The mountains are the border between our kingdom and the realm of the fire giants. Look far eastward. See how the peaks turn black? Their forges must burn night and day to mark the mountains so. Some mornings, sunrise dims from the smoke and soot. Long have we watched the pass and tallied our fortunes at its stillness. Recently, though, there are signs our luck is turning. Fiery orbs sail through the night skies and land too near these woods. Scouts report deep craters shrouded in smoke and ash. One sits a mere hour’s walk from this outpost. I fear the enemy makes ready some terrible weapon . . .
Within the pages of this book, you will find three mini-dungeons, all with a common theme. They are all set in dangerous and exciting cave systems. Not only will you be able to drag and drop these mini-dungeons as you need, but this book will also provide a suggested campaign structure and tie-ins to each of them for those witty Dungeon Masters who wish to run them all together. 1. Lizard Folk Tunnels - APL2 to APL5 A daring rescue mission to save two young children from the grasps of a tribe of lizardfolk who's evil intentions are to sacrifice their captives to their evil god. 2. The Cavern of One-Eye - APL4 to APL7 A cave system riddled with orcs as described in Volo's Guide to Monsters. Players will need to think on their feet in this one. 3. The Lair of Frostingbite - APL5 to APL8 Snow-oxen are being stolen from the farmers of Sleet-Town, tracks lead into the ancient and abandoned mine shaft within a nearby mountain. Killer Kobolds, Quaggoth slaves and a ferocious White Dragon await. Published by P.B. Publishing
Everybody's a fool for a lost kid. He wanted power but settled for scraps - for now. The outcast wizard Lertol has adopted two leucrotta, and their team is ambushing passing travelers and robbing them with no-one the wiser. The players first fall into this trap when the leucrottas mimic a lost child and a search party in the middle of a night at camp. If the players leave to investigate the voices, the wizard loots the camp while they are gone. The players can then follow the wizard back to his lair and get their treasure back. Pgs. 48-49 & 28
A goblin warband has found the secret tunnel which leads from the dwarven keep of Hearth-Home to the nearby hills. The tunnel is intended to be a means of escape if the keep ever falls to attackers, but now it has provided goblins with an easy way into the Underkeep. So far, the goblins have confined their attentions to the various underground rooms that make up the Underkeep, but sooner or later they will find a way to the surface. They pose a serious threat to Hearth-Home - the goblins must be cleared out of the Underkeep so this breach in security can be repaired before the orcs hear of it and overrun the dwarven keep. This adventure is slightly more challenging than Red Hand Trail, and it is recommended that it is played after that quest and before Palace of Dread. However, the scenario in Trouble Below can easily be played independently from the rest. Part of TSR 1076 The Goblin's Lair
Indomitable it stood for centuries, a symbol of order in a world of chaos. Bastion of the pass through the Kamph Mountains, the very stones of the Keep of Adlerweg were the stuff of legends. What evil power had strength enough to take it? How were its defenses swept aside? Fell creatures now attend the battlements that overlook the only pass between Berghof and the sea. This is not a pretty problem to be solved by the militia of the local villages. These and more may be needed to withstand the mayhem stirred up by the fall of the keep. Indeed, if the Keep is not retaken, and retaken soon, the Hold of the Sea Princes itself may not be secure. Now is the time for heroic action. Aided by the Sentinel, former protector of the legendary Guardians of Adlerweg, have you the courage and the determination to rid the keep of its sinister occupants? UK3: "The Gauntlet" (1984), by Graeme Morris, is the third UK-series adventure and the second half of the two-part Adlerweg series. It was run as the final round of the GamesFair 1983 AD&D Open (and won by a RuneQuest fan!). It was then published in 1984. TSR 9111
"Yea I knows of a job for the likes of you" the bartender says as he wipes off the table. "This wizard who lives near the shore about two or three days ride lost somethin' he was expected on the ship The Intrepid. I hear he wants the cargo back and is willing to pay good coin for it to any who'd chance going into the Lake of Chaos." A grizzled old man in the corner gasps and says “any would want to go into that sea gots to be crazy. Aye, that wizard is lookin' for some crazy people. That waters haunted by dead sailors". "Oh come on” Telkall the bartender continues "you know that’s just an old story to keep kids away from the water. I'm sure it’s going to be an easy job for the likes you. You all appear to be quite able to take care of yourself. Go down the coast road for about two days if yer on horses and you'll see a stone tower. Ask for Kresellus ... he's the one you'll be lookin' for. Oh, and tell him Wolfgar sent ya ... if you could." Well things were getting boring at the Dead Orc Inn anyway.
The manor of Willowby Hall is under siege by a giant, enraged at the theft of his magical goose. The band of thieves has taken shelter within the manor's crumbling walls, cowering with their ill-gotten poultry as the building shakes itself apart. But something else is stirring. The giant's rampage is slowly awakening a Death Knight from its black slumber, and once it rises it will call on the bones of the manor's old residents to drive out the intruders. Will the party loot the manor of its ancient relics, or succumb to the blades of its skeletal guardians? Who will make off with the goose and its golden eggs? Will anyone survive the giant's onslaught? The only way to find out...is to play.
