adventure
ADVENTURE!
Here you'll find details on adventures we're writing. I'll start by uploading some short/free adventures I designed with other creators, and in due time this will also be the spot where you'll find full adventures for I'm putting up for sale. If you stop by DrivethruRPG for your download, please leave a review to help us connect with more adventurers!
A Brand&d Adventure Prompt by Crosshead
BRANDED BY ADVENTURE
Since I currently can't make the time to really sit down and write full modules or illustrate series of items or monsters, I decided to try on something new and create these "single page" adventure prompts in the style of the DnDified monsters I used to make.
Each adventure would be centered around a single "brand", which can basically be anything going from a company to a person that I would turn into one of these prompts featuring one magic item, one monster and one battlemap for 5th edition D&D.
AZAMON
First in this series is Azamon, an adventure starring Jeff Bezos as Beelbezos, the archdemon who runs the distribution center of hell. He tries to gain dominion over mortals by tempting them to use his cursed creations, known as the boxes of Azamon, and be eternally bound by them in debt to him.
Beelbezos' true form isn't just a dragon that is obsessed with his hoard, he is the actual embodiment of his hoard. Growing more powerful as the hoard grows, which happens each time someone uses one of his boxes.
The design of Beelbezos was originally a lot more focused on illustrating the individual coins, something I translated in the story as the coins growing larger as they were absorbed by the construct. The only issue being that I felt it limited me in the design of the actual dragon. Form over function and all. I had a similar journey in designing the box, only the other way around. The first version was more of a treasure chest, but I realized it didn't translate the concept of the amazon box into fantasy properly. Just like the actual box it needed to look like a simple shipping crate, something cheap and not engraved with gold symbols.
REFERENCES
When I first started doing items and monster I did most of the work building the stats myself, generally only using other stats as a building block or reference to help me figure out the balance of my content.
For these short prompts I decided that I would do whatever helps me move the process along instead of wanting to do everything myself. My teleporting box had to be rather specific in design, making the actual reference to size and cost of shipping used by Amazon and having it work in tandem with the rest of the designs. The coin animated dragon however was not as important to get perfectly right, in another world I would have made sure to fill the statblock with references as well, and that's why I got on DnDbeyond and found myself the perfect fit for my concept in this GARGANTUAN COIN ANIMATED DRAGON by Farseer2020.
I would love it if DnDBeyond had a way to contact creators so I could ask people to help me translate their designs to make it even a better fit, but this will do.
VISUAL REFERENCES
Another reference I made in the design of my creature is of players fighting a bald humanoid who presents himself as Beelbezos, just so you can have your players actually fight the man himself for a second, and explode into coins the moment he's struck. This is a reference to the amazing stylings of Edgar Wright in his adaptation of Scott Pilgrim in the titular movie.
I also like this idea of fighting this humanoid, who basically functions like the fin ray of an angler fish, as the coin animated dragon remains hidden underneath you attacking from the pile of coins. It would look like the humanoid is in control of the coins instead of the other way around.
Concept for an evil adventure by Crosshead
EVIL & GOOD
DragonGate is my return to creating bigger & richer dungeons. Not just in their design, but also in the stories I try to evoke with them. This map, which includes an animated section (as you can see above), was designed to be played from both sides. As an invader and a defender. From and evil and good vantage point.
I might one day do a full adventure module for it, but for now I'll just go over some of the ideas I had for playing this particular map and the ways one could approach DMing it.
LEGEND
Depending on your approach of the adventure, I think you can play this map in two directions. Starting from 1 (arriving through the DragonGate) and clearing the Dungeon all the way to the caves or coming from the caves and making your way to the gate. Each approach can be played for both alignments, but when I get to that part I'll stick with the more obvious route to take with each.
(1) The Dragongate itself is located in (2) the Hall of Worship, it's a gateway between this world/realm/location and another. On the left of it is (3) the Dining Hall, featuring a couple of loos and a kitchen area at the top. On the right is (6) the Dormitory with (4) an Armory and a higher ranking (5) Officer's Quarters (the place to be for the best loot of this dungeon) and (7) a bathing area that is connected with an underground sewage system to (15) the dungeons cells/jail.
(S) I wanted to include several of these little hidden gateways all over the dungeon and add several alternative options for moving from one place to the next. The way I would play out this heavy focus on hidden doorways is add a bunch of traps that are activated by similar mechanisms. In this instance I would use the torches, many of which can be rotated in place. Some opening doors, others activating traps and some that do nothing.
(8) in the Tomb for instance you'll find an alternative, an orb of souls, that can either drain the players and awake an undead or open the secret pathway that takes you to (10) the pantry of secrets. It's called that because it has two Secret entrances. One going left the other going right to (9) the Knight Corridor.
In the Corridor on the right I'd add opposing torches, one opening the secret path on the left and the other activating an animated armor.
EVIL ADVENTURE
In an evil adventure I'd play the map as a siege. Where creatures from Avernus, or some other hellscape, must find a way out of hell and try get to the realm of mortals (or somewhere else). The Dragon Gate would be guarded by good creatures and in their siege they might find themselves surrounded by NPC who are storming the walls.
Bombarded by Cannons, arrows and fire from the Dragon Statues, they'd have to find a way to get in to the fortress/dungeon and take the gate. As a boss battle at the end I'd introduce a Metallic Dragon making its way out and defending the portal to the realm beyond.
GOOD ADVENTURE
In an evil adventure I'd play the map as a tower defense. The players have been informed that the gates keeping creatures from escaping hell has been overrun and have been enlisted to drive them back out. They'd arrive through the gate in a fortress in total disarray, slowly recapturing each room as they make their way out.
