Death to Witches

The PCs are stygian priests touring the land with an ancient relic to raise funds for the church of
Xal’tothun (Xal). The church hunts witches, and the god is said to grant immortality to righteous
followers. One of the main tenants is keeping women subservient and controlled.

Chapter 1
The PCs enter the village of Mahmoud, where there is a church to Xal. It is dusk. Instead of a
warm welcome and showers of copper and silver coins, they are greeted with silence, doors and
windows slamming shut at their approach. Eventually a group of men intercept them, led by the
village blacksmith. He tells them that it is a bad time for their arrival, and they should leave
immediately. These men to seem to be in a real hurry to get the PCs to leave now. It is apparent
that the women in this village are kept really strictly in line, remarkably so. The women are
whipped and treated so cruelly, the PCs become uncomfortable, even though it is mostly in line
with church doctrine.
● If the PCs talk to the (neutral) innkeeper, he tells them that for the past several months,
every night, the village is beset by a terrible monster that stalks its streets and beheads
men (only men). Someone shot an arrow at it once, and it seemed to do nothing.
● The village’s head priest of Xal is a man named Kran who appears to be in his
mid-thirties (Kran has been the village priest for as long as anyone can remember, even
the village elders). If the PCs don’t immediately leave the village, eventually they are
brought to Xal and he does his best to get rid of them (“We don’t need your sham
celebrations to take the silver from these good people’s purses!”). Xal’s assistant is a
quiet, pretty, obedient young woman named Zuul (the PCs note that it is unusual, but not
unheard of, for a priest of Xal to have a woman as his assistant).
● As the sun’s last rays disappear and darkness prevails, Xal says, “Fine, now you’ll see
the curse that torments us. Would that it takes your head this night!”
● If the PCs end their encounter with Xal before learning of the beast, then Zuul finds them
afterwards and tells them (“An evil, invincible monster punishes us for our
transgressions!”)
All the families from outlying farms now live in the village for protection, and the inn, and nearly
every other building in town, is packed full with families sleeping on the floors. As night falls,
people run inside and lock the doors, anticipating the beast’s arrival. Wherever the PCs are,
they hear a woman’s terrified shriek, “Akshan, come back inside!” Then they hear a boy’s cry of
terror. The PCs run to the sounds, and find a young boy on the ground, with the terrifying beast
standing ten or fifteen feet before him, baring its fangs. The boy’s mother is in a nearby
doorway, crumpled to her knees. Both boy and mother are too terrified to move. Out of every
door and window, hundreds of villages stare with wide eyes at the scene. The PCs have an
opportunity to fight the beast and save the boy.
● If the PCs save the boy and drive off the monster, the boys family and the other villagers
are grateful, but Kran is incensed. He now feels his leadership is threatened,
 furthermore, he and his church believe the village is being punished for transgressions,
and it is therefore improper to fight the monster. Their opinion is that the village should
pay its toll in men’s heads and then the monster will leave (maybe there’s a reverse
witch hunt going on, where men are singled out for crimes (real or imagined) and given
to the monster as sacrifice). The angry Kran tells the PCs they must leave at once. But, if
they are determined to help, they should go to the Old Town Square, where witches
used to be drowned, where the priest left his Implement of Drowning: “Bringing that back
to me might do some actual good. Now go, before you bring the beast’s wrath down on
us again!” (This is a ruse. Kran believes the Old Town Square is haunted, and he
believes the PCs will meet their demise there. His Implement of Drowning is there, but it
is insignificant). If the PCs inquire with friendly villagers about this quest, the villagers will
tell them that the place is haunted, and only fools dare venture there.
● If the PCs try to save the boy, but fail, a few of the villagers are still grateful and become
friends. Kran is smugly satisfied (“I told you, it is futile to oppose The Beast!”). He sends
the PCs on the quest to find his Implement of Drowning anyways, wishing them out of
the way. Zuul shows up and offers them a piece of cryptic advice (?).

Chapter 2
The next morning, the PCs set out for the Old Town Square. They have learned that the current
village of Mahmoud was preceded by the village of Moud (Mah means “new” in stygian). Forty
years ago, there was a major witch problem, and dozens of women were drowned. As acolytes
of Xal, the PCs know that witches have a nasty habit of possessing a new body as soon as their
current one is drowned, and so it can be necessary to kill many otherwise-innocent women in
order to put a witch to final rest. Moud was abandoned because the ground was so tainted with
witch blood, a new witch was sure to be born again soon, so a new location was needed, so
Mahmoud was founded a few miles away. The village of Moud is derelict but mostly intact. As
the PCs make their way to the center of town, they encounter the “ghouls” and “ghosts” that
haunt this place, which is mostly homeless people who rattle pots and pans and make groaning
noises from behind closed doors to continue the myth and make strangers leave them alone.
The PCs discover this easily as soon as they confront one of these “ghosts”, and the homeless
people scatter as soon as steel is drawn. When the PCs reach the center of town, they find the
Implement of Drowning (a rod of some kind) right where Kran told them it would be. When they
grab it, a small spectral girl appears. She is concerned that they are going to take the rod and
do evil things with it (drown more women), and she tells them to put it back where they found it,
“or else”. She tells them that her “friend who I found in the forest” will slay them all if they don’t
put it back. If the PCs refuse, a young version of The Beast appears and attacks. If they put it
back, the ghost is appeased. After concluding either approach, the girl tells them that the reason
Mahmoud is under attack is because Kran is being punished for his terrible deeds against the
women of Moud. She says that he was jealous that he couldn’t have a beautiful woman named
Xerna as his wife, and so he took it out on her, and then many other women as well for no
reason. The PCs can infer that Xerna was the ghost girl’s mother. Then the girl disappears and
the PCs can return to Mahmoud.
Chapter 3
The PCs return to Mahmoud and confront Kran with the information given to them by the ghost.
“This is all your fault!” they say, or something to that effect. And Kran shows genuine remorse
and says, “No, I had to do it because the women had taken up an ancient cult, and that Beast is
proof! It can only be summoned by that cult!” (or use some other prior reference as
foreshadowing to lend some credence to Kran’s claim). “We had to kill many women in order to
rid ourselves of that witch. And even then, I couldn’t kill her. I trapped her in the last woman’s
body and chained her up in the basement. Go and see for yourself!” The PCs run down to the
basement with Kran, but the stone slab is empty. The body of the last witch has been stolen!
“No!” Kran cries. Then a group of young church-women slam the door to the basement, locking
the PCs and Kran inside! “They’re all witches!” Kran cries wildly. The PCs must solve a puzzle to
get out of the basement, or use the secret exit.

Chapter 4
When the PCs get out of the basement, they find that the ancient relic that they brought to town
has been stolen out of their room (wherever they were sleeping). A group of women, led by the
obedient Zuul, has stolen the headless body and the relic, and have fled to a suitably epic or
foreshadowed location to perform a ritual to resurrect the witch, kill Kran and this cruel religious
order, and give them all vengeance and freedom. The PCs go to the suitable epic confrontation
where the ritual is being performed, and witness Zuul taking a severed head out of their relic
container (“so that’s what it was, we never actually knew!”). The PCs have a few brief moments
to interrupt the ritual - otherwise, Zuul becomes possessed by the witch and gains terrible
powers, and the PCs are in for the fight of their lives.

Chapter 5
After the battle, the town is in shock. The PCs have by now figured out that there is a
chicken-egg problem with their religion and witches. Afterwards, the PCs have some difficult
decisions to make about the fate of the town. The religion was founded to fight witches, but now
witches pop up as a way for women to fight back against the terrible repression of the religion.
Should they let Kran continue to rule these women with an iron fist? Should all the women be
put to death? Should they abandon their religion and work for women’s freedoms? It’s up to
them. Either way, they gained some XP, made some friends, and got a sweet new magic item
(from somewhere TBD).