Layer Marney Tower is Tudor-era country house (a large mansion) whose construction was never completed. It has a staff of servants and construction workers but has had no owner in residence since the passing of Lord John Marney in 1525. No resident, that is, except for a ghostly white cat that continually knocks over armor, claws up the plaster, and generally makes a catlike mess of things.
Read MoreAdventure Frame for Magonomia - The Gullimore Ghosts
As a preview of our upcoming Magonomia supplement, 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England, here’s the completed text of another of the 101 frames” “The Gullimore Ghosts” by John Tibbetts and Mark Lawford.
I promise not all of the adventure frames are about ghosts or cemeteries. We are posting this in October, so we couldn’t resist.
About Adventure Frames
Many game masters don't play published adventures as written, but rather use them as a source of ideas for their homebrew games. An adventure frame is just the essential plot structure for a one-session adventure—the part people are most likely to use. It's the spark to set your imagination running. Details of specific scenes, characters, and challenges can be filled in as the game master wishes. An experienced game master should be able develop an adventure frame into a customized story in about thirty to sixty minutes.
Shewstone Publishing's adventure frames are presented in "hook, line, and sinker" format, originally developed by Jolly Blackburn in Shadis magazine in the 1990s. The hook is the opening scene or scenes that motivate the player characters to participate in the adventure. The line is the set of fun events and challenges that make the adventure worth playing. The sinker is a surprise, usually a plot twist, that makes the adventure unique and memorable. The sinker can often be omitted if you want the plot to be more straightforward. Finally, preparation notes give you an idea of what homework the game master should do to get ready to run the adventure.
The Gullimore Ghosts
Stock image from 123RF.com. Used with permission.
by John Tibbetts and Mark Lawford
Summary: Find out why ghosts are congregating at the town of Gullimore
Content Warnings: Death, desecration of graves
Genre: Mystery
Place: A small town
Time: Any era
Length: Medium (2-4 hours)
Hook
The (fictional) market town of Gullimore has a ghost problem. Ghosts arise every night, screaming and pleading for peace. It started six months ago with a single ghost, but now there are at least a dozen. No one has been harmed, but the villagers cannot get any sleep. Gullimore is at a crossroads that many merchants travel, and the disruption to trade has become so severe the sheriff (a high official responsible for public safety) has offered a reward to anyone who can put the ghosts to rest.
Line
Arriving in Gullimore to investigate, the PCs find that they aren’t alone. Others have heard of the problem—and the potential reward—and have decided they will solve the problem.
If the PCs have any particular rivals, they may be present and ready to make trouble. Other, less experienced investigators try to tail the PCs to learn what they know and to try to get the jump on them. Others still are there to sell charms to the townsfolk to ward off ghosts and to ensure a quiet night’s sleep. It’s as though the investigators are as much a problem as the ghosts themselves.
As for those ghosts, they appear to be recently dead—within the last six months or so, which aligns to the length of time the problem has been ongoing. There is no shortage of witnesses, and the fear and dread has turned to annoyance. At night, during the witching hour (between 3 and 4 o’clock), the investigators flock to the streets to try to commune with the ghosts, to catalogue them, and to ward against them. All the while, the ghosts wail and complain at their disturbed rest.
Speaking to the ghosts is not very informative. They know their names and something of their former lives, but they’re obsessed with being unable to rest and are fruitlessly searching the for what disturbed them.
If the PCs ask the townfolk who the ghosts are, they find the spirits are not local, but there are witnesses who recognize them. One identifies old Rob, a stonemason from yonder town. Another identifies Meg, a farmer’s wife from the other end of the county.
Following the trail to those locations, the PCs can find the ghosts’ graves and can determine via magic or physical inspection that those final resting places have been robbed and the bodies removed.
Sinker
The ghosts are rising because body snatchers have been digging up graveyards throughout the area and stealing the corpses to sell to physicians in the nearest city (likely Cambridge or Oxford or somewhere with a university or medical school). The hauntings are directed toward the body snatchers, who must be caught and the bodies returned to their graves to end the nuisance.
The body snatchers are Bill Tanner and his son John, and they have some limited magical power bought from a theurgist, specifically a kind of ward that hides them from ghostly attention (see the attached spell description). The Tanners live in a quarter of the town that the ghosts mysteriously avoid, and their tanning business takes them across the county collecting animal hides and bringing them back to Gullimore for treatment—a perfect cover.
