Classic Modules Today: C4 To Find a King (5e)

Two centuries ago, the last king of the celtic kingdom of Pellham was deposed in favor of a High Council. Now, however, things are going badly, and a restless populace longs for the days of the ancient kingship. The High Council is floundering -- and the political situation is turning ugly.

It was then that the Brothers of Brie, an obscure monastic order, discovered a long-forgotten prophecy. In Pellham's time of greatest need, a long-dead king will rise to restore order. You have been chosen to prove that this is the time of the prophecy. You will take the first steps toward returning the lost king to the throne.

The original adventure contained the first four rounds of the AD&D Open Tournament that was originally run at the Gen Con XVI Convention. It included a tournament scoring system and a team of 10 characters of levels 4-7.

This adventure can be played alone or as the first part of the two-part Prophecy of Brie series.

Product History

C4: "To Find a King" (1985), by Bob Blake, is the fourth competition adventure and the first one to be prepared by the RPGA. It's also the first part of a two-part series. It was released in January 1985.

The RPGA Adventures. Frank Mentzer founded the RPGA in 1980, and afterward that organization took over running the major AD&D tournaments, freeing up the Design department at TSR, who'd previously created the tournament adventures. In 1982, TSR started preparing the RPGA's tournaments for publication. However, where TSR had previously published tournaments for the mass market, the new RPGA tournaments were instead sold exclusively to members of the RPGA. Frank Mentzer's Aquaria tournaments, which had been run at three different Gen Cons in 1981, were published as R1 ("To the Aid of Falx") through R4 ("Doc's Island"), 1982-83. Then Tracy and Laura Hickman's "Rahasia" series, which was (apparently) also run at Gen Con at some point, appeared as RPGA1: "Rahasia" and RPGA2: "Black Opal Eye" (1983).

This brings us to The Prophecy of Brie, Bob Blake's massive eight-part tournament, run at Gen Con XVI (1983). TSR released the first half of it as two adventures: RPGA3: "The Forgotten King" (1983) and RPGA4: "The Elixir of Life" (1983). Yet the "Powers that Be" at TSR (which probably means the Blume brothers) decided to stop producing exclusive modules for the RPGA. By this point, the remaining half of the tournament was already in almost-finished form, so the RPGA decided to publish it in their newsletter, Polyhedron. It appeared in four parts, from issue #16 (1984) to #19 (1984), which were labeled "RPGA5" through "RPGA8." Thus, the Prophecy of Brie was completed.

Onward to Competition. Somewhere along the way, some bright soul at TSR realized that if the RPGA adventures weren't being published exclusively for the RPGA any more, they could be used elsewhere. Thus TSR was able to take the hard work already spent on The Prophecy of Brie, and turn it into a pair of mass-market adventures. "The Forgotten King" and "The Elixir of Life," combined, became "To Find a King," the first of the pair.

The Adventure Continues. The other half of the The Prophecy of Brie was collected in C5: "The Bane of Llywelyn" (1985), just a month later. 

Conversion Guide This conversion guide allows DMs to run the original module with 5^th Edition rules and provides a reference sheet for encounters.

To use this conversion guide you will need a copy of "C4 To Find a King", originally available in hard-copy and now for sale in Digital format at DMsGuild.com.