Once every decade, the tides of the Empyrean Ocean recede far enough to reveal the highest eaves of a mysterious undersea tower. Long ago this was an eldritch fastness of Sezrekan the Elder, the most wicked wizard ever to plague the Known World, but now the tower is known simply as the final resting place of the fabled Black Pearl – an artifact rumored to bring doom upon all who dare to posses it. Tonight the moon nearly fills the sky, and the tides have already begun to recede. Adventurers have eight short hours to explore the tower before the dark waters return. The fabled Black Pearl will be theirs for the taking…if they can survive the Pearl’s curse.
Horrible hauntings, cruel curses, dark secrets...this is no pleasure cruise! The mists of Ravenloft know no boundaries and observe no rules. One way or another, they always get what they want - this time with some help from a cursed captain and his ship. Player characters boarding an innocent-looking ship will soon find themselves aboard a haunted vessel, destined for an island inhabited by a new form of undead creatures. But that's not the end of the horror - an evil necromancer lies at the root of the evil on the island. The battle isn't over until he's been defeated! Ship of Horror is an adventure set in Ravenloft with two beginnings: one for PCs already in Ravenloft, and one for DMs looking for a way to push his PCs into Ravenloft from other worlds. The adventure includes three new monsters, new spells, and several handouts ready for distribution to players. Ship of Horror is an adventure for four to six players of levels 8-10 looking for grisly chills and thrills! TSR 9321
Do you want your players to feel like they are in a zombie movie, struggling against a deadly horde that tries to surround them, overpower them, and bear them down to the ground to be devoured? This is an adventure that can threaten even the stoutest of characters, and is not recommended for parties of levels 12 or below unless they are larger than normal. This module is designed to take 4-8 hours of play and cover a single day, depending on the party’s speed of play and how thoroughly they decide to explore. It includes suggestions and some plot hooks that can be used to tie this easily into a variety of long-running campaigns, or it can be run as an indepdent adventure. The players will come upon a sacked town, figure out what happened, track an item whose theft has ominious implications for the region, and explore a partly-flooded old temple to end the threat. It's primarily combat-focused, but there are a few areas where exploration and route choice makes a difference, as well as traps if the party goes for the optional temple treasury. The antagonists in this module are mostly ghasts and ghouls, but the module title and cover page are deliberately selected to not spoil this. These are greater ghouls and ghasts that can challenge higher-level characters, backed up by mobs of lesser ghouls that can surround, paralyze, and devour the weak and unlucky, led by a Warlord whose aura can drive even the stout-hearted into forgetting their plans in a moment of madness.
The unease penetrates deep in the heart of the town of Wildereach. Amalgamous bodies have been found, frozen, roaming, howling. A cloaked figure looms, suspected of snatching townsfolk when the midnight sun hits its darkest points. A creature of the deep tries to stop all that enter it's domain. Many strange happenings, here in Wildereach, is something bigger at play?
