The Best D&D 2e Adventures from Dungeon Magazine, Part 3
Part 1, Issues 18-38 Part 2, Issues 39-59
Now that we’re looking at the third and final batch of top AD&D 2nd edition Dungeon adventures, the trend I noticed is a higher proportion of high-level content compared to the mid-level focus seen earlier.
This increase in high-level content is no coincidence. As I discussed in What D&D 2e Got Right About TTRPG Endgame Design, traditional heroic adventures in 2e tend to top out around levels 9 to 11. After that, powerful spells let characters skip the usual dungeon pacing. Instead of just repeating the same tactical challenges with bigger numbers, 2e allowed the entire game to change. Characters move beyond tactical growth and start making a difference on a larger scale, like shaping kingdoms, leading armies, or causing events across different planes.
Not every adventure in this group is high-level, and some of the best ones are actually mid- or low-level. Still, the high-level adventures from the later years really stand out. This last batch shows Dungeon magazine at its most ambitious, giving players a chance to use all their power on a much bigger stage. Remember every issue of Dungeon magazine is available for free, legally, at Archive.org. Here’s the final batch:
Issue 60
Shards of the Day, Randy Maxwell — Score 3.4, Strong
Recommended for 5-7 PCs, levels 7-9
PREMISE: A wealthy dwarven diplomat hires the party to search a ruined, monster-infested Underdark city to recover the scattered pieces of a powerful elven artifact known as the Shards of the Day.
Looking for an Underdark crawl that goes beyond linear corridors? This module blends spatial exploration with faction intrigue that few sandboxes pull off. Players navigate a ruined subterranean metropolis using a dynamic, modular tile system, where every sector poses a new tactical choice. Survival depends on how you handle a fragile web of local power, since alliances shift. This node-based crawl rewards faction-savvy play over brute force and features memorable, tactically demanding hazards throughout.
Nemesis, Chris Perkins — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for 4-7 PCs, levels 9-12 (Planescape)
PREMISE: The PCs are hired to locate a missing tiefling and track a shapechanged marilith named across the planes to the Abyss, where she is hoarding four powerful stolen swords to seek revenge on her old nemesis.
Nemesis starts in Sigil and leads the party into the Abyss, sending them on a chase across different planes filled with negotiation, deception, and dangerous environments. The group will solve dabus puzzles, bargain with power brokers who always want something in return, and explore an island where friends may not be who they appear to be. Portal devices and a final showdown with hidden twists make this adventure unpredictable and memorable.
Issue 62
Dragon’s Delve, Chris Perkins — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for 4-8 PCs, levels 3-6
PREMISE: Hired by a dwarven king, the party must infiltrate the ruined fortress of Thunderdelve to rescue a kidnapped young dragon and six dwarven emissaries from the clutches of an exiled dwarf lord and a manipulative baldandar.
Dragon’s Delve takes the party into Thunderdelve, a dwarven fortress overrun by illusion and something far worse than it seems. Players need to solve rune-locked puzzles, watch out for traps disguised as treasure, and figure out which threats are real before jumping into a fight. The dungeon has several entry points and plenty of space to backtrack, so the approach to the gates and how PC’s deal with the guards is just as important as what they find inside. This is a classic dungeon crawl done well, but DMs should pay close attention to the details. Some of the trickiest surprises and a few complicated tracking rules can be missed if you only skim the material instead of reading it carefully ahead of time.
Issue 63
Gnome Droppings, Chris Perkins — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for 4-6 PCs, levels 2-4 (Spelljammer)
PREMISE: A jettisoned cargo crate from a gnomish spelljamming ship crashes near a remote watch tower, attracting the attention of local authorities, the PCs, a tribe of blind grimlocks and a pair of opportunistic spriggans.
Gnome Droppings brings a burst of Spelljammer-style chaos to a classic low-level campaign. When a cargo pod crashes, everyone wants a piece: grimlocks underground, deceptive spriggans, local soldiers, and a gnome recovery team, each with their own plans for the wreck. Malfunctioning, sometimes explosive autognomes and a pedal-powered landing craft make the salvage mission even more memorable. This compact adventure gives players plenty of options to sneak, negotiate, fight, or leave with something even stranger than treasure.
Issue 64
Bzallin’s Blacksphere, Chris Perkins — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for 6-8 PCs, levels 12-15
PREMISE: The PCs are lured to an estate by Madame Tuvache under the pretense of hunting a monster, only to find themselves trapped in a macabre, clockwork-driven house populated by dancing corpses.
