The Nightmare Before Anamas
Can you save the lost children of Portertown?
Adventure Overview
Winter has come to the Kirinal Concordance Zone and everyone prepares for the biggest holiday of the year, Anamas, the Feast of Anam, God of Justice and Patron of the Zone and the Sovranty. However, children are getting lost in the bustling crowds and under the twinkling lights.
The great ki-rin Moon Breeze, Protector of Children and leader of the Heavenly Council has assembled you and your friends to find the lost children. You must bring them home in time for Anamas... or avenge them.
By Summons of the Heavenly Council of Ki‑rins
It's Anamas Eve , the day before Anamas, and you stand at the gates of the peaceful Empyrean Ki-rin Monastery on the eastern edge of the Zone.
The doors open and you are greeted by a cheerful baku, the small brightly colored creature has the body of a cat, the head of an elephant, and the shimmering coloration of a hummingbird. "Welcome to the Empyrean! I am Aki! Word of your exploits has reached us and the great Moon Breeze needs your help!"
You enter the immaculately maintained grounds of the Monastery. Every tree, bush, and leaf of grass is expertly manicured and mindfully placed to ensure maximum introspection. Aki ushers you to the central koi pond. Small islands stud the pond, connected by bridges and rock paths.
The majestic ki-rin, Moon Breeze, stands in a pagoda waiting for you. "Welcome, this is the busiest time of year for the Heavenly Council. We're preparing for the feast of our patron Anam and the traditional Gifts Giving to all the children in the Zone & Sovranty!"
"A group of parents in Portertown, near Magister's Enclave has reported that a dozen or more of their children have gone missing in the past few weeks. The authorities there do not care about the non-mages who serve them and the Zone Authority has no jurisdiction in this matter."
" It falls to me, as the Protector of the Children of the Zone, to find and save these children... or avenge them. I cannot step away from my Anamas duties, but I sense that something awful is happening here. Help me with this and I will be in your debt."
Moon Breeze Notes
Moon Breeze genuinely wants to help but has no extra time during the Anamas season. She has carved out a few minutes of her schedule, but she has to get right back to preparing for GiftsGiving. She told the party everything she knows. If they take the job she gifts them the following.
- Potion of greater healing for each character
- Ring of the ram with 3 charges
The Gourmet Golems
Chocolate Chip Kid
Djellical Infants
Do you know him?
Gingerbread Boy
Gingerbread Girl
Horde of ursa gummies
Sweet Sour Kids
The Kookie Kaiju
Inspired by Emily Armstrong's amazing Culinary Punk.
These tiny cookie and candy creations are the center of everything that is happening. They are animate cookie and candy folk who are bound to the service of the hag Blathering Blanche.
She creates them in her Transmog Oven by perverting the magic of Anamas Eve. On that night, she performs a ritual that transforms people into edible creatures under her command. Gourmet Golems slowly regenerate over time. Blanche breaks pieces off to use as free ingredients in her bakery.
She prefers to use children in the ritual because they become the most delicious ingredients: cookies, candies, and other sweets.
Additionally, Blanche has discovered that her golems can turn invisible to everyone except for certain children. Kids who haven't been fully warded against evil spirits can see her creations. The little cookie and candy golems lure those un-warded kids away from their homes. Blanche's Buttery Bakers paralyze the children with their poison claws and bring them back to the Bakery in their food cart.
Gourmet Golem Clues and Secrets
Throughout the adventure, the characters can discover information by making the correct checks. Here are some examples. Feel free to come up with your own!
DC15 Perception: You feel like you are being watched constantly
DC15 Persuasion: You convince the gourmet golems to become visible to only you. They assist you as much as they can.
DC17 Survival/Perception/ Investigation: Small invisible creatures are following the party around, but not engaging with them.
DC18 Perception/Investigation: You see a flash of a little cookie or candy person following you around. They fade from sight.
DC18 Persuasion: The gourmet golems befriend you. They allow your entire party to see them. They wordlessly lead the party to the children. They try to warn them about the Bakers and Blanche herself. Also, they give each player an inanimate copy of themselves that act as a magic charm or a potion of healing. (Determined by the DM.) They are activated by eating them.
Little invisible gourmet golems are everywhere throughout the adventure. Even though they serve Blanche, the golems yearn to return to their former lives. They can no longer speak, but they can be convinced to help the party. Whenever the party makes certain types of skill checks, check the Gourmet Golem Clue chart.
The golems have limited free will. They must follow the direct orders of Blanche and her Bakers. However, they can act in limited ways when their rulers are not around.
