D&D General Could you recommend a published adventure for lvl 2-3? À la Red Hand of Doom.

orangefruitbat · 2026-03-31T15:26:35+0100

Maenalis said:
One of my groups finished Heroes of the Borderlands and all of them want to go on an "Orc-slayer" campaign, with new characters. I was thinking about starting with Scourge of the Howling Horde (Lvl 1 & 2), something else for lvl 2-3, move on to Forge of Fury (lvl 3-4-5) and finish of with Red Hand of Doom (lvl 5-10).

Could you recommend a published adventure for lvl 2-3? Something that would fit the campaign? It doesn't have to be against Goblinoids/Orcs.

I tried adventure lookup, but I didn't saw anything inspiring.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I would suggest Under Illefarn, which was for 1E or 2E (I forget which), but can easily be converted to 5E or other system of choice. Help a dwarven expedition to recover their home from an orc army (and a necromancer as well).

Maenalis · 2026-03-31T15:33:47+0100

orangefruitbat said:
I would suggest Under Illefarn, which was for 1E or 2E (I forget which), but can easily be converted to 5E or other system of choice. Help a dwarven expedition to recover their home from an orc army (and a necromancer as well).

I have never heard of it, sounds great, thank you!

Lazybones · 2026-03-31T17:01:23+0100

There was an old AD&D module in Dragon Magazine (#78) called "Citadel by the Sea" that has orc antagonists and a theme related to orcish lore. I recall it being one of the better adventures published in Dragon. I have seen a 5e conversion online somewhere.

Aellic Mornbringer · 2026-03-31T17:30:10+0100

Dax Doomslayer said:
There's a 3.5 adventure for 4th level characters called "Sons of Gruumsh" set in the Forgotten Realms that I liked.

Anecdotally, back in the 3.5 era, our DM started with Sons of Gruumsh and eventually tied it into an epic Red Hand of Doom campaign. That said, geographically the two adventures were leagues apart and there was a lot of other adventuring between them.

Also anecdotally, our party had a near TPK in the orc fortress, one character managed to escape over the wall. The rest of us had to roll up new characters.

Gorck · 2026-03-31T17:35:01+0100

Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount had 4 beginner adventures for level 1-3 that are well regarded. Of the 4, Tide of Retribution has the party defending Palma Flora from a Sahuagin invasion. You’d just need to reskin it for another small coastal village if you aren’t interested in Exandria as a campaign setting.

Paul Farquhar · 2026-03-31T17:49:01+0100

Gorck said:
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount had 4 beginner adventures for level 1-3 that are well regarded. Of the 4, Tide of Retribution has the party defending Palma Flora from a Sahuagin invasion. You’d just need to reskin it for another small coastal village if you aren’t interested in Exandria as a campaign setting.

They are somewhat deadly for 2nd level characters.

aco175 · 2026-03-31T18:45:53+0100

orangefruitbat said:
I would suggest Under Illefarn, which was for 1E or 2E (I forget which), but can easily be converted to 5E or other system of choice. Help a dwarven expedition to recover their home from an orc army (and a necromancer as well).

This was kind of updated and redone for the 5e Next playtest under Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle. I have it, but not played it. I did run the original back in '87(ish) which I recall having some side quests and a main site with orcs. Not all the side quests deal with orcs.