The Lost Lady

Background: This side adventure can take place at any party level,
in any region or location where the road passes through a wooded
rural area. The first event occurs as the party are making their way
down a road on any regular day of travel.
Note that these encounter descriptions will be a bit vague and
may have multiple stats depending on which edition you are using.
Use only those stats that apply, and ignore those that dont.
GM Note: Trecia is not alive. Shes a ghost who doesnt realize that
she had died. The only way she can be put to rest is if she is confronted
with indisputable proof that she had died with her husband. She
will not accompany the party to the farm, nor anywhere past this
immediate area. She has a habit of disappearing suddenly when
no one is paying attention, and reappearing out of the woods
begging for help the next day. Until she is at peace, she will show
up on the road every day, asking why the party isnt continuing to
help.
1: Help!
As the party enters this area, a beautiful human woman in her
30s will stumble out of the woods to their left, begging them to help
her. Her clothing is worn and somewhat dirty, but in decent shape.
She is very distraught, and will try to get the PCs to follow her into
the woods immediately. If an attempt to calm her (medium difficulty
CHA check) is made and she is questioned, she will say that (x from
table) ambushed her and her husband as they were visiting their
nephew at his farm just up ahead. She begs them to hurry and help
her find her husband, who was dragged into the woods.
2: Helfers Farm
This is the farm/inn of Helfer, a man in his late 50s. He is friendly,
and has three bedrooms for rent at the inn. Inhabit the inn with any
visitors as you wish, but it should not be too full. Mostly from local
farmers.
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If asked about Trecia, he and anyone in the inn will become very
somber and quiet, and try to avoid any further conversation with
the party. If pressed, they will admit that Trecia is his aunt, but she
disappeared decades ago.
3: Haunted Shack
Everyone avoids this shack, as they view it as haunted. They
arent really wrong. It appears as a long abandon building falling
apart, but the door does still function, albeit sticking. An aura of
doom and death emanate from the shack. Anyone nearing the
shack must make a hard difficulty WIS check or be too afraid to
enter.
If Trecia is with the party, she will hang back and not enter. As
soon as a PC has entered the shack and no one is looking at her
directly, she will scream and the PCs will see a blur of a shadow as
if some creature flew out of the woods, taking her. There will be no
tracks, as the entire thing is part of her ghostly illusion.
Investigation of the shack will reveal many humanoid bones
lying strewn about. Dark bloodstains mar the wooden and rotted
floor. One set of bones, a man, grasps a golden locket in his hands
under his tattered remains of clothing. If opened, the locket will
reveal two pictures: one of a handsome young man, and the other
of Trecia.
If confronted with this locket, Trecia will at first accuse the party
of stealing it. Only a moderate CHA check will convince her that
her husband is dead. But that will not set her at rest. Her body is
not found, so she thinks she is still alive, and will demand the party
take vengeance with her as she hunts the killer.
In addition to the body and locket, there is another body of a
dwarf. He is dressed in miners clothes, and looks to have been
dead for decades; thick cobwebs cover his body. In his bony hand
is a rusted pick and a leather journal. The pages are in dwarven,
and describe entries of him looking for the mother lode in the hills
to the northeast.
4: The Lair
A stench hits the party long before they actually get to the area
marked #4 on the map. This area is the lair of the creature(s) as
described by the table below. A small cave under a huge tree is
home to the creature(s). Once defeated, if the cave is searched they
party will find among the various bones another female corpse with
a matching locket to the one in the shack. When confronted with
this, Trecia will be nearly overcome with grief. As the realization
hits that she is dead too, she will begin to fade. Upon completion of
this mission, each PC will be awarded 100xp per PC level.
Creature List
Character Level
Creature Encountered
1
1d6+1 old goblins
2-3
1d6+1 ghouls
4-6
wraith
7-9
3 ogres or 2 hill giants
10-12
horned devil
13-15
vampire
17-20
lich