Pre-Ascanor Flavour Encounters [Broken Moon Spoilers]

[Gonturan]

My gamers just started Broken Moon this week. To spice up the journey through the Shudderwood, and to provide some teasers and clues concerning all the werewolf clans, I designed a mostly-flavour encounter in the haunted ruins of an inn. It did a good job of intriguing (and creeping out) my players, so I thought I'd share it with the boards.

The timing of the encounter presumes that PCs are taking the Silent Path to Ascanor Lodge, and that the journey takes more than a day (it's over 50 miles from Lepidstadt, which I decided was two days by horseback).

"As twilight tightens its grip upon the Shudderwood, all sounds of nature fall away. But through the gloaming, your ears pick up the faintest sound of music. Distant torchlight flickers through the trees, beckoning you from just beyond the path. As you draw near its source, you are surprised to find the first sign of hospitality since you entered the forest: a two-storey building made of sturdy stone, adjoined by stables and other well-kept outbuildings. Above the main door, a sign depicts a peaceful deer at rest, with the name 'The Slumbering Hart' curled around it like a blanket."

The Truth:

In fact, the Slumbering Hart has not been inhabited for centuries. The lights and music are part of an elaborate Haunt that also involves the spirits of those who stayed at the Hart in better days. Most of the phantom NPCs awaiting within have ties to the forest's various werewolf packs, although this may not become clear to the PCs until later in the game.

In my game, I did not provide any initial opportunity to detect or resist the haunt. But my players quickly suspected something was amiss, based on a few clues. For example, an Appraise or Know(History) check might reveal that the bartender's coinage is over 200 years old; or a Know(Religion) check might suggest that Padre Mordrin's (see below) clerical robes have not been used by Desnan priests for generations. My PCs initially thought they'd traveled back in time!

The Szcarni:

The most boisterous guests are a quartet of Szcarni hunters who call themselves the Prince's Men. They are playing poker in the inn's common room, and will allow PCs to join the game, but will try to cheat them (Bluff checks etc.). If accused of cheating, the Szcarni defend their honour verbally, but do not engage in violence. One of them will show the PCs a bronze medallion depicting a crowned wolf; he says, "When you meet the Szarni of the Prince's Men, you do not challenge them. You bend your head and say, 'your honour, sir.'"

This clue may help the PCs when they need to establish an alliance with the Prince's Wolves in Part Three. Perception checks will reveal that Rhakis Szadro wears a similar medallion; if they show the proper respect for him, they will gain his respect and support more quickly.

Padre Mordrin:

In the corner of the common room, a silver-haired Desnan priest sits alone, wringing his hands and muttering to himself. This is the original cleric whose son first brought the curse of lycanthropy to the Shudderwood, during the reign of the Whispering Tyrant. The priest concealed his son and experimented upon him, ultimately infecting his own congregation with the curse (as described Part Three).

If PCs approach Mordrin and win his trust, he will reveal some of his sins to them, but his confession is fragmented and cryptic. For instance: "It was all for the good of the boy. He was so sick, he was so hungry ... I didn't mean to infect them all. My poor flock ... I thought he would be safe, in the adytum ... I never meant for it to come to this."

The word "adytum" is odd enough that it may stick in PCs' memories. A clever PC might even think to look the word up while researching in Ascanor. Alternatively, you could offer them a Know(religion) check to define it. In any case, this provides a clue for the PCs while they are searching the Stairs of the Moon in Part Three.

The demon child:

Cries from upstairs suggest a young woman is in pain. A raven-haired midwife descends the stairs, demanding food and water from the barkeep. If any of the PCs are arcane spellcasters (especially witches) or evil clerics, the midwife might ask them for help. Her ward appears to be a bedridden young woman, very pregnant and utterly ravenous.

In fact, both of these women are hags who worship Jezelda, the Mistress of the Hungry Moon. Jezelda spitefully answered the hags' requests for power by infecting one of them with a demonic parasite; her insatiable hunger is a result of the demon's swift gestation.

