Settling down as the sky turns black with rest, you gather by the heated campfire and swap stories to pass the night. You hear tales of wonder and worry, descriptions of distant lands, plants, and beasts. Exchanged this night are stories of thieving travellers, worried giants, and godly squabbles. Ever wanted small stories to make travel more interesting than random encounters? Ever just wanted to run shorter games? Maybe you’re just low on prep time for your next session. In this volume of campfire tales you’ll find eight half-a-session length adventures that help with all these classic DM worries. Also included is an in-depth appendix of fauna, flora, locations, and more to help boost your game.
Murder! Ripples of shock pour through the wee hours of the sleepy fishing shanty of Port Scuttle. An innocent young fishmonger, beloved by the locals, has been brutally murdered in her own shop. Stunned by the grisly act, the typically hardened townsfolk turn to powerful heroes to investigate the gruesome deed. Could the fishmonger’s recent discovery of a massive black pearl be a possible motive? The heroes’ goal is to not only bring the perpetrator to justice, but determine the twisted purpose behind the ghastly act. Concerned townsfolk decry that the evildoer must hang for his or her despicable crime. Yet when the heroes finally track down the murderer, he is already dead by the noose, and the investigation has truly only begun. Clues hint at even darker designs, as an ancient evil stirs to reclaim a once lost malevolent relic. Tackle the challenge of solving the despicable murder of an innocent, and thwarting the diabolical schemes of a powerful brine vampire. Th e adventure is set in and around a small fishing port located on the windswept craggy cliffs of an ocean. The author draws on two inspirations for this adventure: The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, and an unnamed adventure plot by the author’s astonishing wife, Lisa.
The increasingly erratic behavior of Lady Selyse, Knight Captain of the small, but strongly held frontier outpost Fort Selsmire, is provoking unrest among her soldiers and fear from passing supply caravans. Many whisper of how the Captain now goes without sleep for days at a time, pacing the walls of the keep long into the night. Despite these rumors, the party has found employment at Fort Selsmire, conducting additional patrols of the nearby forests. While patrolling, they find evidence that may lead to the strange creature who seems to be provoking the Captain to madness. Pgs. 69-73
The lost city of Archaia - an ancient ruin sunken into the earth - lies deep in the badlands. In recent years, caravans from Eastdale have come under attack from orcs, goblins, and worse. Some say these blood-thirsty warbands have made lairs in the deep caves and ruins. Sill others say the ancient halls are filled with magnificent treasures left by the Archaians. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to delve The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia? The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia (FCoA) is a 296-page classic megadungeon for use with any old school fantasy role-playing game. The pages of Forbidden Caverns are crammed full with new material, maps, amazing art (including special surprizes by former TSR artists), as well as an amazing colour cover art by Ex-TSR artist Erol Otus that matches Barrowmaze Complete as a sister-book. The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia will keep your players on their toes and your campaign going strong for years. FCoA is brought to you by the Old School Renaissance (so don’t forget your 10’ pole).
An Arch-Mage who can kidnap a dragon is one tough Arch-Mage. Definitely not for those who are afraid of heights. An evil archmage, Ezoran, has kidnapped a dragon in order to discover the means to seize control of a cloud giant's castle. The adventures are tasked with rescuing the dragon by the dragon's mate. The adventure revolves around tracking and navigating through dense jungle and working through a cloud giant's fortress. Pgs. 50-63
The town of Innisfall lives in the shadow of dragons, but has managed to broker a peace with them through the years and avoided outright destruction. Now, a dragon has been murdered and the visiting party of adventurers is accused of perpetrating the deed. Can our heroes prove their innocence and restore the uneasy truce the town has lived under for generations?…
For over a decade, the necromancer Malion has hidden in the wilderness, creating golems infused with spirits of the dead in his obsessive search for perfect beauty. At long last, he produced a doll that he knew it to be his final masterpiece, and, knowing there was no mortal soul pure enough to complete his work, Malion prayed to the goddess of love to bring his statue to life. Against all odds, his blasphemous prayer was heard, and the furious goddess sent her servant to bring Malion to justice.
