Ever wanted to face the cold, dark, and dangerous unknown without the advantages of a fantasy hero? This is your chance! Fifth Edition Funnel puts a spin on character creation. In the Funnel, each participating player quickly generates several 0-level characters blessed with the abilities and low survivability of your average commoner. Those that survive will be promoted to 1st-level heroines and heroes. The Funnel bonds characters over common challenges they meet and (hopefully) overcome. The surviving 1st-level characters share a common origin as adventurers. Instead of merely rolling dice, there is a trial by fire where average people succeed against the odds to do something heroic (or hide under a table in a tavern).

Part 3 of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path takes the heroes to the infamous Shudderwood in Ustalav. They travel to Ascanor lodge, the only safe place in the woods, to find more information on the necromantic cult The Whispering Way and meet a colorful group of npcs that reside at the lodge. The werewolf packs that live in the woods are on the brink of war as their pack leader has disappeared and as the heroes get involved, strange things start happening within the lodge. Soon all three story lines will intertwine and the heroes are left to piece the puzzle together and follow the trail left by The Whispering Way. It's worth noting that this book does an excellent job at fleshing out the npcs (lodge residents and werewolves) both through stat blocks and background information including history and motivations. This book includes: - “Broken Moon,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 7th-level characters, by Tim Hitchcock - The secrets of the Whispering Way, a notorious cult sworn to the powers of death and undeath, revealed in blasphemous detail, by Adam Daigle - Insights into the savage lives of werewolves, wererats, and other lycanthropes, by Gareth Hanrahan - Laurel Cylphra comes face to face with an ancient mystery in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by F. Wesley Schneider - Seven exciting and deadly new monsters, by Tim Hitchcock, Rob McCreary, and Patrick Renie

An oasis exploration and lava-filled obsidian dungeon crawl for 4-5 players of 5th to 6th level. Battle elemental evils, save captured sandworms, claim unique elemental magic items. A malevolent and ancient elemental lies imprisoned within a lava-filled obsidian cavern. Explore the hidden passages before his shackles break and havoc is unleashed upon the nearby oasis! 10 pages of oasis exploration and lava-filled dungeon peril! Statblocks for the life-cycle of desert sandworms, plus three unique elemental magic items like "Summer's Bane" - an armlet of compacted ice that grants the wielder a magical bow, and the "Embershard" - a dagger made from the jawbone of a red dragon that imbues the wielder with elemental magics. Run the adventure your way - drop the PCs off at the dungeon entrance and explore the perlious cavern, or let them cavort in the oasis before uncovering the lingering threat. We hope you enjoy the desert oasis and obsidian-carved dungeon crawl from the Heart of Arcana.

The town of Warlorn is often thought of as a peaceful one. Not much happens there, and it is usually considered a place of peace were parties could convene to make truces or were the hurt could always come to find someone to care for them. Perceptions can often be incorrect however. The church of Ilmatter, God of Suffering, acts as an effective government in the town. Illmaters tenants are that to help all those who have suffered and to take on their suffering so that they may be healed. To them suffering is truly Holy, and to take suffering on from another is seen as the greatest way to prey to their god. Not everyone is as virtuous as a god, even his own followers, and humanity in taking on holy suffering is still left with desires; lusts that can be corrupted. When the Duchess of Manipulation who delights in corrupting church men spoke to the leader of this clergy of Ilmater, it was no difficult task for her to find a loophole in Illmaters word that she could exploit. If suffering was holy, then truly it should be those that do not yet understand Ilmater’s ways that should feel this suffering. Using a cultist of hers, she was able to create a child that could later be used as an ingredient for a portal right to her layer of hell. It’d be two birds in one stone; corrupt a devoted followers of a god she hated to later take their souls as her own, and create a portal that she could use to cross both herself and her armies to the material plane. When the players enter the scene, the child will have already been kidnapped, and the child’s mother will be hanging up fliers giving out a reward to anyone that can find her child. The players will find themselves needing to infiltrate the Church of Ilmater into its secret underground cult so that they can save the child and stop Glasya from finding her way to the Material Plane.

Now bound to Queen Abrogail by infernal contracts, the villainous adventurers are tasked with destroying the Glorious Reclamation's headquarters in the former citadel of the Hellknight Order of the Godclaw, where they face a gold dragon ally of Iomedae herself! Only if they can survive the terrible onslaught of this fearsome foe and secure the citadel from the revolutionaries can the vile characters succeed at their quest—to perform an evil ritual, using the dragon's head to craft a legendary weapon capable of defeating the Glorious Reclamation's army of valorous knights once and for all.

