Summary: Help Manu break free of Hardock’s Ring. This adventure is geared towards a party of 4 players from levels 3-4.

Story: The players come across a young boy crying. His name is Manu and he found a strange ring in the forest. He put it on and now he can’t take it off. In addition, he keeps repeating the same day over and over again. He lives in a small elven village called Paranell. The wise woman of the village explained to Manu that in order to get the ring off, he has to overcome his greatest fear. His greatest fear is spiders. He has come to the spider glen to try and overcome his fear but he is afraid to enter. No one in the village can help him. He’s tried and he’s watched his parents die to the giant spider swithin. He’s never made it past #5 on the map even with help from the village .

1. You find a small child named Manu crying here. He tells his story and asks for help.

2. The path here is covered in spider webs. The party will need to cut or burn a path through. The spider webs have 5 hit points and an AC of 10.

3. There is an old shrine here with a giant stone spider. There’s writing on the side written in undercommon. The writing says, “All praise Lloth. Mother of Darkness.” Manu doesn’t know much about the shrine but he does say that there are stories in his village of elves that once gave themselves to a dark goddess in exchange for power. They were driven away long ago. There is water pooled in the shrine and a number of dead insects floating in it. The water is poisoned. Anyone who drinks the water must make a Fortitude save DC 14 or take 1d6 poison damage.

4. The trees here push close together and are covered in cob webs. Anyone who walks through will be attacked by four swarms of spiders (see Monster Manual).

5. Two giant spiders (see Monster Manual) guards the cave entrance here. They will slide down from the trees above and attack the players. The warriors in the village always die here and get dragged into the cave. Manu has no idea what lives in there.

6. Inside this cave lives a mammoth spider and its’ nest. The entire cave is covered in spider webs and counts as rough terrain. A number of large animal skeletons and a few long-dead elves hang from the walls. There are over 100 giant spider eggs in the back. In a few more months, there would be a hoard of spiders swarming through this forest.

Note: Manu is a non-combatant. He has 4 hitpoints and an AC of 10. He cannot and will not attack any spiders and instead cowers in fear. In order for Manu to overcome his fear, the players will need to encourage him to set fire to the spider nest in the cave. It will require a Charisma (Persuasion) check DC 15 to talk him into going in the cave and another Charisma (Persuasion) check DC 15 to bolster his courage enough to burn the nest. Once Manu burns the nest, his ring will fall off. If the players fail the mission. It will restart from the beginning and they may try again. Manu will remember their last failure and will try and help the players by telling them how they failed. Manu will give the players the ring as thanks and will go home. No one at the village will believe Manu’s story unless the players are there to support him.