If the party investigates this house they may disturb the large toadstools sticking up through the broken rubble. These fungi are a spontaneous growth from places where something evil has died and gone to rot; in this case, it was a particularly corrupt villager, drowned when the village was swamped. His half- corroded bones still lie just beneath the surface of the growth.
If anyone starts to sift through the wreckage of the building, they will almost certainly break off the tops of these plants. Immediately spores will drift away and lodge in bits of buildings and bushes. These will slowly mutate into crawling insects 2m long with black carapaces, strongly resembling giant cockroaches. These will attack the party on sight. Their bite contains an acidic venom that is a strong poison. Anyone bitten must throw under their Strength on 4d6. Anyone failing to do so will find that some strange alteration is occuring in their body. They may attempt to save again by throwing under their Health Points on 4d6. If they fail again they will suddenly collapse to the ground, their skin rapidly thickening into a hard carapace, with a thou- sand writhing legs and tentacles bursting through their skin.
Devil Spawn
Rank equivalent: 1st
Roll 2 × d6; this is the number of Devil Spawn created by the party disturbing the toadstools. The Spawn will not approach anyone holding a holy relic, but will attack anyone else. attack 13, Bite (d4, 2 points + venom) AF 3 defence 3 evasion 4 magical defence 5
Health Points:
1st Devil Spawn: 3 4th Devil Spawn: 4 2nd Devil Spawn: 4 5th Devil Spawn: 2 3rd Devil Spawn: 2 6th Devil Spawn: 3
7th Devil Spawn: 3 10th Devil Spawn: 5 8th Devil Spawn: 4 11th Devil Spawn: 3 9th Devil Spawn: 3 12th Devil Spawn: 2
The Devil Spawn (including anyone who has become one) will slowly start to ooze into a brown- ish sludge after ten rounds. They will eventually evaporate, leaving a small smoking depression in the ground where their acid has burnt away the earth. The adventureres will find a moss-covered stair- case leading down the centre of the house. Rubble seems to have been cleared away from the opening to these stairs. At the bottom of the steps is a gran- ite slab with a ring set into it. If this is pulled up, a dripping and utterly dark cellar will be revealed underneath.
If a light is shone down here, the party will be able to see hundreds of earthenware drinking jugs, some with stoppered mouths. There are some ancient chests from some far distant age stacked against the far wall. The musty odour of decay is thick in the air. The cellar is also the lair of a ghoul (Bestiary, p. 79) that feeds on rotting bodies in the nearby graveyard.
Ghoul
Rank equivalent: 1st
attack 17, Shortsword (d8, 3) Armour Factor 0 defence 9 evasion 4 magical defence 7 Health Points 13
Most of the chests contain cloth items that have long disintegrated into dust. However, one of the chests contains 35 ancient golden coins (worth slightly more than the present gold coins) and a gold idol in the shape of a dancing woman. This is magical: if held by a Mystic or Sorcerer, he is able to cast a special first-level spell, Light of Truth, which creates a radiance equivalent to daylight. This light continues to burn even under harsh conditions, such as underwater or in the middle of a storm. The light has a radius of 3m and lasts ten minutes.
6. The Churchyard and the
Church
A damp swamp surrounds the knoll on which the church is situated. A narrow causeway leads across it to the church gate. Ancient, moss-covered grave- stones stick up at all angles from the swamp.
7 It is obvious that something has dug up several of the graves. Fragments of coffin-wood lie strewn nearby, and horrid scraps of bone, broken and gnawed, have been discarded. This is the work of the ghoul (see above).
Some of the other graves seem to swell upwards, like boils about to burst. When the player-charac- ters are half-way across the causeway, these graves will burst open suddenly and the remains of their inhabitants, unfortunate men and women who were buried outside hallowed ground, will rise up as slime-covered skeletons (Bestiary, p. 83). They clutch a variety of corroded weapons.
Skeletons
Rank equivalent: 1st
attack 11 Armour Factor 0 defence 5 evasion 3 magical defence 3
Health Points: Weapon: Skeleton 1: 5 Sword (d8, 4) Skeleton 4: 4 Sword (d8, 4) Skeleton 2: 6 Battleaxe (d8, 6) Skeleton 5: 6 Mace (d6, 4) Skeleton 3: 5 Spear (2d4, 4) Skeleton 6: 4 Dagger (d4, 3)
The skeletons will not go any further than the church gates. If any of them have been defeated the bones will knit together one hour after combat and crawl back into their graves, waiting to ambush any- one else passing down the causeway.
A 3m-high wall surrounds the church. A gate is set into the wall at the end of the causeway. This is locked, but will open if a member of the approach- ing party is carrying a relic. There is a line of bleak yew trees inside the wall: these moan and howl when anyone approaches them, lashing out as if they were animate. Gnarls and boles on their trunks resemble contorted human faces.
The yews are home to tormented human souls, and will attack anyone stepping within the radius of their branches. They have an attack of 12 and a damage rating of (d6, 2). Only the appearance of the hermit (see below) will cease their attacks.