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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matchstick" data-source="post: 3079903" data-attributes="member: 217">After the party advances deep into the dark and unnaturally quiet forest they encounter Itana, who seems confused and disoriented.  She remembers a battle, then nothing, then waking up in this new body.  In her initial panic at having foor hooves and a tail she bolted blindly from the location at which she awoke, and into the forest.  She has not been here long, and she feels as if someone or something is following her.  Itana is still overthinking her new body, and can't move terribly quickly.As she finishes her scattered story a thick fog drops into the forest. It is quite obviously out of place and magical.  Almost immediately there is a faint ominous clinking, and a light moves around the characters.  Oddly the fog does not obscure the light at all, but everything around and possibly containing the light is essentially invisible.  Let the tension mount as the characters either circle the wagons or attempt to slowly leave.  The light appears and disappears.  It is on the left, then behind.  It is closer and farther.  Weapons cast seem to have no effect.  The appearances begin to happen closer together chronologically, then the light disappears for a couple minutes.  When it reappears it is a ways away, but still clearly visible.  This time it doesn't disappear, but begins to make its slow steady way toward the party.As the light gets near there is a commotion behind the party as two "restored" hybrids of appropriate types (bat, boar, something unsettling) appear from the fog.  One is a tracker, the other it's handler.  Think of the orcs in Return of the King.  The tracker is not a fighter at all.  They are tracking Itana.If the party attacks the two "restored" flee, with the handler blowing wildly on a whistle to summon reinforcements.  The fog is thinning, visibility is returning slowly.  If there is a fight, the Walker (see below) may try and reclaim Itana in the confusion.  Should this happen the party will discover Itana's completely human body lying next to the completely equine body of a horse.  Should the party hold back, and parley the hybrids attempt to communicate that they are looking for Itana, and they want to take her with them.  The party is allowed to accompany them.  A perceptive character might notice that the weapons carried by the handler are all made of wood, oddly, looking closer, it's green wood as well.The fey, Margit, has a town of her hybrids in the forest.  The town might be a regular town, it might be in a hill, or in the trees.  Regardless the town is bounded in green growth of some kind, perhaps thorns.  It is this live barrier that keeps the Walker out.  Margit herself is a fey, possibly a druid.  She believes that by "restoring" deceased animals and humans in whatever combination she can manage she is reclaiming life from the hands of death.  Sometimes the restoration causes insanity in the restored (witness the senator), sometimes it is very successful.  Itana can fall on this scale where the DM wishes.  Margit believes what she is doing is right, the characters can make their own judgement.  Itana was the member of the party that was killed.  She was restored but in the initial panic left the town, creating a breach in the boundary that is already patched.  The residents of the town are not well fed, but aren't starving, and seem passably happy.  They stay in town not only due to the Walker but because they feel the outside world won't accept them, or have a place for them.The Walker in Darkness is an emmisary from the underworld that has been tasked with returning the "restored" to their rightful places in death.  He is of course the light in the fog, and the creator of the fog, he was stalking Itana.  The clinking is the chain on his lantern.  He has a weakness to green and living wood (which might make the "living in the trees" thing a good choice.  He is quite powerful, but very focussed on his mission.  The Walker's soul will be his reward for good service at some point (not necessarily after this mission, but it could be) and he is forced to carry it as an (almost literally) carrot on a stick, as a taunting reminder of sins that need restitution, and to make his job more difficult due to it's clearly seen properties.  The rulers of the Underworld enjoy making their minions jobs more difficult.- The party could judge that Margit is doing wrong, and try to destroy her and possibly the town.  This could be done by enlisting aid from the town, or even the Walker.  Alternatively the party could simply sabotage some of Margit's equipment or components that she uses in the restoration (possibly a modified reincarnate).  Depending on the availability of the items destroyed the party could delay more restorations by varying amounts, or even stop it outright in the case of a unique component.- The building/lab where Margit does her restorations would almost have to be bloody in some ways.  An enclosed area where a LOT of blood has been spilled might be overwhelming for your party's rogue.- Margit may ask the party to help her deal with the Walker.  The Walker is nigh-unkillable at their level, but what if they could find someone that could turn the Walker into green wood (like your Medusa)?  It might not kill him, but it could confine him.  - Note that a party member could actually become one of the restored.  If so, the Walker could be a recurring problem for a restored that leaves the safety of Margit's town.- The Walker could ask for help being released from his servitude (though the characters might tick off some fairly mighty presences).  In fact, it might turn out that Margit can help the Walker be "restored" (maybe into a party member's corpse).-------------------------------------------------------------------------------I know I turned some of your stuff on its ear (like your "cruel dark fey"), but I found myself questioning the assumptions in your story and that took me where I went.Edit: hmm, I don't have a big fight scene.  I'd maybe suggest starting with a fight scene, or maybe the players rescue Itana rather than just finding her.  Perhaps the players first see the back of a bandit bowman as he draws and shoots at her after the rest of his band have cornered Itana.  The players should be able to recognize her and jump in to help, even if the scruffy appearance of the bowman doesn't reveal his bandit origins.Then have the fog drop when the bandits are over half dead.  As the Walker's light appears around the party have it be accompanied by squishy sounds and screams as the Walker systematically picks off the remaining bandits (they don't remain a group like the PC's hopefully do).  As the PC's pick their way slowly through the fog they encounter the occasional savaged bandit body.  This would heighten the tension and danger of the fog encounter.  If the party does separate, then the fight will be even more fun.  Things will bump into the characters in the fog; might be allies, might be foes.  Someone might even get a fleeting glimpse of the Walker before a terrified bandit barrels blindly into him and the no doubt messy results get obscured by the fog.  Play this for all the tension you can, the fog will begin to dissipate when Itana is killed or the other hybrids arrive.</blockquote>

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