People keep asking for "beginner" dungeons. Everyone can name "classic" dungeons - Tomb of Horrors, Barrier Peaks, Ravenloft, etc. - but in order for those adventures to make sense, there needs to be some sort of introduction. It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano. I had the same questions, and since I couldn't find anything satisfactory, I decided to write the kind of dungeon I would have loved to find. I wanted to write the best basic OSR dungeon for beginners that I could, and I also wanted to show the design process. If you like this dungeon, please share it, tell people about it, print copies and leave them lying around local game stores, or email this post to friends who have "always wanted to try D&D but don't know where to start". The entire thing is and always will be free.
A deadly rumble in the jungle. The wicked Leopard Men might have loads of treasure - but no one has ever met one and lived to talk about it. The Leopard Men are a tribal cult in the jungle who worship the wicked leopard god. They stalk at night looking for suitable sacrifices to their god. A merchant asks the PCs to destroy the Leopard Men to improve his trade agreements with other jungle tribes. Their reward for doing so is all the accumulated wealth of this tribe. The party will investigate the cult by travelling through several tribal villages. The cult members are hidden in these villages, watching for future sacrifice victims. The adventure ends with a battle with the leader of the Leopard Men and a spirit of the leopard god that is summoned. Pgs. 13-27
Chaos reigns outside Roslof Keep, and the spread of the violet corruption runs deep within Mithelvarn's Dungeon. Now, the Company of the Ivory Scimitar must not only face the challenges of the Roslof delve, but will also find the dangers of the Kelmalin Wildlands must be overcome as well if they are ever to get to the bottom of the deadly plague that ravages the land. Time is running out, and only those brave enough will be able to face the horrors of the Glade of the Burning Dead and the dark recesses of The Hill. This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules. Also available in PDF.
Elanil Elassidil, an elf bard of no small legacy, has put out a call for trustworthy agents. It is time, it seems, for a quietly hidden piece of elven history to become known to the world. Meira Faerenduil, lost knight of Myth Drannor, has been dis-covered, and must be brought back to civilization. A four-hour adventure for 5th-10th level characters. **NOTE** As of August 30th this adventure no longer grants an Oathbow in Adventurers League play. It has been changed to award a +2 Longbow per the Adventurers League Content Catalog.
Something is very wrong in Stormport: Corruption runs rampant among city officials, more and more people turn up missing every day, dark prophesies of Change convert new believers, and rumors persist of a demonic beast with a taste for human flesh that stalks the alleyways. Worse yet, spring is overdue; winter refuses to relinquish its icy grip. Only one vile force could cause such chaos: The illithids have risen up once again, ready to enslave the surface races. Now, as never before, the world needs great heroes, mighty adventurers who will challenge the illithids; dark agenda. A Darkness Gathering is the first of an adventure trilogy (continuing with Masters of Eternal Night and concluding in Dawn of the Overmind) that pits brave adventurers against the brain eating mind flayers. Dungeon Masters can run each individual adventure of the trilogy separately, or they can be linked together to form a seamless, epic-length adventure.
Into the Forsaken Temple's Crypt is a short adventure for four 10th-level characters. The adventure takes place in a buried temple crypt, which has been sealed for centuries. Dungeon Masters can adjust it for higher-level characters by widening the dead magic areas and increasing the number and power of constructs and undead that inhabit the complex. The PCs had just entered the Forsaken Temple's crypt in the last episode. Now they can begin to penetrate deeper into the crypt, discovering more of its hidden dangers.
