A Winter Wonderland

A One-shot Adventure for Dungeons and Dragons

Introduction: In a peaceful little village, disturbed only by earthquakes and

blizzards, the inhabitants reveal a letter. Little do they know, it will lead
them to the truth about their Winter Wonderland.

by LandmineCat

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What to Expect: This is a one-shot adventure, written for Fifth Edition Dungeons and
Dragons. It is designed for four characters of 7th level, but the DM could adjust the
challenge of encounters to suit different parties. It is suggested that each of the players is
given at least one magic item or an adamantine weapon. The overall tone of the
adventure is somewhat light-hearted and comedic.

Plot Summary: The player characters live as the only residents of a picturesque snowy
village. As far as they remember, they have always lived here, disturbed only by blizzards
and earthquakes. It’s always winter, and they don’t realise anything unusual about it. The
adventure begins with an unexpected invite to meet some hermits in the nearby
mountains. This will lead them to meet a guide who shows them a strange trapdoor in a
remote valley, which leads deep underground into what appears to be waiting rooms and
receptions. Following the corridors, the adventures come to a portal. Stepping through it,
they leave the influence of a spell and remember that they were tricked and had their
memories replaced with false ones of life in the winter village. Coming to their senses
through the portal, they find themselves in the laboratory where they were first deceived
by the powerful wizard Elspeth Delestria. Here, they discover that she was using them as
unwilling test subjects in her experimental snow-globe pocket dimension which she
intends to market as a holiday destination once she has proved that it is safe.

Abbreviations: Parts of this adventure refer to official books as follows

- PHB: Player’s Handbook

- MM: Monster Manual
- XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
PART 1: The Letter
Open the session with the following narration.

Morning light comes around the mountains, and falls upon a

peaceful little village. Not far from the steep slopes and cliffs of
these icy mountains, four quaint red-brick cottages stand around
a little well and a decorated evergreen tree. There is a frozen-
over pond just south of the village, and a few trees dotted
sparsely around, all covered in snow. This homely little place
appears as a bastion of serenity beneath the vast and jagged
snowy peaks, which are barely visible from the village through
the thousand whirling blizzards that buffet the hillsides. Down
here between the houses, there is gentle snowfall, but the snow
drifts against the walls show that it was worse through the night.
Nonetheless, you each slept peacefully in your warm
earthquake-resistant beds inside your semi-soundproofed walls,
blissfully dreaming though the raging snows and shaking
ground.

The sunlight creeps through the gaps in your curtains and you
wake up, ready for the day ahead. There is firewood to chop,
pies to bake, snowdrifts to shovel... morning's work must be
done – but not before a good breakfast. Each morning, you eat
breakfast together and discuss the day ahead. Today, it is
[Character Name’s] turn to host breakfast, and you each sleepily
wander over to his house. They are already preparing waffles,
and the scent hits you through the chill air before you're even
through his garden gate.

The characters likely all arrive within 5 to 10 minutes of each other, but at this moment, ask
who thinks their character would be the earliest to get up and go to breakfast. This
character will notice the mailman walking away from the town, whistling a tune to himself.
He is too far away and in too much of a hurry to stop and chat, but he gives a nod and wave
and carries on his way. It looks like only [Breakfast Host] got mail today, and being a good
neighbour, you pick up the letter from their mailbox as you head to their door.

The other characters should arrive fairly promptly after this, and once all are together is a
nice time to have each player describe their characters appearance and other important
details if this has not already been done.
When the letter is opened, it simply reads

Dear New Residents

You may or may not come to our occasional hermit

convergence soon

It is more-or-less approximately North-ish of your village

- Skaglar the Vague

The characters should be confused by the phrase “new residents” as they can’t remember
anything other than living here. Should the players ask, tell them that they know that there
are hermits up in the mountains, but they wouldn’t have met them or know them by name.

PART 2: The Ascent

There is a small storage shed shared by the players. In preparation for the ascent of the
mountains, give players the option to gather supplies here. The exact contents are at the
DM’s discretion, but rather than pre-planning the storage space, you can just say to the
players that most items from the “Adventuring Gear” table (PHB, pg150) can be found
inside.

