Date: 02/21/09

XP Awarded: 2200

Start: Thistletop, about one and a half months after the Swallowtail festival.

As a shadowy claw reaches out of the sarcophogus for Deivon, he jumps back. More shadows emerge from the other sarcophogi, and soon the party is surrounded by wispy creatures with glowing red eyes. Their achingly cold claws reach right through Deivon's armor, sapping him of strength. Gob and Kiria are also weakened by their attacks before the party realizes that magical weapons or spells are the only things that harm them. The battle is complicated by the shadows' tactics of retreating into the walls and sarcophoguses to avoid attack, but Kiria discovers that by toppling the sarcophoguses out of their niches, he can cause the shadows to emerge to attack. Kiria weakens the shadows by firing his magical arrows, and Signore uses his magical throwing dagger that returns to his hand after each throw. Gob's spells further damage the shadows, destroying one, and Deivon's magical sword deals final blows to the others. As the last shadow dissolves into smoky wisps, the group agrees to return to the Sandpoint cathedral for aid from father Zantus, since the group is badly weakened by the strength-draining claws.

The return trip to Sandpoint is quick and uneventful, but Father Zantus doesn't have enough magic to heal the entire party. The group rests in Sandpoint overnight, and by the next morning feels sufficiently rested to make the return trip to Thistletop. Descending back to the crypt, they find it unchanged since they left it. Thoroughly searching the area, Kiria's keen senses detect a secret door hidden behind one of the sarcophoguses.

Opening the secret door cautiously, the adventurers find a pitch-dark tunnel sloping down. A muffled sloshing sound echoes faintly down the passage, and the salty dampness in the air indicates water must be nearby. Descending a dangerously slippery and downward angled staircase, the party finds another stone door. Muscling it open, the flickering torchlight reveals a large chamber that has collapsed into a tide pool. The walls that haven't yet collapsed show detailed carvings of an impressive pile of coins and jewelry. In the shallow depths of the tide pool itself lie the remains of what must have once been an incredible treasury. Shattered urns, crumbled stone chests, and rusted bits of armor and weapons are strewn throughout the ruins of the room. On the far side, deeper in the tidal pool, lies an enormous coral-encrusted helmet sized for a giant, the faceplate bearing an expression of twisted rage and fangs.

Signore cautiously picks his way forward into the shallows of the tidal pool, looking for anything of value left. As he studies the muck by his feet, the enormous helmet suddenly shifts and rotates to face the party. It rises partly out of the pool, and suddenly there is a powerful surge of water as the fearsome helmet lunges across the pool towards Signore. As it reaches him, two enormous claws reach out to pince him, and the adventurers see several powerful sets of insect-like legs emerging from the open bottom of the helmet. Signore is caught in the enormous claw and painfully squeezed, but he manages to wriggle free before the pressure slices him in half. Deivon and Kiria charge forward to attack the crab while Gob stands back to fire at it from the solid footing in the back part of the room. The creature again catches Kiria in his claw, badly wounding him. Signore uses this opportunity to slide around the crab trying to avoid the other claw, as Deivon hammers the creature with powerful blows. Finally with a spray of gore and a shudder, the creature collapses under the party's attacks, just before Kiria has the life squeezed out of him. Kiria uses his magic wand to fix up the worst of the party's wounds.

Searching through the ruined treasury, the party manages to collect a sizeable number of coral-encrusted coins, a handful of small gemstones, and a jade amulet. The far end of the tidal pool seems to dip into an underwater tunnel, but the powerful currents make it too hazardous to navigate. Backtracking to the oversized stack of gold coins in the hallway, the party investigates for a while but cannot figure out what purpose it serves. Instead, they return to the ruined treasury, where Deivon and Kiria hack the enormous crab out of the gold-trimmed helmet and manage to drag it up the slippery stairs, through several levels of the tunnels, and up to the wooden stockade above. Signore ties up the rickety wood-and-rope bridge to make it more secure, and the helmet is carried back to Sandpoint with the party, arriving after sunset.

