In this prelude to the full Princes of the Apocalypse campaign book, adventurers face off against the influence of Elemental Cultists in the hills and canyons of the Dessarin Valley. The four mini-adventures within are only tangentially related to each-other, and instead serve as starting points and hooks for the plots of the complete Princes of the Apocalypse Campaign. Players start in the well-described town of Red Larch; first investigating a local necromancer, then uncovering cult influences within the town, and finally heading off to infiltrate or do battle with two small elemental cultist strongholds. All parts of this adventure can serve as great places to seed hooks for other campaigns.

The Feystone Shards is an adventure for characters from levels 5-8, optimized for 4-6 player characters. This moderate length campaign should have 20+ hours of gaming, all focused around the Forgotten realms area of Red Larch. The Heroes are tasked to find five fragments of a shattered Orb, once worshipped by a faction of Elves. The search will take the party to a haunted Citadel, as they seek the scattered remnants of the Feystone. From a city of Stone Golems, to an alchemist's underground lair - the players will face obstacles and enemies that will challenge their very resolve. The Heroes will need to discover the secrets of the bauble's fey magic, finding the lost Elvin city where the Orb was once worshiped as a God. Join in the hunt for the Feystone Shards, and see if your characters are ready to transcend common Heroes...and become Legends.

Alton Lightheart, a lhalfling thief, went looking for a magic sword at the Storm-Sun Cliff. He & his two comrades were ambushed by a dusk (collective term) of malign shadows. He was knocked out and nearly killed. Before the shadows could consume Alton, a giant owl pair chased them away. Later, he awoke badly injured, not knowing his allies’ fate (they became shadows). Shaken, Alton saw he no longer cast a shadow! Disturbed, he fled to the village of Croy. Alton’s freed shadow, Kra, and its dusk now stalk him, longing to devour him in the dim light. This chapter starts in Croy. As the PCs arrive, an exhausted Alton sits in the Dragon’s Claw Tavern, back to the wall, skittishly watching. He ask PCs for help to face these terrifying monsters before his essence fades away. Published by Wicked Cool Games

An alternative way for the Directors to start their new Draw Steel campaign. Fight off the goblin bandits, survive the ravenous undead, and lift the curse from the town of Sour Falls. This short first-level adventure provides you with two possible combat encounters, a montage test, and a negotiation. From the Ashes is a short 3–4 hour adventure for Draw Steel, written for a group of three to six 1st-level heroes and the Director. This free adventure is an alternative way for experienced Directors to start a campaign. The adventure provides you with two possible combats, a montage test, and a negotiation. By the end of From the Ashes the heroes restore an abandoned town, gaining a base of operations that could lead them to future adventures.

Meet the Trollkin… And Drive Them Into the Sea! The trollkin and their shaman have come to a village by the sea, stormed its walls, and taken all the villagers as slaves and property. They have eaten their way through the saltfish, devoured the herd of sheep, and might be planning to eat the PCs next. Then, one escaped villager begs strangers on the road for help… And gives them the chance to shine as true heroes striking down raiders of pure evil. The Raven’s Call is an adventure for 3rd level characters that brings mythic power and a true rescue story for 5th Edition, and introduces locales and NPCs that players will never forget. It offers new monsters and new magic in the unique style of Wolfgang Baur, one of the leading RPG adventure designers.

Deep in the wooded wilderness, the village of Grimmsgate is an outpost town on a seldom-traveled trail, right at the edge of nowhere. The village’s half-ruined temple of Law, dilapidated inn, drunken blacksmith, exiled trader and a few fur-trappers are enough to keep the bloody-minded denizens of the dark forest at bay, but nobody really expects the village to still be there in another ten years. The woods have become too dangerous for the trappers who once caught animals for fur, and merchants no longer travel the poorly-maintained road. What great evil and what fabulous treasures are to be found in these lands? A brave band of adventurers might make their fortunes here. Or perhaps they might never return… Grimmsgate is an introductory adventure for the Swords & Wizardry tabletop roleplaying game. The Swords & Wizardry rules are needed to play this adventure.

