Scenario 2.5: Angel In the Tower

The interrogation of Justice Ironbriar led to a new lead – the true mastermind behind the evil plot was in fact Xanesha, who had seduced Justice Ironbriar so that she could become the leader of the cult, and get souls to power her magic. Of course, one would think there would be easier ways to do that. For instance, if monster souls would have worked just as well as human souls, he could have agreed to work with the humans to kill the monsters in exchange for rights to the souls. Or she could have just got a job on a farm and collect animal souls from slaughtered animals. Even if only human souls would work, it would still seem like enough people die of natural causes that she could get all the souls she wanted that way, and people might even think she was providing a service – disposing of used souls. But anyway, Xanesha was chaotic evil, so she didn’t think of any of these benign alternatives. (Evil always seems to be dumb like this. Or maybe it’s just selection bias; there are lots of smart evil people doing their evil plans, but they are successfully able to keep their evil plans secret, so we never hear about them. But anyway, Xanesha was dong her evil bidding from the abandoned clock tower, so the heroes had to stop them.

The party went straight for the clock tower. Valeros almost fell into a pit trap, but Lem’s speed spell enabled him to avoid it. Then he defeated a faceless stalker. As the faceless stalker was dying, it said in a sinister voice.

I know what you seek. I can help you, but you must pay a price.

“What price?” asked Valeros.

One of your own number.

“You mean I must sacrifice my friend Lem here?”

Of course not. A simple guard or standard-bearer will do. I am certain that you will be able to find another later on.

“My allies are all scouting elsewhere.”

Very well, you do not pay the price, you do not get the reward. I suppose you will be doing the rest of this yourself.

With that, the faceless stalker died. Lem and Valeros continued on and saw a bag of tools, guarded by an evil looking demon. “I will grant you these tools,” he said, “provided you pass the trial of fire.” These were masterwork tools, so they figured it would be worth it – the tools would help them in the challenges ahead. They braved the demon’s fire spells and acquired the tool.

Harsk heard the commotion inside and, rather than going in just yet, stayed at the city gate to see what was there. Enemies attacked the city gate! First a bugbear, then a scarecrow golem, then a bandit. Harsk defeated all three of them with shots from his new Shock Longbow, and the guardsmen were impressed. Harsk stayed with them for now to secure the area. He told them about Xanesha, and with the immediate monster threat defeated, they were able to have the guards keep watch for Xanesha in this area, while Harsk could go elsewhere.

Lem continued exploring and found a scroll with an inflict spell, which he was able to use to defeat a werewolf. Ezren joined him and found a battered chest.

It’s a chest, it’s a chest, better bash it up:

Because we all know those chests often have good stuff!

Ezren bashed the chest open and found not much – a heavily diluted potion of healing, which didn’t do much, and some potions, which the group had by now decided they didn’t like - the extra space they took up and time spent hunting around for the right potion outweighed any real benefit. But he did find another door – this one had a lock which looked like it had a puzzle on it.

He had remembered the group’s meeting with the Aldern Foxglove lookalike in the last adventure, and remembered the solution to the puzzle which he had inadvertently revealed during the interrogation. So he opened the door and found a hidden weapons cache – most of the weapons were old and useless, but there was one – a Flaming Mace +1 – that was usable.

They were almost at the top of the clock tower. They saw more writing on the wall that suggested that there was a spirit in the clock tower that needed a sacrifice. Valeros didn’t have any of his allies with him so he went back down the clock tower and looked at exploring other locations. He went to the Shrine of Lamashtu and went inside, where he was suddenly assaulted by a wave of psychic energy! He pushed forward but the assault kept coming. He couldn’t think straight enough to actually fight or do anything, so he went back outside to catch his breath. Harsk joined him, and they went back in, and an ogre appeared! Fortunately their combined might was able to smash the ogre.

Lem also had an ally with him. His ally also saw the writing on the wall, and booked it out of there before he could get sacrificed. So Lem followed his ally into the Shrine of Lamashtu. Zombies came after them, which they were able to defeat, but in the meantime, while they were distracted, some rats came up from the floor and bit at Lem’s legs, infecting him with a minor disease. Lem used some healing spells to cure the disease and also heal Valeros’ psychic injuries.

