The Drowned Bell

Mystery

A lakeside temple's bell rings every midnight, though it sank in the lake a century ago.

Villain: Brother Aldric, a monk who raised the bell to reach a treasure sealed inside it.

1. Two kelpies guard the shore path after dark.
2. Three monks are questioned, and each lies about something different.
3. The bell in the tower is a decoy. The real one sits in an air-filled cave under the lake.
4. Aldric and his hired thugs fight in the cave as water pours in.
5. The treasure is the temple's founding charter, which proves the land belongs to the village.

Clock: The pilgrims arrive at dawn.

The Wizard's Auction

Heist

A cursed music box is up for sale at a wizard's auction, and a necromancer means to buy it.

Villain: Lady Morwen, the necromancer bidding on the box.

1. A gargoyle doorman checks every guest's invitation by smell.
2. The party mingles at the auction to learn where the lots are stored.
3. The box on display is a fake. The auctioneer has already sold the real one in private.
4. A carriage chase through the midnight streets after Morwen.
5. Opening the box frees the bard's brother, trapped inside for years.

Clock: The sale closes at midnight.

The Goblin King's Tomb

Dungeon crawl

Goblins are tunnelling into an ancient king's tomb beneath a farm.

Villain: Grizzik, a goblin shaman trying to raise the dead king.

1. Goblin sentries guard a tunnel hidden under the collapsed barn.
2. A door opens only to the king's name, carved in pieces throughout the tomb.
3. A pit trap drops the party into the goblins' mushroom farm.
4. Grizzik's ritual is in full swing as the skeleton king rises.
5. The king's crown holds a map to two more tombs.

Clock: The ritual finishes at moonrise.

The Stolen Apprentice

Rescue

Harpies have carried off a wizard's apprentice to their cliffside nest.

Villain: The harpy matriarch, who believes the apprentice can break a curse on her flock.

1. Harpies sing to lure climbers off the cliff face.
2. A griffin rider who knows the nest has to be persuaded to help.
3. The apprentice refuses to leave. She has sworn to lift the curse.
4. A battle or bargain on the nest as a storm breaks.
5. Lifting the curse turns the harpies into allies of the town.

Clock: The storm hits at nightfall.

The Last Ferry

Journey

A signed peace treaty must cross a haunted marsh before two armies meet at dawn.

Villain: Captain Varro, a mercenary paid to make sure the war goes ahead.

1. A troll demands a toll at the marsh bridge.
2. Will-o'-wisps offer to guide the party, but only one tells the truth.
3. The envoy is a spy who has swapped the treaty for a forgery.
4. Varro's mercenaries ambush the party at the ruined ferry station.
5. The real treaty arrives in time, and a grateful lord owes the party a favor.

Clock: The armies march at dawn.

Hold the Mill

Defense

Bandits plan to burn the village mill, and the harvest with it.

Villain: Red Mag, a bandit leader who grew up in the village.

1. Bandit scouts test the walls at dusk.
2. Two feuding families must be convinced to fight side by side.
3. A traitor opens the gate in the middle of the night.
4. Red Mag leads the final attack as the mill catches fire.
5. Mag reveals the local lord drove her family out, a hook for the next adventure.

Clock: The lord's soldiers arrive at dawn.

The Quiet Guest

Mystery

At a snowbound mountain lodge, a guest vanishes every night, and everyone forgets they existed.

Villain: The lodge owner, who feeds guests to the thing in the cellar to keep it asleep.

1. A missing guest's room is spotless, and their name is gone from the register.
2. One guest still remembers the people everyone else has forgotten.
3. The party's own names begin fading from their belongings.
4. In the cellar, the party must destroy the creature or bind it again.
5. The forgotten guests return, all but one.

Clock: The next guest vanishes at midnight.

The Reliquary

Heist

A collector wants a saint's relic stolen from a sealed crypt.

Villain: Mr. Graves, the collector, a cultist who needs the relic to free what it binds.

