It’s the season for spooky and scary stories, so I decided to take a crack at writing a horror adventure. I have to be honest with you: I have never seen the appeal of horror as a genre. My neurodivergent mind can not help but hyper-analyze works of fiction, and I can spot most narrative devices and build-ups a mile away. Hence, I don’t consume horror media because I find it boring. However, despite this, and this being my first attempt at writing horror, it came out rather well.
Now, with all that preamble out of the way, let me tell you about one of the secrets of the nature of evil. It is the fundamental curse of humanity that we are all, for better or worse, destined to be some version of the adults in our lives. Teachers and parents pour into the minds of their children and pupils beliefs, delusions, personality flaws, neuroses, and, in a few dark cases, the ways and means of cruelty and depravity. In this way, evil propagates through the world; the evil done unto the child by adults eventually becomes the evil wrought by the child when they become adults
I present an adventure for dnd 5e, exploring one such evil legacy. Adam von Finsternherz inherited a casual disregard for the value of life and the notion that it could be manipulated, controlled, and discarded when inconvenient. From the world, he absorbed cruelty, hatred, and the belief that anyone weaker or different was undeserving of empathy. It is this twisted legacy ofIf I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear the sociopathy of Victor Frankenstein and the hatred the world taught him that turned the created into the creator and the once innocent monster into the hateful self-titled Ubermensch that serves as the villain for our tale.
WARNING! BODY HORROR BEYOND THIS POINT!
Background
The early life of Adam von Finsternherz is well-known and immortalized in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. Adam began his existence as a grotesque creation brought to life by the infamous Victor Frankenstein, who was horrified by his own work and abandoned his creation. Left to wander the Bavarian countryside, Adam struggled with the harsh realities of life in a world that saw him as nothing more than a monster. He grew bitter and hateful of mankind and decided to seek out his creator to force him to make him a bride. Victor Frankenstein obliges the monster’s request, but when the monster arrives to collect his bride, Victor decides to destroy the half-finished creation. Something within Adam snapped, and he killed Victor Frankenstein, vowing to recreate his bride with his hand.
Following Frankenstein’s death, Adam dedicated himself to mastering his father’s craft. Over the next several decades, he plunged deep into the study of science and alchemy, raiding libraries and universities across Europe to steal the knowledge and materials needed to continue his experiments. In his warped mind, those who stood in his way were mere obstacles—unworthy of the intellectual heights he sought to ascend. In his eyes, humanity was a lesser race, deserving only of the contempt he now harbored.
His obsession led him deeper into forbidden knowledge, eventually culminating in a fateful discovery. In a remote valley nestled within the Alps, Adam stumbled upon a Fey Crossroad, a gateway between the mortal world and they feywild.. This portal exposed Adam to the vast and incomprehensible wonders of the multiverse and opened his eyes to the powers beyond the mortal coil—arcane secrets, eldritch forces, and the potential to transcend even the greatest limits of human knowledge.
Empowered by this revelation, Adam began experimenting with merging science and magic, his ambitions growing ever darker. He created a new lair deep in a castle he stole from its lesser owners, where he toiled to perfect the creation of life. He built an army of grotesque servants crafted from the bodies of the dead. With all the world’s science at his disposal, a mastery of alchemy, and complete contempt of what he considered the lesser race of man, Adam is something much darker and more dangerous than his father ever could be. He travels the worlds of the material plane and the upper planes beyond, looking for the perfect parts to finish his ultimate creation, the Uberfrau Eve, a perfect partner forged from flesh and magic who would stand beside him and bring forth the new race of Übermensch.
The adventure begins
The players are traveling through the wilds west of New Mountainheart. They have been tasked with escorting 20-year-old Lady Emilie von Hartwig and her carriage from Sliberberg to her future husband in Rosenburg. The trip so far has been peaceful despite the reputation for the wilds for unpredictability. Now, the carriage is traveling through the rugged Drachenstich Mountains. Read the following.
The jagged peaks of the Drachenstich Mountains rise up like talons all around you as the carriage bounces and rattles along the precarious mountain road. You can see through the window the long drop to the forest below. Despite the ominous terrain, Lady Emilie is in high spirits. She sits by the window, her face glued to the glass and her eyes filled with wonder at the dramatic landscape before her. You can just make out her homely face in the window’s reflection, and her auburn curls bounce slightly with each jostle. “Isn’t the terrain lovely here? I have never seen a landscape so picturesque. Have you?”
Lady Emilie is the type of person who finds beauty even in the most dangerous of places. She is kind-hearted and genuinely innocent, with a love for new experiences and a fascination with the world. She will ask the players to tell her bout their adventures and listen with genuine interest and complement them their bravery and skill as portrayed in their stories. She genuinely sees no difference between her and them and is grateful for the company on this long journey. However, there is a hint of anxiety in her voice. If a player makes a DC 15 insight check, the player realizes she is worried. If the players ask about her anxiety, she blushes and meekly admits she has second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to a man she never met. Will her soon-to-be husband love a girl as plain as she is? Do your best to make Emilie relatable and charming.
The storm arrives
Once the roleplay with Emilie settles down, read the following.
The coachman calls out from his spot on the driver’s box. “My lady, it looks like a storm is brewin”
When you look out the window, you see a black storm looming on the horizon. Lightning rips the sky apart, and the black clouds hungrily swallow up the bright blue afternoon sky. In the time it takes to blink, the storm is upon you. The first drops of rain start to fall. There is a massive crash of thunder. Emilie screams and grabs one of your arms.