Ezren stepped up the final steps of the Shadow Clock, where he saw a cultist. He had a Scorching Ray spell which could easily have killed the cultist, but he saved it for later, instead using his longspear and calling for help. Two arrows from Harsk’s bow hit the cultist, and Ezren was easily able to finish him off. He saw a sage who had been hiding the whole time. He had to perform a sacrifice to purify the clock tower. He cast a charm person spell on the sage, so that the sgae would go along voluntarily, and then did the sacrifice. It seemed to work. Ezren wasn’t sure if what he did qualified as evil, but in any case, it was for the greater good.

The rest of the party finished going through the shrine, and killed a faceless stalker. Harsk looked at the faceless stalker and knew it had a clue of some sort, but didn’t know what. But that was all fixed when Lem sang his song:

Hey there, you faceless stalker, you’d better tell us who charmed you,

Or else Mr. Lamashtu will be pretty alarmed about you!

Okay, it was kind of lame. But it worked – they learned of a hidden passage that Xanesha had planned to use to sneak in here if necessary, and they closed it.

---

The next thing the party did was to go over to the throne room, in hopes that the local government could help them. They knew the local government was somewhat corrupt, but they figured that even if that were the case, it wouldn’t be a problem – they had gotten lots of treasure they could use as bribes if necessary. When they got to the government offices, they saw what looked like a carnival going on, with prizes being given out. They approached an information booth to ask about what was happening.

“Well, as part of the new anti-corruption campaign that’s going on, lots of the politicians have agreed to return items they received as bribes back to the people. That’s where all the prizes come from.”

“What’s with all the contests?”

 “It’s how we’re giving the items back. We heard the stories of what’s been going on in Sandpoint, and we figure the random prizes might be just what’s needed to catch people’s interest.”

The group went around and tried out some of the contests. Ezren won a ring of protection, and Lem won some caltrops – apparently someone had tried to pass them off as valuable collectors’ caltrops, to be something someone might want as a bribe. Valeros tried a more difficult challenge – use his brute strength to pull a greataxe away from being attached to a wall. Valeros used a mattock and found it easy – the rules didn’t say you had to use your bare hands.

Harsk joined the group and they all went to see a stage performance. The performer, a beautiful woman, came up onstage and asked for a volunteer from the audience. A volunteer came up and the performer sat her in a chair and tied her to the chair, ostensibly as part of the act. But then the performer turned in to a slithery creature, and started literally sucking the life out of the volunteer. The performer was really Xanesha in disguise!

The rest of the crowd fled, while the party stayed strong and tried to beat Xanesha. Valeros closed the distance and attacked, forcing Xanesha to stop consuming the soul and defend herself. In the meantime Harsk fired an arrow from his shock longbow and hit Xanesha. Lem continued his song to aid the party:

It’s the villain! It’s the villain! You had better get him now!

Or else he will do his evil plan, even though we don’t know how!

Another arrow from Harsk hit Xanesha, and Xanesha ran away. Moments later the announcement was made to close the festival due to the threat. The group huddled to decide their next plan. With the information revealed, there were only two places left that the villain could be going – the temple, or the mill.

Lem went to the temple, where he temporarily cast off his knowledge of battle magic and prayed to the gods. He felt the presence of the gods here, especially Lamashtu, the god of monsters. He felt blessed by Lamashtu, which was surprising, because Lamashtu was normally opposed to adventurers. But he soon saw the explanation for Lamashtu’s presence – Xanesha was here! 

Lem quickly put on his Cape of Escape and ran away to the mill, before Xanesha even noticed he was here. So he needed to come up with a plan – Lem and Harsk would go to the mill and make sure the villain couldn’t run there, while Valeros and Ezren would try to defeat the villain in the temple.