Bzallin’s Blacksphere starts with a magical disaster that affects an entire city, then leads into a high-level adventure through a ruined wizard’s fortress and a maze in another dimension. Usual magical shortcuts like teleportation are blocked and spell recovery is limited, so the party has to solve problems more carefully. At the heart of the adventure is the Cube, a dungeon with warped space where walking off one edge of the map brings you back on the other side. Inside, there are captive fiends you can negotiate with, a mechanical spider you can pilot, and security systems that follow their own rules. This dungeon crawl is ambitious and can be disorienting, so DMs should take time to prepare for its shifting layout and time-sensitive encounters before running it.
The Mad Chefs of Lac Anchois, Jennifer Tittle Stack – Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for 3-6 PCs, levels 6-9
PREMISE: A pair of culinary-obsessed cloud giant brothers have kidnapped ten young grippli to serve as the main course for a group of visiting food critics, forcing the party to mount a rescue mission at their high-end restaurant.
The Mad Chefs of Lac Anchois sends the party into a fully functioning, giant-sized restaurant run by kobold waitresses and a temperamental ogre-mage sommelier. You have 72 hours to save captives before they end up on the menu. Whether you pretend to be rich guests, sneak through the pantry, or charge into the kitchen, every choice risks starting a fight you might not expect. Strange, oversized dangers like automatic cake decorators, deadly eggbeaters, the infamous Spoon of Transmuting Flesh to Roquefort make the setting both funny and dangerous. This rescue adventure rewards players who pay attention and mind their manners as much as their weapons.
Issue 66
Avenging Murik, Chris Perkins — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for 3-5 PCs, levels 4-6 (This is a side trek adventure, 2 pages long)
PREMISE: A mourning dwarven fighter and his werebadger companion recruit the party to raid the lair of a stone giant to recover “stolen” gold and avenge the death of a fallen brother.
Avenging Murik is a short AD&D adventure set in two locations that turns the usual dungeon-crawl on its head. Instead of just clearing out a lair, players have to uncover the truth behind a conflict and handle a tense standoff. Here, the so-called monsters might be more reasonable than the people who hired the party, and allies could turn out to be the real danger. The adventure focuses on social skills, hidden betrayals, and smart roleplay. It rewards players who question their orders instead of just fighting, making it a refreshing, easy-to-run break for any campaign.
Operation Manta Ray, Paul Culotta – Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for up to 6 PCs, levels 6-9 (Forgotten Realms)
PREMISE: The PCs are hired by Sembian Naval Intelligence to infiltrate the heavily fortified pirate capital of Immurk’s Hold, locate a deep-cover spy known as “Manta Ray” using a secret passphrase, and extract him before his cover is blown.
Operation Manta Ray is a high-security tactical puzzle box, and infiltrating this pirate capital takes more than just strength. Players might pretend to be new recruits, sneak in through tunnels below the city, or try a quiet underwater entry. The city is packed and always changing, so you’ll need to find a hidden agent among 5,000 enemies while avoiding magical gates that remove enchantments and harbor defenses guarded by killer whales and Thayvian bombards. If you can’t talk your way through, you might have to survive the deadly “Pirates’ Run.” Whether you plan a careful rescue or decide to destroy the fortress through sabotage, Manta Ray gives a tough and memorable challenge.
Orange and Black, Peter C. Spahn — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 1-3
PREMISE: The PCs are hired by a frantic tavern owner to search the dangerous Black Forest for a missing eight-year-old boy who wandered too far from his friends.
Orange and Black sends low-level adventurers into the dangerous Periwood, a place full of wilderness factions and deadly hazards. Players use node-based tracking to discover a twist on a classic predatory monster, an outcast orc band led by a medusa priestess, and the ruins of a flooded shrine where magic stops working. To break a lingering curse players have to solve an ancient cleansing puzzle instead of relying only on weapons. If you like following clues, deciding when to talk or fight, and adapting when magic fails, this compact adventure balances tactical survival and high-stakes dungeon crawling.
Issue 67
Uzaglu of the Underdark, Chris Perkins — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 5-10
PREMISE: The party must navigate the Kraal Nexus, a cavern junction in the Underdark guarded by a corrupted, undead myconid king and his disease-ridden, fungal-infested animated corpses.
