The Merchant’s Vault: Complete D&D 5e Urban Heist Adventure for 2-3 Players
Looking for a D&D 5e urban heist adventure specifically designed for small groups? The Merchant’s Vault delivers a professionally crafted one-shot optimized for 2-3 players with moral complexity, multiple solutions, and meaningful choices in a complete 2.5-3 hour session. Break into a condemned merchant’s house before dawn demolition, compete with rival thieves for the prize, and discover your employer has been lying about everything. When truth emerges, you decide: complete the job, renegotiate, help your employer seek justice, or betray her for profit.
This D&D 5e urban heist adventure for 2-3 players includes four interconnected pre-generated characters, professional maps and stat blocks, ticking clock mechanics, the Shadowscales thieves guild as complications, and genuine moral choices where every ending feels earned. Perfect for game masters with limited prep time, small groups, couples, testing new players, or convention games.
đź“š Available Now
🏛️ What Makes This D&D 5e Urban Heist Adventure Special
Built for 2-3 Players, No Scaling Required
Most D&D adventures assume 4-5 players, forcing small groups into awkward scaling or DMPC helpers. This D&D 5e urban heist adventure designs specifically for 2-3 players from the ground up. Every encounter balances perfectly. Puzzles account for limited skills. Four pre-generated characters offer mix-and-match combinations—Rogue and Cleric for stealth and support, Fighter and Wizard for combat and magic, or any pairing that matches your playstyle. Small groups finally get an adventure that fits.
Moral Complexity with No “Right” Answer
Lyra Castellan hires you to recover her mother’s wedding ring from the family vault before dawn demolition. Simple job until you discover she’s been lying. The ring is more than sentimental. Her father was murdered. The Shadowscales thieves guild targets the same prize. When you open the lockbox, truth forces choice: complete the contract despite lies, renegotiate for honesty, help Lyra seek justice, or betray her for profit. This urban heist adventure D&D 5e supports all choices with appropriate consequences rather than punishing “wrong” decisions.
Multiple Solutions Reward Your Playstyle
This D&D 5e urban heist adventure provides multiple valid approaches. Stealth specialists infiltrate through careful planning and timing. Combat-focused parties neutralize guards directly. Social characters negotiate and manipulate. Creative problem-solvers use environment and rival thieves as distractions. Every path to success feels equally valid and rewarding.
đź“– Complete Package Includes
Four Pre-Generated Characters with Connected Backstories
Skip character creation and jump straight into the action. This urban heist adventure D&D 5e provides four level 2 characters with interconnected backstories and personal stakes: the Street-Smart Rogue with lockpicking and urban knowledge, the Pragmatic Fighter with tactical expertise and security insider knowledge, the Idealistic Cleric offering healing and moral compass, and the Scholarly Wizard bringing utility magic and puzzle-solving. Each character has personal reasons for accepting the job beyond simple payment.
Professional Maps and Ticking Clock Tension
The adventure includes professional maps for the Castellan house exterior, interior floors, basement vault, and escape routes. Both player and DM versions maintain mystery while providing complete tactical information. The dawn demolition deadline creates genuine urgency—as night progresses toward dawn, demolition crews arrive, Lyra grows desperate, and the Shadowscales accelerate their timeline. Time becomes a character driving action forward.
🎯 Why This D&D 5e Urban Heist Adventure Works
Complete in 2.5-3 Hours with Minimal Prep
This urban heist adventure D&D 5e completes in a single 2.5-3 hour session with realistic pacing: character introduction (15-20 minutes), investigation and planning (30-45 minutes), infiltration (45-60 minutes), vault confrontation (30-45 minutes), and resolution (15-20 minutes). Everything you need appears in 70 pages—stat blocks, maps, NPC motivations, pacing guidance. Read it Thursday night, run confidently Friday evening.
Shadowscales and Lyra’s Lies Create Dynamic Complications
The Shadowscales thieves guild hitting the same house on the same night creates tactical complications. Players might ally with them temporarily, compete directly, eliminate them as rivals, or manipulate them as distractions. The guild remembers how you treat them, creating potential future consequences. Lyra’s gradual revelation—discovered through clues rather than exposition—transforms simple retrieval into complex moral choice about trust, justice, and betrayal.
