The plot of the original modules Descent Into the Depths of the Earth and Shrine of the Kuo-Toa place a party of player characters (PCs) on the trail of the drow priestess Eclavdra through the Underdark, battling various creatures on their journey. In the last module in the preceding G-series, Hall of the Fire Giant King, the PCs were supposed to have discovered that the drow had instigated the alliance between the races of giants and their attacks on neighboring humans. The drow that survived the party''s incursion have fled into tunnels leading deep into the earth. The adventurers will have arrived at the bottom of the dungeon below the cave-castle of King Snurre. In D1 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, the PCs seek the home of the drow by traveling through an underground world of caves and passages. In the tunnels, the adventurers first fight a tough drow patrol, and the next major fight is with a raiding party of mind flayers and wererats, who have halted their patrol long enough to torture their drow prisoner. The characters also find a grand cavern containing drow soldiers, purple worms, a lich, a clutch of undead, a giant slug, sphinxes, trolls, bugbears, troglodytes, wyverns, and fungi. D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa picks up with the party continuing to pursue the drow. The party encounters a kuo-toan rogue monitor who helps them cross a large river for a fee. A party of Svirfneblin (or deep gnomes) approaches the player characters on the other side, and the party has a chance to convince them to help them fight against the drow. As the party travels, signs of the drow are all around; the drow are allowed to pass through these subterranean areas, even though they are hated and feared by the other local intelligent races. The party then moves through kuo-toa territory, ruled by the Priest-Prince Va-Guulgh. If the PCs appease the kuo-toa and respect their customs, the evil kuo-toa are not openly hostile to the party, but will attack if the party gives them a reason. The party learns that the drow and kuo-toa trade with each other openly, but the kuo-toa hate and fear the drow, resulting in frequent skirmishes between the two peoples. D3 Vault of the Drow is set in Erelhei-Cinlu, an underground stronghold of the drow, and the Fane of Lolth, their evil spider-goddess. After traveling for league after league into the Underdark, the adventurers come upon Erelhei-Cinlu, the vast subterranean city of the drow. The adventure is written in a very open-ended fashion, giving the Dungeon Master (DM) free rein to script any number of mini-campaigns or adventures taking place inside the drow capital. An extensive overview of the drow power structure is given for just this purpose. Eventually, the players may discover an astral gate leading to the plane of the Abyss, leading into the Q1 module.

Descent into the Depths of the Earth

In 5000 BBY, the Sith Lord Saes Rrogan gathers up a Force-enhancing mineral from a world that his Sith fleet destroyed. On his heels are Jedi Master Relin Druur and his Padawan Drev Hassin. When they attempt to board Rrogan''s ship, the Harbinger, Drev is killed, but Relin makes it aboard, killing and wounding several of Rrogan''s subordinates before confronting the Sith himself. They have a brief duel which both escape severely wounded, and Relin manages to sabotage the hyperdrive core of the Harbinger in order to mess up its trajectory in returning with the rest of the Sith. This throws off the trajectory of the Harbingers sister ship, the Omen, which would have it crash land irreparably on the out-of-place world of Kesh. As for the Harbinger itself, its hyperdrive sabotage drives it more than 5000 years into the future, specifically in 41 ABY. In that time period, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr senses a disturbance in the Force emanating from the Unknown Regions. He travels there and lands on the world of Fhost, where he seeks the help of junk dealers Khedryn Faal and Marr Idi-Shael. They take him to a nameless moon where Jaden had felt the disturbance in the Force. They soon run into the Harbinger that had finally come out of hyperspace after more than 5000 years. They ally with Relin Druur to combat Saes Rrogan''s forces even as those from the past realize in what time they''re now in. Eventually, as Relin gathers the help of Marr to destroy the Harbinger, Jaden teams up with Khedryn to explore the mysterious moon. While all this happens, Jaden is being stalked by Kell Douro, an Anzati who drains people''s lives away, and finds Jaden to be a delicious meal. On the moon, Jaden and Khedryn find a dead and deserted base. The two of them get separated, and Khedryn is nearly killed by Douro. But Douro decides not to quench his appetite with Khedryn, and remains ever-vigilant to consume Jaden''s life. Jaden, meanwhile, finds the source of the dark side in the form of a deranged clone of Jedi Master Kam Solusar. Though Jaden loses most of his fingers in one hand, he kills the clone in combat, but is nearly killed by Douro. Douro, however, is killed himself when Khedryn shoots his brains out at point-blank range with his blaster. Despite the victory against the clone and Douro, Jaden senses through the Force that other deranged clones of other Force-users in the base have managed to escape. This is confirmed when Jaden and Khedryn see a ship fly away from the outside of the base. Aboard the Harbinger, Marr helps Relin with his mission as best he can, then escapes while Relin confronts Saes Rrogan in one final battle. Relin kills Rrogan, and then uses the Force-enhancing minerals around him to completely destroy the Harbinger. With that, Jaden, Khedryn, and Marr all decide to go home.

