From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: The Restless Dead, Part One
System: Elric!

GAMEMASTER NOTES

This short adventure is intended as an interlude for an ongoing Elric! campaign. It begins when the players stop for the night at the Dark Root Inn. The Inn may be located in any fairly civilized town of at least average size. A town in one of the more Lawful Young Kingdoms would be the most appropriate.

This interlude makes use of many spells and creatures introduced in the Bronze Grimoire. References to that supplement are denoted with a 'TBG'.

Plot Outline

The plot of this adventure centers around a ghost which initially possesses one of the PCs at the Dark Root Inn. As time goes on, he will continue to harass the PCs until they are forced to return to the Dark Root Inn to investigate the mystery. Upon returning to the Dark Root Inn, the PCs will eventually find that each of the inhabitants of the Dark Root has embraced their own doom: Klaren Brewmaster, the inn keeper and patriarch, uses dark arts to achieve his success, yearly planting corpses beneath his Dark Root Tree, to ensure that his Dark Root Ale will continue to be the best in the land; Neva Raveneye, his wife, has taken a lover and plots Klaren's murder; Frago Lackwit, their son, has fully embraced the dark arts of necromancy, daily communing with the dead. After discovering many false leads, the PCs will eventually learn that their ghost was one of Alfin's most recent victims. A confrontation, followed by the ghost's release is the most likely result.

SCENE 1: A STAY AT THE DARK ROOT

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| PRICES: Dark Root Ale: 2 bp; Jar of Dark Root Ale: 15 bp; Inn       |
| Floor, per night: 3 bp; Private Room, per night: 30 bp. Other food |
| and drink is available as per Elric! pg. 42.                                            |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Arrival

When the players arrive at the Dark Root Inn, they should be in the best of spirits. The Inn is reknowned throughout the area for a bitter ale that it produces, and the players have probably heard tales of it for days. They will not be disappointed, for the Dark Root Ale is indeed one of the best made in all the Young Kingdoms.
                       
The players will also find the accomodations of the Dark Room Inn quite acceptable. There are plenty of empty rooms, and the prices are quite reasonable.

While enjoying ale and a meal, before retiring for the night, the players will likely encounter the Inn's three residents: Klaren Brewmaster, the Inn's owner, and the bartender; Neva, his wife, and the Inn's cook; and Frago Lackwit, Klaren's only son, and quite nearly an indentured servant. See APPENDIX 1, below, for full information on all of these characters.

Allow the PCs to interact with the inhabitants of the inn, but nothing of special note should occur during the evening, and the players will be able to head off to their accomendations with no problem.

The Possession

Unknown to the other inhabitants of the Inn, for months their residence has been haunted by the ghost of Narl, a beggar which Frago kidnapped and slew as part of his experiments into darkest necromancy. Narl's ghost is cursed to wander these halls until his body is given a proper burial, and Frago is slain, in just vengeance. Several times, Narl's ghost has possessed patrons of the inn while they slept, but he was too confused to do anything useful. When the PCs sleep in the Dark Root Inn, Narl's ghost will recognise within them the strength he needs to be freed.

After the PCs have all fallen asleep, Narl will try to possess them in turn (in an utterly random order), until he is successful with one. As in noted in TBG pg. 27, a ghost may possess a sleeping target if he suceeds in a POW:POW attack. Don't let the players know what is going on. Simply ask for their POWs, and make an attack. On a failure, the ghost will move on to another target (although the target will wake with nightmares, as is noted below). On a success, Narl's ghost will take temporary control of the target for POW (14) minutes. Once the ghost has possessed a PC, it will exit the room (mumbling any necessary excuses to awake PCs) and head towards the cellar, to search for his body. Narl will be unsuccessful (since his body is actually buried under the Dark Root Tree, as noted below), and as his control of the body weakens, he will become enraged, and begin throwing light objects about the cellar in a fury. Again, the player should be told of none of this, as he is still asleep, the ghost submerging his personality.

