What happened to the signal tower? What waits for you in the misty mountains? The mayor of the town of Four Trails hires you to find the missing magic user, Delea the White! Delea was tasked with improving the signal tower at Eddistone Point. After leaving with her party of dwarven mercenaries, the mayor received a message from Delea's familiar; a white crow with a note scrawled in charcoal; "Bandits in the tower! Help!" The tower is straightforward, five levels, each a single room. There's a bait-and-switch where the players think the half-orc bandit leader is the bad guy, but an innocuous-seeming vagabond is actually a powerful illusionist. No monsters to speak of, only class-based NPCs, no magic apart from a ring of protection (not listed in this record, being equivalent to magic armor.) Pgs. 19-27
A ruined monument to folly and ego, the Shadowed Keep stands atop an isolated bluff deep in a mist-wreathed forest. Sacked by marauding goblins decades ago the place was thought abandoned, but shadows now creep among the forest's great boles and footprints have appeared on the single, overgrown track leading to the keep. Travellers have begun to disappear with alarming regularity from the nearby road and the local folk fear some slumbering evil has claimed the ruin as its own. Dare you brave the terrors of the Shadowed Keep to crush that which lurks within or will darkness shroud the surrounding lands? Designed to be easily inserted into a GM's home campaign, Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is an excellent starting locale to test the mettle of neophyte adventurers. Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is designed for the medium advancement track. 1st-level PCs completing all the challenges of the place can expect to reach 3rd-level by the time they have exhausted all the keep has to offer.
A slaver gang known as the Bloodreavers are terrorizing the countryside from their base deep in the labyrinth under Thunderspire Mountain. But these slavers are only the symptom of a larger threat in the bowels of Thunderspire.
Oblivion is a town like no other. Situated in a hidden valley within a high mountain range and accessible only via air or a secret tunnel through the mountains, it has remained unknown to all except its inhabitants for uncounted centuries. What happens when a natural disaster exposes the town to the world and lets loose an ancient danger at the same time? Will the PCs aid those in need?
Follow a crazy halfling into a vampire’s castle. Kingdom in the Swamp is an AD&D adventure for higher-level characters; 6th to 9th level would be suitable. While it is necessary to have strong combatant characters and at least one cleric, it is more important that the players be ready to find solutions beyond the sword or spell book. Adventure Background A few days ago, Candor Pletten, a halfling thief known more for his urban exploits, returned from a journey to the southern jungles and rain forests (or so he says). Few people have believed him in the past -- usually they have been too busy taking inventory of their possessions to even listen to him — but some are guessing that he may actually be telling the truth (certainly, he’s got a good story). Candor left town a couple of months ago with some other adventurers, but has come back alone. Most tavern patrons are of the opinion that he took his companions’ purses and ran, but why would he come back to town? And why, then, aren’t his former companions hot on his trail? Candor may be a thief, but he’s not a murderer. He even gets nauseated by cockfighting. Maybe the halfling's tale is worth hearing...
Yesterday, young Tobias went to investigate an old tomb by himself. Everyone told him it was a bad idea. Everyone was right. Today, you and your companions awaken to a town in chaos. Why is the temple sealed behind a divine shield? Why are children and worshippers trapped within? How do we get inside? What did Tobias do?! Ragged Hollow is a full-service starting town, full of classic creatures and challenges all updated and brought together for newbies and nostalgia-lovers alike. There are goblins and witches in the woods, a house full of traps, a basement of vermin, kobolds in a cave, bandits on the road, riddling ravens, a 50-room temple dungeon, nursery-rhyme monsters, living nightmares, Lovecraftian horrors, and tons of unique items to find. This is a mystery with lots of relevant side-quests around the town. The heroes can investigate the situation, get into the temple, save the innocents, and stop the monsters. And get some loot! ADVENTURE TYPE: Medium Dungeon / Town / Wilderness Adventure DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for characters levels 1 to 4. It includes several wilderness areas (forest, hills, mountain), a bustling town, several local mini-dungeons, and one 50-room temple dungeon. Each area contains various encounters and unique items. There are many opportunities for combat, but it is possible for players to explore most areas and complete many interactions without any combat at all, depending on their choices. INCLUDES: Story hooks, dialogue prompts, random encounters, stat blocks, original creatures and treasures, and maps. KEYWORDS: town, village, forest, goblins, goblin market, witches, hags, hills, bandits, ogres, mountain, kobolds, caves, dwarves, temple, clerics, nightmares, demons, riddles, traps, ghosts, fairy tales, Lovecraft, mutant
Reavers of Harkenwold pits the heroes against the Iron Circle, a company of cruel mercenaries that has seized control of the small land of Harkenwold. In this adventure, the heroes become daring rebels and lead the folk of Harkenwold against their oppressors.
