Salt in the Wound

Terror and Turmoil in the Frozen North

No outsiders stay for long in Vygrebnaya, but our adventurers aren’t offered that choice. By will or by whim they’ve been stranded in this quietly suffering town. Will they rally the village together or watch out for their own skins? And most importantly, will they find the true force behind Vygrebnaya’s misfortune before it’s too late?

A 2-3 session adventure for 1st-3rd level characters by Sean Hendrickson

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This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for DungeonSample Masters Guild. file All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Sean Hendrickson and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.

SALT IN THE WOUND 1 Table of Contents Pronunciation Guide 2 Introduction The following is a short list of pronunciations for 2 Abbreviations locations and names used in this document: 2 Pronunciation Guide 2 Using This Adventure Vygrebnaya vuh-greeb-NY-uh 3 Background 4 Plot Hooks Tatka Olya TAHT-kuh OHL-yuh 4 Vygrebnaya Jakob Mining Co. YEAH-cob 5 Notable Characters Peytr Jakob PEE-ter YEAH-cob 5 Town Description Anna Petrovna AH-nah peh-TROVE-nuh 13 Encounter Locations Semyon Ivanovitch SEHM-yahn ee-VAHN-oh-vitch 13 Whitestain Mine 15 The Lonewood Natalia Ivanovna nuh-TAHL-yuh EE-vah-NOHV-nuh 17 The Marauder's Camp gree-GORE-ee 18 The Spider's Parlour Witness Grigori 20 Developments Sophia Lebidovna LEH-bih-DOHV-nuh 20 The Trial Lucia Loveless loo-CHEE-uh 21 A Hero's Feast Haemir HAY-meer 22 A Light in the Dark 22 Conclusion Eorla ee-YOR-luh Bruenor Hjalstead BROO-nor hee-ALL-sted Introduction Alkonost AHL-kuh-nust This document is both a location setting and a Gamayun guh-MY-yoon short adventure intended for use with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. To use this adventure, you will need the Player's Handbook, the Using This Adventure 's Guide and the Monster Salt in the Wound is an introductory adventure Manual. All original magic item descriptions are designed for a party of 3-5 Level 1 characters. included in sidebars within the adventure and The locations and details of Vygrebnaya can be reference maps of the described locations can be inserted anywhere in an ongoing campaign or found at the end of this document. alternate setting by renaming nearby locations and factions such as the Lonewood or the Abbreviations Watchers. Whether you plan to begin your adventures in the least desirable port in the The following abbreviations are used in this north or you simply want to add a winter un- document: wonderland to your adventurer's travels, the next section will detail possible reasons for the PHB Player's Handbook player's arrival. DMG Dungeon Master's Guide After arriving in Vygrebnaya and pursuing some of the work available there, the players MM may be visited by members of the community or DC Difficulty Class gather rumors on their own pointing them AC Armor Class towards the camp of the Lonewood Marauders and the recovery of the Draughts of Ego. gp Gold piece Depending on the player's actions, they may find spSampleSilver piece themselves embroiled in a witch-hunt,file serving cp Copper piece Tatka Olya's causes, or facing a twisted populace under the hag's control.

SALT IN THE WOUND 2 Background Frustrated by their place and upbringing, several disaffected youths of Vygrebnaya have styled No outsiders stay for long in Vygrebnaya. The themselves as the Lonewood Marauders and washed-up trade stop has been servicing absconded to the nearby wood, not only to merchant sloops, legitimate and otherwise, for harass travelers but also to ransom Tatka Olya's generations. But few to none of the sailors who latest batch of brews which they stole for their brave the dangerous waters of the frozen north perceived value. Long-since fooled by the hag's take the normally welcome opportunity to rest on plot the townsfolk are now in crisis, unable to shore. Something about the village sends drink their 'untreated' well water. Enraged by the pinpricks up their spines. The 'something' bandit's audacity, Olya has enticed even fouler prefers it that way. beings into the Lonewood to hunt them down. Long troubled by a high infant mortality rate, The quiet coastal life of Vygrebnaya plods on the hardy folk of Vygrebnaya counted themselves and on, while just beneath its surface a vile web blessed when their wizened midwife Tatka Olya of dark magics spreads ever deeper into its discovered the culprit: water contamination. The people. Whitestain Mine had been a boon to the local economy for years, but Olya claimed their troubles stemmed from the mine's activities polluting the groundwater and volunteered to put her modicum of herb lore to work in purifying the well. Her efforts cemented her place as a leader and paragon of the remote village. Unbeknownst to the village folk, the Tatka Olya they now revered was not the kindly medicine-woman they had grown up with but a being that had traversed the nearby Lonewood from its intersection with the Unseelie realm of the Fey. Smelling an opportunity for a truly long-term work of wickedness, a green hag murdered and stole the midwife's persona and now masquerades as the village's savior. While the hag has been midwife to the village since, she in turn has taken a tithe of all children born for her own purposes by claiming they were stillbirths and perpetuated her sham of alchemy by 'treating' the local well with a concoction brewed to turn the villagers against each other. It was going terribly well, until just two weeks ago. Sample file

SALT IN THE WOUND 3 Plot Hooks Vygrebnaya While most travelers leave the village as soon as From the water this village more closely they're able, our poor adventurers find resembles a barnacle of half-moldered wood themselves trapped here, either by coincidence resisting the lashing ocean waves than any sort or by choice. Below are some possible reasons of habitable settlement. Vygrebnaya is a tumble for their arrival and continued stay in of driftwood buildings clinging to steep, rocky Vygrebnaya. shelves leading down to its aged and weathered Paying The Toll: Unprepared for banditry this docks, its oil lanterns perpetually swinging in close to a settlement you were accosted by the the coastal winds. Lonewood Marauders on your way through the Flanked by a short sand-and-pebble beach on wood, leaving your party bereft of coin and one end and a crude palisade on the other, without transportation. Knowing this region is there's little room for sprawl in the village. dangerous on foot you've made your way quickly Several of the older and larger buildings have to Vygrebnaya, having heard of a Watcher rough-hewn stone walls, but most are built of outpost there that may be able to aid you in the pale larches from the nearby Lonewood and regaining your belongings. lashed together with oiled cables of rope. A wan, Mine Your Own Business: Jakob Mining Co. orange flicker marks the local lighthouse built is in need of investigators. Two of their workers into the nearby rocky cliffs and a dusting of were reported missing three weeks' past and midwinter snow rests on the shingles of most none of their employees are willing to enter the buildings and across the open patches of ground mines again until they can prove the site is safe. where tenacious grasses have taken root. In a desperate bid for aid, the company has Vygrebnaya boasts a population of roughly 50 contracted your group to investigate and secure permanent residents and a scattering from the worksite. nearby farmsteads, the majority of which are Delivery Service: A criminal organization has human alongside a minority of dwarves and been expecting a trade with Captain Lucia triton. Named characters are human unless Loveless for a recently stolen artifact but it noted otherwise, but the demographics of the seems the middleman Fin has gone missing. village can be changed to adapt to your world or Concerned for their investment and erstwhile setting. employee, the crime syndicate has sent your team to investigate and confirm that the trade is still on, or to retrieve the item yourselves. Catch of the Day: The shoals of the northern coast were more treacherous than you anticipated and the howling gale threw you and your crew in the night. Luckily you were spared the jagged rocks that mark the shore here, and you have hazy memories of an old fisher-woman dragging you from the surf. You and your remaining party come to in a small village inn. unfortunately it seems your short-lived coma has worked up quite the bill: a full hundred gold pieces.Sample file

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