Mama Said Knock You Out
A Mother's Day Themed, Family-Friendly D&D Adventure
This adventure is intended for up to 4 characters of 1st to 3rd level. This adventure relies heavily on skill challenges, role-playing, and has the option for PVP combat. This is an urban obstacle course. Numerous challenges are available in addition to combat, survival hurdles, and role-playing opportunities.
Adventure Hook
Every Mother’s Day, the village of Greenspire hosts the Gauntlet of Gratitude—a (usually) lighthearted obstacle course designed by the Retired Adventuring Moms Guild (RAMG). In years past, it featured foam swords, inflatable gelatinous cubes, and an alarming number of baked goods.
But this year’s Gauntlet? It’s serious business.
The final trial has been upgraded into a full-fledged rite of passage for the village’s aspiring young heroes—teens eager to prove they’re ready for life on the road. And the stakes? The top three finishers earn their choice of one item from the RAMG’s dusty-but-powerful vault of hand-me-down gear (see “Mom’s Treasury” below).
Naturally, no RAMG trial would be complete without:
Sassy moms yelling unsolicited advice from the sidelines,
Real, enchanted traps (“It builds character, sweetie!”),
And a final boss fight against The Laundry Golem—a stinking, sock-stuffed monstrosity that sprays sticky, foul-smelling goo in a 15-foot cone.
Can you make it through the trials, survive the mom-grade chaos, and earn the approval of a generation that once wrestled mind flayers before breakfast?
Party Goals
Compete against a contingent of NPC’s and each other to survive and make it into the top 3 finishers. If the characters finish in the top 5, the Retired Adventuring Moms Guild will certify them ready to set off on the road to adventure. If the fail, well there’s always next year.
The Gauntlet of Gratitude: Trials
Each trial is a skill challenge. Players must accumulate a number of successes to pass and score points, often while moving through a timed obstacle area. The PCs can assist one another or work independently, depending on your party makeup.
Trial 1: The Hall of Hovering Chores
“If you can doge a bucket, you can dodge a dragon!”
Setup: The massive festival hall is magically enchanted with floating chore-based hazards—levitating laundry baskets, animated dust bunnies, flying brooms and buckets of soapy water. Characters must navigate this cleaning themed obstacle course while dodging, fighting and dispelling the magical obstacles in a timed race. The characters get to choose 1 ring from a large box of rings prior to starting the race.
Skill Check Options:
The characters can choose from one of the following to navigate this challenge. The characters have up to 9 rounds to get through the challenge. If the characters advance 9 rounds worth of movement or accumulate 5 successes, they complete the challenge.
DC for this challenge is 12.
- Dexterity (Acrobatics) – Duck and weave between floating buckets of soapy water to avoid being knocked prone.
- Critical Success: The character gets advantage on the next skill challenge.
- Success: The player is able complete 1 rounds of movement.
- Fail: Knocked prone. The character looses 1 round of movement.
- Critical Fail: The character is knocked prone and is stunned until the end of their next turn. The player looses 2 rounds of movement.
- Intelligence (Arcana or Investigation) – Dispel magical murderous laundry baskets using one of the rings found in a large box of rings (mostly non-magical).
- Critical Success: the character chose a ring of Dispel Magic with 1d4 +1 charges.
- Success: The character chose a ring of Dispel Magic with 1 charge and can use it to get avoid a bucket avoiding being delayed by one of the buckets.
- Fail: The character chose a normal ring and looses 1 round of movement.
- Critical Fail: The character finds a cursed ring that cause them to move at half speed for the rest of this trial.
- Strength (Athletics) – Wrestle a laundry basket that’s actively trying to eat them or another character.
- Critical Success: The character wrestles the laundry basket. If they are defending themselves, they get +1 rounds of movement. If they are defending another character, both characters advance at normal movement.
- Success: The character defends themselves and advances at normal movement.
- Fail: The character wrestles with the laundry basket and looses 1 round of movement.
- Critical Fail: The laundry basket eats the character, then spits them out. The character looses 2 rounds of movement during the fight.
- Charisma (Persuasion or Performance) – Convince an NPC to help.
- Critical Success: Both characters advance 2 rounds of movement.
- Success: Both character advance 1 round of movement.
- Fail: Both characters loose 1 round of movement.
- Critical Fail: The NPC sabotages the character and they loose 2 round of movement.
Complication (Chase-style): Every 3 rounds, a random hazard appears:
- 1–2: Sudden soap spill → DC 13 Dex save or prone.
- 3–4: Dust bunny swarm → Disadvantage on one skill check.
- 5–6: Hovering mom illusion → “You call that folding?” → DC 12 Wis save or get disadvantage on the next skill check).
Success: The characters that make it through in the allotted time. Characters get 5 points + for each turn under 9 they used.
Failure: Characters that fail to make it through the obstacle course in the allotted 9 rounds receive 0 points for the challenge.
Trial 2: Snack Table Showdown
“No one moves on an empty stomach, darling. That’s how you get hangry.”
Setup: A banquet hall-sized snack table. Characters must grab the correct enchanted snack items (based on flavor/color/scent clues) and dodge mimic versions disguised as cookies, pies, or casseroles. Characters must accumulate 2 success before 2 failures (best of 3).
DC for this challenge is 12.
Choice of Skills for Challenge:
- Wisdom (Perception) – Identify which snacks are safe to eat.
- Success: The character identifies a safe cupcake, recognizing it as one of their favorites from the local bakery.
- Fail: The character reaches for a tasty looking confection only to be bitten by a mimic.
- Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) – Nab the correct treat before it bites back.