WE-1: Red Dawn: An Eberron adventure about the end of the world. The year is 1019 YK, and the world is ending. Twenty-three years ago, the nations that were once Galifar signed the Treaty of Thronehold and ended the Last War. Now, the drums of war rumble once again. The peace that lasted a generation is threatened, and Eberron may go to war once again. As a member of the Scions of the Second Dawn, a secretive order dedicated to studying the Draconic Prophecy, this is merely background to you. Or, it was, until the eve of your initiation as full Scions. You emerged from the rite to find your monastery destroyed, bandits looting it, and all your friends and allies slain. You are the last survivors of your order, and the world is ending. You cannot stop the end of the world. But you can rebuild it. Can you escape the wreck of your secret order’s monastery, journey across the mountains in winter, search the mountain valley to unlock the cipher, and discover how to rebuild the world? Or will your frozen bodies join those of your fellows? Will you fall to fatalism and ennui, or will you fight to save what can be saved and rebuild what can be rebuilt? Find out, in the light of this RED DAWN.
The Temple of Draxion is an adventure with 2-3 encounters that uses clever tactics, trickery, and good defensive positions to make low-level monsters challenging. The defenders in the encounter try to deceive the PCs; groups willing to accept anything the DM says at face value will horribly misjudge the actual level of danger they are in. The adventure is set in a partially-collapsed dungeon that was once a temple to Erythnul, but is now the headquarters of a pair of aspiring bandits, and their kobold employees. Pgs. 12-15
For months, the dreams of the people of Emystrell have become dark and terrible. It seems their nightmares have come to life as in recent weeks, people have mysteriously gone missing, vanishing in the night without a trace! Everyone is too paralyzed by their own despair to do anything or venture far from the safety of their homes. Emystrell is on the brink of collapse. The baron is offering a handsome reward to anyone who can show proof of the end of whatever evil curse that has taken hold of their town. This adventure is designed for a party of 3-5 heroic characters from the 2nd to 3rd level. It has elements of mystery and investigation in the first section which can be detailed and highly involved for groups that enjoy the process of searching for clues and solving mysteries or just as easily glossed over for groups that are more tactics focused. The second section of the adventure features the dungeon: a labyrinthine complex of an ancient elven crypt which the thieves guild has used as a base of operations for a decade...until the serpent worshipping cult arrived. The third section of this book is the detailed map and notes on the town and surrounding area of Emystrell. Roleplaying notes are kept light to allow for room for your own interpretations and details to NPCs remain as free to do with as you choose unless I felt inspired and hoped to give you a cool idea. This adventure has hooks for Dungeon Masters interested in a larger campaign involving the sinister plots of the Yuan-Ti (snake people) as well as other interesting adventure hooks (such as the giants in the nearby mountains or the stolen gem: The Eye of the Dragon). These plot points are intentionally left vague for you to fill in the gaps based on what your players seem interested in. You are invited to use this as a launch point adventure to lead your heroes on a larger adventure that might someday set them against an Anathema Serpent demigod, or it may simply be the adventure that begins their journeys and the evil of Yargoth stops here at Emystrell. If your campaign is set in a pre-published setting, this town of Emystrell can be replaced or fit into any campaign with a few tweaks to local gods and names. If you are playing in Dragonlance, you could replace Yargoth the Dread Serpent with Tiamat, or Dendar in Fearun. The local goddess, Tyr, could be the Tyr from the Forgotten Realms or even Norse myth if that is your campaign setting.
