The Feodus Fortune - ONE-SHOT

INTRO

• Have players describe themselves/ introduce themselves.

You become aware of a blanket of fog clinging to the ground in your immediate surroundings. Thin at the outset, it quickly obscures your feet from view, and no matter which way you move, the fog rises and grows more opaque with each passing moment. Within seconds, the mists obscure your view to the point where you cannot see your hand a mere foot from your face, so thick and cloying that all sounds are drowned out as well. Just as suddenly, the fog begins to fade and clear, and you realize with a shock that you are no longer in the place where the mist appeared. You are standing in a patch of countryside bordering a gloomy forest, the trees within twisted and pale, as if the sun never shines here. The looming shadow of an abandoned and decrepit house lays in the distance, shrouded by a thick, heavy mist that renders your vision blurry after about twenty feet. A heavy rain sweeps down, dousing you in its icy chill. Thunder rumbles in the distance, its flashes of light obscured in the midst.

• Found on the ground on the way to the abandoned house, a yellowed parchment, somehow dry despite the downpour. (GIVE PAPER TO PCs)

A looming doorframe, scratched and worn, forcing the abode to look forlorn. Its windows stare, sad and broken, shattered glass leaving them open. Perhaps a storm ravaged the gate, the abode left to an unknown fate; until you hear a creak inside and realize it has more to hide.

As you approach, the house appears ancient, its west wing collapsed into ruin. The front door is protected by a small outcropping of roof, giving you shelter from the rain. The handle rusted metal knocker is fashioned in the shape of a lidless eye, while the faded wood of the door itself appears scratched and worn, as though a wild animal had been trying to claw its way inside. You suddenly hear the flapping of wings and a piercing shriek (SHRRRIIIIEEK), though you know not which direction the noise came from. As the storm rages around you, see light seeping through the edges of the door, not exactly cheery, but promising warmth and a reprieve from the elements.   Suddenly, you hear a raspy voice within your minds: ENTER THOSE WHO SEEK REFUGE. HOSPITALITY IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO RESPECT THE QUEEN OF THE ABODE. FLEE THOSE WHO WOULD SEEK HER EYE.

• The door is unlocked.

The foyer is dry, the furniture looking moldy and covered in dust, cobwebs haunt the corners of the ceiling. A lone torch lights the small room, while another down the hallway leads toward the sound of more inhabitants, and the sound of music, with a heavy percussive beat. On a decaying end table there is an open diary, its pages yellowed and frayed. The handwriting different from the note found outside.

• If they choose to read the diary, it says:

I have often considered slipping into an eternal sleep. In my waking hours, the specter of insignificance looms over me. I’m haunted by the immeasurable machinations of the world and the impotence of my short time in it. But in my dreams, every piece of what I see is of my own construction, and that is somehow even more terrifying.

• After the diary ENTRY about DREAMS, have the characters start rolling a DC 16 CON Saving Throw every now and then when triggered. On save, nothing happens, on a FAIL roll on the Madness table.
• THEN:

A susurrus whisper reaches your ears. The temperature plummets, and you feel the hairs on your neck rise. Something is coming. You scan your surroundings and see it: a human-sized shape just barely distinguishable from the background. Unsure of the evidence of your eyes, you fix the spot in your vision. But no, it’s nothing. And that’s when you think you feel a presence behind you, can almost hear the foreboding whispers in your ears. When you turn to look, nothing is there. Suddenly, a chill creeps down your spines, the hair on the back of your necks standing on end. You are not alone. There can no longer be any doubt. Yet the presences you sense in the house are not entirely present. They seem to inhabit the space between the walls, just as you do, but also pass through and beyond them, fettered by physical barriers as much as you could be chained by fog.

THE HAUNTING BALL

• The massive wooden chandelier hanging over the center of the great hall swings gently on its thick iron chain, but the shadows cast by its flickering lamplight appear to move at lightning speeds, twisting at the periphery of your vision. Ornate gilded frames contain almost a dozen curious pieces of art—portraits of black birds with blue and grey highlights, as well as landscapes and intimate still life paintings. —though the light casts a sinister bent on each depiction. And the eyes of each person and animal within the paintings are definitely following you—as are those of the grinning gargoyle heads that cap each bannister of the large staircase. A long oak table, carefully polished and laid out for a ten-course formal dinner—with sixteen places set—sits in the center of the room. Close examination of the fine silverware reveals, however, that each piece is coated with a filmy layer of blood, which cannot be scrubbed away by means mundane or arcane. Suddenly, you feel a powerful desire to leave the covered platters lining the tabletop covered for all time.

There are over a dozen guests in the room, all of them human-looking. All are dressed in finery that looks a bit dated, perhaps decades or hundreds of years old. Seven stand taller than the rest, wearing dark capes of black, navy blue, and a deep purple. In one corner is a small stage, with a lively Earth Genasi playing the drums, the rest of the guests swaying in motion with his jaunty music, in stark contrast to the somber room.

