Solve a mystery on a remote island where nothing is quite as it seems.

Setting

Caledon is an archipelago nation caught in the middle of two warring empires. The Caledonian King, absorbed in defending his nation during this conflict, has turned most administrative duties over to adventurer’s guilds to act as regents for their islands. They are responsible for keeping peace and collecting taxes to fund the navy that keeps both empires at bay.

Many guilds are little better than state-sponsored gangs. Some make a real effort to protect the people under their stewardship. Regardless, most of the islands of Caledon increasingly view themselves as being on their own.

Mood

Overall theme we’re starting with here is “unsettling”. Magic nobody understands, nature itself behaving oddly outside of town, and nobody there seems to really be bothered. Odd outbursts from townspeople help to punctuate this mood and drive the plot forward. Death’s own Avatar apparently wants to kill people.

As things progress, we shift more towards horror. The one character they met who does seem bothered suddenly is behaving like everyone else. Seemingly the whole town does not eat or sleep. The area outside the boundary is clearly dangerous, trapping the players in it.

For the third “act”, we go truly weird. The players encounter someone who clearly should be dead, but is both not dead and also not aware of their problem. The party realizes that this is what Death’s Avatar was talking about, and that they need to help set things right.

Adventure

The party are all members of the Hands of Karn, one of the more reputable guilds in Caledon. The backwater island of Ardea, home to a single farming village, is now a month late in sending their ship to collect supplies. Given that this ship also was supposed to bring in the island’s taxes, the guild is very concerned with what is going on. A party of guild members was dispatched to the island, and is also long overdue. the party has been tasked with going to Ardea to determine what is going on.

Their guild has chartered a ship to deliver both them and the town’s supplies. They have been directed to venture inland to the town and seek out Barassus, the town’s elder and main contact for the guild.

Key Mystery Elements

You’ll likely need to read further here, but this is a high level breakdown of the “who”, “how”, and “why” behind this campaign. Along with a condensed representation of clues the party can find. It’s intended for reference during the campaign.

Who

Vernalis’s magical parasite, along with the unwitting help of Lysandre and Vernalis.

How

Lysandre and Vernalis built the death ward in a desperate attempt to keep him alive. His death allowed the parasite to take over its host and begin spreading. The parasites worked together to try to preserve the appearance of normalcy until they could get a chance to attach to new hosts and escape.

Why

Lysandre and Vernalis both wanted a life together away from war. The parasite needed a way to reproduce and begin spreading anew.

Clues

Here’s a high level list of all the clues available to be found.

Death’s Avatar Encounter

Where the road from the dock to town Questions How, Why

Lysandre’s Journal

Where her house if the party breaks in, otherwise the dead adventurers if they find them, worst case Karis brings it to them on the second night. Questions Who, How, Why

An encoded journal that takes multiple Investigation (>15) checks to decode. It starts with their pre-adventure history, through building the ward, then into her growing suspicion that Revenant Vernalis is not actually himself. It ends abruptly five months before the party arrived.

Interview with Gar

Where Tavern on the first night. If they miss him there, he finds them on the second day. Questions Who, How

Warns the party “not to act strange”. Says everyone who speaks out about what is going on in the town “gets replaced”. Animals dying outside of the boundary. Vernalis suddenly being the picture of health after years of decline. The area inside the boundary going straight from mid-Fall to Spring, no matter what the temperature had to say. One by one people just decided that they just weren’t concerned with much of this.

Barassus’s Ravings

Where His house, inside town. Questions Who, How

Revenant NPC injured

Where in town, party witnesses an extreme injury if it hasn’t happeend by the third day Questions How

Karis Interview

Where outside down, but within the boundary Questions Who, Why, How

Relates how she saw Vernalis and Lysandre builidng the ward. She’d heard rumors in the Navy that Vernalis had been discharged after contracting some kind of magical parasite nobody could deal with.

Pre-adventure history

NOTE: this section is intended entirely for reference and gives away the entire mystery. Don’t read it to the players. It’s intended to help you in explaining the motivations and actions of the NPCs.