- Success: As the character reaches for a piece of a piece of fruit, a swarm of baby mimics disguised as grapes lunges forward, but the character is able to snatch an orange before they can bite.
- Fail: The character reaches for a piece of fruit from the table only to find that it is sticky… a small ooze sticks to their fingers causing them to sting. Grabbing a napkin, the character is able to remove the ooze.
- Constitution (Save) – Survive sampling a candy that is made magically supper spicy with Prestidigitation.
- Success: As the character studies the tray of chocolate treats carefully, they grab a caramel and eat it. To their great relief it is tasty and sweet.
- Fail: At the character studies the tray of chocolate treats carefully, they grab a chocolate truffle. To their great surprise, their tasty treat rapidly turns extremely spicy. One of the moms hands the character a glass of milk saying, “This will help honey.”
- Charisma (Deception) – Trick the mimics into eating each other.
- Success: The character gets an idea and points at one of the other contestants and yells, “Hey, he can’t do that!” several of the mimics on the table open the eyes and begin fighting one another for treats in their general area.
- Failure: The character gets an idea and points at one of the other contestants and yells, “Hey, he can’t do that!” several of the mimics on the table open the eyes and begin to chase the PC.
Complication:
- Mimic Snack Swarm: On any critical failure, a swarm of mimics (2d4+2) attacks (AC 12, 5 HP).
- Overbearing Auntie: “You look too thin!” — a magically persistent illusion forces a DC 13 Int save or takes your turn to feed you cake.
Scoring: Characters get -1 to their score for each failure and +2 to their score for each success.
Trial 3: The Gauntlet Gauntlet
“Oh look, it’s the gauntlet I used to punch that lich down in Lanklore.”
Setup: A chase-style obstacle course with muddy pools, spinning platforms, swinging ropes, obstacle walls, an enchanted mirror, and magical distractions.
DC for this challenge is 12.
Skills Challenge Suggestions:
- Dexterity (Acrobatics) – traverse the balance beam without falling into the muddy water.
- Critical Success: Advantage on the next obstacle.
- Success traverse the balance beam in 1 turn.
- Fail: the character falls off the beam and must go back and try again.
- Critical Fail: the character falls and gets the wind knocked out of them. Stunned until the end of their next turn.
- Intelligence (History) – Answer “Back in My Day” trivia to get past the one of the moms.
- Critical Success: The character realized the question might be a clue to another challenge on the course. Advantage on the next challenge.
- Success: The character is allowed to pass. The proceed as usual on their next turn.
- Fail: The mom stares them down and allows them to guess again for up to 3 turns before allowing the to move forward.
- Critical Fail: The character’s answer is so woefully wrong but they are so convinced they are right that the mom stares at them for a full round then says, “Good luck with that.” and lets them through. Disadvantage on the next obstacle.
- Wisdom (Insight) – Anticipate/avoid a pit trap.
- Critical Success: Rounding the blind corner, the character sees another contestant fall silently into a magically disguised pit trap. The character notices the illusion and jumps over the 5′ wide trap without breaking stride.
- Success: The character rounds a blind corner and notices something odd about the ground ahead. Thinking quickly the character grabs a pole from a rack conveniently placed alongside the path. The character proceeds at half speed and avoids the pit trap.
- Failure: The character falls into the muddy pit trap and spends the next turn climbing out.
- Critical Failure: The character falls into the muddy pit trap and spends the next 2 turns climbing out.
- Strength (Athletics) – Climb a steep rope wall while avoiding the rope mimic.
- Critical Success: The character runs up half the wall and is able to grab the rope and fling themselves over the wall in a single turn.
- Success: The character is able to find a safe rope and climb the wall on their next turn.
- Fail: The character looses their grip and falls to the ground. Roll again on their next turn.
- Critical Fail: The character grabs a mimic disguised as a rope and must fight to free themselves. Strength check DC 12 once per round until free.
Complication:
At the beginning of each round, each player and the DM rolls a d20 the character/NPC(s) with the lowest roll has one of the following encounters based on a d6 roll:
- 1–2: Random magical clone appears and distracts the player for 1 round.
- 3–4: Illusory flames (fear effect) the character can’t move forward until their next turn.
- 5–6: The character sees their mom on the sideline calling out to them and must loose 1 movement to listen.
Success/Fail: Characters get +1 to their score for each point under 8 rounds that it takes to complete the course and -1 for each round over 8.
Final Encounter: The Laundry Golem
“I told you to separate your lights and darks!”
Location: In the town square a roped off area has a sign reading, “Mudroom of Doom.” The air is warm and humid, and the ring is filled with mounds of steaming clothes and pools of soapy water puddles.
Boss: Laundry Golem
Scenario: The top 5 to 10 contenders (DM’s Choice) must battle Laundry Golem. Characters can work together or individually and can even attack/sabotage other characters. All of the Laundry
Golem’s damage is considered subdual, not lethal damage. The moms are hard on the contestants, they want everyone to go home at the end of the day.
Scoring: Each character keeps track of the total damage they deal. +1 point is given for each point of damage dealt and -1 point for each point of damage taken by the individual character.
If a non-combat method is chosen, each of the characters gets +1 point for their total contribution to the persuasion check used to calm the golem. It is assumed the characters don’t have the Calm Emotions spell; however, if they do, then the casting player receives +20 points. If the players use the folding laundry method, the entire group splits 20 points, rounded down.
Mom’s Treasury (Reward Options)
Below you will find some miscellaneous treasures that the top 3 finishers can choose from.
CHOOSE ONE:
