To arms! To arms! The battle lines are drawn as desert men and inhuman tribes wait poised to strike on the fertile and rich lands of the east. The call has gone out through the civilized lands. The armies have been raised to match the invading foes from the west. Nobles and peasants have joined swords to greet the foes. But Fate or Chance has decreed another role for a small few. No glorious banners will wave on their march. No squadrons of knights will charge at their word. Instead, they will fight the war with stealth, secrecy, and cunning. The risks they will take are great, but the fates of both armies lie with them. It begins one night for your party far from the fighting. Suddenly you are entrusted with the most dangerous mission of the war. Can you cross the Sind Desert, occupied now by enemy armies, to find the Great Pass? Can you find the one known only as The Master? What will you do if you find him? So begins your adventure in The Master of the Desert Nomads, the first module of a two-part adventure that can be concluded in the exciting Temple of Death or played entirely on its own. Can your party do what must be done? TSR 9068
Centuries ago, the despotic Alphaks, ruler of Alphatia, was banished to another world. From his own sphere of entropy he learned to manipulate men, and now seeks revenge against the human race. The volatile region of Norworld, a perennial battleground between Thyatis and Alphaita, draws Alphaks's attention. The already existing frictions, small-time political players, and petty vengeances are the sparks Alphaks will use to ignite a huge war that will destroy man-kind. This is an adventure of politics and diplomacy, of treachery and treason. Only courageous and bold actions can save Norworld from the horrors of war and liberate its people from oppression. The Vengeance of Alphaks may be played as a sequel to module M1, Into the Maelstrom, or separately. The D&D Master Set Rules are necessary for running this game. TSR 9148
The land lies under a curse. Fruit drops to the ground, its pulp black and rotten. Leaves curl and wither on the branches. Animals flee the parched vale, or starve. Long ago, the Downs prospered under the care of Druids, but the priests of nature have retreated deep into the woods and rarely show themselves. One old man claims that the Druids have the power to save the valley, if only someone could find their Oracle to seek help. Will you reach the Forest Oracle of the Druids in time? And if you do, can they really lift the curse? Or does the answer lie elsewhere? Only the most daring and cunning adventurers will save the Downs. N2: "The Forest Oracle" (1984), by Carl Smith, is the second AD&D adventure in the novice (N-) series. Unlike its predecessor, it is not intended for 1st-level adventurers, but instead for 2nd level and up. This conversion guide allows DMs to run the original module with 5th Edition rules and provides a reference sheet for encounters. Also contains suggestions for placement in the Forgotten Realms. To use this conversion guide you will need a copy of The Forest Oracle, originally available in hard-copy and now for sale in Digital format on the DMs Guild. Visit Classicmodulestoday.com to find out how you can create your own classic module conversions and sell them on the DMs Guild.
When local farmer Jonas Cappa goes missing while hunting mushrooms and then reappears, hours later, naked and without any of his belongings, his wife goes to the party to investigate. Jonas claims to have fallen into a hole in the ground, but none can be found. What really happened to him and can it be stopped before things get worse? (Spoiler: they are probably going to get worse). A one-shot adventure for characters of levels 1-4 designed to be dropped into any campaign, inspired by the X-Files (but firmly D&D).
"Enter a garden of earthly delights. The sun has stopped setting over the king's favorite garden. It seemed like a harmless curiosity at first but the animals have turned violent and strange alien beings have appeared. The duke has placed a bounty for enterprising sell-swords to end the curse of endless daylight. Hideous Daylight is an adventure module for Old-School Essentials, Cairn, and compatible with other pen-and-paper RPGs with old-school sensibilities. Player characters will navigate a 20 point hex crawl to end the strange curse affecting the land. An adventure for low-level characters. 33 pages of non-linear, character driven adventure in the OSR tradition. Two keyed dungeons and a 20 point hex-crawl. A bucolic fantasy setting easily insertable into fantasy RPG campaigns. Dangerous new monsters, weird magic items, and an unpredictable random encounters table. Features two gazebos."
