Smoke still rises from the shattered buildings and ruined streets of the troubled town of Cauldron, yet if not for the actions of a band of heroes, it would not exist at all. A sinister cabal of cultists bent on plunging Cauldron into the prison plane of Carceri had awakened the volcano below the town, and amidst the attacks of dragons and fiends from the outer planes, these heroes were able to evacuate the city and then strike at the cultists in their lair near the volcano's heart. Now, this cult, the Cagewrights, lies shattered, their members put on the defensive for the first time. All that remains is to finish the job, but the surviving Cagewrights still have some surprises left in their mysterious stronghold under the snake-haunted ruins of Shatterhorn. "Strike on Shatterhorn" is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure designed for four 18tth-level characters. This adventure is part of the Shackled City Adventure Path that began with "Life Bazaar" (Dungeon #97) and continued with "Flood Season" (Dungeon #98), "Zenith Trajectory" (Dungeon #102), "The Demonskar Legacy" (Dungeon #104), "Test of the Smoking Eye" (Dungeon #107), "Secrets of the Soul Pillars" (Dungeon #109), "Lords of Oblivion" (Dungeon #111), "Foundation of Flame" (Dungeon #113), and "Thirteen Cages" (Dungeon #114). The Adventure Path concludes in Dungeon #116 with "Asylum." Pgs. 56-82

Long rumored to be haunted by eerie specters, Kincep Mansion has stood for years, mostly untouched by nearby townsfolk. Now something is preying on the local villagers—something that comes from the house. Pgs. 46-69

While travelling the open road, the party encounters two good-hearted thieves with a potentially lucrative proposition: The despotic baroness Ytrix hoards a large treasure nearby, locked within her army’s fort. Wouldn’t it be exactly what she deserves to have that treasure stolen and given to the needy that she’s so long ignored and oppressed? That’s what the party’s new companions think anyway, and they certainly have no ulterior motive for the job... The treasure is protected by high walls, a legion of soldiers, a fanatical wizard, and plenty of other surprises to keep would-be thieves on their toes. The party will choose how to approach the fort, case the joint, make their plan, and execute their heist. When they're done—and if they're successful—they'll leave with a small fortune and even a few unique magic items. A 6-8 hour adventure for 3rd or 4th level characters.

He wanted a scabbard - but got the shaft. If the book is to believed, there's a magical sword - completely unguarded! - ripe for the taking. This short adventure starts with the players finding a diary describing the final resting place of Hrothgar and his powerful intelligent sword. In a quest for the sword, the players investigate a small cavern system and find the sword in a gelatinous cube. Pgs. 32-37

A Ravaged Land... Villains that really are larger than life... A time for heroes... A decade ago, the land of Geoff was overrun by a horde of giants, ogres, and evil humanoids, its people either slain, enslaved, or driven into exile. Now at last the tide has turned. The time to free the people of Geoff from their servitude to the giantish tyrants has come! But don't forget to watch your step when you confront the true masters behind the giant Clans! Contains the full text of three classic adventures by Gary Gygax: G1, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief; G2, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl; and G3, Hall of the Fire GIant King. Details Eighteen new encounter sites in the war-torn land of Geoff, linked together to form a grand campaign. Provides dozens of hours of gameplay as the heroes struggle to free an entire country from the grasp of giant overlords. TSR 11413

The North can become very appealing to those who seek fame and fortune on their own course. The North is also home to humanoids and fell creatures, things that can find a foothold in the lawless wastes while also making a living. Larger and more lethal creatures like frost giants and white dragons can also be found, assuming you are foolish enough to go looking for them. This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules.

You are Erystelle of Dorneryll, famed elfin champion and magic-user. After years of adventuring, you have come home to the Emerlas - the hauntingly beautiful elfin woodland at the tip of Canolbarth forest. A place of legends and of peace. The journey has been long, but soon the winding forest track will bring you to Dorneryll, the majestic oak tree home of your childhood. Ahead, you glimpse a plume of smoke curling lazily into the sky. Dorneyll is close, and your mind floods with thoughts of home. Suddenly, your reverie is shattered! The thin plume of smoke is gone, an in its place a column of red flame leaps high among the trees. Dorneryll is under attack! Gripping your lance, you urge your mount into a gallop. Starbow surges forward; your war dogs close on her heels... Blade of Vengeance is an adventure for one player and one dungeon master, featuring a lone elf against the forces of evil. Can you save the Emerlas from destruction? The answer waits inside. TSR 9108

A mission to find a rare recipe ingredient for a local wizard. The recipe to fashion that magic item calls for a few drops of fey blood. Hmmm...where in the world can that be found?

