Seeking to keep their sickly son Luka safe from the dangers of the world, the baron and baroness D'Montria have kept the boy in the tallest tower of their castle for most of his life. Rumour had it that the boy's become a prolific reader as most every night people of the surrounding village could look up and see the tower windows alight with all the candles the boy used to read into the small hours of the night.
The locals knew that something was wrong when the tower remained dark for an entire week. The D'Montria boy has vanished, leaving nothing behind but a guttering lamp and an open window. Now the baronial couple is in a state of panic searching for answers, mobilizing their garrison and offering rewards for any who might have information on where their boy has gone.
Adventure Hooks:
The party's in with the D'Montria family comes in the form of a member of their houshold guard. He's an old acquaintance of one of the heroes, an old family friend, or perhaps a fellow comrade in arms. He was on watch the night Luka disappeared, and while he wasn't in any way involved he knows his captain is looking for someone to blame to show the D'Montrias that progress is being made. Fearful of losing his job, or worse being made into a scapegoat, he's written to the party for help.
It's a fortnight after the disappearance and shortly after the party begin their investigation that a ransom notice arrives, signed by Jacknife Jenny a famous brigand well known for her trickery and ruthlessness. She and her gang want money, and lots of it, before they had the boy over. Not all is as it appears however, as in the course of looking into Luka's disappearance the party will discover some of Jenny's crew skulking about and strongarming folks looking for information.
Krine the bookseller's daughter might have a clue to where Luka might be. She's an odd sort, prone to flights of facy, and the parry will find her trailing them as they investigate. If questioned, she'll claim that despite never visting the castle she and the D'Montria boy have been friends for month. She's an idea where he's gone, but has sworn not to tell, so the party will either need to be clever or very mean to get it out of her.
Background: Luka D'Montria was a fearful child, exactly what you'd expect of someone overly sheltered from a young age and told he was too weak to wether any of life's challenges. He was also deeply lonely, and despite all the things he knew could hurt him in the outside world wished nothing more than to go out and make friends.
The first of these friends was Krine, who's parent's shop was close enough to his parent's castle that they could catch sight of each other's night-lanterns. Casual start and stop "hellos!" and "Goodnights!" became a nightly occurrence, which evolved into full on coded conversations when Trine started slipping hidden notes into the books the noble boy's tutors kept buying for him (the scribbled remnants of which remain in both of their rooms, should the party look).
The second friend turned out to be Tergrid, god of fright, who'd had her eye on the fearful boy for a while and decided to approach him in a dream with an offer; She'd give him the strength to face the world if he had the courage to bear it. Luka accepted, and promptly fell ill for three days, leaving his parents and their physicians to dote on him day and night and leave him swaddled so tightly in bedding he could scarcely move. On the third night, once everyone was tired, he slipped out of his blankets, opened the window to drink in the cool night, and took flight on his new moth wings. He visited Krine for the first time that night, and only left once the dawn threatened to chase him back inside. Not wanting to return to his guilded cage just yet, he left to the nearby forest, looking for a landmark he'd only read about in books.
Challenges & Complications:
The blessings of a fear goddess are not to be taken lightly, nor are they as straightforward as giving a feeble youth the gift of flight. "Strength enough to face the world" amounts to Luka being cursed into a sort of were-moth, growing in might and becoming less human each night as the moon wanes towards new. Predatory and driven to hunt those who wander alone at night, Luka's full feral moth form is not just a threat, it's a sacred beast in service of the goddess who gave him wings. At the same time, the blessing/curse represents freedom to the young D'Montria, and he will be loathe to give it up at first.
Jacknife Jennny's gang found Luka when he blundered into the old fortress they used as a hideout. She'd served under his family as a mercenary before turning brigand, and recognized him from his resemblance to his parents. Initially she was intrigued by the boy's ability to fly, and put on a robinhood style dashing outlaw routine to try and gain the boy's confidence only to try and imprison him for ransom when he saw through her act a few days later. Intrigue turned to fascination when the moon slid to a crescent and the boy escaped one night, leaving several of her best fighters shredded and disembowled in the process. Jenny already wanted to fly, and maybe cheat her former employers out of a ransom, but the idea of being able to turn into a seemingly unkillable monster? Now THAT'S got her attention.
"Terror is the natural state of a child, they know they are small, vunrable, glass fragile. It is only once we grow that we delude ourselves into thinking we are safe, that we are strong, that we have control over the world we live in. Show a grown man how little control he really has, and you will see the child he always was: pissreeking, repentant, and pleading for his mother. "
- Gerheart, village executioner
A goddess for those who hold close to the light dreading the unknown or those who wander gleefully into the dark seeking it, Tergrid is a deity of imagined horrors and terrible omens.
Depicted as a young woman always bearing a lantern, myths speak of Tergrid's shadow as a monstrous, murderous thing with a will of its own. Unable to kill the goddess due to the light she carries, it vents it's directionless wrath on those who linger beyond the lantern's glow. This duality, as both as the victim of fear and the source of it defines the brightmaiden's worship; as she is both threat and saviour to those who draw her attention.
Adventure Hooks:
The party arrive at a country roadhouse at dusk, only to find the inhabitants have nailed shut every door and shutter as if preparing for a siege. They say some horrid murderous things are lurking just off the road, and as the light wanes they refuse to let the heroes inside. The roadhouse's residents are terrified and are willing to fight to keep the party out, half convinced the party are themselves the things they should be afraid of... which isn't to say there ISN'T anything else waiting for that door to open. After negoitating their way inside (or forcing the issue) the heroes discover the roadhouse residents were warned of the danger by a mysterious woman who passed through earlier, though none can remember exactly what she looked like.
A knight renowned for his fearless deeds wanders the street in a waking nightmare, seeing threats everywhere and lashing out at phantoms and passersby. Even after being subdued it’s clear he won’t awake, and many suspect interference from jealous rivals in the upcoming tourney. The knight’s meek squire asks the party to help investigate the causes and possible cures of her master’s madness, never suspecting that her suppressed resentment at his recklessness might’ve manifested as a curse.
In desperate need of answers, the party consults an oracle dedicated to Tergrid who has them undergo trials of fear and phantasm so that they might know the truth. Chiefest among these is battling in a dark cave full of shadow monsters, while flickering visions of the future are cast on the wall by the guttering lantern light. The longer they can endure, the more they will know, but that isn't likely to be long unless they fight harder than they ever have before.
Inspiration: Tergrid is a shameless lift from Magic the Gathering's Kaldheim setting, which I've never played but apparently keep returning to as a consistent well of inspiration.
Fear both as a mechanic and motif is something I think is underutilized in D&D which is odd considering it's a game about venturing out into the unknown to face potentially deadly challenges. Fear and risk are what our heroes must endure to experience the wonder and rewards on the other side of their journey. As such it makes sense for a goddess of fear to play a role in the thematic weave of the stories we end up telling.
Speaking in less lofty terms, I also think using the lantern as a symbol for being frightened fucks hard. It's a tiny, fragile, and temporary respite from an ocean of darkness and the threats it contains.
Worshippers: The lost and abandoned, Unseele Fey, Shadowcasters and other denizens of the shadowfell. There is also heavy overlap with the worship of the night goddess Nyx.
Signs: Nightmares, unnatural or living shadows,
Symbols: A Lantern, often surrounded by a circle of darkness.