Ezren went to the temple and performed a spell of augury to find the villain but the spell did not reveal anything. Then he moved forward and felt more of Lamashtu’s energy flow into him, and then he saw – not the villain, but a charmed faceless stalker! He was able to kill it with a scorching ray, and was given the chance to consecrate the temple now, which would reveal the villain. But he knew that the only things left in the temple, besides the villain, was good stuff, so he didn’t want to do that. So instead, they did the same thing they always did – go forward to kill the villain.

Eventually this next threat was defeated, and they had time to go back home and continue their training. Ezren and Lem continued their studies of magic, while Harsk and Valeros made friends in the town, and found more allies willing to go on their quests.

Scenario 2.4: The Cult Exposed

With the Skinsaw Man defeated, they were able to get the rest of the evidence, which pointed to an evil Skinsaw Cult based in Magnimar. They went to Mayor Kendra to present the evidence.

“So, I guess it’s time for you to go to the big city!” the Mayor said. “I’ll make sure to get you tickets on the next caravan to Magnimar.”

“But Magnimar must have its own adventurers to deal with the problems there,” said Valeros. 

“Wouldn’t it be better if we just sent them the evidence and they could deal with it? They probably know the city better. And Sandpoint still needs our help.”

“That’s the thing. You have been so good at defeating the evil, that the other adventuring parties in Sandpoint are having trouble finding more evil to fight. We’ve already had several parties leave the town for that reason, and we don’t want to be dependent completely on you. Not that we don’t trust you, but you know how evil can be sneaky sometimes. And I’m sure you’ll have a great time in Magnimar – plenty of stuff is going on there.”

So they went to Magnimar to investigate the cult. They had some information to go on – they knew what the skinsaw cultists looked like, since they all wore the same uniforms. And they had some locations of possible cult hideouts. On their way, they planned strategy. Harsk would go to the local sawmill, because there were rumors the cultists had taken it over. Valeros and Lem would go to the city gates, hoping to talk to the local authorities and see what was going on. Ezren would go to the academy – he had a knack for finding spells.

The first thing that Valeros found at the city gate was a cultist! Under the city gate there were cultists performing a ritual, which Valeros as able to defeat. He was surprised that the guards hadn’t noticed the cult right under their noses, so he went up to tell the guards. The guards said that they knew about the cult, but there was nothing illegal about it. Valeros wasn’t sure – he wasn’t particularly familiar with Magnimarian law, so he didn’t know if they were telling the truth, or if they were just saying that because they were in league with the cultists. He decided to stay to seek out more information.

Coming on another trip was someone returning from a merchant expedition – it looked exactly like Aldern Foxglove! The old one, not the one before he turned into the Skinsaw Man. Thus, Valeros knew that the cult was using an Aldern Foxglove lookalike to throw people off the trail. Since Valeros didn’t know who was his friend or not, he didn’t reveal this information just yet, and played along.  A gobln warchanter attacked the gate, but he was able to defeat it.

Back at the mill, Harsk explored and found none other than Justice Ironbriar! He asked the justice for help in tracking down the cultists, but instead the justice attacked him. Fortunately, by using the blessings of the gods he was able to injure the Justice with a well aimed throwing axe, and the justice left.

Harsk quickly toke the rest of his party about this. Valeros confronted the guards at the city gate, and they agreed to help – they said that if Valeros would take over the bandit-killing duty or a bit, they would stand guard and make sure that Justice Ironbriar didn’t escape there. Ezren convinced some of the people at Magnimar Academy to keep an eye out for the villain as well.

Lem went on his way to the Shrine of Lamahstu, where he saw a makeshift shrine to Calistria in the corner. Evidently there was some inter-deity conflict going on here. Lamashtu is the god of monsters, while Calistrqa is the god of revenge – but most adventurers like her because her blessing helps with stuff that requires dexterity (and of course Lamashtu never favors adventurers at all, since adventurers and monsters are enemies.) So Lem said a prayer at the shrine of Calistria, and felt a mental attack from Lamashtu – he forgot the sanctuary spell he prepared just in case. So he went back out of the shrine and rested.

