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Beneath the Surface - Revised Edition 2.02 (with Supplements)

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The fate of Velen’s Reach is in your hands!


Located in the south of the Sword Coast, a small town was built to serve as a research outpost in order to procure and analyze the rumored magical artifacts buried in the numerous islands in the Nelanther Isles. However, in the town of Velen’s Reach, nothing is as it seems. Between rumors of corruption within the council, sightings of strange creatures on the islands nearby, secret dealings of the town’s head researcher and the growing disapproval of the town against the council, the town is in dire need of heroes. Will your party be the ones to save the town from the brutal status quo or will you exploit it for your own gain? Will you discover the mysteries of these lands, or will you take your due payment and leave the town to its fate? Destiny is in your hands. The only question is: how far will you go to see what lies -- Beneath the Surface?


The adventure now has exported maps both as marked and unmarked versions.




FEATURES:

  • Jump straight into the epic! An introductory module specifically designed for new DMs and players new to the game. No resources are needed for this module, the whole module can be run with just the Basic Rules for D&D 5e available for free! Everything you need is included in the module, all you need is your dice!

  • Tons to explore. Dozens of maps drawn from scratch, in high resolution to give you a detailed look of the areas your party will explore.

  • Unique in every way. Every NPC, monster, magical item and trap is custom-made as well as having unique custom abilities and powers in order to give the module that ‘unique’ feel.

  • A ‘contained’ sandbox. This module is written in order to give great flexibility to the actions of the players.

  • The Gods are watching! This module does its best to represent several deities and tries to cater to every alignment and class. Every race is represented in at least one or more NPCs and each class has certain locations/situations in which they shine.

  • A great way to start you D&D adventures! This module was written mostly for the purpose of new DMs and players who want to enter the world of D&D but are not willing to make the commitment yet. It features useful tips and guidelines to help new DMs finish their first adventure and take their first steps as a DM.

  • Numerous plot hooks. Around the module are opportunities that the DM can use to craft his own adventures after this module is
    completed.

  • Printer-friendly! There is also a printer-friendly version of the module available for your RL sessions.

A lot of time, effort and love went into the making of this module, so I hope it will satisfy your RPG needs and that using it, we can bring more people into our D&D fold. The reason I made this module is because I know many friends who want to play D&D but don't want to commit the time or money to learn all the rules and/or buy all of the books. If you're a person who wants to get into DMing and have friends who want to enter the awesome world of fantasy roleplaying, but are not sure how the game works or if you don't want to make the commitment yet, then look no further! Just buy this product, learn the Basic Rules for players and DMs (available on the official D&D website for free) and start your adventure!


REVISED EDITION 2.02


Re-drawn, re-written and re-balanced! The Revised Edition 2.0 is an upgrade on the original adventure in almost every way. It tries to deliver the adventure the way it was meant to be played. If you've already purchased the adventure, it is recommended that you download this version for a proper playthrough.

ADDED FEATURES:

  • Now properly optimized PDF (with an optional full size version)

  • Re-written the weak parts of the main story

  • Re-balanced ALL the encounters and fixed challenge ratings for all creatures and NPCs

  • Added plot guidelines and useful hints for new DMs 

  • Added useful info such as diplomacy with other towns and a lot of other useful stuff

  • 10 new (color) maps of town locations (instead of rough black-and-white sketches), drawn from scratch

  • 4 new color maps of areas that were previously not mapped out

  • Remakes of existing maps

  • 4 new NPCs/monsters

  • 5 new pictures (drawn from scratch) of magic items

  • A new, bigger boat, hidden in a new map and added a third way to get to Hurricane Island

  • Expanded two sparse locations with a lot more content

  • Tons of grammatical errors fixed and all maps now have the correct scale

  • Added more information to neglected factions

  • Expanded quests

  • And much more...




"A Shining Fantasy: Quest for the Orb of Power"

"A great mix of combat and conversation"

"Explore Islands, slaughter innocents and backstab some people. You know, the good stuff."

