Brave New World • Chapter 01

## The Many & The Few

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### Stillwater*(12th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The story begins early in the morning, shortly after First Light, in the Sunset Stride Inn. Here, three individual groups of travellers begin to unwittingly congregate. Yuli and Gaeldrim, who arrived in town the day previous, encounter Lionel and Roland in the crowded taproom of the inn, where Gaeldrim strikes up a conversation with the two wizards, who are much more wary about talking to strangers. While they are talking, Kalahan, Aspen, and Jendora enter the inn, drawing some attention due to their unusualness. Kalahan promptly heads to the job board, while Aspen's implacable curiosity leads him to Gaeldrim, the like of which he had never seen before. The overly friendly dryad causes Lionel and Roland to flee to their rooms, though not before overhearing part of their conversation about who could be following them.

Yuli decides to continue her search for her mother, which drew her here, and with Gaeldrim heads down to the Greydocks, the busiest part of Stillwater. Here, they meet an old retired deckhand by the name of Rorik Grunnarsson, a dwarf. He recognises Yuli as a familiar face, and gives them some information about her mother, who he remembers passing through here roughly two decades previously.

"*My memory’s not what it used to be, but as I recall she took ship eastward. Aboard the...Kingfisher! Aye! That was it! Small ship, recently taken to the skies.*"
 ― Rorik Grunnarsson

Rorik gives them some information from what he could remember, telling them that the woman had taken ship eastward, and had also been curious about Granny Myrtle, a fortune-teller that lived in the deep marsh a day east of town. He also tells them to visit Bill Fisher, the dock master, and see if he could give a look at the ledger of sailed ships, potentially giving clues to where Yuli's mother was headed. They do so, and with some bribing discover that The Kingfisher was headed towards the city of Varlesans in Valenroux, a Varesian colony in Almeras.

Meanwhile, Lionel and Roland venture out into town to buy supplies from the general store, Waggletop's Wares, with Roland disguising himself to avoid notice. While leaving the inn they see a commotion up the street and upon investigating discover that it is a hanging. The convicted, a woman by the name of Linsey Waters, was sentenced to death for consorting with devils. Later, at the general store, they discover that the woman's child had been recently born stillborn due to a disease that was plaguing the town (known as Stillrot), and that her husband had wandered into the Feathered Mire in his grief and not returned. Linsey, now alone and wracked with grief, had gone mad and tried to summon a devil and bring back her child and husband. She had been found in an apparently failed summoning circle, and imprisoned as per the laws of the kingdom.

At the inn, Aspen drives Kalahan mad with questions, but also recovers a torn note from the job board from someone called Peter Townsley. Jendora heads to town hall to ask some questions about the jobs listed on the job board, specifically about the Blackrock Gang they had been chasing, and about the monster at Broken Hill Manor. Here she meets Coline Loweland, who is curt but answers some of her questions. She discovers that the manor used to belong to a Varesian noble by the name of Pierre Rodin, who used it as a summer house. Ten years prior, an accident had taken place at the manor, and it had burned down killing Pierre and his family. Since then, the townsfolk had claimed the ruins were haunted, which was only cemented by the fact that any intrepid looters that ventured near were killed by a mysterious creature in the fog.

Returning to the inn, Jendora discusses with Kalahan the possibility of recruiting more people to help with their mission. She ventures out with Aspen to find Gaeldrim and Yuli, who they had met earlier, and recruit them to the cause, while Kalahan goes to buy tobacco from the general store.

Lionel and Roland return to the Sunset Stride for lunch, and also take a look at the job board. They come to the conclusion that they need money, because their supplies are running low, and that the best way to make some is to undertake some of the bounties on the board. They also understand they cannot do so alone, and decide to try and find people to help. Some time later, Jendora and Aspen return to the inn with Gaeldrim and Yuli, who they have managed to convince to join in their trip to Broken Hill Manor to deal with whatever beast lies within. Seizing the opportunity, Lionel discusses the possibility of him and Roland also joining the group, to which everyone agrees. Lionel goes to town hall to ask some further questions, where he meets Solomon Anders.

### Broken Hill Manor*(12th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

Come nightfall, the party follows the road north towards Broken Hill Manor. As they near, the fog grows thicker and thicker, and by the time they enter the ruins of the household it is difficult to see. Inside, they find a burnt husk of a home, and the remains of some kind of explosion within the central living space. Some of the group begin to see shadows and shapes moving through the fog, while Aspen, in the form of a wolf, picks up on the scent of decay from upstairs. Continuing deeper into the ruins they stumble upon a large monstrous creature, a Foglet, that promptly spews thick fog that obscures all vision, and attacks them.

A battle ensues in the blinding fog. Thanks to some quick thinking by Aspen, a spell reveals the position of the creature, otherwise invisible in the fog, to the rest. Despite this advantage, the creature is wily and continually teleports in and out of the fog, targeting the weaker members of the group, and carrying with it a small metal lock-box. Roland, entirely inexperienced at fighting, is thrown out the upper floor window and knocked unconscious. He is rescued by Kalahan, who jumps out after him, and then is assisted by the wizard in returning to the upper floor thanks to some gravitational magic, where he deals the final blow to the creature, driving it out a window with his sword impaled through its chest, though not before it has managed to bring Yuli to the brink of death. Drawing on his mother's heritage, Kalahan heals her and pulls her back onto her feet.

Regrouping quickly, the party retrieves the lock-box (which they fail to open through brute force) and the creature's head from the corpse, which has begun to melt and rapidly decay. On Kalahan's suggestion, they hastily leave the ruins, pressing on through the night back to Stillwater. Along the way, once the town is in sight, Aspen spots strange wisps of light out at sea, some distance from the docks. The lights seem to randomly bob and dance, disappear, and then reappear nearby at haphazard intervals. This lasts for a couple of minutes, before abruptly stopping.

"*You begin heading down towards the cemetery that’s along the road and you, Aspen, catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye. You turn to look and see a faint dancing light flickering in and out some distance from the shore, in the sea. The faint blue wisp bobs and weaves for a few seconds, then disappears. A moment passes, and another appears, a few feet to the side from the other, it dances around, then disappears again. Then another...then another...*"
 ― The Storyteller

Exhausted, the group returns to the Sunset Stride and rest there for the night, with Kalahan and Aspen sleeping in the taproom due to having failed to purchase rooms, and Gaeldrim offering his bed to Jendora and finding a place to rest in the taproom as well.

