30 Minute Dungeon Delve 4: The Old Robertson Farm

Idea: An abandoned farm inhabited by demon cultists and protected by animated scarecrows.

Hook: Cows and other livestock have either disappeared or been found drained of blood with a knife wound at their throat. Foot prints from the scenes of the crimes lead out to the old Robertson farm. The local ranchers and farmers have combined their money and are willing to pay 50 coins each if the adventurers investigate.

Key:


1. 5 Scarecrows standing in a field, the dismembered corpses of crows lying nearby. (Blood is on their hands, which turns out to contain shards of glass. The scarecrows will animate and attack if anyone gets too close, cackling evilly without mouths as their sewn button eyes glow with a violet light.)

2. The door to this room looks hastily repaired, but not particularly old. (If the door is open, an axe on a pendulum swings down and hits any who open the door. The room has a bed and a nightstand. On the nightstand is a small wooden box containing 250 coins worth of jewelry.)

3. The old barn is falling apart, with holes in the ceiling and walls. The door is halfway ajar. (The entrance is hooked to a tripwire, if someone walks in a bucket of acid will fall on top of them.)

4. There is a chicken coop in surprisingly good condition, appearing as though it has been renovated. (If entered, there is a stench of death and decay almost immediately. Around 2 dozen chickens hang from the ceiling by their legs, their throats slit. On the floor is a stone idol of a horrific demon, with green gemstones for eyes. The idol is worth around 500 coins to the right buyer.)

5. This kitchen is a crimson mess, the miasma of rot and death is almost overwhelming. Organs, blood, muscle, and skin lie strewn about messily, some with vile symbols carved into them. (On closer inspection, all of the flesh is human. One piece of skin has an eagle tattoo.)

6. A woman is locked in a cage, yelling obscenities, apparently thinking the party are cultists. Next to her is another cage, with a corpse lying within. (She is named Patricia, and is a competent adventurer and monster hunter who was investigating the Robertson farm, but was ambushed while she made camp after her partner in adventuring, a man named Tibult who had a distinctive eagle tattoo, betrayed her to the cultists for gold. Patricia does not know the identity of the corpse in the cage next to her, which has a diamond ring worth 500 coins.)

7. This tunnel leads down into the basement, but halfway down, chained to the wall, is a monstrous pig. It has razor sharp tusks, too many eyes, and slightly chitinous skin. (The pig will attack any who come within range. Those who know some demonology can tell that the creature is the offspring of a pig and a demon.)

8. Library full of dusty old books. Most are crumbling and in extreme disrepair, evidently centuries old. (The shelves appear to be new, much younger than the overall building. If one looks over the books, they will find that all of them are unholy tomes of unspeakable blasphemy. Most of the books are either vague, or somewhat inaccurate, but one tome, entitled “The Diary of the Anti-Saint” is exceedingly dangerous and contains instructions for rituals of dark magic.)

9. Walls of the attic have strange angles and lines and curves are drawn upon them. (If someone stares at them for too long they are pulled through, and come back in 1d6 minutes apparently 1d6x10 years older than they were initially, with their stats rearranged and their memory incompletely wiped of what happened during those years, though they will occasionally have nightmares of demoniac creatures and inhuman cities.)

10. In basement, 10 cultists perform a ritual sacrifice of a calf, chanting ominously in a language that doesn’t seem as though it were designed for human vocal organs. (If the fight seems to not be going their way, all but one of them slit their own throats and call forth a demon from beyond space and time. If captured, cult members will claim to be worshiping “The Great God With A Million Eyes”, and will commit suicide as soon as possible.)