Our twenty-second downloadable GM-SS Dungeons and Dragons One Shot Adventure – a playable character creation for 5e veterans!

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. Our twenty-second adventure shakes up how character creation is done in the fifth edition. This dark adventure is targeted at players who know Dungeon’s and Dragons and want see a fresh spin at the start of a larger campaign.

Overview

  • RPG: D&D 5e

  • Number of players: 2-4

  • Recommended level: 0

  • Duration: long (8h) to very long (16h)

  • Difficulty: hard

  • For your campaign: This is an experimental session 0 with dark themes. Meaning the adventure serves as a playable character creation, targeted mostly at experienced players. The resulting characters might not be as balanced as if they were created from scratch, but they will have a unique and common backstory which might kick off a larger campaign.

  • This Adventure Module contains: 

    • The story for a single adventure
    • Additional rules to create a playable session 0 character creation in 5e
    • A large sprawling map of an old mansion
    • Several interesting riddles to solve
    • Builds for several new monsters and fights
    • 3 Loot-tables for the adventure

The Story

The town council of Miniato is in agreement: Osip Stahm must be dealt with. The heroic deeds of his ancestors cannot make up for the danger he poses to their souls. His early works might have brought some recognition and money to the town, but now everybody has seen his latest creation. It talks. Not the mechanical sounds of his music-boxes nor the imitation screams of his wooden birds. It had a name. It referred to the town and its people. It was involved in a dialogue with the town’s guard when a panicked Stahm arrived and led it back to his manor. Since then, the old artificer had refused to answer the council’s summons to explain his abominable creation. He is probably continuing his vile studies, locked inside his family’s old estate. A final warning is to be send out – Osip Stahm can face the council’s judgement or be dragged out into the streets to be burned with his creations. The declaration is made and the town’s militia men ready their weapons. All of them are visibly nervous and are thinking the same thing: Is it wise to antagonize an artificer powerful enough, to create life out of nothing?

In this 12 to 18-hour introductory one-shot adventure, a party of 2-4 zero-level characters wake up in the cellar of the Stahm ancestral home. Their bodies are withered, and they do not remember how they got there. The house is overrun with monstrosities, crazed beasts, and mysterious figures. Together they must regain their memories and build up enough strength to escape. In the process they will discover Osip’s fate and solve the mystery behind “The Eye in the Pines”.

Notes for the GM / DM

  • The difficulty of the adventure can be greatly adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number of arcane sigils awarded to players.

  • Even if all optional content is cut, this adventure still might take about 6h to complete.

  • The adventure is meant to serve as the basis of a longer campaign with characters sharing a unique backstory.

GM-SS 22 Cover
Download the adventure module here