NIGHT OF THE

SKULLTAKER

INTRODUCTION 3

CHAPTER 1: THE BONES OF CUTTLEVALE 6

CHAPTER 2: GULLROOST ISLANDS 13

CHAPTER 3: SKUM CAVES 19

AUTHOR: RON LUNDEEN

CARTOGRAPHY: D YSON LOGOS
ART: THE FORGE STUDIOS,
JERRY KEYES
 INTRODUCTION
Doom hangs over the coastal town of
Cuttlevale. This lively community of fishers,
woodworkers, and boatbuilders has occupied
a sheltered beach on a deep inlet for
generations. Cuttlevale’s people venerate a
holy figure named Saxra. In their retelling,
Saxra came down from the mountains during a
particularly fierce winter to seek shelter along
the coast. The people of Cuttlevale at the time
sheltered the saintly Saxra for the night. In
gratitude, Saxra left behind a few sacred bones
upon departing the following morning; these
bones have been enshrined in the town’s only
church ever since. The townspeople agree that
Saxra is a deity, but don’t agree on Saxra’s
spheres of influence, appearance, or even
Saxra’s gender. All agree, however, that Saxra
holds power over bones, and thus the bones in
the church are holy relics.
The people of Cuttlevale badly
misremember their history. A saxra is an
undead monster, not a deity, and is more
commonly known as a skulltaker. Skulltakers
are powerful monsters made of bones,
shrouds, and evil. They often lurk in high
mountains, but can fly swiftly across the land
in search of victims. Although skulltakers
nearly always have a horse’s skull for a head,
their bodies are made of a mismatched
collection of bones from other creatures.
Skulltakers absorb the bones of their victims
into their bodies, growing in size as they draw
their victims’ knowledge from the bones. A
skulltaker is therefore as much an oracle as a
monster, amassing eclectic lore in their long,
wicked lives.
A skulltaker truly came to Cuttlevale on a
winter night long ago, but the creature was
destroyed by a brave pirate crew—that of
Captain Jamlathan Case—before it could
ravage the town. Captain Case and most of his
crew were slain in attack. The surviving pirates
sought aid in Cuttlevale, muttering with terror
about the “saxra” and displaying the few
bones they’d taken from the creature. The
pirates left as soon as possible, wanting
nothing more to do with Cuttlevale. They were
wholly ignorant of how the townspeople were
already misunderstanding their encounter
with “Saxra.”
The bones are no ordinary remains. They
still contain a lingering echo of the skulltaker
they were taken from. Ironically, the faith of
Cuttlevale’s people and the sanctity of the
town’s small church have kept the bones
quiescent in the generations since they were
enshrined. They’ve only become dangerous
when removed, which is the cause of
Cuttelvale’s recent troubles.
THE SKUM THEFT
A pack of evil fish-like humanoids called skum
lurks in a cave on a rocky island near
Cuttlevale (in fact, in a cave once outfitted by
Captain Case when he needed to lie low in the
area). The pack leader, Alkini, knows that her
skum are individually more powerful than the
townspeople, but she has learned from
personal experience that townspeople riled up
into mobs can be very dangerous. She’s
therefore insisted her skum keep a low profile
in the area, plundering dockside goods left
untended and feasting upon occasional
floundering fishers when weather turned poor.
These losses were blamed on bad weather or
poor skill, and most in the town are ignorant of
the skum lairing so close by.
 Alkini learned from a hapless fisherman
than the townspeople revere some “magical
bones” that bring them luck and peace. Alkini
wanted these bones for herself, so she sent a
small strike force to retrieve them. They
succeeded, but one of the skum was killed by a
dog in town as they made their escape.
Almost as soon as the skum returned the
bones to their cave, the skulltaker’s evil
sentience awoke. It swirled the bones around
in deadly shards, flaying Alkini and most of
the skum. The dead skum animated as
skeletons, their bones ripping free from their
flesh. Some of these stolen bones coalesced to
form a new body for the skulltaker, much
smaller and weaker than its prior incarnation.
The skulltaker followed two fleeing skum to
the shore, where it killed one of them along
with a seahorse mount the skum was trying to
reach. Pleased to take the seahorse’s skull as its
new head, the skulltaker returned to the caves
to recover its strength. It sent three of its
skeletons to Cuttlevale to eliminate anyone
that might know about the theft to buy it more
time to recuperate. If allowed to regain even a
small measure of its former power, Cuttlevale
will surely fall.
CUTTLEVALE OVERVIEW
Cuttlevale is a small fishing town with few
connections to anywhere larger; the roads
between Cuttlevale and larger towns aren’t
particularly well-maintained and are
sometimes threatened by bandits or monsters.
Cuttlevale has fewer than 300 residents,
including the trappers and farmers around the
town’s fringes. The town is on a large inlet
making it an inconvenient stop for sea traffic
that can otherwise quickly bypass the inlet to
larger ports. The inlet doesn’t open into a large
bay or lagoon, but simply ends at the shore
where Cuttlevale is built, so opportunity for
growth is limited. Nevertheless, the inlet teems
with fish, and the people are friendly with
each other and with the rare outsiders that
venture into town. Cuttlefish are present in the
inlet but not particularly common; seeing one
is a sign of good luck, and intentionally
harming one is taboo.
