In spite of poor weather, the group made their way along Lake Encarthan towards Illmouth, which sits in an isolated position on the southeastern edge of Ustalav. Just a couple of miles short of Illmouth, the group spotted a fishing vessel with a single crewmember on board being pushed by the wind towards the shore by the wind. The vessel was obviously too big to be controlled by a single person so the crew member’s efforts were obviously in vain.

Harry and Archie combined their magic to create a large sandspit in front of the vessel and it slid to a halt next to an abandoned wharf. The crewman fell into the icy waters of Lake Encarthan when the ship stopped but was rescued by Brother Erebic and Otto using a rope. Felix was firmly in the grip of some mushrooms and played no major part in the adventure.

The crewman proved to be an eccentric elderly inventor named Horace Croon who had retired recently from the University of Caliphas. The fishing vessel was carrying his latest invention, a mechanical fish of somewhat doubtful integrity (the first clue was the large quantity of water sloshing around inside). Horace explained that he had high hopes of exploring the depths of Lake Encarthan in this device and that he had been fairly successful in exploring a small section of the Lake in an earlier prototype that was not nearly as mobile as the fish.

The fish was secured on a wagon using a winch and the rest of the trip to Illmouth was cordial but very wet as the weather, which had been threatening all day, finally broke. Upon surveying the only possible place to stay at night, everybody in the the group except for Harry chose to stay with Horace at his spacious but stripped down home or under the Archie’s wagon.

Harry had his fair share of challenges that night but emerged from the evening victorious. Archie and Otto spent part of the evening at the only other tavern in town but did not learn anything other than the fact that people in the town don’t like strangers. On the way back to Horace’s house, Otto spotted lightning strike something out in the lake.

Illmouth by day was very quiet but somewhat less depressing than it was by night. Most of the men were mostly gone fishing (a cold and daunting prospect in early November) and most of the women were gathered at the surprisingly well-maintained temple of Gozreh. The rest of the town ranged from very nice but very poorly maintained to nearly falling down. The town sheriff spent some time to get to know the group and asked them to keep their noses clean or suffer the consequence of his sawed-off shotgun.

Harry had discovered the previous night that the inn had only 3 other visitors, two were farmers who left the next morning and one was a traveling salesman from Caliphas. The salesman had not been seen for some days but, since he had paid for his room in advance, his stuff had not been touched yet. Otto secured the key for the room and the group quickly searched it. The room was tidy and well-kept but it was obvious that the bed had not been used in several days and most of the salesman’s possessions were still scattered around the room. Archie went over the catalog of goods the man had been selling and realized that the salesman was selling goods for a factory in Caliphas that had burned down several years ago and had never been replaced. The only other noteworthy thing the group found was a note the man left himself about the Undiomede residence.

Illmouth (formerly Baymouth) had been established by Cassius Undiomede about 200 years ago and had been quite prosperous up until 30 years ago when the family line suddenly failed. The town had still done pretty well until about 2 months ago when fishing suddenly turned very poor.

The group toured the temple and Brother Erebic noticed that the temple celebrated creatures under the sea rather than the power of wind and wave which are the more common themes of Gozreh. The group also noticed that boy children outnumbered girl children by about a 2:1 margin and that the guards were particularly feisty with the party. Outside the Temple, Otto spotted a very large reptile swimming far out in the lake but none of the locals were concerned. They told the group that the creature has never harmed anybody and keeps its distance. But one person noted that he thinks it has been getting bigger lately.

A market assembled in the town square in the mid-afternoon sun (the first sunlight of the day because of dense fog) as the fishing fleet returned to town. The group learned the following things during the market:
- The town sheriff has a love-hate relationship with the temple guards
- Today’s catch was poor and the temple guards took the best of the catch for themselves without paying for it. Nobody complained about their behavior
- A rather pretty half-elf female alchemist (specializing in health remedies) has a house in town and a date with Archie in the evening
- Horace Croon is not well-liked by the townsfolk, who fear his inventions will destroy the town. The black smoke and strange noises coming from his house all day did not make the party any more comfortable with Croon’s behavior
- Archie spotted some rocks out in the water with a rusty iron cross. This is likely what attracted the lightning strike the previous evening
- The group learned of the location of the Undiomede residence in the swamp a little to the north and west of Illmouth

The group decided to pay the Undiomede residence a quick visit before nightfall. Archie didn’t want to miss his date. The residence proved to be a very large three story building in the shape of an “L” with a marble dome serving as the roof at the corner of the “L.” The group found tracks made by a horse, a man on foot, and some sort of large lizard that walked erect. The lizard tracks were by far the most numerous and the most recent.

The group took a quick look in the stable and found, much to their surprise, a live horse in poor health due to lack of food and water for the last few days. They eventually identified the animal as the beast that carried the dark rider that they had chased here from Feldgrau. There was no sign of the rider and the group decided to take the horse and saddlebags. Archie searched the saddlebags and found nothing of interest except for a scrap of paper telling the rider to exchange the Sesage Effigy (a strange artifact stolen from the Leidstadt University a couple of months ago for the Raven’s Beak. Brother Erbek and Harry both cried out because they recognized the Raven’s Beak as a mace that is of the most powerful artifacts of Pharasma that had vanished early in the reign of the Whispering Tyrant. Evidently the Tyrant had hidden this item in the Baymouth area. Everybody wondered why the Whispering Way wanted to possess such a dangerous artifact at this particular moment.

Archie made it back to Illmouth in time for his date and was most charming but did not find out any thing new. The rest of the group had a completely different experience as they were accosted by the Sheriff who told them that the Mayor wanted to speak with them, now. Mayor Earl Greedle was indeed a sight to cause sore eyes but he proved to be an interesting conversationalist. He fondly remember Brother Erbis from his earlier years as a mercenary and surprised everybody by being a devotee of Pharasma. Further, the Mayor admitted that he did not view himself as a leader of the town, maintaining that there was something wrong with the Temple of Gozreh. He also mentioned that he didn’t trust his own Sheriff, whom he believed would turn in the Mayor if he could achieve his life-long ambition to become a Temple Guard.

The Mayor also told the uncomfortable story of how the Undiomede line ended and hinted that there was a good chance that at least one of the family might still be in Ustalav. Finally the group asked about the rocks and the cross and were told that they were called the Tern Rocks were used to punish evildoers.

The Mayor asked, really begged, the group to investigate the Temple and see what they could find. This put a bit of a monkey wrench in the groups plans as they had intended to revisit the Undiomede residence that night. After considerable discussion, it was decided to tackle the Temple first because it was closer and not likely to be haunted by ghosts. There was some fear that the group would bring down the retaliation of the townsfolk on them if they desecrated the Temple and found no evidence of major wrong-doing.

Excerpted from Lord Bothwell’s Personal Journal:

_We continued to run after razing the entire church in an attempt to slay the foul beast, but it marched onward unfazed.

With little hope of defeating the monster, we continued to Dr. Crove’s asylum. It was a strange place; inmates were strapped to the walls and floor in what I can only imagine was supposed to be some form of treatment. I tried to speak to several of the wretches, but none were comprehensible.

We eventually found the Doctor’s office, but it was empty, save several necromantic tomes, so we kept poking around until we found a stairway leading to the basement. There, we found a few half-flayed inmates and an astonishingly interesting latrine. It seems that the Doctor has some sort of dark elf infestation, something we uncovered through the use of History magic, but we were unable to turn up the Doctor himself until the dark beast had arrived. Luckily, he knew where the Doctor was; unluckily, it killed the Doctor before we could.

Several grenades and many gunshots later, the vile thing finally expires. We did a thorough looting (natch) and collected our reward (and No-Brows junior). At this point, to nobody’s surprise or sorrow, Endil chose to leave our group. First Lux and then Endil, what is going on? I mean, some of us shower regularly, don’t we? What more could they ask for? Our depleted group finally arrived at the town of Thrushmore, the last stop before we finally arrived at our destination of Illmouth.

We stopped in at a Tavern in this one-stop village, and discovered that its patron, a man named Tillas, was working with the Order and was willing to aid us. Sadly, his operation had been infiltrated, and the stableman in his employ (along with several other assailants) jumped a number of our party. After they had been searched, interrogated, and dispatched (mostly in that order) it was discovered that one carried a personal letter for me, and another carried instructions from the Whispering Way.

Coming to our aid during the fight was a man named Brother Erbik, apparently another paladin sent by the gods to aid us. And so, we march on. Still, I feel conflicted about our direction. I desperately want to aid my countrymen in Caliphas. Perhaps, I still might. I will have to confer with the Book for guidance._

So if I don’t ever get to collect on my royalties for the publication of my earlier adventures, I think I have enough material for the sequel in addition to a sizable beginning on some sort of travel guide for any poor sap that finds themselves traveling the countryside in Ustalav, a land which in relation to the rest of Golarion resembles nothing so closely as an enormous boil on an otherwise gorgeous strumpet.

Our latest travels brought us to Carrion Hill, roughly the halfway point between Feldgrau and Caliphas.

As soon as we arrived in town, we were singled out by the town guard. I expected just another admirer looking for an autograph, but it turns out that Versex, the Mayor’s Head Clerk, is a member of the Palantine Eye. True to form, they want something from us in return for next to nothing. If the Professor were still alive, I’d kick him square in the balls for getting me mixed up in all of this. Maybe I’ll have to marry his daughter or something. Anyway, the Count and the Judge needed some sort of response about how things went in Feldgrau (like they didn’t already know… as if the rest of this order could even manage to lace their bodices without us), so I wrote a flowery letter back to our crew at the Schloss accurately depicting my epic contributions to the cause with some footnotes about the rest of the party. I included in the letter a request that the Order take a look into the disappearance of many Varisians in Caliphas; there were rumors of the royalty there kidnapping Varisians for some dark purpose, and I think there might be some justice to mete out in the near future for my mistreated countrymen.

With that completed, Otto and I went to get to the important business of ensuring that our bloodlines endure by virtue of a trip to the docks to meet with some saucy Varisian ladies. I think No Brows was looking for more alchemists or something. He took off in the other direction humming a song to himself and licking the cobblestones as he went along, and Endell was going to do something kinky and expensive sounding. I think that Harry was the only one that took advantage of Versex’s offer of free lodging at the local inn.