The gourmet golems are skittish they do not know who to trust. They can sense that help may be coming, perhaps Moon Breeze's attention has awoken hope in them. Any attempt at Intimidation scares them off.
The golems suspect that destroying the Transmog Oven will release them. If the party gets the golems to trust them, they communicate this in pantomime.
This one-shot adventure was designed to be played with the 5E D&D ruleset. It's meant for a group of 4-6 3rd-level characters, but can be easily adapted for higher level characters or other RPG systems. It begins in the Ki-Rin Forest and takes you to the dark city of Magister's Enclave and the streets of Goblin Town. It's meant to be an introduction to my world and the Kirinal Concordance Zone.
Primer for the Zone
Plot Synopsis for the GM
- The party is summoned before the Great Ki-rin Moon Breeze and told that several children from poor families have gone missing in the past few weeks. She suspects the Aswang or the Hags of Goblin Town. She assigns you the task of finding them and rescuing them.
- Upon interviewing the families, the party discovers that, for various reasons, the children had not yet undergone the Celebration of Children, and were not properly warded against evil spirits.
- Investigating around the homes the party discovers no signs of a struggle. Just the children's footsteps walking away from their homes and towards the Food Cart Festival in front of the gates to Magister's Enclave.
- They encounter a variety of food cart vendors and come across evidence of gourmet golems and clues to the missing children.
- Their questioning notifies an aswang clan, the Buttery Bakers, who have been kidnapping poor un-warded children for the hag Blanche of Goblin Town.
- They attempt to kidnap the party. If they succeed, the party awakes in the clutches of the hags. Otherwise, the aswang flee, bringing the party to Goblin Town.
- In Goblin Town dozens of children are held in the stock room of Blanche's Buttery Bakery. They are held in cages on wheels and guarded by the candy/cookie "gourmet golems" that lured them away.
- The hags sacrifice the children on Anamas Eve in the name of Anam's enemy Azgorth. Their souls become a new crop of gourmet golems under the control of the hags.
- The party can save all the children by attempting to rescue them themselves. If they call for help or leave and come back, the children are taken to a second location and never heard from again.
Pregen Characters
Players may use their own character or pick a pre-generated character. Their character sheets are at the bottom of their articles.
Western Gate of the Enclave
You gasp as you approach the gleaming obsidian towers of Magister's Enclave. The stones of the city are infused with protective magic. The streets are lit with witchlights on every corner. A troop of polished skeletons in immaculate armor march past under the control of a dark elf necromancer.
As you get closer you are diverted to the wooden shanty town hidden in the shadows of the magisterial magnificence of the Enclave. The Portertown Tenements consist of affordable housing surrounded by wooden walls. It houses those who serve the mages. Despite the cheap materials, the homes are well made and the streets are relentlessly neat and clean.
Here, the non-mages who serve the Magisters of the Enclave live. Only spellcasters are allowed to live in the city itself, and all non-casters must leave the city walls at night. The residents are poor, but proud and distrustful of magic. They rely on their own practices and traditions to keep out evil spirits.
They all belong to the Anti-hedron movement. They do not "bear the ident-a-hedron" and have no official status in the Zone. They are being exploited by unscrupulous employers in the Enclave. They try not to attract attention from the Zone Authority for fear of being deported from the Zone.
Interviewing the Parents
You have been given the names and addresses of the parents and guardians who called for help: Papa Knudsen, Karin Overgaard, and Manong BongBong. They can interview any of them that they wish.
Papa Knudsen
Papa is a gnarled middle-aged human commoner who works as a porter in the Enclave's main train station. His twin children Hardy and Gitte have been missing for three days.
"Thank Charos, you've come! We didn't know who else to turn to. The last we saw them they took their coppers to visit the Anamas Food Carts. They said they could get real griffin pies from the Cantrip Cart for a copper!"
Karin Overgaard
Karin is a self-righteous human acolyte and a leading Anti-hedron. Her minor charms and limited blessings protect the children of the community. However, she has overestimated how long they last. She knows this but refuses to acknowledge it. Her young son Teddy went missing the day before.
"My baby walked out the front door right here when I was cleaning my house. I heard him say, "Look at the candy man!" And then he was gone! Please find my boy!"
Manong Bongbong
The human guard Bongbong is an immigrant from the Talin Islands recruited to come to the Zone by the Anti-hedrons. His is part of a squad of unofficial guards hired by the residents of Portertown. His family recently sent two nieces to live with him, Aniyah and Maracellla. He is furious after they were taken two days ago.
"Who would have thought that a magic horse would care about our children more than our own rulers? They only want the sweat and labor that they can extract from us. Of course, our kids mean nothing to them!"
