If you're looking for a light-hearted adventure, you've come to the right place. Can a wizard and her beloved chef live a quiet life of baking and brewing, or is trouble destined to enter their innocent kitchen? It's up to the player characters to see what these two have cooked up before things get too hot to handle (without potholders, anyhow). Game designer Andy Collins offers the latest in our series of monthly free adventures. This original Dungeons & Dragons scenario, including full description and stats for a crusty new culinary creature, is suitable for a party of four characters of 2nd level. Adventure Preview When Andolyn met Gendrew, it seemed a match made in heaven. Andolyn was a skilled wizard with a love of a good meal, looking for an excuse to settle down from adventuring, while Gendrew was a master chef looking to create new methods of cooking. Together, they took up a quiet life of baking and brewing, content to live in a small cottage on the outskirts of town. But now one of their experiments has gone horribly wrong, and the characters must save poor Gendrew from his own delicious concoction, while defending themselves from the inhabitants of the cottage, and one unwelcome invader.
The prince's godmother commissions you to retrieve the prince's jade crown, held in the tower of the vampire! The vampire's tower has three levels, and the three-level dungeon below 45 rooms. The party must be wary! Lethal traps abound. Marching order is important. A straight-forward dungeon crawl with many Gygaxian rooms and encounters. No roleplaying to speak of. Pgs. 4-18
Martin's Fortune is a short classic horror quest that can be easily put in any (low) fantasy setting. This adventure scenario features a dark and trilling backstory and several handouts for your players. The quest is very much in the horror element and there are advices on how to approach the horror scenes. Adventure Synopsis: Martin Wesley, decedent of a faithful servant of Lord Amren Stieber recruits the players to pillage the Lord's lost tomb. Searching for the tomb reveals that forgotten history leaves its traces to this very day. The forest around Amren's resting place is cursed and veiled in darkness. When the party finally arrives to the Lord's tomb, they discover that it is something more - a jailhouse. Their prize will have to be earned in blood. Even when they vanquish the undead fiend, they can't be too safe, for the Lord's madness has become immortal. Published by: Adventurer's Inn
A prescription for evil. The king's question is, "Do you make house calls?" To Cure a Kingdom is an adventure for ADnD, set in and around a small city state that is suffering from a deadly disease of magical origin. The party must set out into the swamps in search of a cure. Features monsters with psychic powers as well as extra-dimensional travel. Adventure may be connected to further Underdark adventures with relative ease. Pgs. 8-25
Expand your game with this collection of 56 NPCs of various Challenge Ratings, thirteen of which include maps and details of their lairs. Add these NPCs as a side-quest, a main villain, a one-shot, a bounty for easy money, or however else you wish. Written by some of the best-selling authors on the Dungeon Masters Guild and outstanding podcasters, each NPC includes an image, a backstory, motives, flaws, and a stat block. Some even include new magic items!
The Shady Dragon Inn is a set of pre-generated characters for use with the Dungeons & Dragons game. This player's aid comes in two parts: each character appears first in a section devoted to his or her character class. They appear again in the second section as members of a party. As a DM or as a player, you may use either or both sections; over a hundred characters await you! Each character has a brief biography that will help you to create backgrounds for PCs or NPCs as needed. Also included is a rough physical description, and a list of items owned by each character. The Shady Dragon Inn also contains the D&D statistics for those special characters who are presented by figures in the D&D and AD&D toy line, and provides a tavern setting from which players may start adventures or gather party members. TSR 9100
The players get more than they bargain for when answering a night-time call for assistance from a mutual friend. Can they escape the githyanki prison known as the Crucible and find their way home from the Astral Plane? Designed for characters of 5th to 9th level, the Crucible can be played as a standalone one shot adventure, or as the first in a four part series of connected one shots that see the party fight their way to hell and back.
