A number of suspicious deaths have happened in a midwestern American town. Young men keep ending up dead in the river, with no obvious injuries. The police say they all just drank too much and fell into the river, but is that really the truth?

This adventure is written for Everyday Heroes, a 5E-based sourcebook for modern games by Evil Genius Games. However, you could also use Ultramodern5 REDUX by Dias Ex Machina Games without much issue. The Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Player’s Handbook (2014 or 2024) would be useful not not required for this adventure.

Adventure Overview

A group of cultists dedicated to the “Dark God” Cz’pa-al is operating out of an old church, under the name Eighth Way Ministries. They pretend to be a mundane religious organization, but they have been drugging men at bars, throwing them in their van, and taking them back to the church to trade their souls for magic powers.

Last night, a livestreamer named John Dockerty and his cameraman Mitch McMasters were livestreaming in front of the church when one of the cultists interrupted them, and the stream abruptly ended. John was sacrificed immediately, and Mitch is still in the basement, waiting to be sacrificed when the time is right.

The intended route is for the party to examine Dockerty’s body, go to his house, find last night’s livestream footage, check out the church, and then get into a fight and either arrest or kill the cultists.

Briefing

This morning starts like any other. You arrive at the downtown precinct at 7 AM, change into your black police uniform, put on your military surplus tactical vest, check your gun out from the armory, and head to the briefing room for roll call and your assignments for the day.

The briefing room is a windowless box in the center of the police station, filled with tables and chairs. Maps of the precinct and the city are pinned to corkboard at the front of the room, and they are studded with color-coded thumb tacks. At 7 on the dot, your commanding officer, a blonde woman named Morgan Grundler, walks in and takes her position at the front of the room.

“Good morning, everyone. We’ve got a lot on our plates today, so I’m going to keep the briefing short. Dettweiler, Spinelli, you’re on the Third Street case. [Calls out the party by their surnames], the boys from Fire Rescue are pulling another body out of the river, down at East Bend Park. Link up with them and see if it’s another frat boy who fell off a bridge. Everybody else, you already know your jobs. Let’s be careful out there, people. Dismissed.” Her voice is crisp and clear, and she looks at each officer as she says their names. After finishing the briefing, she leaves quickly and heads back to her office.

If some members of the party wouldn’t logically be at the briefing, slip in a line like “rendezvous with [surname] from forensics on-site,” or just leave them out for now.

East Bend Park

East Bend Park is a river-side recreation area popular with dog-walkers and joggers. There are plenty of benches and trees in the area, and many workers from the nearby downtown office buildings eat their lunch here. The two most notable features are a decorative garden of violets and lilies, and a Holodomor monument consisting of a statue of an angel holding a single stalk of wheat. A red smiley face has been spray-painted on one of the benches near the river, and has clearly been there for years.

A red truck with “RESCUE 8” painted in gold on the side is parked on one of the bike paths, right near the river. Its crew is fishing the body of a caucasian male out of the water with poles. The man is unresponsive, and it only takes a cursory examination for the paramedic, Cathy Cartwright, to write him off as dead. Once he’s out of the body, he is easily recognizable as an IRL streamer from a third-tier platform called Punch, named John Dockerty. He’s well-known around the city for being a public nuisance, but his family’s money protects him from serious consequences. Until now, at least.

Rescue 8

Rescue 8 is a fire rescue vehicle kitted out for water rescues. Its crew has pulled plenty of people out of the water over the years, but recently, it’s just been corpses. The crew assigned to it today is detailed below.

The Dockerty House

A gated lot with a half-dozen expensive cars parked on the lawn. This mansion is a “content house,” a group home for content creators. The house is quite large, with five bedrooms and a large central room which is filled with expensive electronics and sponsorship materials. The primary bedroom is shared by John Dockerty and Nevaeh Wilkenson, and also houses a server to which all of John and Mitch’s recorded footage is automatically uploaded.

The most important person here is John’s girlfriend and editor, Nevaeh Wilkenson, who has access to John’s recordings and is worried sick about him. Dymond is pleasant but doesn’t know much, and Fire Hades will just get in the way and try to make this incident into livestream content. The house has a sixth listed occupant, Ben Hudson, but he’s currently in jail somewhere in Asia.

Eighth Way Ministries

Eighth Way Ministries is an old catholic church on the edge of town. The main chamber has a large statue of St. Malo, patron saint of pig keepers, behind the altar. A small kitchen and some cots have been set up in the main chamber, and the cultists are using it as their residence. There is no sign out front with the name of the building, but a windowless van with “EIGHTH WAY MINISTRIES” painted on its side in yellow is often parked out front.

The cultists believe that a “Dark God” named Cz’pa-al speaks to them and will grant them unnatural powers in return for human souls. To fulfill this request, they’ve been drugging young men at bars, taking them back to the church, and ritually sacrificing their souls to Cz’pa-al. This kills them but leaves no wounds. Afterwards, they dump the bodies in the river. This has not been very effective at hiding the bodies, but the cops don’t seem all that concerned, so it all works out for the cultists.

The Basement

The basement is divided into two sections: Storage which is a reasonably normal basement with stone walls, filled with barrels and boxes of sacramental supplies, and the Ritual Cellar, a hastily-dug chamber with candles and a magic circle at one end and Mitch McMasters in chains at the other.

Two Cultist Goons hang out in the storage area at all times, and Silvia and Jesus can be found in the Ritual Cellar.

Cultist Tactics

Silvia will attempt to charge the nearest member of the party and beat them to unconsciousness with her brass knuckles, while the Cultist Goons will attempt to fire eldritch blasts from cover. Jesús will open with a fire bolt aimed at the first person he sees, then alternate between fire bolt and using Heat Metal on the party’s weapons. If he gets shot, he will use Fog Cloud and try to escape.

The Previous Victims

Steve Sloan, 22 years old, communications major. Steve Sloan was a college football player with a fairly unimpressive record. He was known to frequent the local bars.

Ivan Nordvik, 21 years old, classical literature major. Ivan Norvik was a college student originally from Denmark. He was known to be a womanizer, and his height and thick accent often drew attention at bars.

Both were last seen at bars on Feldt Street, near the university, and a dilligent search of security footage from the area will reveal the Eighth Way Ministries van in the area around the times of their disappearances.

Afterword

This adventure is inspired by the mythology of the “Smiley Face Killers,” and I assume it’s no surprise that I do not buy into that theory at all. That’s not going to stop me from making nods towards it, of course. Maybe I’ll do a riff on Missing 411 next.

I decided to divert a little bit from the usual fantasy adventures we publish, but using a 5E-compatible ruleset like Everyday Heroes lowers the barrier of entry for players accustomed to 5E, and borrowing spells from core 5E recontextualizes a familiar concept in a hopefully novel way.

Let me know what you and your players think of this adventure!

-Garm

Map & Asset Downloads

We recommend these maps and assets…