An unseelie fey cursed to never feel happiness, the so called "Lady of Lament" was banished from the courts of shadow for bringing down the vibe. Now turning to the mortal world for her amusement, Grim Meg looks enviously upon the joy of others, concocting plans where she might claim it for herself or snuff it out.
Adventure hooks:
Grim Meg caught sight of a child playing with a beloved dog at the edge of the forest and was so enraged by the simple joy of it that she laid a curse on the poor pet, transforming it into a bloodthirsty warg once the sun went down. Now the poor creature is rampaging, slaughtering farm animals while it's good-dog nature fights against it's newly malevolent consciousness. Our heroes are called in by the villagers to save their livestock, but can they find a solution that doesn't end in heartbreak?
The party is enjoying a rousing performance by a famed local bard when a trio of foreboding knights shoulder their way into the tavern and demand the star come with them. The Lady of Lament has a special fondness for minstrels, demanding songs that could bring cheer to her heart or else be turned into a songbird that sings only for her. Her skirts are decorated with the bones of those that've failed, ringing like chimes as she moves about her domain.
The riders who serve Meg are known as her Dolorous guard , each of which was once a mortal champion who sought to save what they loved most by pledging themselves to the Dame until they could find something that would bring her true happiness. Each of the guard expected a harrowing, death defying quest only to discover that their oath bound them to a timeless eternity of running the Fey lady's grim errands. It's ironic then that these unfortunate souls are not bound to spirit so much as the words of their lady's commands, meaning that the party might be able to negotiate with them. Good thing too, the guard have become fearsome fighters over their long servitude, and can be recalled from death over and over again at Meg's request.
Monsterhunt: Caeldestiir, and her bloodless legions
A titan of ice and sorrow dwells amid the peaks of the far northern mountains, its pained cries summoning storms and avalanches. Most know to keep their distance and leave well enough alone, but the entity's bloody tears bring forth swarms of violent undead that every few years boil off the mountainside like ants from a kicked nest.
Something must be done, but how will the party ever hope to challenge such a foe?
The name Caeldestiir originates with the local goliath tribe, meaning "The cold and broken god" in their tongue. In their lore, the creature is the unwanted get of some distant divinity that left it on the mountainside to die of exposure, as is sometimes done with unwanted infants in the harshest of times. Though this legend (and the creature that inspired it) has persisted for generations, the tribe's current jarl Zautho feels somehow responsible for Caeldestiir's recent disquiet, as when she was young she was forced by her family to give up a child deemed too sickly to live. Fear over the gods' judgment and the titan's building wrath has the jarl dispatching runners across the breadth of the tribe's territory, seeking signs, solutions, and allies.
Adventure Hooks:
The party encounters the first of the goliath runners in a bordertown marketplace, being hurried along by the authorities for "causing a ruckous", as they think the emmisarry is some barbarian radical preacher come to lecture them about the sins of civilization. They'll meet another in a noble's court, being given the cold shoulder after being promised a meeting.
After repeated undead incursions across their borders, those of the "civilized" lands will finally be forced to take notice, having ignored the signs for too long and losing their chance at containign the threat. ( Yes, we're doing a game of thrones reference, but unlike GRRM we're not going to take 30 years to resolve it).
Zautho might be the party's greatest ally in facing the frigid threat, but she's become distracted: convinced the rise of the icy titan is somehow the gods' punishment against her specifically. Guilt is not so easy a thing to shake off, so the aparty will have to go questing for knowledge and divine truth to shake the jarl from her despair.
Background:
Few songs are still sung about the dreadmage Feriya , of her plot to force eternal winter on any realm that did not bow to her, of the coalition of unlikely allies that marched north to challenge her army, of the heroes who gave everything to secure her defeat and bring her icy fortress crashing down upon her head.
Centuries since her defeat Feriya's wrathful spirit has yet to fade, trapped as it was in the glacial wreckage that was once the sign of her great authority. Time beyond death has distorted her, diminishing the person she was and leaving behind only her wrath, her power, and the memory of a body being crushed alive. As the distinction between tomb and entombed faded what began as a ghostly stirring has transformed into an elemental colossus, howling with the pain and fury of the north wind as it drags itself across the jagged mountain peaks, phantom bones breaking with each movement.
