The Merossa Meat Grinder is basically a tabletop game played with D&D rules. This adventure is very light on story, but extremely heavy on action and players can really rack up a big body count. Once you understand the rules, you can set it up and play it in minutes, and it's never quite the same two games in a row. This is a favorite of mine for teaching new players the mechanics of how combat, skills and movement work in Dungeons and Dragons. And sometimes you just want to kick back and slay a bunch of mindless enemies.
First off, you'll need the map. You may download it here (with grid) or (without grid) - I printed it out on a color plotter with 1" squares and it looks great. If you don't have that option, you can print it across multiple sheets and join them together. Secondly, you'll need a good number of zombies. I used these from the Zombies board game, but you can use tokens, pennies, whatever you feel like. Just make sure to have a dozen or more. No additional terrain is necessary, but it can add a little flavor to the map. I picked some buildings and trees up on sale at Michael's and the result was pretty decent.
Starting the Adventure (Read this to your players)
Your party has come in out of an afternoon storm to an inn <<The Diamond in the Rough>> in the small rural mining village of Merossa. The group of you have been dispatched by the ruling council of (NEARBY CITY) to investigate disturbing reports of vanished villagers along with other reports of previously missing people and long-dead family members wandering through the area and occasionally attacking anyone within reach. A heavy mountain thunderstorm blew in suddenly and the party made it to the small inn in the middle of town just in time to avoid the worst of it.
Thunder crashes and lightning lights up the windows of the inn as the storm steadily gets worse with each passing minute. On your way in, you noticed a handful of small houses and a bridge over a rapidly-moving river that is beginning to swell from the downpour. A few other buildings were indistinguishable from a distance, but nothing you saw was larger than two stories in this small village.
Looking around the inn, you see three human villagers << Hilke, Bray, and Mirek >> sitting together at a table conversing in hushed tones. An innkeeper << Winmar >> cleans dishes behind a bar and eyes all of your warily, but without hostility. Finally, a minstrel << Avigne >> picks idly at her lute, knowing today will be a lousy day for tips. There is an open table in the corner near the fireplace that looks warm and inviting. This seems like your best option for riding out the storm until it blows over so you may as well get some directions or even look into lodging for the night if things don’t let up. The innkeeper sizes you all up and looks at (the biggest PC). “You picked a hell of a day to travel, stranger.”
<< Let the players get some basic info about the town, people, and situation, but try to keep it to a minute or less before moving on>>
Moments after a particularly violent thunderclap, the door to the inn flies open and a badly wounded villager bursts through the doorway, wet and slick with muck and blood. All eyes turns to him as he reaches out to the bartender and cries out, "We're under attack! Monsters are everywhere!" Then he collapses and stops moving. Strange noises can be heard amidst the sounds of the downpour and thunder outside through the open door of the inn as the wind whips rain onto the floor in the doorway.
The innkeeper looks to the group desperately and says, "You have to find my daughter << Samara >> and bring her back here. She was going to visit some friends in the village before the storm blew in. I will reward you if you bring her back safely!"
One villager says, "This is the work of unholy spirits. We must find Fortina. She'll protect us!" The villager looks at the party. “She’s our village priestess. She’s a servant of (a diety who hates undead). If you can find her and get her to the church, she’ll know how to stop this”
Let the players react to this. If they examine the dead villager for too long or if they linger too long, the dead villager should cough loudly and shudder, then rise as a zombie and attack << Hilke >>, killing her. If the players still don't react, << zombie Hilke>> coughs and spasms violently, rises, and attacks << Bray >> while the first zombie attacks the players directly. That should get them out the door. Remember, the inn is the large building in the middle of the map.
If the players find the innkeeper's daughter, he will offer rewards for their assistance, but will not go into detail if pressed. If the players find the priest, they can journey with her to the church where she can provide basic blessing and cure wounds services for anyone who enters.
Adding Enemies to the Map
(optional) Place a d20 near you with the number 1 showing. This is your round counter. It will come in handy as the game progresses.
I’ve learned that it works better to add enemies to the map based on the number of PC attacks per round, not just the number of players. It may take a few rounds to figure this number out.
