GM Ever_Anon's page

In that case I’ll give it a couple more days. Thanks everyone for their flexibility

Just an FYI that if Jassminder can't post today I'll bot her tomorrow. I've been reluctant to do so since it's a weird situation, but I also know WW is going through a lot right now that's making it difficult to post and don't want to make everyone wait too long.

The forlarren finally catches sight of you and drops prone on top of her male companion. She screams, "Cilvēki! Jums bija taisnība, viņi ir šeit, es atvainojos, Daghishat, lūdzu, palīdziet mums!"

Ussaile and Noctifer both prepare to cast their spells but Daghishat is still nowhere to be seen.

Everyone may take their Round 1 actions.

Initiative Tracker:
Daghishat: 20
Forlarren: 11
Xanther: 9
Jassminder: 7
Noctifer: 6
Ussaile: 6
Marcus: 5

Jassminder takes careful aim and fires at the closer forlarren. He drops without a sound. The female forlarren next to him instinctively reaches out to catch him, head darting around as she frantically tries to see where the attack is coming from.

Everyone may take their surprise round actions.

Initiative Tracker:
Daghishat: 20
Forlarren: 11
Xanther: 9
Jassminder: 7
Noctifer: 6
Ussaile: 6
Marcus: 5

We seem to have stalled a bit and I think that’s my fault. I wanted to leave you some room for tactics but starting you so far away may have been a mistake.

The three options as I see them are:

1: Start attacking the forlarrens from where you are
2: Try and stealth closer until you’re either spotted or catch sight of Dag (Stealth necessary, taking 10 is an option)
3: Approach openly and talk to the forlarrens

So far Marcus has stealthed a little closer and Xanther at least tentatively suggested talking. Noctifer, Ussaile, and Jassminder, what are your thoughts?

You can go through the trees, no need to follow the path. Taking 10 is fine for Stealth checks. There appears to be one male and one female forlarren.

I think that answers all the questions so far but if I missed one let me know.

I decided against stealthing you all closer since I wasn't 100% certain if anyone was scouting ahead or not. (It sounded like Marcus might want to?)

From where you are now you can see the two forlarren and they have not yet seen you. Ussaile's reasonably certain Dag's not within 50 feet or so but beyond that can't be sure; he's a small creature and there are a lot of trees in the way.

The five of you make your final preparations and follow the stream. There's an eerie silence as you travel. Even the unrecognizable sounds from before have vanished leaving behind only the sounds of your own exertions and occasional muttered comments. After twenty minutes or so you reach the stream's source: a small pool of greenish water collected underneath drooping trees. If Nadia's intuition is correct Dag should be around here somewhere.

You look around. Even with alchemical assistance granting you all darkvision and low-light vision it's hard to make out anything through the thick trees. Nothing appears to be in the immediate vicinity, but Ussaile, Jassminder, and Xanther all catch a glimpse of two creatures lurking near a tree atop a small hill. They're both the size of a human with curved horns and goat legs. Ussaile, (and Noctifer once the creatures are pointed out) recognize them as forlarren; the unlucky offspring of a fey and a fiend.

Even with See Invisibility active Ussaile can't see Dag anywhere at the moment.

The lighting is dim and unlikely to get any brighter. I messed up and described where you were going as a “clearing” a couple times but it’s not; the trees are going to stay close enough together to keep it dim. (You’re effectively in Mirkwood if that helps you visualize things.)

Is the plan to wait ten minutes for Ussaile to prep another faerie fire, then drink darkvision potions/cast See Invisibility and stealthily move forward? Would you prefer I roll stealth for you or would you like to roll it yourselves?

Xanther never needed to cast that second Remove Fear; Jassminder killed the mastiff before anyone else took their first turn. Poor thing, all it wanted was a drink of water...

The faerie fire lights up the startled mastiff, who swivels its head to look at your group just in time for an arrow to pierce through its eye. It stumbles to one side, groaning, before the second and third arrows put it out of its misery.

With this obstacle removed you can freely follow the stream. If Nadia's hunch is correct Dag should be less than thirty minutes away.

How close do you want to try to get before doing pre-battle buffing? Also, will you be trying to approach stealthily or no?

Since the consensus seems to be to attack I've posted a map. Water is difficult terrain, everything else is normal.

Everyone may take their surprise round actions. Everyone but Noctifer may also post actions for Round 1.

