Arc 2: The Bells of Heathersly

Plot points/Scenes

Pre-Game: Because of their contact with Radley the leper, each PC must make a Vigor roll (at -1 because they spent the night in the leper's cave) to avoid contracting leprosy. If they do: At the start of every game session, the character makes a Vigor roll. Failure means she’s Exhausted from spasms, coughing fits, or similar issues for that session. A Critical Failure means he will expire before the end of the session. The GM is encouraged to let heroes go out in a blaze of glory if possible. Success means the victim is Fatigued for the game session, and a raise means he gets a second wind and suffers no ill effects.

13 Avril 1005: The curtain rises on our investigators and the wise woman Candyce as they stand near the perimeter of a long-abandoned henge of standing stones in the Goatswood Forest near Heathersly. You had just pushed your way through a tangle of thick underbrush to emerge in an area completely devoid of plant growth. In fact, the edge of the brush line stops unnaturally sharply and abruptly six feet from the perimeter of the stones, except where one of the twelve-foot menhirs has recently been dug up and has fallen outward to lie across the barren ring and has smashed the undergrowth flat beneath its immense weight. The rain falls steady and cold, and you can smell the muddy ground beneath your feet and...baking bread?

Stigala, a movement catches the corner of your eye and you turns to see an whitish apparition of a man standing on the fallen menhir facing the center of the circle. His image is a monochromatic white and slightly translucent, but still very clear to you eye. He is armored in a suit of steel from shoulders to feet, fitting his body more closely and perfectly than any harness you've ever seen. He wears no helmet nor carries no sword, but he bears a shield that he braces with both hands against an unseen force, and occasionally rocks backwards as if being struck by powerful invisible blows.

Smok, you hear a terrible voice, not outside in the air but inside in your head, in a language like none you have ever heard. It sounds like great rocks clashing together, and yet you understand its message: it demands that you dig up and topple stones of the circle. The urge to obey is great, almost primal, and you barely resist the urge to immediately drop and begin digging with a stick, your hands, or whatever you can find.

Rowan and Elric, you see a great black wolf emerge around the perimeter of the circle about ten yards from you. You saw no branches move nor heard so sign of its passing. It is the size of a 6-month calf and just as stocky, and its snarling with a lowered head and bared yellow fangs.

Draw initiative.

For the GM

Stig's apparition is the ghost of Caestir, but it will not interact with the PCs at the time. The wolf that Rowan and Elric see is very real and very material, and it will attack on its first initiative, doing two Fighting attacks per round at -2 each. Smok will be drawn into his own mental realm, fighting the dragon as a Dramatic Task in his own mind or be puppeted by the dragon to stab the priests.

THE BLACK WOLF
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6,Strength d8, Vigor d8
Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Stealth d8
Pace: 10; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
Special Abilities: Bite: Str+d6.Speed: d10 running die.

The wolf will attack until killed (Extra), at which point is which dissolve into the air.

Smok's Struggle

Smok has to collect 4 tokens in 3 rounds to win this contest. You see a full fire-breathing dragon of legend burst up from the center of the henge, and when you try to run into the underground, you find that the once-yielding bushes are an impenetrable wall. Whatever he does, he rolls versus a 4 to succeed like a dramatic task and narrate appropriately. If he wins, he can act normally. If he fails, he is puppeted to stab a priest. The others see Smok standing stock still in catatonia for 3 rounds.

Structure

Exposition

Catch-Up

We resume our story on the 12th of Avril, 1005. In the week following the rescue of the victims of the tigermen, the following things are worth noting:

PCs can make a Natural Healing roll to recover wounds.
Benedicte Kampari's leg wound has mostly healed.
Pastore Roguelin's arrow wound still confines him to bed. Eisley the Beadle is now taking care of the feeding of Hygerd, and Rowan is called upon to lead Adorations.
Benevolence returns to her farm.
Rowan possibly regrets leaving Aditi to be killed?
Cedric and Lunette want to get married?
PCs may decide that one of their trauma/terror conditions is relieved, but they must explain what they did to achieve it (Adoration and prayer? Confession? Drinking? Carousing? make a Spirit check to recover)

A Strange Book

Elric, in the intervening week, you have had a chance to study the book that Eisley the Beadle was given by the one-eyed man who led the cult in the swamp. It is called "La Gente Mi Fa Incazzare," (closet translation: "People Piss Me Off") and it was written in Lingua Santa in the year 854, supposedly by the saint herself. It tells the story of Saint Eselde of the Eye and catalogs her 99 grievances against various people. The last two pages are written in a different hand, and appear to be a Ritual of Summoning to call Eselde in person, but it mentions The Eyepiece (Oculare in Lingua Santa) as a required offering. However, neither you Eisley doesn’t know what that is.

