Objective
Find out what's happening in Lavender Springs
Theme
Mortality
Type
Thwarting
Focus
Master Plot
Main Adversary type
Villain
Act I
Intro Goal
Lavender Springs is a secluded forest village (AL CG; 200 gp limit; Pop. 732) with a growing problem. One month ago, a young man, Denjin by name, was captured and killed after he was found eating the body of one of the villagers. Denjin's body was left to hang overnight, but come morning it was gone. Since that time a growing number of people have been disappearing. Local hunters have found blood-drenched scraps of clothing and animal skins but never any bodies. The villagers are afraid that ghouls now haunt the forest. The people of Lavender Springs have grown increasingly frightened of entering the forest, and this has threatened their livelihood. The people of this village live off of hunting and gathering the wild fruits and nuts of the forests, and harvesting the wild grains in a large clearing south of the village on the other side of the wood.
Intro Enemy
Approximately three miles north of Lavender Springs a sorceress named Silyna is engaged in a bizarre plot to achieve immortality. Knowing she lacks the power to achieve full lichdom, Silyna has decided to become a powerful ghoul instead. She has long studied the matter and through a combination of potent potions and dark pacts she is well on her way to achieving success. One of the requirements put upon her by the various dark entities she has bargained with is that she actively engages in cannibalism. This Silyna willingly did and encouraged her son Denjin to do likewise. He moved to Lavender Springs at her behest to help recruit followers who she could lead in worship of these dark entities and rule area.
Silyna’s plans recently came to a head when Denjin foolishly murdered a man in the middle of the village and was caught. It was Silyna who cut down Denjin in the dead of night. To Silyna’s delight, Denjin had already risen as a ghoul, retaining a good portion of his human memory in the process. Hand in claw, the two returned home and the nightmare began for the people of Lavender Springs.
Intro Situation
It is left to the DM to determine why the PCs are in Lavender Springs. Whatever the reason, they are drawn into the adventure as soon as they enter the village. Amazed that someone made it through the woods alive to reach their isolated town, the PCs will be overwhelmed by curious townsfolk. They do not know that the portion of the woods the PCs came through is relatively safe (see Adventure Area).
Drawn by the crowd and recognizing the PCs as possible adventurers, the mayor, Girkin Rothfell (Male Human Exp4 (Blacksmith)) will introduce himself. He and his people are growing desperate. The total number of dead and missing has risen to forty- five. Many, including the mayor, are beginning to believe that the area is cursed. The PCs are offered 150 gold pieces each if they will end the menace. It is a sizable sum by the standards of the small village.
The villagers can offer little in the way of clues. They can relate the tale of Denjin’s execution, which they rightly associate with the present problem, but all they know about him was that he came to the town several months ago, built a hut on the edge of town and kept to himself, fashioning simple leather goods for a living. A few villagers can tell the PCs that Denjin seemed “too big for his britches” and often began conversations bordering on blasphemy; questioning the role of the gods in the lives of these people. Denjin’s hut was razed after his body disappeared and the other disappearances soon started.
Questioning the families of those who disappeared, the party should be able to discover that most of the disappearances happened early in the morning or later in the evening, and in the portion of the woods north and west of the village.
They can also tell the PCs that many animals have also been found dead, that the woods have been generally free of monsters and that a “witch” lives by herself somewhere north of the village beyond the woods. They do not know her name and only know she rarely comes to the village to trade and began to appear a little over a year ago.
None of the villagers have ever connected Denjin with his mother Silyna, as the two of them were never seen speaking together.
Act II
Set-up Journey
The ghouls now haunting the forest have killed or driven off many of the local animals and the PCs will soon find the forest unnaturally quiet. Characters with wilderness skills will be especially unnerved. The GM may play this part of the adventure as fast or as slow as seems right, though some time should be spent building suspense. Encounters in the forest may include the following:
- (EL 0) The corpse of a bear, most of which has been eaten. Flies buzz around the few bones and scraps of fur that remain. The bear has been dead a few days.