Emilie starts jabbering in terror about lightning and thunder striking her. If the players ask, she shakily admits she has been scared of lightning and thunder since she was a little girl. She asks the players pleadingly to find a place to stop and wait out the storm. At that moment, the coachman calls out again, saying there is a castle just ahead. Another closer peel of thunder shakes the carriage. Emilie screams and starts to beg the players to stop at the castle.
Castle Finsternherz
By the time the carriage reaches the castle, the storm has turned into a tempest that is battering it relentlessly. Emillie is white with terror, clutching her favorite player like a little girl with a teddy bear. All the players can hear her whimpering to herself. The coachman cries out, saying they have reached the castle. Read the following.
The carriage rumbles over the creaking drawbridge into a claustrophobic bailey envelope in a towering curtain wall. The gothic stone keeps looming up above occasionally, backlit by lightning bolts. Faint light glows through stained glass windows, and you can see the fleeting shadows of movement inside. At the base of the looming masse of stone, you see a single lantern glowing invitingly beside a massive door.
Emilie will not wait for the players. She will burst out of the carriage, dash through the torrential rain to the door, grab the big iron knocker, and start pounding the door desperately. As the player reaches the door, it opens, revealing a hunched, bald, and ugly-looking man in a butler’s uniform. Emilie in a polite but panicked tone, introduces herself and the players and asks if they can stay. The butler says yes in a voice like a husky drawl that the master is expecting them and ushers them inside. Inside, the players find themselves in an entry hall that would not be out of place in a gothic horror novel. Read the following
The hall is dark, with the light of candles in the candelabrum and chandelier forming a little pool of dim light in the dark. You can see dark wood-paneled walls, heavy drapes, and cold stone floors in the gloom. You can spot staircases and doors leading in multiple directions.
The butler leads the players to one of the staircases and down a hall, subtly lurching as he walks. Emilie leads the way, her dress dripping with every step she takes. The butler leads the players to a set of doors and says in a rasp that sounds like wood creaking that these will be your rooms, and he has already sent the footmen down to fetch your luggage if the lady so desires to change into something dry. He will fetch you when it is time for dinner. After finishing his short and to-the-point statements, he lurches away down the hallway.
At this point, try to draw the player’s attention to certain contradictions in the butler’s words; despite the players watching him on the way up, when did he send word to the footmen? Or how is the master expecting them when they arrived uninvited? Emilie on the other hand, is just thankful to have a stone wall between her and the storm; she apologizes for her behaviour and thanks them for coming into the castle with her. At that moment, two footmen come up the hall carrying a large traveling trunk. Their gate is somehow subtly unnerving. They duck into one of the rooms and, moments later, return and gallop off down the hall. A player with a passive perception of 12 notices that the footmen each have two left feet. Emilie excuses herself and goes into her room to change, leaving the players alone in the hall.
Dinner with the Baron.
The players find the rooms they have been assigned to be gloomy, filled with heavy oak furniture that casts long shadows in the musty air. Despite being alone, there is a constant feeling that the players are being watched.
Summons to dinner
The players do not have to wait long before they hear heavy thudding knocks at the door to their room. If they open the door, they find the butler waiting for them. “The Baron waits for you in the great hall,” he says before lurching away. As they step into the hallway, they see that Emilie has changed into a dinner gown, her once-dripping hair has been massaged back into curls, and the poise and grace of a noblewoman has returned to her face. She smiles sweetly at the players and tells them to come on. We best not leave our host waiting. She leads the way to a great hall.
The great hall
The great hall is lit like an examination room, with chandeliers and candles producing bright, glaring light that casts harsh, jagged shadows on the walls. Sitting at the far end of the table is a well-dressed and very handsome blond man. His eyes pin you to the wall as you shuffle to the table. He rises smoothly from his chair and, with a charming smile, says welcome to my humble abode; I am Baron Adam von Finsternherz. Please take your seats.” he makes a sweeping gesture indicating the chairs.
Once the players take their seats, the baron rings a small handbell. A group of maids emerges from the shadows with trays with silver lids. They silently place the meal in front of each of the guests. If the players have a passive perception of at least 13, they notice that the maids have subtly deformed faces and small scars on their hands and arms.
Dinner is a well-prepared roast chicken with all the fixings. As the meal progresses, Adam begins to politely ask his guests questions, seeming genuinely interested in the players. However, as the meal progresses, he starts to focuses on Emilie, who replies to his small talk with the same kind-hearted, innocent charm she displayed in the carriage. Soon, she and the Baron dominate the conversation. Adam heaps ever more effusive and flattering praise onto Emilie, and when she responds, she blushes like a schoolgirl. If the players make a DC 10 insight check, they realize that Emilie is falling in love with the baron. If they get 16 on the insight check, they also notice a slight, almost imperceptible shift in the baron’s behavior; he’s not just infatuated; he’s lusting after Emilie. When the roleplay between Emilie and Adam reaches a crescendo, a loud clock strikes the hour, 8 pm. Adam says that it is the retiring hour, and Emilie agrees. Adam takes this opportunity to propose a toast to new friends and old. The players are obliged to join in the toast. After the toast, Adam excuses himself, saying he must retire to his chambers to prepare for the night and suggest that his guest do so. If they make a DC 15 perception check, the players might notice that Adam is grinning just a bit broadly as he exits the hall.
The Night of Terror Begins.
After dinner, Emilie leads the way back to their rooms. She is still taken in by Adam words. She blushes like a schoolgirl and prattles on about how sweet Adam is and how he complimented her face. As they get closer to the rooms, the players start to feel very tired. Unbeknownst to them, Adam had dosed them with a mild sedative. Each player must make a DC 13 constitution check or gain one level of exhaustion. Emilie giggles when they reach the rooms and says she will see them in the morning. With a loud thud, the door to her room closes, leaving the players alone. You should describe that the players who failed the check feel their limbs growing heavy, their eyelids drooping, and the world swaying with every step. If the players try to get some sleep If the player does try to get some sleep, read the following.
