Margarethe Jägerin: The Huntress

Here is a sneak peek under the hood of Devil's Fork. This is a description of one of seven villians that together form the array of evil that must be stopped by the players.

Since it is a sandbox module, each villain has a progression of plans that will unfold if the players focus on other threats. The longer a villain is ignored, the more powerful they will become. The stats do not inflate, instead the villain's plan come to fruition. In this case, the vampire's thrall becomes more powerful politically.

The artwork shown below has been donated to the project and will appear in the book.

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Margarethe Jägerin is the daughter of a woodsman that lived in the forest north of Pilfurt a little over two centuries ago. One evening in her seventh year, she became lost on a dirt trail returning home from the village. A hungry vampire waylaid her, partook of her blood, and in an act of desperate carelessness infected her with the dread curse. The next morning she awoke with feelings of nausea and confusion. After several hours wandering aimlessly through the forest in a mental haze, her parents finally located her and took her back to their home.

As the moon began to rise, she began to turn and the hunger slowly grew within her gut. By midnight, it was uncontrollable. She succumbed to the curse and descended upon her father, draining him of almost all his blood before being discovered by her mother. The older woman attempted to flee, but the girl's newfound power gave her immense speed and she easily chased her down just a few feet of their house. Within moments, Margarethe had committed her second murder.

After this monstrous rebirth, she concealed herself within the home for several days during which she experienced alternating waves of grief, anger, and dementia. She was now an orphan, cast adrift in the world like a leaf on the wind. It is a hard enough task for the soul to mature in a body of flesh, but in the world of the undead it is a fate almost unimaginable. She grew up alone, feared, despised, and forced to commit heinous acts merely to survive.

Yet survive she did. Now hardened by centuries of monstrosity, she has cultivated a callous disregard for humans. The naive little girl who found herself cast out into a cold heartless world is long gone, replaced with a wicked soul consumed by hatred and contempt. Margarethe is dead in a very real way, blown away in the winds of time. All that remains is the Huntress, a name whispered only in secretly among peasants by candlelight.

[Stat block and powers descriptions]

Lair:

The Huntress has taken up residence in the cellar of an old chapel in the woods outside Pilfurt. Her family worshipped here when she was a child and she has a special attachment to it. It has been abandoned for several decades now and almost completely concealed by ivy and vines. Reclaimed by the forest, it is a symbol of the life she once had. Nobody knows that she lives here. Very few even know of this chapel's existence at all and even they believe it is abandoned. She sleeps in a stone sarcoughagus with a lid of such weight that it would easily take ten men to lift. Of course, she can lift it due to her immense strength and slides it aside each night when she rises. Concealed in a location few would suspect and hidden beneath a stone no one can lift without aid, she is almost undiscoverable.

Resources:

Despite her isolated location near Pilfurt, the Huntress is capable of movement at great speed. She can transmogrify into a wolf or a bat and thus make her way to almost any location in the Duchy and return to her lair within a single night. Even in her human form, she can run at immense speed and make fantastical leaps across great distances. This has allowed her to cultivate a network of contacts throughout the valley that keep her informed of any developments of note.

She has three hidden caches scattered throughout the land from which to draw upon for coin or equipment if she finds herself in a bind. These caches are contained within iron chests, buried beneath several feet of dirt and their locations are known only to her. [Full Details provided in Text]

Elder Catlus of Wolfrend has partaken of her blood become her thrall. In addition to the obvious political advantages afforded by such a relationship, she will occasionally sleep in a crypt near the village and rely upon Catlus to prevent anyone from disturbing her.

Progression:

The Huntress is set upon placing a thrall in the Ducal seat. Unfortunately, the current Duke is far too well protected to be ensnared in such schemes. Therefore, she has decided instead to undermine the Duke’s third born son Granion and then eliminate his two brothers so that he gains the crown by the passage of time.

At Game Start: The Huntress has begun a campaign of criminality in the woodlands by greasing the palms of highwaymen. As a son with little prospect of inheritance, Granion is being encouraged to rise to the occasion and fight on behalf of his father. Note that the descriptions of brigand locations also have their own progressions.

Progression Track at 1: Granion accepts his duty to defend the Duchy. He arms himself and takes to the country to fight brigandry.

Progression Track at 2: Granion disappears near Kendlewald.

Progression Track at 3: Granion reappears. He claims he was captured by the brigands and tortured. An opportunity presented itself for escape and he took it. He claims to know the identity of the brigand leader. Several deep facial scars remove anyone’s doubts. After a short rest, he declares that he is going to restore his campaign against brigandry, now aided by the knowledge gained in captivity.

Progression Track at 4: Granion returns to Feornheim with the brigand leader as his captive. He is publicly hanged for his crimes after a short trial based on Granion’s testimony. Public adoration for Granion reaches a fever pitch.

Progression Track at 9: Granion’s brothers are slain in an alleyway in Sommelsby by common criminals (agents of the Huntress) while he is Trammelton. After another short trial, the killers are hanged. Granion is now the Heir Apparent.

Progression Track at 10: The Duke dies. Granion inherits the title and begins a reign marked by callousness and cruelty. The people are surprised that a man of such clear nobility could be so evil.