A minute passed.  Then another.  Finally, the gnome emerged through the door across the long stretch of dining hallway.

"Do you know what this is?" the gnome called as she approached.  She waved the small and thin object in question above her head as she made her way back across the room for the fifth time today.

"It is a pencil."  She crossed the room, making a beeline for the doctor.  And, upon reaching him, the gnome reached up and tucked the writing instrument into one of his pockets before passing on to the basement door.

"I found it under one of the cushions of your chairs.  That's all.  Nothing more."  And then Pisca Neep Freemish opened the door.  Without another word.  Without looking back.  She stepped quietly onto the stairs and began her descent.  Quiet and watchful, wondering how an evil necromancer and his two tiefling minions could make it back so quickly, let alone sneak past the way they had.

Pisca Neep Freemish rolled 23.  Perception for signs of movement or other danger ahead.

AL: 4/9
L1: 4/5
L2: 1/3
Lore Master Used Today

Cato watched as Pisca prepared to brave the basement, ready to fall into position behind Kerr and Kellan as they ventured into the Necromancer's dwelling.

"There she goes..." Kellan muttered to Cato and Liseth as he hustled to catch up to their intrepid gnome, intent on taking up position right behind her, as usual.

---

---

"I . . . thank you," acknowledged a discomfited Habe as he accepted his pencil from Pisca.  He again looked to Kerr for help; the paladin gave him a companionable shrug.  The doctor was still staring at the pencil as his visitors descended the dark staircase into the basement.

The stairs ended in a cavern-like room, 20 feet wide by 25 feet long.  A door faced them from the southernmost part of the western wall; another graced the middle of the eastern wall.  The large chamber combined the features of a wizard’s laboratory and a catacomb—several tables bearing bodies covered by drapes dominated the room, while tools ranging from shovels to dissection implements sat on shelves against the wall.  Four torches in wall sconces illuminated the area.

Two of the three well-preserved cadavers were seemingly undisturbed; the third had clearly been the subject of some examination--the body bore various cuts and incisions.  Lidded jars containing various organs and other internal body parts sat neatly on a cunningly-crafted ledge pulled out of the table itself for precisely that purpose.

A huge map of the Sandpoint hinterlands dominated the room’s southern wall.  Various black, white and gray tabs—about 25 all told—were pinned to it, but there was no evidence legend explaining their purpose.  Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the pins were more numerous in the area of the southern farmlands and around the Foxglove River.

A desk sat in the northwest corner of the room; it contained inkwells, sheets of paper, and books.  A review of its contents revealed copious notes regarding Ziren’s experiments; apparently he had been trying to more-fully understand the development and effects of ghoul fever as it passed through various generations.

An earlier entry:

. . . unless I miss my guess, the subject in question—found wandering in Lews Tors (possibly from Pauper’s Graves?  Investigate)—was at least fifteenth generation, but I believe its age confounded my formula (there must be a way to control for this!  Needs additional research).  From my confrontation and subsequent study of its cranium, I believe it to be more susceptible to domination than the tenth-generation subject recovered two weeks ago.  But I need more subjects, and those closer to the Source!  If only I can discover the Key!  Unfortunate that infecting Habe’s patients won’t provide the answers I need . . .

A later entry:

. . . Pauper’s Graves is a gold mine!  I am both thwarted and emboldened by a discovery—I cannot say for certain, but I believe it to be ruled by the Lich-King of Celwynvian!  An amazing find, if I can confirm it.  Fortunately for me, the King himself seems bound to the area, probably by the magic of the ancient elves.  Would like to investigate further, but danger too great.  Barely escaped with my . . .

A few months ago:

. . . my suspicions are confirmed.  Subject retrieved from Bleaklow Moor is indeed first generation, and further supports theory that the recent attacks in the outlying farmsteads are work of a new Ghoulish Source!!  But how?  And from where?  If only I could apprehend the Source itself, it could be the Key I have been searching for . . .