The heavy woolen bed sheets envelop you as sleep tempts you away from the waking world. You close your eyes and let your body’s natural imperative for sleep take over. Your sleep is deep but troubled, filled with visions of Adam’s face and unseen but ever-present terrors. An indeterminate amount of time later, you wake to the sound of a crash from one of the other rooms, along with the unmistakable sound of Emilie screaming.
If the players jump out of bed and run to the corridor, they are just in time to see Emilie screaming and thrashing like mad, being carried away by a pair of indescribable things. They look like women with elongated arms and sagging flesh. Emilie screams again as she is pulled into the darkness. As Emilie’s screams fade, the castle around you stirs with a terrible, unnatural energy. The night of terror has begun.
The Night of Terror in the Creeping Castle
With Emilie’s screams and abduction, the night of terror has begun. The castle transforms from an eerie gothic castle to a living death trap filled with secret passageways, bio-magictek traps, and the baron’s creations. The players will have limited time to rescue Emilie before Adam uses her brain to finish his ultimate creation, his bride and Überfrau Eve. However, escaping in another matter entirely. The storm that trapped the players here in the first place was created by the storm machine in the castle’s highest tower and has become so strong that with one step outside the players need to make a strength check to stay upright. Furthermore, Adam locked the gate and drawbridge for good measure. The players will have to unlock the gate and destroy the storm machine to have hope of escaping from Adam’s clutches.
Adam’s Movements
Adam will not wait for the players to come to him in a single location. He will follow a predetermined route through the castle, and if the players don’t act fast enough, Emilie will be lost. He moves every three encounters, and movements are announced by the toiling of the castle bell ringing the hour.
- Phase 1: Adam begins the night in Eve’s Chapel, where he caresses Eve’s body and speaks to his incomplete bride as if she is sleeping, preparing for her awakening.
- Phase 2: After the clock tolls, Adam moves to the Library to retrieve his notes on the brain transfer procedure.
- Phase 3: Next, he descends to the Body Storage Room to oversee the transfer of Eve’s body to the operating theater.
- Phase 4: He heads to the Operating Theater to begin the brain transfer.
- Phase 5: Finally, Adam moves to the Chamber of Rebirth, where Eve’s body is soaked in regenerative fluid and subjected to the rebirth machine to complete her transformation. Once Eve awakens, Emilie is lost forever.
If the players encounter Adam in any of these locations, he summons one of the wandering patrols to deal with the party, promising worse if they continue to interfere.
Adam’s Pursuit
If the players destroy the heart machine, destroy Eve’s body, or rescue Emilie from the operation theater. Adam angrily decides that the players have outstayed their welcome. He will arm himself in a suit of weaponized biomechanical armor and start to pursue the players at the beginning of the next phase. He will relentlessly pursue the players, using every hidden passage and trap to his advantage. While he pursues the players, he will rant about his father, Victor Frankenstein, the time he spent among the lesser race of man, and how they proved to be flawed and unworthy creatures only useful for parts and how much better Emilie’s life would be as his uberfrau. If Emilie is with the party, he will beg Emilie to stay with him; he can give her the beauty that matches her kind and sweet soul. If the players are about to break the gate, Adam will use the leg machine to teleport the castle to somewhere there is no escape. Once he reaches it, it takes two rounds for him to activate the machine.
Fear and Stress Mechanics:
Once the Night of Terror begins, the players will be subjected to constant fear and high-stress situations. Use the fear and stress rules from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft to simulate the growing tension and mental strain as the night progresses.
Stress Triggers:
- Witnessing one of Adam’s monstrous creations for the first time.
- Hearing the tolling of the castle clock, signaling Adam’s movement.
- Being directly pursued by Adam in his biomechanical armor.
- Facing the teleportation of the castle or witnessing Emilie’s brain transfer.
When a character makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, they must apply their current stress as a score as a penalty to the roll.
Wandering Monsters
There are three groups of monsters wandering the castle
Bride pack
A group of 4 failed brides patrol the gatehouse, the stables, the bailey, the Entrance hall, the parlor, and the Great Hall
Servants
Two of Adam’s Servants search the castle for the players, checking the library, the storm machine, Adam’s room, and Eve’s room.
Lair Guardians.
1 of Adam’s servants leads two failed brides around the lair searching the rebirth chamber, leg machine, chamber, heart chamber, operating theater, and the armory
1 The guest wing
You feel uneasy as you shuffle through the dim halls of the castle guest quarters. The air in the hall and the guest rooms are musty, as though these rooms were part of a mausoleum.
There is nobody around but you feel like you are being watched. You can hear the faint sound of metallic feet scuttling on stonework as you scuff down the plush carpeted floor.
During the night of terror, Adam and most of his creations leave the eight guest rooms alone. However, sharp-eyed players may notice several crawling eyes scuttling around, watching them with a DC 15 perception check.
Treasure. If the players take the time to search the rooms, they find items left by previous victims. There are three health potions, a potion of hill giant strength, a monster hunter’s kit, a plus-one rapier, and four bottles of alchemist fire. They also find 100gp in coins and the luggage of the previous victims hidden in various nooks and crannies of the rooms. The luggage contains strange clothing, letters, and documents in no language the players can recognize. However, there is a journal among the luggage written by a famous and long-since-disappeared adventurer from Sliberberg. The last two journal entries describe dinner with the Baron, and the second is a one-sentence warning to the players, “If you are reading this, GET OUT NOW! The baron is a madman. He is going to…..”
