TEXT: 65
  Player Map
  Frog God 
  Games
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  TB4: The Crucible
  TB4: The Crucible
  Richard Pett
  TB4
  TB4
  
  Credits
  TB4: The Crucible
  Frog  
  God 
  Games
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  Author
  Richard Pett.
  Developers
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  Alistair Rigg and Jeff Harkness
  Swords & Wizardry Conversion
  Jeff Harkness
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  Charles A. Wright
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  Felipe Gaona
  Interior Art
  Ed Bourelle, Peter Fairfax,  
  Jeremy McHugh, Terry Pavlet,  
  Richard Pett, and James Stowe
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  Richard Pett
  Cartography
  Robert Altbauer
  Playtesters
  These were the first unfortunates to walk 
  the crooked streets of the Blight, much 
  love and thanks to you for an awesome 
  session at PaizoCon UK— Brett Andrews, 
  Andrew Green, Clare Jones, Mark 
  Laverock, Pete Pollard and Ben Wenham. 
  You were lucky Brett,  
  next time I won’t roll a 1…
  Special Thanks
  Pete Pollard, Fellow Conspiritor
  Special Dedication
  Felipe Gaona’s excellent painting 
  “Umbrella” is dedicated to the creator 
  of the “Burning Woman in the Rain” 
  image that served as the inspiration for 
  this cover. I have seen the original piece 
  as a wallpaper online in many locations 
  and thought it perfectly captured the 
  atmosphere of The Crucible, but I 
  have never been able to track down the 
  identity of the creator. So here’s to you, 
  mystery artist. You managed to capture 
  a tiny piece of Richard Pett’s brain 
  with your art, an extremely dangerous 
  thing to do. May his tentacled cosmic 
  overlords never succeed in finding you.
  Adventures 
  Worth  
  Winning
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  
  2
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  GENERAL RESOURCES 
  Swords & Wizardry Complete S&W 
  The Tome of Horrors Complete PF, S&W 
  Tome of Horrors 4 PF, S&W 
  Tome of Adventure Design
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  Bill Webb’s Book of Dirty Tricks 
  Razor Coast: Fire as She Bears PF 
  Book of Lost Spells 5e 
  Fifth Edition Foes 5e 
  The Tome of Blighted Horrors* 5e, PF, S&W
  Book of Alchemy* 5e, PF, S&W 
  THE LOST LANDS 
  Rappan Athuk PF, S&W 
  Rappan Athuk Expansions Vol. I PF, S&W 
  The Slumbering Tsar Saga PF, S&W 
  The Black Monastery PF, S&W 
  Cyclopean Deeps Vol. I PF, S&W 
  Cyclopean Deeps Vol. II PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast: Heart of the Razor PF, S&W 
  Razor Coast: Freebooter’s Guide to the Razor Coast PF, S&W 
  LL0: The Lost Lands Campaign Setting* 5e, PF, S&W
  LL1: Stoneheart Valley PF, S&W 
  LL2: The Lost City of Barakus PF, S&W 
  LL3: Sword of Air PF, S&W 
  LL4: Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms PF, S&W 
  LL5: Borderland Provinces 5e, PF, S&W
  LL6: The Northlands Saga Complete PF, S&W
  LL7: The Blight 5e, PF, S&W
  LL8: Bard’s Gate 5e, PF, S&W 
  LL9: Adventures in the Borderland Provinces 5e, PF, S&W
  QUESTS OF DOOM 
  Quests of Doom (Vol. 1) 5e 
  Quests of Doom (Vol. 2) 5e 
  Quests of Doom (includes the 5e Vol. 1 and 2, but for PF 
  and S&W only) PF, S&W 
  Quests of Doom 2 5e 
  Quests of Doom 3 5e, S&W
  Quests of Doom 4* 5e, PF, S&W
  PERILOUS VISTAS 
  Dead Man’s Chest (pdf only) PF 
  Dunes of Desolation PF 
  Fields of Blood PF 
  Mountains of Madness* PF 
  Marshes of Malice* PF
  Other Products from Frog God Games
  You can find these product lines and more at our website, froggodgames.com, and on the shelves of many retail game stores.  
  Superscripts indicate the available game systems: “PF” means the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, “5e” means Fifth Edition,  
  and “S&W” means Swords & Wizardry. If there is no superscript it means that it is not specific to a single rule system.
  * (forthcoming from Frog God Games)
  
  3
  The Crucible
  Table of Contents
  Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ Pg. 5
   
  Rumours in The Blight .................................................................................................................... Pg. 7
   
  For the Referee: Troubleshooting ................................................................................................... Pg. 7
   
  Sights, Sounds, and Smells in the Blight ........................................................................................ Pg. 8
   
  Running The Crucible in Other Cities ............................................................................................ Pg. 8
   
  Seasons and the Weather ................................................................................................................. Pg. 8
  Chapter 1: The Burning Ghats ................................................................................................................... Pg. 9
   
  Rumours about Singhh .................................................................................................................... Pg. 9
   
  Event 1: Street Justice ..................................................................................................................... Pg. 13
   
  Rumours about Mahaas .................................................................................................................. Pg. 14
  Chapter 2: The Grime Street Morgue ........................................................................................................ Pg. 15
   
  Rumors about Previous Victims ..................................................................................................... Pg. 15
   
  Non Nominus .................................................................................................................................... Pg. 16
   
  The Chain Ferry ............................................................................................................................... Pg. 16
   
  Rumours about Uriah Mean ........................................................................................................... Pg. 16
  Chapter 3: The Pawnbroker’s Tenement .................................................................................................... Pg. 18
   
  Bath Chairs and Pawnbrokers ....................................................................................................... Pg. 18
   
  Blight Stonemites ............................................................................................................................. Pg. 20
   
  Ragefire Spawn ................................................................................................................................. Pg. 24
   
  Event 2: Rooftop Chase ................................................................................................................... Pg. 25
  Chapter 4: The Leviathan Dig .................................................................................................................... Pg. 27
   
  Rumours about the Leviathan Dig ................................................................................................. Pg. 27
   
  Becoming a Savant ........................................................................................................................... Pg. 29
   
  Leviathans, Ancients, and Fossils ................................................................................................... Pg. 30
   
  Rumours about the Organ Grinder ............................................................................................... Pg. 31
  Chapter 5: The Dislocated Pier .................................................................................................................. Pg. 32
   
  Siklight Cockroaches ....................................................................................................................... Pg. 32
   
  Event 3: A Lyme Bath ...................................................................................................................... Pg. 33
   
  Golem-Stitching and the Made ....................................................................................................... Pg. 35
   
  New Tome: The Secret of Creation ................................................................................................. Pg. 36
   
  New Drug: Absinthe ........................................................................................................................ Pg. 36
  Chapter 6: The Great Windmill .................................................................................................................. Pg. 39
   
  Rumours about the Great Windmills ............................................................................................. Pg. 39
   
  Fire and Water ................................................................................................................................. Pg. 41
   
  Event 4: The Ragefire Freed ........................................................................................................... Pg. 43
   
  Event 5: An Unexpected Complication .......................................................................................... Pg. 44
  Appendix A: New Monsters ....................................................................................................................... Pg. 46
   
  Dog, Fighting ..................................................................................................................................... Pg. 46
   
  Elemental, Ragefire ............................................................................................................................ Pg. 47
   
  Lyme Angler ....................................................................................................................................... Pg. 48 
   
  Sough-Eel ........................................................................................................................................... Pg. 49
   
  Spider, Gable ...................................................................................................................................... Pg. 50
   
  Wallow-Whale ................................................................................................................................... Pg. 51
  Appendix B: New Magic Items ................................................................................................................. Pg. 52
   
  Between Ring ..................................................................................................................................... Pg. 52
  
  4
  “…You’ve just entered the wrong side of town…”
  The Crucible is a Swords & Wizardry adventure designed for a party of  
  four to six 6th-level characters. It serves as a companion adventure to  
  Richard’s Pett’s The Blight and takes place in that twisted city as revealed  
  in the campaign setting published by Frog God Games.
  TB4: The Crucible
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  By Richard Pett
  
  5
  The furnace thundered, heat raging like fury from within. A column of 
  black iron rising into the arched roof of the giant windmill, hanging in 
  the cradle of four vast chains, swayed like a goliath metal coffin. Yet as I 
  approached, I suddenly became aware of another noise above the roar of 
  the fire: the howl of hunger. The furnace itself was alive …
   
   
   
   
   
  — The Artificer
  The streets of the Blight abound lately with stories of dreadful 
  immolations: of people rising in the night and suddenly becoming balls 
  of living flame; of searing, screaming souls blazing through the streets 
  being burnt alive. There seems to be no explanation for this spontaneous 
  combustion. Good people shiver in their beds for fear of suddenly catching 
  fire; folk shake on church pews hoping they will not be the next to burst 
  into flames. This nightmare is real, and it’s happening now to the good 
  people of this city, what few there might be …
  The Crucible focuses upon events surrounding a ragefire elemental, 
  a new monster imprisoned within a massive crucible, an item created by 
  the Artificer, the chief villain of the adventure. The characters experience 
  various locations around Festival and the Great Lyme River: the high-
  gables of the Festival parish during a rooftop chase; a site where fossilized 
  Leviathans are being exhumed; and a pleasure pier with a rotting caravel 
  in imminent danger of collapse into hungry mouths in the river below. The 
  adventure reaches its climax in one of the abandoned Great Windmills on 
  the Lyme as it becomes a raging inferno.
  In The Blight campaign, The Crucible primarily takes place in Festival 
  — the carnival isle of wererats. Two events also occur nearby on the 
  Great Lyme River, but all the information you need is included here. The 
  adventure can easily be modified for other urban settings, and suggestions 
  are given on how to use The Crucible in other campaign settings. The 
  story of The Crucible has a strongly evil theme and is ideally suited to 
  paladins and Lawful clerics.
  Adventure 
  Background
  The Artificer was, originally, only a minor user of magic, of a caste 
  barely above the street illusionists and corner-mages seen across the 
  whole of the Blight. Her only talent lay in her zealous research — an 
  addiction to scouring the ancient shops of BookTown, squinting through 
  mouldering shelves heady with the scent of old tomes and manuscripts for 
  clues and secrets, unknown spells, and hidden orders.
  The years, however, had rolled by and, as her faculties depleted, she 
  grew to loathe her lowly background and station in life, and the city and 
  its people that had caused them. Knowing that she had been destined for 
  great things, but now convinced that she would achieve none of them, she 
  sank into a deep depression. As her misery grew, she lost her lodgings and 
  began to roam the streets, often breaking into the book-filled corridors and 
  backrooms of the antiquarian booksellers and bibliophiles simply to find 
  shelter and rest. Until the night she found the tome.
  The tome seemed little more than a collection of children’s fairy stories, 
  though richly illustrated with etchings and with faded gilt-edged pages. 
  Unfortunately, it had been left somewhere damp; its binding hemorrhaged, 
  its pages stained. By the feeble light of a tallow candle, she read of princes 
  and dragons in tales of glory and betrayal until eventually, the tome itself 
  died through her use of it — collapsing into ruin in her lap, its pages 
  falling, its spine snapping.
  The Artificer moved the pieces to one side, preparing to make a fire 
  of what was left, when she noticed something within the corpse of the 
  tome. It was a diagram — or rather a series of diagrams, and instructions 
  written in ancient text — depicting a metal object of great size: a crucible. 
  As the tome had collapsed, so had the magic that had obscured its true 
  text with fairy stories! As the Artificer struggled in the gloom to translate 
  the words, fumbling with obscure phrases and technical terms, she grew 
  feverish as their meaning was revealed. In her growing excitement, the 
  years of anguish fell away to be replaced by feelings of hope, of ambition, 
  and a realization dawned upon her that Fortune had, finally, kissed her and 
  given her a gift that could be her salvation.
  This crucible was no mere melting pot for alchemy, no mundane 
  container for molten iron; it was a design for a prison, a prison for ragefire, 
  an intelligent, evil fire both terrible and beautiful, a sentient flame, a 
  whirlwind blaze created, the tome said, by drawing and combining the 
  blood of demons and efreet. The Artificer realized that the crucible could 
  be configured to draw this rarest of hateful elementals into the world 
  and then made to force the creature to multiply. It would make her the 
  master of creatures that feast on the living, that immolate what they touch, 
  and that grow — getting larger and larger as they gorge until they are 
  firestorms that can destroy entire cities, and leave nothing but ash. Drunk 
  on dreams of power and revenge, alive with hope and dizzy with ideas, 
  the Artificer carefully gathered the instructions and, hiding them on her 
  person, sank into an untroubled sleep for the first time in years.
  The cold dawn and an encounter with a caretaker refocused the Artificer 
  on her plight. She was alone, weak, and helpless. Yet she held in her hands 
  a secret of power. With control over ragefire, her fortune could be made. 
  She could use the elementals as weapons, harnessing their lethality, killing 
  at her whim. The Artificer — who had long ago given up her true name 
  as a worthless anchor from her earlier years — convinced herself that 
  she would only have to threaten the use of ragefire, that she would be 
  benevolent, and use the elemental not only for her own good, but for those 
  of others like her. She would use the gift wisely, and not for spite or anger.
  The Artificer had few friends. One, however, had shown kindness, of 
  a sort, in the past — the Organ Grinder, a low-caste street performer who 
  worked in the Lyme River pleasure town of Festival. The Artificer hid 
  aboard the chain ferry out to the island and discussed things with her old 
  acquaintance. The Organ Grinder, seeing a great personal opportunity, 
  invested what funds he had in the enterprise, hoping it would enable him 
  to eventually pay for the advancement of his study of golem-stitching.
  The Organ Grinder suggested the use of a great windmill as a base. The 
  great windmills, which lie in the broad part of the Lyme River, were often 
  used by golem-stitchers and homuncule-wives as places to carry out their 
  more troubling experiments undisturbed. The Organ Grinder arranged for 
  the present inhabitant of one great windmill to be “removed,” ensuring it 
  was vacant.
  For a year, the pair invested stolen wealth into the construction of their 
  crucible and, only last month, installed the final part before drawing a 
  Introduction
  Influences and inspirations
  Some of the key influences on, and inspirations for, this 
  adventure are listed below for Referees who would like additional 
  source material on how to portray various NPCs and convey the 
  flavour of the adventure:
  • The original 1931 Frankenstein film, starring Boris Karloff.
  • True histories of the Elephant Man, and the excellent film by 
  David Lynch.
  • Images of claimed spontaneous human combustion, including 
  from the cases of Mary Reeser, Anna Martin, and Dr. J. Irving 
  Bentley in particular.
  
  6
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  ragefire elemental into the physical world. The creature was furious, and 
  railed against its imprisonment, but its hunger was all-consuming. The 
  creature’s hunger amazed the Artificer, who grieved at the choice that 
  circumstance had now given her: Feed the creature she had worked for 
  so long to summon to the Material Plane, or see it die. 
  At first she fed the creature’s hungry demands with animal flesh 
  — pigs mostly — but the creature refused to devour ignorant flesh; 
  it hungered for the suffering that went with death by fire, a pain 
  that fed it properly. Soon the Artificer relented and fed the creature 
  a tramp who happened her way. As she saw the ragefire devour 
  him and grow on his suffering, she knew that to gain the power she 
  wanted, she would have to — regrettably, of course — make some 
  sacrifices: the sacrifice of others.
  While the Artificer continued her research and plotting, the 
  Organ Grinder carried out her commands. He organized regular 
  shipments of coal and timber to sate the creature’s most basic needs, 
  and with the help of Mahaas, a grotesquely deformed murderer with 
  a penchant for dissection, kidnapped citizens for her to sacrifice to 
  it to make it grow. After a few months, the creature reached a size 
  where its spawn could be harvested. The Artificer began carefully 
  testing the ragefire spawn upon those she thought would be little 
  missed — orphaned waifs and strays, prostitutes and beggars selected 
  for her by the Organ Grinder. With each attack, she was careful to 
  ensure that the spawn was slain by her magic after its deed was 
  done — and careful to cast it whilst veiled from sight. On two 
  occasions, she was simply able to push her burning victims into the 
  Great Lyme River. On others, her water- and cold-based magic 
  sufficed to quench it. Her careful work ensured that no suspicion 
  fell on her, but rumours of spontaneous combustion spread to every 
  street corner with the blame placed variously on witches of the Great 
  Coven, demons, devils, and acts of the angry gods that walked the 
  streets of the Blight unseen.
  Now, however, the Artificer’s experiments are at an end, and she 
  has chosen her first blackmail victim: Savant Edwina Spitewinter of 
  the Royal Underneath Society, who is presently working on Festival 
  at a great Leviathan dig. Following a demonstration of the power of 
  ragefire, the blackmail is going well, and the Organ Grinder has been 
  able to collect 2000 gold shekels from the Savant so far — money the 
  accomplices intend to use to land an even wealthier victim. Yesterday, 
  however, an unfortunate accident occurred.
  In a fit of pique, Mahaas used a ragefire spawn to immolate the 
  uncooperative apple of his eye at a mainland ghat, with the burning 
  prostitute running through the corpses of the area like a howling 
  spirit. While mere threats with the ragefire have worked admirably in 
  blackmailing Spitewinter for money, Mahaas was not so circumspect, 
  and word has now spread like proverbial wildfire that the dead are rising 
  to walk and burn as well as the living. This, inevitably, has led to dire 
  consequences for the ghat owner who is looking for help to solve the 
  riddle and restore his trade.
  And thus, as a gruel-dawn rises across the Lyme, word reaches the 
  characters that the game is afoot …
  Adventure Summary
  The adventure begins with the characters called in to investigate the 
  case of a corpse that burst into flames and then inexplicably rose and ran 
  — screaming — into the Lyme. Following initial clues, the characters 
  learn that it was not a corpse, but a prostitute last seen in the company of 
  a deformed local man known as Mahaas. They may also discover further 
  clues by working with the constabulary and by making a visit to a creepy 
  river morgue.
  The characters find Mahaas’ lodgings on Festival in the tenements of 
  pawnbroker Uriah Mean, a bathchair-bound halfling magic-user with a 
  miserly disposition. Mahaas has already piqued the halfling’s interest; Mean 
  spied on his tenant and learned that the deformed freak has some “great 
  treasure” in his grasp. Mean tries to befriend the characters, but with the 
  intention of having them tailed throughout their investigations so that he 
  can attempt to take this alleged treasure when they find it. Learning where 
  