Yesterday:

. . . finally may have some answers to the questions that have plagued me.  I am sure that this new patient of Habe’s has been infected directly by the Source.  I must question the patient before he expires to determine what I can about its attack.  And I must observe the Transformation itself!  An amazing opportunity . . .

---

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 01:22, Thu 10 Dec 2015.

Cato looked at the contents of the laboratory, feelings of disgust and curiosity competing in his mind.  He nodded at the corpses and the jars.

"Definitely belongs to a necromancer.  And look at these notes!"

Cato gestured to the pages laid out, and pointed to the map.

"I think it's entirely possible that our necromancer has nothing to do with these ghouls.  He's been studying them, and it was purely coincidence that one of the ghouls ended up here for him to study."

Cato shakes his head.

"I still find that almost too amazing to consider, but I suppose the bigger coincidence is that Habe let a necromancer into the basement of his sanatorium.  The fact that someone suffering from ghoul fever would end up here is probably expected."

He pointed to the tabs on the map.  "I suspect this is all the ghouls he's located.  If we didn't already have our next avenue of inquiry picked out as Foxglove, this might have given us something else to go on.  Though the sheer number of reports is troubling.  It seems that the Sandpoint hinterlands are experiencing quite an infestation - and these are probably only the ones that the resident necromancer has heard about, or maybe even personally encountered!  How many ghouls are out there?  We definitely need to be cautious in our investigation."

"It certainly does look as though Auggie and we have both been looking for the same thing.  Different reasons, of course."  The gnome sat on the edge of the desk, kicking her legs in lazy quarter arcs.  She reached casually over and picked an inkwell up off the desk and held it up to the light.  Once assured that it was clean and well sealed, she tucked it under one flap of her pack where it disappeared, pending the needs of its new mistress.

She gathered up the papers too.  And the books.  "Too bad we can't take the desk with us," Pisca opined.  "And I want that map too!  Maps!  Nice."

"Pauper's Graves, huh?"  The gnome kicked off of the edge of the desk and landed on the floor with a soft *pat*tat* of her soft-soled boots.

"So, lets see what's behind these two doors and then hurry back to Sandpoint.  We can get fresh ponies and then track Auggie down."  Without showing a great deal of concern, Pisca strolled to the door in the southwest and put her hear to it.  "What do you say?  Is that a good plan?"

Pisca Neep Freemish rolled 19.  Checking South Western Door.

AL: 4/9
L1: 4/5
L2: 1/3
Lore Master Used Today

The bodies laid out within the basement held Liseth's attention as the party entered.  Were they dead?  Something else?  She didn't want to let them get the drop on her and her friends if it happened that they were more minions of the horse-murdering necromancer.

Until the notes left by the necromancer were found.  Notes detailing a disease he described as Ghoul Fever.  "Does he say how the undead spread their disease?  He thinks that Grayst must have been second generation...and he's found something that was as late as fifteenth?"  The acolyte poured over the notes to find anything she could about the Ghoul Fever.

"How is it treated?  He must have something about how to treat it..."  Even an evil necromancer would want to have some way of making sure he didn't become infected with such a horrible contagion.  She gathered up every note she could find on the Ghoul Fever.  "How is it passed...how long does it incubate...how is it treated..."  Liseth spoke softly to herself as she went through the necromancer's notes.

"Wait...wait Pisca."  Liseth looked up from the notes she was perusing.  "This was the lair of an evil necromancer for more than a year.  He might have put up magical protections."  The little blonde touched her focus, "We should be careful."

"Gods, reveal the presence of hostile magic..."  The acolyte in white whispered before concentrating.  First on the door Pisca had approached, then on the other door.  Finally she examined the whole of the room that they were within.

OOC: Cast Detect Magic

Kellan entered the room with his pole-axe level, and stalked around the circumference once before he relaxed a little and looked about at the various effects left behind. The map in particular seemed to catch his interest, being a local of course, and after a few moments he turned to Cato.

