by Matt Goetz

Music is meant to lift the spirits, not crush the soul. The first time I heard the cacophony of The Grim, I turned to my traveling companions and asked, “Do you hear what I hear?” Their blood-drained faces assured me they did.

—Professor Viktor Pendrake, Department of Extraordinary Zoology, Corvis University

Renowned expert in all matters of unusual beasts, there are few individuals who have seen as much of Immoren as Professor Viktor Pendrake—the High Chancellor of Corvis University’s Department of Extraordinary Zoology—and fewer still who survived the experience and chronicled the tale. His foundational work, the Monsternomicon, gives a detailed account of the many unusual encounters he has faced in his journeys across the Iron Kingdoms and beyond. To get the most out of these encounters, you will need a copy of Iron Kingdoms: Requiem and the Monsternomicon.

Background

The midwinter festival of Giving Day approaches. As the people of western Immoren prepare for an exchange of gifts and warm nights indoors around the fire, a strange new creature rises from the sleeping mind of the Dreamer to punish all who act wickedly and greedily toward their fellow man.

This nightmare, known by the nickname “The Grim,” is an unusual Skin & Moans. The faces that cover its body drone out festive carols in all the languages of western Immoren, rising to a fever pitch when the creature goes in to slaughter the greedy and miserly. By its side is a capering nightmarish hound called Slay-Belle, the bell on its collar providing an unharmonious counterpoint to its master’s maddening songs. In its wake, the nightmare leaves a string of petrified bodies turned to coal by its wicked blades and confused stories of the townsfolk who have witnessed it stomping forth from a recent victim’s home accompanied by its strange hound.

Now the creature descends on a modest village where the townsfolk don’t have enough money to even consider giving gifts, thanks in large part to the recently deceased Angus Parson, the stingy employer of most of the town’s inhabitants.

Encounter Start

This encounter is suited for four characters with an average party level of 11. While characters of lower levels may be able to overcome Grim and Slay-Belle, it will be challenging. It can take place in any community that observes (or is aware of) the Morrowan tradition of Giving Day.

There are numerous ways to get the characters involved in this encounter. Suggested options include:

• Rumors of a string of unusual deaths have spread like ugly gossip through the broadsheets. “The victims are discovered as statues of pure coal.” “They come from all walks of life, and the only common thread among them is that they were known for being stingy and not well liked by their neighbors.”
• During their travels, the characters meet an unusual young woman with a distant, almost dreamy personality. She tells them all, “She didn’t mean to dream him up. She plucked him out of naughty children’s minds as they slept and gave him flesh.” The woman leaves each of the characters with a red rose before drifting away, singing a lullaby under her breath.
• One of The Grim’s victims was recently discovered in their home, a statue of black coal huddled in the corner of their house. The family of the victim has posted a reward from the estate of the deceased, valued at over 10,000 gp, for any mercenaries or investigators who can bring the perpetrator to justice.

The encounter begins when the characters arrive at the site of The Grim’s most recent killing. Read or paraphrase the following:

A group of city watch are on-site to interview one of the witnesses, a young girl named Thea Breen (NG female human commoner), who sells matchsticks on the street. The girl is distraught, and the aggressive questions from Gilbert Barelby, the watch inspector, are not helping her condition.

Convincing the girl to talk will require the characters to intervene. A DC 12 Charisma (Persuasion) check can calm her down enough to share information, or a character with the Vagabond background or with a background suggesting a similarly challenging upbringing can convince her to talk without a check.

Thea Breen knows the following information:

• She was selling matches on the street the night of the attack.
• She heard the man in the house shouting at his servant. It sounded like the servant had asked for the evening off, and the man said he could have every evening off because he was no longer employed.
• Shortly after, the gas lamps went dark. There were heavy footfalls and the sound of a bell ringing, and she saw “a giant with too many voices and an ugly dog” enter the man’s home. The man came out a moment later, looking scared.
• The giant left the statue in the man’s doorway. Before it left, it looked at her with its purple eyes, left something on the street, and said in its strange voice, “Don’t forget to give a gift.”

Thea’s Gift. Thea shows the characters what she was given: a small box with red wrapping paper and a white bow. Inside are a man’s pair of silver and pearl cufflinks—taken from the victim’s home.

Angus Parson

The victim, Angus Parson, was a captain of industry in the town. Known for his miserly ways and for forcing his employees to work long hours for little pay—and time off for holidays be damned—he was not a beloved person.

Talking to the gathered townsfolk reveals the following:

• Parson was the town’s major employer. Over half of everyone in town worked in one of his industries, be it the textile factory, glasswerks, or the town’s mill.
• Parson was a miser who expected everyone to work as hard to fill his pockets as he did himself.
• The man seemed to despise holidays in general and Giving Day in particular. He would grouch at length about how holidays were dreamed up by the poor as a way of convincing soft-hearted and soft-headed people into giving things away for free. He would go out of his way to dock the pay of employees he overheard talking about their plans for Giving Day, especially those who mentioned gifts they planned to give to others.

The Tale of Grim

One of the townsfolk, “Old” Edwin Quashmer (LN human commoner), an old man with a scraggly beard and bald pate, pulls the characters aside as they examine the scene. With wild eyes he rants at them:

A character who makes a DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check discovers that, while he might be a bit unhinged, Edwin fully believes what he says. The old man begins to empty his pockets and strips off his boots and socks, pressing impromptu “gifts” upon any onlookers he can. Stripped to the waist and shoeless, the man stalks back to his home with a shout of “Get to gifting or face The Grim!”

Grymkin Tales. One of the characters might have heard a version of the story of The Grim and attempt to recall information with a DC 14 Intelligence (History) check. It is most often told among rural Morrowans on the eve of Giving Day as a cautionary tale to young children who might be expecting too many gifts for themselves and thinking too little of others. In the stories, The Grim is a bitter man who transforms all of the sweets and toys of greedy children into coal.