  7
  The Crucible
  Mahaas lives, a fight breaks out in the claustrophobic and trapped attic 
  garret, during which the characters may first encounter a ragefire elemental, 
  and leads to a chase through the tenement, across rooftops, and into the 
  streets of Festival. Whether Mahaas escapes or not, the characters discover 
  the source of the fires and a link to the Leviathan Dig, an excavation of a 
  colossal fossilized skeleton from the banks of the Lyme River.
  The Leviathan Dig is being conducted by the Royal Underneath 
  Society, which is led by Savant Edwina Spitewinter, The Organ Grinder, 
  who has already caused a terrible fire in Spitewinter’s private museum, is 
  blackmailing her. Unless the characters handle the situation cleverly, they 
  trigger a fight with Spitewinter’s overly zealous guards. By questioning 
  Spitewinter and searching her burnt museum, the characters discover 
  clues leading them to the Organ Grinder.
  The Organ Grinder is well known on Festival for his strange performance 
  that involves his curious musical instrument and a grotesque monkey, and 
  the characters may even have seen the duo during their chase of Mahaas. 
  The characters eventually find his strange home: a decaying caravel 
  lashed vertically to the end of the Dislocated Pier. The Organ Grinder is 
  studying to become a golem-stitcher, and his hovel is crammed with jars 
  filled with preserved organs and limbs. Here, the characters are attacked 
  by the Organ Grinder, his monkey cohort, and the twisted results of his 
  awful experiments — both failures and successes — including a twisted 
  creature he constructed from the corpses of a minotaur and an ankheg. 
  If desperate, the Organ Grinder also releases a ragefire elemental into 
  the fray, risking burning down his home and the entire pier but perhaps 
  trapping the characters in the inferno. 
  As the battle progresses, the rotten ship might collapse into the 
  alchemical silt around the river. Here, in the poisonous slime, a wallow-
  whale takes a passing interest in events and could make trouble for 
  the characters. Victorious, the characters learn that the Organ Grinder 
  regularly sailed to one of the great windmills and, therefore, head there to 
  locate the source of the ragefire.
  Within the great windmill is the crucible, which hangs on great chains, 
  6-inches thick. The Artificer and a wing of loyal gargoyles fight furiously 
  to defend her creation, but in the heat of the battle (pun thoroughly 
  intended), the ragefire elemental escapes. Free, the hateful creature 
  rampages, setting the mill alight. As their investigation reaches its climax, 
  the characters must choose between facing the poisonous waters of the 
  Lyme and its foul inhabitants, or trying to quench the raging conflagration 
  and prevent an Abyssal terror from ravaging the city.
  Adventure Hooks
  The adventure begins at the Burning Ghats, which lie on the banks of 
  the River Lyme, approximately half a mile away from Town Bridge on the 
  true right bank of the river. Use one, or a combination, of the following 
  three openings depending upon the goals and alignments of the characters.
  The Long Arm of the Law
  This opening is suitable for characters motivated to help the authorities, 
  or at least to gain their favour.
  The characters are approached by Constable of the Watch Fidelus 
  Crop (N male human Ftr3, 20hp), the local city watch constable acting 
  under the instructions of Streetclerk Felicia Kent (N female human 
  Thf3, 8hp), who is in charge of law enforcement and other local matters 
  in this area. Kent is disinterested in what she sees as a trivial issue, but 
  Crop is greatly worried; he does not like the idea of walking corpses or 
  people burning to death on his watch and is looking for help. He is already 
  inundated with work (assaults and murders are common in the Blight), 
  and word has reached him about the characters’ exploits and prowess. 
  While he cannot offer much in the way of financial reward, the friendship 
  of the Office of the Watch could prove useful in the long run for the 
  characters. Crop informs the characters of the location of Singhh’s ghat 
  and also indicates that previous victims are currently held at the Grime 
  Street Morgue. The ghat is detailed in Chapter 1 of this adventure, the 
  morgue in Chapter 2.
  The Holy Inquisition
  This opening is suitable for paladins and clerics devoted to a Lawful 
  deity. The holy order of a character’s god wishes a full investigation to 
  take place of all the burning victims. A church intermediary approaches the 
  characters and charges them with finding out if the matter is skullduggery 
  aimed at somehow profiting from the incidents, some act of wickedness 
  which must be punished, or if it could potentially be regarded as a miracle, 
  in which case it must be properly recorded and catalogued to qualify as 
  an official miraculous sign. The characters are furnished with lodgings, 
  religious authority, or simply money, and provided with the rumours 
  about Singhh, and about the previous victims (see the rumour sideboxes 
  in Chapters 1 and 2).
  The Sponsor
  This opening is suitable for all characters. The Honourable and Most Holy 
  Guild of Crematoria Masters, who are very concerned about corpses returning 
  to life while in the charge of their members — not to mention possible demands 
  for refunds — charge the party with ensuring that the issue goes away. They 
  pay suitable remuneration, provide for reasonable expenses throughout the 
  investigation, and point the party toward their member, Ghatmaster Singhh, 
  as someone with whom to begin their enquiries.
  For the Referee: 
  Troubleshooting
  The Crucible is an urban horror mystery adventure. Clues lead the 
  players from one part of the investigation to the next, and even if some 
  are missed, the players should be able to unravel the mystery and reach 
  the climax at the great windmill. However, if the investigation comes to a 
  dead-end, you can use one or more of the following options:
  • Someone other than the characters, such as Constable Crop, finds a 
  clue and, knowing the characters are investigating the matter, hands 
  the clue over. 
  • A clue or hint to a clue goes over and over at the back of a character’s 
  mind. The character might wake with an image of the room that held 
  the clue in his mind, for example. The character is haunted by this 
  image until the location of the clue is revisited.
  • An important NPC such as Mahaas or the Organ Grinder seeks out and 
  attacks the characters rather than waiting to be identified. The NPC trusts 
  intermediaries to finish off the characters, however, and the characters 
  can capture and compel these hirelings into revealing the location of the 
  NPC. Alternatively, an NPC gets more ambitious and commits a new 
  crime through which the characters discover a new clue.
  • The characters fail to resolve the mystery. Occasional failure can be a 
  good thing, particularly in a long-running campaign, as it provides the 
  option to reintroduce the NPC (who may have become more powerful) 
  at a later date so he can haughtily remind the characters that he beat 
  them before …
  Rumours in the Blight
  Rumour sideboxes appear throughout this adventure. Rumours 
  are essentially idle talk or gossip, and is the staple of daily life 
  in most places, but particularly in a crowded place like a city the 
  size of Castorhage. Roll 1d20 once on the rumour tables and give 
  the characters all the information with a target number equal to or 
  lower than the number rolled. 
  
  8
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Sights, Sounds, and 
  Smells in the Blight
  This adventure takes place around the vile Great Lyme River, a 
  ubiquitous, filthy backdrop to the events of the investigation. The chemical, 
  excrement stench from its foul flow is a regular reminder of its roiling 
  presence; the distracting splashes and squelches of its lurking denizens 
  are frequent warnings of the horrors that call it home. The corpses that 
  occasionally roll into view from its turbid depths, only to be dragged back 
  under by some wan devourer, are chilling evidence of the brutality of life 
  along its course and the truth of sailors’ tales of its flesh-eating monsters. 
  The more familiar the characters are with the dark occupants of the deep, 
  the more frightening the specific parts of the adventure will be where they 
  face falling in.
  Festival is very noisy and smells of sugar, tar, and sweat. The Blight: 
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City details this area of the Blight and provides 
  Referees with more information to present its many locations and rich flavour.
  Seasons and the 
  Weather
  Although the basics of the adventure should remain unchanged, the 
  season when this adventure takes place may affect various encounters. 
  Winter: Winter is cold, with a 50% chance each day for a cold snap that 
  lowers the temperature by a further 10° F. There is regular precipitation, 
  most commonly as freezing fog or snow, but occasionally as hail, sleet, 
  or heavy snow. The Lyme is nearly frozen, and anyone immersed in the 
  water must deal with the cold as well as its denizens. Snow and ice hang 
  on the rooftops, making climbing more difficult.
  Spring: The spring weather is damp. Rain falls throughout the 
  adventure, which influences ranged attacks, visibility and balance on 
  the wet rooftops. Fires take longer to spread, having only a 75% chance 
  of spreading to surrounding squares each round (see Fire and Water in 
  Chapter 6).
  Summer: The final encounter in the great windmill takes place when it is 
  tinder dry. Fires spread twice as quickly, spreading to one adjacent 5ft square 
  per round for every square that is already burning. It is also very dusty.
  Autumn: Strong winds slash the city, and it rains often. These two 
  factors offset each other in respect to the spreading of fires, so there are 
  no game effects from that standpoint. However, if you determine it to be 
  raining or windy during any outdoor encounters, apply penalties as you 
  see fit to attacks, climbing, etc. 
  Running The Crucible  
  in Other Cities
  For a Referee who wishes to run The Crucible for his players 
  but does not want to set it specifically in a Blight campaign, the 
  locations within this adventure could easily appear in another 
  town or city.
  The Burning Ghats: A ghat is a religious site consisting of a 
  set of steps leading to water used for various purposes, including 
  cremation. Any crematoria or similar corpse-burning area can be 
  substituted, as can a site connected to a holy building appropriate 
  to your campaign, such as a small riverside temple. The site should 
  have few possible witnesses.
  The Pawnbroker’s Tenement: Any building with a high 
  rooftop is suitable, such as a tall manor divided into poor lodgings, 
  a tower, or townhouse. Some of the details of the chase may also 
  need to be modified.
  The Leviathan Dig: The dig can be moved quite easily or 
  changed without altering the flavour of the adventure. Instead 
  of mysterious ancient beings, the Leviathans could be giants, 
  dragons, dinosaurs or other more commonly known creatures. 
  This area could also be changed into an ancient dungeon setting 
  with the characters helping to open the chambers below.
  The Dislocated Pier: The Limpet can be put on any pier or 
  docklands.
  The Great Windmill: If colossal feats of engineering are 
  inappropriate for your campaign, substitute a riverside tower or 
  a lighthouse for the windmill. No machinery is inside, but the 
  crucible hangs within the structure. 
  
  9
  The Crucible
  This chapter covers the investigation as the characters seek out the source 
  of the latest burning rumours and look into the case involving the ghat of 
  M’hajeet Singhh. It is primarily roleplaying and skill-based activities, so XP 
  awards are designated for the tcharacters uncovering certain clues. 
  The Strange Case of 
  M’hajeet Singhh
  The initial investigation of the characters should begin at the ghat 
  of the holy man M’hajeet Singhh (Area A1). If the characters wish to 
  gather information on the ghatmaster and the previous day’s events before 
  going to the scene, use the rumour table in the sidebox to determine the 
  information they acquire.
  A1. Singhh’s Ghat
  Locating Singhh’s ghat at Angelsgate on the banks of the Lyme is 
  simple. If the characters aren’t locals and don’t already know, anyone they 
  ask can point them in the right direction.
  Here, the poisoned river gurgles at the foot of a line of 
  stone steps, their surfaces smoothed by age and tattooed 
  with colourful tikkas and dyes. Above, the streets frown upon 
  a singular space; within are six great slabs, and one bears a 
  corpse laid atop a huge pyre of sweet-smelling timber, straw 
  and spices. The redolence of sandalwood and exotic oils 
  mingles with the more subtle smell of putrefaction from the 
  body and, stronger, the distant stink of the river. Nearby, a 
  painted and singing holy man is lighting coals.
  Angelsgate is named for the stone angel atop the nearby Angel Church, 
  and also because it connects the streets beyond to the river and was once 
  used as a dock. Originally called “Angel Gate,” it ceased to be a viable 
  dockland area after the Angel Gate Fire in 1596, which consumed a 
  dozen warehouses that lay not far from 
  the dock and which were 
  reached via a broad cobbled street 
  that still remains today. A disused 
  drinking trough in the shape of a 
  whale lies about 50ft away from 
  the ghat; faded markings state that 
  it was “Donated by the Angel Gate 
  Import and Storage Company” in 
  1582. The ghat has been here 
  since 1597 when the local 
  traders, the ancestors of the 
  current Singhh running the 
  place, became more pious in 
  the hope of work returning. 
  Their 
  prayers 
  were 
  answered in 1599 when 
  renowned miller Halibut 
  Quentin Crane (1534–1601) 
  built a dye works on the 
  land left by the warehouses. 
  Unfortunately for Crane, a 
  succubus enthralled him, stole 
  his soul and took him to the 
  Abyss. His eldest son, Sald 
  Crane (1590–1688), took over. 
  The dye works are still active 
  today but use the canals for 
  transportation.
  Chapter One:
  The Burning Ghats
  Rumours about Singhh
  1d20
  Rumour
  8
  “Did you hear about the ghat that Singhh 
  runs? Well, yesterday he was busy burning 
  the dead and preparing them for the river 
  when one of those corpses stood up and 
  ran! Why, Beltane himself never made so 
  bold a robbery!” 
  12
  “I heard Singhh has paid dearly for his walk-
  ing corpse, and now locals won’t go near his 
  ghat at Angelsgate unless they’re going to 
  the Angel Church. Who can blame them? 
  Once someone’s dead they should have 
  the decency to remain so.”
  17
  “Some say Singhh has fallen on hard times 
  and pulled the stunt himself using a niece 
  of his. I heard that a member of the Watch 
  suggested that stringing him up and asking 
  questions afterward would likely reveal a 
  more natural than supernatural cause for this 
  walking corpse.” 
  
  10
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  The holy man is the ghatmaster M’hajeet Singhh (N male human 
  MU4, 13hp), who owns and operates the ghat here on the riverbank at 
  Angelsgate. Singhh, who is usually very cheerful, is a slight but strong 
  man of Jaata descent. However, the events of yesterday have robbed him 
  of his spirits and trade. Anyone taking an interest in the ghatmaster soon 
  finds themselves overwhelmed by his thanks and worries. The ghatmaster 
  had at least five corpses to cremate this morning, but after yesterday’s 
  events, four people have withdrawn their loved ones for fear of them 
  getting up and coming home. Singhh is so anxious to get his story out and 
  so grateful for any potential help and interest that he babbles excitedly. 
  Characters may need to use magic or find some way to calm Singhh to 
  calm him sufficiently to get the bulk of his story out in a concise manner. 
  The “rising corpse” mentioned in the rumour was on a raised stone slab 
  at Point X on the map. Singhh sleeps in a small, improvised flotsam shack 
  (actually nothing more than four posts and a roof of wood and barrel parts) 
  at Point S.
  Singhh’s Story
  Singhh’s life fell apart yesterday morning at the 6th hour of the prime (6 
  AM). He remembers the Angel Church clock (Area A2) striking the hour. 
  It was very misty — he could barely see farther than his hands before his 
  face — and the morning was still. He could hear that the workers repairing 
  the church (Area A3) had just started their work.
  If pressed to describe what happened when the corpse rose, he recalls 
  that he heard voices — two voices, in fact: a man and a woman — and that 
  they might have been arguing, though he did not hear any of the details of 
  the exchange. He admits he had only just awoken.
  Lenice Quarn — the corpse in question — was wearing a white pyre 
  gown, a common burial attire, then arose, dashing past him wreathed 
  in fire. She screamed, ran down the steps, and leapt into the water. The 
  constabulary later assumed the corpse was taken by slop-sharks (see 
  sidebox) because they couldn’t find the body when they dragged the water. 
  In fact, Lyme Constable Crop, the local Constable of the Watch, sent a 
  couple of lads out in a boat with a hook and chain. But these searchers 
  spent little more than 5 minutes looking, partly due to fear and partly due 
  to the stench and stinging in their eyes caused by the recent dumping of a 
  load of alchemical rot in the river here. Singhh thought the dragging was 
  somewhat cursory, and assumes they would have looked harder if Crop 
  had stayed to supervise. If questioned about the local gossip that his niece 
  was the walking corpse, Singhh looks confused and explains that he has 
  no niece.
  What Really Happened
  Yesterday, Mahaas, the deformed hireling of the Organ Grinder, 
  waylaid the prostitute Constance Chanterelle near the ghats just before 
  the 6th bell. The air was thick with the Canker; visibility was a handful of 
  feet. Constance wore a plain white dress, which in the light could easily 
  be mistaken for a funeral shroud like Lenice’s. Mahaas was obsessed with 
  Constance — many men were — but she found him repulsive and always 
  refused his advances. After she had done so again yesterday, Mahaas 
  threatened her with a vial of fire he had stolen from the Organ Grinder. 
  Constance started to run, and Mahaas, in a fit of frustration, threw the 
  vial at her, little knowing what would happen. The vial smashed when 
  it struck the girl, releasing a tiny ragefire spawn (see Appendix A) that 
  immediately attached to her flesh and clothing. As the poor girl struggled, 
  consumed in the devilish fire, she staggered into Singhh’s view, her face 
  wreathed in flame and obscured. Screaming, she ran to the water and 
  leapt in. As she plunged under the water, she was carried by a submerged 
  current and became caught in the rusting embrace of an old iron fishing 
  vessel sunken just off shore. While the ragefire spawn was destroyed, 
  extinguished by its immersion in the water, the damage had been done 
  and, too weak to escape the snag, there the poor girl drowned.
  Singhh’s attention was on the dress: a white dress identical — so he 
  thought — to one worn by one of his clients’ corpses. While Singhh’s 
  attention was wholly taken by what the ghatmaster thought was one of 
  his charges — risen, burning, and screaming — Mahaas saw the corpse in 
  the white dress and spontaneously contrived a plan. He quickly snatched 
  the white-shrouded corpse, stuffing it into a nearby handcart belonging to 
  
  11
  The Crucible
  Slop-Sharks
  The terror of all who use the river as their main way 
  across the city, slop-sharks are one of the many predators 
  lurking just beneath the rubbish and waste-strewn 
  surface of the Lyme. Also known as Lyme anglers, 
  from the smaller juveniles to the massive specimens 
  that are the stuff of nightmares, all slop-sharks resemble 
  ragged sacks of putrid flesh about to burst open with a 
  glowing lantern-like appendage dangling from between 
  their eyes. They have great wide mouths filled with rows 
  of ragged teeth, and their horrific diseased bite causes awful 
  infections that frequently kill anyone lucky enough to survive 
  the trauma. Lyme anglers (aka slop-sharks) are further detailed in  
  The Tome of Blighted Horrors by Frog God Games. 
  
  12
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  the pie-seller Master Cookcroft (Area A4). He then fled with it into the 
  Canker. Having hidden the stolen corpse in the river upstream, Mahaas 
  believed he had committed the perfect murder and returned to his home 
  on Festival.
  Recovering the Body
  Constance’s body has not been eaten by slop-sharks yet because of the 
  foul alchemic effluent dumped here last night (which also quickly drove 
  the searchers off), and it is still lodged in the rusting skeleton of a small 
  fishing vessel 30ft out from Singhh’s ghat (Point C) and under 15ft of 
  water. This is where she died and where the ragefire spawn was likewise 
  snuffed out.
  Local children sagely inform anyone they see examining or entering the 
  river here that it is full of slop-sharks in these parts and warn them against 
  swimming out. If the characters are nice to the children or reward them for 
  their volunteered information, one of them remembers seeing some men 
  from the local dye works dumping some barrels into the river upstream 
  the day before yesterday. The child overheard them laughing and saying 
  “It’s not like anyone drinks from the river, ’cept the sharks, o’course, and 
  this’ll give ’em what for! They’ll be outta’ here like a flash!”
  The waters are inky black, and visibility beneath the surface is only 
  2ft, beyond which is total darkness without a light source. Anyone in 
  the cold water can feel things moving about around them, and objects 
  suddenly come into their view — an odd boot (perhaps with a foot still 
  in it), a corn doll, a blind white slug. The party has a 10% chance per 
  character searching in the water to locate Constance’s body. If successful, 
  it suddenly appears — wan and terribly burnt — out of the murky waters. 
  The corpse can be disentangled easily from the metal and dragged back 
  to shore. The majority of burns are on her face and neck, and the shape 
  of these burns resemble claw marks. The cause of death was drowning 
  from the water in her lungs. When Constance leapt into water, the ragefire 
  was snuffed out, and she was close to death. Too weak to swim or fight 
  the minimal current, she was pulled under, became lodged in the wreck, 
  passed out, and ultimately drowned. What remains of her dress is white 
  and plain, and she wears no shoes. The wreckage of her face is drawn into 
  an eternal, silent scream. On the back of her shoulder is a crudely rendered 
  tattoo with the image of a black rose.
  Development: If the characters find Constance’s body, they can find a 
  local able to identify her. But identifying a body is an unpleasant business, 
  and the characterss stir up suspicion, anger, and resentment, triggering 
  Event 1 below.
  Ad Hoc XP Award: If the characters successfully determine the cause 
  of death as drowning, award each of them 30 XP. If they correctly identify 
  the body, award them 60 XP.
  A2. Church of the Angel
  Currently wreathed in bamboo scaffolding (Area A3), the church 
  steeple is being repaired. A lightning strike caused the damage. The 
  church is consecrated to Maelstrom, the Archangel of Vengeance. The 
  interior decoration and stained-glass windows speak of revenge and the 
  punishment of sin.
  A3. The Workmen
  Enoch and Dillard Sheldon (N male humans, 6hp each), 2 steeplejacks 
  from the East Ending, are currently repairing the church steeple. Both are 
  men of few words and do not like to stop working to talk, as they are paid 
  upon completion of the job, not by the hour. They do not respond to shouts 
  from the street below. 
  Characters wishing to question them must scale a series of three thin 
  ladders that ascend 60ft before meeting sparse bamboo scaffolding to 
  traverse, which extends outward from the spire over the street below via an 
  overhang. Non-thief characters who try to climb up to the men must make 
  3 checks during the climb with a 15% chance of slipping. If a character 
  slips, he must make a saving throw to grab hold of an outcropping or rung. 
  Otherwise, he takes 4d6 points of damage from the fall (as he crashes 
  through the ladders and bounces off the stone walls) and ends up on a 
  ledge. Of course, they could use some other means of reaching the men. 
  Alternatively, characters can wait until the end of the day when the pair 
  descend. However, at this time, both are anxious to return to their families 
  and move briskly through the city streets, not stopping without good reason. 
  The characters must somehow get the taciturn brothers speaking to 
  learn what they know. Dillard was working on the upper steeple in the 
  morning when, alerted by screams and Singhh’s yells, he saw the burning 
  figure run and leap into the river. Enoch, however, also recalls seeing a 
  hooded man in a multi-coloured patchwork coat hastily pushing a handcart 
  away from the ghat just afterward. He assumes it was a local thief, taking 
  advantage of the diversion. 
  Ad Hoc XP Award: If the characters acquire this information from the 
  workmen, award them 30 XP each.
  A4. The Pieman
  Master Cookcroft (N male human cook, 11hp) is a huge, bald man 
  who makes fine pies, including a mint lamb and a very passable minced 
  beef and ale that he sells for 1sp each in his nearby shop. If the characters 
  enquire about his handcart, the pieman tells the characters that his cart 
  vanished yesterday while he was making a delivery near the ghats, but 
  that he found it later near the river upstream where the amiable Cookcroft 
  suspects that children were playing a trick and hid it. Examining the 
  cart reveals curious oil stains on the top. These stains are traces of the 
  perfumed oils and resins used by Jaata holy men to prepare corpses 
  for cremation. More stains are within the cart. Cookcroft can show the 
  characters where he found the cart (Area A6) if they ask. The route goes 
  right past a fruiterer’s shop (Area A5).
  Ad Hoc XP Award: Finding and identifying the oil stains earns the 
  characters 15 XP each.
  A5. Gorse & Sons Fruit
  Making enquiries at the fruiterer’s reveals that Gorse, the owner, saw 
  the hooded man in the patchwork coat pushing the pieman’s cart up the 
  street at about 6th hour but didn’t want to get involved. He, too, assumes it 
  was a thief who soon slipped over a nearby rickety canal bridge (Area A6) 
  and into the Canker. He lets the characters know that he’s seen this hooded 
  man before, hanging around the working girls at Armington’s Tenements 
  (Area A7).
  Constance and  
   Speak with Dead
  The characters can learn what happened to Constance by using 
  speak with the dead on her corpse. When the spell is cast, the 
  corpse animates with a scream before it is consumed with sobs and 
  moans. Coughing up foul river water, it answers the characters’ 
  questions in a gurgling voice that a deformed man called Mahaas 
  abused her with colourful language when she refused his advances, 
  and threatened her with a “burning terror in a crystal flask” before 
  she turned to run. Then the flask hit her, and she was engulfed in 
  flames that tore at her neck like claws. She jumped into the river 
  and the fire went out, but she became caught on something and 
  couldn’t get free. Other than describing Mahaas’ appearance (see 
  Area B8-13), the corpse knows little else of use to the characters.
  
