The body of the leader can be identified as Rogors Craesby.  Rogors was the caretaker of Foxglove Manor.  The iron key bears a heraldic symbol of a curious flower surrounded by thorns. You can surmise it might be the heraldry of the Foxglove family, but that is only a guess (no one has know:nobility). The Misgivings,the Foxglove family estate, is located on the coast a mere three miles to the west of the Hambley farm.


Carefully going from room to room, you clear the rooms upstairs.

The first door opens into a bedroom that has 4 beds in it, 1 of the beds looked unused, but the other 3 look lived in.  They also look died in.  There are dried blood pools on all 3 beds, but no bodies.  From the looks of it this was a boys/mens bedroom.  You think back to the 3 ghouls that attacked you wearing nightclothes.  The closet in this room has typical farmers clothes, in good repair, but old, in keeping with the farmers greed/penny pinching nature.

The attic is cluttered, but (now), empty of undead.  You begin to hear a little girl crying quietly from the far door, a cry of infinite sadness.

As the crying continues, you clear the next bedroom.  This appears to be a room for a couple of adults.  Probably an Aunt and Uncle, which would be consistent with the ghouls encountered so far. This room is also clear of undead.

As you approach the final door with the crying, you begin to hear quiet words, "Mommy."  As you enter the room, the crying stops.  The room looks like the first (except it is a girls room), 4 beds, with 3 looking lived in and 1 extra(the far bed is unused).  But only 2 of the beds have blood pools, the 3rd looks slept in, but there is no blood or body.  With the stench of death in your nostrils, you wait for Glum to detect udead.

[Private to Glum: The far bed has an undead under it.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:32, Fri 28 May 2010.

Glum brandishes his holy symbol moving closer to the beds, but not within grasping range (he hopes).  "THere's something undead under the far bed", he warns. As soon as the creature emerges from under the bed, he thrusts the symbol forward and declaims, "Begone, foul creature".
This message was last edited by the player at 09:00, Fri 28 May 2010.

Talis will carefully approach any spot Glum points out as having undead, or if no undead are present, he carefully searches the room.  The used bed with no blood pool gives him hope, not much hope, but some.

I should point out, some undead have Turn Resistance, which acts like Damage Reduction;
Glum rolls damage
Undead make a Will save for 1/2
subtract Turn Resistance from the damage

Talis starts forward, switching to his polearm (to turn the bed over).  As he reaches forward, a 7 year old little girl scampers out from under it and over into the corner.  In her arms she clutches a raggedy old doll.  She doesn't look like a flesh eating ghoul...

Talis says in a worried tone, "Glum, please tell me the undead is still under the bed?"  But he keeps the polearm between himself and the little girl.  As Glum radiates positive energy the little girl winces and says, "Ow," with a confused and scared look on her face.

[Private to Talis Revain: You didn't hear her move.]
[Private to Glum: For just a moment she faded into translucence when you turned.  She is probably a ghost or ghost-like undead.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:27, Fri 28 May 2010.

"Hold on Glum, I think this might be a spirit like Tanrov was, without a body."

Glum says, "There's your undead" pointing at the girl.  And he makes another effort to turn it.  "Get thee hence!"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:08, Sat 29 May 2010.

This ghost entity intrigues Tanrov and he'll try to converse with it.

"Where are you from?  Did you die like I did, falling down some stairs?  Why are you haunting this place?"

"Burn her to ashes and then burn the ashes," Zer-wedula quietly suggests.  "Or drip holy water on her until she says what Foxglove is up to."

As Zer and Tanrov start to offer advice, Glum tries to turn it again.  As positive energy flows out, the ghostly girl turns translucent for a moment and cries out in pain and confusion.  Her head takes on an unnatural angle (broken neck), bruises appear on her face, 1 arm sticks out at the wrong angle (broken) and her eyes appear dead.  The sight is supernaturally horrifying;
Tanrov, Glum, Zer-wedula and Talis make For save, dc 13
(Cat was out of sight in the hallway)
[Private to Talis Revain; Tanrov: You get +4 for not having aggressive thoughts.]
failure = You prematurely age
   3 str, 2 dex and 1 con permanent Dam
   effects like grey/white hair (a streak or the whole head), etc...

