Recommended Levels: 5–8
Genre: Surreal Dungeon Crawl / Mystery
Tone: Whimsical, Weird, and Occasionally Dark
Setting: Inside a Bag of Holding
Adventure Hook:
The party is approached by a frantic wizard named Thistlewhim Bramblecloak. He accidentally dropped a priceless magical artifact into his Bag of Holding—then dropped the bag into a portable hole. The resulting planar mishap caused the bag to implode, creating a rift into a bizarre extradimensional space. The only way to retrieve the artifact (and escape) is to enter the bag through the rift and navigate the strange world inside.
The Pouchlands:
The interior of the Bag of Holding has become a warped pocket dimension. It is a surreal, semi-sentient labyrinth made from the contents of countless bags over the centuries.
- Gravity is inconsistent and changes direction.
- Time flows unpredictably.
- Some items have developed sentience.
- A mysterious entity called “The Custodian” maintains order within the bag.
Major Locations:
- The Zipper Gate – The entry point, guarded by a paranoid mimic that believes it is a zipper.
- The Coinfall – A desert of gold coins, ruled by a cartel of dust mephits.
- The Forgotten Shelf – A library of lost scrolls and books, watched over by a sentient quill.
- The Sock Swamp – A bog of mismatched socks and laundry golems.
- The Vault of Echoes – A chamber where magical echoes replay past conversations and secrets.
- The Core Stitch – The unstable heart of the bag, where the artifact is suspended in a gravity storm.
Encounters and Challenges:
- Puzzle locks made from magical items.
- Combat with animated objects, rogue elementals, and scavenger creatures.
- Roleplay with sentient items (e.g., a depressed umbrella or a power-hungry belt).
- Environmental hazards like shifting gravity, memory fog, and mimicry.
Objectives:
- Navigate the surreal interior.
- Retrieve the lost artifact (e.g., the Chrono Prism).
- Escape before the bag collapses or is consumed by the void.
Possible Twist Endings:
- The artifact is sentient and refuses to leave.
- The Custodian offers the party a place in the Bag’s eternal order.
- The Bag is a prison for a forgotten god, and removing the artifact weakens its seal.