🎲 Perfect For
Small Groups and Couples: Finally, an adventure designed specifically for 2-3 players without awkward scaling. Perfect encounter balance, intimate storytelling, and meaningful individual choices. Every two-player combination works perfectly.
Time-Pressed Game Masters: 30-minute read provides complete understanding. All stats, maps, and reference materials included. No hunting through multiple books or extensive prep work required.
Testing New Players: Complete story in single session lets new players experience D&D without campaign commitment. Pre-generated level 2 characters eliminate overwhelming creation process while teaching core mechanics.
Convention Games: Reliable 2.5-3 hour runtime fits standard slots. Pre-generated characters enable immediate play. Multiple solutions accommodate diverse player preferences at same table.
đź“š From The Ready Adventure Series
The Merchant’s Vault is Book 5 in The Ready Adventure Series by Tim Mack, specializing in compact adventures designed for small groups and busy schedules. Each adventure provides complete gaming experience in single 2-3 hour session with professional presentation and optimization for 2-3 players.
📦 What’s Included in Your 70-Page Adventure
Four Complete Pre-Generated Characters: Level 2 characters with full stat blocks, equipment, backstories, and personality notes. Each character has personal connection to the mission and balanced capabilities supporting any 2-3 player combination.
Professional Battle Maps: Player and DM versions of the Castellan house exterior, interior floors, basement vault, and escape routes. All maps include scale markings, sight lines, cover positions, and tactical notes.
Complete NPC Stat Blocks: Full statistics for guards, the Shadowscales thieves, Lyra Castellan, and all encounter enemies. No need to reference other books—everything appears in these pages.
Multiple Solution Paths: Detailed guidance for stealth infiltration, combat encounters, social manipulation, and creative problem-solving approaches. DM advice for handling player creativity beyond prescribed paths.
Investigation Resources: Information sources, clues about the true situation, NPC dialogue suggestions, and pacing guidance for the intelligence gathering phase.
Ticking Clock Mechanics: Hour-by-hour tracking system, environmental descriptions showing night progressing toward dawn, and guidance for maintaining tension without arbitrary time limits.
Moral Choice Framework: Four distinct ending paths with mechanical consequences, narrative outcomes, and sequel hooks for each player choice about Lyra’s deception and the mission.
Extensive Appendices: Sequel hooks, variant rules, scaling guidance for different difficulty preferences, and suggestions for incorporating the adventure into ongoing campaigns.
🎯 Break Into The Merchant’s Vault Today
The Castellan house awaits demolition at dawn. Lyra Castellan offers payment for a simple job—recover her mother’s wedding ring from the family vault before the building falls. But simple jobs rarely stay simple.
The Shadowscales thieves guild targets the same prize tonight. The ring holds secrets beyond sentiment. Lyra’s lies will surface when you open the lockbox. When truth emerges, you must decide whose side you’re on.
Will you complete the job as hired, honoring your contract despite deception? Renegotiate for truth and fair payment? Help Lyra seek justice against her father’s murderer? Or betray her entirely, selling the prize to the highest bidder?
This urban heist adventure D&D 5e provides everything needed for memorable gaming: four interconnected pre-generated characters with personal stakes, professional maps showing every tactical detail, complete stat blocks for all encounters, multiple solution paths rewarding your preferred playstyle, genuine moral complexity with no “right” answer, and satisfying conclusion in single 2.5-3 hour session optimized specifically for 2-3 players.
Whether you choose the physical paperback for your gaming shelf or the instant-access ebook, you’ll have a complete adventure ready to run tonight. Small groups finally have an adventure designed for your needs. Read it Thursday, run it Friday. No extensive prep required.
The vault waits in darkness. The clock ticks toward dawn. Rival thieves move through shadows. Your employer’s lies will surface. And your choices will determine how this heist ends. Break into the Castellan house before it’s too late.
The Merchant’s Vault is the ultimate D&D 5e urban heist adventure for 2-3 players combining moral complexity, multiple solutions, and ticking clock tension. Break in before dawn. Discover the lies. Make impossible choices. Your heist begins tonight!