Cuttlevale is ruled by an elected council of
the town’s elders; the most senior of the town’s
elders has the authority to break ties. This
elder is currently an elven woman named
Trielle Harlashio, whose seniority derives from
being so much older than anyone else in town.
Cuttlevale’s council appoints a harbormaster to
repair and maintain the docks vital to the
town’s fishing industry. The harbormaster
(currently, a pompous, handsome man named
Eldrin Dotigar) is thus one of the most
important people in town. The busybody
Antonia Lambestish, whose family operates
Cuttlevale’s surprisingly large and ancient
lighthouse called the Town Light, has held a
grudge against Eldrin for so long that neither
of them remembers the cause. Persistent
rumors that they have a secret romantic
relationship frustrate both of them to no end.
The most unusual aspect of Cuttlevale is
the Church of Saxra, a local deity of obscure
origin and appearance that is nevertheless
revered by the people of the town. This shrine
is maintained by the town’s gravedigger, a
half-blind man named Bulcher Theev. Bulcher
is well-liked by the community even though he
plainly doesn't know any more about the
mysterious Saxra than anyone else.
Bebra Hagalin runs Someplace Else,
Cuttlevale’s only inn. Bebra is an excitable
halfling who likes to collect stories from the
people she meets. Much of Someplace Else’s
lower floor and high-ceiling basement doubles
as a storefront, where Bebra sells goods useful
to travelers, like dried food, camping gear, and
hand-me-down weapons. Locals consider
Bebra’s prices a bit too high and get their
goods elsewhere in town. They joke that
Bebra’s establishment’s name tells them where
it’s wisest to shop.
The central part of Cuttlevale is where the
action in the first chapter of this adventure
takes place. Its map appears on the following
page.
 RUMORS IN CUTTLEVALE
If the heroes take some time to ask around
Cuttlevale for rumors, a successful DC 15
Diplomacy check to Gather Information
provides the heroes with one of the following
rumors at random. A hero who critically
succeeds gains a second random rumor. A
hero who critically fails gains a false rumor of
your invention.
1. I heard a traveling scholar say Saxra isn’t a
god but a type of evil bone-monster. What
nonsense!
2. The scourge of the seas around here a few
generations ago was Captain Jamlathan
Case. He was always good to the people of
Cuttlevale, but his raids on passing
merchant ships were daring and
legendary.
3. Pirates hid a bunch of treasure in a cave
near Cuttlevale, the legends say. Wish I
could find a map with a big X on it.
4. There’s monsters living in the water,
strange fishfolk that hide from light but
grow bold at night.
5. There used to be an observatory on one of
the Gullroost Islands in the inlet. They say
it’s now haunted by nothing except old
memories and big spiders.
6. One of the Gullroost Islands in the inlet has
a ring of standing stones on it. That’s old
magic, but good magic. My cousin spent a
night out there once, and she said it was
some of the best rest she ever had.
7. Have you seen seahorses in the inlet? Some
of them are enormous!
8. Have you seen sea scorpions in the inlet?
Some of them are enormous!
 CHAPTER 1: THE BONES
OF CUTTLEVALE
The heroes arrive in the town of Cuttlevale,
either simply traveling through or because
they’ve heard of some strange robbery or
attack on the town. If you’d like a tighter
connection to the town, the heroes might be
from Cuttlevale or be related
to the healer Kindell Spritch.
If they’re Cuttlevale
residents, they already know
all of the information in
“Cuttlevale Overview” in
the Introduction.
The adventure begins
early one evening as the
heroes are unwinding in an
inn called Someplace Else.
A1. SOMEPLACE ELSE
Kindell Spritch, a no-
nonsense human woman
with her dark hair kept in
meticulous knots, seeks out
the heroes for their help. She
might already know them,
or simply know that guests
of Someplace Else are likely
to be fairly capable. They’ve
made the rough journey to
Cuttlevale, after all.
To begin this adventure, read or
paraphrase the following.
The healer Kindell Spritch lays a gold
piecefor each of you on the table. “I’d like to
buy a few moments of your time.”
“We’ve had an unusual and demoralizing
theft here in town, and one of the perpetrators
was killed by Bulcher Theev’s ugliest dog. It’s
not a human, but some sort of fish-person. I’m
the closest thing this town has to a coroner, so
I’m going to look at the body. But I’ve been
warned that this fish-person has got to be
dead, by the bite wounds, but it’s not laying as
still as a corpse ought. Bulcher has it locked up
now, but if it’s going to get up
and lunge at me while I’m
looking it over, I’d like people
who could handle such a
thing on hand.”
Kindell knows little
more right now, but she’s
happy to answer any
questions the heroes have.
The only additional pieces of
information are that the theft
happened in the middle of the
night last night, several relics
were taken from the local
church, and the body is
currently locked up in the
church awaiting Kindell’s
examination.
If the heroes want more
of a reward that 1 gp each,
Kindell initially balks. She
expresses some skepticism
that they’ll be needed at all
and it’s probably very easy money. If they
insist, she offers her equipment to them as
payment after her examination.
Creatures: In case Kindell’s statistics are
necessary, they are as follows.
 1
1
1
1
1 1

A2. CUTTLEVALE ROAD (LOW 1)

