The Red Widow

You are staying in a quaint little town at the local Inn when one morning you are awakened by the cries of alarm.
Gathering your arms you head out into the street to find a crowd gathered near the local well that has apparently been dried up for the last summer, pushing your way through the crowd you stare in horror at the sight before you.
A man, you suspect, who has been drained of blood and desiccated like old dry parchment, lays sprawled beside the well, clearly dead.
"It's Old Mitchell the Hunt Master, he's dead!" Someone cries. "Vampire!" shouts an indignant man and his cry is met with others in kind.
Stepping forward, you inspect the body closer.

Défi narratif : Inspect the dead body

CR 8 (Arcane) against the hero

Pass: You note that all his fluids are drained, not just his blood.
Fail: You do not notice anything special.

Suddenly a tall, imperious man steps forward and clears away the crowd from the body.
"As Official Witch Hunter, I decree this here be the works of Evil, and will root it out from this village!" His words worked up the rabble of a crowd in a fit of excitement and frenzy.
"But it could not be any of us! Think, if any of us were Vampires, we could not stand here under the sun!" reasons a moderate woman of flame-kissed hair, Her words somewhat temper the crowds' enthusiasm.
"Speak when you are spoken to Whore!" Bites back the Witch Hunter, the woman mollified, retreats away from the crowd and out of sight.
The Witch Hunter continues whipping the crowd into a frenzy, but you keep a level head as you depart the crowd, deciding to look for your own answers.
You find the red-haired woman again, she is sitting at the steps of the local establishment crying.
"So I am a whore, I am not fit for anything else in this life, but that Witch Hunter... he will have the entire town up in arms in a bloody Witch Hunt that will harm the innocent."
"Please, help my brother, he is a little.. different, but by the black and white standard that Witch Hunter views the world, he will see him as evil to be punished!"
You give her your word and head to where she tells you her brother lives.
On the way you encounter a group of frenzied villagers attacking what are obviously some innocents in the street.

Défi de combat : Defend the innocent!

You defeat some of the mob and chase off the others, saving the innocents.

You leave the Village, heading to the outskirts where the woman's brother lives as an outcast, but notice many tracks heading in that direction.
You try to take a shortcut through rough terrain to reach the brother before the mob does.

Défi narratif : Race to the Outcast's Shack

CR 9 (Survival) against the hero

Pass: You manage to beat the crowd to reach the outcast's little shack, gain Advantage on the next combat encounter.
Fail: Gain disadvantage on the first round of the next combat challenge as you arrive late.

Défi de combat : Battle at the Outcast's Shack

You manage to slay the Witch-Hunter and his rabble, saving the woman's brother who is hiding in his shack.

You manage to save the woman's brother who emerges meekly from his shack, he is a disfigured and hunchbacked man who grovels his thanks at your feet, saying over and over again that he is a bad man, a very bad man.
It is obvious this poor soul is broken and not much can be done for him, so you decide to return to the woman and let her know that her brother is safe.
You find the woman at her establishment, and she invites you into her parlor to sit.
She whispers to you her thanks, and that not many would have come to the aid of her brother the way you did, and for removing the threat of the Witch Hunter, she then beckons you to close your eyes and receive your reward.
Something in the way her words whispered to you actually make your eyes close...

Défi narratif : Resist her lure

CR 9 (Wisdom) against the hero

Gain +2 to this roll if you noticed that the dead body in the village was drained of all fluids, not just blood

Pass: Your instinct and reactions save you!
Fail: In her true form as a giant red-backed spider, she sinks her fangs into your flesh, afflicting you with Infectious Poison

Défi de combat : The Red Widow

You defeat the Red Widow, finding the broken outcast whom she claimed was her brother sobbing in the street by the well, saying how she forced him to do such bad things as trying to dump the body in the well but he failed.
And how she spared him because he was as much a monster as she was.

**Gain 1 SP**

Illustration: Jenny Persson
Auteur: Peter Oggelsby