Initiative Tracker:
Jassminder: 20
Ussaile: 15
Xanther: 11
Marcus: 10
Mastiff: 9
Noctifer: 5

Any hours-per-level spells could have been cast before you left.

Currently the party is about half a mile away from where you're trying to end up. Following the stream will get you there but would require going right past the shadow mastiff. If you don't want to fight you could always try to sneak past and/or leave the stream behind to look for a different path. (To name a couple options.)

After finishing your conversation with Nadia you make your way around town purchasing the various items you believe you'll need for your confrontation with Dag. As prepared as you feel you can be, you head off into the Ombrefell.

Jassminder has some experience hunting various criminals through the woods so she takes the lead. For the first mile or so the journey is fairly pleasant. Enough sunlight makes its way through the treetops to brighten your path, the brush isn't so thick as to impede your progress, and you see occasional glimpses of rabbits, squirrels, and other normal forest creatures. The deeper you go however the darker things become, both literally and metaphorically. The trees grow thicker and closer together until you can no longer see the sun and those without darkvision rely on Jassminder's ioun torch to brighten the way. The birdsong is replaced by eerie sounds made by creatures none of you can recognize. Small bushes turn into piercing thorns that tear at your clothes and force you to detour away from your planned path.

Two hours into the journey you pause to catch your bearings at a small stream you remember seeing on Nadia's map. Following it should lead you directly to the clearing she had pointed out as being the most likely location for Dag to be. As you're about to head out Xanther spots it first; a shadowy dog drinking from the stream about sixty feet away. It doesn't seem to have noticed you yet.

I am very sorry for my sudden disappearance. I ended up in the hospital unexpectedly and was in no shape to post. I'm still recovering but doing much better now.

It's going to take a bit for me to catch up but I should be able to move you all forward either today or tomorrow.

The problem with interpretation 1 is this section which is in both the descriptions for Daylight and Darkness:

"This spell does not stack with itself. Darkness can be used to counter or dispel any light spell of equal or lower spell level. "
So they wouldn't "stack" since they "dispel" the spell of lower or equal level.
You're the GM and the interpretation you're going with is better for the PCs. Since the Lamp Blighter doesn't fly that takes away that advantage; it wouldn't make sense for it to sit there and spend extra standard actions to make it dark again.

I don't think the daylight/darkness would dispel each other unless they were cast on the same object. From the "Vision and Light" section of the rules:

"There are many ways to misinterpret the “counter or dispel” text for light and darkness spells. Here’s how that particular rule actually works. To counter a spell of the opposing descriptor, you ready an action just like any other counterspell. Just as normal for counterspell, the target of the spell must be within range (which, without Reach Spell metamagic, is touch for most light and darkness spells). If the target is in range, you automatically counter the opposing spell and it has no effect, just like always for counterspell. To dispel, you simply cast your spell on the same target (just like with enlarge person and reduce person) and then they cancel each other out, leaving no spell. Again, the range is usually touch and the target is the object that radiates the darkness or light; you can’t just touch an arbitrary spot within the darkness or light."

Alright, in that case a scroll of Daylight should be able to counter Darkness. Beyond that, I'm guessing any additional magical light will have no effect? If so, we need to get a bunch of mundane light sources like torches.

That is true. Here's the relevant paragraph from the same section:

"If no other light spell is sufficient to overcome the darkness spells in the overlapping area, and if there is a daylight spell active in the overlapping area, the daylight spell’s special negation clause kicks in (regardless of the spell level of daylight and the darkness spell; it just works, always). This means that you negate all the magical light changes in the area and bring it back to prevailing conditions. As a side effect of negating the magical darkness, those nonmagical light sources activate again (while they are not ambient, they were still part of prevailing conditions). Other magical light sources still are not active in the area; they had their chance to attempt to negate the darkness spells and didn’t, so they were not part of the prevailing light conditions, instead subsumed by daylight’s more powerful special negation clause."

"The bottled sunshine would work but not well. It covers too small of an area." Nadia smirks as she looks at it. "No need to ask where you got that one. Lurkers in light are the only beings I've met that would find such a thing useful. Unless you want to try your luck gardening in the Darklands."

I would go with interpretation 1. Daylight + Darkness = Ambient Light, but both spells are still technically active. Another casting of Darkness would have no effect.

A third level Continual Flame would work but you'd have a hard time getting Miklos to cast it for you right now. Currently all his third level spell slots are dedicated to Remove Disease. You'd have to convince him that Dag is a more immediate threat than tallowthroat and the potential undead shadows that might appear from tallowthroat victims.

FYI (and Nadia would know this) lamp blighters can't actually fly. They have wings but no fly speed. Sorry, I realize now the picture was misleading but it was the best one I could find.

"How about this item?"

Noctifer presents the Bottled Sunshine.

Bottled Sunshine is created using the daylight spell so it is of a high enough level to work normally in the middle of a darkness spell. However the item only creates bright light "in its square." I'm inclined to think that it would not affect the light levels outside that square (since light spells/items are usually very specific about the radius in which they are effective).

I am not a rules expert by any means (*coughGlitterdustSRcough*) so does that sound right to people or do you think there's another interpretation? It's a niche magic item and I'm not seeing anyone online talk about this particular interaction.

Jassminder nods approvingly as Noctifer seamlessly recites the events so far, listing details she would consider unimportant like names. He may be a chatterbox, but this is good work. She frowns in thought. "Invisibility we can get around, one way or another. Magical darkness will be an issue, if it will overpower magical light." She pulls an ioun stone from out of her pouch; it burns with a heatless flame as it circles around her.

"This works in normal darkness, but even then only out to a few feet. Beyond that, I won't be able to shoot anything reliably." Not that being blinded prevented her from putting Ilquis down; but you can't rely on luck going your way every time. She puts the circling stone back in her pouch. "Can you tell me if that will work against a lamp-blight's darkness? Otherwise we're going to need two more darkvision potions." Noctifer and Marcus can see in the dark without problem, she knows that from experience. But she, Ussaile and Xanther will need assistance.

"Unlikely, unless you paid extra for it, but I'll check." Nadia casts Detect Magic, a spell you're all familiar enough with to not require any assistance identifying, then shakes her head. "No. The continual flame spell cast on that stone isn't strong enough to overcome a darkness spell."

Sounds good but we also have the issue of working on a budget. I'm sure most of the PCs were built with most, if not all, of their starting gold spent. So we'll need to see which items from the Loot will be sold/traded for the various items we need.

You'll get the standard 50% value for anything you sell, (aka what's listed on the loot sheet). That candle of truth is worth quite a bit :)

Good catch everyone! I was just, uh, testing you. Definitely didn’t forget to check if Glitterdust was susceptible to SR, no siree Bob.

To speed up the shopping (unless you want to roleplay it out), there is a 75% chance of any individual item 400gp or less being available. You can make your lists here in discussion, roll to see if they’re purchasable, and discuss alternatives if not. Does that sound good to everyone?

"How do you kill a lamp blighter? Same as any other fey. Make sure you have cold iron on hand then stab it." Nadia grins revealing crooked yellow teeth. "They're pretty resistant to spells though. He might just shrug off a glitterdust spell like it was nothing so grabbing some extra ways to see through invisibility is a good idea."

"I can sell you tanglefoot bags for 50 gold each, and other alchemical weapons too if you want them. You can find arcane scrolls at Plotbound. Whether Costel has those particular ones you'll have to ask him. It's on the town square, big sign with a book out front, you can't miss it. You'll find a few basic potions at the general store, also on the town square, but I doubt they'll have a potion of fly. For divine scrolls head to the Temple and check with Master Miklos; he's the only person in town who'd have any."

Lamp Blighters have DR/10 cold iron and SR 17.

Nadia listens silently to all this information, head once again tilted slightly to the side. When asked about the Midnight Mirror she simply shrugs. "Never heard of that before. But what you said about the witness' testimony, now that's interesting." She hobbles back over to the bookcase and pulls out a thick book with The Encyclopedia of Fey Creatures embossed on the spine. She starts flipping through it quickly, occasionally pausing on a page before shaking her head and moving on. "You'd be surprised how much it narrows down what 'Dag' could be. Human sacrifices means he's the type of creature to be attracted by blood. Seven deaths means he's moderately strong. Not a gremlin but not a vilderavn either, fortunately for Karpad. Intelligent enough to understand what Ilquis had in that wand and wise enough to not want to waste it. Prefers the forest over civilization. Capable of invisibility." She stops on a page and makes a triumphant noise in the back of her throat. "Most importantly of all, he's the last creature a lurker in light would want to summon, with the feeling of distaste being mutual."

She spins the book around. It's open on a gruesome picture of a demonic-looking being with dark purple moth wings wearing a necklace of eyeballs. "Lamp Blighter. Can't be 100% certain of course, but it's the only fey I know of that fits all those criteria. Poor Ilquis. He was probably trying to summon a redcap, maybe a coryphae, and he got a mortal enemy instead. He should have realized then that the Eldest were against him." She chuckles to herself as she flips over the page, reading quickly, before turning back to the map.

"The loggers haven't run into him yet, I would have heard if they had, so Ilquis must have told him which places were safe. If you want to continue your heroics I'd check here first." She taps a circled area about five miles into the forest. "The trees are particularly thick there. Dim, gloomy, perfect conditions for a lamp blighter."

Nadia falls silent, eyes closing and head tilting once more while she thinks. Then she turns and heads towards the back room of her cottage. She's gone for a few minutes before returning with a single potion which she holds out to Ussaile. "Lamp blighters have two major forms of defense. They have constant invisibility, which you must already have some way of dealing with if you killed Ilquis. However they can also cast darkness at will. Seeing through invisibility doesn't help much if you can't see at all. This potion of darkvision will help with that. I'm offering it freely, as a gift."

As Noctifer talks Nadia stops rocking and leans forward, idly chewing on a fingernail. "I'd heard you'd killed a fey. I hadn't heard that it was Ilquis. That's interesting. Very interesting. And shouldn't have been possible. Not the killing him part; the kidnapping residents of Karpad part." Her eyes close and she tilts her head as if listening to someone, then a slow smile spreads across her face. "Ah. That's how. I'm almost impressed; I didn't think Ilquis was that clever. Ambitious yes, but not clever."

"Geni told you right when she sent you here. I haven't been able to figure out anything about Tallowthroat and I don't know about undead shadows either, but I do know the fey. I'm the only one in town that does. Other than Stepan, but he's not exactly himself these days, is he?" Nadia grunts as she pushes herself out of her rocking chair, carefully placing the fern down on the seat. She heads over to an old wooden bookcase and pulls out a hand-drawn map which she then rolls out onto the table. You can see Karpad on the southeast of the map but the majority of it depicts the Ombrefell. Dozens of areas have been either circled or crossed out in red pen. "The culmination of years of work. There's an official version in Boroi manor but Mikhail would never show it to me, the stingy bastard. Stepan might have but by the time he became baron I no longer needed it. This," she taps on one of the circled areas, "is why Karpad can live right on the border of the Ombrefell without fear."

"Centuries ago, not certain exactly when since the fey don't really keep track of time, the Borois made a deal with the fey. Karpad would be careful with it's logging, avoid the areas the fey find sacred," (she taps the circled area again), "let them live in peace, and in turn the fey would serve as a buffer against the darker creatures of the forest. It's worked quite well for both sides. Most of the fey out there think it's a perfectly reasonable bargain. Ilquis was one of the few that didn't. He thought the fey should take over Karpad, drive the humans out, the usual power-hungry drivel. He could never do anything about it though. He was bound by the contract too, and 'not kidnapping and killing Karpad's citizens' was part of it." She smiles. "But if he got permission from the lord of the land, well, that would have changed things."

"The good news: I doubt any of the other fey in the area will try anything similar. I can think of less than ten that agreed with Ilquis' sentiments and none of them were as strong or as ambitious. Gremlins mostly. They're never happy with anything. No, the main thing we have to worry about is this Dag. If Ilquis summoned him directly from the First World he won't be bound by anything." She leans back, eyes closing again as she thinks. "I need details, as many as you can give. You say Ilquis wasn't happy, do you know why? Was the animosity mutual? Was there a reason given for why Dag wanted to target loggers instead? Exactly how many people were sacrificed and how were they killed?"

After lunch and conversation the five of you make your way across town to Nadia Witch-Blood's house. Along the way you notice there are fewer bonfires surrounding the village and none of the ones you see are tended to by the guards. Captain Groy must have spread the word among his own men at least. The streets are nearly empty; the windows of the houses you pass all shuttered. Killing Ilquis and putting an end to the kidnappings has not lifted the palpable aura of fear from the town.

Nadia's house is a cottage on the north end of town close to where the Ombrefell begins. A fence and a small garden keep it separated from its neighbors. Green ivy climbs up the walls and curtains the windows; you can't tell whether Nadia can see out but it would certainly be very difficult to see in. When you walk up the cobblestone pathway the door opens before you can knock. A voice calls from inside, "Come on in, I've been expecting you."

