An adventure included in the Essentials Kit (2019). The party starts in Phandalin, the starting town for the Starter Set (2014) adventure, Lost Mine of Phandlever. Various jobs are posted by Harbin Wester, townmaster, which the PCs can pursue. These jobs culminate in a raid on Icespire Hold, where Cryovain, a young adult white dragon, has recently claimed as its lair.
Dare to defy death in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. The talk of the streets and taverns has all been about the so-called death curse: a wasting disease afflicting everyone who’s ever been raised from the dead. Victims grow thinner and weaker each day, slowly but steadily sliding toward the death they once denied. When they finally succumb, they can’t be raised—and neither can anyone else, regardless of whether they’ve ever received that miracle in the past. Temples and scholars of divine magic are at a loss to explain a curse that has affected the entire region, and possibly the entire world. The cause is a necromantic artifact called the Soulmonger, which is located somewhere in Chult, a mysterious peninsula far to the south, ringed with mountains and choked with rainforests.
Watch your step. Out-of-this-world adventure. An odd box falls by a watch tower and its up to the party to discover what it is and why its here. Pgs. 22-29
Evil schemes are afoot in Cauldron, a metropolis of merchants built into the caldera of a long-dormant volcano. To foil the agenda of evil cultists, your band of adventurers must brave haunted jungle ruins, slay mighty dragons, and bind themselves to a layer of the infinite Abyss. Will their swords and spells be enough to save the Shackled City? Originally published as 11 linked adventures in the award-winning Dungeon magazine, the Shackled City Adventure Path is the most ambitious official Dungeons & Dragons campaign ever created. Now, for the first time ever, everything you need to play the campaign has been compiled into a deluxe 416-page full-color hardcover that also includes an 8-panel fully detailed map of the City of Cauldron, a 16-page full-color map and illustration booklet, and a brand new Shackled City adventure written by fan favorite author Christopher Perkins.
"The adventure begins shortly after the PCs arrive in the village of Whitebirch, located just one mile outside Bunglewood, a thick forest. Unless the adventurers prefer to camp by the side of the road, the only rooms in town are available at The Swanmay's Song, a local inn. Shortly after nightfall, a wounded traveler staggers into the inn." -- from the module. Includes overland map, ambush site map, and cave system map.
Tears for Twilight Hollow is about mystery, danger and deceit- the players seek a missing Paladin in an increasingly-troubled town, chasing clues around a village and through a valley only to discover that the Paladin's old friend long ago began worship of an evil S&M goddess. Betraying her friend and trapping her soul in a Devourer, a powerful extraplanar undead creature, the evil priestess continually parades the soul-bereft corpse of their fallen Paladin in front of the villagers in a show of 'sorrow', all the while gaining immense pleasure from the village's pain. Pgs. 62-110
"The adventure begins with the PCs lost in the streets of Sigil's Lower Ward." --from the module. The PCs are approached by a tiefling telling them about a job. The tiefling's employer wants the heroes to search for a child who is rumored to be some sort of chosen one from an ancient prophecy. Includes a map of Durkayle's Stronghold, a map of the Black Sail Tavern, a map of the Screaming Tower, and an isometric map of Zactar Cathedral.
In order to stop a series of devastating giant raids, the party must venture into the stronghold of the frost giant jarl Grugnur to both recover the giants' plans and eliminate Grugnur, who is the tactical head behind the operations. The adventure is part of the "Against the Giants" series originally by Gary Gygax, hence the writing credit.
