The Price of Treasure

**The Price of Treasure** is a story of greed, fear, and the Order of Ashfall's efforts to bring true civilization--and law and order--to the frontier of Highplain County.

## Background

On May 7, 39 L.C., a scouting party for the Order made a sweep around Highplain County before departing for Dun Vor. Among the points of interest they identified was a formerly unmapped village on the shore of Lake Willowswitch. As there was no time to investigate, the village was left unaddressed.

Harvey Hexbolt, stopping in Trundleton on his neverending quest to secure a trade route between Fuselight and Lakeshire, later reported that he recently stopped at Willowbank (as the villagers call it). The villagers greeted him but coldly, charged him ridiculous prices for hospitality, and when he protested, he was attacked by "monsters" and was forced to leave one of his wagons behind.

Lord Auromere determined that the talk of monsters was good reason to investigate the village first, out of the three points of interest.

## The Lost Colony (June 3)

The Order left Two Hills for Willowbank on June 3. After a long ride, they arrived to be stopped by guards at the dilapidated gate. Auromere identified the party as "knights, here to help with your monster problem"--but this was met with hostility from one of the guards. However, the other guard swiftly intervened, and convinced the other to permit them entry.

The party observed several things on their ride in. The buildings were in terrible shape, some of them seeming to have collapsed. The people themselves seemed exhausted and afraid, and there were no children in evidence. They were then greeted by the owner of the general store, Bezik Stretchglass.

The party seemed in a fair way to gather information from Stretchglass, but when they gave conflicting, sometimes dishonest information about their identity and purpose, the opportunity was squandered. Stretchglass, now on the defensive, directed them to speak with the colonial governor, Grixus Thorngaggle, at the Coin's Rest Inn across the road.

The party arrived at the Coin's Rest, whereupon the inn's staff barred the door behind them and fearfully refused to open it again, citing "curfew". Thorngaggle was nowhere in evidence; he was not here, this night or any night. At this point, Sir Joseph Bundy attempted to strong-arm the barkeep and maids into divulging their "secrets" by threatening to force the door open.

As Auromere and others attempted to calm the agitated staff, the sound of running feet outdoors became audible. Finally, one of the barmaids, a goblin named Myrtle, drew out a pistol and threatened to shoot Bundy if he touched the door. Her agitation and fear was so great when he did not stand down (even when ordered by Auromere), that a loud noise at the door caused her to scream and flinch; the pistol accidentally fired, striking Lady Sarah Bundy and nearly killing her.

The accident caused a break in the tension, and Sarah was swiftly attended to by Auromere and Lionel W. Phlin. Meantime, the rest of the party conversed with the inn's staff more politely, and gathered information as they passed a long and fearful night in the Coin's Rest.

## Information (June 3 - 4)

### **History**

According to Helga Steelshanks, one of the barmaids (and more able to talk than Myrtle), the colony began when the goblins coaxed the colonists to come to this place and make a new life. Among the colonists were seven high elves and one half-elf, including the inn's owner, Aellyrah Brightmorn. The colony did but poorly, until Deathwing's rampage across the Eastern Kingdoms. Helga's husband was among those on the lake who were drowned by the upheaval.

Shortly after this rampage, the elves all vanished in a single night. Then, the "monsters" made their first nocturnal appearance, at which point curfew was imposed "for the colonists' safety". Any attempts to leave the colony, however, were met with coercive legal shenanigans--resulting in the death of an entire family of tauren at the hands of the monsters when they were unable to depart the village before "curfew". Thereafter, the colonists have not attempted to flee.

Other colonists have also vanished: a troll named Zara, and others. The rest have grown weary and ill.

### **The Colony**

With the aid of the innkeepers, the party learned the layout of Willowbank, and essential information about its landmarks:

1. *The palisade.* It is always in need of repair, and work is constantly being done on it. The monsters are forever finding, or creating, breaches in the wall, and that is how they find their way into town by night.
2. *The docks.* The colony's primary source of food is fish from Willowswitch Lake, and the remaining fishing boats--those that weren't lost to time or the Cataclysm--bring them in daily.
3. *The company store.* Stretchglass has an exclusive deal, per the colonial contract, to get first dibs on all commercial activity in the colony. Most of the colony's valuables are now in his possession, including findings from the colony's primary industry--which, to your surprise, is *not* fishing.
4. *A digsite.* This was the reason that the colony was founded to begin with. The colonists were promised shares in lavish treasure that lay, waiting to be found. But after the Cataclysm, the diggers' work was turned to repairing the town, and building the wall that keeps the monsters at bay. The digsite has since been shuttered because of "hazardous conditions".
5. *Thorngaggle's office.* Not much need be said. Here, Thorngaggle holds the reins of the colony, and spends almost all of his time here. Nobody is allowed past the reception room without permission.
6. *The Coin's Rest Inn*, where you are staying. Stretchglass and some of the other goblins have come around to pry into your business, but your three friends have ably deflected them--for now.
7. *A warehouse*, where the colony's food stores are kept. Food is freely shared by those who grew or gathered it--mostly to avoid the goblins taxing it or buying it all for resale. It's usually pretty empty, despite that the crops seem to be doing fairly well.
8. *An old "visitors' house"*, which has fallen into disrepair. It was once meant to host visitors of high standing--though there never were any. Now, as it is too dangerous to go beyond the walls, it is unused.

