The Story So Far

General Summary

The PCs attend a festival in the town of Sandpoint, over the course of the day they compete in various games of skill and chance before attending the consecration of the town's new cathedral in the evening. Suddenly they are called upon to repel a goblin assault, which they do successfully. Then they learn that this is unlikely to be the last they hear of the little bastards. Bolstered by a newfound status as local heroes the party quickly becomes involved in the defense of the sleepy little town as it is revealed that Nualia Tobyn, adopted daughter of the late town priest Ezikiel Tobyn, is looking to burn the place to the ground. Forced to undertake a storming of the goblin warren known as Thistletop our unlikely heroes emerge victorious against the mad prophet of a dark god.   With Nualia's defeat the Heroes of Sandpoint cement themselves in the region as its latest and most successful protectors. Thus, when trouble rears its head once more as autumn gives way to winter the Heroes of Sandpoint are called upon once again to investigate, discovering that none other than Aldern Foxglove is the serial killer known as The Skinsaw Man, and he is backed by the shadowy organization known as the Brotherhood of Seven as well as a so called Skinsaw Cult. All indications point to the city of Magnimar as the next logical place to look for trouble.   The big city proves to be just as full of intrigue and adventure as the heroes suspected, eventually rooting out the masterminds behind the brutal skinsaw murders, Justice Ironbriar, High Priest of the Cult of Father Skinsaw, an aspect of Bhaal, and his mysterious manipulator, the Lamia Matriarch Xanesha, who displayed clear ties to Ancient Thassilon. With evidence of a shadowy organization opperating above the level of the Brotherhood of Seven and the Skinsawmen, the heroes must set out for distant Fort Rannick out on the wild frontier. And what's more they discover that one of their allies, Sheila the Ranger, may already be in mortal peril.  

Arrival Vignettes:

  Silver really is just a raccoon. Well maybe "just" is overstating things slightly. He hails from the north having grown up in Lurkwood before a happenstance exposure to a strange viscous green liquid expanded his mind and body until he was very much like a small furry human, at least on the outside. He became a guardian of the forest, punishing those humans and other two-legged intruders who dared to perpetrate wanton cruelty against his animal brethren. Eventually, chasing his quarry south, he found a temporary home in the pirate city of Riddleport where he lingered for some time around the fringes of its underworld before continuing on into the Churlwood and the region of the Lost Coast, eventually arriving in the outskirts of the sleepy little town of Sandpoint. Scouting the place at night he learned that there would soon be a Festival, and wishing to learn more about these humans, who seemed somehow different, he stole a cloak and decided that he would attend   A Riddleport pirate born and raised, on the poop deck is where Lemmy spent most of his days. Chilling out, sailing, relaxing all cool, he shreds to the max when there's nothing to do. Then a couple guys who were up to no good ran Lemmy right out of his hood. He got in one little fight and decided to bounce. The captain said "we weigh anchor for Sandpoint in the morning." The ship pulled up to the dock about seven or eight and Sir Jasper the Customs Master asked "anything to declare?" Lemmy said "nah, homie, just here to party. Pay no mind to Shreddy, she's just a guitar."   Jornabryn Jorrailian is very serious about his vows to seek out and purge evil from the world. Traveling from his monastery far away in the mountains of the east he makes a pilgrimage to Varisia with the goal of meeting Prioress Sable Sorn and learning from her the location of formidable foes against which to test his martial prowess. Once he arrived in Sandpoint, about a week ago, he went straight to Sorn and demanded she tell him where he could find enemies to defeat. The wise old monk told him that the answers to such questions lay within his own heart.   Inconnue Desconoci, a half-elf with a lute and a letter of introduction to Alistair Zanthus, arrived in Sandpoint a day before the festival and presented himself at the Cathedral. After a brief chat with a rather harried Father Zanthus, Inconnue was given the rest of the day off and told to enjoy the Swallowtail Release on the morrow.   Agamon Daeo, a snow leopard pelted tabaxi ranger arrived in Sandpoint the day of the Swallowtail Festival. As he approached the town, he met a man named Lenner Hask who sold him a pair of sausages in a bun for a silver piece. The man insisted he was cutting his own throat to let such dear pastries go for so little, but he liked the pattern of Agamon's fur. It was only later that Agamon learned what the true cost of buying from Hask was, as he spent the entire morning with a queasy stomach from consuming whatever "meat" the sausage was made out of.  

The Swallowtail Festival

  The town is packed with citizens, both regular residents of the town and farmers from the surrounding countryside, all eager to enjoy the festival and see the consecration of the new cathedral which has been under construction for the last several years.  

The Commencement Ceremony and Opening Speeches

  In the square in front of the new cathedral a stage is set up for three of the town's leaders to deliver some opening remarks before the festival starts in earnest. At the end of Mayor Kendra Devrin's speech, Silver said he was going to burn the place down. He was lucky that no one could tell who said it, because this comment did not go over well, and Sheriff Belor Hemlock was required to restore order to the crowd, calling for a moment of silence to remember those lost in the fire that claimed the old chapel and in the months before. There was then some brief confusion as the next speaker Lonjiku Kaijitsu was nowhere to be found. Ever the shameless self-promoter the local theater owner, Cyrus Dorak's, happily jumped up to fill time talking about his offerings before, finally Father Alistair Zanthus started the Festival with a brief benediction to Desna and by striking a thunderstone against the facade of the new cathedral.  

Morning Games

  The crowd troops down to the village green where several contests are held: first a caber toss, then an archery contest, followed by a pig wrangling, and last a tug of war tournament. The caber toss boasted the smallest pool of contestants for the day, but was eventually won by Inconnue with a deft thrust of the hips earning him a potion of giant's strength. Next every farmer with a bow, so every farmer, stepped up to the line to put their skills on display, and it turns out that Sandpoint boasts some pretty incredible archers, leaving Agamon and Silver middle of the pack and far out of reach of the arrow of slaying. Agamon and Inconnue end up joining forces to split the prize for the pig wrangling between themselves on the side. Their plan is successful as far as pig wrangling, but then they learn to their horror that the gloves of spider climbing they stood to win don't work if they aren't worn together. Then all of the soon to be Heroes just by random happen stance ended up on the same team for the tug of war. It could have gone better, but the enchanted suit brushes they were given as a consolation prize greatly softened the blow, as not being covered in mud for the rest of the day was nice.   The main festival crowd then headed for the market square in Sandpoint's Riverside district for some lunch provided by Sandpoint's half dozen inns and taverns. On the way, the crowd passed by a gaggle of children playing hopscotch in an alley and Agamon noticed them singing a rather mean rhyme about the local smith, Das Korvut.  

Lunch

  When the crowd arrives in the market square they are treated to the tantalizing sights and smells of many tables piled high with food. Mayor Devrin announces the contestants in this year's Cookoff. They are: Ameiko Kaijitsu and Bethana Hoarfoot of the Rusty Dragon with their Curry Spiced Snapper; Georgie Quinn and Nora, a Varisian Hagfish, of the Hagfish with their Cheesy Shrimp and Grits; Garridan Viskali of the White Deer with his peppercorn venison and sweet potato hash; and Yayi Risa of Risa's Place with her Vistani Goulash.   Before the food can be served however another thunderstone clap rings out over the town. Father Zanthus proceeds down from the cathedral steps followed by a pair of acolytes dragging hand carts whose contents are piled high and covered with canvas tarps. Father Zanthus delivers a brief sermon on The Parable of the Blind Child, a story sacred to those of the Desnan faith and around which the Festival of the Swallowtail is based. At the end of this sermon Father Zanthus leads the town in prayer before the acolytes uncover the contents of their carts, leading to a swirling storm of butterflies which spiral up and out to fill the town with the rich blue sparkle of their wings.   During the lunch Agamon takes a moment to speak with Sheriff Hemlock about a tense exchange between him and Garridan Viskali, learning that the proprietor of the White Deer and the town sheriff are actually brothers, with very different ideas about how to honor their proud Shoanti heritage. Lemmy inserts himself into a similar exchange between a mustachioed man and the venerable Yayi Risa. The old gypsy woman treats the minotaur like a beloved grandchild while spitting curses at a progressively angrier Jybal Vhisk.   The cook off is a landslide victory, yet again, for Ameiko, Bethana, and the Rusty Dragon. Food and dishes are cleared away as announcements are made that a drinking contest will soon begin, while those that aren't interested can head to the Uptown Square to see Cyrus Dorak's latest play, featuring Magnimarian Deva Cyleen Dyon. Barrels of mead, cider, and ale are rolled into the Riverside Square, while most families with small children clear out.  

Afternoon Entertainment

  A game of cards is started up at a side table while the drinks are passed around and contest buy-ins are collected. Silver ends up winning the drinking contest by being the last one standing, even if he did have to stand on a table to be seen. Agamon and Inconnue further aggravate the sczarni by not letting them cheat at cards. Lemmy, having bombed out of the drinking contest rather early, not being used to drinking mildly alcoholic fizzy drinks instead of strong grog like a real sailor, decides to go heckle the theatre performers, while Silver goes to steal back the money that was fraudulently won before Agamon and Incon called out the cheating. Jornabryn Jorrailian finds himself rather disgusted with both the gambling and the drinking, preferring to guard his coin and treat his body as a temple.   As the various entertainment options wrap up the crowd begins to reconvene in the Uptown Square to observe the consecration ritual reach completion before the evening bonfire down at the beach. The crowd is even larger and more tightly packed now that the fisherfolk have returned with their day's haul and there is some brief confusion as prize catches are lugged through town to be judged for the fishing contest.   Finally, Father Zanthus ascends the stage and calls the crowd to order with a third thunderstone. However, it is quickly apparent that something is very wrong as screams and cries begin to erupt all over Sandpoint, and a creepy off-key singing begins to rise over the town.    

The Goblin Raid

  The assault on the town is poorly organized and even more poorly lead. The goblins quickly fall to stealing food and breaking windows, and due to the quick reactions of Agamon, Inconnue, JoJo, Lemmy, and Sliver, multiple waves are driven out of the Uptown Square with minimal losses on the part of the Sandpoint citizenry. Courageous action is also taken by Sheriff Hemlock and the town guard, pursuing the routed goblin forces down into the lower districts. The priests of Sandpoint, exhausted from a day spent communing with their deities and preparing to consecrate the new cathedral hurry out to provide what aid they can to the wounded before frantic cries for help draw everybody's attention to the North Gate.   Responding quickly the five adventurers race north to find a few surviving goblin stragglers fleeing over the ramparts as a mounted champion of the little green menaces faces down a large hunting hound while its master cowers behind a rain barrel. The goblin slays the dog with a stroke of his horsechopper, a halberd cobbled together from a mostly straight tree limb and a ruined cast iron skillet. Racing to the aid of the citizen the quintet of heroes quickly dispatches the goblin rider, with Lemmy bisecting his mount in a single mighty swing much as he had done to the hunting dog moments earlier.   With this the remaining goblins, watching from relative safety atop the North Gate, turn and flee, having lost all will to fight. The citizen turns out to be Lord Aldern Foxglove of Magnimar. He is effusively thankful to his rescuers, particularly the mighty and musical Lemmy. As he begins to fawn over the minotaur, Sheriff Hemlock marches his guardsmen up the road from town with several of the more martially minded citizens in tow. All have weapons black with goblin blood and faces smeared with soot, grime, and less pleasant things.   Mayor Devrin immediately begins assuring Aldern that things such as this never happen in Sandpoint and hopes that he won't let it dampen his enthusiasm to return to the region. Ameiko cleans her sword while sizing the heroes up. Sheriff Hemlock declares that the raid appears to have been thwarted, with only relatively little damage, although cleanup will be tedious. Telling Hemlock that such things will wait until morning, Ameiko says she'll break out the strong stuff, with the first round being on the house, as well as offering Sandpoint's saviors free room and board for a week as thanks.   It is clear that the adventurers' status as local heroes is already beginning to spread, and by the time the growing crowd reaches the doors of the Rusty Dragon several people have already stated their intentions to make sure none of the five pay for their own drinks tonight. Lemmy begins to shred on his guitar between drinks and the atmosphere in the Dragon returns to one of festival and frivolity for a few hours.  

