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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 6907546" data-attributes="member: 67">Round 1, Match 2: steeldragons vs. RuneBad LeadFang of MercyCracked RoadLeech MiningWax SealHuge PumpkinBloodlettingA 5e D&D adventure best suited for 4-5 2nd level characters. Once-prosperous, Irondelve is dying. Astride a broken road, in the shadow of Ironreach, whence ore and livelihood once flowed. Few folk remain. Superstitious. Scared. Beset by forces beyond their ken.Bodies start appearing. One last week. This week, two. Friends. Neighbors. Pierced necks and drained of blood. Enter the PCs, to investigate for coin or curiosity. Townsfolk talk:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Evil spirits about. Mischief on outlying farms. Wails escape the underworld through abyssal cracks along the corroded Lonely Road. The wise ward themselves with trinkets and jack o' lanterns guard each house. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ol' Gordon is so frightened he's offered to carve his prized 400-pound pumpkin into a ward, unfinished at adventure's start. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The woods are home to witches and warlocks. Entering them, especially at night, is downright foolish. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pumpkin-ward candles keep disappearing overnight. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Outside of town, an acting troupe, with performances each night. Sanguine, leading actor, causes trouble after shows.  Rowdy, heartthrob, drunken vandal. Also, very pale. And never seen during the day.</li> </ul>This last has people rumbling that the scoundrel is a vampire, a clue the PCs may wish to explore. This is a bad lead, however; hedonistic, nocturnal, and a legitimate threat to many a maiden's virginity, Sanguine is no undead monster. Events:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The night after the PCs arrive, Gordon's huge pumpkin is smashed to pieces and another body (with a single large hole in its neck), once Gordon's, is deposited at town's edge in stealth by two hooded humanoids. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When the townsfolk make these discoveries (in the morning, unless the PCs hasten events), they form an angry mob, intent on staking Sanguine through his heart. The mob can be dispersed (if the PCs are so inclined) through violence, speech, or supernatural display. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Townsfolk will disappear daily and their drained bodies will reappear nightly until the true cause is dealt with, or no townsfolk remain. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the PCs are about and alone on any morning, one may be attacked by two spies, who attempt to abduct the PC for delivery to the Bloodworks in the mines.</li> </ul>The Wild:The wilderness watches the PCs. Herein, a secretive druidic order. A problem beyond their reach festers and, if the PCs will help, they are granted audience with the order's head:Creature of legend, guardian naga, eternally bound to a sacred grove. Notably, a missing fang. The naga speaks:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Lonely Road rapidly decays--entropy birthed beneath Ironreach, perhaps, but wilted life could merely be early winter's onset. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The naga's druids are likewise bound; their role is naught but to preserve, to guard. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Drained townsfolk are discarded outside the old mine. The druids return them to town so kin can find peace in laying them to rest. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The villain is known. Compelled by geas, a condition of her mercy, to return ere a month has passed and compelled also to never be parted from the fang wrested from her maw.</li> </ul>Bloodworks:In the mines, the Bloodsmith's leech mining operation. Hellish vapors roil from boiling vats, gradually eating even earth. Crates of labeled bottles, liquid sparkling red, blood stripped of essence. These read: "The Bloodsmith's Wonderous Arcanely Fortified and Purified Blood of Innocents! Use in Profane Rituals, Diabolical Rites, and Unusual Recipes! Better blood than you can harvest yourself! Well worth the price!"The Bloodsmith has two servants--spies--abductors of townsfolk. Mornings, they hunt a new sacrifice while the Bloodsmith prepares. Afternoons, they are stealthy sentinels outside while their employer drains the victim. Bottle after bottle is filled with blood drawn with a syringe fashioned from the naga's fang. The corrosive vapors that permeate the mines have made the fang brittle and porous. Thus, between uses, it is dipped into melted candle wax to form a seal. Without the wax seal, the fang cannot be used for bloodletting. Each hour underground brings a 50% chance of taking 2d6 acid damage. This usually kills captives long before exsanguination can. PCs and the Bloodsmith also face this hazard, but the Bloodsmith is a dragonborn with black dragon ancestry (use the same stats as a knight, but with +2 to Strength and Charisma, proficiency in deception and alchemist's supplies, acid resistance, and an acid breath weapon attack).Should the PCs choose to show him mercy, it may not matter for long. A charlatan, with ambitions of fleecing wealthy and amoral arcanists and cultists. They will not be pleased once they have product in hand.</blockquote>

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