The Zhentarim ask the party to investigate what happened in one their most important underdark outposts. If the party accepts, they'll have to deal with maddening darkness, grimlocks, an insane kenku assassin and unpredictable mixtures of potions. A short, fun dungeon romp that is easily adapted to other settings and other patrons. The combination of utter darkness and a villain based on sound makes for fun shenanigans on the side of the DM. Feasible as a one shot for an efficient party. Two tendays ago, Zhentarim agents were to transport a shipment of rare potions between their Underdark outpost and the surface world. The shipment has yet to arrive, and the outpost is not responding to any sending spells. Growing worried, the outpost’s overseer sends a group of hireswords to investigate and return it to Zhentarim hands. This particular adventure deals with the delusions of madness of Fraz Urb'luu. It also features Muurmic, the mad kenku first described in the December 2015 issue of Dragon+.
The Sword of the Dales, an icon of the Dalelands symbolizing the unity and strength of the people, has reappeared! Created by Shraevyn the weapons-mage hundreds of years ago, the lost Sword had become nothing more than a fantastic children's tale - until now. A group of warriors led by Randal Morn, rightful ruler of Daggerdale, rushed to the Sword's resting place to recover it, but dark forces awaited them, and Randal and his men fell to an ambush. Only one man escaped, yet he brought with him the hope that Randal Morn yet lives. Resolved to rescue his leader, that lone survivor turned to the great Elminster of Shadowdale for aid. But Elminster is gone, off plane-hopping while the fate of Daggerbale hangs in the balance. Hence, it is up to Lhaeo, scribe to the old mage, to find a group of heroes who have mettle enough to face down the menace which claimed Randal Morn and his hearty followers... This is the first of three adventures that grant player characters the opportunity to determine the fate of Daggerdale. The saga continues with "The Secret of Spiderhaunt" and concludes with "The Return of Randal Morn." TSR 9484
A cemetery is nice but an entire city of the dead.....THAT'S an adventure. At 29 pages this adventure a large number of challenges for a party of higher levels. Set in the famed Adurite city of the dead this adventure offers many challenges to a party. What lies within? What treasures may be found? This adventure is not for the faint of heart. With over ten area maps and multiple pictures of areas the party may find, this is a full adventure. Are your players ready for a big adventure?
The Drunderry River runs narrow and fast through much of its course, before tumbling into the lowlands beneath the Fallow Hills, in the shadows of the Blacktooth Ridge. From there, the river spreads out across fertile plains, laboring slowly to the south before emptying into the Elmarsh Lake. Until recently this area was unsettled, but a writ of the King's has brought many people to the area. The village of Malforten, nesteld along the banks fo the Drunderry River, near the Fallow Hills, is just such a place. A quiet village with simple people, they learned the hard way the Blacktooth Ridge casts a deep and dark shadow. Seeing rich prizes in cattle and grain, people and other movables, Gritznak the Gnoll has come down from the Blacktooth with loot on his mind. All they've done to drive him off have failed, at their wits end the villagers turn to others, more experienced in combatting evil. They look to a rising knight to save them . . . . Also available for 5E: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/160855/A0-The-Rising-Knight--Adventures-for-5th-Edition-Rules
The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path begins here, in the small coastal town of Sandpoint. Five years after a tragic fire and spate of brutal murders, the people of Sandpoint eagerly anticipate the Swallowtail Festival to commemorate the consecration of the town's new temple. At the height of the ceremony, disaster strikes! In the days that follow, a sinister shadow settles over Sandpoint. Rumors of goblin armies and wrathful monsters in forgotten ruins have set the populace on edge. As Sandpoint's newest heroes, the PCs must deal with treachery, goblins, and the rising threat of a forgotten empire whose cruel and despotic rulers might not be as dead as history records.
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.
