by Dave Kot, MS

Introduction

I’ve spent much of my professional life thinking about grief. Like a parasite, it drains strength from people who still need to function and make life decisions. Over the last several years, I’ve become increasingly convinced that tabletop roleplaying games offer a uniquely accessible way to explore grief without forcing disclosure, diagnosis, or performance. Like games, grief can be shared; more importantly, grief coping skills can be taught and transferred to a receptive group.

This post is the first in a short series of intentionally designed tabletop adventures structured around the five commonly referenced stages of grief. I do not suppose Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages as a rigid model of how people should grieve, but rather as a shared cultural language that can be explored metaphorically and safely within groups.

I’m using EZD6, a minimalist fantasy roleplaying game by DM Scotty, because its design emphasizes player choice (“agency”) and emotional pacing over mechanical complexity. You don’t need to know the rules to follow along, but for context: EZD6 resolves most actions with a single six-sided die, rewards creativity and teamwork, but avoids long character advancement arcs. Based on convention experience, EZD6 remains fast, flexible, and well-suited to short, complete story experiences.

What follows is Adventure One: Denial.

TEARS FOR BALDUR: DENIAL

An original mythic EZD6 adventure of grief and misdirected action

Designed in the spirit of Sly Flourish’s Lazy RPG principles: Memorable scenes, strong character motivations, and flexible outcomes with many possible player-driven solutions.

ADVENTURE SUMMARY

Baldur the Beautiful is dead. The gods mourn, but fate resists interference. Thor calls the heroes to hunt the giantess Pokk, the only being who refused to weep for Baldur’s passing, and to extract some measure of compassion from her. What begins as a righteous quest becomes an exploration of denial, repetition, and the cost of acting without honoring loss.

This adventure represents Stage One: Denial in a five-stage grief cycle campaign. Characters can plan against mythology or escalate non-player character tensions, but true progress only comes through attention and responsibility.

Time: 3 hours            Party Size: 3–5 heroes        Tone: Mythic, wintry, quietly unsettling

STRONG START: THE DREAM OF DEATH

Begin in the action.

The heroes find themselves inside a dwarven burial mound, fighting tough cannibalistic barbarians amid shattered stone and ancient bones. The chamber wall opens into a cliff face, with a small village below. Roll initiative immediately.

Moments later, the heroes fall. Darkness. Cold.

Thor appears, grim and restrained. He explains this was a dream-death, a glimpse of forces beyond mortal control. He names Pokk’s last known location and swears he cannot interfere again without upsetting the fragile balance of life and death. Instead, Thor gifts the heroes a steel Warhammer. “Give it to Pokk. She will remember this steel and its promise.” His declaration suggests this weapon is not intended to be used offensively, but as a symbolic and meaningful trade. It functions as a +1 magical Warhammer for those using it.

The heroes awaken in the mortal realm, healed, shaken, and remembered as survivors of an ambush that never quite happened.

GM Note: Do not explain everything. Let confusion and partial memory linger.

IMPORTANT NPCS AND FACTIONS

Thor

• Motivated by grief and restraint.
• Provides initial adventure direction in the first ten minutes, then withdraws.
• Will not intervene again, except by Miracles.

The Valley Shieldmaiden (Village Leader)

• Respected, pitied, and emotionally isolated.
• Suffers survivor’s guilt after her sisters’ deaths.
• Hypervigilant trainer of the village militia; great medic!
• Believes she is being punished for cowardice and denied Valhalla.

If supported by the heroes, she fights to live. If not, she will seek martyrdom in Room Four.

The Hunters

• Tracking what they (correctly) believe are werewolves.
• Over-equipped with silver and enchanted weapons and monster knowledge Boons.
• Correct about danger, wrong about its nature (Cult of Fenris or the Wererat plague are worse threats).

THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE: Veil Valley

A fishing settlement living beneath a cliffside dwarven crypt.

• Weapons forged here grant a Boon to melee.
• Wolves’ tracks are heavy tonight; travel is discouraged.
• Rumors of monsters, traps failing, and hunters falling mysteriously ill.

Ignoring the warnings about wolf tracks at midnight will trigger a fast, loud bandit ambush on the mountain path to Room 1. This fight should feel urgent but uncomplicated.

THE FIVE-ROOM DUNGEON

The dwarven crypt is a place of memory, not conquest.

