Author: Chris Stevens

Decomposing animals walk the night, and human bodies stir in their graves.   Yes, this is an adventure involving undead, but their target is not who you expect…

The heroes are traveling across the land when they come to a farm.  This means that they are getting close to the town of Haviston, and will likely arrive there tomorrow.  Whether the heroes take shelter at the farm (which they are welcome to) or they press on, they will notice a dead cow entangled in a wooden fence.

Tracks indicate that the animal walked from the middle of the farm’s pasture (in a straight line) to it’s edge, and then apparently got stuck in the fence and died.  However, the tracks are fresh (the cow walked there last night), but the body looks as though it has been decomposing for at least a week.  Clever characters should notice this.  If they don’t, throw them a bone.

If the character’s don’t say anything to the farmer, he’ll mention that he has to get rid of that cow because it’s near the fence where people walk.  He didn’t care that it was in the middle of the pasture, but since “some stupid kids like to pull pranks around here,” he has to get rid of it.  He thinks some kids drug the carcass over to the fence for fun, but the heroes should know that those tracks were genuine.

What’s happening?

Last night, every dead animal or person (within 12 miles of the town of Haviston) rose in the middle of the night, and began walking toward it.  All dead creatures that were not hindered by obstacles walked in that direction.  Sometimes, obstacles will be walked around, while other times the dead creature just gets stuck.  Bodies buried in graves are not strong enough to break out, and they simply scratch at their coffin (or tomb).  Dead rats, birds, dogs, goats, cows, boars and (you name it), whether they were freshly killed or had decomposed to a skeleton, will get up in the middle of the night to begin their journey.  They stop walking just before dawn.

The dead cow that seems to have gotten stuck in the fence – really did get stuck in the fence.  Tonight, it (as well as any other dead creature in the area) will rise again to continue its journey.  This time around the dead cow will break free of the fence and continue on.

With so many dead creatures converging on Haviston, the entire town had awoken last night to destroy these creatures.  None of the undead outright attacked anyone until they were attacked, and only then the undead really only attacked haphazardly.  They are simply driven to Haviston, and don’t put up much of a fight.  Amazingly, no one in the town was hurt by these creatures, but the townspeople don’t know that (they’ll assume that some people were hurt).

The townsfolk have sent out riders to the nearest major towns in the region to ask for help, but they still have a few days’ ride.  The farm that the PCs are staying at has yet to hear word of the incident (and they simply didn’t notice dead creatures walking in the middle of the night).

Getting the PCs to Haviston

For the purpose of moving things along, Haviston was the next major town that the PCs were headed to (or through), so there should be no real delay in getting them there.  Also, it’s quite apparent that the dead cow was moving in a straight line to Haviston, so there’s no question as to where the PCs should go.

While en route, the PCs see more and more dead woodland animals strewn about the road and fields.  Most of them seem to have been walking, and then simply stopped in their tracks.  All creatures seem to be moving in a straight line toward Haviston.

As the PCs get closer to Haviston, they run into more and more farmers, ranchers, and other residents.  They all saw or heard of the incident last night, and simply can’t explain it.

Arriving in Haviston

The PCs arrive in Haviston in the evening, and are met with townsfolk trying to recover from last night’s ordeal.  At this point, teams of “clean-up crews” are finishing their sweep of the town, collecting dead creatures and sending them to the giant bonfire (which has been going for most of the day).  The PCs are welcomed into the town as individuals that might be able to help, and are directed to a funeral where the mayor is paying his respects.

The mayor is attending a funeral for the Francis family.  The day after such an unusual night of the dead walking is not the best time for a funeral, but the family has its reason.  Two weeks ago, the oldest of three children died in a barn fire.  It was deemed an accident, and the family moved on.  Yesterday, the youngest of the remaining children drowned in the creek – that is who the funeral is for.  Today is not the ideal time for a funeral, but the father (Samuel Francis) does not want to delay the event, as the tragedy of losing two of his three children needs to be put to rest.  This occurrence of the dead walking might last for several nights, and he doesn’t want to prolong the pain of waiting for a funeral.  He just wants to be done with it.  The remaining child, an eleven-year old girl, simply doesn’t want to talk about her dead siblings.  If pressed, she’ll say they could never be replaced, and misses them dearly.

The Francis family is located in the heart of the town in a decent size house, surrounded by a fence of shrubs and trees.  They’re definitely well-off.  Yes, they were harassed by dead creatures as much as others, or so they say.  In actuality, they were harassed much more (but in the chaos of the event, no one noticed).

No one can say with any certainty of what happened, other than any creature that was dead, either in the city or outlying region, rose and came to the town.  Once there, they were destroyed.  Rats, dogs, birds, and you name it simply walked toward the town.  In the tombs of the cemetery, some of the bodies managed to get out of the coffins, but could not get out of the tombs (not strong enough).

