Free D&D One-Shot · Level 1 · 5e Compatible
Free Level 1 D&D One-Shot: The Hollow Scarecrow
A complete 2–3 hour D&D one-shot for 3–5 level 1 characters
Looking for a free D&D one-shot that works for brand-new characters and busy DMs? The Hollow Scarecrow is a printable, ready-to-run 5e adventure for 3–5 level 1 characters, designed to fill a 2–3 hour table slot without extra prep. It includes a clear starting hook, four rural-horror scenes, beginner-friendly challenges, quick NPC stat blocks, a d20 encounter table, rewards, and a follow-up campaign hook. Use it when your group needs a low-level adventure tonight: read the page once, print or copy the notes, and start play without writing monsters, clues, or village rumors from scratch. It also works as a printable first-session backup for school clubs, convention slots, or sudden weeknight games.
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The Hook
In the farming village of Millhaven, scarecrows have been appearing overnight — a new one each morning, always closer to the houses. No villager made them. No one claims them. Last night, one stood outside the miller's door holding a lock of his wife's hair. The mill has been silent ever since.
The party arrives on market day to find stalls half-abandoned and neighbors eyeing the eastern fields. Old Brother Callum, a half-drunk wandering priest, grabs them at the village gate: 'You look like fools with swords. That's exactly what we need. The harvest festival is in two nights and we can't run it with those things standing in the fields. The alderman will pay 50 gold if they're gone. I'll add a bottle of holy water and a prayer. That's generous.'
GM brief: Play this as creeping rural unease — the scarecrows should feel wrong before they are dangerous. The mystery is not whether something is controlling them, but who fed them enough belief to wake up.
Scene 1 — Market Day in Millhaven
Goal: Let players establish the world, gather rumors, and meet the key NPCs before the sun sets.
- A stall-keeper refuses to speak above a whisper after finding the seventh scarecrow at his door this morning.
- Nesta Grain, the miller's wife, appears carrying a covered basket, agitated and refusing to say what's inside.
- The alderman confirms the reward of 50 gp and privately admits one of the scarecrows is wearing his dead father's coat.
Challenge: DC 12 Persuasion or Insight gets Nesta to admit the basket holds the lock of hair the first scarecrow was carrying — and it's not her hair. A second DC 12 Insight reveals she's hiding more.
Scene 2 — Into the Eastern Fields
Goal: Investigate the standing scarecrows and find the clue that leads to the old hay-bale shrine.
- The scarecrows are stitched with human possessions — rings, buttons, shreds of clothing belonging to living villagers.
- Footprints in the mud all lead toward one scarecrow that has no pole; it moves when no one is looking directly at it.
- Examining the stitching reveals a corn-doll pattern matching an old harvest prayer Brother Callum has half-forgotten.
Challenge: DC 14 Perception or Survival to track where the no-pole scarecrow is heading before sunset. Failure means it reaches the village edge and rings the old bell, which grants the Straw King one free attack in Scene 4.
Scene 3 — The Old Straw Shrine
Goal: Discover and secure the shrine before dark, learning who made the bargain and why.
- The shrine is hidden in a barley hollow — a collapsed hut built around a clay effigy wrapped in old straw.
- The effigy has been recently fed: fresh ears of corn, a child's tooth, and a written wish for a 'good harvest no matter the cost.'
- A name has been scratched into the clay and then scoured away; Brother Callum goes pale when he sees the grooves.
Challenge: DC 12 Religion reveals someone invoked a tithe bargain and paid with the village's consent without knowing the spirit would collect it literally. Removing the effigy cleanly requires DC 13 Arcana or Religion; failure causes the surrounding straw to ignite.
Scene 4 — The Straw King Rises
Goal: Stop the Straw King before it collects its final tithe of three named villagers.
- The Straw King assembles from all the scattered scarecrows at the shrine — enormous, slow, and furious.
- It cannot enter consecrated ground; the ruined chapel thirty feet away could be re-consecrated by Brother Callum if the party protects him for two full rounds.
- Burning the original effigy reduces the Straw King to half HP and removes its Regeneration trait.
Challenge: Defeat the Straw King in combat (AC 12, HP 45, Straw Regeneration +5 HP/turn, Fire Vulnerability), consecrate the ground to trap it, or destroy the effigy to weaken it first. Each scarecrow still standing in the fields deals 1d4 psychic damage when it crumbles.
