Centuries ago, the four deities worshipped by mortals – Kishar, Kotaresh, Lyth, and Asar-Segt – threatened to drown the world in a flood of saltwater to punish the living for their impiety. The oracles and witches of the realm struck a desperate bargain with the gods, however, and convinced them to spare the world. In exchange, the mortal kingdoms were bound to demonstrate their faith once every generation by sending their most courageous and adroit warriors to the Crucible, a ziggurat in the lowest valley of the land. Every quarter-century, on the first full moon of summer, an eclipse darkens the night and the sealed ziggurat opens. Many traps, tricks, and guardians lie within the Crucible to test those who enter. Few who heed the challenge of the gods survive – most find only quick death. If the races of the world are deserving of the gods’ affection, their champions will overcome the trials of the Crucible and light the Divine Brazier hidden in its uppermost chamber. If they are not, the flickering candle of civilization will be snuffed. Little of value will have been lost. Published by Defy Danger and Save Versus Death

Old soldiers never die... For more than three decades, Dr. Rudolph van Richten stood against the forces of darkness, and hunted their servants in the far corners of the land of Mists. Now he had thought his long battle over, had thought he could spend his declining years in quiet enjoyment with old friends. But for some, a tragic end is inevitable. Dark forces have been gathering in the Mists. Their objective is to see Ravenloft's foremost expert on the supernatural destroyed, shattered in spirit as well as in body. From the crumbling edifice of Van Richten's childhood home, an enemy long thought vanquished spins a web of powerful evils and lost souls, drawing Van Richten to his doom. And then a group of heroes gets trapped in the web as well. . . . Witness the final stand of Rudolph van Richten! Inside this box is a grand-scale Ravenloft adventure that pushes heroes to the brink of madness, and draws them into the terrifying scheme to annihilate Rudolph van Richten. TSR 1141

While resting in the merchant City of Gurdikar, a merchant approaches the party to investigate the disappearance of his nephew, whom he believes was betrayed by a rival house. The party must go into the into the mountain valley to find the missing nephew, return him if alive and discover any evidence of suspected treachery. Pgs. 43-51

A proud paladin’s quest for glory against marauding orcs ends in tragic failure with his disappearance and presumed death. Worse still, an artifact of his faith entrusted to him has gone missing. Can the adventurers reclaim the artifact and force an end to the hostilities, or will the brightest beacon of good in the Western Heartlands be extinguished? Pgs. 28-43

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

A storm of unparalleled fury has been ravaging the peaks of the Earthspur Mountains for a tenday, and the Monastery of the Yellow Rose sits in its eye for now. Some monks have fled the monastery to the safety of Mulmaster and beseech you to convince their more obstinate brothers to retreat to the city before the eye of the storm shifts, and the monestary is in terrible danger. Can you brave the elements and convince the monks to escape?

Evil schemes are afoot in Cauldron, a metropolis of merchants built into the caldera of a long-dormant volcano. To foil the agenda of evil cultists, your band of adventurers must brave haunted jungle ruins, slay mighty dragons, and bind themselves to a layer of the infinite Abyss. Will their swords and spells be enough to save the Shackled City? Originally published as 11 linked adventures in the award-winning Dungeon magazine, the Shackled City Adventure Path is the most ambitious official Dungeons & Dragons campaign ever created. Now, for the first time ever, everything you need to play the campaign has been compiled into a deluxe 416-page full-color hardcover that also includes an 8-panel fully detailed map of the City of Cauldron, a 16-page full-color map and illustration booklet, and a brand new Shackled City adventure written by fan favorite author Christopher Perkins.

The party makes their way into a small mining village by the name of Skalintown. They quickly realize that the people here are terrified, hiding behind closed doors and peering out through boarded up windows. A gang of criminals that call themselves The Calamity have promised to destroy the city and everyone in it if they don't receive a tribute of twenty thousand gold by the end of the week. This is a poor town and even with everyone's wealth combined, it doesn't come close to that value . . . but they are fighters. Perhaps all they need to hold back these invaders is some help. The deadline is four days away and the closest town that would be able to help is three days travel one-way. Skalintown tried to reach out for aid, but no one cared enough to risk their own lives to help them. Now they must rely on your players for help. The party will need to rally the townsfolk and strategically decide how to prepare for the assault. Do they dig trenches to trip up enemy wolves, do they train the townsfolk to use crossbows, or perhaps they create explosives to detonate when the bandits make it into the city? Each of the party's decisions affect the final battle and means that every group will have a unique experience in their fight against The Calamity. This adventure is heavily influenced by the traditional Wild West shootout. Try to capture that feeling for your players by playing music of that era, in the way the townsfolk act and speak, and the way the town itself is operated. There are thousands of different options for the fight and if your players play their cards right, they make quick work of the gang and earn a pretty penny while they do so.

