Dearest Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch,
I have arrived in Sandpoint. What a hellhole. The only pub in town is one run by a bunch of kids with abandonment issues. It was all I could do to keep their grubby little mittens out of my pockets. Luckily, the locals are so starved for entertainment that I was able to set up shop in the tavern until the Pathfinder team arrived. Can you believe these locals have never heard of “Stacy’s Mum” before?! I mean, it hit the Magnimar charts at no.3 for a week!

The party you mentioned arrived, looking worse for wear, about a day later. There was a gruffy, tree-hugging dwarf named Ellwood that has a rather questionable level of affection for an ape; a drunk named Ness who had seemed to suffer from identity issues and doesn’t know what she wants to be; a wild eyed, fanatic dwarf priest named Bono with a “kick-the-cat” principal to training his acolytes; and the smoldering Ms. Pickpocket and self proclaimed orphan elf mother herself, Nastunye. Now I see why you asked me to keep an eye on them. Subtlety doesn’t seem to be in their vocabulary.

While chatting it up with the tavern locals and picking the odd hair out of my beer, the town’s sheriff gathers the crew for a bit of a chat. I see my opportunity and quickly introduce myself and offer my assistance. Only Bono has heard of “Stacy’s Mom” and I think he was lying to me.

The next morning the party was met by a wild-eyed farmer who claimed to have seen walking, flesh-eating scarecrows! My first reaction was to strike some sense back into the poor sod and send him on his way. But this group of Pathfinders took to the story like ants to sugar. So off we went, looking for spooky scarecrows. Luckily, I had some joke material regarding scarecrows that I practiced on Bono with. I think he like it. I’ll use it in my main act.

Come to find out, the scarecrows were spooky and did in fact move. Worse yet, they bit the druid’s monkey on the shoulder. The ape returned the favor by shredding the thing to pieces. A bit of an overkill, really. Note to self: do not cross the ape.

Once this happened, there was mad talk about burning the farmhouse, burning the fields, burning everything! I had the strike up a few songs to quell the rising bloodlust in this group.

So one of the scarecrows was, in fact, a human missus bound to a wooden post. That’s when I began to consider this to be another one of those bizarre sex cults I keep reading about in Magnimar. I kept my deductions to myself for the time being.

The missus takes off in a panic and the druid “snackles” her! It’s a new word I was forced to invent to describe what I saw! A “snackle” is a snuggling tackle. When the little lady took off over the pasture, the druid gave chase like a cat after a mouse and tackled her, rolling her into a snuggle position, gently caressing her hair to calm her down. It worked, but there was an uncomfortable period of time (at least to me) that the druid continued his soothing snuggle well after the lady had calmed down. I looked up in a little bit of disbelief to see if any of the others were perturbed with this extended length of time “snackling” but none of the other party seemed to register any discomfort.

Another of the scarecrow broke free of his bonds and scampered into the depths of the field. Perhaps fear of being “snackled”? Who can say. Regardless, the party considered moving to the farmhouse to secure a defensive position.

It was along the way that I spotted the large Varisian stone statue. Naturally, my college training kicked in and discoursed a long tale of the historical implications of these giant statues and their socio-economic and pseudo-arcane/religious symbolism they represented at the time of their construction in the Age Before Ages. No one really listened. Meanwhile, the drunkard mumbled something like “Hey, it’s the Stone Warrior.” and everyone nodded like she was a genius! I’m the one who studied in Magnimar, not her!

Pathfinder Skald, Former BackAlley Boys Member,
Artivus Spicklewick

We go back to the Tavern, and we see a bard telling a “Rectum, damn near killed him” joke. Nastunye checks her orphans. One of them has a handful of money and jewels.

The Sheriff asks what happened at the Sanitorium. Bono tells him what happened. The Sheriff warns us there are strange reports from the local farms. We meet the bard, Artemis Spicklewick. Bono gives Ness 1 potion of Cure Moderate Wounds. We sleep.

In the morning, Nastunye goes to get her stuff appraised. Bono tries to teach Lil Bro the way to god (and fails). Ness tries to identify what the wand that she found is.

The doors fly open and the Sheriff comes in with Farner Grump. We all go to the kitchen. The Farmer is trembling, “they’re all dead!” He talks about scarecrows eating everyone, even the dogs. He goes into shock. The scarecrows came from Hambley’s place – about 5 hours away. Ness doesn’t know Hambley specifically, but knows there are farms to the East.

We leave the Tavern. Ness checks for tracks and sees there are hurried footprints coming from the south. The road forks again and we see a sign that says “Hambley’s Place.” We notice things are eerily quiet.

We come to the boundary of two farms and we see a scarecrow. We poke the scarecrow. it smells like damp hay, not undead.

Scattered through the fields are scarecrows. Bono sees things in the field – three more scarecrows! The ones to the left and the right appear to be moving, says Elwood. One scarecrow is pulling and fractures the wood. It breaks the posts. Ness casts negate aroma. Elwood and monkey destroy the scarecrow corpse. Nastunye kills the other scarecrow. Ichor comes out instead of blood. They’re semi-dismembered. They’ve been gagged across their faces with wire, and have claw marks all over them. Ness tries to track how they got there, but only sees snapped wheat, and can’t tell where it came from.

