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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jayoungr" data-source="post: 8161008" data-attributes="member: 6702445">Further Notes on DDAL04-07 "The Innocent" & DDAL04-11 "The Donjon"I actually reached out to the author of "The Innocent" to see if he had any memories to share about the original story. He said that he knew it had gone through substantial rewrites, but he didn't remember much about the original version.  He did tell me that the Visitor's name was originally Oblique.The Bloody ShrineIn my reworking of this story, I introduced a cult of Merrshaulk in place of the transplanted Yuan-ti.  The creatures who attacked the PCs at the shrine were cultists who had become supernaturally tough (i.e., they had the same statblocks as the trolls from the original).  They wore necklaces of snake fangs as a clue to their identity.  I also finally worked in the story of how the original Lady Falinescu was said to be a devotee of the cult, and how her first child, Gyorgi, was whispered to be truly the son of the cult leader.Making Onegin/Oblique a vampire also helped to explain why Sari and Benedek willingly followed him to this spooky old shrine in the middle of the forest.Fortunately, my players didn't dig too deeply into the mystery about Sari's gloves, as that part of the story is not really explained.  If they had, I think I would say that the physical gloves could not be delivered as long as her ghost was clinging to the spirit gloves.  I did make a point of mentioning that her ghost was wearing the gloves, even though they weren't on her body.  (It makes sense that she'd need to take the gloves off so Benedek could put the ring on her finger too.)  I left out the part about the PCs' gloves being targeted, though, since that doesn't fit with the explanation.The Sunken CaravanI kept the encounter with Șomoiog and made him a member of the Moslavaric clan who was searching for the vampire who had turned Lela.  If I were running this again, I'd have introduced him earlier, during "The Seer."  Șomoiog accompanied the PCs for the rest of the adventure to provide some extra fighting power against the Visitor.  I used the stats of a Veteran for him.The Leech RiverNext the players encountered the dead fisherman from "The Donjon"-- only he was an undead fisherman in this case.  I think I used the stats of a vampire spawn, which was a pretty tough fight for players at this level. They were still able to take his hip boots after defeating him.The Black FlowersThe PCs passed by the mound of black flowers as described in "The Donjon" and had a short conversation with Karl Ogbad, the grave keeper.  It is the tomb of Gyorgi Falinescu, buried where he died in a riding accident.  His mother left money for the grave to be properly tended.  This was mostly a social encounter, but I had a note to substitute undead snake skeletons for the crawling claws if combat happened to start.  I don't think the PCs asked about Regold or Onegin, but Karl would have mentioned seeing them if so.The Visitor's CampsiteI ran this as described in "The Innocent," except that I substituted a different note from Regold (see attachment for a facsimile version):My jealousy blinded me.  I cannot live with the guilt.  May the spirits of my dear brother and darling Sari forgive me.  I have gone to make things right.  Fr. Onegin knows the place. Regold DurrillI had originally planned for the PCs to find this note in his shop, but they didn't investigate the shop before leaving town, so I moved it here.  If questioned about it later, Regold would explain that he was convinced that he was going to sacrifice his own life in order to resurrect the two he had killed.</blockquote>

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