DANIEL W SULLIVAN
ADVENTURES
Below you'll find a lot, a lot, of adventures from one-shots to full campaigns. Those that are well-polished feature PDFs.
Because these are, largely, written for use at my table many are just 'seeds,' short descriptions with bullet points or important elements that would allow me to run the adventure.
Each adventure is marked with the year it was written or run, and the system for which it was designed.
500-Foot Fun-Run! (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
In the North American Empire, there is no higher calling than to become an obnoxious celebrity dungeon-crawler, and the very best of the best are always looking out for ways to distinguish themselves... like the five-hundred foot fun run! This dungeon is a 500 ft. long strip, with only one entrance and one exit. Arrayed along the run are traps, obstacles, locked doors, treasures, and enemies. Alongside the dungeon, in a parallel demiplane, is a captive lich that can only interact with the material plane at certain spots. How quickly can this team make it through? Can they make it though at all?
This micro-dungeon-crawl is ideal for a one-shot experience with throwaway characters and a few drinks. I've run this adventure twice, each time noting the number of rounds taken to complete the dungeon and the real time taken to complete the dungeon. One team took 45 rounds over 2:08 of real time to get through, while the other managed the task in 38 rounds and 3:04 at the table.
The adventure is based on X-Crawl, updated for 5th Edition and divorced from many of the trappings of that system & setting.
Are You My Mommy? (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
When an adventurer celebrates their birthday at a local bar in lavish style they're perplexed to find that they're not celebrating just their own birthday... Each PC makes plans to celebrate independently, and all wind up at the same bar, as they share the same birthday. Surprise turns to confusion as these characters realize that there are eerie similarities running through their entire lives, perhaps even leaving a few of them with similar scars or near-identical memories growing up. As the story progresses it becomes clear that they share something else - a mother. When they dig deeper an even stranger truth comes to light: each character is a different version of the person they knew as their mother, drawn from different timelines and planes to help in solving a problem that threatens their whole family line.
This adventure is, of course, best suited for a pickup series as the characters have to share certain features or bits of history. When creating characters each player will pick two to five life events or characteristics from a list of ten potential shared attributes, to ensure that they have the 'eerie similarity' revealed throughout the adventure.
Astral Travails (2020, D&D 5th Ed)
Every great discovery requires boldness, imagination, and sometimes... sacrifice. Who better to forward the science of magic than adventurers? A research team at Talmussin University has proposed what they believe to be the next great step in making magic available to the public, but they're missing a vital, rare ingredient that will take more than a trip to the Sarandib Jungle to provide: quintessence, the raw material of time. The only place to find quintessence is on the Astral Plane, congealed around the bodies of forgotten gods and monsters.
In this straightforward fetch quest adventurers use the astral projection provided by their clients to travel to the Astral Plane, where they encounter surreal landscapes, time stretching and bending in on itself, and the githyanki raiders that are racing them to the rich vein of quintessence found by the University research team.
Auto Noir (2010, Exalted 1st Ed)
The body of the Great Maker soars through Elsewhere infinitely, ponderously, and inside the divine shell everything moves tirelessly, but nothing ever changes. Down deep where the steam rains down and the essence lights flicker the teeming masses of humanity chosen by Autocthon go about their lives, and through them the Alchemicals toil to make sure that the infinite voyage of the god does not end.
This short campaign follows a cadre of Alchemical Exalted as they solve petty crimes and keep the business of their districts running. As clues pile up that there is something far fouler at play the Alchemicals must test to whom their loyalty truly belongs: is it to Autocthon, the silent god in whom they live; to their rogue brethren that seek a return to reality and an end to Autocthon's flight; or to the humans that they serve, unaware of the magnitude of the forces deciding their fates?
Be Cool, Do Drugs (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
Talmussin City has never in the last hundred years had a day without a terrible threat to the entire populace of the city, and thus there's always a job for a civic-minded adventurer. The danger du jour is a sudden rash of infernal events throughout the city, with no apparent pattern. Sightings of demons, possessions, and abyssal signs are left from the Gold Ward to Knives. Both the Azure Lodge and the Pelte have offered rewards and assistance to anyone that can track down the cause of these infernal incursions, provided they do it quickly. As the onion peels it becomes apparent that a tiny speck of rot can ruin a whole town.
This investigative adventure guides the players through Talmussin's social landscape as they track down witnesses, then users, then dealers, and eventually find the laboratory-altar of a priest of Juiblex, from where the visions and demons both emanate.
The Body of the Prophet (2015, D&D 5th Ed)
Apotheosis is not a victimless (divine) crime. A hundred years ago the heretic Sauma sought godhood, and failed. From the ashes that remained his followers recovered reliquaries, with which they perform profane miracles. One is in the hands of sky-pirate cannibals. Another belongs to the corrupt torturer, and captain of the guard. A third has found its way into the hands of a preacher that believes he is the heir - perhaps reincarnation - of Sauma himself. The fourth is in the hands of the 'beggar king' and his brutal enforcers. Finally, the ashes of the false prophet still rest with the descendants of his original followers, in the tiny town where they perform their bad acts. Should any of these survive there may soon be a new godling wreaking havoc here on the Material Plane.
This campaign takes place in five acts, starting with the raid of a passenger airship and culminating in confronting an avatar of an undead false prophet and his fanatical cultists. Each chapter of the campaign can be separated from the rest to be used on its own, providing several interesting encounters and unique magical items. If this campaign is run altogether the use of a calendar (included, with important dates and events highlighted) is recommended. Certain events occur outside of the player characters' direct control or perception, but which they will see through their effects.
Cevogosk! (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
The best event to happen in the Blinds every year is Cevogosk, the lizardfolk celebration in the early summer roughly translating to "behold, there is an egg!" The celebration includes a raucous parade each year that winds through the Blinds, Knives, and Pugil in the lower parts of Talmussin, and one can expect to see a certain amount of property distruction, public intoxication, and general rambunctiousness in the participants - lizardfolk or otherwise. This year, however, the aftermath is tougher to brush off: several full blocks, from one canal to the other, are burnt or demolished. The Pelte tries not to bother too much with the lower city, but the opportunity to raid a number of lizardfolk homes and communities is too good to pass up - even if the guards aren't planning to do anything about the burnt and flooded neighborhood. When the lizardfolk take up arms against this invasion from their own city, the players must decide whether they'll stand with their community, their government, or seek to broker peace by proving that there's someone else at fault.
