The players find themselves recruited to explore Ashen Man Bluff for the hidden treasure of Black Dog Holsworth. However, the man with the map seems to have an ulterior motive to explore this haunted location.

Begin the Quest

After completing the player's downtime activities since last session, describe that they are meeting at a social location of their choice. There they are approached by Sir Melton Fitget, an amateur adventurer that has recently discovered a journal supposedly from a surviving member of Black Dog Holsworth's gang of wreckers.

The journal details the hidden location of the hideout's entrance. Previous attempts to enter the hideout's caverns have been through a cave opening roughly 100' up the bluff. The climb is dangerous not only due to the difficulty, but also because the Ashen Man tends to be sighted near the cave at night. This monster does not suffer trespassers.

Quest

Use the map of the Werewolf Den from Curse of Strahd, except replace any mentions of werewolves with skeletons & wolves with skeletal rats. During these encounters, Sir Fitget will always be accompanied by three guards, but does not get close to any danger.

The Ashen Man will investigate any disturbances it hears within the caverns. Have the players make Dexterity (Stealth) checks against the ghost's Passive Perception (9). On a failure, the ghost will advance towards that chamber of the caves at a normal pace & investigate that room for roughly a minute before making its way back to the cliffside cave.

If the Ashen Man is defeated by the players, it will remanifest in 1 hour back at the cliffside cave, but will now actively patrol the caverns.

Maps

01. Cave Mouth

02. Old Guard Post

Two skeletons will used ranged attacks on any intruders.

03. Rats Nest

One skeleton plays on a silver flute on a 5' ledge above the cavern floor. He seems to be in control of the nine swarms of skeletal rats, directing them to surround a single target at a time & fight to the death. If the skeleton is slain, then the skeletal rats will loose their coordination, attacking at random & attempting to flee when below 12 HP.

Treasure. The flute is nonmagical & worth 50 gold. The skeleton is also carrying a pouch containing four 25 gp gemstones.

04. Underground Spring

"A gash in the rocky ceiling allows the gray light and cold drizzle of the outdoors to seep into this dank, torchlit cave, where an underground spring forms a pool of water roughly forty feet across and ten feet deep. A five-foot-high ledge to the north overlooks the pool. A similar ledge spans the eastern wall, with a rough-hewn staircase leading up to it. A few crates sit atop the eastern ledge."

The water in the pool is fresh. The ceiling is about 20' above the pool's surface. The fissure on the ceiling is 3' wide at its widest & 6" wide at its narrowest, but leads to an opening on the bluff's face at about 50' up.

Treasure. The crates contain what were once fine clothes now decayed by years of mold & damp. If the players can gather up the clothing's accessories, such as gold buttons, silver buckles, semiprecious stone beads, etc. They can gather up to 50 gp from each crate, but each crate will take 10 minutes to sort.

05. Deep Caves

"A maze of dark tunnels & caves expands in front of you. Burnt bones lie strewn upon the floor."

The ceiling here is 10' high. The bones on the floor crunch loudly underfoot, & creatures have disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to move silently through this area at normal speed.

05a. Northern Cave

A white-haired skeleton is hiding in this cavern, waiting to ambush any living creature that gets within range. A DC 15 Perception check is necessary to spot the skeleton before it ambushes the party.

05b. Southern Cave

In this cavern is a skeleton garbed in a tattered dress that is very protective of the skeleton of an apparent child. The pair will hide from the party, & the adult will only attack if the party is openly hostile.

The child skeleton is a noncombatant with the same stats as a normal skeleton except that it is a small sized creature with 5 (1d6 + 2) HP. It carries a damaged wooden doll that eerily resembles one of the players. A burnt tag on the doll bears the slogan "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!"

If the party is not hostile to the pair of skeletons, they will ignore the party & remain in the cavern. They can not be convinced to physically leave the caves, but will willingly be exorcised if given the opportunity.

Black Dog's Cave

"This cave is filled with the decayed & scorched remains of a makeshift bedroom. At the back of the room hangs the remains of a badly burned tapestry. There is also the lingering scent of burnt flesh."

In the center of this room will manifest the still smoldering skeleton of Black Dog Holsworth. It has the same stats as a normal skeleton, but has 18 HP & its shortsword attack does an additional 3 (1d6) fire damage. Upon defeat, Black Dog will remanifest again after 1 hour.

