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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sparky" data-source="post: 4971823" data-attributes="member: 13681">Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie, Eat them and you’ll cry, cry, cry. In the alley, in the sky, Like a dagger fly, fly, fly. Find your sweetheart, find him nigh, Through the window spy, spy, spy. If he’s faithless, if he’s sly, Stab him in the eye, eye, eye. Never, always never, lie. Never, always never, lie. Never, always never, lie. Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie.--- A childrens’ rhyme from Niadelaar*   Woes in NiadelaarA D&D 4e adventure for 3-5 players of mid-heroic tier. People are falling ill in Niadelaar. That’s nothing new, really. People have always fallen ill in Niadelaar -- it is a miserable, smelly, low-lying, backwater province with a history of trickery, deceit and betrayal that stretches back to the village’s founding. A fine place for adventure and adventurers! Niadelaar was founded by Zvarten Jacobus, a notorious thief who bribed, bullied and blackmailed his way into the aristocracy. He earned a title and, to his chagrin, a fief in a swamp infested by a murder of pestilent harpies. Determined to further spite the Crown for this slight, Lord Jacobus decided to make his dream of respectability happen at any cost. By the time Lord Jacobus died, Niadelaar was well-established and – using the methods the crafty thief adopted to drain the swampy land – growing.  Campaign InfoToday, there is no proper Lord in Niadelaar. Lord Jacobus was never able to produce an heir. The Crown was especially pleased to be free of that entanglement and allowed administration of the fief fall to the Church. The Church viewed Niadelaar in the same way the crown did, as a dumping ground. Forty years ago, the Church has assigned rabblerousing Father Frerik to this remote backwater parish and the young man found he liked the village, its people and its freedoms. Once a year the Church sends an official to check in on the parish (and collect tithes). These days the village pretty much fends for itself on the edge of civilization. The people of Niadelaar are stubborn, hardy and untrusting. Niadelaar can be placed in any marsh-, fen- or bog-like area where you’d find windmills and where ‘peat cutter’ would be a common occupation. Peat is, in fact, the chief export of Niadelaar, and its primary source of fuel and building material. If your setting is in warmer climes, adobe construction would be a suitable, but not ideal, substitute.  In a NutshellThe ghost of a harpy queen, Talons-like-Steel, murdered over a hundred years ago by the founder of the remote village Niadelaar, has returned to seek vengeance on the village. Through dreams and visions, the ghost harpy has manipulated a young woman, Morja, into doing her bidding. ENTER: The PCs.  Getting the PCs to NiadelaarA selection of hooks to get the PCs into the troubled village. Mix and match. · Devotees of Ioun may wish to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Saint Kennis, creator of the Flying Dagger of Niadelaar.· The PCs are sent to collect Niadelaar’s annual tithe and to collect and to deliver some mail.· PCs stop in on the way from A to B.· The Crown is considering reestablishing Niadelaar as a fief and sends the PCs and some Crown officials to survey and evaluate the village.· PCs discover a strange steely harpy talon and are directed (or drawn) to Niadelaar.  Adventure On the RoadThe road to Niadelaar crosses bleak, gray-green moorlands (or marsh, fen or bog). The road is somewhat well-traveled. If they’re travelling along a trade route, the PCs should see caravans of wagons loaded with earthy-smelling peat bricks headed the opposite direction. Any wagons headed toward Niadelaar will be carrying foodstuffs. Inquiring PCs will learn that Niadelaar needs to import a substantial portion of its food because the crops that grow in the area are often diseased. Closer to Niadelaar, windmills dot the countryside. Niadelaar itself is a low-slung village with several windmills. Almost all of the buildings are built from peat cut into slabs and stacked. The buildings are butted up against one another. If not for the windmills, this might look like an extra lumpy part of the moors. The whole village smells earthy and damp. The smell is mostly pleasant, but makes frequent forays into both ‘mildewy’ and ‘like-death.’ When the PCs arrive in Niadelaar, things are mostly normal. Mostly.   