Bracing for a terrible winter, the adventurers find themselves snow-locked in the desolate Archbarony of Blackmoor. Will they venture into the treacherous Land of Black Ice to rescue an enslaved people? Be sure to check out the sequel "The Clockwork Fortress" in Dungeon magazine #126. Pgs. 16-35
The Kierhammer clan of dwarves pride themselves as excellent excavators, but the respective families are not without friction. While clearing the entrance to the tomb of an ancient king, tensions rose following the death of one of the Kierhammers, who seemingly fell accidentally. It is your job to ensure the clan stays united, and when disease strikes, to make sure resources are managed properly, so that the mission is complete and you all return alive. A wicked force, however has other plans...
A bubbling stream cascades into a hole in the earth, leading to a series of underground watercourses and scintillating grottoes. Adventurers who delve within may discover odd mosses and fungi, a ruined temple complex, and the lair of a crystal-eating dream dragon.
Dreams of the sleeping wizard seep into reality. Manifest familiars war over the fate of a remote islet. An infinite garden houses an escaped experiment. The god of purity is fooled for his blessings. Into the nightmare we go. 16 pages contain 3000+ words describing 10+ keyed areas to explore (complete the wandering monsters table), 10+ friends and foes to talk to, 10 magic items to use, and thousands of gold worth of treasure to plunder. The adventure is designed for B/X, or like-systems. It is suitable for 4 to 6 characters of levels 1 to 3. It is heavily inspired by the dungeon synth album The Sleeping Wizard by Umbría, which may serve as a soundtrack.
(2017 ENNIE Awards Judges' Spotlight Winner!) THE MOST AWESOME ADVENTURE EVER Since the invention of the adventure module, there have only been five adventures that were rated the most awesome, the most epic. Broodmother Sky Fortress leaves them all behind. It’s got these creatures that are half shark. Half elephant. All badass. They fly around in this cloud fortress, wrecking everything in the campaign until the players step up to stop them. It’s all terribly exciting! And all brought to you by none other than the world-famous Arch-Mage of Old-School, Jeff Rients! As an added bonus, we’ve included a Greatest Hits of the ol’ Arch-Mage’s essays and game tools to build your campaign into the unstoppable juggernaut you’ve always wanted it to be. Your game won’t suck anymore! Broodmother SkyFortress: Buying any other adventure is just throwing your money away (includes "3.PF" edition stats by Jukka Särkijärvi because somebody somehow convinced me that would be a good idea back when this thing was being crowdfunded) Writing by Jeff Rients Art by Ian MacLean Graphic Design by Alex Mayo Cartography by Jez Gordon
When huge stones fall out of the night sky, A deadly curse settles over Gravencross. Help the village exorcise the Demon Stones. “The sun had set an hour ago, and the rain lashed down and the wind howled on the dark moor. A storm this late in the season was unusual, but this one seemed different. The clouds were more menacing, tinged with anger, the rain colder and more biting than usual. Skerrill had to find the lost calf and get him back to the farm before his father came back from the city on business. He’d been looking for two hours now, and he was right in the middle of the moor when the storm hit. He knew he should have turned back as soon as darkness fell, but then he was never the brightest boy in the valley. If only he had remembered to lock the farm gate. The calf was now likely dead anyway having stumbled among the boulders and rocks, panicking in the dark, and then fallen in a floodwater stream and drowned. Either way, he was in more trouble than he could imagine. Suddenly, a bright flash of white light and a roaring peal of thunder were preceded by an explosion as a huge object fell from the sky and impacted the ground of the moor no more than a stone’s throw from him. Dirt, mud, water, and debris erupted from the impact site, flying high into the air and then covering the moor for hundreds of feet all around. Skerrill was knocked to the ground instantly and covered in the fallout from the blast. His ears rang and his head spun, but he staggered to his feet in a daze. He stumbled to where the blast had happened only moments before, and in a depression in the ground lay a huge stone glowing orange as if hot. Skerrill passed out. Two more thunderous explosions crashed in the distance.”
The fate of a city lies within a dungeon whose doors are sealed with - cards It's up to you to bring it tumbling down. “House of Cards” combined dungeon exploration with the Deck of Many Things to create an adventure experience unlike anything seen before. The deck is both a treasure and a trap, guarding a tomb complex that’s being used by the Night Masks thieves’ guild as a lair. If the PCs want the deck for themselves, they must first gather all the cards, which is easier said than done. - Christopher Perkins Pgs. 38-64
"The Aboleth's Grotto" is a nihileth lair suitable for four 10th-level characters. The adventure can be completed in one session. The small town of Springwell harbors a secret that almost nobody knows about, and those who do conveniently ignore: it sights right over an unoccupied settlement of the deep caverns of the underworld.
