Plot Twist! Fixing the Book of the Raven

So I’ve started running my group through the Candlekeep Mysteries sequentially, fashioning them as a newly inaugurated team of librarians.  We have recently reached the 3rd adventure, The Book of the Raven.  It is terrible.

Now it’s individual bits are not all terrible, they simply do not come together to form a cohesive whole.  There is a book on the Vistani, a ghost girl in the form of a raven, a haunted chalet, and a kindness of wereravens.  None of these things go together. Literally. The wereravens do not know the raven ghost girl.  The ghosts in the chalet have nothing to do with the story of the ravens.  The ravens have a mission to destroy evil magical items, but there are no evil items in the story that you must gather.  The final encounter is with an undead guy in the Shadowfell who has nothing to do with the rest of the story.  To make matters worse, the adventure gives you all sorts of story bits and no way to communicate them to the players, as the people that could communicate them are either mute or dead.  

It is the worst.

So, I’ve decided to try and fix it.  To do so, I’ve taken the character of the Baroness and made her the unifying thread of the story.  She is now the cause of the families unraveling, the ghostly disruption of the wereravens, the stealing of the raven-girl's body, and a host of other unpleasant bits.  But for her to work as an antagonist, we need her full backstory.  So here we go...

The Baroness lived in the manor, as stated in the adventure.  She hated it there, and only moved under protest. She knew some old hex magic and thought she could cast a curse that would make the Baron leave the chalet.  Instead the curse affected her pregnancy, and her daughter was born deformed.  Not wanting her daughter to be seen by the other royals, she accepted the chalet as her home, and had a second child.  A few years later, she decided she could not take it any more and euthanized her younger daughter.  At this point she tried to convince her husband to move their family, but he and his daughter were now avid hunters, and considered the chalet their home.  She again tried to cast a curse to kill her husband, but instead it resulted in a hunting accident that killed her second daughter.  Her husband was devastated and threw himself into hunting.  At this point, the baroness poisoned and killed his hunting dog.  This final death made him inconsolable, and while sleepwalking, he fell into their well and died.  At this point, the baroness took what was left of her fortune and fled. 

The diary the players find in the chalet will provide most of this story (as stated in the original adventure), but will leave out her use of dark magic, which is my addition.  

It is now many years later.  The Baroness is now a Hag, and has lost her youth.  She has returned to the area, first to the town of Witchway (the town is now in a swampy dark area, regardless of how it should look or how bright it should be).  Arriving as an old woman and asking for a free meal, the townspeople refused.  The baroness then killed the butcher's wife, and wore her skin.  Making a giant meal, she invited everyone to the feast, and all who attended and ate of the meal were turned into pigs.  Only a single townsperson refused the feast, and now hides in the woods not too far from town (the sole survivor is a witch of good alignment, who can break the curse if the player gathers ingredients for her).  

When the players enter, they will see all the wild pigs, and should they explore any of the homes, they will meet the baroness, in her hag appearance.  She will lead them to the town hall, where the grand feast will have once again appeared.  Any player who eats of the feast will need to make a wisdom save roughly 10 minutes later, or become a wild pig.  This effect is a curse, and can be removed via remove curse or a similar spell.  If anyone attacks the hag she will vanish in a puff of smoke (she is an illusion, and can be detected as such).  If the players refuse the meal, she will warn them against refusing her kindness and vanish.  The players may attempt to save the villagers, or can just leave them to their fate.

By the time the players reach the hand and the horn, it will be night time with stormy weather.  This is true even if it should be daytime or if they left the town with normal weather.  When the players reach the landmark a stone devil will erupt from the ground, the hand and horn part of his body.  The players can fight it until they die, or make a successful wisdom check to disbelieve it.  Once disbelieved, the landmark will return to normal.

At Threetree Hill they will see the hag among the trees, and should they climb it to greet her, she will have vanished.

When they reach the wyrm’s mark, they can avoid the hill without repercussions.  Should any party member choose to stand atop the hill, undead warriors burned by dragon fire will emerge from the earth and attack.  They are not an illusion.  There are a few bits of armor on the mark, with the hag’s runes carved into them.  Should these be destroyed, the undead will crumble into dust.

Once the players reach the chalet, the adventure will generally follow the book.  The treasure the map speaks of is the gift of lycanthropy.  The ravens will offer it to ONE member of the party if the ghosts in the chalet can be calmed, but will not deal with the hag or the ghosts directly.  The baron can be calmed as the book describes, but for the sisters, more work must be done.  

Players can choose to fight the poltergeist of Sylphene in the attic, but her spirit will return to her grave, and will not be calmed.  If the players rebury Sylphene her spirit will be put to rest, but her old grave will remain open forever, acting as a portal to the Shadowfell.  No matter how much dirt is placed in the grave, it will remain empty and open, short of the use of a wish spell (or separate adventure).  The final spirit of Heluthe also remains uncalmed, and is the key to the remainder of the adventure.

Heluthe’s spirit was disturbed when her mother returned to the Chalet and stole her corpse (it was her mother that placed the scarecrow and hands in her grave), passing through the portal to the Shadowfell.  Drawing on the dark energies that now surround her home, Heluthe manifested herself as a raven and flew to Candlekeep, starting the players on their path.  She wishes for them to enter the Shadowfell and recover her body, but she will not be able to say this directly to the players until they enter the plane themselves.

Once in the plane Heluthe will take the form of a ghostly little girl.  She will explain that her body has been taken to a nearby mausoleum by her mother, and must be buried back at the chalet so she can rest.  Heluthe is translucent and intangible, but has the abilities of a poltergeist, and will help the party should they battle her mother.

The mausoleum is laid out the same as in the book, though the Baroness has broken many sarcophagi to gather the bones needed to make an altar. Heluthe’s body lies on the altar, with her mother about to transfer her soul into her decaying form.

Players can choose to speak to the hag, who will offer them powerful boons should they let her complete the process.  She will explain that once she is in her daughter's body, the decay will fade and she will have an entirely new life ahead of her, one that she deserves for all she has suffered.  Should the players agree, the hag will give the very boons she promised, but will bind the players to her, making them her servants (nothing short of a wish or a later adventure will change this).  If they choose to fight her, she has the stats of a Green Hag, modified to fit the level of the party.  There is no longer a magical saddle in the mausoleum, but there is an Eye’s of the Eagle, which is secretly a Hag’s Eye (which can serve as the catalyst to a later adventure when the coven takes their revenge).

Once the hag is defeated, the players can return Helluthe’s body and rebury it in her grave.  As they attempt to do so a Vistani wagon train will arrive and make camp near the portal.  Heluth can decide to travel with them instead of returning through the portal, doing so will still consider her calmed for the purpose of the wereraven’s quest.  The Vistani will note that they will be maintaining this camp for just a day or two, so if the players wish to travel with them as well, they will need to conclude their business on the other side of the portal rather quickly.  You can leave this section out if you do not wish to do a follow up domain of dread adventure.

With all three spirits at rest and the hag defeated, the wereravens will offer their gift, though it will obligate the recipient to help them with their future attempts to destroy evil magical items.  The portal to the Shadowfell will remain open, and should the players return through it, they will stumble across the aforementioned Vistani wagon train, who will encourage them to join them on their travels.

This completes the restored and repaired Book of the Raven.  I hope your gaming group enjoys it more than the original adventure you actually paid for.

And as always,

Happy roleplaying, and may the dice be ever in your favor.

Crow Spirit

By Ellysiumn

https://www.deviantart.com/ellysiumn/art/Crow-Spirit-787240170