What’s Included Gathering Darkness: Whisperwind is a self-contained 6-7 hour adventure for the 5e system and is meant for four or five 3rd-level characters. This premium module contains: A complete story, battle maps, and custom NPC stat blocks Random encounters for entering houses in a haunted village A new mechanic called Blight which affects creatures based on their exposure to the horrors of Whisperwind A table of Lingering Effects that reflect the influence of the Dark on Whisperwind’s inhabitants The is the first adventure in the Gathering Darkness Anthology. The Setting This adventure takes place in the cursed coastal village of Whisperwind, a place stuck in a perpetual state of twilight. Once a thriving hub for fishing and trading, Whisperwind now exists in a place beyond time and space. Those unfortunate enough to end up there can come from any plane and any period of time – past, present, or future. Not much is known about the cursed village. In fact, most people are not even aware of its existence, and those that have heard of it often believe it to be a fairytale created to scare children. What they do know is this: once you enter Whisperwind, you may never leave. What they may not know is that inhabitants of Whisperwind do not die of natural causes and may live forever if they are not killed by other means. Instead, prolonged exposure to Whisperwind can have radical effects on the body and mind. The strongest willed may be unaffected, while the weak may lose their minds or be consumed by the terrible sickness known only as blight… Your Mission Uncover the mysteries of Whisperwind, survive the horrors that attempt to drag you into the Dark, and escape alive with your sanity intact.
Just when you thought it was safe to take a long rest. She's Back! The terrifying SEQUEL to the PLATINUM bestselling, and Dragon+ Magazine featured horror adventure: The Haunt. The Haunt 2 is both a one-shot, and a sequel that can be run as either. Long, long ago St. Greycastle’s Hospital served the city through the years, mainly treating the wounded and sick among the militia. Over time, the lower basement was converted into a sanatorium, housing those who became maddened from enduring the violent, brutal orcs raids which plagued the region during that time. This was the place where Gertrude, the night hag, tormented patients, and created her masterpiece, the Evil Doll. Now, after all of these years, Montarthas Manor has finally fallen, and the Evil Doll has been wounded. She has returned to the only familiar and safe place she remembers, to lick her wounds and plot her next move. Her presence in the hospital awakens the evil inside, creating a nightmarish charnel house of terror. In addition, the hospital itself feeds on fear. Do your players have what it takes to enter the haunted and evil hospital, to finally end the haunt and terror of the Evil Doll?! Published by P.B. Publishing.
Summoned from across the multiverse, a small group of heroes must enter an ancient pyramid and prevent the Elder God Nyarlathotep's return to power. A Lovecraft-themed oneshot.
Tyger, tyger... A search for a small child in the woods outside of the town of Launise, a case of mistaken intentions, and the despoiled ruins of a forgotten goddess of magic. Cursed is the beast that stalks the Black Forest in... Orange and Black! Pgs. 66-71
Decades ago a group of adventurers saved the town of Logan’s Bluff from a humanoid incursion. While the battle ended in a victory, the cost was high when the party lost a valued member of their group. In his honor his comrades and grateful citizens built a tomb over his final resting spot. In the decades since the battle peace has reigned but has recently waned with the advent of more humanoid sightings. Some have wondered if Forstal’s tomb is drawing the humanoids back for revenge.
Tragedy has struck the Dwarven Kingdom of the Hammerskin Clan. Recent quakes have opened the Dwarven mines to a humanoid invasion that have taken over the Stonegate and Irongate sections of the kingdom. On your last foray into the Dorgel Mountains you were tasked to deliver a plague cure for the town of Timel. On your way through the trade route you discovered the invasion and fought your way through to deliver the remedy. Now you must return to help the Dwarves secure their domain!
Numerous towns sit in the shadow of Rak’Sarn, a mountain of flames and death. Each day near sunset, the volcano lets loose a blast of molten rock and ash, and the ancient red dragon Dal’Sarnquin swoops down the mountainside. By the time dawn breaks, another settlement has been burned to the ground. The PCs must track the dragon to his lair and defeat him before more towns are destroyed. Pgs. 196-191
This is not a Pay-what-you-want product, it's a DO-what-you-want product. An Overwhelming Sense of Loss - Or, The Occasion Of a Visit Into The Underworld By Way of The Grand Entrance To The Ancient Dwarven Fortress of Thrumi`Zud: SOMETHING brought down the mighty civilization. The sages say it was desperate invaders from below, escaping something even more horrible. Whatever it was, Thrumi`Zud was quickly overwhelmed and sealed, forgotten except in the stories of the old. The vast riches of the fabled Dwarves must surely be hidden within its depths. Perhaps you will be the one to rediscover them. Perhaps there are secrets better left unearthed. Horror lies within. You have been warned. ZH-01 is an adventure module for a party of five 1st through 3rd level adventurers and their henchmen. It has been exactingly designed to fit within almost any campaign milieu and to make running your players through it easy, providing just enough detail to spark your and your player’s imaginations into a wildfire of creative - collaborative - world-building. As long as you respect the OGL license and the Public Domain rules where they apply and the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license where it doesn't, do what you will with this module. The module is yours to play with, change, alter, remix, resell or whatever. Have fun with it, I can't wait to see what you come up with!