A tribe of evil norkers led by a human illusionist threaten the town of Nolivari. The heroes must brave the wilderness, find Grakhirt's lair, and defeat him to ensure the safety of the local villagers. A straightforward dungeon crawl against lots of norkers! When do you get to see those guys in an adventure? Lots of monsters from the AD&D Monster Manual II as well. This adventure features a little bait-and-switch; the titular bad guy Grakhirt is assumed to be a norker, or gnoll, or some other monstrous humanoid, but is in fact a human illusionist/assassin! Note: The adventure doesn't feature caves AND a dungeon, but since the caves are treated like a dungeon with doors and numbered rooms, this is listed as a dungeon adventure as well. Pgs. 28-37
Figgy Puddin' Steals Christmas is a short adventure for three to six characters, and optimized for 2nd level characters. We also include Scaling Suggestions, allowing you to run this adventure for lower- or higher-level characters. We anticipate a run-time of 2- to 4-hours. There's a bit of roleplay in this adventure, which may extend the playtime. Adventure Background A traveling jester known as Figgy Puddin’ and her Coal Smudge Gang have stolen Christmas presents and now hold them for ransom. While safe and secure in her lair, she awaits either a payment of an outrageous ransom, or a crew of heroes to claim the presents after they navigate her not-so-festive lair. What's the Adventure? After you introduce the hook, the adventure occurs in Figgy Puddin's lair - a refurbished kobold bunker consisting of eight rooms. As the characters explore the linear dungeon, they encounter new creatures, complete challenges, and are tested about their Christmas knowledge. However, the final confrontation with the naughty Figgy Puddin' could make for a very Unhappy and Unmerry Christmas for our heroes, the children of Thistleton, and their parents. Who Is Figgy Puddin’? Figgy Puddin’ was once a happy jester who loved Christmas. For years she traveled the realm, bringing fun and festive cheer to villages and children while preparing the way for Santa. However, times have become tough, and entertainment doesn’t always pay as well as one would like. As Figgy prepares for retirement, she’s learned she doesn’t have enough gold to last. During this time, she’s also decided that Santa doesn’t know who she is, let alone appreciate the work she puts in every year. Using her savings, extortion, blackmail, and other nefarious means, she’s convinced several mechanical geniuses and arcane specialists to help her refurbish her underground bunker with wondrous effects, creatures, and tests. To fund her retirement, she’s taken extreme measures to make some quick gold — holding Christmas presents for ransom.
Your magic user friend has had his spellbook taken by marauding bugbears. He, and by extension you, are tasked by his mentor to recover the tome. Now you must track the goblinoids across the maze like hill country to find his stolen book. Pgs. 9-24 of Polyhedron #28
Fane of Serpents is a titanoboa lair suitable for three to five 10th-level characters. A rocky butte covered with soaring ruins looms over the landscape. Legend describes it as a monument raised by an inhuman race that was wiped out centuries ago as retribution over foul practices. Locally, the spot is known as Titan’s Height. It rises starkly above the surrounding area, with four terraced plateaus. Each level is covered with the ruins of many-columned halls in an architectural style unlike anything else in the area. Their age and strangeness alone are enough to generate fearful legends. The stories grow worse when travelers or livestock disappear near Titan’s Height, which they sometimes do.
It’s a story as old as time. Boy meets girl. Girl meets abandoned well. Boy chases girl down abandoned well only to find horrors beyond their worst nightmares.. Perhaps those old tales about 'ol Grim Jack and Granny Hentooth lurking in a world below the water weren’t just silly children’s rhymes after all? The Weathered Well is a starting level Tabletop RPG adventure for the 5th edition of the world's greatest roleplaying game, centered around classic themes that feel familiar yet fresh to players of all skill levels. Designed to be easy to add into existing campaign worlds, this module takes the players through 3 levels of social, puzzle, and tactically focused combat encounters, and should take 10-12 hours to complete for a standard party of 1st-2nd level characters. The adventure takes the players through an open area town map, then into a more exploration focused dungeon crawl, and finishes up with a series of cinematic and challenging encounters, which combine enemy forces and the landscape to challenge the party and players alike. Designed for New Players and Game Masters! Getting started in tabletop roleplaying can be a daunting task. Learning the rules, finding the players, and convincing some poor fool to be the GM, all are difficult enough tasks on their own. We felt that there were a lack of adventures truly designed to be "1st level friendly" out there, and so got together to make The Weathered Well for just that purpose. This adventure is designed in a linear low-combat style which is intentionally helpful for low level characters and new players, and includes occasional blocks of DM Notes and tips to also aid Dungeon Masters new at their craft. It can be played both 'pick up and go', with many helpful block text descriptions, or read in advance for more appreciation of the backstory or for customization. The Weathered Well contains: 68 pages of highly illustrated adventure content, with detailed room and encounter descriptions. Three full-color maps printed within the book. The Black Root - a fully playable necromantic druid subclass, and the original builders of the Temple. Use them to create unique NPC's, or maybe even allow one of your players to play as a long lost member rediscovering their ancient temple! 13 new monsters, styled to fit the 'dark druids' theme; including bizarre fey creatures and monstrosities, like the Clawed Butterfly, Bliss Lizards, Weasel-worms, Zombie Oozes, and the vine wrapped crocodillian monster - the Hagator. 12 new magic items, specifically designed for low level characters. A mix of roleplaying, combat, puzzles, and skills designed to challenge but not overwhelm players of all skills. Multiple intro hooks, with matching wrap ups, as well as Further Adventures prompts. Published by Hack Shack Games