  13
  The Crucible
  A6. Rickety Canal Bridge
  A pair of planks cross an open sewer here. Presently, a dead dog lies 
  beached on an isle of filth 10ft directly below the bridge, which creaks 
  ominously as it is crossed but remains whole and sound.
  A7. Corpse of Lenice Quarn
  If the characters search the river near where the cart was found, they 
  have a cumulative 10% chance per 10 minutes they search of uncovering 
  the body of Lenice Quarn, the corpse Singhh was supposed to cremate 
  and which he thought had burst into flames and run into the river. Like 
  Constance’s body, it, too, has remained unmolested by aquatic predators 
  due to the dye factory’s chemical dumping upstream. Heavy stones from 
  the docks have been used to keep the corpse, still clad in its white but now 
  stained and dirty funeral dress, from floating to the surface. It has patches 
  of abraded skin and several dislocated joints that reveals that the corpse 
  recently was forced into a small space.
  Ad Hoc XP Award: If the characters correctly deduce that the body 
  had been stowed in the pie cart resulting in its damaged state, award them 
  each 60 XP.
  A8. The Angelsgate Working Girls
  The local doxies lodge in Armington’s Tenements, which lie two streets 
  back from the river, close to the Crane Dye Works. The dye workers are 
  good customers of the girls, and nights can get rowdy in the seemingly 
  endless number of local gin shops, alehouses, and taverns. After dark, 
  thieves or worse set upon characters who become embroiled in the violent 
  drunkenness that plagues this district. 
  Talking with the girls (and offering coin readily gets them to talk) 
  reveals that Constance was being plagued by a vile character by the 
  name of Mahaas, a two-headed freak who lives somewhere on Festival. 
  However, unless the characters are careful not to implicate Mahaas 
  in Constance’s murder, the girls may decide to visit vengeance upon 
  Mahaas themselves.
  Event 1: Street Justice 
  If the locals learn that the characters have Constance’s body, the 
  Angelsgate working girls soon arrive with their pimp and his gang. They 
  do not want the body interfered with, especially by vile and unnatural 
  speak with the dead spells, and demand that it be cremated properly. 
  They are prepared to fight for it if necessary. The group consists of 12 
  Angelsgate doxies and a trio of burly Angel Gang enforcers. Their pimp 
  and gang leader, a strange-looking fellow known as the Cherub, leads 
  them. Muscled and tattooed, he is an albino, his shock of white hair and 
  unblemished pale skin making him look almost angelic, but his knowing 
  smile is anything but. If the characters do not accede to the gang’s wishes, 
  they are willing to take the body by force, cheered on by the rowdy girls, 
  who will not baulk at the odd kick, punch and choice language.
  The Cherub (Thf5): HP 16; AC 7[12]; Atk +1 short sword 
  (1d6+1); Move 12; Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; Special: 
  backstab (x3), +2 save bonus vs. traps and magical devices, 
  read languages, thieving skills.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 89%, Tasks/Traps 35%, Hear 4 in 6, 
  Hide 30%, Silent 40%, Locks 30%.
  Equipment: leather armor, dandy attire, heavy waxed 
  fisherman’s coat, +1 short sword, potion of slipperiness, 
  fine gold ring depicting a whale swallowing a ship full 
  of nuns (700gp), coil of black pudding in a brown pa-
  per bag
  Note: The Cherub fights haughtily, singing hymns of the Holy Mother 
  as he does so. He prefers to single out opponents, and challenges them 
  to duels of “just you and me.” Of course, he cheats whenever he can. 
  Strangely, he is fair and much loved by his girls, and when he succeeds 
  in any great way in combat, he moves to one of the girls to receive a kiss. 
  Too important to die, the Cherub bows and tries to flee if reduced to 
  half his hit points, and bows and surrenders if reduced to 10 or fewer hit 
  points, knowing his friends in high places will pay his ransom. How this 
  develops is left to you. 
  Lemon, Kind Karg, and Fetid (Angel Gang Enforcers) (Ftr4): 
  HP 30, 27, 23; AC 7[12]; Atk battleaxe (1d8); Move 12; Save 
  11; AL C; CL/XP 5/240; Special: multiple attacks (4) vs. crea-
  tures with 1 or fewer HD.
  Equipment: leather armor, shield, battleaxe, pouch 
  with 30+2d10gp in assorted coins, knick-knacks such 
  as a lucky human toe mounted in a silver plate worth 
  12gp (Lemon), a set of worn dice carved with rude im-
  ages (Kind Karg), and a jar of roll-mop herrings (Fetid)
  If the Cherub flees or is defeated, the enforcers flee or surrender; 
  otherwise, they fight to the death.
  Angelsgate Doxies (12): HD 1d6hp; HP 6, 5x3, 4x3, 3x4, 2; AC 
  9[10]; Atk dagger (1d4) or sap (1d2); Move 12; Save 18; AL 
  N; CL/XP B/10; Special: none.
  Equipment: dagger, sap, 1d6sp.
  The doxies shout abuse at anyone fighting the gang and protect any 
  badly injured friends by trying to shield them with their bodies and 
  provide cover for them, attacking anyone who comes too close with their 
  saps and daggers. If the Cherub flees or is defeated, or if half their number 
  are defeated, the doxies flee or surrender.
  Tactics: The group, like most in the Blight, automatically assume the 
  characters have some dirty reason for taking the girl’s body, or worse, 
  are responsible for her death and come calling like a baying mob. The 
  characters can diffuse the situation by convincing the Cherub of their 
  authority or good intentions, but, aided by his gang and girls, he is 
  difficult to convince. Showing a symbol of some sort of office in the 
  investigation, such as a written authority by Lyme Constable Crop, goes a 
  long way to convincing him. Any attempt to intimidate the gang, however, 
  immediately leads to hostility. If the characters manage to escape them 
  with the body, the gang resorts to finding where the characters lodge 
  
  14
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  through their extensive list of local contacts if necessary. You can assume 
  in this case that unless the characters left the area magically, or used some 
  cunning escape that you feel deserves a reward for ingenuity, they find 
  them within 1d6 hours.
  Development: Fighting these thugs causes complications both 
  immediately as locals refuse to speak to the characters for fear of gang 
  reprisals, and at later dates as relatives and friends of the gang and their 
  girls come looking to settle the score. How and when this reprisal occurs 
  is left to you, but it should involve an encounter with thieves from the 
  local arm of the Thieves’ Guild (a.k.a. The Guild).
  The Trail of Mahaas
  Having learnt the identity of the murderer, the characters likely wish 
  to gather information about Mahaas. If so, use the results in the sidebox 
  table but impose a −5 penalty to the roll if the information gathering is not 
  conducted on Festival.
  Rumours about Mahaas
  1d20
  Rumour
  7
  “One can only pity so poor a soul, stricken 
  as he is with the second-head fluke*. He 
  hides that terrible second face away under 
  a great hood, which he wears to spare the 
  fear of those he passes. He has many such 
  hoods — some bright and gay, some dark 
  and shadowy.”
  12
  “That freak has been seen lurking around 
  Festival for years. They say his second head is 
  alive and that it talks to birds and beasts!”  
  17
  “There’s more to him than meets the eye. 
  He has lodgings with that Uriah Mean, and 
  we all know about that miserly pawnbroker. 
  They say Mahaas keeps the same sort of 
  dark company and has friends willing to die 
  for him.”
  *See The Tome of Blighted Horrors by Frog God Games
  
  15
  The Crucible
  If the characters wish to gather information about any similar burning 
  deaths in recent weeks, use the results in the sidebox table.
  At the Morgue
  Characters can easily obtain directions to the Grime Street Morgue if 
  they don’t already have them. Run by Underclerk Ernest R. Wigmore 
  (N male human mortician, 4hp), the morgue rests at the edge of the 
  Hollow and Broken Hills district of the city, roughly 100 yards from the 
  Chain Ferry, and consists of a small office cluttered with wooden filing 
  drawers and ledgers. A locked door leads to a short flight of steps down 
  to a large lime-washed cellar with a dozen wooden biers for incoming 
  bodies. Ernest is a stickler for duty, and for the characters to gain any 
  kind of access to the cellar, he must be convinced of their good intentions. 
  Mentioning Lyme Constable Crop’s name automatically convinces him to 
  let the characters pass. 
  So far, the first three bodies have been subjected to speak with the dead 
  spells by the authorities and all questions and answers studiously recorded 
  in a ledger. Characters can gain access to the ledger only by stealing it. 
  The ledger reveals that, in each case, a standard set of questions was asked 
  and the answers were similar:
  Q: Were you attacked? A: Yes
  Q: Did you know your attacker? A: No.
  Q: What attacked you? A: Living fire. It burnt so bad!
  Q: Did the living fire say anything? A: No.
  If the characters have some spell that might allow them further question the 
  corpses, the basic story is the same for each victim. They were sleeping alone 
  in the streets and awoke under attack from a fire creature that hung onto their 
  flesh and burnt them to death. In their suffering, none of the victims saw the 
  Artificer nearby, carefully noting the effects of her vile attack.
  If asked, Ernest can confirm that the bodies were all found on the isle 
  of Festival. Characters have a 1-in-6 chance to notice that Ernest becomes 
  unsettled when he mentions the name Festival. In truth, the Underclerk has 
  heard the rumours about the isle — that it is home to a nest of wererats. If 
  pressed, he reveals that getting the bodies back over to the morgue was an 
  issue. The current Festival Watch Captain, Edrin Grast (see Area F5), is 
  luckily dealing with an internal matter, and the main City Watch were able 
  to demand the bodies. In truth, Ernest suspects that knowing the Watch 
  over on the island, this matter would not have come to light but for the 
  hysteria that greeted it.
  The bodies retain their clothes, mostly charred to nothing in places with 
  bits of metal from rings or necklaces actually melted into the scorched 
  flesh, but shreds do remain. Any belongings are kept in a drawer in the 
  corpse’s bier clearly marked as “Victim’s Personal Effects” and are 
  detailed below.
  Each victim marked W shows signs of the water elemental the Artificer 
  summoned to quench the fire and kill the ragefire. These effects are 
  detailed on the first victim Rosie for reference.
  Victim #1, Rosie Weft (W): The horribly burnt body of this young 
  woman shows signs of the Artificer’s use of a summoned water elemental 
  to extinguish the ragefire elemental. Characters inexplicably find signs 
  that the body was immersed in water although it was found on dry land. 
  Her clothing has been burnt, but close checking reveals curious bruising 
  and tearing of her subcutaneous tissues consistent with being struck by a 
  force from the front, more or less evenly across her whole body. The burns 
  resemble claws digging into flesh in at least two places.
  Victim #2, Edmund Hyde: The Artificer pushed this victim into the 
  Lyme. The corpse again shows signs of fiery claws that characters can 
  discover. Edmund’s burnt clothes are the ragged garb of a low-caste 
  person or beggar. Ernest can confirm that the constabulary knew Edmund, 
  and he was a sad case. His wife ran away with a sailor 12 years ago, and 
  he’d been drowning his sorrows in gin ever since. If asked, Ernest can 
  provide the characters with the address of the Grinning Lacedon, a public 
  house on Festival where Hyde was known to drink. For more information 
  on that ghastly drinking pit, see Further Leads below.
  When hired by the Organ Grinder, Mahaas told him of a number of 
  people on Festival whom he thought “could easily go missing,” and two 
  were people he’d seen frequenting Mean’s pawnshop. Hyde was one of 
  them, and the other was the navvy (Victim #5 below). 
  Victim #3, Eugene Wolkman (W): Eugene was a loner who slept on the 
  docks where he worked. Three locals saw him running through the streets, his 
  body a blazing pyre of flame. Their statements are included in Ernest’s ledger. 
  All three witnesses claim to have seen a watery figure the size of a man strike 
  the victim, quenching the flames, and believe it was a sign from the gods to 
  protect them from injury. One witness, Goodwife Blacksyrup, claims to have 
  heard a strange chanting just before the watery creature struck. 
  Victim #4, N.N. Number One: An apparent tramp, this young man’s 
  corpse shows all the hallmarks of a ragefire attack. The head is terribly 
  burnt, in particular. He was found floating among the docks last week.
  Victim #5, N.N. Number Two (W): Apparently a navvy (dock 
  labourer), this victim was found 3 days ago. He shows the signs of the 
  ragefire’s attacking claws. A search of the victim’s belongings uncovers 
  a pawnbroker’s ticket along with 3gp, 7sp, and an iron key, all of which 
  have also been logged by Ernest. The ticket is for a rapier pawned for 5gp 
  and is signed “Uriah Mean, Riverside Tenement Pawnbroker, Festival.”
  Chapter Two:
  The Grime Street Morgue
  Rumours about  
    Previous Victims
  1d20
  Rumour
  5
  “The constabulary have five previous victims 
  of spontaneous combustion interred in the 
  Grime Street Morgue.”
  10
  “The five victims were all loners.”
  15
  “Did you hear about the strange rain that 
  fell on the nights they died? Storms whipping 
  out of nowhere and vanishing as soon as 
  they started. Mighty strange coincidence if 
  you ask me.”
  
  16
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  So Far, So Good?
  By this stage of their investigation, it is hoped the characters should 
  know two key pieces of information. First that they are searching for a 
  man called Mahaas who suffers from second-head fluke and who lives 
  somewhere on Festival, and second that there is a link from two previous 
  victims to a pawnbroker on the same isle. Luckily for the characters, 
  visiting the pawnbroker’s tenement on Festival leads them straight to 
  their quarry. The characters can get to Festival on the Chain Ferry (see 
  sidebox), which costs 1sp per passenger; they can also arrange a more 
  private and convenient crossing by private charter for 10gp.
  Festival
  When the characters finally reach Festival, read or paraphrase the 
  following description:
  Festival up close is even more insane than seems feasible. 
  A vast bloated isle of garish colour rises from a wide, crowded 
  shore of bright buildings, seemingly a freak gust of wind 
  away from tumbling into the silty waters about her. Banners 
  and hoardings and signs proclaim the last chance to see the 
  “Dreadful Supper of Four Broken Men as One,” the “Awful 
  Whale-Girl,” and “Foul Mother Broken.” These signs compete 
  for height and colour and size, obscuring Festival as it rises 
  through crooked streets to a great fayre at its summit.
  And as the chain ferry clanks to the harbour, there is a rush 
  of entertainers: a dwarf in red cries out an invitation to see the 
  Great Ape of Dark Libynos; an impossibly tall man wearing a 
  hood with a single eyehole holds out a vast hand for alms; and a 
  curious and ugly organ grinder sends his human-faced monkey 
  to collect coppers while he plays his strange-looking organ.
  The organ player is in fact the Organ Grinder, an NPC with a significant 
  role in the adventure, with his pet Blight monkey. Whilst presently he has no 
  interest to the characters, nor any knowledge of them, them later recalling this 
  meeting may help the characters to deduce where the villain’s performing 
  patch encompasses. More information is detailed further in this adventure. 
  If the characters wish to gather information on the pawnbroker, Uriah 
  Mean, use the table in the sidebox to determine the information they acquire. 
  Other Possible leads on Festival
  The locations of the locales used across Festival are detailed on the 
  area map. Two locations have been mentioned in passing: the Grinning 
  Lacedon and the Festival Watch Station, both of which are detailed below 
  and numbered accordingly to their tag on the overall map of the city 
  provided in The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City. 
  The Grinning Lacedon
  The Lacedon lurks in a mouldy corner of the Footings. Even from the 
  outside, it looks to be on its last legs; within, it is even more decayed.
  Here is a curiosity: This building literally sags. It leans 
  between its neighbours, a dying building of dying timber and 
  dying stone. The stone resembles rotting teeth in a swollen 
  timber mouth. Above hangs a revolting object, a mummified 
  ghoul, its leering face grinning directly down at the doorway.
  Within, the twisted ornamentation grows and festers. Here is an 
  obsessive collector’s lifetime of obsession — about lacedons. There are 
  paintings of their demise at the blades of heroic nobles, several bones 
  in walnut cabinets, an obsessive amount of religious protection from 
  both Brine and Mother Grace, and in one corner is a whole preserved 
  lacedon skeleton labelled as a curiosity from the Physician’s Institute in 
  BookTown (Area B18). 
  Non Nominis
  The designation “N.N.” is used in the City-State of Castorhage 
  to indicate an individual whose name is not known, much like 
  the use of John Doe in the United States. It is from the ancient 
  language of High Boros and means “Non Nominus,” or “Name 
  Unknown.”
  Rumours about Uriah Mean
  1d20
  Rumour
  5
  “Mean by name, mean by nature. He has 
  no soul, that vile gnome. All he loves is mon-
  ey, and his every waking thought is driven 
  by how to acquire more of it. His tenement 
  lies at the edge of the Isle of Festival, very 
  near the Chain Ferry in a part of the district 
  known as the Footings. You can’t miss it — 
  it’s the place that looks like it’s falling into 
  the river. It’s one of the worst in the area. 
  Leaks and holes, rot and mould — that’s 
  what thrives there. I wouldn’t give you a 
  fourthling to spend a night there although 
  he lives in that barge outside.”
  10
  “They say Mean was crippled during a hunt 
  and that he can’t stand by himself, but I’ve 
  heard different. I’ve heard he dabbles in 
  magic of a most dark sort, and that his in-
  juries were inflicted by a cat which caught 
  him when he was scuttling about in the form 
  of a rat!”
  13
  “Some people say Mean is one of the Fam-
  ily — the ruling clan of wererats who have 
  Festival held in their small sharp teeth. The 
  Family take care of their own, they say, and 
  to cross any of them is dangerous.” 
  17
  “Oh, he’s in the Family alright! He has that 
  thug Mister Mackerel to watch over his af-
  fairs and to deal with anyone who annoys 
  him. You need to tread lightly ’round old 
  Mean lest you’re paid a visit in the night.”
  The Chain Ferry
  The Chain Ferry to Festival is a large, flat-bottomed barge pulled 
  by a chain across the river. It is teeming with pleasure seekers, and 
  has a large number of traders, puppeteers, and actors who ply their 
  trades during its 10-minute crossing, which costs 1sp. The Blight: 
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City gives more details of this ferry and 
  the occupants.
  
