Beneath the Stone Table is a short adventure with stats for both Crashing Beasts & Crumbling Halls and Fifth Edition OGL fantasy (5E) campaigns. It is intended to fill a single evening's game session and be appropriate for beginning characters. (In the case of 5E, this translates to four 1st-level PCs.)
The adventurers travel into an ancient wood to a site called the Stone Table. A rare astonomical event causes unexpected trouble as the spirits of the site awaken and take interest in them. The party also uncovers a previously unknown dungeon beneath the site exposed by the alignment of the stars.
Why does the party venture to the Stone Table? Possible hooks include:
As the sun is setting, the adventurers arrive at a circle of standing stones deep in the ancient forest. The stones range from 6 to 9 feet in height, weathered to varying degrees. Only a single lintel remains set atop its supporting pillars.
The night the party arrives, the heavens experience a rare alignment of planets, stars, etc., as appropriate to your world. This conjunction only occurs every several hundred years, and it generates a powerful stream of astral energy at this site.
The standing stones here were designed to channel the energy of this event into the Stone Table. Time and the elements have so badly damaged them, however, that most of the power leaks into the surrounding environment, awakening dormant spirits nearby. Mischievous and amoral, these intangible near-fey home in on the adventurers as excellent marks.
The spirits do not harm the party, at least not unprovoked. After their long torpor, they seek entertainment above all else. They beg the adventurers to tell them stories or jokes, perform music or other skills, etc.
If the adventurers are particularly entertaining, the spirits imbue a mundane item in the party's possession with magical power. Choose one or roll:
| d6 | Magic Item |
|---|---|
| 1 | A canteen or waterskin that fills with the bearer's least favorite potable beverage on command, once per day. |
| 2 | A never-burning torch. This cloth-wrapped, oil-soaked stick literally cannot burn, no matter what you do. |
| 3 | A backpack that holds 30 pounds of gear or 300 pounds of clothing. Clothing weighs nothing, but counts as 1/10th weight for capacity. |
| 4 | 50 feet of hemp rope that coils itself neatly when you call it. Good for climbing or securing objects, but won't restrain anything living. |
| 5 | A pair of boots that lace themselves on command. There's always a stubborn knot you need to work out when you unlace them. |
| 6 | A mess kit with utensils that never drop food or spill drink. Whoever uses them always eats as quickly and efficiently as possible. |
Throughout this adventure, the party is exposed to invisible magical energies channeled from the stars, through the broken circle of stones, and toward—but no longer into—the Stone Table.
Every hour, each adventurer must resist the influence of these stellar energies. DC 15 Constitution saving throw. Defend with Constitution, Good (+3) difficulty. If a character fails to resist, roll on the Stellar Energy Exposure Table. If the character is already experiencing an effect, use the next higher result. Effects last until the character takes a long rest. Effects last until the next minor milestone.
| d% | Effects of Exposure |
|---|---|
| 01-10 | No effect. |
| 11-30 | Senses are heightened, including glimpses of the spirit world. Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. Gain a Heightened Senses situation aspect with one free invoke. |
| 31-50 | Enhanced vitality that overwhelms the body. Gain 10 temporary hit points and the poisoned condition. Gain the Overloaded Vitality situation aspect. |
| 51-75 | Emit light like a torch and grow uncomfortably warm to touch. |
| 76-90 | Gain a companion spirit that manifests in the form of a forest creature. As if you cast the find familiar spell. Gain the Unlikely Companion situation aspect. (If rolled a second time, this effect becomes permanent.) |
| 91-00 | An unconscious connection to a celestial body that shapes your fate in unpredictable ways. (This effect is permanent. A character can receive this effect multiple times.) |
A path, overgrown and nearly impassable, leads south to the Stone Table.
The Stone Table itself is a huge rock, more than 10 feet wide and nearly 7 tall, with a smooth flat top. It is carved with countless ancient runes, mostly illegible.
While the standing stones no longer have their full effect, the Stone Table is still charged with stellar energies. Anyone touching it for the first time during the conjunction must immediately roll on the Stellar Energy Exposure Table.
