Cult of the Horned King (5e)
Cult of the Horned King A 4 player¸ 3rd to 5th level one/two-shot adventure for D&D 5e Introduction This adventure is written for the Dungeon Master. It contains a one shot adventure for players running D&D 5e¸ as well as references to monsters and items from the Player's Handbook (PHB)¸ Monster Manual (MM)¸ Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG)¸ Volos Guide to Monsters (VGM)¸ Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (MToF)¸ and Xanathars Guide to Everything (XGtE). Where applicable the page numbers of monsters and items mentioned will be referenced for further details. This can be used as a one off side quest or the start of a detailed campaign into the Infinite Layers of the Abyss to face the Demon Lord Baphomet and/or his lieutenants briefly described in the Monster Manual (MM-Demons: 50-54). Running The Adventure The Cult of the Horned King is an adventure for at least 4 characters between levels 3-5 but could be expanded or have the difficulty increase or decrease to whatever fits your narrative. You could use this in its current form as the first step to introduce the realm of demons and set your player off on a campaign¸ or you could use the labyrinth as a single level of the lair of Baphomet in the Abyss and populate it with other traps or demons than specified in this adventure. Background Toroma Lvado is a moderately sized farming/mining town with large open spaces carved out from the remains of an enormous¸ and previously destroyed¸ city of the same name which is roughly half a tenday's ride from larger port cities to the west. Today¸ the town is populated with tired farmers who tend the land and gruff workers who either excavate the nearby quarry for stone or continue to demolish the old remains of the bygone city in order to scrape by a decent living. Despite being populated by a significant number of residents for years¸ the city remains in a persistent state of disrepair; When new walls and structures are built or repaired¸ others crumble and fall creating new roads or destroying old ones while at the same time unveiling previously undiscovered sections of the city¸ or blocking them off completely. The current residents of the city have to make due with constantly shifting walls and roads¸ and those who have lived here long enough begin to feel that the city itself may be cursed. In centuries past¸ Toroma Lvado and its citizens were devoted to the Demon Lord Baphomet and would offer tribute and sacrifices to him here on the Material Plane as tithes for working the land in addition to being granted the privilege of remaining alive. On rare occasions¸ certain extremely devout members of the cult could prove their devotion to Lord Baphomet by donning masks made from those slaughtered in his name¸ made to resemble bulls with large horns¸ and entering the Labyrinth underneath the city to perform a cannibalistic blood ritual which would cause them to transform into a shape similar to the demon lord himself. In doing so¸ all those who partake in the ritual would undergo the grueling transformation from man to beast¸ lose their humanity as well as their worldly ties to the Material Plane¸ and travel to the Underdark to better serve their Dark Lord. At the end of their cannibalistic ritual however¸ one devout transformed cultist is always chosen to remain as a guardian to the Labyrinth to ensure that future ceremonies remain pure and undisturbed..