The fifth release in Paul Bimler’s highly popular series of DM-less solo Dungeons & Dragons adventures from 5e Solo Gamebooks, Drums at Daggerford continues the story arc that first began in The Death Knight’s Squire. Designed for a level 5 PC with any race and class combo, this adventure is written in a sandbox style that takes place on the Sword Coast of Faerûn, providing anywhere up to 8 hours of solo entertainment. Drums at Daggerford offers mysteries to uncover, items and sidekicks to gain, codewords to unlock, and villains to conquer!
Your quest begins in Ilinvur, where you meet a mage, Malthuveus, who sets you on a quest. The town of Daggerford has been taken hostage by a marauding orc known as Krond Vikkurk, who, with the aid of an army of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls and other creatures, has kidnapped the population of Daggerford and moved them to an unknown location.
Krond demands 100,000 gold pieces for their safe return. For his efforts, the orc now has a bounty on his head: a reward of 1,000 gold pieces has been promised to anyone who can discover the whereabouts of the hostages, and defeat the infamous orc.
As is usual with 5e Solo Gamebooks, Drums at Daggerford contains battle maps for combat, and hyperlinks that navigate you between entries, removing the need to scroll. Also, rather than the more linear narratives of previous adventures, in this you can take any route you wish, visiting locations in your desired order, much as a party would in a standard roleplaying module.
Interactive maps allow you to click on locations and visit them for exploration, and a system of progress points allows you to measure the passage of time to keep track of resting and travel. But don’t worry – unlike previous quests where progress points have been utilised, there is no time limit in this adventure. Time is the least of your concerns, but keeping your character alive is!
Drums at Daggerford is a challenging adventure that can also be played as a DM’d campaign, or in multiplayer with 2, 3 or 4 PCs, with the included Multi PC Conversion Table providing adjusted monster numbers for every encounter. Additionally, spellcasting is incorporated (especially combat spells), and there are several opportunities within the adventure to pick up a sidekick (be warned that one or two encounters are actually unsurvivable without a sidekick!).
Drums at Daggerford is available to download as a 160-page PDF (plus separate map files) from DM’s Guild, where you’ll also find many other products from 5e Solo Gamebooks.