Byzantine Schemes
Elder Signpost
Dread Ninja
Pie Wagon
Red Unicorn
Deadly Ink
Iron Law
Traitor
The Culling of Carriage Court
A macabre adventure for low-level characters
Thousands of years ago the Empire fought a war against capricious and cruel fey. After their great victory the Empire built a fortress over the fey's caverns, with a floor of cold iron flagstones. In such great quantity, cold iron ensured the fey could not easily escape their prison.
But that was a long time ago. The Empire is gone and so is the fortress, buried beneath the dirt. The cold iron flagstones have begun to loosen, and several have fallen away. The seal has begun to crack.
Welcome to Carriage Court
Nestled high in a mountain pass on the Kingsroad, Carriage Court is home to three thousand people. Tall, narrow buildings huddle behind a stout stone wall with gates at the north and south end. The air is cool and crisp, and frequent gusts of icy wind cut through the winding streets. The town square is a small park with pine trees and grass, dominated by a thirty foot stone monolith in the very center. Poking up from the earth, its deep gray color doesn't match anything else in the town, and each face is scribed with ancient runes and sigils. It has long been a forgotten fixture in Carriage Court, faded into the background texture of the town. For those with the skills to decipher it, the monolith bears a dire warning:
The threat below will never die / cold iron keeps the foe at bay / they will scour us from the high places / the assassins wait beneath / wield them in times of need / the quill directs the blade to strike
Very few people know of the ruins that lie beneath the cobbled streets of Carriage Court, and only Greel the hag knows their extent. She has made a lair beneath the town where she can pursue her own macabre designs. She has learned of the missing cold iron flagstones and has opened a dialogue with the immortal Fey Beneath. They told Greel about Shugo, a revenant assassin who awaits orders, walled away from the ruins with cold iron.
When a young lady named Elsie stumbled onto the ruins, the Fey Beneath called out to her and lured her to Greel. Thinking the girl naive and pliable, Greel solicited her help in retrieving Shugo. Greel could not cross so much cold iron, but Elsie could squeeze through the opening where the bricks had fallen away. Elsie encountered the revenant and found that he would take no action unless directed. She did not command Shugo to break the barrier as Greel requested; instead she decided to use Shugo for her own ends. She struck up a shaky alliance with the hag; Shugo would kill for Elsie, then bring the bodies to Greel to disappear.
The Hook
Crunch. The heroes are enjoying a meat pie at a tavern when they bite down on something hard. They find a silver unicorn necklace, red with the juices of the pie.
- The meat pie was part of a batch delivered that morning. The pies use cured meat so the inn can roast them and serve them fresh. The wagon comes once a week. Asking around, the heroes find that the wagon rests in an alley on the west side of town, near a set of stairs down to a cellar which secretly opens into the ruins below.
- The necklace is distinctive; it belonged to Lady Annabelle Deleen, who vanished several days ago. Her father has been seeking information on her whereabouts.
- A barmaid relates some relevant gossip; Annabelle disappeared at the Swan while meeting her secret lover. It's a juicy rumor, but it isn't quite true. Annabelle was killed before leaving home.
- There have been six minor nobles killed in the past year. No bodies have been recovered. There is a growing unease that something is stalking the nobility.
House Deleen
The tall house sits on the east side of town with a ten foot wall to block off the yard and a sturdy gate. The heroes are readily admitted to discuss Annabelle's disappearance. The girl's father, Lord Barric Deleen is a humorless man who has not been sleeping well since his daughter vanished. He thinks that something slipped in his daughter's window and took her.
He will show the heroes to Annabelle's room, where her maid Vellia will show them around. A search of the room turns up a few clues:
- A cold iron throwing star is under the bed, stained with blood.
- Vellia will confirm that Lady Deleen was having a secret tryst with a stable boy named Daniel who works at the Swan, and she was going to meet him the night she was taken.
- Vellia heard a rumor that the pies are made by trolls in a cave underground.
If the heroes show Lord Deleen the unicorn necklace he will be quite shaken, fearing the worst. If they tell him where they found it, he will be very quiet for a moment. Then he will request that the heroes find out who murdered his daughter. He will offer a sizeable reward for justice.
The Swan
The inn has seen better days. It stands three storeys with a sturdy roof, but the walls lean and the floorboards creak. The taproom at the base is pleasant, with a roaring fire and warm lighting, but the rooms are a little drafty thanks to the windows. Each bed has extra blankets to stave off the cold.
Elsie is young and charming, with brown curls and a fondness for dresses that flatter. Ten years ago her father was forced to accompany a lord on a hunting trip, and he did not return. The lord paid her a pittance for his life, and Elsie's burning hatred has simmered ever since. Now she finally has the means to enact her revenge; she has been sending Shugo to slaughter nobles in their homes and bring their bodies to Greel. She is nervous that Annabelle's disappearance has caused a rumor that implicates the Swan, even by accident.
