A community for lazy dungeon masters
474 adventures found
Cover of Castles Forlorn
Castles Forlorn
AD&D
Levels 4–6
192 pages
0

Time Is Meaningless in Castle Tristenoira Forlorn has long remained hidden in the shadows of notorious Barovia and Kartakass, yet the tiniest domain in the lands of the core is nearly as old as Ravenloft itself. This land is sick with evil, a twisted mockery of the place it once was. It is filled with creatures of despair who were drawn into the demiplane of dread.... Within Castle Tristenoira lies oblivion. The crumbling keep slips in and out of time, carrying its unwary explorers across the centuries, where they may be abandoned to the cold winds of eternity - and to the ghosts in the castle! Spirits both innocent and guilty haunt the timeless passages, whispering tales of murder and vengeance. Escape is for the lucky...or the hopelessly mad. The Castles Forlorn adventure set provides the DUNGEON MASTER with a rich and complex domain in which to set a campaign of any size and duration. It includes a 96-page sourcebook, The Weeping Land, which reveals the complete history of the domain and the strange and terrible lord who rules over it. Descriptions of the living and dead who call this lonely land home abound, as do details of the forbidding Tristenoira castle, where adventures may spend an evening or an age. After learning Forlorn's history of sorrow, the DM can lead player characters into Melancholy Meetings, a 32-page collection of encounters that provide adventure in every corner of the domain. Finally, only Eve of Sorrows remains, which is a 32-page assortment of mysteries and nightmares within the castle itself. This deluxe boxed adventure set completes the portrait of Forlorn with a highly detailed, double-sided poster map of the castle, a poster map of the domain, and a special wall poster created by award-winning artist Robh Ruppel - all in full color. Includes 2 adventures: Eve of Sorrows Melancholy Meetings TSR 1088

Cover of Vault of the Mad Baron
Vault of the Mad Baron
OSR
Levels 2–5
62 pages
0

Beneath Castle Bergfried lies the vault of the grief-struck Baron – heavily infested with a crystalline virus from the past. Here an adventure party must choose between rival forces that seek to explore the vault and decide the future of the Inside World. ‘Vault of the Mad Baron’ is the second installment in a series of three modules in the Inner World. It can be played as a stand-alone adventure or be added as a small barony to an ongoing campaign. The scenario can be used with Swords & Wizardry or any other early variant of game rules and is suitable for PCs level 2-5. Inside you will find: A 60+ page old-school module with a layout optimized for fast and easy interfacing. An adaptable barony complete with town, castle and dungeon. Unique districts with encounters and sights. 6 major factions fully detailed with headquarter, plans, and missions for the PCs. Detailed description of a castle and associated dungeon levels. Downloadable maps for both players and the Referee. Locations allowing the PCs to travel to another era within the setting. Unique new creatures and magic items.

Cover of Watchers in the Dark
Watchers in the Dark
5th Edition
Level 4
17 pages
0

A meteorite has crashed into the countryside, and now vicious enemies prowl the night. Can the characters put a stop to the sinister force that is causing savage animal attacks and a growing list of missing people? Watchers in the Dark is a cosmic horror one-shot adventure for 4th-level characters. It takes about 3-4 hour to complete and includes: - A horrifying discovery beneath a meteorite crater - Three new monsters: two variant ankhegs and an alien being, the mind-shard - Combat cards for each monster, PC, and special treasure - Gorgeous, hand-drawn maps by Jake from Beware the Wizard

Knowledge is Power
3.5 Edition
Level 6
9 pages
0

A short adventure for the Midnight campaign setting from Fantasy Flight Games. Harried by pursuing Shadow forces, the adventurers take refuge in the fissures of a vast glacier. In these icy caverns they battle the risen remains of an orc tribe and make contact with a powerful potential ally.

