One Shot: Ghost Town
Overview:
This one shot is aimed at a Level 3 party of 4, and should last about 4-6 hours depending on the players’ actions.
As a standalone game, this takes place during an attempted Drow invasion; In the midst of war to the south, a crucial supply village to the west has become silent. Their last word relayed discovery of an iron mine which would aid in the much needed forging of weapons and armor, and the supplemental harvests they reap have been a boon to the citizens of this city while trade between Baronies has been somewhat limited. While the supplies are much needed, the battles are not going well enough to divert soldiers from the front lines, and so a mercenary group is hired to investigate. Unfortunately, when the party arrive the village seems to be in a coma. Dark creatures have been coming up in the night and stealing the village’s life essence, but it’s not the Drow. In ancient history a Half-Dragon attempted to gain power through siphoning souls and absorbing them, using dementor-like creatures made of shadow to harvest the souls and deliver them here. Ultimately the creatures and ritual were turned against him, imprisoning him. When the surveyor for the mine unwittingly opened the cavern, the mindless shadows sought more souls to fuel the cage.
DM Note: If you’re throwing this one-shot into the middle of your campaign but don’t want to work in a convoluted war with the Drow, this should work just as well with Drow Raiders, and the guards can be busy with any other number of things. You will want the Drow mentioned though as you’ll want the players thinking they’re the ones responsible before the big reveal.
Introductions
“You all come down from your rooms at The Drunken Dragon to a mouthwatering smell, a luxurious feast has been laid out on a table in the center of the inn, but as the enticing wafts of food draw you in, it suddenly becomes apparent the inn is unusually quiet. The room is completely empty, save for one hooded figure serving themselves some of the food from the table.”
The man is Lord Graem Rikkel and is the land owner of Kayen village. He has heard tell of the party’s exploits and wishes to recruit them for a job. The food is for him, but he won’t argue if others want some. As the party members approach he’ll lower his hood;
“Sitting there is a young to middle-aged human. He’s clean-shaven and has greying blonde hair pulled taught into a ponytail. Brown eyes examine everyone approaching.”
PLAYING RlKKEL - As far as nobles go he’s surprisingly laid back, but not afraid to get his hands dirty. He’s the kind of noble who seems playful, but like he would play with his food so to speak. He does have some military experience though, so can go from playful to sharp in a moment. As he addresses the PCs, he’ll occasionally look towards the bar off to the side - His bodyguard, Ser Hadley, stands in the shadow close to the door. Don’t worry about describing her, she’s in full plate armor and doesn’t like to talk.
Once he’s done with introductions he’ll go straight into proposing the job to the group. If necessary implying it would be in their best interests.
“There is a small village to the west, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it; Kayen. It’s a small farming town, and only appears on a few maps. A couple of weeks ago I received a courier message informing me of an iron ore deposit on the southern edge. Now, I’ve heard you’re a smart bunch so I’m sure I don’t need to explain the importance of a new source of metal during a time of war. I sent a surveyor (Mertin) to do a little bit more investigating, but he still hasn’t reported back. As a matter of fact none of the food wagons Esari has been expecting in the mean time have arrived, either. Kayen may be a small ink splotch on a map, but any food and metal is a valuable commodity these days, especially with trade between Baronies being somewhat limited.”
“Something is cutting off Kayen, find it and put a stop to it, or whatever you have to do. We need Kayen in this fight, even if they’re just helping keep bellies full.”
EXTRA INFO:
Kayen is the name the elves gave the forest that once stood here centuries ago.
The war is to the south, and the battles are not going well enough to divert any soldiers. Even if they could, it would take much longer than sending the party.
The reward is 800gp, and if the party want to haggle; an additional 100 if the surveyor (Mertin) is brought back alive with his findings.
The potential mine site is on the southern border of town, just beyond its border.
Gathering Supplies
This part is completely optional based on how much time you have to work with, and whether or not you want to get straight to the meat of things, however, it’s sometimes interesting to ask the players what supplies they would like to gather before heading on the road as it gives an insight into where they think things might go going forward. You can just take this as a moment to see what they’re thinking, or go a step further and note whatever they get and come up with scenarios for them to use any tools or kits they purchase.
