The Elderdungeon

An introductory trial for new members of the global Adventurer's Guild. Adventurers are tasked with hunting one of five magical creatures and returning with a trophy to earn their starting rank of Tin, Copper, or Brass. The hunts take place across three regions: the Whispergrove Forest (for Cockatrice), the Old Sewers of Kingdom Grand (for Gazers and Gibbering Mouthers), and the Fangridge Peaks (for Rust Monsters). Harpys are also hunted in the forests or mountains.

The Adventurer's Guild tasks a party with investigating strange elemental signs in the Farmlands surrounding Kingdom Grand. Livestock and trees have been burned, and strange laughter is heard on the wind. The adventurers are paired with Sage Elbera, a researcher from the Arcane Conservatory, to investigate the matter.

The City Watch of Grand requests aid from the Adventurers Guild to stop a thief from raiding their supply warehouses. The party, working with Lieutenant Darnik De Roche, discovers the culprits are Burrowlings, a race of small humanoids, being forced to steal by an Aurumvorax Den Leader that had taken his mate and pups hostage.

The Adventurer's Guild is hired to escort travelers through the Mountain Pass between Kingdom Grand and Kdor while investigating rumors of bandits. The culprits are revealed to be Industrialist kobold raiders who have constructed a powerful, unstable Kobold Mech.

At the request of Sage Elbera, the Adventurer's Guild dispatches a party to a newly discovered Ancient Dungeon in the Mountain Pass. This dungeon is believed to predate Dead Wars I. The party finds the ruin is already being looted by the newly founded Road Thieves Guild.

The Adventurer's Guild is hired by the new Church of Elina to cleanse the haunted Tyre Castle of spirits. Guided by Cleric Ellowen Thorn and after researching the specters with the grumpy expert Holt, the party chooses a wing of the castle to purge.

The Council of Grand hires the Adventurer's Guild to clear the infamous and supposedly cursed Ash House of its traps for demolition. Inside, the party discovers a tribe of Ash House Goblins who have made the house their home.

Lady Mardell, a noblewoman, discreetly hires the Adventurer's Guild to act as security at a dinner party, fearing a theft. The target is The Grand Grimoire of Grotesqueries, a book on monster anatomy she recently acquired.

The Adventurer's Guild is tasked by the City Watch of Grand to investigate a band of young, elusive pickpockets in the city markets. The investigation reveals the children are part of the Road Thieves Guild and are using Hidden Tunnels from the old faction war to escape capture.

Sage Elbera of the Arcane Conservatory urgently hires the Adventurer's Guild to recover a stolen ancient Grimoire of Tyre and Merrick that belonged to Arcane Registry founder Tyre and was expanded by the leader Merrick.

The Adventurer's Guild is hired by Captain Elira Morn to provide security on her merchant ship, The Copper Wake, on a voyage from Kingdom Grand to Grimsby. During the journey, they are attacked by Mechanist Raiders, a faction aligned with the Industrialists.

Following up on leads from the attack on The Copper Wake, the Adventurer's Guild investigates the mining town of Red Hawk at the behest of the Council of Grand. They confirm the town is the headquarters for the Road Thieves Guild and confront the Guild Master, Rath "The Gilded Maw".

The Adventurers Guild is hired by the city of Kdor to provide security for the maiden voyage of its new monorail, which is transporting a vast amount of wealth. The journey is attacked by Mechanist Raiders affiliated with the Industrialists, who also have saboteurs aboard the train. The adventurers must defend the monorail and root out the saboteurs before the train derails.

The Kdor's Adventurers Guild tasks a party with tracking and eliminating a dangerous yeti that has been disrupting the work of ice harvesters near Lake Arrek. The party finds the harvesters' camp, a makeshift fort, and learns that three men have gone missing. They track the yeti to a cave where they find the frozen bodies of the missing men and discover a larger-than-normal yeti clutching a smaller, dead yeti. The mutated yeti has glowing eyes and strange abilities, and a brass and glass device with a glowing green liquid is found stabbed into its body. After the mission is complete, Guildmaster Teyla Coalmaker reveals there is new dungeon activity in the region.

A frantic merchant begs for help: his assistant has been dragged into a newly opened chasm beneath his store. Whispers of strange spiders echo from below. The eerie opening may lead to ruins untouched for centuries… but first, a life must be saved.

A desperate rancher begs for help, cattle have gone missing in the night. Your hunt leads to claw-marked pastures and a nest hidden in the wilds. But this is no ordinary predator, and you may regret taking it on.