  17
  The Crucible
  Wintry Theram (L female human barkeep, 14hp), a sour-faced old 
  witch who last smiled in 1693 accordingly to local legend, owns the 
  Lacedon. Characters seeing Theram can discern her breeding beneath the 
  decay in her bearing and may even spot a ratty old fur coat hanging behind 
  the bar. Theram hates her station in life, and longs for the Capitol from 
  which — regrettably — she was exiled after offending a member of the 
  Tredici Family. The comings and goings and base humour of commoners 
  revolts her, but if someone notes her breeding and uses the correct 
  etiquette, they may get her to open up. Characters of high caste (if you use 
  such characters) automatically know the right way to do things. Theram 
  takes a shine to such characters and brings out a bottle of fine vintage wine 
  (only offering it to the characters that impressed her, and drinking most of 
  it herself), although she soon gets boring with her one-track talk about the 
  magnificence of the Capitol and her grand stained-glass windows, lofty 
  gardens and good manners.
  The aloof owner recalls that Hyde (she never refers to anyone by their 
  first name) had been flush with coin recently, having sold his wife’s dresses 
  to the pawnbroker Uriah Mean. “What a revolting, degenerate thing to do 
  and to what a revolting and degenerate individual,” she editorializes. She 
  barred Mean from the Lacedon on sight, but she does know where he lives 
  and can provide the characters with details (see Chapter 3).  
  F5. The Festival Watch
  A squat, rather dirty stone tower rises from the quayside. 
  It has become home to seagulls and crows, and its sides are 
  streaked with years of their droppings.
  Some of these fowl operate as eyes and ears for members of the Family; 
  it pays to know what is occurring in the local watch.
  The Festival Watch consists of 32 constables, recognizable by their 
  emblazoned grey and green uniforms and the short scourges they wield 
  to carry out their duties — which generally revolve around dealing with 
  drunks and minor scuffles. There are also 5 Sergeants of the Watch led 
  by Watch Captain Edrin Grast.
  Grast is presently away — at the behest of one of the ruling families of 
  Festival — and his place is taken by Acting Captain Pleasant Fumitory. 
  Fumitory is a classic bully, and easily kowtowed by another. He knows 
  little (and frankly cares less) about the strange deaths; strange deaths 
  happen all the time on Festival, and a talk with him reveals little except 
  his love of licorice — which he stuffs in his fat mouth constantly. The 
  characters should really come away with how indifferent the Watch are 
  — they may even make jokes about the victims. This should give the 
  characters a higher personal sense of justice and worth than the local law; 
  if it were left to them, the deaths would remain unsolved.
  Acting Captain Pleasant Fumitory (Halfling Wererat): HD 6; 
  HP 39; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (1d3), short sword (1d6); Move 12; 
  Save 11; AL C; CL/XP 7/600; Special: control rats, lycanthro-
  py, silver or +1 or better weapons to hit.
  Equipment: leather armor, short sword, 2d6gp.
  Watch Captain Edrin Grast (Halfling Wererat): HD 8; HP 57; 
  AC 6[13]; Atk bite (1d3), short sword (1d6); Move 12; Save 8; 
  AL C; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: control rats, lycanthropy, silver 
  or +1 or better weapons to hit.
  Equipment: leather armor, short sword, 2d6gp.
  Sergeants of the Watch (Male Halfling) (Ftr4/Thf2) (5): HP 20; 
  AC 7[12]; Atk scourge (whip) (1d4); Move 9; Save 11; AL C; 
  CL/XP 5/240; Special: backstab (x2), +4 save vs. magic, +2 
  save bonus vs. traps and magical devices, read languages, 
  thieving skills.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 86%, Tasks/Traps 25%, Hear 3 in 6, 
  Hide 25%, Silent 35%, Locks 25%;
  Equipment: grey and green uniform, leather armor, 
  scourge (whip).
  Constables (Male Halfling) (Ftr2/Thf1) (32): HP 10; AC 7[12]; 
  Atk scourge (whip) (1d4); Move 9; Save 13; AL C; CL/XP 3/60; 
  Special: backstab (x2), +4 save vs. magic, +2 save bonus vs. 
  traps and magical devices, read languages, thieving skills.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 85%, Tasks/Traps 20%, Hear 3 in 6, 
  Hide 20%, Silent 30%, Locks 20%;
  Equipment: grey and green uniform, leather armor, 
  scourge (whip).
  
  18
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Uriah Mean, the infamous pawnbroker, is a bath-chair-bound halfling 
  wererat magic-user and an honourary member of the Family — the 
  amalgamation of wererat clans who rule Festival. The infamous pleasure 
  island secretly operates in the name of the Rat Queen — one of the 
  so-called “gods” of the Blight who, like many of its deities, actually 
  physically live in the city. 
  Mean operates from his river barge, which is anchored at a small jetty at 
  the foot of his tenement building that overlooks the Chain Ferry as marked 
  on the map. As is frequently seen across the urban sprawl of the Blight, 
  structures have converged and Mean’s barge has merged with and become 
  a part of his tenement building. It is a mass of alterations and extensions, 
  enhancements, add-ons, and botched improvements. Mahaas lodges in the 
  attic garret of the tenement and is one of Mean’s many tenants.
  Chapter Three:
  The Pawnbroker’s Tenement
  Bath-chairs and Pawnbrokers
  A bath-chair is an early type of wheelchair for invalids. They are 
  usually pulled by an animal that the driver controls with reins, like 
  a light, one-man cart. Fairly rare in other parts of Akados (though 
  not entirely unheard of among the most cosmopolitan population 
  centres), they occasion little comment within the urban sprawl of 
  Castorhage.
  A pawnbroker offers secured loans to people, with items of 
  personal property used as collateral. If an item is pawned for a 
  loan, the pawner may redeem it for the amount of the loan plus 
  some agreed-upon amount for interest within a certain contractual 
  period of time. The amount of time and rate of interest is usually 
  governed by the pawnbroker’s policies. If the loan is not paid (or 
  extended, if applicable) within the time period, the pawned item 
  is offered for sale by the pawnbroker. Pawnbrokers may also sell 
  items that have been sold outright to them by customers. The most 
  famous (or infamous) pawnshop in Castorhage is the Soiled Sow 
  Inn on Festival.
  
  19
  The Crucible
  Uriah Mean, a Villain 
  for All Seasons
  Uriah Mean is an ugly old halfling with withered, useless legs and bushy 
  white eyebrows that prop up a faded old sea captain’s cap. He slumps in a 
  rusted bath-chair resting on squeaking wheels. A harnessed boar with tiny, 
  bloodshot eyes, coarse grey fur and yellow tusks pulls the contraption. 
  The halfling uses reins tied to the boar’s tusks to control the beast. A large 
  black crow perches on the back of the chair, struggling to keep its balance 
  and cawing loudly as the contraption lurches with every snap of the reins 
  in the gnome’s hands.
  Uriah Mean (Halfling Wererat MU7): HD 8; HP 41; AC 6[13] or 
  2[17] (missile) and 4[15] (melee) from shield spell; Atk bite 
  (1d3), dagger (1d4); Move 3 (bath-chair) or 15 (pulled by 
  Mange in boar form); Save 8; AL C; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: 
  control rats, lycanthropy, +2 saves (spells, wands, staves), 
  silver or +1 or better weapons to hit, spells (4/3/2/1).
  Spells: 1st—magic missile, read languages, shield, 
  sleep; 2nd—invisibility, mirror image, phantasmal force; 
  3rd—fly, lightning bolt; 4th—wizard eye.
  Equipment: Combat Gear +1 dagger, lenses of charm-
  ing, potion of extra healing, wand of lightning bolt (2 
  charges, 4d6 damage), spell component pouch, key 
  ring with keys to door of barge (Area B1) and trunk 
  (Area B3)
  Note: Anyone struck by Mean’s bath chair when it is 
  pulled by Mange the imp in boar form must make a 
  saving throw or take 1d4 points of damage.
  Lovely (Crow): HD B1d6hp; HP 4; AC 8[11]; Atk bite (1d2); 
  Move 6 (flying 18); Save 18; AL N; CL/XP B/10; Special: none.
  Mange (Imp): HD 2; HP 13; AC 2[17]; Atk sting (1d4 plus poi-
  son); Move 6 (flying 16); Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: 
  immune to fire, poison tail (1d4 damage, save resists), poly-
  morph (2 animal forms), regenerate (1hp/round), silver or +1 
  or better magical weapons to hit. (Monstrosities 262)
  Note: As it rarely leaves his presence, Mean’s thrall 
  is usually encountered as a boar pulling its master’s 
  bath-chair. It can escape its harness by changing 
  back into imp form, which it does as soon as it is aware 
  of an attack. 
  The notorious pawnbroker and slum tyrant Uriah Mean is a bitter and 
  miserly cripple whose apparent obsession with crushing his tenants and 
  debtors’ hopes for better lives is matched only by his acquisitive, endless 
  greed. Whilst in rat form, a huge tomcat (the magically enhanced pet of 
  a local wizard) mauled the halfling, leaving him unable to use his legs — 
  and with an irrational fear of cats. He spends most of his time confined to 
  a rickety bath-chair that is pulled around by a trained boar (actually an imp 
  called Mange) that rarely leaves his presence.
  His pet crow, Lovely, who always perches at his side during business 
  deals and negotiations, is known to sometimes accost visitors to Mean’s 
  barge, demanding to know their business in its screeching voice, and 
  to deliver messages for its master. With its ability to talk to other birds, 
  it has become the matriarch of a large murder of crows that roost on 
  Mean’s tenement building, teaching them to hunt stray cats and cry 
  warnings of intruders.
  A member of the Family, Mean’s claims of “powerful friends” are no 
  idle boast. If Mean survives the events of this adventure, he may become 
  a recurring villain in the campaign, complicating the characters’ lives with 
  his manipulations and greed. For more information about the Family, see 
  The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City.
  Tactics: Mean casts shield before meeting with anyone, if possible. A 
  competent liar, Mean tries to talk his way out of threatening situations 
  before resorting to violence. During combat, Mean casts invisibility and 
  then casts fly as soon as he can, allowing Mange to cover his retreat out 
  of his enemies’ reach. Once clear, he releases Dogg (Area B2), and then 
  casts his attack spells as appropriate.
  Mean is able to use his crippled legs slightly but at a greatly reduced 
  speed. He highly values his own life and seeks to escape if severely 
  injured. If prevented from fleeing, he curls into a cringing ball and begs 
  for mercy, though it will certainly not be long before he is plotting his 
  revenge if permitted to live. 
  Of potential interest to characters is that Mean is terrified of cats. If he 
  sees one, he shrieks in fear and either demands its removal or attacks it 
  using his wand of lightning bolts or by commanding Mange to attack. In 
  either case, he is afraid for as long as the cat is within sight and for 1d4+2 
  minutes thereafter.
  Development: When the characters first meet Mean, he acts friendly 
  and obsequious toward them, just the typical oily junk dealer looking to 
  score some coin from potential customers. However, Mean is cunning 
  and wants to know what the characters know. He asks questions, offers 
  help, and may even sponsor the characters financially if he feels it would 
  bear fruit, though ultimately he betrays them. If the characters start 
  asking questions about missing customers, Mean secretly recalls both but 
  claims to know nothing about either of them. If told of their murders, he 
  becomes very interested and asks many questions, trying to glean what 
  the characters know about them. If asked about Mahaas, Mean says he 
  may be able to help, but wants to know as much as the characters will 
  reveal about why they want to locate him and what their motives are. 
  When he has gleaned as much information from them as he thinks he can, 
  he’ll reveal that Mahaas is his tenant and that his garret can be reached by 
  climbing the ladder at the front of the tenement (Area B4). Regardless of 
  the outcome of this initial meeting, if he survives, Mean arranges for the 
  characters to be followed.
  If the characters have learnt that Mahaas lodges in Mean’s tenement 
  though gathering information, it is possible that they may not seek out 
  Mean and begin searching through the building instead. If this occurs, 
  Lovely accosts the characters and demands that they seek permission to 
  enter the building from its owner lest they be treated as thieves. If the 
  characters do not comply, Lovely informs Mean, who prepares for combat 
  and seeks them out, with Dogg (Area B2) in tow. If the characters do not 
  treat the halfling with respect, combat may ensue.
  Assuming that Mean survives his meeting with the characters, a number 
  of events are likely to follow. Mean sends his crow familiar to tail the 
  characters and report back on a regular basis what they are doing. Lovely 
  surrounds herself with other ravens and crows as she follows them, 
  ensuring that without specific investigation, the characters will not realize 
  that they are being watched; crows are a common sight in the Blight after 
  all. If discovered, however, Lovely flees back to Mean. If the characters 
  discover the raven before attacking the Organ Grinder (see Chapter 
  5), Mean reluctantly gives up. However, he may attempt to resume his 
  surveillance if the characters involve him again. 
  If Mean is attacked and killed, the Family learns about it unless the 
  characters have been sufficiently careful in covering their tracks and likely 
  come looking for them. If Lovely is still watching the characters when 
  they learn about the great windmill, she arranges for Mean’s mob (see 
  Event 5 in Chapter 6) to follow them there.
  
  20
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  B. Barge Pawnshop 
  and Tenement
  Read the following when the characters first lay eyes on the abode of 
  Uriah Mean.
  A river barge hangs crippled at the foot of an exhausted stone 
  tenement that rises spastically beneath dislocated gables. 
  The whole structure appears diseased — thick lichens hang 
  from walls from which stones protrude like broken limbs. A 
  chain lashes the barge tightly to the slum, so that the vessel is 
  suspended partly above the tainted waters, almost as though it 
  appears reluctant to touch them. The whole place — building 
  and barge — are strangled by straining moss-choked timbers 
  that look as if they could snap at any moment and bring the 
  whole place down.
  Three iron balls — the guild-sign of the pawnbroker — hang 
  over the barge. Pails, cast-iron street lanterns, handcarts, 
  rope, and a confusion of other miscellany are all marked for 
  sale, and the whole structure seems to groan under the sheer 
  mass of the wares. Everything, it seems, has a price, even down 
  to the hastily chalk-scrawled “10 shekels” on the rusting iron 
  anchor of the barge itself.
  An unkindness of mangy ravens lurks on the teetering gable 
  above, cawing as you approach, and picking at the remains of 
  what looks like a dead alley cat.
  Disguised among the ravens is Lovely, Mean’s pet crow. The familiar 
  lurks, ever watchful for trouble, and if it senses it — someone sneaking about, 
  a group of people acting unusual or suspicious, or weapons being drawn — it 
  shares the information with its master, who readies for combat accordingly.
  Lovely (Crow): HD B1d6hp; HP 4; AC 8[11]; Atk bite (1d2); 
  Move 6 (flying 18); Save 18; AL N; CL/XP B/10; Special: none.
  Mean’s river-barge is of the type commonly used by river-gypsies here 
  in the city. It has an upper deck that is little more than a flat outer level built 
  around the central cabin, its own floor some 3ft below the surrounding 
  deck. This cabin is divided into two areas, one for living quarters and one 
  for cargo. Mean’s barge is rotten, and if two of the four chains holding it to 
  the dock are broken (AC 3[16], 15hp each), the entire vessel begins to sink 
  and go fully under after 1 minute. Outside the cabin, the deck is covered in 
  goods, making space so cramped that anyone moving at greater than half 
  speed must roll below their dexterity on 4d6 or trip and fall prone. Mean 
  himself is used to the cramped living and ignores this effect.
  Upon the barge, the air smells of damp and rot, the miasma of the 
  vessel’s own decrepitude. Those who search among the goods risk 
  disturbing powdered rat droppings and breathing in the filth (1d4 damage 
  per hour until healed, save avoids). The entire boat is so cramped and 
  filthy, inside and out, that it imparts a −2 penalty on attacks with two-
  handed weapons and ranged attacks.
  The tenement building fares little better. Built of stone which is rapidly 
  being eaten by the acidic smog of the river and Blight stonemites (see 
  sidebox), the tenement is falling apart. The surface of the walls is so 
  crumbly and unstable that a non-thief character has a 20% chance of falling 
  while trying to scale them. The building has five stories plus an attic space 
  (which has been converted into Mahaas’ garret), is 75ft high at the peak 
  of its roof, 120ft long, and 40ft wide. It has four dwellings per floor (not 
  including the attic), each 20ft wide and 50ft long. A rotting interior stair, a 
  trio of exposed ladders outside, a knotted rope ladder, and a small timber 
  bridge, can be used to reach the apartments within the tenement. The tenants 
  of this riverside tenement are mostly meek, mild, and afraid of Mean and of 
  the consequences of talking about him or the Family to strangers.
  A framework of rotting timbers — the remains of scaffolding put up 
  years ago — strangle the whole place, barge and tenement. A timber plank 
  of one of these scaffolds breaks as soon as weight of at least 50 lbs. is 
  placed upon it. What windows there are, are barred with 1in-thick iron 
  bars, and so grimy they cannot be seen through.
  B1. Pawnshop and Living Area 
  The deck of the mouldering boat is cluttered with 
  countless mundane or strange objects, but pathways along 
  the sides are clear to allow passage. A small ramp enters the 
  barge’s cabin. Beyond in the murk inside, the place looks 
  even more cluttered.
  This is where Mean spends most of his day. Countless objects from 
  rattraps to wedding dresses, hatpins to grandfather clocks clutter the deck. 
  A simple hatch (usually open during daylight hours) allows access within 
  via a steep ramp. The hatch can be closed and locked with a lock, to 
  which Mean carries the only key, and it usually is locked at night. Below, 
  amongst even more junk, a hefty oak counter stands along one wall, and a 
  small door leads to the kennel (Area B2).
  Uriah Mean is a local tyrant and may become a recurring villain if he 
  survives and the Referee so chooses. Motivated solely by profit, he is a 
  hard bargainer but is always interested in new stock; he generally pawns 
  an item for 25% of his assessment of its value. His tenant Mahaas already 
  intrigues Mean, and the arrival of the characters with their questions 
  further piques this interest. He has already learnt something of Mahaas’ 
  value through scrying. Over the past couple of days, Mean has heard 
  Mahaas talking to himself (which he frequently does) about some “new 
  Blight Stonemites
  In a city as dismal as Castorhage, where it is almost constantly 
  damp, foggy, and chilled — except for when it’s unbearably hot and 
  muggy, thick with the smells of decomposing garbage, unwashed 
  bodies, and worse things — and nicknamed for a particularly 
  hazardous strain of fungus*, it’s really not particularly surprising 
  to anyone that even something as pernicious and annoying as 
  termites have their ugly stepbrother. That stepbrother would be the 
  Blight stonemite.
  Never confirmed to exist anywhere else beyond the bounds 
  of the city, the Blight stonemite is a horrible, blood-red insect 
  about 6in long that make an unsettling grinding noise as it gnaws 
  through solid stone masonry and the softer mortar between. These 
  creatures work much slower than a termite in their destruction 
  but are no easier to remove once an infestation occurs. They are 
  thought to be a favoured food of the Blight’s other ubiquitous 
  dweller of cellars and crawlspaces, the night-slug**, proving at 
  least some use for those disgusting scavengers. Stonemites are 
  not only damaging to structures in the long term, they have a 
  tendency to swarm when it gets very hot and humid, resulting in 
  the collapse of major civic buildings on several occasions over 
  the centuries during unusually sultry summers. Stonemites are not 
  particularly dangerous to humanoids beyond causing itching and 
  annoying welts from bites for those who sleep too close to a nest 
  of the feeding insects. Nevertheless, apocryphal stories exist of 
  unfortunate stonemasons or exterminators who have fallen victim 
  to voracious swarms of the vermin, being reduced to little more 
  than boneless, bloodless bags of flesh riddled with the tiny burrows 
  of the creatures in their delving to feed on the calcification of the 
  victim’s skeletal structure.
  *See Blight in The Tome of Blighted Horrors.
  **See Night-Slug in The Tome of Blighted Horrors.
  
  21
  The Crucible
  weapon” and a fortune that’s to be had. Mean intends to keep an ear and 
  an eye on Mahaas to learn more. With Mean when the characters first 
  encounter him are his crow familiar Lovely and his “boar” Mange.
  Uriah Mean (Halfling Wererat MU7): HD 8; HP 41; AC 6[13] or 
  2[17] (missile) and 4[15] (melee) from shield spell; Atk bite 
  (1d3), dagger (1d4); Move 3 (bath-chair) or 15 (pulled by 
  Mange in boar form); Save 8; AL C; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: 
  control rats, lycanthropy, +2 saves (spells, wands, staves), 
  silver or +1 or better weapons to hit, spells (4/3/2/1).
  Spells: 1st—magic missile, read languages, shield, 
  sleep; 2nd—invisibility, mirror image, phantasmal force; 
  3rd—fly, lightning bolt; 4th—wizard eye.
  Equipment: Combat Gear +1 dagger, lenses of charm-
  ing, potion of extra healing, wand of lightning bolt (2 
  charges, 4d6 damage), spell component pouch, key 
  ring with keys to door of barge (Area B1) and trunk 
  (Area B3)
  Note: Anyone struck by Mean’s bath chair when it is 
  pulled by Mange the imp in boar form must make a 
  saving throw or take 1d4 points of damage.
  Lovely (Crow): HD B1d6hp; HP 4; AC 8[11]; Atk bite (1d2); 
  Move 6 (flying 18); Save 18; AL N; CL/XP B/10; Special: none.
  Mange (Imp): HD 2; HP 13; AC 2[17]; Atk sting (1d4 plus poi-
  son); Move 6 (flying 16); Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: 
  immune to fire, poison tail (1d4 damage, save resists), poly-
  morph (2 animal forms), regenerate (1hp/round), silver or +1 
  or better magical weapons to hit. (Monstrosities 262)
  Note: As it rarely leaves his presence, Mean’s thrall 
  is usually encountered as a boar pulling its master’s 
  bath-chair. It can escape its harness by changing 
  back into imp form, which it does as soon as it is aware 
  of an attack.
  Treasure: The pawnshop’s stock is worth around 1000gp in total but it 
  would take several weeks to sell in its entirety. A small till hidden behind 
  the counter contains 25gp, 25sp and 25cp.
  
