Under the Temple Crypt is the first in a series of site-based, Swords & Wizardry** compatible, “micro modules” that can be dropped into just about any campaign (especially a sandbox-style campaign). No underlying story-hook or rationale for exploring the site is given here. This dungeon assumes that there is a temple somewhere with a mysterious walled-in doorframe in the basement crypt. The walled-in doorframe predates the temple itself and leads to ancient subterranean structures that hint of an older civilization as well as an expansive underworld.
A 20-page adventure for OSE Save the wizard! A sunken cathedral on a quiet mountain lake hides a long forgotten temple to Mathanoga, God of Knowledge and wizardry. Abandoned by Man for centuries , but protected by the legend of man-eating fishmen lurking in it. Or until a few weeks ago the young wizad Elric embarked on its expedition. With help from the accademy of Greykeep he found the temple and began to explore it, hoping to uncover its ancient magical secrets. Now the wizard is missing and the accademy has put a bounty on its head: its weight in silver to whoever will find him and bring him home alive and well. Find magical secrets! Deep inside the temple are stashed many magical items, all sacred to the fishmen dwelling there, all worth dying for. Save Elric and the treasures will be yours! The Sunken Temple is an expert level Old School Essentials adventure for a party of 1-4 players. Perfect for a one shot or a random encounter in an hex crawl.
From Exalted Funeral: The snows are alive. A soft, cold spirit courses through them. Her lace threads the world; watching, drinking, listening, stroking, soothing, killing. Her touch is soft and icy. She is Winterwhite, the daughter of the Waterdrinker and the Northwind, and she is a terrible god. An avatar of ice and hunger, of visions and death. Dooms and devastations to visit upon a cosy roleplaying setting. Longwinter is the RPG sandbox of a realm that has broken its vows to Winterwhite and will now pay the cold price. This book contains secret knowledge and mechanics for the referee. The setting is profoundly close to that of Witchburner (by the same author and artist). This sandbox includes: ~110 pages of content. some colour illustrations. 3 variations of the Brezim map to represent changes as Winterwhite's curse bites harder. faction trackers for the 5 key factions and over 40 events to represent different groups growing or waning in strength depending on player actions. detailed weather and event tables to simulate a living setting. detailed encounter tables for night and day, which grow harsher as Winterwhite's curse grows stronger. several more tables to generate corpses, caches, vaults, and memories of summer. optional playing card-based escape mechanic with 54 different locations, challenges and characters encountered in each location. alternatively, the escape section serves as a resource to mine for winter locations, challenges, and characters. Be aware: This is a book of factions and winter encounters for the full-fledged mini-setting detailed in the Longwinter: Visitor's Book. The content is mostly system-neutral. It references some 5E or d20-style conventions, but should work with most low-power systems easily. Many of the encounters, and particularly the escape, will not work with characters resistant to cold, capable of flight, or otherwise able to avoid the environmental challenges. Finally, thank you for considering running Longwinter for your players. It is a bit of a tribute to the mountains and myths I've walked and heard over many years, and I hope you will find fuel for many adventures and good memories herein. It has also been a challenging project to prepare. Many people helped make it as good as it is. The fault for all errors and typos is my own. —Luka, December 2020
Those friendly dwarves were the first to go, the poor things. And now the beast has been killing and eating the people of Brandonsford. No-one wants to leave the town's walls. With the humans out of the forest, fairies have taken over, and now the goblin king Hogboon seeks to claim the entire forest as his new kingdom.
