The Extraction Job: A Morally Complex D&D 5e One-Shot for Small Groups

A simple retrieval job. Three days in the swamp. What could go wrong? The Extraction Job drops your party into a morally complex D&D one-shot where the mission briefing tells you one story and the truth tells another. The Mechanist Guild hires your party to recover a mysterious power source from a temple deep in the Veiled Marsh. A research team found it three weeks ago, then went silent. Your job seems straightforward: find out what happened, grab the asset, get out before the full moon. This 2.5-3 hour adventure for 2-3 players at level 2 delivers an impossible choice where every option has consequences—and there is no right answer, only the one your players can live with.

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🐸 When the Contract Becomes a Crisis of Conscience

Three Endings, No Easy Answers

The Extraction Job isn’t about fighting the big bad and collecting your reward. It’s about discovering that the “asset” you were sent to retrieve is actually a transdimensional tadpole—the Cradleborn—preparing to hatch into the swamp’s guardian deity. The missing researchers aren’t dead. They chose to merge with it, their peaceful faces visible beneath the glowing waters of a sacred pool.

Now your players face an impossible decision with three distinct paths. They can complete the contract, taking the Cradleborn to the Guild and dooming the swamp to a slow death over the coming decades. They can protect the sacred pool, defending the temple against a mercenary backup team until moonrise allows the hatching. Or they can destroy everything, killing the Cradleborn and facing the consequences from both the dying swamp and the furious grung tribes.

Each path plays differently at the table. The extraction becomes a desperate escape through a hostile swamp with precious cargo. The defense becomes a tactical holdout against professional killers. The destruction path becomes a nightmare gauntlet as the ecosystem collapses around the fleeing party. Your players choose their story, and the adventure delivers the consequences.

Moral Complexity That Creates Memorable Sessions

This adventure explores themes that stick with players long after the session ends. The Mechanist Guild views the swamp as a resource to be harvested while the grung view it as sacred ground. The absorbed researchers weren’t victims—they found peace and made a choice. The party starts as agents of exploitation and must decide whether they’ll stay that way.

The “right” answer doesn’t exist here. Taking the job means betraying something innocent. Breaking the contract means making powerful enemies. The destruction path satisfies neither faction and leaves the party carrying the memory of a psychic scream asking “Why?” These impossible choices create the kind of table discussions players remember for years.

🗺️ A Living Swamp That Breathes and Reacts

Environmental Storytelling Through Contrast

The Veiled Marsh isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a character. The journey begins in overwhelming life: birds exploding from the canopy, insects droning in clouds, fish leaping, something large pacing the striders beneath the murky water. The grung guides navigate paths invisible to outsider eyes, around sinkholes and beneath natural tunnels formed by root systems.

This vibrancy makes the temple approach deeply unsettling without a single monster encounter. The birds vanish. The insect chorus fades. The water becomes still as glass. Even the air feels different—heavy, expectant, like the moment before thunder. The swamp has become a tomb, and your players will feel it.

After the final choice, the environment reflects the consequences. If they protected the Cradleborn, birdsong returns to places that had fallen silent. If they took or destroyed it, the swamp begins its slow death—haze forming over the marsh, dead zones spreading, grung refugees appearing in distant cities. The world responds to player choices in ways that matter.

Grung Tribes Add Depth and Consequence

Two grung tribes inhabit this region, and how players interact with them shapes the finale. The Rootwalkers serve as professional guides—paid contractors who know more than they’re saying. The Mirewalkers are a rival tribe with a history of violence against the Rootwalkers.

Early in the adventure, players witness Mirewalkers fighting for their lives against crocodiles. The Rootwalker guides refuse to help their enemies. If players intervene, they earn a life debt that pays off spectacularly in Act 4—either as a guide through the hostile swamp during extraction or as an additional warrior during the temple defense. If they watch and wait, they make enemies who remember the faces of those who let them die.

⚔️ Tactical Encounters Built for Small Groups

Combat Designed for 2-3 Players

Every encounter in The Extraction Job was built specifically for small parties, not scaled down from content designed for larger groups. The vegepygmy scavengers at the abandoned camp can be fought or convinced to leave with the right approach. The temple traps—including a classic rolling boulder moment and a rising water chamber—create tension through environmental pressure rather than overwhelming enemy numbers.

The finale varies dramatically based on player choice. The mercenary assault during the defense path pits the party against a veteran leader, professional thugs, and potentially a Guild healer—with grung allies fighting alongside them if they earned that loyalty. The extraction escape throws waves of swamp creatures at a party trying to protect precious cargo through hostile territory. Each scenario rewards different tactics and party compositions.

Traps That Challenge Without Frustrating

The temple includes three distinct traps that create genuine tension while remaining fair. A door puzzle based on the frog life cycle rewards players who investigated the research camp. A rolling boulder trap becomes a cinematic Indiana Jones moment rather than a gotcha. A rising water chamber tests coordination as players must find and activate two mechanisms simultaneously while the water climbs toward the ceiling.

Each trap has multiple solutions. Players can spot them in advance, disable them with the right skills, or simply survive them through quick thinking. The research team’s notes provide clues that make observant players feel rewarded without making the traps trivial for those who missed them.

📦 Everything You Need to Run Tonight

Complete Package for Zero-Prep Sessions

The Extraction Job includes everything a DM needs to run this adventure with minimal preparation. Complete NPC statistics cover the grung guides, mercenary team, and all creatures encountered. Custom stat blocks for the Cradleborn, grung warriors, and mangrove strider mounts provide unique enemies and allies. Four pre-generated characters—a goblin ranger, firbolg cleric, tiefling fighter, and tortle rogue—allow immediate play without character creation.

Player handouts include the mission briefing, Maren’s journal entries revealing the truth about the research team, the door puzzle solution for players who investigated thoroughly, and a hand-drawn map to the temple. Location descriptions provide enough detail to run each scene while leaving room for DM improvisation.

Scaling Guidelines for Different Groups

While designed for 2-3 players at level 2, the adventure includes scaling adjustments for different party sizes. Encounter difficulty modifications ensure combat remains challenging without becoming deadly. The grung ally system provides built-in support for parties that need it—players who helped the Mirewalkers effectively gain an additional party member for the finale.

🎭 Perfect For

Small groups tired of rebalancing content designed for larger parties will find an adventure built from the ground up for 2-3 players.

DMs who want moral complexity without railroad endings can present players with genuinely difficult choices where every path leads somewhere interesting.

Tables seeking memorable one-shots that generate discussion long after the dice stop rolling will find an adventure built around an impossible decision.

Busy DMs with limited prep time get complete stat blocks, pre-generated characters, and player handouts ready to use immediately.

Groups exploring darker themes including colonialism, consent, and professional ethics will find mature content handled thoughtfully with appropriate warnings.

📚 Part of The Ready Adventure Series

The Extraction Job joins The Ready Adventure Series—complete one-shot adventures designed for small groups with minimal preparation. Each adventure in the series runs in 2-3 hours, works for 2-3 players, and delivers the kind of memorable moments that players discuss for years. Find the complete series at anvilnink.com/adventures or search “Anvil & Ink” on Amazon.

🐊 Some Jobs Cost You Sleep

The Mechanist Guild pays well and asks no questions about methods. The grung guides know more than they’re saying. The swamp holds a secret that changes everything. Your players have three days to complete a simple retrieval job—and the rest of their lives to live with what they choose.

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The Extraction Job is a morally complex D&D 5e one-shot that delivers impossible choices, meaningful consequences, and unforgettable swamp adventure for small groups in a single 2.5-3 hour session.