The Deeper Dark

GOLOTHA:

DEEPER DARK Dark Rethem Adventure 3

Alun Rees

GOLOTHA:

DEEPER DARK Credits WRITER Alun Rees CONTRIBUTORS Anders Bersten and his players, Andy Gibson and Neil Thompson, the players at IviniaCon and the HarnWriters Team MAPS Alun Rees THANKS to N. Robin Crossby and Columbia Games for HÂRN, to Anders Bersten for sponsorship of the NPC art

NOTICE This is a self published HârnFanon work, created by Alun Rees. It is a derivative work of material published by Columbia Games Inc. and is released for free distribution and personal use by Alun Rees without the permission or endorsement of N. Robin Crossby, his estate, or Columbia Games Inc. This document is available for download free from www.lythia.com. If you have been asked to pay for this document, either as a download or as a hard copy, you have been robbed.

THE DEEPER DARK 1 INTRODUCTION Golotha: The Deeper Dark is best played with a group that has already completed Peran: Heart of Darkness and Afarezirs: Root of All Evil. It provides the link between those adventures and the final instalment of the ‘Peran Quartet’ campaign, Mejetus: Ancient Shades. If the player characters (PCs) have not completed Heart of Darkness and Root of All Evil then the GM will need to make some changes and the climax of the adventure may have less significance to the players.

Helpful Resources • The Rethem kingdom module would be helpful to set the political scene and this adventure may be easier to play if the GM also has access to HarnMaster: Magic and HarnMaster: Religion (all are available from Columbia Games).

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

Adventure Outline Golotha is known as the darkest and most disreputable city in all Harn, perhaps in all western Lythia, yet most of the acts that earn it this reputation are carried out in secret seclusion. This adventure lifts the veil on some of those secrets and confronts the player characters (PCs) with both the nature and consequences of the evils at large in the town. The adventure begins when the PCs receive a message from their former patron, Jamys Abrant of Tormau, which prompts them to begin a search for a missing person they have met before. They quickly become embroiled in the hunt for a gruesome serial killer which gains supernatural, perhaps Morgathian, overtones. With its horrific reputation and secular power in Golotha it appears that the church of Morgath may finally be making its move to engulf Rethem and the surrounding realms in the Shadow of Bukrai. Only at the climax are unexpected allies revealed and the PCs left with a choice that may imperil their very souls. As written the first scene of this adventure takes place on the 9th of Nolus, the day after the PCs return to Golotha having completed Afarezirs: Root of All Evil. The Epilogue of that adventure outlines some of the things that they may wish to do on the 8th of Nolus and that should take no more than a day. If the GM prefers to insert an interval for some sidetreks, perhaps concerning the spirit they may have brought back from the Afarezirs, then they should ensure those take the PCs away from Golotha for a month. In that case this adventure takes place in Larane, rather than Nolus. The adventure follows a quite precise timetable once it begin so that the climax is reached at midnight on the 13th of Nolus.

ACT I: BACK IN GOLOTHA Scene 1: The Message Scene 2: Halyn of Sharo Scene 3: Hamis of Nerele

CRIME SCENES: GOLOTHA These investigative encounters can occur at any time after ACT I Scene 4 during periods when the PCs would otherwise be waiting for information. A focussed group which is prepared to divide the labour between them might complete them all before ACT II begins.

ACT II: A SIMPLE JOB Scene 1: A Real Gentleman Scene 2: Going Underground Scene 3: Thugs and Mugs

ACT III: HUE AND CRY Scene 1: Innocent? Scene 2: Midnight Mass Scene 3: Arcane Lore Scene 4: Here They Are! Scene 5: Temple Hill

Essential Resources • Peran: Heart of Darkness; Afarezirs: Root of All Evil; Golotha: Trident Inn, Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore, Poetic Map of Golotha and Golotha: Zarainsen Warehouse, (all available from Lythia.com).

EPILOGUE

• Golotha (available from Columbia Games) and a version of the HarnMaster Rules (available from Columbia Games or Kelestia Productions).

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 2 GM’s PROLOGUE Over the last 30 days there has been a murder every 2 to 4 days in Golotha. While people disappear from the streets of the city of screaming spires all the time no one pays much attention. People just keep their heads down and thank the gods they have invested in private guards, or found the money to pay the Zarainsen boys, or some other local mob, their monthly protection fee. This last month those certainties have been greatly disturbed. First a stable boy from a wealthy family from the Nemiran neighbourhood; then a street urchin near the docks; a merchant visiting from the east who didn’t turn up for a meeting at the Merchantyler’s Hall; and a drunken Ivinian mercenary waiting for a ship home. So it has gone on. Every few days the same story sweeps through the city: another body found – or at least most of a body. The head and some of the organs have always been removed by the time the body is discovered and blood is left daubed all around: on walls and even doorsteps. No one is naïve enough to believe that this doesn’t happen beneath some of the temples, or in the dungeon of Caer Chaftar for the amusement of the King or Queen; but this is public – very public. After the ‘Butcher’, as he has become known, has taken what he wants the body is left; displayed for all to see. Once propped up against a well; once hanging from a tradesman’s sign; once laid out in a lane for some goodwife to find when she turned out her bedding that morning. The remains of the urchin were found kneeling next to a stack of sailcloth. That isn’t the Golothan way and it’s making people nervous. The weather hasn’t helped. Spring was warmer than usual and the start of Summer has not provided any relief. The foul miasma that hangs about the canals on warm days seems even denser than usual and is a reminder that death is stalking the city. Perhaps relief will come through a break in the weather; perhaps through the capture of the ‘Butcher’. the weather will break. What is certain is that the city resembles a cask that has been left to ferment in the sun – the risk of a violent explosion is increasing all the time.

ACT I: BACK IN GOLOTHA Overview It is the 9th of Nolus and the PCs have been back inGolotha for barely a day. They receive a message from a previous patron, Jamys of Abrant, who needs them to find the man they rescued from the forest in Peran: Heart of Darkness. While he offers no cash reward he does offer them further patronage and a place to return to. They seek out more information and begin to undertake the task they have been set.

SCENE 1: THE MESSAGE Overview As written this adventure assumes that the PCs will find lodgings at the Trident Inn, somewhere they already know and probably trust. The GM can find details of the Trident’s rates for bed and board in the article of that name.

GM Aims •

To hook the PCs into the adventure by reminding them that Jamys of Abrant has played fair with them and might be a friend worth keeping.

PC Outcomes They accept the task of finding someone they have already found once, or at least news of his fate.

Description of Events Having arrived back in Golotha on the 8th of Nolar they will first need to find lodgings. Those they are most familiar with are the Trident Inn and this adventure assumes this is where they will base themselves. Even if they choose to stay elsewhere the GM should play the scenes as described with only changes to the people involved. The rest of the 8th, and the 9th until noon, will generally allow time for them to complete their business with the litigant Nobar of Rushez, and get any other pressing business out of the way. Even if they have other things they would want to do they should be interrupted by a street urchin who has been sent to find them with a message from Halyn of Sharo, Captain of the Serenela’s Fancy, the boat on which they travelled from Tormau to Golotha before embarking for the Afarezirs. Captain Halyn wants to see them at Northaven. If the PCs delay … then Captain Halyn could seek them out and precipitate Scene 2.

Link to the next scene The obvious next step is to go and find Captain Halyn of Sharo. If they go to Northaven and look for the Serenela’s Fancy they will find her docked and loading cargo for her voyage back to the north.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 3 SCENE 2: HALYN of SHARO

Northaven Wharf

Overview The PCs get more detail on what it is that Jamys wants and make a connection to the underworld of Golotha.

GM Aims •

To ensure Halyn of Sharo appears to be as honest as he is and to use his fear of the consequences of failure to spur the PCs on.

•

To present enough detail of their mission to get them to their next contact.

PC Outcomes They accept what Halyn tells them about Kutz and depart in search of Ald of Ernaldin offering Halyn some reassurance that they’ll do what Jamys wants.

Description of Events Northaven is looking as it always does: crowded and busy. The Fancy is docked beneath one of the derricks that perch on the longer of the main keys of Northaven. The tide is high and the stink coming off the water is higher still. Over the masts of the ships tied up here the walls of Caer Chaftar rise as if built straight out of the water and men-at-arms can be seen surveying the scene below them. Around the Fancy a small flock of row boats have appeared – as if from beneath the dock itself selling anything from food to drink via women and men. The Nivik is swarming with day-labourers loitering in the hope of earning a penny for a watch or two spent hauling sacks and barrels out of the hold and onto the wharf.

Captain Halyn is busy selecting the ones who look like their capable of the work and fending off the small boats determined to sell him or his crew something; anything. However, when he sees the PCs he quickly delegates the jobs that need doing and joins them on the dockside. It is clear that he not only remembers them but that he’s also very pleased to see them. He was very much hoping to see them; indeed he had hoped to see them the last time he docked in the city. He was afraid Jamys would take it out on him if he couldn’t find them this time. Halyn will suggest they share a cup of ale and leads them across the wharf to a stall serving ale at trestles outside the Seaman’s Guild. The PCs will recognise one of the pot boys from the Trident Inn serving; Kardis has a franchise from his cousin, Ald, who runs the Seaman’s hostel. Sitting on stools among the hubbub of the key he will hand over a letter from Jamys of Abrant, owner of the White Stoat Inn at Tormau and Lia-Kavair guildmaster of the northern hundreds.

The Letter … … is written in a sufficiently obscure way as to ensure that unless the reader is one of the PCs who completed Heart of Darkness it will mean nothing. The letter (… and its ‘translation’) says: ‘Old friends, if you are reading this then you have returned safely to Golotha and can soon be welcomed back to the bosom of your family, here in Tormau’.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 4 … if you are alive – good. I have a way to help you return to the comfortable life you’d begun to enjoy here in Tormau. … ‘If you can find a particular instrument for our important local friend then he will be much happier to see you return.’ … The Earl of Tormau, or his cousin and constable, Vavryse, needs something that the PCs can provide … ‘Look for the ship which took you south. You know the Captain and he knows you and he will advise on the nature of the instrument I want you to bring home with you.’ … Captain Halyn of Sharo brought them south to Golotha in his nivik the Serenela’s Fancy. He always docks at Northaven and that’s where the PCs can find out what Jamys wants … ‘You’ll remember the instrument once the captain reminds you. It is the same as the one you found in the forest. Our important friend has misplaced it.’ … this has something to do with the trip the PCs made into the Peran wilderness last year when they returned with a man called Coln of Kutz. ‘The instrument remains unplayable so I sent it south to see if it could be re-tuned.’ … it appears Kutz remains much as he was when last the PCs saw him but perhaps Jamys was instructed to send him south for more sophisticated medical aid … ‘As ever, your old friend Jamys. Postscript: It would be a great shame if you couldn’t find the instrument again; it would be such a disappointment.’ … don’t disappointment me … If the PCs walk away from the instructions Jamys has sent them … then the adventure is over for them. It is worth reminding the PCs that life doing odd jobs for Jamys was pretty good and left them with plenty of time to pursue other interests. Passing up on that could be a serious mistake. The tone of Jamys’ letter is serious enough that he might even come after them if they let him down.

Halyn’s Story ‘Jamys called me up to the White Stoat about a month after I carried you to Golotha and told me he had another special cargo for me – a man. He promised the passenger would be not trouble as he would be accompanied by a youth to see to his needs during the voyage. Once in Golotha I was to take the boy to Hamis of Nerele and then follow the boy’s instructions.’ ‘The boy who came to the ship with the passenger was dressed poorly but his bearing and manner marked him as of gentle birth. I reckon the boy had something to do with Caer Tormau.’ ‘The passenger himself was a tall gaunt man with a straggly red beard. His left arm was severed below the elbow and he looked ill. I put his grey pallor down to the wound being infected but the arm looked clean and well healed. Still, he was sick with something; perhaps some ill humour. The blank look in his eyes wasn’t right somehow.’

‘Jamys himself came down to the dock with my instructions. I was not to question the boy and was to give him and the passenger my own cabin for the voyage. They were to eat alone and not with me or the crew.’ ‘They kept themselves to themselves as we made good time south. They never talked to any of the crew and I never saw them talk to one another, either. In fact I don’t think the gaunt man could speak. I never saw him do anything without the boy’s prompting. When they took the air during the day the boy led him everywhere and when he went to the side to throw-up when it first got choppy the man just stood there as if fixed to the deck. I didn’t like it – having him aboard. Just staring like that, never an eye blink.’ ‘We had a bit of a blow out in Boka Bay and the boy had no sea legs. He was laid up and so when I took in their food he couldn’t even look at it. I put the food in front of the passenger and he looked straight through me. When I went back an hour later to see to the boy the food was where I’d left it and I swear the fellow hadn’t moved a muscle. Didn’t twitch, not even when the Fancy was pitching like a maiden. We had an hour of thunder; he just sat there – might as well have been dead.’ If the PCs ask if the man or boy had names … Halyn says he wasn’t given any names and he didn’t ask. However, the description of the gaunt passenger will confirm that this was Coln of Kutz. If the PCs ask why the man was being sent to Golotha … Halyn has no definite answer but will tell them what Jamys said as the passengers came aboard. He “hoped someone in Golotha can do something for the poor bastard”. Halyn thinks the man was being sent for some sort of treatment in Golotha. If the PCs ask what happened to the man when the Fancy reached Golotha … Halyn says he did what he was told to do. He took the boy, and the man to Hamis of Nerele. Hamis runs the waterfront for his cousin Jarop of Zarainsen. Halyn had to lead the man by the hand across the wharf to the Longshoreman’s Hall where Hamis can usually be found. The man wouldn’t move without being led. It was as if he was blind or stupid. Halyn saw the boy hand a parchment to Hamis who had one of his clerks read it through and seemed to agree to something. Th boy handed over a hefty bag of coin and left the passenger with Hamis. Halyn loaded the Fancy and headed back north with the boy, as asked. He was pleased he’d gained some goodwill from Jamys. If the PCs ask about Jarop of Zarainsen … Halyn will lower his voice further and confide that people say he runs the most powerful guild of the Lia-Kavair on the island of Harn; right here in Golotha. If the PCs ask Halyn why he was so relieved to see them … he doesn’t want Jamys to become disappointed in him as he relies on a welcome at every port along the coast to make a living. Also, when he passed through Tormau 2 weeks ago and Jamys still hadn’t heard anything from Golotha he mentioned that he un-

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 5 derstood Halyn had two young grandchildren. Halyn is now even more worried.

back sometime over the next 2 weeks if they have any message for Jamys, or want passage north.

If the PCs ask Halyn what it is Jamys wants them to do … he tells them Jamys wants to know why he hasn’t heard back about the gaunt passenger who was handed over to Hamis. He gave Halyn the impression that after he’d delivered the man he could expect a message to carry back to Jamys when next he visited. He’s now visited twice more and there’s been no message. Jamys is getting impatient and, Halyn suggests, worried that he’s misplaced someone the Earl is still interested in. The last two visits Halyn has also carried a message for the PCs. Jamys has made it clear he would regret it if anyone else heard the message so Halyn is eager to say his piece, get his ship loaded and on its way north again. He may head straight for Tormau instead of making his usual stops just to bring Jamys news. He’s been living in fear that Jamys would ask him to get more involved, or that someone else would beat what he knows out of him one dark night. Jamys made Halyn memorise what he was to say when he found them.

Jamys’ Message ‘Find Hamis of Nerele, who runs the Longshoreman’s Hall on Northaven. Hamis knows a lot of people and he and I have had dealings in the past. The word I sent him was that he was to pass the passenger on to a fellow in a similar line of business as me with a letter saying what was to happen and what I wanted to hear. My associate’s name is Jarop, Jarop of clan Zarainsen. Halyn tells me he saw the letter handed over when the man was handed over.’ ‘The letter had some questions in it that our powerful friend wants answering. It’s those answers I’ve undertaken to obtain for him. The deal is that he gets his answers and the passenger returned in one piece and I continue to be a welcome guest and business man in Tormau.’ ‘Halyn tells me he did what he was supposed to do but has heard no news. I believe he love’s his family so I trust his word. I want you to find Hamis and say to him: “Jarop’s old friend in the North sends fraternal greetings to his godfather and requests news of the job that he paid to get done”. That will be enough to get his attention and confirm you come from me.’ ‘I want you to find out what’s happened to the man we both know and get whatever news you can to me as quickly as possible. I need something to placate our powerful friend. If the questions I asked have been answered then you can bring him back here.’