Deep in the forest, two hunters stumble across the site of a strange and ancient ritual, and one pays the ultimate price. Now a murderous beast stalks the streets of a quiet farm town. Can the PCs unravel the secret of Dramsburg’s dark past and defeat a monster that cannot be killed? Mystery adventure with little fighting in a small town. Can be played in a single session. At the climax a moral quandary is presented. Pgs. 14-25
In ancient times, the area now known as the Dyrgalas Fens was home to a flourishing civilization of nature worshippers who wrested a living from the forest around them, built open-air temples, and generally did well. Over the centuries, a series of natural disasters (some say a series of foolish magical experiments) led to a rising water table and turned the forest into a vast swamp. As the water rose, most of the people left. Today, a few stalwart humans remain in the fens, living off the land through hunting, fishing, trapping, and even some agriculture. In addition to these honest folk, the Dyrgalas has some less savory residents, including both black and green dragons, trolls, hags, escaped criminals, and a host of lycanthropes. Most of these creatures prey on travelers foolish or unlucky enough to enter the fen, and sometimes raid both inside and outside the fen. This adventure, intended for characters of levels 6 to 8, deals with one group of raiders who make their lair in the Dyrgalas. A weretiger called Gavriil has formed a group of assorted lycanthropes into a band of cunning brigands. The lycanthropes favorite caper involves infiltrating a merchant caravan while posing as travelers, merchants, or swords for hire, then attacking it from within. Gavriil and his servants also take on kidnappings, murder for hire, and any other unsavory tasks that come their way.
"This is a beautifully bleak hex crawl around an island smothered in oppressive darkness and fermenting wickedness. The Sluagh and their foul fog and maddening miasma are inscrutable and unknowable, but you must investigate the Island; discover the secrets buried within and without. Collect the scraps of information and open your heart and help these people tearing each other apart and worse, or become dark and hard as flint; indulge the mercurial machinations of men lost to madness of the mists and consent to cruelty. Worse still, lose yourself completely in the blanketing fog of yore; stumble blankly into the eternal night of truly annihilating nihilism... There is still faint hope that your investigation can illuminate the mist’s mysteries, lifting Man to the light, but it’s not for the fainthearted." - Curse of Sebs The Isle of Endless Fog is a 5e adventure for characters starting at 1st-level and ending at 4th-level. It's a sandbox adventure with a small setting for The Isle of Man, a location from Fallen Camelot setting. It features all three pillars of a 5e game: exploration, social interaction and combat. CONTENT WARNING: Mental Health Issues, Depression, Disassociation, Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation, Human Experimentation, Drugging and Abduction, Cannibalism, Murder of Civilians and Children, Clerical Abuse of Power through Tyranny. Background The Isle of Man was by no means a safe place, with sporadic assaults from the troll, Buggane, trickster fey, and conflicts of resources with the local giants, but it is still a place where local folk can live their lives in relative peace. All that changed when the sluagh came. They flew free from an ancient tower, a storm of wailing ghosts that swept across the land, carrying a blanketing fog across their backs that choked the land, the sea and the sky. The Death Mist warps all that it touches, inviting death into the homes of all things, whereupon the sluagh swoop out of the skies, snatching up souls on the verge of death, carrying them away from their bodies and into a new horrid existence as a fellow sluagh. In packs they fly, swooping through villages on the westerly winds, carrying away the souls of half its denizens, leaving the rest to starve, whereupon another wave will come to claim the rest. Over time, the mists drained the life from the earth. Fields turned barren, forests petrified, infants were born malnourished and shriveled. Yet, its hunger only grew. The sluagh called beyond, drawing travelers to Man. Sailors will see the fog first, rolling in from the horizon, before the wailing of the sluagh deafens their ears, and the mist blind their eyes. After what feels like hours, the sailors open their eyes and see Man on the horizon. The explorers will quickly find that they cannot leave this place. They must either banish the mist from this place…or destroy it. Published by Realmwarp Media
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 mountainous lands of the Last Kingdom have long been home to dangerous oni and their foul servitors and kin, but the unification of the Saigoto under the enlightened rulership of the Five Truths has sent them scurrying back into darkness. For years since, they have kept the land shielded from harm. Yet even the great soldiers garrisoned across the Kingdom’s shores and roads cannot stop dissent from boiling up in the shadows. Not everyone embraces the edicts of the land—and while patient teachers, even the Five Truths have their limits. As growing numbers of lastfolk begin to question the traditions of the Last Kingdom, forces far more sinister, preying on the curiosities of mortals, have begun to emerge into the light... Can the PCs discover and end a treacherous plot that threatens to destroy the relative peace of the Last Kingdom?