2 years ago

Lysandre and Vernalis retired from the Caledonian Navy, where they were part of a special unit tasked with securing artifacts that could be used in the country’s defense. Vernalis had contracted a magical parasite, which was slowly killing him. All attempts to remove it failed, and they left the Navy to pursue their dreams of a small town life together with what time he had left. Seeking to put their painful adventuring past behind them, they posed as a retired priest and bookseller.

They secretly had stolen some ancient runecrafting materials, including Allocite, an ore capable of blending together schools of magic in ways the world had forgotten. They hypothesized that a careful application of warding runes could stave off Death itself. As Vernalis’s health worsened, they launched a desperate attempt to save him by literally creating a barrier against Death.

6 months ago

Karis, separately, was discharged from her adventurer’s guild. Broken by the horrors of watching her few friends die, she sought a life of solitude in the middle of nowhere. Always a bit of an outcast due to her Tiefling ancestry, her contact with members of the town was rare. She took up residence in a cabin in the woods, content in her solitude with nature.

Unfortunately for her, this coincided with Lysandre completing her death ward. During her frequent ranging through the woods, Karis saw Lysandre placing a ward stone. As Death’s rage slowly ramped up outside the barrier, Karis concluded that the wards were a timely defense they should all be greatful for. Deep in denial, she forced herself to focus on her forest and her animals, and remained largely ignorant of what was happening in the town.

5 months ago

Vernalis, who had declined rapidly, finaly died. Because the ward prohibited Death’s avatars from entry, he began a quasi existence as a Revenant. His parasite used the opportunity of his death to take over his body, using his memories to try and impersonate him. The ward fuelled his body, drawing life energy from outside to help sustain him.

The parasite quickly devised plans to spread to new hosts. Each time it could spawn a hatchling it would murder a new townsperson, allowing the hatchling to take over.

4 months ago

Lysandre intially took Vernalis’s strange behavior as aftereffects of his death, but eventually realized the parasite had taken over. Unfortunately, it was ready for this and replaced her.

As the town increasingly began to realize something was amiss, the parasites took over more and more townspeople. Each Revenant that arose went back to life “as normal”, but these juvenile parasites struggled to do more than replay basic daily routines. Each Revenant also angered Death further. Death’s Avatar went on a rampage, often killing creatures outside of the boundary.

1 month ago

Caranus, now one of the few living members of the community, packed up to bring in taxes and gather supplies. As he was about to leave Death’s Avatar found and murdered him.

2 weeks ago

Another adventure party came to investigate what was going on. They came across a town half full of Revenants, and half full of truly freaked out people. Revenants lured them into the woods and killed them there.

Mid-adventure events

Arrival

The parasites are prepared to try and spread, and want to replace the members of this party. Vernalis and Lysandre attempt to distract the party while they organize to overpower them.

Night 1

If players are anywhere within the boundary, they see weird activity with people being up at all hours, doing seemingly mundane daily chores.

Outside of the boundary, they have the encounter with Death’s Avatar. If they venture back to the dock, the ship’s captain is already dead and a nasty storm is brewing.

If the players have encountered Gar, Lysandre kills him to get him to stop talking to them.

Day 2

Today should see both further PC investigation of the boundary and interviews with townspeople. If the PCs haven’t come across Gar by mid-afternoon, he seeks them out to give his details.

Possibly resulting in a break-in of Lysandre’s bookshop.

Bad weather continues, preventing the players from trying to leave. So far the storms haven’t hit the island directly, but it’s not looking good.

Night 2

Weird nighttime activity continues.

If the players have talked to her, Karis investigates the boundary and disturbs one of the stones. If the players have not talked with Death’s Avatar, she encounters it and gets all the way through its messages. If they have not discovered Lysandre’s journal, she retrieves it from the dead adventurer’s and brings it to them.

Likely the PCs stage a break in at Lysandre’s at this point.

Day 3

Karis finds the PCs to relay whatever information she has from the previous night.

Players notice that everyone they pass seems to be watching them.

Players see one of the Revenant PCs fall and stand up with a clearly broken neck. Vernalis comes out soon to have a fight if they don’t leave immediately.

Night 3

Lysandre and Vernalis decide to ambush the players if they haven’t confronted her yet. Enlists any remaining Revenants to help her. Karis joins the fight if things look bad.

