Players! Want to play this quest? Stop reading and notify your DM. Save the fun for the game-table!Running this Quest
You can adjust any of the information below according to your campaign, preference or imagination. Feel free to experiment and let other visitors know what works for you in the comments below.
While resting in a small country village, at some point you are approached by a middle-aged man, with a brown beard and long hairs bound into a ponytail. He is wearing a farmer’s outfit. “Excuse me sir, you seem to be a well travelled lot, are you adventurers by any chance? Could you help a man out? I can pay you.” He pauses for a moment. “You see,” he then continues, “my family owns this land, all the way down to the creek.” He points to the fields and the forest in the distance. “That creek is what irrigates our fields. But some weeks ago, after a heavy storm, water levels suddenly dropped. So, I need someone to follow it upstream and fix whatever is blocking it. Can you help me?”
The farmer offers 20 GP but is willing to pay up to 200 GP to help him out. If players inquire further after what has happened, or what to expect upstream, he continues:
“Well, I followed the creek all the way upstream to investigate. After about half a day’s hike up the mountain, there’s a cave entrance where the stream flows out of. It is just big enough to enter, so I did. It was rather pointless, as I couldn’t see much, but that cave… well, let’s just say something ain’t right. There’s a… The smell in there, it’s not natural. It made me sick. Also, I think I may have heard someone crying, but it was coming from all directions. It felt like something otherworldly. It gave me cold chills, it did. So.. so I turned around and left. You see, I am just a simple farmer. I can’t deal with that.. whatever is in that cave. So, I’m looking for someone to get rid of it and fix my water. Like you sir. Please help me.”
If the party accepts the quest, they will travel upstream, either straight away or after they’ve prepared in the village. If any party member inquires any further, let them roll a DC10 Persuasion check. When pressed a bit, the farmer admits a suspicion he has: a nearby, abandoned cemetery might have something to do with it.
The fields stretch for about a mile to the edge of the forest. The farmer told you that the creek lies about an hour walking into the forest. At the edge of the forest, you find dried up canals that normally irrigate the field. Some time after, you find the creek, which is now just a trickle, and start to follow it upstream. The forest is not too dense and it is easy to pass through. Sometimes you need to climb the rocks to follow the water to its source. You walk for some hours, when the forest opens up a bit into some grassy patches, with rocks strewn about. You keep following the streambed, like a path carved out of the earth.
Abandoned cemetery
At this point, your players reach the old, abandoned cemetery in the woods. This cemetery has suffered a sinkhole, and the graves have partly flushed into the cave system underground.
You notice further uphill is a field that has a series of stones placed upright in rows. When you look a bit better, you see some of the stones seem to have symbols carved into them, colored with some blackened die. When you walk up close, you can see all of the stones have markings and symbols carved into them. These look like graves. In total you count about 15 of them, but when you walk down the cemetery you find that a big part of it has caved in. A 15 ft deep sinkhole swallowed some of the graves, leaving their stones toppled halfway over, stuck in the rocky mud.
If players investigate the stones and succeed a DC12 History Check, they will know of the massacre of Smirgid*, which happened in these lands hundreds of years ago (feel free to add your own lore)…
*Smirgid was a brutal clansman, that ruled with an iron fist. At some point, the people living in these lands rebelled against him and slaughtered him and all of his closest crew. This was even before the current House ruled these parts. The inscriptions indicate that these graves could be of members of this clan.
If players investigate the pit by going down into it, they can hear trickling water. However, they cannot reach it from here. They need to follow the stream.
The cave
Following the water, you find the large rocky formation where the water springs from. A crack in the side of the rocks is just large enough to let any medium sized creature in. It is tight for about 3 ft but then opens up into a wider space. Once your eyes adjust to the dark interior, you see more rocks, toppled on each other. Stalactites are crusted onto the overhanging rock formation. All you hear is your footsteps echoing in the dark.
In the cave there is no light, so characters without darkvision or torches are essentially blinded.