This encounter could play out in many different ways; in my case, I used it as a hook for a sub-quest (the widwife asked our party's witch to retrieve some "herbal remedies" from Ascanor). If the PCs attempt to help or cure the pregnant hag, they may trigger the demon's violent birth. The demon is a coal-furred wolf-child -- foreshadowing the Demon Wolves whom the PCs encounter in Feldgrau.

Credit: this encounter was partly inspired by the adventure "Call of the Spider Crone" by Tim Connors, in "Tales of the Old Margreve."

Dorzhev the Woodcutter:

A short, russet-haired woodsman sits at the bar, sweating profusely. He orders water by the gallon, and complains about the heat (though the PCs do not feel hot). A Heal check or an appropriate spell reveals Dorzhev is running a high fever, but he refuses to accept treatment. When the other encounters have run their course, Dorzhev will suddenly leap from his stool, screaming in pain and tearing at his clothes.

Since this will be the first lycanthrope the PCs encounter, I chose to make his transformation particularly sinister and weird. The PCs witness Dorzhev transform into a "Broken One" -- but in my campaign, I decided to change this tribe to "Burnt Ones," and to make Dorzhev's metamorphosis appear like spontaneous combustion; his skin erupts in boils and burns, and finally he bursts into flames. When the flames subside, his hybrid werewolf appears charred and skinless, and he howls in pain as well as rage. This flavour need not affect the stats of later Dorzhanevs, although I suppose one could easily slap fire resistance and/or cold vulnerability on them.

After he transforms, Dorzhev will attack the nearest targets. At this point, I gave my PCs Perception checks to detect the Haunt; if they fail, they are vulnerable to damage from the wolf's attacks (although not to the curse of lycanthropy). After 1 round, Padre Mordrin will throw himself into the fray, demanding that Dorzhev devour him, as penance for the priest's blasphemies. If the PCs do not intervene, Dorzhev will disembowel Mordrin; meanwhile, the flames from his transformation will spread to engulf the inn.

Aftermath:

I did not intend for this to be a combat-focused encounter, so I ended the Haunt two rounds after Dorzhev's transformation. Your mileage may vary; but I feel it's better to reveal the phantom nature of the inn and its inhabitants quickly after violence erupts. Once the Haunt ends, the inn becomes an abandoned ruin, but a few scorch marks and ancient bloodstains attest to the historical veracity of what the PCs witnessed.

These mini-encounters, supplemented with research or conversations at the Lodge, can help the PCs understand the various werewolf tribes that war for dominance in Shudderwood. Note that my encounters do not include any references to the Vollensag or Primals; I would love for someone to suggest another NPC or encounter to remedy this omission.

[Darkstrom]

I love it and I might use it in place of my encounter I had planned.

The one I have planned involves the group passing through a Dorzhanev hamlet along the Silent Path, near dusk. The group would be urged to hurry on by the villagers but if they stay they'd have to deal with taciturn and rude behavior.

I wasn't going to have it become a combat encounter (the previous night they were just ambushed by red-furred werewolves - Random encounter) and they captured one of them in the resulting melee.

Sidenote: The group is terrified that one or more of them may have contracting lycanthropy. I've been rolling their checks for that in secret. It really increased their paranoia - time will tell (with the full moon a week and a half away) if their fears bear dark fruit.

[Voomer]

This is terrific stuff. It is likely I will adopt it wholesale (although we're just now starting TOTB). I assume it happens before the "tower" encounter that is at the start of Broken Moon?

How did the "demon child" encounter work out in your game? That is the only one that confused me a bit.

spoiler:

What does helping/curing the hag entail? What would the birth of the "coal-furred wolf-child" look like? Would the wolf-child then jump out a window and disappear into the woods to end that encounter?

Thanks so much for sharing.

[Gonturan]

Voomer wrote:

I assume it happens before the "tower" encounter that is at the start of Broken Moon?

