A fiend lurks among the Black Blade goblins. A shapeshifting barghest fashioned by the General of Gehenna to exact revenge on all goblin-kind. It’s aim: to kill as many goblin leaders as possible… A masked goblin approaches the party asking for help. Two tribe leaders are dead. But a rival for chief has control of the crime scene. Will the party discover the barghest among the goblin ranks? Can they stop this imposter before it strikes again? Adventure Overview The adventure’s story is spread over 4 parts and takes approximately 4 hours to play. The adventure begins with a Call to Action scene. Part 1: Goblin Politics. Krill sends his emissaries to implore help from any strong intermediary. The party is asked to investigate the murder of Thrawn in Dringly’s lair. This is Story Objective A. Part 2: The Opposition. Gain entry into Dringly’s lair and investigate the murder of Thrawn. Gather enough evidence to find the killer. This is Story Objective B. Part 3: To The Lair! Now that the players have determined the barghest (Yeep) is to blame, they need to get to Krill’s lair quickly as he is in imminent danger. This is Story Objective C. Part 4: The Barghest.When the players arrive at the lair, they need to get to Krill and expose and defeat the barghest. This is Story Objective D. Adventure Background A barghest named Yeep has begun its onslaught of attacks against the Black Blade goblins. Starting with Chief Gnar, then his second in command Thrawn, the barghest is moving methodically down the line of command. Krill is now chief. But he has some problems: Two leaders of the Black Blades are dead. Who killed them and why? Is he next? Dringly, the next in command, has decided to take his lair for himself, declaring himself Chief of the Black Blades. Who are the Black Blades? The Black Blades are a tribe of goblins in the local area. They are known for dipping their blades in a dark black substance. It is rumored these blades are poisonous. The Black Blades regularly attack passersby on the road to rob them. The Black Blades have two lairs, one run by a chief who leads the whole tribe, and another overseen by a boss lieutenant. The Black Blades have a well-established pecking order which is how Krill stands to become chief. The next in line is Dringly, who has also declared himself chief and wants Krill dead. Krill suspects that there is something suspicious about two leaders being killed within a day of each other, but he has already burned Gnar’s body without any investigation. He needs to investigate the body of Thrawn, but it is in Dringly’s lair. Krill wishes to avoid direct confrontation with Dringly at the present for three reasons: 1) Any violence would only kill his own tribe members and further divide the lairs. 2) He believes there is still hope for negotiation to reunite the Black Blades. 3) He believes that if he were to attempt negotiations himself, Dringly would kill him. This adventure features: Two maps. Ready for your favorite Virtual Tabletop. A full color pdf. A black and white pdf. One custom monster, a reprint of barghest, all others available in the Monster Manual. Four hours of entertainment involving: roll playing a goblin bard, investigating a murder scene, tracking down a barghest before it strikes again. Applicable to any setting.
Adventures from the Potbellied Kobold provides you with fifteen unique adventures to use as one-shots, additions to your current campaign, or inspiration for a new campaign. We've even included a way to link several of the adventures, allowing you to run a short and quick campaign. The adventures use basic 5E creatures, custom creatures, and several Kobold Press creatures. Each adventure is written for a specific party level, but we've also included suggestions on how to adjust each adventure for a weaker or stronger adventuring party. In addition to fun adventures, you'll also find a few new magic items and NPCs to add to your game.
