A grain merchant’s livelihood has been stolen by organized bandits hiding in the Thornwood Forest — but the trail leads through a displaced goblin tribe’s rocky warren before the party can reach the fortified camp where the goods are held.
Welcome to “The Missing Grain Shipment” 5E adventure! Within these pages, you’ll discover everything necessary to embark on this thrilling quest, complete with detailed descriptions of locations, encounters, NPCs and stat blocks, maps, and handouts.
This adventure also features a versatile and scalable system, allowing Game Masters to easily adjust the difficulty and complexity of encounters to suit their players’ preferences and skill levels. Whether you have a party of advanced players or beginners, you can tailor the challenges to ensure an exciting and engaging experience for everyone involved. The scalable system guides modifying creature statistics, making it simple to customize the adventure to fit your party’s level.
In “The Missing Grain Shipment,” a party of 3-5 characters (level 1) is hired by Harold Grainwright, a desperate grain merchant in the farming town of Millfield, after bandits ambush his shipment on the Silverbrook River road and leave his guards beaten and unconscious. Captain Danica Corven of the town guard confirms she lacks the resources to mount a recovery — leaving the characters as Harold’s only hope. The trail leads east through wilderness patrolled by wolves and opportunistic threats, past the isolated Old Mill where hermit Old Tom Miller can provide intelligence and rest, and into rocky hills where “Red” Gareth Blackwood’s expanding bandit operation has displaced Snaggletooth’s goblin tribe from their ancestral caves. The party must navigate or fight their way through the goblin warren, extract what intelligence they can about the bandit camp’s defenses, and then choose how to assault the fortified palisade where Harold’s grain is stored under guard. The adventure is divided into five parts.
Part 1: Desperate Plea
Harold Grainwright approaches the party in Millfield’s town square, visibly shaken — his hired guards were ambushed, bound, and left on the road while masked men made off with his most valuable shipment. The party may negotiate the reward upward from the baseline 50 gp (or accept Harold’s gratitude as a down payment on more). Captain Corven confirms the attack and lends what official support she can — a letter of introduction, knowledge of bandit activity patterns, and regional contacts — while acknowledging her eight-guard force is stretched too thin to pursue into the wilderness. The crime scene investigation at the ambush site yields a torn piece of red cloth, a military-style arrowhead, and disturbed footprints pointing east — establishing Red Gareth’s former soldier background as the first clue to the bandits’ unusual discipline and organization.
Part 2: Following the Trail
The wilderness journey east unfolds through a series of DC 10, 13, and 15 Survival checks that track the party’s navigation skill against six-entry random encounter tables (wolves, opportunistic brigands, wildlife hazards, and more). A key waypoint is the Old Mill on the edge of the hills, where elderly hermit Old Tom Miller has spent forty years grinding grain and watching every group that passes through the region. Tom serves as an information source — describing bandit movements, patrol schedules, and rough camp geography — and can offer food and short-rest shelter to parties who treat him with respect. As the party presses deeper into the rocky hills, goblin warning markers begin appearing: carved stones, bone chimes, and deliberately placed debris that signal the edge of Snaggletooth’s claimed territory.
Part 3: Complications in the Hills
Snaggletooth’s goblin warren occupies a network of rocky caves reinforced with spike traps, rock-fall triggers, and alarm systems. The party has three approaches: direct assault (standard combat, creature count scales by party size), stealthy infiltration (avoiding traps and sleeping guards), or triggered confrontation (setting off alarms and fighting on the goblins’ terms). Once contact is established, Snaggletooth — displaced from deeper Thornwood caves by the expanding bandit operation — proves willing to negotiate. He can be persuaded (DC 12) or intimidated (DC 13/15) into cooperation, or bribed with 15+ gp; combat to the death is the least favorable outcome. Any cooperative resolution yields detailed intelligence: bandit camp location, palisade layout, approximate guard count, patrol timing, and the existence of Red Gareth’s personal escape tunnel.
Part 4: The Bandit Camp
Red Gareth Blackwood’s camp is a genuine fortification — a wooden palisade with three watchtowers, a barred main gate, and a daily schedule that veteran sergeant Gareth enforces with military discipline. Seven bandits plus Gareth defend four mapped areas: the watchtower stations (C1), the main gate (C2), a storage building holding Harold’s recovered grain (C3), and Red Gareth’s personal quarters with the concealed escape tunnel (C4). The party chooses from four approach options — stealth infiltration, direct assault, deception (posing as travelers or merchants), or a combination approach using the goblin intelligence to exploit gaps in the patrol rotation. Four possible outcomes resolve the camp encounter: full capture of Gareth and his crew, Gareth’s escape through the tunnel, a negotiated surrender (Gareth offers information about a larger regional criminal network in exchange for his life), or a partial success where the grain is recovered but some bandits scatter into the wilderness.
Part 5: Resolution
The return journey to Millfield allows the GM to introduce optional complications based on earlier choices — escaped bandits attempting to reclaim the shipment, Snaggletooth’s tribe appearing to offer assistance or cause problems, or natural hazards made more significant by the party’s fatigue and the weight of recovered goods. Harold greets the party in Millfield’s town square with overwhelming relief, fulfilling his promised payment and potentially adding condition bonuses, letters of recommendation, future trade discounts, or modest personal gifts based on the goods’ condition and speed of recovery. Captain Corven’s debrief treats the party’s gathered intelligence seriously, offering letters of commendation, temporary deputy status, and regional law enforcement contacts in recognition of the blow struck against organized crime. Prisoners require disposition decisions with legal and moral implications. Any peaceful resolution with Snaggletooth’s tribe opens ongoing alliance possibilities, while the broader ecological disruption caused by bandit expansion provides a hook for future regional stories. Rewards include the negotiated gold payment, Red Gareth’s Bandana (grants +1 to Intimidation checks against criminals), Snaggletooth’s Bone Necklace (advantage on Charisma checks with goblinoids, grants Goblin language; awarded for peaceful resolution), and Gareth’s Map Case (advantage on Survival navigation checks within 50 miles of Millfield, reveals three hidden supply caches worth 25 gp each).
Release Date: 2025
Format: Digital (PDF)
Items Included
- The Missing Grain Shipment 5E (PDF)
- A B&W Printer-Friendly Version (PDF)
- Maps
- Illustrations (Generated with Midjourney)
- Monster Stat Blocks
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