About a year ago, an adventuring party found themselves encumbered with more treasure than they knew what to do with. After brief deliberation, the group buried their hoard in a remote grotto inhabited by water birds. It was only a matter of time until one of the resident scavengers exhumed a most unfortunate item. Armed with a headband of intellect and a stash of other equipment for the taking, Belladonna the Bin Chicken began to study the abandoned spellbooks. The ambitious fowl quickly advanced as a mage, and set her sights on conquest of the surrounding areas.
Your party approaches a barrow at the base of the mountain. A raging storm brews overhead, and as you approach, a bolt of lightning strikes down on the peak of the mound, lighting up the world all around you. A thunderclap momentarily deafens you, and as your eyes adjust to the resuming grey of the dark day, you see a flicker of firelight emerging from the two gaping holes built into the side of the hill. You’ve found the pirates camping within the Barrow of the Raging Storm. As I delivered it to my players, the premise of this Midnight Sun adventure is that some pirates have been attacking ships returning from raids. They have been stealing the loot and the corpses of any slain Nords. Among their victims, a ship from Valthis returns to tell them that the pirates sailed upriver (to hex 506), where I placed the Barrow in my Shadowdark RPG campaign. The adventurers started from there and explored the dungeon thoroughly. The adventure was created using the tools described in the Shadowdark RPG core rules. I created it in about 6 hours between 2024-03-08 and 2024-03-09 and ran it for my group on the 9th. It took about 2.25 hours to play to completion. The party consisted of two level 1 characters and one level 2 character. I had so much fun making and running this that I will continue creating more Midnight Sun Adventures, so stay tuned!
A side-quest adventure - An abandoned keep in the forest provides a exploration sidequest, and an excellent base of operations for your party once cleared. Includes a great new monster and mechanic to repair the keep. Published by Limitless Adventures
"The Devil Box" is a D&D adventure suitable for four 2nd-level PCs, although it can be modified for parties of 1st or 4th-5th levels as noted int the "Scaling the Adventure" sidebar. Characters completing the adventure are likely to advance to 3rd level. Much of the action takes place in a small town during a festival; this town can easily be dropped into an existing campaign. Since "The Devil Box" expects the PCs to deal with kobolds as temporary allies, it throws in some ethical dilemmas for good-aligned characters. Paladins and good-aligned clerics my have difficulties with such an alliance, but kobolds are definitely the lesser of the two evils involved in this adventure. If the party spurns the assistance of potential kobold allies, you may wish to modify the adventure to make it a bit easier on the player characters, as encounters have been written with the assumption that the heroes have a little help. Uploader's note: A hilariously creepy adventure involving a circus (freakshow), with in style illustrations! (Grid maps included, but not separate maps.)
Even bad guys have heroes they look up to. The Silver Knight is a champion among the orcs, a title that is passed from orc to orc. As one falls in battle another rises, and the lineage continues. Forged of an ancient compact between deities of fate and heroism, the secret to the Silver Knight’s immortality lies in the signet ring worn by every Silver Knight. 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. The Silver Knight is one of these villains, and their adventure takes up 17 pages (pg 180-197). Published by 2CGaming
The adventure takes players from a town devastated by an unexpected flood, through a drowned land where nature is turned upside down and desperate families cling to the roofs of their ruined homes, hiding from the monstrous products of a disordered world, through the strange tomb of an ancient race, to a profundal zone, hidden for millennia and now exposed, and finally to the Observatory itself, an eerie abandoned treasure palace, where they will encounter a pale and unexpected terror which will seek to claim their lives. The adventure is suitable for a lucky mid-range party, a stupid high-level party or an exceedingly clever low level party. It is difficult, with a meaningful possibility of character death. Should you find them, and defeat their guardians, the treasures of an ancient culture will be yours. At the final point of the Observatory is a glimpse of another world. Published by False Machine Publishing
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?
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?
You are hired by a mine operator to retrieve the mine's gnomish engineer who has barricaded himself in the mine's lower reaches. But there's more going on than just a crazy gnome and his robots sabotaging the mine. You'll need to explore the forest, build alliances, and brave a rollercoaster ride on a mine cart to get to the bottom of this adventure (pun intended). This is a gamebook-style solo adventure that you can play in your browser. You make a 2nd level character sheet, roll your own dice, keep up with your inventory, spells, and HP, and are on your honor to be honest. It's all text-based with some public domain illustrations, and you click on options as you make decisions and roll the dice.
Long ago, before the arrival of civilized humanoids, a large colony of ogres thrived in the local area. When a great invasion from another dimension threatened this colony, their king, Koptila, prayed for his people to be spared. The gods heard these pleas, but commanded Koptila to sacrifice himself. The leader did so, and the clan disappeared—whisked away by the gods and lost to time. Over the years, a city grew up above the former subterranean home of the ogres, and no aspect of Koptila’s ancient bargain was preserved or remembered. Even so, the stars are aligned for the return of Koptila and his people. These powerful repatriates are unlikely to appreciate the changes in their old home. A sage has found dusty documents prophesying this return, and he asks the PCs to investigate the catacombs to defeat the potential threat to the city. The PCs travel down through city sewers and subterranean passages before finding the catacombs that the ogre colony once called home. Pgs. 48-53
People keep asking for "beginner" dungeons. Everyone can name "classic" dungeons - Tomb of Horrors, Barrier Peaks, Ravenloft, etc. - but in order for those adventures to make sense, there needs to be some sort of introduction. It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano. I had the same questions, and since I couldn't find anything satisfactory, I decided to write the kind of dungeon I would have loved to find. I wanted to write the best basic OSR dungeon for beginners that I could, and I also wanted to show the design process. If you like this dungeon, please share it, tell people about it, print copies and leave them lying around local game stores, or email this post to friends who have "always wanted to try D&D but don't know where to start". The entire thing is and always will be free.
