Short Adventures - Black Water.pdf - Adventures - R5700

Cliffhangers Presents: The Horror of Lannock Hill – by Tom Kristensen

Cliffhangers Presents

Black Water

Episode One: Eckersley Manor

By Duane Maxwell

Black Water is a short Forgotten Realms

adventure for four 12th-level characters. The

party may consist of any mix of classes. The

adventure is a reasonable challenge for 10th- to

12th-level characters and may be set in any

campaign world. In the Forgotten Realms

setting, the adventure takes place on the

western edge of the Marsh of Chelimber, but

any marshy area with a small farming village

nearby serves well as an appropriate setting.

mutilated. Their corpses were hacked

apart and strewn about inside the

sagging shack they called home. The

pigpen gate was open, and the pigs

missing.

When word of this atrocity reached the

village, the elders put their heads

together and decided to punish Hunter's

Landing and end the threat its

inhabitants pose to decent people.

When the characters arrive, they find an

entire community getting ready for war.

Adventure Background

Someone's been raiding livestock in

Eckersley Manor. But this is nothing

new. The villagers have been feuding

with the people of a neighboring village

to the north, Hunter's Landing, for nearly

a generation. No one remembers clearly

the original cause of the feud, but in the

intervening time, both villages have

heaped insult onto injury, and the

resulting dispute serves as the major

focal point of evening discussions in

local watering holes in the two villages.

Hooking the Characters

The easiest way to involve the

characters is for them simply to be

passing through the area. The villages

are not on a major trade route, but the

roads are serviceable. Perhaps the

characters are on their way north to

investigate troubles in the Nether

Mountains. Or maybe they're on their

way to Waterdeep to pass the winter.

They could even be emissaries from

Waterdeep or one of the northern cities

to the elven kingdom of Evereska.

Regardless of how they're drawn to the

area, the characters find themselves in

Eckersley Manor on a cool, rainy

evening just as night begins to descend.

The village doesn't look too promising,

but it's probably at least marginally drier

in its inn than sleeping out in the open.

Recently, it seems one of the villages

has decided to end the feud once and

for all. In the past three weeks, the

villagers seem to have stolen or killed

more livestock than they did in the

previous year. At least, that's what each

of the villages think. Because of the

feud, people of one village have almost

no contact with those of the other, so

they don't realize that one village suffers

the same fate as the other. The raids

between the two communities can

account for some of these losses, but

not all of them. Something else is at

work here, but the villagers of both

communities are too blinded by their

hate to see that.

The Villages

Although the characters arrive in

Eckersley Manor rather than Hunter's

Landing, the description that follows

could serve equally well for either. The

principal difference between the two is

the dilapidated manor house that gives

Eckersley Manor its name.

Things took a turn for the worse two

days ago when Eckersley Manor

villagers found a family living on an

outlying farm murdered and horribly

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Cliffhangers Presents: Black Water – by Duane Maxwell

Eckersley manor is damp -- everywhere.

The entire village looks like it is about to

collapse into a pile of rotted wood. If

travelers were to pass by in a year or

so, all they would see is a mound of

mulch that looks as if a giant cypress

tree had fallen and disintegrated. Mists

from the nearby Marsh of Chelimber

waft through the community, carrying

with them the sickly sweet odor of fetid

bog and honeysuckle. The track that

leads from the north-south trail that

eventually skirts the northern edges of

the High Moor is little more than a strip

of mud that deposits travelers at the

front of the local watering hole, a

dubious place inappropriately named

the Sweetwater Inn. Besides the inn,

there is a blacksmith and a wheelwright,

a cooper, a brewer, and a dry goods

store. Further down the track, a tannery

and slaughterhouse share a yard.

Surrounding the town are about a dozen

visible small farms. Each of the farms

has a combination of vegetable patches

and livestock, mostly pigs and sheep,

with a few scattered cows. On the other

side of the north-south track, on slightly

higher ground, are some larger farms

with tilled fields.

