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)
INTRODUCTION Some say the world is dying. Others say the desert is growing. In either case, merchants and princes always desire new ways to cross the Great Sand Sea. Today, someone has found a way to fly over it. Who will tempt fate and join the maiden voyage of the Desert Angel? No one knows what dangers or treasure have lain hidden in the heart of the desert for all these eons. If you survive, you will be the first. ONE-SHOT This adventure is intended as a one-shot, but it can easily be inserted into a campaign. Any time your players wish to travel to a distant city, you can simply say there is a large desert in their way, but luckily there is a new flying ship they can travel on. Good luck with that! DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for low-level characters (1-3). It is primarily geared for social encounters and combat. It runs 2 to 5 hours. Players ride a flying ship across the desert. Monsters attack. Passengers plot treachery. Mysterious locations appear. You can keep the tone serious or play up this ridiculous sequence of disasters for laughs.
It is said that when the largest and most ancient of purple worms know that the time of their death is near, they make their way through rock, earth, and water to the legendary Purple Worm Graveyard. Canny adventurers can return from this quest with a fortune in purple ivory. Foolish ones will die. The Purple Worm Graveyard is a short dungeon crawl adventure that’s best for levels 1-4. The adventure has 15 entries and is designed to provide a variety of challenges for a new adventuring party or one-shot game. The adventure is designed to provide interesting monsters, traps, tricks, and treasures.
"Barrow of the Elf King" is an evocative and intricate adventure module, specifically tailored for a party of 3-4 level one adventurers using "The Vanilla Game" rule set. This adventure delves into the mystical and eerie depths of an ancient barrow deep within the Old Forest, a place shrouded in darkness and mystery. It offers an experience that combines puzzles, combat, moral choices, and exploration, all set within a hauntingly atmospheric setting. "Deep in the Old Forest, where the trees grow tall and thick, where the sun rarely pierces the canopy, is an earthen mound. No birds sing in this part of the forest, no wind blows. The leaves of the trees seem larger, the canopy thicker. Even at mid-day, it is almost too dark to see" The HTML web version is free.
An adventure in Hyperborea designed for from four to six characters of 7th through 9th level Your party finds itself in the employ of Ragnarr the Sea-Wolf, a jarl of New Vinland and a reaver of old. His daughter, a shield-maiden named Gunnhildr, has been abducted by a brute called Björn Blackbeard. During a desperate search, the Sea-Wolf crossed sails with a former rival, and from the blood-flecked lips of a dying foe, he learnt the location of Blackbeard’s stronghold. Now, deep in the misty fjords of Brigand’s Bay, where cutthroats, pirates, and freebooters thrive, you have been charged with liberating the Sea-Wolf’s daughter. The Sea-Wolf's Daughter takes players into an action-packed realm of adventure: the mythical world of Hyperborea, a sword-and-sorcery campaign setting inspired by the fantastic fiction of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and others. This adventure is designed for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea™ (AS&SH™), a role-playing game descended from the original 1974 fantasy wargame and miniatures campaign rules as conceived by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Therefore, AS&SH is compatible with most traditional fantasy role-playing games (c. 1974 to 1999) and their modern simulacra, such as OSRIC™ and Swords & Wizardry™.
