This short adventure can be used to give a 5th level PC an experience point boost, if they have fallen behind. As the name suggests, it takes place in a swamp, where a group of Lizardmen are terrorizing the local farms. Unbeknownst to the farmers, a far larger threat exists in the swamp…
Nestled on the coast of the Azure Sea is Saltmarsh, a sleepy fishing village that sits on the precipice of destruction. Smugglers guide their ships to hidden coves, willing to slit the throat of anyone foolhardy enough to cross their path. Cruel sahuagin gather beneath the waves, plotting to sweep away coastal cities. Drowned sailors stir to unnatural life, animated by dark magic and sent forth in search of revenge. The cult of a forbidden god extends its reach outward from a decaying port, hungry for fresh victims and willing recruits. While Saltmarsh slumbers, the evils that seek to plunder it grow stronger. Heroes must arise to keep the waves safe! Ghosts of Saltmarsh combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic ‘U’ series and some of the best nautical adventures from Dungeon magazine: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh Danger at Dunwater The Final Enemy Salvage Operation Isle of the Abbey Tammeraut’s Fate The Styes All adventures have been faithfully adapted to the fifth edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons. Furthermore, this book includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh, as well as plenty of hooks to kick-off each adventure. Play through each story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, or pull out sections to place in ongoing campaigns in any setting. The appendices also cover mechanics for ship-to-ship combat, new magic items, monsters, and more! “The Saltmarsh series consistently ranks as one of the most popular classic D&D adventures,” said Mike Mearls, franchise creative director of D&D. “With its ties to ocean-based adventuring, it was an obvious step to augment it with additional sea-based adventures and a robust set of rules for managing a nautical campaign.” Hoist your sails, pull up anchor, and set a course for adventure!
This adventure is about fighting monsters and being heroic. It’s also about discovering hidden and forgotten secrets, and then using those secrets later to the heroes’ advantage. The heroes will fight lizardfolk and hawklords, undead and basilisks, and some strange and malevolent creatures from a plane beyond Orden. The heroes will have the opportunity for a handful of negotiations which can be hugely influenced by piecing together secret information uncovered earlier in the adventure. Combat encounters in the adventure are built to generally take at least 3 rounds, sometimes more - they can be complex! The heroes will be expected to spin multiple plates at the same time! The adventure reward an average of 12, but as many as 20 Victories. Depending on your experience running and your table’s experience playing Draw Steel, how many side objectives the heroes follow, as well as a bunch of other factors, it could run around 20 to 32 hours of playtime. In the Tullow Vale of Vasloria, a centuries old town is built around a weathered statue said to seal away an ancient evil. Ajax's Hawklords bombard and lay waste to the town, stealing the statue, and in the chaos, the pitiless Deatheye Yslansh and her lizardfolk minions abduct the citizens! Can you save the people of Ivywatch before they are put to the Deatheye's fell purpose? And what or who exactly have the Hawklords unsealed? This adventure is about fighting monsters and being heroic. It’s also about discovering hidden and forgotten secrets, and then using those secrets later to the heroes’ advantage. The heroes will fight lizardfolk and hawklords, ogres and basilisks, and some strange and malevolent creatures from a plane beyond Orden. The heroes will have the opportunity for a handful of negotiations which can be hugely influenced by piecing together secret information uncovered earlier in the adventure. Combat encounters in the adventure are built to generally take at least 3 rounds, sometimes more - they can be complex! The heroes will be expected to spin multiple plates at the same time! The adventure will reward an average of 8 to 18 Victories. Depending on your experience running and your table’s experience playing Draw Steel, how many side objectives the heroes follow, as well as a bunch of other factors, it could run around 20 to 32 hours of playtime. The adventure contains: - 12+ combat scenes, including a boss battle. Most combats have objectives beyond just “kill everything” - 2-3 montage tests - 1 small, safe location to take respites in, full of NPCs with opinions - 1 big, complex, puzzle-y negotiation - 10 new custom treasures and titles, and other player rewards - A brief setting primer to Tullow Vale
Chapter 2: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh In this version of the adventure, the characters find navigational charts and logs aboard the Sea Ghost that implicate its crew as slavers. Ned Shakeshaft is a Scarlet Brotherhood agent. He makes an attempt to foil the characters, but his true intent is to surrender and implicate Gellan Primewater as a key villain. The distraction afforded by the lizardfolk and the looming sahuagin threat gives the Scarlet Brotherhood the opportunity to bring more agents into town. posing as mercenaries brought in by Anders to protect the town. If Gellan can be removed from the council, Solmor might ask one of the characters to take his place.
