Free Adventure “Hold Back the Dead” Now Available On D&D Beyond
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The undead have long been a staple of Dungeons & Dragons, with creatures like zombies, skeletons, liches and ghouls appearing in countless classic adventures, not to mention getting heavy rotation in the new 2024 Monster Manual. One of the most iconic undead in DnD lore is the infamous red wizard and arch-lich Szass Tam.
Now, the undead (and Szass Tam himself) are front and centre in a brand new one-shot adventure entitled Hold Back the Dead, which is currently available for free to download on D&D Beyond. The adventure is set in the Forgotten Realms and is an action-heavy hack n’ slasher, with players battling wave after of ravenous undead, while also managing resources and dealing with NPCs.
So is this latest corpse-filled adventure worth playing? Below, we carve up all the details.
What is “Hold Back the Dead” about?
Hold Back the Dead is a DnD one-shot adventure designed for four to six level 4 characters and takes about 3 to 4 hours to play. The story takes place in the Forgotten Realms in a remote fortress known as Ironspine Keep, which has recently been reclaimed by the Lord’s Alliance (the elite leaders of the Sword Coast’s most prominent cities). Unfortunately, a horde of the undead created by the arch lich Szass Tam has set its sights on the Ironspike, with a powerful spectral warlord in command. It’s up to the player to defend the keep at all costs, while dealing with a variety of threats from both inside and outside its once formidable walls.
The adventure has a lot in common with classic tower defense video games, with players assigned to one of five parts of the fortress (each representing one of the five cities of the Lord’s Alliance) and having to deal with increasingly difficult waves of enemies before facing down a final boss. It’s not just action, however, as players also have to deal with NPCs and uncover a spy within their ranks.
The adventure also includes pre-made PCs based on the 1980s Dungeons & Dragons animated series. Namely, Hank the Ranger, Diana the Acrobat, Eric the Cavalier, Presto the Wizard, Sheila the Thief and Bobby the Barbarian. All of these characters are now grown up and have also recently appeared in other recent D&D Beyond one-shots, including Uni and the Hunt for the Lost Horn and Scions of Elemental Evil. A new character named Niko the Cleric is also available for play, but you can also roll up your own character if you wish.
Hold Back the Dead also uses the new rules from the 2024 Player’s Handbook and includes several new magic items from the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. It also features new 2024 stat blocks for a number of monsters, including the new Swarm of Crawling Claws (which, as the name suggests, is literally a hoard of Crawling Claws). It also features five new maps which can be printed out run using the D&D Beyond Maps VTT.
Notably the adventure was designed by Ron Lundeen, who is perhaps best known for his work on Paizo’s Pathfinder, with additional support from Shawn Baanerjee and James Mendez Hodes. It also includes an absolutely stunning bit of cover art from longtime Wizards of the Coast illustrator Aurore Folny.
Final Thoughts
There haven’t really been too many official DnD adventures that feature the tower defense style of gameplay we see in Hold Back the Dead. In fact, the closest we’ve had in recent years is the domain of Falkovnia, which was featured in 2021’s Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and had a similar vibe in that it’s all about holding off a hoard of zombies. Similarly, Dragonlance’s Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign from 2022 often leaned into this type of military focused action.
It remains to be see, however, just how this new adventure is received, which we should find out soon as it’s expected to be run at a number of upcoming conventions. In the meantime, you can currently download your digital copy of Hold Back the Dead for free on D&D Beyond.
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Ollie Delano is a Staff Writer who lives in Chicago, Illinois where he majored in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He’s been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 10 years and currently plays in a weekly game group where he rolls way too many natural 1s and chugs way too much Mountain Dew. His favorite D&D campaign setting is Eberron and his favorite character to play was a Tiefling rogue named Draxiss who enjoys both literal and figurative backstabbing.
