Close
Close
Advanced Search

Red Hand of Doom (3e)Click to magnify
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/28797-sample.pdf

Red Hand of Doom (3e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >
Selected Option:

Note from the Admins:
This is a new Print on Demand version of Red Hand of Doom built from the original digital files. Print copies should look as close to original as we can possibly get.


Who Can Stand Against the Son of the Dragon?

The Wyrmsmoke Mountains shook with the thunder of ten thousand screaming hobgoblin soldiers. From the phalanx emerged a single champion. One by one the tribes fell silent as the warlord rose up, blue scales gleaming along his shoulders, horns swept back from his head. A hundred bright yellow banners stood beneath him, each marked with a great red hand. He stood upon a precipice and raised his arms. “I am Azarr Kul, Son of the Dragon!” the warlord bellowed.

“Hear me! Tomorrow we march to war!”

Red Hand of Doom is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® adventure designed to take characters from the 6th level to the 12th level. Confronted with the relentless advance of Azurr Kul’s horde, the characters must undertake vital missions to influence the outcome of the war. Can they shatter the armies of the enemy, or will Azarr Kul’s dreams rain destruction upon the human lands?

Product History

Red Hand of Doom (2006), by Richard Baker and James Jacobs, is a super-adventure for D&D 3E. It was published in February 2006.

Continuing the Super Adventures. D&D adventures from Wizards of the Coast were shockingly rare during the 3E era (2000-2008). That's because they expected d20 licensees to focus on adventure publication, taking the brunt of one of the least profitable sorts of RPG publication.

Super-adventures from Wizards that were larger and more important were even rarer. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (2001) and City of the Spider Queen (2002) were the only two in the early 3E era, then Wizards almost totally abandoned adventures for three years, with the exception of some Eberron modules. Red Hand of Doom thus marked a big return for Wizards. It would be followed by several other Wizards adventures in the final 3E years, most of them in the "Expedition" series (2006-2007).

To qualify Red Hand of Doom as a super-adventure, designers Baker and Jacobs made sure it was both "huge" and "epic". Though it's not a full-fledged adventure path, it should support 6 months of play.

Origins. Red Hand of Doom was written as a classic adventure that could be used in any setting. To make the adventure classic, Baker and Jacobs focused on one of best-known races of old: goblinoids, with plenty of class levels to make them dangerous foes. To make the adventure generic, they created a new locale, the Elsir Vale, that could be placed in any setting.

Sources. Baker based the plot of Red Hand of Doom on something he'd seen in many fantasy novels, but that was less common in D&D adventures: "the Army of Evil … trying to conquer everything." He didn't muddy that concept with dungeon delves or macguffins — instead wanting to focus on the armies themselves and the sort of challenges that they presented. It was an adventure style that hadn't been seen much since the "Bloodstone Pass" adventure series (1985-1988).

Jacobs notes a few more disparate influences: the Return of the King movie (2003), World of Warcraft (2003), and a Chris Thomasson adventure called "Foundation of Flame", which appeared in Dungeon #113 (August 2004).

Hail to the Designers Notes! The biggest innovation in Red Hand of Doom is the inclusion of about a dozen designers' notes. These boxed notes talk about the philosophies and expectations behind some of the encounters. Wizards had never done anything of the sort before.

The Miniatures Connection. Some of the figures in the War Drums release (2006) for D&D Miniatures (2003-2010) were purposefully drawn from this adventure.

Introducing the Elsir Vale. The Elsir Vale was a large and new locale that included several towns and the nearby wilderness. It became even more notable when Wizards returned to the setting in their "Scales of War" adventure path, which ran from Dungeon #156 (July 2008) to Dungeon #175 (February 2010). The new story for 4E was set 10 years after Red Hand of Doom.

When reintroducing the setting for Scales of War, Wizards described it like this:

"Bastions of civilization populate a dark, menacing world — islands of order and reason exist in a land otherwise overrun by dark cults, vile monsters, creatures from the dark edges of the imagination, and worse."

The Scales of War adventure path then went on to visit areas like the Astral Sea, the Elemental Chaos, and the Shadowfell, matching the cosmology of D&D 4E (2008-2012). When players combined the new description of the Elsir Vale, its cosmology, and perhaps even the fact that's it was a Vale, they came to the conclusion that the Elsir Vale was part of the same Points of Light world that also contained 4E's Nentir Vale.