(Permanent means lesser restoration won't work.  It requires multiple Restorations (a 4th level cleric spell) to repair)

She "snaps back" into her "healthy" appearance, screams "Monsters!" and dives under the bed.

A couple of points about ghosts;
1- They don't have to be of evil character (many are, but some aren't, Tanrov wasn't.)  Their very existence is "wrong"(not evil) and it would be a good act to help them to the afterlife.
2- they are almost impossible to "kill".  You can "destroy" them, but they will just reform a few days later.  To finish them off so they don't come back you need to discover what is connecting them to their ghostly existence.  An unfinished task or a magical death are just a couple of connections, each ghost is unique. 

Talis focuses on Glum, "Glum, she is a victim and you are just making it worse.  Just get out of here.  Maybe she would talk with Cat?"  Shaking is head, "Oh %^&#"

15 fort save aging
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:02, Sun 30 May 2010.

21:11, Today: Zer-wedula rolled 17 using 1d20+6. Fort save

"Interesting," Zer-wedula muses. "Hey, under there!  I believe Lord Foxglove is behind this, would you help us stop him?"

10:41, Today: Glum rolled 9 using 1d20+7. fort save.

Glum stomped off in a fury that the gods had chosen this moment to desert him. Then he sat down on the stairs.

Glum sulked a bit as well.

Ouch; so Glum can have a quest, finding a cleric who can cast 4th level spells.  Until then, -3 str, -2 dex, -1 con.  Magnimar is your is your best bet.

You might want to be pick a scar or appearance change to reflect this, grey hair, etc...
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:04, Sun 30 May 2010.

Talis will leave the room "Guys, back off and sit down.  Don't loom so large.  Let Cat talk to her," and follows Glum.  "Glum, you ok.", with a sharp intake of breath, "You don't look so good buddy."

Cat listens to the commotion in the room with a frown. She catches a peek now and then. This can't be good. It's only a child. Glum exits, looking old. Cat enters with Garious following, going to the bed. Sitting on the floor, she asks, "So child, would you tell me what happened here?"

All Zer-wedula gets is is frightened crying of a little girl.
rolled a diplomacy check, failed

   With Glum/Talis gone and Tanrov/Zer-wedula backing off, Cat comes in and tries to talk to the little girl.  Cat is small, female and has a big lovable dog, and what farmgirl doesn't love dogs.  Garious isn't sure what to make of these events or this voice, and is still on edge from the recent battle with the ghouls.  Alas, Cat is not the most diplomatic person in the world (0ranks, +0chr), and even with all those advantages, she has trouble drawing the child into a conversation.

  Eventually, she gets the following story.  Mina was in the closet looking for her doll (her sisters had hid it) when she heard a noise.  She came out and found monsters killing her sisters.  The only thing she could think of was getting to mommy and daddy, they would protect her.  But there was another monster downstairs, killing daddy.  So she ran outside and found all the dogs dead.  She ran, chased by a monster, found herself on the edge of a cliff and fell...a big pain...then nothing until she awoke in her bedroom with 1 of her sisters (now a monster).  The monster in the hall was a noble who lived nearby and had visited daddy a few times.  Lord Foxy, according to her older sisters.  Until a few months ago her oldest sister had always dreamed (fantasized) about marrying him, but then he married someone else.  From her dead form, you can surmise she broke her neck and died instantly.
   Since that time, she has been watching her family and the new man (Rogers),who she remembers also visiting the farm to buy food and such.  She has been afraid to go downstairs, and feels odd.  She doesn't seem to get hungry or sleepy.  She watched as her family would go out at night and bring neighbors back to the barn.  She watched as a lone man from the city (Sandpoint) rode up and got ambushed, and taken to the barn.  She watched as a group of farmers came with pitchforks, but where chased down by her family and taken to the barn.  Many of these were dressed as a scarecrows and taken to the field.  She can't give you specific times, time seems to have lost all meaning (and she was only 7 to begin with).
  By the time this conversation is finished the light is begininging to dim outside.  It is early evening and you have no more than a couple of hours of daylight left when the girl falls silent and stops responding.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:54, Tue 01 June 2010.

