3.5e Quests
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Quests
| Name | Adventurer Levels | Preparation Time | Play Time | Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Dirty Way In | 2-4 | 30 min | 1-2 hours | That most essential character of the fantasy city, the nameless guardsman, is often an expository NPC, but in this quest, the players approach the guards as enemies. Not as hostile enemies with ill intent, but rather as living, breathing obstacles to their true goal. This should awaken the moral roleplayer in your players.
The quest is designed with the city of Redford and the campaign setting of Years of Gold in mind, but the ubiquity of guardsmen in fantasy makes it extremely easy to adapt to any city location with a sewer and corrupt nobility. |
| A Haunted House | 8-10 | 1 hour | 4-6 hours | Every city and an most villages should have a Haunted House! In this variant the players try to put a Paladin's remains to peaceful rest by completing the mission he failed. |
| Abandoned Fortress | 3-5 | 30 min | 1-2 hours | The abandoned fortress can serve a variety of purposes in a variety of settings: it doesn't necessarily have to be occupied by goblins (undead and wild beasts work just as well), and it can easily be extended (a cellar comes to mind).
In the Years of Gold setting, the fortress represents a hideout of Great Claw goblins somewhere in the lowlands of Hundon. If used in another setting, remember to change the goblin stats to standard D&D stats, since the stats used here are for Pansaerian goblins. |
| Ascension | 21+ | minimum 3+ hours | several gaming sessions of 3+ hours each | To integrate this villain into an existing story/game, don't just have him jump out at the players. Instead, have him just be seen in the background of events, every now and then. The players should see him every now and then, but not know that he is manipulating all of their other enemies. Each time they see him in a different city or setting, he might look completely different with only one thing similar, such as a necklace, or the color of his robe. By doing this, the players should come to think that it is a group of people who are behind the scenes, instead of just one single powerful enemy. This is meant to be played as a final boss after many smaller quests. |
| Basement Drug Lab | 1-2 | 15 min | 30 min to 1 hour | Any organization or society that has a criminal element, works with the criminal element or has a narcotics background can have a drug laboratory. This one is hidden in a city or town of moderate to large size. The best way to introduce the quest to a game is to have the players gain initial hints of the laboratory's existence and then have them investigate further, until they gain access to the laboratory itself. The players can also be given the quest by a law-enforcing party.
The basement drug lab quest is best played as part of a Years of Gold campaign, since the flavor has been tailored to match that setting. It can be adapted to any style and setting with only minor changes, however, considering the ubiquity of drugs in most settings. Remember to change the goblin stats to standard D&D stats, since the stats used here are for Pansaerian goblins. |
| Belzack | 3-5 | 30 mins | 1+ hrs | This town has always suffered from goblin attacks, but never so frequently or relentlessly. The addition of zombies to the list of attackers is unsettling as well, and the village will reward players that can figure out the root of the problem and resolve it. |
| Black Metal, Red Blood | ||||
| Bloodgate Keep | 8-9 | 30 min to 1 hour | 1-2 hours | Bloodgate Keep is the classic castle to dungeon-delve: three floors of demonic forces for a party to slay, treasures to plunder and secrets to uncover. This makes the quest easy to integrate into any setting with demons or an underworld, In the Years of Gold setting, where the underworld is distant and demons are rare, the keep is a special occasion; in other settings, perhaps not so much, but nonetheless a fun run. |
| Chasing Charity | 1-5 | 15 — 30 mins | 1 ½+ hrs | A thief has stolen something from one of the players! After chasing her, the players realize that more is at stake then meets the eye. |
| Crimson House | 5-7 | 30 min | 1 to 2 hours | Crimson House is designed thematically around the Years of Gold campaign setting: the characters, creatures and places in it are all part of the setting. That said, the quest needs only slight variation to fit the needs of any gaming group or setting. Pay extra attention to making sure the creatures fit standard D&D, since Years of Gold uses several variant rules and modified features.
