This campaign was created as a response to comments from some friends of mine. Though they were avid board game players, they didn’t want to try D&D because it seemed like too much of a time commitment with too many rules to learn before getting started. This campaign uses stripped down characters and a simple campaign, and was made to give them a chance to try it for half an hour on a regular board games night. I’m putting it online in the hopes that other people can do the same with it and expand the community. Inspired by /u/plaintreality of Reddit.
Hidden deep within The Reaching Woods is a swamp grotto known to the locals of Hardbuckler as Whiskaway Wood. The townsfolk know to keep their distance from this place as few make it back. If they do, they come bearing toxic diseases that place the entire town in jeopardy. This is the situation the town is dealing with when the adventurers come knocking on the outer gates of Hardbuckler. In this adventure, the party must go forth into the swamp in search of Rotwood Maggie, a hag priestess of Talona who calls Whiskaway Wood her home. She possesses information on how the adventurers may go about saving the town, but her secrets don’t come cheap. In addition, some of the information she possesses may leave the adventurers questioning whether the town deserves to be saved at all. Features a disorienting swamp dungeon bolstered by several new magic items, creatures and diseases! Be sure to check out the full preview of the adventure when you visit the page!
This adventure is scaled for level 1 characters. The ruins of a flying castle teeming with goblins is heading to the peaceful village of Barrowmist. It is up to the heroes to get up there and stop it before the castle lands in the village and chaos ensues. The group will enter into the ancient struggle between elves and orcs. Not only can they claim the ruins as their home, but the heroes will be asked to go on a quest to repair the castle and use it to find the Misty Isle, a legendary elven realm stolen by Gruumsh, god of the orcs. This adventure is the beginning of the Litany of Arrows adventure path. It can be run on its own or as a linked part to the larger story.
You have few complaints this night as you rest in the common room of the Crooked Crow Inn. While winter has passed, the night air carries enough of a chill to make any hearth a welcome sight. The village of Havehollow is typical for this part of the realm. Livelihoods made from farming and livestock with a few merchants and the Inn catering to travelers along the kingsroad. Good folk who know that hard work is what's needed to make it through harsh times. As you finish your meal you notice a fellow traveler, a rave haired woman, walk to the front of the common room with lyre in hand. She plucks a few practice cords then breaks into song. Seasons come and go Moons wax and wane Time seems so slow To the spirits of Havehollow... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not the original creator! The original can be found here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1011 As a note, for Astabar himself I found he was an underwhelming boss for 1st level characters, reccomend making him have Flesh Golem stats Published by One-Shot RPG
This setting brings the players to a community with a jungle atmosphere. Based offshore the city of Ru-Marta is a trading depot and religious center. Several independent adventures are also available for those PCs needing just a little more experience points to level up!
"The Hive" is a spawn of Arbeyach lair, also featuring giant termites and termite swarms, for five 6th-level characters. This adventure can be finished in one session. Several mounds in the Forsaken Hills are the dens of voracious termites that have added flesh to their diet to supplement dwindling wood supplies. At night, swarms of termites hunt and devour prey. They swarm over victims in wooden carts and wagons, and bring the dismantled wood back to their mounds. Three spawn of Arbeyach, searching for a location to summon Ia'Affrat, Arbeyach's herald, discovered a mound filled with particularity nasty termites and used their vermin empathy to gain acceptance. They dug out a cavern beneath the mound, and now use the termites to protect themselves and gather food while they complete a difficult ritual involving dozens of sacrifices. The final sacrifice is prepared and the spawn are finishing their ritual when the party arrives.
"I said right from the very beginning: this is going to end badly. But I never imagined it would be this horrible..." — Mydith Ryc, survivor of the High Walls Massacre A wandering prophet comes to a High Walls refugee camp on the outskirts of Sharn. He carries a message that brings people hope but also deepens the rift between communities. His sermons blame the district’s growing troubles on a new type of outsiders: peoples of Droaam. As tensions grow, a sudden ritualistic murder brings the entire community on the edge of collapse. Dive into a dangerous power struggle between Old Man Garin and the hardened captain of the guard, Elara Talsen. Echoes of Salvation is a gripping mini-campaign designed for four to six 5th-level characters, where it is almost impossible to save everyone and the time is always ticking. Features: - Over 25 beautifully grim pages - 10-15 hours of gameplay - Optional rules to keep your players on their toes - Intricate Influence system to weave power currents in the camp. Comes with a convenient tracking sheet — tyranny was never so easy to track - 9 unique monsters with custom rules for crowd fights - Custom maps of High Walls Refugee camp for both exploration and battle CONTENT WARNING Murder, gore and mutilation, manipulation (gaslighting), substance abuse, xenophobia, political violence, police brutality, child endangerment. No AI was harmed (or used) in the process
It’s said that “Two’s company, three’s a crowd”, but what happens to those who make their living from adventuring if work begins to dry up and their only rivals are doing a better job than they are? Even heroes have to eat, so when their source of income is taken by others, they have to make some tough decisions. But if those around you don’t much care for you any more, what then; surely those tough decisions are easier to make? From being the stars of the show to last on the bill, the PCs find themselves caught up in skulduggery at every turn and having to decide just who is on their side. Friend becomes foe and those the PCs have counted as rivals may suddenly be their best allies. And in all of this confusion an exiled dwarf challenges their true loyalties; which way will the PCs turn?
The time has come to fight back against Hillsfar. Elanil Elassidil tasks you with uncovering valuable information to be used in a strike against the leader of Hillsfar, First Lord Torin Nomerthal himself. The only problem is that what you need is protected within the walls of the city.
This exploration adventure is planned to be played by 4 to 5 level 4 characters. The characters, led by old Maddie (who also hides a big secret), will go deep into the swamp and into the caves to retrieve the green heart.
