Death Save Repeat - Adventure Book
Death Save Repeat - Adventure Book
Wondrous One-Shot
Death. Save.
Repeat.
For more information on this adventure, the Greenwold, and
the rest of the Dungeon in a Box campaign, check out our site:
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Copyright 2021 - Dungeon in a Box LLC
Written by Matthew Moynihan. Story by David Crennen & Roman
Banfield. Edited by David Crennen and Chad Skiles. Copy edited by Zak
Kotlow. Cover art by Nathaniel Park.
Dungeon In A Box is not affiliated, endorsed, or sponsored by Wiz-
ards of the Coast® or Hasbro®. Dungeons & Dragons®, and D&D®
are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast®.
1
When the party emerges, the temple is
restored and the high priestess is performing Reading the Entries
morning prayers. Time has been rewound to This adventure references the three
the day of the attack! primary 5e sourcebooks–monster
For the party to undo the inevitable trage- entries are found in the MM, spells and
dy, they must stop the right parts of the attack rules for players are in the PHB and
at the right time. If the party fails to save all the game rules & treasure are found in the
villagers, the belt of Baeldor will bring them DMG.
back to try once more.
• Monsters are listed in bold.
The party can also use the belt to reset
time if the tide turns against them, or if a play- • Spells are listed in italics.
er character dies in a fight. However, the party • Sidebars like this, provide optional
has only three chances to set things right! On rules and supplemental adventure
the third try, the party must succeed, or leave information.
Sunsweep to its grisly fate forever.
Adventure Background
Notes for the GM
Village of Sunsweep The fun of Death. Save. Repeat lies
The village of Sunsweep is a small, self-suffi-
in the unique situation before the
cient hamlet dedicated to upholding the honor
party: to travel back in time! With
and law of Baeldor the High - God of the Sun.
that comes the opportunity to have a
Although they are a small community, their
second chance at the same encounter,
large temple to the sun god leads them to play
and learn from their mistakes. This is
an out-sized role in the region.
a luxury adventurers aren't ordinarily
The village serves as an impartial ground
afforded, of course.
where local disputes are settled and contracts
are drawn, making it an important town for The GM should not be afraid to en-
the prevailing peace in the region. If Sunsweep force the encounters strictly, adhering
were no more, the surrounding countryside to the sequence of events. The encoun-
would quickly suffer from the lack of law and ters were designed to be very difficult
order, and chaos is sure to spread in the power to stop during their first try.
vacuum left behind.
If your players feel frustrated, re-
The Prophecy of the Sun mind them that on future time loops,
The temple of Baeldor in the center of town they can use foreknowledge of the
predates the village itself. In a previous age, a events that will occur to their advan-
renowned prophet arrived from out of the west. tage. Strategic play, such as readying
The holy woman helped the poor farmers of an action (PHB pg. 193), could prove
the region overthrow the gnoll hordes that fre- especially useful in the context of this
quently beset the valley, letting an age of peace adventure.
of prosperity take hold. When the gnolls were
driven away, the priestess had a vision - and
foresaw that someday the gnolls would come
again, to ravage and despoil the peaceful land.
In accordance with his vision, the prophet
founded a temple to the sun in the middle of a
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farmer's field. Calling upon all the resources
of their church, the priest built a grand temple The Prophecy
in the otherwise distant and unremarkable
valley. Once depicted in woven tapestries,
In time, the town of Sunsweep grew up now burned and torn, the Prophecy
around the temple. When the prophet passed in the temple tells of a day on which
away, her final words were recorded as a the sun sets on the good fortune of
prophecy on the walls of the temple - that in Sunsweep. A group of mysterious
the villages time of a need, a group of heroes heroes came in the town’s time of
would arrive to undo the evil that had befallen need and delved deep into the heart
it. of Sunsweep, under the temple to
Baeldor. These four heroes (or how-
The temple of the Sun ever many fit the party) will return
The high priestess, a high elf named Onyale, from under the temple with a symbol
greets the sunrise each day, awaiting the next of Baeldor and bring sunrise back to
rebirth of Baeldor, as is signified by each new Sunsweep.
day.
