Festival of the Lost

by

Author: Constantine "Kelfecil" Christakis

Featured Map Maker: Ori The Cartographer

Extra Item Artist: Loot Tavern

First Release: February 2021

Table of Contents Art Credits
The Calligrapher's Plight ................................................................4 Nagasaki Lantern Festival: otsukarekun ..........................Front
Part 1: Introduction ......................................................5 Adapted and Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Quick Adventure Info .......................................................................5 Japanese festival: Willie Ling .......................................................3
Background ....................................................................................... 5 Adapted and Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Running the Adventure ................................................................... 5 Kitsune: Margo Semirage ..............................................................4
Special Thanks ................................................................................. 5 Adapted and Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Adventure Hook ................................................................................6 DSC_4113_DxO: Yuki Yoshigoe ................................................. 5
Hiroshi, The Gentle Calligrapher ................................................. 6 Adapted and Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Part 2: The Adventure .................................................. 7 Yokai Street Market: Ori the Cartographer ..............................7
Prologue .............................................................................................7 Used under agreement for non-commercial purposes
Act 1 .................................................................................................... 7 mooncake: avery ng ........................................................................ 8
1. Yumena, Bottles Extraordinaire ................................................7 Adapted and Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
2. Tamako, Eastern Delicacies .......................................................8 Drawlloween: IrenHorror .............................................................9
3. Possessed Revelers ......................................................................8 Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
Act 2 .................................................................................................... 8 Yokai Street Market Variant: Ori the Cartographer ...............9
5. Through the Portal! ..................................................................... 8 Used under agreement for non-commercial purposes
6. Evil Spirits Run Amok .................................................................8 Mask of the Oni: Loot Tavern .................................................... 10
7. Hone Onna, The Bona Woman ...............................................10 Used under agreement for non-commercial purposes
Act 3 ..................................................................................................10
Rewards ........................................................................................... 10 Software Used
Maps ................................................................................................. 10 The Homebrewery: Perfect for anyone willing to put in
Epilogue ...........................................................................................10 some time to learn CSS formatting. Together with Affinity
OPEN GAME LICENSE ..............................................................11 Publisher, you can make anything look amazing.
Afterword .........................................................................................12
Twine: An amazing tool that I use extensively to create
narrative trees and organize my writing.
Roll20: I test a lot of things there to make sure they can
be used in a virtual environment. Will soon start using
Foundry too.

3
 The Calligrapher's Plight

I n snow-white fields I searched

and through the flames I marched
the visage, your eyes, your smile to see
the happiness abound, like the sea
A poem, a letter, a song
it did not matter, all along
the light, dimmed, gone
my life, in a second, undone
And now, pain flows
where flowers once arose
existence a burden
for without you, life is uncertain
The old man put his quill down, gathered his belongings
and stepped outside of his small house. A full moon, clear
night sky and a town full of visitors ready to commune with
their beloved on the other side of life's veil. Hiroshi mustered
whatever strength he had and started his journey towards the
Festival of the Lost.
One final journey, for one final quest; deliver the poem to
his beloved.

4
Introduction
Kelfecil's Tales is all about stories and adventures inspired by Special Thanks
art. Each adventure focuses on a different featured artist. I would like to extend my gratitude to a few people that really
Unlike the traditional way of creating adventures and then helped this module come to life.
finding art that suits what the story is all about, I prefer to be My caring partner, Anna, who has continuously
inspired by the art of a certain artist and then create supported me, every step of the way.
something based on the art itself. Ori, the artist, who makes absolutely stunning maps.
This module's featured artist is: Ori The Cartographer All my patreon supporters who continue to give me
feedback and all their love and support.
Quick Adventure Info
Festival of the Lost is one of the many short adventures I Patreon Support
release on a weekly basis, either for free or exclusively for my If you wish to support me with writing more RPG
Patreon supporters. Some quick information about it: modules in the future, you are more than welcome
to do so through my Patreon page.
Recommended Average Party Level (APL): 3 to 4
Experience from Completion: About half of what is Patreon supporters get weekly adventures, extra
needed for the next level. supplements and short stories!
General Theme: Love story, Busy street festival Patreon Supporters: Mart, Karolina O., Keks_Adr,
Setting: Any KataiAkuma, Calithiliel, Emma Kate.
Time - Sessions to Finish: x1 3-hour session
Background
This adventure takes the players through a festival where
people gather to commune with their passed on beloved
through a magical portal. A calligrapher, old in age, has lived
alone for many years since his wife's untimely death. He
finally made the decision to travel across the land to visit the
place where the Festival of the Lost takes place, so that he
may deliver a poem that he wrote for his beloved.
The adventurers arrive at the Festival through one of the
adventure hooks and end up helping the man deliver the
poem. Things get interesting very fast as the portal turns
green and evil spirits start coming through, possessing the
innocent festival attendees.
The party will have to fight in the festival street and
eventually enter the corrupted portal in order to find what
has caused this mess. In there they will find the calligrapher's
wife's spirit who has become Hone Onna, the Bone Woman.
The Yokai has manifested from the intense feeling of love
that the man felt for his beloved after her death. She found an
opportunity to start corrupting the real world when the portal
opened.