Mercy would be enough of a reason to put the thing out of its misery, whatever Feriya's ambitions and cruelties she did not deserve such a pained afterlife.
Adventure Hook: The party are hired to put a stop to the undead rising from the old cemetary, and to determine whether it is some forboding sign or a curse brought down by some graverobber, as the town authorities are split on the matter. While investigating they will discover signs of dark rituals taking place, though they will have to be very clever to realize that the infact not at all humanoid.
Background: While most crows are content with petty mischief (and three occasional murder), these three arcane avians have no respect for mortal or godly law, and spend their days sowing curses and petty blasphemies wherever their dark wings take them.
The three carry with them an unrotting eye, the last remnant of a witch by the name of Hemani Lokryn, who used the birds as familiars for years and nurtured them to sentiance with a diet of dead men's brains. When the magehunters finally caught up to Hemani, the three were unable to save her from her cell or execution, so she commanded them to gore out her eye and carry it with them that her spirit might escape her body's fate.
Further Adventures:
When challenged or interrupted the crows make to scatter , as any one of them that survives an encounter and makes it back to where they've hidden Hemani's eye they'll be able to resummon the other two. Generally they always keep one in reserve, but this limits the force of magic they're able to bring to bear in any confrontation. If the party is clever, they'll poof two of the familiars to smoke and feathers and then track the straggler back to their roost.
If they weren't discovered in their earlier capers, the trio may try to bait the party into exploring some obviously haunted dungeon in the hopes of having them dig up some important artifact necessary for their latest scheme. This "bait" might come in the form of one of the crows pretending to be some kind of omen, or a barely legible letter pleading for help delivered in the dead of night. They might even try a breadcrumb trail of golden coins if they get desperate.
A girl has disapeared from her home after a series of strange occurrences, leaving her parents in a state of absolute panic and in need of the adventurers' aid. Always a little odd and shunned by other children for her morbid fancies, Cordelia was overjoyed when a trio of spooky birds decended on her usual sulking spot and told her that she had a great destiny ahead of her. Her new friends weren't exactly lying: Cordelia has a spark of sorcery about her, being the distant scion of the now forgotten Lokryn line after the family moved and changed their name to avoid their then infamous reputation. This makes her the perfect vessel for Hemani's resurrection ritual, as she aims to possess her descendant's body in a twisted "inheritence" ritual. The party will need to act fast to find Cordelia's motivations and trail, the crows have been gaining her trust for weeks with games and magic lessons, and now they lead her to a place of power where they'll take her eye and place their mistress's in its stead.
The story will not end should the party be too late and find the witch ascendant or completely gone. Hemani or "Cordelia Lokryn" as she now calls herself seeks to reclaim the power and influence she once wielded as not all of it fit into the childish body she's stolen. Vaults must be plundered, old servants called up from their resting places, a lair established, all of which may provide the party opportunities to challenge her once again and save Cordelia from her awful "destiny".
All this mucking about with eyes and resurrection has given Hemani a connection to the god of whispered secrets, who now drives the witch to seek out his own long-hidden eye of power. Cordelia's soul barely survived the first grisly grafting, and may be forever lost should she suffer another.
Any adventurer can tell you that there's coin to be made in the bloody business of hunting monsters, especially if you've got a strong stomach and not many scruples. While real heroes may risk life and limb chasing down the most dangerous realm threatening beasts, others make good trade by trapping, anything that they can sell.
Such is the case with the Talons, a guild of poachers hunters who specialize in supplying rare beasts to nobles and alchemists, whether they be destined for a menagerie, a banquet table, or a carving bench. They're brutal as they are effective, and their connections to the upper rungs of society mean that their trespasses, transgressions, and occasional murder go unpunished.
