Dungeon23: January Day 1

Trying my hand at the #Dungeon23 challenge, here is my first entry.

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Dungeon23: January – The Mausoleum

A 5e Adventure

By Jacob E Blackmon

Map Assets by Justin Andrew Mason

Set Up

An evil cult is preparing to perform a ritual to bring their otherworldly patron to the mortal plane. To perform this deed, they need the body of a person with royal blood to serve as the host for their patron to inhabit. Recently, the royal family had sent their youngest prince and princess on a tour of the outlaying region to help promote goodwill to the locals. This was just the boon the evil cult needed. They hired a gang of bandits to assault the royal procession and kidnap one or both of the royal children. The bandits succeeded in escaping with the young prince and dragged him into the depths of the Dark Forest.

Getting the PCs Involved

The PCs can be brought into the adventure in a number of ways:

• If any of the PCs are nobles or knights, they could have been touring with the royal procession and took place in the battle where the prince was kidnapped.

• The PCs could have been passing by when they witnessed the battle of the royal procession, either taking part or ignoring it, at the time.

• If one of the PCs is a cleric or paladin, they could receive a vision from their deity to the dangers of the cult; instructing them to gather allies to siege the cult's hidden fortress and stop their machinations.

• The PCs can be local mercenaries hired by the surviving princess to rescue her brother.

Starting the Adventure

Venturing through the Dark Forest can be an adventure all its own, with dangerous encounters and wicked beasts. This region of the Dark Forest has been corrupted by the presence of the cult and their otherworldly doings. Those slain in the wood tend to return as undead the following nightfall. Strange lights and “wisps” guide the unwary into darker regions of the forest, never to be seen again. Strange creatures use human-like voices to speak from the undergrowth and lure those who approach to an uncertain fate.

These encounters and more can be used to fill out the adventure surrounding the cult and their hidden fortress. Or, the GM can choose to get the PCs right into the adventure and, after a quick recap of the adventure background, deposit the PCs onto the entry of the Mausoleum. Following the trail of the bandits who kidnapped the prince is not difficult, as their numbers cut a large swath through the Dark Forest that even an untrained tracker could follow.

The Mausoleum

This stone fortress was built decades ago, following a short war with local orcs and gnolls gathered under the banner of a gnollish warlord. The people interred here are the fallen heroes who gave their lives to defend the local area against the horde and stop their rampage across the land.

The cultists use the mausoleum as their current outpost. They find it amusing that they now use this bastion that serves as a monument to fallen heroes as their new headquarters. They make regular use of the bodies of the fallen heroes to create undead guardians or as materials for their more powerful flesh golem servants.

Area 1

Read the following text aloud:

As you leave the Dark Forest and its grasping branches behind, your party comes to a clearing in the woods. While overgrown with brown grass and scrub, this place once obviously served as a graveyard of some sorts. A small path leads from the tree line to the steps of a large mausoleum made of greying stone. Statues of humanoid warriors of various ancestry – dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans – are carved into the mausoleum walls facing outward.

Flanking the path to the mausoleum is a graveyard filled with dozens of headstones. The names and religious iconography carved into the headstones are only slightly weathered.

At the foot of the steps leading up to the mausoleum is a large statue of the raven-winged Goddess of Death. Her arms are open, as if to welcome those who have died into her embrace. Perhaps as an omen, a pair of ravens watch as you approach and caw – to you, or to each other? – before alighting from the statue and flying into the sky.

As you watch the corvids fly away, you note that the weather has turned for the worse during your trek through the Dark Forest. It looks like the ever-darkening clouds will soon unleash a torrent of rain upon you. Just as you think this, the first drops of rain start to hit your upturned face.

It is possible the PCs may know of this mausoleum:

Intelligence (History) DC 12

A successful check will allow a PC to know of the events from the first paragraph listed under “The Mausoleum” (see above).

Intelligence (Nature) or Wisdom (Survival) DC 10

The weather is about to get bad. Expect a torrential downpour of rain within the next ten minutes.

Intelligence (Religion) DC 10

This successful check reveals the statue to be in homage to the Goddess of Death. She protects the dead and sees them to their rightful end in the afterlife. She is also the Matron of Winter.

Wisdom (Perception) DC 13

You're not sure if it's a trick of the shadows, like so much you witnessed while passing through the Dark Forest, but you think you might have seen movement in the undergrowth of the graveyard. (GM Note: These are the ghouls located in Area 2).

Wisdom (Survival) DC 13

The tracks of the bandits and prince go up to the mausoleum and inside.