STRANGENESS AND TERROR FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE! Borgenwold is cursed, they say. Cursed by pride and greed to cower in fear of the past. A fell monstrosity from beyond the grave has risen to devour this town and all who dwell here. Open this book and to find... a town in the grip of horror, drunken monster hunters in way over their heads, debts, desperate bargains, miraculous goblins feasting upon godflesh, the treasures of the dead, and the price to be paid by those who seek to claim them. The Beast of Borgenwold is a 59-page Old School Roleplaying Adventure designed for characters of between 1st and 3rd level, and designed to be compatible with Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome, and other B/X and OSR affiliated games. mini hexcrawl (12 hexs) plus a small dungeon
The village of Saxham has been struck by a terrible curse! Or perhaps it’s being terrorized by demons, ghosts, and the undead? Or… was there a terrible storm? Maybe? No one seems to know exactly what happened here. But the villagers are terrified, bizarre monsters roam the forest, and strange lights strike the woods every night at midnight… ADVENTURE TYPE: Small Sandbox Mystery DESIGN NOTES: This adventure includes a small village, several wilderness areas, and a simple network of tunnels to explore. Each area contains various encounters and unique magical items. There are many opportunities for combat, but it is possible for players to explore every area and complete every interaction without any combat at all, depending on their choices. INCLUDES: Story hooks, dialogue prompts, original creature stat blocks, original treasure/items, area overview map, and illustrations. Produced by Dungeon Age Adventures
It's like a 'Legend of Zelda' puzzle dungeon, but instead of Link, you play as a group of grubby grave robbers. Also, there's way more eyeball stuff. Puzzle Dungeon: The Seers Sanctum is a system neutral adventure for characters of level 1 to 4. It will work with any old school games like Old School Essentials or B/X or the most recent version of the world's most popular roleplaying game. What's in it: * 10 room dungeon crawl where each location has its own mysteries to poke and experiment with * Cohesive puzzles that build on each other * Lets players to discover their own solutions in true OSR fashion * Magic items and equipment that change how the players interact with their environment and previously explored areas * Use as a 4-6 hour one-shot or the start to a planar hopping campaign for wherever you'd like to go
It’s up to your brave heroes to fight off the invading kobolds and save… the cheese?? Well, a job’s a job, and things underground are seldom what they seem. Wheel of Evil is a 16-page adventure for old-school characters of levels 3 to 5, plus a full-color cover, classic maps, and handouts. Compatible with Labyrinth Lord™ and similar games, including the Advanced Edition Companion. "Wheel of Evil" is part of the Eastern Valnwall setting, based on the Known Lands in Labyrinth Lord™! This adventure blends traditional dungeon crawling with unique elements of horror and intrigue, set against the backdrop of a seemingly mundane task turned deadly by the influence of a hidden evil.
The Archpriest, leader of the Church, has defied a summons to the Immortal Capital. You have been chosen to retrieve the recalcitrant pontiff. Kidnap the Archpriest is designed to be an implicit tutorial for diplomacy, stealth, theft, bluffing, and cunning. It is a system-less, setting-less heist module featuring: a city (with a map) a fortress (with interior and exterior maps) two hectic days and nights a guide to designing your own heists. glorious black and white art by Luka Rejec scheming cardinals, frantic servants, and secret plots By the author of the CoinsandScrolls blog and Tomb of the Serpent Kings.
A man built a temple to a woman who died. It became a shrine for those who lost a spouse too soon. Later. Much later. A young couple came. Their tribes warred so they could only marry in death. It was poison. Which angered HER. They walk the temple ever since, cursed by a shrine spirit. She has a hatred of suicide only dead widows can know.
The hunt is on! Agents have hired out the infamous Redcaps to raid along the Hruesen River and Baron Botkin wants them brought to justice. A mad run by the goblins left a trail of ruin along the river road but the time to act is now, before the trail goes cold. the evil doers broke off the raid and now lie in hiding somewhere in the Barren Wood. There in the deeps of the forest stands the legendary Slag Heap - an ancient complex of unknown origin and terrifying reputation for years ago the Heap served the Horned God's minions as a bastion against the fey of the Barren Wood. But now all the forest is hostile to outsiders, whether good or ill. The men of the Barren Wood are fierce, independent, and distrustful of outsiders. Facing them is a daunting task in the best of times and now they seem to be protecting one of their own. Discovering the real powers in this region only brings the characters closer to doom as they travel to piles and heaps of slag and detritus that was once a glorious abode and temple to the dark powers before the age of man. Also available for 5E
Some time ago, the wind began to sing of death in the Sision River Valley, and if purgatory was a song, Glovakians are now listening to it. The source of this soul-crushing music was tracked to about 90 miles northwest of Ambir. What was found? A massive, oddly built stone tower that wasn't there before. Word quickly spread and the curious set out in droves. Many turned back however, as every passing day the music got worse, but a brave, or foolish few, managed to make camp and eventually go inside. If anyone's made it out, no one really knows, but there's no shortage of rumors as to what's really going on in the place that's come to be known as, Sision Tower. Sision Tower is an OSR styled, vertical dungeon-crawl where the PCs explore an odd domain of Holy origins. Here, they will test their survival skills as well as their Faith. Here, they will meet Saints and Seraphs. Here, in the struggle between Law and Chaos they have to decide.....Plunder??......Sacrifice??......or Both!!! Sision Tower includes: All original black and white art. Over a dozen, fully illustrated, new magic items. Unique monsters and a sample setting. A vertical dungeon-crawl of 35 rooms. A spiritual setting in the same vein as Praise the Fallen. Sision Tower is designed to challenge character levels 3-5 and is easily used with most tradtional fantasy role-play systems.
