The legendary city of Freeport is a seedy port town where former pirates settle down to become "businessmen" while street gangs fight over the slave trade. In the deepest warrens of this already dangerous place, mad cultists worship unspeakable gods - and sometimes these sinister deeds bubble to the surface. There's a dark shadow over Freeport today, as yet another innocent child has gone missing. The trail leads to the old Cresh Manor, boarded up but not forgotten. The city needs heroes to find these missing children. But are the heroes brave enough to conquer the dark shadows of Freeport?
A member of your gang awakens in an alleyway with foggy memories of a deal made, a job taken, a partner slain, and a heist planned. They struggle to remember the details, but you all agree that breaking into an abandoned temple should be a simple matter – in and out. Yet the heist is on a collision course with something sinister. What begins as an easy job becomes anything but, as you confront cultists, vengeful spirits, and the servitors of a long-forgotten god. While seeking an easy score, you uncover a plan to strike a blow into the heart of Lankhmar, and no one is safe from the blasphemous plot. A choice needs to be made. Will you stand with the city, or risk letting it descend into chaos? Curse the gods of Lankhmar for their cruel joke that, in the shadowed alleyways of Lankhmar, there is no such thing as a “simple matter.” Officially licensed from the estate of Fritz Leiber.
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.
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.
When the Purple Planet began its slow decline, factions arose to vie for the final resources of the dying world. In the days of the Last Wars, the Ascendant Masters used their knowledge of cybernetics and genetic engineering to create increasingly powerful and grotesque biological weapons. One such weapon was Sotark the Destroyer of the long lost House Memniscene. Damaged and placed in a cryogenic regeneration capsule, Sotark has slept away the ages while the House above him eroded away under the weirdling sun. Over time, the capsule has failed, but still Sotark sleeps on, diminished, but not destroyed.
The Purple Planet: Where tribes of man-beasts wage an endless war beneath a dying sun. Where mighty death orms rule the wastes, befouled winds whistle through ancient crypts, and forests of fungi flourish in the weirdling light. Where ancient technologies offer life ... or a quick death. Bereft of patron, friend or god, your survival depends on quick wits and a strong blade. Will you and your companions stand as conquerers atop this alien land? Or will you fall beneath the blast of an ink-black death rays, just another corpse left to litter the wastes of the Purple Planet?
The cries of battle echo in the rustic wilderness, as a pair of fey sisters defend the ancient Briarwood against invaders. When the town of Bur Hollow sends militia men to support their fey allies, they disappear without a trace. The adventurers must enter the Briarwood and save them!
The small town of Welwyn has been beset by a string of robberies. The heroes are led to the natural cave system located at the bottom of the town well, which they must explore to find the burglars. But once they’re in the cave system, things get much more difficult! The “burglars” turn out to be mere pawns in a much darker game. To get to the source of the crimes, the heroes must shrink themselves with potions of improved reduce person and explore a series of dangerous rat warrens where their prey is larger than they are!
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.
The city is gripped in fear! The Ripper has returned after a 125-year absence and is once again carving a trail of blood through the slums of Millers Court. Also returned is the ghost of Mari Kell, his last victim from more than a century ago, and she haunts the streets where she was killed. The city watch is at a loss to solve this supernatural mystery, much less apprehend the Ripper himself. All the clues point back to the hovel where Mari Kell was slain long ago. If the heroes are brave enough to enter, will they find the Ripper himself there?
For a thousand years Mezar-Kul has known only war, and now the Overlord reigns supreme. From his gargantuan metal fortress he rules the blasted remains of the planet’s last city. Hope seems lost – until visitors arrive from a distant world, bringing uncanny, magical powers. Your adventurers must pick a path through twisted ruins, ancient missile silos, strange monorail systems, and a conflict with four deadly factions to save a world – or destroy it! Note: This adventure does require that the party have some access to spell casting, whether through an item or class that requires a spell casting roll.
Giants stalk the shifting sands as the lost city of Stylos awakens from its deathless slumber. The Fourth Age of Man is at hand! All that stands between the gigantic hordes of Stylos and their conquest of the world is your band of adventurers. Sinister traps, implacable foes, and the crushing tread of the dread Colossus all lurk within these pages, eager to test the courage and cunning of even the most accomplished adventurers.
Heroes and blackguards of every stripe will find peril on the Purple Planet, but none more than 0-level PCs. Cast across the cosmos, surrounded by hordes of baying man-beasts, and marched into mass gladiatorial combat, the PCs' death waits with bated breath. Their sole hope for escape lies – not in pitched combat against endless hordes – but by braving the unknown and pressing into the darkness beneath the Purple Planet.
Along the windswept sea coast are several natural stone columns, sacred to the Sea Goddess Pelagia. One of these pillars is the tower of a reclusive wizard, a devout follower of Pelagia. But the wizard has gone missing, and the locals suspect foul play. Surely a powerful wizard must have many enemies! A band of fledgling heroes is tasked with entering one of the Pillars of Pelagia to contend with all manner of magical defenses, while uncovering cryptic clues to the wizard’s disappearance planted by an unknown benefactor. The insidious evil plot they uncover could spell eventual doom for the surface world. But the Pillars are sacred to Pelagia, and the Sea Goddess herself might just play a minor role, aiding the heroes as they attempt to thwart a nefarious plot.
During a brief stop-over at a wilderness stronghold, a simple trip to a local provisioner reveals foul play! The shop has been broken in, and the shopkeeper is missing. But the place has not been burglarized. The heroes are thrust into an investigation. Clues discovered by the heroes’ hint at larger corruption that festers among the border lands surounding the stronghold. What sinister forces lurk beneath the keep?
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.
This adventure is intended for 2 to 3 3rd-level PCs originally from Lankhmar, but can easily be adjusted to accommodate adventurers from other locales. Guidelines are also provided for scaling the adventure for up to six PCs. The events of this adventure lure the party from their home in the City of the Black Toga to an abandoned watch tower on the coast of the Inner Sea, not far from Ool Hrusp. After completing this scenario, they may find reason to further adventure in the Forest Land.
Centuries past, Lady Ilse ascended to scion of House Liis by trading the archdevil Mammon what he wanted most: her immortal soul – and a diabolical betrothal. The triumph proved hollow, for every year on the eve of her fell covenant, she was beset by visions of Mammon and her foul promise. Seeking to save herself, she was buried alive, swaddled in the holy symbols of a dozen divergent faiths. This desperate ploy held Mammon at bay for centuries…but a devil can afford to wait a very long time. After hundreds of years, the last of the holy wards has fallen. The devil has come to collect his due. Tonight a storm crashes against the ancient manor house and forgotten spirits rise from the muck and mire. The fallen belfry tolls once more, announcing the hellish fete. As the adventurers arrive to explore the Black Manse, Mammon calls for his winsome bride. He will leave with a soul at the end of the night. The only question is: Whose?
Beneath the crumbling walls of a keep lies an unexplored warren of caverns stretching into unknown darkness. Within the depths, an ancient evil stirs and grows hungry. Forgotten horrors, once relegated to legend, are on the move – with only your band of heroes between them and their goal. What begins as simple exploration rapidly becomes a struggle against denizens of the underworld, and the very environs of underworld itself. Through crumbling caverns and against long-trapped foes, the party is confronted with a threat that places the future of the surface world in jeopardy. Your heroes must act quickly to secure the world, or face the consequences of their failure to halt the advance of the denizens of The Forgotten Hive.
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.