The Beast of Ravengate: A Level 5 Folk-Horror Mystery (SL-A-001)

AT A GLANCE

Adventure at a glance

System: Edition-neutral fifth-edition fantasy roleplaying

Party: Four to five 5th-level player characters

Length: One long session or two standard sessions

Setting: An isolated village, a cursed moor, and the night of a full moon

Modes of play: Investigation, social conflict, wilderness danger, ritual defense, and a climactic monster encounter

Content notes: Murder aftermath, grave exhumation, mob violence, involuntary transformation, religious zealotry, and body horror without graphic gore

What the characters must do

The characters have until moonrise to determine why the killings continue, recover the cursed pelt that anchors the evil to Ravengate, and decide whether Tanner Morwen—the unwitting werewolf—can be saved. Killing Tanner stops tonight’s immediate threat. It does not end the curse.

What is actually happening

Months ago, hunter Tanner Morwen killed a black wolf of impossible size on the moor. He found the creature already wounded and believed the pelt would make a fine trophy. The animal was only the mortal body of the Fell Beast of Gloom, a predatory spirit that survives through its hide.

Each full moon, the pelt forces Tanner into a wolf-shaped body and uses him to spill blood. The murders nourish the spirit. Tanner remembers the attacks only as nightmares seen through another creature’s eyes.

Matilda of the Moors understands the curse. She can bind the spirit long enough for the characters to destroy or cleanse it, but the ritual requires three anchors: the pelt, wolfbane gathered where the beast first bled, and blood from its most recent victim. Father Gregor believes Matilda caused the killings and is preparing a mob to burn her hut before nightfall.

The adventure’s central choice

The characters can save Tanner and break the curse, kill Tanner and leave the spirit anchored to the land, or bargain with the Fell Beast for a temporary peace. None of those outcomes should be hidden behind a single ability check.

Running the mystery

Do not require the players to guess the author’s intended answer. Give information when they investigate sensible places, question relevant people, or use appropriate magic. Checks determine cost, speed, and additional detail—not whether the adventure continues.

The three revelations

The investigation needs to establish three facts.

1. Tanner becomes the killer. His nightmares contain accurate details; his injuries match the attacks; and his disappearances follow the full moon.
2. The pelt causes the transformation. The curse is strongest in Tanner’s cellar; black fibers appear at crime scenes; and Tanner’s hunting journal records the day he brought the hide home.
3. Matilda’s ritual can end the curse. Her notes describe the three anchors; Fenna Rootbinder sought her help before dying; and the grave victim’s blood reacts visibly to wolfbane near the pelt.

Each revelation has at least three routes. If the party overlooks one clue, move another clue into the next reasonable scene.

The clock to moonrise

Use four stages to keep the village moving.

• Arrival—The funeral: The party reaches Ravengate as Ruth Gloomveil is buried. Father Gregor publicly blames Matilda.
• Afternoon—Fear chooses a target: Rumors spread. Gregor’s supporters gather at the Tooth and Nail. Tanner disappears from public view.
• Dusk—The mob forms: Unless delayed, Gregor leads villagers toward Matilda’s hut. The party must persuade, divide, misdirect, or physically block them.
• Moonrise—The beast wakes: Tanner transforms wherever he is. If the pelt has been moved, he instinctively hunts toward it. If the party has begun the ritual, the Fell Beast manifests inside the binding circle.

Failures should advance the clock, injure an ally, strengthen the final monster, or turn a neutral villager hostile. They should not erase evidence.

Opening: The bell in the fog

Read aloud

The road to Ravengate winds through woods of black branch and wet stone before opening onto a moor without horizon. Fog drifts over the heather in long, pale bands. Somewhere ahead, a bell begins to toll. The village appears only when the road reaches its square: a stone chapel, steep roofs pressed close against the wind, and six people carrying a coffin toward an open grave. No one speaks. When the mourners notice you, hope does not reach their faces. Suspicion does.

Mayor Edgar Ravenshade meets the party after the burial. Baron Lucian Draegor has hired or ordered the characters to stop the killings before the full moon rises tonight. The mayor offers rooms at the Tooth and Nail, access to the victims’ homes, and 500 gold pieces if the village survives the night.

Father Gregor interrupts. He names Matilda as the cause and demands the party arrest her before she escapes justice. A character who watches the crowd notices that several villagers repeat his accusation before they could have heard any evidence.

What the DM should establish

• A seventh death is expected tonight.
• The village believes silver and an execution will solve the problem.
• The mayor wants an investigation but fears losing control of the crowd.
• Father Gregor is dangerous because he is certain, not because he is secretly supernatural.