At the Red RoseAt the Red Rose Inn the PCs might learn:· Something strange happened at the graveyard. o Tomb of Jacobus (Niadelaar’s founder) attacked.o Attacker was Sem, a peat cutter. Sem is sick with the Singing Sickness. o Not normal behavior for the sick man, or for Singing Sickness.o Sem is at the Shrine. If the PCs do not have a talon, they should find one sitting in the open on the tavern floor, amidst the rushes on the floor. The talon is cold to the touch, powdery and hard like metal. Any regular patron who sees or is shown a talon will recoil, make a holy sign and tell the holder to take it to the Shrine. · Morja, a barmaid or servant, seems particularly upset at the PCs having a talon.o VERY observant PCs will note that her dismay is different.  On the Street That Very NightThe PCs might see: · A villager, Juriaan, wandering in a strange, lurchy fashion down the street (he is dominated).o If the PCs stop Juriaan, he makes conversation, but seems distracted, sickly and disoriented. If needed, an Insight check will reveal that Juriaan is not drunk (easy DC).o Gets angry if pressed and tells the PCs to mind their own business.· Left to his own devices, Juriaan lurches to the graveyard and attempts to batter his way into the tomb of Jacobus. He makes basic attacks against the tomb door.o If approached at the tomb, Juriaan attempts to flee. If caught he begs for help, asking to be taken to the Shrine. o Juriaan isn’t hard for the PCs to subdue or kill. If the PCs do subdue or kill Juriaan, as he loses consciousness, they momentarily feel a scalding breeze (no damage).o If the PCs seek help for Juriaan, they are directed to the Shrine.o If the PCs flee the scene, a witness reports them to Father Frerik and he visits them at mid morning (or before they leave town) to reproach them for leaving the villager (mildly if they left him alive, angrily if they killed Juriaan). But mostly he wants to ask the PCs for help (offers reward if it seems they’re the type who need a reward – Shrine has a variety of Wondrous Items, Father Frerik can perform Enchant Magic Item at level 6). He asks them to accompany him to the Shrine, they can talk on the way.  At the ShrineFather Frerik is a gentle, soft-spoken man. He seems worried about the strange turn of events. If the PCs haven’t learned of any strange events, he fills them in on the two attacks on Jacobus’ tomb by people who’d succumbed to Singing Sickness, Sem and Juriaan. He’s worried that the village’s food stores, thought to be clean, are tainted with the disease that plagues the earth nearby (they’re clean, easy-to-moderate Nature checks). He’s especially troubled by the strange behavior of the two most recent cases. If the PCs wonder aloud why anyone would want to live in such a remote, terrible, disease-ridden cesspit, Father Frerik laughs and tells the PCs that the citizens of Niadelaar like their freedoms, freedoms from demanding Lords, freedom from the Crown’s taxes. Sometime during the visit, the PCs will meet Father Frerik’s precocious acolyte, Katrien. The young girl is very composed and serene, eerily so. She doesn’t speak much, only if prompted. Father Frerik seems very proud of her. She tells Father Frerik that two more villagers have been brought to the Shrine with Singing Sickness. They are Viona, the Innkeeper’s wife and Menno, a young peat cutter. Viona is accompanied by Morja. PCs may notice (in order of increasing difficulty to detect):· Morja is stiff and formal. (easy DC)· Father Frerik looks sad when he looks at Morja. (easy DC)· Morja looks puzzled to see Menno. Worried. (moderate DC)· Morja’s face contorts briefly with rage when she sees Katrien. (hard DC)  What’s HappeningMorja, some time ago, came into possession of a steely talon. These talons are found from time to time in the peat cut from the surrounding bogs, remnants of the village’s brutal founding. Most villagers find the talons unsettling and comply with the Church’s (Father Frerik’s) request to bring them to the Shrine when they are discovered. Morja, embittered at Father Frerik, and strangely, not unsettled by the talon, kept it. The talisman gave her visions at night. Dark, violent visions of vengeance.  Morja grew obsessed with the talon and the visions it granted her. She longed for vengeance against the people she blamed for her fall from grace as Father Frerik’s acolyte. She had been his favorite once. That privilege was that self-righteous brat Katrien’s now. Eventually the visions communicated to her how she might exact her revenge. Guided by dark visions, Morja created an earthen jar with mud and ashes from the site where Niadelaar’s founder Zvarten Jacobus had burned the harpy queen, Talons-like-Steel over a hundred years before.  