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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 1170838" data-attributes="member: 221">IRON DM: Nifft vs. WichtIngredients:  1. Poppy Field:  The First Test2. Barghest:  Crivey – the butler3. Skeletal Sphinx: The Third Test4. Cracked Mirror: The gate 5. Nightmare: The ride6. Oppression:  What the people of Glennferry (and their master) are experiencingThrough the Mirror DarklyThrough the mirror darkly is an adventure for PCs of approximately 5th level.  Though due to the fact that most of the challenges are mental and not necessarily physical, it can be easily adapted.  The adventure takes place in the castle of Glennferr (and parts unknown) which, along with its village (Glennferry) can be easily dropped just about anywhere in most campaign worlds.  The mood of the adventure is both dark and fairytale-ish and though PCs have total control over success or failure in the adventure, they should feel as if they have stumbled into a story far greater than their mere individual selves.”Ye should no have come,” says the despondent knight.  “For nigh on three score years I have been sorely cursed and do suffer most grieviously in mind, body and spirit.  Those callous brutes you saw are devils incarnate, but so long as my curse remains, I can do nothing to stop them.  Oh that there were deliverance at hand!”Summary:  The PCs enter into a village wallowing in filth, decay and despair.  The villagers are sickly and most look to have been beaten severely in the not to distant past.  The oppressors are quickly evident.  A group of well armored knights who seem superhuman.  The knights direct concerned PCs to the “Lord of the Castle.”  The Lord of the Castle turns out to be a Paladin, trapped in his own castle by a divine curse of unholy origin.  He claims that the knights are in reality devils, allowed to oppress his people until such time as his curse is lifted.  He furthermore claims that he and his people have been trapped for sixty years.  Each night the Paladin, Sir Jorge De’Ferr, is compelled to enter through an enchanted mirror into another place where he must pass three test in order for the curse to be lifted.  The PCs, finding themselves trapped in this hell on earth, if they wish may aid him in lifting the curse but the powers of hell do not play fair and each of the tests is slightly rigged.  In sixty years Sir Jorge De’Ferr has yet to pass even the first of the tests and he finds himself in his bed each morning, beat to within an inch of his life.  Only his ability to heal himself has kept him going.  If the PCs successfully lift the curse, the evil knights will vanish and De’Ferr and his people will age sixty years and die.  But their souls will be at rest.The Village:  PCs will enter into this adventure through the village of Glennferr.  Upon entering this out of the way village the oppression of its people will be readily apparent.  Half the houses are partially burnt.  The streets are muddy and filled with refuse.  The people are thin, wasted and appear to have all been recently beaten severely.  There is a decrepit inn, but all the food is moldy and vile, though the PCs will observe the starving people of Glennferr eating.  The people will talk to the PCs but they will only mention their condition in mutters and whispers of “the curse.”    There is one oddity about the people, though the PCs may never discover it.  Though their bodies suffer as any mortal’s would, they are all immortal and though they are wounded or beaten or starved, none of them can die.     Sooner more likely than later, the PCs will meet the Black Knights.  This is a group of a dozen knights in full plated black spiky armor riding on black steeds.  They are quite evil but though they will freely attack any villager in their way, they will never attack the PCs unless the PCs attack them.  Even then, they will not kill the PCs.  The faces of the knights are never seen, but their voices are deep and evil.  They are in fact powerful devils in mortal guise who have been given free reign to torture the villagers of Glennferr and the PCs have no chance of defeating them in combat.      PCs who have been drubbed senseless or who have courteously made inquiries are directed to the bleak stone castle overlooking the village and “The Lord of the Castle,” who the knights say will answer the PCs questions.The Castle:  There are only two people living within the whole of Glennferr Castle.  They are Crivey, the butler and Sir Jorge De’Ferr, the Lord of Glennferr.      It is Crivey who answers the door.  Crivey is a Barghest who remains constantly in Goblin shape during the day, but who roams the castle as a wolf at night (villagers can whisper tales to the PCs of some dreadful monster howling within the castle).  Like the Black Knights, Crivey will not attack the PCs unless attacked first (though see “The First Test” for an exception to this rule.)  Instead he will be polite and servile and take the PCs to meet De’Ferr.  If Crivey is ever killed, a new Barghest will take his place on the following morning.    De’Ferr is a despondant man who spends the day in prayer and study.  At times he gazes out over his village and watches his people being mistreated, tears in his eyes.  His curse does not allow him to leave the castle, attack Crivey, whom he loathes and it furthermore compels him each night to take part once more in the three tests.  Sixty years earlier, De’Ferr desecrated an evil temple, a normal act for a Paladin.  Upon returning home however he found a mirror awaiting him in his bedroom.  