Welcome to the next post in a series where I describe the adventures during a 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while ago.
In my last post, our players had a chat with the Mayor of Tuadun, Gerd Ardrix. He had explained all the recent troubling events that had happened in and around the town, and his feeling that they were all linked.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
The Party's Decision
Although they are budding heroes, the party knew that they were only first level so needed to deal with simpler and (hopefully) safer problems before moving on to more dangerous ones.
After some discussion, they agreed among themselves that finding out what had happened to the shepherd Mirag, his wife Tarna and their two children was probably the most appropriate for their current abilities. I sat back and let them discuss the options without dropping any hints, and this was the right decision !
Journey to the Forest Edge
From Tuadun to the woods is about three quarters of a day's travel, down a road that is more like a packed earth path, which the players spot would become muddy and difficult in bad weather.
After stopping at a couple of shepherd's houses along the way, the party determines that Mirag’s hut is relatively easy to find. It’s at the edge of the woods and is distinguished from other shepherd’s huts because the sheepfold is on the south side rather than the north, and the chimney has two pots.
They Find Mirag
By the time the characters get to Mirag's hut, it is almost dusk. It's a sturdy log cabin with thick wooden shingles for roof tiles and a stone chimneybreast. There is no sign of life; no smoke from the chimney, no lights, and the strong shutters are closed.
The players agree among themselves that they need to investigate, and that if the hut is empty, that it's probably safer to hole up there for the night before continuing their investigations.
The hut has three rooms. The main room is a combined kitchen & living room in one, with a fireplace which doubles as a hearth and cooking place. The other two rooms are bedrooms, one for Mirag and Tarna, the other for their two children.
Mirag and Tarna are dead inside in their bedroom. The inside of the hut hasn’t been disturbed particularly, and the two have been laid on their bed. Their throats have been slashed open, and the bed-sheets are crusted with dried blood.
If touched, it’ll become clear they are zombies – their first attack should gain surprise as they lash out. These are fast zombies, not the slow moaning type !
In terms of actual statistics, they are the standard from the 5th Edition Monster Manual. After all, these are first level characters, it's no fair to be too harsh on them.
But there is one extra twist. Any hit doing high damage (more than 50% of the maximum possible) will inflict disease. The disease consists of fever, aches and shakes. The onset time is one hour at which point a DC15 constitution save is required. If that is failed, constitution and dexterity abilities both drop by a point. This is repeated daily; a DC15 constitution save is required and a failure means each of these stats drops by another point.
A healer or cleric making a decent healing check will realise that this disease isn't inherently a zombie thing, it appears to have been added by some external agency, and will persist until the victim is either dead of cured. Luckily for our characters, only one party member was infected, and they think they have plenty of time to get back to town and seek help from Mother White.
Searching the Hut
After a brief but very vicious fight, the players were able to put the two zombies down for good. Then they started to search the hut to see what they could find.
The furniture and fittings are basic but clean and well cared-for. In addition they'll find;
- 2 bolts of quality woven cloth worth 10gp each (quite identifiable – should be swapped at Mayor’s office for cash, trying to just sell it might raise eyebrows).
- A sewing box with 20 gold stallions hidden at the bottom.
- There is a loom, with the beginnings of a tapestry.
- 2 sacks of dyed wool (worth 2gp each)
In the children’s room, the party will find the son, 10-year-old Farad, hiding under the bed. He is terrified and has been there a week with just a nearly empty water skin and half a loaf of bread. He will be able to tell them that a black shape came in the night, murdered his parents and stole his sister Samad. He’ll describe it as huge, all fangs and sharp nails, with stringy hair on its head, a stink of old sheep’s piss, and making horrible high-pitched sounds like a cross between a pig and a donkey.
With this rather frightening image in their heads and a diseased warrior to cure, the party rest up in the hut before high-tailing it back to town the next day, bringing Farad with them and hoping they can find someone to look after him.
To be continued...
Previous posts in this series;
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Setting Part 1
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Setting Part 2
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Setting Part 3
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Player Creation and Briefing
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Arrival At Tuadun
The Tarak D&D Campaign - Mayor Gerd's Problems