The Chimera’s Bounty, a D&D 5e Adventure

The Chimera’s Bounty

The warning bell rings over Bellward Market. Beyond the last roofs, smoke rises from a broken watchfort, and a three-headed shadow crosses the road. The bounty board offers 800 gold pieces to end the attacks: bring proof of the kill, or bring the creature back securely alive. Warden Elra Fen will honor either result.

The Chimera’s Bounty is a fantasy adventure for four or five characters of levels 3–5, written for the 2014 fifth-edition rules. You’ll track the quarry through Bellward Reach, find a place to make your stand, and put your preparations to the test. If the chimera escapes, it can learn from the fight. Stop it, and the bounty is yours, with evidence to follow if your group wants to find out who created it.

I’m bringing this corner of Bellward Reach to life in three Penny Blood Adventures books: The Chimera’s Bounty, the companion novel Cinderwake, and Bounties of Bellward, a collection of five standalone one-shots.

Plan the hunt

A ruined wall can shelter the party from fire, and a windlass can help turn an ambush in their favor—provided someone can reach the handle. The adventure gives players enough information about the ground and their equipment to make those decisions before the chimera arrives.

The hunt takes them through the Broken Watchfort and Harth Mill, where a missing hunter needs rescuing, then toward a flooded basin or the rival hunters above Thorncut Ravine. They choose where to confront Cinderwake. If they kill or securely capture it at first contact, that victory stands.

If Cinderwake survives a fight, breaks pursuit, and reaches shelter, it can learn from what hurt it. A wing might start turning arrows; a low sweep could punish attackers who crowd together. These adaptations are limited and can be discovered before the next clash, giving the party a chance to rethink its approach. The creature never gains an adaptation in the middle of a fight.

Play a free adventure in Bellward

Every time the harvest bell rings, the ground opens. In Do Not Ring the Harvest Bell, your hunters must discover what draws a burrowing monster before the valley loses its harvest.

Try a complete adventure from Bounties of Bellward, written for three to six characters of levels 3–5 and a single session of 3–4 hours. The free PDF includes the adventure, creature statistics, maps, player handouts, and the rules you need from our books, plus a look inside The Chimera’s Bounty and an opening chapter of Cinderwake. Bring your own characters, dice, and the 2014 fifth-edition rules.

Download the free adventure PDF · 40 pages · 13.8 MB

Download the adventure and play assets · ZIP · 186.6 MB · Includes printable handouts and tokens, full-resolution maps, and the Ploughman STL.

No pledge is required. The miniature is optional; paper tokens or ordinary markers work for play.

The Chimera’s Bounty — the main adventure

8.5 × 11 inches · Fifth-edition adventure · Levels 3–5

The main adventure takes the party from accepting the bounty to killing or securely capturing the quarry. Along the way, they’ll investigate attacks, prepare an ambush, rescue a missing hunter, and deal with competing crews. Evidence also points toward the operation that created Cinderwake. Once the hunt is over, they can investigate it themselves, hand the case to the authorities, or take their payment and move on.

The book is being developed with:

• Six keyed locations: Bellward Market, the Broken Watchfort, Harth Mill, the Flooded Quarry, Thorncut Ravine, and the Broodforge.
• Three acts and eight ending routes, with guidance for parties that take an unexpected path.
• Nine player documents, including the contract, briefing material, and evidence discovered through play.
• Level-based monster profiles, visible adaptation rules, and practical capture and custody procedures.
• NPCs, factions, magic items and equipment, plus session-zero guidance and GM troubleshooting.
• Three Heads at the Table, an optional dice game for an evening in Bellward.
• Food and Fuel, recipes inspired by the region, including a hearty Hunter’s Pot and an alcohol-free Emberglass option.

The main hunt is currently estimated at 4–6 hours of play. Taking the substantial direct investigation route brings the overall estimate to 8–12 hours. These are writing estimates; human playtesting remains ahead, and your group’s pace will vary.

