The Secrets of Ossington

For the heroes of Helmsport, life was going very well. With the defeat of the slave ring known as the Scarlet Sails and the rescue of the duke’s younger son to their credit, the young lads from Great Rock—Beran Findalson, Duran Fortnite, Jarvis Osburn, and Seth McCullin—along with their new comrades Alarion Northsea, Thomas Johnson, and Adarrial Smythe, Man of Renown, were the talk of the town.

But even with this success came uncertainty for the characters. Some of the heroes had begun noticing odd changes in themselves or their friends. Jarvis, always a strapping young man, continued to put on size and weight even approaching his 20th year. Duran was beginning to display a piercing, almost unnerving stare when faced with those who disagreed with him. Adarrial seemed possessed of powers of deception beyond mere skill alone. And surely simple alchemical experiments couldn’t fully explain the pervasive air of brimstone that followed Seth wherever he went.

Suspicions increased when some of the heroes shared their observations with one another, leading to a visit to local sage and loremaster Granius. Despite thorough magical analysis, Granius couldn’t determine the cause or causes of these strange changes, but felt certain that they were somehow connected, perhaps from a curse that the characters triggered while on an adventure.

[Warning: The remainder of this column contains SPOILERS for the D&D adventure Standing Stone. Proceed at your own risk!]

But that mystery would have to go unsolved for now, for the characters soon found themselves drawn into another far more dire situation. Following up on rumors of strange happenings in the remote village of Ossington, the heroes Adarrial, Jarvis, Duran, and Alarion, along with the paladin’s cohort Verdigris and his trusty squire Cicero, traveled through the wilderness to that tiny town. Before they could arrive, they ran afoul of a ghostly horseman with a murderous disposition. Retreating to the relative safety of the town, the characters learned of a band of grugachi, or wild elves, that was terrorizing the villagers, brutally slaying those that ventured into the forest.

Knowing full well of the strained relations between the humans of the Western Province and the elves of the shrinking kingdom of Brithonen, the characters knew that they had stumbled upon a situation that was no less than a powderkeg ready to explode. After speaking with a local sage and wizard named Dyson and enlisting the help of a wandering minstrel known as the Cuckoo, the characters went in search of a nearby tomb of an ancient warlord, hoping that it might hold some secrets that could shed light on the situation with the elves, or on the ghostly horseman marauding in the area.

Along the way, they found many signs of strife between the grugachi and the townsfolk, though some signs suggested the battle to be not quite as one-sided as they had originally believed. The tomb proved instead to be a deathtrap, filled with crushing walls, collapsing ceilings, and bloodthirsty wights. Many times the characters became separated, reuniting each time after facing various dangers. Only a timely and diplomatic entreaty by Adarrial Smythe with the earth elemental that controlled the tomb’s traps allowed the characters to reach its center in peace. There, they encountered the warlord Saithnar himself, cursed with eternal unlife. After besting him in formal combat, the characters probed for knowledge of the area and recent events. Saithnar confirmed that he knew nothing of elves or a ghostly horseman, but confirmed that the characters were not the first to visit his tomb in recent days.

Confused by these facts, the characters decided to return to Ossington and share their findings with Dyson. Together, the sage and the heroes concocted a plan to lure the elven attackers into a trap, allowing the characters to defeat the marauding grugachi. But while the heroes of Helmsport lay in wait on one side of the village, the elven forces, bolstered by an angry treant, attacked from the other side.

By the time the characters arrived, the battle was joined, with Dyson, his cohort Tully, local cleric Henwen, and the Cuckoo bravely defending the frightened, yowling townsfolk from the attackers. The paladin Alarion led the charge, as he and his comrades turned the tide and defeated the grugachi forces and captured their leader.

They wasted no time in questioning the elven leader about the elves’ plans for destroying the town. But the elf threw their words back in their faces, claiming that the humans were to blame for the conflict, that it was their cowardly assault upon the nearby grugachi village that sparked the struggle. Dyson cautioned the characters to ignore the elf’s lies, then left in anger as they refused to silence the elf.

Seconds later, the cottage exploded in flame, killing the wounded prisoner and setting the room ablaze. As the confused heroes spilled out of the building, they were confronted by a mob of angry townsfolk wielding crude weapon and calling for blood. Atop Dyson’s tower, the Cuckoo idly strummed his lute, while the sage himself—flanked by Henwen and Tully—rallied the townsfolk against the characters. Belatedly, the heroes realized that their would-be “allies” had turned against them, and that they faced a second battle this day.

The heroes focused their efforts against the ringleaders of the treachery.. Jarvis faced off against the agile Tully, while Alarion and Duran focused their efforts on Dyson and Henwen. Adarrial attempted to calm the townsfolk. The dragon Verdigris sought to subdue the Cuckoo, only to witness the bard’s transformation from gawky human to horrific vulture demon. Claiming that it had “seen enough of these events,” the demon left the scene, thanking Dyson for his efforts on behalf of “the Cathezar.”

Though tired from their first battle, the heroes again prevailed, defeating Tully and forcing Dyson and Henwen to retreat in haste. Despite this success, the characters couldn’t shake the realization that they had misjudged the situation from the start. On a hunch, they sought out the ghostly horseman and learned that, rather than being some horrible villain, he was merely the restless spirit of a paladin betrayed and murdered by Dyson and his comrades. The heroes laid the paladin’s spirit to rest and returned for the last time to the village, only to find empty buildings. The townsfolk had mysteriously disappeared, leaving no suggestion of their whereabouts.

Puzzled and frustrated by this tainted victory, the heroes returned home to Helmsport with more questions than answers. What was Dyson up to in Ossington? Why engineer the strife between humans and elves? What connection did the demonic forces of the Abyss have in all this? And who or what was the Cathezar, on whose behalf Dyson had supposedly been acting?

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