Kay’s Journal – 1/8
Lyndon the boat man dropped us on the shore near the next
town over, but it was going to be about a half hour’s walk inland to get to the
town. The shore is very flat here, so when the tide rises it moves a long way
inland. It’s not as snowy and windy here, but it’s still very cold.
We ask Lyndon who we should talk to in town – the mayor, constable,
whatever. He tells us the mayor is Gregory Smelt. There were some shenanigans
worthy of 12 year-olds around that name, and then when we got to town we went
to find Mayor Smelt.
It was evening by the time we got to town. Gooseneck noticed
the windows of all the buildings are boarded up. It’s late and we’re tired, so
we go looking for an inn. Pujol investigates some of the closed windows (but
you know, not in a creepy way) and finds some are nailed shut, while others are
just shuttered. Light shows through the cracks of some of them.
We find the tavern, ‘The Humble Hearth’, and go inside. The
bartender half panics when we go in, but welcomes us once he sees we’re not looking
for trouble. Once the door closes, he relaxes. No one else is here. CornCob
gets us dinner, drinks, and a room for the night.
CornCob asks the innkeep why he’s so nervous – is there
anything we should know? The barkeep says there’s been trouble in town at
night, and it’s been getting steadily worse. First it was stuff getting stolen
or damaged overnight. Then people started disappearing – 4 have gone missing.
Pujol asks if there were signs of violence, and the innkeep says there were
signs of a struggle in the wheelwright’s home. There were some large boot
tracks left outside – easily 18”. Fathom notes that the feet of the giant we
fought a while back were not quite as big as that.
Gooseneck asks how many people are in town, and the innkeeper
says it’s about 60-70. CornCob asks if any animals have gone missing, but they
have not. He asks about the stuff that was taken, and the innkeeper tells us an
apprentice said it looked like some boxes were overturned and bypassed to get
to other stuff that could be magically useful for spell casting or whatever.
The barkeep says that happens a couple times a week.
He says that Aubrey, the local cleric, has tried to inspire people
to go out and put a stop to whatever was happening, but didn’t get anywhere.
The mayor is offering 500GP as a reward for finding whatever is doing this.
Fathom asks if there is any pattern to when the attacks
happen, and he says that he thinks it might be related to the cycle of the
moon.
Abran asks if anyone has seen it. Apparently ‘Joe’ says he
saw something one night, but he’s prone to exaggeration.
Fathom asks if any tracks are still in town, but no. CornCob
asks where to find Joe and the mayor. The mayor lives across the street, and Joe’s
house is on the outskirts of town. Abran and CornCob go knock on the mayor’s
door. He answers, and agrees to come over to the inn and talk to us.
Mayor Smelt reiterates the 500GP reward. CornCob asks him
for more details about what’s been going on. One of the townsfolk had apparently
meant to stop the attacks and collect the reward, but that didn’t work out.
Since then, more stuff has been stolen. The mayor thinks most of the activity
has happened when the moon is mid-waxing or mid-waning – luckily, that’s
tomorrow. We discuss borrowing a wagon and crates to use as bait. Fathom thinks
she can add a few magically useful herbs to add to the bait. Gooseneck asks if
the robberies have all happened in one place or if it’s been spread around. They
tell us that it’s mostly been in the central area of town.
We plan to set up the trap the next morning and go to get
some rest, setting watches.
Gooseneck and I share a watch, and in the middle of it I
hear loud, squelching footsteps outside. We look out, and Gooseneck sees a
large shape move around the corned of a house. Why wait until tomorrow if the
baddies are out there today? We wake the others.
Gooseneck, CornCob, Pujol, and Abran all go out the door to
chase after it. I go up to the roof and shoot an arrow in its direction, but I
don’t know if I hit anything. Fathom looked out the window, trying to sense any
magic out there, didn’t see any, and cast a blast at whatever was making the
sound.
Gooseneck runs up to it and bites it…and immediately regrets
this choice, as it turns out the figure is a large humanoid shape made of
half-rotted flesh and parts of different corpses. Ew. CornCob charged up and
summons a magical weapon to hit it. Abran runs in closer to it and shoots an
arrow at it. It turns and runs, but Gooseneck hits it as it tries to get away.
It keeps going, running toward the church. Pujol sprints after it.
I look around and see a second one on the other side of
town. I shoot at it, but miss terribly. I point it out to Fathom, and she casts
a spell at it.
Gooseneck chases after the first one, catches it, and rages.
His lighting goes off, and in the flash he sees that it has been sewn together
with metal wire, and the lighting appears to heal it rather than do it harm.
Axes, however, seem to do just fine, as he sees when he smashes it in the face
with his big axe.
CornCob takes it down with a bolt of magic. Abran asks if we’ve
seen anything else, and I point him to the second one. Pujol runs after him. I
take a shot at it, hit, then jump down off the roof to go after them.
Gooseneck takes the head off the first creature, just to be
sure. CornCob chases it as well. We’re all following it into the graveyard,
attacking it when we can. As we’re starting to close in on it, a pile of broken
gravestones and rubble shifts and forms into a large, very vaguely humanoid
shape. It’s big. And stone. This is going to be bad.
We manage to take out the second flesh creature, so at least
we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Fathom casts darkness on the stone
golem’s head. It can’t see us, but we can’t really see it, either. Still, a
couple of us take shots into the darkness. The thing ends up retreating into
the mausoleum it formed next to.
Well, at least we have some idea what’s going on now.