Ravengate’s people

Mayor Edgar Ravenshade

Wants: The killings stopped without civil bloodshed.

Fears: The village will discover he cannot protect them.

Offers: Access, authority, and a place to work.

Withholds: His brother Aldric was injured on the moor and lied about how.

Edgar is tired, observant, and willing to be convinced. If shown two pieces of material evidence, he gives the party authority to search homes or open Ruth’s grave. Without evidence, he asks them to act discreetly.

Matilda of the Moors

Wants: The pelt destroyed and Tanner saved if possible.

Fears: The mob will kill Lina after killing her.

Offers: The binding ritual, knowledge of the moor, and an omen for each character.

Withholds: She confronted Tanner about the pelt weeks ago and failed to stop him.

Matilda is old, composed, and impatient with theatrical superstition. She does not call herself a witch. She admits to studying “beasts of the moon” because someone had to understand what was killing the village.

Tanner Morwen

Wants: To be told that his nightmares are not memories.

Fears: That they are.

Offers: Hunting knowledge, a partial account of the black wolf, and eventually the location of the pelt.

Withholds: He wakes outside with blood, mud, and wounds he cannot explain.

Tanner begins defensive, not sinister. If treated as a person rather than a suspect, he admits that each nightmare begins in his cellar and ends with the taste of iron. If cornered or threatened, he flees toward his cabin and attempts to destroy the pelt by ordinary fire, which cannot harm it.

Father Gregor

Wants: Matilda condemned before uncertainty weakens his authority.

Fears: A world in which his certainty causes harm.

Offers: Testimony Fenna gave before her death and access to the chapel records.

Withholds: He omitted Fenna’s final sentence: “Matilda believes the hunter brought the evil home.”

Gregor is not possessed and does not serve the Beast. He is a frightened man turning fear into permission. Evidence can split his followers even if it cannot change him.

Aldric Ravenshade

Wants: A target he can strike.

Fears: Appearing weak after being gored while rescuing a trapped ram.

Offers: Muscle, knowledge of the moor, and a reluctant account of Tanner’s recent behavior.

Withholds: The embarrassing cause of the horn-shaped scar across his chest.

A successful DC 13 Medicine or DC 15 Nature check identifies Aldric’s wound as a goring, not a claw mark. The truth clears him but also gives the party a route to the hollow where wolfbane grows.

Lina “Leaf” Willowbranch

Wants: Matilda protected and Tanner’s suffering treated.

Fears: Becoming the mob’s next convenient explanation.

Offers: Healing herbs, Tanner’s sleep remedies, and directions to Matilda’s hut.

Withholds: Tanner asked whether her strongest sleeping draught could keep a person unconscious through the full moon.

The victims

The order of death matters because it shows the attacks becoming bolder as the Fell Beast gains strength.

1. Thorne Greycloak, miller. Killed beside the millrace. His death began the panic.
2. Edwin Blackbarrow, farmer. His quarrelsome brother Harl is an obvious but false suspect.
3. Fenna Rootbinder, midwife. Consulted both Gregor and Matilda before her death.
4. Maris Eldwater, fisher. Lina’s friend; black fibers remained beneath her fingernails.
5. Ruth Gloomveil, cobbler. The most recent victim, buried as the characters arrive.
6. Darian Quickstride, hunter. Missing, not dead. He found Tanner’s cellar and is hiding injured on the moor.

Changing Darian from a corpse to a missing witness gives the party someone to rescue and prevents the victim list from functioning only as background.

Places, clues, and complications

The Tooth and Nail tavern

The tavern is where fear becomes collective action. By late afternoon, Gregor’s supporters use it as a meeting hall.

Characters who spend ten minutes listening learn one rumor without a check. A DC 12 Charisma check uncovers two; a clever bribe, performance, or round of drinks uncovers three.

• Aldric hid a chest wound that Lina treated.
• Tanner buys remedies for sleep and sometimes wakes outside.
• Matilda owns books about lycanthropy and lunar spirits.
• Harl profited from Edwin’s death.
• Darian meant to prove Tanner was a fraud.
• Matilda warned hunters away from the western hollow.
• Everyone condemns Matilda in public; nearly everyone has sought her help in private.
• Tanner carried a huge black hide through the village months ago.

Complication: One rumor the party repeats publicly reaches Gregor, who twists it into evidence against Matilda or Lina.

Tanner’s cabin

The cabin is orderly aboveground and rancid below. A trapdoor beneath the meat larder opens into a stone cellar.

Automatic clues: Deep claw marks score the inside of the trapdoor. Black hair is caught in the wood. Tanner’s journal dates the first nightmare to the night he brought home the pelt.