Once players start their journey, give the following narration

The ground starts to become very steep after about half an

hour's walk away from the village. It is a tough and tiring ascent,
and the snowfall and biting cold wind don't make it any easier,
but this is nothing you're not used to.

About two hours into your ascent, there is a violent tremor that
throws you off balance to the land in the soft snow, and causes a
small snowbank to cover you to waist deep like a miniature
avalanche. You pull up out of the snow, and back to your feet
and struggle onwards, but it is clear at this point the journey is
getting harder the higher you go. The already rough snow and
wind grows more intense, becoming a truly ferocious blizzard
which threatens to throw you off the edge or smash you against
rocks. The route you follow is made up of precarious paths and
steep inclines, and when all is covered in snow, safe paths are
near indistinguishable from mounds of snow that could collapse
beneath you over a cliff.
Ask the players what steps they take to endure the blizzard and make the journey easier.
This is an open-ended skill challenge where players should come up with their own ideas of
what to try. If the players aren’t familiar with the concept of a skill challenge, a good way to
phrase it is “If this was the travel-montage scene in a movie, what would your character be
shown doing?” Some examples that could help are:

 Attempt to locate a trail, or more solid snow. (Survival)

 Try to assess if there’s any paths more sheltered from the pounding of the blizzard
than other routes (Perception)
 Use rope to tie tether the party together (Dexterity)
 Take a shortcut up a cliff to a more sheltered position (Athletics, with advantage if
they thought to collect pitons earlier)
 Make improvised snowshoes out of items in their pack (Intelligence)
 Throw rocks to test the stability of areas ahead (Investigation)
 Use magic to keep warm (Spellcasting Ability)
 A spell such as Gust to counter the oncoming snow (Spellcasting Ability)

Keep track of the successes and failures on the checks the players make. It can be better not
to include an explicit target of how many successes they must get, as this challenge depends
on the player’s ideas and it can be difficult for newer players in particular to understand
how to contribute. Regardless of the number of successes and failures, the players should
complete the ascent. Consequences for failure can vary. Here are some example
consequences:

 If players fail to or do not attempt to locate the safest routes through the snow they
could fall through loose snow, requiring a dexterity saving throw or suffering the
damage of a 10 to 20 foot fall.
 If players fail to or do not attempt to identify which routes up the slope are more
sheltered, they could require a constitution saving throw against suffering cold
damage.
 If they do an exceptionally poorly, the journey could take a long time as they struggle
along an indirect route through difficult terrain forcing a constitution saving throw
against taking a point of exhaustion.

After the skill challenge, read out the following narration

Eventually, the blizzard begins to ease up as you climb higher

still. You come over the crest of one ridge, and though visibility
is poor, you can see the dim orange glow of distant firelight.
Between you and the glow, is a bowl-shaped dip in the mountain
top. Snow obscures most of the detail, but it looks like a rocky
region with only a few trees dotted around.
In this space, there are three yetis (MM, pg305). The yetis are hiding in wait for the passing
prey of mountain goats that sometimes roam here, but would just as happily eat people.
They are unaware of the player characters’ presence initially, but will spot them coming if
the players do not choose to approach stealthily. The DM can decide whether to actively roll
stealth for the yetis, remembering that they gain advantage to hide in this snowy terrain, or
can use a standard DC16 perception check to spot them.

If players naturally distrust travelling across this, they can loop a long way round the edge,
but would require a stealth check to do so.

PART 3: The Hermits

With the yetis defeated, the players can make their way toward the distant firelight. Getting
closer, they can see it is coming from within a small cave. Beside this cave, a wooden
signpost has been shoved into the snow. It reads

“Occasional Hermit Convergence: Here Tonight”

There are several hermits in the cave, sitting around a roaring fire. They are:

Skaglar the Vague: a non-descript dwarf with the kind of face you’d struggle to pick out in a
police line-up after spending a whole day with him. As his name suggests, Skaglar refers to
everything in only vague and unhelpful terms.

