Mini Adventure: The Face of the Temptress

I have written a short OSR adventure free for download entitled The Face of the Temptress. You can get it here.

Including one new monster, one new spell, and one new magic item, The Face of the Temptress explores the ideas of curses, possession, manipulation, and temptation in a new way. It is designed to occur as a series of short events and encounters around other adventures, creating a character-centred sub-plot in your campaign.

Below is the introduction and Overview for the adventure:

Introduction

---

Twenty Seven Hundred years ago Bassanta was a sorceress of incredible beauty - and subtlety. She was a temptress, blackmailer,  influence peddler, and rumour longer. On her whim simple soldiers could rise to riches or power, businesses could grow or crumble, and people could die. She was called "The Whisper-Queen of Lantash." And the known world feared her...

...but Lantash is gone and forgotten. It's people dust and bones in buried ruins. Her great power: less than a footnote in history. The great and terrible Whisper Queen died in the same disaster as thousands of her country-folk. The gods of Lantash, in their cold wisdom saw that the Hell she had earned would be not nearly as cruel as allowing Bassanta to linger on the mortal plane and see how little her Empire came to.

Overview

---

The Face of the Temptress is a simple meta-adventure; it is several events that occur during rest and downtime leading up to a final encounter. The events can be interspersed during and between several other adventures.

The adventure begins when the PCs collect a haunted object shrouded in illusions. The undead spirit clinging to it begins the process of manipulating  and eventually possessing one of the PCs. A final showdown occurs when the PCs try to exorcise their possessed companion or the object.

This module was written using the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopaedia as the primary rules resource; it should be compatible with any B/X, BECMI, or AD&D based TTRPG. I have noted both ascending and descending armour classes and both a ThAC0 and Attack Bonus to accomodate more modernized systems. I have also referred to OSRIC to offer Advanced-compatible spells.

Note on Themes: This adventure contains themes of emotional manipulation, spiritual possession, and includes changes to a PC without their permission. If you have players who are uncomfortable with themes of psychological abuse or who are uncomfortable with having their character changed, you might want to give this one a pass.