Onyale carefully tends to the Temple
through ritualized practices - lighting candles, notices plumes of smoke trickling from over the
burning sanctified incense, and so on. She med- next hill a mile or two off.
itatively carries out her duties, reflecting on the Whichever character rolls highest hears the
tenets of perpetual rebirth. The priestess car- laughter of hyenas in the distance and spots a
ries with her a palpable presence of tranquility. large pack of gnolls several miles farther off,
The temple itself features a simple layout. running away from the smoke.
Numerous archways in the curved outer wall
are designed to welcome sunlight and parish- Arrival at Sunsweep (Easy)
ioners alike. Inside, three wide stone terraces As the characters continue traveling, or if they
descend toward the center of the temple, creat- take a more direct path over the hills, they see
ing a simple amphitheater setting where people the smoldering ruins of Sunsweep. Read or
can sit and gather. The priestess stands on an paraphrase the following text aloud:
elevated dais, behind which are a few simple Smoke billows from the rubble of dozens of
rooms that contain the temple's ritual objects homes in the small village at the center of this
and items of religious importance. sunny valley. The watchtower on the edge of
The temple displays imagery of sunrises town lays battered to pieces. The town hall is
and sunsets throughout - in the form of hang- surrounded by half-eaten corpses. The temple
ing tapestries, as well as decorative idols and is stained with streaks of blood. Four hulking
artifacts. shapes stab through the splintered rubble,
laughing and yelping, and screams of terror can
be heard from under the collapsed watchtower.
An Inauspicious Morning
As the characters approach the rubble, four
gnolls turn their hungry attention toward them
As the characters awake after a restful night on and attack, ganging up on the party member
the road, bright sunlight filters over the hills in they perceive to be weakest.
a resplendent sunrise. As they begin their trav- The lone surviving villager is stuck under
el, each character may make a DC 13 Wisdom the rubble and does not want to come out
(Perception) check. On a success, the character until convinced the gnolls are gone. A DC 14
Charisma (Persuasion) check or DC 16 Strength
3
(Athletics) check is required to coax the sur- A blast radius of blackened earth encircles
vivor out or remove the rubble to free them. the ruins where the apothecary shop once
Once free, the villager, Saven (lawful good, stood. The town hall stands with its second-
human guard), searches for his family. Discov- story windows broken and deep scratches
ering that no one else survived, Saven realizes mark up the exterior walls. The front doors
that the prophecy is being fulfilled. Saven was are busted outward and bloody bodies can be
shot with an arrow at sunrise and fell from the seen within. In the main square, hyena, gnoll,
tower, where he hid in rubble and played dead and villager corpses are spread around the
to survive the slaughter. Saven begs the party massive sundial at the center of town. Blood
to come to the temple and fulfill the prophecy. even pools on the steps of the temple itself.
Saven will not take “no” for an answer, and
might provide some details of the characters’ If the party chooses to investigate further,
backstories. The characters' backgrounds, back- either now or on a future time loop, the follow-
stories, or previous adventures can be peppered ing details can be gleaned by studying the town.
into the prophecy to allow Saven to make a more • The apothecary shop exploded, spreading
compelling case that it is the party’s fate to save fire across the town. A DC 15 Intelligence
Sunsweep. (Investigation) check identifies burn patterns
consistent with the spread of alchemist’s fire
to nearby buildings. Water, such as from the
The Bloody Story nearby water tower, could have put it out.
As Saven leads the party to the temple, he
relates the story of the attack. • Hyenas feasted on the corpses of those
slaughtered in town. A DC 17 Wisdom
These details are important, although they
(Medicine) check reveals that, after feasting,
might not appear to be important to the party these hyenas transformed into more gnolls
at this time. They describe the sequencing of (as described in the "Demonic Origin" section
the attack - which will give the party clues on found in pg. 162 of the MM) - evidenced
how to save the town when they travel back by hyena corpses that have burst open in a
in time. distinctive fashion .
