CONCLUSION If the PCs search the house, they fi nd digging tools on the back porch, which they might use to unearth the buried remains of the other missing children. In the cupboard is the accumulated treasure of this pair of horrors: 600 gp
CHAPTER 1
DREAD ENCOUNTERS
at the head of a refectory table. Lying in the center of the table is a dirty, naked child of about 10 years old. She is clearly alive but stares upward emotionlessly. Several other children with equally dead eyes are gathered about the table. As the PCs watch, the children carve small pieces off the girl with tiny knives and feed the quivering, bloody chunks to the old woman! Blood drips freely off the sides of the table, eventually draining out between the slats in the floor. Standing behind it all, directing the children’s actions, is a figure clad in dark jester’s motley. The PCs might be able to attack with surprise. In either case, Grandmother and Uncle Chortle use the same tactics once combat is joined. They attempt to flank the PCs, or at least stay far enough from each other that they cannot both be caught by a single offensive spell. They have the bleak ones attack from all sides, using knives or slings. Grandmother and Uncle Chortle often team up against a single opponent with their spell-like abilities, draining both Strength and Charisma. If a foe clearly relies on one ability or the other, however, they will redirect their tactics accordingly to eliminate him or her swiftly. Either one of the pair will flee if reduced to 25% of full normal hit points, or to 50% of full hit points if the other has already been slain. In either case, they abandon the bleak ones to their fate; the children have standing orders to fight until slain.
worth of various coins and baubles, a child-sized silver bracelet worth 75 gp (an heirloom of one of the families back in Dunford), and gloves of arrow snaring (neither Grandmother nor Uncle Chortle knew what these were). The gloves have been here for some time, and might (25% chance) already have gained their own innate taint. Additionally, the house is adorned with decorations and art made up of children’s bones. The PCs should gain experience appropriate to the encounter if they defeat both Grandmother and Uncle Chortle. PCs receive no XP for slaughtering the bleak ones but do receive a bonus of 100 XP for each child they return to Dunford; this increases to 400 XP for each child that they somehow succeed in restoring to mental health. Each character should also receive 100 XP if they choose to return the bracelet rather than keep it. The strange effects of the region (sounds, reflections, and so on) grow less common after the horrors are driven off but, due to the remaining taint, they never vanish entirely.
SAMPLE ENCOUNTER: “ANNALEE’S BABY”
In “Annalee’s Baby,” the PCs find themselves entering the village of Eastbrook, a small human settlement nestled in a rolling green countryside. In this encounter, the characters are faced with the twin horrors of being hunted and trapped, as well as the more insidious horror that comes from the plot’s misdirection. Two villains feature in this scenario, but the PCs might only ever know of one. The first is a ghost (Monster Manual, page 117) named Jonah Parsons, and the other is his wife
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