“The Temple Between” is an adventure for 9th level characters, and it is challenging enough to take them to 11th level by the time all is said and done. Although intended as the final chapter of the heroic tier portion of the Scales of War Adventure Path, it can be run as a standalone adventure, or as an adventure in a campaign of your own making, with a small degree of modification. It contains elements of urban investigation, dungeon delving, and even wartime conflict, making it a suitable adventure to players of many tastes and preferences. The western end of Elsir Vale has been greatly troubled in recent days. The threat of the orc hordes from beyond the Stonehome Mountains, though turned back at Bordrin’s Watch, still lingers in the people’s minds. Peculiar and hostile creatures of shadow lurk in the caverns and caves below. Political squabbling grows among the city’s powerful dwarf clans. All this makes the city particularly vulnerable to an enemy nobody saw coming - that nobody even imagined. This enemy has goals and objectives far beyond the ultimately unimportant Elsir Vale, but the first step is the utter subjugation of Overlook. An enemy who, at least in part, is already here. In this adventure the player characters start by investigating the strange behavior of the city's clergy. They swiftly discover hints of a conspiracy worming its way through the city hierarchy - some members are possessed while others have been replaced by dopplegangers. After trailing this conspiracy to its source they discover a portal that leads to an ancient temple in the mountains. Using the portal, the PCs go to the abandoned ancient temple where they must confront both a cadre of fey and a band of mercenaries, from whom they learn there is a plot for a full-scale invasion of the region! The PCs must them rush back to Overlook and cement their place as heroes as they face off against the invading forces. Pgs. 4-71
A ship captain, Alyse Carl, double crossed the Thieves Guild Ebonclad in the past. Alyse and her ship, the Spearhead, has recently returned to port in Kintalla. Seeing an opportunity, the guild sends out a crew of its newer members to settle the debt. The mission has three major objectives: to discredit the reputation of the trader captain Alyse Carl, to turn the goodwill of her crew against her, and to relieve her of ownership of her longship, the Spearhead. The party can use whatever resources it desires to complete the mission, but is under orders not to kill Alyse Carl.
On Olarune 9th in the 918th year since the founding of the Kingdom, one of the city of Sharn's floating towers fell from the sky, crusing much of the Godsgate District. Now, a band of bestial savages searches Godsgate for the remnants of a broken statue, pulling the PCs into a plot that could destroy Sharn itself. The city of Sharn is one of the wonders of Khorvaire. Its towers seem to touch the sky, rising up more than a mile from the shores of the Dagger River. But it takes more than stone and steel to support the spires of Sharn: the area is suffused with mystical energy drawn from the plane of Syrania, which empowers all forms of flight. Yet with such wondrous inventions come wondrous tragedies, for when the magic of a flying tower fails, it has to land somewhere... Pgs. 18-29
"Taking an iron grip on his nerves, he strode confidently into the dark portal, naked steel in hand, and vanished within." (The Castle of Terror) Conan of Cimmeria Thoth-Amon, the greatest living sorcerer of the Hyborian Age, threatens the peace of Aquilonia. His tragic mistake is that he threatens Conan also, for Conan is now King of this mighty land. Conan and his companions, Pelias, Prospero, and Nzinga journey across the plains of Shem and Stygia to test their will and power against this wicked sorcerer. Battle with them to conquer the evil forces that endanger their land! TSR 9124
For better or for worse. It's up to you to make sure this is the happiest day of their lives - not the most embarrassing! A wedding and a jealous lover what could go wrong. A small and light hearted adventure perfect for kicking off a campaign in a city. Pgs. 50-57
From Exalted Funeral: The snows are alive. A soft, cold spirit courses through them. Her lace threads the world; watching, drinking, listening, stroking, soothing, killing. Her touch is soft and icy. She is Winterwhite, the daughter of the Waterdrinker and the Northwind, and she is a terrible god. An avatar of ice and hunger, of visions and death. Dooms and devastations to visit upon a cosy roleplaying setting. Longwinter is the RPG sandbox of a realm that has broken its vows to Winterwhite and will now pay the cold price. This book contains secret knowledge and mechanics for the referee. The setting is profoundly close to that of Witchburner (by the same author and artist). This sandbox includes: ~110 pages of content. some colour illustrations. 