The Toxic Wood is a deadly wilderness adventure for Old School Essentials This hexcrawl adventure focuses on game-able content and being easy to use at the table. It is graphic and art heavy and utilizes a lot of random tables to make it easier for GMs to run with minimal prep. "You have been hired by a secretive council of wizards, who refuse to meet in person with you, to rescue the survivors of Mugwort - a town which was thought to have been destroyed and lies deep within The Toxic Wood. The Wood is corrosive and the air is not safe to breath there, so the wizards have given you a magical orb which will create a safe dome of air around you. The orb must be fed with fuel containing life force to continue operating properly. They have also gifted each of you a less effective necklace which will create a temporary small bubble of clean air around your head as an emergency measure. The Wood became noxious a couple of years ago after a dragon known as Ion moved in. You will have to navigate to Mugwort without Ion noticing if you are to conduct a successful evacuation." The toxic wood is home to many strange entities; spiteful mutated horrors, ancient insectoid witch sisters, bloodthirsty redcaps, a mushroom witch and a corrosive dragon cult. Noxious gases produced by alien plants slowly coil through the air creating an endless red haze. Anything that is not part of the woods lethal eco-system is rapidly corroded, with all evidence of its existence erased within days. Details: 32 pages Single column text 8.5 x 5.5 aspect Black & White Bookmarks Hyperlinks Random tables Hooks and rumors for your players Rules for surviving in the toxic wood using the orb and other means 16 keyed hex locations Backgrounds for characters to aid roleplay New monsters Key NPCs A timeline of events for the DM to structure their sessions around Flora of the wood Random treasure tables Prompts and resolutions for what happens if players take different actions Cursed Items and Powerful Artifacts: Scattered throughout the wood, offering potent abilities but often with dangerous drawbacks.
Life on the Moonsea isn't easy. Bandits, pirates, and cruel lords dominate the land, threatening those who make an honest living there. Now, a new scourge is prowling the waters: A ghost ship has been striking small coastal villages, leaving its victims whispering about the "eye of the dracolich."
This tongue in cheek adventure brings new PCs into a small town after an adventure. Upon arrival they quickly discover that the small agricultural community has just been robbed of its harvest supply. With the seasonal change coming those supplies are necessary for the town’s survival. One of the victims of the attack was an alchemist. Contained within his bag were a few Potions of Growth. The bitter taste of the potion disagreed with the bandit who discovered it and he flung it into a field. Unfortunately for the PCs oversized fowl must be overcome before dealing with the bandits. Used as a fun one-shot for my group this scenario can be quite deadly if played poorly. Will your players save the day and feast on a Giant Turkey? Gobble this adventure up for free!
In “Rescue at Rivenroar,” the player characters must brave the depths of ancient catacombs in search of prisoners taken from the town of Brindol in a midnight raid. The hobgoblins, bandits that style themselves after an invading horde from long ago, have taken refuge in a dungeon under a ruined mountain fortress, and the PCs must clear them out to find the captive townsfolk and the treasures taken from Brindol. “Rescue at Rivenroar” also marks the first step in a great journey - the Scales of War Adventure Path, which spans 30 levels and put the PCs at the crux of events that shapes the world for centuries to come. While the scope of this adventure isn’t as grand, it represents the seed from which an epic tale will surely grow. Pgs. 4-45
A bizarre puppet master pulls the strings in this introductory RAVENLOFT® adventure for lower level characters. "Beware what you wish, for it might come true" is an old Vistani saying. In the small town of Odiare, a toymarker has wished a puppet to life--only this puppet is not a friendly, playful toy. It is a thing of evil, bent upon killing all the adults of Odiare. When the player characters are trapped within this town, Maligno the puppet and his animated toys begin to hunt them down. The PCs' only chance for escape is to defeat the mad marionette.
The Night of the Rise is a unique adventure that offers the party an alternative to the "hack & slash" approach. The opportunity for role play is high and it is sure to tap into skills and abilities most of your characters never knew they possessed. Not only does it offer a new experience for your players, but hopefully it has them smiling several times during the night. A request to deal with a bandit captain named Giles Ne'Ville sends the adventuring party on a two-day journey. During this journey, they find an entertaining way to deal with this Giles Ne'Ville. Will they use this opportunity? Or will they take the typical 'hack & slash' approach to dealing with villans? This adventure is written in a non-specific location but is easily insertable into any campaign as a one-shot adventure. I feel that it would work great in Strom King's Thunder as an added traveling encounter.
