Happy Halloween! To celebrate the spooky occasion, you can run your players through "The Haunted Cornfield," a free Dungeons & Dragons adventure! It is set in Barovia, a grim burgh found in Curse of Strahd, and can be run as a one-shot for a party of 1st-level adventurers. Over the course of the game, your players will uncover the secrets behind a legend involving a scarecrow and a brutal murder.
The legend of the cornfield
Every farming town has its superstitions. Some are pleasant tales such as the stories of the great Green Man, a fairy who visits farmers in the guise of a traveler and blesses their fields in exchange for a night of merrymaking. This tale is more sinister, and worst of all — it's true.
Some years ago, there was a farmer by the name of Cassandra O’Vana. She and her husband, Phineus, lived in a small house on the outskirts of town. They were close friends with the burgomaster, and despite their status in the village, were not well known, for they rarely ventured into town. Their adult daughter, Sibyl, traveled to the market in her parents’ stead, and she did not begrudge this duty, for she welcomed any chance she could get to spend time in the village and away from the farm.
One day, Sibyl departed with her cart to the village and bade her parents goodbye as crows cawed overhead. Cassandra and Phineus were in the cornfield, building a scarecrow. Phineus was hanging sacks upon a wooden cross to make its body, and Cassandra was carving a face into an overlarge gourd to serve as its head. Sibyl looked upon it and shuddered. It was a grotesque thing, with gaping eyes and a crooked, lopsided mouth.
She shook the scarecrow from her mind and traveled to the village as she often did. But that day, she stayed longer in town than she expected and decided to spend the night with Telyma, a woman she knew, rather than attempting to brave the road after dark.
As Sibyl slept, she was visited by a vision. She saw her mother raise her carving knife and stalk up to her husband. Sibyl tried to scream at her father — to warn him — but Cassandra plunged the silver-plated knife into his back and carved the life from his body. She hefted the corpse and draped it in the scarecrow’s arms, and as Sibyl watched in soundless terror, the scarecrow’s arms began to move. It picked up the corpse and raised it to its grotesque head, and began to eat it. Its mushy teeth tore through flesh like knives, and in an instant, the body was gone.
Adventure start
Sibyl never returned to her farm. Over 20 years have passed since that night, and Sibyl still lives in the village with her companion, Telyma. Every night, she dreams of the scarecrow that haunts her family’s cornfield. Telyma has posted a notice, asking for adventurers, mercenaries, or investigators who are willing to investigate the abandoned O’Vana family cornfield.
Adventurers who respond to the call are greeted by Telyma, a woman with pale skin, sorrow-creased eyes, and graying brown hair. She offers them 10 gp apiece to investigate the O’Vana farm and help give Sibyl the confidence to return, or at least help her move past her trauma. Telyma strongly suggests they find the carving knife that Sibyl saw in her dream. It’s probably still on the property, she suggests. Meanwhile, Sibyl sits in a rocking chair by the hearth, gazing absently into a fire. It is difficult for her, but she is willing to recount the legend of the cornfield, if asked.
Travel to the O’Vana farm
You exit the village and travel along a well-worn road. At first, you seem to pass another traveler or a farmhouse every five minutes or so. After an hour of travel, however, you find yourselves completely alone on the road. The tiny silhouette of the O’Vana farmstead in the distance grows ever closer—and then you arrive.
The journey from the village to the farmstead is uneventful, and the characters arrive at the farmstead unharmed.
Private DM information
As the Dungeon Master, you should know the truth of what happened the night Sibyl failed to return to her farmhouse. Her father, Phineus, was bitten by a wereraven several hours after she left. Her mother, Cassandra, tried to save him, but when Phineus succumbed to the curse and lashed out at her, she took her silvered carving knife and killed him. However, Phineus’s confused and tortured spirit failed to pass into the afterlife. Instead, it passed into the scarecrow that they had carved together. The scarecrow took Cassandra by surprise and killed her, but not before she was able to plunge the knife into its wooden body, burying it to the hilt.
The scarecrow still haunts the cornfield, killing and devouring any creatures that wander into it. A group of imps have been drawn to the cornfield by its dark power, and tend to circle the field in crow form. They feed on the souls of the creatures that the scarecrow kills, or deliver them to their infernal superiors in the Nine Hells.
Arrival at the farmstead
A long-abandoned farmhouse stands before you. The house itself is dilapidated and crumbling. Its wooden walls bear deep scars, and termites crawl around the deep gashes. It looks as if a single strong blow could knock down the entire structure. Behind the farmhouse is a broad cornfield. Despite being abandoned for over 20 years, it is filled with tall, verdant stalks of corn.