### Stillwater*(13th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The following morning, Kalahan promptly ventures to Town Hall to gather the coin for their completed bounty, and Jendora joins him shortly afterwards. The two get their reward from Coline, and also meet another town council member, Theobald Ainsley. They are told that a small group of bandits belonging to the Blackrock Gang (likely the same group Kalahan and his group had been pursuing), led by Roshbar, had been spotted returning towards the camp north of Stillwater.

Reconvening at the tavern, the group has some food and talks about next steps. They decide to travel towards Granny Myrtle the following day, and in the meantime go their separate ways to finish what things they needed to before leaving town. Roland, determining that he could trust the group a bit more than he had previously after they had saved his life the previous night, reveals that his name isn't actually Roland, but neglects to share with the group what his real name might be. He also tells the group that he is presumably being pursued by some group, but does not know who or why. He asks Jendora, who had been in the Athelian Armed Forces, if she could help train him in basic combat to improve his chances of survival, and she agrees.

In the meantime, Lionel returns to Broken Hill Manor to try and find a key to the lock-box, and also to try and determine more accurately what had happened at the manor ten years prior. He arrives at the manor alone, but is joined shortly thereafter by Gaeldrim, Yuli, and Aspen. Together, they explore the rest of the ruins, and discover the creature they had killed's nest, a horrific display of rotting corpses piled together into a circle, with two carefully laid out piecemeal skeletons of a diminutive stature made out of various bones taken from the aforementioned corpses. In this room, which had clearly been a study beforehand, they manage to find the key to the lock-box, and upon opening it find inside a Clockwork Amulet, an expensive sapphire necklace, and a few vials of healing concoctions.

In town, Roland and Jendora have an impromptu training session, where Roland struggles to master the basics of swordplay. They also go over some rudimentary battle tactics, of which Roland takes very detailed notes. Kalahan, bored in town, ventures out into the Lustrewood to hunt, managing to snag only a stag which he promptly dispatches. He spends the rest of the day offering the bounty of his hunt as a sacrificial offering to The Bannerlord, The Earthmaven, and The Hearthkeeper, in the customs of his people.

That night, the group regathers at the inn, splits the gold from the previous day's hunt, and gets some rest, preparing for a long day on the morrow.

### The Feathered Mire*(14th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

Just before second light, the party heads east, taking the path around the abandoned lighthouse of Stillwater into the deep marsh that's known as the Feathered Mire. Their travel is slow, tedious, and plagued by swarms upon swarms of buzzing insects that sting and bite at every piece of exposed skin. The less hardy of the group especially suffer, with Yuli and Roland finding it difficult to not succumb to the perpetual harassment of mosquitoes and gnats.

"*It’s not a pleasant place. Dreary and grey; a land of muddy water and occasional tufts of rock, where the only green is the scum of floating seaweed, and clumps of algae and moss on the greasy surface of the unmoving water. Dead grass and rotting reeds jut up through the low mists that hang across the maze of still pools and mud like a carpet. The smell is equally unpleasant, heavy odours of sulphur and festering rot and mould.*"
 ― The Storyteller

A few hours into the journey, they come upon a trio of ghouls feasting on the carcass of an arrowbeak, and engage them in combat. Simultaneously, a swarm of stirges disturbed by the commotion attack the party, seeing an opportunity to feed. With some difficulty, they fend off the ghouls and manage to kill most of the stirges, and travel onward.

The journey only worsens as they head deeper into the marsh. The path leads them ever closer to the sea, and in doing so only grows more treacherous. The assault of insects continues, and Yuli succumbs to sickness, feeling fainter and weaker with every step.

"*As you continue onward, the path grows more and more winding. With every hour there is less solid land and more water, cleaner water too in a sense, and you realise you are getting ever closer to the sea out here in the deep marsh. But, with that comes uncertain footing and treacherous hazards. Time and time again your foot sinks ankle deep into sucking mud, causing you to stumble and limp your ways onward ever more slowly. Soon enough, the path turns into rickety wooden planks linking together small islands amidst the muddy pools.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Come early evening they are all tired and worn out, but as they stumble through the marsh Kalahan accidentally steps straight into a gigantic crocodile lying in wait at the edge of the water. It lashes out at him with powerful jaws and drags him into the water. In panic, and beset by numerous other smaller crocodiles, the group tries desperately to save Kalahan from drowning, and only barely succeed, killing or driving off the ferocious, hungry beasts.

While the party lick their wounds, Gaeldrim butchers the large crocodile for dinner, and the group travels onward a bit further to make camp on one of the small rocky islands that dot the mire. Here, the party rests for the evening, spending a peaceful night in the shelter of a small cluster of boulders.

### The Feathered Mire*(15th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The next morning, mostly recovered from the ordeals of the previous day, the group presses on eastward at first light. They travel for a few hours before, at midday, reaching a strangely clouded clearing in the middle of the swamp, in the centre of which is a hut, presumably belonging to Granny Myrtle.

"*Wading ever deeper into the marsh you finally see it, silhouetted against the sunset on the distant horizon of the ocean. A hut, not small, but unseeming. It seems to have been put together from driftwood and ancient cobblestones, piece by piece, perched atop a porch propped up by numerous stilts above the water and mud. The left side of the hut is built against a large leafless tree, larger than any in the vicinity; the roots seeming to wrap around the house and past it, deep down into the earth. The roof is heavily thatched, dull green with moss, mold, and with a colourful collection of fungus growing in patches along it. There are no windows that you can see, only a doorway: the door slightly ajar, with warm light seeping out from the crack. A lopsided chimney stack puffs smoke in little clouds into the twilight sky, and you can hear the very faint, distant sound of humming. The same melody, over and over again...*"
 ― The Storyteller

When they approach the hut, they are welcomed inside by an incredibly old crone, who seems to have been expecting them, particularly Yuli. In cryptic terms, she tells Yuli that her mother had been there before, driven by something even she did not recognise, but refuses to give much further detail, stating that the past was not her area of interest.