The backdrop of the quest is a particularly wicked bordello, which means two things: first, only a city and setting dark enough to accommodate these features can support the quest; and second, make sure everyone in your group can handle the setting. There's never shame in saying no to playing something that makes you feel uncomfortable or bad. |
| Damsel in Distress | 13-17 | 30 mins — 1 hr | 2 ½+ hrs | Salicia, the daughter of a rich and powerful ruler of the town of Miryth has been kidnapped by a band of brigands. Arakith, the lord of the town, has put up notices beseeching adventurers to find and rescue his daughter. It turns out, however, that more is at stake than just her rescue! |
| Darrin Drader's "The Cult of Tharizdun" | 9-12 | 30 mins — 1 hr | 3+ hrs | Regardless whether the PCs face the cult of Tharizdun while they are attacking a local populace or while they are investigating the disappearance of local people who will serve as sacrifices, they realize that this cult is nothing but trouble to its lands. |
| Desert Jewel | 5-7 | 30 mins — 1 hr | 2+ hrs | A powerful mage rules over a barren desert realm. He has asked the party to return ancient artifacts in exchange for payment and the right to keep some of the items that they find. Travel and adventure await the party! |
| Down the Well | 3-4 | 30 min to 1 hour | 2-3 hours | Down the Well requires a setting that supports necromancy and doesn't shy away from the undead. Years of Gold isn't the most fantastical of settings, so while the quest is originally designed for the campaign setting, it might find a better home in some other setting. The hidden headquarters of a pair of necromantic twins should be an interesting dungeon in any game. |
| Drudlein | 1-3 | 2-5 hours | 5-8 hours | The island Continent of Drudlein is home to a myriad of races, but the adventure starts in Calad with missing children and a mysterious necromancer. |
| Honey Pottery and Alchemy Chambers | 3-4 | 15 min | 30 min to 1 hour | The honey industry of Redford is hardly an unique industry, even in fantasy worlds, so this quest can be adapted to any cultural setting that produces honey as well as practices magical alchemy of some sort. In the Years of Gold setting, the quest takes place in one of Carl von Arnberg's many honey potteries on the western side of the city. |
| Keepsake | 15-17 | 1-2 hours | 3-4 hours | The Keepsake is the dark fortress of Nerukath located in the Far Fanes, a pocket dimension between the Planes of Shadow and Negative Energy. The basic gist and the associated battle maps are easy to translate to any setting that's fantastical enough to support an otherworldly palace of torture. The characters within are also capable of traveling between dimensions, meaning they can be faced and integrated into almost any setting.
Keepsake is a decidedly dark quest, however. Torture is a large theme in it, and is explored in ugly detail, so if you or your players don't enjoy such nasty themes, this isn't the quest for you. That's not to say the quest can't be used if you dislike the torture theme: you can always salvage the battle maps, characters and encounters to use in less vicious storylines. |
| Maid Mary | 4-9 | 30 min to 1 hour | 1-3 hours | Maid Mary is a fairly developed barge, so any campaign willing to make use of the quest has to have enough of a maritime presence (although most do) and technology at least on level with basic barges (again, most do). Since the crew of the Maid Mary are not evil in any way, the quest allows for a bit of nefarious plundering.
The quest is best played as part of a Years of Gold campaign, since that's where the barge is from, but is easily included in any campaign; remember to exchange the dunner crew to another Small race (halflings, goblins etc.) |
| Non-Violent Adventure | Any | 15 minutes to 2 hours | 1-3 hours | The characters are just arriving at town, or possibly have just finished dinner, or are at the Tavern having a drink and relaxing. This could even start while the PC's are in the middle of an existing campaign, while discussing something important with an NPC, or in the middle of any 'town' related activities... |
| Old Graveyard of Redford | 5-6 | 30 min | 1-2 hours | The old graveyard of Redford is all about the atmosphere: if you've got graveyards in your campaign setting, then this will be a good fit. There are few fights (but they're important), and they can easily be modified to suit your and your setting's needs. Works well both as a one-off adventure or as the culmination of a mini-campaign against "Sir Grandier". Note that the fights are few, but meant to be hard: don't exceed the suggested maximum character level. |
| Purple Obelisk Crypts | 1-3 | 1 ½+ hrs | 2+ hrs | This is a medium sized site based adventure. It's mostly a dungeon crawl, with some horror introduced, where the players are relied upon to destroy the Purple Obelisk so that an ancient vampire cannot reform with the help of a dark cleric named Veothen. |
| Ritual of Lycanthropy | Varies | 1+ hrs | 2 ½+ hrs | An alternative path for a player to change into a Lycanthrope. If you are already an evil character, what will destroying the inn you are staying at and everyone staying in it on the full moon mean anyway? You are not here to hide in the shadows, but rather to explain that might will conquer the petty! |
| Royal Zoo | 3-4 | 30 min | 1-2 hours | The Royal Zoo of Redford is a zoo gone wrong: the animals are malnourished and bloodthirsty, the workers underpaid and mischievous, and the whole business a front for darker things. This makes it a fantastic, if gloomy, location for your adventuring party to visit.
