The city is gripped in fear! The Ripper has returned after a 125-year absence and is once again carving a trail of blood through the slums of Millers Court. Also returned is the ghost of Mari Kell, his last victim from more than a century ago, and she haunts the streets where she was killed. The city watch is at a loss to solve this supernatural mystery, much less apprehend the Ripper himself. All the clues point back to the hovel where Mari Kell was slain long ago. If the heroes are brave enough to enter, will they find the Ripper himself there?
Deep in the jungles of Xen'drik, a relic of great power has lain hidden for thousands of years. Now, determined adventurers race against time and the nefarious agents of the Order of the Emerald Claw to locate the relic, overcome unimagined obstacles, and unlock its ancient secret. The Order's hunt for the parts of an ancient creation pattern nears its conclusion, but other groups also seek this powerful item. Once all of the pieces come within close proximity of each other, the ancient intelligence awakens. Suddenly all parties have a new and powerful enemy to contend with...
A powerful artifact lies deep in the vaults of a House Kundarak bank. Can the PCs steal it without getting captured in the process? "You'd be mad to even try it. Assuming you could get inside the compound, somehow avoid the guards and traps, and open one of the best vaults in Khorvaire, you'd still need to get back out. And then, even if you succeeded, the dwarves would still hun you down!" Tergil, commissioned salesman of exotic pre-owned goods. Bank heist adventure with lots of guards. Pgs. 16-29
For hundreds of years, Aknar Ratalla's tomb remained undisturbed, the Black Blade safely hidden within its vaults. Can a band of adventurers use the tomb's guardians and traps to keep it that way? Long ago, Aknar Ratella brought pain and desolation down upon the land. His reign of ruin was finally ended by an unlikely alliance of the forces of law: a band of devils and devas slew the warlord but were unable to destroy his dangerous weapons and relics. They chose instead to hide these potent artifacts of evil in a remote tomb, selecting a devil and a deva to stand guard over the tomb for the rest of time. For many centuries, the tomb stood unspoiled... but now, a new player has entered the scene. After infiltrating the tomb themselves, a band of adventurers must become its guardians and use its denizens and traps to prevent a monstrous gnoll chieftain from claiming the deadly artifacts hidden within for his own nefarious glory. Pgs. 58-80
The fair Yayosei were the children of an ancient tribe of benign river spirits, until they tried to preserve their paradise by trapping the power of the Void Dragon. Their home was indeed preserved, but at a terrible cost. Today, the descendants of the Yayosei have degenerated into beasts, but what remains trapped within the Palace of Plenty is much worse. An Oriental Adventures scenario for 10th-level characters.
Decades ago, an Osiriani Pathfinder named Bossell locked his transformed lover in the vaults beneath the Sothis Pathfinder Lodge. He then vowed that no one would ever discover his secret shame. The old and senile Bossell now relies on his assistant Fendel for everything, and the hapless assistant has disapeared into the vaults after reading his master's journal. You've been sent beneath the Lodge to destroy whatever it is that Bossell's lover has become—will you survive his secret or find yourself transformed as well?
A minion of chaos has come to the Prime Material Plane from the void of the Far Realms to terrorize and conquer in the name of its masters. The PCs must act quickly to assemble a legendary artefact powerful enough to weaken the minion so it can be defeated. Pgs. 20-47
A killer is stalking the warforged of Sharn. Some say the murderer is a vengeful spirit, while others blame human bigotry and fear. Can the adventurers expose the truth that lies hidden in the depths of Sharn? Steel Shadows is a D&D adventure suitable for four characters of 7th level. This adventure is set in the city of Sharn in the Eberron campaign setting. Since this is a mystery themed adventure, at least one of the characters should have the Investigate feat. The adventure includes a sidebar for scaling the adventure for lower and higher level characters.
Hezzrack the imp escaped a prison of stone only by entering a prison of words. His only chance now is for a helpful group of adventurers to rescue him from certain servitude as a goblin adept's familiar. When his wizardly master's tower collapsed ages ago, the imp Hezzrack found himself trapped in the basement for a long, long time. After spending many years playing chess with himself and arranging macabre passion plays with the animated skeletons that survived the collapse, he finally found a way to escape. Unfortunately, that escape required signing a contract with a particularly unpleasant goblin adept; Hezzrack had managed to escape his prison of stone by leaping into a prison of servitude. If only a group of adventurers were to come along and take care of the goblin and release him completely! Pgs. 18-28
When the man who would be the Muted God wordlessly stepped beyond the gates of the Starstone's Cathedral, his thousand and one faithful ringing the Ascendant Court watched with the silent contemplation that is their highest sacrament. When he failed to emerge, many of his penitents abandoned their vows but a small sect remained loyal and worshipful. You and your fellow Pathfinders are sent into the mountains north of Absalom to follow the path of a doomed party and uncover the secrets of the Muted God. His loyal band of followers, called the Hand, will stop at nothing to keep you away from their shrine—even forming an alliance with some of Golarion's most evil denizens.
