Vengeance of the Toymaker
This plot is a stand alone adventure which will take place during the travel to Morecia. The twins will have an order that talks about what kind of things have been happening on the road and will point out that there are a few inns along the way that have reported strange spirit activity happening in and around the inns. While the twins want to reach the city as soon as possible the horrible conditions they find these roadside inns in are so bad that the whole group including Helen wants them investigated while they pass them.
Plot points/Scenes
Introduction: While the players travel to the city of Morecia they will come across three different inns that each have had a murder happen in them. All of these inns have one thing in common, they are all owned by the same person Dionysus Goodwin. These inns while they are all owned by the same person have innkeepers that each have a dark secret though it will be difficult to find them due to all of the innkeepers being dead.
As the players go down the path towards the city they will come across different scenes that all look to be strange plays on local legends to do with a particular ghost around the holidays. The group will find toys strung along the road, pieces of the toys are ripped apart with blood speckled along the pathway, these toys seem to leave tracks to where they fell on the road.
First Inn: The players will eventually come up to an inn that has a few tracks leading from it and continuing down the road, the fresh snow falling and beginning to cover up the tracks leading away from it. The inn itself is burned down while the supports of the building are still in the process of burning. The tracks that are leading away from it can be discerned more with Survival checks but there are a few tracks that look to have people running from it, a few limping away with some speckled blood following their tracks, and a few of those tracks will lead to bodies half buried in the snow that tried to make it away but their injuries brought them down a little ways away from the inn.
As the twins examine the scene with the players Abree Simoni will tell her brother that this is like a job that they did a few years ago, where strings of murders happened like this with no signs as to who or what did it but the carnage left behind and the lack of evidence led her to believe that it was a kind of spirit that is doing this once again. Grimaldo Simoni will tell the group that they should keep moving as the signs show that this happened at least a few hours ago if not a few days.
Second Inn: The second inn that the players come to will have been attacked more recently with a few surviving members of the attack still around, though their wounds are lethal and they will not last long without healing magic or aid. The people if they are saved will talk about the attack but none of them will remember it properly, like some kind of mind altering magic is keeping them from remembering anything special about the attacker other than they were the ghost of vengeance.
The inn itself will be standing more than the other one but still fires will be spreading around the inn leaving only a little time before the roof caves in and traps all inside in a blazing inferno, there is a small trapdoor hidden under some rubble that will take the group to the basement of the inn that has a containment chamber inside. Cages, chains on the wall, blood soaked rags piled in the corner with a small bed of straw and as the twins examine everything they will confirm that there was a vampire kept here. Ian and Allix will recognize the signs once they are pointed out or with a good enough check to notice it themselves.
As the twins talk more about the job that they had a few years ago they will remember that each of the victims was hiding something from friends and family that the spirit seemed to be keenly aware of, almost like it had a supernatural sense to detect the worst things that its target has done. The twins will mention that they still need to get Helen safely to the city and will ask the players if they want to continue investigating and try to find this spirit that is killing or if they want to simply defend Helen with them and ignore it as best they can, should the players want to keep investigating they will leave the twins to take Helen to the city and hide her there until the players get there.
Third Inn: The group regardless of if they decided to continue investigating or not will come up to the third inn mid attack, though strangely there is no ghost in sight and only a few deranged toys lighting the building on fire from the outside after they managed to push heavy objects in front of the door. Once it is set aflame the party will see the toys and they will detect the party before defending the inn as those inside try to escape but are unable to as the inn burns. The toys will attack the players and fight to the death as the toymaker watches from the ethereal plane trying to find her next victim or a way to her original target.