Running the Adventure

The following pages of this module will provide the Game
Master with enough information to be able to run the
adventure. However, you should do your best to try and adapt
this to your own style, campaign or way you run your
adventures.

5
 Adventure Hook
A few possible ways to introduce this adventure as part of
your campaign or just as a one-shot:
The wandering shamisen player. The party is relaxing in
a tavern or an inn when a bard walks in and starts playing
a strange instrument; a shamisen. The bard will start
narrating the tale of the calligrapher and his journey to the
Festival of the Lost. The players must roll a Wisdom
DC18. Each character that failed the roll must partake in
the bard's tale as they are magically transported to the
busy street where the Festival of the Lost is taking place.
On success, a character sees through the bard's spell but
can still choose to take part in the tale as the bard will tell
them that it is harmless and they could gain invaluable
wisdom from it.
Festival invitation. The players receive an invitation from
an unknown source to visit the Festival of the Lost in a
nearby town or village with little to no knowledge as to
what it really is about.
Last chance for contact. One of the players wishes to
communicate with someone that they held close to their
heart but has unfortunately passed on. This is the only
way to still reach out to them and so the party travels
towards the place where the Festival takes place.
6
An old man's wish. The old man is resting from his long
journey at an inn or tavern when he notices the party
relaxing at a close by table. He asks them if they would be
so kind to escort him to the Festival in return for some
gold.
Hiroshi, The Gentle
Calligrapher
Hiroshi is the main protagonist of this adventure. He is an old
man that grew up in a town far to the east of the realm in a
town that valued the practice of fine arts more than anything.
Despite this appreciation, few managed to make a living out
of their art in his hometown, but Hiroshi was so talented that
he had no problem finding his career path early in his life.
Praised by everyone for his exquisite skill in calligraphy, so
often that offers for arranged marriage from families came in
frequently. He declined all of them, constantly, for he loved a
bard. Her name was Aika and she played the shamisen unlike
anyone else. She was not highly regarded like he was in town
though, because she played only sad and tragic songs.
Hiroshi believed that she was the only one brave enough to
tell tales as they really were, with the cruelty of men and the
drama that they caused. He believed in love, but he knew the
world is an unfair place for just about any creature that lived
in it.
The calligrapher wrote so many poems inspired by her
beauty and he wanted nothing else but to tell her how much
he admired her. Admiration grew into passion and passion
into love. He eventually married Aika and lived with her the
two most beautiful and love-filled years of his life. Alas, all
things come to an end and for the unfortunate Hiroshi, much
sooner than later. On a cold winter's day, Aika passed on in a
mysterious way.
Years later, Hiroshi has decided to travel to a far away land
in order to partake in the Festival of the Lost, so that he may
reconnect one last time with his beloved.
Prologue
After playing out the adventure hook, you may want to play
out the scenes which include traveling to the Festival's
location. The festival's location is not all that important to the
story, so it could be any village or town. Once the party
arrives there, Act 1 begins.
Act 1
You arrive at what seems to be a very busy street, filled with
stalls, on both sides of the street, dressed in the crimson red
colors of the festival. Revelers fill the streets, most wearing
celebratory masks, eating and drinking. The road leads down to
a lake with a huge overlooking skull above it. It is difficult to
tell if it is a real skull or just a carnival float placed there to
entertain the festival attendees.
Tamiko's Bottled Wares
Bottle
Cost Name Effect
50gp Bottled Little fireflies can be seen flying in the
Fireflies bottle. When opened, a bright light source
of 15ft radius is provided for 3 turns.
50gp Dragon's The bottle is filled with flames roaring
Might inside of it. The creature that opens the
bottle gains resistance to fire damage for
3 turns.
50gp The The bottle has little eyes feintly appearing
Oni's on top of its gray colored liquid content.
Deceit The creature that opens the bottle gains
advantage on Stealth checks for 2 turns.
50gp The The bottle has a liquid pink content with
Lover's lots of bubbles popping constantly inside
Affection of it. The creature that opens the bottle
gains advantage on Charisma skill checks
and saving throws for 2 turns.
50gp The The bottle appears completely black in
Seething color. When opened or thrown, the spell
Void Darkness is cast exactly where the bottle
was.

