The latest D&D campaign setting explores the world of Critical Role in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, now available for preorder on the D&D Beyond Marketplace. Wildemount is a land of dark and epic fantasy, with low-level characters fighting to survive in a world full of common folk who are just as mud-splattered and hungry as they are—and high-level characters contending with the fate of nations and magic that has the power to bring about the end of the world, or the creation of a new one. This series of Encounters of the Week are one-shot adventures for low-level characters set in the four major regions of Wildemount: the grim, authoritarian Dwendalian Empire; in Xhorhas, home of their mortal rival the Kryn Dynasty; the tropical and politically neutral Menagerie Coast; and the frozen and forbidden Greying Wildlands, home to strange mystics and every sort of criminal scum.

This week’s encounter is Spy of the Kryn Dynasty. In this encounter, the characters are hired by a family in the small farming town of Felderwin to get to the bottom of recent field burnings in Felderwin Tillage. Everyone suspects that agents of the Kryn Dynasty are to blame—after all, Felderwin is the breadbasket of the Dwendalian Empire. If it were to be destroyed, the empire could no longer feed their soldiers or their people, and the war effort would collapse.

In this encounter, the characters are assumed to be citizens of the Dwendalian Empire, perhaps even locals of Felderwin. They can also be mercenaries not tied down to any nation without changing the story much. Such characters may have their loyalties strengthened or challenged after encountering a spy of the enemy—one who claims that the empire is evil, and must be destroyed. In Wildemount, the truth is not so simple. The Dwendalian Empire is cruel, yet the religious extremists in the Kryn Dynasty have killed thousands in the pursuit of their secret agenda. Are they any better?

Encounter Summary

In this encounter, a party of adventurers arrive at the Wesprem family farmstead, a poor farmstead. There they encounter a man who claims to be Dell Wesprem, the patriarch of the family, and begs the adventurers for help. The fields of the Felderwin Tillage have been burned, and the culprit must be found. As the characters investigate the Tillage, they find themselves with a mystery that doesn’t add up. The evidence indicates that everyone in the village seems to be in on the crime!

If the characters return to “Dell Wesprem,” they learn that he is the village’s leader in disguise (see “Starosta Theanor Whisperthin,” below). Worse yet, the starosta is actually unconscious in the back room of the farmstead, and the “Dell Wesprem” they’re actually talking to is a doppelganger, and a spy for the Kryn Dynasty. The shapeshifter attempts to sway the characters to his side and turn them against the Dwendalian Empire. Here, the characters are faced with a choice: believe the sorrowful tale of a being they know to be a liar, or support the empire that rules them with an iron fist.

Official map of the Dwendalian Empire by Deven Rue (@DevenRue)

Starosta Theanor Whisperthin

In the Dwendalian Empire, a starosta is the leader of a town, like a mayor. Theanor Whisperthin is the starosta of Felderwin, and he has posed as Dell Wesprem to ask for the help of mercenaries. He has good reason to pose as a long-dead commoner. A powerful organization of imperial magi known as the Cerberus Assembly have a vested interest in maximizing Felderwin’s potential, in order to better support the war effort. “Felderwin is the stomach of the empire,” an Assembly mage said to the starosta. “If you cannot protect the empire from a knife in its gut, you are useless. No, you are worse than useless: you are an impediment.”

Starosta Whisperthin knew exactly what this meant, and sought to secure covert help. The “Dell Wesprem” that the characters speak to at the beginning of the adventure is truly Starosta Theanor Whisperthin. However, by the end of this encounter, Theanor has been attacked, beaten, bound, and replaced by the doppelganger Vostrup Selke—a spy of the Kryn Dynasty and the arsonist responsible for the Felderwin fires.

Vostrup Selke and His Aliases

The doppelganger that has infiltrated Felderwin Tillage is a loyal agent of the Kryn Dynasty, the bitter enemy of the Dwendalian Empire. The dynasty is primarily made up of humanoid beings considered monstrous by the empire, from drow to goblinkin to minotaurs—and to doppelgangers. As a shapeshifter, the doppelganger Vostrup Selke has used his powers to take on the form of nearly every single person in the village, old and young, and use their likenesses while burning their crops.

The characters actually speak to Selke at one point during their investigation. You can choose which person it is, though the character that makes the most sense for Selke to imitate is the vagabond Gredda Bargas, since he has no family to deceive. Once Selke gets wise, he rushes to the Wesprem farmstead and attacks Starosta Whisperthin, and assumes his identity. He waits for the characters to return so that he can pay them off and dismiss them—or try and frame one of the villagers instead.

Investigation Encounter: Spy of the Kryn Dynasty

This investigation encounter is best suited for characters of 1st to 5th level, and can end in a combat encounter balanced for a party of 2nd-level characters.

