Long ago, a local priest created a warded graveyard on a remote hillside. As the years passed, it gained a reputation as a spot whose defenses were powerful enough to keep undead in and tomb robbers out. Adventurers began to bring the remains of any creatures they suspected might become restless in death to the Tomb Steppe for interment, and in time they also sought aid against such creatures from the friendly priest. After his death, a brief spate of undead activity commenced, then died away once again. As the years passed, the tales of undead activity in the Tomb Steppe faded into legend, and colonists began to move into the lands nearby. The town of Night Falls was founded a short distance from the graveyard, and it grew quickly into a thriving trade center and farming community. Realizing that the Tomb Steppe was safe enough during the day, the citizens began burying their dead there rather than building new crypts on pristine farmland. Because this method of interment was cheap and easy, people from many surrounding communities brought their dead to the town as well. The business of burial brought new prosperity to Night Falls, and a guild called the Funerary House sprang up to control the trade. But it seems that the threat from the Tomb Steppe has not entirely been laid to rest. The Great Mausoleum -- the largest and finest tomb in the steppe, has been unsealed, and an apparition has been seen within. Who will go to the Tomb Steppe by night and reseal the tomb? Lest Darkness Rise is a short adventure for four 7th-level characters. In keeping with the season, it has a stronger horror theme than most D&D adventures. This scenario can be used as the climax of a series of adventures featuring its secondary characters, or it can simply be a site-based adventure that the PCs stumble across at the right moment. The scenario is set in a semi-civilized area in the far north, far from cities and churches, where winters are harsh and summers never get very hot. These inhospitable conditions have resulted in a low humanoid population. The scenario need not be set in such a wilderness; a rural farming community far from cities works just as well. The only real requirement is that the area have few settlements. The action takes place in the small town of Night Falls and a nearby necropolis of tombs, mausoleums, and graves known as the Tomb Steppe. As always, feel free to adapt the material presented here as you see fit to make it work with your campaign.
The legendary city of Freeport is a seedy port town where former pirates settle down to become "businessmen" while street gangs fight over the slave trade. In the deepest warrens of this already dangerous place, mad cultists worship unspeakable gods - and sometimes these sinister deeds bubble to the surface. There's a dark shadow over Freeport today, as yet another innocent child has gone missing. The trail leads to the old Cresh Manor, boarded up but not forgotten. The city needs heroes to find these missing children. But are the heroes brave enough to conquer the dark shadows of Freeport?
The PCs find themselves besieged by marauding elves in a wilderness trading outpost. Can they organize a defense of Outpost Three against the elves and their sinister allies—and figure out why the elves attack night after night? Pgs. 32-50
When Pathfinder alchemist Andrax d'Aponte contracted a mysterious wasting sickness, he set his mind to feverishly researching the disease and its cures. With the rare skeleton moon hanging in the sky above Absalom, the Decemvirate sends you to an ancient siege castle outside the city to recover d'Aponte's research notes and inquire about his involvement in recent Pathfinder deaths in Osirion. What you find, however, is a man changed by madness and paralyzed by paranoia and fear. Will you survive the night of the skeleton moon?