2 Eve’s room
An overpowering floral scent assaults your nostrils as you enter the bedroom, an odd mix of women’s and girls’ rooms. The room has bright pink wallpaper with floral designs, pink and white princess furniture, and a collection of stuffed animals neatly arranged on the bed and shelves. Yet everything is sized for adult women. A bent-back woman, seemingly made from a patchwork of different cadaverous body parts in a maid’s uniform, is cleaning the room. Her movements are labored, and she sighs miserably as she jerkily sweeps the furniture with a feather duster. When she spots you, she says in an old lady’s voice, “Well, it looks like the master guests do not have a clue since they are looking up here for the girl.” The woman practically spits the word master in contempt.
The woman is named Einsy. She was the master’s first attempt to make a bride, the first one that was not either horribly misshapen or brain-dead. She was quickly discarded after her creation and forced to serve as one of the maids. She hates Adam with a vengeance for the decades of abuse she suffered at his hands, but she is terrified of him; she has seen what he can do when he gets angry. However, she is more than willing to provide the player’s info on the castle and the master. She can tell the players about Adam’s objective and Emilie’s ultimate fate if they do not rescue her, the locations of the entrances to the lair, everything about the rooms in the lair, the location of the key to the gate, and everything about Adam’s backstory after her creation 30 years ago.
Treasure. Einsy has hidden away a collection of valuable items in the room. In the wardrobe, there are 2 potions of healing, an Adamantine Dagger, and an Amulet of Protection.
3 Addams room
The door to the room creaks open, revealing a well-lit circular room. Well-polished dark oak furniture adorns the room, and the red carpet muffles your footsteps. In one corner, a large telescope is set up by the window. A massive wardrobe occupies one wall that seems to rattle slightly with every step you take. A massive painting of a beautiful woman sleeping in a wedding dress hangs over a massive writing desk with stacks of journals between the wardrobe and the telescope.
Painting. The painting is Eve as she lies in repose in Eve’s Chaple. If the player examines the painting with a DC 17 investigation check, they realize that the woman in the painting is missing several body parts. This realization serves as a stress trigger.
Writing desk. The desk contains several journals with crabby handwriting. They detail Adam’s research into creating Uberkin and overturning death. Any player who reads the journals can make a medicine check to transfer Eilies brain back to her body or revive her if the transfer process is complete. One of the journals is a coded ledger with patient intake and inventories for the storage room. The players will not be able to realize from reading the ledger that the patients refer to Adam’s past victims, and the inventory is the body parts collected from them.
Telescope. If the players glance through the telescope, they realize it points down the road that brought them to the castle. Adam was watching them as they approached the castle.
Wardrobe. The wardrobe contains a trap design to prevent the players from getting the key to the gate. When opened by anyone other than Adam touches the wardrobe, undead hands with claws attached to them burst from the floor in a 10-foot radius around the wardrobe. Any player must make a DC 17 dex check to avoid being grabbed on failure; the player receives 1d4 slashing damage. Furthermore, four failed brides burst from cavities in the walls.
Treasure. The wardrobe contains the key to the castle gate and 400gp in various coins.
4 The storm machine
You step out onto a parapet whipped by pounding rain and howling wind. Despite the storm, you feel in your brain that you are being watched. In the center of the rooftop is a massive heaving machine of brass tubes surrounding a center of green glowing fluid in a glass cylinder that seems to howl and spark with every gust. A funnel of clouds leads up from the top of the machine. Suddenly, the storm gets stronger, and in your head, you hear a voice say without speaking, “The master commands me to make a storm to keep you trapped, so I obey, and you will leave me be.” Then you spot the giant brain floating in the middle of the machine
The storm machine is a brain in a jar made from the brain of a storm giant. The machine is simply a mechanism for allowing the brain to control weather at a much higher potency than normal. Once the players make any move that would threaten the storm machine, it lets out a psychic scream and summons three ice mephitis (summoner variants) to defend itself.
The storm. The storm is at its most intense on the parapet in the storm’s center. Players out in the open must make a DC 16 strength check or be pushed 5 feet in a random direction by the storm’s force.
S The Stable
The smell of blood is in the air, muffled slightly by the pounding rain. A trail of blood leads from the stable to the door to the keep, still bright and red despite the driving rain. The stalls are almost spotless inside the stables, as if horses had never been seen before today. The horses from the carriage are locked in perfectly pristine stalls, looking quite spooked. In one corner, the trail of blood ends in an eviscerated corpse.
Upon closer examination, the players realize that the corpse is the remains of the coachman. A DC 10 medicine check reveals that something with claws tore him into ribbons. The coachman was the victim of two of the brides.
G The Gatehouse
At the far end of the claustrophobic baley is the gatehouse. It is a looming gothic mass of gargoyles and baroque stonework whipped by freezing cold rain. The drawbridge is up, and the portcullis lowered as if to suggest there is no hope of escaping. The only other opening in the gatehouse is a small door in one of the towers.
The Mechanism for the gatehouse is located in a small room just beyond the door of the tower. The door is unlocked, but the gate mechanism is locked with a massive padlock made of iron and flesh. The lock is a sapient piece of bio magiteck that pulses like a heart and actively fights any attempt to pick it. Any attempt to pick the lock requires a DC 20 sleight of hand check, and on each failed check, the DC for opening the lock increases by 2, and the character receives 1d4 damage from the lock biting them. The only other way to open the lock is using the key from
Gate Mechanism. The gate mechanism consists of a crank connected to an elaborate series of gears. It takes two rounds of cranking to open the gate. However, if the gate mechanism is left unlocked for three encounters, one of Adam’s servants comes by and closes the gate again.
