Concept and writing by Libedrat0r

This story is for parties no bigger than 5 people and no higher than level 5.

The PCs can start this quest by either gaining information by a survivor of the

elven village or by arriving at the ruined elven village on their own and finding

one of the 2 survivors and ask for information about what has happened to the

village.

Backstory

For the past 5 years this elven village has been plagued by undead creatures

of the nearby swampland. The undead are consisted of unlucky elf villagers or

travelers who were foolish enough to walk through the swampland. It is

unknown how the undead appeared in the swampland in the first place, but it

is rumored that a demonic entity has found shelter in a cave inside the dark

forest next to the swampland and it is being worshipped by necromancer

cultists. The dark forest and the cave itself is now home of different types of

spirits and entities. The PCs will have to fight their way to reach the end by

avoiding stronger Monsters and dealing with traps and sudden

encounters.The PCs will encounter from undead to cultists and demonic

entities to gargoyles and ofcourse the Wretched Lilishade the main villain of

the story.

Scene 1 – The ruined elven village

The PC’s are walking down into a ruined village at twilight. The PC’s can

understand that the village was destroyed only some hours ago. The place is

full of corpses and destroyed property. One of the PC’s notices a slight

movement of one of the corpses and they soon realize it’s a survivor.

The survivor is one of the elves and he is nearly dead and cannot be saved.

His name is Zerill and he is the NPC that must inform the PC’s about what

has happened and what they need to do.

Zerill will inform the PCs that the

village was destroyed by undead and that he is worried about his son, he

begs them to go to his house and find him and make sure that he is alive. The

son’s name is Azerith and he is vital to the mission.Zerill will answer to any

kind of question about his son’s location and he will give the PC’s an amulet

to show and give it to Azerith. Zerill finally, asks for redemption and

vengeance from the party and requests them to go to the cave and banish the

evil that caused dismay to this land and then succumbs to his fatal wounds. If

the PC’s don’t burn or destroy Zerill’s corpse he will return as a zombie when

the party finds Azerith and he will attack his son which the party must protect.

Scene 2 – Find Azerith

Before Zerill dies he points with his finger the approximate location of Azerith.

In the pointed area there are 5 houses which the PC’s must search in order to

locate Azerith.

Azerith is located in house 2 inside the second room under the bed inside a

trapdoor which can only fit 1 person with his equipment.

The party starts near house 4. Everytime the party enters a house/room roll

on the following table.

D20. Roll of 13-20 the room is clear.

Roll of 9-12 there are 1 skeleton per PC + 1

Roll of 1-8 there are 1 zombies per PC + 1

House 1 has a chest with an amount of 5gp inside it.

House 2, has 3 zombies pounding on the door of the room which Azerith is

located, the door is not locked just closed.

House 4 is clear.

When the PC’s enter Azerith’s room they must roll a DC18 perception check

to notice the trapdoor underneath the bed. If the PC’s fail on that , when they

are about to leave they will hear a sound near the bed so that they will go and

check. When they find the trap door and they try to open it, Azerith will jump

from inside it , tackle a PC and try to escape. The party must hold him and

calm him to the point that he will be able to communicate with them. After

explaining to Azerith that his father is dead and he wants him to have the

amulet, the PC’s must convince Azerith to show them the way to reach the

cave. Azerith will accept if he gets confident that he will be safe. Azerith can

protect his self since he is an elven scout but he is still vulnerable. Azerith will

join the fight when it is needed but he will always try to make the party flee

rather than fight.

Scene 3 – The swampland

The swampland is a dangerous place where the PC’s must find a way to

cross without being dragged into the swamp. You can make the PC’s

encounter Mud Mephits or Zombies and other Undead creatures.at one point

u must declare that one of the PC’s have slept inside the swamp and its being

dragged by undead hands, the PC’s have 1 minute to find a way to pull them

out. A DC20 Strength roll is required to successfully pull the PC out of the

mud. When the PC’s successfully pull out the PC, hey will have to fight the

hands of the undead that was pulling him in. Use the “Crawling claw” monster,

1 crawling claw per PC.

It takes approximately one hour to cross the swampland.

Scene 4 – Dark Forest

When the party leaves the swampland, they enter the dark forest. A place

where you can listen to the horror of the banshees in the distance and see

spirits hiding while they observe the PCs. If the PCs try to interact with the

spirits they will scare them away since they are lesser and they have no

powers. While the players walk through the forest try to scare them and make

them be careful about every move they do. Eventually, the players will reach a

crossroad, where Azerith will inform them that both roads lead to the cave.

The right one is faster but mysterious and anything might happen, while the

left one is longer and trickery but hopefully they will not encounter any

monsters.