Healing Potions - Since this is a time of conflict, characters are going to have a hard time getting healing supplies, however, it’s an excellent time for a bard to smooth talk, or the rogue to use a criminal contact, since they’re not likely to take advantage of those abilities later on.
The “Random Encounter”
Once the party get on the road to Kayen, it’s time to get rolling for random encounters! This time, however, there’s nothing random about it;
“About half a day from the village something seems to be kicking up dust just off the road to the left. The sound of ground being beaten gets louder as the dust begins to grow in size, it gets closer, making its way to the road at an alarming speed.”
A pack of wolves are charging full sprint towards the party, but they’re not attacking. Instead they’re running from something - and if the party are smart, they’ll work out the wolves are coming from the vague direction of the village, although probably not until after everything has transpired;
“From the cloud bursts forward a wolf, leading the charge of another, and another. A pack of wolves sprinting towards you - What do you do?”
Have the party roll initiative, we’re going to put them on edge just a bit. The wolves will do their best to just run past and not attack - whatever unnatural thing they’re running away from is more serious than snacking on a group of people. When the “combat” is over, let the party draw some conclusions before getting them to move along.
Kayen
”You see in the distance the vague silhouettes of buildings, half covered by a couple acres of farmland.”
In their approach to the village, the player with the highest passive perception will notice that it’s oddly quiet; There’s no sound of voices drifting in the wind, nobody seen working the farmland, and no sign of movement in the village ahead. By the time they reach where the buildings start that player will be the first to notice it, followed quickly by the others; bodies, dotted around here and there.
A DC18 medicine check will let them know the bodies aren’t dead, but in a very near dead state. Nothing they can do right now will wake them.
At this point have the players make a perception check - Either anyone above a DC14, or the highest roll if lower than that, will swear they felt the ground shake slightly.
The ground here is unstable due to the degradation of the ‘cage’ below the village.
As they investigate the town, occasionally have them repeat this check, with the same results - especially if their pace ever seems to slow.
At this point the players are going to start poking around to try and figure out what happened - they are here to fix things after all. There are a few ways the story can progress forward, depending on what the party does;
If they investigate more than one house:
Since this is a simple farming village the buildings here aren’t very developed, in fact for the most part they’re single room huts with beds, living space, and kitchen space crammed in.
Most houses seem to be a similar story to outside; various amounts of near-dead villagers, some in bed, some at tables, some just laying on the floor.
In the second house they search, there is a child hiding (poorly) under one of the beds who seems to be the soul survivor. He can be noticed with a DC9 Perception check of the room.
The child’s name is Llewelyn, and seems in rough shape. He’s definitely scared so it’s going to take a little bit of encouragement from the party for them to get information out of him. Here’s what he knows:
One night he noticed dark figures outside so he hid. The next morning his parents wouldn’t wake up. Nobody he found would wake up.
The dark figures were actually the dementor-like shadow guardians we mentioned in the overview, but let’s see if we can get the players to think it was Drow.
He’s been trying to stay alive ever since, and he’s starving and thirsty.
Llewelyn has no clue where the figures came from or what they did, and can’t give a better description of them because they were dark and it was night time.
If the party don’t manage to spot the child, he’ll try to sneak off and hide elsewhere in the village, trying to stay away from the strangers, who in his mind may be responsible for all this.
If the party seem clueless and stuck:
While the party is meandering around, wait for a moment when they split up leaving one vulnerable. One of those shadow guardians is going to take this moment to attack, approaching its prey in whatever form is most appealing to them. The creature is going to try and get close, and work its way to landing a kiss, at which point it’ll try and suck their soul out. If it’s successful it’ll keep working its way around the party members.
For these shadow creatures we’re using the same statistics as Shadows from the Monster Manual, with one slight addition:
Soul Stealing - As an action the shadow attempts to siphon the soul from a creature it can kiss. The target must make a DC10 WIS saving throw or be stunned until the soul is returned from defeating the creature or a greater restoration spell.Once the shadow is low on hit points it’ll disengage and retreat southwards (towards the site of the mine).