At the beginning of every round before the players move, roll a d4 if there are 4 players or a d6 if there are 6 players. This determines how many new zombies appear immediately.
Roll a d12 to determine where along the border of the map each new enemy appears based on the face of a clock. 12=north, 3=east, 6=south, 9=west
Drop a numbered (not dots) d6 for each enemy in the appropriate area of the map. It's ok, if the die rolls and moves a little bit from where you dropped it. Find the top of the die based on the top of the number on the face of the die. If you roll a 1, place an enemy 1 square "above" the die, whichever way the die is facing. For a 6, place an enemy 6 squares "above" the die, whichever way the die is facing. This should give you even more randomness to the placement of new enemies.
Try to figure out how many attacks the PCs are getting per round, not just the number of players. Once you know that, you’ll see how many enemies you should add to keep them moving and not let them get too comfortable.
If the battle seems to be stalling or if the players are dispatching the zombies a little too easily, drop in a ghoul with the zombies after round 5 along with the zombies and then another ghoul after round 10. If it goes to 15 rounds, consider adding a wight.
If you add an upgraded monster and the players haven’t found Fortina yet, have her make a run from her cottage to another nearby one. That should help them find her.
Let the players fight the zombies for a while, but make sure they understand what they need to do in order to ultimately stop the zombies from appearing and to win the adventure.
Repeat as often as necessary then let players move and play through the round.
What to do with cottages
In the village, in addition to other structures, there are 8 cottages. Roll a d8 in secret to determine which cottages the innkeeper's daughter and priestess NPCs are in. If you roll a number that already contains an NPC, roll again. Do this for the innkeeper's daughter and the priestess. Keep track of which building each NPC is in, but don't tell the players. The idea is that the players will begin to search the cottages for the priestess and the innkeeper’s daughter.
When a player checks a cottage for the first time, roll a d20 to see what they find.
1 The cottage is overrun. 1d4 zombies inside 2 1 zombie inside 3-10 The cottage is empty 11-13 Dead villager in the house. Will it rise as a zombie? DM's choice 14-15 Hysterical villager inside. Starts screaming as you enter. Attracts all zombies within 100’ except for those near another player 16 Crying child alone inside begging not to be left alone 17-19 Scared villager hiding from the zombies outside 20 A chest/box/shelf containing 1d20 gold and a potion of cure wounds
Players Avoiding Conflict
Encourage the players to make creative use of the environment. There are some things players can do to make themselves unattackable. A player may attempt to climb onto the roof of a hut or go inside and bar the door. If a player attempts to climb onto the roof of a hut, do an acrobatics check at DC 15. Players attempting to engage zombies from atop a roof with a melee weapon should either make the attack at disadvantage or else make the attack normally, but make an acrobatics check to avoid slipping off. If a player bars the door, zombies will continue to gather outside the hut and will attempt to smash down the door. The DC for smashing down the door is 18 on a hut or 20 on other structures. If a player is on the roof or up a tree or otherwise out of reach, zombies will gather at the base of the structure and attempt to knock it down, which will require a DC of 20 to bring down the tree or the building the player is on. DM's choice on how to handle damage for a player on the roof of a collapsing building. Also, feel free to have a flaming zombie approach the player's structure to set it on fire. Another idea is that once a certain number of zombies gather around the tree, make the player in the tree perform a low DC dexterity or acrobatics check each round to avoid being shaken out of the tree. The river is flowing rapidly. Any action that involves a square of the river should push the person downstream 10' for each 5' moved unless a successful athletics check is made to resist the current. Also, the river is difficult terrain. Actions will wash people and zombies downstream as well. If players are moving around a little too nimbly, say the ongoing rainstorm is beginning to bog the ground into a muddy mess and anything off of the established paths can be considered difficult terrain.
Winning the game
Get the priestess to the church in the southwest corner of the map and she will pray to her deity for 1d4 rounds. At the end of that time, no new zombies will appear and then she will assist the players in cleaning up the remaining zombies and providing healing and undead turning services.