We approach the third scarecrow, but it’s only straw. We head to the house. We see another scarecrow jerking. Ness lifts up the bag over the head with the ranseur, and we see a woman in fear and terror. Elwood undoes the gag, and she says “HELP GET ME DOWN!” Ness recognizes her as Letty Guffman.

She runs away, but Elwood stops her. Bono casts cure light wounds. She says her husband is missing. There is another scarecrow in the fields, it breaks off the beam, and looks me in the eye.

The scarecrow jumps down and runs away. We stay on the path to the house. The road forks to a smaller dirt road. Ness perceives an 18 foot high stone head, with a barn attached to it. The locals call it “The Stone Warrior.” Artie’s history class knows it’s from Varisians.

Letty is terrified, asking us to find her husband

Bono & Ness follow Kazarlu down to retrieve the notes from the basement.
Habe says “I think you should allow me to treat Melon.” Melon claims he’s fine. Melon is probably corrupted. Habe is worried that the same thing that happened with Grayst will happen with Melon. He asks us why did we come here in the first place? He wants to know when we’re leaving. Nastunye says we’ll leave as soon as we get the notes.

We go downstairs to get the notes, and it smells bad. Melon examines the Ratman. Kaizarlu gives the notes to Bono, who is excited. Bono tries to read them, but he’s full-on illiterate.
Bono expresses concern about the fact they had all those zombies in the basement. We should prrrrrrrobably do something about the room with the body parts.
Ness: “Why are there so many corpses down here?” He hands us the papers.

Nastunye looks around Habe’s room, and rolls a natural 20. She finds 41 gold.

We thought Habe turned into smoke, but it turns out only Melon saw that and Melon is going crazy so maybe that was just Melon?

Kaizarlu goes back upstairs, and asks Bono to be discreet.
Melon pokes the dead ratman with his finger, deeply. It is still warm. It feels very satisfying.

Ellwood goes into the room of one of the Teiflings. He pulls out a key, unlocks the door, and lets him in. Ellwood sees a bed, checks everything, and sees a locked chest. The Tiefling opens the chest for Ellwood, but there are no ears inside. The Teifling tries to make Ellwood feel guilty. Ellwood gives him a high five.

Ness tries to see if the bodies were murdered, but can’t tell.

Melon smells a delicious steak from a side room. Melon pokes the head of another corpse with his other finger. Ness says, “stop poking dead shit or I will blowgun dart you AGAIN!”

Melon freezes like a cat, and sticks his tongue out near his finger, and then licks his finger. Ness blowgun darts him. Melon squeals. The finger tasted delicious. Ness yells “Stop that!” and gets ready to blow dart him again.

Bono comes downstairs and channels positive energy. Ness gets healed for +5HP. Melon licks his other finger. Ness blow darts him, but misses.

Ellwood wants to have a drink with the Tieflings. Nastunye hears the commotion and comes downstairs.

Melon thinks the fresher body tastes better. Melon basically politely asks Ness if he can cut a bit off her and taste it. She says, “NOOOOOPE” and runs upstairs. Melon hits Ness for -5 dmg with his axe. Nastunye follows Ness up the stairs. Bono closes the door behind him, and tells Melon, “Don’t eat anything I wouldn’t eat.” Melon compares the axe blood with the blood on his fingers, like a fine blood sommelier.

We all run up and ask Habe and Kailzarlu. Kaizarlu says, “I’ve never seen it advance to this stage quite so quickly, we need to get him in a cell.”

Bono finds he has a sleep scroll. He thinks we can lure him into the room, and he can use his spell to put him a stone box.

Ellwood gets a glass and puts Ness’ blood in it. Bono gives Ness the scroll.
Ness has the sleep spell scroll, and the cup of blood. “I’m going in!”

Ness says, “Hey buddy!” and puts the cup of blood on the ground, and backs away. Melon senses motive and suspects something is up. But he starts gnawing on the Ratman!

Ness reads the scroll, but It doesn’t work. Bono is repulsed. He casts spiritual weapon. Melon puts the rest of the arm in his back pocket. Melon critical fails and loses his axe.

Ness runs upstairs. Nastunye asks the tieflings to subdue him. They say they will, if we can bring him upstairs. Elwood goes flying down the stairs to shield bash, but misses. Melon thinks this is all really weird, and everyone needs to calm down.

Ness rummages around for spells or something that can knock him out (but not kill him). She finds nothing on the bookcases, and runs to the Habe’s office.

Bono hits Melon for -8 dmg. Mace to the face! He says, “STOP. EATING. PEOPLE.” Melon rolls a natural 20 – pimp slap! Bono is dazed for 4 rounds, and loses -10 dmg.

Ness finds two vials in the office with a rusty liquid. Kaizarlu says, “What’s happening?”