If the party spend a night in Kayen OR they explore the perimeter of Kayen:
As the sun begins to set, a thin line of light grey smoke can be seen rising from the south-west side of this small village. Somebody seems to have set up a camp along the outskirts.
Investigating the site will reveal the visage of a beautiful elven woman dancing with a bandit, they seem to be enjoying themselves despite the lack of music. The party arrive just as she starts going in for a kiss. Suddenly the fire grows dark as a light leaves his lips and he begins to fall. Before he even hits the ground the visage has changed into an amorphous shadow and darts off to the south east tree line (to the site of the mine).
If the party attack, the shadow will continue to flee.
If the party don’t attack or give chase at all, have them make a DC10 perception check to notice another tremor.
By this point, the party hopefully understands they either need to find the site of the this mine, or follow the shadow’s path towards the south. Again, don’t forget to sprinkle in perception checks for tremors here and there.
The Cave/Mine
Heading towards the tree line on the south edge of Kayen, the party will find a small cliff which rises up about 30ft from the ground, a giant tree only half perched on the rocks on top. The thick roots of the other half scramble down the rocks forming a solid wooden netting to act as a support. It looks like at some point recently some of the roots have been hacked away to reveal a small opening to a cave.
Inside at the rear end is body laying face down on the ground. Just beyond it is a crack in the wall.
The body is dressed in fine purple robes, with a leather satchel around their shoulder, he has scruffy brown hair, a small soul patch, and broken round bifocals - It is the surveyor, Mertin, who is near death like everyone else in town.
Inside the satchel seems to be a collection of geographical notes on the area.
The notes mention a cave on the southern edge which was exposed by recent local tremors.
Mertin found a section of loose rock towards the back of the cave which he believes will lead to another cave. He believes clearing the way will take a day, and should be completed by evening of the following day if he starts in the morning.
The crack leads to a narrow shaft that steeply winds down into the darkness.
Eventually it comes out into a grand carved cavern, stretching both left and right.
Left: This path leads to a cave in about 40 feet down. Investigating the area shows a small assortment of well used picks and shovels, discarded and some partially crushed.
The cave in is fairly recent, and man made - The players are unlikely to learn this information, but about 3 weeks ago Drow were tunneling through the area and came across the ruins ahead. After losing a good amount of soldiers, they decided to cave in the path and find a different route.
Right: Following this way, there are sounds of barely audible whispers in the air. After about 5 or so minutes the chiseled corridor expands and forms a natural cave formation, leading to the ruins described below.
The Shadow Chamber
“You eventually come to what looks like a large stone entryway, before you stands a giant 30ft high and 15ft wide carved archway. At one point it looks like it was painted with various designs, but all that’s left are the carvings. Beyond the doorway simply appears to be darkness.”
The chamber ahead is about 25ft wide and 40ft across with an equal sized archway on the other side and is filled with a magical darkness. Stepping inside snuffs any non magical light sources, and reduces magical light to half its radius. Equally non-magical darkvision is reduced to half its distance.
Combat: Before even stepping into the chamber, 4 shadows come out from the blacknes in the guise of simple villagers relieved at rescuers. They’ll attempt to get close and suck the souls out of at least one of the party members. Once one has a soul it will retreat into the soul chamber where it will dispense the soul into the pool. The rest will attempt to keep the party at bay. This combat can be skipped if you feel you are running tight on time! They might take out the boss a little easier though.
Making their way through this chamber is difficult, as the darkness almost fights back against them, making it to the other side requires three successful DC10 STR checks. A natural 20 counts for double, and two natural 1s cause a point of exhaustion. If a shadow is retreating through here it doesn’t need to make any such check.
Somewhere inside is also the body of a Drow, which one of the players may trip over. After the second STR check from everyone, roll to see who does trip over the body. Due to the blackness they’ll only be able to make out the details with darkvision or some source of magical light - anything else will have to be discerned through touch.
