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

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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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A fair chunk of Lost Caverns was taken up with statblocks and spells from the Demonicon, and didn't relate to the adventure at all. Barrier Peaks would require the most monster stat blocks, especially if they are going to try and make vegipigmies relevant at level 13, but a fair chunk of the original page count was the art book.
I hope they redo the art book tbh - the art was SO great
 

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isn’t there a simplified version of the trial and error diagram in the DMG? I think that first appeared in Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World.

The needler and needle rifle are not in the DMG, nor the disrupter pistol. The power armour is in Lost Laboratory of Kwalish.

I do suspect this adventure will be a lot more reworked than we have seen previously.
There is, fair point, they could just point to that.

Some of the items could also be "behaves like X from the DMG".
 






not sure, I read that as ‘they were intentionally left open back then’ not as a ‘but now we are filling them in’.

I hope they refresh them and do not just give us new maps and stat blocks
I read it the same way - that they were giving a historical blurb for each adventure, not implying that they were going to be updating the lower levels.

Though they'll have to do something if they're going to include Zargon proper as the art indicates. Because there were 5 levels between the final fleshed out level and Zargon in the original adventure. Not to mention the possibility of going off to visit the Lost City itself deep in the underground.
 

I read it the same way - that they were giving a historical blurb for each adventure, not implying that they were going to be updating the lower levels.

Though they'll have to do something if they're going to include Zargon proper as the art indicates. Because there were 5 levels between the final fleshed out level and Zargon in the original adventure. Not to mention the possibility of going off to visit the Lost City itself deep in the underground.
Based on past adventure compilations, I would not count on WotC doing any of this, unfortunately. People who are really keen for a more fleshed out Lost City should grab OAR 4 before it vanishes from the earth.
 

not sure, I read that as ‘they were intentionally left open back then’ not as a ‘but now we are filling them in’.

I hope they refresh them and do not just give us new maps and stat blocks
They put the video in private, but Justice Ramin Arman specifically said they have fleshed out the lower levels and B4, among other edits to the originals.
 

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