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.
Something is amiss in the town of Rhiannon. Recently raided by a band of vile creatures, the citizens of Rhiannon were shocked to find their lord at the root of the incident. And now Lord Kent is holding a competition for “all walks of life with a propensity for the gambling arts.” Will the PC aid the citizens of Rhiannon and uncover the truth about the mysterious Lord Kent? Or will the PC take this opportunity to line her own pockets? Either way, the answers lie inside the walls of Lord Kent’s keep and the gamblers within.
A flock of kenku bandits have discovered the ruined remains of a temple site, and have used it as their hideout while they raid unsuspecting travelers on nearby roads. It's up to the PCs to clear their nest, recover stolen goods, and rescue their hostages. Will the players be bested by these dirty birds? Or will they have the bandits eating crow?
What would Greenpeace say about this problem? Last night the Vikings were your hosts. Now, you're in the middle of their feud. A beached whale is claimed by two Viking houses, and is necessary to the survival of both. Player characters are caught in the middle. Roleplaying, politics, negotiation. Set in generic Viking fantasy setting. Pgs. 36-38
The lands that lie west, across the great sea, are uncharted. The West March Company has spent a fortune on an expedition to loot and tame it. You are part of that expedition. You are the desperate, the outcast, the destitute. This new world is weird and dangerous. Rumours abound of a city of tombs. A cursed dwarven fortress in the mountain. Mist-covered swamps that howl in the night. Pass that treasure map around the table. Drink deeply from your cups and imagine what awaits in the wilderness: gold, glory, death. Inside West Marches Company: A Grim Promise you'll find: Twelve new monsters to surprise and terrify your players. A cult of worms, a city of tombs, centaur khans and a twenty-page dwarven fortress dungeon crawl with over forty rooms. Loaded with art, evocative descriptions, weird NPC's and 2 new magic items. High resolution maps of both dungeons: Kazad Mor The Cursed Dwarfhome and Tunnels Beneath Fort Bramble This module can be run as a standalone adventure or as a west marches style game.
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.
Do you want to run or play an adventure where characters start at level 13 instead of ending at level 13, and actually get to progress to 20 like the rules say they should? Do your players like to travel far and wide, exploring a huge unknown area? Do your players like to change their plans on a whim, and travel somewhere other than where they told you they planned to go last session? Do your players feel like fighting against an empire at odds of 20,000 to 1? Do your players want to commit occasional acts of sky piracy? Do you want an adventure that is designed to handle players using Scrying, Transport Via Plants, and Teleportation on a daily basis? If you answered yes to some of these questions, this adventure may be for you. Check out the detailed preview packet, which includes a campaign log showing how this adventure has actually played out. WARNING: FULL OF SPOILERS; VERY LONG. Against the Idol of the Sun is an epic hexcrawl campaign designed for high-level play. Adventuring parties should start at about level 13, and will likely end the campaign at level 20 with multiple Epic Boons. As a hexcrawl, there is no set adventure path that the party must follow. There is only one encounter that's even close to plot-mandatory aside from the climactic battle. Anything else can be skipped or handled in any order. The players are free to move about the map in any direction at any time, limited only by the risk of enemy action and encounters. The DM, meanwhile, is encouraged to have foes react to and actively hunt the PCs once they become a threat. Along the way, they may find and explore a number of dungeons, including a millenia-old laboratory in the grips of a time distortion, several mines that were abandoned for good reason yet may hold wealth within, and other challenges appropriate for high-level characters. This module is heavy on Exploration and Combat, but the Social aspect of D&D also is necessary as the player characters meet new peoples, work to convince them that they can make a difference, motivate them to action, and create overall plans for the NPCs and factions to follow off-screen to support the players in their main assaults. The key set piece encounters, which are optional but highly probable, involve attacking well-defended temples in the centers of enemy cities. Planning for these attacks will require paying attention to reconnaissance, timing, the use of allies, how to enter, and how to exit and break contact succesfully when dealing with enemies that fly faster than most player characters can walk. The adventure does not include artwork, and the maps are basic.
A 20th level one-shot "An ancient white dragon guards a mystical portal. Its power grows and threatens the world with eternal winter. Can the adventurers close the portal and defeat the dragon? Or will they end up just another frozen snack?" Not sure of what to throw at your epic level players? Try this! This 20-page, 4-6 hour adventure is sure to give them a chance to prove their worth. It includes... - An arctic location adaptable for any campaign - Three large battle maps - Action-oriented stat blocks for all monsters - Snow weirds! - ...and other stuff! Perfect as a high-level one-shot or a campaign finale.