Mother Haggle is an elderly crone who runs a Lost & Found Emporium on the edge of the Misty Forest. The old lady pays her mercenaries well, and attracts all kinds of talent to send on her various errands. Mother Haggle doesn't deal in world shaking problems, but it's uncanny how often simple tasks like "fetch that cow" or "bring me a boggle" end in embarrassment, grievous injury or death. As she always says, it really can't be helped. Using the streamlined Plausible Complications and Unlikely Disasters layout, Mother Haggle's adventures are one-sheet wonders ready to pick up and play with groups of the specified level. Mother Haggle wants her cow back. It seems to get lost a lot, but she doesn't care how much she has to spend as long as her darling gets home safe. Included in Mother Haggles's Notice Board - The Missing Cow are six standalone bovine adventure seeds in which Mother Haggle's cow needs rescuing. She should really keep that cow in a better pen, or lock the gate or something, but who needs common sense when you have money and mercenaries?
As fledgling adventurers, your group is looking for anything to increase their fame and line their pockets with gold. Upon crossing the countryside your group comes to Creedo’s Trail a small thorp in the Duchy of Starryshade. Upon arrival in town you find an inn to stay indoors finally and a job opportunity hanging at the Bagel Inn purporting an “easy job” for a “big reward”. The poster is reputedly a crone or witch who has need for some components for an experiment she is currently working on. Easy job AND big reward…what’s not to like!
Bandits have kidnapped the eldest child of one of Timbertown’s prominent citizens, who is secretly being manipulated by shadowy forces. You are tasked to get her back. But there are questions. Is she his real daughter? Does she want to be found? Who is behind the kidnapping in the first place? If you bring Evi home alive, your rewards will be great, and your standing in the town will increase. But if you fail, or if the demon worshippers of the Fraternity of Tharos gain a further foothold for their secret society, Timbertown's future may be in jeopardy. This adventure can be played in any frontier campaign area, but is set in the author's home campaign setting of Timbertown, a barony in Impiltur, a kingdom on the Sea of Fallen Stars in the Forgotten Realms, also available from the Guild.
With survival being the hardest thing at low levels it’s important that PCs are careful and find help where they can. Xavier’s Wand offers a fledgling adventurer the opportunity to shine on their own and find a little help on the road as well. This adventure pits your new “hero” up against a bully and other challenges that will bolster a young adventurers experience and pockets! A thorp, humanoids, and potential henchman are some of the encounters in this adventure.
This morning, the forces of Law and Chaos clashed at Castle Yennagor. The battle raged all day, but as darkness fell, a cataclysmic explosion destroyed most of the castle and leveled both armies. Now, as night claims the vale, flickers of life return. Survivors make camp, flee the field, or continue the fight. Scavengers creep over the dead. And one question remains unanswered: what happened inside the castle? This is a dark sandbox adventure. Players take the role of battlefield survivors. They can choose which side they are on (or neither), and they can choose their goal, such as to escape the field with their lives, to plunder the dead, or to reach the castle and finish the mission. ADVENTURE TYPE: Mid Level / Combat / Diplomancy / Battlefield / War / Dark Fantasy / Factions DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for mid-level characters around Level 6-7 Players navigate a battlefield full of competing factions and gruesome situations 30 unique encounter locations 70+ original magic items 30+ original monsters One map and multiple illustrations Estimated play time: 1-4 sessions (4-16 hours)
A new, expanded, OSR-ised, prettified edition of Joseph R. Lewis’ Ragged Hollow Nightmare which was rated among The Best by Tenfootpole. Joseph Lewis hit a perfect balance between the classics of dungeonverse fantasy and the whimsy of the folk tales we love so much (as testified by our Folklore Bestiary. we released last year), adding a dash of dreamworld strangeness and a pinch of body horror to spice up his brew. We did our best to respect his recipe when adding our extra material (about 30 pages of it). We worked with Joe and Li-An (the perfect artist to give life to spooky Ragged Hollow and its strange surroundings) to make the best module we could: a solid introduction to old-school gaming for both players and gamemasters. And for the veterans among us, it also makes an excellent, full-fledged campaign starter. Nightmare over Ragged Hollow is a sandbox adventure centred around a quaint town at the edge of the kingdom. But however quiet life in Ragged Hollow is, the town lies between places where you shouldn’t be traveling alone. Places like Gloam Wood (“A witch or two lurk there!”), the Bleak Mountains (“I’m told there are bugbears…”) and their infamous Mount Mourn (“Home, they say, to cursed Dwarven ruins”), not to forget the Wailing Hills (“Bandits on every road!”). There’s even a haunted house by the river (“That mad inventor riddled it with traps!”). But only when an impenetrable dome of golden light materialises around the Temple of Halcyon (“Hey, my kids go to school there!”) do things really get out of hand. Some selfless heroes (or, failing that, a bunch of greedy ne’er-do-wells) should really get involved. One town with three adventure mini-sites Three small dungeons One 50-room dungeon Three hexes with 16 detailed locations Two groups of potential allies or rivals Sixteen pre-generated characters One deadly countdown! Written for the Old-School Essentials (OSE) rule system
For years the Verbeeg clan on Clover Island has lived peacefully with the human settlement of Corsair Bay. A peace treaty has remained in effect that both groups attested to and have lived by. Recently the annual tribute that is to be paid to the giants has not come and now the giants are preparing for battle. Can your party go and act as an envoy to the giants or will they choose to go to war against them?
