Servants’ Hall
RoomDCC 103 · p.14
Open source p.14Area 2-5 – Servants’ Hall
A large open area is illuminated by natural light from several windows. A group of servants clustered around various work tables looks up fearfully, as if expecting something terrible. Some of them hold makeshift weapons.
The PCs will recognize the surviving villagers from Pike. Most of them are terrified. They’re sheltering in this place to escape the crawling abominations in the rooms below, but a few are made of sterner stuff and willing to join the party.
If the judge wishes, the players may add survivors to their party (up to 6 total).
The PCs may learn the following:
• Two days ago, during a storm, a fire broke out in the west wing. The fire spread quickly before the heavy rains quenched it sparing the servants’ wing. One person be-
lieves it likely spread from a lightning-struck tree. Another person suggests that one of their number may have started the fire in a fit of desperation, as ghosts and demons were beginning to haunt the west wing.
• Master Morto Blango went down to the cellar a week ago with two servants but they did not return.
• When the Butler sought the Master, he returned alone but was acting in peculiar fashion. He said he was weary and then retired to his room without further explanation. No one has seen him since, and it is likely he perished in the recent blaze.
• A small group investigated the cellar and returned in a panic, telling tales of flashing lights and figures of black in the far reaches of the cellar. They closed and barricaded the doors there before retreating, and no one has been down since.
The maid has a single bronze amulet, granting safe passage through the gardens (as the amulet in area 1-1).
Area 2-5(a–j)—Servants’ Rooms: This is a [or another] servant’s room, it’s fitted with a small bed topped with a straw mattress. A basin and a chamber pot are arranged on a stand in the corner. A wooden chest stands at the foot of the bed.
These servants’ rooms are small and uniform in layout and furnishings, with minor differences. A search of each room will find the item indicated below.
• 2-5a: A diary in the chest. The diary details the disappearance of several villagers and of master Morto Blango. Writer talks in last entry (two days past) of trying to find a way out.
• 2-5b: A leather satchel containing coded messages. Several pages with lines of neatly scripted 9-digit numbers, along with a copy of the Proverbs for a Stranger, a massive tome by a little-known philosopher, Verbik of Lorn. The coded pages reference page numbers, line numbers, and specific words in Proverbs. Stringing together the references reveals copies of correspondence between a spy and some source in the Empire. One suggests that Inquisitors may be dispatched to pacify the area.
• 2-5c: Grandfather’s sword. A dull but perfectly serviceable longsword is under the bed.
• 2-5d: Anti-Imperial manifesto in the chest, hidden under the clothing.
• 2-5e: Wooden knitting needles and several colors of wool yarn in the chest. A half-finished scarf is the only work there.
• 2-5f: Diary of a Mad Gongfarmer. Pages are scattered about the room, full of increasingly unhinged rants about cleaning chamber pots, descriptions of odd dreams and night terrors. The last entry seems like they went mad. “When I visit the master’s chamber, I can hear it calling to me. It sounds sharp and shiny, like all the colors of the rainbow. It tells me I’m special, that I can be the next big thing. I just need to bring the master downstairs to the
cellar. He has someone very important to meet. I know he’s going to be impressed. I’ll never have to empty another chamber pot again!”
• 2-5g: Nothing of note.
• 2-5h: An impressive set of grooming tools suitable for a barber.
• 2-5i: Nothing of note.
• 2-5j: Nothing of note.