Diamonds in the Rough | An Original One-Shot for D&D 5e

About the adventure

Dark clouds loom in the skies over the mining towns of the Laspian Hills, where walled and guarded villages dot the once-green landscape. These mining towns provide the most precious resource in the nation of Adamas: diamonds. As such, travel in and out of these villages is limited to the official caravans of Aeristers-- government treasurers-- that carry the diamonds and coal (but mostly coal, these days) produced in the hills to the capital in Pleonexia, and communication between the ordinary working folk of each town is next to impossible, save for messages passed by the firebrand resistance network known as the Ashen Tide. The diamond trade is the beating heart of Adamas, but that heartbeat is growing fainter. The government began its regime with a golden era of divine magic, health, and resurrection, but that gilt is beginning to crumble. The folk of the Laspian Hills were promised that any injury or ailment they acquired while working in the mines could be cured if they simply found enough of that precious rock... but no miner, old or young, has hit diamond in decades. A month ago, a message went out through the Ashen Tide network that diamonds had been found deep in the mines of the small Laspian village of Zarpeska. The Tide intended to rebel against the government's Aeristers in Zarpeska and hold the diamonds as a bartering chip to improve conditions in the region, but ever since the first missive went out, Zarpeska has gone dead silent. You will play a group of level 7 adventurers who signed up with the to infiltrate Zarpeska, investigate the mines, and report back to the Ashen Tide... after stealing the diamonds right out from under the nose of the Aeristers, of course. You could be a true blue revolutionary, an ordinary laborer who turned to criminal activity as a last resort to feed their family when their paycheck slowed down, a wandering outlaw or thief with a thirst for coin (and a cut of the diamonds you discover), a spy for the Aeristers, or anything else that suits your fancy and ties you in to the adventure. It's up to you! SOME THEMES INCLUDE: - Antifascism - Anti-industrialism - Espionage - Folk horror - And shiny, shiny rocks