Adventure Hooks:
It's likely the party will encounter the Talons while out on a hunt, aiming for the same quarry while using less than scrupulous means. The party might stumble feet first into one of their traps, or find local wildlife poisoned by bait they set out. Alternatively the encounter may be troublingly friendly, a fellow hunter offering to share fire and food in exchange for information. Can the party trust someone who kills so recklessly, even if it'll bring them closer to their goal?
The Talons usually have a stall set up in the town's marketplace, happy to buy or sell monsterbits while swapping hunting stories. Apparently the guild is looking for some fresh meat recruits after their last hunt went a little bad. What's a little pelt farming if it'll give the party access to the poacher's custom gear: high quality game firearms and thorned armour designed to resist being grappled could be too tempting to pass up.
Alternatively, an urban encounter may involve the talons moving a cage cart with a dangerous beast inside through heavy traffic. The beast is sedated (for now) but the packed streets and noisy crowds are threatening to wake it up. Fastest way to prevent it from escaping is to help the Talons clear a path.. even if they have to browbeat some innocent bystanders.
The poachers have little qualms about what they hunt, aside from whether or not someone will pay them to hunt it. Though many realms ban the trade and enslavement of sapient creatures the Talons are willing to conveniently forget these laws for a premium discretionary fee. This sometimes gets them in hot water though, as a contingent of them have captured a mischievous puck, who's been having great fun ensorceling his captors to one by one become rampaging beasts and chase each other through the forest.
While the guild is all too happy to court patrons of dubious morality, one of their most unexpected benefactors is a near forgotten god of pain and snares. The talons don't know they're a cult yet, or that the creatures they gut are taken as sacrifices by a by a sinister force. Clashes with the party may change that however, as the most receptive poachers may start receiving dreams and visitations, bestowed with blessings of strength and savagery to continue the snaregod's hunt.
It's a lonely life being a cartographer in service to the crown, but Embry Mharkos wouldn't trade it for anything. Tasked with sketching out the region's peaks, river systems, and outlying settlements, he'll gladly join the party for a chance to see the sights. In addition to picking up the bill for provisions and pointing them towards points of gossip, Embry will take over the logistics of running the party’s camp and use his geographical knowledge to help plan routes through the wilds.
Before you ask, yes, the dog has guild accreditation. What are you going to do about it? In reality, Embry used to travel with a man named Ashar, a senior surveyor and rather unplesant drunk who fudged his findings and took a rather predictable fall off a cliff after failing to secure his belaying line. Embry was just going to report his death to the commission field office when a random stray began following him through town. Thinking about all the provisions TWO paychecks could provide, he claimed to be taking over paperwork for his old partner and started forging Ashar's already illegible signature. He doesn't really think of it as lying, Asher's been with him far longer than the old man was, and he makes for a much better conversation.
Adventure Hooks:
Knowing the party for the dungeon delving thrillseekers they are, one of the first places the cartographer is going to point them towards one of the most impressive local delves: The skeleton of an ancient dragon half impaled on the peaks of a nearby mountain.
There's an isolated settlement of orcs Embry has wanted to make contact with for a while, since they've had decades to map the territory's outermost wilderness. Sadly last time he got close he made a rather bad impression on one of their hunting parties, who thought his scouting the precursor to some kind of attack on their territory. Perhaps the party can help him smooth things out, maybe by making some kind of gift to the village elders?
One night Asher starts barking and making a general racket, going as far as to drag one of the party out of their tent by the sleeping bag before running off into the darkness. The source of his distress? The distant cries of a fellow traveller bound to the trunk of a tree, left to die of exposure by a cult operating out of a nearby village. Asher was nearly sacrificed by the cult when he was a pup, and has gained a sixth sense when it comes to detecting their influence.
After the party have gotten to know him a bit (or gotten nosey with the coded letters he's always writing in addition to his usual map sketches), he'll reveal to them that he's been on a secret mission the entire time they've known him: In addition to his duties as a surveyor, Embry is an agent of the local marquess, who's convinced her husband is involved in some kind of scheme and sent him along with a few others to investigate. More than a few of the rumours he's had them check out were pretenses to this spycraft,
Throughout their early adventures the party come into conflict with the agents of the mysterious mage known only as "The Ravelling Hand", a villain of uncertain identity who seems to have lots of schemes and no qualms using violence, trickery, and unexpected magic to get what they want.