Suddenly the air downstairs materializes into solid shards and does -12dmg to Melon. (Probably Kaizarlu). Nastunye says she’ll lick Melon lick her blood if he goes upstairs.

Ellwood summons a satyr, which charms Melon. The Satyr says, “Hellooooooooooooo…” and Melon critical fails and waves back at him with the dead arm in his pocket. Melon is charmed, but Bono’s spiritual weapon keeps attacking because Bono is still dazed.

The tieflings subdue Melon and bring him upstairs. We lock him in a cell.

Elwood has the satyr cast suggestion on us, to get us all to leave. We all think going to Sandpoint is a great idea, including Habe. Bono resists the suggestion, and thinks poorly of Ellwood.

Adjacent cell half rat guy pidgot makes noise – Ness wants to take the Ratman to me the Necromancer.
Ness looks around doesn’t find any life.
Footsteps, Yo! Ness stealth in the corner.
We hear, “Habe, are you all right?” Bono says they’ll be right down. Elderly man comes up the stairs, wants to talk to him – Kaizarlu is his name. Bono heals Melon. The tieflings follow and escort Habe downstairs. The old man sits at the table.

Tieflings look uncomfortable. They seem to be rethinking the deal.
Melon is festering. Blackness underneath it.
Habe and Ellwood and tieflings and Bono
Ellwood says we’re from the pathfinder society
Kazarlu asks if we’re staying the night
Tieflings are feeling uncomfortable.
Fog seems to be rolling in. It’s getting dark – even though it’s only late afternoon.
Have tells the old man that Grayst is dead, but Not all is lost – one is infected.
“I’m sorry Karl, but there’s been some changes to the administration of your facility.”
Something in the air is creeping me out and making me nervous. explicitly uncomfortable.
Bono – we are concerned with the security of the facility.
We hired your tieflings to help.
He says not to go downstairs because he hasn’t cleaned up.
Bono is saying he’ll go downstairs and check.
Melon stumbles down with vomit and leakage.
Bono tries to go down
there is a banging against the basement door before Karl gets it open. The old man stumbles back.
Tieflings are freaked out by it
Bono turns the key to open the door
sees a stone stairway – turns into natural rock basement carved into rock
We get Karl and Habe and guys into the office
I am shaken.
Melon goes into the office with the guys and greases up
Bono and folks head down the stairs
Karl touches him – you feel a little tired, but snap out of it.
Mildew stentch – also stench of rotting flesh – human shape corpses on tables. split from chest to groin, moving
Melon is helped to sit down
He sees Habe turn into an inky cloud
Melon tries to get out, but critical fumbles and hits himself
Melon is tied to a chair now
Ness kills one, Nass kills one, Bono is totally rocking it with full-room light damage to every one of them – they are dropping

inside the table leg there is a wand
you are all nauseated except ellwood

Ellwood summons a xorn, but it just barfs on everything. Eventually it eats the ratman

Karl tries to sweet talk Nastunye while holding a knife to
Pathfinders would love to learn more about goul fever
something special about this goul fever – it is curable normally but not really now – in his studies

We are still at the Hagfish bar. Nastunye asks the bar to calm down, and not attack the gecko. The bouncer is still freaked out and wants to gather people to attack, but the bar people stop believing him. Bono jumps out of the barrel and buys the bar a round of drinks.

Bono talks to (bribes) the bartender. The Scarnettis knew that Banny was skimming off the top. But they didn’t want to find a new worker, so they considered it the price of business.

Elwood turns back into a dwarf. He tries to convince Ness to go to the asylum. Ness doesn’t want to leave Nastunye behind. Elwood tells Ness that the Scarnettis knew what Banny was doing.

Nastunye leaves with Titus. Elwood tries to be friendly to them. Nastunye asks for a key so she could visit anytime, and Titus gives one to her. Nastunye says she has to walk Elwood home.

We all go back to Tavern McBarface and sleep. We have breakfast in the morning.

Sheriff Hemlock had the last witness at the asylum. We go to the asylum and knock on the front door, but there’s no answer. Nastunye looks through the window. Ness is really annoying and keeps knocking and saying “HELLOOOOOOoooooooooo.” Melon asks for lickers and the Doctor lets him in.

Ness tries to perceive if anything seems off, but it doesn’t. Nastunye asks if we can talk to the witness. The doctor, Erin Habe, asks us to sit. Ness is bored with the talking and starts touching all the books. Melon starts opening doors to find the bathroom. The Doctor leads Melon outside.

While Melon and the Doctor are outside, Bono talks to the Teaflings and asks where the witness is, but they say to ask the master. Ness perceives which doors are the most used, and it’s the back door by the stairs.

Nastunye tries to start opening doors, but the Doctor redirects her away like she’s a patient. Nastunye doesn’t like the Doctor touching her.

Habe takes us upstairs. He gives us the key to the his room, and says the patient’s name is Pidget. Melon hugs the patient. One of the doors is open. Melon still goes in for the hug.

The patient takes an aggressive swipe towards Melon. He is deranged, with tufts of hair sticking out where they shouldn’t. He is half-man and half-rat! A Ratman!