Cover of Lurker Beneath Red Larch
Lurker Beneath Red Larch
5th Edition
Levels 3–4
13 pages
0

"Ribbons of blood dance through the air, tracing wide crimson arcs before fraying into thousands upon thousands of bright red droplets. The cheerful tavern atmosphere evaporates in a moment, rent apart by screams and cries. A woman with grey hair stands near the bar, grasping at the dagger in her throat with fingers made slippery by blood. She sways and collapses. More screams. A man stands before her. He is holding the hilt of the dagger, but lets it slip from a gory hand as the woman falls. He freezes for a moment, then spins and sprints away, knocking aside people as he goes. A young, flaxen-haired woman at the back of the tavern cries out, “Stop him! Stop him!” as he approaches the entrance – the entrance where you and your comrades are standing. What do you do?" A lonely outsider murders a popular village local before a room full of witnesses. But could he be innocent? The Lurker Beneath Red Larch is a 4-6 hour adventure for characters of 3rd-4th level. It is full of roleplaying, problem solving and challenging combat encounters.

Cover of Lowdown in Highport
Lowdown in Highport
AD&D
Levels 3–5
26 pages
0

Important: The adventure is 1e but it has monster conversion notes for D&D 4th edition The town of Highport, once a human community overlooking Wooly Bay from its perch on the northern coast of the Pomarj, fell prey to hordes of humanoids swarming out of the jungle-covered hills surrounding the settlement. Though the orcs, goblins, kobolds, ogres, and gnolls razed much of the place in their ferocious rampages, the smoldering ruins they left behind soon became a new kind of community, a place of trade between the humanoid “locals” and the unsavory human traders who have no compunction about doing business with them. Slaves are a commodity in ready supply in Highport’s market, since many pirates raid up and down the coast of the bay, putting fishing villages to the torch and filling their holds with captured refugees. Slavery has become a thriving business in the town, and rumors abound of a cartel of Slave Lords who run things from behind the scenes, filling their coffers in secret from the buying and selling of human chattel. The trade has become so prolific that the good folk to the north have grown tired of these depredations and decided to fight back. Forces of righteousness and honor have recently descended upon Highport, some openly and others in secret, in various attempts to destroy the machinations of the Slave Lords and abolish the abominable enterprise that has taken far too many loved ones from home and hearth. One such doughty servant of goodness is Mikaro Valasteen, a cleric of Trithereon. Mikaro slipped unnoticed past the crumbling walls of Highport with a single mission: to rescue and transport as many slaves to their freedom as possible. Mikaro and a handful of faithful assistants located a number of escaped slaves—as well as rescued a few more not sufficiently restrained and guarded—and shepherded them through the gates and beyond the reach of their humanoid tormentors, returning them to their lands and homes. This covert freedom brigade enjoyed remarkable success early on, since the servants of the Slave Lords were often lax in their vigilance and sloppy in their efforts to prevent loss of the “merchandise.” After one too many shipments never made its destination, the humanoids stepped up their security and the normal channels of escape from Highport closed to Mikaro and his team. He cannot risk exposure by smuggling the freed slaves through the gates as merchandise any longer, since shipments of goods are now regularly stopped and checked. No longer able to free the slaves in that manner, Mikaro began hiding his charges in an abandoned villa in a particularly rundown part of the town. Although they are safe for the moment, their numbers have grown unmanageable, and the priest fears it is only a matter of time before someone slips up and brings slavers to their doorstep. Ever more desperate to find a new means of escape from Highport, Mikaro has started work on a plan that is both daring and dangerous. He intends to use a series of old sewers coupled with natural caverns running beneath the town as an escape route to the sea beyond the walls. But he needs someone to clear out the creatures and pitfalls he knows lie within. Pgs. 2-27