After carving out quite the reputation, you and your associates have been summoned to meet with the local regent. As you wait in the audience chamber you notice that the furnishings appear to be in the middle of an upgrade. After being introduced to the slovenly king, his vizier explains the task ahead of you. Apparently the monarch wants to decorate his throne room and wants a Giant Ape as the showpiece. As luck would have it, rumors point to a nearby island in the Jarteach Mere…
After having one adventure under your belts you set sail to deliver a package across the open seas. A problem with nature causes their vessel to make an unscheduled stop on a small island that was home to a spice dealer for water. Problems ensue on the island and the party quickly discovers they aren’t “feeling themselves”. This item was played at WhosYerCon convention this past year in Indianapolis!
Adventures in Hawk's Rest is a love letter to low-level D&D: Studio Ghibli meets the Shire meets Lost Mine of Phandelver. An open-world hexcrawl for characters of 1st to 2nd level, Hawk's Rest is intended as a prologue to a longer campaign, with seven keyed adventure sites and fantastic maps by Dungeon Baker (How to Defend Your Lair, The Lazy DM's Companion). Hawk's Rest is written for new and veteran players alike but avoids the usual pitfalls associated with 1st-level adventures: not only are encounters balanced to avoid character death, but most combats can be avoided entirely with clever roleplaying.
This module features 5 locations ready to be put in any D&D 5e game. It features these 5 locations: - An old warehouse (lvl 1) An old building occupied by a gang of Kenkus that are trying to build a mechanical way to fly. - Ruined Sanctum (lvl 2) A decayed temple lost to time, some decades ago it was breached by some blights and they still use it as a resting place and a trap for adventurers. - The Lunar dove (lvl 3) A small and secretive brothel used by the elites. Unbeknownst to them, however, the Owner spies and hoards secrets to use to their advantage. - Cave of Mending (lvl 4) A cave with a magical healing lake, protected by a Druid that uses it to heal the wildlife from the surrounding area. - The temple to Xotarr (lvl 4) A hidden temple to an evil God where the cultists partake in calculated sacrifices.
"Men and women walk the streets of Stonefoot, but the laughter of playing children is nowhere to be heard. Over the past year, the village's children have gone missing in the middle of the night. Who will uncover the mystery of these disapearances and stop the curse before it leaves Stonefoot without a future?" From the DMsguild description. The party is tasked with saving the last child in the village and eventually retrieving the kidnapped children. The villains first appear to be goblins, but after a hunt and a fun teleportation maze, they find out a human mage is behind it. The mage has been transmuting the children into human-goblin hybrids.
Beneath the moorlands of Thar, hidden from all for centuries, lies the Broken Halls of Goldahroud. It seems to have been inhabited until recently as the blood marks on the walls are only a few weeks old. What mysteries lie beyond the doorway from the Tomb of Kered? Fear of the markings have forced the SALT Consortium to turn again to hiring adventurers to face what horrors await them in the Broken Halls of Goldahroud.
An expedition to the Amber Temple reveals another major minion of the enemy and uncovers a secret weapon that may help defeat them. Part Ten of Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts.
The Zhentarim ask the party to investigate what happened in one their most important underdark outposts. If the party accepts, they'll have to deal with maddening darkness, grimlocks, an insane kenku assassin and unpredictable mixtures of potions. A short, fun dungeon romp that is easily adapted to other settings and other patrons. The combination of utter darkness and a villain based on sound makes for fun shenanigans on the side of the DM. Feasible as a one shot for an efficient party. Two tendays ago, Zhentarim agents were to transport a shipment of rare potions between their Underdark outpost and the surface world. The shipment has yet to arrive, and the outpost is not responding to any sending spells. Growing worried, the outpost’s overseer sends a group of hireswords to investigate and return it to Zhentarim hands. This particular adventure deals with the delusions of madness of Fraz Urb'luu. It also features Muurmic, the mad kenku first described in the December 2015 issue of Dragon+.
Goblin attacks have always plagued the farmers and merchants who live and travel along the roads leading to Whitesparrow. But a recent rash of new attacks are something different. The goblins of one particular tribe have gotten particularly smart, attacking with careful tactics and cunning ambushes. The village guards haven’t been able to outwit the goblins, even when laying traps of their own and hiring mercenaries to stop them. Even as goblins go, Rosethorn isn’t much to look at. He’s small and runty, and yet a lucky break placed him in charge of the Brownleaf goblin tribe. When he claimed a powerful magic relic from a dead wizard three months ago, Rosethorn found his intellect multiplied many times over. The world began to make a more intricate kind of sense to him, and he saw patterns in the ways other folk traveled the roads. After hiring a spy in Whitesparrow to tell him which wagons to pursue, Rosethorn cunningly bribed the wagons’ guards to throw battles in the goblins’ favor. He then moved the lair of the Brownleaf tribe away from their dank caves and into the ruins of the Bearded Man—an enormous dead tree at the center of the Howling Wood. There, Rosethorn continues his campaign of ambush against the foolish villagers, increasing his wealth and power with each robbery.
In a distant dimension of existence, a collective of Modrons run experimental tests to find the answer to one question: What draws adventurers to places known as "Dungeons"? Hijacking the travel of adventuring parties, these Modrons subject them to a series of tests in their artificially created dungeon. Deadly combat, logic puzzles, "moral" challenges, and a plot about a kidnapped "Maiden" Modron by an "Evil Wizard Construct" can be found within. But not all is as it seems... Leading the experiment is a rogue Modron officer named the Creative Director, who has gone mad and morphed the tests into an elaborate death trap for adventurers. Seeking revenge against those it considers responsible for its “imprisonment”, it pits the adventurers against ever escalating challenges. Who will defeat the Creative Director and put an end the mad tests?