DI-001 : What the Wheel Grinds | A Drop-In Module for Fifth Edition

The mill died years ago. Tonight the wheel is turning, and a boy is counting.

A short drop-in module, not a full adventure. One location, one evening, about 90 minutes at the table. Slip it into any campaign the moment your heroes reach a forest river.

A charcoal-burner’s girl stops the heroes at the ford. Her brother went into the old Blackwater mill to shelter from the storm, and now his voice comes up through the floorboards, counting sacks for something in the wheel pit. When the count reaches three thousand, the river takes him.

The heroes can fight the Gristmother, a river spirit the miller cheated out of her due, or pay the debt he never settled. There is a catch: every coin in the miller’s hidden strongbox was clipped short.

At a glance

• Written for 4 characters of level 3, with scaling for 2 to 5 characters and levels 2 to 4
• About 90 minutes, zero prep
• 2024 fifth edition rules

What you download

• The PDF (28 pages)
• 2 battle maps: full colour gridded and gridless, black and white print versions with numbered keys, high resolution and VTT-sized files
• The interior art (11 images)

Inside

• 5 scenes and 3 fights: bloated stirges in the barn, giant rats in the wheel chamber, the Gristmother in the pit
• A countdown that runs through both final fights
• An original villain with a full stat block, plus SRD creatures
• Hooks to drop it in, three endings, rewards and campaign seeds to carry forward

Perfect for

• A session when half the group cancels
• A detour on a long forest road
• A GM who needs something ready in five minutes

Maps built in Ink Hammer, the battle map editor from Anvil N Ink: anvilnink.com/ink-hammer

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