Upcoming Adventures: July 2019

We have some exciting news!

Jonathan and I have both been participating in the RPG Writer Workshop this month, which has been amazing, and so we’ll have two new adventures coming your way on July 31st!

Including Sidekicks!

Each of our adventures, like the Crystalline Curse Trilogy, will include sidekick characters to accompany your primary character on their quest!

Sidekicks were officially introduced in the Essentials Kit as a special rule set for 1:1 play in D&D 5e. Basically, they function as secondary characters with stat blocks that level up.

As of right now, the new adventures will not include leveling tables for continuing through with the sidekick, but we’re working on something that we hope will fill that need for you.

The Crystalline Curse Trilogy already includes two sidekick characters, Garren and Remmy, who do level each time, and you are more than welcome to continue using one or both of them in these new adventures.

Additionally, we recognize that many of you DM outside of your duet campaigns, and we want these adventures to be able to transfer to larger tables as well so you get as much use-value out of them as possible.

The Proving Glade

In this one-shot adventure, your player(s) face a handful of difficult, delicate situations. I [Jonathan] had so much fun writing this and watching the adventure slowly take shape. Much of it was lifted from one of my favorite days playing our duet. We were in the midst of the Elvin Realms. I wanted the forest to feel alive and busy. I also didn’t want every encounter to be solved with the swing of a sword. Some of the scenarios presented in this adventure are ones Beth and I still talk about to this day.

For the RPG Writer Workshop, we were encouraged to think about a key NPC. In this adventure’s earliest stages, I imagined the adventure naturally unfolding as the party traveled from point A to point B. However, adding in this NPC and dreaming up his backstory revealed some cool themes I would’ve missed otherwise. The Proving Glade is about questioning value, morality, judgement, and redemption.

The Nitty-Gritty

The Proving Glade* is a one-shot adventure meant for parties or duets. They arrive in a small settlement that has a big problem. The forest, its lifeblood, has seemingly withdrawn its bounty. Others have gone in, only to return hours later confused about how they got out.

Will your party have the wherewithal to navigate the treacherous forest, pass its surprising tests, and uncover what’s truly going on?

In the Heart of the Forest

In the Heart of the Forest immerses the party in a dark woodland setting where the fate of a small village hangs in the balance of their investigations. Strange tales have emerged from the forest about the doings of a reclusive druid circle.

This adventure explores the shadowy side of nature and the darker side of natural magic.

In the Heart of the Forest navigates the line between hero and villain (or anti-hero and villain). The Blackwoods Forest challenges the party with undead forces and a powerful villain.

The Nitty-Gritty

In the Heart of the Forest is a one-shot dark druid adventure for fifth-level characters. The party enters a small town on the edge of the woods and learns of the disappearance of a local man among the mysterious forest druids.

Will they brave the Blackwood Forest and confront the terrors lurking within?

Both of these adventures are available on DMsGuild now!

Quick FAQ

Several of you have asked if these two adventures will be a follow-up to the Crystalline Curse Trilogy. First, we’re so thrilled that you’re enjoying the trilogy, and we’re so excited for you to get to dig into these new adventures!

The short answer to this question is: not exactly.

First Blush, Second Glance, and Third Time’s the Charm should each be involved enough to get your character through levels one to three.

However, as characters go up in level, they need more experience and time (whether you’re tracking xp or going for a story-based approach [which is what we do]). So, for the foreseeable future, our DMsGuild titles will be one-shots, some of which may take multiple sessions to work though, but they won’t be geared toward fully leveling your character each time.

These two stories would connect very well to the end of the Crystalline Curse Trilogy, but they also work as standalone adventures or grab-and-go pieces for a homebrew or published campaign.

Our Granny’s House adventure, available here on our site, would also make for a great transition piece between the Crystalline Curse Trilogy and The Proving Glade and In the Heart of the Forest.

We are working on a long-form one-on-one campaign as part of our Patreon, and we release magical items, creatures, maps, NPCs, and mini-adventures each month as part of that, so if you’re interested in a longer, connected campaign, Patreon is a great way to get involved in making that happen!

If you would like to see the Crystalline Curse Trilogy storyline continue, please let us know in the comments! We’ve talked about a level 4-6 adventure that could continue that narrative in particular, but we’d like to gauge interest before tackling such a large project.

If that came about, though, our new adventures would also fit in well with the larger adventure set as spin-offs or side-quests.

Image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay

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If you like what you’re reading, please consider supporting the blog by purchasing our adventures and supplements in our shop or sponsoring us on Patreon. We appreciate you so much! Thank you for joining us on this adventure! – Beth and Jonathan