Harold the Brief: A huge Viking-like human. He is a man of few words.

Dyana the Different: A half-elf who is so obsessed with being unique that she spells Diana
with a Y. She wears the same warm winter furs as the others, but hers are dyed clashing and
vibrant colours, and she has red lipstick on her top lip and green on her lower lip.

Tess the Questioning: A silver Dragonborn who speaks almost exclusively in questions.

The Silent One: A Halfling who never speaks. If a player tries to talk while other hermits
aren’t paying attention, he’ll whisper “Fumbrum Balladrumgum, I only do the Silent thing to
stay in character and avoid dealing with these guys. I'm actually quite the chatterbox when
I'm with other people, not that I ever meet any.”

The hermits will try to include the players in inane conversations, mostly about topics such
as goat population demographics, snow powderiness index, and earthquakes. Tess is likely
to be the most talkative, asking everything from mundane to deeply personal questions.
After a while, the hermits will start to think that it’s getting late, and that the one other
person they were expecting should have arrived by now.
Skaglar will say “There’s usually somewhere in the ballpark of 3 to 7 hermits at these
meetings… Whatsisface hasn’t turned up…”

To which Tess will ask “Do you mean Jonas the Insane?” and then turn to the player
characters to ask “Will you go check on him for us?”

Skaglar will suggest that Jonas lives a number of miles in somewhere in “that direction”
while waving his arm in a 180 degree arc, and Harold will reply. “Shiverpeak. That Way,” and
point more clearly.

With Harold’s more accurate JONAS THE INSANE

direction, it is reasonably easy
to find Jonas’ cave. It is less Jonas is an old white-bearded human, dressed in thick warm
than an hour’s walk. He furs. His beloved snowy owl, Fløfrik, is always by his side. The
excitedly welcomes the player reason Jonas is insane is that he and the owl were subject to
a botched mind-swap which has left him 90% Jonas and 10%
characters in when they make
owl. Jonas sometimes subtly hints at the outside world. He
their presence known. Jonas
frequently brings up his crazy theories about the world being
will go on to reveal that he has flat and the gods being incompetent and annoying.
found “something interesting”
and has “a feeling that you’re
the people I’m supposed to show it to” but before that he will try to engage the players in
casual conversation. During this, he will offer them mice as if raw, partially-frozen mice are a
normal snack. Some talking points he should say:

 They called me crazy cos I said the world is flat! So I said alright alright, maybe not
flat, but it’s no globe,* maybe it’s more like a rugby ball kinda shape, or maybe like a
hockey puck with a demon realm on the underside! Anything’s more reasonable
than a sphere, it’d roll off the cosmic table of the gods!
o * in his speech “it’s no globe” should sound like “it snow-globe”. Players will
not notice, but you can infuriate them after the session by telling them you
literally told them the ending in the middle without anyone noticing.
 I don’t like gods much. I don’t have much personal experience with them but every
book’s the same. Always the hand of god coming down and shaking things up.*
o *unknowing reference to the wizard shaking the snow-globe

When Jonas runs out of nonsense to talk, or the players pressure him, he will pull out his
“Secret Stash”. This contains 4 healing potions, a healer’s kit, and 5 frozen mice. The
contents can be reduced if this feels far too generous. Jonas will then lead the players about
an hour down into a valley. He will then take his shovel, and dig for a few minutes, revealing
a hatch in the ground, and say “So, where you think it goes?”.

He has never been down there because Owls don’t want to go underground.
PART 4: The Underground
The hatch leads to a spiral staircase. It goes down for an uncomfortably long time, all the
way to beneath the mountains. It leads to a small door, which is easily opened a small sitting
room.

On the opposite side, there is a large door, above which are the words “Thanks for
Visiting!”, and on the left wall, there is a taped off area where it looks like a new tunnel is
going to be dug out.

To the right, there is a fireplace, a coffee table, and a couple of nice red armchairs. On the
coffee table are a few slate coasters, but no sign of glasses or drinks to put on them. On the
shelf beneath the table, there are a few books and random flyers. Above the smaller door by
which the players entered, is a sign that says “Maintenance Staff Only”.