Investigating the farmhouse. The farmhouse is structurally unsound. Trying to open the door causes it to fall off its hinges. Characters that enter find a room covered in cobwebs and reeking of mildew. A single raven (an imp in raven form) lurks in the rafters, and it caws as the characters enter the house, then makes a great show of flapping its wings and flying through a smashed window, into the cornfield.
Moments later, a tremor shakes the foundation of the farmhouse, and the ceiling caves in. Everyone inside the house and within 5 feet of it must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5 (1d10) bludgeoning damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.
Characters who search the rubble find a wooden carving of a raven with the name “Phineus” inscribed on the bottom.
The cornfield
Somehow, this cornfield is filled with life. Its stalks are tall, and the sound of buzzing insects fills the air. The stalks are so thick and so close together, they form a tiny ocean of green and yellow. Crows circle the cornfield like buzzards, and begin cawing as soon as you come into view.
The cornfield counts as difficult terrain and any creature with at least 5 feet of corn stalks between it and another creature or object treats it as lightly obscured. This field is a rough circle about 40 feet in diameter.
The scarecrow. The scarecrow animated by Phineus’s twisted spirit lurks in the center of the cornfield. The scarecrow has a fetid, distended gourd for a head with a grotesque face carved into it, made only more grotesque by the gourd’s sagging flesh. The hilt of a carving knife protrudes from its moth-eaten clothing. This silvered dagger is embedded in its wooden frame. A creature can make a successful DC 13 Strength check to pull it out, dealing 1d4 slashing damage to the scarecrow as it is removed.
This particular scarecrow is not resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt by silvered weapons.
The scarecrow hides within the tall corn stalks at the edge of a clearing. The clearing is 10 feet wide, and the scarecrow notices any creature that enters the clearing. It bides its time, waiting for its prey to approach. The crows’ cawing alerts it to approaching creatures. A creature must make a successful DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check to see it in its hiding spot, otherwise it surprises them when it springs from hiding.
When the scarecrow dies, its carved face seems to soften into a smile. Its “eyes” close, and a whispered “Thank you…” drifts from its body as it collapses into splinters and mold. If the silvered dagger was not pulled from its frame before this, it glimmers on top of the scarecrow's deteriorated form.
Crows and imps. Four crows circle the field. Two are normal crows, but two are imps in raven form. They know exactly what happened the night when Sibyl’s parents were killed (see “Private DM information,” above) and attack characters that kill the scarecrow.
If your characters are gravely wounded after the scarecrow fight, only one imp attacks the characters. The other imp vanishes to report this news to its infernal master.
Conclusion
If the knife is returned to Sibyl, she hugs it against her chest — as if holding a person — and weeps. “All this tragedy is finally over,” she says. Afterward, she hands the knife back to the characters and asks them to keep it, as she no longer has any desire to hold onto the past. She resolves to burn the farmstead and the cornfield and put all of this behind her for good.
Telyma thanks the characters profusely for helping Sibyl make peace with her trauma, and gives them each 10 gp. One of the characters gets to keep the silvered dagger (worth 50 gp), as well.
James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck) is the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and his panther companions, Mei and Marzipan.
DM NOTE: I had the party help prep a funeral pyre when they got back to the village and they decided to stay the night, having put everyone at ease and the farmers to rest finally. And in the morning, they woke up in the woods, no sight of the now gone village...as if it had never been there in the first place....
*grin* I wanted to turn up the spooky/mystery factor.
This is very fun and easily digestible. This could be slipped into any campaign. Thank you James.
I want to run this as part of my on going campaign this week. The players are level 5. Any quick tips to make this a little more challenging without changing the story much?
The straightforward-but-time-consuming answer is to take the baseline scarecrow and improve it to CR 5 using the DMG guidelines. Another option is to "reverse reskin" the monsters by keeping their narrative traits and appearance but swapping out their stats. I would swap the scarecrow's stats with that of a helmed horror and add two chaotic evil wereravens to the scarecrow fight. I would then swap out the imps with barbed devils that have the imp's Shapechanger trait.
I will run this coming Saturday with my players, big thanks!
The only issue I have is this.
Why would there be a carving of a raven? What is the hook here? Is it something about the wereraven I don't get?
Great ideas! Thanks for your response James! I'll check out both of those options. That is exactly the kind of tip I was looking for.
I look forward to your articles here and am excited to check out your published materials.
Can't wait to run this on Sunday! Thanks!
Using it for this week. Love it!