This adventure uses a point system to determine whether public opinion is swayed toward the cause of the lizardfolk or the Pelte, and the actions of the players can move it either way. Players decide what they were doing at the parade in a series of flashbacks, which determines what they saw. Whether they choose to support the lizardfolk, side with the Pelte, or seek a third option, the neighborhood will be impacted for years to come.
The Chain of Tears (2016, D&D 5th Ed)
The illithid threat grows closer with every turn around the Pyre. Their lifejammers push into the system of the sphere bit by, bit, base by base, mind by mind, and their appetite is endless. The new boundaries of the crystal sphere now seem to be the orbit of Moradin's Forge rather than the star-pocked shell that holds back the Astral Sea of phlogiston. In the face of this danger the threat of war is not just looming - for many, it is here.
The characters featured in this adventure are pressed between the Quelyan navy and the Elven armada, each of which has staked a claim on the rare magical materials discovered in an unpopulated area of the Chain of Tears. Gnomish salvage concerns, dwarven colonists, mind flayers, and drow all try to get a hand on the prize as the player characters uncover information about the war that could be dangerous just to know. This adventure assumes the default setting of Andy Collins' Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon, published in Dragon magazine #92, May 2002.
The Church of Hosax (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
The first sight new visitors to Talmussin encounter is often the stunning view of the sea falling away from the Bridge rising from the sea like a titan's footpath. The first thing they hear is often, "have you yet found salvation?" Around the gates to the city crowd representatives from the Ekletheon Church and the thousand smaller gods of the great pantheon. Recently a new name has joined the throng: Hosax. This new temple preaches inclusion and family, and has an aggressive recruiting strategy. The friendly outer trappings of the church have so far done well to conceal the yuan-ti Kumpal's involvement, and the eventual goal they have to convert the unwitting into sacrifices for Ashmuneth.
This adventure begins with one or more NPCs important to the player characters becoming involved in the new church of Hosax, and then vanishing some time later. Investigation in the church reveals layers and layers of initiation and rites that lead back to the Kumpal criminal organization, and there to Father, the yuan-ti anathema at the heart of the both the family and the church.
The Cube (2010, Shadow Nations)
Silesia's will is not some faint feeling or spiritual calling: it can be seen in the mile-high cube of black glass, steel, and stone thrust into the skyline of northern Germany. Zone 3. The machines swarm in and out at all times, and the whirring and grinding from inside likewise never stops. Inside are a people that have known nothing but the machines since the world ended. The inhabitants of Level 19 are, unbeknownst to them, slated for liquidation, and all that stands between them and a grisly end are the kultists of the Azure-Hyaline. When the demons of Torment fail to exterminate you, one of the survivors of Level 19, you must choose whether you will seek aid from the Azure-Hyaline, the Babas, the Mystics, or strike out on your own.
This adventure is an introduction to the world of Shadow Nations (The Apophis Consortium, 2007), beginning with a day in the life, followed by the beginning of Silesia's liquidation of the population, and ending with a breakdown of Zone 3 in the midst of conflict with the forces of the outside world.
Darkest Sun (2013, D&D 5th Ed)
Athas supports life only grudgingly, barely, in those areas withered by the ancient wars. The silt seas drown the unwary in dust, but in the midst of the sea nearby a patch has stabilized enough to stand up a few shacks, finally. A half-giant has laid claim and, in this brief time before it is claimed by a sorcerer-king or dragon, this little island has become a haven for trade in illegal substances, gambling, and all manner of entertainment. For those lucky enough to get in at the ground floor, this spit of land represents the most precious thing in Athas: freedom. Given just the smallest slice of freedom, what would the players do?
This adventure is written for the Dark Sun setting, and involves business ownership, base building, and political maneuvering. Due to Dark Sun's history some unique rules have been created that modify the normal 5th Edition rules for D&D, including psionics, spellcasting, and equipment.
Demon King (2017, D&D 5th Ed)
The terrors began with a few simple golden lockets. Dreams lead to a shaman, who leads to a village, which leads to a king. The predation of a terrible skin-stealing demon has rendered the inhabitants of the kingdom paranoid and angry. Only those from outside the kingdom are as-yet untouched by suspicion, and so only they can take up arms against the threat inside the palace.
This adventure is designed for a low-magic, sword-and-sandals D&D campaign in which magic items are rare, spellcasting is limited, and the players are looking for a 'classic' flavor.
Demon Orb (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
When it first appeared, nobody knew what they were seeing. They all assumed it was just another shooting star. Even when it struck the ground a few miles away from town it was impossible to tell that what had just landed was the end of any hope for a normal life for those nearby. The perfect glass sphere that rested in the crater seemed impenetrable, but nevertheless it cracked itself open and spilled out horrors of machinery, flesh, and fire.
This dungeon crawl inspired by Expedition to the Barrier Peaks begins with the crash-landing of an otherworldly or extraplanar vessel, which then begins to disgorge machine-monsters that terrorize the landscape for miles around. The dungeon crawl includes the introduction of magitek to the campaign world, with several unique items and monsters.
The Dreaming (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
What would you do if you couldn't fail?
Young heroes are fed into the grinder, and the only two ways out are as old wretches or the dearly departed. There are no old heroes. The newest grist for this mill has been recruited to conquer the unassailable threat: the dragon at the mountaintop. In a search to stop the madness a local wizard sends these young heroes into a magical slumber where they cannot fail, walking through a dreamland and learning their own powers and abilities. When they awake, perhaps they will be prepared to face the dragon. Perhaps it will all be for naught.
In this adventure a group of characters undergo each step of the story always succeeding, providing them with a look at the future they could have and granting them confidence. They then wake from their magical sleep to perform the same tasks again - but this time in reality. Their failures at various points and the element of chance will change - a little or a lot - how prepared they are to face the dragon at the end of the story and emerge alive.
The Edge of Civilization (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
In The Edge of Civilization characters find that their home of Pluville is no longer as warm and welcoming as once it was. Whether their career has stalled, their family has cast them out, or the environment has simply become oppressive, the mayor's announcement that the Kingdom of Sangranit is granting license to establish a new settlement over the mountains presents a golden opportunity to live without restrictions in the borderlands with the freezing cold forest to the South. Even those unfamiliar with the history of Sangranit's expansion will find out, there are old enemies still lying in wait in the forest, and new enemies that have taken up residence.
