DM Wicht's page

Knowledge (local)?

Mr. Habe has the good sense to look embarassed.

"The patient was suffering from ghoul fever and a psychological fixation. He was angry at someone named Eugen, kept making threats at this person, claiming he was stealing the master's affection. And then at other times he mumbled on about the skinsaw man, you know, the old child's nursery rhyme. I meant to take him to the temple for healing, but, I guess I was too late..."

Gradually Kenzo feels movement returning to his screaming, cramped muscles. They begin to unknit.

"Fascinating," says a voice from behind the group. Turning, you see Erin Habe taking notes.

Kenzo feels his muscles contract and freeze, pain and cramps are sitting in, but he cannot move.

The lunatic thing howls triumphantly, only to have his neck severed a moment later by Gerhardt. He staggers backwards and then collapses to the ground.

The fist and then the heavenly fire slam into the man, but he scarcely seems to notice, so caught up is he in his transformation....

"I can see the skinsaw man!" he cries in a voice that sounds like rocks rolling over each other. And then he bites out at Kenzo...

Bite 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (4) + 5 = 9

and lashes out with his claws...

claw 1 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
claw 2 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

The bite does not connect but the claws take the monk by surprise and Kenzo takes 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 2) + 6 = 14 points of damage.

Kenzo needs to make three Fortitude saves (label them 1, 2, and 3 if you would).

Your turn.

Knowledge (nature)1d20+8

Can I work out anything about the man?

Not with Knowledge (nature) :)

Gerhardt knows the man looked really dead and can also recognize his body is swiftly changing (His teeth seem to be a mass of needles) in a very unnatural way.

Initiative: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

"Fascinating," says the proprietor from just behind Mitnal.

If you beat the 5 initiative, go ahead and post an action.

Gyorgy's lays healing hands upon the still body of the man. The effect is not quite what is expected. The dead man's eyes open, glossy black, his skin burns under Gyorgy's touch. Opening his mouth, he howls inhumanly, his tongue writhing and stretching. There is a popping sound from the straight jacket he is wearing and Gyorgy suddenly realizes the fabric is tearing. The man, his skin swiftly turning gray, lifts one claw from the torn jacket and reaching up to his throat, begins tearing off the confining fabric.

Initiative?

The man looks strangely at Gyorgy, sweat beading on his forehead. He opens his mouth to speak, "The skinsaw man,..."

But that's all he manages to get out. His eyes glaze over and he stops breathing. He twitches once, and then is still, apparently dead.

The door is locked but after some hesitation, Grayst decides to unlock it for Geraint.

"I'm going to lock it again," he says as Geraint steps in, "unless the rest of you want to go in with him. He is bound, but you never know, he might try to bite you and that would not be good."

As Geraint steps in and speaks, the man stops writhing for a moment and looks at Geraint glassily, drool dribbling from his mouth.

The poor guy seems uncommonly worried about his patient.

The basement is fully finished. There are multiple doors, each one with a thick glass window. He leads you past several. The door he stops in front has a light on the other side, illuminating a padded cell. Peering through the window reveals a man, in a strait-jacket, on the other side. He is lying on the floor, sweat rolling from his grey colored skin. He seems to be talking, but you cannot hear the sound through the thick door.

He leads you through the first floor of the building to a set of stairs descending down to the basement. There is a faint suggestion of someone yelling from below.

"I am afraid he may be beyond even the aid of magic, at least any available to me. And he is still burning with fever. I doubt time is going to help him. Fortunately he's constrained with a jacket, so he's not a danger to himself. His symptoms are all very troubling. More than mere madness, such as I am accustomed to seeing."

Sense Motive?

"Oh, you're here for... Well you know he's really not,... That is to say that I was just,..." the man stammers for a bit trying to collect his thoughts as he moves out of the way to allow you in the door.

"The thing is, actually, I was just down with the poor fellow. I doubt he lasts another day. He's very sick and I was, well I was, that is, I was monitoring his condition."

"I don't know what good you can do. He's pretty delirious with fever. Ranting and raving and not really up to being questioned."

He motions for you to follow him as he talks.