"There can't be that many ghouls in the Sandpoint region...could there? I mean...I had no idea what one was until just a little bit ago...if they were roaming the countryside you would think that there would be all kind of bites over the years..."

He shook his head slightly. "Grave sites maybe?" he guessed. "Guy was obviously after bodies for some reason...and the shovel there. I don't think I'll ever understand what makes a man want to spent his time on Golarion in a basement, with dead bodies, trying to...what? gain power? just to see if he can?"

---

---

After taking his leave from Doctor Habe, Kerr followed the group downstairs into what could only be considered a morgue.  It had the same cool temperature as the one they'd recently visited in the Garrison, and the same still, pasty bodies lying motionless on their biers, bereft of life.

As Pisca listened at the southwestern door and Liseth cast her spell, Kerr took a closer look at the pins on the map.  "Hey, look at this!"  He exclaimed, motioning Cato and Kerr over.  "I think there's some sort of pattern."  He pointed to a black pin.  "It looks as if the only free-standing pins are black pins."  His finger traveled across the map to a group of two.  "And the only groups of two are black and grey."  He finished up by indicating one of the white pins, which stood close to both a black and grey pin.  "And the white ones are only in the groups of three."  He pursed his lips as he stepped back to look at the map.  "I don't know what it means, but it probably means something."

---

---

"I don't...wait."  Her magical examination didn't reveal anything placed upon the doors or lying in wait as a trap.  Nothing she could detect anyway.  But just when Liseth was about to determine there were no magical auras, she located something.

"There's something...under the table?"  The acolyte leaned down to look under the suspect table; then slowly approached one of its legs.  "Here."  The little blonde carefully touched the leg she was examining, then grasped at it.  A slender stick came out and into her hand.  "It's magical; it has a magic aura."  She looked at it closer, then showed it off, "I think that it's a magical wand?"

Standing up, she looked at the body laid upon the table which had held the hidden wand.  Were they connected somehow?  The idea gave her chills at just what kind of magic the wand was enchanted with.

But after having read the notes left by the necromancer on the Ghoul Fever, the acolyte in white couldn't stop herself from examining the body.  Was this a person who had the Ghoul Fever?  Were there signs of the infection?  Might it be someone who could stand up as an undead; if not now then soon?

There was one thing she could do in order to be sure.  "Sarenrae, grant me the sight to see the foul auras left by the presence of an undead."  Once again Liseth took hold of Sarenrae's symbol, then once again looked around the room.  She hoped that she didn't see anything stand out.

OOC: Cancel Detect Magic, cast Detect Undead.  Look everywhere for any signs of an aura first, then concentrate to focus on and locate any auras found.  It should be able to penetrate the wooden doors too unless they happen to be lined with lead or something similar.

"It means that Auggie had different colored tabs," hissed the gnome over her shoulder to the boyfriend.  "And that he had a system of marking.  Though I can't imagine that the undead are so convenient as to only go around in groups of one two or three."

"Is there any pattern on the maps to the groups?  Do the threes cluster and then spread out into twos and ones?"  Her whisper, though terse, now held a note of curiosity.  Pisca turned to push the door open, only to pause at Lysa's request.

"Alright.  Sure."  The gnome relaxed into a stance of waiting.  Human watching.

Cato came over to Kerr, looking at the map.  "Maybe there are three kinds of events?  Rumors, sightings, and attacks?  So black would be rumors of a ghoul, grey sightings, white attacks?  Or it could be different, generations of ghouls, but that wouldn't explain why only white would be found with grey and black.  Maybe even a system for counting?  Rough order of magnitude estimates, perhaps?  Black is less than 5, grey is 5-10, white is more?  But that seems an inefficient system as well.  You could just write on the tabs."

