Durnan tends bar at the legendary Yawning Portal tavern, where the entrance to Undermountain gapes like a hungry mouth in the taproom floor. But the stories told here reach far beyond Waterdeep — each tale leads to a different dungeon, a different danger, and a different legend waiting to be made. This campaign strings together classic dungeon crawls into an overarching adventure of escalating challenge and mystery.
Story Arcs
The Sunless Citadel
A ruined fortress has sunk into a ravine, and goblins within offer a magical apple that can cure any disease — for a terrible price. The party descends into darkness to discover what evil festers below.
The Forge of Fury
A legendary dwarven forge, long lost to a dragon and its minions, contains weapons of extraordinary power. The party must clear the forge level by level to claim its treasures.
The Hidden Shrine
Deep in the jungle, an ancient shrine filled with deadly traps guards a secret that connects all the dungeons. The party must survive the shrine's challenges to uncover the truth.
Against the Giants
The giant lords are uniting for war, driven by a hidden puppet master. The party must defeat each giant stronghold and trace the conspiracy to its source.
Session Outlines
These outlines are for planning reference only. Actual sessions are not created by the template.
The Yawning Portal
Introduction at Durnan's famous tavern. The party hears tales of adventurers who entered the Sunless Citadel and never returned. A desperate mother offers payment to recover her children who joined a previous expedition. The road to the ravine includes encounters with territorial wildlife.
Descent into Darkness
The party descends into the ravine and enters the Sunless Citadel. The upper level is controlled by goblins who have an uneasy truce with kobolds. Navigating the faction dynamics is as important as combat. The goblins offer the magical apple — but want prisoners in exchange.
The Twilight Grove
Below the citadel lies an underground grove where a corrupted druid tends a great tree that bears the magical fruit. The missing adventurers have been transformed into plant-like minions. The druid serves a greater darkness that connects to future adventures.
The Mountain Door
Rumors at the Yawning Portal lead to a dwarven forge lost for centuries. The approach through mountain passes is guarded by orcs who have claimed the upper levels. The party fights through the Mountain Door into the first level of the forge.
The Glitterhame
Below the orc-held levels lies the Glitterhame — natural caverns of sparkling crystal inhabited by troglodytes and other underground creatures. A subterranean river provides an alternate route deeper into the complex. The dwarven forge awaits below.
The Forge and the Dragon
The forge itself is still operational, guarded by dwarven traps and constructs. Below the forge, a young dragon has made its lair in an underground lake. The party must defeat or drive off the dragon to claim the forge's legendary weapons.
Jungle Approach
A map found in the Forge of Fury points to an ancient shrine deep in a tropical jungle. The journey through the jungle is treacherous — hostile wildlife, difficult terrain, and ancient traps left by the shrine's builders. Local guides can be hired but have their own agendas.
The Shrine of Traps
The shrine is a death trap — every corridor, every room, every treasure is designed to kill intruders. Puzzles, pit traps, crushing walls, and magical guardians test the party's wits and reflexes. At the shrine's heart, a revelation: a map showing the locations of more dungeons, connected by a common ancient civilization.
The Hidden Truth
Deciphering the shrine's records reveals that all the dungeons the party has explored were created by the same ancient civilization — and they were all connected to a single purpose. A dark power is awakening, and the giant lords have been recruited to serve it.
Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
The party assaults the hill giant chieftain's steading — a massive timber hall where giants feast and plot. The steading is chaotic and disorganized, allowing for stealth or brute force. Captured documents reveal the giants are being organized by an outside force.
The Glacial Rift
The trail leads to the frost giant jarl's lair in a glacial rift. The icy environment adds hazards to every encounter. The frost giants are more disciplined than the hill giants, and their jarl is a cunning warrior. Evidence points to the fire giant king as the conspiracy's coordinator.
The Hall of the Fire Giant King
The fire giant king rules from a volcanic fortress of iron and stone. His hall is a forge of war where giant weapons are made. The king serves a dark master whose identity is finally revealed — a connection to the ancient civilization that built the dungeons.
The Puppet Master
Behind the giant conspiracy lies a powerful entity connected to the ancient civilization. The party must confront it in a hidden sanctum beneath the fire giant's hall, where ancient magic and modern menace combine.
Return to the Portal
With the conspiracy broken, the party returns to the Yawning Portal as legends in their own right. Durnan himself raises a toast. But hints remain that the ancient civilization left more dungeons, more dangers, and more stories to tell.
NPCs
Durnan
Human · Tavern Owner and Retired Adventurer
The legendary owner of the Yawning Portal tavern. A retired adventurer of immense skill who guards the entrance to Undermountain. He shares stories, offers advice, and serves as the party's anchor between adventures. Knows more than he lets on about the connected dungeons.
Meepo
Kobold · Kobold Keeper of the Dragon
A pathetic kobold in the Sunless Citadel who has lost his tribe's pet dragon and will do anything to get it back. Comic relief but also genuinely helpful as a guide through the citadel. His loyalty to the party, if earned, is absolute.
Belak the Outcast
Human · Corrupted Druid
A druid who descended into the Sunless Citadel and was corrupted by the dark tree. He tends the Twilight Grove and creates plant-based minions from captured adventurers. His corruption connects to the larger mystery of the ancient civilization.