Parental Clues & Secrets
The party can discover the following information by investigating the area or interviewing the parents. Call for the skill checks using the following list as appropriate during their investigations or role play.
DC 10 Investigation/Survival: Candy and cookie bits at the scene of the disappearance.
DC 12 Investigation/Survival: Tiny humanoid footprints leading to the food carts
DC 13 Arcana/Investigation/ Perception/Religion: While talking to the parents you notice their lack of ident-a-hedrons
These parents never had their children blessed in the Celebration of Children.
"Of course, we don't put any witchy charms or pagan agimat on our children! The natural humours of our people are all the protection they need!"
Food Cart Festival Grounds
Just outside the gates into the Enclave, crowds gather in a square filled with food carts from around the Zone. The brightly colored wagons display a variety of cuisines from around the world and throughout the dimensions. You can find anything you want, from familiar favorites like meat pies and fried doughs to more exotic fare such as balut of varied species and sprouted rat.
A group of lesser aswang (ghouls in human form) have been kidnapping un-warded children throughout the Zone. They have found a high concentration of them in Portertown, where many parents don't take part in the Celebration of Children. The lesser protections they use are easily overcome. They have already brought the children to the Bakery for processing, but have returned with their food cart to gather a new crop.
Food Carts
There are a dozen carts assembled to catch the Anamas Eve crowds. A survey of the carts reveals the most interesting ones:
Yum's Hot Rat Cart
The goblin Ratcatcher serves a goblin delicacy called the Sprouted Hot Rat (6 cp). It's a hygienic barbecued rat on a stick that has sprouted mushrooms and selected greens.
Rats are served on a bun, on a stick, or in a moss roll.
DC 12 Perception: He glances uneasily at Blanche's Bakery Buggery. As a native of Goblin Town, he knows that the Bakery is a front for gangs and organized crime.
"Getcha hot rats here! We only got the fattest rats! Dry aged in bottles of Nazzy Bain beer!"
Food Cart Clues & Secrets
DC 10 Investigation/Perception: Cookie/candy bits tiny footprints fill the food cart area.
DC13 Invesitagion/Persuasion: Children in the area have reported seeing little cookie and candy people walking amongst the food carts. The adults think they're just reporting on the normal population of spirits in the Zone. The gourmet golems can become invisible, but only to adults.
DC15 Arcana: The Enclave is inherently magical, you can tell that an extra layer of hidden illusion, transmutation, and some necromantic casting taking place around the carts.
DC 18 Arcana/Religion: The area stinks of undead and necromantic energy. You detect a hint of aswang, especially around the Buttery Bakery Cart.
Laela's Organic Bowl Cart
Run by a dark elf named Laela who sells mushroom cap bowls (1 sp) filled with protein and toppings selected by the customer.
DC 13 Persuasion: She's aware of small invisible spirits around the carts, but thinks they're just the ordinary spirits common to the Zone. They seem to congregate around Blanche's Buggy.
"You can't see the little cookie and candy people walking around everywhere? I thought everyone else could see them too. This is the Zone, spirits are everywhere."
Starchew's Craveable Cantrips
"You can have anything you desire! Make sure you eat it in an hour!" (1cp) Run by Starchew, a hustle culture kobold dropout from the Sekaran Academy.
DC 11 Arcana: He uses the prestidigitation and minor illusion cantrips to hide the fact that he's serving flavorless gruel. He can tell the party that the Bakery cart uses much more magic than he ever does, even if their food is real.
Blanche's Buttery Bakery Buggy
This large cart serves delectable desserts for 1cp each or 1sp for a dozen. They include cookie kids , jelly babies, chocolate rabbits, and candied blood bites. The cart seems to be overstaffed, with six huge smiling attendants, in smocks printed with "Buttery Bakers", going back and forth at all times.
Aswang ghouls with large sacks carried over their shoulders stalk the crowds of Anamas celebrants. They lure children into out-of-sight areas with gourmet golems (animate gingerbread men, chocolate bunnies, and jelly babies). The golems are enchanted to be invisible to everyone except children who haven't been warded by the Celebration of Children. They paralyze their prey with a scratch of their claws and bring them back to the Bakery cart in flour bags.
Aswang Abduction Attempt
As the party asks around about the children, the ghouls become aware and ambush the party.
One ghoul attacks for each PC. They pick a hidden area and attempt to paralyze the PCs and bring them to Blanche's Buttery Bakery to be sacrificed during the Anamas Eve festival.
If half or more of the ghouls are defeated in combat, they retreat to Blanche's Buttery Bakery in Goblin Town.
DC 13 Arcana/Religion: The attendants give off mild necromantic energy. They are aswang, mortals infected with a bad spirit that turns them into ghouls whenever they wish.