That Night

If the PC’s don’t mention it, someone will suggest that the PCs stick around in case the event occurs again.  Assuming the PCs stick around, they’ll see things indeed.

Around midnight, they’ll see that more dead animals walk into the town, all headed to the town’s center.  If anyone gets too close to one of them, they will snap at that person, but otherwise keep moving.  Assuming the PCs follow a walking dead to see where it goes, it will take them to the Francis’ estate.  It will try to go through the shrubbery/tree fence, and then will walk around to find a driveway.  Once inside the Francis estate (the garden), the PCs will see Samuel Francis and some of his servants trying to destroy several dead creatures.  There definitely seems to be a larger collection of dead here than what’s out on the street, and several of them are trying to get into the house.

At that moment, one of the PCs notices a definite change in the dead’s behavior.  Upon the PCs arrival, the dead turn to face the PCs and attack.  There are a lot of undead here, and they are mostly animals.  I suggest you use normal stats for zombies and skeletons, even though the undead are a mix of small to large-sized creatures.  There’s even a creature that has climbed the side of the house and is trying to get in through a window (the window to the bedroom of the only remaining child in the family).

As the fight winds down, screams can be heard inside the house.  Inside the child’s room, the mother is fighting a dead zombie wolf, and is taking some injuries.  In the bed appears to be the remaining daughter, still sleeping.  After the wolf is killed, the daughter still won’t wake up for several minutes.  At that point, most of the undead in and around the house have been killed.  In fact, when the daughter finally wakes up, all undead in/around the town fall to the ground.

An Exorcism!

At some point, the PCs need to figure out that the girl is possessed.  If there is a priest or druid in the group, it shouldn’t be too hard.  Of course, killing the girl will also kill the demon, but civilized heroes should try for the exorcism, first.  Try to make it so that the exorcism needs to be done the next day, instead of that night.  This will give the family time to figure out that the PCs are up to something, and try to escape with their last remaining child.  Hey, they know that a lot of times, an exorcism isn’t successful, and the possessed individual might die in the process – so, they will try to avoid the exorcism and escape.  This is simply an excuse for the PC’s to get into a chase.

If the PC’s don’t have someone that can perform an exorcism, a local priest can do it, but will need the help of the PCs.  If there are no rules for such an encounter, a few simple Faith, Spirit, or Wisdom rolls can do the trick.  Regardless of how well the exorcism goes, the demon is thrust out of the body and breaks through to the roof.  At this point, it is partially corporeal, merely only putting a crack in the ceiling.  At the conclusion of the exorcism, the priest will know that the demon is close, weak, and will soon be becoming fully corporeal (able to kill).

The Final Fight

The demon was cast out of the body, and thrust out to the top of the house.  On this particular house, the roof is actually flat.  It is an area for the family to have tea parties, and to otherwise be able to look down upon the rest of the town.  It’s a decent-sized area for an encounter, in the shape of a “T.”  There’s a few obstacles up here (a statue, table, some chairs, etc.).  The demon is up here, phasing in and out of existence.  In one moment, the demon is up here trying to steady himself against the statue, then he disappears.  He reappears a few moments later a few squares away, leaning against the railing, still visibly weak.  He looks very much like a black wraith, though with more physical substance.

After he appears for the second time, he disappears again.  It’s a very tense few moments as the PCs wonder where he’ll appear next.  Before that happens, all of the characters hear the whispers of the demon, and the priest (or someone) feels like the demon is breathing down his neck.  They all hear:

“You freed me from my prison.  For that, I will kill you swiftly.”

Make sure your demon has really cool powers, and is a pretty difficult foe.  At the end of the fight, when the demon is laying there obviously dead or dying, he spats out a few last words:

“I welcome death… it is so much sweeter than that deep… dark… prison.  Trapped for… so long…  I only wish my dead could have finished her… us.”

The Real Story

The demon simply possessed the wrong girl.  She is so much more evil than the demon – that he’s simply been trapped in her soul for years – nothing to corrupt, and no one to ruin.  Just a deep, dark, silent prison.  She burned her older sister in the barn because she was curious what fire would do to hair, and she drowned her younger brother in the creek simply because, well, no reason, really.  She just wanted to.  The demon, after so many years, finally decided to end his life by calling all the dead in the region to come kill her.  Better to be dead, than in her prison.  He can only do this when she is sleeping.

And Then…

After the fight with the demon, have the PCs find the parents dead in the house.  The mom has been strangled by rope, and the dad has been stabbed repeatedly.  Of course, the girl is nowhere to be found…