Sekarvu is a typical beholder. It spent much of its youth exploring underground realms and killing everything it found. One day, it came upon a large cavern filled with violet fungi. At the edge of the cavern, it found a small band of adventurers who had all but succumbed to the toxins of the fungi's tendrils. They offered little resistance to Sekarvu as it approached and began to feed on their still-writhing bodies. With its first bite, the beholder's life changed forever. Pgs. 52-55

Few planes possess the raw malevolence of the Infinite Layers of the Abyss. It is a place of random violence, appalling cruelty, and pure, unadulterated wickedness. Here, unreasoning malice rules, and countless demons torture and murder for the joy of it. The Abyss is innovative in its wretchedness, with each fleeting moment birthing new and awful psychotic acts of utter evil. Those who brave its depths find no relief from its corrosive nature, nor respite from the cancerous seeds of evil blooming within all who tarry here; they find only anguish, pain and if they're lucky, sudden, abrupt death. "Into the Maw" is the ninth chapter of the Savage Tide 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 #356 of Dragon magazine features an expanded list of strange and exotic magical items that could be purchased from the mercane merchants encountered during "Into the Maw." In order to rescue a friend, the PCs must sail into the Abyss and infiltrate a prison built by the Prince of Demons. Pgs. 48-85

Deep in the forest, two hunters stumble across the site of a strange and ancient ritual, and one pays the ultimate price. Now a murderous beast stalks the streets of a quiet farm town. Can the PCs unravel the secret of Dramsburg’s dark past and defeat a monster that cannot be killed? Mystery adventure with little fighting in a small town. Can be played in a single session. At the climax a moral quandary is presented. Pgs. 14-25

Terror grips the city of Sharn. A serial killer stalks the streets and catalogues his slaughter in the annals of the city’s newspaper, to the delight and horror of its readers. To catch this elusive criminal, the PCs must match wits with an old adversary. Even beaten, scarred, and imprisoned, Viktor Saint-Demain is determined to have the final word. This is a sequel to Dungeon Magazine issue #133’s adventure “Chimes at Midnight”.

The legendary city of Freeport is a seedy port town where former pirates settle down to become "businessmen" while street gangs fight over the slave trade. In the deepest warrens of this already dangerous place, mad cultists worship unspeakable gods - and sometimes these sinister deeds bubble to the surface. There's a dark shadow over Freeport today, as yet another innocent child has gone missing. The trail leads to the old Cresh Manor, boarded up but not forgotten. The city needs heroes to find these missing children. But are the heroes brave enough to conquer the dark shadows of Freeport?

The city of Suncliff has so much trash they've devoted an entire quarter to it. naming the reeking ruins "the Stink" and piling garbage as high as the eye can see. But sanitation workers have been vanishing from the Stink at night, and only your heroes hold the key to solving the smelly mystery. Folks have been vanishing from the Stink, a disease-filled rubbish quarter of Sunhill. City officials recruit the heroes to investigate the disappearances, putting the PCs on the trail of fiendish Locathahs, followers of Incabulos, with ill plans for the surface world. Pgs. 47-69

Something vile has transformed a sleepy rural village -- the locals have become monsters, and the only survivors are insane. Can the PCs unravel the mystery before a troupe of sinister bards plunges the heart of an unsuspecting city into the Far Realm? A D&D adventure for 9th-level characters.

Wherein the weather takes a turn for the worse. All hell breaks loose in the city of Cauldron, as a long-dormant volcano sputters to life. The heroes must deal with the terrible consequences, ushering citizens to safety and negotiating fiend-filled streets littered with collapsed buildings. And with the death of the Lord Mayer, who will lead what's left of the City? "Foundation of Flame" is the eighth adventure in the Shackled City Adventure Path. Pgs. 56-84

A "web Enhancement" adventure for the D&D 3.5 Frostburn supplement. Arctic / Frostfell / Cold Several decades ago, a down-on-his-luck half-elf known as Captain Kerakes lost his ship after a run of bad luck in a game of dice. So when an investor approached him with an offer of a new ship and three-month mission, he jumped at the chance. His new employer was a rich but somewhat miserly nobleman named Jarren Skein. Having heard rumors of the glacier dwarves and their amazing weaponcraft, he had become obsessed with obtaining some of their weapons as trophies. Skein made Kerakes the captain of a ship called the Rusty Walrus and promised him a sizeable commission upon his return with the desired glacier dwarf weapons. The PCs must board the wreck of the Rusty Walrus and defeat the undead that infest it. Later, the ghost of Captain Kerakes begins to wreak vengeance on Jarren Skein s heirs. The PCs must determine the reason for the string of murders and track down the perpetrator.

Fallow and abandoned for years, Bloodsworn Vale has long been a dangerous wood separating two kingdoms. A recent call-to-arms asks adventurers from around the world to establish a trade route through this dark and forboding forest.

