FREE Original Adventures!
Start at the End
by Rich Redman

Generations ago, the wizard known as Elizar Branded Hand came to the village of Gross Fell seeking land to build a library and laboratory. The villagers were only too happy to have such a prominent person living near them. A successful Knowledge (local) check (DC 25) reveals that Elizar built his library and laboratory shortly before something began breaking into homes and killing the villagers. When Elizar refused to help the villagers hunt down and destroy the beast, they burned his buildings. Apparently Elizar fled into the crypt beneath his land and hasn't been seen since. The nocturnal assaults stopped at the same time.

Now a young dragon has appeared in the skies above Gross Fell, attacking the flocks and flying off into the hills. No one is precisely sure where it lairs, but a few fear it may have unearthed Elizar's crypt, taking residence there and perhaps releasing the Branded Hand's evil once again.

Use the following hooks and rumors to draw the PCs into the encounter with the dragon.

• The PCs are in the village of Gross Fell when they learn that herders spotted a dragon in the hills above the village. Fearful of what this occurrence may portend, the community's elders appeal to the player characters for assistance, offering a small but heartfelt reward for their help.
  
  
• The PCs arrive in Gross Fell following barely remembered tales of a wizard who succumbed to evil and was buried alive. Parents use tales of Elizar Branded Hand to curb disobedient children. The characters spot the similarity between those tales and the tales of the buried wizard.
  
  
• The PCs hear a local legend that tells of a fabulous treasure buried in the hills outside the village of Gross Fell.

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