Deep in the elven forests of Myereth, ancient rowan trees spread white boughs above a sacred site. Pillars of stone twist like some strange form of vine, curling among the branches and reflecting the light of a silvery moon. The forest is silent, and beautiful, protected since the dawn of time by a powerful Unicorn. The elven forest of Myereth is well known throughout the world as a safe haven of good and peace, a place where evil cannot stand to enter and where the trees weep healing tears upon those injured within its boundaries. Any player character elves know of the forest, its healing properties, and its legendary beauty. They may have heard of it as a legend, or they may have visited its mystic shrine when they were children, brought along on a pilgrimage by other elves. But something has gone terribly wrong. Refugees from Myereth, terrified and confused, are flooding into other elven cities. They speak of a great evil that has conquered the forest, one that has killed the body of the immortal Unicorn and tainted its spirit. Myereth runs with blood, they say, and the once-powerful rowan trees have begun to wither and die. In the center of the Rowan Grove, the bloodied bodies of the last elven warriors of Myereth lie scattered and broken. Those responsible call themselves the Servants of the Blood Moon, and they are led by a dark-robed sorcerer. The surviving elves do not know this evil man — all but one of those who fought against the Servants died — but they know that the sorcerer calls himself Tamarat. He has butchered the Unicorn, the spirit of the forest. The Myereth, and the elves, are dying.
Utopian Tower is a solo adventure which brings a new PC/player to the small Halfling village of Phebus on their way to a job opportunity. While the PC has time to spare they learn of a haunted tower that has the villagers on edge and is asked to investigate for a reward! While in town the PC meets a bard also headed to a job opportunity leading to a potential fellowship…if they survive! An excellent setting to teach a player new to the game on the basic mechanics. The adventure ties in roleplaying in a town environment, overland and dungeon movement, as well as combat encounters!
The king summons the heroes to investigate the death of a knight, and the final fate of the king's long-missing son. The knight and his entire order was killed by a Dragon! Yay we get to fight a dragon in the first issue of Dungeon Magazine! Much travel over many different terrain types featuring avalanches, volcanoes spewing lava, and many random encounters (not detailed here) before the heroes reach their real goal: A lake with a ruined wizard's tower and dragon's cave. Opens with a particularly byzantine Background section for the DM involving a prince you never meet, pirates you never meet, knights you never meet, and deep gnomes you never meet. See Out of the Ashes in Dungeon #17 for sequel to this adventure. Pgs. 42-60
This heist adventure that takes place almost entirely at Fort Bones. It is split into five scenes: Karrnathi Opening. The characters meet Vedim ir’Durna, a noble from the region who is willing to help the player characters infiltrate the Fort. Guild Handler Lhara introduces their prize: a necromantic artifact called the Queen of Night, tied to the plane of Mabar. Valenar Gambit. Whether by wit or stealth, the characters find their way inside the walls of Fort Bones. They might use the incoming Valenar attack as a distraction, find a secret entrance, or plant themselves on a visiting dignitary’s staff. Castling. Safely inside, the characters must figure out when the artifact is unguarded, and find their way into the castle’s inner sanctum. Check. The characters must navigate their way past a magical vault door, then descend into the crypts. The Queen of Night is guarded by a terrifying construct. Endgame. With the artifact in their hands, will the characters be able to escape with their lives?
Sometimes only a hint of an adventure is given to players and more information is required. In FV12 - Monteleone Chariot this is just such a case. As the party reaches town they begin to hear of a mysterious relic from the past civilization and both information and backers must be investigated. Will your party be able to determine facts from fables? Whose interest will they serve in their investigation or will they just try and locate the item for themselves?