Attacks by the undead are on the rise in and near the swamp. Rumr has it that the swamp was once an elvish settlement, lost long ago to ruin and sunken into the marsh. But one structure, at least, has yet to be consumed by the swamp. And a long dead cultist of Orcus, buried in that forgotten mausoleum, has returned from the dead. Includes A short adventure for 4-5 characters of 3rd to 4th level A map of the Nightshine Mausoleum Stat blocks for all monsters Unnumbered map suitable for use in your favorite VTT.
Twenty years ago, the humans built a dam and flooded Gormelin Valley. They drove the Cinderborn goblins away from their land. But now the Cinderborn are back and they want vengeance. The dam must fall and the human towns must drown! Damnation is a set of two parallel adventures that cover the same events, locations and characters. In The Heroes' Tale, the players control a traditional heroic party. They get to attend a wine festival, save a town from a flood, dive to the bottom of a lake, choose between retaliation and negotiation, and face a demon atop the dam as he attempts to demolish it. The Goblins' Tale tells the other side of the story, allowing players to take control of a party of goblins. As the Cinderborn, they must deal with human spies, sneak into a wizard's tower, trigger a catastrophic flood, choose between peace and vengeance, face their own demonic leader, or aid him in breaking the dam. Also included: maps and goblin pregens!
This week’s encounter is April Showers and Foul Flowers, a combat encounter that could also become a puzzle for the druids and rangers in your party. While the characters travel through a beautiful meadow, smelling the scents of flowers and earth after a rain, the flowers at their feet spring to life and attack, threatening to entangle and devour them! These foul flowers were animated by the foul magic of a dark sorceress who infused the rain itself with her evil. The characters could fight back against the sorceress and her army of animated plants, or they could try to undo her spell and save the flowers—and the nymph that guards them.
Red for love, white for purity, black for death. He was thoughtful, obedient, and trustworthy - the epitome of a traitor. All he needed were some heroes. A powerful undead knight, Agrovale, wants to be released from a necromancer named Talakara. He sets in motion an elaborate plan to get the players involved in overthrowing Talakara in her bid to become a goddess. He frames the necromancer for a kidnapping and murder and leaves a trail of clues to lead the players to her stronghold. The party travels through an extensive stronghold filled with many different monsters, finishing with a fight with the demigod Talakara and subsequently the freedom-seeking Agrovale. Pgs. 38-63
𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑-𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐏! 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐙𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐔𝐒 is a fifth edition (5E) conversion of the ground-breaking introductory adventure for Dungeons & Dragons that served as a DM aid in the first 𝐃&𝐃 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐞𝐭, released by TSR in 1977. This set included a 48-page rulebook covering the first three levels of play, and was skillfully edited by 𝐃𝐫. 𝐉. 𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐬 from the original 1974 D&D rules written by 𝐆𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐆𝐲𝐠𝐚𝐱 and 𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧. Holmes advanced the "Sample Dungeon" concept by writing a new thematic dungeon with a strong backstory, creating an adventure that has remained a fan favorite over the decades. Officially, its only title is "Sample Dungeon" but colloquially it goes by various names based on Zenopus, the doomed wizard who built the dungeon under his tower. An adventure for 1st to 2nd level characters; four pregenerated characters are included. Also includes ideas for using it as an adventure site in 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐡. 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: Using this conversion requires a copy of the original dungeon found in the (1977) Basic D&D rulebook. However, Wizards of the Coast has provided a free pdf of this dungeon since 2008 on their website, see the first page of the pdf for the link. 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒: Introduction, page 2 The Setting, page 3 About the Dungeon, page 4 Dungeon Master's Map, page 5 Areas of the Dungeon, pages 6-13 Appendix A: Further Reading, page 13 Appendix B: Dungeon Factions, page 14 Appendix C: Portown Rumors, pages 15-17 Appendix D: Use with Ghosts of Saltmarsh, pages 18-19 Appendix E: Pre-generated 1st level characters, page 20 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐍𝐏𝐂𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟓𝐄: Cleaning Cube, Veteran Smuggler, Thaumaturgist, Monstrous Sand Crab, Lemunda, Monstrous Rat, Brazen Head of Zenopus, Verminslayer Longsword, Lesser Wand of Petrification, Scroll of Stone to Flesh The Ruined Tower of Zenopus was featured as part of the "D&D Classics" column in Issue #32 of Dragon+ magazine! Go to 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐚𝐠.𝐜𝐨𝐦 or find the link on the Wikipeda page for Dragon magazine. 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐒: Original Dungeon: J. Eric Holmes Conversion, Added Content & Cartography: Zach Howard Content Review & Editing: Scott McKinley Interior Art: Chris Holmes (“Octopus Attack”, page 9) Cover Art: “Italian Coast Scene with Ruined Tower” by Thomas Cole, 1838. Open Access Image from the National Gallery of Art at images.nga.gov Format: Derived from the “Adventure Template for Open Office/LibreOffice” by Dale Robbins on DMs Guild Dungeon Maps drawn using the application Gridmapper by Alex Schroeder
In a distant dimension of existence, a collective of Modrons run experimental tests to find the answer to one question: What draws adventurers to places known as "Dungeons"? Hijacking the travel of adventuring parties, these Modrons subject them to a series of tests in their artificially created dungeon. Deadly combat, logic puzzles, "moral" challenges, and a plot about a kidnapped "Maiden" Modron by an "Evil Wizard Construct" can be found within. But not all is as it seems... Leading the experiment is a rogue Modron officer named the Creative Director, who has gone mad and morphed the tests into an elaborate death trap for adventurers. Seeking revenge against those it considers responsible for its “imprisonment”, it pits the adventurers against ever escalating challenges. Who will defeat the Creative Director and put an end the mad tests?
Ka-boom! A mad bomber terrorizes the city of Red Fern. Can you unravel the string of clues and bring this criminal to justice? A follow up to Dungeon Magazine #79 The Best Laid Plans Pgs. 12-27 & 86
Weeds trail the water. The sandbar just off the shore shifts. A reptile rumble, a splash. Now a gaping maw. A roar. Claws splintering wood. The boat capsizes. You are in the river, now. He is the Bachelor: a pale crocodile, as long as five men lying end to end. He swallows hunters, families, trading skiffs. Prospectors fear to go out. Witches mutter. They say he causes landslips. They say he is a god, a curse -- an old, old sin, staining the river. They say he has been killed, before. He is pulling you under. Lorn Song of the Bachelor is a 48-page riverine adventure and dungeon crawl module, inspired by the crocodile stories of Southeast Asia -- particularly Sarawak. It features: Tragedy, a bloody curse, and a love gone very sour Open-ended factional interplay between local villagers, a foreign merchant Company, and a giant supernatural crocodile -- and its motivating spirits Multiple random tables, including: magical fabrics woven by god-possessed craftspersons; trinkets of a now-fallen Monkey Empire; medicinal herbs and animals 19 new creatures, including: mind-controlling catfish; golems made of teeth; a pregnant tiger spirit Wilderness travel up an enchanted river An extraplanar dungeon complex that can change the surrounding environment A morally complex treatment of colonialism, within the framework of an adventure module A giant crocodile who really wants to eat you
Along the caravan routes that tie the Cities of the West to the Kingdoms of the East, many tales are told of the mountains called the Towers of the Sun. One of these legends concerns a dark road said to be hidden among the twisty trails that spiderweb the mountains. Into the earth the road leads, into and through a series of vast caverns filled with treacherous traps and cunning monsters. Yet dangerous though the path is, many a party of adventurers have been tempted to walk it, for the stories say that the loot of a hundred lost caravans lies concealed along that evil way. [Comment: Uncertain for what levels of play this adventure is designed]
Your time on the mainland of Calentria has come to an end and with an appropriated ship you find yourself approaching a collection of island in the middle of the ocean. Some of the sailors that have ventured into this area before report there may be a language barrier. As you approach a large land mass a dark shape in the sky seems to take notice of you…
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.
Into the Forsaken Temple's Crypt is a short adventure for four 10th-level characters. The adventure takes place in a buried temple crypt, which has been sealed for centuries. Dungeon Masters can adjust it for higher-level characters by widening the dead magic areas and increasing the number and power of constructs and undead that inhabit the complex. The PCs had just entered the Forsaken Temple's crypt in the last episode. Now they can begin to penetrate deeper into the crypt, discovering more of its hidden dangers.