5 The entrance hall
Despite the late hour, the candles in the chandeliers and the candelabrums give off the same dim glow as when you arrived. Your footsteps echo in the vast, empty void of the hall. No one is around, but you feel you are being watched.
The players are indeed being watched. A dozen crawling eyes hang from the ceiling, staring unblinkingly at them. However, there is no immediate danger in the room.
6 The Storeroom
The room beneath the main stairs is claustrophobic and dark. All but a tiny single path is filled with shelves and boxes. Many of the items on the shelves bear bloodstains or slash marks. You can hear the sound of skittering in the darkness, but there seems to be nobody here.
Adam uses the storeroom the players are in to store the belongings of his victims.
Treasure. If the players take the time to search the shelves and boxes, they find two vials of alchemist fire, a bottle of holy water, a potion of greater healing, four bottles of lamp oil, and a pair of spell scrolls, one of bless bless, and one of burning hands.
7 The parlor
The castle’s parlor exudes a chilling and morbid atmosphere. The dim light from a flickering chandelier illuminates a room filled with furniture and décor incorporating human bones. The armchair by the hearth has armrests and legs made from polished femurs and rib bones, while the small side table next to it is constructed entirely of skeletal remains. A grotesque chess set rests atop the table, its pieces carved from bone in intricate, unnerving detail. Heavy red velvet drapes hang from the windows, lending a deep crimson hue to the entire room, and even the wallpaper bears macabre patterns, featuring repeating motifs of skulls and bones.
This grotesque collection is not simply decorative—the furniture itself is animated, a trap laid by Adam to ensnare unwary intruders. Any character who touches any of the bone furniture, including the chair, table, or lamp, will immediately be grabbed by multiple skeletal arms. These skeletons form the structure of the furniture but animate when disturbed.
A player grabbed by the skeletal furniture must make a DC 10 Strength check to break free from the bony grasp. If the player fails, they are restrained for one round and take 1d4 bludgeoning damage from the crushing grip of the skeletal arms. The player may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns to escape.
8 The Library
The room smells of old paper and ink. Despite its size, the library is cramped, with rows of book-heavy shelves packed close together, casting long shadows in the light of a handful of crystal lamps. At one end is a well-used armchair with an oaken table by a fireplace.
The room, as well as being a functional library, also serves as a clever trap. Adam assumes that any of his victims will naturally be either be curious as to what books are in his library or see the library as a means to discover some way to escape. If the players have a passive perception of at least 11, they hear the unmistakable sound of a lock sliding into place; one of Adma’s servants has locked the door to the room while two more wait in a secret passage to ambush the players once they let their guard down.
The door to the room. The door to the room is locked with no less than three locks. The players can open each lock with a DC 17 sleight of hand check; however, once the players open two of the three locks when Adam’s servants choose to attack.
Secret door. One of the bookcases conceals a narrow, hidden door. A player can find the door with a DC 17 investigation check. They can find the secret button to open it with a DC 15 investigation check. The secret passage beyond leads to the lair and is just big enough for the players to pass single-file
Books. The books mostly deal with medicine, alchemy, and magic.
9 The Great Hall
The Great Hall is shrouded in thick, clawing darkness. The feeble lights cast by your torches do little to push back the blackness and create eerie shadows on the wall. The air is still as if the castle is holding its breath. From the other side of the hall, you can see the faint outline of a door in the gloom and hear the sound of cooking from beyond it.
During the night, the Great Hall is filled with a devious living trap of Adam’s design. Referred to the mad scientists as screamers, these fleshy landmines emit ear-piercing screams and fill the mind with visions of terror when stepped upon. Any player who steps upon one must make a DC 14 Wisdom check or be stunned by fear for one round. Also, the servants in the kitchen will come out to investigate if they hear a screamer go off. Players can detect the sound of a screamer breathing by making a DC 17 perception check. To kill a screamer, the players must make a DC 10 medicine check to stab it in a very precise spot.
10 The kitchen
Despite the late hour, the kitchen blazes with heat and activities. The ovens emit a warm glow that serves as the only light source in the room and casts strange shadows on the walls and ceiling. The air is filled with the tantalizing scents of soup simmering, roasting meat, and baking bread. A feast of various dishes, including a wedding cake, is on a table by the far wall. Next to it is a shelf of cooking supplies.
Contrasting the appeal of the cooking is a pair of Adam’s Servants who cut off slices of beef carving slices from a massive flank of beef with knives that look to once have been swords in a past life. You can hear the grunting and squelching of their mismatched body parts as they jerkily swing their weapons at the mass of meat.
If the players enter the kitchen from the secret passage or do not trigger any of the screamers in the great hall, they find two of Adam’s servants preparing the wedding feast for when the master completes Eve and brings her to life. The servants attack the players, hoping to delay them long enough for one of the roving brides to arrive. Otherwise, the kitchen is empty.
Wedding feast. Adam has ordered his servants to prepare a luxurious 5-course dinner for him and his bride-to-be. Currently, only the dessert course has been fully prepared.
Secret Passage. A secret passage down to the lair is located behind one of the cooking shelves. Players can find the door to the secret passage with a DC 12 investigation check.
11 The Armory
Alien constructions of flesh and metal with various sharp edges and spikes hang from intestine-like assemblages of pipes and tubes and cast unnerving shadows in the light of stark white lights. They vaguely look like claws, swords, and suits of armor. Among the alien bioweapons is a suit of armor made of muscle tissue and bone plates with claws where the hands should be.
The room serves as an armory where Adam keeps his bio magitek weaponry. If the players destroy the heart machine or destroy Eve’s body, or rescue Emilie from the operation theater, Adam will head to this room and arm himself with the equipment from this room.