This is the perfect one shot for a halloween themed game! It even can help scratch that itch to make a new character all at the same time. Thank you for posting and sharing!
This looks like a fun way to introduce Curse of Strahd. Have it take place in whatever world the characters start off in just to help the players build an attachment to their home world before being swept into the Mists. Perhaps they meet some Vistani in the village and travel with them as a means of this happening?
One change I would make is to have the father be a werewolf, and have a set of worn claw marks inside the house from Cassandra's first struggle with Phineas. This gives a few clues as to what happened without giving it all away. I say werewolf because I'm pretty sure most people within a D&D campaign (and newer players) world would have some idea of what a werewolf is, but other wereravens might be more obscure.
I actually used this to start a mini campaign for October. I've made a few small changes, including:
Cassandra faked her death, the reason she was attacked by her husband was he found out she's been dealing with a necromancer in a phylactery.
The burgomaster is an old companion of these two and another character. They were in a previous adventuring party together.
Phineus was a known wereraven who was part of this group, it's just been secret to everyone else.
And from there I made a small campaign around the secrets they all held. And the consequences of dealing with dark powers.
I'm not sure how to give this to my players. It looks harder than a first level match-up. First, they get attacked by a scarecrow, then attacked by one or two imps? I know the scarecrow isn't resistant to nonmagical attacks, but is that enough to make it so they can be attacked by up to two CR 1 imps right after?
This is a great adventure, and I really enjoyed running it for my group, but when I got to the part where they venture into the cornfield, they decided to burn it down instead! (They were afraid of surprise attacks by the Scarecrow) I ended up letting them, but it was just one more episode of how my group is, at the same time, the most creative and most annoying group I've ever run.
I read this earlier in the month and wanted to run it as a one shot for Halloween, which I just did tonight! I bumped up the challenge a bit because my players wanted to run at level 3, so I added swarms of locusts in the corn, along with two wandering scarecrows in addition to the main one. One of my players was an Aarakocra and kept watch from above while the other two hacked a path through the corn. After fighting off swarms of insects, scarecrows, and imps, I wrapped up the session with a green hag, who appeared in the guise of Cassandra (who my players were quick to point out was dead and attack her). Fun little one shot, and one I wouldn't mind running again.
It actually says she was killed tho.
My kinda late (though it's Halloween, so still topical) review of this: This is a great mini-adventure! It was a fun way to do Ravenloft quickly, especially when you don't have enough time to run Strahd Must Die Tonight. I was able to personally run it for two players in 2 sessions, and I probably would've gotten through it quicker if I wasn't also running a bunch of other Halloween stuff for other players at the time. I love the characters, and the backstory is really cool. The only problem is there's basically no way for the players to figure it out on their own, especially if they don't grill Sibyl for information (like my players did) or just skip the farm entirely (like my players also did). And even if you do go in the farm, the lore bit there makes no sense. Who's first thought after seeing a picture of an animal with a name under it thinks "Ah yes, lycanthropy!" Also, who is even supposed to have carved that? Cassandra, before being murdered? The scarecrow? The imps? And on the topic of the imps, as interesting as them being there as crows is, and the imps fighting can increase the combat difficulty by a little bit, it kinda fits a bit awkwardly in after the scarecrow. Overall, awesome encounter, though I feel it could use a little more work with it's lore stuff. Great job!
Two short notes about running this:
In an attempt to make a cool introduction to the imps, I had Phineus' soul fly up, and be grabbed by an imp. I was hoping they'd kill the imps and free Phineus' soul, but my players just let them keep it, and after thinking about everything Phineus has gone through, I felt bad that the imps now sent him to Hell, despite him just being an NPC. So maybe don't do that, or do, what ever y'all feel like. Secondly, I ended the adventure off with, when Telmya asked where Sibyl was going, she responded, "I'm going to go burn my past." That got a pretty good emotional response from my players, so feel free to steal that line from me. Happy Halloween, everyone!
Thank you! This was exactly what I was hoping for. Love your articles.
I did something like this, but it was that the party had to investigate some animal mutilations, and as we passed through a cornfield, the scarecrows turned to watch us pass. Long story short, the scarecrows were possessed by an ancient race of demi-god spirits that has been banished into the form of the scarecrow, and our party had to set them free. The campaign is still going, and only getting better and better!
"This particular scarecrow is not resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt by silvered weapons."
I assume this is supposed to say "This particular scarecrow is not resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt be non-silvered weapons."
@poppy_thompson
No, it means that rather than resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from ANY non-magical attack, they are no longer resistant to silvered weapons, for example, the dagger that is stuck in it.
Play'in this in January!