Link to the next scene Halyn will be relieved to have passed on his message and eager to get back to the Fancy. He will repeat the message if necessary until he’s certain the PCs understand what Jamys wants them to do. He will point out the Longshoreman’s Hall just up the wharf and bid them good luck and farewell. He will be

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 6 SCENE 3: HAMIS of NERELE Overview The PCs make the connection Jamys has asked of them and then have an opportunity to explore the city while they wait for news.

GM Aims •

To delay the arrival of Hamis so that when the scene ends it is approaching dusk.

•

To play Hamis of Nerele as a tough man who controls the waterfront and knows he has all the cards.

•

To convince the PCs that violence will not further their quest and that patience is the best policy, at least for now.

PC Outcomes They accept that Hamis knows what they are talking about and that he will pass on their message. They also understand that he represents powerful forces in Golotha whom they need in order to complete their task. They then return to their lodgings for the night.

Description of Events The Longshoreman’s Hall sits with a commanding view of the wharves of Northaven and it is from here that Hamis dispenses his power. Most of the work on the docks is done by daylaborers, some with experience and some without, picked from the hungry crowd that assembles every morning in the hope of work. Without Hamis’ say-so no one is allowed to present themselves to ship captains for work. He maintains a bunch of burly thugs to ensure his rules are not broken. Of course he takes a small cut from the earnings of everyone he grants permission to work. It is likely that Hamis will not be at the Hall when the PCs finish their conversation with Halyn. The GM should delay Hamis’ appearance until at least late afternoon. If the PCs ask where Hamis is, or when he will return … they are told he is always around in the late afternoon to oversee the collection of ‘donations’ to the Brotherhood of Longshoremen and make sure it’s completed by dusk. At the appointed time Hamis appears and seats himself on the balcony of the Longshoreman’s Hall surveying his kingdom. From there he oversees the ‘donations’ being collected from those that have found work that day. He occasionally calls one of his boys up to point out someone he’s not certain has the right to work that day, or who may have promised an extra donation. Access to the balcony is via a staircase that leads up from the wharf and around which a handful of his thugs drink and gamble the day away until the queue forms to make donations.

If the PCs approach arrogantly or aggressively … they will get nowhere. This may precipitate violence and the GM should be ready to point out that Hamis is the only lead they have and they are on a busy wharf surrounded by labourers who rely on him for work! If the PCs approach respectfully … they must convince the thugs that they are worthy to speak with Hamis. Rhetoric: will work, boosted by mentioning that they bring “fraternal greetings from the North”. This form of words is how members of the Lia-Kavai,r and their agents, often identify one another. It will be further boosted by mentioning Jarop’s name. Jarop is cousin to Hamis’ wife, so they won’t ignore the mention of his name. When the PCs speak to Hamis … he will display his usual truculent manner making it clear he’s dong them an enormous favour by even listening to them. If they press him on what happened to the man Captain Halyn handed over to him … he will become more vague. He is careful to admit nothing to do with Halyn, Kutz or any letter instead he prefaces anything he says with phrases such as: ‘If I did receive a visit from this man …’, and ‘If there was a passenger who was handed onto me …’, or ‘Supposing that a letter from the north existed and suppose I received it from this Captain and the boy you say he brought to me …’. However he also gives the impression that he does know things and has ‘certain connections’ he is willing to talk to, on behalf of the PCs. That will take time and they ‘… must be patient’. If they will tell him where they are staying then he will send word to them as soon as he has ‘made some enquiries on your behalf.’ If the PCs tell him where they are staying … then he will smile benignly and wish them well, confirming that he ‘will be in touch’. If they refuse to tell him where they are staying … he will make a big performance of their lack of trust and remind them that it would be an easy thing for him to have them bundled into oblivion right now if that was what he wanted. Equally he could have them followed so he’d know every step they took; ‘Do you really want to put me to that trouble?’. If the PCs consider taking him hostage or threatening him … the GM should remind them of where they are and how difficult it would be to make further progress with his blood on their hands. While Golotha has a reputation for lawlessness this is only a superficial appearance. The truth is that there are very tight networks of enforcement; they simply aren’t official. The looks on the faces of Hamis’ thugs and the crowd of daylabourers all around should give them the first evidence that what Golotha abhors is a power vacuum. The locals would prefer to put up with Hamis’ blunt exercise of power and spend weeks in some war to establish the new top dog on the wharves. The city looks after its own, even when they are very unpleasant people.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 7 Link to the next scene Hopefully the PCs will leave Northaven with their relationship to Hamis intact. If they don’t all is not lost but they will have made life more difficult for themselves.

They can do what they like with the rest of their day, but if the GM has timed it well they will return to the Trident Inn to play straight through the next scene.

Curfew sounds

SCENE 4: THERE’S BEEN A MURDER!

They are sufficiently interested in the murder(s) to begin making some enquiries.

Overview

Description of Events

The PCs return to the Trident Inn for the night hoping that the morning will bring news from Hamis. Sadly the dawn of the 10th Nolus brings less pleasant news.

GM Aims •

Encourage them to stay at the Inn overnight so that Kardis can give them some background of recent events.

•

To provide an opportunity for them to investigate a ‘typical’ Butcher murder scene and to draw any conclusions they like about similarities to any ‘Ripper’ knowledge. Anything they believe about Whitechapel in the late 1880s can only reinforce the atmosphere in Golotha.

•

To encourage the PCs to ask Boraga about the murders.

•

To encourage them to investigate the previous murders.

PC Outcomes

The Trident was always busy into the night when they were last here. They are, therefore, surprised when the common room empties well before dusk. The only people left apart form the PCs are a pair of travellers from Techen who arrived down the Thard earlier today. None of the local regulars the PCs may have noticed from last time stay, and even before the common room empties the place has a slightly subdued feel. Even the whores who live upstairs retire early realising they are not likely to see much business after dusk. Indeed, as they walked back to the Trident they noticed the streets were a little less busy than they remembered. Then, as dusk actually falls, they hear the brazen sound of horns echoing across the city and the clash of the great gong which normally calls the faithful to worship at the Temple of Agrik. If the PCs ask Kardis what’s going on … he will tell them about the ‘Butcher’ as described in the Prologue. The effect is that his, and many other businesses, are suffering. The city’s governing Council have declared that the fall of dusk be signalled around the city to warn

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 8 folk to return to their homes. Not everyone does, but most of his regulars do. Even the group from the Cohorts of Gashang, who often get drunk at the Trident, stay less late than they did. If the PS choose to take to the streets … Kardis will tell them they are fools and that his door will be firmly barred in a few minutes. They can waste the night on the streets but a reminder about the fatigue rules will probably get them to bed.

The following morning Before dawn the PCs will be woken by shouts within and outside the Inn. When they look outside they will see other folk who have been startled from their beds looking nervously out from behind shutters and half closed doors. Others are leaving their homes and heading down Chafin Street towards Chafin Square.

already a few there but as more arrive they fall as silent as those first on the scene. Hanging from a hook above the rear door to a house is the headless corpse of a woman. She has been disembowelled and strings of her gut are draped around her shoulders like some bizarre shawl.

The Butcher has struck again … If the PCs try to examine the corpse … they will be assisted by the arrival, through the door above which the body is hung, of Shorka of Larsi, crying ‘I’m a physician, let me through. Help me cut her down.’ This is his house. If the PCs are quick in volunteering to help … they will see she was hoisted a few feet off the ground by a rope tied under her arms. They can also get a close look at the body as Shorka, rather theatrically, announces to the crowd: ‘I fear I am too late, not even my skills can save this poor wretch, if only I had been called earlier’. Physician: The muscles of the neck, wind pipe and gullet haves been cut through by a very sharp blade, but the bones of the neck have been separated rather than hacked through. The body cavity has been opened by a single cut from just below the ribs to the groin. The cuts are not those of a crazed maniac but of someone who is good with a knife working quickly and efficiently. If the PCs enquire among the crowd about Shorka … they will find that he has a decent reputation as the only guilded physician in the city who will treat anyone, irrespective of their station (or condition). Most physician restrict their trade to the better off members of Golothan society. He is, though, not cheap and despite his ministrations many of his patients do not pull through. Someone in the crowd will know someone who knew someone who sought to complain about him when their wife died. They didn’t take the case to court, though, so there couldn’t have been anything in it. Shorka will then depart back into his house after announcing: “I could not save her, but my surgery is open for any of you who are ill or need a medication after this terrible shock ”. If the PCs look around the walls of the alley… they will notice that as well as the blood that has soaked into the ground in front of the door there are splashes of blood on the wall beside it.

The streets of Golotha

If the PCs ignore the commotion … they can return to their beds and have the details of the murder scene described to them by Kardis’ eldest son, Maike. He will push past them, or be seen from their window, joining those heading down the street. As he sees them he’ll shout, ‘There’s been a murder!’. If the PCs follow Maike … they will avoid some of the crowd by taking the narrow way beside Nobar’s house and into a back lane behind the houses and businesses that front onto the Square. This will get them to the murder scene with some of the first arrivals; there are

If the PCs examine the blood splashes … it is obvious that they were not caused by the random spray of blood from the woman’s wounds. They appear to have been ‘painted’ onto the wall with a coarse brush of some kind. They are certainly not a letter of Lakise or Runic (the scripts most likely to be recognised by PCs) but they are certainly not arranged randomly: Drawing: will allow a PC with parchment, pen and ink to take down a likeness of the symbols for future reference.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 9

W If the PCs don’t record the symbol … they can roll 5 x INT in future to recognise something in the same style or 3 x INT to tell if it is the same symbol. If the PCs wait … then at about the time the crowd has reached its peak, and they might struggle to leave the alley without having to push folk aside, a shout from the back announces: “Boraga is here …”. If the PCs enquire who Boraga is … someone in the crowd is happy to describe him as ‘the corpse collector’. He is paid by the city to collect any bodies found in the canals and can also claim a fee for collection and delivery of bodies found elsewhere to their family or friends. Rumour has it that if bodies are not claimed then he dips them briefly in the canal and claims his fee from the city. His house and mortuary backs onto Shemeda Canal. When he arrives the crowd parts before him and in the resulting silence all that can be heard is the squeak of his wheel barrow. He is a tall, stick thin man, with a bald head almost covered by the cowl of his dark brown cloak and robes. His appearance is enough to convince some that one of the ancient gods of the dead continues his trade. On his arrival is heralded by the squeaking of the wheels of the long barrow he hauls behind him. He asks if anyone present claims the body. Before the PCs can consider making the claim themselves a weepy voice from the crowd says she shares a tenement room with the dead woman. He offers profound condolences and holds out his palm for payment of a penny. In return he will ask where she wishes the body to be delivered and whether she wishes it to be prepared for ‘consignment to the flames or entombment’. The young girl hands over the penny and says she will arrange for collection later in the day. Boraga is stronger than he looks and, scooping up the corpse, deposits it in the barrow with surprising care and deference. He says not another word, and a grave look is enough to silence any who think to address him as he wheels the body away. If the PCs try to interrupt him … he will ask in his deep, sombre voice, if the corpse is a relative. If the PCs claim it is then he will ask the woman who knew the dead woman if she can confirm that is the case. She will shake her head and say she has never seen them before. He will give the PCs a sad look and depart shaking his head as he goes. If the PCs follow Boraga … he makes his way across Chafin Street and past the Palace of the Silver Orb to his home and place of business.

If the PCs interview the girl who claimed the body … she turns out to be a street whore called Myla. She shared a small room with the dead woman, Ela. Both were orphans who grew up on the street and made a living the only way they knew how. The rent was due at the end of the week and so, despite the warnings, they went looking for clients. It was Myla’s turn to get the use of their room; she took two clients there during the night. If it had been Ela’s turn with the room then it might be Myla who was dead. If the PCs interview Shorka … he will claim (truthfully) that he heard nothing in the night and only knew of the murder when a scream announced the body had been found. By the time he had dressed and collected his instruments the crowd had already formed and it was too late for him to do anything for the poor girl. It was, though, an opportunity to remind the community of his offer to treat anyone for a fee. If the PCs follow Boraga and ask if they can examine the body … only if he is in the privacy of his mortuary will he, for a fee, allow them to ‘be alone with the body’. The PCs are left with an unpleasant sense that this is a service he often provides. Physician: Given time to examine the body more thoroughly the PCs can confirm that the muscles of the neck, wind pipe and gullet were cut through by a very sharp blade and that bones of the neck have been separated rather than hacked through. There are no cuts on the bone and the wounds to the neck are clean and not torn. The cut was made by a confident hand, probably with one or two swift cuts. Examining the body cavity reveals that, as well as spilling to poor woman’s guts, the killer removed her liver. If the PCs interview Boraga at the mortuary … he will, for a fee, tell them that he has been responsible for collecting a number of the Butcher’s victims but has recorded what he knows of each of the murders to date. He has an interest in such things. By consulting his records the PCs can get an accurate picture of the Butcher’s progress.

The Pathology of a Serial Killer? Boraga keeps records of all the bodies he finds and is able to take the PCs through his ledger indicating the Butcher’s victims with his long bony finger. The GM should insert the relevant month: Victim a - Night of the 13th of last month: a street urchin of no fixed abode. Decapitated and bladder cut out. Found kneeling beside a stack of sailcloth on Northaven Wharf. Victim b - Night of the 16th last month: a serving boy from one of the better houses on Puril Street. Decapitated and right arm missing; found floating in Ukedela Canal. Victim c - Night of the 19th last month: Merchant believed to hail from Kaldor. Decapitated and right leg removed. Found hanging by left arm from the sign of the

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THE DEEPER DARK 10 harper Nicola of Varianes beside Kalphor Wharf but believed to be staying at the Hand and Fist Inn. Victim d - Night of the 22nd last month: Ivinian mercenary living rough while waiting a ship home. Decapitated and genitals removed. Found sitting, corvered in his cloak, with back against the well on Chafin Street. Believed drunk until blood noticed late in the morning. Victim e - Night of the 25th last month: Apprentice to the locksmith Horah of Urmel found leaning against the side door of a goodwife behind Northaven wharf. Decapitated and right lung removed; ribs neatly cut. Victim f - Night of 28th last month: Whore of no fixed abode found hanging from Kalphor Wharf. Decapitated and left arm removed.

Link to the next scene It is to be hoped that the PCs, confronted by the Butcher’s work, will be drawn into investigating this, and the other, murders. If they begin their investigation … the GM should begin to offer the PCs the encounters found in Crime Scenes: Golotha, below. The rest of the 10th of Nolus is available for investigation.

Victim g - Night of 1st of this month: Squire of visiting knight in the stables of the Bridgetower Inn (horses unharmed). Decapitated and guts removed. Victim h - Night of the 4th of this month: Fisherman found on East Haven dockside. Decapitated and left lung removed. Victim i - Night of the 6th of this month: Beggar of no fixed abode found in doorway in Sewertown. Decapitated and body opened but cannot say which organ was removed. Victim j - Night of 7th of this month: Beggar of no fixed abode found in a doorway in Sewertown. Decapitated and right kidney removed. When the PC have finished examining his records Boraga will add the details of the most recent victim: Victim k - Night of 8th of this month: ‘Whore found hung above the back door of Shorka the physician. Decapitated and liver removed.’ If the PCs comment on the murder of the beggar on the 6th of this month … Boraga will explain that the other local beggars got to the body before him and he could only record that the head was missing and the body opened. A number of organs appeared to have been removed or showed the sign of teeth marks … ‘perhaps dogs or rats got to the body first’, he observes drily.

