Demon Driven to the Maw: A D&D One-Shot Full of Chaos

77p on DriveThruRPG. One night of gaming that’s going to be an absolute blast for you AND your players. Brad Kerr does it again.

The Setup

A thief called Jugler stole the famed Sky Marble. A drunk in a tavern says he’s at Finhurst Castle in Edberg. When your party arrives, there’s a full-blown party happening. They get welcomed in.

What’s actually going on: deer-hooved vampires have commandeered the castle. They’re throwing this party to impress the devil. Literally Satan is there.

Your players will figure out stuff is off. Then it kicks off.

The Countdown

Roll d4+40. That’s how many turns before the nightmare phase starts. Red caps start setting fires. People start dying unless you save them. The loopy map suddenly matters because players need escape routes.

Or you can trigger it whenever feels right. Either way, it’s going to go nuts.

The Cast

This isn’t straightforward D&D enemies. These characters have personality:

Brother Tilly - Violent, dour-faced Puritan. Always wrong about everything except this one time. Will probably accuse the PCs of being demons.

The Morning Star - Literally Satan. Doesn’t really care about all this blood and sacrifice stuff as much as everyone thinks. He wants personal freedom, uninhibited pleasure, and thoughtful discourse. A party is a party.

Bábh-Sheia - Raven-haired deer vampire in charge of tonight’s party. Type A personality who wants to impress her boss.

Lumi - Giant from the underworld. Sad that her date ditched her. Wants a good time, a hot meal, and some basic human kindness.

The Clues

As players explore, they find things are wrong:

• Servants desperately stopping players from checking the cloak room (dead butler underneath the cloaks)
• Witch hunters working up the nerve to attack frog maidens
• Elder Cal swearing a tiny ugly man is following him - it’s a red cap, nobody else can see it
• Someone put hallucinogens in the punch bowl

The tension builds until everything explodes.

The Monsters

The stat blocks are simple. Easy to run, easy to convert to anything. But each monster has a special ability that gives them flavour:

Bábh-Sheia - On critical damage, they suck a string of blood out of an open wound like spaghetti from anywhere within 30ft.

Red Caps - Invisible unless they’re following or interacting with you. When they outnumber the players, they attack (they’re cowards).

The Tables

This is where Brad Kerr excels. Tables that make each run different and keep you surprised:

Random party small talk - No heavy lifting for the GM, just roll and go.

Random villagers - Quick NPCs ready to use.

Random Bábh-Sheia - “Smells like rosewater, long slender neck, well-manicured, soft-spoken, demure, extremely tall.”

Nightmare road dressings - Awful things to spice up the escape.

The Bonus Content

There’s a literal hellmouth. A mouth you can go into to enter hell. Your players would be mad to do it, but there’s content there if they do. You could run whole adventures down there.

Two Facing Pages

Everything you need on facing pages. Brad Kerr knows how to lay out a module for actual play.

Bottom Line

77p. Loopy map that matters. Investigation phase that builds tension. Nightmare phase that explodes into chaos. Tables that keep you surprised.

This would be a blast for your players. It would be a blast for you to run.

Get it. Demon Driven to the Maw