The Fording

A line of whitewashed stones marks the safe footing across the old ford, and whoever reaches the water first each spring repaints them.

The stones were painted six weeks ago. This morning a loaded cart went in at the line, at the usual hour, the way it always has.

The water was not where the stones said it would be.

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⏳ EIGHT ROUNDS

A cart is going under in the middle of the river. A horse is panicking. A caravan-master half this road knows by name is in up to his chest and not swimming for the bank.

There are five things worth saving out there, four of you, and about eight rounds before the current takes the lot.

⚖️ It is written out in full — who is where, what each one costs to reach, and what happens to the ones nobody got to.

There is no correct answer printed anywhere in it.

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🔔 THE THINGS NOBODY EXPLAINS

Nobody who has ever held the brush knows who laid the stones.

The ruts on both banks are a foot deep in solid rock. The ferryman's bell on the post has not been rung in a generation.

Somebody still keeps it oiled.

🎲 A 43-page one-shot adventure for D&D 5e — 2-3 hours, 4 players, level 1.

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📦 WHAT YOU GET — 42 pages, nothing left for you to invent

▪ 5 scenes, every one written out in full: read-aloud text, what happens if they fail, what to do if they skip it

▪ 3 battle maps in three versions each — DM, player, and a copy with no grid. 70 px per 5-foot square, so it drops straight into Roll20 or Foundry already aligned

▪ 4 ready-to-play 1st-level characters, finished — ability scores, armour class, hit points, attacks, spells and gear. Hand them out and roll. No session zero

▪ Every character in it, player and NPC alike, has a drawn portrait

▪ A plain-English glossary of the basic rules words — DC, saving throws, advantage

▪ A section for your first time running a game

▪ A summary up front listing every scene with its page and how hard each fight is

▪ 11 secrets to hand over wherever your players decide to dig, plus tables and printable handouts

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⏱️ WRITTEN FOR A FIRST-TIME DM

One clock, stated out loud in the first minute.

And every check tells you what happens when it fails — which is the half most adventures leave to you.

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🧂 PART OF THE SALT ROAD

Sixty miles, sixteen stops, each a day apart. Every one of them has noticed the same thing and not one of them has said so out loud.

This adventure stands completely alone — it needs nothing from any other — but a table that plays four of them starts comparing notes without being prompted.

Cotter Bray is in this one, and in six more of them.

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✨ THIS IS FOR YOU IF

▪ You want a dnd one shot that fits in an evening and finishes

▪ You would rather run a rescue against a clock than a dungeon

▪ You want your players arguing with each other, not with the rules

▪ You are new to running games and want the read-aloud text already written

▪ You run on Roll20 or Foundry and want maps that import at the right scale

▪ You want to hand out finished characters instead of spending session one building them

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📄 THE FILES

Four PDFs, plus the maps.

▪ A4 — 43 pages, colour and printer-friendly

▪ US Letter — 44 pages, colour and printer-friendly

▪ 9 map images

🗺️ The battle maps also print at table scale — two extra PDFs, A4 and US Letter, lay every map out at one inch per five-foot square across numbered sheets with a cut line. Print them at home, tape them together and put miniatures on them.

The printer-friendly build is the same book in pure white, nothing removed.

⬇️ Instant digital download. Nothing is posted to you.

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📜 THE SMALL PRINT

Compatible with Fifth Edition.

Made with AI assistance: the text and maps of this adventure were written and generated with AI, then edited, checked and laid out by hand.

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🕯️ ONE GOOD EVENING

Games for a table, and for a chair by the fire.