The First Night

  Just as the party in the Rusty Dragon is beginning to wind down for the night and the last round of drinks are consumed, shrill cries begin to be heard over the buzz of the common room. They grow closer and everybody piles out into the street to investigate. They find Anise Barrett running towards the Rusty Dragon carrying one young child in her arms and pulling a slightly older child along by his hand. Hyperventilating and hysterical she eventually holds her older child's hands out for all to see. His arms are covered in bites delivered by a hungry goblin.   Learning that her husband Albrect Barrett is still in their home where the attack took place, the heroes raced off to find a dark and still cottage a few hundred yards away through the streets and alleys of Sandpoint. Moving swiftly inside the party discovered Albrect just as he was mortally wounded by the foul goblin that had broken into the crawl space underneath the cottage. The party acted swiftly to save Albrect's life and dispatch the goblin.   As the crowd from the Rusty Dragon trickles in, and the Barretts are tearfully reunited, the Sandpoint Guard, led by Sheriff Hemlock arrive on scene. At the urging of the party Sheriff Hemlock assigns his men to go house to house and search for any other goblins that may not have fled the town. The sheriff himself asks the party to accompany him up to the cathedral to investigate another disturbance that was brought to his attention by Father Zanthus.   Reaching the uptown square, the party sees Father Zanthus standing in the light of a lantern. He explains that one of the mausoleums in the town boneyard had been disturbed, and he fears that goblins may be lurking within. When the Heroes went to investigate, they found the mausoleum occupied, but not by goblins. Three skeletons came shambling out of the shadowy crypt but were dispatched without difficulty.   Inside it was learned that Father Ezikiel Tobyn's remains had been stolen.   It was discovered later that this was done in order that his adopted daughter Nualia could perform a dark ritual to Lamashtu with them, beginning her transition to fiendhood. Nualia's lieutenant and lover Tsuto Kaijitsu had been assigned to retrieve the remains, organizing the first raid as both a probing attack and a diversion. He had left the skeletons using a cloak of useful items to sow further fear and chaos should any townsfolk notice the theft and investigate.   In order to secure his way into town Tsuto blackmailed his father, Lonjiku Kaijitsu, into providing the ladder his squad used to scale the wall and retrieve the remains. Unable to bear the shame Lonjiku hid in his home for several days until he was contacted by his blackmailer again, agreeing to meet secretly in the Glassworks at night. Both men went to the meeting intending to kill each other.  

The Second Day

  Early the next morning, just as the sun begins to lighten the sky over Sandpoint, raised voices speaking a foreign tongue are heard in the Rusty Dragon. Investigating, the heroes witness a tense exchange between Ameiko and Lonjiku which quickly escalates into the grappling match that ends when Ameiko strikes Lonjiku across the face with her serving ladle. With a final insult Lonjiku leaves and the party pretends not to have noticed the confrontation. Quickly, eating breakfast the Heroes of Sandpoint learn of a town meeting that is going to be held in the town hall this morning.   Seeing to a quick errand before the gathering Lemmy swings by Ven Vinder's General Store to pick up some lanterns and oil. While there he meets the enchanting and provocative Shaylis Vinder. She and her sister Katrine are clearly the apples of their father's eye, but they are unhappy with how difficult their father makes it for them to date. According to Shaylis, Katrine sneaks out to the lumbermill to tryst with one of the managers Benny Harker, but Shaylis herself can hardly ever leave the store.   Taking advantage of having distracted Lemmy, Agamon attempts to re-approach Das Korvut at the Red Dog Smithy about the mysterious figure of the Chopper. Treating the subject more tactfully than Lemmy did the day of the festival, Agamon learns about an unfortunate patch of recent Sandpoint history, where a month-long murder spree shook the community before their beloved church was consumed in a terrible conflagration that swept most of the buildings off of Sandpoint's uptown rise. Both Das' wife and daughter were killed fairly early on in the rampage which came to be known as The Late Unpleasantness. Sharing the story of the destruction of his own home Crying Leaf at the hands of orc and gnoll raiders, Agamon builds some rapport with the hermit smith who pours a drink for them both and then tosses the tabaxi out on his ear.   Catching up with their new fellows, Lemmy and Agamon, as well as most of Sandpoint's adult citizens pack into the town hall to discuss how they should deal with the aggression of the goblins. Mayor Devrin officially approves the deputation and compensation of the Heroes of Sandpoint as well as extending the town's deepest gratitude for their quick and competent response. The Scarnetti and Vandelmar families both pledge aid to their fellow citizens, Titus much more begrudgingly and sparingly than Ephram. The Devrins and the Kaijitsus go unrepresented, much to the consternation of many townsfolk, but for the moment Ameiko avoids being forced to speak for her family.   The morning is spent collecting goblin bodies and repairing the various harms caused by the raid. Inconnue spots several red wheelbarrows all apparently owned by Sandpoint's garbage man, Gobby. The stacked goblin bodies are thrown in the wheelbarrows and taken down to a large pyre on the beach to be burned. There Inconnue comes across Madam Mvashti who performs a harrowing for him and the Heroes of Sandpoint as a group.   Later in the afternoon, sudden chaos consumes the harbor as a reefclaw snatches a young boy out of a small boat and the fisherfolk of Sandpoint try desperately to save him. With the timely aid of the Heroes the boy is rescued and the monstrosity dispatched. As an industrious calm returns to the riverside, word arrives that Sheila Adsana has taken lodgings at the Rusty Dragon with grim news from Mosswood. A second town meeting is set for sunset.   That night at the town meeting, as a point of order, Ameiko is compelled by the body of the citizenry to speak publicly on behalf of the Kaijitsus and Mayor Devrin is asked why her cousin won't make time to step away from the Two Knight Brewery and help address the crisis. Mayor Devrin says that she will speak for her family and the office of Mayor. Titus was unhappy but eventually subsided and with small town politics overcome for the moment Sheila gave her report.   The goblins of the region are in uproar. Clearly some powerful leader has begun uniting them for a nefarious purpose. Unknown at the time, this was later revealed to be the work of Nualia and her band of miscreants. But, using knowledge that was available at the time, it was decided that Sheriff Hemlock would set out for Magnimar to recruit able arms men to strengthen the Sandpoint garrison. Lord Aldern Foxglove penned a letter of introduction to the Magnimarian official Justice Ironbriar hoping to expedite the Sheriff's endeavors. Sheila will spend the next few days on short patrol, doing close recognizance and drawing many of Sandpoint's most isolated citizens into the fold.   Sheriff Hemlock tells the Heroes that he is leaving them in charge for a few days, asking them to maintain law and order, as well as projecting a calming public presence in his absence. He suggests that the Heroes might actually do this most effectively by patronizing local taverns and pubs, including the local brothel, the Pixie's Kitten. The Sheriff hasn't been gone two hours when his words are proven prophetic.   A breathless sailor finds the Heroes and directs them to the Fatman's Feedbag. Apparently, a local con man named Mortimer Tarch attempted to swindle Gobby the Garbage man and the resulting argument had devolved into the full-blown tavern brawl. With a feral yowl Agamon freezes the chaos into a crystalline moment and his fearsome glare caused combatants to avert their gazes and discard their weapons. This leads to a tense confrontation with local crime boss Jybal Vhisk and his gang, that is eventually resolved with only spilled drink, but represents an insult the sczarni won't lightly forget.  

The Third Day

  Armed with their new status as deputies in charge, as well as their pay collected in advance, the Heroes visit Savanah's Armory to expand their arsenal. On the way, Lemmy is caught by Shaylis who explains that her father will be busy all morning dealing with stocking up for a potential siege of the town and she is afraid of dying without knowing love. The two run off for a tryst in the basement of the General Store. They are suddenly interrupted when Ven, having forgotten his ledger comes stomping down the stairs. Lemmy, thinking fast and fabricating a, frankly ridiculous, story about searching for a lurking goblin that Shaylis thought she had seen desperately tries to offer an innocent explanation for his presence in the basement. Ven, having become fond of Lemmy during his previous visit, and wanting to believe the best about Sandpoint's newest lawmen, accepted that nothing untoward was taking place.   As Lemmy extricates himself and hurries back to the armory, he remembers the positively smoldering look that Shaylis gave him as the door swung shut behind him. Savanah's Armory is a well-stocked adventurer's trading post. Savanah herself is a skilled artisan, and Lemmy purchases a Savanah Special, a suit of black enameled scales slashed with bronze. Having nearly cleaned out Savanah's stock of healing potions, and collecting several sets of climbing gear, the Heroes of Sandpoint decide it's time to deal with a shadow that they had acquired recently.   They trap the sczarni lookout, Gaia Acari, in an alley and pump her for information, learning that the sczarni have set themselves firmly against the Heroes, but that they also had multiple irons in the fire before recent events unfolded. Most of Jybal's designs center on the local brothel, the Pixie's Kitten, generally consisting of plots that attempt to muscle in on the brothel's profits. Gaia has been working with Sheriff Hemlock to try and bring Jybal down, but she worries that Jybal might be starting to suspect her.   Instructing Gaia to contact them if the situation changes the Heroes turn to their plans for the day, they check the town notice board for any help wanted ads, finding two. One a contract on some harpies east of town and another for a supply of healing herbs for Hanah Vellrin. The heroes decide they want to investigate the Late Unpleasantness more closely and in this case that means exploring the Chopper's Cabin on Chopper's Isle, a coastal outcropping just north west of town which houses a large song bird population and probably has some of the herbs they're looking for anyway. Navigating the sheer cliff where a set of stairs used to be, the Heroes encounter a twisted elemental and the Chopper's shade in the nexus of dark energy that is trapped in the small cabin and the profane shrine concealed beneath it. Returning to town the Heroes seek aid and advice from Father Zanthus about removing the malign influence trapped on the island.   Inspired by the beautiful views visible from Chopper's Isle while traveling back and forth and, remembering the magnificent spyglasses some of his fellow sailors boasted, Lemmy finds his way to Sandpoint's town scribe and surveyor's office, The Way North. There he enters into a contract with Chask Haladan, who agrees to lease him a spyglass in exchange for regular and exclusive rights to publish Lemmy's escapades. While Lemmy is once again distracted, Agamon slips off with Inconnue to report the Heroes’ victory over the dark imprint of the Chopper's soul. Das expresses his gratitude and shares a stiff drink with the Tabaxi as well as promising to reforge his blade for him using an enchanted smithing hammer.   That evening the Heroes wind their way through Sandpoint's Riverside district to a heavy door with a vision slot. Knocking the Heroes are welcomed into the Pixie's Kitten, where they meet Madam Kaye and one of her bouncers. Declining to check their weapons the Heroes have a modestly productive conversation with Kaye, about her situation with Sheriff Hemlock and the Pixie's future in Sandpoint, before passing on the delights of the Kitten and returning to their lodgings at the Rusty Dragon.  

