This year’s Harvest Festival is anything but festive. Thuggis cultists extort and murder good people, and the only lead points to somene who should be dead! The PCs face ghosts, zombies, paperwork and witchaloks in this light hearted Halloween adventure. A Living Forgotten Realms Adventure for characters level 1-4.

DM: Erinn (Dayity)

Players:

  • Splash – Genasi Swordmage, Level 3 (Russell – Russell the Muscle)
  • Roose – Human Wizard, Level 1 (Brendon)
  • Amarath – Deva Invoker, Level 3 (Chris – Nuke)
  • Shadow – Human Assassin, Level 4 (Scott – ssevener)
  • Jas – Changling Rogue, Level 1 (Brett – khyron)
  • Hap Hazard – Human Artificer, Level 3 (David)

It was a dark and proverbially stormy night in the town of Sleepy Hollow when a young group of adventurers not unlike our heroes was approached by a representative of the local government in dire need of their burly expertice. She explained that a mysterious band of cultist thugs had been threatening certain well-off townsfolk, showing up at their houses in demand of payment in the middle of the night. Those who refused to pay their “tribute” were a short while later found headless and otherwise unavoidably deceased…

A quick bit of persuasive investigation by means of shape-changing at the old Archives pointed bizarrely in the direction of the criminally executed DeThedd family, known throughout the land for vile acts which few dared to even speak of.  After a brief and uncomfortable history lesson of the evil and arcane, the party made its way to a rickety, old warehouse nearby that appeared to hide many secrets within its walls.

A fine variety of tables, and also an impressive army in the making of canine-warforged hybrid “Wolfoids,” were just two of the secrets that immediately came to light when our heroes came barging something less than elegantly through the front door…

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Luckily, much like a certain esteemed Tin Man, these automatons were also constructed without specific centralized intelligence units, and thus when comfronted by a seasoned group of adventuring professionals, proceeded to fold like a metallic deck of cards with little resistance.  Their leader, however, an aged Sorcelator named Neville, proved to be a worthy find of both intelligence and clothing size, as the Changling would soon exploit to an incredible extent as the group then continued on with their detective work to the home of Neville’s employer, one Clarice Tremaine, who appeared right off the bat to have a bit of a ghost problem.

The party approached just in time to witness a key clue in their mystery – that the beautiful Clarice was actually being possessed by the frightening, albeit not so much perceptive Elvira DeThedd, also known as the deceased daughter of the Marquis himself.  Completely clueless that the posing Neville and his Witchalok minions were actually our heroes in clever disguise, Elvira proceeded to lead the entire party away from Tremaine manor and to a nearby ritual circle where it was quite clear that nothing good could possibly come at such a late hour in the pale moonlight…

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Waiting until the last possible moment to show their faces, the group got the ultimate surprise on Elvira and her ghostly cohorts when it finally became known that the group wasn’t exactly in attendance to participate in the ritual itself, per se.  Instead, they laid waste to the horrible haunts and were able to rescue the possessed Clarice in the process, and more importantly, upon that final blow they were also able to discern exactly where they could find the mastermind behind this whole headhunting mystery as well.  Off at the old Van Pelt farm, conspicuously lit with glowing pumpkins for ambience, no doubt, stood the Lord DeThedd himself waiting … along with 6 – 8 of his closest undead friends…

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The battle was long and arduous, riddled with zombies and holes and skeletons that had absolutely no desire at all to just stay dead, and at the far end of the field, the equally ghastly Marquis DeThedd taunted our fearless warriors mockingly until the very end.  Of course, because this is a Happy Tale, that end came with the Marquis’ own rightful demise … again … and with his fall, our heroes were quite proud to be the ones able to finally put an end to the headless reputation of the otherwise quiet and reserved village known as Sleepy Hollow.

(Additional Photos Available Here)
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