VILLAGE OF EIRIE
by
Ray A. Reaux. Copyrights 1996 - all rights reserved by author. TSR retains all rights to the AD&D and related trademarks.
The following adventure is designed for a party of four to six adventurers, each between 5th or 7th level. The combined levels of the party should not be less than 35 or more than 48. The adventurers should be equipped with no more than two magic items per person, excluding healing potions. These magic items should be comparable to a +2 sword or a +2 ring of protection. This module is the first in what I intended to be a series of three short adventures.Once, the village of Eirie was a peaceful village like many other boring peaceful villages. Settlers from the civilized city states had set up a peaceful farming settlement and traded with the friendly natives. A missionary priest had built a small chapel in which he taught the true gods to the natives. Then one day, Goopsa the necromancer came to town. Disguised as a retired merchant, he bought the village's only inn and became a distinguished citizen of the village. However, his real purpose for coming to thethe village was to find the tomb of the Whistler, a demon entity from the Chaos Pits. Goopsa had found, in the great library of Thurdis an ancient tome of the Elder Race that spoke of a great power trapped in the well of Carkinaxital. Consulting ancient maps, Goopsa found that the village of Eirei was built on the ancient site of Carkinaxital. The power hungry necromancer sought to find and bargain with the trapped entity.
Not soon after Goopsa's arrival, evil fell on the village. At night, dark creatures roamed the village, and people found several unlucky villagers horribly mutilated, as if torn by powerful claws. The missionary turned his skills at combatting this evil, but his skill was limited. Finally, he wrote to the mother church in Aliago for one more skilled at combatting the evil.
Goopsa found the Chamber of the Whistler in the village well. But because a militant priest had answered the missionary's summons, Goopsa hurried his bargaining with the Whistler. He bungled badly and inadvertently set it free, although, he did manage to flee with two of the three wards that had contained the demon before it burst from its bonds.
Sensing the stirring of evil, the militant priest ventured into the well to confront the Whistler. He battled the creature and invoked a powerful spell of banishment. He was somewhat successful in containing the evil but died in the conflagaration of opposing magic that resulted from the clash of good and evil. The magical backwash, amplified by the position of the village in the intersection of two powerful ley lines (invisible fields of magical force criss-crossing the world), mutated into a powerful containment spell.
The containment spell created an extraplanar bubble around the village and its immediate locality. Anyone attempting to walk out of the village will find himself or herself walking back into the village on the other side. The containment bubble physically manifests itself as a chilly fog that enshrouds the village. Visibility in the fog is half normal, even for people with infra-red vision.
Somehow the containment field cut the village adrift from the prime material plane, and the village attached itself to the realm of Ravenloft. However, once a month prime material time (a day of village time), the Village of Eirei drifts back into the prime material plane for one night. From the perspective of people in the village, only a day has passed, whereas to the outside world, a month has passed during that day. If people enter the village, they must leave the village before the dawn hour when the village drifts back into the mists of Ravenloft. The problem is that adventurers cannot leave the village at night until one of two opposing forces is destroyed. The two opposing forces represent the classic good-versus evil scenario. Evil is represented by the Whistler in the Well which was not killed in the battle with the militant priest. The Whistler now controls Goopsa, and with him all the undead village citizenry. Good is represented by the spirit of Kevin of Cambrilia who inhabits the chapel, the only stronghold of goodness in the village.
If the adventurers want to leave the village during the day, they are free to do so. But then they will be climbing the mountains and enduring the dark mysteries of Ravenloft. Eirei is in effect a carriage that takes travelers on what may be a one-way trip to Ravenloft.
Using This Module
The game master should not try to use this module as a dungeon crawl. Things are happening in the village, and Goopsa is a thinking, albeit insane, and plotting antagonist who will be spyiing on, manipulating, and otherwise trying to destroy the adventurers. He sees them as a tool to get one of the wards he wants, but he recognizes that they are a threat he must destroy, and once he gets his prize, he will turn his creatures on them. The spells that Goopsa might have are purposely left to the game master so that he or she can tailor Goopsa to be a challenge for the adventurers.
