For centuries, Aelmor Monastery near the port town of Sestone was a safe haven for scholars, monks, and pilgrims seeking enlightenment, its renowned library home to an enormous collection of ancient manuscripts, tomes, and peculiar writings. After suffering a devastating attack at the hands of a possessed monastery elder, Aelmor fell into ruin, its troubled past forgotten. When villagers start disappearing and turn up horribly mutated days later, fear takes a grip of Sestone. What sinister forces are at work? And to what end? The Claws of Madness is a standalone adventure carefully designed for a group of 1st-level heroes, including new monsters, magic items, and a thrilling story arc. Edited by Michele Carter (co-editor of the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook), this dungeon crawl combines the best elements of classic adventures with fresh new exciting avenues. The story in this book also provides the perfect base for an epic, long-running campaign suitable for higher-level characters, in which the heroes unravel the dark mystery of the mythical Hand of Narkul . . . Published by LoreSmyth SmiteWorks.
Citadel by the Sea is an AD&D gaming module for 4-8 characters, each of 1st to 3rd level. The fewer the characters available, the higher their levels should be. Characters should be well equipped, with at least one magical weapon apiece, but do not need any particular game experience. It is recommended that at least one ranger character and one elf character be members of the adventuring party, and that no player character be a half-orc. The Dungeon Master should read the entire module carefully before running this adventure; the events are laid out in the approximate order in which characters would normally encounter them, and the text builds the adventure as one reads through it.
There is no particular overarching story here, just a prospect dungeon you can drop into your own sandbox and run as you see fit. This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules.
The crown of the kobold king will be anointed in blood. Five children from the town of Falcon’s Hollow have gone missing, dragged off into ruins underneath a cursed dwarven monastery. Soon they will be sacrificed to the crown, all to the glory of the twisted King of the Kobolds. If they are to be saved from this gruesome fate, brave heroes must follow their trail to the monastery and plumb the depths of its trap-laden and monster-infested halls.
Join the adventure in the free city of Taux! Written as a narrative piece to help incorporate game play into the shared world anthology series Tales of the Emerald Serpent, this adventure for semi-experienced characters will put you on the run from the most powerful and notorious family in Taux. Can the characters write their own story and join the legends of Black Gate with the help of iconic personas made famous in Tales of the Emerald Serpent and A Knight in the Silk Purse. This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules. Also available in PDF.
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.
An investigative city crawl adventure for Shadowdark RPG (or any OSR-style system), designed for experienced players levels 1-2 Set in the decaying city of Brannam, players unravel a web of fear, blood, and buried secrets. A local alchemist has begun killing in secret, rekindling old fears of an old terror. The city's decline threatens to spiral into collapse, and far below, something older and hungrier waits to wake. This adventure includes: 3 separate dungeons (The flooded Sewers, the forgotten Catacombs, and the cursed Ruins of Edric von Braech's keep) Open ended design and layered mysteries with multiple outcomes and failure states A fully explorable city with random encounters, evolving factions and escalating panic. Custom rules for spell mishaps, nightly murder checks and decay events as Brannam unravels Modular content designed to drop into your campaign
A terrible plague has swept through the city of Cairdus, and despite the local clergy’s best efforts, they have been unable to control the spread of the disease. Even those who seem cured often contract the disease again. The only thing that is making any headway are the special blessings given by the powerful Baron Velstaf, but he only grants these blessings for a price that few can afford. The Star of Olindor is an adventure designed for 7th-level rogue, or other character of similar abilities. The obstacles in the adventure are set up to encourage the use of stealth and trickery, and many rely on classic rogue skills. The adventure takes place in the city of Cairdus, the details of which have been intentionally left imprecise, so that it can be easily slipped into an existing campaign, or better yet the adventure can be altered to take place in any existing city. Part 1 of the Olindor Trilogy.
It all begins with a simple request (doesn’t it always?) from an old farmer. The request – protect his cattle herd from vicious wolves. Simple enough for the brave adventurers, right? But it doesn’t stay that way. Not at all. Soon, the adventuring party will find themselves in the thick of it as they solve puzzles, avoid traps, fight for their lives, and endure witty taunting. And in the end, they discover an artifact that may, or may not, be useful to them. This adventure includes a cursed shield, a new undead creature, and a new artifact. Total party experience earned is approximately 14,500.
Eternally does the Lord of Nessus scheme, and his designs are for all eternity; In the pit of Hell do the devils teem round his throne, and his reign is unchallenged; By the eight Dark Ones is he held supreme, and his name (speak it not!) is Asmodeus. - From "The Canticle of Thumis," 142:15 To some, justice is more important than glory, duty is more important than desire, and goodness is more important than life. The great paladin Klysandral was such a man. But even the sleep of death, at the end of a long lifetime spent battling evil, did not bring peace to Klysandral. During his funeral, the entire Temple of Neheod was dragged by terrible magic into the Nine Hells, along with the soul of Klysandral and scores of living mourners! What unearthly motive could be behind this tragedy? Only the bravest, strongest, and most resolute heroes will have the mettle to find the answer. Along the way, they will meet the enigmatic wizard Emirikil the Chaotic, sail aboard the fiendish ship Demonwing, and finally face the horrific minions and overwhelming terrors of Hell itself. Only the path of light can lead the bravest of the brave into perdition and safely out again. Step wisely, and walk in justice.
