Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Disclaimer: I've taken some parts from the adventure described in the supplement to make things easier for myself.
I'm writing a Halloween adventure for my group, we're going to play using the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bound by Blood supplement, but I'm adding a bit of Lovecraftian horror to keep them on their toes. I want feedback, mainly on what can I add/change to make the horror run smoothly and keep them guessing, but interested. Along with the adventure, I'm providing here the plot hook and an introduction to the town. Also, the NPCs with their roles, but not much else (because I still haven't finished them). Also, excuse me for the machine translation, I'm writing this adventure in Spanish and don't really have the time to translate it myself right now. Thank you!
Plot Hook
The story of The Fallen (El Caído) unfolds in and around the village of Knock Glad, in the far north of Ireland. It is mid-autumn, around the year 1172 AD. The rains have turned freezing, snow has begun to lightly dust the highlands, and the days shorten with every sunset.
It is the Dark Ages, a time when humans feared predators far more than in modern times. Without cameras or surveillance systems, the Cainites can move and hunt with greater ease; however, humanity's deeply ingrained superstitions leave little room for errors that break the First Tradition. A single Cainite's loss of control, succumbing to the Beast even once, can draw hunters, inquisitors, werewolf pack, and mages in search of monsters to destroy.
The characters are a Coterie of Cainites ruling a small Gaelic tuath of about three thousand inhabitants. They are dark creatures bound by an ancient curse, who have claimed these lands as their Domain. They are predators, lords, and survivors who must balance the hunger that defines them with the need to keep their herd alive, obedient, and ignorant of the truth.
A few months ago, a scélaige arrived with news that King Henry II was preparing an Anglo-Norman army with the support of Pope Alexander III. This army would pass through Knock Glad to advance deeper into Ireland, with the stated objective of bringing the Irish Church under the authority of Rome. The characters immediately ordered the reconstruction and resupplying of a ráth three kilometers north of the village to serve as a decoy for the army. Their purpose is to provoke a siege and sow terror in the Christian camp every night until it decides to turn back the way it came.
However, seven nights ago, the stars began to move in the sky, bringing terrible portents with them. Three nights later, the first worker disappeared. Since then, two more people have vanished, and the workers refuse to continue building the ráth, terrified by rumors of a faoladh in the forest. It is now clear that if they do nothing, the existence of their small kingdom will come to an end.
Monster
When the scenario begins, the workers believe the creature responsible for the disappearances is a faoladh—a werewolf that lives in the forest just north of the ráth under construction and lurks around the edges of the site at dusk. However, some of the locals, including the maor, the brehon, and the brughaid, believe it is actually some kind of bold predator or a wolf pack that has developed a taste for human flesh.
No one suspects that the creature is not of this world. It is an invader from space, capable of mimicking the form of other creatures. Its methods and goals are completely incomprehensible, even to the mind of a creature of the night.
It uses the stat blocks of the lesser star spawn emissary and the greater star spawn emissary.
Town
Knock Glad stands at the far north of Ireland, where the highlands slope down toward the sea. The name comes from the Gaelic cnoc (hill), and the village cluster sits huddled at the foot of one. Surrounding it lie peat bogs, poor pastures, and woods that close in around you the deeper you venture. The land is hard, good for grazing and little else, and the roads turn into quagmires for half the year.
It holds roughly three thousand inhabitants scattered across hamlets and farmsteads, bound together by kinship and obligation. The village itself is nothing more than a handful of wattle-and-daub houses, a mill, a well, and a small church. The hill that gives the place its name was once crowned by a ráth, now reduced to a grass-covered earthwork. No one remembers who built it, though the elders say it was the work of the ancients, long before the monks arrived and before kings began calling themselves kings.
In theory, Knock Glad is a tuath like any other, with its king, its laws, and its land. In practice, the kingship is a title no one has seen exercised in a very long time. True power belongs to a group of individuals who do not show themselves in the light of day, who rule through proxy, and whom their subjects shroud in superstition, calling them the "Lords of the Night." Beneath them, society orders itself as it does anywhere else: petty nobles and farmers, a brehon who arbitrates disputes, and a fili who preserves the memory of the land. On the margins sits the church, tended by a priest of the Gaelic Church, along with a bruiden open to every traveler.
Thus it has been for generations, and thus it would have remained had the world not begun to shift. For Knock Glad is a borderland—between the pagan and the Christian, between the ancient and the new, between the living and the dead; and borders, sooner or later, always move.
Non-Player Characters
Cróine. Brughaid / Innkeeper
Dubthach. Brehon / Judge / Lawgiver
Gilla Mo Chua. Day-spokesperson for the Cainites. Low status, resentful, and expendable. He believes the creature is simply a bold predator or a pack of wolves, as a demon would be something beyond his ability to handle, which could mean the loss of his position.
Brother Conall. Traveling Pilgrim / Church of Rome
Father Ailill. Catholic / Gaelic Church (Church of Ireland)
Senchán. Fili / Keeper of Traditions