Read or paraphrase the following text aloud • The attack ended after the gnolls killed the
as Saven describes the attack: High Priestess and defiled the temple. A DC 13
In the shellshocked words of a survivor, Intelligence (History or Religion) check reveals
Saven describes the horrors of the day to you: bloody symbols on the walls that suggest a
gnoll fang (MM pg. 163) was the one to kill the
"They came from nowhere - right at sunrise.
High Priestess.
One snuck up on me and shot me out of the
watchtower. That must have been the signal When the party enters the temple, read or
to attack. They came in from all sides. The next paraphrase the following:
thing I knew, the apothecary shop was burning In the temple, the carnage continues: bloody
and they were trying to get the villagers in the symbols of the gnoll god cover the walls of the
townhall. temple, and the corpse of the High Priestess lays
Something in the apothecary shop must have across the altar. Tapestries, torn and singed,
exploded. All the other houses started burning dangle from the walls. Though he is faint with
after that. Terrible screams came from the the horror, Saven gestures toward the wall
town hall. More gnolls came out of nowhere, behinnd the altar. "There it is - the prophecy of
slaughtering villagers and feeding them to the the sun!"
hyenas. They burst into the temple... and that's
when I blacked out. I don't remember no more." Saven pulls aside the remains of the tapes-
You see the proof of the guards words all try and reveals an intricate carving full of the
around you. symbols of Baeldor: golden suns and scales. Ad-
ditionally, there are indentations in the shape
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of a handprint matching the hand of each party Once the word ‘sunrise’ is spoken aloud, the
member. If the characters place their hands in statue holding the scales begins to glow. After
the indentations, a stone slab in the floor slides a good or lawful character tips the scales so
open to reveal a staircase leading to the inner that the sun scale is down, a golden-threaded
sanctum beneath the temple. belt with three half-moon and half-sun buckles
Saven does not accompany the characters appears - the belt of Baeldor (see pg. 9).
below the temple. At the bottom of the stairs As soon as one of the characters picks up
lies a sanctum decorated with images of Bael- the belt, one of the buckles rotates so that the
dor and his flourishing followers. When the sun side is up. A bright light flashes through the
characters enter the sanctum, the stone slab sanctum, causing the entire room to vanish in
slides closed above them. In the middle of the blinding radiance for a moment.
room stands a large statue of a humanoid av- As the light fades, the stone slab slides open
atar of Baeldor holding a set of golden scales, again, allowing the party to return back to the
evenly balanced. One scale bears imagery of a temple.
sun and the other bears imagery of the moon. The magic of the belt of Baeldor has
Around the top of the room is the following transported the party back in time. When
inscription: the characters return to the surface!
5
The party earns Hero Points for each Gnoll
Attack event they prevent from coming to fru- The Second Sunrise
ition. The party begins with zero points, and
gains the points listed in the Hero Point column Once the party has solved the riddle and
for preventing the tragedy at each stage. left they sanctum, they emerge into the past
It is up to the GM whether to keep the Hero - just before the gnoll attack begins. Read or
Points mechanic a secret. But when the party paraphrase the following aloud :
enters a new loop to make another attempt at You emerge back into the temple you just left
saving the town, the GM could use the group’s - but it is strangely different now. The tapestries
Hero Point total to provide a rough estimate that hang upon the wall are unharmed. Every-
of how well they did. This could even take the thing is clean and peaceful - all signs of battle
form of a short proclamation from Baeldor as seemingly erased. You hear the sound of someone
the light fades in the temple sanctum. in the other room, gently singing to herself.
For instance, if the characters did well at The party is overhearing Onyale, who
preventing the gnolls from entering the Town is performing a morning ritual at the altar.
Hall, but failed to prevent the Apothecary ex- When the party emerge into the main temple,
plosion, Baeldor might intone: “Lives saved is she is shocked at their presence and demands
good indeed, but they will need shelter intact as answers.
well, lest they spend weeks struggling to rebuild Read or paraphrase the following when the
what was lost.” party first emerges and each time the time loop
1 The party appears inside the temple, and is Temple N/A N/A
confronted by Onyale. Hyenas are heard.
