TEXT: 80
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Frog God 
  Games
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  TB3: Bloody Jack
  TB3: Bloody Jack
  TB3
  TB3
  Greg A. Vaughan
  
  Credits
  TB3: Bloody Jack
  Frog  
  God 
  Games
  ©2016 Frog God Games.
  Compatibility with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game requires the 
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game from Paizo Publishing, LLC.  
  See http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more information on the  
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.  
  Paizo Publishing, LLC does not guarantee compatibility, and does not 
  endorse this product.
  Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Publishing, LLC,  
  and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game 
  Compatibility Logo are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and are used 
  under the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License.  
  See http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility for more information on 
  the compatibility license.
  CEO
  Bill Webb
  Creative Director:  
  Swords & Wizardry
  Matthew J. Finch
  Creative Director:  
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
  Greg A. Vaughan
  Art Director
  Charles A. Wright
  Lead Developer
  John Ling
  Marketing Manager
  Chris Haskins
  Customer Service Manager
  Krista Webb
  Zach of All Trades
  Zach Glazar
  Espieglerie
  Skeeter Green
  FROG GOD GAMES IS
  Author
  Greg A. Vaughan
  Based on original material by Richard Pett.
  Developer
  Greg A. Vaughan
  Producer
  Bill Webb
  Editor
  Laura Sheppard
  Layout and Graphic Design
  Charles A. Wright
  5E Content Editor
  James Redmon
  Front Cover Art
  Felipe Gaona
  Interior Art
  Steve Ellis, Felipe Gaona, Brain LeBlanc, Cara 
  Mitten, Terry Pavlet, Richard Pett, Eric Pollack
  Photography
  Richard Pett
  Cartography
  Robert Altbauer
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  5th Edition Rules,  
  1st Edition Feel
  
  2
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GENERAL RESOURCES 
  Swords & Wizardry Complete S&W 
  The Tome of Horrors Complete PF, S&W 
  Tome of Horrors 4 PF, S&W 
  Tome of Adventure Design
  Monstrosities S&W 
  Bill Webb’s Book of Dirty Tricks 
  Razor Coast: Fire as She Bears PF 
  Book of Lost Spells 5e 
  Fifth Edition Foes 5e 
  The Tome of Blighted Horrors* 5e, PF, S&W
  Book of Alchemy* 5e, PF, S&W 
  THE LOST LANDS 
  Rappan Athuk PF, S&W 
  Rappan Athuk Expansions Vol. I PF, S&W 
  The Slumbering Tsar Saga PF, S&W 
  The Black Monastery PF, S&W 
  Cyclopean Deeps Vol. I PF, S&W 
  Cyclopean Deeps Vol. II PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast: Heart of the Razor PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast: Freebooter’s Guide to the Razor Coast PF, S&W 
  LL0: The Lost Lands Campaign Setting* 5e, PF, S&W
  LL1: Stoneheart Valley PF, S&W 
  LL2: The Lost City of Barakus PF, S&W 
  LL3: Sword of Air PF, S&W 
  LL4: Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms PF, S&W 
  LL5: Borderland Provinces 5e, PF, S&W
  LL6: The Northlands Saga Complete PF, S&W
  LL7: The Blight 5e, PF, S&W
  LL8: Bard’s Gate 5e, PF, S&W 
  LL9: Adventures in the Borderland Provinces 5e, PF, S&W
  QUESTS OF DOOM 
  Quests of Doom (Vol. 1) 5e 
  Quests of Doom (Vol. 2) 5e 
  Quests of Doom (includes the 5e Vol. 1 and 2, but for PF 
  and S&W only) PF, S&W 
  Quests of Doom 2 5e 
  Quests of Doom 3 5e, S&W
  Quests of Doom 4* 5e, PF, S&W
  PERILOUS VISTAS 
  Dead Man’s Chest (pdf only) PF 
  Dunes of Desolation PF 
  Fields of Blood PF 
  Mountains of Madness* PF 
  Marshes of Malice* PF
  Other Products from Frog God Games
  You can find these product lines and more at our website, froggodgames.com, and on the shelves of many retail game stores.  
  Superscripts indicate the available game systems: “PF” means the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, “5e” means Fifth Edition,  
  and “S&W” means Swords & Wizardry. If there is no superscript it means that it is not specific to a single rule system.
  * (forthcoming from Frog God Games)
  
  3
  Bloody Jack
  Table of Contents
  Introduction ...................................................................................................................... Pg. 5
   
  Plot Map ................................................................................................................. Pg. 7
   
  The Spiteful ............................................................................................................ Pg. 8
  Chapter 1: The Murder Investigation ............................................................................... Pg. 9
   
  Deputies of the Watch ............................................................................................ Pg. 11
   
  But What About Magic? ....................................................................................... Pg. 11
  Chapter 2: Grindlylow’s Grinders .................................................................................... Pg. 13 
  Chapter 3: Hidden Ways of the Sewagers and Ironmongers............................................ Pg. 16
  Chapter 4: Madam Larua — Teller of Fortunes and Diviner of Secrets .......................... Pg. 22
  Chapter 5: The Queen’s Own ........................................................................................... Pg. 26
  Chapter 6: The Muncy Flat .............................................................................................. Pg. 31
   
  The Truth of the Crime Scene .............................................................................. Pg. 32
   
  Between ................................................................................................................... Pg. 34
  Chapter 7: Kechler’s Drop ............................................................................................... Pg. 37
   
  The Ghats and Holy Water Temples of the Great Lyme .................................... Pg. 37
  Chapter 8: The Bloody Business ...................................................................................... Pg. 44
   
  The Annual Children’s Carnival .......................................................................... Pg. 44
   
  The Great Wheel .................................................................................................... Pg. 46
   
  Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children? ................................................ Pg. 49
  Appendix One: Events in the Blight ................................................................................ Pg. 50
  Appendix Two: New Monsters ........................................................................................ Pg. 52
   
  Sough-Eel ................................................................................................................ Pg. 52
   
  Spite-Waif ............................................................................................................... Pg. 53
  Appendix Three: Player Handouts ................................................................................... Pg. 54
  Map Appendix .................................................................................................................. Pg. 65
  Legal Appendix ................................................................................................................ Pg. 78
  
  4
  “…You’ve just entered the wrong side of town…”
  Bloody Jack is a 5e adventure designed for a party of four to five 5th-level PCs.   
  It serves as a companion adventure to Richard’s Pett’s The Blight and takes place in that 
  twisted city as revealed in the campaign setting published by Frog God Games.
  TB3: Bloody Jack
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  By Greg A. Vaughan
  
  5
  Bloody Jack Carver
  Went down to the harbour
  Taking some children to play.
  An eel popped up its head
  And ate them instead,
  While Jack tip-toed away.
  — Children’s Rhyme from the Blight
  Life is hard on the streets of the Blight, and no harder, perhaps, than for 
  the children of the city. When danger is real enough for the fully grown 
  who are able to defend themselves and are jaded to its terrors, it becomes 
  a waking nightmare for the weak and innocent. Yet the children of the city 
  are not without warning. They learn of the dangers even while in their 
  cradles as their nursemaids sing them to sleep with silly rhymes — rhymes 
  that speak of atrocious things that are only all too real. And every child 
  knows the songs of Bloody Jack.
  The City-State of Castorhage, known as the Blight to visitors and many 
  of its residents, is an ancient city of Akados dating back to the early days 
  of the Hyperborean Empire. Long viewed as a centre of learning and 
  scientific advancement, it eventually fell to its own hubris and corruption, 
  becoming the hive of terror and foulness that it is today. 
  Despite the rampant villainy of the city and the terrors that haunt its 
  nights, it remains, ostensibly at least, a bastion of civilization, and its citizens 
  go about their mundane (if somewhat precarious) existences preferring to 
  ignore the constant dangers of their day-to-day lives and the dark goings-
  on that stalk its benighted streets. A stout bolt on the door and a penchant 
  for minding one’s own business are necessities for survival. This adventure 
  gives only a glimpse into the dark glass that is the Blight and provides 
  players with their first introduction to the place. For further information, see 
  The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City from Frog God Games.
  Bloody Jack is a plot-based adventure but it is different in that it doesn’t 
  follow a linear plot. As an ongoing mystery, the PCs control the direction 
  of the plot based on which clues they find and which leads they choose 
  to follow. While all of the plot points lead to the same finale, there are 
  multiple ways that this finale can be reached as the individual plot points 
  can be discovered in varying orders. As a result, each major plot point is 
  given its own chapter. The beginning of each chapter has a short summary 
  at its beginning that lists the means by which the PCs can have reached 
  that point (what clues and plot points they must have already experienced), 
  as well as which clues can be gained in that chapter and which plot points 
  can be accessed from there. These convenient summaries provide you as 
  the GM all the information you need to reach that portion of the adventure 
  and all the information that can be gleaned from it to move on.
  In addition, Appendix I contains information for developments that 
  occur to advance the plot behind the scenes and involve the PCs without 
  having them go anywhere or do anything specific. They occur based on the 
  elapsed time of the adventure and what the PCs have done up to that point.
  Adventure Background
  The History of Bloody Jack Carver
  William Hughe — Bill to any friends he might have had, if he’d had 
  any friends — was never the most stable of individuals. If anyone had 
  really known him, most would have thought him twitchy or perhaps a 
  bit “touched”. However, his change from simply unstable to a violent 
  sociopath can be traced to a singular incident — the last legs of his sanity 
  were swept from beneath him on the night that we first saw a spite-waif.
  Bill Hughe was a tinker by trade, working the endless corridor-alleys 
  of East Ending, sharpening knives and repairing kettles and crocks for the 
  goodwives and labourers of that district. He pushed his cart from custom 
  to custom delivering repaired goods, picking up new assignations, and 
  completing the occasional on-the-spot repair for an extra copper farthing 
  or present from the corner-doxies. Such rounds as these often kept him out 
  on the streets until after the relatively safe hours of daylight had passed, 
  and he hurried home to his own hovel and shop through lengthening 
  shadows and gathering horrors as night stalked across the city.
  One such evening, Bill found himself and his little cart far from home, 
  at the servants’ entrance of the townhouse of one Thaddeus Deudermont, 
  Esquire, Barrister of the Commons. On this evening, Goodwife Trumella 
  had left him waiting at the doorstop for a considerable amount of time 
  as he anxiously watched the red rays of the sun beam through the alley, 
  dancing with a thousand motes of soot and dust. Finally, as the first stars 
  began to appear in the purpling dusk, his cringing coward’s heart made 
  a decision it had never come to before, a sea change in the life of the 
  tinker:  He pushed open the door and stepped into the scullery. Finding it 
  abandoned, and with no sounds of habitation on the first floor, he climbed 
  the labourers’ stair thinking he had heard the sound of movement on the 
  Introduction
  Warning!
  This adventure contains mature themes that may not be 
  suitable for some readers or players. As mentioned in the ad 
  materials and introduction to this adventure, it explores the 
  mystery surrounding a serial killer that singled out children thirty 
  years ago and works to prevent him from starting his killing 
  again. For thousands of years, human folklore has explored the 
  dire consequences that await “naughty” children or those who 
  do not heed the advice of their parents and elders. From Hansel 
  and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood to The Boy Who Cried 
  Wolf we have seen that children have not been spared from the 
  horrors of adult life, and more often than not the stories involve 
  some bogeyman that specifically targets such children for its 
  depredations. This adventure brings that concept to life as it 
  explores the long-term ramifications upon a populace when just 
  such a bogeyman is real (in the form of Bloody Jack) and gives 
  the players the opportunity to thwart just such a threat.
  Our purpose at Frog God Games is not to make tasteless 
  products for the general public that would be classified as “adult 
  content,” offensive, or inappropriate for minors. But we do intend 
  to make thrilling adventures in the style of old-school game play 
  that test the players’ stalwartness and bring difficult and layered 
  nuances to their game. Simulating and navigating the struggles of 
  real life (and/or their fantasy equivalent) with exceptional powers 
  and skills as characters while freeing players of the prospect of 
  actual consequences is one of the great draws of roleplaying games, 
  and we always strive to create that experience in our products. 
  As the father of young children who play roleplaying games, 
  I would probably not allow them to play Bloody Jack, or even 
  other products from The Blight for that matter. These products 
  are darker in theme and maturity, and Frog God Games provides 
  many other titles much more suitable for young gamers. However, 
  as my children reach their teenage years, I would not hesitate to 
  let them delve into the world that is The Blight and will happily 
  discuss with them the intricacies of life and decision making that 
  the campaign entails while enjoying the thrill of the creepy horror 
  movie vibe that it brings to their game.
  
  6
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  floor above. Coming to the back landing, he cautiously made his way past 
  the dark and empty servants’ stations towards the only light in the house, 
  coming from a doorway at the front. The door into the parlour was ajar, 
  and gave off the glow of candlelight from within. Listening at the door 
  revealed that the subtle scrape of movement came from within, along with 
  the clear, undisturbed sound of steady breathing.  
  Taking his cap into his hand and knuckling his sooty forelock, Bill 
  stepped through the door thinking to humbly beg the missus’ pardon and 
  remind her might she not have some small task for him to take care of 
  for her. Instead, what Bill Hughe found stopped him in his tracks: the 
  Goodwife Trumella was sprawled on the floor. Her husband, the jurist, 
  sat slumped in an over-stuffed chair. At first he thought he had come upon 
  the scene of a foul murder and was about to make for the back door with 
  all speed when he realized that the breathing he had heard was theirs. The 
  Deudermonts were inexplicably both in the midst of a deep sleep.
  Bill was just considering the possibility of taking advantage of 
  this fortuitous situation to pilfer some small item when the scrape of 
  movement he had heard before caught his attention again. His eyes were 
  drawn to the narrow side door that led into the nursery of the townhouse. 
  There in the darkened nursery, just visible through the partially open door, 
  stood the cradle of little Marjory Deudermont, the light of Thaddeus’ and 
  Trumella’s lives. He could just make out the shape of the baby’s pudgy 
  legs as they kicked in the air, as babies are wont to do, and he watched in 
  horror as the cheval glass mirror standing behind the crib finished sliding 
  open like a window pane — making the scraping noise he had heard. 
  Crawling out from the strange nothingness beyond the mirror’s image 
  came a tiny form, the spitting image of the baby in the crib but moving 
  strangely on all fours as if it had too many joints — like some kind of 
  insect.  The spite-waif — for that is what it was; a hideous changeling from 
  Between—grabbed Baby Marjory by a leg and then, horribly distending 
  its jaw like a serpent, swallowed the baby in a single gulp. It then glared 
  malevolently at poor Bill Hughe, standing there aghast, before closing 
  the pane of the cheval glass mirror and assuming 
  the late baby Marjory’s position in the cradle. 
  At that moment, both Master Thaddeus and 
  Goodwife Trumella moaned softly and 
  began to stir to consciousness.
  Bill knew no more for a long while. When he once again recognized 
  his surroundings he was covered in sweat and back in his little hovel, 
  sharpening a great, serrated fisherman’s knife. Bill had seen the changeling 
  replace the Deudermont baby. He knew that spite-waifs were loose in 
  Castorhage, and at that moment, as if he had left his apathy back at the 
  Deudermont townhouse, he declared his own private war on the accursed 
  false children.
  Unfortunately Bill had left more than his apathy at the Deudermonts’. 
  He had also left whatever shreds of sanity he had left. And while he truly 
  was concerned about the spite-waifs replacing the children of the Blight 
  and infiltrating the city, he had no means of discerning between what was 
  a malevolently disguised spite-waif versus what was truly an innocent 
  child. He did not let such details hinder him.  
  For five years he continued to push his tinker’s cart by day, and by 
  night he conducted a reign of terror on the children and parents of the 
  city. Scores of children disappeared during that time, some to be found 
  later in various states of dismemberment or evisceration. Most were never 
  found. Based on the bloody murder weapons and the types of wounds 
  left by the meat cleavers and butcher knives he used, the authorities 
  assumed their murderer was butcher or packer at one of the meat-packing 
  warehouses of the East Ending. More than one innocent labourer wearing 
  his blood-spattered apron from his day’s work was lynched by mobs of 
  fear- and sorrow-crazed parents. The murderer became known as Bloody 
  Jack Carver, and children’s rhymes began to appear among urchins on the 
  streets and even in nurseries. Every child in the Blight knew who Bloody 
  Jack Carver was and what he would do to unruly children.
  Then one day thirty years ago, Bill decided he’d had killed enough. 
  What caused him to reach this decision he could not say, but whatever 
  psychotic motivation drove him to endlessly hunt the spite-waifs ebbed, 
  and the regular disappearances of children ceased. The reign of Bloody 
  Jack Carver had ended. The authorities never discovered who the culprit 
  was but quietly assumed that one of the unfortunates lynched by the mob 
  must have been the right one, and they closed the case in their books. 
  Bloody Jack was gone, but his name and his rhymes lived on among the 
  children of the Blight.
  Adventure Summary
  Chapter 1: The PCs are called upon by a friend, one Inspector Hogan 
  Muncy of the City Watch, for assistance in a murder investigation. He 
  doesn’t explain his reasons for bringing them in other than to say he thinks 
  the unique nature of the crime may befit a group of professionals such as 
  the PCs as opposed to the more regulation-minded Watch. They report to 
  the hovel of an old tinker named Bill Hughe where a grisly murder has 
  occurred, and the clues make it appear that the murderer was a small child. 
  Inspector Muncy gives the PCs a head start on the Watch to begin their 
  own independent investigation before leaving them to their own 
  devices — and acting a bit suspicious himself in the process.
  The PCs can choose which course their investigation follows, 
  but clues discovered at the crime scene point them to an old 
  grinding shop. Or suspicious PCs can choose to investigate the 
  strange manner in which Inspector Muncy has recruited them 
  for this assignment by checking up on him at a pub known 
  to be frequented by members of the Watch. Whichever they 
  choose, the adventure proceeds as they follow up their leads 
  and suspicions.
  Chapter 2: At the grinding shop, the PCs discover Bill 
  Hughe’s old tinker’s cart. Searching it, they discover a 
  secret compartment inside and the chilling signs that 
  it once held captive children within. Thus they 
  discover the first signs that point to the fact 
  that Bill Hughe was the Bloody Jack Carver 
  killer. They also find clues that point to 
  both a nearby grate leading into the city’s 
  old sewer system, and an old handbill for a 
  fortune teller named Madam Larua.
  Chapter 3: Investigating the sewers discovers 
  more evidence of Bill’s culpability in the Bloody 
  
  7
  Bloody Jack
  
  8
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Jack murders and that he used these sewers as a hideout where he conducted 
  some of the killings. Further exploration leads the PCs to an old closed eatery 
  that Bill often frequented, wherein they discover the remains of some of his 
  victims of three decades ago in an old locked larder. From the remains they also 
  discover signs that some of the supposed children were anything but human. 
  They are further menaced by a horror from beyond the grave that continues 
  to haunt the basement of the old eatery. As they escape, they discover that 
  they have come to the attention of some malevolent, otherworldly group or 
  syndicate who begins hunting them through the benighted streets of the city.
  Chapter 4: Seeking out Madam Larua finds the old gypsy still in 
  business at the edge of the city’s festival district. Asking her about Bill 
  Hughe reveals that she recalls him visiting her thirty years ago. She 
  suspected that he was Bloody Jack from those visits, but the killings 
  stopped shortly thereafter and she never saw him again, so she didn’t 
  bother reporting him to the Watch, assuming they had already captured or 
  killed him. She does reveal a fortune-telling she did for him that indicated 
  even after he had stopped his bloody work (the reason she thought he 
  might be Bloody Jack) someone else would take it up anew for him. The 
  interview is cut short by an attack by a horror from Between that devours 
  the old gypsy and likely endangers the PCs themselves.
  Chapter 5: If the PCs choose to follow up on Inspector Muncy, they 
  can visit The Queen’s Own pub where information and rumours can be 
  obtained about members of the Watch. There they can learn of the murder 
  of the inspector’s own wife and child twenty years earlier that had been 
  hushed up and the strange circumstances that may connect it to the murder 
  they are currently investigating.
  To delve further into this murder, the PCs must access the Watch 
  Archives at the Capitol. There they find the original of the carefully 
  redacted statement of Hogan Muncy that seems to implicate that his wife 
  was murdered by their own child, and that she killed the babe in self-
  defense in the process, though the entire affair was later covered up. The 
  PCs also discover that someone within the Capitol does not want them 
  pursuing the old case and is willing to hurt or possibly murder them to 
  prevent it. Attempts to locate the inspector come up empty, but they can 
  learn the location of the crime scene where his wife and child died.
  Chapter 6: If the PCs travel to the Muncy’s old flat, they find it still 
  sealed from the crime that occurred there two decades earlier. Within, 
  they find the crime scene eerily undisturbed. Furthermore, they locate a 
  previously hidden gateway to Between and realize that Inspector Muncy 
  himself has recently passed through it. If they wish to have a chance to 
  catch up to him, they’ll have to pursue him into that bizarre realm. Once 
  through the gateway, they encounter the strange fey and other malicious 
  creatures that inhabit Between and emerge near the stall of Madam Larua 
  (or its destroyed remains) without having caught up to Inspector Muncy.
  Chapter 7: The next morning the PCs are summoned by the Constables 
  of the Watch to a new crime scene on the Great Lyme River. Allegedly it 
  was Inspector Muncy that sent for them, though when they arrive they are 
  ambushed by slough eels and a doppelganger disguised as the inspector. 
  Following clues found on the doppelganger leads the PCs to a nearby 
  textile mill used as a front by a group of doppelgangers and spite-waifs 
  from Between and lead a Watch police raid on it.
  In the course of this raid, the PCs learn that Inspector Muncy has taken 
  up Bill Hughe’s mantle of Bloody Jack Carver from thirty years ago and 
  is intending to kill all the spite-waifs hidden in the city. However, like Old 
  Bill, Muncy does not intend to be overly particular about which children 
  he takes and, as a result, many innocent children will die as well, just as 
  happened during Bill Hughe’s reign of terror.
  Chapter 8: The adventure finale occurs as the PCs pursue the now-
  thoroughly insane Inspector Muncy to a children’s fair on the river pier. 
  There Muncy has taken several children captive atop the great ferris 
  wheel, and the PCs must clamber up its superstructure high above the pier 
  and face him. The adventure concludes as the PCs defeat the maddened 
  Muncy and rescue the children from his clutches, though they may never 
  know if all of the children they rescued are truly innocent humans.
  Beginning the Adventure
  The adventure begins as the PCs are contacted by Inspector of the Watch 
  Hogan Muncy, a mid-level inspector of the city’s Office of the Watch. The 
  inspector has come upon an atypical (and personally disturbing case) and 
  seeks to utilize the PCs’ unique talents as adventurers and their position 
  outside the regular channels of the Watch to assist in the investigation.
  Inspector Muncy should know at least one of the PCs through family, 
  friends, or perhaps some social club or professional association that they 
  have participated in together. While the PCs need not be members of the 
  city government or law enforcement, it is assumed that they are not known 
  outlaws and can be counted on to largely confine their actions within the 
  limits of the law (at least insofar as any witnesses are concerned). The 
  opening of Chapter 1 assumes such a relationship exists, so modify it as 
  necessary if you wish to adjust it to fit your own campaign.
  The Spiteful
  Though villains and unsavory characters abound in this 
  adventure, the true nemesis to the PCs and the ultimate cause 
  of the Bloody Jack killings thirty years ago is not Bloody Jack 
  himself, in either his previous incarnation as Bill Hughe or his new 
  incarnation as Inspector Muncy. Rather, the true culprit behind 
  these atrocities is the conspiracy of fey and foul creatures from 
  Between known as The Spiteful. These creatures wish to invade 
  and conquer the mundane world of Castorhage and seek to do so 
  through subversion. It is for this reason that the changeling spite-
  waifs have been placed in the cribs of certain of the city’s new 
  parents for decades and what originally caused Bill Hughe to snap 
  and begin preying upon the children of the city in an attempt to 
  terminate the spite-waif menace. Though Bill (and later Inspector 
  Muncy) never truly understood the motivations of The Spiteful, he 
  (they) understood enough to recognize the abomination that was 
  among the people of Castorhage and was moved to eliminate it as 
  a result.
  Though The Spiteful’s methods and ultimate purpose remain 
  murky, they have for decades replaced children in certain, carefully 
  selected families within the city based on whatever mystical 
  predictions they have made in regards to the potential for power 
  within the city that they have calculated for those children. The 
  PCs do not have the opportunity to stop this generation-spanning 
  plot, but their actions in exposing it can set it back and disrupt 
  those plans for many years to come — perhaps buying the future 
  of the city a little bit of time.
  
  9
  Bloody Jack
  The adventure begins as the PCs answer a summons from the Office 
  of the Watch to a rundown tenement in East Ending at dawn. Read the 
  following:
  The grey light of dawn breaks through the dismal smudge 
  that is the air of East Ending, barely beginning to illuminate 
  the broken cobbled streets. The streets run between ancient 
  tenements that seem to sag against each other as if in 
  exhaustion and whose windows look out like blank, soulless 
  eyes. It is the domain of the lost and the defeated, and the last 
  place you’d choose to be at this — or any — hour.
  A large, black sewer rat scurries through one of the many 
  puddles of effluvia that gather among the cobbles as it runs 
  for cover at your approach. The early morning air is chill, but 
  the cloudless sky promises to bring an oppressively hot day, 
  especially here among the tall buildings and narrow alleys 
  where a decent breeze can’t ever seem to reach. At least with 
  the morning chill, the reek of the streets and those that live 
  upon them hasn’t yet set in for the day.
  Trudging through the ubiquitous puddles and potholes, you 
  see your destination ahead. Among the darkened structures 
  and rotten fencing that make up this alley stands one small 
  hovel from which lamplights burn. The distinctive red rope of 
  the Office of the Watch cordons off the door. It is a crime scene, 
  and the familiar figure of one of the Watch officers stands in 
  the doorway, illuminated by the lamp within.
  The figure is Inspector Hogan Muncy, a detective of the 
  Watch and an acquaintance for the past several years. You 
  can’t say that you know him well, but your paths have crossed 
  in your personal circles and developed into, if not exactly 
  a friendship, at least something of a mutual respect. He is 
  the reason that you gather in this godsforsaken place at this 
  godsforsaken hour on this godsforsaken street. The Constable
  of the Watch that roused you from your slumber an hour 
  ago simply said that Inspector Muncy had requested your 
  assistance with an investigation and to gather your gear and 
  come as quickly as you were able. He then escorted you into 
  the benighted slums of East Ending and left you to continue 
  on your own a block back. It seems that your meeting with the 
  good inspector is to be in private.
  Inspector Muncy lights his pipe and steps out into the street 
  to intercept you before you get a chance to glance into the 
  doorway behind him. He looks the part of the quintessential 
  Watch Inspector as he has every time you’ve seen him, from his 
  regulation moustache and sideburns, to his tweed jacket and 
  pants, to his long coat from whose pocket his tiny Watch shield 
  is suspended, to his city-issued, square-toed leather brogans. 
  Even the brown bowler atop his balding head screams “official 
  business”. However professional his demeanor is, his eyes 
  look tired and his face a bit pallid.
  At your approach, Muncy retrieves a small wax tablet from 
  his coat pocket and clears his throat as he reviews his notes. 
  “Let’s see. The deceased is one William Hughe, approximate 
  age 70, at time of death, ‘Old Bill’ to the few people around 
  here that knew him. He was a tinker by trade, though I get the 
  idea he hadn’t done much business in a long time and mainly 
  lived off the bread lines and charity houses. Didn’t get out 
  much, didn’t have any friends as far as we know.
  “Bill’s body was discovered about three hours ago by a pair 
  of street sweepers making their nightly rounds. They noticed 
  that the residence was lit and the front door standing open…
  something no one in their right mind would do in the middle 
  of the night in East Ending. The sweepers found the decedent 
  inside and immediately ran to the nearest Watch Station 
  seven blocks from here to report the crime. The constables 
  immediately cordoned off the area and called me. No one has 
  been in or out since then other than me, and what I found 
  prompted me to call you in. Before you go in I must warn you, 
  the scene is…shocking to say the least.”
  After giving the PCs his rundown, Muncy steps aside to let them enter 
  the hovel and have a look around themselves. He answers any questions 
  they have but doesn’t know much more than he has told them. He provides 
  answers as written to the following questions:
  • How do you know his name, age, occupation, etc.? The street 
  sweepers who reported the crime are regulars on this street and had 
  seen him before. He’s apparently lived here for many years. They 
  didn’t know him personally, but did know who he was.
  • Were there any witnesses to what happened? No the tenements and 
  buildings around Bill Hughe’s residence are mainly warehouses or are 
  otherwise abandoned. Bill pretty much had this part of the street to 
  himself. Constables knocked on doors an hour ago but were unable to 
  find anyone in the area who might have heard or seen anything.
  • Were any clues found outside the residence? There is one window 
  that was broken from the outside and appears to have been the 
  perpetrator’s point of entry. The perpetrator then appears to have exited 
  Chapter One:
  The Murder Investigation
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • 	
  The adventure begins with this chapter.
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • The strange circumstances of the grisly murder apparently 
  perpetrated by a child.
  • 	The receipt for repairs for Grindlylow’s Grinders.
  • 	Inspector Muncy’s strange behavior in regards to this case and 
  his involvement in a similar prior investigation.
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here:
  • Chapter 2 to investigate any connections with Grindlylow’s 
  Grinders.
  •  Chapter 5 to find additional information at The Queen’s Own 
  pub about Inspector Muncy’s strange behavior and the similar 
  case from two decades before.
  
