Setup
The village is hemmed in by mountains that tower above the small fishing community. As you walk in the streets the wind whips the snow around you throwing the fine crystals finding any little crease in your armor, stinging your skin. The people that you see walking have their heads down, trying to get to their destination as quickly as possible. The town hugs a lake that is frozen over. As you look south out along the lake, you see groups of little huts atop the ice, puffs of smoke billowing out of the makeshift shacks that you can surmise acts as the economic engine of the town.
Tavern/inn: The salted gill
The salted gill is a homely establishment with well worn wood that has clearly seen its fair share of use. A fire burns in the hearth, keeping the seemingly endless cold at bay. Patrons sit at tables whispering in hushed tones. You overhear tid bits of conversations that seem to be talking about the nightmares that have been coming to life around them, heads shaking and muttering "that damn fucking crazy wizard" catches your ear.
Barkeep : Elsa.
A thin lithe woman is attending the patrons of the salted gill. Her hair flows in between her shoulder blades in a fiery mass that reaches her waste. Her blue eyes stand in stark contrast to her flowing mane. She has an ease with all the patrons, you notice that there is a familiarity between every customer she is tending to. Story: Her father ran the inn and his father before him. Her father passed away last season and she took over the establishment. The townsfolk respect her and have known her family for generations.
The mage and the wayward children.
Farnie and Jeya have gone missing as well as a Mage in the village, Fenris. Things have been getting odd since they left. There have been wolves with fiery eyes, and demons that only the worst people could dream about in their nightmares, attacking the town. The beats have red eyes! We have never seen anything like this in our town but that damn wizard must have done something, always tinkering with this, muttering about that. These beasts have been roaming the streets almost every night. This establishment is usually packed but the people of the town are scared and refuse to come out of their homes. There are fish to catch to support our way of life.
Farnie / Jaya
Farnie and Jaya are local teenagers, who’s father is Temril, a local fisherman on the ice. Farnie is never far from Jeya, they have been known to snoop around and stick their noses where it does not belong. They would sneak around the mages house and play pranks on the addled old fool and play pranks on the people of the town. Nothing that caused any harm but they are a mischievous duo.
They are not bad kids, they just need a little discipline, the father is a good man and has to raise these children by himself as his wife died giving birth to Farnie.
Fernis the mage.
Fernis is seen as an addled old man that is always sticking his bony fingers where they should not be. Asking questions and always prodding and probing for answers to things that the simple folk of the village have no time for. He is tolerated because he has helped people in the village with illness and making magical things that can aid them from time to time. He also had an odd ability to see someones future, he would say magic, some would call it luck as he was right a little more than he was wrong.
The barkeep will tell them about where the mage lives and the town could scrape together 500gp if the kids were found and if they agree to help the beer will be on the house.
Map
MAGES HOUSE
The wizards house is dug into the side of a mound, sequestered from the elements in the forest to the west of town. The front door, intactly carved with geometric patterns and flourishes that branch from the center of the door to its edges stands wide open, snow sweeping into the small dwelling
1.
Inside you find a small coatroom, covered with dust and long-ignored cobwebs. Several cloaks hang on rotted wooden cart hangers. The cloaks are moth-eaten and bedraggled that only a barmy would want to wear one. Closer inspection reveals that they are full of dead lice and fleas.
2.
A guest chamber contains the frame of a bed with a mattress that’s been torn wide open. Along the walls stand the remains of dressers and a wardrobe, all nearly reduced to splinters by miffed looters who found no valuables in them.
3.
A fireplace has not been used in a while, old logs unlit and a mass of ash heaped in the back. Otherwise, this room seems just as the others — destroyed and snow covered.
Fireplace has: 2 extra healing potions, 3 vials of holy water.
Note: You find a note that seems to have been placed here for safe keeping.
“I have made so much progress and it is being made clear through my endeavors. All I need to do is find the courage, the courage, the courage, is close at hand, whose hand, perhaps mine, perhaps another, I have two and there is one and could be none?.”
4.
The wizard’s store of food has long since been eaten by insects and mold. Not even flies buzz about the kitchen any longer. The mage’s last meal, lying on the easternmost stone counter where he left it months ago, has become infected with green slime spores.
5.
The dining hall stands completely desolate, except for the ever-present dust and cobwebs. Even the destroyed furniture from this room was scavenged by intruders long ago.
6.
Inside the frame lies a corpse, which has been there for some months; the once luxurious bed that had domi- nated this room is now squirming with maggots scouring the bones.
7.
Books are strewn across the floor of the wizard’s library, and the furniture has been reduced to kindling for the fireplace in the corner. Few of the old, moldering tomes are even legible anymore.
Journal found:
The tattered journal has random pages ripped from the spine. Half the ink has run down the pages, water making the once would-be letters illegible. Flipping the the book you see a continuation of the same word written over and over again, the writing becoming more and more frantic and toward the end the page is etched so hard that the paper has ripped.
Let the Bel ring, the right hand must not look at the left nor the left to the right as all is left is to ring the Bel, the sound of Bel is what haunts me, gives me the strength with no hands but what is needed for a Bel? .
Spell book found:
• 1ST LEVEL: Audible glamer, change self, detect magic, erase, grease, and shield.
• 2ND LEVEL: Alter self, flaming sphere, pyrotech- nics, and whispering wind.
The only useful item here is the spellbook.
8.
The laboratory is in the same state as the rest of the house. You see broken beakers and inscriptions etched into the walls. You see a path through the snow that leads behind an overturned bench. The wood of the floor dry. The door is unlocked.
At the far end of the room, licking its paws and stretching its wings. Its attention is averted to a fly that is buzzing around its head. It tracks its movements and leaps up snatching it mid air. It chews for a minute and seems to very pleased with itself.