Abandoned and forgotten ruins never are. He left the Abyss to visit his human mother, not realizing he was a century too late. Still, there was a lot he had left to do... An ancient castle, Nol-Daer, has of late become the site of frequent strange occurrences. Gargoyles and Blood Hawks roost in the keep's ruined towers, Dwarves have been disappearing from the nearby area, and a Cambion controls it all from the shadows. Pgs. 3-17 & 64
The Hag's Hexes is a 66 page guide designed by Dungeon Masters Guild luminaries like JVC Parry and Janek Sielicki alongside rising stars and old stalwarts like Matt Butler, Matthew Gravelyn, and Tim Bannock. It was created with one thing in mind: to make hags more than the sum of their (often meager) Challenge ratings, giving them the mechanics, roleplay potential, and weird magic that can inspire campaigns, lay low kings and warlords, and potentially ensnare unwary Player Characters into campaign-changing curses or long-term bargains that force them into terrible moral quandaries! Split into five chapters, the authors have provided everything a DM needs to terrify their players for years to come. The Bestiary features over a dozen monsters; some are new hags, some are their minions or even their mobile lairs, and one of them -- the Shaitan AKA Desert Hag -- was featured in Monsters of the Guild! Bargains & Curses is a chapter filled with ideas that can kick-start campaigns, threaten valued NPCs, or put Player Characters' very existence and morality at stake. Chapter 3 includes two dozen items of wonderment, weirdness, and dread, ranging from fairy tale-inspired items of whimsy to terribly cursed items of horror. Chapter 4 is titled "Filthy, Vile & Downright Dirty" and provides dozens of roleplaying tips to make hags come alive, new mechanics inspired by and expanding on Volo's Guide to Monsters (coven spell lists, aunties, grandmothers, alternative coven members), and ends with useful combat tactics for each of the hags from the Monster Manual and Volo's Guide, as well as tactics for covens. Finally, Chapter 5 presents five encounter groups (with sub-encounters) to give you quick story seeds and monster lists that you can put together in minutes to create a single encounter or to inspire a full campaign, and ends with three full-length adventures -- each with 3-5 encounters -- that showcase many of the new monsters, rules, magic items, and so on that appeared in earlier chapters. Each of these adventures comes with an encounter map meant to act as inspiration for hag lairs, and they include useful mechanical ideas for terrain effects and descriptive keywords listed directly on the map for added inspiration and easy customization! Designed by Tim Bannock. Written by Matt Butler, JVC Parry, Janek Sielicki, and Tim Bannock. Edited by Matthew Gravelyn and Tim Bannock. Cover Art by Elena Naylor. Cartography by Tim Bannock using Inkwell Ideas' Dungeonographer (Dungeonographer is copyright Inkwell Ideas). Layout & Graphic Elements by Elena Naylor with Tim Bannock. Interior Art by Arcana Games, Bruno Balixa, David Lewis Johnson, Dean Spencer, Earl Geier, Filip Gutowski, Jacob E. Blackmon, Joyce Maureira, Petr Kratochvil, Jayaraj Paul, Brian Brinlee, and Wizards of the Coast.
"Orcs have returned to the once quiet border province of Blackmarch. The Bleak Tower and its meager garrison are all that stand against the tide. Their only hope lies in a ragtag band of adventurers willing to venture into the perilous maw of Ironwood Gorge..." "Ironwood Gorge is a fantasy role-playing adventure for 4-8 characters of levels 2-5, designed for older editions of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game and its clones such as Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC. The material is also easily adaptable to any other class and level based fantasy role-playing game. Ironwood Gorge serves as part two in the Blackmarch sequence of adventures, but is built to function just as well as a one-off adventure, a drop-in-a-hex location for sandbox games, or as a kick start to a new campaign. The module includes keyed maps detailing both the Bleak Tower: a living, breathing refuge for adventurers; and Ironwood Gorge: a cave complex with over 100 keyed areas of traps, monsters and mayhem. The module is illustrated throughout with original artwork and includes appendices detailing new monsters, magic items, and spells. Whether you are looking for an out-sized adventure to usher the hardiest characters to the intermediate levels, or a fully-realized location to plunder for maps and ideas, Ironwood Gorge is a treasure from the old-school of gaming..." An alternative to B2 - Keep on the Borderlands
A horror fantasy adventure for 3-5 1st level characters The hunched beast prowls the forest, sniffing at the still air. The roiling sky flashes and thunder breaks the silence. The time is near and the beast senses it. The monstrous form bounds toward the darkened village, a demonic howl in its throat... Shipwrecked on a perilous shore, a group of adventurers stumble into a blighted land and come face to face with a great black beast with a terrible curse. Can they unravel the mystery and solve the Barghest's curse before it’s too late? - 58 pages, 10 locations, 10 dungeon rooms - 2 new spells and 5 new monsters - Over 20 original illustrations - Inspired by English folklore - Emphasis on exploration, interaction, and usability
Every seven years, the elven village of Mellorell hosts the Festival of Life, an opportunity to trade, shop, and celebrate with the folk of nearby lands. But a dark secret that could cost the life of fairgoers draws the heroes into a plot that leads all the way to Hades. The core of the adventure is a short thirteen room lair with grimlock guards, a basilisk pet and Malifustal the Night Hag, who guards a portal to Hades. Pgs. 12-33
The Knights of Sum have guarded the western frontier of the Duchy of Starryshade for nearly two centuries. Wingfield Fortress has been the focal point of their power and a safe haven for travelers willing to cross the Plains of Aegoth. As you venture west to further your careers you have received word that the mighty keep has fallen! Are you and your compatriots ready to help the legendary knights?
