A dwarven laboratory forgotten for many centuries has finally been rediscovered, but there is sure to be danger lurking within. It turns out some of the other machines within are still active, as are some of the traps and puzzles. Prepare your party for a blend of challenging puzzles and diverse fights in the dungeon that was home to my first player kill.
A desperate refugee emerges from the earth's depths in shadow-cloaked Nidal with an urgent pleas. A new faction in the subterranean dark folk city of Lyrudrada -- a wicked cult called the Reborn -- seeks a fabled artifact called the Cradle of Night. Vanished demigods of the Shadow Plane once used this artifact to craft the elusive caligni race, and the Reborn want to use it to shroud the world in darkness once more. Cursed with the stain of shadow, the heroes must battle their way through the tomb of an ancient horselord chieftain before descending to Lyrudrada. Plots and schemes run rampant in this city riven with political upheavals and back-alley bloodshed, and the heroes must collect allies and information to confront the Reborn in their fortified fane. With the mysterious masters of the caligni race arrayed against them, can the heroes hope to shed their shadowy curse and claim the Cradle of Night?
This dungeon is suitable as a one-shot or drop-in for characters between levels 12 and 17. Taken from the Against the Idol of the Sun high-level hexcrawl campaign, the Death Knight's Tomb is a location-based exploration adventure. It features increasing localized time distortions that ultimately pit the party in a fight against an ogre Death Knight and his minions who just destroyed an elven time lab over ten millenia ago, which is just a few seconds ago in relative terms at the bottom level. There are six distinct sections to the dungeon containing four combat encounters of increasing difficulty. As written, the party enters the structure to rescue an overly adventurous Scorpionfolk couple and their rescuers, but they can be omitted or rewritten to any other species.
The necromancer Tal Lorvas has unearthed an underground tomb that dates back to the height of the ancient tiefling empire. Lorvas has been terrorizing the surrounding lands with his vile experiments, and now he hopes to find a ring, hidden in the tomb, that is tied to a ritual he wants to perform by the rise of the next full moon. The PCs must enter the tomb of Empress Nemeia, deal with the servants of the necromancer, and confront Tal Lorvas before he can claim the ancient relic and move one step closer to ultimate power over the undead. Pgs. 36-41
When the heroes come into town, word arrives that a nearby cloister of the god of valor is under siege by an army of undead. The adventurers travel to help defend the bastion of paladins, only to discover that these undead are actually ancient enemies of the paladins’ order. They have discovered a way to exact vengeance for slights committed centuries ago, but to finish their plan they must breach the cloister’s catacombs! Can the heroes battle them to the catacombs and defeat their horrific blackguard champion?
In this Adventure, the heroes explore the lair of an adult green dragon who has become a dracolich. She is served by living and undead minions and slaves. Pages 302-307
Constructed into the side of an active volcano or buried deep beneath the ground lies the Temple of Pure Fire. Within its walls is enough flame and lava to make even the hardiest of adventures question their decision to pass through its doors. This temple contains grand constructs that have laid dormant for hundreds of years, but stir from their great slumber when they are needed to defend this former place or worship. Grand forges, lava-fueled smelters, and even an obsidian lava transportation vehicle wait within the walls of this ancient temple.
When the characters arrive at the fishing town of Estinn, they find it totally abandoned. Can they solve the grisly mystery of what happened to the town and stop a monstrous threat that lurks in the cold, deep waters of the bay? Born in Blood is a Lovecraftian horror one-shot for four or five 9th-level characters. It takes about 4-6 hours to complete and includes: -A gruesome mystery of betrayal and dark rituals -An underwater dungeon hidden beneath the sea floor -A harrowing battle with a newly born godling! -High-quality digital maps for use with virtual table tops
A doctor who helps with rare and socially debilitating diseases who welcomes all to her doorstep suddenly becomes reclusive...and her patients are no longer able to be found. Adventurer's are hired by a powerful merchant who had committed her son to this doctor, and they need to find him and bring him home.
