Chapter 1-The Ghostlight Express

Campaign Overview Content Warnings:

• Corruption
• Train accidents

Things to do:

• Free the stray lost souls on the train by resolving their unfinished business, trapping them in a soul can, or destroying them
• Meet Phillip and Adela Druskenvald and have their fortunes told
• Pursue the Phantom Trainhopper to the Tender
• Survive the battle with the corrupted Ghostlight Locomotive

Places to Cut off:

• If it's been like 2-3 hours of interacting and helping the souls onboard
• When the train crashes (level up)
  • Before the fight ask if the players would be up to playing the entire campaign as it will affect the next session
• After the fight and when the Druskenvalds give the players their rewards

Start the first session with the players meeting The Vagrant

Druskenvalds

First meets in area G3:

Phillip Druskenvald and Adela Druskenvald are taking the Ghostlight Express home from the mortal plane (excuse: light travel and observation on things to introduce to The Crescent Court to better their provinces like technology and conservation projects). It is very obvious to tell they are super in love. The two greet the newcomers with warmth and curiosity. They are willing to share details about the realm of Druskenvald and themselves, but they frequently turn the questions back to the characters in genuine interest.

Their one goal: Make both life and death a grand old time.
Life in the afterlife is sweet, and they do what they can to make it stay that way.
They live at the Chateau Clair de Lune (sha‑TOH KLAIR‑duh‑LOON).

Adela:

• Foresaw their arrival via tarot card and knows they'll help her and Phillip; but with what, she's unsure.

Ghostlight Express

• After characters leave passenger car: When looking at it from the side windows, can see the next car, but looking through the door, can only see a misty portal
• Roll d6 for where they go next - does not include the Passenger Car (area G1) (always in the back) and the Tender (area G8)
  • 1: Sleeper Car
  • 2: Lounge Car
  • 3: Dining Car
  • 4: Mail Car
  • 5: Baggage Car
  • 6: Circus Car

Train Locations

G1: Passenger Car (pg 177)

• Passenger Spirits: Rows look empty at first, flickering in and out of sight are spectral humanoid shapes- passenger souls on their way to Druskenvald to be reborn
  • Perception (wis) or Investigation (int) DC 15 examining the spirits- will notice that one is distinctively shadowy, and their head has a strange tilt to the side (This is the Phantom Trainhopper)
• Treasure: Examine the Passenger Car
  • Perception (wis) or Investigation (int) DC 13- Finds a small jar of 12 glass marbles tucked under a seat
    • Jar can be used to trap a haint
• The Phantom Strikes: Any character that tries to leave the Passenger Car or attempts to closely inspect or attack the Phantom Trainhopper:
  • One passenger among the blankly staring spirits stirs. It darkens to an inky shadow as it darks into the aisle, its humanoid silhouette tall and gaunt with a head tilted to one side at an unnatural angle. Crooked tendrils shoot out from it like gnarled tree branches and shatter the windows of the car. Ghastly mist spills in around you. One of the passenger spirits lets out a pained wail, then takes on a malevolent form with a huge maw of blocky teeth, a single eye in its head, and two smaller eyes in the palms of spindly hands. A shrill train whistle reverberates around you as the windows suddenly repair themselves. The voice of the Vagrant emanates from the ceiling, muffled and crackling. "Could y'all take care of that? This ain't happened before, and I'm a fiddler, not a fighter!"
  • Passenger becomes a hostile Specter that attacks the characters until destroyed
  • Phantom Trainhopper joins the fight
  • 1d4 rounds after the breach, the windows will begin to reform and no more passengers are corrupted
• Once the Phantom is destroyed the Vagrant's voice will echo through the car and inform them of the gravity of what's just happened:
  • Understands the danger but plays it cool so he doesn't alert them
  • Simply and calmly explains the situation and asks for their assistance
  • The shadowy stowaway they just fought let the misty Shroud into the train, which corrupts spirits.
  • There are 6 haints that must be released from the train before they can be corrupted. Either resolve their unfinished business from life or destroy them if necessary - doesn't matter. Being contorted into a Specter is one of the most painful experiences one can experience after death.
  • Once the haints are released one way or the other, the characters should check the Tender (area G8) for any corruption, as it contains the train's fuel stores
  • Vagrant is stuck in his cab to keep any lingering Shroud mist from the locomotive
  • Asks the characters not to alarm Phillip and Adela Druskenvald if they run into them. "Ain't no call to rile up the Lord and Lady over a scuffle."
• Characters cannot interact with The Vagrant until later in the chapter
• Lingering Curse: After the battle, characters need to make a DC 13 Perception (wis)- notices wisps of ghastly blue-green mist shot through the black root-like veins lingering in the air- remnants of the clouds that billowed in. It slowly snakes forward and slinks under the forward door. Cannot be dispersed or affected in any way, and they lose sight of it once it slips away.
  • Lingering curse of the Phantom Trainhopper that aims to reach the Tender to corrupt the fuel of the Ghostlight Locomotive

