Alice in Wonderland D&D One-Shot (Preview)

Introduction

The Alice in Wonderland book came out about 160 years ago in 1865 and is now one of the best-known works of literature because of it’s fantastic, impossible, yet gripping story that makes you feel like that mad world might actually be real. Too bad you can’t be there, but have to endure another long lecture from your least favorite teacher that seems to drag on forever..
Or do you?

What do you need to know about Alice in Wonderland?

Knowledge of the Alice in Wonderland books or movies is not required, but does gives color to the world through references to known characters.

What do you need to know about Dungeons & Dragons?

You or part of your group need a base understanding of the game, and one needs to be able to be the Dungeon Master.

Available character options

The 3 to 6 characters are school classmates and are normal humans until they gain their level 3 class features during an event in the game. During this event they also each obtain armor with a value of max 400 gp that would give them the highest available AC. Prepare these as you would for any other character sheet. Alternatively they can choose their Class during play, but this would require more preparation during gameplay.

All classes are available, but the race is restricted to Human.

Decide before playing which age the players start as and in which school year and -class. Recommended is about 13-14 years old and in their 8th grade.

Running this one-shot

This one shot covers a lot that might happen during this adventure and goes into detail about how the locations look and feel. Despite that, players tent to do stuff, interact and go to places they are not supposed to. It is your job as the Dungeon Master to fill in gaps where necessary and steer them back towards the story.

The DM should read the full adventure before playing, to be aware of plot points, obstacles and the available spells and prepare accordingly.

Text in colored boxes can be read out loud to the players when the conditions in or above them are met.

Turn on a whimsical background music playlist and let the adventure begin!

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The full Alice in Wonderland D&D one-shot package includes printable documents of:
– An easy access, print ready version of the “Welcome to Wonderland” Dungeons & Dragons one-shot
– 12 designs of playable characters
– Minitures of the creatures in this adventure
– 2 battle maps (also available for digital use)
– 12 Quick start character sheets
All stats, attacks and any further mechanics of this one-shot are available in the product.

It’s the second week after the summer vacation and the sun is beating down on you all through the window that has you locked us here in the back row of the classroom. You are sitting through another long lecture from your least favorite teacher.

Ask the players to introduce their characters and their relationship to each other.

As you are all sitting in the back in the heat of the sun, the teachers voice seems even more monotone as time slowly drags on. After a while it gets even more drawling and dragging by the second until it gets stuck on a single syllable that eventually falls quiet. As you look around you see all movement has halted as well. The teacher is standing stock still instead of pacing back and forth up front, the quivering hand of the nerd in the front seat is pointing straight up and the girl who is always brushing her hair with any stationery she has on hand is frozen halfway through rolling a lock around a multicolored pen. As you are trying to process any of this, a vent cover comes flying off the wall with a “BANG” and in a blur a white rabbit in a waistcoat comes hopping out and leaves through the door to the hallway.

As you follow the rabbit into and through the hallway you don’t really seem to catch up. As you keep going down the hallway first seems to elongate, then get rounder and earthier the further you get through until it suddenly tilts downward, turning it from a hallway into what seems like an endless rabbit-hole that you start falling down. [Wait for reaction] As you are falling through this earthy hole you see that there is no end in sight. There are however several falling objects you are catching up with. Among the random assortment of cabinets, mirrors and hatstands you feel yourself drawn to a collection of faintly glowing objects and you each get a strange urge to take one.

Players can either “feel drawn” to the object that is linked to the class of their choice or pick at random. Either way they gain three levels in the corresponding class.