The Cupboard is...Bare?

Smok, you have finally worked through all the Sacrifinale cremations that were needed, and have taken a couple of days off. This morning, you get up a little later than normal and look through the cupboards for something to break your fast. A quick search finds nothing, and a thorough search immediately after finds exactly the same: there is no morsel of food in your hut. Hungry, you turn to your father's things, which you have not had time to go through. Perhaps he had stashed away some piece of salted meat or a dried fish. You look through his meager possessions and find nothing, except a small locked box that he kept by his bed and never seemed to open. You remember the small key on a cord you found around his neck when you prepared his body for his final journey.

Pulling out the key, you insert it into the lock and turn. The lock clicks, and the box opens. Inside the felt-lined box are two small items: a gilded pin made of three interlinked triangles set with a small circular onyx stone in the center, and a small, flat leather pouch about five inches long by two wide. Inside are about a dozen flat steel tools that have strangely-shaped ends. You think they might be picklocks. Unfortunately, they are not food. For that, your best bet is to get a handout from the Church of St. Claremont.

Merda Santa

Stigala, A week after Holika and the uproar that surrounded it, Disprezzo finds you and says he has something that he should show to someone who might know what to do with it: perhaps Stig's newly ordained friend(s)? When the meeting is arranged, Disprezzo pulls out a folded, very worse-for-wear page of parchment. The parchment is foul smelling and streaked with brownish smears, and the illustration is literally so disturbing that a Vigor roll is needed to avoid nausea. When asked about the provenance of the parchment and what defaces it, the miner says the smears are Merda Santa (literally: holy shit). He discovered the excrement-covered parchment when he was cleaning out the cesspit under the cell of Hygerd below the Church of the Unfailing Bastion. The page bears a disturbing drawing:

The image seems wrong, somehow. If you look at it too long, it seems to almost move under your gaze, though when you blink and look again it looks unchanged. Disprezzo is clearly unnerved by it. The goblin wants nothing more to do with it.

A Benevolent Report

Rowan: That same morning, Benevolence "Ben" Wright comes to St. Claremont's looking for you or, better yet, the Inquisitor Benedicte Kampari. She relates that after the events of Holika Eve, she took a couple of days in town to recover and then made the trip down the mountain to her farm. As she dropped down into Longshadow Dale, she noted that the snow of the recent days had completed melted on the valley floor and the air was humid and thick with mist. She also noted (with a note of envy) that her neighbor's crop seem to have grown nearly six inches in the last few days, though her own barley and peas seemed to not have grown much at all.

The next morning, the sun was well up in the sky when Ben awoke, and she realized that she had overslept; normally she wakes to the morning ringing from the bell tower of Heathersly the name for a small collection of storehouse, paddocks, and a small chapel that serves the farms of the area. As Ben went about her normal chores, she noticed a few hours later that the noon bells seemed to not have rung either. Now concerned, she headed into Heathersly.

She had no sooner approached than she saw that the bell tower had been toppled, lying in a long pile of broken bricks in the middle of the plaza! The base of bell tower formerly included the archway into the passagio dei of the small chapel, but now the entrance to the sacred mound was just a ragged hole filled with loose bricks and broken mortar. When she asked what had happened, she was told that the people themselves knocked it down. The people say they did it to send a message. They repeat the same phrase over and over: "Si les dieux sont sourds, on crie." (If the gods are deaf, we shout).

Ben went to Berwyn the bailiff. Berwyn is not a priest, but he normally reads from the Chronicle of the Paladins when the people of the Dale gather for services every few days. Berwyn said to her, "Where have the Gods been where our crops have frozen? Where were they when my wife Kaylene died last fall? The Pastore prayed over her, but did the Gods answer? No! If the Five Gods refuse to help us, perhaps we need to find a Sixth!"

Ben was understandably upset by this heretical comment, and went back home. She assumes she did some more chores and went to bed...but she has no memory of it! The next thing she remembers was the clanking of the cowbell on her milk cow's neck, and it was early morning again! Very disturbed by this lapse, she got her cloak and walking stick and came straight to the church.