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
The night mist hangs low around von Helter Manor. A man and woman share a tender moment on their balcony after the best night of their lives—a flash of red as they fall. Blood begins pooling around them, staining the earth crimson. A mysterious figure grins in the darkness. The Red Lady has taken her next victim. Pgs. 75-81
Some time ago, the wind began to sing of death in the Sision River Valley, and if purgatory was a song, Glovakians are now listening to it. The source of this soul-crushing music was tracked to about 90 miles northwest of Ambir. What was found? A massive, oddly built stone tower that wasn't there before. Word quickly spread and the curious set out in droves. Many turned back however, as every passing day the music got worse, but a brave, or foolish few, managed to make camp and eventually go inside. If anyone's made it out, no one really knows, but there's no shortage of rumors as to what's really going on in the place that's come to be known as, Sision Tower. Sision Tower is an OSR styled, vertical dungeon-crawl where the PCs explore an odd domain of Holy origins. Here, they will test their survival skills as well as their Faith. Here, they will meet Saints and Seraphs. Here, in the struggle between Law and Chaos they have to decide.....Plunder??......Sacrifice??......or Both!!! Sision Tower includes: All original black and white art. Over a dozen, fully illustrated, new magic items. Unique monsters and a sample setting. A vertical dungeon-crawl of 35 rooms. A spiritual setting in the same vein as Praise the Fallen. Sision Tower is designed to challenge character levels 3-5 and is easily used with most tradtional fantasy role-play systems.
A fiend lurks among the Black Blade goblins. A shapeshifting barghest fashioned by the General of Gehenna to exact revenge on all goblin-kind. It’s aim: to kill as many goblin leaders as possible… A masked goblin approaches the party asking for help. Two tribe leaders are dead. But a rival for chief has control of the crime scene. Will the party discover the barghest among the goblin ranks? Can they stop this imposter before it strikes again? Adventure Overview The adventure’s story is spread over 4 parts and takes approximately 4 hours to play. The adventure begins with a Call to Action scene. Part 1: Goblin Politics. Krill sends his emissaries to implore help from any strong intermediary. The party is asked to investigate the murder of Thrawn in Dringly’s lair. This is Story Objective A. Part 2: The Opposition. Gain entry into Dringly’s lair and investigate the murder of Thrawn. Gather enough evidence to find the killer. This is Story Objective B. Part 3: To The Lair! Now that the players have determined the barghest (Yeep) is to blame, they need to get to Krill’s lair quickly as he is in imminent danger. This is Story Objective C. Part 4: The Barghest.When the players arrive at the lair, they need to get to Krill and expose and defeat the barghest. This is Story Objective D. Adventure Background A barghest named Yeep has begun its onslaught of attacks against the Black Blade goblins. Starting with Chief Gnar, then his second in command Thrawn, the barghest is moving methodically down the line of command. Krill is now chief. But he has some problems: Two leaders of the Black Blades are dead. Who killed them and why? Is he next? Dringly, the next in command, has decided to take his lair for himself, declaring himself Chief of the Black Blades. Who are the Black Blades? The Black Blades are a tribe of goblins in the local area. They are known for dipping their blades in a dark black substance. It is rumored these blades are poisonous. The Black Blades regularly attack passersby on the road to rob them. The Black Blades have two lairs, one run by a chief who leads the whole tribe, and another overseen by a boss lieutenant. The Black Blades have a well-established pecking order which is how Krill stands to become chief. The next in line is Dringly, who has also declared himself chief and wants Krill dead. Krill suspects that there is something suspicious about two leaders being killed within a day of each other, but he has already burned Gnar’s body without any investigation. He needs to investigate the body of Thrawn, but it is in Dringly’s lair. Krill wishes to avoid direct confrontation with Dringly at the present for three reasons: 1) Any violence would only kill his own tribe members and further divide the lairs. 2) He believes there is still hope for negotiation to reunite the Black Blades. 3) He believes that if he were to attempt negotiations himself, Dringly would kill him. This adventure features: Two maps. Ready for your favorite Virtual Tabletop. A full color pdf. A black and white pdf. One custom monster, a reprint of barghest, all others available in the Monster Manual. Four hours of entertainment involving: roll playing a goblin bard, investigating a murder scene, tracking down a barghest before it strikes again. Applicable to any setting.
