▲ The Party

Status:

Party:

▲ Eldon

Eldon Flintdown

Human
Sorcerer
Hermit
Neutral (True Neutral)
Religion: Oghma, Goddess of Wisdom
Languages: Common, Elvish, Orc
Member of The Party

Inventory

(B001) 93sp
(B001) Golden Egg Shaped Pendant
(B001) Short sword

AC ? | PP ? | HP ?

Became a hermit to work on Elden’s Magnum Opus, whilst working on this he suspected his work could be misused by them which could threaten the world so he turned his back on it. His nature is one of serenity, with bloodthirsty thoughts.

He lived in a cave on the coast, after his realisation, he went to the nearest fishing village, Oakville to rejoin civilisation and get a source of income and a new place to live.

▲ Fent

Fent Stareshot

Half Elf
Cleric
Acolyte
Lawful Evil
Religion: Ishtar, Goddess of War and Love
Languages: Common,Elvish,Drow,Goblin
Member of The Party

AC 18 | PP 16 | HP 7

He is ambitious and wants to rise to the top of his sect.

At his temple he suspects something is amiss, Ping came to his temple with his concerns about the goings on in Oakville Monastery, he arranged to meet Ping in Oakville to further this investigation.

▲ Ping

Ping Kong

Halfling
Monk
Criminal
Chaotic Good
Religion: Tymora, Goddess of Luck
Languages: Common,Halfling

AC 16 | PP 12 | HP 9

He discovered heretical texts, and strange pedants are being passed around by some of the monks at Oakville Monastery, he called this out and became a fugitive. He is currently in hiding in Oakville.

Martial Arts

▲ Latest Session (B001)

B001 This Charming Monk

Session Date: 2025.06.25

If Eldon continued his research it could have been used by the monks on the hill for evil
Heretical scriptures being passed around Ping’s monastery.

Eldon was researching something that could persuade the minds of others, so if it had fallen into the hands of the monks it could’ve augmented their abilities.

Ping left Oakville Monastery one week ago.

Ping went to Fent’s temple for help. Told Fent about his concern, Fent said keep mouth shut and Ping went back and they arranged to meet at the The Golden Coin.

Doris knows that Eldon is worried about power and the monks of Oakville Monastery.

3000-05-01 : 1800

Eldon and Ping chat about the situation in Oakville Monastery.

Halfling & Dwarf monks come in with Tymoran robes and wearing golden egg pendants.

Doris pushes the monks out of the door: “Don’t come back or go over the road.”

Doris says John Corleone being hassled by them and she doesn’t like them.

Eldon Looks out the window and sees them praying in the street.

Thizenor is down the basement saying we’ve got a problem.

Eldon takes a bucket of slops, walks out the door and walks directly in front of the monks praying and says, “YOU WERE ASKED TO LEAVE” and throws the slops over them. They walk off to the beach.

Eldon charges serenely down the ladder, then Ping, Fent. They fight a Giant Rat in the cellar. Eldon uses Chill Touch and Fent uses his warhammer, Ping and the Rat miss each other (XP: 25).
Eldon finds the entrance point behind barrels of ancient rum, Thizenor seals it up.

3000-05-01 : 1900

So Doris pours expensive rum for the party and gives them food, and gives them free board for several days

3000-05-01 : 2000

Ping remembers the golden egg being passed at the same time as the heretical papers.

Eldon responds to his question have you come across this before he remembers an egg shaped potatoes.

Marla shouts at Doris, she is angry at her attitude towards the monks. She storms across the bar towards the door.

Eldon stands in front of the door and takes a boot off, and puts a foot out to stop her leaving, saying: “Do these toes look trod on ?”

Marla tells them its her mind that they appeal to.

Ping tries to get her to sit with him and fails persuade.

Eldon really doesn’t like this situation and suspects Marla is being coerced.

Eldon stands aside, lets her out and says “good luck!”, she scowls, but Ping follows her very stealthily.

