Dungeons and Dragons has a lot going on this year, and one of the major releases is the latest book – Quests from the Infinite Staircase. It features five revamped adventures from D&D history, and runs from levels 1 through to 13.
In this adventure, players meet Nafas, the primary quest giver who lives in the Censer of Dreams – his palace on the Infinite Staircase. He was created by planar winds that blew in through the staircase’s infinite doors, and so he’s well connected to the multiverse. This connection lets him hear the wishes of the creatures from all across it, but he can’t leave the staircase – and that’s where the adventurers come in.
The Infinite Staircase was first mentioned in 2nd edition Planescape, and also has an honorable mention in the 2014 Dungeon Masters Guide. It’s a special way to travel through the multiverse and is physically an extra-dimensional staircase that winds up through an infinite expanse. The stairs lead to an unending number of doors that theoretically can take travelers anywhere, with the doors taking on an appearance related to the destination. Some of the doors are guarded by powerful creatures, and the first chapter of the book deals with the staircase, the doors, and rules within this expanse, answering important questions like “What happens if I fall off the staircase” and “how do I find a specific door?”
There’s also a huge table on sample doors that might be found, which gives an idea of how the planes the doors lead to influence their appearance. Nafas, which is Persian for “breath”, also has his own stat block – with a unique and potentially “campaign ending” mechanic included. He isn’t bound by the normal rules of the Wish spell, which makes him potentially very powerful. He also can’t be bound by an iron flask like most genies, which might throw a wrench into the plans of any adventurers with slightly more nefarious intentions.
When it comes to the adventures being revamped, there are six – and rather than just being clear copies of the originals, they’re all more like homages to the originals. Players will recognize a lot of the settings and plots, but there’s something new for everyone – also note that the adventures are compatible with the 2014 and 2024 rulesets.
The first adventure is “The Lost City” – which is set in Cynidicea. Players will meet a bunch of mask-wearing factions vying for control, with the opportunity to help, hinder, or even join them. The factions have all been tweaked, and the encounters have been rebalanced, with a lot of flavor also being added to the adventure, including things like rules to gambling games, things the enemies know and can share, etc. The original adventure was designed to teach new DMs how to DM, but the new version merges a lot of things together into one floor, with extra maps that let the players stay here or come back later.
The second adventure, “When a Star Falls”, is the first adventure that bore a Union Jack on its cover, being one of the first adventures written by a UK team. Characters must collect a fallen star to protect the power of prophecy, but the adventure begins with an encounter with a Memory Web, which now has a stat block. Players will meet creatures called Derro which have been stealing and reanimating corpses, a clan of deep gnomes with a powerful forge, and even a Dragon at the end of the adventure which is “quite ferocious”.
The third adventure, “Beyond the Crystal Cave”, is inspired by Shakespeare. Two young paramours have absconded as their families didn’t approve of their love (sound familiar?) and the adventure is famous for having one of the first major Dungeons and Dragons segments that can be solved without any combat. This has been played up in the “Garden section” of the story, and characters also get to meet leprechauns, debate unicorns, and encounter an Archfey.
The next adventure is a remake of “Desert of Desolation”, in which players are asked by a ghost of a dead Pharaoh to free them from a curse. They get to travel to a tomb and retrieve a staff and a stargem. They meet a knight who’s party have mostly succumbed to the tombs, as well as a faction of historians and priests.
The fifth adventure, “The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth”, sees the players heading into the wilderness to find a lost cavern, where they encounter Tasha’s vampire daughter, Drelzna.
The final adventure, which will be the highlight for a lot of players, is the iconic “Ex
