From Exalted Funeral: "Fair hero, the end, the end alone awaits all travelers and at the end...was the journey all in vain? All journeys end in vanity. In vanity." - Mused the Grand Observer at the end of time. Welcome to The Ultraviolet Grasslands, the roleplaying game of heroes on a strange trip through mythic steppes in search of lost time, broken space, and deep riffs. The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City is a tabletop role-playing game book, half setting, half adventure, and half epic trip; inspired by psychedelic heavy metal, the Dying Earth genre, and classic Oregon Trail games. It leads a group of ‘heroes’ into the depths of a vast and mythic steppe filled with the detritus of time and space and fuzzy riffs. The UVG is the work of the designer, artist, and writer Luka Rejec and was made possible through the generous support of hundreds of discerning fans at the Stratometaship patreon. Luka's other work with Exalted Funeral Press includes writing, art, and design on: Witchburner, Longwinter: The Referee's Book, Longwinter: The Visitor's Guide, and the adventure for OSE, Holy Mountain Shaker.
Ages ago, a religious order known as the Druun practiced rituals from inside sacred oak groves, ceremonial pools, and stone henges. In time, the Church of Law and Order suppressed the Druunic teachings, and the ancient holy sites were lost, forgotten, or converted to other uses. One such former site is located in the capital city of Dolmvay in the center of a small neighborhood known as Whiteoak Square. This neighborhood has recently been experiencing a strange phenomenon: At night, small dancing lights have been seen floating throughout the neighborhood. The residents were afraid of this sorcery at first, however, the lights seem to exude a feeling of peace and contentment, and the locals have grown used to them. How it Started: A few weeks ago, a butcher named Walton Brand was clearing out his cellar when he stumbled upon a secret underground passage that led to an ancient Druun hall. This hall was filled with lost relics, arcane lore, and forgotten treasures of the Druun. Walton told his friends, Loomis the Baker and the chandler Stefan of Walsbury, and the three men began sneaking away from their wives at night to dress in Druun finery and pretend to be men of wealth. A harlot named Red Kirsten was hired to attend them as they drank, feasted, and cavorted in the sacred hall. Unbeknownst to the revelers, the Druun hall still retained some of its magical powers and their merriment awakened the ancient guardian spirits of the grove. These creatures, known as faerlings, are the lights that have been seen dancing throughout the neighborhood. The faerlings were given life by the revelers' glee, and they project that joy and happiness onto the other residents of the neighborhood. This glee, however, is about to turn to horror. . . Oak Grove Whispers is a Labyrinth Lord™ adventure designed for 3-6 characters of 1st-3rd levels (about 10 levels total). The adventure is broken up into three chapters that take place in a small neighborhood located in the capital city of Dolmvay (the Labyrinth Lord is free to substitute any medium- to large-sized city from his own campaign world). Oak Grove Whispers involves a mixture of roleplaying, investigation, and dungeon crawling, so a diverse range of classes is recommended. As the adventure is set in a civilized city, the characters must also be careful their interaction with NPCs does not land them on the wrong side of the law. Published by Small Niche Games
Standing 100 feet off the shores of the vast Sapphire Lake are the ruins of a small fortress standing atop a rocky islet. The fortress belonged to a lich posing as a warlord from the Kingdom of Old Hagada, but fell rapidly into ruin when the Shrouded Hero was able to pierce the lich with the Blade of Five Seals. The lich cursed the assassin and his incompetent guards with his final breath. He cursed them to the same fate, their bodies petrifying and all of their souls being sealed in the Sheath of Five Seals. Afterwards, the warlord’s armies were defeated on the battlefield and the fortress became abandoned. In this short 3rd level dungeon crawl, the party investigate a ruined island fortress to solve a mysterious puzzle box. You can run this as a one-shot or plop this into your campaign world with minimal effort. The adventure is designed for Shadowdark RPG and references the core rulebook. If you're an experienced game master, you could convert the adventure to whatever system you prefer.
