Embedded Files
Recommended Level : 3
Looks like someone got possessed. This adventure starts with one player getting possessed. The way you do this narratively is up to you, but for our paladin ghostly ongoings had been happening to him for a while so it was an inevitability. While perusing the newly opened Living Bestiary in Rockfern Creek, the possession displays its first physical symptoms in seizing up the body, paralysing the target. When brought to Kaufmann, he mentions that he has seen this before, and that paralysis means that the possession is quite far down the line. Action must happen fast to save the character. He says the only person he knows who can help is The Spiritwrangler of the Island of Ghosts, and directs them to a small point on the parties map at the very East of the Unclaimed Wilds. Here, he says, a mechanic by the name of Copper will happily ferry anyone to the Island of Ghosts, and is usually looking for an excuse to go there anyway. She resides in her small workshop on the coast, tinkering away the days.
It takes two travel dice to reach Copper's Workshop from Rockfern Creek.
When they arrive at the workshop, they are greeted by a tall metallic golem. He greets them, introducing himself as G13 in a friendly manner but advises them to state their purpose. Upon explaining the situation, the golem will take them to Copper. She is inside her workshop, a huge building that at one point was obviously meant to be a temporary affair but is now more permanent. G13 explains the party need a lift, and without hesitation Copper agrees.
On the voyage to the island, Copper asks why the party are headed there and says she hasn't heard of a Spiritwrangler. If anyone has however, they would be up at Watcher's Rest, the single town on the island. A sudden storm appears as they near the shore. From the clouds, and enormous black ship emerges from the murk and attacks the party. Coppers small boat is no match for the galleon, and they sink. The party wake up washed upon the beach, all in different areas and must all find one another. In the middle of all of them, Copper, G13 and any players who beat a constitution saving throw of 14 when the boat attacked managed to cling to the ship and are already starting with repairs. She says that it would be useful if they headed to Watcher's Rest to ask for help, as well as continue on their quest.
Starting from now, the possessed character will take occasional damage from their possession, no more than 1d6 at a time. You can utilise this whenever you want. As well as this, the possessed will see and be able to communicate to many invisible ghost characters that no other player can see. here's a few random ideas:
- Beggar ghost, asking for gold
- Preacher ghost, asking for repentance
- Knight ghost, defending the town road
- Cracked ghost, mubling unheard whispers to themself
- Drowned ghost, leaving wet footprints behind them
-Friendly ghost, who just wants a nice conversation
Watcher's Rest is barely a village, consisting of a ring of eight houses circling a "town square", and a single town hall. Only five residents live here, all members of the Grey Knights, an ancient honour-bound clan dedicated to protecting the island and its deceased residents. Of these five, only two are in the town at the time they arrive - Shovel and Scythe. Shovel will help with the ship, and will leave to bring resources to Copper (who they are all familiar with), and Scythe will question the party as to what they want. When she understands the situation, she directs the party to an old cottage among the Uneven Hills.
When arriving at the cottage, it seems well lived in. There is a fire burning in the hearth, ingredients of assorted alchemical means strewn across the place, but no sign of life. The possessed character will notice a single jar on the table that to them and only them is gleaming with a blue light. When opened, the Spiritwrangler will burst out, as well three glowing orbs - one blue, one red, and one green. She will be annoyed at the party for disrupting her work, and more importantly releasing the rare spirits she had ensnared. She mentions how much harder it is to catch spirits since her flute (item 043) was stolen, and refuses to help the party until they reclaim the lost spirits. As they leave the cottage, the possessed will see three glows (red, blue, green) in the direction of an old tree, a mausoleum, and a pond. As they get closer to these areas though the glow dissipates as if diluted.
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The red spirit is in the tree, in the beak of a masked crow. The crow will refuse to give up the spirit unless a suitable deal is met. The crow loves anything that is ill, or related to pestilence, or its favourite meal is bone eel. It can also be shot out of the sky, and has an AC of 4 and HP of 5, but anyone who kills the crow will be poisoned, taking 1d4 poison damage every two rounds for as long as the DM deems necessary for killing such a lovely bird.