The use of Pansaer-exclusive ideas (how undeath works etc.) and characters (Vizidammar) means that a little editing is required if the quest is to be used in another campaign setting, but nothing exceptional should be required. Remember to keep the mood - the mechanical side is little more than a complement for the quest itself, after all. |
| Ruins of Ancient Redford | 9-10 | 1 hour | 2-4 hours | The ruins of ancient Redford is a good culmination or peak halfway point for a campaign against a goblinoid enemy. The town or city you want to situate the ruins under needs to be very old, to explain the existence of a series of ancient cellars and pathways that have been built over again and again. The players either need to know about the "firebombs under the city" plot before the descend into the ruins, or they could learn of it from an early foe in the ruins themselves (preferably the former).
Nothing in particular makes the ruins below Redford particularly Redford-flavored, so the location and connected quest are easy to adapt to other settings and campaigns, even though the quest is originally for a Years of Gold campaign. Remember to change the goblin stats to standard D&D stats, since the stats used here are for Pansaerian goblins. |
| Runaway Bride | 5-6 | 30 mins | 1+ hrs | A young bride promised to the leader of a powerful Lizardfolk tribe has fled the village and the chief of the tribe wants her back. Who took her? How are you going to get her back? Will she believe you anyway? |
| Temple of the Rising | 7-9 | 30 min | 1 to 4 hours | Since the quest takes place in a massive church that's very clearly and singularly devoted to a Sun-flavored god, the Temple of the Rising quest can take place only in an area with a religion large enough to support the church and its following. The religion must also be willing/inclined to support flagellation, fanaticism, single-minded devotion and slaying of intelligent beings.
The strong Pansaerian flavor of the quest and the Years of Gold encounters, creatures and gameplay make the quest hard to integrate to a non-Pansaer setting, but it's not impossible at all. The core of the quest can be used in a variety of settings, along with the battle maps. The creature profiles and themes can be harder to adapt, however, so remember to check them over. |
| Tess | 1-3 | 5+ hrs | 5+ hrs | The town is planning on building a temple on bugbear breeding grounds, a cursed crypt which spawns undead every full moon, ogre breeding grounds, and a shrine where kobolds regularly make sacrifices. Working with the residences, can the players make this successful or will the village get eliminated? |
| The Beast Below | 8 | 30 mins | 2+ hours | After the party has been living in Silverrock Castle for a short while, they begin to hear strange noises at night. It sounds as if a rumbling, growling noise is coming from beneath them. Upon attempting to locate the source of the noise, the party follows the sounds to the basement of the building in the southeast corner of the main courtyard. What is going on? Can the players keep living in Silverrock Castle? |
| The Bleeding City | 9-13 | 30 min | 1-8 hours (ave. 6) | The Bleeding City can appear anywhere, but ideally appears when the party needs resupplying and no other city is within sight. Once they enter, they will be trapped, and the quest begins. |
| The Dangerous Druid | 1 | 30 mins | 1+ hrs | A fanatical Child Of Winter-wannabe druid makes her home in the Nightwood of Karrnath, deep in an abandoned mineshaft come natural cavern. She targets frontier towns, poisoning the local populations and driving them away. If she can't achieve it subtly, she attacks in the night with her monstrous spider pets, and her dire rat animal companion. Can the players stop her from terrorizing the villages and growing in power? |
| The Fallen Angel | 10-14 | 2+ hrs | 3+ hrs | Following the discovery of a map with an island labeled "site of the angel's descent" the players sail to the island in question and discover that an angel had descended from Celestia here for an unknown reason. On their arrival, though, the keep is under attack and things are not quite so straightforward as they wished. |
| The Hunt | 15-16 | 1+ hrs | 1 ½+ hrs | A green dragon ransacked a lizardfolk town in retribution for their over-hunting and its problems. The players are asked to assist the lizardfolk tribe in its hunt for the dragon. Where is the dragon? How powerful is it? Is the dragon right, and the lizardfolk are too numerous? Would a twist in the lands be better or can the players not let a evil creature that is more powerful than the lizardfolk town was, but could be a more powerful ally of theirs, reign? |
