You finish remaining business at Othona and return to the Manirian Road, with Knower Gofrey clinging to a mule. You reach Dolios easily enough and deliver Gofrey along with the letter from the Monastery to the local Temple of the Invisible God. And you learn that Baron Ornim is not in residence here now, but in Ornim just a bit to the north. You go there and arehurried to meet him once you check in with the guards at the gates. Again he holds audience in his chamber, attended by his bodyguard and his vaguely interested son.
Baron Ornim welcomes you and says he’s hear whispers of events to the east that might involve you, but hopes you can give those whispers the solidity of truth. You tell him about Othona, the Brena Marsh, and the Beacon of Malkion Temple, and the foul marsh wights of Rollo’s Widemouth clan. He seems satisfied with the outcome and impressed by your abilities to solve it. He recognises the problem of the “marsh demons” in Othona as a parable with the story of Ehilm vs. the Monster Army, and he expresses readiness to confront this returning foe if it continues to manifest – but surely your victory at Othona has harmed its cause. Same with the Monastery, and he is surprised that the two places, so far apart, are linked by uncouth events that you’ve uncovered, and a conspiracy. Indeed, he notes that the Burning Malady has become a serious problem around here (not long from becoming dangerously public knowledge, in these tumultuous times), and he has sent men to quarantine the village of Heathers Edge nearby. He asks you, as his new trusted allies, to solve what has caused an infection of the Burning Malady disease in his village of Heather’s Edge, and what this Unn woman (daughter of Rollo) has been doing and why, and to stop her if necessary, since it seems certain she is up to no good. If there is more to this story as there likely is, he’d be keen to hear it once it becomes clear.
You agree and he asks what you need; gold, horses? Fraud agrees to take a cavalry horse with 5 point (plate) barding, which is worth quite a large sum. It is ready for you once you leave, and you part from Baron Ornim again. He and his men have given you detailed directions to Heathers Edge: northwest along the river, taking the trail through the fenlands; about three hours from Ornim. But before you go, since his knowledge of the details of this little village and its relevance to your quest is too limited, he prompts you to ask around town for any relevant information. Fraud offers to teach some local healers, so he sets out to do that and does a wonderful job with some local patients, and generates quite the robust impression of his expertise in treating the Burning Malady on the healers.
Meanwhile Shrett and Boamund wander town asking for information, and Bog looks for the troll merchants but sadly finds that they have left town, leaving their ruined building empty. Shrett learns that no one has heard of this Pehraln or Wanderer, and that there are none nearby. It’s not a specialty of this area. Boamund learns that the people of Heathers Edge have become the butt of local jokes because of their stupidity, which is a new development for the town in recent weeks. You regroup at a local inn, sponsored by the Baron, and rest and discuss. The next morning while Fraud finishes his teachings, with patients fully recovering, Boamund and Shrett have the idea to ask about two things, and find that information from merchants and burghers in town:
Unn = A woman dressed like a Knight has been around. She is notable because she is odd-looking, with an unhealthy tint to her skin. Some say she is ugly, some say lovely, but she seems fierce and generates talk. There is speculation that she is an Arkati witch, and the wizards have grown more interested in watching her activities (so locals have been passing information on her to the Rokari wizards). She comes on a barge now and then and deals with a barrel-maker named Sad Syros (he has gone missing in recent days, it turns out).
The Blue Stone = Funny you should ask, there is a trader named Mariwig who has gotten known for transporting this valuable blue stone or crystal that many wizards seek and pay well for. No one else seems to know what it’s about but it is assumed to be highly magical. Indeed, some talk around town is that this trader is overdue by about a week, which is unusual. He mainly goes along the Manirian Road between Dolios and Estali/Tiskos.
You depart that mid-day. The trail is placid and only a little muddy, with fewer and fewer travellers as you go, and occasional new signs posting warnings of quarantine of the village of Heathers Edge; “turn back now”.