Adventure Hooks:
The party first become entangled with the hand's minions when they're asked by an innocuous travelling merchant to deliver a small wrapped parcel to the wizard living one town over. The wizard isn't open to receiving guests, and after sneaking or charming their way in, the party will find out why: her apprentice has been kidnapped, the parcel contains both of the boy's index fingers as well as a note explaining that she can have the rest of him back in exchange for several dangerous texts in her collection, delivered by the party to the same intermediary who hired them. A brawl is likely to ensue as the wizard suspects the party is in on the blackmail, but if they can talk her down maybe they can figure out a way to work together to get the boy back before any more harm comes to him.
Most thieves know better than to try and rob a magic item shop, but most thieves aren't armed with dispel magic infused salt grenades to neutralize the shop's ubiquitous defences. A rash of these attacks across the duchy has shopkeepers worried, and one hires the party to stake out their store for the night when they suspect someone is casing it. Do the party trail the robbers back to their hideout, or interrupt them mid heist only for combat to delay them long enough for those indiscriminate defences to start turning back on?
Spoiler Alert: The mage is in fact an arcanely gifted lesser kraken by the name of Dlexx who seeks to avail itself of all the magical knowledge amassed on land. Sure the deep has its own mysteries but there's a thriving trade in spellscrolls and arcane tomes that don't make it below the waves. Using an old lighthouse as a disguise for its massive form while on land, it uses telepathy and sendings to direct its minions without ever revealing its true nature. Imagine the party's surprise when they roll up to the villain's lair expecting to bully some crusty nerd with a ratty beard and instead the lair sprouts tentacles that drag them into the crashing surf.
Challenges & Consequences
Finding Dlexx is an adventure in and of itself. When questioned, most of the mage's minions admit to never having met their employer, and those high ranking enough to have been summoned to a place called "saltbite tower" in dreams only to later have their memories muddled. Careful interrogation and study of local maps will have the party realize that the tower is infact an abandoned lighthouse, which will narrow their search as they comb the costline for their enemy's lair.
Actually defeating the Ravelling Hand might prove too much for early level adventurers, as in addition to being a powerful mage the kraken is literally in its element, able to breathe and move while the heroes flounder. Dlexx will toy with them, throwing unconscious foes out of the water the way a fisherman throws back a catch that is too small. When the battle is over and it's proved it's point the kraken will collapse the tower and leave into the wide ocean, telepathically taunting them with their inability to follow.
Though the Ravelling Hand will not resurface for some time, the destruction of the tower and Dlexx's retreat into the deep is partially a bluff. The kraken chose that particular lighthouse because it was a short distance away from the coral reef into which it scribed its arcane learning the way a wizard records spells in a book, coiling arms etching formulae into hundreds of yards of living stone. Dlexx must periodically return to the reef to add spells to it, and sightings by locals (or the occasional fish manifesting with magical talent) might clue the party into the reef's existence.
A pair of merfolk siblings named Crashing-Tide and Arcing-Mirror serve the Ravelling Hand as apprentices and scribes, having promised seven years of utmost loyalty in exchange for the chance to bring the arcane knowledge of the surface back to their community. They tend to the reef, and allow the Kraken to borrow their eyes from afar so that it might study the spells scribed there. Several years into their pledge, Crash (the sister) has come to idolize Dlexx and the power it wields above and below the waves, wishing that the whole of their shoal to come into its service. Mirror (the brother) is skeptical, well aware of the kraken's manipulations and distantly suspicious of the conflict that it invokes. Perhaps if the party can intercede with these two they can learn more about their enemy's plans, though doing so will take some careful diplomacy.
Unsure whether they've been trapped inside a painting or been cast back in time, the party must venture through the desolate ruins of a once warm and familiar place to rescue a number of innocents that've gone missing after being abducted by some shadowy force.