6
repeats. In order to drive home the theme of E) at the start of Round 2, instead of at the start
time repeating, try and re-read the text in the of Round 1.
same way each time. This may serve as a lesson for future at-
tempts - to not waste valuable time. It may feel
You see the High Priestess kneeling before rude, but ignoring the priestesses questions is
the altar of Baeldor, singing a morning prayer the best way to save everyone.
to the sun. Her eyes are closed, but they open as If necessary, the GM may want to describe
soon as you step into view. Alarm and surprise the sound of hyena cackles growing louder to
flash across her face. ensure the party knows they are wasting time.
"Who are you? How did you find you way
into the sanctum?" she demands as she rises to Attack on the Town
her feet. Suddenly she pauses - "Do you have
something to do with the prophecy? Please, you
must tell me." When the party emerges from the temple
Somewhere outside the temple you hear the (Area E), read or paraphrase the following
distant sound of a hyena's call and cackle. aloud. Unless the party has done something to
dramatically change their timing, try to read
Onyale will attempt to make the party an- the description in the same way each time.
swer he questions, begging them to stop and
speak to her. She has no idea of the impending The town is fresh and beautiful on this sunny
danger to the town, and will ask as many fol- morning. A flock of pigeons scatter from the sun-
low up questions about the party as they will dial making a dog bark. A villager with buckets
answer. crosses the town square toward the water tower,
Answering Onyale's questions or attempt- calling a greeting to a farmer in the fields. Just
ing to convince her that they are the prophesied beyond the trees, you hear the pitched cackle
heroes, will delay the party's effort to save the of a hyena.
town. If the characters answer more than one
question, or take more than one action inside The gnoll pack circles the outskirts of the
the temple, the party will fall behind on the town at a distance - quickly entering a frenzy,
Gnoll Attack Timeline. Delaying in this way laughing and howling. During the attack, gnolls
means that the party exits the Temple (Area break off in small groups and charge the town’s
defenses.
Time Loops on the day after the attack. This offers the party
another opportunity to investigate the village
After receiving the belt and jumping back in or speak with Saven. The only difference is that
time under the temple, the belt has two more the party still has the belt of Baeldor on them.
charges that can be activated when the party is The party's spells slots, class abilities, and any
in dire straits. The charges may also be spent other resources return to the state they were
by the GM as an expression of Baeldor’s will, when the belt was first acquired.
spurring the heroes to try to save the town Narratively, the GM can expedite the par-
again - perhaps in the event of the party facing ty's repeated actions - such as re-entering the
their deaths, or when High Priestess Onyale is temple sanctum. Each time the party uses the
killed. belt to go back in time, the next buckle turns
When the belt is activated, the characters itself to sunrise, showing how many attempts
reappear just outside of the Temple, (area E), remain.
7
V2 V1
F
B
V3
E C
D
V5
V4
A. The Watchtower
The watchtower is a simple wood structure Watchtower Terrain
with a platform and railing standing 20 ft. If you have the 3D watchtower
high. A large brass alarm bell is hung on one terrain, assemble it and place it on
corner of the railing. On Round 2 a gnoll sneaks top of the tower's printed area on
along the side of the town hall, appearing at the map.
Location V1 and moving his movement speed If and when Saven is struck
in a straight line toward the watchtower. On (see rounds 1-2 of the Gnoll Attack
Round 3 the gnoll makes a longbow attack at Timeline table), remember that he
the surprised guard, Saven. falls from it!.
Without intervention from the characters,
the attack automatically hits and sends Saven
falling off the tower. Saven plays dead and
hides in the rubble as the gnolls tear down the B. Apothecary Shop
watchtower. On Round 4, two gnolls appear at Location
Note: If the characters ring the bell or raise V3 and set fire to the Apothecary. If the gnolls
the alarm in another way, but don't save Saven - are not stopped and the fire left unattended,
the characters gain 3 hero points (instead of 5). the shop will explode at the top of Round 5.
