The New Horrors

The New Horrors is a campaign set on Gernon. It takes place in the years 9 and 10 asr.

### Player Characters

* Yotokono Kusetare: a human Drunken Monk, and future King of Kurosekai
* Kasidrek, a Fiend Spawn bard
* Brynhildyr Torgrym, Dwarven Gun Tank (armored shotgun wielder)
* Harkalios, a half-elf druid/ranger dedicated to fighting against the scientarians
* Sasha Philofidi, a human druid from Oyashima that had become an ally in Nuhaven

### Important NPCs

* Trigwocket the Engineerateer, a gnome alchemist and gunslinger, and future founder of the nation of Trigwocket

### A New Danger Emerges

While doing some routine adventuring protecting small towns in the Maggros Mountains, the party is saved from a Scientarian patrol by Brunhildyr Torgrym who asks them to travel with her to her family in Quata and investigate the mysterious plague of mental illness there. She had been travelling to Nuhaven looking for allies, having heard that anti-scientarian refugees were thriving there. She then convinced the party to help her investigate her son's mental illness.

On the road to Quata, the party met Crazy Hassan, a used camel salesman from beyond the Red Wall, who "generously" aided the party with "camels" for their journey north, although to the discerning eye they appeared to be donkeys with sacks of flour strapped to their backs as makeshift humps. They encountered a travelling merchant caravan, which they rescued from a strange Hexapod monstrosity that escaped their efforts to kill it. The next person they came across was Old Man Hodgement, a farmer who told them of a monster on the road and told the legend of the wendigo, a mysterious elk-like monster with cannibalistic tendencies. Next they met Nisha, a mysterious guide who never showed her face, Prabur of the Jotuf, a half-orc mountain guide who offered his services; and Kevin, a cyclops who the party convinced to work for Old Man Hodgement. This strange series of madcap encounters finally concluded, the group managed to arrive in Quata.

### Quata - A City Under Occupation

In late 9 asr, Quata was standing as the farthest northwest point the Scientarian Army had captured and held successfully, with a running conflict with the devils under the pit fiend Phentis ongoing. The former dwarven city was primarily staffed by members of the army and their camp followers, though a decent percentage of the original dwarven inhabitants remained. While it would be dangerous to wander around a Scientarian city, the soldiers were focused on their task of fighting devils and getting deeply demoralized, so searching out traitors and resistance fighters were not at the top of their priority list. The party sold their used "camels" and went to Brunhildyr's family's house. The next day they went to visit Brunhildyr's son Dubren in the Sanitorium in Quata. All methods to find out what caused the mental illness were fruitless. The group heard from Dylan Zebullon, one of Brynhildyr's son-in-laws, that some at the university might be willing to attempt magical cures to the mental illness, though with Scientarians all around this was a dangerous proposition.

The group went to the university in order to get information on such a a cure. Sarah Zebullon, a desk receptionist said she would help if the party helped out her son Frank, a goatherd outside Quata. He was having trouble with some wolves eating his goats. The party went to hunt down the wolves and found that they were actually wolfmen, and in the ensuing fight Kusetare mortally wounded one who said:

“I am Matthus Romerasu. This is my sister, Cybrisa, and my good friend and her husband Rhakis Dorzhanev. We are a peaceful group of wolfmen trying to mind our own business. We used to live with a community up in the Whispering Woods to the east of here, but we left when the tribe was hit with a plague of madness. We’ve been eating mostly deer, hares and foxes but since Cybrisa is growing with child she needs to eat more and can’t hunt as well. We needed more easy food." Apologizing for the death they meted out without enough concern, Kusetare swore to help Cybrisa and Rhakis find sanctuary. The situation was especially disturbing for the mission at large, as it was now clear that the waves of madness were expanding beyond just Quata.

The party was then able to speak to Rakata Yarsnar and Draco Zebullon, the defunct professors of magic in Quata, who told them that the insanity may be coming from another plane itself. To test this, Rakata said that they needed to send someone insane to another plane for a period of time, one that wasn't being corrupted like their own. They theorized that this might begin to cure their madness, though as this was not certain, they gathered a test subject. The group found a group of goblins that had also been driven mad by the infection in the planes, and sent two of the goblins to a demi-plane chosen by Rakata and Draco. If the test was successful, Brynhildyr hoped she would be able to cure her son using the same method.

### The Spawn of Kalderus

The party investigated the recurring figures in black by visiting the local church of Sire. The pontiff Carna Yarsnar told them that people in black often go to the catacombs, and despite asking her superiors what they were there for, she received no satisfactory answers. The party investigated and found a hidden room used by the Children of Kalderus. The leader of the cult, Rogark Yarsnar, told them the story of Kalderus. He was more than happy to tell them that they were the "children of Kalderus" and that they would survive the second coming by entering their underground ark. It was quickly clear that the cult leader was a raving lunatic, and that he wasn't completely aware of himself. He also mentioned the five Spawn of Kalderus:The Man, the Elk, the Rabbit, the Beast and the Cat. He said that the spawn of Kalderus cannot and shall not die, leaving the party understandably disturbed.

