House of Whispers: A 3rd Level Adventure for 5th Edition

Old man Whisper lived on a hill just outside town. He was a kind old gnome, often found studying in his extensive library or performing minor magical experiments. When his age began limiting him, he hired an assistant to help him around his house. Her name was Glenda and she was a sweet young human woman, very beautiful, and always with a smile on her face. Over the years the two grew close. Whisper became like a father figure to young Glenda. When a suitor came calling for her, Whisper was hesitant, but Glenda was ecstatic. The young man was dashing and handsome. He was a foreigner, having traveled from the elven lands to the west, but that only added to his appeal. Their courtship was quick and within weeks he proposed marriage. The wedding was to take place at Whisper's house in the early hours of a lazy Sunday... but it never did. Old man Whisper was found dead in his study, slumped over his desk. On the ground in front of him, the magic circle to seal the ceremony was still fresh. Unbeknownst to all, the old man hadn't died of old age, he'd been murdered. The suitor was a cultist of a dark god. He required the life of a spellcaster and the heart of one who truly loved him to complete his own dark ritual. When old man Whisper began his incantation to seal the two love birds in holy matrimony, a more powerful magic circle in the caves beneath the house was activated. It drained the old man of his life force and tore poor Glenda's spirit from her body. The suitor then carried her body deep beneath the house to a secret chamber he'd been using to prepare his ritual. As he went to enact the final portions of it, her spirit, now a ghost, attacked him and slew him where he stood. With the ritual only half completed though, her soul was trapped in limbo unable to find peace. Now, she wanders the house aimlessly, her mind mostly gone, wailing in the night, the sounds of her suffering heard as far as the nearby town. Fearing what might be happening at the house, the local constabulary have put out a reward for whoever can determine what is going on.