Freeport is a fantasy “free city” you can place in a fantastic setting. Its basic premise is a pirate city gone legit… at least on the surface. In truth, the pirate tradition is alive and well in Freeport, but camouflaged by a veneer of respectability. These days the city’s pirates are privateers, legalized pirates Freeport loans out to the highest bidder. You’ll learn more in the short history of the city that follows. This should help give you a taste of the flavor of Freeport before the adventure begins and the given background is all you need to run this adventure. It is an ideal starting place for a new campaign as the player characters find themselves stranded in Freeport after a deal goes sour. A seemingly simple job plunges them into the strange underside of the city, where they uncover secrets worth dying for. Death in Freeport is the first from the Freeport trilogy, together with Terror in Freeport and Madness in Freeport. Synopsis: Death in Freeport drops the player characters into the midst of political and magical intrigue, as the hidden Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign manipulates events to bring its dread god to the world. Freeport is still a bustling center of trade, but evil currents run beneath the surface. There are secrets here, and questions unanswered. The characters will undoubtedly learn there is more here than they expect in a simple seaport. The question is, will that knowledge kill them? As the adventure begins, the player characters (PCs) have just come to Freeport on a merchant ship. While on the docks, the PCs are attacked by a press gang, who mistake them for easy marks. The press gang is handily beaten off; since they are unused to real resistance. A bookish young man named Brother Egil then approaches the PCs. He says that he’s been looking for a group that can take of itself, and that he has a job for them if they are interested: finding a missing librarian. The missing man, Lucius, disappeared two days previously, and Egil is eager to find him. Egil gives the PCs some background on Lucius and his strange behavior. The PCs are then free to investigate: They are likely to visit Lucius’s home, the temple to the God of Knowledge, and an orc pirate ship. This should form a picture of Lucius as a man searching for his own past—who found something he wasn’t counting on. Following a trail of clues, the PCs learn about the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign. With a little luck, the PCs can trail the cultists back to their hideout, penetrate the lair, and discover secret tunnels underneath it. Deep underground they find degenerate serpent people, and eventually Lucius himself. The librarian has been tortured badly and will die without aid. The PCs also have to deal with the leader of the cult, a man they may recognize from the temple. When the cult priest is slain, they are in for an even bigger surprise. He was not human at all, but a serpent man in disguise. What this means for Freeport only the gods can say.
When an attempt to arrange an early inheritance backfires, a man of lesser ambition than Vanthus Vanderboren would no doubt withdraw into his sister's manse to hide under her skirts and pray that the truth of his patricide remain hidden. Fortunately for Vanthus, lack of ambition has never been a problem. Now the Vanderobrens' prodigal son slinks east along the coast of Blood Bay, lured by rumors of an incredible prize kept in a smuggler's hideout called Kraken's Cove. Yet what he is destined to find there is far more than a lucrative bit of banditry. What awaits him is the savage tide. "The Bullywug Gambit" is the second chapter of the Savage Tides Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon magazine. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon magazine's "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #349 of Dragon magazine looks into the region surrounding Sasserine, and provides useful information if your PCs wish to explore this area more thoroughly than they do in the course of this adventure. The hidden caves of Kraken's Cove have long served the pirates of the Crimson Fleet as a place to stage their smuggling operations. When their latest cargo backfires, the PCs find themselves faced with something far worse than murderous pirates. Pgs. 12-48
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?
Something vile has transformed a sleepy rural village -- the locals have become monsters, and the only survivors are insane. Can the PCs unravel the mystery before a troupe of sinister bards plunges the heart of an unsuspecting city into the Far Realm? A D&D adventure for 9th-level characters.
The Cagewrights continue their manipulations of the city of Cauldron, making the PCs their latest pawns in a gambit that leads all the way to the Abyss. The heroes must complete the test of a deposed demon lord to ensure the safety of Cauldron and all its citizens. The 5th adventure in The Shackled City Adventure Path. Pgs. 38-71
In this adventure, the player characters discover the illegal actives of an ambition Red Wizard operating out of an enclave in a small town. This adventure is short and a great way to introduce players to Red Wizards. For a group willing to use diplomacy fighting they can cut down there combat. The adventure is found on pages 284-287
Bandits have been preying on the caravan trade of late, and the number of burglaries and kidnappings is on the rise. Such events might not seem all that unusual, except for the bandits' calling card -- webbing! Can the PCs penetrate the bandit lair and slay the leader before any more locals vanish?
An unusually severe drought in a remote area recently worsened dramatically when three lakes dried up almost simultaneously. The locals suspect foul play, and the foulest player they know is a bugbear named Relgore -- the leader of a highly successful group of humanoid bandits. Could he be seeking revenge for the militia attacks that recently dispersed his band?
When the Pathfinder-obsessed daughter of one Qadira's most powerful trade princes goes missing trying to impress the Society, her father angrily demands the Pathfinders track her down or face expulsion from Katheer. Tracking the missing princess leads you to an underground complex filled with traps, tricks, and a creature so powerful, she's lived for a thousand years. Can you save the princess and uncover the power of the Eternal Obelisk?