The bodies have been sold to the medical school, studied, and then buried in unmarked pauper’s graves in the nearest large cemetery.
Preparation Notes
You may need a few fellow investigators, each with their own motives and methods, some of whom are schooled in the magical sciences. You’ll also need to note that there is a small district of the town that has remained free from the ghostly invasion. When asking questions in that area, the PCs will learn that the neighborhood is actually where the haunting started, which suggests someone has done something to change things there.
Keywords: Ghosts, body snatchers
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Adventure Frame for Magonomia: The Angel of Stone
As a preview of our upcoming Magonomia supplement, 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England, here’s the completed text of one of the 101 frames: “Angel of Stone” by Jaclyn Lewis.
About Adventure Frames
Many game masters don't play published adventures as written, but rather use them as a source of ideas for their homebrew games. An adventure frame is just the essential plot structure for a one-session adventure—the part people are most likely to use. It's the spark to set your imagination running. Details of specific scenes, characters, and challenges can be filled in as the game master wishes. An experienced game master should be able develop an adventure frame into a customized story in about thirty to sixty minutes.
Shewstone Publishing's adventure frames are presented in "hook, line, and sinker" format, originally developed by Jolly Blackburn in Shadis magazine in the 1990s. The hook is the opening scene or scenes that motivate the player characters to participate in the adventure. The line is the set of fun events and challenges that make the adventure worth playing. The sinker is a surprise, usually a plot twist, that makes the adventure unique and memorable. The sinker can often be omitted if you want the plot to be more straightforward. Finally, preparation notes give you an idea of what homework the game master should do to get ready to run the adventure.
Angel of Stone
by Jaclyn Lewis
Summary: Protect Hampshire from a vengeful tomb effigy.
Content Warnings: Death of a child, Death by decapitation
Genre: Mystery
Place: A prosperous parish, such as Elvetham in Hampshire
Time Period: Any era
Length: Medium (2-4 hours)
Hook: Well-to-do gentleman Edward Havishire summons the wizards to aid him with a problem. The children of his peers have become increasingly dismissive of their duties, instead chasing rumors of an Angel of Stone that has been sighted prowling various estates by night, and is said to rush toward sinners with blinding speed. Edward is particularly nervous for the young people’s well-being, as many of the teens were friends with his late daughter, Rebecca.
Line: The “Angel'' in question is Rebecca’s tomb effigy. During the day, the effigy rests in the cemetery by the parish church, but at night, it wanders about as a tomb warden, searching for Rebecca's friends from life. The wizards must track the source of the “Angel” to the church, perhaps get past other overprotective tomb wardens in the cemetery, and determine, through magical or conversational means, that Rebecca’s necklace has been stolen, provoking her tomb warden's ire during her nightly excursions.
Sinker: When Thomas Chester’s son Frances goes missing, the wizards find his body near the grounds of the parish hall . . . and his head several yards away, struck by a stone sword. The wizards must locate the necklace, which he had stolen and given to his paramour, Agnes, before Rebecca strikes again.
Preparation Notes: Create an encounter, combat or otherwise, with a tomb warden (use the statistics for a Tomb Warden from A Bestiary of Enchanted England, page 134, or create your own). Choose a pretext for how Rebecca's tomb warden obtains a sword: either her tomb effigy includes a sword contrary to expected gender roles, or the tomb warden takes a sword from the effigy of a nearby male relative. Develop ways for players to discover the truth of the stolen necklace, and, if desired, craft personalities and social dynamics for Frances, Rebecca, Agnes and the other young people of Hampshire.
Keywords: Theft, teenagers, cemetery, murder, tomb warden
Tomb Wardens
From medieval times and into the Tudor era, wealthy or prominent people were buried above ground in large, hollow stone blocks that enclose the coffin. These tombs are as likely to be found in churches as in mausoleums. The top of the tomb is usually carved into a tomb effigy, which is a life-sized statue of the deceased lying as if asleep. Tomb effigies are made of unpainted stone (often marble) and, for mens' tombs, usually include a carved sword and perhaps armor.
