Shady Grove is on edge.
The adventurers come to the idyllic farming hamlet of Shady Grove seeking some respite and looking forward to the autumnal equinox festival, with the wonderful apples, cider, baked goods, and rustic products the hilly orchard region is known. The equinox is in only three days and where the party expects to find a jovial, hospitable, fun atmosphere of the hamlet's repute, they find a community under a shroud of dread. Preparations are occurring, but there is no joy. The decor and enthusiasm for the festivities of years past is sorely and obviously lacking.
It began about a month ago with Ole Tappy's livestock. A sheep. Then two goats. Then two sheep. Then his milking cow, Daisy, taken straight from the barn! Then, Tappy's neighbor, Janon Redstock, went missing. He was out late, watching over his own animals (according to his distraught wife, Sanni). Two Shady Grove youths who were part of Sheriff Crumbol's search party that went out looking for Janon, never returned to the village. And, according to the Widow Harcore, a half dozen of her best laying-hens were taken, her coop left in splinters the same night.
The only lead for all of these mishaps are the drag marks from the scenes of these disappearances, all leading east, and a couple of huge indistinct prints left in mud. Not goblin or booted men, the Sheriff is sure (but not much beyond that). Not a bear or any animal the villagers have ever scene. All head in the direction of the only thing that lies east of the villager's farms: a small stretch of undeveloped forest the villagers call the Olenwood, and just under a day's trek beyond, the expanse of swamp called Mirkmire.
Shady Grove is on edge. The people are gripped with terror. The sheriff is trying to raise a posse, but since the Goodpress brothers went missing, he's not getting any takers. The local priest of <insert campaign's agriculture/harvest deity here> is worried they would have to cancel the festival - for the safety of t he community and festival visitors (which would be financial disaster for the village in the coming winter).
Can the party put an end to the mysterious abductions and bring an end to the horror gripping the hamlet in time for the equinox celebration?
An adventure for 2-6 characters, level 1-3. (at least one ranger or druid recommended)
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The Hidden Hold of the Witch-Queen