Steal gifts! Fight Reindeer! Save the holidays! Take on the dreaded devil Belsnickel and save the snowy gnomish town of Cheerington from his grasp in this fun-filled adventure for one-on-one parties or small groups level 4-5. Inside you'll find: -A one-shot adventure involving roleplay, exploration, and combat! -4 new festive creatures! -2 maps ready for print or import! -6 exciting new magical items to gift to your players! This adventure also has lots of fun mechanics like mistletoe and corrupting coal! We put together some of our favorite wintery stories and holiday tales in this fun holiday one-shot! It's perfect for a side narrative to try out one-on-one play for the first time, introducing someone new to the game, or taking your party to a festive demiplane for a unique Christmas-y one-shot adventure.
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.
A rare breed of wolf has apparently been staging daring attacks on citizens of Rendrick. A group of hunters seek to claim bounty on the beast, but as the PCs quickly learn, the wolf isn't all it appears. Something sinister lurks in the woods near town, and the PCs must act quickly to save innocent lives. Pgs. 16-26
Kingdom of the Blind is a short adventure for four 8th-level characters. The adventure is set in a minor duchy that is fairly removed from the ruler of the land. As a result, trouble can brew in the land and the king would not know immediately. The PCs have just learned that Dephyl is alive and well and ordering blocks of granite. Meanwhile, Zhanna and Dephyl are on the third floor. If the PCs encountered the animated staircases on the first floor, the shriekers on the second floor, or triggered the trap outside Dephyl's study, the couple knows someone unwelcome is downstairs and moving up. They begin to prepare for their arrival.
PL1 – Encounters at Gormell is the initial adventure for the campaign in the Principality of Lockerbie. This series of adventures are set in the land known for the large city of Kettlespit and the capital of Xado Keep. The land resides to the south of the mountain range called the Spines, home to a devastating series of magic wars years ago. This land was the site of many battles and skirmishes and the western reaches are still very dangerous. This offering provides information on the village of Gormell and a variety of different scenarios to get your first level players up to second level and beyond!
This dual offering is a true solo (no DM needed), as well as, the same dungeon for a PC/DM setting. The adventure is for new players at the lowest level of experience. It is centered on a recent discovery of an old dungeon that belonged to an arcane wizard. With no one to rely on, is your PC ready for a dangerous delve?
The Puzzling Tiemple of Flummox Heist is a linear dungeon crawl utilizing word puzzles and riddles written in the English language. Challenge your players and their characters with a brainteasing mix of puzzles, combat, and roleplay in this one-shot adventure for characters of 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th level which will delight fans of escape rooms and solve-at-home mystery adventures. Characters travel through a mysterious underground temple packed with nine carefully-crafted original puzzles, each one presented as a beautifully illustrated graphic and all woven carefully into the narrative. By doing so they unknowingly prepare themselves for ritual sacrifice by Flummox Heist, a trickster cleric who lurks at the heart of the temple. This unique adventure also features two exciting combat encounters - each with a story-relevant twist to standard monster mechanics - and a set of interesting and original NPCs to create an immersive story for you and your players. The unique puzzles are all designed to be short, self-contained, and satisfying to solve. There's no need for trial-and-error, no grinding through fiddly codebreaking, and no need to pause your game to look up information. Instead, each puzzle is crafted as a complete short challenge with that rewarding ah-ha! moment when the solution clicks. If the characters need a nudge in the right direction, the adventure includes a full Hints Appendix with a series of escalating clues so you can help them without giving away the solution. Of course, full answers are also provided in a Solutions Appendix. Perhaps you're looking for satisfying puzzles to add to your own adventures and campaign? Although this product is a complete one-shot adventure, each of the rooms can also be used independently, allowing you to use this product as a source of puzzles, enigmas, and conundrums which you can easily drop into your own game. Treat your puzzle-loving players and their characters to an amazing crossover of D&D 5E and escape-room-quality conundrums with The Puzzling Temple of Flummox Heist.