The Blessing of Benedicte

Benedicte tells Rowan and Elric to go to Heathersly and investigate the situation, and he advises Ben to stay in Kalai for now. He (Benedicte) will handle Adorations in their absence. He warns them that this does definitely sound like heresy, but he also warns that rural areas tend to be a little superstitious and not to come down to hard on them, because they lack the formal theological teaching that those in town are afforded.

Talking to Hygerd

If the PCs decide to speak with Hygerd, they will find he is not his normal serene self (having not had the drugged food that Roguelin feeds him to keep him calm in these few days since Roguelin was injured). If they open the hagioscope or find some way into his chambers, Hygerd will scream, “The dragon will rise when the stones come down!” If they confront Hygerd, he continues frothing at the mouth, “The words of the Herald still the ringing and break the ring. Grind the children of oak and toll the bells to reforge the Chain!” He will say nothing else coherent, but will lapse into a strange language (a recitation of the Bhaasa text of the Arunaveda).

If the PCs ask Roguelin about Hygerd, he will privately (and "confidentially" tell them that Hygerd's mind of late has deteriorated to the point of delusion, and his "prophecies" are not to be trusted.

Conflict

Longshadow Dale

The Via Lorinne snakes its way down the western face of the ridge and into Longshadow Dale, a broad alpine valley that slopes down to the south. The Dale is watered by a small river called the Leaping Rill which collects many runoff streams into a narrow but fast-flowing channel. It's about a ten mile walk to the little hamlet of Heathersly, which takes about 2-1/2 hours going downhill, and closer to 4 hours coming back to Kalai. The frosting of snow that coats the upper slopes fades away soon after you reach the valley floor, and indeed the ground seems to steaming away the winter frost. If a PCs feels the ground, it is warm to the touch, like it has lain under a summer sun for hours. A light fog clings to the ground and limits visibility to about a hundred yards. As you continue to walk, you begin to see cultivated fields on each side of the road. You were told just last week that the crops were stunted and barely over an inch high, but the sprouts of grain are already 6 inches high and look in fine shape, though it will still be some months until harvest. Dark shapes on each side of the road resolve into two parallel lines of maple trees, spreading their bare branches over the road like a skeletal canopy. From somewhere up ahead a dog is barking and barking, and you smell the unmistakable odor of baking bread, an aroma you haven't smelled for months. (GM's note: the smell is a function of the lloigor.)

The Black Dog

Standing in the middle of the road ahead is a large black dog, tall and thin, with shaggy fur and a docked tail, looking off to your right (toward the center of the valley). He is staring intently into the fog and barking and barking and barking.

Attributes: Ag d8, Sm(A) d6, Sp d6, St d6, Vi d6
Skills: Athletics d8, Fighting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d8
Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4
Edges: Alertness Special Abilities:

Bite: Str+d4.

Speed: d10 running die.

The dog is completely focused on something the PCs cannot perceive, and it will ignore them entirely...unless they touch him. If they do, he attacks savagely twice per round with Wild Attack (net +0 Fighting and Vulnerable).

Rising Action

Heathersly

As you get closer to Heathersly, the mist and fog eases somewhat, and you are able to get a clearer look around. To your right, the Leaping Rill flows briskly. A ford in a shallower portion is indicated with a line of white stones, marking the start of another track that runs across the valley. The village is situated on the eastern side of the valley, not far from a long stand of woods. Most of the area is split into three large fields, each field in turn composed of thin strips of arable land. The village itself consists of a short main mud road surrounded by various wood-and-clay buildings. The poorest live in simple huts while better-to-do peasants have long houses. Most buildings are either rude stick huts or wattle and daub constructions. Habitations follow a quite regular pattern along the central street; adjoining fields extend outward at the back of each hut or house, with back lanes at the rear of each plot. It seems like a peaceful little farming collective..until you hear the screams.

The Woman

A horrendous screaming and wailing pierces the air, growing ever louder as you approach the village center. As you reach the central plaza, the fallen rubble of the bell tower is unmistakable, and behind it is a sacred mound with a jagged opening strewn with bricks and debris. You see a tall, raggedly-dressed man dragging a struggling woman (Elspeth, his wife) into the village. Clearly, she is the source of the disturbance, her struggles and screams interspersed with incoherent babbling and raving. Among this ranting, can be heard comments about “seeing the dragon”, statements that “he is coming”, and an insistence on “helping ease his passing”. A few untranslatable words should be interspersed here as well. A crowd has gathered and the villagers, a surly looking lot, also lay hands on the woman and begin endeavoring to lash her to the wheel of a nearby cart, with limited success.

