Stones in the Coffins 5E

Stones in the Coffins is a 5e-compatible one-shot for four 5th-level characters. It plays in one session of about 3 to 4 hours. Every ending is written, and in none of them do the dead walk again. It is for GMs who want restrained horror with a conscience: a small village that knows more than it says, undead who are not hunting anyone, and a decision at the end that the book will not make for you.

Built to bend at the table

The adventure is written for four 5th-level characters, and it gives the GM clear dials:

• Three to five characters. A scaling table gives every fight for three, four, or five characters, with creatures, adjusted XP, and difficulty, plus a separate adjustment for a weaker party of four.
• Fights you can avoid. The guards at the mine can be talked past, and the haunting can end without a final battle. A table that talks shifts the balance toward social play; a table that fights shifts it back.
• A clock you can see. Two nights and one day, with what happens at each stage if the party does nothing. Tell the players the hour and let the pressure do the work.
• Pacing levers. A target time for each part of the session, and a written way to speed up the day between if the table runs long, or tighten it if it runs short.
• A personal tie, if you want one. One line lets a character have worked a season in the mine and know the shift captain by name.
• Your setting's faith. The village priest's rite has no named god. Give it whichever god of the dead or of the hearth your world already has.
• Fail-forward where it matters. The checks that gate progress have written consequences for failure that still move the story on.

The Setup

Dornhagen is a coal-smoked village in a fold of grey hills, with one mine, the Kesselgrube. Five weeks ago, the mine's lower gallery flooded. A week later, the village buried seven miners in a row of new graves on the cemetery rise.

Three weeks ago, the figures started coming.

Each night they climb out of the Dornbach stream below the cemetery wall, black with silt, and walk without hurry to the new graves. They carry picks and shovels. They do not look at the living, and they do not speak. At dawn they go back the way they came.

Ottokar Rennwald, Burgomaster of Dornhagen and master of its mine, has posted a reward of 400 gold pieces for any capable company that will end the walking dead in his cemetery. He wants the party at the graves tonight.

The village has its own answers, and keeps most of them: an old sexton who fills in the earth every morning, a widow who sits up at night behind the cemetery wall, a priest who spoke the rite over seven coffins, a foreman who has been drunk since the flood, and the Burgomaster's son.

The dead want something.

What the party learns, and who they tell, decides how Dornhagen buries its dead. The book gives no right answer, only consequences.

What's Inside

The nodes

• The Burgomaster's Commission. A council room that smells of wet wool and lamp oil, a chest on the shelf, and a man who looks at your weapons before he offers his hand.
• The Cemetery by Night. A dry-stone wall, a lychgate, seven fresh graves, and the sound of water dripping from many bodies at once.
• Widows' Row. The miners' cottages below the spoil heap, a widow who keeps watch at night, and a child who heard something she should not have.
• The Pumphouse and the Chapel. An oilcloth ledger, a foreman with a jug, a lectern with the burial register open on it.
• Kesselgrube Yard and the Upper Workings. Hired guards who are paid to keep people out, and a mine that has gone quiet.
• The Deep Drift. Cold water to the waist, bad air, and a long way down in the dark.
• Night Two. If the dead are not laid to rest, the second night is worse.

How it plays

• One session, one story. An afternoon, two nights and the day between, with a visible clock and a target time for each part.
• Seven nodes, non-linear. The day between can be spent in any order: the widows, the pumphouse, the chapel, the mine.
• Three-path clue design. The truth rests on six key conclusions, and each one can be reached by three or more different paths. Miss a scene, fail a check, and another path still gets the party there.
• More than one way through. Two routes into the mine, and the haunting can end without a final battle.
• A real moral choice. The party decides what is said aloud, and to whom. The book does not decide for them.
• Multiple endings. Three fully written outcomes, each with its own variations. Each one closes the story, and each has a cost.

Items Included

• The adventure (PDF) 
• Seven nodes, a two-night clock, a pacing table, a clue table, a scaling table for three to five characters, fail-forward guidance, three written outcomes, and experience awards.
• Full stat blocks: with adventure-specific variant notes, and the Drowned Hewer and Jost Brandauer, the Knocker.
• The Rite of the True Account: a ritual, with how it is spoken, who can speak it, and what happens when it fails.
• Player handouts: documents the party can find and read during play, plus three short in-world props.
• NPC roster: every named character, the living and the dead, with role, where they are met, what they want, their secret, and the clues they carry.
• The French edition of the adventure and appendices.
• Maps: a regional map of Dornhagen and its mine, and battle maps for the encounters.
• Illustrations.

Why Back This

It fits one evening. 5th level, four characters, 3 to 4 hours, with a clock and a pacing table that keep the session on time. It does not stall. Six key conclusions, each with three or more paths; a day between that can be played in any order; fail-forward on the checks that gate progress. It ends, and the ending weighs something. Three written outcomes, none of them clean, in English and in French.

Rewards

Adventure Tier      

• Stones in the Coffins 5E (PDF)
• Printer-friendly Version (PDF)
• Maps
• Illustrations
• Monster Stat Blocks

All Adventures Tier (31x)    

The All Adventures Tier is perfect for GMs who want a solid library of 5E adventures to draw from, ensuring you will never run out of content for your PCs.

• Stones in the Coffins 5E (PDF)
• The Debt of Nine Winters 5E (PDF)
• The Miller's Daughter 5E (PDF)
• The Temple of Skoll 5E (PDF)
• The Halls of Vraxith 5E (PDF)
• Orcs of the Southern Kingdom 5E (PDF)
• The King's Mercy 5E (PDF)
• Filth Below Gallows-Ford 5E (PDF)
• Under the Black Flag 5E (PDF)
• The Missing Grain Shipment 5E (PDF)
• The Fallen Cleric 5E (PDF)
• The Plague of the Queen 5E (PDF)
• Eyes of Basirah 5E (PDF)
• Maw of the Cube 5E (PDF)
• The Plane Walker 5E (PDF)  
• The Lighthouse Shadows 5E (PDF)     
• Eldfjall's Fury 5E (PDF)
• The Wreck of the Shadow Tide 5E (PDF)
• Chains of Fiend 5E (PDF)       
•  Wings of Dread 5E (PDF)        
• The Howling Gorge 5E (PDF)        
• The Unquiet Stone 5E (PDF)        
• The Tower of Fools 5E (PDF)        
• Plague of Kettlebrook 5E (PDF)         
• The Labyrinth of Fate 5E (PDF)        
• The Icebound Keep 5E (PDF)        
• The Haunting of Frostbite Hollow 5E (PDF)        
• Vor & Pal: Knights of Chaos 5E (PDF)        
• The Gem of Life 5E (PDF)        
• Terror in Ravenswood 5E - Part 1&2 (PDF)     
• All Printer-friendly Versions (PDF)        
• All Side Quests        
• All Maps        
• All Illustrations       
• All Monster Stat Blocks

Add-ons

Looking to expand your game library? 

Fulfillment

• Timeline: Backers receive download links two weeks after the campaign ends 
• Format: Digital download (ZIP file) with all PDFs, maps, and assets 
• Language: English only

About Me

Hi, I'm Eric Bleney. I've been running D&D, Warhammer, and various TTRPGs since the 90s. I launched the card game Dark Mages in 2015 and have been creating 5E adventures that respect your prep time ever since. The Debt of Nine Winters is built for GMs who want clear structure, real stakes, and adventures that respond to player choices rather than railroad them through a predetermined story.