Uzaglu of the Underdark brings the players into a claustrophobic, fungal-choked gauntlet where every step counts. Bioluminescent spore gardens and strict alert triggers mean a single wrong move can wake a silent nightmare, and its mold-infested undead make standard combat into a lethal game of collateral damage. Optional dangers such as duergar remains and a drow chest hidden in a foul black pool reward players who take risks. This lean, atmospheric, and tough adventure pushes stealth, movement, and resource management to the limit, making it easy to add to any Underdark expedition.
Issue 69
Challenge of Champions II, Johnathan M Richards — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4 PCs of any level
PREMISE: The Adventurers’ Guild hosts its second annual contest, challenging a four-person team to solve a gauntlet of ten logic and teamwork puzzles without their standard gear or spells. The original CoC was in Issue 58.
Challenge of Champions II strips away magic items and spellbooks, so only your creativity counts. The adventure features ten unique puzzle rooms that push the party to use lateral thinking and a set of unusual tools. Players need to handle time limits and solve tricky anagrams to uncover hidden treasure, while rival teams trying to bribe their way to victory make things more interesting. This adventure stands out from typical dungeon crawls and shows that the toughest challenges can be all about brainpower.
Stumping the Party, Christopher Pomeroy — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 5-10 (Side Trek)
PREMISE: While traveling through the forest, the party discovers a dead horse and is lured by a smoking wagon into a lethal trap set by an ettercap who uses the scene to ambush prey.
Stumping the Party uses a smoking merchant wagon as bait, drawing in a predator that turns the woods into a sticky trap. Webs fall to separate the party, then pull them into a lair under a hollow stump. Inside, sticky tunnels force careful movement while the ettercap attacks from hidden passages. Players might have to cut friends free from silk cocoons or avoid sudden drops. This deadly trap changes a simple ambush into a tactical fight. It’s an easy side trek to add to any forest journey and works well for groups who like classic danger and smart monsters.
Issue 70
Boulder Dash, Andy Miller – Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 6-8 (Side Trek)
PREMISE: While navigating a mountain pass, the PCs encounter a collapsed wooden walkway spanning a deep ravine and are ambushed by a tribe of hill giants throwing boulders from caves across the river.
Boulder Dash makes a canyon crossing into a challenge that tests both tactics and raw strength. In this side trek the party has to cross a 60-foot chasm above a raging river while dodging giant artillery attacks, as the enemies use tactics to lure spellcasters and fliers into close-range danger zones. After the initial assault, the group faces a narrow cave filled with stone barriers, hidden treasure, and chest traps that react to the angle of approach. This fast-paced and dangerous scenario brings classic AD&D excitement, making the landscape just as deadly as the monsters.
Kingdom of the Ghouls, Wolfgang Baur – Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 5-8 PCs, levels 9-15 (Greyhawk)
PREMISE: Fleeing refugees bring word that an unstoppable army of true ghouls, ruled by an necromantic King, is expanding its subterranean empire, prompting the heroes to venture into DeepOerth to recruit allies and destroy the ghouls’ power source.
Kingdom of the Ghouls descends into DeepOerth for a high-level Underdark campaign that elevates standard dungeon crawling into intense underground warfare. Your party will need to unite Underdark factions, from svirfneblin refugees and troglodyte tribes to deep dragons who serve as bribe-taking librarians. Survival means dealing with limited teleportation magic and dangerous environments. The game’s mechanics let you build alliances and lead armies, with encounters that range from classic dungeon crawls to large-scale battles. Whether you’re sabotaging dams or exploring haunted fungal forests, every decision will shape the future of the deep realms in a high-stakes adventure.
Issue 73
Eye of Myrkul, Eric L Boyd — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for up to 5-7 PCs, levels 6-8 (Forgotten Realms)
PREMISE: In the epic conclusion to the Mere of Dead Men series, the party must retrieve the bones of a dracolich from the sunken Uthtower, which only breaches the swamp’s surface during a rare astronomical event.
Eye of Myrkul takes you back into the Mere of Dead Men for a thrilling Forgotten Realms finale. The adventure uses a unique “Deific Support” system where your choices shape the world around you. If you desecrate unholy altars or tap into local magic, you might cause the dungeon to collapse and sink into the swamp while you’re still inside. You’ll face a three-way conflict with rival cultists and dragons who use deception and hold important advantages over your group. With rising waters, undead that come back together, and a constant sense of urgency, this adventure offers a mix of suspense and tactical challenges. If interested in the entire arc, adventures are featured in issues 69-73.
