Sorcerer by

# Sorcerers

Blood is thicker than water. Friends are for life, but family is forever. When magic affinity is passed down through bloodlines, those who inherit the power of their mother and father might still have to contend with the overwhelming power that still rests within that very same mother and that very same father, and perhaps even further back into the bloodline. Sorcerers that intermarry and produce off-spring even more powerful than their ancestors must stick together against the tide of misunderstanding and hatred that could follow them throughout the known world.

## Sorcerer Families

A sorcerer family is a line of several generations of sorcerers that live together under a collective roof. They are often rich, inheriting the collective wealth of all the generations above them in a home that was constructed well before their time. The secrets of a sorcerous family are jealously guarded and pressure for children to keep the bloodline pure can be overwhelming. Idiosyncrasies are passed down just as easily as powers. Paranoia is spread the same as seed.

***Dysfunctional.*** Sorcerer families are never normal, and their relationships to one another are often strained almost but not quite to the point of breaking. Given the nature of their powers and the fear of outsiders, this breaking point is further than most families and the weirdness of each family member is accentuated beyond what any normal person would find acceptable. Abuse and gaslighting are as common as eating and sleeping. Love is intermingled with hate.

***Corruptive.*** Depending on the nature of a sorcerer's magical powers, the family home takes on some of the aspects of the people within it, and subsequent generations are corrupted by the same aspects that the home embodies. A sorcerer prone to fits of violent rage will imbue his home with crashing shuttered windows, rocking towers, and bursts of fire exploding from the hearth, and each of his children will be filled with the same untamed rage, only this time turned inward at the house rather than at the source of their pain. A sorcerer who shakes and shivers from her fear of the outside world will find her house boarded up, pushed underground, with cold breezes preventing a good night's sleep while the world chatters outside, and her children's eyes will grow dark circles as every night is spent vigilant against intrusion from the outside world.

### Demographics

In a family of 20 people ...

- 1 is a matriarch (**sorcerer**)
- 1 is a patriarch (**sorcerer**)
- 1 is a mother (**sorcerer** or **commoner**)
- 1 is a father (**sorcerer** or **commoner**)
- 2 are children (**sorcerers**)
- 2 are uncles (**sorcerers** or **commoners**)
- 2 are aunts (**sorcerers** or **commoners**)
- 4 are cousins (**sorcerers**)
- 1 is a bachelor (**sorcerer**)
- 1 is a spinster (**sorcerer**)
- 4 are duds (**commoners**)

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### Sources of Power

#### The Touch of Death

A distant ancestor survived a harrowing encounter with an undead and was permanently scarred by the touch of undeath. Their family home transformed into a dark, gothic castle that has remained in a permanent state of decay for hundreds of years, incapable of repair yet also incapable of finally and mercifully falling into ruin.

- **Deathtouched Sorcerer**

#### Draconic Bloodline

A polymorphed dragon seduced and mated with a human, and the children produced as a result became draconic sorcerers. As they grew of age, they found that the only creatures that appealed to them as partners were dragonborn, half-dragons, and other draconic sorcerers. Regular humanoids became ugly and imperfect. Subsequent generations quickly shed away the typical homes of their people in favour of dungeons filled with glorious mountains of loot.

- **Dragon Sorcerers**

#### Divine Intervention

Gods may take particular interest in a mortal that embodies their values perfectly throughout their life, gifting that mortal with a touch of the divine. These favoured sorcerers spread that divine touch throughout generation after generation, each expected to complete greater and greater deeds than the generation before them. They live in great palaces, lavished with wealth and praise, as every act that supports their god puts them in the way of even greater fortune.

- **Favoured Chosen**

#### Searing Flame

There are many forms of resurrection, but none provide the benefits of being reborn by the flames of a phoenix. They are granted power over flame, and their firstborn child is born a husk, soulless and empty, a vessel for the sorcerer to inhabit once their mortal body decays. While the first of the family line can be assured that they have been granted something close to immortality, any additional children by the same sorcerer can only discover whether the flame rests in themselves as well by tasting the threshold of death, a risk that many are unwilling to take. Instead, they live out their lives in their family's suffocating forge, always with the ultimate question unspoken on their lips.