With investigation: A DC 13 Investigation check finds the pelt wrapped in sailcloth inside a salt chest. A character using magic to sense supernatural influence does not need the check. Touching it forces a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw; on a failure, the character sees a victim’s final moment and is frightened until the end of their next turn.

The pelt: Ordinary flame blackens but does not consume it. Silver cuts it, but each cut releases a Gloom Echo. It can be destroyed safely only while the binding ritual is active.

Matilda’s hut

Bundles of herbs hang from the rafters. Open books, careful notes, and three bowls prepared for the ritual fill the main table.

Automatic clues: Matilda’s notes name the pelt as an anchor and list the three ritual components. A copied page in Fenna’s hand reads, “The hunter brought home a shadow wearing skin.”

If Matilda trusts the party: She explains that Tanner is the Beast’s instrument, not its master. She can suppress the transformation for one hour with wolfbane, but only the full ritual can separate them permanently.

Complication: At dusk the mob arrives. If the characters have exposed Gregor’s omitted testimony, found Darian, or secured the mayor’s support, the mob begins divided. Otherwise, it begins hostile.

The cemetery

Ruth’s grave is freshly turned earth beside the chapel wall. The party needs only a small vial of blood, not the body itself.

The mayor can authorize exhumation if shown evidence. Father Gregor can be persuaded with a DC 15 Charisma check if the characters appeal to protecting the living rather than defending Matilda. Characters may also act secretly, use magic, or substitute blood recovered from Ruth’s cobbler shop.

Cost of failure: Publicly forcing the grave open without consent gives the mob one step of hostility. It does not prevent the party from obtaining the component.

The western hollow

Wolfbane grows where cold water gathers beneath a split standing stone. Aldric knows the route. Matilda can mark it on a map. Darian lies in a nearby cleft with a broken leg and bite wounds.

Run the journey as three obstacles. The party needs two successes before two failures using different reasonable skills, tools, spells, or plans.

• Cross the sucking fen (DC 13). Failure costs time and one Hit Die from exhaustion and cold.
• Find the standing stone in the fog (DC 14). Failure triggers an attack by three Gloom Echoes.
• Harvest wolfbane without spoiling it (DC 13). Failure still yields enough for the ritual, but its fumes poison the harvester for 1 hour unless treated.

Finding Darian is automatic if the party searches after the second obstacle. He saw Tanner transform near the pelt and can give direct testimony. Returning him alive breaks the mob’s certainty.

Matilda’s omen reading

Matilda casts black seeds onto a brass plate. Each player rolls a d10 or chooses an omen. A character can invoke their omen once during the adventure to gain advantage on the specified roll. An unused omen expires at dawn.

1. Shadows of the past: An Insight check involving a victim’s associate.
2. Wolf among sheep: A Perception or Insight check to notice concealment or a lie.
3. The moon’s edge: The character’s first attack roll after moonrise.
4. The offered bargain: A Persuasion check made during a negotiation.
5. The broken chain: An Investigation check involving the pelt or ritual.
6. Blood on the wind: A Survival check on the moor.
7. Raven over the grave: A Medicine or Investigation check involving a body or attack site.
8. The beast within: A Persuasion or Intimidation check made against Tanner.
9. Watcher in the fog: A Perception check in fog, darkness, or concealment.
10. The hour of reckoning: Any one saving throw made during the final encounter.

The omen offers leverage. It never identifies the culprit or replaces investigation.

The first attack

If the party rests, delays until late afternoon, or needs direct evidence, Tanner partially transforms and attacks near the tavern stables. Use the Cursed Wolf statistics with half its hit points. The creature’s goal is to bite one isolated target and escape toward Tanner’s cabin, not fight to the death.

After taking 25 damage, being struck by silver, or hearing Tanner’s name spoken by someone he trusts, the creature flees. A character who succeeds on a DC 14 Perception check notices one human eye in the wolf’s face. Blood or fur from the attack points toward the same cellar-bound curse.

If a character is bitten, do not impose permanent lycanthropy without player agreement. Instead, use Moonmarked: until the curse ends, the character has advantage on checks to track the Beast but disadvantage on the first Wisdom saving throw they make after moonrise. This is an adventure-specific supernatural effect, not a claim about an official rule.

The mob at Matilda’s hut

Treat the mob as a social encounter with three levels: hostile, divided, and dispersed.

Start divided if the characters have the mayor’s backing, Darian’s testimony, or evidence that Gregor withheld Fenna’s words. Otherwise start hostile.