One of the tasks the adventurers should accomplish is to retrieve at least three of the four Elder Signs. Three wards or the Elder Signs are needed to reseal theWhistler, and thereby break the containment spell and the curse on the village. Two of the wards are in the village. This module suggests that the third ward, the Disc of Time, is held by Altaira the Wampyre, a lord of a micro-realm of Ravenloft (Keep of Clouds). This is a hook to another module, however, if the game master does not want to use another module, then he or she can chose to place the disc in the village. Perhaps in a sarcophagus in the mausoleum, or in the mill. Long before Goopsa came, the fourth ward (all four are needed needed to banish theWhistler from the prime material plane) was lost. It is left to the game master to design an interesting banishing ritual.
The mages of the Elder Race lost the fourth ward, the Cube of Hope, to the Dark Orcs during the Orc Wars. It has passed through numerous hands and is now possed by Xacotal, the Green One, which is another hook to a module.
The main areas pertinent to the scenario, the chapel, the Elder's Inn, and the Well, are layed out for the game master. The actual village itself has 30 additional houses, including a mill house. The mill house is actually mule powered. The houses are simple two or three room dwellings. Goopsa and the bonies will use these abandoned houses to their advantage as hiding places and ambush concealments.
As previously mentioned, the village is built on a junction of two magical ley lines. An optional rule that shows the effect of a ley line junction on magic is to vary the effect of magic in the village. All magic cast in the village has a 25% chance of being amplified by 0-50%, that is the duration, the range, and the area of effects. And all spells cast by mages have a 20% chance of going wild as a wild surge. This makes for some interesting and unpredictable effects. Goopsa has become accustomed to this effect, and his spells are always cast at 25% amplification.
Entering the Village
When the adventurers first enter the village, it will of course be night. The darkness and clammy fog will be oppressive, and the first evidence that they have of being in the village will be when they see or stumble over some tomb stones in the cemetary at the edge of the village. At the same time, they will hear chittering sounds coming from several directions around them. However, if any one approaches or runs toward the sounds, the creatures that make them will retreat. Depending on how keen an adventurer's senses are, they will have a base 20% chance of seeing glimpses of shadowy movements in the fog (apply no perceptual bonuses for infra-vision since the creatures are temperature neutral). The chittering sound comes from Goopsa's bonies (see description that follows), and they will immediately alert Goopsa of any intruders into the village. In the beginning, the bonies will only observe, but as the adventurers get within sight of the chapel which looms out of the fog in front of them, two or three of the bonies will attack. Goopsa is a cautious general and will not commit all of his bonies at once until he has a measure of the adventurer's strength. Besides, Goopsa wants the adventurers to go into the chapel. He wants them to retrieve something he wants very badly. And since neither he nor the bonies can venture into the chapel, he needs the adventurers to do it for him.
The Chapel
The chapel which is on the outskirts of the village and in the center of a small graveyard is dedicated to the Valars and is a safe house. The actual chapel consists of a large worship room with three smaller rooms in the back used as living quarters by the priest. Near the large door to the chapel, a ladder is nailed into the wall. The ladder leads to a trap door in the bell tower. The bell tower is just large enough for three men to stand comfortably.
Within the gloomy chapel, the adventurers will see a single man lying near the altar. However, when the adventurers come up to the person, they will see that the man is long dead. These are the last remains of Kevin of Cambrilla. Lying on the floor before him is a longsword (+2), a small device, and a ruck sack. The device is a plumb bob hanging on a tripod suspended over a compass like plate. The plate has a groove around its edge with dry encrusted blood. It is a crude, magical pointing device which Kevin had used to track down Goopsa. It is powered by pouring blood (human) onto the plate and concentrating on the target. In the rucksack are some dessicated foodstuff, a yellow ceramic triangle enscribed with some eldritch symbols, and a leather bound book. The incredibly tough ceramic (stronger than steel) is the Triangle of Life, Death, and Rebirth, one of the Elder wards used to imprison the Whistler in the Well. Kevin wrestled the ward from Goopsa during their final confrontation.
