Quests from the Infinite Staircase

Introduction: Ascend to Adventure

The Infinite Staircase spirals endlessly in a vast, dreamlike expanse, twisting upward and downward to countless doors linked to every world and plane of existence. It is the route to the heart's desire, an extradimensional staircase that leads to all places. Beyond its myriad portals lie enchanting Feywild gardens, sunken cities ruled by ancient evils, and untold adventures.

Quests from the Infinite Staircase collects six adventures from Dungeons & Dragons history, updated for the current edition of the game. Beloved for their strange and wondrous locations, iconic monsters, and unforgettable encounters—including one indelible brush with a cute little bunnyoid on a stump in a crashed spaceship—these stories have entertained players since their Introductions. This anthology weaves together these memorable tales and adds a few new surprises.

The Infinite Staircase leads wayfarers from one story to the next. Legends state that by diligently searching the staircase's landings, a wistful traveler can find the door to the destination of their dreams.

Adventure awaits behind every door.

[image: A luminous branch of the Infinite Staircase ascends to a celestial door guarded by a vigilant sphinx]

Using This Book

Quests from the Infinite Staircase contains six classic D&D adventures updated for the game's fifth edition. A cosmic thread pervades these tales, whose stories involve falling stars, archmages of multiversal renown, and the remnants of futuristic societies.

This book provides a means of traveling between these and other adventures: the Infinite Staircase. Unlike spells such as Plane Shift, the staircase can be accessed by characters of any class or level. It merely requires happening on the right door.

The adventures in Quests from the Infinite Staircase can be worked into ongoing campaigns. Additionally, these adventures complement those in other D&D anthologies, such as Keys from the Golden Vault, Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, and Tales from the Yawning Portal—you can use the staircase to ferry the characters between the worlds in which those quests take place.

About the Adventures

[image: The doors of the Infinite Staircase lead to every plane and every world, each wildly different from the last]

Short summaries of the book's adventures appear below. For more on each adventure's origin and its place in D&D history, see the "About the Original" sidebar in each adventure.

The Lost City

The Lost City is an introductory adventure written to accompany the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. Lost in a desert, the characters stumble on the ruins of Cynidicea and its peculiar factions. Released in 1982, the adventure marks the first appearance of Zargon, a one-eyed elder evil once entombed beneath the Cynidicean ziggurat. The updated adventure is designed for 1st-level characters.

When a Star Falls

When a Star Falls was the first adventure to bear a Union Jack flag on its cover in 1984. As with other adventures produced in the United Kingdom at the time, When a Star Falls has been praised for its crisp writing and strong plot, the events of which surround a fallen star and the groups that covet it. The updated adventure is designed for 4th-level characters.

Beyond the Crystal Cave

Inspired by the works of William Shakespeare, Beyond the Crystal Cave takes characters to a timeless Feywild garden. A rarity for its time, the 1983 adventure emphasized noncombat encounters in an era of hack-and-slash dungeons. The updated adventure is designed for 6th-level characters.

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is the first adventure in the three-part Desert of Desolation series and was published in 1982. In this adventure, the ghost of a long-dead pharaoh beseeches the characters to delve his dangerous tomb and set his cursed soul free. The updated adventure is designed for 7th-level characters.

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth originally debuted under the title The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth as a tournament adventure for the 1976 Winter Con game convention. The full version of the adventure, which takes place in the former lair of the archmage Iggwilv, was published in 1982. The updated adventure is designed for 9th-level characters.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks threw fantasy gamers for a loop with its unexpected science fiction elements at the Origins game convention in 1976, where it first appeared as a tournament scenario. Used to introduce D&D players to the sci-fi game Metamorphosis Alpha, the adventure—which involves a crashed spaceship, futuristic weaponry, and humorously malfunctioning robots—became an instant classic. The updated adventure is designed for 11th-level characters.

Creating a Campaign

The adventures in this book provide play across a broad range of levels. They can be strung together as a complete campaign using the Infinite Staircase to travel between them.

Starting with The Lost City, guide your players through the adventures in the order presented in this book. Each one provides sufficient XP that, on completing the adventure, the characters should be high enough level to advance to the next quest. The adventures also present narrative milestones for story-based level advancement (see the Dungeon Master's Guide).

After each adventure, have the characters find a door to the Infinite Staircase. There, they cross paths with a cosmic quest-giver, the noble genie Nafas (detailed in x), who sends them on their next journey. Because the staircase spans the multiverse, the adventures it can lead to are limitless, whether those tales come from this book or another.

Running the Adventures

To run each of these adventures, you need the fifth edition core rulebooks: the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual.

When a creature's name appears in bold type, that's a visual cue pointing you to its stat block as a way of saying, "Hey, DM, you should get this creature's stat block ready. You're going to need it." If the stat block appears elsewhere, the text tells you so; otherwise, you can find the stat block in the Monster Manual.

Spells and equipment mentioned in each of the adventures are described in the Player's Handbook. Magic items are described in the Dungeon Master's Guide, unless the adventure's text directs you to an item's description elsewhere.