This adventure is split into chapters, featuring wilderness exploration, an event-based war in which the player characters take the lead, the revelation that shadowy forces are pushing events, a trip to Faerie, and a confrontation with fiends of every stripe.
Enchantress' Pool (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
The enchantress in the woods presides over a magical pool that can grant your heart's desire - should you address her quests and puzzles. When a young aarakocra goes missing her father seeks help to find her or, if the worst has happened, to bring the news back to him. With little else to do in the boonies the player characters travel into the hills to find the enchantress and her pool. The enchantress' nature as an arcanoloth and her selfish use of the pool's powers may not be unexpected, but that doesn't mean the conflict will be simple or easy.
This adventure is designed as a short jaunt with overland travel, puzzles, and combat that rewards taking advantage of ones' surroundings. The end of the adventure is intended to provide the seed for a further campaign, or can be resolved immediately should the campaign be better suited to head another direction.
Freedom Flight (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
When the law is unjust, the only moral thing to do is to resist it.
DRIL, the Drow Resistance & Inclusion League, has a stated mission to further the welfare and social integration of the drow and other oppressed minorities of Talmussin. One of the key figures of the organization, Prudence, has been arrested on charges that seem all too convenient, here on the eve of a new construction project that would displace almost a thousand citizens from traditionally drow neighborhoods, forcing them into yet worse parts of the city. Luckily, DRIL is not without allies and sympathizers in the population of Talmussin, and the remaining heads of the organization believe that they have sufficient evidence and resources to defend Prudence legally, but they need her out before the construction begins so that she can help to rally against it and prevent a slow-motion catastrophe. The only moral thing to do, then, is to break her out.
In Freedom Flight the player characters have the chance to construct a jailbreak as suits them best: a cunning heist, a con, or a direct assault on the jail; all of which have the option for a dramatic escape from the roof of the jail via magical flying machine. Whichever way they progress they'll have to balance the risks they're willing to take fighting the Pelte against the necessity of preserving an entire neighborhood.
From the Sky Above (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
The Firefly meteor shower, a once-in-five-thousand-years event, is reputed to begin soon, and the shooting stars that carve across the sky already tell of more to come. A careful observer could see, flashing in the sky, what looks like an explosion or a candleflame from an impossible distance, and streaking out from it the long tail of a falling meteoroid. The boom from beyond the hills gives truth to the thought that something has fallen from the night sky to the ground below.
In morning's light the thing in the crater is clearly no lump of stone, but a sphere of brass and mithril, and inside is something Mura has yet to see or grapple with: the engrams of a people long lost.
This adventure is borrowed from Bruce R. Cordell's When the Sky Falls event book, following the story of the Engram Arks, roughly. The true adventure, however, begins afterward. The magical prowess of the Universities of Talmussin soon give birth to new, artificial engrams, and new ways to use them. In the span of a year mages are experimenting with storing mortal souls in magical engrams, and in a generation the ability to swap bodies has become commonplace in Talmussin and other major cities with the magical resources to do so. This adventure, then, is broken into three parts: the first contact with the engrams; the events a year later as the city grapples with powerful soul magic; and the fallout a generation beyond as society strains in a world where the tethers of spirit to flesh have grown fragile.
Go Fetch (2011, Changeling: the Dreaming)
As with so many of the worst parts of your life, it all starts with the dreams. The other face, the one that's almost you but not quite, appears every night and now even when you're awake, looking back at you from the mirror. When the police pull you over for questioning about something you definitely didn't do, the security footage they show shakes you: it's you, but a little different, looking right into camera. If your alibi wasn't solid it could have been jail for sure.
As with so many of the worst parts of your life, the fingerprints of the sidhe are all over the sudden visions of yourself that plague you. Your motley must have come to someone's attention in a way that bodes extremely poorly. With just a little digging you find their tools, the unwitting scraps that shamble around town almost asleep. If they weren't under the protection of the fair folk it would be the simplest thing to end this existential threat.
Players in this adventure take up the parts of two characters simultaneously: a young changeling some time escaped from their servitude, and the fetch of that same changeling (or that of another player in the group, at their preference). Players must perform a balancing act between advancing their changeling's interests and their fetch's, with consequences from the mortal world or from the fey should they push either too far. The storyteller uses a toolbox of dilemmas and conundrums to force these choices, and switches between the two groups to focus where the action occurs. The adventure has an open ending, allowing players to decide if the changelings destroy their fetches, if the fetches kill their changelings, or if they find some way to co-exist.
The Goblin Fair/e (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
"You must save... the goblin... faire..." gasps a dying adventurer as his grip loosens, allowing an elaborate oversized gold coin to fall to the ground. Nestled against the forest just a day's walk away is, in fact, the goblin faire: a small circus where the goblins put on shows of every kind. If the goblin faire needs saving it's not entirely apparent how, but why not use this message as an excuse to visit for a day? Surely there's nothing strange or dangerous among the carnivals and markets...
This short adventure guides a group of adventurers through the grounds of the goblin faire, where small clues pile up from snatches of conversation and errant missives littered on the ground. The fate of two goblin clans is bound up in the faire, and the beautiful goblin acrobat that could bring peace to both: the goblin fair.
Golden War (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
The angels of Jagus have for ten-thousand years patrolled the border between Mura and the Echolands, stoic guardians of the well-being of the living and the territories of the dead. Those called to the god's service know the call well. In dreams or in waking life the guardians of the Veil have the right to compel assistance when the dead shades of the Echolands venture past their allotted grounds, but never have they called so loudly. In the middle of the night each priest of Jagus wakes from dead sleep to hear the announcement that they have been called to service in a war for all the souls of Mura, living or dead.
The Golden War campaign creates the backdrop to other adventures, with major events occurring throughout as the dead pour into Mura, driven out of the Echolands by a force that rivals the gods.
Gremlins and Jasmine (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
When carrion crawlers take over your basement, when a poltergeist haunts your kitchen, when a mind flayer has designs on your neighborhood, you call an adventurer. In Talmussin gig adventuring work is overseen by the Delver's Guild, and there's always a wandering sword looking for a handful of silver.
A few days ago a gaggle of gremlins burst up through the basement of the Jasmine House apartments and chased out the residents unit by unit, and have been set up since. It took a little while for the insurance company to pay out, and for the Delvers to find a fitting extermination crew: and you're it! The Jasmine House has been packed with traps and filled with wild pigs, as well as the ankle-stabbing feral little goblins that set up shop inside. The good news (for the adventurers, at least) is that the insurance company has ruled the House a total loss... which means anything inside is fair game for looting!