The forlorn Falkrest Abbey in the icy Lune Mountains is where the Queens and Kings of Yore used to be crowned and buried, along with their treasures. According to legends, the Fountain of St. Brynedd still pours its miraculous water somewhere inside. But what caused the fall of the blessed Abbey? Falkrest Abbey is a level 1–3 dungeon adventure for Old-School Essentials. Written by Andrea Tupac Mollica and Giuseppe Rotondo, with original art by Zaira Diana. Content: A 19 room dungeon with exploration, combat, mystery, puzzles and NPCs Encounters and events along the way on the icy Lune Mountains Several hooks and alternate outcomes with possible repercussions on your campaign 3 new monsters 2 new magic items, plus one almighty magic vial of miraculous water Original art by Zaira Diana Map drawn with dungeonscrawl Utility: Treasure & monsters overview sorted by room Interactive hyperlinked map and index Interactive hyperlinked map snippets accompanying room descriptions Printable hand-outs (optional) Extra files: VTT friendly maps without room numbers, monsters, secrets doors etc
This morning, the forces of Law and Chaos clashed at Castle Yennagor. The battle raged all day, but as darkness fell, a cataclysmic explosion destroyed most of the castle and leveled both armies. Now, as night claims the vale, flickers of life return. Survivors make camp, flee the field, or continue the fight. Scavengers creep over the dead. And one question remains unanswered: what happened inside the castle? This is a dark sandbox adventure. Players take the role of battlefield survivors. They can choose which side they are on (or neither), and they can choose their goal, such as to escape the field with their lives, to plunder the dead, or to reach the castle and finish the mission. ADVENTURE TYPE: Mid Level / Combat / Diplomancy / Battlefield / War / Dark Fantasy / Factions DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for mid-level characters around Level 6-7 Players navigate a battlefield full of competing factions and gruesome situations 30 unique encounter locations 70+ original magic items 30+ original monsters One map and multiple illustrations Estimated play time: 1-4 sessions (4-16 hours)
"Orcs have returned to the once quiet border province of Blackmarch. The Bleak Tower and its meager garrison are all that stand against the tide. Their only hope lies in a ragtag band of adventurers willing to venture into the perilous maw of Ironwood Gorge..." "Ironwood Gorge is a fantasy role-playing adventure for 4-8 characters of levels 2-5, designed for older editions of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game and its clones such as Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC. The material is also easily adaptable to any other class and level based fantasy role-playing game. Ironwood Gorge serves as part two in the Blackmarch sequence of adventures, but is built to function just as well as a one-off adventure, a drop-in-a-hex location for sandbox games, or as a kick start to a new campaign. The module includes keyed maps detailing both the Bleak Tower: a living, breathing refuge for adventurers; and Ironwood Gorge: a cave complex with over 100 keyed areas of traps, monsters and mayhem. The module is illustrated throughout with original artwork and includes appendices detailing new monsters, magic items, and spells. Whether you are looking for an out-sized adventure to usher the hardiest characters to the intermediate levels, or a fully-realized location to plunder for maps and ideas, Ironwood Gorge is a treasure from the old-school of gaming..." An alternative to B2 - Keep on the Borderlands
One page adventure, one page map. On the edge of a lake/ocean’s windswept field/forest, outside of his small stone home, a very old, callous human magic user, Cyfrin the Wrathful, summoned an invisible stalker in a magical binding circle. First he began to taunt the stalker, proclaiming his dominance over it, describing its powerlessness to do anything but carry out the old spell caster’s will. Next, Cyfrin dispelled its invisibility, ordering it to execute his plan. In Cyfrin’s excitement, he gazed upon the stalker’s now visible, horrifically impossible face - and abruptly suffered a stroke, dying on the spot. Still imprisoned, the stalker wants freedom. Will the PCs help it? Adventure hooks provided. Published by Wicked Cool Games
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and behold the greatest circus in the land! Behold the skilled mummers performing at The Stage; you’ll literally feel like you’re part of the play! Thrill to the death-defying acts (and audience) in the two rings under the Big Top! Laugh at the antics of the baleful buffoons, harmful harlequins, and malevolent merrymakers of Clown Alley! Gaze in wonder at the wild beasts of the Menagerie, (just make sure you know which side of the bars you’re on)! All this and more, for the small price of a single admission, to Bitterbark’s Magnificent Circus! The circus is in town! But there’s something not quite right about it. There are rumors of missing children, evil plots, and more. Can you discover the secrets hidden inside Bitterbark’s Magnificent Circus? Intended as a stand-alone adventure, but there are notes on how to include it as part of the Castle of the Mad Archmage mega-dungeon adventure. Published by BRW Games
Once a paradise at the heart of dwarfdom, the Valley of the Cracked Helm has lain forgotten for ages, lost to the vagaries of natural disasters, goblin invasions, and generational benders. Over the years since, its name has invoked only shame—furtive, deep-seated dwarven shame—for the valley is where the wild dwarves dwell. . . Valley of the Cracked Helm is an off-beat scenario for old-school style games involving a hidden valley filled with tribal dwarven nudists and exploitative prospectors. It is formatted as a double-sided tri-fold brochure that contains everything needed to run the module. It includes: A ready-to-run module suitable for ongoing campaigns and one-shots. A detailed pointcrawl of the Valley of the Cracked Helm. Dwarves Gone Wild! (This pointcrawl scenario can be dropped into any classic fantasy campaign allowing gratuitous dwarven nudity. More setting than adventure, it encourages/requires referees to improvise or develop content further to fit their own needs. Low-level PCs may need to be lucky or clever to survive.)
