Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master

by Michael E. Shea

During the ceremony marking the marriage of the prince to the daughter of an ambitious baron, a wyvern wearing a glyph-marked collar sweeps down from the mountains and attacks the father of the bride. During the annual festival of flowers, the floor of the old Dudley barn-turned-dancehall collapses—revealing ancient vaults filled with angry skeletons wearing armor from the age of Three Suns. During the running of the pigs, a huge dire boar suddenly appears, roaring through the village and shredding local folk with steel-coated tusks. A band of blood-faced wererats launches an attack on the opening day of the autumn market. Their leader clutches a note with sketches of the player characters and a cryptic message: “Their lives or yours…” During a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse, just as the moon crosses the sun, dozens of villagers draw blades and begin to attack their unsuspecting neighbors. Ten suits of animated armor of a style not seen for a thousand years interrupt the local lord’s address—and issue a challenge to a queen long dead. Goblins riding dire wolves attack a group of over a hundred refugees from the neighboring town of Gladeswallow. On the opening day of the fishing season in the lakeside town of Windshire, the frost giant Godrum Icerift smashes down the walled town’s guard towers. He demands a tribute of one hundred barrels of fish per month—or he will destroy the entire settlement. On the day of her husband’s death, Queen Vanrys is revealed to be the red dr...