Maps for Sale! Within an hour of the Butcher’s most recent victim being discovered, maps of the city are being hawked around the streets for a penny. They claim to show where each victim was found. Such is the fascination with the Butcher and his murder spree that Tykar of Renchasa, a local lexigrapher specialising in maps, has done little else but copy a map of the city. With each murder he update his stock; some better off citizens buy new maps rather than updating earlier versions themselves and boast of their collection! Appendix A is a copy of Tykar’s original, unannotated version of the map. Appendix B is a copy of Tykar’s sensationalised map showing the achievements of the Butcher.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 11 SCENE 5: GOLOTHA POOL

The gibbet beside Golotha Pool

Overview

PC Outcomes

It is the morning of the 11th of Nolus and the PCs receive a summons to a meeting that is to take place that night. There they will be offered a deal that will help them satisfy Jamys.

They will leave Jarop believing they have made the only bargain that’s going to get them the information Jamys wants.

They can spend the rest of the 11th continuing their investigations (see Crime Scenes: Golotha, below). What they learn at the meeting will either add pace to their existing investigations, or prompt them to begin.

GM Aims •

To ensure they don’t do anything to annoy the Zarainsen ‘family’.

•

To make use of all the established ‘Godfather’ tropes to play Jarop of Zarainsen as a younger Don Corleone who balances fear with respect among ‘gentlemen’ and is used to making folk ‘offers they can’t refuse’. He prefers to work through understandings rather than direct threat; which he considers crude;

•

To ensure they accept Jarop’s bargain;

•

To help them notice a lot of activity on the walls of Caer Chaftar as they return to the Trident Inn.

Description of Events The PCs are likely to continue to investigate the murders and will have all day on the 11th to do so. Returning to the Trident that evening they will find a message waiting for them. It is in a neat and cultured hand and says: There are some goods you may wish to examine waiting for you at the Chandlers warehouse on Golotha Pool. It is signed JZ. If the PCs ask Kardis about the warehouse … he will quietly tell them that it is a chandlery business owned by Jarop of Zarainsen. That is a name the PCs will connect with the information they received from Jamys and is tied directly to their search for information about Coln Kutz. If they have time to scout out the warehouse … they will find if to be very well supplied with members of

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THE DEEPER DARK 12 staff; most of whom look like they could handle themselves. If they turn up early … they will be told the warehouse is closing to comply with the advice from the Heptarchial Council that honest folk should secure their businesses and homes at dusk. If the PCs choose not to attend … the GM should remind them of what Jamys wants and that Jarop of Zarainsen is too powerful to ignore. It is also worth having Kardis remind them that Jarop is not a man you trifle with when asked, politely, to meet him. If you do then the request tends to get much less polite. If they are adamant that they don’t intend to meet him … they should awake that night to find themselves trussed up in their blankets and carried to the meeting! If they are to turn up on time … they will not have set off from the Inn until after the curfew horns have blared and the brazen gong of the temple has sounded. Chafin Street will be pretty much deserted, just like Chafin Square. There may be the odd drunk wending their way back to their lodgings but otherwise … all is eerily quiet. However, they will find the warehouse is anything but closed and silent. The large double doors are wide open and four men are loudly playing a game of dice at a welllit table out front. Inside a drum is gently beating the time for a young voice that is singing a cheery folk song. A marked contrast to everywhere else. If they approach the men playing outside the door present their letter … they will be escorted in side. There are more men chatting and gaming inside but they fall silent at the arrival of the PCs. If they keep their wits about them on entering … they find themselves in a large well-lit room that resembles a tavern set up in a shop! A couple of casks of ale are propped up by the door and Jarop has brought in extra tables and stools. A large number of Lia-Kavair journeymen and apprentices are sipping ale and making a show of enjoying themselves among the varied goods that Jarop stocks. This is despite the curfew and the fear hanging over the city. INT x 4: there is a much wider range of goods displayed than you would expect in a typical chandlers. Where chandleries exist in rural towns they limit themselves to those goods the local manors cannot provide for themselves, acting as importers of goods from other shires. Even in cities they tend to focus on a particular segment of society. Dockside chandler will provide everything a captain needs in one place. In poorer quarters they often combine usury with trade in a range of ‘essentials’. In better parts of town they are rarer as the wealthier classes prefer to buy from individual masters. This chandlery, though, resembles a cave of treasures. There is everything from rolls of course cloth to fine linen; from tin cups to pewter tankards; from candles to finely decorated lamps.

They will be led through this shop floor to a second room where they are ‘advised’ to leave any weapons they have with them. If they refuse … then they are asking for trouble. The GM should remind them that if Jarop wanted them killed there are enough guildsmen in the warehouse to ensure they suffered at least serious injury whether they are armed or not. INT x 3 or some trade related skill: the goods stacked in this half of the warehouse are of higher quality and/or from more exotic markets. When Jarop’s bodyguards are satisfied they pose no danger to their master they will escort the PCs up some stairs to an enclosed gallery at the back of the warehouse. There they are ushered into the presence of their host: Jarop of Zarainsen. He’s a big man running slightly to fat. He is seated beneath a lamp at the back of the room talking quietly to a couple of his closest advisors. Two other men, eying the PCs suspiciously are seated on some bunks in the room. There should be enough Lia-Kavair present to deter the PCs from doing anything stupid. Jarop looks up as the PCs approach and gestures them to approach to within 6 feet of where he sits. Perceptive PCs will note that two bodyguards stand ready to either side of him while several others place themselves behind the PCs. None of this is done in a heavy handed manner; the Lia-Kavair present ooze calm professionalism. The Guildmaster of the Golothan Chapter of the LiaKavair will thank them politely for coming to meet him as requested and explain that he understands that they are looking for a particular ‘package’ that was sent from the north a little while ago. If the PCs seek to dissemble with Jarop or play games … he will come equally quickly to the point, telling them to ‘stop messing me about’. Are they interested in finding what they told Hamis they were looking for, or are they too stupid to see an opportunity when it presented to them. Jarop is a bright and able man; he could not have got to his current position otherwise. He has a good feel for human nature and can tell when people lie to him. He is here to do business and isn’t interested in posturing time wasters. If they show not respect then they will not be treated with respect. Throughout the meeting Jarop tells the PCs only those things that are true and will not to lie to them; that would be ‘dishonourable’. He will, though, be economical with the truth. He didn’t get where he is today without learning how to keep some things hidden. He did take possession of Kutz. He did arrange a safe place for him to be kept. He did arrange consultations with those best able to diagnose the man’s condition.

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THE DEEPER DARK 13 What he won’t tell the PCs is that subsequently Kutz went missing. He will always talk about what he did and what had happened. He never implies that he currently holds Kutz. He will address that difficulty if and when the PCs have delivered on their side of the bargain he is offering. If the PCs consider threatening Jarop … the GM should ensure they remember where they are; at the centre of the most powerful chapter of the Lia-Kavair on the island of Harn, surrounded by large number of Jarop’s best men. If the PCs are straightforward with Jarop … he will come quickly to the point. He believes he knows exactly what they are looking for and would be very willing to help them find it. However, that favour is deserving of a favour in return. ‘You do something for me; I’ll do something for you’. Jarop has a little local difficulty that the PCs can help him with.

An offer they can’t refuse? Jarop will point out how ostentatiously ‘open’ his business is even though the curfew has sent people back to the safety of their homes. He has a certain status to maintain and that means he cannot be seen to be concerned about the Butcher. He is setting an example that people notice. He also has certain ‘obligations’ to many townsfolk. They do him favours and in return he does them good turns; like protecting them and their property. There are certain ‘fees’ that change hands and certain expectations that must be delivered. Over the last month certain expectations have been shaken and a certain degree of confidence has been lost. He is a business man and his business relies on confidence. He likes to make sure his ‘friends’ are not surprised by events. This last month there have been some surprises he does not like. Normally he would deploy his own ‘resources’ to bring someone to ‘justice’; but the Butcher murders are different. They are sufficiently concerning that he cannot been seen to be too concerned. He cannot be seen to be trying too hard. He has to be seen to simply deliver without even trying. That is the nature of the ‘confidence’ on which his business is built. He has made ‘discrete’ enquiries. He has had his network of informers show some ‘interest’ in these matters. They have come up with nothing. Now he needs to take a more ‘overt’ interest; carry out a more ‘direct’ investigation. Yet to do so would sap the very ‘confidence’ he is seeking to maintain.

He is relying on their ‘discretion’. They can do what they like as part of their investigation except mention his name or that of his organisation. If they run into difficulties they must not claim his patronage and if they come to his notice during their investigations he will deny all knowledge of them. If the PCs have questions … Jarop will wave them away. All they need to know is that his usual sources have given him nothing. What the PCs can do that he can’t is approach some of the victims’ families openly or investigate the scenes of the murders. They can take approaches his men cannot. He confides: ‘Their talents lie in other directions’ … as one of them loudly cracks his knuckles. If the PCs have already made some enquires following the previous scene … Jarop will make it clear he knows they have already started asking questions. That’s good – now they need to ask some more; and get some answers. When they have an identity or an address for the monster who is killing ‘his people’, they are to contact Jarop again, through Hamis. If the PCs refuse … then Jarop will ask them how else they will find what they are looking for. If the PCs ask for assurances that Jarop can deliver his end of the deal … he will recite most of what they know from Jamys. If Jarop doesn’t have Coln Kutz, then he certainly knows exactly what Jamys wanted. He goes further and describes Kutz in sufficient detail to confirm that he must have, at least, seen him. His description of the symptoms of Kutz’ condition suggests he’s been in his presence for more than a moment. Finally, he describes what Jamys wanted to know: can the man be brought back to himself so he can tell what happened to him, or is his mind gone forever? He will provide everything short of actually allowing them to meet the one-armed man. He won’t tell the PCs exactly who he consulted; that would provide them with clues they could follow themselves. He also won’t tell them what any consultation revealed. Otherwise he will provide enough impressive detail to convince.

Link to the next scene The next morning, the 12th, the PCs can begin (or continue) their investigations. As well as anyting they find out in Crime Scenes: Golotha they will hear several rumours that the Butcher has struck again; but no one can tell them where.

That is where the PCs come in. They want something from him. He will provide them with what they need in return for a small favour: finding the Butcher.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 14 CRIME SCENES: GOLOTHA

The canals of Golotha

Overview If the PCs do not start investigating until after they meet Jarop they have all of the 12th and the 13th of Nolus to do so before Act II begins.

GM Aims •

To offer the PCs the opportunity to develop any ideas they might have about the murders.

•

To make creative use of the city to make sure they don’t catch the Butcher …. Yet.

•

To recognise some plot hooks for future adventures in Golotha, but to keep them focussed for now.

PC Outcomes They will begin to build up a picture of the Butcher’s approach to his craft before they are called to the next Act by a message from Kardis at the Trident Inn. Appendix C reproduces the symbols found at the site of each murder victim.

Strategies of Investigation If they try to set a trap for the Butcher … it will fail. He simply doesn’t go near wherever they have set

their trap, no matter how logical their deductions and plan! If they wander the street on the off chance that someone points the Butcher out to them … they will be given a lead to the interview about Victim a. The GM can continue to point them at successive interviewees if necessary until they get the message and start actively investigating. If they adopt a more systematic approach … then the GM can provide the ‘best’ witness they can find for any of the murders as a sequence of investigative encounters. Each is connected to one of the twelve murders Boraga has recorded. They can be approached in any order, perhaps based on a pattern the PCs might begin to imagine. The GM should keep track of the passage of time and each of the encounters will take a 3 hour watch to complete. Most of this time will be spent finding the best person to talk to &/or finding a way to get access to them. The GM can roleplay a chain of leads leading to the specific interviewee, or abstract the process to a roll against Intrigue or other appropriate skill,where: CS: reduces the time taken by 1 hour MS: doesn’t increase or decrease the time taken MF: increases the time taken by 1 hour

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 15 CF: increases the time taken by 2 hours If the group of PCs split up … then they can increase the number of leads followed in each watch. It doesn’t matter if the PCs have time to complete all the encounters, or not, before the evening of the 13th of Nolus. Act II must begin then whatever they think they have worked out. The encounters are intended to provide atmosphere and a sense of the unknown while confirming that the murders are carefully, even if the choice of victims is very varied. Subsequent scenes will confirm or disprove some of the theories the PCs may will begin to construct.

The Format of the Encounters Each encounter is described in the following way: Interviewee: A brief description of the person being interviewed and their attitude to the approach. Location: Where the interview takes place. Initial demeanour: what is the starting reaction of the interviewee to the PCs. Why they won’t tell: What it is that makes them resistant to telling everything they know.

her; how she always looked up to him etc. In that way a successful Rhetoric will lead her to slip up and let out some of the truth. Once that happens it will be as if a dam bursts and she will tell them everything, and feel better for sharing her guilt. Successful PCs are likely to have to offer her hugs and human kindness and may leave her feeling much better about herself. What they know: … she can narrow down when the murder took place to sometime in the middle watch of the night – after she was supposed to be on guard and before the fishwife arrived an hour or so before dawn. There was a lot of blood splashed around but she can’t remember if it was arranged in any pattern. How it will end: It will be clear from the transformation of her demeanour that they have everything she knows and is even willing to show them where it all happened. They won’t learn anything else particularly useful but they don’t know that.

Victim b

What it will take: … to get them to tell what they know. What they know: … and can tell the PCs. They may tell the story in different ways but this is the core of what they know. Continued questioning will add nothing else, though in one or two cases the PCs may be prompted to look somewhere else after the interview is over. How it will end: what will bring the interview to a ‘natural’ end.

Victim a Night of the 13th last: a street urchin of no fixed abode. Decapitated and bladder cut out. Found kneeling beside a stack of sailcloth on Northaven Wharf Interviewee: A girl of about 10 who the PCs are told is the sister of the boy who was murdered and was sleeping nearby when he was discovered by a fishwife arriving early to set up her stall at the fishmarket. Location: an apparently empty tenement in Sewertown. Initial demeanour: she is surly and uncommunicative. Why they won’t tell: she feels guilty at surviving when her brother died. They normally took it in turns to stay awake and protect the other but that night, when he went to sleep for the middle watch of the night and she was supposed to stay awake … she got cold and left him on the wharf to find more shelter beside one of the buildings. It was there she fell asleep only to wake when the fishwife started shouting. What it will take: … she is afraid that if she tells the truth then they will blame her, as she blames herself. Therefore they have to win her trust perhaps by talking about other things related to her brother that she is more comfortable with: how he probably always looked after

Respectable Nemiran

Night of the 16th last: a serving boy from the one of the better houses on Puril Street. Decapitated and right arm missing. Found floating in Ukedela Canal. Interviewee: A boy of 14 or so, out with some equally spoiled friends throwing stones at beggars working the bridge from Chafin Square across to Arlun Way. He is the youngest son of the household for whom the serving boy worked. When he wasn’t doing menial work in the kitchen the victim acted as his ‘page’. This spoiled brat has no recollection of the tanner’s yard he was born above before his father did better and moved them to Nemiran. Location: near the house of his former master on Puril Street, a substantial property near the better, far, end of Puril Street. Initial demeanour: he is dismissive and superior when the PCs approach him. He goads them from the protective huddle of 3 friends and because he is in sight of the guards on the bridge. Why they won’t tell: This young man is a snob of the worst kind, he considers himself far above the PCs, un-

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 16

D

less they are of noble rank, in which case he grovels in a very unattractive way! What it will take: … he recoils at the very thought of having to have anything to do with the PCs but will cooperate if he thinks it will make them go away. What they know: … he can tell them that the serving boy used to sneak out to meet his mother who worked in a different house along the street. When he hadn’t come home by the following morning the alarm was raised. His father had the woman beaten in case she was hiding the boy for whom he’d paid good money. They didn’t find the body until the following day when it bobbed up in the canal when the lock gates were opened. Discussing this with one of the lock keepers will suggest it is likely the body went into the water in the Eshone Canal and was washed up to the Ukedela. Investigating the Eshone canal they will discover some faded rusty swirls on a wall out of sight from the street.

L How it will end: Once he has told them what he has agreed to tell them he will simply walk away from them, and will call for help if they come after him.

