A Little Bit of Thievery is an unconventional freeform adventure for level 1 characters. The players are contracted to steal a magic item at a noble's fancy party, and are forced to abandon their weapons and rely on their wits to survive. Mayhem required and violence (mostly) optional. Success might bring the ire of an elite with a panache for vengeance and money to burn. Beats killing giant rats in the safety of a basement for a few silver pieces, right? Although it is specifically written for the 5th edition’s basic rules, the adventure can be dropped into any rules system or campaign with minimal modification. (Pay What You Want)
Beneath our feet is the mythological hollow world – a realm of dense jungles, putrid swamps and rugged mountains. Here a brave party will struggle for survival as they seek to fathom the unseen expanse and to prevent a once defeated god to rise again. ‘Journey to the Inside Out’ can be played as a stand-alone scenario or be used as the first installment in a trilogy of connected adventure modules each taking place in a different era. The scenario can be used with Swords & Wizardry or any other early variant of game rules. Inside you will find: • A 40+ page old-school module with a layout optimized for fast and easy interfacing. • A challenging lost world setting with the possibility to toggle the complexity. • Alternative suggestions for entry to the hollow inside. • Downloadable maps for both players and the Referee. • Story-points for a guided scenario and tables for sandbox and hexcrawl-style play. • Advice for an ongoing campaign. • Locations allowing the PCs to travel to another era within the setting. • Unique new creatures. Published by CTM Publishing.
Silas Cusk built a menagerie of magically reconstructed saurians on a tropical island and sold tickets to it. The party arrives as VIP guests on preview day — the same morning Cusk's former partner steals the diamond that powers every containment ward on the island. The wards go dark, the cages open, and the island has two hours before its magical foundations give out and it slides into the sea. A complete, ready-to-run one-shot for a small table: 2–3 players, levels 2–3, one 2–3 hour session, zero prep. Eighteen named scenes across four acts, with a branching second act (a subterranean stealth route or an exposed aerial one) that reconverges so nothing is gated behind the choice. A visible 0–10 tension meter — the Containment Instability Index — climbs as the island fails and sets the severity of the finale. The apex predator is not a villain: it is a construct whose control collar overloaded when the diamond was stolen, and it is in agony, not hunger. The three-phase boss has a discoverable weak point and ends in a single-round choice between three fully written endings — destroy the island's heart, restore containment, or free the beast — none of them clean. Includes 8 SRD 5.1 creature stat blocks, 4 NPCs, 4 ready-made characters (any two form a viable party), 6 battle maps, 6 opening hooks, 6 contingencies, and 5 campaign seeds. Every encounter is tuned and stress-tested for the worst-case small table.
Pirates and powderkegs. An undersea menace has the merchants of Scalabar up in arms. A strange sea monster is plaguing the trade ships near Scalabar, a coastal city. You have arrived in Scalabar at the behest of Sora Calhaigne. The lady of House Calhaigne needs brave heroes to investigate the loss of her galleon, the Morning Star. She has reason to believe that the sea monster is not what it seems. Includes a list of random city encounters, a keyed map of the port city, Scalabar, as well as a simple overland map of the Scalabar coast, a map of a typical two-story warehouse, a keyed map of the pirate caves, and a keyed map of the ship Thresher. Pgs. 10-27
From The Magazine: "Every summer, Duke Hightower holds a competition quite different from the traditional jousting and archery tournaments held by similar lords of his station. The rules of his tournament change from year to year, and, to oversee the games, the duke has appointed two wizard brothers who help choose the setting and create the rules and challenges of the competition. This year the competition is called the “Owlbear Run,” an overland race that requires each participating team to escort a live owlbear from the town of Telvorn to the town of Milvorn. The teams will face a variety of challenges; some are devised by the wizards, others by the competing teams or their sponsors, and some occur entirely at random. All of these tests are in addition to the challenges inherent in motivating a temperamental owlbear. Fortune and fame await the first team to cross the finish line, and the local lords sponsoring the race are eager to enlist skilled champions for their causes." Pgs. 2-27
One page adventure, one page map. On the edge of a lake/ocean’s windswept field/forest, outside of his small stone home, a very old, callous human magic user, Cyfrin the Wrathful, summoned an invisible stalker in a magical binding circle. First he began to taunt the stalker, proclaiming his dominance over it, describing its powerlessness to do anything but carry out the old spell caster’s will. Next, Cyfrin dispelled its invisibility, ordering it to execute his plan. In Cyfrin’s excitement, he gazed upon the stalker’s now visible, horrifically impossible face - and abruptly suffered a stroke, dying on the spot. Still imprisoned, the stalker wants freedom. Will the PCs help it? Adventure hooks provided. Published by Wicked Cool Games
The astronomer monks of Farsky failed for decades to tell the future by the stars. Desperate, they found a promising seer, and passed off her predictions as their own… until deadly illness struck. Unable to give up their lucrative scam, they trapped her spirit, which became a thing of evil: a banshee, whose howls foretold their doom. The party have heard rumors of a ruin, where once sages could answer any question… Notes by @Demian: Winner of One Page Dungeon Contest (OPDC) 2015. The adventure consists of a single small dungeon with 13 rooms and an exploration/time-based random Silence spell mechanic. It is themed around music and sound. Designed as a one-shot to be played in one 4–7 hour session.