I deleted that encounter, and inserted the plot item into a different event. You could certainly keep the tower, and present them in any order you prefer.

Voomer wrote:

How did the "demon child" encounter work out in your game? That is the only one that confused me a bit.

Yeah, sorry about the vagueness there. I didn't think it was necessary to get into all the character-specific stuff. But since you asked:

Spoiler:

One of my PCs is a witch from Absalom in search of her sister (also a witch). I plan on modifying the backstory of the hags in "Ashes of Dawn" to include the PCs' sister. Essentially, the "pregnant" hag is Oothi, and the trauma of her supernatural delivery causes her to break down and become trapped in spider swarm form. The midwife is one of the other two hags, and the PCs' sister will eventually make her appearance as number three.

Since I sent my PC off to retrieve an ingredient for the witches, she may yet return to the inn. So I don't know how it's going to play out yet. I'll let you know!

[Voomer]

Thanks. I actually meant just the particulars about the violent birth and its aftermath, if that happened in your game, rather than the PC-specific stuff. I forgot that you had mentioned that you used the encounter to launch a PC side quest. I probably would not do that, but I'll probably have it play out as outlined in my spoiler.

[Gonturan]

In my game, the birth didn't happen yet. If it were to happen, I would try to run it as a non-combat encounter, with the demon-wolf-child escaping as you suggested. But I would try to add a few details to suggest the little critter has a great deal of power -- flight perhaps, maybe concealment or DR -- anything to ramp up the PCs expectations that, if or when they encounter it again, it will definitely put up a fight.

[Voomer]

Just thought I'd mention that I played thconfused is out last night and the players loved it. They were appropriately confused and figured things out slowly enough and played along enough.

I ended up adding a Vollensag to the mix as follows: "Throwing dice with the Sczarni is a tall, lean fellow with long, wild dark hair (Holg). He is dressed rather primitively, wearing hide armor. He has a huge sword wrapped in cloth strapped to his back. If someone approaches the table they see a (Zoic) fetish around his neck made out of bundles of twine hair and stone." Obviously, the Sczarni were cheating.

One of the PCs is a Varisian barbarian, so he bee-lined for the dice table and had some good interactions with the Sczarni. The leader of the group delivered the message as suggested in your post and the barbarian found the (obviously centuries old) bronze medallion in the ruins of the inn. It should be interesting when he shows it to Rhakis Szadro.

The priest ended up being the best source of information that something odd was happening time-wise, because the players probed his historical knowledge and figured out that he was time oriented centuries ago. The players asked the bartender if there was a Desnan temple nearby and he told them he had heard of a Desna observatory somewhere in the Shudderwood.

The birth scene was appropriately creepy. The demon wolf burst out of the hag's stomach Alien-style, and the PCs in the room were too freaked out to do anything about it. It leapt out the window, as did the hag (who dropped her disguise to reveal her true nature). The players figured out that Jezelda is a demon lord.

Finally, when Dorzhev transformed I gave the PCs a chance to disbelieve the haunt and most of them did. So when Dorzhev's claws dug into the wizard, the claws passed right through, although the cleric saw the wizard gushing blood and tried to cure him. The Padre offered himself to Dorzhev who ripped out his throat.

I didn't have Dorzhev transform with fire, so I had the bartender throw a torch to start the fire. Which was a bit of a WTF moment, but it worked. The Sczarni and Kellid (the Vollensag stand in) just stood calmly and watched, which added to the confusion. The leader of the Sczarni made a reference along the lines of "The Broken Ones are puny werewolves."

Shortly thereafter the whole inn filled with smoke and then the smoke cleared and it was a ruin. It was a little odd to have such an elaborate event be a haunt, but the PCs accepted that haunts are vague eldritch happenings that don't follow game rule logic. I think it will be really cool once they recognize the connections to the tribes.

Thanks so much for sharing your fabulous idea!