Elwood tells the Ratman to sit down, and it works. Bono closes the door to the cell. Ness gives the Ratman water, and he takes the waterskin.

Nastunye follows the Doctor downstairs. He starts packing up his bugout bag, and going out the door. Nastunye grapples the doctor, but he throws her off. He yells shrilly at the orderlies.

Ness tries to talk to the Ratman. He just looks scared.

Nastunye tells the tieflings she’ll pay them more, because the Doctor treats them like shit. She shows them gold. The tieflings subdue the Doctor.

Elwood says hi to the prisoners on the second floor.

Ness finds Grayst in a straightjacket. He smells bad.

Melon walks into a small room on the first floor and finds a bed.

Bono tries to walk downstairs to the basement. The Tieflings say not to go downstairs – even they won’t go down there.

Nastunye decides to question the Doctor. He says, “it’s not me, it’s the guy downstairs.” Caizarlu Zarren – a necromancer.

Ness can’t tell if Grayst is rotting – he just seems like he’s crazy. Ness asks him about the murders. He starts to shake and says, “they had it coming! They were greedy!” He’s trying to undo the straightjacket. Ness yells downstairs for help.

Bono runs upstairs. Grayst says, “The Master killed them!” Grayst’s flesh starts to peel back. Bono casts remove disease and it fails.

Elwood runs upstairs and summons a unicorn. The unicorn casts cure moderate wounds. Grayst bangs against the bars, breaking them. Ness takes -8 damage. Ness casts disrupt undead for -6 damage on Grayst.

Bono casts remove disease, but misses. Ness casts Ray of Frost for -4 damage on Grayst.

Nastunye runs upstairs and saps Grayst for -3 damage, but misses a grapple.

Grayst hits Ness for -12 damage. Elwood grapples Grayst, and Ness backs away.
Bono and Elwood pin him, and I tie him up. Melon smells him.

The Doctor talks Grayst down. He says, “Tell us what you know about the murders.”

Ness shows Grayst the 7-pointed star drawing. He takes a breath and sits down. He points at Nastunye, “His Lordship said YOU would visit!” He stares at Nastunye and keeps repeating “The Misgivings, the Misgivings…” Grayst starts smashing his head against the wall. With local knowledge, Ness knows that The Misgivings is a place, but can’t remember where.

The Doctor asks Grayst, “What’s troubling you?” Grayst says, “The Master will come soon, and bring them to The Misgivings.” He says, “The Master is infatuated.” He starts tearing off his own flesh.

Nastunye asks him, “Why are you the only survivor?” He says to Nastunye, “I have so much to tell you, come closer.” He leans forward and starts to convulse.. Melon leans in and whispers, “You can tell me…” Grayst slashes him across the face, for -8 damage. Ness shoots an arrow through Grayst’s head, killing him.

Bono cures wounds on Ness for +17.

We are still in the old weird man’s (Broderick) house. (Side note: Nas is carrying about 100 lbs of gold on her).

We ask Broderick if the Thassilonian magic could have made the Thistletop goblins smarter and more aggressive. He says they are easily manipulated and attracted to power, but they would not be able to use the power themselves.

The Great Catastrophe was a mage war. They rained fire from the sky, and cities were destroyed – gods of great power fighting each other. Sandpoint used to be a vibrant city, but now it’s underwater. The Thassilonians powers were derived from runes.

Sihederon rune – debate over what it means, he believes they stand for paggles.

The lunatic from the barn’s name is is Grayst, and he’s been sent to a sanatorium
At the moment the murders seem to be related to shady dealing. He knows about ancient thassalonian. It doesn’t seem to be a astrology thing happening.

We ask Broderick, why was he following us? He noticed we are heroes and have experienced the appearance of the ruin – word has spread.
what places are ruins?
thistletop – great titan that had fallen.
The Thassalonians knew all forms of magic – not just undead but powers from runes.
They didn’t believe in the divination school.

Nastunye distracts Broderick by bringing the cat behind
Bono detects magic – there is some magic, but nothing in the vicinity
Broderick allows Ness to inscribe some symbols from a book, and borrow a rune wikipedia.

We take Broderick to the Old Light (and bring both bros). It looks like a bunch of worn down stones.
Broderick says he thinks if you consider the height of what it was – you would be able to fire upon any thing. He believes it used to be a tower that had command over the harbor. Wizards spewed fire across the oceans. He says there used to be towers all along, and they all fell into the ocean.

We look at the stones and see grooves and cracks but doesn’t seem like actual runes. The rock looks beaten up and doesn’t look like anything special.
Bono detects magic, and detects a warm glow all around… like sun on your skin. Not directional, but a glow.

Ness rolls 32 perception and is perceiving the rocks really really well. She sees the matrix. As she hears more and more ideas from the old man, she begins to see a distinctive pattern in the rocks. Ness notices certain unnatural patterns in rocks and sihedron rune

Jill gives the old guy the cat back.