The Necromancer’s Pet, Jason Duke — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 4-6 (Side Trek, Ravenloft)
PREMISE: The PCs encounter a pack of loup-garous attacking a wounded bulldog. After driving off the lycanthropes the party may adopt the dog, unwittingly inviting a vampiric pseudo-familiar into their camp.
The Necromancer’s Pet takes ordinary campsite security and makes it into a game of Gothic horror. The adventure uses the party’s empathy against them, bringing in a hidden threat that drains resources while everyone sleeps. Instead of a typical nighttime attack, this scenario uses tracking mechanics, unsettling sensory hints, and a magical collar that reflects damage back at the party. This short adventure delivers psychological suspense, making players rethink long rests and wonder about the cost of their own kindness.
The Setting Sun, Andy Miller – Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 5-7 (Greyhawk)
PREMISE: The Temple of Pelor sends the party behind enemy lines on Greyhawk’s war-torn Wild Coast to investigate an isolated parish somehow spared by the invading humanoid hordes.
Sent to investigate this suspicious miracle, the party enters a social game where open weapons are unwelcome, questions are dangerous, and the sanctuary watches its guests more closely than it seems. The investigation demands operational discipline: the party must conceal suspicions, navigate restricted temple spaces and decide how deeply to probe a community whose safety may rest on a terrible secret. It ends with a difficult question: after exposing the truth, what responsibility does the party bear for a town left vulnerable in hostile territory?
Issue 74
The Scourge of Scalabar, Chris Perkins — Score 3.8, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 1-3
PREMISE: The party is hired by a merchant to investigate the loss of her ship and must track down and stop a mechanical submarine disguised as a giant shark before it sinks her next vessel.
The Scourge of Scalabar is a high-seas mystery that turns into a retro-tech challenge. Players search port warehouses, expose rival merchants, and follow a terrifying ‘sea monster’ to a hidden cave network on the coast. This adventure mixes city investigation with an attack on the [redacted] itself. Whether you use stealth, go in head-on, or try sabotage, the story offers a fresh take on classic fantasy, with solid backup plans to keep the mystery moving.
First People, Kent Ertman — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for up to 5-6 PCs, levels 4-6
PREMISE: The party discovers a hidden valley inhabited by an isolated, primitive human tribe and must complete a quest to slay marauding perytons and uncover a treacherous witch doctor to earn passage through the mountains.
First People takes you into a remote, mysterious valley tucked away in the mountains, where a tribe lives with no contact from the outside world. The party has to respect local customs and earn trust through strange rituals, all while the peaceful valley hides even older and stranger threats. Players will encounter out-of-body spirit journeys, a dark nymph corrupted and served by minotaurs, and a mist dragon worshipped as a local god. Hidden glue-pit traps and classic AD&D exploration make this adventure a mix of cultural roleplay and high-stakes mountain survival.
Night of the Bloodbirds, Brian Corvello — Score 3.8, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 3-7
PREMISE: The party must defend a cattle farm from unusually aggressive swarms of stirges and track the bloodsucking pests into the hills, where they discover an ogre mage conducting biological experiments on the local wildlife.
Night of the Bloodbirds begins as players defend a peaceful hillside cattle farm from relentless swarms of blood-drinking stirges, then follow the trail into the wilds. Along the way, they meet a vain sylph, discover a grave guarded by stone and encounter a reclusive galeb duhr. Each of these encounters provides a clue to help reveal who is behind the attacks. Deep inside a fortified cave system players confront an intelligent, tea-drinking ogre mage who has repurposed goblin tunnels into a alchemical lab, filled with poisoned runoff and forced hobgoblin workers. This adventure mixes a classic monster hunt with wilderness encounters and a dungeon raid.
Preemptive Strike, Paul Culotta — Score 3.8, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 3-5 PCs, levels 10-15
PREMISE: The party is recruited by the King of Lungardy to undergo rapid training as griffon riders and execute a preemptive strike on a volcanic fire giant supply base to halt an invasion of a neighboring elven kingdom.
Preemptive Strike is a high-level military campaign that turns classic D&D into an aerial tactical mission. The party is recruited by a desperate monarch and trained to bond with griffons, learning how to fly, move stealthily at night, and use altitude to avoid patrols before an invasion starts. The adventure leads to Mount Bellows, a busy volcanic stronghold run by fire giants, red dragons, and firenewt workers. Instead of a typical dungeon crawl, this fortress is a working logistics center with rothé herds, supply caravans, and butcher shops. Players can choose from several ways to sabotage the base and stop a coming war.