Part Two of the Umbral Aristocracy Trilogy. The treasure hunt has led to the City of the Dead. Beneath that well-manicured park is an ancient crypt where the treasure awaits you!
Into the shadows. You must brave the perils of the Shadow World to keep a tighmaevril weapon from the wicked clutches of the Gorgon. PCs are recruited to help a noble and his halfling friend find a weapon with immense power, called bloodsilver. Includes a sidebar for adapting the adventure to another setting, an overland map, and a map of the ruins Pgs. 8-31 & 69
On the southern shores of the Moonsea, the residents of Mulmaster have eked out a living where others would likely have given up long ago—in a bleak city where corruption is rampant and the Church of Bane holds sway. In these five short, introductory adventures, you will travel the breadth of the City of Danger, meet its people, see its sights, and witness firsthand how the city truly has earned its ominous moniker. An introductory adventure for 1st-2nd level characters. City of Danger is broken into five mini-adventures, each designed for one to two hours of play. Therefore if you are attempting to run all five missions in one session you need a minimum of five hours to do so (and probably more). If running this adventure as part of an event that cycles players through quickly, the DM should be familiar with the mini-adventures that he or she is going to run. At public events, time is often the most important factor. Get the players into the mini adventure as quickly as possible, keep an eye on the clock, and take whatever shortcuts are necessary to stay on schedule. If time is not an issue, let the characters spend more time interacting with the non player characters within the mini-adventures. It is not required that the mission be played in order.
The Thrice-Damned House of Thrune wants to seal the Inferno Gate, an uncontrolled portal to Hell, and the villainous adventurers are called to accomplish the task. To acquire the components and perform the ritual, they must first face down a hellspawn thieves' guild, the Hellknight Order of the Pike, and the knights of the Glorious Reclamation and their celestial allies. But before they can complete the ritual, the characters may be forced to examine their options—is closing the gate the best plan for the future? Will the villains obey their orders to close the gate to Hell—or might they make a deal with a devil for control of the portal? Or will they only become the latest in a long line of sacrifices to the Inferno Gate?
The king summons the heroes to investigate the death of a knight, and the final fate of the king's long-missing son. The knight and his entire order was killed by a Dragon! Yay we get to fight a dragon in the first issue of Dungeon Magazine! Much travel over many different terrain types featuring avalanches, volcanoes spewing lava, and many random encounters (not detailed here) before the heroes reach their real goal: A lake with a ruined wizard's tower and dragon's cave. Opens with a particularly byzantine Background section for the DM involving a prince you never meet, pirates you never meet, knights you never meet, and deep gnomes you never meet. See Out of the Ashes in Dungeon #17 for sequel to this adventure. Pgs. 42-60
A new, expanded, OSR-ised, prettified edition of Joseph R. Lewis’ Ragged Hollow Nightmare which was rated among The Best by Tenfootpole. Joseph Lewis hit a perfect balance between the classics of dungeonverse fantasy and the whimsy of the folk tales we love so much (as testified by our Folklore Bestiary. we released last year), adding a dash of dreamworld strangeness and a pinch of body horror to spice up his brew. We did our best to respect his recipe when adding our extra material (about 30 pages of it). We worked with Joe and Li-An (the perfect artist to give life to spooky Ragged Hollow and its strange surroundings) to make the best module we could: a solid introduction to old-school gaming for both players and gamemasters. And for the veterans among us, it also makes an excellent, full-fledged campaign starter. Nightmare over Ragged Hollow is a sandbox adventure centred around a quaint town at the edge of the kingdom. But however quiet life in Ragged Hollow is, the town lies between places where you shouldn’t be traveling alone. Places like Gloam Wood (“A witch or two lurk there!”), the Bleak Mountains (“I’m told there are bugbears…”) and their infamous Mount Mourn (“Home, they say, to cursed Dwarven ruins”), not to forget the Wailing Hills (“Bandits on every road!”). There’s even a haunted house by the river (“That mad inventor riddled it with traps!”). But only when an impenetrable dome of golden light materialises around the Temple of Halcyon (“Hey, my kids go to school there!”) do things really get out of hand. Some selfless heroes (or, failing that, a bunch of greedy ne’er-do-wells) should really get involved. One town with three adventure mini-sites Three small dungeons One 50-room dungeon Three hexes with 16 detailed locations Two groups of potential allies or rivals Sixteen pre-generated characters One deadly countdown! Written for the Old-School Essentials (OSE) rule system