Star Wars: Crosscurrent

876 - 878: Uhtred, bored with the peace between Alfred and the Danish king Guthrum, goes off raiding into Cornwall. He comes across a settlement ruled by the British king Peredur, who hires Uhtred and his men to fight an invading Danish force led by Svein of the White Horse. Uhtred and Svein however ally to kill Peredur and pillage his settlement, and Uhtred carries off Peredur''s wife, the shadow queen Iseult. A monk named Asser who was at Peredur''s court witnesses the betrayal and escapes to Dyfed in Wales. Uhtred and Svein then sail up the coast to Land''s End where they part ways. Svein goes to Cynuit, where Ubba was killed previously, and Uhtred to the coast of Wales where he raids a ship laden with treasure. He returns to his estate and pious wife Mildrith, using his hoard of treasure to build a great hall and relieve his debt to the church. The Witan summons Uhtred to an audience with King Alfred in Cippanhamm, where he is accused of using the king''s ship to raid the Britons with whom Wessex is at peace based on the testimony of Asser, who has made his way to Alfred''s court, and wrongfully accused of attacking the Cynuit abbey on the false testimony of the warrior Steapa Snotor, who is loyal to Uhtred''s enemy Odda the Younger. To settle the dispute, a fight to the death is ordered between Uhtred and Steapa. During the duel, Uhtred carries only his sword, Serpent-Breath, whereas Steapa is fully armoured. The duel is cut short when Guthrum''s Danes attack and the crowd is scattered. Uhtred, Leofric, and Iseult hide in the fields until nightfall when they enter Cippanhamm and free their friend Eanflæd at the Tornake Tavern. The four of them wander for a few weeks until they reach the swamps of Athelney. As they enter the marsh, Guthrum himself attacks Uhtred. Uhtred makes a fighting escape onto a boat that carries him, Leofric, and another passenger to an island within the swamp. The passenger insists that Uhtred should have left a Danish warrior alive, and turns out to be King Alfred himself. Uthred becomes Alfred''s bodyguard and for a few months they hide in the swamp until enough men have joined Alfred''s army. They then fight at the Battle of Ethandun and Alfred takes back Wessex, with Uhtred being instrumental in the death of Svein of the White Horse. However, during the battle, Leofric and Iseult are both killed.

The Pale Horseman

The story recounts the tragic love of Lucy Ashton, and Edgar, Master of Ravenswood. Edgar''s father was stripped of the title for supporting the deposed King James II. Lucy''s ambitious father, Sir William Ashton(fiction = Dalrymple) then bought the Ravenswood estate (fiction = Rutherford estate). Edgar hates Sir William for this usurpation of his family''s heritage, but on meeting Lucy, falls in love with her, and renounces his plans for vengeance. Sir William''s haughty and manipulative wife, Lady Ashton, is the villainess of the story. She is determined to end the initial happy engagement of Edgar and Lucy, and force Lucy into a politically advantageous arranged marriage. Lady Ashton intercepts Edgar''s letters to Lucy and persuades Lucy that Edgar has forgotten her. Edgar leaves Scotland for France, to continue his political activities. While he is away, Lady Ashton continues her campaign. She gets Captain Westenho, a wandering soldier of fortune, to tell everyone that Edgar is about to get married in France. She even recruits "wise woman" Ailsie Gourlay (a witch in all but name) to show Lucy omens and tokens of Edgar''s unfaithfulness. Lucy still clings to her troth, asking for word from Edgar that he has broken off with her; she writes to him. Lady Ashton suppresses Lucy''s letter, and brings the Reverend Bide-the-bent to apply religious persuasion to Lucy. However, Bide-the-bent instead helps Lucy send a new letter. But there is no answer. Lady Ashton finally bullies Lucy into marrying Francis, Laird of Bucklaw. But on the day before the wedding, Edgar returns. Seeing that Lucy has signed the betrothal papers with Bucklaw, he repudiates Lucy, who can barely speak. The wedding takes place the next day, followed by a celebration at Ravenswood. While the guests are dancing, Lucy stabs Bucklaw in the bridal chamber, severely wounding him. She descends quickly into insanity and dies. Bucklaw recovers, but refuses to say what had happened. Edgar reappears at Lucy''s funeral. Lucy''s older brother, blaming him for her death, insists that they meet in a duel. Edgar, in despair, reluctantly agrees. But on the way to the meeting, Edgar falls into quicksand and dies. In the story, Caleb Balderstone, an eccentric old Ravenswood family retainer, provides some comic relief.

