Instead, it passed into the scarecrow that they had carved together. However, Phineus’s confused and tortured spirit failed to pass into the afterlife. Her mother, Cassandra, tried to save him, but when Phineus succumbed to the curse and lashed out at her, she took her silvered carving knife and killed him. Her father, Phineus, was bitten by a wereraven several hours after she left. The journey from the village to the farmstead is uneventful, and the characters arrive at the farmstead unharmed.Īs the Dungeon Master, you should know the truth of what happened the night Sibyl failed to return to her farmhouse. The tiny silhouette of the O’Vana farmstead in the distance grows ever closer-and then you arrive. After an hour of travel, however, you find yourselves completely alone on the road. At first, you seem to pass another traveler or a farmhouse every five minutes or so. You exit the village and travel along a well-worn road. It is difficult for her, but she is willing to recount the legend of the cornfield, if asked. Meanwhile, Sibyl sits in a rocking chair by the hearth, gazing absently into a fire. It’s probably still on the property, she suggests. Telyma strongly suggests they find the carving knife that Sibyl saw in her dream. She offers them 10 gp apiece to investigate the O’Vana farm and help give Sibyl the confidence to return, or at least help her move past her trauma. Telyma has posted a notice, asking for adventurers, mercenaries, or investigators who are willing to investigate the abandoned O’Vana family cornfield.Īdventurers who respond to the call are greeted by Telyma, a woman with pale skin, sorrow-creased eyes, and graying brown hair. Every night, she dreams of the scarecrow that haunts her family’s cornfield. Over 20 years have passed since that night, and Sibyl still lives in the village with her companion, Telyma. Its mushy teeth tore through flesh like knives, and in an instant, the body was gone.

It picked up the corpse and raised it to its grotesque head, and began to eat it. She hefted the corpse and draped it in the scarecrow’s arms, and as Sibyl watched in soundless terror, the scarecrow’s arms began to move. Sibyl tried to scream at her father - to warn him - but Cassandra plunged the silver-plated knife into his back and carved the life from his body. She saw her mother raise her carving knife and stalk up to her husband. But that day, she stayed longer in town than she expected and decided to spend the night with Telyma, a woman she knew, rather than attempting to brave the road after dark.Īs Sibyl slept, she was visited by a vision. She shook the scarecrow from her mind and traveled to the village as she often did. It was a grotesque thing, with gaping eyes and a crooked, lopsided mouth. Phineus was hanging sacks upon a wooden cross to make its body, and Cassandra was carving a face into an overlarge gourd to serve as its head. Cassandra and Phineus were in the cornfield, building a scarecrow. One day, Sibyl departed with her cart to the village and bade her parents goodbye as crows cawed overhead. Their adult daughter, Sibyl, traveled to the market in her parents’ stead, and she did not begrudge this duty, for she welcomed any chance she could get to spend time in the village and away from the farm. They were close friends with the burgomaster, and despite their status in the village, were not well known, for they rarely ventured into town. She and her husband, Phineus, lived in a small house on the outskirts of town. Some years ago, there was a farmer by the name of Cassandra O’Vana.

This tale is more sinister, and worst of all - it's true.

Some are pleasant tales such as the stories of the great Green Man, a fairy who visits farmers in the guise of a traveler and blesses their fields in exchange for a night of merrymaking. The legend of the cornfieldĮvery farming town has its superstitions. Over the course of the game, your players will uncover the secrets behind a legend involving a scarecrow and a brutal murder. Happy Halloween! To celebrate the spooky occasion, you can run your players through 'The Haunted Cornfield,' a free Dungeons & Dragons adventure! It is set in Barovia, a grim burgh found in Curse of Strahd, and can be run as a one-shot for a party of 1st-level adventurers.

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