It is evening in the fall. You enter the outskirts of the Village of Mistpoint. About 150 or so people live in the Village, built up around a sprawling cemetery and surrounded by fields of crops. It is off-season for their well known festival of the Radiant Dawn, worship of Sollara Goddess of life.
The mayor of this town is literally the angry Goose Bimblebottom, elected by the people of the town, and the council is incapable of much (the goose is general thought to be more effective than the last mayor).
The town is dangerously close to the no-man’s land border to the old World, and this time of year, the mist coming down from the Heartstone mountains is thick and oppressive.
The Thirsty Goose seems ripe with activity this evening. The Gosling Grocery is just closing. The Brazen Borrower Pawn shop still has light streaming through dirty windows manned by Quigly Quagmire.
A few townsfolk have gone missing over the last few nights (Old Kage, Mortimer Goodfellow and Minister Shelby is the most worrying), There is an offer of food, lodging and 50 gold pieces to find out what happened to them. And one Lucas has started muttering nonsense to himself in the same time. Bortamere the Innkeeper has information. Lady Regina Goodfellow, the nicest house in town, is putting up the money to find them. Suggests talking to Regina Goodfellow.
The Mayor Bimblebottom is wandering the courtyard outside of the Thirsty Goose Tavern. It is chasing a man with a cart, then a woman round a well while she tries to get water for her family. If the PCs approach the Mayor, the Goose Hisses and attacks lowest charisma roll and deals 1 damage.
Lady Goodfellow says her husband has been sleepwalking every night lately but hasn’t returned. Her son, Phineas keeps saying no mum, its fine, he will come back on his own. This is unnecessary.
Lucas answers every question by yelling KHARYBDIS while muttering it constantly under his breathe. If no one wants to approach Lucas, Mark from the bar will tell them about Lucas and drag them to him if need be.
Old Kage, Mortimer Goodfellow and mark are drinking and cards buddies, meeting at The Thirsty Goose most evenings after dinner with Mark.
Both the Minister and Old Kage leave faint tracks of mud in their homes and both have tracks leading off into the Mountain View Cemetery.
Mountain View Cemetery is a large central feature of the town with graves going back hundreds of years and one massive mausoleum in the center
Area 1 – Entrance – You follow the footprints into the ruin. The entry opens up to a dimly lit and perilously worn mausoleum. Upon the Dais is a golden Goblet and braziers on both sides. There is a message carved into the wall above the door in the back and floating above the dais is a wispy looking ghost. Specter.
Puzzle – story/rpg, riddle golden cup on an alter and an inscription above the door to the next room written in an obscure language that no one can read.A player can cast comprehend language, but it upon reading it they will take 1 point of psychic damage and have a raging headache for the rest of the dungeon. The inscription says: To enter the crypt of Kharybdis a gift of crimson must be given and gain the blessing of the Gibbering Host. D6 necrotic damage. Know they are being watched and can feel the pain, hear the gibbering.
As the specter dies, it bursts doing 1 cold damage to all within 10 feet and she flys through the closest PC, trying to get two in a straight line if possible. The victims get covered in ectoplasm and can temporarily read the message above the door, if no one has comprehend languages. While the ectoplasm lasts, they can read the notes as well. Understanding outerspeak lasts only a few moments.
If found in either hovel, the Notes reads:
(old Kage)Kharybdis will take all! Kharybdis will be all! Kharybdis will end all!
(Lucas) From under! From outer! From other! We Rise!
Area 2 – The hallway is lit by two braziers and goes off to the left (area 3) and right (area 4)
Area 3 – Locked wooden door (ac 15, HP18, DC 15 Str(athletic), Simple inferior lock (dc 10) to unlock. Within the room there are several stacks of coffins, and 4 skeletons milling about.
Area 4 – The room has three beds, a table, an indoor outhouse corner and a skeleton trying to walk through a stone wall in the far (or near if they came in the back way) wall. DC 12 int(investigate) to find.
Loot! Vosian Battery with 5d4 charges left, 3d10+20 gp, 5d10 +50 silver, three potions of healing, one unknown potion (potion of climbing),Moon-touched Shortsword and 2x 10gp Axurite (mottle deep blue) and Eye agate (circle of grey white and blue).
Area 5 – Leads down a set of stairs that switches back going down about thirty feet in total.
Area 6 – The hall entry is lit but not down the halls. To the left is a 10 foot chasm from earthquake damage. DC 10 athletics check to clear. DC10 dex to not fall on other side, Door is unlocked on that side. Falling 20 feet down for 2d6 damage, dc15 reflex save to catch edge.
To the right is a 10 foot hidden pit, with a broken skeleton in it to fight whomever falls in. passive perception DC13 to hear a muffled scratching. DC 15 investigate check to find the pit. D6 (3) for falling in and then fight a 3 HP skeleton. Cimb out with no no check.
This leads to a DC 15 lock on a standard wooden door (ac 15, HP18, DC 15 Str(athletic)
Area 7 – Climax – The room is a sacrificial chamber. Immediately upon opening the door, the gibbering madness starts. THere is a walkway around the perimeter and a 5 foot pit around the central alter. At the Alter is Minister Shelby with his throat being slit by a cultist, while another holds a book in one hand and a sickly green dagger aloft in the other, chanting in chaotic rhythm with the gibbering. There are two more in the back corners.
There are 5 stars upon an upward pointing tentacle on their black robes and daubed in what is assumably blood on the back wall of the abattoir.
Roll Initiative! The cultists fight back in the first turn (one has max hp, Mortimer Goodfellow) The other is Old Kage. A ghoul in the form of the minister’s corpse joins turn two.
Resolution – Once the fight is over, a rogue leaps up over the lip of the chasm, grabs the knife and book and runs to the back, sliding into a secret door, dc 20 to find. They recognize his face. It’s Phineas! He proclaims “THE GIBBERING WILL TAKE YOU ALL!” before disappearing.
If they try to chase Phineus, a Darkmantle falls on the head of the lead persuer.
Loot! Four potions of Healing, 3d12 gold and 5d20 silver, a scroll of Revivify and a diamond worth 300 GP to cast the spell all rest upon or around the alter.
This work is shared using the SRD V5.2.1 – Links to DnDBeyond will only work if you own the digital books
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man