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D&D 5E Quest From The Infinite Staircase Adventures Revealed

Crystal caves, barrier peaks, pharaohs, lost caverns, lost cities, and fallen stars feature in the adventure anthology.

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Roll20 has today revealed some information about July's Dungeons & Dragons release, Quests from the Infinite Staircase.

The Infinite Staircase spirals in a dreamlike expanse, with doors leading to fantastic realms. It's home to the noble genie Nafas, who hears wishes made throughout the multiverse and recruits heroes to fulfill them. These pleas summon adventurers to lost caverns suffused with planar energy, fairytale gardens in the Feywild, futuristic spaceships, and other wondrous locales.

This anthology weaves together six classic DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® adventures while updating them for the game's fifth edition. You can run these quests individually or as a campaign that takes characters from level 1 to level 13.

This book includes the following adventures:
  • Beyond the Crystal Cave
  • Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
  • Pharaoh
  • The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
  • The Lost City
  • When a Star Falls

These are all adventures from previous editions of D&D (in much the same way as Ghosts of Saltmarsh was). All of them are AD&D (1E) adventures except for The Lost City, which was a Basic D&D adventure.

EN World member @pukunui provided a quick summary of each:

For those like myself who are unfamiliar with (some of) these adventures, here are summaries based on info from wikipedia:

Beyond the Crystal Cave: An AD&D 1e adventure set in Greyhawk which sees the PCs hired to save a couple who eloped and fled into the Cave of Echoes. The PCs must resolve the secret of the cave to reach a magical garden where it is always summer. The adventure is noteworthy for rewarding players for resolving encounters non-violently.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks: An AD&D 1e adventure written by Gary Gygax himself. In this adventure, the PCs explore a mysterious spaceship that crashed in Greyhawk's Barrier Peaks mountain range. The ship is filled with robots, laser guns, power armor, and all manner of strange creatures (including vegepygmies and a froghemoth). The adventure also involves collecting colored access cards to open restricted areas and the like.

Pharaoh: An AD&D 1e adventure written by the Hickmans of Ravenloft and Dragonlance fame. This one sees the PCs exiled into a desert after being falsely accused of a crime. They end up encountering the spirit of a dead Egyptian-style pharaoh who implores them to break into his supposedly thief-proof pyramid tomb and steal some things that will enable him to find eternal rest or something.

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth: Another of Gary Gygax's AD&D 1e Greyhawk modules. This one sees the PCs as treasure hunters seeking the wealth of the archmage Iggwilv. During their search, they encounter a vampire.

The Lost City: This is a Basic D&D adventure written by Tom Moldvay. The PCs get lost in a sandstorm and discover the lost city of Cynidicea, where the inhabitants are degenerate drug addicts. The PCs explore a pyramid and fight an evil monster.

When a Star Falls: An AD&D 1e module in which the PCs search for a fallen star in the moors. They encounter svirfneblin and derro as they seek to give the star to its rightful owner.
 

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Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
WotC said:
Nafas, the Noble Genie

Floating among the neverending steps of the Infinite Staircase resides Nafas, the noble genie. Unlike his counterparts from the Elemental Planes, Nafas only desires to help those whose wishes he hears echo across the Infinite Staircase.

To this end, Nafas seeks worthy adventurers from across the multiverse. He then tasks these heroes with quests that fulfill the wishes of those in need.
Man, WotC loves its corny patrons.
 

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Parmandur

Book-Friend
I mean... trying to track down the rights for the art may be more expensive and more of a pain in the rear end than just commissioning new art "inspired" by the older pieces
Nope, WotC owns it all outright, you can buy the original from them on DriveThru for a song, *and the full thing with artbook was reprinted for Art & Arcana. They chose not to.
 


Parmandur

Book-Friend
Fair enough. Then it's probably just because the AD&D artwork is just not in keeping with the current brand identity (including that most of it was in B&W)
The full-length art handout isn't really in keeping with their current style: there are pieces in Yawning Portal you can use to show stuff, but it's a different vibe.
 



So a couple of adventures that were already officially done for 5e, a couple of adventures like Pharoh that were meant to be done with other particular adeventures. What a mess.

Like WTF would you do Pharoh without the rest of Desert of Desolation? Folks will start playing it, but then want do the other two parts instead of going on a totally unrelated adventure. Wtf didn't they just do Desert of Desolation as an adventure book, instead of stuffing Pharoh in an adventure anthology!

3 of the adventures are Greyhawk, 1 Forgotten Realms, 1 Mystara, and the last the Star one I don't know (does anyone know its setting?)

Like usual WotC tosses stuff in the blender without any logic or meaningful theme and hopes it'll work.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
So a couple of adventures that were already officially done for 5e
Not by WotC, they weren't.
a couple of adventures like Pharoh that were meant to be done with other particular adeventures. What a mess.

Like WTF would you do Pharoh without the rest of Desert of Desolation? Folks will start playing it, but then want do the other two parts instead of going on a totally unrelated adventure. Wtf didn't they just do Desert of Desolation as an adventure book, instead of stuffing Pharoh in an adventure anthology!
I3 was a standalone Adventure, not part of a series from the beginning. It does stand on it's own, based on my read through.
3 of the adventures are Greyhawk, 1 Forgotten Realms, 1 Mystara, and the last the Star one I don't know (does anyone know its setting?)
UK4 is a generic, unspecified Setting (as was the style st the time. I3 was also a generic Egyptian Setting, not the Forgotten Realms: this is specifically not the Desert of Desolations version, after all, which was a retcon.

No doubt each Adventure will have suggestions of where to set them on various worlds, as with all the previous anthologies
Like usual WotC tosses stuff in the blender without any logic or meaningful theme and hopes it'll work.
I mean, it will work just fine. "Weird dungeon" seems to be the overarching theme, at any rate.
 

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