As the toys die each one will have a body part woven into its insides with a few arcane symbols and glyphs. These arcane symbols are keeping the toys powered while at the same time binding the soul of the toymakers victim to the toy itself meaning when it dies the soul itself will be destroyed. When the toys are all dispatched the victims inside the inn will either have burned already as the inn is engulfed in flames or the group may be able to save a few of them. These people will tell the story of how they were simply enjoying the time spent in the inn before the innkeeper started talking to himself, like he was seeing someone who nobody else could see and they were egging him on or something. As they continue to tell the story the bells on the wind will begin to pick up once more and scare away the patrons as they can now hear the distant bells growing louder and run off in the direction the group came from.
Toymaker's Appearance: As the group picks a place to rest they will run across a mage traveling to the Sothern Mage Conglomerate in Morecia. They are part of one of the groups of the mage conglomerate, Royal Elitist's is the one they are apart of meaning this mage will be skilled in illusion magic. As they meet the mage he will reveal that he was sent out to inquire about the strange murders that have been happening around this road in particular, if the group shares their knowledge of what they saw the mage will look a little flushed and admit that this is probably more than a single mage can handle and tell them that they probably should go back to the city of Morecia to meet with the leader of his group in order to aid in bringing this creature down for a reward.
As the group either agrees or disagrees it wont matter because during the night more toys will attack the camp seeming to go after the mage in particular. These toys while they will attack the group seem to be controlled by someone nearby and once dead these ones will explode to deal damage and ruin any information the toys could provide. If the mage survives then the toymaker herself will appear before attacking the mage and the group. She will try and tell the group that some of them are not her targets, yet, but if they continue to stand in her way she has no problem turning them into new toys for the naughty children. If they fight then the first player to become hit will be marked by the toymaker and she will begin to follow them sending more and more toys after them.
If the group manages to defeat the toymaker she will explode in a banshee like wail that will harm the players. After this attack she will not attempt to attack them on the road again but some children will be holding toys in the fields right before they get to Morecia that look like the toymaker's toys and she is able to see through all of these toys. The toymaker will appear to the marked or evil party members trying to get them to admit their crimes in her eyes while they look through the city for signs of this evil entity until they meet a small girl, she will be asking around to see if anyone has seen a doll that she claims to have lost in the docks of the city. If the players come up to her she will be able to tell which one has the toymakers mark and ask where they last saw the evil spirit. This kid claims to have been to her workshop and knows how to fully kill this spirit but the players will have to help her get to the toymaker before letting her destroy her.
Meeting Ineus: The players will be invited by the mage that they saved on the road to meet their leader Ineus (if they did not then another mage will approach them claiming that they need to come with him because the group needs to know what happened to their friend and they were last seen with him). As the players venture through the city towards the Gallery of Magic eventually they will meet a few other influential mages in the area including Vivian Decard and Fae Clearwater. These mages will talk the players up and introduce themselves surprised that a non mage would be invited into the gallery of magic during a time like this when the Archmagi is convinced that someone is trying to influence the political election going on in Morecia.
As other mages accept the party into the gallery of magic Vivian Decard will show and have to personally lead the players through the gate as non mages are not allowed within the gallery. Abree Simoni will not come inside with her brother refusing to be caught in a place that others have to approve of her leaving and will elect to stay with Helen continuing to protect her instead. Once the group ventures into the demi-plane containing the school for mages they will be allowed some access to the central spire and the spire controlled by the Royal Elitist's where they will meet Ineus. He will tell them that he was tracking this spirit through faint magical traces that are left behind when the toys are destroyed, he will describe the magic almost like what happens when someone uses scrying or similar divination magic. Talking about this magic he will ask if the players are in need of funds and will offer to pay them some money to venture out with a magical artifact that was made to detect the toymakers magic specifically and follow its trail to her lair to take her down with this kid that they met.