A magic shop, The Travelling Salesman, has appeared in town just in time for the party's arrival. This shop specialises in being in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment, for the right adventurers. Its wisteria-covered frontage adorns any old blank wall space, and immediately looks like it's been there for decades. Large paned windows are smeared with age-old dirt and hint at the vast array of interesting objects inside. The shop belongs to Yannik Willowbough, an exhausted-but-jovial halfling with a passion for helping others. At least, it belongs to Yannik now. It was once home to a lich, Verdenia Siskin, who has recently concocted the perfect way to exact her revenge. She just needs a party of adventurer's to turn to her point of view. This adventure contains: - A (hungry) planes-travelling magic shop and former home of a powerful lich. - A lich who takes particular delight in winding adventurers around her little finger to do her bidding. - A planar tear that threatens to pull the whole town (or more!) into the Shadowfell. - A spooky house of delights. - NPCs whose motives will be thoroughly questioned by the party. - A 3—10 hour adventure for a party of any level and composition - Depending on the outcome the party may also benefit from: - A planes-travelling base of operations - A recurrent NPC quest-giver and/or helper - A devious, and eternally patient, antagonist. - Four original hand-drawn maps to support combat and exploration, with seperate versions suitable for VTTs. - Advice for new DMs to run this adventure smoothly. - A separate accessible adventure pdf. This adventure was written as part of the Storytelling Collective's Write Your First Adventure workshop. Content warnings: Horror, gore
There have been disturbing signs over the last few months, signalling that something is wrong in Humblewood. The troubles appear to originate from activity in the Scorched Grove, an ashen plain that was ravaged many centuries ago by a destructive fire. Whatever caused the fire has scarred the land with elemental magic, making it inhospitable to all but strange fire-based creatures. Of late, the Grove has begun to expand. At first, it was hard to notice the slow expansion, but those in tune with nature (especially the Tenders) could see the imbalance in the elemental forces of Humblewood. For many common folk, this imbalance has been experienced as unseasonal dryness, which has led to crop failure and an increased frequency of forest fires. There have also been a number of unusually aggressive emberbat clouds reported far outside of their natural ranges. The true nature of the danger still remains hidden from the people of the Wood. A corvum necromancer named Odwald Ebonhart has stirred the elemental aspect of fire, which has lain dormant beneath the Scorched Grove since its first burning. The aspect’s energies have begun to empower fire-based creatures within the Wood. The increased range of emberbat swarms have brought fires that have expanded the Grove. Many forest-dwellers, who have been left without homes, have turned to banditry to survive. Soon the elemental incarnation will break free, and players must find a way to stop the aspect of fire before it reduces the Wood to ashes.
Nanfield is an island village of over 50 NPCs with mysteries plaguing both its present and its past. It contains a unique ecosystem and economy and a ship full of friendly pirates that will invite you by for dinner after accidentally attacking your party. It can be inserted into any campaign as an interlude during a travel montage, as a one-shot encounter, or as the base of future adventures. Nanfield contains over 50 NPCs you can use, several very unique and compelling characters, a Druid stat-bloc, a ship-to-ship fight, an investigation, and a fight with a Harpy (or more, depending on the outcome of the investigation).
