[PFS1] GM Pudding's Carrion Hill (Inactive)

Game Master Tom G

So what do we do now? Do we try to bring down that creature, hoping it would be our last foe?

Angoldir shakes his head. "Not today, unless we wish to pass to the Boneyard ourselves. Many of us are fatigued by the day's stress, and not even a mighty warrior such as the Spear-Maiden would choose to go up against a creature like that by herself."

Angoldir's not opposed to putting down the chaos beast, but not until after we've rested.

It sounds like folks are agreed in not tackling the chaos beast now at least. In the short term would you like to head back up to report your success to the mayor and rest and recover, or continue exploring the remaining passages and rooms in the dungeon here before leaving? There are a few passageways, and a set of double doors at the bottom of the map, roughly under where the entrance is upstairs

I also put a picture of what it might look like if Grunyak were to go to the door on a slide

Taariik looks around.

“I feel uncomfortable here to be honest! It shows me that I have a long path towards perfection! And what I did to this man earlier ... that’s horrible! Let us explore the rest of this place and then go and report back to the mayor!“

Taariik takes the lead and to explore the remaining passages and rooms in the dungeon here before leaving. He opens the double doors.

"Caution would be advised," Angoldir suggests gently. "We are all worn out, and I would not be surprised if Crove had more dangerous creatures kept here."

"Angoldir is correct, we should be cautious, I am out of magic and tired. We need to report in to the mayor and make arrangements for the future of the patients."

"We are lucky to have the luxury of a day to take this beast on. I suggest we use the time wisely. Maybe there is a library or such we could research the beast."
Grunyak, with blood all over his clothes, bags of black under his eyes and swaying on his feet, look anything but ready to study books.

Beleaguered and tired, you climb back up the stairs to the ground floor. Taariik grabs Oleg, and Poog follows behind you. The stone staircase the horror came down is unusable, nothing more than a crater for the bottom 20 feet or so, but the stairs near Crove's office are still functional and allow you to go up and see what it looks like.

What you find up there is horrific. The layout you recently left is gone, walls smashed through haphazardly and a black sludge caking most surfaces. The roof has collapsed in places leaving huge piles of rubble and letting in the relentless rains. Corvids perch on the rubble cawing incessantly, and from the cacophony they must also be perched all over the roof of the building where it still stands.

You can see straight through to the entrance from Crove's office and can see the broken and dismembered bodies of the patients who were tied there, but you can also see into several of the other rooms where you had left unconscious patients and orderlies and you see some survivors. Eldrin spots a concealed panel in the desk you didn't notice earlier and finds a wand in there, and just as he's showing it to the rest of you a section of wall collapses onto the desk, crushing it and causing you to hasten out.

Gathering up the injured you leave through the hole in the wall where the stout iron doors had been, and you find a crowd outside. There are guards ostensibly holding them back, but in reality everyone including the guards are simply gawking at you emerge. It's a few seconds before anyone reacts, but eventually there is a shout of

"ATTENTION!"

from one of the captains and it shocks everyone back into reality. The crowd starts to ask questions, but the guards hold them back, quieting them down. A parting is made and you see Mayor Heggry approaching, shielded from the rain by an umbrella held by his assistant.

"I heard of the sighting here and ordered all the crows in the city to make a last stand here against the horror, but you have emerged! Is the horror dead?"

When you confirm it, there is a shout of triumph from the crows, and even as their officers tell them to pipe down, they can't hide their smiles. A tension that you hadn't noticed is released all at once in the crowd, and laughter can be heard again. Oleg is taken to Crown Manor to be treated by the Mayor's personal physician, and rooms are offered to you at a dozen taverns in the city at once from the crowd, including the Bronze Pig where you stayed the last night. Ebullient, Mayor Heggry increases the reward he promised you and has his assistant collect 7500 gold pieces (3000 gold more than he originally offered) in whichever you denominations you prefer from the town treasury. At the edge of the crowd a hooded figure with a strange tattoo on his wrist watches the proceedings and turns away unimpressed.

The hooded figure there is a just a bit of flavour of the many cults of the old ones that still exist in Ustalav, some of whom will now consider you their enemy!

Finally, the mayor asks you what should be done with the Asylum.

"I'm of a mind to flood the lower level with unset middenstone and to allow it to harden. With the horrors down there you have mentioned I don't want to risk any of it coming back to haunt us. What say you?"

That's my way of asking if you'd like to go back down tomorrow or instead simply set off across country with Oleg to report back to your venture captain. Most of the basement is empty rooms that the patients were let out of, there is one other encounter but it's unrelated to the story.

"Crove kept all manner of dangerous creatures in his basement," Angoldir agrees. "I would hate for one of them to overcome us and cause the town to suffer so soon after receiving respite from his actions. I would also hate for another soul to suffer the horrors inflicted upon these captives of the Keeper. Sometimes a story must come to an end so another can begin. The asylum has caused enough suffering and anguish here - let its story end with that of its master."

Taariik looks around at the crowd with a stern look on his face.

“Thank you all for coming here to aid us ... and aid all the innocent people that have been imprisoned and tortured in this building! Their evil master ... and his evil monster from beyond this world are gone. But there are still patients who need to be rescued or the building will eventually crush them. Hurry!“

Taariik takes the mayor’s question seriously.

”We were thinking about exploring the other passages! But we have to be honest that we have a duty also to our society! We were sent here to rescue our companions and only one has survived ... whom we want to safely accompany back to our venture captain!“

Taariik looks back at the horrors they experienced.

