I made this oneshot as a way to introduce Dungeons & Dragons to people who have never played D&D or any other tabletop roleplaying games before.
I’ve built an entire custom tavern for this game for fun, but you can run it with regular dungeon tiles or simply theatre of the mind.
Summary
- The heroes hired to catch Ryland “Four Leaf Clover” Becker and his gang of bandits.
- An storm forces both the bandits and the heroes to seek shelter in isolated tavern The Hag’s Head and Artichoke.
- The storm is magically created by the goblin shaman Karak Thunderteeth to keep people in (and out) of the tavern.
- Both bandits and heroes are unexpected visitors to the tavern, but are nevertheless welcomed.
- Benton Gray is the tavern owner with the menacing ogre Grok who cooks and keeps the peace.
- Benton is also the leader of The Crimson Concord, a cult trying to summon a demon through sacrifice in the secret lair underneath the tavern. He has employed the goblins to create the storm and to add muscle in case the ritual is discovered.
Step-by-step guide
Getting to the tavern
Absolutely horrible weather has made chasing Ryland “Four Leaf Clover” Becker and his gang of bandits very hard and the heroes are cursing themselves for accepting the contract.
As the weather turns to worse with storm, ice and hail, the heroes spot an isolate tavern and rush there.
Inside the tavern
Here the heroes find the following people:
- Ryland “Four Leaf Clover” Becker and his gang of bandits, Meinolf, Bodo and Curt.
- Bentson Gray, the tavern owner.
- Jacque Rihad, a man sitting huddled in a corner minding his own business. He is a wererat and does not want to expose himself hence he is trying to interact as little as possible and will retire upstairs as soon as it is not suspecious.
- Neson Barrelbeard, a retired dwarven adventurer.
- Ezra Medz “Slayer of Giants”, an impressive and proud warrior in full plate armour.
If heroes try to attack or arrest the bandits, Grok, the ogre chef will appear from the kitchen and stop the fight. Nesson and Ezra will also step in as there’s no point in fighting while the weather so bad.
At some point Ezra will lose his patience and will attempt to leave. Neson will try to stop him citing the dangerous storm, but Ezra being headstrong and obviously too powerful to be stopped, walks out.
He only makes it a few meters before he is struck by lightning and killed. This is to ensure players understand they are stuck in the tavern until weather improves.
The first night
Everybody gets a room upstairs for the night. Bandits all in one big one.
Growls in the night. It is Jacque Rihad, the wererat trying to keep himself under control, which he manages to do.
The next day
- Neson, the retired dwarven adventurer does not come down for breakfast. Bentson, the tavern owner, claims he left early in the morning. This doesn’t align with Neson’s cautious nature and truth is, he has been killed when the cultists tried to take him downstairs as sacrifice. His body can be found hidden in his room under the bed.
- Ryland “Four Leaf Clover” Becker then comes down angrily accusing the heroes of having taken one of his men, but as the heroes room is turned upside down, no body is found. The missing bandit has been taken downstairs as sacrifice.
- The two remaining bandits disappear. They have either tried to leave or have been killed whatever fits the story.
- Ryland leaves trusting his luck to not get him killed. Up to you whether you let him get away, kill him or leave his faith unanswered.
- One or more heroes attacked by a cultist in a black cloak. This could be if a hero wanders off on their own, it could be if they find the secret stair case, or it could be at night where two cultists tries to kidnap a hero.
The investigation
This could be same day, next day or whenever the heroes start investigating once people started to disappear.
As they start investigating, Bentson and Grok disappears. They run into the lair to fast track the ritual to summon the demon.
Top floor
At some point the players will notice there is no way to get to the top floor of the tavern and will start finding the way up via the secret stair case that goes from the ground floor, through first floor to the top floor.
The top floor will deepen the mystery, but the what happens here really depends on what the players do. Here are some examples:
- If the players focus on the statue, you can make it be a magical statue where one hand can be turned to teleport the turner down in the dungeon (see below)
- If the players haven’t faced a cultist yet, they could meet one on the top floor.
- The library could have a ruby eye that the players can stick into the golem down in the dungeon to move it.
- If you want to make the game more difficult, the players could find a a dead lizardman hanging being tapped of blood down in a vial. This blood is needed for opening the secret door in the basement.
The most important thing with the top floor is you run with the players’ imagination and get them to the dungeon.
The basement
The basement is full of regular stuff such as barrels and boxes. This could also be a place to find Neson’s or a bandit’s body hidden.
There is a secret door that is marked by blooded handprints. This could either be the heroes have to cut their hand and hold it to open the door, it could be the lizardman blood from before or simply a victim dragging their bloody hands to indicate where the secret door is.
It is up to you to make this puzzle as easy or as hard as the players can handle.
Golem room
This room can be skipped in the interest of time.
Here the heroes see a statue blocking the path forward. It is missing one of its ruby eyes. When the missing eye is added, the statue walks forward opening the path.
Goblin lair
This is where Karak Thunderteeth is maintaining his storm spell that has trapped the heroes in the tavern.
Add as many or as few goblins you like to this fight.
Summoning room
A few cultists and one or more victims on the floor having their energy drained into a forming portal through which the heroes can see glimpses of a demon realm beyond and a demon waiting impatiently.
It is important that the players understand that the demon is a foe well beyond their powers to stop. if it gets out, the game is over.
You can use the Runehammer trick of rolling a D4 or D6 timer to show the players how many turns are left until the demon is freed.
Bentson Gray is performing the summoning and the cultists (and any remaining goblins) will do what they can to prevent the heroes from interrupting Bentson.
Stats
Stats for the different characters and monsters depends on the system you are running, how many players and how you generally run the game, but here are the ones I used.