During the evening, some weird thing came out of the sewers and razed a few homes and killed a few people. Apparently it got everyone’s feathers ruffled, so the mayor hired us to take care of it. No Brows looked a little worse for wear in the morning; apparently there’s a bounty out on every alchemist in town thanks to some noble. If I thought No Brows was killable, I might try to collect on the reward, but I’ve seen rocks that could take less punishment. Plus, his ability to stay drug addled constantly is singularly entertaining. We’ll have to do something about the bounty before we go, methinks.

Digressions aside, we went to check out the closest demolished home as soon as everyone had been rounded up. Apparently they came for Harry bright and early, so he got considerably less sleep than the rest of us rapscallions. The house smelled like a rotting colon, and it was covered in a dark goo that seemed to rust and peel everything. I tried to see what had happened through a History spell, but that didn’t work out so well, so we settled on combing the place for clues. Tracking down the entry point of the goo, we determined that the dark beast had come from under the house somewhere, so we opened the door to the catacombs under the city and walked down. Apparently this place was built above an old half-collapsed crypt for some followers of Aroden, all of whom were still there except for one whose sarcophagus had been defiled. We poked around a little further and discovered some cowering muscle that had barricaded themselves in a side chamber, but they were pretty useless as far as details went, so we had no choice but to keep going deeper into the crypt through some rough cut doorway in the stone wall.

The stairway led to a weird magical chamber lit by luminescent fungi and dominated by an enormous altar flanked by petrified trees. No Brows tried to take a look at the altar, and something tried to eat him, but we pulled him out. Deciding there was strength in numbers, a few of us went up there to investigate, and I found a sweet book which I proceeded to read cover to cover. It was a pretty good read. Me and the book were tight for a little while, and it taught me some good things. In fact, I came to realize that the voices I hear sometime were just my friend the book talking to me, reaching out to let me know how things were going. I fell asleep after I finished reading the book and drinking a delicious beer, and suddenly it was gone. Luckily, I can still hear ol’ Book talking to me, so I think we’ll keep in touch.

One of the things I learned from Book was that the black thing was trying to establish itself by killing the people that summoned it to this plane (the book also told me who did this, and they rudely defaced Book, so he was more than willing to let us know who to grease), so if we killed them first, the beast would be considerably weaker. So, we set about to do some killing. We killed some fat drunk at his midden concrete shop, and then we dredged a church basement for some Priest of Aroden that had sewn his mouth shut, and we killed him, too. He was kind of a dick. While we were killing that guy, the monster thing from ANOTHER PLANE showed up, so we tried to kill it by crushing it when we collapsed the church, but that didn’t really work, so when we got up street-side, we noticed that it was still coming…

TO BE CONTINUED

So, we were in our safehouse surveying our options for assaulting the tower, and No Brows was tripping balls again. For Desna’s sake, this guy must have an endless supply of magic mushrooms… actually, this could be a better thing than I first realized (NOTE TO SELF: profitize relationship with No Brows, sell that hallucinogenic goodness). We all agreed that our original plan to drop in the acid pouch from the Count was the best plan we had, so we decided to roll with it.

That decided, at dawn (for dramatic purposes, we felt dawn would be a good time to strike) we made our way to the tavern in town where we hoped to make our forward base for the attack. Before we get there, though, we get jumped by the four remaining Demon Wolves including that poseur Duristan. At least one of those Demon Wolves had to be a Varisian in his mortal life because they kneecapped us like old pros, and No Brows and Lux were down like panties off of a Varisian Mistress. Which is to say really quickly. Which is to say that all signs pointed to us being completely dead before we could even deliver our gift to Vrood. Which is to say that I was a little disappointed. Luckily, the tide soon turned as I convinced a couple of them that their armor was burning them alive, No Brows chemical proclivities meant that he had plenty to share with the leader of the pack, Otto stabbed a guy with his rapier, Endell gave Duristan a magically incapacitating handy (and Otto also stabbed him mid-tantric-orgasm), and I stabbed the last wolf in the eyes with my silver dagger. Somehow the wolf that Otto originally had stabbed became enthralled by Endell, so she kept him on as a manservant. It was a little weird, but seemed useful. Otto cut out the leader’s heart, and with that bargaining chip in hand (in sack, actually) we negotiated a deal with the Prince’s Wolves that they would go all in on the assault so long as they got the heart when the business was concluded.

We tried to hole up in the tavern, but it seemed that the Whispering Way had gotten there before we had, as there were some runes and glyphs around the frame of the entry that matched the ones we’d seen at Harrowstone prison, so we decided to head to the Blacksmith’s shop instead, where we rested and healed ourselves after that nearly successful ambush.

With the time around high noon (equally dramatic to dawn, so still suiting our purposes), we’d finally rested and healed ourselves, and so we felt ready to begin the attack on the tower. Harry loaded me up with an invisibility spell, and I flew to the top of the tower. I tossed the guard over the side with a levitation spell, and I landed to insert the nag when some white dead thing popped out and grabbed me. It was decidedly unpleasant. I dropped in the bag and then banished the thing. As the bag did its thing, much screaming followed. I thought that whatever was happening would travel downward, so I stuck around for a few seconds and shot the crossbow that was on the roof before I noticed that a pink tendril was coming out of the trapdoor. I decided to beat a hasty exit from the tower. As I flew away, I could see that the entire place was filled with pink goo. Nothing was coming out which meant good things for the good guys. However, pink tendrils were making their way towards all of us that were skilled in the mystic arts, so we had to make a run for it. The rest of the group mopped up the zombies (especially Lux; seems like the less attractive she becomes, the more ass she can kick), and eventually, Vrood’s smoking husk of a body stumbled out of the front door, and he was promptly shot by Otto.