After a few days of resting, the party finds a buyer for the enormous helmet, and begins to talk about leaving Sandpoint to travel across Varisia. Kiria in particular is interested in going north to Riddleport, to find Shalelu. But that morning, Sheriff Hemlock comes to the party with a worried look on his face, asking to speak with them privately.

He explains that an unusual murder occurred last night at the Sandpoint lumber mill, and he needs help solving this mystery quickly before the town erupts into violence like it almost did several years before when a serial killer last stalked the town. The Sheriff's own men are too green to handle the case, but it also appears that the murderer knows someone from the party. He hands the group a folded note with Signore's name messily scrawled across the outside in dried blood. Sheriff Hemlock also notes that this is the second set of murders in the past few days

The party walks with the Sheriff to the lumbermill and finds a large crowd being held back by nervous looking officers. Inside they find a horribly defaced body hanging from large iron hooks on the wall, with gore spattered everywhere and a lingering rotten smell. Inspecting the tracks in the sawdust, Signore finds that one set of footprints is not only barefooted, but smells of rotten meat. Kiria finds a bloody handaxe embedded in the floor near a gorey logsplitter; on the blade he finds rotten flesh, and the smell is so strong that he runs to the window to noisily get sick into the river below. Gob investigates the body, and finds that the face has been carved away and the lower jaw is missing entirely. A large seven-pointed star has been carved into the man's chest, and when Kiria inspects the body he finds several small wounds that look as if they were made by human-sized claw. The body is recognizeable only by a faded tattoo of a raven on the lower abdomen, which Sheriff Hemlock says was identical to one worn by Banny Harker, one of two mill operators.

Moving downstairs, they find a second horribly mangled body laying amid heaps of bloodstained firewood. Sheriff Hemlock explains that this was Katrine Vinder, who was fed through the rotating saw of the logsplitter. Moving outside to the river pier for fresh air, the party also finds a set of muddy footprints that lead from the end of the pier up to the mill, then climb the outside wall to a window. Kiria crosses the river via one of the bridges and pokes around in the reeds on the other side, and finds a small clearing next to the water with more barefoot tracks. With Signore's help, the party determines that the tracks lead from the river, and back into the river, but never away from the site.

Their investigation of the mill finished, the adventurers go to the Sandpoint garrison to speak to the Sheriff's two prisoners - the father of Katrine, Ven Vinder, and Banny Harker's partner, Ibor Thorn. As soon as Ven spies the adventurers, he throws himself against the iron bars of his cell, screaming curses at the party and calling them jackals, deviants, and worse. Sheriff Hemlock explains that when he went to the Vinder household to explain that Katrine was dead, Ven attacked him and had to be subdued and thrown in this cell to cool off. Kiria examines the man's feet and hands, and notes that he is wearing shoes, and that his hands seem quite normal.

The next cell over holds Ibor Thorn, who looks quite calm in comparison, if a bit in shock. He tells the party that they've been running the mill late at night lately to keep up with demand, and that he discovered the bodies when he arrived at the mill this morning. Other than that, he doesn't have much to tell the investigators.

Also in the basement of the garrison are the three bodies found in an abandoned barn two days ago. Sheriff Hemlock explains that one of his regular patrols along the Lost Coast Road was assaulted by a deranged man near an abandoned barn south of town along the banks of Cougar Creek. The man was obviously sick and insane, his flesh fevered and mouth frothing. The guards subdued him, but when they checked inside the barn they found the mutilated bodies of three men. Although all three bodies were far too disfigured to identify, one of them had a scrap of parchment clenched in its fist, which he gives to the party. The note identifies the three men as notorious con men and swindlers well known to Sheriff Hemlock as local troublemakers. He wasn't particularly surprised at the time to find them murdered - it was only a matter of time before they tried to swindle someone worse than them, after all. But in light of the most recent set of murders, Sheriff Hemlock is convinced there is something worse than revenge afoot. He tells the party that the insane man has been identified as Grayst Sevilla, a local Varisian thug, and has been given over to the care of the Saintly Haven of Respite, a sanatorium south of Sandpoint.

Kiria looks over the bodies, and though a few days worth of decay has set in, he can still plainly see the seven-pointed stars carved into their chests. He also notes the same kinds of wounds that Banny Harker's body had - slashes inflicted by a human-sized claw.

