Looking for good short scenarios/encounters/one night mini-adventures

[Mercurius]

Books or PDFs are fine. Basically I'm looking for stuff to plop into the middle of a game, something a bit more than a wandering monster but less than a full-blown adventure or large location. Say the PCs are on the road and they see a circle of megaliths with strange lights coming from it; they go to investigate and stumble upon a group of priests preparing to sacrifice a fair elf maiden to their dark god; or say they stumble upon a ruined farm house and hear groaning in the basement...what lies beneath? Or maybe the stumble upon a small broken tower in the books, inhabited by a mama wyvern and her babies.

That sort of thing. Now I realize that the above examples are basically fleshed out wandering monsters, but I'm interested in resources where they're already fleshed out for you. I'm going to be playing Next, but any edition is fine. What do you recommend?

 

[steeldragons]

Might want to give this a looksee. 11 mini-adventures just waiting to be used.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1060769.Adventure_Pack_1

 

[gamerprinter]

I wrote Haiku of Horror: Autumn Moon Bath House specifically under the premise you are asking - granted it's set in a Japanese bath house which might be a stretch depending on what setting you are playing in. Think of it as a roadside tavern with a bathing facility, as they are considered in Japan (Kaidan). This product is 19 pages long in content, with complete maps for a five story structure, basic NPCs running the place and attendants, each with their own specific agenda. Its not really an adventure so much as an adventure location, or a very extended encounter. There are 3 haunts, a ghost and a curse. Not knowing what level a given adventure party visiting this bath house, the ghost come pre-statted in CRs from 2 - 22, so as a threat it should be able to meet hardily any adventuring group that encounters her. (its $2.99 on DTRPG)

Frozen Wind is another Kaidan one-shot, but this one is FREE, though available as a $7.50 POD print, if you want. If your party is traveling on a mountain road and encounters a freak snowstorm forcing them to find shelter, this is a high mountain monastery waiting to give you respite. Of course things go completely wrong once the party reaches this safe haven...

Rite Publishing's Kaidan setting has 2 more one-shot adventures, but they are really built for the pre-gens for very specific kinds of unique adventures set in Kaidan. Not that they are not fun to play, but aren't like quick stop-over encounters, like you are asking for. They fit a different purpose...

 

[Rune]

You could do worse than checking out the Iron DM Anthology. Lots of short adventures and scenarios selected from a decade of competitions specifically for their ease of use and awesomeness.

 

[Gilladian]

I'd go find the "One Page Dungeon" contest entries and download them. Many are simple enough to insert in about any campaign, though most need a couple of hours of work to tailor to a setting and fine tune. http://www.onepagedungeon.info/one-page-dungeon-contest-2013

There is also a whole bunch of "5 room dungeons" around somewhere. Ah, here: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeons/

Again, they may require a little fleshing out but are often very fun and quick. Including the 2 I wrote!

 

[gamerprinter]

I'd go find the "One Page Dungeon" contest entries and download them. Many are simple enough to insert in about any campaign, though most need a couple of hours of work to tailor to a setting and fine tune. http://www.onepagedungeon.info/one-page-dungeon-contest-2013

There is also a whole bunch of "5 room dungeons" around somewhere. Ah, here: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeons/

Again, they may require a little fleshing out but are often very fun and quick. Including the 2 I wrote!

I got a necromancer's lair among the 2009 OPDC maps (not a winner though, still a good one).