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Curse of the Headless Horseman | 5th-Level Fifth Edition Adventure
🕑 Added 2021-10-11 21:26:10 +0000 UTC
A headless horseman haunts a village every year at harvest, dragging his victims into the foggy woods
Free Headless Horseman Token Download for everyone attached to the bottom of this post!
CURSE OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN
Curse of the Headless Horseman 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. The spirit of a headless horseman has haunted the village of Miremoor for centuries, appearing each year at harvest time to claim a new victim. The time has come for the horseman to ride again. Can the adventurers learn the truth of the horseman’s curse and end his reign of terror? This adventure occurs in the Freelands campaign setting but fits any existing campaign with only a few modifications and name changes.
Backstory
Once a year, the sleepy village of Miremoor has been plagued by a ghostly headless horseman that rides a midnight steed and drags those foolish enough to be caught into the night. Some say that he was a warrior killed centuries ago in the Great War who sought vengeance against the descendants of his killer. Others believe the village to be cursed for the sins of their forebears, and one family, in particular, believes themselves to bear the brunt of the curse somehow.
The Meadowfeather family has operated the village mill for generations and are well-respected members of the community. However, of all of the families in Miremoor, they have felt horseman’s wrath the most, losing dozens of their bloodline over the years. They do not know why they are targeted so often but believe they are cursed for something that occurred in the past.
The hidden truth is that the horseman is under a curse placed on him by the wife he betrayed centuries ago. Teng Yang was an elven warrior who fought in the five hundred-year-long Great War. A fearless knight and cavalryman, he fought for years at the front lines of the war away from his home and wife, Li Yang. During that time, he fell in love with a human woman named Jillian Meadowfather, who bore him a child. When he was killed in battle, and Li Yang came to claim his body to bring it home, she was enraged to discover the truth of his betrayal.
Li Yang’s heart burned with the desire for vengeance, and she used dark magic to summon the spirit of her unfaithful husband, using his decapitated head to control the specter. She has spent the last two hundred years living in Miremoor as an herbalist named Yennefer Moonbow, secretly summoning the horseman each year to target the Meadowfeather family and those who cross her.
Adventure Summary
The characters come to the village of Miremoor to root out the cause of the dark spirit that plagues them. After a careful investigation that leads them closer to the truth and fending off the apparently unkillable ghost, they find the horseman’s still-beating heart buried in the nearby cemetery. The heart leads them to a dark temple hidden in the woods protected by the spirits of those he has slain. Inside the temple, the characters must defeat the horseman and lay his spirit to rest once and for all.
New Monster: Headless Horseman
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