Spooktober 2022 Entry

My Spooktober 2022 entry is a one-shot called Goofing around in the Temple of Death.
The adventure includes several fragments of "Ancient Knowledge", which contain the prompts for Spooktober, they are to be found at different locations during the one-shot playthough.
Read the articles:

Goofing around in the Temple of Death Part One.

Goofing around in the Temple of Death Part Two

Goofing around in the Temple of Death Part Three

Here are the collected bits of ancient knowledge, the spooktober words are marked in bold.
Words used (24): drown, portrait, mirror, tear, shadow, darkness, misfortune, echo, whisper, shattered, broken, curse, thorn, hunt, possess, escape, door, abyss, relic, enchanted, spirit, abandoned, ruins, mist.
Additional spooky words: soul, afterlife, shrivel, despair, fade, madness, casket, madness, unholy, tome.

I. Watching my portrait in the mirror
brings a tear to my shriveling eyes.

II. The face strewn with shadows
My youth vanishes in darkness.

III. Due to the misfortune of aging
I am drowning in despair.

IV. Life force only a distand echo
Fading away into a whisper.

V. I am shattered and broken by this curse
that sits like a thorn in my side.

VI. I go on a hunt like possessed
to escape this madness.

VII. And I find it. A way
to close the door to the abyss.

VIII. Creation of a powerful relic,
Enchanted with the life force of a dragon.

IX. Locking the eternal spirit
into this unholy casket.

X. Feeding in souls of the unworthy
To keep the own self alive.

XI. Stowing it away in the abandoned ruins
surrounded by unholy mists.

XII. Now skimming through tomes to find
improvements to the afterlife.