It's a horrible time to have a curse! Each wielding a powerful item to a family legacy, your players are a group of young adventurers who barely survive an attack on their order of vampire-hunters by agents of Dracula. After escaping, they discover Dracula has placed a curse upon the land which makes restful sleep difficult outside of hallowed areas. Dracula, "alive" on another plane but dead on this one, must be resurrected so they can kill him, end the curse, and avenge their dead. To accomplish this goal, the player characters must journey through forest, marsh, hill, and underground paths to retrieve relics of Dracula's last life from keeps and fortresses overrun by monsters and the undead. If they can resurrect him, he will be weak and easy to kill... but the adventurers aren't the only ones who want Dracula on the Material Plane, and Dracula is not the only vampire in the world. Gameplay overview This adventure takes the players from 2nd through 9th or 10th level on a milestone basis as they choose where to travel in what order to retrieve what they need. Starting at a happy gathering at the Belmonte Order, which the characters are hereditary members of, the campaign kicks off with a bang as the group retrieves their chosen legacy items, salvages what other gear they can in a race against time and a growing number of foes, and then escapes to begin their quest. In addition to the six main "dungeons," there are two optional regional lairs, traveling vampires, and many foes along the way. Most of the towns in the area have managed to survive, providing points of light at which the party may stop, long rest safely, acquire supplies, and socialize. Travel is hazardous! 5e classes are balanced for resource management across a 5-8 encounter adventuring day. The campaign is designed to have a semi-variable flow of encounters as the party traels around the area. Encounters grow progressively more difficult as time passes and the party spends more time within a region. These are not random encounters rolled on a table, but encounters designed to be unique to each area's geography, combat terrain, and mix of foes. As the party spends more time in a region or revisits it, the encounter difficulty increases. Dracula's curse requires a Constitution saving throw to successfully long rest outside of Hallowed areas (towns). The difficulty scales up over time, forcing the party to balance speed and safety as they try to accomplish their goals without pushing beyond the limits of what they can handle. The game concept, general map layout, and some enemy distributions are loosely inspired by Castlevania II for the NES, one of the forerunners of the "Metroidvania" genre. Dracula's Curse is indeed a game in which the forests are dark and full of monsters, and every night is a horrible one to have a curse. Includes 15 Legacy items, from weapons like whips and swords to a shield, a belt, or a decanter of holy water 60+ enemy statblocks 8 unique dungeons with unique layouts & challenges 5 inhabited towns with multiple named NPCs 100+ travel encounters (expect to use 30-50%) The module is printer-friendly with no artwork and straightforward grid maps for location-based encounters which require one.
The country of Rhyl has been beset nearly every night for many years by a large, terrible creature that flies out from the mountains near the city of Asereht. Nearly a year ago the creature broke through the wall of King Namreh’s castle and carried off the king’s son, Prince Laechim, along with a large amount of the royal treasure. After the creature’s raid on the castle, King Namreh ordered his army to search the mountains and discover Astylis’ complex. The soldiers made two forays into the mountain wilderness, but each time were harassed and eventually driven back by goblin raiders. Since the failure of the second assault, the king has taken to commissioning small parties of mercenaries and adventurers, sending them into the mountains with promises of great reward upon the completion of the rescue mission. For reasons which the king has never found out, none of these rescue parties has ever returned to Asereht. Your party is now attempting to be the first. Pgs. 37-44
This book goes over the various rules around the faction of the Harpers in Phandalin and the Forgotten Realms, making it easy for any new or veteran DMs to integrate it more into the core stories being told, and making the faction feel more useful for the players that choose to join. The adventure sees the characters on a mission to Iniarv's Tower, sent to search for the artifact, Bowgentle's Spellbook, and rescue the fellow Harper member, Brodven.
The final fate of Roslof Keep and the Company of the Ivory Scimitar hangs in the balance. With five levels conquered, the party must finally face the ultimate challenge of the sixth and final floor. Can the stalward adventures overcome the last defense of the Infernal Machine? Will Roslof Keep be freed from the violet corruption? What unforeseen plot twists still await those willing to brave the challenges presented in The Realms of Madness and Despair? This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules. Also available in PDF.
𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑-𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐏! 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐙𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐔𝐒 is a fifth edition (5E) conversion of the ground-breaking introductory adventure for Dungeons & Dragons that served as a DM aid in the first 𝐃&𝐃 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐞𝐭, released by TSR in 1977. This set included a 48-page rulebook covering the first three levels of play, and was skillfully edited by 𝐃𝐫. 𝐉. 𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐬 from the original 1974 D&D rules written by 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐆𝐲𝐠𝐚𝐱 and 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧. Holmes advanced the "Sample Dungeon" concept by writing a new thematic dungeon with a strong backstory, creating an adventure that has remained a fan favorite over the decades. Officially, its only title is "Sample Dungeon" but colloquially it goes by various names based on Zenopus, the doomed wizard who built the dungeon under his tower. An adventure for 1st to 2nd level characters; four pregenerated characters are included. Also includes ideas for using it as an adventure site in 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡. 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: Using this conversion requires a copy of the original dungeon found in the (1977) Basic D&D rulebook. However, Wizards of the Coast has provided a free pdf of this dungeon since 2008 on their website, see the first page of the pdf for the link. 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒: Introduction, page 2 The Setting, page 3 About the Dungeon, page 4 Dungeon Master's Map, page 5 Areas of the Dungeon, pages 6-13 Appendix A: Further Reading, page 13 Appendix B: Dungeon Factions, page 14 Appendix C: Portown Rumors, pages 15-17 Appendix D: Use with Ghosts of Saltmarsh, pages 18-19 Appendix E: Pre-generated 1st level characters, page 20 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐍𝐏𝐂𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟓𝐄: Cleaning Cube, Veteran Smuggler, Thaumaturgist, Monstrous Sand Crab, Lemunda, Monstrous Rat, Brazen Head of Zenopus, Verminslayer Longsword, Lesser Wand of Petrification, Scroll of Stone to Flesh The Ruined Tower of Zenopus was featured as part of the "D&D Classics" column in Issue #32 of Dragon+ magazine! Go to 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐠.𝐜𝐨𝐦 or find the link on the Wikipeda page for Dragon magazine. 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐒: Original Dungeon: J. Eric Holmes Conversion, Added Content & Cartography: Zach Howard Content Review & Editing: Scott McKinley Interior Art: Chris Holmes (“Octopus Attack”, page 9) Cover Art: “Italian Coast Scene with Ruined Tower” by Thomas Cole, 1838. Open Access Image from the National Gallery of Art at images.nga.gov Format: Derived from the “Adventure Template for Open Office/LibreOffice” by Dale Robbins on DMs Guild Dungeon Maps drawn using the application Gridmapper by Alex Schroeder
Introduction No frills, here. No fancy charts and tables. No art to dazzle your eyes. Just a crawl; that happens to have a bit of a background, and a (group)death-dealing Bad Ass! waiting for the characters. How you run it is your business. What you delete, exchange out/in or modify is up to you. You can be as kind and patient with the players as you like, or let the chips fall (dice roll) where they may. You can allow pre-rolled characters, provide pre-gens yourself, or let the players bring their own, favorite character they have worked hard to get to the levels indicated; remind them, if the latter, that character-death is part of the game! I issue only the following comment: if run as it is laid out , it is nearly certain that at least one character, and as many as all of them, might die during the adventure.