Kalzok the Minotaur pirate discovered an old smuggler's hold on a tiny island in the Nelanther Isles, not far from Nemessor. The island sits amid a dangerous archipelago encircled with scores of hidden shoals that is avoided by all but the most daring or foolish navigators. The area's waters are notorious for claiming the ships of unwary sea captains who tried to steer through the gauntlet of hidden reefs. This offering includes an overview of Kalzok's island along with the details of Kalzok's hidden lair.
The Cult of the Dragon has come to Phlan, a lawless refuge on the Moonsea. Now, with no significant authority to stop the cult, other power groups in the Realms--the Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, Emerald Enclave, Lords' Alliance , and even the Zhentarim--must untite to stop the cult from fulfilling its dark purpose in the city. Join the fight by participating in any one of five different missions aimed at stopping the cult.
Five centuries is not long enough for a giant king to forgive a defeat - or forget a curse. When falls the axe of Mok-Turoknin. This is a moody arctic wilderness/dungeon adventure in which the player characters must undo an ancient frost giant curse that plagues a barbarian village and its tribal chieftains. The PCs will travel across a frigid tundra en route to the deserted mountain keep of the frost giants where they must put an end to the curse before the restless ghost of the frost giant king rises again to claim another victim. Pgs. 53-72
Follow a crazy halfling into a vampire’s castle. Kingdom in the Swamp is an AD&D adventure for higher-level characters; 6th to 9th level would be suitable. While it is necessary to have strong combatant characters and at least one cleric, it is more important that the players be ready to find solutions beyond the sword or spell book. Adventure Background A few days ago, Candor Pletten, a halfling thief known more for his urban exploits, returned from a journey to the southern jungles and rain forests (or so he says). Few people have believed him in the past -- usually they have been too busy taking inventory of their possessions to even listen to him — but some are guessing that he may actually be telling the truth (certainly, he’s got a good story). Candor left town a couple of months ago with some other adventurers, but has come back alone. Most tavern patrons are of the opinion that he took his companions’ purses and ran, but why would he come back to town? And why, then, aren’t his former companions hot on his trail? Candor may be a thief, but he’s not a murderer. He even gets nauseated by cockfighting. Maybe the halfling's tale is worth hearing...
Pursued by wolves and worse, the party must fight a running battle to take refuge at the relative safety of the Bittermoon Inn, a decrepit old inn high in the mountains. But night is falling, can they uncover the secrets of the inn and use them to survive the night? This adventure can be played as a stand alone one-shot, or can be used as a drop-in side quest to almost any campaign. It is suitable for a party of about 5 characters at the First Tier (Levels 1-4). The players must fight a running battle with wolves to reach Bittermoon, then they must discover the secrets of the inn before escaping through a smuggler's tunnel. Finally they must face off against their unseen opponent at Skull Cavern. There are four encounter maps included with this title.
"The Hive" is a spawn of Arbeyach lair, also featuring giant termites and termite swarms, for five 6th-level characters. This adventure can be finished in one session. Several mounds in the Forsaken Hills are the dens of voracious termites that have added flesh to their diet to supplement dwindling wood supplies. At night, swarms of termites hunt and devour prey. They swarm over victims in wooden carts and wagons, and bring the dismantled wood back to their mounds. Three spawn of Arbeyach, searching for a location to summon Ia'Affrat, Arbeyach's herald, discovered a mound filled with particularity nasty termites and used their vermin empathy to gain acceptance. They dug out a cavern beneath the mound, and now use the termites to protect themselves and gather food while they complete a difficult ritual involving dozens of sacrifices. The final sacrifice is prepared and the spawn are finishing their ritual when the party arrives.
