Dungeon Crawl Classics Heroic Adventure!: #1 Evil Never Dies!

For centuries, the town of Shadowfalls has languished under the oppressive rule of Hazlewud, a malevolent lich whose dark influence permeates every aspect of life. This undead wizard's dominion extends not just over the present, but across the very fabric of time itself.

Hazlewud is no ordinary lich, but a chrono-lich—a being of unparalleled necromantic power bound to Chronos, the god of time. In life, Hazlewud was Magistrate Elaro Milner, the cunning head of the Emerson village merchant guild. His vast wealth and political influence allowed him to indulge in unspeakable depravities while maintaining a facade of respectability. Consumed by an insatiable hunger for power and the fear of his own mortality, Elaro delved into forbidden magics. Through a series of grotesque rituals that corrupted the natural flow of time in the area, he transformed himself into an abomination that exists simultaneously in past, present, and future.

The rise of the chrono-lich tore a rent in time, causing a “waterfall” of shadowy anti-phlogiston near the guildhouse. The presence of these powerful energies manifests in horrifying ways. Hazlewud can summon younger versions of long-dead victims or withered husks of those yet to die. The town's clocktower, once a symbol of prosperity, now tolls at irregular intervals, each chime aging or rejuvenating random citizens. To the citizens, the village remains Emerson, but to outsiders it has become known in whispers as “Shadowfalls”.

Now, your party has set out to end the undead wizard's reign of terror for all time, across all time.