Barbarian (no armor): Bear’s head hood
Bard: Strange instrument
Cleric: Glowing pendant
Druid: White rose
Fighter: Metal bracers
Monk (no armor): Wooden staff
Paladin: White breastplate
Ranger: Green cloak
Rogue: Black dagger
Sorcerer (no armor): Dragon pendant
Warlock: Black paper contract
Wizard (no armor): “Magic 101” book

As soon you grab your objects you feel complete, like you’ve unlocked some part of yourself that’s been hidden away. Energy and power flows through you and armor forms around you (depending on Class). Although you feel great about this new power, it feels rather short-lived as you see that you are fast approaching a solid looking black-and-white tiled floor. You expect to come down fatally hard but during the last couple feet your clothes seem to catch in the rushing winds and you all softly parachute to the ground. Upon getting your bearings you see you are in a curving hallway that seems to go in a circle. On the inner wall hang a bunch of different medieval weapons, on the outer wall are neon arrows pointing towards a very, very tiny door.

As you start walking through the hallway you are approached from both ends by armored, walking, talking playing-cards. The 3 [only 1 if there are 4 or 5 PC’s] coming from the right (clockwise) are about your size, but the 1 [or 2 if there are 4+ PC’s] on the left (counter-clockwise) tower[s] over you. They all have their spears ready and are coming at you fast.
Roll for initiative!

At the start the PC’s are 2 sizes larger that the door, the same size as the medium card(s) and a size smaller than the other card(s). Every circle a PC goes through the hallway makes them a size smaller when they go clockwise or a size larger when they go anti-clockwise. The small door is locked, but it can be kicked in with a DC of 20 when they are the same size as it. The DC lowers by 5 for each size they are bigger than the door.

Playing Card – Construct

Enemy stats, attacks and further mechanics are available in the full one-shot.

Large Playing Card – Construct

Enemy stats, attacks and further mechanics are available in the full one-shot.

As you step through the door you enter a huge open landscape near a small creek and at the edge of the woods. Behind the door frame you came out of you see no wall or building, but only a wide open horizon with hilltops in beautiful colors. This would be a peaceful and lovely scenery were it not for the wide cracks that seem to break the world apart and a dark smoke cloud darkening the sky. You see that the blackness is originating as a black plume of smoke from a point about an hour walk into the woods. In front of this apocalyptic view you see the white rabbit in a waistcoat. He now seems about the same size as you, or you might be the same size as him.

As the rabbit hears you open the door you see him turn towards you in surprise, approach you slowly and say in a nervous voice: “You.. you made it in. Then there might be hope after all.” For a moment he seems lost in thought, but then he composes himself, straightens up and says: “I’m guessing you heard all about this place and Alice’s adventures. I’m sorry you have to see it in this state. Wonderland is falling apart.. (in breaking voice) it’s dying. The sky is blackening and the ground is breaking. I fear the end is near, but I am powerless to stop it. But I hope that you are the change needed to cure Wonderland, to set things right. It was written that when one human marks the downfall of Wonderland, only others have the hope of setting things right. Will you be our heroes in our time of need?

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The white rabbit wants them going to the base of the black cloud to solve whatever is affecting Wonderland. He doesn’t know how to get out of Wonderland, opportunities just present themselves when the time is right.

After a half-hour walk of carefully navigating around the cracks you see a dark shape among the trees. The first detail you spot are small shiny eyes above two huge, bared teeth. [Wait for reaction] As he steps into the light you see that the teeth are the tusks of a large, heavyset, well-dressed walrus. With a deep and drawling voice he says “Ah, hello there travelers. How do you do? Do you happen to have any tasty morsels on you? I am absolutely famished! Maybe some oysters, clams or a memory you don’t need anymore? They taste quite similar you know. And I’ve got some lovely goodies to trade for them.” As he says that he takes a rolled-up handkerchief out of his pocket and rolls it out on the ground. As it rolls out you see some peculiar looking items laying on it. A tiny frog, a wet blanket, a stick next to some mud, a steaming teacup with swirling tea in it, a cucumber and a glass bottle with a flashing light inside.

Item descriptions and stats are available in the full one-shot.
The Walrus only wants preciously good or bad memories. If a player offers up a memory the Walrus asks them to think about it hard as he blow in one of their ears, causing a sort of grey walnut to fly out of the other ear. The Walrus will then go after it and eat it in a single bite. The memory will be completely wiped from the player’s memory and the Walrus will give them the item they bargained for. He will flee when attacked.