The Fourth Day

  As dawn breaks over Sandpoint, farmers from near and distant farmsteads begin to arrive, some from the close lying farms with wagon loads of goods for market day, some from more isolated claims with their families. Mayor Devrin takes charge of finding lodgings for the women and children while directing the men towards the Heroes in their roles as acting deputies. The heroes lean heavily on the regular guard to organize the volunteers, becoming close with Philip, a relatively green member of the Sandpoint guard with a good head on his shoulders. Sending the volunteers off to get equipped from the town's arsenal, the Heroes conscript Phil and begin moving away from the town green towards the north gate to follow up on various rumors they have learned. As they are leaving the village green, they spot a peculiar man and as deputies feel it is their duty to ask him his business. They learn that he is Erin Habe, a local madhouse keeper.   The Heroes inquiries with Dr. Habe are cut short when Mayor Devrin and a panicking aid stagger out of the nearby Town Hall coughing and gagging and the heroes are forced to deal with another offshoot of the goblin race, the goblin snake. Quick thinking by Lemmy leads to the implementation of Harpy's Musk and a pell-mell sprint through the streets, causing a brief panic, leads to the defeat of the monster in the town cesspit. By the time the party returns Philip has calmed the crowd and seen to the mayor and her secretary. Agamon takes the opportunity to suggest to the mayor that perhaps Das Korvut is not being utilized by the town to his fullest potential in the face of the goblin threat.   Lemmy was pushing hard for a visit to Two Knight Brewery, and for once Agamon agreed, wishing to inform another of the survivors of the Chopper's victims about the destruction of his shade. Inconnue deftly handles the social situation with tact and grace and at no point does the voice of the narrator break into the scene, nor even if such a thing might have been necessary would any phrase approximating "that's my bad" have been mentioned. A sampling of the brewery's offerings provides another chance for Phil to show his quality, demonstrating a deep understanding of the brewing process and what makes a tasty beer.   Shortly before midday, while patrolling Sandpoint, the Heroes stumble upon Tundarok Academy at recess. The kindly headmaster Isacc Gandthus is happy to chat with the heroes while keeping one eye on his charges. At the mention of his basement laboratory, Isacc perks up and offers the Heroes a guided tour this evening after lessons have ended. While Inconnue and Agamon are talking to Isacc, Shaylis approaches Lemmy, playing with the children. She soon leaves in a huff when it becomes clear that Lemmy isn't going to sneak off with her again. Accepting the headmaster's offer, the heroes decide that they feel like stretching their legs and will follow up on the bounty placed on some harpies that are supposedly occupying the Three Cormorants, a cluster of coastal mountains just a few hours northeast of town.   On their journey out to the observation point the Heroes run across a Varisian Caravan rolling south on the Lost Coast Road. The nomads have no news to speak of but they seemed to be very intent on their journey, not even pausing to talk. The Heroes spend several hours observing the Cormorants but have no luck spotting any harpies, although they do have an encounter with a young forest spirit, a dryad of an oak that seemed to be about 50 years old or so. The dryad confirmed that harpies do often hunt, eat, and kill goblins in her wood, usually in that order. The party uses the dryad's intellectus of all the plants within 100 yards of her tree to easily collect the remaining plants for Hanah.   Returning to town right around sunset the Heroes run across Aldern Foxglove attempting to do business with Davian Horst the owner of the Goblin Squash Stables. The nobleman appears to be offering a convoluted scheme of lending and credit that will certainly lead to the enrichment of both himself and the stable master. Horst seems to be buying none of it insisting he only offers stabling and animals for purchase, cash due at time of delivery. The grizzled old tradesman seems close to striking the foppish buffoon when Inconnue and Agamon swoop between them.   Agamon, recognizing a brother of the wilderness, makes a secret sign of greeting and instantly the sour look on Horst's face is replaced by a welcoming smile. The two rangers exchange news and stories, learning that the massacre of Crying Leaf shaped both of their lives. Inconnue and Lemmy steer Foxglove away from the stable inquiring after his plans and dealings. They learn that Aldern is attempting to restore his ancestral family seat, which due to its unfortunate local reputation is proving to be more difficult, more expensive, and more time consuming than he could hope. The heroes offer their services, but Aldern insists on his own capabilities, as well as alluding to commercial and political connections more than sufficient to his needs.   When the offer is repeated, Aldern seems to lose all interest in that subject of conversation, instead turning to Lemmy and renewing his pledge of admiration and begging Lemmy and his companions to accompany Aldern on a boar hunt in the morning. He explains that he will hire mounts and has even secured the services of a local guide to the Tickwood, one Jonah Mortwell. Lemmy throws an arm around Foxglove’s shoulders and steers him towards the Rusty Dragon, signing his jacket along the way, and assures him during a night of drinking that the Heroes will think about making time to go on a hunt, which Aldern clearly interprets as confirmation that he should make the arrangements. Lemmy, ever the oblivious drunk, learns of a young priestess named Gina up at the Cathedral and vows to put the moves on her in the morning.   Breaking off from Lemmy and Aldern, Inconnue meets up with Agamon and the two of them keep their appointment with Isacc, touring his combination arcane laboratory and trophy room cataloguing his bygone adventuring days. Isacc is clearly a sharp analytical mind and eagerly discusses the minutia of magical theory, often wandering off onto tangents about practical experiments that were prompted by the crackpot theories of local Thassilonian scholar Brodie Quinn. Isacc makes sure that Inconnue and Agamon know his door is always open as the two finish their tour and decide to take a quick patrol around the darkening streets.   Agamon steers the patrol towards the Feedbag and tells Inconnue to wait outside. Silver, who picked up his comrades’ patrol, sneaks up to a side door and listens to an interesting conversation between Agamon and Jybal. The tabaxi declares his proofs of faith to a stunned Jybal placing the tabaxi squarely in the untouchable category. The crime-boss quickly recovers and his irritation is plain that a member of the family would so extensively interfere in his plots. He quickly informs Agamon of how to stay out of his way in the future, necessarily disclosing myriad details of his operations assets and dispositions. Armed with this information Agamon leaves, collecting Inconnue and Silver, so that everybody can prepare for an expedition out to the Birdcrunchers village in the morning.  

The Fifth Day

  In the morning bright and early Agamon travels to the Red Dog Smithy. Das gives him a warm if still curmudgeonly greeting, and presents the tabaxi with his sword, now with a line of runes wrought down the rib of the blade. Das also tells Agamon that the mayor has contracted him for as many weapons as he can churn out, and that he realizes he can put his obsession with work towards getting the town through this crisis.   On the way out of town to pay a call on the bird cruncher goblins, the only tribe within a single day's journey of Sandpoint, the Heroes drop off their bundles of herbs to Hanah and collect Phil the guardsman and Gina the acolyte of Shelyn. Inconnue cuts Phil in on a taste of the payout from the herb collecting, since Phil did help some. They also pass Aldern Foxglove and his attendant waiting with several horses, clearly eager to get started on a day hunt for boar in the Tickwood. Lemmy insists to Aldern that he never agreed to anything and that the nobleman had misunderstood, while also hurrying out of conversational range.   Using their climbing gear the party made its way into the rough boulders at the edge of the devil's platter, and in the middle of the morning came to the mouth of the box canyon that the Birdcruncher goblins once called home. The party discovers an eminent ecological disaster brewing in the abandoned settlement. A carrion storm was approaching critical mass, poised to spread a plague of undeath over the region. But acting swiftly and decisively the Heroes charged in and with the help of sister Gina's goddess destroyed every trace of the corrupted wildlife.   Taking quick stock of the scene, the party found goblin communications in the form of pictograms. They deduced that the Birdcruncher goblins had been largely against unifying behind the new boss, but their chief had participated in the raid. He had been the mounted champion that the Heroes slew to save Aldern. With his death, the leaderless tribe was betrayed by their fellow goblins and raided. The attackers left the dead goblins where they lay and their flesh, slain by treachery, had corrupted the scavengers that fed on it. Searching the largest pile of furs in the surrounding caves the party comes up with several precious stones and begin piling the bodies for burning.   Returning to town that evening, Sister Gina and Phil both insist that they need to go report to their respective hierarchies about the averted disaster. The Heroes decide to follow up on one more rumor as well as turning their loot into coin. It turns out that Moishe Kreck, the local jeweler does indeed leave all of his security devices wide open, trusting in a team of bruisers to dissuade any funny business. The party exchanges gems for gold and as they are leaving the shop they are hailed by a breathless and nearly desperate Bethana, the maid/barkeep at the Rusty Dragon.   All in a rush Bethana explains that Ameiko has been missing for more than a day, judging from the undisturbed bed in her room at the tavern. The halfling maid also produces a letter written in Tian, but helpfully translated by her using Amieko's tutelage in the strange tongue. The letter purports to be a message from Ameiko's estranged half-brother Tsuto Kaijitsu, entreating her to come meet with him in secret at the family glassworks last night. Without a moment's delay the heroes head off to investigate the factory.   Arriving the heroes find the building quiet except for the low rumble of the furnace. A quick circuit around the building reveals that all the curtains have been drawn across the windows. A scamper by Agamon using the gloves of spider climb onto the roof leads to a horrifying discovery; Goblins are loose inside the glassworks and they have already killed and dismembered the live-in work force. In a place of special prominence is the corpse of Lonjiku Kaijitsu, entombed in a throne of thick runny sheets of glass.   Using superior skill and tactics, the Heroes quickly avenge the goblins victims and set about searching for Tsuto and Ameiko. They discover the latter beaten, bruised, and hogtied in a storage closet in the basement. Shortly thereafter Tsuto is woken from a drunken stupor in the office down the hall and following a brief altercation the half-elf flees for his life down a recently unearthed smuggling tunnel that runs through the bedrock under Sandpoint.   Quickly regrouping the Heroes, with Ameiko in tow pursue their quarry into the tunnel, but Tsuto attempts to lay an ambush, nearly succeeding due to Ameiko's inability to kill her half-brother and a pair of strange abominations that attack from the darkness at Tsuto's command. Dispatching the monk and his grotesque minions the heroes stumble upon a new mystery; there appears to be an ancient Thassilonian compound of some kind nestled quietly beneath the stones of Sandpoint.  

The Delving of the Catacombs of Wrath

  Beneath Sandpoint lies a Thassilonian compound loyal to Xin-Bhakrakhan the Realm of Wrath, one of seven ancient Thassilonian states. In the Catacombs of Wrath, the Heroes of Sandpoint fought the vile shock troops of that bygone nation, the Sinspawn. They also discovered the fate of the goblin hero Korvus. Having found the secret entrance in the cliffside caves north of Sandpoint, Korvus discovered the smuggling tunnel and the Catacombs of Wrath. Drawn by the aura of his mother's cathedral of hate, Korvus found the font of Lamashtu filled with the putrid waters of the goddess, and drinking from the unholy altar mutated into the monster the heroes faced in the Thassilonian ruin.   Unable to breach the doors of that dark cathedral the Heroes decided to rest in the levitation chamber they discovered in the catacombs before heading back above to report their findings to the authorities of Sandpoint. Though they had strange and disturbing dreams in the weightless darkness of the perfectly spherical space, Silver didn't mind because he got to keep the corpse of a dead raven in which a nice supply of maggots was growing.  

Sheriff Hemlock Returns

  Arising from the hidden Thassilonian ruin, the heroes find the town abuzz with news of the Sheriff's return with a score of mercenaries in tow. A meeting of the great and the good of Sandpoint is immediately called and about a dozen people all cram into Mayor Devin's office to discuss the plan. A blustering Titus Scarnetti quickly wears on everybody's nerves in between reports from Sheila, Sheriff Hemlock, and the Heroes of Sandpoint. The feeble Ephram Vandelmar insists that the town can be fortified, supplied, and defended against any threat the goblins might pose, since whoever heard of a goblin navy. The Kaijitsu voice is noticeably absent from the council, but Mayor Devin refuses to contemplate waiting out a siege.   So, once again Sandpoint must rely on her heroes, bolstered by Sheila and Father Zanthus, to strike out against the enemy where they gather at Thistletop.  