  22
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  B2. Kennel 
  Nothing more than a kennel, this section of the boat’s cabin 
  has been left to fill with excrement and shed dog hair. The 
  stench of an animal pen fills the air.
  The floor is profusely covered in a dog’s mess, requiring characters 
  to roll beneath their dexterity on 5d6 to move herein at anything 
  greater than half speed. Mean keeps a particularly large and nasty 
  guard dog chained up in this room: a retch hound, a sickly looking, 
  four-eyed canine with oozing sores covering its mangy hide. Mean 
  subdued the beast by long years of cruel training, and now the 
  creature, which he calls Dogg, obeys its master’s instructions out 
  of fear. If Mean is present and being attacked, he instructs Dogg to 
  defend him. Dogg’s chain is long enough to allow him to reach any 
  point in Areas B1–B3.
  Dogg (Retch Hound): HD 3+2; HP 21; AC 5[14]; Atk bite 
  (1d8); Move 18; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: breath 
  weapon (10ft cone, 2d6 damage, save for half), stench (30ft 
  radius, save or nauseated,–1 to hit and saves). (The Tome of 
  Horrors Complete 462)
  B3. Bedchamber 
  A filthy four-poster bed dancing with lice-covered furs fills 
  this chamber. A chamber pot sits by its side along with a large 
  iron trunk. An improvised ramp rises to a small hatch at the 
  rear of the barge.
  The rear ramp leads to an entrance that is always locked with a lock and 
  is swollen shut with the dampness (Open Doors with +2 penalty to check). 
  The room is filthy, with nothing of value or interest beyond the iron trunk 
  and a small dagger coated in poison lodged between the headboard of the 
  bed and the mattress.
  Trap: The trunk is locked and is trapped. Unless the key that Mean 
  keeps on his person is turned two complete clockwise revolutions, a 
  number of hidden blades are launched across the room, targeting 
  everyone in the chamber. Each character in the room must make a 
  saving throw or be hit by 1d6 spinning blades (1d4 points of damage per 
  blade). Giant wasp poison coats the blades (saving throw or paralyzed 
  for 1d4+1 days). 
  Treasure: Mean keeps his funds in the locked iron trunk in six neat 
  leather bags, each containing 200gp. These lie above his spellbook, which 
  contains all his prepared spells. 
  B4. Perilous Ascent
  A rusting ladder, clumsily anchored to the powdery and 
  crumbling outer walls of the tenement, climbs 60 feet up the 
  side to a balcony off the attic.
  Due to the corroded stone, the ladder is not secure. It is easy to climb, 
  but if more than 1 creature climbs upon it at the same time, it breaks away 
  from the wall after the topmost climber has ascended 1d6x10ft, dropping 
  anyone on it to the jetty below.
  A narrow balcony hangs 60ft above the jetty. Mahaas has greased the 
  roof above the balcony with pig grease, which characters within 10ft have 
  a 1-in-6 chance to notice. While the climb onto the roof from the balcony 
  is relatively easy, anyone crossing the greased area must make a saving 
  throw or slip and slide toward the edge of the roof. A character sliding 
  toward the roof must make another saving throw to prevent a fall to the 
  ground 60ft below.
  An unlocked door with flaking red paint leads into the garret.
  
  23
  The Crucible
  B5. Kitchen 
  The room beyond the red door is a vile place. At least forty 
  mangy street cats skulk in a large number of cages behind piles 
  of rubbish, and a pair of wild-looking terriers stare out from 
  the ruptured decay of a horsehair chair. Below a glass window 
  so thick with grime that it resembles a blackboard sits a larder-
  cupboard and a tiny iron stove. Nearby, a dripping tap fills an 
  iron pot to the brim with rust-coloured water.
  Mahaas cooks and eats in here with the help of some of his pets (which 
  occasionally make more of a contribution than just assistance). The larder-
  cupboard is very well stocked at present with a whole ham and three jugs 
  of cider. The 2 Blight terriers bark if they detect intruders on the balcony 
  or entering the room, though they are fairly cowardly and try to escape 
  attackers or cower and whimper if prevented from doing so. They are far 
  more scared of something other than the characters, though. Mahaas has a 
  pet he stole from a flesh dealer in BookTown — a monstrous abomination 
  that the dealer referred to as the Child of Spines. Like many Between 
  creatures, the Child possesses a rudimentary intelligence. This one’s 
  Between gate, a fragmentary and fickle gateway near a place children use 
  to play, is perhaps why the thing giggles and mumbles nursery rhymes 
  to itself occasionally. The creature is small and revolting, superficially 
  resembling a boneneedle but with a distended flaccid fleshy sack within 
  which can be seen rudimentary childlike hands — and occasionally a 
  childlike face — trying to push outward. When it was captured, its previous 
  owner trained it like a dog. These beatings left it fearful of whoever wears 
  a Between ring like that which Mahaas also stole. The caged cats are 
  used to feed the thing; the dogs just try to stay out of its way. When the 
  characters first enter the room, rangers or druids automatically notice the 
  terriers are looking at the oven within which the Child of Spines lurks. All 
  other characters have a 1-in-6 chance to notice this. 
  Blight Terriers (2): HD 1; HP 6, 5; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d3 plus 
  death shake); Move 15; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 1/15; Special: 
  death shake (grapple after bite, additional 2d3 damage). 
  (See Appendix A)
  Child of Spines (Between Boneneedle): HD 3; HP 19; AC 
  8[11]; Atk bite (1d3 plus marrow poisoning); Move 18; Save 
  14; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: aversion to daylight, Between 
  gate (can create opening to Between), marrow poisoning 
  (save or additional +2 damage from each successful at-
  tack), spell-like abilities. (The Tome of Horrors Complete 70)
  Spell-like abilities: 1/day—mirror image; 3/day—invisibility.
  Tactics: The Child of Spines lurks in cover behind the oven, waiting 
  for a chance to take lone prey; this includes any of the animals herein, 
  although the frequent beatings it has taken at the hands of its owners has 
  honed its hatred for men and it always attacks humans in preference to 
  others. It prefers to quickly move, attack with poison, and then escape. 
  However, it does not attack anyone wearing the Between ring Mahaas 
  presently wears, and ideally waits undiscovered until the characters pass 
  and then scuttles out behind them to attack. The Child is quite cowardly, 
  and seeks escape over attack. If the opportunity of a wide-open door 
  presents itself, the thing scuttles away, a flaccid body on too many legs. If 
  this occurs, make sure a character sees it fleeing.
  B6. Aviary 
  The roof is fractured here, and a long rotting purlin is 
  exposed to the elements. Birds fly in and out of the hollow this 
  opening has created.
  Mahaas keeps many animals, and his stirges are his favourites. This 
  room has a ruptured ceiling with a few holes that allow the 12 stirges who 
  roost here to go in and out. The floor is littered with the bloody droppings 
  that remain from their hunts in addition to the bones and carcasses of 
  rodents, gulls, pigeons and small cats that they were able to carry away. 
  Lovely’s murder knows to keep away from this place.
  Stirges (12): HD 1+1; HP 9x2, 8, 7x3, 6x4, 5, 4; AC 7[12]; Atk 
  proboscis (1d3); Move 3 (fly 18); Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; 
  Special: +2 to hit bonus, blood drain (1d4).
  B7. Trapped Corridor 
  This dusty, rubbish-strewn corridor bears a trap left by the paranoid 
  Mahaas. He never comes this way himself.
  Trap: Halfway along the corridor, a small pressure plate beneath a 
  loose floorboard triggers a poison vapor trap. All characters within 10ft of 
  the trap must make a saving throw or inhale the gas and begin to suffocate. 
  The character takes 1d4 points of damage per round until healed. When 
  the character takes damage equal to his constitution score, he dies.
  B8–13. Attic Living Areas 
  Mahaas spends most of his time in his private chambers with his 
  accomplices, 2 wererats that are outcasts from the Family, and his 
  demon thrall Lump. Whilst he can be encountered anywhere in 
  the garret, he spends most of his time in the living area (Area B12).
  Mahaas’ Story
  Mahaas is friendly with a number of unsavory characters on Festival, 
  including two outcasts of the Family, the group of wererats who rule this 
  island. One other associate prefers to keep his distance and does business 
  in disguise: the Organ Grinder. The Organ Grinder has recently been using 
  Mahaas to assist in extorting money from Savant Edwina Spitewinter, a 
  member of the Royal Underneath Society. Spitewinter is conducting a 
  dig to uncover the fossilized remains of a Leviathan, one of a huge and 
  twisted ancient species whose bodies occasionally emerge from the silt 
  and stone of Castorhage’s bedrock. Spitewinter has organised a temporary 
  camp on Festival to excavate it.
  
  24
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  The Organ Grinder has been paying Mahaas to help. They visited 
  Spitewinter and, after causing a fire with a ragefire spawn, persuaded the 
  savant to part with cash for protection. On the last three occasions, the 
  Organ Grinder has had a pair of quartz flasks in his possession and has 
  suggested to the savant that, unless she pays, he will smash the flasks 
  for her to see what caused the fire. Afterward, Mahaas stole one of the 
  flasks so that he could carry out the Organ Grinder’s threats if it came to 
  it. Unable to control his anger in an unrelated incident, however, Mahaas 
  smashed one of the flasks at the ghats yesterday, resulting in the death of 
  the prostitute Constance Chanterelle. The Organ Grinder is not aware of 
  this incident.
  If the characters manage to intimidate and question Mahaas, he knows 
  only that his employer is generous, and required a little ugly help to 
  persuade a wealthy toff to part with some money. This toff, Savant Edwina 
  Spitewinter, is at a nearby worksite digging into the rock under the city. 
  He can provide directions to it. Mahaas does not know where the Organ 
  Grinder is, but knows he performs across Festival.
  Mahaas is a poor soul unmade by the gods. His voluminous attire is 
  colourful, if faded, with sewn remnants of at least a hundred other items 
  made into one eye-catching patchwork. However, not one but two heads 
  fight for space through his torn collar, and while one is handsome, with 
  an oiled moustache and neatly groomed hair, the second is a sack of 
  cankerous flesh. At least three mouths open up from this monstrosity, 
  and a look of blind idiocy crosses the abstract features of this unwelcome 
  additional visage. Mahaas wears a dull grey metal Between ring on his 
  left index finger. Occasionally, the ring tightens up so much that it hurts.
  Mahaas (MU5/Thf2): HP 21; AC 7[12] or 2[17] (missile) and 
  4[15] (melee) from shield spell; Atk short sword (1d6 plus poi-
  son) or dagger (1d4 plus poison) or strike (1d6) [lethal strike 
  on natural 20, save avoids but 3d6 damage]; Move 12; Save 
  9 (+2, cloak) [7 vs Between creatures]; AL C; CL/XP 8/800; 
  Special: backstab (x2), spells (4/2/1), +2 saves (spells, wands, 
  staves, traps, magical devices), second-head fluke (1-in-6 
  chance second head bites for 1d4 damage), thieving skills.
  Spells: 1st—charm person, light, magic missile, shield; 
  2nd—phantasmal force, pyrotechnics; 3rd—lightning 
  bolt.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 86%, Tasks/Traps 20%, Hear 3 in 6, 
  Hide 15%, Silent 25%, Locks 15%.
  Equipment: cloak of protection +2, short sword, dag-
  ger, Between ring (see Appendix B), potion of healing, 
  wand of magic missiles (6 charges), bottled ragefire 
  spawn, black adder venom (x5) (saving throw at +2 or 
  death), 5gp.
  Note: Mahaas has dexterity 17 for purposes of the 
  chase detailed below.
  Entrail (Giant Weasel): HD 3+3; HP 24; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (2d6 
  plus blood drain); Move 15; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Spe-
  cial: drain blood. (Monstrosities 506)
  Lump (Dretch Demon): HD 4; HP 29; AC 2[17]; Atk 2 claws 
  (1d4), bite (1d6); Move 9; Save 13; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Spe-
  cial: Magical abilities. (Monstrosities 92)
  Mahaas carries a bottle holding a trapped ragefire spawn. If the bottle 
  is broken, the ragefire spawn emerges and immediately begins taking out 
  its anger on anyone in sight.
  Ragefire Spawn: HD 2; AC 5[14]; Atk attach (1d3); Move 15; 
  Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 2/30; Special: vulnerable to water (ex-
  tinguished). (See sidebox or Appendix A)
  Outcasts of the Family (Halfling Wererats) (2): HD 3; HP 21, 18; 
  AC 6[13]; Atk bite (1d3), short sword (1d6); Move 12; Save 14; 
  AL C; CL/XP 4/120; Special: control rats, lycanthropy, silver or 
  +1 or better weapons to hit.
  Equipment: short sword, 1d6sp.
  B8. Junk Room
  This room and its jumbled contents lie under a thick film 
  of lichen and mould caused by leaks in the roof. It is filled 
  with junk.
  A thorough search finds a saw, a file, and two spades.
  Ragefire Spawn
  A ragefire spawn is a tiny fragment of elemental fire that attacks 
  and latches onto a victim to burn them to death. If a ragefire 
  spawn hits a creature, the target must make a saving throw or the 
  spawn latches on and begins burning the target for 1d3 points 
  of damage each round. Dousing the target in a large amount of 
  water (Referee’s discretion) extinguishes the ragefire spawn. If the 
  spawn kills the target it is latched onto, it feeds off the creature’s 
  body to become an 8HD ragefire elemental. 
  Ragefire Spawn: HD 2; AC 5[14]; Atk attach (1d3); 
  Move 15; Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 2/30; Special: 
  vulnerable to water (extinguished). 
  
  25
  The Crucible
  B9. Library Laboratory
  Hundreds of books line shelves in this room. The books 
  glower over a peculiarly fleshy alchemist’s laboratory while 
  grinning masks and hoods hang from hooks nearby.
  Most of the books here are about alchemy, anatomy, surgery, or 
  vivisection. Many are deeply disturbing, showing an absolute lack of 
  empathy for the subjects. Some, however, are valuable. Three books are 
  worth 100gp each to an appropriate buyer: Hugot’s Thrall Pacts, Spade’s 
  Making Animals Useful and Palwin’s Alchymye in Scyence. 
  There are many more hoods than masks, and most of the hoods are 
  double ones. Among the disturbingly fleshy pigskin hoods, hoods made 
  from sacks with eyes cut out, and single huge hoods is a saggy double 
  hood that has had the second hood sewn into it at some time. The first 
  hood is identical in effect to a helm of reading magic and languages. 
  Although he rarely uses it, Mahaas is aware of its effects. The laboratory 
  is presently being used to experiment on cats.
  B10. Stores
  This is another junk room cluttered with oddments Mahaas has collected.
  Treasure: A trio of gold earrings set with tiny jet stones worth 25gp each 
  have fallen down the back of a horsehair seat. A small tapestry worth 50gp 
  that depicts knights on chargers and a stuffed teddy bear are easily found. 
  The teddy bear has a silvered dagger hidden in its mouldering chest cavity.
  B11. Bedroom
  A mangy horsehair bed with goose-down pillows dominates this room. 
  A large tarpaulin stretches across several small leaks in the roof to prevent 
  rain dripping onto the bed.
  B12. Living Area and Menagerie 
  This is a cluttered living room with comfortable oak chairs, a 
  large table, and a small stove. The walls have several cupboards, 
  while across the chamber are several cages and huge bell jars; 
  the animals within are screaming and yelling and howling.
  The animals, fish and vermin herein reflect the diverse nature of the 
  city and Sister Lyme. Among the various blind fish, mice and enormous 
  vermin are a small gable spider, a half dozen giant fleas, and a spore 
  rat. Hidden in a bell jar under a faded tapestry depicting the Capitol is a 
  floating eye that, if uncovered, uses its hypnotic gaze attack.
  Spider, Gable (Small): HD 1; HP 5; AC 8[11]; Atk bite (1d4 plus 
  lethal poison); Move 9 (climbing 6); Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 
  2/30; Special: poison (save or die), sticky globule (30ft range, 
  save or movement halved). (See Appendix A)
  Fleas, Giant (6): HD 1d6; HP 6, 5x2, 4x3; AC 4[15]; Atk bite 
  (1d2 plus blood drain); Move 6 (or leap 18); Save 18; AL N; 
  CL/XP B/10; Special: blood drain (automatic 1d4 damage 
  after bite per round, maximum 4 points of damage), disease 
  (5% chance), leap. (Monstrosities 247)
  Spore Rat: HD 3; HP 20; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d2 plus poison); 
  Move 12; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: poison (nausea 
  for 1 round, save avoids), spore cloud (2/day—5ft cloud of 
  spores, 1d4 damage). (The Tome of Horrors Complete 455)
  Floating Eye: HD 1d6; HP 4; AC 
  3[16]; Atk bite (1d2); Move 24 
  (swimming); Save 18; AL N; CL/
  XP 1/15; Special: hypnotic gaze 
  (dazed 1d6+1 rounds, save resists), 
  surprise on 1–5 on 1d6. (The Tome 
  of Horrors Complete 249)
  Treasure: Tossed about the room are a 
  sack of 250sp, a pair of copper candlesticks 
  depicting swans worth 30gp, and a small 
  tapestry depicting The Ice Fayre of Castorhage worth 75gp. An alchemy 
  lab and a set of thieves’ tools are on the table. Sitting by the stove is a 
  curious large object: a fossil that looks like a tail covered in barbs, with 
  holes for eyes, or maybe mouths, and ending in a sphincter with teeth. 
  The object has clearly only recently been dug up as it still has mud on it. 
  This fossil was taken from the excavation of a Leviathan — an ancient 
  species whose fossilized remains are occasionally found in the silt of the 
  city — currently taking place not far from here. Above the entrance to 
  Area B9 is a hidden cupboard. The cupboard door is hinged to the ceiling 
  and contains 4 bags of gold shekels (400gp in each).
  B13. Roof Bridge 
  A clockwork mechanism connects to a secret door on the outside. A tiny 
  metal stud operates it. If the stud is pressed, the door opens and a clockwork 
  bridge snaps forward across to the adjacent rooftop, stretching 15ft from sill 
  to sill, 60ft above the cobbled street below. A 15ft-long jump is required to 
  cross. If pressed, Mahaas and his henchmen flee this way to escape across 
  the rooftops (see Rooftop Chase below for more details). As he crosses the 
  bridge, Mahaas hits another hidden trigger that causes the bridge to collapse 
  behind him, leaving the 15ft gap to somehow be navigated.
  B14. Tenement Roofs
  Beyond the secret entrance, jagged rooftops and gables spill away over 
  the streets far below.
  Event 2: Rooftop Chase 
  When running a chase encounter, it is important to remember that 
  there are many other ways in which characters might move or overcome 
  obstacles. Detailed descriptions are provided to help the players 
  understand each stage of the chase, including the route it is taking and 
  any obstacles encountered. Of course, spells such as fly or dimension door 
  could alleviate the need for checks altogether.
  Structure of the Chase
  The chase occurs in stages over the rooftops of Festival. It has a number 
  of different routes that different characters may choose — or be forced 
  — to take as they come to each obstacle. The chase assumes Mahaas 
  