Issue 75
Non-Prophet Organization, Charles C Reed — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 4-7
PREMISE: A covey of hags uses prophetic dreams and staged disasters to deceive a local handyman, convincing him to lead the village of Kellorville into abandoning their homes and fleeing directly into the hags’ trap. Non-Prophet Organization is an investigation-to-dungeon crawl that rewards both curiosity and guts. A rural village stands on the brink of fleeing into disaster, and only the players can catch the deception before it’s too late. This scenario lets you intercept the panic, turn the enemy’s own tools against them, or launch a surprise assault through multiple hidden entrances into a well-defended lair.
The Amulet and the Underdark, William Kenower — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 5-7
PREMISE: The party is hired by Lord Griswald to track down and recover a stolen magical amulet of peace before a war breaks out with a neighboring fiefdom, leading them through bandit-infested woods and down into a subterranean duergar city.
The Amulet and the Underdark starts with a surface investigation and shifts into a social infiltration, where creative tactics matter more than brute force. Multiple avenues let you track an elusive fence through bandit-filled woods before heading into a duergar compound. Your success depends on how you handle underground gatekeepers, whether you pretend to be traders, work the black market, or find hidden ways inside. With plenty of faction drama, unusual local dangers, and tempting rewards, this module is a great high-agency adventure for groups who like planning as much as fighting.
The Forgotten Man, Steve Devaney — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-5 PCs, levels 6-8
PREMISE: The party is hired to protect a village from winter wolf attacks, only to discover their amnesiac new friend is the reincarnated form of an ancient anti-paladin, and they must stop a disguised lich from restoring his memories.
This Gothic adventure combines strong emotional stakes with classic castle exploration, as players work together to protect a vulnerable companion from a threat only they can sense. The party explores a five-story castle built around a waterfall, moving between rooms using magical wardrobes and mirror portals. Along the way they uncover clues and discoveries that reveal an old tragedy. The scenario is filled with dark fairy-tale touches, hidden rooms, tragic ghosts and yes, puppet shows.
Issue 76
Mertylmane’s Road, Jason Poole & Craig Zipse — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 5-7
PREMISE: The party is hired by the sovereign of Nothenvell to join a trade caravan traveling an old, dangerous arctic road and investigate why supply expeditions are disappearing.
Face a harsh tundra where the environment is your toughest challenge. In this arctic adventure, you’ll need to manage resources carefully. Heavy winter gear makes it hard to handle small objects, stops somatic spellcasting and prevents wearing regular armor, while thin river ice and unreliable sleds make traveling risky. You’ll follow the trail of missing caravans, explore a dwarven scrying platform that stands free of snow, and break into a frozen stronghold hiding a dangerous secret. With survival rules, tactical wilderness tracking, and a dungeon crawl, this adventure makes the cold itself a true test of endurance.
Earth Tones, Craig Shackleton — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-7 PCs, levels 7-9
PREMISE: The party travels to the town of Blue Rock to investigate mysterious attacks by burrowing monsters drawn by the magical tones of a jade flute, and explore an abandoned dwarven stead.
Earth Tones is an adventure set in the festival town of Blue Rock, where the party investigates a series of monster attacks: ankhegs, purple worms, bulettes, and umber hulks striking without warning. As the group deals with local officials and secretive duergar delegates, clues lead them to Farforge, a lost dwarven stronghold. There, players explore a multi-level dungeon filled with the undead, electrified altars, and memorable scenes like a rusted iron golem trying to fix its own damaged body. The adventure offers multiple ways to discover secrets and overcome obstacles, combining investigation, political intrigue, and classic dungeon exploration.
Issue 77
Ex Keraptis Cum Amore, Andy Miller — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 8-12 (Greyhawk)
PREMISE: The party discovers a poem and map seemingly left by the infamous archmage Keraptis, luring them to the Burning Cliffs to explore a trap-filled dungeon crafted by an insane [redacted] posing as his rival to assemble the legendary Infinity Wand.
Ex Keraptis Cum Amore captures the spirit of White Plume Mountain, offering a tough Greyhawk adventure packed with puzzles. Players will jump between spinning basalt disks over boiling geysers, tackle a reverse-gravity Triple-Double Pyramid, and solve riddles guarded by undead sentinels. The dungeon pushes back with magic-suppression and blocked teleportation, so groups have rely on smart play instead of spells. As the party gathers three artifacts to rebuild the Infinity Wand, the challenge builds to a final battle in a pocket demiplane against a [redacted].
