- Lyra searches the nearby buildings, attempting to find more arcane sigils around the doorframes and scratch marks - She does not find any more - Fergal casts Dispel Magic on the well - appearing to drain the magic from the area. The arcane symbols disappear. - A dead silence is suddenly interrupted by a beastly wailing that echoes throughout the town - Qwimby notices a piece of paper on the ground, but immediately forgets about it - The paper seems to disappear as he reaches for it - An old man approaches us unsteadily on a walking stick - He points at something on the ground, but Graxen cannot see what he's indicating. He follows this by pointing at Qwimby's feet - The old man then approaches Qwimby directly, picking up the paper and handing it to him. - Qwimby can make out "Dear Blaidd" - Graxen can make out the rest - Things are well in town. The mayor is planning a festival in the coming days to celebrate the visiting duke. I am so wishing you could be here. - I saw it eat him right in front of me. I hope this letter finds you in good company, I know you have been travelling all over. Hope to hear from you soon, mother dearest - The paper smells like iron - Graxen vaguely remembers a vision of bloodied walls and running - feeling like he just woke up - Ellette experiences the same feeling, but also starts screaming - Qwimby finds writing on his arm - "don't trust the..." - Steve feels as if she has woken up and finds herself wielding her hammer - Lyra notices a puddle on the ground, with a swiftly moving reflection passing through it. - Qwimby and Graxen both appear to have grown facial hair - Steve examines the walls, which appear to be wet from rain - We proceed towards the unfinished festival - The old man is standing nearby - We show him Qwimby's arm, he points towards the mayor's house - Graxen attempts to show him the letter, but forgets the section about something eating someone - We return to the mayor's house. On the way, we notice a young man wandering around the town - appearing to be lost. He is wearing a leather apron - Steve approaches, the man mistakes her for a child. - He identifies himself as a an apothecarist/herbalist - He is unable to remember where his store is - He begins to wander passed the well, we decide to follow him - He arrives at his store, it is surrounded by dead plants - The doorframe has the same scratches we have been seeing all around town - The man identifies himself as Cedar Rick - He has a child, but she is sickly and bedbound - Using Invisibility, Lyra follows him up the stairs as he goes to check on the child - There does appear to be something in the child's bed as he approaches it - The child is dead, no more then a rotting corpse in the bed - very badly decomposing - He says the preparations are underway for the duke's arrival - which is to be in a few days - He visits every year - The duke is related to the mayor - He speaks of a travelling man - a bard - This man bought a drink from Cedar - The last he saw, the bard went to the tavern. He was here to play at the festival - Steve notices the man keeps patting himself in the same spot, as if he is checking for something constantly - Lyra notices that the till is empty, with no money in it. There is ink spilled on the counter, and there appears to have been an attempt to write on the counter itself with a nearby quill. There are eight pages of paper spread on the ground with scrawling on them - Steve indicates to Graxen to "accidentally" spill a potion given to him by Cedar onto the man's shirt. Graxen does so - causing Cedar to leave to change it. Lyra follows him with Invisibility - As the man takes off his top, Lyra sees a scar upon his chest - an open wound filled with pulsating maggots. It seems as if he is missing a chunk of his torso. He also has a journal tucked into his waistband. - Lyra asks Qwimby if he can pickpocket the journal - Steve begins to scream loudly - acting as if she is a child having a tantrum - Running down the stairs in response, Cedar trips and falls - tumbling down the steps and snapping his neck - Qwimby swipes the journal from his corpse. Pustulating maggots begin to worm their way out of his body and slither across the floor - He attempts to read it but it seems to be blank. This gives him the sense of deja vu - Using a jar, Steve attempts to scoop up one of the maggots - this causes her to smash the jar, lacerating her hands - We all notice that maggots are now crawling up Steve's legs. Steve herself cannot see them - Qwimby sprays her with water in an attempt to wash them off, he misses - Graxen peels one off of Steve, crushing it in his metal hand. Its innards are purple - Ellette casts Arcane Eye - perceiving something that the rest of the