Great riches and sudden death, free for the taking. The owners of the vault dared all looters to test their wits against it. Hundreds of years later, the vault is still unopened. Now, it's your turn to try to get in. A heavily trapped vault containing a whole lot of treasure. Little combat. Pgs. 41-46
Chase a choldrith trying to incite a war! Detour through an abandoned dwarven mine when your path is blocked by a cave in! Fight through dangerous beasts to get back on the choldrith's tail. In this 6-8 hour adventure for 4-5 characters of 3rd level, explore an old dwarven mine and fight through a hive of dangerous beasts to get back on the trail of the choldrith your group has been pursing. Includes: A 6-8 hour adventure for 3rd level characters 2 DM maps Copies of the maps suitable for use in your favorite virtual tabletop Stat blocks for all monsters the players might encounter. 4 new undead versions of NPCs Be sure to check out the first two installments in this series: Into the Underdark - Part 1 A Family Affair Into the Underdark - Part 2 The Spider's Den
Terror roams the dark and brambled paths of the Kryptwood. A pack of giant spectral hounds rule the night, savaging those foolish enough to brave the forest. The villagers of Hendenburgh cower in the shadows of the ancient boughs as each morning heralds a newly savaged corpse. Explore the ancient paths of the Kryptwood in a 25-hex hexcrawl. Discover the mysterious Tyrant's Tomb. Negotiate, serve or betray the factions of the Kryptwood (a ghostly despot, a gang of highwaymen with excellent PR, a horrifying witch coven, and the eccentric inhabitants of Hendenburgh). Fight new monsters such as owlboars, kryptwood hounds and ghostly tyrants. Hounds of Hendenburgh is designed for use with Cairn by Yochai Gal but compatible with other OSR systems. If using OSRIC, OSE or other OSR rulesets then the adventure is best suited to low-level parties (1-3). Reviews Hounds of Hendenburgh is an adventure brimming with potential energy, like a domino run—any prodding by the players is sure to set off a chain reaction, but where any individual piece will end up is anyone’s guess . . . For me, Hounds of Hendenburgh is a major highlight of A Town, A Forest, A Dungeon. I’m eager to bring it to the table, and I expect it’s the sort of adventure that will reward referees who run it multiple times. - Dododecahedron Blog This 22 page adventure presents a delightful little romp through a colourful town, a dreadful forest, and a small haunted dungeon/crypt. Would that everything I reviewed were at least this good. A credit to county Donegal! - Bryce Lynch (tenfootpole.org)
This scenario sees the adventuring party given an important quest to collect a number of broken magical seals and to light a number of magical braziers, all of which once protected the crypts of Kelemvor. In so doing, they can help to quell a devastating uprising of undead — organized by a powerful lich named Idris bent on destroying the city of Neverwinter. “The Crypts of Kelemvor” is a one-shot Dungeons & Dragons adventure for characters of levels 3 to 5, adapted from a quest in Neverwinter online.
Run, play or splice up 66 pages of mayhem and weirdness in this Slavic mythic-inspired (with an acid fantasy-twist) mini-sandbox for Labyrinth Lord or the well-aged fantasy rpg of your druthers. Contains: • A 25-site pointcrawl of the otherwordly Slumbering Ursine Dunes region. Beyond the big ticket adventure sites you will find along the way a Polevik-haunted rye field, a Zardoz head-living hermit, bearling pilgrimage site, antediluvian beaver engineers and other assorted madness. • Two separate “dungeons”, the bio-mechanical, lost-in-time Golden Barge and the faction-contested Glittering Tower, with enough detail and portability to be slotted into an existing campaign. • The Chaos Index, a dynamic events system for modeling the mythic weirdness of the Dunes. Actions of the players in the sandbox will escalate or de-escalate the levels of events. • Four competing factions operating inside the Dunes, plus guidelines for their mutual interactions.
A friendly little cottage and a dreadful secret. As the adventure begins, the PCs are on a journey through temperate, wilderness hills -- perhaps toward a destination of importance in the ongoing campaign, or they might merely be wandering in search of heroic opportunities. Pgs. 20-25
Your party is on a journey through a mountainous region distinguished by sheer cliffs and dangerous precipices. Thus everyone is quite grateful when, just at nightfall, they find a small abandoned chapel. It provides a dry shelter from the wind and radiates such an aura of good that there is no hesitation about sheltering within it. This is an adventure for a balanced party of six second- and third-level characters; ifd esired, the number may be increased by including three first-level characters.
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