| The Price of Failure | 13-17 | 30 mins — 1 hr | 2 ½+ hrs | Salicia, the daughter of a rich and powerful ruler of the town of Miryth was kidnapped by a band of brigands, but you failed to save her in the Damsel In Distress! Your party has not lost all hope, and knows that it can still save her and stay on good terms with her dragon father. |
| The Tale of Seven Swords | 5-7 to Start | Large Journey, many hours of prep | Untested, long quest | At a local tavern in Benneth, a well known scholar has been telling tales, most of dragons and titans roaming the world. One story in particular, however, talks of seven magic swords, and this man claims he knows where one of them is! Is it a trick to lay a bandits ambush? Or has one of the Seven Deadly Swordsmen of Arra been found? |
| The Wizard's Mansion | 3-5 | 1 ½+ hrs | 2 ½+ hrs | The town's wizard has gone into hiding. After the players get to the wizard, it turns out that he has encountered some problems that require the player's assistance, or his mansion will be further overrun! Can the players help the wizard from being killed and his mansion from being overrun? |
| Thumpin the Thuggins | 6 | 1 ½+ hrs | 3 — 4 hrs | Trolls have been harassing merchants, capturing them, and demonstrating their superiority throughout the lands. The players must stop them, their operation, and restore the lands to a state where they can continue to progress. Treasure also seems like a promising find for the player's, in such an operation! |
| To Build A City | 5-20 | Varies | Varies | The long term goal of this campaign is, as the title says, “To Build a City.” Each great city began with a few people finding a nice spot to settle down. This settlement grows and grows, until one day it is a thriving metropolis, a tool used by more powerful factions and nations, or a crumbling ruin overrun by creatures of all sorts. |
| Von Leaven Estate | any | 30 min to 1 hour | 1-2 hours | As a fairly usual noble's mansion, Von Leaven Estate can be run in any campaign - who says it has to be inhabited by Von Leavens, anyway? By fiddling the basic descriptions a little, you can make the quest into a dilapidated ruin, an extravagant place of pleasures or the creepy hideaway of a cult. Furthermore, since the quest itself is an infiltration for characters of any level, it can be played at any level range and is easy to modify.
That said, the Von Leaven Estate is played best as part of a Years of Gold campaign (the hint is in the name). The flavor and the personnel inside are designed with Pansaer and especially Redford in mind, and a read-through is required to adapt the quest to other settings. |
| Von Morr Family Butchery | 4-6 | 30 min | 1-2 hours | Blood and guts, screams and slaughter, thousands dying every day... no, it's not a deathtrap dungeon - just a common slaughterhouse. Butcheries and abattoirs can be found in pretty much every setting, so the quest is easy to play in almost all campaigns. It is originally designed for the Years of Gold campaign setting. |
| Woods haven part 1 | level 1 players 3+ | 1 hour | 2 to 6 hours | this is part one of a starter quest |
| Woods haven part 2b | 1-2 level 3-6 players | 2 hours | 2-6 hours | this is the fourth day in the town of woods haven and should be played only after woods haven part 1, if the party went hunting with lord nickels this will only give you info on what happened to the town wile the players where gone. |
| Woods Haven part 3 | 2-4 players 3+ | 1 hour | 2-6 hours | this is what happens to the players that leave Woods Haven and go in to the woods |
| Woods haven the hunt | 1-2 level 3-6 players | 1 hour | 3-5 hours | Part 2A Woods Haven Quest Line: This is part of the woods haven adventure there is NPC info and the hunting adventure if your players decided to go on lord Nickels hunt. |
| Zokusho's Sword | 12 | 2 ½+ hrs | 5+ hrs | Hearing of the heroes' exploits, King Marak (of the poor northern kingdom of Anselm) invites the heroes to his court. There, he shares with them reports from his scouts and informants about an ambitious and bloodthirsty orc king, Gnalk, who is ravaging his lands, and asks them to help him. It turns out that he has discovered the mythical sword of Zokusho in a trapped and sealed catacomb beneath Mt. Ellismere, and has dispatched a warband led by his top champion to retrieve the sword. With it, he could easily overrun the weak northern kingdom. The players must not let this happen, or the entire world will be in peril! |
- Incomplete Quests
Quests with one or many improving, reviewing, or removing templates present. Please help work on the problem presented on the template.
