Hanged lady in a swamp - background

[Pinjata]

During my recent campaign in which my party is travelling through the swamp along a dirt road, they came upon a female body, hanging from a tree, strung by the neck. (i rolled up this randomly) Somehow, this got immense interest from my group and now I need a backstory. Any Ideas, what could I add to a hanging lady? I was thinking a letter or something along that.

[hymer]

Well, you have three obvious options: Judicial execution, extrajudicial execution, or suicide.

Having recently seen Medea again, I'll go for highly dramatic and suggest that the suicide is the daughter of a merchant, who travels by here at regular intevals. Father did something terrible to his son-in-law, betraying him to a fate worse than death, and in the process breaking a good and solemn vow. The daughter, in despair and for revenge, hanged herself here. There would indeed be signs, such as a letter to daddy.

There may be something to do for heroes, such as bringing two restless spirits together in death, allowing them to fially pass on.

[DrKerosene]

Perhaps someone convinced enough of a town that the lady was the local witch (Green Hag?) and needed to be hung. Or perhaps the lie(?) was that they would turn into a Hag and the “lady” is a teenager at most.

[Kaptin Keen]

Self-sacrifice. Not suicide, but ritual. Oh, I suppose technically it's still suicide, but the motive isn't to kill oneself, it's more of a side effect.

So basically, let her have a small rhyme in her pocket, in which she offers up her own suffering to the local swamp hag, in return for which the hag will inflict suffering and/or death to others.

And then have the story be sufficiently sad and tragic. A lone mother of three, the family struggling to get by. One child died young, from disease - which could have been cured, but the mother couldn't afford it, due to the high taxes imposed by the local scumbag warlord. The oldest son was drafted into the warlords pointless campaigns, and died far away.

Then, recently, the warlord came by. He offered something - money, food, whatever - in return for something lewd and possibly disgusting. The last son, enraged, slapped him to defend his mother, and the warlord cut him down, and beat the mother senseless.

So she vowed bloody revenge ... but had only the one place to turn.

Queue a lone fortress standing on a hilltop overlooking the moors, winds howling through empty windows, dead fireplaces cold and black, and not a soul in sight - but the mad, cackling laughter of the warlord still echoes his emty halls, and below the keep lies blackened arcades of antiquity and a portal of antediluvian ... wait, is this still the same game ..?! oO

[Gallowglass]

During my recent campaign in which my party is travelling through the swamp along a dirt road, they came upon a female body, hanging from a tree, strung by the neck. (i rolled up this randomly) Somehow, this got immense interest from my group and now I need a backstory. Any Ideas, what could I add to a hanging lady? I was thinking a letter or something along that.

Out of curiosity, what "table" are you "rolling" on that gave you this randomly?

[Brookshw]

During my recent campaign in which my party is travelling through the swamp along a dirt road, they came upon a female body, hanging from a tree, strung by the neck. (i rolled up this randomly) Somehow, this got immense interest from my group and now I need a backstory. Any Ideas, what could I add to a hanging lady? I was thinking a letter or something along that.

Something that could spark a quest? A letter to the effects of "My husband is responsible for the loss of my children, I can no longer go on". Hanged woman is also a ghost, as are her now deceased children whom were killed or driven to death by her husband. Husband was a collector of historical relics and, unknowingly, obtained a cursed relic that did a thing, i.e., allowed him to be possessed by a fiend, cursed him to destroy what was closest to him, made him Evil to some extent. Have the ghost of the woman appear to the party after they read the letter.

Fun ensues as the party figures out how each child was killed and how to free them from their ghost states, and deal with the cursed relic and father. Did I mention the old spooky mansion the family lived in, deep in the swamp?

[Coventry]

There is a local villain that has just recently become capable of using Magic Jar.

The villain is currently experimenting with the ability - planning to take control of a random person, commit a major crime, and then jumping out of the body at the last possible second before the otherwise innocent person is executed. But to be able to pull this off, the villain is practicing.


Clues would be that the person was acting strangely in recent days - acting abnormally, walking with a different gait, speaking in the wrong accent ("actually, sounded like that new loner who always seems to be sleeping all day"), didn't know names, et cetera.

(The idea cribbed from 1998's movie, Fallen, with Denzel Washington)

[Pauly]

MiLady de Winter after Athos has rendered judgement.

Investigating could lead to choosing to be allied with a group of heroes or working for the power behind the throne. Once you choose one side the other side becomes an opponent.

[Elvensilver]

Maybe the hanged lady came from a nearby village, which has gone mad under the influence of a MacGuffin/an evil spell/some murderous fey playing around. Maybe just some small signs, like it's not a rope, but twisted clothes, something is missing or seems of- shoes up in the tree, a clownlike makeup, or just some scratches in the tree, counting something.
Or the corpse is a warning, maybe left by the local lawenforcement, a local intelligent monster or a tribe of savage humanoids. In this case, there should be some signs of her perceived crime. Maybe even left by magical means, like the corpse Starts talking, if you say some specific words in her presence...

[Dimers]

The 'corpse' is a very carefully executed replica or a sacrificed simulacrum, allowing the creator to fake her death. Later and far away, the PCs see that woman alive! Hmmm, what's she up to ... ?

[Vogie]

The lady was hung as a witch, but the townsfolk didn't know the witch was a Corpsetaker (or Stanger with the Burning Eyes), who took over the body of their executor

[Shuruke]

Perhaps someone convinced enough of a town that the lady was the local witch (Green Hag?) and needed to be hung. Or perhaps the lie(?) was that they would turn into a Hag and the “lady” is a teenager at most.

+1 this

I recemend watching season of the witch with nicholas cage

Could easily base it off that

It being witch trials etc

[Imbalance]

During my recent campaign in which my party is travelling through the swamp along a dirt road, they came upon a female body, hanging from a tree, strung by the neck. (i rolled up this randomly) Somehow, this got immense interest from my group and now I need a backstory. Any Ideas, what could I add to a hanging lady? I was thinking a letter or something along that.

The lady is nothing - just another grim fatality. What's interesting is that the dozy treant she's tied to has shuffled its way over miles and miles to tend the mangroves and still hasn't noticed its new accessory.

[Jay R]

She is a lich, busy on a spell that takes 24 hours of motionless silence to cast.

Or she was a powerful witch, who needs contact with the ground to recover her life and her powers. If your players are the good type who would give her a decent burial ....

[Talyn]

In ancient times, the local Old Gods (whether they are actual gods, demons, elemental powers, or great fey) demanded human sacrifice. The local Law-and-Good aligned 'modern' religions have stamped the practice out pretty thoroughly, but when harvests fail there are always those who remember the old ways.

This woman was ritually murdered and left for the Old Gods. Maybe a local cultist did the deed (there are never enough evil druids in most campaigns), or maybe it was her neighbors. Maybe she was unpopular, or maybe she volunteered, or maybe she just drew the short straw.

The question is: do these ritual sacrifices work? This is D&D after all, and plenty of archfey and fiends and evil gods are willing to grant power in return for their dark appetites being sated. If they don't work, why do people keep doing them? Are there dozens (or, gods forbid, hundreds) of angry ghosts that haunt these woods, demanding justice for their deaths?

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The body could have ritual scarification, tattooing, or a brand with the symbol of the Old Gods, to show that she was marked for them. There is probably mistletoe in her pocket and a silver coin in her palm.