"*Your mother went and came, came and went. I did not ask her purpose, and did not seek to know it, but purpose she did have...oh yes. Something drove her. Something I did not recognise...and that is no small thing. One drove her. One sought her. One watches, One waits, One rules.*"
 ― Granny Myrtle

"*I do not deal in past truths...only future possibilities. The past is dull. It is set. Spoken for already. But the future...the future is ripe, ready for the picking. The threads of fate are intricate and manifold, and yours is one I have been watching very closely.*"
 ― Granny Myrtle

While inside the cramped interior of the hut, Roland spots a strange set of figurines on one of the shelves, seeming to bear the impossibly precise likeness of the seven members of the group, all bearing the same wide lifeless smile on their face, despite some being in otherwise agonising postures.

"*A small collection catches your eye at the end of one cluttered shelf. Miniature figurines, humanoid in shape, carved painstakingly out of charred wood. Impossibly delicate in their precision, mesmerisingly so. You lean in to get a better look at the nearest one, a statuette of a large burly figure, humanoid, wearing bulky armour; carrying a miniature claymore, with this strangely twisted expression on his face of a broad, lifeless smile. Behind him, there’s two scholarly looking figures, one clutching a spellbook, the other in the midst of casting a spell. Next to them, a woman fiddling with a gun, a large muscled creature with a broad greatsword slung on its back, a smaller creature with a tree-like exterior crouched low to the earth, and another, frailer-looking woman with her hands holding her head in pain. And all of them have the exact...same...expression...a wide, toothless smile, that never quite reaches their empty eyes.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Granny Myrtle offers the group the opportunity to catch glimpses into their future, by drawing from a deck of magical tarot cards. Yuli, Lionel, Jendora, and Gaeldrim all accept the offer. The group leaves the hut, and one by one those who accepted re-enter to draw several cards each, receiving cryptic hints of what might await them down the road.

Yuli went first, drawing three cards: one bearing an artistic tribal knot in the shape of a crescent moon on a background of midnight blue, another bearing a single ruby red gem nestled between the hoard of coins, and the third bearing a figure of a woman with bronzed and scaled skin and a nest of snakes wrapping itself around her head.

Lionel went second, asking questions about fate and time before drawing five cards: one bearing a large throne of splendid gold inlaid with intricate patterns and runic inscriptions, another bearing a gloomy, dark dungeon and chains that threaten to wrap around the dimly lit gate of the jail, the third showing three cloaked figures with a single silver and gold thread binding them all together, the fourth showing a single golden key that takes up the whole front of the card, and the last bearing a dark canvas of deep purple, lined with faint lattices of gold, and at its very centre a perfect circle of abyssal black, a void of nothing, into which everything seeps and from which nothing escapes.

Jendora went third, drawing five cards as well: like Lionel her first card bore a large throne of gold, but her second showed a raven in mid-flight claws outstretched towards witless prey, her third a many-pointed star against a background of pale blue like that of a summer sky, her fourth a stately figure with a haughty gaze and ornate garments, and her fifth a whirlpool of sea green into which a figure willingly falls, swallowing a white dagger with careless abandon.

Gaeldrim went fourth, drawing three cards like his ward: his first bearing a simple drawing of a brain impaled through with a sword and dripping blood, and his second and third being cards that Yuli had also drawn, one with a ruby red gem, and one with a scaled woman and a nest of snakes.

After all the drawing was done, Roland also re-entered the hut, confronting the crone about their differing views of fate, randomness, and chaos. He declined to draw any cards, choosing to face his fate blindly and to control his own path forward, turning chaos into order.

With plenty to think about, the group leaves behind the clearing, breaking back into the sunlight to find that somehow it was morning. They press back westward, reaching Stillwater just before last light. Yuli, Gaeldrim, Lionel, and Roland decide to spend the night in the comfort of the Sunset Stride, while the remainder continue northward a bit further, sleeping in the abandoned ruins of Broken Hill Manor.

### North of Stillwater*(17th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The following morning, the party reconvenes and heads north along the road for a while, headed towards the presumed location of the Blackrock Gang's camp. They soon leave the road as it begins to curve west, and venture back into the marshland. Here, much of the group decides to take a cautious and slow approach, but Kalahan simply presses ahead at his own pace, shortly leaving the rest behind, were they are soon after ambushed along the way by a band of sahuagin.

"*Bursting out of the muck of the swamp from both directions come these strange humanoid creatures, with slimy mottled skin and long eel-like necks that end in a mouth of razor-sharp teeth. They’re holding spears and clubs that seem to have been made of driftwood and sharpened rocks. One of them has a different shade of skin, bluer like cleaner water, and screams something in a language you don’t recognise.*"
 ― The Storyteller

The fighting is fierce and desperate, and both Lionel and Roland are sorely wounded in the midst of it, though the rest manage to fend off the amphibious creatures, killing most of them. Gaeldrim recovers a pouch from the apparent leader, who was killed in the fighting, inside of which are two empty glass vials with some grey residue at the very bottom, and a note written in a strange language that Lionel later translates. The note also bears a wax seal that has been half torn off, showing only the left edge of what seems to be a cracked crown.

"*Two vials every night, at the split.*"
 ― Sahuagin's note

The stress of the previous two days and the ordeal they had just faced causes Lionel and Roland to question the sanity of their current pursuit, stating that the group was in no means ready to face a well-organised group of bandits in their own camp. Jendora insists that they should not abandon Kalahan regardless, while Lionel counters that he would not follow a man he had only known for a few days into suicide. Ultimately, the decision comes down to Roland, who is partially convinced by Yuli to press on, at least for now.

Increasing pace, the group catches back up with Kalahan, who has by this point spotted a distant campfire silhouetted against the mountainside, as well as camouflaged himself using clumps of grass and sod to remain better unseen in the twilight. Continuing a bit further as night falls around them, much more quietly now, the group finally spot the camp they had been looking for, finding it to be well-reinforced and well-guarded.

"*In the shadow of the cliff, across the rapids of a mountain stream that feeds eastward into the sea, sits the bandit camp. Even those of you with no combat experience can tell it’s built to resist intrusion. The stream's chasm is easily ten feet deep, with steep slopes of slippery stone that lead down into rushing ice cold water and treacherous rocks. A single bridge leads across the natural moat, tied with chains and easily retractable from the camp.

