D&D Adventure: Stolen Child of Elder Blood

Content Warning: This adventure is not for the faint-hearted. It includes themes of kidnapping, demonic possession, ritual sacrifice, exorcism, and violence against children. If these themes are not for you, check out any of the other adventures and encounters here!

How to use this adventure

The following short adventure, “Stolen Child of Elder Blood” presents a potentially deadly challenge for a party of four 4th-level characters. The adventure will take approximately 2-3 hours to run. You can adjust the difficulty by substituting the monsters in the encounters for more or less challenging creatures of a similar type.

The adventure can take place in any forested area where you might expect wood elves, goblins, and hags. You can use this short adventure to spice up overland travel. Or you can let a whole campaign develop out of the seeds in this adventure. Modify, tear apart, reskin or otherwise change this adventure to fit the needs of your game.

Adventure overview: Elves, goblins, and a witch

Valen, an infant daughter of the wood elves was stolen. The elven child was kidnapped by a green hag named Skinny Rose Tearhands, who wants to sacrifice the child to awaken an ancient monster from the outer planes. Skinny Rose, however, lost the child when her hut was raided by the Redtooth goblins, a local goblin tribe. When the goblins attacked, the hag fled. Instead of murdering Valen, the elvish child, a goblin druid had mercy. The shaman Grimnose secretly took the child, and hid her. He has been caring for her for the past few weeks.

Unfortunately, the tinctures and rituals of the shaman have not mingled well with the innate magic of the elvish infant. The magic of the goblins, and the magic of the elves have attracted a demon. A vrock has manifested within the child and the shaman has lost control. Valen, the stolen child of elder blood, has become a force of magical havoc, unconstrained and violent.

The situation has become complicated. The hag is looking for her kidnapped sacrificial child. The elves have sent scouts to locate their stolen offspring. And the goblin shaman is desperately trying and failing to contain the destructive power of Valen, the stolen child of elder blood.

Adventure hook: Find the stolen child

There are several ways to introduce this adventure. If you are running this to spice up overland travel, the party meets a beautiful female elf who calls herself Valnala. She is looking for her stolen child, Valen, and asks the party for help. She tells the characters that her daughter was kidnapped by the evil Redtooth goblins. Here is the twist: The “elf” is actually the hag Skinny Rose Tearhands in disguise. She is using the party to get to the child and will try to flee as soon as she has her prize.

Other ways to begin this adventure include:

The party hears strange screeches and howls coming from within the woods where the magically transformed elvish child is wreaking havoc.
A seer tells the party of the “stolen child of elder blood” that haunts these woods, and tells them that they have a chance to save the child.
The party is approached by a wood elf scout, called Yinran Windshadow, looking for the child. The scout asks the party for help.

Running the adventure: Stolen child of elder blood

1. Tracking the stolen child

A successful DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check allows the characters to track down Valen, the stolen child of elder blood, and Grimnose, the goblin shaman. A failed check means the party takes longer to find the two. They might have to face a random forest encounter on the way, or the Vrock within Valen might become more powerful, gaining more hit points, and an additional attack.

When the party eventually finds the goblin shaman’s hut, they see a frightened and desperate shaman, Grimnose. The strange mixture of goblin shamanism and elvish blood has attracted a demon who has possessed the child. This possession has transformed Valen into a horrifying floating child abomination, her limbs twitching unnaturally, her eyes milky, her mouth gaping in an unending cry of pain. Grimnose begs the child to calm down, burning herbs and singing goblin chants. Unfortunately, the goblin’s magic further enrages the demon inside of Valen.

The characters might assume that Grimnose has kidnapped the child. Through social interaction with the shaman they can quickly discover that their assumption is wrong, and that Grimnose actually cares for the stolen child of elder blood.

The characters can notice the demonic presence within the child, for example through a Paladin’s Divine Sense, through Ability checks, or because Grimnose or another NPC travelling with the party gives them hints.

2. An exorcism ritual challenge

The characters quickly realize (no check necessary) that, in order to deal with the demon, they must first find a way to draw the demon out of the child’s body. Here, the players can get creative. Run a small ritual challenge in which each character contributes to the exorcism. Ask each player how they contribute to exorcising the demon. To see if they succeed, let them roll an appropriate Ability check. If a player has troubles coming up with a contribution, you can give them some of these suggestions:

Assist Grimnose with his chants, therefore further enraging the demon until it bursts free (DC 11 Charisma (Performance) or Intelligence (Religion)).
Use divine magic, such as the protection from evil and good spell to repel the demon (DC 10 Spellcasting Ability check with advantage).
Calm Valen, the elvish daughter who is struggling to survive with the demon inside of her (DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion), Wisdom (Insight), or Wisdom (Medicine)) check.
Call upon a deity to intervene on behalf of Valen (DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) or Charisma (Persuasion)).

You can use a 4-step progress clock to track the successes of the party. Divide a circle into four sections, and fill in one section for each successful check. For each failure, add 10 hit points to the Vrock’s maximum hit points, as the demon feeds on the child’s life energy. After four successful Ability checks, the demon is expelled from the child’s body, and attacks the party.

3. The witch makes her move

Once the demon is defeated, the child is saved. For now… Skinny Rose Tearhands, the hag, is close by, and has been biding her time, either because she was with the characters from the start or because she was lurking in the woods nearby. After the party is weakened by the battle with the demon, it is the hag’s time to move. She will first attempt to deceive the characters by appearing as the elvish woman, Valnala, claiming the child is hers. If the characters recognize the deception, the hag will try to steal the child through more violent means.

The adventure could end with a chase sequence through the woods, in which the party tries to catch the hag who is fleeing with the stolen child, or with combat against her if the characters discover the hag’s true nature earlier.

4. Aftermath: Reunion or newfound bonds

Afterwards, the characters can find elves looking for their lost child and return Valen to them. Alternatively, Valen might have bonded with Grimnose, making it safer for the child to stay with her newfound guardian. Even if the wood elves find their stolen daughter and the shaman, they could be convinced by the strength of the bond between Valen and Grimnose, and let the two become an unlikely family.

NPCs

There are three main NPCs in this adventure. You can add other NPCs like the wood elf scout Yinran Windshadow, other wood elves, or other goblins of the Redtooth tribe.

Skinny Rose Tearhands. A sly witch who stole the elvish child. She wants to take over the forest by summoning and binding an ancient monster by sacrificing the child.
Grimnose. The kind goblin shaman who took the child from the hag, and has been caring for her. He formally belongs to the Redtooth tribe but lives as a hermit, separated from his kin.
Valen. The innocent infant daughter of the wood elves who is at the center of the adventure.

Monsters

The following monster stat blocks can be used for this adventure. Exchange these for monsters with a higher or lower challenge rating to adjust for the strength of your characters.

Green hag – The witch who stole the elvish child.
Druid – Use this stat block for the goblin shaman.
Vrock – Use this stat block for the demon who possesses the child. While within the child’s body, the demon cannot be targeted by attacks, spells, or other damaging effects.

Treasure

Either the elves or the shaman can reward the characters with 1 healing potion, a potion of animal friendship, as well as two moonstones worth 50 gp each.