Adventure prompt for my CoS group who have turned into helping this big bad vampire in doing some tasks for him.
Dungeon: The Crooked House
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile/
He found a crooked penny, and gave a crooked smile/
He bought a crooked cat, to hunt a crooked mouse/
and they all lived together in a little crooked house/
Setup: As nightmare dimensions go, The Crooked House is a relatively small one, a hungry sliver of the shadowfell that takes the form of a ramshackle cottage bent in on itself in odd, spiraling angles.
The Crooked House might appear anywhere fallen into shadow, but unlike its country cousin, prefers rural or semi-urban environments, just close enough to haunt the dreams of passers by and insinuate itself into local folklore.
This domain is ruled over by “The Crooked Man” , a rambling, shrouded figure that goes about on various “errands” in the most sinister way possible, seemingly with no other purpose than to creep his neighbors out. Such errands include:
Chopping firewood in someone else’s back yard in the middle of the night, leaving before they have a chance to come out and question him
Following behind a group of travelers on a lonely road for hours at a time, never answering any hails, wandering off if approached, only to appear at a later juncture
Circling through the market with a sack laden over his shoulder, alternatively wriggling, rattling, or dripping ominously. Never stopping to trade.
Gently rapping at the windows of children who are up past their bed time, sometimes climbing walls or dangling down from rooves to do so if the window is hard to reach.
Those that disturb the crooked man in these tasks face little consequence, though may be overwhelmed by a sensation of fear. Everyone knows rumors however of those that tested the crooked man’s patience, and ended up hacked along with the kindling, or stuffed into his bag and taken back to the crooked house. Every community that hosts the house develops such tales, almost as a necessity of dealing with this nightmarish neighbor.
Adventure Hooks:
While none actually want the crooked house around, there are a limited few with the powers to do anything about it: Religious authorities, concerned town councils, rival dark powers. Any of these groups may send the party in as their catspaw, looking to evict the crooked man or raise the structure to its shadowy foundations before his dark influence spreads any further.
While the crooked man himself may pose only a minor threat, other strange creatures that live within the dark domicile can manifest as more of an active threat. Infestations of moonrats are known to spread from the building’s cellars into neighboring homesteads, and dire, predatory creatures with great black wings sometimes nest in its gutters or dangle from its eaves. While these threats can be contained, actually exterminating them may require some brave souls to venture into the house itself.
Outlaws are well aware that those that enter the house seldom come back, and have given up on trying to steal from the place and turned this to their advantage. A party that runs afoul of the local rogue’s gallery may find themselves knocked out, only to awaken to the sound of squeaking wheels, the rumble of an unsteady road, and the rasp of burlap. Tied into sacks and left out for the crooked man to collect and load into a rickety cart, the party only has a limited amount of time to escape their bindings before their driver makes it back to his home.
Its happened, a child has gone missing. Sick for weeks and bedridden, the youngster was apparently taken after days of the crooked man leaving noxious, unknown “medicines” at the family’s doorstep. Whatever treatment this fiend has in mind... it can’t be good.