The fireplace: The chimney does not lead anywhere, and there is no sign of firewood in the
room. A DC12 investigation check reveals a small hidden switch under the mantelpiece.
Clicking it simply activates an illusion of flames in the fireplace.

The table: The flyers appear to be for various attractions in the region, such as

o Be sure to visit the Jagged Peaks, as beautiful as they are cold!

o Enjoy the perfect skating conditions year-round at the Icy Ponds
o Not for the faint-hearted, the treacherous trails of Avalanche Valley lead to
some of the most spectacular sights in the mountains – if you make it that
far!
o Visit the Seismic Bard Club, where the floor resonates with the vibrations of
earthquakes to create the most chaotic and primal musical euphoria in the
world!
o Purchase a Premium License for Yeti Hunting – pretty much as close as you
can get to intelligent life and still call it hunting rather than murder!

The books on the table’s shelf are bland fiction novels, except for one, which says “Guest
Book”, but the pages are blank.

The Door: The door is not locked, and players can freely go through. It leads to a long
corridor

As soon as anyone goes through the door, glass orbs mounted on the walls light up,
illuminating the distance ahead. About 20 feet in, there is a golden archway. Taking a closer
look will reveal small runes engraved into it which a DC16 arcana check will reveal as
associated with some kind of sensor system.

The moment someone passes under the arch, there is a beep and a voice says “Your
presence in this sector is unauthorised. Proceed at your own risk.”
Continuing on, nothing seems to happen, until 200 feet later where there is another similar
arch. About 20 feet beyond the arch, the corridor connects to a room. After passing through
this arch, the same voice says “Caution has been advised. If you proceed further, Delestria
Holidays Incorporated no longer holds legal responsibility for any harm that may come to
you”

In the room ahead, is a large stone statue of a humanoid figure, with its eyes fixed on the
corridor. There is a single exit to the room directly opposite this corridor. Around the room
are chairs, and an unoccupied reception counter. There are few paintings of mountain
landscapes on the wall, one of which players can recognise as the village they live in.

When players enter the room, the statue starts to move. It is a stone golem (MM pg170). It
is recommended that the golem’s max HP and strength modifier are reduced to tone down
the fight, especially if the party rely heavily on physical damage. If the party are extremely
unoptimised for such a combat, consider replacing the golem’s immunity with resistance.

The Reception Area: It looks like a fairly standard welcome desk. Behind it is a safe which
says “This safe is protected by an Arcane Seal”. A DC12 investigation check of the reception
desk will let a player find a scrap of paper with the code scribbled on it hidden in the back of
a book.

The safe contains 2 healing potions and 5 healer’s kits, and optionally a resurrection orb,
which can magically save someone who died during the golem fight.

If players type the wrong code, the spectral outline of a leopard seal will appear briefly and
any creature directly in front of the safe must make a DC14 dexterity save or take 2d6 force
damage.

The Next Corridor: The corridor on the other side of the room has another of the arches.
Stepping under it will cause hidden hatches to open in the corridor walls as blades start to
whirr and swing across the area. This uses the rules of “The Path of Blades” (XGtE pg118-
119). If you do not own XGtE, this can be replaced with any other trap(s).
PART 5: The Wizard
After the trap-corridor, there is a small room. In it is a portal built into the wall, and opposite
that, a large “Welcome!” sign. When players step through the portal, read out this narration

It should not be impossible to talk her out of a fight, but it would require good role-play and
good persuasion rolls.

The moment you step through the portal, memories flood back
to you. Your life was never in that place – it just made you forget
what you once were. You regain your last memory before being
in the snowy village. There was a wizard – Elspeth Delestria –
she had called on adventurers to go hunt down some rare
arcane ingredients for her. Then when you arrived she had
locked the door and cast a spell on you, and then your memories
were gone, and you were in a snowy village you thought you had
always known. As all this comes back to you, you come to your
senses on the other side of the portal. You are in a sizable
laboratory full of desks, workbenches, and bookshelves – and
she is there. Elspeth is dressed in long purple robes, leaning over
a desk at the far side, her black hair in a messy braid by one side.
She is gazing into a snowglobe. She turns to face you.