While the townspeople have been focused on
the theft, the skulltaker is working to eliminate
witnesses to its escape. It commanded three
skum skeletons to head to Cuttlevale to
destroy the church and everything in it. Blunt
and violent, the skeletons swam to town,
climbed up onto the pier, and started killing
everyone they saw. They then head in the
direction of the church, but they don’t make it
that far. They instead come across the heroes
and Kindell on their way to the same place and
continue their murderous rampage.
Although plainly skeletons of piscine
humanoids, the heroes can’t initially tell what
sort of creatures these skeletons once were. A
hero who succeeds at a DC 13 Religion check
recalls basic information about skeletons, but a
separate successful DC 16 Occultism check is
required to realize these skeletons were once
skum.
Creatures: The skum skeletons lunge out
onto the road the heroes are traversing. The
skeletons are wet and have plainly come from
the direction of the town docks. They each
clutch a bettered trident in their bony hands.
These foes spread out their attacks among the
heroes and fight until destroyed.
Next Steps: Kindell is shaken to think of
skeletons active in her town, and it doesn’t
take her much time to connect the strange
twitching movements of the fishlike thief in the
church to these strange skeletons. She worries
that the skeleton inside the thief’s corpse is also
animate, and becomes even more convinced
she needs the heroes’ help. If the heroes
haven’t already negotiated for Kindell to give
them her gear as a reward, she offers it to them
now.
There might be some clues down at the
docks, Kindell admits, but she suspects more
answers might be available in the church. If the
heroes want to backtrack the skeletons’ trail to
the docks, Kindell says she’ll meet them at the
church (she won’t go in until the heroes
arrive). In this case, run the encounter in area
A4 before the one in area A3.
A3. CHURCH OF SAXRA (LOW 1)
The Church of Saxra is little more than a stone
building about 20 feet square with two stained
glass windows too thick to see though and a
double wooden door. The church door is
boarded over from the outside. The church’s
keeper, a half-blind man named Bulcher
Theev, paces nervously by the barricaded
door, awaiting Kindell’s arrival. His
remarkably ugly dog Cogger is at his side, but
it’s clear upon a close look that Cogger is some
kind of crossbreed of a goblin dog with a
normal canine. Cogger is nevertheless
extremely loyal to Bulcher and isn’t any
danger to the heroes. Cogger takes particularly
kindly to any goblins among the heroes,
demanding affectionate pats.
Kindell nods to the tall man by the door
accompanied by a singularly
ugly dog. “Evening, Bulcher.
How’s things with the
thief?”
The man nods back, his
face in a squint. “Listen for
yourself,” he says, putting a
finger to his lips.
After only a moment, a
sound of clattering and a
great crash echo from inside
the building. The man
continues, “I don’t see as
well as most, but I know a
corpse when I see one. Cogger
here killed that fish-man, I
know it. But it hasn’t stayed
dead.”
Whether they ask him
before or after going into the
church, Bulcher knows quite
a bit about the theft. He
explains as follows.
“I know this isn’t much of a church by
other town’s standards, but we have
something they don’t have anywhere else in
the world: bones of an actual god named
Saxra. It’s a bundle of six bones, each no bigger
than a person’s shin. They say Saxra left the
bones to Cuttlevale when its townspeople
sheltered the god one winter night, and it’s
brought bounty ever since. That was many
generations ago, you know, so specific details
may differ in the telling. But Saxra’s bones are
good luck, and they’re ours. Or, until last
night, that is."
Bulcher gestures to the lock on the church
door, which is plainly smashed.
“Last night, someone broke into the church.
I live just over there, and Cogger here raised a
big fuss and got out, barking all the while. By
the time I caught up, Bulcher had killed one of
the thieves, but I could hear at least two
others running off toward the docks. I couldn’t
get a good look at them, but I saw the one
Cogger killed, all right. It wasn’t a person, but
some kind of fish-man with a
tail and frills and clawed
hands and such. Nasty, and
sopping wet.
“The bigger worry is
that the bones of Saxra are
gone. They’re kept in a niche
in the wall, and that niche
was empty except for
dripping water, like all over
the floor and all over the
dead fish-man. I don’t know
who those fish-people are, or
where they went,” Bulcher
stops to wipe away a tear,
“but they took our relics
away from us.”
It’s unlikely that the
heroes are aware that the
powerful undead creatures
called skulltakers are also
known as saxras (the Religion
DC to recognize this
uncommon 18th-level undead creature is 43),
but the lack of details in the legend might raise
some heroes’ suspicions. Both Kindell and
Bulcher know about Saxra, but the two of
them—as well as anyone else in Cuttlevale the
heroes question—differ on what they believe
Saxra’s appearance, powers, and interests are.
Bulcher believes Saxra watches over graves
and the dead, and that Saxra looks like a
kindly man with a dog’s head (because dogs
like bones, naturally). Kindell, on the other
hand, believes Saxra to be an agender god of
health, particularly the healthy mending of
broken bones, whose symbol is a knot of twine
(used to keep splints in place). Their only
agreement is that Saxra is a god of bones and
good luck, and this commonality is sufficient
to keep their disagreements good-natured.
Bulcher’s description of “fish-men” might
bring to mind sea devils or other aquatic
monsters. A hero who succeeds at a DC 16
Occultism check upon hearing Bulcher’s
description realizes the shrinekeeper is talking
about skum. Heroes who previously identified
the skeletons they encountered on road here as
skum make this connection automatically and
don't need to roll. R
Kindell asks the heroes to investigate the
church’s interior when she and Bulcher unbar 1
the door for them. Both of them know the 1
church is only a single large room on the 1
inside. Kindell plans to examine what’s left 1
after the heroes put down the obvious danger
in the church.
The small church’s interior is a shambles.
Candleholders and wooden chairs are strewn
about the room and the stained glass windows
have large cracks in their inner panes. A niche
in the wall opposite the door is painted with
gaudy gold paint, but stands empty. A bench
bears the savaged body of a piscine person, its
chest and head lolling open grotesquely.
Creatures: The skum corpse is split wide
open because the skeleton inside has clawed its
way out. This is more of the skulltaker’s evil
magic, amplified at the site where its bones
rested for so long. This skeleton has arisen as a
more powerful creature than the ones the
heroes previously fought.
This skum skeletal champion attacks any
creatures it sees. It leaves the church if the
doorway is clear, but it doesn’t go far; instead,
it simply fights in the street in front of the
church. If the fight spills out into the street,
Bulcher and Kindell run for cover. Cogger
might join the fight on the heroes’ side; if any
of the heroes are goblins, or if any otherwise
showed kindness to the ugly hound, it fights
against the skeletal champion as best it can.

