James Andachi

In early fall of my fourteenth year my mother decided it was time to inform me, James Andachi, the truth. She sat with me on the cold stone floor and she revealed to me that all of life has been decided, we are merely characters in a book discovering what has already been written.  I refused to believe in such things and despite my anger she remained steadfast and calm. Seemingly out of nowhere she asked me to get something from the shed and handed me a necklace. I remembered she said it would help me find my way, which at the time I didn't understand her meaning.  When I reached the barn I happened to glance over at the window and noticed an intense set of illuminated blue eyes in the house beside my mother. Before I could even react a forceful beam of light emanated from my home consuming it in flames. Nothing remained. All I had to remember her by was this necklace.  Later a wandering priest would identify it as a necklace of Pharasma (six mirror rectangles forming a hexagon on the outside, but when looking into the middle from the top or bottom one will see the spiral of Pharasma).

“The Crooked Kin—Ustalav’s Greatest Traveling Cabinet of Curiosities!”

Hap Tarvin, the Flea Man, A short, hunched man with a distorted appearance, Hap performs with his flea circus, the Magnificent Carnival of Miniature Wonders.

Kaleb Hesse, the Ringmaster, An albino man with red eyes and long, white hair that hangs below his knees, Kaleb wears a tall red top hat, a long red coat with gold buckles, and striped trousers. He is the de facto leader of the Crooked Kin.

Lidia Gerod, the Bearded Lady Standing nearly 7 feet tall and possessedof a fine beard down to her waist, Lidia acts as a sort of “mother hen” to the other members of the troupe.

The Pinheads: Aleece,Lettie, and Poppy are sisters, all of whom have microcephaly. Aleece recently wandered away from the caravan and has gone missing.

Prince Zar, the Human Caterpillar, This Mwangi man has no arms or legs. Prince Zar was once enslaved in a Chelish sideshow, but earned enough money to buy his freedom. He joined the Crooked
Kin, where he is billed as an exiled prince of the “Lost Cities of Darkest Garund.”    

        S’jeer, the Vudrani Princess, Born with four arms, S’jeer dresses in exotic silks and speaks with a thick accent.        

    The Swarm of Clowns: These two men and one woman, Gerik, Josef, and Tam each have an extra limb (Josef has three legs, the others have three arms).  Besides their skill in clowning, they are also accomplished acrobats and jugglers.    

      Trollblood, the Giant Man, A shockingly ugly Ulfen man nearly 8 feet tall, Trollblood entertains the crowds with fire-breathing and his featsof strength.          

    The Wolf Child, Supposedly raised by wolves in the Shudderwood, this 10-year-old boy is covered in hair. The three pinhead sisters treat him like a younger brother.

              In addition, the show also includes a pair of goblin dogs, a morlock, and a giant frog.  

                                    

           

An Inquirer visits Ravengro

The carriage train that arrives at Ravengro, sent by the Council of Canterwall and the church of Pharasma, is  lead by 1st. Inquirer LeVey of the Palatine Council of Canterwall. He will conduct a private meeting with the party in Ravengro's church. After listening to your stories he promotes Neophyte James Andachi to the rank of Journeyman in the church and gives him the church's blessings to travel with this new "band of brothers". LeVey will be staying in Ravengro as temporary priest until a new one is sent from the capitol.

As part of his time spent in Ravengro Inquirer LeVey will interview the group privately, and separately.The last week of the "band"s time in Ravengro, LeVey will have the 2 alchemists, the smith, and the owners of The Silken Purse busy gathering, and making the ingredients for a 5 day ritual held inside the church's basements.

Dr. Henric will have a shiny new tattoo when this ritual is over, as well as a new purpose and reasons to travel to Lepidstadt.. The pentacle and circle of power, together known as a Pentagram, will be the first of 3 separate sigils proscribed by Inquirer LeVey. The second is known as the Elder Sign and the third the Sign of the Watchers. When completed this occult emblem will provide its bearer some protection from possessing spirits.

LeVey's final request of the group is that they travel a small bit out of there way to Clover's Crossing to check in on the village. A man known as Dr. Emrer Evets, who is traveling with LeVey as his "guest" has told tales of the outlying villages fallen into sinkholes and barrens fields where towns once stood. 

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Lepidstadt

Lepidstadt: Small city


Qualities: academic, prosperous, rumor mongering citizens, tourist attraction

Demographics:  Government council

Population 9,780 (9,600 humans, 80 dwarves, 50 elves, 30 gnomes, 20 other)

Notable NPC's:  Alpon Caromarc , The Beast of Lepidstadt, Acciani Viacarri

Marketplace: Base Value 6,000 gp; Purchase Limit 37,500gp

Moldering hinterlands and the remnants of a bloodthirsty religion seem like an unlikely setting for a scholarly revolution, yet on the Lesser Moutray brazenly flourishes just such a renaissance. Under the auspices of the nation’s greatest university, egalitarian philosophies and radical sciences clash with popular superstitions and forgotten secrets, clenching the city of Lepidstadt in a war between a past that refuses to rest quietly and a reckless future.

The community of Lepidstadt rose upon the Lesser Moutray over 700 years ago, little more than an outpost of farmers and woodsmen who trusted in the murk of the Dipplemere to keep roving bands of orcs and Kellids at bay. They of course knew of the ancient “witchstones” that dotted the lands, monuments to strange entities worshiped by ancient Kellid shamans, but all with sense knew to give the pale rocks a wide berth. The Treyes brothers changed that, as their audacious exploration of the Spiral Cromlech revealed treasures of a mysterious past, their value in gold and mystery outstripping the threat of ancient curses. Soon an army of scholars and adventure-seekers made the city their garrison, besieging the ruins of the ancient land. As discoveries and doldrums caused the land’s novelty to ebb and flow, Lepidstadt became the permanent home of numerous academics, whose works and families promoted the growth of the local university and, over time, elevated it to the vaunted center of scholarship it’s known as today.

Within the past 40 years, much of Lepidstadt has been renovated, with centuries-old hovels replaced by freshly imported wood and marble. Yet only the city’s elite preoccupy themselves with idyllic aspirations, and as one wanders away from the central plazas, old stone homes and repurposed mills show through the modern veneer, their residents living as they have for centuries, rolling their eyes at every new convolution of the city’s higher society.

Counties of Ustalav: Vieland

Between the orc-stalked Tusk Mountains and the bogs of the Shudderwood lies a prophecy of ruin. Across the secluded northwestern corner of Ustalav called Vieland, the ancient Kellids raised monuments to strange powers of the deep earth and distant stars. Today, these idols of misshapen gods go unheeded, overlooked as rustic curiosities or repurposed as bedrock for an age of arrogant reason. From the hills rises a bastion of science and new truths, haughtily ignorant of the past’s mute warnings.

The county of Vieland is a rugged country, Vieland’s hills and dales pitch from the western mountains, breaking in stony waves that gradually mire down in dense swamps and woodlands. The dusty knolls scattered below the Tusk Mountains scatter across land that might otherwise make fine farmland, their boulders and precipitous slopes making the land better suited to herding than most other forms of agriculture. Aside from the trolls and marsh giants said to hunt the region, tales abound of territorial plant creatures and ancient swamp lords with the power to command the rotting mounds.