The road to the right passes through the dead man’s cloak into the elven

cemetery and then straight to the cave. The left one is safe from monsters

since it used to be a temple of the elven goddess Seldarine and it is thought

to be blessed but it might contain traps and puzzles

The dead man’s cloak and the cemetery.

The party will have to cross the Dead man’s cloak path. It is a road which

symbolizes the path one has to take when he dies. Right and left the players

can see giant statues which hold dark purple spheres which omit a dark aura.

While they cross the path, they can see banshees dancing at the sky. Azerith

warns the PCs that they must not draw the attention because they will be

outnumbered and overpowered and tells the players to keep low. Before the

players reach the middle of the path one of the hands holding the spheres

cracks and falls, as a result the purple sphere breaks and releases thousand

evil lesser spirits which cry out and starts flying through the players. The

banshees notice what is happening and they start feeding on the spirits. All

the players and Azerith must make a DC13 Wisdom save or be frightened for

1 minute Azerith screams that they must leave now before the banshees

come after them. While the party flees 2 banshees notices them and they start

chasing them. If the party decides to fight the banshees then 5 more join the

fight. The only way to get rid of the banshees is to hit one of the spheres with

an arrow or magic spell and release more of the spirits so that they can

escape. If the party doesn’t think of that solution, then Azerith does.

Right after they escape the path, the party will reach the cemetery.

Inside the cemetery the Players will encounter 3 Skeleton archers, one

skeleton warhorse and a single Minotaur skeleton. The PCs can decide to run

away instead of fighting them. It is your choice if the PCs will have to fight the

encounters all at once or encountering them one at a time. While the players

walk inside the cemetery on of them must fall inside an open grave. The wall

of the grave is full of holes. A DC19 perception check will reveal a button

inside one of the holes. If it is pressed somehow ( you can decide that the

player pressed it with his foot when he tried to climb out ) a hidden door will

open and reveal a tunnel which leads outside of the graveyard. It is not

necessary for the PCs to find this tunnel but if they find it they will not have to

encounter all the monsters inside the cemetery. When the players exit the

cemetery they can see pillars which have chained bodies on them. If the

players decide to interact with the bodies, then the bodies will come alive and

will try to attack the players but they will not succeed because they are

chained. A few minutes later the party can reach the cave.

The Elven temple

If the party takes the left road then they will reach the ruined temple of

Seldarine. The temple is abandoned and it’s rumored to be full of traps and

hidden treasures.

The first thing the PCs see is a hall with a stair case leading to a big empty

room with a single white carpet near the middle of it and a great painting of

the Goddess hanging right after it on the wall. If the PCs step on the carpet

then they fall inside a large pit taking a DC20 search check but only if the

character is taking the time to carefully examine the area. Falling into the pit

results in 1d6 points of damage. Then the PCs can try to climb or jump out of

the pit which can be easily done by rolling a DC16 strength. On the left side of

the room there is another hall which leads to a door. Before the PCs reach the

door there is a trap which if triggered spits fire from the right wall to the target.

The player can find the trap on a DC17 search and disable it with DC24

disable device. If the trap is triggered then the victim gets 1d4+6 fire damage

and must roll a dc13 reflex save to take half of the damage. When the party

proceeds to the next hall they will find a small room in which there is a spike

trap on the floor. The players can spot the trap with a Search DC18 and

disable it with DC15 disable device. The Players can decide to move near the

walls so that the trap won’t be activated. The players that fall into the trap take

1d4 spikes per target for 1d4+2 piercing damage each and can completely

avoid the trap with a DC20 reflex save. After the hall the party will enter a

room which has 2 empty rooms on its left side and 2 staircases on its left,

both of the staircases is being blocked by rubble, one of them is blocked at

the start of the path and the other at the end, both stair cases lead to the

same location. The players can clear a path by removing the rumble which

takes around 15 minutes and requires a DC12 strength per PC. The room

after the stairs looks empty but there is actually a hidden room behind the

fake wall which can be spotted by the PCs with a DC18 perception check.

Inside the room there is a bed 2 wardrobes 1 table and a chair and chest. If

the players search the room they will find leather cloths inside the wardrobes,

a Magical Ram Ring under the bed and 21GP inside the chest. When the

players go for the last hall they will find an empty small empty room on the

right side of the hall which can barely fit 5 people. Before reaching the end of

the hall a rolling rock trap might be activated. The trap can be spotted with a

DC20 Search and disabled with a DC22 disable device. If the trap is triggered

a running stone falls into the hall and comes after the players. If the players

take shelter in the small room they get no damage. Any players that are hit by

the rock take 2D6 rock damage. After this trap the players can see on their left

hand the exit and on their right hand a staircase leading to the main chamber

of the temple where a statue of the goddess stands. Azerith asks the party if

he can go and pray to his goddess before they leave. If the party accepts and

another Elf character joins him on his pray , a secret room appears which

contains 2 treasure chests and a box.