”I believe that our part to protect this town has ended here and that we have to give the responsibility to keep the people safe back to you! I would advise you to explore the remaining passages and rooms in the dungeon. Might be possible that other people who were imprisoned are still down there ... but we did not see or hear anything so there could also only be monsters left!“

He makes a noble’s bow of respect.

”Mayor, thank you for your support. Our road to perfection and your road to perfection are diverging now but it was an honor to serve this town and walk along side you for a specific route in our joint paths!“

The mayor nods along to your recommendations.

"Crove's asylum predates my term as Mayor here, but I can see I gave him too much leniency. To think I even sent troubled souls his way. I will see to it that something more caring is put in its place, a place for supporting those in our community with mental health problems, not preying upon them. I will see to it myself"

He's grandstanding for the crowd a bit, but you don't sense any falseness to his sentiments.

Parting ways you are able to rest up and recover spells, then set off back across country to return to Karcau It's in Sinaria not Barstoi, I got confused last time. Unfortunately the mayor's personal physician was not able to do anything for Oleg, so you have to resort to carrying him. While he can swallow food and water when spoonfed, he does not appear to be able to move any other part of his body.

The reward you received will certainly cover buying something like a wagon / cart / wheelbarrow or even horses to help with carrying him, so I'll assume you do that

Travelling across the constantly fog-covered Ustalav countryside is no more relaxing than it was on the way to Carrion Hill, particularly having encountered several of its more unsettling denizens. Your journey is without incident however, and you arrive back to the stately home lodge of Miregrold Manor within just a few weeks. During your travels you've had plenty of time to study the pnakotic manuscripts and Keeper Myre's spellbooks.

Eldrin and Angoldir if you'd like me to put any learned spells or extracts on your chronicle please let me know in the discussion thread

Arriving late in the evening, your entrance to the manor is met with gasps of "Oleg!" and you are helped in rushing him to the infirmary. Clearly he is very well liked here. Moments after you get him down on the bed Venture-Captain Basia Kalistoff bursts into the room and goes straight to him, whispering to him and cupping his face in her hands in a way that makes you think their relationship might not have been entirely professional.

She has sent runners to call in favours with Grand Lodge clerics staying nearby and ordered some of the other pathfinders to have Oleg washed and fed before she finally turns to you, tired and dirty from weeks on the road, and asks. "What happened?"

She listens as you explain, looking crestfallen when she hears of the agents who didn't make it, and genuinely scared when you speak of the nature of the Carrion Hill Horror. After getting a summary she orders you to get cleaned up and have some food and a drink before meeting her in her office for a full debrief.

An hour or so later you are met in her office by both her and Oleg, whose mind has been returned to him already. He still looks somewhat frail, and his hair seems to be growing in white, but he looks immeasurably better than the shell that you carried across the country. The venture captain is unable to keep the smile from her face.

"Basia tells me I have you to thank for my life. Thank you, truly. I recall little of what happened. I remember befriending Waldur and Arlend and going to explore the tunnels at their suggestion. Opal, Cullen and Mithanduil all protested, but I insisted and of course they came with me. "Explore Report and Cooperate" I said, and they came. After that it's murky. There were things down there, voices in my head. Words I dare not repeat. I remember each of their deaths, but not how I got out. Then Waldur."

He swallows and sits down, clearly not able to continue. Basia asks you more questions and elicits a full de-briefing before finishing up by asking your recommendation.

"You have all performed magnificently, and I hope you'll consider staying here in Ustalav for a time, there is much work for us to do. Work potentially including a new lodge... Much of what you have told me is very concerning, but there may be secrets and truths buried beneath Carrion Hill yet, ones that an avowed and funded Lodge might be able to explore, but in a safe way. Do you think we should pursue opening a lodge there, or focus our efforts on somewhere a bit safer?"

I guess this place has its share of mysteries and dangers to explore, good deeds the Society could do and secrets to decipher and understand. Besides our actions put us in the good graces of the mayor and the townpeople, so why seek another place? That's just my opinion.

"I even hear there's some land available where an asylum once stood," Angoldir adds. "No doubt the people living there would appreciate having a new building with no connection to the residents of the previous one." He smiles gently. "Besides. Should there be lasting trouble from the Keepers' actions, having highly-capable agents on hand would certainly help calm the citizens' nerves."

The aged elf looks around one last time at his companions. "Drusilla, your strength and compassion do your heart credit. Grunyak, your steady presence and faith have kept us safe many times over. It has been a joy to travel with you once more, and I am glad our journey together was not as sorrowful as our first. Brave Taariik, may you find your path and light the way in a dark world. Eldrin, your keen mind is overshadowed only by your thirst to know the unknown. May your journeys lead you where you need to go, and if the fates allow perhaps our paths will cross once more and I will hear your stories again."

Taariik is not sure if he has the competence to comment on the lodge.

"I am just glad that you are well again Oleg. And ... and sorry that your companions did not make it back."

He looks to his feet.

"It was horrible in there ... if not for Angoldir, Drusilla, Grunyak and Eldrin, I think I would have lost my mind, too."

He stands up.

"If you allow, I will travel as far as possible with you all until our paths part."

Sure. But first, one small riddle, nay, one of my favorite religious mistery: an Ifrit, two elves, a dwarf and Drusilla walk into a bar...Who will pay the second round of drinks, as it is my sacred holy duty to pay the first one? Let's go and find out!

Taariik stands with more vigor after Drusilla speaks.

"I will pay! Ha ha ... " he says and smiles at the Spear-Maiden!