The camp itself is surrounded by a maybe twenty-foot tall palisade made of thick wooden logs, with little gaps hacked out in some parts as arrow slits, and is backed into the sheer mountainside. You can see a gate barring the way into the camp directly across the bridge, made of heavy planks of wood and reinforced with iron bars. It is closed, currently. To its immediate left is a watch tower, thirty feet tall with a ten-foot by ten-foot platform at the top covered by an angular roof made of an old ship sail to ward off the rain.

Faint smoke from a campfire or brazier rises from the top through a hole in the canvas, and you can see the heads of two humanoid figures sitting behind the walls of the platform, and the outlines of what look like two long poles, spears maybe, leaning against the side of the platform. From inside the camp, the faint chatter of voices can be heard, and another two wispy columns of smoke rise into the sky, the faint glow of firelight reflected against the cliff-side.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Determining that it was better to be cautious, the group decide to retreat for the night, making camp far enough from the bandits to not draw attention.

### Blackrock Camp*(18th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The next day, Kalahan sets about preparing an ambush point on the road near their camp, hoping to catch a few of the bandits unawares as they travel. Hesitantly, the group agrees to set up in their own respective positions, waiting anxiously for a fight.

The day is lengthy, and largely uneventful. Some time past midday, Gaeldrim and Aspen attempt to lure the bandits out of their fortified camp using a complete lack of guile and subtlety. Unsurprisingly, this fails, and Gaeldrim is badly injured by gunfire from the camp during his escape. Despite their dismal failure, they do discover that Abbie Walker, one of their targets and the leader of the Blackrock Gang, was definitely in the camp.

When night begins to fall, the party regroups and plans an attack, realising that they could not afford to continue waiting day after day for luck to be on their side. Their plan is simple, revolving around quickly taking out the guards on the watchtower and storming the gate, which they determine to be the weakpoint of the camp. All of them, aside perhaps from Jendora and Kalahan are understandably nervous, having seen very little in the way of combat in their lifetimes. Nonetheless, they all agree to help, and join in on the fierce assault that ensues.

During the fighting, Kalahan reveals more of his starlit ancestry and flies over the ramparts to face Roshbar alone, defeating him and claiming his revenge. Meanwhile, Gaeldrim and Aspen storm the gate under cover fire from the rest, and fight their way through the many bandits inside, nearly losing their lives in the attempt. Abbie Walker, seeing things headed south, makes a risky escape into the staggeringly fast rapids below the walls, and is swept away by the current, but not before shooting Kalahan and nearly felling him.

In the aftermath, the party interrogates the last surviving bandit, learning very little except that there were still a few scattered bandit groups that had not yet returned. They find a sizeable stash of money, food, and weapons inside the camp and begin the lengthy process of collecting it and splitting it between the party. Eating their way through some of the food in camp, they take turns manning the watchtower. Roland spends a restless night scribbling in his spellbook, while Gaeldrim scars himself with his kills, and has a hard time sleeping, but the night passes uneventfully.

### North of Stillwater*(19th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

At first light, the party loads up one of the carts they found inside the camp with the goods they acquired, and leaves camp, heading eastward in an effort to confirm Abbie Walker's death. They travel for a few hours before coming to a cliff on the edge of the sea, where the gorge they have followed plummets into the Sloughbrine. Hoping to find traces of his quarry, Kalahan dives into the ocean, followed shortly by Lionel, Jendora, Roland, and Aspen. Gaeldrim and Yuli in the meanwhile begin leading the horse and cart southward towards Stillwater.

Those in the water find little trace of what they are looking for, determining that the ocean bed is too deep to check properly. They swim southward towards where the cliff slopes back down into the swamp, but again find no traces of anyone leaving by this way. Deciding there was nothing else they could do, they reconvene with Gaeldrim and Yuli and continue south through the swamp.

"*You travel now through raw swampland. No paths, no signs of civilisation, just the festering bog and the sounds of the insects and beasts that dwell within it. With Jendora in the lead, you slowly make your way through the mud and shrubbery as the suns begin their descent towards the western horizon. By mid-afternoon, you’re starting to wonder if you’re headed in the right direction, as very bend you take looks much like the one before it. Nevertheless, the suns remain on your right, the sea on your left, and the journey continues.*"
 ― The Storyteller

In the mid-afternoon, they stumble across a strange cluster of roots in the bog with no sign of trees large enough to support it. A cursory inspection suggests that the tangle comes from four nondescript shrubs at the edges of the rough circle, but before there is much time to wonder they are attacked by a number of giant, spore-covered toads that begin promptly swallowing some party members whole. A struggle ensues, during which the aforementioned shrubs are disturbed by the noise and movement and burst out of the ground, revealing themselves to be some sort of strange sentient tumorous growths that viciously attack nearby creatures and explode into disease-ridden spores when attacked. Aspen, Yuli, and Gaeldrim are all infected by the disease, beginning to cough out clumps of bloody fungus almost immediately, but are quickly healed by Kalahan.

That night, at camp, the party has a very long discussion about their pasts and their futures. Gaeldrim tells about his time spent as a gladiator, fighting as a slave to others, and Yuli, Lionel, and Roland discuss the nature of the former's psionic abilities. Roland also finally reveals to the rest his true name, Evendur Dundragon, and tells them a little about why he left his home in Rotherton and is on the run. Eventually the group goes to sleep in the drizzling rain, and the night passes uneventfully.

### Stillwater*(20th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The party arrives back at Stillwater early into the morning, and pass by the cemetery on their way into town, seeing a cart loaded with several bodies being buried, mostly of older folk, and all showing signs of stone-like crusts on their eyes and mouths, symptoms of the Stillrot.

"*Entering the town back from the north, tired and muddy, you come again to the cemetery you’ve passed by a few times before. A lone figure walks between the graves, tall and skinny, with a distinctly hunched back, going back and forth from a cart piled up with bodies, dragging them unceremoniously off the cart and towards a few piles of dirt next to a number of haphazard holes dug into the soggy earth. As you draw nearer you catch a better glimpse of the bodies themselves. Most are quite old, mostly human, and all look gaunt and sickly. What catches your attention is that their eyes, normally having been closed by whoever who found them dead, are wide open but crusted over entirely with grey stone. Around their lips, you also spot traces of a grey crust-like rash spider-webbing outward across the face. The gravedigger nods at you as you pass, his face shaded from the paltry sunlight by a straw hat, and promptly goes back to work, pulling another body off the cart with a thump and a squelching splash of mud.*"
 ― The Storyteller

They head over to the town hall to claim their bounty for Roshbar, chatting with Theobald Ainsley while claiming their reward. He seems happy they've taken care of the Blackrock Gang, but fairly certain they'll soon be replaced by some other band of brigands. Having claimed the bounty, the group also visits a few shops in Stillwater, selling the weaponry they had looted at a nearby smithy owned by a halfling named Odo Mudd, and visiting a herb shop to acquire some incense for Lionel.