"I am he," says the man, a certain wariness in his eyes, despite Mitnal's winning personality "The sheriff sent you did he? I don't suppose you could come back. I was just in the middle of something and it requires constant attention."

Mitnal's initial knock draws no immediate response. A few minutes later, after another loud knock, the faint sounds of movement can be heard within.

Finally, the door opens and a man, late middle-aged, stares out. "Can I help you gentlemen?" He seems slightly put out and not altogether happy to see you. He is also just a little winded as if he had just hurried up a flight of steps in order to answer the door.

"The sheriff sent you, did he? Just head on up to the main house there and knock on the door. Might need ta knock loud if 'es down in the basement. If there's no answer, come on back and let me know. The names Breimhalt."

The house is not so far away as to require horses, though its far enough away that the idea of purchasing horses to facilitate travel becomes more appealing.

Habe's Sanatorium, more properly called, The Saintly Haven of Respite,is a two story building in a dale south of Sandpoint. The building, once it comes into sight is a fairly pleasant looking place, located at the end of a well kept drive. There is a small cottage just off the drive about three hundred yards before the front door of the sanatorium. A lone man sits on a stool outside the cottage, whittling. He watches you as you approach but says nothing at first. There is a servicable looking ax leaning against the wall behind the stool and the man looks quite muscular, and just a little weather-worn.

Finally when you are close enough, he volunteers a grunt and a nod of greeting.

The sheriff provides directions to the sanitorium and takes a moment to write out a letter of introduction.

DM Wicht wrote:

The sheriff thinks for a moment and then says, "Sounds like you lot are as stumped as I am. But we do have a witness, as I think I said earlier. Problem is he's gone plain crazy and none of what he says makes any sense to me."

"Let's talk to him then ...," says Mitnal. "Who is it?"

"The man's name is Grayst," says the sheriff, "He's a bit of a thug and I've always suspected he's more than a little willing to put the hurt on people if someone pays him enough, but he's always kept out of trouble when he's in these parts. He's currently at Habe's Sanitorium, south of town."

The sheriff thinks for a moment and then says, "Sounds like you lot are as stumped as I am. But we do have a witness, as I think I said earlier. Problem is he's gone plain crazy and none of what he says makes any sense to me."

Gerhardt stares at the body in disturbed silence. Finally, he managed to speak. "Who is this?"

The sheriff answers, "We're fairly sure its Katrina. Which means there was likely an affair. At least one. I don't look forward to having to tell her father. If it wasn't for the other killings, I would have said that jealousy was a motive."

The grisly corpse is a very bady mangled body of a young girl.

Mitnal, after carefully searching for tracks does indeed find that there are the remnants of wet footprints near to the river, as if someone swam up to the lumber-mill from the river and then climbed in.

Searching the rest of the lumber-mill provides little more.

As you complete your investigations, the sheriff asks, "Thoughts?"

Actions? Reactions?

There are definite tracks on the first floor, and one extremely grisly corpse (being watched over by a slightly sick-looking deputy), but Mitnal can't tell a whole lot from them, except that perhaps one or two of the footprints was made by a wet foot.

Mitnals examination of the chest reveals a box full of iron wedges, files, a bundle of oily twine and an assortment of bent nails.

Gyorgy and Gerhardt's examination is slightly more fruitful. There are bloody footprints that lead to the body of Harker, away from the saw. Tracing them back, there is some evidence they may have originally come from the lower floor. Which has not yet been examined, though there is another body down there.

If you want to look for footprints on the bottom floor you'll need a survival check.

Merry After-Christmas to all!

Any other inquiries?

Mitnal ignores the rune and continue looking around for a chest.

Perception:1d20+7

Mitnal did spy a tool chest of some sort against a far wall. It is suspiciously closed.

If Nualia committed this crime, it would explain the axe blade. Nualia was hanged three days after being brought back from Thistletop. Her body was left hanging for two days and then she was buried in an unmarked grave outside of town.

Someone carved a rune into the miller's bare chest. Gerhardt does not recognize it right off, but Gyorgy does. It is the same Sihedron rune as was on a pendant worn by Nualia. Eugen had the pendant last and took it with him north.