- **Phoenix Sorcerer**

#### The Song of the Sea

Floating together on a houseboat, families of sea sorcerers are nomadic, sailing the oceans and the rivers ever in search of something that none can put into words but all share a deep yearning for. Their ancestors were seduced by sirens, and that yearning has been passed down for centuries.

- **Sea Sorcerer**

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#### The Shadowfell

It would be foolish to enter a realm of loss and think that such a realm wouldn't take a part of you with it. The home of a family of shadow sorcerers is a mansion that is half real and half fake, with children claiming the existence of a dozen false doors and secret passages that were never there in the first place while the elders constantly stumble into walls and doors that weren't there when they were young. The Shadowfell hangs over their home like a magician's curtain, taking what it wants and leaving behind only sorrow and regret.

- **Shadow Sorcerer**

#### Buried Alive

An ancestor unjustly buried alive can grant their children and their children's children the power to harness the power of the earth to take vengeance on those who wronged them. Such a power is as much a curse as it is a boon, as the starkly apparent skin of stone is impossible to hide. While the culprits may be centuries dead, all trace of them erased from the world once and for all, the powers remain and the drive to exact justice never fades away, spurring the family to seek out ever more loosely related quests in the hope that this time it will be enough to rid their line of their curse. It never will be enough.

- **Stone Sorcerer**

#### A Dark and Stormy Night

In a rickety lighthouse on the edge of the world, where howling winds rock babies to sleep and the crack of thunder rouses parents from their slumber, a family of sorcerers resides, forever locked in their tower lest the raging storm finally overpower their magic and spread across the world, destroying everything it touches.

- **Storm Sorcerer**

#### A Vampire's Kiss

The matriarch or patriarch of a vampiric sorcerer family might be an actual vampire instead of a sorcerer, having sired a generation of mortal children from their greatest love, mortal children who adopt some aspects of vampirism without becoming true vampires themselves. A castle of towering spires and sprawling gardens is where such a vampire would make its home, attempting to replace the coldness of its heart with the warmth of a beautiful home.

- **Vampiric Sorcerer**

#### Raw Magic

Not all sorcery can be explained. Sometimes someone is born with magic in their blood, and on even rarer occasions this magic can be passed down. The homes of wild magic sorcerers are particularly susceptible to change, constantly modifying themselves dramatically to the momentary unconscious whims of whoever is inside them, leading to houses that look like they were cobbled together from spare parts and keep their shape as easily as a blob of wet clay. Children who grow up in a wild magic sorcerer family's home might have little conception of how ordinary houses tend to stay the same over time, or in fact that ordinary people aren't as volatile as their own family.

- **Wild Magic Sorcerer**

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## Statblocks

Given the heavy reliance on the sorcerer's bloodline in determining their powers and spells, it's recommended to use the sorcerers from the NPC Statblock Compendium to represent the matriarchs, patriarchs, and parental sorcerers within a family. Vampiric Sorcerer families might use a **vampire** statblock as its matriarch or patriarch, and it's recommended to use this as inspiration for other possibilities for the sorcerer family you create (such as the patriarch of a stone sorcerer family becoming a **galeb duhr** or the matriarch of a phoenix sorcerer family literally becoming a **phoenix** elemental).

#### Tier One

- **Apprentice Mage** (VGM pg. 209)
- **Deathtouched Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 92)
- **Shadow Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 97)
- **Vampiric Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 100)

#### Tier Two

- **Dragon Sorcerers** (NPC pg. 93)
- **Mage** (MM pg. 347)
- **Sea Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 96)
- **Storm Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 99)

#### Tier Three

- **Archmage** (MM pg. 342)
- **Favoured Chosen** (NPC pg. 94)
- **Phoenix Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 95)
- **Stone Sorcerer** (NPC pg. 98)

#### Tier Four

- **Matriarch/Patriarch Sorcerer**

## Family Strategies & Tactics

A sorcerer family's main prerogative is to keep one another safe. No matter how dysfunctional or downright abusive they might be to one another, they're still family at the end of the day and their familial bonds are something worth fighting for. At least, that's what the patriarch and matriarch insist upon.

