The case of the Shriveled Woman & Drowned Dwarf. Report

General Summary

Date: 7 Hobe 527 The heroes were puttering about the Royal Boar (and elsewhere) waiting for one of the Nickerson family to inform them Thomas was ready to answer their questions when Stenn Marshall enters the tap-room. Stenn Marshall is a human priest of Dreva in his late middle-age. He had been looking for Faux Molder, but was informed Faux was busy and was sent here, to the Royal Boar, to recruit the heroes to solve his mystery.

  The mystery: Overnight two prisoners in the Springwells DPS station lock-up died. Both in the same holding cell. On the morning check-in of 7 Hobe 527, Evelyn Applegate appears shriveled, almost mummified, and Borrin Lokack appears to have drowned.
  Evelyn Applegate was brought in as the main suspect in the murder of her new husband, Peter Applegate. On 3 Hobe 527, Claude Applegate, the deceased’s older brother was napping upstairs after the wedding, awoke hearing screaming downstairs. He rushed downstairs and found Evelyn covered in blood over Peter’s body. The DPS was summoned and Evelyn was taken to the Springwells station.

  On 6 Hobe 527 The DPS responded to a summons at the Denn Smithy, where an itinerant dwarven priest Borrin Lokack was taken into custody for assaulting Georgina Denn. According to multiple witnesses, the priest grappled Georgina and used a knife to remove her tongue. He was restrained by several bystanders from any further injury to Georgina and surrendered without incident to The DPS officers.

    The Heroes investigation.
  The heroes determine that Evelyn’s corpse contains no blood or any other fluid. This desiccation happened very quickly and there are no visible wounds except for cracks in her skin around the base of her fingers and toes.
  Borrin’s body and clothing is sopping wet, his face is bluish. Investigation reveals Borrin is not covered in water, but instead a thin slime like a thin jelly or thick saliva. Borrin has an odd injury on his right index finger. Investigation reveals the most likely cause is a self-inflicted bite wound. Further investigation shows the remains of a faint circle in blood around the corpse of Evelyn and Detect Magic spell reveals a used reagents of the Transmutation school of magic in the cell near Borrin.

  Other note: After asking permission, All the Light Touches uses his lockpicking tools to open the locked cell in full view of Stenn and the Watch Captain, Vincent Shaw.

    The Heroes then decide to question Claude Applegate where they learn the following:
  1) Evelyn was Peter’s 2nd wife.
  2) Posey was Peter’s 1st wife. They divorced after three turbulent years of marriage about 7 months ago. Claude did not particularly like Posey but wanted Peter to be happy and was hoping for an heir to the Applegate family.
  3) Evelyn was a servant in the household while Peter and Posey were married. Evelyn left just before Peter & Posey’s divorce.
  4) After the divorce, Peter started a relationship with Evelyn. The household swirled with rumors of an adulterous relationship between the two occurring prior to the divorce.
  5) Claude liked Evelyn finding her to be a pleasant and sweet woman, but he was aware of the rumors and found them disturbing.
  6) Claude was devastated by the death of his brother.
  7) The room where the murder occurred has been cleaned.
  8) When Claude heard the heroes were going to question Posey, he asked them to request Posey return the valuable Applegate family items she took.

  When the Heroes go to Posey’s shabby apartment they learn:
  1) Posey is dead. She appears drowned and sopping wet just like Borrin.
  2) There is a faint trail of slime from an open window to a spot on the ceiling above the body of Posey.
  3) Posey has several valuable items around her, incongruous in an apartment of this poor quality.
(including a knife with a decorative jeweled handle.)
  4) In the kitchen area there are two lead bricks and a chisel.
  5) In a small garden area outside the apartment, the heroes dig up two lead bricks with these words, crudely carved into the lead:
  a. Peter Applegate, SHOULD DIE OF BROKEN HEART
  b. Evelyn Applegate, SHOULD FEEL BETRAYED BY EVERYONE
  6) There is a faint trail of slime between apartment and nearby sewer grate.

  When the heroes enter the sewers by the nearest service access they split up. They were unable to access the sewers through the drain the slime trail lead to. Rilitar, Vectis, All the Light Touches, and Gyrah encounter Kenvoig, Gnink, and Uk, (goblin sewer maintenance crew) fighting off a pair of large pale yellow five-foot long centipedes with eight long tentacles protuding from a toothy head.

  Ferzith and Grasshopper encounter an area thick with spider webbing.

Darien, Vectis, and Ryker encounter a seemingly empty area and are ambushed by a Gelatinous Cube.

After defeating these monsters the heroes question Uk. Uk is very thankful for the heroes killing the tentacled centipedes and assures the heroes, “He never seen nothing or nobody that never wasn’t not supposed to not be down in the sewers.” He continues, “He hasn’t not seen never any invisible monsters in these sewers.” Uk concludes with, “Our shift is over so we can’t be not going.”

The Heroes are discouraged by their inability to glean more information from the goblin sewer workers and the difficulty of finding a monster no one has seen in miles of sewer, so they return to the Springwell’s DPS station.

At this point, Ryker recalls the lore of Hoar, god of vengeance, who is often invoked in a dwarven families book of grudges. Part of this recalled lore, is one way to invoke Hoar is to carve your wish for vengeance on a lead brick and bury it at night, while reciting a certain prayer

Reaching the Springwell’s station, the heroes learn Claude Applegate has been found drowned inside his home. Investigating this crime scene yields another faint slime trail from the sewer grate into an open window.

The heroes decide the monster is related to Evelyn and is finding and is killing the people who have recently wronged her. The next target seems to be Stenn Marshall or Watch Captain Vincent Shaw. The heroes return to the DPS Springwells station to prepare to catch the monster before it kills again. The monster attempts to misdirect the heroes by killing Jon Trow, who was working alone in the next-door grain mill.

The monster’s ruse is unsuccessful, Ferzith did not rush out to investigate the scene of Jon Trow’s murder, and spotted a clear ooze flowing under one of the DPS’ station doors. Ferzith’s cried out and the hero’s returned to the station. The monster retreated, hiding in one of the drains in the large cell. When Hergatz stepped next to the drain it ambushed him, enveloping him.

Hergatz’s companions responded to this emergency by beating the ooze covering Hergatz, doing more injury to Hergatz than the creature. Hergatz only lost consciousness twice and eventually the heroes through a combination of brute force and vicious mockery defeated the creature.

Stenn awarded the heroes with 300 gp and their reputation with the DPS improved.