G2: Sleeper Car (pg 179)

This car is eerily quiet, save for a soft creaking each time the train gently rocks. A long corridor stretches down the car's length. Three sliding doors along the way suggest luxurious private cabins for the train's first-class passengers

Adela and Phillip have private quarters here

• Private Cabins: Each feature neatly made full beds beside polished mahogany furnishings, set against plush velvet curtains veiling the Shroud beyond the window.
  • Cabin 1: Where Phillip and Adela are staying. Six sets of assorted clothing and sleepwear can be found within.
  • Cabin 2: Only noteworthy thing is a brass and wooden phonograph that sits on an end table. When turned on, slow romantic jazz music plays through. This phonograph can be used to free the Songstress haint in the Lounge Car (area G3)
  • Cabin 3: Faint weeping emanates within 15ft of the sliding door to this cabin
    • The Sweetheart
    • A weeping young woman, looking wistful as she longingly stares at a locket of a handsome mustachioed man with the initials JB underneath the portrait.
    • Only knows herself as his sweetheart. Lovesick and lonely, can barely register the characters and bemoaning having to travel to the afterlife alone. She's not complete without her dear love, and she doesn't want to spend an eternity without him
      • Giving her the love letter from Jakob Bruan found in the Mail Car (area G5) makes her realize that her love is already on the other side and is waiting for her in the afterlife
        • She weeps with joy, hugging the tear-stained letter and her locket as she is freed and fades from view
      • Calligrapher's Supplies or Performance: Help her compose a poem or song about her love so she has something to soothe her longing for him
      • History or Persuasion: Commiserate with her with personal tales of lost and regained love or recite legends or tales of the same
      • Investigation or Religion: Steer her to remember details of her love's qualities in a real and practical way, suggesting they will be reunited when she reaches her destination

G3: Lounge Car (pg 180)

This lounge is one of understated luxury. Ebony walls are inlaid with gold geometric patterns. Plush, burgundy velvet chairs are arranged for quiet conversation. Soft light filters through frosted sconces, casting a gentle glow on the various haunting landscape paintings that hang on the walls

• Communal sitting room for passengers to socialize outside the Passenger Car or Dining Car

• Where the characters meet Phillip and Adela Druskenvald

  • Pleasantly surprised to find other lively passengers and are eager to make friends with and learn more about the characters.
    A tall, thin man leans against the bar, a whiskey glass in hand. His dark, slicked-back hair gleams with precision, framing his face with sharp lines, and is accentuated by a pencil-thin mustache. He wears a tailored striped suit and grips an ornate cane topped with a silver goat skull. Sitting beside him is a shorter woman with curly brown hair who is wearing a shimmering flapper dress. Champagne flute in hand, she laughs lightly.

• Adela does most of the talking. She's very welcoming, eager to trade stories and talents

• Phillip and Adela are so obviously in love with each other, they turn to each other to share observations, mostly positive, about the characters' comments and questions.

