A fifth edition one-shot kit for tonight
Mind the Furniture: an inn where the furniture bites. For 3 to 5 characters of 3rd level, about 3½ hours of play, Letter or A4. About three hours this afternoon to print, read, cut and fold.
A one-shot where the furniture bites, for 3 to 5 characters of 3rd level. About three hours to get ready, about 3½ hours of play. What's in it
Print it this afternoon. Run it tonight.
The GM book's key says what's in each. If it bites, its teeth come out from under your book.
Keep scrolling. While they look down, chest 5 moves one square closer.
All night, keep a straight face
Whenever the players look down at their sheets, move one piece that really bites (a whelp still in disguise) a square closer to the party. Say nothing. If anyone asks, it has always been there.
The cellar under the Brass Kettle. Tap the blue one to toss it the cheese from chest 2.Odo has the cheese from chest 2 for the blue one.
Feed the blue one
Feed the blue one and it burps up the kettle and follows its feeder.
You bring scissors, glue, tape and about ten small binder clips.
Every room keyed, every chest numbered: GM book pages 6 and 9.
Page 6. Scene 1, The Brass Kettle: Four stools at the bar. A key map of the inn with numbered spots: stairs up to the rooms, the kitchen, the trapdoor to the cellar and the front door. 1, The fireside. Where the heroes start, by Wenna's untouched tea. Nothing here bites. 2, The hearth. Warm stones. The coal scuttle at the end of them is a whelp, asleep in the heat. It fights with four or more players; with three it sleeps through. 3, The bar. Three painted stools and one plain one at the end. Nobody painted that one. 4, The tankard shelf. One tankard has a neat bite out of its rim, curved like the edge of a small lid. 5, The long table. Sawdust under the benches, and a trail of splinters to the kitchen. 6, The stairs. Up to the rooms. Tam's bed is unslept, his tin whistle on the pillow. 7, The kitchen. Oven, pantry, and the work table where the ham stood. The bread bin on it is a whelp; it fights only with five players. 8, The trapdoor. Nailed shut forty years ago by Wenna's grandfather. The nails are bent and standing proud, pushed up from below, and one board has sprung: there's a gap under it a flat hand wide. 9, The ale barrels. Teeth marks low on one barrel. Whatever tried it didn't like ale. 10, The front door. Over it, the iron hook where the brass kettle hung. Rain outside, and nowhere else open. Map key: a blue number is what's here; S the stool; C the scuttle, fights with 4+; B the bread bin, fights with 5. At 4th level count one more player (page 2). One square is 5 feet.
Spotting a whelp. A character who studies a piece of furniture can make a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check: on a success they see it breathing. Anyone who touches a whelp that fights at your table sticks to it (Grappled, escape DC 12) and is bitten at once: one Bite, before anyone rolls. Then lift its tent off, stand its teeth in the same square and roll initiative. Spotted before anyone touches it, it gets no free Bite.
Playing Wenna. Arms folded, pencil in her hair, voice flat as a tray. She never says she's worried; she polishes things. She counts everything: stools, spoons, heroes going down the cellar stair and coming back up. What they can keep. Nothing yet, and Wenna is counting. The bitten tankard is evidence; she'll let them take it. Tam's tin whistle goes back to Tam. What Wenna knows. Tam went to the kitchen about a noise just after closing. The kettle went Monday night: she heard it clang once. Her grandfather nailed the trapdoor and said what's down there is nobody's business. She's never heard of Ossery Vane, but she's seen a green cart with nice paint on the Fennick road after dark.
Page 9. Scene 2, The Cellar: Twelve chests. A key map of the cellar: stairs up to the Kettle, the vault, the wine bay, the back store and the door behind the rack, with the twelve chest spots, keyed as in the cellar key above. Map key: a blue number is a plain chest; a black number a whelp; a dashed black number a whelp only with more players (at 4th level count one more, page 2). One square is 5 feet.
Whelps. A character who studies a chest can make a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check: on a success they see it breathing. Anyone who touches a whelp sticks to it (Grappled, escape DC 12, Disadvantage on checks to escape). Lift its tent off, stand its teeth in the same square and roll initiative. The other whelps wake and hop in at 20 feet a turn. Vane's docket says live ones are chalk-marked underneath. True, but looking means tipping the chest over, and tipping a whelp means touching it.
Opening chests. None of them is locked. Opening one takes an action; when a player says which chest, find its number on this key before you answer. A plain chest just opens. Read out what's inside and let them take it. What they can keep. 120 sp and the hooded lantern (chest 10). The candlesticks and the good red are Wenna's, and she will notice. Tam's boot goes back to Tam.