  10
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  through the front door and left it standing open.
  • Do you know of a motive? No, we don’t know much about William 
  Hughe, though he doesn’t seem like the type to have made a lot of 
  enemies. Also there are no signs of robbery. It seems like this was 
  strictly a murder with no known motive.
  • How do you know the street sweepers weren’t involved? I’ll let you 
  look at the crime scene and see for yourself.
  • Why did you call us in? We’ll get to that in a bit.
  Once the PCs have satisfied themselves with questioning Inspector 
  Muncy, they are free to enter the house and look over the crime scene. 
  Muncy hangs back in the doorway to let them look around undisturbed.
  The inside of the hovel looks like the site of a massacre. 
  The entry room is small and doubles as a both a sitting room 
  and a kitchen. A door leads back into a small bedroom. A 
  small table next to the bedroom door holds the lit lamp that 
  was apparently set there by Bill before he was killed, though 
  the wick in it has burned down and is about to go out. It has 
  obviously been lit for several hours. The window next to the 
  front door has been broken out, and the glass shards all lie on 
  the floor of the hovel alongside a broken cobble clearly taken 
  from the street outside, confirming that it was broken from the 
  street and likely served as the murderer’s point of entry since 
  the front door does have a perfectly serviceable bolt on it.
  Old Bill himself, still in his night clothes, lies gruesomely 
  dismembered in the centre of the floor in a pool of gore. He
  was clearly a victim of many of his own tinker knives and tools 
  at the hands of someone who bore him great animosity. The 
  blood-stained tools themselves lie scattered about the room as 
  if they were thrown away in anger after they were used. Only 
  the upper portions of the old man’s face and his staring, open 
  eyes were spared the villain’s brutal ministrations — perhaps 
  to better see and appreciate the killer’s handiwork. The semi-
  congealed blood on the floor and the corpse confirm that this 
  murder occurred within the last few hours, sometime after 
  nightfall last evening.
  Anyone taking in the scene finds nothing out of the ordinary about 
  the room itself and, as Inspector Muncy mentioned, there are no signs 
  of vandalism or that the room was ransacked in any way. It appears that 
  the window was broken to gain entry and that the tools that once sat on 
  shelves around the room were used to commit the crime, but nothing else 
  appears to have been disturbed. A DC 12 Intelligence check postulates that 
  the sound of breaking glass woke Bill and brought him from the bedroom 
  where he confronted, and was ultimately murdered by, the intruder.
  The only other real piece of evidence to be gleaned can be spotted with 
  a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check (Muncy points it out if the PCs do 
  not notice it on their own). There is no trace left by the killer except one 
  footprint left in the spattered blood leading from the body to the front door 
  — the bare footprint of a small child. A DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) 
  check can confirm that it is not a halfling footprint, nor that of any other 
  race. It very clearly appears to be a human footprint belonging to a child 
  no more than six years of age.
  Once the footprint has been noticed, Inspector Muncy addresses the 
  PCs once again.
  “Sure this murder is brutal and gruesome, but I’ve served 
  as an Officer of the Watch for more than 20 years. Even the 
  most stomach-turning crime scenes are nothing new to me.” 
  Inspector Muncy’s eyes take on a haunted cast, “but this 
  footprint…a child capable of doing this; that’s something 
  unusual even for the Blight. But even this wouldn’t be such 
  a shock that I thought maybe outside assistance would be of 
  benefit except for what I’m about to tell you.
  “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a crime scene where a 
  brutal murderer appeared to have been a small child. It’s 
  actually the second time, and the first was twenty years ago 
  when I was just a green constable. I was involved in a murder 
  investigation then, and that time, too, it appeared that the 
  culprit was likely a small child. The evidence seemed too 
  ludicrous for the Watch to seriously consider that possibility, 
  so the case was closed and given a plausible ‘official’ 
  explanation before being quickly brushed under the rug. But 
  for all these years I’ve wondered what could have happened 
  in that other murder, and now to see this, I can’t help but 
  be reminded of that earlier crime and the unsatisfactory 
  conclusion that the Watch came to on it.
  “So that’s why I’ve summoned you here. Two decades have 
  passed since that earlier murder was hushed up, so I know 
  the killer can’t possibly be the same one that ‘offed’ Old Bill 
  Hughe, but the similarities are uncanny and I want a fresh take 
  on this one before the department gets ahold of it and decides 
  it too needs to be closed and given a ‘plausible’ explanation. 
  That’s where you come in. I know that you’ve got some special 
  talents and skills that maybe aren’t found in a typical member 
  of the Watch, and you can operate outside official channels to 
  try and get to the bottom of this. I’ve been placed in charge of 
  this investigation, so I can give you 48 hours before the Watch 
  starts digging in in earnest, so you’ll have an undisturbed head 
  start before any official interference could be cooked up. I’ll 
  pull strings to keep you out of any trouble with the Watch, 
  though obviously don’t start wrecking the town or roughing
  
  11
  Bloody Jack
  up witnesses.
  “Do what you have to do, within reasonable limits of course, 
  to get this thing solved. I want to know who did this, the why, 
  and the how. I’m not letting this one slip through my fingers like 
  the other one did, and I can’t really trust anyone with it other 
  than you. You’ll draw a Watch stipend while you do the work, 
  and I can see to it that you get any mundane supplies that you 
  may need, though it’ll have to go through official requisition 
  channels, so probably the less you ask for the better.
  “Well, that’s about it,” he says as he looks out at the sky only 
  now growing pink with the arrival of first light. “I think it’s 
  time for me to take a lunch break. You gentlefolk better get to 
  it,” he says with a grim smile.
  Inspector Muncy places the bowler firmly upon his nearly 
  bald pate and steps out the front door before striding down the 
  street whistling a chipper tune jarringly discordant with the 
  gruesome crime scene he just left. It looks like the investigation 
  is yours.
  Allow the PCs a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check. A successful check 
  reveals that the inspector seems much more disturbed than he is letting on 
  about this investigation — as if there may be more to the story than he has 
  revealed. He does not give any further information at this time, though, and 
  if questioned about the prior case he mentioned will simply state that he was 
  not assigned to that case and can’t give further information. Unless stopped 
  by the PCs, Inspector Muncy walks several blocks to an eatery just opened 
  for the morning to dine. Even if stopped, he has no further information and 
  departs as quickly as possible. If the PCs need to reach him, they can check 
  in at the nearest Watch Station to get a message to him.
  The PCs have the crime scene to themselves, and the Watch is unlikely 
  to arrive for their own cursory crime scene investigation for several hours 
  so the PCs have time to look things over. A search of the neighborhood 
  reveals that Muncy’s report is correct; nobody lives nearby that might have 
  heard or seen anything. Checking the Watch Station finds that the street 
  sweepers were questioned and released but that they did not know any 
  additional information. The PCs can use their credentials with Inspector 
  Muncy to get the sweepers’ names and addresses, but this proves to be a 
  dead end as they truly know nothing else.
  Searching the hovel likewise turns up nothing else of interest except 
  for a few impressive butcher knives that Bill had been sharpening for his 
  job (and that were subsequently used on the old man). However, a search 
  of the bedroom with a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check locates an old 
  chest concealed beneath some blankets under the bed. Its lock and hinges 
  are rusted shut (DC 10 Strength to break, DC 25 to unlock). Inside is a 
  pile of hand-written receipts for tinkering jobs done by Old Bill 30 years 
  ago, apparently stored here and forgotten. There aren’t any receipts in the 
  rest of the house, so this appears to be a practice that Bill hasn’t continued 
  in some time.
  Examining the receipts reveals that for most of his work Bill did not 
  use receipts, but some business required him to take customer’s property 
  home with him while he repaired it, and the receipts were issued to 
  the owner and copies were kept by Bill until the work was completed. 
  Spending an hour going through the receipts allows the PCs to sort them 
  out and discover that most were issued to people with unfamiliar names or 
  businesses that closed down decades ago. A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) 
  check, however, uncovers one receipt issued to Eustus Grindlylow of 
  Grindlylow’s Grinders for repairs to a gear mechanism (Handout A). 
  The repaired mechanism lies in the bottom of the chest, apparently never 
  returned to its owner. A DC 10 Intelligence (History) check recalls that 
  Grindlylow’s Grinders is still in business and located only a few blocks 
  away, apparently still awaiting the delivery of its part after 30 years.
  There is nothing further of interest to be found at Bill’s hovel. As the 
  PCs are leaving the crime scene, a squad of constables arrives. These 
  officers of the Watch give the PCs suspicious looks but are obviously 
  under orders to leave them unmolested. They secure the crime scene as the 
  PCs depart but do not bother to ask any questions. They assume the PCs 
  have not removed any evidence and can do little about it even if the PCs 
  tell them, since Muncy has ordered them to let the PCs work. They will 
  not, however, allow the body to be removed. That goes to the city morgue 
  for examination and won’t be of any further use to the PCs anyway.
  Behind the Scenes
  Though the PCs don’t know it, their involvement in this case brings 
  them into a much deeper plot that threatens Castorhage, much larger than 
  the horrific murder of an old man — even an old serial killer. Unbeknownst 
  to the PCs, Bill’s hovel is being watched by individuals sympathetic to 
  the spite-waifs that murdered the old man. These watchers remain hidden 
  from the PCs (in abandoned windows and behind crooked fences) as they 
  observe them and then go and report what they have seen to The Spiteful. 
  The Spiteful take note of the presence of the PCs on the case but ascribe 
  no special significance to it at this time — there is plenty of time for that 
  as the PCs get deeper into the mystery and make a nuisance of themselves. 
  For now, The Spiteful are content to simply observe. 
  For the rest of the adventure, anytime the PCs are in a public place day 
  or night (and sometimes even a not-so-public place, such as the sewers) 
  there is a hidden observer keeping an eye on them. The PCs will not have 
  the opportunity to catch any of these observers in the act, but on these 
  occasions allow each PC a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check to get the 
  feeling that they are being watched by some malevolent presence — really 
  no more than a prickly sensation on the back of their necks, nothing they 
  can put a finger on. Play this up for atmosphere and to build tension, but 
  do not let it derail the adventure. As mentioned, the PCs will be unable 
  to catch anyone in the act — even with magic — and will have to simply 
  “trust their guts”. There will be plenty of opportunity later to turn the 
  tables on these unwelcome intrusions.
  Deputies of the Watch
  Each day that the PCs spend on the investigation earns them a 
  1gp stipend apiece. In addition, Inspector Muncy has given them 
  writs deputizing them as investigators for the Watch that they can 
  use as credentials. They can also attempt to requisition any piece 
  of mundane gear worth 100gp or less from the Watch once per 
  day. Doing so requires that they go to a Watch Station with their 
  credentials and succeed at a DC 10 Charisma (Persuasion) check. 
  If they are successful, any item of 20gp value or less can be had 
  immediately (at the GM’s discretion, since some items may be 
  harder to come by and require a day to procure). Items worth more 
  than 20gp require a day to procure, and the PCs must return to pick 
  it up. Unless the item would be consumed by its use (holy water, 
  etc.), it is expected that the PCs will return it within 1 week. If they 
  fail to do so, they will be charged double its list price by the Office 
  of the Watch in order to replace it.
  But What About Magic?
  This is a murder mystery; why not just use divination magic or 
  speak with dead to get to the bottom of it? Magical investigation 
  could certainly assist in solving this mystery. Unfortunately, the 
  PCs are not of high enough level to have ready access to any truly 
  effective divination magic that would be of real use, and no one 
  else within the government or outside it frankly gives a rip about 
  the death of an old tinker in East Ending…certainly not enough 
  to expend expensive magical resources on it. And the victims 
  available to question with speak with dead have little of specific 
  value to offer. The PCs are going to just have to solve this one with 
  good, old-fashioned legwork. Needless to say, don’t put any such 
  resources at the PCs’ disposal unless you wish for a particularly 
  short and unsatisfying mystery.
  
  12
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  What Next
  The PCs now have a good idea of the murder but know little of why it 
  occurred or who did it. In addition, they have very few leads to speak of. 
  Really their only valid options at this point are to check out Grindlylow’s 
  Grinders to see if there are any clues that might remain after 30 years (a 
  long shot indeed, as it seems unlikely that a grudge over an unreturned 
  gear part would be sufficient motive for the murder) or to see if they can 
  find out any further about Inspector Muncy’s strange behavior in regards 
  to this case and the one from two decades previous.
  If the PCs wish to head over to Grindlylow’s, this is covered in Chapter 
  2. Further investigation into Inspector Muncy will involve a visit to The 
  Queen’s Own pub and is covered in Chapter 5.
  
  13
  Bloody Jack
  Grindlylow’s Grinders is an industrial grinding operation primarily 
  concerned with machining metal components for gears and other 
  machinery and smoothing stone for construction. It is located only five 
  blocks away at the edge of the Great Lyme River and is open from sunrise 
  until 1 hour before sunset. The following description assumes that they 
  arrive during operating hours.
  The rumble of a millstone and the screeching of metal 
  grinding metal fill the air as you approach this building. A 
  much-repaired retaining wall surrounds a courtyard before the 
  two-storey building whose own walls show many patches of 
  mismatched brick. The wooden roof of the long main building 
  sags in the middle, and just below its eaves faded, flaking 
  lettering has been painted directly onto the brick, identifying 
  the establishment as “Grindlylow’s Grinders.” Below this 
  a patch of brick wall has been painted over and additional 
  lettering added more recently, “Horatius Grindlylow, Prop.”
  A wrought-iron gate stands open allowing entry to the hard-
  packed dirt of the courtyard before the building’s barnlike 
  doors. Within its dust-clouded interior can be seen large 
  mechanisms driven by long canvas belts running over pulleys 
  and powered by a large waterwheel in the back. Numerous 
  small outbuildings cluster along the edges of the courtyard.
  As the PCs enter the courtyard, a dusty, middle-aged man in a worker’s 
  smock walks out of the dimly lit main building to meet them. He is 
  Horatius Grindlylow (CN male human commoner; Int 12; Wis 14), the 
  owner and proprietor of the grinding house and he assumes that the PCs 
  have come to contract his company for an industrial grinding job. If the 
  PCs show him the repaired gear and the receipt, he seems surprised and 
  slightly annoyed. He tells them that his father, Eustus, died of a fever 
  eight winters ago and left the grinding house to him. He tells them that he 
  doesn’t care if the repair has been made, he’s not going to pay them the 
  agreed upon price because it’s 30 years late and they had to buy a new gear 
  to replace it long ago.
  If the PCs succeed on a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check to make 
  him more amenable, or at least roleplay either a friendly demeanor or 
  one of official business for the Office of the Watch, he tells them that he 
  doesn’t know anything about the gear but the employee who ran the main 
  grinder back then and who would have handled the transaction 30 years 
  ago is still around. The PCs can talk to him if they like. He then calls 
  back into the building (“Hey, Ev! Some folks to see you.”), and moments 
  later out walks a bent-over, older man with grizzled features and worn 
  coveralls. Horatius introduces him as Everett Schimp (N male human 
  commoner; Int 12; Cha 12), now the grinding house foreman, and then 
  leaves him to deal with the PCs, too busy to waste time with people who 
  aren’t paying customers.
  Schimp is an irascible old man and seems highly amused when he is 
  shown the gear and the receipt. He talks readily enough and confirms he 
  hired Old Bill to make the repairs — and remembers it well because he 
  nearly got fired for it. Old Bill was to take the gear home and have it 
  fixed overnight before returning it and collecting his payment. When he 
  never showed up the next day (or the next, or the next), Schimp realized 
  he wasn’t going to be coming back. Rather than try to find a needle in a 
  haystack like an itinerant tinker in all of East Ending (they didn’t know 
  where Old Bill lived or even his last name), they opted to just buy a new 
  gear to replace the broken one. Old Man Grindlylow (Eustus) was furious 
  at Everett and docked his pay for two weeks to make up for the loss.
  Schimp says he always wondered what happened to Old Bill and laughs 
  saying he always figured the old tinker had gotten the worst of it. He had 
  left his tinker cart at the grinding house when he took the gear home and 
  had intended to pick it up the next day when he returned the gear. When 
  Old Bill never showed up again, Old Man Grindlylow pawned every tool 
  and scrap of metal on the cart to make up for his loss and repurposed the 
  old thing for storing cans of paint and grease. If the PCs don’t think to ask 
  on their own, Everett’s Schimp’s eyes suddenly light up as he recalls that 
  they, in fact, still have the cart. No one has used it for years, and it’s just 
  been sitting in the back of one of their storage sheds gathering dust. He 
  can show it to them if they ask to examine it.
  The Tinker’s Cart
  Crammed into the back of a storage shed, stacked with old cans of 
  dried paint and jars of grease is Old Bill’s tinker cart. It is a two-wheeled 
  pushcart approximately 4ft long by 2ft wide with a bin occupying the front 
  2ft of it for holding items to be repaired, and the back half consisting of 
  a large wooden box with dozens of pegs on the outside for hanging the 
  tools of his trade from. The tools are long since gone, and the cart is now 
  covered in spatters of paint, old grease, and rust flakes from its years of 
  service at the grinding house.
  At first glance there is nothing of particular interest about the cart. 
  Anyone knocking on the wooden box that the tools once hung from 
  confirms that it is hollow, as would be expected. However, a DC 20 
  Wisdom (Perception) check determines that it actually has a secret catch 
  in the back that allows it to be opened. Everett Schimp expresses surprise 
  at this discovery, as he was never aware all these years that a compartment 
  could be accessed within. The opening mechanism is complex, though, 
  and requires a DC 15 Dexterity check with thieves’ tools to gain access to 
  Chapter Two:
  Grindlylow’s Grinders
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • The receipt found at Bill Hughe’s hovel in Chapter 1
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • The possibility that Old Bill was the Bloody Jack Carver killer, 
  based on the hidden cage in his cart and the presence of the 
  sleeping poison, which could have given a motive to his murderer.
  • The key from the Guild of Sewagers and Ironmongers in 
  Bill’s cart.
  • The reference to Madam Larua whom Bill perhaps consulted or 
  at least thought about consulting around the time he left the cart.
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here if they have not already done so:
  • Chapter 3 to investigate the sewer entrance.
  • Chapter 4 to locate Madam Larua.
  • Chapter 5 to investigate the suspicious behavior of 
  Inspector Muncy.
  
  14
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  the interior. Likewise, the cart could be disassembled with the proper tools 
  (which are readily available at the grinding house).
  Opening the compartment reveals a hollow, as expected, but it quickly 
  becomes obvious that it is not an ordinary compartment. First, the wood 
  is double-layered to make it sturdier and proofed against sound and light. 
  The additional thickness of the wood makes the compartment interior no 
  bigger than could hold a small child. Second, the inside is smeared in 
  many places with brown stains, suspiciously like old blood, and there are 
  many scratch marks in the wood as if something had tried to escape. If a 
  light source is used to examine this interior, a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) 
  check reveals a child-sized handprint among these brown smears, 
  confirming that a Small humanoid had, on one or more occasions, been 
  confined within the secret compartment long ago.
  Also within the compartment is an old tool belt. Stored within the tool 
  belt are a small clay bottle with a rag stuffed into its neck to serve as a 
  stopper, and a strangely crafted iron key wrapped in a piece of parchment. 
  Pulling the stopper on the bottle reveals a dried remnant of blue powder 
  caking its interior. It is the dried remains of essence of ether. If a victim 
  were to receive a dose of it, they would fall unconscious for 8 hours if a 
  saving throw was failed. The rag itself is also stained in the centre with the 
  dried blue crust where it had at one time been soaked in the concoction. If 
  no one present is capable of identifying the poison, applying a bit of the 
  crust to the tongue causes momentary numbness, giving a hint as to its 
  sedative effects with a DC 10 Intelligence check. 
  The key is large and made of iron with a decorative bow. Cast into the key’s 
  bow is an intricate sigil of a plumb bob and hammer. A DC 10 Intelligence 
  (History) check recognizes the sigil as that of the city’s old Guild of Sewagers 
  and Ironmongers, which can still be seen on the lock-gates on many of the 
  older sewer tunnels and drainage channels throughout the city, if one knows 
  where to look. A DC 10 Intelligence (History) check recalls the guild to have 
  been the extremely corrupt organization that built and managed the sewers 
  and underground drainage systems of the city for centuries before finally 
  being replaced by the city’s Office of Sanitation by order of the infamous 
  Crown Justice Moravan. The key appears to be one of the old master keys that 
  belonged to the guild for use in accessing the city’s sewer lock-gates.
  Finally the parchment that the key was wrapped in is also of interest. It is 
  actually a piece torn from a 30-year-old broadsheet that bears an advertisement 
  for one “Madam Larua — Teller of Fortunes and Diviner of Secrets” 
  (Handout B). The broadsheet gives the location of her fortune-telling stall 
  as being located near the edge of the Skew at the summit of the Festival Pier.
  While the clues found on the cart seem a bit disconnected between the 
  old sewagers guild and a fortune teller, the presence of the sleeping poison 
  and the hidden, child-sized cage hint at a grim truth all their own.
  To add one final piece to everything uncovered at Grindlylow’s 
  Grinders, a few moments after Everett Schimp sees the sigil on the key 
  — whether the PCs have recognized its significance or not — he perks 
  up and comments how he’s seen that sigil before. It’s inscribed above an 
  old barred gate in a courtyard nearby where he eats his lunch each day. If 
  asked, he can show it to the PCs.
  Behind the Scenes
  Bill never returned to the grinding house with the gear because that very 
  night was when he came to the decision that his days of hunting spite-
  waifs were over. With that decision made, he moved on from that part of 
  his life and never bothered to return for his cart or even thought about it 
  again. To him it was as if he had never owned it — that was all part of 
  another lifetime.
  The clues provided by the cart are only all too clear. Bill would use the 
  essence of ether to drug the children who were his victims and then hide 
  them inside the compartment in his cart so he could secretly transport 
  them to the various locations where he committed his crimes. When the 
  PCs come to this realization (or something to the effect that Bill may have 
  been drugging children and locking them in the cart), they likely begin 
  to realize a motive for why Bill might have been murdered by a child. 
  Furthermore, a DC 10 Intelligence (History) check or Everett Schimp (if 
  the GM needs an NPC voice to fill them in) remembers the legends of 
  Bloody Jack Carver and the nursery rhyme presented at the introduction 
  to this adventure (provide the players with Handout C).
  
  15
  Bloody Jack
  What Next
  The PCs have now likely made a connection between Bill and the 
  abduction, and possibly murder, of children three decades ago and may be 
  suspicious that he was, in fact, the Bloody Jack killer. This certainly gives 
  a motive for why a child might have killed Old Bill but certainly doesn’t 
  explain how a child was capable of it, or even aware of something that 
  occurred 30 years before. Indeed, none of this really gets them any closer 
  to solving the crime they are currently investigating.
  They do have new clues in the old Sewagers Guild tunnels and the 
  location of a fortune-telling stall from a generation ago, though what 
  insight these disparate locations might provide remains a mystery. 
  However, at this point they still have little else to go on.
  If the PCs follow Everett Schimp to the old sewer entrance, proceed with 
  Chapter 3. If they’d like to check into the enigmatic Madam Larua, they 
  can do so in Chapter 4. If they still have not followed up on Inspector 
  Muncy himself at The Queen’s Own pub, they can still do so in Chapter 5.
  
  16
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Everett Schimp guides the PCs to a nearby abandoned courtyard among 
  the streets and alleys of East Ending where he takes his lunch each day 
  to gain a few moments of peace away from the noise and bustle of the 
  grinding house.
  1. Vacant Courtyard
  The noise and confusion of the city are left behind as two 
  alleys come together here to open into a remote courtyard, 
  surrounded on all sides by mostly vacant, three-storey 
  buildings. A few trees grow along the edges providing shade 
  for a stone bench that sits beneath one of them. To the west, 
  a thick cascade of withered vines grows upon a wall, mostly 
  obscuring an archway beneath them. Just barely visible 
  beyond the vines is a gate of iron bars and at its arched top is 
  a rusted iron plaque bearing a hammer and plumb bob sigil.
  The bench is where Everett eats lunch. The overgrown gate is a lock-
  gate, and the sigil above it is indeed that of the Sewagers Guild. The entire 
  courtyard slopes slightly to the west so that when rainfall occurs, the 
  runoff flows through the lock-gate and into the city’s drainage tunnels. 
  It is currently dry. The curtain of vines shows that no one has used this 
  lock-gate in many years. Removing the overgrowth from the lock-gate 
  takes a few minutes work to reveal that the gate itself is secured with a 
  heavy lock. This rusty lock requires a DC 20 check to open, or the PCs 
  can use the key found in Chapter 2 to open it easily. Everett Schimp will 
  not accompany the PCs beyond this gate for any reason and can provide 
  no further information.
  2. Drainage Tunnel
  Grimy steps descend rapidly to one of the old drainage 
  tunnels that run beneath the city. This tunnel’s brick walls are 
  coated with years of grime up to the high water marks left here 
  long ago, and the floor is several inches deep in collected filth 
  and detritus. Though slightly muddy, the tunnel is largely dry 
  now. There are no light sources, but in the wan illumination 
  coming through the lock-gate, you can see that the centre 
  of the tunnel is punctuated periodically by large iron grates 
  providing further drainage for storm runoff.
  Chapter Three:
  The Hidden Ways of the 
  Sewagers and Ironmongers
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • The Sewagers Guild key from Old Bill’s cart in Chapter 2.
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • Further evidence that Old Bill was Bloody Jack based on the 
  additional equipment found in area 3.
  • The fact that Bloody Jack was killing more than just children 
  based on the non-human skeletons found in 11.
  • The fact that children (or something that seems childlike) are 
  now possibly coming after the party with malicious intent when 
  the door is locked at 7.
  • The possibility that someone may be helping them in their 
  investigation with the discovery of the sign board at 2 (though 
  this could also appear to have been a lure set by the same 
  “children” that tried to trap them at 11.
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here if they have not already done so:
  • Chapter 4 to locate Madam Larua.
  • Chapter 5 to investigate the suspicious behavior of Inspector 
  Muncy.
  • Chapter 7 as events proceed behind the scenes if they have 
  already completed Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
  
  17
  Bloody Jack
  
  18
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  The drainage tunnels are 10ft high. The iron grates can be lifted with a 
  DC 15 Strength check but they just lead to smooth-walled vertical shafts that 
  run down into the lower bowels of the city’s sewer. Based on the pungent 
  aroma arising from them, the tunnels below are obviously still in use. An 
  alcove branches off of this tunnel just inside the entrance and requires a DC 
  15 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice in the shadows. If a light source (or 
  a PC with darkvision) is brought in, it is noticed automatically.
  3. Storage Alcove
  The back wall of this brick alcove is stamped with the plumb 
  bob and hammer of the Guild of Sewagers and Ironmongers. 
  Shelves have been built above the high water mark on each 
  side wall, and hooks protrude from the wall beneath them.
  This alcove was once used by guild members to store equipment and 
  hang tool belts and waders for use in the maintenance of these tunnels. It has 
  not been used for this purpose in many years, however searching the shelves 
  reveals several other items lying under a thick layer of dust. These items 
  include a small metal coffer, a tattered old book of children’s fairy tales, a 
  few articles of soiled and grubby children’s clothing, and a pair of rusty old 
  butcher’s knives, stained brown with old blood. Opening the coffer reveals 
  two clay bottles that contain the same blue residue (essence of ether) as 
  found in Old Bill’s tinker cart in Chapter 2. These items were all left here 
  by Old Bill three decades ago and have been forgotten ever since.
  Development: While the PCs are examining the items in this alcove, 
  there comes a loud clatter out in the main tunnel as of a large piece of 
  wood falling to the floor. Anyone going out to check finds that 50ft down 
  the tunnel to the west, a wooden signboard has fallen to the floor from 
  where it hung from the wall by an old bolt (now rusted through). The sign 
  is stenciled with faded lettering that simply says, “Tunnel 34 West, East 
  Terminus,” and has clearly hung here since the days of the guild’s use. 
  Why it would suddenly choose this moment to give way and fall is not 
  readily apparent. There can also be seen a message recently scrawled in 
  charcoal (Handout D) on the front of the signboard. A DC 10 Intelligence 
  (History) check recognizes it as another Bloody Jack-related nursery 
  rhyme common among the children of the Blight. 
  Anyone searching the semi-solid muck around where the signboard 
  fell, notices with a DC 5 Wisdom (Perception) check an arrow drawn in 
  the grime pointing further down the tunnel as a well as a small piece of 
  charcoal — obviously used to write the message. A DC 15 Perception 
  check notices a set of child-sized footprints with stocking feet going to and 
  from where the signboard fell. They emerge from and return to a nearby 
  floor drain whose grate has been shifted from its seating to allow access 
  to the vertical tunnel below for a Small creature. Attempting pursuit down 
  this 30ft deep shaft is fruitless as it just leads to flooded sewer pipes only 
  a few feet in diameter where the PCs cannot safely follow. Though it may 
  appear that these prints were left by the perpetrator of the Bill Hughe 
  murder (i.e. a spite-waif), they were in fact left by an attic whisperer that 
  is serving as a hidden benefactor to the PCs in their investigation and will 
  appear again in Chapter 7. The PCs will be unable to discern the undead 
  origin of the footprints, however, because the creature wears an old pair of 
  stockings that disguises its skeletal feet.
  4. Crooked Crossing
  The tunnel walls are broken here by a low, 5ft high opening 
  on either side. In addition, a drain grate in the centre of the 
  tunnel has been removed to reveal the open pit leading to the 
  sewers below. A foul stench wafts from this pit.
  Anyone making a DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check can tell that the 
  sewer smell is coming from the side tunnels in addition to the sewer pit. 
  This is because the clutch of 3 crooked chokers that dwell here make 
  frequent trips between the sludgy sewer channels below and the small 
  access tunnels that run to the north and south. These filthy creatures look 
  like regular chokers — grey-skinned, hunched-over wretches with long, 
  tentacle-like arms ending in splayed, spiny claws — except their heads 
  have been twisted around oddly on their corkscrew necks until they face 
  backward and they scuttle about on all fours in an awkward crablike gait. 
  These horrors descended from Between long ago and took up residence in 
  the tunnels beneath the Blight. The Spiteful have gone ahead of the PCs 
  and rousted them from their lair here to prepare an ambush.
  The chokers usually climb along the ceiling and walls of the crumbling 
  brick tunnel, rarely touching the ground so they leave no tracks, but anyone 
  searching the tunnel floor (DC 10 Wisdom [Perception] check) can find a 
  single pair of man-sized, shod footprints next to the floor drain as if somebody 
  appeared and stood there for a moment before disappearing and leaving no 
  trail behind. In actuality, a fey-touched agent of The Spiteful invisibly flew 
  here ahead of the PCs to warn the chokers of their approach, and then flew off 
  down the tunnel ahead of the PCs to prepare their next obstacle.
  Crooked Choker (3): AC 15; HP 45 (10d6+10); Spd 30ft, climb 
  15ft; Melee tentacle (+6, 10ft, 1d8+4 bludgeoning plus re-
  straint, escape DC 13), bite (+6, 1d6+4 piercing); SA multi-
  attack (tentacle x2 or tentacle, bite), quickness (move with 
  bonus action); Str +4, Dex +2, Con +1, Int –3, Wis +1, Cha –1; 
  Skills Athletics +5, Stealth +6; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits 
  strangle (restrained target can’t speak or case verbal spells); 
  AL CE; CR 2 (XP 450).
  Tactics: The broken chokers have prepared an ambush for the PCs. One 
  hangs in the drain just below its lip, and one lurks in the north side tunnel. 
  These both have total concealment as the party approaches. Likewise, one 
  hides in a crevice in the ceiling just above the drain. As soon as the PCs 
  approach within 10ft, the choker in the pit leaps out and starts running to 
  the west. If the PCs attempt to pursue or make ranged attacks, the choker 
  in the side tunnel attempts to run out and shove a PC with surprise into the 
  pit from behind. The choker dangling from the ceiling then makes attacks 
  at any PCs behind that one so it can grapple them over the pit and drop 
  them. The third choker then doubles back and joins in the attack on any 
  remaining foes. The choker in the ceiling crevice has total cover to anyone 
  not in an adjacent square and half cover even from adjacent squares. Only 
  those in the square directly below the choker’s position don’t have to deal 
  with it having cover. However, wedged into the crevice as it is, that choker 
  is attacked with advantage.
  The pit is 5ft in diameter with slimy walls (DC 20 Strength [Athletics] 
  check) and drops 30ft into a 2ft deep pool of sewage (3d6 falling damage, 
  DC 15 Dexterity save to grab the pit’s edge to avoid falling). The side 
  pipes leading out of the pit are too small for the PCs to traverse. These 
  degenerates fight to the death.
  Treasures: Deposited in the corner of the side branch down the 
  northern tunnel is the desiccated corpse of a halfling, half-eaten long 
  ago by the chokers with the torso and remaining leg left to dry out like 
  jerky. Anyone searching these remains must make a DC 12 Fortitude save 
  or contract leprosy (see the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Appendices, 
  “Diseases”). Also a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals an old dry-
  rotten leather pouch stuffed into the corpse’s mouth. This pouch contains 
  two chrysoberyls (150gp each) and 7pp.
  5. Light at the End of the Tunnel
  Another lock-gate bars the end of the tunnel as it emerges 
  to a short stair rising to another courtyard. This one is much 
  like the one you entered through, though perhaps even more 
  desolate. Where the other had a few trees and a shady bench, 
  this has several sickly trees and a thick growth of bracken that 
  has broken through the cobblestones. Also, unlike the other 
  yard which simply had blank brick walls from surrounding 
  buildings closing it off, this one has the boarded-up doors of 
  old businesses that once opened out onto it. The sounds of 
  traffic and the lifeblood of the city are heard only very faintly 
  from this courtyard.
  
