Introduction:

This book is written for the Dungeon Master. It contains a complete

D20 adventure, as well as descriptions for every creature and magic

item that appears in the adventure. It also introduces the region of

Tisdale, my passion project, and it teaches you how to run a D20

game. The other book that accompanies this one (hereafter called

"the sourcebook") contains the rules you need to abjudicate situations

that arise during the adventure.

Running the Adventure:

Trouble at Old Fred Mine is an adventure for two to five characters

of 1st level. During the course of this adventure, the characters will

advance to the 5th level. The adventure is set in the Tisdale region

of the continent of Anchorome, set within the Forgotten Realms.

Anchorome is a vastly unexplored wildland, ripe for adventure.

You don't need to be a Forgotten Realms expert to run the adventure;

everything you need to know about the setting is contained in this book.

If this is your first time running a D20 adventure, read "The Dungeon

Master" section; it will help you better understand your role and

responsibilities. The "Background" section tells you everything you

need to know to set up the adventure. The "Overview" section

describes how the adventure is expected to run and gives you a

broad sense of what the player characters should be doing at any

given time.
The Dungeon Master:

The Dungeon Master (DM) has a special role in the D20 game.

The DM is a referee. When it's not clear what ought to happen

next, the DM decides how to apply the rules and keep the story

going.

The DM is a narrator. The DM sets the pace of the story and presents

the various challenges and encounters the players must overcome.

The DM is the players' interface to the D20 world, as well as the one

who reads (and sometimes also writes) the adventure and describes

what happens in response to the characters' actions.

The DM plays monsters. The DM plays the monsters and villians that

the adventurers battle against, choosing their actions and rolling dice

for their attacks. The DM also plays the part of all the other characters

the players meet in the course of their adventures, like the messenger

taken hostage or the innkeeper in town.

Who should be the DM for your gaming group? Whoever wants to be!

The person who has the most drive to pull a group together and start

up a game often ends up being the DM by default, but that doesn't have

to be the case. Although the DM controls the monsters and villians in the

adventure, the relationship between the players and the DM isn't

adversarial. The DM's job is to challenge the characters with interesting

encounters and tests, keep the game moving, and apply the rules fairly.

The most important thing to remember about being a good DM is that

the rules are a tool to help you have a good time. The rules aren't in

charge. You're the DM--You're in charge of the game. Guide the play
experience and the use of the rules so that everybody has fun.

Many players of D20 games find that being the DM is the best part of

the game. With the information in this adventure, you'll be prepared

to take on that role for your group.

RULES TO GAME BY

As the Dungeon Master, you are the final authority when it

comes to rules questions or disputes during the game. Here are
some guidelines to help you arbitrate issues as they come up.
When in doubt, make it up! It's better to keep the
game moving than to get bogged down in the rules.
It's not a competition. The DM isn't competing against the
player characters. You're there to run the monsters, referee the
rules, and keep the story moving.
It's a shared story. It's the group's story, so let the players
contribute to the outcome through the actions of their
characters. DUNGEONS& DRAGONSis about imagination and
coming together to tell a story as a group. Let the players
participate in the storytelling.
Be consistent. If you decide that a rule works a certain way in
one session, make sure it works that way the next time it comes
into play.
Make sure everyone is involved. Ensure every character has
a chance to shine. If some players are reluctant to speak up,
remember to ask them what their characters are doing.
Be fair. Use your powers as Dungeon Master only for good.
Treat the rules and the players in a fair and impartial manner.
Pay attention. Make sure you look around the table
occasionally to see if the game is going well. If everyone seems
to be having fun, relax and keep going. If the fun is waning, it
might be time for a break, or you can try to liven things up.

Improvising Ability Checks:

The adventure often tells you what ability checks characters might

try in a certain situation and the Difficulty Class (DC) of those checks.

Sometimes adventurers try things that the adventure can't possibly

anticipate. It's up to you to decide whether their attempts are

successful. If it seems like anyone should have an easy time doing

that, don't ask for an ability check; just tell the player what happens.

Likewise, if there's no way anyone could accomplish the task, just

tell the player it doesn't work.

Otherwise, answer these three simple questions:

· What kind of ability check?

· How hard is it?

· What's the result?

Use the descriptions of the ability scores and their associated skills in

the rulebook to help you decide what kind of ability check to use.

Then determine how hard the task is so that you can set the DC for

the check. The higher the DC, the more difficult the task. The easiest

way to set a DC is to decide whether the task's difficulty is easy,

moderate, or hard, and use these three DCs:

· Easy (DC 10). An easy task requires a minimal level of

competence or a modicum of luck to accomplish.

· Moderate (DC 15). A moderate task requires a slightly

higher level of competence to accomplish. A character
with a combination of natural aptitude and specialized
training can accomplish a moderate task more often
than not.

· Hard (DC 20). Hard tasks include any effort that is beyond
the capabilities of most people without aid or exceptional
ability. Even with aptitude and training, a character needs
some amount of luck--or a lot of specialized training--to
pull off a hard task.

The outcome of a successful check is usually easy to determine:

the character succeeds at whatever he, she, or they set out to

accomplish, within reason. It's usually equally easy to figure

out what happens when a character fauls a check: the character

simply doesn't succeed.

Background:

Hundreds of years ago, Frederick Shoeslapper I came to these lands

looking for riches and adventure and stumbled across an actual

gold mine. Establishing a mining camp to the south of the mine,

which would become Fredericktown, miners from across the region,

and prospepctors from the far away land of Faerun, came to strike

it rich, transforming the mining camp into a small village within

no time. Confidence faded though, as the veins in Frederick Mine

quickly seemed to dry up, leaving the mine used of its resources.