People from all over the world travel to the oracle of the dead, the Necromanteion, to commune with the spirits of the dead. Following a ritualistic preparaton of the body and the mind, a "Seeker", as they are called, enters the Adyton, and with the help of the Prophet comes in contact with spirits. Who would your characters talk to if they found themselves in the Necromanteion? Before you can answer that, you must first save it from a demonic invasion! With the temple in chaos, and foul fiends everywhere, will our adventurers be able to save the Necromanteion?
It has been years since the last virgin was sacrificed: and now the pit beast awakens once more! Every generation it stumbles forth on undulating tentacles from its resting place deep below the great ravine, its towering blubbery mass ravaging the land before returning to slumber for decades. But this time is different. The Great Beast strikes with intelligence: bands of faceless gray-robed men emerge from the tenebrous depths, herding the beast’s roaming tentacles before them. The enigmatic people of the pit live despite the passage of ages! The earth shakes each night as they herd the primordial tentacles ever further, while the villagers ask: is any man brave enough to put the sword to this menace?
While traveling a mountainous road, the party hears a "song, echoing faintly through the hills around you--a single, achingly beautiful feminine voice that burns its sorrow straight into your gut. The words are Elvish, but you don't have to speak that language to understand the sense of loss and heartache that fills every note." --from the adventure. Includes map of the tower.
From time out of mind, the standing stones known as the Circle of Cahervaniel have stood lonely vigil on a grassy hilltop. Sheepherders once moved their flocks over the hill and through the circle, sometimes resting in the cool shadows cast by the ancient stones. Everything changed when a stone finger fell, revealing a fissure in the earth. Now, dark shadows caress the circle after the sun sets. Creatures out of nightmare dance upon the hillside at night. Many swear that a unicorn of deepest ebony now hunts all upon two legs who draw near, while stunted creatures scurry in the shadows, abducting sheep from their sheds and drawing them down below ground for food. After the disappearance of a sheperd, fear grows stronger in neighboring villages. Who will brave the black hollow of the ancient Circle of Cahervaniel? Heroes of stern mettle must descend into the cavity and explore the ancient spaces existing there. Product History "The Shattered Circle" (1999), by Bruce R. Cordell, is a generic adventure for AD&D 2e. It was published in January 1999. Origins: Another Generic. After Wizards of the Coast began publishing D&D, their first year and a half of generic adventures were all classic revivals: returns to RPGA tournaments, to classic adventures, and to Dungeon scenarios. Even "A Paladin in Hell" (1998) was a return in its own way, to the demons and devils that TSR had become afraid of. Wizards was staking out new ground by reclaiming the past. "The Shattered Circle" (1999) was the first generic Wizards adventure that was simply a generic adventure, with no deeper origins and no hidden motives. Artifacts of Note. the foundingstone and the harp Euphonious are both one-off named magic items. However, it's sword Icerazor that's the most interesting. It's said to have grown from a shard of Frostrazor — a sword that would only appear ten months later in Return to White Plume Mountain (1999). There, it's listed as one of Keraptis' four implements of power, alongside Wave, Blackrazor, and Whelm — meaning that Icerazor (and this adventure) are just one step removed from White Plume Mountain itself. Monsters of Note: Chitine. It's somewhat curious, given the Greyhawk and Neverness connections, to note that the chitine debuted in MC11: "Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix" (1991). The spider-humanoids have generally been a Realms creature, featuring in bestiaries and histories for that setting. However, they also received a more generic "Ecology of the Chitine" in Dragon #223 (November 1995), which introduced the choldrith, or chitine priestess. This is their major adventure appearance. When asked about pronouncing their name Cordell says that he "can't be 100% sure of the original designer's pronunciation", but he prefers "KI-TEEN". About the Creators. By 1999, Cordell was one of D&D's most prolific writers. He'd previously authored many slightly related adventures, such as The Gates of Firestorm Peak(1996) and the sahuagin (1997) and illithid (1998) Monstrous Arcana adventure trilogies. This conversion guide allows DMs to run the original module with 5th Edition rules. To use this conversion guide you will need a copy of The Shattered Circle, originally available in hard-copy and now for sale in Digital format at the DMs Guild. This adventure is a generic adventure, not specifically based in any existing setting. Suggestions are given in the conversion guide to place the adventure in the Forgotten Realms.