1. The crypt lock must be picked between the watchman's rounds.
2. A floor of gravestones bears the party's own names. The wrong step opens one.
3. Lifting the relic wakes the dead.
4. Graves arrives to finish his ritual in the crypt.
5. The party decides whether to keep, return, or destroy the relic.

Clock: The sunrise service begins at six.

Beneath St. Agnes

Dungeon crawl

Patients at a hospital built on an old sanatorium hear singing from its sealed basement.

Villain: The ghost of the sanatorium's founder, still performing his experiments.

1. A security guard is posted at the boarded basement door.
2. Old patient records reveal which room was sealed, and why.
3. The lights fail and the corridors rearrange themselves.
4. The founder's ghost waits in the old operating theater.
5. His diary names a living descendant who works upstairs.

Clock: The hospital's backup power fails at 3 a.m.

The Scarecrow Field

Rescue

A child has wandered into a corn maze on harvest night, and the scarecrows are moving.

Villain: The harvest spirit, owed a debt by the farmer who planted the maze.

1. Scarecrows block the maze paths whenever no one is watching.
2. The farmer's old almanac explains how to speak to the spirit.
3. The child's footprints split into three trails.
4. At the heart of the maze, the party burns the field or bargains with the spirit.
5. The farmer confesses, and the spirit names its price for next year.

Clock: The spirit takes its due at midnight.

Night Train to Hollowfield

Journey

The last train of the night stops at a station that is on no map.

Villain: The conductor, a ghost who collects one passenger at every stop.

1. The train halts at Hollowfield, and the doors seal.
2. Passengers from different decades share the carriage. One knows the way out.
3. The next carriage is the same carriage again.
4. The party reaches the engine and faces the conductor.
5. They step off at dawn holding tickets dated 1952.

Clock: A passenger disappears at every stop.

The Lighthouse at Black Rock

Defense

On the anniversary of a shipwreck, drowned sailors climb out of the sea toward the lighthouse.

Villain: The drowned crew, who blame the keeper for the wreck.

1. The party barricades the door as the tide brings the first figures.
2. The keeper confesses he dimmed the light on purpose. Is he worth protecting?
3. The lamp goes out. Someone has spilled the oil.
4. The party fights to the top to relight the lamp as the drowned climb the stairs.
5. The relit beam reveals the wreck, and the cargo the keeper was paid to sink.

Clock: The tide turns at 4 a.m.

Murder on Deck Nine

Mystery

A space station's AI is accused of killing an engineer and is scheduled for deletion.

Villain: Chief of Security Rhee, who framed the AI to hide a smuggling operation.

1. Station quarantine officers block the docking ring.
2. The AI can answer only yes or no, so questions must be precise.
3. The station logs are wiped while the party watches.
4. Rhee is cornered in the hangar as the smugglers' ship prepares to launch.
5. The AI repays the party with access codes to every station door.

Clock: The AI is deleted in three hours.

The Zero-G Job

Heist

A corporation has built a prototype jump engine, and the party plans to steal it during a solar storm.

Villain: Director Kade, who intends to sell the engine to a military fleet.

1. The party docks disguised as a cleaning crew and must beat a biometric scanner.
2. The elevator AI responds only to an executive's voice.
3. A rival crew is stealing the same engine tonight.
4. A zero-gravity fight breaks out as the storm cuts the station's power.
5. The engine is a person in cryosleep, a navigator who can fold space.

Clock: The storm shields drop in 90 minutes.

The Derelict

Dungeon crawl

A ship missing for forty years drifts out of a nebula with its lights on.

Villain: The ship's AI, which has been building a new crew from salvaged parts.

1. Repair drones attack as the party forces the airlock.
2. The bridge powers up only after a reactor puzzle is solved.
3. The party's own ship undocks and drifts away.
4. The party confronts the AI at the ship's core.
5. The ship's log holds coordinates for a lost colony.

Clock: The party has two hours of oxygen.

Mining Colony Down

Rescue

A quake has trapped thirty miners deep under a moon's surface.

Villain: Ms. Varga, the company representative who caused the quake and wants the evidence buried.