After cutting her hand with a steely talon and bleeding into the jar, Morja whispers the name of the harpy queen and the name of the person that Morja wants the harpy queen to attack. The smoldering rage of the ghostly harpy queen boils out of the jar in a burning mist that seeps into the walls and travels swiftly to the target of Morja’s ire. Talons-like-Steel has 1 hour to find her target and deliver her Dominating Kiss, thus inflicting a special Singing Sickness on them – one that when they succumb, will allow her to dominate them. When a victim succumbs to Singing Sickness, Talons-like-Steel can dominate them for 1 hour. They harpy queen’s plans are her own and she has not shared her actual goals with Morja. Nor will she. Morja has 6 people on her ‘hitlist:’· Sem· Juriaan· Viona· Sjors· Katrien· Father FrerikNOTE: Menno is not on this list, he’s got regular Singing Sickness Sem, Juriaan, Menno, Viona, Sjors and Morja are around the same age. They were all children together, half-raised by Father Frerik after a terrible fire orphaned all of them. Sadly, orphans aren’t terribly rare in Niadelaar. Morja was Father Frerik’s favorite, he chose her as his acolyte. The others teased her incessantly about Father Frerik’s attentions and Morja, an impulsive girl, attacked and hurt Sem. She was unrepentant, maintaining that she was defending Father Frerik. He suspected (correctly) that she wanted revenge on the other children more than she wanted to defend Father Frerik. Because she was entirely unrepentant, Father Frerik dismissed her from his service. She has wanted revenge on them all since her childhood.   More Clues for the PCSIf the PCs haven’t worked out that Morja is behind the strange Singing Sickness:· Morja has a gash on her palm that the PCs notice. She tries to keep this concealed.· The next day, when they see her next she has another gash on her other hand – so now both hands are gashed.· They can find a much-folded, much-handled note with the names of Morja’s targets on it. Depending on how much time Morja has had to summon Talons-like-Steel, some or all of them will be sick. · If the PCs show the note to Father Frerik, he will be able to discern that these are all people that Morja might blame for their falling out.  At Morja’s PlaceIf the PCs suspect Morja and seek out her home, they find a small, messy, one-room place.· It smells metallic (like blood, steel).· The room’s small table has drops of blood on it.· A trained Arcana check to Detect Magic (moderate DC) reveals a trace aura in a concealed alcove behind a bookshelf.· A Perception check (moderate DC) reveals a piece of the peat brick behind a shelf that sits differently than the rest.o The peat sits differently because it is only a relatively thin plug that covers a secret alcove within the wall.o Within the alcove is the Jar of Steam. · If Morja suspected the PCs were on to her, the Jar is not here.o It’s at the Inn, hidden hastily in plain sight on the wall behind the bar with bottles along it. A Perception check (moderate DC) reveals its presence.o Morja might have simply feared the PCs were on to her and moved the Jar. Use this if the PCs are freaking Morja out, or if they need some help finding the Jar and moving the plot. NOTE: If the PCs just aren’t getting it, lower the Perception DCs to sniff her out. Or, alternately, have Morja somehow discern Talons-like-Steel’s plan to annihilate the whole village and approach the PCs herself, asking them to stop Talons-like-Steel.  Morja’s Next StepsBarring DM intervention because the PCs are stuck, Morja’s only goal (she’s obsessed) is to finish punishing those she blames for the life she didn’t get to spend with Father Frerik. She has to be within Niadelaar to use the Jar, so she won’t flee. She can only use the Jar once a day, so she needs two more nights to infect the two remaining people on her hit list (she infected Sjors the night before the PCs came into town). She will move the Jar again if she needs to, but each suspicious move might draw the PCs down on her. If Morja is confronted and does not have the Jar she will flee Niadelaar. If the PCs run her down she surrenders, seemingly meekly. If she is confronted and has the Jar and can summon Talons-like-Steel, she does so and speaks the name of one of the PCs (the dimmest looking one) and flees under cover of the steam cloud. If she can’t summon Talons-like-Steel (because she has already used the power), she will break the Jar and flee under the concealment of the steam and let the PCs deal with Talons-like-Steel. Breaking the Jar will cause it to summon Talons-like-Steel immediately (close burst 1 steam and all). All of Talons-like-Steel’s powers will be refreshed.  