Each strong argument supported by evidence improves the crowd one level. A threat without visible power, an exposed lie by the party, or violence against a villager worsens it one level. Relevant checks are usually DC 14. A character who addresses a specific person or faction with a concrete appeal may succeed without a roll.

• Hostile: The crowd pushes forward. Matilda cannot begin the ritual until the party creates space.
• Divided: Gregor retains a hard core of six supporters, but the rest hesitate.
• Dispersed: The villagers withdraw or help prepare the circle. Gregor may stay to denounce the party, but he cannot command them.

If combat begins, use commoner-level villagers who flee when injured. The point is not to reward cutting through frightened civilians. Violence should change Ravengate even if it saves Matilda.

The binding ritual

The ritual can be performed at Matilda’s hut, in Tanner’s cellar, or at the western hollow. The characters draw a 30-foot-radius circle, place the pelt at its center, and combine wolfbane with the victim’s blood.

Matilda needs three rounds to complete the binding. At the end of each round, one character adjacent to a ritual anchor must use an action to make a DC 14 Arcana, Nature, or Religion check. A different credible approach is allowed. The ritual advances even on a failure, but the failure causes a complication.

1. Round one—Name the vessel: Tanner must be inside the circle or represented by blood freely given. Failure: Tanner transforms immediately and begins within 10 feet of a vulnerable character.
2. Round two—Call the shadow: The Fell Beast is pulled from the pelt. Failure: two Gloom Echoes appear.
3. Round three—Sever skin from spirit: Silver, radiant power, or a character’s deliberate sacrifice of a Hit Die cuts the bond. Failure: the Fell Beast begins the final battle with 20 temporary hit points.

If Matilda is incapacitated, another character can finish the ritual after reading her notes. The DC becomes 16, but the adventure does not automatically fail.

Final encounter: The Fell Beast of Gloom

When the third ritual round ends, read:

The pelt rises without wind. Its empty head turns toward you, and something vast presses against the hide from the wrong side. The circle flashes gold. For one breath, Tanner and the shadow occupy the same shape. Then the bond tears. A wolf made from fog, hunger, and old moonlight lands inside the circle. It looks at the village beyond you—not as a home, but as a larder.

The Fell Beast fights intelligently. It attacks whoever maintains the circle, uses fog to isolate targets, and offers bargains when reduced below half its hit points.

The circle

While at least two of the three ritual anchors remain intact, the Fell Beast cannot use Shadow Passage, loses its resistance to nonmagical weapon damage, and cannot move more than 30 feet from the pelt.

An anchor has AC 12 and 15 hit points. A character adjacent to a damaged anchor can repair it with an action and a successful DC 14 Arcana, Nature, or Religion check. Clever magical or physical repairs can work automatically.

Ways the encounter can end

• Destroy the spirit: Reduce the Fell Beast to 0 hit points while the circle holds. The pelt collapses into ash and Tanner is freed.
• Cleanse the pelt: After the Beast falls below half its hit points, a character adjacent to the pelt can use an action for three accumulated successes on DC 15 Arcana, Nature, or Religion checks. A failure deals 2d6 psychic damage to the acting character but does not erase successes.
• Accept a bargain: The Beast offers to leave Ravengate for a year and a day if given the pelt and a willing bearer. It keeps the exact words of the bargain and exploits everything left unsaid.
• Kill Tanner: If Tanner dies before separation, the Beast loses its vessel but escapes into the moor. The murders stop for one lunar cycle, then resume through a new bearer.

Creature statistics

These original statistics use familiar fifth-edition conventions without depending on a specific printing of the rules.

Cursed Wolf

Medium shapechanger, unaligned while transformed

Armor Class 14

Hit Points 85 (10d8 + 40)

Speed 40 ft.

STR 18 (+4) · DEX 15 (+2) · CON 18 (+4) · INT 10 (+0) · WIS 13 (+1) · CHA 8 (-1)

Saving Throws Con +7, Wis +4

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +5, Survival +4

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that are not silvered

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14

Challenge Approximately 4

Keen Hearing and Smell. The wolf has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Bound to the Pelt. While within 60 feet of the pelt, the wolf knows its direction and cannot willingly move farther away.

Multiattack. The wolf makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) piercing damage. A humanoid hit must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become Moonmarked until the curse ends.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.

Break Away (Recharge 5–6). The wolf moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks. It may move through another creature’s space during this movement.