Stormy seas rock your vessel, tossing her about like a toy in the jaws of a hound. Thunder rolls in the distance. Then, an arc of lightning splits the sky, and the sound like an exploding fireball all but bursts your eardrums. Your mainmast, struck by lightning, burns, splinters, and topples onto the deck like a felled oak. The last thing you hear is the cracking of wood as the deck explodes into splinters, and the ship is torn asunder. All goes black. You awaken in shackles, half-submerged in water, and surrounded by salmon-pink coral. You survived, but what fate awaits you now? The sound of soggy footsteps echo down the hallway. A creature approaches with an answer. This week’s encounter is Coral Colosseum, a combat encounter in which the characters must prove themselves as worthy gladiators to escape the clutches of a ruthless sahuagin baron. This encounter can serve as a follow-up to Encounter of the Week: Sharkfin Shipwreck, or as a stand-alone mini-adventure. It could also serve as an introduction to Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which releases on May 21st, 2019.
As a new adventurer, you haven’t been able to catch a break. Just as you empty your mug, a job opportunity presents itself! A crazy Gnome, (Guy Fieri) has gotten ahold of a Wand of Construct and is animating mundane objects that are causing problems! Can you stop the Gnome and gain the mantle of “Hero”?
Follow a crazy halfling into a vampire’s castle. Kingdom in the Swamp is an AD&D adventure for higher-level characters; 6th to 9th level would be suitable. While it is necessary to have strong combatant characters and at least one cleric, it is more important that the players be ready to find solutions beyond the sword or spell book. Adventure Background A few days ago, Candor Pletten, a halfling thief known more for his urban exploits, returned from a journey to the southern jungles and rain forests (or so he says). Few people have believed him in the past -- usually they have been too busy taking inventory of their possessions to even listen to him — but some are guessing that he may actually be telling the truth (certainly, he’s got a good story). Candor left town a couple of months ago with some other adventurers, but has come back alone. Most tavern patrons are of the opinion that he took his companions’ purses and ran, but why would he come back to town? And why, then, aren’t his former companions hot on his trail? Candor may be a thief, but he’s not a murderer. He even gets nauseated by cockfighting. Maybe the halfling's tale is worth hearing...
In the Lodge, things are simple. They can look like you. They want to BE you. And in their home, the only thing standing between you and death is six millimeters of glass. Can you escape the Polished? Find out in Six Millimeters, a thrilling horror adventure for the world's greatest roleplaying game! Take 4-6 of your friends through the Lodge, an extradimensional space overrun by nightmarish beings that can strike from any reflective surface. Shardlings revel in the paranoia caused by their reflective horrors, sowing doubt and mayhem until the opportune moment presents itself. Panes, meanwhile use their impressive stature to quickly overwhelm their foes. Spellcasters especially are in for a nasty surprise! This adventure is intended for 1st-level characters and uses milestone advancement to ensure they reach 3rd-level throughout the course of the game. For players who take their time investigating the Lodge and discovering its dreadful past, this adventure may take 7-9 hours to complete. Given the adventure’s horror elements and milestone advancement, Six Millimeters is easy to use as a starting scenario to the Curse of Strahd adventure. Content Warning: Suicide, Self Mutilation
Local villagers whisper of a mysterious place deep in the marsh - a place shrouded in mist and dotted with barrow mounds, ruined columns, and standing stones. The tomb-robbers who explore beneath the mounds - or rather the few who return - tell tales of labyrinthine passages, magnificent grave goods, and terrifying creatures waiting in the dark. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to enter Barrowmaze? Barrowmaze Complete (BMC) is a classic megadungeon for use with any old school fantasy role-playing game. BMC includes everything in Barrowmaze I and II in the same book in addition to new material, art, layout, and cover art by Ex-TSR artist Erol Otus. Barrowmaze Complete will keep your players on their toes and your campaign going strong. BMC is brought to you by the Old School Renaissance (so don’t forget your 10’ pole). This edition includes art by the aforementioned TSR artists Erol Otus, as well as Tim Truman, Jim Holloway. New old-school artists include Peter Pagano, Cory Hamel, Stefan Poag, Zhu Bajie, Stephan Thompson, and others.
A Halloween themed adventure for characters levels 3rd to 4th, meant for a single 3-6 hours session. The pumpkin-farmers of Goldgrain are in for terror, as in a rather ironic turn of events, their crops rise to harvest them instead. What's causing the pumpkins to become alive and angry? Is it the curse of a long dead witch? Or is it something even more sinister? Why are they dragging the corpses of their victims away, and to where? Who commands them? Soon enough, they'll find out answers to those questions, or perish under the wrath of the haunted crops.