I simply opened my mind and was at once enlightened

 The sweat damp wind paws the back of your neck, carrying the fragrance of a thousand dead things. The world is going to die soon.

 / indicates features obvious to passive inspection (enter the room)

// indicates features that require active, but not intensive, examination (Player must ask to look at the object closely or request more information)

/// indicates features that require good lighting and intensive examination - hidden doors and traps (Player must use their wits to uncover, ask specifically to look for relevant details)

() indicates a conclusion or truth that needs to be connected by the player's brain

 

1. The Road.

/

1. The Road 

Road/slippery/muck/bent guidepost points east "To EISNER"/ 

/Covered Wagon//broken axle/// Saw marks (sabotage)  

/wagonbed empty//many bootprints in filth (passengers, not cargo)

 

 2. Eisner

/Mid sized town //3 miles from the river. /Bridge is out, visible from gates.

/Squat walled town hunched in the shadow of an ancient wall, taller than any other building, repurposed into a hall.

/North wall is ancient construction/ half tumbled down/ green tinged brick./ two storeys, windows and columns, fine make. Lights in the windows //Music on the wind (tavern set into the wall)

/Walled/ wooden/ two watchtowers, east (bridge) and west (road) gates 

/West Gate/  Watchtower, flickering brazier of coals, watchman with sling, half a nose/// named Fat Neddy, despite being lanky and rib-thin. //Brass bell in watchtower (worth 5 GP in hacksilver)

/Neddy rings the bell when travelers approach the gate///if any of the party are obviously female (long hair, chain mail bikini, etc.) Neddy cries out that "The Witch" has come for blood, and flees down to the courtyard behind the gate. (Neddy's bell will bring the guards, who will open the gate once they're ready. There are different patterns for fires, wolves, and the risen dead than for travelers.) //dark circles under his eyes. (He takes both shifts, day and night.)

/Guards are 6 villagers in piecemeal (12 total, work in shifts,) limbs and necks wrapped double in hides, carrying pitchforks and wood axes// three are women// Leader is an ox of a woman holding a meat cleaver (stats as a hand axe) /// named Clarabel (stats as an orc with max HP, frontier living built her tough.) //Personality of a "queen bitch" insecure about her power, desperate to keep it, reveling in the fear. Can be threatened, but forms a deep grudge, will avenge any slight bloodily/ Clarabel demands to search party's belonging, orders female guards to take any female party members aside and try to force you to show them your legs/// they're checking if any of you are "The Empusa." ///The women are gripped by fear, edging on hysteria, will take a refusal as proof of guilt

(Note: if the players seem likely to instantly become murderhoboes and lock themselves out of this town and make everything super messy by murdering all the guards, you can have Jonah arrive from the tavern and tell them all to calm down.) 

//The villagers say The Empusa is a vicious witch who started coming around 10 days ago. Every night it kills someone by drinking the blood from their veins. It takes the form of a beautiful young woman, but under her skirts she has a leg of bronze and eleven more like the legs of a spider. 

 /party allowed to keep small arms (daggers, shortswords, axes. No two handed weapons or swords. Clarabel will steal a two handed weapon for herself, given the opportunity. Contraband and large weapons get stashed in a chest under the ladder to the top of the watchtower.)

/guards tell party to put up in the North Wall Inn. //The inn in the North Wall //It's packed to the gills, but it's a place to stay. //Nobody else is willing to house travelers right now.




IN PROGRESS, PROBABLY NEVER TO BE FINISHED