Summoned from across the multiverse, a small group of heroes must enter an ancient pyramid and prevent the Elder God Nyarlathotep's return to power. A Lovecraft-themed oneshot.
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...
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
For hundreds of years, Aknar Ratalla's tomb remained undisturbed, the Black Blade safely hidden within its vaults. Can a band of adventurers use the tomb's guardians and traps to keep it that way? Long ago, Aknar Ratella brought pain and desolation down upon the land. His reign of ruin was finally ended by an unlikely alliance of the forces of law: a band of devils and devas slew the warlord but were unable to destroy his dangerous weapons and relics. They chose instead to hide these potent artifacts of evil in a remote tomb, selecting a devil and a deva to stand guard over the tomb for the rest of time. For many centuries, the tomb stood unspoiled... but now, a new player has entered the scene. After infiltrating the tomb themselves, a band of adventurers must become its guardians and use its denizens and traps to prevent a monstrous gnoll chieftain from claiming the deadly artifacts hidden within for his own nefarious glory. Pgs. 58-80
The hidden masters of the Ebon Triad have something special planned for the culmination of the Champion’s Games: a foul ritual designed to transform the arena into a stage of enormous carnage to honor their dark overgod. To stop them, the PCs must explore the dark complex of the arena’s master, and destroy his pet monster before it’s too late. An Age of Worms Adventure Path Adventure for 9th level characters. "The Champion's Belt" is the fifth 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 #337 of Dragon for guidelines on what they can purchase in the Free City. Pgs. 30-62
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.
Adventure in a wizard's highly magical tomb. While still in college, Jennell Jaquays, writing as Paul, started The Dungeoneer fanzine. For the first issue, Jaquays wrote F’Chelrak’s Tomb. The pioneering adventure and its successors proved memorable. Looking back at The Dungeoneer, Jaquays said, “It’s the adventures that stand out, and not simply because no one else was doing mini-adventures in 1976. When I read comments about the magazine or talk to fans (old and new), no one talks about the monsters, or the art, or the magic items and rules variants. It’s always the adventures.”
Alkenstar, City of Smog, is a bastion of civilization in the magic-warped region known as the Mana Wastes. Its ingenious citizens survive in the treacherous Spellscar Desert with the help of canny inventions like guns and clockwork automatons, but now their construct protectors have begun to run amok within the city. It falls to the PCs to venture beyond the city walls to find the source of their strange behavior.
A city of the dead has no business coming back to life. "The dead just want a little respect." The village of Wargrave's only claim to significance is as the resting place of soldiers from a long-ago battle. Now it seems that the dead are stirring. Roleplaying of forces at cross-purposes, with sentient undead. Set nominally in the Forgotten Realms, but the adventure is essentially generic. Pgs. 38-42
It’s finally happened! The Demoncall Ritual has begun, and creatures from the Abyss are streaming out through the Cellend family crypt. Heroes are needed, not only to slay the demons and stop the ritual, but to accept the risk of reversing the ritual to seal the Demoncall Pit forever.
The Pathfinder Society seeks the ancient ruby ring of the salamander and it falls to a team of Pathfinders to find it. Last seen in the Tri-Towers Yard, a once elite academy for the youth of Absalom, the ruby ring is now lost in the Drownyard, all that remains of Tri-Towers after it was destroyed a decade ago in the great quake. The Pathfinders must risk the strange black ichors and salty brine to find their prize—will they risk their very souls as well?
Every year the Acadamae—Korvosa’s prestigious school of the arcane arts—opens its gates to the city to host the Breaching Festival, where the most skilled infiltrators are invited to enter the magically guarded Hall of Wards or die trying. Testing their luck against the university’s strongest defenses, the competitors pull out all the stops as they vie for a chance at a fortune in gold and magical treasure. This year, the school’s headmaster has invited the heroes to participate, against the contest’s longstanding traditions.
The Last Point is a prison and outpost of the Corrive Empire, a realm ruled by a cruel green dragon named Lady Corrive. The Corrivians are well known for their hatred of magic users, and their extensive slave trade industry. A forest realm with coasts on three sides and mountains running through the center, Corrive is rich with a variety of resources. However, the rocky northern coast is out of the way of their navy and relies heavily on hired ships to help transport various goods including prisoners and slaves to isolated outposts, training centers, and slave colonies. The northwest coast of Corrive is rocky and many parts of it are elevated, making it isolated from much of the mainland. The Last Point is a recycling center where captives meant for death row who are either deemed “not important enough” to execute publicly or “too disgraceful” to execute publicly are sent to be tortured and then killed. The place seems to operate on sort of a “well, we have too many so some have to go now” policy. The Last Point has no official deadlines for killing.