Encounters
Encounters without an improving, reviewing, or removing template present.
| Name | CR | Preparation Time | Play Time | Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A lost Soul | 1/10 | 1 day | Any time | While traveling in Cēcí N'est forest, you stumble upon a man weilding an iron staff with a purple crystal at the tip of it. |
| Black Lake | 13 | Just read the creature listing | Short (20 minutes) | Perfect for a magical dungeon of any sorts! |
| Cursed Zombies | 2 | MinimalShort, 10 minutes. | Random Encounter or undead lair. Can be used with characters of any level, though 1-4 is usually best. | |
| Dem Bones | 14 | 15 min | 30 min | A room encounter to be placed into an undead-themed (mega)dungeon. Since the room is rather large, as are the skeletal inhabitants, a large dungeon is suggested - no 5-foot-wide corridors! The nature of the skeletons suggests at a faintly Lovecraftian precursor race that inhabited the dungeon long ago, but this can be done away with a few tweaks. |
| Drow Hunters | 8 | Short (5 minutes to get familiar) | Short to moderate, 15-30 minutes. | Random Encounter in the underdark, part of a drow invasion. |
| Garbage Disposal | 8 | 10 min | 20 min | This encounter serves as an introductory ambush into a larger dungeon, or a brief battle before a more stealth-heavy approach. Since excessive magic and easy access to flying can serve to trivialize the encounter, it fits better into a low-magic/low-rewards game. |
| Gnomes and Gnolls | 7 | very little | — | A simple random encounter for overland travel. |
| Jumanji | 5 | 30 minutes for a review of flood and quake effects, 40 minutes to search for a few of each creature that is at least 3 above the CR of the group. | This game can go for as little as 3 hours to as much as 10. It really all depends on how many spaces the game is and how the players play the game. A DC 15 cold be used to help them figure out how the game works. | This encounter is based on the adventurers finding a cursed artifact. This can be found anywhere and at any time. This is a stand alone encounter that will highly resemble the movie Jumanji (Tristar 1998). Wherever the characters currently are, they can encounter this game. On the shelf in a library; in someones home; a child starts playing it in the common room of a tavern and asked one or more of the players to join; in the nook of a tree or in a river wedged between some rocks. It really does not matter as long as at least one of group plays it. All of them should play for best effect. |
| Kevins | 10 | 10 minutes | may vary | While the party is wandering about in the woods for whatever reason. Travelling to the nearest town, or looking for their lost horse. It doesn't matter how the encounter comes into play the DM should know the appropriate time to set the scene. |
| Lullaby for a Drunk | 6 | 15 minutes | Varies no more than 20 minutes | While the party is traveling (hills, hilly forest) they hear the sound singing. Works best in the wild further away from civilized lands or perhaps near a frontier settlement. The DM should time the encounter to happen as a side bar random encounter or interlude on the way to or coming back from another adventure. |
| Noble Salamander and Iron Golem | 14 or 15 | 20 min. Read over the fire related synergy and the Iron Golem's weaknesses | Not sure yet | Good for a Noble Salamander's lair in the Elemental Plane of Fire |
| Paracelsian Posse | 15 | 30 min to 1 hour | 30 min to 1 hour | A group of archaeologist wizards are excavating the site of an ancient ruin, belonging to a long-dead civilization. While the archaeologists aren't hostile by default, they certainly can be made so (by threatening them, barging into their camp by surprise, or even attacking them) and are more than capable of causing trouble for even a well-prepared group. |
| Pit of Blood | 15 | 10 minutes | a few minutes | Any dungeon of cave that has something to do with undead and sacrifices |
| Rein of the Necromancer | 30 Minutes to 1 Hr. | 1-2 Hours | The Necromancer has captured the heroes from destroying his Rein. Will they escape alive? | |
| Tunnel of Death | 4 | 30min | 10-60 mins | Any underground campaign |
- Incomplete Encounters
Encounters with one or many improving, reviewing, or removing templates present. Please help work on the problem presented on the template.
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