The Bunker transports the party from their starting hex to a destination 2 hexes away. It can be placed anywhere on the Purple Planet map that does not already contain a numbered encounter. It could be hidden beneath the fecund growth of the mushroom forests, lost in the broken lands, amid the Ancestor Peaks, or uncovered by a sand storm in the wastes.
Step right up ... You too can be a contestant on … Adventuring Gladiators? A set of challenges meant to test the resolve of the party. Pgs. 32-45
Two thieves' guilds fight to the death - with you in the middle. Run silently; the Midnight Stalkers are after you. Escape from the Tower of Midnight is an AD&D* game module for 2-6 thieves of 2nd-4th level. The Dungeon Master may change the names of the thieves’ guilds, countries, deities, and so forth to fit the individual campaign. Note that all player characters are assumed to have been imprisoned at the start of the adventure; little or no equipment will be available at first. This module is well suited for tournament use. Adventure Background It must be assumed, for the sake of the adventure to follow, that the PCs have no way of avoiding capture by the Midnight Stalkers. However, the DM may find a way to play out this adventure and have some or all of the PCs captured, allowing any who escape to attempt to rescue their comrades. Pgs. 16-27
Darkness looms near Winterhaven! Kobold brigands have grown ever bolder in their attacks, marauding the once peaceful town, and a known explorer has been missing ever since their departure to the excavation site of a dragon burial site. When the party investigates, they will discover that the kobold's leader, Irontooth, bears a tattoo of a ram-headed demon. This is a troubling portent, for the townsfolk will report that this can only mean the dread god Orcus, master of death, has an active cult in that ruined keep! It is up to the party to enter the Keep on the Shadowfell and put a stop to the cult's fell machinations before it threatens all the realm. There they will fight the evil priest Kalarel, Scion of Orcus and seal off the vile portal to the dark realms he is master of. Should the heroes seize victory, glory and treasure are sure to be theirs. But first they must endure the challenges of that dreaded KEEP ON THE SHADOWFELL!
5e Solo Gamebooks presents Drums at Daggerford, the fifth in our continual series of solo adventures set in the Forgotten Realms. This quest enables you to experience D&D without a dungeon master! Simply roll up a level 5 PC and get playing. Drums at Daggerford is the way you must experience solo adventuring. Players and DMs beware, a new standard has been set. This solo adventure continues the story arc first begun in Death Knight’s Squire, developed further in Tyrant of Zhentil Keep & Citadel of the Raven, and left in The Tortured Land. Drums at Daggerford’s ability to echo a Tolkien spirit reverberates throughout the narrative no matter which path you may choose. But choose wisely because a razor’s edge separates peril from glory. Over a year in the writing, this latest instalment in our solo adventure series is a mini sandbox campaign that will give you anywhere up to 8 hours of solo adventuring enjoyment. Completionists and those who like to replay these adventures will get even more gametime. There are mysteries to be uncovered, items and sidekicks to be gained, codewords to unlock and villains to conquer! With lots of exploration, meaningful decisions, hard fights, and a variety of rewards and stories, Drums at Daggerford will continue to resonate with you long after solving the big mystery behind Krond Vikkurk’s malevolent plans.
The sleepy village of Raven's Lake has a secret: A terrible god lives in the depths of the settlement's namesake. The citizens of Raven's Lake know that something lives in the lake. People who go out on the lake after dark go missing far too often and frequently turn up weeks later with no memory of where they've been. The local church of St. Cuthbert has been abandoned no fewer than seven times in the last two years, each time its lone cleric packing hastily and fleeing town without a word. Adventurers who come to Raven's Lake have a habit of vanishing forever. The truth is that something does indeed live in Raven's Lake but it is far from a deity. It's an exiled aboleth by the name of Zlorthishen. Pgs. 33-36