We hear the Scarnettis like to gamble by the Hagfish. We head there to try to find them.
The owner of the Hagfish recognizes Nas – is happy to see her.
" The Heroes of Sandpoint are always welcome at the Hagfish!"

Nora is an eel that hangs in the aquarium
Melon smells stuff
Elwood rolls badly, and doesn’t really get a sense of things other than there is some fear spreading among the people regarding the murders.
Everyone is sure the current murders are unrelated.

Bono is looking for a boat. We find a small table with dwarves that Bono worked with before
The dwarves aren’t concerned really with human murders.

Ness asks people about the murders, but scares them away.

Everyone spends 2 silver on drinks. Except for Nastunye.

Nas rolls well on diplomacy, and talks her way into playing cards
“Damn shame what happened to Banny – his trick was every log he would tally it down and embezzle bits.”
What about those other three murders? The three men who were killed in the barn?
“Those bastards got what was coming to them – they stole savings from my grandmother – they should have been arrested long ago!
They were con artists – would find rich and weak people and convince them of investments – greed caught up to them.” They were scum – everyone in the town knew someone who was scammed by them.

Nas asked about the Scarnettis.
Titus is the head of the Scarnetti family, and he likes to hang out at The Feedmans Bag
fat mans feedbag = where scummy gang people hang. The Sheriff has no jurisdiction there.
Titus has been hanging there lately. He likes to hang with criminal types.

Titus is a spoiled rich kid – hangs around dangerous types but is honestly a coward
He would not have the balls to commit murders, but someone who would be willing to would hang out at The Feedbag.
And maybe Titus would reward somebody who would?

Nastunye disguises herself and goes into the Hagfish.
Ellwood turns into a beetle
Bono and little bro are jumping on the roof, Bono hurts himself
Ness is stealthing

Nas is a bad hottie – dirty she looks like she hasn’t bathed but hasn’t lone ranger. but still attractive and diplomatic. Nastunye buys a drink and Titus comes over.
Bono is trying the crate and barrel maneuver – gets tipped over by drunken guy, but convinces him he’s crazy and gets into position
A seaman is hitting on Melon – intensely interested – strolls down the beach with him.

Ness perceives Titus talking to Nastunye.
Titus says “i know who you are, do you know who I am”
Nas is a little put off
“may I sit down” “I’m not the boss of you” “I’m kind of a big deal around here”
talks about his assets
Nas asked, why aren’t you surprized to see me here?
he says " you must be here looking for me"

Suddenly, the front door of the bar comes crashes open – a large man comes out and asked “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” – Ness recognizes Gresel Tenuar, the bouncer.

Ness rolls between the legs of the huge man. He swings a table leg at her and misses.
Ness runs away, but gets hit. She tells the giant gecko to bite him, and it does 6 dmg.

-
nas tries to suck up to Titus but rolls diplomacy 1
-

The bouncer Gressel, comes back in screaming from the gecko bite.

Melon tells the seaman he has no wiener. He tells him it will never work, and gives him 1 silver. Harlon the seaman smacks him and turns away

Titus has drawn a longsword and is standing at the door
trying to be a hero

Titus has invited Nas to go home with him cause he thinks she is frightened – Ness is watching from the back window and wants to stealth and follow.

Starting at the lumbermill, hanging with the sheriff.

Ibor Thorn and vin vendor (dad) are in jail. He is not faking, he’s actually upset and visibly shaken. There is still blood on him – dried. Jill uses diplomacy with him. He came in and saw them -

Lumbermill is owned by Scarnetti family (who are shady). Dubious. Melon offers him kibble. Bono asked if he feared for his life – he starts and thinks, wow, maybe I should! Bono can tell he is actively hiding something / holding something back. Ibor cracks and says, “I knew it was a bad idea.” He reveals that Banny had been skimming money from the profits. Ness knows the Scarnettis are ruthless, and hold loyalty above all else.

families – one dead at glassworks, one shipping, one lumber, one mayor. lumber is scarnettis, we know they hold loyalty really high and are vengeful but we don’t know that they are associated with the dark arts

The blood on him seems normal. He tells Nas that he didn’t recognize that smell – Just that it was rotting flesh. He saw smears on the handle of blood that looked like someone small. He thinks the girl got a hit on whatever attacked her.

We convince the Sheriff to let Ibor go.

Elwood asks why we have the dad in custody – he went ballistic when he found out his daughter died. Ness gives him her flask and and he smashes her hand and drops the flask. He’s wearing his work clothes from the general store. He knew Latrine was sneaking out.

He is mad at us and telling us it is our fault. Nas intimdates him back and says “we’re the only ones that can help you” and he starts to weep and confesses everything to us about he feels responsible cause he should have done more. We remember that his daughter hit on Bono or something and so is a little sketch. We win him over and he tells us how much he hated Banny.

We didn’t get anything good from those guys, but Sheriff takes us 1 floor down in the garrison. We’re in a holding area with 3 dead bodies that were found at the barn. It’s been a couple of days, he pulls the sheet off it and the same rune is carved on the chest of the first body. Ness perceives a note on one of the bodies.

we hand the note to the sheriff he knows the guys the note is addressed to, they are scammers. Sheirff says crazy blood covered guy lunged at them – he was near the barn where they were killed. He’s at the sanatorium 1 day ride south.