  19
  Bloody Jack
  The key that the PCs’ possess easily opens this lock-gate as well. The 
  streets run for 100ft to the north and east before opening onto more heavily 
  travelled thoroughfares. The two boarded-up businesses that opened onto 
  this courtyard bear signs that read “Abler’s Stitchery: Fine Apparel” and 
  “The Seaside Larder: The freshest fare this side of the sea.” The door to 
  each has been boarded up but can be forced open with a DC 10 Strength 
  check or a few minutes work with a crowbar or axe.
  A DC 10 Intelligence check recalls that The Seaside Larder was one 
  of the names that appeared repeatedly in the receipts they found in Old 
  Bill’s home. Apparently he performed a lot of tinkering jobs for them and 
  was at the location quite frequently. That combined with the fact that he 
  possessed a Sewager’s Guild key to give easy access to the establishment 
  should seem a glaring coincidence.
  5a. Abler’s Stitchery
  This building is vacant and dusty with only the remains of a broken old 
  loom standing against the back wall to provide any hint as to its former 
  purpose. There is nothing of interest.
  6. The Seaside Larder
  The ghostly forms of sheet-draped tables stand scattered 
  across the room, the chairs that once stood with them long 
  since stolen. The dry, cracked remains of an old plaster 
  fountain hang upon the back wall, and a service window opens 
  next to the door to the kitchen.
  Once an ostentatious (for East Ending) eatery of middling quality, The 
  Seaside Larder closed more than 30 years ago. As Bill had done a great 
  bit of work for it over the years and was familiar with the building, he 
  continued to use it in his role as Bloody Jack Carver as will be discovered 
  by the PCs in its cellar.
  7. Kitchen
  This dusty space once served as the kitchen for this 
  establishment, and the faint stench of fish grease still hangs 
  over the place. A large oven and grill stands across the room 
  while at the opposite end a stone basin sink protrudes from the 
  wall. A heavy door stands closed not far from the sink.
  The sink once brought water to this room from the pipes below the 
  eatery but, like the fountain in room 6, it is now dry. Opening the door 
  reveals a rickety wooden staircase leading down into the cellar.
  8. Kitchen Cellar
  The brick walls of the kitchen stair are crusted thick with 
  nitre and stained with soot as they open into a cellar. The air 
  here is muggy and damp with large patches of black mould 
  growing on the floor and walls. A large lead pipe protrudes at 
  head height from the north wall before turning abruptly into 
  the west wall. A flywheel mounted on its elbow joint appears to 
  be rusted in place. Long strings and sheets of dripping fungus 
  hang down from this pipe nearly obscuring a passageway 
  beyond it. Another passage exits to the east.
  The lead pipe once carried water to the fountain and sink in the eatery 
  above, but its iron valve is now rusted shut. Nevertheless, it is still the 
  source of the excessive dampness in the chamber as a continuous trickle 
  of water runs through it. The mould and fungus themselves are harmless, 
  however, residing among the fungus atop the old pipe is a fungus weird, 
  a snakelike creature that appears to be composed of thick ropes of fungus 
  
  20
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  twisted together. Anyone attempting to pass through the fungus (the 
  corner 5ft square is considered the weird’s pool) to gain access to room 
  9 becomes automatically entangled as the spell and must make either a 
  DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) to break free. 
  The fungus weird ignores anyone entangled and instead concentrates its 
  attacks on others in the room. It can go anywhere in the room (though not 
  beyond) but always maintains a tenuous link to the curtain of fungus on 
  the pipes.
  Fungus Weird: AC 15; HP 67 (9d10+18); Spd 30ft; Melee bite 
  (+5, 10ft, 3d6+3 piercing plus restraint, escape DC 13); SA 
  sleep spores (Recharge 5-6, 10ft cone, 1 min, poison causes 
  unconsciousness, DC 12 Con avoid, repeat save if target 
  takes damage); Immune blindness, bludgeoning, deafness, 
  exhaustion, fright, unconscious; Resist cold, normal piercing 
  and slashing attacks; Str +3, Dex +3, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +1, 
  Cha +1; Senses blindsight 30ft (blind outside radius); Traits 
  camouflage (invisible in pool), fungus pool (20ft radius diffi-
  cult terrain, entangle causes restraint, escape DC 13); AL N; 
  CR 4 (1100 XP).
  9. Scullery
  The stench in here is almost overwhelming. It is the smell 
  of rotting fabric, mildew, and decades-old accumulation of 
  fish scales and table waste. Next to the door a spigot extends 
  from the wall above a large wooden tub, empty now of all save 
  old water stains and a few broken pieces of crockery. Stacked 
  against the north wall and filling half the room is the source of 
  the stench, a huge pile of table linens, aprons, waiter uniforms, 
  chef’s apparel, linen napkins, and old wash rags intermixed
  with countless stacks of tableware, crockery, cooking utensils, 
  and old grease traps. Old rat droppings lie scattered across the 
  floor and this pile of detritus.
  This scullery was where the dishes and linens of the eatery were washed. 
  Now these have sat and festered in this damp chamber for more than 30 
  years and created a rotten mound of decay and filth. Anyone staying in 
  here for longer than 1 round must make a DC 10 Constitution save or be 
  poisoned for as long as they remain in the chamber. Searching through the 
  morass for treasure or anything of interest will require at least an hour of 
  digging. Furthermore, the rags are so damp that they will not burn.
  Buried at the bottom of this mound is the former chef of The Seaside 
  Larder, now a carcass. A massively obese man, the Larder was closed 
  more than three decades ago when its chef suddenly went missing. He in 
  fact ran afoul of Old Scratch one night who tortured and murdered him 
  as sort of a parlour prank before animating the corpse and hiding it back 
  here without anyone knowing. Since the eatery closed so soon after that 
  and the mound of washing was never moved, he was never discovered. A 
  gluttonous and cruel man in life fond of consuming live river eels by the 
  handful, in death he is a mound of corpulent undead flesh, huge fat rolls 
  hanging listlessly from his pale body. His distended abdomen has split 
  open to reveal the twisted remain of his past meals, 4 lamprey zombies 
  lurching forward on their spiny ventral fins, their maws filled with needle-
  sharp fangs. The chef remains quiescent at the bottom of the mound unless 
  the PCs dig down and disturb him. Otherwise he does not rouse from his 
  stupor until the events described under “Development” in room 11.
  Carcass: AC 13; HP 58 (9d8+18); Spd 20ft; Melee slam (+7, 
  1d8+5 bludgeoning) or envelop (grapple escape DC 15); SA 
  envelop (paralysis, DC 15 Con avoids, 1d4 acid per round), 
  expel, multiattack (slam x2); Str +5, Dex –2, Con +2, Int –4, 
  Wis +0, Cha +0; Skills Perception +4; Senses darkvision 60ft; 
  AL NE; CR 2 (450 XP).
  Lamprey Zombie (4): AC 13; HP 19 (3d6+9); Spd 30ft, swim 
  40ft; Melee bite (+3, 1d6+1 piercing); Immune poison; Resist 
  slashing; Str +1, Dex +1, Con +3, Int –4, Wis –2 (+0), Cha –3; 
  Senses darkvision 60ft; AL NE; CR 1/4 (50 XP). 
  
  21
  Bloody Jack
  10. Larders
  The fishy stench down this narrow hall is noticeably worse 
  than elsewhere. Along the north wall are a series of metal doors 
  undoubtedly used to store the fish brought in for the eatery 
  above. The doors all appear to be intact and in good repair but 
  are otherwise unremarkable save for the last door down. Even 
  from here a padlock can be seen hanging from the hasp of the 
  door handle.
  These rooms served as ice boxes for the eatery. Ice was brought in 
  and stored in these rooms on a bed of sawdust while fresh catches were 
  stored here until they could be prepared for customers. The first two 
  rooms smell strongly of the old fish reek and have only a few metal 
  hooks dangling from the ceiling, wooden shelving for storing fish, and 
  piles of old, mildewed sawdust where the ice was once stored. They 
  have nothing of value.
  11. Bloody Jack’s Larder
  The door to this chamber bears a large padlock that has the insignia of 
  the Guild of Sewagers and Ironmongers (DC 20 to unlock). It opens easily 
  with Old Bill’s key.
  This larder is different from the others you’ve seen. As the 
  door swings open, a subtle musty smell, like old leather, drifts 
  from within. The ceiling of the revealed chamber is filled with 
  dangling meat hooks and as the light filters inside, you realize 
  with horror that many of the hooks pierce the desiccated, 
  almost skeletal, remains of more than a dozen human children. 
  After the eatery closed, Bloody Jack Carver used this room to dispose of 
  some of the children he abducted. There are a total of 17 children on meat 
  hooks that have hung here since Bill left them 30 years ago. The relative 
  dryness of this sealed chamber caused them to desiccate into their current 
  forms rather than rot away. They hang with the hooks jammed through their 
  rib cages, and their dried skin has become parchment thin, stretched tight 
  over the bones, revealing the dried remains of their internal organs and 
  muscles beneath. Anyone examining them and making a DC 10 Wisdom 
  (Medicine) check notices something strange about them, however. Three 
  of the “children” do not have the normal internal anatomical features of 
  a human child. Their organs are strangely shaped and out of place, and 
  most of their abdomens are occupied by a distended stomach. Closer 
  examination of these bodies reveals the permanent teeth buds emerging 
  from their jaws are sharp and pointed like a carnivore’s, and their fingernails 
  are thicker and extend deep back into the bones of their fingers to provide 
  strong and dangerous claws. Intelligence checks will not provide any 
  further information on the type of creature. These simply have never been 
  encountered by the inhabitants of Castorhage, so there is no base knowledge 
  to draw from for these. Whatever they are, they are definitely not human, 
  having only the superficial appearance of human children. Clearly Bloody 
  Jack was doing more than just murdering the human children of the city.
  If the PCs have access to spells such as speak with dead, they can try 
  and question any of the corpses. The human corpses are all children of East 
  Ending who disappeared 30 years ago and tell the same woeful tale of the 
  kindly tinker, Old Bill, befriending them with kind words and treats only 
  to find themselves locked inside a wooden box and ultimately brought to 
  this chamber where they were hung from the meat hooks to die. They know 
  nothing of his motives or any unhuman children. Strangely, the nonhuman 
  corpses give the same kinds of responses as from the perspective of the 
  human personas they were inhabiting as an odd side effect of their perfect 
  copy ability that allowed them to take those forms so long ago. The result is 
  clear: there are no easy answers to be had by magical means here.
  Development: As the PCs have had a moment to make the discovery 
  of the murdered children (and likely discover that not all of them are 
  children), read the following if they have not already encountered the 
  carcass in 9. If the carcass has been destroyed, then do not read the 
  italicized portion, and instead replace the carcass with a hell hound that 
  The Spiteful released into the cellar before locking the door. 
  Your discoveries are interrupted by a sound, ordinarily 
  harmless but strangely menacing in the current setting: the 
  faint sound of children’s laughter coming from the direction 
  of the eatery’s cellar. It is followed by the echoing boom of 
  the cellar stair door being slammed shut and cutting off the 
  laughter. All is silent in the allegedly abandoned basement 
  for only a moment before another sound reaches your 
  ears — fainter, almost a whisper at first. It is the sound of 
  shifting fabric and the clatter of dislodged stacks of crockery. 
  Something large and heavy shifts in the darkness back in the 
  direction you came from, followed shortly by the growing 
  stench of a graveyard wind. You are not alone in the dark.
  The Spiteful have attempted to trap the PCs within the cellar along with 
  the carcass (that they discovered years ago). PCs retreating to the top of 
  the cellar stairs find that the strong wooden door has been barred from 
  the other side (DC 15 Strength check to open). Meanwhile, the carcass 
  emerges from room 9 and attempts to trap the PCs in the passage at 10. 
  It first expels the lamprey zombies in its stomach to allow these crawling 
  horrors to engage the PCs before lumbering forward itself to take part in 
  the slaughter. These creatures fight until destroyed. When the PCs escape 
  the cellar, they find no trace of The Spiteful who laid the trap for them.
  Hell Hound: AC 15; HP 45 (7d8+14); Spd 50ft; Melee bite (+5, 
  1d8+3 piercing plus 2d6 fire); SA fire breath (Recharge 5–6, 
  15 ft cone, 6d6 fire, DC 12 Dex half); Immune fire; Str +3, Dex 
  +1, Con +2, Int –2, Wis +1, Cha –2; Skills Perception +5; Sens-
  es darkvision 60ft, keen hearing and smell; Traits pack tac-
  tics; AL LE; CR 3 (700 XP).
  Behind the Scenes
  The PCs have now confirmed that they have come to the attention of 
  something (possibly children) that want them dead or incapacitated but 
  do not know how or why. They also may be beginning to suspect that 
  someone is trying to help them (from the sign in the tunnel), though more 
  likely assume it to have been part of the ambush set by The Spiteful.
  In fact, with the discovery of the non-human corpses among the 
  murdered children, The Spiteful have decided that the PCs are a dangerous 
  liability that needs to be eliminated before they can spread their knowledge 
  of the unhuman children to someone who may pay enough attention 
  to do something about it (not likely in Castorhage at this stage of the 
  investigation). Regardless, The Spiteful will now be actively attempting 
  to thwart the PCs (murdering them if necessary) to remove them from 
  the case, and the PCs’ unknown benefactor (revealed in Chapter 7) will 
  be working to provide them with clues when it can. The PCs should not 
  have a direct encounter with either at this point. Use Appendix I to run 
  encounters that occur as a result of this newfound notoriety.
  What Next
  The PCs have not discovered any new evidence to give them direction 
  on where to go at this point, but they have found nearly conclusive proof 
  that Old Bill was in fact Bloody Jack Carver (or at least closely allied 
  with him), as well as a possible motive for the killings — to weed out 
  non-human children disguised among the human populace of the Blight, 
  though who was doing it, why, or even what they truly are is beyond the 
  PCs at this point.
  With no new directions to look, they can now try to follow up on the 
  whereabouts of Madam Larua in Chapter 4 or look into the background of 
  Inspector Muncy at The Queen’s Own pub in Chapter 5. When Chapters 
  3, 4, and 6 have all been completed, proceed with Chapter 7.
  
  22
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Following the advertisement on the broadsheet found in Old Bill’s cart brings 
  the PCs to the upper edge of the Skew, 200ft of steeply rising streets built upon 
  the edge of the great Festival Pier leading up to the Great Fayre at its summit. 
  The streets are haphazard, full of switchbacks and dead ends, built up on 
  elevated walks around, between and on top of the jumble of buildings crammed 
  onto this artificial precipice. Fortunately, Madam Larua’s (LAR-ooh-ah) stall is 
  near the top at the inner edge of this hodge-podge of construction where it gives 
  way to the Great Fayre, so it is actually fairly easy to locate. 
  The encounter at this location works best at night, so assume it is just 
  after nightfall when the PCs arrive here. If they chose to go straight here 
  from the crime scene at Old Bill’s hovel, assume that they had a great deal 
  of trouble locating Madam Larua’s stall among the tangle of streets that 
  is the Skew. Otherwise, just assume that the amount of time necessary to 
  cross the river and walk from East Ending all the way to the top of the 
  Skew took the better part of the day (along with any other tasks they may 
  have chosen to take care of before hand).
  Read the following as the PCs complete the climb through the chaos 
  that is the Skew.
  The last gleam of twilight has given way to nightfall by the 
  time you finish the climb from the banks of the Great Lyme
  River below up through the tangle of streets that is the 
  Skew to the summit of Festival. The ramshackle streets 
  and elevated walks you climbed rose steeply between the 
  countless hovels and shops, built upon each other like 
  a seemingly never-ending stack of precarious children’s 
  blocks. The creaks of ancient timbers shoring up sections of 
  this cobbled-together mass and the all-too-obvious warping 
  and groaning of massive bolts holding key structural 
  elements of the conglomeration together give the entire 
  journey a feeling of taking one’s life into his or her own 
  hands. It is not a pleasant sensation, and you are stunned 
  to realize the masses of people that live and work in and 
  among this house of cards. The dailies frequently speak of 
  collapses in sections of the Skew, but they in no way capture 
  the true peril that lurks incessantly among its rising byways 
  and the atrocious loss of life that must occur.
  Surmounting the Skew brings you to the summit of 
  the great pier that is the Festival District, and only a few 
  hundred feet away lays the entrance to the Great Fayre, a 
  riot of colour and lights, attractions and screams of delight 
  against a background of never-ending, tuneless calliope 
  music and the lingering smell of urine and fried treats.
  However, here at the very verge of the summit, set up 
  outside the limits of the Great Fayre, are endless rows of 
  vendor stalls, many occupied, some abandoned, but all 
  burdened with years of grime and disenchantment. One in 
  particular catches your eye — a ramshackle wooden affair 
  with its back end virtually hanging out over the drop of the 
  Skew below. Faded bunting that was once some shade of 
  purple flutters feebly in the first breezes of the night around 
  a hand-painted sign — long since faded and peeling — that 
  shows an elaborately dressed, sharp-featured young gypsy 
  woman peering deeply into the ubiquitous crystal ball. Still 
  barely legible next to this image are the words, “Madam 
  Larua — Teller of Fortunes and Diviner of Secrets.” You 
  have found it.
  Though the front door to the small building is closed, the faint 
  glimmer of candlelight can be seen coming from underneath it. 
  Madam Larua is open for business. The stall is a claptrap affair with 
  walls and roof of scavenged timber so coated with decades of gull 
  droppings and blown garbage that it is difficult to see the sagging 
  planks beneath it. The building actually does hang over the edge 
  of the Skew’s precipice with a back room built onto and supported 
  entirely by stilts set into the roof of a building below. A locked door 
  opens onto an exterior stair that descends into the mazelike warrens 
  below. Anyone falling off the edge of this precipice or the stairway 
  takes 2d6 bludgeoning damage as he crashes through the flimsy roof 
  of a cottage 15ft below.
  Chapter Four: Madame 
  Larua — Teller of Fortunes 
  and Diviner of Secrets
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • The advertisement from Old Bill’s cart in Chapter 2.
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • Madam Larua always suspected that Bill Hughe was Bloody 
  Jack.
  • Madam Larua’s last reading for Bill Hughe strongly implicates 
  him as Bloody Jack Carver and coincides with the end of his 
  killing spree.
  • Someone or something wanted Madam Larua dead, and it 
  may have something to do with the Bloody Jack killings or the 
  murder of Bill Hughe.
  • Some important clue remains to be found at one of the crime 
  scenes (which one is very much up for debate), but it allegedly 
  may trigger a new series of Bloody Jack killings.
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here if they have not already done so:
  • Chapter 3 to investigate the sewer entrance.
  • Chapter 5 to investigate the suspicious behavior of Inspector 
  Muncy.
  • Chapter 7 as events proceed behind the scenes if they have 
  already completed Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
  
  23
  Bloody Jack
  When the PCs enter, read the following:
  It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the dim interior 
  of this flimsy structure. The floor creaks, and the floorboards 
  sag noticeably near the back wall where they extend out over 
  the edge of the precipice of Festival. The rear wall even bows 
  slightly from this warping, though much of it is covered by a 
  thick, moth-eaten curtain. The side walls are likewise covered 
  in this manner, and the ceiling is swathed in old, dusty bolts 
  of muslin, giving the entire room the feeling of the inside of a 
  gypsy caravan wagon.
  Before the rear curtain stands a small, cloth-covered table. 
  Upon it rests a dust-covered crystal ball with a few well-
  thumbed, illuminated cards splayed out before it, along with an 
  inkwell and old quill. Behind the table sits a bedraggled, white-
  haired old woman in threadbare finery and a colourful bandana. 
  Her sharp features sag and have been dulled by age and drink. 
  You assume her to be the aforementioned Madam Larua, but 
  clearly many years have passed since the portrait on the sign 
  above the door was painted. She thumps a half-empty bottle to 
  the floor behind the table and fixes a bleary eye upon you.
  The woman before the PCs is indeed Madam Larua (CN female human 
  forture teller commoner), now 62 years of age — an unheard-of lifespan 
  for most residents of the Skew. The spidery veins on her nose and cheeks 
  would reveal her long association with strong drink even if her fetid breath 
  didn’t, but she is sober enough to greet the PCs and ask them if they would 
  like to know the future, only 5sp for a reading. She will not even talk 
  to them unless somebody buys a reading which, after taking the money 
  and depositing it securely in her girdle, she conducts by taking the PC’s 
  hand and staring blearily into his eyes. She then closes her own and in a 
  monotone states, “Look for a change in your future as ze hidden strength 
  of your character catch ze attention of someone important” — as bland and 
  generic a “fortune” as the PCs have ever heard. If the PC complains about 
  this, Madam Larua merely shrugs as she takes another sip from her bottle 
  and says in her thick accent, “Zat is what you get for five silver pilasters.” 
  She refuses to talk with them further unless they offer her at least 5gp. 
  If they give her a bottle of spirits (one can be obtained at a nearby stall 
  for 1gp), then she lowers the bribe threshold to 2gp. Once given proper 
  incentive, she sips on her bottle and answers the PCs’ questions. She 
  knows the following information:
  • Do you know a tinker from 30 years ago named Bill Hughe or 
  Old Bill? Though her memory is often clouded by age and drink, she 
  actually does remember the troubled tinker. He visited her on many 
  occasions thirty-odd years ago and always had an intense demeanor, 
  like he was on some sort of mission. She found him unnerving.
  • What sorts of questions did Bill want answers to? He always sought 
  readings on how to find what he called “naughty children”. He always 
  seemed very concerned with the whereabouts of these naughty children 
  but never elaborated.
  • Did you ever think anything odd about Bill? That’s why she 
  remembers him: the strangely intense tinker, always asking about 
  naughty children, all during the time that the Bloody Jack Carver killings 
  were occurring. She half-suspected that the strange tinker was Bloody 
  Jack himself, though he never gave any actual hints that he was.
  • Did you ever tell the authorities of your suspicions? Who would 
  listen to the ramblings of a gypsy? Plus he was a regular customer 
  and his money was good. She never had any real, tangible proof, just 
  a suspicion based on his odd behavior and she was unwilling to lose 
  him as a paying customer on account of it. She always told herself 
  that if he ever gave any concrete evidence that he actually was Bloody 
  Jack, she would report him to the Office of the Watch, but he never 
  did. By the time she had thought of a way to parlay her suspicions to 
  the authorities for a big payoff, Bill had stopped coming to her, and the 
  killings had stopped, so she thought she had missed the boat on that.
  • Was there a reason why he stopped coming? None that she knows of 
  because he never said. He had been coming at least once a month for 
  several years — sometimes as many as two or three times a week — 
  then he just stopped. She always wondered if the last reading that she 
  gave him caused him to stop coming, but she shrugs the thought away. 
  No matter, he stopped coming; that is all there is to it.
  • What was your last reading for Bill Hughe? “I have no idea. 
  Sometimes someone come in, gives me five pils, I close my eyes, say 
  some grand words, and send zem on zeir way no better or worse zan 
  zey came. Zey came wanting entertainment and a touch of mystery, 
  and I gave it to zem. But sometimes someone come in, and ze Spirit 
  world really want to talk to zem. When zat happen, I say zings—zings 
  I don’t know and don’t remember. My mother had ze Sight, and it 
  touch me sometimes like zat. I don’t charge anyzing more for zese 
  readings because if ze gods want to talk to someone, far be it from me 
  to interfere. But when ze spirits decide to talk, you don’t get your own 
  front row seat. You’re just ze carriage; ze spirits become ze driver.” 
     However, though she doesn’t know the readings herself, she always 
  keeps ink and quill on hand. When under the influence of the spirits 
  (the PCs have to wonder which kind she is referring to here as she 
  polishes off the bottle), she always recorded them on scrolls which she 
  then locked away for posterity. However, she never read them, feeling 
  that it was a private matter between the client and the Spirit world. She 
  always figured it would be bad luck to read their correspondence.
  • If you’ve still got the final reading that you gave Old Bill, can 
  we see it? She initially refuses based on her prior claim of bad luck. 
  However if properly plied with coin and/or liquor (10gp or at least 
  three bottles) she relents and agrees to let them see it.
  Development: After the PCs have paid their latest bribe, Madam Larua 
  ushers them through the curtain into a small room in the back of the stall. 
  It actually sits upon wooden scaffolds out over the precipice. It has only 
  a rude cot, a small table and chairs, a single window with a thin curtain, 
  and a locked steamer trunk. A bolted door leads to stairs descending down 
  into the Skew.
  Madam Larua produces a key from her girdle and opens the steamer 
  trunk. Within are dozens of parchment rolls secured with bits of string 
  
  24
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  or ribbon. Each bears a date carefully written on the outside. All of these 
  are true readings that she has had over the last 40 years. She rummages 
  through until she finds one with the correct date 30 years ago (a DC 15 
  Intelligence [History]  check recognizes it as a date approximately 1 week 
  after the last known Bloody Jack killing occurred) and hands it to the PCs. 
  It contains Old Bill’s last reading with Madam Larua (Handout E).
  “You will soon lay down the knife as your time is done. 
  Another is to come who will return to the scene of the crime 
  and take up the bloody business again.”
  If this is shown to Madam Larua, she has no idea what it refers to 
  (though still strongly suspects the Bloody Jack killings). She does recall 
  that as she came to Bill was mumbling to himself something about 
  “grinders” or “grindies” and a “locked gate”. He then walked out of the 
  stall and never returned. He was, in fact, talking about Grindlylow’s near a 
  particular lock-gate where he had left his tinker cart and was wondering if 
  it might be safest just to abandon it there (which he ultimately did).
  Before the PCs can ruminate further upon this information, the whole 
  building shakes as if it had just been struck by a gust of wind from a violent 
  storm front. However, before anything else can be done, a large tentacle 
  suddenly bursts through the tiny window and wraps around Madam Larua’s 
  neck. She is able to let out only a small, “Urk!” before being pulled bodily 
  through the window with the sound of much snapping of bone.
  The gypsy’s stall has been attacked by an atrophied gohl. Also known 
  as a hydra cloud, this flying creature resembles a large writhing mass of 
  tentacles and snake heads. Normally possessing three such snake heads 
  and six tentacles, this particular gohl has been the victim of some wasting 
  condition that has caused one of its heads and three of its tentacles to 
  wither into pale, dangling, useless appendages. It floats in the air beyond 
  the precipice behind the stall and spends the surprise round and the 
  following round devouring Madam Larua and dragging the building from 
  its perch to fall crashing into the structures 30ft below (anyone still inside 
  takes 3d6 bludgeoning damage and must spend a round extricating himself 
  from the rubble before climbing the stairs back to the top of the Skew). It 
  then turns its attention to the PCs if they have remained around or have 
  attacked it. Even in its atrophied form it is a powerful foe, so though it 
  would normally fight to the death, if it appears to be inflicting too much 
  damage on the PCs, after a few rounds it tires of the battle and departs, 
  disappearing back into the clouded night sky from whence it came and 
  leaving behind no trace except the blood-smeared wreckage of Madam 
  Larua’s stall. Regardless of how the battle plays out, the scroll containing 
  Bloody Jack’s reading (Handout E) disappears in the confusion and 
  cannot be located by the PCs.
  Atrophied Gohl: AC 15; HP 85 (10d10+30); Spd fly 30ft; Melee 
  bite (+7, 10ft, 1d6+4 piercing plus 1d8 acid), tentacle slam 
  (+7, 1d8+4 bludgeoning plus grapple, DC 15 Dex avoid), 
  tentacle constrict (auto hit if grappled, 1d10+4 bludgeon-
  ing); SA multiattack (bite x2, tentacle slam or constrict x3); 
  Immune acid; Resist non-silver normal attacks; Str +4, Dex 
  +3 (+6), Con +3, Int –2, Wis +1 (+3), Cha –1; Senses darkvision 
  60ft; AL CE; CR 5 (1800 XP). (Fifth Edition Foes 124)
  The Watch does not respond to the incident; it will take hours for 
  word of events in the Skew to even make it to them, and they’ll simply 
  assume there was another collapse. A few yellow journalists for the 
  daily broadsheets might write a sensational story or two. If the PCs seek 
  witnesses to what happened or what attacked, they won’t find anyone that 
  actually saw the gohl before it attacked, though a few mention noticing a 
  dark cloud blowing in out of the north (possibly the gohl as it flew under 
  cover of darkness). Universally, the inhabitants in the area will ascribe it 
  to a “black wind blowing off of the Haunted Steppe” far to the north — a 
  common enough superstition for the cause of tragic events in the Blight.
  Behind the Scenes
  As Madam Larua suspected, her final reading to Old Bill was the 
  catalyst for him to hang up his persona of Bloody Jack Carver. Not even 
  
  25
  Bloody Jack
  he knew what impelled him to do so, but it is the explanation for why the 
  killings suddenly ceased after so long. As to what the reading Madam 
  Larua gave him meant, Bill did not know that either. It is possible that 
  the PCs will believe that it refers to the scene of Bill Hughe’s murder or 
  perhaps one of Bloody Jack’s old crime scenes, but it actually refers to an 
  altogether different crime scene that will be revealed in Chapter 6.
  Whether the gohl’s attack is a result of the gypsy’s ill-starred luck, 
  karma for revealing the contents of one of her true readings, or something 
  engineered by The Spiteful is altogether unclear. The steamer trunk of her 
  other readings is lost when the building collapses down into the Skew, 
  so there are no other forthcoming clues to be obtained. Regardless, the 
  illustrious Madam Larua will be making no more readings and will be of 
  no further assistance to the PCs.
  What Next
  Between what is discovered here and Chapter 3, it should be 
  fairly clear that Bill Hughe was the Bloody Jack killer. And from here 
  it seems the reason that he stopped stemmed from a cryptic gypsy 
  reading whose meaning even she did not know. If they haven’t 
  followed up on the strange key they discovered at Grindlylow’s 
  Grinders yet, the PCs can locate Everett Schimp and have 
  him show them the lock-gate he has seen. If they wish to 
  investigate Inspector Muncy’s strange behavior in Chapter 
  1 or seek to find out more information about old Bloody Jack 
  crime scenes, they can seek to do so at the Queen’s Own pub. 
  Finally, they may wish to return to the scene of Bill Hughe’s 
  murder thinking there may be more clues regarding what they 
  learned from the gypsy’s reading. That is, in fact, a dead end. 
  They find that the Watch has begun its investigation of the scene 
  and has moved many pieces of evidence around, thoroughly 
  muddling any further investigation attempts. Regardless, that 
  is not the crime scene referred to in Madam Larua’s reading, so 
  such work is a waste of time anyway.
  The PCs can pursue the lead from the old lock-gate key in 
  Chapter 3 or look into the background of Inspector Muncy or 
  other crime scenes at the Queen’s Own pub in Chapter 5. 
  When Chapters 3, 4, and 6 have all been completed, proceed 
  with Chapter 7.
  
  26
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  If the PCs wish to question Inspector Muncy further, they can simply go 
  to his Watch station and ask for him. Anytime they do so, however, they 
  will be informed that he is away at the moment working a case. The desk 
  constable will offer to deliver a message to him when he returns, though. 
  Regardless of what messages the PCs leave for him, they do not have any 
  contact with the inspector until Chapter 6. 
  Requests for official records or reports from the Watch are met with 
  the advice to seek it at the Capitol. Considering the immense size of the 
  Capitol and the lack of any further information provided on the subject 
  (most members of the Watch neither know nor care about the details of the 
  archiving of records), the PCs should quickly realize 
  this is unlikely to be a fruitful line of questioning. 
  If the PCs wish to gather information 
  specifically in regards to the inspector or 
  his background, they receive 
  even less help at the Watch station or among its personnel, but if pressed 
  the obviously irritated desk constable will scowl at them and say, “If yew 
  want to knaow somethin’ abaout a gentleman o’ the Watch, guv’ner, yaour 
  best bet is to seek it amaong the Queen’s Men, if yew ketch my meaning.” 
  He then acts dismissive of the PCs for forcing him to be so blatant on the 
  subject and has no further interaction with them.
  A DC 5 Charisma (Persuasion) check to gather information easily 
  reveals that “Queen’s Men” is a nickname given to Officers of the Watch. 
  A DC 10 Charisma (Persuasion) check reveals that the desk constable was 
  referring to a pub that is a known hangout for Officers of the Watch called 
  The Queen’s Own. A DC 15 Charisma (Persusasion) check is sufficient 
  to learn not only the location of The Queen’s Own but also that many 
  lazy or unscrupulous members of the Watch who frequent the pub are 
  known to sell information to interested parties (usually the city’s yellow 
  journalists for their sensational stories in the dailies) for an occasional 
  extra shekel. This practice is officially frowned upon by the Office of the 
  Watch but unofficially permitted as the Watch pays little enough, hires a 
  plentitude of somewhat unsavory characters, and keeps the corruption to 
  a reasonable minimum, knowing that anyone could be a whistle blower. 
  The PCs should have no trouble blending in at the pub as just another 
  group of broadsheet writers looking for the latest scoop.
  If the PCs think to ask about any sort of personnel records or crime 
  reports kept by the Watch, the desk constable (or anyone else in the Watch 
  for that matter) will only state that such documents are stored at the Watch 
  Archives, though questions as to its location will receive either a blank 
  stare (the speaker truly doesn’t know and had never really thought about 
  it) or a cursory, “At the Cap’tol, aof course” (for the same reason but 
  making a reasonable deduction). In either case, the PCs will find no one 
  who is able to give them any sort of specific guidance on where to find 
  such things beyond the suggestion that it’s the type of thing that can be 
  learned from the “Queen’s Men”. 
  Chapter Five:
  The Queen’s Own
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • Following up on the strange behavior exhibited by Inspector 
  Muncy in Chapter 1.
  • Seeking information or formal Watch reports on other crimes 
  or crime scenes, especially after learning of Madam Larua’s 
  reading in Chapter 4.
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • The reason for Inspector Muncy’s suspicious activity were the 
  murders of his own wife and child two decades ago that has 
  some eerie similarities to the murder of William Hughe.
  • The murder of Inspector Muncy’s wife and child was largely 
  covered up by the Office of the Watch, though enough records 
  remain that the PCs could investigate the scene for themselves.
  • The crime scene of the murder of Inspector Muncy’s wife 
  and child may still be sealed after all these years and could, 
  therefore, still contain some clues that may be of use.
  • Someone in Crown Justice Braken’s office apparently wants 
  the PCs off the case and is willing to cause them harm to 
  discourage their involvement.
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here if they have not already done so:
  • Chapter 2 to investigate any connections with Grindlylow’s 
  Grinders.
  • Chapter 3 to investigate the sewer entrance if they have 
  already completed Chapter 2.
  • Chapter 4 to locate Madam Larua if they have already 
  completed Chapter 2.
  • Chapter 6 to investigate the old crime scene at Inspector 
  Muncy’s flat.
  26
  
  27
  Bloody Jack
  The Queen’s Men
  The Queen’s Own is located near the Royal South Bridge Gate on Town 
  Bridge. When the PCs approach, read the following:
  Reaching the pub is an adventure unto itself. Town Bridge 
  is a hodge-podge maze of dwellings and businesses stacked on 
  top of each other in dozens of levels and extending out over 
  the waters of the Great Lyme in a desperate attempt to exploit 
  every inch of space on the half-mile-long bridge. Its status 
  over the river as being separate from the city exempts it from 
  the city’s taxes and has coerced thousands of residents to take 
  shelter and do business within the overborne length of its span. 
  If occasionally a hovel falls off into the swirling brown morass 
  of the river below, it is considered by some a small price to pay 
  to be out from under the immediate boot heel of the municipal 
  government’s restrictive administration.
  The Queen’s Own is quaint enough, lying tucked between 
  a modest haberdashery and the office of a coal speculator. 
  Mashed atop it is a billiard hall accessible by an external stair 
  with some sort of merchandiser atop that. The pub itself has a 
  wooden façade with heavy shutters over leaded glass windows 
  and a decorative pediment over the doors with the heraldry of 
  the Office of the Watch upon it.
  Within is a surprisingly large common room complete with 
  a long mahogany bar along the back and numerous shadowy, 
  curtained alcoves with tables where private conversations can 
  be held away from prying eyes and ears. The establishment is 
  bustling with patrons, most in blue constable uniforms but 
  some in the less-noticeable coats of inspectors. Behind the bar, 
  a balding man in a stained apron looks up from polishing the 
  wooden countertop with a rag and stares at you questioningly.
  Customers who are not members of the Watch are tolerated within The 
  Queen’s Own but only if they are there for information. It is expected that 
  they will buy a drink, pay a bit of baksheesh to the nearest bartender, ask 
  about a topic, and be directed to a likely source of information by that 
  bartender. If the PCs are unfamiliar with this protocol, Bad Mike (LE male 
  human Ftr3), the bartender who is addressing them, will gladly fill them 
  in. Drinks cost 1gp each for folks who are not Queen’s Men, regardless 
  of what they order (the PCs’ current position as deputized constables will 
  not extend them Queen’s Men status among the men and women who 
  are lifers within the Watch). In addition to their orders (Bad Mike brings 
  them watered-down versions of the ordered drinks), he expects them to tip 
  at least 5gp and let him know what kind of information they’re looking 
  for. Asking about Bloody Jack, Inspector Muncy, or crimes/investigation 
  related to either one will cause Mike to tip his head towards a corpulent 
  parish officer seated at a corner table and whisper, “Fat Windrayke is ‘oo 
  ye need teh see. ‘E can ‘elp ye aout. Don’t call ‘im ‘Fat’, though, if ye 
  want teh keep yer teeth. ‘E don’t care for it much.” Bad Mike seems to 
  find this last bit particularly hilarious and bursts into a fit of laughter that 
  is joined by exactly no one in the place. However, the PCs now have a 
  point of contact.
  Frederic “Fat” Windrayke (NE male human veteran) is a Parish Officer 
  of the Watch for Fourth Ward of East Ending. Inspector Muncy is not a 
  part of his Watch station, but he is very familiar with the inspector and all 
  things related to Bloody Jack. He demands a high-priced glass of wine 
  from the PCs (3gp per glass of which he drinks three over the course of 
  the interview) before fixing his beady eyes upon the PCs over his grossly 
  stretched out, food-stained vest. Questions, his responses and the prices 
  for the information are listed below. He does not have answers for any 
  other questions the PCs may ask but does not charge them for these.
  • Where can we find Inspector Hogan Muncy? [1gp] I don’t know. 
  He is assigned to East Ending Third Ward, so he’s not in my stations. I 
  hear he’s working a strange killing from the other night — which night 
  doesn’t have a strange killing in East Ending? — but I’m sure he’s in 
  and out all the time. If you need to reach him, the best bet is to leave a 
  message with Third Ward’s desk constable.
  • What unusual murder investigation was Inspector Muncy 
  involved with 20 years ago? [10gp] (If the PCs ask about a murder 
  investigation involving a child as the perpetrator, Windrayke will 
  raise his eyebrows and say he doesn’t know of any such thing. He’ll 
  then say the only one involving Muncy that might fit the bill of what 
  they’re looking for is the one involving his own wife and child and 
  continue with the following). Muncy was involved with a controversial 
  murder investigation 20 years ago, and it’s possible there was a cover-
  up involved. It was the murder of Muncy’s own wife and child when 
  he was still just a green constable. Muncy himself was cleared of any 
  wrongdoing, but the whole thing was hushed up pretty thoroughly. I 
  never saw the official report, but it and any evidence should still be 
  kept in the Office of the Watch Archives.
  • Where were the crime scenes of the Bloody Jack Carver killings 
  30 years ago? [5gp] The Bloody Jack killings went on for nearly three 
  years and involved the disappearance of over 70 local children. Only a 
  handful of those missing kids were ever found, and they were nothing 
  but mutilated corpses. Very few of the actual crime scenes were 
  ever found, and it was supposed that he disposed of his victims after 
  abducting them. None were ever seen alive again, so their murders 
  seem a near certainty. There was some speculation that the various 
  Bloody Jack nursery rhymes that sprang up among the children of East 
  Ending during that time might hold some clue as to the crime scenes or 
  where they were being held, but nothing ever came of that and no one 
  could ever determine where the nursery rhymes originated either. Any 
  details on the Bloody Jack killings would be in their files stored in the 
  Office of the Watch Archives.
  • Can you tell us any of the Bloody Jack nursery rhymes? [free] Go 
  soak your head in a can of coal-oil, you bloody twit; I don’t have time 
  to play kiddy games.
  • Where is the Office of the Watch Archives? [1gp] The old case 
  documents of the Watch are stored in a municipal building at the foot 
  of the Capitol at the corner of Fiedler and Armistice streets. They’re 
  poorly managed, and it should be easy enough to gain access with 
  Watch credentials or a sufficient bribe.
  Office of the  
  Watch Archives
  As mentioned, the Office of the Watch Archives is a run-down section 
  of the Capitol, that virtual mountain of officialdom that houses the Royal 
  Family, City Justices, and apparatus of government for Castorhage and 
  towers over the rest of the city in a massive sprawl. The archives stand 
  at its base near the intersection of Fiedler and Armistice streets. It is not 
  necessary to access the Great Doors to gain access to the archives, but a 
  side door and several twisting corridors are necessary to reach its entrance. 
  The PCs may spend a few minutes lost within the halls but will eventually 
  reach their destination. The archives consist of an outer office and the 
  inner stacks. A clerk, Oslo (N male human commoner), in the outer 
  office demands credentials or a bribe of at least 2gp to grant access to the 
  archives. He will accept the PCs’ status as deputized auxiliary members of 
  the Watch if they choose to use that to enter. He will not provide them any 
  assistance in their search, instead returning back to the daily broadsheet he 
  was reading over a crust of bread and glass of port.
  If a PC wishes to and makes a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check, 
  he can quickly glance at the most recent visitors to the archives while 
  signing the sign-in book. The clerk will also allow them to examine the 
  book for an additional bribe of 1gp. If examined, the sign-in book shows 
  the archives to be only infrequently visited with no visitors within the 
  last several weeks and none of note then. However, there was a visitor 
  the day before the PCs came who signed in only as “Braken” which the 
  
  28
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  PCs will recognize with a DC 5 Intelligence check as a Crown Justice 
  and senior member of the triad of Crown Justices that rule the city in the 
  name of the Queen. If asked, the clerk can identify him but will state it was 
  only a Least Justice working as under-secretary to the Crown Justice that 
  came. The clerk has no idea why His Resplendent Grand Justice would 
  be interested the archives, nor did he consider it any of his business. He 
  only knows that the Least Justice spent no more than an hour within the 
  archives and then left without a word.
  If for some reason the PCs preferred to, they could break into the 
  archives to conduct their search of its files covertly. Doing so would have 
  to occur at night and would require each PC involved to make two DC 10 
  Dexterity (Stealth) checks and one PC to make a DC 15 Dexterity check 
  with thieves’ tools to pick the lock on the door to the closed office. A failed 
  Stealth check causes a patrol of 4 Capitol Guards to hear something and 
  come to the area to investigate, requiring a third DC 10 Dexterity (Stealth) 
  check to avoid them. A second failed check means that the PCs have been 
  spotted and must either make a run for it (DC 15 Dexterity [Stealth] check 
  to elude) or stand and fight. It need not be said that getting caught killing a 
  patrol of Capitol Guards is not in the best interests of the party. However, 
  if the PCs do not resist and are just caught breaking in, they will be held 
  over night while their credentials are checked. They will then be released 
  with a warning to return during business hours if they wish to consult the 
  archives. Successfully breaking into the archives reveals all of the same 
  information available as if they had entered during the day.
  Inner Stacks
  The repository of the archive opens into a wide, low-
  ceilinged, stone-walled chamber. Shelves run from floor to 
  ceiling along the far walls and stacks stand like sentinels in 
  ranks going to the back of the room. It seems that every inch 
  of available shelving is crammed with dusty and mildewed
  scrolls, sheaves of parchment, books, bundles of papers, and 
  boxes of documents. Tables have been set up haphazardly in the 
  forecourt of the room with a few shelves to allow the documents 
  within the room to be perused. Several oil lamps stand on these 
  tables and hang in sconces throughout the room, carefully 
  shielded from the flammable materials around them. The 
  omnipresent fire danger existing in this chamber is highlighted 
  by the presence of a heavy iron fire door that stands to the side 
  of the entrance ready to be closed in case of emergency.
  Despite all the clutter and mustiness, the chamber does 
  contain one point of some note. Small metal spheres built to 
  resemble eyeballs with forceps-like grippers extending from their 
  undersides hover in the air and fly in between the stacks, the 
  low buzz of tiny gears and pistons working furiously to maintain 
  the magical fields that keep them afloat. They move throughout 
  the room tending to the oil lamps and shelving and organizing 
  books and scrolls with their forceps clamp hands. Occasionally 
  they return to a metal box that stands next to the door with small 
  circular holes cut into the top through which they enter and leave.
  This massive archive holds the case files of the Office of the Watch going 
  back hundreds of years. The more recent files have a sort of haphazard 
  arrangement, but this organization breaks down as one delves further 
  into the past until finding the most aged documents is a very hit-or-miss 
  affair. Assisting in searches, however, are the clockwork filers that orbit 
  around the room. These are clockwork drones that have been outfitted 
  with delicate appendages capable of picking up scrolls and books but little 
  else. They are designed to take orders from users of the archives and then 
  go and retrieve the requested files in addition to shelving materials and 
  just maintaining general upkeep. Care and observation of the oil lamps is 
  one of their primary roles to prevent fires, though these can be used as the 
  equivalent of alchemist’s fire if necessary (see “Development” below). 
  The positions of the oil lamps are marked on the map.
  
  29
  Bloody Jack
  The metal box near the door is the filers’ gearbox. There are dozens 
  of the constructs within, but their duties are so taxing upon their magical 
  fields that they must regularly return to this metal box to recharge and 
  receive minor repairs from the mechanisms within. There are no more than 
  6 of the filers buzzing around the room at any given time. The clockwork 
  filers respond to particular command codes programmed into them and 
  expect users of the archives to give the proper verbal code. When the PCs 
  fail to do so, they become confused and agitated. If a PC makes a DC 10 
  Intelligence (Arcana) check, he can deduce that they are waiting for some 
  verbal command code. With a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check, he can 
  even determine what that command code is. Going back to ask the clerk is 
  of no help because he seems to have stepped away for the moment. 
  If the PCs continue to fail to give the proper command code, the filers 
  become agitated and aggressive. They start buzzing around the PCs and 
  bumping into them hostilely. As soon as a PC makes any sort of aggressive 
  move, the 6 clockwork filers attack. They are joined in the next round by 
  6 more flying out of the apertures of the gearbox, though no others join 
  in after that as they are not sufficiently recharged to fight. Though the 
  filers have metal clamp appendages, these are too weak to use in combat, 
  and they instead rely on slamming themselves into their foes. Once the 
  PCs have destroyed all 12 filers, they have no further trouble with the 
  constructs.
  Clockwork Filers (12): AC 14; HP 7 (2d4+2); Spd 20ft, fly 60ft; 
  Melee slam +1 (1d4–1 bludgeoning); Immune charm, ex-
  haustion, fright, paralysis, petrify, poison, psychic; Str –1, Dex 
  +4, Con +1, Int –5, Wis +2, Cha–2; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits 
  flyby (no opportunity attack when it flies out of reach); AL N; 
  CR 1/8 (25 XP).
  With a few hours of searching, the PCs can locate all of the Bloody Jack 
  files. They can learn the following information from them: 
  • There were 74 children that disappeared from East Ending during that 
  time that could not be attributed to other causes. Of those, only the 
  mutilated remains of 21 were ever found. 
  • No two crime scenes were exactly alike, and other than the use of 
  sharp knives, the gory remains that were sometimes found, and 
  the fact that they were centred on East Ending, there were no other 
  commonalities. 
  • At least four townspeople were lynched by angry mobs during that 
  time on suspicion that one of them was Bloody Jack (all were butchers 
  or worked in slaughterhouses), but the killings always continued. 
  • The disappearances began 32 years ago and lasted 38 months before 
  they suddenly stopped for no explicable reason. 
  • There were occasional copy cat murders over the years, but all were 
  solved and the perpetrators proven that they could not possibly have 
  been the original killer.
  • Theories as to the identity of Bloody Jack Carver ranged from a 
  butcher, to a wild animal, to a member of the Royalty, to a demonic 
  outsider. None was ever proven or disproven.
  • One report mentions the abandoned Seaside Larder eatery as a possible 
  location of interest for investigation, but it appears that the lead was 
  never followed up.
  • The Bloody Jack case went through 14 lead investigators over the three-
  year period and ruined the careers of at least four of them, but none ever 
  got any closer to solving the case or capturing the perpetrator.
  • When the killings stopped, the case was finally closed and forgotten — 
  apparently to the great relief of the Office of the Watch.
  If the PCs search for information on Inspector Muncy, they find 
  very little of interest but eventually turn up the case file for the murder 
  of 20 years ago that he mentioned. Even if the PCs don’t think to 
  look for information on Inspector Muncy, they find the same case file 
  apparently mistakenly clipped to one of the Bloody Jack files (courtesy 
  of their unknown benefactor). The case file consists of the official report 
  (Handout F) which is strangely vague on details but does indicate that 
  the crime scene was placed under an Order of Sequestration to seal it from 
  any possible contamination of clues. A DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) 
  check is sufficient to realize that the report does not include a writ lifting 
  the sequestration, so it is possible that the crime scene at Muncy’s flat is 
  still undisturbed after all these years. In addition to the report, the PCs 
  find Inspector Muncy’s own heavily redacted statement (Handout G). It 
  appears to largely be a dead end until the PCs discover that an unredacted 
  copy of his statement is stuck to the back of the redacted one where 
  apparently someone spilled tea on it long ago and didn’t realize they had 
  become glued together by the spillage. Carefully peeling the unredacted 
  statement from the back of the redacted one reveals Handout H.
  Development: One of the studies tables to the side of the room bears 
  a number of books over mundane matters stacked precariously next to 
  an upturned metal wastebasket that sits atop the table. There are several 
  stacks of material like this waiting to be shelved, the only difference being 
  that this one sits next to a wastebasket. The PCs should not even notice 
  this unless they have expressed some suspicion over what may be found in 
  the archives. However, at some point before the PCs leave, the vibrations 
  of the PCs movement (and combat) around the room finally causes the 
  stack to give way. It crashes into the wastebasket knocking it off the table 
  and revealing a large rough sphere within that appears to be composed of 
  some greyish papier-mâché. This is actually a hornets nest that has been 
  left here as a trap. 
  As soon as the nest is disturbed (possibly even by inquisitive PCs), an 
  enraged hornet swarm emerges and immediately attacks. Unfortunately 
  for the PCs, the antiquated and none-too-perceptive animated fire security 
  system which consists of a steam-operated fire door perceives the cloud 
  of emerging hornets as a cloud of smoke and immediately fires its piston 
  and slides across the doorway, sealing the room. The animated door has 
  malfunctioned over the years, and after sealing, the steam piston breaks 
  loose and becomes a wildly swinging bludgeoning arm that the door uses 
  to make slam attacks against anyone that comes within reach. Only if 
  the animated door is destroyed can the PCs break through to escape the 
  archives, though fortunately for them years of rust and lack of maintenance 
  has reduced its hardness somewhat.
  
  30
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Swarm of Hornets (2): AC 14; HP 44 (8d10); Spd 5ft, fly 30ft; 
  Melee stings (+4, 0ft, 6d4 piercing or 3d4 if the swarm has 
  50% hit points or fewer); Immune charm, fright, paralysis, 
  petrify, prone, restraint, stun; Resist bludgeoning, piercing, 
  slashing; Str –4, Dex +2, Con +0, Int –5; Wis –2, Cha  –5; Senses 
  blindsight 10ft; AL U; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Steam-Operated Fire Door (Animated Object): AC 16; HP 
  44 (8d10); Spd 0ft; Melee slam (+4, 2d6+2 bludgeoning); 
  Immune blind, charm, deaf, fright, paralysis, petrify, poison, 
  psychic; Resist fire, bludgeoning, piercing, slashing; Str +2, 
  Dex +0, Con +0, Int  –5, Wis –5, Cha –5; Senses blindsight 10ft 
  (blind beyond this radius); AL U; CR 2 (450 XP).
  If the PCs choose to seek information in regards to the hornets nest 
  apparently left for them and the involvement of Crown Justice Braken’s 
  office, they quickly discover that His Resplendent Grand Justice sits far 
  too high above them in the hierarchy of things for them to have any chance 
  at finding out information about him or his staff. Any such endeavors are 
  met with impenetrable walls of obfuscation and possibly even veiled 
  threats for attempting to harass the Crown Justice.
  Behind the Scenes
  Unbeknownst to the populace of Castorhage, Crown Justice Braken 
  is actually the leader of the Veil, a secret consortium of doppelgangers 
  from Between that are not directly linked to The Spiteful but nevertheless 
  take a sympathetic attitude towards their fellow Betweeners’ endeavors. 
  Certainly, they don’t want any of the city’s ordinary citizens finding 
  out about doppelgangers and other creatures from Between infiltrating 
  the ranks of the city. As a result, Justice Braken uses his considerable 
  influence within the government to monitor happenings within the city 
  that might involve the Veil or other denizens of Between. When he learned 
  of the investigation being headed up by Inspector Muncy and involving 
  deputized specialists, he quickly realized it probably involved The Spiteful 
  (30 years ago he was well-aware that whoever Bloody Jack was, he was 
  waging a personal war against The Spiteful, though he had no better luck 
  in tracking down the killer than anyone else). He also quickly surmised 
  that the PCs would likely at some point be intending to peruse the archives 
  for more information into the Bloody Jack killings or Inspector Muncy’s 
  own personal tragedy. As a result, he decided to arrange a little warning to 
  try and persuade the PCs to abandon the investigation.
  What Next
  From the archives, the PCs possibly learned many details of the Bloody 
  Jack Carver killings, though none that provide any real additional clues 
  to their investigation. More importantly, they have learned of Inspector 
  Muncy’s own personal tragedy from two decades before and the conspiracy 
  to have the matter covered up — at least a start in understanding the 
  inspector’s own hidden motives in the investigation. Finally they will 
  know beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone or something with 
  possible connections to Crown Justice Braken is out to get them, because 
  the hornet swarm trap left behind was certainly no accident.
  If the PCs wish to head over to Grindlylow’s, this is covered in Chapter 
  2. If they have already completed Chapter 2, they can follow up the leads 
  discovered there by visiting the sewers of East Ending in Chapter 3 or 
  Madam Larua in Chapter 4. To learn more about the murder of Inspector 
  Muncy’s wife and child, the PCs can investigate that old crime scene in 
  Chapter 6.
  
  31
  Bloody Jack
  By this point in the adventure, the PCs are likely very interested in 
  finding Inspector Muncy to ask him some questions of their own, though 
  up to this point he has been frustratingly elusive. At last in this chapter 
  the good inspector makes an appearance, though not in the way the PCs 
  likely had in mind.
  The investigation into Inspector Muncy’s own background brings the 
  PCs to the flat he once rented with his wife and their infant daughter. 
  As discovered in Chapter 5, it was the scene of a “murder-suicide” 20 
  years ago and has remained sealed off ever since. The flat is in a tenement 
  building on the edge of East Ending not far from Theatre Town. Muncy’s 
  wife was an ardent fan of the theatre (when they could afford to go on his 
  meagre constable’s salary), and he was willing to pay a bit more in rent 
  in order to have a residence somewhat close to the centre of her passion.
  The tenement is a four-storey building of flats that are let out for rent. 
  The building has seen better days. Some of its apartments are still occupied, 
  but a great many are empty as the building has become run-down and 
  many of the flats are too dilapidated to be habitable. A fire escape ladder 
  runs up the backside of the tenement building, but only leads to a sagging, 
  low-pitched roof of rotting shingles and several large stack-like chimneys 
  that vent off the many fireplaces within the building. The old Muncy flat 
  lies on the third floor and is still sealed off by the Watch cordons. The 
  sequestration was never technically lifted, and the landlord was never 
  able to rent it out anyway due to the rumours of murders, curses, and 
  palpable aura of wrongness that seemed to surround it. As a result it has 
  lain undisturbed through the decades until now. Read the following when 
  the PCs reach the flat.
  The floor of the hallway creaks as you leave the warped stairs 
  and make your way down towards the door you are seeking. 
  You find it quickly, the brass number “34” hanging askew from 
  the paneling. A faded, dusty, red rope still hangs across the 
  door, nailed into its surface, sealing the apartment beyond 
  by order of the Office of the Watch. It appears that the crime 
  scene truly has been left undisturbed all these years.
  The door is locked and the key long since lost (DC 10 Strength check 
  to break open, DC 20 to unlock due to rust), and opening it will require 
  pulling the nailed rope away from the door — a simple-enough task but 
  one that will leave obvious signs that the seal was been broken.
  Anyone touching or passing through the doorway immediately feels a 
  sense of unease and terrible wrongness. He must make a DC 10 Wisdom 
  save or be frightened for as long as he remains in the apartment. Once the 
  save has been made, he is immune to the effects of this aura, but he can 
  still feel it. This is a fear effect that cannot be dispelled and is the result of 
  a portal to Between within having long been left open.
  Chapter Six:
  The Muncy Flat
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • After discovering the truth of the murder of Inspector Muncy’s 
  wife and child and the subsequent cover-up in Chapter 5.
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • Whatever occurred in the alleged murder-suicide of Inspector 
  Muncy’s wife and child, it certainly involved agents from 
  Between and likely meant that his child had been replaced by a 
  changeling monster.
  • Inspector Muncy has not been idle this time and for some 
  reason has returned to the scene of his family’s murder ahead 
  of the PCs.
  • Inspector Muncy entered Between ahead of the PCs and was 
  badly injured. It is unknown if he survived or was able to 
  escape Between.
  • A mirror-portal to Between existed near Madam Larua’s stall 
  and could have had something to do with her death (if that has 
  already occurred).
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here if they have not already done so:
  • Chapter 2 to investigate any connections with Grindlylow’s 
  Grinders.
  • Chapter 3 to investigate the sewer entrance if they have 
  already completed Chapter 2.
  • Chapter 4 to locate Madam Larua if they have already 
  completed Chapter 2.
  • Chapter 7 as events proceed behind the scenes if they have 
  already completed Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
  
  32
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  1. Living Room
  The door opens into a small living area. A fireplace at the 
  far end is flanked by a small table with two stools and a worn, 
  overstuffed leather chair. Nearer the door is a wooden rocker, 
  the cheap carpet around it marred by dark brown stains. More 
  of the stains can be made out on the wood of the chair itself. 
  Two doors exit on the left, and a doorway opens into a small 
  kitchen on the right. Everything is blanketed in a thick layer of 
  dust from long years of abandonment.
  This living room is where the horrific events leading to the death of 
  Inspector Muncy’s wife occurred. The body of Mrs. Muncy was found 
  sprawled in the rocker, the body of her baby lying upon her lap. The 
  baby’s fingers were sunk deep into the woman’s neck as it strangled her, 
  and her fingers were wrapped around the handle of a kitchen knife that 
  was stabbed deeply just below the child’s ribcage and causing it to bleed 
  out onto the rocker and floor. The investigating inspectors could make no 
  sense of the crime scene and unconvincingly declared it a murder suicide 
  before closing the case.
  Searching the room reveals little evidence of the crime from two 
  decades ago other than the blood stains. However, a DC 12 Wisdom 
  (Perception) check reveals a telltale line of footprints leading to the door 
  to room 4 from the north end of the room. Traces of soot can be seen 
  in the footprints. A DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check (or a modicum of 
  common sense) can trace this trail of footprints back to the fireplace. An 
  examination of the fireplace itself does not require a Perception check 
  that it has recently been disturbed. Soot has been knocked from the 
  open flue showing where someone recently clambered down from the 
  smokestack above and entered the apartment at this point. The footprints 
  in the soot of the fireplace further confirm this. The fact that no dust has 
  accumulated over these footprints confirms that this intrusion occurred 
  very recently.
  In addition to the strange clues found in this room, it is also occupied 
  by a dust vargouille. This creature resembles a disembodied head with 
  batlike wings for ears composed entirely of dust. In fact, it only forms from 
  the thick dust of the room’s northeast corner after the PCs spend more than 
  a round in the room. It is a visitor that came through the still-open portal to 
  Between long ago and took a liking to the dusty surroundings. The recent 
  intrusion from the fireplace awoke it from a long sleep, but not until the 
  PCs start poking around does it become aggravated and coalesce into a 
  semi-solid form in order to attack. It fights until destroyed.
  Dust Vargouille: AC 13; HP 44 (8d6+16); Spd fly 30ft; Melee 
  bite (+5, 2d6+3 piercing plus hit point drain); SA dust blast 
  (Recharge 5–6, 20ft line, 3d6 slashing, DC 12 Dex half), ex-
  ude dust (bonus, blindness while within the 10ft radius cloud, 
  DC 12 Dex avoid each round in the cloud), shriek (Recharge 
  5–6, 60ft, paralysis, DC 12 Con repeat); Resist normal attacks; 
  Str –2, Dex +3, Con +2, Int –3, Wis +1, Cha –2; Skills Perception 
  +3, Stealth +5; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits hit point drain 
  (permanent until greater restoration); AL NE; CR 2 (450 XP).
  2. Kitchenette
  This small area comprises a cramped kitchen. A door opens 
  into a small pantry on the right. A stone wash basin stands 
  against one wall, and next to it a wooden counter runs the 
  length of the room. Atop it can be the seen the shriveled and 
  dried remains of some sort of tubers that it appears someone 
  was slicing at the time the flat was sealed. Like everywhere 
  else, this room is covered in an undisturbed layer of dust.
  There is nothing of note here. The pantry holds the long-decayed 
  remains of foodstuffs but nothing of interest or value.
  3. Bedroom
  This bedroom is modestly furnished with a double bed 
  covered by a somewhat threadbare quilt that was likely a family 
  heirloom. A chest stands at the foot of the bed, and a small 
  dresser and mirror stand against the wall. The ubiquitous dust 
  covers everything.
  Inspector Muncy and his wife shared this bedroom for the few short 
  years of their marriage. The trunk and dresser hold only mundane clothing 
  and accessories typical to a young family of the Blight with little money 
  to spend on finery. Anything of value was removed by Inspector Muncy 
  before the crime scene was sealed. There is nothing of interest here.
  4. Nursery
  This room is noticeably cooler than the rest of the flat, and 
  the sense of wrongness that seems to pervade the entire place is 
  strongest in here. This is clearly the centre of whatever troubles 
  occurred here long ago. The room, however, is nothing more 
  than a tidy little nursery. The paint on the walls is faded and 
  cracked with the years but was once a merry shade of yellow 
  with a pattern of small blue flowers. A cradle rests next to the 
  door, and across the room is a wardrobe painted white, its 
  door slightly ajar. There is noticeably less dust in here.
  Once Baby Adelaide’s nursery, it was here that The Spiteful made their 
  presence known to the unfortunate family of Inspector Muncy. Anyone 
  searching the floor for footprints can see the faint traces of soot with a DC 
  15 Wisdom (Perception) check. A DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check can 
  trace them from the room’s door to the door of the child’s wardrobe. A DC 
  20 Wisdom (Perception) check is sufficient to notice a pattern of dispersal 
  in the sparse dust on the floor, as if blown by a wind coming from the west. 
  This is actually a result of the open portal to Between (as is the colder 
  temperature), but this information is not readily apparent.
  Opening the wardrobe reveals that it has a low chest-of-drawers 
  holding old garments and toys suitable for an infant, and atop the chest-
  of-drawers stands a gilt, 3ft-by-2ft, looking glass. Strangely, the looking 
  glass has been pushed aside in its frame so that it leaves a gap of a few 
  The Truth of the Crime Scene
  The truth of the matter was that a spite-waif had just replaced 
  the Muncy’s infant in room 4 when Rebecca Muncy walked 
  in on it. She had been cutting vegetables for dinner when she 
  thought she heard a cry from the nursery, so the knife was in her 
  hand when she entered. Finding the spite-waif consuming her 
  child, she immediately attacked it with the knife. The smaller 
  spite-waif was nevertheless extremely strong and managed to 
  overpower her. Their struggles took them into this room where 
  she collapsed in the rocking chair, repeatedly stabbing the spite-
  waif as its own childlike fingers remained locked around her 
  neck. With a final wrenching jerk, it snapped Rebecca’s spine, 
  killing her instantly. However, she had already stabbed it multiple 
  times so that its own life’s blood drained out only moments later. 
  Neighbors that had heard screaming entered shortly thereafter 
  to find the dead mother and supposed infant and immediately 
  summoned the Watch to the perplexing scene. The bodies were 
  long since removed, but the crime scene has otherwise remained 
  undisturbed for all these years.
  
  33
  Bloody Jack
  inches between the frame and the edge of the glass (even though the glass 
  doesn’t protrude from the other side of the frame — as if a portion of 
  the mirror pane has simply ceased to exist), and within the gap can be 
  seen only darkness, though an occasional puff of cold air blows through. 
  The soot stains show that someone recently stood in the wardrobe before 
  this mirror and clearly show the shoe print of a sturdy, government-issue 
  brogan, slightly worn with use like those worn by many a city working 
  man in Castorhage.
  Anyone examining this mirror finds that they can easily slide the pane 
  completely to the side revealing an extradimensional opening behind it 
  — an open mirror-portal left long ago by the spite-waif that killed the 
  inspector’s wife. If anyone slides the mirror all the way closed, it closes 
  the mirror-portal and cannot be reopened. This likewise occurs if the 
  mirror is broken. If the PCs do this and fail to obtain the information 
  available beyond, they can still successfully complete the adventure, they 
  will just lack some clues to help them further understand everything going 
  on. In that case, continue with Chapter 7. Read the following to anyone 
  that looks into this strange portal.
  The land beyond the magic mirror is a nightmare vortex 
  of colours and sounds, with an icy breeze blowing through 
  sporadically. As your eyes adjust to the chaos before you, they 
  begin to pick out details until finally a coherent picture emerges. 
  The landscape is like that of an arctic forest; tall, black pine 
  trees rise into a starless night sky. Their boughs, laden with 
  snow, creak and shift in the wind, the same wind that carries 
  upon it the sounds of a nocturnal forest, but one unlike you’ve 
  ever heard. The normal sounds of a winter forest are joined by 
  strange screeches and howls that raise the hairs on the back of 
  your necks. Floating randomly across this scene are iridescent 
  bubbles, some singly and some in clusters. They seem to range 
  from inches across to up to a foot or two in diameter and have
  no pattern to their flight — some seem to move with the wind 
  and some against — though it is unclear if they are some sort 
  of living creature or just a manifestation of the magic of this 
  strange realm. Regardless, wherever they roam, whatever is 
  behind them is magnified when seen through their bulbous 
  membranes, giving everything a distorted, surreal quality.
  Just beyond the mirror a trail of footprints can be seen in the 
  newly fallen snow, leading into the distance between the trees. 
  At the far end of this path, several hundred yards away or 
  possibly more — it is difficult to tell in this tortured landscape 
  — struggles a humanoid figure wearing a bowler and dark 
  coat. One of the bubbles floats across your line of sight just as 
  the distant figure looks back towards this mirror-portal, and 
  for a fleeting moment in its magnified curvature you catch a 
  glimpse of the face of Inspector Hogan Muncy before he turns 
  and disappears behind a stand of trees.
  Anyone viewing this nightmare landscape and making a DC 8 
  Intelligence (Arcana) check recognizes it as Between, a fabled realm 
  of nightmares and bogeymen used by parents to frighten naughty 
  children and featuring prominently in the nightmares and ghost 
  stories of children good and naughty alike. While most people in the 
  Blight have heard of Between, it is almost universally considered 
  to be nothing more than children’s stories — certainly not an actual 
  physical realm.
  Anyone making a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check gains not only the 
  above information but also the greater understanding that some scholars 
  quietly speculate that Between actually does exist. It is the land behind 
  the shadows of dark, dusty corners and abandoned attics and what lies in 
  between the waking world and outer planes; a realm of madness and dread 
  that lies on the backsides of the city’s mirrors. No one has ever actually 
  visited Between as far as most scholars know.
  
  34
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  A DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check confirms that Between is very 
  much real and populated by many malevolent beings that would like 
  nothing more than free access to prey upon the unsuspecting citizens of 
  Castorhage. A DC 20 on the check (a truly monumental accomplishment) 
  confirms all the above plus the whispers that a secret society of the city’s 
  elite and powerful (see The Illuminati in The Blight) are fully aware of 
  Between and seek to harness its resources and power for their own benefit.
  As mentioned, this is a mirror-portal left open 20 years ago by the spite-
  waif that Rebecca Muncy killed. It has remained open and undisturbed 
  since then, though Inspector Muncy discovered it and stepped through it 
  only moments before the PCs arrived at his former flat. If the PCs enter 
  the mirror, they find themselves in the Winter Wood of Between. Inspector 
  Muncy’s footprints are clearly visible in the snow for them to follow, but 
  going in any other direction will result in them quickly becoming lost in 
  the trackless forest. If that occurs, proceed with Encounters 1, 2, 4, and 5 
  and ignore the Encounter 3. They will miss a few clues but should still be 
  on the right track in their investigation. As mentioned, if they fail to enter 
  Between at all, they will likewise miss out on some information as well 
  as XP, but will still proceed to Chapter 7 for the adventure to continue.
  Anyone stepping through the mirror-portal finds themselves transported 
  to Between.
  Between
  Between is a vast plane of existence, possibly infinite, that exists 
  upon the verges and in the corners of the Blight. Whether Between has 
  connections with the rest of the Material Plane or just a particular affinity 
  with Castorhage is unknown, and some posit that it is actually nothing 
  more than a dark and twisted reflection of the already dark and twisted 
  city. Regardless, Between is an expansive realm, and this adventure 
  touches only upon a small portion of it in an area known as the Winter 
  Wood. Read the following when someone enters the mirror-portal.
  Stepping through the looking glass is like slowly submerging 
  in an icy pond. Once through you find yourself in the twisted, 
  windswept forest that you beheld in the mirror, the dark pines 
  looming all around you and placing ominous shadows upon 
  the snowy landscape. No stars adorn the night sky above, and a 
  single moon, somehow blacker in colour than the surrounding 
  night sky but nevertheless giving off a wan radiance, provides 
  the only illumination other than the faint light given off by the 
  strange floating bubbles. The wind is fiercely cold and bears a 
  strange odor that you cannot quite put a name to. The trail of 
  footprints remains crisp and clear leading deeper into the forest.
  The temperature in the Winter Wood hovers around 20-degrees and 
  requires the PCs to make a DC 10 Constitution save each hour or gain 
  1 level of exhaustion unless they use magic or have cold weather outfits 
  to offset this. The wind is considered strong (21–30 mph) and causes 
  disadvantage ranged attacks, extinguishes open flames, and makes 
  nonmagical flying impossible. The snow is less than a foot deep. The 
  lighting is dim for those without darkvision or a light source.
  The mirror-portal is still open behind the PCs and resembles a pane 
  of mirrored glass propped into the low-hanging bough of a pine tree and 
  giving a view of the Muncy’s nursery beyond. If they wish, the PCs can 
  easily crawl back through out of Between, but the wind is slowly but 
  surely eradicating the footprints left by the inspector, so if the PCs wish to 
  pursue him they will need to do so now.
  As the PCs follow the trail of footprints through Between, they will 
  have set encounters in the order given below.
  Encounter 1: Master of Nothing
  This encounter occurs whether the PCs are following Muncy’s trail or 
  not. It happens less than an hour after the PCs enter Between.
  As the trail wends through a thick copse of trees, you see a 
  figure kneeling at the base of one of them. He wears the tattered 
  overcoat and crumpled bowler of the typical East Ending street 
  sharps running a shell game or a confidence scam on nearly 
  every street corner. This fellow, however, is extremely out of 
  place as he huddles against the cold at the base of the tree, his 
  back toward you, and appears to be digging into the turf there.
  Muncy’s trail (if present) goes directly past the huddled figure without 
  stopping. The street sharp is actually a decomposing corpse (detectable 
  with a DC 10 Wisdom [Perception] check once the PCs are within 10ft 
  of it) snatched from the streets of the Blight weeks ago. It is being 
  manipulated by the near-invisible web strands of a grim puppeteer 
  hiding in the boughs of the tree 20ft above. This large arachnoid creature 
  has thick grey fur that protects it from the cold. It was hunting elsewhere 
  when Muncy came by, and has only recently returned to its lair in this tree. 
  It attacks as soon as anyone approaches its decoy and pursues the PCs if 
  they try to escape.
  Grim Puppeteer: AC 14; HP 52 (8d10+8); Spd 30ft, climb 30ft; 
  Melee bite (+5, 1d8+3 piercing plus 2d10 poison plus paral-
  ysis); Ranged 2 spines (+5, 20/40ft, separate targets within 
  30ft, 1d4 piercing plus 2d10 poison plus paralysis); SA web 
  (Recharge 5–6, +5, 30/60ft, restraint, DC 12 Str check to es-
  cape); Str +2, Dex +3, Con +1, Int –2, Wis +2, Cha –1; Skills 
  Perception +6, Stealth +7; Senses blindsight 10ft, darkvision 
  60ft; Traits paralysis poison (1 min, DC 11 Con repeat); AL N; 
  CR 2 (450 XP).
  
  35
  Bloody Jack
  Treasure: Anyone climbing the tree (DC 10 Strength [Athletics] check) 
  finds the creature’s lair in a hollow between two branches. Along with 
  drained animal husks and assorted detritus can be found 42gp, a scroll of 
  gaseous form), and a wand of magic detection.
  Encounter 2: Vengeful Waifs
  This encounter occurs half an hour after Encounter 1, so that the PCs 
  should have had to make their first Constitution save against the cold.
  Small shadows lurch among the trees, just beyond the 
  extent of your vision. It is difficult to count how many because 
  of their rapid movement. The sound of shuffling among the 
  foliage is broken by now and again by a high-pitched giggle, 
  like that of a child. Suddenly you can see them; a line of small 
  children emerging from the shadows into view. But it is quickly 
  apparent that they are not true children because their grey skin 
  seems particularly malleable, and needle-sharp teeth protrude 
  from their widely distended jaws.
  The PCs have run afoul of a gang of 3 spite-waifs that ran across their 
  trail in the woods and began stalking them. These spite-waifs have not yet 
  visited the Blight in order to take on the role of a changeling, so they have 
  not yet adopted a more humanlike form. They are ravenous and quickly 
  attack in an attempt to overpower and devour the PCs.
  Spite-Waif (3): AC 13; HP 36 (8d6+8); Spd 20ft; Melee bite (+5, 
  1d6+3 piercing), claws (+5, 2d4+3 slashing); SA innate spells 
  (Cha, DC 11), multiattack (bite, claws); Immune charm; Str 
  –1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +1; Skills Deception 
  +5, Insight +2; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits create mirror por-
  tal, perfect copy; AL NE; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Innate Spells: at will—alter self; 1/day—sleep
  Encounter 3: A Grim Find
  This encounter occurs an hour after Encounter 2.
  The trees grow particularly thick in this area, allowing little 
  of the dim light to even reach the forest floor. As a result, there 
  is only a light dusting of snow showing little in the way of 
  tracks. However, just ahead is a small area where one of the 
  forest’s ancient trees has toppled over, leaving a snow-covered 
  opening among the trunks. The tracks you follow are clearly 
  visible entering this clearing, but suddenly stop in the middle. 
  There the snow is disturbed as if by a struggle and much of it 
  bears splattered red stains.
  Inspector Muncy made it this far in Between when he was attacked 
  by one of the monstrous denizens of the forest. The creature swooped 
  in and attacked him here, severely injuring him and then carrying him 
  off. Examination of the snow shows that his tracks come to a stop at the 
  centre of the clearing where the snow has been churned and thrashed. The 
  footprints never resume and copious amounts of blood can be seen on 
  the snow. Looking around the clearing reveals a single blood-stained left 
  shoe lying near the edge. It is a leather brogan identical to those issued to 
  Inspectors of the Watch. Of more concern is the fact that a severed foot 
  still remains inside the shoe. The PCs have no way of knowing for sure, 
  but the shoe and foot did indeed belong to Inspector Muncy.
  With no further trail to follow, the PCs are directionless in the Winter 
  Wood. Attempting to retrace their trail shows that the stormy winds have 
  erased their tracks a few miles behind leaving no trace as to how to reach 
  the mirror-portal through which they entered Between . There is no way 
  to retrace their route. The PCs are lost in Between.
  Encounter 4: The Wild Hunt
  After wandering aimlessly in the Winter Woods for 2 hours, this 
  encounter occurs.
  The forest breaks here into a huge snow-covered clearing 
  nearly a mile across and several miles long. A lonely howl 
  rises on the wind and is carried down the valley. Far to your 
  left, a single figure comes striding over the hill. At nearly 
  half a mile away, it is difficult to make out details, but as you 
  watch, several stiff-legged hounds come loping over the hill 
  after him. One lets out a soul-shattering howl as they all veer 
  towards you.
  The PCs have been discovered by a pack of 4 ghoul hounds and their 
  houndmaster, a fetch. The fetch is typical of its kind with icy blue eyes 
  and a layer of ice crystals in its hair and over its skin. Beneath, the 
  skin is black with frostbite. The creature wears a fur headdress set with 
  the antlers of a stag, though one is nothing more than a broken stump. 
  A half mile away, the PCs can make a run for it if they wish, though 
  the pack will pursue relentlessly and eventually catch up to the PCs. 
  However, the PCs can use the time to prepare for battle on the ground 
  of their choosing. If the houndmaster is killed, the remaining ghoul 
  hounds retreat and regroup, though they continue to follow the PCs, and 
  their howls attract the attention of other hunting ghoul hounds roaming 
  the woods. One ghoul hound will always retreat from battle in order to 
  summon these reinforcements.
  Ghoul Hound (4): AC 14; HP 60 (8d10+16); Spd 50ft; Melee 
  bite (+5, 2d6+3 piercing plus paralysis plus trip); Immune 
  charm, exhaustion, fright, poison; Str +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int 
  –2, Wis +2, Cha +0; Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4; Senses 
  darkvision 60ft, keen hearing and smell; Traits pack tactics 
  (attack advantage with ally within 5ft of target), paralytic 
  bite (1 min, DC 12 Con repeat), trip (knock prone, DC 13 Str 
  to avoid); AL NE; CR 1 (200 XP).
  
  36
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Fetch: AC 14; HP 45 (6d8+18); Spd 30ft; Melee claws (+5, 
  2d6+3 slashing plus 2d8 cold); Immune charm, cold, exhaus-
  tion, fright, poison; Vulnerable fire; Str +3, Dex +3, Con +3, Int 
  +0, Wis +2, Cha +2; Skills Intimidation +4; Senses darkvision 
  60ft; AL LE; CR 1 (200 XP). (Fifth Edition Foes 100)
  Development: Even if the PCs defeat the pack and the houndmaster, they 
  will soon find themselves being pursued by dozens of the undead horrors, 
  certainly enough to overwhelm them and drag them down. Flight is really 
  their only recourse, though with the pack gaining it seems like a temporary 
  solution at best. See Encounter 5 for more information on the pursuit.
  Encounter 5: A Way Out
  This encounter occurs 30 minutes after Encounter 4. The sound of baying 
  ghoul hounds has grown as more of the creatures join the pursuit constantly 
  and, worse still, their calls seem to have grown closer as they close in.
  It won’t be long before the growing pack of ghoul hounds 
  catches up to you. The howling has grown as more of their 
  number join the pursuit, and now the sounds of answering howls 
  come from ahead. It seems that the pack has you surrounded 
  with many times your numbers and now waits only to close in 
  for the kill. It appears that your time is running out.
  That is what you think, anyway, until you see a reflected 
  glint coming from a tree nearby. Crammed among the roots 
  of an old beech tree is a sliver of glass. It is actually a piece of 
  a mirror, and in the darkness beyond it, you can make out a 
  distorted scene from the Great Fayre in Castorhage.
  The PCs in their good fortune have stumbled upon another open mirror-
  portal. This one opens through a funhouse mirror in Festival and is only 
  open the slightest bit. The PCs can easily slide it the rest of the way open 
  and climb through, which places them just outside a funhouse in the Great 
  Fayre. Read the following:
  The howls of the hounds echo behind you as you tumble 
  through what turns out to be a curved mirror hanging on 
  the side of one of the many rundown funhouses standing at 
  the edge of Festival’s Great Fayre. It is late in the night, but 
  the festivities are in full swing. Above you, you can hear the 
  sound of delighted screams as the Great Wheel carries its 
  passengers hundreds of feet above the fayre, giving them the 
  most spectacular view of the city, short of climbing to the top 
  turrets of the Capitol. In front of you is the edge of the drop-
  off where the Skew descends down the side of the overbuilt 
  Festival pier. No one seems to have noticed your emergence 
  from the mirror, but you can hear the sounds of the pursuing 
  beasts getting closer.
  Unless the PCs want to release a pack of ghoul hounds into the Great 
  Fayre, they should be thinking of closing the mirror-portal. This can be 
  accomplished easily enough by sliding it shut. As before, once this is done 
  it is closed permanently. The PCs can easily manage this before the dozens 
  of ghoul hounds burst through.
  One stall nearby partially hanging over the edge of the drop to the Skew 
  is recognizable as that of Madam Larua — Teller of Fortunes and Diviner of 
  Secrets (see Chapter 4). If the PCs have already completed Chapter 4, then 
  it is still shattered to ruins and searching it yields no additional clues. If the 
  PCs have not yet visited her and have already completed Chapter 2, then they 
  may want to take this opportunity to stop in and see the old gypsy. Regardless, 
  once the PCs realize the proximity of this open mirror-portal and the fate of 
  Madam Larua (either in the past or in the future), it may raise questions about 
  the coincidence of its location. Let the players question this and develop a 
  sense of paranoid foreboding; there are no answers forthcoming.
  Behind the Scenes
  While the PCs have been busy pursuing their leads, Inspector Muncy 
  has not sat idle. He has been conducting the investigation on his end of 
  things as well. His diligence has kept him away from his Watch Station, 
  which is why the PCs have been unable to make contact with him if they 
  attempted to do so. The inspector’s investigation has taken him to certain 
  fringe scholars of the Seminary. There he made his own discoveries about 
  Between and his own deductions. His conclusions led him to the same idea 
  as the PCs, and he decided to break into his old flat to confirm if there might 
  be some connection between the murder of Bill Hughe and that of his wife 
  and child. Still a conscientious member of the Watch, he did not wish to 
  break the sequestration seal and chose instead to clamber down through 
  one of the building’s smokestacks. When he discovered the mirror-portal, 
  an obsessive need for vengeance, pent up for 20 years, overcame him, and 
  he plunged within, heedless of the danger, in order to take his revenge on 
  those that he rightly assumed were responsible for the deaths of his wife and 
  daughter. Unfortunately, Inspector Muncy’s sojourn into Between was far 
  from successful. After eluding several threats, he was beset by a byakhee and 
  carried away after losing his foot in the struggle. While he did eventually 
  manage to escape, badly maimed, his sanity was likewise wounded. The 
  PCs will remain unaware of his fate until he reappears in Chapter 8.
  What Next
  Clearly something from Between was somehow involved in the death 
  of Inspector Muncy’s family. If the PCs have completed Chapter 3, then 
  they likely have concluded something of the nature of spite-waifs and 
  their connection to both the Muncy murders and the death of Old Bill. 
  There is a good chance they have even guessed at the motives for the 
  Bloody Jack killings.
  If the PCs have not followed up with Grindlylow’s Grinders, they 
  can proceed to Chapter 2 to do so. Likewise, investigations into the 
  sewer entrance or Madam Larua can be conducted in Chapters 3 and 4, 
  respectively. If all of these leads have been followed and those chapters 
  completed, then it is time to proceed with Chapter 7.
  
  37
  Bloody Jack
  After completing Chapters 3, 4, and 6, the PCs have essentially 
  gathered all the available clues and determined that Inspector Muncy had 
  likewise discovered the truth of Between. However with his disappearance 
  and with all the trails gone cold, the PCs have nothing else to do really. 
  Attempts to find other mirror-portals or spite-waif changelings prove 
  fruitless and reports of the threat that the spite-waifs represent or of 
  Inspector Muncy’s apparent demise are met with bureaucratic incredulity 
  and/or indifference. The death of a Watch inspector is a matter requiring a 
  great deal of paper work, and with no evidence other than a severed foot in 
  a government shoe, no one is going to be anxious to dive into the process. 
  As a result, the PCs are likely to be frustrated in their efforts to progress 
  further in their investigation and possibly resigned to moving on from the 
  case. However, this state of affairs will not last long.
  The morning after the PCs have completed Chapters 3, 4, and 6 they 
  are approached by a pair of Constables of the Watch at their respective 
  residences (if separated) and gathered together. These two constables 
  advise that Inspector of the Watch Hogan Muncy has discovered a crime 
  scene relevant to their current investigation on the shore of the Great 
  Lyme River and has requested their presence immediately in regards to 
  some break in the case.
  If told of the inspector’s apparent demise or questioned as to what 
  kind of physical condition he was in, the constables are confused and 
  state that they haven’t seen the inspector. His message was delivered to 
  the Watch Station by a courier, and they were immediately dispatched to 
  round up the PCs and bring them to the inspector’s location to meet him 
  as soon as possible. No further information was given. In addition, no 
  one at the Watch Station has any further information, the courier having 
  long since departed.
  If the PCs question the constables about the crime scene they are being 
  taken to, they will explain it is at one of the old river temples — called the 
  Ghats. This one in particular is known as Kechler’s Drop and has been out 
  of use as a temple for years. It gets its current name from the fact that for 
  many years it was used as a prominent smugglers’ landing for getting goods 
  into the Bazaar without paying the proper tariffs. The smuggling operation 
  was busted years ago and Odus Kechler was subsequently imprisoned in 
  the Sinks, but the name stuck. Plus it is likely that the location is still used 
  for occasional smuggling, owing to its remote location and the relative 
  infrequency of Watch patrols.
  Once the PCs have gathered their gear and are ready, the constables 
  guide them through East Ending and the Bazaar to the Ghats.
  The Ghats and  
  Holy Water Temples 
  of the Great Lyme
  Many folk of Castorhage worship river gods and spirits, some imported 
  from the exotic Eastern realms of Libynos. As a result, temples sprang 
  up along this section of the Lyme and became known as the Holy Water 
  District. The Ghats themselves are not temples so much as ritual sites 
  associated with the nearby temples. They consist of stone stairs that 
  descend the river banks to the surface of the Lyme and were once used 
  for ritual ablution ceremonies. However, the quality of the water in the 
  river has so deteriorated, and the quality of the dangers of its aquatic 
  predators so magnified, that they rarely serve this function any longer. 
  Only the extremely brave or extremely foolish choose to enter the waters 
  of the Lyme of their own free will. Now the Ghats are primarily used for 
  cremations, where the deceased are placed on log rafts and pushed into the 
  waters to burn to ash while spectators are safely on shore. When the run-
  off from some of the manufactories in East Ending is particularly thick, 
  these cremations have been known to set portions of the river’s surface 
  on fire. Fortunately, none of these fires has ever spread enough to inflict 
  much damage to property or populace — or at least not any of importance 
  — so the practice is still legally tolerated, though this is largely likely 
  due to the fact that most citizens can’t afford the burial fee to be interred 
  in the Lych Field, and the authorities would like to keep the number of 
  decomposing corpses lying in the streets to a bare minimum for the sake 
  of public health. The cremations on the other hand are a cheap and easy 
  alternative to dispose of the dead.
  Chapter Seven:
  Kechler’s Drop
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • The events of Chapter 7 occur only after the PCs have 
  completed Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
  Clues that should be found in this chapter include:
  • There are shapechangers loose in the city, and they are aware 
  of both the PCs and Inspector Muncy’s involvements in the 
  investigation.
  • The shapechangers consist of doppelgangers and spite-waifs 
  (at the least) and they run an organized infiltration out of 
  Currington Clothiers.
  • Inspector Muncy is connected to the resurgence of the Bloody 
  Jack killings, apparently to take up the knife and resume where 
  Bill Hughe left off.
  • An undead spirit of killed children has been assisting the 
  PCs in their investigation and appears to want to prevent a 
  resumption of the Bloody Jack Carver murders.
  • The scene of Bill Hughe’s murder is of significance in the 
  resumption of the Bloody Jack Carver killings.
  The PCs’ investigation can proceed to the following chapters 
  from here:
  • The events of Chapter 7 lead directly into Chapter 8.
  
  38
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Ambush at Kechler’s Drop
  The constables guide the PCs unerringly to the proper Ghat. When they 
  arrive, read the following:
  The wind blows off the sea today making the stench of the 
  riverside much more bearable than usual beneath the haze 
  of the late morning sun. The constables guide you to one of 
  the river Ghats. Whichever god it was once dedicated to is a 
  mystery since the standing stone at its top that once identified 
  the deity is worn smooth from years of erosion and acidic 
  rains. The Ghat itself descends in a series of wide stone steps 
  next to a partially collapsed temple building, long abandoned. 
  The tide is out in the estuary so that the lowest steps are 
  exposed and a few yards out into the river can be seen old stone 
  pilings — perhaps from an old pier — that normally lie below 
  the waterline. Wading through the waist-deep water around 
  the pilings are a half-dozen constables. Occasionally one will 
  shout, “I’ve got another one,” to his comrades before marking 
  the spot with a tall willow rod bearing a small red fanion at its 
  tip. There are already more than a dozen of the flagged rods 
  protruding from the water around the pilings, and the wading 
  constables carry several more. Another handful of constables 
  walk along the banks and upon the steps of the Ghat scanning 
  the ground before them.
  Standing out in the water near one of the pilings is the 
  familiar figure of Inspector Muncy, looking none the worse 
  for wear. As you arrive, one of the accompanying constables 
  gives a whistle causing those down below to look up. As the 
  inspector catches sight of you, he waves and shouts a “hello” 
  before calling you down to join him and see what he’s found.
  Despite what the PCs witnessed in Between, Inspector Muncy seems 
  fine. They can’t see his foot because he is hip deep in the river, but he 
  moves without any sort of a limp implying his foot is whole and intact. The 
  PCs may well be suspicious, but there is no evidence to point to anything 
  nefarious. If they ask the constables why anyone is daring to wade into 
  the waters of the dangerous river, he’ll respond that a freshening ocean 
  current for the last few weeks has kept the pollution of the river down to 
  a minimum lately. Plus it being low tide, when the larger predators stay 
  confined to the deeper reaches in the centre of the river, the inspector felt 
  that the risk was negligible to a large and well-armed group of constables. 
  Asking any of the constables on the river bank what has been discovered 
  only gets the clipped reply, “Bones…lots of ‘em.”
  Inspector Muncy does not venture to the bank, being too engrossed 
  in his discoveries, so some or all of the PCs will have to wade out to 
  his position. The water here is 3ft deep and is considered deep bog and 
  therefore, difficult terrain. As the constables have discovered, gathered 
  around the base of the stone piers are bones — hundreds of them, all child-
  sized, and most with vicious gnawing marks. They could easily be three 
  decades old and fit the details of one the Bloody Jack nursery rhymes (see 
  Handout C). It appears that he secured kidnapped children to the piers and 
  let the estuary monsters consume them as the tide arrived. The bones are 
  far too degraded to determine if any bear the non-human features found on 
  others, but there are easily bones enough for several dozen children. This 
  isolated ruin may well have been Bloody Jack’s primary killing ground.
  Once the PCs arrive at the piers, Muncy greets them cheerfully and says 
  he discovered this crime scene early this morning. He seems confused if 
  asked about the events of the previous night. He’ll even raise his leg to 
  show his fully intact foot if the PCs like, in order to prove that he is not 
  injured. However, before the PCs can question or interact with him further 
  or get a better look, they are interrupted by screams from a constable as 
  a giant, pale eel bursts from the water to entwine him with its coils. This 
  is followed moments later by more of the eels assaulting the constables 
  with fanged maws.
  The Watch force and PCs are under attack by a school of sough-eels. In 
  addition, the moment the attack occurs Inspector Muncy disappears. He 
  
  39
  Bloody Jack
  was actually a major image created by a doppelganger sorcerer that lurks 
  in the ruins of the nearby collapsed temple building. He was disguised as 
  the good inspector, and it was he that had kept the eels at bay and now 
  brings them on in force by having charmed a dominant member of the eel 
  colony. While the constables are being slaughtered by additional eels, the 
  PCs will have to deal with a sough-eel on their own. The doppelganger 
  attacks any PCs that remained on shore or uses fly to travel out over the 
  river and attack the PCs there from 20ft above if the shore has no likely 
  targets. The doppelganger is overconfident in his abilities and will not 
  think to flee until it is too late, fighting to the death.
  Sough-Eel: AC 15; HP 126 (12d12+48); Spd 10ft, swim 30ft; 
  Melee bite (+9, 10ft, 2d10+6 piercing plus restraint plus sight 
  rot, DC 15 Con avoid); SA gnaw (bonus, restrained target, 
  +9, 1d10+6 piercing), swallow whole (bite against restrained 
  target, 4d6 acid); Immune blindness, poison; Resist piercing; 
  Str +6, Dex +0, Con +4, Int –5, Wis +1, Cha –1; Skills Percep-
  tion +7, Stealth +6; Senses tremorsense 60ft, blindsight 30ft; 
  Traits water dependency; AL U; CR 5 (1800 XP).
  Doppelganger Sorcerer: AC 17 (with mage armor); HP 88 
  (16d8+32); Spd 30ft; Melee slam (+7, 1d6+5 bludgeoning); SA 
  multiattack (slam x2), read thoughts, spells (Cha, +6, DC 14); 
  Immune charm; Str +0, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +0, Wis +1, Cha 
  +3; Skills Arcana +3, Deception +9, Insight +4, Persuasion +6; 
  Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits ambusher, shapechanger, sur-
  prise attack +3d6; AL NE; CR 6 (2300 XP).
  Spells (slots): 0 (at will)—blade ward, chill touch, fire 
  bolt, poison spray, ray of frost; 1st (4)—mage armor, 
  magic missile; 2nd (3)—cloud of daggers, mirror image; 
  3rd (3)—fireball, fly, magic image
  Gear: silver brooch (150gp), leather scrip with 37gp 
  and book of accounts (see below)
  Development: The constables in the water are all quickly slain, and 
  their attacking eels disperse to feed upon them. The constables on shore at 
  first try to help their comrades in the water but soon give up after a few of 
  their number are pulled in. They then retreat back to their Watch Station 
  to bring reinforcements, so that the PCs are left on their own against the 
  doppelganger and their own sough-eel. Any reinforcements only arrive 
  after the battle is over.
  In the aftermath of the battle, the PCs find that six constables are dead 
  and at least three were dragged off into the depths of the river and are 
  beyond recovery. However, the body of the fake Inspector Muncy — now 
  revealed as a doppelganger — should be present. Searching through his 
  pockets reveals the items listed under his stat block above. However, one 
  coat pocket also contains a leather scrip holding his cash and book of 
  accounts and identifying him as a floor supervisor of a textile manufactory 
  called Currington Clothiers.
  Watch reinforcements will have arrived by the time the PCs begin 
  searching through the doppelganger’s belongings, so they will witness 
  the discovery of his scrip and its contents as well. The Watch force for 
  this district is well-familiar with Currington Clothiers, as it is a sweat 
  shop run on child labour that lies not far from the river. Outraged over 
  the loss of so many constables and concerned over the fate of the missing 
  Inspector Muncy, they are equally concerned over the obvious infiltration 
  of their force by a shapechanger. The parish commander is soon on the 
  scene and, after questioning the PCs for as much information as they 
  are willing to give, determines that Currington Clothiers appears to be 
  the source of a doppelganger infiltration of the Office of the Watch that 
  must be immediately stamped out. Before the PCs so much as have a 
  chance to plan their next move, a constable force is underway to make 
  a raid on the manufactory. The PCs can choose to not take part in the 
  hastily assembled affair, but the manufactory is their only existing clue 
  to Inspector Muncy’s fate and is as likely a stop as any. In addition if 
  they accompany the raid, they may be able to glean some additional 
  clues during all of the confusion. The parish commander is not averse 
  to them accompanying the raid based on their credentials of working for 
  Inspector Muncy as well as with how they acquitted themselves against 
  the eels and doppelganger.
  Raid on  
  Currington Clothiers
  In less than 30 minutes, over 100 Constables of the Watch and Auxiliary 
  Constables of the Watch have been gathered at the Watch Station nearest 
  to Currington Clothiers. The parish officers go over the plan with a handful 
  of sergeants who will be leading the raid. The PCs are free to sit in on this 
  briefing, though they are not formally included in the plans for the raid.
  Forty of the auxiliary constables will move from side streets to quickly 
  form a cordon around the manufactory. They are issued longspears from 
  the Watch armory to maintain this cordon and prevent any escapes. Any 
  suspects who flee the manufactory but immediately surrender are to be 
  manacled and hooded for processing. Those who resist are to be killed on 
  sight under the assumption that they are shapechangers and will attempt to 
  impersonate Officers of the Watch if given the chance. While the auxiliary-
  constables form the cordon, 60 constables led by 12 sergeants will enter 
  the premises from the front and back to conduct the raid. They have been 
  issued shortspears and nets to attempt to eliminate any suspects that show 
  signs that they may be shapechangers and capture any others present so 
  they can be taken into custody and magically tested to determine if they 
  are doppelgangers, with any appropriate charges to be brought against 
  them at a later date. The PCs can join either, both, or neither of these 
  breaches as they see fit but will need to get into the building themselves if 
  they wish to continue their investigation. Regardless, their assistance will 
  not be necessary on the main raid itself. Encounters have been specially 
  prepared for their involvement.
  A map of Currington Clothiers has been provided. The Watch officers 
  gain entry by means of a portable ram administered to the front and rear 
  doors and catch the inhabitants of the textile mill by surprise. The front 
  breach enters the front office of the mill where a surprised human security 
  guard attempts to resist and is quickly slain. The raid then carries through 
  onto the main manufactory floor. The back breach goes directly onto the 
  
  40
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  main manufactory floor. Regardless of which means by which they enter, 
  as soon as the PCs (assuming any are present) make it to the main floor of 
  the mill, read the following:
  With the piercing shrill of Watch whistles ringing in your 
  ears and the crash of a broken door, the surge of blue-coated 
  constables pours onto the main manufactory floor of the 
  clothier. The room is huge and spacious with the raftered 
  ceiling over 30ft above. The entire floor is crammed with 
  battered wooden tables, their legs cut short to make them 
  lower, wherein scores of ragged children labour away at cutting 
  from bolts of cheap cloth and stitching together clothing. 
  Walking watchfully among these wretched urchins are a dozen 
  or more scowling, burly men holding short whips or caning 
  rods for encouraging greater production from their charges.
  As the Constables of the Watch come crashing through the 
  door, the startled children let out a wailing cry of fear almost 
  as one. The foremen on the floor are equally startled by the 
  sudden entrance, and for a moment the face of more than one 
  of them ripples into a featureless plane before resuming their 
  grizzled human appearance, unintentionally giving themselves 
  away as shapeshifters among the crowd. Seeing this, the 
  constables howl out cries for blood against the duplicitous 
  beasts and charge into the crowd, spear points bared.
  Soon the floor of the manufactory is a massive scrum, as 
  constables throw nets over scrambling children and adults 
  alike and overbear any of the foremen that appear the least bit 
  resistant in flurry of stabbing spears. Above this chaos, a stair 
  rises along one wall of the manufactory to the second floor 
  offices located behind a row of doors and windows overlooking 
  the work floor. For just a moment you catch a glimpse of 
  movement in those darkened windows, as if something took 
  a furtive peek out at the melee below. None of the constables 
  seems to have noticed this movement in the windows or are the 
  least bit concerned with the rooms above in fact, so consumed 
  are they in their vengeance over the loss of their fellow officers 
  down at the river.
  Currington Clothiers is a sweat shop run on child labour (perfectly legal 
  within Castorhage) and serves as a front for The Spiteful to operate within 
  the city. All of the supervisors, managers, foremen, and shift bosses are 
  actually doppelgangers. Hundreds of indigent children are employed on 
  the work floor of the manufactory and dozens of them are actually spite-
  waif moles that were not able to be successfully placed into Castorhage 
  homes as changelings. There are currently a total of 7 doppelgangers 
  and 15 spite-waifs on the work floor along with 126 human children. The 
  constables are dealing with these, though, so the PCs are free to explore 
  the upper reaches of the manufactory. All of the windows looking out over 
  the manufactory floor are thickly curtained from the other side, so the PCs 
  cannot look in through them.
  1. Upper Office
  The door to this room is locked (DC 15 to open), though the window in 
  the brick wall beside it can be easily broken. Anyone attempting to climb 
  in through the window is attacked by the room’s occupants.
  A thickly curtained window looks out over the balcony, and 
  another window in an outside wall lets in a dust-laden stream 
  of sunlight. Two large desks sit before an exit in the far wall, 
  and several battered chairs are arranged around the room. 
  Wooden filing cabinets line the back wall.
  The shift bosses use this room as their office. The furnishings are 
  mundane, but the filing cabinets hold records on every employee of the 
  manufactory. This seems innocuous enough, but with the knowledge that 
  all of the adult employees appear to be doppelgangers, this will provide 
  the Watch with the means to track down many members of The Spiteful 
  quickly before they are made aware of the raid and have a chance to 
  assume new identities. It can also help them track down child employees 
  with discrepancies in their household information to pin down some of 
  them that may be spite-waifs. Regardless of the outcome of the PCs’ 
  investigation, the information contained herein reveals to the Watch a 
  greater plot of infiltration into the city by shapechangers and sets the plans 
  of The Spiteful back by generations.
  Two men occupy this room dressed as shift bosses for the manufactory 
  in thick dungarees and work boots. These are actually 2 doppelgangers 
  that retreated to this room when the raid began. As soon as the PCs enter, 
  one throws an alchemist’s fire at the filing cabinets while the other attacks. 
  The first then joins in the attack. The PCs have 2 rounds to put out the 
  burning filing cabinet (an action requiring a DC 10 Dexterity save to beat 
  it out with a cloak or similar tactic) before all of the files are destroyed. 
  The doppelgangers each carry keys to the manufactory’s front and rear 
  doors as well as the doors to this room and room 3.
  Doppelganger (2): AC 15; HP 52 (8d8+16); Spd 30ft; Melee 
  slam (+6, 1d6+4 bludgeoning); SA multiattack (slam x2), 
  read thoughts 60ft; Immune charm; Str +0, Dex +4, Con +2, 
  Int +0, Wis +1, Cha +2; Skills Deception +6, Insight +3; Senses 
  darkvision 60ft; Traits ambusher (advantage on attack with 
  surprise), surprise attack +3d6; AL NE; CR 3 (700 XP).
  Ad Hoc XP Award: Award each PC 1500 XP if they manage to save 
  the personnel files from being burned.
  
  41
  Bloody Jack
  
  42
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  2. Foremen’s Breakroom
  Several tables are set around this room, with stools scattered 
  among them. Dirty crockery sits atop some of the tables, and 
  more is stacked in a porcelain sink basin. A pipe leading from a 
  rooftop cistern ends at a spout just above this basin.
  The doppelgangers of The Spiteful often take a break in here and plan 
  their further strategy. There are currently none here, though 4 spite-waifs 
  cower under one of the tables trying to appear as normal frightened 
  children. They wait until the PCs have let their guard down or can 
  otherwise get close enough to attack unarmored PCs before dropping their 
  pretense of innocence.
  Spite-Waif (4): AC 13; HP 36 (8d6+8); Spd 20ft; Melee bite (+5, 
  1d6+3 piercing), claws (+5, 2d4+3 slashing); SA innate spells 
  (Cha, DC 11), multiattack (bite, claws); Immune charm; Str 
  –1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +1; Skills Deception 
  +5, Insight +2; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits create mirror por-
  tal, perfect copy; AL NE; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Innate Spells: at will—alter self; 1/day—sleep
  3. Storage Access
  This door is locked and barred from the inside and does not have any 
  nearby window for easy access.
  4. Manager’s Office
  The stench of decay is almost overpowering in here, mixed 
  with the ammonia smell of tanning hides. Piles of leather 
  in various stages of tanning, from bloody and fresh to well-
  preserved and supple, are piled about the room or hang from 
  hooks set in the ceiling rafters. Closer observation, however, 
  reveals that those tanned hides that are still intact enough to 
  identify bear a humanoid shape. Across the room, a large work 
  table has been set up where these hides are in the process of 
  being stitched into skillfully made shirts, jackets, and trousers.
  The manager overseeing this manufactory on behalf of The Spiteful 
  is an aberrant creature from Between known as a skin stitcher. In its 
  natural form it appears to be a humanoid without skin, merely moist, 
  corded muscles, coated in a purplish slime, grown over exposed bones 
  and sinew. However, it uses the harvested skin of humanoids to create 
  elaborate skin suits for itself, so that at first glance it appears to be a portly 
  human with sagging jowls and a thick swatch of grey hair atop its head 
  wearing a loose-fitting robe and sandals. A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) 
  check reveals the true nature of its skin suit as does approaching within 5ft 
  to reveal the many lines of stitching comprising the raiment.
  The skin stitcher designs the clothing patterns for the manufactory using 
  the harvested skins of indigents it hunts on the streets, and these patterns 
  then form the basis for the cheap clothing produced by the manufactory. 
  When the PCs enter, unless they see through its disguise, the skin stitcher 
  plays the part of an outraged tailor being interrupted at his work and claims 
  ignorance to any nefarious goings-on within the manufactory. However, its 
  Deception check due its low Charisma (reflected in its croaking inhuman 
  voice), and the presence of the many humanoid skins in the room further 
  belie its story. Once it has been found out, it grabs its spiked chain from 
  beneath its robes and fights to the death.
  Skin Stitcher: AC 16; HP 91 (14d8+28); Spd 30ft; Melee spiked 
  chain (+6, 2d4+3 slashing); SA multiattack (spiked chain x2), 
  rage (after damage on following round, +2 damage bonus, 
  advantage on Str checks and saves, resistant to bludgeon-
  ing, piercing, and slashing); Str +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +0, Wis 
  +1, Cha –2; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits improved critical (19 
  or 20); AL CE; CR 5 (1800 XP).
  5. Storage Loft
  This attic is dark and quiet. It is quite hot and stuffy 
  from all the body heat rising from the work floor below and 
  being captured beneath the gable of the building’s roof. 
  Piles of finished textiles, forgotten in the back corners of the 
  manufactory, are stacked along the walls waiting for sales or 
  deliveries that will likely never happen. These huge mounds 
  of clothing muffle all sound, and everything lies beneath a 
  fine layer of textile down given off by the constant cutting and 
  working of fabrics in the workshop below.
  If the PCs search the chamber, they find in one of the back corners, amidst 
  a drift of textile down, an attic whisperer. It resembles an amalgamation of 
  thin children’s bones, infants’ bed clothes, and bits of dust and fuzz, all with 
  the hand-painted head of a dolly atop it. PCs making a DC 10 Intelligence 
  (Investigation) check recognize the dolly from having seen it in a corner 
  of Adelaide Muncy’s nursery (room 4 in Chapter 6), causing them to 
  realize that the attic whisperer was present when they were there. The mud-
  stained stockings on its child-sized feet likewise allow a DC 15 Intelligence 
  (Investigation) check to realize it must have left the prints in the drainage 
  tunnel (area 3 of Chapter 3) of the Sewagers’ Guild as well when they 
  discovered the nursery rhyme on the signboard. It suppresses its aura of 
  sobs to prevent any discomfort to the PCs. The attic whisperer was formed 
  from the essences of the many innocent children murdered over the years by 
  Bloody Jack and The Spiteful, all bound together by the tiny conscience of 
  the infant Adelaide Muncy. It has served as a hidden benefactor to the PCs 
  throughout their investigation and has one final piece of information to give. 
  Its actions are detailed under “Development” below.
  
  43
  Bloody Jack
  Development: The attic whisperer does not speak, but if not attacked, it 
  produces a piece of charcoal from its rags and writes an inscription on the 
  floor, a never-before-seen final verse to the Bloody Jack Carver nursery 
  rhyme (see Handout I). It then hands the PCs Handout E recovered from 
  the rubble of Madam Larua’s stall in Chapter 4 and a small pair of blood-
  stained tinker’s pliers that the PCs recognize as having come from the 
  scene of William Hughe’s murder. If the PCs attack the attic whisperer, 
  it unleashes its aura of sobs and quickly retreats under a nearby pile of 
  textiles. If the PCs dig for it, they are unable to find it but do find the 
  message inscribed in charcoal (Handout I) and the crumpled paper that is 
  Handout E lying beneath. It does not reappear in this adventure.
  Behind the Scenes
  The Spiteful have become fully aware of both Inspector Muncy and 
  the PCs and their involvement in investigating the murder of William 
  Hughe, as well as the fact that they are gaining information that could 
  lead to the exposure of The Spiteful and their plot within Castorhage. 
  While Inspector Muncy managed to escape Between, even though 
  maimed, and The Spiteful subsequently lost track of him, they did not 
  lose track of the PCs and chose to imitate the missing inspector to lead 
  the PCs into a trap. In doing so, however, they grew careless and caused 
  their operation at Currington Clothiers to be discovered. The resulting 
  raid inflicts considerable damage upon The Spiteful and their plots and 
  largely removes them from the adventure as adversaries of the PCs. Those 
  members who survived the raid quickly go to ground and assume new 
  identities to avoid the subsequent Watch round-up that occurs soon after, 
  and those changelings already in place are no longer receiving instruction 
  from The Spiteful for the time being and must carefully remain static in 
  their assumed roles without exposing themselves. The PCs have no further 
  means to track The Spiteful at this time.
  However, the final prophecy of Madam Larua to Bill Hughe has come 
  to pass, and Inspector Hogan’s sojourn into Between was sufficient to both 
  destroy the rest of his sanity — already strained since the murder of his wife 
  and child 20 years ago — and make him aware of the threat that The Spiteful 
  changelings represent to the city. He has therefore determined to take up the 
  mission of Bloody Jack Carver, and it is up to the PCs to stop him before he 
  begins indiscriminately slaughtering the children of Castorhage.
  What Next
  The Spiteful have been dealt a major blow and largely nullified in the 
  city for the time being, but the PCs are now aware that the Bloody Jack 
  killings may resume at the hands of Inspector Muncy. As such, the only 
  course before them if they wish to prevent this from happening is to track 
  down the inspector and stop him. The only lead they have is Madam 
  Larua’s admonition to return to the scene of the crime, and the hint from 
  the attic whisperer that the crime in question was the murder of Old Bill. 
  The PCs must head back to where the adventure began in order to try and 
  stop Inspector Muncy before the killings begin anew. Doing so brings the 
  PCs into Chapter 8.
  
  44
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  After the events of Chapter 7, the PCs are led by the information found 
  there back to the hovel of William Hughe, where their investigation began. 
  Upon arriving they find that little has changed at the scene other than that 
  the body was removed by the Watch. In addition, the red cordon nailed 
  across the door has recently been removed, showing that someone has 
  been here since they left.
  A careful search of the hovel does reveal the following items of interest 
  with the appropriate Wisdom (Perception) DC listed next to it, however. 
  Each discovery requires a separate check.
   
  DC 
  Find
   
  0 
  A swath of bandages covered in fresh blood lies 
   
   
  wadded atop Bill’s bed. Next to it is a small hack
   
   
  saw and the sawed-off handle of a wooden 
   
   
  mallet. The head of the mallet cannot be found.
   
  5 
  Lying on one of the work benches is a rolled 
   
   
  parchment (Handout J), a note left for the PCs by 
   
   
  Inspector Muncy.
   
  10 
  A dried blood spatter on the floor near where the 
   
   
  body lay has a clear spot in its centre shaped 
   
   
  like a knife. One of the tinker’s knives that lay here 
   
   
  (and was likely used during the murder) has 
   
   
  been removed. A DC 15 Intelligence (Investiga
   
   
  tion) check can identify the shape of the knife 
   
   
  as a kermabit, a sharp, scythelike blade that can 
   
   
  be worn around the pinky by a loop and easily 
   
   
  concealed in a coat sleeve, yet remain ready for 
   
   
  quick use.
   
  15 
  Two empty potion bottles have rolled under the 
   
   
  bed. A DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check can 
   
   
  identify the dregs as having been potions of 
   
   
  greater healing.
   