Chapter 1 - When a relative of someone close to the characters goes missing from a nearby village, the players are asked to investigate. The party has to recover stolen goods from a thief before setting out from the City of Ravens Bluff. They travel through the wilds of Vesperin in search of the missing person, finding trouble and helping locals along the way. Chapter 2 - As the journey continues, the party arrives in a small hamlet suffering from a strange blight. The players will need to investigate the situation and choose sides in a longstanding feud between the mayor and a local magic user. Chapter 3 - After clearing a tribe of violent orcs from a nearby mountain pass to protect the residents of a town, the party will have to enter the lair of a long-dead dragon to rescue their quarry from a band of goblinoid slavers, where they discover an entrance into a dwarven city, lost and forgotten centuries ago. Chapter 4 - The party will have to traverse the ruins of the dwarven city, avoiding hazards and battling the horrors that lurk there, to uncover the identity of the slaver's leader. A discovery that will lead them through a treacherous forest to the city of Tsurlagol in search of a pirate ship called the Star Carver, and its drow captain, The Viper's Kiss. Along the way, they meet an unlikely ally. Chapter 5 - Once they arrive in Tsurlagol, the players will have to choose between gaining the assistance of the city council to fight the pirates head on, or making a deal with the Viper's Kiss, herself. The path they choose will either lead to an epic battle on the Sea of Fallen Stars, or into the deadly sewers and tunnels beneath the city to face an enclave of wererats, undead, and a tribe of mad, kraken-worshipping kuo-toa, in search of a fabled relic. The Laughing Horde of Ruin, Part 1 is the first module of an original 5e adventure campaign. It is designed for character level 1-5, and uses material from the Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, and Volo's Guide.
This quest is for a party looking to acquire diamonds to use as components for higher-level resurrection spells. To gather what they need, the characters embark on a brief expedition to the Elemental Plane of Earth where diamonds are fairly abundant. However, the party only has an hour to gather as many diamonds as they can before the portal—and the entire cave area—collapses. Includes a quest-related NPC that a player can control if they're waiting for their character to be resurrected.
A long, perilous ocean journey behind them, the crew of the Sea Wyvern finds itself shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread. Their destination lies well over 150 miles to the south, miles heavy with the threat of the island's terrible inhabitants. Yet the unknown enemies are far more sinister, for more than just dinosaurs hunt the vast jungles. Before long, a cunning fiend picks up their trail, and its duplicitous master demands their sacrifice. "Here There Be Monsters" is the fourth chapter of the Savage Tide Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon's monthly "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #352 of Dragon explores the Isle of Dread in detail, providing a complete ecology of the island and the writing of Larissa Vanderboren. This article can be used as a player handout to represent the journals the group recovered from the Vanderboren family vault in the first adventure in the Campaign. Shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread! Faced with a dangerous journey, the PCs must escort a ragged band of castaways through monster-infested wildlands in order to reach the safety promised by the colony of Farshore on the isle’s southern tip. Pgs. 32-60
HSING bears foul news: SEER has been captured. While exploring the ruins of Ulcaster in search of knowledge pertaining to runes (or perhaps even how to create them), they were separated and now the pseudodragon fears the worst. Without SEER's guidance, the efforts of the assembled factions in these recent events may all be for naught.
The dungeon is essentially a large puzzle built around the premise of time travel. Many PC interactions are a direct result of the party dealing with the actions of their past or future selves. This adventure is designed for a fifth level party, to be played in a single session. It features a large full color map, artwork, NPC roleplaying tips, and two new magic items. Julinda the gnome mage has always been a bit off. She is a chronomancer who has become obsessed with achieving the reliable and reproducible technology of time travel, in the interest of returning to select parts of history and influencing their outcome to her pleasing; perhaps to avert a war, or to head off the enslavement of her people, or prevent the death of a loved one. Those who know her were aware of her ambitions, and now worry that they are coming to fruition, as she hasn't been seen in several months. And so, they have implored the PCs to seek her out...
Swamp creatures! They surround you now as you move slowly through the gurgling muck. How will you reach Quagmire now? Each day, the hungry sea swallows more of the ancient port city. A fierce fever ravages its people, and now - these foul monsters! Their beady eyes glimmer from deep within the tangled vines. Are these the creatures that have blockaded the city, turning away the ships that are the city's lifeline? Are these the scum that are starving the people of Quagmire, threatening an entire race with extinction? These creeps? Let's clean this jungle out! Quagmire includes a large-scale map that expands the D&D world and introduces new areas to explore. The adventure also includes new magic items and a special, expanded monsters section. Hurry! Hoist your colors, saddle your horse - go, before the city by the sea becomes the city beneath the sea! TSR 9081
Agents of the fire giants of Maerimydra, a city in the Underdark, have overtaken the drow outpost of Szith Morcane. The factions seek out adventurers to free the outpost’s leaders for questioning on the giants’ activities. Can you extricate them before it’s too late?
