ConquerorThe Poisoning of King Aldwin
King Aldwin is dying at his coronation feast, and the murderer is still dining at the table
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Courtly Disguise. The Court Lady appears as a strikingly beautiful noblewoman. A DC 17 Wisdom (Insight) check, or a hit that breaks her enchantment, reveals her true, toothless bog face.
Bog Curse. Creatures charmed by the Court Lady have disadvantage on saving throws against her poison attacks.
Poison Heart. When the Court Lady dies, her heart bursts into a cloud of swamp gas; each creature within 10 feet must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 hour.
Multiattack. The Court Lady makes two attacks with her Poisoned Needle.
Poisoned Needle. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) poison damage.
Choking Mist (Recharge 5-6). A cloud of poisonous swamp mist fills a 20-foot radius around the Court Lady. Each creature within it must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw, becoming charmed and blinded until the end of her next turn on a failure.
The Story
Rain drums against the palace windows as King Aldwin slowly dies, poisoned at his own coronation feast, his crown unguarded on a velvet cushion. Everyone around him has a reason to wish him dead, and no one has a watertight alibi. With his last strength the dying king seizes your hand and whispers that you must trust no one who holds a title.
The poison works slowly, and that is by design: the murderer wants Aldwin to live long enough to witness his own undoing. As the guests remain locked in the banquet hall, it becomes clear that not everything seated at the table is truly human. Behind one of these courtly faces lives something ancient that feeds on the death-terror of crowned heads, and it plotted this banquet long in advance.
You question the guests, dissect the menu course by course, search the bedchambers for hidden vials, and untangle who is concealing which motive. With every hour the rain falls, Aldwin creeps closer to death and the poisoner closer to the crown.
Then the mask falls. The Lady-in-Waiting with the Green Heart is no jealous noblewoman but a bog witch, and behind her courtly smile grins the toothless mouth of the fen. The poison was merely the first course of her feast. Will you unmask the Lady-in-Waiting with the Green Heart and find the antidote before the last bell tolls, or will Aldwin's crown choose a new and far more dangerous bearer tonight?
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