Night Below - The Evils of Verbobonc - Part 5 Random Encounters Part 4

Night Below - The Evils of Verbobonc - Part 5 Random Encounters Part 4

4. The Farmhouse

This encounter is best had at the end of the day when the players are considering camping for the night.

During the day the farmhouse appears to bw in good repair. It is a single open room, mostly bare except for a bench, chair and table. Inside is dry and clean. There is a well just outside and a back door. Both doors and windows seem stout enough for a farmhouse but the roof is just thatch and the walls wattle and daub (interwoven branches covered in clay). Better than tents at least with a firepit and covered smokehole at the back.

The place is desrted and the fields untended and a bit wild. If the nearby fields are searched the bones of animals can be found scattered about and if a greater search is made human and humanoid bones can be found.

If the players stay the night the house transforms into a half roofless ruin at the rise of the moon. From outside the house screams and moaning can be heard as if animals are being slaughtered. Then calls for help and more screams. Surrounding the house the bodies of dead animals, mostly cows and pigs, wander about. If any step outside the house they will attack and only stop if they players retreat back into the house. As the moon reaches its height the animals well lose all their flesh and become bones. The skeletons will stagger around and the skeletons of humanoids will approach from the fields.

At the moons height the skeletons will attack the house in groups of six or twelve. As they are slain the bones will nit together into monstrous combinations of man and beast and continue to assault the house. This attack will go on till moonset.

If the hut is burned down the skeletons will draw off and wait till the hut collapses. If the players leave the area of the fields the skeletons will not follow.

Beneath the packed earth floor are the skeletons of a dozen men and women. Digging them up and destroying the bones will cause the skeletons in the field to collapse. An iron chest is buried with the bodies containing an icon of Elemental Evil and 12 amulets. If these are taken the players will be haunted by the memories of these Elemental Evil cultists and they will receive no benefit of rest till they are buried or brought to a cleric or druid to be destroyed. Anyone in Verbobonc will immediately recognize them as belonging to the cult of Elemental Evil.