Here you could end with a little endurance battle | tower defense play as the players must defend waves of enemies trying to invade the walls of the Dragon Fortress once again.
A 9th level adventure by Swampalnd Games & Crosshead
PANDEMONIUM!
Welcome to Baphomet Abandoned, a one-shot adventure developed concurrently by Crosshead and Swampland Games! This adventure is appropriate for 3-5 level 9 adventurers and should take approximately 3-4 hours to play.
DRIVETHRU-RPG
Get this adventure for free on DrivethruRPG
A 10th level adventure by Jesse Brake & Crosshead
ADVENTURE BACKGROUND
In recent decades, bandit outlanders roam with no master nor cause in the Outlands, wreaking havoc for merchants and men-of-arms alike. It wasn’t always like this, but it’s been nearly a century since the last bandit king, Oman “Mauler” Mansenes, was carried off the battlefield by his army of highwaymen. History says that Mauler Mansenes was an imposing and charismatic leader, a master of both martial combat and dirty tricks. He gave himself the sigil of a lion to serve as a double entendre, representing ferociousness and guile (as he was a lion on the battlefield...and lying about his feats at the feast afterwards).
ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS
While traveling, the adventurers hear cries for help from the nearby woods. It is soon discovered that the embattled group is a local territory lord’s hunting party whose game warden led them into a nest of phase spiders. After negotiating a rescue, the party heads into the cave, discovering the secret entrance to the Mauler’s Tomb.
While the phase spiders are able to ethereal jaunt to within the tomb, the adventurers will need to solve the entrance ritual- while dealing with the tomb’s initial guardians and an agitated swarm of phase spiders.
After they have made their way inside the Mauler’s tomb, the adventurers can choose to sell the location of the Mauler’s tomb (effectively ending the adventure) or undergo the selection process themselves to claim the fabled Mauler’s Masque and the benefits that come with it. If they choose to undergo selection, they must deal with the necromantic guardians of the tomb using guile and strength before entering the tomb of Oman Mansenes and defeating the final guardian- a huge phase spider matriarch!
PT.1 THE HUNTING PARTY
During the course of travel for the adventurers, feel free to read or paraphrase the following:
“You’re traveling along the Old Growth road, a section of forest overgrown and utterly black come the nighttime. Even if there was a moon tonight, the silvery rays would not penetrate the dense canopy of moss and vines above. The trees would become charcoal against a bluish sky, with the path underneath your feet the deepest brown with stones occasionally bleached by your torch.
As the party discusses looking for a campsite to wait for dawn or pressing on, the fearful screaming of several men followed by the baying and pained yelping of dogs cuts through the pressing conversation and oncoming darkness.”
Feel free to allow the player’s to make relevant Perception checks or utilize class features such as a Ranger’s Natural Explorer to find the terrified victims of a phase spider ambush, but any difficulty in locating them is meant to be minimal. Upon reaching the site of the attack, the adventuring party discovers a hunting party that has been waylaid by unknown assailants.
The only conscious member of the hunting party is a shield dwarf named Gori Scarheel. Scarheel wears the attire of a game warden, covered in blood across his face and thick arms and currently in shock. He is around 3’9, 133 years old, fit with a massive black beard now shiny with sick, kneeling over the body of one of the hunting dogs currently dying, steam escaping it’s mouth and wounds into the night air.
Scarheel’s shock is taking the form of mild catatonia, making his responses slow and single words unless snapped out of the state with a lesser restoration spell. Additionally, healing the young lord (see below) or a successful Wisdom (Insight or Medicine) skill check of 20 will help him out of the state. Insight helps the adventurer find the words to bring Scarheel back, while the latter helps them remember plants in a herbalism kit that can relax Scarheel enough to communicate.
Along with Scarheel, two humans lie on the ground, one a boy of no more than 15 dressed in the unmistakable garb of nobility while the other is an older well groomed servant. Blood is soaking into their clothes from unseen injuries. If the clothing is lifted or removed, puncture wounds are found that a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check attributes to a large spider- yet the clothing was left intact. It requires a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check to correctly identify the bite marks of a monstrosity known as a phase spider.
For nearly a decade, he roared across the Outlands with his signature helm in the guise of a lion’s death head skull until one battle, an equally vainglorious rival’s blade found purchase in his back. The Mauler’s body was entombed and hidden from those that would parade his corpse for political gains. Legend says that his underground tomb is marked by a carved stone entrance of a massive lion’s head, decorated with skulls from the family of the rival that slew him (some versions also say they were forced to construct the tomb before execution). Within the tomb is the Mauler’s Masque, the symbol of the Bandit King’s successor and what is needed for the scattered tribes of outlanders and highwaymen to heed the lion’s roar once more.
They are barely alive from the poison, needing stabilization to avoid bleeding out. If healed, the young lord and servant pass out into restful sleep and the game warden snaps out of his catatonia upon the sight of magical healing.
Scarheel describes “spiders not tethered to the earth nor trees nor sight itself” that killed the dogs and injured the young lord and his servant. They were tracking a dire wolf when set upon by the spiders. He has been bit as well, but his race’s resistance to poison means he is doing fine in comparison to the other party members.
In desperation, he pleads with the adventurers to help find and destroy the spider’s nest, promising them a favored contact in the territory lord’s court for doing so. Proof of their destruction is the only way he can return with the young lord in this state and not suffer consequences.
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Feel free to award the party XP for utilizing skills and role-playing during this portion up to an equal value of an easy encounter (2,400xp).