The Bride of Lammermoor

The plot of Avicenna''s Persian allegorical tale was very different from Ibn Tufail''s later novel. Avicenna''s story was essentially a thought experiment about the active intellect, personified by an elderly sage, instructing the narrator, who represents the human rational soul, about the nature of the universe. The plot of Ibn Tufail''s more famous Arabic novel was inspired by Avicennism, Kalam, and Sufism, and was also intended as a thought experiment. Ibn Tufail''s novel tells the story of an autodidactic feral child, raised by a gazelle and living alone on a desert island in the Indian Ocean. After his gazelle mother passes away when he is still a child, he dissects her body and performs an autopsy in order to find out what happened to her. The discovery that her death was due to a loss of innate heat sets him "on a road of scientific inquiry" and self-discovery. Without contact with other human beings, Hayy discovers ultimate truth through a systematic process of reasoned inquiry. Hayy ultimately comes into contact with civilization and religion when he meets a castaway named Absal. He determines that certain trappings of religion and civilization, namely imagery and dependence on material goods, are necessary for the multitude in order that they might have decent lives. However, he believes that imagery and material goods are distractions from the truth and ought to be abandoned by those whose reason recognizes that they are distractions. Ibn Tufail drew the name of the tale and most of its characters from an earlier work by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Ibn Tufail''s book was neither a commentary on nor a mere retelling of Ibn Sina''s work, however, but a new and innovative work in its own right. It reflects one of the main concerns of Muslim philosophers (later also of Christian thinkers), that of reconciling philosophy with revelation. At the same time, the narrative anticipates in some ways both Robinson Crusoe and Emile: or, On Education. It tells of a child who is nurtured by a gazelle and grows up in total isolation from humans. In seven phases of seven years each, solely by the exercise of his faculties, Hayy goes through all the gradations of knowledge. The story of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan is also similar to the later story of Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling''s The Jungle Book.

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan

~Plot outline description~ --> The Kingdom of Semma is on the verge of war but the VIII Hereditary Warlord has died. The King sent out a search party to the Hegemony of Ethshar where with the aid of magic they track down the heir to the title, the Unwilling IX Warlord Sterren. The story evolves as Sterren, along with assorted others hired to help in the war, is hauled off from his career as a low stakes gambler to Semma. One of his companions is Vond, a master Warlock who is feeling the Calling and who is seeking to get as far away from Aldagmor as he can because once a Warlock gives in to the Calling they are drawn to Aldagmor and are never seen again. Vond takes a liking to Sterren who was actually apprenticed as a Warlock for three days before being dismissed as unable to perform. Of course it is against the Guild law for any magician to practice in more than one field so Sterren was disqualified to take up any of the other studies. Not long after arriving in Semma, Vond discovers a second source of power for Warlockry and quickly becomes the most powerful magician in the Small Kingdoms.

The Unwilling Warlord

Aria Montgomery tries to keep her father Byron''s affair a secret from her mother and brother, while Hanna deals with her social downturn by resuming her bulimia. Emily Fields is in a secret romantic relationship with Maya. Spencer Hastings remembers pushing Ali back on a stone path after a heated argument, and fears that she is the one who killed her. After Aria ignores "A''s" threats, "A" tells her father Byron''s affair to Ella, who kicks Aria out of the house. "A" also reveals Emily and Maya''s relationship publicly, and Emily''s parents force her into a program to "cure" her apparent homosexuality. Aria is also cheating on her boyfriend, Sean, with her AP English teacher, Ezra; "A" sends pictures of them kissing to Aria''s boyfriend, who calls the police. Hanna is humiliated at Mona''s 17th birthday party, and later receives a text from "A". This time, the number is not a jumbled mess, and Hanna recognizes it: she knows who "A" is. She calls Spencer, Emily, and Aria to meet her at their special spot, the Rosewood school playground; before she can tell them what she knows, Hanna is hit by a SUV. The story ends with Spencer, Emily, and Aria receiving a text saying, "She knew too much -A".

