The Knock on the Door
by Alan Clark
After a day on the road, PCs are relaxing at a small town's only inn, having dinner in the common room. Outside, the sun is just setting. They notice that the locals have become quiet and tense. Suddenly there is a very loud knock at the inn's front door. Some people look nervously at the door, but no one moves. If any of the PCs get up or ask about the noise, everyone looks at them in alarm and the innkeeper says sharply, "Don't answer it! Stay away from that door!" Again comes the pounding, the entire doorframe shuddering with the force of the blows.
If the PCs try to open the door, everybody in the inn will leap to stop them. The proprietor will later explain that the knocking occurs every day at sunset. Something knocks twice at the door, then goes away. No one knows the meaning of it, although there are plenty of frightening theories involving ghosts or devils. The only man ever to open the door was the previous innkeeper; this was several years ago when the knocking first began. He was never seen again. The only witness, a farmhand, was driven mad by whatever he saw. He died a few months later, still weeping and babbling inanely.
(Originally appeared in Re:Quests!, issue #39, January 1996, p. 36; Mary H Kelly, editor.)
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