Questioning the man (Moreau, a farmer) elicits the information that Elspeth awoke today very much distressed and has grown progressively worse throughout the day. Much that she said made no sense to him, including some ranting in an unknown tongue unknown. After failing to perform her duties about the farm, she began walking aimlessly across the fields toward the forest. When he attempted to stop her, she became violent, kicking, biting, and clawing. She is still struggling and spitting, lashing out with any hand or foot that is free.

Elspeth definitely needs watching or guarding in some manner. The form of the watch is decided by the prevailing theory as to her ailment. Thoughts put forth may range from madness to disease and to demonic possession, depending on the speaker. Proposed treatments include dunking, bleeding, leeching, exorcism, and anything else the keeper cares to introduce. Encourage the investigators to participate in this discussion. As they mull over their decision, they hear the clanking ring of a small bell, and notice the crowd suddenly recoil back from something behind the PCs.

The Leper

Standing some thirty feet behind the PCs is a man who has come to the outskirts of the plaza. He is dressed in dirty white robes and his head is covered with a bag-like hood that covers his face except for some torn holes to see through. He rings a small bell in one hand and holds out a wooden tray with the other. "Please, gentles, some food? Perhaps a pint of ale? Help a poor leper? Show the mercy of Asra?" A stern voice from a nearby doorway says, "Asra? How has she ever helped you, Radley? Helped any of us? Begone! Hunt the woods for roots and leaves!" The new speaker is a tall, balding man, thin of build, with a narrow beard and a hawkish nose (this is Berwyn the Bailiff). A few other villagers take up the cry for the leper to leave, and a couple throw small broken bricks in his general direction, and Radley begins to shuffle away.

The Change

During the tolling of the leper's bell and for a 5-10 minute period thereafter, Elspeth’s demeanor visibly changes. She becomes calmer and says she doesn’t have any idea what happened to her but she is fine now. She apologizes to everyone for the disturbance. Any investigator failing an Insight roll tends to believe her. After this brief period of calm, another Insight roll notes a marked decline in her behavior, although the violent outburst does not reoccur at this time. Elspeth begins to mutter under her breath. Notcie rolls hear her seemingly conversing with some unseen being. Again, this conversation is interspersed with foreign words and phrases. If she notices the attention to her behavior, she stops verbalizing, but continues to move her lips, and in general act as though in communication with someone. Play her demeanor as either mad or possessed. At this time, the weaker sendings of the lloigor should begin to make themselves felt. Investigators should note a subtle disharmony; shadows at odd angles and places, a “difference” in the quality of the sunlight, a stillness and closeness to the air, and a sense of expectation and waiting; and odd feral look that flashes across the faces of several villagers, etc.

Berwyn

Berwyn the Bailiff prefers that Elspeth should be bound and thrown into the Rill to clear her senses (which would quite possibly kill her). If the PCs wish a different treatment, a Social Conflict will be called for to sway the crowd. If they try to simply pull rank or (even worse) draw Berwyn into a discussion of heresy, the crowd will become hostile and many will arm themselves with bricks, axe handles, knives, pitchforks, or even messers and drive the PCs from the town. If this occurs, figure 4 Extra villagers per PC. They will be striking to chase off or subdue the priests, not kill them, those they will have far less consideration for the volgare.