Ping sees Marla walking down the road and she is apprehended by the Dwarf and Halfling monk. She is very upset.

They pray together and they give her a pedant, she is consoled by them and walks away smiling.

Ping goes back to the pub just as Eldon and Fent are about to leave, they return to the spot and the two monks are walking towards them.

Ping walks up to them, Eldon stands back.

Ping says, “we’re all children of Tynera” and wants to pray with them.

Fent is grabs the halfling monk and starts shaking him.

Bishop Harold, the dwarf says: “We’re helping people!”

Fent drops the halfling and starts shaking the dwarf.

Ping incapacitates the halfling monk, and Eldon searches him and finds a Golden Egg Shaped Pendant, short sword and 93sp

Bishop Harold damages Fent, Ping shouts “Don’t kill them!”, and they are now both incapacitated on the floor (XP: 25)

Brother Seamus turns up, Eldon holds up the pendant

Brother Seamus casts charm which works on Fent, a fight breaks out, the charmed Fent attacks Ping. Seamus hums a soothing chant. Eldon tries to intimidate but fails.

Brother Seamus invites them for a drink at The Slaughtered Racehorse which they raincheck

3000-05-01 : 2100

They return to The Golden Coin and take a long rest

XP: 75

▲ B001 Plan

3. If in doubt, echo the themes

• Euphoria + mind control
• Lost identity
  • Weird joy = danger

FIRST ENCOUNTERS
Protest Outside The Racehorse

NPC Names:

Monk names
Brother Bandalf m. half orc
Sister Maria f. Dwarf
Abbot Russ m half elf
Sister Mouzone f gnome
Father jack m human
Bishop harold m human

Motivation need to clarify

Ping Kong’s order is being converted
Adi same but sees opportunity to progress career
Ian worried about state of the world and stopped his hermitage

WHAT GODS ? (Including Ian)

Evil Monks are converting everyone they can
* Particularly preying on the simple but greedy souls of The Slaughtered Racehorse
* When a monk finds a willing convert
* They pray together for 15 minutes
* The monk gives them a Golden Egg Shaped Pendant from that point onwards they feel the effects
* Cultists: https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Cultist

Golden Coin beer cellar has a giant rat

• The Party witness Three Bandits are converted by Monk Name
  • go off to the nearby town Saltmarsh to convert people further (do they realise that they look like bandits and may have harmed people in that town?) at The Slaughtered Racehorse
• Event in a pub (either) Old Hisk visit
• Ping is approached by a teary local halfling woman whose son Brother NAMR is in the monastery and she hasn’t heard from him, she will thrust into his hands 4 halfling cakes +d3 hp, cure poison with (+2 Con & -1 dex for half hour)
• John Corleone is becoming under the sway of their evangelists much to Doris’s chagrin, she stages a Protest Outside The Racehorse
• • Three Bandits return
    • But were mugged on the journey and their pendants stolen
    • They return to Oakville mind flattened
    • They will ambush the party controlled by Neurogeist the Thoughtweaver to attack them
• Thistle gets letter from cleric friend he wants to help, when his carriage shows after the bandit attack he is found dead in it
• The Slaughtered Racehorse has a back room ritual happening tonight - if investigated it’s a room full of dodgy characters wearing pendants playing a famous strategic game (like chess), with the dice board propped up against the wall
  • A version of “King’s Grasp” – part Go, part chess, part unknowable strategy cult classic.
    
  • Locals whisper “no one’s ever won against Brother Seamus.”- If they interrupt, one cultist casually says:
  • “You’re just in time. The Eighth Turn is always best watched with outsiders.”
  • • Insight check?
      High roll: they’re just playing a game… but they’re all unnaturally calm.
      Low roll: the game feels like a ritual and they’ll swear the board just pulsed.
      If a player sits to play?
      Pendant offered.
• Ovak Shadowblade found a torn pendant chain mixed in with fishing nets.
• Seamus walks calmly through the market, handing out pendants, blessing babies.