The Cagewrights are defeated. The Tree of Shackled Sould is no more. Lord Vhalantru has been exposed and put down for the menace he truly was. The town of Cauldron has been saved from volcanic apocalypse. The heroes of Cauldron have earned their place in history, and more than deserve a time of rest, yet fate is not so kind. For the true menace behind the curtain still lives. As long as Adimarchus, the demon prince of madness, continues to dream his haunted dreams and writhe away the years in torment in the fiendish asylum of Skullrot, Cauldron can never be truly safe. "Asylum" concludes the Shackled City Adventure Path that began with "Life's Bazaar" (Dungeon #97) and continued with "Flood Season" (Dungeon #98), "Zenith Trajectory" (Dungeon #102), "The Demonskar Legacy" (Dungeon #104), "Test of the Smoking Eye" (Dungeon #107), "Secrets of the Soul Pillar" (Dungeon #109), "Lords of Oblivion" (Dungeon #111), "Foundation of Flame" (Dungeon #113), "Thirteen Cages" (Dungeon #114), and "Strike on Shatterhorn" (Dungeon #115). Pgs. 40-65
From The Magazine: "Every summer, Duke Hightower holds a competition quite different from the traditional jousting and archery tournaments held by similar lords of his station. The rules of his tournament change from year to year, and, to oversee the games, the duke has appointed two wizard brothers who help choose the setting and create the rules and challenges of the competition. This year the competition is called the “Owlbear Run,” an overland race that requires each participating team to escort a live owlbear from the town of Telvorn to the town of Milvorn. The teams will face a variety of challenges; some are devised by the wizards, others by the competing teams or their sponsors, and some occur entirely at random. All of these tests are in addition to the challenges inherent in motivating a temperamental owlbear. Fortune and fame await the first team to cross the finish line, and the local lords sponsoring the race are eager to enlist skilled champions for their causes." Pgs. 2-27
Into the void. It all started with two wizards feuding now a sphere of annihilation and a daemon princess threatens the whole town. It is up to the party to stop things before the city is destroyed. Pgs. 24-47
Faced with an unusual alliance of giants raiding the countryside, the party must venture into the steading of hill giant chief Nosnra and uncover maps to the locations of the other giant strongholds. “Steading of the Hill Giant Chief ” can be run as a stand-alone adventure, or you can play it as the first part of a four-part series that continues with “Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane” (Dungeon 198), “Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl” (Dungeon 199), and “Hall of the Fire Giant King” (Dungeon 200). The adventure is part of the Against the Giants series originally by Gary Gygax, hence the writing credit.
This adventure takes place in the Moonsea of Faerûn. The players have been brought to Melvaunt to search for the missing scions of the city's great families. To the north, in Thar the orc tribes converge on the ruined fortress of Xul-Jarak, flocking to the banner of a charismatic warlord. There, he intends to sacrifice the scions of the great families of Melvaunt in a bloodritual to Gruumsh. The players will escape Melvaunt, search along the wilderness of Thar for the Fortress of Xul-Jarak, and then explore the dungeons of the ruined fortress and hopefully rescue the scions before they are sacrificed. There also is a Web Enhancement by Eric Cagle on the archives of wizards of the coast's website designed to scale the adventure to level 8. For example, it replaces the Owlbear with a Tyrannosaurus. This is an easy to scale adventure with much of the player's difficulty coming from intelligently avoiding problems, choosing how to approach each floor in the most tactical way, and quickly adjusting when something goes wrong. The adventure has sidebars including common orc battle cries (In Orc!), ready to use orc names, weather and random encounter table in Thar, a description of what happens if the party fails or partially succeeds, and suggested minis for each of the encounters. There is even an extended description of the bloodspear ritual, an event the party is not meant to encounter in a normal run. The appendix is detailed for all the humanoid characters including the scions and their equipment, the named villains, and variety of unnamed orcs the party will encounter. The fortress also offers an opportunity to introduce the players to the Underdark and the Zhentil Keep. There is a passage to the Underdark the players can accidentally explore, and return to later. Emissaries from Zhentil Keep have come to watch the ritual and have their own motivations. These npcs provide an opportunity for exposition and role playing at a point which otherwise might be combat heavy, acting as a valve for the first floor - helping or hurting the party with subtle magic should the difficulty be off.
Smoke still rises from the shattered buildings and ruined streets of the troubled town of Cauldron, yet if not for the actions of a band of heroes, it would not exist at all. A sinister cabal of cultists bent on plunging Cauldron into the prison plane of Carceri had awakened the volcano below the town, and amidst the attacks of dragons and fiends from the outer planes, these heroes were able to evacuate the city and then strike at the cultists in their lair near the volcano's heart. Now, this cult, the Cagewrights, lies shattered, their members put on the defensive for the first time. All that remains is to finish the job, but the surviving Cagewrights still have some surprises left in their mysterious stronghold under the snake-haunted ruins of Shatterhorn. "Strike on Shatterhorn" is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure designed for four 18tth-level characters. This adventure is part of the Shackled City Adventure Path that began with "Life Bazaar" (Dungeon #97) and continued with "Flood Season" (Dungeon #98), "Zenith Trajectory" (Dungeon #102), "The Demonskar Legacy" (Dungeon #104), "Test of the Smoking Eye" (Dungeon #107), "Secrets of the Soul Pillars" (Dungeon #109), "Lords of Oblivion" (Dungeon #111), "Foundation of Flame" (Dungeon #113), and "Thirteen Cages" (Dungeon #114). The Adventure Path concludes in Dungeon #116 with "Asylum." Pgs. 56-82
The ruined manor now known as Kobold Hall was once a minor lord's proud holding, a walled keep overlooking the old King's Road. That was years ago, and the lord's name and glories he earned are long forgotten. Today, the place is called Kobold Hall after the malicious humanoids that invest the place. Pgs. 210-219
The invisible enemy. Rats, cats, and double-drats. Six months ago, the residents of Luskwald heard rumors from passing merchants of a possible goblin incursion into the region. News from the nearest city confirmed speculations that goblin tribes were massing in the distant hills. Worried about the future of his small community, the Laird of Luskwald commissioned a stonemason and several carpenters to rebuild a damaged keep two miles north of the village. The repair crew worked for weeks restoring the keep's fallen walls, while waiting nervously for the first goblin to show its ugly head. For the first several days the restoration proceeded according to schedule, but in the weeks that followed several 'accidents' led many to believe the keep was cursed or haunted. In the past week three of Luskwald's villagers have died, each the victim of a grisly assassin whose identity remains a mystery. Several citizens have heard or seen peculiar things over the last several days, leading them to believe that Luskwald has been cursed, or worse, ravaged by angry spirits--perhaps sent by a greater evil that dwells within the ruined keep! Pgs. 34-52
The Underdark is a subterranean wonderland, a vast and twisted labyrinth where fear reigns. It is the home of horrific monsters that have never seen the light of day. It is here that the dark elf Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, casts a foul spell meant to ignite a magical energy that suffuses the Underdark and tears open portals to the demonic Abyss. What steps through surprises even him, and from that moment on, the insanity that pervades the Underdark escalates and threatens to shake the Forgotten Realms to its foundations. Stop the madness before it consumes you! Note for DMs: This adventure is not for the faint of hearted, to run or to play. The module starts with 10 NPCs traveling with the party through the grueling Underdark. This number can grow. The encounters within the book are often incredibly deadly for the characters that would be going through it. This is because the module expects them to run or talk their way through the events, or, in some cases, the module expects them to lose. If your players aren't the kind of party to run, talk, or surrender, do not get this adventure. The module almost requires that you use milestone leveling because the experience provided does not commonly get players to the levels they should be once they get to certain milestones in the story (7th when they leave the underdark, 15th when they face the demon lords.) Good luck and happy questing.
Surviving the shipwreck is easy; living through the wizardly bet afterward is not. Their game could mean your lives. A storm caused the PCs' vessel to sink and is now forcing them to seek shelter in the keep on the remote isle. Their goal is to locate a boat or some other means of transportation to return to the mainland after the storm has passed. But first, they must survive the tests and traps the island's inhabitants have set for them. Pgs. 45-64
If love overcomes evil, remember to get rid of the imp! It took only the love of one good woman - and the hatred of one evil familiar. After leading a life a villainy, the wizard Elzid Natholin gradually left his wicked ways, transformed by the true love of a young maiden. His imp familiar was not pleased with this benign transformation and tricked his master into detonating himself and his tower. The players will investigate the tower to determine the nature of the explosion. The imp still guards the treasure in the dungeon, and is waiting for a legion of infernal soldiers to come claim the treasure for their devil lords. Pgs. 20-28
"More than five hundred years ago, clans of dwarves and gnomes made an agreement known as the Phandelver’s Pact, by which they would share a rich mine in a wondrous cavern known as Wave Echo Cave. In addition to its mineral wealth, the mine contained great magical power. Human spellcasters allied themselves with the dwarves and gnomes to channel and bind that energy into a great forge (called the Forge of Spells), where magic items could be crafted. Times were good, and the nearby human town of Phandalin (pronounced fan-duh-lin) prospered as well. But then disaster struck when orcs swept through the North and laid waste to all in their path. A powerful force of orcs reinforced by evil mercenary wizards attacked wave echo cave to seize its riches and magic treasures. Human wizards fought alongside their dwarf and gnome allies to defend the Forge of Spells, and the ensuing spell battle destroyed much of the cavern. Few survived the cave-ins and tremors, and the location of Wave Echo Cave was lost. For centuries, rumours of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around Phandalin, but no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine. In recent years, people have resettled the area. Phandalin is now a rough-and-tumble frontier town. More important, the Rockseeker brothers - a trio of dwarves - have discovered the entrance to Wave Echo Cave, and they intend to reopen the mines. Unfortunately for the Rockseekers, they are not the only ones interested in Wave Echo Cave. A mysterious villain known as the Black Spider controls a network of bandit gangs and goblin tribes in the area, and his agents have followed the Rockseekers to their prize. Now the Black Spider wants Wave Echo Cave for himself, and he is taking steps to make sure no one else knows where it is." Extra Info from AL.com users: by @marcellarius. "There are a variety of locations in this adventure: the town of Phandalin, a gang hideout, a ruined keep in the forest, a destroyed village, and Wave Echo Cave (a dungeon crawl). The adventure is written in a sandbox style and relies on the players to choose their path. Phandalin offers several side-quests which could serve as hooks for continuing adventures. The premade characters have ties in their backgrounds to NPCs and locations. If you're not using these you'll need to consider other ways to introduce key NPCs."