The bodies are naturally rotting, but they do have the same smell as the lumbermill. They have claw marks and runes on them.

We get the Sheriff to release both prisoners.

“I am chaotic neutral so I can do whatever I want” -Jill

We go to the orphanage, but Ness doesn’t care so she goes to the Inn. We donate 1,000 gold. The matron is beside herself. You notice off in the corner a child away from everyone else. He is taking in the breath of the situation and understanding the futility and sadness of being an orphan. There is a wisdom to the kid. Bono goes to the mistress and asks what the kids story is…

Brodrick – well he’s special. His family died 5 years ago in one of the fires – far as we know he comes from a line of craftsmen. He’s a smart child. Bono sees something of himself in the child – he sees a little Bono who just needs a chance. Who is also a dwarf. Little Bro is 11. I offer little bro a monkey ride and he takes it.

We go back to the Inn, and ask Ameiko about the killings. They tried to scam her too… no wonder that they are dead. They were never willing to put in hard work. Everyone in town hated the dudes. Ness asked Ameiko how they tried to scam her. They offered her “an amazing investment opportunity” about 4-5 weeks ago. But everyone in town knew about them, so they started travelling further out.

Ameiko says they recently were cheating the scarnetti folks. the youngest scarnetti – they were cheating courinn who is the youngest Scarnetti.

We head to the docks. Ness notices there’s a guy following us she dips into stealth and gets behind him. Melon rolls for seamen. We stop and pretend we’re lost. Ness recognizes him as Broder Quink, an academic historian. Ness whispers “Broder” in draconic in his ear, just to fuck with him.

He says he’s been studying this area for a long time – he is a thassalonian scholar. He doesn’t know what the symbol is. he has studied the genology of the local area. the lighthouse is a great engine of war – it used to destroy armies
I have spent my life studying – that is not a simple cove, but a bay they used to trap full navies and burn them with this – (he’s ranting a bit).

We almost scare him away, but then we follow him home and get him talking. Ness demands that he teach her Thassilonian. The old light was not a lighthouse – it is an engine of war and was powered by incredible mages (was his belief) that spewed fire at naval threats. It was called the “Old Light.”

Ness shows him the symbol on her necklace. He says the local churches thought this symbol – the carved symbol – we think that these represent the 7 orders of magic. , but not divination because thassilonians didn’t think divination was a thing. This is evidence the Thassilonians believed in magic, and people are still hiding the secret of their downfall and what they are actually capable of. Their downfall was like a 1500 years ago.

Bono shows him the books he copied down. he says, “This is dark magic – whatever you can do get away from it. he says all that we’ll get is pain. pain will follow you. This is going to harm you. We don’t need to inherit this.”

It’s clear Broder has been alone for a long time. The sihedron rune represented the seven virtues of humanity, or the seven orders of magic. Or the seven sins. Paggles.

Did review

Previous owner ran off – anything we want to do?

Ness sees tracks going into water – smells like zombies. Claw marks on the tree with rotten residue… Ness barely keeps from retching.

Tattered pieces of flesh and bad smell by the window. We scrub stuff.
Ellwood summons an air elemental to blow out all the bad smell.

Melon sees a tattered bit of blue cloth in the river. Ness gets it out with the ranseur.
Ness tries to climb the tree with the claw marks and falls out taking -3 damage

We go to sleep in the Tavern, and then head to Rusty Dragon Inn in the morning. – give Ameiko a big hug, eat some bagels. We ask about shayla. Shayla comes down. She totally has resting bitch face. She says “I need to be moving soon”

Pathfinders are the best of the best – they seek out adventure and knowledge – venture captain propagates that back to the world. Being in it is like being kind of celebrity. She says words of our deeds is to decide if we are worthy.

Ness asks if she’s heard of any undead in the area. She’s heard of a few reports, but they should not be happening as far as Sandpoint. Typically undead are not isolated issues.

We found a bargast and rescued people and killed goblin tribes.
She is noticably shaken and turns white when we tell her all our stories. She kind of doubts some of what we are saying. Appreciate the information.

The smell is the sign of some type of ghoul infestation – keep people indoors at night because they spread. I’m heading out and will be back within a week.

Ghouls can be turned/raised by necromancer things – can be controlled by dark wizards. Ghouls are not entirely undead. You can be infected through a curse. Shayla leaves and heads for Magnamar.

We head to the mayor place. Kendra – is worried about the ghouls. We tell her to tell the citizens not to go out at night. She says Gavyn probably retired to the woods -she gives us directions to a cabin that he might be at.

We get our horse, and trade beer for other horses, and head out to find the guy.
We head to just south of raven roost. We come to the place and knock and nobody answers. Ness sees a body on the bed. The person is dead or has shallow breathing. Dead smell has zest and suffering in it. Air is warm and humid. Is Gavin – eyes sunkin in, skin looks pale and sullen, he looks shriveled and emaciated – he is turning into a ghoul basically.

