The Krampus Run: Christmas Horror One-Shot (5E)
A 5E (2024) Christmas horror one-shot for four level 4 characters: on Krampus Night in an Alpine village under a glacier, the Krampus runs among the masked runners, and the characters have until the twelfth bell to bring the taken home.
- Players and time
- Four characters of level 4 (scaling for 3-6 characters and levels 3-5); one session of 3-4 hours; ages 14+; 2024 rules / SRD 5.2.1. Tone: 'Scary, never gory.'
- Pages
- 31
- Format
- US Letter and A4
- Language
- English, Italian (La Corsa dei Krampus)
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What's in the download
- How to Use This Book, Adventure Overview, At a Glance, adventure hooks, safety tools (pp. 2-4)
- The Krampus in Alpine Folklore sidebar; the Clock, the Letter and birch marks; Running Christmas Dread (p. 5)
- Running the Night one-page flowchart (p. 6)
- The Village of Schattwinkel map with 9 locations; The People of Schattwinkel with portraits (pp. 7-8)
- Part One: Krampus Night (arrival, Advent market, d6 market moments, the Krampus Run, mask-ridden runner stat block) + Run Square battle map (pp. 9-13)
- Part Two: Soot on the Walls (d8 rumors, eight places to investigate, evening events, birch marks table) (pp. 14-17)
- Part Three: The Grey Kar (Birch Wood, the Ice Step and its black goats, glacier crossing, d6 on the mountain) (pp. 18-19)
- Part Four: The Krampus Seat (three ways to end the night, Krampus stat block, scaling, questions at the table) + full-page art and Krampus Seat battle map (pp. 20-25)
- Endings, rewards, The Golden Switch and Runner's Mask, sequel hooks (p. 26)
- Appendix: creatures; player handouts; The Night Sheet with Clock and birch tally cards (pp. 27-30)
This page is safe to share with your players or guests: it does not reveal the culprit, the solution or any answer.
Inside pages
Lines from the book
At the far end, on a black crag against the stars, stand the broken walls of a ruin, and inside them burns a fire of the wrong color: cold, clear blue.
Handout 1, The Mayor's Notice: 'Children indoors after the Run. Doors barred at the seventh bell. A reward of 300 gold pieces to whoever brings home' the baker, the bailiff and the schoolmaster.
The market is open, and it smells of gingerbread and woodsmoke, but nobody is laughing. Mothers keep a hand on their children's collars. Somewhere above the roofs a single bell is ringing. Nobody looks up.
