Five unusual individuals are summoned to the great hall of the Baron Henrik Rennet’s manor. Travelers, vagabonds, explorers, mercenaries… these Strange Folks have found themselves in the vicinity of Rennet’s Cove, and in the acquaintance of the Baron at a time when he is most in need of the specialized services they can provide. He asks them to investigate a concerning situation at the home of the Count Lebrim Moldavia. Count Moldavia had been elevated to his title upon the death of his father several months ago. He held a masquerade to commemorate this occasion, inviting all the local nobles and members of the wealthy class. The Baroness Eleanor Rennet had attended the Masque, representing the Barony while Henrik himself remained home to handle affairs. This was two days ago, and she has not yet returned. This is unlike her, and he is sick with worry over her safety. His guards are occupied with what he characterizes as a “border skirmish” so he asks this group of skilled individuals to go investigate, and bring his wife home.
They set out on an uneventful eight-hour ride that has them arrive at the overgrown, poorly-maintained manor house near midnight. There is a sense of foreboding in the late summer air. They find panicked, sick, dying, and dead horses in the stable, along with the finely appointed carriages of the noble masque attendees. Gré determines that there is disease present and recommends that they keep their own horses away from those afflicted in the stable. They find a terrified little girl, Jennie Alsby, the six-year old daughter of a kitchen worker, cowering under her bed in one of the staff apartments. Lachlan speaks gently to the girl, and coaxes her out. Her mother works for the Count, who is a mean man. The Count’s father had always been kind, even though he had a scary glass eye. She expresses her fear of “the Willowman” who will come for her if she disobeys her mother. And she tells of screaming from the big house. In her fear, she is reluctant to accompany the group, until Varis steps in and presents himself as the terrifying Willowman himself. He commands her to come with him. Almost frozen with fear, she acquiesces.
Gré, concerned with the well-being of their own horses, in light of what must be some form of disease among the stabled animals, stays with them outside the manor. The rest of the party proceeds into the entryway, where they encounter a man laying in a sticky pool of blood and wine. He is very drunk, nearly incoherent, and has lost a lot of blood from a large, circular wound on the back of his neck. He raves about “beasts in the cellar” – giant worms, in fact – and laughs and calls for more wine. He identifies himself as Montressor Wend, and he is clearly a noble and a guest of the Count. He is dressed in shredded black robes and wears the long-billed mask of a raven.
The party leaves him to his stupor, and moves into the main hall. Here they find a scene of carnage. The floor is strewn with broken furniture, musical instruments, and dead bodies clad in masquerade finery. Rats scamper across tables festooned with spilled, spoiled food. Shortly, the bloodied, broken bodies stagger to their feet, twist their faces into grotesque expressions of rage, and lurch forward to attack. A melee ensues, spilling out into the entry hall. Jennie, in the frightful chaos, flees the house and disappears into the night. It is a brutal battle, but the mercenary crew prevails, sending the bodies back, once again to their bloody deaths.
Following this terrifying incident, some of party members find themselves troubled by the sound of a heart beating in their heads. This is disturbingly similar to a phenomenon described by both Jennie and Montressor Wend.
The tired, injured party members take some time to rest in the main hall, and are joined by a newcomer, a dragonborn paladin from the monastery of Tyr. He was sent by his order to inquire into the well being of the Count. The late elder Count Moldavia and his son Lebrim, had been loyal patrons of the monastery, and well known to Abbot Ferdival, his brother monks, and Quintilian for many years. They tell him what has happened, and they move further into the manor house to do what they came to do.
Splitting up, one group, including Vongut the Deep Gnome, and Varis the Changeling encounters more dead bodies in the kitchen. These include the deceased mother of Jennie Alsby. Some of them twitch a bit, but none rise to attack. They also explore the library, where they find shelf after shelf of poetry. Investigating a grandfather clock, Varis discovers a fancy dagger attached to its pendulum. He takes the dagger. The pair also relieves the dead bodies of their valuables.
The other group encounters the Count himself in his bedroom. He is stark raving mad. He slaps at his ears and shakes his head. He delivers a rambling monologue that ranges from hysterical to angry to fearful to manic. He talks of unexpected party guests and of his late father whom he insists would watch him through the walls and even in death continues to watch him. There is a five-foot wide hole torn in the floor of room. Lebrim flees down the hole with Lachlan the Genasi, Quintilian, Gré the Elf Druid, and Litha the Half-Elf Ranger in pursuit.
They run through a rough tunnel and find themselves in the wine cellar. The room is strewn with smashed bottles, broken casks, and dead bodies. More concerning however are a pair of huge red worms with toothed maws the diameter of dinner plates. Lebrim hides behind a barrel and babbles while the insatiable monsters rise from their torpor and lunge forward to attack. The party engages the foe, and the battle takes a turn for the worst as dead bodies rise up and shamble forward into the fray. Lachlan is consumed in one gulp by a giant worm, but is freed when Gré delivers a crushing blow to the fiend with her quarterstaff. The absent team members, hearing the commotion, run to join the melee, and their presence, though tardy, turns the tide. The party dispatches their assailants and survives the attack.
Lebrim continues to rave as they lay hands on him and tie him up. They find him casting an uneasy eye toward the wall as he rages about his father and his uncanny spying, even in death. In doing so, he admits to having killed the old man. They find an area of wall which appears to have been recently bricked-up. The mortar has been inexpertly lain and they easily pry the bricks away, revealing the desiccated corpse of the late Count. An eerie, pale blue glass eye peers from his withered face. They pull the body from the wall and pack it into an empty wine barrel, but not before Vongut, a curious soul, takes the mysterious eye. Fearing it to be the source of the malady, which now afflicts him more acutely than it does his colleagues, he hurls it at the stone floor. The orb hits the floor with a “crack!” but upon inspection, it is revealed that the eye is merely chipped, but otherwise intact. All the more curious, the gnome pockets the prosthetic peeper.
The group searches among the ruins of this room and they come upon a body that is most certainly that of the Baroness. Having found the truth they were sent to discover, they prepare to journey back to Rennet’s Cove with sad news for the Baron. But, with the true instincts of mercenaries, they first help themselves to the jewelry worn by the deceased revelers, gaining quite a variety of gems. They also find a scroll on the person of the Baroness herself. Vongut is able to read the arcane runes and identifies it as a spell of “Protection from Fiends.” He takes possession of this scroll.
An argument ensues between Quintilian and Lachlan as to the fate of Count Lebrim Moldavia. Lachlan insists that they should summarily execute the murderous madman who seems to be behind this massacre. Quintilian a devout follower of Tyr, the god of Justice, insists that this man was not always evil. Something sinister must be at work here, and either way, he must be brought to justice. The implications of hired mercenaries killing the Count, regardless of circumstances, would put them on the wrong side of the law. Lachlan insists that, given the battle for their lives they had just been through, and the evidence of the foul play that took the life of the elder Count, certainly nobody could question that Lebrim may have been involved in the melee and slain as a consequence. Ultimately, the matter is settled and the group agrees to bring the captured Count back to the Barony.
After a bit of fruitless exploration into the worms’ collapsed tunnel, the group delivers just-in-case sword thrusts through the skulls of the fallen, and loots whatever else they can take from the bodies. They mount up their spooked and ailing horses, load Count Lebrim Moldavia, bound hand and foot, into a carriage, and head back in the early morning hours for the day long trip to Rennet’s Cove.