## Goblin Governance (June 5)

These days went but slowly. Auromere did not properly recover from his exertions; sleep did not seem to grant him rest.

Nevertheless, the Order determined to go directly to the top, and demand answers from "Governor" Thorngaggle. They visited the colonial office, where they immediately discovered three interesting things: that the windows had not been cleaned in some time, leaving an impenetrable coat of grime, that the digsite was no longer visible, and that the office building was far, far larger than it needed to be for its purpose.

The Order entered the building, finding the outer door not only unlocked, but that its latch had been damaged and would not properly close. Within the antechamber, they found claw marks all over the walls--some at eye level for a gnome--and the door to the inner offices locked. Deeper inside the building, someone was singing.

But their investigation was ended here, when Stretchglass arrived and screamed at them to leave at once. He appeared more panicked than angry. When questioned, he avoided giving any answers.

Finally, frustrated even beyond his usual unassuming ways, Auromere declared himself by all his titles, and demanded to be shown to the governor at once. Stretchglass hesitated, and then fled; the Order pursued, but were too late to catch him before he shut his door and barred it. Curfew had arrived.

The Order hastened to the Coin's Rest, but the door was already shut when they arrived. Caught outdoors, they were compelled at last to face and fight some of the "monsters", and discovered that the cursed creatures were, in fact, Wretched.

The heroes were compelled to fight in self-defense, especially as one of the Wretched promptly attempted to drain Auromere's life. They slew all four that immediately attacked them, and on the strength of this, the inn staff violated curfew and risked their own lives to admit the party. One final Wretched attacked, leaping through the closing door, and nearly killed Auromere.

This Wretched, Jacob identified as the missing, and now late, Aellyrah. As the inn staff mourned their employer and friend, the Order gave them space to grieve, and retreated to their rooms to discuss. Jeremaias there explained that the Wretched were the "final fate" of elves who failed to control their magical addiction, but that it was a gradual process, one that should not have taken all of the elves in one night.

He then grew increasingly haughty, making statements very unlike himself--until Alexander Soltum reminded him subtly of who and why he was. His delusions of grandeur checked, Jeremaias became humble once more, and the heroes went apart to contemplate these turns of events.

## What Lies (June 10)

The Order returned from a weekend's respite in Two Hills, and Jeremaias sent out teams to learn more. He himself would go to Stretchglass's shop to interrogate the half-brother of the "governor"; Thayle Robinson, Alexander Soltum, and Terry Steelbeard investigated the digsite--or, rather, where it should have been--and Neapolitan Butterchurn and Ragnar Blackburn visited the docks.

Jeremaias particularly cautioned everyone not to use magic, as it appeared that this might be the means by which the draining effect was amplified.

### **The Docks**

The fishermen proved friendly enough, including a tauren named Akan Plainstrider. On questioning, they revealed that Thorngaggle had not been seen for eight months. Additionally, it was noticed that the fishermen were putting all of the discards--guts, heads, and scales--from the fish they were cleaning into a bin, which Plainstrider then emptied into a cart; there was an ordinance that these things must be collected in one place and dumped, but nobody knew where the dump was.

### **The Digsite**

Meanwhile, Soltum, Robinson, and Steelbeard looked for the digsite. They did not find it at first, but discovered that the office building was far, far too large for its purposes. After making a circuit of it, they noticed that the back part of the building was a windowless wall, roofed with canvas, and that the canvas had pulled loose from its mooring in one spot. Here, they climbed the wall and let themselves in.

There, they found the digsite. The walls had been hastily thrown up, and were flimsy. It was dark, and they could not easily see far into the site as the floor sloped away and daylight was fading fast. After collecting a handful of small trinkets and shards of pottery from the site, they returned to the Coin's Rest Inn. These relics were determined to be trollish, of the Gurubashi Empire--which made them very ancient indeed, as that Empire had not reached this far north since before the Great Sundering, which split Kalimdor into modern continents.

Soltum had experienced an intensifying of the drain effect on himself at the site, which meant that the source of the phenomenon must be there...

### **Stretchglass's Shop**

Jeremaias met with no success. Stretchglass was nowhere to be found, anywhere in the village. The gate guards shared that they had not seen him leave town, and the villagers had seen him not long before. After scouring the town, Jeremaias came up empty-handed, and returned to the Inn.