Victim c Night of the 19th last: Merchant believed to hail from Kaldor. Decapitated and right leg removed. Found hanging by left arm from the sign of the harper Nicola of Varianes beside Kalphor Wharf but believed to be staying at the Hand and Fist Inn. Location: The Hand and Fist Inn on the corner of Laen and Oraena Streets. Interviewee: the Innkeeper, Tarian of Quasstin (see Golotha F37). Initial demeanour: Rude and obnoxious making it clear that scum like the PCs would be better off finding somewhere else to drink the swill they must be used to. Why they won’t tell: Tarian bullies his staff and also discourages customers he thinks lower the tone of his Inn. On this occasion that includes the PCs. What it will take: … Rhetoric (flattery) will reduce his hostility enough for him to reveal what he knows. What they know: … he can confirm that the mercantyler was indeed from far Kaldor and died owing him payment for board and lodging and a significant gambling debt. He has sent a letter east demanding payment but has heard nothing and won’t until the next caravan makes it along the Salt Route and back again. He can also confirm that there was blood splashed all over the wall next to the harper’s door. He would recognise similarities if shown a drawing of the symbols from the most recent murder and would say that the splashes where the body was found looked more like:

How it will end: Now! Get out of my Inn, you scum.

Victim d Night of the 22nd last: Ivinian mercenary living rough while awaiting a ship home. Decapitated and genitals removed. Found sitting with back against the well on Chafin Street. Believed drunk until blood noticed late in the morning. Interviewee: The woman who noticed the blood that had soaked out of his groin into the ground. Location: her family’s rooms on a lane in Sewertown. Initial demeanour: Slightly fearful of the burly strangers at her door. Why they won’t tell: Her recollections are muddled and confused. What it will take: …. Patience – this adds an hour to the time taken for the interview as the PCs endlessly have to take her back over what she tells them sorting through the jumble of memories until they are in a logical sequence they can understand. What they know: … there were no bloody symbols painted on any of the walls nearby, though after immense probing she does say there were some funny dark patches on the dry ground around the well that she hadn’t thought of until now. She was so fixated on the dark patch around him that she didn’t take much notice of anything else. She can offer no suggestion as to the shape of the stains on the ground she might have seen. How it will end: Her baby needs feeding so they will have to go.

Victim e Night of the 25th last: Apprentice to the locksmith Horah of Urmel found leaning against the side door of the goodwife behind Northaven wharf. Decapitated and right lung removed. Interviewee: The Goodwife who found the body. Location: Her house off a lane behind Northaven Wharf. Initial demeanour: Not happy to be reminded about those events. Why they won’t tell: She can’t see any reason why it is helpful to drag up such events. It was unpleasant enough to experience it without having to think about it all again. What it will take: … They need to convince her that it could be her clues that help the PCs track down the Butcher and then she and her family can sleep easy in their beds again. Rhetoric or even Rhetoric (Command), if they play the ‘authority’ card, will help.

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THE DEEPER DARK 17 What they know: … She can describe in considerable detail where the blood was daubed on the wall opposite and adds that the sand that was piled up against the wall had several footprints in it. She can’t say if it was one person or two but she thought at the time that there was more pressure at the front of the foot – as if someone was standing on tip toes. The PCs may conclude from this, and where she tells them that the symbol was daubed, that the person doing the daubing was rather less than average height. She can confirm that the symbols on any drawing are very similar to the one she saw which she can draw:

How it will end: The PCs will probably be leave him there as 3 x INT will tell them he then begins to embellish the story, ‘remembering’ fatuous details of the man, the girl and the circumstances. Each in return for another penny.

Victim g Night of 1st of this: Squire of visiting knight in the stables of the Bridgetower Inn (horses unharmed). Decapitated and guts removed.

R How it will end: The PCs may have to extricate themselves as she begins to speculate on motive, and time and what the symbols might mean.

Victim f Night of 28th last: Whore of no fixed abode found hanging from Kalphor Wharf. Decapitated and left arm removed. Interviewee: Her last client. Location: The brothel of Derine of Nerele (Golotha G4) Initial demeanour: Suspicious and unyielding.

Dedregon Bridge

Interviewee: The stable boy at the Inn. Location: The yard outside the Inn. Initial demeanour: Suspicious and frightened. Why they won’t tell: The lad is afraid he will get his master, the ostler Irdin of Naradaso, into trouble.

Why they won’t tell: Greed. He sees this as an opportunity to make a few pennies. What it will take: … They need to pay or convince him he’ll be worse off if he doesn’t talk: Rhetoric (Intimidate).

What it will take: … They need to convince the stable boy that if he tells them the truth then they he will have less to worry about because his master will be exonerated. Another approach is to convince him that the pattern in the Butcher’s murders make it very unlikely that a man that was only in the Inn for 2 nights before travelling away to the South was a likely suspect.

What they know: … He saw her last after they had completed their ‘business’ against the wall of the tower on the corner of the wharf. As he walked away re-tying his breeches he looked back and saw a shortish man approaching her.

What they know: … He thinks that another visitor to the Inn did it. The man was a violent drunk who beat the stable boy the night before for what he said was poor treatment of his horse. The beast was an old nag and obviously badly treated by his owner.

For an additional penny he will show them where her body was found in a dead end lane leading to the house everyone in Sewertown knows is haunted (Golotha G5). He will say that any symbols the PCs might show him, or describe, were like the one on the wall. It looked more like:

The boy thinks the visitor came looking for him on the night of the murder and killed the squire in a drunken rage thinking it was him. The stable boy confided his concerns to his master who said it was best to say nothing. Ever since the boy has feared that his master would get into trouble for not saying anything.

P

The flank of one of the horses in the stable had blood daubed on its flank in a pattern:

A How it will end: The boys master will call him back to work giving him a playful clip around the ear for dawdling. It is obvious Irdin is a good natured master and the boys loyalty unsurprising.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 18 Victim h th

Night of the 4 of this: Fisherman found on East Haven dockside. Decapitated and left lung removed. Interviewee: Corto of Bagnax, the actor manager of troop of travelling entertainers recently returned from a tour of Zabinshire. Location: The house he and the rest of his troop of jugglers, fortune tellers, acrobats and ‘actors’ share. Initial demeanour: Busy. Why they won’t tell: He is much more concerned with rehearsing the show they are putting on that afternoon on Pamesani Way. He can’t possibly spare the time to chat! What it will take: … The PCs need to convince him that if he doesn’t spare them some time his business will suffer – perhaps they will disrupt the show or frighten off the audience. Alternatively they might get his attention by promising material for his next play.

What they know: … He not only saw the body - bundled into a fish barrel - but also noted down that the blood around the body was in a particular pattern. He will show them the scribbled note he made at the time as he thought he might include it in his new play: a romance of love and murder!

E How it will end: he really must get back to his artistes!

Victims i & j Night of the 6th of this: Beggar of no fixed abode found in doorway in Sewertown. Decapitated and body opened but not known which organ was removed; and …

The tenements of Sewertown th

Night of 7 of this: Beggar of no fixed abode found in a doorway in Sewertown. Decapitated and right kidney removed Interviewee: Female beggar. Location: one of the warren of lanes of Sewertown Initial demeanour: Nervous, even frightened.

Intrigue or INT x 3: not frightened of the PCs but of something else. Why they won’t tell: She wants to protect the other beggars in the vicinity … they all took part in the murder of victim i and she believes the death of Victim j was retribution for what they did!

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 19 What it will take: … The PCs need to see that there is something very different about murder i and perhaps make a leap of understanding (INT x 3) that links her nervousness, the very different symbol found near the body, and a different motive … What they know: … She tells an unconvincing tale of finding the body and being too upset to notice any of the details, except, when the PCs ask about it, a sign daubed on the wall in blood:

X INT x 5: This is so different from the other symbols that either it is not linked to the other murders or the Butcher has changed the way he works. Rhetoric or Intrigue: will give them a chance of convincing her through logic or tricking her into revealing the truth, which is that … Victim i was a particularly unpleasant bully who terrorised the other beggars in the locality. They decided that the Butcher would be the perfect cover to rid themselves of his local tyranny. She tells and equally unconvincing tale about Victim j at first, but under pressure begins to make mistakes when cross questioned or asked to describe things again. She initially says the symbol by the body was:

knowledge gleaned from their previous adventures they will learn that the symbols are similar to those used during a brief period of the Corani Empire era. They were used to encode Morgathian Rituals. They cannot translate the symbols meaningfully as they would only have been useful as part of the rite. Unless they knew which rite was being carried out they cannot provide any insight, and unless they had a full set of symbols and a great deal of time to go through their significant library they cannot tell which rite it is.

Link to the next scene Any investigation will be interrupted on the evening of the 13th of Nolus.

III But that is unlikely to satisfy the PCs who, when they get her to tell the truth, discover the symbol was actually:

B How it will end: Other beggars begin to arrive looking menacing. If the PCs threaten one of their number they will act – as they have before – to remove the threat …

Victim k Night of 8th of this (last night): Whore …. Decapitated and liver removed. Symbol found at the murder location:

W They have already investigated what is thought of by the rest of Golotha as the 12th victim but, if they are right about Victim i, is actually the 11th! If they seek advice from the Temple of Save K’nor … then in return for some juicy morsel of

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 20 ACT II: A SIMPLE JOB

The villas of Rusu Island

Overview The investigation is interrupted by an introduction to a stranger with a related mission. Unfortunately their best efforts to fulfil their side of the bargain lead them deeper into the dark.

SCENE 1: A GENTLEMAN Overview The PCs return to the Trident on the evening of the 13th Nolus just as the curfew sounds and find the message that Jarop has left with the Innkeeper. If the PCs had not intended to return to the Inn at the time of the curfew … one of Kardis of Ernaldin’s pot boys will find them and tell them to hurry back as Jarop has sent them a message.

GM Aims •

Introduce Calen Grinene as a man successful in his normal environment but naïve and inexperienced when faced with the realities of Golotha after dark.

•

Ensure they take the bait of escorting Calen to where he has been asked to go.

PC Outcomes They understand what they have to do in order to find the Butcher. They will also learn something of the complex politics beneath the surface of Golotha.

Description of Events The curfew is sounded just as they step into the public room of the Trident. He takes them to one side and, indicating a man swathed in a cloak in the darkest corner of the Inn. He is doing his best to look unobtrusive in an environment he is clearly unfamiliar with. Kardis says: “He brought this when he arrived about an hour ago”, and hands the PCs a note. It is from Jarop and says: The man holding this note comes with my rec-

ommendation; do what he asked and we will all be advantaged. Calen of Grinene is a clerk in the Royal bureaucracy. He acts as secretary to the two Captain’s of the Queen’s Guard and that is why he has been trusted with this mission. Unfortunately he is something of an innocent abroad and in his nervousness does his best to make friends with the PCs by telling them rather more than was anticipated. He is well briefed and explains that he has been sent to meet the PCs by Sir Mandragar, one of the two Captains of the Queen’s Guard. The Captain wishes Calen to visit a blind seeress to ask some specific questions and to take the answers back to the castle. The seeress is to be found in what Calen believes to be one of the most dangerous parts of the city – the Northaven Underworld – and the PCs are to accompany him there, make sure he arrives safely and then see him back to the Caer. He is well known in the castel and he will gain them entry to the gatehouse on their return. He understands that the note he handed to the Innkeeper on his arrival will recommend him to the PCs and ensure they do what he asks. However he understands that in these situations payment may be required and is able to offer them a small bag of silver for their trouble. The sum he offers is left to the Gm so as to avoid unbalancing their game but should be enough to make this a difficult offer to refuse. In truth the offer of finding the Butcher should be enough in itself. Needless to say the Captain expects discretion. If the PCs agree to the task … then Calen will be visibly relieved and tell them ‘everything that’s been happening …’ There should be no need for many/any skill tests on the part of the PCs as Calen will freely share what he knows. Probing Calen for more information will get them nowhere – he doesn’t have a disingenuous bone in his body and has already told them everything he knows:

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 21 ‘Caer Chaftar has been in uproar since the death of the Glynsa, one of the Queens favourite maids, at the hands of the Butcher. She was found to be missing a little after the curfew was sounded on the night of the 11th. The Agrikan Primate, Apalankh Klyrdes, was immediately informed and her body was found later that night by the Warriors of Mameka; along with that of he supposed lover near Kalphor wharf. He arranged for her body, and that of the youth to be discretely returned to the Castle.’

‘It also means the Guard will make the Warriors of Mameka look very bad.’ Name: Calen of Grinene

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: Litigant

Born: 12 Savor 668, Tai

Appearance: Aged 52, height 5’8”, medium frame, weight 153 lbs/size 6, plain appearance, pale complexion, thin greying hair, watery blue eyes Str 11 Agl 13 Sml 10 Aur 08 Sta 12 Eye 15 Voi 13 Wil 14 Dex 11 Hrg 12 Int 15 Mor 10 Medical/Psyche: he thinks he’s excited by danger

Cml 12 End 12 Mov 13

Religion: Ritual (Agrik) 13, Piety 18 Skills: Agriculture (Assessing Value) 67, Animalcraft (Assessing Value) 71, AWARENESS 50, CLIMBING 51, Drawing 55, Engineering (Assessing Value) 69, Folklore (Golotha) 62, Heraldry 31, INTRIGUE 76, JUMPING 51, Law 63, Maths (Book-keeping) 65, ORATORY 40, RHETROIC 82, Singing 46, STEALTH 44, Swimming 15, THROWING 54 Languages: Harnic 85, Azeri 56 Scripts: Lakise 85, Tianta 75 Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 61, DODGE 65, UNARMED 35, Dagger 24 Money/Valuables: A trusted clerk at court who is dressed as befits his post Armour/Weapons: woollen shirt, tunic and leggings, fine linen cloak and leather shoes; dagger at his belt. Other Equipment: he carries nothing but a purse with 20 pennies in it Load: 17.3 lbs Melee Wpns

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML

Head butt Hand/Arm Foot/Knee Dagger

Calen of Grinene

‘Calen has been told that the maid and youth were both decapitated and that her heart had been torn out. The boy was missing his right leg. ’ ‘The Apalankh visited the Queen yesterday and she has demanded that the Warriors of Mameka find the murderer. A company of the Warriors provide what passes for civil protection on the streets of Golotha but everyone knows that though they undertake some desultory patrolling they are in the city primarily as guards for the Agrikan Temple and the person of the Primate. He has undertaken to make some enquiries.’ ‘While the Queen has her own Guard it is responsible only for the defence of the castle and does not have the manpower to both protect the Queen and organise a hunt for the Butcher. However, if they knew where he was they would be able to apprehend him.’ ‘I am sent by Captain Mandragar to visit a woman called Pesnela to ask here to use her powers to find the killer. I’m to take that information back to the castle and the garrison will stage a raid into the city to find and kill the foul reprobate – the Butcher.’

•

•

• • 1

• • 11

HM

B

E

P

35 35

35 39

• -05

1 0

•

•

39 24

39 24

-05 -05

1 1

• • 2

• • 4

AQ

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E

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F

• • •

1 • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1

1 • • 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2

1 • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1

1 • • 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1

2 2 1 3

1 1 1 2

2 2 1 3

Location

Armour Layers

Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin

C • • CCC CC CC CC • CCC CCC CCCC CCCC

Thigh Knee Calf Foot

CCC CCC C L

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: Calen can provide local knowledge to any PC he likes, and help them understand some of the complexities of Golothan politics. When abroad in Golotha after dark Calen always has a shuttered lantern which he will often open up whenever he has been warned not to.

If the PCs ask … Calen did not visit the scene himself and so does not if there was a symbol left there. He does know that the Warriors cleaned up the scene so that no one would know about the murder. That has not stopped some rumours of another murder circulating. He believes that Sir Mandragar has certain connections to the person who provided the note of introduction.

Link to the next scene The PCs accept the task of accompanying Calen to meet with Pesnela the Crone. He has been told that

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 22 boatmen wait at the wharf to carry curious sightseers beneath the piers and into the Northaven Underworld. The Butcher and their investigations are bound to pre-occupy the PC’s as they make their way to Northaven. The streets are dark at the best of times but tonight the evening the fog has refused to clear leaving visibility very poor. It is only a 5 minute walk from the Trident, even though the fog has thickened while they have been talking to Calen. HRG x 3 to hear what might be footsteps behind them in the fog, though fog can do strange things to perceptions of sound and distance. Even if they make elaborate efforts to chase, catch, or corner anyone who might be following them they will fail. If there is anyone there he knows the surrounding area so much better that it would take a miracle to take him in this fog. Jarop has had a man follow Calen to the Trident just in case there’s any trouble.