Thinking back to the seven-pointed carved into Banny's chest, Gob remembers spotting a similar rune in the ruins below Sandpoint. He recalls there is an expert on Varisian ruins living in town named Brodert Quink, and the party walks over to his house to speak to him. Brodert becomes much more interested as the seven-pointed rune is described to him, and he explains that Thassilon was a vast empire ruled by powerful wizards in the ancient past - as much as 10,000 years ago. Much current knowledge of Thassilon is little more than conjecture, but it is widely agreed that the seven-pointed star is one of the most important runes of that empire. Called the Sihredron Rune, it signifies not only the seven virtues of rule (generally agreed among scholars to have been wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger, and rest), but also the seven schools of magic recognized by Thassilon (divination, Brodert points out, was not held in high regard by the ancients). Brodert also notes that much of what is known about Thassilon indicates that the rulers were far from virtuous, and that the classic seven mortal sins (greed, lust, pride, gluttony, envy, wrath, and sloth) arose from corruptions of the Thassilonian virtues of rule. In any event, the Sihedron Rune was certainly a symbol of power, one that may well have stood for and symbolized the empire itself. The fact that the killer carved it into the flesh of his victim might point to the fact that the killer is some sort of scholar, though Brodert quickly proclaims his innocence.

Though it is in the afternoon by this time, the party decides to get their horses from the stables and ride down to the sanatorium to see the insane Grayst, taking a few of Sheriff Hemlock's men along and stopping by the barn along the way. The party doesn't find any further details in the barn other than signs of a struggle, and continues on to the sanatorium. Once there, they are turned away in an unfriendly manner by Erin Habe the caretaker. Gob uses a charm spell to secure his help, and they are allowed entry to the spotlessly clean sanatorium to see the almost comatose Grayst Sevilla.

Erin Habe's orderlies open the padded door to the attic room where a very sickly looking man hunches in a corner, quietly sobbing. His skin is very pale and almost gangrenous looking, froth flecks his mouth, and his eyes are a milky white color. As the adventurers enter the room, Grayst's eyes bulge and he speaks a short message apparently to Signore about coming to the Misgivings to meet the pack, then collapses onto the floor with a moan. A moment later the moan rises to a shriek as he leaps up, his arms tearing free of the straightjacket, and lunges at Signore's neck. The orderlies jump back and hustle Erin Habe to safety as the party surrounds the diseased madman and tries to defend Signore from his surprisingly strong blows. In the end, Deivon has to knock him unconscious to subdue him.

Erin Habe begs the party's forgiveness and explains that he knew the man was sick, but he had no idea Grayst would react the way he did when he saw Signore. As one of his orderlies rebinds the madman, the other accompanies the party back to Sandpoint to fetch Father Zantus to try to heal Grayst's affliction.

The next day as the party discusses the events of the previous night, they become aware of a commotion on the street, and travellers entering the Rusty Dragon Inn mutter under their breath about a madman. Not much later, Sheriff Hemlock arrives at the inn and asks to speak with the party. As they walk to the Sandpoint garrison, he explains that his men picked up a local farmer by the name of Grump who ran into town covered in mud and screaming about walking scarecrows. When the party arrives at the cell in which he's being held, Farmer Grump breaks into nervous babbling, frantically chanting a Varisian nursery rhyme about walking scarecrows. Kiria manages to calm him down a bit, and he relates a harrowing story about how the southern farmlands have become plagued by foul walking scarecrows that stalk the night. Farmers have heard screams at night, and caught glimpses of people being chased through fields and over the moors by...things. The next morning when they went to investigate, they found the farms empty. All the farmers knew that the problems were coming from the old Hambley place - "things just ain't been right there for a few days now" - but when a group of the farmers armed with torches and dogs went to the farm yesterday evening, they were attacked by folk that looked like corpses but fed like starving animals. As Farmer Grump tells of the events, he becomes more excited and even yells "They even ate the dogs!"