Once, the Tribe of Altair roamed the sands, free as the great eagle on the wind. Now, caged by an evil mage, these desert riders yearn for their lost freedom. But fate takes a hand as a noble djinn seeks to fulfill an ancient wish... In this unusual three-part scenario, players first take the roles of the men of the tribe, who stage a revolt after being enslaved in the Pit of the Laughing Efreeti and then try to battle their way to freedom. In the second part, the PCs are the women of the tribe, who must escape the evil flame mage's harem and use all their wits to win free of a strange city. Finally, the children of the tribe have to slip away from an evil temple before they can be sacrificed, which calls for them to embark on a magic carpet ride that promises to be the adventure of their lifetimes. TSR 9584
Every year, on the tenth of Nightal, the villagers of Womford organize a large banquet in honor of their patron goddess Chauntea. What started out as a small reunion between neighbors has turned into the most important event of the year: the Womford Pie Contest! Carla is a would-be witch came in contact with a gulabus (a demon of gluttony), she made a pact with the fiend, hoping that it could help Mortimer (a villager she felt sorry for) win the pie contest. The demon possessed the witch and placed a curse on Mortimer. If the PCs don’t stop him, the gulabus might actually gain control of the entire village. Produced by Goblin Stone
Accused of impersonation and kidnapping, a pair of old sisters have found refuge in Abermoor. In their wake, they have left a trail of blood, and are pursued by a bounty hunter. Hired for their expertise, the adventurers have joined the pursuit. A Two-Hour Adventure for 1st-4th Level Characters Wretches is a stand-alone adventure that premiered at Kumoricon in Portland, Oregon in October of 2017
Set in the hamlet of Stillroot, players arrive seeking rest and find rot. The townsfolk are kind. The inn is warm. And the bodies are already being used. This issue includes: Detailed hamlet with keyed locations designed to fit into any campaign An inhuman antagonist that puppets the dead with shadow-tendrils Simple mechanics and maps for tracking how shadows spread 24 pages. Easy to drop into any ongoing game, just tell your players they’ve finally found a place to rest.
Everyone in the fishing town of Ilsurian is excited when the legendary Umbra Carnival rolls into town—even if the show is run by members of the much-maligned Varisian ethnic group. With strange and exotic beasts, scandalous performances, games of chance, and all the other fun of a traveling fair, who could resist such an opportunity for entertainment?
As the party relishes in the accolades of their achievements word of a Dragon nearby reaches their ears! Apparently a similar adventuring party stumbled upon the Wyrm by accident and was nearly wiped out. With the townspeople in fear, it is time again for the PCs to step up and perform heroic deeds! I wonder if there will be any pages from the mysterious Codex of Gamber Dauch will be around. With only one more adventure in the quest series the PCs must be getting close!
The Full Campaign - Updated for 2020! On Shadowed Shores In a land few have heard of, and fewer still have visited, lies untold adventure, treasure and fame. The renowned Captain Farsail has sent out word that she will undertake an expedition to Serpent Isle, but is in need of a crew. Anyone able to hold a sword or cast a spell is welcome, but be warned, the island is as deadly as it is beautiful.
Be Ready with the Snapping Line... Just about every community, big or small, civilized or seedy, has at least one popular tavern. Folks may go there to relax or to look for work, to celebrate or to mope, to learn the latest or to forget. And while some may be willing to travel far from the comfort of their favorite watering hole in search of adventure, in the seaside town of Saltmarsh, they may not have to. At the Snapping Line Inn and Tavern: * Enjoy food, drink, gossip, a darts competition, and maybe a rousing bar fight. * Participate in a gambling night. Watch out for pirates! * Stop a dark ritual to save an innocent—and yourselves. * Come to the rescue when there’s an accident by the pier—and the predators arrive. Four linked encounters around a pier-side tavern for characters of levels 5-10. Playable individually, scattered throughout another campaign, or together as a four-to-six-hour adventure.
Adventures in Hawk's Rest is a love letter to low-level D&D: Studio Ghibli meets the Shire meets Lost Mine of Phandelver. An open-world hexcrawl for characters of 1st to 2nd level, Hawk's Rest is intended as a prologue to a longer campaign, with seven keyed adventure sites and fantastic maps by Dungeon Baker (How to Defend Your Lair, The Lazy DM's Companion). Hawk's Rest is written for new and veteran players alike but avoids the usual pitfalls associated with 1st-level adventures: not only are encounters balanced to avoid character death, but most combats can be avoided entirely with clever roleplaying.
The player characters are part of a local militia that is investigating a series of werewolf attacks on local villages. Forced by a winter storm to seek refuge in the village of Moondale, the PCs find themselves trapped with the murderous beast, and must determine the werewolf's true identity before they become its next victims. TSR 9336
Blackstone Cave was once a smugglers’ lair, but it was cleared out decades ago. Now there are strange noises coming from the cave, and local authorities are afraid smugglers and bandits have taken up operations again. What will the adventurers find? More importantly, will they be able to survive the machinations of the Mad Dragon Priestess? A straightforward dungeon crawl with combat and opportunities for role-playing. The party is tasked with investigating strange noises coming from Blackstone Cave, an abandoned smuggler's lair. They find kobold cultists have moved in, but they're not the average dragon cultists.