SCENE 2: GOING UNDERGROUND Overview This scene sees the PCs escorting Calen to consult the blind seeress Pesnela in the floating town beneath Northaven Wharf. They will observe the consultation and discover something about the murders and the murderer. They will also gain a hint that they are at risk from the killer themselves.

GM Aims •

Ensure the PCs feel they may be at risk when they leave Pesnela’s barge.

•

Ensure they feel the clock is ticking with less than an hour to the ‘rise of the Boatman’.

•

This scene should continue to build an atmosphere of foreboding.

•

From here on the pace of events shouldn’t leave the PCs too much time to think about their actions. The GM should begin to make them come to decisions in real time lest they pontificate too much.

PC Outcomes They feel there is a threat top them and that the threat is imminent.

Beneath Northaven

Description of Events Tonight the wharf is quiet except for some noise frm the Seaman’s Guild and the the creak of the boats at their moorings. There is the occasional shout or laughter from crews on board. The only light comes from lanterns which are required to remain lit aboard the larger ships. To reach the old barge that serves as Pesnela’s consulting room and home the PCs pay a penny to a grizzled old salt asleep across his oars who will then row them under the wooden wharf among the boats, barges, skiffs and canal boats that make up the Northaven Underworld.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 23 Tonight is a high tide so the clearance beneath the wharf is less than ten feet which means that using any long weapons will be subject to a 10% penalty.

A 10% Physical penalty applies to any activity within Pesnela’s barge as the space is even more limited with just five feet of headroom.

The denizens of the Underworld generally mind their own business and are used to visitors who either come to indulge their vices or to otherwise support the local economy. However, any visitor that causes trouble will be unlikely to find allies among the clannish Underworlders.

When the PCs and Calen are gestured below decks they find her perched on a pile of rotten cushions among which rats can be seen scurrying and roiling. She is dressed in a ragged thin shift through which she can be seen as little more than skin and bones. Her face is a ruin – her eyes were clearly put out with a hot iron and the scarring extends to her sunken cheeks which are puckered with the old wounds. It is a surprise, then, when her voice is revealed as firm and confident: ‘Who are you and what do you seek?’

Pesnela’s barge is a rotting hulk with a faint lantern glowing on its prow. She is viewed with suspicion by most who fear she can caste the ‘evil eye’ and so they leave her alone. Her only companion is a mute youth who looks almost as underfed as she does.

Pesnela and Worin Calen is momentarily tongue tied but then tells her his name and asks the question he has been instructed to

carry here: ‘I am a loyal servant of the Crown and I want to know where to find the Butcher who killed the castle maid?’

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 24 It is probably no surprise that her answer is not explicit, when after several minutes of mumbling and whispering to herself she says in a deeper voice barely recognisable as her own:

Name: Pesnela the Crone

Race/Sex: Human/Female

Occupation: Blind Seer

Born: 12 Savor 659, Tai

‘The one you seek knows the knife; The one you seek knows the night; The one you seek builds the cairn and the number is thirteen. Seek those that love the night; Seek those that love the knife; Seek those that seek the cairn and have the thirteen. The one you seek awaits you in the night.

Str 10 Agl 09 Sml 12 Aur Sta 13 Eye 0 Voi 15 Wil Dex 11 Hrg 13 Int 15 Mor Medical/Psyche: Complete belief in her ‘gift’.

You came not alone; You go not alone; You will not be alone when you meet your fate. They were alive when she took what she sought. Will you die screaming too? Go now – you fate awaits with the crack of thunder’.

Languages: Harnic 75 Scripts: none

With that she sighs and appears to subside into a dribbling torpor from which she cannot be roused. Weatherlore will suggest that this may mean there is relatively little time as the weather has been threatening a storm all day. If violence is offered to her … then her scrawny guardian will run-off across the boats whistling to attract a crowd of locals to protect their own. This will mean the PCs will face the next scene twice. The first time facing the local underworlers and the second time as written, if the GM thinks they can cope ….

Link to the next scene The PCs hear what Pesnela has to say and begin speculating on what it means. They leave the barge intending to guide Calen back out of the Underworld and from there to the castle where their reward awaits. They should feel, perhaps a little frustrated by the vagueness of her information but more at risk than when they arrived.

Appearance: Aged 41, height 5’8”, medium frame, weight 153 lbs/size 6, plain appearance, dark complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes Cml 07 End 12 Mov 09

14 12 11

Religion: Ritual (none) 0, Piety 0 Skills: AWARENESS 56, CLIMBING 27, Folklore (Golotha) 86, INTRIGUE 83, JUMPING 32, ORATORY 71, RHETORIC 75, STEALTH 33, Swimming 31, THROWING 42, Weatherlore 56,

Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 48, DODGE 45, UNARMED 46, Staff 58 Money/Valuables: well set up guildsman whose tastes exceed his income Armour/Weapons: ragged tunic, trousers, and cloak. Other Equipment: none Load: 13.5 lbs Melee Wpns

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML

Head butt Hand/Arm

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•

•

•

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• 10

• 8

Location Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin Thigh Knee Calf Foot

• • • CC CC C C • CC CC CCC CCC CCC CC CC •

HM

B

E

P

46 44

46 61

• -05

1 0

•

•

•

•

51

51

-05

1

78

73

-20

4

• •

• •

AQ

B

E

P

F

• • • -1 -1 -1 -1 • -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

Armour Layers

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: Clairvoyance 62, Prescience 65, Psycholmetry 88

Notes: she will die helplessly if any dare risk the curse she has foretold will fall on her killer …

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 25 Name: Worin - Pesnela’s Guardian

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: Feral child

Born: 12 Savor 709, Tai

SCENE 4: THUGS & MUGS

Appearance: Aged 12, height 4’5”, light frame, plain appearance, pale complexion, blonde hair, hazel eyes

Overview

Str 10 Agl 17 Sml 13 Aur 09 Sta 13 Eye 14 Voi 10 Wil 12 Dex 15 Hrg 17 Int 06 Mor 09 Medical/Psyche: Believes Pesnela is his grandmother

This scene provides some combat action for the players that will appear to provide instant confirmation of Pesnela’s vision. The ‘Thugs’ are a bunch of youths living by their wits and violence. They terrorise the weak members of the Southaven Underworld and have been set to capture Calen by one of Jarop’s rivals who heard of the rendezvous.

Cml 10 End 08 Mov 17

Religion: Ritual (Peoni) 19, Piety 15 Skills: AWARENESS 66, CLIMBING 70, Cookery 57, Foraging (Urban) 36, INTRIGUE 41, JUMPING 70, ORATORY 18, RHETORIC 38, SINGING 42, STEALTH 51, Swimming 61, Survival 47, THROWING 63 Languages: Harnic 49 Scripts: Lakise 84 Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 56, DODGE 40, UNARMED 76, Dagger 66 Money/Valuables: nothing but his life (and that of Pesnela) Armour/Weapons: ragged tunic, drawers, and a fire hardened wooden dagger Other Equipment: none Load: 7.3 lbs Melee Wpns

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML

Head butt Bite

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Foot/Knee Dagger Location Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin Thigh Knee Calf Foot

B

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•

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49

• -05

49 41

-05 -05

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B

• • • -1 -1 • • • -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 • • •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

44 44

44 49 41

Armour Layers • • • C C • • • C C CC CC CC • • •

HM

44 44

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

• • •

• • 3

E

P

F

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

• • • 0 0 • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • • •

Notes: he will seek help form the locals but in the meantime will fight like a rabid animal, and die if necessary, for Pesnela.

The PCs will be jumped by 2 thugs for ach PC. They have been instructed to rough up the PCs and try to kidnap Calen for interrogation. This gives the PCs some exercise but doesn’t threaten them with death but appears to place them and, most importantly, Calen at risk. Plenty of scope for buckling their swash with ropes to swing from and treacherous gaps between gunwales to leap …

GM Aims •

Engineer a running fight across the boats of the Underworld

•

Present them with a single surviving and conscious youth who will tell them what he knows.

•

If Calen is successfully kidnapped the PCs should add guilt to ineptitude and will have to manage without him – his remaining key task is to write something down in the next scene and suggest who might know what it is.

PC Outcomes They will realise just how helpless Calen is but also find a clue as to the possible identity of the Butcher that they can’t afford to ignore.

Description of Events The old man and his skiff are both gone when the PCs emerge from the barge – warned off by the thugs. If a PC was left on guard … then he isn’t warned off but will slip away in the confusion. Either way the PCs should have to make their way back to the city proper by moving from boat to boat. As soon as they emerge they will be attacked from all sides by the thugs – 2 per PC, plus 2 tasked to kidnap Calen. They will grapple the clerk to the ground and carry him off. In all cases any wound inflicted on a thug will cause him to break off and disappear into the darkness. 10% Physical Penalty for any long weapon. The space beneath the wharf is cramped not just because the headroom is less than ten feet but because the boats etc. comprising this floating village are moored tightly together in many places. This restricts the space to swing as well as the vertical height. 10% Physical penalty on any activity in the Underworld to reflect the minimal light outside any boat/barge.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 26 Awareness: during a combat round for a PC to notice Calen being kidnapped. -20% if they are engaged in combat.

Rhetoric(diplomacy) or (command) will calm the youth long enough to make what he says more intelligible.

Name: various

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: Thug

Born: various

It’s the Cannibal – it must be. He’s taking their innards to eat. He’s done it before.

Appearance: various Str 13 Agl 11 Sml 11 Aur 08 Cml var. Sta 13 Eye 11 Voi 11 Wil 11 End 13 Dex 11 Hrg 11 Int 08 Mor 06 Mov 11 Medical/Psyche: very keen to please the powers-that-be Religion: Ritual (Agrik) 11, Piety 13 Skills: AWARENESS 56, CLIMBING 45, JUMPING 56, STEALTH 45, Swimming 46, THROWING 45 Languages: Harnic 65 Scripts: None Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 65, DODGE 65, UNARMED 65, Club 60 Money/Valuables: A trusted clerk at court who is dressed as befits his post Armour/Weapons: cloth trousers and tunic, a leather vest and leather shoes. Other Equipment: very little of worth Load: 18.8 lbs Melee Wpns Head butt

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML 65 65 • •

Hand/Arm Foot/Knee Club Location Skull Face Neck

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• 12

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B 2

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-10

4

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• • • • • • • • • • • •

4 1 1 1 • 4 4 2 2

Thigh Knee Calf Foot

CC C C L

• • • •

1 1 1 1

2 1 1 3

1 1 1 2

2 1 1 3

Psionics: none

Str 09 Agl 09 Sml 09 Aur Sta 14 Eye 12 Voi 09 Wil Dex 10 Hrg 07 Int 16 Mor Medical/Psyche: Complete belief in her ‘gift’.

Cml 12 End 14 Mov 09

10 14 08

Skills: AWARENESS 68, CLIMBING 60, Hideworking 47, INTRIGUE 48, JUMPING 48, Legerdemain 30, ORATORY 24, RHETORIC 45, STEALTH 40, Swimming 44, THROWING 65, Singing 48, Survival (urban) 52

24

Spells: none

Appearance: Aged 20, height 5’8”, heavy frame, weight 168 lbs, average appearance, pale complexion, brown hair, brown eyes

Religion: Ritual (Agrik) 10, Piety 5

24

Convocations: none

Born: Azura 799, Hirin

• •

80 70

Invocations: none

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: Journeyman & Thug

P

• • • CL C C C • CL CL CC CC

Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand

Name: Kes

• •

65 70

Armour Layers

He’s just got the taste again … I’ve seen him skulking about up there – it’s him I tell you – it’s him. I can take you to him - honest Mister – please Mister I’ll help.

E

• -05 -05

1 2

Kes will explain Shurgen’s time as a castaway on an off-shore island years ago and his survival by killing and eating his crewmates.

Notes: These youths are looking for easy meat and will not stand and face a determined opponent. They are, above all else, bullies and cowards.

Failing that, when Calen has been dragged a couple of boats away he’ll get out a scream which will nudge the PCs after him. AGL x 3 can be used to move at a run across the decks of the boats, but MF/CF drops the PC into the water. The thugs are better at it so they only fall into the water on CF. When there is a single thug remaining he must fall/be incapacitated in such a way as to stop his escape but leave him able to spill all he knows: Nothin’ personal, Mister, just a job – let me go – I’ll disappear – honest. I heard what you asked the old girl – I can help you – I know who it is … All this will spill out as soon as Kes, for such is his name, can draw breathe and should be enough to stop an enthusiastic PC taking his life.

Languages: Harnic 70 Scripts: none Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 60, DODGE 45, UNARMED 70, Club 68 Money/Valuables: Nothing much with him when he’s ‘working’. Armour/Weapons: Leather shirt and shoes; cloth trousers Other Equipment: none Load: 17.8 lbs Melee Wpns

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML

Head butt Hand/Arm

•

•

•

•

Foot/Knee

• 10

• 3

Club Location Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin Thigh Knee Calf Foot

HM

B

E

P

70 70

70 85

• -05

1 0

•

•

•

•

75

75

-05

1

83

73

-10

4

• •

• •

AQ

B

E

P

F

• • •

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1

• • • 3 3 3 3 • 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 3

• • • 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2

• • • 3 3 3 3 • 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 3

Armour Layers • • • L L L L • L L LL LL L L L L

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: He wants to impress the gang but not at the cost of his life!

Kes is convincing enough for the PCs to at least feel they have to check out his information and go after Shurgen. Unfotunately, Kes knows the Southaven Underworld much better than the North! Hence he is telling them what he genuinelty believes but will take them towards any random small boat he can spot. He hopes to find an opportunity to get away.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 27 If there is any doubt … Calen will confirm that there is a local tale of a castaway who survived by eating his comrades before being rescued and returned to live in the underworld.

Link to the next scene With Kes willing and able to guide them to Shurgen the Cannibal they should set off across the boats with all speed. If Calen has been kidnapped … then they can search for him but they will quickly find the locals don’t share information with strangers and that time is marching on. At some point they will have to give up on Calen for now and seek their best remaining lead – Shurgen, the cannibal.

ACT III: HUE AND CRY Overview This Act takes the PCs through several encounters leading them inexorably up to Temple Hill and the climax of the adventure. On the way some of their theories on the identity of the Butcher, and the ritualistic way in which his victims are killed, may be strengthened or modified.

SCENE 1: INNOCENT? Overview This scene has the PCs led to Shurgen’s hovel-boat Though the PCs believe he is within it turns out he isn’t and leads them a merry chase back onto Northaven wharf and into the city where his fate awaits him. It is left to the GM to decide if the boat Kes takes them to is actually that of Shrugen or of another poor unfortunate.

GM Aims •

Allow the PCs to be caught flatfooted so ‘Shurgen’ has can escape up into the city.

•

Present them with an eerie chase through the fog during which they remain sure they are just about to catch their quarry.

•

Have them caught in a compromising situation but avoid starting a true hue and cry … for now.

PC Outcomes Know it isn’t ‘Shurgen’ who is the Butcher but make a swift exit themselves in case they are accused.

