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The Engima of the Eryx Estate

For the Weird Tales Shadowdark Gamejam 2024, I created a mystery one-shot adventure for Shadowdark. This is a summary of my first time running it. You can check it out on itch!

Characters

  1. Mlex "the M is silent" - Human wizard who runs a detective agency. The rest of the characters are currently employed there. Played by a Shadowdark veteran.
  2. Nitan - Weak but nimble elven thief. Played by a Shadowdark veteran.
  3. Jaakko-Jorma - Brawny but dim dwarven fighter. Played by a Shadowdark newbie. (0 sessions)
  4. Frank "Francis" - Brawny and pious human priest. Played by a Shadowdark newbie. (~2 sessions)

The Evening of Still Streets draws near...

picture of session's table during play

Foreword

Everyone at the table was an experienced roleplayer, but some were new to Shadowdark. This is probably my 3rd mystery adventure that I've ever run.
I set some expectations before we began. Mainly that this is a mystery-adventure and XP is gained from unraveling secrets. I also told the players that this adventure begins during an annual event when priest spells don't work except maybe at the very end of the session. We then made characters and one player still made a priest. I allowed players to assign stat rolls however they liked, gave them 1 weapon + 1 armor (60gp or less) and 3 random gear. We also started at lvl 2, but otherwise I used RAW rules. One player was remote so I just had him roll a random character on Shadowdarklings.

Session Summary

The players were tasked by Robert E. Wardlove to go escort her daughter from a faraway inn back home safely, as her current escort, the Von Crafts (her dead husband's family), have decided to abandon her at the inn. Mr Wardlove is traveling with the party and concerned with the safety of his daughter.
The players arrive at the estate, they listen intently to the intro. Inside the estate they smalltalk with Madam Sterling a bit, but then butler Bloch comes running and informs of the murder. Wardlove refuses to leave before justice is served. The players throw out some jests about bringing Derleth's dead body back as filling their contract, but also try to get an extra reward for solving the murder. Snake-eyes on the reaction roll pisses of Robert, but the players cave in and agree to find the killer. The players tell that no-one is to leave the estate and Robert keeps an eye on all the other NPCs.
All of the inn guests begin blaming eachother, except Sterling who blames the "Shadowfolk" and gives a warning to the players about the full moon rising. Derleth also has a slowly expanding vulture-tattoo on her chest which Sterling notes as a bad omen too. We set a 2 hour timer and I tell the players something bad will happen to her if yhtey don't find a way to stop it.

All of the NPCs are herded into the lobby by Francis and Robert, while the rest of the party start investigating with Derleth's room. Jaakko-Jorma is the one who searches most of the right places, finding Derleth's hidden gold, the secret door behind the wardrobe, Von Craft hankerchief, her room key and the spiked tea. Nitan notices Derleth's black lipstick smears and deduces her cause of death to be strangulation. Mlex casts detect magic and with a successful focus he finds out that a necromantic spell has been cast on Derleth which is very powerful, but reversable with the same scroll, wand or book it was cast from.
The players then investigate Sterlings room, finding out that "Shadowfolk" can only be appeased with their favorite food. They also find another secret and locked door behind her wardrobe. The doors have heavy latches on the other side (DC 18 DEX) and Nitan fails to open them. The party then results to violence with the 18 STR Jaakko-Jorma and the 16 STR Francis ripping the wardrobe from its bolts in the wall. This tears some planks off and makes a small opening. Nitan tries to crawl through it and breaks his crossbow while doing it, but finds a secret passage that leads to all of the lower guest rooms and the pantry.
Inside the pantry they immediately figure out the meathook puzzle since they saw the chains inside the secret passage. I make a slight error here describing the dill, lemon and salmon plate: there isn't supposed to be salmon. It should be with Otis the cat, which Mlex should have seen when he went through the lobby. This didn't break anything but they could have just taken the salmon and not worry about catching Otis.
The players didn't investigate the kitchen area at all, but they did start asking who had access to it. At this point they realized they should start interrogations. In Derleth's room they brought in suspects and interrogated them one by one: Kenneth, Adel, Bloch.

portraits of suspects
Kenneth Von Craft was first brought and he was sulky. He tried lying about falling down the stairs and getting a black eye, but Jaakko-Jorma & Francis intimidated him to start talking sense. I figure Kenneth is a little bit of an entitled crybaby so he told about fighting with Bloch who he thinks was trying to "defile" Derleth, but otherwise he lied a lot. He said his alibi was having supper, even though he was fighting with Bloch at the time of the murder. Then he claimed his brother, Howard, died in a hunting accident but he didin't see, even though he killed him. He also expressed his distaste for Derleth.

