It has been years since the last virgin was sacrificed: and now the pit beast awakens once more! Every generation it stumbles forth on undulating tentacles from its resting place deep below the great ravine, its towering blubbery mass ravaging the land before returning to slumber for decades. But this time is different. The Great Beast strikes with intelligence: bands of faceless gray-robed men emerge from the tenebrous depths, herding the beast’s roaming tentacles before them. The enigmatic people of the pit live despite the passage of ages! The earth shakes each night as they herd the primordial tentacles ever further, while the villagers ask: is any man brave enough to put the sword to this menace?
Deep within the heart of the slums, in the rat-ridden city of Punjar, the Beggar-King weaves his plots. Unearthing rites best left forgotten and offering up sacrifices to the loathsome Lords of Shade, the Beggar-King’s ambitions threaten to unleash a horde of shadow-horrors upon Punjar’s huddled masses. You and your fellow companions must bring the reign of the Beggar-King to an end. Your quest will take you from the rooftops of Punjar to its filthiest alleys, and beneath the streets of Punjar to the fetid heart of the city, where even the bravest of sellswords will tremble before the fell secrets of the Beggar-King of Punjar. An introductory adventure designed specifically for first level characters, Sellswords of Punjar is an urban Dungeon Crawl Classic unlike any other. It includes a full-color double-sided battle map to allow your characters to fully experience the perils of Punjar! This stand-alone adventure can also be used to launch a campaign in the epic fantasy world of Áereth.
In this adventure, the coastal village of Fair Haven needs the characters’ help. For decades, Fair Haven has relied upon its lighthouse to guide merchant vessels into port. But on a recent stormy night, the lighthouse suddenly failed. The trading ship Nymph’s Kiss was dashed on the rocks, and smugglers have already raided the wreck. Somebody has to restore the lighthouse, but the locals are afraid to go near because it shows all the signs of being haunted. Yet there might be more to the story, since there’s something living in the sea caves below…
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.
Lady Elisabeth Pendour beseeches the heroes for their help. They must recover a key that was on her husband’s body when he perished trying to clear an ancient tower. The tower was once a coastal fortress, but now it lies in ruins, occupied by black-feathered rook harpies who worship a foul carrion crow demon. Lord Pendour sought to free his subjects from fear by clearing the rampaging rooks from their nests. But he failed, and unless the heroes can recover his body, the crow god will come for his wife, too…
Originally designed as a convention module, this adventure sends the heroes into the underdark to do battle against the mysterious denizens of the deep! A drow housemistress commissions the characters to acquire a mysterious weapon known to be in the hands of her dark elf enemies. Locating, identifying, and acquiring the magical weapon leads the heroes on a great trek across the underdeep, where they must battle svirfneblin, a powerful lich, and enemy drow. This adventure us specifically designed for play by drow characters, but can be used with any adventuring party. Pregenerated drow characters are included.
After arriving at a seemingly abandoned trading post, the heroes discover to their horror that all the inhabitants have been transformed into black trees! Upon further investigation, they find clues that lead them to the hidden lair of Nockmort, a treant gone bad. Nockmort has been transformed by the strange radiation of a meteorite he discovered, and now he is a terrible force of evil. The characters must enter his sunless garden to save the town. And along the way they just might discover fabulous treasure...
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…
This new version of the classic adventure is completely updated to 3.5 edition. In The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho, a defenseless village asks the characters to slay an out-of-control ogre. Sounds easy enough. But the ogre, who used to be nothing more than a nuisance, has become crazed and psychotic. When the characters arrive at its cave, they find a subterranean portal has connected the cave to a much larger underground complex. Something in that complex has transformed the ogre and many other local creatures into fiendish marauders. In fact, it’s the lost vault of Tsathzar Rho, an ancient wizard and prophet of the Outer Gods, who are gathering their foul minions for battle.
Many centuries ago, a band of paladins fell from grace. These blackguards were defeated after a great battle and their grim fortress, the Iron Tower, was razed. A small abbey was established near the ruins, where generations of monks mixed ancient eldritch wards, mighty clockwork traps, and multiple fail safes to build the Iron Crypt of the Heretics. Three mighty vaults ensured that its evils would be sealed for all eternity. But unbeknownst to the brotherhood, their impregnable crypt had a single weakness: the very monks that had built it, for they knew its secrets. When a devourer stole into their abbey, the profane beast forced the monks to help it inside the Iron Crypt. It successfully broke into the first of three vaults, releasing an army of wights. The story of the devourer and his wight army is told in Dungeon Crawl Classics #12: The Blackguard’s Revenge. Now, in the Iron Crypt of the Heretics, the heroes must venture into a crypt designed by the world’s greatest thieves, magicians, and seers, solve its puzzles and deadly traps, and seal it once more from the outside world.
