The Smokehouses

Tonight there was.

The nearest fire that counts is a collier’s burn two miles up the hill, and the box you carry it home in holds heat for about an hour. The other family’s hearth is forty feet away, behind a door that has been unlocked for two hundred years and has never once been opened.

THREE HOURS UP THE HILL, OR ONE KNOCK ON THAT DOOR. That is the whole adventure, and the text takes neither side. Both endings are written out at the same length.

BUILT FOR EXACTLY TWO PLAYERS. Not a four-player adventure with a note about scaling: the encounters, the pacing and the two ready characters are all written for a pair, so nobody is covering three empty seats.

WHAT YOU GET - 33 pages, and 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

- 2 battle maps in three versions each - DM, player, and no grid. 70 px per 5-foot square for a clean Roll20 or Foundry import

- 4 ready-to-play 1st-level characters, so a pair can pick the two they like

- 11 secrets, tables and printable handouts

A QUIET ONE. Nobody in this adventure is anybody’s enemy, which is exactly what makes the forty feet hard.

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.

THE FILES - four PDFs: A4 and US Letter, each in colour and in a printer-friendly build. The printer-friendly version is the same book in pure white, nothing removed. Plus 6 map images.

Compatible with Fifth Edition. Instant digital download - nothing is posted.

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.