Panic grips Absalom when a huge crystalline sailing vessel appears suddenly in the harbor. Identified as the King Xeros of Old Azlant, the ship presents a great opportunity for the Pathfinder Society. You and your fellow adventurers are summoned by Venture-Captain Adril Hestram and dropped aboard the King Xeros to explore it and report back. Only, what you find isn't an empty vessel, but a sinister ship with a vile intent. Difficult and unforgiving scenario, typical of Greg A. Vaughan. Contains lots of monsters from the Ethereal Plane and a mysterious setting. If playing under Pathfinder Society rules, a six-player party is recommended, rather than the standard four for early PFS seasons. Using Pathfinder RPG versions of monsters reduces the lethality, as the constructs are no longer immune to critical hits and sneak attack damage, and the Xill no longer automatically bite for paralysis on a maintained grapple.
This adventure is the ninth part of the Shackled City Adventure Path that began with "Life's Bazaar" (Dungeon #97) Wherein a group of diverse and talented allies learns the folly of not working together against a common foe.
In Temple of the Dragon Cult, the characters are called in to pursue a dragon that the king’s army was able to wound but not kill. It seems straightforward enough: the army tracked the dragon to its lair, and all the characters have to do is go in and kill it. But this dragon has a devoted cult of dragonblood followers who worship its every breath. Its lair is their temple — and they’ll fight to the death to defend their dragon-god…
Framed by the Covenant of the Knife and thrown in the notorious Blackmaw Prison, Karl Manderholm awaits his execution at the hands of the deadly assassins’ guild. In order to save him, the PCs must enter Blackmaw in the guise of lowly prisoners and expose the one man who can clear Karl’s name, the Shadowmaster of the Covenant himself. Pgs. 34-50
Designed as an Introduction to the world of Eberron and is intended for a party of four 1st-level characters. This adventure takes place in Sharn, the city of Towers. It begins, as many incidents in the City of Towers do, with a corpse. A warforged assassin, a mysterious blank book, and an offer from a House Cannith heir leads the adventures into the depths of Sharn--eventually to an ancient ruin dating back to before the creation of the Kingdom of Galifar. Along the way, if the adventures are successful, they recover a lost schema--a part of a pattern used by artificers to craft magic items. They also learn that many different agencies are interested in this relic, including those loyal to the various House Cannith elders and agents of the infamous Lord of Blades. Pgs. 307 - 317
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.
His name has inspired fear in legions of heroes, and his cult has lurked in the dismal reaches of the world for countless ages. His minions are savage and feral, his worshipers vile and wretched. He is Demogorgon, and his temples are nightmare realms haunted by primeval menaces and hateful legacies from a time when the world was savage. And now, a vengeful death knight has discovered one of these lost temples—will the PCs aid him in his dark quest for revenge, or will they fall before the awakened host of the Prince of Demons? Pgs. 64-83
A Deadly Curse is Spreading! Morrick Mansion and the surrounding vineyards were deserted years ago when a terrible curse twisted every living thing on the property into a mockery of its prior form. Once whispered about and avoided, fear now grips the land. The curse spreads and someone needs to stop it. Can you find its source and cure it forever, or will the very curse you are investigating touch you with madness? Hatred, Death, and Danger! Morrick Mansion challenges adventurers to battle strange, mutant creatures in an effort to solve a mystery and stop an insidious curse. Do your players dare enter the mysterious mansion and can they survive long enough to discover the source of the curse?
The insurgent agent Adan, a spy in Alvedara, came across plans for an upcoming assault on Bodrun, the largest remaining dwarven clanhold in the South. Though the dwarves were unknown to him, this Sarcosan rebel decided that he must do his best to get word to these allies in the mountains. He stole the plans and abandoned his cover identity, fleeing east along the Eren and hoping to find succor in the Forest of the Sahi before his trek into the Kaladruns. He didn’t make it that far. A legate spyhunter was on his tail within hours of his departure, and with his stronger mount and divinatory magic, was sure to run him to ground on the Horse Plains of Erenhead. Adan hoped to throw off the scent of his tracker in the town of Malima, where he had contacts and might be able to wait out the legate in a safehouse. Unfortunately, the situation in Malima had worsened since Adan had last been there, and it had become a place of exile for Alvedarans with the plague. It was a question of choosing the lesser of two evils: plague and possible death in Malima, or torture, betrayal, and certain death at the hands of the legate. Adan chose to hide in Malima, but contracted the plague while hiding from his pursuers. Though unable to contact the outside world, Adan sent his familiar, a raven, eastward in the hopes that it would reach a dwarven settlement that could send agents to aid him. The raven made it to the Hagaran Observatory in the Forest of the Sahi, where the PCs have been assisting the sages of the observatory. Midnight Runner Up - Gen Con 2005
"Auranorex, the greatest gold dragon in the world, is dead and his kin are looking for answers. To uncover the mystery of his demise, the heroes must travel to the one place forbidden to all mortals: the dragon graveyard. Guardians of Dragonfall is a mid-level adventure written by Anson Caralya that has the players investigating the untimely death of a dragon. Violating the dragon graveyard is a death sentence and the heroes must risk their very life if they are to uncover the secret behind Auranorex’s fate."