The peaks of a nearby mountain range have been home to Krikk, an old white dragon, for as long as anyone can remember. Aside from claiming ownership of a few villages and settlements near her range, she hasn’t posed much of a threat or even taken much notice of political events around her. Last week, a king’s prophet had a vision of golems made of ice that wouldn’t melt smashing through the royal castle walls, and of crops frozen under sheets of ice formed by the white dragon’s breath. Alarmed, the king has sent word that he desires someone brave enough to go to the dragon and find out whether she’s about to attack. If she is, the party must stop her before it’s too late. But, another prophet warns that the white dragon has an entirely different plot afoot, and that an icy grave awaits anyone who goes up the mountain. The player characters (PCs) have to figure out what’s going on—then decide on their own what they should do about it, while the fate of a king and his castle hangs in the balance.
This adventure introduces characters to the land of Barovia. It expands what we know about the lands around Castle Ravenloft and sheds new light on the dark past of the castle’s lord. Players will investigate mysterious happenings in a small haunted house in Barovia.
This setting is a collective of different area encounters for several different character levels. While this land was a frequently traveled area for the adventurers it was used for a variety of challenges. While not every challenge is met for every level it is up to the PCs to decide if they are up for the challenge they discover. Of course you can always ‘discourage’ or hide some encounters from the party. It can also be used in an area frequented by the PC party that can offer an increased challenge with each visit they make.
The fabled mines of Dhol Kuldhir once showered the Dalelands, Cormyr, and points beyond with precious gems and expertly crafted jewels. Operating from a hidden complex in the Thunder Peaks, their exquisite craftsmanship was said to rival that of even Thunderholme. Almost as quickly as it rose to prominence it vanished, along with all of the dwarven miners, crafters, and untold riches. Some speculate that the mine ran dry, and the inhabitants abandoned it for a more plentiful location. Others believe that they probably fell victim to one of the many goblin tribes plaguing the area. The truth, however, is much more grave. Centuries later, the nearby town of Keen is beset upon by unlikely thieves, the local innkeeper charges a small band of unlikely allies to investigate the string of burglaries. What they uncover leads them to the long-lost dwarven mine. In the darkness, they will have to brave insidious traps, cunning monsters, and the dreaded new lord of Dhol Kuldhir.
Trouble festers in the old sewers beneath the fishing village of Sandwall. A bandit king extends his slimy grasp, mutated goblins prowl the winding tunnels, and aquatic abominations lurk within the polluted waterways. It’ll take a particularly foolhardy band of adventurers to deal with these labyrinthine sewers ... are you up to the task? Published by Absolute Tabletop
The Cagewrights are defeated. The Tree of Shackled Sould is no more. Lord Vhalantru has been exposed and put down for the menace he truly was. The town of Cauldron has been saved from volcanic apocalypse. The heroes of Cauldron have earned their place in history, and more than deserve a time of rest, yet fate is not so kind. For the true menace behind the curtain still lives. As long as Adimarchus, the demon prince of madness, continues to dream his haunted dreams and writhe away the years in torment in the fiendish asylum of Skullrot, Cauldron can never be truly safe. "Asylum" concludes the Shackled City Adventure Path that began with "Life's Bazaar" (Dungeon #97) and continued with "Flood Season" (Dungeon #98), "Zenith Trajectory" (Dungeon #102), "The Demonskar Legacy" (Dungeon #104), "Test of the Smoking Eye" (Dungeon #107), "Secrets of the Soul Pillar" (Dungeon #109), "Lords of Oblivion" (Dungeon #111), "Foundation of Flame" (Dungeon #113), "Thirteen Cages" (Dungeon #114), and "Strike on Shatterhorn" (Dungeon #115). Pgs. 40-65
For years the Count of Durwall Keep ruled over the land fairly and with justice. That ended during the Bloodrayne Conflict when the castle was felled by troops loyal to General Bloodrayne. In the many years that followed the triangular keep has fallen into a sordid state of disrepair. The keep used to hold mighty coffers of treasure for the Count and for the Emperor as well. A stronghold was built under the keep to secure said treasure and perhaps some treasure may still remain in the depths of its dungeons. Recently it’s been said that the Snaggletooth tribe of kobolds has seized the fortress and is using it as their home. It is also rumored that there may still be undiscovered treasure located in the dungeon of the keep. Faint echoes of the missing Orb of Ruler ship are still heard.
Minotaurs are fond of mazes, but rarely build them. Hex is an architect, engineer, and overlord all in one. A self-declared "Minotaur Lord", he is the only one of his kind known to exist. His lair is all he has, a gargantuan, ever-expanding labyrinth in which he keeps the spoils of his many conquests in youth. Now an ancient veteran, he works tirelessly to keep his hoard safe and to entice new adventurers to test themselves against his gauntlet of lethal traps. Tyrants and Hellions is a Dungeon Master's aide, containing fifteen villains complete with schemes, lairs, backstories, and everything else you need to drop them into your own 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Within its 400 pages you'll also find the methods, both mechanical and thematic, used to create villains that spark the imaginations of your players. Hex is one of these villains, and his adventure takes up 33 pages (pg 110-143). Published by 2CGaming