Player Background Recently knighted, your patroness the Baroness Origena Devy has informed you that you must go to the city of Cassomir to register your family name with the College of Heralds. However, there is one more task she requires of you...She has received a request for aid from the parish priest (one Brother Hugh Fielding) of one of her smaller holdings on the way to Cassomir, the town of Grudge Hollow. It seems that something has been stalking the town at night.
You've heard of Grudge Hollow; it is a town scorned by all around as a collection of cowards. There was some scandal concerning a witch hunt fifty years ago or so. Still, you are beholden to the Baroness by feudal law, and someone has to deal with this. So, on a chilly fall afternoon, you ride into Grudge Hollow, after a couple of days on the road...
Game Master's Background Fifty years ago, the town of Gretchen's Hollow was a pastoral farming community, though looked down upon by the surrounding villages as an insular, surly town composed mostly of the sort of people who just blindly follow orders because they're afraid of doing any thinking on their own. This was their downfall.
The town's local beauty, Candace Dunham, was tired of living as a farmer's daughter. Worse, she was being amorously pursued by the town's sole elf, a fledgling wizard by the name of Tarinth. Her father smiled on the idea of an elf, especially an elf wizard, in the family, but Candace was repulsed. She had heard elves were elegant; Tarinth was a bore. She'd heard elves were attractive; Tarinth was ugly and he smelled like chemicals. She was determined to find a way out of this.
Her chance came along in the form of a charismatic young Inquisitor of Pharasma by the name of Silas Warner. She met him in a neighboring town's market (in the town of Beckett's Forge), and it was no great trick using her beauty and natural charm to wrap him around her little finger. She arranged further meetings, and over time she concocted a plan.
Candace had found that one of the family cows had hoof rot, and she mixed shavings of the cow's hooves into feed, and clandestinely spread it around from farm to farm. Soon there was a minor epidemic. Epidemics of hoof and mouth disease were nothing new, but this had spread like wildfire, and infected all farms save perhaps a half dozen.
A week later, Silas "Wandered" into town, and listened to the plight of the farmers. He announced that the unusual speed of the outbreak was evidence, perhaps, that something more nefarious was afoot. He pointed out more and more evidence of 'witchcraft", and the townsfolk - eager to find blame and moral cowards to boot - went along with it. Silas warned that worse was to come. Then Candace disappeared.
Within days, the accusations began. Two local vagrants were accused, then two newcomers to the town. Then Tarinth...Who had guessed that he would be accused, and fled in the night. Tarinth was a pretty brilliant guy, and he'd guessed that Candace's disappearance and the witch craze were connected. He was embittered, and vowed revenge on her and the town as he left.
The next accused were two prominent landowners, the heads of the Sere and Carter families. A trial date was announced, and stakes were set up in the village square. At about this time, the town's only dwarven family left town, after selling their smithy and warning that their home, a cave outside of town, was lethally trapped.
The trial was a travesty; all accused were found guilty, with no chance to confront their accusers. They were sentenced to burn, and any relatives they had in town were exiled for life on pain of suffering the same fate. The burnings were carried out that very night.
A series of surprises awaited the town. First, Silas had claimed the Carter and Sere farms as his own, as his fee for the "service" of witch-finding, with the cooperation of the mayor, a young fop named Elias Threed. Second, Candace reappeared, stating that she had briefly run off to be an adventurer, but had been scared off by tales of horror told by a retired adventurer in Beckett's Forge. The final surprise was the "whirlwind romance" between Candace and Silas, resulting in a marriage. The two settled down on the farms that Silas had gained, building one of the two houses into a small manor. The other house was sold for a song to the mayor in exchange for the mayor's help in improperly securing the land.
By now the town as a whole smelled a rat...But they did nothing. Most were too timid, and the rest - as in the case of the mayor - were complicit. Months turned into years, and the years trickled past, and the town's shame was by and large forgotten, as the town was made up of the sort of people who could put that kind of shame behind them. The neighboring towns, however, were not so quick to forget, and started calling Gretchen's Hollow by the name Grudge Hollow. The name stuck, and eventually even the residents of the town itself started using the name.
Fifty years went by. The Warners were now the town's leaders in all but name; the mayor, now aged, danced to their tune. Then about a month before the adventure began, an elf by the name of Findar moved into town. Some comment was made by the town's elders that Findar looked somewhat like the elf Tarinth of decades gone by, but they assumed that he couldn't be the same elf, given the years (they hadn't really considered that elves take centuries to age).