The Assault of Thistletop

  Arriving at dusk the war party infiltrated the outer goblin warrens, effortlessly and silently disposing of the remnants of the Birdcruncher tribe, encamped there. Then the first snag came when the Heroes found themselves face to face with the ready and waiting goblin druid Gogmurt and his fire pelt cougar. Thankfully the goblin wished to treat rather than fight, agreeing to help the Heroes if they promised not to hurt any goblins and to rid Thistletop of their "longshanks kin".   This aid allowed the Heroes to infiltrate further into the enemy camp, crossing the rope bridge from the mainland to the offset fortification. Once there they crept inside and down into the stone of the island, where they confronted each member of Nualia's band. Burthaumus the Bugbear they found taking advantage of the goblin chief Ripnugget's harem, and allowed Sheila to dispatch the brute and rid herself of a longtime enemy. Orik Vancaskerkin, the Heroes negotiated with, arranging for the Riddleport mercenary to find a better contract anywhere else. Lyrie Akenja, the Heroes subdued and locked in the Thistletop dungeons, before delving down into the last level of Thistletop, a hidden Thassilonian ruin loyal to Xin-Shalast, the Realm of Greed.   In the ruin the Heroes discover many things, not the least of which are the notes and personal journals of Nualia Tobyn. They also find an ancient treasure vault that promises of even greater wealth locked away in that long-forgotten city, wealth that they contributed to in a very small way to access a hidden section of the ruin, which contained both an ancient recording of the Runelord Karzoug himself and the prison in which his agents, millennia ago, bound the barghest Malfeshnekor, a chosen of Lamashtu and agent of Bhakrakhan. The heroes and their allies opened this ancient prison and defeated the foe inside, dealing a stout blow to the plans of a goddess and the strength of Nualia's nascent army.   At the moment of Malfeshnekor's banishment back to the lower planes, Nualia was suddenly made aware of what was happening in her stronghold. She let sound the alarm and sicced her yeth hounds, gifts from her goddess upon the intruders. Weary and panicked, the Heroes barely manage to beat back the shadowy beasts and barricade themselves in the ruins long enough to regroup before braving a gauntlet of goblinry to challenge Nualia herself in the temple of her goddess.   In that dark fane the Heroes of Sandpoint, Father Alistair Zanthus, high priest of Desna, and Shelia Adsana, unlettered ranger, faced off against Nualia Tobyn the Mad Prophet of Lamashtu and her yeth hounds along with a reinvigorated, and freshly ensorcelled, Lyrie and the goblin hero-chief Ripnugget astride his battle gecko. Nualia opened hostilities by executing a captured Orik and using his life force to birth from her mutilated womb another yeth hound.   As the battle dragged on and the strength of her foes became apparent, Nualia called out to her dark goddess, and a spark of divine magic instantly transported the entire fight to the sealed Cathedral of Hate beneath Sandpoint. The heroes and their allies defeated Lyrie, Ripnugget, and the yeth hounds only for Nualia to summon further reinforcements from the runewell of wrath, as the quasit Elyrium, Nualia's teacher in hate and darkness, joined the fray.   By the skin of their teeth the heroes were able to triumph over the forces of darkness. And yet even though Sandpoint is saved and the Heroes go about indulging in the fruits of their labors, they can't help but think something even worse might be on the horizon.  

First Interlude

  Though any direct threat to the town appears to have been averted for the moment, the heroes still find themselves kept quite busy in the weeks following the Swallowtail festival on the fall equinox. Silver buries himself in study of the Thassilonian ruins beneath Sandpoint, recruiting Brody Quinn as a consultant whenever he found himself at the limits of his own knowledge. Combining Quinn's expertise with his own studies and Nualia's notes and journals, Silver is able to make significant progress understanding the nature of the lesser Runewell of Wrath.   Calling a group meeting Silver relays his findings starting with a comprehensive summary of Nualia's notes and journals: Nualia was the foundling daughter of Ezikel Tobyn, Sandpoint's previous religious leader before Father Zanthus. Nualia’s childhood was lonely and sad. Her unearthly beauty made the other children either jealous or shy, and many of them took to playing cruel jokes on her. The adults in town weren’t much better, superstitious Varisians viewed Nualia as blessed by Desna, a sort of “reverse deformity.” Rumors that her touch or proximity could cure warts and rashes, that locks of her hair brewed into tea could increase fertility, and that her voice could drive out evil spirits led to endless awkward and humiliating requests over the years. Poor Nualia felt more like a freak than a young girl by the time she came of age, so when Derek Visktana, a local Varisian youth, began to court her, she practically fell into his arms in gratitude. Knowing that her father wouldn’t approve of a relationship with a Varisian (he wanted her to remain pure so that she could join one of the prestigious Windsong Abbey convents), they kept the affair secret. They met many times in hidden places, a favorite being an abandoned smuggler’s tunnel under town that Derek had discovered as a child. Before long, Nualia realized she was pregnant. When she told Derek, he revealed his true colors and, after calling her a slut and a harlot, fled Sandpoint rather than face her father’s wrath. Nualia’s shock quickly turned to rage, yet she had nowhere to vent her anger. She bottled it up, and when her father discovered her delicate condition, his reaction to her indiscretions only furthered her shame and anger. He forbade her to leave the church, lectured her nightly, and made her pray to Desna for forgiveness. In so doing, he unknowingly nurtured her growing hate.   When the runewell in the Catacombs of Wrath flared to life, cause still unknown but possibly related to the activation of another runewell somewhere in the world, Nualia’s own anger was a magnet to its magic. Seven months pregnant, the wrathful energies suffused her mind and she flew into a frenzy. She miscarried her child later that night, a child whose monstrously deformed shape she only glimpsed before blanching midwives stole it away to burn in secret. As the child had been conceived in the smuggler’s tunnels below town, in close proximity to a hidden shrine to Lamashtu, goddess of monstrous births, the child itself was deformed and horrific. The double shock of losing a child and the realization she had been carrying a fiend in her belly for seven months was too much. Nualia fell into a coma. As Nualia slept, she dreamed unhealthy dreams. Fueled by the wrath from below and the taint of Lamashtu, Nualia became further obsessed with the cruel demon goddess and the conviction that her wretched life was inflicted on her by those around her. She came to see her angelic heritage as a curse, and the demon-sent dreams showed her how to expunge this taint from her body and soul, replacing it with chaos and cruelty. When she finally woke, Nualia was someone new, someone who didn’t flinch at what Lamashtu asked of her. She jammed her father’s door shut as he slept, lit the church on fire, and fled Sandpoint. The locals assumed Nualia had burned in the fire, a tragedy made all the worse by the death of Father Tobyn as well. Yet Nualia lived. She fled to Magnimar, where she enlisted the aid of a group of killers known as the Skinsaw Men. With their aid, she tracked down Derek and murdered him. Yet his death did not fulfill her need for revenge. Sandpoint and its hated citizens still lived. Seeing a kindred spirit in the tortured woman, the mysterious leader of the Skinsaw Men gave Nualia a medallion bearing a carving of a seven-pointed star called a “Sihedron medallion.” It is also apparent that Nualia has kept in casual contact with the skinsaw men through brotherhood of seven affiliates who pass through the Pixies' Kitten in Sandpoint.   Nualia learned that she had a larger role to play, and that her dreams were a map to her destiny. Taking the advice to heart, Nualia returned to Sandpoint, and found herself drawn to the brick wall in the smuggler’s tunnels where she and Derek had conceived her deformed child. Nualia bashed down the wall, and in so doing, discovered the Catacombs of Wrath and the quasit Erylium, also a follower of Lamashtu. For many months, Nualia studied under Erylium’s tutelage. During this time, Nualia received another vision from Lamashtu—a vision of a monstrous goblin wolf imprisoned in a tiny room. In Nualia’s dreams, she learned that this creature, a barghest named Malfeshnekor, was also one of Lamashtu’s chosen. If she could find him and free him, he would not only help her achieve her vengeance against the town of Sandpoint, but he would be the key in cleansing her body of what she had come to see as her “celestial taint.” Nualia wanted to be one of Lamashtu’s children now. She wanted to become a monster herself.   Her notes also contain extensive details about the runewell itself and the nature of the energies it contains. The orange liquid filling the well, which always appears to be boiling even though it is colder than an arctic sea, is a physical manifestation of wrath wrung from mortal souls. Nualia's notes make it clear that the runewell is no tool of her goddess and thus she does not fully understand much about it. Through Elyrium's account she is sure that something must have happened to reactivate it five years ago. Foremost in her notes is a near certainty that if the runewell were to be completely drained of wrathful energies it would fall dormant again and be beyond any hope of reawakening. Nualia seems fairly certain that this would not cause the runewell to be destroyed, but merely no longer a useful tool. In several places she seems to play with the idea of filling the well with soul energy and using it to create an army of sin spawn, like Alaznist must have done in ancient Thassilon.   Turning to the topic of the runewell itself Silver begins to relay what he has been able to decipher. Runewells were specially crafted repositories of sin magic used by all seven of the ancient realms and rulers of Thassilon to fuel their most powerful magicks. Runewells could be of various sizes, but they were always keyed to a single type of sin energy. When a creature whose soul was particularly saturated with the appropriate sin dies within a certain distance of an active well, their soul is captured and "wrung out" distilling the sin energy into a usable form and destroying the soul in the process.   With extensive study, Silver believes he has devised a way to permanently destroy the runewell. It will require filling the basin with holy water and setting it to boil for a continuous twenty-four hours. How to achieve this feat practically is another matter though, and the topic is put aside for the moment. His task completed, Silver resumed his pursuit of another goal, namely finding someone to modify the dark and dangerous magical item he had taken from the Chopper's Cabin. Unable to convince the Schoolmaster Isaac Ganthus to do the work, his continued inquiries eventually lead him to Erin Habe and the Haven of Saintly Respite, most specifically to the silent partner rumored to be lurking in the basement of the country madhouse. Gaining entry Silver and Caesar Zerren, the alienist living beneath the sanitarium, bonded over a mutual interest in taxidermy and the occultist happily agreed to make the modifications Silver desired.   Returning from his sojourn Silver was somewhat disgusted to discover Ameiko still sulking in bed all day. Not really understanding the human grief process Silver dragged Ameiko out into the yard behind her tavern and made her spar with him. Blade to blade Ameiko found her spark and began to process her trauma. The two grew close as Ameiko returned to running her bar and would grudgingly take a seat at town council meetings, but mostly she just got bored and day dreamed, or used the time to audit her own books from the Rusty Dragon.   In the meantime, Agamon, pushes for a return to Thistletop and the elimination of any remaining Thistletop goblins dwelling there. Seeking aid and approval from Sandpoint's leadership the Heroes establish the coastal island as a base of operations for expanded wilderness patrols. They clear out the roper in the lower level of Thistletop and burn the goblin bodies, furniture, and junk on the beach. Though the immediate threat for which they were contracted has been defeated a score of mercenaries is convinced to take up residence in Thistletop, on behalf of the town of Sandpoint and under the command of the Heroes. A pair of under cooks from Titus' own household were even convinced to join the endeavor, but more on that in a moment. Agamon also befriended the horse Shadowmist that he discovered in Thistletop where the goblins had obviously been abusing it. He brought the beast back to Sandpoint and stabled it with Davian Hosk at Goblinsquash   This done Agamon turns his attentions to the remaining threat from within Sandpoint itself. The Sczarni lead by Jybal Vhisk. Putting his ear to the ground Agamon learns of a plan to burgle Moishe Kreck's jewelry shop just hours too late to put a stop to it. A young and over leveraged Gaia Acari had been sent in to bring back a select few gems that might not have been missed, but had instead cleaned the placed out completely and then vanished.   Tired of Jybal’s shit and trying to protect the Pixies' Kitten at Sheriff Hemlock's request, Agamon contacts the Roma that brought him into the families and asks for a hearing. His letter details Jybal’s crime of facilitating the attack against Sandpoint via the smuggler's tunnels beneath the town. The wagons are all heading north for winter lodgings, but one caravan agrees to make a detour and hold a trial. At the trial Jybal attempts to counter Agamon's charges with a claim of his own. He accuses Agamon of being a traitor and seller of Varisian secrets. This backfired horribly when one of the patriarchs stood for Agamon and declared on his house's honor that the ranger would never do such a thing. Jybal’s case completely fell apart and he was himself cast out of the community.   Sheriff Hemlock, Das Korvut, and Agamon are all sharing a drink in the Red Dog Smithy when Agamon is imperiously summoned by Titus Scarnetti. The messenger says that Titus wishes to discuss naming Agamon Sheriff. Instead of being insulted Sheriff Hemlock becomes thoughtful, saying that it would solve several problems with a single stroke. Das also seems to warm to the idea some, and eventually Agamon allows himself to be summoned. However, the meeting goes horribly and after comparing the Scarnetti's to slavers, Agamon steals some of their kitchen staff away to help run Thistletop, before departing.   Lemmy waking up the morning after the victory party where he once again closed out the bar from behind a mountain of tankards, goes about his morning routine shining his hooves and admiring himself in the mirror before discovering, horror of horrors that he has a spilt end on one of his horns. A whole sliver has popped out but hunt frantically though he might he cannot find it anywhere, and must instead spend a few hours whittling his horns to hide the damage and then even them up. When he heads downstairs, his agent, Chask Haladan is waiting exasperatedly at the bar. When Lemmy shows up Chask hurriedly whisks him off to The Way North where the two sit closeted for hours working on the tale of Lemmy's exploits. Chask is eager to get the manuscript published in the next local issue of the Pathfinder Society Newsletter. The story is well received and royalties begin to roll in.   Shaylis is quite miffed with Lemmy because he is spending all of his time either partying, song writing, or cooped up with Chask, but the charming rogue sweeps her off her feet and manages to even get her father's blessing for them to court. She even gives him a silk handkerchief to represent her favor, but somewhere between retaking Thistletop, the monster in the attic, and partying with a crew of Riddleport buccaneers, Lemmy lost it. He managed to convince Shaylis that he just keeps it in his room at the Dragon for now.   Incon hoping to repair some of the damage that adventuring with the heroes had done to Father Zanthus' views about them, dedicates himself to helping out around the Cathedral. In doing so Incon learns much about the structure of Sandpoint's religious practices. For example, the six faiths venerated at the site: those of Abadar, Erastil, Obad-hai, Pelor, and Shelyn. Incon had of course already met Gina, acolyte of Shelyn goddess of art and beauty. Now he learned that the 'priesthood' of Obad-hai actually isn't, it's the lost coast region's druid circle. Among this group Incon befriends Lekar Nep, fellow initiate. Nep is a human with curly red hair and pale skin. He was attempting to use his command of the wind to dust shelves one day when he accidentally pushed over a porcelain water basin. The crash drew the attention of Father Zanthus, and Nep was sure he would be punished, but Incon covered for him.   One day Incon is going about his duties when he is summoned to Father Zanthus' office. There he finds the high priest waiting with Isaac Ganthus, the town schoolmaster, orphanage keeper, and magical polymath. Isaac reveals that he has sought Father Zanthus' aid against a dark presence that has settled in the attic of the orphanage and tragically slain one of the children living there. It is unclear what if anything could have been done to forestall these events, but now the thing must be exorcised. Incon rounds up the usual suspects and after some research and recognizance the Heroes are able to successfully perform one of the most brute force exorcisms ever recorded with minimal injuries.   Incon spends many days in study and meditation, wondering if he will hear one of the gods call to him, or feel their hand guiding him onto a path. He also finds time in the evening to check on Silver and his research project with Brody Quinn often adding a fresh perspective to stale minds and restarting the discovery process when it stalls out.   JoJo returns to the House of Blue stones and declares his deeds so that they can be recorded upon the honor role of his order. Prioress Sorn hears his account and gives her assent to the young monk's request. Yet JoJo's hunger for justice and retribution is not quenched and he seeks more foes to destroy. Prioress Sorn reminds him that the art is not beloved for its deadliness nor is blind obedience to dogma a virtue. She gives the young warrior a brief and cryptic parable on the foundations of strength and wisdom, before informing JoJo that he must learn to be as the salt of the earth if he truly wishes to cleanse evil from the world. With her words swimming in his mind JoJo takes a wagon out of town and enlists as a day laborer on the Hambly Farmstead in the Sandpoint Countryside.   On the way there JoJo has a very strange experience. He quaffs from his waterskin to wash the dust of the road from his lips and suddenly when he blinks, he is no longer bumping down a dusty dirt road in the back of a wagon. Well, he is, he can still feel it, but his eyes gaze out over the Varisian Gulf many miles to the north. Noting the landmarks and the position of the sun JoJo is certain that he is gazing from the eyes in the face of Thistletop, and he remembers filling his water skin from the strange font in the Thassilonian level of the fortress. A minute later he blinks again and his vision is suddenly clear, his mind a buzz with the possibilities of his discovery.   Once put to work at the Hambly Farm JoJo quickly comes to the conclusion that Hambly is no longer harvesting, or even gleaning, the man is hoarding every last head of grain that ever grew out of his soil. The farm seems successful and well to do, though the owners seem to be scrimping and saving every penny they possibly can conceive of. Crade and Mother Hambly seem nice enough, but their children Karz, Santiago, and Dio are all hungry for their inheritance and immediately take a disliking to JoJo, despite the latter's hard work in their fields. Dio even falls to playing petty pranks on JoJo and sabotaging him.   Gobby the Garbage Man decides that he's going to reform his image and join the Heroes of Sandpoint to show them how it's done. With his trusty shovel axe and berserker rage, none of the heroes have the heart to turn him down.  