After the group left, they saw a woman speaking gibberish in the street. She offered Kusetare a lovely hat that he took a fancy to, and upon putting it on he almost went insane, only barely able to resist the magic emanating from the cursed object. They found the Hatter's shop that had sold it to the woman, and went inside. Inside, the rooms became non-euclidean. The party was attacked by a giant tentacled monster so they lit the building on fire and ran for their lives. The next day they found the Hatter in the marketplace. He offered to have them for dinner at the remains of his house. He ushered them into the basement of the remains of his house. Once inside, he attacked the party, transforming into a powerfully deranged version of himself with huge muscles and a living hat. After the party subdued him, he said that, "The Elk is in the sky, the Rabbit is underground, the Beast is in the city and the Cat runs free." He then bit a mercury capsule and killed himself. The party presumed he was the "Man" referred to in the children of Kalderus' prophecy.

Knowing they they needed to keep looking for these other Spawn of Kalderus, they decided to delve deeper into the goblin caves where they had captured their test subjects. Sasha, using a charm spell, "hired" 11 Scientarians to assault the goblin cave for them, but they never returned. The next day the party entered the goblin cave to see what had occured. The party entered a room with two pale, jellyfish-like creatures floating gently in the air. Two long eye-stalks extended from either side of their puckered mouths. One of the jellyfish-like creatures spoke via a constant flow of air through tiny pores in its pale body.

> “Halt heroes and heed my warning! There are sinister things lurking in the folds beyond space and time. A great outside force that is pushing its way back into this plane of existence. The blind eyes of this world see nothing of the horrors to come. Their ears are stopped. They are the god’s fools. This force comes to cleanse them. It comes to cleanse the world of their ignorance and sin. Bathe them in the crimson of their blood. It will burn all that lives on the surface of the world. Don’t take this warning lightly. The ancient one leeches its spawn into this world. They must be crushed and defeated or the force shall gain a foothold in this world. Are you up to this task?”
>
>

Trigwocket identified the strange beings as Flumphs, helpful beings from beyond this planet. Kusetare answered with an affirmative yes and lead the party onward by punching through the ground and opening a hole to the secret chamber. The room was filled with the corpses of the scientarian soldiers and goblins. Quickly realizing that they were on the site of a magic circle, they noticed the giant statue of a rabbit like monstrosity with three eyes and a whiplike tongue lolling out of it's gaping maw, known as the Caerbannog Lapine. Sasha and Harkalios were able to notice that the circle was part of a magic portal opening ritual, and may even lead to the Deep, where the spawn of Kalderus had originated. When Kusetare and Sasha began to activate the runes, an earthquake began and the rabbit statue cracked open and began to move.

Once the runes were activated, a portal appeared in the center of the room and appeared to tear through reality. Arcanisss valiantly attempted to trip the Caerbannog Lapine into the portal and failed, quickly being consumed by the beast. A terrible battle ensued with all present launching their full strength at the monster. Harkalios summoned a drove of rabbits around the portal. Some were sucked into the portal, but the Lapine was angered by the attacks and distracted by the rabbits. It tripped over Sasha's whip sword and fell into the portal, out of their dimension. Sasha had to be held back to stop her from rushing in afterwards to reclaim her beloved snake companion, and fell into a deep depression at the loss.

When the battle was over, the group found a shimmering sword come out of the portal. It was incredibly thin and glowed with a blue light. Kusetare grasped the blade and felt that it was somehow important.

Continuing their search for the spawn, having already defeated the Hatter and the Rabbit, the group knew they still needed to find the

1. The Elk in the Sky
2. The Beast in the City
3. And the Cat that runs free

Harkalios scouted out the forests beyond and the skies above in bird form, trying to find signs of some catlike being running around or a flying elk, with very little to really go off on. Kasidrek played some music on the street to bide their time, and Kusetare set up a temporary chiropractic business using his new strength and pinpoint accuracy. Brunhildyr visited her son, still getting worse in the sanitarium. The group returned to Rakata to see how the goblin's cure experiment was going, to discover that the time spent in the other dimension was helping their mental state return to normal as expected, but upon returning to this plane all progress immediately left them.

As they returned, they investigated a local dwarven dignitary, Conor Yangrit's, house after hearing a noise inside. When they got inside, the house was as non-euclidean as the Hatter's shop, and Conor Yangrit was draining something from a girl on a bed. Conor Yangrit turned into the Jabberwock, presumably the Beast. The party slew the Jabberwock using the Vorpal Sword they had found in the Rabbit's chamber, which quickly disintegrating following the final blow chopped it's head clean off.

