Alright, well, I promised to share the MM adventure that I wrote, but legit gigs and the 5E-centric nature of my...

Alright, well, I promised to share the MM adventure that I wrote, but legit gigs and the 5E-centric nature of my groups has kept me from it. But we'll be doing a New Game night soon at the Toronto D&D Meetup Ons-shot Night, so it will happen. I'm going to write it as a twofer: both a 5E and a MM edition. I thought that a teaser might be of interest. So here is the story-drop and some spoily rules bits, and the sketchy map in progress. I've rediscovered my love of hexpaper thanks to S John Ross's HexPaperPro font, and I think it works great to make a simple, low-resolution map of Caves.

A note: To get from the intro location to the dungeon takes a quickly-told journey which has ZERO encounters of consequence -- your players have a little moment of world, another little moment of journey, and then boom the dungeon. It came up in my last one-shot that the PCs hadn't made it to the dungeon, having spent all of the four hours battling two set encounters. Some expressed concern that I'd not got to enjoy DMing the dungeon, and my answer was that IMO, as long as the players have FUN, a good DM is satisfied of his job well done. But here, long story short I wanted to write all meat, no fat.

So here are a few bits from "The Caves Of Freedom". It's actually more a 5E thing right now where I introduce the Risk Die, so forgive the references such as "those with Survival...roll with advantage". I would be ESPECIALLY grateful for any feedback on how I'm doing Risk Dice. Thank you!

*

The Caves of Freedom
By Bill the Rat

Introduction.

You had retreated as far as you could, it seemed, and now contemplated the end. The War of the Hoons had come to your little land of Zuverkodz, and the ferocity of the implacable Bone Men and their slaves the Hobilans was too much for the farmers of this peaceful land. Families were sundered, wives and husbands murdered, children stolen, the land destroyed.

Your only hope had been to make it to the land of Hoodwek over the mountains, and after one too many wrong turns here you were, in these caves, pursued by fire, and rage, and steel, awaiting the end.

When a rock-fall took the lives of the only real people of high merit in your band, most knew it was over. Oh, one could try to retrieve their bones, and their goods, but the fall had choked the way down and out, and any exploration there was probably only a ticket to a swift crushing. And so what if you did clear that way, that chimney back down and out? The Hoons would have followed you, as they always did, and if you returned to the entrance you came through a weeks ago they would find you, as they always did.

The old people are mostly dead. The children are mostly inconsolable. The youth are all taken, all except you, you little group of friends with your foolish bits and bobs and your ragged ideas of heroism. When one of you found a hidden cleft in the farthest walls of the large cave known as the Peoples' Tomb, it was decided. You would explore it to its utmost, because it was the only thing that didn't guarantee a handshake with Ullu the Silent, Terminus, god of the dead.

*

General Skill Checks and Risk Dice in the Caves of Freedom.

Rope Die (4): ∆8. Roll it four times in serial with the Traverse Check. Anyone with Survival or Sleight rolls with advantage. If it fizzles, everyone rolls with disadvantage on all subsequent Traverse Checks (which one rolls next). So it is Rope Die, Traverse Check, then again for a total of four pairs of rolls.

Traverse DEX Check (4): Just to travel the two days to get to the Caves of Freedom means four Traverse DEX 13 Checks for the two best DEXes, or the single worst. Failure means a Falling Accident CON 13 Check or take 3d4 damage from a fall.

Food Die (4 or 2): The group will have to travel two days until they get anywhere foody, so roll twice if they want a level of fatigue or four times if not. If they take enough food for themselves they get a ∆8, but step down the Refugee Die. If they leave the refugees enough food, they get a ∆6. If it fizzles, you get another level of fatigue before you gotta fight somebody.

Refugee Die (every significant event): The survival of the refugees depends on the luck of a Risk Die of Δ10. If the PCs think to scout out the safest location with a PER 15, they can up that to a Δ12. Roll the Refugee Risk Die frequently. If it fizzles, they be ded.

*

And here is the first sketchy map of the caves themselves. Man, I love HexPaperPro font. And it's so inexpensive! Thank you, S John Ross! It's going to be populated with a few annoying, intriguing and deadly monsters -- the 5E Quasit, the malevolent spirit of a failed holy warrior, a scavenger-merchant hidden in his own little bolt-hole, a possessed spider-puppet, and a couple of stiff encounters with goblins. I can't not have goblins. They're my spirit humanoid.

Numbering indicates "section" of the caves, vaguely. 0 sequence, 10 sequence, 20, 30, etc.

Bill