Ascendancy of Nur’Ry’Za

John Joseph Adams

5e Adventure #1

Play the Game. Lose Control. Feed the God.

What begins as a simple missing persons case quickly spirals into a descent through obsession, curses, and cult sacrifices. Ascendancy of Nur’Ry’Za is a full-length adventure set in a monastery high atop a remote mountain where a cursed game is dominating minds and feeding the bottomless hunger of a dark eldritch entity.

This 50+ page adventure includes:

A narrative-rich mystery adventure with elements of horror and psychological tension
A Go/Chess-like game called Ascendancy that curses its players and enthralls them to a dark eldritch entity
A climactic ritual encounter where timing and choices matter
A monastery dungeon with tactical encounters and dramatic set-pieces
Three original full-color, highly-detailed hi-res maps (including player versions, GM versions, and a GM versions with creature placement)—in both PNG and PSD formats
3 original monk statblocks, inspired by Brazilian jiu-jitsu: Monk, Grappler Monk, and Grappling Master Monk
4 original “disciple” statblocks, designed to be warlock-monk cultists: Disciple Initiate, Zealous Disciple, Dark Disciple Priest, and Ardent Disciple
Tokens for all creatures and NPCs
Adventure text that uses special formatting conventions and hyperlinks to help GMs easily navigate the text while running the adventure
Four player handouts
An original monk subclass, The Way of Control, inspired by Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Designed for 5 PCs of 5th level (Hard-Deadly) or 6th level (Medium-Hard), this adventure is perfect for groups who enjoy a mix of intrigue, combat, and unraveling ancient secrets.

About the Author

ENNIE Award-winner John Joseph Adams is an editor and game designer who works in both fiction publishing and roleplaying games.

As a game designer, he’s written material for Kobold Press and Paizo, including contributions to Tome of Heroes and several forthcoming books That Cannot Yet Be Named. As a TTRPG editor, he’s worked on numerous projects for Kobold Press and Monte Cook Games, such as: Planebreaker Character Options; the adventure books Tales from the Shadows, Tome of Beasts 3 Lairs, and Tales from the Wastes; and the essay anthologies The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding Vol. 2, The Kobold Guide to Dungeons, and The Kobold Guide to Roleplaying.

John is also a New York Times bestselling anthology editor and a winner of the Hugo, Stoker, Locus, and British Fantasy awards. His work as a short fiction editor includes more than forty anthologies, such as Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele), Press Start to Play, The Way of the Wizard, Epic: Legends of Fantasy, and the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series. He is also editor and publisher of the award-winning digital magazine Lightspeed, and, for five years, ran a science fiction and fantasy novel imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Learn more at johnjosephadams.com and/or subscribe to his Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! newsletter.