1310 The Lodge of Granny Wolfsbane

Bleached animal skulls nailed to trunks. Eerie quiet, as if the beasts and birds were all holding their breath.

• Terrain: Tangled forest (3), Aldweald
• Lost/encounters: 2-in-6. If the d8 roll for encounter type indicates a Monster encounter, roll again.
• ### Wooden Lodge
• A cosy, cheerfully painted one-storey cabin, with neat flowerbeds flanking a short flagstone path to the door, smoke

rising steadily from a chimney, and an odour of toothsome food in preparation. The structure is clearly solidly built and its windows and doors are heavily barred.

Inhabitants: Lodge owner and retired monster-hunter, Granny Wolfsbane.

Visitors: Granny Wolfsbane greets visitors with a crossbow in hand, and pipe smouldering between her teeth. She treats adventurers warily, especially arcane spell-casters, but if convinced of the party’s good intentions, invites them inside for a meal.

Main room: A kitchen with food on the stove, a sleeping area, and the stuffed, mounted heads of Granny Wolfsbane’s many kills—crookhorns, a few trolls, two wyrm skulls, and many wolves, their ferocious heads bristling from the walls by the dozen. One of these belongs to the werewolf ghost—the Moonlit Maw —in hex 1311. A large wooden rack holds weapons of every kind, especially iron and silver blades. On a shelf above the rack sit four dried bunches of Wolfsbane (DPB).

Back room: Granny Wolfsbane does not allow visitors to the back room. Should adventurers gain access, they find a small stove over which a potion is brewing. Any spell-caster can recognise the odour of Writhing Mandrake (p430), which Granny Wolfsbane uses to control her lycanthropic transformations (see Granny Wolfsbane—Lycanthropy). Six uncooked portions of Writhing Mandrake can be found in a pot beneath the stove. In a locked box next to the pot are 1,218gp and a gold ring (450gp) bearing the crest of a wealthy Brackenwold merchant family.

Granny Wolfsbane—Werewolf (Level 4 Hunter)

A scarred, sinewy human woman of 70 years, her white hair draped behind her like a soldier’s flag. Horses and other animals seem to dislike her scent. Granny Wolfsbane is a monster-hunter, an occupation she took up after a wolf devoured her granddaughter.

Demeanour (Lawful): Cheerful and even ribald at times; turns deadly serious when discussing monsters.

Speech: Gruff yet oddly genteel. Woldish, some Sylvan.

Desires: To defeat Old Aunt Spindel (hex 1211), whom she (incorrectly) believes to be a rogue witch. To investigate rumours that a werewolf she slew long ago in hex 1311 is now a ghost that locals call the Moonlit Maw. To ensure no one is harmed by her own lycanthropy (see below).

Lycanthropy: Though Granny claims to be “retired” due to age, her inactivity is in fact due to lycanthropy (see werewolf, DMB), acquired during her last hunt. She dares not leave her lodge for fear of harming those she once protected. Her Writhing Mandrake potions help control her transformations, but nonetheless she sleeps with a silver bolt beneath her pillow, prepared to use it on herself should her blood-lust grow too strong.

Knowledge: If the rumoured ghost is discussed, she points adventurers to the werewolf’s grave in 1311, though she warns it contains a “cursed” treasure. She proudly admits to killing the beast and allows PCs to take its head from her collection if they request it.

Combat stats: Werewolf (DMB). In human form, wears leather armour (AC 12) and wields a crossbow.