Most of the rocks feel wet, so it is sometimes hard to follow the stream. But after some time you manage to find another hole where the water comes flowing out of. The air here is moist and cold. It feels dense. You climb through the hole and find yourself in a new stretch of the cave, where you are hit with a foul, earthy smell of death and decay, of fungi and insects. You can smell sulfurous and acid gasses that turn your stomach. The cold in the air now turns into a freeze and your breath fogs up when you exhale. In the distance you hear a faint wailing echo through the cave. Listening close you determine its direction and follow it.
You could insert some tiny creatures, such as bats or salamanders, to set the mood into an unfriendly one. The party might need to fight these first before continuing on.
Climbing deeper into the cave, trying to find a path over the rocks in the darkness, you move slowly towards the source of the sound. You can now hear a clear wailing and stammering, you hear crying close by. Before you is cavern that stretches about 50 ft. The opposite end is filled up with a giant pile of earth and mud. You can make out what looks like a stone casket sticking out of the mud pile. It’s lid has slid open but you can’t see inside from afar. Suddenly, the wailing stops, and a creature appears out of the mud. It is glowing with a dim, blueish light, and seems to be half translucent. You hear it’s breathing as it is looking at you. You can make out a human male, wearing some kind of leather tunic with a empty scabbard at its side. It opens its mouth and starts crying “…Freeee meeee…”.
Fixing the waterflow
The storm that happened some weeks ago, caused an underground mudslide. This changed the flow of water in the cave, which now flows away from the farmer’s fields. As it happens, the underground mudslide happened right beneath the cemetery, and took some of the graves with it. To restore the flow of water, players need to remove the mud and the old graves. Since a lot more mud will come down, digging it all away will take a 5 member team at least two days. Building some kind of tunnel construction might be quicker. Or quicker still, just use magic or dynamite.
However, one of the dead souls did not pass through to the afterlife and is stuck in limbo. This ghost is bound to a cursed box that can be found in the stone casket. He wants players to make any wish with it, as this will free him from his predicament. If the party ignores him and the box, he will start wailing louder and pleading more aggressively, even attacking the players if needed. When attacked, it will immediately try to flee out of reach/sight, only to appear again some time after. This should be as annoying as possible in order to force players to help him.
“Freeee meeee…” you hear the ghost’s cold voice echoing through the darkness of the cave. “Make…. a wishhh” it says. “Help meeee…..” The voice creeps through your veins like a freezing poison. The ghost is pointing your attention to the casket, where you can see a corpse. It’s nothing more that a half rotten skeleton, held together by leathery skin. In its hands it holds a small box.
The Cursed Box
This box is made of bone, and about 3 x 4 inches wide and 1 inch high. The top and bottom consist of finely detailed images of lavish gardens with people drinking wine, making love, baskets of exotic fruit, gold, brought in by slaves and servants. The images are painted with a dull grey die. All around the edge of the box, there is an inscription in Druidic, that says: “Open this box to cast one Wish spell”. Any living soul that opens the box for the first time gets bound to the box (replacing the previously bound soul).
You pick up the box and hold it in front of you. You unhinge the locking mechanism and grab the lid. As soon as you turn your hand to open the box, you feel your body stiffen up. Your grip intensifies while a cold pain starts to flow through your hands. It creeps up your arms to your shoulders, when suddenly it strikes through your heart. Then all the muscles in your body simultaneously relax. Your hands are shaking, but otherwise you seem fine. You proceed to look in the box. There is nothing in there, except for a poem engraved in the lid. It reads:
A wish is granted to you,
bound forever through
opening, your soul to
the next person who
is as greedy as you.
Or, if you want it to be more clear to your players it could read: “You are granted one wish. Your wish is powered by the life essence of who previously opened this box, releasing them to the afterlife.”
The players could roll a DC 15 History Check to see if they know about these boxes. On succes they remember there’s a druid circle known to have made these boxes in the past, known as The Clarity. The boxes are supposed to be a form of punishment for greed in this world, and they will trap all who are foolish enough to believe power comes without cost. The last known box was found over a hundred years ago.
The curse
When a player reads this, they will start to realise the consequence of them opening the box. Let them think about it and slowly draw their conclusions.
- Basically it means that if anyone after them makes a wish, they die.
- That means they now have to carry and protect this box for the rest of their lives.
