next adventure, but while therein, a small group of ravenous undead emerge from the tavern’s cellar and attack the patrons. After the party destroys them, they discover a tunnel into the caverns below the establishment. The heroes reach the massive stone doors of an ancient dwarvish citadel called Mimnohgrod and must explore its depths to determine how this attack occurred.

In “Children of the Green Light,” the heroes venture back to Valkengard to sell the treasures they’ve obtained in Vartoriak and Mimnohgrod. Lady Thora visits the adventurers. She has a new lead on her missing son, Itarus, who vanished after being kidnapped by the Graven Wolves in months past. Thora hires the heroes to find her only surviving family member. This urban investigation takes the party across multiple city districts and eventually into the Valkengard sewers where they uncover a heinous plot by a noblewoman (and secret Magoth cultist) named Lady Moranna. If the adventurers act quickly, they might rescue Itarus from the sinister woman’s clutches and eradicate the cult’s underground operations.

As the party wraps up their previous quest, they learn vital information concerning a long-standing nemesis: the infamous crime boss, Yagha-Shahn. In fact, the heroes discover an arcane means to enter the Nol’ocuul Syndicate’s headquarters. Seeking to settle old scores, the adventurers activate the Shadow Door and step inside the Tower of All-Seeing Eyes where they face extreme peril. If the party emerges victorious, they have permanently crippled the syndicate’s operations in Titherion, slain Yagha-Shahn, and taken his fabulous wealth (gold and jewels beyond measure)!

Obtaining Fire-Eye’s notes on a secret smuggling lane into the underground, the adventurers may decide to finally journey into the legendary “Malgorgia the Endless Underworld.” This staggeringly huge subterranean network of caverns, tunnels, and waterways crisscrosses the full breadth of the Forbidden North below its frigid surface. Within its shadowy depths, the heroes might find the secret entrance into the “Green Dome of Foranadoth,” the “Black City of Morgathaur,” the perilous “Malum Hateus,” and the “Brass Temple of the Magoth.” The stalwart companions also get the chance to recover both halves of the Tabot of Law, fight against two more members of the Tarngrak, as well as eradicate their ruthless foes within the Cult of the Magoth. The party might even discover secret pathways into the lower dungeons of Castle Thar-Gannon.

Product Features

This trilogy is the only mega-adventure product on the market designed specifically for the Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy ruleset out-of-the-box as written. It includes the following exciting features:

• 4,184,489 XP from monsters and treasure
• 375 quests & discoveries
• 169 fully detailed underworld locations
• 103 new monsters
• 34 magic items
• 30 hazards & conditions
• 30 underworld connection points to the arctic surface in Volume 1
• 20 additional rumors in the Black City
• 8 underworld terrain features with their own ecology and wandering monster tables
• 5 mid-sized dungeons (4 mid-level, 1 high-level)
• 2 massive "kaiju"-like demons of the North (the Tarngrak)
• Morgathaur, a subterranean city with 5 districts and 12 fully detailed urban locations
• Simple rules to support an underground setting including light hours, climate, food & water scarcity, wind & sound conditions, hyperthermia, and thermal gradient
• A full glossary of names
• A meticulously hyperlinked index
• A random wandering monster activity table
• A 5th level starter quest, "The Diggers of Dul'ghuun," which includes The Beating, an infamous Kangkul tavern
• Dozens of "behind-the-screen" design notes for the referee
• Greatly simplified encounter design rules for Old-School Essentials based on the 1991 Rules Cyclopedia's original encounter balance system
• End-of-chapter adventure rewards summaries listing XP totals gleaned from monsters and treasure, as well as treasure locations and all recoverable magic items
• Full color hex map of the underworld (with labeled and unlabeled versions)
• Black & white hex map of the underworld (with labeled and unlabeled versions)
• 197 zipped art files in PNG format (useful for handouts at the gaming table and VTT play)
• 43 zipped map files in labeled and unlabeled formats (useful for handouts at the gaming table and VTT play)