The Inn#

It is early spring after noon, a typically wet day at The Moldy Eye Inn. In front of the inn, a covered wagen as lived in by a travelling people is parked, draped in colorful cloth.

As the afternoon passes, multiple adventurers enter the inn. All order something with the innkeep and consume their food or drink more or less in silence. A group of common farmer sit at a table, and another table is used by three of the travelling people. Judged by the cloth they wear, the cart in front of the inn belongs to them.

As dusk draws near, one of the travelling people stands up, walks around and asks for people sent here “in search of their destiny”. In particular, he looks for people with a taroka card, given to them by their wise woman. Benjamin is the first to loudly present his taroka card of a raven; he is joined shortly after by Ilizeiros presenting his card depicting an executioner. Reese and lastly Thaddeus present their cards without others seeing the images on them. The nameless man informs the four adventurers that their wise woman arranged for a room at the inn, and that any valuables should be left with him for safekeeping. Only Thaddeus produces a spoon, apparently a family heirloom, from his heavy leather coat. The man takes the spoon and puts it away.

As the evening passes, the four adventurers make conversation and eventually retreat into the room assigned to them and go to bed. They take off most of their equipment, only Ilizeiros keeps his sword on him during the night.

The Next Morning#

Upon opening their eyes, everyone quickly realizes that something is off about the room, and in fact the whole inn - everything around them is a totally decrepit ruin, and resembles a inn only through their beds. All equipment placed beside the beds has disappeared, only Ilizeiros weapon kept by his chest remains in his hands.

As the four fateful adventurers leave the inn in their undergarments, they find fresh tracks where the cart was parked the day before, and a chest in its place. The only item in that chest is Thaddeus’ spoon, which he promptly throws away, cursing. Reese picks it up, certain the spoon has some value.

The tracks lead into a thick fog, which surrounds the whole inn - only a small gap appears on the road northwards. Unnaturally shaped trees loom over the fog on the wayside, as the group of adventurers travels northward for hours. Eventually, Reese attemps to pierce through the fog with a summoned mage hand - however, instead of the usually human shaped hand, the mage hand takes the shape of a skeletal hand. The hand itself passes through the fog undisturbed, Benjamin however falls into coughing fit as he passes into the fog and quickly retreats into the open area. Impressed by the effects of the fog, the adventurers decide to press on.

Eventually they reach a 40ft high rusty iron gate, flanked by two massive stone statues and a massive stone wall stretching into the fog. Hesitantly, the adventurers open the gate with a loud creaking sound and continue on the road; as they move away from the gate, it closes as if by magic and the fog appears to stay on the far side of the gate.

The woods flanking the road open a little bit - still inflicting a sense of dread on anyone passing by, like feelings of unvoiced screams. Eventually, Thaddeus notices a stench of death and Reese pries a boot off a dead person, but discards it.

After a few more hours, humanoid shapes appear at dusk in front of the group.

A Ghostly House#

A girl named Rosavalda, and her younger brother Thornboldt, stand on the road - Thorn is crying, Rose trying her best to calm him down. They explain their predicament: apparently, their parents have disappeared hours ago into the basement of their manor up the hill, and now the children are too scared to look for them and search for help elsewhere. There also seems to be no trace of the farmhands or the nursemaid that are employed by the family. Thaddeus tries to calm Thorn, but manages only to instill a faint light glow unto a button on his jacket. Suspiciously, the children have no idea where the entrance to the basement could be, but mention their parents are called Gustav and Elisabeth Durst.

As the children lead the adventurers up the hill to their manor, they seem to be oblivous to the fact that the stables and the servants house are in ruins, while the large manor in Victorian style stands out meticulously from the dilapidated buildings. Rose and Thorn are too scared to enter the house, so they remain on the front porch, while the adventurers venture inside.

Very carefully, the four adventurers look through the house. In the large foyer, Ilizeiros picks up a shield from above a fireplace - it shows a golden windmill on red ground. In the following hallway, Benjamin picks up a longsword, while Thaddeus inspects the wooden decorative carvings on the walls. Between the playful and jolly decorations, he finds a few produced in a different style, depicting starving and dying children.

In an adjacent room, glasses are clinking - as soon as Benjamin opens the door, there are no traces of people present, only plates with morsels of food. After the long hike spanning the whole day, Benjamin and Ilizeiros fill their empty stomachs.

Another room holds cloaks, which are quickly distributed among the adventurers to at least look half decent; Reese brings one out to the children for warmth.

Someone in the family seems to be a hunter: yet another room holds hunting trophies, stuffed wolves and two cabinets. One is unlocked, and Ilizeiros extracts an unfamiliar deck of cards, but the combined efforts ar e not enough to open the lock on the other cabinet, displaying parts of a crossbow. As the four weary adventurers leave the room, Thaddeus notices that the wolves seem to have changed positions to encircle the party in the room and quickly closes the door to the hunting room.

The last visible room on the ground floor is a kitchen with a pantry: atypically, the pantry is empty and the kitchen appears unused and lacks any form of weapon-grade knives.

A staircase leading into the second story of the mansion appears the last remaining option in search of the basement…