"The Clockwork Tower" is an azza gremlin lair suitable for five 3rd level characters. This adventure can be completed in one session.
Kidnapping and politics as usual? Not so much. Something is different about this job, and you just hope that difference doesn’t get you killed. Contains sexual content.
Once, we were friends. She used her spells to ward our grove against the darkness in the woods. It was the mirror that turned her mind to covetous thoughts; she saw its power and changed. We have kept the mirror safe for an era, but her soldiers grow strong—and now something makes for our tree we cannot repel. If her aberration reaches the grove, the mirror will be hers, and then we will all know what lies at the tip of the wickedest branches.
Fight the Monster in its Den … If You Dare! Book of Lairs brings you 24 great monster lairs for 5th edition! Each of these exciting and unusual battlegrounds comes with a complete short adventure, including a hook, area hazards, tactics, and treasures. Stage your 5th Edition fights in unforgettable locations like: Alchemist’s Guildhall Necromancer’s Cistern Clockwork Tower Den of the Rotten Kings Lost Halls of Everforge A Pirate Cove Crypt of the Warlock Citadel of the Void Dragon A Dark Grove Lost Fane of the Serpents Branches of Yggdrasil Tomb of the Scorpion Prince Sky Stairs of Beldestan Imperial Ghoul Outpost Umbral Vampire Lair And 10 more! Designed by some of the top names in the RPG industry, Book of Lairs is sure to add an aura of wonder and mystery to your game! Book of Lairs uses standard monsters as well as surprising new creatures from Tome of Beasts, and both monster books are required for maximum playability.
"Monument of the Thunderer" is a desert half-dragon lair intended to challenge a party of four 7th-level characters. Near the city state of Makuria, on a small island in the middle of the Green Nuria River, an immense stone sculpture of a dragon watches over the mighty Red Cliffs and the waterfall that pours off them. The monument was built by ancient worshipers of the Mharoti conqueror known as Zulatil the Thunderer, but now serves as a base of operations for a band of sinister thugs who call themselves the Red Cliff Raiders.
Within the darakhul city of Gonderif, at the nadir of a thousand‑foot‑deep chasm, is the site of a vile tournament where Gonderif ’s most rebellious slaves and war prisoners are forced to fight to the death—and through undeath after undeath—until only one living champion remains. Whether they came as captives or as liberators, the PCs must survive the Undying Tournament.
The city is plagued by an affliction being called "stone sickness" or "the gorgon’s touch" that disorients people and turns them to stone. Those with, or suspected to have, the affliction are being banished from the city. Some demand a cure, but most are just scared for their loved ones. A ravenfolk woman named Spinel Larkdon, mother to a child with the gorgon’s touch, begs the PCs for assistance. An artifact known as the Shroud of Tiberesh, capable of curing any sickness, is locked away within The Umbers' vault of spoils below the city. Passionate, she is determined to save her son and all those afflicted. Fortunately for the player characters, completing the Umber’s Gauntlet alive means they are not only entitled entrance into the cult, but also a single item from its vault of spoils. The PC's only hope of procuring the Shroud is by traversing this initiation Gauntlet – a series of traps, monsters, and puzzles devoted to the demon-god Nakresh - and claiming the Shroud as their prize.
Goblins have taken over the town you live in. They are ransacking each and every building. You must either convince them to leave, or take them down.
"The Hive" is a spawn of Arbeyach lair, also featuring giant termites and termite swarms, for five 6th-level characters. This adventure can be finished in one session. Several mounds in the Forsaken Hills are the dens of voracious termites that have added flesh to their diet to supplement dwindling wood supplies. At night, swarms of termites hunt and devour prey. They swarm over victims in wooden carts and wagons, and bring the dismantled wood back to their mounds. Three spawn of Arbeyach, searching for a location to summon Ia'Affrat, Arbeyach's herald, discovered a mound filled with particularity nasty termites and used their vermin empathy to gain acceptance. They dug out a cavern beneath the mound, and now use the termites to protect themselves and gather food while they complete a difficult ritual involving dozens of sacrifices. The final sacrifice is prepared and the spawn are finishing their ritual when the party arrives.
Sky Stairs of Beldestan is a vampire warlock lair suitable for four characters of 14th level. It can be a lead-in to Citadel of the Void Dragon, or it can be played independently. For as long as any dragon can remember, the stairs of Beldestan have been a site of pilgrimage, a direct route from dusty earth up to the heavens, where enormous creatures soar and carry sacrifices up to the gods. Its base is well known for the efficacy of the invocations offered there, but very few other than the most faithful dare venture up the stairs themselves: enormous eagles, howling winds, and various inimical undead make the stairs a place that few find congenial for long.
The spire has existed for as long as locals can remember. Rising above the sand near the ocean, the spire is topped by a natural cave system. Stories about the place circulate around the docks and taverns of the nearby towns—dark tales of ritual sacrifice and the worship of long dead gods of lightning and storm. Many claim the victims of the old cult still crawl through the tunnels accessible at the peak of the spire. Others say a new scaly threat now lairs there, and the storms of late have been most violent near that place. In this explorative and perilous adventure, the party ascends a great rocky spire to face the place’s past and the blue dragon that presently resides there.
She lay down her sword and wept; her tears are the water. She lay down her body and slept; her bones are the fountain. Atop the mountain, at the war’s end, a place for gods to wonder.
