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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Warlock" data-source="post: 5401564" data-attributes="member: 21215">36. Dead Man's ChimeWhile traveling through a wilderness, preferably a mix of hilly woodland, the light breeze brings the faint sound of hollow whistle and wooden wind chime sounds.If the PCs investigate, the find a copse of twisted trees and thorn bushes at the end of a short ravine that seems to channel the wind toward the trees. While the trees themselves seem to add to the sounds, the hollow sounds come from inside the small woods.After a painful and difficult navigation of the briars, the group finds itself in a roughly circular glade, stones of many hues arranged in a complex pattern on the ground, though overgrown with weeds and grass. Near the center are the bleached skeletal remains of a figure half again the height of a man, with a serpentine skull, another dozen colored stones scattered amidst it's taloned phalanges.The most disturbing thing, however, are the skulls, literally scores, hung from black cords and tarnished metal rods overgrown with thorny vines, arranged like wind chimes. As the breeze blows, it wails hollowly through the eye sockets, and the occasional knock of empty heads makes a echoing "thock" sound. Nonetheless, the whole seems to sound almost on the verge of some written piece of music.If any living thing steps into the glade, the sounds coming from the skulls seem to become a murmur, and in dozens of languages begin whispering..."Get out...Get out...Get out" slowly causing unbidden fear to grip those who hear it...(saves as appropriate). Those who fearfully run pell mell through the woods suffer brutal attacks from the thorn bushes. Should they die due to the attacks, thorn bushes engulf the body in a spray of blood.If some companions are still watching the glade when a companion dies, they will notice one of the chimes bears a new, bloody severed head: that of their lost companion.Those who search the woods for their lost companion find a trail of bloody thorns, and a briar bush covered in torn flesh and blood, but nothing else. The group who leaves the Copse of Skulls (whether on their own, or running in fear and survives) find themselves blinking away bright noon day sunlight with a small copse of straight, tall trees beside the road or trail they had been following earlier. Sitting on a nearby rock are any companions who "died" in the Copse of Skulls, looking quite irritated, and covered in several small lacerations, as if from running through a forest or underbrush, saying that the rest of the group rushed off without them earlier on the trail.Should anyone try and backtrack, they can find no sign of the twisted trees or their wind channeling hills.Characters who survived the Copse will notice that those who died have some kind of bit of fluttering twine or paper object clinging or tied to some part of their pack.If examined, there is a crudely written note in brown ink in archaic script that holds a hint or clue to something the character has been seeking, or if not perhaps a simple map to some lost treasure, followed by the words, "Payment accepted."(This one requires some trust on the part of your players - feel free to pass a note to the "dead" ones if you feel you must).</blockquote>

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