Gloom Echo

Medium undead spirit, unaligned

Armor Class 13

Hit Points 22 (5d8)

Speed 0 ft., fly 40 ft. (hover)

STR 6 (-2) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 10 (+0) · INT 7 (-2) · WIS 12 (+1) · CHA 14 (+2)

Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Damage Immunities necrotic, poison

Condition Immunities grappled, paralyzed, poisoned, prone, restrained

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Challenge Approximately 1

Incorporeal Movement. The echo can move through creatures and objects as difficult terrain. It takes 5 force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

Avoid the Marked. The echo cannot willingly end its movement within 5 feet of a Moonmarked creature unless that creature damaged it since the end of its last turn.

Withering Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (3d6) necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the start of the echo’s next turn.

Fell Beast of Gloom

Large spirit, cruel and calculating

Armor Class 15

Hit Points 127 (15d10 + 45)

Speed 50 ft.

STR 20 (+5) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 17 (+3) · INT 11 (+0) · WIS 15 (+2) · CHA 16 (+3)

Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +6, Wis +5

Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6

Damage Resistances cold, necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks while the ritual circle is weakened

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened

Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages understands the languages of its current bearer; telepathy 60 ft.

Challenge Approximately 7

Fog Body. The Beast can occupy another creature’s space. The first time it enters a creature’s space on a turn, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the end of its next turn.

Shadow Passage. While fewer than two ritual anchors remain intact, the Beast can move through solid objects and creatures as difficult terrain. If it ends its turn inside an object, it takes 10 force damage.

Multiattack. The Beast makes two attacks, only one of which may be a bite.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.

Raking Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage, and the Beast may pull the target up to 10 feet.

Breath of the Moor (Recharge 5–6). The Beast exhales freezing fog in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in the area makes a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 27 (6d8) cold damage on a failure or half as much on a success. The area is heavily obscured until the start of the Beast’s next turn.

Slip Between Shadows (Reaction). When a creature misses the Beast with an attack, the Beast moves up to 15 feet without provoking opportunity attacks.

Scaling the adventure

For three characters: Reduce the Fell Beast to 105 hit points, use two Gloom Echoes on the moor, and remove its reaction.

For six characters: Increase the Fell Beast to 150 hit points and allow it to use Slip Between Shadows twice per round, but only once per turn.

For a less combat-focused group: Each cleansed ritual anchor deals 15 force damage to the Beast. Social and investigative success can therefore shorten the final fight.

For a harder horror game: Begin the final battle with one anchor already damaged and have Gregor sabotage another unless the mob was dispersed.

Aftermath

Tanner survives and the curse ends

Tanner remembers every death once the spirit leaves him. Saving him does not erase the harm. The mayor asks the characters whether Tanner should face judgment, exile, supervision, or mercy. Let the players’ evidence and values shape Ravengate’s answer.

Matilda survives but the village does not reconcile

Ending the curse proves Matilda’s knowledge, not the village’s virtue. Some people apologize. Others insist the result proves she controlled the danger all along. Lina may leave Ravengate unless the party publicly protects her.

Gregor loses the crowd

Gregor can repent, retreat into grievance, or become a continuing antagonist. His future should follow how the party treated him and whether he was forced to confront Fenna’s complete testimony.

The Beast escapes

Black fibers begin appearing on livestock fences miles from Ravengate. The next bearer may be someone who accepts the pelt knowingly. The failure becomes a campaign thread rather than a dead end.

Rewards and continuing threads

• Baron’s payment: 500 gp, doubled if no villagers die after the party arrives.
• Matilda’s favor: Each character receives one packet of moor-wolfbane. As an action, it grants advantage on one saving throw against transformation, possession, or supernatural fear before it loses potency.
• The brass omen plate: If Matilda dies, Lina entrusts the plate to the party. Once per lunar month, it can be used to perform the omen reading.
• Darian’s map: The rescued hunter marked a stone door beneath the western hollow. The Fell Beast was not the only thing buried on the moor.

DM preparation checklist

• Decide why Baron Draegor trusts or hires the party.
• Choose whether the adventure will run in one long session or two sessions.
• Note the three revelations and place their clues where the party looks.
• Print or copy the Cursed Wolf, Gloom Echo, and Fell Beast statistics.
• Decide how graphic the transformation and grave scenes should be for your group.
• Track the four clock stages and the mob’s hostility level.
• Give Tanner a reason the characters may want to save him before revealing what he becomes.
• End by asking what Ravengate does with the truth.

Explore more Guild of Lost Lore adventures.

Independence statement

The Stygian Labyrinth is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast. This adventure uses original text and game statistics intended for edition-neutral fifth-edition fantasy play.

TAKE IT TO THE TABLE

The mystery ends when the players decide what the truth requires.

This adventure is part of Guild of Lost Lore, the TTRPG imprint of The Stygian Labyrinth.

The Stygian Labyrinth is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast.