GM-SS One Shot: Weather the Storm

The fifth downloadable GM-SS Dungeons and Dragons One Shot Adventure

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. This time you’ll find inspiration for some snow-related encounters, learn how to run cold weather campaigns and fighting giant cloud monsters. Enjoy!

Overview

RPG: D&D 5e
Number of players: 3 to 6 players
Recommended level: level 6 – 7
Duration: short (3-5 hours)
Difficulty: easy
For your campaign: If this campaign is run as part of a Pathfinder or D&D campaign, make sure to familiarize yourself with the weather manipulation spells your party has access to. If you want to avoid magic, Anna Janar could just be a mad scientist who managed to create a weather controlling device.
This Adventure Module contains:
- The story for a single adventure
- Builds for 2 new monsters
- A character build for a storm mage (D&D 5e)
- A sketched map of a small mountain town
- Two encounters maps

The Story

Mankind has always been observing and trying to predict the weather. Indeed, every culture has its sayings and truisms about it. However, such imprecise methods never convinced Anna Janar. Raised as a farmer’s child in the mountains, she’s always seen the unpredictable nature of the weather as one of mankind’s greatest banes. Therefore, she has dedicated her life to understanding the inner workings of the winds. Cooped up in her mountain tower above the small town of Donasa, she seemingly made her dream come true. The locals greatly appreciate and rely on her accurate weather predictions. Wise men from all over the continent travel to Anna’s tower to learn how to read the skies like she does. Yet, she feels that something is still missing. There’s still a variable she can’t quite explain – an unseen hand manipulating the weather whenever she isn’t looking. Determined to fulfil her lifelong dream, Anna begins to plot out her most ambitious experiment yet: a way to enslave the winds themselves.

In this 3 – 4 hour adventure, a party of 6^th to 7^th level characters will get snowed in while visiting Donasa. With the weather getting worse by the minute and worrying broadcasts coming from Anna’s tower, the party must “weather the storm” and find out if she’s the key to ending this blizzard.

Notes for the GM / DM

This module requires a lot of social roleplaying on the GM’s part. Otherwise, the encounter could be over in just 2 hours.
If the party doesn’t have house-rules on how to deal with extreme weather and cold, then they should be cleared up beforehand. Some questions to consider: How does it effect ice and fire magic? Is deep snow difficult terrain, even with snowshoes? How is exhaustion from cold handeled?
It is important, that the GM doesn’t portray Anna as a just an evil villain – merely as misguided. It is her intention to use her newfound power to better the lifes of the people around her. She doesn’t consider her experiment to be cruel.