DC 15 Investigate/Perception: You can hear muffled whimpering coming from inside the cart. There are 4 children in cages hidden in the back.
If the party discovers the children, they can attempt to fight the six attendant ghouls or they can follow the Cart into Goblin Town that evening when it heads back to the Bakery.
Anamas Eve Rescue
The kidnapped children are being held in Blanche's Buttery Bakery in Goblin Town, another non-mage borough for servants of the Enclave. This goblin settlement is underground in the hills outside of the Enclave. The party either follows the clues leading them to the bakery or the aswang kidnap them and they awake in a cage in the same room that the children are being held in.
Blanche's Buttery Bakery
Blanche's Buttery Bakery is next to the market in the underground city of Goblin Town. The smell of fresh cookies and hot caramel reaches you before you can see it. This jolly building dominates its block and appears to be completely made out of gingerbread. The sign above the door depicts a laughing happy woman with rosy cheeks. Real frosting covers the walls and the doorknobs and decorations are made out of candy. The Bakery is closed for Anamas Eve, but a huge sign out front says, "Happy Anamas Eve! Brand new treats available tomorrow!"
The bakery is secretly run by the green hag Blathering Blanche. She secretly controls the trade of baked goods in the Magister's Dominion. She runs different goblin and aswang gangs. The tribe of aswang ghouls, the Buttery Bakers, have her full attention this night.
Storefront
The front doors to the bakery are locked, but you can see into the empty storefront through the sugar glass windows. You can see flickering lights coming from the kitchen in the back.
A quick circuit of the building shows that all of the windows into the building are covered over with wax paper. You can see shadows moving around inside as well as the shimmering lights. The back door leading into the kitchen is also locked. The entire eastern side of the building is windowless.
The unlit room is full of cookies, cakes, candy, and other treats stored in boxes, bags, and waxed papers. The room is festively decorated for the Anamas season.
The players can open the doors quietly with a DC 15 Sleight of Hand, Theives Tools, or Tinker's Tools check. The door can be forced open with a DC 12 Strength check, or the windows can be broken without a check, but that alerts those within.
The Transmog Oven
The kitchen is dominated by an immense clay oven in the back corner of the room. The glow from its fire lights up the room, throwing odd shadows everywhere at unnatural angles. Workers dressed in the Buttery Bakers uniform have thrown off their mortal forms to reveal fanged mouths and claws dripping with paralyzing toxins. They wheel tables from another room into this one, each one with a paralyzed child, eyes spread wide with fear, strapped to it.
Before the oven itself, you see Blanche herself, a green-skinned horrific version of the cherubic woman depicted on her signs. She opens the door of the oven and pulls out a baking tray. A chocolate chip child emerges, its eyes brimming with tears of white frosting.
"A chocolate chip child! We haven't had one of these in years! I'll make a pretty penny selling pieces of you!"
She turns as she senses your presence. "Infidels! How dare you interrupt my unholy ceremony! Butter Bakers, get them before they can stop us! Maybe they'll be good for gumdrop men in the Transmog Oven!"
Anyone in the oven must make a DC11 Charisma save or be transformed into a Gourmet Golem (roll on the chart). The DC goes up by 1 every round until the person leaves the oven.
About the Oven
- The oven is a magic item with AC 15, 27 HP, and a Damage Threshold of 4. It is destroyed if it's reduced to 0 HP or if the witch is pushed into it and the door is closed.
- On Anamas Eve it can be used in a ritual to transform children into gourmet golems: gingerbread men, toffee people, gummy people, candy cane people.
- Pieces of the golems can be broken off and then restored with a mending cantrip.
- Blanche has been using them as free ingredients in her baked goods, vastly improving her profit margin
There are three aswang ghouls in the kitchen. Each ghoul has a wheeled table with a child strapped to it. They are perfectly willing to hide behind the children, using them as cover. When she becomes aware of the party, Blanche yells, "Rise my delicious ones!", The cookies on the tables animate and assemble together into kookie kaijus (I prefer stats for animated glass statue. Otherwise use animated armor stats, but lower AC to 10 and give them pack tactics). They fall apart into their constituent sweets when destroyed or if Blanche dies.
The brittle cookie constructs have just enough awareness to use pack tactics. The ghouls and kookie kaijus fight to the death and keep themselves between their mistress and the players. Their goal is to paralyze their opponents one by one to gather more ingredients for the hag.
Blanche herself stands in the back, hurling insults (vicious mockery DC 12, 3d4 psychic damage) at the party from afar. If she is blooded (reduced to half hit points), she turns invisible and attempts to escape. Although the Bakery is one of her favorite rackets, it's not worth her long life.