• The town’s healer Old Hisk’s house ransacked.

• Monastery Investigation Phase

XP
Pub brawl and/aspiring novices
One leads to the other anyway

Add AC and pp

Todo
Need Ian’s spells and work out the roots of his magic

We have a Mindflayer who has a monastery in his thrall, he gives them Thoughtweaver Pendants - which confer intelligence, charisma and joy to their wearers. But they become addicted to them. If they are taken from them they become sullen and under the Mindflayer’s charm from afar.

▲ B001 Plan.sync-conflict-20250624-185425-NKNHE4C

3. If in doubt, echo the themes

• Euphoria + mind control
• Lost identity
  • Weird joy = danger

FIRST ENCOUNTERS
Protest Outside The Racehorse

NPC Names:

Monk names
Brother Bandalf m. half orc
Sister Maria f. Dwarf
Abbot Russ m half elf
Sister Mouzone f gnome
Father jack m human
Bishop harold m human

Motivation need to clarify

Waiting for Someone to come from out of town or Doris sent for them

Ping pong’s order is being converted
Adi same but sees opportunity to progress career
Ian worried about state of the world and stopped his hermitage

WHAT GODS ? (Including Ian)

Evil Monks are converting everyone they can
* Particularly preying on the simple but greedy souls of The Slaughtered Racehorse
* When a monk finds a willing convert
* They pray together for 15 minutes
* The monk gives them a Golden Egg Shaped Pendant from that point onwards they feel the effects
* Cultists: https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Cultist

Golden Coin beer cellar has a giant rat reward food and board for three days (she will ask how long they’re staying)

• The Party witness Three Bandits are converted by Monk Name
  • go off to the nearby town Saltmarsh to convert people further (do they realise that they look like bandits and may have harmed people in that town?) at The Slaughtered Racehorse
• Event in a pub (either) Old Hisk visit
• Ping is approached by a teary local halfling woman whose step son Brother NAMR is in the monastery and she hasn’t heard from him, she will thrust into his hands 4 halfling cakes +d3 hp, cure poison with (+2 Con & -1 dex for half hour) - is he halfling or a kobold or something else
• John Corleone is becoming under the sway of their evangelists much to Doris’s chagrin, she stages a Protest Outside The Racehorse
• • Three Bandits return
    • But were mugged on the journey and their pendants stolen
    • They return to Oakville mind flattened
    • They will ambush the party controlled by Neurogeist the Thoughtweaver to attack them
• Thistle gets letter from cleric friend he wants to help, when his carriage shows after the bandit attack he is found dead in it
• The Slaughtered Racehorse has a back room ritual happening tonight - if investigated it’s a room full of dodgy characters wearing pendants playing a famous strategic game (like chess), with the dice board propped up against the wall
  • A version of “King’s Grasp” – part Go, part chess, part unknowable strategy cult classic.
    
  • Locals whisper “no one’s ever won against Brother Seamus.”- If they interrupt, one cultist casually says:
  • “You’re just in time. The Eighth Turn is always best watched with outsiders.”
  • • Insight check?
      High roll: they’re just playing a game… but they’re all unnaturally calm.
      Low roll: the game feels like a ritual and they’ll swear the board just pulsed.
      If a player sits to play?
      Pendant offered.
• Ovak Shadowblade found a torn pendant chain mixed in with fishing nets.
• Seamus walks calmly through the market, handing out pendants, blessing babies.

• The town’s healer Old Hisk’s house ransacked.

• Monastery Investigation Phase

XP
Pub brawl and/aspiring novices
One leads to the other anyway

Add AC and pp

Todo
Need Ian’s spells and work out the roots of his magic

We have a Mindflayer who has a monastery in his thrall, he gives them Thoughtweaver Pendants - which confer intelligence, charisma and joy to their wearers. But they become addicted to them. If they are taken from them they become sullen and under the Mindflayer’s charm from afar.