An hour out of Ornim, you see some small pieces of a funny blue stone, only visible from certain angles, on the road. You look and when your shadows blot out the sun, you can see that the fragments have a soft blue glow. Shrett uses Detect Sorcery and does not find any there. But near this spot, you see wagon wheels traces that veer off to the right into the fenland. Looking that way, you see ravens wheeling about in the sky some 20m off the road in the fens; dipping down occasionally and rising again from one spot. Knowing that a foul end has probably come to a missing trader here, you go look. There is a 2.5m deep pit dug in the fens here, well out of sight of the road. Inside there is the wreckage of a cart, and two rotted, scavenged, stinking bodies of what must have been the driver and a mercenary guard; as well as two oxen corpses lying near the pit. It is a bloody mess. The cart is empty but there are remnants of blue powder dust on it. There are a few sacks and crates of supplies but nothing else. It seems likely that the wagon was robbed of its Blue Stone en route back to Ornim, but by whom and why?
Shrett inspects the oxen, seeing terrible wounds; ripped up not by regular weapons; perhaps by beasts or such, although not any much larger than a man (and no signs of having been fed on). You see that the apparent driver of the wagon wears decent clothes that match what a merchant may wear, and Shrett sees he has a bulging purse with some coins and a rolled up parchment (Safelstran, which Fraud translates): an itinerary with a simple sketched map from Heathers Edge to Ornim and back, with the village marked by a symbol like a hill or Stasis rune. There is some writing at the bottom: “The bearer of this is to be paid two golden wheels upon delivery of his cargo to the representative of the Widemouth clan.” That’s a mighty sum! You finish inspections. Shrett sees booted footprints around the pit, and Boamund contemplates how the pit was dug and you realise that it must have been magic, as the pit is too evenly dug with no signs of work by shovels etc., and the pile of “spoil” to one side is too neat. Shrett also finds some barefoot human(oid) tracks near and on the road. But all tracks soon vanish into the fens.
You journey on westwards. Soon most of you spot a black-cloaked figure standing in the shadows of a little grove of trees maybe 75m south of the road. You approach and it seems they watch you but then they turn away, and they slip into the fens. Boamund follows some booted tracks but after 15 minutes loses them; the person must have been trying to elude pursuit.
You carry on down the trail. think you can see a village in some low hills up ahead, but on the road before it there are some people in dark clothes. Six people, black cloaked and masked (shaped as varied human faces). They call a halt as you are approaching, and explain that “Ahead lies a village infested by the curse of Gbaji. Any who attempt to enter, ignoring this warning, risk death and may not leave the village or they will be killed.” They at first resist your explanations that you’re here to help and are sceptical that you serve the Baron, but then on seeing his letter they about-face their attitudes and welcome you to proceed. They explain they are militia serving Baron Ornim and have only recently arrived. They hadn’t seen what happened to the cart, and they had no other person on their team so that other dark figure was not a scout of theirs. They show some confusion about how much of their duty is to keep people out of Heathers Edge but anyway they respectfully let you pass, but with firm warning that the pestilence is rife in the village.
Further down the road there’s a hoarse, uncouth cry from a copse of trees. Shrett goes to check it out, and sees no one but finds weird footprints here near the edge of the trees; some shallow and some deep; human, barefooted, one (left) foot doesn’t look right. The tracks quickly fade in drier ground, through brush parallel to the trail. Shrett follows them and the rest of you on the road keep up with him. You hear that hoarse cry again, closer, as a figure bursts from fen-brush along the road, loping toward Shrett in an ungainly way. It is a man in serf’s rags, stumbling due to a gross malformation of his left leg, swollen many times normal size. His right arm is blacked and shrivelled. His face is distorted by a ferocious rictus and angry red patches of rash as he burbles (in Safelstran, loudly enough for others to hear) “So cometh Urcheth!”.
Shrett backs off as the others advance and draw weapons, casting spells. Boamund and Shrett soon are together, and Fraud and Bog have hurled Darkstrikes and Frost-flails, soon crippling the right arm and blinding the thing, but Bog struggles to injure the swollen left leg. You’re dismayed to see, though, that the wounds rapidly regenerate; even the maimed arm is recovering. But soon enough, as everyone rushes to engage the ?undead monstrosity that flails clumsily at Shrett with one clawed arm, you trip it and hew its left arm off and then its head. It is definitely dead now and Boamund makes double sure of this by burning it. You’re reminded of what Reader Petros became at the Monastery; he quickly turned into such a horror after he died, presumably by a nimil but infected by the Burning Malady.
