TABLE OF CONTENTS Adventure Overview ....................................................................................................................... 4 Summary ......................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Running the Game ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 New takes on an old story ................................................................................................................................... 4 Many ways to play................................................................................................................................................. 4 Adventure Hook ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 The Road ......................................................................................................................................... 5 The Donkey ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5 The Dog ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6 The Cat ............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 The Rooster ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8 The Robber's House ....................................................................................................................... 8 The Taking ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8 The Keeping .................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Appendix 1: New Monsters ........................................................................................................... 11 Appendix 2: Monster Index .......................................................................................................... 13 Appendix 3: Town Musicians of Bremen .................................................................................... 14 Sample file Town Musicians of Bremen – v. 1.2 www.scintilla.studio Lucas Zellers 3 ADVENTURE OVERVIEW SUMMARY MANY WAYS TO PLAY The Road to Bremen is a replayable, “gauntlet”-style The original folk story is played for laughs, but the tone one-shot adventure for 4 characters in the first tier of of your adventure is largely dependent on the monsters play. It’s based on the German folk story “The Town you choose. There are six “tracks”, each focusing on a Musicians of Bremen” and straight-line travel stories type of monster. Choose a track from the table below or like Cormac McCarthy’s "The Road", David Carradine’s roll on each encounter’s table for a wandering monster. Circle of Iron, and Bruce Lee’s Game of Death. Fey. Filled with beautiful but dangerous creatures of trickery and mirth, this track tests your player's wit, wisdom, and willingness to make a deal. RUNNING THE GAME Shapechanger. Hard combat encounters await your players on this track full of brutish lycanthropes where nothing is as it seems. NEW TAKES ON AN OLD STORY Celestial. Players will need more than brute strength In the original folk story, four farm animals – a donkey, to pass the tests of these heavenly creatures. a dog, a cat, and a rooster - nearing the end of their Fiend. On this darkest track, creatures from the Nine usefulness decide to leave home and become musicians Hells attacker the characters mind, body, and soul. in the town of Bremen. As night falls, they spy a lit Monstrosity. Classic D&D creatures abound in this window from a house full of bandits. Cold, tired, and track full of magical, mythical monsters. hungry, they devise a plan to scare the bandits away by Bonus. One for funsies. singing. The bandits flee this four-headed monstrosity and its terrifying cry. Later the bandits sneak back in the night, but are once again scared off as they mistake the For a shorter session or more roleplay-focused animals for monstrous creatures in the dark. In the groups, run both the Taking and the Keeping of the morning, the animals make a home for themselves in Robber’s House. the deserted shack instead of going on to Bremen. In place of the "Road" encounters, choose characters In this adventure, characters travel the road to to fit each of the archetypes in the original folk tale - Bremen and face four obstacles mirroring the four donkey, dog, cat, and rooster. You could base this on characters in the original folk story. As night falls, run things like race, class, or personality. Introduce “The Taking” of the Robbers’ House ("The Keeping" is characters in the order of their archetype along the optional based on time and remaining hit points). road. Each reveals the marvelous rumor they’ve heard Players must then decide whether their characters are about Bremen. satisfied with this new home or whether they go on, into the sunset, to Bremen. The player with the most motivation should begin the quest as the donkey did in the folk tale. Use your judgment; look for thorough backstories or clear character goals. The Road The Robber's House Donkey Dog Cat Rooster The Taking The Keeping death dog, faerie awakened tree, Fey satyr displacer beast dryad, sprites blink dogs dragon needle blights jackalwere, Yuan-ti Shapechanger werebear weretiger werevulure Yuan-ti malison direwolf purebloods cult fanatic, Celestial Pegasus fenris foo lions coautl priest, acolytes cultists shadow spined devil, Fiend nightmare hellhound gallows cat bearded devil demon imps Samplegoblin boss,file bugbear, Monstrosity Minotaur winter wolf griffon peryton goblins goblin bosses sabre-toothed bandit captain, Bonus centaur werewolf owlbear veteran, thugs tigers bandits Town Musicians of Bremen – v. 1.2 www.scintilla.studio Lucas Zellers 4 ADVENTURE HOOK Player characters form a traveling band on the road to THE ROAD Bremen. Players should be able to tell you what their Roll once on each table below or choose one encounter characters would like to leave behind based on their from each list. Characters can take two short rests in this background or backstory. In the original folk story, this adventure; you can adjust the difficulty of the adventure was the threat of death or outliving one’s usefulness. by adding or taking away short rests. Players are traveling toward Bremen because of a marvelous rumor they've heard about the city. You can pick a rumor from the table below, roll a d8 to choose one at random, or use the suggestions as inspiration for THE DONKEY rumors of your own. If players invent their own d6 Type Encounter marvelous rumors, award DM's Inspiration to the player who invents the best one (PHB 125). 1 fey satyr 2 shapechanger werebear d8 Marvelous Rumor 3 celestial pegasus 1 There’s a lost city of gold buried beneath Bremen, and only the clever can find the passage 4 fiend nightmare to it. 5 monstrosity minotaur 2 The walls between worlds are thin in Bremen and 6 bonus centaur knowledge from outer planes of existence is freely available. A satyr waits along the road, playing its pipes. It is 3 Bremen is where stars are born. Whether fascinated by the stories of Bremen, and will ask to through performance, production, or conquest, I travel with the characters. If they disagree, it will will have some of that glory for my own. become angry and use its pipes to charm or frighten the characters. If they agree, it will travel for a while before 4 The world’s best sandwich is made in Bremen, becoming bored and playing its pipes. and I must learn the recipe. 5 A great hero my faith walked this long road A werebear in human form is scratching his back on a before me; my god will bless this pilgrimage tree beside the road. While at first he seems easygoing when I arrive. and philosophical, maybe even offering to share a honeycomb or a prickly pear, he will refuse to allow the 6 Someone I love went before me to Bremen and I party to pass him on the road. Every person who travels must meet them there. this road has the potential to carry its mind- or body- 7 The water in Bremen is so clean and pure that all altering curses with them into Bremen. He's here to stop those who drink it find their memories the contagion from spreading. unclouded, and can recall perfectly any moment from their entire life. A pegasus lies barely hidden beside the 8 You can pluck a stone from the fountain in the road. One of its town square, and if you put it up to your ear you wings is broken; it can hear it singing perfectly any song it’s heard has lost one third of in the last 1,000 years. its hit points, rounded down, and THE CALL TO ADVENTURE does not have a fly speed until the wing Use this short narration to begin the adventure: