CREDITS

Designer: Dr. Michael LaBossiere

Cartographer: Dr. Michael LaBossiere
Template: Simple Microsoft Word Template by Laura
Hirsbrunner
Cover Illustrator: Louis Porter, Jr. Design.

Contents
Credits....................................................................................... 1
Contents ................................................................................... 1
Introduction............................................................................ 2
History/Background .............................................................. 2
Getting the PCs Involved ....................................................... 2
Map Key ................................................................................... 2
Encounter ................................................................................ 3
Conclusion .............................................................................. 3
Hook? ....................................................................................... 3
New Magic Item .............................................................................. 3
Monster ................................................................................... 4
Actions ..................................................................................... 4
NPC........................................................................................... 5
Free Stuff ................................................................................. 6
Free Map Collections ............................................................. 6
Free Rules ................................................................................ 6
Free Encounters ..................................................................... 6
Free Encounters Collections ................................................. 6
Stuff to Buy! ................................................................................ 6
Adventures .............................................................................. 6
Class & character Options ..................................................... 6
About the Author .................................................................... 7
MAP .......................................................................................... 8

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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
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All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild.
Hero Lab and the Hero Lab logo are Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com System Reference Document 5.0 Copyright 2016, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

1
INTRODUCTION
This is the 54th in an ongoing series aimed to provide the
overworked DM with ready-to run encounters. The PCs face the
music of the Musiksalskare, a fey that feeds upon musicians. The
CR of the Musiksalskare is 3 but the encounter can be modified to
increase its difficulty.
It includes a history/background for the encounter, a map, and
monster stats.
The companion ZIP file contains JPEG versions of the maps
(with and without grid), a Hero Lab file, the Word file of the
encounter, and a PDF with character sheets for all the monsters.
HISTORY/BACKGROUND
While the elves are the best known of the Fey who have crossed
over into the mundane world, there are many others who have
made the journey. Some take up permanent residence and
gradually become more mundane; others visit for ill or good. Fey
can also be influenced and altered by the Fey realms they dwell in.
When Shadash populated her Ashenfey, the fey she brought there
became corrupted by the negative energy infusing the plane. While
it did not make all the affected fey evil, it did distort them in ways
that made them prone to evil actions. One type of corrupted fey is
the Musiksalskare.
In the Verdenfey and the Feywild, the Musiksalskare derive their
sustenance from the sustaining emotions of musicians and music
itself. Those dragged into the Ashenfey were altered— as adults
they need to derive their sustenance from the life-energy of
musicians. A Musiksalskare feeds by creating a magical musical
instrument and persuading a musician to freely accept and play it.
If the musician’s will be not strong enough, the cursed magic of the
instrument will take control of them, forcing them to play until they
are freed, or they die.
Some Musiksalskare bravely elect to starve to death or are
fortunate enough to find a magical item that will sustain them
without feeding on the life of others. Some feed on musicians but
are principled or caring enough to free them before death. Some
even pay for the services of musicians. But some choose to selfishly
feed on musicians and even take pleasure in their cruel
exploitation.
The evil Musiksalskare use a variety of strategies to secure and
conceal their food. Well-to-do Musiksalskare will purchase suitable
dwellings in cities and keep their musician hidden away behind
thick walls so that others will not hear and wonder about the
unceasing music. Or be annoyed enough by the noise to act. Less
well-off Musiksalskare will take their food to someplace isolated
where they will not be disturbed.
The Musiksalskare Užívatela’s clever strategy for securing her
food is to go to a local inn posing as an elvish adventurer. If
possible, she will find a relatively weak bard and convince them to
join her to find a magical instrument. If she cannot find a bard, she
will settle for someone with skill in a musical instrument or at least
a decent charisma. Her lure is technically grounded in truth—the
musician who goes with her will get a magical musical instrument.
Once she finds a suitable victim, she will take them to an isolated
area she has already scouted and prepared for her stay. Once they
get to the area, she will casually offer her flute to her intended
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victim. If the victim is successfully cursed, she will drag them to her
temporary lair and feast upon the music until the musician dies or
she can find someone better at performing (the quality of the meal
depends on the skill of the musician). Once the musician perishes,
she will move on, leaving the body to rot away.
Her most recent victim is the bard Hudobný Otrok. She lured
him to her current lair, the ruins of a town, with the story of a magic
flute. He succumbed to the cursed instrument and she has been
feeding on him ever since. She has taken up temporary residence
in what was once the town money lender’s place of business—a
strong stone structure.
GETTING THE PCS INVOLVED
One option is for the PCs to stumble across the ruins of the town
in a classic random encounter and hear music flowing from the
money lender’s building. Another option is that the PCs are
intentionally searching the area—perhaps a colleague of the bard
has hired them or perhaps they were supposed to meet up with the
bard. While Hudobný Otrok is not a bad fellow, he has made some
of his living running modest scams and cons—so the authorities or
one of his victims might be looking for him.
If the PCs are looking for Hudobný Otrok and go to the town inn
where he was supposed to be (or meet them) they will easily find
witnesses who will gladly talk in return for a beer. The witnesses
will say they saw Hudobný Otrok speaking to an elf woman who
also seemed to be a bard—or at least a musician (she and Hudobný
Otrok played some music together). They will say that the two
discussed some matter in whispers while looking at a map, then
left the inn and headed out of town after purchasing riding horses.
Such behavior is normal and common for adventurers, so the
customers thought little of it. Some will speculate that they died on
an adventure—being two bards they would surely be easy victims
for monsters.
MAP KEY
The map shows the town ruins. The town was destroyed in one
of the interminable border wars or monster attacks that plague
fantasy towns. The sound of a flute played by a skilled musician fills
this area of the ruins, day and night.
1. Front Room:
This was were the
moneylender
conducted his
business. The door
to the building has
been somewhat
repaired—at least
enough to close and
keep out some
weather. Hudobný Otrok sits on floor on a pile of hay,
stinking and soiled with his own excrement. He constantly
and skillfully plays the cursed flute. Užívatela placed him on
the hay so it would absorb his waste. She sprays him with
perfume to partially cover the stench.
 2. Back Room: This was the money lender’s money storage.
The lock to the door was broken during the looting, but
Užívatela replaced it with a simple lock (DC 10 to pick or
break). She keeps the door open when she is here, so she
can hear the music clearly. She scavenged and repaired a
bed for the room and furnished it with a writing desk and
rug. She writes music and poetry; the desk has several slim
volumes of poetry and numerous sheets of music.
3. Ruins: A ruined house. Užívatela e keeps the two riding
horses here and takes good care of them—she rather likes
animals.
4-5. Ruins: Ruined buildings.
NEW MAGIC ITEM
The following is a new magic item. It can be used, modified,
or ignored as desired.
MUSIKSALSKARE INSTRUMENT
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)
If a Musiksalskare is slain, their instrument is freed of the curse
and becomes a potent magical item as the soul of the
Musiksalskare infuses it. The instrument confers advantage on
Charisma (Performance) checks used to create a musical
performance using it.
Once per day the instrument can be used to cast irresistible
dance. The DC for the save is equal to the Charisma (Performance)
check made to play the instrument (rolled with advantage).
The attuned user also has advantage on saving throws versus
sound based charm spells and abilities if they have it in their

ENCOUNTER possession.

The encounter begins when the PCs enter the ruins of the
town. They will hear the music playing and will easily track the
sound to the source. Užívatela spends most of her time writing
music and poetry in the building but takes regular rides to
exercise the horses.
If the PCs encounter her while she is outside the house, she
will pretend to be an elvish adventurer. She will take their
measure quickly and decide on the best course of action. If the
party seems easy to trick, she will tell them that Hudobný Otrok
found a cursed flute in the ruins that has made him into a
dangerous madman, though his madness confines him to the
building. Her main objective will be to get the PCs to leave. If the
PCs refuse to leave without helping Hudobný Otrok, she will
reluctantly agree. If she thinks she can kill the PCs, she will wait
until the ideal time to strike, then try to kill them. If she thinks the
PCs are likely to prove too challenging, she will try again to come
up with a plausible way to get them to leave (like going back to
town to find a cleric or a wagon to transport him) or she will try to
get them to kill Hudobný Otrok. One way she might try to do this
is by pretending that Hudobný Otrok is using the cursed flute to
control her with malign magic. This would also allow her to
attempt to kills the PCs with a plausible excuse.
If one of the PCs seems to be more skillful at music than
Hudobný Otrok, Užívatela will want to replace the bard with the
better musician, which might incite combat.
While Užívatela prefers to rely on deceit and avoid combat, she
will fight if she must—or if she sees an advantage in doing so.