Buried in the desert sands of Mulhorand, near the city of Mishtan, lies an ancient stone statue of a sphinx queen. After a fierce sandstorm reveals a huge tablet etched with hieroglyphs between the statue’s paws, the PCs must translate the strange writing to find the secret entrance into the Temple of the Sphinx Queen. The conclusion offers three optional endings for DMs to choose from to suit their players, including a wicked trap, a twist that leads to further adventures, or a tough climactic combat suitable for a one-shot. Included are: Five new Egyptian-themed monsters: The Sphinx Queen, Black Lion Guardian, Zombie Scarabs, Snake of Set and Desert Spirit. A new weapon, the khopesh Four new magic items: Statue of Set, Guardian Khopesh of Set, Warded Puzzle Box and Minor Concoction of Healing Two hieroglyphic puzzle player handouts and a DMs translator sheet
People from all over the world travel to the oracle of the dead, the Necromanteion, to commune with the spirits of the dead. Following a ritualistic preparaton of the body and the mind, a "Seeker", as they are called, enters the Adyton, and with the help of the Prophet comes in contact with spirits. Who would your characters talk to if they found themselves in the Necromanteion? Before you can answer that, you must first save it from a demonic invasion! With the temple in chaos, and foul fiends everywhere, will our adventurers be able to save the Necromanteion?
During the Last War, the ancients deployed their war-skiff assault units from elevator platforms that now dot a sector of the wasteland like a ravaged forest of rusted steel stumps. Most of the platforms are buried by the shifting sands or stand as shattered reminders of a war that was once meaningful, but one of these decaying steel stumps still remains partially energized, layered with tunnels below ground, and powered by a unique extra-dimensional reactor core beneath the surface of the planet.
You’ve arrived at the small community of Smentz (15 locations!) to regain strength after your last adventure. While speaking with the people of the small village you catch wind of some ruins across the river that may have a mine or cache of ore and ruins to investigate. Your group is not the first who has had interest in searching but those that have ventured east have not returned. Are you ready for a bit more adventure?
The village of Sacrabad is a wretched place. Dark rumors abound concerning its steward, “His Lordship” Nim Sheog, who rules the place through terror and cruelty. Merchants who have passed through Sacrabad tell tale of how chaos thrives while the good folk wallow in misery. Nim’s guard are no more than a well-paid gang of thugs, hired to enforce his relentless and often bizarre laws and what’s worse, they seem to be in league with a nearby band of goblins, The Yellow Fang, who are often left to terrorize the villagers without reprisal. It is rumored that Nim keeps the rightful and lawful lord of Sacrabad locked away in the dungeons of the keep, the ominous Black Tower. An imposing structure that once afforded the village protection, the Black Tower has become a symbol of tyranny. But there is hope on the horizon. Hope in the form of a secret society who conspire to rescue the rightful lord and overthrow Nim and his guard. Can our heroes champion the cause? Tyranny of the Black Tower is a short (single session) adventure module. It is a classic “rescue operation” complete with a strong villain and espionage intrigue. It is an ideal one-shot adventure with room for expansion into an ongoing campaign. Bonus side-trek hooks and a bonus dungeon are included as a means to build up low-level parties. This module is setting-generic and can be dropped just about anywhere in the multiverse. Published by Verisimilitude Society Press
Dreams of the sleeping wizard seep into reality. Manifest familiars war over the fate of a remote islet. An infinite garden houses an escaped experiment. The god of purity is fooled for his blessings. Into the nightmare we go. 16 pages contain 3000+ words describing 10+ keyed areas to explore (complete the wandering monsters table), 10+ friends and foes to talk to, 10 magic items to use, and thousands of gold worth of treasure to plunder. The adventure is designed for B/X, or like-systems. It is suitable for 4 to 6 characters of levels 1 to 3. It is heavily inspired by the dungeon synth album The Sleeping Wizard by Umbría, which may serve as a soundtrack.
An offer of exploration and adventure leads to a chilling underground dungeon. A mystical object is being asked to be retrieved by the local Wizard. This is the second adventure in a miniseries with the following adventures being: A Chance Encounter An Urgent Rescue A Dark Veil Falls