- (EL 0) Noisy black crows take off into the air just east of the party, breaking the stillness. Investigation will turn up nothing.
- (EL 0) Scraps of bloody clothing are found, as is a gold ring (10 gp).
- (EL 0) A bloody boot is wedged into some rocks. A human foot is still in the boot.
- (EL 1) A mutilated body of a rabbit is spotted, just recently killed. Boot prints lead away from the corpse. A ghoul lies waiting in ambush.
- (EL 3) The party sees a pack of 3 ghouls feasting on the corpse of a man in a ravine. As soon as the ghouls spot or hear the party, they scatter and attempt to flank the PCs.
The DM may create other encounters of a like nature if is seems appropriate. Eventually the PCs spot a cottage through the trees, just over the next hill. Ideally night is closing in even as a heavy and cold rain begins to fall.
The House of Ghouls
The cottage belongs to Silyna. Silyna is a middle-aged woman with a pleasant round face, graying hair and bright blue eyes. She greets the PCs cordially at the door and urges them to come in out of the rain. She mentions that there have been strange sounds lately and that the forest does not seem safe anymore. Likewise she offers them food and shelter for the night. Her house is cozy and warm, but filled with strange and pungent odors. Many herbs hang on the walls of each room and the PCs may decide that they are the source of the smells.
If questioned about the disappearances and ghouls she will say the following:
- She has seen and heard figures wandering around outside at night, but keep her door tightly bolted. Once or twice they banged at her door, but obviously no one came in.
- When she searches for herbs in the early morning she has never been attacked or seen ghouls, but she has seen dead animals.
- She says she knows about a “Black Tree Stump” in the woods that she gets creepy feelings from and that may be the source of the evil. She promises to shoe the party the place in the morning. (This is a lie. There is no stump.) (If questioned about the portrait in her bedroom): She explains that is her son, who is a ranger and stops by every few weeks, she has not seen him in at least three weeks, but he spends a great deal of time in the wilderness.
The rooms of the cottage are as follows.
C1 - Entry-hall and stairway
The wooden floor boards of the this hall are worn and warped. Simple wooden doors flank to the left and right, while a wooden stairway leads up to the upper floor. Beneath where the stairway turns a beaded curtain creates a small storage closet.
The small closet under the stairs is filled with boxes, brooms, buckets and the like. The stairs lead up to the guest room. The doors to the rooms are thin and have no locks and can be closed from the inside with simple wooden slide bolts.
C2 - Kitchen
Pans, knives and spices hang from the walls. A fire is burning in the fireplace. The table can seat six. The floor is covered in a layer of sawdust, and the several sausage strings hang from the ceiling by the pot-bellied stove. The smell of herbs and incense that fills the rest of the house are almost overwhelming here.
Many of the spices on the wall rack deadly poison, but only someone with knowledge of plants will be able to recognize this (DC 19). They are mixed in with the normal spices, so grabbing a random bottle of spices has a 1 in 8 chance of grabbing a poisonous one. Silyna knows the contents of each very well. There are 32 different bottles of poison/spices and the GM should choose poisons he feels are appropriate to his setting.
C3 - Bedroom
This is obviously a bedroom. A broad bed stands in one corner, with a small chest at its foot, and a chest of drawers in the other corner beside it. There is a low bookshelf in the corner opposite the door, with various knick-knacks atop of it, and a throw rug on the floor beside the bed. There is a portrait of a young man with dark hair and green eyes above the chest of drawers.
The portrait is of Denjin. If any of the PC got a description of the young man that was hung, they can make an Intelligence check (DC 18) to be fairly certain that that is who the portrait shows. The painting is not well done, but could garner as much as 5 gps for a collector of rural art.
- The bookshelf only has six books. They are:
- One is an illustrated guide on local plants and herbs (worth 60 gps).
- One is a book on mummification (worth 90 gps).
- There is a four book set on the worship of Wee Jas (or other god appropriate to your setting), going into a great amount of detail on undead and necromancy in general (worth 400 gps as a set, or 80 gps each if sold separately).