Arundil
Elf · Scholar and Linguist
An elven scholar at the Yawning Portal who can translate ancient texts found in the dungeons. Her research connects the different sites and reveals the overarching conspiracy. She becomes increasingly alarmed as the pattern becomes clear.
Chief Guh
Hill Giant · Hill Giant Chieftain
An enormously fat hill giant who rules through intimidation and gluttony. She is being manipulated by the conspiracy but too stupid to realize it. Her steading is chaotic, disorganized, and full of stolen goods. She fights with brute strength and thrown boulders.
Jarl Storvald
Frost Giant · Frost Giant Lord
A cunning frost giant warrior who rules the Glacial Rift. Unlike the dim hill giants, he is an intelligent tactician who has willingly joined the conspiracy for promised power. His rift fortress is well-defended and his warriors disciplined.
Locations
The Yawning Portal Tavern
Waterdeep's most famous tavern, built around a 40-foot-wide shaft that descends into Undermountain. Adventurers pay 1 gold to be lowered in, and Durnan has seen thousands go down and only hundreds come back up. The tavern is the party's home base between adventures.
The Sunless Citadel
A ruined fortress that sank into a ravine centuries ago. The upper levels are divided between warring goblin and kobold tribes. Below lies the Twilight Grove — an underground cavern where a corrupted tree bears magical fruit tended by a mad druid.
The Forge of Fury
A dwarven forge complex built into a mountain. Five levels descend from orc-held caverns through crystal caves to the forge itself, and finally to a dragon's underground lake lair. The forge can still produce magical weapons if its fires are relit.
The Hidden Shrine
An ancient temple deep in a tropical jungle, filled with the most devious traps ever conceived. Every surface is potentially lethal, and the shrine's builders anticipated every method of bypassing their defenses. At its heart lies the key to understanding the ancient civilization.
Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
A massive timber hall surrounded by a crude palisade. The hill giants feast, brawl, and plan raids from here. The interior is cluttered, filthy, and full of stolen treasure. A hidden passage leads to dungeons below where prisoners and secrets are kept.
The Glacial Rift
A vast crack in a glacier where frost giants have carved their fortress from living ice. The rift descends in tiers, each colder and more dangerous than the last. Ice bridges, frozen waterfalls, and hidden caves create a three-dimensional battlefield.
Quests
The Lost Adventurers
A mother begs the party to find her children who entered the Sunless Citadel and never returned. Discovering their fate — transformed into plant minions by the corrupted druid — is both the answer and a new challenge.
Relight the Forge
The legendary dwarven forge can still produce magical weapons, but first the dragon squatting in its lowest level must be dealt with. Clear the forge and claim its treasures.
Decipher the Ancient Connection
Scholar Arundil believes all the dungeons are connected by a single ancient civilization. Help her translate found texts and piece together the pattern before the dark power behind them fully awakens.
Break the Giant Alliance
The giant lords are uniting for war. Defeat each stronghold — hill, frost, and fire — and discover who is pulling their strings before their combined armies devastate the civilized lands.
Encounters
Goblin Ambush
Goblins in the Sunless Citadel attack from prepared positions. They know the terrain intimately and use hit-and-run tactics in the narrow corridors.
The Twilight Grove
The corrupted druid commands plant creatures and transformed adventurers in the underground grove. The great tree itself lashes out with animated roots.
Dragon's Lair
A young dragon guards the lowest level of the Forge of Fury, fighting from its underwater lair to maximize its advantage.
Hill Giant Feasting Hall
The party crashes the hill giants' feast. Overturned tables, thrown food, and drunk giants create a chaotic battle in a cavernous timber hall.
Frost Giant Gauntlet
Frost giants hurl boulders from ice bridges above while wolves and winter wolves attack at ground level. The slippery terrain adds difficulty to every action.
Factions
The Yawning Portal Regulars
Neutral Good
A loose community of adventurers, scholars, and treasure hunters who frequent Durnan's tavern. They share information, form parties, and honor a code of mutual support. The party's growing reputation earns respect and assistance.
The Giant Alliance
Chaotic Evil
Hill, frost, and fire giants united under a single purpose by a hidden puppet master. Each giant lord brings different strengths — brute force, tactical cunning, and military industry — creating a combined threat far greater than any single tribe.
The Ancient Builders
True Neutral
A long-dead civilization whose constructions span the continent. Their dungeons, shrines, and forges served a purpose that is only now becoming clear. Their legacy includes both the wonders and the horrors the party encounters.
Recommended Characters
Pre-built characters designed for this campaign setting. Create them separately from the character templates page.
Thordak Stonedelver
Dwarf · Fighter · Level 2
A dwarven dungeon delver who lives for the thrill of descending into ancient ruins and forgotten tombs. Thordak has survived more deathtraps than most adventurers have heard of, and he has the scars to prove it.
Pippa Quickfoot
Halfling · Rogue · Level 2
A halfling treasure hunter with nimble fingers and an instinct for finding hidden loot. Pippa sees every dungeon as a vault waiting to be cracked, and she hasn't met a lock, trap, or treasure chest she couldn't handle.
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