1
1
Kindell’s Examination: After the heroes
vanquish the skum’s skeleton, Kindell comes
into the church to look over the fleshy corpse.
She quickly confirms that it’s a type of aquatic
aberration called skum, or confirms the heroes’
knowledge on this point. Kindell is surprised
to see it here, as she doesn’t know of any
problems Cuttlevale has had with skum in
particular. She’s entirely baffled as to why
skum would steal Saxra’s sacred bones—that
piece of the puzzle doesn’t make sense to her.
While Kindell looks over the body, she
pays particularly close attention to the skum’s
feet. Several grains of an unusual gray sand
are stuck in the scales on them, indicating it
must have walked through such sand quite
often. However, she’s not familiar with that
type of sand around Cuttlevale. Kindell
admits, however, that she rarely travels out of
town; Cuttlevale’s harbormaster, Eldrin
Dotigar, might be able to say where such sand
can be found. After all, he works with each of
the fishers who go up and down the inlet and
the coast on a daily basis.
Next Steps: If the heroes haven’t been to
the docks, that’s the obvious next step. If they
have, they know they need another clue to
pinpoint the skum's origin, and the gray sand
seems to be the clue Eldrin needs.
A4. EASTERN PIER (MODERATE 1)
The easternmost of Cuttlevale’s two large
wooden piers is in an uproar. A few
townspeople loiter on the landward end of the
pier, plainly uncertain of what to do. The pier
is awash in blood, with a half-dozen slain
townspeople littering the pier like broken
dolls. One of the corpses near the end of the
pier, partially concealed from view by a stack
of crates, is rolling back and forth slightly. It’s
plain even from this distance that the rolling is
ungainly and unnatural—not like a living
person in distress would make, but like a heap
of cargo being heaved to and fro. The
townspeople point at this corpse and whisper
to each other; obviously, the rumors of the
dead-yet-not-dead thief in the church have
already run through the town.
The pier is a long, sturdy structure in a
cross shape. It is about 15 feet wide and 90 feet
long, with its cross pieces extending 20 feet in
either direction. Several empty fishing boats
are moored to the pier.
A hero who succeeds at a DC 15 Perception
check while looking at the jostling corpse, even
from the landward end of the pier, realizes the
nature of its movement. Two small creatures
are trying to move it, but without much luck.
The creatures are blue-skinned humanoids just
over 2 feet tall. The creatures are hard to see on
the other side of the crates, which provides
them cover. A successful DC 14 Nature check
is required to identify the creatures as mitflits.
A hero who succeeds at a DC 10 Medicine
check notes that dead people have all been
killed with claws or tridents, just like those of
the skeletons the heroes encountered on the
road through town. Those skeletons plainly
came this way, and made short work of the
sailors here before meeting up with the heroes.
If this Medicine check is a critical success, the
hero notes that one of the corpses is still
bleeding in a manner that indicates he’s alive;
this is the harbormaster Eldrin Dotigar. If the
heroes don’t yet identify that he isn’t dead,
they can do so after dealing with the
troublesome creatures here at the dock.
 Creatures: Two mitflit gremlins have been
skulking around the docks for several days,
feasting on discarded fish heads and deciding
how to best cause trouble. Their luck changed
earlier in this day, when a reefclaw swam into
the region. The reefclaw is just close enough,
biologically speaking, to an arthropod that the
mitflits could communicate with it. They
agreed to feed the reefclaw a huge pile of food
if the reefclaw would serve them. The reefclaw
agreed, and the mitflits were still wondering
how to keep their promise—and avoid
becoming the reefclaw’s next meal
themselves—when the skum skeletons rose
out of the water and started killing people on
the docks. The mitflits considered this to be
remarkably good fortune, and they decided to
shove the corpses into the water to feed the
reefclaw its due. Unfortunately, the mitflits are
so weak that they’re having trouble even
moving one corpse into the water; all they’ve
been able to do is get it to rock back and forth.
This certainly worries the townspeople, who
1
suspect some supernatural cause, but it’s
merely the mitflits’ ineptitude.
1
When the heroes venture onto the docks,
the mitflits attempt to hide on the other side of
the crates. They won’t keep their presence a
secret if the heroes have already spotted them,
of course, but they otherwise try to ambush
any heroes who get close. In any case, the
mitflits aren’t willing to lose all these prize
corpses. They attack to drive the heroes away
and fight to the death.
During these events, the reefclaw is lurking
out of sight, just under the pier. It knows
there’s a lot of food up there, and it’s
increasingly frustrated that the mitflits aren’t
yet feeding it like they promised. At the start
of the second round of combat, the reefclaw
launches itself out of the water and onto the
pier near the closest hero (doing so takes 2
actions). It thereafter fights the heroes to the R
best of its ability, even though it can’t move
around very quickly on the pier. If the heroes
retreat from the pier entirely, the reefclaw
turns against the mitflits to devour them. 1