Notable areas

Dock

The dock is small and roughly made, but serviceable. A well-trod dirt path leads off from the dock into the woods. The island’s ship is tied up at the dock. It lies in a small harbor, and barely has enough space for your ship and the island’s ship to tie up together.

Town

The town of Ardea is exactly what you would expect for a remote backwater. Maybe around 200 people live on the island, most clustered in or around the town. The town features a small inn built from sturdy wood, a crumbling church constructed from black lava stone, and surprisingly a bookseller in a tiny, cute shop. Other than that it’s mostly homes.

If the players arrive at night, the town is surpisingly busy given its size and how little there is to do. Any characters stopped by the players state that there’s no special occassion, and apparently it’s just coincidence that so many people have decided to be out.

The Boundary

This is the name for the perimeter of the effect of Lysandre’s Death Ward. Life energy from outside of this area is being drained to fuel the increasing number of undead within it. Death’s Avatar cannot pass this barrier, and has been venting its frustration on local widllife outside.

The Boundary is clearly marked by the stark contrast of dead flora and fauna outside to living oens inside. Follow it for long enough and you discover black lava stones with mystical markings.

Encounters

No signs of life. There are a lot of dead fish floating in the harbor near the dock. The island’s ship is loaded with now-spoiled food and other goods clearly meant as taxes. The boat was fully prepared to leave, including a manifest and sea charts with a route planned to deliver taxes.

Investigation > 15, Survival > 10

The foodstuffs appear to have been left here for about four weeks, a timeline that lines up well with when the ship was due to depart.

First travel down dock road

Discover the dead body of an older man (Caranus, the ship’s captain). He holds a bow in his hands, and there are arrows embedded in a nearby tree. No apparent cause of death, even with a Medicine check.

Investigation > 15, Medicine > 10

The body appears to be about four weeks dead. You would expect some amount of carrion activity, but it’s generally undisturbed aside from decomposition.

Investigation > 15, Perception > 10, Passive perception > 15, Nature proficiency

As you travel down the road, you realize that the forest is increasingly just … dead. You don’t hear signs of wildlife, and many of the plants are outright dead. There are no signs of disease on either the living or dead plants, and the live ones seem fully health.

The Boundary

Along the dock road, well outside of town, the party notices a point where it feels like there’s a wall of warm air headed towards town. There’s a remarkably even line with dead plants on one side and live ones on the other, that lines up exactly with the point where the air grows warmer.

Passive Perception > 16, Active Perception > 13, 2nd trip across the boundary

One bush that straddles the boundary line is quite literally half alive and half dead. A spooked deer crosses the boundary and immediately falls over dead.

Scout along the boundary

Come across a black lava stone with unknown sigils. Arcana > 10 or Detect Magic reveal an unusual mix of Necromancy, Transmutation, and Abjuration.

Second trip outside the boundary, or party

An Avatar of Death appears and attempts to touch one of the PCs.

If touched, a PC hears: “People in that town MUST die”

If the party repeatedly encounters the avatar, they get: “You must displace the hallowed circle” “Someone has built an abomination before nature”

It gives the party directions leading into the woods to find “those who came before”.

Avatar does not respond to questions, and vanishes after making its statements statement. Also leaves if it takes more than 20 points of magical damage.

Party displaces a ward stone

Death “seeps in” the boundary, killing off some plants near the stone. If this happens at night, triggers an encounter with the Avatar of Death.

This seeping grows daily.

1 day: A line of dead fauna starts to form from the displaced stone pointed towards town. 2 days: The line reaches into the edge of town. A townsperson who crosses into it dies. The line is clearly pointed towards either the church or bookshop. Lines begin to emanate from the other stones. 3 days: The original line reaches into the center of town. The secondary lines have grown long enough that an Intelligence check (> 15), or explicit investigation, allows the party to triangulate them to the bookshop.

Gar is murdered in the church overnight, rises up and resumes normal activities. No longer wants to talk about the boundary, but also refuses to go near it. Lysandra sneaks out to replace the stone, but comes back injured from an encounter with Death’s Avatar.

