DnD Next ReturnCaves Chaos - Return to the Caves of Chaos - Evolving Chaos and Alliances

Oct 6, 2026

Upload by Stanley

A playtesting adventure outline for D&D Next titled “Return to the Caves of Chaos,” introducing an open-ended dungeon design built to help DMs tailor narratives and focus on party-versus-challenge dynamics. It explains how repeated expeditions reshape rival tribes and factions, enabling prepared countermeasures, shifting alliances, and escalating threats. Guidance covers alliances, enlisting powerful cave personalities, and chaotic cult strategies that raise dead to overwhelm living inhabitants, culminating in veteran humanoids and rules-like stat escalation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time6 min

AccessFree to download

Return to the Caves of Chaos

Evolving Chaos

Alliances

Enlisting Personalities

Veteran Humanoids

New Arrivals

Confidential information of Wizards of the Coast LLC. Do not duplicate. Return to the Caves of Chaos By Robert J. Schwalb The Caves of Chaos adventure kicks off D&D® Next playtesting for several reasons. For one, it’s a classic. Veteran players from across the editions have likely heard of Keep on the Borderlands, and we expected many to have played through it at least once. This familiarity, we hoped, would make it easier for our Dungeon Masters (DMs) to prepare and run the playtest adventure, and we also hoped that the familiarity would allow DMs to focus on the mechanics and relationship between the player characters (PCs) and the challenges the adventure presents. Second, and more importantly, The Caves of Chaos marks a return to an adventure style that we have not embraced in years, except in setting products such as Hammerfast. Rather than presenting carefully tuned encounters in a linear fashion, we wanted to provide an open-ended adventure that DMs could use to tell their own stories. With The Caves of Chaos, DMs can adapt the location for whatever narrative they have in mind. By now, you have probably run the adventure at least once, and you might be itching for something more. We will present additional adventures and locations for your playtests to explore, but the stories in The Caves of Chaos need not be over. A place as big and as dynamic as this sinister valley can play host to multiple expeditions. If you’re interested in running further adventures in the caves, you can use this document to spark ideas and plots that will bring adventurers back to unearth new treasures and defeat deadlier monsters. Evolving Chaos Adventurers exploring the Caves of Chaos likely made several forays into the caves. They might have kicked down doors, destroyed the occupants, looted the bodies, and moved on to the next cavern complex. Or the player characters might have made alliances with the denizens, turning the tribes against each other to distract the occupants long enough to accomplish the PCs’ larger goals—disrupting the balance, destroying the Shrine of Evil Chaos, rescuing prisoners, and so on. Each foray into the caves leaves the caves changed. The various tribes and factions adjust to external threat, replacing careless guards with more cautious ones. Unless the PCs wipe out a tribe completely, hunters, gatherers, and raiders return to find that their caves have been plundered and sacked by enemies. Dim-witted humanoids might lash out against rival tribes (such as the orcs and gnolls), while cunning ones might treat with neighbors, inspect tracks, or even use magic to deduce who the interlopers were. Regardless of what action the surviving tribes take, they will be prepared for the PCs when they next visit. Here are some suggestions for you. Alliances A tribe that has come under attack and has surviving members will likely forge an alliance with neighboring tribes friendly to them. One or two strikes against the caves can cause bands to unite (the orcs in B and C, for example) or the various goblinoid denizens (the goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears) to work together. Allied factions post guards outside cave entrances, set traps around the area to alert them to trespassers, and reinforce their lairs with new tribe members recruited from the surrounding countryside. Enlisting Personalities When faced with a significant threat, the humanoid tribes enlist aid from the more powerful personalities found in the caves, such as the dark priest, the medusa (if freed), the minotaur, and the ogre. Of the four, the ogre is the most likely creature to join forces with the humanoid tribes, and it tries to become their ruler. The minotaur has little interest in leading the tribes, though it will throw its weight behind the other factions if its own life is threatened. The medusa, on the other hand, will establish herself as queen of the caves the moment she breaks free. She petrifies chieftainsand assumes contro

FAQs

Why does the Caves of Chaos adventure start the D&D Next playtest?

It is presented as a classic with familiar reference points for veteran players, making it easier for DMs to prepare and run. It also returns to an open-ended adventure style rather than linear, tuned encounters.

How do the caves change after each expedition?

Surviving tribes adjust to the threat by replacing careless guards, returning hunters or raiders, and using tactics like alliances, investigations of tracks, or magic to deduce interlopers. The surviving groups prepare for the PCs’ next visit.

What kinds of alliances and reinforcements can happen among the tribes?

Attacked tribes may forge alliances with neighboring friendly tribes, including uniting through coordinated strikes or having goblinoid factions work together. Allies then post guards, set traps around entrances, and reinforce lairs with recruited members.

How can powerful cave personalities affect the outcome of the caves?

Threats can lead personalities like the dark priest, medusa, minotaur, and ogre to support humanoid tribes in different ways. The dark priest can aid only against a dire threat, especially building an undead army, while the medusa may establish herself as queen and control tribes after freeing herself.

Oct 6, 2026

Upload by Stanley