Treasure. Most of the weapons in this room are designed for Adam’s enhanced physiology. HOwever there is one item, the flesh-grafted longsword, that can be used by the players
12 The Leg machine Chamber
The room is cold and has featureless smooth walls. In the center of the room is a machine made from glass tubing, brass plates covered in green glowing runes, and human legs. Surrounding the machine is a faintly growing green magic circle with patterns that suggest running legs. The circle hums and pulses ominously.
The leg machine in the middle of the room is a device used to move the castle without moving. A player can make a DC 18 arcane check to determine how to make the machine work. A player can make an action to make the castle teleport to a random location. If a player makes a DC 18 intelligence check, the player can attempt to make the castle teleport to a specific location. All checks to interact with the machine are made with advantage if the players have read Adam’s journals in his bedroom. Alternatively, the players can try to destroy the machine. The machine has 70hp, AC 14, and poison and psychic damage resistance.
If the players are trying to escape the castle with Eilie, Adam will attempt to use the machine to teleport the castle to either the top of a mountain or the middle of the ocean.
13 The body storage room
The air in this room is cold enough to make you shiver and is lit up with harsh crystal lights. The light, however, better illuminates the horror within. You see dismembered limbs and organs, and the monsters that have harried your way through the hall are attached to assemblages of glass tubes and metal that hang from the ceiling. The bodies, creatures, and parts twitch and writhe as though they are still alive. A pair of grotesque-looking hunchbacks with massive metal-plated hands are doing an inventory of the storage room when they spot you. One of them grabs a piece of pipe, and the other hurries over to a control console and starts to pull levers. One of the failed brides starts to twitch and writhe.
The two hunchbacks are Adam’s servants. One will seek to delay the players while the other starts to awaken the failed brides in the room.
Wedding march of horrors. There are six failed brides in the room. The first one has already been awakening and will rip itself from its preservation rack on the second turn and join the battle. After that, another bride awakens every second turn and joins the fight.
Preservation machines. The machines the things in the room are attached to are designed to keep body parts hooked up to them alive indefinitely.
14 Eve’s chapel
The room looks like a twisted perversion of a wedding chapel filled with flowers and wedding decorations. However, where the altar would be in a normal chapel, there is a crystal casket attached to a snaking mass of pipes and tubing. Inside the casket is a young woman of Eilies’s age wearing a wedding gown. Her beauty is perfect, except for the fact that she is missing the top of her head.
The young woman in the casket is Adam’s ultimate creation and bride, Eve. She is in a state of suspended animation while Adam sources the last two parts, a brain and a head of hair, from which Eillie will be the doner.
Adam. If Adam is in the room, the casket’s lid is open, and he gently caresses Eve’s side and whispers sweet words into her ear as if she were merely asleep.
The casket. The casket is locked. The lock can be opened using a key found on Adam’s belt or with a DC 17 sleight of hand check with thieves tools. The casket is made from indestructible crystals and makes an eerie ringing noise if stuck with a weapon.
15 The operating theater
You hear the screams and cries for help well before you reach the room. Beyond the door is a room of stark and featureless stone walls and a perfectly smooth floor. Bright, searing light shines forth from crystals in the ceiling. A massive slab-like steel table is in the middle of the room. Ellie is clamped to this table, struggling against the bonds and screaming her head off. Surrounding this table are several small tables on wheels filled with surgical supplies. A deformed man with long arms is trying to place a mask with a tube leading to a cylinder on her face while an ugly ogre of a man seemingly made from bits of other people with four arms is cleaning surgical tools.
The deformed man is an Adam servant, while the man with four arms is the doctor’s assistant Igor.
Eillie. If the procedure has not begun, Eillie can be found in the room struggling against her bonds and screaming for help. The abduction has her terrified, and seeing the players calms her greatly. The players can undo the clamps using a DC 15 sleight of hand check.
Cylinder of anesthetic gas. The mask tube and tank are part of an anesthetic gas delivery system. As an action, a character can open the cylinder of gas’s valve to create a 10-foot radius cloud of anesthetic gas that lasts for three rounds. Characters who start their turn in the cloud must make a DC 15 constitution check or be incapacitated for 1 minute. Incapacitated creatures can make the saving throw again at the end of each of their turns to end the effect early.
Adam. If Adam is in the room, he is at some point in the brain transfer process. The exact stage of the procedure depends on how many encounters the players have had since the phase started. He will insist on finishing the procedure before dealing with the players and will summon a group of failed brides to deal with the players.
16 The heart machine chamber
A smooth-walled square room is dominated by a massive machine made of rune-etched brass plates, glass tubes, and flesh. The machine pulses with a steady beat, almost like a giant heart. Six twisted female forms lurch and shuffle around it.
Six failed brides guard the chamber and the heart machine.
Heart machine. The heart machine circulates the revival fluid throughout the castle. Without it, the body preservation mechanisms in the body storage and Eves chapel, the storm machine, the rebirth chamber, and the leg machine would not work. To destroy the heart machine, the players must attack it. The machine has 70hp, AC 14, and poison and psychic damage resistance. However, if a creature does 15 or more damage to the heart, it starts to leak revival fluid, forming a puddle 5 feet in diameter. Any creature who gets some glowing green fluid on its skin heals 1d6 hitpoints.
17 The Chamber of Rebirth
As you enter the room, there is a low hum in the air. The liquid seems to pulse as if alive. The chamber is dominated by a large pool of green glowing liquid with a staircase leading down into it. Pipes and tubes constantly fill the pool with unnerving bubbling. Above the pool is a machine of two metal balls on long rods that occasionally crackle with lightning.