Upon entering it takes those without darkvision a moment to adjust to the gloom. Potted plants are everywhere and dried herbs hang from the ceiling, particularly coriander, rosemary, and mandrake root. In a corner near an unlit fireplace an old woman, presumably Nadia, sits in a rocking chair. She has a fern in her lap that she's petting as if it were a cat. Piercing eyes not at all dimmed with age fix on each of you in turn. "Hmmph. So you're Karpad's heroes, eh? Heard you saved some children." She grins, revealing crooked yellow teeth. "Good for you, good for you. Now what can old Mother Nadia help you with?"

After your various adventures you all reconvene in the library. At some point during your absence a covered tray was delivered with a variety of bread, meats, cheeses, and fruits. The note on top reads, For your lunch. You may of course ask the kitchen if you desire something else. -Laurentiu.

It's now a little after noon.

Since a couple people mentioned lunch/meeting up to discuss what was learned. It's a busy day for me anyway so I'll move you on to Nadia (or elsewhere if you change your minds) tomorrow.

It sounds like the plan is to talk to Nadia next. Anything else you want to do or conversations you want to have before then?

Jassminder/Xanther feel free to still react to your scene in spoilers. I just wanted to get the gang back together so you could start making plans for what to do next.

After your various adventures you all reconvene in the library. At some point during your absence a covered tray was delivered with a variety of bread, meats, cheeses, and fruits. The note on top reads, For your lunch. You may of course ask the kitchen if you desire something else. -Laurentiu.

It's now a little after noon.

I’ll post in the morning but I want to be sure Noctifer and Jassminder have a chance to react if they wish. (And potentially Marcus, if he joined the exploration crew.)

If you can great, if you can't we'll understand. I hope you have a great time!

Xanther then shares his theories about shadow essence leaking from the courtyard causing Tallowthroat. "If this is true, as a precaution, I recommend closing off the courtyard to non-fetchlings. In fact, you might want to consider closing off parts of the mansion closest to the courtyard as well."

Anya listens to the information you've gathered, face pale. "Since Sergyev died I don't think any of the servants have been taking care of the courtyard. I haven't been spending time out there either. The closest rooms are the foyer, dining room, sitting room, and Stepan's study. While closing off the courtyard itself is reasonable, I don't think the corruption can spread any further. Otherwise Stepan certainly would have caught Tallowthroat by now."

Yes, I think that's fair. CL17 only makes sense if you're making a page for a 9th level spell, not a 1st.

Sounds like Noctifer and maybe Ussaile are going down to talk to Eugenia. Is there anything anyone else wants to do in the meantime?

(Options include but are not limited to: trying to talk to Stepan again, interrogating the servants, exploring the manor, grabbing an early lunch, etc.)

Ready to talk to Aunt Eugenia, you flag down a maid cleaning the nearby hallway and request Anya join you in the library. She appears about ten minutes later, Marek notably absent. "Before we go down, here's the explanation I promised. I mentioned yesterday that Aunt Eugenia was a cleric. Sixteen years ago she called for inquisitors from the capital to perform the ritual of the Midnight Bride, in which a woman is slowly tortured to death over a period of weeks. Stepan's father was...encouraged...to allow her to do as she wished." (Anya appears to be picking her words with care.) "I wasn't here then, obviously, but as I understand it she was not pleased when she awoke as a ghost instead of being by her Lord's side. She's still loyal to the Boroi line but she dislikes anyone she sees as being too lax in their faith...and that's almost everyone. She doesn't even like Master Miklos." Anya sighs. "If you want her to talk to you then you'll need to convince her of your devotion. Otherwise she'll probably dismiss you as not being worth her time, no matter how much I explain that you're trying to help."

"If you're willing to wear them, I have some spare holy symbols here. They might help." She produces several amulets depicting silver skulls with chains bleeding from the eyes. "Who plans to go?"

Stepan is nowhere to be seen, but Anya is at breakfast with Marek once again on her lap. "Let me know when you want me to introduce you to Aunt Eugenia. Although it might be better if only one or two of you come along, preferably people who can be, er, obvious in their worship of the Prince of Pain." She looks down at her plate with a slight grimace. "I'll explain why before we go...when we're not at breakfast."

