THE RAVINE OF THE CROWS

AN OLD HEROES HEAVEN…? A SILENT TOMB…? A BURIED TREASURE…?

THE RAVINE OF THE CROWS CAN BE EVERYTHING OR NOTHING AT THE SAME TIME.

ALL YOU NEED IS A LITTLE EXCUSE TO VISIT IT…CHOSE YOUR POISON, A PROMISE OF
TREASURE, STORIES ABOUT OLD HEROES, A MAIDEN’S FAVOR… BOREDOM.

THE CARAVAN IS STRANDED IN NOTHINGWHERE; STORIES ABOUT THE RAVINE ARE

TOLD AND RETOLD IN “THE BLUE DRAGON” AFTER A ROUND OF BEERS…

A STORY OF CARAVANA BY SEBASTIÁN PÉREZ

FOR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 5E

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INTRODUCTION
The ravine of the crows is a chapter of a
larger adventure, The Sheriff of NothingWhere; it is
presented here as an individual encounter that can be
inserted in any game session without much difficulty
and serve the purpose of boosting your own story in
the direction you want. It is an adventure for level
three characters.
PLOT
Kobolds are trying to get the materials
components (crow feathers and honeycombs) to
perform a ritual that allows them to resurrect the Blue
Dragon they worship from their stone prison. A
prison in which it was put by the same adventurers
who used this place like a heaven so long ago. The
Kobolds do not work alone, behind all this endeavor
there is a cult of Blue Dragons worshipers.
HISTORY
Long ago, the ravines of the crows served as a
haven for an intrepid group of adventurers who
disappeared from one moment to another.
Now, the ravine is inhabited only by crows ...
or so it seems, in "The Blue Dragon", the tavern of
the village of NothingWhere, stories have been told
for a long time of hidden treasures that the
adventurers left behind, many have tried to find them
and all of them have returned with empty hands, the
stories are now only drunken tales.
REASONS TO GO
The caravan has been stranded in the village
of NothingWhere for a couple of weeks now. There
have been many conflicts with goblins, they have
attacked a lot of farms and they have assaulted many
traders along the way. The Sheriff has a group of
adventurers working on the matter. And your
employer does not have any work for you at the
moment.
A young man disappeared, weeks before the
caravan arrived at NothingWhere. His fiancée is
already desperate and does not have anyone to help
her; she approaches the adventurers asking for help to
find him. The last time she saw him, he said he was
going to get her an engagement ring worthy of her.
The only place she thinks he could have gone to look
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for such a thing is in the old heaven of the heroes in
the ravine.
Stories of heroes of old, supposedly these
"heroes" saved the valley in which the village stands
from a Blue Dragon, from which comes the name of
the tavern. Interested to know what could have
happened to such heroes you go to the only place
where you could find clues, the ravine.
Promise of treasures; the stories of hidden
treasures in the old heaven awaken the greed inside
you. You know that you are more daring, brave and
cunning than all the others who tried before. You will
find the treasure... if there is one.
Boredom, two weeks stranded in this village
is getting in your nerves, a trip to the ravine is as
good as anything else to kill boredom.
1. Entrance
Almost at the top of a hill there is an entrance
partially obscured by weeds.
A couple of hours walk from the village, you
arrive at your destination; it is the hill where they
say the entrance to the caves is. There is
something strange in all this... the paths seem
more worned than they should.
If it is night: 2 Kobolds (MM page 195) at
the entrance went out to make a round of patrol. The
patrol can return at any time and attack the
adventurers from behind.
If it is daytime: 2 Kobolds (MM page 195)
are sitting in the entrance taking advantage of the
shade. When they see themselves outnumbered they
do not try to fight, but flee within to alert the others.
The entrance is covered by weeds. A staircase of
worn steps carved into the stone descends into the
darkness.
The inside of the cave is in total darkness, a
character with the ability to see in the dark can see
the end of the stairs 10 feet below.
At the end of the stairs there is a thin invisible
wire that activates two crossbows on the opposite
wall. Difficulty DC13/AB +3.
2. Rat’s nest
Hay escombros repartidos por el piso.
Montones de piedras por aquí y por allí.
There is rubble scattered on the floor. There
are lots of stones everywhere.
The rough and uneven walls suggest that this
enclosure is a natural formation. There is rubble
strewn across the floor.
If anyone decides to investigate the debris a
Swarm of Rats (MM page 339) attacks for a round
and then disperses between the cracks on the walls.
To force the investigation you can say:
Something reflects the light from the torch in a
corner between the rubble.
It may simply be the eyes of rats, or some lost
coin.
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3. Deposit
Staked boxes in a not orderly manner cover
one of the walls of this cave. A group of 5 Kobolds
(MM page 195) 2 Kobolds Inventor (VG page 166)
and 1 Kobold DragonShield (VG page 195), rest
here waiting for the night to go out on their patrol or
waiting for the patrol that went out if it is night.
A staircase similar to the one you used to get down
here leads to an enclosure slightly illuminated by
the flickering flame of a small fire. Stacked
wooden boxes, sacks and barrels fill a portion of
the place.
The Kobolds attack any intruder. In the
boxes, barrels and sacks, there are feathers and
honeycombs. Attacks that miss their target can break
any of these elements. Feathers flying around the
place can generate disadvantage in ranged attacks,
and honeycombs let out Swarms of Bees (MM page
338) that attacks the creature nearest to them.
There is a pit trap in the corridor that
connects this cave with the next, it is hidden.
Difficulty DC13/1d6 fall damage.
4. Enemies reservoir
In this part of the cave there is a pair of
Kobolds (MM page 195) that guards the passage to
the other side of the ravine. This room works as a
wild card of enemies, if the combat in the previous
room needs more enemies, they come from this room,
if the enemies need to disappear from the other room
they can flee to this room. The players do not know
what is in this room, so it would not be strange that
reinforcements could come from here or that it was