Cover of The Hag's Hexes
The Hag's Hexes
5th Edition
Levels 4–18
66 pages
0

The Hag's Hexes is a 66 page guide designed by Dungeon Masters Guild luminaries like JVC Parry and Janek Sielicki alongside rising stars and old stalwarts like Matt Butler, Matthew Gravelyn, and Tim Bannock. It was created with one thing in mind: to make hags more than the sum of their (often meager) Challenge ratings, giving them the mechanics, roleplay potential, and weird magic that can inspire campaigns, lay low kings and warlords, and potentially ensnare unwary Player Characters into campaign-changing curses or long-term bargains that force them into terrible moral quandaries! Split into five chapters, the authors have provided everything a DM needs to terrify their players for years to come. The Bestiary features over a dozen monsters; some are new hags, some are their minions or even their mobile lairs, and one of them -- the Shaitan AKA Desert Hag -- was featured in Monsters of the Guild! Bargains & Curses is a chapter filled with ideas that can kick-start campaigns, threaten valued NPCs, or put Player Characters' very existence and morality at stake. Chapter 3 includes two dozen items of wonderment, weirdness, and dread, ranging from fairy tale-inspired items of whimsy to terribly cursed items of horror. Chapter 4 is titled "Filthy, Vile & Downright Dirty" and provides dozens of roleplaying tips to make hags come alive, new mechanics inspired by and expanding on Volo's Guide to Monsters (coven spell lists, aunties, grandmothers, alternative coven members), and ends with useful combat tactics for each of the hags from the Monster Manual and Volo's Guide, as well as tactics for covens. Finally, Chapter 5 presents five encounter groups (with sub-encounters) to give you quick story seeds and monster lists that you can put together in minutes to create a single encounter or to inspire a full campaign, and ends with three full-length adventures -- each with 3-5 encounters -- that showcase many of the new monsters, rules, magic items, and so on that appeared in earlier chapters. Each of these adventures comes with an encounter map meant to act as inspiration for hag lairs, and they include useful mechanical ideas for terrain effects and descriptive keywords listed directly on the map for added inspiration and easy customization! Designed by Tim Bannock. Written by Matt Butler, JVC Parry, Janek Sielicki, and Tim Bannock. Edited by Matthew Gravelyn and Tim Bannock. Cover Art by Elena Naylor. Cartography by Tim Bannock using Inkwell Ideas' Dungeonographer (Dungeonographer is copyright Inkwell Ideas). Layout & Graphic Elements by Elena Naylor with Tim Bannock. Interior Art by Arcana Games, Bruno Balixa, David Lewis Johnson, Dean Spencer, Earl Geier, Filip Gutowski, Jacob E. Blackmon, Joyce Maureira, Petr Kratochvil, Jayaraj Paul, Brian Brinlee, and Wizards of the Coast.

Cover of Grave Titan Harvest
Grave Titan Harvest
5th Edition
Levels 5–8
29 pages
0

Far below the Fields of Petrichor is a vast cavern containing the skeletal remains of a long-dead Sonorous Titan, a whale-like beast that once floated through the skies of a lost age. Amongst the bones are ravines and grottos home to bizarre creatures and lost treasures that are as beautiful and valuable as they are deadly. Ghostly shapes swim through the air. Glowing mushroom groves hide frightened creatures. And the Titan’s bones sing sadly as an ambitious wizard and his weary hirelings dig for its precious marrow... ADVENTURE TYPE: Small Sandbox Dungeon DESIGN NOTES: This adventure is intended for characters levels 5 to 8. It includes several wilderness areas, a ruined village and a mining camp 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 most areas and complete many interactions without any combat at all, depending on their choices. INCLUDES: Story hooks, dialogue prompts, creature stat blocks, original creatures and treasures, and dungeon overview map. KEYWORDS: Grave, skeleton, ghost, undead, wizard, miner, puzzle, mushroom, myconid, hag, witch, social, curse, mutation, mutant, soul, insect, termite, scorpion, bat, monk, beetle, chicken

Cover of Saltwater Mystery
Saltwater Mystery
5th Edition
Level 1
20 pages
0

On the shores of the Sea of Fallen Stars, in a small and xenophobic coastal town, there is a mystery that must be unraveled. People have started disappearing during the past months, as a direct result of the criminal activities going on in town, under cloak and dagger. The players must examine clues, talk with witnesses, and investigate further, to help the people of Saltwater restore peace and order. The smuggling mastermind and his lackeys, including a vicious shapeshifter, will stop at nothing to stop the players from achieving their objective. This is a starting adventure for players and DM’s alike, which may also be used as a starting point of your campaign and easily adapted to any small coastal town in your game world. It involves a great deal of roleplaying and some degree of battle, depending on the player’s decisions. A cloak and dagger investigative adventure, for nerves hard as steel and fists tough as nails.