On that ominous note the group heads upstairs and joins Noctifer in the library. The walls are lined with bookshelves filled with folio editions in various stages of decay. A pair of armchairs stand in a central reading area along with a small table, which is where Noctifer has begun stacking relevant-looking titles. Marcus and Xanther continue going through the shelves looking for more volumes while Noctifer and Ussaile start skimming the books already selected. (Jassminder stands guard in a corner. You never know with these sorts of books.)

You spend the morning researching and learn a great many things of interest about the history of the region. Perhaps the first important thing you learn is that Nicasor wasn't actually a fetchling at all, but a shae. However many of his followers were fetchlings, and you notice the newer the book the less likely it is to mention his actual race.

In a dry volume titled The History of the Uskwood you learn more details about Nicasor's history. 950 years ago Nicasor fomented a rebellion among his fellow shae, fetchlings, and wayangs in the area. Believing Nidal should belong to the shadow races, he gathered a hundred or so people to his cause and attacked the town of Karpad. Together they drove out or killed all the humans in the region. An army from Pangolais was sent in response to the then-baron's cry for aid and quickly put an end to Nicasor's dreams of conquest. He and everyone that followed him were sentenced to an eternity in a midnight mirror. (Although the book states that the trial was held in Pangolais, not Karpad, and implies the mirror was kept there as well.)

It's Ussaile however who hits the jackpot: a tattered volume with no title that turns out to be a journal belonging to Stepan's great-great-great-grandfather, Dimitri Boroi. Glancing at the final few entries reveal references to both the midnight mirror and Nicasor, so she starts reading in more depth.

Breakfast is at 7am. Since Noctifer says he rose early I'll say he's been up since 6am. I'll also say his efforts in sorting the books combined with the specialized nature of the library will make research go faster. (You can research in 4-hour chunks instead of the standard 8.)

Does everyone want to stick together and spend the morning researching, or do some people want to do something else?

After your late dinner Anya leads you all upstairs to your rooms, pointing out the library along the way. ("In case you wake up early and want to get started.") The three guest rooms smell slightly musty although there's been an obvious attempt to air them out over the day. The rooms are spacious enough with two comfortable beds in each, and perhaps most importantly for your peace of mind all three doors lock.

You arrange yourselves however you wish and are able to get a good night's sleep. The next morning you awake refreshed and ready to face whatever the new day might bring.

”My husband is sleeping.” There’s just a hint of steel in Anya’s reply. ”As I said, further questions can wait until morning.”

“I believe the loggers have a drop-off point near the edge of town. There’s a liaison, Durvik, who manages the supplies in both directions. Making sure the town doesn’t go through the firewood faster than the loggers can replenish, keeping their camp well-stocked, you get the idea. Talking to him would be the next-best thing to talking to the loggers directly.”

@GM: The player not knowing the culture of Nidal, would it be more usual or unusual to do business this time of night? Ghosts don't generally need to sleep and I was thinking about seeing if the Baroness would assist the party in meeting Aunt Eugenia.

You learned from Ionela earlier that most people in Karpad go to bed early. Talking to Eugenia would be fine; Anya's still awake and as you said ghosts don't normally sleep. The two taverns are also still open. The loggers however are almost certainly already heading for bed.

Also, Happy Birthday Ussaile! I hope you have a fun weekend.

Captain Groy takes you all out to the foyer where Laurentiu is indeed waiting. Along the way he tells Noctifer, "You have a good point but the situation will have to be handled carefully. The townsfolk believe the bonfires are helping. If they find out they're not, and worse that they were built on the suggestion of an insane fey using them to kidnap and murder people, I'm not certain how people will react. One fey with a tactical advantage is preferable to the entire town rioting."

"Laurentiu, I leave these people in your capable hands. I've got to go talk to my men, let them know what to look for. Or not look for if the damn thing's invisible. I wonder if Irina's got extra flour at home?" He rubs his forehead and heads out the door, muttering, "Gods what a mess."

Laurentiu leads you to the dining room and brings in a woman who whips you up some food of your choosing. (Within reason. She does balk at any requests that would take her hours to cook.) About fifteen minutes later Anya joins you, looking pale but otherwise remarkably composed given the evening's events. "I can't thank you enough. You've only been here a day and you've already saved so many people."

It's around 9pm. Is there anything else you want to do tonight?