## Digging Deeper (June 12)

Jeremaias continued to hunt for Stretchglass, fruitlessly, for the next two days. However, the members of the Order were truly exhausted from the drain effect, so on the 12th, he determined that it was time to search the digsite thoroughly, and put a stop to the drain if possible.

Auromere, Peryn Crowson, Butterchurn, Terry Steelbeard, and Lady Bundy entered the digsite through the same spot, and with a lantern, began to examine the site. Butterchurn discovered a set of sump pumps, clearly meant to help keep the site relatively free of lake water. Crowson found skeletons, which Lady Bundy declared had not died of violence, but rather, seemed to have died instantly where they stood.

Jeremaias began digging in the muddy dirt next to the bodies, when Steelbeard heard something ahead in the dark. She and Butterchurn scouted forward, and discovered over a dozen Wretched, standing around in a stupor.

Jeremaias ordered the others back to the entrance, while he cleared away the mud from what appeared to be a socket or stand for a large object--which object was missing.

Not content to leave the Wretched around to cause more havoc, Crowson suggested that they set up a defensive position and draw the Wretched to them. The party then spent some time building from what they could salvage: Steelbeard set improvised landmines made of blasting charges, Auromere built a field of stakes, Butterchurn created a flamethrower with a pump and lantern oil, and Crowson set up an entire cart full of explosives. Steelbeard then went to bait the Wretched into the trap.

This worked quite well, though only eleven Wretched answered. Just as Steelbeard got their attention, she spied something else: a glimmer of light behind the cluster of monsters, and the smell of fish. After the advancing enemy were cleared, the party went to investigate, and discovered a trap door that passed out of the colony's palisade, and that the fish leavings had been used to feed the Wretched and lure them out to "play" by night.

Auromere now renewed his vow to put an end to this enterprise--and doing this meant finding Stretchglass.

## Seen in the Light (June 14)

The Order continued to scour the village for signs of Stretchglass, without success, and contend with the remaining Wretched. But enough was enough. A formal list of charges was drawn up against Thorngaggle and Stretchglass.

On June 14, Auromere took the Order to serve the warrants against the two goblin governors, at Stretchglass's shop. The villagers arrived to witness, and assist if they could, though Jeremaias warned them to stay out of the way if it came to violence. Searching the seemingly vacated shop, the Order found signs of recent occupation, and Crowson located a trap door. Auromere and Terry Steelbeard entered the space below the shop, and there found and seized Stretchglass.

Stretchglass, now left with no alternatives, led the heroes to the colonial office, where he claimed that Thorngaggle was located. After several attempts to monologue, he finally opened the door to the inner offices; then, he called out to his half-brother that thieves had come to steal his "toy". Enraged, a mutated Thorngaggle charged out of the office and into the town square, intent on destroying anything that moved.

The villagers scattered, fleeing to the safety of their homes, and the heroes pursued Thorngaggle. Stretchglass, having snapped and lost his mind, urged Thorngaggle on in his violent rampage, and struck out against anyone who threatened his mutated brother by leaping on them and trying to kill them.

When Stretchglass landed on Jeremaias and attempted to kill him, Butterchurn shot him neatly through the head--and Thorngaggle, bereft of his brother, gathered himself for a massive strike. But Jeremaias came to his feet, and prepared to risk his life by drawing the mutant's attention and shielding himself with the Light; the heroes took the opening and brought the monster down.

Though the goblins were defeated, one danger remained: the artifact that emanated the draining effect. As the rest of the party began to fail and wither, Nobu'Undo entered the office and destroyed the artifact.

And, as the heroes had promised, the sun set on a free and hopeful Willowbank.

## Outcome

Terrylie Steelbeard was badly wounded during the final battle, and would spend time recovering from her injuries.

Willowbank, by acclamation, joined the Kingdom of Stormwind and the Duchy of Ashfall. Jeremaias would spend the next week in his capacity as a magistrate, invalidating the colony's contract, restoring property rights, breaking up the brothers' estates and distributing them properly, and handling makeshift trials for the co-conspirators. What time he did not spend on legal matters, he devoted to restoring Terry to health, until she was able to rejoin the rest of the Order.

A team from the Explorer's League was requested to handle the disposition of the digsite. Fortunately, there seem to be no further malignant or significantly dangerous items in the site, and excavation has resumed with the aid and advice of the League.

## Heroes of Willowbank

* Joseph Bundy
* Sarah Bundy
* Neapolitan Butterchurn
* Peryn Crowson
* Nerolos Medreath
* Nobu'Undo
* Lionel Phlin
* Thayle Robinson and Jimmy
* Alexander Soltum
* Terrylie Steelbeard