Late Aeguary, 450 years after the fall of the Seleucarian Empire.

..........

"I've had enough! Lord or not, you keep your hands off of my mother!"
The enraged voice of Aaron Corten could be heard plainly through the
town of Petra, long under the oppressive rule of Batlin Karrella.

"If your mother wants me to leave her alone, let her put me out
herself!" A sneer was plain in the Baron's retort. "Stop behaving like a
child and leave the grownups alone."

"Keep your filthy hands off her or.. or.. or else!" Mocking laughter
echoed from within Sangre Keep as Aaron Corten clenched his fists in
anger. Something had to be done, this just wasn't right!

The heated exchange soon drew a few passersby to Petra, gathering in the
Corten family's fields to inquire about the trouble. More sullen than
usual, Aaron refused to elaborate on his words, focusing on his chores
and trying to brush off the inquiry. His father, Karl, stood nearby,
baffled by the exchange. Working busily about her farmhouse, Marita
Corten also had nothing to say, avoiding questions with a tinge of
embarrassment.

Seeking Batlin Karrella in Sangre Keep, adventurers were again
stonewalled as he entertained questions with a sneer, giving no straight
answers.

..........

Things had quieted down in Petra and all seemed to be back in order.
Sitting in the shadows just outside the Baron's study, Lord Finchy
Ithilien was hardly noticeable as Karrella brushed past him,
disappearing down the hallway. Suspicions ran high as Finchy conducted a
brief search of the village, but moments later the effort would be
proven in vain.

A shrill scream pierced the air, its origin Petra, and more gathered to
investigate. In just a day, the quiet farming village had been
transformed into a scene of brutal murder. Upon the ground outside the
Corten farmhouse lay the corpse of Marita Corten with a gaping wound in
her stomach, while her eldest son stumbled about in a daze, wielding a
bloody carving knife.

Villagers and outsiders alike gathered around, shocked at the improbable
scene. Baron Karrella stormed in with a pair of soldiers, took one look
at the scene, and growled for Aaron's imprisonment. Amidst accusations
and horrified questions, the young man was quickly grabbed up and
hoisted off to Sangre Keep.

Outside, villagers fretted over the hasty arrest, unwilling to believe
that Aaron could do such a thing as murder his own mother, while
adventurers tried to find the Baron within the Keep. Mysteriously
appearing in his study after a few moments, with Aaron nowhere to be
found, the Baron dismissed their arguments against the young man's
arrest.

As the villagers clamoured for Aaron's release, Karrella grew more and
more agitated. Pressed to action, he relented, muttering, "When he
murders them all in their beds, then they'll know the truth." As he
stumbled out of the keep, Aaron was dazed and strangely uncommunicative,
and he was led to the nearby Horseshoe Inn to recover. However, he
remained as if in a waking coma, seemingly unseeing and unhearing of all
those who gathered around him.

Back at the keep, Karrella's mood alternated between jovial and
contemptuous as adventures attempted to piece together clues. A bright
jewel stuck in the floorboards at the Corten home... a bejewelled sword
and scabbard that Karrella refused to remove from his belt. The gaping
wound in Marita's side which did not quite match the narrow knife found
with Aaron... and again, Karrella's sword that he refused to show. The
Baron was cast under further doubt when he claimed to have been in his
study until he heard Marita's scream, despite the witness who saw him
leave. Furthermore, Aaron was rather conspicuously missing a large chunk
of hair from the front of his head, and a hidden trapdoor had been
discovered beneath a rug in the Baron's study. But how did it all fit
together?

..........

It was not until the hesitant testimony of one of Karrella's soldiers
that things began to make sense. The Baron had indeed left his study
shortly before Marita's scream had been heard in Petra. Then, a maid
cleaning the room across the hall discovered a small key to the Baron's
desk, which in turn revealed the key to the hidden trapdoor.

Determined to root out the truth of the situation, adventurers opened
the door and crowded into a small chamber, finding a scene nearly as
grim as the earlier murder. Crafted from wood, straw, and horse hair, a
tall effigy of a man stood before them, its head covered by a russet
cloth hood, a lock of sun-bleached blond hair affixed to the effigy.

Recognising the hair as that missing from Aaron Corten, the druid
Eurulis Lighthawk hastily darted forward and tugged at the hood, pulling
it from the effigy. As he did so, the effigy cracked and splintered,
crumbling to dust within seconds. The hood remained in Eurulis' hands,
pulsing with a strange glow and bound to him by some unknown power.

Back at the inn, Aaron suddenly sat upright, his entire body stiffening
as the curse cast on him by Karrella to ensure his silence was
disspelled. Blinking and shaking his head, he looked around in
disbelief, asking what had happened. Remembering nothing, the young man
was both grieved and horrified to learn of what transpired, demanding
Batlin Karrella be brought to justice. But the Baron seems to have
disappeared...

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Lupar, in the year 451 AF.