Ezren explored the academy. He found a building that looked abandoned, so he entered it, because abandoned buildings often have good stuff in them. That’s kind of surprising if you think about it, because if there’s good stuff in the building, why would it be abandoned? But the building had some simple spell scroll in it, an as he approached, he saw this was another gathering of the Skinsaw cult! The cult had apparently found a way to summon zombies, and they had just completed the ritual and released a zombie horde. Valeros killed a zombie, but Lem and Ezren were caught unprepared and had to flee – Lem using his cape of escape, and Ezren got cornered and had to use his Sihedron Medallion to protect himself.

Valeros hung out at the city gate more, where he saw a brief performance by a wandering snake charmer. Harsk joined him, where another performer came to cheer up the crowd, this time with a dart throwing performance. He noticed the darts looked magical, and he wanted some. Lem sand the sond to distract the performer:

Your show is cool, your show is cool, I’d like to be a part:

Perhaps all the show needs is one good kick start!

While the performer was listening to Lem, Harsk picked up a couple of the darts. Then Lem decided to join in the fun and do his own show: healing. He perched two toads on his shoulders and first demonstrated by healing himself. Then Harsk stepped up and asked to be healed, and one of Lem’s toads make a magical croaking sound, capturing the healing energy back again. He healed Harsk, and he did the same thing to Valeros with his other toad.

“New from your local magic shop: Toad familiars! These familiars will remind you of all those spells that you forget after you use, to make sure you won’t ever be without your spell. And it can even help you explore as well! Disclaimer: Familiar abilities may not function during encounter. Use of familiar is recommended for preparation prior to encounter.”

Back at the Academy, Ezren was ready to go back in to fight the cultists. His detect magic spell had told him that the cultists were preparing their zombie ritual again, so he went in prepared. He had warned the others at the city gate that zombies would be coming. He went in, and killed the zombies. While he was looking around, he found some writings – these looked like divine writings, not arcane. He consulted his codex for information, looking up the symbols in it. He realized that the symbols were for a spell of desecration – but it may be possible to reverse the effects, turning it into a spell of consecration. He called upon Calistria for aid, and was able to figure out how to create the spell. But it was a fickle spell – probably he would only get one use out of it. Thus he decided to save it for a later time, where it may be sorely needed. He soon finished checking out the cultists’ lair, and found some minor scrolls and trinkets but nothing of much use.

Meanwhile, back at the city gate, the party was going on. They were having a series of training bouts to practices with different kinds of weapons, including a glaive. Lem cheered Valeros on as he participated in the fights, and he won, and got the glaive as a reward. But the celebrations came to an abrupt halt when more zombies came out of the ground and attacked! Harsk and Valeros easily killed a few zombies, but Lem was caught off guard. He had been doing an archery contest with his crossbow and had left it laying there – and couldn’t find it! He called for help. Valeros rushed over and held the zombie off, and called upon Gorum to grant Lem strength. Lem got powered up and was able to defeat the zombie. Ezren was also attacked by a zombie but killed it with an acid bolt. Lem then took a rest and used his cure spells to heal himself, because he was exhausted – he gave up lots of his energy to help the others. Valeros went back into the watchtower at the city gate, where they gave him a spyglass to help him explore.

Harsk went over to the waterfront to investigate there. The skinsaw cultists really seemed to be open about what they were doing – a skinsaw cultist was the first thing he saw! The skinsaw cultist had commandeered a boat, and Harsk jumped aboard. It was hard to aim his dagger with the boat rocking in the waves but he was able to do it. He threw the dagger at the cultist, killing him, then pulled it out and threw it again at the bandit who had jumped aboard, killing him as well. He searched the boat and found no signs of any villain.

--

Now things were a little calmer. They had plenty of time, and only two locations left to explore, so they could take their time and make sure they got all the good stuff for the next adventure. Harsk moved to the Shrine and explored there, but had to turn back when faced with a ghost that his weapons couldn’t harm and a scout that shot him in his crossbow arm before he could get his shot off. Ezren arrived and helped explore further – he felt a blast of psychic energy and screeches of a siren, but when he got though it all, he felt Shelyn’s blessing.