The characters have come to the farmland known as Felderwin Tillage. At your discretion, they may have been drawn here by a quest on a notice board in town saying, “Quest for mercenaries—inquire with Dell Wesprem at Wesprem Homestead.” Or, perhaps they simply were passing through the area and Dell Wesprem found them and brought them to his old farmhouse, and offers them twenty gold each for finding the arsonist. Once the characters and Dell are gathered, read or paraphrase the following:

“Allow me to introduce myself,” says the white-haired old man before you. “I’m Dell Wesprem, nothing more than an old farmer who’s seeing his village go to hell. We’re in the middle of a war and someone is burning our fields. The Tillage feeds half the empire! Without them, a lot of people will die. Please, can you help me find the culprit? Twenty gold apiece, if you do.”

Examining the House. The Wesprem farmstead is made up of one main room and a single bedroom. The house is beyond worn down; it’s derelict. Any character that looks around the house for even a moment notices shattered windows and broken furniture. A character that succeeds on a DC 11 Wisdom (Perception) check even notices rust-colored bloodstains on the floor and a wicked little dagger plunged into a table leg. The dagger is a makeshift shiv used commonly by goblin bandits in this area, as any character that examines it and succeeds on a DC 11 Intelligence (History) check will realize. Ultimately, a character that makes a DC 13 Wisdom check after appraising the house realizes that this house hasn’t been lived in for a very long time.

Confronting Wesprem. If the characters confront “Dell Wesprem” about his clearly abandoned house, he sighs and chuckles. “You’re smarter than normal rock-headed mercenaries, aren’t you? Good. You might have a chance at solving this thing, then.” He reveals that he isn’t Dell Wesprem at all—that man and his whole family were killed by goblin bandits in a raid five decades ago. He’s actually Starosta Theanor Whisperin, as explained his character description above. He is hesitant to give details at first, but willingly explains the whole situation if the adventurers press him.

Accepting the Quest. If the characters accept the quest, “Dell” tells them that he thinks he saw a new face in town just before the fires started. She’s a wanderer in shabby clothing (see “Gredda Bargas,” below), and might be the arsonist he’s looking for. Beyond that, he tells them to ask around the local farmsteads for clues, and to keep their weapons at the ready: the culprit could be anyone. Finally, he tells them to come back to him if they need any insight; he knows folks in town better than anyone, and can help if they need it.

Investigating the Tillage

Felderwin Tillage is a vast expanse of fertile farmland, and it’s too big to be thoroughly investigated in a single day. If you like, you can make this adventure more realistic by having the characters’ investigation span several days; just let them know in advance and play it scene-by-scene. Ask them where they sleep up-front, and tell them what time of day it is at the start of each interrogation. Alternatively, you can have this investigation play out over the course of a single day, making it a punchier and more fast-paced scenario. Why are all the relevant suspects within just a few hours walk of one another? Don’t ask so many questions—it’s a game. Choose whatever storytelling tactic works best for your group.

There are five characters that the adventurers can investigate listed below. You can make up new characters and add them to this list, remove characters from this list, or even move information from one character to another if it makes your game session flow more smoothly.

Suspect 1: Gredda Bargas

About two weeks ago, a vagabond named Gredda Bargas rolled into town, and started living in a recently abandoned shack near the border between Felderwin and the Tillage. She was once a part of the Righteous Brand, the army of the Dwendalian Empire, but she deserted as soon as the empire declared war against the Kryn Dynasty. She took only essentials with her, and has been living in secret to escape punishment for her desertion. The penalty for deserters, as it is for all traitors, is death.

Regrettably, death found Gredda Bargas despite her caution. It was not in the way she suspected, though. A few days after arriving in Felderwin, the doppelganger Vostrup Selke killed her and assumed her identity. As a vagabond with no ties to Felderwin, pretending to be Gredda was a simple task for the doppelganger. He plays her as patient, kind, and trustworthy, in order to allow him to more easily cast suspicion on others. He claims that he saw the gormless newcomer Deke Jaltin (see below) torching the fields last night. As a doppelganger, she has a +6 bonus to Charisma (Deception) checks.

Suspect 2: Deke Jaltin

Deke Jaltin is a young farmer (use commoner statistics) who fled to Felderwin from his home village of Alfield after it was sacked by gnolls a few months ago. He has two farmhands named Thom and Wilber, both of whom are natives of Felderwin. Deke’s wife Selecha works as a schoolteacher in Felderwin, and his young daughter Almeah is a student, so neither spend much time in the farm.

Deke is jittery and paranoid as a result of the mental trauma he suffered in the gnoll raid of Alfield. He stammers and speaks in short, defensive sentences. Worst of all, he is openly critical of the Dwendalian Empire and the war, claiming that the empire would be safer if they used their army to defend its interior, rather than warring with the Kryn Dynasty.

Jaltin and his farmhands profess their innocence, claiming that they were at the Goldfield Tavern, a pub in Felderwin, that night. (If the characters go into Felderwin to check, both the local barflies and Jaltin’s wife corroborate his story.) Deke and his farmhands also all swear up and down that they saw Rhea Vallante, a former Righteous Brand captain, setting the fields alight two nights ago. They don’t understand why she would do it, but they all agree they saw what they saw.

