The Ninth Bell

There is a bell in the yard of an inn in Marrowdown that rings once a year, on no fixed date. Nobody living has stopped it, and nobody living has explained it.

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📅 LAST NIGHT IT RANG FOR THE SECOND TIME IN ELEVEN WEEKS

It has not done that in nine generations.

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🕊️ NOT ONE FIGHT IN THE WHOLE ADVENTURE

That is on the cover because it is the point.

An entire evening that is worked out, argued over and decided, with nobody rolling initiative.

If your table is brand new, nervous about combat, or simply tired of it — this is the one.

🎲 A 37-page one-shot adventure for D&D 5e — 3 hours, 4 players, level 1.

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🔎 AND THERE IS AN ANSWER

The bell has a reason. It is knowable, and it is written down for you on the first page — so you are never bluffing at your own table.

Three routes lead to every conclusion, at three different costs, so the mystery cannot stall on one failed roll.

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📦 WHAT YOU GET — 36 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 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

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

▪ 10 secrets you can hand over wherever your players decide to dig

▪ 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

▪ Tables, handouts, and written help for when the party goes sideways

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🗓️ PART OF THE LOWMERE YEAR

Sixteen adventures in one valley, spring to winter, collected in one campaign book with a finale that is not sold on its own.

This adventure stands completely alone — it needs nothing from any other — but a table that plays four of them starts seeing the year take shape.

Hessa Bramm is in this one, and in two more of them.

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✨ THIS IS FOR YOU IF

▪ You want a dnd one shot with no combat in it at all, and no apology for that

▪ You have never run a game before and want your first night to be talking, not tactics

▪ You want a mystery that has a real answer, written down, not left to you to improvise

▪ Your players are level 1 and you want something written for level 1

▪ 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 — 37 pages, colour and printer-friendly

▪ US Letter — 42 pages, colour and printer-friendly

▪ 9 map images

🗺️ The 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.