This urban dungeon-crawl is as much about containment and damage prevention as it is about clearing the building. Letting too many gremlins escape out the windows and through the basement could simply move the infestation to the next building over, but letting them remain is far worse. Four floors and a roof each present their own challenges, and knick-knacks and plot hooks scattered throughout allow the player characters to nurture their own budding extermination business, should they choose to.
The Gruesome Murder of Venkata Vleda (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
A family feud, a magic mirror, a poisoned knife, and a criminal syndicate... all as usual for House Vleda.
When Lord Ramar and his son Venkata argue the fallout is devastating, but it rarely comes to blows. This time, however, it went far past that. The two of them have killed each other, and the only witness that remains is an imp bound to a magic mirror. The Halafa crime family got their hands into it and were able to steal away the body of Lord Vleda and replace him with a doppelganger. House Gini gets a way to export their mechanisms through the Halafas. A chambermaid vanishes into a new identity. The Court is thrown into chaos. The Pelte's investigation of Vleda's murder hits the wall of noble privilege. What can a gang of uncouth adventurers do with all this opportunity?
As the Vledas throw a huge society party each player character is hooked in by the law, a noble family, a guild, or a criminal organization. Throughout the party each character will attempt to advance their own faction's aims while keeping them concealed, and by the end of the night the nature of the terrible murder will throw a powerful noble house into complete disarray. The open and hidden objectives given to each player character carry point values that determine the kinds of rewards the characters earn as the night wraps up, and the fallout from the events of the night may inform further adventurers.
Halloween at the Haunted House on the Hill (2016, D&D 5th Ed)
A childish dare to spend the night in the 'haunted' house at the top of the hill turns deadly serious as a sudden storm sweeps in and threatens to demolish half the town with hail, wind, and floods. Against this backdrop the eerie events of the house become something... dark and dangerous. Shadowy figures, ghostly hounds, and screaming ghosts roam through the house until the hellish presence in the house has been cleared.
Suitable for first-time players, this one-shot adventure takes a group of 1st-level characters through a house filled with mad science, shadows, and an imp that offers tremendous power to anyone stupid enough to take it.
High Spirits (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
How does one stop the future? When the Crowned Crane adventuring party first laid claim to the mountaintops of the Tottenbergs they faced innumerable tatzelwurms, bandits, and unpredictable landslides. Nothing troubled their leader, Sarik, more than the appearance of her own ghost reaching toward her in the flash of a lightning strike. From that day onward she fought tooth and nail against the seemingly inexorable: her own death, perhaps leading to an eternity of haunting herself... somehow.
An old companion of the Crowned Crane adventuring company, Dorong the wizard, has come to the player characters for help. He's recently died, which he knows only because his clone spell went off. His memory between casting the spell and the present is missing, however, and all he has to go on is his knowledge that his personal effects are somewhere in the mountains near where he and Sarik once went adventuring. He's looking for some muscle to take along on a trip to recover his body, and perhaps his memories.
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Sarik's castle atop the Tottenberg mountains lies atop a chrono-locked vault that is the key to Sarik's and Dorong's mysteries both. This adventure treks through the castle in several different timelines and includes a trip to the Astral plane in between.
The Idol of Red Maw (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
Best known for their massive post-order catalogue, the Satchins-Milliner-deVry company of Talmussin wields more power than most nations from behind the scenes, with their hands dripping gold and blood in equal measures. When equipment and laborers at a strip-mining operation in the middle of the Sarandib jungle begin to go missing the cost soon grows to the degree that merits a trip from some of the company's troubleshooters. Such valuable employers, however, merit some additional muscle from the Delvers' Guild. Ash and Keli, SMdV officers, are authorized to offer up to 1,000 silver amellias to each hire: 50 per day and 500 up front, come success, failure, or death. The Satchins-Milliner-deVry company, of course, never shoots at one target where they can aim at two. The figure - or rather, figurine - at the center of the troubling events at the mine is a relic of the past, a bloody-toothed titan from the mists of the past, and SMdV is not interested in letting such a valuable artifact go unclaimed.
A journey into the jungle precedes exploration of the mines where the idol was uncovered, and from there the ruins that rest beneath those mines. Throughout the adventure both Ash and Keli will attempt to earn the confidence of the adventurers, each looking to ensure that the hired muscle is securely in their pocket and not the other's, just in case there's... conflict in the future. This adventure stands alone, or can introduce the players to the SMdV company and its opaque inner workings.
The Monster is Here (2017, D&D 5th Ed)
The stars hold many secrets, for those that can read them, and Talmussin has no shortage of astrologers and astronomers alike. Each and every one is rudely shaken from their belief in an immovable vault of the heavens as the stars suddenly slide and flicker across the night sky to spell out a warning, "the monster is here."
Echoes of hateful, terrible magic ripple across Talmussin city as the Watchtower of Blight's newest host walks among the people. This adventure is best run with a group of characters that are already familiar with the city, as they'll be better suited to notice the warping and rot that the monster brings to Talmussin. A series of random encounters and events each point toward a person, narrowing their identity bit by bit. Once the characters have found the monster they must destroy the mortal host, then venture to the Watchtower of Blight to drive its influence from Sarandib.
The Moth's Lantern (2020, D&D 5th Ed)
Mortals are not meant to drink too deeply the knowledge of the universe. Dark things lay out there: the malignant outsiders, the skittering thought-forms of the astral sea, and things that, by their nature rather than malice, would twist the minds of scholars and priests. Wizards, especially, are warned against these dangers. A natural propensity for experimentation, the control of terrible magics, and all-too-common mortal weaknesses make them ideal messengers for the things beyond the stars. When a mage from Talmussin slipped between the cracks in reality and saw the infinite abyss he became too aware of the vastness of time and the miniscule share of it that encompasses a human life, and so turned to the necromantic arts to claim a greater span for himself. Through awful experiments and unholy rites he underwent the transformation to become a lich - but this was not the end of his aspirations. After all, even reliquaries fail and bones crumble. His thirst for everlasting life now threatens all of Talmussin, and perhaps further, and there is nobody with the power to stop him.
Investigating a theft leads to seeking a murderer, and the murder investigation soon points toward a huge and terrible ritual spell. Player characters will have to solve puzzles to find clues, travel across the city, and eventually confront the Moth, a mad necromancer, before his ritual spell destroys all life in Talmussin.