The blue spirit is in the mausoleum, hidden behind a coffin. The mausoleum itself is locked with a tight padlock, and inside two angry spirits will attack the party. These spirits have an AC of 11 and HP of 16, but can only be hit with magical attacks, or The Hammer of the Sepulchre. They each have a banshee scream attack, dealing 1d10 damage to all the party who fail to meet a wisdom saving throw of 14. There is also an urn containing 500G for each member of the party, but taking this will spawn another two angry spirits.
The green spirit is in the pond, in an old chest sunken at the very bottom of the frozen over water. An angry bone eel guards the chest, and will attach anyone who attempts to touch it with a +3 to hit 1d6 piercing bite. The eel has an AC of 8 and HP of 8, if the party decides to dispatch of it in that manner. Inside the chest, as well as the spirit, are d6 fortune crystals for every member of the party.
However your party figures this out is up to them.
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When they return to the Spiritwrangler, she thanks them for their work and attempts to remove the spirit lodged in the possessed. She fails, and says for a case this serious she would need her flute. Her flute was stolen from her by the ghost captain Sickle, a former member of the Grey Knights who in death has begun to loathe the living and is attempting to wage war on them. The only issue is his ghost cannot pass the perimeter of the island, but through the power of the flute he has amassed quite a crew and soon their collective energy will be enough to break through the barrier on their phantom ship, The Tumulus. The Spiritwrangler asks for the party to board The Tumulus and retrieve the flute from Sickle, only then will she be able to help them.
Returning to Copper, they find that she, Shovel, and Scythe are finished up repairing the boat and are in fact watching The Tumulus pass on the horizon, followed by its dark storm. Explaining that they need to board the ship, Scythe will say that they were just formulating a plan to take the ship down themselves.
How the party board the ship is up to them to decide, as far as resources go they have Copper's repaired ship which is medium sized and has no weapons and Shovel's steamboat, which is small but well armoured as well as having a single cannon mounted upon a robotic arm (one of Copper's contraptions).
When they eventually board the boat, the floorplan is as follows.
I'll break it down by floor.
Deck
On the deck there are three ghostly pirate fighters (5e Darklings minus their Light Sensitivity ability) and a single pirate ranger (same as the fighters, but their daggers are replaced with a ranged version dealing the same amount of damage). Two of the fighters are at the front of the deck, while one is on the upper level near the wheel. The ranger is in the crows nest, which has a 30ft ladder leading up to it. There are two entrances to the ship, one a door and one a hatch, both locked by the same key that the ranger has around their neck. The party will not notice the trapdoor unless they pass a perception check of 17 or higher. If the party unlocks the door, it opens into a small room containing two Eelhounds (5e Crocodile). The room is piled high with barrels, and to the left is a single desk. If inspected, the desk has 50G loose for each player as well as a letter. The letter reads:
"Eelhounds keep eating the loot. Hiding it in barrels until I can convince the captain to keep his pets somewhere else. - J"
There are two barrels that are at floor level, one to the left, next to the table (1) and one to the right (2). Barrel one contains 500G each for the party, but if barrel two is opened all within a 15ft radius must make a constitution saving throw of 14 . If they fail, they take 1d6 crushing damage from the phantom tentacles that unfurl from the barrel. After they do this, they will slink back and become invisible to all but the possessed.
If they instead open the trapdoor, what happens is detailed in the next floor.
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Below Deck 1
This floor starts depending on where the party entered. If they went through the door and the Eelhounds they will end up in a small room containing two barrels. Upon an investigation check of above ten the party will realise it contains gunpowder. This gunpowder when attacked with any type of fire damage will light for 5 seconds and then explode dealing 1d20 damage to anyone within line of sight that fails a constitution saving throw of 17.
Attached to this room is a corridor, the base of the mast poking through. Either sides of the corridor are doorways leading to the cannon rooms, in each of these cannon rooms are three Cannon Operators (11 AC, 10 HP, a single dagger attack that's +2 to hit and 1d6 piercing damage). When one of the cannon operators are killed in the line of sight of any of the others, the remaining will spend their next turn possessing a cannon. When they possess a cannon they gain +2 AC and gain a single magical cannon blast attack. When doing this, they will target a single enemy. They must make a dexterity saving throw of 10. If they fail this, they take 1d8 + 2 force damage. If they pass they take half damage, and if they roll higher than 15 they avoid the attack as a whole.