The Cliffhanger

As the characters approach the muddy

little village, they see the farmers and

craftsfolk of the area fingering weapons,

examining them suspiciously, and

looking to one another for assurance.

The uncertain townsfolk look ready for a

fight. Players trying to gauge the

intentions of the villagers can make a

Sense Motive check (DC 10) to realize

that the villagers are scared, not truly

hostile.

- 2 -

Cliffhangers Presents: Black Water – by Duane Maxwell

Cliffhangers Presents

Black Water

Episode Two: A Building Feud

By Duane Maxwell

Black Water is a short Forgotten Realms

adventure for four 12th-level characters. The

party may consist of any mix of classes. The

adventure is a reasonable challenge for 10th- to

12th-level characters and may be set in any

campaign world. In the Forgotten Realms

setting, the adventure takes place on the

western edge of the Marsh of Chelimber, but

any marshy area with a small farming village

nearby serves well as an appropriate setting. In

the first episode, the heroes approached the

wary citizens of Eckersley Manor, noting the

ready weapons and hostile looks of the

townsfolk.

Dengram is initially indifferent to the

PCs. Characters who make a Diplomacy

check (DC 15) can adjust this attitude to

friendly. (See page 149 of the Dungeon

Master 's Guide for more information on

NPC attitudes.)

Once the characters explain that they're

looking for a place to spend the night,

Dengram tells them that he's booked up.

If the characters' diplomatic efforts are

successful, he will make some room for

them. Of course, a dry place to sleep is

hard to find right now, so it may cost a

bit extra. If the characters are obviously

armed as wandering adventurers or

sellswords, he eyes them speculatively

and offers them an alternative: If they

help the villagers of Eckersley Manor

mete out justice to the murderers from

Hunter's Landing who killed Goodman

Flint and his wife and son, he'll house

them, feed them, and liquor them up

free of charge, and he'll see what he can

do about getting them a discount on any

goods and services they might need

before setting off on their way again.

The Muddy Trail

When the characters come down the

muddy trail that connects with the road,

they find not a sleepy little hamlet, but a

community astir with preparations for a

fight. Some people are trying to erect a

palisade wall, while others are piling up

spears and other assorted weapons

suitable to a small farming community. A

red-faced man in the blacksmith's shop,

sweat pouring off of him, is pumping

furiously at a sharpening wheel while

another man is sharpening a dagger. A

small pile of knives and daggers lies at

the second man's feet, and another pile,

newly sharpened, sit on a workbench

nearby.

The characters may very well ask

exactly what happened. If they do, they'll

be met with a chorus of indignant stories

about the evil of the scum that inhabit

Hunter's Landing, people who would kill

an entire family and then mutilate the

corpses. Olmaris gets them to quiet

down so he can explain what happened.

He tells them of the feud that has lasted

for nearly a generation between the two

villages, citing examples of the wrongs

done them at the hands of Hunter's

Landing. Recently, however, they have

gone too far. In the last few weeks, they

have stepped up raids on Eckersley

Manor, carrying off livestock, sabotaging

wagons, and so on. But last night, they

went so far as to break into Goodman

Flint's home, kill him, his wife, and his

son, and then mutilate the corpses,

When the characters arrive, several

people give them hard stares, nervously

fingering weapons as they do. A tall,

slender man in his early thirties with a

scar running down his left cheek onto

his neck approaches the party,

pleasantly asking them if there's

something he can do for them. He

introduces himself as Dengram Olmaris

(neutral male human Rog 3, Bluff +8),

the owner of the Sweetwater Inn and

more or less mayor of the village.

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Cliffhangers Presents: Black Water – by Duane Maxwell

strewing body parts around their small

farmstead like so much refuse. So it's

time the people of Eckersley Manor

ended the dispute once and for all.

