No Prep Module: Secret Winter Getaway (for D&D or RPGs)
This adventure can be can be easily customized to a party of any size or level, or run as a level 1 or 2 adventure for 5 players. It can work as a small side adventure in an existing campaign, as a standalone one-shot, or the start of a new adventure. Use the [Customize] links to the tools in their relevant section to customize the adventure to your party. Combats can use theatre of the mind, a battle map of your choice, or a grid you draw/build on. If drawing, have everyone add features and obstacles, then place the monsters on one side and the players on the other.
Start with downtime (or backstories) and choose something from each PC's backstory to advance and connect to the adventure. A relative, contact, or rival could be involved, or something pertaining to one of their character's goals can be progressed by something in the adventure. If a PC has no hooks in their backstory, use the downtime to establish what one of these might be instead: have someone ask about a relative, introduce a rival, or ask about their character's goals.
Adventure Background
Krangle, an evil fey creature from local folklore, is stealing Christmas presents and joy from a village in the wintery north in order to weaken belief in the Christmas spirit. In truth the malevolent creature feeds on the woe and hopelessness of other creatures, and draws strength from the faith and belief in his wickedness. His lair is in an abandoned toy workshop hidden in a remote valley.
Adventure Hooks
- Children from the village have gone missing recently. The party discovers clues that suggest they wandered into the abandoned toy workshop while playing and were captured by Krangle as prisoners.
- A mysterious jolly old man contacts the adventurers for help dealing with the diminishing Christmas spirit. He traced the source to Krangle in the abandoned toy workshop and needs help rescuing the children and stolen presents.
- Villagers hire the party to solve the mystery of missing presents. The clues lead them to discover Krangle's plot against Christmas in the old toy workshop.
2
You trudge through knee-deep snow, the flakes swirling all around you in the icy wind. Up ahead, nestled between snow-covered pines, you spot an abandoned village. The small wooden buildings sag under thick blankets of white, their faded painted trim and carvings of snowflakes and presents barely peeking through. You pause to brush snow from a carved reindeer, its nose chipped. Frosty nutcrackers stand frozen amid miniature drifts on a windowsill. You crunch through the icy street, past man-sized toy soldiers collapsed in battle stances, some smashed to pieces. At the end of town looms a large brick workshop, nearly obscured by snow except for thin wisps of smoke from one chimney. All is eerily still and quiet, save for the wind whistling through the broken dolls and trains scattered about.
Obstacle. Heavy fog or smoke reduces visibility to 15 ft.
Encounter (Non-Hostile). There's 1 Animated Gel Can (CR 1/4: Kassoon's Monsters) (Easy, 10 XP each) [Customize] that are not hostile here. They're trying to avoid danger.
North: leads to #3
3
Crunching through the snowy streets, you come upon a small frozen pond. On its icy surface skates a solitary figure cloaked in gray, his shadowy horns curling from his hood. He pays you no mind as gusts of wind carry scents of pine and spice and rotting wood all around.
Obstacle. Precarious ice or other dangerous footing that collapses if stepped on twice, DC 15 Dex save or 1d10 cold damage).
Encounter. There's 1 Homunculus (CR 0: MM p188), 2 Swarm of Toys (CR 1/4: Kassoon's Monsters) [Easy, 110 XP rewarded] [Customize] here.
Encounter Objective. The PCs are ambushed by a diversionary group or scouts for a larger force. The enemies win if they get the PCs to use up their resources before the real battle. [Customize]
West: leads to #4
North: is an unlocked door, leads to #10
4
You enter a moonlit clearing amongst the sagging buildings where a skeletal tree is growing. Below it lies a pyre of blackened, charred toys. Nearby stands an archway leading only to darkness.
Trap. Turning the wrong way under the archway makes a spike-covered wall suddenly swing across the target area, impaling anyone caught by it.
Targets all creatures within a 10 ft. square area, a spike-covered wall quickly swings out and impales targets, DC 15 DEX save or take 5 (1d10) piercing damage.Trigger: archway, activates when turning the wrong way.
Countermeasures: A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check allows a character to deduce the trap's presence. A successful DC 20 Dexterity check using thieves' tools disarms the trap, disabling the trigger. Unsuccessfully attempting to pick the door triggers the trap.
[Customize]East: leads to #3
North: leads to #5
5
Beyond crumbling brick walls you spy an ancient abbey of stone, its bas-relief faces long worn featureless. Half its edifice lies sunken into drifting snow, leading down into an underground crypt choked with shadows. From its Gothic archway wafts a powerful, cloying floral aroma.
Trap. This trap is activated when a creature touches the icy walls, which teleports the creature to a new location.
Targets any creature that touches it, DC 10 WIS save or be teleported to another locationTrigger: touch trigger, activates when surface is touched by a creature.
Countermeasures: A spell or other effect that can sense the presence of magic, such as detect magic, reveals an aura of divination magic around the surface. A successful dispel magic (DC 10) cast on the surface destroys the trap.
[Customize]West: is a locked door (DC 15), with a key on a nearby creature or furniture, leads to #6
South: leads to #4
6
The trail leads you past a sheer cliff face where some vandal hand has etched unsettling spider shapes. Just ahead it turns towards a wall of arches set with narrow slits that whistle with the lonely wind. A signpost at the fork bears one arm pointing towards a rising valley trail, the other arm towards the abbey across the frozen lake.
Obstacle. There's a chasm, 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep that splits the area.
Encounter. There's 1 Tridrone (CR 1/2: MM p225), 1 Flying Sword (CR 1/4: MM p20) (Easy, 30 XP each) [Customize] here.