Confrontation in the Root Cellar

When the 14 minutes have expired, Narl's ghost will finally lose its grip on the PC's body, and the PC will return to consciousness. Read him the following at this time:

"Your last memories are of slowly drifting to sleep in the darkness of
your accomodations. However, when you are suddenly jerked awake, you
are somewhere else entirely. You are in some manner of earthen room:
perhaps a basement, a cellar, or a manmade cave. Along the walls of
the room, you see huge barrels. Barely, you can make out the smells of
beers and wines. All about you is wooden debris. It looks like the
remains of chairs, crates, even a small table. They seem to be utterly
destroyed, as if by a madman. Nearly straight in front of you is a
flight of wooden stairs, which lead upwards. Just as you start to
collect your wits, you hear a door slam open at the top of the stairs,
and heavy footsteps begin racing towards you."

In mere seconds, Klaren Brewmaster will burst into the cellar, a large club in his hands. The PC may very well try to hide before Klaren arrives, but unless they manage something truly impressive (eg a spell of invisibility), Klaren will find them, as the cellar isn't that big, and Klaren knows ever meter of it. When Klaren confronts the PC, he will begin shouting, screaming and waving his club around, demanding to know what the PC is doing (which the PC will no doubt think a very good question). When playing out this scene, keep in mind the following motivations:

* Klaren doesn't want the bad word of mouth that would come from
hurting one of his own guests.

* Klaren isn't happy with the damage, and will want repayment (about
250bp), unless the player manages to convince him that someone else
did it.

* Klaren is somewhat paranoid and will be suspicious from the start
that the player might have been trying to look into Klaren's dark
dealings.

If the PC manages to come up with a good story, and mollifies Klaren with apologies and payments, he will eventually calm down, and allow the PC to return to his room.

The Dreams

When the PCs all awaken (either in the morning, or because the formerly possessed PC wakes them up), read the following to those whom Narl tried to possess and failed:

"During the night, you had a nightmare which actually woke you from
your sleep with a shock. You were sitting near the side of a dirt
road, shivering and cold due to the sparse clothes which covered your
emaciated frame. As the dark rain slowly beat down upon you, chilling
you even further, you watched multitudes of people walk by, all
ignoring your pitiful cries for groats. When a shadow loomed over you,
you looked up with hopeful eyes. Then, the smell of putrefacation
settled upon you, like a cloud. Gagging, you scuttled back a few feet.
As the dark figure stepped once more towards you, a ray of moonlight
briefly illuminated the dark shadows of his hood. That was when you
saw that decaying flesh hung from the creature's dead face, only
partially covering the leering skull beneath. You were unable to even
scream before the creature's fist descended upon your skull like a
stone maul. That was when you awoke."

The Morning

In all likelyhood, the PCs will wonder briefly about the strange happenings of the night, perhaps ask a few questions of the NPCs, and then move on. If so, proceed to SCENE 2 below. If the PCs decide instead to stay in town, and investigate the occurrences, proceed instead to SCENE 3.

SCENE 2: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Once on the road, the PCs will think to have left the madness of the Dark Root Inn behind. However, Narl's ghost has attached itself to the PC that it earlier possessed, and every night, it will try once more to possess the PC, and lead him back to the Inn.

The Nightly Possessions

Each night, allow Narl's ghost to try and possess the PC once, via a POW:POW roll.

If the ghost fails in his possession, the PC will wake from a nightmare. Use the same nightmare as was described in SCENE 1. Feel free to vary, lengthen or shorten it every night, but at no point should it provide any stunning relevations about the identity of the necromancer. After awakening from the nightmare, the PC will be free of the ghost for the rest of the night.

If the ghost succeeds in his possession, he will try and lead the PC back to the Dark Root Inn. However, Narl's ghost really isn't all that together. Combined with the fact that he will have only POW (14) minutes to act each night, his actions will seem confused and hard to interpret.