When the pinking stopped, not much was left of the tower. Everything magical inside had been consumed by the pink cloud, making this a sad day for treasure seekers everywhere. We buried the formerly undead (now re-dead?) bodies and went to see the Mayor to collect on our reward for killing Vrood. The Mayor was able to show us Vrood’s dealings with the rest of the Whispering Way, namely the composition of a letter to the head of the group talking about how we were on the group’s watchlist and that Vrood was working for a man in Caliphas and that he had another associate in Illmouth. Otto handed over the heart to the Prince’s wolves, and then he shot Endell’s manservant wolf in the back. The other wolves seemed to think that was a swell move. I was a little surprised, but seeing that wolf’s guts all over the floor made me glad that Otto never decided to shoot me back in the old days. He seems disinclined to shoot me these days, so it isn’t a huge concern anymore, but knowing that he’ll shoot a man in the back made me respect him a little more: All Varisians know that the only fights worth picking are unfair ones. Maybe all of that Sweet Varisian Lovin’ is having even more of an effect than I had suspected. To celebrate, we all got drunk on the mayor’s reserve of great, then decent, then terrible wines. It was a night to remember if you were capable of remembering it.

With that info about the Whispering Way disclosed, I realized that my ticket to another slum had been punched: To Illmouth we would go. All of the travel guides agree that it’s about as scenic as Lux’s face, and to top it off, the place is generally hostile to visitors. Certainly sounds like tourism is a huge industry, no? At least there are certain to be some Varisians around town, so I’ll seek them out, and as I understand, there are a few large trading towns in between Feldgrau and Illmouth, so we can stock up on supplies between here and there. I suspect we’ll need them.

I leave behind sweet Varisian love at Ascanor Lodge, and for what? Feldgrau: the worst town ever. I had heard it was something of a slum, but I must have slept through the part where it was mentioned that the entire town had died and been reborn as Zombies. To top things off, the only non-zombie residents of the town are mad cultists of the Whispering Way, unfriendly werewolves, and the occasional spirit (ghost, I mean, although a drink would be much more welcome at the moment). I always try to keep a positive outlook, but this rubbish pile has managed to raise even my ire. I’m starting to wonder what exactly the Palantine Eye is going to contribute to us in return for our tireless service.

Furthermore, it appears that Professor Lorrimer’s spirit has been warped by these cultists prigs, and naturally the cult has holed up in the most fortified part of town. Their tower of terrible (henceforth referred to as “the Leaning Deuce”) is highly enchanted and nigh impervious to most magical and alchemical attacks. While all of the news seems bad, there is at least the upside that of the original population of the town, almost all have already been destroyed in Zombie form due to the werewolves. As for the wolven bastards, there seem to be only three of them, one of whom is the insufferable rake-turned-werewolf Duristan. Otto and Endell ran into the trio while scouting the town. It seems that the bar in town and the blacksmith’s shop are the only tenable buildings in town besides the Leaning Deuce, so we’ve set up shop in some farmhouse that apparently served as a den for Duristan’s band of werewolves(we’re joined by a second, inferior brand of werewolf that have named themselves the Prince’s Wolves that help us when they see fit, which is rarely from what I can tell), but after removing some sort of cursed altar from the house, it’s become habitable at least.

We’ve spent the rest of the last few days trying to figure a way to get into the tower or bring the inhabitants of the tower to us. There are two competing ideas at present:

1. We topple the Leaning Deuce. Either through magic or alchemy, we attempt to turn it on its side, killing the inhabitants and clearing out one of our enemy groups. This could work if we tunnel under the tower and make the ground beneath it disappear, but that plan may be too time consuming.

2. We drop in the acid pouch. The Count seemed quite insistent that we just add water and give it to Vrood, and I’m inclined to do so. This would be more of a trickle down approach whereby I would activate the pouch by dropping it in the top of the tower and let its acidic wonders work as they sink through the tower, forcing the inhabitants to be eaten by acid or escape into a trap/ambush that we set outside of the tower.

Personally I’m in favor of a plan that incorporates a little of both, but we’ll see what happens.

NOTE TO BIOGRAPHERS: In the event that things do not work out for our party, feel free to alter the events I’ve described in order to bolster my reputation and standing among Varisians. Should I not survive, it is important that the world believes in Varisians and sees them as more than thieving gypsies.

From the personal log of Archibald Bothwell Ross

It seemed prudent after the poaching of my literary gains to keep notes of my further adventures in order to ensure that all future profits related to my adventures are secured. With that in mind, I’ve recently begun to keep a journal of my exploits. Soon, every dinner table and watering hole will echo the exploits of Lord Bothwell and his capable band of compatriots.