The knick-knacks are local crafts and statuettes of animal forms. They are all made of wood or stone and can be valued between 1 and 9 sps each.
Beneath the throw rug is the trap door to the cellar.
C4 - Guest Bedroom
The odors of the house are less obnoxious in this room. There are four beds squeezed in here and a throw rug in the middle of the floor.
This is where Silyna will put the PCs up for the night. (see An Attempt at Murder below).
First Attempt
C5 - Cellar
The stairs creak loudly as you descend, and the strange underlying smell of the rest of the house becomes distilled here to be none other than the well-known smell of death. The floor is made of packed dirt and the walls are stones of various shapes and sizes fitted together. The place is scattered with human arms, legs and heads. In one corner, a young man sits chained to the wall, sobbing. His leg seems to have been removed at the knee.
This room is the real source of the odors in the house above. Body parts of no less than 20 people (plus an assortment of animals) provide a larder of sorts for Silyna and her ghouls. If not already encountered elsewhere, Denjin and two other ghouls will be met in this room.
The young man is Thomas Grodman. A young shepherd from Lavender Springs, he was the last to disappear. There is a tourniquet applied at his knee to keep him from bleeding out. He is in shock and a lot of pain and is basically incoherent. He is being kept alive to provide fresh meat for the ghouls until more people are captured.
Act III
False Ending
An Attempt at Murder (EL 6)
Silyna has a simple plan for dealing with visitors. She feeds them drugged food causing them to become drowsy and eventually fall into a deep sleep. PCs who eat any of Silyna’s food must make a Fortitude Save (DC 14) to avoid falling soundly asleep for 1d8 hours.
Those who make their save are unlikely to notice anything, since it will be late and the party should be tired anyway. Those who fail become increasingly drowsy and then fall asleep, so there is no immediate descent into unconsciousness to raise suspicions.
While the PCs are asleep in their beds, Silyna, Denjin and the other two ghouls in the house enter the guestroom with murder in mind.
They enter after the PCs have been asleep for 2 hours.
Anyone who is asleep and not effected by the poison may make a Listen check (DC 20) to hear Silyna and the ghouls coming up the creaking steps, and another check (DC 18) to hear the door creaking open. Anyone who is fully awake need only make a check against DC 10, and automatically hears the door creak open.
In combat Silyna makes great use of invisibility, attacking only to disappear again. Denjin and the other ghouls are less subtle in their method of attack. Silyna fights to the death, but the ghouls attempt to flee if they feel they are losing the battle.
Note: This can be an extremely deadly encounter for the PCs. If they all failed their saves, they can be killed outright, unless someone is affected by the poison for only two hours or less. And unless they set a guard, they will not be armor or have weapons ready (unless they specifically make precautions for this).
She Only Lives Twice
It is likely that the PCs will kill Silyna, possibly as she is attempting to assassinate them in their sleep. If nothing is done to destroy or purify her body, Silyna will rise as a ghoul with sorcerous powers in the space of twelve hours.
If the PCs are still around, she hunts them down. As her ultimate goal is to live forever, if she feels the PCs are too powerful for her, she flees and bides her time while creating an army of ghouls loyal to her. If this happens, it is entirely possible that the village of Lavender Springs is doomed.
Final Showdown
Silyna, Denjin and the Ghouls
The potions and pacts that Silyna has ingested and made make it possible for both her and Denjin to become ghouls while retaining their human abilities. Both also have the ability to command ghouls that they have created.
The ghouls encountered, excepting Denjin and Silyna are all standard creatures.
Concluding the Adventure
If the PCs kill Silyna and the ghouls, they will have save the town of Lavender Springs from the dangers. However, if Silyna or Denjin escape, they will eventually return to wreak havoc and get their revenge on Lavender Springs and the PCs (if they are still around). If this last scenario occurs, it is perfectly possible that if the party ever passes through this area again the town of Lavender Spring will be razed and overrun by ghouls.
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