Ezren cast a spell of augury to sensewhat lies beyond. The shrine was mostly explored, so he could get much information about what was left. When the divination was complete, he announced:

“I can tell you some good news. There is nothing left of value in this shrine, so it is okay to close. The villain must have gone to the Temple. I would recommend that we keep a guard here to ensure that the villain cannot escape back to here. It would be good if that was Harsk, that he could also keep watch so he could help at the Temple. I know there are spells in the Temple, so it would be good if I was one of those to go to the Temple to get spells.”

There was plenty of time left now. They had plenty of time to explore the Temple and get some stuff – some blessings and a couple weapons, and then finally corner Justice Ironbriar and bring him to, well, justice.

Scneario 2.3: Foul Misgivings

Welcome to Sandpoint Prison!

All manner of evil creatures and beasts housed here. NOW - See the creatures with your own eyes! LIMITED TIME ONLY – 50% Off Prison Tours!

ADVENTURER SPECIAL – By order of Mayor Kendra Deverin, any adventurer who captures a villain, henchman, or other human or nonhuman creature in league with the forces of evil gets a chance to participate in the interrogation! NEW – New torture devices available for your pleasure! Try them out!

Valeros was participating in the interrogation. As Rogors Craesby was an undead, they hadn’t been able to get much of anything out of him. But they were interrogating Farmer John, and he seemed to potentially have useful information. He had revealed that whatever the force of evil was, it had gotten to Aldern Foxglove, so he may be turning evil soon. Also, he revealed that supernatural forces were haunting the area, which could make things more difficult for explorers. During the interrogation he heard a sound of chimes from behind.

“Congratulations! You’ve been randomly selected for a chance at a special prize!”

Valeros turned around and saw a whole entourage of people – some guards, a jester or two, a troubadour, and Lem.

“Presented by none other than the Mayor herself!”

Kendra Deverin stepped forward. “Just spin the prize wheel!”

Valeros spun the prize wheel but it landed in a blank space. Lem sang:

Come on, Mayor Kendra, let him try again!

If the heroes don’t win this fight, the whole town might end!

She gave him another try. The prize wheel spun round and round and landed on another blank space. The troubadour sang his song as well.

We really want our heroes to win the big grand prize,

‘Cause the villain’s out in force – on them we owe our lives!

The prize wheel went round and round and landed on the one black space on the wheel. “Sorry,” said Mayor Kendra, “the black space is the losing space. No more re-spins, no prize for you. Better luck next time!”

Oh, well, at least he could get back to the interrogation. He called upon the blessings of the gods to see into Farmer John’s mind. He saw that Farmer John was in league with the dark forces even more than he thought – he knew a spell that could summon a zombie! The mind probing activated the spell, and a zombie appeared – fortunately it was no match for Valeros. Further investigation found that Farmer John dabbled in alchemy too – he knew a recipe for a potion of hiding. Unfortunately, Valeros wasn’t good enough to follow the recipe to make the potion.

In the meantime, Harsk was at the farmhouse continuing to investigate. There was more to John and Matilda than they thought – perhaps through looking here they could get more information about the villain. As Harsk was exploring, he came across a mercenary who attacked him. A flaming spell from Ezren and his crossbow easily disabled the mercenary. Harsk approached the mercenary, put out the fire, and stood over him.

“If you want to live, tell me who hired you!” Harsk said.

The mercenary didn’t say. Instead, he tried to get up and attack Harsk, forcing Harsk to slay him. His body disappeared and turned into dark magical energy, which surrounded Harsk. Harsk felt a weight on his shoulders. Then he felt an eerie sound, which could mean only one thing – a werewolf! The werewolf howled and became stronger – Harsk had to use all his power to defeat him. He felt the blessings of Erastil guide his bolt, and the bolt hit the werewolf square in the eye, and he followed it up with a thrown dagger, killing the werewolf. 