Rescue the innkeeper's daughter and he will reward the players with one potion of cure wounds for each member of the party and a magic longsword +1 vs Undead that was left in a room by a guest long ago who never returned.
(Optional) If you want to add a little bit of extra complexity to the game, put a blacksmith in one of the random houses and have the players find and escort him to his forge in the corner of the map where he has his weapons. Then he can assist the players as a friendly NPC in fighting off even more enemies.
Final notes
I originally wrote this scenario for the Pathfinder rules system. I think it flows much more smoothly under 5e rules with the exception of the fact that 5e zombies are considerably tougher than Pathfinder zombies. You may consider toning down the number of enemies for a lower level group or maybe just get rid of the zombies' Undead Fortitude trait so you can throw more enemies into the meat grinder. Players loves racking up a big body count.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Not all those who wander are lost"
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The Merossa Meat Grinder is basically a tabletop game played with D&D rules. This adventure is very light on story, but extremely heavy on action and players can really rack up a big body count. Once you understand the rules, you can set it up and play it in minutes, and it's never quite the same two games in a row. This is a favorite of mine for teaching new players the mechanics of how combat, skills and movement work in Dungeons and Dragons. And sometimes you just want to kick back and slay a bunch of mindless enemies.
First off, you'll need the map. You may download it here (with grid) or (without grid) - I printed it out on a color plotter with 1" squares and it looks great. If you don't have that option, you can print it across multiple sheets and join them together. Secondly, you'll need a good number of zombies. I used these from the Zombies board game, but you can use tokens, pennies, whatever you feel like. Just make sure to have a dozen or more. No additional terrain is necessary, but it can add a little flavor to the map. I picked some buildings and trees up on sale at Michael's and the result was pretty decent.
Starting the Adventure (Read this to your players)
Your party has come in out of an afternoon storm to an inn <<The Diamond in the Rough>> in the small rural mining village of Merossa. The group of you have been dispatched by the ruling council of (NEARBY CITY) to investigate disturbing reports of vanished villagers along with other reports of previously missing people and long-dead family members wandering through the area and occasionally attacking anyone within reach. A heavy mountain thunderstorm blew in suddenly and the party made it to the small inn in the middle of town just in time to avoid the worst of it.
Thunder crashes and lightning lights up the windows of the inn as the storm steadily gets worse with each passing minute. On your way in, you noticed a handful of small houses and a bridge over a rapidly-moving river that is beginning to swell from the downpour. A few other buildings were indistinguishable from a distance, but nothing you saw was larger than two stories in this small village.
Looking around the inn, you see three human villagers << Hilke, Bray, and Mirek >> sitting together at a table conversing in hushed tones. An innkeeper << Winmar >> cleans dishes behind a bar and eyes all of your warily, but without hostility. Finally, a minstrel << Avigne >> picks idly at her lute, knowing today will be a lousy day for tips. There is an open table in the corner near the fireplace that looks warm and inviting. This seems like your best option for riding out the storm until it blows over so you may as well get some directions or even look into lodging for the night if things don’t let up. The innkeeper sizes you all up and looks at (the biggest PC). “You picked a hell of a day to travel, stranger.”
<< Let the players get some basic info about the town, people, and situation, but try to keep it to a minute or less before moving on>>
Moments after a particularly violent thunderclap, the door to the inn flies open and a badly wounded villager bursts through the doorway, wet and slick with muck and blood. All eyes turns to him as he reaches out to the bartender and cries out, "We're under attack! Monsters are everywhere!" Then he collapses and stops moving. Strange noises can be heard amidst the sounds of the downpour and thunder outside through the open door of the inn as the wind whips rain onto the floor in the doorway.
The innkeeper looks to the group desperately and says, "You have to find my daughter << Samara >> and bring her back here. She was going to visit some friends in the village before the storm blew in. I will reward you if you bring her back safely!"