Cinderwake — the novel

6 × 9 inches · A Novel of The Chimera’s Bounty

Somewhere beyond Bellward’s roads, a creature built to be a weapon discovers what freedom costs. Cinderwake follows the hunters who take the bounty and the people living in the shadow of the attacks, exploring the consequences of creating a living weapon.

The novel draws on the adventure’s story, with its own path through Bellward Reach. You can read it without playing fifth edition, though if you’re joining the hunt at the table, save it until afterward to avoid the spoilers. Your group’s ending remains its own.

Bounties of Bellward — the one-shot collection

8.5 × 11 inches · One-Shot Adventures in Bellward Reach

There is plenty of work on Bellward’s bounty board besides the chimera. Bounties of Bellward contains five adventures that can be run on their own or linked across a year in the Reach.

• Something Sings in the Drains. Bellward’s street lanterns are going dark. Find what is stealing their light before the ratcatcher smokes out the drains.
• What Sallowmere Paid for Rain. Rain has saved the fields, but the warning bell has lost its voice. Discover what Sallowmere gave up.
• Do Not Ring the Harvest Bell. A burrowing monster threatens Longfurrow’s harvest. Prove what draws it and choose the ground for the hunt. Play this adventure in the free sample above.
• Grain or Blood by Moonrise. Raiders demand half a village’s winter grain. The party has one day to find a way through the standoff.
• The Dead March at Midwinter. Return the First Bell to the Barrow of the Winter Host and ring it before dawn on the longest night.

All five adventures belong to the base collection, regardless of stretch-goal unlocks. The free download includes the complete Harvest Bell adventure with its maps, handouts, and supporting rules.

A country worth protecting

Beyond the ruined watchforts and wet roads, Bellward Reach is a place people are trying to keep alive. Warden Elra Fen intends to honor the bounty. Captain Dain Rusk and the Ash Pennants want the same quarry as the party, but could become allies. Sera Holt has already learned what it’s like to meet the chimera without a plan.

I want those relationships to matter. The party can help people and earn their trust, collect the bounty it was promised, or stay to investigate the operation behind the creature. There’s room for suspicion, but an honest offer can be exactly that.

What comes in the Enhanced Digital Collection?

One digital bundle brings together all three books and the practical files for running the main adventure:

• The Chimera’s Bounty PDF.
• Cinderwake in PDF and EPUB.
• Bounties of Bellward PDF, including its five base one-shots.
• A separate map pack for the main adventure, with GM and player versions.
• The nine main-adventure player documents as printable files.
• A GM reference pack: hunt record, adaptation cards, capture checklist, and session-preparation reference.
• Five rules-adaptation guide PDFs for Pathfinder 2e, Old-School Essentials (OSE), Daggerheart, Tales of the Valiant, and Savage Worlds.
• Every stretch-goal expansion unlocked during this campaign, with its specified play files.

The separate map, handout, and reference exports are planned campaign deliverables. The current manuscript includes map specifications and the underlying text; the final cartography and designed files still need production.

The Student PDF tier contains the main adventure PDF only. Every physical reward includes the full Enhanced Digital Collection.

Bring Bellward to your RPG system

The Enhanced Digital Collection and every physical reward will include five rules-adaptation guide PDFs, covering Pathfinder 2e, Old-School Essentials (OSE), Daggerheart, Tales of the Valiant, and Savage Worlds. These are part of the base campaign offer, independent of stretch-goal unlocks.

Each guide will provide practical instructions for running the main adventure and the five base Bellward one-shots in its target system. The setting, people, clues, and player choices remain recognizable; the mechanics receive system-specific treatment.