Wizards never confirmed this, and you can't actually find Elsir Vale on the (very large scale) Points of Light map found in Conquest of Nerath (2011). However, "Garaitha's Anvil" in Dungeon #167 (June 2009) contained a reference to an adventure locale being "a rebuilt ruin of Nerath", which is strongly suggestive that the connection is genuine. If so, Red Hand of Doom marked the first appearance of the default setting for 4E, two years before that edition of the game appeared!

Expanding the Realms (and Elsewhere). Red Hand of Doom also contains some short suggestions for where to place the Elsir Vale in Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk. Many people found the connection to the Realms particularly strong because the Elsir Vale fits very cleanly into the Realms near Shaar. (In fact, Shaar would be the Endless Plains on the Red Hand of Doom map). Wizards even canonized this connection by referencing the events of Red Hand of Dawn in Monster Manual IV (2006) which notes that "Rumors have surfaced of hobgoblins and spawn massing around the Rathgaunt Hills in the southern Shaar."

About the Creators. Baker was an old hand at D&D, who'd been working on the line since 1992. In 2006, he also contributed to another book that foreshadowed D&D 4E: Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords (2006). Jacobs had strong experience with adventures thanks to his work on the "Shackled City" (2003-2004) and "Age of Worms" (2005-2006) adventure paths. He had also contributed to several Wizards sourcebooks, but this was his first Wizards adventure.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (9)
Discussions (80)
Customer avatar
Patrick G December 26, 2023 9:05 pm UTC
Bought this adventure when it first came out and it was worth every penny! So much fun for me as the DM and my party of players - it even made me a better DM. We will definitely play this one again!!!
Customer avatar
Wouter V September 01, 2023 1:22 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Really impressed by the quality of the POD.
Customer avatar
Andrew H April 04, 2023 10:33 pm UTC
PURCHASER
My pdf copy that I purchased is password protected. I would like to break it up so I can load the images into Fantasy Grounds. Is it possible to get the password?
Customer avatar
Zigor Z March 16, 2023 12:36 pm UTC
does the softcover come with the battlemaps? thanks!
Customer avatar
Michael G October 21, 2022 11:20 pm UTC
Product Type: "First tier: Levels 1-4"
Description: "designed to take characters from the 6th level to the 12th level"
Should probably update the Product Type. Almost bought it without reading the description properly expecting to run a low level.
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin W April 04, 2023 11:39 pm UTC
Not sure why it says tier 1, good catch. Website admins please correct!

Also: while the cover does say 6-12th level, just to really confuse people, inside the book it says it's a 5th-11th level adventure!
Customer avatar
Joseph R June 05, 2022 9:40 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Finally PoD. Thanks :)
Customer avatar
Hawk M March 30, 2022 5:13 am UTC
anyone else here because this is one of Matt Collville's favorites? Would be nice to filter this better by well reviewed modules by lots of people :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Lord T May 27, 2022 12:16 pm UTC
That’s exactly why
Reply
Customer avatar
Erich John H February 06, 2023 11:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yes and love hobgoblins
Customer avatar
Andrew D January 10, 2022 10:06 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I wish so badly this was a print on demand. I'm planning on running this for my group once they are appropriate level and it would be so much better to have this in physical form.
Reply
Customer avatar
Chris R January 21, 2022 8:45 pm UTC
Shows as POD now
Reply
Customer avatar
Andrew D February 24, 2022 9:34 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Didn't see this till just now. I just bought one, I'm so freaking stoked.
Customer avatar
Brendan E December 30, 2021 5:00 am UTC
PURCHASER
I can't believe nobody has ever suggested this idea, but what if the best 3e adventure module ever published was also available as a POD version? That seems like it would be a great idea.
Customer avatar
Ossi M December 29, 2021 12:52 am UTC
PoD, please
Customer avatar
Mark C October 29, 2021 2:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
PLEASE put this on PoD I will buy two copies, one as a gift and one for me... PLEASE!
Customer avatar
Austin E October 24, 2021 8:31 am UTC
PoD please.
Customer avatar
Florian G September 28, 2021 11:16 am UTC
PURCHASER
about to finish this (as a on-the-fly 5e conversion). One and a half years now, and it is coming to an end.
One of the better-structured adventures I have read and run, with actual motivations and urgency.
Customer avatar
Eloy H August 07, 2021 1:56 pm UTC
PoD please
Customer avatar
russell H August 02, 2021 1:47 am UTC
Pod please. I want to give you my money.
Customer avatar
russell H August 02, 2021 1:47 am UTC
Pod please. I want to give you my money.
See 16 more
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Adamantine seller
Pages
132
ISBN
0-7869-3938-9
File Size:
47.01 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
April 30, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on December 16, 2014.