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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Lidgar

Gongfarmer
Somewhat surprising line-up. I wish they'd not done Expedition and Lost City since I've got the Goodman overkill versions, and sort of wish they'd tackle some of the others that haven't seen a 5E conversion, such as Ghost Tower.
Totally agree. Wish they took on Ghost Tower and Forbidden City instead. Ah well, nice to see the others. Tsojcanth and Pharaoh makes it a must buy for me.
 

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MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
While I own all of Goodman Game's OAR books, they are more like coffee table books for me. Love them for the history. Too unwieldy to run as games for me, especially now that I'm running games in a VTT. Looking forward to having these in D&D Beyond. It would be fun to do a mini campaign with Barrier Peaks and Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. I'd like to try to run a more VTT light game with DDB Maps if all the maps for Infinite Staircase are prepped and supported in it.
 
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MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I'm sad it's not a proper sequel to Tales from the Infinite Staircase, because we can always use more Planescape stuff. However, I was also a fan of Yawning Portal and Saltmarsh, so I'll happily pick this one up.
I'm always happy to have more collections of shorter adventures in DDB. Not everything has to be a year long campaign. Roll up an X-level character and play through an adventure in a couple sessions.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
I'm always happy to have more collections of shorter adventures in DDB. Not everything has to be a year long campaign. Roll up an X-level character and play through an adventure in a couple sessions.
I hope, like Yawning Portal, they sell the adventures piecemeal on DDB. I own Yawning Portal in hard copy but bought Tomb of Horrors, separately, on DDB when I ran it online during the pandemic.

But given that they still aren't selling Book of Many Things content that way, that era is probably over for WotC.
 
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All those modules were pretty short themselves.
That does bring up a good point. The OARs are fantastic tomes as overgeeked stated, but they hit those high page counts by including multiple versions of the original module. Great content from a historical and collector standpoint, not completely necessary for an adventure compilation like Infinite Staircase.
 

overgeeked

B/X Known World
That does bring up a good point. The OARs are fantastic tomes as overgeeked stated, but they hit those high page counts by including multiple versions of the original module. Great content from a historical and collector standpoint, not completely necessary for an adventure compilation like Infinite Staircase.
To be fair, they include the original as published by TSR. Which accounts for 30-60 pages. They include interviews and articles. And they include expanded 5E conversions of the original. So, generally speaking, more than half the massive tomes that are OARs will be the 5E module.
 


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