Adel Von Craft was much calmer than her son. She revealed that Kenneth was to be married off to Derleth and they were on their way to have Kenneth ask Robert for her hand. She then suspected Bloch and Derleth about having an affair when one of the players revealed that Bloch punched Kenneth. I also had Adel lament about the marriage deal that her late husband struck with Robert. Robert gave too small of a dowry and received far too much in her opinion for wedding Derleth to Howard who was Adel's firstborn. The PDF doesn't say that Adel knows this, but I think she should know it - I'll add it in.

Harold Bloch was the last to be questioned. Bloch caved pretty easily with all of the physical evidence (mainly the spiked tea and Derleth's room key) and the Von Crafts claiming an affair between him and Derleth. He admitted to his plans to steal Derleth's gold and punching Kenneth because he tried to take the key. He also tells of the footsteps he heard when he knocked on Derleth's door. I feel that he would have done this to try and clear his name of murder when there was so much evidence to implicate him. Fortunately the party seemed to believe him and offered him a safe ride away from the Von Crafts.

At some point I reminded players that there is an upper floor and a courtyard. After these 3 interrogations they split up to find more clues. Smart move with less than an hour in the timer if you ask me.
The Strongboys go to the upper levels while the Slenderboys go to the stables. Francis finds Derleth's letter to Kenneth which reveals they had an affair at some point. Francis also searches Bloch's room and the evidence there basically confirms his story. Jaakko-Jorma wastes time trying to break down Edmund's door. I didn't write this into the adventure, but I felt that some rooms should be locked if not all of them. It didn't block their path for long but it did waste their time, which in this adventure was surprisingly suspenseful.
Outside the Slenderboys confirm that Bloch harnessed the horses and notice a missing shovel. They also take note of the red paint. They then go around to Derleth's window and notice the imprint. I describe it as rectangular and show its measurements with my hands. I have no idea how but one of the players (veteran 5E DM who has never played Shadowdark) immediately guesses that it was a coffin. I confirm this and I should have given a luck token too but forgot. (Maybe it was the missing shovel that tipped them off?)

Back upstairs the strongboys have broken into Edmund's study. They notice Berta's portrait, find her jewelery and notice the missing book. At the same Mlex finds the necromancy book in the well with the "detect magic"-spell he has been focusing on successfully during this whole adventure. While Mlex goes to find the strongboys, Nitan venture's into the hedgemaze. It also doesn't say this in the adventure, but I improvised that you need to pass a WIS/INT check to find the open grave. Every time Nitan failed (which was almost all of them) he found a mound of grass and wasted time.
Finally he says he'll try to get out of the maze. He fails but not by a lot so I have him find the open grave. He sneakily checks inside, sees the ghast with the vulture tattoo and skedaddles. He asks if there is any way to get out faster and I suggest that he could try to hack through the hedges with his knives, but it would raise noise with a 50% chance to wake the ghast. He opts to try and successfully hacks half of his way out but wakes the ghast. He decides to try and trap it inside the coffin by jumping on the lid. Even with advantage Nitan fails (-3 STR) and the ghast bursts out with Nitan deftly jumping out of the pit by riding the momentum.
At this point the others are looking for Nitan in the courtyard and hear the ghastly screams. Combat begins in the hedgemaze with Jaakko-Jorma taking a meaty hit. The party returns the damage in kind and kills the ghast with Jaakko-Jorma at 1 HP.
Mlex read the necromancy book prior to the fight and knows what must be done. With 15-30 seconds on the clock they rush inside with the Berta's body and head in tow. Mlex realized that they need the salmon since they deduced from Berta's portrait that its her favorite food. Mlex catches Otis with a DEX 12 check (maybe too low?) and gets the salmon. Technically they maybe would have needed the lemons and dill too but I thought this was enough because at this point the players were excited and I needed to ride this good energy.
Unfortunately the times goes to 0 just as they are rounding the corner into the hallway that leads to Derleth's room. They then fight the Shadowfolk. Since the ghast was dead, I improvised that a spellcasting check is needed to revert the soul-swap spell. I say its DC 14 and that turned out to be a surprisingly suspenseful DC. Initially Mlex botches the ritual even with advantage while the Shadowfolk is eating the salmon. After this the Shadowfolk releases her smoke which takes Mlex to 0 HP. Then Jaakko-Jorma delivers big hits against the Shadowfolk and goads her to the backyard. Nitan tries to drag Mlex out of the deadly cloud but is too weak and instead takes up position outside the smoke. Now that the "Evening of Still Streets" is over it means that Francis can finally cast spells. Francis drags Mlex out of the smoke and heals him with cure wounds. He then charges through the deadly smoke at the Shadowfolk but sadly fails his CON save and falls at its feet. The Shadowfolk then follows Jaakko-Jorma outside and begins draining the life out of him. Soon Jaakko-Jorma falls unconscious but he manages to single-handedly take the vile creature from 30 HP to 12. At this point Mlex had the good idea to break a window to make the smoke dissipate faster. There was only 1 round in the smoke timer (I rolled a 4) and Nitan passes a check to break the window so I rule that the smoke dissipates. This allows Mlex to get closer and try the spell again but he fails. At this point I think he has failed thrice (once with ADV) with all of the results being 13 on the DC 14 INT check. The Shadowfolk misses and fumbles its attacks against Mlex taking 3 damage from the glass window it punched into. Nitan gets a backstab (3d4) because he came from an angle the Shadowfolk was not expecting. Amazingly it takes it down to 1 HP and I describe it falling on its knees and on its last legs. I give Mlex advantage on the ritual again and he finally passes it!
The soul swap is performed and Derleth is saved, but at 1 HP. In the aftermath Jaakko-Jorma with his reduced CON stat (2/12) rolls a hail mary nat 20 to jump up to 1 HP. Sadly Francis the priest of St. Odessius leaves this mortal realm for good with Mlex failing his stabilization roll.