Clues discovered in Diamond Lake lead to the Dark Cathedral, a forlorn chamber hidden below a local mine. There the PCs battle the machinations of the Ebon Triad, a cult dedicated to the three vile gods. What does the Ebon Triad know about the Age of Worms, and why are they so desperate to get it started? "The Three Faces of Evil" is the second installment of the Age of Worms Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures, several "Backdrop" articles to help Dungeon masters run the series, and a handful of poster maps of key locations. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon's monthly "Worm Food" articles, a series that provides additional materials to help players survive this campaign. Issue #334 of Dragon provides comprehensive lists of all the things you can find for sale in Diamond Lake's (often) dubious shops. Pgs. 16-47
Demonheart is a D20 adventure campaign for 4-5 characters. As it is a long and fairly involved story, characters should be level 6-8 when they begin and will earn enough experience to rise to levels 10-12. Demonheart includes many opportunities for both combat and roleplaying. At least one fighter-type is required, and given the wild, frontier nature of the campaign, a ranger’s skills would be especially useful. Stealth and intrigue also favor rogue characters, while a cleric, particularly from a martial order who can fight well would find plenty of opportunity to use his or her powers against the undead and evil outsiders. Demonheart also takes place in a wilderness setting where ancient magic abounds, and the special nature skills of a druid will help the party to make friends with some of the land’s fey or wild elvish inhabitants. Sorcerers and wizards will likewise find use for their talents, but those who understand divine or druidic magic may be more important than arcanists. As this adventure involves the struggle against evil, both ancient and resurgent, the party’s overall alignment should be good, though individuals of other alignments may be tempted to use the ancient magic of the forest for their own ends, or even join with the forces of evil!
Madness in Freeport, the final part of the Freeport Trilogy, details the final confrontation between the PCs, the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, and Sea Lord Milton Drac. In Part One, the Drac invites the PCs to the Grand Lighthouse Ball. Careful investigation can reveal the secret purpose of the lighthouse. In Parts Two and Three, the PCs must recover a powerful artifact to thwart the Brotherhood's plans. They must pass through an infamous pirate's hidden caves, then search a sunken temple of the serpent god Yig. In Part Four, the heroes must enter the Grand Lighthouse, AKA Milton's Folly, in a race against time to stop the Brotherhood's world-shaking master plan from coming to fruition. (Bibliographic note: This adventure was originally written for v.3.0, and later updated to the v.3.5 rules. The revised versions of Death, Terror, and Madness in Freeport were reprinted in an omnibus edition, along with two shorter filler adventures, as The Freeport Edition: Five Year Anniversary Edition.)
In the dark days of the Chaos War, a band of heroes sets forth to recover the famed Chaos Reaver - a sword said to possess the power to banish creatures of Chaos from the land. Converted to 3.5e from the original SAGA version published in Polyhedron UK #7 (1999).
The search for a missing girl leads PCs to uncover the re-emergence of a dangerous cult of Serpentfolk. This is a low-combat adventure, mostly requiring roleplay and investigation. NOTE: The Tales of Freeport that contains this adventure is NOT one of the versions currently available in the Green Ronin store. Those contain short stories. This is an older item that appears to no longer be available from Green Ronin. It is possible that the adventures within it have been included in other products since then. But I have linked to the original product on DriveThru RPG.
Living pirates are a common enough hazard around the islands known as the Serpent's Teeth. A dead one is even more trouble- especially when his treasure has been stolen. Characters who successfully complete this adventure should be of sufficient level to tackle the award-winning Freeport trilogy, Death in Freeport, Terror in Freeport, and Madness in Freeport. Pgs. 84-103
The sleepy village of Raven's Lake has a secret: A terrible god lives in the depths of the settlement's namesake. The citizens of Raven's Lake know that something lives in the lake. People who go out on the lake after dark go missing far too often and frequently turn up weeks later with no memory of where they've been. The local church of St. Cuthbert has been abandoned no fewer than seven times in the last two years, each time its lone cleric packing hastily and fleeing town without a word. Adventurers who come to Raven's Lake have a habit of vanishing forever. The truth is that something does indeed live in Raven's Lake but it is far from a deity. It's an exiled aboleth by the name of Zlorthishen. Pgs. 33-36