Paid to Disappear
A worried rail agent hires the party to investigate disappearances and sabotage around Gravewater Spur before the next supply train arrives.
Campaign Overview
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Gravewater Spur
On the edge of civilization, the town of Gravewater Spur clings to a dry rail stop, a flooded cemetery, and a reputation for bad luck. Strange lights haunt the mesas after sunset. People vanish from locked rooms. The dead do not always stay buried.
This campaign blends weird west, pulp adventure, and gothic horror: stagecoach chases, cursed relics, midnight showdowns, and something ancient stirring beneath the frontier.
The feel
- Dust, blood, and candle smoke
- Fast action with eerie omens
- Heroic lawmen, drifters, occult scholars, and desperate outcasts
- A frontier town where every secret has a body count
Act I focus
The first act introduces the town, the curse, and the villain’s influence. The party investigates disappearances, survives a night assault, and traces the corruption to the old graveyard and rail tunnel beneath it.
Player Handout
Welcome to Gravewater Spur
Gravewater Spur is a hard place at the end of the rail. The saloon stays open late, the church keeps its doors barred, and the cemetery has started to flood with black water even though the sky has not seen rain in weeks.
You have come for a job, a person, a rumor, or a new start. Instead, you find a town on edge: livestock found bloodless, miners refusing the north tunnel, and mourners hearing knocking from sealed graves.
What to expect
- Shootouts, suspense, and desperate chases
- Old sins, family curses, and restless dead
- A mystery that begins in town and ends underground
Your first lead
Someone in Gravewater Spur knows the truth about the graveyard flood and the missing townsfolk. The answer is buried somewhere the town would rather forget.
Free Act I Preview
Gravewater Spur
Act I should establish Gravewater Spur as a vulnerable frontier town and make the players feel that every local problem points to one source: the old cemetery and the sealed tunnel beneath the rail line. Use western set pieces, but keep the horror intimate. The villain should remain mostly unseen at first, communicating through signs, servants, and impossible appearances. The act ends when the party exposes the curse’s anchor and earns a direct route into the deeper mystery.
Adventure Hooks
The Dead Letter
Each character receives a letter mailed from Gravewater Spur after the sender died years ago, inviting them to come before the ‘water rises.’
Act Structure
Act I: The Flooded Graves
Recommended level: 1-3The opening act introduces Gravewater Spur, a frontier town under supernatural pressure. The party investigates disappearances, protects frightened townsfolk, and traces the curse to the flooded cemetery and sealed rail tunnel. The act mixes street-level western danger with gothic dread and ends with a direct confrontation against the villain’s servants and evidence of his underground lair.
Objectives
- Learn what is causing the graveyard flood
- Protect the town from undead attacks
- Locate the sealed rail tunnel
- Confront the villain’s agents and recover proof of the hidden lair
The Town on Edge
Dust skates across the boardwalks, and every shutter in town seems half-closed. A bell rings once from the church, then stops. No one says it aloud, but everyone is looking toward the cemetery.
Open with rumors, tension, and a few decisive clues. The party should meet the marshal, the undertaker, and frightened locals, but keep the focus on the signs of the haunting rather than long roleplay loops.
Checks
- DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) to notice who is lying about the disappearances
- DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) to connect mud and grave soil to the tunnel road
- DC 13 Charisma (Persuasion) to earn help from a wary local
Clues
- The cemetery flood began after the last train delivered sealed crates
- The town mortuary keeps hearing knocks from the back room
- Several missing people were last seen near the rail embankment
Transitions
- The mortuary disturbance leads to the first encounter
- The cemetery clues point toward the flooded graves
- The rail clues suggest an underground route
The Flooded Cemetery
The graves are ankle-deep in black water, and the names on the stones have been scratched over with fresh iron. Somewhere below the surface, something is moving against the current.
Run this as exploration that can spill into combat. Let the party recover clues, rescue mourners, and discover the crypt entrance. Make the water and grave markers feel threatening even before the undead appear.
Checks
- DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) to spot hidden movement under the water
- DC 13 Strength (Athletics) to force open a sealed crypt door
- DC 12 Intelligence (Religion) to identify the burial rite being corrupted
Clues
- The floodwater is unnaturally cold
- The dead are being drawn toward the tunnel direction
- The hidden crypt bears the same iron seal seen on the villain’s ring
Transitions
- Discovery of the crypt triggers the graveyard encounter
- The crypt clue leads to the rail tunnel
- Rescuing townsfolk earns the marshal’s trust
The Sealed Tunnel
The boards over the tunnel are nailed from the inside. Lantern light leaks through one crack, and beneath it you can hear paper shuffling, metal scraping, and the slow drag of a boot on stone.
This is the act’s decisive scene and should feel like a showdown. Use the encounter packet, then reveal the villain’s seal, notes, or ritual materials. The party should leave with a clear lead into the next phase of the campaign.
Checks
- DC 12 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) to open the tunnel seal quietly
- DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) to track the servants to their hidden path
- DC 14 Intelligence (Arcana) to identify the ritual residue
Clues
- The villain’s name appears in old medical and burial records
- There is a laboratory deeper below the tracks
- The curse is being sustained, not spontaneously occurring
Transitions
- The fight exposes the hidden lair
- Recovered notes reveal the villain’s plan
- The town learns the danger is larger than it seemed
Milestone: At the end of the act, the party reaches level 3 after exposing the tunnel and defeating or driving off the villain’s agents.
Villain Character Sheets
Dr. Malrec Vale
Completed
Dr. Malrec Vale is the kind of villain who makes a town feel smaller just by speaking. He is soft-spoken, fastidious, and unsettlingly poli…
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Dr. Malrec Vale Character Sheet
Motivation
Dr. Malrec Vale is an occult rail surgeon who believes the frontier can only be civilized by binding death itself into the machinery of expansion. He is using the flooded cemetery and tunnel as a conduit to harvest grief, corpses, and fear for a private rite that will make him untouchable.