CONCLUSION
The encounter ends when the PCs defeat the Užívatela, die or
decide to quit. If they rescue Hudobný Otrok he will be quite
grateful—if the party needs an NPC bard he would be quite willing
to join.

HOOK?
If rescued, Hudobný Otrok can lead the PCs into other
adventures. In addition to his propensity to run scams and cons
that turn out badly, he also believes he knows the locations of
many legendary treasures—he might be right or, better yet,
dangerously wrong. He can thus be a hook dragging the PCs into
other adventures.

3
MONSTER
This is the monster for the encounter.

Medium fey, neutral evil Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 80
Armor Class 15 (studded leather) ft./320 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage.
Hit Points 71 (11d8+22)
Speed 30 ft Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. or
range 20 ft./60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4+4) piercing damage.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 16(+3) 14(+2) 13(+1) 14(+2) 16(+3) Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one
target.
Saving Throws Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage.
Skills Deception +5, Perception +4, Performance +5, Persuasion
+5, Stealth +5 Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Damage Resistances- Hit: 11 (2d6+4) bludgeoning damage.
Damage Vulnerabilities -
Damage Immunities - Innate Spellcasting. The Musiksalskare's innate spellcasting
Condition Immunities - ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). The Musiksalskare can
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14 innately cast the following spells, requiring no material
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan components:
Challenge 3 (700 XP) 3/day each: charm person, disguise self
1/day each: enthrall, suggestion

Description:

4
NPC
These are the basic stats for the NPC. A full character sheets in
various formats are available in the files for this Free Encounter.

Hudobný Otrok
Human Bard 3
Medium humanoid, neutral

Armor Class 14 (chain shirt)

Hit Points 21 (3d8+3)
Speed 30 ft.

STR 12 (+1), DEX 13 (+1), CON 12 (+1), INT 10 (+0), WIS 9 (-1),
CHA 16 (+3)

Saving Throws Dex +3, Cha +5

Skills Acrobatics +3, Animal Handling +0, Arcana +2, Athletics +2,
Deception +4, History +1, Insight +0, Intimidation +4, Investigation
+1, Medicine +0, Nature +1, Perception +0, Performance +7,
Persuasion +7, Religion +1, Sleight of Hand +2, Stealth +3,
Survival +0
Senses passive Perception 10
Languages Common, Elvish
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Actions

Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 80

ft./320 ft., one target.
Hit: 5 (1d8+1) piercing damage.

Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. or

range 20 ft./60 ft., one target.
Hit: 5 (1d4+3) piercing damage in melee or 3 (1d4+1) piercing
damage at range.

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one

target.
Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage.

Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one

creature.
Hit: 2 bludgeoning damage.

5
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6
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Michael LaBossiere is a gamer/runner from Maine who went
to school in Ohio and ended up a philosophy professor in Florida.
While acquiring his doctorate in philosophy at Ohio State
University, he earned his ramen noodle money by writing for
Chaosium, GDW, R. Talsorian
Games, and TSR. After
graduate school, he became a
philosophy professor at
Florida A&M University. His
first philosophy book, What
Don't You Know?, was
published in 2008. He
continues to write philosophy
and gaming material. He is
also a blogger, but these days
who isn't?
When not writing, he enjoys running, gaming and the martial
arts. Thanks to a quadriceps tendon tear in 2009, he was out of
running for a while, but returned to the trails and wrote a book
about it, Of Tendon & Trail. He can be contacted at
ontologist@aol.com.

7
MAP

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1