  26
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  opens his secret door, and gets across the bridge. For every round of delay 
  Mahaas gets a further stage away (assuming he also doesn’t fail each 
  check). The chase assumes a speed of 40ft (Movement 12), and each stage 
  is roughly 120ft in length for the purposes of spells and ranged weapons. 
  The characters can see one stage ahead of where they are in the chase. A 
  character moving only 30ft (Movement 9) falls behind by 1 stage for every 
  3 stages traveled. A character traveling 40ft in the round needs to make 
  3 checks to finish each 120ft section; someone traveling 30ft must make 
  one additional check for each section. Each section listed below lists the 
  number of checks needed to make it safely across, assuming a character is 
  moving at 40ft per round. If a character loses a round by failing a check, 
  he can attempt the check again during the next round, or he can attempt 
  one of the other paths (or use magic or some other means to cross safely). 
  If Mahaas gets 3 or more stages ahead, he escapes but is very likely to 
  tail the characters and come back afterward. If he reaches the final stage 
  ahead of the characters, he descends to a busy Festival crowd and tries to 
  slink away. 
  Chase Stages
  Skills marked with a superscript M are the options that Mahaas attempts 
  under normal circumstances unless the characters somehow prevent him 
  from doing so. 
  A. Over the Bridge (1 check to cross)
  This crosses the initial 15ft gap from Area B13. Mahaas crosses without 
  difficulty since the bridge is still in place when he does so. Everyone else 
  must roll below their dexterity on 3d6 to jump the 15ft-gap. The drop is 60ft.
  B. To Higher Ground (3 checks to cross)
  This route involves ascending to the higher roof peaks of the building 
  across from Mahaas’ flat and past its smoking chimneystacks. It has three 
  different route options:
  1. Around the narrow edges: Non-thief or monk characters have a 
  20% chance of slipping and losing ground as they have to try again during 
  the next round to skirt roofline. 
  2. Up the drainpipe:M Non-thief or monk characters have a 15% 
  chance of slipping and falling (1d6  points of damage) and losing 1 round 
  in the chase.
  3. Between the smoky chimneystacks: Characters must make a saving 
  throw or get smoke in their eyes and lose 1 round.
  C. Jump, Man, Jump! (1 check)
  This crosses from the roof of one building to the next over a 20ft gap. 
  The drop is 120ft. It has three different options:
  1. Jump the gap: Roll below dexterity on 4d6 or fall, taking 4d6 points 
  of damage and landing on a ledge (and losing 1 round).
  2. Balance over the washing line: Non-thief or monk characters must 
  roll below their dexterity on 5d6 or fall and take 3d6 points of damage 
  (they can attempt a saving throw to grab the line and halt their fall without 
  taking damage, however). Thieves and monks can use their Climb Walls 
  check to balance on the line.
  3. Swing on the hidden rope:M All characters must roll below their 
  dexterity on 3d6 to grab the rope and swing across. Failure means they fall 
  1 round behind in the chase.
  D. Alley Bridges (3 checks)
  Rickety bridges cross an alley from one roof to the other. They span 
  a 60ft-wide gap. The drop is 120ft. It has three different bridge options:
  1. The broad path: This bridge is deliberately weakened. A character 
  has a 1-in-6 chance to avoid the weak spot, and must make a saving throw 
  to avoid a fall if the weak spot is stepped on. Failure means the character 
  falls 40ft and takes 4d6 points of damage (and loses 1 round).
  2. The narrow path:M The character must roll below his dexterity on 
  4d6 or lose 1 round.
  3. The winding path: The character must roll below his dexterity on 
  3d6 but loses 1 round.
  E. Over the Pleasure Wheel (3 checks)
  A small Ferris wheel straddles a street, its axle mounted into the 
  buildings on either side. To cross requires climbing down onto the axle 
  and then through its spokes to come out on the other side; timing a jump 
  down to try to pass between two of its spokes and land on the axle on the 
  far side; or simply making an all-out jump for the top of the wheel and 
  trying to skip directly across to the opposite roof. The drop is 40ft from the 
  axle or 60ft from the top of the wheel.
  1. Cautious climbing: Non-thief or monk characters have a 75% 
  chance to climb, but lose 2 rounds from taking the easiest way (losing 
  80ft in the chase). Failure means they lose an additional round.
  2. Time the jump: Characters must roll below their dexterity on 3d6, 
  but lose 1 round to take the safer course.
  3. Go for it:M Characters must roll below their dexterity on 4d6. Failure 
  means they take 4d6 points of damage but don’t lose any time.
  F. Up the High Wall (1 check)
  A high wall blocks the wall and must be surmounted with either a 
  ladder, a stairway, or by climbing. Any fall is 1d6 x 10ft.
  1. Up the stair: Lose 1 round. (Does not require an additional check for 
  this stage during the next round.)
  2. Up the ladder: The ladder is loose; saving throw required to avoid 
  falling and losing 1 round.
  3. Straight up the wall:M Non-thief or monk characters have a 40% 
  chance of climbing the wall. Those who fail fall and take damage.
  G. Down, down, deeper and down (1 check)
  The path leads down from the high rooftops and onto the crowded upper 
  streets of Festival. The roofs here are 60ft above ground level. There are 
  three possible methods:
  1. Descend the rickety ladders: Lose 1 round
  2. Rappel down a rope:M 80% chance for all characters. Failure means 
  the character slips and must grab the rope as he loses 1 round.
  3. Take the plunge: Jump from the roof for 4d6 points of falling 
  damage (or save for half), but gain 1 round
  1G: Through the Crowded Streets
  If Mahaas makes it here before the characters, he has a chance to 
  escape. He moves into the crowd and vanishes. If the pursuing characters 
  are right behind him, they can make a saving throw to spot him before he 
  disappears into the crowd. The save is made at a –1 for every round the 
  characters are behind Mahaas in the chase. 
  
  27
  The Crucible
  A member of the Royal Underneath Society, Savant Edwina Spitewinter 
  is a noted expert on the Ancients — creatures of old also referred to as 
  Leviathans. These huge fossilized horrors are found occasionally beneath 
  the silt and stone of the city, and are sometimes the subject of furious and 
  unsubstantiated rumours. 
  A Royal Underneath 
  Society Dig
  Spitewinter uncovered this particular site by accident while spending 
  time on Festival with her children. As she strolled the Merry-Go-Round, the 
  streets and boardwalks that lie at the foot of the Festival itself, at low tide 
  she spotted what she thought was an Ancient in a nearby sandbar and soon 
  began to dig furiously from a raft at an exposed embankment of river silt. 
  Now, two months into the dig, three strange creatures are being uncovered.
  Recently, however, Spitewinter has been subject to blackmail from 
  the Organ Grinder, who has been threatening to ruin the dig and 
  destroy Spitewinter’s work unless paid handsomely to protect it. Up 
  until recently, Spitewinter has paid the Organ Grinder; however, after 
  having paid 2000gp and realising that the blackmail was unlikely to 
  stop, Spitewinter has brought in some hired muscle to protect the site. 
  Her nervousness is being transmitted to these hired men, and they have 
  already deposited three sightseers into the river through an “attack first 
  and question later” policy.
  C1. Guarded Dock 
  The festering footings overlook a curious site, an excavation 
  of some sort on a sandbar some way from shore. It seems to 
  have excited a lot of local interest based on the many onlookers 
  keeping a careful distance from the bridge that leads out to 
  the dig.
  Anyone observed approaching this area is accosted by 4 mercenary 
  guards who lurk on the dock. They are wary of the characters, and draw 
  their weapons and threaten to attack if pressed. They follow through with 
  this threat unless visitors leave immediately. If characters can convince 
  them of their good intentions, they lead visitors to the dig site.
  Albright Guardianship Company Guards (Ftr5) (4): HP 33, 
  29, 28, 24; AC 4[15]; Atk longsword (1d8+2) or light crossbow 
  (1d4+1); Move 12; Save 10; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; Special: multi-
  ple attacks (5) vs. creatures with 1 or fewer HD, +2 to hit and 
  damage strength bonus.
  Equipment: chainmail, shield, longsword, light cross-
  bow, 20 crossbow bolts.
  C2. The Flotsam Walkway 
  A precarious walkway of timber planks is lashed to a number 
  of inflated pigs’ bladders and sealed barrels. It links the isle 
  that is the focus of activity to the shore.
  An iron dock ladder leads down between 15ft and 20ft (depending on 
  the tide). The planks beyond are not so easy to use, as they move about 
  Chapter Four:
  The Leviathan Dig
  Rumours about  
  the Leviathan Dig
  1d20
  Rumour
  4
  “Just what are they digging for? These Sa-
  vants are the cause of all the trouble in this 
  city! They’ll not be happy until they’ve dug 
  their way to Hell.”
  8
  “They say they’ve found one of the Ancients, 
  like the one they dug up at the Seminary 
  last year. Unholy things of teeth and tusk, 
  with great bloated heads. I’ve heard them 
  Savants say these creatures came from the 
  stars. Came from Hell, more like!”
  12
  “They’ve found some sort of object with this 
  one — an idol or totem, or some such thing. I 
  say what’s buried should stay buried!”
  16
  “I’ve heard tell that they’ve been having 
  trouble at the dig, and Savant Spitewinter 
  has had to hire guards — what for I can’t 
  guess!”
  
  28
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  unpredictably. Characters must make a saving throw to 
  cross them without falling. Characters falling at high tide 
  must swim back to the dock and clamber back onto the 
  walkway (saving throw with a –2 penalty). At low tide, 
  it is a different matter: Characters fall waist deep into the 
  cloying silt of the bay here. The silt behaves exactly like 
  quicksand. Characters are sucked under the silt in 1d4+2 
  rounds unless they are helped free.
  Characters watching the shore for a while notice that 
  several dirty children throw offal and the odd creatures 
  (but not rats or cats — they have differing fortunes here 
  on Festival; rats abound, cats do not) such as mangy old 
  chickens and the odd stray puppy into the water and watch 
  the fun develop. A pair of sough-eels has taken to catching 
  and eating the prey, and ignoring the odd rock throw by 
  the children. The sough-eels are close by, and if anything 
  drops into the water, they appear 1d3 rounds later.
  Sough-Eels (2): HD 8; HP 61, 51; AC 5[14]; Melee 
  bite (2d6 plus disease); Move 6 (swim 15); Save 8; 
  AL N; CL/XP 10/1400; Special: disease (1d4 dam-
  age plus 1d2 charisma until successful save), 
  grab (automatic 1d8 damage after bite), swal-
  low whole (2-in-6 chance after grab and bite, 
  4d6 damage). (See Appendix A)
  
  29
  The Crucible
  C3. Dig Site
  Barely visible above low tide waters is a mucky islet, little 
  more than a sandbank in Sister Lyme. Yet this sandbank is 
  now a hive of activity: A raised area of timbers has been lashed 
  together and a tent has been erected on it, while nearby is 
  the burnt-out husk of a shed. Not far away, a large hole has 
  been dug below the water level, though a wall of high planks 
  holds the river back. A dark stack of strange, hexagonal stones 
  stands nearby on the edge of the sandbank.
  The islet is reached by a rickety set of boardwalks, planks, and barrel-
  lids supported by bladders and sealed barrels (Area C2). The dig site is on 
  a sandbar that provides relatively stable footing. All other areas beyond the 
  dig, though, are thick, black Blight mud, which has the same properties as 
  quicksand. All boardwalks, barrel-lids and planks are unfixed and wobbly.
  Savant Edwina Spitewinter (N female human archaeologist, 22hp) 
  presently resides in a small tent on the dig site itself. She has two reasons 
  for this: First, she is afraid of being attacked, and second, the dig is 
  reaching an exciting phase, with parts of a third most-unusual creature 
  being revealed. Objects clutter Spitewinter’s tent; she has been labelling 
  and cataloguing the most interesting fragments from the dig. A dozen 
  large trunks containing hundreds of small sample boxes fill the interior.
  Spitewinter is a tall, slender woman who favours dark, foul-smelling 
  Black Radge Shag tobacco in her pipe, and who walks with the aid of a 
  cane. At the dig, she is usually found covered in malodourous mud and 
  wielding a small trowel. She is a Savant of the Royal Underneath Society. 
  An expert in her field, she has overseen a dozen digs in the city. This dig, 
  however, particularly excites her as she has not only uncovered a shard of a 
  honeycomb totem, but also a type of Leviathan she has never seen before.
  If the characters can convince her they are friends and that they are 
  here to help rather than sabotage her dig, she tells them what she knows 
  about her blackmailer (see below). If the characters return the Leviathan 
  tail sample from Mahaas’ garret to her, she immediately becomes friendly.
  What Spitewinter Knows
  Although she does not know his name, Spitewinter has made several 
  observations. First, she knows what the Organ Grinder looks like (see 
  below) and that he has a curious monkey following him — a monkey with 
  an unsettlingly human appearance. Secondly, she believes her blackmailer 
  must be local, as his drawl is unmistakably a Festival accent. Finally, she 
  knows he has an accomplice, a vile-looking fellow who appears to have 
  second-head fluke — a most regrettable sickness (see Mahaas, Area 
  C8–13). She is particularly annoyed at this accomplice who took it upon 
  himself to take a beautiful tail sample that she had recovered. She would 
  dearly like it returned if the vile man is ever brought to justice. Spitewinter 
  has considered having the men tailed but is so engrossed in the dig that 
  so far she has only taken the step of hiring guards, incensed after the men 
  almost destroyed her samples. 
  Spitewinter had been using a wooden shed to store samples that she has 
  discovered here and shows its burnt remains to anyone she feels is trying 
  to help her (Area C5).
  Spitewinter plays no further role in this adventure, but you may wish 
  to use her and her dig as a way of introducing future adventures to your 
  Becoming a Savant
  Savant is a title seldom given. To earn the title, the claimant 
  must have performed some valuable or acclaimed service for one 
  of the Universities, most of which are located in BookTown.
  Savants receive a salary of 1d4+1 x 100gp per month to conduct 
  their studies, lodgings at the University that sponsors them, 
  unlimited time to study (occasionally interrupted by a requirement 
  to lecture), and the use of the University’s facilities. 
  
  30
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  players — perhaps she unearths a glass vessel in the dig, an opaque thing 
  that intrigues her. She accidentally drops the glass one night, breaking it, 
  and something terrible emerges and slithers into the city night. Horrified, 
  she remembers the strangers and their confidence — and she seeks them 
  out to help her find the escaped thing. 
  C4. The Leviathans
  Three Ancients are being unearthed here, their fossilized 
  remains exposed and the tidal waters kept back by thick 
  plank dikes. The first was a hulking snake-like brute with an 
  enormous maw. The second was more jaw than body, with 
  three tooth-filled mouths. The final creature is barely visible, 
  but clearly unusual. Its flank and tail were covered in small-
  tusked mouths, and it had a triple tail ending in four bony 
  scythes, and what appears to be a shoulder structure that looks 
  like it connected to a wing.
  The fossilized skeletal remains of three Leviathans are being unearthed 
  here by the Royal Underneath Society. During the day, 2d4+2 student 
  volunteers (N male or female humans, 1d4hp) are around, assisting in the 
  dig. At the eastern end of the dig is the “honeycomb totem” (see below).
  Honeycomb Totem
  At the edge of the site, a small shard of dark stone rises 
  from a series of hexagonal granite slabs. Weathered hexagons, 
  rather like those found in a beehive, cover the shard itself.
  These structures, known as honeycomb totems, are a common feature 
  of Leviathan sites. Their significance has not yet been determined.
  C5. Burnt Sample Store
  Little is left of this plank building save charred wood, ash, 
  and ruin.
  Spitewinter relates the events that occurred here as she sees them. Ten 
  days ago, she noticed a plume of smoke from the store and quickly ran to 
  it to save her specimens. When she arrived, the blackmailer appeared with 
  his accomplice and monkey, said that fires in the Festival were spreading 
  and that, unless he was paid 2000gp, he could not guarantee that the 
  Savant herself would not be caught in some fire and horribly burnt. He 
  added that “some fires burn where they are told to.” Panicked, she agreed 
  and, after saving her most precious specimens, paid the men who then left. 
  This event prompted her to hire guards.
  A search of the charred wreckage finds little, but characters do find a 
  very strange curiosity: the silhouette of something burnt upon the remains 
  of one wall — a thing vaguely humanoid in shape, with long claws.
  Gathering information in the immediate vicinity brings a pair of local 
  waifs — Jib and Grag (NE male human afflicted wererats) — to the 
  characters’ attention. The youths claim to have seen something. 
  “We was playin’ hoopla when we saw ’em — a man, a monkey wiv an 
  ’orrible human face, an’ a fella wiv two ’eads — enter the building. Finkin’ 
  ’em a bit odd, we spied on ’em frew a gap in’t wall and saw t’ ’ooded man 
  fling a vial against t’wall. The stuff inside looked strange and sticky an’ when 
  it hit t’wall, it gave out a sort of baby-like cry, and then, suddenly, it was a 
  flamin’ gargoyle thing that started burning everythin’. Then t’ ’ooded man got 
  worried and said somefin’ about it growin’ an’ ’think what it could do if left to 
  feed’ ’e said. ’e looked a’scared suddenly, and ran. We were about to leg it too, 
  but the heavens opened and a cold rain splashed down t’ save us all.”
  The boys describe the Organ Grinder’s use of the ragefire elemental 
  and a lucky rainstorm that extinguished the ragefire spawn before it could 
  grow. Embellish these details as much as you wish. 
  Locating the  
  Organ Grinder
  In a parish full of freakshows, street entertainers, and diversions, 
  finding a man with a human-faced monkey is not as easy as it might seem. 
  However, the Organ Grinder has to earn a living — including returning 
  to his blackmail victim for more money. The characters have options 
  to locate the man that include laying low near the site and awaiting his 
  return or by getting out onto the streets of Festival and trying to see him 
  in action. The Grinder is alert; he’s aware that Spitewinter has hired some 
  thugs and that she might just send them after him. The problem he has is 
  that people watch him — that’s his job after all. 
  The organ the Grinder uses is a curious animated object that offers a 
  further option to pursue the Grinder back to his lair — if the characters 
  wish to do so. The Grinder has his organ with him only when he works.
  Bear in mind finally that the Blight is a violent place, low-life street 
  attacks occur daily — particularly in Festival — and the characters are 
  almost certainly going to be witnessed if they attack, but no one is likely 
  to lift a finger to help their victim.
  Development: The characters can scour Festival, but it’s a big place. 
  Most street performers have particular territories — except puppeteers, 
  who are a different bunch entirely — so that similar acts don’t clash. If 
  the characters have already seen the Organ Grinder as they arrived and 
  remember him (don’t prompt them but reward them if they mention 
  it), then they know he must be local anyway. Otherwise, they may go 
  off around Festival looking and have other encounters as you see fit. In 
  addition, the characters can attempt to gain the local gossip on the Organ 
  Grinder by asking around (see sidebox).
  Leviathans, Ancients,  
  and Fossils
  The terrible Ancients are buried beneath the city streets; their 
  fossilized bodies have laid, it is speculated, for eons beneath the 
  ground. Practically nothing is known about the creatures save the 
  clues given by their fossilized bones and the strange ruins that 
  occasionally lie nearby. Their forms were an affront to the gods 
  — indeed many cults and religions have ascribed their demise to 
  some offended deity. Their bodies take several forms, yet all are 
  linked by some commonality. They are always large — at least 
  10ft long — and often much, much larger. They show signs of 
  both reptilian and insectoid ancestry. Their bodies were covered 
  in barbed chitinous plates, and their jaws were able to dislocate to 
  enable them to swallow large prey. Some show snake-like forms, 
  whilst others resemble lizards. Some are so strange to look upon 
  that it has been impossible to categorise them as anything other 
  than aberrations. Various worthies have discussed the creatures, 
  and continue to conjecture, but as more information appears, the 
  mystery deepens and the number of questions increases.
  