Some stories describe The Grim as contemporary of King Woldred the Diligent, the man who first established Giving Day. In those tales, “Grim” Malthus was a chimney sweep who watched as the king went from house to house offering gifts, but not a single person thought to repay the king’s kindness, not even with a word of thanks. Incensed by their selfishness, the chimney sweep snuck into the homes of the ungrateful, the story goes, and left soot on all their meals and finest clothes as a punishment for the slight.

The stories also include mentions of how Grim would reward those who performed selfless acts on the night of Giving Day, up to and including passing over them in his nighttime mischief.

Festival Night

On the night of Giving Day, the townsfolk shutter away in their houses. A few families give modest gifts to their neighbors, having been shaken by Edwin’s behavior earlier in the day, but only a few households pay attention to the rambling of the old man.

As night approaches, the townsfolk close and lock their doors. Whether or not they put faith in Edwin’s story, one of their own was recently killed and turned into a statue, so they aren’t taking any chances.

Shortly after nightfall, as the first few flakes of snow begin to fall on the town, the characters can hear the jingling of a brass bell as The Grim and his companion arrive in town, heralded by a choir of voices droning on different winter carols and the jingling of the gorehound’s bell.

Grim and Slay-Belle

The pair of grymkin nightmares emerge out of a swirling fog at the edge of town. The Grim and Slay-Belle are unhurried and will move from one home to the next to attack the occupants within. They skip over the homes of Edwin and anyone else who managed to give gifts before nightfall.

If the characters thought to offer gifts to the townsfolk, The Grim pays them no mind. He only becomes hostile if one of the characters attacks him or tries to interfere with his work of punishing those who failed to offer gifts for Giving Day.

Unless the characters intervene, The Grim and Slay-Belle spend 1 minute in each home attacking its occupants before moving on to a new target. The townsfolk lack sufficient firepower to bring down the creatures and are quick to fall under their combined attacks. It will take The Grim and his gorehound 30 minutes to work their way through all the homes of those who failed to participate in Giving Day.

Grim is a Skin & Moans with the following changes:

Grim’s Blades. The Grim’s Butchers’ Blades have the following special rule: when The Grim hits a living creature with a butchers’ blades attack, the creature must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature’s Speed is reduced by 10 feet. If a creature’s Speed would be reduced to 0 feet by this effect, it becomes petrified as a statue of coal. A creature is no longer petrified if The Grim is destroyed.

Any reduction of Speed caused by The Grim lasts until a creature completes a long rest.

Slay-Belle is a gorehound with the following action:

Hear Those Slay Bells Ring (Recharge 5–6). The gorehound sets its bell ringing to produce a dissonant song. Hostile creatures within 20 feet of the gorehound that can hear it must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by the gorehound for 1 minute.

The charmed target must sacrifice either its movement or its action to dance and cavort wildly in time with the song.

An effected target can make a Wisdom saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a success, the spell ends.

The Gifts of Grim

Because it was dreamed up from stories that parents tell their children, The Grim has rules by which it must abide regarding selfless acts. The following Gifts are awarded to characters who perform one of these actions.

The Gift of Generosity. A character who takes the Help action to assist a friendly creature gains this gift. The Grim and Slay-Belle have vulnerability to damage caused by all attacks from this character until the end of the character’s next turn.

The Gift of Life. A character who stabilizes an incapacitated creature gains this gift. A character with this gift gains temporary hit points equal to the maximum roll of 2 Hit Dice + the Constitution modifier of the stabilized creature. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour or until The Grim is defeated.

The Gift of Self-Sacrifice. A character can use their reaction to respond to one of The Grim’s attacks that hits another creature within 5 feet. The character takes damage from the attack instead of The Grim’s initial target. Afterward, the damaged character gains resistance to all of The Grim and Slay-Belle’s attacks and advantage on saving throws caused by The Grim or Slay-Belle until the end of the character’s next turn.

Conclusion

The encounter concludes with the defeat of The Grim. If Slay-Belle is still alive, the gorehound pads over to The Grim’s body and mournfully howls into the night before rapidly fading from existence: the dream of The Grim is all that keeps the gorehound tethered to the physical world.

If the characters were unable to destroy Grim, the survivors of the village will spread word of the creature through the countryside. On the one hand, this will forewarn other communities about the holiday spirit who keeps a close watch over the greedy folks who refuse to share even modest gifts. However, because he is a grymkin, as these stories spread and become more embellished, The Grim may gain new abilities from the tales told about him. By the next Giving Day, the creature might return much more powerful or different than what the characters experienced.

The following are some suggestions for how to use The Grim or similar creatures in future stories.

Every Holiday Has its Legends. The Grim is only one of many different stories told about the holidays of the Iron Kingdoms. Other similar creatures might rise to prominence in the days ahead, twisting tales about harvest festivals, the Longest Night, or Summerfaire. As these occurrences continue cropping up, the Strangelight Workshop puts out a call for anyone who has experience with such creatures who can assist in their capture and study.

I’ll Be Home for Winterfest. Shortly before Winterfest comes around again, a character who dealt the final blow on The Grim finds that all of their possessions are covered in a fine layer of soot and ash, and the sound of a ringing bell comes to them in their dreams. Worse, it gets louder as the days approach the anniversary of their first confrontation with the mad, many-faced creature.

We Don’t Do That Here. Not every culture in the Iron Kingdoms observes the same holidays—not that the grymkin seem to care. The Grim or a similar creature might arise to threaten a community that does not abide by the “rules” of a holiday simply because they are unaware of its importance, putting the entire community in peril of undeserved punishment. Will the characters intervene on behalf of these innocent souls?

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