Down the road not too much further, you see a dead horse on the road, buzzing with flies. Boamund has smelled far worse than this so he has no trouble approaching to investigate. It is bloated, and has grossly deformed, blackened legs sticking straight out, with swollen red-hued ears and tail. It is swarming with maggots and emanates foul warmth with its retching stench. Obviously the Burning Malady took this poor beast. It does not have wounds from being attacked. It looks to have been rotting for about two days, but as Boamund begins to burn it you wonder: sometimes that disease kills people very quickly, and some of those (like Reader Petros and that man-thing you just slew) return not as Marsh-Wights or Nimils or whatever, but as near-mindless, regenerating undead horrors. All the better that you dispose of this horse! Before the fire gets going though you smell smoke from the village. Something else substantial is burning there.
At last you reach Heathers Edge: The desolate village is situated in a large clearing in the fenland’s sparse, slightly hilly woods, most of the area split into three large fields, each field in turn composed of thin strips of arable land. Separating the woods from the fields is a strip of bad pasture where animals would graze. There are no animals here now. The village itself consists of a short main mud road surrounded by various buildings; with sheds in pits for serfs; wooden houses for others, with neglected vegetable gardens. The only stone building is what looks to be a shrine to the Invisible God. There is one long timber hall surrounded by a modest wooden stockade. Behind a row of huts there is a fenced prairie, and next to it, a stream flows lazily. Most houses clearly are now abandoned. There is the sound of people and the smell of smoke from deeper within the village.
You go toward the village centre. About two dozen peasants are gathered, most of them quiet but some shouting. Some men are bringing lit torches amongst them, toward where there is a large wooden stake, where three women in torn peasant robes are tied. The men are trying to build a pyre to burn the women but they are not doing it well, and the women are not burning yet but it won’t be long. You call to the people and some turn and give dim-witted replies. Fraud and Boamund see a man (scrawny, near-bald, stringy grey hair) seeming to sort of try to organise the burning, and he may be the village’s current headman, who says he is called Gabel. He barely can hold a conversation. While Shrett and Bog push their way easily through the crowd, who put up no real resistance, Fraud and Boamund talk to Gabel and some of the other villagers and the three women. They learn several things:
The peasants say the women are “Witches of Gbaji“. They are witches because they look funny, their husbands died of the “fire of the devil” but they did not, they have only born daughters, and they do not strictly follow peasant rules. Someone in the crowd mumbles that “maybe the Sixgoat was behind this” but who said this is unclear. The three woman are one elderly, one middle-aged and one young woman; conspicuously similar, with the same slant and amber gleam to their eyes. They deny the accusations, saying that they are not liked because they are strange and have not lived here long (1 season).
Soon you free the women from their bonds and most of the crowd disperses in a highly disorganised state, with Gabel watching you but not acting. You speak more with the women, who speak Tradetalk and give their names as Arelena, Arliet, and Arbella, from Dolios. They are in a hurry to escape – they came here to try to settle and begin a new life, but then their husbands died from the Malady and the village turned against them now. Fraud leads Gabel away while the rest of you talk with the women, who are thankful that you’ve saved their lives but do not feel safe here any longer. After some initial conversation with the women, Boamund concludes that they are some kind of illuminated mystics whereas Fraud is certain they are Arkati, yet not of his sect or one he is familiar with (which is very few) nor evident that they serve the Deceiver.
The disease began two seasons ago; end of Sea Season. They had some bad omens in Sacred Time. People saw demons and did mad things and soon everyone was infected. Most died. Some that died, or maybe lived too long (your experiences suggest undeath), got deformed and fled into the woods. Sometimes they come back and it is scary. About 10 of around two dozen villagers are capable of much of anything useful beyond basic necessities of survival. All of the current villagers have survived the Malady but left feebleminded forever, the women say. The women do not explain why they have not suffered from the Malady. The most recent villager to flee was an infected farmer named Cleshel, or something like that; his fate is unknown. The deformed man that attacked you was named Chrodegan; he’d been missing for two weeks.