Eventually, they return to the Sunset Stride to have some food and rest. While there, they are approached by a burly half-orc who introduces himself as Lawrence Brooks. In a thick drawl, he talks to them about some temporary employment, offering them to chance to earn some payment for a simple task. He also reveals himself to be part of the local chapter of the Drowner Triads, a widespread smuggling ring that operates throughout much of the Commonwealth.

"*We have no interest in murderin' innocent folk: dead men ain’t much for business...*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

Lawrence tells them that Stillwater had long been Drowner territory, but had recently gotten into a turf war against a shady gang of outsiders, calling themselves the Myriad. He says that someone is leaking information to these new competitors, which had led to several Drowner warehouses being burnt down, and wants the group to find out who, promising to give them something of equal value in return.

"*You’ve heard of the break-ins at the docks, I wager? Every warehouse that’s been hit has been Drowner property. Closely guarded secrets. Someone’s been leakin' information. We want to know who, so that they be...properly chastised*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

The group agrees tentatively to think about his offer, and he tells them to take all the time they need, promising to find them when they'd made up their minds. When he leaves, the group has a lengthy discussion about whether or not to take him up on his offer, and are eventually persuaded by Evendur to stay on the right side of the law. They all agree to respect his decision, and resolve to try and help the town with their Stillrot problem regardless the following day, without the assistance of the Triads.

### Stillwater*(21st of Waehn, 4E 776)*

The following morning, they are once again visited by Lawrence Brooks and inform him of their decision. He accepts it, and gives them a warning about the Myriad before leaving, telling them there was no point in trying to negotiate with them as they would undoubtedly not return the favour.

"*There come times when laws n’ rules ain’t enough to fix things. Not all of us have the privilege of sittin' on some high golden throne. Remember that. I don’t make the laws, Mister Tallstag; I just find the means to skim by.*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

After retrieving what they had purchased from Odo Mudd, the party begins their own investigation into the Stillrot. They first visit the Town Hall, where they talk with Solomon Anders about the disease. He assures them that it was under control, and that the guards were effectively culling the rat population. He also informs them that some arcanists had been dispatched from the Iron Academy to assist in the investigation, so there was no need for the party to spend them investigating themselves.

Despite this, the group begins to search around town for the arcanists in question, resolving to ask them questions about the investigation and assist them if possible. They visit a number of inns and brothels, amongst them the Serpent's Kiss, a wealthy brothel that caters for the richer folk in town. They are told by the head waiter that the establishment could not divulge information about their clientele, but they schedule a meeting with the owner for later that evening, a man by the name of Charles Morgan.

While walking around the town, the group also hears about the death of the town's herbalist, a woman by the name of Iselda Townsley. Lionel recalls the surname, having seen it on a small torn up note on the job board at the Sunset Stride. Hoping to find more clues about the disease, they visit the writer of the note: Iselda's husband, Peter Townsley, at his home in FIsher's Stair, one of the older parts of Stillwater.

They find Peter to be a very nervous man, and when pressed he informs them that he is suspicious of the nature of his wife's death, as she would have known if it were the Stillrot that killed her like people had claimed. He also tells them that Iselda was investigating the Stillrot before her untimely death.

"*She was perfectly healthy. My Iselda knew her business, see; she knew the precautions to take. But then she fell ill, took the shivers, it grew into a fever, and she just succumbed to it quicker than I knew what to do. In two days she was dead. People kept saying it was the plague that took her..the Stillrot, you know? But I knew my Iselda and she would have known if that were it, even in her state.*"
 ― Peter Townsley

Upon searching Iselda's office, they find a few things of note. Firstly, her journal, which detailed numerous cases she had dealt with during her career, but had all the pages at the end torn out such that the entries ended just before whatever her investigation into the Stillrot had yielded. Secondly, a number of vials full of water, which Peter informs them were samples she had taken from numerous water sources, including their own well. Thirdly, they find a half full bottle of wine, that Aspen detects to be poisoned.

Following these clues, they also spend some time investigating the well, but find no traces of disease or poison. While inspecting the well samples however Lionel notes them to have incredibly small traces of magical particulate, something which Aspen also confirms by having Kalahan lower him into the well to inspect the water there.

After leaving Peter Townsley's house, assuring him they would do their utmost to find whoever was responsible for the presumed poisoning of his wife, they make their way back towards the Serpent's Kiss. Along the way, Evendur catches a glimpse of a cloaked figure watching him, but when the group follows the stranger into the alleyway he is nowhere to be found.

At the brothel, during their meeting with Charles Morgan, he informs them that the investigators from the Iron Academy were indeed staying at his establishment, but would not always stay there as their investigations led them all over the surrounding area of Stillwater. He offers the group a discount to stay at the expensive hostel on account of their service to the town, which the group hesitantly accepts.

They spend the evening relaxing in a magically enhanced communal bath and chatting amongst themselves about their pasts and their families, all the while dining on the best full-course meal they've had since arriving in Stillwater, before going to bed, planning to continue their investigation the following day.

### Stillwater*(22nd of Waehn, 4E 776)*

Lionel, Evendur, and Kalahan are woken up the next morning to the sound of someone knocking on their door. They are informed by the head waiter of the Serpent's Kiss that the investigators they had requested to meet happened to be having breakfast at the brothel that morning. The three head downstairs and talk to the pair of investigators, William Stavenger and Geoffrey Grant. The conversation is quite brief and rather curt, and they are told in no uncertain terms to leave business to the professionals.

After their chat with the investigators yields little results, the group decides to split up. Aspen sets off to investigate rats, using his druidic abilities to change into a rodent and try to find more information. He is spotted by guards while doing so, is hunted down, and forced to flee into the surrounding countryside to escape. Meanwhile, Jendora attempts to track down and follow the two investigators, but fails to do so, realising she has left things too late and the tracks had been lost amidst the muddy streets of Stillwater. She continues searching around town, though her efforts prove largely fruitless.