The trouble began several weeks ago when a duergar excavation team went to work in a long-abandoned temple. Drawn to the temple by stories of riches and artifacts, the duergar hired several giants as laborers before cracking the temple’s sealed doors. The largest of the giants, a loathsome Thursir mutant named Huppo, used his acidic vomit to expedite tunneling into the temple’s collapsed hall of worship. Then, Huppo found the horn—an unusual instrument made from a single piece of stone, with a mouthpiece so intricate only a master carver could have made it. The horn became the giant’s obsession. Seeing only the horn’s potential sale value, the dwarves demanded Huppo turn it over to them, but Huppo refused. To force compliance, the dwarves stopped feeding the gluttonous brute, but Huppo had already found his own source of food; in deep areas of the temple, worms were chewing out of the rocks, and Huppo ate them by the fistful. He also played the horn. Then, after several days of blowing the horn and devouring the strange worms, Huppo released a belch so noxious the dwarves had no choice but to lock him in a sealed chamber and carefully consider their next move. The horn’s call, however, had caught the attention of passing nomadic orcs. They set up camp outside the temple entrance in the hope of finding the horn and its player. That’s the current situation at the temple: the giant refuses to stop blowing the horn and belching out deadly clouds of stomach gas; the dwarves are frightened and edgy while their leader is obsessed with malevolent whispers; orcs are threatening to overrun the place; and the population of worms grows steadily as something awakens deep in the stone beneath the sanctuary of belches.

One of the original D&D classics, "The Isle of Dread" is a hex crawl wilderness adventure. It focuses on surviving primitive beasts, dinosaurs, and pirates while uncovering the mystery of the island's inland city, where a great treasure awaits. From the cover: "This module contains maps and background material for the Isle, fifteen new monsters, and suggestions for further adventures. In addition, The Isle of Dread contains a map and background information for a large continent, and eleven smaller maps for encounters on the island itself. In this module, players will push their way through dark jungles and treacherous swamps to discover the lost plateau, and the final secrets of - the Isle of Dread!" TSR 9043

An omnious encounter with a fortuneteller sends a party of adventurers on a 200-mile journey across the Lands of Intrigue. While traveling throught the towns and terrain (detailed here for the first time) that lie in their path, they hear rumors and obtain clues about their mission. Their ultimate destination is Castle Spulzeer, a once proud stronghold that has become a den of terror. When the heroes enter the haunted keep, they meet a terrifying trio of residents: a madman armed with stolen magical power, a liche whose secret laboratory houses untold horrors and treasure, and a furious ghost bent on revenge. These three ensnare the party in their fight over an ancient weapon. Each will stop at nothing to keep it from the other two. The heroes must choose with whom they will ally - and the wrong choice could lead to their doom. Castle Spulzeer is an adventure complete in itself. However, as a crossover story, it offers every Dungeon Master a choice between two endings. The first leaves the party in the Realms. The second transports the characters to the Demiplane of Dread, where the plot continues in the Ravenloft adventure The Forgotten Terror. For 4 to 6 Characters of Levels 8-12 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 Castle Spulzeer, originally available in hard-copy and now for sale in digital format on the DMs Guild. Visit Classicmodulestoday.com for instructions on creating your own classic module conversions and selling them on the DMs Guild. Castle Spulzeer was originally scheduled for publication by TSR in June 1997. Then, near-bankruptcy caused a total failure of TSR's schedule, resulting in no books being published from February through the very end of July. Some books would be delayed for over a year, and others would disappear altogether, but Castle Spulzeer was relatively lucky: it was just delayed four months, until October 1997. The reason may well have been its theming, and its crossover with the Ravenloft line, which made Castle Spulzeer a great Halloween release. Castle Spulzeer has an even more far-reaching connection: its ending can lead players to the demiplane of Ravenloft and The Forgotten Terror adventure. This was probably intended as a bit of advertising for Domains of Dread (1997), the third edition of Ravenloft which was released in August 1997. In other words: in their last days, TSR was working very hard to cross-market their products, but they didn't live long enough to see the success of the Spulzeer-Intrigue-Dread connection.

