Page 34 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

Possessions: bracers of armor +6, headband of intellect +6, ring of 1. Entrance
protection +4, amulet of proof against detection and location, lesser This building is fairly unassuming. Its wooden walls and wood
rod of metamagic (quicken). shingle roof are spotted with lichens and fi laments of fungus, and
the solid stone foundation is thick with moss.
THE GOD IN THE LAKE Worn paths around the exterior of the house lead to the back

The sleepy village of Raven’s Lake has a secret: A terrible god door (area 7) as well as to the nearby lakeshore.
lives in the depths of the settlement’s namesake.
The citizens of Raven’s Lake know that something lives in 2. Storeroom
the lake. People who go out on the lake after dark go missing far This room is completely cluttered with a fantastic amount of
too often and frequently turn up weeks later with no memory junk. Coils of rope, old bows, barrels, crates, boxes, fi shing poles,
of where they’ve been. The local church of St. Cuthbert has broken bear traps, and more assault the eye. MASTERS CHAPTER 2
been abandoned no fewer than seven times in the last two THE DEEP

years, each time its lone cleric packing hastily and fleeing None of the equipment here has seen any use since Huck was
town without a word. Adventurers who come to Raven’s Lake enslaved; his hunting days are over.
have a habit of vanishing forever.
The truth is that something does indeed live in Raven’s Lake, 3. Washroom
but it is far from a deity. It’s an exiled aboleth by the name of This dirty, foul-smelling room could serve as a washroom only
Zlorthishen. for the bravest soul.

Adventure Hooks Huck’s personal hygiene has always been a topic in town, and
The PCs could be drawn to Raven’s Lake for a number of his habits have not improved as a result of his enslavement.
reasons. An associate might have visited the town and disap-
peared. A PC cleric might be asked by a superior to investigate 4. Antler Storage
why clerics of St. Cuthbert never stay in the town longer than a This room seems to have once been a bedroom, but before it can
month. The PCs could just be passing through town and catch serve as such again, someone needs to clean out the hundreds of
wind that something’s wrong by the way the locals regard antlers stacked in tangled piles.
them with such sadness.
Raven’s Lake could also serve as the genesis of a new cam- Huck had a liking for antlers: deer, elk, moose, peryton (see
paign. The PCs could all be locals who slowly uncover the Monsters of Faerûn)—anything he could knock off and keep,
sinister secret that festers in the lake and the tunnels below he tossed in here. He planned to sort them and keep only the
town. best, but he never got around to it. The antler collection has
No map of Raven’s Lake is provided, so you can more easily taken over this room completely; Huck now sleeps on a pile
place the village in your campaign world. Detailed below is the of rugs next to the stove in his living room (area 5).
home of Huck One-Eye, an old hunter who lives in a simple
one-story house with a solid foundation. 5. Living Room (EL 3)
This room is warm but cloying; the air is thick with the scents of
Huck One-Eye’s House unwashed fl esh and smoke. Pieces of old, worn furniture sit in

Huck One-Eye is an old human ranger who was the first person the corners of the room, including chairs, a desk, shelves, and an
the aboleth Zlorthishen enslaved after arriving in Raven’s Lake empty bookcase. A cast-iron stove sits to the north, and a fi lthy
five years ago via an underground river. The aboleth knew pile of rugs and blankets lies heaped in front of it.

that its survival depended on its quickly establishing a secret
stronghold under the unknowing eyes of the locals, and it This is where Huck sleeps, eats, and whiles away the hours as
enslaved Huck as he wandered alone by the lake edge. Over he waits for his master below to contact him with a new task.
the last five years, the aboleth has managed to secretly enslave Huck’s hearing isn’t as good as it used to be, so chances are

nearly half the town, including all of its leaders and prominent he won’t hear anyone who knocks on a door, or even anyone
members. Its slaves created a set of underground tunnels that who breaks into his home. If startled here, his initial attitude
connected the lake to Huck’s basement, and recently the is hostile. He yells and curses, hoping to drive the intruders
aboleth has started to breed skum in these tunnels. off, unless his attitude is adjusted at least to friendly, in which
After some investigations in town, the PCs should eventually case he calms down and engages in idle chatter. If made
be led to Huck’s home. No one talks, but careful observation helpful, he invites his visitors to dinner (water from rusty
allows the PCs to note that despite the amount of traffic that bowls and rabbit stew that’s a bit off). He won’t reveal the

goes in and out of Huck’s home, there never seems to be much presence of the skum or the aboleth downstairs, but anyone
noise or clamor coming from inside the building. who speaks to him and makes a DC 15 Sense Motive check

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