The rest of the group, in the meantime, head to the Sunset Stride for breakfast. While here, they decide their only viable lead is the sahuagin vials they had recovered some days previously. Lionel, inspecting these vials more closely, finds them to contain traces of necromancy and evocation magic, in the veins of curse or hex-like magic. They set off for the northern edge of town, hoping to find more clues about the sahuagin activity and connect it to the Stillrot.

While travelling through the side streets, they are ambushed by three hooded and masked figures on the rooftops, who take the group by surprise and nearly make short work of them. Kalahan escapes death by a hair, and both Lionel, Evendur, and Gaeldrim are heavily injured in the fighting. Nevertheless, the group emerges victorious, with Yuli's psionic powers pulling through to erupt all three of the would-be assassins.

Though not much remains of the bodies, they do find the remains of one forearm, on which is emblazoned a raw mark showing a bed of thorns and a broken crown, which they quickly realise matches the broken wax seal they had found on the sahuagin note. Licking their wounds, they return to the Sunset Stride to rest and recover, and discuss the fact that they may have made a mistake in not taking up the offer of helping the Drowner Triads.

"*You pull away the glove to reveal a symbol burnt into the wrist. A bed of thorns, on top of which is a crown split in two. The symbol looks like it was made with a heated brand, but despite clearly not being freshly made, it looks as though it were made seconds ago. The wound is still raw and pulsing red.*"
 ― The Storyteller

While all this was happening, Aspen travels some distance out of town along the river, inspecting the water using a series of spells, and finding the same traces of magic he had found in Peter Townsley's well. Curiously, though the traces seem to be definitively moving and dispersing with the water, they seem to grow less and less dense as he continues upriver. As a result, Aspen is unable to find a source point like he had hoped to do. Disguising himself as a cat, he sneaks back into town and returns to the inn as well, relaying this information to the others.

Jendora, who has by this point decided it would be better to stake out the Serpent's Kiss and hope the investigators return, hides in a nearby alleyway and watches. Her efforts are finally rewarded as she sees William Stavenger emerge from the brothel and swiftly head off southeast. She follows him at a distance, heading to the abandoned ruins of Ravenpole Lighthouse, where the investigator disappears over the edge of the low cliff on which the lighthouse was built. By the time Jendora reaches the clifftop and spots the crude set of stairs leading down to the beach below, he is nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, she returns to the rest, sharing her findings.

That night, while discussing the events of the day; Lionel, Evendur, and Yuli have a private chat about their aspirations for advancing their magic. During this, Lionel speaks about his hope to manipulate fate, and reveals that he had tried before, with terrible results that had led to his expulsion from the Iron Academy. During this conversation, Evendur walks out the room with a determined look on his face, and seems to be heading out the inn before he is stopped by the familiar voice of Lawrence Brooks, who has caught wind of their change of heart.

Only Lionel, Evendur, Kalahan, and Yuli are present for the ensuing conversation, where Lawrence offers them once again the chance of a bargain. He asks them to deal with the Myriad and clear out whatever hideout they might have, in exchange for an undetermined price that depends entirely on how well they get the job done. Still a bit hesitant, the four members of the group agree, but keep it a secret from the rest for now.

### Stillwater*(23rd of Waehn, 4E 776)*

Upon waking, the party makes plans for the day. They send Aspen to scout ahead to Ravenpole Lighthouse, while the remainder make preparations for an assault on the supposed Myriad hideout. Aspen's search proves less than fruitful, and he ends up finding little indication of activity near the abandoned structure.

Meanwhile, Kalahan, Gaeldrim, and Yuli rent a small rickety fishing boat in an effort to scout the cliff-side from the sea. They realise very quickly that none of them know how to actually sail a boat, and have some issues wherein both Yuli and Gaeldrim end up in the water and have to be rescued by Kalahan. Gaeldrim also tries to pick a fight with a seagull, and loses.

After making it back to shore and reconvening with the rest, the group goes to the docks to look at one of the burnt down warehouses. They find little in the way of clues in the actual ruin, it being over a week old already, but do surmise that the fire had started from the inside. During this, Aspen is spotted by a couple of guards and promptly arrested, along with Gaeldrim who attempts to intimidate the guards and fails. Fortunately, Lionel is able to smooth over things and convinces the guards that they are working for the town council. Their charges are dropped, and the group leaves the warehouse having made small progress on their investigation.

Finally, in the afternoon, they decide to all head towards the lighthouse, realising that it is their only solid lead thus far. Soon after they get there, they are ambushed by a number of Myriad guards, as well as reinforcements from the sea, in the form of four sahuagin. Taken by surprise, the group struggles to stay alive, but pulls it off by the skin of their teeth, defeating the guards and sahuagin, and leaving their bodies in the sand.

### Abandoned Sewer*(23rd of Waehn, 4E 776)*

While taking a short moment to recover, Evendur spots a hidden entrance in the cliff-side, which he discovers leads into a narrow cave tunnel, wide enough for a man to fit through. Believing this to be the entrance they were looking for, the group ventures into the dark, coming eventually to an old sewer system, rank with refuse and moss.

"*Hidden behind the small cascade of water you note that, from a very specific angle, the cliff-face doesn’t seem to connect into one smooth surface. In fact, as you get closer to inspect it, you realise that there is a jagged crack in the stone; a natural formation that leads to a small cave tunnel, very cleverly hidden from sight between the overlap of the two parts of the cliff. You continue to turn, and from the broader angle, you realise it’s probably wide enough for a humanoid figure to fit through.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Beginning to pick their way slowly through the damp tunnels, they find little trace of activity, until a completely unsuspecting Evendur has the misfortune of stepping into a massive plant creature, that promptly erupts out of the stagnant water to try and swallow him whole. A brief struggle ensues, during which the creature is defeated and scattered into the stagnant water.

Pressing further onward, cautiously, the group begins to explore the dark tunnels. Their journey is slow and careful, and paranoia soon begins to set in, with several of the group seeing movement in every shadowy corner and growing suspicious of various others in their party. They eventually stumble upon a strange sluice pipe in the wall that has magical traces and a hidden latch inside. Aspen tries to pull the latch, activating a magical mechanism that sets a cursed necrotic blight on his arm.