Locations in Heathersly

Smithy. Boarding of travelers’ animals and general metalwork can be done here. The smith, a goblin named Araldo cannot make chain mail, shields, or swords, although he can perform simple repairs to existing martial equipment. He can make simple but nevertheless functional weapons. Generally, any item above 40p in price is beyond his capability. Araldo is the Herald of the Sixth and a Sestogenti.
Plaza. The plaza is a plain cleared area, similar to a small marketplace. This is where locals and wandering merchants gather to barter their wares, primarily on Saturdays. The fallen bell tower rubble currently cuts a large swath through the center of it.
Trapper’s shack. Thoric is a strange loner of a man, never truly at peace in society. Unknown to all, including himself, he is a dragonman hybrid, whose change is hastened by the otherworldly nature of the lloigor’s sendings. He is the first villager to actively try to free the lloigor.
Radley’s Cave. A small cave outside of village is the home of Radley the Leper. Radley lives simply on foraged plants, snared small animals, and the largesse of the villagers. He knows the location of the druid ring as well as the forest for miles around. He can easily and without fail find the herbs needed for Candyce’s potions as well as the mistletoe, although he requires either a Persuade to do so. He is relatively unaffected by the lloigor’s sendings, perhaps due to his leper’s bell, which he rings faithfully when he is out and about. Anyone wanting to interact with Radley must make either an Smarts roll or a Healing roll to overcome his or her ignorance and fear of his leprosy.
Healer’s hut. Candyce lives in a crude stick hut outside of the village. Outside the hut are neatly arranged plots of herbs. A Common Knowledge identifies the herbs as standard types of plants used in healing, although some darker, more questionable items such as foxglove and nightshade can be found as well. As a girl, Candyce met Galeren, the last Keeper of the Shrine, and he taught her to read. In one of the Keeper's book, a journal of a sentinel named Dame Giselle, she read the "legend" of Caestir and l'Order Fantome and their chaining of the "dragon." Candyce is able to perform a Ritual to create a Potion to reduce the effects of the lloigor sendings. She requires the gathering of Wild Garlic and Vervain Root. Finding these items in the surrounding woods requires a Dramatic Task (Survival, Notice) and takes four hours to acquire. The net result of this potion is a +2 Spirit to resist the lloigor's visions. It lasts for one hour, beginning fifteen minutes after ingesting the concoction.
Moreau Farm. Home of Moreau and his wife Elspeth, this is the closest farm to the druid ring. Crops here grow strangely, sometimes stunted; sometimes lush and fast. Elspeth is one of those most affected, her first major outburst being the precipitating event in this investigation.
Wright Farm. Home of Benevolence "Ben" Wright. She has a farm just south of the village. Her home is modest, and her garden is well-tended but the plants are barely growing. Her cow, however, is seemingly unaffected, as it has a bell around its neck.

Climax

To the Ring!

Within the forest, close to Moreau's farm, lies the stone ring. Finding the ring without either Candyce or Radzley present requires a successful Survival roll. The ring was raised centuries ago, but its function has been largely lost to time (GM's note: Benedicte has heard of l'Ordre Fantome and knows of a book about them at Our Lady of Mysteries Abbey that might shed some light). The foliage around the ring is unusually thick and lush, although a Survival roll indicates the strangeness of some of the plant structures and appearances. Oddly, in the central portion of the ring nothing grows (because of the invisible, otherworldly presence of the lloigor).

History of the Stone Ring
Centuries ago, an order of Sentinels called l'Ordre Fantome (Ghost Order) discovered the presence of the lloigor in this valley and brought it to battle. Unable to destroy or banish the creature, the sentinels used all their skill to bind the lloigor inside a stone ring, sacrificing the life of Caestir the marshal of the order to complete the binding. The ghost of Caestir remains bound to the site while the lloigor remains. Statistics for the ghost of Caestir and his actions are found at the end of the scenario. The rest of the order built the stone mound and constructed the bell tower to keep the lloigor at bay. For hundreds of years, a lone keeper lived in the mound, ringing the bell five times a day. Eventually, the true reason for the ritual was forgotten and the site became simply a shrine to the Pentatheon in most people's mind. The last keeper died in 942, and his effects--including a tome that detailed the original binding ritual--were archived in Our Lady of Mysteries Abbey.

Approaching within 100 feet of the ring, allows the lloigor to directly influence the approaching person (as the puppet power with a Spellcasting skill of d10 (WildCard) with the intention of having them physically remove the stones from the ring. Each of the 12 stones requires 4 hours of digging and a successful Athletics -4 roll. The use of a horse, ox or similar beast obviates the need for the STR roll. Half of the stones must be removed for the lloigor to escape. On day 3 following Elspeth’s initial outburst, Thoric succumbs and begins removing the stones at the rate of one per day, unless the events described in the “Interlude” have come into play.

Anyone entering the central portion of the ring and failing a Vigor -4 roll falls into an unconscious stupor. A Healing roll is required to detect signs of life in one so afflicted. Removal of the victim from within the ring results in normal recovery and awakening. This may appear as a miraculous or demonic return from death. Anyone witnessing the awakening of one declared dead is subject to Resistance (Terror) roll. Depending on the chosen actions of the investigators on site, an enraged black wolf can be summoned to the site of the ring by either the lloigor, in the event the investigators are attempting to rebind the creature, or by the ghost of Caestir if the intent is to remove the stones.

