The Bulging Baby Filled Beauty

This makes for a good slow-burning mini-adventure, placed in any remote area between adventure locations. The party will come across a small lodge that seems to accept guests on their journey, a ramshackle thing that looks in desperate need of renovation but it at least provides a roof and a reasonably clean place to sleep.

Its owned by an elderly man by the name of Albert Barnes. Not that he'll give up the information readily but he used to be a sailor many years ago, a well travelled man who has seen a lot the world has to offer and apparently not been impressed by any of it.

He has three dutiful daughters; Elizabeth (32), Imogen (30), and Courtney (27) who bring in a little money as seamstresses and, should the opportunity arise, prostitution. Albert does not seem aware of the latter method, or willingly ignores it.

Sadly his wife, Irene, passed away about five years previously. If the daughters are asked about her, they'll be happy to share their memories of her and talk about how pretty and funny she was, how caring her soul was - she probably even baked every day, and always had a twinkle in her eye. If you're wanting to tip the players off that there's something more to this place than meets the eye, have one of the daughters slip up and refer to her mother as still being around.

On the first encounter, one of the daughters is pregnant but the other two will try their best to seduce any males in the party. They'll initially suggest a price but be more than happy to continue without issue unless the characters act really out of order. It'll be a great night for the characters and they may continue on their travels the next day without issue.

When the characters next pass that way, they'll learn that the daughters are now pregnant (if the characters didn't sleep with them, someone else certainly did). The one daughter who was already pregnant reveals that sadly she lost the baby during birth. She will try her best to seduce a character if she can now, however.

This pattern will continue for sometime so long as the players don't investigate further. Each time they pass, some of the daughters will be pregnant, with the others having recently lost their child. If the family is pressed about this high mortality rate, they'll get upset. Albert may suggest its something in the water, or one of the daughters may admit they believe its God punishing them.

The truth, as to be expected, is far worse.

When Albert's wife Irene passed away, Albert thought he had lost her forever but was overjoyed when he heard her voice as he tried to sleep. Her spirit talked to him as he lay in his bed that night, explaining that it was possible to bring her back to life - all he had to do was fill her body with offerings of love from the children.

Her body is currently in the cellar; her insides have been carved out and her body instead packed with numerous dead babies. Albert has been taking the freshly birthed babes and stuffing them into the carcass, not taking the time to kill them, with the tiny lives either starving or suffocating inside the remains of Irene.

At present there are currently about 9 babies shoved inside. The daughters are fully on board with this plan as they trust their father implicitly and they of course love their mother, even if she's not choosing to talk to them at the moment for some reason.

If the players investigate, they'll find the grotesque bulging baby beauty slumped across a table in the cellar. If the daughters discover the players, they'll raise the alarm for the father to come who will in turn likely kill the players off. There may be a temptation to capture them and use the males for breeding but this would likely be more trouble than not.

At some point however, Irene is going to come to life. She'll slowly slide off the table as her limbs begin to erratically move and snap around. Her head will loll to the side, eyes unseeing, lips parted and slack. The sound of several babies crying will begin to pierce the air, shrieking from her gaping chest cavity.

What's her next move? Several possible ideas:

• Really a twisted demonic spirit, the form of Irene will go on a massacre because why not?
• It really is Irene, but she didn't want to come back like this, and will try to kill herself.
• It really is Irene, but she didn't want to come back like this, and will try to kill Albert.

I think a mix of the last two is ideal; she kills her husband in despair before killing herself somehow. Could be neat to, as her corpse hits the ground, have the now demonic babies spring out and try and kill the daughters (or anyone in their path).

Stat her as you please, but I think you'd be letting the side down if you didn't include some kind of saving throw or similar to see if the characters sufficiently shit themselves. Albert will presumably be delighted to see his wife up and about until she starts attacking, and the children will likely be terrified - this isn't quite what they were expecting.

The idea is that Albert has gone mad with grief. I toyed briefly with having him being affected by some nearby source, or perhaps the family being cursed in general by some demon, but I think the madness angle works best.

The intention is to have this running in the background between adventures, something small to distract the players. If the players don't investigate and aren't interested in checking out any hooks, it'd be delightful for one day the players to find the lodge empty save for the corpses of the whole family in the cellar along with several dead babies.