Perfect

McTeague is a dentist of limited intellect from a poor miner''s family, who has opened a dentist shop on Polk Street in San Francisco. (His first name is never revealed; other characters in the novel call him simply "Mac.") His best friend, Marcus Schouler, brings his cousin, Trina Sieppe, whom he is courting, to McTeague''s parlor for dental work. McTeague becomes infatuated with her while working on her teeth, and Marcus graciously steps aside. McTeague successfully woos Trina. Shortly after McTeague and Trina have kissed and declared their love for each other, Trina discovers that she has won $5000 from a lottery ticket. In the ensuing celebration Trina''s mother, Mrs Sieppe, announces that McTeague and Trina are to marry. Marcus becomes jealous of McTeague, and claims that he has been cheated out of money that would have been rightfully his if he had married Trina. The marriage takes place, and Mrs Sieppe, along with the rest of Trina''s family, move away from San Francisco, leaving her alone with McTeague. Trina proves to be a parsimonious wife; she refuses to touch the principal of her $5000, which she invests with her uncle. She insists that she and McTeague must live on the earnings from McTeague''s dental practice, the small income from the $5000 investment, and the bit of money she earns from carving small wooden figures of Noah''s animals and his Ark for sale in her uncle''s shop. Secretly, she accumulates penny-pinched savings in a locked trunk. Though the couple are happy, the friendship between Marcus and Mac deteriorates. More than once the two men come to grips; each time McTeague''s immense physical strength prevails, and eventually he breaks Marcus'' arm in a fight. When Marcus recovers, he goes south, intending to become a rancher; before he leaves, he visits the McTeagues, and he and Mac part apparently as friends. Catastrophe strikes when McTeague is debarred from practising dentistry by the authorities; it becomes clear that before leaving, Marcus has taken revenge on Mac by informing city hall that he has no license or degree. McTeague loses his practice and the couple are forced to move into successively poorer quarters as Trina becomes more and more miserly. Their life together deteriorates until McTeague takes all Trina''s domestic savings (amounting to $400 or roughly $10,000 in 2010 values) and abandons her. Meanwhile, Trina falls completely under the spell of money and withdraws the principal of her prior winnings in gold from her uncle''s firm so she can admire and handle the coins in her room, at one point spreading them over her bed and rolling around in them. When McTeague returns, destitute once more, she refuses to give him money even for food. Aggravated and made violent by whisky, McTeague beats her to death. He takes the entire hoard of gold and heads out to a mining community that he had left years before. Sensing pursuit, he makes his way south towards Mexico; meanwhile, Marcus hears of the murder and joins the hunt for McTeague, finally catching him in Death Valley. In the middle of the desert Marcus and McTeague fight over McTeague''s remaining water and, when that is lost and they are already doomed, over Trina''s $5,000. McTeague kills Marcus, but as he dies, Marcus handcuffs himself to McTeague. The final, dramatic image of the novel is one of McTeague stranded, alone and helpless. He is left with only the company of Marcus''s corpse, to whom he is handcuffed, in the desolate, arid waste of Death Valley.

McTeague

The play concerns a team of men, Don, Teach, Bob, and Fletcher (who does not appear in the play, but is referred to), who are conspiring to steal a coin collection from a wealthy man. Don, who owns a junk shop, sold a nickel to a man for much less than what it was worth. Out of revenge, he and his young gofer, Bob, plan to steal the man''s coin collection after suspecting that he went away for the weekend. Teach, an experienced and misanthropic friend of Don''s, persuades Don to release Bob from the job because of what Teach feels is inexperience and potential disloyalty, using himself and Fletcher in Bob''s place. Right before the caper is going to be carried out later that night, Bob appears at the store and attempts to sell Don a rare nickel, similar to the one Don sold. When asked where he got the nickel, Bob is evasive. He explains Fletcher''s absence by saying he was mugged and is now in a hospital, but when Don calls the hospital, Fletcher has not been admitted. Bob''s excuse is that he didn''t actually know which hospital Fletcher went to, but by this time Teach is sure that Bob is trying to trick them and in anger strikes him on the head with a metal object from the store. Shortly thereafter a call comes in from another friend of theirs corroborating the Fletcher story and naming the correct hospital, which Don calls and confirms. Don admonishes Teach for wounding Bob and orders him to get his car so they can take him to the hospital.