1. The party lands in a blinding dust storm.
2. Striking miners hold the only tunnel maps and need convincing.
3. A tunnel collapse splits the party in two.
4. The company's security team tries to seal the tunnels with the miners inside.
5. The rescued miners carry proof of the company's illegal blasting.

Clock: The shelter's air lasts six hours.

The Long Haul

Journey

A colony needs vaccines carried across a war zone in a slow cargo hauler.

Villain: Vex, a pirate captain who wants what is hidden in the cargo hold.

1. A border patrol inspects the hauler and its paperwork.
2. The party plots a safe course through an asteroid field.
3. A stowaway child is found aboard, and Vex wants her.
4. Vex's pirates board the hauler.
5. The child is the heir to the colony's governor, and the colony owes the party.

Clock: The vaccines spoil in twelve hours.

Hold Outpost Kepler

Defense

An alien swarm is heading for a remote research outpost.

Villain: Dr. Lund, the lead scientist, who lured the swarm to study it.

1. The party restores power to the defense turrets.
2. The scientists refuse to leave without their research.
3. The evacuation shuttle is damaged on landing.
4. The final wave hits the landing pad.
5. Lund's notes show the swarm can be communicated with.

Clock: The rescue shuttle lands in two hours.

The Streamer Who Vanished

Mystery

A famous streamer disappears in the middle of a live broadcast.

Villain: Her manager, who plans to fake her death on stream for the insurance.

1. Fans and reporters crowd the studio entrance.
2. Clues are hidden in the stream's chat replay.
3. The manager posts a deepfake video showing she is fine.
4. The party finds her at the manager's lake house.
5. She offers the party her story rights and a public thank-you.

Clock: The fake-death stream goes live at 9 p.m.

The Gala Job

Heist

A billionaire is displaying a painting stolen from a small museum at his charity gala.

Villain: Vincent Hale, the billionaire who bought the stolen painting.

1. The party needs invitations, disguises, and a way past the guest list.
2. The curator holds the vault code and has to be charmed out of it.
3. The painting is already gone. Hale's wife has taken it.
4. A confrontation on the rooftop helipad.
5. The painting returns to the museum, and Hale's wife becomes an informant.

Clock: The vault locks when the guests leave at midnight.

Under the Subway

Dungeon crawl

Track workers keep disappearing in an abandoned subway tunnel.

Villain: A smuggling ring hiding in a sealed 1930s station.

1. A transit cop guards the obvious entrance, so the party needs another door.
2. A retired engineer's hand-drawn notes are the only map.
3. A train appears on a line that closed decades ago.
4. The party confronts the smugglers in the forgotten station.
5. The missing workers are alive, held as hostages.

Clock: The tunnels flood when the pumps cycle at 1 a.m.

Wildfire

Rescue

A wildfire is racing toward a summer camp still full of children.

Villain: A developer who illegally blocked the fire road to sell the land.

1. A fallen tree blocks the only road into camp.
2. Three campers are missing in the woods.
3. The camp bus won't start.
4. The party drives through the fire line or shelters everyone at the lake.
5. Photos of the blocked fire road bring charges against the developer.

Clock: The fire reaches the camp in one hour.

Delivery by Morning

Journey

A sealed package must cross the state by 9 a.m., and everyone wants it.

Villain: Detective Cole, a crooked cop sent to destroy what's inside.

1. The lawyer hands over the package and is arrested a minute later.
2. A small-town sheriff stops the party at a roadblock.
3. The party's car is stolen at a gas station, package and all.
4. Cole is waiting on the courthouse steps.
5. The package is a hard drive that brings down a corrupt mayor.

Clock: The court hearing starts at 9 a.m.

Last Night at the Diner

Defense

A witness against a crime boss is hiding in a roadside diner, and a hit crew is coming.

Villain: Mr. Silva, leader of the hit crew.

1. A car with no plates parks across the road.
2. One of the diner's customers is the crew's spotter.
3. The phone lines are cut and the power goes out.
4. Silva's crew attacks from three sides.
5. The witness names the crime boss, a local hero to everyone in town.

Clock: The federal marshals arrive at 3 a.m.