Our most recent travels saw us leave the relative safety of Schloss Caramarc. After learning that our adversaries had a ten day head start on us in traveling to Ascanor Lodge, we left in relative haste. I had to leave behind my luxuriously appointed carriage in favor of old reliable, my feet. In addition, we left behind our new friend the Beast; he will finally join his “father” in their ancestral home as the head of security. The count had few choices after the rather thorough job that the band of necromancers did of slaughtering his staff. The Judge remained as well to play caretaker of the count in his poor health.

Luckily, there was a quick, secret path blazed by the Count’s ancestors in decades past, so we were able to make good time. Unfortunately, the necromancers took the same route. At least we didn’t lose any more time on them. Despite the disuse of the path for some time, it was surprisingly well maintained. Rain forced us to move at a slower pace, though, and eventually No Brows heard music from a decrepit tower and recommends that we stop there for the night. Naturally, we go inside and burn a fortune in spider silk along with the corpses of whomever had been unlucky enough to visit the tower in the past. We killed some spider woman monstrosity that lived in a passage below the tower with ease and weathered the evening there.

The next day, we reached Ascanor Lodge and were nearly killed by a booby-trapped werewolf that some rake had rigged to a shotgun. Luckily my stunning good looks deflected the shot and preserved my rugged jawline. We ran into the gentleman shortly thereafter; he was as dumb as the trap would have indicated. After all, who exactly did he expect to attract by leaving a butchered werewolf carcass tied to a tree in a place where hunters have come explicitly to collect trophy pelts? The rest of the Lodge’s visible staff seemed intelligent, but before we could chat with the Lodge Master, we were dragged into an ill-conceived hunt with the previously mentioned fop and his hunting party. Nothing really came of the hunt other than the fact that the man decided against the advice of the Huntsmaster and my own companions to stay overnight in the woods. Later, one of his men returned to the Lodge and was eventually let in to recount the horrors of the werewolf attack on their camp; this was all after it was determined that he was not infected with lycanthropic disease.

Before all of that excitement ensued, however, we were finally able to meet with the Lodge Master and get the truth about the Necromancers. The head necromancer was named Auren Vrood, and he possessed a standing invitation to the Lodge just as the Count had. The Lodge Master also gave us a detailed history of the packs of werewolves that populated the Woods and how they came to inhabit the region… I won’t bother to record the notes again here as I have taken them already in another document. However, we are able to examine Vrood’s room, and using some of my extraordinary bardic magic, I peer into the past and glimpse Vrood discussing the murder of the head of one of the packs of werewolves (NOTE TO GM: I forget what the exact significance of this was, so rather than make it up and mislead people, perhaps you can fill in the blank here), after which he made a very hasty retreat.

This very morning, I was informed by Otto, budding connoisseur of Varisian women (with fine tastes, I might add), that somehow it escaped my notice that there was a gorgeous Varisian Madame that operates a small bordello on the lodge. Apparently, Vrood held a secret meeting in her quarters, so I will need to visit the room and see what insights we can glean by checking the it’s history. I would also like to ask the staff if they recognize the crest on the belt buckles I pulled from the charred corpses we discovered in the Spider-beast’s den. Hopefully they can be properly buried by their families when they are notified about the remains’ location.

Time is running short this morning, though, so I will have to stop sometime in the next few days to record more of our adventures as they happen.

Judge Embreth Daramid visited the group the day after the successful conclusion of the Trial of the Beast with an offer and a request. The offer was a reward for their successful defense of the the Beast, she invited them to join the Order of the Palantine Eye, a secret society dedicated to defeating the Whispering Way, preferably through non-violent means. Harry was all in favor of it because he wanted to avenge Professor Petros Lorrimer and the rest of the group was generally in favor so it was done.

The request was to assist her in taking the Beast back to his creator, Count Alpon Caromarc and persuading the unstable Count to keep his creation safe in the future. The group agreed to do this with relatively little discussion, probably because they had become somewhat curious about the Count.

Embreth also shared with the group that the Count’s staff, who had visited Lepidstadt’s marketplace very regularly for the last 20 years had failed to come for the last couple of weeks so she wanted assistance if push came to shove. Along the way, she introduced the group to a somewhat nervous young Alchemist named Felix Hofer who had discovered that the guardians of the castle gatehouse were now trolls. This is rarely viewed as a good sign by humans.

The trip to Schloss Caromarc was uneventful but the group discovered upon arrival that Felix was right about the trolls. There followed a rather disjointed battle which featured Lux successfully charging a troll armed with a crossbow across an open field, the discovery that the Beast was a bit of a coward, and Felix attempting to sneak under a door only to discover a Troll with a big club on the other side. That discovery left a bit of a mark on Felix’s forehead. The final act of the skirmish had Lux attempting to leap off a tower and hit a fleeing Troll on the head on the way down. It would have been marvelous if she hadn’t misjudged her timing by a little bit… As it was, she was very fortunate in two ways, first that the Troll didn’t trample her on the way out and second that she wasn’t male as she landed in a very unfortunate way upon her battleax, that might leave a scar as well.

The castle, proper, was breath-taking to look at; a series of beautiful and strongly-constructed buildings propped next to a waterfall, crossing the waterfall at points with delicate stone arches (and no guard rails) leading to a tower at the top of the waterfall.