The PCs Get the Jar, Now What?The PCs have followed all of your excellent clues and recovered Morja’s Jar. Now what do they do? There are three chief contingencies to prepare for: · They break the Jaro Let them break it.§ Breaking the Jar will cause it to summon Talons-like-Steel immediately (close burst 1 steam and all).§ If Talons-like-Steel can immediately use her Ghostly Kiss, she does so. If not, she uses her Ashes to Ashes power to dissipate into the walls and make for the Tomb. After the Jar breaks, she has an hour. This is her last shot at getting the dagger out of the village! · The PCs use the Jar to summon Talons-like-Steel.o Same as breaking the Jar, except they can command her to attack an individual.§ If they do not, Talons-like-Steel acts as above.§ If they do, Talons-like-Steel travels as close as she can to the target, attacking if she is able. · If the target is not in Niadelaar, Talons-like-Steel moves to the place in Niadelaar that is as close as possible to that person. After doing so, she is free to do as she pleases for the remainder of the hour she is summoned. She will use Ashes to Ashes to travel swiftly through the village. She is likely to use her Dominating Kiss on a hapless villager of her own choosing and vanish hoping to be summoned again. · Morja recovers the jar from the PCs, she wasn’t finished exacting her revenge.o Cat and mouse with hiding the Jar, the village isn’t huge and folks are bound to know something’s up by now. o The villagers may come down on Morja’s side ‘against the outsiders,’ or they may come down on the PCs’ side, ‘against that nutter, Morja.’ Or a mix of the two.§ Good opportunity for a skill challenge mixing of physical skills for the actual chasing and mental skills for navigating any social obstacles.  They Didn’t Get the JarThe PCs didn’t take the bait or didn’t see the clues. They didn’t get Morja’s Jar. She hid it too well. Or she infected all of her intended targets. Since she’s done, she hides the Jar in the hidey-hole in her home, or, if she really fears the PCs nosiness, she buries it outside town.  REPEAT NOTE: If the PCs just aren’t getting it, lower the Perception DCs to sniff out the Jar. Or, alternately, have Morja somehow discern Talons-like-Steel’s plan to annihilate the whole village and approach the PCs herself, give them the jar asking them to stop Talons-like-Steel’s plot (which they start by breaking the Jar or summoning Talons-like-Steel).   Talons-like-Steel’s PlotThe harpy queen wants to burn the village down. This won’t be terribly difficult. The whole village is built out of fuel. Incidentally, this is why a setting in a warmer clime using adobe construction is less ideal than a setting that uses peat. Peat bricks are used as fuel. As in for fires. Talons-like-Steel wants to burn Niadelaar to the ground and then piss on the ashes. If she had a body to do so, she would. Harpies are crass like that. In order to have free rein in the village Talons-like-Steel needs to get Zvarten Jacobus’ Flying Dagger out of the village. The dagger repels both living and undead harpies and is especially harmful and repellant to Talons-like-Steel. It was crafted from her own severed hand after all.  A Brief Expository DigressionIn his campaign to establish his unsavory new fief, Lord Zvarten Jacobus found that he would first have to rid himself of a rather more than irksome infestation of harpies. He didn’t have the resources to assault them head on, so he did it the very, very hard way – he attempted to seduce the harpy queen, Talons-like-Steel. At any cost, right? He fell, instead, under her spell. She in turn fell for him. Though in a moment of candor, he admitted to his beloved his intentions, to seduce her and then kill her and her kinfolk. Talons-like-Steel didn’t take the news well.  Her subsequent attack on Zvarten broke the spell she had over him and he escaped, barely, the harpy queen’s severed talon still clutched and twitching, around his neck, her excoriating cries burning after him – literally. Zvarten retreated to the bosom of an old ally, Kennis, a famed Cleric of Ioun. Kennis tended Zvarten and the two devised a plan. They crafted (Kennis mostly, but with Zvarten’s fiscal support) a flying dagger, unique in all the world. Kennis was surprised, and somewhat dismayed, by the results – an intelligent dagger that would, at need, protect Zvarten like a jealous lover and spirit him away from danger. It also had a devastating, repelling effect on harpykind. Armed with that dagger and Kennis’ support, Zvarten was able to annihilate the harpies. He burned their bodies and the ash spread out over the land.  