"Barrow of the Elf King" is an evocative and intricate adventure module, specifically tailored for a party of 3-4 level one adventurers using "The Vanilla Game" rule set. This adventure delves into the mystical and eerie depths of an ancient barrow deep within the Old Forest, a place shrouded in darkness and mystery. It offers an experience that combines puzzles, combat, moral choices, and exploration, all set within a hauntingly atmospheric setting. "Deep in the Old Forest, where the trees grow tall and thick, where the sun rarely pierces the canopy, is an earthen mound. No birds sing in this part of the forest, no wind blows. The leaves of the trees seem larger, the canopy thicker. Even at mid-day, it is almost too dark to see" The HTML web version is free.
Long ago the dwarf-like "Dverg" established a "forge" hidden deep beneath the earth where they forged weapons of "cold" iron. Cold iron was considered a far superior material and was especially effective against Trolls and could even damage ghosts. The forge is thought have been long abandoned and priceless artifacts of great power are rumored to lie forgotten beneath the Altis mountains. Among them is rumored to be the fabled Axe of Mortality - a weapon said to be powerful enough to slay a god. Is your party brave enough to venture out in search of these valuables? Flameless Forge of the Dverg is a free/pwyw dungeon crawling adventure designed for level 1-3 Shadowdark RPG characters. The adventure is assumed to take place in a viking-esque fantasy setting, but can be adapted by tweaking some names and figuring out replacements for the nordic gods.
The Plains series wraps up with 150th Filbar offering Dominion of Sophicles the Virulent! This adventure starts with the PCs hearing of a town in trouble. After learning of trouble in the Village of Ardeth the PCs arrive via boat and quickly discover the community has been attacked by humanoid forces. A successful track will lead the party to one of the toughest adversaries in the land….Sophicles, the Green Dragon!
Legend tells of a long-dead empire of sphinxes, ruled over for millennia by a great queen named Ankharet. She fell into darkness and her empire was shattered, as her subjects rebelled and cast her down. Unable to kill her, it is said that they bound her with great magic and buried her in a tomb, to wait for the foretold heroes who would be able to slay her and end her evil forever. Their empire in ashes, the sphinxes scattered to roam the world in bitter freedom, save a single great androsphinx. On the edge of the mysterious Barren Hills, between the mountains and the Great Desert, there is a gigantic statue of a crowned gynosphinx, ancient beyond reckoning. At its feet, a great androsphinx known as Khubsheth the Prophet has dispensed counsel and prophecy to all who come to him for longer than mortal records can tell. The heroes have come to visit Khubsheth, whether for counsel, prophecy or out of curiosity, but as soon as he lays eyes on them, he attacks! Upon his defeat, he tells them that they are the heroes foretold by the legend of Ankharet. Ankharet ruled over a long-dead empire of sphinxes, but she fell into darkness. Her subjects rebelled and cast her down, but were unable to kill her. It is said that they bound her with great magic and buried her in a tomb, to wait for the foretold heroes who would be able to slay her and end her evil forever. Kubsheth the Prophet tells the heroes that they must enter the tomb of the long-dead sphinx queen, kill her, and destroy her cursed crown, an artifact of tremendously evil power. As his blood seeps into the sands, a doorway opens at the base of the statue, leading down into darkness…
You hear rumours of an unclaimed wizard's tower, a worthy prize for any practitioner of the arcane arts! Do you have what it takes to face its challenges and claim it as your own? This is a one-to-one adventure designed for one player of the wizard class and one DM.
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 had just entered the citadel in the last episode. Are they now dealing with hauling statues or fighting angry staircases in their efforts to get to the second floor?
You and your associates were planning on making it big as adventurers...you just didn't think it would happen so soon! This one page offering takes the players through the wilderness with an opportunity to swing by for some healing as well!
In the parched desert sands, a mirage glistens invitingly on the horizon, but the nearest water is a hard day’s march in the opposite direction. You swear you smell the faint wet smell like coming rain when the wind shifts just right and see the stars reflected off some far lake at night. There’s no water here, just a lone sandblasted pillar, its features smeared by centuries of sand. Smell that? The brine of ocean mist? Here? Is the pillar made of coral polyps and mollusk shells? What is this place? An aquatic temple magically transported to an arid environment. Based on the author’s one-page map that was published in Knock #2 by Merry Mushmen. Published by Duvelman Dice.
The party is called to investigate ghostly wails heard in a nearby crypt where a noble knight was supposedly laid to rest centuries ago. Un-beknownst to the townsfolk, the crypt actually holds the remains of a bandit lord, who was dressed in the knight’s armor as part of the knight’s plan to fake his death. The wailing is caused by the restless spirit of the bandit lord, newly awakened by mischievous fey who now play pranks on the village for their own amuse-ment. Players will need to navigate traps and puzzles set by the fey, uncover the truth of the crypt’s inhabitant, and lay the bandit lord’s spirit to rest.
Laveth, Lolth's half drow daughter, is plotting to seize power from her chaotic evil mother.
A sorceress discovered how to access the Temple of Harmony. Since then, day and night no longer follow their natural cycle. The sorceress has never been seen again. The adventurers are responsible for solving this problem: by gathering the masks of the entities on an altar, the cycle will be restored, but nothing will be the same as before… 'The Six Masks of Harmony' is a system-agnostic pointcrawl, focusing on social interaction. The players will be transported to a temple in the clouds where the six spirits of day and night once lived in harmony. The delicate balance between the forces of the temple's inhabitants was shattered when an intruder decided to interfere. What really happened here? Will the characters manage to escape alive? Play to find out! What you'll find here: A complete 8-site one-page pointcrawl adventure with easy preparation. A GM's Pamphlet containing tips on how to run the adventure and adding a table of random encounters and 6 magic items (the 6 masks of harmony).
