Rumors of an Eberron dragonshard of enormous size and power have reached the city of Sharn. Unfortunately, the shard is concealed winthin a Talenta Plains tomb located below a camp of cruel halfling nomads and their dinosaur pets. For centuries the Crypt of Crimson Stars has lain hidden in the vast expanse of the Talenta Plains. Now it has been found, and its legendary lost treasures draw adventurers from across the continent. Can you navigate deadly traps, fearsome guardians, and vengeful nomadic halflings to claim the prize? "Crypt of the Crimson Stars" is part one of the three-part "Shards of Eberron" Campaign Arc. Pgs. 32-41
The Hag's Hexes is a 66 page guide designed by Dungeon Masters Guild luminaries like JVC Parry and Janek Sielicki alongside rising stars and old stalwarts like Matt Butler, Matthew Gravelyn, and Tim Bannock. It was created with one thing in mind: to make hags more than the sum of their (often meager) Challenge ratings, giving them the mechanics, roleplay potential, and weird magic that can inspire campaigns, lay low kings and warlords, and potentially ensnare unwary Player Characters into campaign-changing curses or long-term bargains that force them into terrible moral quandaries! Split into five chapters, the authors have provided everything a DM needs to terrify their players for years to come. The Bestiary features over a dozen monsters; some are new hags, some are their minions or even their mobile lairs, and one of them -- the Shaitan AKA Desert Hag -- was featured in Monsters of the Guild! Bargains & Curses is a chapter filled with ideas that can kick-start campaigns, threaten valued NPCs, or put Player Characters' very existence and morality at stake. Chapter 3 includes two dozen items of wonderment, weirdness, and dread, ranging from fairy tale-inspired items of whimsy to terribly cursed items of horror. Chapter 4 is titled "Filthy, Vile & Downright Dirty" and provides dozens of roleplaying tips to make hags come alive, new mechanics inspired by and expanding on Volo's Guide to Monsters (coven spell lists, aunties, grandmothers, alternative coven members), and ends with useful combat tactics for each of the hags from the Monster Manual and Volo's Guide, as well as tactics for covens. Finally, Chapter 5 presents five encounter groups (with sub-encounters) to give you quick story seeds and monster lists that you can put together in minutes to create a single encounter or to inspire a full campaign, and ends with three full-length adventures -- each with 3-5 encounters -- that showcase many of the new monsters, rules, magic items, and so on that appeared in earlier chapters. Each of these adventures comes with an encounter map meant to act as inspiration for hag lairs, and they include useful mechanical ideas for terrain effects and descriptive keywords listed directly on the map for added inspiration and easy customization! Designed by Tim Bannock. Written by Matt Butler, JVC Parry, Janek Sielicki, and Tim Bannock. Edited by Matthew Gravelyn and Tim Bannock. Cover Art by Elena Naylor. Cartography by Tim Bannock using Inkwell Ideas' Dungeonographer (Dungeonographer is copyright Inkwell Ideas). Layout & Graphic Elements by Elena Naylor with Tim Bannock. Interior Art by Arcana Games, Bruno Balixa, David Lewis Johnson, Dean Spencer, Earl Geier, Filip Gutowski, Jacob E. Blackmon, Joyce Maureira, Petr Kratochvil, Jayaraj Paul, Brian Brinlee, and Wizards of the Coast.
Deep in the wooded wilderness, the village of Grimmsgate is an outpost town on a seldom-traveled trail, right at the edge of nowhere. The village’s half-ruined temple of Law, dilapidated inn, drunken blacksmith, exiled trader and a few fur-trappers are enough to keep the bloody-minded denizens of the dark forest at bay, but nobody really expects the village to still be there in another ten years. The woods have become too dangerous for the trappers who once caught animals for fur, and merchants no longer travel the poorly-maintained road. What great evil and what fabulous treasures are to be found in these lands? A brave band of adventurers might make their fortunes here. Or perhaps they might never return… Grimmsgate is an introductory adventure for the Swords & Wizardry tabletop roleplaying game. The Swords & Wizardry rules are needed to play this adventure.