The Ghost of Caestir

The spirit of Caestir manifests itself to a chosen victim, as an ominous figure standing in the shadows of the first trees, and intently watching him or her. As soon as the victim spots the indistinct ghost, the ghost chants to him or her inside his or her head. Only the designated victim can see or hear the ghost. Caestir’s creepy litany cannot be understood, but nonetheless fills the victim with a sense of dread and doom. There is no other damage caused by Caestir. Rebinding the lloigor temporarily dispels Caestir as he returns to waiting. Releasing the lloigor frees Caestir’s soul from the binding and he either disappears or (keeper’s option) takes up residence in the ruins near Kalai. (The ruins were once the home of Caestir and Gisele.)

Falling Action

The Heresy of Heathersly

In the last few months, Araldo has been spreading dissatisfaction with the Gods among the farmers. As their bellies tighten and no mill is available to grind their grain and their watch their children starve, the people grumble against the Pentatheon. Araldo passed some writings from "The Herald" to Berwyn about the "True God," and the bailiff was a convert. At the Holika Eve festival, Berwyn stopped the normal bonfire and said he refused to honor the gods that refused to listen to him or his neighbors. His impassioned speech lifted a line from the writings of The Herald: "Si les dieux sont sourds, on crie!" (If the gods are deaf, we shout).

Berwyn led the people to pull and lever down the bell tower of the shrine to show their defiance. Within 24 hours, the ground began to warm and crops, especially on farms near the forest, began to growth at shocking rates. These effects are results of the chain that binds the lloigor weakening, but almost every citizen of Heathersly interprets these changes as the power and favor of the True God, because of the immediate timing of the effects after the destruction of the shrine. Also, the effect of the lloigor creates an atmosphere of gloom and pessimism that eventually drives any humans who have prolonged mental contact with the beast into suicidal depressions.

Thoric Arrives At a time of the keeper’s choosing, Thoric the Trapper comes to the village, bringing his catch of eight squirrels. Investigators easily notice the same type of muttering and speaking to unseen entities as was previously observed in Elspeth. Thoric is stooped over, walking with a shuffling gait, and appears to have some form of disease, as his skin has turned a mottled gray seems almost scaly. Thoric is totally in thrall to the lloigor, which is precipitating his change into full dragonman status. Any attempt at conversation about anything other than buying squirrels (tuppence apience) is met with surly rebuffs and scowls. If anyone attempts to physically grab or restrain him, he lashes out with fist or knife, and at the first opportunity makes his escape from the village and plunges into the forest of Goatswood (the woods across the Rill), heading generally toward thestone ring. Any investigator seeking to follow him is subject to Survival and/or Notice rolls, but ultimately Thoric’s track should be lost somewhere in Goatswood.

Behind the curtain After making good his escape, Thoric goes to the stone ring with the intention of removing the stones necessary to affect the lloigor’s escape. Unless interrupted by the investigators, he removes four of the stones without stopping, prior to disturbing the ghost of Caestir the Druid (q.v.). The sight of Caestir makes Thoric step inside the central portion of the stone ring, causing immediate unconsciousness. Thoric remains in this state until removed from the central portion of the ring, after which he regains consciousness. Further information may be found under the section entitled “To the Ring!”

To sleep, to dream Anytime the investigators are asleep, they are subject to appropriate dreams about the lloigor, its location, and its history. These might include visions of the l'Ordre Fantome fighting lizard-like humanoids, scenes of the stone ring in the forest, and vague shadowy figures of a dragon-like being.

Resolution

The investigators will likely be unable to resolve the heresy situation. First, the current growing conditions are irrefutable in people's mind as a direct result of tearing down the bell tower. Second, the Venerati are not Cercatore and don't have the authority to judge heresy. Third, if they did, they are only two men against forty belligerent villagers...

The PCs are definitely not able to resolve the lloigor issue without the use of an incatenare ritual. They will not have enough information on what they're dealing with, but Benedicte will.

Kampari's Charge

Benedicte instructs Rowan and Elric to make for Our Lady of Mysteries Abbey, famed for its library, to locate the effects of Galaren the Last Keeper of the Shrine and hopefully find the journal of Dame Giselle to learn what the Venerati are facing and how it was dealt with in the past. He also charges them to inquire after his nephew Jens, who was ill with a possibly contagious skin condition when Benedicte passed through before Holika and was allowed no visitors. Benedicte tells the Venerati to speak with Abbot Caedmon, and he provides a letter of introduction. Heathersly is a two-day walking distance from Our Lady of Mysteries Abbey. They may likely spend the night near the ruins at the edge of Oelno Forest, and may or may not have an encounter there as the GM decides.

Plot type

Multi-session adventure

Subplots

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