Legends speak of tomb effigies coming to life to defend the church or mausoleum from thieves. In Magonomia, such animated effigies are called tomb wardens. They're possessed by some kind of spirit but theologians of Enchanted England doubt that it's the ghost of the dead person. It's thought more likely to be some kind of minor angel—or devil—that comes without being summoned by any mortal. Being made of stone, tomb wardens move with a ponderous gait but have a magical ability to move quickly when no one is looking at them directly. They use this tactic to cut off thieves from escaping before they attack. Tomb wardens are merciless, known for decapitating their victims with their stone swords. The best hope to survive a tomb warden's attack is to drop any ill-gotten treasures and run for your life.
Additional lore and adventure ideas for tomb wardens can be found in A Bestiary of Enchanted England.
About the Book: 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England
The title says most of what you need to know: it’s a book of 101 adventure frames set in Enchanted England. The book is designed with a general gaming audience in mind: although rooted in English folklore and Renaissance magic, the adventure frames are system independent and can be adapted to nearly any fantasy or urban fantasy campaign. Coming to Kickstarter in Spring 2025.
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Tales of Renaissance Wizardy: A Glass Half Full
by Chris Hopper
Tales of Renaissance Wizardry is a series of short adventure outlines for use in tabletop roleplaying games. ©2020 Shewstone Publishing LLC. You are permitted to use, modify, and redistribute this article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike (CC BY-SA) license.
Background
Thirty years ago, Cassio Perno and his associates were invited by Henry VIII to bring Venetian glassmaking to London. For far too long the English aristocracy had relied on continental imports, and with the new church of England, many Catholic glassmakers were now beyond their reach. It was the king’s intent that cristallo soda glass and decorative engraving be brought not only to his new church, but to the secular world. And as England grew, so did the demand for glassware.
Queen Elizabeth has a more practical concern. Her wizards regularly require pure, stout glassware for alchemical concoctions. The stained glass, window, and table trade is great for England’s burgeoning economy, but the steady demand of wood-fired kilns is an expensive undertaking. Jean Carre, a Norman glassmaker relocated to the industrial forests of Sussex known as the Waeld, claims to have revolutionized the industry. His glass is stout and sturdy and, more importantly, made with coal and ash instead of fresh wood. The wealth of coal available in England would free up precious hardwoods for boats and buildings. But before the queen signs an exclusive contract with him she wants you, her wizards, to put his product to the test.
One of the other experts, Cassio Perno, is set on sabotaging Carre to maintain his hold over the industry. When the wizards presence makes his plan more difficult, he resorts to increasingly extreme measures to ensure the Norman falls out of favor of the queen.
Scene 1: Meet the Glassmakers
The characters are called to Oxford, where Jean Carre is to present his new glassware to the Queen herself. She is fond of her visits to Oxford, and excited for the opportunity to witness these claims firsthand. After the characters are briefed on this summons, read or paraphrase the following:
A light rain falls over the Jesus College in Oxford, splashing against the thick bubbled glass of the plated windows. A galley of court attendants crowds around flustered academics in the lecture theatre as a young huguenot sets up a series of demonstrations before the Queen and her advisors.
Jean Carre, the presenting huguenot, is a conservatively dressed calvinist with a thick french accent. He wears murrey woolens and the flat topped hat of a woodland worker, and seems out of place in both the bright silks of the court and the black robes of academia. After a series of basic demonstrations, he explains that his process is made using the by-product of industries the queen has already engaged. No longer will she have to burn precious oak, when his glass can simply be made with the leftover ash and lye.
Queen Elizabeth is not so easily won over. After a brief consultation with her trusted advisor and court magician Dr. John Dee, she declares that her wizards will be joining the academics in putting his alchemical equipment to the test.
As the attendants file out, Dee will take the opportunity to ask the characters what methods they’d like to use, and recommend a few of his own. He warns that there are many established suppliers of royal glass that don’t wish a newcomer competing on their field, and encourages the characters to keep an eye on the proceedings.
The attending experts from Oxford are:
Cassio Perno, an elaborately dressed man in his fifties. He speaks with only the faintest italian accent. He’s friendly and polite as decorum requires, but cruel-eyed and clearly intimidated by the younger craftsman. Perno is an accomplished Alchemist, with stats to challenge the wizards if it comes to open combat.
Giuseppe Regio, a young Venetian specializing in avertine (opaque, copper-treated decorative glass). He prefers academic dress and is especially interested in the magical applications of alchemy.
