The trouble began several weeks ago when a duergar excavation team went to work in a long-abandoned temple. Drawn to the temple by stories of riches and artifacts, the duergar hired several giants as laborers before cracking the temple’s sealed doors. The largest of the giants, a loathsome Thursir mutant named Huppo, used his acidic vomit to expedite tunneling into the temple’s collapsed hall of worship. Then, Huppo found the horn—an unusual instrument made from a single piece of stone, with a mouthpiece so intricate only a master carver could have made it. The horn became the giant’s obsession. Seeing only the horn’s potential sale value, the dwarves demanded Huppo turn it over to them, but Huppo refused. To force compliance, the dwarves stopped feeding the gluttonous brute, but Huppo had already found his own source of food; in deep areas of the temple, worms were chewing out of the rocks, and Huppo ate them by the fistful. He also played the horn. Then, after several days of blowing the horn and devouring the strange worms, Huppo released a belch so noxious the dwarves had no choice but to lock him in a sealed chamber and carefully consider their next move. The horn’s call, however, had caught the attention of passing nomadic orcs. They set up camp outside the temple entrance in the hope of finding the horn and its player. That’s the current situation at the temple: the giant refuses to stop blowing the horn and belching out deadly clouds of stomach gas; the dwarves are frightened and edgy while their leader is obsessed with malevolent whispers; orcs are threatening to overrun the place; and the population of worms grows steadily as something awakens deep in the stone beneath the sanctuary of belches.
Beware the night-things, strangers!
The follow up to the ratfolk warlock lair, A Rat Among Us, Part One. It is suitable for four or five 3rd-level characters. The lairs can be run separately or together as one longer adventure. The Demon Lord of Rats is making his play for control of the city. Will our stalwart adventurers find the source of his power and thwart him?
This adventure is suitable for four 6th to 7th level PC's and may be completed in a single session. Oithois the exceptional ice mephit and his foul underlings have uncovered a powerful relic at the entry to ancient ruins. The monstrous mephits seek to crack a hole between the material plane and their icy home world. Oithois plots to lead an army of elemental lackeys and conquer the civilized outposts of the north. This ice mephit has studied the machine and is confident he can open a gateway to the elemental plane of ice. PCs are approached by a frostbitten traveler, who pleads with them to assault the terrace. The adventurers must mount an attack against the mephits, contend with an unintentionally summoned young white dragon, and defeat Oithois upon the icebound terrace.
Fane of Serpents is a titanoboa lair suitable for three to five 10th-level characters. A rocky butte covered with soaring ruins looms over the landscape. Legend describes it as a monument raised by an inhuman race that was wiped out centuries ago as retribution over foul practices. Locally, the spot is known as Titan’s Height. It rises starkly above the surrounding area, with four terraced plateaus. Each level is covered with the ruins of many-columned halls in an architectural style unlike anything else in the area. Their age and strangeness alone are enough to generate fearful legends. The stories grow worse when travelers or livestock disappear near Titan’s Height, which they sometimes do.
A small band of centaurs have seen their water source fouled by unknown magic. When word of their plight reaches the party, they embark on a day's travel to the centaur camp. Along the way, they encounter injured wildlife and panicked bugbears. Terrifying storms beset the region, raining down acid and oozes. Agreeing to investigate the small corrupted lake, the adventurers discover a long buried evil has awakened—bringing with it oozing undead. The party must navigate the wilds, face the ooze storms, and confront a reanimated warrior who betrayed her god.
In the small hamlet of Riverbend, the miller’s wife is missing, and the locals suspect the husband himself was involved. But all is far from what it seems. Ellessandra, the missing woman, is actually an elf from the Summer Lands. She came to live in the human settlement when the miller made a dangerous pact with the River King, the lands’ powerful sidhe ruler. Now, the player characters must unravel the truth behind Ellessandra’s disappearance, piece together the involvement of a young fey lord, and dive into the fey courts of the Summer Lands to stop a raid that would surely spell Riverbend’s doom. All the while, Arthurian intrigue and mischief runs high among the fey lords and ladies in this mercurial, open‑format adventure from acclaimed adventure designer Wolfgang Baur!