Findar claimed to be a scholar, and settled in to study the records in the basement of the town's small temple to Abadar, The House of Law. In reality, he was looking for the church's cornerstone, which he had learned in his travels contained a minor relic...A small amulet containing a lock of hair of an ancient saint of Abadar. For Findar - as he now thought of himself - had in his bitterness and thirst for vengeance, specialized his magical researches into necromancy.
This amulet, he had learned, prevented anyone buried in the churchyard or anywhere else within a few miles, from returning as undead. As an added bonus, he did in fact research the church's records, learning the gravesites of any and all people in the town who had been alive during the witch hunts, intending to curse them with unlife. The priest, snared by a Charm Person spell, saw nothing in the elf's researches to concern him...And the elf gave the young priest, who himself was an out of towner from Belhaim, someone to talk to that knew about more than sheep and cattle.
Three weeks later, Findar found the amulet. He took it to Beckett's Forge, and hid it in the town's inn, The Crown & Tankard, in the rafters of a rented room. He then returned to Grudge Hollow and visited the graves of the 6 victims of the witch hunt, intending to raise them as vengeful undead. He was delighted to learn - upon his first casting - that they had already become undead as soon as the amulet had been moved, rising as a rare form of undead known as Burning Ghats.
That night, he was beside their graves when they rose to the surface. By means of necromantic lore, he was able to convince them that he was also in the market for revenge, and told them where Silas and Candace lived. The undead set out that very night, and slew the two of them in their home, alongside the five guards that Silas kept around as muscle...Knights of low character whom had been turned down for service by every lord or lady in the area.
Silas crept in after them, and performed spells that guaranteed that all of them would be doomed to existence as undead. He then returned to his room in the Inn, and started making preparations for raising the contents of the town's graveyard as zombies. This took several days, in which time the Burning Ghats terrorized the town, carrying off anyone found out of doors after dark. The Burning Ghats can invade any home they choose, of course, but they have as a group decided to raise the level of terror first, then start breaking into homes once the townsfolk think they are safe if they remain indoors.
It is at this point that the adventurers arrive in town.
Adventure Synopsis
Day 1 The PCs arrive in town late in the day. At the Inn, they are quickly informed of the menace, though the town doesn't know the nature of the monsters (some assume undead, others demons). They can pick up rumors as described in the town entry at the back of the adventure. They will also meet Findar, though he will not seem very sinister. If they wander out after dark, they will be attacked by 3 Burning Ghats almost immediately. If they defeat the Ghats and persist, the other three will attack them only a few houses away. Any Burning Ghats slain rise back up the very next night.
Day 2 The PCs check in, either with the mayor, the priest, or both. The mayor is gruff with them, and tells them to mind their own business, and that the town can take care of itself. The priest tells them that unknown creatures are stalking the town...Which they already know at this point. The PCs can gather information as per the town entry in the back of the adventure. This should lead them to investigate either the Warner place or the dwarven cave. After dark, anyone outside is attacked again, as day 1.
Day 3 The party checks out either the Warner Place or the dwarven cave. Note that since they cannot actually destroy Candace's ghost without punishing the other guilty parties (the mayor and his clerk), they will have to return later in the adventure. If they check out the dwarven cave, they learn about the relic in the church basement, among other things. After dark, anyone outside is once again attacked, as day 1.
Day 4 The party checks out the other location. After dark, anyone outside is attacked per day 1.
Day 5 The party checks out the basement of the temple. There, they discover that the relic is missing. They also may discover Findar's journal, including his plans to raise zombies in the graveyard that very night. If they are persistent, they will find records implicating the mayor and his clerk in the shady land dealings that took place during and after the witch craze. Findar will not be at the Inn, nor anywhere to be found that day. The adventurers will have to confront him in the graveyard that night. On the way, they are attacked by 3 Burning Ghats. After the fight with Findar and his zombies, they will be attacked by the other 3. On Findar's body is his spellbook, the inside cover of which reveals the location of the relic.
Day 6 The party must travel to Beckett's Forge, recover the amulet, and return it. If they put it back in the church's foundations, the Burning Ghats cannot reform if killed again. No further undead will appear.
Day 7 The party must confront the mayor with his complicity in the crime. The mayor will not submit to arrest. Once the mayor is defeated, the party must return to the Warner place and destroy Candace. If the mayor has been punished, she is truly destroyed. The party is then free to continue on to Cassomir.