Figgy Puddin' Steals Christmas is a short adventure for three to six characters, and optimized for 2nd level characters. We also include Scaling Suggestions, allowing you to run this adventure for lower- or higher-level characters. We anticipate a run-time of 2- to 4-hours. There's a bit of roleplay in this adventure, which may extend the playtime. Adventure Background A traveling jester known as Figgy Puddin’ and her Coal Smudge Gang have stolen Christmas presents and now hold them for ransom. While safe and secure in her lair, she awaits either a payment of an outrageous ransom, or a crew of heroes to claim the presents after they navigate her not-so-festive lair. What's the Adventure? After you introduce the hook, the adventure occurs in Figgy Puddin's lair - a refurbished kobold bunker consisting of eight rooms. As the characters explore the linear dungeon, they encounter new creatures, complete challenges, and are tested about their Christmas knowledge. However, the final confrontation with the naughty Figgy Puddin' could make for a very Unhappy and Unmerry Christmas for our heroes, the children of Thistleton, and their parents. Who Is Figgy Puddin’? Figgy Puddin’ was once a happy jester who loved Christmas. For years she traveled the realm, bringing fun and festive cheer to villages and children while preparing the way for Santa. However, times have become tough, and entertainment doesn’t always pay as well as one would like. As Figgy prepares for retirement, she’s learned she doesn’t have enough gold to last. During this time, she’s also decided that Santa doesn’t know who she is, let alone appreciate the work she puts in every year. Using her savings, extortion, blackmail, and other nefarious means, she’s convinced several mechanical geniuses and arcane specialists to help her refurbish her underground bunker with wondrous effects, creatures, and tests. To fund her retirement, she’s taken extreme measures to make some quick gold — holding Christmas presents for ransom.
A half-marilith, half-medusa druidess lich known as the Hate Blossom lairs in this dungeon, having been run out of mortal society and shunned by demonkind. She possesses the petrified-yet-still-living body of Melenkir, the first human arch-mage and the single creature to remember a ritual that may save the realm from an extraplanar threat. Only slaying Hate Blossom or convincing her to lift the curse will revive Melenkir. Published by Defy Danger and Save Verses Death
The Dreaming Caldera involves the players infiltrating a volcano teeming with monsters that are intent on constructing a chaos god. The players must navigate through the hostile environment, disrupt the monstrous activities, and ultimately prevent a catastrophic event. 27 keyed locations Written for the Old-School Essentials (OSE) rule system
This 4 hour adventure for 3rd level characters begins in a prison cell where the adventurers must figure out a way to escape, acquire weapons and armor to defend themselves more effectively, and most importantly, escape a repurposed dwarven forge that has been appropriated by a fire giant who uses slave labor and even a captured red dragon wyrmling to smelt ore and forge an arsenal under the volcano Mt. Hotenow.
The wizard Kavorquian is dead. But certain items belonging to his adopted son were in the wizard's keeping at the time of his demise. Now someone must venture into the silent vaults of Kavorquian's stronghold and recover the missing property. Queen's Harvest picks up its story where B11, King's Festival, left off. It can be played as a sequel to that adventure or as a complete adventure in itself. It is tailored for beginning Dungeon Masters and players and contains helpful hints on adventuring and the land of Karameikos. The story develops simply, but ultimately leads the player characters into the nether reaches of Penhaligon's politics to confront Ilyana Penhaligon, mad pretender to the throne! TSR 9261
Alkenstar, City of Smog, is a bastion of civilization in the magic-warped region known as the Mana Wastes. Its ingenious citizens survive in the treacherous Spellscar Desert with the help of canny inventions like guns and clockwork automatons, but now their construct protectors have begun to run amok within the city. It falls to the PCs to venture beyond the city walls to find the source of their strange behavior.