Description of Events Kes takes them across the Underworld to a skiff moored at the end of a string of boats just short of the end of the wharf and partly open to the sky. There is a discarded sail stretched across a couple of oars to provide some shelter and a candle burns within casting the shadow of a figure crouched in the bottom of the boat. Awareness will reveal that the crouching figure has a ‘strange posture – low and hunched’. Use the physical penalties from the previous section to adjudicate skill use. However the PCs take their chance to apprehend ‘the cannibal’ … the GM should adjudicate any attack on the cannibal. Whatever btheir approach it will end with the discovery that the ‘crouching figure’ is a sack containing all ‘Shurgen’s’ worldly goods with a turnip perched on top – his meals for the next few days. Either at the point they leap onto the turnip or as they emerge from a more surreptitious assault they will notice

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 28 a short squat man on the edge of their visibility. He is frozen looking at them and has a large knife in his hands. The moment is broken when he takes off deeper into the Underworld. That’s him – That’s Shurgen cries Kes and another pursuit begins which this time sees ‘Shurgen’ disappear up onto the wharf through one of the many trapdoors. A PC should be sufficiently quick to see him disappear through the fog into the lanes of the city. During the chase Kes will take his opportunity to disappear. Name: Shurgen

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: well-known Cannibal (see Golotha 27 for a likeness)

Born: Kelen 655, Feniri

Appearance: Aged 65, height 5’4”, heavy frame, weight 151lbs, plain appearance, pale complexion, thinning hair, brown eyes Str 16 Agl 14 Sml 13 Aur 17 Cml 08 Sta 14 Eye 11 Voi 12 Wil 09 End 14 Dex 07 Hrg 12 Int 13 Mor 08 Mov 04 Medical/Psyche: Still marked by his experiences while adrift in an open boat (see Golotha) Religion: Ritual (Halea) 15, Piety 25 Skills: AWARENESS 50, CLIMBING 48, Foraging (urban) 40, INTRIGUE 72, JUMPING 40, Legerdemain 30, ORATORY 18, RHETORIC 25, STEALTH 40, Swimming 51, THROWING 48, Seamanship 65, Survival (urban) 46 Languages: Harnic 50 Scripts: none Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 66, DODGE 45, UNARMED 50, Dagger 35 Money/Valuables: A few pennies in a purse but most of his worldly goods are in the small skiff he calls home. Armour/Weapons: Cloth tunic and leather shoes and vest Other Equipment: none Load: 12.8 lbs

Encumbrance Penalty: 0

Melee Wpns Head butt Hand/Arm

Wt WQ AML DML • • 50 50 50 65 • •

HM • -05

B 2 1

E •

P •

•

•

Foot/Knee Club

• 11

55 40

-05 -05

2 1

• 2

• 4

Location Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand

• 1

55 40

AQ

B

E

P

F

Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin

• • • L • • • • CL CL • •

Armour Layers

• • • -1 • • • • -1 -1 • •

• • • 0 • • • • 0 0 • •

• • • 2 • • • • 2 2 • •

• • • 1 • • • • 1 1 • •

• • • 2 • • • • 2 2 • •

Thigh Knee Calf Foot

• • • L

• • • -1

• • • 0

• • • 2

• • • 1

• • • 2

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: He wants to impress the gang but not at the cost of his life!

If the PC who is first to the trapdoor is slow to pursue … the GM should do everything to encourage them to believe they can catch ‘Shurgen’ if they are quick. The presence of Calen can be helpful as he will certainly run off into the fog after the supposed Butcher.

He may even appear on the edge of the PC’s vision from a different trapdoor shouting ‘There he is”!

In the fog The PCs can’t see ‘Shurgen’ but will hear his footsteps enough to give chase. Awareness or INT x 3: to avoid becoming separated from one another in the fog. AGL x 3: can be used to determine who stumbles and gets left behind or who falls over and casues those behind to trip and fall, or lose their bearings on the chase. If they start calling to try to locate one another … the PC should remind them that this will also tell their quarry where they are. Ideally, over the next 10 minutes, a single PC should find themselves alone in the fog but certain they are closing in on the cannibal, though uncertain where exactly they are. Finally all the PCs will hear a piercing scream in the fog and will hopefully begin to converge upon it, which will take several more minutes. The scream is accompanied by the crack of thunder out over the Bay and a flash of lightening that brightens the fog. A lone PC will be edging forward, unable to see their hand in front of their face, only to stumble and slip just as thnder cracks over head and is accompanied by a sequence of lightening flashes which illuminate the alley. The lightening also illuminates a headless body; which has been disembowelled. It seems impossible that Shurgen could have successfully eluded the PCs and completed this butchery. Any suspicion that he was the Butcher has taken a significant blow! The arrival of the storm and the rain that begins to fall steadily clears the fog very quickly. The lightening will provide some light to examine the body and the scene. Physician: one of the man’s kidney’s has been taken. Awareness: Blood, still wet and beginning to run in the rain, has been daubed onto the wall next to the corpse:

X Calen will just have finished copying it when a shutter overlooking the lane opens, casting a more continuous light onto the scene and the bloody handed PCs: Oi – You – What you doing … If the PCs loiter … she will begin to scream – ‘It’s the Butcher – help – murder’ and the PCs should believe there is a real risk of a hue and cry starting with them as its victims. Other shutters will begin to open and the GM should encourage the PCs to make a swift exit.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 29 Link to the next scene As they run away Calen will confidently announce that: Master Adelrin knows more scripts than you can shake a stick at – he’ll know what this means. Follow me!, and lead them out of Golotha to the village of Trevorman, just beyond the city gates, to the house of Adelrin Lanegrun – master of the local Chantry of Arcane Lore. The city gates are open all night on the 13th and 26th of each month to allow the Morgathian Gurim and all his minions access to the Old Temple. Calen can quickly lead them through the gate and into Arena Town bnnow that the fog has cleared. Name: Gulmorvin

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: servant of the church

Born: variouos

Appearance: various Str 12 Agl 11 Sta 12 Eye 9 Dex 11 Hrg 9 Medical/Psyche: none

Sml Voi Int

Sha Wil Mor

9 11 11

This is purely for atmosphere and to plant the idea that the Church of Morgath is involved. This is the night of their bi-monthly service among the ruins of the Morgathian Temple on Temple Hill.

GM Aims •

To nurture any seeds that might link Morgathians to the murders.

•

To avoid the GMs doing something stupid on a hunch!

Get even more nervous that they are about to stir up a nest of undead, or perhaps that the ritualistic trappings of the murder indicate that the Mogathians have just that in mind!

Religion: Ritual (Morgath) 15, Piety 0

Description of Events

Skills: AWARENESS 50 Languages: Harnic 50 Scripts: none Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 50, DODGE 55, UNARMED 40, Handaxe 60 Money/Valuables: nothing that does not belong to the church. Armour/Weapons: Cloth tunic, trousers, hooded robe and leather shoes. Other Equipment: none Load: 19.0 lbs

Encumbrance Penalty: 0

Melee Wpns Head butt Hand/Arm

Wt WQ AML DML 40 40 • • 40 55 • •

HM

Foot/Knee

• 11

Handaxe

Overview

PC Outcomes

Cml 09 End 12 Mov 11

11 08 00

SCENE 2: MIDNIGHT MASS

• 3

E

P

• -05

B 2 1

• •

• •

45

45

-05

2

70

65

-10

4

• 6

• •

AQ

B

E

P

F

• • •

1 • 1 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1

1 • 1 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2

1 • 1 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1

1 • 1 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1

2 2 2 3

1 1 1 2

2 2 2 3

Location

Armour Layers

Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin

C • C CC CC CC CC • CC CC CCC CCC

Thigh Knee Calf Foot

CCC CC CC L

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: Gulmorvrin do not suffer injuries the same way as mortal creatures. They are immune to shock rolls caused by physical trauma and do not accrue Fatigue. They accumulate Injury Levels and are killed when these levels exceed END.

The slow tolling of a drum and the low susurration of dozens of subdued voices draws the PCs to one of the main streets leading from the east gate. Slowly, in shuffling procession, the dark cowled and fully masked clergy of Morgath make stately progress through Arena Town. Ritual (Morgath) will reveal that tonight is the night of the Liturgy of Vabukrai. The procession through the city from the Temple on Rusu island up to Temple Hill is the culmination of twelve days of fasting and ritual sacrifices that begin with the Sacrament of Kobukral on the first of the month. The importance of the ceremony is why nearly every Morgathian adherent in the city is following the slow drum beat that leads the faithful through the city. Any other religious skill should allow the chance of connecting the number 13 to the Morgathians – what was it that the seeress said? How many murders have there been? The PCs don’t need to use Awareness to see that in the middle of the procession is a bier on which a number of objects are placed, covered by a heavy black cloth. These are various sacred objects but PCs should be allowed to notice that one of them is vaguely spherical and about the size of, well, a head. There is no way for them to know that there is indeed a head beneath the cloth on the bier, but it is the mummified head of one of the earliest Gurim of Harn. No way unless … If the PCs are tempted to rush the bier in an effort to revel the truth to the populace … then remind them that they may simply reveal the Morgathian plot to the (several hundred) Morgathians in the procession. Though there is still some screaming from nearby the streets are deserted on the nights of Morgathian processions, even when there isn’t a mass murderer stalking the city.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 30 They may still want to rush the bier in which case interpose as many burly gulmorvin/acolytes/amorvin as necessary to discourage them. They can then be chased through the city ‘only just escaping’ and following Calen when he say ‘this way’ and leads them the chantry of arcane lore.

SCENE 3: ARCANE LORE

Name: various

They meet Master Adelrin and his colleagues before they are directed to look for the master’s apprentices. That provides clear links to the fate of the murder victims and what appears to be the truth: The Morgathians are ging to open a portal to Bukrai and precipitate the end of the world! Either the apprentices are helping them or may even be part of the sacrifice.

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: lay adherent of Morgath Born: various (see Golotha 1 for a likeness) Appearance: various Str 12 Agl 12 Sta 11 Eye 11 Dex 11 Hrg 12 Medical/Psyche: none

Sml Voi Int

Aur Wil Mor

12 11 12

Cml 10 End 11 Mov 12

11 13 00

Religion: Ritual (Morgath) 18, Piety 15

Overview What begins as an effort to identify the origin or meaning of the symbols turns into a gruesome discovery.

GM Aims

Skills: AWARENESS 66 Languages: Harnic 70 Scripts: none Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 66, DODGE 57, UNARMED 65, Club 70 Money/Valuables: various depending on social status.

•

Ensure the PCs reach Master Adelrin safely.

•

Provide the final pieces of the jigsaw that links an ancient Morgathian ritual, the murders, the missing heads, and a one armed man. Oh, yes, and … the fact that a ceremony has already started on Temple Hill!

•

Ensure they do not have time to seek help.

Armour/Weapons: Cloth tunic, trousers, hooded robe and leather shoes. Other Equipment: none Load: 19.0 lbs Melee Wpns

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML

HM

B

E

P

65 65

65 80

• -05

2 1

•

•

70 85

70 75

-05 -10

2 4

• •

• •

PC Outcomes

•

•

AQ

B 1 • 1

E 1 • 1

P 1 • 1

F 1 • 1

1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3

1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2

2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3

They will find incontrovertible evidence that connects the Guild of Arcane Lore to the murders and the murders to a Morgathian Ritual. This should move them into rapid action to halt what should appear to be an apocalyptic sequence of events playing out on Temple Hill.

•

•

Foot/Knee Club

• • 10

• • 4

Location Skull Face Neck

Armour Layers C • C

Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand

CC CC CC CC • CC CC CCC CCC CCC CC CC L

Head butt Hand/Arm

Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin Thigh Knee Calf Foot

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: They will fight to defend themselves and the priests present will make sure they die before them. With all the members of the procession dressed identically it would be impossible to identify a particular individual, though priests will be wearing masks deep within their cowls.

Link to the next scene The city gates are open all night on the 13th and 26th of each month to allow the Morgathians to access the Old Temple so it will not be difficult for the PCs the leave the city and make their way quickly to the house of Master Adelrin. As the PCs move through the village of Trevorman they will see the torches of the Morgathian procession, dimmed by the fog, that is thickening, heading up towards Temple Hill.

Description of Events The Golothan Chantry of the Guild of Arcane Lore is not to be disturbed by any Tamys, Dirk or Harrolt! Hence, at almost midnight, it will take several minutes of insistent banging on their door to rouse the household slaves. They will not open up but converse through a grill in the chantry’s stout door. Rhetoric can be used to convince (diplomacy - only if used first), command (only if the PC is obviously of respectable, or high, social standing) or frighten (intimidate – most PCs!) the slave into opening the door. If the PCs fail … then Calen of Grinene will be able to convince the slaves; they recognise him as a visitor to the chantry. By then the noise will have raised Master Adelrin from his bed. Looking through the grill with obvious concern he demands to know what is going on. Rhetoric (diplomacy) is the only way to convince him to help, though letting Calen do the talking leads Adelrin to exclaim: ‘Calen, my dear fellow, what are you doing with these ruffians …?’. Calen will proffer the scrap of paper on which he noted the symbol next to the body of tonight’s victim.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 31 Name: Adelrin Lanegrun

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: Master of Arcane Lore

Born: Navek 678, Masara

Appearance: Aged 42, height 5’4”, medium frame, weight 137lbs, average appearance, pale complexion, prematurely greying hair, blue eyes Str 10 Agl 10 Sta 12 Eye 18 Dex 11 Hrg 11 Medical/Psyche: none

Sml Voi Int

Aur Wil Mor

13 13 16

Cml 13 End 12 Mov 10

17 12 10

Religion: Ritual (Save K’nor) 16, Piety 32 Skills: Astrology 104, AWARENESS 68, CLIMBING 41, Drawing 66, Folklore (Thatrdic Empire) 68, Folklore (Golotha) 62, INTRIGUE 76, JUMPING 43, , Law 38, Mathematics 55, Mental Conflict 60, ORATORY 67, RHETROIC 71, Singing 40, STEALTH 44, Swimming 16, Tartotry 74, THROWING 58 Languages: Harnic 94, Azeri 29, Byrian 37, Emela 94, High Azeryani 36, Trierzi 36 Scripts: Lakise 85, Ayaran 85, Hekpri 22, Neramic 44, Tianta 24 Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 49, DODGE 50, UNARMED 46, Dagger 57, Sword 38 Money/Valuables: see Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore Armour/Weapons: Embroidered cloth tunic and scholar’s cap, thick quilted vest, cloth Trousers and leather shoes. Other Equipment: none Load: 18.2 lbs Melee Wpns Head butt

Adelrin Lanegrun Master Adelrin is instantly interested and leads them to the chantry table where he bids as many as can to sit while he takes a candle into his the library to get the necessary scroll or tome. A few minutes pass while Adelrin searches, clearly growing increasingly frustrated. Finally Adelrin will let out an exasperated sigh and slap his forehead. He lent the text he is seeking to his colleague, Master Gorvindar, over the Winter … he had forgotten. It is at this point that Master Gorvindar and Mistress Amalya emerge from the trap door in the corner of the room. They have been disturbed by the boots of their visitors clumping about in the chantry and come to see what is amiss.

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML 46 46 • •

Hand/Arm Foot/Knee Dagger Location Skull Face Neck

•

•

• 1

• 11

B 1

E

P

• •

• •

46 51

61 51

• -05 -05

62

62

-05

1

• 2

• 4

AQ

• • • • • • • • •

B 1 • • 6 1 1 1 • 6 6 2 2

E 1 • • 3 2 2 2 • 3 3 3 3

P 1 • • 2 1 1 1 • 2 2 2 2

F 1 • • 5 2 2 2 • 5 5 3 3

• • • •

2 1 1 2

3 2 2 4

2 1 1 3

3 2 2 4

Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin

Armour Layers C • • CQ C C C • CQ CQ CC CC

Thigh Knee Calf Foot

CC C C L

Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand

HM

• • •

0 1

Gorvindar will tell Adelrin that he does remember borrowing the text and that he asked his apprentice, Imbrin to make a copy of several sections. It is probably down in the cellar.

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Several minutes pass before Gorvindar returns empty handed. “The foolish boy must have taken it to the dormitory for copying and not returned it. Is it important?”, says Gorvindar.

Master Adelrin will seek to stop them rushing to judgement on the work being done by his colleagues, but … as they descend into the cellar they will become aware of the acrid noisome smell of alchemy mixed with decay.

Adelrin is incandescent at the thought of his valuable text being passed from hand to hand by their apprentices and demands Gorvindar accompany them to retrieve it immediately. Gorvindar responds angrily that Adelrin should remember where he got the text in the first place. This is something that Adelrin has forgotten; the text came from Gorvindar, like a number of the examples he has of Morgathian and Theocratic texts. If the PCs insist on descending into the cellar … and they will have to insist, they may wish they had not.

Notes: He is a scholar and will always seek a rationale way out of a confrontation, relying on social skills rather than physical; attack or defence.

