GM-SS One Shot Adventure: The Galley of Death

A ready-to-use, downloadable Dungeons and Dragons One Shot Adventure Module!

Whether it’s for a one-shot adventure, starting a longer story, or just another day in your players’ lives, we hope this adventure module will inspire all you DMs and GMs out there.

Overview

RPG: D&D 5e
Number of players: 3 to 4 players
recommended level: Level 1 – 2
Duration: short (3-5 hours)
Difficulty: medium
For your campaign: The adventure is fairly short and can be easily integrated into any campaign, because it neither relies on new lore nor does it use any non-vanilla mechanics.
This Adventure Module contains:
- The story for a single adventure
- Builds for three different enemies / monsters
- Builds for two kinds of friendly NPCs
- A table for rolling events for a ship caught in a storm
- A simple sketched map of a ship

The Story

The ruthless warlord Rahar controls large parts of the coastal regions in the northern lands with his small army of bandits and pirates. So far, he’s made a good fortune by extorting protection money from the local towns. However, recently he’s come across an even more lucrative venture: the slave trade. He uses his luxurious (and suspiciously affordable) inns in the coastal towns to lure in travellers and captures them once they are boozed up and defenceless. These prisoners are then taken onto one of his notorious “Galleys of Death” to be shipped to one of his many goldmines. There, they’ll either be held for ransom or put to work for the rest of their lifes. All the towns along the northern coast buy into this scheme, because Rahar does keep other pirates at bay and pays for the goods he demands from each town.

In this 3- to 4-hour adventure, the players will be captured by one of Rahar’s slaver troops, led by his sadistic son Vanter. Beaten, restrained and without their equipment, all hope seems lost. Can they use their wits, strength and cunning, to escape the monstrous Vanter and his “Galley of Death”?

Notes for the DM / GM

This module is a good test for players who try to solve every challenge by fighting their way out. At the beginning of the adventure, all the combat encounters should be very detrimental to the players. Start the adventure with a clear demonstration of power (e.g. knocking a member of the group unconscious), so that the players have to resort to more creative means of escape.
There are many possibilities for theatrical role-playing on the galley. Make sure that the motivation of all factions involved (slavers, slaves, Vanter, etc.) are clearly established. That way, that players know who they could convince of what.
If possible, the group should lose their equipment at the inn (maybe it has a safe and a “no weapons allowed” policy). However, the equipment should be taken with them on the galley. Nothing motivates players more than having to retrieve something that has been stolen from them.