Murder Most Foul

  One misty morning in early winter, each of the heroes is retrieved by a member of the Sandpoint town guard and brought at Sheriff Hemlock's urging down the Scarnetti lumbermill in Sandpoint's Riverside District. Once the heroes are gathered the sheriff shares with them that there have been several disturbing murders in the past few days and notes have been left in an apparent attempt to implicate Lemmy. They are all addressed to the minotaur and signed "Your Lordship"   Three days ago, the sheriff's men were accosted by a madman covered in blood and completely hysterical. Eventually they were able to work out from him that something terrible had happened at Bradey's Barn on Cougar Creek. Investigating they found three corpses horribly mutilated and hung up around the barn. They all had a strange seven-pointed rune carved into their chests, a rune just like the one on the amulet Lemmy is wearing. It was with the help of a note pinned to one of their jackets that the men were identified as a trio of local conmen and spendthrifts, Lenner Hask, Mortimer Tarch, and Gedwin Tabe. The sheriff assures the heroes that he does not suspect Lemmy in any way but he expects the heroes would like to get to the bottom of things as much as he does.   Hemlock explains that the survivor Grayst Salva was too agitated to answer any questions and he has been consigned to the Haven of Saintly Respite in the hopes that his mind may recover from the horrors that it has experienced. He also says that there has been another incident at the Scarnetti lumbermill. Another double killing, and one of the victims is someone quite close to home. Banny Harker the co-manager of the mill and his lover Katrine Vinder have both been brutally murdered.   Investigating the Heroes find that Banny was being tortured at the time that Katrine arrived for their usual trysting. It is apparent that the shopkeeper's daughter grabbed a handy axe and went at the thing murdering her boyfriend, even striking it a stout blow, but the thing wasn't deterred and ultimately fed Katrine through the log splitter before returning to its dark ritual with Banny. The manager's body is horribly mangled and disfigured with a large Sihedron carved on his chest. The best Lemmy and Silver can guess is that there is something to do with sin magic and soul energy about the ritual, but they can really make neither heads nor tails of it.   The dock outside and the marsh across the way yield better results. It appears that a Ghast is using the rivers to move about the countryside unseen. It seems to have stalked its prey from a hide across the river and waited until Banny Harker was alone in the mill to begin its attack. Finally, before going to make the notification to Ven, the heroes gently question Ibor Thorn the mill's other co-manager and the one who found the bodies. They discover that Banny was a greedy soul who had been cooking the books to skim off the top of the record profits the mill was seeing due to being suddenly without competition in the wake of several disastrous fires in the recent past. Seeing an opportunity Incon and Agamon offer to help Ibor sweep everything under the rug for a taste, but it seems pretty clear that the manager just wants to stay out of prison rather than keep skimming.   Meanwhile Lemmy and Silver go to deliver the bad news to Ven. Lemmy gives it to him cold and he doesn't take it well, his temper erupting into several bruised ribs for Lemmy before Shaylis comes racing in to grab onto her father's arm. Eventually a stunned, near catatonic Ven is lead away by his youngest and now only daughter, as Lemmy tries to whisper explanations in Shaylis' ear.  

The Gang Goes to the Madhouse

  Following up on their main lead from the previous triple murder the Heroes of Sandpoint head to the Haven of Saintly Respite, hoping to speak to Grayst Salva the only survivor of the previous attack. Arriving at the country sanitarium Silver obtains quick entry and urges the owner Erin Habe to pretend they don't know each other. The two play off their association rather well, and the party is none the wiser for the moment as they seek access to the patient.   Eventually after some mild consternation, an orderly is summoned and instructed to show the guests to Salva's room. Once there the orderly hands over the key and insists he can't be responsible for what comes next, slipping out of a door that unbeknownst to the heroes is secured from the outside. In Salva's room the heroes discover a freshly turned ghoul in a straightjacket. The creature lunges for Agamon who just barely manages to avoid its infectious bite and force it back into the padded cell before slamming the door.   Slipping the latch on the security door the heroes invoke their rights as deputies and place the entire facility under detention until they can sort out what the hell is going on. They are met with some resistance, and are forced to subdue the two orderlies. An interrogation of Habe leads to a confession that he and his partner Caesar Zerren in the basement were studying the progression of ghoul fever in humans, specifically Grayst Salva, that they had known he was infected when he arrived and intentionally withheld treatment. Habe is strong armed into summoning Caesar, who shatters Habe and Silver's arrangement asking the raccoon in a slow wary voice what is going on. The alienist suddenly holds a powerful spell captive in his hands, threatening to unleash it unless the heroes leave him be. In the face of apparent overwhelming arcane might the heroes choose the better part of valor for now, deciding that they have a more pressing need to investigate the Foxglove Manor than deal with one amoral but largely nonthreatening occultist.  