The party talked with Mully, the girl who had being drained who said that she was an investigator hired by an influential member of the Quata government to investigate the insanity. She said she was on the trail of a large feline when she was hit by the insanity. "Conor Yangrit" had cured her of her insanity, but kept her imprisoned afterwards. Brynhildyr theorized that the Jabberwock had been feeding on her insanity. Mully and Hark led the party up a mountain to the Northwest of Quata. Near the top of the mountain was a cave where they saw signs of a giant monster having stayed there. The party camped outside the cave and went to sleep, keeping a watch in case the cat like monster reappeared.

The party had a collective dream of a snowy forest. In the forest the party saw the hexapod beast they had fought on their way to Quata meet with the Wendigo. The Wendigo seemed to be scolding the feline creature. The Wendigo sensed the party in the dream, and went after each individual member. The party member on guard duty at the time woke up anyone that was being chased by the Wendigo because the were running in their sleep. Eventually, the Hexapod returned to it's cave, and thinking it may be friendly, the party awoke it and spoke with it. Despite their fight in the Maggros Mountains, the Hexapod feline, who explained that it was known as the Bandersnatch, had only been hoping to dissuade them from approaching their doom. But he had been wrong, and the group was clearly capable of completing this task. It explained that the dream world was a "meeting place" and the his "brother" overpowers him and scares him there. The Bandersnatch said that the party might be able to destroy its "brother" by going back to the "meeting place" and doing something there. The Bandersnatch explained to the party that it would be doing all it could to assist them in destroying his brother, as it was his doom to be a spawn of kalderus that resented his nature. It said that the meeting place was now tied to both their minds and the mind of its brother. It explained that the Wendigo could not fully exist on this plane, and could only be accessed via the Dreamlands. The party would be going deep within their own minds and the mind of the Wendigo. It said that what happened in the dream world may or may not happen in the real world.

### In the Mind of the Wendigo

The party fell asleep and entered the meeting place. The place was as before, a cold snowy forest. The only audible sounds were the wind and the sound of snow underfoot. Each member of the party felt alone and saw a shallow pool of water with an image of a different location within. After stepping into the pool of water, each party member made a tough personal choice, grappling with their regrets and insecurities, and dug deeper into the meeting place. After making the personal choice each party member found themselves in a tunnel that tapered off in one direction and headed towards the sounds of conversation in another. The party grouped back up after everyone followed the sounds of conversation. The party then followed the tunnel a bit more and entered a large room with many shallow pools dotted along the floor and organic looking walls. A few party members were entranced by visions of dead loved ones within the pools. The rest of the party was able to save them before they drowned themselves.

In the next room, the party found a table with a potion that was labeled and key. Along the floor was a tiny door. Kusetare hit the key off the table and then drank the potion. He grew up to a gigantic size and his head pierced the ceiling which rained down in a white foamy cakey material. Upon eating the cakey material, he shrunk down to the size of the door. After drinking a little of the potion and eating a little of the cake until they were the right size, each party member was able to fit through the door.

The next room was gigantic. The walls were an organic pale peachy color and spongey to the touch. A few large sucker shapes stuck out off the walls. The main feature of the room was a large grey wrinkley mass in the center of the room. The grey wrinkley mass was presumed to be the brain of the Wendigo meaning the party was in the skull of the Wendigo. A voice emanating from the room asked, "Who are you?" reminiscent of the voice speaking to them during the personal choices made by the party. The voice did not speak again but the room began to tilt and medium sized brain creatures emerged from the suckers on the walls. The party fought off the brain creatures and attacked the brain in the center until it bled and collapsed. The party then escaped through the Wendigo's ear. Once in the frozen forest again, the party went to sleep, which caused them to wake up back in the cave. There they spoke with the Bandersnatch who was very happy to have its brother defeated.

The party then explained to the Bandersnatch that its existence on this plane could be causing suffering and insanity to the inhabitants of this plane. It was wary of leaving and didn't see any way to do so, save for his own death. Unwilling to go to his death without struggle, even though he knew it was his fate, the feline beast readied itself for battle with the party, and a great battle ensued, with the party inevitably victorious. By the time they reached the town, things were already turning up for the victims of insanity. The Sanitarium was emptying out, as all had quickly reclaimed their full minds. Brunhildyr's family was happy to see her and the party again. The dwarven warrior decided to stay in Quata, but offered her gun to her compatriots anytime they wished to fight the enemies of justice again.

The Nuhaven contingent of the party drove off into the sunset and headed back towards home for a rest, knowing they'd saved the world, at least for now.