An insane villain plots ruin deep beneath the city of Sharn. In order to save the city, the PCs must find the one thing that can stop him, an enormous Siberys dragonshard hidden somewhere in the jungles of the lost continent of Xen'drik. "Temple of the Scorpion God" is part two of the three-part Shards of Eberron Campaign Arc. Pgs. 66-75

An adventure for the Midnight campaign setting from Fantasy Flight Games. The adventurers make contact with the Baden's Bluff underground to investigate a pair of recent murders. This adventure emphasizes information gathering and deduction, rather than combat.

The wizard Allustan requests the party's company on a trip to Blackwall Keep, a militia outpost on the border of a treacherous swamp. But what of the green worms and unkillable zombies plaguing the region, and what fell secret is locked in the keep's forlorn basement? "Encounter at Blackwall Keep" is the third installment of the Age of Worms Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures, several "Backdrop" articles to help Dungeon masters run the series, and a handful of poster maps of key locations. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon's monthly "Worm Food" articles, a series that provides additional materials to help players survive this campaign. Check out issue #335 of Dragon for three sample cohorts that they might want to take on. Pgs. 16-40

A new D&D adventure for first-level characters. Scourge of the Howling Horde is a D&D adventure for first-level characters that pits heroes against a menacing tribe of goblins and their monstrous allies. It showcases a new encounter format designed to help Dungeon Masters run memorable encounters more easily. It also includes sidebars that contain useful advice such as differences when running the adventure for new players or for seasoned players.

In Temple of the Dragon Cult, the characters are called in to pursue a dragon that the king’s army was able to wound but not kill. It seems straightforward enough: the army tracked the dragon to its lair, and all the characters have to do is go in and kill it. But this dragon has a devoted cult of dragonblood followers who worship its every breath. Its lair is their temple — and they’ll fight to the death to defend their dragon-god…

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th to 11th level characters (Tiers: 7–8 and 10–11). The fabled ruined city of Dokeran, deep inside the heart of the Mwangi Expanse, has been found and it's your job as a Pathfinder to explore it and discover how it fell. After fighting through fiends, enslaved warriors, and the damned spirits of Dokeran's dead, you find that the ruined city has a dark secret—one you might not survive.

When the Black Marquis lost all of the men he could trust on a failed treasure hunt, he did the only thing he could: turned to the Pathfinder Society for help. Offering an ancient lost text in return for assistance, the Black Marquis of Deadbridge sends you deep into the spider-haunted Echo Wood of the River Kingdoms to track down his missing pirates and recover an ancient treasure for the Society. You'll face brigands, pirates, spiders and more—but will you survive the perils of the Pirate Pact?

This adventure takes place in the Moonsea of Faerûn. The players have been brought to Melvaunt to search for the missing scions of the city's great families. To the north, in Thar the orc tribes converge on the ruined fortress of Xul-Jarak, flocking to the banner of a charismatic warlord. There, he intends to sacrifice the scions of the great families of Melvaunt in a bloodritual to Gruumsh. The players will escape Melvaunt, search along the wilderness of Thar for the Fortress of Xul-Jarak, and then explore the dungeons of the ruined fortress and hopefully rescue the scions before they are sacrificed. There also is a Web Enhancement by Eric Cagle on the archives of wizards of the coast's website designed to scale the adventure to level 8. For example, it replaces the Owlbear with a Tyrannosaurus. This is an easy to scale adventure with much of the player's difficulty coming from intelligently avoiding problems, choosing how to approach each floor in the most tactical way, and quickly adjusting when something goes wrong. The adventure has sidebars including common orc battle cries (In Orc!), ready to use orc names, weather and random encounter table in Thar, a description of what happens if the party fails or partially succeeds, and suggested minis for each of the encounters. There is even an extended description of the bloodspear ritual, an event the party is not meant to encounter in a normal run. The appendix is detailed for all the humanoid characters including the scions and their equipment, the named villains, and variety of unnamed orcs the party will encounter. The fortress also offers an opportunity to introduce the players to the Underdark and the Zhentil Keep. There is a passage to the Underdark the players can accidentally explore, and return to later. Emissaries from Zhentil Keep have come to watch the ritual and have their own motivations. These npcs provide an opportunity for exposition and role playing at a point which otherwise might be combat heavy, acting as a valve for the first floor - helping or hurting the party with subtle magic should the difficulty be off.

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

Lady Elisabeth Pendour beseeches the heroes for their help. They must recover a key that was on her husband’s body when he perished trying to clear an ancient tower. The tower was once a coastal fortress, but now it lies in ruins, occupied by black-feathered rook harpies who worship a foul carrion crow demon. Lord Pendour sought to free his subjects from fear by clearing the rampaging rooks from their nests. But he failed, and unless the heroes can recover his body, the crow god will come for his wife, too…