Finding the Toymaker: The players now with their magical dousing rod will be drawn out of the city and towards the docks where the magic will pull them out into the open water, forcing them to get a boat that will take them to the Shaded Haven following the southern coast a few days away from Morecia. Along the way since no toys will be able to venture out into the water the toymaker will not know that the players are coming. With the help of the rod after they dock at the Shaded Haven they will be led to an old mining shaft in the small mountains behind the entrance, inside they will travel a few days underground until they find a small workshop with medical equipment and sewing equipment, a few children that looked to have been worked to death and a few that have their minds gone only to attack the players once they get inside. The workshop will be empty after that as the toymaker has respawned and ventured out to gather more materials to make more toys and more children who are naughty for her workshop.
Eventually the players will find a small leather bound book that appears to be made of human skin, inside this book they will find entries that detail the horrible things she is punishing all who she kills for. Each of the children inside her book the players will see on the floor of the workshop, most of them having only committed small crimes like stealing while others have killed before according to this book. While some of the punishments might seem odd in the beginning of the book the players will find a very very complicated spell that seems to bind the toymaker to the material plane and unable to find peace until all the horrible people of the world have made their penance. Just around the time that the players find the spell the toymaker will come back with her bloody toy bag and attack the players again, once defeated the lair will begin to shake as the earth feels like it is attempting to close the entrance to the workshop off from the outside world. The players will have to race through the workshop and up the path to the outside before it seals them inside forever.
Ritual of the Full Moon: Once the players escape the workshop either by making it out before the cave collapses or by finding another way out they will meet Ineus once again outside and he will be with another mage named Eldar. This mage will be carrying a massive black leather bound book with the symbol of Eldar's Collective on the cover. Ineus will tell the party that the mage with him is able to perform a ritual with his help that should release the spirit to the next world forceably by reversing the binding spell that was originally placed on the toymaker however, doing this will summon her back at full power so the players will have to defend the mages while they complete the ritual to erase her.
The ritual does need a small incantation and a bit of blood from each mage preforming the ritual, the players will also need to give a small amount of blood in order for them to be protected from the ritual, if they do not then if they are touching the toymaker when the ritual is completed then they too will be banished with her. As the ritual continues the players will either have to beat the toymaker one final time so that the magic can wrap and hold her or they will have to hold the toymaker off for a total of 6 rounds before the ritual is completed. This whole time the toymaker will throw a few toys out every round that will go after the mages forcing the players to split their damage. When the toymaker is bound by the ritual she will let out a scream and explode into a shower of bloody snow before piling in a small pile as the moon glows the blood will drain from the snow slowly and once it is done the two mages will almost collapse in exhaustion.
Conclusion: As the mages recover they will tell the group that they have assisted the mages more than they agreed to, both mages will pay them either in some magical items from their personal vaults later or gold right now, depending on what they pick the mages will eventually just teleport back bringing the group along with them. The players though instead of returning with the other mages to the Gallery of Magic they will be teleported to the room where Helen Glittergold and Abree Simoni are staying at the moment. Abree will be concerned that her brother is not with them and now that the players have returned will venture out into the city to find her brother while Helen talks with the players about what she needs help doing in the city so that she can leave as soon as possible, she will tell them everything including that her family is considered the royal family and how the nobles of the city are wrapped up in a vote power grab as her current grandmother the ruler of Morecia is dying so the city needs a new ruler.
First Inn: The players will eventually come up to an inn that has a few tracks leading from it and continuing down the road, the fresh snow falling and beginning to cover up the tracks leading away from it. The inn itself is burned down while the supports of the building are still in the process of burning. The tracks that are leading away from it can be discerned more with Survival checks but there are a few tracks that look to have people running from it, a few limping away with some speckled blood following their tracks, and a few of those tracks will lead to bodies half buried in the snow that tried to make it away but their injuries brought them down a little ways away from the inn.
Second Inn: The second inn that the players come to will have been attacked more recently with a few surviving members of the attack still around, though their wounds are lethal and they will not last long without healing magic or aid. The people if they are saved will talk about the attack but none of them will remember it properly, like some kind of mind altering magic is keeping them from remembering anything special about the attacker other than they were the ghost of vengeance.