To Walk Beneath the Waves, W. Jason Peck — Score 3.4, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 3-5
PREMISE: The party is hired by the town of Rawnis to plunge beneath the sea to eliminate a band of suspected sahuagin raiders operating from an ancient submerged locathah castle.
To Walk Beneath the Waves handles underwater adventures as a real logistical challenge, not just a magical effect. The party moves along the seafloor in heavy brass and glass diving suits that limit their movement and prevent somatic spellcasting. They push through thick kelp beds that slow them down as they head for a submerged locathah fortress. Inside, the dungeon is dynamic: the war party is splitting apart, and a commander is waiting for the party to weaken her fanatical priest boss so she can start a mutiny during the fight. The adventure feels tight and tense, with the environment itself posing the main challenge instead of just the monsters.
Issue 78
Veiled Threats, Peter Hopkins — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 3-5 (Side Trek)
PREMISE: The party is summoned to the court of Baron Kendric Rodham, only for the audience to be interrupted by a group of Faceless Ones cultists disguised by a veil spell who attempt to kidnap the baron for sacrifice to Juiblex.
Veiled Threats is a short side trek that isolates the party in a throne-room ambush where the fight is all about spatial control and sensory illusions. The danger comes from a multi-sensory veil spell that only breaks if someone makes physical contact, meaning the party can’t just talk or sense their way through the trick. When the trap is triggered the exits are sealed, forcing a four-round standoff before help can arrive. Enemy spellcasters pull wands from spring-loaded wrist holsters, thugs throw flasks of green slime, and the rules let players control the castle guards. The result is a fast, chaotic brawl in a single room.
Peer Amid the Waters, Johnathan M Richards — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 3-5
PREMISE: Two nixie children accidentally activate a pair of conduit bracelets, opening a temporary portal that begins draining the waters of their lake into a sealed ancient desert tomb. The party has to rescue the children before the portal fades away and traps them forever.
Peer Amid the Waters takes a low-level rescue and turns it into a race against time. The magic that lets the party breathe underwater fills their lungs with liquid, so they can’t cast spells with verbal components or use command-word items. As the water rises, players must lift heavy portcullises, avoid a feline curse, and fight undead predators desperate to survive.
Unexpected Guests, Jeffrey P. Carpenter – Score, 3.0. Good
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 4-6 (Side Trek)
PREMISE: The party finds a magical bag of lodging and inadvertently releases a derro savant and his followers who were trapped inside the extradimensional space by a rival.
Unexpected Guests turns a magic item into a claustrophobic ambush. When the party climbs into a newly looted bag of lodging, an extradimensional three-room suite, they end up trapped with a group of derro who also want to escape. The result is a close-quarters, tactical fight in a small magical space, where controlling the exit is more important than strength. This short encounter makes an ordinary piece of treasure much more dangerous than it first appears.
Trial of the Frog, Tito Leati — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 3-4 (Side Trek)
PREMISE: The PCs are hired by a young grippli noble to explore a volcanic mesa called the Iristone, seeking crystals for a mating ritual, but they discover the sacred site is occupied by a fanatical duergar priest building a massive crystal idol.
What begins as a straightforward jungle quest becomes more complicated when they find a fanatical duergar priest building a huge idol from melted quartz. There are two ways into the site, and the caves hide a dangerous secret. If the party disturbs the wrong thing, the ceiling starts to collapse, and they have to race to escape before the mesa falls apart.
Issue 79
Keep for Sale, Peter Zollers — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-8 PCs, levels 1-3
PREMISE: A dwarf offers to sell the deed to a coastal keep, leading the party to a ruined fortification occupied by an ambitious kenku’s goblin war party and a pack of lesser seawolves.
Keep for Sale starts with a real-estate scam: a con artist tries to sell the party a deed in a local tavern. This kicks off a classic frontier adventure, sending the group through a heavily taxed border to what turns out to be a crowded ruin. Players find several factions, each controlling different areas and each with their own goals and weaknesses. Players can choose to fight, negotiate, or turn these groups against each other. Clearing out the keep is not just about fighting: there’s a quicksand moat, rotting stairs, and other surprises. Success requires as much diplomacy and tactics as it does strength.
