Book 3: The Hook Mountain Massacre

January 11, 2013 @ Debbie & Barney’s

Magnimar:

The party, having vanquished Justice Ironbriar and Xanesha, the perpetrators of Magnimar’s spree of murders, was interested in seeing what reward they might be due, or at least in clearing their good name, as opposed to being wanted for murder. They found that Mayor Grobaras’ office was under armed guard, and when the guards noticed the party, they requested their presence before the mayor, who wished to speak with them. The party voluntarily surrendered their weapons before entering, and once inside, they explained the recent events and laid out the evidence implicating Ironbriar and Xanesha. The mayor replied that his agents had noticed them leaving the sawmill, and having seen the evidence against Justice Ironbriar, suspected the party of being more heroic than villainous, and rich rewards were in order. But when Mayor Grobaras learned that his name was on a list of people to be murdered, he fainted in his large soft chair, and thanked them even more profusely for eliminating the threat.

The subject of reward was breached once more, and Oz attempted to secure a deal whereby the party could retain ownership of Foxglove Manor. Mayor Grobaras looked thoughtful, and laid out a plan whereby ownership of the Foxglove townhouse would transfer to the city of Magnimar (and therefore under the mayor’s control). Foxglove Manor, having been owned by a secret cult of murderous assassins which had just been annihilated, was seized by the city and ownership transferred to the party. The mayor then drew up papers, acting both as mayor of Magnimar and as the office of Justice Ironbriar who had died a traitor. Mayor Grobaras then affixed his official seal, making everything completely legal, if a bit shady.

Once this real estate business was concluded, the mayor looked thoughtful again, and made the party a proposition. According to a recent message from Turtleback Ferry, the village has had no contact for weeks with Magnimar’s most distant holding, remote Fort Rannick near Hook Mountain. The Black Arrows, the soldiers stationed at Fort Rannick, have traditionally been isolated, but such a long silence is uncharacteristic even for them. Magnimar’s government has been pressing Grobaras to send a patrol to Hook Mountain to investigate, but until now, Grobaras had no one he felt he could spare for what he viewed as a “pointless and silly trip to talk to those foul-tempered Black Arrows.”

The mayor suggested that Turtleback Ferry be the party’s first stop, as it is the closest settlement to Fort Rannick, and there’s a good chance someone in town will know why the fort’s grown silent. The journey to Turtleback Ferry is a 400 mile journey through lightly patrolled rural terrain along the north bank of the Yondabakari river. On foot, this would be a 2-week journey, but only one week on horseback. Taking a barge down the Yondabakari would also take a week, and this is the option the party chose.

On their barge trip down the Yondabakari, the party noticed a smaller craft approaching them with a figure on board waving at them for their attention. This was none other than Shalelu, who had found out that the party was headed to Fort Rannick. Shalelu had learned that one of the rangers stationed there, a man named Jakardros, was at one time her mother’s lover. When her mother was slain in a dragon attack, Jakardros left suddenly and without explanation, leaving Shalelu with a bitter impression that eventually drove her into the isolated life she has lived for the past several years as a bounty hunter in the Sandpoint hinterlands. She recently learned that Jakardros has taken up with the Black Arrows of Fort Rannick, and would very much like the opportunity to find out why the man abandoned her so abruptly after her mother’s death, if only to convince herself that he hadn’t been taking advantage of her mother in some way. And if he had, Shalelu wants a chance to even the score.

Turtleback Ferry:

Turtleback Ferry is located in a remote area of Varisia, and is nominally under the control of Magnimar, though official visits are few and far between. Turtleback Ferry’s current mayor is an aged cleric of Erastil named Maelin Shreed, a selfless soul who manages the village church as both a safe haven for travelers and a hospital wherein he tends the village’s sick and injured. Turtleback Ferry boasts a general store, an inn, a tavern, and a smith. Most of the other buildings are the homes of farmers, hunters, fishermen, and trappers, and very few people travel very far from home at all.

The party found the locals friendly enough, though many seemed nervous and skittish, quick to lock their doors, and often overreacting to unexpected noises. The winter rains have arrived early, adding to the worried mood. Livestock has been going missing for months, and more recently, the number of hunters and trappers who’ve gone missing has increased as well. In such a small village, every loss is felt keenly–none more so than the tragic sinking of the pleasure barge Paradise and the loss of nearly two dozen lives. However, opinions on the Paradase varied. Some secretly enjoyed the fact that a gambling den and better tavern had come to town, while others viewed it as a threat to business or morality. The barge’s owner and proprietor was a red-haired woman named Lucrecia, who is believed to have died when the Paradise sank. Some believe a lake monster sank the Paradise, while others blame the combined weight of the sins on board for sinking the barge.

Worst of all, the Black Arrows that keep the roads and forest edges safe for hunters and travelers, and could normally be counted on to visit the town for supplies and entertainment, had not been seen for weeks. Messengers had been sent to the fort to investigate, but they did not return. No one in town is certain why, but they fear the worst, from wild notions of lake monsters to more believable rumors of ogres and ogrekin. The party’s presence is the first reply to Turtleback Ferry’s request for aid.

Rumors heard in the tavern include:

• Black Magga, the monster  of the Storval Deep, doesn’t stay in that lake. Underwater tunnels connect it to Claybottom Lake, and she comes down here to eat fishermen now and then! I’m sure that’s what happened to the Paradise—Black Magga came down and gobbled up all those filthy sinners!
• People been  disappearin’  lately. And not just them who’s been going into the deep woods. I’m talkin’ fishermen, travelers, people just out on the roads. My money’s on them Grauls—that family’s got ogre blood in them, and once you get ogre blood in you… you just ain’t right!
• Heard a few months ago, before all these rains started, that some of the hunters who brave the Valley of Broken Trees for boar found a bunch of enormous footprints. Giant-sized footprints! It’s bad enough we’ve got ogres, but if a giant’s moved into the valley, I sure hope the Black Arrows take care of it soon!
• So I noticed my uncle had a weird star-shaped  tattoo on his shoulder the other day. I asked him about it, and he just got all angry and tol’ me to mind my own. Thing is, though… that ain’t the first time I seen that kinda tattoo. Lotsa folks got ’em here. They hide ’em good enough, but you keep an eye out, you’ll see one on an ankle or arm or back here and there, sure enough. I don’t got one, though, I tell you! Tattoos is sinful business!

