Exploring the Courthouse (Erastus [VII] 2nd, 4707 AR)

A hideous undead known as a ghoul-stirge perched outside the bell tower. The putrid thing resembled a bird-like humanoid with broken rotting wings and an insectile head. It prowled outside and observed whoever was there. The ghoul-stirge attempted to bite the heroes. It fought until destroyed.

Ebin Blithoddle, the little gnome, went missing shortly after Halgrak (he fled the ghoul-stirge combat in fear), and when the heroes found him he was on the floor, sat rocking feverishly to and fro, facing away from them. His hands were busy at work in front of him, out of sight. The sound of a knife slicing through fresh, wet meat gave way to a wet cough when he convulsed slightly. The gnome turned, blood pouring from his grinning mouth. He held in his right hand his own severed tongue, waving it about like a slapstick.

Driven mad, Ebin cut out his tongue and gurgled to death on his own blood, but not before he staggered toward the heroes and slapped them with his tongue a few times, gurgle-gibbering and laughing thickly through the torrent of gore pouring down his throat.

After Ebin perished, Patrissa became taciturn. The heroes nevertheless continued their exploration.

Attic Apartment

This room was in shambles. A simple double bed was hacked to splinters, the mattress eviscerated of its stuffing and caked in dried blood. No attempt to clean up the slaughter that transpired here was made in the hurried trial of Mord and the flight of all staff from the courthouse. An eerie menagerie of blood-darkened wooden toys in the shapes of carriages, horses, knights, and wizards were strewn near a dark stain on the floor beneath a broken table.

When the heroes entered the room, a shadow in the corner stirred ever so slightly, and then a dark woman, her hourglass figure wrapped only in scant red veils, stepped forward into the room. Her jet-black eyes stirred the soul with desire. As she moved closer, her head slowly split at the seam of the axe blow that killed her, a slanted chop that opened her skull crosswise from temple to jawbone. A hellish collection of wriggling brain and gurgling fluids spewed forth as she danced her Varisian twirl. Her hands sported gory stumps in lieu of graceful fingers.

Malene sapped the strength of Sir Rekkart Cole, turning him into a shadow of himself that turned against the heroes. Malene wailed and tried to retreat before the heroes put her to rest.

When the heroes attacked Malene, the toys attacked Aranthor and Zemurin. Two of the toys fought until destroyed, while the third still stands.

Additionally, Ebin’s body returned. He traipsed about in blood-spattered motley, his coxcomb filthy with writhing worms. He madly attacked. Ebin charged the nearest hero, chortling as he did so. He fought until destroyed.

Vision: As soon as Aranthor entered the room, he experienced an extended vision. He was dazed for the beginning of combat.

The terrifying laugh rang in his ears as the cloaked figure raised a fist to strike the woman, still seated in her rocking chair. Before he could strike, however, she stood defiantly and lashed out with her knitting needle. The cloaked figure raised a gloved hand to its cheek. The glove came away bloody, and then the figure reached for a wood axe hung above the hearth as the woman recoiled in horror.