Mystery of the Nightmare Venom is the second adventure in the Nightmare Venom campaign for the prehistoric D&D Planegea campaign setting. It is designed for four to five 2nd-level characters using the D&D 2014 ruleset. In the first campaign adventure, Venom Attack!, the PCs encountered an envenomed spider-raptor sent by the Spiderfolk Queen to attack Edgegather, while a minion of a green hag sought to collect a sample of the venom. In Mystery of the Nightmare Venom, the PCs begin to investigate this strange magical poison at the behest of the Venom Guard: A vengeful green hag seeks to corrupt the inhabitants of Edgegather. Can the PCs stop her before her poison brings the settlement to its knees? The goblins of the Unfalls may have useful information but the PCs must first retrieve a lost relic from the spiderfolk of the Venom Abyss before they can ask their questions. The PCs investigate a vast and ancient temple beneath Edgegather where the mysterious Veiled Goddess can point them towards the Oracle of Seerfall. Mystery of the Nightmare Venom contains five new monsters (the envenomed chattercrest, the envenomed Venom Guard, the cauldronborn, the Glassback spiderfolk, and the faithful remnant) and two new magic items, the bloodtallow candle and the obsidian centipede.

Far out in the void, an ancient city of vampires endures. Welcome to Araveshti, a city of a thousand towers floating safely in the shadow of the world, glittering with starlight, thrumming with ancient magics, and crawling with vicious immortals. Will you seek to destroy these bloodthirsty aristocrats? Or will you help them pursue their bizarre alchemical experiments in immortality? Or will you simply seek a way to escape their twisted and crumbling paradise? Within these ancient towers, adventurers will find vampire lords and servants, zealots and goliaths, as well as werewolves, mycotic zombies, victims of strange experimentation, fanatical holy knights, tragic vampire hunters in black, shipwrecked dreamers, castaway aliens, metal angels, eldritch horrors, star dragons, and (of course) the vampires' giant dragon-killing mecha suit... This is a dark sandbox. Players will explore a vast city of undead people and monsters in outer space, full of homages to classic horror and science fiction films and literature. ADVENTURE TYPE: Mid Level / Combat / Exploration / Dark Fantasy / Fantasy City / Gothic Horror DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for mid-level characters around Level 5-10 Players explore a large vampire city in space, encounter numerous NPCs and monsters, and engage with diverse factions to destroy, conquer, or escape from the city 40+ unique encounter locations, plus countless randomly generated locations 100+ original magic items 40+ original monsters One city map Estimated play time: 1-8 sessions (4-32 hours)

A peaceful isolated village has hosted its share of superstitions, but something real is poised to plague the citizens of the community. Can heroes rise to prevent the destruction of the village? What drives some to leave the safety of their communities and start along the path of adventure. Maybe it is something in their background that compels them; maybe it is the lure of treasure; maybe it is just a curious map. It is the first episode in the Drow Conspiracy. Published by Dan Hass Endeavors.

The town of Innisfall lives in the shadow of dragons, but has managed to broker a peace with them through the years and avoided outright destruction. Now, a dragon has been murdered and the visiting party of adventurers is accused of perpetrating the deed. Can our heroes prove their innocence and restore the uneasy truce the town has lived under for generations?…

Igor's Challenge is a 3-4 hour, non-lethal, funhouse style dungeon. It is a self-contained adventure that should fit into any campaign or serve as a one-shot adventure for any group. The adventure can fit a party of any level and size with only minor adjustments. Igor is an eccentric gnome inventor and retired adventurer renowned around the world. He has sent out invitations to adventuring groups to come compete for his latest, greatest invention. The competition will take place a few days hence in the village of Penthill and consist of a race through his specially created challenge-dungeon. Igor's Challenge includes a unique magic item, a small village with locations and NPCs, an encounter and story with a legendary NPC (stat bloc provided), and a 33 room dungeon of traps, tricks, and puzzles.