Of all the inhospitable domains in the RAVENLOFT@ campaign world, Bluetspur is the cruelest and most gruesome. Nothing grows in the endless night, and lightning periodically falls like rain. The only place to escape those storms is inside the mind flayers' complex under Mt. Makab, but that is the last place where any sane person would want to go. The High Master Illithid has been hatching black plots by hatching vampiric mind flayers in his laboratories! His prodigies are horribly insane, but if he can complete his plans, he will achieve a new level of dark immortality. A pair of heroes has stolen the key to his success, but they have paid a heavy price for their bravery and are in desperate need of aid unlooked for. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Realm watches over the proceedings and plays havoc with the wits of both sides, sapping strength and will with all-powerful thoughts of darkness. A party of adventurers will need all of their skills to escape this black domain without the loss of life, power, or sanity! Enter now the perpetual twilight realm of Bluetspur, home to mind flayers, a land of relentless nightmares. There's no rest for the wicked or the good in this domain. Once caught within the borders of this desolate land, the characters must complete their mission without delay or lose their minds and become slaves of the Lord of Bluetspur. TSR 9264, from 1992
Can the city of Redshore be saved from utter destruction? "The Razing of Redshore" is a D&D adventure that confronts the party with the destructive force of an awakened sperm whale druid and the sinister machinations of a secret cabal of powerful assassins. It is designed to provide such a group with an opportunity to continue their adventuring careers into the realms detailed in the "Epic Level Handbook". This book is not required to make full use of this adventure, though; any pertinent information from the supplement is reproduced here. Pgs. 72-106
Far from shore, in the cold depths of the ocean, lies a legendary whirlpool, five fathoms wide, hungry for sailors, their ships, and their goods. By its side sits a man-eating monster, many-headed and hungry for any who escape the maelstrom. But beneath these perils are the ruins of a palace, rumored to be filled with treasure beyond imagining and, maybe, a history of secrets lost to time beneath the waves. In the midst of a storm, the party’s ship is caught in a strong current. The whirlpool traps them inside of the ruins of an underwater palace, which was once home to a group of nymphs and now is the last vestige of the story of how the nymph Scylla was transformed into the infamous peril she is today. Pgs. 165-171
After your ship crashed onto a small island you and a few other survivors quickly discover you're not entirely alone. There are creatures slithering in a nearby cave, taking everything they can from the wreckage as they hunt for something. With no other way out, you'll have to trek through the Sahuagin camp, rescue any other survivors and find other means of escaping the island before all is lost.
This solo adventure is designed as an adventure to teach the PC that sometimes you need help in solving tough problems. The adventurer learns that Ortella the Druid is seeking assistance in obtaining spell components to help the local village. It seems that the community has a magical phantasm causing problems in its lake and they need help in the form of Ortella and Ortella needs your help!
The lerendi princess, Corinna, has disappeared. She set sail aboard a ship of the Minrothad Guilds - the guilds whose ships have been pirated and plundered for many weeks. Trade is horribly disrupted as many ships leave, never to be seen again. The guild masters now call for adventurers of great skill and renown. They offer small fortunes to any who can help them discover who is pirating their ships. But most importantly, to any who can rescue the princess. Can you and your party of adventurers defeat the dangers that lurk in the dark depths of a terrifying sea? Or will you find a watery grave within the cold confines of a murky sea floor? This game adventure contains special rules for underwater adventuring. TSR 9079
The shipping lanes south of Candlekeep have been disrupted. Unknown to anyone, an incredible alliance between a terran and a waterfolk tribe has caused the lamp at Gloomhaze Point lamptower to be extinguished. Merchant ships are being wrecked and plundered. The story unfolds in the nation of Amn. Adventurers will face a formidable kobold tribe that knows how to maximize its tactics, its smaller-than-human size tunnels, and an abundance of unique traps. The bloodthirsty sahaugin won’t be defeated without the adventurers taking a dive.
The exciting artifact series concludes with AS3 – Peregrination. With a pair of control rods in hand you are guided to an ultimate prize, a Gnomish flying vessel! The rods have directed you to a crashed ship buried in the sandy beach. A check of the debris sheds light on the mystery of the artifact and a description of how to repair the intricate machine. Apparently finding the vessel is just the start!