The leather bound book is a diary written by Kevin of Cambrilia in the 265th Year of the Awakening, i.e., 75 years ago. It details how Kevin had chased Goopsa the Necromancer for 30 years, until finally they came to the village of Eirei. Goopsa had killed Kevin's beloved and his family. If the book is opened, a faded parchment will fall out of the book. It holds crude drawings of the three elder signs. Also on the open page of the book, Kevin has written:
One of the three rooms at the back of the chapel is outfitted as a kitchen. It has a secret trap door hidden in a false charcoal stove which opens into a crawl tunnel under the chapel. The missionaries built the secret tunnel as an escape route just in case unfriendly natives raided the village. The crawl tunnel leads to a mausoleum 130 feet away from the chapel. The mausoleum is closed off with a huge boulder and is chained from the outside. However, at the back of the mausoleum, a crude tunnel has been dug out. It connects to an underground zig-zag of tunnels dug by the bonies. These tunnels are where the bonies sleep during the day. Note that the bonies can be active during the day, although they prefer to "sleep" like rats in the tunnels. The zig-zag of tunnels eventually break out of a hill near the Elder's Inn. The tunnel exit is hard to find from the outside since it is hidden behind bushes and an outhouse.
The second room is the missionary priest's bedroom. It is asturely furnished with a cot, a small table, a meditation kneeling bench, and a wash bowl. Hanging from pegs in the wall are several garments.
The third room is also furnished like a bedroom. However, it has no personal gear other than a saddle, two saddle bags, and a mud splattered woolen cloak hanging from a wall peg. The saddle bags belonged to the militant priest that was sent by the holy mother church in Aliago to battle Goopsa's evil. They contain spare clothing and trail gear such as fire starter and small pan. Also in one of the bags are two ceramic bottles which hold Healing Potions.
While the adventurers are in the chapel, they will see hear and signs of some creatures roaming around outside the chapel. Goopsa or the bonies cannot enter the chapel on their own. They can enter the chapel, however, if anyone in the chapel is fool enough to invited them in. Knowing this, Goopsa will frequently have a bonie knock on the chapel door, hoping someone inside will slip up and be foolish enough to invite them in, in which case all the bonies, followed by Goopsa at a safe distance, will rush in. If no one inside invites them in, but someone comes to open the door, the bonie will have retreated back into the fog, leaving the adventurer to wonder if the noise was a trick of the wind or of his imagination.
When the adventurers leave the chapel, they will be attacked by the bonies who want the elder sign. Goopsa is somewhat of a hesitant general and will gage the strength of his opponents first by sending against them two bonies for each person in the party. However, if he sees that his bonies are not getting what he wants, and after he has estimated the strengths and weaknesses of the adventurers, he will adjust his plans accordingly and will send his remaining creatures. And he has a lot of bonies (80 to start with). If the adventurers flee to the chapel, the bonies will encircle the chapel and wait in the fog just outside visual range until they come out or until dawn comes.
With the coming of dawn, the bonies will disappear back into their underground tunnels.
Goopsa built a secret passage to an underground laboratory.from the tavern keeper's bedroom. Currently, the clock is stopped at the 3 o'clock position. Moving the face of the clock on the mantle counter-clockwise back to the 12 o'clock position will open a secret door on the right side of the fire place. Behind the door is a ladder leading down into the a short corridor, and at the end of the short corridor is a locked door. The door has a simple poison blade trap (1-6 pts. damage, strikes as 3rd level fighter, save versus poison at +2, the poison does 3d6 points of damage).
Within the laboratory is a huge tub, several acid batteries, three fluid-filled jars with rat brain floating in them, a large barrel of vinegar, several other odd tools and implements, and a bookshelf with books on anatomy, herbalogy, etc. Buried in the hard packed loam that makes up the room's floor is a guardian flesh golem. The 7 feet tall flesh golem will burst out of the ground to attack any people other than Goopsa who enters the room. The golem will sense other people's presence by vibrations on the floor. The golem has a 60% chance of surprising its opponents, in which case, it will get a free attack and automatically win initiative on its second attack.
Carved into the wall above the book shelves is a 2 feet by 3 feet niche. The niche is not visible to anyone who stands less than 7 feet tall. Inside the niche is a locked flat strong box, and in it are two items of the Elder Race. One is an intricately made two-feet diameter spinning wheel made of ivory and polished glass. The wheel has a folding tripod base. When spun, the device generates color lights in direct opposition to the colored lights generated by the Whistler. It can actually counter the Whistler's maddening light power. It can also fascinate light, electricity, or fire-based creatures such as will-o-wisps and fire elemnetals, but not the Whistler. It has no effect on other creatures.
