```col-mdflexGrow=2.5===# OutlineWhen the party approaches the lodge, read or paraphrase the following text.> [!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > Crammed into a tight clearing, this decrepit two-story lodge watches the story of the wood unfold alone. The front door lies within the entryway, burst from its hinges and buried by wet leaves. Vines crawl through shattered windows, and the interior appears dark and damp. It's quiet here, but a single discordant note tinks from somewhere inside. > Besides the foyer (1), every room has a window, and <u>if any player characters look outside</u>, they spot a pair of orange eyes watching from the wood that disappear immediately. When <u>searching in any area, a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check</u> reveals a scant trail of shed auburn fur leading to the upstairs bedroom (8) at the end of the hall. The lodge is composed of the following areas.## 1. Foyer. The foyer contains two destroyed entry tables and passages to the office (2), the pantry (3), the kitchen (4), the den (6), and the second floor hallway (7). Deep gouges mar the hardwood floor, the walls, and the creaky stairs. ## 2. Office. The wrecked office has a small table, a bed, a desk, an empty chest, and an open safe. The floor is littered with the lodge's business records and a mix of 40 gold and 10 silver coins.## 3. Pantry. A few rats skitter around the pantry's shelves and cupboards, nibbling on what's left of the lodge's grains.## 4. Kitchen. In the kitchen, several rats tear at freshly butchered slabs of beef on the counter. The meat ends a smeared sticky blood trail that leads out the back door to the remains of a dairy cow missing its bell. Inside near the back door, a reading nook extends from the kitchen. It contains a mostly intact cushioned chair covered in long auburn fur and a single book. The book, Abjurer's Compendium, is a treatise on abjuration magic, and the lack of dust on it gives the impression that it has been read recently.## 5. Dining Room. The dining room, in a corner of the first floor between the kitchen (4) and the den (6), is dominated by an 8-person table split in two and several busted chairs.## 6. Den. This sitting room contains two clawed couches, a cushioned chair, and a ruined piano. <u>Searching this room reveals</u> scratches on the piano keys and tufts of fur on the furniture. <u>Every few minutes</u>, a breeze from the window gently rocks the teetering piano, playing one eerie note.## 7. Hallway. Up the stairs from the Foyer (1), long scratches line the walls of the second floor hallway, and a soft whimpering can be heard from the bedroom at the furthest end of the hall.## 8. Guest Bedrooms. Each of these five guest bedrooms contain wrecked furniture and a few remnants of their final tenants. A successful <u>DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation)check reveals</u> up to 1d10 gold in each room. ## 9. Last Bedroom. In the furthest room from the stairs, the party finds one sanguine werewolf with auburn fur curled into the room's far corner, wearing a tattered, bloodied dress and moaning sorrowfully. This fearful werewolf is ==Melluria, the lodge's keeper== . Having caught the party's scent, she lies still waiting for them to make the first move.``````col-md![[plots/howling-in-the-woods/table-of-contents]]![[~attachments/dndline.png]]```