"*You feel a series of stabbing pains in your arm, from multiple directions, and you instinctively rip out your hand to see that the bark has gone black and begun to wither. You can still move your fingers, but each movement gives a sharp pain that lances up your arm, and you watch in horror as the blight spreads rapidly in a spiderweb pattern through the veins of your arm all the way to your elbow before slowing...and coming to a stop.*"
 ― The Storyteller

The group spends some time figuring out how to open the latch, not willing to risk the curse spreading to others, but are beset by undead creatures that were masquerading as their own shadows. The shadows, drawn to the party's torchlight, attempt to drain the life of their intended targets, and very nearly succeed. They are ultimately defeated, but the party is left injured and struggling to recover from their wounds.

Nevertheless they continue to search the tunnels, hoping to find some alternate means to open the latch they had discovered. Unwittingly while doing so, they stumble into an Ochre Jelly nest full of acid-burned bones and animal remains. In the claustrophobic narrow corridors, they fend them off, but afterwards decide they can go no further that day in their current state and make a sparse camp in the same room. While preparing to rest, Yuli has a sudden realisation, noticing that the mark on Aspen's arm matched the location of the Myriad brand. Lionel and Kalahan set off to quickly retrieve the body of one of the Myriad guards they had killed earlier before it is completely torn apart by seagulls, and manage to do so without much issue.

### Myriad Tunnels*(24th of Waehn, 4E 776)*

One restless night later they wake and gather their things, and with the corpse in hand they return to the sluice pipe they had found the previous day. The mark on the body's arm proves to have been the answer, opening a hidden passageway into a series of small rooms, devoid of furniture or signs of life. They found a small chest inside with several restorative potions, but little else. In the final room however, they come to two rusty lever mechanisms. Some investigation reveals that one is more well-oiled than the other, and upon pulling it the wall swings open to reveal a narrow dirt tunnel that winds away northward, in the direction of Stillwater itself.

The tunnel ends up leading to a sewage drain tunnel, this one evidently still in use, but seemingly built much earlier than the former, with brickwork that is distinctly not Athelian. Moving against the flow of the waste-filled water, they come to a low grate, through which some light is seeping through. Before they can go any further, they hear a conversation ongoing beyond the grate between two voices, which they recognise as Solomon Anders and Charles Morgan, discussing the party and how best to handle them.

"*It doesn’t matter what they might suspect. The people of Stillwater are the key. They’re gettin’ desperate, and as far as they can see you’re the only one doing anything to fix this. Which means they’re on our side.*"
 ― Charles Morgan

The conversation, while brief, reveals that Morgan is a member of the Myriad, and Solomon is their puppet, being used as a figurehead to legitimise their actions in town. Once the footsteps move away, the party makes their way through the grate and up into a brick tunnel. Cautiously, they begin to follow in the direction of Charles Morgan's footsteps, though Kalahan ventures down the opposite direction to cover their bases.

The majority of the group, while exploring ahead, come to realise that the tunnels they are in are ancient catacombs, mostly collapsed, though part of them had clearly been repurposed for use by the Myriad. They pass by a series of tombs, all bearing faded marks of the Church of the Vigil, suggesting that the catacombs had been built long previously during the Edraxian reign of Stillwater. They eventually come to wider hallway, lined with old statues, through which a strange cold draft seems to blow. Lionel hears whispers on the breeze, and realises that the temperature of these catacombs was significantly lower than it should be. Across the way, they also spot a more modern-looking doorway, suggesting some kind of office beyond.

"*The hallway widens ahead of you. To each side of you, there’s a line of statues inside little nooks carved out into the archway of the tunnel. The statues are crumbling in some places, certainly not recent, but you can make out the proud strong armoured figure they represent, holding a large shield planted in the floor, emblazoned with those same four circles. At the far end of this widened hallway, you see an even larger statue, that of a hooded figure, features completely obscured beneath the cloak, holding in both hands a set of scales. To either side of that statue, you can make out stairwells that spiral downward.*"
 ― The Storyteller

In the meantime, Kalahan comes to a doorway, beyond which he hears a sizeable amount of voices engaged in quiet conversation. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he breaks his way through the door, stumbling straight into what appears to be some kind of barracks, full of Myriad agents. In the split second before chaos breaks loose, he notices most of them to be elves, several with darker skin tones.

Heavily outnumbered, Kalahan quickly goes down under a barrage of bolts and throwing knives, and Aspen quickly follows after barging in to aid him as a bear. Much of the rest of the group, rushing back to provide assistance, engage in a bitter struggle in the tunnels against half a dozen well-trained fighters, trying to stay alive against all odds.

During the fighting, Jendora and Gaeldrim break into the office, and rummage hastily through the many papers scattered on the desk within. They find a good amount of information, mainly in the form of ledgers stolen from Theobald Ainsley detailing Drowner Triad activity, various documents tying Solomon and his assets to the Myriad, and a number of encoded scrolls likely detailing correspondence internal to Myriad affairs. Finally, they also found some autopsy reports dated to 4E 426, which show corpses with advanced symptoms of Stillrot.

"*A couple of sheets of parchment further below, half-stained with ink and beginning to fade, detail an autopsy of several bodies. Two grown adults, and one small child, showing a build-up of stone-like residue around the walls of the heart, around the oesophagus and lungs, and, in the case of the child, around the brain itself, particularly the foremost cluster near the eyes. Of particular note, you see the date on the autopsies. 4E 426.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Stuffing as many of the documents as they could into their packs, the two race back to assist the rest, and though the situation is desperate, they manage to defeat the agents following them through skill and no small amount of luck. Realising that this probably wasn't the end of the Myriad thugs in these tunnels, they also push through a desperate rescue of Kalahan and Aspen, who had already been bound and prepared to be dragged away.

Not wanting to risk their lives any further, the party makes their way back to the sewer grate, but before they can leave that same cold breeze sweeps through the tunnels, and many of the group find themselves compelled to find out exactly what dwells beneath the town at the bottom of the stairwells.

"*The stairs lead downward, and as you descend you feel the air beginning to grow colder, and colder, and colder. It’s still winter, but there is something about this chill in the air that is not natural. An unease hangs on it, something that sets the hairs on the back of your heads on edge and sends goosebumps running down your spine. It is the same deep unsettling feeling you felt at Granny Myrtle’s hut. That primal certainty that something is most definitely, absolutely, wrong.*"
 ― The Storyteller

After a brief, suspenseful rest in the dark staircase, they venture downward and come at last to a set of steel doors, which look far newer than the rest of the tunnel system. With bated breaths, they step inside, finding themselves in some kind of underground alchemical laboratory.