He reported this to a sage he had met earlier on the way to the farmhouse, and the sage went back with him to investigate. With Harsk’s guidance, they were able to locate a ritual shrine that was apparenty the source of the evil, at least in the local area. They reported this to the town guard, and the town guard came into secure the shrine while the sage could investigate. The sage found a mystic inscription, which was quickly taken by the town guards for safekeeping. Oh, man, we missed out on another treasure, Harsk thought. At least we didn’t have to fight any more monsters here, and we’ll have more time to search the other locations.

Then his eyes opened. That was a hallucination. That wasn’t happening at all. The haunt had taken over his mind as soon as he had killed the mercenary. He was actually face to face with the evil Iesha Foxglove. He tried to draw his weapon, but it was useless. Iesha cast a terrible spell at Harsk. It filled his body with chills and his mind with fear. He dropped his crossbow and ran, afraid even to look back. When he reached a safe distance he took stock. He still had another dagger in his pouch, so he was at least still armed. Soon, he got some backup – Lem arrived.

Lem cast a cure spell on Harsk – it didn’t have much effect, but it was better than nothing. He saw a crowbar lying in a grate – remembering what had happened last time he picked up a crowbar lying in a grate, he stayed clear of this one. He saw a mace chained to a wall, but wasn’t strong enough to break the chain. He kept going and ran into an enchanter! Lem tried to call upon Erastil for guidance, but the enchanter’s force bolt interrupted the ritual. Lem just pulled out his light crossbow and attacked, killing the enchanter. Unfortunately as the enchanter was dying he threw out a fire bolt, sending Lem’s crossbow up in flames.

In the meantime, Ezren was away from all the fighting and was studying at the Academy. A lot of the classes had been canceled because the professors were also adventurers and they were needed to help fight the evil, but there was still some stuff going on. He sat in on Professor Balthazar’s introductory class – most of the material was pretty basic for him, but you never know what you can find. Balthaar was demonstrating the use of magic detection. Since Ezren knew the detect magic spell in and out, he volunteered to help demonstrate. Balthazar showed a line of drawers, and asked Ezren to pick one. Ezren cast the detect magic spell, which led him to one of the drawers, which he opened to reveal a Web scroll.

“So, you see, magic scrolls, such as this Web scroll, produce magical energy which is detectable by spells,” Balthazar said.

Finally, a spell that’s actually useful! I could have really used the Web to get away from that werewolf last night, one of the students thought.

“As a reward for his mastery of the detect magic, I’ll let our volunteer here have the web scroll.”

You mean we’re not learning the spell? Come on, I paid good money for this!

The class soon ended, and Ezren quickly rushed out the back door to avoid being mobbed by all the students who wanted to look at the web scroll. He ran into a soldier standing guard, who he asked about the goings-on. The soldier said that he had seen someone suspicious walking around, but before he could investigate, he turned invisible. Ezren still had his detect magic up, so he detected the magic and followed the invisible person, who entered the library, and it turned out to be just a student practicing an invisibility spell. The student said he had found something interesting deeper in the library, and asked if Ezren wanted to help him investigate. He did, and found a book that radiated a kind of evil picked it up. Ezren felt the evil come close, and looked up to see Iesha Foxglove! Fortunately he remembered the invisibility spell, and cast it, enabling him to escape.

Ezren noticed a poster on the wall:

The Sandpoint Academy College of Adventuring is looking for research subjects for new adventuring studies! Studies include testing out trap detection methods and magical protective equipment. Subjects may be paid, including possible magical items!

Ezren went to the College of Adventuring building to participate in some of the studies. He figured he could get some stuff, and since villains often do experiments to test out plans for their evil schemes, maybe he could get information on the villain there.

He got to the College of Adventuring building, and found there were two studies going on that he qualified for. One was looking to see how adventurer classes differ in their approach to traps, while another was testing the performance of a magic ring. In the trap experiment, he was presented with a trapped locker and expected to disarm it. Lem cast a speed spell on him, and he felt Abadar’s favor, and was able to get past the trap, and he opened up the chest and found a wooden shield. He was allowed to keep the wooden shield as a reward, and the experimenter seemed surprised that a wizard would be granted the favor of the gods – perhaps this was more support for the theory that it was possible for party members to use blessings to aid other party members separated by long distances. The next experiment tested a magic ring, where they asked him to do sit-ups and push-ups while wearing a magic ring to see how it affected his endurance. He was allowed to keep the ring as a prize, but later found that the ring was just an ordinary band of no real value – he must have been assigned to the control group.

