Evil schemes are afoot in Cauldron, a metropolis of merchants built into the caldera of a long-dormant volcano. To foil the agenda of evil cultists, your band of adventurers must brave haunted jungle ruins, slay mighty dragons, and bind themselves to a layer of the infinite Abyss. Will their swords and spells be enough to save the Shackled City? Originally published as 11 linked adventures in the award-winning Dungeon magazine, the Shackled City Adventure Path is the most ambitious official Dungeons & Dragons campaign ever created. Now, for the first time ever, everything you need to play the campaign has been compiled into a deluxe 416-page full-color hardcover that also includes an 8-panel fully detailed map of the City of Cauldron, a 16-page full-color map and illustration booklet, and a brand new Shackled City adventure written by fan favorite author Christopher Perkins.
Fangwood Keep has changed hands innumerable times since its founding decades ago on the border between the warring nations of Molthune and Nirmathas. Over the years, both countries have sacrificed money and soldiers in an effort to control the fortress along the Marideth River valley, both for its tactical location and for its secure defenses. Recently, however, the battles around Fangwood Keep have dwindled to a trickle as Nirmathas has firmly rooted itself in the surrounding valley, allowing the tide of war to shift elsewhere and peace to settle at last over Fangwood Keep. This respite was shattered by the arrival of a renegade Molthuni commander named Pavo Vos. Obsessed with capturing Fangwood Keep and unraveling the fortress’s mysteries, the defecting lieutenant unlawfully used his platoon to secure the castle, much to the ire of both the Molthuni and Nirmathi governments. Now the task of bringing Vos to justice and reclaiming Fangwood Keep for Nirmathas lies solely in the PCs’ able hands.
Framed by the Covenant of the Knife and thrown in the notorious Blackmaw Prison, Karl Manderholm awaits his execution at the hands of the deadly assassins’ guild. In order to save him, the PCs must enter Blackmaw in the guise of lowly prisoners and expose the one man who can clear Karl’s name, the Shadowmaster of the Covenant himself. Pgs. 34-50
It should have been the end. When the bloodthirsty adventurers burst into his throne room and mercilessly cut him down, the tale of Merlokrep, last king of the ill-fated Truescale Tribe, should have ended. But the fates weren’t yet finished with the Kobold King, and now a dark power has brought him back from the dark beyond to wreak his vengeance upon those foolish adventurers who destroyed his tribe.
In the center of Lake Encarthan looms the dreaded Isle of Terror, accursed land of mystery and treachery. Hidden within the island's negative energy storms, the secret treasure city of the wizard-king Tar-Baphon has lain sealed for centuries. Now masked cultists have opened the golden city of Xin-Grafar to claim the wealth of the legendary city for the Living God Razmir. Can the PCs track the cultists through the poisoned swamps and blasted wastelands of the Isle of Terror to the City of Golden Death itself? And what forgotten dangers will oppose them as they struggle to prevent a dark faith from spreading across the world? Part 3 of the Price of Immortality trilogy.
The vile city of Scuttlecove is the home of murderers, thieves, demon whorshipers, peddlers of vice, and monsters. Here, anyone can find a place to hide, provided they can survive the terrors and dangers that infest the city streets. Scuttlecove is also the home of the Crimson Fleet, a notorious band of pirates who have long held the Vohoun Ocean as their private looting grounds. The time has come to take the fight to these legendary pirates, to confront them in their own depraved lair. "Serpents of Scuttlecove" is the eighth chapter in the Savage Tide Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon Magazine. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon magazine's monthly "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #344 of Dragon magazine features several additional locations the PCs might wish to visit during their stay in the city of Scuttlecove. The characters once again board the Sea Wyvern, this time to sail for Scuttlecove – a hideous city of pirates, slavers, cannibals, and worse – in search of clues to the final Savage Tide and the rescue of their patron. Pgs. 42-75 Also see Pgs. 76-85 for Backdrop: Scuttlecove City of Chaos.
While the lives of most Pathfinder Society field agents is brutal and short, some rise to prominence, drawing the attention of the Decemvirate. These lucky agents are invited to a little known siege castle outside Absalom where they are asked to test their mettle. Those who succeed get their choice of prestigious missions, whereas those who fail are rarely heard from again. The players are run through an arena-style dungeon, faced with monsters, traps, and puzzles.
Bracing for a terrible winter, the adventurers find themselves snow-locked in the desolate Archbarony of Blackmoor. Will they venture into the treacherous Land of Black Ice to rescue an enslaved people? Be sure to check out the sequel "The Clockwork Fortress" in Dungeon magazine #126. Pgs. 16-35
If the PCs are to avert the Age of Worms, they must invade the heartland of Kyuss' power, the Wormcrawl Fissure, and destroy one of the world's most powerful dracoliches before the Wormgod awakens. "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure" is the eleventh 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. Issue #343 of Dragon presents statistics for some extraplanar entities the PCs may wish to call upon to aid them in the Wormcrawl Fissure. Pgs. 54-89
A hundred miles off the Chelish coast lies the remote island of Deepmar, where the House of Thrune sends prisoners to work in crystal mines, wresting valuable spell components from the depths of the earth. A month ago, all contact with the penal colony ceased, and now someone must discover what mysterious fate has befallen the prisoners and guards of this isolated mining operation.