When huge stones fall out of the night sky, A deadly curse settles over Gravencross. Help the village exorcise the Demon Stones. “The sun had set an hour ago, and the rain lashed down and the wind howled on the dark moor. A storm this late in the season was unusual, but this one seemed different. The clouds were more menacing, tinged with anger, the rain colder and more biting than usual. Skerrill had to find the lost calf and get him back to the farm before his father came back from the city on business. He’d been looking for two hours now, and he was right in the middle of the moor when the storm hit. He knew he should have turned back as soon as darkness fell, but then he was never the brightest boy in the valley. If only he had remembered to lock the farm gate. The calf was now likely dead anyway having stumbled among the boulders and rocks, panicking in the dark, and then fallen in a floodwater stream and drowned. Either way, he was in more trouble than he could imagine. Suddenly, a bright flash of white light and a roaring peal of thunder were preceded by an explosion as a huge object fell from the sky and impacted the ground of the moor no more than a stone’s throw from him. Dirt, mud, water, and debris erupted from the impact site, flying high into the air and then covering the moor for hundreds of feet all around. Skerrill was knocked to the ground instantly and covered in the fallout from the blast. His ears rang and his head spun, but he staggered to his feet in a daze. He stumbled to where the blast had happened only moments before, and in a depression in the ground lay a huge stone glowing orange as if hot. Skerrill passed out. Two more thunderous explosions crashed in the distance.”

"When the adventurers decide to help a man who has lost his memory, little do they realize he’s Gethirah Kugothan, the notorious anti-paladin! Can the man they know as “Michael” leave his evil past behind and become a champion of good? The answer lies in Gethirah’s former stronghold, a magnificent castle perched atop a waterfall." - Christopher Perkins From the magazine: "The Forgotten Man" is an AD&D adventure designed for 4-5 PCs of levels 6-8 (about 35 total levels)... This adventure focuses on Gethirah Kugothan (also known as Michael), a formerly evil man whose memory has since taken up residence in a church of the god of rebirth and renewal. The premise of the adventure hinges on the possibility that such a man can be turned from the path of evil and become good. The main goal of the PCs is to keep Gethirah from becoming the man he used to be.

Giants have been raiding the lands of men in large bands, with giants of different sorts in these marauding groups. Death and destruction have been laid heavily upon every place these monsters have visited. This has caused great anger in high places, for life and property loss means failure of the vows of noble rulers to protect the life and goods of each and every subject -- and possible lean times for the rulers as well as the ruled. Therefore, a party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants. This module contains background information, referee's notes, two level maps, and exploration matrix keys. It provides a complete module for play of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and it can be used alone or as the first of a three-part expedition adventure which also employs DUNGEON MODULE G2 (GLACIAL RIFT OF THE FROST GIANT JARL) and DUNGEON MODULE G3 (HALL OF THE FIRE GIANT KING). TSR 9016

This module is especially for a party of elven PCs, level 8+. The Feadiel clan's Tree of Life is dying. As the bravest and strongest elves in the clan, you must undertake the challenge of the elders: seek out the source of the disease and destroy it. If you fail, the Tree of Life will surely perish, and all your family with it. The quest is great and you may die on the journey, never to find the cause of the disease. The journey will take you to the deepest part of ancient Selinar, Elvenhome, to find the guarded grave of the first Treekeeper... TSR 9166

Faced with an unusual alliance of giants raiding the countryside, the party must venture into the steading of hill giant chief Nosnra and uncover maps to the locations of the other giant strongholds. “Steading of the Hill Giant Chief ” can be run as a stand-alone adventure, or you can play it as the first part of a four-part series that continues with “Warrens of the Stone Giant Thane” (Dungeon 198), “Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl” (Dungeon 199), and “Hall of the Fire Giant King” (Dungeon 200). The adventure is part of the Against the Giants series originally by Gary Gygax, hence the writing credit.

Something strange is afoot within the Quivering Forest. So much so that even the elves of Greenhall have left their homes to seek out help from their newfound neighbors. But, their tales of a strange beast are not earning them any favors; especially among the Vistani, whom the elves suspect are to blame for their ills. Return once more to the Quivering Forest and learn the terrifying truth! Part Two of Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts.