Third Inn: The group regardless of if they decided to continue investigating or not will come up to the third inn mid attack, though strangely there is no ghost in sight and only a few deranged toys lighting the building on fire from the outside after they managed to push heavy objects in front of the door. Once it is set aflame the party will see the toys and they will detect the party before defending the inn as those inside try to escape but are unable to as the inn burns. The toys will attack the players and fight to the death as the toymaker watches from the ethereal plane trying to find her next victim or a way to her original target.
Toymaker's Appearance: As the group picks a place to rest they will run across a mage traveling to the Sothern Mage Conglomerate in Morecia. They are part of one of the groups of the mage conglomerate, Royal Elitist's is the one they are apart of meaning this mage will be skilled in illusion magic. As they meet the mage he will reveal that he was sent out to inquire about the strange murders that have been happening around this road in particular, if the group shares their knowledge of what they saw the mage will look a little flushed and admit that this is probably more than a single mage can handle and tell them that they probably should go back to the city of Morecia to meet with the leader of his group in order to aid in bringing this creature down for a reward.
Meeting Ineus: The players will be invited by the mage that they saved on the road to meet their leader Ineus (if they did not then another mage will approach them claiming that they need to come with him because the group needs to know what happened to their friend and they were last seen with him). As the players venture through the city towards the Gallery of Magic eventually they will meet a few other influential mages in the area including Vivian Decard and Fae Clearwater. These mages will talk the players up and introduce themselves surprised that a non mage would be invited into the gallery of magic during a time like this when the Archmagi is convinced that someone is trying to influence the political election going on in Morecia.
Finding the Toymaker: The players now with their magical dousing rod will be drawn out of the city and towards the docks where the magic will pull them out into the open water, forcing them to get a boat that will take them to the Shaded Haven following the southern coast a few days away from Morecia. Along the way since no toys will be able to venture out into the water the toymaker will not know that the players are coming. With the help of the rod after they dock at the Shaded Haven they will be led to an old mining shaft in the small mountains behind the entrance, inside they will travel a few days underground until they find a small workshop with medical equipment and sewing equipment, a few children that looked to have been worked to death and a few that have their minds gone only to attack the players once they get inside. The workshop will be empty after that as the toymaker has respawned and ventured out to gather more materials to make more toys and more children who are naughty for her workshop.
Ritual of the Full Moon: Once the players escape the workshop either by making it out before the cave collapses or by finding another way out they will meet Ineus once again outside and he will be with another mage named Eldar. This mage will be carrying a massive black leather bound book with the symbol of Eldar's Collective on the cover. Ineus will tell the party that the mage with him is able to perform a ritual with his help that should release the spirit to the next world forceably by reversing the binding spell that was originally placed on the toymaker however, doing this will summon her back at full power so the players will have to defend the mages while they complete the ritual to erase her.
Conclusion: As the mages recover they will tell the group that they have assisted the mages more than they agreed to, both mages will pay them either in some magical items from their personal vaults later or gold right now, depending on what they pick the mages will eventually just teleport back bringing the group along with them. The players though instead of returning with the other mages to the Gallery of Magic they will be teleported to the room where Helen Glittergold and Abree Simoni are staying at the moment. Abree will be concerned that her brother is not with them and now that the players have returned will venture out into the city to find her brother while Helen talks with the players about what she needs help doing in the city so that she can leave as soon as possible, she will tell them everything including that her family is considered the royal family and how the nobles of the city are wrapped up in a vote power grab as her current grandmother the ruler of Morecia is dying so the city needs a new ruler.
Themes
The toymaker is a monster however, she is not just a killer. Only hunting those who have done evil deeds, those deeds stand out to her and no magic or charm can hide them from her. As she is immortal even if she is destroyed she will return to keep the world pure one soul at a time and she wants all to know that each evil deed stains their souls and eventually she will come to collect.
Plot type
Hunt: The Toymaker
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