If the party decides to instead walk through the corridor and avoid the cannon rooms, only the possessed will notice a green glowing patch upon the floor (4). Anyone who steps into this area must make a wisdom saving throw of 13 or take 1d12 crushing damage as phantom tentacles emerge from the ground. Any items thrown into the area will be crushed, and any enemy who steps into the area will also have to make a wisdom save.
The other side of this green patch, the other side of the mast stem, is where the trapdoor from the outside leads. If the party takes this route from the upper deck, this is where they will lead. The sound of the trapdoor opening will also draw four of the Cannon Operators. If they are fought in the corridor however, they obviously will not be able to possess the cannons.
At the very end of corridor, is a sleeping pirate brute (5e animated armour, takes a similar appearance). This guy is a heavy sleeper, only waking up if any of the gunpowder barrels are set off or if any of the cannons are fired within 15ft of him (so a possessed cannon must be lead out of the cannon room and then fired for him to awake, the rough distance between him and the doorways is 15ft. He can be snuck around with a stealth check of 13 or higher, and if instead fought and killed the armour will explode into an extra 250G each.
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Below Deck 2
This area is the bunk area. Only a single corridor with the bunks either side lead to the recreation room for the crew. The tables have been swept to the side, and are blocking the door that would lead to the final floor, the cargo area. Sat upon a pile of chairs is Captain Sickle, and perched upon his shoulder, holding the flute in her talons is his Scarlet Draclaw (small, feathered, parrot sized dragon) Cynthia. It's fight time baybeeeee.
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Sickle:
HP: 40
AC: 16
Sickle makes two attacks, one with his cutlass and one with his flintlock. Being a purely a ghost, he will only take damage from spells or Hammer of the Sepulchre. This isn't the case for the rest of the crew as they are still inhabiting paperlike husks of their former selves. However, if a physical attack is dealt that is either a critical hit or would normally deal more than 8 damage, his amour will be damaged and his AC will reduce by one.
Cutlass : +4 to hit, 1d6 + 2 slashing damage, 6ft range
Flintlock : +3 to hit, 1d6 lightning damage, 30ft range
Cynthia:
HP : 14
AC : 18
Cynthia always takes her turn after Sickle. She spends the duration of the fight avoiding the party, her high AC is explained by her dexterity in battle. On her turn, she possesses the flute and plays a tune, pulling together 1d4 malformed Crewmate Husks from the wood and dust of the room who will attack the party. Being a purely a ghost, she will only take damage from spells or Hammer of the Sepulchre. When hit, she will be grounded until she can spend a bonus action on her next turn to fly again. When she is grounded, her AC is reduced to 8. When Sickle's HP is less than half, Cynthia will instead summon 1d6 husks per turn.
Crewmate Husks:
HP: 5
AC: 0
The husks have a single swipe attack, with a +2 to hit and dealing 1d4 slashing damage. At the end of their turn, they can latch onto a member of the party if they fail a strength contest (the husks have a strength stat of +0). If one member has three or more husks latched onto them their movement will be reduced to 0 and they will take 1d6 necrotic damage at the end of their turn. Any party member with a latched husk can spend their turn to remove all husks with a swooping motion. When this happens, the husk will reduce to dust.
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Upon retrieval of the flute, Sickle will laugh and say it holds no power to the living. If the possessed plays it however, he will stop in his tracks, as well as Cynthia and any remaining husks. They now have control over all undead on the ship. Whatever happens next, they will probably end up returning the flute to The Spiritwrangler, where she will play a haunting melody and lure out the spirit possessing the possessed. Whether this spirit is lore related for your campaign is up to you, with ours it tied into our paladins backstory but whatever thats your call. She then says she is getting too old for this business, and in the brief period of her flute being stolen she truly found herself at peace in retirement, and asks if the possessed will take upon the role of Spiritwrangler, and gifts them the flute.
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