***With Our Powers Combined.*** Given that members of the family all share similar powers and spells, they all are well aware of each other's capabilities and can communicate their ideas in battle with near-perfect silent communication. If one member of the family is preparing to launch a fireball, another knows to use restraining spells in order to hamper any saving throws to dive out of the blast.

***Sibling Rivalry.*** If one member of the family casts a spell that fails or falls short, another is quick to launch the same spell again in order to fill in the gaps. Failure is weakness, and weakness means brutal humiliation. Every member of the family vigilantly watches for others to demonstrate this weakness in order for them to come out on top, even if such weakness comes from their own brothers and sisters, or even their own children.

***Sacrificial Lambs.*** Duds, or members of the family who have demonstrated no affinity for sorcerous powers, are treated little better than slaves. They are barely acknowledged as part of the family at all and in a life-or-death situation will be thrown to their attackers as a distraction with nary a second thought. Although the duds are not valued by the family, they know the family's deepest secrets and insecurities.

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___
> ## Matriarch/Patriarch Sorcerer
>*Medium humanoid (any race), any alignment*
> ___
> - **Armor Class** 13 (16 with *mage armor*)
> - **Hit Points** 170 (20d8 + 80)
> - **Speed** 30 ft.
>___
>|STR|DEX|CON|INT|WIS|CHA|
>|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|
>|10 (+0)|16 (+3)|19 (+4)|10 (+0)|15 (+2)|20 (+5)|
>___
> - **Senses** passive Perception 12
> - **Languages** any two languages
> - **Challenge** 16 (15,000 XP)
> ___
>
> ***Metamagic (1/Turn).*** When the sorcerer casts a spell of 1st level or higher, it can apply one of the following metamagic options to that spell.
>
> - **Distant Spell.** If the spell has a range of 5 feet or greater, the sorcerer can double the range of the spell, or it can extend the range to 30 feet if the spell has a range of touch.
> - **Heightened Spell.** One creature affected by the spell (sorcerer's choice) has disadvantage on the first saving throw it must make against the spell's effects.
> - **Subtle Spell.** The sorcerer can ignore any somatic or verbal components of the spell.
> - **Twinned Spell.** If the spell targets only one creature and doesn't have a range of self, the sorcerer can target a second creature in range with the same spell.
>
> ***Spellcasting.*** The sorcerer is a 20th level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 18, +10 to hit with spell attacks). It can cast the following sorcerer spells.
>
> Cantrips (at will): *dancing lights, mage hand, message, minor illusion, prestidigitation, shocking grasp*
> <br> 1st-level (4 slots): *mage armor, magic missile, shield*
> <br> 2nd-level (3 slots): *hold person, invisibility*
> <br> 3rd-level (3 slots): *counterspell, slow*
> <br> 4th-level (3 slots): *confusion, dimension door*
> <br> 5th-level (3 slots): *animate objects, telekinesis*
> <br> 6th-level (2 slots): *disintegrate*
> <br> 7th-level (2 slots): *power word pain*
> <br> 8th-level (1 slot): *dominate monster*
> <br> 9th-level (1 slot): *gate*
>
> ### Actions
>
> ***Unarmed Strike.*** *Melee Weapon Attack:* +5 to hit, range 5 ft., one target. *Hit:* 1 bludgeoning damage.

### Additional Abilities

For the matriarch or patriarch to capture the flavour of their family line, you may be inclined to add in an appropriate ability.

A few of these abilities are included here to quickly get across the flavour of a certain bloodline of sorcerer. You can refer to the relevant subclass listed in the NPC Statblock Compendium for the full text of the abilities. Any changes are listed here.