The second problem was that the Count had a big (actually HUGE) alchemically constructed guard dog on the first bridge that was not allowing anybody to pass. Archie overcame this problem by wearing a uniform from a dead human guard across the bridge. The Beast loved the dog at first sight.

The rest of the adventure featured the group climbing ever higher up the castle, which was deserted and defeating all sort of traps and tricks. Towards the top, the group started encountering animated dead creatures (which brought the Whispering Way to mind) and forced the group to leave the Beast and the Judge behind. At the very top the group found the Count, bound in a wire trap and incapable of speaking.

They also found an abominable over-grown scorpion creature left over from the Shining Crusade. It was nearly completely magic-proof so Archie and Harry could not affect it, Lux tried to defeat it but was grabbed by one of its claws and rendered unconscious by severe grinding. Ottavio got in a couple of good shots that damaged the creature but not severely and he was desperately trying to figure out what to do next when the Beast showed up, having been sent ahead by the Judge. The Beast yelled his battle cry “Friends!” and went berserk. The battle between the Beast (Strength of 65) and the Scorpion-thing (which absorbed 180 points of damage) was short, epic, and brutal and left the Beast on the verge of death from his wounds.

The group freed the Count and he commandeered Harry and Felix to assist him in saving the Beast’s life through manic alchemical surgery.

After the surgery, the Count expressed intense rage at Auren Vrood, the man who led the attack on his castle, tortured the Count, and used the Beast to get the Seasage Effigy. He gave the group a bag of powder to give to Vrood with plenty of water. When asked what it does, he replied, “I don’t know, I’ve never hated anybody enough to find out.” But it should create an intensely painful acid cloud, so the Count advised that the group move away quickly after giving Vrood the powder.

The Judge very grudgingly agreed to become the new Castellan for Schoss Caramarc, mostly because she was afraid of the potential mischief the Count could get into if not properly watched.

From the records of Archibald Bothwell Ross

WHOA. What a crazy day.

So, we were still working for that old Daramid woman who had been a friend of Old Lorrimer in an effort to clear The Beast’s name. We’d cleared him of child killing in Morast, but we still lacked the evidence to clear that hulking monstrosity of any other crimes, so we turned to the only evidence we had: the tools that we’d uncovered in the bog in Morast.

It turned out that the tools had some sort of maker’s mark on them, and after some assistance from my buxom Varisian friends and an encounter with a seedy pawnbroker, we were able to trace their origin to a maker of fine surgeon’s tools that engraved all of his work with the sign of a raven. He was coin operated like most things in this world, and so after a small contribution, he was able to give us the name of the man that had purchased the tools.

This salty rat bastard was a rather large fellow (which coincided with what the bog shovel we uncovered told me when I asked it for its life story) who lived in town and operated a sort of smelly business down by the river. Secure in the knowledge that we knew he was behind all of the Beast framing and skullduggery, we lot decided to break into the place and have a look around. All of us but the fair Paladin Lux, who was too busy shining her armor or averse to some light B&E or some such.

We skulked down to the river like some old pros, only getting harassed once for our armaments and general looks, and when we arrived at the source of the overwhelming stench, we saw a dog assembled from dog parts. This wouldn’t be enough to raid the place, however, so we had to sneak a little closer. Unfortunately, the muzzled dog was too tough to shoot (even with our improvised magically silenced musket), so ol’ Harry levitated the crusty thing up to a smokestack and dumped it in. It made quite a racket, but no one came out to check on things, so we took a closer look. There was a man working in one of the rooms, and there were lots of people in a side room. Upon inspection, all of these people were constructed of body parts and motivated with some sort of alchemical power. This would be enough to clear the Beast for sure, so I told the other guys to keep an eye on things while I called for the cavalry.

I ran back into town and found Lux, who had finished with her exfoliation by then, and so she threw on her armor and we roused the guard, sort of. They were piss drunk and about to attempt to tie the Beast to the the Burning Man and light it up when we arrived and Lux slapped the Captain like he was some common streetwalker. She was able to intimidate him into doing his job(?) with a little help from yours truly, and we took the drunken authorities with us down to the river to help in apprehending this guy and his army of zombie slaves.

This was the point where things went all wrong.

We sent in the drunks first since they were the ones with all of the legal rights to barge in like they owned the place (not because we wanted a few pickled slabs of meat to take a potshot or two… nothing like that), and one of them set off a trapped explosive of some sort or were set upon by some unseen assailant or some such. The result was the important thing, though: the grenade went off and destroyed part of a vat filled with glowing fluid and killed a large part of our guards. I set up a small levee to keep the mystery fluid from scalding us as it had the surviving town guard (whose screams were rather unsightly for men of their station, I might add), and the two remaining guards were instructed to get help and keep an eye on the exit, respectively.

