Deep within the Savage Frontier, above The High Forrest lies Deadsnows. A large village located on the northern edge of the Nether Mountains in the Old Delzoun region of Luruar. Once a thriving city, until it was destroyed by the Spellplague. Now it is a ghost town with very few residents, most of which are outlaws on the run, or ones that have found a way to escape to a simi-normal life. The Village is run by “Lord” Bremaer & his mercenary guard. Occupying the old Icespear House renamed to Bremaer Manor.
You awake in pitch darkness, confined to your space. You hear ground move and metal clash in a rhythmic pattern around you. As you begin to shift you realize you are in a box. The sounds get louder & dirt begins to fall upon your face. Loud creaks & clanks against the wood, you suddenly see a bright orange light. The source pulls away to reveal a tall, slender figure. Your eyes begin to focus and you can see this .. twisted smile & deep beady eyes, holding a lantern close to its face. Now you see this pale man, dressed with a long trench coat & bowler hat
“Hell-o! Did I.. disturb you?! Hahaha, Muy Name is Reginald Von Yorick & I got a job for you”
Reginald extends his long bony hand to you and pulls you up from what seems to be your grave.
“There we are! Now if you hadn’t noticed… you’re dead. At Least you were! Until I brought You back… Now ya see I have a little predicament, & I need you to retrieve an item for me. In exchange, I’ll bring ya back to life! IF you return to me by the end of the Blood Moon.
IF you don’t… Ill put ya back where I found ya and YOU can be Asmodeues’s play thang.”
His deep white eyes stare a hole through your soul as he completes his sentence. As he finishes you look around and see you are in a graveyard surrounded by fog & dead trees. As you look around and see almost a mirror image of you & Reginald but you're not you. Reginald grabs his shovel & begins to walk away, his mirror image following his exact step. The two merge and head towards a giant tree in the middle of the cemetery. Spearing his spade into the dirt & hanging the lantern on the shovel’s handle.
“Well… what are yalls waiting for?! Get over here!”
You & the other being move towards Reginald, as you approach him, he gestures with his hand towards the ground. The earth beings to shift to reveal a map of Deadsnows. Worms and grubs move to highlight key areas of interest.
“Now ya see, something was taken from me, and I want it back. I was minding my own business when I went to fetch my keys from my Bag of Holding, and I found this Sword of Life Stealing in its place. I traced my item back to this location, but I don't have time to take care of it myself. So in comes you two fresh pile of bones. Fetch my keys before the end of The Blood Moon, and Ill grant ya another chance at life. IF you refuse, you can get back in that hole & enjoy limbo. So… do we have a deal?”
Accepting his request he shows you some key areas on the map marked by worms.
“So we got a few spots that have high arcane radiation seeping from the walls, leaving traces of magic that muy worms can detect. There’s Breamear Manor, towards the center of the village, the abandoned church on the north, an the “sea o dead” on the south wall. Now go find my keys”
He turns away and plops down in another grave and continues to dig the grave, he hits a body with his spade
“They won’t be needin dis “
He tosses a Bag of Holding out from the grave towards the party, along with Sword of Life Stealing
Hunt for the Keys
The PCs need to find the 3 keys for Reginald. The Bagman
Large aberration, chaotic evil
Armor Class: 15
Hit Points: 168 16d10+80
Speed:
40 ft
Saving Throws: WIS +9, CHA +2
Skills: Perception +7, Stealth +9
Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened
Senses: darkvision 120f ft., passive Perception 13
Languages: Common
Challenge Rating: 10
1/day: Despondent Wail (1/Day).
The bagman unleashes a wretched wail of fear and anguish, making manifest its feelings of loneliness and utter despair at being unable to find its way home. All creatures within 120 feet of the bagman who can hear must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of the bagman for 1 minute. Creatures who failed the saving throw can attempt another saving throw at the end of each of their turns to remove the frightened condition. A creature who successfully saves against this ability can’t be affected by the despondent wail of a bagman for 24 hours.
Alien Mind.
If a creature tries to read the bagman’s thoughts, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. The stunned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Amorphous.
The bagman can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Grappler.
The bagman has advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.
Shadow Step.
As a bonus action, the bagman can teleport along with one creature it is grappling to a space within 30 feet that is not in an area of bright light.
Actions
Multiattack.
The bagman uses its despondent wail if available and then makes three attacks, two with its claws and one with its bite.
Draining Bite.
Melee Weapon Attack: 1d20+9 +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Hit: 16 1d10+2 piercing damage. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution Saving Throw or gain one level of exhaustion. If the target is killed by gaining too many levels of exhaustion they return to life as a bagman after 1d4 days.
Claw.
Melee Weapon Attack: 1d10+2 +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature.
Hit: 14 1d10+2 slashing damage. The target is grappled (escape DC 16). The bagman has two claws, each of which can grapple only one large or smaller target.
Despondent Wail (1/Day).
The bagman unleashes a wretched wail of fear and anguish, making manifest its feelings of loneliness and utter despair at being unable to find its way home. All creatures within 120 feet of the bagman who can hear must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of the bagman for 1 minute. Creatures who failed the saving throw can attempt another saving throw at the end of each of their turns to remove the frightened condition. A creature who successfully saves against this ability can’t be affected by the despondent wail of a bagman for 24 hours.