Dwarrowdeep is a new megadungeon from Three Castles Award Winner (2018) and Barrowmaze author Dr. Greg Gillespie. Gundgathol lies in ruin. Over 250 years ago, an evil host rose from the underdark and pushed the dwarves out of their ancestral mountains. Since that time, orcs and worse have defiled their sacred halls. In recent days, the high dwarven clerics cast their runestones and read the portents: the time has come to retake Gundgathol. Are you brave (or fooloish) enough to enter Dwarrowdeep? Dwarrowdeep will keep your players on their toes and your campaign going strong for years. Dwarrowdeep is brought to you by the Old School Renaissance (so don’t forget your 10’ pole). This project was created through a group of awesome backers from Kickstarter. Without them, this project wouldn't have happened. Thank you for your support! Check my drivethrurpg profile for all sorts of additional Barrowmaze material. This megadungeon adventure includes an all-star cast of Ex-TSR artists including Darlene, Larry Elmore, Tim Truman, Jeff Dee, and Diesel. It features 150 unique zipitomes (art that tells a story of iconic adventurers along the bottom of the page) illustrated by Peter Pagano. Dwarrowdeep is the single largest dwarven themed adventure in the history of role-playing games.
The village of Sacrabad is a wretched place. Dark rumors abound concerning its steward, “His Lordship” Nim Sheog, who rules the place through terror and cruelty. Merchants who have passed through Sacrabad tell tale of how chaos thrives while the good folk wallow in misery. Nim’s guard are no more than a well-paid gang of thugs, hired to enforce his relentless and often bizarre laws and what’s worse, they seem to be in league with a nearby band of goblins, The Yellow Fang, who are often left to terrorize the villagers without reprisal. It is rumored that Nim keeps the rightful and lawful lord of Sacrabad locked away in the dungeons of the keep, the ominous Black Tower. An imposing structure that once afforded the village protection, the Black Tower has become a symbol of tyranny. But there is hope on the horizon. Hope in the form of a secret society who conspire to rescue the rightful lord and overthrow Nim and his guard. Can our heroes champion the cause? Tyranny of the Black Tower is a short (single session) adventure module. It is a classic “rescue operation” complete with a strong villain and espionage intrigue. It is an ideal one-shot adventure with room for expansion into an ongoing campaign. Bonus side-trek hooks and a bonus dungeon are included as a means to build up low-level parties. This module is setting-generic and can be dropped just about anywhere in the multiverse. Published by Verisimilitude Society Press
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.
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
Until about three years ago, the peculiar town of Port Greely was renowned as a prolific exporter of crustaceans. Then the Greely lobstermen severed all ties with outside partners. Subsequent attempts at renegotiation were shunned. More recently, a small group of Fishmongers’ Guild representatives from the City-State of Khromarium has gone missing in Port Greely, and answers have been less than forthcoming. At present, the Guild seeks answers. It wants to know what became of its representatives, and it wishes to re-establish its lucrative partnership with the Port Greely lobstermen. Your party have been contracted to help resolve The Mystery at Port Greely in this swords and sorcery style adventure!
"An ancient temple to the forgotten god of swords lies hidden behind a waterfall. Great piles of swords choke its halls and spill out into nearby streams and waterways. What strangeness still treads and what swords will you draw in the Temple of 1000 Swords? -A tarot-inspired fantasy RPG dungeon delve for 3rd level characters -Created for Old-School Essentials (B/X), compatible with RPGs with old-school sensibilities -A 19 room, keyed dungeon, easily insertable into a fantasy RPG campaign, sandbox, or “west marches” style table -d100 weird, magic, and cursed swords to discover. Roll to search the piles! -Anything is a sword--create weird sword creations through the temple's cursed magic -New monsters, factions, spirits, and curses -Includes a high-resolution unlabeled map for VTT use" "Temple of 1000 Swords" is set in a mystical temple filled with countless swords and intriguing magic. It offers a dense, exploration-heavy dungeon experience with unique mechanics and a rich backdrop of ongoing conflicts. Players can choose to ally with the Drukks (humanoid carnivorous ducks) or Merfolk (jocks) and manipulate both for their ends, or try to avoid conflict altogether. Gladio, the god of swords, issues quests that can alter the course of the adventure, demanding moral and strategic decisions from the players.