Cloudkill, Jeff Fairbourn — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 4-8
PREMISE: The party mounts flying steeds and ventures into a toxic cloud to shut down a mountaintop derro smelting factory.
Cloudkill moves from open skies to an industrial nightmare, combining a dreamlike sky-realm with a fully operational underground factory run by slaves. As they go players meet unlikely allies, territorial predators, and captives with their own agendas. This isn’t just a simple escort quest. Inside the factory the adventure turns into a stealth-focused tactical challenge instead of a straightforward fight. Players need to study the industrial layout and decide how to sabotage it, with several good options to choose from. This adventure is a great choice for groups who like vivid, unique locations, old-school improvisation, and plans that can go sideways fast.
The Akriloth, Matthew G. Adkins — Score 3.8, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 5-6 PCs, levels 10-12 (Forgotten Realms)
PREMISE: Retrieve a lost relic called the Akriloth from the sunken, undead-infested temple in the ruined mer-city of Voalidru.
The Akriloth throws high-level parties into a submerged ruin where timing changes the whole tactical experience. You can sneak in during the day to catch threats grouped together and off-guard, or attack at night to avoid active patrols moving through the flooded halls. Getting around relies on unusual, organic features: living door membranes, special command words, and physical puzzles block the way forward. The ruin feels like a volatile aquatic ecosystem, full of rival hostile factions and haunted by tragic marine undead, with delicate hazards.
Issue 80
Fortune Favors the Dead, Lance Hawyermale — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 5-7 PCs, levels 5-7
PREMISE: PCs have to unite the torn sections of an old map to uncover a dead bandit’s hidden gold and a legendary holy relic buried in the desert of Guadalante.
Fortune Favors the Dead is a swashbuckling, Spanish-flavored treasure hunt where heat shapes tactics from the start because it is too hot for metal armor. The adventure opens with multi-ship naval combat; players can direct fleet movement or board vessels mid-skirmish. Then it shifts inland. A heavily guarded prison can be cracked in multiple ways. A high-society villa offers a social heist: mingling at a formal ball, bypassing sound-based locks, or striking a deal with regional outlaws to force entry.
The Frothing Miscreant, Robert A. Van Buskirk — Score 3.8, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 2-4 (Forgotten Realms)
PREMISE: An grumpy gnome takes revenge to new heights and proves to the world that he’s no small threat by ravaging the coast with an undead-powered paddleboat and explosive firebirds.
The Frothing Miscreant is a fun and strange low-level adventure set in a fortified coastal estate, where just getting inside is a real challenge. Players must deal with gravel, glass-topped walls, and razor-edged gates, making stealth and entry tough. There are multiple avenues to avoid a direct assault, but if the alarm goes off the estate reacts as a whole: signals flash across the grounds, airborne weapons launch, and armored cavalry rides out. The adventure ends with a unique reward I guarantee they’ve never received before.
Challenge of Champions III, Johnathan M. Richards — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4 PCs, any level
PREMISE: An adventuring team composed of a wizard, warrior, priest, and rogue competes in the Adventurers’ Guild’s annual contest consisting of ten puzzle-based scenarios.
Challenge of Champions III removes all the usual combat and survival gear, turning the dungeon crawl into a test of wits. The Adventurers’ Guild takes away weapons and spells, then sends a team of four through ten puzzle rooms, each with a strict time limit. Every challenge requires careful use of resources instead of brute strength. Players might have to find their way through a maze using only voice commands, take advantage of a creature’s color-blindness, or figure out the odds on a slippery slope. Guild proctors are strict and will disqualify teams instantly for mistakes, but the scoring lets you keep going even if you mess up a room. It’s the third and last in a series of great CoC adventures.
Sarfion’s Collection, Felix Douglas — Score 3.6, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 3-5 PCs, levels 7-10 (Side Trek)
PREMISE: An academy of the arcane arts serves as a front for a mad wizard feeding victims to an otherworldly brain collector.
Sarfion’s Collection transforms a magic academy into a setting for social infiltration and espionage. Getting to the upper floors and restricted libraries is tightly controlled: membership fees, geas pledges and explosive runes on rare books all stand between visitors and the truth. Behind its academic appearance the building is a trap. Intruders face alarmed stairs and locked doors as they look into a series of suspicious disappearances. To make progress, players need balance stealth with social skills, whether by paying for entry, questioning bound scribes, or forcing their way into the Director’s private rooms. This adventure is a great pick for mid-level groups who like urban occult mysteries and magical security puzzles that get weirder the further they go.