The other item is a book written in the Elder Race's arcane tongue. In the book which Goopsa stoled from the library of Aliago is a small paragraph that has been pain-stakingly translated. The translation reads:
A single building remains of the Elder Race's settlement of Carkinaxital. The building is easily recognizable from the fairly simple peasant homes of the villagers. It is star-shaped and constructed of blue stone blocksthat absorb the sunlight during the day. It rests on five stone columns . The bottom of the upraised building is 10 feet above the ground, and the villagers had built a wooden stairs that lead up to the belly of the building. The Blue House, as the villagers have named it, has been used as the mayors hall for over 50 years.
The door in the building's belly opens like a hatch into the center of a pentagon-shaped room which has an axis of 40 feet. Amazingly enough, the inside of the building is at a comfortable 70 F, even though the night air outside is chilly. Inside the room is a large oaken desk and three plush arm chairs. Centered in each of the five wals is a door, and behind each door is a triangular room that is 30 feet long and 25 feet wide at its base.
The villagers used Room 1 of the Blue House as the library of genealogy and legal documents. This room has crude wooden shelves that hold parchment and books recording birthrights and deeds. The documents are scattered across the floor as if they had been carelessly searched,. Dust chokes the room, indicating that it has been some time since someone has last been here.
Room 2 was used by the mayor as a bedroom. The last mayor obviously loved comfort since the room is furnished with a plush bed and a wardrobe. In the base of the wardrobe is a secret compartment which can be opened by turning clock-wise one of the coat hooks in the back of the wardrobe. The compartment holds a sack of 250 gold pieces, a large ruby and gold necklace, a pearl bracelet, and a gold and pearl amulet. Also inside the compartment are three jars of Kheotum's ointments.
Room 3 was a child's room. It holds a bunk bed, a chest full of children's clothing, and a second chest full of wooden toys.
Room 4 was used as an official guest room. Like the mayor's room, this room is furnished with a plush bed and a wardrobe.
Room 5 was originally locked, but the door has been smashed in. Inside are 240 bags of rice in 50 pound sacks, and a smashed chest. Inside the chest are some tarnished silver coins and a silver mug. The room was originally used by the villagers as a "bank", and the bags of rice are part of the villagers' taxes.
The Well In the middle of the village square is a fairly large well with a seven feet diameter shaft. A wooden oak door once covered the well, but it looks like it has been ripped off its hinges by an immense force. A frame and a pulley are suspended over the well. The well has a 40 feet drop into a water filled cistern. The cistern is actually 25 feet in diameter, and the water is waist high.
Carved into the wall, five feet above the water level, is a four feet diameter tunnel. Twenty feet back, the tunnel leads into another chamber, this one 30 feet in diameter. A large broken statue (once a stone golem) partially blocks the entrance into the chamber, but the rubble can be easily crawled over. A burnt out torch lies on the floor, and a triangle of molten silver poured into grooves is inscribed in the floor. At the apexs of the triangle are small, four inches triangle, diamond, and circle shaped impressions. These are the sockets for the Elder Signs.
Three wards or the Elder Signs are needed to reseal theWhistler, and thereby break the containment spell and the curse on the village. The first ward, the Triangle of Life, Death, and Rebirth, is in Kevin's pack in the chapel. Goopsa has the second ward, the Diamond of Sorrow. The third ward, the Disc of Time, is held by Altaira the Wampyre, a lord of a micro-realm of Ravenloft (Keep of Clouds).
Although three wards will bind the creature, possession of all four wards, including the Cube of Hope is needed to banish theWhistler from the prime material plane. The fourth ward has passed through numerous hands and is now possed by Xacotal, the Green One, a hook for a third module.
At the farthest distance from the entrance, a multicolored swirled material paves the floor. The multicolored swirl is actually the Whistler in the Well in a semi-dormant phase. It will come awake if stepped on, if magic is used in the chamber, or if someone makes a loud noise and will attack anyone who disturbs its alien rest.
Goopsa knows that one of the Elder Signs is still in the chapel, but he cannot venture in to retrieve it. If he gets the upper hand in combat, he may try to bully the adventurers to retrieve it for him. However, when he does so, he will keep at least half of the party as hostages.
Goopsa wants to escape from the village, and if the adventurers try very carefully, they may be able to bargain with the necromancer to assist each other in trying to escape. However, Goopsa's sanity has been steadily eroded by the centuries during which he spent imprisoned in Eirie, in close proximity to the Whistler. His insanity is very dangerous since it makes him very unpredictable and obsessively cunning.
