Looking for pre-done "conquer the wizard's tower" adventures


3.5/d20/OGL

Scarab Sages

My PCs are closing in on a confrontation with some adventurers who are exploring a tower once owned by an elven PCs idol and mentor. The tower got buried under the desert sands long ago, and now the looters (a typical sort of D&D party!) have rounded up a slave labor crew to clear the sands and they're going to be doing what adventurers do best - loot stuff!

The idol has been MIA for some time (hundreds of years, in fact). The PC very much wants to prevent the looting and perhaps himself preserve the items within the abandoned tower.

With that premise in mind, anyone know any good "loot the tower" sort of modules? I perused my Dungeon collection and nothing jumps out at me, but my collection is fairly scattered. I'm just looking for enough of a structure that I can adapt the maps and get some ideas of good traps and curios a powerful wizard might have laying around if he went missing without time to properly lock the place down. I'm really liking the idea of having my PCs following in the tracks of another adventuring group -- so that group can spring traps ahead of them, loot items to use against the PCs once the two groups converge, etc.

Grand Lodge

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There's lots of good "big dungeons" if you're just looking for the tower, "Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" (37, 138) is the biggest that jumps out. You could certainly pillage "Maure Castle" (112) or any of "The Challenge of Champions" series -- always good dungeon rooms in those. Also, if your collection goes far enough back, "House of Cards" (19) is overrated but still solid and "Threshold of Evil" (12) is almost exactly what your adventure describes, without the desert. One of my little known favorites that often gets overlooked here is "Training Ground" (67).

-W. E. Ray

Scarab Sages

I know I have "Mud Sorcerers Tomb", and I actually think the last time I ran it was for all the friends who are not part of this group. So, that would be fresh material for them for sure.

I'll have to see about Issue #12, I know I have some spotty coverage in the teens and I might very well have that. That adventure name doesn't ring a bell, though.


What about "The Obsidian Eye?" I don't have easy access to my magazines right now, but I believe that adventure features an obelisk buried beneath the sand, guarding a powerful artifact. The PCs even have to confront the looters and their slave workers. It's designed for a 4th-level party (don't know what you're shooting for), but could house some good ideas if nothing else.


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The following might prove useful for maps, traps, NPCs or ideas:

Spoiler:
From Dragon Magazine:

081 - Ruins of Andril, The - Every two years the temple/monument of an ancient Egyptian-like culture rises from the desert sands and exposes its secrets for a few days before sinking once more into the sands.

From Dungeon Magazine:

036 - Asflag's Unintentional Emporium - The wizard Asflag has gone missing and presumed dead (given the strange explosion and death cries from his tower a fortnight before). Now his “pets” have begun to escape their confinement and plague the city. Serve the Duke as “Special Constables” and enter the home of the dead wizard to end the menace.

038 - Pandora's Apprentice - When the Mistress is away, the apprentice will play ... especially if she is a young genious able to sneak into the mage’s lab. Unfortunately, a flask of curses and the lure of magic items have become a bad combination for the young lady, who has taken to “liberating” magic items from adventurers.

041 - Deadly Treasure - As his natural life was drawing to an end, the mage Zathis built himself a trap-filled tomb. After his death, letters were dispatched throughout the land daring adventurers to plunder his last abode.

047 - Quelkin's Quandry - The “evil” mage Quelkin has plagued the village of Carthington Cross for years, or so the local gossip goes. Now the distraught wizard begs for help, having been rousted from his manor. Has the villain finally gotten his due, or is he just a misunderstood recluse?

050 - Object of Desire, The - Escort the sultan’s daughter to her wedding in a neighboring emirate. But when she is kidnapped by gargoyles, become entangled in an ancient tale of jealousy, lost love, and madness involving a noble prince turned to a horrible monster, a beautiful princess and an enraged sorcerer.

053 - Clarshh's Sepulchre - An Arcane seeks to hire adventurers to plunder the tomb of an infamous death-cult leader.

053 - Elexa's Endeavor - Brigands have invaded the castle of a templar’s aged uncle while she was away on a crusade. Help her local a mage acquaintance who can help overcome the castle’s magical protections, then overtake the bandits and reclaim the castle before the brigand harm her uncle.

063 - Blood & Fire - Locate the heir of an overthrown emir, tracking him with help from distrustful nomads and rescue him from a Brotherhood of the Flame citadel.

063 - Hunt for a Hierophant - To save a forest from bullywug investation a sleeping druid must be awakened. Defeat an insane, evil Treant to gain a map leading to the druid’s trap-filled resting place.

064 - Bzallin’s Blacksphere - Enter the extra-planar citadel of a lich and recover the key needed to destroy a growing Sphere of Annihilation which threatens to engulf an entire city.

072 - Deep Trouble in Telthin - The city of Telthin is inexplicably flooding, and watery monsters are ravaging the lakeside while the local water-elementalist/Archmage has gone missing. Journey to the archmage’s retreat on the Elemental Plane of Water and free him from captivity and the grasp of a Marid Caliph who invaded his home.

075 - Into the Nest of Vipers - A town is dying from a poison that resists magical healing. The evil “Viper” brigands are thought responsible.

077 - Ex Keraptis Cum Amore - Old-school “S-series” dungeon-crawl could series well with S1, S4, and “Mud-Sorcerer”.

084 - Demonclaw - A paladin and his squire have disappeared while petitioning a reclusive wizard for help against pirates. Now the priests of the order need more powerful adventurers to see what has happened to their emissaries.