The ruined Thorp of Rhu once produced honey, apples, hard cider, and mead. Villagers now stay away as they believe Rhu is cursed. Years ago a witch, Katla, was cheated from a reward promised for chasing away an attacking giant. Furious, she waited for her chance at revenge. Over a year, Katla created many small sack dolls and gifted them to Rhu’s children. One night, each doll animated, killed the sleeping adults, and set the village on fire. Now Sorcha, the village elder, asks the PCs to go to Rhu to locate a lost dwarven friend, help a restless soul, and find out what really happened to Rhu long ago. These outsider sack doll spirits take great pleasure in tormenting and slaying weaker creatures. At Rhu, the PCs encounter murderous sack dolls, learn the villagers’ & dwarf’s fate, parlay with spirits, and clash with Bloody Tears, the witch’s minion & spirit familiar. Published by Wicked Cool Games
A bubbling stream cascades into a hole in the earth, leading to a series of underground watercourses and scintillating grottoes. Adventurers who delve within may discover odd mosses and fungi, a ruined temple complex, and the lair of a crystal-eating dream dragon.
Greed blinds the eyes of contentment Dwarf miners discovered a precious stone deposit. Unfortunately, their greed led them to dig tunnels too deep. Upon breaching the walls of an unholy temple, the miners unleashed a bizarre creature that decimated them all. 'They Dug Too Deep' is a system-agnostic one-page dungeon about exploring an abandoned and mysterious dwarven mine. As characters delve into the site, they'll uncover that not everything is as it seems – a sealed entrance from the inside, the corpses of dwarves scattered around, strange messages on the walls... Play to discover what really happened! 2023 Winners' Circle One-page Dungeon! 'They Dug Too Deep' was awarded as one of the top 10 one-page dungeons in the 2023 One Page Dungeon Contest! To celebrate, we offer you some extra stuff to enhance your play experience. There is more underground than just precious stones... What you'll find here: A complete 18-room one-page dungeon with easy preparation. A GM's Pamphlet containing tips on how to run the adventure and compiling the most relevant information. 4 character sheets using the Vagari RPG rules system. 5 custom tokens for use in your favorite VTT. Mini-hexcrawl map (NEW!)
Beneath our feet is the mythological hollow world – a realm of dense jungles, putrid swamps and rugged mountains. Here a brave party will struggle for survival as they seek to fathom the unseen expanse and to prevent a once defeated god to rise again. ‘Journey to the Inside Out’ can be played as a stand-alone scenario or be used as the first installment in a trilogy of connected adventure modules each taking place in a different era. The scenario can be used with Swords & Wizardry or any other early variant of game rules. Inside you will find: • A 40+ page old-school module with a layout optimized for fast and easy interfacing. • A challenging lost world setting with the possibility to toggle the complexity. • Alternative suggestions for entry to the hollow inside. • Downloadable maps for both players and the Referee. • Story-points for a guided scenario and tables for sandbox and hexcrawl-style play. • Advice for an ongoing campaign. • Locations allowing the PCs to travel to another era within the setting. • Unique new creatures. Published by CTM Publishing.