I then deal out XP by going through the "secrets" checklist. I asked confirmations to some of them like who the murderer was and the players had all the right answers. They only missed a couple of 1 XP secrets like the number of past victims. It comes to a total of 15 XP, which feels like a lot, but for a single deadly adventure at lvl 1-3 I think that's just about right. GMs could halve the XP rewards if they want a slower game.

Takeaway

This session was one of the most fun sessions I've ever participated in! The adventure lacks the classic dungeon crawl that Shadowdark is known for, but the feel of the adventure is very much Shadowdark with the timer, horror vibes and exploration focus. Everyone had fun, the players had good things to say about it, it was easy to run, it was fun to run, it had suspenseful do-or-die rolls and just about everything else I look for in an evening of TTRPGs with my friends.
Only now that I'm writing this recap do I begin to see some aspects that could be improved. For an experienced GM I think this is a usable product, but I did stray a few times from the written content. This was intentional design to leave room for GM interpretation, but I think with small additions to the PDF this could be good enough to be run by Shadowdark GMs or GMs that have some experience with running mysteries. Its hard to say when the content is in my head so firmly. I think I'll try to run this again at a later date when I've forgotten some aspects of it. Regardless I think this product is a resounding success when you take into consideration that this was only my 3rd attempt at creating a mystery scenario. The 1st was a murder mystery at the beginning of a campaign which was fun but way too easy and a bit confusing. The 2nd was with ICRPG and that was also fun but way less practical to run even though I spent a lot of time prepping that one too.
Oh and the 2 hour timer felt like it was perfect for 4 players. I was so gleeful when it went down to the wire! The players wasted a lot of time at some points so I think they had a chance to avoid fighting the Shadowfolk. At the beginning I also said that they could use the "time passes" rule from Shadowdark to search rooms thoroughly, but I don't remember that happening.
It did feel a bit like a checklist when they entered the upper rooms since all the guest rooms had mostly identical furnishings. In Kenneth's room I let Francis find Derleth's letter in the trash when they said they were scanning the room and going through all the drawers and so forth. I was feeling like a monotonous back-and-forth would ensue if I insisted he spends 1 round searching each piece of furniture so I gave it to him quickly. I did this for Bloch's and Franks's rooms too. I guess you could argue it was routine for the character after they had done so downstairs already.

The one thing I think that should have happened and completely forgot about was Edmund and Igor joining the fight against the players at the end. They didn't have real weapons so I don't think they would have mattered that much, but they could have further hindered Mlex's attempts to cast the ritual. Maybe some more defined rules for the possible boss fight should be added to the PDF? Like how the ritual should mechanically work and when does Edmund/Igor join the fight. However if a party of non-spellcasters goes on this adventure, they should have a way to still perfrom the ritual. Maybe just have it work if they provide the salmon? I think it added a lot of tension to the final fight when there was a check to cast the ritual.

TLDR; Within the top 5 sessions I've ever been in. It exceeded all of my expectations.
You can check it out on itch!