Elwood casts detect magic, and he has a magic aura – He breathes deeper after Elwood casts lesser restoration on him. We take some of his clothes off and he has large black gashes and black blood. Bono casts cure moderate wounds. Gavyn starts feeling better.

He says what are we doing here? Ness gives him beer. You all have to leave, I am cursed, everyone around me is going to die. The stronger he gets the more manic he becomes.

They’re going to kill me – you can’t be here

Elwood summons a unicorn – it uses charm and and heals him.

The Great Unpleasantness – in which his brother was murdered. That day – whatever killed his brother is after him and the only way he can find peace is by leaving. He recognized the feeling from when his brother was killed. Ness perceives the cabin is relatively undisturbed.

The important thing about the brewery was doing it with his brother, so since his brother was dead he is ready to die.

The guy who worshiped the bird demon – folks who got that carved on their door got killed. and he had all their eyes so they caught him, but this is very different from that.

Shortly after murders then cathedral burned down, when they rebuilt is when we all got there.

Towards the end he is regretting and holding back – he says that he’s sorry. Sorry for what he did. I was greedy, I shouldn’t have tried to… I have cheated a lot of people in my day – this is what I will pay for what I have done. He cries and cheated people to make the brewery. He scammed a lot of people and got investors and basically ill-gotten gains.

Nas wants to steal all the old man’s money. We convince her to 6500 to orphans – leave 1000 for the man. Ness goes outside to braid the horse’s hair. Gavyn is OK with giving the money to the orphans to atone for what he’s done.

It’s almost nighttime, so we camp out and sleep.

We head back to Sandpoint in the morning. We see guards on the bridge, and they tell us the Sheriff wants to meet us and wants to talk to us. The sheriff says there’s been a murder at the sawmill.

“Let me thank you for all you’ve done for sandpoint – we have a problem – it needs dealing with, we have a murderer in our midsts. We may have another murderer.” Two workers were killed. They are the two men from our Tavern party who ran the lumbermill. The lumbermill is on the dock.

Mill is locked down, but this is the second set of murderers. I’m afraid that this murderer

The sheriff also has a note, that was found at the scene, for Nastunye.

Banny and Latrine are the people who got killed. pretty brutal. Bono walks up to Banny. Banny has been strung up on hoooks and Katrine has been cut in half. Smells like undead. Banny was impaled with hooks and his face skin was flayed. He’s only identifyable by his tattoos on his arms.

Ruins are carved on his chest. We aren’t rolling well enough to read them. Ness tracks to see

Ellwood looks at patterns on the ground and tries to track – one person was barefoot – footprints came in from the docks / pierside. Ness sees an axe on the ground , embedded. There are fragments of bone and flesh on the axe. It stinks. Looks like she was clawed and mangled.

Eber and Banny usually run it late into the night. He has eber and ven vindor (father of katrine) when they went to get ven he raged so he is in jail but they don’t think he did it.

Ness sees another set of tracks that point to the outside. The water is 30ft deep, but someone could have swam across.

Nastunye checks the doors, which are locked. There are footprints going up the wall to a window.

Ness sees a set of tracks in the corner, behind the sacks, coming from outside. There is evidence that someone probably hid there a while. Ellwood checked the lady wasn’t wearing underwear, so probably they were banging.

Two other people were murdered a few days ago at a barn, outside town. There was one survivor from the barn, who is now a raving lunatic.

language is ancient thassalonian.
symbol of lamashtu is like a three eyed penis.

Bono goes to the marshes and sees there is a dry spot, a set of footprints were sunk in the mud – from where they are you can clearly see the lumber mill. Someone had been there a while. Tracks go into the river.

found struggle, axe with flesh – something unholy on the axe. faintest residue of magic – unnaturally rotten and putrid. is decaying far beyond it’s lifespan of decay. some way to view lumber mill from opposite.

We having a party with open mic
Contest to retell bard story of our heroic acts
Winner gets to name the bar
We have a photo booth with the claw
Ness puts out her hair for people – but nobody likes it

gavin previous owner is crying upstairs
ranger lady came in but won’t tell us stuff

people come in
Banny harker
ebor thorn – manage the local mill
Katrine vinder – daughter of general store
carpenters guild – aesrick battlehorn
absolar – cleric from the church
Kendra comes in – is mayor
sir jasper – leader of merchant guild
Amako showed up from rusty dragon
alma – runs bakery – we saved her daughters
seer – niska navaski
cidrik – theatre guy

ranger woman is coming from mage academy up north – free trader – keeps to herself
Melon chats up mayor
he gets invited to the next council meeting – asks her about laws. law of ATTRACTION amirite?