The Misgivings

    DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, the heroes have been passing alone, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found themselves, as the shades of the evening draw on, within view of the melancholy Foxglove Manor. With the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervades their spirits. They look upon the scene before them --upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain --upon the bleak walls --upon the vacant eye-like windows --upon a few rank sedges --and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees -- and feel an utter depression permeate their souls, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination can torture into aught of the sublime.   As they approach the house the impression of dread suspense grows rather than diminishing and they are struck by the certain knowledge that about the whole mansion and domain there hangs an atmosphere peculiar to itself and its immediate vicinity, an atmosphere which has no affinity with the air of heaven, but which has reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray walls, and the silent, foreboding moor --a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.   Drawing level with what may have once been an out building for the lodging of various household servants they are able to more minutely examine the manor house. Its principal feature seems to be that of excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages has been great and splotches of fungi overspread the whole exterior, with beards of ivy hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this is apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry has fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. Beyond this indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gives little token of instability.   The heroes approach the ruined outbuilding. The well is crumbling and partially collapsed. Whatever disaster struck here was some time ago. Incon reminds the party of the rumors he learned of a tragedy in Aldern's childhood. A tragedy that resulted in the destruction of the servant's building and the deaths of Aldern's parents. Forewarned of the manor's sinister reputation the heroes advanced, suddenly realizing that Silver had disappeared at some point on the journey.   Agamon proceeds to scout the building using his boots of spiderclimb to walk around the outside, getting a good view of the eastern exposure of the mansion situated on a prominent cliff overlooking the Varisian Gulf. Climbing up to the roof Agamon peers in through a broken stained-glass window. A sudden flash of heat passes over him, an angry projection from something inside the room. Agamon returns to the group and reports, the consensus ultimately being to enter through the main doors. The wood is warped in the frame due to mold and moisture, but is still trivially easy for Gobby to smash through.   The heroes all crowd inside away from the deepening night, as a growing collection of ravens begin to caw at them from the ruins of the servant's building. Lemmy and JoJo both uncover their everburning torches casting the room in bright light causing everybody to freeze for an instant as they realize the main foyer is occupied by a full grown manticore. After a moment the heroes realize that the beast is a magnificent trophy expertly preserved, its face is frozen in a snarl of rage.   The main feature of the entry hall, other than the manticore is a pervading decay. The plaster of the walls is swollen and cracked, spreading fungus and mildew fills every gap. The omnipresent gloom of the manor grounds sharpens into something hostile and targeted. Lemmy and JoJo move deeper into the house heading towards a bank of stained-glass windows that oddly obscure what would be a breath-taking view of the Varisian Gulf. They stop short to examine a strange spiral fungus growth on the floor. Close inspection reveals that the spirals appear to depict stairs covered with piles of tiny bones. Mounted nearby on the wall is the shrunken head of a monkey with a protruding pullcord. When the tasseled end is given a light tug the sounds of a howler monkey fill the manor.   As the heroes follow their lights deeper into the house Agamon's nose is suddenly filled with the stink of burning hair, but the others insist there is no smell. It is wondered if Agamon is losing his nerve. The heroes examine the dining room and the stained-glass windows. Lemmy immediately recognizes one of the stained-glass images as a kraken. The giant squid is wreathed in smoke billowing out of a seven-sided box and the eyes communicate a blind terror. Alongside it are a treant, a thunderbird, and a sphinx, all being drawn into a seven-sided box, all with expressions of horror on their faces.   Unsure what to make of this bizarre tableau the Heroes backtrack to the entry hall to try one of the side doors off the foyer. Gobby takes a scoop out of the spiral stain as he goes by, storing the sample for his septic audit. When Agamon returns to the foyer he is attacked by the manticore whose mane bursts into flame. Its viciously barbed tail flicks forward burying itself in Agamon's side and pumping him full of burning venom. Agamon is lifted face to face with the creature whose snarling visage has transformed into that of a young Chelish woman.   Agamon's companions see something very different. To them it appears that Agamon collapses to the ground before a deep stab wound appears on his side and he suddenly and spontaneously combusts. With a yowl Agamon's eyes snap open and he quickly pats himself out. A trail of blood trickles down his side but the majority of the wound seems to have disappeared. Agamon urges everybody to take care as the malignant presence of the house intensifies.   After having Gobby smash through a few more doors, Incon immediately ignores this advice and begins messing with a dilapidated piano. He strikes a note and suddenly the instrument springs to life with a lively but discordant tune. JoJo begins to prance and leap about the room in an enthusiastic dance with a beautiful dark-haired partner. She is a fantastic dancer at first but his partner quickly becomes horrifying to look at with deep purple ligature marks, bulging eyes, and a swollen tongue. JoJo's companion is only visible to himself, but his friends watch him perform dance positions that would only be achievable with a partner to counter-weight. Black veins begin to form across JoJo's pale skin and the monk screams in pain. Gobby attempts to smash the piano, but is ineffective at stopping the music. Suddenly JoJo takes an extra high leap and lands in one of his kata stances, breaking the haunt's hold on himself.   As the core heroes attend to JoJo and his account of what happened, Gobby investigates the washroom as part of his septic audit. He finds and captures a diseased rat that had become trapped when it fell into the tub. Glancing back into the dancing parlor Gobby shrugs and informs the heroes that this is one of the worst cases of neglect he's ever seen, possibly pushing class IV. Gobby then looks in the lounge and notices a faint swirling of the dust there. Suddenly in a flash of panic Gobby's mind is overridden by the certainty that something is very wrong. His child is in danger, and the danger is coming from inside their home. Gobby storms back into the parlor and seizes Lemmy insisting "We have to get out of here!"   The other heroes are able to talk Gobby down before he drags Lemmy out into the growing storm of hostile ravens outside. The half-orc's eyes clear and he belligerently demands an explanation for what is going on insisting that he has not been behaving strangely. The heroes theorize that there was more than one tragedy and more than one generation destroyed in this house, reiterating that they should exercise caution before interacting with anything.   Next to be explored is the library where a Varisian bladed scarf attempts to murder JoJo of its own accord before it is shredded by Agamon's claws. Also discovered there amid many ruined books is a broken stone bookend. An angel of Desna has been desecrated, one of its beautiful butterfly wings used as a murder weapon. The ground level complete everybody moves to the stairs and ascends to the second floor.   Lemmy experiences a child's terror of his parents' mortal struggle in a young boy's bedroom. Lemmy is fairly certain that he experienced Aldern's memories of the night of the tragedy distorted by his own perceptions and memories. A gallery contains another five stained glass window which obscure what would be an even better view of the Gulf. These windows depict five classic necromancy motifs, but tastefully and occultly framed so as to the presentable to polite society.   Examining the upstairs bathroom Lemmy breaks through the floor and nearly gets crushed by a falling tub. When he gets himself back upstairs the party moves into a portrait gallery with seven oil paintings of the Foxglove family. They are of Vorel Foxglove, the original builder of Foxglove Manor, his wife Kasanda Foxglove, and their daughter Lorrey Foxglove. Opposite them are a younger more contemporary generation of Foxgloves. Depicted together are Traver and Cyrie Foxglove, and depicted individually are their three children; Aldern and his two older sisters. The paintings are all initially covered over with cobwebs, and when they are all cleared suddenly the paintings of Aldern's sisters frost over and rank corruption gouts from the other five paintings. Disgusting, pulsating masses spew vile fluids in a fine mist, covering the room in decay and putrefaction. Then just as suddenly as it began the images fade and the heroes stare wide eyed at each other.   Lemmy and Incon decide to cross the gallery and check the far door while the other three move out into the hallway to wait. Opening the door, they are faced with the master bedroom of the house containing a large bed and matching rolltop desk. A dark red stain appears near the desk and a mahogany rolling char. Incon is suddenly overwhelmed with grief and sinks into the chair. He reaches into a drawer of the desk and withdraws a letter opener, silver, slender, and deadly sharp. Lemmy sees Incon assume a sitting position in thin air and withdraw a long spear pointed splinter from one of the desk drawers. Incon goes to use the splinter blade on himself and Lemmy jumps forward seizing the weapon. The two lock eyes for a moment, horror is fixed on Incon's face, confusion on Lemmy's. Suddenly the two spring apart as Incon cries "get away"   Given a moment to collect themselves, Incon is fairly certain that he experienced the grief Traver Foxglove felt in his final moments before taking his own life. Lemmy asks to talk about what transpired later and Incon is noncommittal but they both choose to prioritize surviving the Misgivings for the moment. There is one final room to clear before ascending to the attic. Inside the heroes find a destroyed suite. This stuff is new, almost spared the decay of the manor, but utterly destroyed as in a fit of rage. Incon allows the rest of the party to examine the room without him, choosing to "watch their backs" and quietly loose his shit in the hallway.   Inside the room the four heroes find one item spared the destruction, a beautiful guilt framed oil painting labeled Iesha Foxglove. Gazing upon the portrait causes Lemmy to feel a wave of crushing sadness and JoJo a thrill of fear. Both of these are quickly overridden when the whirlwind rage that destroyed the room takes hold of all four of the companions who leap at each other’s throats. Agamon struggles for control of his mind and sword as his body attempts to skewer his own allies. Gobby bellows out his anger and swings wildly with his shovel axe as JoJo snaps out vicious hands, feet, and elbows. Lemmy steps back and strums shreddy dropping a shatter on top of all three of them, and as suddenly as the chaos started the room is still again.   Wading into the attic through several storage rooms the heroes are suddenly chilled by a woman's shriek. The heroes hurry toward the sound and discover a revenant woman trapped behind a mirror, unable to leave and pursue her quarry, the being that murdered her. JoJo, recognizing the woman he saw in his vision, decides that he will use her as an attack dog and frees her, telling his allies to hurry and finish their explorations, but to allow the revenant to get a short way ahead.   Incon, Gobby, and JoJo break off and search a small loft attic that is packed with safari journals and small keepsakes from hunts and expeditions around the world. Skimming a few volumes makes it clear that this is Traver Foxglove's role of glory that culminated in his hunt of the manticore trophy downstairs. Lemmy and Agamon check the room that Agamon observed from the outside. It is apparently a ruined observatory, complete with roof hatch. There are two stained glass windows depicting evil wizards. One is a regal woman in red with a black iron rod and crown that neither Lemmy nor Agamon can place, but they both recognize the Butcher of Carrion Hill by the stories they've heard. The lower half of the butcher Soccorro's window is smashed out as if a person had thrown themselves through it. Agamon is overcome by another flash of heat and is suddenly transported back to the tragedy of Crying Leaf. He watches as his home once again burns down around him and he can do nothing. Then he spots a small child about to slip from one of the tree platforms. Agamon gathers himself to leap and is suddenly flattened by Lemmy throwing himself on top of the ranger.   What Lemmy saw was Agamon become distraught and gather himself to leap out of the remaining stained-glass window. Thinking fast Lemmy had jumped on Agamon and held him down until the fit passed. Gathering himself Agamon hypothesized that the part of the vision that was pushed on him was being unable to save those he loved. Agamon believes that he is experiencing the memories of Cyrie Foxglove, who must have lost her husband Traver to the malign influence of the manor house. Agamon suspects that Vorel was up to some pretty dark stuff, and possibly laid a curse on the family homestead.   The sounds of splintering wood echoes through the manor and the five heroes realize that they must be about their business. Hurring toward the sounds everybody spills out onto the ground floor landing and sees the revenant Iesha tearing through the spiral stain, ripping up rotted wood with her bare, albeit unnaturally hard and pointed fingernails. The creature is brutally strong churning through the planks in minutes she drops through to the marble floor below and rapidly descends down an unlit spiral staircase. The heroes follow her, but when Lemmy drops down, he has a vision of Aldern Foxglove, sweating through his fine silk clothes, swinging a pickaxe at a cracked marble facade over where the entrance to the stair case should be. With each blow of the heavy iron tool Aldern lets out a grunted "for you" and Lemmy knows the noble means him. Suddenly the stone gives way with explosive cracks and half a dozen rotten emaciated arms pull Aldern screaming into the darkness below Foxglove Manor.   Lemmy comes to a moment later, sitting on his butt. He sees the discarded pickaxe and the dark stains on the stairway. He is certain in the knowledge that Aldern Foxglove died in his vision, but something much much worse has come back in the nobleman's skin. The heroes proceed down some eighty feet into the limestone caves beneath the cliff on which the Misgivings sit. They find themselves in a large natural cavern and quickly Agamon scouts ahead along one of the many passages in the stone, attempting to follow the revenant by sound over the sloshing of water and the moan of the wind.   He guesses correctly and leads the heroes through a masterfully executed counter ambush on a trio of ghouls and then everybody hurries on towards the sounds of fighting. They arrive just in time to see Iesha wring an undead goblin's neck before turning to a figure in a highbacked plush chair. The revenant’s clothing is in tatters and her body badly broken by the unholy strength of the monsters she had laid low, but she still staggered forward. Suddenly reaching the chair she stops, as if hesitating. She lays her hand softly on the back of the chair and in a cracked and mangled voice she husks, "My love..."   Despite the scene before him, as his allies spread out to ready themselves for the target behind the chair, Lemmy can't help but be distracted by the contents of a nearby work table. A sudden horrifying chill sweeps over him as he recognizes every single article, all meticulously organized and laid out like a prized collection. There was the guitar string he broke back in the very first attack on the Swallowtail Festival. There were crumpled up notes and song lyrics from the days and weeks afterwards, they hadn't even been smoothed out as if that would ruin their value as having been molded by Lemmy's hands. Then there is the pocket of a silk coat, signed by Lemmy and carefully cut out to be displayed. And then the minotaur's blood truly runs cold. There is the sliver of his horn he missed all those weeks ago. There are pages and pages of discarded drafts for Chask Haladan's submission to the Pathfinder Society. There is the silk handkerchief given to him by Shaylis.   Looking back up at the revenant and the highbacked chair Lemmy gazes directly into Aldern Foxglove's dead lifeless eyes as he buries a massive straight razor in his wife's throat right down to the bone. The man's face ripples and moves in a way no man's ever could and the creature casts aside the body of his once wife with contemptuous strength, rising to its feet. A long and wickedly pointed tongue protrudes from the ghast's mouth as it licks its teeth. "You live," it purrs at Lemmy "You live, and yet you were supposed to die, and yet you live" it says cocking its head first to one side and then the other. ""Well and good, for now I will have the pleasure of tasting your heart while it is still warm"   A brief but violent conflict ensues and the powers and personalities of the creature that used to be Aldern Foxglove are put on full display from his cringing and sycophantic Lordship persona to the mad devotee of murder the skinsaw man. Despite his bloodline and strange magical interference emanating from a grotesque humanoid patch of fungus, that climbs one corner of the cave wall, rising up from a shattered and broken seven-sided box on the floor, the heroes of Sandpoint are able to prevail and interrogate the foul creature for a treasure trove of answers before ultimately executing the abominable thing and burying both it and the revenant Iesha in the Foxglove cemetery. The curse of the Misgivings still lingers but without a scion of the Foxglove line its ability to act upon the world is greatly diminished.  

