Moldvay Adventure Generator 2.0

Looking through my book the other day it hit me that I had seen almost every section of this book rewritten in some manner or another. Except this section of the book. Of course it could just be that I’ve missed something, which is quite likely, but I thought it would be fun and interesting to try and turn the Dungeon Generator in the Moldvay book into an Adventure Generator. One that could be used to spawn short little adventures that do not necessarily take place in a dungeon, but could have a short dungeon crawl component to them. I decided to incorporate the Wandering Monster tables into as well in order to generate some protagonists in addition to the Scenario and Settings table already provided. The only addition I have made at this point was to expand the Settings table to include two additional results. 7 – Wilderness, 8 – Island. I suppose that both tables could be extensively reworked, and I may do so in the future. For now I will stick to what I have as it seems to produce quick low level adventures fairly well.

Main Protagonist: Roll on the Level 3 Wandering Monster chart (B54). This is the main villain of our little story. The confrontation with this “monster” is not optional and destroying them or their plans is the finale of the story.

Scenario Table: (B51) roll a d10.

Setting Table: (B51) roll a d6, or a d8 with the changes above. This is where your PC’s will find the main protagonist.

Secondary Actors: Roll twice on Wandering Monster Level 1 table (B53), and then roll once on the Wandering Monster Level 2 table. One of these creatures may be an ally to the PC’s. They should all figure into the story in some manner. Maybe they caused the trouble, were pushed out of their territory by the main protagonist, or maybe they work for him. Each should play a role in the adventure whether friend or foe, but they may not always be necessary to complete the adventure, and may only be a diversion. One set of creatures may also use the in lair numbers, instead of just the number from the wandering monster tables.

If you get a roll for a creature that just doesn’t seem to fit the story, ask yourself, would a trap work better?  If so use a trap. If not reroll or just pick what you think works best. Personally, I try to work whatever I get into the story, but sometimes you gotta cut something loose if it just doesn’t work.

Strangeness: Add something unique to you adventure to help make it memorable.

The work here is tying it all together in a way that makes sense, or best makes sense to you.

Adventure 1

Main Protagonist: Mediums (4) (3, 1st level MU and 1, 3rd level MU)
Scenario: Using a magic portal

Setting: Ancient temple

Secondary Actors: Goblins (6), Traders (4), Neanderthals (1 warrior, 24 tribespeople)

Strangeness: Magic Portal, tentacled beast from a far realm.

The mediums and their leader are looking for the sacrifices they need to perform a summoning ritual. They hired the task out to a local trader who secretly works with a band of goblins that kidnap people that he then sells into slavery in the land to the south. The trader and his goblins had a hard time finding the required number of people for the mediums. This was largely due to the fact that the goblins went a little crazy raiding a local thorp and killed most of the peasants. So they ended up running across a tribe of Neanderthals and decided, they were close enough. Three Neanderthal warriors gave pursuit to the slavers and ended up getting, killed, captured, or fleeing into the woods. The remaining Neanderthal is still shadowing the slavers waiting for an opportunity to free his friends.

The mediums were not so happy with the sacrificial victims, apparently they decided that “close” wouldn’t do and so they charmed the goblins and captured the trader and his human companions and plan to sacrifice them instead.

The PC’s should stumble upon the burned thorp, the dead and remaining villagers and get involved in this way, tracking the slavers across the mountains and possibly befriending the lone Neanderthal. Helping to rescue his tribesmen by fighting the goblins at the base of the temple, and rescuing the local peasants by fighting the mediums who are at the top of the temple and in the middle of summoning ritual. If there are too many mediums for the party to handle, the portal is partially open and a tentacle can snatch one of them away into the portal.

Adventure 2

Main Protagonist: Thoul
Scenario: Chaotic Outpost

Setting: Caves

Secondary Actors: Goblins (12), Kobolds (10), Driver Ants (16)

Strangeness: Kobold goo that makes a driver ants blind to their presence.

The Thoul is the sole survivor of a hobgoblin band that was wiped out by adventurers. He stumbled across the goblins and quickly became their leader. Months later they came across the koblods who were living in the driver ant cave. The kobold learned to make and are using a concoction that when applied to the body makes the driver ants “blind” to their presence. The thoul has taken the kobolds lair as his own, relying on the ants to serve as guards the goblins, and kobold to serve as raiders to fatten his belly and his purse.

The kobolds are bullied by the goblins and the thoul and have lost numerous tribal members. They came up with a plan to raid and attack as many humans along the main road in order to attract attention. The last time they attacked merchant caravans on the road, adventurers showed up and they were forced to flee temporarily. They are hoping to attract a band of adventurers to take out the thoul and the goblins. They will avoid any fights unless cornered.

Rumor: Kobolds and some say goblins have been raiding caravans along the western road again.

Adventure 3

Main Protagonist: Tiger Beetles (4)
Scenario: Rescue

Setting: Wilderness

Secondary Actors: Trader (1), Sprites (5), Draco Lizard (1)

Strangeness:

PC’s come around the bend in a road to find a massive blood splatter on the road. Whatever was killed lost a lot of blood. Investigation reveals that it looks to have been a horse and rider. There are human tracks that head off to the left of the road, while the horse seems to have been dragged off the road to the right.

A local trader was travelling on the mountain road just a little ahead of the PC’s. He was spotted by a band of Pixies who decided it would be great fun to mess with him. They spooked his horse and he was thrown, he managed to get up and flee off to the left of the road hoping to get away from the faeries but he wasn’t watching where he was going and fell down a steep narrow ravine. He broke his leg in the fall and landed near a tiger beetle lair, but is high enough up on a terrace that the creatures can only approach one at a time up the steep incline that he can push them backwards with a branch, toppling them down the rise. Though each time he manages to push one away it takes a bite or two from his branch. His time and branch grow shorter every time the tiger beetles come at him.