#### Deathtouched Sorcerer

___
> ***Possession (Recharge 6).*** DC 18 Charisma saving throw.

#### Dragon Sorcerers

___
> **Damage Immunities** Any relevant to the type of dragon.

#### Favoured Chosen

___
> ***Favoured by the Gods.*** Adds 10 (4d4) to the result.

#### Phoenix Sorcerer

___
> ***Phoenix Spark (1/Day).*** DC 18 Dexterity saving throw.

#### Sea Sorcerer

___
> ***Watery Form.***

#### Shadow Sorcerer

___
> ***Darkness Incarnate.***

#### Stone Sorcerer

___
> **Damage Resistances** nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing

#### Storm Sorcerer

___
> ***Wind's Lash.*** DC 18 Constitution saving throw.

#### Vampiric Sorcerer

___
> ***Misty Escape.***

#### Wild Magic Sorcerer

___
> ***Wild Magic Surge.*** The matriarch or patriarch rolls twice and chooses either effect, or chooses the effect directly above or below either of the options.

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## The Lovelace Family

___
- ***Race.*** Human.
- ***Source of Power.*** The Shadowfell.
- ***Featured Subclass.*** Shadow Sorcerer.

The Lovelace family lives in a mansion (called Shadowmend) on a hill above a sparkling lake, an idyllic plot of land that flourishes and thrives in the day but becomes hard with frost at night. Starting at dusk, howling winds cause shutters to slam periodically. The glow of the moon turns threateningly green in the reflection of the water. A thick black fog creeps up the side of the hill, pawing at the slats of the mansion's supports, threatening to bring the whole thing crashing down into the lake until finally the first rays of the sun in the morning push back the darkness. Once the light of dawn strikes the house, the terrors of the night are over.

These terrors come from the troubled dreams of the family's patriarch, once a powerful noble who funded, with considerable expense, several expeditions into the Shadowfell in the hopes that what the adventurers he had hired brought back with them would be enough to off-set the cost and propel him into a more venerable position at his university. On the last expedition, only one survivor returned, and once the patriarch had welcomed him back, that survivor evaporated into black fog and pressed itself into the screaming professor's skin.

While no side effects were observed at the time, the professor's wife soon had a baby that undoubtedly carried with it the taint of the Shadowfell. And thus that shadow's bloodline was passed down with the professor's. More than half a century later and the entire family is consumed with the taint of the Shadowfell, still somehow obsessed with retaining their family's venerable position as nobility.

### Professor Ellison Lovelace

Ninety-five years old and barely mobile, the professor is the patriarch of the Lovelace family, and despite his age he still believes he has his mind. He is represented by the **patriarch sorcerer** statblock with ***Darkness Incarnate*** granted from his shadowy influence. His speed is 5 feet and he requires support from an ally to prevent falling prone. He has an Intelligence of 18 (+4) and skill in Arcana (+9) and History (+9). He almost always uses **Subtle Spell** as his metamagic option because his voice is shaky with age and his hands are always curled up painfully from arthritis. He can cast spells without this metamagic option, but it's difficult for him to do. Despite being physically fragile, his huge pool of hit points is justified by the protection of his shadowy interloper who has remained with him all this time.

Professor Lovelace has a fierceness to his gaze, his voice, and his actions that has remained with him despite his age. He is strongly opinionated about political concerns and still thinks that the academy should have recognised him for his contributions to the world's understanding of the Shadowfell. He expects his children and his grandchildren to continue his academic pursuits. Often a crafty "investor" will attempt to siphon some of his family's money for a fruitless undertaking, but the professor will have none of it. He can sense scammers from a mile away, he claims. Instead, he has invested a considerable amount of his family's money in property and renovations for a few different academies. It's what his late wife Batilda would have wanted.