The town of Falcon's Hollow needs a miracle. The plague has come to the town of Falcon's Hollow, and not even the town's priest can abate its wretched course. With the coughs of the sick and the wails of the dying echoing through town, the local herbalist uncovers a cure, but she needs some brave heroes to retrieve the ingredients. Finding the cure means risking the dangerous Darkmoon Vale, infiltrating a witch's haunted hut, and delving the ruins of an abandoned dwarven monastery.

A little village with a turtle-shelled problem. An unusual visitor who likes villagers - medium rare. The Kappa ofPachee Bridge is an AD&D® game Oriental Adventures module. Whether a group of religious pilgrims or a samurai with, bushi attendants, any strangers passing through Pachee are stopped by the frantic rice farmers, pleading for aid. This encounter is designed to fit into any Oriental campaign and draws upon Japanese folk legends about the nature of lake kappa, considered here to be a subspecies of common kappa (Oriental Adventures, page 124). The village of Pachee is a remote and usually quiet spot where travelers rarely pause, a collection of 35 rice farmers and their extended families, with fishermen, hunters, and herdsmen, a smith, two carpenters, and a potter. It is named for Pachee-ko, a deep, stream-fed lake west of the village. The waters of Pachee-ko irrigate all the rice paddies and yield the fish that feed the townspeople. Pgs. 28-32

With danger close behind, the Broken Tusks journey through the bountiful but treacherous Lost Mammoth Valley in search of the Primordial Flame. The Tusks' scouts solve the riddles of the primordial valley and recruit a motley league of unlikely followers, all while evading the watchful gaze of the vale's villainous overlords. In order to fulfill their quest, the scouts must ultimately go toe to toe with these vile masters: a vicious white dragon, a sadistic necromancer, and a boarish beast-god. "Lost Mammoth Valley" is a Pathfinder adventure for four 4th-level characters by Jessica Catalan. This adventure continues the Quest for the Frozen Flame Adventure Path, a three-part monthly campaign in which the heroes lead a band of nomadic hunter-gatherers across a brutal primordial landscape. This adventure also includes an examination of megafauna, including advice and rules for creating your own new giant animals; a glossary of Mammoth Lords' depictions of Golarion's most popular deities; and new prehistoric creatures to befriend or bedevil your players. Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world's oldest fantasy RPG.

A plug in adventure that can be used as part of a larger campaign or run as a one shot for 3-4 Tier I characters (scalable for tier II characters) set in the Forgotten Realms. This adventure can be placed in other settings as well. The characters have learned of a new and young threat in the Mere of Dead Men. Sent to identify and solve the issue for the nearby people of the region there are multiple setups and information for continuing adventure within the Mere. The adventure comes with the following: 10 page PDF adventure file. 1 Regional Map of the Mere of Dead Men 3 Parchment style DM and Player maps ready for VTT use 3 Printer friendly DM and Player maps ready for VTT well as printer friendly DM and Player maps that are VTT ready 1” diameter tokens ready to be cut out for use in person as well as files for use in a VTT

The Frozen Necromancer is a three-part adventure for Fifth Edition that takes player characters from levels 1 to 4. This adventure is the first in a storyline of four modules called The Demonplague that can be used as an entire campaign that takes characters from level 1 to 20. The entire adventure (or just pieces, characters, or encounters from The Frozen Necromancer) can be dropped into any fantasy setting with minimal changes

CALLING ALL BEGINNER GMS AND PLAYERS! Prepare to be schooled! Exallizar Preparatory Academy is a place that, for generations, has trained the best and brightest heroes in the land. All of the students are the children of famous heroes, and as one of the fortunate attendees, it is your job to uphold the legacy of excellence attached to your family name. As a student in Exallizar, you will be put through the paces like never before. This first year will see you and three strangers attempting the Gauntlet – a mysterious crucible that will put all of your studies to the test! Also included in “A Learning Time”: The first look at an exciting new miniature campaign setting specifically intended for the basic version of Pathfinder Four new iconic pre-generated PCs for quick and immersive play A classic monster never before seen in the basic version of Pathfinder A grading system to let you know how well you’ve done at the end of the adventure The first chapter of a series of seasonally thematic modules that can be run to completion in 3-6 hours HERO LAB files available for all encounters within the adventure as well as the BASIC Iconics, all playable as PCs!