Sheriff Hemlock takes the adventurers aside and asks the party to investigate - he hopes that the story has been enhanced by the booze he can smell on the farmer's breath, but worries that the moonshine may have actually dulled the man's memories of the horrible massacre, and that the situation is even worse than Grump may know. The sheriff says he's sending some of his men out to warn the farmers and determine more about the extent of the troubles, and Signore mentions that he should send them to Foxglove Manor to warn Aldern Foxglove as well. The party readies their gear and ride their horses out of town south along the Lost Coast Road through a thick fog.

The adventurers ride past fields full of crops ready to be harvested and a few suspicious looking farmers. The Lost Coast Road takes the group through Cougar creek, over the Ashen moor, and through a covered wooden bridge over the Soggy river as the sun sinks lower towards the horizon. Finally, as the party sees ahead the bridge over the Foxglove river, they turn off onto a narrow dirt track passing between towering fields of corn on either side. Ahead looms the darkened Whisperwood, rumored to be home to faeries, pixies, and gnomes. The party comes to a crossroads in the field watched over by a ragged-looking scarecrow mounted on a pole, and decides to continue ahead.

The adventurers reach a small clearing where the path splits, watched over by three more of the scarecrows. As the group discusses which path to go down, two of the scarecrows begin to struggle against the ropes that have lashed them to the wooden poles. As the ropes tear and snap, the creatures shriek and leap towards the party. A short but furious battle follows, and Kiria is paralyzed when one of the creatures rakes him with its filth-encrusted claws. Fortunately he is saved from being eaten alive by a mighty blow from Deivon's sword, slaying the creature.

Continuing down the path, the party comes to a T intersection with two more scarecrows hanging from poles. The adventurers cautiously leaps back when one stirs and moans a feeble plea for help. After cutting the burlap sack loose from the head, the group finds a terrified and battered farmer who was captured from his farmhouse the previous night. Untying the ropes, the adventurers instruct him to flee the area while they continue deeper into the tall cornfields.

At the next intersection the party finds more scarecrows, and once again two tear free of their bindings to attack. The party is able to destroy them quickly, and Signore climbs the wooden pole to view the area from above the stalks of corn gently rustling in the evening breeze. Nearby he spies a barn, and the party sets off in that direction. After one more encounter with a living scarecrow, the adventurers stand in a deathly quiet farmyard between a large barn and a small farmhouse. Cautiously entering the barn, the dim lantern light reveals that one corner of the barn is supported by an enormous stone head protruding from the ground, carved to depict a warrior in a recognizably ancient style helmet. The stench in the barn is horrible, and the dim light reveals piles of gnawed bones of horses and cattle, and what may be human remains as well.

Leaving the barn, the party moves into the small, darkened farmhouse. They barely catch a glimpse of a mutilated corpse swarming with flies, the chest carved with a sihedron rune, before more of the scarecrow-like creatures leap snarling from the dark, led by one with glowing red eyes that wears the tattered remnants of a manservant's uniform. The creatures quickly paralyze Signore and Kiria, and Gob barely manages to drag their limp bodies out of the farmhouse before they are set upon by the obviously ravenous creatures. Deivon is forced into a fighting withdrawal due to the dim lighting, and soon he's surrounded in the farmyard by several of the creatures. Gob frantically uses spell after spell to keep the creatures at bay, but soon he falls to paralysis as well. Things are looking very grim for the adventurers, but Kiria recovers quickly enough to help Deivon kill another before the large warrior is paralyzed himself. Signore recovers from his paralysis just in time to help Kiria to attack the final creature from two directions, getting through his defenses and bringing him down at last. On a leather cord around the creature's neck is an iron key bearing the heraldic symbol a curious flower surrounded by thorns. Inside the farmhouse, Gob finds a piece of parchment with Signore's name scrawled in blood attached to the mutilated body. The adventurers make the trip back to Sandpoint, returning around midnight.