• A preparation checklist, target-system character-tier guidance, and encounter-by-encounter conversion notes.
• Target-system profiles for Cinderwake and the necessary combatants, with guidance for other NPCs.
• Difficulty checks, saving or resistance procedures, action economy, hazards, and encounter scaling.
• Equipment, magic items, rewards, and relevant spell-effect substitutions.
• Worked instructions for the chimera’s earned adaptations, pursuit and disengagement, prepared terrain, and secure live capture.
• Placement notes for the anthology and conversion notes for new mechanics introduced by unlocked stretch expansions.

You will need the appropriate core rules for your chosen system. These are supporting adaptation guides, not five separately rewritten editions of the entire adventure. They remain planned production deliverables; their source rules, mechanical conversions, and playtests still need to be completed.

Choose your reward

All pledge and shipping amounts are in USD. Shipping is added to physical pledges during the campaign: USA $10; Canada, European Union, Australia, and United Kingdom $15. These rates apply to every physical reward tier. Applicable taxes are additional.

The proposed early-bird allocation is 100 digital rewards and 25 of each physical reward. Early-bird and standard rewards have identical contents. The difference is price and availability.

Adventure and anthology print editions are planned in full color. The novel is planned with a black-and-white text interior. Covers shown are design previews; final page counts, paper, bindings, and print specifications will be confirmed before launch. No slipcase or special finish is included in these rewards.

Help choose what we add

Backers will choose what we add to Bellward Reach. At each funding milestone, you’ll vote for one of two expansions, from road encounters and market trouble to follow-up adventures. Enhanced Digital and every physical tier will receive the winning PDF and its listed maps, handouts, or reference files.

The five base one-shots and all five system-adaptation guides are already included in those rewards. Each stretch expansion is additional, with its content described below.

Page counts are planning estimates and will be confirmed after editing and layout. The proposed milestones still need production costing before launch; unlocking all seven would add roughly 82–114 pages of writing, plus the separate play files.

$6,000 · Travel and social encounters

Planned length: 8–12 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: Roadside Trouble

• Six developed road encounters with triggers, choices, opposition, and consequences.
• Two small encounter maps with GM/player versions.
• Six ready-to-use NPCs, three handouts, and level 3–5 adjustments.

B: Market Day

• Six developed market encounters with investigations, negotiations, and consequences.
• A keyed market district map with GM/player versions.
• Six recurring traders or officials, three handouts, and follow-on hooks.

Adds usable journeys and a living home base between the main hunt’s locations.

$9,000 · Expanded adventure locations

Planned length: 12–16 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: The Mill Beyond the Hunt

• Ten keyed mill-site areas and three linked situations beyond the core ambush.
• A multi-level map with GM/player versions and two additional creature or hazard profiles.
• Three handouts, rescue complications, treasure, and alternate-outcome guidance.

B: Secrets of Thorncut Ravine

• Ten keyed ravine areas and three linked exploration or rescue situations.
• A terrain map with GM/player versions and two additional creature or hazard profiles.
• Three handouts, rival-hunter negotiations, treasure, and alternate-outcome guidance.

Expands a location the party already knows without changing the original battlefield rules or hiding essential clues.

$12,000 · NPCs and faction play

Planned length: 12–16 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: The People of Bellward

• Twelve developed local NPCs with motives, voices, secrets, and useful information.
• Six playable social encounters plus a relationship map and faction responses.
• Four supporting stat profiles and four printable letters or notices.

B: The Ash Pennant Company

• Twelve developed rival hunters and associates, with loyalties and disagreements.
• Three competing crews, six rivalry or alliance scenes, and a relationship map.
• Four supporting stat profiles, contracts, and cooperation procedures.

Makes allies, rivals, and recurring townsfolk usable across the main adventure and the five base one-shots.

$15,000 · Investigations and player handouts

Planned length: 10–14 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: The Bellward Evidence Dossier

• Twelve designed evidence handouts with separate player files.
• Three optional investigations with clue routes, witnesses, obstacles, and resolutions.
• A GM evidence index, acquisition notes, and adaptations for different main-adventure endings.