Adventure Hooks:
The party arrive in the town of Valasren on innocuous business, following the rumors of a ruin, attending a nearby shrine, or visiting some old friends. When they arrive they're given an unexpectedly amiable welcome by lord Lucas Kevral, who's heard of their earlier exploits and wants to cultivate a good relationship with such aspiring heroes. While taking him up on an invitation to dine at his castle, the party spy a gloomy painting depicting Valasren in ruins. Lord Kevral explains that it was painted to commemorate the near destruction of the town some generations ago, when one of his ancestors left the settlement defenceless to go off seeking glory in war. His grandmother commissioned the painting from one of the survivors, and hung it in a place of honour so she nor any of her descendants would forget their duty to defend the people.
As the party pursue their mission around Valasren they'll begin to notice a number of disappearances that only seems to climb as time ticks on. Rumors begin to circulate about something moving in the night, stalking people, creeping into their homes when they're asleep, leaving only open doors and empty beds come daylight. These rumours become all too real when the party awake one morning to find one of their number missing, taken without a whisper from where they slept. A scattering of untrustworthy witnesses say they saw an unnatural figure carrying a sack up the hill towards the Lord's castle, giving them at least a ghost of a trail.
Following the trail back to the palace eventually leads the party to the painting, an inexplicable cold draft intermittently drifting from its now permeable surface.
Background: The painter who witnessed the destruction of Valasren was a true master, and was years later able to immortalize the hopelessness they felt in that moment through their skill with the brush. There is power in such emotional resonance, and transformed the painting into an overlap with the shadowfell, where the town's sorrow had likewise been reflected. Not quite a portal, the painting never did much harm but making the already drafty castle hall a little more cold and unwelcoming at night, at least until recent days.
Drawn by the warmth of life and merriment on the air, A Snatcher has discovered the painting and forced its way through, one by one dragging inhabitants of Valasren into the upside down for an unknown purpose.
Challenges & Complications:
Once the party figure out there's something up with the painting, cut to the abducted player waking up in the ruined shadow-town. There's no corresponding painting anywhere to be seen, and because they were taken while they were asleep they're likely a bit exhausted and missing most of their gear. They'll have to be quiet and clever to escape the nightmare things and lingering spirits that dwell within Valasren's shadow, but doing so may give them vital clues about what's really going on. Keep the tension on until the isolated hero is backed into a corner, then have the rest of their friends arrive.
It's a grim irony that before war came to Valasren, the painter was working on capturing the beauty and peace of their home town on canvas, only for that work to be destroyed in the town's raising. Thinking it lost forever, the painter added it in as a detail nearby the burnt out remains of their workshop as a meditation on the happiness thought taken from them. Like many things lost to the mortal world, an echo of the painting has come to reside in the shadowfell, and acts as the exit portal back into the land of light. Finding it though is a problem, the snatcher has removed it from it's resting place and given it over to the terrible entity lairing in the castle. Where they've put it, who can say?
Numerous townsfolk have been pulled into the shadowfell and are scattered about the echo of a place they thought they knew. Lost, affraid, and isolated, many of them have run for cover or have started to sink into the spirit siphoning torpor that afflicts all to dwell too long in shadow.
Extra special thanks to @dm-tuz , who's monsters are ALWAYS an inspiration.
Monsters from the primal expanse of the Drovidiin Wilds have been appearing without warning in the kingdom's heartland, somehow teleported hundreds of miles to rampage through towns and cities. After more than one skirmish with the beats, your party has ventured to the bordertown of Thimblewell on the edge of the wilds, seeking answers.
Adventure Hooks:
Though the party have heard whisperings of the beast attacks before, their firsthand exposure to the phenomenon comes when they hear screams and cries coming from the town's fancy playhouse. An acid spitting drake has somehow found its way inside the building during the middle of the performance and its rampage threatens to bring the house down.