Weeds trail the water. The sandbar just off the shore shifts. A reptile rumble, a splash. Now a gaping maw. A roar. Claws splintering wood. The boat capsizes. You are in the river, now. He is the Bachelor: a pale crocodile, as long as five men lying end to end. He swallows hunters, families, trading skiffs. Prospectors fear to go out. Witches mutter. They say he causes landslips. They say he is a god, a curse -- an old, old sin, staining the river. They say he has been killed, before. He is pulling you under. Lorn Song of the Bachelor is a 48-page riverine adventure and dungeon crawl module, inspired by the crocodile stories of Southeast Asia -- particularly Sarawak. It features: Tragedy, a bloody curse, and a love gone very sour Open-ended factional interplay between local villagers, a foreign merchant Company, and a giant supernatural crocodile -- and its motivating spirits Multiple random tables, including: magical fabrics woven by god-possessed craftspersons; trinkets of a now-fallen Monkey Empire; medicinal herbs and animals 19 new creatures, including: mind-controlling catfish; golems made of teeth; a pregnant tiger spirit Wilderness travel up an enchanted river An extraplanar dungeon complex that can change the surrounding environment A morally complex treatment of colonialism, within the framework of an adventure module A giant crocodile who really wants to eat you
In the deep, it has awoken. Hidden in the ruins of an old dwarven kingdom awaits a powerful relic, and an army kobolds are on the march to retrieve it. Dare the heroes enter this ancient place, and will they find the relic before the army arrives. In a race against time the adventures may unleash the greatest evil, while trying to save the world from a grim fate. Tomb of the Dragon's Heart is a low-level OSR adventure suited for Labyrinth Lord and other oldschool retro clones. The adventure was originally written for the Danish Living Campaign The Hinterlands, and it is for the first time presented in English. The adventure introduces the players to a different tradition of adventures, and it one with a focus on exploration and encountering the unknown. The adventure contains new magical items and relics and new monsters to challenge your players. Tomb of the Dragon's Heart also functions as a prequel to The Flooded Temple and to Grave of the Heartless. Published by Greis Games.
‘Wyrd’ things are afoot. This town might seem like your ordinary, post-apocalyptic-now-turned-fantasy locale, but it is not! Fell Cults have begun to take over and it is up to the brave adventurers to stop one in particular: the Cult of the Shield Ghul. But the ‘Wyrdness’ doesn’t end there. Though this adventure can be used to facilitate your typical wander-around-and-kill-everyone-to-take-their-stuff-type scenario, it also includes a sinister (and frankly genius) plot, feuding factions, plenty of hyphens, not to mention bizarre NPC’s and situations to either interact with or stab to death.
Shall you claim the glory of heroes, or accept your doom? You have raised the ire of the goblin warlord, and now you flee his kingdom with war parties hot on your trail. You must reach the borderland town of Felsentheim, for if you do not, no alarm will sound to hearken the coming of the Dogs of War and your bodies will lie in the forest grass, forgotten by all but the worms! Shall you claim the glory of heroes and warn the people or accept your doom and suffer death in the Treklant? Enter again the World of Inzae, where all things slip into the Maelstrom, and from hence true heroes are born.
A millennium has passed since the Green Death swept across Hyperborea. In that bygone age of pestilence, a noble family fled the City-State of Khromarium. Far beyond the walls of the city, they entombed themselves in order to elude the inescapable plague. Their necromancer placed them in a deep slumber from which they never wakened. Also he summoned a mythical serpent to guard the vault, a beast reputed to shed gems for tears from eyeless sockets. Tales speak of this beast as the Sightless Serpent. Now, a knave of Khromarium claims to have witnessed the legendary beast. For a pittance he will lead your party to its trail in this swords and sorcery style adventure
The Ocaulin Cult has stumbled upon the tomb, seeking to awaken an abomination known as the Spawn of Ocaulin. They have kidnapped a merchant’s daughter, Mornea, to serve as the final sacrifice for the creature. Meanwhile, undead have escaped the tomb, plaguing nearby settlements. The PCs must navigate the dangers of the tomb, confront the cult, and prevent the Spawn of Ocaulin from being unleashed upon the world. Multi-level tomb filled with traps, and undead guardians. Dynamic events and rumors in the City of Omere