Katha is a fully built city with nearly a hundred NPCs, dozens of shops, and many different factions all vying for power over this growing city. Katha is a growing city-state that can expand (or regress) in any direction depending on the choices of your group. It can easily suit any party of any size or level but is designed for mid-level parties with money to spend. The city will grow (or shrink) and change at the party's every move, making it a city full of potential. The document also includes a map and key for the city, four stat blocks for two major NPCs, a new monster, a boss fight, and a dungeon map. Katha is designed to be placed into any setting with only minor alterations. Advice for how to fit Katha into your setting is provided throughout the document. Included is also a plotline that can span anywhere between four and ten sessions. The Cult of the Storm, a mysterious and millenarian cult, hopes to bring about the end of the world so that it may be reborn. Several of the groups and NPCs in Katha are secretly working for the Cult. Will your party realize that they are accidentally helping them in time to stop the Cult from assembling the four parts of the weather control artifact and starting The Storm? The plot will also develop the city and reward your party not with wealth, but with property and the ability to build what they want and invest their time and energy into growing Katha.
What's waiting for you at the bottom? Adventurers are more than welcome - they're nourishment! Pgs. 4-15
The Full Campaign - Updated for 2020! On Shadowed Shores In a land few have heard of, and fewer still have visited, lies untold adventure, treasure and fame. The renowned Captain Farsail has sent out word that she will undertake an expedition to Serpent Isle, but is in need of a crew. Anyone able to hold a sword or cast a spell is welcome, but be warned, the island is as deadly as it is beautiful.
Home to a variety of merchants, malcontents, and adventures this city has something for everyone. A group favorite for one-shot adventures my players all enjoy a visit to this city located in the Principality of Lockerbie. This city has a both generalized encounters and open challenges for any numbers of players. The open challenges (City adventure hooks) have been left to assign challenge ratings depending upon the characters encountering the issue. The vast sprawl of the city gives the players a multitude of businesses to shop in but gives the DM the flexibility to make it “fit” their campaign. I hope your characters enjoy Kettlespit as much as mine do!
The characters have been summoned to Pollin, a dwarven industrial city which prides itself on innovation and invention. When the Honey River which is source of all the power in the city runs dry they call for the aid of adventurers. The characters are brought before the Industrial Minister as he needs their help to solve the issue and fix the problem.
After leaving a successful venture on Xodus Island you find yourselves being pursued by Captain Gabriel Angel and his pirates! Your escape sends both ships into a hurricane causing you to become lost at sea with waves threatening your ship. Choking on water the next morning you and your fellow adventurers find yourselves at Shipwreck Cove!
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?
Do you want to run or play an adventure where characters start at level 13 instead of ending at level 13, and actually get to progress to 20 like the rules say they should? Do your players like to travel far and wide, exploring a huge unknown area? Do your players like to change their plans on a whim, and travel somewhere other than where they told you they planned to go last session? Do your players feel like fighting against an empire at odds of 20,000 to 1? Do your players want to commit occasional acts of sky piracy? Do you want an adventure that is designed to handle players using Scrying, Transport Via Plants, and Teleportation on a daily basis? If you answered yes to some of these questions, this adventure may be for you. Check out the detailed preview packet, which includes a campaign log showing how this adventure has actually played out. WARNING: FULL OF SPOILERS; VERY LONG. Against the Idol of the Sun is an epic hexcrawl campaign designed for high-level play. Adventuring parties should start at about level 13, and will likely end the campaign at level 20 with multiple Epic Boons. As a hexcrawl, there is no set adventure path that the party must follow. There is only one encounter that's even close to plot-mandatory aside from the climactic battle. Anything else can be skipped or handled in any order. The players are free to move about the map in any direction at any time, limited only by the risk of enemy action and encounters. The DM, meanwhile, is encouraged to have foes react to and actively hunt the PCs once they become a threat. Along the way, they may find and explore a number of dungeons, including a millenia-old laboratory in the grips of a time distortion, several mines that were abandoned for good reason yet may hold wealth within, and other challenges appropriate for high-level characters. This module is heavy on Exploration and Combat, but the Social aspect of D&D also is necessary as the player characters meet new peoples, work to convince them that they can make a difference, motivate them to action, and create overall plans for the NPCs and factions to follow off-screen to support the players in their main assaults. The key set piece encounters, which are optional but highly probable, involve attacking well-defended temples in the centers of enemy cities. Planning for these attacks will require paying attention to reconnaissance, timing, the use of allies, how to enter, and how to exit and break contact succesfully when dealing with enemies that fly faster than most player characters can walk. The adventure does not include artwork, and the maps are basic.
