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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, and IMO Barrier Peaks is best as a one-shot. Those treasures will destroy an ongoing campaign.

At the very least, they will permanently change it, unless 5E turns all of the gear into stuff that will eventually run out of a charge.

So maybe let the players find the Deck of Many Things on the way out the door and really wrap up your campaign with a bang!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'm puzzled how the levels will work out with these. Or what the connection will be between them.
They picked some good adventures - I just don't see how they'll work together.
Oh, and IMO Barrier Peaks is best as a one-shot. Those treasures will destroy an ongoing campaign.

I thought this was an anthology set, like Yawning Portal - so no expectation that they link up in any way

 

[Parmandur]

I thought this was an anthology set, like Yawning Portal - so no expectation that they link up in any way

On the one hand, sure: om the other hand, all or the anthologies including this and Yawning Portal have been arranged by Level so that you could run them sequentially as a campaign...but this would be one heck of an oddball campaign.

It does have a framing device with this Noble Genie that allows these to be linked together.

I would be tempted to use Lost City or Pharoh with Radian Citadel, actually.

 

[Retreater]

I thought this was an anthology set, like Yawning Portal - so no expectation that they link up in any way

Sure, Yawning Portal did not link up. Saltmarsh and other anthologies did okay though.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

At the very least, they will permanently change it, unless 5E turns all of the gear into stuff that will eventually run out of a charge.

Most of it requires power cells, of which there is a limited supply.

But I guess that is why they pushed it up to high level, and the last adventure, even though that would require redoing a lot of the encounters. I wonder if they will do higher level vegipigmies or replace them with a different monster?

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm puzzled how the levels will work out with these. Or what the connection will be between them.
They picked some good adventures - I just don't see how they'll work together.
Oh, and IMO Barrier Peaks is best as a one-shot. Those treasures will destroy an ongoing campaign.

I generally buy anthologies like this to have an adventure to pull out to either fit into my campaign or to just run as a one shot. If they add framing to allow the book to be run as a campaign, that's great for those who want that. But it is not my expectation when buying this kind of book.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I just don't see how they'll work together

Planet of the week style. The genie gives the party a mission, and the staircase transports them across time and space to the location.

Of course, the real intention is that these adventures be used individually, the campaign connection is just a fall back, as with the other anthologies.

 

[Parmandur]

Planet of the week style. The genie gives the party a mission, and the staircase transports them across time and space to the location.

Of course, the real intention is that these adventures be used individually, the campaign connection is just a fall back, as with the other anthologies.

Other than Yawning Portal, which was a rather bizarre attempt at a movie tie-in to the Warnet Bros. film that ended up nit happening, the frames for the anthologies gave been decent, without being too strict.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most of it requires power cells, of which there is a limited supply.

But I guess that is why they pushed it up to high level, and the last adventure, even though that would require redoing a lot of the encounters. I wonder if they will do higher level vegipigmies or replace them with a different monster?

Assuming they have an interactive spreadsheet to build monsters (which isn't guaranteed, but is the easiest way to do them), leveling everything up is really simple.

I hope they take the opportunity to drop the word "pygmy," though.

 

[MNblockhead]

Other than Yawning Portal, which was a rather bizarre attempt at a movie tie-in to the Warnet Bros. film that ended up nit happening, the frames for the anthologies gave been decent, without being too strict.

Wait, what?! Really? There was going to be a film based on the Yawning Portal?