The skin and bones sticking to the axe blade seem to be from a corpse, dead for some time. They smell like a dead thing as well. Clearly the evidence points to someone with bloody hands hitting a very dead person.

The sheriff watches you for a bit before saying, "You might take a gander at the markings someone made in Harker's chest as well."

The dead-thing smell is stronger near the axe. There are bits of hair and maybe skin along the axe blade, though strangely no blood. The blood is all on the handle - bloody handprints.

How heavy does Harker look? Mitnal makes a survival check to determine what kind of creature did this (looking for tracks, teeth marks, that kind of thing).

Harker is/was a hefty man, not overweight, but heavily muscled and stocky.

There are bloody bare-feet footprints on the floor amid the sawdust. There was obviously a struggle, but strangely, Mitnal gets the feeling the struggle did not come from Harker. Most of Harker's blood seems to have been spilled after he was hooked tothe wall.

There are several townsmen watching the mill near to the entrance. As you head in, the sheriff Hemlock fills in a few more details, "The bodies were discovered by one of the mill workers, Ibor Thorn, early this morning. By the time I got here this morning, there was already a small crowd. We've kept them out though and my men are guarding the bodies. Should've known something was wrong last night when it was so quiet here."

The late night work done at the mill has been a sore point with many people for several weeks. As you think about it, you didn't hear the mill as much last night as is normal.

As you enter the mill's second floor, situated above the river, you smell something rotten. Literally. It smells like a dead animal, left to rot. Stairs lead up to a third floor and down to the first floor, which attaches to the timber pier which extends out into the Turandarok river.

Blood soaked sawdust lies on the floor. A log splitter near to a open chute leading down to the first floor is also coated with blood. There is an axe embedded in the floor near the log splitter. Most disturbing however is the mutilated bode of Harker affixed to the wall with hook on the far side of the room.

"I think he's just insane, and he clearly did not do these last two murders. He's locked up quite securely and, yes you can see him. Later. I want you to look at these two first."

The group has arrived outside the lumber mill. The water flows below, turning water wheels that propel the saws on the second and third floors. Wooden planks are stacked on the south side of the mill, protected from the rain by a shingled roof.

As they walk, the sheriff answers Gyorgy's question, "Near as we can tell it was Benny Harker and Katrine Vinder. Harker's not a problem identifying but I'm making an educated guess about Katrine. What bothers me though is the fact that this is not the first of these murders we've had. There've been three others killed and the one witness is clearly insane."

it smells like,... Blood, and maybe just a faint smell of old meat.

"I can deputize you and if you want to make some ivestigations of your own, thats fine on me. In fact, if you want, I can arrange for your room and board to be paid by the town for as long as you are working this case. Course I expect you to be working the case. We don't need another Chopper, that's for sure. But there are some similarities. I'll show you when we get down to the lumbermill. "

As Gyorgy leaves, "I didn't think you all were responsible for this, but clearly someone as knows you or Eugen is trying to make it look like you have a part in it."

When Gyorgy returns, he says, "I did want you to look at the crime. Though it ain't pretty. But don't be spreading it around. We want to keep this quiet. The whole business with the chopper was a messy and fearful time. We don't need a repeat of that. Desna knows, it will get out soon enough as it is. But if we can catch the guilty party quickly, all the better."

"We had a murder last night," he says as he takes his seat, "A pretty bad one. Brings to mind the unpleasantness of a few years ago. Even then I wouldn't mention it to you but it seems some of you might be involved."

Reaching into his coat he brings out a piece of paper from an interior pocket and slides it across the table.

You notice that it is folded and there appears to be dried blood on one corner.

The paper, when unfolded reads,...

The handwriting is clear but irregular.

We are going to assume Eugene has gone north to Riddleport for awhile, having left just a couple of days earlier.

Time passes...

Lamashan 20, 4707
Sunday Night
Harker pulled the lever and the sawmill sprang to life, the powerful blade propelled into motion by the water beneath the mill. He set a log onto the rollers and propelled it towards the blade. The noise was exquisitely loud. He smiled. The noise was just what he wanted. He left the log just touching the blade, anchoring it with a hook. The sound continued unabated as the blade ate away bits of the log. The log had just enough play to move around against the blade and thus it would sound as if there was work being done. True it was not quite true to what it should have been, but it was enough to keep down suspicion. Lifting his lantern he moved back to the bed roll he had unrolled onto the wooden floor. He placed the lantern down besides it, admiring the single flower he had thought to place atop the pillow. All was ready.

