Swamp Village Fortress Free 60×40 Battlemap & Adventure

Drowning Curse

Arriving at a small town in a swamp via small rafts that ferried you through the fetid waters, you find the town eerily abandoned. Signs of a small struggle can be found, such as knocked over barrels, scrapes in the boardwalk that seem to have been made by weapons, as well as an odd, black sticky goo that’s covered some areas of the walkways.

While you’re investigating this, muddy, goo-like creatures rise from the surrounding swamp and attack, seeking to enfold you into themselves and drown you. There are arrows stuck in their muck, and one even has a pitch fork sticking out of its back. Once defeated, you find the bodies of murdered villagers within the slimy horrors, which seem to have been partly consumed by the goo. Upon closer inspection, it appears it is the goo that killed the people, not the weapons stuck in the monsters they became.

If you make your way up the cliff to the stronghold overlooking the town, you find another group of the–similarly arrow-ridden–monsters attempting to break down the front door. Once they’re dead the goo drains into the soil disappearing from sight, if you call through the door the surviving locals who have been sheltering inside the fortress gratefully let you in, thanking you for killing the monsters, though they say bitterly it won’t be long before the horrors rise up again, and they’ve already run out of arrows.

As they talk, an older man steps forward, wearing glasses and some minor magical necklaces on his person. He sends a couple of the villagers outside to reclaim what arrows they can before the creatures rise again, before introducing himself as Loyd.

Loyd explains that the town was cursed about a week ago by a witch of the swamp while she was executed by their town’s leader, Milo, for the suspected kidnapping and murder of a young girl. Only, after her execution, the girl was found drowned nowhere near where the witch lived.

When villagers started disappearing due to the witch’s curse and the locals discovered the monsters that had taken their place, the townspeople fled to the fortress to survive. Loyd explains that, thinking ahead, he brought one of his books on magic with him. Since they’ve been trapped inside the fortress he’s managed to find a translation of the witch’s curse, but what he’s learned isn’t good.

He explains that the curse she called down upon the village centers around Milo’s son, Yol and according to the translation, only sacrificing Yol to the creatures made of goo within the center of the village will lift the curse. As much as he hates it, no one here can afford to flee their homes and start up somewhere else, assuming they’d even survive the journey. They can’t allow anyone else to die, the gods know enough of their loved ones have fallen to this curse already. And these monsters seem to come back no matter how many times they’re killed.

Loyd explains that unfortunately, Milo and his son caught wind of their plan before they had a chance to act, so they barricaded themselves in one of the fort’s rooms and now, understandably, refuse to let anyone in.

They’re waiting us out, Loyd explains, hoping the monsters will kill us or cause us to flee before we can get to them. He asks you to go and talk some sense into the man and his son, as terrible as that reason might be. Maybe he’ll trust an impartial stranger more than the rest of us.

Should you go and talk to the condemned father and son through the barricaded doors, if you don’t seem hostile Milo lets you into the room, before barring the door again behind you. His son, a boy about 10 years old, is sitting sadly on a chair, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Milo is holding a kitchen knife up between you and his son with a shaking hand, and explains nervously that he has made a terrible mistake and never wanted so many of his people to die. He would atone for it if he could, and die in his son’s place–but sadly, that would do nothing to lift the curse.

You see, his son and the drowned girl were friends, and when they were playing they got into a fight and he pushed his friend into the swamp, not realizing it wasn’t water but rather a strange, tarry mud. She drowned in the sticky substance before he could get her out, so his terrified son ran to him for help.

Milo explains that, to his shame, he blamed the death of the girl on the witch to save his son’s life, for though it was an accident the girl’s mother would likely sue for blood and she holds much sway within the town. In addition, by their laws blood for blood is common within the swamp and that would mean it was likely his son would be sentenced to death.

Milo continues that the girl’s death was an accident, his son shouldn’t be made to pay the price for it more than he already is. Please, Milo begs you, the boy doesn’t deserve death. If you could just convince the rest of the villagers that it’s better that they all leave their homeland and find somewhere new to start again–if you offer your protection during their travels, they would surely listen! Then, his son could live.

GM’s Note’s:

The witch realized something was up when Milo–usually a reasonable man–didn’t believe her pleas of innocence. In her last moments he accidentally said enough that she figured out what he had done, which is why she bitterly cursed his son as she died.

If the players do not want to force the townsfolk to leave but do not want to give up Milo and his son, perhaps they could also cleanse the town of the curse through other means such as fighting a goo avatar of the witch within the center of town or perhaps even convincing the spirit of the witch that her punishment is to harsh for a child.

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