IF THEY TRY TO SPEAK TO A GHOST (not cape person)

• LIGHTNING flashes through the air, illuminating a ghostly sheen around the guests, all except for the 7 caped figures and the Earth Genasi.

You realize most of the guests here are no longer alive. Ghosts mosey through the hall, dressed in finery of at least a hundred years past. Waves of ectoplasm follow them like snail trails. Though the still air bites at you like ice, the specters themselves suggest no malevolence. One phantom emerges from a painting nearby, the ghostly face matching the one in the portrait. She smiles and dips her head. She mouths something, perhaps a greeting, but her speech is muted and garbled to you.

THE PAINTINGS

• D1 - Portrait of a one-eyed, blue-skinned humanoid, his one good eye staring straight ahead, glowing energy coming from his hands, while a small black bird (raven) perches on a tree in the background
• D2 - Portrait of an burly, ashen skinned woman, a golden amulet around her neck with an engraving of a raven on it.
• D3 - Landscape of a moonlit plateau, in the distance two blue-skinned figures in robes, a greenish hued humanoid, a large female, an indistinct humanoid with a sword, and a smaller, hairier figure march in the background, while a winged humanoid soars above them. They look eerily like ghostly specters in the bluish hues of the moonlight.
• D4 - Painting of the blue-skinned, one-eyed humanoid sleeping alone atop a cot, moonlight pouring in through the open window, while a black bird (raven) perches on the windowsill.
• D5 - Painting of the ashen woman one her knees, weeping in a small stream that reflects the moonlight.
• D6 - Still life Painting of a forest, a lone gnarled tree in the foreground, a simple cord necklace with a direworld tooth fastened to it, dangling from a low-hanging branch, the tooth faintly reflecting the moonlight above.
• D7 - Still life Painting of a wooden countertop alone in a field of grass. Atop it, a vial with a clear potion that has dark red flecks within, resembling clotted blood. Far in the distance of the starry night sky, a full moon glows with tinges of red.
• D8 - Still life painting of a pile of gold pieces with various gems placed within, almost nest-like, which black feathers litter the ground around it.
• D9 - Still life of a feminine, closed mouthed, white mask against a pitch black background, with a single crack running down the right side, from the forehead to the lower cheek.
• D10 - Landscape of a city built into the side of a mountain, a massive waterfall running through the middle of it. As you move around it many of the buildings seem to flicker and become large stones, only to return to their original state as you keep moving your eyes.
• D11 - Portrait of the emotioness face of a STONE GOLEM surrounding by rocks in what appears to be a cave. Faintly in the light reflecting off the polished granite of its eyes, two figures can be seen facing it, one a large female that appears to be sprouting bony wings, the other a smaller male dressed in robes grasping a chain with a gleaming ball on one end.
• D12 - Landscape of two massive, black-feathered hands over a shimmering ovoid of multicolored energy in the middle of a clearing in a dense forest. If you look closely, a severed, snake covered head lies bleeding in the distance within the forest.

SPEAKING TO THE ROBED FIGURES

• See Side section for Robed Figure names and their general responses
• See Side section for AGNES replies, she is hidden in the back of the room (DC 18 PER) to spot her.

PAINTING PUZZLE

• If they fail to guess the painting on the first try, all the ghosts disappear, as does Agnes, and all but 4 of the Robed Figures, who transform into WERERAVENS

Back bent forward in a vulture’s stoop, the corvid monstrosity is a painfully twisted form of purpling, pimpled skin, thick muscle, and disparate patches of oily black feathers. The lower portion of its body is humanoid aside from scaly patches on its feet and ankles, as well as long black talons that pierce out of its toes. Its naked chest balloons as it heaves shuddering breaths, gnarled beak agape under its clouded gray eyes. It gurgles, revealing a pink tongue and gullet slick with a sickly green saliva. The wings are the only part of the body still mostly feathered; it stretches them out with an audible creak of joints.

• RAVEN ENCOUNTER begins(see side section)
• Once they defeat the Ravens and guess correctly, the SLEEPING portrait swings open, revealing stairs leading downwards.
• IF THEY LOOT A WERERAVEN BODY:

On the feathered lycanthrope, you find some valuable items collected by the corvidian creature. Eighteen shiny copper pieces free of grime and dirt, a polished golden amulet embossed with a holy symbol—worth 5 gold pieces—and a small silver key.

THE BASEMENT

Though you thought yourself well-adapted to the gloom of the house, you are momentarily alarmed when you see the absolute blackness of what lies below even that. For the staircase before you leads down into shadows that you cannot penetrate with sight alone—and for all the dank warmth of your surroundings, it is unsettling to imagine that there is a place even more tomblike and stifling than this. To find out what lies below, you must uncover it for yourself, step after step, one foot after the other.

The stairs end in winding corridor lit by dim candlelight, you cannot see the end. You hear rustling all around you, and a chill brushes past you. The ominous sense of dread only continues as you move further into the corridor.