1 Gullroost Islands. There’s still something of a
The Harbormaster: After the combat (or
earlier if the heroes tended to him), the
harbormaster Eldrin Dotigar rises shakily to
his feet. He has a trident wound across his
shoulder, but it’s clear he got
off lucky and is going to
survive. Eldrin is normally a
pompous man, but the recent
near-death experience has
humbled him and he’s
genuinely grateful to be
alive. Eldrin thanks the
heroes for their assistance
and explains what happened
here: three skeletons dragged
themselves from the water
and killed the half-dozen
people on the pier before
heading into town. Eldrin
doesn’t know why the
skeletons came, and hasn’t
heard of skeletons in this
area before. Or skum, for that matter, if the
heroes bring up the skeletons’ origin.
Fortunately, Eldrin was attentive enough
to notice the direction the skeletons came from.
That direction is open water, he explains,
except for a strip of land along the side of the
inlet and a few uninhabited islands. He can’t
be more specific than this, and suggests that
finding out more would help him narrow
down the location.
If the heroes tell Eldrin about grains of
gray sand, he can specifically identify
Gullroost Islands, a cluster of three islands at
the mouth of the inlet. The islands are quite
old, and have gray sand beaches.
Next Steps: The heroes might need to visit
the Church of Saxra to get the other clue they
need, as only both clues together point to
mystery about the connection between the
living skum thieves and the undead skum
skeletons, but it’s quite likely the answers are
to be found out there.
Any of the townspeople near the docks
gives the heroes a rowboat to head out to the
island. The boat is Large in size and seats four
Medium creatures. If necessary, the
townspeople give the heroes a second boat as
well. These boats belonged to
the people killed by the
skeletons, and the
townspeople urge the heroes
to use them if only to enact
some revenge.
If the heroes don’t seem
inclined to investigate right
away, any of the
townspeople they’ve met so
far, including Kindell,
Bulcher, and Eldrin, plead
with them to look into the
matter. There simply isn’t
anyone else in town capable
of handling these dangers,
and another attack might be
even deadlier than the first.
When the heroes head to Gullroost Islands,
turn to Chapter 2.
 CHAPTER 2:
GULLROOST ISLANDS

Three small islands stand at the mouth of
Cuttlevale’s inlet. Located about two hours’
hard rowing away from town, these islands
are storm-wracked and ill-suited for
permanent construction. This hasn’t stopped
people from trying in the past, however, and
ruins are visible atop each of the three islands.
Flocks of noisy seagulls wheel over the islands,
roosting in the cliffs on the islands’ steepest
sides.
No one in Cuttlevale realizes that the
largest island conceals a secret cave. Used by
Captain Case long ago, and still bearing some
furnishings and treasures the pirate stashed
there, the cave was recently occupied by the
skum who had come to the area.
The heroes can explore the Gullroost
Islands in whatever order they please. The
gray sand they're looking for is visible on all of
them, although only two islands have beaches.
the island leads to a tumble onto jagged rocks;
falling damage does piercing damage rather
than bludgeoning damage here.
Most of the outbuildings have crumbled to
their stone foundations, but the observatory’s
central dome walls still stand 30 feet high. The
webs draping the ruins are thickest in the
overhanging shelter of the dome walls, as this
high vantage point is where the island’s
spiders lair.
Creatures: Two large spiders have taken
over the top of the island, lurking in the
observatory ruins. They subsist on gulls that
fly into their webs, but they are eager for the
prospect of larger prey. If the heroes make a lot
of noise ascending to the top of this island, the
spiders hide and use Stealth for initiative. The
spiders fight to the death if necessary, but they
don’t leave their island.

B1. OBSERVATORY ISLAND (MODERATE 1)

This small island contains the ruins of a large
dome surrounded by a few low walls. The
ruins are covered with sheets of thin webbing.
The island’s sides are sheer cliffs; it has no
obvious beaches upon which to land.
This island was once chosen by an order of
astronomer-monks as a cosmologically
significant place to construct an observatory.
Unfortunately, its remote location and difficult R
access compelled the astronomer-monks to
abandon it long ago.
The top of the island is 20 feet above the
crashing surf. Climbing its sides requires a
successful DC 15 Athletics check. Falling from
 Treasure: The astronomer-monks left a few
1
valuable items behind when they abandoned
their observatory long ago. Searching the
1 observatory uncovers a lensatic compass, a
potency crystal suspended in a valueless wire
1 frame, and a waterproof leather pouch. The
pouch contains three clear glass lenses about 6
inches in diameter worth 5 gp each and a
strange bit of glass in the shape of a tiny kite
shield; this is the missing gem from the brooch
of shielding located in area C3. Alone, it's worth
8 gp.