Eckersley Manor and himself at the

same time. So he has chosen to remain

silent about his doubts, not mentioning

his fears that something more

dangerous is at work here. When the

adventurers arrive in Eckersley Manor, it

is as if they are the answer to his

prayers. Characters who are suspicious

of Dengram's description can make a

Sense Motive check (opposed by

Olmaris's Bluff check) to realize that the

innkeeper knows more than he's letting

on.

What's Going On

As veteran adventurers, the heroes

might sense that they're not getting all

the truth from Olmaris. In his defense,

it's not that he's deliberately lying;

rather, he and the villagers just

witnessed a terrible atrocity, and they're

not thinking straight at the moment.

Most of them are convinced that

Hunter's Landing is behind the recent

raids and the murder of the farm family.

They have found tracks leading back to

Hunters Landing.

The heroes can try to dig up some info

from the villagers. This is actually more

difficult than it might seem, for the

villagers are currently whipped up into a

bit of a frenzy. Initially, they won't accept

the notion that someone other than the

people of Hunter's Landing might be

responsible for what is going on. If a

hero makes a successful Gather

Information check (DC 20), he can find

out that they have been raided like this

in the past, but never on this scale.

Usually just a few animals, usually

sheep, went missing. One villager, Rand

the blacksmith, says that the recent

spate of attacks began after a trio of

hunters ransacked a sod house about

three miles into the swamp. Only one of

the hunters made it back to the village,

burbling something about a troll who

carried two axes and cut the other two

down in the blink of an eye. The man

was too badly injured for the herb

healers to do much for him, so there

wasn't anything else from the man. So

far, the blacksmith says, no one else

seems to want to believe that the two

events might be related, so fired up are

they to blame the folk of Hunter's

Landing. So instead of checking things

out, they get ready to kill their

neighbors.

Of course, there are also half-truths

here. Rumors have floated into the

village that Hunter's Landing has

suffered similar raids. Although the

Eckersley Manor folk have already

engaged in some reprisals of their own,

the rumors persist of livestock just

butchered out of hand and left to rot. But

the villagers swear they did not kill any

of the livestock. What they could not

capture they drove off. To a farmer, it is

a waste of good meat simply to slay

livestock out of hand. A week ago, some

of their own animals were slaughtered

as well. Some of the villagers claim that

Hunter's Landing folk are destroying

their own livestock and making it look

like Eckersley Manor villagers are doing

it. These folk claim that the loss of the

herds of sheep and cows may prompt

the merchant costers to step in and take

action against Eckersley Manor. Wiser

heads suspect that a gang of bandits

has set up in the area or that some of

the lizardfolk are raiding out of the

Chelimber. But no one has ever found

tracks leading into or out of the Marsh,

so the Hunter's Landing theory currently

holds sway. Dengram Olmaris does not

believe for a moment that Hunter's

Landing is responsible for all the

livestock slayings, but he sees an

opportunity to channel the villagers' rage

against Hunter's Landing and seize the

fisheries near that village, enriching both

The heroes might wish to investigate

this other possibility (assuming they're at

all interested in the events here).

However, the people of Eckersley

Manor are planning to attack their

enemies in Hunter's Landing tonight.

Convincing the other villagers that they

should hold off attacking the other

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Cliffhangers Presents: Black Water – by Duane Maxwell

village until someone checks out this

other possibility is difficult. Heroes must

succeed at a Diplomacy check (DC 22 )

to do so. If the heroes do this

successfully, Olmaris will agree to wait

until tomorrow night to attack Hunter's

Landing. With a bit of grumbling, the

other villagers follow his lead.

The Cliffhanger

Another villager, a woman named Selka

who knows the near part of the Marsh

from a decade or so of experience as a

hunter, says she knows of the place the

other hunters claimed to discover.

Almost due southeast of the village is a

small island in the Marsh. The far side of

the island has a small landing on it,

beyond which is a sod house. She says

a very large creature lives there (or at

least used to), but she doesn't think it's

a troll. She didn't see any axes, either; it

was sharpening a spear point.

- 5 -

Short Adventures - Black Water.pdf

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