The Mystery of Malvern Manor is a short, free adventure by Dan Head, which he posted on his website. It’s taken from his home campaign for his family. Unusually, the first encounter has the party acting as mobsters – they’re sent to break someone’s legs for not paying the local dwarf leader what he is owed! “Fortunately, there’s a pack of worthless adventurers in town.”

This gets the characters into trouble with the local Baron, whose solution is to send the group out of town to deal with Malvern Manor. It’s likely that if you wanted to use this adventure as part of an ongoing campaign, you’d just skip the first encounter and have them be contracted by the Baron, but perhaps you could use it unaltered…

The adventure consists of eight encounters that are placed linearly; two that set up the adventure, two on the road to the Manor, and four in the Manor itself. The adventure is full of combat, with some exploration and interaction. The monsters manage to evoke a sense of strangeness and horror that well sets up the conclusion.

The result is a memorable adventure, despite its brevity. It’s only three pages, but it’s three pages used effectively.