'That Which Remains Buried' An OSR Adventure Encounter Idea For Your Old School Campaigns

"A great evil has befallen the local farms & villages! There are curses uttered in the
 night! Strange giantesses harry the countryside, children are missing, & only brave adventurers can help sort out this evil or hate of old!'

So I've been doing a bit more thinking about 'the Lion & Dragon rpg'  after the debacle that Rpg Pundit went through. But what kind an adventure could you actually do as an introductory adventure encounter for the game grounded in real world history with overtures of mythology & the occult.



Fortunately I didn't have to go far. There's an article called Dressed up with bling stolen in Viking raids by Medievalist.net
The meat of the article is about a piece of Viking jewelry that was turned up by a metal detector from a viking woman's grave possibly moved by a farmer.Well that got my wheels moving. Those were in my mind criteria for an unquiet spirit especially a possible draugr of mythology which makes the AD&D I read about in Dragon magazine back in the 80's look like a wet noodle.
The Viking Answer Lady has a very detailed break down of the legends, mythologies, & types of undead  in  "The Walking Dead: draugr and Aptrgangr in Old Norse Literature"

For this encounter I'm going to be using this article in addition to certain old school TSR resources so that the AD&D first edition players can use this encounter as well. The scenario goes something like this: 

So someplace along the line a high ranking noble woman of Viking origin received a broach but was cut down in the prime of life. She was buried with all ceremony that was accorded to her. But with England being a land as filled with history as it is a farmer's family has disturbed the grave. To make matters worse the farmer's daughter has taken to wearing the broach.
 

The locals in the area are being terrified by a walking apparition of a draugr or hag of tremendous evil. Crops are withering, curses are being laid upon children, etc. The situation is getting desperate but in a back water village such as this one it means relying on adventurers to help solve the problem.
Various villagers are being plagued by horrid dreams & visions of a giantess in the night. Others claim to have had children missing from families  whist other villagers don't remember any such children. Tracking down a series of clues provided by the dungeon master the players don't know that they're dealing with a Norse undead yet..
But in AD&D first edition terms they're dealing with a type of undead Annis of incredibly dangerous qualities.  Its going to take a combination of clever detective work, tracing down any other relics or treasures, & then putting this monster back into its grave for good.

The Annis and greenhag  cousins of the night hag (Monster Manual for first edition AD&D) are found in the AD&D Monster Manual II & have many of the qualities that we're looking for. But its going to take some cherry picking between the night hag, the green hag, & the Annis to get the combination right.
If your expecting this to be a straight up hack & slash style adventure then forget it. This is going to be a full up investigative style adventure to put down an ancient evil or hate of old. If fact this encounter could be easily tied into a Viking hoard of gold or spoils that seem to turn up from time to time in England.
So once again my love of the Monster Manual II comes out with bits and pieces of various real world mythology. The PC's are going to be up to their necks in this one & the DM could throw in giving her certain supernatural or spell like abilities as the situation sees fit.


A lot of this adventure encounter idea is not from the tradition AD&D perspective but is dipping heavily into the Norse mythological pop culture venue instead. So this has a much more varied flavor to it.