empty and the fleeing kobolds were trying to guide
them into a trap.
You reach a wide cavern, the walls are covered
with old banners, several sleeping bags are
scattered on the floor.
If you placed a couple of guards in the room.
At the far end opposite to the entrance the
implements with which a few minutes ago the
guards played dice can be found on the floor.
If you use the room as a trap.
As you run across the entrance a part of the floor
sinks under your feet, however not enough to
make you fall.
A lot of rocks will fall from the ceiling hitting
up two creatures. DC14 Dexterity saving throw to
avoid half the damage if they enter running. If they
take the trouble to look for the trap the difficulty is
DC12. 3d6 damage.
The banners are old; you can hardly see the
drawings or the letters of the ancient heroes who used
the place as a lair.
5. Leap of faith
There is no apparent way to cross from this
side to the other. The Kobolds extend a rope bridge
that is on the other side of the crack.
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The jumping distance is 18 feet. The rope that
they use as bridge is 25 feet away.
If you look at the void carefully, you can
distinguish a body on a ledge between 20 and 30 feet
below. To go down to check the body you must make
a Strength roll to climb down DC15 or DC12 if you
have a rope. When examining the body. A DC10
Medicine roll may determine that he did not die
here. The real cause of death is not the blows he
received when falling but a stab. There are iron
nuggets in the body. A DC10 Intelligence roll may
determine that it is iron that was not long ago
extracted from the ground. It is of excellent quality.
6. Big empty room
There are some boxes staked in one corner.
Several torches on the walls lighten the room. On
the floor in the center of the room you can
distinguish a worn coat of arms. On the right wall
there is an opening and a set of stairs descends to
another room.
On the wall opposite to the entrance there is a
secret door that even the Kobolds who use this place
have not found yet.
On the floor there is a door also hidden that
leads to the chambers used by the leader of the
Kobolds as a base of operations.
On the stairs there is a small wire very close
to the floor, practically indistinguishable that
activates a dropping net from the ceiling. Difficulty
DC13 if a creature is trapped in the net must make a
Dexterity saving throw or fall down to the end of the
stairs receiving 1d6 fall damage.
7. Despacho
As you descend through the trapdoor in the
floor, there is a small room in which a guard sleeps
next to a door.
Carpets and rugs cover the walls and floors of this
room, there are empty shelves on one of the walls,
a couple of chests in a corner and a kobold
sleeping on the side of a door.
On the other side of the door there is a kind of
headquarters from where the leader of this band
directs the operations.
The leader is a Cult Adept of the Blue Dragon
Cult, who flees invoking a dimensional door the
moment someone interrupts what he is doing. There
are 1 Kobold (MM page 195); 1 Kobold
DragonShield (MM page 165) and 1 Kobold
Sorcerer (MM page 167) with him.
8. Heroes rest
Walking through the secret door:
When you go through the door on the wall you
come to a kind of stair ramp that rises and bends
to the left. On this ramp there is a lot of stone
rubble... strange, they are not of the same type of
stone as the walls and a statue of an elf in a
strange position for a statue.
Among the rubble of the ground a sword can
be found; a sword with inscriptions; is a +1 sword.
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 In the upstairs room there are two statues.
There is an atrium with a book and there are shelves
of weapons on the walls, all useless by the passage of
time and barrels with arrows and spears that break
when touched. In the atrium there is an open book on
a page that reads "Defeated the dragon, she betrayed
us... it was to be expected. I hope the help arrives on
time, if it arrives at all." The book falls apart when
touched. If a spell is used to repair it, it is again with
the same page open, and it will fall apart if touched,
the magic can repair it but only to the state it was a
few minutes ago, not as good as new.
This room is ruled by two statues, on the walls
there are shelves with swords, bows and barrels
full of arrows. When inspecting the elements, you
can see that they are useless.
Statues can attack if the book is destroyed,
(use statistics from Animated Armor MM page 19)
but do not chase the characters out of the room.
9. Cuarters
Kobold barracks. This place is where kobolds
sleep and rest.
You cannot tell what the purpose of this room was
in the past, but now it is obvious, it is a barracks.
There are places to sleep everywhere; there are
several fires burning and cauldrons cooking. The
aroma of what is cooked is penetrating and acidic.
A group of 4 Winged Kobolds (MM page
195) and 1 Kobold Sorcerer (VG page 167) occupy
this room and defend themselves from intruders and
try to escape or surrender when the numerical
advantage in favor of the adventurers becomes
evident.
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PROMISE OF ADVENTURE
Journal of adventurers, the notes of the only
readable page of the journal in the secret room,
makes it clear that the heroes were betrayed after
defeating the Dragon, the state in which they found
one of the adventurers and the remains of the other
lead to think it was a Medusa that turned them into
stone. And probably, somewhere not far away, there
is a Blue Dragon turned into stone by the same
Medusa.
Signs of ritual, boxes of feathers and
honeycombs, some of the adventurers may deduce
that they are materials for a ritual. Some prisoners
may tell them that they are materials for a ritual;
prisoners may reveal that the Blue Dragon Cult
exists, but forcing them to reveal the location or
purpose does not work, the magic prevents them to
tell anything to the point of leading them to death.
Only when investigating in the village, in the temple
of wisdom, the adventurers will find out the existence
of an old little known ritual to free the trapped ones in
the stone jail of the Medusa.
Dead iron, the missing young man is dead.
There are iron nuggets in his body, which points to
the abandoned mine. Evidently he did not die here.
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