Something is amiss in the remote mountain town of Zuria. The head priest has not filed a report in months, and traders following the winding road into the high-altitude valley do not find their way back home. The Church of Palnor, benefactor and watchers of the Tomb of Kings, are greatly concerned. Can the PC discover what has happened in this isolated mountain town before events turn disastrous?
The Lost City is a low-level adventure, in which the only hope of the PCs' survival can be found in a ruined city slowly rising out of the sands. The adventure is set inside a huge step pyramid, with the lower pyramid only sketched out and the city itself described with a list of the major areas and a map. The adventure’s main villain is Zargon, a giant one-eyed monster and his minions. The entire double pyramid, not including the city, contains over 100 rooms. The module is designed to give novice Dungeon Masters experience fleshing out adventures and is only partially complete. Later TSR material hints that this adventure possibly takes place in Mystara, but the material is largely setting-neutral. TSR #9049
The shifting desert sands have revealed an ancient obelisk from a forgotten age, an obsidian monolith whose presence is having an unsettling effect on the surrounding desert. Ancient dead arise from the dunes, dangerous jackalweres launch attacks on caravans and villages, and the mysterious Order of the Obsidian Eye has flocked to the unearthed ruin for reasons no doubt dire. What monstrous portents do these events foretell?
Ten days ride north of the great city, there is a small town named Treefall. Up until recently, this town was well known for its rich harvests, happy villagers, and prosperous weather. These days, however, the once-proud details from Treefall have turned darker. Instead of tales of unending prosperity, you hear hushed whispers of a great curse that has struck the once-happy village. Word has it that, where once roamed contented cattle, now strange beasts hunt by the moon's cold light and terrorize the hapless region. You have scoffed with the others at these stories. Despite the things you've seen in you adventures with your friends, the thought that such ill might befall such a sleepy town strikes you as terribly unlikely. There is plenty of evil in the world, true, but there are also much bigger and better targets. But, tonight despite the firmness of your disbelief, the stories come to find you. You have been traveling north along the roads on your own business, enjoying the rich fall colors and warm afternoons. Your camp os small and secure, with a roaring fire and meat cooking over the flame. It's one of those crisp autumn days that makes you long for a warm hearth after a long ride in the cool air. Still, the fire is good enough for now and you and your friends have a wonderful meal, talking and singing and laughing, anticipating a restful sleep beneath the blanket of stars. Until the beast attacks.
Infinite broken night. Milky alien moons. Wavering demons of gold. Held in this jail of immortal threats are three perfect sisters... Maze of the Blue Medusa is a dungeon. Maze of the Blue Medusa is art. Maze of the Blue Medusa works with your favorite fantasy tabletop RPGs. And Maze of the Blue Medusa is the madly innovative game book from the award-winning Zak Sabbath of A Red & Pleasant Land and Patrick Stuart of Deep Carbon Observatory. Lethal gardens, soul-rending art galleries, infernal machines—Maze of the Blue Medusa reads like the poetic nightmare of civilizations rotted to time, and plays like a puzzle-box built from risk and weird spectacle. Art by Zak Sabbath; text by Patrick Stuart and Zak Sabbath. Publisher is Satyr Press.
You and your associates have been contacted by Janko Milosh, fourth Earl of Tambish. Apparently, he has come into possession of a cursed item and he requires it be delivered to someone he trusts to examine it. With no mounts and none for sale, you better hope your boots are in good shape!
When a vile and mysterious plague strikes the city of H'vari, the Satrap orders a quarantine until the disease is cured. The PCs become trapped in a city in the throes of an epidemic.The players must venture into seedy tenements, walk among the dead and dying, uncover the unique symptoms and find a cure. Will the players solve the mystery behind the pestilence or will they themselves succumb to the coming plague... "The Coming Plague" is a four-hour adventure for 3-6 players. It is written for characters of 4th-7th level. The PCs are trapped in a plague-ridden city until they discover the source of the disease, a vile Otyugh. This module includes a two hand rendered maps and a new goddess to add to any pantheon. ...the vile Otyugh busts from the water and lashes out with it's disgusting, ropy tentacles! It's howls and bleeps are like nails on a chalkboard. It seems happy that a fresher meal has come along...
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?
A monster amonkst us... The monastery of Montelegro was once a major center of academia, but it fell out of favor when its library burned to the ground some 20 years ago. (The fire is rumored to have been started by the candle of a monk who fell asleep while reading.) Without books to attract scholars and patrons, the order of monks that run the monastery has dwindled. Now the monastery is a mere shell, its once-thriving halls empty. Only 21 monks remain. The order that runs Montelegro supports a number of scribes dedicated to copying and illuminating books of all kinds. The most talented of these illuminators was Brother Abel of Corbone, a young monk fresh out of the university. A few days prior to the adventure, Brother Abel witnessed a miraculous sight. While walking about on the outskirts of the monastery, he beheld a vision of his god. The vision instructed him to build a well upon the spot where he stood. If Abel did this, the god promised prosperity would return to Montelegro. Unfortunately Brother Abel was unable to fulfill his god's vision and appears to have taken his own life.... Or was there Murder in the Monastery? Pgs. 8-17 & 55