"Ah, you made it out. This is an unexpected turn of events. Now,

had you escaped more easily, I'd have you sign a non-disclosure
agreement… but I don't think it would be believable or fair for
me to expect you to keep such an agreement after my systems
did so much to try to kill you.

I've got a reputation to uphold, people can't know I use unwilling

live test subjects to study the effects of life in my snow-globe
dimension! So you have two choices. Go back in there and forget
everything again, or die trying to escape this room."
Elspeth has the following stat-block and lair actions.

On initiative count 20, objects around the room levitate and attack enemies.
Broom: Moves up to 20 feet and makes one melee attack: +3 to hit, dealing 5 (d6+1) bludgeoning damage. It
can be disabled by destroying it. It has 10AC and 5HP.
Four Candlesticks: They move up to 20 feet and make one melee attack each: +3 to hit, dealing 2 (d4)
fire damage. A candlestick has 13AC and 1HP.
Bookshelf: A book flies of one of the bookshelves at high speed. A random hostile creature must succeed on a
DC12 dexterity saving throw or suffer 4 (d6) bludgeoning damage. This can be disabled by destroying the
bookcase which has 10AC, 40HP, and vulnerability to fire damage.

On initiative count 10, Elspeth's potion rack will launch vials of random substances at creatures in the room.
The potion rack can be destroyed. It has 8AC, but counts as having three-quarters cover if players are on the
other side of the desk. It has 30HP.
Roll 1d20 for each 10HP the potion rack has remaining, and apply the following effect:

1 – An empty glass vial flies at a creature, doing nothing

2 – 5 – A healing dart flies at Elspeth for 2d8+2 healing
6 – 9 – An acid vial flies at a creature. The target must make a DC15 dexterity saving throw or suffer 7
(2d6) acid damage or half as much on a successful save.
10 – 12 – A vial of alchemist's fire flies at a player: Creatures within 5 feet of the target must make a
DC15 dexterity saving throw or suffer 7 (2d6) fire damage, or half as much on a successful save. This
also risks igniting flammable objects such as the bookshelves.
13 – 15 – A drowsiness potion flies at a creature. The target must succeed on a dc15 wisdom saving
throw or have disadvantage on attack rolls until the end of their next turn.
16 – 19 – A poison vial flies at a creautre, creating a toxic cloud. Creatures within 5 feet of the target
must succeed on a dc15 constitution saving throw or suffer 5 (2d4) poison damage or half as much on
a successful save. The cloud persists for one round, and any creature that passes through or ends
their turn there must also make the saving throw.
20 – A vial of pure cosmic essence flies at a creature. Creatures within 10 feet of the target must
succeed on a DC15 dexterity saving throw or suffer 11 (2d8) force damage or half as much on
successful save.

While the enchantment will only elect enemies as the target of damaging effects, it is not sophisticated
enough to avoid catching Elspeth in area effects.
Searching around the room, there are all sorts of potions and spellbooks, but most importantly, upon her desk
sits the snow-globe. Beside it is a big red button that says “Emergency Snow-globe Evacuation Switch”.
Pressing it will cause all of the hermits, the mailman, and a disgruntled janitor to fly out and land in a heap. The
janitor is the first to stand. He shouts “Finally!” and snaps his broom over his leg and storms out. The mailman
strolls off whistling a pleasant melody as if nothing happened. The hermits are confused and overwhelmed, as
they have been in there the longest and their memories take some time to come back. The player characters
can help them up and help explain the circumstance, or you can simply cover all this in a wrap-up speech.

After characters have defeated Elspeth or talked their way out of the situation, they have completed the
adventure. They leave her tower and step out into the countryside. Their home city is on the horizon, and they
breathe in their surroundings and the taste of freedom, ready to return to their previous lives. Give the players
chance to describe what they do – what adventures and people they return to – essentially a short “happily
ever after”.