▲ Golden Egg Shaped Pendant

Eidoshard Pendant

Purple stone on a copper, or even leather or rope chain. Though the wealthy might have a gold chain. Each stone is uniquely shaped and can only be worn by the one who prayed with it.

• While wearing WIS + 2, CHA + 1
• Loss of ability to read
• Very happy, ecstatic
• If not original owner, each turn CON test 20 or lose d4 HP on the first fail, d6 on the next etc until each time rolling d20

When they’re taken off the ex wearer loses 1 to each INT and cha per hour until 2 at which point they are now under the spell of Neurogeist the Thoughtweaver

Neurogeist the Thoughtweaver

▲ Gorwyn Trisidark

Married to Ovak Shadowblade
Male human 130

Retired merchant (just does enough to keep the supplies coming into the shop once a week on a Monday morning). Spends most of his time mending nets for the local fishermen, because he enjoys it.
He smokes a pipe of Dave’s Best Batch which he had horded in sealed casks in his cellar.

▲ Home

B001 Plan

▲ Monastery Investigation Phase

🧩 Entry Options (Pick or Offer Multiple)

1. Hill Path: Obvious but guarded by two peaceful-looking initiates with eerie smiles. Approach totally visible.

2. Secret Forest Trail (DC 13 Survival): Doris and Ovak Shadowblade say it leads behind the monastery. Overgrown, adults haven’t been up it since they were children, only the bravest children still go. Opens out into an orchard. Hidden approach.

3. Tombs: An ancient tomb that predates the monastery, Gorwyn Trisidark will know about this. People do not go in it. Very hidden approach.
   1. Short access point from the back of a long barrow
   2. Restless Anchorite

🔍 Discovery Points Inside or Near

1. Someone watching from a window, gone when noticed

2. Prayer Garden (public): Converts walking in slow loops, whispering. PCs risk being calm-bombed (Soothing Chant redux).

3. Empty Monastic Registry Room: Records with erased names, overwritten titles (“Initiate of Euphoria”). No books anywhere (bookcases empty).

4. Stone Basin: Filled with murky water. Detect Magic = Illusion. Staring into it causes visions (random PC memory narrated back at them… altered).

5. Acolyte’s Quarters: Neatly made beds, each with a wooden box with velvet inlay pendant case. No books anywhere (bookcases empty).

🧠 Social Encounters

• Initiate Lurien: Seems normal, speaks in metaphor. If pressed, breaks into verse or just starts chanting. Carries a scroll from “Brother Seamus.”

• Kitchen Worker: Actually scared. Will slip them a note: “We’re not allowed to leave. They hear our thoughts now.”

🚪 Optional Cliffhanger

• Locked Chamber with whispers leaking from beneath the door.

• If opened: empty room… except a discarded robe and a pendant floating midair, humming.
  

▲ Oakville Supplies

General store. Run by Ovak Shadowblade an ex adventurer with a mysterious past.

▲ Oakville

Population: ~120

Demographics: Mostly human and lizard people, some bullywugs, some halflings and half-elves

Location: Rocky coastline bordered by dense pine and oak forests and sea cliffs

Oakville is a quiet, weather-beaten village. The locals make their living off the sea, hauling in cod, crab, and swordfish.

“Ocean Road” the main street runs east-west. Small fisherfolk cottages line the street, along with a general store Oakville Supplies an inn and a pub.

Behind the village to the north rises a steep hill on which stands an Oakville Monastery.
South is the beach with fishing boats and jetties.

Pub: The Slaughtered Racehorse north side of the street
Inn: The Golden Coin south side

▲ Ovak Shadowblade

Human female 125 years old. Used to be a fighter (Eldritch Knight).
Married to Gorwyn Trisidark

▲ Protest Outside The Racehorse

Episode: Doris’s Protest

📍 Location

Outside The Slaughtered Racehorse, midday. A drizzle threatens but hasn’t broken.