"A Triangle in Shadows" is an umbral vampire lair suitable for a party of four 15th-level characters. Magic weapons are highly advised. This adventure can be completed in one session. The City Fallen into Shadow is the domain of the fiendish umbral vampires, and they are rarely found outside it. But one named Caragorn has fled the city after coming between the lovers Philadon and Zenobia. Philadon and Caragor, however, are secretly meeting at Caragorn's tower behind Zenobia's back. Zenobia suspects them of collusion, and is seeking out the two male umbral vampires to get revenge.
Kidnapping and politics as usual? Not so much. Something is different about this job, and you just hope that difference doesn’t get you killed. Contains sexual content.
Within the darakhul city of Gonderif, at the nadir of a thousand‑foot‑deep chasm, is the site of a vile tournament where Gonderif ’s most rebellious slaves and war prisoners are forced to fight to the death—and through undeath after undeath—until only one living champion remains. Whether they came as captives or as liberators, the PCs must survive the Undying Tournament.
"The Dark Forest" is an elder shadow drake lair suitable for four 8th-level characters. This adventure can be completed in one session. A hidden grove within a dark forest has been home to a tribe of alseids for generations. The tribe's most recent leader and spiritual heart was an alseid shaman called Riatha the Raven. Within the grove lies an ancient ring of standing stones atop a burial mount. Here, Riatha conducted sacred nature rites to honor and bless the forest and the tribe. During one of these ceremonies, the ground rumbled and a column of dense black energy shot straight up from the burial mound and into the night sky. Thick darkness enveloped the area, and the suddenly blinded alseids heard terrible roars. An instant later, the darkness dissipated to reveal a mysterious pool ringed with skulls among the standing stones. Two large, dragon-like creatures with black scales and burning red eyes glared at the confused alseids. One the ground lay the body of Riatha, deathly still. Terror and chaos followed as the creatures brought swift and sudden death, killing most of the alseid tribe members with razor-sharp teeth and deadly, black breath. The alseids that survived the inital, bloody attack fled into the forest. They counterattacked a few hours later, desperate to reclaim their grove and recover the body of their beloved leader, but the attempt was a fiasco and they were quickly driven off. Now, the few remaining alseids hide in the forest, frightened and unsure of what to do next.
Qorgeth’s fanatical undead followers await a messenger from their dark master. They whisper blasphemous prayers at blood drenched altars in total darkness, their profane chants calling Qorgeth’s demonic emissary to the mortal world. The unspeakable evil that now threatens Midgard’s Western Wastes was awoken by the well intentioned mistakes of a man named Petring, a loving father who was seduced by Qorgeth’s lies. It falls to a party of PCs to undo his cataclysmic mistakes and protect Midgard from the coming of a demon prince.
Just outside Per-Bastet, in the kingdom of Nuria Natal, lie the newly discovered remains of Anu-Asir, a city once believed to exist only in myth. The ruins of Anu-Asir lie submerged under accumulations of sand, floodwater, and tall tales. It is now a hub of activity for those seeking to uncover its secrets— and profit from them. Droves of the curious, hopeful, greedy, and eccentric congregate around the unearthed city. And just outside Anu-Asir, across the River Nuria, lies the most recently surfaced relic: the Pyramid of Tiberesh. Dare you explore its deadly mysteries?
"Temple of the Deep Ones" is the lair of a group of deep ones and their god, suitable for four or five 7th-level characters. This adventure can be finished in one session. Ship captains report that a mysterious island has surfaced in the middle of a heavily trafficked trade route. Worse, ships that venture too close to the island are assaulted by a terrible creature and its servants. The island is disrupting trade throughout this part of the world, and several ships have already been lost. Unbeknownst to those that know of the place, the island rises at the will of Shar-Ngolyeth, a long-lost deity also known as That Which Lurks Beneath the Waves. The island is populated by a cult of deep ones and the beasts they have subjugated in the name of their dark god. The creature responsible for sinking ships is an aspect of Shar-Ngolyeth, a kraken. It is not meant for combat encounters; it's largely a plot device in this encounter.
