Hemskil Sandbox Playtest: Witch Hut, Part 1

For my turn behind the metaphorical screen, the party gets hired by a kobold to loot some very unusual herbs and plants from a witch that she used to serve. Pay will be based on whatever they manage to bring back, so they'll have to prioritize between that, supplies, and whatever other loot they can find. She gives them a key, tells them to tell the hut that "Cressida sent us", and directs them to the Hemskil forest to find it.

The trek to the Hemskil forest takes four days, and it's another three days of wandering about the woods aimlessly until the hut stumbles across them: it suddenly bursts through the trees and foliage on a set of four deer legs, nearly trampling the nomad and ranger in the process. A pair of twisted, metal chimneys emits black smoke, which darkens the sky and causes it to rain a thick, tarry substance.

The hut continues on its way until one of them shouts that Cressida sent them, after which it turns around, squats down, and literally rolls out a red carpet from the front door. After much debate, they cautiously proceed inside.

It slams behind the party, sealing them within a narrow passage. They can see light in the distance, and with nowhere else to go 1cautiously approach. They arrive in a fairly small, square chamber. There's only a single door with a large keyhole, and dozens of deer heads mounted on the walls. Hundreds of red candles are set on the antlers. Looking up they see the walls extend upwards until they vanish into darkness, but no apparent ceiling.

Though the lock appears to be a simple warded mechanism, the ranger opts to try the key first. There's an unusually loud mechanical clunk, and the door slowly opens on its own. Beyond is a hallway that extends to her left and right, and at both ends it curves away from her after fifteen or so feet. Arms and faces are seemingly affixed to the walls, each bearing one or more red candles, and directly across from her is another door.

The party debates whether to explore the hall and see what their options are before trying any doors, but before a decision can be made a pale white moth roughly three feet in length scuttles into view. Its wings are flesh-like with red veins, and instead of an insect's head there is an expressionless human face. It splits in half, and a long tendril snakes out to impale one of the arms jutting from the wall, presumably to feed.

The ranger informs the rest of the party what she is seeing. The moth seems to hear this, excitedly flapping its wings as it emits child-like laughter. Another half-dozen moths arrive, and they begin scurrying towards the ranger, who understandably closes the door. With nowhere else to go, the party reluctantly prepares to fight, but when the door is opened they discover that the hall has changed.

This one is a single passage that extends away from them, turning left at the end. They can also see several doors along both sides. Their initial mixture of confusion at the change and relief at the absence of moths is drowned out by despair, as a pale women in a long, white gown silently strides around the corner: they don't even wait to witness her disturbing performance before closing the door again.

Figuring that the hall will change each time the door is opened, the party decides to keep at it until either they find a hall without some nightmarish creature waiting for them, or it cycles back to the moths since they weren't nearly as ominous as the woman. They don't have to wait long, as when they open the door for a third time the moths come bursting in.

They impale and hack a few of the moths apart, after which a massive worm-like creature comes wriggling down the hall (which they only now realize has narrowed quite a bit), forcing itself through the door using numerous hooved legs. Its face features a human-like mask that weeps a thick, red substance, which is revealed to be molten hot wax after it vomits a torrent of it all over the party.

The moths and worm dissolve into puddles of white and red wax when slain, leaving behind skulls of various sizes along with other assorted bones.

DESIGNER'S NOTES

The ranger was able to use her Hunting skill to save on quite a bit of food while they searched for the witch's hut, though I'm wondering if it is necessary due to the Perception, Stealth, and Tracking skills. I think it certainly speeds things up, but there's definitely some overlap in usage. Perhaps giving those skills a Synergy bonus to Hunting would help?

Melissa is working on a witch class, and two key things are that you get a familiar (to help teach you stuff), and can establish a mobile hut (if desired). 

So far they've encountered three monsters and fought two: blood moths and the waxworm.

Blood moths aren't too dangerous alone. Their tongues also don't inflict a lot of damage: if they don't beat your Armor Class it's doubtful they'll inflict enough damage to beat your DR (unless, perhaps, a high amount is rolled and you're only rocking a gambeson). They're typically encountered in groups, however, and can Drain WP.

The waxworm is pretty big, has a nasty gore attack, and an effective breath weapon with its molten wax. Deals fire damage and can Restrain on a failed save due to the wax hardening. Can also create blood moths in a roundabout way (which the party hasn't seen, yet).

As for the woman, don't want to spoil that, yet.

This adventure will be going into the Hemskil campaign setting book, along with what were initially a series of side quests and such for Melissa's Heart of Hemskil setting that was initially intended for Dungeon World but we never got around to publishing.