  20 
  A floorboard under one of the work benches 
   
   
  is slightly askew. Below it is a secret compartment 
   
   
  with a few blue stains marring its floor. A DC 10 
   
   
  Intelligence check identifies the stains as essence 
   
   
  of ether poison — Bill’s stash, sealed away for all 
   
   
  these years.
  These finds should be sufficient for the PCs to deduce that Inspector 
  Muncy has survived Between (though obviously badly injured) and 
  intends to assume the role of Bloody Jack Carver in hunting spite-waifs 
  within the city…and apparently with the same lack of discrimination 
  between the monsters and real children. The PCs can choose to report 
  their findings to the Watch, but they are implicating an inspector in good 
  standing for a crime that, in all likelihood, he hasn’t even committed yet. 
  Even with his confessional note, if they can find a sympathetic ear it will 
  still likely be far too late to save his initial victims. A resurrected serial 
  killer is on the loose, and the PCs are the only ones in a position to stop 
  him before his bloody work begins.
  Therefore, the PCs’ first task is to try and determine where the inspector 
  is likely to strike first in his newly adopted crusade. There are innumerable 
  orphanages, alms houses, blind alleys, and street corners where he could 
  gain access to unsuspecting and poorly tended children, however, anyone 
  making a DC 10 Charisma (Persuasion) check to gather information 
  among the inhabitants of the Blight will recall that this very night is the 
  beginning of the Annual Children’s Carnival at the Great Fayre — an event 
  where there will be thousands of unsuspecting, unattended children just 
  ripe for the depredations of a monster like Bloody Jack to begin writing 
  new nursery rhymes in blood. It officially opens at sundown, which, after 
  the chaotic events of the day, is only an hour away. It’ll take at least that 
  long to get there from Bill’s place in East Ending, but if the PCs hurry, 
  they may be able to make it in time.
  The Annual 
  Children’s Carnival
  The Children’s Carnival is an event that occurs annually at the Great 
  Fayre on the Festival pier. For 5 days, the parents of the Blight take leave 
  of their senses and drop their children off at the Fayre to romp and play 
  late into the night among free rides and concessions. The parents of the 
  Blight would normally never do this sort of thing, but since its inception 
  20 years ago, the Children’s Carnival has been remarkably safe and free of 
  incidents if only because the villainous and ghastly inhabitants of the city 
  simply haven’t thought of any depredations to inflict on the Carnival yet. 
  That is all about to change as the reign of Bloody Jack Carver is renewed 
  at this festive occasion. It is up to the PCs to prevent this from happening.
  The Carnival starts at sundown each night of the 5 days and lasts until 2 
  hours before dawn. Due to the crowds and the difficulty in getting around 
  the city, at the PCs’ best speed they cannot make it until an hour after 
  the Carnival has opened. By then, thousands of children are already in 
  attendance. Read the following as they reach the top of the Skew and 
  behold the scene of the Carnival.
  Whereas the Great Fayre was crowded before, with the 
  advent of the Children’s Carnival it has become absolutely 
  packed with humanity — mostly in the age range of 6 to 14. 
  Colourful streamers have been added to the faded and garish 
  décor of the Fayre and wide banners proclaim the Children’s 
  Carnival open to the children of Castorhage. The sight of 
  packs of children running towards you screaming makes you 
  grab weapons in alarm at what may be chasing them, until 
  you realize they are only at play among the amusements and 
  engrossed in the games and the vast quantities of sugared 
  treats they are consuming. Locating a child killer among these 
  children will be like locating a needle in a stack of needles.
  The Great Fayre is surrounded by a wooden palisade 8ft high, its inner 
  and outer faces painted with all manner of advertisements for attractions 
  and rides. Unless the PCs try to sneak into the Carnival requiring a 
  DC 20 Dexterity (Stealth) check and creating all sorts of problems for 
  them if they are caught, they will need to enter through one of the gate 
  turnstiles. Entry is free, but access is controlled at these points to turn 
  Chapter Eight:
  The Bloody Business
  The PCs can reach this chapter in the following ways:
  • The events of Chapter 7 lead directly into Chapter 8.
  
  45
  Bloody Jack
  away ne’er-do-wells. The following encounters occur as the PCs explore 
  the Carnival, culminating as they locate Inspector Muncy atop the Great 
  Wheel (Encounter 5). Unless otherwise specified, any combats that occur 
  are considered a part of the show and general chaos of the Carnival, so 
  that while those in the immediate vicinity move to get out of the way, no 
  alarm is raised or Watch officers called in. The PCs will likewise find that 
  they are also unable to raise the hue and cry among the pandemonium of 
  the Carnival.
  Encounter 1: Carnival Gate
  The nearest entrance into the Carnival is a gate with a 
  ticket booth and iron turnstile. To either side are the wooden 
  palisades that surround the Fayre. Painted to the right of the 
  gate is an elaborate illustration advertising the “Infamous 
  Four-armed Ape of the Veiled Isle: Captured and Brought Live 
  From the Razor Sea and Put On Display for the Discriminating 
  Audience of Castorhage.” The fencing on the other side of 
  the entry gate simply bears a painted advertisement for “Dr. 
  Turgaband’s Miraculous Medicating Ointment — the Miracle 
  Cure for Rashes, Piles, and Rheumatic Fever.” Standing in the 
  ticket booth and admitting children one at a time through the 
  turnstile is a bored-looking guard.
  The gate is manned by a hired security guard who looks askance at 
  a group of armed and armored adults attempting to enter the Children’s 
  Carnival. Unless the PCs make a successful DC 15 Charisma (Deception 
  or Persuasion) check or use their credentials as deputies of the Watch, he 
  attempts to prevent them from entering, resorting to combat if necessary. 
  He quickly surrenders if reduced below 10 hp, however.
  Development: If the guard is made cooperative or beaten in combat, 
  the PCs can question him. While thousands of children attend the 
  Carnival, very few adults do so. As a result, those that do enter stick 
  out conspicuously. If the PCs ask the guard about any adults that may 
  have entered, the guard remembers them pretty well. None matches the 
  description of Inspector Muncy, but he does recall a one-legged clown 
  that entered a half-hour earlier. (The clown is actually a red herring [see 
  Encounter 3]; Muncy managed to sneak in by climbing over the palisade.)
  Encounter 2:  
  Ubiquitous Animal Escape
  This event occurs shortly after the PCs enter the Carnival, possibly on 
  the tail of a one-legged clown.
  With so few adults in attendance among the throngs of 
  children, it is relatively easy to pick them out from among the 
  crowd. Thus it is not long before you catch sight of the clown. 
  Though you can only see his upper body among the crowds, 
  you can tell he walks with a short, stutter hop at every step. He 
  is ushering a group of children into a petting barn when his 
  eyes scan across the crowd and make contact with yours. He 
  quickly ducks inside, but not before reaching out and releasing 
  the latch on a nearby animal cage. The giant hyena lounging 
  within suddenly perks up as the cage door slowly swings 
  open, and it begins looking expectantly at the many delicious 
  children milling about as it paces towards the aperture.
  The clown (described further in Encounter 3) has just released the cage 
  door holding a hyaenodon kept on display for the crowds. The PCs cannot 
  get to the cage in time before the hyaenodon escapes, but they can arrive 
  before it has a chance to start eating any bystanders. If the PCs think to use 
  a mage hand, they can close and latch the cage before the beast escapes 
  and obtain XP just as if they had defeated the creature. Otherwise they’ll 
  have to fight it to prevent it from victimizing the children nearby. The 
  massive hyena stands nearly as tall as a man at the shoulder, with a blunted 
  face and vicious fangs.
  Hyaenodon: AC 12; HP 45 (6d10+12); Spd 50ft; Melee bite 
  (+5, 2d6+3 piercing); SA rampage (reduce target to 0hp 
  with melee, bonus to move half speed and make a bite); Str 
  +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int –4, Wis +1, Cha –2; Skills Perception 
  +3; AL U; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Encounter 3:  
  Machinations of an Evil Clown
  This event occurs if the PCs follow the one-legged clown into the 
  petting zoo barn.
  The square barn is 50ft on a side and quartered into four 
  animal pens with a 5ft aisle running between them. Each 
  pen’s rail is only 3ft high allowing even small children to 
  climb them, and a small gate provides access for those 
  toddlers too small to hop the fence. The pens hold an 
  assortment of sheep, poultry, small calves, and strangely 
  large toads the size of a food platter, respectively. Milling 
  along the aisles and among the pens are numerous small 
  children. One group of children is huddled near the toad 
  pen, looks of confusion and fear on their faces. A clown 
  flees across that pen towards an exit door in the rear wall of 
  the barn. The clown has one leg, the stump of his brightly 
  panted left leg ending in a heavy, coiled spring giving him 
  an odd hopping motion to his gait.
  
  46
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  The fleeing clown is not Inspector Muncy, though beneath the baggy 
  clown clothes and face paint this will not be evident until he talks or 
  is disabled and examined. Rather this painted entertainer is actually a 
  criminal (spy) named Gimlet. Gimlet led a group of well-heeled children 
  from affluent families in Castorhage into this barn in order to kidnap them 
  and hold them for ransom (a covered wagon holding bindings and gags 
  waits out back to stow them in and sneak them out as a cartload of garbage 
  when the Carnival closes for the night). Gimlet spied the conspicuous-
  looking PCs at the same time they saw him and assumed they were onto 
  his plans and fled. When the PCs enter, he is 30ft away and making for 
  the back door, but his old maiming injury from long ago ensures that he 
  moves only slowly and the PCs will have a good chance to catch him 
  before he makes his escape. Assuming they are assassins hired by one of 
  his many enemies, Gimlet fights for his life, only surrendering when he is 
  reduced below 20 hp, at which point he confesses everything if still alive. 
  He actually knows nothing about Bloody Jack or the spite-waifs and is 
  dumb-founded by any stories the PCs tell of such things.
  Development: If the PCs capture Gimlet alive and force his confession, 
  they can turn him over to a nearby security guard for the Carnival who 
  will deliver him to the Watch. The grateful families of the children Gimlet 
  nearly absconded with send the PCs a reward of 200gp each the next day.
  Encounter 4:  
  Children of the Damned
  This event occurs as the PCs are crossing the Midway.
  You scan the crowds, moving down the Midway, as you 
  continue to search for Inspector Muncy. Ahead, a small group 
  of children messily eats a batch of freshly made, pulled taffy. 
  At your approach, two of them notice you. They bare vestigial 
  fangs hidden in their gumlines and hiss menacingly as the 
  other children run in fear from this sudden display.
  The PCs have run across 2 spite-waifs on the Midway. They are 
  members of The Spiteful and have been made aware of the PCs’ presence 
  in the city through that group’s network of informants, but are unaware 
  of the recent raid on their headquarters at Currington Clothiers or that 
  Bloody Jack is hunting them again. Therefore, they know only that the 
  PCs represent a threat that must be eliminated. They attack and fight to the 
  death, beginning by throwing their taffy which act as tanglefoot bags. Any 
  witnesses to this battle quickly flee to find a guard, but the PCs will have 
  the opportunity to be long gone before any members of the Watch arrive 
  to try and sort out an apparent child murder.
  Spite-Waif (2): AC 13; HP 36 (8d6+8); Spd 20ft; Melee bite (+5, 
  1d6+3 piercing), claws (+5, 2d4+3 slashing); SA innate spells 
  (Cha, DC 11), multiattack (bite, claws); Immune charm; Str 
  –1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +1; Skills Deception 
  +5, Insight +2; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits create mirror por-
  tal, perfect copy; AL NE; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Innate Spells: at will—alter self; 1/day—sleep
  Encounter 5: Bloody Jack Unveiled
  This event can occur at any time you are ready to bring the adventure 
  to its climactic conclusion.
  It is beginning to seem impossible to find the inspector 
  among the teeming masses of thousands of children in the 
  dimly lit carnival. There are simply too many places he could 
  be and too many shadows to hide in. Despair is just beginning 
  to set in when you are distracted by the sound of metal gears 
  squealing and grinding to a halt. At the south edge of the
  Fayre the Great Wheel, a Ferris wheel that towers 300ft over 
  Festival, lurches to a shuddering stop in its revolutions. The 
  screams of glee from its occupants become screams of fear as 
  the occupants of its topmost gondolas realize they are now 
  stuck on the swaying contraption hundreds of feet above the 
  pier. Just barely visible in the gloom of night, a single figure 
  can be seen laboriously climbing among the many girders that 
  comprise the Great Wheel. The figure moves awkwardly as if 
  one leg was lamed.
  The figure is too far away for the PCs to be able to shoot at with ranged 
  attacks, and by the time they arrive at the base of the Great Wheel he has 
  already disappeared among the tangle of girders far above. At the base 
  they find everything in confusion. The operator of the giant machinery 
  points out a crowbar wedged into the gears that operated the machine’s 
  revolutions. Its insertion has stripped and jammed the gears so that the 
  Great Wheel will not turn again until major repairs have been undertaken. 
  He has just shut down the steam furnace to prevent a pressure overload 
  and is coaxing children to climb down from the lower gondolas, but is at a 
  loss as to how to get the children in the upper gondolas safely out. If asked 
  about how the crowbar got there, he says a limping man dressed like a 
  Watch inspector just came up and shoved it in before beginning to scale 
  the Great Wheel itself. The screams of the children trapped above can still 
  be heard from below, but those in the topmost gondola continue with the 
  most frequency and urgency. Something is being done to the children in 
  that gondola.
  The gondolas of the Great Wheel are covered affairs made of tin, 15ft 
  long, by 4ft high, by 3ft wide. A wooden bench runs down the back of 
  them from end to end and the front is completely open except for an iron 
  bar that runs across at a height of 2ft for anyone seated on the bench to 
  hang onto as they look out over the urban sprawl of Castorhage. The entire 
  contraption hangs from a great iron swivel joint suspended from the iron 
  girders that comprise the Great Wheel. The gondola benches can hold 5 
  adults comfortably, but during the Children’s Carnival it is not unusual 
  for as many as a dozen kids to be squeezed into one, and here on opening 
  night the gondolas are all full to capacity.
  The Wheel itself is composed of iron girders a foot thick held together 
  by great rivets. As a result, it can be scaled with only a DC 10 Strength 
  (Athletics) check. Walking on the girders does not require an Acrobatics 
  check to balance, but moving at greater than half speed or melee combat 
  requires a DC 5 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DC 7 on the girder if it is 
  sloped at less than a 45-degree angle, DC 10 if sloped at a greater angle). If 
  a PC takes damage while balancing on a girder, a new check is necessary 
  to avoid falling off. 
  The Great Wheel
  The Great Wheel is something of an anomaly in Castorhage 
  in that it lies in a city powered by flesh and necromancy, yet it 
  is instead a contraption of steam power and gas — a true oddity 
  of oddities in the spectacle that is the Great Fayre. A great steam 
  engine lies buried below the boardwalk directly beneath the Great 
  Wheel. Here a gas-powered furnace heats water pumped up from 
  deep in the depths of the Lyme (where it is cleanest and least 
  damaging to the pipes) to create the steam the propels the motions 
  of the Great Wheel. In addition, unlike the pyre-beetle lamps 
  that illuminate the rest of the vast city, the builders of the Great 
  Wheel installed another novelty. Hundreds of gas lamps fed by 
  lead tubing that runs up through the support girders of the entire 
  structure. While highly unusual for the city-state, this arrangement 
  prevents the need for workers to climb about on the girders and 
  replace the pyre-beetles every night. This creates a convenience 
  for the operators of the Great Wheel but an unusual danger for the 
  PCs and they pursue their quarry.
  
  47
  Bloody Jack
  
  48
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Falling: Anytime anyone falls from the Wheel while climbing or 
  balancing, they only fall 1d3x10ft before hitting another girder. Falling 
  damage is taken as normal for this fall, but then allow a DC 15 Dexterity 
  save to grab hold of the girder. If the check is failed, the individual falls 
  another 1d3x10ft before hitting another girder and having another chance 
  to stop the fall, and so on. Anyone stopping his fall in this way must use a 
  move action to climb back up onto the girder he grabbed before being able 
  to otherwise act or climb back up to the battle.
  Lighting the entire Wheel are gas lamps built into the supporting 
  girders at regular intervals. They are continuously lit providing normal 
  illumination. If a gas lamp is broken, it explodes in a 10ft radius that deals 
  2d6 fire damage within its area of effect (DC 15 Dexterity save for half) 
  and requires a DC 10 Dexterity save to avoid catching fire. After the initial 
  explosion, the thin lead pipe feeding that gas lamp melts and seals itself, 
  ending any threat it poses.
  Tactics: Now thoroughly insane and engrossed in his plot to hunt spite-
  waifs, Inspector Muncy has jammed the Great Wheel in place and taken 
  the occupants of the entire top gondola hostage. He intends to scare a 
  confession out of them as to which are real children and which are spite-
  waifs in order to only kill the proper ones, but he is prepared to kill them 
  all if no confessions are forthcoming. Of the 12 children in the gondola one 
  of them actually is a spite-waif, but it has no intention of dropping its ruse 
  and drawing the ire of this madman, playing its part to the finish unless 
  somehow unmasked by the PCs. If exposed while free, it immediately 
  attacks the closest opponent in a bid to escape in the confusion.
  Inspector Muncy wired the wooden head of a mallet to the exposed 
  bones of his severed ankle, and then drank potions of greater healing to 
  seal the wound shut as well as he could. He now wears a heavy work boot 
  over that foot and has smeared both it and his other shoe with thick, sticky 
  pitch. As a result, he does not have to make Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks 
  to stay balanced on the girders.
  Inspector Muncy has tied all of the children to the bench with hemp 
  rope and applied a vial of acid to the swivel joint holding the gondola 
  aloft. When the PCs arrive atop the Wheel, they can see the smoking, 
  slowly dissolving joint and have 10 rounds before it gives way, dropping 
  the entire gondola to a crashing fall among the girders before coming to a 
  rest 300ft below. Anyone still tied into the gondola when this occurs will 
  not survive. A single PC with a slashing weapon can free 2 children per 
  round with an action. Once free, a child immediately climbs out of the 
  gondola onto the nearby girders and is safe from the danger of the falling 
  gondola. Anyone in the gondola when it falls that is not secured somehow 
  to the girders above follows the procedures for catching a nearby girder 
  and escaping the gondola as described under “Falling” above.
  In addition, Inspector Muncy has damaged several of the nearby gas 
  lamps (marked on the map) so that they are ready to explode with the 
  slightest disturbance. Muncy can activate them by throwing a dart at the 
  girder in that square (AC 10) and will do so if any of the PCs happen to be 
  standing in a rigged lamp’s area of affect.
  Throughout the battle Muncy screams apologies to the PCs and makes 
  near-incoherent ramblings of the justification of his cause in order to urge 
  the PCs to join him in his hunt, but he is obviously too far gone mentally. 
  He attacks any PCs that approach him or try to free the children from 
  the gondola, claiming they have to stay there until the monsters confess. 
  He prefers to fight with ranged attacks but will freely engage in melee 
  with anyone that approaches (though still pausing to throw darts at gas 
  lamps when effective, even at the cost of taking attacks of opportunity). 
  A successful DC 20 Charisma (Persuasion) check will cause him to be 
  dazed for 1 round as he momentarily questions his actions, though in the 
  following round he shakes off whatever argument the PCs may have made 
  and attacks again. This check can be made multiple times throughout 
  the battle and will cause him to pause as described above every time it 
  is successful, but the DC of each successive attempt increases by 2. If 
  all the children are freed before the gondola falls, Muncy cries out in 
  despair and attempts to leap into the river far below and make his escape. 
  Unfortunately for him his jumping abilities are not that pronounced, and 
  he will simply crash into the uppermost roofs of the Skew just beyond the 
  edge of the Wheel 300ft below — a fall that will almost certainly be fatal. 
  Otherwise, he fights to the death. Either way, Muncy will not escape the 
  battle alive, and the reign of the new Bloody Jack Carver ends before it 
  truly began.
  
  49
  Bloody Jack
  Inspector Muncy: AC 16; HP 90 (12d8+36); Spd 10ft; Melee 
  rapier (+5, 1d8+3 piercing); Ranged dart (+5, 1d4+3 pierc-
  ing); SA multiattack (rapier x3 or dart x3); Immune charm; Str 
  +2, Dex +3, Con +3, Int +2, Wis +0, Cha +0; Skills Athletics +4, 
  Stealth +5; CR 3 (700 XP).
  Gear: breastplate, rapier, 10 darts, potion of greater 
  healing, clay pipe, flint and steel, pouch of pipeweed, 
  Watch Inspector’s outfit, pouch with 14gp and 23sp
  Spite-Waif: AC 13; HP 36 (8d6+8); Spd 20ft; Melee bite (+5, 
  1d6+3 piercing), claws (+5, 2d4+3 slashing); SA innate spells 
  (Cha, DC 11), multiattack (bite, claws); Immune charm; Str 
  –1, Dex +3, Con +1, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +1; Skills Deception 
  +5, Insight +2; Senses darkvision 60ft; Traits create mirror por-
  tal, perfect copy; AL NE; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Innate Spells: at will—alter self; 1/day—sleep
  Concluding the 
  Adventure
  For killing an Inspector of the Watch, even one possibly on the verge of 
  committing mass murder, the PCs will quickly find themselves surrounded 
  by constables and arrested.  They are thrown in a cell deep in the Capitol 
  and denied access to a barrister, with no real means of getting their story 
  out, since the one member of the Watch who could vouch for them was 
  Inspector Muncy himself. However, after cooling their heels for a couple 
  days, they see an unknown visitor speaking to the desk sergeant before 
  departing.  A few moments later, the desk sergeant unlocks their cell, 
  returns their possessions, and informs them that all charges against them 
  have been dropped because he has just received orders that their actions 
  were clearly for the good of the city. If asked who the visitor was who 
  brought this news, he informs them that they should feel extremely lucky 
  because that was an official from a high city office. It was Crown Justice 
  Braken himself who ordered their release…
  Won’t Somebody Please  
  Think of the Children?!
  There are many descriptions that hint how Bloody Jack 
  victimized children during his reign of terror, but only at this point 
  are any children actually in jeopardy during the game. During 
  this encounter, the players must have their characters both battle 
  Bloody Jack and at the same time rescue a group of children 
  about to fall to their deaths. Its intention is to force the players to 
  work together and split up their resources so that they cannot all 
  simply gang up on the killer for an anticlimactic conclusion and 
  is designed so that the children can be rescued fairly easily if the 
  party opts to commit themselves to the rescue. 
  It should be noted, however, that in the encounter the jeopardy to 
  the children is what is important, not the injury to them. The players 
  must feel the time crunch and the sense of impending doom if they do 
  not act. There is an arbitrary 10-round clock set before the children 
  fall to their deaths if the players have not saved them. If you are 
  not comfortable with this or think that your players will not be, feel 
  free to lengthen the time limit on the clock or abolish it altogether. 
  Likewise, you can reduce the clock if necessary if you feel like your 
  players would enjoy the increased level of tension. Our purpose is 
  not to traumatize you or your players but to keep everyone on the 
  edge of their seats in an exciting session of game play. It is a simple 
  matter to not have the children fall, giving the players all the time 
  they need to rescue them. What is important is that the players do 
  not know that and that they are making all the efforts they can to 
  rescue them from the clutches of the monster and save the day in a 
  dramatic and hair-raising thrill ride of an encounter.
  
  50
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  The events in this appendix are not keyed to any specific location. 
  Rather, they occur based on what the PCs have already done and how 
  much time has elapsed since the party’s investigation began. Each event 
  describes when and how it can occur. These encounters are fairly difficult, 
  so don’t spring them on the PCs when they have not had a chance to 
  recover from previous battles unless you’re willing to risk the untimely 
  demise of several PCs.
  Event 1: First Night
  This event occurs the first night after the PCs have begun their 
  investigation. By this time The Spiteful have become aware of their 
  presence and decided that perhaps removing them in an unfortunate 
  accident might be in their best interests. To this end, after the PCs have 
  bedded down for the night The Spiteful release some of their foul beasts 
  from Between to lure the PCs into an ambush and kill them. This event 
  works best if the PCs have all retired for the night to a single location, but 
  you can easily change it to accommodate them splitting up for the evening 
  by just having a single ghoul hound attack each one.
  Whether asleep or with someone on watch, the PCs are disturbed by the 
  sound of a visitor at the door of their abode. If they are at an inn, assume 
  that they have rooms on the first floor near the common room and are the 
  only souls up and around when the event occurs. If sleeping, they should 
  not have armor and most equipment on, but if they wish to take the time 
  to arm and armor themselves (always wise at night in the Blight), they 
  can do so.
  The silence of the night is interrupted by the sound of a 
  scratch at the street door. It ceases, and you begin to wonder 
  if it was just your imagination, a faint scratching at the wood, 
  when suddenly it begins again — softly but insistent. The 
  faint sound of a whimper just reaches your ears through the 
  heavy portal.
  The scratching and whimpering continues until the PCs decide to look 
  out a window or open the door to see who is there. When they do so, read 
  the following.
  The whimpering and scratching has faded by the time you 
  are able to get a look at what is outside. The night street is 
  quiet, free from the bustle and noise of the day. A light mist 
  wafts along the cobbles, and you at first believe that no one is 
  there when you suddenly catch sight of it. A short way down 
  the street, just rounding the nearest corner is a mangy dog, 
  likely one of the many strays that wander the city. This one 
  is emaciated with hunger, its ribs showing prominently, and 
  appears to be limping, favoring one of its front paws. Even as 
  it rounds the corner out of sight, you catch the unmistakable 
  glimpse of fresh blood dripping from its injured paw. A quick 
  glance at the cobbles and door shows that bloody smears and 
  paw prints mark where it approached the door, scratched at it, 
  and has now wandered away.
  Attempts to call to the dog go unheeded and it is soon out of sight. If 
  the PCs choose not to follow, the rest of the night passes uneventfully and 
  they hear news of a mauled constable the next morning (see below). If 
  they follow the dog, continue by reading the following:
  The bloody paw prints of the pitiful dog are easily followed 
  and, after rounding the first corner, they turn down an alley. 
  However, the sight within the alley is one of horror rather than 
  pity. Lying on the cold cobbles of the street, face up, his face a 
  death mask of fear and pain, is a Constable of the Watch, his 
  throat savagely torn out. The blood pooled around his still form 
  is the source of the paw prints, and many more are scattered 
  around the scene as a pack of emaciated hounds worries at the 
  corpse — including the one you so recently followed that now 
  looks back at you hungrily.
  Feasting upon the recently slain constable are 3 ghoul hounds that 
  resemble normal dogs but with matted fur torn away in places and sickly 
  grey flesh stretched tight over bone, so that at a distance in the dark they 
  could be mistaken for starving stray dogs. These creatures have just killed 
  the night constable who was on patrol and now attack the PCs. They 
  pursue and fight to the death.
  Ghoul Hound (3): AC 14; HP 60 (8d10+16); Spd 50ft; Melee 
  bite (+5, 2d6+3 piercing plus paralysis plus trip); Immune 
  charm, exhaustion, fright, poison; Str +3, Dex +2, Con +2, Int 
  Appendix One:
  Events in the Blight
  
  51
  Bloody Jack
  –2, Wis +2, Cha +0; Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4; Senses 
  darkvision 60ft, keen hearing and smell; Traits pack tactics 
  (attack advantage with ally within 5ft of target), paralytic 
  bite (1 min, DC 12 Con repeat), trip (knock prone, DC 13 Str 
  to avoid); AL NE; CR 1 (200 XP).
  Though horrors are not uncommon in the streets of the city at night, 
  there have been no reports of packs of ghoul hounds roaming them lately. 
  Where these came from remains mysterious to the PCs. If the PCs search 
  the constable’s body, they find his Office of the Watch shield pinned to his 
  long blue coat, his night stick, a police whistle, a +1 short sword belted 
  under his coat, and a pouch holding 5gp and 23sp.
  Development: The next morning the PCs will be questioned by 
  constables whether they discovered the corpse or not, as the investigation 
  canvasses the neighborhood. The slain constable was not involved in the 
  investigation the PCs are currently handling and was not known to any of 
  them. They will not be asked about any missing items from the constable 
  (some vagrant robs him if the PCs don’t), but they will receive a 10gp 
  reward if they return any taken items to the investigators (saying they 
  found it or some other minimal attempted fiction — the authorities are not 
  interested in prosecuting the PCs for misdemeanors with ghoul hounds 
  apparently loose in the city).
  Event 2: A “Friendly” Warning
  This event occurs during the day at some point after the first night 
  (some time after Chapter 3 is completed would work particularly well 
  as it involves the first real interaction between The Spiteful and the PCs). 
  It occurs during the day while the PCs are on the streets, preferably in 
  East Ending or one of the other lower class districts of the city. If near 
  the docks, then the thugs are dock workers; if elsewhere, they are simply 
  street toughs.
  Through the crowds of people milling about the streets, one 
  group of tough-looking individuals seems to have focused on 
  you. The eight men wear the shabby work clothes of the lower 
  class residents of the district, but theirs seem perhaps a bit 
  shabbier, as if they hadn’t done many honest days of work in 
  order to maintain their attire. The leader of the group, a man 
  with a dented bowler cocked low on his head, points at you and 
  demands, “Out with your coin now, guv. An’ keep yor ‘ands 
  away from those shivs.” He and the others produce sawed-off 
  spear butts as clubs from beneath their rags and hold them 
  inconspicuously to their sides
  The toughs are actually 4 fey-touched thugs from Between. They are 
  each using silent image to create the illusion of one extra thug to bolster 
  the appearance of their numbers, though they drop this illusion as soon as 
  combat begins. Of partial human ancestry, The Spiteful frequently employ 
  them as muscle hidden among the downtrodden and disenfranchised of 
  the Blight. While they appear to be robbing the PCs, they are in fact sent 
  to give a none-too-subtle warning. 
  As soon as the PCs begin to acquiesce to their demand for money 
  (probably not likely) or draw weapons of their own, the thugs attack. If the 
  PCs have acquiesced, then the initial attack is a surprise round and allows 
  them to make sneak attacks. Regardless of how it starts, in the first round 
  of battle, the leader of the group (as a free action) leans conspiratorially 
  close and whispers to one of the PCs and says, “There’s some as don’t want 
  you on the investigation. Probably best if you leave it be, guv.” He attacks 
  despite this warning. Other than their initial silent images, they refrain from 
  using their spell-like abilities to avoid their true nature being discovered. 
  However, any thug reduced to 10 hp attempts to flee and disappear into 
  the crowds, turning invisible as soon as he is out of sight. The crowds, 
  meanwhile, stay out of the fight but do gather to watch the spectacle.
  Fey-Touched Thug (4): AC 15; HP 65 (10d8+20); Spd 30ft; Me-
  lee greatclub (+5, 1d8+3); Ranged dart (+5, 1d4+3 piercing); 
  SA innate spells (Cha, DC 11), multiattack (greatclub x2 or 
  dart x2); Resist cold; Str +3, Dex +3, Con +2, Int –1, Wis +0, 
  Cha +1; Skills Intimidation +5, Stealth +5; Senses darkvision 
  60ft, keen smell; AL NE; CR 2 (450 XP).
  Innate Spells: at will—invisibility; 2/day—silent image, 
  minor illusion; 1/day—alter self, sleep
  Development: Anyone making a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check 
  while interacting with the thugs notices that they seem to have slightly 
  pointed ears and pug noses that are a bit more upturned than would be 
  expected on a human. Anyone making this observation can then make a 
  DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check to surmise that they seem to have a 
  bit of fey blood in them (an unexpected lineage in an urban setting like 
  Castorhage). The thugs will give no further information even if captured 
  and questioned, feigning the part of ignorant street toughs out to make a 
  few silvers the “old-fashioned” way (with a sap to the side of a mark’s 
  skull). Any comments on their appearance or lineage causes them to claim 
  they are all cousins and brings a belligerent response of “What did you say 
  about me mum?” The Watch predictably arrives shortly after the battle has 
  ended and takes statements from the PCs with little further action. They 
  know nothing of the thug’s cryptic warning.
  Event 3: There Will Be Blood
  This event can occur any time after Event 2 and before Chapter 8. 
  It can occur day or night at any point when the PCs are near the Great 
  Lyme River (at least within a few blocks of it). By now The Spiteful have 
  determined that they want the PCs dead and have called upon horrors 
  brought forth long ago from Between bent on murder.
  The sky had been fairly clear, considering the usual smog 
  of the city, but now a fog seems to have drifted in off the 
  river engulfing the street in a thick, soupy mist. The cobbles 
  are slick with moisture, and the eaves drip from the sudden 
  condensation. A faint clicking sound can be heard and a low 
  vibration in the ground. Suddenly cobblestones shift and slide 
  around as they are displaced by something emerging from the 
  earth beneath them. Climbing forth from the gaping pits in 
  the road are three dog-sized beetles with large pincers, their 
  shells a bleached white colour that seems to blend with the 
  enshrouding fog.
  The fog that has enshrouded the PCs actually only covers the street 
  that the PCs are upon and is the result of three fog cloud spells cast in a 
  line by a Spiteful sorcerer on a nearby rooftop. The unnatural fog can be 
  recognized for what it really is with a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check. 
  Attacking the PCs are 3 mist murderers, strange creatures brought 
  forth from Between years ago that have lain dormant as pupae beneath 
  this street ever since. The fog clouds provide invisibility to the creatures 
  even when they are within 5ft of the PCs. They attack relentlessly and 
  fight to the death. The Spiteful sorcerer does not join in the battle, instead 
  remaining in hiding to report his results to his superiors. If the PCs begin 
  to look for the caster of the fog clouds, he turns invisible and flees with a 
  fly spell.
  Mist Murderers (3): AC 15; HP 55 (10d6+20); Spd 10ft, burrow 
  5ft, fly 40ft; Melee claw (+6, 1d6+4 slashing plus 2d6 poison 
  plus paralysis, 1 min, DC 12 Con repeat); SA multiattack 
  (claw x2), sneak attack +1d6; Immune charm; Str +1, Dex +4, 
  Con +2, Int  –5, Wis +1, Cha +0; Skills Stealth +8; Senses blind-
  sight 30ft, tremorsense 60ft; Traits mist masking (invisible in 
  misty or foggy conditions); AL NE; CR 2 (450 XP).
  