🧓 Doris’s Setup

Doris stands on a barrel, holding a crude placard (“WAKE UP JOHN”). A few elderly locals and a handful of teens awkwardly join, holding signs like:

• “NO MIND GAMES IN OUR PUB”

• “BEER NOT BRAINWASHING”

• “FREE JOHN CORLEONE”

She shouts:

“LEAVE JOHN ALONE HE’S VULNERABLE

📿 Monastic Countermove

A calm, smiling monk in slate-grey robes approaches: Brother Seamus. He’s charismatic, unnervingly still. He carries no sign—only an Golden Egg Shaped Pendant glowing faintly.

He begins softly chanting in a circular tone—almost musical, definitely magical.

One of the teens drops their sign. Then another.

🎲 Optional Mechanics

Wisdom Saving Throw (DC 13)
Any bystanders (or player characters who listen closely) must save or feel an urge to join Brother Seamus, experiencing peace and clarity for 1d4 minutes.

On a fail: Disadvantage on resisting persuasion while under the influence.
On a pass: They notice the weird shift in atmosphere and can act.

🔥 Doris Reacts

She loses it:

“You parasite! These are our minds! Our town!”

She hurls her placard at him. A crowd forms. Tension spikes. Brother Seamus doesn’t flinch—just smiles.

🧩 Hooks & Outcomes

• If the players intervene calmly, they might help Doris without causing a riot.

• If violence breaks out, Brother Seamus will “forgive” the attackers—and disappear in the confusion.

• If ignored, more locals join him over the next few days. Oakville starts to feel… quiet.

▲ something amiss at the Monastery

▲ The Golden Coin

Rooms for 5sp per night
Tavern: Oakville

A modest, timber-framed building with a thatched roof and faded gold-painted sign depicting a single coin. The interior is warm but dim, lit by oil lamps and a hearth that never goes out. The tavern caters to locals, with sturdy wooden tables, mismatched chairs, and the smell of salt, ale, and roasted fish ever-present.

Owner:
Doris – Middle-aged female Lizardman. Gruff but fair. Keeps a loaded crossbow under the bar and a secret stash of vintage brandy for special guests.

Typical Fare:

• Salt-crusted fish and turnip stew (2 cp)
• Cracked crab claws with brown bread (4 cp)
• Local dark ale “Tide’s Rest” (1 cp per mug)
• A shot of “Dockfire” – strong homebrew rum (2 cp)-

Local Customs:

• Coins are nailed to the bar beam for good luck before a voyage

Regulars:

• Marla Nettlechops
• Denrick off-duty harbor watch, often drinks alone
• Marshmad & Grumble - Half Orc local musicians (fiddle and drum), play most nights for room and board

▲ The Slaughtered Racehorse

• The tavern sign is an old, weather-worn painting of a decapitated horse
• The floor is sticky with ale and patches of blood and other things.
• The owner’s a former gangster named John Corleone, who won the pub in a game of cards
• Back room with snugs used for criminal activities.

Menu Highlights

• Horsekiller’s Ale – thick, dark, and smells like smoked oats
• Five-Copper Stew – “meat” is unspecified; don’t ask
• Race Day Sausage – suspiciously greasy, sold half-price after midnight

Customers

Smugglers Jack and Jill, very shifty that’s their only names
Thieves Guild postman Pippin Geepee
Father Jack, drunken monk

▲ Three Bandits

1. Kev Black-Tooth – A scarred human with a cruel grin and a penchant for fire.

2. Miran the whisperer – A stealthy half-elf known for silent ambushes and poisoned daggers.

3. Rughan One-Ear – A brutish half-orc who leads raids with loud war cries and a massive axe.

▲ B000

B000 Session Zero

Session Date: 2025.06.09