As for the Blue Stone, the women offer up information that some say it is the blood or bone or flesh of Annila (the Blue Moon), and they know it to be a powerful magical energy source that can be used to fuel ritual magics, especially to open ways to other worlds. Maybe gates to bring other things in/out, or maybe routes to heroquests. But the Blue Stone can be useful to anyone, even Chaos worshippers, that know how to use it. You know of Annila that she was born in the Underworld, contains the paradoxes of Death and not-death, of eternal dying and unattained rebirth, is associated with secrecy and assassinations, and her runes are Moon, Water and Darkness. Her magics certainly could fit well with the Arkati style of secrecy and such.
Fraud comes back and takes the women aside for a private chat, dancing around the topic of being Arkati. He offers to teach them how to treat the Malady, maybe in return for learning how they have avoided it, but they decline, saying that some things are secrets of certain groups and are not rightfully shared. (This implies they have some Arkati sect knowledge, which would almost never be shared except to those in the same sect; much as Fraud would not teach his Chaosbane magics or he’d risk being cast out of his sect and even killed) The women say, in effect, that they are not fighters nor are they healers but they have talents that are useful (they don’t say what these are) and they already count you as allies. They smile as Fraud reveals his face and say he keeps getting more interesting. They listen to his tale of your journeys and goals and agree that unity is important in these Hero Wars. If you help them escape Heathers Edge, they pledge that if your paths cross again they’ll help if they can.
The trader Mariwig is known here but the women know little of him as he just passes through; he does not trade in Heathers Edge. There are numerous trails out of town that his wagon could take. Even the women say there are no mines around here. Fraud asks who is working the mines and they say no one is. These are peasants who make a living off the land. None work in any mines. Unn’s letter you found didn’t explicitly say that peasants worked the mines but this remains a suspicion.
Meanwhile a girl of around 13 years age comes to Boamund, saying she is named Elaria and might help “You looking for mines is you? No mines ‘round here, but there be things like giant worm-tunnels in them Treak Cliffs not far away westwards, I knowin’. Nobody go there anymore. Because of Sixgoat.” You’re very interested in this westwards route and she points to where Mariwig’s wagon might have gone; indeed it is in a direction that might lead to those Treak Cliffs. She is frightened and when Bog and Shrett offer to go with her to the Cliffs, she says no, that it must be all of you; two is not enough for her to feel safe.
As to the “Sixgoat”, which has come up repeatedly, “It be an old story of a spirit or demon that hauntin’ the wilds of Daran ‘round ‘ere. A giant goat that ‘ken change its shape, dey say. I dunno, but I’m skeered of it, too, mmm-hmm. But not too skeered if you go with me. We doesn’t get heroes here, but we need ‘em, mmm-hmm.” Sounds like it is a big broo or similar. Goats and disease outbreaks are a pairing that gives you no comfort.
You take the women in a circuitous arc out of town through the fenlands, past the guards and back to the trail towards Ornim, from whence they prefer to continue their travel alone; confident that now they are safe. They express deep gratitude for their lives being saved and their freedom procured, and they hurry back eastwards. You return to town, find a vacant stable and set your beasts up there, and camp for the night, then ensure that there is enough fodder and water for the beasts after you pass a thankfully quiet night.
That next morning you meet Elaria and head out for Treak Cliffs. She says it’s a day’s travel or so, westwards into wilderness. The journey is through fairly homogeneous fenland with copses of trees over rolling terrain, but it is an eerie environment. The trees grow closer together as you progress, and their branches entwine overhead, giving the impression of a series of gloomy, wooden tunnels. This is not the bountiful, lively Tarinwood. It feels mostly dead, or dormant. The wind whistles through the branches with a mournful howl, or perhaps it is something else that moans and howls? As you progress further into the wood, the note of the wind shifts the howling and moaning sound, which seems to be drawing close; sometimes it is ahead, then behind or perhaps on your flank. With relief, the eaves of the far side of the forest draw near. The gloom does not lift, as the sun moves overhead, with shadows clinging to the black cliffs looming on the horizon some two or three keymiles away. The source of the howls emerges as you clear the forest. A great shape strides out from between some low hills to your right.
Elaria cries out, “THE SIXGOAT!!”
And you see what she means.
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