  52
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Sough-Eel
  This massive eel, nearly 20ft long, has pale hide almost translucent 
  like a fish’s belly that is marred by great areas of sloughing flesh that 
  hang loose in rotten folds. It is eyeless, with a row of small black nodules 
  extending back from its snout, and has several small vestigial fins growing 
  sporadically along the length of its body. Its mouth however, is the most 
  noticeable feature, occupying nearly a quarter of its length and splayed 
  wide with a crowd of jagged fangs.
  Sough-Eel
  Huge beast, unaligned
  AC 15 (natural armor)
  HP 126 (12d12 + 48)
  Speed 10ft, swim 30ft
   
   
  STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA
   22 (+6) 
  10 (+0) 18 (+4) 1 (–5) 12 (+1) 8 (–1)
   
  Skills Perception +7, Stealth +6
  Damage Resistances piercing
  Damage Immunities poison
  Condition Immunities blinded, poisoned
  Senses tremorsense 60ft, blindsight 30ft, passive Perception 11
  Languages —
  Challenge 5 (1800 XP)
   
  Water Dependency. Sough-eels can survive out of the water 
  for 20 minutes after than they begin to suffocate.
  ACTIONS
  Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10ft, one crea-
  ture. Hit: 17 (2d10 + 6 piercing damage. The bite causes the 
  disease sight rot unless the target makes a successful DC 
  15 Constitution save. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is 
  grappled (escape DC 17). Until this grapple ends, the target 
  is restrained and the sough-eel continues biting it and can’t 
  bite another target.
  Gnaw. If a sough-eel begins a round with a grappled foe, it 
  can attack as a bonus action with a second set of jaws in its 
  throat that aid in swallowing. A bite attack as above except 
  10 (1d8+6) piercing damage to the grappled target. After 
  a sough-eel has used its gnaw attack against a grappled 
  foe for 2 rounds, it will attempt to swallow that foe on its next 
  attack.
  Swallow. The sough-eel makes one bite attack against a 
  Medium or smaller creature it is grappling. If the attack hits, 
  the creature takes the bite’s damage, and is swallowed, 
  and the grapple ends. While swallowed, the creature is 
  blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks 
  and other effects outside of the sough-eel, and it takes 14 
  (4d6) acid damage at the start of each of the sough-eel’s 
  turns.
     If the sough-eel takes 30 damage or more on a single turn 
  from a creature inside it, the sough-ell must succeed on a 
  DC 14 Constitution save at the end of that turn or regurgi-
  tate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space 
  within 10ft of the slough-eel. If the sough-eel dies, a swal-
  lowed creature is no longer restrained by and can escape 
  from the corpse using 15ft of movement, exiting prone.
  These vile predators are found exclusively in the dark, filthy waters of 
  the Great Lyme River and Fetid Sea in the vicinity of the City-State of 
  Castorhage. Some have speculated that they were once a temperate water 
  variety of moray eel that was indigenous to the area until the Lyme was 
  tainted by the noxious effluvia from the metropolis known colloquially 
  as The Blight. Unlike most aquatic species that were unable to survive 
  the poisoning of the waters, the sough-eel population managed to endure 
  the deadly but were changed in the process. Immune to most disease and 
  poison, the sough-eels as carriers of their own endemic pathogen, are now 
  affected by it chronically so that their hide is in a constant state of dying 
  and sloughing off in large swaths and layers. This has not seemed to affect 
  their ability to survive in their harsh environment, and every native of 
  the Blight knows better to enter the water of the Lyme for fear of the 
  voracious attacks of the ever-present sough-eels.
  Appendix Two:
  New Monsters
  
  53
  Bloody Jack
  Spite-Waif
  The figure is childlike, but any sense of innocence is immediately 
  overshadowed by the aura of malevolence that seems to almost palpably 
  exude from it. Its flesh is grey and pasty, seemingly too loose for its body. 
  Its head is hairless with a wide mouth and distended jaw full of needle sharp 
  teeth, and, though humanoid in shape, when it moves it scuttles about on all 
  fours like some kind of an insect with too many joints in its limbs.
  Spite-Waif
  Small monstrosity (Between, shapechanger), neutral evil
  AC 13
  HP 36 (8d6 + 8)
  Speed 20ft
   
   
  STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA
   
  9 (-1) 
  16 (+3) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 11 (+0) 13 (+1)
  Skills Deception +5, Insight +2
  Condition Immunities charmed
  Senses darkvision 60ft, passive Perception 10
  Languages Common
  Challenge 1 (200 XP)
   
  Create Mirror-Portal. A spite-waif can, once per day, turn a 
  normal mirror into a portal between the Material Plane and 
  Between. To use this ability a mirror must be obtained from 
  the Material Plane and taken to Between where the spite-
  waif must first conduct a 1-hour ritual to attune the mirror 
  and turn it into a device for scrying. It is then able to scry 
  through any Material Plane mirror for a suitable location to 
  use as a portal. Once a location has been determined, the 
  mirror-portal is created and fixed between the two mirrors, 
  and the spite-waif’s mirror cannot be at-
  tuned to any other mirror. Once the 
  mirrors have been attuned, the 
  portal can be opened from ei-
  ther end by simply sliding the mir-
  ror aside as a move action and 
  revealing the extradimensional 
  portal behind it. Anyone can 
  pass through the mirror-portal as 
  long as they can fit through the 
  dimensions of the mirror’s pane. 
  Once created, a mirror-portal re-
  mains open indefinitely until closed. 
  If closed, it can no longer be opened 
  except by the spite-waif that created it. 
  If either mirror is destroyed, the mirror-por-
  tal is closed permanently.
  Innate Spellcasting. A spite-waif’s spellcasting 
  ability is Charisma (spell save DC 11). The spite-
  waif can innately cast the following spells, re-
  quiring only verbal components:
  At will: alter self
  1/day: sleep
  Perfect Copy. When a spite-waif uses alter self, it can 
  assume the appearance of a specific individual. Unlike a 
  doppelganger, when a spite-waif is killed it remains in its 
  assumed form unless a dispel magic is cast on the corpse.
   
  ACTIONS
  Multiattack. The spite-waits makes a bite attack and claws 
  attack.
  Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. 
  Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.
  Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft, one tar-
  get. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 3) slashing damage.
  These creatures are insidious changelings and infiltrators from 
  Between. Spite-waifs are an immature stage in the development of a 
  doppelganger that are native to that bizarre realm. While they have the 
  doppelganger’s ability to change shape, they lack its physical power and 
  ability to read minds. As a result, they are used primarily as changelings to 
  replace children of the Material Plane and then grow up within that child’s 
  household and live its life. The reasons for these switches are manifold, 
  but they are universally of malign intent. This is especially evident in the 
  fact that unlike hags, who swap changelings out for real children and then 
  raise the true child as its own, the switched child of a spite-waif is usually 
  devoured by the creature at the time of the switch.
  Spite-waifs superficially physically resemble a small humanoid child but 
  with a doppelganger’s characteristic grey and formless skin and features. 
  Its jaw is able to distend to allow it to swallow creatures of up to Tiny 
  size, and a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth help it grip its prey. Internally, 
  the spite-waif’s abdomen is almost entirely occupied by a greatly elastic 
  stomach allowing it to hold swallowed prey, and the corrosive digestive 
  acids dissolve it quickly to prevent any telltale distention to give away 
  the truth of its recent meal. Horrifically, the parents of children that have 
  been switched are frequently concerned about a possible stomach ailment 
  afflicting their “child” when they change its bedclothes not aware of the 
  true source of its exceptionally soiled diapers.
  A spite-waif can maintain its charade for years, keeping its altered 
  form continuously, and will usually do so for the entire childhood and 
  adolescence of the replaced child. In many ways they become that child, 
  assuming all of its roles and eventual responsibilities, though it always 
  maintains some form of contact with its own kind — even if only a quick 
  meeting once every few years — to stay current on the planned reasons 
  for the switch. The reasons and plans for a changeling switch are always 
  extremely far-reaching, taking decades to develop, and frequently involve 
  replacing a child from a prominent family in order to attain a powerful 
  position in government later in adulthood.
  When a spite-waif reaches physical maturity (usually within 10–12 
  years) it attains Medium size and completes its transformation into a full 
  doppelganger, losing its bite and swallow whole abilities as well as 
  its innate ability to create mirror-portals. It does develop 
  the slam attacks, mimicry, and ability to cast 
  detect thoughts, becoming in all ways a 
  normal doppelganger.
  
  54
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Appendix Three:
  Player Handouts
  
  55
  Bloody Jack
   
  RECEET — ISSUED BY OLD BILL
  REPAIR — 1 GEAR MECHANISM 
  MAIN GEAR A TERTIARY TOGGLE SWITCH
  20 PILASTERS
  TO — EUSTUS GRINDLYLOW, 
  GRINDLYLOW’S GRINDERS
  Handout A
  
  56
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Handout B
  VISIT MADAM LARUA
   
  TELLER OF FORTUNES AND 
  DIVINER OF SECRETS
  LEARN YOUR FATE
  LEARN YOUR FORTUNE
  FESTIVAL SUMMIT BY THE SKEW, 
  SOUTHWEST
  
  57
  Bloody Jack
  Handout C
  The Legend of Bloody Jack Carver
   
  Bloody Jack Carver
   
  Went down to the harbour
   
  Taking some children to play.
   
  An eel popped up its head
   
  And ate them instead,
   
  While Jack tip-toed away.
   
  —Children’s Rhyme from the Blight
  Thirty years ago the citizens of the city were gripped in a nightmare. 
  For three years the lunatic serial killer known as Bloody Jack Carver 
  stalked the fog-shrouded streets of the Blight and abducted children to 
  murder and mutilate. The Watch followed up every lead and rounded 
  up countless suspects but never came any closer to their quarry or even 
  developed a solid suspect. They assumed it was a labourer, probably a 
  butcher by trade based on the bloody and mutilated condition that many 
  of the victims were found in, and more than one innocent tradesman 
  returning home from his work at the slaughterhouse was lynched by a 
  mob of enraged and terrified parents mistaking him for the bloody killer.
  The killing spree finally ended, though not before the number of dead 
  and missing children had reached into the scores, but the perpetrator 
  himself was never caught or identified. The parents and constabulary of 
  the city gave a collective sigh of relief, hoping that one of the haunted 
  city’s other horrors of the night had perhaps claimed the life of the blood-
  drenched psychopath and ended his reign of terror once and for all. But 
  the tales of Bloody Jack Carver never really faded, finding their way into 
  nursery rhymes taught to misbehaving children and still heard on street 
  corners where young children skip rope and play make-believe. 
  
  58
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Handout D
  Bloody Jack Carver
   Went down to the larder
   Taking some children to play.
  He read them some books,
   And then hung them from hooks,
   And left them to age for a day.
  
  59
  Bloody Jack
  Handout E
  You will soon lay down the knife 
  as your time is done. Another is to 
  come who will return to the scene of 
  the crime and take up the bloody 
  business again.
  
  60
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Handout F
  REPORT OF CRIME
  CLASSIFICATION 
    #VICTIMS 
  DATE OF CRIME 
  DATE OF DISCOVERY
  Murder-Suicide 
   
  2 
   
  4/23/57 ~1400 hrs 
  4/23/57 2055 hrs
  LOCATION OF CRIME  
   
  LOCATION TYPE
  Portmuth Building, #34 
   
   
  Tenement
  VICTIM(S)
  NAME  
  AGE 
  GENDER  RESIDENCE 
  INJURY STATUS
  Rebecca Muncy 
  20 
  female     Portmuth Bldg, 34 neck fracture deceased
  Adelaide Muncy 
  8 mo. Female    Portmuth, 34          mult. stab wounds  deceased
  PERPETRATOR(S)
  NAME  
  AGE 
  GENDER  RESIDENCE 
  STATUS
  Rebecca Muncy 
  20 
  female      
  see above 
  deceased at scene
  SUMMARY OF EVENTS
  Perpetrator suffering depression, became despondent and took life of infant daughter with butcher 
  knife. Took own life by wrenching neck hard to the side and crushing windpipe.
  No further description.
  CASE STATUS
  Closed/Solved
  MATERIAL DISPOSITION
  Order of Sequestration on crime scene  
  Sealed – 4/23/57 
  Lifted –
  Mortal remains removed to Lych Field for cremation – 4/25/57
  LEAD INVESTIGATOR   R. Phineus, Insp.
  
  61
  Bloody Jack
  Handout G
  MATERIAL WITNESS STATEMENT
  I returned home to my flat at  34, Portmuth Building in Theatre Town at approximately 2000 hours 
  on 4/23/57 at the end of my patrol beat. I observed my wife sprawled in a rocking chair in the living 
  room. She was covered with blood and her neck was twisted to the side, clearly by the application of 
  great brute force. She was dead when I checked for breathing and her limbs were already cold. The blood 
  was tacky and drying. On her chest lay our infant daughter, Adelaide. Adelaide had been stabbed 14 
  times. Most were superficial, inexpert cuts, but three of them went deep and hit veins. She was also dead 
  from blood loss and already cold when I checked. The kitchen knife that killed her was still clutched in 
  Rebecca’s hand which was beginning to stiffen with rigor. After calling for the Watch I examined the 
  bodies and found no signs of stab wounds or cuts to Rebecca. All of the blood was apparently Adelaide’s 
  as if the baby had been stabbed many times while my wife was holding her. Adelaide’s fingers were 
  locked on my wife’s neck around the windpipe area and were still clenched depressing the windpipe by 
  at least two inches and apparently causing the twisting motion that caused the neck fracture. Rebecca 
  likewise had many scrapes and bruises left by child size hands. I can only conclude that a fight occurred 
  between Rebecca and our baby that resulted in Rebecca stabbing Adelaide repeatedly. In the process a 
  tiny baby, not even a year old, managed to strangle and snap the neck of my wife. This entire tragedy 
  is WRONG!!!!! I don’t know what happened here, but I will NOT have my wife and child accused of 
  murdering each other. Rebecca was a wonderful wife and mother. Adelaide was the perfect baby girl. 
  This case needs to be closed NOW. Call it a murder-suicide if you must but make it clear that Rebecca 
  was not in her right mind. She was depressed and had to be on the verge of a breakdown. That has to be 
  what happened. Nothing else makes sense.
  Hogan Muncy, Con.
  
  62
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Handout H
  MATERIAL WITNESS STATEMENT
  I returned home to my flat at 34, Portmuth Building in Theatre Town at approximately 2000 hours 
  on 4/23/57 at the end of my patrol beat. I observed my wife sprawled in a rocking chair in the living 
  room. She was covered with blood and her neck was twisted to the side, clearly by the application of 
  great brute force. She was dead when I checked for breathing and her limbs were already cold. The blood 
  was tacky and drying. On her chest lay our infant daughter, Adelaide. Adelaide had been stabbed 14 
  times. Most were superficial, inexpert cuts, but three of them went deep and hit veins. She was also dead 
  from blood loss and already cold when I checked. The kitchen knife that killed her was still clutched in 
  Rebecca’s hand which was beginning to stiffen with rigor. After calling for the Watch I examined the 
  bodies and found no signs of stab wounds or cuts to Rebecca. All of the blood was apparently Adelaide’s 
  as if the baby had been stabbed many times while my wife was holding her. Adelaide’s fingers were 
  locked on my wife’s neck around the windpipe area and were still clenched depressing the windpipe by 
  at least two inches and apparently causing the twisting motion that caused the neck fracture. Rebecca 
  likewise had many scrapes and bruises left by child size hands. I can only conclude that a fight occurred 
  between Rebecca and our baby that resulted in Rebecca stabbing Adelaide repeatedly. In the process a 
  tiny baby, not even a year old, managed to strangle and snap the neck of my wife. This entire tragedy 
  is WRONG!!!!! I don’t know what happened here, but I will NOT have my wife and child accused of 
  murdering each other. Rebecca was a wonderful wife and mother. Adelaide was the perfect baby girl. 
  This case needs to be closed NOW. Call it a murder-suicide if you must but make it clear that Rebecca 
  was not in her right mind. She was depressed and had to be on the verge of a breakdown. That has to be 
  what happened. Nothing else makes sense.
  Hogan Muncy, Con.
  
  63
  Bloody Jack
  Handout I
  Bloody Jack Carver
   Decided, “No farther,
   The blood was enough for now.”
  He gave up the knife,
   And the inspector his wife,
   So another could take the blood vow.
  
  64
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Handout J
  Dear Friends,
  I see now that all of this was necessary…the old man’s murder, your 
  investigation, even the loss of my dear Rebecca and darling Adelaide.  
  I have seen what lies on the Other Side and have felt its bite, and it  
  must not be allowed to persist over here. Old Bill was right all along. 
  And even if you get it wrong with a few of them, the good far outweighs 
  the evil. I owe it to the city. I owe it to Adelaide.
  
  65
  Bloody Jack
  65
  
  66
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GM Map
  
  67
  Bloody Jack
  Players Map
  
  68
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GM Map
  
  69
  Bloody Jack
  Players Map
  
  70
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GM Map
  
  71
  Bloody Jack
  Players Map
  
  72
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GM Map
  
  73
  Bloody Jack
  Players Map
  
  74
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GM Map
  
  75
  Bloody Jack
  Players Map
  
  76
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GM Map
  
  77
  Bloody Jack
  Players Map
  
  78
  Legal Appendix
  Designation of Product Identity: The following items are hereby designated as 
  Product Identity as provided in section 1(e) of the Open Game License: Any and all 
  material or content that could be claimed as Product Identity pursuant to section 1(e), 
  below, is hereby claimed as product identity, including but not limited to: 1. The name 
  “Frog God Games” as well as all logos and identifying marks of Frog God Games, 
  LLC, including but not limited to the Frog God logo and the phrase “Adventures worth 
  winning,” as well as the trade dress of Frog God Games products; 2. The product 
  name “The Lost Lands,” “The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City,” “The Blight,” 
  “Between,” “Bloody Jack,” as well as any and all Frog God Games product names ref-
  erenced in the work; 3. All artwork, illustration, graphic design, maps, and cartography, 
  including any text contained within such artwork, illustration, maps or cartography; 4. 
  The proper names, personality, descriptions and/or motivations of all artifacts, charac-
  ters, races, countries, geographic locations, plane or planes of existence, gods, deities, 
  events, magic items, organizations and/or groups unique to this book, but not their 
  stat blocks or other game mechanic descriptions (if any), and also excluding any such 
  names when they are included in monster, spell or feat names. 5. Any other content 
  previously designated as Product Identity is hereby designated as Product Identity and 
  is used with permission and/or pursuant to license.
  This printing is done under version 1.0a of the Open Game License, below. 
  Notice of Open Game Content: This product contains Open Game Content, as defined 
  in the Open Game License, below. Open Game Content may only be Used under and in 
  terms of the Open Game License.
  Designation of Open Game Content: Subject to the Product Identity Designation 
  herein, the following material is designated as Open Game Content. (1) all monster 
  statistics, descriptions of special abilities, and sentences including game mechanics 
  such as die rolls, probabilities, and/or other material required to be open game content 
  as part of the game rules, or previously released as Open Game Content, (2) all portions 
  of spell descriptions that include rules-specific definitions of the effect of the spells, and 
  all material previously released as Open Game Content, (3) all other descriptions of 
  game-rule effects specifying die rolls or other mechanic features of the game, whether 
  in traps, magic items, hazards, or anywhere else in the text, (4) all previously released 
  Open Game Content, material required to be Open Game Content under the terms of 
  the Open Game License, and public domain material anywhere in the text. 
  Use of Content from The Tome of Horrors Complete: This product contains or refer-
  ences content from The Tome of Horrors Complete and/or other monster Tomes by Frog 
  God Games. Such content is used by permission and an abbreviated Section 15 entry 
  has been approved. Citation to monsters from The Tome of Horrors Complete or other 
  monster Tomes must be done by citation to that original work.
  OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a The following text is the property of Wizards 
  of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (“Wizards”). All 
  Rights Reserved. 
  1. Definitions: (a) “Contributors” means the copyright and/or trademark owners who 
  have contributed Open Game Content; (b) “Derivative Material” means copyrighted 
  material including derivative works and translations (including into other computer 
  languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improve-
  ment, compilation, abridgment or other form in which an existing work may be recast, 
  transformed or adapted; (c) “Distribute” means to reproduce, license, rent, lease, 
  sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise distribute; (d) “Open Game 
  Content” means the game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes 
  and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity and is an 
  enhancement over the prior art and any additional content clearly identified as Open 
  Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, includ-
  ing translations and derivative works under copyright law, but specifically excludes 
  Product Identity; (e) “Product Identity” means product and product line names, logos 
  and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures; characters; stories, 
  storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, 
  designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photo-
  graphic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, 
  spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; 
  places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities 
  or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered 
  trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, 
  and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content; (f) “Trademark” means the 
  logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor to identify itself 
  or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the 
  Contributor; (g) “Use”, “Used” or “Using” means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format, 
  modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material of Open Game Content; (h) 
  “You” or “Your” means the licensee in terms of this agreement.
  2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice 
  indicating that the Open Game Content may only be Used under and in terms of this 
  License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No 
  terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as described by the 
  License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content 
  distributed using this License.
  3. Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your accep-
  tance of the terms of this License.
  4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the 
  Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with 
  the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.
  5. Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original ma-
  terial as Open Game Content, You represent that Your Contributions are Your original 
  creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this License.
  6. Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion 
  of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open 
  Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the title, 
  the copyright date, and the copyright holder’s name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of 
  any original Open Game Content you Distribute.
  7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as 
  an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent 
  Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to 
  indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark 
  in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed 
  in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered 
  Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute 
  a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Iden-
  tity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest in and to that 
  Product Identity.
  8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate 
  which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Game Content.
  9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated 
  versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, 
  modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version 
  of this License.
  10. Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy 
  of the Open Game Content You Distribute.
  11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open Game 
  Content using the name of any Contributor unless You have written permission from 
  the Contributor to do so.
  12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms 
  of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, 
  judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Mate-
  rial so affected.
  13. Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with 
  all terms herein and fail to cure such breach within 30 days of becoming aware of the 
  breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License.
  14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such 
  provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable.
  15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0a © 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  System Reference Document 5.1 Copyright 2016. Wizards of the Coast, Inc; Authors 
  Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Rodney Thompson, Peter Lee, James 
  Wyatt, Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell, Chris Sims, and Steve Townshend, based 
  on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
  Tome of Horrors, Copyright 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc. 
  Tome of Horrors, Copyright 2005, Necromancer Games, Inc.;
  Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, Copyright 2008, Matthew J. Finch 
  Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules, Copyright 2010, Matthew J. Finch
  Monster Compendium: 0e, Copyright 2008, Matthew J. Finch
  Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason 
  Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  The Book of Experimental Might © 2008, Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.
  Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, 
  based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors 
  Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua 
  J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, 
  Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Sean K 
  Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and 
  Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Equipment © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; 
  Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Benjamin Bruck, Ross Byers, Brian J. Cortijo, 
  Ryan Costello, Mike Ferguson, Matt Goetz, Jim Groves, Tracy Hurley, Matt James, 
  Jonathan H. Keith, Michael Kenway, Hal MacLean, Jason Nelson, Tork Shaw, Owen 
  KC Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide. Copyright 2010, Paizo Pub-
  lishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GameMastery Guide, © 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC; 
  Authors Cam Banks, Wolfgang Baur, Jason Buhlman, Jim Butler, Eric Cagle, Graeme 
  Davis, Adam Daigle, Jashua J. Frost, James Jacobs, Kenneth Hite, Steven Kenson, Robin 
  Laws, Tito Leati, Rob McCreart, Hal Maclean, Colin McComb, Jason Nelson, David 
  Noonan, Richard Pett, Rich Redman, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Amber 
  Scott, Doug Seacat, Mike Selinker, Lisa Stevens, James L Sutter, Russ Taylor, Penny 
  Williams, Teeuwynn Woodruff.
  Advanced Bestiary, © 2014, Green Ronin Publishing, LLC; Author: Jeff Hersh, Devel-
  oper: Owen K.C. Stephens.
  Creature Collection III: Savage Bestiary © 2003, White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
  Dead Man’s Chest © 2005, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Authors: Lance Hawvermale, 
  Rob Mason, Robert Hunter, Patrick Goulah, Greg Ragland, Matt McGee, Chris Bern-
  hardt, Casey W. Chistofferson, Chad Coulter, Skeeter Green, and Travis Hawvermale, 
  with additional contributions by  Erica Balsley, Lindsey Barrentine, Jay Decker, Rachel 
  Mason, and Nadine Oatmeyer.
  The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City, © 2016, Frog God Games, LLC; Authors 
  Richard Pett, Pete Pollard, Alistair Rigg, and Greg A. Vaughan.
  The Tome of Horrors Complete, © 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and 
  distributed by Frog God Games; Author Scott Green.
  The Tome of Blighted Horrors, © 2016, Frog God Games, LLC; Authors John Ling, 
  Authors Richard Pett, Pete Pollard, Alistair Rigg, Jeffrey Swank, and Greg A. Vaughan.
  TB3: Bloody Jack, © 2016, Frog God Games, LLC; Author: Greg A. Vaughan.
  
  79
  Bloody Jack
  All the children of the Blight know the nursery rhymes about Bloody Jack Carver, 
  cautionary tales for naughty or overly inquisitive children to mind their manners  
  and obey their parents. However, their parents know the true horror of those times  
  30 years ago when the lunatic serial killer known as Bloody Jack Carver stalked the  
  fog-shrouded streets of the Blight and abducted children. The killing spree finally ended, 
  but the perpetrator was never caught. 
  When the PCs are deputized to assist in a homicide investigation, they find terrifying 
  clues that point to the three-decade-old Bloody Jack killings and signs to indicate that 
  they were just the beginning. Now the PCs are in a race against time across the breadth of 
  the decrepit and deteriorating city that is the Blight as they attempt to stop a new killing 
  spree before it can start. The PCs’ investigation takes them from the halls of the Capitol 
  and the seedy streets and alleys of Toiltown to the garish carnival piers of Festival and the 
  pollutant-crusted banks of the Great Lyme River. Only they stand between the children of 
  this decayed city and new nursery rhymes being written in their blood.
  Bloody Jack is a stand-alone adventure set in the Blight for 4–5 5th-level characters.
  TB3: Bloody Jack
  TB3: Bloody Jack
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Frog God 
  Games
  ISBN 978-1-62283-343-6
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/Frog God Games/Lost Lands - The Blight - TB3 Bloody Jack.pdf