The mirror radiated powerful evil and in his righteous fury he smote it.  The cracked mirror however was the trigger for a powerful curse upon both De’Ferr and his lands.  Even as De’Ferr violated the sanctum of the Dark God, so now De’Ferr’s sanctum (his home) was violated daily and he could do nothing to stop it.      The curse can theoretically be lifted by a powerful cleric, but as De’Ferr was unable to send for help none could come.  The PCs will find that the Black Knights will not allow them to leave either.  They will beat any PC who tries it senseless.    De’Ferr will gladly explain his problems to the PCs, but he warns them that others have in times past tried to help him and have failed.  He will not say what happened to them as he does not know (Crivey ate them).      Crivey will prepare sumptuous meals for the PCs and for De’Ferr and will gloatingly challenge the PCs to try and aid the paladin, though he warns them they will fail.The Mirror:  Each night at midnight De’Ferr stands in full armor before the mirror in his bedroom (it is cracked from side to side.  A single jagged crack.  He recites the following    “In penance for my righteousness, I summon Hell’s black steed to bear me forth, to lands unknown, unseen by men.”   This simple verse causes the mirror to turn black and moments later a Nightmare stamps through the glass.  De’Ferr hops on the Nightmare’s back and the steed jumps once more into the mirror.  If the PCs do not enter in with De’Ferr, the Nightmare will return at dawn with an unconscious and bloodied De’Ferr upon his back.  Crivey will then assist his “master” into bed and return to his duties.    This happens everynight without fail.  De’Ferr, like the villagers, cannot be killed, though he has contemplated suicide he suspects it would be futile.    If the PCs wish to accompany De’Ferr they will find that reciting the verse before the mirror works for them as well as for the paladin.  Each nightmare will only bear one passenger.  Like all the other evil entities, the nightmares will not attack unless attacked.  But if attacked, they will fight for dear life before fleeing back into the mirror.  Each time the verse is recited, a fresh nightmare is summoned.The first TestThe first test is a field of poppies that induce sleep.  The nightmares place their passengers down atop a steep cliff that stretches down forever.  Ahead of them is a path through a field of ripe poppies.  Crossing through the Poppies requires both a Will Save (DC 10) and a Fort Save (DC 10)  failing one makes the person groggy and requires an additional save to be made after thirty minutes or the character falls asleep.  Those that make their save can walk easily through the field for the necessary ten miles and make it to the second test.  There are two hidden problems however.  One is the food prepared by Crivey.  It raises the DC for both saves to 25 if eaten at any time during the day.  The second is the legion of imps who hide among the poppies.  Anyone who falls asleep in the field is beaten by invisible imps for subdual damage down to –1 hitpoints.  If all the PCs fall asleep in the field, when the nightmares bear them back in the morning Crivey will choose one of the unconscious PCs and eat the helpless individual.  Elves, it should be noted, are immune to the poppies.The Second Test: After the poppies is a vast wall stretching high into infinity and off into infinity in both directions.  There is a door in the wall where the path ends.  A sign upon the door reads: choose the right key and enter.  There are ten keys on hooks, hanging from the sign.  The door is locked (DC 40 to pick, DC 50 to break) and divinely sturdy.  Placing the wrong key in the lock will cause the person who does so to be shocked for 10d6 points of subdual damage.  This damage cannot kill but can render someone senseless.  Those knocked senseless will be beaten by imps, as in the poppy field.  The catch is this - None of the ten keys work.  Instead there is an 11th key behind the sign, unseen until the sign is removed from the door.  The third Test:  Through the door lies a vast room, in the middle of which is the skeleton of a Gynosphinx.  The skeleton will lift its head when anyone enters the room and intone, “To lift the curse you must answer my riddle.  But heed, the wrong answer means further peril.”  The riddle is this, “What do the devils in heaven see,  what do the devils in heaven hear?”  Answering wrong or attacking the sphinx will cause the sphinx to attack.  The sphinx fights, despite its state, as a normal sphinx would and has all the powers of a typical Gynosphinx.  The sphinx does not seek to kill, but like all the other tests only wants to make its victims suffer.  If the Sphinx is killed the curse remains in place and the Sphinx will be back with the same riddle on the following night.  The answer to the riddle is, “Nothing, there are no devils in heaven.”The Nightmares will return with the dawn and carry all their passengers back through the mirror,  Comatose PCs will be lifted onto the horses by invisible hands.  The Lifted Curse; If the PCs manage to help the paladin reach the sphinx and answer the riddle, they will find themselves immediately back in the paladins bedroom.  He will say, “bless you my friends,” and then crumple to dust before their eyes.  Outside the villagers will do the same.  The evil entities haunting the area will also disappear.  The castle will remain, as will the village, and the PCs will find that there is treasure in the castle.</blockquote>

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