- It also means if they die without anyone ever using the box again, their soul will not pass to the afterlife.
- There is a way out though: have someone open the box without wishing and then have a third person open the box.
There are some rules to the box:
- Destroying the box will release the previous opener’s soul to the afterlife
- Destroying the box will kill the current opener and/or release their soul to the afterlife
Making a wish
The box holds a Wish Spell. This spell is powered by the life essence of the soul that is bound to the box. If a bound soul’s life ends before a spell is cast, it remains bound to the box and cannot proceed to the afterlife. Also, it cannot power the Wish Spell anymore (the spell will simply fail, but it will release the soul).
You hold the open box in front of you, and close your eyes. You say your wish out loud. A moment passes where nothing much seems to happen. Your grip tightens, as you feel a cold come over you. You clench down on the box, when suddenly a sharp pain shoots through your heart. You can feel how it travels through your arms and into the box. You are left shivering and cold.
What just happened is, the soul of the wish caster has been loaded up into the box for the next wish. Also, the previously bound soul gets used up and released to the afterlife. In case of the ghost, there is no more life essence to power the spell:
As soon as you have spoken your wish, the ghost starts to laugh. First, he just grins but this quickly turns into a deceitful loud laughter. “Thaaank youuu …hahaha”. It slowly fades into the air. Then, nothing. No wish is granted and you are left feeling cold and empty.
However, if the previously bound soul was still alive, it dies:
Suddenly, he or she stops what they are doing. They stare of in the distance when suddenly they start convulsing. This turns into a violent shaking and then becomes an extreme tense shiver. When they turn stiff as a board, their skin loses color and starts to flake. With a last exhale, they start to crack and crumble into bits, finally ending up as dust.
Player options
In order to help the farmer the party needs to clear the water flow, but they are hampered by the ghost. An adventurers instinct might be to kill the ghost. However, the ghost should be played in such a way that it will always flee to unreachable places, and come back time and time again. If the party manages to kill it anyway, they are left with a soulless box (wish will not work until a new soul is bound). The ghost is bound to the box so if players take the box with them, the ghost will follow. If players open the box, all the above happens, but they could also decide to leave it be. In this case nothing happens.
Risk vs Reward
Obviously, the risk here is getting cursed, while this also brings the reward of a Wish Spell. Also, depending on the conversation and deal they made with the farmer, the party gets rewarded 20 GP up to a possible 200 GP for fixing the waterflow.
Monsters & NPC's
Ghost
Medium Undead, Any Alignment
Armor class 11
Hit points 45 (10D8)
Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7 (-2) | 13 (+1) | 10 (+0) | 10 (+0) | 12 (+1) | 17 (+3) |
Damage Immunities Cold, Necrotic, Poison
Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 11
Languages Any languages it knew in life
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2
Ethereal Sight. The ghost can see 60 feet into the Ethereal Plane when it is on the Material Plane, and vice versa.
Incorporeal Movement. The ghost can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
Actions
Withering Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (4d6 + 3) necrotic damage.
Etherealness. The ghost enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, or vice versa. It is visible on the Material Plane while it is in the Border Ethereal, and vice versa, yet it can’t affect or be affected by anything on the other plane.
Horrifying Visage. Each non-undead creature within 60 feet of the ghost that can see it must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. If the save fails by 5 or more, the target also ages 1d4 × 10 years. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to this ghost’s Horrifying Visage for the next 24 hours. The aging effect can be reversed with a greater restoration spell, but only within 24 hours of it occurring.
Possession (Recharge 6). One humanoid that the ghost can see within 5 feet of it must succeed on a DC 13 Charisma saving throw or be possessed by the ghost; the ghost then disappears, and the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body. The ghost now controls the body but doesn’t deprive the target of awareness. The ghost can’t be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, except ones that turn undead, and it retains its alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and immunity to being charmed and frightened. It otherwise uses the possessed target’s statistics, but doesn’t gain access to the target’s knowledge, class features, or proficiencies.
The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, the ghost ends it as a bonus action, or the ghost is turned or forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell. When the possession ends, the ghost reappears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the body. The target is immune to this ghost’s Possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends.