The party arrives at the Festival of the Lost (Red arrow on

map) and Hiroshi will ask the party to escort him through the
crowd towards the portal at the mouth of the big skull. That is
where festival attendees can light a lantern and wait for a few
minutes before a loved one comes forward to speak with
them.
Points of interest on the map:
1. A merchant selling exotic magical potions.
2. A food stall with exotic delicacies
3. The possessed revelers that will attack the party.
4. The Festival's priestess.
5. The portal that leads into the spirit world.
When the party arrives at the festival street, tell them that
they notice a couple food and merchant stalls on the sides of
the street. They can visit a couple of them if they want to. If
they go too far down the street though, they will be stopped
by troublemaking revelers who are possessed by spirits.
Hiroshi will tell the party that he will patiently wait for
them to look around if they would like to, since the festival
offers all sorts of exciting attractions.
1. Yumena, Bottles Extraordinaire
Yumena is a tiefling with dark blue skin that travels
constantly in search of new customers. She sells exotic
bottled wares that cannot be found anywhere else. She is an
alchemist and she makes these items herself with rare
ingredients from various places she visits. She could offer the
players a taste of one of her potions (Persuasion DC13)
before starting a bartering process to sell some too.
All of Yumena's potions are bottled in the same kind of
glass container. They all have different colors and effects
though. In combat, each bottle takes a bonus action to open.

7
 2. Tamako, Eastern Delicacies
A blonde halfling stands at the edge of a big stall, twice her
size, selling all sorts of food items that the adventurers most
probably never saw before in their lives. Tamako is standing
on top of a crate in order to be able to reach the stall and
showcase her products to anyone interested. In combat, each
food item takes a bonus action to consume.
Tamako's Offerings
Cost Food Effect
1gp Fortune Advantage on your next Religion check
Cookie
5gp Octo- Heals for 1d4 and gives advantage on
skewers your next Athletics check
10gp Electric Heals for 3d4 then creature takes 1d4
Eel thunder damage
85gp Century Heals for 3d8 and creature is immune
Old Egg to poison for 3 turns
225gp Mooncake Advantage on all saving throws and
immunity to starlight magic for 3 turns
3. Possessed Revelers
Once the party decides to approach the lake, with or without
Hiroshi, they will be attacked by 5 festival revelers. These
revelers are all wearing masks (just like most others at the
festival) and are acting very weird. All of the revelers use the
Bandit stat-block.
Once defeated, the players will see spirits coming out of the
lifeless (or uncoscious) bodies of the revelers and heading
towards the portal at the skull's mouth (5. on the map) which
will turn from a light blue to green. A priestess who is nearby
(4. on the map) will also notice this and will start telling
people to evacuate the area.
8
Act 2
"Quick! Everyone run away from the portal! Something has
gone terribly wrong!" yells the elf in the red priestess-like
robes. "This is not supposed to happen... it has never
happened before. What kind of corruption could cause the
spirits to act like this?"
Hiroshi will go close to the players and tell them that he will
go towards the portal on his own, since he has nothing else to
care for in life anymore, anyway. He wants nothing else but to
see his beloved just one more time and deliver the poem he
wrote for her with so much love.
The elf priestess will hear this and will say the following.
"I think I know what is causing this... Legends speak of an evil
spirit, manifested from the intense feeling of longing that one
man felt for his departed beloved. The Yōkai called Hone
Onna, the Bone Woman. It has to be her. Someone has to
confront her or this corruption will spread and corrupt all
other innocent spirits!"
At this point, the players have the choice of letting Hiroshi go
towards the portal, or assist him by going through it in order
to dispel whatever corruption lurks within.
5. Through the Portal!
Any creature that steps through the portal, finds itself in the
spirit realm, a mirrored version of the real world. Passing
through the portal makes a creature feel as if a magical wave
has splashed all over its body and as if something was left
behind once the creature is on the other side of the portal.
6. Evil Spirits Run Amok
When the adventurers enter the spirit realm, they will see the
spirit of a beautiful woman stand out at the end of the street
(7. on map). She will be touching spirits that come close to
her, turning them green and making them act erratically all
around the area. The party will have to make its way to her
but in order to do so, they have to fight the spirits guarding
her. There are 4 spirits guarding the street path and they all
use the Specter stat-block.
The spirit of the woman will not engage in combat until the
party defeats the specter and then comes close to her.
7. Hone Onna, The Bona Woman
Once the specters are defeated, the party can confront the
evil Yōkai.
The yōkai also known as the Bone Woman, is from tales of
Japanese folklore. In this adventure, she is an evil spirit that
was manifested by the intense feeling of love that Hiroshi felt
for his departed beloved. She is corrupting all other spirits
that try to make it out of the spirit realm during the Festival
since she believes that no living being should be able to
commune with the dead. She will try to charm and kill
anyone that tries to stop her.
Hone Onna will present herself as a beautiful woman and
will try to seduce one of the players with her spells. Once she
gets close, she can use her deadly Draining Kiss to drain
their life force. Anyone that is not charmed by her will see her
as a skeleton dressed in a kimono. During combat, Hone
Onna will keep making attempts to charm her opponents.
 Hone Onna, The Bone
Woman
Medium Fey, lawful evil