Cato shook his head, remembering what these tabs represented.  Without fully deciphering his notes or talking to him, all this might be speculation.  He looked over to Kellan.  "You're right, though.  I can't believe there are this many ghouls around Sandpoint.  You'd think there would be many, many more attacks, unless someone was directing them, marshaling their impulses."  The wizard went quiet.  "But that would mean they were keeping them a secret for some reason, and I can't think of anything good."

He gave a weak laugh.  "Maybe we had it easy when we just knew about the goblins!"

Cato turned from the map, towards Liseth, waiting for the acolyte to finish her scan for more undead.  "Would you mind if I examined the wand?"

Detect Magic and Spellcraft check to identify wand if no immediate threats in sight.

Kellan peered at the map then nodded in agreement with Cato. "He seemed really focused on ghouls, and the generations in particular, I would not be surprised if they represent ghoul in some way...sightings, or attacks, or origins maybe. We can take it with us...just ink in where the pins are now...maybe the Sheriff or the Mayor will know an expert of some kind."

He turned and looked at the wand, seeming distrustful of the little stick as Cato examined it.

Cato turned the wand over.  "Huh.  A wand of Gentle Repose.  It preserves corpses.  Very useful for a necromancer!"

Cato tucked the wand away, and turned back to the map.  "Yes, we should probably take this with us.  Note the tabs, and maybe we'll be able to make more sense of it later as we explore this ghoul problem."

Cato looks around for something to mark the map with prior to removing it from the wall.

"Gentle Repose?"  Liseth was paying only half attention to the discussion, worrying so much about undead and Ghoul Fever.  "So it...preserves bodies?  To keep them from rotting?  That isn't...so bad."  Although she could see the value of such a wand to a necromancer.

"It looks safe."  The acolyte said upon finishing her examination.  "I don't detect any undead nearby."  That didn't put her mind to an incredible amount of ease, but there was nothing left to do other than continue their search.

"Go ahead, Pisca."

Safe.  As safe as a door can be.  The gnome gave her human friend a trusting nod and then pushed the door open.

---

---

“The map doesn’t seem to have any regular pattern in the grouping of pins,” Kerr replied to Pisca, “although it seems as if the three-pin groupings become more frequent the closer they approach to Foxglove Manor.”  The young paladin put a finger on the structure’s location on the map.

“Gentle repose,” He said with mild distaste after Cato examined the wand.  “Father Zantus taught us about that.  It can be useful in certain circumstances, but can also be a gateway to necromancy.”  He glanced around the laboratory.  “Although it looks as if this guy went through that gateway with a vengeance some time ago.”

Pisca opened the door to find a relatively-stark, almost ascetic room, about 15 feet deep by 20 feet wide.  The portal opened into the southeastern corner of the chamber.  A simple, well-made bed with a rough sheet, wollen coverlet, and single pillow was pushed up against the northern wall, a study table against the western one.  A sturdy but unassuming chair sat pushed back from the desk, atop which lay a single, leather-bound tome.

The room had a faint, sickly-sweet smell, as if someone had been recently burning incense.  It seemed almost monastic, as if the person who resided there had no interest in earthly comfort at all.  There were no immediately-evident hazards.

“Safe,” Kerr nodded as he poked his head in above Pisca.  He grinned at Liseth.  “Looks like you were right!”

---

---

Kellan pushed in after Pisca, leading the way with the point of his weapon and looking about the room carefully, even under the bed before he straightened up and relaxed a little.

"Don't think he enjoyed error looked back" Kellan agreed with Kerr regarding their host going through the gate with a vengeance. "Still don't know who would want to live like this...alone, just down here stewing on whatever made them so bitter and mean"

"Oh.  What a deadly bedroom of horrors," said the gnome in a deadpan voice.  "And I don't think it's so much bitter and mean, Stomper, as it is consumed by work.  Auggie looks to be a man who needs an avocation.  Maybe meet a nice girl.  Or a nice boy.  Or take drugs.  Maybe pinochle."

