Dungeons & Dragons 5e | Prisoner of the Serpent God | Battle against the forces of darkness

About the adventure

It starts with nightmares. You wake screaming from visions of black-robed cultists feeding human sacrifices to their coiled, scaly god. Before long, you feel a strange urge to travel to the Fell Sump, a vast, malarial swamp where unwholesome things wriggle through the mud. Finally, a dream messenger arrives with an urgent plea for help. A celestial languishes in the magic prison where a foul serpent god confined it centuries ago. The serpent god’s cult vanished long before you were born, but the prison remains, and its hallowed inmate begs you to come to his rescue. But the rescue may not be as simple as it seems. Villagers near the Fell Sump mutter that evil things now roam the swamp’s waterways by night. Has the long-forgotten Cult of the Serpent God returned to the world? If it has, can your party stop it?

Additional Details

How to prepare

• We'll be using Discord for voice chat. You'll need a Discord account—you can get one free of charge. • You'll need some way to participate in voice chat—a headset mic would be perfect. • We won't be using webcams. • We'll be using Foundry VTT for character sheets, dice rolling, text chat, and to provide a tabletop. You'll need a desktop or laptop computer to access Foundry. • You won't need to install software to access Discord or Foundry. You can access both through your web browser. • You will need an account at The Forge (forge-vtt.com), which is the hosting service I use for Foundry. A free account will work fine—you don't need to pay for a premium account. • If you will need to set up new accounts at Discord and/or the Forge, please do so well ahead of time. • You won't need dice or a physical copy of your character sheet at game time. Foundry handles all that. • It'd be helpful if you were already familiar with fifth edition D&D, or at least the core rules. But if you're new to this, just let me know and it'll be OK.

What I provide

• I provide an original adventure that has been thoroughly playtested and is available nowhere else. • I have servers for both Discord and Foundry. You'll be given instructions on how to join both when you book. • I have created detailed, original battlemaps for use on Foundry to visually represent the adventure's setting exactly as it is written. • I'll provide a top-down token to represent your character on the virtual tabletop. If you already have a top-down token you'd prefer to use, that will also be fine. If you want to provide a character portrait, just get it to me in advance, but character portraits aren't required. • I'm always available to answer questions, whether you've already booked or whether you are considering booking. Feel free to message me here on StartPlaying.

Gameplay details

Prisoner of the Serpent God is a short campaign expected to last 7–15 sessions, taking the party from level 5 to level 7. If some or all of the players want more after that, I'll be happy to arrange a custom campaign so you can keep the same party together for new adventures. We will be using Discord for voice communication, and Foundry VTT to manage character sheets, make dice rolls, and provide a tabletop. This is an old-school-style adventure featuring a trek across the wilderness culminating in a dungeon crawl. Session 0 will be free.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

Breaks
Open Door
Session 0
Stars and Wishes

How will character creation work

• This is an adventure for good-aligned 5th-level characters. • When you book a seat in this game, I'll send you character creation guidelines. If you can, make your character in advance and send it to me. • Generally speaking, almost all officially published character options will be allowed, as well as many character options by third-party publishers. • I'll have a selection of pregenerated characters for players who'd prefer that option. • If you have a pre-existing character you'd like to play, I'll be happy to work with you to bring that character in. • This game won't use D&D Beyond integration, but you may use D&D Beyond to make your character if that's your preference. • Because this is a challenging and dangerous adventure, I suggest you coordinate character creation with the other players and collaborate to build a balanced party.

Players can expect

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