Towering obelisks stab the sky. Monstrous knights with blazing lances prowl the night. Huts burn, and entire villages are taken as slaves to be fed darksome pits. The cries of terror and panic give the horrors a name: the Beakmen have come. But you are no mere peasant or serf, cowering the in the dark. You and your companions are reavers, with bloodied blades and spells wrenched from the dreams of demons. You stride through chaos while others flee, turning your steps towards the great stone obelisk, the source of the beakmen and their alien magics. Whether for the cause of justice or merely to acquire these strange blazing weapons for you own, tonight there shall be an accounting: a blazing brand thrust into The Shadow of the Beakmen.
A religious festival in the nearby town of Saratoga is the spot your introductory level PCs have opted to begin their careers. With so many people coming to the festival the group anticipates finding information on adventures they can start their budding careers with. Action begins sooner than expected as the celebration is interrupted by a group of Stirges bothering some of the revelers and it quickly gets worse…
In a small hamlet, things are strangely becoming tidy in the night. Far from being pleased, the citizens are alarmed by these events. A local painter has gone missing, as has a travelling scholar. What is going on here?
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
As the story goes, worshipers of Bahamut and worshipers of Gruumsh spent years warring. As the dead piled up, a Bahamut faithful crafted a weapon of devastating power. Most of the inventor’s peers balked at its use, but some felt it was justified. Those few who used the weapon were twisted into mad, dark beings by its corrupting power. The rest of Bahamut’s flock locked them and the weapon away in a dungeon prison. The dungeon and its terrible secret were long forgotten—until a group of rakshasas happened across the ancient tale. Now they seek the weapon for their own designs. Pgs. 132-137
Deep beneath the surface of a lake flourishing with aquatic life is the Temple of Pure Water. Within its walls your players will encounter dangerous aquatic flora, a deadly submerged temple, a sea dragon statue with power lurking within, and even a rapid downhill boat ride with sharks. Water in small doses is an elixir of life, but it large enough quantities your players may be left in over their heads as they make their way through this underwater adventure.
In this small 20 page adventure module, centered around an archaeological dig, revisit Bull Creek and find out the secret behind what really lies in the hero Vertrixx Mazilaxx's sarcophagus. To do so, you'll have to meet up with master archaeologist Geranimus to delve deep into the ground. On the surface, politics boil and tensions between species are high. Below, secrets are to be uncovered. Can your party find the truth? Find out in Old Bones. Old Bones- a 5e SRD adventure for levels 4, 6 and 8. In James Grammaticus' Dungeon Short series, James explores fantasy worlds and settings in short bite-sized one or two shot adventures that be used on their own, can spring off into a larger campaign, or can be used as a side-adventure in a campaign.
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.
Beneath the moorlands of Thar, hidden from all for centuries, lies the Broken Halls of Goldahroud. It seems to have been inhabited until recently as the blood marks on the walls are only a few weeks old. What mysteries lie beyond the doorway from the Tomb of Kered? Fear of the markings have forced the SALT Consortium to turn again to hiring adventurers to face what horrors await them in the Broken Halls of Goldahroud.
In this town, nothing goes like clockwork. A voice in the darkness offered him power, with only one string attached: first he had to find some adventurers. A fiend and minions of the plane of fire have set up shop beneath a small town, and have been attracting evil minions to their lair! In this town of Jenkel, the religious leader (named Broderick) is secretly under the influence of the demon and has been doing her will out of his own greed for power. A tilted pyramid appeared in the town years ago, and is actually the tip of a tower buried in the town. The tower leads to a dungeon and a shrine where the party can fight off the demon and rid the town of the evil influence. Pgs. 18-31
The Terror of Screeching Hill is an adventure designed for a party of four level 1-3 characters. Introduce your friends to Dungeons & Dragons or take a break from your current campaign and save the town of Stonehollow in this early level one-shot! To the villagers of Stonehollow, the flight of bats warns of an impending disaster. Earthquakes, which riddle the small mining town, often follow this omen causing cave-ins and trapping miners underground. Thankfully, the ground hasn't shaken in weeks. However, every night at sunset, a colony of bats fly over the town as a haunting cry echoes over Screeching Hill, a mound on the southern outskirts of the village. Villagers have begun to go missing, including the town's doctors Simon and Kirk Bartok, and some have suffered terrible wounds after being attacked by a relentless creature out of the darkness. With no doctors to treat the wounded and the expectation of more attacks, the villagers of Stonehollow turn to you for help. Will you investigate the terror of Screeching Hill and save the town from its reoccurring nightmare? Included: - A 16 page one-shot designed for level 1-3 characters - Unique maps - Two player handouts - A simplified document compatible with screenreaders
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