Case 01: Pale Moon Rising

Session 1 (10/26/14): On a dire, stormy night, three Skeleton Farm initiates converge upon the town of Old Sehir, where a Constable Crowl awaits them with a mission. Several of his soldiers have gone missing while they themselves were sent to investigate the case of a number of house servants that never returned to their homes after their duties. The constable also found something disturbing on the road, a wriggling, zombified torso with no other limbs attached. The PCs and Plum Rum make their way out to Halfmoon House, where they begin to search, finding a carriage house and then a dining area, where they are engaged in battle by a half dozen crawling, amputated hands! Unfortunately, too quickly did the would-be heroes meet their demise, after a valorous act of self sacrifice by the halfling Tem Garridan...

Characters: Plum Rum (RIP), Rasp (RIP), Tem Garridan (RIP)

Session 2 (11/2/14): Malfin, the hired 'squire' to Tem Garridan, becomes apprehensive once his patron does not return from the Halfmoon manor, and so he confronts the Constable, who gets in touch with the Skeleton Farm elsewhere. Within a week, another agent named Brando has arrived, and Crowl also manages to recruit a cleric from the Reveler's Rest, a half-elf named Arnhelm who is of a good nature and desires to lend the assistance of Cayden Cailean to the beleaguered duo. They march off to Halfmoon House with hopes to learn the fates of all the missing, successfully exploring much of the first floor, where they discover that the former occupants of the manor had indeed been up to no good. They manage to exact revenge upon the crawling hands, and take down an eerie wax likeness of the lady of the house, but while they have found the remains of the servants and at least one of Crowl's soldiers, they have located no trace of their fallen companions. After the battle with the wax thing, they are seriously depleted and so spend the night to rest there and get unconscious Brando back on his feet.

Characters: Arnhelm, Brando, Malfin
XP Awarded: 600 each (combat), 400 each (session bonus) = 1000 each.

Session 3 (11/9/14):  After finishing their investigation of the first floor, and unable to explore the second story which had been burned down long before their predecessors ever set foot in the place, the trio moves into the cellar level, which seems to have been built long before the manor proper. They find sarcophagi with several local lords buried in them (and not long ago), and also two laboratory areas, one for the manufacture of constructs, the province of Lady Cress, and the other belonging to her beloved, Regas Halfmoon...necromancer of some loathsome ability. Through some of Cress's notes, they discover that the pair has moved on recently from the house, becoming wary of two creatures they summoned from the 'Tear', which they have been breeding and sending off with a hunchback named Udmer Thull. They have left the Manor ultimately to meet up with other members of what is called 'The Grand Junction', which the hunchback might also represent. Thull was supposed to burn down the manor, but due to the inclement downpours he was unable to complete this, but apparently he (or someone) keeps the lights lit in the home.

Our heroes eventually run into the foul beasts Lady Cress had referred to as 'Mother and Father' jokingly, though Regas' real parents are in some of the crypts in the basement. They defeat one of them, the female flees back through the 'Tear' in the basement level, a glowing pupil of nothingness which reaches to some realm beyond. They also discover a hidden shrine to Urgathoa, the Pallid Princess. They then barricade the door to that room with the stone sarcophagi covers, loot a little bit of jewelry from one of the old nobles, and make their way hurriedly back to Old Sehir. By the time they have spent a few hours back, Brando and Arnhelm notice their hair falling out in clumps, a result of the lethal kiss they received from the creatures from the 'Tear'. They offer donations at the Reveler's Rest to have this disease removed, and then inquire with Crowl about the hunchback, while Brando gets in touch with the Skeleton Farm higher ups to figure out what to do next. Arnhelm and Malfin seem willing to join the crew, and their recent brushes within the Halfmoon House might qualify them...

Characters: Arnhelm, Brando, Malfin
XP Awarded: 400 each (combat), 400 each (session bonus), 300 each (case bonus) = 2100 each.
Levels: Arnhelm (+1 in wizard), Brando (+1 in fighter), Malfin (+1 in ranger).

NPCs

Constable Crowl (human male): Orange-headed man who commands the small constabulary based in the town of Old Sehir, Taldor. He is the first in the campaign to hire on the Skeleton Farm to investigate some disappearance at a local manor.