Part 1. will update in pieces. There's two months till Halloween. :)


So the players are a group of travelers that are stopping in the village on their way to a local harvest festival a day's travel away. 

The overall idea is to keep the party inside and keeping the NPC's with them safe as the fey overwhelm the village as part of the infamous wild hunt. Imagine it like a zombie apocalypse scenario but instead of brain dead and easy to avoid zombies, it's the fastest and craftiest of all foes, the fey....) 

The village itself is quite small, mostly consisting of a handful of farms in the a small carved out valley at the foot of a forested mountain. The inn/tavern itself sits close to the forest, along one of the more common paths where hunters often traverse into the woods in search of deer, rabbits and other smaller game. They keep the local orchard  nearby in business, buying their local ciders and perries and the being the harvest, they purchase the largest boar they could find. 

There's not much to the town itself, again, mostly it's a handful for farms, but the tavern tonight feels full with about half the town in attendance. (10-15 NPC's).

As it starts to get dark, the party is invited to join in the revelries and to have a drink by the warm fire and to tell ghost stories. 

<As the DM, your timer begins now. You can decide when you feel it's appropriate to move to the next part of the invasion as you feel necessary. these are only the story beats for along the way.>

Let the players get comfortable, the fire is warm, the food is good, regale them with details on the fall vegetables and dishes, and the fineness of the local artisanal alcohol. The ciders are dry and crisp, the perry even crisper, and has a bit of residual sweetness as all perries do. The ales are hearty and you can taste in them the golden autumn sunshine basking over the fields of barley and wheat.

Ask the players to tell a horror story or two. Follow it up with a tale of the wild hunt.

"They say the fey have been spotted in the forest from time to time. Deep within it, there's a faerie circle, where the space between the realms in threadbare. It's a hard place to find, unless you get lost... And the fey, you see can be a bit... merciless, to intruders... especially this time of year..."

One of the hunters chimes in, "That's why we always bring a little something along with us as an offering..", as he holds up a tiny glass full of a sunlight yellow liquid..

"Aye. and I suppose many of the men bring a similar "offering" to the mermaids in the river when they fish!" another voice chimes in, this time to uproarious laughter...

"Come on, come on... we all know John loves his drink..." a third one says...

The original speaker starts up again, "Well, 85 years ago, they say the wild hunt came through this way.  They came out from that very forest... Finvarra himself lead the charge..."

"Wives tales!" another retorted, and the speaker then asks the party to tell another story.

If the party tries to leave rather than tell a story the guests should try to make them stay, reassure them that it's just a story, and offer them a round on the house. Just buy a little time before you announce the next part.


1 hour in - A gentleman rushes into the tavern looking as pale as a ghost. He whispers something to the bartender (DC10 if the players are close and attempt to listen in), about "they're back. Almost 100 years without an incident, and they're back." The bartender hushes him and tells him it's nonsense and offers him a drink. He's assures the new guy nothing is wrong, and that they'll send John and a few others out to investigate. 

1. the guy who came in looks as though he's had *quite* enough to drink and and his speech is already a bit slurred and if questioned, he really refuses to speak much. If pressed enough, he swears he heard something rustling through the woods and the sight of something tiny and dressed in green with a red hat (redcap), He then heard the a deer scream in the distance.

After this let the party get comfortable again. Once they seem at easy, a DC13 passive perception (or perception check) to see the hunters' party leave.

2.The hunters' party do no wish for them to tag along. Just stay put, enjoy the party, they'll return.

-- If the party decides to leave, they'll see outside a full moon illuminating the fields A scarecrow or two stand out in the fields of squash and field corn yet to be harvested.  The forest seems quiet, and they can see lights in one of the nearby farms, and the upstairs of one of the village "buildings" . (there's about 8 that make up the center of business for this village, and 6 will be locked and bolted, unable to enter.  If you want to make them accessible you can, but we're looking to lower he DM responsibility of these. The accessible one that's lit above is locked up below, but appears to be a dry goods store. Flour, household sundries, etc. The other, which is not lit, is also locked but can be forced open, is a forge. No weapons or armour though. You may find things like a few knives, some metal arrowheads, hose shoes, nails, etc. If they try to interact with anyone in the lit buildings, they'll be shooed away)

--- If they wish to go into the forest, there's, at this time, a redcap running about. The party will encounter spooked livestock well before seeing the redcaps. They may also encounter a displacer beast or two.  before any of these, they may run into 8-10 boggles.  The goal is to give them a chance to return to the bar before anything SUPER big comes about. If they continue to press on, run tactics on the party. A fey pops out, strikes hard, the darts away. Darklings, forlarren, etc. If they go through this skip to 3 hours in when they inevitably become worn down enough to return. If at any point, they seem in dire straits and unable to continue, one of the hunters will swoop in and save them, bringing them back to the tavern and if necessary, will do on site medic treatment, keeping them from needing a death save, and once at the tavern again, maybe having a handful of healing potions on himself to bring them up to about half to 3/4 health. As long as they stay in the tavern and do little for the next two hours (till hour 5), it will count as a short rest)

2 hours in - The bartender remarks on how the hunters' party has been gone for a bit. The people are starting to naturally find their way either home or to the rooms upstairs. Soon it's just the party members the bartender, and 2-3 other guests. (there's also 3-4 people in the rooms upstairs. a couple and a single, if you want, one of them has a child with them.), the few that remain are telling stories still and ask about the party, and what brings them here, and a bit about themselves (now is the time for your players to expound on their overly elaborate backstory they created despite it being a one shot... lol )

3 hours in - the bartender is visibly disturbed that the party hasn't returned, and suddenly there's some strange knocking on the doors, but when someone goes to check, no one is there. An ominous mood settles in, and just as the party is given a chance to do something, one of the hunters bursts in  wounded and talks of seeing fey. (use some of the stuff above, or if your party went out, disregard the previous, and let them be the ones to tell the bartender what's happening.) Now there's more scratching and knocking from the outside, but it suddenly stops when someone goes to check...

And that's where we'll leave it for today. Part two soon. 

Thus far, I like it.