The treasure chests contain 200GP in total and the box contains 20 Silver

arrows. All the other rooms are empty. Finally the players can exit the Temple

and head to the Cave.

After leaving the temple the players will follow a path which is half blocked by

a huge boulder which is resting next to a tree. Right behind that boulder there

is a huge ogre zombie. If the players walk next to it or interact with it the ogre

zombie wakes up from its slumber and attacks the players, after defeating it or

fleeing from it, the party finds the cave.

Scene 5 – The cave

By the moment the players reach the cave, Azerith asks them to stay and wait

for them outside of the cave because he is afraid that he will not be able to

survive inside. The players can decide to force him enter with an Intimidation

or persuasion DC20 check. Right after entering the cave, the players can see

2 Gargoyle statues and a demonic flaming sign floating between them. The

gargoyles will only wake up and attack, if the players walk right below the

sign. The players can try to destroy the statues by attacking them (which

doesn’t grant them any XP) or de-spell the symbol with magical means.

While the PCs explore the cave they will be haunted 2-3 times by a shadow

which they cannot interact with. The shade will be appearing and

disappearing in front of their eyes. It’s actually a scare tactic.

After the gargoyle statues the players will reach a crossroad. The path on the

right side leads to a dead end at the ritual room.

The left path leads to the rest of the dungeon. If the players go to the right-

sided path they will find a dismembered corpse with a dagger stabbed to its

head and a blooded Pentagram on the wall. If any of the players remove the

dagger( which is a Cursed Sacrificial Dagger* ) from the corpse, then it will

reanimate and come to life as a Flesh Golem and it will attack the players.

After defeating or running away from the flesh golem, the players will find that

the exit of the path is blocked by 2 gargoyle statues like the ones at the

entrance which weren’t there before.

After dealing with the statues the players must continue on the left-sided path

which is a hall full of bleeding eyes on the walls. The PCs will get dizzy if they

look at the eyes directly.

Before the end of the hall the players will find 2 more gargoyle statues with a

flaming symbol floating. Right after the statues there is a drow resting on the

floor which stands up and mocks the PCs for being too weak to be in this cave

and tells them to leave. The PCs can try to convince the Drow Elf with a DC20

Persuasion roll to join them or they can attack it, if the Drow is attacked it flees

unharmed to one of the next rooms.

After the meeting with the Drow the hall is filled with grotesque Masks which

bleed from everywhere. If the players interact with the masks then the masks

will spit toxic blood on them causing 2D4 damage + 1D4 the next round to

every creature in the hall.

After the hall with the masks the players will be found at a room with 4

possible routes.

-On their right hand they can see a room with 4 gargoyle statues and a door

sealed by an arcane lock at the end of it, behind the sealed door there is an

empty room with chains hanging from the walls one of the chains have a key

on them that key can be used to open the treasure room. The arcane lock can

be opened by a successful dispell or knock spell.

-At the front they will see 2 doors both closed.

.The right one leads to the treasure room of the cultists which is locked and

contains 150GP . The players can try to open the lock with a set of thieves’s

tools with a DC25 roll.

.The door to their front left is a room with a blood pond which is used by the

cultists for ritual summoning purposes. Inside the room there are 5 cultists +1

for every 4 PCs and a Cultist Fanatic who is summoning an Imp. When the

players enter the room, all the cultists will attack them while the fanatic is

focused on summoning the Imp. The PCs have 3 minutes to stop the ritual or

the Imp will be summoned to attack the players.

-On their left hand they can see a hall leading somewhere which the players

cannot see where it leads if they don’t follow it. The hall leads to the final boss

of the dungeon. If the players choose the hall on their left hand then move to

Scene 6

The players can come back for any of the doors later except the final door at

the hall at the left.

Scene 6 – Lilishade

At the end of the hall the players will find 6 torches with purple flame and a

huge metal door with carvings of the demon Lilishade. The players can check

the door for clues of the demon’s powers. A DC16 perception will reveal an

arrow on the door, Lilishade is covered in spikes and she has a wipe which

appears to be ablaze, she has 2 wings and barbed wires are being worn

across her body as part of her skin.

At the bottom of the door there is a man held with chains suffering an on left

and right side there are depictions of demons stabbing and torturing their

victims.