The ancient stone door groans open, revealing only pitch darkness. You hear a sound like rythmic pulse. something lives within this dungeon, and it seems to be calling you.

A strange bird whispers doomsday prophecies across Kdor, twisting minds and stirring fear. The guild wants you to find it before panic spreads further.

Before leaving Kdor, Guildmaster Teyla Coalmaker invites the adventurers to represent Grand's Guild in the city's annual Festival of Rebirth at Kdor, a celebration of Kdor's reconstruction and the rise of the Goldsteil family. The highlight is The Gauntlet, a contest of martial, mechanical, and magical prowess with strict rules: no magic on others (only yourself), stealth is encouraged, and the only way to lose is to be knocked out. The competition includes puzzles, stealth challenges, skill challenges, and a final combat footrace. First place earns a special item and the Medallion of the Gauntlet, second and third walk away with gold, and all competitors earn prestige in Kdor's eyes. After the festival, Teyla teleports the party to Evenfell to investigate troubles with the city's guild.

Nightmares grip Kdor after the Goldstiel Festival. Citizens report identical visions of ancient stone laboratories, strange waters, and a crow-shaped monster watching them. Guildmaster Teyla Coalmaker urges adventurers to enter a dream realm with Holt and sever the connection before the nightmares spread. The Crow Knight was defeated but its mind survived and is now projecting visions: memories of something far older. The party must enter the Crow Knight's dying mind, navigate a surreal labyrinth of ancient experimentation, and confront the Crow Knight in his fractured consciousness.

A teleportation spell from Kdor to Evenfell goes awry, stranding adventurers on the black-sand beaches beneath stormy skies instead of the guildhall. Surrounded by black-cloaked Slumber Cultists, they must fight their way through the eerily silent city streets, facing ambushes and cultists that vanish and reappear at random. Upon reaching the Adventurers Guild of Evenfell, they find the cultists gone and the city returned to normal, meeting Elrin Veymar, the city's embittered guildmaster who hopes they can restore life to the declining city.

Guildmaster Elrin Veymar tasks adventurers with investigating the disappearance of farmers in Evenfell, where nobles, merchants, and tradesmen have already vanished without a trace. Following clues about missing grain deliveries, they discover a warehouse where twenty people, including the farmers and two Unbound guardsmen from Kingdom Grand, are held captive in a secret underground chamber. After freeing the captives, the group is ambushed by Slumber Cultists who whisper "What slumbers soon awakes" with their dying breath. The rescued Unbound agents promise to investigate further disappearances.

Following intelligence from Unbound guardsmen, Guildmaster Elrin Veymar sends adventurers to investigate an underground fighting ring in Evenfell's undercity that may be connected to missing merchants. They meet Gaius, the charismatic tiefling ring master, who offers information in exchange for surviving three rounds in the pits. After the adventurers succeed, Gaius releases the missing merchants but betrays them by unleashing a Kamadan before fleeing with his profits.

Guildmaster Elrin Veymar sends adventurers to meet Galen Lamiur, the flamboyant Minister of Civil Projects, who may know where the missing nobles are hidden. Despite his peacock-like demeanor, Galen reveals his cunning when Crown officials interrupt their meeting, and he cleverly passes the adventurers off as actors in a play about The Evil One. He suspects the Minister of Trade, Silas Drenn, is behind the disappearances and has discovered blueprints revealing a hidden dungeon beneath Drenn's mansion. The adventurers infiltrate a masquerade party at the manor, navigate the secret dungeon to rescue the captive nobles, and escape disguised as performers with the rescued nobles hidden beneath elaborate costumes.

Guildmaster Elrin Veymar sends adventurers to infiltrate Silas Drenn's fortified manor to capture the Minister of Trade. They discover a hidden passage behind a painting in his study that leads to a secret chamber where Silas is communing with a strange orb alongside Slumber Cultists. When discovered, Silas shatters the orb, unleashing a psychic shockwave, and flees while the cultists drink dark elixirs that warp them into monstrous forms. The adventurers pursue Silas to a ruined courtyard where they find him fighting Galen Lamiur, who is barely holding his own. After capturing or defeating Silas, they learn that the glass and copper devices found in Kdor were manufactured in New Arcanum, pointing to their next destination.

