An adventure for characters level 11 to 13.
Background
Senator Tallow was an honorable man who truly sought the betterment of his district. Every year the senator would make his way to Frostwyrm Lodge to unplug and relax from battling on the senate floor, and would participate in some light hunting. However, a few years back he became the prey instead of the hunter.
A rakshasa saw Senator Tallow as an opportunity for quick and easy advancement, so he killed Tallow on one of his hunts and put on a disguise so he could take his life in the political sphere. The rakshasa has been using his position and fiendish skills to slowly kill political rivals. However, his victims don’t simply die. Their souls are captured by the rakshasa and forced into small dolls which loosely resemble the person’s appearance. He uses the dolls for various purposes, but once a year he makes a trip back to Frostwyrm Lodge where he sells the souls of people he no longer has use for to demonic merchants.
Quest
Lia Tallow, the senator’s daughter, saw a change in her father’s behavior a few years back after he visited the lodge. She wants the heroes to accompany the senator and his friends as either famous guests or as guards in order to figure out what it is about the lodge that changed her father.
Notes
- The **rakshasa** can telepathically communicate with the souls in the dolls. He has kept Senator Tallow’s doll in order to glean information about the life he stole. He also has the soul of a city guard who saw him do something illegal, a priest who has openly spoken out against the senator’s actions, and a merchant who had a monopoly of an industry the rakshasa wanted a piece of. He intends to sell these souls to the demonic merchants.
- The senator’s trip to Frostwyrm lodge lasts 4 days, and he is accompanied by Senator Baggles and a chef. Neither Baggles nor the chef have been to the lodge before. The rakshasa hates being accompanied by the heroes and fully intends to kill them off before his meeting at the end of his vacation.
- On the first day of the trip the rakshasa has the adventurers check the cabin and surrounding area for threats while he unpacks. While unpacking he turns invisible and spies on the heroes and steals one of the chef’s knives. The heroes can discern that a remorhaz lives in the area with a successful DC 18 Nature or Survival check. They can also tell that the hunting equipment hasn’t been used in a decade with a successful DC 16 Investigation check. If the players talk to the chef, it may be revealed that he lost one of his knives.
- On the second day, the senator takes the adventurers hunting. He is aware that a **remorhaz** and its **young remorhaz** live in the snowy hills a few miles away from the lodge and he wants to ‘accidentally’ stumble upon their nest during the hunt.
- On the third day, the rakshasa uses disguise self to look like the chef and kills Senator Baggles while one of the players is present. He has a doll prepared to capture the senator’s soul if he successfully kills him. He then uses invisibility to escape. Senator Tallow insists on using one of the Lodge’s rooms as a prison for the chef for the duration of the trip. He refuses to return before the conclusion of his vacation.
- On the last day of the vacation, a **glabrezu** and a pair of **barlgura** arrive to make a deal with the rakshasa for the souls he has collected. They had agreed the previous year that the rakshasa would bring a senator this year to kill and be replaced with a bargura. The demons are cautious around the rakshasa, believing the rakshasa to double cross them at any moment. The rakshasa will try to kill everyone when his identity is discovered, but will planeshift at the last moment to escape death.