1d7 Random Lovecraftian Sword & Sorcery Adventure Hooks Table For Your Old School Campaigns

Horror & evil grow like a cancer across the worlds, heroes are needed to stem the tide of this cancer. Men & women of valor,courage, and wisdom. Monsters, tyrants, & nameless horrors straight from the depths of the deepest underworld threaten the mortal realm. Are your heroes ready to meet this these threats head on?


These Sword & Sorcery hooks are set at levels three through six for PC's of B/X Dungeons & Dragons as well as most retroclones such as Labyrinth Lord or Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition.


These could be used as adventure or campaign starters with some tweaking for your own home Sword & Sorcery campaign settings. These hooks are set up with an experienced group of players in mind with mid tier characters in mind.


1d7 Random Sword & Sorcery Adventure Hooks Table

1. A pack of Nightguants has taken residence with a nearby set of ruins. Each night they take a random person on a wretched journey to a hag that strips them of vital life essence and returns them before morning. Each victim always has the same bone jarring nightmare of her asking them over & over about a hidden hoard of treasure in some ruined temple. The village priest is advertising for adventurers to track her down & destroy the monster! The village itself is becoming ruined because no is maintaining the place and the nightgaunts are unnerving as well as consuming the livestock in the most horrid fashion. There is a +2 dagger & small 120 gold piece stash within their nearby hide out. 
2. A necromancer has moved into the area & has gathered a cult of death worshipers nearby in a hidden grove. Each night zombies rise from the ground to gather around a sacred set of stones and worship a demon he or she has summoned for some unknown purpose. The place is getting an evil reputation among nearby villages and there is a festival coming up.The village elders are looking for heroes to destroy the necromancer & restore order. There are rumors of a treasure buried in the center of the standing stones.
3. A basilisk has taken residence within the ruins of a once rich temple of Apollo and is coveting the former offerings of the god. Priests of Apollo are seeking adventurers to take down the foul creature but there is a demon behind the thing who is guiding its actions. He wishes to attract a cult to further befoul the place. The heroes receive dreams of the monster going on a rampage through a nearby village. 
4. Villagers have recently uncovered in a field a sealed vault of the Elder Things a giant black pudding  and the thing is on a rampage each night at the hour of the dead. Fields, crops, and villagers have been killed and a wizard as well as heroes are needed to put the thing down. 
5. A hunger spirit has been let loose by the meddling of a local wizard and now crops, people, animals are all dying. An ancient talisman of the Ancient Ones is needed to put the thing to rest. The artifact is found in the temple of the gargoyles nearby hidden within the grove of the old ones. There is said to be other treasure there as well. 
6. A young druid has angered a shambling mound who was resting as a part of the grove of elder trees. Now the thing rampages each evening destroying and all in its way. A horrid fate awaits any who crosses its path but there are rumors of a necromancer who might be using it to uncover a treasure of old. The thing has killed three villagers already. 
7. A young priest of Cthulhu has come looking for converts to his twisted faith & is assisted by 5 zombies of Deep Ones whom he has awoken from deathless slumber. Now he seeks their grand tomb in the nearby endless swamp of Woe. He is holding the local village hostage and needs brave adventurers to plumb its depths.
   
   
   Out of what crypt they crawl, I cannot tell,
   But every night I see the rubbery things,
   Black, horned, and slender, with membranous wings,
   They come in legions on the north wind’s swell
   With obscene clutch that titillates and stings,
   Snatching me off on monstrous voyagings
   To grey worlds hidden deep in nightmare’s well.
   
   Over the jagged peaks of Thok they sweep,
   Heedless of all the cries I try to make,
   And down the nether pits to that foul lake
   Where the puffed shoggoths splash in doubtful sleep.
   But ho! If only they would make some sound,
   Or wear a face where faces should be found!
   Night-Gaunts  (1939)
   by Howard Phillips LovecraftWritten circa 1930. First published in Weird Tales (no. 34, no. 6, December 1939).
   Part of the "Fungi from Yuggoth" cycle of poems.