Personality
Soft-spoken, immaculate, and unnervingly polite; he treats murder as engineering and speaks like a doctor delivering bad news.
Resources
- A hidden laboratory beneath the rail tunnel
- Animated dead and coerced gravekeepers
- Stolen town records and burial ledgers
- Access to black-market supplies through the rail depot
Battle Plan
Vale avoids direct confrontation until exposed. He sends undead and hired toughs first, then uses the terrain, darkness, and flooded passages to split the party. If cornered, he fights with calculated cruelty and tries to escape deeper underground rather than die in the open.
Defeat or Redemption
If defeated openly, Vale’s rite collapses and the flood recedes. If captured, he may bargain with terrifying knowledge about the greater horror below the town, or attempt redemption only if the party offers a chance to undo his work.
Running Notes
Recommended party: 3-5 characters
Session Zero
Confirm the table’s comfort with horror, grave imagery, body horror, and gun violence. Ask for lines and veils around torture, child endangerment, and desecration. Decide how explicit firearms are in the setting: revolvers, shotguns, or a broader pulp-western arsenal. Encourage characters with practical reasons to help the town, not only outlaw motives. Make sure everyone is comfortable with undead, corruption, and nocturnal attacks.
Scaling Guidance
For level 1 parties, use fewer enemies and emphasize rescue, darkness, and environmental threat over raw damage. For level 2 parties, run encounters as written. For level 3 parties or a large group, add one skeleton or zombie to each combat and make the villain’s agents use better positioning and cover. Keep the horror atmospheric, but do not overuse save-or-suck effects early.
DM Advice
Start with a strong town problem, then let clues naturally point to the cemetery and tunnel. Keep scenes moving like a western: short dialogue, immediate danger, and clear stakes. Reveal horror through details—cold water, bad smells, scratches in wood, ringing bells. The villain should feel intelligent and present even when off-screen. End Act I with momentum, not resolution.
Secrets & Clues
- The black water is carrying burial ink used in occult binding rites.
- The villain has been altering death records to hide who is missing.
- The tunnel once connected to a sealed service crypt beneath the cemetery.
- The graveyard flood is a side effect of a ritual, not the ritual itself.
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Encounters
Midnight at the Mortuary
Encounter Builder
Moderate
Suggested Level: 1-2
The party hears scratching from the undertaker’s locked back room. Inside, a corpse stirs, candles gutter blue, and a pallid revenant attacks through shattered sheet-metal and coffin planks.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Narrow mortuary corridors
- Coffins that provide half cover
- Lanterns that can be knocked over to create bright or dim light
- A locked rear door and a window barred from the outside
Treasure
A silver key stamped with the cemetery seal, 15 gp, and a torn map fragment showing the rail tunnel entrance.
DM Notes
Use this as the first shock scene. If the party is struggling, replace one skeleton with a swarm of rats as a distraction instead of another attacker.
Graveyard Flood
Encounter Builder
High
Suggested Level: 2-3
Black water pours through the cemetery while the dead claw upward from half-sunk graves. The party must fight through the churned mud to save trapped mourners and stop the water’s source.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Waist-deep mud in low areas
- Leaning headstones that count as difficult terrain
- Black water that obscures holes and uneven ground
- Broken mausoleum stairs leading below
Treasure
A funeral bracelet worth 25 gp, a potion bottle filled with holy water, and clues etched into a tomb wall.
DM Notes
This encounter is strongest as a rescue under pressure. Reduce to 1 zombie if the party is small; add one skeleton if they need more enemy bodies.
Showdown at the Rail Tunnel
Encounter Builder
High
Suggested Level: 2-3
The villain’s agents ambush the party at the sealed tunnel entrance with lantern light, shotgun echoes, and a final surge of undead driven up from below.
Creatures
Ghoul
Count 2
SRD
· CR 1
· Undead
Skeleton
Count 2
SRD
· CR 1/4
· Undead
Zombie
SRD
· CR 1/4
· Undead
Terrain Features
- Rail tracks on a narrow embankment
- Rusted ore carts that can be pushed for cover
- A sealed tunnel mouth radiating cold air
- Loose gravel along the ledge, dangerous for chasing and retreating
Treasure
A cache of stolen town valuables, a black iron ring, and the key to the sealed tunnel door.
DM Notes
Treat this as the act’s capstone fight. If the group is cautious, have the enemies fight defensively near the tunnel; if they are strong, let the ghoul use hit-and-run tactics.
Magic Items
Marshal’s Tin Star
Completed
Marshal’s Tin Star
Uncommon
A battered badge that warms when undead are near. While worn, it grants advantage on one Wisdom (Perception) check per day to notice hidden restless dead or grave magic.
Location
Act I, recovered from Marshal Elira Voss’s office after the mortuary incident
Attunement
False
Blackwater Vial
Completed
Blackwater Vial
Uncommon
A stoppered vial of cemetery runoff. As an action, you can splash it to force one undead creature within 10 feet to make a Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of its next turn.
Location
Act I, found in the flooded cemetery crypt
Attunement
False
Rail-Spark Revolver Charm
Completed
Rail-Spark Revolver Charm
Rare
A brass cartridge charm engraved with lightning marks. While attuned, once per long rest you can add 1d4 thunder damage to a weapon attack made with a firearm or crossbow.
Location
Act I, stolen from the sealed rail tunnel cache
Attunement
True; attune by spending a short rest loading the charm into a favored weapon or keeping it on your person
Player Characters
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