"The Warlock's Crypt" is a fext and noctiny lair suitable for four 9th-level characters. This adventure can be completed in a single session. An ancient warlock king known as the King in Silver, whose patron was Death itself, knew he was growing old and would soon die. The aging king pledged the souls of his two sons, the Black Prince and the Red Prince, to Death in exchange for his own eternal life. As the final worlds of the pledge pass his lips, the old king collapsed to the ground, dead. Elsewhere in the castle, the two young princes died suddenly in their sleep. All three were interred in the royal crypt within a nearby burial mound. ultimately, the king got what he asked for - he and his suns were returned to life as fext in the service of Death itself. When the fext awoke and climbed out of their coffins, they were confused because it seemed they were trapped within the small royal crypt. Then, the King in Silver discovered a secret door leading to a hidden stone stair that descended into a complex of ancient tunnels and chambers. At the far end of the complex, the fext discovered a second set of ancient stone stairs leading up through a shaft to a hidden exit on the surface. The three fext now lurk within the lower chambers, doing their patron's dark bidding. When commanded, they creep forth from the crypt to spread death during the dark of night.
Let nothing end the Feast by the River. Let the celebration of our enemy’s vanquishing ring out night and day for eternity. Let the bones of our enemies and our prey mingle below our feet. This is your time, our time, the best time. —Queen Gellao on the eve of her victory over the followers of Dur; decreed at the River’s Bend feast hall
The Free City of Zobeck has thrived since overthrowing the tyrannical Stross family. But an ancient bargain gives the Queen of Night and Magic a claim to the city—and now the shadow fey have seized Zobeck as their own. The city’s only hope lies with a band of heroes who can outfight and outwit the shadow fey in the heart of their own realm: the maze of treachery and deceit that is the Courts of the Shadow Fey. This 148-page 5th Edition adventure contains 100 NPCs, a map with more than 60 locations of the Courts, and more than 40 combat and roleplaying encounters. Courts of the Shadow Fey takes you from the mortal world to the heart of Shadow, where you’ll: Fight your way through the dangers of the Shadow Realm to reach the shadow fey’s courts Engage in dangerous courtly intrigue, trying to increase your status to win an audience with the Queen herself Duel for honor, and perhaps win the hand of a lover among the fey nobility Can you free Zobeck from the grasp of the shadow fey? Or will your fate become a tale told in hushed tones as a warning against angering the Queen?
Who Do You Trust? In the cool streets and blazing bazaars, the word is out: a great treasure has gone missing in the Everlasting City of the Cat, and some very ambitious people have set their sights on it. Many paws and claws are out, and everyone is sniffing around for something rich and strange. It’s an odd time for a catfolk thief and a gnoll merchant to make very tempting offers to strangers in town. Or, perhaps it’s not odd at all. Get caught up in the hunt with Cat and Mouse by Richard Pett and Greg Marks! A perfect introduction to the Southlands campaign setting, and it fits neatly into any desert city where cats are sacred and rats are cautious and sly.
Fane of Serpents is a titanoboa lair suitable for three to five 10th-level characters. A rocky butte covered with soaring ruins looms over the landscape. Legend describes it as a monument raised by an inhuman race that was wiped out centuries ago as retribution over foul practices. Locally, the spot is known as Titan’s Height. It rises starkly above the surrounding area, with four terraced plateaus. Each level is covered with the ruins of many-columned halls in an architectural style unlike anything else in the area. Their age and strangeness alone are enough to generate fearful legends. The stories grow worse when travelers or livestock disappear near Titan’s Height, which they sometimes do.
"House of Reeds and Whispers" is the lair of a pair of red hags, suitable for four characters of 8th level. This adventure can be completed in one session. Two red hag sisters recently exsanguinated an eccentric collector named Nahl Fry and took up residence in his swamp-side home. Liori and Ijith were seeking an artifact from the ancient city of Talitheos, the sunken stronghold of the red hags. They found the artifact, a pair of knitting needles made from blood-infused coral. in Nahl Fry's collection. The sisters yearn to understand how the artifact works, and so they are testing its dark powers against a nearby hamlet. They have knitted rapidly growing crimson reeds that funnel the blood of fauna and farm animals back to the house. The hamlet's leader, Galnas, hires the PC's to investigate. The party must press through the reeds, defeat the sisters' guardians, face the hags, and end the reedy infestation.
A snow hag lair suitable for four or five 7th-level characters. Mother Rime lives north of a small fishing village in the far cold north. For years she's hidden her true nature from the townsfolk, appearing as an old benevolent wild-woman to the town. When one of Mother Rime's 'children' break from her cold-hearted ways, adventurer's are sought to seek to correct the evil in the north.
"The Riverfront Rat Gang" is a ratfolk lair, also featuring wharflings and a doppelrat, designed for five 1st level characters. This adventure can be completed in one session. The old dockyards once served as the primary center of commerce in town. Years ago, political pressure from an influential merchant who wanted the docks to be loser to her business forced shipping concerns to move their docks upriver. The new facility accommodates larger ships, and the old docks fell into disuse. Talk of converting the property into a set of riverside shops died when a rat infestation proved to be an unsolvable problem. Thus, the old dockyards have been decaying for years. This situation suited a former thieves' guild member, a ratfolk rogue, named Matimer Creel. A botched robbery (for which Matimer blamed his accomplice) turned the guild against Matimer, who fled from certain death at the hands of the guild master. He hid out in the old dockyards, confident that not even guild members bothered to go there. From there he began to exact revenge against the guild by ruining its plans or stealing directly from it. He also befriended the rat population, thanks to a golden rat's tooth he acquired, and the vermin help with his schemes. A trio of rat-like wharflings and a doppelrat, washed up on the riverbank near the docks, have joined Matimer's retinue.