Siegfried Messer, a German chemist whose expertise is in explosives and other reactants. He’s here as a reagents expert, but also out of academic curiosity. He’s in his mid-forties and dresses unremarkably. Of the three, he’ll be the friendliest to the wizards.
Scene 2: The Tests
If they have the appropriate backgrounds, the characters may take a few moments to devise tests of their own, otherwise the academics do so. Choose one or two examples below as opportunities for the characters to interact with the experts, or to catch an act of malicious intent. It’s important that Perno not blow his cover at this phase: the sabotage is in the setup of the test, not the action itself.
Heat tolerance. The glass is placed inside a crucible that is fed bit by bit until the heat causes it to shatter. Perno will sneak a hotter burning wood like oak, birch, or cherry into Jean Carre’s side of the crucible.
Stain. Egg wash and silver powder paints are used to fill etchings on vibrant window glass. While this is decorative, it serves an important purpose for a number of magical applications as well. The wizards may use the piece to attempt a scrying challenge. Perno will dilute the silver with cadmium, burning it to a flat black if successful.
Acid. Increasingly dense concentrations of vitriol (sulphuric acid) are roasted into oil of vitriol. Perno will swap it with the dangerous Aqua Regia to destroy the glassware outright.
Thermal Density. Glassware is heated in the same crucible as before, then doused in water to see if it will crack. This would also be difficult to sabotage, but Perno may have some clever means of weakening the glass prior to it being heated.
The glassmakers brought their best pieces to Oxford, but after the Trials the academics will want to see the glassmaking process itself. Carre’s Wealder glasshouse is two days away by carriage, outside Tunbridge, south of London. The academics will gladly offer to share a carriage with the wizards the next morning.
Scene 3: That Night
The wizards are given rooms at Oxford for the night. These are well-appointed, though the town of Oxford is clearly straining economically. Elizabeth’s reign has made university towns rife with conflict between religious reformers, Catholics, and various class issues. If the wizards decide to sneak out for whatever reason, they may find themselves rolled into a ditch for their finery.
Cassio Perno hopes to use this as cover to murder Carre. He talks the Norman (and anyone who wants to tag along) to a pint at the Bear, where he slips a bit of Monkshood onto his glass. This maneuver is well-rehearsed, and should be hard (but not impossible) for the wizards to spot, if they’re present. If using Magonomia, the Subtle Poison Alchemy spell should be used for this.
Wizards who spot the action must work quickly to save Carre, and detain Perno at the Tavern. If he realizes he’s been caught, he’ll call on the aid of a couple of hired toughs and slip out into the night, relying on alchemy and stealth to avoid being personally involved in the fight.
If the wizards were not in attendance at the tavern, it’ll be up to their investigative skills to uncover Jean Carre’s murderer.
Scene 4: Investigating the Murder
If the wizards didn’t visit the tavern, or failed to detect the poisoning, they’ll wake the next morning to find the campus buzzing about the death of their guest. As the queen’s wizards, they’ll be in a prime position to aid the local constabulary in the investigation. Interviewing the other experts and staff will reveal the following:
Cassio Perno will be open and honest about befriending Jean Carre by treating him to an evening at Oxford’s finest alehouse. He will allow the characters to search his quarters, having disposed of the poison outside the Bear last night.
Giuseppe Regio joined Cassio and Carre, but turned in after a single drink. He didn’t hear or see anything else that night
Siegfried Messer is too old for that, and hadn’t left the campus. He heard Carre stumbling around the room.
A witness at the bar, a commoner or servant, may have seen Perno slip the poison.
Characters with divination or medical knowledge may detect the poison around Jean Carre’s room, which looks to have been tossed a bit before he collapsed into bed. If they pursue the murder to the Bear, a servant named Emma Burgess will have witnessed the poison slip, but have no evidence beyond her word. Searching the grounds will find the vial, but magic will again be required to link it to Cassio Perno.
Wrapping Up
If the characters prevented Carre’s murder, he’ll compose himself and demonstrate his remarkable process with pride, impressing the remaining wizards and academic experts with his simpler method of production and clear results.
If Carre is murdered and Perno captured or killed, the Crown will commend the wizards for dispensing justice but express their regrets at a failure to prevent catastrophe.