Ever wanted to face the cold, dark, and dangerous unknown without the advantages of a fantasy hero? This is your chance! Fifth Edition Funnel puts a spin on character creation. In the Funnel, each participating player quickly generates several 0-level characters blessed with the abilities and low survivability of your average commoner. Those that survive will be promoted to 1st-level heroines and heroes. The Funnel bonds characters over common challenges they meet and (hopefully) overcome. The surviving 1st-level characters share a common origin as adventurers. Instead of merely rolling dice, there is a trial by fire where average people succeed against the odds to do something heroic (or hide under a table in a tavern).
In this adventure for four to six 2nd level characters, you will search the Witchwoods for missing people, overthrow a tyrant, and bring peace and justice to a small frontier town by the name of Bromwich. The Biraven Chronicles are a series of three adventures linked together by an overarching plot. The campaign will take characters from 2nd level all the way to 10th level. FELL DEEDS IN FELFAIR GROVE revolves around the northern region of Biraven, a place called the Felfair Grove and will see the characters advance to 4th level. FELL DEEDS IN FELFAIR GROVE is a fully illustrated 54 PAGES adventure complete with maps, NPC portraits, and more. In it, you will find new monsters and new magic items. Furthermore, every creature encountered in this adventure is included in the appendix so you do not have to look elsewhere for monster stat blocs! FELL DEEDS IN FELFAIR GROVE is made for 5e. It is in its own self-contained setting, but can quickly be adapted to any setting.
You are hired by a mine operator to retrieve the mine's gnomish engineer who has barricaded himself in the mine's lower reaches. But there's more going on than just a crazy gnome and his robots sabotaging the mine. You'll need to explore the forest, build alliances, and brave a rollercoaster ride on a mine cart to get to the bottom of this adventure (pun intended). This is a gamebook-style solo adventure that you can play in your browser. You make a 2nd level character sheet, roll your own dice, keep up with your inventory, spells, and HP, and are on your honor to be honest. It's all text-based with some public domain illustrations, and you click on options as you make decisions and roll the dice.
Gifts for Him is a short, challenging, open-ended, gothic-horror, 5E-compatible Christmas adventure for tier 1 characters to be run in about three sessions, but it can be easily adapted as a one-shot. It contains over 25 pages with original artwork, three original battle maps, three unique monsters, stat blocks for five NPCs, three magic items, and a partridge in a pear tree. ----- The village of Bargrave has a secret. Every year, on Christmas Eve, the villagers cower in their homes while a savage beast prowls the streets, wreaking bloody doom on whomever has not left it a suitable gift on their doorstep. But Elias Buhl has had enough. This year, the old farmer won’t be buying the beast a gift, hoping instead to bait it into attacking him at his homestead, where he will trap and kill it once and for all. But he can’t do it alone. Buhl has hired a band of adventures to help him fortify his home, set traps, and slay the creature. They have three days to prepare, gather allies and equipment, and plan their defense. Or… They can dig a little deeper and uncover what Bargrave has been hiding all these years. Will they slay the beast, as agreed? Might they capture it to use it for their own ends? Can it be redeemed? Or will they die — their blood melting the snow — just the latest victims of the creature’s reign of terror? --- Gifts for Him is a complete, playtested, illustrated adventure that is currently pay what you want.