Tasked with tracking down a crew of bandits that've been plundering local caravans, the party's raid of the outlaw's encampment is thrown into chaos when one of their targets breaks open an innocuous crate, pulls out a glowing glass canister and smashes it in the middle of the melee: unleashing a beast in a burst of blue light into an already chaotic final battle.
The party find a strange tension when they arrive in the town of Thimblewell. Though the settlement has a long history of being beset by monsters from the primeval wilderness it borders, there've been no attacks for the past several years and no one seems to want to talk about why. Eventually a disgruntled former guardsman points them in the direction of the local landholder, an amateur mage with a reputation for conducting strange experiments. He fails to mention that said mage has a defence system built into his manse, and that he's been expecting the party's arrival for some time.
Background: Irnett Bittley was never a mage of large talent, both because he was unable to summon up the showy displays of elemental mastery that would have earned him a living as a court wizard, and because his self important streak made him too proud to ever suffer suffer through an apprenticeship. He was a great mage, destined for great things, and the fact that others couldn't see that was their failing.
Tired of being challenged or denied by people who genuinely knew better, Bittley picked up stakes and went to the boonies seeking to find a pond small enough to consider him a big fish. He found it in Thimblewell, a little town sorely in need of a handymage, and he could have been happy and well liked there if the need to be great wasn't etched on his soul. Thimblewell had a monster problem, and while Bittley was no battlecaster he did have a knack for bindings and containment spells. If he managed to catch a monster by supprise while it was distracted by the local millitia he could shrink it down and hold it in stasis, effectively defeating the monster by kicking the can indefinitely down the road.
The townsfolk heaped praised upon him for his heroics, only to have their goodwill spat right back in their faces as Bittley started asking for increasingly steep "donations" to keep his enchantments in place, all but threatening to release the beasts again if his impromptu tax wasn't paid. Fast forward a couple of decades and Baron Bittley has become rich enough to buy himself a title and become Thimblewell's defacto ruler.
Still not content to be a backwoods landbarron, Bittley's latest scheme is to sell his stockpile of captured beasts one by one to unscrupulous individuals who are in need of a good monster: thieves in need of a distraction, poachers and collectors trafficking in rare specimens, nobles who'd prefer an untraceable and indiscriminate means of assassination. This enterprise is making Bittley even more rich, but with success comes paranoia, and we all know how dangerous a paranoid mage can be.
Challenges & Complications:
1: The drake was intended as a means of assassination, targeted at a countess and her heir attending the playhouse's performance in one of the box seats. As the party runs in to save the screaming commoners, they'll potentially be diverted by the countess's guards, intending to save their employer's life before anyone else's. Saving the noble might earn them a rich reward at the cost of many lives, but choosing to look after the common people will earn them the ire of the acid-scarred heir, who watched them save the rabble while his flesh burned and his mother was crushed to death under rubble.
2: After the party have defeated the bandits, they'll find three more of those arcane canisters left in the box, each containing its own miniaturized monster waiting to be unleashed. The caravan the bandits robbed was smuggling these beasts to a buyer with dangerous aims, meaning the caravan's owners now have good reason to want the party silenced. Do the party report their findings? Extort those who hired them at the cost of a knife in the back? Or do they just take their offbrand pokeballs and run, dreaming of the chaos they can cause.
3: Baron Bittley knows the party is coming for him thanks to his spies in town, he also knows he could never hope to take them in a fair fight. Thankfully he’s got access to magic, so he doesn’t need to fight fair, allowing them into his home only to catch them in a trap that will shrink them down to a few inches tall, whereafter it’s a simple matter of mage-handing them over into the basement bound dowry chest/prison he’s made for all those in town who’ve dissented to his rule over the years.
Thankfully the tiny townsfolk have been working on a jailbreak for some time now, having painstakingly sawed their way out of the box while their inattentive overlord’s been distracted domineering the world outside. The greatest hurdle to their escape has been the wild landscape of the junk fulled manor basement, filled with various pests that’ve become arcanely mutated from the leakage from the mage’s lab on the floor above. The party will need to engage in some borrowers esque traversal across the basement, up through the walls, and into the lab if they have any hope of reversing their predicament.