---

Meanwhile, back at the prison, Farmer John had told him where the evil was – it was within the prison itself! Valeros followed Farmer John’s directions and found a pit trap! Fortunately with help from the gods he was able to jump out of the way – but soon found himself face to face with Iesha Foxglove! Iesha cast her evil spell, and he was chilled to the bone – he had to run away. He would not get the chance to see what was here – the only hope was to interrogate Farmer John some more. That would take time … would they have it?

Harsk joined them, and himself searched through the dangerous area of the prison. He heard a siren’s voice, but with aid from the gods he recognized it for what it was, and wisely chose not to proceed further. He chose a different path and was attacked by a goblin cutpurse, but was able to kill it with a throw of his dagger. Lem came in and helped explore too, and they went further into the tunnels. As they explored, Lem felt Father Zantus’ voice speaking to him, and he felt better.

Ezren was on his way out of the College of Adventuring building when he was stopped by another student, who showed him a scroll. “Do you want to do a really cool experiment? Then come with me,” the student said quietly, showing Ezren a scroll. This wasn’t one Ezren recognized, so he followed him, hoping to learn some more.

“What’s so secret?” asked Ezren, as they walked outside the campus.

“Look.” The student showed him a spell, and it looked like a charm spell of some sort. “Testing mind-controlling magic is against IRB regulations, so we have to do this away from the academy itself.”

“So you’re some kind of outlaw?”

“No. There’s nothing wrong with mind control. They approve experiments to test combat spells, that kill people, why is mind-controlling someone worse than killing them? It’s just stupid bureaucracy that we have to get around. Everyone does it.”

Ezren wasn’t so sure, but still went along – a charm spell could prove useful later on. They went into the woods and found a guide exploring. “I’ve done this before, but I’m trying to test if the scroll is written well enough that another wizard can look at it and reproduce the spell effects,” the student said. “Can you try it?”

Ezren looked at the scroll, memorized the spell, put the scroll away, and cast the spell on the guide. The guide was charmed, and agreed to help them.

“Okay, it looks like the spell works. Thanks for your help. I’m always trying to improve the spells; my office is in room 342 of the College of Adventuring if you want to talk to me again.”

The student left quickly. Ezren made a note of this, perhaps it would be useful later. But Ezren had explored the academy enough to know the villain was not here – for now, he had to explore the rest of the town – the clock was ticking.

Back at the prison, Valeros had returned to the interrogation room to continue the interrogation. It looked like he was close to making Farmer John crack.

“Okay, the villain had infiltrated the prison. That’s why you saw all those monsters. There’s a secret stash under the floor over there. That has the villain’s plans in it.”

This was actually a trick by Farmer John – he had been told that the secret stash would trigger a trap that would distract the guards and allow him to escape. But that wasn’t the case – Valeros opened the secret stash by removing a loose stone, and found nothing in it.

“There’s nothing there!” Valeros said. Lem walked into the room wheeling a new torture device.

“You’d better tell me the truth, or you might be subjected to some enhanced interrogation techniques!”

“Okay, you’ve got me.” Farmer John drew a crude map of the town and highlighted some places. “You know about the Skinsaw Murders? Aldern Foxglove is the one who did it. He got infected with a zombie virus or something, and turned into the undead. He hired me to help bring the monsters in, to create the cover for him to do his dirty work. He moves around a lot, so we don’t know his hiding place. But he has three hiding spots – Foxglove Manor, the warrens, and the deeper dungeons. I would recommend you start there.”

Harsk rushed toward the deeper dungeons, with Lem joining him using his cape of escape. No sooner did they enter the deeper dungeons then they came face-to-face with Iesha Foxglove again! 

Fortunately, Harsk was prepared this time – he had a Crown of Charisma! Iesha stared at the crown and held her spell, giving Harsk and Lem a chance to make their case.