When they keep going:
As you keep walking towards your target you see a cloud of inky blackness wafts down and lands around you, enveloping your party. All you can see now is each other and the ground beneath your feet.

When they walk/explore:
The smoke surrounding you seems moving with you where-ever you go. It’s seems to go on without end but after some walking you see a door made of black smoke in a wall of smoke. The only reason you saw it was because of the silver lining surrounding it and it’s keyhole. You also see that with a small ‘pop’ a golden key with big eyes and two spindly legs appears in front of you. It looks at your group and with another ‘pop’ it teleports on top of [random player’s] head.

Puzzle details and mechanics are available in the full one-shot.

When they try to open the smoke door:
You go to the door of smoke and notice that it wasn’t locked. With a small push the smokey door swings open and you step out into the bright light. There is only a small, shrinking black cloud behind you, but where it has touched the ground there is no life left. The grass is shriveled up and the ground is colorless. For a fraction of a second before the cloud fully disappears you see a big, toothy grin, and then it is gone. As you look ahead you see that you are now quite close to the column of smoke. It seems to be coming from a small clearing in the woods. A clearing in which you see a huge, flying, purple-and-pink cat with 3 marbles floating around him. It is leaving behind a trail of black smoke that is wafting off of him. With a manic look in it’s eyes it shouts: “How did this happen?! Why can I smile and talk, disappear and go headless!? What is happening? None of this makes any sense! I wish Alice would never have given me back my MARBLES!!!”.

As soon as he spots you he gets a manic look in his eye and softy growls [angrily] “New humans? We’ll help you find your way” as he splits into a pink and a black version of himself which both go invisible. Roll for initiative.

The pink Cheshire cat has 3 marbles floating around him. As an action a PC can attempt to catch a marble with a DC 15 Dexterity check or hit it away by equalling or exceeding a 15 AC. The battle ends if the marbles are taken (and preferably destroyed or lost) or if the pink Cheshire cat is knocked out. But at the end of each round the cats pull the black smoke around themselves and heal back up to full HP.

Cheshire Cat – Medium Fey

Enemy stats, attacks and further mechanics are available in the full one-shot.

When the marbles are destroyed or “lost”
The manic look goes out of the Cheshire cat’s eye and a grin spreads across his face. He takes a deep breath like he can finally breathe again and the black cat dissipates. You see that he no longer gives off black smoke and the sky above him slowly begins to clear up. He does a few loops in the air and then finally addresses you. “Thank you. My sanity drove me positively insane. I bet my actions while having my marbles together gave me a bit of a bad name. Speaking of which, what are yours?”

After some back and forth conversation
The cat continues with “Well, thanks again for turning me back to loopy” as he is making loopings and pirouettes around you. The air here is clearing up, but behind him in the background you see multiple other black plumes of smoke starting. He follows your gaze and worriedly says: “Oh dear, that is not good.. I shall continue what you started here and try to put everything right. You inspired me. You gave me such courage that I’m now only scared of never being afraid ever again”. More sincerely he floats towards you as he says “But I fear your time in Wonderland is over for now. It is not wise for humans to linger in Wonderland too long. Can I call you back here if I need back-up? I mean, if you’re not scaredy cats” [wait for response] “We’ll see, but until then I think it best that you wake up.” The world around you starts spinning violently. Spinning faster and faster as those last words repeat over and over again. “Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up…”. And then suddenly you awake in the back of the classroom with the teacher in front of you saying: “Wake up! I know my subject might not be the most exciting, but to have all of you fall asleep is absolutely unacceptable!”. The speech goes on for a while longer while the memories you’ve made in Wonderland seem more and more like a collective dream, but the adventure will stay with you forever.

Alice in Wonderland D&D One-Shot (Preview) – Welcome to Wonderland

Introduction

What do you need to know about Alice in Wonderland?

What do you need to know about Dungeons & Dragons?

Available character options

Running this one-shot

Enjoying this preview?

Playing Card – Construct

Large Playing Card – Construct

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Cheshire Cat – Medium Fey

The End

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