Simply standing in the Table's presence while it is charged with energy has an effect on conscious, mortal beings. Each individual sees before them a vision of their greatest personal desire—the thing they want most for themselves, regardless of greater ambitions for others or the world. If more than one stands before the rock, these visions bleed into each other somewhat. Anyone nearby catches glimpses of their companions' desires.
The vision offers no clue of how to achieve these visions. But it may serve as a source of valuable insight for those who are not in touch with their own wants or needs.
A path, overgrown and nearly impassable, leads north to the Standing Stones.
During the conjunction, a narrow gap in the stone becomes visible. Most adventurers must squeeze uncomfortably to fit. It leads to stairs descending underground to a Welcome Hall.
As the characters near the bottom of the stairs, they hear an intermittant thumping coming from the chamber ahead. At the far end of the welcome hall, a magically animated suit of armor is repeatedly knocking itself against a door to the left. To either side of the hall, identical suits of armor stand motionless on raised platforms.
The misbehaving suit is not hitting the door with enough force to break it, but the iron bears many dents and scuffs. It has evidently been doing this for many years. Magic binds the suit to service, but it is failing in a bizarre way.
The armor takes no notice of the characters unless they attempt to physically restrain or move it. On a 1 on 1d6, it attacks. Otherwise it does whatever it can to return to thumping the door.
The characters can diagnose and repair the failing magic if they possess the right magical and craft skills. DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana), Strength (Athletics), and Dexterity (smith's tools) checks. A challenge requiring Intelligence, Strength, and Dexterity overcome actions against Good (+3) difficulty.
Two doors stand at the north end of the hall. One, wood with brass fixtures, opens to stone steps leading down to the Wizard's Quarters. The other, iron, a short tunnel into a Test Chamber.
The power channeled into the Stone Table was meant to last centuries, from one conjunction to the next. Livinia found a way to tap into that energy to fuel her magical experiments. She conducted her tests in this chamber carved from the bare rock.
Unfortunately, she met her end in this chamber also, conducting one of those very experiments. While probing the edges of the Ethereal, Livinia manifested halfway between both worlds, embedded in the secret door to her quarters. Now, her strangely mummified remains stick out of the wall at about chest height.
Disturbing the remains causes them to fall completely into the room. A moment later, they rise, still partially out of phase with the material world, to attack the intruders.
Anyone in the chamber when Livinia's corpse is defeated must immediately roll on the Effects of Stellar Energy Exposure Table as a pulse of energy blasts out from the collapsing body.
The only obvious exit is the heavy iron door leading back to the Welcome Hall. A secret door hidden in the east wall (DC 20 Great (+4) difficulty) allows access from the Wizard's Quarters.
This room once housed the wizard Livinia before her untimely demise. Given that centuries have passed, it is remarkably well-preserved. Wizards—go figure. It contains the remains of a bed with simple coverings, a small iron chest, and a desk covered in books, scrolls, and parchments.
Searching the room reveals several things:
The books and papers on the desk contain whatever spells you'd like the party to have access to, plus intriguing but incomplete notes on the nature of the convergence and stellar energy. Worth 1,000 gp to the right buyers, such as the mages academy. Worth two Wealth boosts for each adventurer to the right buyers, such as the mages academy.
A secret door leads through a short tunnel to a similar secret door into the Test Chamber. The door back down to the Welcome Hall sports a sliding window to allow the resident to greet guests.
If you run and enjoy this adventure, I'd love to hear how it went. You can reach me on Twitter @PaulStefko. If you'd like to support me in the work that I do, consider becoming a supporter on Patreon, or make a one-time or monthly contribution on Ko-Fi.
The Fate Core font is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permission. The Four Actions icons were designed by Jeremy Keller.
Add the following to section 15, "COPYRIGHT NOTICE", of the Open Game License for this adventure:
Beneath the Stone Table, copyright 2022, Paul Stefko.
Only text in blocks labeled "5e" is Open Game Content.
This adventure is set in Cormorant Garamond. It was written in HTML and CSS (using the Tailwind CSS framework) in VS Code.