She will make every effort to be a charming hostess. If she gets the sense that the heroes know about her secrets, she will slip down to the cellar, where the ruins below can be accessed by a hidden passage. She will go directly to Shugo's lair and command the revenant assassin to murder the heroes that night. If the heroes pursue, she will try to elude them. If captured, she will claim she was forced into service by Greel, and that the witch controls the assassin.
Daniel can be found in the stables. He is burly and handsome, and he is deeply afraid. He thinks that people will blame him for Annabelle's disappearance, even though he had nothing to do with it.
- Daniel tells the heroes that Annabelle never arrived at the Swan. Something must have happened to her on the way, or maybe even at her house.
- Daniel has seen Elsie going down into the cellar a whole lot lately. He followed her down once and found a secret tunnel into the ruins below.
The Ruins
Beneath Carriage Court is a labyrinth of ancient chambers and hallways, home to a collection of dangerous vermin and oozes. There are three levels to the ruins, and the bottom has a floor of cold iron flagstones which have begun to succumb to the passage of time. Most of them are firm and intact, but a few have dropped away into the darkness below, leaving tiny holes where the Fey Beneath can engage with those above.
Greel
Greel's lair lies to the southwest on the mid-level, and the smell of curing meat is powerful. There is an entry room full of bells on cords to make it difficult for guests to arrive unannounced. The next room is where the pies are made. Here, her zombies engage in their macabre practice; they slice off their own flesh, mincing and curing it, and then they make meat pies. Gradually, the zombies become skeletons. They will not attack unless the heroes instigate combat, at which point they will all join the battle.
Greel's chambers are beyond. Greel herself will join the battle, but if the heroes don't engage her minions it's possible to sneak up on her. She is a formidable opponent in her own right, but she is willing to engage in diplomacy if the adventurers lead with it. If she is threatened, she will tell the heroes all about Elsie and her monster Shugo in exchange for her freedom. She will offer a reward if the PCs turn Elsie over to her in the end.
Shugo
To the north is a room walled off with cold iron bricks. Several have come loose, creating a hole that an unarmored human could squeeze through. The chamber is round and columned, sixty feet across, with six stone altars lining the walls. Long ago, each had a scroll mounted on rods and a basin full of magic ink. Only one altar remains intact, its basin full of red ink. The others are bare. The room is warded so fey-controlled creatures cannot enter.
Shugo is standing in the center of the room. Pale and wiry, the revenant assassin is covered in tattoos in a distinctive red ink. He is compelled to obey whatever is written on the scroll in that magic ink. Without a command he will only fight back if attacked, and will otherwise do nothing. His tattoos grant him boons; blindsight, silent steps, enhanced strength, the ability to nullify teleportation adjacent to him, and the ability to know the direction of his written target.
Turning the rods will inch the scroll backwards or forwards. The heroes will be able to see Elsie's previous commands.
Kill Annabelle Deleen and bring her body to Greel. Also,
If I die, kill Greel. There are more; Elsie's transgressions are clearly written. Further back, there are much older commands; Shugo was used to assassinate important fey during the war.
The inkwell can hold enough for thirty words on the scroll, but there are ten left currently. The basin refills one word every dawn. Unbeknownst to Elsie or Greel, each command only lasts twenty-four hours, rendering Elsie's contingency moot.
Fey Beneath
Greel is the master of the ruins, but the fey have a widespread presence. Their rat-spies are everywhere. Their motives are capricious and cruel; they want to be entertained above all else. It entertains them to see Greel turning people into pies. But it also entertains them to have their rats ensure little baubles end up in the pies, to make things more challenging for Greel. They will lure oozes into the path that Elsie usually travels. They will filch small valuables to lure people into the ruins, forcing Greel to kill them.
Villains React
The three villains have a tenuous peace, but it's possible for that to be upset.
Elsie has control of Shugo. She could command the revenant assassin to kill Greel, but she thinks the Fey Beneath and Greel are allied, and doesn't know the extent of their capabilities. At present, Elsie is getting what she wants.
Greel has a growing army of minions and feels like she has the upper hand over the Fey Beneath. The additional corpses from Elsie's proclivities has swelled her undead ranks, and she enjoys the terror it sows in Carriage Court. If she can find somebody else who can command Shugo, that would make Elsie deliciously expendable. She will promise anything to get control of Shugo.
The Fey Below are mostly content to wait and watch. They are happy to see Greel and Elsie at each others throats, and care not at all if both of them perish. At that point, the fey will entreat the heroes to aid them. They will tell them the secrets of Shugo, and tell them how to wield him. Shugo's great strength could pry up the flagstones and free them. If the heroes are foolish enough to listen, they will find great cruelty is their only reward.