With a bit of experience under your belts, you roll into the small town of Windomere with the hopes of catching a ferry to the larger community of Sepopolis. Your initial greeting lacked a warm glow and you quickly discover why. Apparently a river pirate with the moniker of ‘Slippery Peat’ and his cronies have been causing quite a stir in the area. You have a bit of a layover…ready to do the region a favor?
Corruption grows in what used to be the Dayawlongon archipelago's most sacred island. When a wanted fugitive flees to the blighted holy land, the player characters are asked to chase after and apprehend the renegade. As the adventure unfolds, it soon becomes apparent that the roots of corruption run deep. This can be run as a standalone adventure or as a sequel to the Between Tangled Roots adventure from Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. What's included? 1 infectious adventure divided into single-page sections for easy running 2 fully-colored maps with unlabeled versions for players (made with assets from 2-minute Tabletop) 3 new creature statblocks with clickable links for quick access 4+ ending variations based on what the player characters do throughout the adventure Content Warnings: Abduction, betrayal, corruption, death, disease, mental manipulation, violence
After enjoying a bit of free time in Cullifield while some members of your party finish their training, you hear word of a quick trip out to sea. Further investigation leads you to understand a certain list needs fulfilled and a drunken sea captain is willing to split the profits. Well, no need to sit around on your hands…let’s hit the waves!
Wednesday's child... It's a blessed event only if you can end the curse in time. People have been disappearing form the town of Monetenapoleone and a swamp has appeared blocking the towns trade route. It is up to the players to find what is causing all of these strange events and to stop it. Pgs. 32-49
The yuan-ti anathema, Hessatali, calls out to his yuan-ti faithful from his prison in the Abyss. His network of vipers has uncovered the ruins of ancient Ss’tatha’lass and the Fane of Hessatali, a fountain of pure venom that will return the demi-god to life. Above the buried ruins of Ss’tatha’lass, yuan-ti agents have moved to control the politics of Scornubel. The characters fall into a complex yuan-ti plot that spans the breadth of the realm, pits the heroes against the forces of the Abyss, and explores the culture of the yuan-ti.
For as long as men remember, the Lord of Evil Amphibians carried out unspeakable rites in his squatting temples situated far from civilization. Tales of human sacrifice, squirming servants, and rich but loathsome treasures were whispered of his followers. Now, unexpectedly, his servants have seemingly vanished, leaving behind their fanes to molder in the marshes. A brave band of adventurers gathers to explore one such tabernacle, eager to discover what riches—and terrors—the Lord of Evil Amphibians has left behind…
A venom maw hydra lair suitable for four or five 10th-level characters. The Red Craw Marsh, so called because of the delicious and plentiful red crayfish that live in the area, is a boon to the nearby village. More than a few intrepid souls brave the swamp each season to collect the crayfish. They either sell the crayfish to local establishments or ship them to nearby cities, where they earn a good price as the crayfish is a delicacy among the wealthy. The villagers have established a tentative peace with a clan of trollkin that inhabit the swamp. The crayfish collectors pay a small fee to the trollkin, who allow them to ply their trade in the marsh without (much) interference. It is a tense but profitable relationship for all involved. A powerful creature has moved into the marsh, however, threatening the delicate balance. When a venom maw hydra decided to move to the area of the marsh between the human and trollkin villages, it brought along a number of creatures that worship and serve it. This hydra and its allies have killed some of the crayfish hunters and some of the trollkin. Each side, unfortunately, believes that the other has broken the truce, thus stirring up animosity and putting both groups on the verge of war.
"Terror by night! The village of Orlane is dying. Once a small and thriving community, Orlane has become a maze of locked doors and frightened faces. Strangers are shunned, trade has withered. Rumors flourish, growing wilder with each retelling. Terrified peasants flee their homes, abandoning their farms with no explanation. Others simply disappear. . . No one seems to know the cause of the decay -- why are there no clues? Who skulks through the twisted shadows of the night? Who or what is behind the doom that has overtaken the village? It will take a brave and skillful band of adventurers to solve the dark riddle of Orlane!" TSR 9063
Numb Island sits in the north seas and is home to Miles Away a struggling settlement with a variety of problems. This adventure setting has a variety of different side adventures that can be used in a continuing campaign or as individual scenarios. Each of the scenario has a level recommendation so that you, the DM, can pick and choose what the party may be ready for and what adventures are better to pass over. In the Filbar campaign the adventurers found themselves on Numb Island several times during their adventuring career and were not strangers in Miles Away!
