Nentir Vale - The Old Hills

My players are going to be crossing The Old Hills on their way somewhere. I'm trying to come up with a short non-combat encounter or event or obstacle, and I'm looking for some ideas.

I guess I should first ask if there is any background info about this region from WotC I should consider or source for ideas? I don't think there is, but it's worth asking. Assuming there is not...

I imagine the Old Hills to be where a civilized race first settled in the Nentir Vale. They started by building small subsistence farms and communities. But in some kind of tragic disaster, the people were completely wiped out by a plague. The lands are now said to be tainted by the pall of so much death even now, hundreds of years later.

The idea I'm working on is that they might accidentally fall into an old crypt where the plague victims were buried. I don't want it to be the start of a long adventure, just a stumbling block to get in the way of the journey they're already on. I don't want to make it a full dungeon to explore. And again, I'd prefer it to be non-combat. So no hostile ghosts or spectres. Though sad/lonely/wronged spirits might be an option. I need some kind of a puzzle, or physical challenge beyond just climbing back out of the hole. Or, even better, some tempting treasure to lure them to stay, instead of just climbing back out of the hole.

I'm also looking for a disease that one or more of them might get infected with that could have been the plague, or a mutation thereof. That would then encourage them to speed to their next destination to get medical help. They're a level 3 party.

Ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!

suggestions

Sorry for the late reply. I was brainstorming and I came up with a fun twist for an old hills encounter.

The PCs are travelling through the old hills. The PCs see signs of old ruined settlements and farms, obviously ancient and long abandoned. At some point, they are forced to take shelter from a storm. They find a cluster of buildings that are largely intact. Inside they find some people who claim to live there. One or more of the people are sick and the others are afraid to leave them. They ask the PCs to journey to a nearby town to get help.

After leaving, one or more of the PCs becomes ill. This should encourage them to rush on to the next village. Once they arrive in the village, they discover that nobody lives in the hills, the last surviving settlers died of plague centuries ago. Legends tell that the ruins are haunted.

The sick PCs have contracted a form of Ghost Fever, a spectral remnant of the old plague the wiped out the settlers long ago.

As a DM you can make the cure for the disease as easy or as difficult as you would like. You could also create a hook that might allow the PCs to go back and put the spirits to rest. Perhaps finding a "cure" for the ghosts would allow the spirits to pass on to the other side. This could provide a springboard to further adventure.

If you don't want to flesh the encounter out any further, it could just be a creepy side encounter. Ideally the PCs should think that the settlers are real people, which makes it all the more creepy when they get to town and discover those nice people they met last night were ghosts.

I am not a big "crunch" guy so I don't have a write up for Ghost Fever. I would probably just reskin an existing disease from the books to use as Ghost Fever and decide what I thought the appropriate cure should be.

Anyway, just my two cents worth. Hopefully this spurs some ideas for you.

Here's what I came up with on my own.

In this settlement there lived a beautiful woman with her family. She was a musician and played the harp. Her music was so beautiful that even the god Corellon smiled upon her. Her husband was a leader of the community and well loved by the people as a kind and just man. But then the plague hit.

The woman soon became infected with the plague and, seeing how it tortured it's victims, didn't want the same fate to take her children. So in a fit of madness, she lulled her children to sleep with her harp, and killed them. Then killed herself. Her husband soon came home and discovered her misdeed.

Distraught and alone, he climbed to the top of the nearest hill and prayed to Corellon to spare his family their disgrace, and spare him from his pain. Corellon took pity on the man and sunk the family home into the earth, then turned the man into a statue of pure white marble at the top of the hill.

The party stumbles upon the buried house - literally falling in through the roof. Inside they meet the ghost of the woman, who asks for their help in seeking her husband's forgiveness. In return she will give them her harp (Harp of Deeper Sleep, daily power gives opponents a -15 to perception checks when played). The party can either help her, or fight her.

If they fight, anyone she touches risks catching the plague. But they can still get the harp. If they choose to help her, they have to find the husband's statue, awaken his spirit with a ritual, then role play out to gain his forgiveness.

Either way, I'll probably have them make endurance checks to see if anyone contracts the disease from rummaging around in the old house.

Or they could just leave and go on with their original journey.

In advance, they will know that a village was once here, but was wiped out by a plague. And that there are rumors of a woman's ghost that sometimes plays melancholy songs on her harp that echo across the hills. Legend says that she is searching for the spirit of her husband who abandoned her to die in the plague. Obviously the legend has been romanticized over the years.

So your Ghost Fever would fit into this well. I just need to come up with some effects for it. Everyhting in the DMG starts at level 11 and goes up from there. I was considering adapting a lower level poison.

Comments or other suggestions?

Disease

You can try this. It is not my creation but I do not know who created it.

White Fever Level 4 Disease
+6 vs. Fort
Endurance: 22/17/16
Target is cured
Initial effect: -2 to all skill checks and the target loses one healing surge.
2nd Stage: Target suffers a -2 to all attack rolls
3rd Stage: Target starts each combat dazed (save ends)
4th Stage: Target’s Int drops to 1 and he is catatonic.

Just something I had rattling arouund on my hard drive. I tend to save almost everything I stumble upon. I am a sort of digital pack rat.

Hope it helps.

Oh, I like that a lot! Thanks!! I even like the name.

In case anyone was curious, it went really well. The party chose to help the ghost rather than fight her. Once they summoned her husband's ghost it got really fun, because I was having them make diplomacy checks to see how well their conversation was going. They kept rolling really low, but I didn't want them to flat-out fail. So I was pushing them to really role play it and come up with good appeals to the husband's kinder nature, and focus on the love that they once had and all that. When they really got into it I was giving them extra diplomacy bonuses, and finally they made it, just as the husband's ghost was about to get fed up with them. It was a lot of fun.

On top of that, the cleric in the group didn't show up for the game, so the characters had left him behind at the start of the game. Luckily they thought to borrow his ritual book, so they had the instructions for a speak with the dead ritual. So we had a Warlock, a Swordmage and a Monk all trying to work together to figure out the ritual. It was great.

Glad to hear that the adventure went well and that everyone had a good time. I may steal your idea and use it in the future, if you don't mind.

Go for it. I hope it plays well for you too.