"Of course I'd give you the shard. I don't give a damn if you destroy the mirror as long as you destroy this curse along with it." Stepan's brow furrows. "The other prisoners. They could be a problem. Nicasor said there were only a few left. He could have been lying. How many were originally sent in? The records listed their names. I don't think there were thousands. There were...there were..." He tugs at his hair in increasing frustration. "I don't remember. Why can't I remember?!"

"You need rest, love." Anya's been quiet for a while, absorbing all this information, but she finally speaks up. "When was the last time you slept?"

"I don't remember!" It's unclear whether he's responding to her question or continuing his thought from before. Perhaps both. "Research. You want to research. There's a library upstairs. I bought books about midnight mirrors, about the history of the region, about everything. Or the temple has an archive with copies of the original trial records. Master Miklos...I don't think he knows anything, but you could ask. Same with Aunt Eugenia. How do you know about Aunt Eugenia anyway?"

"I told them." Anya's back straightens. "Jassminder is correct, it has been an extremely eventful day and I believe everyone could use some rest. Surely any more questions can wait until tomorrow. Captain Groy, I do hate to be a poor host, but would you mind escorting everyone to the foyer? Laurentiu will be there and can help you with whatever you need, whether it be pancakes, directions to the library, or directions to your rooms. I'll follow in a few minutes, but I would like to speak with my husband privately first."

Captain Groy nods. "Of course, my lady. If you all will follow me?" He gestures to the door.

Sounds good. In this case the min-maxing and stated preferences line up very well. Taking free inspiration into account Noctifer has the highest modifier on every single knowledge except History. (Which I haven't rolled for anyone yet. The module doesn't give any DCs for knowing about Nicasor, which I'm taking to mean it's just too obscure for any PCs to have prior knowledge about.)

So from now on I'll roll knowledges for everyone except Noctifer, who'll take 10. The exception will be Ussaile if, as in this case, I think it's something her patron might know or have interest in.

”Nicasor can’t get out but he must be cursing me somehow. I don’t know how. I don’t know I don’t know I don’t KNOW!” After this abrupt outburst Stepan leaps out of his chair and begins pacing around the room. From the tracks in the carpet he’s been doing that a lot recently. ”The mirror’s broken, I do know that. Something damaged it long before my time. It only works one way now. Prisoners can go in but can never be released. I told Nicasor that, back when I first started seeing him in my dreams. He laughed and called me a liar.” He shudders. ”I can hear him laughing now.” You all suspect he’s not speaking metaphorically.

"Is there anyone who knows the story of Nicassor intimately? Perhaps someone is trying to rescue him? Maybe Ilquis is working for whoever wants Nicassor out and they are hoping to convince you to release him, perhaps in a last gambit to save the town. Someone who knows the story well may give us a hint as to who would be trying to do this or even if this is a possibility." Marcus says puzzling over the situation in his head.

"I don't know!" Stepan is clearly growing more and more agitated as you talk. "He lived a thousand years ago, how could anyone still know him? No one in town does. He's the boogeyman, frightening children, warning people against trusting their fetchling neighbors because all shadow creatures are treacherous bastards. I thought it was lies and slander. I felt sorry for him! For all of you! I tried to make things better and this is the result!"

"And, if anyone were so motivated, the only way to destroy a Midnight Mirror is to enter it and kill the physical manifestation of the magic item's consciousness with a shard of itself from the Material Plane. Doing so will cause the prison plane to break apart and disgorge all living creatures and items originally from the Material Plane through the shattered mirror back to their plane of origin."

Stepan stops midstride, head swiveling towards Noctifer. "Destroying the mirror...I looked into that, back when I was considering letting Nicasor go free. It's possible. I do have the shard of the broken mirror. But dangerous. Too dangerous. Someone would have to go into the mirror with no guarantee of being able to get out. I gave up on the idea." He bites on his thumb, thinking. "But if someone did go in, they could kill Nicasor. Maybe that would stop the curse." Something like hope kindles in his eyes and he begins talking very fast. "You're adventurers. Fighters. You say you want to help. I could pay you. Would you do it?"

"Because I've seen him." Stepan's initial response is equally simple and completely unhelpful, something even he seems to realize. "My ancestors. Strict adherents to the Midnight Lord. Death is too quick a punishment, no matter how prolonged. So they made sure Nicasor and his followers could never die. Trapped them in a midnight mirror under the manor so they would suffer forever."

"I found him. He begged me to let him out. I couldn't. Wouldn't. Didn't. Now he's cursed me, cursed the town, he won't stop until everyone is dead."