The run sheet, GM book page 3: the clock, four scenes and the ending, fights for 3, 4 or 5 characters, what to do when they go sideways, cuts for running long and extras for running short.
The run sheet, GM book page 3.
Owen still can't read it from there.
The run sheet, GM book page 3. Run sheet, the whole night on one page. Mind the Furniture. Planned for four players at an ordinary pace: about 3½ hours with a break. Fights are scaled for 3 / 4 / 5 characters of 3rd level. Running long or short? Use the cuts and extras at the bottom. A strip of the heroes laughing by the hearth. Then a table: clock, scene, what happens, fight (3 / 4 / 5), if they go sideways. 0:00, Start, 10 min. Read the recap (page 4). Hand out pre-gens. One sentence each: who they are and what they're doing. Fight: none. Sideways: they want to shop or sleep: everything's shut, it's pouring, and Wenna has the tea on. 0:10, 1, The Brass Kettle, 45 min, from p. 5. Wenna had five stools, lost two, and counts four. A bitten tankard; the kitchen trapdoor, its nails pushed up from below. Sit on the end stool: stuck, and bitten before initiative. It coughs up Vane's trade card. Fight: Mimic Whelps: 1 (the stool) / 2 (+ coal scuttle) / 3 (+ bread bin). The rest sleep, then bolt. Sideways: nobody sits down: the stool comes one square closer each time they look at their sheets. They head straight down: fine, the stool follows them. 0:55, 2, The Cellar, 50 min, from p. 8. Twelve chests, one blue. Whelps hide among them. Feed the blue one and it burps up the kettle and follows its feeder. The delivery docket: sale tonight. A door behind the wine rack. Fight: Mimic Whelps: 1 / 2 / 3. The blue Mimic only if attacked, touched without food, or two feedings fail in a row. Sideways: they kill the blue one: the kettle comes up anyway, and Scene 4 is harder. They can't find the door: chest 7's letter, or a cart rumbles behind the wine. 1:45, Break, 10 minutes. Snacks. Leave the blue chest on the table where everyone can see it. 1:55, 3, Vane's Workshop, 45 min, from p. 11. Tam, tied to a stool, polishing a chest. Vane's apprentices (Nell, and Dob with 4 or 5 players) argue over whose turn it is to feed the stock. A pen of sleeping whelps. The dinner bell on its post: ring it and everything with teeth goes for the bell. Fight: Toughs: 1 / 2 / 2, plus a Mimic Whelp with 5. Sideways: they talk the apprentices round (unpaid since spring): they hand over the key and go home. Ends with Tam: "He's upstairs selling the blue one's big sister." 2:40, 4, The Showroom, 50 min, from p. 14. Sale night. Ten display chests, three rich buyers, Vane in his best coat with a brass hand bell. The grand wardrobe behind him is a Mimic. Fight: Vane + the wardrobe (Mimic) / + 1 Mimic Whelp / + 2 Mimic Whelps. Sideways: they expose him (DC 13 Charisma): the buyers want their deposits back and side with the party; Vane rings anyway. Or they throw him the dinner bell (p. 16). 3:30, Ending, 10 min, p. 17. Back at the Kettle: the ending for Vane stopped, or for Vane still free. Vane's ledger, if taken, has one more order. Fight: none. Sideways: someone wants to keep the blue one. Wenna says it can stay if it stops eating the stools. Running long? Cut. Scene 1: one whelp only. Scene 2: one whelp, and the rack is already open. Scene 3: Tam has untied himself. Scene 4: no extra whelps. Running short? Add. Scene 2: an apprentice comes for the blue one with a hand cart. Scene 3: the pen breaks open (page 13). Scene 4: an auction for the wardrobe before the bell. All night, keep a straight face: whenever the players look down at their sheets, move one piece that really bites (a whelp still in disguise) a square closer to the party. Say nothing. If anyone asks, it has always been there.
Break, 10 minutes.
Snacks. Leave the blue chest on the table where everyone can see it.
Your turn to run
A one-shot for fifth edition: an inn where the furniture bites. 3 to 5 characters of 3rd level, about 3½ hours of play. Print, read, cut and fold this afternoon (about three hours), run it tonight.
A fifth edition one-shot: an inn where the furniture bites. 3 to 5 characters of 3rd level, about 3½ hours of play. Print, read, cut and fold this afternoon (about three hours), run it tonight.
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Mind the Furniture's pre-gens and stat blocks use material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The stat blocks' punctuation and layout were changed, the Mimic Whelp and the Wardrobe are built from the SRD's Mimic, and the pre-gens sum up the SRD's rules in plain words.