B2. DANGEROUS BEACH (MODERATE 1)

This island has wide, low beaches to the
south and a plateau rising to the north.
The beaches are made of grayish sand and
crisscrossed with strange tracks.
The beaches on either side of this island are
claimed by a massive sea scorpion, or
eurypterid. The creature often crosses the
island on the beaches. A hero who succeeds at
a DC 15 Nature check while examining the
tracks learns that they were made by large
arthropods; on a critical success, the hero
knows it was a single eurypterid going back
and forth across the beach over time.
Creatures: The lumbering eurypterid isn’t
on the beach when the heroes arrive; if the
heroes watch and wait, the eurypterid crosses
the island every few hours. The eurypterid
dislikes intruders on the beach it considers its
own, and attacks the heroes when they land
(darting from out of the water if it’s not on the
beach). The creature retreats into the water if
reduced to fewer than 10 Hit Points and looks
for a new place to live.
R
1
1
1
B3. PLATEAU OF STANDING STONES (LOW 1)
The plateau above the beach is covered with
tall grasses, but a few stone monoliths jut
above the grasses in a ring.
This plateau bears the oldest of the ruins
on the Gullroost Islands: a ring of standing
stones erected in prehistoric times by some
prehuman civilization. A strange, flat stone
overgrown with vines stands in the center of
the ring. The purpose of the standing stones is
long lost, but they retain an aura of peace and
comfort. Any creature suffering from an effect
that restoration can mend (a toxin or the
clumsy, enfeebled, or stupefied condition)
receives the benefits of restoration upon
entering the ring of stones. A creature can only
benefit from this effect once each day. In
addition, anyone resting within the standing
stones regains double the normal amount of
Hit Points.
Creatures: The only skum to escape the
skulltaker’s attack on the cave is currently
resting here. Tholog is a skittish male skum
who was one of Alkini’s favorites; he used his
favoritism to bully other skum in the group
and was unpopular with them as a result.
Tholog isn’t interested in fighting, although
he certainly defends himself if the heroes
attack him. He flees the area if reduced to
fewer than 20 Hit Points, diving off the plateau
into the sea to swim away.
If the heroes talk to Tholog, he lets them
know that the skum have been living in a
nearby cave and keeping their presence hidden
from the land-walkers in town. Tholog has
obvious scorn for the townspeople, who are so
afraid of the water that they keep folded wood
(that is, boats) between themselves and the
water’s embrace.
Tholog can explain all the recent events,
including Alkini’s scheme to steal the sacred
bones from the land-walkers’ church to acquire
their good luck. This theft went terribly wrong,
as the bones were some sort of creature that
animated when brought away from the town.
The creature killed all the skum except Tholog,
turning them into skeletons or taking their
bones for its own gruesome form. Tholog goes
to the edge of the plateau to point at the cave
entrance, if the heroes ask for its specific
location, but he doesn’t plan to leave this
plateau and is only waiting until he feels well
enough to leave the area for good.
 The skum can't otherwise provide the
heroes with very much information. Tholog
doesn’t know about the other creatures on the
islands, and he believes all the seahorses were
killed and therefore doesn’t mention them. He
has a good firsthand knowledge of the skum
caves, however, and can provide the heroes
with a detailed description of it if they ask.
Treasure: If the heroes deal peaceably with
Tholog, he promises to pose no further threat
to the people of Cuttlevale. Further, if they
managed to defeat the “bone monster” and
avenge the murders, Tholog tells them where a
magic gem is buried near the top of another
island (this is the mesmerizing opal in area B7).
XP Award: If the heroes get useful
information from Tholog, award them XP as
though they had defeated the skum in combat.

B4. SEAHORSE REEF (MODERATE 1)

The placid water between the three islands is
relatively shallow; it’s only 15 feet deep at its
deepest, and the waters are generally clear
enough to see the colorful sea-plants and fish
living just under the water’s surface.
Creatures: The water is the home of the
skums’ small herd of seahorses. After the
skulltaker’s attack, only two seahorses remain.
1 They are angry about the slaughter and quick
1 to attack any non-skum that come by. When
1 the seahorses attack, they first attempt to
1 capsize the heroes’ boat to dump them into the
water. The enraged seahorses fight until slain.
 have a fixed location, as the four bloodseekers
might attack while the heroes are anywhere on
the island (but most likely while the heroes are
trying to rest). As soon as the heroes defeat
three of the bloodseekers, the fourth flies away.

1
1

B5. PIRATE ISLAND BEACH

The water laps onto a narrow, gray beach here.
A heap of decaying flesh emits a ghastly scent.
Examination shows that the heap of flesh
consists of two corpses tangled together: one of
a skum, and the other of a seahorse. All have
had their bones messily removed, leaving
mounds of decaying flesh. 1
The entrance to the skum caves can’t be
seen from the water, as it’s screened by scrub,
but anyone looking around in this area spots
the cave entrance automatically. The cave is
described in Chapter 3.

