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The Crucible (one shot adventure)

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Suggested Price $1.00

The players get more than they bargain for when answering a night-time call for assistance from a mutual friend.  Can they escape the githyanki prison known as the Crucible and find their way home from the Astral Plane?

Designed for characters of 5th to 9th level, the Crucible can be played as a standalone one shot adventure, or as the first in a four part series of connected one shots that see the party fight their way to hell and back.

Authors note: the encounters in this adventure readily can be tailored to suit most party compositions, and have added to them adventure hooks to fit in with a larger campaign.

Also, if you like it, don't forget to rate it; if you don't like it, drop me an email and let me know what can be improved.

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Reviews (7)
Discussions (10)
Customer avatar
Scott E December 18, 2023 8:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Are there maps to The Crucible?
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Customer avatar
Alan N December 24, 2023 1:42 am UTC
CREATOR
There are some basic maps in the Appendix, but not of an entire Cell. I have created a few Cell maps for a Roll20 version of the campaign; when I get a spare moment I'll add them to the DMSGuild download. Might not be until next year though!
Cheers
Alan
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Customer avatar
Scott E January 02, 2024 5:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Awesome...thanks!!
Customer avatar
Taylor B June 12, 2023 2:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi Alan! I've played DnD as a player multiple times but this will be my first time DMing! I chose this as a one-shot and am currently preparing my maps, character tokens, and plan of action to give my players the best experience. I love this script and think it'll be a blast for my players. I'm so excited! My one question is, that if the goal is to get 5 orbs to escape, am I to assume there is an orb in every cell or just a few? If they are in every cell, how do I ensure that my players don't just hit the five cells that lead straight to cell 20? I'd love for them to experience more of these encounters that you've created than just a few. Sorry if this seems like a dumb question. Thanks for the advice!
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Customer avatar
Alan N June 13, 2023 1:11 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Taylor -
There is indeed an orb in every cell. And because the Crucible is shaped like a d20 and the party starts in the "1", there is no way to get to the "20" without passing through at least 5 cells (including the "1"). So hopefully that won't be an issue!
I suppose if the party decides to skip the orb in a cell for some reason, you can always tell them that the mist wall into the final cell is impassable and direct them into a neighbouring cell until they gather 5 orbs in total.
Best of luck with the one shot, and DMing. Let us know how it goes.
Cheers
Alan
Customer avatar
Naomi H May 11, 2023 6:44 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ran this as one shot for my players. Word of advice: in the final battle scene, make sure you specify that the Wall of Force is a DOME and NOT an open-ended cylinder. Trust me on this. The spell indicates that it is a 10 foot tall cylinder, and since the the characters in the Wall of Force do NOT have stats provided, you may (like I did) end up with crazy berzerker players going OVER the wall to engage in combat that you are NOT going to be prepared for.

THAT stress aside, it was a great module, easy to slide into an existing campaign as a one shot, plenty of interesting locations and combat, lots of opportunity for role play.
Customer avatar
Nikesh P May 07, 2023 5:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Looks interesting. The maps could use some work, even if there was a grid layout of the rooms. It made managing on a VTT (Foundry) a bit harder then other adventures. Will still likely buy the other 3 parts.
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Customer avatar
Alan N May 08, 2023 8:08 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for the interest, Nikesh. The Crucible was my first module, so yes the mapwork is pretty rough. Hopefully I've improved a bit since then!
Cheers
Customer avatar
Joshua E March 28, 2023 10:10 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I'm planning on running this but would like some clarification. The initial hook is that Askelon requests help because he is trapped. When the party leaves at the end, they are told to think of who they thought they were coming to get (which is presumably Askelon....because he's trapped). Then they appear in front of Askelon just chillin. You never explain how he was trapped and how he was able to free himself with zero help from the party (which begs the question, what are they even doing in the crucible). As an infrequent DM, I'm not well versed in filling in the gaps.
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Customer avatar
Alan N April 03, 2023 12:54 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Joshua -

The "Askelon" that requests help is not the actual Askelon, but the Entity impersonating him as part of the Entity's plan to escape the Crucible. The Entity is telepathic and learns of Askelon and his friends by reading Philogena's mind, and uses the information to trick Meg into building the Engine and the party into using it. At the end, the party is sent back to the real Askelon.

Sorry if that's a bit convoluted and poorly explained in the module! You also can substitute anyone you like for Askelon and his mother, really, especially if you're not running the other three parts.

Good luck with the adventure.

Cheers
Customer avatar
Seth S January 26, 2021 5:40 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Firstly, my group absolutely LOVED this, thank you.

A little note that in the first encounter Philogena(Entity) is described as human and not Elvan.

A stat block for the entity would be nice, one of my characters used thunderstep to enter the wall of force which, after much debate and discussion, was ruled as possible with RAW.
I had to improvise a stat-block on the fly.
Maybe instead of specifically calling it wall of force (it's technically too big to be a wall of force anyways) maybe just make up a name for this plot-armor to allow the story to play out as intended without a full tribunal across the rule books.

All said, I'm looking forward to continuing the journey.
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Customer avatar
Alan N January 27, 2021 10:40 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for your feedback, Seth. I'm glad your group enjoyed the adventure.

I do tend to take a few liberties with standard mechanics for the sake of the story, so thanks for the suggestion of not trying to shoehorn plot devices into the SRB! I'll bear it in mind for the campaign I'm about to release.

Cheers
Alan
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Customer avatar
Gregory G July 27, 2021 10:00 am UTC
Hi Alan! I like what you've written and would like to speak with you about a potential AMAZING collaboration!