### Isaiah Lovelace and Amelia Norwood-Lovelace

Professor Ellison Lovelace's eldest son became a renowned architect, contributing to several important buildings in Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate, mainly theatres (for he loved the theatre). He built the family's mansion Shadowmend for everyone to stay when his father's painful arthritis flared up.

At the time work started on the mansion, he was engaged to a theatre actress named Amelia Norwood with whom he now has three young girls. Amelia was known for her work portraying bombastic villains in plays and was entranced by Isaiah's "inner darkness" while they were young. The novelty of a tortured inner soul wore thin, but by then she traded her love of his darkness for a love of his thoughtfulness. Despite his shadowy powers, she sensed that he was a man who put a lot of effort into making life better for those he cared about.

Which is why she has been trying to tear him away from his father.

Isaiah is represented by a **shadow sorcerer** statblock with an Intelligence of 18 (+4). He has proficiency in Carpenter's Tools (+7) and Mason's Tools (+7). Amelia is represented by a **commoner** statblock with a Charisma of 17 (+3) and proficiency and expertise in Performance (+7).

### Batilda and Hector Morgan

The professor's second child was a daughter, Batilda, named after her mother. She has pale features, big black eyes, and long raven hair that seems to flow with ghostly energy. On account of her otherworldly beauty, she has never had need of work, nor ever been wanting of suitors. It came as a bit of a shock when she married Hector Morgan.

Thirty years her senior, Hector Morgan was a twice-widowed fisherman whose children had all either died or fled his small town for good. He had resigned himself to living out his days alone in his hometown, calming his troubled thoughts with the calm of fishing and letting his skin turn tough and leathery under the sun. When Batilda Lovelace visited his small town during an excursion as part of her university studies, he took her out fishing on a whim and, against all the odds, she instantly fell in love.

With Batilda now forty years old and having lost none of her beauty, her seventy-year-old fisherman husband looks extremely out of place in Shadowmend amidst the weirdness of the Lovelace family. Some days he wonders if he had traded one life of sadness for another, and he spends most afternoons out on the lake fishing. He knows well not to stay out past dusk. Batilda sometimes joins him, though the difference in their age is starting to catch up with her and she spends much more time with her two children and on shopping trips to the nearby cities.

Batilda is represented by a **shadow sorcerer** statblock. Hector is represented by a **commoner** statblock with proficiency in Survival (+2).

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### Sable and Karver Crighton

While the professor's first two children were born with the same powers of the Shadowfell that he possessed himself, his second daughter Sable was born without. While most people would celebrate the lack of darkness within her, her family certainly did not, and she was relentlessly bullied by Batilda throughout her childhood.

As soon as she turned eighteen, she fled to Waterdeep to make a new life for herself in the city, becoming an apprentice jeweller and historian thanks to her knowledge of relics from her father's collection. She married another historian, Karver, after bonding over their analysis of the findings of an archaeological dig underneath some ancient Dwarven ruins. Karver is an arrogant, prideful man who takes his own intelligence a little too seriously, a trait which Sable found attractive even if her friends did not. He never hid the fact that part of his interest in her stemmed from his respect for her father's work as an academic.

While Sable planned never to return to her family, and certainly not to join them in the newly constructed Shadowmend, her plans had to be rewritten when her first child was born with the taint of the Shadowfell clearly marked on his features. Reluctantly, she packed up her life in the city and rejoined her family. Karver, of course, was delighted to finally meet the great Professor Ellison Lovelace, and the two of them get along very well even after all this time.

Sable is a **commoner** with an Intelligence of 15 (+2) and proficiency in Jeweler's Tools (+4) and History (+4). She can read and write Dwarven but can't speak it. Karver is a **commoner** with an Intelligence of 19 (+4) and proficiency in History (+6). In addition to Common, he can speak, read, and write Dwarven and Elvish and is a bit of a stickler for grammar.

### Isette, Ashley, and Beatrix Norwood-Lovelace

The three girls of Isaiah and Amelia are twenty, nineteen, and fifteen, respectively. Isaiah is amused that all three of them seem to take after their mother in both appearance and personality; they're all quite melodramatic about every little problem and love to be the center of attention, constantly competing with one another for every scrap of attention they can get from the rest of the family.

