Many years ago a brutal bugbear chieftain united the goblinoid tribes of the Meirlara Forest and nearly wiped out all traces of the elves there within. A stroke of chance fate turned the tide and the dreaded bugbear warlord Spragnokk was defeated. His loyal kin hid his body away in a sealed chamber and then the world forgot about Spragnokk... until now. Now his bloodline continues, and they have plans to resurrect their fallen "great chieftain," to bring ruin and revenge upon the elves that handed them defeat decades past. The goblinoid tribes have once more been gathered, and their bloody revenge is imminent, except fate has yet once more placed new champions to stand in their way. They just don't realize it yet.

Her Infernal Majestrix Queen Abrogail II of Cheliax summons her agents to the city of Egorian to address the current crisis with the Glorious Reclamation. Upon arriving in the bustling capital, the adventurers find themselves swept up in the cutthroat politics of the imperial court. To impress the queen and secure a royal audience, the wicked characters must scour the City of Thorns to root out and eradicate a secret organization that works to free halfling slaves. But to truly earn Queen Abrogail's trust, the adventurers must perform a sacrifice for the queen to renew House Thrune's contract with Hell, and there are many—both within the court and without—who wish to see the monarch dethroned.

The lizard men are just pining for the fjords. A plague of locusts is bad enough, but when the locusts are each a yard long, the farmers need professional help! A swarm of giant locusts has been eating all the grapes and leaves from the vineyards of Vineyard Vale! In addition, lizard folk have attacked and destroyed several steads in the vale. The farmers are desperate, but what they don't know is that these events are linked! A mage known as Rhungold the Trickster has been orchestrating the attacks and locusts to try to scare the farmers off the land so he can claim it as his own. The players slowly piece the story together by investigating a fairly linear story through a cave, a marsh, and finally to a compound owned by the wizard Rhungold. Pgs. 6-16

You return to the peculiar village of Basht for one of their unusual festivals: the procession of the Straw Bears. While there, you meet some old friends and are asked to escort the brave villagers into the woods to continue the party into the night. It should be perfectly safe, shouldn’t it? A Two to Four-Hour Adventure for Tier 1 Characters. Optimized for APL 3. The Straw Bears originally debuted at U-Con on November 2020. (https://www.ucon-gaming.org/)

It’s said that “Two’s company, three’s a crowd”, but what happens to those who make their living from adventuring if work begins to dry up and their only rivals are doing a better job than they are? Even heroes have to eat, so when their source of income is taken by others, they have to make some tough decisions. But if those around you don’t much care for you any more, what then; surely those tough decisions are easier to make? From being the stars of the show to last on the bill, the PCs find themselves caught up in skulduggery at every turn and having to decide just who is on their side. Friend becomes foe and those the PCs have counted as rivals may suddenly be their best allies. And in all of this confusion an exiled dwarf challenges their true loyalties; which way will the PCs turn?

Ever wanted to face the cold, dark, and dangerous unknown without the advantages of a fantasy hero? This is your chance! Fifth Edition Funnel puts a spin on character creation. In the Funnel, each participating player quickly generates several 0-level characters blessed with the abilities and low survivability of your average commoner. Those that survive will be promoted to 1st-level heroines and heroes. The Funnel bonds characters over common challenges they meet and (hopefully) overcome. The surviving 1st-level characters share a common origin as adventurers. Instead of merely rolling dice, there is a trial by fire where average people succeed against the odds to do something heroic (or hide under a table in a tavern).

The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path continues! A sudden string of brutal killings terrorizes the town of Sandpoint, and the killer's mark bears a familiar shape. Investigation leads to the Lost Coast's most notorious haunted mansion, a dilapidated ruin that has become the lair of a monstrous murderer. Yet this killer is but one of many, a member of a group of fanatic cutthroats calling themselves the Skinsaw Men. To defeat the cult, the PCs must travel to the bustling city of Magnimar to unravel the sinister source of these murders before they become the Skinsaw Men's next victims!