Suspect 3: Rhea Vallante

This retired Righteous Brand captain turned to farming to serve the empire after being honorably discharged several years ago. This beloved veteran is a pillar of the Tillage’s community, and lives in a simple-yet-elegant farmhouse that shows off both her taste and her frugality. Vallante is a tough, no-nonsense woman with strong arms and a heavy build, and a limp in her injured left leg. She is firmly in support of the war, and believes that a spy of the Kryn Dynasty has infiltrated Felderwin Tillage and is sowing discord.

She denies burning the fields two nights ago, and claims that she was at home nursing her war wound. She also truthfully claims that she saw the local cattle rancher’s son, Quentin Stump, with a torch out in the fields three nights ago. She tried to give chase, but her leg buckled under her and Stump got away. She spent the next two days caring for her war wound.

Suspect 4: Quentin Stump

Quentin Stump, youngest son of the wealthy Stump ranching family, is a nihilistic layabout teenager who delights in vandalizing town. He deeply despises the Dwendalian Empire, its military, and the way that all of his friends seem to be getting suckered by propaganda songs and military recruiters. Nevertheless, he isn’t the Kryn spy, and he hasn’t been burning any fields. He can be found painting profane graffiti on a stone wall that separates his family’s fields from a neighboring farmer’s.

He doesn’t have any alibi, and he makes a particularly dubious claim if questioned—that when the burnings started five nights ago, he saw Starosta Theanor Whisperthin lighting the first fires!

Returning to Dell Wesprem

The characters may return to “Dell Wesprem” to deliver the person they believe to be the perp, or to get a hint, or to confront him over Quentin Stump’s claim. Regardless of why they’re here, the person that gave them this quest has been replaced by the doppelganger Vostrup Selke. Selke does a near-flawless impression of Dell Wesprem, but a character that succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check realizes that “Dell” isn’t behaving as he did the first time they met him.

Selke constantly uses his Read Thoughts action while talking with the characters, to identify any thoughts they’re keeping hidden from him. If he detects that any of the characters suspects him, he tries hard to convince them that one of the other villagers is the real arsonist. If this fails, he growls low in his throat and reverts to his original voice—and admits that he’s the Kryn spy.

Selke appeals to the characters’ better nature, imploring them to see the war from his perspective. The Dwendalian Empire has called his kind “monsters” since time immemorial, driving them from their homes until they had no choice but to turn to crime in Dwendalian cities or live honestly in the desolate, inhospitable wastes of Xhorhas. His family nearly starved to death in the wastes, or were devoured by savage animals, but they were saved people of the Kryn Dynasty. The Kryn welcomed them into the dynasty with open arms, and treated them like people rather than monsters. Selke snarls through gritted teeth: “The empire must fall. Our war is righteous. Any suffering the blind sycophants of the empire endure is nothing compared to how they have made us suffer.”

If the characters pity him, he encourages them to burn the fields with him, and flee to Xhorhas when the Kryn invade in a week’s time. (They will invade from below, using domesticated purple worms as tunneling beasts.) If the characters show no mercy, he fights back to the bitter end.

Conclusion

This adventure gives the characters a choice—choose the devil they know, or take their chances with “the enemy,” one who may turn out to be righteous after all? Either way they choose, their actions will help change the fate of Wildemount forever. Starosta Theanor Whisperthin is tied up in the bedroom of the dilapidated farmhouse, and their choice dictates how they deal with him.

Choice: Long Live the Empire

Characters that defeat and turn in Selke receive the promised reward. He declares them heroes of Felderwin, but begs their silence. He whispers that the Cerberus Assembly and other agents of the Dwendalian crown are breathing down his neck, and if word got out that he hired mercenaries to deal with a Kryn spy, he would be removed for sure. A character that makes a successful DC 11 Charisma (Intimidation) check can extort a further 50 gp from him as hush money.

Choice: New Allegiance

Characters that spare Selke can steal the gold that the starosta has on him. (Whisperthin carries a wallet containing 160 gp and wears a white gold wedding band worth 50 gp.) The characters may choose to flee back to Xhorhas with Selke and swear allegiance to the Kryn Dynasty, or they can continue being rogue mercenaries in the empire. No matter which option they choose, they are now wanted criminals, and may have to fend off bounty hunters seeking to claim the price Whisperthin puts on their heads.

No matter what choices you make, you can continue your daring adventures through the land with Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, coming to D&D Beyond on March 17th, 2020, with preorders available now. You can also keep up with the adventures across Wildemount in Critical Role, every Thursday at 7:00 pm PST on www.twitch.tv/CriticalRole.

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Did you like this encounter? Check out the other encounters in the Encounter of the Week series. You can also pick up the adventures I've written on the DMs Guild, such as The Temple of Shattered Minds, a suspenseful eldritch mystery with a mind flayer villain. My most recent adventures are included in the Platinum Bestseller Encounters in Avernus, a collection of over 60 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be used to enhance your campaign in Avernus or elsewhere in the Nine Hells. Also check out the Platinum Bestseller Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas, a collection of 88 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be paired with the beautiful poster battlemaps in Tactical Maps Reincarnated.

James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.