Allies from Unexpected Places

  The same dark and stormy night that sees the heroes locked in a haunted house with dark and dagerous forces, a figure, hooded and cloaked dances lightly across the violently swaying rope bridge leading to the gates of Thistletop. It is Orlaith Ó Cianáin, handmaiden of the ruling queen of the Summer Court of Fairie, and she has come seeking an audience with the heroes of Sandpoint at the behest of her monarch. After a brief display of unprofessionalism from the sentries on guard in the watch towers, the stranger is granted an audience with the fort's custodian.   Orlaith is presented with three tests to gain entry to the wilderness redoubt, and despite a certain disatisfaction with the quality of "Castle" Thistletop's amineties, she displays the color of her blood, crosses the threshold of the castle without an invitation, and takes bread and salt from the castle's board. Thus accepted as the lords' guest she inquired as to the precise location of her hosts and learned that they were last believed to be somewhere within a day's journey south of the town of Sandpoint dealing with a local matter. Orlaith agreed to wait out the storm in Thistletop and continue on to Sandpoint in the morning to see if the officals there can narrow her search any further. In the morning Orlaith was provided with a horse from the makeshift stable that leans drunkenly against a wall in the courtyard.  

The Shambling Fields

  Following a disturbing lead discovered in Aldern's effects, the Heroes of Sandpoint rush north to the Hambly farmstead where they discover that Dio's reign of terror has already begun to bear fruit. The macabre scarecrows hung up around the barren fields begin to scream and writhe and rip themselves down from their stick frames to begin surging towards the heroes in waves. The first is lead by Kars, who heaves heavy lead weight over the rotting heads of his soldiers. The heroes beat back the monsters and their officer only to be nearly swamped by the next wave, before a mysterious figure and an old friend race to stem the tide. Phil the Guardsman has brought back up in the form of Yovraz Zeldek, Inquisitor of Pharasma. With scroll and staff the new ally helps to disrupt the foul abominations as is his duty before the Queen of the Boneyard, but disconcertingly when the second brother, Santiago, arrives with his waves of minons, Zeldek's magics are suddenly less effective. Santigo's hordes aren't mindless ghouls driven feral by hunger, but creatures of the cold and the dark fueled by malic and death. They are true Scarecrows. Santiago and his sickle with his evil cohort are not enough to overcome the heroes, and when they fall, for a moment an eerie stillness covers the fields.   Still hung upon the bare handful of crosses are the only survivors of Dio's madness. A few locals, infected with ghoul fever and hung out to die from exposure. Once these are seen to JoJo feels Dio's evil calling to him from the farmhouse. JoJo shatters the door with a single blow and he and Dio lock eyes. Dio stands over his father's mutilated body grinning maniacally down a JoJo from the top of a flight of stairs. Dio sneers and smarms at JoJo briefly before declaring that he will kill the Sun Soul and cast the world into a place without light or hope. Reaching into his father's bloody ruined mouth he grasps the silver that was force-fed to the old man and cries "These chains that my father forged in life will now serve me in death!" and, gleaming in the wan daylight covered in blood and viscera Dio draws a spiked silver chain from his father's body.   Just as the two are about to clash in an epic showdown, Agamon says "Oh enough of this horseshit," and puts three arrows into Dio in quick succession putting the violent little psychopath down for good. JoJo moves to examine the desecrated homestead while Yovraz begins preparing the rites which will send the souls of the departed to their final rest. Crade Hambly's body has been mutilated in death, carved with a sloppy and backwards Sihedron rune, it appears that he was ritually sacrificed in a messy and imperfect immitation of the Sihedron Ritual mentioned in both Nualia and Aldern's notes.   As he turns to go JoJo notices a resonance between the weapons of the three brothers, and bringing them together under meditation he purifies their evil using the sacred techniques of his order and forges them together into a mighty weapon against evil, a disrupting kusarigama that he will use to embody and enact the tenents of his order wherever his travels take him.  

The Flight of the Devil

  On the trek back to Sandpoint after cleaning up as best they can at the Hambly Farmstead the Heroes and their new companion, along with their faithful sidekick, are swallowed up in winter fog. Their little band draws together feeling the claustrophobia and unease that tends to herald the arrival of danger. Soon every rustling in the roadside ditches becomes a reason to lay hands to sword hilts and bow strings. Finally when a strange, unnatrual shape passes overhead in the gloom, Yovraz can't take it anymore and looses a bolt of fire into the sky.   Banking sharply down towards the threat, the Sandpoint Devil itself bursts out through the mist with a scream somewhere between the shriek of a terrified horse and the snarl of a cornered marsupial. The horror of the creature, seemly cobbled together from multiple beasts in the pit of hell and spat out upon the world, overwhelms the Heroes' minds and their resolve breaks, forcing them to scatter off of the road into whatever cover they can find, running to ground like field mice under the owl's gimlet eyes. With another roar the beast takes to wing again and bathes a few of its foes in hellfire from its needle toothed maw before flapping away through the fog with a whinny not unlike a mocking laugh.   Regrouping after the terror has passed the Heroes declare that they will not allow such a pitiful display to be how their first encounter with the fabled monstrosity ends. Of course tracking such a beast through the foggy sky proves to be rather difficult, and following the clues gleaned from many drunken nights in the Rusty Dragon, the party more or less just makes for the Devil's Platter, a large marble platue east of town. Although the Devil proves to be too elusive for such a simple expedition, the Skaveling recently ousted from the caves under Foxglove Manor can call upon no such luck. With the hand of his goddess guiding him Yovraz leads the heroes to the shallow cave where the heretical monster has taken up refuge from the hated sun.   Weakened by travel and daylight, cramped in the small limestone hollow, the creature proves no match for the prepared might of Sandpoint's most skilled defenders, and they dispatch it easily, taking its head as a trophy. Not wishing to be caught unawares once again by the Devil, and desiring the warm and comfortable accomodations availible in town, the Heroes take their win and quickly vacate the marble rise.  

Small Town Politics

  Arriving back in town the Heroes find all the citizens are abuzz with news that there is to be a town meeting that will decide the fate of the Pixies' Kitten. Attending they learn that the citizens are in an uproar over the revelation that at least some of their recent troubles have come from the Kitten. Somehow the townsfolk have found out that Brotherhood of Seven agents and possibly worse have been moving through the brothel. Titus has used the rumors to force action, namely he wants the Kitten shut down for good. The slippery bastard has even found a way to turn the tables on the Heroes, casting doubt upon the legitmacy of the documents they were holding over his head, with paperwork of his own.   After much arguing and ancient history being dragged up, the matter is tabled for a vote. During the brief interlude the Heroes gather their political capital and push for Mayor Devrin to keep the Kitten open on an interim. They also get Ameiko and Gavin Devrin, who just so happens to also be at the heart of the scandal costing his cousin some serious embarrassment, to vote to support Mayor Devrin, leaving a fuming Titus Scarnetti and an appologetic Melvin Vandlemar unable to overrule the Mayor's decision.   Finally at the meeting's end the Heroes receive a string of bad news and worse news. Apparently, before all of the recent excitement kicked off, Sheila the Ranger decided she needed to settle some long standing matters and has traveled far to the East, beyond her territory, out to Fort Rannick to speak to the Order of the Black Arrows. Sheila says as much in the letter she left with Ameiko. That's the bad news. The worse news comes in two varieties, one more personal, both to do with money. Ameiko reveals to the Heroes that the Sandpoint Glassworks will not be resuming opperations, as she has no idea how to run the place or make the glass, leaving Sandpoint's most profitable industry dead and buried, just like Lonjiku.   Then Mayor Devrin calls the Heroes into her office before she leaves for the night. She explains that her political position is exposed and that Titus is coming for her. She will have to be very careful in the next few weeks and months if she wants to keep her job. In pursuit of that goal she will have to begin a thorough tightening of Sandpoint's belt to ease the townsfolk's worries and guide the ship of state through the rough waters ahead. This means that the Heroes' stipend for the Thistletop Garrison will have to be heavily cut back.  

Big Iron

  Heading back to the Rusty Dragon to drown their sorrows, the heroes encounter a braggart fool and murderer named Setas Aurem in their bar. Having had a long and trying day they nearly take out the trash themselves before a cracked old voice calls the stranger out. An old man with skin like leather, both due to his heritage and a long life on the high steppe leans on a crooked staff. He is flanked by a crimson scaled kobold of the winter court and a dwarf whose gimlet eyes sparkle behind a leather beard apron. Presenting a handbill for the capture or death of one Setas Aurem, the old Shoanti medicine man declares that by all the laws and man and nature he demands satisfaction for the senseless deaths of his people. A brief duel ensues where the fool Aurem is utterly crushed by the old man's ancestral magics. Orlaith, touched by the pathos of the moment and having confered with her cousin of winter, takes the elder to bed, while Keckvia the kobold and the dwarf share a drink with the rest of Sandpoint's heroes.   The heroes learn that Keckvia is gathering power for the Winter Court of Fairie, and the dwarf seeks the Crown of Janderhoff, an ancient relic of his people lost to the giants of the Stoval Rise many generations ago. Both of these travelers have business in the steppe and their companion has the experience to perhaps keep them alive as the badlands come alive with giants and other monsters even less hospitable to the more civilized races.  