While investigating rumors of a dangerous blue dragon wreaking havoc in the deep desert, the heroes tumble under the sands into the magically sealed dome of an ancient palace. The temporarily weakened dome reseals above them, and they are left to explore the golden palace of Zahadran, once seat of power for the legendary Caliph Ardishir the Magnificent. But the dome is weak because it has been assaulted by the mythical storm demon Azi Dahaka and his trapped minions, evil creatures that were sealed under the magical dome to keep them from ravaging an unsuspecting world.
At the end of a forgotten back alley, in the weird and otherworldly marketplace of faiths known as the Bazaar of the Gods, stands the ruins of a forgotten chapel. Once the cult of the Carnifex was celebrated throughout the City of a Thousand Gates. But a band of holy warriors rose against the cult of executioners and torturers, casting down her signs and scattering her devotees to the winds. The fate of the cthonic goddess, and – more importantly – her fabled jewels remains a mystery…until this night. Set amid the sprawling decadence of Punjar, Jewels of the Carnifex offers low-level adventurers a chance to plumb the mysteries beneath the city’s soiled streets, explore forgotten crypts lavished with weird artifacts, and – for the quick and daring – claim the lost Jewels of the Carnifex!
When the heroes come into town, word arrives that a nearby cloister of the god of valor is under siege by an army of undead. The adventurers travel to help defend the bastion of paladins, only to discover that these undead are actually ancient enemies of the paladins’ order. They have discovered a way to exact vengeance for slights committed centuries ago, but to finish their plan they must breach the cloister’s catacombs! Can the heroes battle them to the catacombs and defeat their horrific blackguard champion?
Once every decade, the tides of the Empyrean Ocean recede far enough to reveal the highest eaves of a mysterious undersea tower. Long ago this was an eldritch fastness of Sezrekan the Elder, the most wicked wizard ever to plague the Known World, but now the tower is known simply as the final resting place of the fabled Black Pearl – an artifact rumored to bring doom upon all who dare to posses it. Tonight the moon nearly fills the sky, and the tides have already begun to recede. Adventurers have eight short hours to explore the tower before the dark waters return. The fabled Black Pearl will be theirs for the taking…if they can survive the Pearl’s curse.
For centuries, the Great Swamp has hidden hints of an ancient culture of barbarian kings. While passing through this miserable bog, the PCs encounter Stygoth the Damned, a half-dead black dragon driven mad by a mysterious disease. Delving further, the heroes discover that the disease is tied to the very swamp itself. A great corruption once infested this place, destroying the savage barbarian kings and leaving only mighty statues as their legacy. Now this corruption has returned, and a terrible Witch Queen is mining the corrupted swamp-earth to produce evil, blighted artifacts. In order to stop the spread of these evil weapons, the heroes must enter the ancient caves of the savage kings, put to rest the corrupt legacy of their downfall, end the disease that scars the land, and then face off against the Witch Queen herself.
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.
Remember the golden days of role-playing, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th level? Well, those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics feature bloody combat, intriguing dungeons, and no NPCs who aren’t meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100% good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you know, the traps you fear, and the secret doors you know must be there somewhere. In Idylls of the Rat King, goblin bandits are once again attacking the silver caravans, killing innocent miners and stealing cargo. The goblins have taken up residence in an abandoned mine northwest of Silverton. Someone must get rid of them. But this is no ordinary abandoned mine. It was deliberately barricaded generations ago when the Gannu family, founders of Silverton, discovered an unspeakable evil on its lowest levels. And these are no ordinary goblins, for the curse of the Gannu family courses through their veins…
Ten thousand flawless killers surround the city. Utterly silent in battle and in death, they seem unconquerable. They mean to choke the life out of the age-old city and leave it an empty ruin. The city calls upon its heroes to defeat this unnatural menace. The heroes gather to ponder the question: how do you defeat an impregnable foe? And then a wizard from a far-off world whisks the heroes away to fight battle of a very different sort, leaving them with a strange neon pink glow around their eyes… Note: This adventure can be used setting neutral or as a means to enter the "Purple Planet" DCC setting.
The Characters come across an ancient wizard's tower. The nearby keep has been reduced to rubble over the ages, but the tower is in perfect condition. It is surrounded by an impenetrable force field that cannot be breached - not even by the ghost of the long-dead wizard, who has been trapped within for centuries. Surely there must be great treasure within this magical abode. But how to get to it?
A whispered voice calls from a coffin bound in chains, urging the heroes into the depths of the Shudder Mountains, a place rife with superstition and forlorn secrets. In the shadowy, pine-grown valleys of the Deep Hollows lurk mysteries of a bygone age and a new evil emerging from the ruins of the past. The adventurers must plumb the mountains’ secluded reaches to root out this rising terror before its power comes to fruition. Standing in their path are cackling witches, subtle devils, lingering spirits, and a foul thing that moves in the night. Can the heroes appease that which lies within the Chained Coffin and thwart the dawn of a new and terrible age?