Egress.
Using its claw as a blade that can cut through time and space, the bagman creates a magical portal that functions in one of two ways. If the portal is created while the bagman is in the “space between spaces”, the realm to which all bags of holding are connected, it leads to a random bag of holding anywhere in the multiverse and its dimensions are determined by the largest opening of that bag. If the portal is created while the bagman is anywhere else,it leads to the “space between spaces” and it must be touching a bag of holding. The portal appears in the bag’s largest opening. In either case, the portal will remain active for 10 seconds after the bagman passes through it, after which it is permanently sealed.
Blackened claws. Gangly arms. A bleak and sinew-laden humanoid shape. The impossibly narrow opening of a small bag stretches wide to reveal a nightmare beyond nightmares. The legs are just as emaciated and overlong as the arms, with hooked toes to match. The head is imperceivable, enshrouded by a tangle of long, thick hair. From within the darkness of where the creature's face should be, two pitons of glowing white light suggest a malicious gaze.
The Bagman has arrived.
Beware the Bagman. Some say “The Bagman” is merely an urban legend. One version of the story tells of an adventurer who sought to escape certain death by abandoning his companions and hiding inside a bag of holding. Later, when he tried to leave the bag, he became lost amid a constantly increasing number of extra dimensional storage spaces. Over time, the strange forces of this magical in-between place transformed the adventurer into a monstrous creature. Now, every night, The Bagman slips out from a random bag of holding. If he doesn't find his home, he drags someone back into the bag with him and leaves behind some trinket from his hidden kingdom of lost junk. Some say that if you speak too loudly over an open bag of holding or whisper "follow my voice" into a magical storage space, space three times, The Bagman will come for you. Whether this is the true genesis of the bagman or not, the fact remains that a bagman is a very real threat, and a fate worse than death awaits those dragged into the realm from which they hail.
“Men”, Not “Man”. The myth of The Bagman would suggest that there is only one “Bagman”, however, the reality is much more sinister. When a bagman comes through a bag of holding into the material world, it does so in an attempt to find its way back to wherever it originally came from. When it is unsuccessful in finding its home, the creature always attempts to drag another sentient creature back with it into the bizarre realm it calls home, the “Space Between Spaces”. If its kidnapping attempt is successful, it will typically abandon the creature before long as it continues its quest to find a way back home. Creatures who don’t make it back to the material world will find themselves slowly twisted into a new bagman, destined to the same nightly ritual of obsessively trying to find their way back to where they came from. Why bagmen kidnap creatures is a mystery. Some scholars posit that it is a twisted reflex. That maybe they recognize their own perverse nature and a part of them hopes to be delivered from their predicament by somebody with their mind still intact. Others believe they do so at the behest of a dark entity, an unknown evil that is responsible for the creation of the first bagman who uses them as a means to gather twisted subordinates for some scheme that is yet to be revealed.
The Space Between Spaces. For ages it was thought that the space inside a bag of holding was a self contained one, completely separate from the rest of the multiverse, but this is not so. All of these spaces are mere fragments of a much larger plane which scholars refer to as the “Space Between Spaces”. Every extra-dimensional space such as that found within a bag of holding or portable hole connects to an isolated fragment of this bizarre demi-plane, but for the bagmen and other creatures native to the “Space Between Spaces”, a bag of holding is not an isolated area, but a gateway to and from the material world. It is unclear if the first magic user to create a bag of holding truly knew what they were doing. Did they know they were linking our world with a nearly empty one governed by monsters? Or perhaps they never stopped to think that there might be something lurking on the
other side.
has been using the village to search for its keys to its home. The 1 key(s) are with Captain Bremaer, The Headless Horseman has 1 key via a head he has taken, The Bagman has the last key (can be dropped in any chest & storage) ,The Moon Rats know where all 3 keys are (if they are interacted with).
Captain Bremaer stays at his manor for the most part, his guard will roam the city. The guards are Sword Wraiths, Lead by Parker McCreek, a Sword Wraith Commander. They appear to be human until they are slain. Captain Bremear is a Loup Garou who has been killing and slowly turning citizens of Deadsnow into Werewolfs. Killing him will end the Lycanthrope curse. He holds
1 Key around his neck. Parker McCreek is tired of the Captians antics, if caught alone he will offer to betray the Captain if he gets to fight a worthy PC, so he may die in battle and finally rest. The Captaain has a treasure horde which an additional key can be found in there if left by the bagman.
The Headless Horseman is on the otherside of the bridge on the outskirts of town. Where Captain Bremaers giant statue is. The key is on a head that the Horseman has attached to its body.
The Bagman has the last key. If encountered it will attack, but it is just looking to find its keys to its home. Its keys can be found where ever the DM sees fit. The PCs can show the Bagman its keys and it will drop its items in return.
Returning the keys
Once returned to Reginalkld he will thank the PCs and open 2 doors. Back to the tomb so the souls may rest, or a rebirth for the soul.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/94600-sword-wraith-commander
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/2407571-sword-wraith-warrior
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17015-skeleton
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17059-wight
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