Nesta Grain, Miller's Wife
Frightened woman who made the tithe bargain
AC 10, HP 12, Speed 30 ft., Passive Perception 11
STR 9, DEX 10, CON 11, INT 12, WIS 13, CHA 14
Traits
- Harvest Guilt: Nesta will not leave the village until the Straw King is gone. If confronted with the effigy's wish, she admits everything and leads the party to the shrine.
- Secret: She wrote the wish and placed it at the shrine at dawn six days ago, asking for a good harvest 'no matter the cost.'
Actions
- Heavy Rolling Pin: +2 to hit, 1d4 bludgeoning damage.
Brother Callum, Wandering Priest
Unreliable guide with a key holy power he'd rather not use
AC 11, HP 16, Speed 30 ft., Passive Perception 12
STR 10, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 13, WIS 15, CHA 11
Traits
- Tipsy Theology: When sober (DC 12 Persuasion to get him there), Callum can re-consecrate a space if given 5 minutes and two rounds of uninterrupted prayer.
- Grudging Courage: If a player openly calls him a coward, he steadies himself and acts on that turn with advantage on all checks.
Actions
- Wooden Crook: +3 to hit, 1d6+1 bludgeoning damage.
- Consecrate Ground (1/day, sober only): Creates a 10-ft. radius area the Straw King cannot enter for 10 minutes.
The Straw King
Ancient harvest spirit given form by a tithe bargain
AC 12, HP 45, Speed 30 ft. (shambling), Passive Perception 10
STR 16, DEX 8, CON 14, INT 5, WIS 8, CHA 6
Traits
- Straw Regeneration: Regains 5 HP at the start of its turn unless the original effigy is burning.
- Fire Vulnerability: Takes double damage from fire attacks. Assembled Form: If reduced to 0 HP without fire, it collapses but reassembles at dawn with 10 HP unless the effigy is destroyed.
Actions
- Straw Fist: +4 to hit, 1d8+2 bludgeoning damage.
- Scatter (Recharge 5–6): Each creature within 10 ft. must make a DC 12 Dexterity save or take 2d6 piercing damage from straw shards and be blinded until end of their next turn.
d20 Village Encounter Table
Roll at any point to add texture to Millhaven — or use entries to seed rumors and side-beats.
- A farmer won't stop counting his chickens, convinced one has been replaced.
- The barley loaves taste like straw no matter what you put on them.
- A toddler has named her toy horse after a scarecrow and refuses to give it up.
- The market-bell rang once at midnight; no one went to check why.
- A cart horse refuses to walk down the east road after dark.
- Last year's harvest yield was triple the normal amount, and no one knows why.
- A peddler claims he passed a scarecrow that waved, then ran twenty miles without stopping.
- The village well water tastes sweet in a way that makes no one feel better.
- Three of the scarecrows are wearing hats belonging to people who moved away.
- Someone left an entire wheel of cheese at the old shrine; it was eaten by morning.
- A grandmother insists she recognizes the stitching on one scarecrow — from a quilt she burned years ago.
- Brother Callum keeps losing his flask but finds it full again each morning.
- The village cat follows a particular scarecrow at a cautious distance and won't eat birds anymore.
- A merchant swears one scarecrow blinked when he walked past.
- Children have started drawing scarecrows in the dirt and giving them names.
- The alderman's rooster crows at noon instead of dawn.
- A fence post near the field has been wrapped tightly in straw overnight.
- No crows have come to the fields in six days.
- The blacksmith found corn kernels inside the locked chest where he keeps his tools.
- At sunset, if you squint, the new scarecrows seem to lean slightly toward the shrine.
Rewards
- The Tithe Bead: A smooth bead carved from old bone, found inside the effigy. Once per day, the bearer can declare a small task 'paid in full' to a spirit, gaining advantage on one Persuasion check with supernatural creatures.
- The Alderman's 50 gp reward, paid in silver coins stamped with last year's harvest date.
- Brother Callum's blessing: Each character gains proficiency in one Saving Throw of their choice until their next long rest. Callum grumbles that it won't last, but it does.
Ending Hook
When the Straw King collapses for the last time, a slip of parchment falls from its chest — a deed, not for the Millhaven fields, but for a mill three days east that hasn't appeared on any record for forty years. A crow lands on the ash, picks up the deed in its beak, and flies due east without looking back.
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