Dive into a delicious adventure with Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu, a culinary quest cooked up by D&D celebrity Deborah Ann Woll, who’s known for her roles in hit TV shows such as Daredevil and True Blood. This one-shot for 10th-level characters marks her exciting debut as a published D&D writer and tasks your party with unraveling the mystery behind missing ingredients for a magical dish.

We sat down with Deborah to discuss her D&D adventure, some tips for Dungeon Masters, and how this adventure really lives up to the saying, “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.”

• What’s Included in Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu?
• A Milestone Achievement
• Deborah’s Dungeon Master Tips

Make Prep Easier With Maps

All the maps and tokens from Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu are ready to go in Maps! With a couple of clicks, Master-tier subscribers can set up their adventure and get ready for their players to join in on the action.

What’s Included in Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu?

“It is a D&D adventure for 10th-level adventurers,” said Deborah, “and it is very exciting to me that you would have to be very hardy to save the children's menu.”

Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu is based on a recipe included in Heroes’ Feast Flavors of the Multiverse, a new cookbook that features dishes from different realms of D&D’s infinite planescape.

And for those who’re as hungry for macaroni and cheese as they are for adventure, Deborah reassures, “You will get the Kender Stumblenoodles recipe included.”

What Kind of Adventure Should We Expect?

High-level one-shots are a delicate balancing act. They need to be difficult enough to challenge more powerful heroes, but they also have to interweave story beats with encounters to make the quest a satisfying narrative journey.

“If I had to sum up Saving the Children's Menu in one sentence, it would be, ‘Adventurers tasked with saving a family that is in desperate need of their help as well as bringing some joy to all of the children of Daggerford.’”

Reflecting on the tone of her adventure, Deborah described it as "old school in a way." She drew inspiration from the media her generation was raised on, where children's stories often had a thrilling edge, "Stuff for kids was scary, and we all grew up with a love for things that were dangerous and a little bit spine-tingling."

A Milestone Achievement

Artist: Irina Nordsol

Even though Deborah gained her popularity through her roles in hit TV shows, she has a soft spot for Dungeons & Dragons, a hobby that allowed her to gain confidence in improvisation.

"This was a huge bucket list moment for me," she admitted. “When Wizards first wrote me to say, ‘Hey, we're going to be publishing Saving the Children's Menu,’ I honestly had a little heart-in-my-throat kind of moment.”

Deborah has made appearances in popular D&D shows, like Critical Role, and has led her own shows Relics and Rarities and Children of Éarte as the DM. Even with all those accolades under her belt, becoming a published D&D writer was a dream come true.

“You write, and you create, and if you're a Dungeon Master, your players take that on, and you get to see it come to life in their eyes, which is incredible,” said Deborah, “and then it's another step when people that you admire and who create the thing that you love come and say, ‘Hey, we want to put effort into this and make art and make maps and publish it.’”

She finished by saying, “It's validating, and I'm grateful in a way that I didn't actually fully expect.”

Deborah’s Dungeon Master Tips

Spoiler alert! This section contains Deborah’s tips for running Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu and is meant only for Dungeon Masters. If you’re a player and want some tips from Deborah for this adventure, check out her advice for players. If you’re a DM, keep reading or check out the full interview in the video below!

Players Should Talk First, Draw Swords Second

In the introductory tavern scene, the party is told by Kaga—the tavern owner and quest giver—that a group of rash adventurers were also tasked with uncovering the mystery behind the missing ingredients a couple of days before.

“This prior adventuring party did not make it. [Kaga] found their bodies in a river. It sets up some dread, which is always nice to do at the beginning of an adventure, but it's also a warning to the players,” said Deborah.

“We added a line for Kaga to say, ‘These were the kind of adventurers who drew swords before they asked questions,’ and that's possibly why they ended up in the river, so it's a little hint to your players to approach this cautiously and with some nuance and compassion,” she continued.

The Cheesemonger’s Almanac is Key

When exploring the farm for clues of what’s happened as well as the missing ingredients, “The main thing is they’ll want to find the cheesemonger’s almanac because that will help them find the cheese they are here to look for,” said Deborah.

This book can be found in Arthur’s Library (Location 2) and is what they’ll need to solve the “cheese puzzle” found in the Cheese Storage Room (Location 7).

Timing the Final Encounter

If running into a protective fire giant and her toddlers wasn’t terrifying enough, the climax of the adventure is when three other fire giants with hell hounds in tow arrive to wrest the children from their mother.

“This should be a pretty terrifying prospect,” warned Deborah. “You do have an ally in Ignis to help you, but she's going to choose to protect her kids at all costs.”

When it comes to running this encounter, the timing is left up to the DM. Deborah suggests, “It should probably be at a high. They have gotten through some really tough challenge or they've finally figured out, ‘This is the cheese! Okay, let's go home.’ You want to let them have a win and then say, ‘Good luck.’”

She also suggests making sure to drain your players of resources before the final encounter because you want them to have to think outside of the box to resolve the impending conflict.

“I would also encourage—because these are 10th-level adventurers and they have a lot of advantages—you want them to be somewhat depleted,” she said. “Not necessarily in hit points but in terms of spell slots, features, and traits that they have.”

Saving the Fire Giant Family

While the encounter with the fire giants and hell hounds is intended to be the climax, Deborah wants this conflict to be more than a “you hit, I hit” situation. These fire giants are here to take the children away from their mother, and this alternative goal should make combat more difficult and tense.

Players should have to figure out, “How do I stop a creature that is four times my size from reaching in a hole and just pulling out these children and running away?” stresses Deborah.

Dig Into Adventure

There you go, your “mise en place” (which is a French cooking term that means “everything in its place”) for Heroes’ Feast: Saving the Children’s Menu. With Deborah’s imparted knowledge, alongside her recipe for adventure, you’ve got everything you need to run this quest that blends gastronomy, diplomacy, and, of course, danger.

As Deborah puts it, “I would risk my life for a great bowl of macaroni and cheese, and I hope you will too.”

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.