The Sunless Citadel
Here is a list of all the things I found useful when running the Sunless Citadel Adventure from Tales From the Yawning Portal.
Maps
Minis Required
10x Twig Blight
6x Rats
5x Skeletons
1x Quasit
1x Troll
6x Kobolds
8x Goblin
1x Ice Mephit
1x Steam Mephit
1x Female Kobold
1x Rat Swarm
1x Giant Rat
1x Gnome
1x Dragon Wyrmling
4x Hobgoblin
1x Female Goblin Shaman
1x Bugbear
1x Fire Snake
1x Shadow
1x Robed Human Female
1x Human Knight Male
1x Human Druid Male
1x Giant Frog
Scenery
Masonary Debris
1x Orb on Pedestal
1x Dragon Sculpture
5x Sarcophagus
1x Large Keg
1x Wooden Bench
1x Metal Cage
1x Throne
1x Dry Fountain
Wooden Debris
Barrels and Crates
Chests
Luminous Mushrooms
10x Table
10x Pillar
1x Chair
5x Bookcases
Gulthias Tree
Item Cards
6x Items
11x Potions
11x Spell Scrolls
DM Notes
This dungeon is great for new players as the learning curve is not particularly steep. That's not to say there isn't danger and I did have one knockout the last time I ran this. I blame this on the Bard being silly and the resulting karma from sending Meepo to his death! There's a dungeon and a dragon here which is always fun for a first campaign, also there's the lesson that not everything is solved with combat which is an important thing to learn for a newbie.
The two levels of the dungeon have very different feels. The Fortress Level is a very classic, traditional dungeon crawl. The tone shifts when the party enters the Grove Level, there's an eerie, Frankenstein's Monster theme to it. There's creepy live experiments in one area and the level is lit by a bioluminescent fungus. Tailor your descriptions and music to the themes and you'll give your players a richer experience.
This took me 2 1/2 long sessions (about 20 hours) to complete the adventure including the awkward first meeting of the players. They didn't explore all of the rooms but they did most of it but the bard did get stuck in the trap loop for about 5 tries so that slowed them down somewhat!
There's a reason this adventure is loved and reprinted, it's a great introduction and rich in options.