"The magic in his flying island sputters and fades. Brave adventurers will enter the wizard’s floating workshop, solve the puzzles and unravel its mysteries before catastrophic failure sends the island crashing down to earth." The sequel to Hideous Daylight (but can be run independently). This adventure focuses heavily on puzzle-solving and exploration 19 keyed locations Written for the Old-School Essentials (OSE) rule system
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
Something fell. A sickly gloaming lit up the night like mock daylight, just for a moment, and then the hills trembled. Now, an alien entity lies brooding in a crater gouged out of the moor. Local folk are enraptured with the toothsome jelly exuded by this being, but are blind to the true nature of the events unfolding in their rustic little backwater.
The Blacktooth Ridge, fabled for its string of long abandoned fortreses, treasure houses, temples, and underground mansions lies far to the north and east of the civilized lands. Dangerous journeys and the promise of treasure invite many an adventurer to the wilds along the Ridge. There they sek fame and fortune. But it is an altogether dangerous place, tainted with the evil of the Horned God, there in hidden caves and darkened temples some linger stioll who call him their master. Of late these creatures have issued forth to plague the few people who call the ridge home, the toen of Botkinburg most of all. Now, raids and plundering confound the settlements near the Blacktooth Ridge. Rumors of Rottenkip the Goblin King and his fearless warriors taking up residence in the Blacktooth Ridge are circulating. Ogres and Trolls are raiding villages and looting caravans. Few are coming to the aid of those beset by the depredations and the evil denizens of the Blacktooth Ridge continue to spill out ever further across the lands. The call has gone out, the mustering of militias is at hand, and the Blacktooth Ridge beckons to any and all willing to come to their aid and discover what is calling forth these foul creatures. Also available for 5E
In City Year CY444 the greatest Dwarf mage of all time, Archmage Panzar, mounted his Flying Pig and rode up to the Necklace to do battle with Guth-Targ Greller Ak Terraak, an Efreet, and her army in her asteroid palace. Despite his great magical powers, Panzar failed and his burnt and petrified body fell from the asteroid and crashed down upon a hillside somewhere in the Borderlands. His fall drove a narrow pit into the hillside to a great depth, although neither his body nor his legendary magical equipment were ever recovered. But now a seal ring bearing the mark of the House of Panzar has been found in a riverbed thirty miles west of the border city of Karan. The river is fed by streams emerging from the hill above it – Dol Jint. Could this large hill be the final resting place of the great mage and, more importantly, all his loot? The Pit of Panzar has over 300 encounter locations over 5 levels, this is a MEGA-DUNGEON scenario that follows the Dunromin University Press paradigm of Great Quality at the best possible value for money. The Pit of Panzar is designed for OSR and AD&D 1st and 2nd Edition, or pretty much any TTFRPG, intended for 5 to 8 adventurers of 6th to 9th level
This adventure is more of a classic dungeon crawl, themed around the accidentally terrifying dreamscape of an elven girl trapped in a nightmare of her own making. The dungeon shifts and exits move about as the party explores, making each run through the dungeon a unique experience and allowing for infinite replays of the same adventure.
The Tomb of Firkin is a challenging and varied Dungeon Tomb-Raid from Dunromin University Press Designed for 6 to 10 adventurers of 3rd to 5thlevel, this is a Tomb dungeon scenario with a more to it than just Undead. Suitable for any OSR flavour and 1st and 2nd Edition D&D. Thelkor Boghammer and his band of Dwarven murder-hobos opened up the tomb of the Gnomish Firkin family a few months ago. They had a bad time of it and the sole survivor, Tutlin, is drowning his sorrows and desperate to sell the map he made of the tomb to any eager adventurers he comes across. His map contains a clue to a secret way he never realised was there – can any more noble adventurers decipher the clue and find the riches without being slaughtered by the Undead guardians? Or, failing that, could your characters do it? ;-) The Tomb of Firkin is more than just another tomb; hidden in the depths are a humanoid tribe and a secret cult based on geometry. The adventure is 44 pages with quality maps and illustrations to help you visualise the encounters. The style is based on minimal set-up, total carnage, maximum fun - the Tomb of Firkin would also work as SOLO PLAY! SM13 The Tomb of Firkin is available in pdf, softback or hardback Print On Demand at amazing value for such a quality product! But the best quality playing aids at the best possible prices is what we do at Dunromin University Press...
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™.