They say the legendary Ashes of Evensong have been found! In the year 689 DR, the song dragon Evensong was incinerated by Kallurous, a red dragon. In the wake of her death, Evensong’s ashes were gathered into a hundred urns by members of the Harpers. Originally intended as mere relics, the urns fell out of the Harpers’ possession when the caravan transporting them was ambushed. They were thereafter lost to history. Three months ago, stories began to circulate that at least one of the urns has been found. An artificer from the city of Elskar claims to have acquired some of Evensong’s ashes. According to his story the ashes are more potently magical than even residuum, created as they were from the mortal remains of a powerful magical creature burned to ash in the fires of an even more powerful dragon’s breath. This tale is dismissed by most, but certain factions and private interests aren’t willing to reject the possibility without investigation. If true, the artificer may be in possession of a highly dangerous and unfathomably valuable substance. More importantly, he may be in possession of the knowledge of where it came from, and the secret of what happened to the Ashes of Evensong all those centuries ago. In search of the truth behind a rumour that some of the Ashes of Evensong have been found, the player characters find that the Ashes are ultimately incidental to a far more worrying development. The trail of the Ashes leads them to the discovery of a fiend pact warlock operating among the ruling class of the city, a vault of forbidden magics the secrets of which have been breached, and a diabolic artefact about to be reclaimed in the name of a Duchess of Hell. With a focus on investigation, puzzles, and dangerous traps, Ashes of Evensong rewards players for caution and cleverness. Published by Spilled Ale Studios

Dread tales told in the dead of night! When the shadows grow long in Waterdeep and the fireplace in the taproom of the Yawning Portal dims to a deep crimson glow, adventurers from across the Forgotten Realms, and even from other D&D worlds, spin tales of dark dungeons and spread rumors lost treasures. Within this tome are seven of the deadliest dungeons from the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Some are classics that have hosted an untold number of adventurers, while others are newer creations, boldly staking a claim to their place in the pantheon of notable adventures. The seeds of these stories now rest in your hands. D&D’s deadliest dungeons are now part of your arsenal of adventures. Enjoy, and remember to keep a few spare character sheets handy. Includes seven adventures: Against the Giants Dead in Thay Forge of Fury Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Sunless Citadel Tomb of Horrors White Plume Mountain

Deep in the swamp, villagers claim something unnatural is happening at a large manor on the edge of town. A suspicious owner whose wife died years ago is attempting something dark and terrible, and it's up to the party to stop him. The true fun of this adventure lies in the house itself, which is filled with hidden references and homages to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, with the author himself filling the role as the suspicious home owner.

The night air is chilly, but the crackling fire you've started warms your bones comfortably. Crickets chirp, and you smile up at the stars, glad for the quiet evening. There is a loud roar, and you are blinded momentarily as the campfire suddenly surges up into the air. The flames split down the middle, revealing an abyss that leeches the warmth from your soul. Out of this hellish place stumbles a black-cloaked figure clutching a scythe. Quickly, you reach for your weapons. The strange apparition staggers for a moment. Then, gathering its strength, it pulls back the hood on its cloak. Beneath is a bleached skull with stars for eyes. "I am Azrael, Lord of the Undead," it hisses. "Or rather, I will be Azrael, after time itself has died." Even as Azrael speaks, decay begins to eat away at its body, and the god shudders. Holding one arm up to watch as tiny fissures form in its bones, the deity sighs, "Ah, sweet Entropy, come to claim me at last." It's gaze sweeps back to you. "But no, not just yet. First, I must set events in motion." Weakness begins to overcome Azrael, and it sinks to one knee. "Long ago, I became the most powerful of all the gods, in spite of my enemies' efforts to stop me. Delirious with power, I destroyed the other gods and eventually fell to feasting upon the souls of their worshipers. After devouring every living creature, I consume the planets and, eventually, the stars themselves, until I was left alone, in darkness." The god struggles to finish its message as its bones turn to dust and blow away, "Unexpectedly, I felt remorse for what I had done. I grieved for the universe I had destroyed, but I lack the power to recreate it. So, I have come to you, to beg you to do what I cannot." Azrael reaches into its cloak and produces a leather sack. "Take these items and use them." As Azrael dissolves, it gasps out, "Kill me tonight, or tomorrow will never dawn." All that remains is a pile of dust and a leather bag.

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.

This 80-page supplement contains 38 encounters written by many of the Dungeon Masters Guild’s best-selling writers. Encounters in the Savage Jungles includes 23 encounters / mini-adventures of various difficulty that can be used while the adventuring party braves the uncharted and savage jungles. It also includes 15 Quick Encounters, and additional resources. Although inspired by the Tomb of Annihilation, these encounters can be used with any official D&D campaign, or in your own home campaign. Many could even be used in forest, wilderness, or swamp settings. These encounters are location generic and are designed to be easily added to any campaign. Use them to introduce new players, as inspiration for a new campaign, as a one-shot, or whatever else you can think of.