The Soul Chamber
“This cavern has a faint glow about it allowing you to see its magnitude without the need for any torchlight. The main feature of this room is a large 80ft high rough stone pillar atop which something seems to be radiating a blue light. In front of you appears to be a lake of some kind which wraps around the stone pillar in the center, this too glows faintly of a similar light blue, casting dim light on a pathway that circles around the water’s edge. Suddenly there’s a rumbling all around as small amounts of dirt and debris falls from above before everything settles as quickly as it started.“
This ‘pool’ is where the shadow guardians deposit the collected souls to fuel the cage atop the giant stone pillar, and hence this is where the whispers floating in the air come from. If any of the shadow guardians from the previous chamber were able to steal a party member’s soul, they’ll be seen here at the water’s edge slowly and delicately depositing the party member’s glowing life essence into the water. If the PCs are able interrupt this process the soul will float off, flittering towards its body. If they don’t stop the process in time, dumping the PC into the water will restore their soul.. but they’ll have to make the same CHA save mentioned below.
If they get close to the water to examine either it or the pillar, read this:
“There is a faint current to the water, but rather than an ebb and flow the current seems to gently swirl around the central pillar. Paying closer attention to the mass of stone, there appears to be water spiraling up it in three thin streams, almost impossible to notice if not for the faint blue glow they give off.”
Touching or drinking the water at all results in a DC13 CHA Saving throw against being possessed by one of the souls in the pool.
If the PC fails, for all intents and purposes they are considered possessed by a Ghost from the monster manual. Instead of attacking they are simply going to run away in a random direction from being freaked out, they’ll only fight to defend themselves.
If/when they are able to either banish the ghost from the body or knock their comrade unconscious, the exposed glowing orb of life essence will flitter away towards the exit, being drawn to its body.
With a good perception check (DC18) any observant party members will notice there a handful of bodies at the bottom of this body of water. If any beat a DC23, give them the vague description of Drow.
The exit to this chamber is on the opposite side of the pillar, where there is yet another identical carved stone archway leading into a corridor. This one, however, leads upwards rather sharply.
The Locked Door
“The corridor leads up to an unlit octagonal room. There is another grand archway with seemingly darkness on the other side. Four opposing walls have ornate torch sconces. Opposite the doorway is an almost bare wall, with the remains of a long faded mural. Beneath is a body slumped agains the wall.”
The Door - unlike the last time the players were faced with this image, the shadow is actually a corporeal door that won’t let anything past. There are no handles, locks, or hinges, just shadow. Players will need to complete the puzzle to progress - solution shown below.
The Mural is hard to make out, what can be seen is a crowd of people in the lower third. They march towards the middle from the left and right, all holding various goods (items and treasures). In the middle where they converge is a tower of stone atop which is a red silhouette, arms outstretched. Higher on the mural are whats left of two large angry red eyes.
The body is that of a drow, armored and with a longsword sheathed to his right. If the party investigate him, they may discover that he too is in a near death state like the villagers, but also that he has the fourth missing torch needed to complete the puzzle, nestled right next to his leg.
The Sconces are the key to opening the door, though only 3 contain torches, which are “masterfully crafted torches with metal vinework wrapping up the handles”. The fourth, missing, torch needs to be put back in place in order to open the door.
The torches are magic and automatically snuff out quickly after being lit.
In order to suppress the darkness creating the door, all torches need to be in their sconces and lit at the same time, and only then do they stay lit.
If you have fewer than four players, any player can successfully light two torches in time with a successful DC14 Athletics check.
The Red Silhouette
“Beyond the archway is another serpentine corridor snaking up into the void, not completely dark though. Something beyond is casting a faint blue light of some kind. The corridor opens up onto a stone bridge that extends over a massive cavern, still climbing upwards. As you crest over the peak you see floating in the air a giant blue translucent orb. Something seems to be inside it. On three ‘corners’ of this approximately circular platform are strange pillars, strands of blue light seem to wrap around them and when they reach the top flow through the air, feeding into the orb. In a fourth corner seems to be a boulder, surrounded by a pile of rubble and a pool of faintly glowing water.”