ROOM 1: THE WATCHFUL SISTERS

Four dwarven shieldmaiden spirits sit amid snow-choked rubble, drinking steaming tea. If acknowledged and shown proper respect, a large stone slab grinds against the floor in a hallway into the next room(s).

• Attacked or insulted: snow collapses the entrance,
• After digging out, the heroes find the dwarves are seated again, unfazed.
• They crave company and tell rambling stories; each modeled after a Golden Girls.

Clue 1: “Pokk hates being watched while she works.”
Quest: A rare bioluminescent mushroom for Remembrance Tea.

SECRET ROOM: MISREAD THREATS

Wererats interrogate a wizard caught warning villages of their coming plague swarm.

• The wererats escape regardless, retreating into cavern cracks into the outside.
• The warning is incomplete and easy to dismiss, given his injuries and befuddled state of mind after relentless questioning and nibbles.
• The Wizard, Hrothgar the Grave-Caller, worships Baldur (now dead), and can teach another Wizard, Skald, or Friar a simple Necromancy school spell, written on a Scroll.

ROOM 2: THE SLIDE

A steep 60’ chute drops the heroes into waist-high mud.

• One dexterity-related save per hero.
• A tired NPC, Hårfagra offers practical help, although also stuck waist-deep in an icy muddy pit after failing her dice check. She is a Warden, tracking prints through a cavern pass. Her finely woven hair rope is her most important item, useful for climbing out of the pits.
• Drek lurking here, collecting (not the right kind of) mushrooms, may ambush lazy characters.

ROOM 3: THE LOOPING HALL

Broken dwarven statues and glowing fungi light this chamber, with a shadow-casting torch at the far door exit.

• Leaving resets the room, going from Room 3 back into Room 3; think: Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s film.
• Deathlurkers prowl, acting only if the heroes try to leave the room without giving the statues attention.
• These are the mushrooms sought by the dwarven shieldmaiden guards, and they feel warm to the touch; simply touching these mushrooms will restore (maximum) 1 Strike per character.

Progress requires cleaning and repairing the statues.

Clue 2: The dead respond to care, not force.

SIDE ROOM: THE QUIET

An empty chamber. Old carvings. Wind through stone. Let the players rest here and reflect.

ROOM 4: THE CLIFF CHAMBER

Pokk (Loki in disguise) stands among ruins open to the sky. A few stone sarcophagi lie closed, and their residents never animated. The village lies below the cliffside.

She reveals prophecy: Baldur must remain in the underworld to inherit the next world after Ragnarök. This is rooted in myth, twisted in interpretation for Loki’s thematic game use.

• Two stone-bone guardians attack, similar to the initial scenario. One carries a large steel axe, and the other pummels characters with his bare fists. The second bone guardian, a carved dwarven hero, will accept Thor’s Warhammer; both statues will stand down.
• The shieldmaiden arrives to aid in her own way, based on past heroic interventions or support of her leadership role.
• Pokk becomes disinterested when there is too much attention given to this forgotten crypt. She may even reveal how the entrance guardians were never relieved of their post; who mourns them?

Pokk leaves when someone assumes responsibility for the ancestral dead.Clue 3: Denial ends when duty is claimed.

ROOM 5: THE ARMORY OF REMEMBRANCE

Supplies meant for crypt guardians on duty.

• Items are named and worn, not cursed. Oaths are carved onto fine metals.
• A wandering bear rummages peacefully. They can be lured by food easily.
• Make it clear: Dwarves would cry “graverobber” if these items were taken without being offered. If the heroes have tea with the guardian dwarves from Room 1 using the special mushrooms, they will allow ONE magical dwarven forged weapon or armor to manifest for the party, although it needn’t be dwarf-only use.

Life has returned.

RESOLUTION

Pokk escapes. Baldur remains dead. The world does not reset.

But the dead are honored, the living accept responsibility, and denial loosens its grip.Award Hero Dice or a small Advantage to mark integration, not victory.

REFLECTION AND INVITATION

I didn’t design this adventure to teach players how to grieve “correctly.” I designed it to let grief exist at the table without being solved or minimized. Denial is often functional before it becomes harmful, and I wanted that tension to be felt rather than explained.

In the next installment, I’ll be exploring Anger and how blame escalates situations, and righteous certainty can feel empowering while quietly increasing harm. If you’re interested in therapeutic game design, EZD6, or the intersection of myth and mental health, I invite you to follow along.

If you run this adventure or adapt it, I’d genuinely like to hear what emerges at your table.