"Ruins of the Umbral Tower" is a shadow fey hunter lair suitable for four or five 8th-level characters. This adventure can be completed in a single session. The ruined Umbral Tower rests deep in the forest, in a marshy region avoided by all but songbirds. Long abandoned by its original occupant, the tower features a malfunctioning gate that connects this place and the Plane of Shadow. The site serves as a base for a group of shadow fey hunters and their entourage of hounds and guardians. The hunters used the gate to travel from their home plane, and they now attempt to bag as many trophies and as much loot as possible before returning home when the gate reactivates.
For the past several nights, drums have been heard on the wind, coming from the Twilight Marsh. Each morning, more turn up missing from the nearby farms, leaving only muddy, clawed foot prints heading towards the marsh. Can you help find the lost and bring justice to the abductors?
The temple bells rang out, their crystal hollow-overtones calling gently to the dispersed worshipers dwelling within the underground sun temple. The Temple of the Sun was itself an enigma, a place dedicated to the sun but hidden far underground, shielded from the mighty rays of the light of life, forced to do so for both secrecy and protection. Internal holy radiance was the heart of the temple, bathing Flaesuros' children with the light of the holy orb of light, emanations from a Sliver of the Sun, an actual piece of the massive orb of life above; this was the logic behind the temple's secrecy, her many levels of protection and traps, the reason why priests who fervently revered light now clung to the shadows. This adventure includes: Puzzles to keep your players engaged and inspired New monsters including the Skeletal Ash Beast Ancient runes which can be used to solve puzzles and advance in the crypt A new magic item which may be donned by a single PC to great effect An artifact which has the potential to either change the world or destroy it
A Star-Crossed Tragedy. When the party is hired to investigate a haunted castle, they’re drawn into a tale of hatred, love and betrayal stretching back more then 300 years. Will they be able to free the ghosts haunting Arevon Castle, or will they find themselves just another footnote in its long history of misery?
Can you stop the haunting before tea? The ghosts of two warring wizards are trapped in the basement of the house. It is up to the party to end this old feud. Pgs. 68-70
Giants have emerged from their strongholds to threaten civilization as never before. Hill giants are stealing all the grain and livestock they can, while stone giants have been scouring settlements that have been around forever. Fire giants are press-ganging the small folk into the desert, while frost giant longships have been pillaging along the Sword Coast. Even the elusive cloud giants have been witnessed, their wondrous floating cities appearing above Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate. Where is the storm giant King Hekaton, who is tasked with keeping order among the giants? The humans, dwarves, elves, and other small folk of the Sword Coast will be crushed underfoot from the onslaught of these giant foes. The only chance at survival is for the small folk to work together to investigate this invasion and harness the power of rune magic, the giants’ weapon against their ancient enemy the dragons. The only way the people of Faerun can restore order is to use the giants’ own power against them.
An alternative way for the Directors to start their new Draw Steel campaign. Fight off the goblin bandits, survive the ravenous undead, and lift the curse from the town of Sour Falls. This short first-level adventure provides you with two possible combat encounters, a montage test, and a negotiation. From the Ashes is a short 3–4 hour adventure for Draw Steel, written for a group of three to six 1st-level heroes and the Director. This free adventure is an alternative way for experienced Directors to start a campaign. The adventure provides you with two possible combats, a montage test, and a negotiation. By the end of From the Ashes the heroes restore an abandoned town, gaining a base of operations that could lead them to future adventures.
No description available.
Heroes and blackguards of every stripe will find peril on the Purple Planet, but none more than 0-level PCs. Cast across the cosmos, surrounded by hordes of baying man-beasts, and marched into mass gladiatorial combat, the PCs' death waits with bated breath. Their sole hope for escape lies – not in pitched combat against endless hordes – but by braving the unknown and pressing into the darkness beneath the Purple Planet.
The world in which the air sailors still travel is a shrinking one, where each death is knowledge lost that will likely never be regained. There should be a sadness about that that penetrates all things in the Gun Kingdoms setting. The era of magic is coming to an end, and with it will go the skyships. This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules.