A Kiss to Build a Dream On is a 5e-compatible dream-delve for four level 7 characters. It plays for 3-4 hours. Queen Aisling, newly free of insomnia (see The Trouble with Dreams), has become an avid dreamer. A little too avid in the eyes of some. Under ducal questioning, her Majesty confessed there was something more going on; She’s fallen in love with a man she has seen in her dreams. The adventurers have been assembled to mount an expedition into the Realms of Slumber. With the aid of an uneasy Somnomancer, a magic spell, and an ice pick, a rift to the Realms of Slumber is opened! Warning: die in the Realms of Slumber and you’ll be damned to sleepwalk the rest of your life - a fate worse than death! The heroes are entrusted with an Interdimensional Valise. It functions as a Bag of Holding, except that it can also carry Dream Creatures into the real world. To appease the Queen, the adventurers must get the Man of Her Dreams into the Valise and then return with him to the Waking World. The adventurers will be rewarded with a Knighthood and an Estate in the Vinelands (10,000gp value) if they succeed.
The nefarious master wrestler Dib, the goblin, is "terrorizing" the streets of the town (or city). Since his defeat in his roadside fortress, the would-be chieftain has plotted his revenge. Gathering to him a new batch of dim minions, Dib has transformed a stolen merchant wagon into a machine of war. The wagon is powered by several goblins inside who, while devoted to Dib, lack the strength to pedal the thing quickly or consistently. Dib's plan to wreak a path of havoc through the streets has resulted in something a bit more disappointing. In this light-hearted and quirky adventure for four first- or second-level PCs, the party must confront the war wagon, gain entry to it, and defeat its defenders—the lives of several potted plants and a few market stalls depend on it!
Stepping through a door can mean a grand adventure - or a horrifying death. The shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line. A number of magic towers connected by failing teleportation magic. Abandoned in ages past, other creatures now make the towers their homes and provide challenges to parties of varying levels. Pgs. 34-42
In the frozen depths of winter, murderous winds mercilessly batter the crumbling Priory of Cymer. Within, trapped by their duty and the heaped snowdrifts that render travel near impossible, the few remaining faithful huddle together and tend the sacred places of their forbears. With the weather worsening, nerves fray and tempers snap as the wind howls its mournful dirge for the forgotten dead of a fallen time. But the worst is yet to come. One of those trapped within holds a murderous grudge that only blood can expunge and as the storm reaches its savage height terrible revenge is wrought amid the frigid halls and faded glories of a bygone age. A 1st level adventure that is so much more than a trip to stop goblins killing cows. Great NPCs and a great location gives this the feel of The Name Of The Rose.
A vast, sprawling mega-dungeon beneath the ruins of a nearby castle. Reports have surfaced of stockpiles of wealth within the passages. Regions previously devoid of monsters are reported to teem with renewed activity. Magical and mundane traps have brought foolhardy explorers to their doom. Changes within the passages and chambers have rendered old maps and knowledge dangerously unreliable if not outright useless. To the bold and daring, only one message needs to be heard: the castle and its dungeons are once more ripe for exploration, and new legends are ready to be made. Note: This adventure requires three books for it to be complete (sold as a package): Adventure Book, Map Book, and Illustration Book. Published by BRW Games
A spirit is attacking a town — no one knows why, but they’re determined to be rid of her. The adventuring party is recruited to investigate. However, what appears to be a simple haunting turns into a story of justice. Pgs. 43-59
The frontier town of Ehrshire is expanding rapidly, much to the delight of the burgeoning town’s lord, Earl Wallace Viktir. In need of timber to expand his seat of power, the earl has sent logging crews to the surrounding forest, although recent delays have caused him to become anxious and impulsive. Earl Viktir has left for the logging site to see what is causing the setbacks, only to discover it disturbingly vacant! The task now falls to the PCs to catch up with the missing Earl Viktir and sort out the trouble in the woods, but such as task is easier said than done. Something has roused the local plant-life into a frenzy, as if the entire forest has an axe to grind against the loggers! Will the party be able to get to the root of the problem… or will they be left barking up the wrong tree? Dungeons on Demand is a line instant dungeons you can drop into your campaign, each is designed for 4-5 player parties of specified levels, and each dungeon is complete with a back story, hand drawn maps, traps, puzzles, and reference information to monsters and treasure. You can customize each one to fit in your campaign however you wish, and each one can be played through in one or two gaming sessions.
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.
Explore an abandoned wizard’s tower in this short mini dungeon! This adventure is a Micro Dungeon. Preface Long ago a wise wizard named Adubeus lived deep within the forest. As he lived, he would pass out nuggets of wisdom to those in need, and aid the local townsfolk in times most dire. Long past are these happy days, however, and the kindly old wizard has not been seen in many decades. Some say he found a calling elsewhere in the world, while others whisper of his demise at the hands of a secret experiment gone awry. One thing is certain, however. His tower, long forgotten, still stands out there in the forest. Occasionally, some hapless person wanders upon it much to their personal peril. The specific details of Adubeus are left vague on purpose. This small adventure is intended to be played as part of a larger campaign, and the location can be modified to fit your setting. The reasons for your adventuring party to be heading towards the tower are entirely up to you, however, below are some good sample adventure hooks.