At this point, we opened the other door at the front of the building to try to sneak around our attacker, but our path was blocked with more zombies, which we quickly dispatched. Lux then decided to bring the fight to our enemies before the guard showed up in force, so I sealed the other (first) door with a wall of earth and we had the last guard remain behind while we climbed up a ladder in the second room that we hoped would connect to a walkway in the vat room. (Un)luckily, it did just that, and a dwarf with a gonne was waiting there to shoot at Lux. After some tense moments and a lot of spent black powder, we were fighting as a unit on this wooden catwalk above the vats of gurgling, rank smelling fluid. The battle ended as it had to: Lux fell into the fluid (which turned out to be lye… not so great for her) and narrowly escaped with her life, and the rest of us nearly died, but not before we killed the giant and the dwarf (who were both holdovers from the Whispering Tyrant himself) and uncovered the details of their operation. They’d been stealing bodies for some time and experimenting with them, and they had a vast number of disguises, including one to make the big one look like he was the Beast.

With this evidence in hand, we were more than able to clear the Beast and get our booty (in every sense of the word: thank the gods for Varisian women). Now, how to spend so much platinum in so little time? If only there were a Varisian man with impeccable taste equal to such a task…

Damon Braun accepted the post of sheriff in Ravengro shortly before the rest of the group boarded the stagecoach to Lepidstadt. The group’s goal was to drop off the rest of the books and collect their pay. Lux chose to ride her own horse rather than share the cramped coach with everybody else.

After five bruising days of travel, the coach encountered a Varisian caravan that had stopped by the road. Lux was only able to stop the carriage with great difficulty as the local Chelish prejudices against Varisians was quite strong. Archibald Bothwell aka “Lord Bothwell” to the Varisians had no trouble getting the story from the Caravan Master.

A pretty young girl was missing and night was falling and they desired assistance from the coach passengers. The group immediately volunteered but nobody else would do anything other than offer to protect the caravan while others searched.

The group split up to assist the members of the caravan and found the missing girl accompanied by a large (4-5 feet in diameter) spider. In spite of considerable difficulty in hitting the creature (it kept phasing in and out randomly), the spider succumbed to human efforts to kill it after poisoning several members of the caravan. Harry seemed particularly to use his improved lightning bolt spell and the poison turned out to be sleep-inducing rather than damage causing.

The caravan was MOST grateful for the group’s assistance, giving them a magic dagger and very considerable affection from the trio of young unattached women in the caravan. Lux and Harry declined the latter but Ottavio was able to overcome his distaste for Varisians and Archie was in his element.

The Caravan Master’s wife turned out to be a seer of some renown and she offered to tell the group their fortunes. Much to her surprise, but apparently not to the group’s (based on their reactions), she discovered that the group had been blessed by Pharasma. Such individuals tend to lead short but very interesting lives. The Caravan Master offered to help the group for a while, attempting to curry favor with the notoriously fickle goddess.

The group was able to travel to Lepidstadt with caravan and did not encounter any further troubles. They immediately went to the University and returned the three major books, after assuring themselves that the books would not be used to cause harm. The professor who took the books off their hands was investigating a break-in at the Museum of Dubious Magical Devices which is adjacent to the University grounds.

The only thing that was taken was a particularly ugly but highly enchanted statue (nobody has every figured out what it was supposed to represent) that had been found over a hundred years ago in one of the Whispering Tyrant’s vaults. Nobody knows who made it and nobody knows what it is supposed to do. The crime had apparently been committed by the Beast of Lepidstat, a creation of Count Alpon Caromarc. The Beast had been found in the museum, breaking things, but denied stealing the Sesage Effigy.

However the Beast was wanted for quite a range of other crimes so it was arrested but not charged with stealing the Effigy. The group passed a large hastily thrown-together stack of wood in front of the courthouse that the locals call the “Burning Man.” If found guilty, the Beast will be manacled to it and burned alive. If the Beast is not found guilty, he can light it on fire to celebrate his innocence. All of the locals are shouting “Burn the Beast” at each other.

The last book is delivered to Judge Embreth Daramid, she gives the group payment and asks them about their adventures in Ravengro Ravengro, which they willingly shared. She shared her fears that intelligent creatures that are not given justice tend to come back as ghosts and that she fears the Beast will not get a fair trial, thus creating an enormously powerful ghost that could do considerable damage to the city. She offered group a reward from her own pocket to assist the defense of the Beast as investigators for the Defense.

The group is introduced, in rapid succession to Barrister Gustav Kaple, who is depressed and drunk; and the Beast, who is angry and easily confused.

The Beast is being tried for three crimes:
1. Robbing graves and killing people in Morast
2. Killing children and turning them into wraiths in a now-abandoned village near Morast
3. Burning down a Sanitarium, causing the deaths of 14 people, including the doctor in charge of the Sanitarium
There would be three consecutive days of trials and the first trial would begin the next morning.

Gustav Kaple attempted to defend the Beast the next morning, hindered by a very considerable hangover and a very thick stutter. The results were as predictable as they were quick. Despite the group’s best efforts, the Beast was convicted of the first charge. The only good news was that the Judges (Embraith was one of them) agreed to let the group retry the first case if they got the Beast off on the other two charges.

The group made good use of the time available to them and went to the scene of the second crime. Through good fortune, they found a cave on top of a nearby hill that held four of the six children’s corpses and a wraith, which found itself temporarily dispelled by Lux. They also found bear traps (including one that killed an unfortunate would-be thief) and enough evidence to give them a good chance of clearing the Beast.