Armor Class 12 (natural armor)

Hit Points 58(9d8+18)
Speed 0 ft., hover 30ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA

5 (-3) 14 (+2) 11 (+0) 10 (+0) 15 (+2) 17 (+3)

Damage Vulnerabilities radiant, fire

Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning,
thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing
from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion,
grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone,
restrained, unconscious
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Senses passive Perception 10, darkvision 60ft.
Languages Common, Elvish
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Spellcasting. Hone Onna’s innate spellcasting ability "Drawlloween Yokai" by IrenHorror on DeviantArt licensed
is Charisma (spell save DC 13). Hone Onna can under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
innately cast the following spells, requiring no
material components:
3/day: Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, Charm Person

Actions
Paralyzing Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit,
reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d6) necrotic
damage. The target must succeed on a DC 10
Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1
minute. An affected creature can repeat the saving
throw at the end of its turn.
Draining Kiss. Hone Onna kisses a willing creature
or one charmed by her. The target must make a DC
14 Constitution saving throw against this magic,
taking 15 (2d10 + 2) necrotic damage on a failed
save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an
amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction
lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target
dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to
0.

Hone Onna will say the following when she notices the
adventurers (when they come at least 20ft away from her).
"He is here... I can feel him. I must find him and embrace him.
Just one more time. I feel his love, as he feels mine. Have you
ever felt a love so real, so intense that you must embrace it?
Even in death? Here, let me show you..."

If this encounter feels too easy for the party, feel free to
summon extra specters that can help fight alongside Hone
Onna.

9

Act 3
Feel free to play out the scenes to whatever extent you think
is necessary for this part of the adventure.
Once Hone Onna is dealt with and the party goes back
through the portal, the elf priestess will be waiting there
together with Hiroshi. They will both be very happy to see
that the adventurers made it back alive and the priestess will
tell the adventurers that the portal to the spirit world seems
to be working as intended again.
Hiroshi will approach the portal and recite his poem one
more time. His beloved wife will appear in front of him in
spirit form and will hug Hiroshi one final time, before
disappearing again.
Rewards
The priestess will offer the party a special magical item as a
reward for dealing with the evil spirit, the Mask of the Oni.
She will explain that a weary traveler, who she offered shelter
to on a stormy night, left this behind at her temple.
Hiroshi will thank the players by giving them a magical
item as a reward too, The Calligrapher's Quill.
The Maps
The beautiful maps by Ori the Cartographer can be found
without DM Notes at the following links:
1st map; Yokai Street Market
2nd map; Yokai Street Market Variant
For more variants and gridless versions, make sure you
check out Ori's Patreon page.
Item created by Loot Tavern and used under agreement for non-commercial purposes.
10
The Calligrapher's Quill
The quill is made of a long silver feather with a few
lines of black in it. The tip of the pen is made of
gold and it looks like it always has ink on it.
Starlight Calligraphy. The quill works without ink
as it can magically write on things. Any creature
that uses the quill under the light of the stars can
write anything with any handwriting it has seen
before. The creature may also choose to have the
writing made with the quill have a feint white glow
to it.
Epilogue
Depending on what adventure hook you started the
adventure with, you will need to close it in a somewhat
similar way.
The wandering shamisen player stops playing her song as
everyone snaps out of her charm spell. The adventurers
realize that it was something more than just a dream as
they see magical items in their hands.
The adventurers leave the town as they see a few other
people dressed in festival clothing also leaving it. The
Festival is over and there is little left to do in the area.
The players attempt to contact the dead person that they
wanted to reach out to all along. The priestess helps them
with the process by lighting a lantern with the departed
person's name on it.

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11
 Afterword
Thank you for taking the time to download, read
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the Cartographer once again. None of this would
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an honor to craft stories out of the inspiration I get
from a talented artist's work.
Make sure you also check out Loot Tavern's
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