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.

 

[sevenbastard]

Speaking as someone literally in the middle of prepping this module for my current 5e game, I friggin’ love both the memory web and how it kicks off the adventure.

I'm happy for your players they are in for a treat!

I don't love the Memory Web, its creative but as I said in 2005 "I’d start by tightening up the beginning, maybe have the players be hired by the sage himself or the characters be in need of the sage’s prophecies" Make sure they have a reason to be invested versus just curiosity and "this is what we are playing this week"

I love the module and the Memory Web is better than many 1e adventure hook.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm a little disappointed that they're doing Pharaoh without doing the other two adventures in the Desert of Desolation series

Pharaoh was never intended to have sequels. The story is entirely self-contained. And, whilst Oasis of the White Palm is an interesting setting - not really an adventure - the third part was terrible.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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.

Ghost tower a) doesn’t stand up well, it feels very tropey b) it’s very short, c) it’s very easy to convert to 5e yourself - you can do it on the fly.

Also, the title is very confusing for Scots, since it has no connection to the real world city of the same name.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

this is what we are playing this week"

That was generally how we played D&D in the 80s.

 

[Muso]

Pharaoh and the Lost City? I can only say: WOW!

 

[NiClerigo]

I must confess that I am quite disappointed for two reasons: first, because compared to other 5e adventure anthology books, this one will have fewer ones. Second, because the idea of the multiverse and the description of adventures such as Eberron's Shadows of the Last War during the WotC panel in which this book was announced had made me think that the latter and other adventures across settings and editions would be included, which turned out to not be the case

 

[WisdomOfWombats]

„When a Star Falls“ gets me excited for the book. I own most of the UK series, and haven‘t run that one yet, but several times thought about running the module with 3e back in the day. For 5e, I haven‘t looked at it yet. But obviously will soon. It‘s a really memorable module, I think.

Also I am a bit disappointed. I was hoping for my two favorite modules: UK2 The Sentinel and UK3 The Gauntlet.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Also I am a bit disappointed. I was hoping for my two favorite modules: UK2 The Sentinel and UK3 The Gauntlet.

I sure hope that with the new rules for Bastions in 2024, they'll release an anthology with adventures that gives you reasons and opportunities to build up a homebase, such as the Gauntlet or Red Hand of Doom.

 

[el-remmen]

I'm happy for your players they are in for a treat!

I don't love the Memory Web, its creative but as I said in 2005 "I’d start by tightening up the beginning, maybe have the players be hired by the sage himself or the characters be in need of the sage’s prophecies" Make sure they have a reason to be invested versus just curiosity and "this is what we are playing this week"

I love the module and the Memory Web is better than many 1e adventure hook.

Oh yeah, I think you are right about need a stronger hook than just stumbling upon the web (literally) and then following up. I thought you meant the very idea of the memory web. Since my campaign has prophetic dreams as part of the instigating premise, I just put the fallen star into their dreams - so assuming they do tangle with the web (and this campaign is sandbox-y, so they may not), the memories they experience with elements of the tower of the heavens and the instructions to find the fallen star will resonate with the dreams they have been plagued with, so they have a personal reason to investigate. They are also a little lost, so by wandering the area they have opportunities to stumble into the area and encounter stuff from the module in a different order. I'll let you know how it work out.

 

[Aellic Mornbringer]

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.

That is an excellent point and highlights one of the best features of the Goodman Games OAR products, the enhancement and fleshing out of more details (setting, NPC, plot, extra encounters, etc.) of the original material.