Inside the orb is a Half-Red Dragon Veteran (from the monster manual), arms outstreched, head down when they first enter but as soon as the party steps from the bridge onto the platform 3 shadows emerge from the pillars and his voice in draconic echoes through the chamber: “Ah, some playthings have arrived” as the red creature looks up he chuckles as the shadows advance on the players. We’re Rolling initiative!
Shadows’ initiative: if there are fewer shadows than there are of the pillars, new ones will emerge to equal the amount of pillars. So if there are two pillars still standing but only one shadow still alive, a new one comes out to play. This keeps happening until either all the pillars are destroyed or the party flees.
The objective of the shadows is to defend the pillars from being destroyed, so these ones aren’t interested in souls.
The Pillars have an AC12 and 10 Hit Points, but have resistance against Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage, as well as any non-magical damage.
Half Dragon’s Initiative: While he is still in the orb, on his initiative he exerts his will on the orb and its power source, making a straining sound and a draconic roar, after which there is a tremble and rocks begin to fall - Roll a D8, and assign every other creature a number, whatever number is rolled, that creature has to make a DC12 Dex Save against falling debris. On a failure they take 1d6 bludgeoning, on a success they take half.
The Half Dragon has 1 Legendary Action it can use every round to either move or use one of it’s attack actions.
Once all the pillars are destroyed: “The orb and strings of floating light collapse, crashing into the ground like a mass of water. In the middle, on one knee is the half-dragon. A chuckle fills the chamber, followed by draconic - Free at last.”
Note that this brings the combat from dim light into no light, suddenly increasing difficulty if nobody has a light source or darkvision.
If any shadows remain, they will immediately move to attack the Half Dragon on their turn, and he will attack back, focussing on them first.
If no shadows remain, or when they are all defeated (assuming none of the party have attacked him - he will thank them for releasing him from his prison and demand they serve under him.
The Half-Dragon makes no secret of his plans for power and conquest.
Refusal will not be taken lightly. If they do not agree to join, then they must be disposed of.
His name is Kiirnan - A DC16 History check will let the party know about how he tried to achieved power but was thwarted and his magic device was turned into his cage.
If the party agree - the game ends here and now!
If the party disagrees - it’s time for a boss fight!
If any of the party have attacked him before he could speak, he will grapple the weakest one who attacked and acknowledge their strength before demanding they serve under him - See above!
If the party fights, the battle ends when either he is dead or the party is, as our Half Dragon friend is too arrogant to imagine being felled by a group of lowly adventurers. To be fair he’s a bit drained and out of practice. How the game ends depends on what happened…
Epilogue
Victory In Battle
“The chamber grows unsteady, at first it seems to be crumbling as debris begins raining down until suddenly there is calm. The darkness that surrounds the chamber begins to lift. Light starts to fill the stone room as the lake below transforms into a hundred or so beads of light, that drift up and then flitter off through the chambers leading outside. “
[If they left the near dead Drow alone] “Heading out yourselves, you make your way down the serpentine corridors, to find that the Drow you had found in the room with the sconces has disappeared.”
Slowly the people of Kayen begin waking form their slumber, none the wiser about what happened. However, there are some that will never wake up - Mertin being one of those. Fortunately his research and notes will still be of value to Lord Rikkel, and the mine could help with the impending war.”
Death In Battle
“The grizzled Half Dragon walks over your dead and broken corpses. He halts before leaving across the stone bridge before turning back and picks the corpses up one by one, muttering something in ancient draconic before tossing you into the sea of souls below. Gnarled wings unfold from his back as he glides down to meet the four servants climbing out of the water [Describe the player characters with red eyes]. A crooked grin creeps across his red scaled face: "We have work to do.””
Here To Serve
Once the players agree to serve, all the Half Dragon says is “Goood” in a low gravelly voice, and we cut to black. In this case it’s better for them to imagine what happens next - or better yet, it’s a great opportunity to create a campaign to find out what happens next. Do they help him achieve his goals? Do they betray him along the way? The best way to find out is to play!