Pisca took a nonchalant stroll into the room and bent over once to take a casual peek under the bed.  "Well, let me look the place over to see what I can find," she said.  "Though I don't think there's much else to see."

Perception to search the basement for hidden things: 26 Taking 10.

A nod answered Kerr when he confirmed that the room was safe.  Or at least, free from undead and traps.  It looked like a bedroom.

While Pisca went inside to search for clues or anything which might be important, Liseth focused on just one thing setting in the room.  She stepped inside and cautiously approached the desk, "Do you think that he would have more written in here about the Ghoul Fever?"  It could be anything.

At the desk Liseth peered suspiciously at the leather-bound tome as though it might rear up and bite her at any moment.  After spending a moment to search for a title which might hint at the tome's content, the acolyte cracked it open to see if there was anything important to read.

"Consumed by work," Kerr agreed uncertainly, looking as if he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to spend time in a basement lair dealing with undead horrors.  "I don't know, maybe . . .," he responded to Liseth as she approached the large, leather-bound tome.

A brief inspection of the book revealed that--far from being a collected reference regarding the man's study of ghouls--it was a spellbook, written in the eldritch language of magic.

"Cato!" Kerr exclaimed, looking excitedly at the scholar.  "This is quite a find for you.  Isn't it?"

OOC:  The spellbook contains the spells bleed, detect magic, light, mage hand, prestidigitation, chill touch, mage armor, magic missle, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement, acid arrow, blindness/deafness, command undead, mirror image, displacement, stinking cloud, vampiric touch, cause fear, false life, gentle repose, ghoul touch, halt undead, and identify. 

"Well, that's something at least."  Pisca brushed the ever-present invisible dust from her hands as she came to the end of her nosing about.  "Nothing more to see here.  Might as well be on our way."

"At least we can tell Doctor Erin The Coward Habe that there's nothing down here and that there's no need to fear having his liver eaten by the ravening undead.  Lets hurry back to town.  How confident are you that you'll be able to pick up their trail, Lys?  Once we return with more ponies?  Shouldn't be too dark by then, I'd think.  Might be able to get a good start on Auggie and his minions.  Especially if he thinks we've given up the chase."

AL: 4/9
L1: 4/5
L2: 1/3
Lore Master Used Today

Cato nodded as he took the spell book, slowly flipping through the pages.  It would take him hours of study to fully internalize all the incantations scribed therein, but it represented a great deal of work on the part of the necromancer - and, more than anything else, revealed how surprised the man must have been, and how frantic his flight was.  Cato mumbled a brief assent to Kerr's question, feeling the foulness of necromancy even through the haze of the codes and magic inscriptions the necromancer had used.

"Yes, it is quite a find.  And I'm sure these might be helpful, given the right situation.  But most, almost all of these spells are necromantic in nature, and I've never studied that area of magic too intently."

Cato flipped through the pages more.  "Still, if we're to be facing ghouls and other necromantic creations, some of these might help us.  Here's one spell to Command Undead, replicating what an evil cleric could do.  Or Halt Undead.  As hard as it might be to force these patterns onto my mind, it might help us all in the end."

Cato shook his head and looked up.  "Do you think chasing the necromancer is our best hope?  It looks like Sandpoint's got quite the ghoul problem around those farms, centering on Foxglove manor.  And we're pretty sure the two aren't connected?  What's the bigger threat here?"

Pisca turned at Cato's words.  Her mouth hung open in a look of dismay.  Dismay turned to a pout within which her lip quivered and trembled.

"But ... "  The greater good and the interest of self warred across the battlefield of Pisca's face.  "But, Cato ...  My pony!" she wailed.

Kellan listened to Cato and fell to silence for a few minutes in thought.

"We won't catch them on foot, and we could spend days trying depending on where they're headed." Kellan agreed softly, looking dejected.

"They are our best lead at the moment...but I think we need horses. Trekking around on foot is just going to give them more time, all these things more time to prepare and attack whenever they feel like it".