group cannot see. She appears to be horrified - Both Qwimby and Lyra experience a moment of clarity, hearing a strange music. There are corpses of people and animals flayed across the street - with blood staining all the walls. As they listen, the music grows more and more faint - Lyra reads Cedar's journal. "Help" is scribbled over and over. She also finds crudely drawn pictures of worms with faces - Steve wanders away - out of the shop. She appears to be walking towards the well - All of us, apart from Steve, return to our senses. Lyra recalls that we have been here for a number of days - Ellette has experienced visions of nightmares in that time. - Qwimby and Graxen have both forgotten who Steve is, but Ellette finds her hammer by the well - Ellette attempts to remind Qwimby and Graxen about Steve. They both remember the hammer but not Steve - There are drag marks around the hole from something very large pulling itself inside - Qwimby notices there is more writing on his other arm. The completed sentence is "Don't trust the song or your ears" - Graxen and Qwimby - who believe themselves to be Team Dumbfuck - lean close as the latter pulls the trigger on one of his guns. This allows them to witness the carnage around the town - and gain vague recollections of Steve - Both Lyra and Ellette spot a tentacle with a person's face slither into the hole - the "well" is in fact a gapping chasm in the ground - Ellette goes to the tavern - finding a dead Elven bard on the ground. She rifles through the storeroom, looking for bees' wax - Together with Lyra, she finds a small bubbling pot of candle wax. On the ground next to it is a corpse with wax poured all over its head - Ellette pours some of the melted wax into Graxen's ears - attempting to cause a deafening seal - She proceeds to do the same to Qwimby, then herself. - Steve wakes up at this point, in agonising pain. She finds herself in a dark cavern with a writhing mass of tentacles nearby - all appear to have people's faces - One of her legs has been bitten off from the knee down - Lyra hears Steve scream - The group runs to the hole - with Ellette casting Feather Fall as we jump inside - We land in a subterranean tunnel - We come to a fork in the road, taking the right path. This leads us to a cavernous opening filled with large gnome-sized eggs. - One of the walls seems to be weak - Lyra can hear crackling coming from the eggs - Retracing our steps, we try the left tunnel. This brings us to another fork in the road. The walls grow more and more slimey as we progress - and there are a number of egg sacs in the cavern where the new fork splits. - Taking the right turn, we continue onwards - finding another cavernous opening. - This contains even more egg sacs, surrounding a large chest. - Graxen climbs a nearby wall, standing on the ceiling and lowering a rope for Qwimby to get to the chest - This ends terribly - with Graxen inadvertently smashing two of the eggs. This does clear the way to the chest - with Qwimby using his Warrior's Pass Key to open it - This action triggers an explosion that sends Qwimby hurtling backwards and smashes all of the eggs in the cavern - The chest is filled with gold and gems - Ellette attempts an arcana check but cannot sense any magic from the chest - There are two rubies, three emeralds, and two diamonds. All of the precious stones are worth roughly 500 GP each - while the chest holds about 6000 GP - Steve summons her hammer, which Ellette is currently holding. She maintains her grip, using it to guide us towards Steve. This brings us to the massive open area with Steve and the pulsating mass of tentacles and faces. - Ellette releases the hammer - which rockets towards the creature, a False Hydra - The hammer clatters to the ground, having had no effect on the False Hydra. It spits Steve to the ground, before turning to face the rest of the party - Lyra teleports to Steve, using a healing potion to stabilise her - before feeding her a potion of greater healing - Graxen, Qwimby and Ellette attack the creature - but it begins to focus its attacks on Steve and Lyra. Lyra is killed in the exchange - The creature is killed, but instantly regenerates its entire health - Ellette casts Flight on Steve, who then finishes the creature with a crushing swing of her hammer - After the battle, we salvage Lyra's amulet and pact weapon. Steve smashes almost 100 eggs on our way back up, but the last egg she attempts to destroy has already hatched - Back up in Greyhollow, there are a handful of people crying and screaming as the memories of the horrors they have endured return. Nobody recognises us - The mayor discards his hat, before seeming to abandon the town. As he leaves, we see him rubbing his wedding ring