A Scarred Lands Adventure. Maghiel has learned the location of the staff of Zuvys and has devised a way to use its power to aid her in summoning some strange fiends known as the “Mouths of Vangal”. What purpose she has in mind, what part this plays in her plan, only she can say. She has sent her henchman, a twisted wizard named Anuzor Okalis, to fetch the staff of Zuvys by whatever means necessary. Anuzor has used his magic to charm, disable, or destroy the Order of Silver guardians, and has penetrated the inner sanctum of the shrine. A Vengeance of the Shunned Side Quest The Staff and the Secret Shrine is a side quest that can be played standalone or used with the Vengeance of the Shunned campaign. Over 20 community content creators have banded together to bring a full-length campaign to the Slarecian Vault! Vengeance of the Shunned takes your adventurers across Ghelspad on a quest to end the greatest threat to the world since the Titanswar! This campaign offers adventures from levels 1-15, and will be releasing new content weekly ALL SUMMER LONG! Vengeance of the Shunned continues with A Titanic Feast by Jeremy Hochhalter! Published by Onyx Path Publishing
While enjoying a nice honey wine in the backwater community of Bench you discover citizens have been kidnapped from the surrounding area. After further investigation the mystery leads to a compound being built by the Exterminatus! With the danger mounting can the party slow the march of the evil cult and maybe pick up a few more pages of the arcane tome? Are they stealthy enough to infiltrate the stronghold? At almost 50 pages this adventure has the Precinct of Bench and the large compound of the Exterminatus each of which can be used in separate campaigns!
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...
In Par2 - Patrician Stronghold, the base defense of the nation is discussed in detail. For decades the protective ring of fortresses has protected the country from outside forces bent on overthrowing it. This offering explains the general overview of the consistently made fortifications as well as giving a low-level adventure to explore a deserted one!
A Ravaged Land... Villains that really are larger than life... A time for heroes... A decade ago, the land of Geoff was overrun by a horde of giants, ogres, and evil humanoids, its people either slain, enslaved, or driven into exile. Now at last the tide has turned. The time to free the people of Geoff from their servitude to the giantish tyrants has come! But don't forget to watch your step when you confront the true masters behind the giant Clans! Contains the full text of three classic adventures by Gary Gygax: G1, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief; G2, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl; and G3, Hall of the Fire GIant King. Details Eighteen new encounter sites in the war-torn land of Geoff, linked together to form a grand campaign. Provides dozens of hours of gameplay as the heroes struggle to free an entire country from the grasp of giant overlords. TSR 11413
(2017 ENNIE Awards Judges' Spotlight Winner!) THE MOST AWESOME ADVENTURE EVER Since the invention of the adventure module, there have only been five adventures that were rated the most awesome, the most epic. Broodmother Sky Fortress leaves them all behind. It’s got these creatures that are half shark. Half elephant. All badass. They fly around in this cloud fortress, wrecking everything in the campaign until the players step up to stop them. It’s all terribly exciting! And all brought to you by none other than the world-famous Arch-Mage of Old-School, Jeff Rients! As an added bonus, we’ve included a Greatest Hits of the ol’ Arch-Mage’s essays and game tools to build your campaign into the unstoppable juggernaut you’ve always wanted it to be. Your game won’t suck anymore! Broodmother SkyFortress: Buying any other adventure is just throwing your money away (includes "3.PF" edition stats by Jukka Särkijärvi because somebody somehow convinced me that would be a good idea back when this thing was being crowdfunded) Writing by Jeff Rients Art by Ian MacLean Graphic Design by Alex Mayo Cartography by Jez Gordon
In Necromancer’s Last Stand, your high level party is placed into the middle of a several decades old conflict. A new plan has developed as the forces of good begin to make headway. Called to the general’s tent you and your associates are asked to accept a hazardous ‘end around’ move to attempt to take out the evil leader. The way will not be easy and a plethora of challenges lay between the general’s tent and victory. There will not be attack and retreat opportunities and you know you’ve only got one shot at ending the violent conflict.
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.
The water pounds the base of the cliff with the relentless power of time. Jagged rocks appearing and disappearing in the foam of the sea like gnashing teeth. Above it all on the top of the black cliff sits a small house and the dark light tower. The magistrate has sent your party to investigate why the light has gone dark.