3 variations of the Brezim map to represent changes as Winterwhite's curse bites harder. faction trackers for the 5 key factions and over 40 events to represent different groups growing or waning in strength depending on player actions. detailed weather and event tables to simulate a living setting. detailed encounter tables for night and day, which grow harsher as Winterwhite's curse grows stronger. several more tables to generate corpses, caches, vaults, and memories of summer. optional playing card-based escape mechanic with 54 different locations, challenges and characters encountered in each location. alternatively, the escape section serves as a resource to mine for winter locations, challenges, and characters. Be aware: This is a book of factions and winter encounters for the full-fledged mini-setting detailed in the Longwinter: Visitor's Book. The content is mostly system-neutral. It references some 5E or d20-style conventions, but should work with most low-power systems easily. Many of the encounters, and particularly the escape, will not work with characters resistant to cold, capable of flight, or otherwise able to avoid the environmental challenges. Finally, thank you for considering running Longwinter for your players. It is a bit of a tribute to the mountains and myths I've walked and heard over many years, and I hope you will find fuel for many adventures and good memories herein. It has also been a challenging project to prepare. Many people helped make it as good as it is. The fault for all errors and typos is my own. —Luka, December 2020
The Siege of Castle Rend is an adventure for the fifth edition of the world’s first roleplaying game, suitable for five 5th-level characters. It takes place over four parts, and each part can be completed in one or two sessions of play, depending on your group’s playstyle and how long you like to play in a single sitting. If all goes according to plan over the course of this adventure, the player characters will expose an usurping lord, fight orcs, acquire a stronghold, defend it from an invading army, win the admiration of a town filled with potential vassals, and make political connections within the Barony of Bedegar. Of course, no adventure goes according to plan. The PCs will invariably throw these well-laid schemes into chaos, and they’ll have to improvise. But if we know how things would have gone if the PCs never showed up (or are cowards), it makes it easier for us GMs to improvise when things go off the rails. Published by MCDM
Mr. P has a job for you. You must investigate three robberies that took place in Waterdeep in the past few days, and connect them to whoever is responsible. All clues lead you to a certain mansion, but it is certain that the raid will not be easy, as they are always watching, always one step ahead... Who's watching you ask? What do you mean? No one is watching.
*THIS IS A D&D NEXT/5E PLAYTEST ADVENTURE* Imani, a Turmishan wizard and former adventurer, seeks the aid of heroes to infiltrate Dretchroyaster’s lair and recover the Diamond Staff of Chomylla—the key to powerful magic and wisdom locked away for thousands of years. In addition to his own sagely interest in the lore of lost Uvaeren, Imani recognizes the dangers of such powerful magic falling into evil hands. The dracolich has secured the staff in his lair’s cen- tral chamber, using ancient wards of protection that can be bypassed only by four artifact-idols once belong- ing to a cult of Bhaal. Each group of adventurers enters the dungeon through a different section of the dun- geon—a forgotten temple of Bhaal, a vast underground lake, a troglodyte village, or Dretchroyaster’s vaults. Dretchroyaster’s lair is no simple set of caverns and ancient ruins. It sits atop a source of great power and energy, which the dracolich and his Cult of the Dragon allies hope to use to unlock the secrets of the staff. Only by undertaking a unified assault against Dretchroyas- ter’s lair can the adventurers hope to recover the Diamond Staff and survive the dracolich’s fury. The adventurers must make their way through the lair and recover the Bhaalite idols that will help unlock the Diamond Staff, all the while dealing with the lair’s creatures and avoiding the dracolich as he pur- sues intruders. Entering the Chamber of the Diamond Staff, the heroes must overcome its magical wards and claim the staff before being slain by the dracolich and his servants.
Long unoccupied, the pyramid on Sorcerer’s Isle now flows with strange magical energy, warping creatures and the landscape around it. The Cult of the Dragon and Red Wizards of Thay have taken notice, and it’s up to you to keep whatever power dwells there out of their hands. An adventure for 5th-10th level characters.
The wildly bonkers adventure from the hit podcast of the same. The Adventure Zone is heavily story based with about eight different arcs, each one quite different from the last. The first Arc gives an alternate ending to the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, which transitions into getting the players hired by a secret organization whose job is destroy incredibly powerful, and evil, magical artifacts. Then into your first job for them. The rest of the arcs are the players working for this organization, and discovering secrets along the way. Secrets of the setting, the organization, and themselves.
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.”