“We’re not here to hurt you; we’re looking for the Skinsaw Man just like you. I know you want to get revenge on your former no-good, jealous husband, and we’re here to help.”

“Yeah. We captured Farmer John and they said the villain could be hiding here. But there’s lots of monsters here, we don’t want to fight through them all.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been living here a long time. I know the dungeon well. Come with me.”

Harsk and Lem followed Iesha Foxglove through the deeper dungeons. Iesha had an imposing presence, and most of the monsters were afraid of her. If a monster looked like they were threatening the group, a quick display of Iesha’s magic power usually made the monster change its mind. It was a tough trek, and both Lem and Ezren were exhausted at the end, but they confirmed no villain was there. Iesha offered to stand guard at the entrance to ensure the villain did not try to escape there, while the rest of the party explored the other locations.

“And, new from the makers of Glibmonex, the Crown of Charisma!” Lem said. “The same guaranteed success for all your diplomacy needs, but the Crown of Charisma is rechargeable, so you’ll never be without your supply. Buy the Crown of Charisma at your local magic item shop today!”

Lem went to Foxglove Manor, but was too tired to enter right now – he waited for the rest of his party.

Ezren joined Lem at the Foxglove Manor. He was merrily walking along when he heard Lem’s song:

It’s an ambush! It’s an ambush! You had better turn around,

Or else that crazy scout guy will put you on the ground!

Ezren turned around to look, and saw the scout attack! He was prepared, though, and used his Sihedron Medallion to protect himself from the blow. He responded with a Scorching Ray to, well, scorch the enemy. Valeros also arrived and found a scroll of detect evil, which he cast, revealing an ogre!

He had a choice – to wait for now, or to attack. He had no weapon, so he would have to beat the ogre with his bare hands if he tried to attack. Fortunately he had help – he called on his companions. Lem sang the song:

It’s an ogre, it’s an ogre, let’s try something new:

Let’s see if our fighter can kill it with no weapons but help from you.

I will sing this song to distract the ogres now,

Harsk can shoot from afar – from where, I don’t care how.

And the wizard know some spells of strength as you well know,

So we can see just how far that strength of spell can go.

Many places in our travels we will be caught unprepared,

So we must plan to ensure we can triumph even there.

A bolt from Harsk slammed into the ogre, and Valeros grabbed on with his strength. He punched the ogre over and over, and even pulled the bolt out and stabbed the ogre with it. Eventually he beat the ogre down. He saw the ogre was guarding a glaive, which he took. Harsk continued exploring the farmhouse, and found some potions spilled on the ground, as well as a battered chest that he couldn’t open.

Ezren continued into the Foxglove Manor and found none other than the dreaded Skinsaw Man himself! The whole party threw everything they had at the Skinsaw Man, injuring him. But the Skinsaw Man disappeared into the darkness and said, “Ha, ha! You will never catch me!”

The only hiding place that Farmer John mentioned left to check was the Warrens. But the group decided they should also check the farmhouse as well – Farmer John may have omitted that one, and it’s likely that something bad is there. They saw a haunt before, which they thought meant the villain wasn’t there, but the villain could have escaped there now that they defeated him at the Foxglove Manor. But Harsk was the only one there, and he had some battle wounds – he would need to be healed before he was in good enough shape to keep going.

Valeros went to the Warrens and the first thing he saw was the Skinsaw Man! With some help from Harsk (again), he engaged in combat. He gained the advantage at first holding the Skinsaw Man at bay with his glaive, but soon stumbled, and allowed the villain to get in close. But Valeros had another trick up his sleeve – he cracked the glaive over the villain’s head, splitting it into two pieces, and used the piece with the metal head on the end as a close range weapon. The trick stunned the villain long enough for him to score a wound. The villain ran away and Valeros chased him all the way to the farmhouse. The rest of the party got into position, and they cornered the villain in the farmhouse. Ezren cast a strength spell, Lem sang a song of villain destruction, Harsk provided ranged support, and the villain never had a chance. Still there were nine blessings left.