The story takes place in a village in Ravenloft. The party has been invited to accompany the young couple Burgomaster Alexandru and Mihaela Nichitovich [ni-KEE-toh-vich] of the hamlet of Nichitovia [ni-kee-TOH-vee-uh] to Rosenwald, a deeply religious community. Alexandru has asked the priests of Rosenwald to conduct a traditional ritual to gain him the favor of the Morninglord for his tenure as burgomaster. This is a ritual all burgomasters traditionally receive, including his late grandfather, who is entombed at Rosenwald. Father Petre and Sister Elena of the church of the Morninglord loosely run Rosenwald. They offered to throw Alexandru a banquet at the House of the Morninglord before the ritual, set to take place during the next full moon. However, all of the clergy have secretly become afflicted with the aswang curse. Father Petre is a halimaw and Sister Elena a kubot, both of whom gained their powers through dark pacts with demon lords of the Abyss. The other priests and acolytes are busos, survivors of encounters with roaming tigbanuas, who found sanctuary with Petre and Elena. The pair refer to these busos as their flock, and plan to feast on the guests after the banquet.

This book goes over the various rules around the faction of the Order of the Gauntlet 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. In the adventure, the characters are tasked with exploring the depths of the Old Owl Well.

If you're looking for a light-hearted adventure, you've come to the right place. Can a wizard and her beloved chef live a quiet life of baking and brewing, or is trouble destined to enter their innocent kitchen? It's up to the player characters to see what these two have cooked up before things get too hot to handle (without potholders, anyhow). Game designer Andy Collins offers the latest in our series of monthly free adventures. This original Dungeons & Dragons scenario, including full description and stats for a crusty new culinary creature, is suitable for a party of four characters of 2nd level. Adventure Preview When Andolyn met Gendrew, it seemed a match made in heaven. Andolyn was a skilled wizard with a love of a good meal, looking for an excuse to settle down from adventuring, while Gendrew was a master chef looking to create new methods of cooking. Together, they took up a quiet life of baking and brewing, content to live in a small cottage on the outskirts of town. But now one of their experiments has gone horribly wrong, and the characters must save poor Gendrew from his own delicious concoction, while defending themselves from the inhabitants of the cottage, and one unwelcome invader.

Everyone in the city eagerly anticipates The Arena's opening at the end of every month. This month, an unexpected change to the lineup just days before is rife with rumours! The most feared and respected gladiator in history, Imhullu, the Dragon of Marduk, has issued a challenge to an unknown rival—a fight to the death on charges of heresy. Rumours of insults and slander are spreading throughout the Great Market, though the truth remains inscrutable. The crowds gathered outside The Arena are beyond belief; people must have come from every dimension. Gaining entrance to The Arena is going to be next to impossible. Also, you don't have a ticket! Fortunately for you, you haven't spent your youth in a particularly productive manner! Centred around a gigantic arena full of gladiators, your adventurers must brave the depths of The Pits evading and fighting strange, horrifying creatures, in order to gain entrance. Once inside, they must hold strong against social and political pressures in the hopes of finding a seat in time to watch the main event! But have they gotten themselves caught up in secrets best left alone? There’s only one way to find out!

Tyrrattizi's Prison is a D&D 5e adventure, written for a party of 2nd-level characters. A recently unearthed temple found in the swamp has attracted the attention of a local Bullywug Shaman who seeks to free an evil trapped within. This adventure may be dropped in any campaign, or run as a one-shot.

The path to save Korvosa leads far beyond the ravaged city’s walls. In the burning plains of the Cinderlands the tenacious tribes of the Shoanti barbarians protect an ancient secret that might be the only way to save the Jewel of Varisia from ruin, but Korvosa has been their enemy too long for the proud natives to give up their knowledge freely. Only by learning the ways of the barbarians and facing their sacred trials can the PCs hope to save their city, but are the savage warriors’ ordeals impossible? Especially when the PCs already have angry natives, evil priests, and deadly assassins hot on their trail? This volume of Pathfinder includes: ► “A History of Ashes,” an adventure for 10th-level characters, by Michael Kortes. ► An exploration of the Cinderlands, a scorched wasteland where nature is as deadly as the monsters that stalk its blistered ground, by Jacob Frazier. ► Learn the trials and traditions of the Shoanti, Varisia’s fierce barbarian natives, by Eric L. Boyd and Michael Kortes. ► Eando Kline finds himself caught in the middle of an all-out orc war in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Richard Pett. ► Five new monsters by Michael Kortes and J.D. Wiker.

This is the second episode of The Black Tower, designed for use with Rolemaster or AD&D. The first part of the scenario appeared in issue 1 of ADVENTURER.