Important: The adventure is 1e but it has monster conversion notes for D&D 4th edition The town of Highport, once a human community overlooking Wooly Bay from its perch on the northern coast of the Pomarj, fell prey to hordes of humanoids swarming out of the jungle-covered hills surrounding the settlement. Though the orcs, goblins, kobolds, ogres, and gnolls razed much of the place in their ferocious rampages, the smoldering ruins they left behind soon became a new kind of community, a place of trade between the humanoid “locals” and the unsavory human traders who have no compunction about doing business with them. Slaves are a commodity in ready supply in Highport’s market, since many pirates raid up and down the coast of the bay, putting fishing villages to the torch and filling their holds with captured refugees. Slavery has become a thriving business in the town, and rumors abound of a cartel of Slave Lords who run things from behind the scenes, filling their coffers in secret from the buying and selling of human chattel. The trade has become so prolific that the good folk to the north have grown tired of these depredations and decided to fight back. Forces of righteousness and honor have recently descended upon Highport, some openly and others in secret, in various attempts to destroy the machinations of the Slave Lords and abolish the abominable enterprise that has taken far too many loved ones from home and hearth. One such doughty servant of goodness is Mikaro Valasteen, a cleric of Trithereon. Mikaro slipped unnoticed past the crumbling walls of Highport with a single mission: to rescue and transport as many slaves to their freedom as possible. Mikaro and a handful of faithful assistants located a number of escaped slaves—as well as rescued a few more not sufficiently restrained and guarded—and shepherded them through the gates and beyond the reach of their humanoid tormentors, returning them to their lands and homes. This covert freedom brigade enjoyed remarkable success early on, since the servants of the Slave Lords were often lax in their vigilance and sloppy in their efforts to prevent loss of the “merchandise.” After one too many shipments never made its destination, the humanoids stepped up their security and the normal channels of escape from Highport closed to Mikaro and his team. He cannot risk exposure by smuggling the freed slaves through the gates as merchandise any longer, since shipments of goods are now regularly stopped and checked. No longer able to free the slaves in that manner, Mikaro began hiding his charges in an abandoned villa in a particularly rundown part of the town. Although they are safe for the moment, their numbers have grown unmanageable, and the priest fears it is only a matter of time before someone slips up and brings slavers to their doorstep. Ever more desperate to find a new means of escape from Highport, Mikaro has started work on a plan that is both daring and dangerous. He intends to use a series of old sewers coupled with natural caverns running beneath the town as an escape route to the sea beyond the walls. But he needs someone to clear out the creatures and pitfalls he knows lie within. Pgs. 2-27
"Yea I knows of a job for the likes of you" the bartender says as he wipes off the table. "This wizard who lives near the shore about two or three days ride lost somethin' he was expected on the ship The Intrepid. I hear he wants the cargo back and is willing to pay good coin for it to any who'd chance going into the Lake of Chaos." A grizzled old man in the corner gasps and says “any would want to go into that sea gots to be crazy. Aye, that wizard is lookin' for some crazy people. That waters haunted by dead sailors". "Oh come on” Telkall the bartender continues "you know that’s just an old story to keep kids away from the water. I'm sure it’s going to be an easy job for the likes you. You all appear to be quite able to take care of yourself. Go down the coast road for about two days if yer on horses and you'll see a stone tower. Ask for Kresellus ... he's the one you'll be lookin' for. Oh, and tell him Wolfgar sent ya ... if you could." Well things were getting boring at the Dead Orc Inn anyway.
The ancient world of Harth withers beneath its dying sun…but it’s not dead yet. The land is still riddled with villages in danger, cultists in caves, angels gone mad, eldritch horrors making strange deals, raging dragons, bandits in the woods, and cruel monsters lurking in every shadow. These 13 adventures span a wide variety of locations, environments, creatures, and genres. They are meant for use as quick-play sessions or one-shots, or to be dropped into campaigns as side-quests. These are linear dungeons and mini-quests full of interactivity and strangeness, encouraging exploration, risk-taking, and creative combat. ADVENTURE TYPE: One-Shot / Low Level / Combat / Exploration / Village / Wilderness / City / Subterranean / Dungeon Delve DESIGN NOTES These 13 adventures are intended for low-level characters around Level 3 Overall, these adventures tend to be linear dungeon delves in caves or single buildings 93 unique encounter locations 69 original magic items 71 original monsters (with 28 illustrations) 13 maps/diagrams Each adventure runs 2-4 hours in length
A band of shipwrecked adventurers awake to twilight on an uncharted jungle island to the Northwest of the Nalanthars with amnesia, little do they know the amnesia is recurrent at the completion of each long rest until an ancient curse powered by an incomplete Mythallar is lifted.