He heard a movement near the stairs.

“Katrina? Is that you,” called our Harker.

It was not.

Lamashan 21, Moonday
Fall has well and truly arrived and with it the rain. Inside the Rusty Dragon, however, it is warm and comfortable.

The companions are sitting at a table, having breakfast. The sun has been up a little over half an hour.

A notice, put up just yesterday, advertises the Rusty Dragon is for sale. Civic duty and family traditions have won out over personal desires and after much internal debate Ameiko has decided to throw herself into revitalizing the town, which has been hard hit by the closing of the Glassworks. Gyorgy knows all of this, thanks to talking with his aunt, but its not really much of a secret. Gyorgy's Aunt has been doing more and more of the Innkeeping lately, as Ameiko has been spending more time putting her glass factory in order.

The door of the inn opens and the sheriff stomps into the room, water dripping from his broad brimmed leather hat.

He takes a moment to scan the room as he shakes his coat and rubs his hands together. Satisfied that its not overly crowded, he stalks over to your table and asks, “Mind if I sit? I have something we need to talk about.”

Holiday lag - sorry. Turkey is mostly gone now, I can return back to regular posting.

We will assume Gerhardt has established a friendship with Mitnal. And move into our scheduled adventure. Longer post coming shortly.

The party leaves Thistletop, prisoner in tow.

Nualia seems to be contemplating an escape, but she is too outnumbered and the opportunity does not present itself. The miles are traveled fairly quickly.

As the companions reach the outskirts of Sandpoint, they are spotted by a child who excitedly runs towards the gates, shouting excitedly. Soon they are met by a group of guards, led by the sherriff. He seems a little surprised to see the prisoner, but accepts it in stride and takes custody of her. He asks a few questions, ascertians the goblins at Thistletop seem to have been dispatched and tells them they can have a dinner at the Rusty Dragon on his tab.

The Rusty Dragon is enjoying a brisk business. There are a couple of new faces in town...

Lets move this to the discussion thread for a bit.

"Ummm ... Can I have you first and kill my friends later?"

Mitnal is rapidly losing interest in Nualia.

Nualia loses her interest in Mitnal and returns to sullen, hate-filled silence.

Meanwhile Jessa does not come to any profound conclusions other than the fact that Nualia is really interested in some warped stuff and that there were goodies aplenty in the chambers down here to satisfy her interest.

Mitnal looks shocked at her reaction. "I'm sorry. Do you think you wouldn't make a good wife? You seem healthy enough ..."

A thought seems to pass through Nualia's head at Mitnal's persistance.

She finally speaks, "You can have me if you kill your friends. I'll bear many children for you." She smiles rather wickedly at the mention of children.

Mitnal slides down beside Nualia. "In my tribe, most men would offer your father a freshly slain auroch for a woman like you. You would be a good wife."

Nualia looks at Mitnal, somewhat surprised. She opens her mouth to retort angrily and then closes it again. She still refuses to speak.

"Now tell us, please," she asks, "What did you find here in these ruins? We read Tsuto's journal. And we know you consulted with the quasit under the Glassworks. So we know you came here for a reason. What was it?"

Sense Motive check... 1d20+8

I thought I had posted to this, sorry.

Nualia simply sneers at Jessa, without saying a word. Her look is filled with loathing, hate, and just a touch of insanity. It seems clear that she has nothing to say at the present time and is biding her time, waiting for... something, perhaps an opportunity to escape. Perhaps for reinforcements.

So, go or stay?

Hey, what happened to Eugen? I knew it was a while since he posted, but didn't realize exactly how long it's been.

I'll give him a nudge.

Everyone turns to look at the big barbarian.

Nualia is just awake, though still weak from blood loss. She is not happy about being trussed up and doesn't seem to want to talk. Methods of persuasion will need to be devised. Sense Motive rolls can also be made.