"An ancient temple to the forgotten god of swords lies hidden behind a waterfall. Great piles of swords choke its halls and spill out into nearby streams and waterways. What strangeness still treads and what swords will you draw in the Temple of 1000 Swords? -A tarot-inspired fantasy RPG dungeon delve for 3rd level characters -Created for Old-School Essentials (B/X), compatible with RPGs with old-school sensibilities -A 19 room, keyed dungeon, easily insertable into a fantasy RPG campaign, sandbox, or “west marches” style table -d100 weird, magic, and cursed swords to discover. Roll to search the piles! -Anything is a sword--create weird sword creations through the temple's cursed magic -New monsters, factions, spirits, and curses -Includes a high-resolution unlabeled map for VTT use" "Temple of 1000 Swords" is set in a mystical temple filled with countless swords and intriguing magic. It offers a dense, exploration-heavy dungeon experience with unique mechanics and a rich backdrop of ongoing conflicts. Players can choose to ally with the Drukks (humanoid carnivorous ducks) or Merfolk (jocks) and manipulate both for their ends, or try to avoid conflict altogether. Gladio, the god of swords, issues quests that can alter the course of the adventure, demanding moral and strategic decisions from the players.
An unusually severe drought in a remote area recently worsened dramatically when three lakes dried up almost simultaneously. The locals suspect foul play, and the foulest player they know is a bugbear named Relgore -- the leader of a highly successful group of humanoid bandits. Could he be seeking revenge for the militia attacks that recently dispersed his band?
The Raven Queen’s servants often seek out mighty allies. One of these is the black dragon Quetzallus, who resides in a deep cavern on the Shadowfell guarding a stream of souls flowing into the Raven Queen’s realm. But a death knight named Raxikarthus, betrayed by the Raven Queen in life, now seeks to enslave this dragon for his own purposes. He madly believes that he can stand against the Raven Queen, and seeks allies of all stripes—even her own servants—to do so. The death knight has found a pathway into the Shadowfell thought closed by mortals. Beneath a decayed keep, the undead dragonborn has reopened this portal and led his forces into the Shadowfell itself. The PCs are called in to beard the death knight in his lair. They find it abandoned, but discover a strange passage in the lower reaches. Pgs. 162-167
A free short adventure for four 4th-level characters by Mike Mearls Looking Glass Deep is a flexible, site-based scenario that presents you with the details of the ruined abode of the wizard Urlen Sparlek -- and the gang of outlaws that now occupies the place. This 10-page adventure by Mike Mearls is designed for 4th-level characters. Unlike some site-based scenarios, Looking Glass Deep features a dungeon full of monsters that take proactive steps to defeat the player characters (PCs). Tzarrik the hobgoblin sorcerer is an intelligent tactician with the ability to spy on the party almost at will when the group is within the Deep. His ragged gang of followers work together as a team under his command to repel attackers. Throughout the course of the adventure, the characters have the opportunity to locate an artifact called book the key of the way , discover the mysteries of the throne of the Deep -- and perhaps, in the end, even gain themselves a new headquarters. Published by Malhavoc Press
Long ago, when the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia thrived, the flying citadel Ustraternes was undone by tiefling magic. Now, a dragonborn zealot with dreams of renewing the lost glory of his ancestors explores the ruins—and unleashes a plague of rampaging drakes on the terrified locals. The story offers PC's the chance to tame a Warwing Drake, disperse a mob, parley with undead, and battle within an alpine meadow that defies gravity.
This uniquely styled adventure involves players starting out with little information about the characters they will play. No characters are prepared in advance. This is a nonstandard method of play. Player characters only know their names, ability scores, race, and background. This adventure was created to give the feeling we got as kids just starting out with D&D. It will be great for new players and seasoned vets alike. Who is in charge? Who is torturing the players? Let the chaos begin…
The Dwarven clans are in chaos, and a powerful host of goblins stand poised to sweep over the land in a wave of death and terror. Only the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords- one of the most powerful weapons ever created by the dwarven race- holds the key to ultimate victory against the massing humanoids. Can the PCs brave the labyrinth of an abandoned dwarven stronghold to find the Axe? TSR 11347
What elder evils lurk in the depths of the freezing mountain ruins? Find out in The Stoneheart Ruin! The adventure features: An adventure set in a desolate, wintry mountain landscape. 16 pages full of intrigue and mystery, containing full color maps, plus 2 unique monster stat blocks. Provides a great introduction to Mind Flayer lore and mythos for Tier 1 players. Can easily be set in the Spine of the World for use in Rime of the Frostmaiden. Let your characters test their mettle as they climb and face the ancient dangers lurking in the cracks of The Stoneheart Ruin! “I have no explanation for any of these finds. We heard disturbing noises coming from further within the mountain; thunderous and growling.” Excerpt from a pamphlet, signed: “Koralia Meadring, Anthropologist Extraordinaire” Koralia needs you to investigate her most recent discovery: a ruined cavern deep in the mountains. Her small team of academics did a cursory walk-through and think they've found a big breakthrough! However, they left in a hurry after being frightened by the horrors they heard coming from deeper in the mountain. They escaped and found one of their team was missing - a goliath named Marek. You must climb the mountains and locate the ruin, make certain that it is safe for study by Koralia’s team, and if possible, find and rescue Marek, whose fate is uncertain. Made during the November 2020 RPG Writer's Workshop.