Isette is often overcome with lethargy, fainting over the slightest surprise and carrying herself like a delicate hummingbird. She rarely ventures outside the house due to her fears of the outside world.

Ashley wants to be an actress like her mother and practices inspirational speeches in front of a beautiful silver hand mirror that she carries around with her. In the night she can often be found sleepwalking with her mirror, muttering about the inimitable courage of mankind or whatnot.

Beatrix is obsessed with nocturnal wildlife and keeps two **owls** locked up in her room, feeding them dead mice she keeps finding in the cellar. Being wild animals, they snap fiercely at anyone who comes close. The pecking, clawing, and biting against the bars of their cages can be heard nonstop throughout the night.

Each of the three sisters are represented by the **shadow sorcerer** statblock.

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### Ethel and Finch Morgan

Batilda's spoiled little brats are Ethel, fourteen, and Finch, twelve. The only people who seem to love them are Batilda. Even Hector has grown exhausted by their antics. His daily fishing trips are in part an excuse to get away from the two snivelling little rodents he calls his children.

Ethel has little concept of ownership, having been given practically everything she has desired for her entire life. She frequently steals jewellery off of Aunt Sable's dresser, costumes from Aunt Amelia's wardrobe, and relics from Grandfather's private study, decorating her room with her prizes without the slightest fear of reproach. Each time Hector has dared to return something she's stolen to its rightful owner, he has had to deal with screaming tantrums that can last for weeks. He's learned to just accept her thieving ways and no longer makes any attempt to try to teach her that her actions are wrong. Her mother doesn't just enable her behaviour, she sometimes actually encourages it.

Finch is a dud -- he has inherited no sorcerous powers from his mother. Despite this, he insists that he be treated as though he were a sorcerer. He keeps a **mastiff** named Nightshade as a pet that he smears black paint all over to make it look like a hound of ill omen. When he screams "DARKNESS" his mother insists that everyone closes their eyes, and each time he enters a room his mother races to extinguish every lit candle. He loves most of all screaming "FEAR" and demanding that everyone kneel to him in deference. If he doesn't get his way, the screaming fit can be exceptionally destructive. Again, Hector has given up on his brat of a son while his mother goes out of her way to enable his every deluded whim.

Ethel is a **shadow sorcerer** who is Small. Her hit points are 38 (7d6 + 14). Finch is a **commoner** who is Small and has hit points of 3 (1d6).

### Ursula Crighton

The only child of Sable and Karver, Ursula is a quiet child who takes the responsibility of being a shadow sorcerer very seriously. Despite only being ten years old, she tries to be a mediator for her misbehaving cousins whenever possible. On some days she quietly replaces one of Ethel's stolen relics with a faithful copy. When Beatrix forgets to feed her owls, Ursula is there with a small morsel from dinner. When Grandfather starts shrieking about the failure of the university to live up to his expectations, Ursula is there to calm him down with a light touch on the palm of his hand.

She can sense that her mother feels trapped here and tries to make it as easy for her as possible. Unfortunately, the only way she knows how to do this is by driving a wedge between Grandfather and his son-in-law Karver. As long as Karver still reveres Grandfather, Sable will be trapped here, miserable and lonely.

Ursula is represented by a **shadow sorcerer** statblock. She is Small and her hit points are 38 (7d6 + 14). She has a skill in Persuasion (+7).

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### Argent

Argent is a **hell hound** fiercely loyal to Ellison Lovelace, though he is willing to protect and can be summoned by anyone from the family using their ***Hound of Ill Omen***. He tirelessly patrols the lake at night.

While he has the appearance of a fiery black hound, he is otherworldly. He has the soul of a devil trapped in the Shadowfell and corrupted in much the same way as Ellison Lovelace. He can speak Common, Dwarven, Elvish, and Infernal, though he speaks only rarely and only to members of the family with sorcerous powers.

