The Fall of Plaguestone

The year is 4719AR. On a caravan travelling through Isger, a group of adventurers were brought together to defend the trade route. In Arodus, whilst stoppping in Etran's Folly, the caravan's owner, Bort Bargith, was killed under mysterious circumstances.

The following notes are compiled from Sedik's notebook, inherited and maintained for a time by Valeer.

Chapter 1

• Bort's death was clearly by poison, but I know not what kind.
• Finnick and the old veteran were both seen leaving(seperately) during the barfight.
• Finnick stays in the old barn sometimes. He as on the night of the fight.
• Bort made 14 deliveries to "H" over the course of the last 10 years labelled as reagents. These were all for large sums of gold.
• Followed Finnick's tracks to find an empty, floral-scented vial.
• Village witch died during the plague, but had a daughter called Vilree.
• Took a tour from Targin. Little of use to the investigation.
• Trin, the serving girl, claims to have been knocked unconscious around the time Bort died.
• Trin claims Amora and Finnick were responsible for making the food that night.
• Finnick not well-liked around town. He often hangs around in the woods.
• H could be Halod(unpleasant guy from the pub). Last seen going to an abandoned house near the dead willow.
• Noala, the ranger, reckons the mutated wolves that attacked us on the road are coming from the blighted grove.
• The old veteran is called Sir Lauren Krent. He was a knight of Lastwall.
• Krent reckons the Whispering Tyrant's servants are holed up in the ruined house on the outskirts.
• Found a ghost of Krent's old friend Talmar and dispelled it. Unclear if it's related to the alchemical goings-on.
• Broke into a cellar beneath the dead willow. Fought off some hungry dogs and found a vial of corpseblood in a near-empty crate.
• Tracked Halod through the caves leading off the cellar and killed him.
• Halod had a letter signed by V instructing them to kill Borth for being a greedy bastard.
• Halod and V's drop point was empty.

Chapter 2

• Upon returning to town, explained to the sheriff what had happened, and that Halod had murdered Bort on behalf of V.
• Delma formally asked us to help out the sheriff in investigating the alchemical goings-on.
• Delma recommended that we speak to Noala.
• Tamlee, Bort's second-in-command, was asking after us.
• Spoke with Tamlee, she offered to pay for our lodgings whilst we investigated.
• Went to see Noala on the edge of town after dark. Burnt a huge amount of corrupted wolf corpses.
• Noala wants to journey to the heart of the blighted grove with us.
• Departed at dawn. Long walk.
• Ambushed by plant creatures on the road. Sedik died from blood loss.
• Returned to town to bury Sedik.
• Early that next morning, Noala returned from the forest with a wounded old friend, Guthrum.
• Guthrum agreed to join us on the second trip to the grove.
• Dove deeper than before, finding an underground pool of reagents.
• After pressing on further, camped near the heart of the blighted grove.
• The next morning, pressed on through light resistance to the heart.
• Defeated a group of orcs who were guarding an imprisoned Mara.
• Deeper in the cave being guarded, found a well-equipped alchemy lab, and an Orc alchemist who called himself "The Sculptor".
• He unleashed his blood ooze on us, but after a brutal skirmish, both were defeated.
• Searched The Sculptor's notebooks. Found details of fatal experiments using corpseblood on behalf of a Vilree - it seems the mysterious V is the old village witch's daughter.
• Furthermore, found a map to a fortification called "Spite's Cradle".
• Returned to town to rest.

Chapter 3

• Set out to Spite's Cradle the next day. Found a fortress built into the valley.
• Attempted to infiltrate the fortress, but the alarm was raised.
• After a hard fight with Lord Nar and his Orcs, we were forced to retreat, but not before killing over half the garrison.
• On the way to set up a sentry camp overlooking the valley, spotted a creature fleeing the fortress.
• Gave chase to the creature and caught it before it made it to Etran's Folly.
• The creature turned out to be a drudge, a type of alchemical construct.
• The creature maintains an empathy link to its master, but is entirely mute. It was carrying a ring.
• Returned to the ridge overlooking Spite's Cradle and set up camp.
• During the night, the camp was attacked by Greytusk.
• The Orchish archer was defeated, and we went back to sleep after Guthrum was revived.
• The next morning, moved on to the fortress, and slew Lord Nar.
• Found some coin in the orcs' barracks, and pilfered some scrolls.
• With the warlord dead, moved on to the rest of the fortress.
• Attacked by air elemental hawks that were swiftly dispatched.
• Pushed on through the fortress to find a study, presumably Vilree's.
• Searched the shelves - aside from a trove of alchemical tomes, there was also a collection of diaries, and some personal effects.
• There was a homunculus cooking some sort of soup in the kitchen. Avoided it so as to not distrub the empathic connection.
• Gained access to Vilree's bedchamber - for some reasons Lord Nar's key worked.
• Plundered Vilree's treasury and her latest diary. There was an unfilled date next to "mother avenged".
• Water elementals attacked us next to a fountain. Found Vilree's mother's ashes in a chest at the bottom.
• Guthrum suggested that, worst come to worst, we could use the ashes as blackmail to stop Vilree.
• Found a large supply of alchemical reagents in a storeroom.
• Fought a group of alchemically infused drudges in the adjacent laboratory.
• Descended to Vilree's private lab, where her pet cinder rat attacked us, as well as a pair of drudges.
• Before we could rest, an enourmous alchemical abomination, some sort of amalgam, attacked us.
• After defeating the amalgam, we picked over the remains of the lab. Mara's explosion had wrecked most of the lab, but Guthrum identified that the corpse of the dwarf that was in the corner had been killed from the inside by some sort of fungal growth.
• Inside Vilree's personal formula book, found a diagram of the plague stone citing that "mother's ring will be key".
• The fungal growth is likely caused by a unique formula for "Veridian Vapour".
• The lab backed on to a cave entrance, where some feral bats attacked us.
• Tracked Vilree down through the cave, and found her with an alchemical behemoth.
• She claimed to have won, and that plaguestone would surely fall, until Guthrum revealed that we had killed her drudge that was running towards Etran's Folly.
• We dispatched the alchemist and her creature. Vilree died by Mara's magic.
• Returned to Etran's Folly to thanks from the townfolk and Bort's crew.
• Delma let us know that our tabs at the Feed Mill had been waived and we had free bed and board for life.
• Held a proper funeral for Sedik. Guthrum spoke of peace, and Staf left his greataxe with the headstone. Mara started a tree growing around the axe in the hope that Bladetree would be a more auspicious name for the town than Plaguestone.

Epilogue

With the threat in Plaguestone eliminated, the adventurers elected that they should move on - whilst the citizens of Etran's folly had been kind, there was little space for the 5 of them in such a small town. They formed a plan to journey to Mara's hometown, Olfden, with the texts and profits from Spite's Cradle.