Cover of Snowbolds & Snowmen
Snowbolds & Snowmen
5th Edition
Level 1
6 pages
0

You have travelled to the legendarily festive town of Hamlet Court for the world famous Midwinter festival. You’re not in town long before you discover that the previous night, the annual Villager vs. Kobold snowball fight turned violent, putting a dampener on the festive mood. Madam Mayor looks solemn as she asks you to investigate exactly what has turned the long peaceful Snowbolds violent. She suggests you head to their Snow Cavern and fix the issue before it ruins Midwinter

Cover of The Draining Caverns of the Winged Beast
The Draining Caverns of the Winged Beast
5th Edition
Levels 5–6
11 pages
0

Something is plaguing the farmland around the village of Oxdale, out in the middle of nowhere. The beast visits regularly and carries off an animal, disappearing into the hill country north of the village. Word is that it is also buzzing around the new goblin camp to the northwest. It wasn't too big of a deal until it tried to carry off a village youngling; now the mayor and the citizens want it dealt with immediately. (Spoiler - the beast was sent by a gentleman vampire who doesn't like hunting for himself. Find him in his cave or encounter him once he ventures to the village to find out what happened to his machine, should it go missing.) The Draining Caverns of the Winged Beast is a one-shot 5e adventure for a party of four 5th or 6th level characters. This adventure can be slotted into most 5e adventures (maybe with some reflavoring if it's a frozen setting), or stand alone as its own adventure. This adventure includes: The adventure PDF, with several combat encounters, and opportunities for exploration and roleplaying encounters Four maps - one region, one village, and two battlemaps, both in the adventure and as separate JPEGs Random encounter table for trekking through the hill country One magic dagger held by the vampire.

Cover of The Nexus Spore
The Nexus Spore
5th Edition
Levels 3–7
7 pages
0

The Nexus spore is an intriguing Underdark adventure that can be sewn into any subterranean setting. This one-shot production was designed with long campaigns in mind, for when you want to break up the narrative to keep things fresh and interesting. This short adventure is ideal for players of level 5-7, although, much like the length of the adventure, it is easy to adjust. The adventure fits well into a single long session, or 2-3 short sessions. It comes complete with maps, stat blocks, boxed descriptions and a rare magic item.

Cover of Troll Bridge
Troll Bridge
AD&D
Levels 2–4
3 pages
0

A very big problem from a very small source. Pay the toll or feed the troll' seems pretty obvious. Too bad that it isn't. A tricky gnome has used illusions to fleece anyone crossing a bridge, posing as a fearsome troll. To direct more traffic across his bridge, he has also set fire to the Great Bridge downstream. The players find the Great Bridge burned and follow this detour. At the bridge, the players will fight with the illusory troll. After a few rounds, it flees back to the gnome's lair under the bridge, and the players will need to deal with a combination of the gnome and his traps if they investigate. Pgs. 22,23 & 69

Cover of Horror in the House of Dagon
Horror in the House of Dagon
5th Edition
Levels 1–4
23 pages
0

A desperate father, a missing girl, and a simple investigation - but nothing is ever simple. As you peel back the layers of mystery, you uncover a dark god, vile sorcery, and a malevolent cult set to unleash horror upon the land... Horror in the House of Dagon is an enthralling and exciting adventure, with lots of role-playing, exploration, and horrifying combat encounters! This adventure is designed for 1st-4th level characters, and will take 3-6 hours to complete.

Cover of FC6 - Cairn of King Eddles
FC6 - Cairn of King Eddles
AD&D
Levels 5–7
22 pages
0

After spending a little time going through dusty old tomes and documents your group has discovered a tapestry offering you clues to a long dead and buried king. Since kings are usually buried with their riches and no information shows that his tomb has been located perhaps a little grave robbing may be in order! This adventure has several wilderness spots for exploration as well as an old burial cairn with several levels. The only problem is that the king isn’t really “dead” in the normal sense.