It is a large, stone flagged, space low ceilinged enough to require the PCs to stoop in places. See Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore for details. There are desks, tables, and the walls are lined with shelves on which all manner of bottles, flasks, jars etc. can be found plus lots of books and scrolls and drawings. Hanging beside the table is a headless human corpse, partially dissected and flayed to reveal the musculature of the right leg.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 32 Awareness: the body is that of the decapitated whore they saw taken away by Boraga a few days ago. Clearly her friends were unable to pay Boraga his fee. If the PCs draw the obvious – and wrong – conclusion … that they have found the Butcher’s Den, then Master Adelrin will quickly interpose himself before harm can be done. The bemused look on the other Masters’ faces should also give the PCs pause. They look neither guilty nor on the verge of running for their lives. Awareness: Around the room are a variety of human organs of varying degrees of freshness, some in vats pickling, others still sitting in pools of clotted blood. Sections of leather – which could be cured human skin – are also

piled on shelves and human limbs and organs hang among cuts of preserved pork, beef and mutton. Adelrin ignores the sights which should certainly require Mental Shock against WILL for the PCs not to be disgusted. CF might involve vomiting. Adelrin knows that vivisection, and associated activities, go on down here and accepts it as related to his colleagues’ studies. It is likely that the PCs will insist on accompanying the Master and two slave carrying lanterns to find the apprentice and the essential scroll, particularly when one of the Arcanists lets slip that they never trusted the Zarainsen girl. Adelrin’s apprentice is Eilith of Zarainsen, a cousin of the Lia-Kavair Guildmaster.

The Apprentices’ Dormitory

The cottage that houses the three apprentices is less and 100 yards from the Chantry, down the lane into Trevorman (see Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore). Adelrin and the PCs find the door of the wattle and daub cottage flapping open in the wind.

The apprentices are not in their beds, though the brazier that gives them a small amount of heat is not yet cold. Tracking: someone was here within the last hour, perhaps even more recently. Adelrin sweeps away the curtain that divides their sleeping area from their ‘study’, calling out their names as he does so. His call is cut off by a dramatic gasp. The study is not as it was when last he visited. Instead his lamplight causes a hoard of blowflies to erupt from where they have been feasting and anyone entering is assailed by the unmistakeable smell of decay. In the centre of the room the arms, legs and organs of the Butcher’s victims are laid out in a gruesome caricature of a human body. Only the head is missing but in its place is a pattern of blood stains. Around the body parts 13 symbols is carved into the earth floor.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 33 Physician: the freshest of the organs is one of the kidneys; it is still slightly warm and blood is still clotting around it. Fresh blood, probably from around that kidney has been used to complete the symbol at the top left, again very recently. Tracking: The first one to be painted here was the top right and it was created weeks previously. The sequence appears to run from top right clockwise to top left. Tracking, Awareness or INT x 3: will spot other significant clues among the gore: •

A pile of carefully selected river pebbles stacked neatly into a cairn: 3 x 3 on the base, 3 on the second layer and a single one at the top for a total of 13.

•

A sketch of a cairn apparently made of stones with carved human faces – something seems to be issuing from the mouths of the carvings;

•

Another interpretation is that they are meant to represent real human heads …;

•

In the corner is a pallet of straw and signs that it has been slept on. Next to it is a plate of slops, a bucket of water, and a second bucket of urine and faeces which add to the foul smell;

•

A simple map of Golotha and the surrounding area with Temple Hill carefully circled.

Adelrin instantly identifies the scroll he has been looking for. Scanning it Master Adelrin will confirm the symbols the PCs have seen, drawn or had described are duplicated in the text and on the floor of the room. The scroll is one of a set comprising an ancient Corani theological text which describes how early Morgathians may have worshipped. This particular ritual is described as summoning a ‘Shade of Bukrai’, as distinct from a ‘Shadow of Bukrai’. The ritual used human sacrifice and the heads of the victims to open a portal to Bukrai. Through that portal a ‘Shade’ was drawn to the sacrifice and pain of the victims to occupy a host so that it could act on the Kethiran plane. If the host was killed during the ritual then the writer feared that a permanent bridge between the ‘Shade’ and the host might be established. If another, 14th, victim, was sacrificed the Shade was satisfied and returned to whence it came and the portal would close. The ‘Shade’ was not a true manifestation of the Shadow of Bukrai and so, during the rise of the current incarnation of Morgathianism, it was declared the deepest of heresies and knowledge of the rite expunged from the mainstream church. He is very proud to own a text in which such an unusual rite is described in such detail. It is, though, unclear whether the Corani theologian is describing contemporary observation of the ritual or conjecturing from earlier, probably Lythian, records. The symbols have no literal translations but there were 13 included in the ceremony. They were required

during the ritual sacrifice of the 13 victims required to summon the ‘Shade’. If the PCs look for the 3 apprentices … they will find no sign of them. There are some clothes and belongings in the chests at the foot of the beds suggesting they have not run away. There are also some books and scrolls scattered about the desks squeezed into the corners of the study. If the PCs question the slaves … they will explain that they are not required to clean the dormitory; that is part of the apprentice’s duties. They will, though, admit that they have noticed that the slops usually kept for a neighbour’s pigs have been disappearing. They assumed that it was a prank but now that they know about the bucket beside the pallet … Rhetoric (command or intimidate) applied to the slaves will get one of them to admit that he did see a man standing in the open door a week or two ago while passing on an errand. He thought no more about it at the time. The man seemed to stare blankly at him. He remembers that he was bald and had a large frame but had clearly lost much weight. Oh, yes and he was missing an arm – the left he thinks – just above or below the elbow.

Link to the next scene It is likely that the PCs will have concluded that the fate of Kutz and the murders are tightly linked with the apprentices, and with events on Temple Hill tonight. One of the slaves will ask absently: ‘Where’s the wheelbarrow gone ..?’ Tracking: shows the tracks of the wheelbarrow and four sets of footprints heading off through a back lane of Trevorman towards the ruined gatehouse that marks the edge of the burial grounds of Temple Hill. As the PCs look over the cottages of Trevorman towards Temple Hill they spot large numbers of bats illuminated by the almost full moon. The bats make their home on Temple Hill but hunt through the night in the marshes at its foot. The bats are flitting past the PCs, returning to their roosts. Survival/Tracking/Foraging/or simply good local knowledge: indicates that the bats don’t return from the marshes in such numbers until much nearer dawn. Why are they behaving so unnaturally? As the winds switches around to the east, distant Morgathian chanting is carried towards the PCs from the direction of the Old Temple. It is almost midnight; what did the blind crone say about midnight? As a final stimulus to move, and move quickly, the GM can use Scene 4 to leave the PCs with no option but to head up the Hill. It can also be used to ensure the PCs are unable to summon any help from the city. If the PCs look back towards the Dormitory … The Masters and their slaves have made an excellent job

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 34 of setting it on fire. It is clear that Master Adelrin wants no evidence to connect the chantry to the Butcher. They will then make good time back to the Chantry where they

will bar their doors and windows and admit no one until dawn. Calen will have disappeared with them, his nerve already stretched too thin, has broken.

Trevorman at night

SCENE 4: THERE THEY ARE! Overview This optional scene is designed to leave the PCs with little option but to run up Temple Hill to escape a developing lynch mob armed with pitchforks and torches. The GM should play up any references to the storming of Castle Frankenstein in search of the monster – or in this case in search of the PCs who are the apparent scapegoats for the murder of tonight’s victim! It appears that the city is, at last, going to solve the Butcher problem itself.

GM Aims •

To make the PCs run away from the concentrated an immediate danger of the mob towards the apparent, but diffuse, danger on the Hill.

PC Outcomes They take the hint that confronting the mob means certain death.

Description of Events At whatever point makes sense to the GM the PCs will become aware of noises from behinds them. A crowd of common folk bearing torches and pitchforks are moving through Arena Town and Trevorman in the moonlight. They spread out through the village

shouting menacingly to one another. There are certainly dozens, perhaps a hundred, of them. A group separates from the main body and moves towards the PCs. If the PCs look to escape … then all the routes back towards Golotha, or towards the Chantry, are suddenly blocked by other groups of townsfolk. ‘That’s them’, cries a voice the PCs may remember from the alley in which they found the body. It is quickly followed by other’s taking up the cry: ‘We’ve found them – the Butchers are here!’, and other folk begin to converge on the PCs. Oratory: could be used to sway the initial party of townsfolk and whatever success is gained the response should be a gradual calming of the group. However, they are quickly joined by a second group who break the moment of calm with a shout of ‘Kill the Butchers!’. PCs can attempt successive Oratory to calm things but each time at a 10% penalty. There are as many new groups to arrive as the GM requires to help the PCs see how hopeless it is. Even magic should only have a temporary effect before another large group arrive. If the PCs hold their ground … then there is a risk that the mob will begin to surround them leaving a last chance to pass through the gatehouse – against which the PCs are now backed – up onto the Hill.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 35

The Gatehouse to Temple Hill

If they back-off slowly … the mob will slowly move forward; if the PCs begin to back-off more quickly the mob will speed up until the PCs should be in headlong flight up the hill with the mob on their heels. Name: various

Race/Sex: Human/various

Occupation: the Mob!

Born: various

Appearance: various Str 10 Agl 10 Sta 10 Eye 10 Dex 10 Hrg 10 Medical/Psyche: various

Sml Voi Int

10 10 10

Aur Wil Mor

Link to the next scene It is left to the GM how many times he wants a PC to be almost dragged down or cornered by the mob before making a hairsbreadth escape. Then they find themselves among the monuments and sepulchres of Temple Hill.

Cml 10 End 10 Mov 10

10 10 10

Religion: Ritual (various) 10, Piety 10 Skills: AWARENESS 50 Languages: Harnic 70 Scripts: none Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 50, DODGE 50, UNARMED 55, Improvised Club 55 Money/Valuables: various depending on social status. Armour/Weapons: Cloth tunic/robe and leather shoes Other Equipment: none Load: 19.0 lbs Melee Wpns Head butt

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML 55 55 • •

Hand/Arm Foot/Knee Club Location All locations

•

•

• 3

• 9

HM

B 1

E

P

• •

• •

55 60

70 60

• -05 -05

•

•

85

70

-10

3

•

•

AQ •

B 1

E 1

P 1

F 1

Armour Layers C

0 1

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: They are very weak alone but there are dozens of them and numbers breed bravery!

The path up Temple Hill

It is as if the mob suddenly realises where its pursuit has led it and they stumble to a fear-filled halt, with much whispering and shuffling. The mob wants to finish what it started but fear holds it back. Instead the mob slowly filters back down the Hill blocking any chance the PCs have of doubling back to the city. Shortly after that they will disperse to their homes, the thirst for blood being quenched by proximity to a Morgathian Mass!

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 36 SCENE 5: TEMPLE HILL

The tombs of Temple Hill

Overview The PCs find that the centre of activity on the Hill is not where they expected it to be and finally confront the Butcher(s). They witness a powerful ritual taking place and begin to feel its effects before charging in, saving the day and being lauded as heroes … perhaps.

GM Aims •

Confront the PCs with the real villains about to, it appears, sacrifice a final victim.

•

Prompt a rescue that leads them to face supernatural foes.

•

Push the PCs to the point they feel hopelessly outclassed and out of their depth.

•

Provide a final breathless opportunity for them to stop the ritual.

•

Offer them an unpalatable choice.

PC Outcomes Either through great role-playing, great skills, or the intervention of the Morgathians, the PCs have the satisfaction of saving the victim, destroying the villains and seeing the apocalyptic summoning dispersed. Then they find themselves in debt to the Morgathians and the GM has the necessary hook to set them off on the next stage of the Peran Quartet.

Description of Events The air is filled with bats flowing like a dark river over and around the characters, for a moment they obscure

the moonlight and caste an almost solid shadow over our heroes. This river of darkness flows, though, not directly up the main avenue to where a glow of torchlight suggest the Morgathians are continuing with their ritual. Instead the bats are moving to a place perhaps 100 paces downhill from the Temple site itself, and blocked from view by some mounds on which assorted tombs sit. There the bats form a swirling black mass above the monuments and tombs. Beneath them the three apprentices are enacting the foul ritual they have been preparing for under Eilith’s guidance. Their ritual is carefully timed to make use of the powerful energies released by the Morgathians worshipping further up the Hill. A flat-topped tomb is serving as an ‘altar’ on which are carefully stacked the heads of the 13 victims - facing outwards. A lantern castes a wavering light over the cairn while one of the apprentices holds another aloft, illuminating a scroll held by the youngest boy. The third apprentice is reading from the scroll and wields a knife above a bald man kneeling mutely at her feet. Once obviously a big, powerful, man he is now gaunt and dull-eyed, his once luxuriant beard crudely cropped. His left arm ends near the elbow. It is undoubtedly Coln Kutz. The girls reading follows the slightly hypnotic drum beat and chants of the Morgathian service hidden from view behind her. As the PCs take in the scene the bats begin to circle more and more tightly at unnatural speed until they form a deep, dark, spinning vortex above the

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 37

The Ritual unfolds

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 38 cairn. The individual animals are a blur of black wings as the vortex descend to touches the cairn. Then it breaks apart and flows down over the stacked heads and outwards from the altar. As they spread outwards the blurring mass of bats takes on shapes reminiscent of the Butcher' victims in life, but bound together by a sickly green radiance Every PC will feel the hairs on the back of their neck rising and any magical senses/Prescience/Sensitivity will be passively triggered by the significant supernatural forces at work. The shadowy form of an attractive young woman, limned in green, weaves towards the PCs and as her mouth moves they seem to hear him whispering ‘My name is Glynsa… help me … my mistress the Queen will reward you…’; soon they can hear other confused, dazed, frightened voices in their heads: ‘where is this place; who am I; it hurts; no, no, not that’. If the PCs act to interrupt the ritual … the Shades that seems to be using the bats to become corporeal will all turn to face them. Their ‘faces’ into feral drooling caricatures of their form in life. Then the Shades are among the PCs. Each of the 13 shades has a single, collective, attack per round which hits a random exposed location, probably hands or face. Eyes are particularly vulnerable to the bats making up the creatures’ bodies … Creature: Storm of Possessed Bats Str Sta Dex

06 12 •

Agl Eye Hrg

Sml Voi Int

12 16 16

Aur Wil Mor

16 • 04

Cml • End 12 Mov 12

01 08 •

Skills: AWARENESS 80, STEALTH 60 Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 85, Bite 65, DODGE 58 Melee Wpns Bite

01 – 00

Wt WQ AML DML HM

B

E

P

•

•

•

2

Location

B

E

P

F

‘Body’

1

1

0

1

•

•

65

•

Notes: Each shade is made up of hundreds of bats bound by the supernatural forces unleashed. They will move towards any PCs threatening the ritual, engulfing them in a roiling mass of bats. The swarm will continue to attack until the possessing spirits are distracted or the PCs are driven off or incapacitated. The only place a victim can take damage is on exposed skin, even cloth will defeat the tiny fangs of the bats.

The PC is allowed a single melee attack prior to being ‘engulfed’ in the swarm after which time melee attacks against the swarm are 90% likely to constitute an attack on the PC. Dodge: to avoid physical attack. Strike/Counterstrike with unarmed combat: to brush and throw the bats to the floor and stamp on them. The shade defends by ‘dodge’ but successful damage done by a PC acts as a penalty to mental combat during that round. Unfortunately it is impossible to kill enough

individual bats to truly disrupt the ‘shades’ so any effect is temporary for that round only. Area attacks can destroy enough bats to send the shade screaming back to the cairn but it will be impossible to target the bats without targeting the PCs they are swirling around. If a PC succumbs to mental assault … they are not possessed but fall unconscious with Shock. If a PC is incapacitated … the shade departs for fresh prey giving the unconscious character a chance to recover is described in the shock rules. Awareness CS during the conflict will allow a PC to see that the ritual appears to be reaching its climax as the girl is now chanting more loudly and the dagger is at Kutz’ throat. He is outlined in the same sickly light binding the bats together. It appears a Shade of Bukrai may be about to possess him, and the ritual said that if he is killed then the portal could remain open. Sacrificing a different victim would close the portal. The PCs should be faced with the terrible choice of saving Kutz, but having to replace him with another victim – one of the children – in order to seal the portal again. The GM should allow them to wrestle with this but has a fall-back if necessary. The attention of the Gurim and his followers has been attracted by the disturbance of Bukrai.

