thedmtoolchest

The Curse of Undying Love | 5th-Level Adventure | Moonlight Maps

Added 2022-10-21 17:09:33 +0000 UTC

Hey, everyone!

Another adventure this week that was made for my good friend Ollie over at Moonlight Maps! His Kickstarter for ATLAS maps was a huge success and you can still grab a late pledge so go check it out here! Moonlight Maps is one of the best cartographers in the business and I highly recommend checking out Ollie's work if you haven't already! I'm hoping to do more work with him in the future so fingers crossed that we get to see more of his maps with my adventures!

~ TJ

The Curse of Undying Love is a Fifth Edition adventure intended for three to five characters of 5th to 6th level and optimized for four characters with an average party level (APL) of 5. An ancient curse has afflicted two lovers for centuries, forcing them into an eternal cycle of death and rebirth. Their tragic tale is coming to its deadly climax once more with a village in flames and cannibal cultists enthralled by the god of pain. Can the party track down the source of the curse and end the undying lovers' suffering?

This adventure is easily placed into an existing campaign with only a few modifications and name changes.

Background

The saga of Sir Valiant the Bold and Lady Elmyra of the Snow is a tale filled with courage, love, and despair. The two lovers lived in a time of war and darkness, where the realms of light battled the never-ending forces of darkness. As champions of the mortal army, the knights fought side by side, laying waste to the demons and supernatural powers that invaded their realm. The bards say their love for each other inspired the army to rally around them, and the demons gnashed their teeth and wailed in fear at the fury of their passion. Inspired by the shining light of the two knights, the armies rallied to their banner and drove back the darkness after years of war. But the victory was not earned without a price. A demon struck down Sir Valiant and Lady Elmyra before the portals closed for good. The champions of light fell in each other's arms, never enjoying the peace their swords fought so valiantly to bring to the realm. And so the heroes and their legendary love live on in song and tale, passed on through the ages.

As with all stories told over time repeatedly, names changed, and the truth was buried under an altered legend. Sir Balan and Lady Emelia were knights who fought a bloody war against a demonic invasion almost a thousand years ago. The pair fought together and fell in love during that time, and they fell to a sorceress’ curse near the war's end. That sorceress was not from the demon army—she was Lady Emilia’s sister, Melissent, who had fought alongside the pair the entire time. She bitterly watched the love grow between her sister and Sir Balan, who had been courting Melissent before the war had begun. The pain and darkness in her heart grew, and she began plotting her revenge as Sir Balan and Lady Emilia became closer and the army rallied around them. While the war's final battle raged around them, Melissent cast a powerful spell upon the lovers. The curse invaded their minds, compelling them to see each other as enemies that must be destroyed. Thus, as the war ended, the cursed lovers fell to each other's blades.

Melissent’s anger and thirst for retribution were not satisfied with the couple's death. The curse wrapped around the lovers' souls and cast them into the aether to be reformed once more in a new body elsewhere. With no memory other than that their partner was killed, they would seek each other out over time, neither recognizing the other—only seeing the killer of their love. After battling to the death, Melissent’s laughter would ring in their ears as they remembered the truth before forgetting again and repeating the cycle.

For centuries, Sir Balan and Lady Emilia have been wrapped tightly in the curse’s dark embrace, despite the legend of their love still sung by bards across the realm. Sir Balan is currently on the hunt for the leader of a cannibal cult who he believes killed the love of his life. He does not know that the cult leader is Lady Emilia resurrected, and the curse pulls them together. And so the cycle continues, and their sad tale repeats itself once more as they hunt each other endlessly in the name of love.

Adventure Summary

The characters come across a village in flames and bandits slaughtering the locals. After rescuing those that they can, the party meets Sir Balan, an old knight staying in the inn. He helps chase down the bandit crew and leads the way to their camp in the nearby forest. After rescuing captives taken from the village, Sir Balan asks for help tracking down the bandits he has been hunting for weeks. The knight party tracks the bandits to a camp in the forest and eventually to their hideout in an old crypt. There they learn the bandits are cultists to the god of pain and are sacrificing the villagers. After the party battles with the leaders, the dark sorceress Melissent appears to reveal the truth of the curse. The party must enter a portal to Melissent's temple and defeat her to break the curse, freeing the two lovers from their ancient cycle of death and rebirth.

Maps provided by Moonlight Maps!

With Moonlight Maps you get the highest quality hand-drawn map packs, with custom variants covering different settings (eg snow terrain, haunting mists, special themes, etc) giving you more narrative opportunities from a single map pack!

You get access to all 100+ battle map packs in the archive, a new pack every week, and FoundryVTT map packs (for the months you are subscribed) to bring your world to life!

Higher tiers get as many as 50+ maps every month (4+ map packs, each with a core map and 10+ custom variants)!

Every patron also gets access to my Discord community server where we discuss upcoming maps, our own campaigns, and help each other with world building!