If you save only one kidnapped daughter this year, save this one. Rescuing maidens is a dirty job, but - you know the rest. On the road, the PCs encounter the aftermath of an attack on a small merchant caravan. The PCs must find and return Zenobia, the merchant's daughter. To do this, they must track, locate, and confront the unknown raiders while keeping the Zenobia's safety in mind. Pgs. 4-19 & 34
The legendary spellcaster Emirikol the Chaotic has turned the region into a wild magic zone, a place where all magic goes awry. The only way to put things back to normal is to retrieve the source of the problem deep inside the Ooze Chambers of Emirikol! This adventure is for 4th level characters and can be run on its own or as part 3 of the Litany of Arrows adventure path. This adventure contains, 2 pages of new magic items, 8 new monsters and NPCs, a full write-up of Bwimb II, the Paraelemental Princess of Ooze, an entity referred to in many D&D products but never fully fleshed out and stats for the 3rd edition iconic heroes Regdar and Mialee, who play a major role in this adventure. It's got over 10 pieces of original art, full color maps, tagged and untagged, and a special handout for the player who obtains the Ooze Fist of Emirikol. This adventure builds on the story begun in the platinum-selling Castle of Corellon and the follow-up, Warpath of Gruumsh.
Deep beneath the Isle of Dread, in a place forgotten by the world of light, an ancient, unfathomable evil festers. Within the desiccated ruin known as Golsimorga, the debased kopru servants of Demogorgon work foul rites, steeping immature shadow pearls in pits of liquid insanity. None from the world above have yet fathomed what terrors lurk beneath the Isle of Dread, nor what mad scheme roils to profane life deep within the city's gangrenous corpse. "The Lightless Depths" is the sixth chapter of the Savage Tides Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon magazine. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon magazine's monthly "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #353 of Dragon features ways to improve the PCs' vessel, the Sea Wyvern, as they take their adventures back to the seas. When the PCs journey deep under the Isle of Dread to find the source of the shadow pearls, they discover horrors beyond imagining in a haunted underground city perched on sanity's razored edge. Pgs. 28-66
The renowned adventuring company Acquisitions Inc. hires you to infiltrate a castle--but not just any castle. This is a flying fortress built by the cloud giant Count Stratovan, who is currently preparing to destroy the Sword Coast. Your mission is to meet with his son, who claims to want to prevent the war and establish peace between the giants and the small folk. If you can learn whether the son can be trusted, discover the secrets of the castle, and ... well, survive, you too can earn acclaim with Acquisitions Inc.! Released as a Fathom Events exclusive at movie theaters streaming the PAX 2016 Ac. Inc. game. Legal for AL play.
A One-on-One Competition Module for Thieves Level 8 Your peaceful evening has been interrupted by an unusual request. As a thief, your skills are unmatched, but can you rise to the challenge of thieving for a powerful and frightening wizard? Do you have a choice? The Gem and the Staff is a special One-on-One competition module designed for one player and on Dungeon Master. The Module contains two separate scenarios, so you can switch roles with the other player after the first adventure. Scoring sheets and encounter summaries are provided for each adventure to make running competitions quick and simple. Character figures and a map book are also provided to help visualize the adventures. The player's maps are designed so you can see the rooms as they would appear. Complete DM's Maps are included. TSR 9050
Deep beneath the city streets lie the sprawling tunnels of a derelict sewer. Under the command of a vicious ringleader, a posse of thugs have claimed a forgotten undercroft as their own. In a shadowy mockery of the city’s grand markets above, they have set up their own trade, dealing in flesh to vile creatures and evil men. Published by Arcana Games
High in the Stonecrown Mountains, a new source of dark magic stirs, wakes, and spreads its wings to shroud the land in shadows. The Warlock of the Stonecrowns, an awnshegh regent who is as evil as he is powerful, is draining other regents' sources of magical power, choking their ability to cast the most powerful form of magic of all - realm magic! If that isn't enough, the Warlock threatens to close the only pass connecting the trade-kingdom of Cariele to the rest of Anuire. An army of orogs and ogres is gathering to the Warlock's banner: Are your heroes equal to the challenge of the twisted magic of the Warlock of the Stonecrowns? This open-ended, "adjustable" BIRTHRIGHT adventure is suitable for use with either mid-level (4-6) or high-level (7-10) player characters. TSR 3110