On Olarune 9th in the 918th year since the founding of the Kingdom, one of the city of Sharn's floating towers fell from the sky, crusing much of the Godsgate District. Now, a band of bestial savages searches Godsgate for the remnants of a broken statue, pulling the PCs into a plot that could destroy Sharn itself. The city of Sharn is one of the wonders of Khorvaire. Its towers seem to touch the sky, rising up more than a mile from the shores of the Dagger River. But it takes more than stone and steel to support the spires of Sharn: the area is suffused with mystical energy drawn from the plane of Syrania, which empowers all forms of flight. Yet with such wondrous inventions come wondrous tragedies, for when the magic of a flying tower fails, it has to land somewhere... Pgs. 18-29
In Old Korvosa, nightmare-spawned horrors begin stalking the district's shiver addicts, sparking a manhunt to bring those responsible to justice. What role does the strange cult known as the Brotherhood of the Spider play in the mysterious deaths, and why is the veil between the dreaming and waking worlds so thin? To solve these mysteries and others, the heroes must walk the unseen paths of Bridgefront's occult underworld, and even enter the Dimension of Dreams itself to unravel the web of intrigue concealing the cult's deadly machinations. But what will happen when the heroes' own dreams turn against them, and what becomes of those who uncover esoteric secrets too terrible to know? Beset by dangers from their own minds, the heroes must race against time to save Korvosa—and their sanity.
The village of Trunton is the focus of conflict between the ruling paladin of the God of Vengeance and secretive cultists. As the PCs become embroiled in the unrest, a series of supernatural events lead them to investigate a ruined tower outside the village. When they discover the grim secrets underlying the situation, whose side will they take?
Marek the Stalwart, Paladin of the Knights of the Eternal order has stolen a powerful magical artifact. Fleeing the order’s keep he has left several slain paladins of the order in his wake. Our adventurers have been charged with returning Marek, preferably alive, and the artifact to the Knights of the Eternal Order so he can face trial for his crimes This adventure is designed for 4-6 characters of level 4-5. I would love to hear any feedback you have after looking over/running the adventure. Cover art provided by Marco Ortiz https://www.facebook.com/marcosartcommissions/
For the most part, the town of Ockney’s Hold has always been a peaceful place—bordering on boring. The most interesting things going on in this frontier mining settlement include the annual livestock fair, the cost of spirits at its various inns, and speculation fueled by those same spirits as to what foul things are being dumped into the river by the ore refinery. Recently, however, the usually placid Baron Reinson has begun to act erratically, ignoring most of his counselors, giving more responsibility to his equally erratic chamberlain, and replacing key figures in Ockney’s Hold with outsiders. With no clear answers as to what might be behind the baron’s strange behavior, his last loyal counselor seeks out a band of adventurers to help. Will these brave heroes be able to get to the bottom of a widening conspiracy? And can they expose the terrible and unseen forces manipulating the baron in time to save Ockney’s Hold? Published by Gamehole Publishing.
AL19 – Junket to the Southlands has the PCs enjoying a little R&R in southern Allatrama when a caravan comes into town. Scuttlebutt has it that some famous Bard came in with them and is giving a performance later. With nothing else to do you opt to take a listen. After hearing the tales recited by the incredible poet you opt to visit the location of her stories. Saddle up folks, you’re heading into the frozen land to the south!
In times ancient, an infamous paladin-artificer named Khaldun unearthed a cursed tome bound in the flesh of the first medusa. Driven to madness by its secrets, he used the necromantic magic contained within to call forth an army of dread warriors from the Netherworld. Though his assault was devastating, he was ultimately unsuccessful, and the mightiest crusaders of the realm banished Khaldun to the Netherworld, where he would rot for eternity at the bottom of the River Dis. Unfortunately, rather than perishing in that bleak plane, Khaldun escaped his silt grave and thrived, amassing a legion of undead followers and erecting a Tomb in which he could perfect his mechanical craft without interruption. It was not long before he shed his body and became a demilich. After several centuries of scheming, the undead warriors under the command of the ‘Iron Lich’ have burst free of the Netherworld, laying waste to not only the mortal kingdoms that exiled him, but also the exalted domains of the gods themselves. The crusaders’ quest is simple – stead the Tomb and destroy the Iron Lich. Published by Defy Danger and Save Versus Death