One villager says, "This is the work of unholy spirits. We must find Fortina. She'll protect us!" The villager looks at the party. “She’s our village priestess. She’s a servant of (a diety who hates undead). If you can find her and get her to the church, she’ll know how to stop this”
Let the players react to this. If they examine the dead villager for too long or if they linger too long, the dead villager should cough loudly and shudder, then rise as a zombie and attack << Hilke >>, killing her. If the players still don't react, << zombie Hilke>> coughs and spasms violently, rises, and attacks << Bray >> while the first zombie attacks the players directly. That should get them out the door. Remember, the inn is the large building in the middle of the map.
If the players find the innkeeper's daughter, he will offer rewards for their assistance, but will not go into detail if pressed. If the players find the priest, they can journey with her to the church where she can provide basic blessing and cure wounds services for anyone who enters.
Adding Enemies to the Map
Repeat as often as necessary then let players move and play through the round.
What to do with cottages
In the village, in addition to other structures, there are 8 cottages. Roll a d8 in secret to determine which cottages the innkeeper's daughter and priestess NPCs are in. If you roll a number that already contains an NPC, roll again. Do this for the innkeeper's daughter and the priestess. Keep track of which building each NPC is in, but don't tell the players. The idea is that the players will begin to search the cottages for the priestess and the innkeeper’s daughter.
When a player checks a cottage for the first time, roll a d20 to see what they find.
1 The cottage is overrun. 1d4 zombies inside
2 1 zombie inside
3-10 The cottage is empty
11-13 Dead villager in the house. Will it rise as a zombie? DM's choice
14-15 Hysterical villager inside. Starts screaming as you enter. Attracts all zombies within 100’ except for those near another player
16 Crying child alone inside begging not to be left alone
17-19 Scared villager hiding from the zombies outside
20 A chest/box/shelf containing 1d20 gold and a potion of cure wounds
Players Avoiding Conflict
Encourage the players to make creative use of the environment. There are some things players can do to make themselves unattackable. A player may attempt to climb onto the roof of a hut or go inside and bar the door. If a player attempts to climb onto the roof of a hut, do an acrobatics check at DC 15. Players attempting to engage zombies from atop a roof with a melee weapon should either make the attack at disadvantage or else make the attack normally, but make an acrobatics check to avoid slipping off. If a player bars the door, zombies will continue to gather outside the hut and will attempt to smash down the door. The DC for smashing down the door is 18 on a hut or 20 on other structures. If a player is on the roof or up a tree or otherwise out of reach, zombies will gather at the base of the structure and attempt to knock it down, which will require a DC of 20 to bring down the tree or the building the player is on. DM's choice on how to handle damage for a player on the roof of a collapsing building. Also, feel free to have a flaming zombie approach the player's structure to set it on fire. Another idea is that once a certain number of zombies gather around the tree, make the player in the tree perform a low DC dexterity or acrobatics check each round to avoid being shaken out of the tree. The river is flowing rapidly. Any action that involves a square of the river should push the person downstream 10' for each 5' moved unless a successful athletics check is made to resist the current. Also, the river is difficult terrain. Actions will wash people and zombies downstream as well. If players are moving around a little too nimbly, say the ongoing rainstorm is beginning to bog the ground into a muddy mess and anything off of the established paths can be considered difficult terrain.
Winning the game
Get the priestess to the church in the southwest corner of the map and she will pray to her deity for 1d4 rounds. At the end of that time, no new zombies will appear and then she will assist the players in cleaning up the remaining zombies and providing healing and undead turning services.
Rescue the innkeeper's daughter and he will reward the players with one potion of cure wounds for each member of the party and a magic longsword +1 vs Undead that was left in a room by a guest long ago who never returned.
(Optional) If you want to add a little bit of extra complexity to the game, put a blacksmith in one of the random houses and have the players find and escort him to his forge in the corner of the map where he has his weapons. Then he can assist the players as a friendly NPC in fighting off even more enemies.
Final notes
I originally wrote this scenario for the Pathfinder rules system. I think it flows much more smoothly under 5e rules with the exception of the fact that 5e zombies are considerably tougher than Pathfinder zombies. You may consider toning down the number of enemies for a lower level group or maybe just get rid of the zombies' Undead Fortitude trait so you can throw more enemies into the meat grinder. Players loves racking up a big body count.
"Not all those who wander are lost"