Talons-like-Steel burned last, cursing the deceitful Zvarten with her last breath, “The ashes of my people will be like salt to this earth, and the ground will yield only my spite for you. And as the ground will never yield its bounty to you, so shall your own seed never grow.” Lord Zvarten Jacobus was the first and last of his line. He died without issue and his fief passed into the hands of the Church through Kennis who, with some appreciation for what the dagger he’d created would do to keep Niadelaar safe, interred it with his friend. He established a small temple in the village and spent the remainder of his days in study, writing papers and trying to duplicate his results with the Dagger. He was canonized after his death by the faithful of Ioun for creating the Flying Dagger of Niadelaar.  Back to Talons-like-Steel’s PlotIt is very painful for Talons-like-Steel to be anywhere near the Flying Dagger. The summoning ritual blunts the pain for a short while, but only long enough for her to cause mischief, not rampant destruction. And rampant destruction is all that will do for Talons-like-Steel. Each of the NPC victims of her Dominating Kiss will eventually succumb unless the PCs intervene (by tending the sick with awesome Heal checks and beating the disease back, or by getting the Jar away from Marja before she can infect everyone on her list).  By the time the PCs arrive in Niadelaar, two victims (Sem and Juriaan) have already succumbed, two are one failed check away from succumbing (Viona and Sjors), and two have yet to be given the Dominating Kiss (Katrien and Father Frerik). Depending on how the PCs play it, they may act to keep Viona and Sjors from succumbing, or they may let Katrien and even Father Frerik fall sick and succumb to the harpy’s domination. Talons-like-Steel used her first puppets to attack the tomb, hoping to use force to bully her way in and take the dagger that way. That didn’t work out. So her next puppets will try to find and steal the key to the tomb (it’s in Father Frerik’s office). If the PCs do not intervene, Sjors will open the tomb and then has to contend with the Flying Dagger of Niadelaar (he is ill equipped to do so). Katrien and Father Frerik are better suited to beating the Dagger. Father Frerik is a Cleric of the PCs level. Little Katrien is an Avenger of the PCs level minus 2. NOTE: If the PCs have broken the Jar or otherwise forced Talons-like-Steel’s hand (her one remaining hand), then she will make for the tomb herself and brave the Dagger’s painful warding.  The TombZvarten Jacobus’ tomb is protected by the Flying Dagger of Niadelaar. The Dagger was commanded by Zvarten on his deathbed to protect him and so the Dagger has since. Zennis insisted that no one disturb the dagger, but it was a touchy thing convincing the Dagger that preparing Zvarten’s body for the funeral was a friendly act. It was doubly trying to get Zvarten into his sarcophagus. Eventually that task was left entirely to Zennis. What mourners there were mourned from a safe distance. The Dagger is no less vigilant now than it ever was. If one of Talons-like-Steel’s dominated puppets succeeds in opening the tomb, the Dagger is, at first, happy to see someone. When the puppet tries to grab the Dagger, it quickly grows angry, attacking immediately. The Dagger must stay in the six squares that contain Zvarten’s sarcophagus. If it is pushed or batted outside of those six squares it returns immediately to its sheath at Zvarten’s side inside the sarcophagus.  BonfireThe adventure should in two slightly different flavors of the same ending. Those flavors are, If the Jar is broken or if Talons-like-Steel disposes of the Dagger. If the Jar is BrokenIf they are near the Tomb, Talons-like-Steel immediately attempts to use her Ghostly Possession power on one of the PCs. If her attack is successful, she uses the PC as a puppet just like all the rest – to get the Dagger out of the Tomb and out of Niadelaar. If it is not she uses Ashes to Ashes to move through the village to the Tomb where she will lay in wait for up to half-an-hour for someone to Possess (preferably a hardy PC). If no Posession target presents itself Talons-like-Steel will enter the tomb and suffer the Dagger’s auras. She