Agamon Handling Business

  The next day a Varisian youth finds Agamon in the middle morning and informs him that he is cordially invited to lunch at Madam Mvashti's with the old seer and Yayi Risa, two of the ruling matriarchs of Sandpoint's Varisian population. They are both upset and disappointed to hear that the rumors about Agamon getting mixed up with a bad crowd are true. The tabaxi does his best to assuage their fears and assure them of his noble intentions, insisting that they can come to him at any time with their concerns, both about him specifically and within the wider community. The ancient seer and Risa seem unconvinced if resigned. They know that the words of two old women are unlikely to change the mind of one as young and headstrong as Agamon, and they also know and say, that many have taken up his office with the same noble intentions that the ranger professes. They send him on his way in good faith and fellowship, if not entirely with their blessings.   That night, Agamon set out to shore up his own position of leadership and learn how and where Titus got his documents, first by breaking into Scarnetti manor and robbing Titus blind, second by having a little midnight chat with Rozalie. His underling suitably cowwed, Agamon feels much better about the coming trip to Magnimar.  

Lemmy Dumps Shaylis, but She's Not too Mad About It

  The night before the Heroes are to set out to cleanse Foxglove Manor and then press on to Magnimar Shaylis corners Lemmy alone in an alleyway. She asks him for a promise of the future and he says he can only make promises like that to the sea. Shaylis's eyes well with tears as he returns her silk handkerchief but she says she understands and will keep an eye on the road for his return.   Lemmy goes to Magnimar a free agent, except for his legally binding, ironclad and inescapable book deal with Chask Haladan.  

Delving the Misgivings

  Plague of rats, lingering spirits, and Foxglove Manor is falling down.  

Going to the Big City

  Their business in Sandpoint and her environs settled, or at least stable for the moment, the Heroes of Sandpoint, along with Orlaith of the Summer Court and Yovraz of the Pharasmite Inquisition set out for Magnimar, the City of Monuments. At first the going is slow, since the lost coast road has long ago fallen into disuse and disrepair, in places becoming no more than a wide flat section of grasses and scrub clinging to the rugged coast line. After the first day an a half of travel though this begins to give way to small way stations and road side shrines as well as freeholding farmers who are on the very edge of the civilized frontier.   As the party approaches the great city proper they meet more and more fellow travelers, some heading their way and others the opposite. Many of those traveling away from the city, significantly more than one would expect, appear to be the wealthy and well to do. Some mask their emotions well, claiming to be visiting country relatives and needing a change of scenery, but others don't bother, telling of the terrors that now stalk the night in Magnimar, committing ritual murder by the dozens.  

Here There Be Slayers

  Having gotten directions to the Foxgloves' townhouse in Magnimar, the heroes arrive outside a house that has clearly been closed up for the season, or perhaps was never opened at all this year. The first floor windows are all boarded up and heavy shutters have been closed over all of the upstairs. The building and grounds seem well maintained, just like the street and the neighborhood as a whole, but something makes the hairs on the back of Orlaith's neck stand up. Calling up her fairie sight, she sweeps her gaze up and down the street frowning at the total lack of even her city dwelling kin, before looking up at the house. Instantly her gourge rises in her throat and she must clamp down on a surge of fear that races up her spine, screaming at her to run from whatever is in the house. Controlling her reaction Orlaith realizes that there are two entities leering out at the party through the boarded up windows. They are creatures from outside, and they come from some of the darker places the cosmos has to offer, Fiends of the Lower Planes of reality.   Orlaith conveys this information to te rest of her companions. A strike team of Agamon, Incon, and Silver are detatched to sneak around the back of the townhouse while the remaining heroes provide a distraction and wait on the signal to assault the building. Invoking a bit of the gloom to cover their approach, the three infiltrators scramble up some of the garden plants to a corner window on the second story, and deftly make their way inside. Creeping down a dusty hallway lit only by errant shafts of sunlight sneaking in through the shutters Agamon, Incon, and Silver all come to the top of a staircase that looks down into the parler. Flanking the house's grand entrance are two creature who seem out of place just by their mere existence. They are homicidal psychosis given physical form. They are lesser avatars of Father Skinsaw, Bhaal, the lord of Murder. They are Slayers.   Fortunately for the ambush, they are wholly focused on the bait outside when half a dozen shots find their marks from the top of the stairs. Tight on the fletchings of allies arrows Incon springs down the stairs to the first landing then vaults the railing while weaving the shadows into a blade. Hacking and stabbing wildly at the foe he is just able to bring it down before its fellow can come to grips with what is happening. Silver, whose initial instinct had been to run away and allow his allies waiting outside the door to also fall upon the enemy's unsuspecting back, is horrified to see Agamon's body go slack as he make eye contact with the dying slayer. Unsure of what has gone wrong and unwillig to abandon his fellow furry friend, Silver launches himself at the remaining monstrosity, calling desperately for back up.   The remaining Slayer brushes Silver aside contemptuously with its claws that rend both Silver's flesh and his spirit. The brute beast draws a greatsword of bone out of its own body and moves to engage Incon and the doors of the townhouse burst open. Daylight floods in robbing Incon's blade of a significant portion of its strength, but his allies rush to his aid, and drive the creature deeper into te townhouse before finally killing it with spell and steel.   By the time the action is over the quiet street outside is abuzz with voices and distant watch whistles. Yovraz tells the party to hide and that he will go out and convince the local constabulary of his need to enter the house and his restraint in dealing with its denizens. Orlaith makes an excuse about needing to pay a call upon a cousin or two in the city, and soon it is just the Heroes of Sandpoint hunkered down in a quiet dusty townhouse in the big city.   A quick toss of the residence reveals nothing out of the ordinary. The place is lavishly appointed if perhaps not in the most recent of fashions, but it is decided that the townhouse will serve the party as a safehouse and base of operations in the city. The only things of any true interest and value are found in a professionally made slick built into the masonry of the upstairs fireplace. Using a key taken from Aldern's personal effects the party discovers various legal documents relating to the Foxglove family's ownership of various real estate and holdings including the townhouse in Magnimar and Foxglove Manor. The deed to the latter is especially interesting as it establishes a concrete tie between Vorel Foxglove and the Brotherhood of Seven as well as identifying a particular piece of property, that the brotherhood offered as colateral to help Vorel secure a loan some 80 years ago, called the Seven Saw Mill.   Of perhaps more interest to recent events is the ledger, written in Aldern's handwritting, that was also kept in the secret hiding place. Most of the entries seem fairly innocuous, although it is clear that most of Aldern's wealth came from moving money around rather than any truly productive economic transactions. Most interesting an incriminating are a series of entries over the past few week detailing payments to a "B-7" for "Iesha's trip to Absolom" during the period where Iesha's revenant body was trapped in the attic of the Misgivings.  

Intelligence Gathering

  Agamon activates the Scarzini network to learn more about the pulse of the city and the mysteries of the Skinsaw Murders. He is put in touch with an ever-so-slightly bent captain of the watch, with whom he engages in a reciprocal exchange of information and promises of aid, but which ultimately proves rather fruitless at this time.  

Visiting the Shadow

  Silver, just a little bit haunted by the death of an orphaned child that he may have inadvertently caused, seeks a new specialist to continue making alterations to the cursed bit of leather and feathers that he took from the Chopper's cabin. This leads him and the heroes into The Shadow, that dangerous, seedy district that eeks out an existence beneath the Irespan. Silver's contacts lead him to believe that one Jaster "The Gallowed" Linno might be able to help him, but there is a bit of a snag when the party learns that Jaster is sheltering none other than Jyball Vhisk. A brief tense confrontation on the street in front of a ruined tenement ends with the Heroes breaking contact and fleeing through the streets and alleys back to The Summit and the false safety of the Foxglove Townhouse.  

An Assault on the Townhouse

  That night while the Heroes rest, the townhouse is set ablaze by rooftop assassins and Jaster Linno himself, with a runeslaved ettin in tow, confronts Agamon and his campanions, furious at the disrespect from one who is still family. The Gallowed deals Agamon a greivous wound with a poisoned blade before the heroes can escape the ambush and flee into the night with townhouse buring in the background, the shrieks of citizens and the splitering of timbers echoing in their ears.  

The Bazaar of Sails

  Having escaped their predicament by the skin of their teeth the party regroups and attempts to fortify their position by aquiring additional resources from Magnimar's most exotic marketplace. Agamon is also contacted by Capt Voight of the Magnimarian Civil Guard and arranges to meet him near the bazaar. While shopping Silver begins to halucinate horrible things as the spirit of the Chopper trapped in his butcher's bib whispers into his mind. At the same time Incon is confronted by some strange characters at one of the stalls. Lemmy is approached by the lovely and enrapturing Sabrina Kalmeral, the Princess of Sails, who gives him one of her many rings as a token exchanged for the minotaur's company. Orlaith acquires a bronze bladed cutlass by utilizing her fae charms.   All hell suddenly breaks loose in the square when, simultaneously, a brute squad of the Lord-Mayor's men arrive to bring Lemmy the Goatman into custody, Jaster Linno appears at Agamon's meeting, Orlaith is accosted by a pair of spriggans of the winter court while cutting through an alley to get back to the group, and Silver is attacked by a strange white rabbit barbarian.  

In the House of the Lord-Mayor

  With the sudden chaos of the Bazaar of Sails behind them the party is brought to an audince with Horace Galdmere, Lord-Mayor of Magnimar, by all appearance a fat foppish buffoon, but the party quickly learns that appearances can be deceiving. The party emerges from the meeting with the Lord-Mayor's writ and hospitality in his palatial manor. Silver sees the errors of his ways and agrees to purify his butcher's bib, destroying it in the process, but convincing Dina M Bunny to leave off her crusade for his little trash panda head.   The party hurriedly ties up some loose ends, saving Gaia Acari from slavers docked in the shadow, before attending a masquarade ball held to ease the worries of Magnimar's Great and Good. There the party discovers something is off with Justice Ironbriar the leader of the city's abritors. Orlaith breaks the enchantment that she discovers in his mind and he abrutly leaves, pursued by Agamon across the city's slate roof tops.  

A Mill of Horrors

  Ironbriar makes a beeline for the Seven Sawmill, all the way across the city from the Lord-Mayor's residence. There after a chaotic assault on the building the heroes discover that Ironbriar is in fact a high priest of Bhaal and master of the skinsaw cult, but he has recently been under Xanesha's spell, murdering those that she, and not the Lord of Murder chooses. The heroes dispatch the degenerate murderer and his goons, discovering a treasure trove of information in his private office, with leads pointing them once more into the shadow, this time to a ruined clock tower.  

The Shadow of Time

  The party discovers the hiding place of the mysterious Xanesha who turns out to be an ancient moster out of forgotten tales, a Lamia of the Old World. They do battle with this creature, her pet Slayer of Bhall, and the Runescarred Ettin that she keeps in her tower. They are successful, but not without causing a minor disaster when they topple the old leaning clocktower during the fight. As the rubble and dust settles a single piece of paper floats down on the breeze which porports to be written by Xanesha's sister and contains a scant few details of a shadowy network opperating in the region to harvest greedy souls for some unknown purpose.