Hounds of Hendenburg: A Free Adventure For Your War Chest

We all have a war chest. Something you can reach into when you don’t have much prepped, something really easy to run that you can pick up almost on the fly. This adventure is going in yours.

Hounds of Hendenburg by Liam Paro Quillinan, written for Knave so it’s super easy to translate to whatever you’re running.

The Setup

Terror roams the dark rambled paths of the Cop Wood. A pack of giant spectral hounds rule the night, savaging those foolish enough to brave the forest. The villagers of Hendenburg cower, fearing the shadows of ancient boughs as each morning heralds a newly savaged corpse.

A thousand years ago: A tyrant had hounds fed on human flesh. He hunted the locals. He died. He was buried. Everything was fine.

A month ago: Sly George (excellent name for a highwayman) uncovered the tomb. Unlocked the spirits. Ran off.

Two weeks ago: Villagers found ripped apart.

A week ago: Local poacher Oliver led an expedition to deal with them. Three of his party died.

That’s where you are. One tiny section and you’re straight into the action.

What Makes This Great: Relationships

Everything is interwoven.

The Hags: Local crones aren’t particularly nice. Had a deal with Sly George to marry Weeping Winfred. He backed off. They gave him a cloak. They obviously want him dead.

Pastor Nunan: Disgraced, defrocked. Hates the villagers. But he knows how to defeat the hounds. Getting him involved takes work.

Martin Brock the Miller: Wants the party to recover the body of his wife who went missing in the woods. His wife is actually with Sly George now.

Gregory the Blacksmith: Loved Widow Windstaple who runs the inn. Got a love potion from the hags. They gave him a potion of loathing instead. She now hates him.

Lord and Lady Hendenburg: The Lord is mad as a goat and wants to be taken out sledding. His young wife believes the ghostly hounds are merely peasant superstition or potentially the work of a particularly vindictive badger.

All of this is linked. Players can pull on any thread and something else moves.

Multiple Solutions

Several ways to defeat the hounds:

• Work with the pastor (overcome his hatred first)
• Deal with the hags (always risky)
• Devil’s bargain
• Whatever your players come up with

Not linear. Not scripted.

The One Thing I’d Add

A relationship map. Almost like a flowchart - Martin here, his wife here, link between them, her link to Sly George. There are so many connections that a visual would make it easy to see everything at a glance.

The Hooks

Three provided. My favourite: as a child, one of the party received occasional letters from their eccentric uncle Alwin, a beast hunter from Hendenburg. He’s been killed by the hounds and left them a small hunting lodge.

Or just drop this into any forest. Players travelling through could stumble onto the village without warning. The rumours would hook them.

The Dungeon

Small but well-designed. Multiple loops - you can go this way, that way, all the way around. For a small dungeon, that’s rare.

Layout is clean. Walk through, there’s decay murals covering the wall and a mangled corpse of a highwayman. Anything bolded has detail below. You can run this without prep.

The Cloak of Many Faces

Nice magic item. Motley patchwork cloak - when you pull it over your head, you randomly acquire a new distinctive face. Ten charges. To recharge, you need to redye it when it goes colourless.

I’d make the recharge more interesting - need a specific dye from a specific place. Quest material.

What Happens After

The adventure tells you what happens if the players do nothing. What happens if Pastor Nunan binds the hounds himself. Useful for keeping the world alive.

Bottom Line

Pay what you want on DriveThruRPG. Give a couple of quid because you want people like this writing more adventures. There are so many bad adventures out there. This isn’t one of them.

Get it. Hounds of Hendenburg