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Shadows—undead horrors—exist only to sap the life-strength and vitality from any living creatures they encounter.

Outside the Lair

Vegetation growing in the locality is stunted and of a sickly appearance.
Wildlife—sensing the shadows’ unholy emanations—gives the haunted locale a wide berth.
Tracks lead toward the haunt; a perceptive tracker realises that far fewer tracks lead away from the haunt.
The sunlight is wan and gives off little warmth in the haunt’s immediate environs.

What’s Going On?

It is utterly silent when the characters arrive, and the whole place has an aura of abandonment about it.
The shadows lurk near the entrance to their dismal domain, waiting for a living creature to enter.
A faint sighing sound—perhaps the wind moving through some distant part of the haunt—is the only sound in this seemingly abandoned place.
The horribly wasted corpse of an explorer sprawls on the ground; several shadow-things lie atop the corpse quivering slightly as they drain it of its life force.

Major Lair Features

The stonework is old and pitted; water drips from the ceiling and oozes down the walls to form shallow, muddy puddles on the floor.
The bones of previous explorers litter the ground throughout the haunt. In places, the remains are almost knee-deep, so deadly are the lurking shadows.
Nonmagical lights seem to give off less heat and illumination in the haunt.
The floor is uneven and jagged; for land-bound creatures, it creates swaths of difficult terrain.

Minor Lair Features

The air is cold—much colder than it should be. Living explorers can see their breath in the air.
A smattering of bones and mouldering, rusting equipment litter the floor.
A palpable feeling of gloom and doom fill the haunt.
The dust and detritus of many long years cloak the haunt; even the spiderwebs hanging from the ceiling look to be abandoned.

Shadow’s Appearance

A roiling, writhing cloud of ebon smoke coils about the floor; twin red orbs—perhaps eyes—hover amid the nebulous cloud.
Vaguely man-shaped, this ragged shadow moves in utter silence. The chill of death—and waves of hatred—emanate from the horrible thing.
Two eyes of utter blackness devoid of all emotion but hunger hover in this amorphous grey cloud.
Edged with black tendrils of “smoke”, this grey cloud is vaguely man-shaped.

Treasure

This plain dull grey iron dagger has resisted time’s remorseless onslaught. It is as sharp as the day it came to rest here.
The remains of a pouch hold a handful of gold and silver coins minted by a kingdom long decayed into dust.
This small translucent red stone—a ruby—gives off a pale crimson light equivalent to a candle. Incorporeal undead cannot enter the light.
An old book contains the ramblings of a mad priest who thought the undead could be cured through love and understanding. His theories were rubbish, but the book does show locations ripe for adventure, such as several old tombs, lost temples and the like.

Trinkets & Trash

Dusty, crumbling, and rotting grave goods stand about each of the interred remains.
A shrivelled corpse wears a rusted suit of chain armour; the armour is stained with the corpse’s foul excretions.
This old spear has a rusty tip brittle with age; it snaps if it strikes anything solid.
The unholy symbol of the death god lies on the floor; the fine chain from which it once hung is broken and rusted.

Credit

This is a short system-neutral extract from Monstrous Lair #90: Shadows’ Haunt by Robert Manson.

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