The ancient world of Harth withers beneath its dying sun…but it’s not dead yet. Welcome to the strange and dangerous city of Carcassay, huddled below the skeleton of a titan rat, sprawling above the ruins of countless dead civilizations. This is where folk come to find wealth, power, revenge, secrets, oblivion… and everything in between. Carcassay is a sandbox city adventure. There are many locations to explore in, around, and under the city. Players can explore any place at any time, and may radically reshape the city’s politics, economy, religions, and physical existence. There are standard dungeons stacked under the city, and GMs are encouraged to keep adding more dungeons… all the way down. Tone. It leans more toward low fantasy or sword-and-sorcery. Most shops look like real shops. Most people look like real people. But strange and horrible things lurk everywhere as soon as you start to scratch the surface. This is my Lankhmar. Carcassay is a vast, bizarre city. It has over 100 locations where you can meet Chaos cultists, Lawful knights, retired adventurers, shopkeepers, brewers, musicians, artists, scientists, hermits, royalty, beggars, doctors, space vampires, eldritch horrors, machine priests, crab colonists, mushroom farmers, mummies, assassins, and diplomats from distant lands… and the moon. And every one of them has goods or services to sell, and a quest (or three) to offer. What sort of quests? Fetch a relic, assassinate a rival, find a relative, steal a soul, implant an agent, cure a disease, stop a riot, solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet, hunt a thief, locate a shrine… the list goes on. And for every Quest, there is a specific Reward: money, weapons, relics, Chaos mutations, exclusive memberships, information, Angelic miracles… the list goes on. This is a place where you can make a lot of money, but also where you can spend that money on interesting goods and services. Factions? We have a few. Seven Chaos cults, five knightly orders, two mercenary companies, four wealthy families, six (seven!) Corpse Lords, foreign diplomats, rival innkeepers, rival tavern owners, plus all the dungeon-delving gangs currently mucking about underground. When you grow weary of all the adventures at ground level, there are three classic dungeons buried under the city to explore. This book contains months (if not years) of campaigning. Enjoy the Chaos.
The party is enlisted to assist the Righteous Host, an army formed as a last resort to defend the world against the monsters of Elemental Evil. The host is greatly outnumbered. Its leaders send the party on a series of missions, each of which will give the Righteous Host an edge in the great battle to come. This epic adventure ends with the final push against the forces of Elemental Evil in the Meadows, and the outcome is informed by how effective the party is in their missions... and whether they are willing to risk putting themselves in the front lines. If the Righteous Host loses, players may decide to travel to Hommlet or other nearby towns to defend them. Whether the host is successful or not, players can decide to follow many different plot threads: exploring the Temple of Elemental Evil, finding the lich Kell the Eldest's lair and destroying his phylactory, or following the will of Bitbaern's Shield and discovering historical sites that were previously lost. Pgs. 44-69
A job has come up for your party straight from the leader of Phoenix! A trade deal is desired with the leader of an island chain known for Ioun Stones. The Zephyr has requested that your party go and use your skills to negotiate the deal. Upon arrival, your talents serve you well but King Homa requires that your talents serve him...
Having now realized that they require 4 Mithel Standards at the same time, the Ivory Scimitar will be faced with actually taking a Banner from another Mithel Company. This scenario pits the characters against the waning might of Men of Iron, and should allow them to claim the Banner for House Aldenmier, thus guaranteeing that they can clear the final level of Mithelvanr's Labyrinth. This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules.
Legend tells of a long-dead empire of sphinxes, ruled over for millennia by a great queen named Ankharet. She fell into darkness and her empire was shattered, as her subjects rebelled and cast her down. Unable to kill her, it is said that they bound her with great magic and buried her in a tomb, to wait for the foretold heroes who would be able to slay her and end her evil forever. Their empire in ashes, the sphinxes scattered to roam the world in bitter freedom, save a single great androsphinx. On the edge of the mysterious Barren Hills, between the mountains and the Great Desert, there is a gigantic statue of a crowned gynosphinx, ancient beyond reckoning. At its feet, a great androsphinx known as Khubsheth the Prophet has dispensed counsel and prophecy to all who come to him for longer than mortal records can tell. The heroes have come to visit Khubsheth, whether for counsel, prophecy or out of curiosity, but as soon as he lays eyes on them, he attacks! Upon his defeat, he tells them that they are the heroes foretold by the legend of Ankharet. Ankharet ruled over a long-dead empire of sphinxes, but she fell into darkness. Her subjects rebelled and cast her down, but were unable to kill her. It is said that they bound her with great magic and buried her in a tomb, to wait for the foretold heroes who would be able to slay her and end her evil forever. Kubsheth the Prophet tells the heroes that they must enter the tomb of the long-dead sphinx queen, kill her, and destroy her cursed crown, an artifact of tremendously evil power. As his blood seeps into the sands, a doorway opens at the base of the statue, leading down into darkness…