Cover of The Laughing Horde of Ruin, Part 1
The Laughing Horde of Ruin, Part 1
5th Edition
Levels 1–3
97 pages
0

Chapter 1 - When a relative of someone close to the characters goes missing from a nearby village, the players are asked to investigate. The party has to recover stolen goods from a thief before setting out from the City of Ravens Bluff. They travel through the wilds of Vesperin in search of the missing person, finding trouble and helping locals along the way. Chapter 2 - As the journey continues, the party arrives in a small hamlet suffering from a strange blight. The players will need to investigate the situation and choose sides in a longstanding feud between the mayor and a local magic user. Chapter 3 - After clearing a tribe of violent orcs from a nearby mountain pass to protect the residents of a town, the party will have to enter the lair of a long-dead dragon to rescue their quarry from a band of goblinoid slavers, where they discover an entrance into a dwarven city, lost and forgotten centuries ago. Chapter 4 - The party will have to traverse the ruins of the dwarven city, avoiding hazards and battling the horrors that lurk there, to uncover the identity of the slaver's leader. A discovery that will lead them through a treacherous forest to the city of Tsurlagol in search of a pirate ship called the Star Carver, and its drow captain, The Viper's Kiss. Along the way, they meet an unlikely ally. Chapter 5 - Once they arrive in Tsurlagol, the players will have to choose between gaining the assistance of the city council to fight the pirates head on, or making a deal with the Viper's Kiss, herself. The path they choose will either lead to an epic battle on the Sea of Fallen Stars, or into the deadly sewers and tunnels beneath the city to face an enclave of wererats, undead, and a tribe of mad, kraken-worshipping kuo-toa, in search of a fabled relic. The Laughing Horde of Ruin, Part 1 is the first module of an original 5e adventure campaign. It is designed for character level 1-5, and uses material from the Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, and Volo's Guide.

Cover of Sekarvu's Lair
Sekarvu's Lair
3.5 Edition
5 pages
0

Sekarvu is a typical beholder. It spent much of its youth exploring underground realms and killing everything it found. One day, it came upon a large cavern filled with violet fungi. At the edge of the cavern, it found a small band of adventurers who had all but succumbed to the toxins of the fungi's tendrils. They offered little resistance to Sekarvu as it approached and began to feed on their still-writhing bodies. With its first bite, the beholder's life changed forever. Pgs. 52-55

Cover of Old Embers Never Die
Old Embers Never Die
3.5 Edition
Levels 12–13
21 pages
0

The PCs follow the trail of some particularly competent kobold thieves to the lair of a dragon cult deep in the swamp. There they discover efforts underway to grant sentience to the skeleton of a powerful red dragon once named Flame. Eventually the PCs determine that trouble has returned to the Western Mountains in the form of a band of fire giants ruled by a clone of the original red dragon named Flame.

Cover of APS02 Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief
APS02 Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief
OSR
Levels 1–3
45 pages
0

Goblins have returned to the area of Westgate, seeking an ancient magical item constructed for their foul kind. In their search, the goblins attack an imperial convoy secretly disguised as a merchant’s wagon. The knowledge that goblins are near must be kept quiet from the public, thus a small band of adventurers is required to seek out the creatures and the stolen magic item, deep inside the warrens of the great goblin chief! But the adventure does not end there...

Cover of Base of Operations
Base of Operations
3rd Edition
Level 5
7 pages
0

Base of Operations is a short adventure intended for four 5th-level characters. DMs can easily modify the adventure to suit higher- or lower-level adventurers, or larger or smaller parties of adventurers. Simply adding a few monsters to every encounter area makes the adventure more challenging for larger parties, and adding levels to any of the humanoids can make them more of a threat to high-level groups. For low-level adventurers, make the relationship between the two factions within Brightstone Keep more strained, and take away a few monsters from each group. You can remove levels from some of the humanoids in the adventure to make it a lower-level challenge, but it is important that the orc cleric (described in encounter area 8) still have the ability to animate the dead. Still, he can have fewer minions around him when encountered, and that makes him less of a challenge for a lowlevel party.