The loss of Skyreach Castle in Hoard of the Dragon Queen was a major setback to the Cult of the Dragon, but still only a setback. The cult is determined to retake the castle and claim Tiamat’s lost treasure buried in its frozen walls and cloudstuff vaults, but they aren’t the only ones. Blagothkus the cloud giant is still the master of Skyreach, and he has gone to the hall of his cousin Brunvild, ice lord of Uldoveld, for the resources to repair and reoccupy the castle. At the same time, the party is dispatched by the Council of Waterdeep to reclaim some of the stolen treasures lost when the castle fell.
A bargain struck between a dwarf chieftain and a great divine power forms the heart of this adventure. The chieftain, unwilling to step down from her position as ruler, seeks a way to hide from the god. When the party rescues some of her kin, they are offered riches for recovering a long lost magical shroud with the power to obscure mortals from the eyes of the gods. But recovering the shroud draws the attention of the god’s agents, and the party must choose a side. In this storied and fate-filled adventure for eleventh-level and up PCs, the party must battle their way through a ruined dwarven armory before deciding the fate of the chieftain.
A shadow goblin lair suitable for four or five 4th-level characters. A growing band of goblins led by a powerful shadow goblin named Hurkl are demanding a toll to travelers on the Dancing Shadow Path. When the heroes are chasing a fugitive through the area and come across the toll...what will they do?
"The Riverfront Rat Gang" is a ratfolk lair, also featuring wharflings and a doppelrat, designed for five 1st level characters. This adventure can be completed in one session. The old dockyards once served as the primary center of commerce in town. Years ago, political pressure from an influential merchant who wanted the docks to be loser to her business forced shipping concerns to move their docks upriver. The new facility accommodates larger ships, and the old docks fell into disuse. Talk of converting the property into a set of riverside shops died when a rat infestation proved to be an unsolvable problem. Thus, the old dockyards have been decaying for years. This situation suited a former thieves' guild member, a ratfolk rogue, named Matimer Creel. A botched robbery (for which Matimer blamed his accomplice) turned the guild against Matimer, who fled from certain death at the hands of the guild master. He hid out in the old dockyards, confident that not even guild members bothered to go there. From there he began to exact revenge against the guild by ruining its plans or stealing directly from it. He also befriended the rat population, thanks to a golden rat's tooth he acquired, and the vermin help with his schemes. A trio of rat-like wharflings and a doppelrat, washed up on the riverbank near the docks, have joined Matimer's retinue.
A local monolith which is the nearby town's good-luck charm and tourist attraction is taken as a lair of a wandering wind harp devil. Will the heroes banish the devil, or come up with a dark bargain?
Lo! The corpse of poor, departed Scholar Zubayr, washed up on the shores of the River of Sand, lies in the charnel house…destined to become dinner for a cult of cannibals. Though distasteful in the extreme, this isn’t your concern—except that Princess Karima Gamila, the most beautiful gnoll in Per-Bastet, has begged you to rescue her friend’s body and help discover his fate. Still unmoved to action? Know then, adventurer, that the Scholar was hot on the trail of lost treasure! If you can claim his body from the cult and decipher the clues he left behind, long-buried riches and powerful magic might be yours. But nothing is simple in this city of dark wonders: others converge on the charnel house in pursuit of wealth, vengeance, or both. Can you out-fight and outwit vile cultists, undead catfolk, a cunning werecrocodile gnoll, and the deadly secrets that lie buried beneath the River of Sand? Set in the city of Per-Bastet in the Southlands Campaign Setting, it is meant for play either as the thrilling sequel to Cat and Mouse, or as a standalone treasure hunt! Also available in Pathfinder format.