B6. PIRATE ISLAND INTERIOR (MODERATE 1)

A clot of bloodseekers recently came to this
island, drawn by the large numbers of gulls in
the area. The gulls only lost a few of their
number before learning to cluster in greater
numbers to keep the bloodseekers at bay. The
bloodseekers haven’t been able to get easy
meals because the gulls are banding together,
and they’ve even lost a few of their number to
the angry gulls.
Creatures: Only four bloodseekers remain
on the island, and they’re desperate for any
prey that isn’t a gull. This encounter doesn't
B7. THE LIGHTHOUSE TREE (MODERATE 1)
The winding path to the top of this island
seems too regular to be natural, but if it once
bore stairs or a smooth ramp, those have
eroded away long ago. A cluster of square
stones at the top of the island are sheltered by
an enormous gnarled tree.
This site was once that of a lighthouse
called the Gullroost Light. The lighthouse
crumbed to its foundations long ago, and the
small tree planted long ago by a lonely halfling
druid working as a lighthouse keeper now of one side where the sod hound tasted it but
dwarfs the remaining stones. decided it didn’t like its flavor. Finding the
Creature: The same long-dead lighthouse gem is almost impossible, requiring a
keeper that planted the tree summoned a sod successful DC 30 Perception check, but the
hound for company. The elemental creature heroes might know to look for it from talking
has been here ever since, roaming in the soil to the skum Tholog (or perhaps by befriending
and stone at the island’s highest point. It hasn’t the sod hound).
encountered the skum on the few, brief times
the skum have visited this peak, so the skum
don’t know it exists and vice-versa.
The elemental is too dull-witted to realize
that its master is gone, and it mistakes any
Small hero for its master instead. It rumbles up
from the ground to the closest such hero,
awaiting one of the tiny garnets its master
used to feed it. If it’s not fed right away, it
paws angrily at the hero. If it’s still not fed any
gems of any kind, it attacks. Too stubborn and
foolish to know its own limitations, the sod
hound fights until destroyed.
If the party doesn’t contain any Small
characters, the sod hound instead sees them as
intruders and attacks.

Treasure: Buried near the roots of the tree

is a mesmerizing opal. The item is still
functional, even though it has a small bite out
 CHAPTER 3: SKUM
CAVES
The sheltered caves on the island were
expanded and outfitted by the pirate captain
Jamlathan Case many years ago, and evidence
of the pirate occupation is still present despite
the decay and distress inflicted by the recent
skum inhabitants. The skulltaker has slain all
of the skum in the caves, however, and now
lurks in in the innermost cave while it slowly
regains its strength.
C1. BEACH ENTRANCE
The cave entrance is screened by scrub, but
anyone Searching this area spots the cave
entrance automatically.
Hazard: The scrub contains a few loose
bones hanging in it; although this appears
superficially harmless, it’s part of a trap set by
the skulltaker to eliminate intruders.
C2. SLURK DITCH (LOW 1)
The north end of this cave descends into a
noisome ditch of slime and mud. Several sea-
grasses have been pushed together to form a
crude nest, but it’s covered with the same foul-
smelling slime in the ditch.
Creatures: The skum keep a slurk in this
room as a combination of mascot and guard
animal, but it comes and goes as it pleases. The
slurk was gone when the skulltaker decimated
the skum here, and it returned only after the
skulltaker was ensconced in the deepest cave.
The skulltaker therefore doesn’t know the
slurk is here, and the slurk doesn’t realize that
the skum have all been transformed into
undead. It happily wallows in its ditch, as
usual. The slime gives the slurk a remarkably
repulsive smell.
When the heroes arrive, the slurk
immediately realizes they’re intruders and
attacks. It tries to block the entrance, then
exudes its belly grease to keep the heroes from
moving away easily. Loyal to the skum it
believes are still in the caves, the slurk fights to
the death.
 1

1
 defense. When the wooden pirate is targeted
by a ranged attack, the wooden parrot lurches
to life and intercepts the attack before
returning to perch on the pirate’s shoulder.
This allows the parrot to act as a wooden
shield that the construct always has raised, but
C3. PIRATE TREASURE (MODERATE 1)
it only applies to ranged attacks and not to
This cave bends around to the east and has a
melee attacks. The parrot only works for the
natural shelf to the west. Stone steps lead up
construct, and its magic expires if the construct
to this shelf, but several symbols have been
is destroyed.
painted on the steps in what appears to be
dried mud and blood. The shelf contains an The construct remains immobile until
array of treasures, including silver platters, anyone climbs onto the ledge or attacks it from
ornate goblets, heaps of coins, and an elegant a distance. It then lurches to life, and keeps
rapier. At the center of these treasures stands a fighting until no one remains on the ledge and
strange guardian: a human skeleton any creature that attacked it is dead. The
painstakingly carved from wood and wearing construct even pursues enemies that flee,
a tricorn hat and a pirate’s coat. A large returning here when its attackers are slain.
wooden parrot perches on its shoulder. The construct’s animating magic has a
The ledge is five feet from the floor level. loophole, however. Its protection extends to
Although the stone stairs are the easiest way itself and to the ledge, but not its contents, so
up to it, climbing directly onto the ledge is clever heroes might find a way to snag the
simple (requiring only a successful DC 12 treasures one by one without triggering the
Athletics check to Climb). construct at all.
The symbols on the stairs are written in
Alghollthu and read “Warning! Do Not
Approach!” When the skum first came to these
caves, they were curious about all the treasure
kept in plain view. Alkini was suspicious of a
trap, so asked one of her skum to climb the
stairs to the ledge and take something. The
wooden skeleton immediately animated and
killed the skum, hurling its body off the ledge.
Having little use for money anyway, Alkini
simply declared the ledge off-limits until she
could find some way to best this guardian. She
painted the warning, which the skum have
since obeyed. Since the skulltaker has the
memories of the skum that make up its form, it
also knows about this guardian and has left it
alone for now. After all, its bones aren’t real
and therefore don’t interest the skulltaker.
Creatures: The wooden pirate is animated
with powerful magic to defend the ledge. A
pirate witch on Captain Case’s crew not only
imbued the construct with magic, but
enchanted the wooden parrot to fly to its
 victim to this trap when they first arrived, but
as they could breathe water, it didn’t pose
them much of a problem. Alkini reset the trap
and the skum mostly avoided it; even if they
accidentally stepped wrong, the only cost was
Alkini’s rage at having to reset the trap yet
again. The skulltaker knows what the skum
know, so it doesn’t trigger the trap.
Hazard: The pit trap at the top of the stairs
floods with seawater through four spouts
drilled into the rock. When the trap triggers,
there’s a 1 in 6 chance that the tide is low
R enough that the pit doesn’t flood.