Encounter Objective. There's heavy rain: everything is considered lightly obscured, disadvantage on sight/hearing checks, extinguishes open flames. The enemies win by hiding and using guerilla tactics. [Customize]
West: leads to #11
East: is a locked door (DC 15), with a key on a nearby creature or furniture, leads to #5
North: leads to #7
7
Petrified trees encrusted with yellow lichen break through the rocky soil around a grassy mound. Circling it you find more trails splintering into the gloomy toy town. Near a fractured signpost stands a gnome man next to a broken caravan.
The group runs into a wandering gnome tinkerer whose caravan broke down in the snow. He's out looking for the missing children, and is building a mechanical sled to navigate the snow. If told about Krangle, he offers to help them rig up a trap for Krangle using parts scattered around the toy workshop combined with some small explosives from his caravan at the green path.
Jabbie Murnig, Male Gnome
- Description: A thin man, he clearly needs to put on some weight, but he still has a lot of muscle. He is wearing the road beaten gear of a warrior. His tied-back hair and mutton chops are white. He wears a mask on his face.
- Personality: He considers himself the perfect gentleman. He makes a point to always show proper etiquette and frequently critiques the etiquette of others.
East: leads to #8
South: leads to #6
8
Your sojourn takes you over mud-spattered cobblestones. At a split in the path, tree roots have cracked the stone, now filled with snow. One path trends gradually uphill, the other slopes into shadowed alleyways.
Event. You must take 2d10 (16) damage to remove a negative ailment or curse, or a DC 10 skill check to gain random treasure. Offered by a small toy imp offering a game of chance. [Customize]
West: leads to #7
East: is a locked door (DC 15), with a key on a nearby creature or furniture, leads to #9
9
As the way bends round a thriving fortress of vine-cloaked brick, you chance by a well where only darkness dwells. None here now draw the water, not with the thorns and brambles that have claimed its stones. Faceless is the basalt statue presiding over all, its hands wrapped around branching horns.
Event. Attempting to draw liquid from the well requires a DC 10 skill check (for whatever skill the PC justifies), taking 3 piercing damage on failure. On success, there's enough liquid left in the well for an Oil of Slipperiness. [Customize]
West: is a locked door (DC 15), with a key on a nearby creature or furniture, leads to #8
South: is an unlocked door, leads to #10
10
Like a creeping tide the blizzard spills over pathways now lost, erasing all traces of your coming as if you had never been here. No sight or sound but the frozen gale remains here at the end of all ways back.
Trap. Snow piles are holding back the trap and breaking it open causes the trap to trigger, which triggers sheets of frigid ice magic .
Targets all creatures within a 10 ft. square area, sheets of frigid ice magic are released. Any target that starts or moves through the area takes 6 (1d10) cold damage per turn.Trigger: barricade, a barricade is holding back the trap.
Countermeasures: Leaving the barricade alone avoids the trap.
Enough water to cover the area will douse the flames and make the coals safe to cross. [Customize]North: is an unlocked door, leads to #9
South: is an unlocked door, leads to #3
11
Your descent brings you down slopes littered with broken stone. Broken toys lie scattered carelessly over rock and fen. And borne faintly on the thin air rings churchly tones, echoing out from somewhere.
East: leads to #6
North: (green) is a thick wall of ice that completely blocks the path leads to #12
12
The crumbling mine gapes before you like some great beast, hungrily breathing out chill torch smoke that wreathes around you. Beyond lies the frozen lake under faintly falling snow.
The trap can be placed at the mouth of the cave, which successfully draws out and captures Krangle. As the fey thrashes, dark magic imbues the scattered toys. The toys grow and attack the party, as the dark magic shrouds the area in supernatural winter - extinguishing sources of heat and light. Krangle uses the cover of cold darkness to escape down into the ice caves below the workshop while his animated toys keep the party occupied.
Encounter. There's 1 Animated Gel Can (CR 1/4: Kassoon's Monsters), 1 Sprite (CR 1/4: Monster Manual p. 283), Swarm of Toys (CR 1/4: Kassoon's Monsters) [Medium, 150 XP rewarded] [Customize] here.
Encounter Objective. The PCs need to defend innocent bystanders (peasants, hostages, etc). The enemies win if they kill all the bystanders. [Customize]
Treasure. They find 1800 cp, 1100 sp, 70 gp, Potion of healing, 25 gp valuables (175 gp total): Embroidered silk handkerchief, 2 Carved bone statuette, Small mirror set in a painted wooden frame, 2 Cloth-of-gold vestments, and Silver ewer in loot [Customize]
North: leads to #13
South: (green) is a thick wall of ice that completely blocks the path leads to #11
13
The walls are slick with half-melted ice, and the bones crunch wetly under your feet. A riven statue looms overhead, cloaked in stone-crafted shadows and crowned with branching antlers. Behind its heavy back the cliff face falls away into darkness.
After defeating the living toys and dark fey spirits, the party descends into caves of ice where they finally confront Krangle.
Encounter. There's 2 Flying Sword (CR 1/4: MM p20), 1 Satyr (CR 1/2: MM p267), 1 Homunculus (CR 0: MM p188) (Hard, 42 XP each) [Customize] here.
Encounter Objective. Surge Chasers. Place 4 objectives 25 ft from the center, all equally apart, and number them 1-4. At the start of each round, the objective whose number is equal to the round number is disabled, and the rest are enabled. Any creature can spend an action while adjacent to a non-disabled objective to disable it and gain 1 VP. The winner is whoever has the most VPs at the end of the 4th round. [Customize]
Conclusion
With Krangle defeated and the missing children and presents recovered, Christmas joy is restored to the village. The folk there declare it the best Christmas ever. News of Krangle's defeat by the PCs travels quickly through the north, lifting spirits everywhere.
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