Speaking to Sheriff Hemlock the next morning, the party explains what they found at the Hambley farm, and outline their plan to visit the Foxglove Manor themselves. The sheriff warns them that the place has long had a reputation for being haunted, and to be careful. The horseback journey to the Foxglove river is quick and uneventful, but as the party turns off the Lost Coast Road onto a narrow path paralleling the river, a drizzle begins to fall from the grey sky. A half hour later, the rain has become more heavy and the wind has picked up. The adventurers find a sheltered spot to hitch their horses and continue down the path on foot. The path slowly rises towards the looming sea cliffs as the river falls away into a gorge, the wind whistles through the nettle-covered cliffs, and leafless branches grasp at cloaks. The party rounds a steep corner and spies a sagging manor house hugging the edge of a sheer cliff that drops to the ocean waves hundreds of feet below. In front stands the burnt-out remains of an outbuilding, enclosing a low stone wall encircling a well, and a few sickly-looking ravens circle in the stormy gusts.

The party hurries forward to the shelter of the front porch, and Kiria uses the iron key with the unusual insignia to unlock the door. Inside is a long, high-ceilinged room heavy with the smell of dampness and mildew. Spots of mold stain the floor, walls, and furniture in patches, and the walls are lined with the mounted heads of hunting trophies. The room is dominated by a stuffed creature, a four-meter long beast with the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail fitted with dozens of razor barbs, folded bat-like wings, and a deformed humanoid face. The poorly maintained fur has fallen away in places, allowing the sawdust within to sift out into tiny mounds on the platform below. Deivon catches a momentary whiff of burning hair and flesh, but it's gone as soon as he becomes aware of it. Where the back of the hall narrows into a hallway, a large throw rug partially covers what appears to be an exceptionally large, foul stain of dark-colored mold on the floor.

In the rear of the manor is a large dining hall ringed with stained-glass windows that obscure what would otherwise be a breathtaking view of the Lost Coast. The windows depict various stylized monsters rising out of smoke pouring from an intricate seven-sided box covered in spiky runes, while the rest of the furniture in the room is covered in mold and cobwebs. The adventurers open one of the doors leading from the room and enter a library. Between two chairs, one lying on its side, is a book on the floor face-down, and a brighly colored red and gold scarf is draped over the upright chair. Gob has a fleeting vision of the scarf flying to wrap itself around his neck to choke him, and he catches a glimpse of Aldern Foxglove's rage-filled face before the vision passes. Investigation of the mold-covered books proves they are in too poor condition to do anything with.

Leaving the library, the party enters a lounge filled with mold-covered furniture, where Kiria's keen eyes spot eddies of dust swirling on the floor through the still air. When he goes to investigate, he's overcome by a sudden urge to grab Signore and escape the house. Deivon and Gob run after the other party members out the front door into the clearing in front of the manor house where they've come to a stop, panting for breath. Sitting on the ruins of the burnt-out outbuilding and the low stone well are hundreds if not thousands of disturbingly quiet ravens, covering every square foot. They take to the air, flying in a whirlwind towards the party, and as they approach their rotting wings and eerie silence makes it clear that they are some kind of undead creatures. They peck and claw, drawing blood, but it soon becomes clear that the party's weapons aren't having much of an effect on the swarm, and the party flees back into the manor house where the birds don't follow. Instead they settle back onto the blackened stones of the charred outbuilding.

As Deivon enters the front room, the others see him cringe and cry out as angry red burns cover his arms and face. He explains that he saw the stuffed creature in the room lurch to life, covered in flame, and strike him with its tail. Gob and Signore destroy the stuffed animal as a precaution while Kiria uses his wand of healing to treat some of Deivon's burns. The party continues down a side hall and finds a washroom with an ancient metal washtub, from which comes a strange, furtive scratching sound. When Signore peers inside, an enormous deformed rat covered in tumors and sores leaps to bite at him, shrieking and squeaking in a frenzy. Kiria quickly destroys the creature.

Moving further down the hall, the adventurers come to a moldy but empty dancing parlor, then find a set of stairs descending to the basement. Following them down, they open into a kitchen. As the party explores the filthy area, a low background susurrus rapidly increases in volume accompanied by a wave of rodent squaks. From several large cracks in the basement wall comes pouring hundreds of large deformed rats, twisted with boils and tumors. They swarm to attack the adventurers, who are forced to back up to the staircase to defend themselves. After some time hacking apart wave after wave of the terrifyingly starving rats, the remainder flee back into the wall cracks from which they came.