"Temple of the Deep Ones" is the lair of a group of deep ones and their god, suitable for four or five 7th-level characters. This adventure can be finished in one session. Ship captains report that a mysterious island has surfaced in the middle of a heavily trafficked trade route. Worse, ships that venture too close to the island are assaulted by a terrible creature and its servants. The island is disrupting trade throughout this part of the world, and several ships have already been lost. Unbeknownst to those that know of the place, the island rises at the will of Shar-Ngolyeth, a long-lost deity also known as That Which Lurks Beneath the Waves. The island is populated by a cult of deep ones and the beasts they have subjugated in the name of their dark god. The creature responsible for sinking ships is an aspect of Shar-Ngolyeth, a kraken. It is not meant for combat encounters; it's largely a plot device in this encounter.

This introductory level scenario brings a new group of players into an area formerly controlled by the Tunnmaa Dynasty. This group of rulers was rich in gold and gems before collapsing. It is well known that their kings, known as Ga Mantse, were buried in underground barrows that are well hidden and protected by traps. A few days ago a group much like your own found one of these hidden tombs and attempted to investigate. Sadly for them they were not up to the task. Can your party succeed where they failed?

Blinsky's Toyshop is our take on what happens to Blinsky and Piccolo during, or after the Curse of Strahd campaign. Blinsky, the toymaker in Vallaki with the cute monkey wearing a pink tutu, received a large inheritance from a long-time client. The client, Obtavius Swat, a retired adventurer and avid collector of toys, left his entire estate to Blinsky. The estate included coin, precious gems, art, and his collection of toys, some made by Blinsky and others he acquired during his travels. Blinsky used the fortune to pay a wizard to create a small island in the middle of Lake Zarovich, located just outside of Vallaki. He then paid masons and workers to build a fantastic new toyshop, which he designed to be an experience for both the young and old alike. Though the number of children in Barovia was increasing, mostly imparted to the devil Strahd’s downfall, Blinsky wanted to touch the inner child of the adults in the city. He wanted happiness. He wanted smiles. He named the castle Blinsky’s Toyshop of Marvels. One of the toys, a small silver tiara kept in a black satin-lined ivory jewelry box, was such a lovely piece. Blinsky couldn’t stand the thought of leaving it in the box. He already had enough gold and losing the small tiara wouldn’t be a large loss, so he decided to give it to his monkey – Piccolo (see Creatures of the Toyshop). He smiled at the thought of her running around in her pretty, shiny tiara. Sadly, as Barovian luck would have it, trapped inside the tiara is the sole of an evil gnome wizard named Aribetha Strangge. In his old age, Obtavious Swat forgot that he and his fellow adventurers used the tiara to imprison the gnome’s soul. Yesterday, when Blinsky placed the tiara on Piccolo’s head, silver tendrils cascaded from the tiara and into poor Piccolo’s skull, allowing Aribetha to control the monkey. Now, Aribetha has incapacitated Blinsky in the toyshop’s tower, brought many of the toys to life, and imprisoned or killed many of the workers and customers. The adventure includes costumes (which the character may wear), Strahd Hand Puppets, and a possessed Piccolo.

Trouble Cubed is a is a pseudo-adventure with three interesting gelatinous cube encounters. These three encounters are structured in a way that they can be used together as one adventure, or each individually dropped into any adventure from EL5 to 7. The encounters vary the cube's encounter situation significantly, and the tactics needed to deal with them, such as by trapping a character with a portcullis between a cube and a pit trap, placing a cube half down a pit trap, and having the cube accidentally ingest a beneficial potion (such as spider climb). Pgs. 29-30

Has reality got you down? Tired of everyday, humdrum, commonplace happenings of life on the Prime Material Plane? Want to really get away from it all? Then step right up for the chance for adventure out of the ordinary...way out of the ordinary... Tales of the Outer Planes is an anthology of short adventures set throughout the many Outer Planes for use with the AD&D Manual of the Planes. Some of gaming's best designers have contributed adventures to this set, which includes scenarios set in the Seven Heavens, Olympus, the four Elemental Planes, the Nine Hells, and the Astral and Ethereal Planes. Tales of the Outer Planes is a perfect collection for powerful characters who have it too easy at home and are looking for new challenges. Many of the most fearsome monsters are even more dangerous on their own planes - can you take them on and live to tell the tale? These adventures can be inserted as a "change of pace" in an existing campaign, or can be the foundation of an entire new set of adventures. Either way, Tales of the Outer Planes will be sure to open up a whole new frontier for AD&D game players everywhere. TSR 9225

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.