A short winter one-shot built around the inversion of a familiar story. Designed to run in a single session (3-4 hours) for a party of 3-5 characters around level 4-5. Tonal target: cozy fire-lit dread.
The hook
The remote northern hamlet of Ashmere is the last settlement before the savage skinning, mining, and logging routes give way to true wilderness. About 750 weather-worn folks live here, mostly because nobody else will. A meagre attempt at yule decoration sags in every corner of the Ol’ Buck tavern — sparse fir tree, badly hung tinsel, an elderly cellist murdering a festive tune.
The mood is unusually neighbourly. That’s because children have been disappearing.
The party rode in earlier this week, drawn by reward postings: information, and the safe return of missing children, paid in gold by the desperate.
Patrons of the Ol’ Buck
Sully the Barkeep — Surly, retired guardsman. “Why can’t someone just come an’ fix this. We’re simple folks.” The bar specializes in squash dishes, for some reason.
Marleen, his wife — Worried, compassionate, plainly out of Sully’s league but it works somehow. Has two boys, Cranus and Berrin, and a hand on each whenever they’re in the room.
Jouls and Jives — Two halfling fur traders. They were attacked the first night of the disappearances, mistaken for children. Beaten with switches and dragged unconscious to a dark lair, where they woke wearing rags and ran. They escaped. Their brother Jams did not.
Blix and the Boys — Dwarf merchant captain of Rangifer Co., with five druid associates (Donny, Dash, Cometo, Dunder, and Randolph). They specialize in transport in and out of the north. They’re on the edge of their seats: they’ve brought in a stockpile of toys that suddenly aren’t selling, because nobody’s buying gifts for children who aren’t there.
Clive So’journ — Old elf minstrel playing the cello. Wandered into town just before the kidnappings began. His withered face splits into a cat-grin when the party approaches, showing four yellow-grey teeth. If they engage him, he is delighted to recite the legend of Krampus:
Sinter Klaus brings a special glee, a sparkle to the eye But take haste, the Krampus comes, to darken up the sky A jolly old soul with a heart of gold, Sinter Klaus is coming With cloven hoofs and goatish horns, the Krampus sends ‘em running
Much larger than his counterpart, with fur from head to toe Two horns as large as antlers, and claws where hands should go All the little humans, in rusty chains are bound They’ll smell the stench of brimstone, as it rises through the ground
Payback for the years of Sinter’s elven slaves The time has come for humans to toil in the caves The pits of hell will open wide, and he’ll throw the humans down It’s holidays for elves that humans will make now
Clive is Krampus. He won’t reveal it directly, but he will enjoy the players’ discomfort with the song. This one-shot is a slow burn until that lands.
The dungeon
A four-area lair beneath the hills outside Ashmere. Players will likely find it via following Jouls and Jives’ confused directions, tracking from a kidnapping site, or being told by Clive (who would love an audience).
1. The toy factory
Foul stench of rotten meat, sweat, coal smoke. Floor strewn with lumps of coal, piles of wood, and a huge rotisserie spit. Three goblins are happily whipping captive children as they assemble all manner of toys and contraptions for “the elves.” This is the rescue scene — children are scared, exhausted, but alive. Free them, fight the goblins, then push deeper or evacuate.
2. Krampusnacht chamber
Faded mosaics depict villagers parading dressed as Krampus. A barrel holds dozens of ceremonial staffs; piles of coal litter the floor. One staff is actually a Staff of the Serpent (DM’s discretion which version).
This is also where Jams is being held. He provides the exposition — what’s been done to the children, the legend’s connection to the lair, the deeper rooms.
3. The ruten garden
Frozen stalactites; sour tree-sap odour; a grove of pale birch trees. The party feels watched. A treant (1) hides in the largest grove. Special rule: any melee weapon striking it has a 50% chance of sticking to the sap-thick bark. A DC 15 Strength check to remove. Ranged works fine. The party can talk it down if they realize it’s been twisted, not corrupted.
4. The dimensional anchor
A secret door (DC 15 Investigation) opens into a chamber humming with eldritch frequency. Four bundles of ruten — ritual birch switches — pulse with arcane glow. Clumps of mottled goat fur litter the floor. Runes scratched in a script no one in the party will recognize cover walls and floor.
50% chance a Krampus simulacrum (treat as a troll, but with the visage of a goat — tall horns, long lolling tongue, hooves) is encountered here, and either way it shows up if combat lasts more than two rounds. All four bundles of ruten must be destroyed to disable the dimensional anchor and prevent Krampus from manifesting fully on this plane. The simulacrum exists to delay this from happening.
Random corridor encounters (d6)
For pacing between rooms. Roll once per transit, or whenever the energy needs a bump.
- 1d4 lost children, scared and disoriented
- 1d6 ice-encrusted skeletons (+3 AC; fire negates the bonus)
- An animated Naughty List that targets non-good-aligned PCs first; can cast up to 3rd-level spells from its own pages
- 1d6 goblin servants dragging a screaming child toward the rotisserie pit
- A pile of animated coal blocking the corridor, hurling itself at PCs (1d6 ranged attacks per round)
- A Krampus simulacrum patrolling
Resolution
The lair collapses. Children return to Ashmere — most of them. (You decide whether one or two are lost, depending on tone target. This author’s preference: at least one.)
If Clive is confronted directly afterward, he is delighted to be found out. He bows extravagantly and dissolves into snow. The town is safe. For now.
Run notes: this scenario rewards taking the cozy-tavern setup seriously before the lair. Don’t rush the Ol’ Buck. The horror lands harder when the players have spent forty minutes growing fond of these worried, drinking, surviving people.