This adventure comes with full illustrations of some environments that are used for visual puzzles, allowing players to engage with the game as real detectives!
Murda Mystery (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
Allin Murda: anointed priest of Senya, philanthropist, barrister. When her body is discovered outside Senya's church on Temple Row in Talmussin the accusations begin flying fast and furious within minutes. The Church, the Governor, the guilds, and the universities each have their own agenda, and every one of them demands a body in retribution. Each organization is happy to put up their preferred suspect, and five city-folk are dragged forth and accused. It clearly can't be all five, but neither can the city simply execute all five and be done with it. Investigation is merited, but with the Pelte involved directly the Church and guilds push back against the guards conducting the investigation alone: a third party is needed to investigate, question suspects, and eventually decide who will bear the punishment for this murder.
Everyone wants to feel like Sherlock Holmes, but five Holmeses does not a balanced party make. In this mystery the player characters have to use a different skill set to confirm or poke holes in each suspect's alibi. Any party can discover the truth, but this story gives everyone a chance to shine with a blend of puzzles and skill challenges, combat, and social roleplay. This adventure can be played out in a single (long) session, but can also be confounded and complicated to provide a more substantial story arc.
Note that normally, spells like speak with dead and resurrection make a classic murder mystery very difficult to plot out sensibly. Surely the Church, with all its resources, would simply bring her back to life? In this case Murda may have been killed by a spell like finger of death that turned her into the undead (then 'destroyed'), which prevents those methods.
New Ter Im (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
Hein stretches across thousands of miles of open land with hundreds of villages and clans that share nothing but a flag, each with its own history. Some of these histories are bloodier than others, as the villagers are about to learn. Beasts from the past, fiends and netherbeasts and titanic monsters, begin to flood the landscape around Ter Im, near the borders between the Hill Lands of Hein and the mountains of Dod. The pallisades go up, the food is rationed, and the long night of Ter Im begins.
The strength of Hein comes from its vast landscape and population, and in return each citizen can expect that the resources of the empire will be put to use on their behalf. The characters may be from Ter Im or have a personal connection, or may be recruited by the bureaucrats of the Heian Empire to find out why visitors, tax collectors, and shipments have all begun to vanish around the town of Ter Im. The adventurers must first punch their way through the monsters surrounding the city, then learn the secrets of the town's history, and finally use that history to bring the fight to the monsters that besiege what remains of the town.
The Old Silver Griffin Theater (2018, D&D 5th Ed)
Enough of Talmussin sits below the surface of the city to constitute a second city all its own, replete with homes and restaurants and manufacturing and markets and, necessarily, entertainment. The Old Silver Griffin Theater (once, naturally, the Silver Griffin Theater) is one such entertainment venue, long abandoned after a cave-in that, thankfully, didn't claim any lives. The cavern's roof now hovers like a cracked eggshell above the remains of the stage, catwalks, and a hundred seats, threatening to come down at any time. Ignorant to or dismissive of the danger a gang of kobolds working for the Horribilist thieves' guild have set up shop in the theater, and their activities threaten to bring down what remains of the cavern, perhaps endangering other structures of the Warrens at the same time. It's a matter of law, of public safety, and perhaps of the legendary loot of the theater: someone has to go in and get the kobolds out.
A group of adventurers will have to serve an eviction on the kobolds in the theater, exploring the hidden passages and avoiding the dangerous natural features of the cavern while also dodging the traps of the kobold gang. This adventure can be conducted in a session or two with a focus on 'gimmick' combats and unusual traps, and careful exploration is rewarded with uncovering an old theater legend-slash-mystery that may have been what drew the kobolds to the location first.
Owing the Family (2020, D&D 5th Ed)
In the Blinds a mugger can kill you, a monster can kill you, or the Kumpal can kill you, but only with the Kumpal will your death take the rest of your natural lifespan. The yuan-ti cult cum thieves' guild has a reputation for finding leverage on useful targets and keeping them under their thumb forever, and now it's happened to you. Whether it's blackmail, a threat against your family, or a debt that they purchased off of someone, you're now in deep to the Family and they have something for you to do. A member of the Family, Lasshesh Longtail, got picked up a few weeks ago by the Pelte on smuggling charges - their sixth time - and the Governor has finally called for the criminal to run the Gauntlet. If Lasshesh gets through, they're free (from these charges, at least); if they don't get through, they die. For all that Lasshesh is a skilled blackmailer, spy, and bookkeeper, they're no adventurer. That's where you come in: the Kumpal is pressing you into taking the rap on a few miscellaneous crimes that need solving, and then the Family's people will make sure you run the Gauntlet alongside Lasshesh. Your job is to keep them alive the whole way, and your reward is that your debt is cleared. Probably.
Players can approach this adventure as a timed dungeon crawl as they run the Gauntlet, can attempt a jailbreak to get Lasshesh out, or can do their best to fight or double-cross the Kumpal. The default approach is the dungeon, but each way develops its own consequences, alliances, and stories for the future.
The Paintings of Alric Meller Ehren (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
For an artist there's nowhere that compares - no royal court, no conservatory, no temple to the gods - that compares to the vibrant creative life of Talmussin. The city is host to ten thousand musicians, writers, architects, and painters. A member of the latter, struggling but inspired, has recently gone missing in bizarre circumstances, his unsold works shredded and his apartment destroyed. Nothing could have been better for his career, as an original Alric Meller Ehren is the hottest purchase of the season. While his agent revels in the grand luck of his client's mysterious vanishing act the celebration is soon cut short when a minor noble and a well-known art appraiser both die in identical circumstances: torn apart, along with a nearby Ehren painting. With over a dozen of these paintings sold in the last month it's of vital import to track them down and discover what, precisely, is happening to or around those paintings.
Like a city-wide distributed dungeon, this adventure features a handful of locations, each of which features a clue, roleplay interaction, or combat. As the players put these clues together they find that Ehren was cursed with voices from beyond, influenced by the outsiders to paint. Each painting features a kind of charm effect, layered atop a magical summoning that draws forth an aberration from the Pit once someone has become charmed by it. With sufficient clues and resources the characters can even dive into one of these paintings to discover a demiplane of illusions where the artist is trapped, pinned down by the creatures that have infested his mind for so many years.