Cat returns to the group, "All right, it's starting to get dark. We might as well hole up in this house. And we can look for the girl's doll and see what we can find of bodies inside."

Tanrov likes looking for the doll and holding up here in the house.  Tanrov will take first watch if we do stay.

Talis looks worried, "I really don't want those ghouls that are left in the field moving on to the next farm."  He indicates the death inside, "This ends here.  And Zer's new friend seems to be 1 step ahead of us.  Do you want to give him 1 more night?  And if he thinks like Zer, he could just try to burn the house down around us."  He thinks for a moment, "We could look for the doll later," if we survive (he thinks).
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:07, Wed 02 June 2010.

"Look for the doll as fast as we can then get out of this death trap and back to the road," Zer-wedula opines.

"I need some rest if possible", suggests Glum, "My spell priorities just changed all of a sudden."

   When it became obvious Cat was going to be able to talk with Mina, but that it would take some time, Talis (backed up with Zer-wedula and Glum) searched all the other rooms for other hidden ghouls (and treasure).
   The upstairs rooms are mostly devoid of value and hiding places.  The reputed greed of the farmer shows in the poorness of his families possessions.  Downstairs, is much the same, older furniture and such.  The master bedroom shows signs of a struggle and 1 death (the wife).  With the assistance of both Zer and Glum, Talis finds a loose floorboard in the master bedroom.  Hidden beneath is a wooden chest.  After looking for traps, he carefully lifts it out and examines it.  The chest and lock are very well made and Talis is sure he can open it, it's just going to take awhile (dc25 open locks).
   After taking 20, Talis opens the chest to find 34 bags, each with 100 sp in them.  Here is the farmers wealth, hidden away but with such care.  You can visualize the miser carefully counting each bag, while his family makes due with hand-me-down and second-hand clothes.  Belatedly, Talis searches the farmer's body and finds a key.
   Other than a lonely little ghost, the house is empty of threats.  Surprisingly, the last dog is still outside as you move to the barn.  The barn is the larger of the two structures, an L-shaped building constructed around a unique feature—a twelvefoot- high stone head, canted slightly to the left, depicting a helmed warrior, his face a stern model of placid determination. Moss has grown over much of the weathered figure, making his features hard to discern. This head, known locally as the “Stone Warrior,” is a remnant of an ancient Thassilonian statue that once stood in the area. Too large to move and too unique to destroy, Hambley decided to use it as a support for his barn and incorporated it into the building’s structure. The ghouls themselves have made this barn their lair, and the place has become a macabre tangle of bones and partially eaten carcasses (in most cases cows, dogs or horses, but also people).  The barn is also clear of threats and a quick count of ghoul nests shows you have probably destroyed the Hambley family, which just leaves those neighbors they have turned into ghouls.

Here are some maps;

http://s972.photobucket.com/al...ds1.jpg&newest=1

http://s972.photobucket.com/al...rsfarmlandsPCmap.jpg

You came in from the north; do you want to clear the east or west fields first?
What preparations are you going to do?
I will assume the previous marching order unless you want to change it.

"Let's go east, since that is the direction the rest of the farms are located.  Say Cat, can I get a couple of those stones?"

"I'm with Talis on this one if we're not going to stay.  We need to catch up with the run away ghouls and destroy them before they can affect anyone else beside this family and their neighbors."  Tanrov will states as we head on out.

The group heads southeast down a path, the field is darker with shadows growing longer as the sun gets lower in the sky.  There should be enough sunlight to check out the field.  As you approach an intersection that heads northeast, you can see a scarecrow 60' ahead to the southeast at an intersection that goes west.  Talis, carefully approaches and the scarecrow starts struggling against it's bonds trying to break free.

Talis holds up his hand in "wait" signal and carefully pokes the scarecrow (1 damage), which screams in pain and collapses.  Talis looks at his polearm and sees blood.