In Claine Forest near Padduck Village there has appeared a pit. No-one knows where it came from, it just did. It is not so deep that you cannot see the bottom, but people fear it and avoid it. No-one who has climbed into it has come back, having been dragged beneath the surface by unseen hands. A necromancer has come to the forest, seeking the pit. She does not quite know what she expects from it, but what she hopes for is protection from death. Player-characters may wish to get involved, and thus this constitutes an adventure for old-school systems, for 5-6 PCs of 2nd level 2 or slightly fewer of 3rd. The PCs won’t necessarily all die, and the players will almost certainly survive. Reviews elsewhere: "It pours out flavour in nearly every word, creating delicious situations for the party to interact with. ... We got a village, two rival groups of adventurers, a weird-ass forest, and somewhere in the forest a pit, your final destination. From this, joy is made. Each one of those elements has their component parts well done and, because of this the whole is a wonder." — Bryce Lynch of tenfootpole
The adventure takes players from a town devastated by an unexpected flood, through a drowned land where nature is turned upside down and desperate families cling to the roofs of their ruined homes, hiding from the monstrous products of a disordered world, through the strange tomb of an ancient race, to a profundal zone, hidden for millennia and now exposed, and finally to the Observatory itself, an eerie abandoned treasure palace, where they will encounter a pale and unexpected terror which will seek to claim their lives. The adventure is suitable for a lucky mid-range party, a stupid high-level party or an exceedingly clever low level party. It is difficult, with a meaningful possibility of character death. Should you find them, and defeat their guardians, the treasures of an ancient culture will be yours. At the final point of the Observatory is a glimpse of another world. Published by False Machine 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
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.
An Adventure for Odysseys & Overlords Standing on a lonely, bare mound in the bottom of a dell full of swirling fog, a castle from the time of the Schism crumbles, forgotten. Inside, treasures—and terror—await. A writ of salvage has been posted in Chandra's Haven: 500 gold coins to the brave adventurers who find Misthollow Castle and secure it for Salamon Castos, a wealthy merchant. Castos claims to be the scion of the noble family which ruled Misthollow and built the castle generations ago. Castos grudgingly agrees to allow the characters to keep whatever they find in securing the castle, though he insists on right of first refusal on anything of value. The Odysseys & Overlords Player’s Guide is available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/275042/Odysseys--Overlords-Players-Guide The Odysseys & Overlords Game Master's Guide is available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/275040/Odysseys--Overlords-Game-Masters-Guide
A level 9+ hex-crawl adventure by D. M. Wilson and Sarah Brunt. A portal leads adventurers to a comet of fire and ice hurtling through the void of space. Can they survive prehistoric beasts, warring factions, and the comet’s impending doom, to find priceless treasures and a way home? For Old-School Essentials (OSE) Included as one of four adventures in "Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 1"
The lost city of Archaia - an ancient ruin sunken into the earth - lies deep in the badlands. In recent years, caravans from Eastdale have come under attack from orcs, goblins, and worse. Some say these blood-thirsty warbands have made lairs in the deep caves and ruins. Sill others say the ancient halls are filled with magnificent treasures left by the Archaians. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to delve The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia? The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia (FCoA) is a 296-page classic megadungeon for use with any old school fantasy role-playing game. The pages of Forbidden Caverns are crammed full with new material, maps, amazing art (including special surprizes by former TSR artists), as well as an amazing colour cover art by Ex-TSR artist Erol Otus that matches Barrowmaze Complete as a sister-book. The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia will keep your players on their toes and your campaign going strong for years. FCoA is brought to you by the Old School Renaissance (so don’t forget your 10’ pole).
Old-School Essentials Adventure A hole in an old oak tree leads characters down to a maze of twisting, root-riddled passageways, the chambers of an ancient wizard-complex, and the banks of an underground river where once a reptile cult built their temples. A classic expedition into the Mythic Underworld for characters of 1st to 2nd level. 60 keyed areas, rumour table, loot summary, dungeon background info, suggestions for expanding the dungeon. Keyed in a quick-reference, bullet point format. Unlabelled map included for VTT use. The Hole in the Oak can be linked with The Incandescent Grottoes to form a large, 3 level dungeon with over 115 keyed encounter areas!
"The broken outline of Cear Ferros emerged on the horizon. Its ancient walls stand silent and looming as you approach them, casting long and eerie shadows across the land." An adventure through a cursed castle crawling with undead in search of missing merchants. For Shadowdark Published as part of the Shots in the Dark collection.