The Root of All Evil (2017, D&D 5th Ed)
A plague has come to Talmussin... a plague of bad luck. Falls, illness, accidents, all are on the rise. With careful investigation and judicious use of the identify spell the source of the luck is traced to a subtle distributed curse laid on a batch of counterfeit bills circulating in the city. Tracking down every counterfeit bill would be impossible at this point, so the only solution is to go to the source and end the counterfeiting and the curse alike. The matter of money is one of the few things that can pull the city's government, guilds, and thieves alike all together, and this time it's birthed a kind of coalition of adventurers and hired swords set to the task of tracking down the miserable mage behind this calamitous counterfeiting project.
With differing backgrounds each player character in this adventure has their own reason to join: connection to a church, guild, or government, or a debt to one of the same. They'll have to come together to search the town for leads, will encounter a fence that's more than he seems, and follow the trail to discover the counterfeiter and his infernal master in the heart of the Warrens.
Ruined Dreams (2022, D&D 5th Ed)
Every creature is the product of its environment, no villain is happy without a lair - the place makes the occupant.
In the hills outside of Aden's Highchurch town are scattered the ruins and relics of generations past, before Kirtania reclaimed the land. The stones of ancient walls have been dragged from the ruins and fields to build Aden's villages and towns since people returned to the province, and the ruins were scraped clean of valuables after a few lucky finds of ancient coins and jewelry sparked the gold rush. Nowadays the only people interested in the relics are academics and clergy looking for clues about the past. That said, there's a rumor going around that treasures remain to be found if you have the right tip. These treasures are, so it's said, below a specific ruin that was once a church of some kind, where a trap door was buried under rubble and vegetation until a recent storm tore off the topsoil of the hill and exposed this new cellar. Interested parties should set out early and expect to spend at least one night there, as the ruins are a full day's travel away and it's unknown what's under the ground out there.
But! The tip is sour, it seems. There is a cellar, but it's got nothing but a few silver coins left in the dust and shards of pottery - perhaps it was picked clean a hundred years ago before it was buried. When the characters bed down for the night, however, they share a dream of the church at its height in ages long past. An evil feeling permeates the town, and these dreamed ancient people seem harried and troubled. A powerful evil is somewhere deep under the church, and exerts its influence now even as it did in the past... and if the evil remains, surely the treasure does as well.
This adventure takes place in two parallel versions of the same place: the ruins of the town and church in the waking world, and the ancient buildings and people in dreams. In both versions the same threat 'reaches out' from below. Characters must keep track of what's happening in the real world and in the dream world, and use clues from the past to solve puzzles in the present - and vice versa. Should they be successful they can face the ancient evil beneath the church and claim the treasure over which it stands.
Shroomies (2021, D&D 5th Edition)
Rarer than dragons, stranger than aberrations, the myconid colonies beneath the surface of Mura have their own complex relationships and aims. Ninety-nine percent of Talmussin's people are unaware that they walk atop a tremendous colony of these weird creatures, sharing their space with them every day. The shy myconids are finally making themselves known, though, to confusing ends. Will they join the city as a new people, or fade away again, or are they here for something more nefarious?
A mind-flayer's schemes come to fruition when it enslaves a myconid sovereign and begins turning the fungal family into thralls and parasitized hosts for illithid young. The myconids that avoid such a fate flee the colony, and their territory suddenly overlaps with new construction in Talmussin's miles and miles of tunnels and caverns. These conflicts become more and more pressing as the mind-flayer's area of control expands, eventually threatening the surface level of the city. Players that track these disturbances all the way back to the source and are able to break the mind-flayer's control over the myconid sovereign may learn more from them about the upcoming pass of the Firefly meteors, as the fungal folk share a kind of ancestral memory that stretches back over ten thousand years.
Something Massive This Way Comes (2019)
Huge footfalls shake the land, and dark signs hove into view. Hunters, trappers, loggers, and trailbreakers that work their jobs in the Sarandib jungle begin to report that the wildlife is becoming erratic and dangerous. The birds have abandoned their nests, the animals are on the move away from something deeper in the jungle to the West. They have been to the center of the disturbances, and there is nothing there except a kind of marsh of black water that appeared overnight, where the water is poison. When word of this reaches the universities and churches it becomes evident that this is the threat growing in their scrying mirrors.
This adventure's final threat is one that the characters cannot take on without preparation: a massive beast from the age of monsters, something like an intelligent tarrasque. Its coming, however, is slow and there are many signs before its arrival: rains of blood, earthquakes, plagues of animals, bizarre lights in the sky. The creature's waking will take weeks or months, and steps can be taken to weaken or bind it beforehand, making it a threat the city will survive. Players will have to undertake a series of adventures and, for each successful outing they make, will reduce the threat of the beast they fight later. Should they do too little it could result in a fight that's deadly for them and perhaps to the city.
Sons of Karrick (2011, 7th Sea)
It takes a Vodaccen of exceptional bravery or stubbornness to go toe-to-toe with the Villanova family, and the Bernoullis are both. The families' squabbles have shaped the town and people of Villa Beata since time immemorial. With the raiders of the Empire of the Crescent Moon intensifying there is a terrible need for unity, but the nobility cannot look past the opportunities presented. The Merchant Council looks on carefully as the Bernoulli family petitions to reclaim the town officially, while the Villanovas move their spies and soldiers to the town in greater number - to defend against the raiders or the Bernoullis is anyone's guess. With the careful application of political leverage, and perhaps some adventures at sail, a small group of individuals could find the balance between the Bernoullis, the Villanovas, and the Crescent Moon, to carve out some power and wealth for themselves.
While this adventure presents first as a politically-driven social adventure the latter half includes a voyage on the Forbidden Sea and conflict with an ancient sect of religious zealot knights from a far-away land. Socially-, mentally-, and physically-specialized characters each have their time in the spotlight.
Stealy-War (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
Guards inside the gates and out, the Pelte of Talmussin has many arms, but no counter to a full-scale war among the thieves' guilds of the city. Each and every organization is a small army of amoral individuals liege to a personality of gigantic proportions, and their wounded egos may be more dangerous to the people of Talmussin than any invading force. With their criminal contacts all involved on one side or another, and the effects spilling over to every other guild in the city, the Governor and Pelte are frantic for assistance from every quarter. With cunning, charm, and a fair measure of brutality a small group of adventurers might earn a trusted position beside the Governor and immense wealth besides.
Throughout this adventure the characters will need to make contact with highly-placed members of each major criminal organization in Talmussin and leverage those contacts to broker peace. Should they tip their own alliances so far to one party or another they could become a target in the ongoing war of assassinations and plots.