Argent has a friendship with Ellison Lovelace. He enjoys the company of Isaiah Lovelace and Ursula Crighton, both for their patience. He has a fondness for Ashley Norwood-Lovelace and has spent more than a few late nights talking with her about the philosophical tribulations of mankind. The rest of the sorcerous side of the family (Batilda, Isette, Beatrix, and Ethel) are not quite up to his high standards and though he obeys their summons he isn't enthusiastic about it. The non-sorcerous members of the family (Amelia, Hector, Karver, and Finch) are not worth his attention at all, possibly with the exception of Hector. During the day, Argent sits in the shade underneath a great oak tree and watches Hector fish in his little dinghy out on the lake. Hector sometimes looks over to Argent and waves, and Argent will lift his head in acknowledgement. They don't speak, but they seem to have a sort of understanding.

### Shadowmend

The mansion's name is a reference to the Shadowfell and, quite explicitly by Isaiah, an attempt to represent the mending of the fractured Lovelace family by gathering them all back together under the same roof. Although Isaiah may not be ready to admit it, his attempt at reconciliation may have enabled his father to wrestle greater control over the family, and being of closer proximity may not necessarily translate to being closer spiritually. The family has never been more at odds with one another until now.

The mansion is three stories high and seems to teeter precariously above the lake, as though the slightest gust of wind could knock it clean over (though of course it never does). Given the obsessions of the architect's father, it borrows designs from ancient civilisations, particularly the shadar-kai and darklings of the Shadowfell whose structures are designed to block out light with the least amount of materials possible, allowing for intricate criss-crossing patterns along the roof and walls and including built-in umbrellas and canopies for shade.

Within the house, the interplay of light and shadow can sometimes give the illusion of doors and walls that are actually opaque blocks of darkness and not material at all. The children run recklessly through what look like solid walls, only for the adults to find that there was nothing there at all in the first place. Ellison Lovelace moves at his slow pace through the house with expert precision; he knows this place better than its own architect. Meanwhile, the non-sorcerous members of the family constantly bash their heads and shins on things they didn't know were there and stumble and fall over nothing.

At night, the howl of the Shadowfell seeps through the walls, quietly at first, before coming to a thunderous crescendo at midnight. Proper sleep is nearly impossible.

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### Conflict

The party might come into conflict with the family in one or more of the following ways, or through another way that fits more directly with your campaign.

Ideally, each of these conflicts brings the party into Shadowmend and forces them to confront the disturbing torturous life of the family, similar to pieces of media like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Through all of the interesting characters presented, the reality is that the members of the Lovelace family are deeply abusive to one another, and it all stems from the twisted will of the patriarch.

#### An Illicit Affair

One of the party members is having an affair with Batilda Morgan. She hasn't told them that she is related to Ellison Lovelace by blood, nor that she has a family.

While Hector has since resigned himself to the fact that he is too old and frail to prevent his wife from being led astray, her father Ellison doesn't care about age or frailty and demands that the homewrecker be brought to justice before the family. Batilda goes along with his plan simply because she likes the drama, and to be perfectly frank much of the family would also like to see some drama.

For a few of the members of the family, namely Ellison, Batilda, and the two Morgan children, "some drama" most likely includes screaming and pain.

Batilda invites the party over for dinner to "meet the family".

#### An Academic Curiosity

After recovering a mysterious artifact from an ancient dungeon, the party is contacted by a representative of Karver Crighton to set up a meeting. If they accept, they meet Karver in Waterdeep who explains that his father-in-law is a collector of ancient artifacts and he would love to have them over to their lake house to discuss the relic.

While Karver's intentions are benign, he hasn't quite considered the consequences of bringing a bunch of armed adventurers over to Shadowmend. His father-in-law will certainly be interested in their relic, but he may not take so kindly to the intrusion, and he will certainly not be willing to let them leave, not when he could bend them to his will.