If Cassio escapes, he’ll slip away from Oxford to lay low until the whole business is forgotten. He’s well established in London, and continues to provide his Murano methods for years. The remaining academics will attempt to reassemble Carre’s methods, but never fully reproduce his methods.
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men …
We played this scenario as part of the Magonomia Actual Play video series: you can watch the entire game session using the YouTube link below. I thought the scenario played very well — though in our case it didn’t quite go as written. That’s a strength, not a weakness, of the scenario: we went a little off script but the concept of this adventure was clear and complete enough that I (the GM) never felt lost or stuck.
When we launch the Shewstone Podcasts, one of our episodes will be an interview with me, the GM, and Chris, the writer, talking about what went well and what was most helpful in the material he wrote. Until then, you can check out our actual play video and compare for yourself!
— Andrew Gronosky
Anne Boleyn's Ghost
Tales of Renaissance Wizardry is a series of short adventure outlines for use in tabletop roleplaying games. Since Halloween is coming, we’ve offering a ghost story this month! ©2020 Shewstone Publishing LLC. You are permitted to use, modify, and redistribute this article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike (CC BY-SA) license.
attributed to Lucan Horenbout, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Content warnings: Blood and gore, false accusations of incest
A minor nobleman, Henry Stoke, is embarrassed that the ghost of the Queen's mother appears in his hall occasionally. It's a reminder his ancestor helped with the plot to have her executed. The Queen appears as a decapitated corpse, carrying her head in both hands, and glows with a ruddy light. He finds it terrifying, and his servants keep leaving. He asks the player characters to banish the ghost.
Anne Boleyn* is unusual, in that it intermittently haunts six different places in England.. The player characters can determine her schedule. She appears at Stoke Hall only at the new moon following the anniversary of the day in late April 1536 on which the current lord's ancestor signed a deposition against her.
Many ghosts follow a routine, often ignoring their surroundings. The player characters need to prepare a way to catch Anne's attention, so they can communicate with her. She appears in the master bedroom, then walks down the stairs, through the main hall, and across to a little private chapel. This is the path she took on her first visit, following Henry's ancestor as he fled her, seeking the refuge of the Divine. No-one remembers why she follows this path, save Anne.
Her route through the house is known by the servants. The information is, however, tangled up in a complicated, oral tradition about how to avoid the ghost. Other parts of it are far less accurate – for example each of the servants carries a feather inside their clothes. They say the ghost never attacks someone carrying a feather, because a falcon was the badge of Anne's family. This is superficially true, but only because Anne has never attacked anyone. One of the ancestor's servants was in the ghost's path, and he didn't understand why the ghost ignored him. He thought it must have been the feather he carried for luck, and passed this on to the rest of the servants.
Anne wants to be vindicated of Henry's claim she was unfaithful, particularly the charge that she had an incestuous relationship with her brother, which the original Stoke swore to. She doesn't want to terrify the player characters – she's not even aware of their presence at the beginning of the encounter. Anne doesn't control how or when she appears. One simple way to let her rest is showing her a coin with the Elizabeth Regina mark: her daughter has been legitimised. As a less sweeping solution, if Henry Stoke speaks to her, cursing the memory of his ancestor and saying that all men know he lied, she will leave this particular hall alone in future.
If the player characters lay Anne to rest, she disappears from the minor hall, but also disappears from the rest of her haunts , including several royal palaces. When the royal ghosts go missing, powerful people become concerned. The queen's advisers want to know she hasn't been put in a bottle by the Spanish. This adventure may bring the PCs into the Queen's service.
Adapting to Other Game Systems
This adventure is much more connected to a historical setting, specifically a fantasy version of England, than it is to a particular rule set or magic system. If your game is not set in an Earth-like setting, you can of course make up your own tragic story of a queen or high noblewoman who was executed on trumped-up charges. You’ll need a way to deliver that story to the players without a long lecture. The first thought that comes to mind is to have a minstrel sing a tragic ballad about the incident: make up a stanza or two of the lyrics and summarize the rest.
Pay attention to what spells and powers your game system provides for dealing with ghosts, and make sure to give the player characters a reason to investigate and talk to the ghost instead of simply attacking it.
Editor’s Note
I requested this adventure outline to be about 500 words long. That’s a bit shorter than some other articles in this series. Timothy did a great job fitting an entire evening’s game session into a very brief word count.