Stray Dog Strut (2022, D&D 5th Ed)
Fads and fashion move the world, at least among the extremely wealthy. In the Gold Ward and the Heights of Talmussin you might see clothing made of fragmented antique furniture, hear the affected accents of the upper crust, or see exotic beasts on leashes studded with gems. Among those exotic animals is a toy blink dog, bred to be half the size of the wild beast that will soon become the richest prize on the streets. Your fixer comes to you and lets you know that the chase is on: House Vledam has put out a bounty on the dog, payable to anyone that returns it alive. It was last seen in the possession of Oivash Halafa, a Black Slippers enforcer, but beyond that it's anyone's guess.
This adventure is inspired by the Cowboy Bebop episode of the same name, which exhibits perfect adventure construction. Between House Vledam, Oivash, another troupe of adventurers, and an opportunistic pickpocket, there are at least four factions (plus the player characters) after the dog, each with their own approach and goals. Information about each of the groups is accessible easily, but isn't necessary. The prize itself has hidden depths, and the city plays a huge part in the story. In this adventure a mechanic is included to move the blink dog randomly from neighborhood to neighborhood during the chase, with different random encounters in each new neighborhood, creating a frantic dash for the dog while fending off other parties at every turn!
Sunstroke (2009, nWod or Fate)
Centerpoint Psychiatric Hospital: Another Chance at the Future! So proclaims the glossy brochure for Centerpoint, a research and treatment facility for unusual psychiatric conditions and circumstances just a stone's throw North of Tewksbury Massachusetts. Nominally attached to the Tewksbury Hospital, Centerpoint is more closely attached to the Boston-based Justice Resource Institute, though that may come to an end with the ongoing investigation of the hospital and it's programs. Years of allegations of patient abuse, records destruction, and strange accounting are catching up to the center, and would have ended it long ago were it not for some connections in high places. Now an army of private investigators, forensic accountants, state auditors, journalists, researchers and doctors, and attorneys are waiting in the wings to bring Centerpoint down. That's you.
The characters in this adventure begin by investigating a suspicious psychiatric hospital that may be a way to launder money, perform unethical research, traffic prescription drugs, or get rid of inconvenient political rivals and journalists. What they uncover reveals that it's all of that and more: for decades the Centerpoint Psych Hospital has been the front of a government operation to research, induce, test, and control the latent psychic abilities of normal humans. The experiments are unethical, the staff dangerous, and the research material well-guarded. A small gang of average people will have to come together to gather what they can about the hospital and escape before the government can get rid of its dirty laundry. Depending on the characters and their histories, they may also have to recover information about themselves, patients that they know, or may be seeking to gather trade secrets to provide to employers or sell to the highest bidder, as well.
Talmussin Universities Adventure Pack (2020, D&D 5th Ed)
The vast universities and colleges of Talmussin dominate the city's skyline and, in many ways, its history. Adventurers in the city can expect to interact with the universities regularly as clients, dangerous territories, or maybe targets for theft and sabotage; sometimes all three in the same day.
​The Universities Adventure Pack is a collection of adventures that can be slotted into other campaigns in Talmussin or run as one-shots and pickups. Each has a few primary characters, a new location, and reveals something new about one or more of the universities. Some of the adventures include:
​​Foul Founders. Stone College graduate student and junior professor Amli la Valla has begun a genealogy of the Palel family, a group of founding colonists that eventually married into House Vleda. What started as a vanity project to secure some easy funding soon reveals a dark secret that Lord Ramar Vleda would kill to keep from publication.
​Jade Elephants Embarrassed. The fraternal organization of the Jade Elephants is a Bahish University stalwart, a club to separate the super-wealthy from the rest of the regular wealthy that attend Bahish. When a member steps out of line and brings shame on their organization, their family, and their peers they have to be dealt with - not lethally, but perhaps a long trip can be arranged?
​A Plague of Scholars. Talmussin University's Professor Jal has made a breakthrough... and a terrible mistake. The professor has developed a fascinating process by accident that allows them to turn any mortal into a were-anything: were-salmon, were-hummingbird, were-rhinocerous, whatever. The terrible mistake is that his first target was himself, and he is now a were-himself: cursed to turn into himself every full moon. The affliction is transmissible by bite, and so last night Professor Jal turned three unfortunate individuals into were-Professor-Jals as well. Every month on the full moon those people will also turn into Professor Jal. Should they each bite three or four people every full moon the entire city of Talmussin could be Professor Jal in a year or so!
The Terrible Music of Ebellia Vane (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
The darling of Ahaj College several years ago, virtuoso Ebellia Vain has been working frantically on her magnum opus; the culmination of a career only a few years long. For the six years since she has been locked up in her tower, occasionally passing out some mediocre music, in contact only with her first violinist and concertmaster, Abyl Skiethers. Her great work is almost complete, and Abyl begins to worry. The music has grown increasingly darker, twisted, violent, to such a degree that playing through it on his lonesome caused him to faint. He now seeks guidance from the Church and the Universities, and anyone else he can gather, to understand Ebellia's vision.
​The characters are brought in by connections to the Church, the Universities, or the Delvers' Guild to research the music and determine what, if any, threat it presents. This research leads to the subtle influence of Dulsias, a Duke of Hell, and characters find only at the last minute that should the music be played to completion the entire orchestra's souls may be forfeit.
Trade Treachery (2019, D&D 5th Ed)
The Satchins-Milliner-deVry Company is a monolith of trade on the Sarandib Peninsula, at least from the outside. Inside it is a nest of snakes and rats, biting at each other viciously to clamber up the corporate ladder and secure greater and greater degrees of control. The pet project of Axe Milliner has come to fruition in the form of a total monopoly over the goods going in and out of the ports nearest to Sarandib. Both frustrated with her brother and aware of the kind of financial chaos he could cause, Echo Milliner has begun to explore some of the extra-legal ways she might break his hold on those properties. Her research has led her to the regrettable conclusion that the right tool for this problem is the embarrassingly unsophisticated: adventurers.
Characters in Talmussin will be familiar with the Satchins-Milliner-deVry Company, and maybe even its various scions and functionaries. They'll be thrown into the deep end, politically, and need to pick their allies and enemies carefully. This adventure is likely to take characters from port to port all around Talmussin to pick targets, form plans with the huge financial backing of Echo Milliner, and execute raids, heists, extortions, and build unions to break Axe's monopoly and prevent the certain price-squeeze that would cripple Talmussin's shipping and punish the poor.