And when all seems lost … The PCs seem to be in a hopeless position when they realise they are no longer alone. At the edge of the lantern light is a ring of robed and cowled figures chanting; but to a different beat to that of the girl. This seems to weaken the command of the Shade over the bats and for a moment the PCs are free to act – what will they do? The cowled figures do not appear to be an immediate threat but Kutz is about to have his throat cut. He is the reason they became involved in all this so it is to be hoped they focus on saving him. Any of the following will succeed in disrupting the ritual, and saving Kutz: •

Killing one of the apprentices;

•

Knocking apart the cairn of heads;

•

Knocking the girl to the ground so physical contact with the victim is lost.

Disrupting the ritual will cause the Shade to disperse with the spirits of the victims shrieking in relief as they are released from their binding to their severed heads. They do not realise, yet, that they are passing into Bukrai. As their cry of mental anguish subsides there is a burst of noise on the edge of hearing as the bats too scream out their relief from their unnatural possession and disappear to their roosts among the tombs.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 39 references in something the Morgathians who went to the Hand said: “We have caste wards around this place so that the Lord of Fires is denied this portal as the Gurim has ordained. We have warded it with the elements that are anathema to the Fiery One and his servants and intend that over time the portal that was opened here will be dispersed by the flow of his greatest enemy, water. We have taken care not to risk the Concordat working the Gurim’s will only through the Shek P’var” “Only the Unlamented Dead that we sense beyond the portal can open the door and they are caged there. As they cannot journey to this side then they cannot be the Key for the Gatekeeper.” “We will consecrate a shrine at Mejetus so that the Emperor and all his legions will guard The Lock. With no Lock, no Gatekeeper and no Key the Lord of V’Hir will be contained” The bats return to their roosts

Paying the piper … When all is quiet again the ring of cowled figures begin close in on the PCs and the surviving apprentices. If the PCs look for Kutz … he isn’t in sight. If the PCs seek to find him … they will instead find that the circle of Morgathians has penned them back against the mund behind them. Then the circle parts and a single figure – his face hidden behind a hideous mask – is revealed. ‘You have trespassed on holy ground – and you should pay, but you have served the Tormentor even as you believed you sought to deny him his due’. ‘This weighs in your favour as does your success in keeping the Unlamented Dead among us.’ ‘He knows the Source, and the Gate, and shared his being with Those Beyond. Now he is both Gate and Keeper and he may become the Key’ ‘But you have lost him for us. You have allowed this Unlamented Dead to run free. This thing that was the one-armed man is dangerous for it has the power to end all days.’ ‘This weighs most heavily against you.’ If the PCs think back to their meeting with Den Hapra at the Denal Kubora village … wasn’t there something similar in his confused rambling? Didn’t he say the Denal had come and asked if Kutz was ‘the Key to the Lock that bound them’ and ‘the Gatekeeper who would battle the outsiders and bring the god his rest’? Then there was what they’d found written in Hapra’s notebook: ‘The Denal are the Guardians and the Cursed of the Hand but one day a Gate Keeper shall appear and He shall be Like but Unlike, Denal but not Denal, and he shall be the Key. He will seek out the Outsiders and defeat them and then Crador will rest.’ If the PCs think back to their more recent adventures in the Afarezirs … the diary they found had similar

“Hear our Supplication. We have no hope of an answer but in our faith we know you listen”. The PCs’ musings are interrupted by the Gurim – for it is he – who says: ‘I weigh these things and find you in debt, a debt you must pay. How will you pay?’ He offers the PCs two options: ‘You may pay your debt with an eternity among the Warriors of Klyss, my Gulmorvrin, or … you may await my call which will find you wherever you are. ‘What choice do you make?’ This is not meant to be a difficult choice for the PCs. If they choose to be sacrificed and become Gulmorvin they will serve eternally as temple guards with no freedom and no will of their own. If they agree to ‘await the Gurim’s call’ then at least they buy some time. Once they have announced their decision he turns to the surviving apprentices, or addresses their bodies if they are all dies at the hands of the PCs. ‘These others they have no choice … they have twisted holy writ and strayed into heresy, they must be punished’. At a gesture the apprentices, live or dead, are brought before him. Awareness: the PCs notice that the apprentices, who seemed the embodiment of evil a few moment before; their faces twisted in feral glee now look very different. They appear dazed and lost, mere children again. If one has survived … the PCs hear him/her say: ‘Where am I, what are we doing here?’ Then, whether living or dead, the head of the girl is struck cleanly from her shoulders by one of the minions and handed to the Gurim. He bows over the head, mumbling, then lets if hang by its lustrous brunette locks. He then turns in a slow circle

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 40 and, as the head faces North East, its mouth opens wide and a most terrible scream issues forth.

Another group of figures collect the heads form the tomb and dispose of any evidence of what happened here.

‘That way’, he points, and hands the head to one of the cowled figures. The minion binds the mouth shut which quietens the head and sets off in the direction indicated with a group of other cowled figures. Name: Eilith of Zarainsen

Race/Sex: Human/Female

His work done for now, the Gurim is swallowed among his followers who process down the Hill and back into the city. Their arrival at the foot of the Hill is enough to disperse the mob (if the GM needed to use it to drive the PCs in the right direction).

Occupation: Apprentice to Adelrin Lanegrun

Born: Ilvin 704, Skorus

Name: Imbrin of Atar

Appearance: Aged 17, height 5’9”, scant frame, weight 126lbs, average appearance, pale complexion, brown hair, brown eyes Str 08 Agl 14 Sta 08 Eye 10 Dex 13 Hrg 09 Medical/Psyche: none

Sml Voi Int

Aur Wil Mor

07 08 15

Cml 13 End 08 Mov 14

15 12 09

Race/Sex: Human/Male

Occupation: Apprentice to Gorvindar Born: Ilvin 704, Skorus of Parindran Appearance: Aged 15, height 5’6”, medium frame, weight 165lbs, average appearance, dark complexion, blonde hair, blue eyes Str 13 Agl 14 Sta 16 Eye 12 Dex 12 Hrg 06 Medical/Psyche: none

Religion: Ritual (Save K’nor) 13, Piety 21 Skills: Acrobatics 16, AWARENESS 40, CLIMBING 32, Drawing 39, Folklore (Golotha) 24, INTRIGUE 45, JUMPING 32, Mathematics 30, Mental Conflict 60, ORATORY 18, RHETORIC 32, Singing 27, STEALTH 39, Swimming 16, THROWING 32 Languages: Harnic 88, High Azeryani 68 Scripts: Lakise 96, Neramic 63, Tianta 33

Sml Voi Int

Aur Wil Mor

13 12 12

Cml 10 End 16 Mov 14

11 09 09

Religion: Ritual (Save K’nor) 12, Piety 16 Skills: AWARENESS 60, CLIMBING 52, Drawing 36, INTRIGUE 36, JUMPING 52, Mathematics 24, Mental Conflict 45, Musician 24, ORATORY 20, RHETORIC 36, Singing 24, STEALTH 36, Swimming 16, THROWING 52, Tracking 24, Hideworking 44

Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 65, DODGE 70, UNARMED 24, Dagger 12

Languages: Harnic 72 Scripts: Lakise 62

Money/Valuables: see Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore

Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 60, DODGE 70, UNARMED 39, Club 26

Armour/Weapons: Good quality cloth robe and leather shoes, and an ornate dagger stolen from the chantry.

Money/Valuables: see Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore

Other Equipment: purse with her weekly allowance of 3 pennies Load: 8.5 lbs Melee Wpns Head butt

Other Equipment: purse with his weekly allowance of 1 penny

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML 24 24 • • • • 1

Hand/Arm Foot/Knee Dagger

• • 11

HM

Load: 16.0 lbs

B 1

E

P

•

•

0

• • 4

24

39

• -05

29 17

29 17

-05 -05

1 1

• • 2

Armour/Weapons: Cloth shirt, tunic and trousers with leather calf boots.

Location

Armour Layers

AQ

B

E

P

F

Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin Thigh Knee Calf Foot

• • • C C C C • C C C C C C C L

• • • +1 +1 +1 +1 • +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

• • • 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2

• • • 2 2 2 2 • 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none under normal conditions

Notes: These are her characteristics prior to contact with Kutz and the spirit he is carrying.

Melee Wpns Head butt

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML 39 39 • • • • 1

Hand/Arm Foot/Knee Dagger Location Skull Face Neck Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin Thigh Knee Calf Foot

• • 11

B 2

E

P

•

•

1

• •

• •

•

•

39

54

• -05

44 41

44 31

-05 -10

2 3

AQ

B

E

P

F

• • •

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1

• • • 2 2 1 1 • 2 2 2 2 2 1 4 3

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2

• • • 2 2 1 1 • 2 2 2 2 2 1 4 3

Armour Layers • • • CC CC C C • CC CC CC CC CC C CL L

HM

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: Imbrin is a bully who is well out of his depth and beginning to wonder why he followed Eilith in her bloody plot.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 41 Name: Arin of Sedrus

Race/Sex: Human/Male

EPILOGUE

Occupation: Apprentice to Amalya of Born: Larane 708, Ahnu Weigela Appearance: Aged 13, height 5’3”, medium frame, weight 145, plain appearance, pale complexion, red hair, green eyes Str 10 Agl 12 Sml 05 Aur 16 Cml 10 Sta 09 Eye 13 Voi 04 Wil 16 End 09 Dex 08 Hrg 09 Int 16 Mor 09 Mov 12 Medical/Psyche: Arin is suffering severe mental health problems from his observation and assistance to Mistress Amalya’s ‘work’ Religion: Ritual (Save K’nor) 16, Piety 10 Skills: AWARENESS 65, CLIMBING 40, Drawing 44, INTRIGUE 48, JUMPING 40, Mathematics 32, Mental Conflict 80, Musician 24, ORATORY 16, Physician (surgery) 66, RHETORIC 16, Singing 27, STEALTH 24, THROWING 40, Woodworking 16 Languages: Harnic 74 Scripts: Lakise 78 Combat Skills: INITIATIVE 60, DODGE 60, UNARMED 30 Money/Valuables: see Golotha: Guild of Arcane Lore Armour/Weapons: Cloth shirt, tunic and trousers with leather calf boots. Other Equipment: purse with his weekly allowance of 1 penny Load: 16.0 lbs Melee Wpns Head butt Hand/Arm

Encumbrance Penalty: 0 Wt WQ AML DML 30 30 • • 30 45 • • •

Foot/Knee Location Skull Face Neck

•

35

E

P

• -05

B 2 1

• •

• •

35

-05

2

•

•

AQ

B

E

P

F

Thorax Abdomen Hip Groin

• • • CC CC C C • CC CC CC CC

• • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1

• • • 2 2 1 1 • 2 2 2 2

• • • 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1

• • • 2 2 1 1 • 2 2 2 2

Thigh Knee Calf Foot

CC C CL L

• • • •

1 1 2 1

2 1 4 3

1 1 3 2

2 1 4 3

Shoulder Upper Arm Elbow Forearm Hand

Armour Layers

HM

Invocations: none

Spells: none

Convocations: none

Psionics: none

Notes: Arin is the most promising of the apprentice and has quickly picked up a high level of surgical technique from assisting Mistress Amalya. It is a shame he fell under the spell caste by Eilith and her ‘passenger’.

The PCs now have some loose ends to tie up. They may believe they have saved Golotha from an apocalypse but …

Jarop of Zarainsen

They were hunting the Butcher for Jarop in the hope that he would tell them what he knew of Coln Kutz. While they now know what has happened to Kutz, they do not know how it came to happen. Only Jarop can help them with that. In order to find out what Jarop knows they will have to convince him that though they have not been able to deliver the butcher to him they are certain the Burcher is no more. In convincing him they may judge it unwise to share too many details of events on temple Hill and the debt they owe to the Gurim. If the PCs can convince Jarop that the city is safe … then he will create enough evidence to claim credit for the Butcher’s demise. Even if the PCs tell him exactly what happened on Temple Hill he will prefer a mundane ‘solution’ to the Butcher problem. That solution will take the form of an unfortunate local from the poorest neighbourhood strung up outside his warehouse with a placard around his neck labelling him as ‘The Butcher’. Once it becomes clear to the citizens of Golotha that the Butcher’s reign of terror is indeed over, then they will be happy to credit Jarop with delivering the city from the murderer. The PCs can probably assume the hapless stranger that is strung up won’t be one of them, though they should understand that they are loose ends and should probably leave town very soon. If the PCs tell Jarop about the involvement of his cousin, Eilith … there will be no outward sign of recognition. Awareness, though, will notice a slight twitch in the corner of his left eye. He will later seek to ensure no connection can be made between the clan and the events described. Very soon sad news will circulate that all three apprentices of the Guild of Arcane Lore were killed in a tragic fire at their lodgings. If the PCs cannot convince Jarop that the city is safe from the Butcher … then he will judge them to have failed in their mission, and to be making up stories that are clearly unbelievable. He has nothing more to say to them – they should leave Golotha as soon as possible. Only a week or two later, when there have been no more murders, will he re-evaluate what they told him. Then he will claim retrospectively credit and string up the scapegoat as above.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

HârnWorld

THE DEEPER DARK 42 If Jarop judges that they have fulfilled their half of the bargain he struck with them … then he will tell them what he knows. He acted in good faith when the request arrived from Jamys of Abrant. He arranged room, board and care for the one-armed man in a Sewertown safe house. Jamys’ request was that the Guildmaster use whatever means he could to find out what was wrong with the man. In an effort to do tjhat he obtained the best medical opinions he could and they confirmed that the man was not suffering from any known disease or condition but that his mind was certainly gone. They suggested that perhaps the priests of Save K’nor might know more as this was beyond medical knowledge. Jarop does not trust the Knorrans; ‘they are too tight with what they know and too eager to learn the business of others’. Instead he sounded out the Guild of Arcane Lore, through a relative of his. His cousin Eilith is (‘was’, if he believes what the PCs may have told him) an apprentice to the Head of the Chantry. She would soon become a journeyman sage well equipped to help in the management of the clan’s businesses. In the meantime he used her for consultancy and as a go-between to the arcanists. She went and examined the on-armed man, but could tell him no more than the doctors, other than she ‘felt there was something behind the man’s eye’s’. She sought permission to take the matter to Mistress Amalya who ‘knew more about the workings of the body than nay one within a hundred leagues’.

Jamys of Abrant If the PCs tell Jamys everything and deliver the apology and doctor’s letter … then he will be satisfied. The credit is not an insubstantial bargaining counter in the politics of Rethem’s Lia-Kavair while the letter provides him with something to satisfy his ‘friends’ in Caer Tormau. They have been away from Tormau long enough the eye of the Caer to have moved over them and forgotten their connection to Kutz. Hence the reason for leaving Tormau has gone and they will be welcomed back as employees of Jamys of Abrant. That should allow the GM sufficient lee-way in filling their time until the Gurim calls. If they choose to head for the hills … then the GM can fill their time until the call comes … and it will.

DESIGNER NOTES The Gurim will call, and the PCs connection with the one-armed man will be resolved, in the final chapter of the Peran Quartet, Mejetus: Ancient Shades. .

He agreed but that night, before Eilith could arrange for the arcanist to visit, the old crone being paid to look after the one-armed fell asleep over her bottle. While she slept the night away someone entered the safe-house and spirited him away. That was a few days before the start of this month. Jarop has heard nothing more of him since, despite some very thorough enquiries being made across the city. He offers the PCs the chance to carry a message to ‘my esteemed brother in the north’. The message will be one of apology and will explain that Jamys should consider his credit with the Golothan Chapter of the Brotherhood to be doubled as recompense for any inconvenience the disappearance of the one-armed man may cause him. To cover any possible repercussions for his colleague in the North, Jarop also provides a letter from a Physician of some standing in the city that describes how the onearmed man sickened and diesd soon after he arrived. Jarop has had the letter ready since soon after man disappeared, as insurance.

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 43 APPENDIX A:

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 44 APPENDIX B:

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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THE DEEPER DARK 45 APPENDIX C: Victim h

Victim b

E

L Victim c

D

Victims i & j

X

Victim e

R

III

P

B

Victim f

Victim g

A

Victim k

© 2003, N. Robin Crossby & Columbia Games, Inc., © 2012, Alun Rees.

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