Treasure: The treasure on the ledge

consists of 819 cp, 38 sp, 8 gp, silverware and
dishes weighing 3 Bulk worth a total of 25 gp,
a dull gray aeon stone, an owlbear claw, three
daggers, and a +1 rapier with the words “May
the Wind Ever Be in Your Sails” spiraling up
the blade in tiny script.
Also in the hoard is a brooch of shielding, but
the item doesn’t function; it’s missing the
shield-shaped gem in its center. An old note
stuck to the brooch’s pin reads, “Worthless R
without the astronomer’s gem, you peg-legged
fool!” The pirate chastened for the incomplete
brooch never got a chance to search the ruined
observatory in area B1 to find the missing gem.
XP Award: If the heroes recover the
treasure without triggering the construct,
award them XP as though they had defeated
the construct in combat.

C4. TRAPPED LANDING (MODERATE 1)

Captain Case installed a trap at the top of the
northwest stairs to catch unwanted intruders
who didn’t know where to step. The skum fell
C5. INNER SANCTUM (SEVERE 1)
Old wooden furniture fills the highest part of
the cave complex. An antique table has been
repurposed as a slab to butcher meat, and
several leather bunks are rotted and stuffed
with soggy sea-plants to serve as makeshift
nests. A few sturdy sea-chests stand around
the room. Most of them are open and contain
strange collections of items.
This is the chamber where Captain Case
and members of his crew would hide out from
time to time. Although the furnishings were
once fine and the stores of food and liquor
plentiful, these supplies are all more than a
hundred years old and didn’t last long when
the skum recently moved in to make the place
their own.
There are four sea-chests in the room, but
only three of them are open. The open ones
contain strange items of significance to the
skum, like heaps of cuttlefish corpses, lumps of
coral, and a strange pinkish mud. Only one of
the chests is closed, and it bears so many
scratches around its lock that it’s obviously
proven difficult to get open. 1
Creatures: The skulltaker is recuperating
here along with three loyal skum skeletons 1
that serve as bodyguards. The skulltaker
knows it is still very far from its prior power, 1
but it nevertheless lashes out at the heroes who
intrude upon its rest.
The skulltaker uses Splintered Ground as
soon as it can, as the negative energy it inflicts
heals the undead as they move through it. It
relies on its Shard Storm to discourage melee
attackers and uses its physical attacks and
harm spells. The skulltaker directs the skum
skeletons—and any new skeletons that arises
from its Bonetaker ability—to harry whichever
heroes are causing it the most trouble. All of
these undead foes fight until destroyed. The
skeletons pursue foes that flee, but the
skulltaker doesn’t leave this chamber.
 1 It is protected by a simple lock and requires
three successful DC 22 Thievery checks to open
(increased from the usual DC of 20 to open a
simple lock because of the skum’s scratching
and battering. Inside is a suit of half-plate
armor decorated with the insignia of the city
guard of a large city to the south, a tattered
ship's flag bearing the same insignia, an onyx
gem broken into three small pieces worth 3 gp
each, an everburning torch, and a crying angel
pendant marked with the words “Property of
the Temple of the Sun Mother.”

CONCLUSION
With the defeat of the skulltaker, the heroes
have ended its threat to Cuttlevale and the
surrounding region. Whether they tell the
townspeople the truth about the bones—that
they animated into a monster—is up to them.
One response might be to uncover the six
oldest bones in the skulltaker’s remains (which
requires a successful DC 15 Medicine or
Nature check) and return them to the Church
of Saxra. This earns the heroes the gratitude of
the entire town, including lodging and drinks
for life, but risks the skulltaker awakening
again at a later time…

1
1

Defeating the Skulltaker: Once the

skulltaker is defeated, it collapses into a pile of
bones. Any remaining skeletons fight
erratically without the skulltaker’s direction
and, after 1 round, collapse into bones
themselves.
Treasure: The once-fine materials in this
chamber have been spoiled by skum
habitation, with the exception of the treasure
chest that the skum haven’t been able to open.