Tristan & Isolde, But One Is a Snake (2021, D&D 5th Ed)
Love blooms in the strangest places, even between children of the Halafa family and the Kumpal. The beautiful, charming, kind of dumb Ezhilarasan of the Kumpal has fallen head-over-heels for Emmiyana Halafa, and she for him. The two families are, of course, dead-set against it. Such a marriage would either mingle the assets and territories of their organizations, or would require disinheriting skilled operatives and giving up potentially valuable political marriages, and those options are simply not acceptable. For the city at large either event has its advantages: throwing the criminal underground of Talmussin into chaos comes with certain opportunities, for those brave enough to roll the dice.
This adventure gives characters a bit of leverage to get to know one or more of Ezhilarasan (Rasan), Emmiyana (Emmi), members of the Kumpal, or the Halafas, and it provides the characters some skin in the game. With something to lose, something to gain, and the problem clearly in front of them characters have to decide whether to back business or true love, and determine what they can do to support their chosen cause. This adventure, rooted in Tristan & Isolde or Romeo & Juliet stories, is certain to feature young love, bad decisions, and a lot of money and power on the line.
Voyage Into the Necropolis (2017, D&D 5th Ed)
Like any of the noble houses the Gini family have their own territory in the necropolis, complete with guardians and blessings and all of the usual. Alas, just like any place in the necropolis it's not safe to go there without a procession of armed guards and priests of Jagus. The only occasion on which one might visit is the internment of a new permanent occupant of the necropolis, really, with one exception...
Tauj Ginnist and the rest of the small Ginnist family are preparing to, against all sense, move out of Talmussin and to nearby Weej. Their fortunes have hit a kind of ceiling here, as a smaller family in the noble house, and they prefer to take their talents elsewhere and find a new fortune. However, tradition, superstition, and courtesy demand that they take the bodies, bones, or dust of certain ancestors with them down the road to Weej. That's where you come in.
The Delvers' Guild has taken on this contract as kind of legitimate grave-robbers for hire, and passed that contract on to the player characters. The mission is simple: go in with a bit of support from the Ginnist family, retrieve the right remains, and transport them safely out. As early confrontations in the group may indicate, however, not all of the party's companions are pursuing the same goals, and a conflict at the House Gini tombs may leave some characters behind as food for the ghouls.
The White Angel (2010, World of Darkness)
Peace, love, and understanding: the foundations of every major world religion in the 21st century, and yet never the guiding motivations of the people you meet in the World of Darkness. Or so you thought! The strange figure that the media dubbed the angel-man, and later the white angel, has been spreading compassion and renewed faith across the world since it appeared a few weeks ago. The first days were tense, after its appearance, with people crowding as close as they could to the military barricades around the site in the middle of Central Park where it appeared. Even being that close lent one an incredible sense of peace and acceptance, a kind of euphoria that even led the Vatican to announce that they weren't yet sure it was an angel, but weren't sure either that it wasn't.
The only thing about it is, you don't get the same sense. You were there when it appeared - out for a stroll or picking up trash - close enough to hear the thunderclap that accompanied it into this world. Ever since it popped into existence everyone else seems charmed but those who were there at the first moment, and those of you that aren't under its spell have been seeing things... such terrible things...
This adventure centers around the white angel, a seemingly divine figure that is, in fact, the furthest 'sensory organ' of some great and horrible thing that lurks in a dimension perpendicular to our reality. A gang of those brought together by chance or accident have to find the resources and bravery to poke the horrors in the dark alleys and, eventually, lock the white angel and its kind back in their own plane.
The Wicked & the Diviner (2018)
In the Glass Ward of Talmussin an untidy shop facing an alley proudly proclaims it to be the home of the Powerful Order of Fate Weavers, but those in the neighborhood call them Divinators. A gaggle of retired University professors, amateur diviners, and worshippers of Protiorius get together once every few weeks for tea and to talk over the future of the city and nation, and just as commonly their relatives and their own shops and interests. The flow of time moves sometimes choppily in Talmussin, but usually smoothly, and always as it is meant to. Or so they might have said a month ago. Time in the city has been carefully, tidily, minutely hitched in certain spots. Nothing of major import has changed, but the little things have big ripples: a family returns home just in time to encounter a thief and be killed instead of robbed, when their engagement should have gone on another hour; a mind-flayer chooses to take a detour from its normal territory and discovers Ancient ruins with great promise as a result; the player characters survive when they shouldn't have, or vice versa... What effects could these have?
The characters are brought into this adventure because some event in their recent past has the fingerprints of a diviner all over it. Something went the way it wasn't supposed to. A DM can mimic this by giving a player a free success or an automatic failure as though they'd been targeted by a Diviner wizard's portent ability if they are setting things up ahead of time, or explain a die roll as such retroactively. This adventure pits two groups of diviners against each other with uncertain aims. Players must seek to 'divine' the nature of the mystery before the final confrontation, or face entering a fight that's already been decided.
Millennium Stories (2024)
A set of three adventures written for Sakura Con 2024, each centers around the moment of a solar eclipse.
In Darkened Skies adventurers are tipped-off to the threat to young caliph al-Hakim in the year 1,000, April 7th, around 9:22 AM. The players must brave a trip across the desert to discover the forces aligned against the caliph, then prevent - or avenge - his death.
A thousand years in the future, in Chicago, year 1999, characters must infiltrate the new Eclipse 99 tower in the West Loop, driven by an encounter with a traveler from an alternate universe. With her help they'll try to avert a multiverse disaster.
The third episode, Observer, takes place aboard the Eclipse scientific vessel far in the future. During a routine change of staff at the solar research platform a strange force begins to corrupt the station, and escape becomes priority one.
A Bright Flame in Winter (2024)
Intended to be played across a full year, once every two weeks, this adventure is split into twenty-five sessions. Every session booklet has everything a Game Master needs to run that session. Over the course of that year the booklets would be mailed or emailed to GMs to use at the table. No prep, no muss, no fuss.
In the city of Abussos, hanging over a bottomless pit, clan and guild leaders are being nudged and goaded to war with each other. The tension comes to violence and the players are tasked to find the cause, unknowingly becoming patsies and fall guys for the spirit of fire orchestrating the entire event.
With careful investigation the players will uncover the cause of the trouble, but the fire spirit won't give in without a fight. The climactic melee has the potential to drop Abussos into the pit whole!