American Buffalo

India Opal Buloni is a 10-year-old girl who has just moved to a trailer park in the small town of Naomi, Florida, with her itinerant preacher father. While in the Winn-Dixie supermarket, she encounters a scruffy dog wreaking havoc. She claims the dog is hers to save it from go ing to the pound and names it Winn-Dixie. Winn-Dixie''s first act of inspiration on Opal is for her to challenge her father to name ten things about her mother, who abandoned them years before when she became an alcoholic. Opal also befriends the very wealthy librarian Miss Franny Block, who shares great stories about her past, including a tale about her great-grandfather, whose family members died while he fought for the South in the Civil War. Grief-stricken after his return from battle, he decided he wanted to live the remainder of his life filled with sweetness. Thus, he invented Littmus Lozenge candies that tasted like a combination of rootbeer and strawberry with a secret ingredient mixed in—sorrow. In Because of Winn-Dixie, these candies symbolize that even though life sometimes deals people a bit of sadness, there is always so much to appreciate. She also encounters Gloria Dump, a woman whom children think is a witch. She also meets a man named Otis. Otis is the pet shop manager in the town of Naomi. He is shy and upset because he was in jail for playing his guitar on the street, so now he plays for the pet shop animals and a parrot named Gertrude who is Otis'' favorite.

Because of Winn-Dixie

The book starts out with an introduction when Matthew Walsh is writing a letter to his younger sister Emmy to tell her the story of their mother''s vicious abuse. The True story sister, Callie. Callie is eleven, Matthew is thirteen, and Emmy is a toddler. Callie and Matthew go to the Cumberland Farms store to get Popsicles, because there is a heat wave. They see Murdoch, who protects a kid from being openly abused. Matthew and Callie like Murdoch, and both of them want to track him down so that they can be his friend. Meanwhile, the first act of abuse that is shown in the book comes when Nikki hits Matthew with a bag of clams after Nikki finds the address of Murdoch that Callie found on the Internet. Nikki begins to date Murdoch, but eventually they break stalking him. Nikki is angry and sends a man called Rob to brutalize Murdoch. Nikki and Rob eventually end up in jail. After she gets out of jail, she recklessly drives in search of Murdoch. Instead, she finds pleasure in tormenting Julie, a friend of Murdoch. Julie loses the use of her legs, and Nikki ends up in jail again. Ben, Matthew''s father (who is scared of Nikki), and Bobbie, Nikki''s sister, use this . Things are fine for a while until Nikki kidnaps Emmy and gets her drunk, although she is from Emmy and she tells him where she is. Matthew rescues Emmy, only to run into Nikki who greets Matt with a joke involving which alcohol Emmy Nikki unconscious and contemplates killing her when Murdoch appears. After coming to Murdoch advises Nikki to run away and never come back. But this and the fact no one has seen her in not the end of Nikki. Letters continue to come. Some of them are normal, but some contain threatening messages like "I will kill you" or "It was Murdoch''s fault." The book ends with Murdoch telling Matt that he was also abused when he was younger leading to him killing his father. Mathew thanks Murdoch for stopping him. In the end, Matt never gives the letter to Emmy stating that it wasn''t really for her it was for him.

The Rules of Survival

Zen is on sick leave after a stomach operation and is feeling a shadow of himself. His relationship with his partner, Gemma, is also not going well. She is about to leave for Bologna to meet her son who has something important to tell her. Meanwhile, Zen is recalled to duty and is sent to be the liaison officer for a high profile murder investigation - in Bologna – where the local football team owner has been shot, as well as stabbed with a Parmesan knife. Whilst in Bologna, Gemma manages to get tickets to watch a live cook-off between local academic celebrity Edgardo Ugo and singing TV chef Romano Rinaldi, ''Lo Chef Che Canta e Incanta'', provoked by Ugo suggesting, in a newspaper article, that Lo Chef can''t cook. A series of coincidences leads to Zen being arrested when Ugo is found shot in the wake of the hilariously disastrous event. The other main characters include a couple of flatmates – a rich kid student of Ugo''s who fancies himself an ''Ultra'' football fan, the student''s illegal immigrant girlfriend, who calls herself Princess Flavia of Ruritania and the worlds worst private detective, who fancies himself a Chandleresque Private Eye. This is Zen at the centre of a black comedy.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Descent into the Depths of the Earth

By Gary Gygax

Star Wars: Crosscurrent

By Paul S. Kemp

The Pale Horseman

By Bernard Cornwell

The Bride of Lammermoor

By Walter Scott

Hayy ibn Yaqdhan

No Author Listed

The Unwilling Warlord

By Lawrence Watt-Evans

Perfect

By Sara Shepard

McTeague

By Frank Norris

American Buffalo

By David Mamet

Because of Winn-Dixie

By Kate DiCamillo

The Rules of Survival

By Nancy Werlin

Back to Bologna

By Michael Dibdin