• Let them advance for a bit, then SCARY STUFF (below) begins

MISC SCARY

• Event 2 - Crying behind door that DISAPPEARS
• Event 7 - Death Painting
• Event 9 - creepy child (not DOOR, but corridor)
• Event 13 - Creepy Footsteps
• Event 17 - Whispers
• Event 18 - decay wind

GHOST

• Whoever seems to most perturbed/scared by the events, DC CON Sav throw 13 for GHOST POSSESSION (see stats on sidebar)
• Have to deal with GHOST, possession
• Ghost is OLD MAN "Ofulc"

Dlrow ruoy ot niur gnirb lyno lliw kees uoy hcihw taht, ecalp siht eveal! (Leave this place, that which you seek will only bring ruin to your world)

Sloof ydeerg uoy eelf! (Flee you greedy fools!)

TRAP DOOR

• Once the ghost is dealt with and other spooky things, find the dead end of the corridor. The candles have gone out in the corridor behind them.
• DC 16 INV or PER to find the trap door

The trap door is stubborn, it's EYE shaped handle rusty and oddly wet. Eventually it gives way to your dogged attempts and flies open with a clatter.

• DC 18 to spot the actual trap on the door. If they do not diffuse it, noxious gas pours into the hallway, and everyone within 20 feet of the door has to make a DC 15 CON save.

You see a short drop to a steep set of stairs, smooth and sturdy, that descend past the foundations of the house. The whiff of an unpleasant odor has you burying your nose in the crook of your elbow. Is that rotting meat? The pungent smell of old fungi? A long-stagnant pool of water? …or something else altogether?

CAVES

• Now in stone corridor, soon splits into two tunnels. Both lead to the main chamber.

LEFT TUNNEL

• Pitch BLACK

You feel something grab at you, then many things, tendrels, fingers, limbs, brushing past you, looking for purchase.

• DC 15 Dex SAving throw - on failure, GRAPPLE contest. PHANTOM LIMBS have DC 17 Strength

RIGHT TUNNEL

• No issue

FINAL CHAMBER

As you reach the end of the tunnel, a pale green light can be seen ahead, as the tunnel opens onto a large chamber. Shadows and light dance over the rough floor, thrown across the chamber and up the walls by torches ensconced in stalagmites. They reveal at the far end a floor spanned by a sturdy bridge of stone, with broken statues of unearthly creatures and what looks like a sarcophogus atop it. You can hear somewhere in the dimness below deep below you, a great subterranean river flows. In the middle of the chamber the floor glows eerily around a single chest. You spy signs of past travelers strewn about the cave: broken weapons, ripped and empty packs tucked against the walls, and bones, shining brighter than the weapons’ steel in the torchlight.

• Can find maybe 20 gp and a number of torches in the belongings. DC 19 will find a potion of healing.
• IF THEY OPEN THE CHEST, they find it empty, but a wall slides open and out comes the Parasite Ingested Behir (see side section)

As a creature begins to make its way out of the opening, the smell that greets you recalls both sun-burnt stone and the air before an incoming storm. The creature you see is a similarly strange mix: part serpent, part crocodile—with far too many legs and fangs. Sinewy muscle ripples under its bluish scales, and its snake-like eyes brood with a crude intelligence. As it opens it mouth to release an unholy roar, you can see thousands of gray, parasitic blood worms writhing inside their mouth.

• DC 15 History or Arcana check to know it is a Behir, though it looks to be some kind of undead, with the parasites perhaps keeping it going.

END OF BATTLE

CLAIM YOUR PRIZE, BUT KNOW YOU MAY BE BRINGING DOOM HOME WITH YOU.

• The sarcophogus groans as the lid slides off, an a menacing greenish blue light glows from within.
• They can, if they choose, grab the EYE OF VECNA

With a churn of disgust, you look upon a bloodshot, disembodied eye, its iris the sickly green of corrupted flesh, its pupil vertical and almost reptilian in appearance. A tangle of nerves trails behind the slime-covered sphere like a macabre tail. Even as you watch, the eyeball seems to perceive you, unnervingly following your movements—seeing beyond the fragility of your mortal flesh. An uncanny and nearly overwhelming feeling of foreboding forces you to avert your gaze.

• DC 14 Arcana to recognize it as the vaunted and terrible EYE OF VECNA

EPILOGUE

• Whether they grab the eye or choose not to, mists close in around them.

As the mists recede, you find yourself outside once more, standing before the strange house. A sense of quiet melancholy pervades this place, as if the very stones and timbers remember its former glory. Now it is but a ruin, filled with memories of better times. The roof has collapsed into the foyer, rendering the welcoming entrance of the house all but impassable. You hear the sound of flapping wings and see a kindness of SEVEN Ravens take off into the air, heading toward the mist shrouded forest.

AFTER NOTES

• They did NOT take the Eye of Vecna
• No one died