Contact me here if you're available and interested:
Eric A. Smith
ourmaninboston@hotmail.com
Customer avatar
Seth F May 03, 2020 8:04 am UTC
PURCHASER
Bought this and ran it for 4 level 9 players, and they had a great time! I completely changed up several of the encounters to suit some pre-made maps I had, one note I thought might come in handy:

I would love it if the Entity had a stat blok in this adventure. I know it's in the later adventures, but if the intention is for this to be a stand-alone one shot or part of a series, it should be here too, at least in my opinion. My paladin immediately insight checked "Philogena" and thankfully rolled terribly, but if she had rolled well it may have very well led to them fighting her immediately.
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Customer avatar
Alan N May 03, 2020 3:05 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Seth -
Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed the adventure and could adapt it to your needs. I can be a bit guilty of ignoring the players' potential desire to Insight check or otherwise find some other reason to attack deceptive characters like the entity (I usually treat such baddies as being such master manipulators that no amount of probing their veracity reveals their deceptions anyway, if it's going to spoil the adventure), but I will bear in mind for my future publications!
Thanks again
Alan
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Customer avatar
Jeremy B June 06, 2020 6:47 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I had a player who had a purpose-built investigator character who rolled a high insight, but I didn't let him find anything off about her. The intro description block for her says her true nature can't be detected by any means. I took that to mean players at this level can't beat it with their insight, regardless of roll. Given what we know about her true nature even in this campaign, that didn't seem out of the question. Same ground as even a relatively high level bard can't necessarily roll highly enough to bluff Zariel.
Customer avatar
Kate A April 06, 2020 12:01 am UTC
PURCHASER
We had a player drop out last minute for our regular game today and I picked this up with 20 min to game time. I didn't quite play it perfectly as written (didn't realize the 'map' through the dungeon), but the players had a good time. This was great for an easy dungeon with a lot of possibility. A variety of encounters, varying difficulties, and I played with the 'time doesn't pass in the astral plane so no short rests!'

Not all the text in boxes is written to be described aloud, so take care if you're reading on short notice. There are LOTS of starwars references here, not a criticism, just something to be aware of for tone.

Overall my players had a great time and I was able to lead them through this with fairly minimal prep. We played as FOUR 7th level characters, one of which was a cleric. This nearly killed at least one of my players, so a good time was had!

Would warn that any character with the ability to fly (Aarakocra comes to mind) isn't really planned for...See more
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Customer avatar
Alan N April 06, 2020 11:30 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for your feedback, Kate, and taking the time to give it.

I hadn't thought about flying characters! Perhaps they should not fly too close to the captive sun...

The Star Wars references were mainly for the original group for which the adventure was written. If you want something a bit more highbrow, try Part 2 of the series: Soul Survivor. It's full of Macbeth references...

A
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Customer avatar
Kate A May 24, 2020 4:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ha, that's great feedback! We're going to play the second adventure today, looking forward to it!
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Customer avatar
Alan N June 03, 2020 11:11 pm UTC
CREATOR
And thanks for your feedback, too. I've adjusted parts of the campaign I'm writing to take in account that some characters may be able to fly!
Customer avatar
Jennifer R August 26, 2018 5:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
You've got this as optimized for 5th-9th level characters. Curious what you'd say is the ideal party composition. How many characters at what level?
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Customer avatar
Jennifer R August 26, 2018 4:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh wait - I did find it eventually. 4-6 players. Some adventures are more specific (eg 5x level 7 characters), so I was looking for that.
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Customer avatar
Alan N August 27, 2018 12:02 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Jen -

I first ran it with six 5th level characters, one ranger, two clerics (one a war cleric, the other vanilla), a rogue, paladin and fighter. It was challenging enough to be enjoyable. If you are running with 9th levels, 4 would probably do the trick. I wanted something that a range of levels could have fun with, though, which is why the adventure can be customised to suit.

Happy to get feedback from people who have tried it, of course, to see what works well!

Cheers
Alan
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Customer avatar
Jeremy B June 06, 2020 6:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Old comment but for those just finding this and looking, I ran this for 6 10th level characters: 2 wizards, a cleric, a fighter, a rogue, and a roguelock. It was pretty easy to upscale, I just added more monsters to some cells (1 neogi became a 6, with 2 of them neogi masters, etc.) and upped the class of others (mind flayer to mind flayer arcanist). The players had a blast. It definitely helps to pay attention to the variations in the text on how the monsters are behaving as prisoners.
Customer avatar
Chris G August 20, 2018 9:44 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hey Alan. Where can I get my hands on the rest of the parts of this series? Are they still in development?
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Customer avatar
Alan N August 20, 2018 11:28 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Chris -

Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm. The remaining episodes are all written, I am just formatting them for publication. Episode Two should be out by the end of the week.

Best regards
Alan
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Customer avatar
James A September 07, 2018 12:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi, So assuming episode 2 is out by now, what is the title?
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Customer avatar
Alan N September 08, 2018 5:13 am UTC
CREATOR
That was remiss of me!

Part Two is called Soul Survivor, and it came out a couple of weeks ago. Part Three is called Revenge of the Gith (I should have it tidied up in another week or so), followed by Part Four, Into The Abyss.
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Customer avatar
Alan N October 08, 2018 12:46 pm UTC
CREATOR
Update: Part Three is now out: Revenge of the Gith. It's a bit big, though!
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Customer avatar
Alan N November 16, 2018 10:34 am UTC
CREATOR
And in case you missed it, the finale episode is out now too.
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File Last Updated:
July 26, 2018
This title was added to our catalog on July 26, 2018.