Since Morast was so close, they decided to visit the scene of the first crime. With the assistance of some villagers (who accepted donations) and a bit of magic, the group found some tools in a bag for corpse digging. They also found out that the villagers had recovered some odd but valuable-looking tools (the prosecution failed to note this in the trial) which they had sold to a merchant from Lepidstat.

The group returned to Lepidstat and set the Varisians to searching for the tools and the merchant that bought them. The next day the group presented their evidence (Lux was able to offer expert testimony on the wraith) and cleared the Beast of the charge against him. The crowd listening to the trial turned ugly and were dispersed by the city guard on the orders of the Chief Justice.

The group was determined after the events of the last adventure to finish the fight one way or the other. Vesoriana could not survive many letters of her name being written on the monument and without her assistance all would surely be lost.

But there was considerable discussion about how to go about this. For example, should the items belonging to the prisoners be brought along? The group believed the items had powers that could be used against the prisoners but the group also had evidence that the items worked against them as well. Eventually the group decided to bring the items and tackle the Oubliette first (believed to be the lair of the Lopper).

After some misadventures, the group found themselves fighting against the Lopper, a wraith that could make them bleed who had an affinity for attacking the neck. Both sides of the conflict suffered from a considerable amount of bad luck and could not land a blow but eventually the Lopper was dispatched with his own axe by Ottavio.

The dwarf, called the Midgewater Marauder, went down easily by comparison, entranced by the spirit of the wife he murdered long ago.

The group made an interesting discovery on the way to confront the Splatterman. The prison torture room had last been used to torture Warden Hawkran to death. In particular the prisoners sharpened the edge of his copper badge of office and jammed it into his mouth, causing him to bleed to death. The group discovered that the badge had an unusual form of the holy symbol of Pharasma carved on the back of it. Although nobody knew what it meant, they decided to bring the item to Vesoriana.

Much to their surprise, she could hold the badge even though she was incorporeal. An even greater surprise came when Vesoriana was able to repel the spirits of the minor haunts. Vesoriana put geater effort into using the holy synbol and was able to destroy all of the small wandering haunts that had made their lives miserable in the beginning of the adventure. An unpleasant discovery was the Father Charletan had found his voice again and was trying to suborn her. There was some discussion as to what to do but the group could not find a better plan than continuing to gather the bones of the long-dead spirits into Vesoriana’s care.

The group also found out that Vesoriana had been convinced during the riot that her husband alive and could be freed if the guards freed the prisoners. She proved to be so disruptive that the guards were forced to lock her in the crafts room and forgot her once the fire started.

The Splatterman proved to be nasty, in part because he had a pet, an unnamed creature that kept putting the character’s names up on the prison walls, one letter at a time. Whenever the name was complete the character had to survive a Will roll, Lux hated the creature because of her short name. The Splatterman also proved to be a competent spellcaster and was almost a full-fledged ghost. He got stronger every time a character missed a Will roll against his pet. Archie and Ottavio figured out that the best way to destroy the ghost was to bring it out into the open by burning its old spellbook in front of him. This almost worked too well as the ghost used its disrupting touch against Archie with dire effect.

Although the group severely injured the Splatterman, they could not put him away and he proved to be elusive, flitting from one cell to another, while showering the group with spells. Eventually Harry caught the Splatterman off-guard with a blunderbuss full of enchanted shot. Then the Splatterman’s pet slipped its incorporeal leash and savaged the Splatterman’s soul before leaving with a very content burp.

Then came the next challenge, the Splatterman had been caught in the fire and had been severely burned. He managed to drag himself to a small oubliette in the Nevermore section of the prison and floated in the water to sooth his burns. But he was unable to heal himself and died there, his bones sinking into the black water. Harry and Archie cleverly figured out how to get a bone out without getting wet, completing the group’s mission.

The group brought the bone back to Vesoriana under siege from Father Charletan, Lopper, and the Piper. They had grown too powerful since the Warden had ripped from the prison and they were slowly bending Vesoriana to their will. There was nothing the group could do but watch in horror and offer Vesoriana verbal support.

Yet another surprise came in the form of Father Grimburrow, he had had a vision from Pharasma urging him to come to the prison and to show Vesoriana the way to Pharasma’s realm. After taking a last quick drink, Grimburrow stepped into Vesoriana’s image and instantly died. Lux heard a low, strong female voice say, “Come,” and the entire group heard the other ghosts wail in one last protest as Vesoriana followed Grimburrow from the realm of the living, dragging all of the other spirits with her.

The village of Ravengro was shocked by this turn of events and for a couple of moments it looked like the villagers might try to gain revenge for the death of their ancient cleric but he had left a long note telling them what he did and why.

The rest of the month passed peacefully. Kendra replaced the old cranky teacher in Ravengro’s school. Damon was offered the position of Sheriff. Ottavio kept the Loppers axe while Harry disbursed all of the holy symbols collected by Father Charlatan back to their original faiths. The Midgewater Marauder’s hammer was donated to the local foundry and Archie kept the flute.

The final event of the month occurred when a local trapper who lived out of town brought his son to the group and made him tell what he saw 5 weeks ago. A group dressed in black robes, led by a skull-faced man wearing armor made of human bones left the area of the prison, going north. Ottavio noted that the group’s next stop is Lepidstadt, which also happens to be to the north.