088 - Seventh Arm, The - A trader in antiquities has arrived in town to acquire an amulet once belonging to the evil sorcerer who enslaved the town 70 years before. Follow a lost band of adventurers to the wizard’s old tower, investigate its ruins, overcome its current inhabitants and solve the mystery of the amulet.

095 - Jackal’s Redemption, The - As a nearby wizard’s tower begins phasing in and out of the material plane, the wizard himself has been missing for months as red fiendish creatures raid the nearby countryside and kidnap locals. Enter the tower and travel to Gehenna to overturn the plans of the fiend who seduced the wizard and put these events into motion.

107 - Cryomancer’s Icicle Tower - Somewhat routine take on a “wizard’s tower” built in a hanging stalactite.

112 - Maure Castle - Super-sized Adventure - An entire issue dedicated to 4 levels of Maure Castle. 25 years ago Bigby & Mordenkainen entered this dungeon and slew Eli Tormorast. Now he’s resurrected and continuing his search ofr ancient lore and power with new allies and cults in his service. Retrace their steps through new guards and threats and stop his plans once more. Old-school dungeoneering.

116 - Death of Lashimire - A psion cast out of his secret order plots revenge, but has betrayed his githyanki allies while plotting with sahuaghin. Now a githyanki strike team plans to kill him for the theft of a silver sword as the PCs visit his remote, island home, possibly with similar intentions. Throw in necromantic traps and sahuaghin allies for loads of fun ...

117 - Winding Way, The - Investigate the lack of word from the Temple of the Winding Way, now infested by undead after an ancient cache of undead hidden by a long defeated necromancer has been unsealed. Defeat the released undead to cleanse the temple, and survive the trials of the trap-filled Winding Way to end the torment of the now-cursed Abbot himself.

119 - Tomb of Aknar Ratalla - Survive the traps of a modest tomb to find an angel and devil together guarding an outsider-bane major artifact sword once possessed by a tribal chieftain intent on wiping out religions. Now a half-fiend drives a band of gnolls and yugoloths to the tomb to recover the sword, so the party must defend the tomb they just entered lest the fell weapon fall into evil hands once more.

120 - Obsidian Eye, The - An earthquake raises a massive obsidian obelisk in the desert. A cult dedicated to restoring an ancient empire restores this hollow temple while raiding caravans and villages for slaves and treasure to work and fund their efforts.

123 - Crypt of Crimson Stars - Shards of Eberron, pt.1 - A powerful dragonshard, perhaps the largest know, is suspected to be located in the tomb of a mummy. A tribe of halflings guard what they believe to be a holy site.

129 - Gathering of Winds, A - The party returns to Diamond Lake to discover Allustan missing and a dragon rampaging through the area. Defeat the dragon and gain entry back into the Whispering Cairn to follow the trail of Allustan into a newly uncovered section of the tomb and the treasure that await, including a minor artifact.

138 - Mud Sorcerer’s Tomb, The - Tzolo the mud sorcerer has built a fabulous tomb for herself, filled with traps to protect her treasures.

141 - Vlindarian’s Vault - A beholder mage operates an extra-planar “vault” and stores all manner of items for his clients. One of these just happens to be a silver dragon feebleminded and trapped in human form, and her mate wants her returned.

PDF from Dungeon Magazine #87 Pack-in bonus CD-ROM:

087 - Gorgoldand’s Gauntlet (Bonus Adventure on CD) - A treasure map leads to a cave filled with traps, and some pranking squatters.

HTH,

Rez

Scarab Sages

Thanks, all. Sorted through my box of Dungeon issues last night, and found several likely sources to pillage. Going to use "The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" for part of it, and Maure Castle for other parts, with liberal borrowing of traps and puzzles from the Contests of Champions issues too.


Michael Suzio wrote:
Going to use "The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" for part of it.

Just FYI, Mud Sorcerer's Tomb is a whole lot of easy total party kills unless you hand out adamantine weapons with liberal abandon.


Set the wayback machine for 1E and consider "Ghost Tower of Inverness." -- although this was also redone for a Living Greyhawk special, so you might be able to hunt down a conversion. It was CORS3-03. A quick search finds a number of references to that pdf.

-Ben.


~wistles~ There are some good ideas here!


You could send them into Babayagga's Hut (sp). I suggest the original version in Dragon #83 (or was it #87?? - any help here).


Nasty Pajamas wrote:
You could send them into Babayagga's Hut (sp). I suggest the original version in Dragon #83 (or was it #87?? - any help here).

It was:

The Dancing Hut by Roger Moore - Dragon #83

I did not include this in my list because I figured:

Spoiler:
A) Bzallin's Blacksphere in Dungeon #64 would more likely be in the OPer's collection;

B) If not, it would be easier to find;

C) BB was based on DH's original idea of a multi-dimensional space / tesseract map, making them redundant;

D) Given "C" above, BB was really a "motivated remake" of DH, which really was little more than a random encounter;

E) The venerable Christopher Perkins did a great job with said remake;

F) BB had more of a "wizardly" feel than DH, which included tanks and machine guns in its trophy rooms.

FWIW,

Rez


Nasty Pajamas wrote:

You could send them into Babayagga's Hut (sp). I suggest the original version in Dragon #83 (or was it #87?? - any help here).

Add your voice to the J. Jacobs meets Baba Yaga petition thread, if you please.

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