Revival fluid pool. The green liquid in the pool has restorative effects. If characters submerge themselves in the pool for one minute, they restore 1d12 hitpoints. Also, if Adam completes the brain transfer procedure on Eilie and Eve, submerging their shared body in the pool for 5 minutes will revive Ellie in control of Eve’s body.
Rebirth machine. The sparking machine is a device of Adam’s creation that, combined with the pool, awakens his creation, both undead and stitched together into a new being who is a mentally blank slate. The machine requires a DC 17 intelligence check to operate. When turned on, it delivers a massive electric shock to the pool for two rounds. Any being in the pool takes 1d4 lightning damage and must make a DC 16 constitution check or be stunned. The check is made with disadvantage if the character is completely submerged in the pool. Any being who spends two rounds submerged in the pool when the machine is running suffers from complete and total amnesia.
Adam. If Adam is in the room, he is prepping the rebirth machine to bring Eve to life.
Escaping the Castle
Ultimately, the player’s objective is to escape the castle and survive to live another day. What happens after the players escape the castle largely depends on what objectives they were able to complete while in the castle.
If Emilie is not saved.
If the players cannot prevent Adam from completing Eve, the castle disappears into a bank of mist shortly after they make it out of the gate, Adam seemingly not wishing to bother himself with pursuing the players. Naturally, the players are unable to complete the contract with Eiliie’s parents, and their reputations are damaged significantly. Sometime later, while players are in the Grand Fey Marketplace in SLiberberg, they spot Adam and Eve shopping in the marketplace for a few fleeting moments. Eve acts just as Adam intended her to be: sweet, charming, and innocent, just like Emilie. Adam spots you through the crowd and gives you a knowing and wicked smile.
If Emillie’s mind was placed into Eve but Rescued.
As the players flee with Emillie/Eve, they hear Adam’s voice roar out behind them. “You cannot escape from me; Eve will be mine,” he shouts. Once the players and Emillie/Eve are at a safe distance, the players get a chance to relax. In a voice foreign to her, Emillie thanks the players for what they did; although she wishes they could put her back into her old body, this one feels subtly wrong. She also says it might be a nasty surprise for her fiance to find her looking completely different from what she should look like. However, when they arrive at court, the prince is smitten with Emillie/Eve gorgeous looks and charming personality and rewards the players with 400gp on the spot. However, the night before her wedding, Emillie/Eve is abducted from her chamber by a man who looks suspiciously like Adam and is never seen again.
If Emillie was rescued before the mind transfer.
If the players rescue Emillie before the brain transfer, the players find there is no pursuit. After hours of hard traveling, they make it to the lands of the prince whom Emillie is supposed to marry. Surprisingly, the prince finds Emillie utterly charming. The players receive their reward of 400gp and, after hearing their story, invite the players to the wedding ceremony. The wedding is a storybook affair, and the two have their happily ever after. However, persistent rumors tell of a castle high in the mountains surrounded by a storm where travelers are never seen again. The players will occasionally feel like they are being watched by unseen eyes that scurry away on little metal feet.
Appendix new Monsters
Adam, the First Übermensch and Inheritor of Victor Frankenstein
Medium humanoid (human), chaotic evil
Armor Class: 18 (natural armor from muscle-bone armor)
Hit Points: 136 (16d8 + 64)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR | 18 (+4)
DEX | 14 (+2)
CON | 18 (+4)
INT | 20 (+5)
WIS | 12 (+1)
CHA | 16 (+3)
Saving Throws: Intelligence +8, Constitution +7
Skills: Arcana +8, Medicine +8, Investigation +8
Damage Resistances: Necrotic, Psychic
Damage Immunities: Poison
Condition Immunities: Poisoned, Frightened
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 11
Languages: Common, Abyssal, Elvish, Primordial
Challenge: 8 (3,900 XP)
Traits
Muscle-Bone Armor.
Adam’s custom armor, made from living muscle tissue and bone plates, gives him an AC of 18 and resistance to necrotic damage. The armor regenerates 10 hit points at the start of Adam’s turn unless it has taken fire damage in the last round.
Surgical Mastermind.
Adam can make an Intelligence (Medicine) check as a bonus action to identify a creature’s physical weakness. On a success (DC 14), his next attack against that creature deals an additional 14 (4d6) necrotic damage.
Mad Genius (1/Day).
If Adam fails a saving throw, he can reroll it and must use the new result. He also has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or paralyzed.
Regenerative Serum (3/Day).
As a bonus action, Adam injects himself with a regenerative serum, regaining 20 hit points. He can use this ability even if reduced to 0 hit points, but only once per encounter.
Actions
Multiattack.
Adam makes three attacks: two with his Claw-Tipped Gauntlets and one with his Scalpel Strike.
Claw-Tipped Gauntlets. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 12 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage. On a hit, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 7 (2d6) necrotic damage as the claws drain life force.
Scalpel Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) slashing damage. Adam can choose to deal necrotic damage instead of slashing. If he does, the target’s maximum hit points are reduced by the same amount until they finish a long rest.
Flesh Warp (Recharge 5-6).
Adam can manipulate the living muscle of his armor and surroundings to lash out at enemies. Each creature within 15 feet of Adam must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 18 (4d8) bludgeoning damage and be restrained by tendrils of living flesh. A restrained target can make a DC 16 Strength saving throw at the end of each of their turns to escape.
Legendary Actions (3/Turn)
Adam can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time, and only at the end of another creature’s turn. He regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.
- Move. Adam moves up to his speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
- Gauntlet Slash. Adam makes a Claw-Tipped Gauntlets attack.
- Injection (Costs 2 Actions). Adam injects himself with one of his concoctions, granting him advantage on all attacks until the end of his next turn or allowing him to regain 15 hit points.
Lair Actions
If Adam is in his lair beneath he castle he can take a lair action on initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties).