This was formerly the room of Black Dog. With a DC 12 Intelligence (History) check, a player can discern that the burnt tapestry at the back of the room depicts a glorified rendition of the history of the Holsworths nobility as explorers & merchants on the high seas. Behind this curtain is a winding tunnel of stone stairs that leads to the open cave on the cliffside.

Treasure. Despite the damage to the tapestry, enough of it remains to fetch a good price from someone with an interest in antiquities or the lost noble of house of Mordent. It is currently worth around 50 gp, but it will double in value if someone casts both the Mending & Prestigitation cantrips on it to clean & repair the some of the damage.

If a player succeeds on a DC 10 Intelligence (Invesigation) check, they will uncover a burnt pouch containing 100 gp in assorted coins from across the Domains of Dread, 10 gemstones each worth 30 gp, & a diamond worth 300 gp. If they succeed on a DC 12 Intelligence (Invesigation) check, they will also find a magical iron key that unlocks the magical lockbox in 07.

07. Shrine to the Dark Powers

"Rough-hewn stairs lead down to a cavern & a bizarre sight: six skeletons kneel with their boney arms outstreched in supplication while their teeth chatter as if attempting to chant some dark liturgy. Their attention is currently directed at a makeshift altar of crates & canvas on which rests an amber statuette. At the altar itself is another skeleton that wears makeshift vestments & is buring something foul in a tarnished censer.

Around the altar at the back of the cave are piles of crates & barrels, the gangs' horde of misgotten treasure. On the back of cave wall hang two maggot-ridden corpses, suspended by rusted shackles."

The ceiling here is 20' high. The congregation of six skeletons are being led by a skeleton achemist. Once they detect the party in the cave, they immediately become hostile & fight to the death. After one round of combat, a swarm of maggots will crawl out of each of the hanging corpses & make their way to the nearest living creature.

If pressed by the party via Intimidation or Persuasion, Sir Fitget will reveal that the two corpses belonged to two mercenaries that he had hired on a prior unsuccessful venture into the caverns. However, he is hesitant to reveal that he abandoned them once the danger became obvious.

Treasure. A thorough investigation of the barrels & crates will reveal the following loot:

• 400 gp worth of assorted coins from across the Domains of Dread & beyond.

• Thirty 50 gp gemstones & seven 100 gp gemstones.

• Twelve pieces of plain gold jewelry (worth 25 gp each) & a finely wrough brooch inlaid rubies (worth 250 gp).

• A pair of ivory drinking horns engraved frolicking fey creatures (worth 125 gp each).

• A tarnished silver censer that stinks of sulfur. It is currently worth 200 gp, but if someone casts the cantrip Prestidigitation or spends 1 hour cleaning & polishing it its value doubles.

The horde is cursed by the Dark Powers. Any creature that takes from the horde is haunted by nightmares of themed around corruption & decay. Dreams of crawling pests, festering wounds, & rotting flesh cause the creature to gain no benefit from finishing a short or long rest. Returing a stolen item to the horde doesn't end the curse. The curse can only be ended by casting the Greater Restoration or Remove Curse spell on the creature.

The amber statuette is a depicts a gaunt feminine figure garbed in tattered robes. A close inspection of the figure reveals oozing sores on the woman's flesh & in the folds of her robes are crawling bugs & writhing worms. A DC 17 Intelligence (Arcana or History) check will allow a player to idenify the statuette as an idol of the Dark Power known as the Putrid Bride, an embodiment of the fear of decay & disease.

Sir Fitget is adamant that he take the statuette, even to the point that he is willing to surrender his claim on all other treasure in order to get the statuette. If the players still refuse let him have it, he will wait until there is a better opportunity for him to secure the idol.

08. Cliffside Cave

"A twenty-foot-diameter ring of stones dominates a rocky ledge on the mountainside. It appears that this was once massive firepit based on the burnt remains of centuries old bonfires."

Black Dog's gang used to light bonfires from this ledge on the bluff in order to wreck ships that mistook their light for the lighthouse that would guide ships into Arden Bay. The Ashen Man always manifests in the center of this stone circle at sunset.

Statblocks

Notes

The players have touched the treasure, so they are subject to the curse.