Outside Briar Glen lies a dangerous swamp, and deep within it runs the Weeping River. Those who venture too far into the swampland near the river are overcome with grief and cry until their tears turn to blood. If they’re lucky, they die quickly. Lately, however, women in town disappear into the swamp near the Weeping River at night... and return in the morning, entranced but unscathed. Their families want to know why they return at sunrise with no memory of the previous night. These women found themselves a friend in the boo-hag, angry at the townsfolk for damaging her swamp. She initiated the women into her coven and tasked them to drain the life energy from their families to help the boo-hag heal the swamp.

A beloved priest has gone missing, and sinister trouble stirs beneath the Church of St. Terragnis. Can the heroes rescue the victims of an age-old evil before it claims more innocent lives?

The ancestral swords of a powerful lord have been stolen! In the dark of night, on the eve of battle, a shadowy figure crept into Lord Kunemura's chamber and made off with the most potent symbols of his power and lineage. Worse, Lord Kunemura had declared war on his old enemy, Lord Shotokami. The imminent battle will be decisive, and the future of Lord Kunemura's lands and family hang in the balance.

The adventure takes players from a town devastated by an unexpected flood, through a drowned land where nature is turned upside down and desperate families cling to the roofs of their ruined homes, hiding from the monstrous products of a disordered world, through the strange tomb of an ancient race, to a profundal zone, hidden for millennia and now exposed, and finally to the Observatory itself, an eerie abandoned treasure palace, where they will encounter a pale and unexpected terror which will seek to claim their lives. The adventure is suitable for a lucky mid-range party, a stupid high-level party or an exceedingly clever low level party. It is difficult, with a meaningful possibility of character death. Should you find them, and defeat their guardians, the treasures of an ancient culture will be yours. At the final point of the Observatory is a glimpse of another world. Published by False Machine Publishing

Demonheart is a D20 adventure campaign for 4-5 characters. As it is a long and fairly involved story, characters should be level 6-8 when they begin and will earn enough experience to rise to levels 10-12. Demonheart includes many opportunities for both combat and roleplaying. At least one fighter-type is required, and given the wild, frontier nature of the campaign, a ranger’s skills would be especially useful. Stealth and intrigue also favor rogue characters, while a cleric, particularly from a martial order who can fight well would find plenty of opportunity to use his or her powers against the undead and evil outsiders. Demonheart also takes place in a wilderness setting where ancient magic abounds, and the special nature skills of a druid will help the party to make friends with some of the land’s fey or wild elvish inhabitants. Sorcerers and wizards will likewise find use for their talents, but those who understand divine or druidic magic may be more important than arcanists. As this adventure involves the struggle against evil, both ancient and resurgent, the party’s overall alignment should be good, though individuals of other alignments may be tempted to use the ancient magic of the forest for their own ends, or even join with the forces of evil!

Times are hard in the Hillsfar countryside, especially for those of non-human ancestry. Unscrupulous merchants in league with the hated Red Plumes bleed local farmers and artisans dry. Perhaps some of those loot-laden caravans coming and going from Hillsfar could use a bit of liberation? A four-hour adventure for 1st-4th level characters.

A series of short encounters and story hooks that may cause your party to question the safety of their local tavern… Designed for characters of all levels

Set in the Plains of Dorack the large, frontier town of Bixatel offers an oasis in the land of the Plains people. This community offers a safe haven for all travelers including multiple tribe members as long as they maintain the peace. The residents of Bixatel have decreed that the town itself is a neutral location and no tribal hostilities are permitted within the town walls. This town rests between between the Imperial Realm and the bulk of the plains.

The village of Bad an Fithich is besieged by a monster and the villagers offer a reward for its head. Thus far none have succeeded, but the tales tell only of a large wolf, which seems like an easy bounty. The party’s first night in the village is marked by the cry of a banshee proclaiming their inevitable doom, but if they listen closely they may hear another story. Pgs. 119-127