- Surgical Tools Unleashed. Adam activates surgical tools hidden in the walls and ceiling, which lash out at one creature. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 10 (3d6) piercing damage and be knocked prone.
- Dark Tendrils. Shadowy tendrils of flesh emerge from the ground and try to ensnare Adam’s enemies. Each creature within 20 feet of him must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or be restrained until the end of their next turn.
Failed Bride (CR 1)
Medium Undead, Chaotic Evil
- Armor Class: 12 (Natural Armor)
- Hit Points: 32 (5d8+10)
- Speed: 30 ft.
STR 14 (+2) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 14 (+2) | INT 5 (-3) | WIS 8 (-1) | CHA 5 (-3)
Saving Throws: CON +4
Damage Resistances: Necrotic, Poison
Damage Immunities: Poison
Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Poisoned
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 9
Languages: Understands Common but can’t speak
Challenge: 1 (200 XP)
Traits:
- Undead Fortitude: If damage reduces the Failed Bride to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the Failed Bride drops to 1 hit point instead.
- Horrifying Appearance: Any creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of the Failed Bride and can see it must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, the creature is immune to this effect for 24 hours.
Actions:
- Multiattack: The Failed Bride makes two claw attacks.
- Claw: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 7 (1d8+2) slashing damage. - Unnatural Lunge (Recharge 5-6): The Failed Bride can move up to 10 feet in a straight line as part of this attack and make a single claw attack against one target within reach. If the attack hits, the target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Here’s the stat block for Igor, Adam’s four-armed hulking surgery assistant (CR 3):
Igor
Large humanoid (construct), neutral evil
Armor Class: 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points: 76 (9d10 + 27)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR | 18 (+4)
DEX | 10 (+0)
CON | 16 (+3)
INT | 7 (-2)
WIS | 9 (-1)
CHA | 6 (-2)
Saving Throws: Strength +6, Constitution +5
Skills: Athletics +6, Intimidation +2, Medicine +3
Damage Immunities: Poison
Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Poisoned
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 9
Languages: Understands Common but speaks only in grunts and roars
Challenge: 3 (700 XP)
Traits
Four Arms.
Igor can hold up to four items and make four weapon attacks in a single round. He cannot use the same weapon more than twice in the same round.
Surgical Precision.
When Igor hits a creature with a melee attack, he can choose to deal an extra 7 (2d6) slashing damage. He can use this ability a number of times equal to his Constitution modifier (3), regaining expended uses after a short or long rest.
Unyielding Resilience.
Igor has advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed.
Actions
Multiattack.
Igor makes two melee attacks, and he can grapple a creature as a bonus action.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 12 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Surgical Tools. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 10 (1d12 + 4) piercing or slashing damage (Igor’s choice).
Hurl Object. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target.
Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Flesh Stitch (Recharge 5-6).
Igor can use his surgical tools to patch up his own wounds or those of an ally within 5 feet. He (or the target) regains hit points equal to 2d6 + 3. Igor cannot use this ability on constructs or undead.
Legendary Resistance (1/Day)
If Igor fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead.
Reactions
Backhand Swipe.
If a creature misses Igor with a melee attack, he can use his reaction to make a claw attack against that creature.
Servant of Adam (CR 2)
Medium Construct, Lawful Evil
- Armor Class: 14 (Natural Armor)
- Hit Points: 39 (6d8+12)
- Speed: 30 ft.
STR 14 (+2) | DEX 12 (+1) | CON 15 (+2) | INT 10 (+0) | WIS 11 (+0) | CHA 9 (-1)
Saving Throws: CON +4
Skills: Deception +2, Perception +3
Damage Resistances: Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 13
Languages: Common, understands the commands of Adam
Challenge: 2 (450 XP)
Traits:
- Stitched Resilience: The Servant has advantage on saving throws against being paralyzed, stunned, or knocked unconscious.
- False Appearance: While the Servant remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal person or statue at a glance. A DC 15 Perception check reveals subtle stitching and mismatched parts, or the presence of faint seams beneath the skin.
- Master’s Command: The Servant cannot be charmed or influenced by mind-altering spells and effects that would conflict with Adam’s commands. In addition, if the Servant is within 120 feet of Adam and Adam gives a command, the Servant gains a +2 bonus to all attack rolls and damage for 1 minute.
Actions:
- Multiattack: The Servant makes two slam attacks.
- Slam: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 7 (1d8+2) bludgeoning damage. - Grapple Strike: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be grappled (escape DC 12). While grappled in this way, the Servant can use its bonus action to deal 5 (1d6+2) bludgeoning damage automatically at the start of each of its turns. - Exposed Horror (Recharge 5-6): The Servant tears at its skin to reveal the grotesque mismatched parts and raw seams beneath. Each creature of the Servant’s choice within 30 feet that can see it must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Appendix New Magic item
flesh-grafted longsword
Rare weapons(longsword) requires attunement.
When a player attunes to this sword-like assemblage of muscle, flesh, metal, and bone, it grafts itself to the wielder’s arm. As a bonus action, the wielder can transform the assemblage into a sword-like weapon in their hands that is impossible to disarm or retract back into a form vaguely shaped like a heavy gauntlet made of bones. Also, the transformation process causes terror and revulsion in enemies; They must succeed on a DC 17 wisdom check or be frightened for 1 round.
Curse of the Flesh
Once attuned, the Flesh-Grafted Longsword cannot be easily removed. The tendrils are deeply intertwined with the wielder’s muscles and nervous system. Removing the sword requires a Remove Curse spell or similar magic. Should the weapon be forcibly removed, the wielder takes 4d10 necrotic damage as the flesh is torn away
The feengrenze historia 
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