Spells such as control flames, create or
destroy water, or similar magic can be used
to extinguish the flames. Magic items like a
decanter of endless water, water drawn from the
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fountains in the temple, or making use of the climb to the windows. They enter the Town Hall
large supply of water found in the Water Tower on their second turn, during Round 6 - just as
(Area F) are also potential ways to save the the hyenas appear to feast on corpses.
shop. The party may devise their own means A gnoll that enters the Town Hall kills 1d2
to stop the explosion, and the GM is encouraged villagers each round.
to be open to their plans. Note: The party loses 1 Hero Point for each
The explosion of the apothecary shop kills villager slain.
the gnolls (leaving their corpses for the hy-
enas to feed on), the alchemist (commoner) D. Main Square
inside, and light 1d4 surrounding houses on On Round 6, four hyenas run into the town
fire. Any creature within 30 ft. of the Apoth- square and feast on the bodies of the slain
ecary when it explodes must make a DC 13 gnolls or villagers. On Round 7, each surviving
Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, creatures hyena bursts - transforming into another gnoll,
take 6d6 fire damage, or half as much on a furthering the assault by fending off the party
success. If the shop does not explode, the al- or joining up with their leader near the Temple
chemist gifts the characters with two potions (Area E).
of healing, and two vials of alchemist’s fire.
Note: The party loses 1 Hero Point for E. The Temple
each house set on fire. On Round 8, a gnoll fang (MM pg. 163) enters
the town square and leads any surviving gnolls
C. The Town Hall and hyenas into the temple to attack Priestess
The Town Hall is a two-story log cabin-style Onyale (an acolyte). They enter through the
building at the center of town. Fourteen villag- many open doors to the temple. When the gnoll
ers rush into the town square during the attack fang is killed, the morale of the pack is broken
and barricade themselves inside, but the upper and the surviving gnolls and hyenas flee.
level windows do not lock.
On Round 5, four gnolls rush in and attempt F. The Water Tower
to climb the outer walls and enter through the The villagers in town use this 30 ft. tall water
second-story windows. On their first turn, they tower to collect rain, and use it as their pri-
9
mary water source. A long wooden sluice can villagers like Saven have no memories of the
be lowered to fill up barrels of water. Empty disastrous first loops.
barrels are stored under the tower itself. It can When the dust settles, the cycle has reset,
be easily climbed using the ladder located on and a different number and type of hand prints
the east side, however the locals are dependent rest on the Prophecy wall. Sunsweep will fall
on the water source and keep a close eye on it. and rise again. In the unlikely event that the
No gnolls attack this location, but it can be characters earn fewer than 10 Hero Points, the
used by the party to aid them in the defense town requests the belt of Baeldor back, and the
of the town. Water can be gathered from it to survivors await the arrival of their saviors as
put out the burning apothecary shop after it's Baeldor has promised.
set alight.
Because the water tower is taller than the
town hall, it can also be used to gain line of Hero Points Reward
sight on gnolls anywhere in town- which may Earned
prove especially useful for stopping the gnoll 10 The belt of Baeldor
who injures Saven in Round 2.
Until Round 4, a villager (commoner) 15 500 gp + 2 potions of superior
stands near the watchtower, filling buckets of healing
water. The villager is wary of outsiders, and 20 A censer of detect evil and
tires to prevent any strangers (such as the party good (1 use per day, recharges
appear to be) from climbing the water tower or at sunrise)
taking water without a good explanation first.
25 Each character receives the
He will try to stand in the way of any char- Boon of Fate (DMG, pg. 232)
acters trying to access the water tower during from Baeldor
rounds 1-3, saying "Hold it, there! You'll need to
wait your turn." He will grapple any character
who attempts to climb the tower or cause trou-
ble and call for help from the guards.
A DC 10 Charisma (Persuasion or Intimida-
tion) check causes him to back down. If dealt
any damage, the villager flees if possible. At
initiative count 0 of Round 4, the man flees,
seeking shelter.
Aftermath
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Death. Save. Prepare to take your table
Repeat into this wondrous one-shot!
• Take your party on a mystery in a rural town. What will the heroes
do when every man, woman and child vanishes in front of them?
• This Wondrous One-shot is intended to be played as a stand-alone
adventure, compatible with 5e.
• Use the adventure maps for the Sun Temple and Humble Village to
run the adventure presented in this one-shot!