B: Letters from a Troubled Reach

• Twelve designed letters, contracts, and notices with separate player files.
• Three correspondence-led investigations with NPC motives and concrete resolutions.
• A GM truth key, delivery notes, and adaptations for different main-adventure endings.

Deepens investigation and the bounty-board experience; every clue required by the base books remains in the base books.

$18,000 · Equipment with adventures attached

Planned length: 12–16 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: The Hunter’s Workshop

• Twelve practical hunting tools with costs, uses, limitations, and illustrated reference cards.
• Three suppliers or craftspeople and three acquisition or repair encounters.
• Four worked terrain plans showing anchors, cover, safe handling, and failure states.

B: Relics of Bellward

• Twelve minor or uncommon magical items with complete rules and illustrated reference cards.
• Three custodians or makers and three recovery encounters.
• Clear rarity and power guidance, consequences, and placement notes for both game books.

Turns equipment into preparation and adventure choices, while preserving a viable hunt without any unlocked item.

$22,000 · A complete follow-up one-shot

Planned length: 16–24 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: The Road Home

• One complete one-shot about escorting a rebuilding convoy through Bellward Reach.
• Eight keyed locations, two GM/player maps, four NPCs, and three opposition profiles.
• Four player handouts, level 3–5 guidance, treasure, and branches for kill or capture outcomes.

B: The Last Foundry Ledger

• One complete one-shot about recovering records and protecting witnesses after the hunt.
• Eight keyed locations, two GM/player maps, four NPCs, and three opposition profiles.
• Four player handouts, level 3–5 guidance, treasure, and branches for a closed or unresolved foundry.

Adds a fully playable sequel alongside Bounties of Bellward; it is additional to the five base one-shots.

$26,000 · Setting material built for play

Planned length: 12–16 pages, plus the play files listed below.

A: The Keeper’s Field Guide

• Six illustrated creature or environmental profiles tied to the region, with game rules.
• Six encounter scenes, feeding and tracking clues, and two keyed lair sketches.
• Three player-facing field notes and GM guidance on using discoveries without changing Cinderwake’s origin.

B: The Warning Bells of the Reach

• Six developed settlements or bell stations, each with a local conflict and adventure use.
• Six encounter scenes, signal procedures, and two keyed site sketches.
• Three player-facing notices and GM guidance on travel, warnings, and local response.

Provides regional detail through encounters, people, and locations that can enter play immediately.

The expansions will be supplied as separate digital supplements. Printed rewards contain the three base books described in their tiers; extra printed pages or a fourth book are not assumed. Main-adventure outcomes remain valid: no supplement requires Cinderwake to survive, escape, or be killed.

Votes will be announced in campaign updates, with one A/B vote per backer per milestone and a stated closing time. A tie will be settled by the option that best fits the production schedule, with the decision explained.

Where the project stands

All three books now have laid-out PDF editions. The free sample above lets you inspect actual pages from the collection and play a complete adventure from Bounties of Bellward.

The sample’s maps, printable handouts, tokens, and Ploughman STL are available now. Digital preparation does not establish physical print quality: book proofs and miniature test prints are separate checks. The remaining campaign work includes final release checks, the five system-adaptation guides, any unlocked expansions, and print fulfillment.

Funding will support the remaining writing, testing, art, cartography, layout, the five system-adaptation guides, and production work. PDF and digital rewards are scheduled for delivery in November 2026. Physical books will ship by April 2027; physical reward tiers also receive their included digital files in November 2026. We ship to the USA, Canada, the European Union, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

About Penny Blood Adventures

I’m Matthew David, the creator behind Penny Blood Adventures. My recent Kickstarter projects include The Lighthouse at the End of Every World, KRAKEN, and The Sphinx’s Wager.

For The Chimera’s Bounty, I want the party’s decisions to be visible in the world: the ground they choose, the people they save, the quarry they stop, and the responsibility they decide to pursue afterward.

Thank you for helping me bring Bellward Reach to the table. I look forward to seeing what your players make of the hunt.