It's a horrible time to have a curse! Each wielding a powerful item to a family legacy, your players are a group of young adventurers who barely survive an attack on their order of vampire-hunters by agents of Dracula. After escaping, they discover Dracula has placed a curse upon the land which makes restful sleep difficult outside of hallowed areas. Dracula, "alive" on another plane but dead on this one, must be resurrected so they can kill him, end the curse, and avenge their dead. To accomplish this goal, the player characters must journey through forest, marsh, hill, and underground paths to retrieve relics of Dracula's last life from keeps and fortresses overrun by monsters and the undead. If they can resurrect him, he will be weak and easy to kill... but the adventurers aren't the only ones who want Dracula on the Material Plane, and Dracula is not the only vampire in the world. Gameplay overview This adventure takes the players from 2nd through 9th or 10th level on a milestone basis as they choose where to travel in what order to retrieve what they need. Starting at a happy gathering at the Belmonte Order, which the characters are hereditary members of, the campaign kicks off with a bang as the group retrieves their chosen legacy items, salvages what other gear they can in a race against time and a growing number of foes, and then escapes to begin their quest. In addition to the six main "dungeons," there are two optional regional lairs, traveling vampires, and many foes along the way. Most of the towns in the area have managed to survive, providing points of light at which the party may stop, long rest safely, acquire supplies, and socialize. Travel is hazardous! 5e classes are balanced for resource management across a 5-8 encounter adventuring day. The campaign is designed to have a semi-variable flow of encounters as the party traels around the area. Encounters grow progressively more difficult as time passes and the party spends more time within a region. These are not random encounters rolled on a table, but encounters designed to be unique to each area's geography, combat terrain, and mix of foes. As the party spends more time in a region or revisits it, the encounter difficulty increases. Dracula's curse requires a Constitution saving throw to successfully long rest outside of Hallowed areas (towns). The difficulty scales up over time, forcing the party to balance speed and safety as they try to accomplish their goals without pushing beyond the limits of what they can handle. The game concept, general map layout, and some enemy distributions are loosely inspired by Castlevania II for the NES, one of the forerunners of the "Metroidvania" genre. Dracula's Curse is indeed a game in which the forests are dark and full of monsters, and every night is a horrible one to have a curse. Includes 15 Legacy items, from weapons like whips and swords to a shield, a belt, or a decanter of holy water 60+ enemy statblocks 8 unique dungeons with unique layouts & challenges 5 inhabited towns with multiple named NPCs 100+ travel encounters (expect to use 30-50%) The module is printer-friendly with no artwork and straightforward grid maps for location-based encounters which require one.

Part 1 of an Expert-level quest into a hostile wilderness. This adventure takes place in the Known World of the D&D game, as outlined throughout the D&D game rule books and modules. The DM may find it useful to consult the Companion and Masters Sets, as well as most of the X-series of Expert Set modules. D&D Expert Set module X9, The Savage Coast, would be especially helpful, as Tortles of the Purple Sage could easily serve and continue that module's direction and plot like, adding a previously undescribed area (the Great Northway) to the Known World. The DM may also place the areas and events of this adventure within an existing campaign setting, as long as the geographical areas of the campaign match those set forth here. Pgs. 40-62

Yesterday, young Tobias went to investigate an old tomb by himself. Everyone told him it was a bad idea. Everyone was right. Today, you and your companions awaken to a town in chaos. Why is the temple sealed behind a divine shield? Why are children and worshippers trapped within? How do we get inside? What did Tobias do?! Ragged Hollow is a full-service starting town, full of classic creatures and challenges all updated and brought together for newbies and nostalgia-lovers alike. There are goblins and witches in the woods, a house full of traps, a basement of vermin, kobolds in a cave, bandits on the road, riddling ravens, a 50-room temple dungeon, nursery-rhyme monsters, living nightmares, Lovecraftian horrors, and tons of unique items to find. This is a mystery with lots of relevant side-quests around the town. The heroes can investigate the situation, get into the temple, save the innocents, and stop the monsters. And get some loot! ADVENTURE TYPE: Medium Dungeon / Town / Wilderness Adventure DESIGN NOTES This adventure is intended for characters levels 1 to 4. It includes several wilderness areas (forest, hills, mountain), a bustling town, several local mini-dungeons, and one 50-room temple dungeon. Each area contains various encounters and unique items. There are many opportunities for combat, but it is possible for players to explore most areas and complete many interactions without any combat at all, depending on their choices. INCLUDES: Story hooks, dialogue prompts, random encounters, stat blocks, original creatures and treasures, and maps. KEYWORDS: town, village, forest, goblins, goblin market, witches, hags, hills, bandits, ogres, mountain, kobolds, caves, dwarves, temple, clerics, nightmares, demons, riddles, traps, ghosts, fairy tales, Lovecraft, mutant