Barassus

You find Barassus in his house, apparently reading. He’s an older man, and seems a bit dottering. He confirms that Caranus left to bring in the taxes, and is surprised that it’s been four weeks since. He directs the players to the inn as a place to stay, and says they can arrange to pick up supplies in the morning.

If asked about the boundary, he says Lysandre has been researching it.

As the players are leaving, Barassus shouts out from a brief moment of lucidity. He rants that something is deeply wrong. Nobody eats. Nobody sleeps. Nobody leaves. After this outburst, he goes back to dottering and does not recall these statements. On subsequent encounters he does not appear to remember meeting the players, but also has no further outbursts.

Bookshop

Lysandra is eating something when the players arrive. Willing to give a brief overview of her and Vernalis’s history, but omits that they are former adventurers. Claims that this bookshop is more something to keep her busy than a real business, she’s here because Vernalis is here.

Blames Karis for what is going on with the boundary, and says she built it to keep out the creeping death that Karis brought to them. Says she thinks the rest of the town has been beguiled by Karis, and refuses to see the truth.

Passive Perception > 18, Perception > 15, Investigation > 10 (if allowed)

Table in the back has some books and a shawl haphazardly stacked on top of carving tools and a black lava stone block. If called out, Lysandra claims to have taken up carving, no business here.

Sneak in investigation (Stealth > 10 overnight, or distract Lysandra)

Granite block shows clear signs of arcane carving. These are similar to ones on other ward stones if encountered.

(Investigation > 15): They find a bag w/ wizard’s spell components and what looks like a journal amongst Lysandra’s things. The journal is in code, and has a magical trap (DC 10) on it. Investigation (>15) checks give progressively more of the backstory, roughly an hour of study each. By the next evening Lysandre discovers the missing/disturbed journal and immediately suspects the players.

Church investigation

Bits of blood under the altar. If Vernalis is present, he mutters “I can’t believe she would dare”. On follow up questioning he tries to pin “she” as Karis.

Tavern

On first visit, Gar is here, and very drunk. He’s afraid to range his pigs outside the boundary after his oldest boar died immediately after crossing it.

Sanzir is happy to have business. Things have been especially slow the past few weeks. Confirms Karis’s report that local wildlife started dying off outside what they’ve come to call “the boundary” about six weeks ago. She doesn’t know where it came from, just that things are spooky outside of it. Says she thinks Lysandre has been researching it.

Overnight stay in the tavern

Sanzir is up doing something at all hours of the night. Even if it’s polishing a bar top that clearly doesn’t need it. Claims she isn’t able to sleep.

Gar

Initially encountered trying to drink away his worries over how weird things are in town. He’s afraid to range his pigs outside the boundary after his oldest boar died immediately after crossing it.

Drunkenly rambles about how nobody else sees that things are weird. Animals dying outside of the boundary. Vernalis suddenly being the picture of health after years of decline. The area inside the boundary going straight from mid-Fall to Spring, no matter what the temperature had to say. One by one people just decided that they just weren’t concerned with much of this.

He won’t be much more use until he sobers up, if you can get him to do that.

PCs Persuade Gar to take pigs out

(Persuasion > 15) While taking his pigs across the boundary, one of them dies again. If it’s night time or a player has some mechanism for magical sight/senses they see that the Avatar of Death struck the animal.

Revenant NPC injured

The injury slowly heals. The NPC is still alive and functioning no matter what the injury is, and seems somehow ignorant of the fact that they are injured.

By day three this happens with Vernalis falling off the roof of the church while trying to repair it. He stands right up with a clearly broken neck.

Character Requirements

Players should make a level 4 character with a background, skills, and abilities suitable for a mix of investigation and combat. In addition to normal class skills, as an agent of the Hands of Karn you are proficient in Investigation or Perception and one Charisma, Intelligence, or Wisdom based skill of your choice.

Although you are allowed to make a character who is originally from Ardea, this character will not have seen the island for several years.

The core DnD books, plus Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything are available resources. Your character must be a member of the hands of Karn, but any available backgrounds are allowed.

Your character will have normal starting equipment for their class/background, 2 potions of healing, 1 potion of greater healing, an uncommon consumable item of your choice, and an uncommon permanent item of your choice.