Master Thalin Fernstride sends adventurers to investigate newly discovered ancient tunnels beneath Kingdom Grand that predate mortal civilization. The tunnels are infested with ankhegs, whose acid burns through the old stone. After fighting through the ankheg colony, they discover a sealed stone door marked with indecipherable primoridal runes, surrounded by the remains of a failed cult expedition. They recover an ancient shield similar to ones Holt discovered weeks earlier, and scattered journals which speak of "the one that came first" and "the one that slumbers."

Master Thalin Fernstride sends adventurers with Sage Elbera to investigate a newly opened dungeon beneath the royal castle in Kingdom Grand. The dungeon contains strange stone containers filled with viscous liquid, moss-covered floors that induce madness, and shadows that move in the corners. They discover a laboratory with notes on biomancy experiments involving yetis, owlbears, and other monstrosities, as well as maps pointing to the door found in the Ancient Secrets adventure. In the central chamber, they find stone slabs depicting The Evil One creating an egg meant to destroy the world. They are ambushed by Hall Creepers that mimic their allies before escaping with evidence of recent cult activity.

Guildmaster Thalin Fernstride sends adventurers to meet Holt and Sage Elbera at a newly discovered dungeon just outside Kingdom Grand and assist in its exploration. The dungeon seems strangely empty—no traps trigger, no monsters attack. At its heart lies a crumbled statue and a vast mosaic showing an inverted pyramid cradling an egg, with the phrase "He who sleeps will rise" carved across the wall. Holt betrays the party: he beheads Sage Elbera, unleashes Jeffery—a burning paper dragon monstrosity—to block their escape, and vanishes. After defeating Jeffery, Sage Elbera's body is burned beyond recognition. Returning to the guild, Guildmaster Thalin Fernstride demands vengeance on Holt.

With Holt missing and Sage Elbera dead, Guildmaster Thalin Fernstride sends adventurers to the dwarven mountains to learn what Holt's notes mean by "Molokite." They travel by carriage—teleportation circles remain unreliable—and meet Durven MeadAnvil, who knows of no such ore but points them to an ancient sealed forge deep below the mountain, guarded by a demonic Armanite. After slaying the beast, they find no Molokite metal, only records of elves who sought ever-greater power, were corrupted, and were driven underground by the dwarves and other mortal races.

Sudden tremors shake Kingdom Grand and are felt across every nation, yet divination reveals no source. As panic spreads, three legendary monsters attack the city: an Underworld Cerberus in the main square, a Medusa at Nature's Pathway medica turning healers to stone, and a Deep Crow hunting from the warehouses. Guildmaster Thalin Fernstride mobilizes every team he has and sends the adventurers to choose which beast to face first. Defeating their chosen threat eases the quakes, though the tremors do not end entirely.

The tremors beneath Kingdom Grand intensify again. Guildmaster Thalin Fernstride orders adventurers back into the caverns to find the source, survive collapsing passages and Slumber Cultist patrols, and report on cultist numbers and whether the ancient door has been opened. From a cliff overlooking the monumental gate—now larger and pulsing with light—they spy Holt among pale-skinned elves marked with glowing green veins, kneeling with hundreds of cultists as he forces them to drink from water skins.

The four guildmasters of Kingdom Grand, Evenfell, Kdor, and New Arcanum send adventurers to Holt's abandoned laboratory beneath the temple of Vitalia, discovered through Sage Elbera's final intelligence. A magic mouth delivers Holt's farewell before vents release shimmering Lullwater that floods the chambers. Navigating rising water and failing magic, they recover Holt's journal revealing his childhood among the Molokite, his manipulation of their ancient desires, and his belief that their "god" was one of The Evil One's experiments—a creature grown from a tarrasque corpse through biomancy, controllable by the Lullwater. They escape the drowning ruin as the guildmasters prepare a full strike on Holt's camp at the dungeon gate.

The four great guilds unite to stop Holt and the Molokite from awakening He Who Slumbers. Their combined forces march on the ancient gate beneath Kingdom Grand, where the final dungeon has opened and Holt's army has already entered. Adventurers join the vanguard, clearing Molokite cultists, mind-controlled adventurers from Evenfell, and remaining defenders to establish a forward operating base before the assault on the dungeon proper.

Guildmaster Elrin Veymar invites adventurers to trial for the Codebreakers—a calling that demands wits more than steel. With Monk Tzao, a Githzerai master of puzzles, they assess recruits, solve brain teasers and ciphers in the archives, and prove whether they have the inquisitive eye the guilds need for the battle ahead. The adventure offers little combat but heavy roleplay and puzzle play.