The Chapel on the Cliffs is a 5th edition horror adventure optimized for a group of 4-5 characters of 3rd level. In this module, the characters will need to explore the ruined village of Kennmouth and its surroundings, find out why a small army of skeletons rises from their graves every night to drive out intruders, and search for a way to lift this unholy curse. The PDF comes with a companion PDF for scaling from levels 2-6. Produced by Goblin Stone
For months, the dreams of the people of Emystrell have become dark and terrible. It seems their nightmares have come to life as in recent weeks, people have mysteriously gone missing, vanishing in the night without a trace! Everyone is too paralyzed by their own despair to do anything or venture far from the safety of their homes. Emystrell is on the brink of collapse. The baron is offering a handsome reward to anyone who can show proof of the end of whatever evil curse that has taken hold of their town. This adventure is designed for a party of 3-5 heroic characters from the 2nd to 3rd level. It has elements of mystery and investigation in the first section which can be detailed and highly involved for groups that enjoy the process of searching for clues and solving mysteries or just as easily glossed over for groups that are more tactics focused. The second section of the adventure features the dungeon: a labyrinthine complex of an ancient elven crypt which the thieves guild has used as a base of operations for a decade...until the serpent worshipping cult arrived. The third section of this book is the detailed map and notes on the town and surrounding area of Emystrell. Roleplaying notes are kept light to allow for room for your own interpretations and details to NPCs remain as free to do with as you choose unless I felt inspired and hoped to give you a cool idea. This adventure has hooks for Dungeon Masters interested in a larger campaign involving the sinister plots of the Yuan-Ti (snake people) as well as other interesting adventure hooks (such as the giants in the nearby mountains or the stolen gem: The Eye of the Dragon). These plot points are intentionally left vague for you to fill in the gaps based on what your players seem interested in. You are invited to use this as a launch point adventure to lead your heroes on a larger adventure that might someday set them against an Anathema Serpent demigod, or it may simply be the adventure that begins their journeys and the evil of Yargoth stops here at Emystrell. If your campaign is set in a pre-published setting, this town of Emystrell can be replaced or fit into any campaign with a few tweaks to local gods and names. If you are playing in Dragonlance, you could replace Yargoth the Dread Serpent with Tiamat, or Dendar in Fearun. The local goddess, Tyr, could be the Tyr from the Forgotten Realms or even Norse myth if that is your campaign setting.
"The broken outline of Cear Ferros emerged on the horizon. Its ancient walls stand silent and looming as you approach them, casting long and eerie shadows across the land." An adventure through a cursed castle crawling with undead in search of missing merchants. For Shadowdark Published as part of the Shots in the Dark collection.
Welcome to the Cage, friend. You'll want to watch your back in Sigil - it seems every cutter here's got a way to peel a clueless basher, and you're no exception. Besides, there's something happening down in the Hive that's got the factions in an uproar, and word is you're the cutter to look into it. Barmies and bubbers have been waking up in the Dead Book, but they haven't been staying there. They've been returning to Sigil with minds restored, telling tales of the Eternal Boundary. But the air's turning foul here in the Cage, and there'll be blood spilled soon if someone doesn't learn the dark of things, an quick! The Eternal Boundary is a Planescape adventure for a party of four to six characters of 1st to 5th levels. Players are introduced to the city of Sigil - the Cage, as some call it. Inside this crossroads to the planes, a sinister plot unfolds, leading the heroes into the most dangerous and desperate part of town - the ramshackle slum known as the Hive. Do your player characters have what it takes to confront the Eternal Boundary - and pass beyond?
The best of intentions. Pay your taxes or go to jail - and don't even thing about using magic. Pgs. 8-23
The whispered worries grow more fanciful and terrifying by the day... where has the loremistress gone?... what's wrong with the master smith?... who-or what-stalks the marketplace?... The questions need answers, and heroes are needed to do the asking! But the only thing worse than what hunts the mist-shrouded streets is what lies beneath them... Adventure in Dun Eamon: Demons roam the streets of the city of Dun Eamon, criminals rule the night and an important local power figure has gone missing. Can your heroes unravel the clues that lead through every social element of the city, into the hearts of its inhabitants and far below its streets in search of answers? Or are some mysteries better left unsolved? Uncover An Artifact: The Grey Citadel is a mini-campaign of urban detective work and dungeon exploration designed for four or more characters of 5th level. Set in a rain-soaked, rough-and-tumble frontier city, The Grey Citadel offers numerous colorful NPCs, a richly unique location, new monsters and magic items plus enough plot twists to provide hours of role-playing and door-kicking adventure where your wits must be as sharp as your swords!" This adventures mixes dungeon crawl with city investigation, keyed encounters and timed encounters.
In the city of Waterdeep rests a tavern called the Yawning Portal, named after the gaping pit in its common room. At the bottom of this crumbling shaft is a labyrinthine dungeon shunned by all but the most daring adventurers. Known as Undermountain, this dungeon is the domain of the mad wizard Halaster Blackcloak. Long has the Mad Mage dwelt in these forlorn depths, seeding his lair with monsters, traps, and mysteries—to what end is a constant source of speculation and concern. This adventure picks up where Waterdeep: Dragon Heist leaves off, taking characters of 5th level or higher all the way to 20th level should they explore the entirety of Halaster’s home. Twenty-three levels of Undermountain are detailed herein, along with the subterranean refuge of Skullport. Treasures and secrets abound, but tread with care!
By any other name A jewel rose has been stole and its up to the PCs to recover it in this arabain themed adventure. Pgs. 28-47 & 65
The village of Orașnou is panicked when a group of Bloodhand orcs appear at the edge of the woods. They bring news and an unusual request that reveals a new foe. Part Eleven of Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts.
Necromancer Lintu practices undead-focused magic, avant-garde taxidermy, and is one of the most intelligent, successful, and evil people in Morsain. Outwardly helpful about undead, he's a psychotic serial killer happily "sourcing raw materials" himself.