Adventure: On the Hunter's Trail
artsource
An old man waits for the party at the ruins of the old mill. His name is Erstvahn, he was once a scout in the king's army, but after serving with decoration he retired to his home village where he spent the next three decades acting as its protector.
There is something evil lurking in the forest nearby, he thought he and his apprentice Zaire could handle it... now Zaire is gone, his body is ill healed from his encounter with that evil, and the village elders have hired a squad of outcasts and travellers to assist him in what might be his last hunt.
Enter the party, stage left.
Challenges & Complications:
Though this adventure could be slotted into any ongoing campaign, I've found it particularly useful as a framework for new players going on their first quest in that it has an inbuilt NPC guide/babysitter to help them stay focused on the mission. Giving your party the shame backstory of being from the same village gives them a springboard for character creation, as they can probably imagine a few interesting locals who'd want to help their neighbour Erstvahn with his difficult task. Alternatively, if they have a strong idea what they want to play, they can be sellswords responding to the village's promise of reward/plea to local authorities.
Erstvahn's has doubts about the party's capabilities, as they'll need wits and awareness in addition to strength of arms if they want to succeed on their hunt. To that end, he's stashed a lockbox and a key inside the old mill, and will agree to take them into the woods if they can bring him what's inside the box. This is your excuse to introduce your party to the exploration pillar of gameplay, pitching their search around the the ruins as an escape room. When they eventually open the hidden box, they'll find it empty, aside from a diagram on the inside indicating what they're looking for is hidden in the water wheel, but only accessible if they get the old mechanism working again. As they fuss around, Estvahn will let it slip that Zaire managed to pass this exact same test without any hints or complaining... then he'll get quiet.
Once the party has proven their worth, we can get out into the woods, and the usual gauntlet of challenges one might expect tracking through the woods at night (evading prowling wolves, fording a crumbling old bridge etc), peppered with the old ranger's reluctant guidance. As they explore, they'll notice plants starting to blacken and wither, animals acting oddly aggressive. Erstvahn will explain that this has been happening ever since their quarry appeared in the region.
Speaking of their quarry, Erstvahn will be hesitant to talk about what exactly it is, along what happened to him and Zaire when they first encountered it asides from a deadly ambush. Getting him to open up will be a challenge in and of itself, but attentive heroes may notice they seem to be on the trail of a great stag, oddly lined up with the path of corruption and malevolent shadows they keep encountering.