"More than five hundred years ago, clans of dwarves and gnomes made an agreement known as the Phandelver’s Pact, by which they would share a rich mine in a wondrous cavern known as Wave Echo Cave. In addition to its mineral wealth, the mine contained great magical power. Human spellcasters allied themselves with the dwarves and gnomes to channel and bind that energy into a great forge (called the Forge of Spells), where magic items could be crafted. Times were good, and the nearby human town of Phandalin (pronounced fan-duh-lin) prospered as well. But then disaster struck when orcs swept through the North and laid waste to all in their path. A powerful force of orcs reinforced by evil mercenary wizards attacked wave echo cave to seize its riches and magic treasures. Human wizards fought alongside their dwarf and gnome allies to defend the Forge of Spells, and the ensuing spell battle destroyed much of the cavern. Few survived the cave-ins and tremors, and the location of Wave Echo Cave was lost. For centuries, rumours of buried riches have attracted treasure seekers and opportunists to the area around Phandalin, but no one has ever succeeded in locating the lost mine. In recent years, people have resettled the area. Phandalin is now a rough-and-tumble frontier town. More important, the Rockseeker brothers - a trio of dwarves - have discovered the entrance to Wave Echo Cave, and they intend to reopen the mines. Unfortunately for the Rockseekers, they are not the only ones interested in Wave Echo Cave. A mysterious villain known as the Black Spider controls a network of bandit gangs and goblin tribes in the area, and his agents have followed the Rockseekers to their prize. Now the Black Spider wants Wave Echo Cave for himself, and he is taking steps to make sure no one else knows where it is." Extra Info from AL.com users: by @marcellarius. "There are a variety of locations in this adventure: the town of Phandalin, a gang hideout, a ruined keep in the forest, a destroyed village, and Wave Echo Cave (a dungeon crawl). The adventure is written in a sandbox style and relies on the players to choose their path. Phandalin offers several side-quests which could serve as hooks for continuing adventures. The premade characters have ties in their backgrounds to NPCs and locations. If you're not using these you'll need to consider other ways to introduce key NPCs."
A group of beginning adventurers sets out to help the small town of Torlynn. This village has mysteriously fallen under a dreadful curse, a curse that has locked the area in a terrifying state of perpetual winter. The Burgomaster of Torlynn has discovered that the creature responsible is hiding in the ruins nearby, but he has been unable to do anything about it. Everyone he has sent to investigate has thus far failed to return. TSR #9342
This adventure includes large-scale battles, war-planning and the potential challenge of PCs claiming and holding dominion over territory. A King's Commission leads to danger! All communication with the barony of Twolakes Vale has ceased. King Ericall, worried about the security of his border and angered at the loss of tax revenues, has commissioned you, a delegation of powerful adventurers, to investigate. This is not a petty problem to by solved by the armies of local nobility. Indeed, the king's forces are desperately needed elsewhere. Twolakes Vale is, after all, only a small barony on the far frontier of Ericall's domain. And yet? The cloud is there, its nature and cause unknown. None have returned for the barony for weeks. Furthermore, the cloud is spreading, and vague reports of unrest and mysterious disappearances are starting to trickle in from nearby baronies. Can you discover the secret of Two Lakes Vale? TSR 9118
In the Tower of Yladhra the Grim, a party of adventurers braves the dangers and puzzles of an enchanted wizard's tower, and finally confronts the wizard herself. The adventure is designed for a party of five adventurers between levels five and eight. It features: Encounters by Level - Varying types and quantities of creatures are suggested based on the party's actual level, allowing each encounter to present the appropriate challenge to the party. Encounter Notes - Suggestions for how to run combats are provided for game masters who place an emphasis on engaging, tactical battles. Inciting Action - Suggestions for ways to present the adventure to players are provided. Aftermath - Ideas for future adventures based on this one. Unique Magic Items - New magic items to introduce into a campaign. Ease of Use - The format and style of the document allows the game master to find information quickly while running the game at the table. Detailed Maps - What's an adventure without maps? Not much else to say here.
A chance encounter on the road marks the heroes as targets for an evil cult attempting to cause the rebirth of the lich god Vecna in the domain of his arch-foe, Kas. This act will free their master from his misty prison and allow him to gain vengeance upon his enemy at the same time. To learn more of the cult’s mysterious plans, the characters explore a cache of ancient lore in Tor Gorak, the major city in Tovag. Clues lead them right to the heart of Cavitius, Vecna’s own domain. There, they must discover the secret way into the Shadowed Room, an ancient library that no longer exists in time or space yet can still be reached by using an arcane ritual. Learning this secret brings the heroes into conflict with Vecna’s priesthood and their powerful servants. TSR 9582
Ages ago, the tower stood as a bastion against banditry and marauders. But civilization has long since retreated from this area, and a band of goblin thieves has taken up residence in the ruined tower. Local woodsfolk beg the PCs to rid the place of the bandits before they are victimized again by the goblins of the Broken Tower. Pgs. 18-23