I came up with this thing on a Reddit thread asking for creepy encounters. I wrote it up, and I kind of like the backstory and the monsters it uses.
The Bloody Huntsman:
Gilkerid was a powerful, wise hunter, protecting both animals and travelers from unnatural threats and providing succor for those who sought shelter in the Great Wood. Gilkerid also had a tempestuous affair with a Kareen, a powerful Rusalka sorceress. For years, this dark water spirit, and the bright forest protector would come together, love, then part when his oath to protect others conflicted with Kareen's dark heart.
Their affair continued for a century or more, until finally Gilkerid found love -- true love -- with the human maiden Taniah. They married, they had children, and Gilkerid attended to his duties in the Great Forest.
But Kareen was furious after Gilkerid had not visited her for more than a decade. The jealous faerie concocted a strategem. She sent Gilkerid a note, saying that a great beast had threatened her home, and that though they were no longer lovers, she begged his help. When Gilkerid answered her call, she set him against a young dragon laired deep within the Great Wood.
As he fought the dragon, Kareen set her vengeance in motion. She ensorcelled several humans, then sent them to slay Taniah, and her children with Gilkerid, while the huntsman was otherwise occupied.
Gilkerid returned to find his family -- Taniah and their children -- slaughtered -- and men standing over their corpses. Furious, Gilkerid nocked arrow after arrow to his bow, slaying the men almost instantly. Then ... he tended to the dead. Gilkerid burned their mangled bodies.
As Gilkerid spread the last of his children's ashes across his now-ruined homestead, Kareen appeared to him. Now that the "silly mortal" was out of the way, she said, she and Gilkerid could be together again.
It did not take Gilkerid long to realize that Kareen was responsible for his family's death, and he quickly brought his bow to bear on her. But ... Kareen fled his vengeance, realizing she that her former lover would soon come to slay her.
That night, they both prayed. They prayed for strength. They prayed for safety. They prayed for love. But most of all, they prayed for vengeance. Gilkerid prayed for the strength and determination to overcome Kareen, no matter how long it might take. And Kareen prayed for Gilkerid to be struck down, and for him to feel her pain for eternity.
Unfortunately, the same dark god answered them both. This deity struck Gilkerid down that night, rending flesh from bone ... and Gilkerid arose a fortnight later, a skeleton covered in blood. He had strength sufficient to overcome Kareen, and immunity to her charms , but at the cost of his mortality. And, as Kareen prayed, he would feel betrayal ... anger ... for eternity.
Kareen has not been seen in a century or more. But Gilkerid himself, now known as the Bloody Huntsman, now patrols the Great Wood. No mortals dare enter this place, lest an arrow from the Bloody Huntsman find their heart ... and they find themselves part of his hunt for eternity.
Systemwise, the Bloody Huntsman should built this way: Start with an elven ranger of the appropriate level, probably 10-12. Give him the bloody skeleton template, then amp it up to a bloody skeletal champion. Then, apply the TOHC Undead Lord template. Handwave his Create Spawn ability so that he can create both normal bloody skeletons and bloody skeletal champions. For the huntsman's bond, the Bloody Huntsman ought to have a great bloody skeletal horse.
Give the players the Bloody Huntsman legend in whatever form you like. He should have a base of some sort in the heart of the Great Haunted Wood. Perhaps it's his old village, now overgrown with dead-looking trees?
Obviously, the Haunted Forest is chock-full of bloody skeletal undead, victims of the Bloody Huntsman. Because of their Deathless ability, these creatures cannot truly be killed without a good cleric using positive energy on them. The unintelligent skeletons (especially animal) skeletons continue to play out their roles in life. Skeletal squirrels scamper through the dead trees, looking for nuts. Skeletal deer graze on dead grass, that promptly falls out of their nonexistent stomachs. Those deer, in turn, are stalked by packs of skeletal wolves. The skeletal wolves will bring down a deer, gnaw on its bones ... and then an hour later, the skeletal deer knits itself back together and goes back to its half-life.
Get creative. There may even be dryad skeletons, bound to dead trees, or skeletal treants wandering about.
And, of course, the Bloody Huntsman wanders this forest, "protecting" it from intruders. The Bloody Huntsman himself ought to have a "hunting party," a mix bloody skeletal hunting animals and bloody skeletal champion humanoids (perhaps even a couple spellcasters).
Because of the dark god's curse, the Bloody Huntsman is confined to the Haunted Wood. However, the Haunted Wood grows ever so slightly each year, as the Bloody Huntsman spreads his blight farther and farther.
The secret at the heart of the wood. The Bloody Huntsman caught and slew Kareen long ago ... and she promptly rose as his skeletal spawn. He keeps her imprisoned in his lair at the center of the Great Haunted Wood, and far away from any source of water. If players manage to find her, she will attempt to use her Charm Monster ability to get them to free her and take her to a good cleric who can release her from her eternal undeath.
Not immediately, although any bloody skeleton can be defeated with sufficient positive energy channeled at them.
But (bouncing it around in my head), I think the best way would be to find the spirits of Taniah and his children, or (at the other end) perhaps persuade Kareen to reject him once and for all.