The air is moist. The moisture mixes with your sweat — the heat is relentless. The drone of insects gives you headaches, and the fever from the infected wounds has left you delirious. Your raft is damaged, and there are spirits in the trees. You’ve only been here for three days. Fever Swamp is a hex-crawl sandbox adventure compatible with Lamentations of the Flame Princess and most other Dungeons & Dragons clones.
The Sea Witch is a short adventure for four 10th-level characters. The difficulty of the adventure can be adjusted by changing the level of main antagonist (Black Molly, the sea hag pirate) or by altering the number of her ogre servants. To tailor the encounter to groups of different levels, refer to table 4-1 in Chapter 4 of the DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE. The adventure is set off a lightly populated coastline known as Misty Bay, but adapts easily to any coastal region in existing campaigns. The sea hag known as Black Molly is a notorious pirate who has plagued the coastal cities for the better part of a decade. A successful Knowledge (local) check (DC 15) will reveal that Molly and her ogre crew have a filthy reputation as merciless killers who delight not only in plundering vessels for their riches, but also in destroying the ships themselves and sending all hands to the bottom of the sea. Now the villain and her followers have seized control of the Old Lighthouse of Misty Bay located off a lightly populated coastline. For generations the lighthouse beacon has protected the fishermen of this region, warning them of the dangerous rocks that lurk just below the level of the high tides. Recently, the hag has put out the beacon, darkening the lighthouse; misery and destruction are sure to follow as ships start to blunder into the rocks. Blackmail is apparently Black Molly’s aim in this venture: She conveyed a message to the nearest shore community, the fishing village of Poisson, demanding the princely sum of 50,000 gp. Until she receives this ransom, she intends to hold the lighthouse and its beacon hostage. The fate of the human keepers who tend the lighthouse is unknown to the seaside communities at this time, but they fear the worst. The Sea Witch is ostensibly a rescue mission: The PCs are pitted against the evil of Black Molly and the brawn of her savage ogre crew. It is the heroes’ task to retake the lighthouse and, if possible, free its captives from the clutches of their jailer. What neither the PCs nor the shore communities yet realize is that while she 1would be pleased to have the gold, Black Molly is in fact after bigger treasure. Molly has no intention of giving up the lighthouse — at least, not until she finds what her master sent her here for. Lying on the sea floor practically at the base of the rock on which the lighthouse sits is the wreck of the war galley Flying Cloud, which according to popular legend was captained by a cleric who wore around his neck an amulet of the planes. Black Molly wants this prize, but so far she hasn’t been able to find it. She’s scoured the wreck without finding any sign of the magic item. Now she’s trying to determine where to search next, for the item might well be somewhere near the wreck. If she can’t find it, she’ll start torturing her captives to find out if they have any useful knowledge about the amulet.
This item was originally created for MaceCon 2018 but has been rebranded as part of the Artifact series. The party meets with the religious leaders of Liverpool and are tasked with recovering a three part artifact known as the "apparta". Their journey takes the PCs through time and space with some rather high level obstructions to deal with!
Centuries ago, a green dragon terrorized the civilized lands near its lair. As the beast grew in power, countless cult followers gathered. With the help of its worshipers, the dragon transformed into a runescribed dracolich. The dragon and its cult grew larger and more powerful over the centuries. This, of course, led to war with the surrounding nations. After terrible battles and much loss, the cultists were slaughtered and the dragon destroyed, but its phylactery could not be found. The beast reformed, gathered cultists anew, and again was defeated. The phylactery still could not be found. This time, the powers of civilization decided not to destroy the beast, but to trap it, locking it away and setting various guards. Recently, a divination ritual performed by someone the PCs respect revealed that great peril will arise if a creature lairing in Mount Sorrowspire (the dracolich) is not destroyed. Pgs. 180-185
Everyone who’s anyone has heard of Starburn Academy. The elite boarding school is famous for teaching students to excel in magic, history, fighting, and anything else a precocious child in the city of Seledor needs to know. But now, one instructor at the school is using his position to carry out a nefarious plot which is at best unethical and at worst deeply dangerous. The only people standing in his way are a mage with an unreliable reputation and the handful of talented children she picked off the street to infiltrate the school and get the evidence needed to take him down. That is, you.