Take your first exciting foray into D&D's newest campaign setting with a deadly exploit in Sharn, City of Towers. Descend into the ruined undercity to face the legacy of the daelkyr, aberrations from the evil plane of Xoriat, and come face to face with the Queen with Burning Eyes! Pgs. 16-32
The second installment of the Skull and Shackles Pathfinder adventure path. Bound for adventure upon the pirate vessel they've taken as their own, the heroes face a sea of dangers as they chart a course to become true Free Captains of the Shackles. But life as a pirate doesn't prove any easier now that they're in command, as deadly sea monsters, the corpses of drowned scalawags, and raiders from the deep rise to oppose them. When a most unusual map falls into the adventurers' hands, they have the chance to change their fate in a shingle daring raid. Is it the heroes' destiny to be the next victims of the merciless waves, or will fortune smile upon them and spur their rise as the newest and most infamous pirates of the Shackles
Varisian fortune-tellers from across Golarion use the mystic harrow deck to read fate and predict the future, but few have ever mastered the mysterious harrow to such a degree as Sonnorae, a long-dead bard from the Age of Darkness. Fearing her collection of stories would be lost when she died, she created a demiplane within her own harrow deck to contain them. Over time, these stories took on lives of their own, and melded with the images on the cards themselves. But not all stories have happy endings, and the storykin who inhabit the Harrowed Realm have their own motivations and plots for power or even escape into the real world.
The witch queens of Irrisen must abdicate their thrones every 100 years when their mother, Baba Yaga, places a new daughter on the throne. But one queen was unwilling to relinquish her rule, and led a doomed rebellion against the Mother of Witches. Afterward, Baba Yaga entombed her wayward daughter in an icy necropolis known as the Veil of Frozen Tears, along with a powerful artifact called the Torc of Kostchtchie, hiding them both far from mortal eyes. Now, almost 500 years later, the tomb has been found, and the race is on to plunder its treasures.
Most adventurers like to think that when their number is finally up, their colleagues will bring them home, either to be raised or at least returned to their families for a proper burial. But how far will the PCs go in order to do right by a fallen adventurer? And will they draw the line at hauling his coffin out of the Underdark? Pgs. 20-40
At the end of the Hateful Wars, Lord Sandor led his army into the Barrier Peaks in pursuit of a host of goblins and orcs. He and his army vanished, and now a group of adventurers follows his footsteps to discover what doom fell upon him and his men. Pgs. 30-46
The Licktoads, once the great and fierce goblin tribe in Brinestump Marsh, were defeated by human adventurers! All that remains of the tribe are its four goblin "heroes". Homeless and bored, they left their swampy homeland to join the neighboring goblin tribe, the Birdcrunchers. The good news is that the Birdcrunchers are willing to let the goblin heroes join their tribe. The better news is that the Birdcrunchers have heard of these four, and want one of them to become their new chieftain. The bad news is that before the goblins can join, they'll need to endure a series of dangerous and humiliating tests. Very dangerous. Very humiliating. The worse news is that lately Birdcruncher chieftains have had really short lifespans—they're being killed by the pet fire-breathing boar of a local ogre who wants the Birdcruncher land as his own. Part 2 of the We Be Goblins series.
The slave markets of Katapesh may be an unsavory sort of business, but the trade metropolis’s enigmatic law enforcers have few qualms with the legal act of selling and buying flesh. Other factions, including the abolitionist Eagle Knights of Andoran, have their own opinions on the matter, however, and frequently send undercover agents into dangerous territory to break up slave rings. When one such Eagle Knight goes missing while investigating an underground slave operation beneath the dilapidated Twilight Gate district, it’s up to the PCs to delve an abandoned (but hardly uninhabited) qanat beneath Katapesh and discover her dire fate. Yet not everything is as it seems in the dank slave caverns under Twilight Gate, and clues hint that the slavers may have even more loathsome connections than initially suspected.
Tall tales of hidden riches are common in the pirate-infested taverns of the Shackles, but when Captain Varossa Lanteri claims to know the location of the secret treasure hoard of legendary Captain Jemma Redclaw, it seems she may be telling the truth. Captain Lanteri hires the PCs on as crew to help her assemble the magic key that will open the door to Redclaw’s treasure... and the ancient cyclops stronghold in which it’s hidden! Can the PCs survive long enough to claim their share of the lost loot, or will their enemies—or their allies—send them to a watery grave?
Someone kidnapped Lady Anilah Salhar—the Chelish wife of Dremdhet Salhar, one of Osirion's many Grand Ambassadors to Absalom—and sold her into slavery. With Salhar holding delve permits over the heads of the Decemvirute, the Pathfinders are sent to assist the Osirian Ambassador. Venturing into Absalom's darkest corners to save Lady Anilah, the Pathfinders must face the secrets of the Slave Pits to avoid becoming slaves themselves.