The Pearl of Madness is a companion adventure made to go along with the events unfolding prior to the core adventure founding Folio #14 (WS1 ). It contains the information needed to run a side adventure that will help characters gain a degree of experience before setting out into the interior of the Isle of Jade. Thunder booms on the north of the isle and a dark rain falls on the inland swamps prompting the village chief to deny the characters canoes for their journey for another day. This respite offers the characters a chance to participate in a village tradition, the pearl dive. With whispers of great wealth at the bottom of a secluded cove, the players prepare for a dive that will provide more than the mundane. When the Isle of Jade begins to rumble, the islanders cancel the player's expedition to the inland. However, it is still a beautiful day for a pearl dive. Can the players find fortune in the tranquil waters of a hidden cove, or does something more sinister lurk there? This adventure is formatted to both 1E & 5E gaming rules.
Operating as secret agents for the Lords of Waterdeep, a promising lead takes you deep into the world of the Xanathar, but what will it take for you to return?
The sea has many perils. Are the treasures of a sunken pirate ship worth the risk? Arkos Seatamer, a privateer and the sole survivor of a shipwreck has gathered a new crew. He's returning to the wreck to recover the body of his closest friend, Devek Harpwind, for a proper burial. Arkos had rammed the pirate vessel 'Striking Shadow' in combat, shattering its hull. He leapt aboard the sinking ship to take the pirate queen as a prisoner. Shortly after, a sudden storm arose, so violent that it sunk his ship as well. This isn't the whole story. The pirate queen wore a cursed gold armband, shaped like a coiled eel. The sight of the band made Arkos mad with greed and he moved to slay her to take it. Devek tried to intervene but Arkos killed his friend in rage. With his dying breaths Devek laid a horrible curse upon Arkos to become a were-eel each night. The PCs are hired to accompany Arkos and his crew to the wreckage and recover Devek's body from the wreck, along with the armband he still lusts for. Pgs. 18-35
Ducklings. It's not too late too close this page, and go and find an adventure about happy-go-lucky halflings, or emotionally stable young adventurers. This is not that story. You can still walk away, and find some other engagement that your players will forgive you for running. Open this little document, and you will be introduced to the wretched streets of Elysium. Home of aberrations, mystery and futile quests for meaning in the drowned streets of the tortured city. Escape is unlikely. Enjoyment fleeting. I implore you, turn away and don't look back. Mind flayers stalk streets plagued by invisible death. Curses bubble from ancient evils sleeping beneath the water. Questions lead to questions, which evolve into answers you will only regret asking for. Go whilst you still can. There is nothing here for you but death. Prologue: Welcome to Elysium Chapter One: The Crooked House Chapter Two: The Broken Prison Chapter Three: The Temple of the Gaunt Silhouette Chapter Four: The Grand Library Chapter Five: The Adamant Asylum Chapter Six: The Dancing Spider Chapter Seven: The Undercity An adventure for characters of level 15+ Contains: An introduction to Elysium, a Ravenloft domain filled with eldritch mystery and drowned secrets, including Life In Elysium, The Rule Unspoken and the Marks of Horror that set Elysium apart. Guidance on Madness in Elysium, with Elysian Madness tables for your horror/amusement. A list of Elysian locations, some of which will be expanded in later releases. Elysian random encounter tables, day & night. An Elysian Wild Magic table, miserable magic items and tragic trinkets. The first installment - The Crooked House, in which we meet the Duchess and her parade of dead husbands. The seconf installment - The Broken Prison, where the shadows of gods walk amongst men The third installment, The Temple of the Gaunt Silhouette, where broken fragments of reality are reached by strange avenues. The fourth installment, The Grand Library, where the things we wanted to forget prove impossible to truly banish. The fifth installment, The Adamant Asylum, where medicine and madness meet. The sixth installment, The Dancing Spider, in which there is no rest for the wicked. The seventh installment, The Undercity, where your worst suspicions are confirmed. Three new character backgrounds: the Eldritch Detective, the Information Broker and the Tempter of Fate. The long-suffering Elysian character race, with two subraces. The first One Page Woes collection, included here for your convenience, which contains thirteen reasons to be thoroughly miserable.