Goopsa looks very much like a sickly-grey haggard human. Parts of his skin have begun to decay, giving him the look and smell of a leper in advancing stages of disease. He still retains some of his vanity and wears concealing, loose-fitting clothing. He wears a dark cowled cape and speaks with a dry rasping affected voice. As an undead, Goopsa is immune to sleep, hold person, and Charm spells, as well as poison and gas attacks. He is also vulnerable only to silver, blessed, or magical weapons.
Bonies attack in packs and are tenacious creatures. They have a simple tactic: overwhelm, pull-down, and gnaw. When attacking, they will make a chittering sound and will gnash their teeth. Although prepared defenders with weapons usually get initiative since they have longer weapons, once a bony gets past the defender's guard, i.e., has struck the defender, the bony will have the advantage and will get initiative until the defender again hits the creature. A defender will only be able to guard (gain initiative with weapon) against three creatures in front. Once one bony has gotten past a defender's weapon, all the attacking bonies will have the advantage. They will drag the person down so that they can gnaw away at the person's vulnerable parts. Given the chance, a bony will gnaw a limb off. When a person is dragged down, he will fight at a penalty of -3 on his attack rolls.
Goopsa has 6 pig-eyes. Three are centaur-like in that he has grafted the upper torsos of ogres and a black onto horse bodies. He has also created two minotaur-like creatures by grafting the torso of oxen to the lower bodies of ogres. Like most undeads, pig-eyes are immune to Sleep, Hold Person, and Charm spells.
The pig-eyes have a simple method of fighting. They will bash, smash, and crush everything that Goopsa commands them to destroy. Their long reach generally puts them on equal terms with armed opponents for initiative. The characteristics unique to each type of pig-eye are listed below.
| Pig-Eye | Attacks | Damage | Special Attacks | |
| 2 centaur-ogres | hoof/hoof/fist | d3/d3/2d6 | none | |
| centaur-bear | hoof/hoof/claw/claw/bite | d3/d3/d3/d3/d6 | crushing hug (2d4) | |
| 2 minotaurs | fst/fist | d6/d6 | gore for 2d4 | |
| lion-ogre | claw/claw/fist | d4/d4/2d6 | rake (d4/d4) |
The Whistler is a multicolored monstrosity that looks like a giant five feet amoeba. It's kaleidoscopic lights give it an unearthly and mesmerizing beauty. It has thousands of small mouths growing all over its body, and these mouths are the source of the whistling. The whistling and the pulsating lights that emanate from the creature can drive a man insane, i.e., as if under the confusion spell. Any person who is within 20' of this creature (hearing and sight range) has to make a saving throw versus spell or suffer insanity. If the person only sees or only hears the creature, he makes the saving throw against spell at a +3 advantage.
Although intelligent, the Whistler has a totally alien intellect which makes its actions impossible to predict. Without the wards, it is impossible to communicate with the creature. The Whistler is an elemental of chaos and pure wild magic. Since it is wild magic incarnate, the ordinary laws of magic does not apply to the creature. Its very nature is to disrupt the laws of magic such that the physics of magic no longer work. In fact, given time, it could disrupt the very fabric of existence and destrioy the Arch of Now.
Magic cannot hurt the Whistler. Any magic directed against the creature or cast within 50 feet of it is reflected back against its caster as wild magic (see Tome of Magic's Wild Surge Table, but all effects are targeted on the caster and do not adversely effect the Whistler). The Whistler is only vulnerable to enchanted weapons of +2 or better; however magic weapons that strike the creature has to save versus disintegration or be destroyed in a Wild Surge as its magical energy is released. Although the Whistler can be hurt and its energy form can be temporarily dissipated, the Whistler cannot be permanently destroyed. If reduced to 0 hit points, the Whistler will go to the nearest magic source (spell or magical devices) and absorb its magical energy, using it to rebuilts its energy form. For each spell level cast within 30 yards of it, the Whistler gains a d8 worth of hit points. For each plus of a weapon or magical armor, it gains a d8 worth of hit ppoints. The effects of other magic items can be estimated by comparing equivalent worth). The Whistler can also generate a Wildzone once a day, and two Wildstrikes a day.