• They are headed home to the Chateau Clair de Lune

• Phillip is less sociable than Adela, but he is still pleasant to talk to

  • Offers to get the characters any beverage they enjoy and is very forthcoming with details about himself
  • If he senses that the characters are prying, rude, or deception, he buttons up and stops sharing

• If the Phantom Trainhopper, Phillip and Adela are unconcerned and has trust that the Vagrant has everything under control

• Tarot Reading:

  • Adela sees the chance meeting as an opportunity to help her new friends see their future with a tarot reading. She is eager to show off her talents with any willing soul. It's challenging to dissuade her, even if it means only doing a single reading. Her preferred reading consists of pulling a single card from the Major Arcana
  • See Fated Tarot Reading (pg 152)
  • Every character who participates gains the benefit of the Bless spell for an hour
    • When target makes an attack roll or a saving throw, can add a d4 and add the number rolled to the attack roll or saving throw

• Paintings: There are many paintings hanging on the walls

  • Depicts various landscapes, from foggy valleys to tropical mountains
  • Character that examines the paintings rolls a DC 13 Perception (wis) check - notices a painting of a rocky coastline with a roiling sea stretching to the horizon at sunset. It's vividly lifelike, to the point that the waves seem to roll when one isn't looking directly at the work.
  • Can be easily removed and used to free the Mariner haint in the Mail Car (area G5)

• Treasure:

  • Characters that examine the Lounge Car makes a DC 13 Perception (wis) or Investigation (int) check - success they find an empty whiskey bottle behind the bar
    • Can be used to trap a haint
    • The first character who succeeds on the check by 5 or more finds the bottle of Haint Hooch behind the bar
    • Haint Hooch: A rare potion - A glass jug labeled "XxX" with a skeletal smile drawn on it. The ghastly, blue-green liquor within has an overpowering smell and harsh taste.
    • When you drink from this glass jug, you become insubstantial for 1 minute. During this time, you can move through creatures and objects as if they were Difficult Terrain, taking 1d10 Force damage if you end your turn inside an object
      • Heightened Potency For the duration, you gain a Fly Speed equal to your Speed

• The Songstress

  • A beautiful woman in a long, silky dress, smoking a cigarette sitting on one of the velvet chairs, looking glumly out the window.
  • Only knows herself as a songstress who wished to be a famous singer in life
  • She feels empty, having never been able to find the perfect song that inspired her to give the performance of a lifetime for an audience that truly appreciated her talent
    • She enjoys jazzy and romantic songs and wishes to give one last soulful performance

Haints

• Lanky, ethereal forms that shimmer a ghastly blue-green that float slightly off the surface of the train car floors.
• Wayward Haints: Spirit trapped between life and death and are bound to the train forever until their burden that keeps them there is lifted or they deteriorate into soul coal and become fuel for the train
  • Often called Bound Spirits- each have a story to tell, but only remember vague details.
    • Destruction: Destroying a haint breaks its bond to the train, though it leaves an echo of pain behind
    • Resolution: Characters can help haints resolve their unprocessed emotions toward their unfinished business. Can help it reach an understanding of its emotional bindings or bringing it a token that completes the missing piece of that understanding
      • Haints that move on are freed from the train and each character regains 1d6 HP (gaining any excess beyond their HP max as Temp HP)
      • Helping a Haint: An Influence Action can allow character to interact with the haint in some way to make an ability check (DC 12) to help it come to terms with its unfinished business. Other checks can with a DC 15 unless justified in situation
        • When a check using a skill or tool proficiency is successful, the DC of further uses of that proficiency to help the same haint increases by 2
        • Each successful ability check helps the haint reach a resolution. After 3 successes, the haint is freed.
        • Each failure makes it grow more impatient and agitated. After 3 failures, it loses itself to rage and despair, becomes hostile, and attacks the characters. No choice but to destroy it
• Haints fear empty bottles and jars
  (can be found in the Passengar Car (area G1) or Lounge Car (area G3))
• Study action: DC 16 Int (History or Religion)
  • Recalls the "Bottle Trap" trait in the Wayward Haint (pg 538)
  • Bottles containing a haint count as Soul Cans

Phantom Trainhopper

• The one soul on board that doesn't have a ticket to ride
• In life: was a member of a cult that worships Kehlenn, The Crooked Queen
• Were ritually sacrificed so their spirit could sneak onboard the Ghostlight Express
• Granted power in death by The Crooked Man
  • Can curse spirits on board that the Ghostlight Express uses as fuel
  • With the help of the Shroud, turns the ghost train against the Vagrant and leads to stranding the Druskenvalds and the characters in Wickermoor Hollow