Goblin attacks have always plagued the farmers and merchants who live and travel along the roads leading to Whitesparrow. But a recent rash of new attacks are something different. The goblins of one particular tribe have gotten particularly smart, attacking with careful tactics and cunning ambushes. The village guards haven’t been able to outwit the goblins, even when laying traps of their own and hiring mercenaries to stop them. Even as goblins go, Rosethorn isn’t much to look at. He’s small and runty, and yet a lucky break placed him in charge of the Brownleaf goblin tribe. When he claimed a powerful magic relic from a dead wizard three months ago, Rosethorn found his intellect multiplied many times over. The world began to make a more intricate kind of sense to him, and he saw patterns in the ways other folk traveled the roads. After hiring a spy in Whitesparrow to tell him which wagons to pursue, Rosethorn cunningly bribed the wagons’ guards to throw battles in the goblins’ favor. He then moved the lair of the Brownleaf tribe away from their dank caves and into the ruins of the Bearded Man—an enormous dead tree at the center of the Howling Wood. There, Rosethorn continues his campaign of ambush against the foolish villagers, increasing his wealth and power with each robbery.
There is a witch in the wilds, a goddess unremembered, and a madman. There is a circle of stone - who knows what lies beneath? The villagers are distraught: their children! replaced by fae! The villagers are distraught: who heeded their plea? Ravenous inquisitors, that's who. Oh, and adventurers... This investigative folkcrawl adventure module contains: * an isolated village full of secrets, riddled with strange traditions, * adventure sites and dungeons populated by peculiar denizens, * a small Fae Realm to explore, weird and perilous, * a terrible fae threat and too many curses, * unlikely friends, and foes nobody expects! An OSR adventure module for character levels 3-4, designed for use with the Old-School Essentials ruleset, compatible with most old-school pen-and-paper RPGs. Includes a fully-linked interactive PDF, a fillable Referee's Toolkit, and player-friendly VTT maps.
A search for the ghostly dragon of the Deadwaters. The sage's deal is simple: The more you learn about the dragon, the richer you get. In this adventure, the bard Rondelle offers players rewards for learning all they can about a mysterious dragon that has been sighted in the area. Pgs. 22-38
Beneath our feet is the mythological hollow world – a realm of dense jungles, putrid swamps and rugged mountains. Here a brave party will struggle for survival as they seek to fathom the unseen expanse and to prevent a once defeated god to rise again. ‘Journey to the Inside Out’ can be played as a stand-alone scenario or be used as the first installment in a trilogy of connected adventure modules each taking place in a different era. The scenario can be used with Swords & Wizardry or any other early variant of game rules. Inside you will find: • A 40+ page old-school module with a layout optimized for fast and easy interfacing. • A challenging lost world setting with the possibility to toggle the complexity. • Alternative suggestions for entry to the hollow inside. • Downloadable maps for both players and the Referee. • Story-points for a guided scenario and tables for sandbox and hexcrawl-style play. • Advice for an ongoing campaign. • Locations allowing the PCs to travel to another era within the setting. • Unique new creatures. Published by CTM Publishing.
The Approaching Swarm is a short adventure for four 9th-level characters. The party can consist of any mix of classes, but it should include at least one character that is good in wilderness settings, such as a druid, ranger, or barbarian, and at least one cleric. This scenario should prove a reasonable challenge for characters from 8th to 10th level. The adventure takes place in a swampland that is near a small settlement. The adventurers have located the secret lair of Aleretheral, an insane half-orc druid with mastery over vermin. He has been breeding and training monstrous vermin to defend his territory. With the adventurers invading his home, he will do anything he can to protect it.
This setting is a collective of different area encounters for several different character levels. While this land was a frequently traveled area for the adventurers it was used for a variety of challenges. While not every challenge is met for every level it is up to the PCs to decide if they are up for the challenge they discover. Of course you can always ‘discourage’ or hide some encounters from the party. It can also be used in an area frequented by the PC party that can offer an increased challenge with each visit they make.
Up the river "Just sit right back, and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip..." Pgs. 58-67