  31
  The Crucible
  A suggested locale to find the Organ Grinder is indicated on the Festival 
  Map for the encounter. If he is located and followed, the Grinder has a 
  2-in-6 chance to spot anyone following him. If he makes 2 checks in a 
  row, he drinks his potion of invisibility and flees back to his lodgings 
  (see Chapter 5). At that stage, his monkey and organ also flee via the 
  rooftops. If you like, you could run a short chase to resolve this pursuit 
  as the characters follow the Grinder or his monkey back to the Dislocated 
  Pier in Chapter 5.   
  If the characters have not yet located him, the Grinder appears 4 days 
  after the characters arrive at the dig to strong-arm Spitewinter, but doesn’t 
  go himself — he sends his monkey at night to her tent. It tells Spitewinter 
  to get a gem worth 1000gp ready for the night after, or there’ll be big 
  trouble. As his monkey delivers the message, the Organ Grinder watches 
  from the point marked X at the southwest corner of the Leviathan Dig 
  map. He returns the night after, sending the monkey with the elemental in 
  a flask. If the gem isn’t handed over, the flask is smashed in Spitewinter’s 
  face.
  The Organ Grinder
  This man’s face appears almost like a caricature: His head is too fat for 
  his body, and a pendulous, bulbous nose dangles on it like a swaying sack. 
  His attire is fairly mundane for a performer, but his top hat is held at a 
  rakish angle to his fat face as he plies his instrument.    
  The Organ Grinder (MU4/Thf7): HP 35; AC 2[17]; Atk +1 
  short sword (1d6+1 plus poison) or light crossbow (1d4 plus 
  poison); Move 12; Save 7 (+2, ring); AL C; CL/XP 11/1700; 
  Special: backstab (x3), spells (3/2), +2 saves (spells, wands, 
  staves, traps, magical devices), thieving skills.
  Spells: 1st—charm person, magic missile (x2); 2nd—mir-
  ror image, phantasmal force.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 91%, Tasks/Traps 45%, Hear 5 in 6, 
  Hide 40%, Silent 50%, Locks 40%.
  Equipment: bracers of defense AC 4[15], entertainer’s 
  outfit, +1 short sword, light crossbow, 10 bolts, bowl of 
  controlling elementals, potion of invisibility, ragefire 
  spawn in bottle, ring of protection +2, poison (+2 save 
  or paralyzed for 1d6 hours), spell component pouch, 
  surgeon’s tools, thieves’ tools, key to Area D1 designed 
  to look like a wallow-whale devouring the sun with 
  copper and obsidian eyes worth 75gp.
  Note: The Organ Grinder is fearful of breaking the 
  ragefire spawn bottle unless he has summoned a wa-
  ter elemental in advance to extinguish it. 
  Organ Grinder’s Monkey 
  The Organ Grinder’s pet is a vile little creature: a bald, pink-faced 
  monkey, with clever fingers, and a long mangy tail covered in balding 
  patches. The thing has an altogether unsettling human look about it, right 
  down to its fez and clown’s costume. Called Scat by the Organ Grinder, the 
  creature is a homunculus created in the form of a monkey with a human 
  face. This homunculus can talk, albeit in a strangled, somewhat stuttering 
  way. It sounds like a squeaky child’s toy with words thrown in at random.
  Scat (Blight Monkey Homunculus): HD 5; HP 31; AC 6[13]; 
  Atk bite (1d3 plus disease), or excrement (disease); Move 12 
  (climbing 12); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: disease 
  (itching, red skin, –2 to hit and saves, save avoids), enraged 
  screech (30ft radius, –1 to hit, damage and saves for 1d3 
  rounds, save avoids). (See Appendix A)
  Equipment: clown’s outfit, fez, tin cup.
  The Organ
  There’s something unsettlingly dislocated in the way this object sits. 
  It’s made up of a grinning devil body, with many-jointed limbs and a 
  grinning face within the mouth of which is a kitten. The limbs are clearly 
  preserved flesh from some sort of monster. It has wheels, but almost looks 
  like it could get up and walk of its own accord. 
  The Organ (Animated Object): HD 2; AC 6[13]; Atk slam 
  (1d4); Move 12 (climb 9); Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: 
  none.
  Note: The Organ is very cowardly, with no interest in 
  fighting. It usually sits quietly out of the way hoping 
  it won’t be seen, like a sloth in the jungle. If it takes 
  damage, the Organ flees, its legs unfolding below the 
  wheels. It likes to climb, as it knows the rooftops are 
  safer — usually. If separated from the Organ Grinder, it 
  slips across rooftops back to the Limpet (Chapter 5).    
  Ragefire Spawn: HD 2; AC 5[14]; Atk attach (1d3); Move 15; 
  Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 2/30; Special: vulnerable to water (ex-
  tinguished). (See Appendix A)
  Rumours about  
  the Organ Grinder
  1d20
  Rumour
  5
  “He’s a strange one that Organ Grinder. They 
  say he’s addicted to absinthe and that his 
  monkey talks to him. He looks odd too, got a 
  nose too big for his face; a fat face at that, 
  which looks like it’s about to burst, and those 
  red spectacles. There’s something up with 
  that chap.”
  10
  “He’s not called the Organ Grinder for noth-
  ing. He ’angs around the Seminary hoping to 
  get tips from the Physicians. They say ’e’s a 
  golem-stitcher!”
  17
  “He lives in an old ship hung on the Dislocated 
  Pier. Have you seen it? ’angs above the water 
  as though waitin’ to drop in. I wouldn’t send 
  my worst enemy into that dangerous place. 
  We all know the things that live in t’river …”
  
  32
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  The Dislocated Pier is one of hundreds of piers that thrust intrusively 
  out into the Lyme. These piers allow further real-estate development out 
  over the waters, but so expensive is their maintenance cost that many are 
  in terrible states of repair and are dangerous to use. Some have officially 
  been closed, although such places, of course, make useful places to hide.
  The Dislocated Pier lies in Liquorice, a part of Festival famous for 
  imported liquorice. As well as several nearby merchants and traders, this 
  pier specialises in gaudy freakshows and minor plays in tiny theaters. The 
  Limpet — the Organ Grinder’s boat home — itself lies at the very end of 
  the pier, and while the journey to it is by no means dangerous, the fragility 
  of these structures is readily apparent.
  This pier leans and sags as it drags itself away from Festival 
  and out over the sick, black waters of the Lyme. Like a 
  dislocated limb, it writhes and bends its way for a hundred 
  feet above the water, its back groaning beneath a confusion of 
  stalls and shops, tiny theaters and freak shows. The pier ends 
  abruptly — like a broken arm with a severed hand — above the 
  river, its final palsied moments spent in obeisance to the sky 
  above, its entrails exposed to the air and rotting.
  Lashed to the end of this ruined appendage is a ship — the 
  carcass of a mildewed keelboat — bow raised as though praying 
  to the gods themselves for release. This prisoner, wreathed in 
  iron and wire, rope and rust, hangs perilously from the broken 
  pier, looking as though at any moment its confinement will 
  end and its stern will drop into the poisonous embrace of the 
  dark waters beneath.
  The Lyme’s current is sluggish around the dislocated pier. The lower 
  piers are slippery with seaweed and rot, however, and a character must 
  make a saving throw to get out of the river onto them. A mud bank lies 
  120ft from the end of the pier with the shore 60ft farther on. Any character 
  entering the mud is slowed to half his movement. 
  The Limpet
  The Limpet is an old keelboat raised from the water vertically, lashed 
  to the pier, and converted for use as a dwelling. The interior is thus a 
  confusing stack of rooms, and poor alterations to its architecture have made 
  it dangerous. The whole structure is in danger of collapse, with tie lines, 
  chains, and ropes badly corroded or worn. Coal dust and wood chips lie 
  in plentiful amounts throughout the Limpet. This is the result of the Organ 
  Grinder’s frequent visits to the great windmill aboard the Blackleg, a coal 
  and timber merchant’s vessel (see the end of the chapter for further details).
  The stairs are tricky to use; they have not been properly converted. 
  Characters must make a saving throw to safely navigate them, with a failure 
  resulting in a fall. The Organ Grinder and his followers have grown used to 
  this inconvenience and do not need to make any checks. The inner walls of the 
  ship are infested with hundreds of old fittings, planks and remnants of interior 
  walls that thieves or monks can clamber along with a Climb Walls check. 
  The doors are damp and tend to stick; they must be forced open with an 
  Open Doors check.
  Siklight cockroaches (see sidebox) light all the rooms. 
  Chapter Five:
  The Dislocated Pier
  Siklight Cockroaches
  Smaller, more nauseating cousins of the giant fire beetle, 
  these creatures feed on waste and give off an insipid, pallid light 
  when they are awake. Siklight cockroaches are a common sight 
  in poorer parts of the Blight. A siklight cockroach costs 8cp 
  and, if properly cared for, will live for a year or more. Siklight 
  cockroaches have a hard chitinous shell and 1hp. If their shell is 
  pierced, the cockroaches explode. The cockroaches are also prone 
  to sudden changes in temperature and certain conditions of the 
  Canker (see The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City), and small 
  explosions and fires are a common sight in areas lit by them. For 
  this reason, the siklight cockroach has many nicknames among 
  the populace, including Devil’s Spark, Trust-Me-Not, Tricklight, 
  Mother’s Misery, Beltane’s Fart and a host of other, less-polite 
  curses and cant-words.
  
  33
  The Crucible
  Combat in the Limpet
  So ruptured, rotten, and unstable is the ship that any major damage to 
  the Limpet, such as by an area effect spell, can cause it to collapse. Keep 
  a running total of the damage of such spells and consult the table below. 
  Remember that not just the characters’ attacks damage the ship.
  Total 
  Damage
  Effect
  5–24
  The ship shakes and groans; plates fall off 
  tables, and mice scuttle for cover.
  25–49
  Ropes securing the ship to the pier snap, and 
  the whole structure becomes unstable. All 
  attack rolls made while onboard take a –2 
  penalty until the damage to the ship is repaired. 
  50–74
  The whole ship sags forward. Any character 
  who tries to move more than half his  
  movement must make a saving throw  
  or fall prone.
  75+
  The whole structure collapses into the River Lyme 
  (see below). Those onboard must make a saving 
  throw or take 2d6 points of damage from falling 
  objects and the fall into the river, where they 
  may be trapped and drown. Each round after 
  the fall, those onboard must hold their breath 
  and make an Open Doors check to escape the 
  wreckage of the ship. On a successful save, they 
  take only 1d6 points of falling damage and are 
  thrown clear of the ship.
  Event 3: A Lyme Bath 
  If the Limpet sustains more than 50 points of 
  damage, objects falling from it into the water attract a 
  wallow-whale. The whale arrives 2d6 rounds later and 
  attacks anything that drops into the water — objects and 
  creatures alike. If the Limpet itself falls into the river, 
  the wallow-whale takes 8d8 points of damage as the stern 
  rams into it (save for half). The wallow-whale is not hungry, 
  just curious, and will not use its swallow whole ability. If it gets 
  into a fight with the characters, it loses interest after 1d4 rounds 
  or after taking 40hp of damage and slips back into the black waters 
  to swim away. 
  Wallow-Whale: HD 15; HP 104; AC 3[16]; Atk bite (2d8 plus 
  disease); Move 15 (swimming); Save 3; AL C; CL/XP 16/3200; 
  Special: capsize, disease (2d6 damage/hour), swallow 
  whole (15 or above to hit, automatic bite damage and 3d6 
  damage each round). (See Appendix)
  D1. Entry
  The bow rises ten feet above the pier, and a single hefty oak 
  door inset in the vessel’s deck forms a grand entrance. This 
  portal has iron bindings and a six-inch-square, leaded-glass 
  window. A small, carved wooden gargoyle sits on the lintel and 
  smiles wickedly. 
  The door is locked and trapped. If someone tries the handle of the 
  door without first unlocking it, a poison arrow trap is triggered. The arrow 
  attacks as a 4HD creature, does 1d8 points of damage, and is coated with 
  wyvern poison (+2 save or death).
  D2. Lesser Hold
  Beyond the door is a cluttered chamber. Racks of knives lie 
  under piles of books, and iron-shod boots hang, laces taut, 
  from the arms of an iron octopus. A tight little spiral stair 
  descends through an access point in the floor.
  Hanging directly above the entry door, the Organ Grinder has hung 
  a foul exhibit — the head and forelegs from a lion, neatly sawn in half 
  and mounted on a varnished wooden plaque. This lion trophy is a 
  creation of golem-stitching called a Made (see sidebox), mummified in 
  an alchymic wash, and attacks with its rending ghoulish claws and bite. 
  It grabs paralyzed prey and tries to feed on it, ignoring other opponents. 
  If the Organ Grinder is expecting a visitor, he removes the lion trophy for 
  storage in a closet to ensure their safety.
  Lion-Trophy Made: HD 5+2; AC 6[13]; Atk 2 claws (1d4 plus 
  paralysis), bite (1d8 plus paralysis); Move 6; Save 12; AL N; 
  CL/XP 5/240; Special: paralysis (3d6 turns, save resists), vul-
  nerable to fire (200%).
  
  34
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  
  35
  The Crucible
  Treasure: Searching among the confusion of objects cluttering the 
  room reveals a fine gold candlestick worth 200gp, a stag’s head with an 
  old purse inside its mouth containing 4 amethysts worth 100gp each, a 
  single (right) boot of speed.
  The spiral stair descends to Area D3 and is completely exposed, 
  without railing or cover. This room has a guardian instructed to remain 
  here and deter visitors, an alchemically preserved four-armed gargoyle 
  zombie the Organ Grinder refers to as the Crooked Doorman. It is a new 
  addition to the Limpet, its corpse having been recently given to the Organ 
  Grinder by the Artificer as partial payment for his services. It reeks of an 
  acrid preservative fluid.
  The Crooked Doorman (4-Armed Gargoyle Zombie): HD 10; 
  AC 5[14]; Atk 4 claws (1d3), bite (1d4), horn (1d6); Move 9 
  (flying 15); Save 5; AL N; CL/XP 10/1400; Special: immune to 
  sleep and charm, +1 or better weapon to hit.
  Note: If anyone knocks on the door, the Crooked Door-
  man answers in a hissing troubled breath that the mas-
  ter isn’t at home.
  D3. Storage
  A narrow spiral stair descends into this room, which is 
  crammed with objects, piled in tea chests, hanging from beams 
  or forced onto crude crooked shelving.
  This room is so cluttered that when the door is opened several objects 
  fall to the ground. Within the clutter are three street signs (Three Needles 
  Street, Folgate Road, and Fanshaw Street), a portable ram with a head 
  like a twisted giant’s, a battered leather backpack containing straw, 
  numerous household items, a large jar of very hefty coach-bolts and long 
  nails, a pair of wall supports, and a large amount of rubbish. An enormous 
  number of spiders are in this room, but whilst they are big, fast, hairy, and 
  demonstrate an uncanny ability to settle on anyone with arachnophobia, 
  they are otherwise harmless.
  D4. Dissectory
  In this polished chamber’s centre is a dissecting table, 
  complete with straps. A bloody white tarpaulin on the table 
  covers something larger and feral smelling. Shelves around 
  the room are crowded with a gruesome display of pickled or 
  mummified body parts in glass jars. Some of the specimens still 
  wriggle and move, even though they are simple biological forms 
  such as tentacles, the forepaws of a cat, a human tongue, or a 
  monkey’s hand. In one corner, an object lies covered by a hefty 
  woolen throw with swirling red and orange woven patterns.
  The Organ Grinder keeps his workshop for creating Made scrupulously 
  clean. The specimens are Made created by the Organ Grinder and are 
  pathetically poor things worth nothing to anyone.
  Currently, the Grinder is amusing himself most of the time with his 
  latest creation — a collage of body parts from a minotaur and an ankheg 
  that he, unimaginatively, calls an ankhetaur. To protect himself, he has 
  fitted the creature with an iron muzzle and straps that hold it in place. 
  While muzzled, the creature cannot attack. Four straps bind the creature’s 
  hands and feet.
  Ankhetaur: HD 7; HP 49; AC 2[17], underside 4[15]; Atk 2 
  claws (1d6), bite (3d6), gore (1d6); Move 12 (burrow 9); Save 
  9; AL N; CL/XP 8/800; Special: spits acid (1/day, 5d6 dam-
  age, save for half). (Monstrosities 14 and 330)
  Note: The ankhetaur is muzzled and strapped down. If 
  a strap is severed, the creature is able to use its claws 
  to release the other straps in 1 round. If reduced to 
  20hp or fewer, the creature’s instinct kicks in and it bur-
  rows through the ship using both its claws to try to tear 
  through the hull and escape. If it breaches a section 
  of the hull, it leaps into the river to escape (and likely 
  feeds the wallow-whale in Event 3). If it escapes in this 
  way, remember to add this damage to the overall ship 
  damage as detailed above. 
  Development: The object beneath the throw is a wooden pedestal 
  supporting a great jar of vinegar with the head of a still-living, alchymically 
  preserved medusa vargouille trapped within. The jar is secured by an iron 
  screw-top lid sealed with wax; an Open Doors check is required to open it 
  (the occupant cannot open it from the inside). If the Organ Grinder retreats 
  through this room, he may choose to knock the jar from its pedestal and then 
  close the door behind him, trapping Leyak within to attack any pursuers
  Whenever the characters first see the trapped head, read the following:
  The severed head of an ebony-skinned woman floats in 
  a sealed glass jar filled with an amber fluid. Floating viscera 
  trails from the ragged stump of her neck. Her hair is a 
  multitude of grey eel-like serpents that twist and writhe to fix 
  their gaze upon you as the woman’s eyes suddenly flick open, 
  though they close again just as suddenly. She is alive! She 
  begins desperately mouthing pleas for help, her expression 
  one of indescribable anguish and fear with her eyes clenched 
  tightly shut.
  This creature is Leyak, and she has been trapped in this jar for many 
  years. Her host body was destroyed long ago. Her petrifying gaze is 
  ineffective through the distortion of the glass. She has been traded around 
  the golem-stitching community ever since she was first sold by her initial 
  captor but none of her “owners” has been brave enough to release her. The 
  Organ Grinder won her several months ago and still hasn’t decided what 
  to do with her.
  Leyak’s voice is just audible through the thick glass. She pleads for 
  release, promising anything they require of her, including information 
  on anything or anyone they seek. She explains that she was a human 
  Golem-Stitching and the Made
  As well as being his home, the interior of the Limpet is a 
  gallery for the Organ Grinder’s twisted art of golem-stitching, a 
  sadly growing trade in the city and one which demands increasing 
  amounts of flesh to sculpt. The creations of golem-stitchers are 
  called Made and vary greatly depending upon the power of 
  the creator. “Made” is actually a catchall term for a variety of 
  animated dead and constructs. Some made are zombies, some are 
  flesh or carrion golems or even homunculi, others are stranger still. 
  The art of golem-stitching is one that transcends the boundaries of 
  art, guardianship, and trap with such creations often fulfilling all 
  three functions at once. There is a flourishing market in Made, and 
  these monstrosities can be bought and sold at the Flea Markets and 
  Souks in Golem Town. The Organ Grinder learnt his trade through 
  the acquisition of a secret (see Area D5).
  
  36
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  slave brought to Castorhage and that she is not truly a monster but has 
  been experimented upon to look as she does. She is a consummate liar, 
  however, and unfortunately, her promises are all false. If she is released, 
  her awful hunger utterly consumes her and she attacks without mercy, 
  unfurling her wings from the cloudy viscera clinging to her from the jar.
  Leyak (Vargouille Medusa): HD 8; AC 8[11]; Atk bite (1d4), 
  snakes (lethal poison); Move 12 (flying); Save 8; AL C; CL/XP 
  10/1400; Special: permanent hit point loss (bite, no save), 
  poison (save or die), turn to stone (gaze, save avoids). (Mon-
  strosities 324 and 500)
  Note: Aware of what lies beneath the tarpaulin, 
  Leyak’s first action if freed is to bite through one strap. 
  D5. Study
  This study is crammed with books and dominated by a fine 
  roll-top desk. The complete skeleton of an ape hangs from a 
  beam, its articulated bones held together by wire, and glass 
  cases display two preserved and stuffed exotic birds. A ladder 
  descends steeply into the gloom via a hole broken in the floor.
  The ladder descends 20ft to Area D6. The desk contains several ledgers 
  that show that, over the past several months, the Organ Grinder has been 
  ordering several tons of coal each week from Sallow & Son Coal and 
  Timber Factors to be delivered to a single location. Each order for a barge 
  load of coal and timber lists a charge of 100gp, and there have been 15 
  total orders. The latest order is due for delivery tomorrow to the usual 
  place: one of the great windmills at the mouth of the Lyme. 
  One of the birds is an albino dodo and the other is a paradise cockatrice. 
  A paradise cockatrice is identical to its more mundane cousin save in 
  one regard: It has the most exquisite plumage — a rainbow display of 
  violet, turquoise, and emerald. Costumers and spellcasters alike prize 
  their feathers. The Organ Grinder keeps the key to the chest hidden in his 
  chamber (Area D6) in the dodo’s mouth. The silver key is tiny and can be 
  found only if the characters specifically search the dodo.
  Treasure: The desk has a very fine writing set worth 75gp and three 
  bottles of Devil’s Wormwood absinthe (see sidebox). Only two of the 
  bottles still contain a worm as the Organ Grinder has already eaten one 
  and gained its benefits. The desk itself has a hidden cache (the hidden door 
  that lies behind a section of removable shelving). Within the space is a 
  small leather-bound book containing The Secret of Creation (see sidebox). 
  The stuffed birds are worth 100gp and 500gp to the right collector. 
  D6. Organ Grinder’s Chamber
  This chamber takes up much of the old lower hold of the 
  ship. It comprises three levels connected by rickety ladders, 
  with an open central section such that it is possible to leap 
  between them. Each floor is cluttered with oddments and 
  objects, including a large amount of books and several crude 
  canvases.
  The ladders are not tied to the walls and can easily be knocked down. 
  The bottom floor is the sloped stern of the ship, and its surface is slick 
  and requires characters to make a saving throw to move on at greater than 
  half speed. The Organ Grinder, his monkey-like familiar Scat, and his 
  mephit thrall Lott, spend most of their time here. In addition, his barrel 
  organ usually shuffles about in this chamber when he is present. When 
  the Organ Grinder is out, Lott generally remains within the Limpet feeding 
  (or more usually, tormenting) the creatures in the menagerie (Area D7).
  The Organ Grinder (MU4/Thf7): HP 35; AC 2[17]; Atk +1 
  short sword (1d6+1 plus poison) or light crossbow (1d4 plus 
  poison); Move 12; Save 7 (+2, ring); AL C; CL/XP 11/1700; 
  Special: backstab (x3), spells (3/2), +2 saves (spells, wands, 
  staves, traps, magical devices), thieving skills.
  Spells: 1st—charm person, magic missile (x2); 2nd—mir-
  ror image, phantasmal force.
  Thieving Skills: Climb 91%, Tasks/Traps 45%, Hear 5 in 6, 
  Hide 40%, Silent 50%, Locks 40%.
  Equipment: bracers of defense AC 4[15], entertainer’s 
  outfit, +1 short sword, light crossbow, 10 bolts, bowl of 
  controlling elementals, potion of invisibility, ragefire 
  spawn in bottle, ring of protection +2, poison (+2 save 
  or paralyzed for 1d6 hours), spell component pouch, 
  surgeon’s tools, thieves’ tools, key to Area D1 designed 
  to look like a wallow-whale devouring the sun with 
  copper and obsidian eyes worth 75gp.
  Note: The Organ Grinder is fearful of breaking the 
  New Tome
  The Secret of Creation
  This book, bound in the softest goatskin, contains a curious 
  codex of sigils, runes and oddly disturbing drawings. The golem-
  stitchers of Castorhage use copies of this tome to fashion weird 
  constructions from stitched-together parts of various creatures. 
  In addition, the owner of the book is troubled by dreams in 
  which the animated parts of created creatures stalk him. This has 
  no game effect and is unpleasant enough to warrant the owner 
  being constantly troubled about keeping the tome.
  The Secret of Creation is worth 1300gp.  
  New Drug: Absinthe
  This highly intoxicating green beverage is common in the 
  Blight. It is usually taken with water and is commonly called 
  “green fairy” or “Devil’s wormwood.” A shot can cost anywhere 
  from 1gp to 30gp but various magically or alchemically enhanced 
  versions exist which cost a lot more. A few of the more specialized 
  versions of absinthe are detailed below. Their effects and damage 
  given are alchemic in nature.
  Green Fairy
  Green fairy is taken by artists who claim it enhances creativity. 
  Any imbiber must make a saving throw or suffer a –1 penalty to 
  attacks and saves. Spellcasters must make a saving throw with a –1 
  penalty to successfully cast a spell.
  Price 20gp
  Devil’s Wormwood
  Said to have been distilled in Hell, this vile liquid has a fat worm 
  floating in each bottle. Eating the worm exposes the consumer to 
  a poison which may extend the effects of the drug if it doesn’t 
  commit them to a nightmare-filled coma (see Devil’s Worm 
  below). The imbiber suffers a –2 penalty to attacks and saves for 
  12 hours. Spellcasters must make a saving throw with a –2 penalty 
  to successfully cast a spell.
  Price 500gp
  Devil’s Worm
  Each bottle of Devil’s wormwood contains a poisonous Devil’s 
  worm. A person under the effects of the Devil’s wormwood who 
  consumes a Devil’s worm extends the duration of the drug’s 
  effects by 1–3 months.
  