is a match for the daggers Defenses and bats it away quickly. She opens the sarcophagus, takes the dagger and now has to begin the slow march out of the stony prison. It will take her 5 turns to get adjacent to peat so she can use her Ashes to Ashes power to travel quickly through the walls, to the edge of town. If her hitpoints drop to 50 while she has the Dagger she will throw it as far as she can and then attempt to Possess another someone who can get it the rest of the out of Niadelaar. The Dagger is Disposed OfAs soon as the Dagger is clear of Niadelaar, Talons-like-Steel roars in triumph and the rise where the harpies were burned bursts into flame. In the center of the rise is a wholly different (Solo version) Talons-Like-Steel. This one is fire resistant and can lob fireballs in addition to her other attacks.  She attacks the PCs, but focuses her attacks on the on village. Each quadrant of the village has 50-100 hp. This is a combat ‘skill challenge.’ The PCs need to contain Talons-like-Steel, fight her and banish her. The dagger will still hurt her, but it no longer slows her. If a PC recovers it and approaches, she will attempt to take it and throw it as far as she can away from her.  ResolutionIf the village or Talons-like-Steel gets to 0 HP the Harpy blazes up a huge incandescent torch of victory or agony (depending) and then explodes into a shower of sparks (burst 10, 1d12+8 fire damge). If the PCs have managed to keep the total damage to the village above 2/3 of the village’s total HP, they are very successful. Between 1/3 and 2/3, they are reasonably successful, beneath 1/3 then they fail. If they wish, they can redeem failure by helping to rebuild the town, heal the burned, sick. If the PCs are very successful, the Dagger may choose one of them as its new wielder. It has a 25% of doing so if the PCs are only reasonably successful. The remainder of any treasure due them comes from the store of items and services offered by Father Frerik, if he’s alive. If the PCs shortcircuit the adventure, Talons-like-Steel will try again, she's not particularly patient, but she'll manage...  Items and Adversaries Jar of SteamMarja’s Jar behaves like a normal Jar of Steam, with a change. She created the Jar of Steam as a means of summoning the Harpy Queen, Talons-like-Steel. She made the rough earthen pot from ash and earth dug from where Jacobus burned the harpy witches. Using the talon she found, Marja scrawled arcane symbols into the surface of the pot. These symbols are what allow the summoner to speak the name of a target to Talons-like-Steel’s vengeful ghost. Once a day the jar can be used to summon Talons-like-Steel.  The jar is otherwise like a normal Jar of Steam (fills an area - close burst 1 - with steam, provides concealment, burns those in the zone that did not activate it).  Flying DaggerThis is the Flying Dagger of Niadelaar. This dagger gives its wielder protection from harpykind – living and undead – and specifically the harpy queen Talons-like-Steel. It was made from Talons-like-Steel’s severed claw by Jacobus’s ally, Saint Kennis. It also acts as a ward against Talons-like-Steel and harpykind, keeping Niadelaar safe from Talons-like-Steel’s wrath. Flying Dagger +2, Intelligent ItemBody and bane of the Harpy Queen. When flying the dagger sings to itself in a soft, raspy voice. When attacking, its song becomes shrill and screechy.Weapon: DaggerEnhancement: +2 attack rolls and damage rollsCritical: +2d8 damageProperty: Aura (Harpy Bane): Harpies who begin a turn adjacent to the dagger take 5 damage and are slowed. If Talons-like-Steel begins her turn adjacent to the dagger, she takes 10 damage and is slowed.Power (Encounter): Minor Action. Speak the command word and toss the dagger into the air. The dagger flies into the air behaves as a sentient Cloud of Daggers (PHB 159). The dagger moves at your Speed and moves during your Move Action, attempting to stay adjacent. You cannot be flanked by someone standing in the square the dagger occupies. If the dagger does not stay adjacent, it returns to its sheath. While under this power, the dagger may be attacked in an attempt to knock it out of adjacency. Use these defenses to determine the success or failure of an attack on the dagger. AC 25, Fort 21, Ref 25, Will 23Power (Encounter): Minor Action, Personal. Speak the command word and hang on tight. Until the end of your next turn, you gain a fly speed of 7, and you can hover.  Summoning RitualThe foci for this ritual are the Jar of Steam and a harpy talon. The ritual caster cuts her palm with a harpy talon and bleeds into the jar, speaking the name of the Harpy Queen ‘Talons-like-Steel.’ After speaking the Harpy Queen’s name, the summoner smears the blood from her hand around the jar and speaks the name of her intended target. The runes around the jar will glow and the Harpy Queen, after being summoned, will move with all speed to the intended victim (using her Ashes to Ashes power if possible). If no target is spoken, Talons-like-Steel is free to do as she pleases (for the duration of the ritual’s effects – 1 hour). At the end of an hour, the ritual will end and the dagger’s aura will drive Talons-like-Steel’s spirit away.  Advanced Singing SicknessAn ailment found amongst the inhabitants of Niadelaar, those afflicted become disoriented and feverish, often describing singing that no one else can hear.Disease Track· The target is Cured.· The initial effect’s penalty becomes –1.· Initial Effect (sickness starts here) The target takes a –2 penalty to attacks and checks until cured (or dominated).· The target is weakened.· Final State (+12 vs Will) o Hit: The target is dominated and does Talons-like-Steel’s will.o Miss: The target is dazed. Attack: (as Talons-like-Steel’s Dominating Kiss)Endurance/Heal Check: Improve DC 23, maintain DC 18, worsen DC 17 or lower (it’s meant to quickly progress on NPCs lower leval than the PCs and to scare and inconvenience the PCs) Normal Singing Sickness has lower DCs and doesn’t have dominate as a possible Final State. Regular Singing Sickness is caused by ingesting the still pestilent remains of the harpies that were burned in Niadelaar decades ago. In 4e diseases follow a ‘Track.’ Endurance checks, or ally’s Heal checks, move the disease along the track (up or down) until the disease is Cured or in its Final Stage. Once in its final stage, a disease can usually only be removed by a Cure Disease ritual.   Dramatis PersonaeFrerik, Priest of Ioun (Human male, mid sixties)Marja, Fallen Avenger (Human Female, young woman, early twenties)Katrien, New Avenger (Human Female, pre-teen)Sem, First Victim (Human Male, mid twenties)Juriaan, Second Victim (Human Male, mid twenties)Viona, Third Victim (Human Male, mid twenties)Sjors, Fourth Victim (Human Male, early twenties)Menno, Fifth Victim (Human Male, mid twenties)Talons-like-Steel (Undead Harpy Female, ageless)Zvarten Jacobus (Human Male, dead) LocationsNiadelaar, a remote farming villageThe Red Rose, an Inn in NiadelaarShrine of Saint Kennis, a Shrine of Ioun [sblock=Dutch words]I liked the use of Jamaican words and names in Some additional Dutch names and words if you want to continue the flavor MaleAdlar (eagle)Caspar (treasure bearer)Dries (man, warrior)Frerik (peaceful ruler) used for the PriestIgnaas (unknowing)Jacobus (supplanter) used for the village’s founderJurriaan (earthworker, farmer) used for a victimKarel (man)Menno (might, strength)Sem (mark, name, signature, stigma) used for a victimSjors (earthworker, farmer) used for a victim FemaleAngelien (angel, messenger)Ans (favor, grace)Heleen (torch)Katrien (pure)Marja (obstinancy, rebellion)Roos (rose)Sanne (lily)Sterre (star)Theresia (harvester)Viona (vine) used for a victim Other Adelaar (eagle), inspiration for name of Niadelaar, a reference to the eagle-ness of the harpiesKennis (knowledge), use for Saint’s name if Niadelaar’s church is dedicated to IounMaan (moon), use for Saint’s name if Niadelaar’s church is dedicated to SehanineBouw (construction), use for Saint’s name if Niadelaar’s church is dedicated to ErathisZvarte (black), modified to be the first name of the village’s founder[/sblock]IngredientsInside the Walls· The harpies from Talons-like-Steel’s tribe in the walls of Niadelaar· The Jar in Morja’s home· Talons-like-Steel herself as she uses her Ashes to Ashes power to move through the village Flying Dagger· The Flying Dagger of Niadelaar Childhood Avenger· Morja, a former Avenger in training (acolyte of Father Frerik), driven by her desire for revenge and her resentment of her childhood foes precipitates the whole adventure· Katrien, a young Avenger in training (acolyte of Father Frerik). Talons like Steel· The name of a harpy queen who is the chief villain in the story. Jar of Steam· The Jar Morja created to summon Talons-like-Steel. Unending Plague· The ongoing plague that Talons-like-Steel inflicted on the village of Niadelaar, no crops can or ever will grow – the village will always have to import food.    * Mysteriously absent from the village's travel brochures...</blockquote>

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