“Gorgoldand’s Gauntlet” takes place in a cave network in the side of a cliff overlooking a lake and can be inserted easily into any campaign. Gorgoldand’s Gauntlet is a site-based adventure with a pre-dominance of puzzles and traps. The PCs discover a map leading to the Gauntlet and explore it looking for treasure. They test their strength and wits against various traps and puzzles created by a gold dragon who converted a cave network into a proving ground to surreptitiously test the abilities of local adventuring bands. If they make it all the way to the end of the Gauntlet, they’ll have the chance to fight a dragon construct made of the dungeon's treasure hoard and have the chance to gain access to a magic item that can have a significant impact on their adventuring careers. Pgs. 39-51

Few planes possess the raw malevolence of the Infinite Layers of the Abyss. It is a place of random violence, appalling cruelty, and pure, unadulterated wickedness. Here, unreasoning malice rules, and countless demons torture and murder for the joy of it. The Abyss is innovative in its wretchedness, with each fleeting moment birthing new and awful psychotic acts of utter evil. Those who brave its depths find no relief from its corrosive nature, nor respite from the cancerous seeds of evil blooming within all who tarry here; they find only anguish, pain and if they're lucky, sudden, abrupt death. "Into the Maw" is the ninth chapter of 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 #356 of Dragon magazine features an expanded list of strange and exotic magical items that could be purchased from the mercane merchants encountered during "Into the Maw." In order to rescue a friend, the PCs must sail into the Abyss and infiltrate a prison built by the Prince of Demons. Pgs. 48-85

This guide describes how to run a one-session festival for your players. It combines a black market, costumes, and various activities suitable for different PC skills. The setting is a beach at night near a coastal town or city, but it can be easily adapted for other locations. It is suitable for players with little experience, and characters of any level. It makes a good first session for new players since they can try various skills without risk.

Picking up where the adventures left off in Sordack Valley, the PCs gain information on areas with potential treasure. Several ruins are just within reach and at least one may be the burial site known as the Ossuary of the Bear! A magical crozier was said to be buried there and has never been found. Are your players ready to make themselves legends?

Your group of fledgling adventurers has come together from their respective backgrounds to seek out their fame and fortune in the wilderness. Upon their initial foray they uncover the lost ruins of a forgotten city. Little do these young adventurers realize that they may come into contact with a page and cover of the relic known as the Codex of Gamber Dauch!

You are hired by the Greenskull orc clan as merceneries to assist in the eradication of a firblog settlement from the swamp the orcs need to conquer in order to survive. You are first sent in to retrieve the bodies of scouts that never returned, but you soon realize that something wicked is going on in the swamp. Will you escape with your lives, or will you also become a victim of the Druid's Curse?

Heroes and blackguards of every stripe will find peril on the Purple Planet, but none more than 0-level PCs. Cast across the cosmos, surrounded by hordes of baying man-beasts, and marched into mass gladiatorial combat, the PCs' death waits with bated breath. Their sole hope for escape lies – not in pitched combat against endless hordes – but by braving the unknown and pressing into the darkness beneath the Purple Planet.

A great threat lopes toward a small city at the edge of a wasteland. One of the leviathans of the wasteland, a gigantic malevolent creature known locally as a “walker,” appears to be on a course directly through the city. The PCs are called to heroism by the city’s council, who have learned that the walker is being directed by a foul darakhul who has gained control of the creature and directs it from atop its shoulders! Scouts have discovered a portal used by the ghoul to teleport atop the walker. With a hastily scrawled map, the party must navigate the wild hills to locate the magical doorway. In this epic and deadly adventure, the party must navigate wild hills, locate a teleportation portal, and slay the Darakhul and his minions on teetering platforms built atop the shoulders of the walker.

A bandit leader known only as "The Ravager" brings ruin to the Border Kingdoms. The characters must destroy the source of his power and defeat him before he can complete his evil plans. Pgs. 11-21

A mysterious package, a forgotten guild, a lost heir, and an undergoing conspiracy. Unfold Neverwinter’s dark past in this urban-intrigue D&D 5th edition adventure. The characters are called to guard a mysterious package that arrives the city at night. A well-planned robbery and the fact that this package was ordered by Lord Dagult Neverember himself alerts them that, this is not going to be an ordinary task!

