Prologue
This adventure is a modified version of
Curse of Strahd. In my
last adventure, the player character Morrigan had a long descent into evil and by the end was a powerful Vampire who betrayed the party. During the
final fight she unleashed a Wish spell to teleport her and the planar drill to her own evil realm. With the campaign concluded, I wanted to use her in a new campaign as the villain, and looked into the Ravenloft books as inspiration. I felt that Curse of Strahd was a great adventure and with some modification would fit the character of Morrigan quite well. Since I had never had an opportunity to run or play it, I began to prep it with Morrigan in place of Strahd.
Strahd originally had a romantic interest as his primary motivator, but this did not fit the character Morrigan so some changes to the lore of course were done. The modifications done to this adventure are to suit my gaming group, reference our previous adventures and characters, and were things I felt they would enjoy, but many of the NPC's and locations are faithful to the original adventure.
The images shown here are still captures from animated pictures, which can be found at
James RPG Art on patreon. His images were wonderful for bringing the game to life.
Thanks for reading!
Our adventure begins in the port city of Saltmarsh. Our heroes were called together by Gellan Primewater, one of the leaders of the Akadian pact. With the promise of working for such an illustrious figure and leader of the town itself, the group gathered in the Empty Net tavern to find out what job lay before them.
Gellan began by explaining that a certain building on the docks had been deemed haunted. The guard was unwilling to venture near it, most likely some beast or other horror lie within, and he needed brave adventures to sally forth and make it safe once more. In return, the group was promised pay as well as the promise of future jobs once their worth was proven. The group agreed to this deal, and bravely ventured forth to find out what dangers could lie in the mysterious manor.
Upon arriving, the mists blew in from the sea and clouds choked the sky. The grounds were dilapidated and abandoned, but the house stood tall and loomed over the courtyard. The group approached, spied the insignia over the door and read the crest, "The Owelands".
Upon entering two small children greeted them, both concerned about the monster in the basement. They cried out for help, but using detect magic it was determined these were actually illusions created. Room by room the house was investigated, small horrors and mysterious sights assailed the group as they ascended to the floors. On the third floor a grotesque animated suit of armor attacked! As blows were dealt, hoards of bats spilled out of the wounds and assailed the party. While they provided a vicious foe, the group struck down the armor and whittled down the ferocious bats until the remainder dispersed. Further ahead, in the bathroom a broom and mimic lept to attack the group, but were easily dispatched by the groups expert martial prowess.
Finally the group ascended to the attic where the two ghostly children were found. They were actually ghosts as Judges Detect Good and Evil found, and seemed aware that they had perished. They were told by their mother to stay put, and seemed promised that Morrigan would one day come to rescue them. They had a dollhouse that seemed a perfect replica of the manor, and Fabian investigated it thoroughly before discovering a secret passage from the attic to the cellar. The group contemplated this bizarre development, as the manor sat on the edge of the coast and none of the buildings could possibly contain an underground section.
With the new information the group found the hidden entrance and descended deep under the manor. A crypt was found with all of the Oweland family, including empty crypts where Robin and Morrigan should lie. Chambers seemingly for some horrible cult, abandoned, lie next, until the group found a shrine dedicated to the foul vampire and a hellhound companion. Five shadowy apparitions appeared, warning the group off lest they fall to their wrath. While the party wished to retreat, Judge stood stoically before the impending doom and demanded that evil not be allowed to exist in these realms. He drew his faithful sword, and prepared to deliver justice!
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