The Haunted Hamlet and other hexes details four unique modular locations for your game. Made for old school essentials, but can easily be used with other old-school systems or even 5E. The four locations detailed in the zine focus on gameable content and being easy to use at the table. The locations are not connected to one another and can be sprinkled onto your campaign map however you like, or run as one shots. The PDF is graphic and art heavy and utilizes random tables and other tools to make it easier for GMs to run in a pinch. Details: 40 pages Single column text 8.5 x 5.5 aspect Black & White Bookmarks Four hex locations Random tables A rival NPC party A sky merchant A one page town Two hirelings
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. About three years ago, a medusa, Zhanna Serpentlock, began systematically turning every person in Duke Jellhyn Fedorel's (N male human Ari5) duchy to stone. After losing many peasants to the medusa, Jellhyn attempted to placate her. He offered her his second son, Dephyl, for a husband. Duke Jellhyn and his family had always been rather tense and uncomfortable around Dephyl anyway due to the fact that Dephyl had lost an eye in a freak magical explosion as a boy. Zhanna accepted the marriage, and though Dephyl didn't really care for his family due to how they treated him, he was also less than happy with the arrangement. A year ago, Zhanna appeared at Fedorel's citadel again. She claimed that Dephyl had been untrue and that she had turned him to stone for his adultery. Throwing Dephyl's stone head down in the courtyard of the citadel, she swore vengeance on all Fedorels for his betrayal. Duke Fedorel and his household fled the citadel. Rather than give chase, Zhanna took up residence there and began ruling the duchy as the sole remaining Fedorel family member. Jellhyn and his family have lived in exile for a year. This is what the PCs can learn, but more is going on. As it turns out, Dephyl is alive and quite happy with his marriage. Zhanna is not repulsed by his disfigurement as his family was, and Dephyl's missing eye is something of an asset in the relationship since it lessens his chance of being accidentally petrified by his wife. In the two years of his marriage, he has grown up and gained ambition -- he wants to rule. As a second son (pawned off on a monster), he would never have received the chance. Now, with Zhanna's help, he can rule. However, Dephyl doesn't have the stomach for killing his father and brother. Instead, he and Zhanna plotted to take over the duchy by frightening everyone away. Zhanna carved a stone bust of Dephyl and used it to frighten off the rest of his family. Now Dephyl and Zhanna live happily in the citadel and rule the duchy together, though Dephyl's existence among the living is a secret.
Have you ever wanted to raid your neighbor’s garage for that tool they “borrowed” a year ago? Or dig through your friend’s closet because you know half your wardrobe is hiding in there? What if you had a band of adventurers to do it for you? The wizard Rastakeen needs a book returned that he lent his not-so-esteemed colleague, Frex, some time ago. Apprentices are for running errands you don’t want to do yourself, right?
For centuries, Ma’at’s temple sat peacefully in silent beauty; a great symbol of justice and harmony. The gems of its glistening ceiling glitter and fade with each rising sun as Ra lights the daytime sky. Isfet, the god of chaos, Ma’at’s greatest enemy, has grown restless. Some have rumored that he tore out Ma’at’s heart out of jealousy of her power. The bravest of adventurers must face the challenges of Duat and keep up with the determined Ma’at.