Death Is in the Cards The remnants of the Ebon Fold are cutting a deadly path through the Falkovian countryside, draining travelers of their life force and leaving withered corpses in their wake. Hot on their trail you come across the sole survivor of one of these deadly attacks, a young vistani man with an extraordinary skill for fortune-telling. His tarokka deck helps close the gap between you and the assassins. Together you follow the trail through Darkon, the dark domain of the lich lord Azalin, to the city of Nartok. With an Unholy Alliance... Something very strange is happening in Nortok. The killers enter the Temple of the Eternal Order and don't come out. It seems that the state of religion of Darkon is giving succor to these assassins. To make matters more confusing, the Kargat, the domain's secret police, has put aside its feud with the Eternal Order and has a large contingent staying at the temple as well. These three organizations working together bodes ill for the residents of Nartok. ... And Schemes Within Infernal Schemes Great amounts of life energy are being collected for some foul purpose, although no one seems to know what exactly it is. The tarokka cards provide only mysterious glimpses of the future - a future in which a powerful evil sweeps the land and Death walks the world. Can you discover the truth of what is happening in the temple in time to avert the disaster predicted by the cards? Death Ascendant is a full-length adventure that can be run as a stand-alone scenario or as the second part in the Grim Harvest series. It contains a 64-page adventure booklet plus a full-color poster map detailing the Temple of the Eternal Order. TSR 9526

When devils slay the knightly leader of Arwyll Stead and orcs from the Hell's Fury tribe attack the town, all hope seems lost for the brave people living on Lastwall's border. The coincidental arrival of the mysterious half-orc Vegazi also raises unsettling questions, and it's up to the heroes to make sense of these events and end the Hell's Fury tribe's threat to Arwyll Stead once and for all. What does Vegazi have to do with the raiders' diabolical plot? Who will rally Arwyll Stead now that the town's icon has been cut down? And who is the mastermind orchestrating the orc tribe's alliance with devils from beyond?

The last of his line, Baron Paytro NeMoren has left his dark secret sealed for decades in the family's underground vault. Now, years after his death, a group of stalwart heroes has gathered according to the baron's final wishes. At last, the seal will be broken and the secrets of the vault revealed. Can all sins be forgiven? The adventure is designed to kick-off a campaign, as it provides for an interesting way to get the party together. Instead of meeting at a tavern or being recruited by the local militia, each party member starts with a key to the NeMoren's vault, a key that was handed down by a friend or given as a gift for some good deed peformed in the past. The executor of the estate has gathered together all of the key-holders so that they could claim the contents of the vault. The vault can only be opened with all of the keys in unison. The vault is protected by a number of minor traps and tricks, but it also became the final resting place for the Baron's ex-lover, Lisette, and her brothers--all three of whom had attempted to blackmail the Baron. They were buried alive and are now undead. To complicate matters, a young umber hulk made its way to the vault, leaving some crude tunnels that were later exploited by hobgoblins coming from another surface entrance. The party will need to deal with the hobgoblins, the undead, the traps, and possibly the young umber hulk. There is a side-plot of poisoned groundwater in the nearby town that the party can also resolve by clearing out the undead and properly disposing of the putrid corpses leaking into the groundwater from the vault. Produced by Fiery Dragon Productions

During a brief stop-over at a wilderness stronghold, a simple trip to a local provisioner reveals foul play! The shop has been broken in, and the shopkeeper is missing. But the place has not been burglarized. The heroes are thrust into an investigation. Clues discovered by the heroes’ hint at larger corruption that festers among the border lands surounding the stronghold. What sinister forces lurk beneath the keep?

Disturbing shadows have grown long over the northern reaches of The Land of Song. The fierce people who once fished the chilly fjords and hunted in the evergreen peaks now huddle in their villages. An evil is abroad in the land. The heroes are charged by Jarl Yngvar with traveling to the Valley of the Sleeping Jarls, an old tomb in the hills where dead kings are laid to rest, to discover the source of the malevolence bearing down upon the land and with eradicating it. Who can say what evil lurks amid the towering peaks and shadowed fjords? For decades this malevolent being plotted his vengeance upon Hjalmar’s heirs, for the jarl had gone the way of all mortals. Taking for himself the name Mogens (“powerful”), this evil spirit, now a self-styled dark lord, gathered wicked cronies and servants to itself and came to the Valley of the Sleeping Jarls. There, he has spent nearly two decades corrupting and desecrating the sacred resting place, reshaping the hollowed tombs into a blasphemous temple to his infernal lord.