- Anonymous quotes from playtesters


Some technical data:

Length: 72 pages in total (~41k words)

Structure: 4 chapters + 3 appendices

MAPS (all custom-made): 34 color maps plus 5 item pics (all drawn from scratch in Photoshop) 

NPCs (all custom-made): 4 companions, 21 NPCs and 13 monsters

TRAPS (all custom-made): 5 traps

MAGIC ITEMS (all custom-made): 5 magic items



If you bought the title, I would very much appreciate it if you could write a small review down below so I can get some feedback in order to update this title and deliver more quality products in the future. Thanks!



CHECK OUT MY OTHER STUFF!

Crit & Miss (Supplement)    Birds of Prey (adventure; 5-10)    All My Products (bundle)

VERSION HISTORY:


  1. 1.0 - original version
  2. 1.10 - fixed some grammatical errors and weird/wrong descriptions
  3. 1.11 - changed the area map for Velen's Reach and the Nelanther Isles, added bookmarks for Appendix 2, added credits, some minor fixes
  4. 1.12 - added printer-friendly version and added some missing info to certain locations
  5. 1.0R - released Revised Edition 1.0
  6. 2.0R - released Revised Edition 2.0
  7. 2.01R - fixed a typo
  8. 2.02R - properly embeded fonts and properly optimized file
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Reviews (1)
Discussions (7)
Customer avatar
Kelly R December 13, 2020 5:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
Very excited to see the maps of Velen, Nelanther, and Moonshaes! Any chance that there's a version of the maps without all the labelling? Like a DM's version/PCs' version/unlabelled version? I'd actually be willing to pay addition for those, if you've got something that would work and we could take it offline? Or through here, whatever is by the rules! :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Sebastian B May 26, 2021 1:34 am UTC
CREATOR
Sorry for late reply, DM's Guild didn't notify me of your message for some reason. I have included the maps as both marked and unmarked versions in the download.
Customer avatar
Sebastian B February 07, 2020 9:44 pm UTC
CREATOR
@Jacob M:
This adventure is entirely self-contained with a few small plot hooks leading into some nearby towns. It is designed for new DMs and new players so it can flow easily into any other adventure. It's basically a contained sandbox adventure with a narrative flowing through it that ends when the adventure ends (unless you extend it beyond that point).
Customer avatar
Jacob M February 06, 2020 2:29 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi! I’m DMing for the first time soon and I’m looking for a small(ish) adventure to lead my players into Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Would this module be able to flow smoothly into that?
Customer avatar
Sebastian B February 22, 2017 12:18 am UTC
CREATOR
Thx for your reviews guys :)
Customer avatar
Lasse W February 21, 2017 6:28 pm UTC
I playtested this adventure, and the author asked me to post my experiences.

I had a good time with our adventure in and around Velen’s Reach, the story was pretty straight forward, but had that aura of mystery about it, as well as a lot of versatility in how the ending could play out. I never felt like we didn’t have places to go, or that we were railroaded into something.

The NPCs were memorable, and had interesting side quests linked to them, but the strongest part of this adventure I’d say was the exploration, travelling to the various islands, and discovering what was on each of them was the part that I most enjoyed about this adventure.

I hope your project sell good, and thanks for an enjoyable game.
Customer avatar
Captain J February 21, 2017 12:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I too was a playtester for this module, and it was very good! I liked the open world style, and the NPC's were awesome! I'd definitely recommend giving the module a look!

Also 10/10 would bull rush [SPOILER REDACTED] again
Customer avatar
Matteo S February 20, 2017 10:24 am UTC
Played as "Test Player", and trust me, it was a lot of fun.
The maps are beautiful and the world really feels alive with all the different and charismatic npcs.
I really felt that our decisions made a difference on the course of the adventure.
It should entertain every kind of player at your table.

p.s. 10/10 would make alligator-pyjamas again!
Reply
Customer avatar
Samuel J February 20, 2017 7:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Also played as a test-player for this campaign.
I would certainly recommend this! There was plenty of surprises, and a lot of laughter whist playing. Solid story with great NPCs and detailed maps. It was also open enough to be able to freely explore and interact to the point where several of the offshoots could be expanded into its own campaign.

10/10 would summon Harambe again
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File Last Updated:
May 25, 2021
This title was added to our catalog on February 19, 2017.