The Scar, Ray Winninger — Score 3.8, Exceptional
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, level 1
PREMISE: Imprisoned in an orc slave pit, player characters must endure forced labor, navigate complex routines, and engineer an escape from an underground temple.
The Scar strips players of their equipment and drops them into a slave pit, making their forced labor a procedural survival sandbox. An hour-by-hour schedule of work details, inspections, and fatigue creates a rhythm players have to learn and exploit. This includes stealing contraband, translating ancient scripts for puzzle keys, and testing volatile powders in ruined laboratories. The large 45-location temple really rewards patience and subtlety. I think this prison break is more ambitious and overall better than A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity.
Issue 81
A Race Against Time, Kent Ertman — Score 3.0, Good
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 1-3
PREMISE: A mad bomber terrorizes the city of Red Fern with fire crystals frozen in time. The heroes must unravel clues to locate the crystals before they detonate, while simultaneously foiling a prison break.
A Race Against Time turns a low-level city adventure into a real-time bomb hunt. A messenger delivers the first riddle, and from there the party can decode clues and tackle bomb sites across Red Fern in any order, racing a three-hour table clock. Neutralizing each crystal requires creative, environment-specific solutions: diving into a well, scaling a slick fountain statue, or grabbing a crystal from a planetarium’s fake constellation. It’s an excellent fit for groups who like pressure-cooker pacing, if the DM is ready to improvise when the party chases a bad lead.
Divisions of the Mind, Charles C. Reed — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 8-12
PREMISE Confronting a beholder leads to the discovery of an ancient illithid citadel ruled by an ulitharid with a split personality.
A beholder hires the party, marking the path through its cavern lair with carved stone arrows that lead to a rival: a huge crystal citadel floating in an underground chasm. The fortress is protected by a complete anti-magic field and self-repairing crystal, so spellcasters can’t blast their way in. Once they get inside, things get weird fast: undead alhoon, githyanki emissaries, and rooms lined with crystals that send waves of raw emotion to anyone nearby. At the heart of the citadel is an ulitharid with a trapped human mind, surviving on sacs of longevity fluid. Players can talk their way through, choose a side, or fight their way forward, turning the citadel into a psychological challenge instead of a typical dungeon crawl.
The Door to Darkness, James Wyatt — Score 3.2, Strong
Recommended for up to 3-6 PCs, levels 1-9
PREMISE: An illusionist seeking to ruin a dwarven inn’s reputation stages a fake haunting, inadvertently tearing open a portal to the ancient, malevolent darkness that sleeps beneath the building.
The Door to Darkness is a haunted-inn adventure that can be scaled for low, mid, or high-level parties. The story takes place in a remote dwarven lodge built over an old elven ruin. It starts as a social mystery: a jealous illusionist hires thieves disguised as monks to fake a haunting and damage the inn’s reputation. Things get complicated when his crude magic accidentally connects with an ancient evil, turning his illusions into ‘figments’—creatures that are real, dangerous, and can’t be ignored. As the party investigates, they have to balance talking with the inn’s staff and guests, facing sudden attacks, and dealing with a growing threat from a portal to doom.
Khazefryn, Felix Douglas — Score 3.4, Strong
Recommended for up to 4-6 PCs, levels 9-14
PREMISE: A ruined duergar monastery in the Underdark has been taken over by two deep dragons and their drow allies, who force an uneasy alliance among the cavern’s divided, monstrous inhabitants.
Khazefryn is a high-level Underdark gauntlet set in a huge, water-filled cavern built around the ruins of a duergar monastery. The area is held together by a fragile truce, kept in place by two deep dragons who rule over camps of troglodytes, varkhas, bainligor, and kuo-toa. Getting inside means dealing with one of two heavily guarded gates, either by bribing the guards or fighting your way through. The place is full of strange features, like a perfect Dome of Silence, spider-shaped chests that walk, and a well-protected dragon hoard. With forty locations to explore, this complex is an alien underground world where you can fight, bargain, and scheme your way forward.
AT LAST IT IS DONE! It’s hard to communicate the enormous effort working through these hundreds of adventures has been over the last months, but my entire hope was to develop a resource for 2nd Edition players and GMs who want high quality content, TSR didn’t produce a lot of great adventure modules in that era. Enjoy, and if you think I missed a good one let me know in the comments below.
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