The Lady in Blue, a mysterious figure of cosmic power, enlists a band of simple peasants for a strange task. They are to follow an invisible bridge until they arrive at a hole in the sky – and then jump through. Death awaits all but the bravest, strongest, and luckiest, but the Lady offers a reward beyond all the riches of the world: the chance to change the very stars these peasants were born under, and thus change their destiny.
Years ago the valley was green, and animals ran free through golden fields of grain. The princess Argenta ruled over this peaceful land and the people were secure and happy. Then one day a warrior riding a red dragon appeared in the skies over the princess’ castle and almost overnight the tiny kingdom fell into ruin. Now only ruins and rumors remain, and what legends there are tell of a fabulous ruby still buried somewhere within the Palace of the Silver Princess TSR 9044
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.
When adventurers are in the same area its nice to have a base of operations. The Village of Tomore rests between adventures pertaining to two different campaigns in the Filbar region. The quaint village has a caravan stop and will allow PCs to come into contact with a wide variety of personages and rumors for exploration. This area can be utilized as a base of operations near the areas of the FN or F series campaigns or just as a rest stop for the party.
Something fell. A sickly gloaming lit up the night like mock daylight, just for a moment, and then the hills trembled. Now, an alien entity lies brooding in a crater gouged out of the moor. Local folk are enraptured with the toothsome jelly exuded by this being, but are blind to the true nature of the events unfolding in their rustic little backwater.
Something strange lurks within the stony confines of an abandoned wizard’s tower. The sole surviving member of a forlorn adventuring party is desperate to find out what happened to his friends and is willing to provide a generous reward to anybody willing to launch a second expedition. Will the heroes uncover the secrets of the tower, or will they also disappear into the darkness?
A long, perilous ocean journey behind them, the crew of the Sea Wyvern finds itself shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread. Their destination lies well over 150 miles to the south, miles heavy with the threat of the island's terrible inhabitants. Yet the unknown enemies are far more sinister, for more than just dinosaurs hunt the vast jungles. Before long, a cunning fiend picks up their trail, and its duplicitous master demands their sacrifice. "Here There Be Monsters" is the fourth chapter of the Savage Tide Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon's monthly "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #352 of Dragon explores the Isle of Dread in detail, providing a complete ecology of the island and the writing of Larissa Vanderboren. This article can be used as a player handout to represent the journals the group recovered from the Vanderboren family vault in the first adventure in the Campaign. Shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread! Faced with a dangerous journey, the PCs must escort a ragged band of castaways through monster-infested wildlands in order to reach the safety promised by the colony of Farshore on the isle’s southern tip. Pgs. 32-60
Barbarian forces are handing out trouble to the combined forces of the Inydo Federation and your assistance has been requested! You have been told that the aggressive forces are being bolstered by a rumored, powerful wizard. The general of the military has asked you to skirt around the major engagement areas and attempt to locate and capture/kill the troublesome wizard. A major windfall will be given to the PCs as Xalo Mendas, leader of Helvana is known to add treasure to agreements if handled “effectively”.