Nas talks to the guys – they were deep in conversation when she got there – keeps rolling threes and doesn’t find out anything

before nast wasks up to guys I can see they are in an argument – benny is pointing over at general store owner. she seems uncomfortable but is standing back. shit is going down

also notice niska the seer psychic lady is uncomfortable – not siezuring but almost
shava is bored kinda yawning.
niska is late 60s eyes rolled back – I roll a 6, she doesn’t say much and thanks us kindly and wants to leave – she’s very sincere

Shayla hidemark is the ranger name – Ness finds out
Bono is going to run for leader of merchant guild – challenges sir jasper
sir jasper needs deveron to sign for the inn – collect the gold and stuff
they both go quiet when his brother comes up
slew of murders that went out back then – he had murdered people and 7 pointed symbol carved into them.
they caught the guy -

Melon tried a gentle flurry of blows on the mayor – she wasn’t really into it
Bono is saying respectful things up stairs but rolls a 4 and didn’t get much else
Gavin is still up there with Bono – he gets out his book and then rolls a 2 out of a 100
Nastunye gets everyone to buy another round
gets the kids to work it -

katrina has a drink – she looks mad
she was staring at banny
she’s beautiful
why are you drinking alone – I roll a 3
shes pissed off at those men

Melon rolls a 3 so the mayor takes her leave – kendra devron
Ness is talking to the ranger again – shows her the bow to say check this out
Ness rolls a 1

3 bands – flaming bastards, sullen mermaids, horse rats, tavern mcbarface
Now named Tavern McBarface

she starts to cry – that mother fucker beeny we’ve been together for so long and he won’t even defend me to his business partner
Melon drops names to the theatre guys
table read

we made – 214 gold

goul humanoid decaying at his limbs – running towards the window

Nas runs outside
Melon chats with ranger
Bono guards the door
Nas throws a dagger and hits it
She pulls a dagger out from somewhere and picks her teeth with a dagger

his viens look black looks like he was mauled by an animal
there is no magic
Melon he rolls a 14 to disarm her
you see a figure – eerilie familiar speaks to the creature – creature disappears and walks into the

she is venture captain of this area – bringing us invite to this area
I will see more of you soon
shes a little reluctant to
she will be staying at the rusty dragon, will talk to us in the morning.
why would someone want to kill him
Baono – I’m tired of your shit –
I’ve seen that before, I know what that is – I have to leave I have to leave I have to leave
guy runs out the door

Ness trades the ring with Nastunye for the seven-pointed star necklace. Nas puts on ring – and her hand ripples like a heat distortion. A magical shield appears around her arm +2 AC

We spin around the pillar back to unopened stone doors. No keyhole but Melon puts in key anyways. Something is off about the dark room. Four pillars with a dome ceiling, sarcophogi, statue of a man with a glave and a book. Ness does a blow dart which should have hit the statue but you can’t hear it hit. Bono raises the symbol of Torog and goes in praying.

Bono sees briefly a moving figure and hits it with channel positive energy. For a brief second the room shines bright, but within the shadow there are forms that are nothing but shadow. 5 points damage. Light flashes out. Ness sends dancing lights into the room but they get dim.

Melon runs in with tactical lunge hug. He hugs nothing but sees evidence of things moving. Thing rakes across him with chill and feels weaker – strength reduced by 2. Nas throws a dagger. Ness does damage with telekenetic fist – Elwood tries a silver dagger it doesnt work at all. Melon has magic Ki attack plus magic weapon – he looks like sonic the hedgehog and blows up with light – metaphysical plain. Melon was almost exhausted but then he forted.

We keep hitting it. Ness fists the darkness, Bono tanks and gives us magic weapons, Melon whacks it, Nas killed it.

Bono descecrates the sarcophagus. Nas steals the wine from Melon. Drinks it. We all suddenly feel like she is important. She flexes. She is too busy answering everyone’s AMA’s to be bothered with looting the tombs.

Melon finds bright blue gem. Elwood finds Urns. Elwood kisses the goo from them. Bono finds scrolls but gets nothing from it. Nas gets bone dust. Nas feels something scurry up her leg and then she feels fine. Probably undead magic to posess her, but really you feel fine. This will probably come back later!

Wall slides open and Melon goes down. big room but it collapsed and there is a tide pool. Mural and carvings of mountain shrouded in clouds with a stern guys face carved into it – he was on other stuff too but we don’t know who he is – treasure and stacks of gold around it. We are at water level but can’t see outside. It seems like something hit the room from outside. We can hear the tide going in and out, we can see a tidepool, but we’re inside.

Bono wades into the tidepool and sees shimmer of golden light. Nas swims and sees a massive 5ft helmet made of gold. Helmet lurches and we attack a crab. Krabby!

Ness jumps in because she hates animals, and wants to eat the crab, and starts drowning, Melon finds some dill and makes splashes in the water. Bono does 1 damage. We kill the crab but Ness is drowning under its claw. Nas tries to save her and almost drowns. Elwood tries to help and roles a one and starts drowning. Then Melon starts drowning. Then Nastunye uses the rope and saves Ness! Bono helps.

dive in, swim through channel, find the way out – need DC 20 swim check.

Ness doesn’t see any danger in the water, other than nature itself. Elwood swims through. He sees the light. He rolls a good roll and finds the exit and there was much rejoicing.

We finished the tutorial!