"*The doors are not locked. You push them open and step into a large circular space, dimly lit by two large green orbs, one on either side, bathing the room in an unnatural even wash of light that removes any trace of shadow or dark, but replaces it with this sickly green pallor that encases the room entirely.

In the centre of this room, a series of concentric circles are carved, like wide steps, to form a large pit, at the bottom of which is a maze of pipes and vials and strange alchemical apparatus beyond any of your understanding. So complex that you cannot make any sense of where it may lead or what it may be doing. You can only see where it begins.

Jutting out into the centre of the pit is a small circular platform, connected by a narrow walkway. On that platform, pulsing at irregular intervals, emitting its own faint, unhealthy, grey light, radiating that same unease you’ve been feeling throughout your descent, is what can only be described as a massive amniotic sac; bound by chains, a large vaguely translucent membrane thick with slime and seeping dense grey liquid into the pipes, that have been clearly pierced and clamped into it. Through that membrane, you catch the occasional glimpse, the barest silhouette, of the curled up shape inside; and that primal fear in your chest cowers at the sight of it.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Taking in the bizarre scene before them, they are greeted by an echoing metallic voice from an overhanging observation room on the far end of the room. Inside they see a figure in a long black and crimson trench coat, wearing a full-faced mask that completely obscures his features. He seems frustrated at their arrival, lamenting that he would not get to finish his "experiment", and also shows a semblance of recognition upon seeing Aspen, muttering cryptically to himself.

"*Curious. Most curious. The prodigal son returns; a few centuries too late but...hmm. Stir the murky water...look into its depths. What dwells beneath? Hard to tell...*"
 ― Masked Stranger

Seeming distracted, he informs them that he has no choice but to abandon the experiment, even though he would have liked to stay and see what "it" would do to their withering remains. He pulls a lever on the control panel in front of him, and the room goes instantly dark.

"*The lights...drop. The two green orbs on either side of the room go instantly dull, and the room is suddenly dark, except for that faint, unearthly glow from the very centre. And now, in the dark, that glow begins to expand. Not in the same manner of a torch lighting; not that smooth expanding glow that’s natural that you’ve seen a hundred times before...no. The glow expands outwards in tendrils, seeking out the shadowy corners of the room, searching for warmth it can steal, light it can extinguish...and at the same time, the sac begins to shift. Pulse. Faster and faster; the shape inside growing more erratic, tumbling and twisting on itself...until a single clawed hand reaches out, tearing through the membrane, letting out a gush of slime and fluid that splashes and splatters across the stonework and down into the pit below.

And from the collapsing sac climbs a misshapen form, little more than a blob-like mass of sickly grey flesh and stunted limbs jutting out at odd angles, two twisted arms and a single feeble leg, scrambling for purchase. Its skin is lined with pulsing veins of dark green fluid, a single milky white eye darting left and right, the other torn away and replaced by a bulbous protrusion, that twitches in the cold air. A mouth, open and ajar, lined with a few crooked teeth, from which bursts a cord of twisted slimy tubes that stretches all the way past its body to the sac from which it crawls. In its mid section, amidst the strange tumorous growths that seem to spasm and jerk beneath the skin, you can see the decrepit rusted hilt of a sword embedded into its side, letting out this squelching grating sound of metal against flesh with every movement, seeping pus from the seemingly ancient wound.

You watch, frozen in abject horror as it rises out of the remains and begins to hover above the stones, still dripping slime from its entire body, and from its mouth it lets out a low unearthly moan, and one crooked hand reaches in your direction...and curls. The air in the room grows very abruptly colder.*"
 ― The Storyteller

In the freezing dark, the party engages the monstrosity with what little resources they have left. Lionel and Evendur fall in the struggle, and are brought to their feet by a resolute Kalahan. Jendora and Yuli grimly fire shot after telekinetic blast into the creature, scattering slime and pus in every direction with every wound. Gaeldrim and Aspen leap onto the flying creature and tear into it, but in the fighting Gaeldrim falls and cannot recover. As he is slipping away into death's embrace, Lionel plays his hand and reveals a mote of possibility that he had been holding on to since Granny Myrtle's hut. Briefly altering the threads of fate, he undoes Gaeldrim's demise, resetting him to a few moments earlier and providing him with the opportunity to finally put an end to the creature.

In the aftermath, as they catch their breath, the familiar figure of Lawrence Brooks walks into the room, commending them on a job well done. By this point, the masked stranger in the observation room had disappeared, and Kalahan had found the doorway to be magically sealed against forced entry. Lawrence reminds them of their deal, and asks them to make their request, in exchange for their service to the Triads.

"*Seems I was correct in my assessment. You were the right people for the job. Much obliged for your cooperation.*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

"*You’ve done admirable work. Your talents are wasted in Stillwater, not that I’m complainin’...*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

The party requests passage across the ocean for Yuli, and Evendur also asks for information on his family's killers, revealing his true name and lineage to Brooks. He also threatens to hunt down and kill Lawrence if he betrayed him. With a smirk of acknowledgement, Lawrence accepts the deal, and gives them a token with the mark of the Drowner Triads, telling them it would buy passage on a ship sailing east, from any major port in Maíandir.

"*I wager then that concludes the terms of our agreement. Now...I just need a couple minutes alone in that room over there, and I’ll be out of your hair.*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

After clearing his debt, Lawrence makes his way to the observation room, seeming to shimmer and step through the reinforced doorway without much inconvenience. However, along the way he stops by Evendur, giving him a quiet word of warning, and handing him a crumpled ball of parchment, the contents of which only Evendur sees.

"*I’ll give you a word of warnin’...on the house; on account of you and your friends bein’ so helpful. You’re the kinda fella who’s brought up believin’ the law is just and fair, and nothin’ I say is gonna change that. But. I feel you might soon find out it’s only just and fair to those what write it. Someone on that high golden throne decides you gotta go? Hm...a fella could find himself on the wrong side of the law just like that. If that time comes, best act careful; ’cause when it bucks down to it? It ain’t about law, or justice, or fairness even. It’s about power, and who has it.*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

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