For decades, rumors of deeper hidden caverns ripe with

natural resource are said to exist in Old Fred Mine, untouched. These

rumors turn out to be true as the Iron Throne finds out after

secretly establishing a splinter faction, The Iron Vein clan, to root out

the truth. After establishing a base of operations, the Iron Vein clan

begin demolition mining procedures in Old Fred Mine, leading to

a wealth of twisting and winding tunnels and caverns never seen

before, the walls of these caverns and tunnels glistening with gold

and nickel, and rare jewels. After recieving samples, the Iron Throne

orders the expansion of Iron Vein clan, leading to the mine being

taken over and built up, as well as a small camp south of

Fredericktown. Word on the street is the Iron Vein Clan have their
eyes on the town itself next...

Overview:

TAOFM is divided into X parts. In part 1, "Soldiers Boots," the

adventurers are traveling along Tisdale Road from Porcupine to

the Fredericktown when they are ambushed by a group of 3

bandits. They discover the bandits (who belong to the Iron Vein

clan) came from Old Fred Mine, where the Iron Vein clan has

set up a makeshift forward base of operations and has captured their

dwarf friend Theodore Pinerock and his escort, an indigenous scout

named Shiloh Stillwater. The characters

must deal with the bandits and then head North to Old Fred Mine.

In the mining camp directly above the mine is a small guard outpost,

the adventurers must deal with the patrol and then enter the mining

camp. They rescue Shiloh and learn from him that Theodore and his brothers

may have discovered what has been going on at Old Fred Mine. Shiloh only knows

that and Theodore and his maps have been taken to somewhere called

" The Boom Room". Notes that can be found within the mine seem

to hint that Old Fred Mine isn't as dried up as old Frederick

Shoeslapper once thought, but the mine iself has an extremely difficult lock.

In part 2, "Fredericktown," the characters arrive at Fredericktown to find

the town at the hands of the Iron Vein clan, who seem to be operating

from a camp nearby, lead by a indimidating figure

known as Stone. A handfull of interesting NPCs can also be found in

Fredericktown, laying hooks for short adventures in part 3. The Iron Vein try

to scare the characters out of Fredericktown, so the adventurers deal with

that by returning the favour and setting out to take out their camp to the

south. South of Fredericktown, deep within the forest, lies the Iron Vein

camp where the characters find Stone, and learn that he is only following

the command of his clan leader, and that He wants the adcenturers dealt

with.

Part 3, "Glints of Iron," provides the characters with several short adventures

in the district around Fredericktown as they search for more information

about the Iron Vein clan and their mysterious leader. The clues the characters

picked up in Fredericktown can lead them to investigate an odd disturbance at

the Conservation Park, oust an organized band of goblins terrorizing Kingleigh

Acres, seek the advice of a mysterious indigenous medicine man, and spy on an

intimidating figure at the Tisdale Cemetery.

Several of these leads point to a Iron Vein military training camp located within

the first level of Old Fred Mine, which is also where Lyandra Roqlin resides,

master of explosive devices. Here the characters will discover that the mysterious

leader of the Iron Vein clan is a formiddable opponent named Garret Grey. More

importantly, they recover Theodores maps showing a route to a location named

The Yard of Iron,' or learn The Yard of Iron's location from one of the other leads

they unearth during part 3.

Following the map or the directions to The Yard of Iron brings the characters
to part 4, "The Yard of Iron." The large base is home to many Iron Vein clan

members. Garret Grey is there with his personal guard, overseeing operations

of shipments being prepared to be shipped back to Faerun, for the Iron Throne.

The adventurers have the opportunity to avenge Theodore, and to ensure the

prosperity of Fredericktown by clearing the Tisdale Region of the Iron Vein clan,

and to put and end to Garret Grey---if they can brave the Troubles at Old Fred Mine.

Adventure Hook:

You can let players invent their own reasons for visiting Fredericktown, or you can

use the following adventure hook.

The old Bran and Germ. The characters are in the city of Porcupine at the Bran and

Germ tavern, when their dwarf patron and friend, Theodore Pinerock, hires them

to escort a shipment of some sort to Fredericktown. Theodore has gone ahead with

an indiginous scout, Shiloh Stillwater, to attend business in the town while the

characters follow with the supplies. The characters will be paid 10 gp each by the

owner of Kandice's Provisions in Fredericktown when they deliver the wagon

safely to that trading post.

ROLEPLAYING AND INSPIRATION

One of the things that you can do as the OM is reward players

for roleplaying their characters well.
Each of the characters included in this set has two personality
traits (one positive and one negative). an ideal, a bond, and a
flaw. These elements can make the character easier and more
fun to roleplay. Personality traits provide a glimpse into the
character's likes, dislikes, accomplishments, fears, attitude, or
mannerisms. An ideal is something that the character believes
in or strives for above all else. A character's bond represents
a connection to a person, place, or event in the worldsomeone
the character cares about, a place the holds a special
connection, or a treasured possession. A flaw is a characteristic
that someone else can exploit to bring the character to ruin or
cause the character to act against his or her best interests.
When a player roleplays a negative personality trait or gives in
to a drawback presented by a bond or a flaw, you can give that
player's character one inspiration as a reward. The player can
then spend it when his or her character makes an ability check,
an attack roll, or a saving throw. Spending inspiration gives the
character advantage on the roll. A clever player might spend the
inspiration to counteract disadvantage on a roll.
A character can have only one inspiration at a time.