The players cannot go back to the other rooms by any means. If they try the

torches will make a fire wall which will block their way. The players can try to

remove the torches by force but they will always return to their place. The

players can never take out the torches’ fire. The players cannot remove the

arrow from the door, they can still break it but a part will stay on the door.

Anyone who tries to open the door will see the arrow turning into coal from a

sinister light that comes from inside the chamber behind the cave. The players

that opened the room have 5 seconds to warn the others to protect

themselves from the light. Anyone who hasn’t declared that his PC has

protected his/her eyes somehow will be terrified and immobilized on the spot.

Then the player that is closer to the door will be dragged inside the (now dark)

room by an, engulfed with fire, whip taking 2D6 fire damage.

The room is dark and any source of light (except divine light) cannot exist

inside the room because the torches will destroy it(for example if a player

lights a fire torch, the purple torches will attack the normal flames and make

them disappear). The room itself is madness incarnate. Anyone who enters it

will lose sight of his companions, he will start seeing sounds and see

impossible figures. Anyone who looks at the end of the room will see angry

faces of adults and babies alike which are being tortured, the players will feel

pity and disgust for those faces.

The players cannot find each other or orientate in the room no matter what

they try. They will be walking but they will be on the same spot because this is

the shadow realm. When the PCs start to get frustrated they will be

confronted by the Shadow which haunted them during their exploration of the

cave, its PC must defeat the Shadow alone in order to escape the shadow

realm. Every time the shadow is defeated the realm becomes weaker untill it

completely disappears and reveals Lilishade.

After the PCs defeat the shadow and the shadow realm, the chamber of

Lilishade will appear. If the players attacked the Drow and he fled they will see

him infront of Lilishade on the floor. The PCs doesn’t know if he is dead or just

unconscious. If the Drow joined the party then he attacks Lilishade alone and

he is being beaten instantly causing no damage on Lilishade whatsoever.

Lilishade will speak with a demonic voice and welcome the party inside her

chamber and to their expected doom and then attack the players. The players

can roll initiative to attack first.

After the PCs defeat Lilishade she turns into dust with a scream that causes

the cave to start collapsing, the players must escape within 1:30 minute or be

blocked inside the cave and eventually die. It takes 45 seconds for someone

to run outside of the cave, if they are carrying someone it takes 1:20 minutes.

Someone who will lose his way inside the cave or try to visit the other rooms

will be trapped inside.

When the players manage to escape the cave they will find Azerith outside

waiting for them and congratulating them for defeating Lilishade. He asks the

PCs if he can join them on their adventures, it’s up to the party if they want a

scout NPC with them. If the party saved the Drow then Azerith will not ask to

join the party.

Additional Information

*The dagger is a Cursed Sacrificial Dagger, which when used by a chaotic

neutral ,chaotic evil or true evil character it becomes +2 masterwork dagger

against living creatures and deals a x4 critical when performing a coup de

grace and grants the slayer temporary hp equal to the hp of the sacrificed

target for 24 hours (temporary hp overlaps, it does not stack). It also grants a

+5 bonus on Knowledge (Religion) checks for topics relating to sacrifice.

When a creature not of the same alignment grabs the knife, it will function as

normal until first used to resolve an attack. The attack roll is made against its

user, and every round afterwards the user will be forced to full attack

themselves, unable to drop the dagger or attack another creature. The dagger

can only be stopped by another disarming the user, the user losing the ability

to attack themselves (such as becoming paralyzed), or casting remove

curse (which allows the user to drop the dagger). The knife will not betray a

user of the same alignment or choice of worship, but the user must coup de

grace a creature at least once a month, or it will become hostile to them.

The knife radiates faint evil, but does not have any evil powers that are

obvious until the curse is revealed.

The wearer can command the ring to give forth a ramlike force, manifested by

a vaguely discernible shape that resembles the head of a ram or a goat. This

force strikes a single target, dealing 1d6 points of damage if 1 charge is

expended, 2d6 points if 2 charges are used, or 3d6 points if 3 charges (the

maximum) are used. Treat this as a ranged attack with a 50-foot maximum

range and no penalties for distance.

The force of the blow is considerable, and those struck by the ring are subject

to a bull rush if within 30 feet of the ring-wearer. (The ram has Strength 25 and

is Large.) The ram gains a +1 bonus on the bull rush attempt if 2 charges are

expended, or +2 if 3 charges are expended.

In addition to its attack mode, the ring of the ram also has the power to open

doors as if it were a character with Strength 25. If 2 charges are expended, the

effect is equivalent to a character with Strength 27. If 3 charges are expended,

the effect is that of a character with Strength 29.

A newly created ring has 50 charges. The Ring of this campaign has 15

charges left. When all the charges are expended, the ring becomes a

nonmagical item.

Monsters