Them Ogres Ain't Right... The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path continues! The notorious Hook Mountain ogres, known for their violent and savage ways, have slaughtered the soldiers of Fort Rannick. The few surviving rangers need heroes to help them retake this key fortification before the ogres use it as a staging ground for further assaults on the region. Yet why have the ogres chosen now to launch this sudden attack? What sinister force grows in the surrounding wilderness, and what ties to the mysterious Sihedron Rune do the ogres of Hook Mountain hide? Are the rumors of an army of giants massing for war true?
SIGIL'S BEEN AT PEACE FOR OVER 600 YEARS. ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END. Six centuries ago, events surrounding the Great Upheaval imposed an uneasy peace in the City of Doors. Since that time, the 15 factions have quietly conducted their philosophical battle for the hearts and minds of all Cagers - and always stopped short of all-out war. But now tensions are flaring, tempers are rising, and the Cage is about to explode into conflict! Faction War is a 128-page adventure that tracks the war from its nefarious origins through its bitter battles to its ultimate resolution and beyond - and puts the future of Sigil in the hands of the player characters. This book reveals secrets, unravels musteries, brings long-simmering plots to ahead, and marks the beginning of a new era for the City of Doors. It also features the following: - New details on Sigil's wards, personalities, and politics - Adventures that draw the player characters into the heart of the struggle and toward the secrets surrounding the war's beginning and ultimate end - Extensive notes on the aftermath of the conflict - A detailed Timeline of the war, including additional events that the DM may use expand to the adventure Faction War builds on story elements first explored in the PLANESCAPE accessories In the Cage, Factol's Manifesto, and Uncaged: Faces of Sigil. Familiarity with those products is recommended but not required. TSR 2629
When the Guildmaster speaks, everybody listens. When the going gets tough, the thieves get going. For 3-6 thieves. Pgs. 9-16 & 34
Finding missing people is a job any adventurers for hire get used to. But when the missing person turns out to be the recently deceased wife of a prominent merchant's son, and when there is the small matter of a major jewelry theft to deal with as well, then you've got an adventure that is nothing other than normal.... Find the Lady is an adventure for the D&D and AD&D game systems. It is designed for a party of 1st - 3rd level characters, with secondary skills generated according to the article in this issue. This scenario was not designed with any set number of characters or mix of professions and levels in mind, and could equally well be run as a group or solo adventure. It can be played as a one-off adventure or as part of the Pelinore or Zhalindor campaigns, and notes are included on placing the adventure in either world. GM2 Find the Lady Pgs. 15-46
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.
Greger’s Grotto is a community of pirates and other criminals, hidden away on a desolate coastline. The players are slaves sold to the Grotto’s owning family and used for manual labour and bloodsport in the arena. In this adventure, the players will need to: * survive harsh prison conditions, including the rivalry between prisoner factions: human, orc, goblin and hobgoblin * fight in arena battles against prisoners and beasts, often with strange twists to entertain the crowd * explore small mini-dungeons attached to the prisoners’ caverns * ultimately escape; whether by force, alliance with fellow prisoners, stealth, cunning or any combination of these Features of this adventure: * Pay-what-you-want (even nothing). * Illustrated with art by Setvasai. * Designed to fit into most campaign worlds. * Simulationist or story-driven: includes information for both. Use random rolls to determine what happens when, or take inspiration from various story hooks. (Or do both.) * 11 unique NPCs, including members of the Grotto’s owning family and leader of the prisoner factions. * Full maps of the Grotto, its arena and prisoner caverns, totalling over 40 rooms.
A minion of chaos has come to the Prime Material Plane from the void of the Far Realms to terrorize and conquer in the name of its masters. The PCs must act quickly to assemble a legendary artefact powerful enough to weaken the minion so it can be defeated. Pgs. 20-47
The duchy of Velen is a bastion of law and order in an otherwise untamed land. Its ruler, Duke Calchais, holds his citizens and visitors to his city to a high standard of conduct. When Velen's harbormaster is murdered, the duke enlists the aid of adventurers to see that justice is served. Was the harbormaster a victim of larceny gone awry, or is something more sinister afoot in Velen? Murder in Velen is a 4-hour standalone adventure set in and around the port city of Velen, which is located in the peninsula nation of the same name in southwestern Faerûn. Velen is designed for a party of five 10th-level player characters, but it can easily be scaled by adding or removing creatures.