While gathering information around town, Nymeria noticed a villager with a tattoo of the sihedron rune on his arm above his sleeve, similar to the one described by the tavern rumormonger. The party tailed the villager, who went to the general store, did some uninteresting shopping. Afterward, the party accosted him, demanding an explanation for the tattoo. He resisted at first, but more determined interrogation, including intimidation and a bribe, soon got the story out of him.

He got the tattoo 2 months ago at Paradise, the floating barge converted into a gambling and drinking hall that recently sank. The villager sullenly  explains  that by allowing Paradise’s owner, the  lovely and silken-tongued Lady Lucrecia, to place the tattoo on him for a small fee, he could then show the tattoo at Paradise’s door and avoid paying the cover fee to board. Further, those who got “Paradise’s Mark” (the Sihedron Rune) were often rewarded with additional gambling chips and other perks, and were told that only a select few regular patrons had been chosen for the honor, and they should keep the mark a secret.

After apparently exhausting the town’s supply of information and rumors, the party decided to head toward Fort Rannick to investigate, using the most direct route–an old road leading up along the banks of the Skull River. The road crosses an old wooden bridge to the western shore about 3 miles north of Turtleback Ferry.

As the party crossed over the old wooden bridge, they heard a yowl of pain, as if a large cat were wounded. At Nymeria’s insistence, the party investigated the sounds, and discovered a firepelt cougar, with its foot stuck in a bear trap. The firepelt seemed intelligent, but not hostile to the party, so Wanga spoke with it and got its story.

The firepelt is Kibb, the animal companion of Jakardros, Shalelu’s stepfather, one of the Black Arrows. Kibb and Jakardros survived an ogre assault on Fort Rannick, only to be become the captives of a particularly foul and brutal band of ogrekin known as the Grauls. Kibb managed to escape and has spent the last three weeks eluding the Grauls  (who have desperately been attempting to recapture him), while trying to find someone whom he can lead back to the homestead to save his master. So far, no one had realized the firepelt was trying to get them to help, and now Kibb has been caught in a trap. Nymeria disabled the bear trap, and set some traps of her own for the Graul that approached, accompanied by five barking dogs.

Rukus Graul was a particularly mean-looking ogrekin with a deformed right hand. He roared in anger, “I’s huntin’ kitty cat! No concern o’ you’s less you’s wanna be hunted too!” At this, the party attacked Rukus and his hounds. Wanga’s ankylosaurus Tini led the charge, and several of the dogs nipped at him, but were crushed by his enormous tail club. Rukus did not fare much better, and was swiftly defeated. The party had little use for Rukus Graul, as they had Kibb to lead them back to the homestead.

The Grauls dwelt on a sickly farm in a clearing in the forest. The woods around their land were decorated with several hanging cornhusk-and-leather humanoid-shaped fetishes meant to ward off intruders. Closer inspection revealed they were stuffed with what appeared to be a mix of dirt and human hair. A tangled field of corn and other diseased plants grew in the eastern section of their land, while to the north slumped two sagging buildings: a barn and a farmhouse. Both had their windows boarded over, and moss and fungus grew heavily on the shaded sides of the decrepit structures.

In the cornfield was an 8-foot tall ogrekin with a grotesquely deformed head resembling a giant pumpkin on the right side, a huge puffy mass of tumors and overgrown bone giving his head a lopsided look. He noticed the party’s approach, cried out an alarm, and attacked. Two more ogrekin emerged from the barn and joined in the fray.

These ogrekin fought a bit more tactically, using Spring Attack to maneuver in and out of melee without provoking attacks of opportunity, but they too fell to the party’s overwhelming might.

The party investigated the barn first, featuring several mounds of molding hay, grain stores, and a large, but crude moonshine still. Three young, drunken Grauls were here: Hograth, a hulking brute with a vestigial arm growing from his left elbow and a no-necked dented head; Jeppo, a big “handsome” boy towering over his brothers, his eyes huge and milky white, with skin as pale as the full moon; Sugar, the shortest, standing barely 5 feet tall, with crooked stumpy legs and constantly twitching skin. They were no match for the party whatsover.
A large boarded-up door in the east wall resisted all attempts to open it. However, stairs leading up the north and south walls led to smaller doors leading east into the upper part of the barn. In the east side, there was a large stuffy chamber, covered in filthy webs forming a funnel that dipped into the ground. A catwalk ran around the rim of the room near the ceiling, twenty feet above the ground. In the northeast and southeast corners, the catwalk expanded into ten-foot-square platforms that were fenced in by wooden beams, forming cages. The walls within each cage were hung with iron manacles. Most of the manacles–while bloody–were empty, but three in the southeast corner imprisoned emaciated men.

The party began to free the captives when a huge spider emerged from the funnel. The spider looked expectantly at the party, who determined that it looked hungry, so they fed it the corpse of one of the drunken ogrekin they had recently dispatched. The spider grabbed the corpse, turned it over and over, wrapping it lightly in webbing, and disappeared down the funnel hole.

The prisoners turned out to be the Black Arrows that had escaped the fall of Fort Rannick. Jakardros Sovark, Vale Temros, and Kaven Windstrike.