His horse stayed near the edge of the road after his master had been chased into the woods on the left of the road. Unfortunately for the horse, the spot he was grazing is below the entrance of a Draco Lizard lair. The Draco Lizard found the horse to be to irresistible a temptation and flew down and attacked the horse. After killing it he dragged it off the road into the underbrush to dine in peace. He is still dining and will continue to do so unless attacked.

The pixies feel bad about causing injury to the trader and will seek out the help of the PC’s to help rescue him. They will assist in any way possible, that is of course unless the PC’s are rude or mean to them. In which case they will use their powers on the PC’s, promptly forgetting about the trader.

Adventure 4

Main Protagonist: Driver Ants (6)
Scenario: Chaotic Outpost

Setting: Stronghold or Town

Secondary Actors: Gnomes (8/12), Bandits (4), Black Widow Spider (1)

Strangeness: Regenerating Driver Ants.

The driver ants cleaned up their lair after the PC’s killed the goblin and the thoul. Bits of each fed to the queen and there was a strange reaction in the new ants that were hatched. The thouls heritage, being part troll, resulted in the new driver ants gaining regenerative powers.

Weeks or months later a group of bandits came across the lair of the Driver Ants that the PC’s had cleared of the thoul and the goblins. After a bit of searching they found several vents and built bonfires over them in order to smoke them out. It worked and the ants were forced out of their lair along with any kobolds that remained. The bandits and the kobolds got into a bit of a scape and most of the kobolds were killed along with several of the bandits. The bandits quickly fortified their new stronghold with a palisade and a sturdy door.

After a few attempts to get back into their lair the ants moved on to try and find a new lair. The ants came across a small mining operation in another part of the valley. It was ran by two gnome brothers and their employees. The ants managed to split the gnomes into two groups. They drove one group out of the mine, while the other group retreated further into the mine. Normally the driver ants wouldn’t pose a problem for so many able bodied gnome miners, but the brother claims that each time they killed an ant and hacked it to pieces it grew it’s limbs back and got back up. As fate would have it, the brothers were leading both groups of gnomes. The older brother who is on the outside is desperately attempting to recruit people to go back into the mine and help him rescue or find his younger brother.

The black widow spider has lived in the mine for some time. Her lair is high up in crevasse above one of the main chambers. She is a smart and cunning old spider and knows to space her kills out and to only attack when there is a lone gnome. So far the gnomes are unaware of her presence just chalking up the missing miners, to them getting lost in the maze of tunnels. The old spider has caught several ants already and has discovered their ability to regenerate. She has them securely wrapped in webs and feasts upon them regularly, when they regenerate she feasts upon them again. This has the potential to be an endless food supply for her, so she is is actively searching the caves for more ants. She may attack the PC’s by surprise (3 in 6) while they are attacking any ants in the cave as she wishes to take them alive. Though she will quickly retreat if wounded.

The second group of gnomes is deeper in the mine. They are still alive, though they have casualties and are running out of food and water.

Adventure 5

Main Protagonist: Zombies (18)
Scenario: Visit a lost shrine

Setting: Ancient temple

Secondary Actors: Dwarves (5), Acolyte (6), Living Statue (1)

Strangeness: Interference by the Gods and a super living statue.

A group of Acolytes have discovered the location of a lost shrine dedicated to an ancient hero of the land. The wish to travel to the shrine and reclaim it from the wilderness and restore it to its former glory. To accomplish their mission they have hired a band of dwarven mercenaries to guard them on their travels through the wilderness. They went out a week ago but came back after getting lost, they wish to hire the PC’s as guides and extra body guards. All of the Acolytes are 1^st level and have no spells but will fight if they must, though they armed only with staffs and clubs.

The dwarves are not actually mercenaries. They are the descendants of a dwarven weapon-smith who forged the hero’s sword. Their great-grandfather literally put his soul into the sword. Working on the blade for weeks on end without stopping, he became obsessed with it the story goes, refusing to leave the forge until it was perfect. Suddenly the ringing from the forge stopped, and the smith was nowhere to be found, but lo and behold the sword was setting on the forge, a masterwork beyond compare. Years later the smith’s son lost the sword while gambling with the hero, and it has always been a sore topic with the family, as he had no right to gamble it away. Now, years later few remember these old stories, so they when the Acolytes announced finding the location of the ancient temple the dwarves heard about it and decided to recover what is, they believe, to be rightly theirs, and anything else of value the might find. They will loot the crypt of the warrior king and take the sword with them unless stopped. The acolytes have no idea about the dwarves and their connection to the hero’s sword.

The temple is built into the wall of a cliff, the entrance is a giant statue of the warrior king carved into the side of the cliff sitting on his throne. His hands resting on the hilt of his sword which is between his legs. The stair lead up to the statues feet and the tip of the sword, the bottom portion of which is a secret door. The zombies are raised by the God of the dead, Stygia, who does not care for adventurers and in this case the dwarves who are out to spoil the tomb and disturb the slumber of the dead. He raises the dead hero’s most loyal knights to stop the greedy dwarves when they enter the temple. If that fails he will breathe life into the living statue to stop the dwarves when they try to leave the temple. The statue is 18’ tall and has 4+12 HD. The acolytes will not be harmed by the minions of stygia, the dwarves will notice this at some point and may attempt to take advantage of this fact and use them as hostages.