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

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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Not by WotC, they weren't.

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.

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

I mean, it will work just fine. "Weird dungeon" seems to be the overarching theme, at any rate.

Thanks for UK4.

Goodman games had the licience for those adventures so that is official enough for me. No reason to do them again. Could backfire hard if its worse then the Goodman games version.

Yes Pharoh was a solo adventure at first, but a lot of folks liked Desert of Desolation as a whole and would want the complete experience. The blurb on D&D Beyond even mentions Desert of Desolation so I expect this version is still in the Forgotten Realms. Maybe AL will update the other two parts. Actually how AL deals with Pharoh & the rest of adventures will be very interesting.

 

[MNblockhead]

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.

Seems to me that you are looking at this from the assumption that people will play every adventure in this book as part of the same campaign. What I like about books like this, The Yawning Portal, Keys from the Golden Vault, etc. is that I can just pick and choose adventures to run as one shots. I feel no need to string them together into a coherent plot. This is one aspect of play that was common in the early days but is very underrepresented today. D&D could be even more popular if more people would see it as a game you can sit down and play for one or a few sessions without any need to commit to months of playing through a long adventure/campaign. It's a collection of old-style adventure modules. The only reason I can see for this being confusing or worth getting upset about is the lack of context that this is how many if not most people played the game in the early days.

 

[Parmandur]

Goodman games had the licience for those adventures so that is official enough for me. No reason to do them again. Could backfire hard if its worse then the Goodman games version.

I don't see why it would, moat of the book isn't a crossover like that, and rhisnis the version thar will be in Target and on Beyond: most customers will not know about the OAR series, cool as it was. And, most of this book is entirely new to 5E!

Yes Pharoh was a solo adventure at first, but a lot of folks liked Desert of Desolation as a whole and would want the complete experience. The blurb on D&D Beyond even mentions Desert of Desolation so I expect this version is still in the Forgotten Realms. Maybe AL will update the other two parts. Actually how AL deals with Pharoh & the rest of adventures will be very interesting.

To be honest, I thought Deserts of Desolation would have been perfect for a desert equivalent to Ghosts of Saltmsrsh...but I3 is a fully independent Advenrure thar is quite seperable from I4 and I5...it was written half a decade earlier and published in 1978, as a one shot! I'm sure the lurb about where to set it will mention Mullherand, and probably otjer options like the Baklunish waste and whatnot.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I don't see why it would, moat of the book isn't a crossover like that, and rhisnis the version thar will be in Target and on Beyond: most customers will not know about the OAR series, cool as it was. And, most of this book is entirely new to 5E!

To be honest, I thought Deserts of Desolation would have been perfect for a desert equivalent to Ghosts of Saltmsrsh...but I3 is a fully independent Advenrure thar is quite seperable from I4 and I5...it was written half a decade earlier and published in 1978, as a one shot! I'm sure the lurb about where to set it will .entire Mullherand, and probably the Baklunish waste and whatnot.

I'm confused by the last part of your post, please clarify.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm confused by the last part of your post, please clarify.

Edited a bit for clarity, but to go on, in each of the anthology books since Yawning Portal, each component Adventure has had a sidebar listing locations the Adventure would fit in various D&D Settings. I am sure thar I3 will include a Forgotten Realms suggestion, along with Greyhawk, Eberron, Racenloft, or the Radiant Citadel worlds perhaps.

 

[SkidAce]

Seems like they are using the genie as a replacement for the Lillendi to me, which is mildly disappointing, I may change it back, cause I really liked the artistic angle of the Lillendi, but we shall see.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Edited a bit for clarity, but to go on, in each of the anthology books since Yawning Portal, each component Adventure has had a sidebar listing locations the Adventure would fit in various D&D Settings. I am sure thar I3 will include a Forgotten Realms suggestion, along with Greyhawk, Eberron, Racenloft, or the Radiant Citadel worlds perhaps.

Thanks. Har'Akir for Ravenloft seems obvious, Eberron is a hard one to place might be better to make suggestions for other settings, Radiant Citadel you don't really need to you just make it another subsetting to visit like the rest, you don't need to put it in one of the existing ones, Nithia for Mystara easy, Greyhawk is a harder one, I'd skip it they don't make a suggestion for every settimg except FR.

So its easily placed in Mulhorand (already is, but there might be timeline issues), Har'Akir Domain in Ravenloft, or Nithia for Mystara would be enough suggestions I think.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Seems like they are using the genie as a replacement for the Lillendi to me, which is mildly disappointing, I may change it back, cause I really liked the artistic angle of the Lillendi, but we shall see.

This would be a good chance to update Lillendi, the Genie I don't think is a guardian of the stairs, just a weird wishmaster to set things in motion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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

Pharaoh is a stand alone adventure, it only got sequels because the original was popular and managment demanded sequels. The sequel plot was unconnected to the original - it assumed the PCs freed an efrit in the wilderness area surrounding the pyramid. Since the Infinite Stair can deposit the PCs on the doorstep it’s unlikely the wilderness encounters will be included so the plot hook for the sequel won’t be in.

Also, the third module is bad. Like really bad. And not entertainingly bad like Forest Oracle. There is no way WotC would want to reprint that, or anyone sensible would want to pay good money for it.

Also, the original adventure was setting agnostic, it was only relocated to the Forgotten Realms in the 2nd edition reprint, which made other substantial changes, and sounds like the version you are thinking of.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It occurred to me that for another compilation book, WotC could make "The Book of Sandboxes". Take seven roughly county sized regions and describe them in a high level of detail, but without any story attached. It could include new versions of The Oasis of the White Palm (which really has no narrative connection to Pharaoh) The Keep on the Borderlands, and [insert your suggestions here].