Narrative

The party began in Everchard, a swampy town of roughly three thousand people surrounded by fruit trees, orchards, cider breweries, and woodland tours that drew visiting tourists. It was winter, but one orchard was strangely in bloom. Bees slightly larger than normal were buzzing around the trees and pollinating them. The trees had dark bark, blue leaves, and deep red fruit. The town itself mixed light and dark woods, had no obvious districts, and had a larger manor house in the centre.

The first important stop was the Cider Inn Cider, a small inn with a beeswaxed floor. A female half-elf played a lute, and two maids, one half-elf and one human, had a family resemblance. Local names established there included Father Burnun, a prize fighter, and Gelissa, a half-elf. The party members noted were Invar, a greying-haired, paladin-looking dwarf who did not yet have plate; Dirk, a Goliath; and Geldrin the Mighty, a gnome with wild brown hair and glasses with no glass.

Old John Thornhollows, a farmer with three daughters, brought the first job. Another three pigs had vanished, but the numbers were already wrong: six pigs seemed to be missing, yet John only had ledgers for three. He may have had around thirty pigs. His daughters’ names were recorded as Annabel, Isabelle, and Clarabella. The daughters kept the best books, and the party were offered 1 gp each to investigate. At the inn, five keys on the bar somehow became four, and nobody knew how the change happened.

Other local problems surfaced immediately. A shepherd might also have missing sheep. Bess had a missing cat, and there were no rats recently either, raising the possibility that rats were missing too. Meat was not coming in, so the butcher was serving new mushroom burgers. There was also a woman from out of town looking for her husband, Malcolm Donovan, who had come from Albec for work and had been seen putting up fences at a farm. Malcolm had a birthmark on the back of his right hand.

Everchard had built a hostel the previous summer to house homeless people, but it had not been enough for that purpose and was also being let out, angering the inns. The Earl was a rough-looking half-orc dressed in black clothing covered with bird or goose motifs. Funds from the hostel were apparently going into an anti-tax system. A woman who applied for the poverty tax was told she was eligible and slid 2 gp across for the anti-tax. The census was due in spring and charged 3 cp per number, payable in the morning, with a note to ask the half-elf.

The town insisted there was no trouble, but several details contradicted that. Bug Hunter, a registered mercenary known for tubes and pipes, had come to town two weeks earlier. The winter apple trees had also started fruiting about two weeks earlier. The last Third Moon had been one week earlier. Invar had delivered weapons, but the militia seemed to have almost vanished. An order had been placed a few months earlier for twenty weapons and ten armour, yet only about five militia remained. People said the Earl was downsizing and could not remember the old militia properly.

At the jail, reality and memory seemed unstable. The jail’s location had changed and was now where the hostel used to be. It had two empty cells. The law officer or sheriff had a large scar over her eye, and the staff included her, Sheriff Jeremia, and two deputies, one named Bob. They reported no missing people, though there had been a home theft a week earlier, Bug Hunter had held a sale of giant bugs in frames six days earlier, and the shepherd did have a new fence. The jail also now believed it should receive a package from a crazy-haired gnome.

The militia records were deeply wrong. Names such as Terry, Stonejaw, Rob, and Ralfrex were offered as explanations: Terry left town two months earlier, Stonejaw passed away, Rob retired, and Ralfrex was somewhere in Bucksmouth. None were left in town. Yet forty-three people used to be hired. A state charter required a sufficient militia this close to the barrier, with a wider figure of 1,100 militia for a population of 45,000. A check was due in a month, and the last visit had been five months earlier.

The memory tampering became undeniable when nobody remembered Gelissa except Geldrin, though Invar remembered her for a split second. The party saw one of the people get up and walk out. They chased him, and when his hood dropped they saw a face stitched below the eye line, a mouth missing rows of teeth, bone-splinted fingers, and a split tongue. The birthmark on his right hand identified him as Malcolm. He had been a human male, and magic had clearly been used to make these changes.

The name Guardwel/Garadul was connected to this horror, described as the Terror of the Sands and nightmare of the darkness, a being who would consume souls. The tales mentioned a sphinx that learned dark magic and experimented on itself. Garadul was understood to be imprisoned in the Prison of the Sands; Brutor Ruby Eye called him the only void they could find, one of eight whose escape would weaken the barrier, and someone the wizards agreed needed to be contained. After Malcolm was found, memories shifted again. Someone remembered Isabella and remembered that Gelissa had said she had not arrived. Gelissa herself was remembered again.

The party took Malcolm to the jail. A deputy went to fetch Sheriff Jeremia, who now remembered the third Thornhollows daughter, Gelissa, and the homeless people. Jeremia made the party deputies and gave them badges under Sir Alstir Florent. Another displaced memory also surfaced: a fifth person, a human warrior, had been at the bar helping the party and had picked one of the keys. He was remembered only up to the point when the group went fishing, around the time Dirk saw a rat. Gristak Brinson was recorded as mayor.

People, Factions, and Places Mentioned

Everchard, the Cider Inn Cider, the cider breweries, the woodland tours, the central manor house, the hostel, the jail, the barrier, Albec, Bucksmouth, Old John Thornhollows, Annabel, Isabelle, Clarabella, Father Burnun, Gelissa, Invar, Dirk, Geldrin, Bess, Malcolm Donovan, the Earl, Bug Hunter, Sheriff Jeremia, Bob, Terry, Stonejaw, Rob, Ralfrex, Sir Alstir Florent, Gristak Brinson, Guardwel/Garadul, Brutor Ruby Eye, the Prison of the Sands, and the unidentified fifth human warrior were all established or referenced.

Items, Rewards, and Resources

The party were offered 1 gp each to investigate the missing pigs. They received deputy badges from Sheriff Jeremia under Sir Alstir Florent. The militia order involved twenty weapons and ten armour. The anti-tax payment noted was 2 gp, and the spring census charged 3 cp per number.

Clues, Mysteries, and Open Threads

The major open threads were the missing pigs, possible missing sheep, Bess’s missing cat, the absence of rats, the missing or forgotten militia, the changing number of keys, the hostel’s connection to the anti-tax, Bug Hunter’s arrival with tubes and pipes, the winter fruiting trees, the altered Malcolm Donovan, the shifting memories around Gelissa and the homeless people, the vanished fifth human warrior, and Guardwel/Garadul, the Terror of the Sands, linked to a dark-magic sphinx, the Prison of the Sands, void, one of the eight, and the barrier.