Our twenty-third downloadable GM-SS Dungeons and Dragons One Shot Adventure – a horrifying tale about living your dreams!

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-third takes your players to an eerie mountain town ruled by a doomsday cult. The quest is over suspiciously fast and all adversaries defeated. But why does everything still feel so wrong?

Overview

  • RPG: D&D 5e

  • Number of players: 2-5

  • Recommended level: 5-6

  • Duration: medium (3-6h)

  • Difficulty: hard

  • For your campaign: This is a one-shot with a good chance of player death. If it is incorporated within an existing campaign, the cult and its doctrine might be adapted to fit an existing pantheon. Additionally, the punishment for failure could be adjusted from death to an imprisonment in Anasilan’s realm.

  • This Adventure Module contains: 

    • The story for a single adventure
    • An intriguing mystery for your players to solve
    • Builds for 2 new monsters and a legendary monster
    • Two powerful magical artefacts
    • Map of a mountain village and a mountain temple
    • Ideas for special combat encounters and a final boss fight

The Story

The Revolution of Belsera had left the kingdom splintered and disillusioned. Old tyrants were replaced by younger invaders. The revolutionary guard was executed or routed, and the population lost confidence in their neighbors. The cult of a Anasilan was born out of this environment. Its mysterious priest just one day appeared in the small village of Vernstal and killed the occupying mercenary force. Rumor has it that none of them even resisted his righteous blade. Since then, the priest managed to convince all surrounding villages to join his cause. His message was simple: the bloodshed caused by revolution had drawn the attention of an ancient deity called Anasilan. It would arrive in the near future and wipe away all light and life on the planet, so that a new society may be born out of Anasilan’s Darkness. Only the most loyal servants of the cult might be spared and serve as guides to whatever life would inherit the planet afterwards. Once the rest of Belsera had established a semblance of order, the cult remained the only faction not supporting the new regime. Yet, despite multiple attempts of disrupting this nest of dissidents or assassinating their leader, almost no agent ever returned from Vernstal.

In this 3 to 6-hour one-shot adventure, a party of 5th level characters are tasked with assassinating the leader of the cult. Aided by two local rangers they successfully manage to infiltrate Vernstal without being seen. Now they only need to catch the priest and kill him. Will they be able to defeat a man that supposedly channels the voice of an ancient deity? Can Vernstal be liberated, or will they all succumb to the “Darkness of Anasilan”?

Notes for the GM / DM

  • The only hint the players have to solve the central mystery of the one shot comes from the roleplaying of the GM – they have to present illusory threats as real dangers without making it too obvious.

  • To shorten the duration of the adventure, have the adventures start with the players entering the temple and being immediately confronted by the priest.

  • If you have players well-versed with D&D content, you might make them believe that they are being attacked by a false hydra.

GM-SS 23 Cover
Download the adventure module here