That Old Trick
The quickest way to win the combat is to push the witch into the oven and close the door. At the beginning of each round, roll a 1d6. On a result of 1-3, she is to the side of the door. On a 4-6, she is in front of the door, preparing it for her next victim. She can be shoved in with the Ring of the Ram given to them by Moon Breeze.
Otherwise, a player can throw her in the oven by successfully maintaining a grapple for two rounds: one round to grab her and another to throw her in the oven. Blanche and her ghouls will of course fight to the death to prevent this.
The Storeroom/ Gingerbread Dungeon
The back storeroom has 7 cages in it, each filled with 3 or 4 children paralyzed by the claws of the ghoul. These unsanctified children have been kidnapped from around the Zone. There is no guard in this room as the Buttery Baker ghouls have begun the Transmog ceremony that turns children into Gourmet Golems.
The locks require a DC 15 thieves' tool check to open. The doors can be broken open with a DC 18 Strength check. Blanche and one of the Buttery Bakers have a key on them that will open these locks.
Gingerbread Escape
If the party was captured by the ghouls in the previous chapter, they awake in one of the cages, stripped of their gear and armor. They have not been healed and anyone who was reduced to zero HP now has 1 HP. Read the copy on the right.
Once Aki has released them, the party has 1 minute to don armor, prepare gear, and cast spells. If the party has befriended any gourmet golems, they find one potion of healing each and a charm of restoration with their gear.
Then they hear a ruckus in the next room as furniture falls over and equipment turns on all by itself. They hear Blanche say, "It's a baku. Kill it."
Begin initiative. If the party stays in the room at the end of Round 1, Aki is downed. At the end of Round 2, Aki is killed and the ghouls burst into the storeroom.
You are startled awake by horrific cackling. You sit in a cage, stripped of your armor, gear, and weapons. The Buttery Bakers have shed their mortal forms, their skin an unhealthy green, their teeth yellow fangs, and their nails have grown into black talons. They come in and out of the room, loading paralyzed children from their carts, and wheeling them into the main kitchen.
Through the opening and closing door, you see that the ritual is well underway. Half the cages are empty and ten children have been turned into gourmet golems. The triumphant Blanche is planning to add her new creations to tomorrow's menu.
As you realize the severity of your situation, a small voice whispers to them from the shadows. "My friends!" says Aki the Baku, "It is distressing to find you brought so low! I am naught but a little baku, but I will help as much as I can."
The baku disappears for a few agonizing minutes and a key drops into the cage with you. "I got this off when of those horrible ghouls for you! Please! Save the children! Your gear is in a flour sack against the wall! I will distract them as much as I can." Aki goes invisible again.
Winning and Losing
This adventure has several possible win or loss states:
Full Win
If the party manages to destroy the Transmog Oven and kill Blanche all of the golems turn back into children at the age they were when they were transmogrified. Their years as golem fade into memory, only to be remembered in nightmares. Moon Breeze and her bakus arrive to return the children to their relatives.
Each member of the party is rewarded with an appropriate uncommon magic item and they receive a hair from the ki-rin's mane. They may summon her for aid once with the hair.
Partial Win
If the party drives away Blanche or destroys the Oven the newly transmogrified golems turn back into children. However, the older gourmet golems are not automatically restored to their correct bodies. Through the magic of Anamas, Moon Breeze returns their memories to them and they become a type of cookie or candy Soulforged. Their families may or may not accept them back.
Each member of the party receives a potion of healing from the grateful parents. Moon Breeze gifts each of them with a common magic item.
Partial Loss
If the party fails to kill Blanche or destroy the oven but does escape with some of the children. They are able to report Blanche's crimes to Moon Breeze and the Zone Authority. They learn that Blanche's Buttery Bakery has disappeared along with the hag and all the gourmet golems. Blanche declares a vendetta against the party and seeks to undermine and kill them for the rest of their lives.
Roll a 1d6-2 to randomly determine how many, if any, of the Portertown children are saved. The parents whose children come back are overjoyed while those who lost their kids fill with despair. The party receives 2 potions of healing as thanks. They receive a promise from Moon Breeze and the Authority that they will call on the party if they locate Blanche again.
Full Loss
The party and the children disappear, never to be heard from again and they become gourmet golems, mere ingredients to be used by Blanche's Buttery Bakery.
How did you make a rat sound appetizing? Skill. You have it.
Lol! I hear it's an acquired taste!
For your consideration, my submissions for the WorldAnvil Worldbuilding Awards 2024. (I've also included some of my favorites other worldbuilders.)