He is most likely to simply walk straight towards the Dark Root Inn for his 14 minutes. If he becomes desperate, he might threaten to kill himself (his host) if he is not taken back South, or some other insane tactic. Narl's ghost is unable to talk about its fate or its desire to return to the Dark Root Inn, because those things lie mostly forgotten... all it really understands is a desire to head in the direction that the Inn lies, and a need to look for something (his body).

Other Methods of Dealing With the Ghost

PCs may use other methods to try and rid themself of Narl's Ghost. Exorcism [TBG pg. 21] will banish it completely from the Young Kingdoms, if they can determine the ghost's name. Lure Soul [TBG pg. 21] may be used to set it upon another. Spirit Barrier [TBG pg. 22] may be used to keep it temporarily away. These spells may be cast either by a PC or by another sorcerer whom they have convinced to help. Once the ghost is banished, or set upon another, the PCs may move on, never concerning themselves with poor Narl's plight again.

SCENE 3: RETURN TO THE DARK ROOT

In the end, the PCs will probably head back to the Dark Root. It should be obvious by this time that the ghost is being inexorably drawn to the Dark Root, and that he feels that he must look for something in the area. Based on the nightmare that has doubtless been received many times, the PCs should also realise that necromancy is involved (if Narl has always suceeded in his possessions, have the possessed PC experience the nightmare noted in SCENE 1 on the night he returns to the Dark Root).

The PCs may or may not be welcome back in the Dark Root, depending on what happened when Klaren confronted the possessed PC in the cellar.
If the PC left on bad terms, he will now have to make his peace with Klaren.

Investigations

The PCs really might do anything when they initiate their investigation of the Dark Root Inn. Noted below are the most likely techniques, and ideas where to proceed with them. The game master will need to improvise in other situations, and should do so based upon the descriptions of the various NPCs.

Barroom Babble

In the Dark Root Inn, the PCs are likely to question either the main NPCs, or other random drinkers. Information and attitudes are noted below.

KLAREN will proclaim to know nothing about murders or ghosts. He honestly knows nothing about the murder that the players are interested in, but will be afraid that they actually know about his own necromantic arts. Afterwards, Klaren will be much more suspicious and unfriendly towards the PCs.

NEVA will be able to proclaim innocence of knowledge with an utterly pure heart. She really knows nothing about Frago's dark arts, and has little clue about Klaren's doings either.

FRAGO will play dumb, pretending not even to understand the PC's questions. If questioned, though, the first tendrils of panic will start to close in on him.

OTHER INN VISITORS will be friendly towards the PCs if plied appropriately with food and ale. Allow the PCs one random rumor from the below list for each visitor they convince to talk with them:

    DARK ROOT INN RUMORS

    1. Beggars have been disappearing from the town for months (T)
    2. Neva has many lovers in town (T)
    3. Klaren practices strange rituals on the shortest night of
    each year (T)
    4. Frago isn't always as dumb as he acts (T)
    5. Frago is not really Klaren's son (F)
    6. A Pan Tangian Sorcerer has a secret refuge in town (somewhat T)
7. Don't go in the town graveyard at night. Sometimes, the
dead walk there (mostly T)
    8. Ten years ago to this day, a Melnibonean wizard cursed the
    town, swearing the the dead would never rest (F)
    9. The ghosts of Neva's murdered lovers haunt this inn (F)
    10. A sorcerer was once slain in this inn, and his ghost has
haunted it ever since (F with a T component)

People Watching

The PCs may decide to keep a close watch on the various NPCs.

KLAREN feels occasional guilt over the people that he has interred beneath the Dark Root Tree. Every night, there is a 20% chance that he will head out to the Dark Root Tree after the close of business, and silently meditate there for a few minutes.

NEVA visits her lover every few nights. On any night, there is a 25% chance that she will slip out of her bedroom after Klaren is asleep, and go visit him.

FRAGO frequently practices his necromantic arts. Every night, there is a 28% chance that he will slip down into the cellar, and from there to his laboratory (PCs will probably only see him go down to the cellar, and then find it empty). In addition, there is a 5% chance that he will head out to the graveyard for new material.

[continued in V12.5]