A New Beginning
Background
The Valley of Hanlem and its inhabitants had long suffered the predations of Amishkan, an evil necromancer who made his home inside the twisting caves and tunnels of the Jakur mountain and frecuently used his undead monsters to raid the nearby ttowns for gold, supplies and prisoners for his foul experiments. The town guardsmen could do nothing about it, not only because they would have been killed, but also because any town who resisted to pay tribute to the wizard would suffer all kinds of disasters orchestrated by the dark wizard.
Six years ago, however, the undead hordes and their master vanished without a trace, and the scouts that were sent to investigate found that the caves that Amishkan claimed as his own were absolutely empty. The villagers celebrated for several days, after all, their opressor had left, or did he?.
Amishkan never left the mountain, he just descended into the deeper levels of the cave complex taking all his tools with him. He desired to conduct several studies and didn't want to be bothered by pesty adventurers or mercenaries hired to kill him, and he was starting to get a bit too notorious, something that would undoubtedly lead to an untimely expedition of the king's knights.
But was not the only purpose of his "disappearance", as it turned out, Amishkan had gotten his hands on an ancient tome that described a formula to become a lich even if the imbider was not powerful enough to become one through the usual means (actually, that tome was featured in a Dungeon magazine adventure a while back). Seeing in this tome the opportunity of a lifetime, Amishkan dedicated all his efforts on the single goal of creating the potion and becoming a lich.
After five years of translating the arcane formulas and getting the proper ingredients, he was finally able to concoct the potion. With his hands trembling from the awaited success, Amishkan gulped down the potion, but something went wrong...
Not only did he not become a lich, but apparently he was poisoned and fell ill, nearly dying. Either the tome was false or he had misinterpreted the writings, but these matters were not his concerns at the moment, for there seemed to be a side effect to the potion; he had already recovered from the poisoning, but something was still wrong.
In the following months, he appeared to be aging. He was not a young man before the experiment, but his hair turned white and wrinkles appeared all over his face in just a few months. Once again, the wizard threw himself into his studies, trying to find a cure before it was too late.
It has been a year and Amishkan has not found a cure, but he has found a better solution. His body is as good as dead, considering it is now the equivalent of a 80 year old man, but perhaps his life force can survive. He has created a magic receptacle and plans to take over a new body using a Magic Jar spell, he knows the restrictions of doing such a thing, but he figures that he can find a better way later while in a new young body.
Amishkan's plan
Not wanting to let the villagers know he is still alive fearing an attack (which, in his current condition does not want to deal with), and especially because he doesn't want his new body harmed, Amishkan doesn't want to send his monsters and undead to retrieve victims. Instead, he used his minions (his homonculous to be exact) to contact a trio of jackalweres that had been hunting in the forest near the mountain, and offered them plentiful rewards and slaves to slaughter if they agreed to help him.
The Jackalweres are collecting young human males using their polimorph and gaze abilities, and are bringing them to the mountain. Once there, the prisoners are caged by Amishkan's minions. You see, the wizard doesn't want just any body, he wants a strong, vigorous young body. Since he still has some months to spare, he will select the best candidate and then turn the rest to the jackalweres.
What is happening now
Young boys are disappearing from all three towns near the mountain, most of them were seen with beautiful women (the jackalweres) before vanishing, and several corpses have been found in the woods near the road (also the jackalweres' victims, these were for food). Not only this, but several mountaineers have claimed to see blood stains and a winged demon (the homonculous) flying towards the caves of the mountain, and this demon has also been near the towns (while spying the jackalweres).
Adventure Hooks
Amishkan and his minions
Amishkan already looks like a 90 year old man, but don't let appearances fool you, that doesn't change the fact that he is a 14th level necromancer armed with damaging spells and numerous magic items he has acumulated over the years. Once he has completed his quest for a new beginning, he plans to kill the jackalweres and regain control of his towns. And perhaps continue his studies to become a lich.
Trof is Amishkan's faithful homonculous, he is currently following the jackalweres' every move and reporting back to Amishkan.
Darkmane, the wizard's familiar, is a large worg wolf who is usually roaming the mountain and the cavern's entrance, he will not take any action against intruders, but will Amishkan aware of it.
For protection, Amishkan keeps 10 Hook Horrors near his lab and personal chambers, the monsters are caged and will omly be released to attack intruders (they are starving and will attack fiercely) .
Using several spells, Amishkan has 8 Shadows under his control.
Obviously, there are several dozens undead (skeletons, zombies, etc.) roaming around and protecting the caves. And there are other subterranean creatures which may see the PCs as an easy meal (piercers, slimes and such)