D&D 5E Free 'Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth' Adventure on D&D Beyond

Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an abridged version of the full adventure, which appears in Quests from the Infinite Staircase. You can access it for free on D&D Beyond.

Deep in the Yatil Mountains lie the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, formerly occupied by the legendary archmage Iggwilv the Witch Queen. Though Iggwilv is long gone, her lair is anything but empty. Demons, giants, and other formidable creatures haunt the perilous caverns, and the archmage’s magical defenses remain intact. The rewards for braving these threats defy imagination. Iggwilv is rumored to have amassed a magical hoard of unsurpassed value, a trove of such fame that scores of adventurers have perished in search of it.

This supplement is part of a yearlong celebration of Dungeons & Dragons and its 50th anniversary. The adventure presented herein is an abridged, quick-play version of “The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth,” which appears in Quests from the Infinite Staircase. See that book for the full adventure.

“Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth” is designed for four to six 9th-level characters.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’ll sacrifice the random background story blather that the PCs will never find out and overly wordy room descriptions that no good DM ever reads verbatim.

So, cut out all the interesting stuff to make room for reprinted stat blocks? Why bother to buy an adventure at all? You could just play your way through the monster manual.

It's interesting to compare this to the original - the descriptions are actually rather cut down compared to Gygax's flowery prose.

 

[MNblockhead]

Actually, the formorians should cost you $1.99. (You may have to click on a "read more" button to see the a la carte option.) I've done a lot of a la carte purchasing from DDB, and I vastly prefer it to being forced to buy the whole book for $30.

That said, it looks like the days of them selling stuff piecemeal in new content is over starting with 2024 books*, so it's not something we'll have to worry about any more.

* Check the Book of Many Things page before people once again try and correct me without looking.

If it is true that they are changing this, I'm disappointed. The ability to buy a monster or magic item without having to buy the entire adventure book, but having that cost deducted from the cost of the book if you later decided to buy the entire book was a great and customer friendly feature of DDB.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If it is true that they are changing this, I'm disappointed. The ability to buy a monster or magic item without having to buy the entire adventure book, but having that cost deducted from the cost of the book if you later decided to buy the entire book was a great and customer friendly feature of DDB.

I don't think there is any general policy change, but setting things up so they can be purchased individually requires significantly more work. Whether it gets done or not probably depends on budget allocation and if the DDB team have anything more urgent they need to move onto. It boils down to "is selling components individually going to significantly increase the revenue this product generates?" I certainly can't see it being done for free stuff!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think there is any general policy change, but setting things up so they can be purchased individually requires significantly more work. Whether it gets done or not probably depends on budget allocation and if the DDB team have anything more urgent they need to move onto. It boils down to "is selling components individually going to significantly increase the revenue this product generates?"

The DDB team has staffed way up and material is historically available a la carte the day it goes live on the site. It has now been this way for the Book of Many Things for months, and the staff is dodging questions about what's happened. If it was just a matter of time and manpower, they have had multiple occasions to say so.

It's a stealth policy change or at least an experiment.

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm afraid that DDB is currently so successful, that WotC feels it has little incentive in taking steps that require extra effort. Besides the lack of purchases available "a la carte", what happened to the general feature system that they had been working so long on? It seems to have all but disappeared.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I imagine Beyond is also preparing for the relaunch of the PHB and DMG and by extension what systems change there.

 

[Zaukrie]

I imagine Beyond is also preparing for the relaunch of the PHB and DMG and by extension what systems change there.

Not to mention the real VTT they are working on

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm afraid that DDB is currently so successful, that WotC feels it has little incentive in taking steps that require extra effort. Besides the lack of purchases available "a la carte", what happened to the general feature system that they had been working so long on? It seems to have all but disappeared.

I assume the staff that was working on that has gone to Demiplane.

 

[Vexorg]

I'm importing the pre-made characters into Foundry VTT and I notice each character has one magic item.

They decided the dwarf monk gets a rope of climbing.

The dungeon is flat.

 

[Azzy]

I'm importing the pre-made characters into Foundry VTT and I notice each character has one magic item.

They decided the dwarf monk gets a rope of climbing.

The dungeon is flat.

Damn those random treasure tables!