Unwelcome Spirits

Unwelcome Spirits is a starting adventure in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, taking place in 835 PD as part of the War of Ash and Light. The adventure takes a party from level 1 to level 3.

Background
The seer of the mobile Kryn Dynasty village of Urzin, a goblin warlock named Bol'bara, was performing a communal rite at a ritual stone in the Brokenveil Marsh. However, Bol'bara was captured by a garrison of Righteous Brand soldiers lead by the Imperial Inquisitor Parson Pellinost. Bol'bara was taken to the Imperial outpost Fort Venture for questioning and torture. With her rite interrupted, Bol'bara became host to her patron, the shadow demon Trush.

Journey through the marsh
In Urzin, the mobile town's leader in Champion Olomon's absence, Buhfal II, hired an adventuring party to venture into the Brokenveil Marsh to find Bol'bara, who disappeared three nights prior. The party would be rewarded 200 gold for returning Bol'bara. After being requisitioned some not-so-premium weapons and purchasing any other supplies, the party ventured into Brokenveil Marsh, guided by the hobgoblin Morgid.

While traveling through the marsh, the party had the potential to encounter many locations on their way to Fort Venture. Such locations include a withered grove with poisonous snakes, a boneyard home to a group of demon-worshiping lizardfolk lead by Skr'a S'orsk, a ruined pre-Calamity tower inhabited by giant spiders, a cave home to a group of bullywugs, the ritual stone where Bol'bara was performing her rites, an encounter with harpies near the Brokenveil Bluffs, and an ancient horizonback tortoise with telepathic abilities known as the Mossback Steward. Morgid estimated that it would take three days for the party to reach Fort Venture.

Bol'bara's exorcism
The Imperial Inquisitor Parson Pellinost is a cruel, ruthless cultist of Vesh the Bloody Siren. His especially barbaric methods of interrogation involved torturing Bol'bara to death each day, then resurrecting her with magic granted by his patron. On the third day of this torture, the day the adventuring party was estimated to arrive, Bol'bara became fully possessed by her patron Trush. With this power granted, the demon-possessed goblin was given enough power to kill Pellinost and wreak havoc across Fort Venture and escape.

Arrival at Fort Venture
Should the adventuring party arrive at the fort before three days had passed, they would have to find a way into the fort, past the guards and the fort's commander, Struther Felmont, and potentially bear witness to Bol'bara's possession. Otherwise, the fort was in disarray, all of the guards, the commander, and inquisitor having been magically made to kill each other by Bol'bara's Zone of Calamity. The only living witness to be found at the fort was another prisoner, a Hollow One cultist of Ceratos named Alonne Frith. Frith could be convinced by the adventuring party to help find the possessed Bol'bara, but with difficulty.

Return to Urzin
After escaping the fort, Bol'bara led a path of destruction back through the Brokenveil Marsh towards Urzin. Possessed by a demon, she craved only destruction in this state. When found by the adventuring party, they could with great difficulty attempt to reason with Trush to relinquish Bol'bara. Instead they could knock the goblin unconscious and quickly revived her, after which her possession would end.