  37
  The Crucible
  ragefire spawn bottle unless he has summoned a wa-
  ter elemental in advance to extinguish it. 
  Scat (Blight Monkey Homunculus): HD 5; HP 31; AC 6[13]; 
  Atk bite (1d3 plus disease), or excrement (disease); Move 12 
  (climbing 12); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: disease 
  (itching, red skin, –2 to hit and saves, save avoids), enraged 
  screech (30ft radius, –1 to hit, damage and saves for 1d3 
  rounds, save avoids). (See Appendix A)
  Equipment: clown’s outfit, fez, tin cup.
  The Organ (Animated Object): HD 2; AC 6[13]; Atk slam 
  (1d4); Move 12 (climb 9); Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; Special: 
  none.
  Note: The Organ is very cowardly, with no interest in 
  fighting. It usually sits quietly out of the way hoping 
  it won’t be seen, like a sloth in the jungle. If it takes 
  damage, the Organ flees, its legs unfolding below the 
  wheels.  
  Ragefire Spawn: HD 2; AC 5[14]; Atk attach (1d3); Move 15; 
  Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 2/30; Special: vulnerable to water (ex-
  tinguished). (See Appendix A)
  Lott (Brimstone Mephit): HD 3; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 claws (1d3); 
  Move 12 (flying 20); Save 14; AL C; CL/XP 5/240; Special: 
  breathe gas cloud (1d8+1 damage, save for half), gaseous 
  form. (Monstrosities 327)
  Note: The mephit is careful to use only its gas cloud 
  attack when the Organ Grinder is more than 30ft away 
  — it is not remotely concerned about the others — but 
  itches to see the effects of its special attack. In gener-
  al, it moves away from the Grinder and uses this ability 
  early in combat if it can. 
  Treasure: The books are generally about anatomy, healing and 
  alchemy. However, a few are notable. The first — Granthim’s Treatise 
  upon Outsider’s Souls — is richly illustrated in gilt and crimson diagrams 
  and is worth 350gp. The second, a huge, untitled folio of images of 
  speculative beasts of Between is worth 400gp. Finally, a copy of Kathrill’s 
  Arcanum contains the spells polymorph self, cloudkill, dimension door 
  and control weather. 
  The Organ Grinder keeps his treasure in a chest hidden behind a small 
  secret panel. It is locked with a lock (–20% Open Locks) that has a tiny 
  keyhole, the key to which is hidden in his stuffed dodo’s mouth (Area 
  D5). Within the chest, he keeps his formulae book; 1250gp in a large 
  leather sack; a whalebone and walrus tusk jagging wheel set with gold 
  bands worth 600gp; an engraved whale-tooth depicting a swarm of ravens 
  with obsidian-encrusted wings worth 700gp; and three smoky coloured 
  and decorated achaierai eggs set with tiny emeralds and gold filigree, each 
  worth 500gp. 
  D7. Hold Menagerie 
  A feral stench prowls this room, and a dozen rickety wooden 
  cages line the trio of clumsily made wooden floors that were 
  clearly once the ship’s bulkheads. Again, planks and ladders 
  connect this crooked space, while buckets of water, coarse 
  tubers and plants, and fly-speckled cuts of meat hang from 
  nails variously spaced along the walls. 
  The Organ Grinder is very proud of his menagerie of animals that he 
  has collected from around the known world. It fills the old upper hold 
  of the ship, which contains 12 wooden cages each held shut by a simple 
  wooden peg. The bars of the cages are close enough to prevent attack 
  by the creatures within, and the cages are as tall as they are wide. If the 
  Organ Grinder retreats here, he releases one caged animal at a time while 
  climbing away if attacked. While not all animals here are aggressive 
  (caged birds make up the rest of the menagerie), those that are offer him a 
  last line of defence and are detailed below. He releases these in preference 
  to any others although, if desperate, he may release other creatures in the 
  hope that their flight distracts enemies. Each released creature emerges 
  from its cage to look for food. It attacks anyone it can reach. The cages 
  with creatures (and their occupants) are marked on the map.
  Like Area D6, the bottom floor is the sloped stern of the ship, its surface 
  slick with a slurry and animal droppings, and requires a saving throw to 
  move upon at more than half speed. 
  Giant Wolverine: HD 6; HP 41; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 claws (1d4), 
  bite (1d6); Move 12; Save 11; CL/XP 7/600; Special: musk (irri-
  tates eyes and lungs, 10ft spray, –1 to hit, save avoids), +4 to 
  hit. (Monstrosities 517)
  Gorilla: HD 4; HP 29; AC 6[13]; Atk 2 hands (1d3), bite (1d6); 
  Move 12; Save 13; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: hug and rend 
  (2 hits, rend for additional 1d6 damage). (Monstrosities 17)
  Lion: HD 5+2; HP 33; AC 6[13]; Atk 2 claws (1d4), bite (1d8); 
  Move 12; Save 12; AL N; CL/XP 5/240; Special: none. 
  (Monstrosities 297)
  Giant Weasel: HD 3+3; HP 23; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (2d6 plus 
  blood drain); Move 15; Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; Special: 
  drain blood (automatic 2d6 damage per round after bite). 
  (Monstrosities 506)
  Leucrota: HD 6; HP 40; AC 4[15]; Atk bite (3d6); Move 18; Save 
  11; AL C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: none. (Monstrosities 293)
  Development: If the characters defeat the Organ Grinder, they 
  can interrogate him. He is essentially a coward and pleads for his life, 
  providing them with the information he knows in return for their mercy. 
  The information he spills includes the location of the Artificer, the 
  “creator of the living fire,” at the great windmill (Chapter 6). He explains 
  about the “strange metal contraption that she calls the Crucible,” and the 
  constant supply of coal and timber that is required to keep it alight. He 
  admits that he was to sail with a new shipment from Sallow & Son to the 
  mill on the morrow.
  If the characters kill the Organ Grinder, they might recover some of 
  this information by using speak with the dead, but the corpse has a 1-in-
  6 chance to attempt to deceive them, and its answers will be brief and 
  cryptic if not. The link to Sallow & Son Coal and Timber Factors can also 
  be gleaned from the ledgers on his study desk (Area D5). If the characters 
  want to head straight to the great windmill, boats and skiffs are easy to 
  hire at only 5gp per day, or the characters may make arrangements to buy 
  a boat for themselves. Alternatively, they may decide to first visit Sallow 
  & Son.
  Sallow & Son Coal 
  and Timber Factors
  The ragefire elemental requires a constant supply of combustible material 
  to be forced to spawn, and coal and timber have been used in huge quantities 
  to that effect. The Artificer has used Sallow & Son Coal and Timber Factors, 
  as she knew their business was on its last legs and likely would go under 
  without her patronage. John and Jacob Sallows’ loyalty is therefore assured 
  through their fear of bankruptcy and personal ruin.
  The merchants’ warehouse, a shoddy building with living 
  accommodation upstairs and a 6ft-high wall surrounding it is indicated 
  on the Festival map. Unpopular, but not an enemy of the wererats, the 
  warehouse is rundown within and clearly understocked for the size of the 
  yard. It contains no timber at all. A low iron gate, which is never locked, 
  
  38
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  opens into the yard. The Blackleg, the pair’s ship, moors just outside the 
  warehouse. The pair have a large, emaciated heavy fighting dog loose in 
  the yard; it is very hungry and aggressive, and attacks anyone who tries to 
  enter the yard without one of the pair present. Killing the dog lowers the 
  pair’s attitude toward strangers by one category. 
  Pit-Mastiff (Heavy Fighting Dog): HD 4; HP 27; AC 6[13]; Atk 
  bite (1d6+2 plus jawlock); Move 15; Save 13; AL N; CL/XP 
  4/120; Special: jawlock (automatic bite damage after hit). 
  (See Appendix A)
  Development: The coal merchants are dupes in the plot and desperate 
  enough to appear secretive. John Sallow (N male human merchant, 
  9hp) is a tall, sturdy man whose usual attire is coal dust. His son Jacob 
  (N male briny* merchant, 12hp) is quick-tempered. Getting any kind 
  of information out of the coal merchants is not easy. They have been 
  sworn to secrecy, and John knows that without his regular order from his 
  “friends at the Great Windmill,” he will go out of business and be at the 
  mercy of his ruthless creditors and the bankruptcy courts — and he is not 
  sure which is worse. While the men are civil, they are unfriendly. If the 
  characters can come up with a clever ruse (such as posing as a friend of the 
  Organ Grinder and insisting on accompanying the latest shipment), force 
  the information out of the pair, or explain what they’re involved in as an 
  appeal to their better natures, they can be made to reluctantly talk. 
  If convinced to talk, John and Jacob reveal that they have been 
  delivering coal and timber for months to one of the great windmills 
  and acquiesce to take the characters in their coal barge with tomorrow’s 
  delivery. They can give a description of their employer, the Artificer (see 
  Area E2), and relate that she has told them she is “engaged upon an 
  arcane experimentation” that requires a constant supply of tinder. 
  Jacob has caught a brief glimpse of the crucible and can give 
  them a very basic description of the crucible itself, swearing by 
  the all saints that he thought the device was alive, sure that he 
  heard deep roars from within.
  Thick iron plates on the Blackleg’s hull reinforce the 
  merchant’s vessel to enable the pair to safely draw their 
  barge up to the windmill and make deliveries without 
  their ship being smashed by the rocks. 
  * See The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked 
  City for details.
  
  39
  The Crucible
  If the characters wish to gather information about the 
  Great Windmills, use the information in the sidebox. No 
  information is available on the Artificer, however, as she 
  has done well in keeping her identity and activities secret. 
  The Great Windmill is a vast building that stands in 
  the mouth of the Great Lyme River on a squat manmade 
  island located in the estuary of the river, approximately 4 
  miles from Festival and shown on the location map. The 
  isle is little wider than the windmill itself, with a short 
  timber jetty allowing access by boat. 
  Built of heavy timbers soaked in oil to prevent rot, 
  the mill is 100ft tall and 30ft wide with a stout wooden 
  door at its base. A steeply conical roof of slate tiles rise 
  25ft farther. The walls are easy to climb, the roof less so 
  due to its slippery nature (it has been treated often with 
  grease to keep out rain). 
  The central floors of the structure have been removed 
  to accommodate the crucible, leaving only stubby 
  balconies connected by ladders tied to them with wire. 
  The entire place is very hot, and if anyone unprotected 
  from severe heat enters the building, they immediately 
  begin to sweat and must make a saving throw once every 
  10 minutes (cumulative –1 penalty for each previous 
  save) or take 1d4 points of damage.
  Chapter Six:
  The Great Windmill
  Rumours about the Great Windmills
  1d20
  Rumour
  6
  “You can see ’em from most eastern parts of the city — 
  vast places built on manmade islands in the river. Many of 
  ’em have burnt down, or been blown over, or fallen, but 
  there must be a good score of ’em left.”
  10
  “Most were built about seventy years ago. The mills were 
  supposed to replace water power for the millers. Course, 
  most of the bigger millers use accursed fleshgines and foul 
  treadmills now so they became obsolete. They milled their 
  last flour over forty years ago, I’d guess.”
  12
  “D…d…dangerous places! One exploded. Exploded! They 
  say the hot machinery ignited the flour dust and the place 
  just blew!”
  16
  “One of the main reasons for their demise was how awk-
  ward it was to land at ’em. Now, o’ course, they’re places 
  best avoided: pirates, smugglers, briny-boys, golem-stitch-
  ers, and even sea-devils are rumoured to populate ’em. 
  Hah, one of the things that made ’em so awkward is now 
  one of their strengths! Handy bases for keeping outta sight 
  if ya wanna do unseen things …”
  
  40
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Reaching the  
  Great Windmill
  The estuary is a tricky place to navigate at times, as the Canker springs 
  up and curious — but still hazardous — sandbanks form. Some even say 
  sea devils or skum deliberately form the sandbanks to trap vessels when 
  the Canker is at her deepest. If the characters are travelling by their own 
  means, you could make this part of the adventure as tricky or easy as you 
  wish. As written, the characters either go with the coal merchants or under 
  the own methods, and since these could vary considerably, the approach is 
  left open for you to consider.
  When the characters draw within 200 yards of the Great Windmill, read 
  or paraphrase the following description:
  A vast dark shape looms from the water; like some primal 
  dragon or kraken, it is monstrous and brooding. Its great sails 
  hang ossified on her seaward side, barely moving in the wind. 
  Whilst its flanks soar into the sky to nearly 130 feet, its feet 
  grip the stone upon which it is built almost in desperation. 
  This structure has a tiny footprint and virtually suffocates the 
  rock upon which it perches. A low jetty seems to be the only 
  landing point on this strange outpost, yet even this looks a 
  tricky proposition as the tide is rough and the rocks about it 
  are jagged. 
  As the characters draw even closer to the island, anyone looking 
  over the boat’s side notices that the water around the island seems more 
  populated than expected with dark shapes that swim below. The Artificer 
  and her gargoyle accomplices, eager to ensure that unwanted visitors are 
  kept away, have been chumming the waters to draw predators.
  E1. Jetty 
  A low timber jetty with a single moored jolly boat extends out 
  from the foot of a vast towering edifice of great timber beams, 
  which squats like a cuckoo in an inadequate nest. The jetty sits 
  atop razor-like rocks. This great windmill almost appears to be 
  dipping its toes into the waters and, by the look of the salt scars 
  around its base, the place is frequently inundated by storms.
  The rocks, like many forming isles hereabouts, are indeed razor sharp. 
  Any boat drawing up to the island grinds its hull against the rocks. The 
  rocks have a 25% chance of breaching the boat’s hull and causing the 
  vessel to sink in 3d6 rounds. Anyone ending up in the water immediately 
  find out the identities of the dark shapes lurking below. 
  Even if all the characters safely disembark, they still are left with the 
  problem of what to do with their vessel. If they allow it to drift, it soon 
  gets dragged away by the strong currents. If they leave it moored, it is 
  soon damaged beyond repair by being repeatedly ground against the rocks 
  by the actions of the waves. If the characters arrive aboard the Blackleg, 
  they discover that its reinforced, iron-plated hull foregoes the need for any 
  of the normal checks and can remain lashed to the jetty for hours if need 
  be. In addition, its gangplank also allows access from the boat to the jetty 
  without any sort of check.
  If the characters examine the outer walls of the Great Windmill, they 
  notice a heavy metal flue emerging from the roof and rising 30ft above 
  the mill. This flue vents off the crucible’s smoke and is easily visible 
  during daylight hours. It is a recent modification added to the windmill. 
  A balcony sits high above. This perch (Area E4) hangs 100ft above 
  the ground entrance. The wind sails of the mill are each 70ft long and 
  
  41
  The Crucible
  Fire and Water
  Fire
  A fire elemental or ragefire elemental, including ragefire spawn, 
  sets alight any combustible material if it remains in one place for a full 
  round. These fires may then spread. Each round, the fires spread to one 
  adjacent 10ft square for every two squares that are already burning, 
  rounded down (for example, a fire of four 10ft squares ignites two 
  more, a fire of seven 10ft squares ignites three more, and so on). A fire 
  burning in only a single 10ft square has a 50% chance per round of 
  spreading to an adjacent square.
  Whenever a character moves into a square that is on fire, he must 
  make a saving throw or catch on fire, taking 1d6 points of damage that 
  round and every round he remains on fire.
  If half or more of the squares in an area are on fire, at the Referee’s 
  discretion, the smoke may become too thick to breathe without effort; 
  characters must make a saving throw (–1 per previous attempt) at the 
  beginning of each round or spend that round choking and coughing. 
  A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points 
  of damage.
  If fires grow too large, the burning debris creates thick black smoke 
  that pours into the sky above Castorhage, and a fire brigade eventually 
  arrives, followed by one or more units of the City Watch. Characters 
  emerging from burning areas after the authorities have arrived may be 
  detained and have some explaining to do.
  Water
  The ragefire elemental (see Appendix A) is an Abyssal variant of 
  the fire elemental, but is extremely susceptible to water: 
  Create water does 1d6 points of damage per level (4d6 points of 
  damage for the cleric version; 2d6 points of damage for the druid 
  version).
  A water elemental’s strike does 6d10 points of damage.
  A decanter of endless water does 2d6 points of damage per round.
  Immersing the ragefire elemental in a body of water (such as the 
  Lyme) inflicts 6d6 points of damage each round to the creature.
  The Referee should use his discretion if the players find other 
  creative uses for water-based spells.
  
  42
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  25ft wide at their distal ends, and they move with almost imperceptible 
  slowness. Characters who are able to reach them can climb along them to 
  reach their intersection at the base of Area E4. 
  A gargoyle sits on watch, hidden amongst the rocks of the shore (1-in-
  6 chance to spot) keeping an eye out for unexpected visitors. In addition, 
  the waters around the island are infested with aquatic carnivores, the most 
  dangerous of which are 3 slop-sharks that keep the other predators at bay 
  and move quickly to attack anyone they perceive in the water. The slop-
  sharks are bloated and have an unpleasant crimson hue.
  Gargoyle: HD 4; HP 27; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 claws (1d3), bite 
  (1d4), horn (1d6); Move 9 (flying 15); Save 13; AL C; CL/XP 
  6/400; Special: +1 or better magical weapon to hit.
  Note: The gargoyle is used to seeing John and Jacob 
  Sallow on the Blackleg, but not a full crew. If it sees 
  more than three people, it flies quickly to the perch 
  (Area E4) to alert the Artificer.
  Lyme Anglers (Slop-Sharks) (3): HD 6; HP 44, 41, 39; AC 6[13]; 
  Atk bite (2d6 plus disease); Move 12 (swimming); Save 11; 
  AL N; CL/XP 8/800; Special: disease (brine misery, save or 
  extreme itching, –1 to hit, saves and damage until healed), 
  lantern lure (save or mesmerized, automatically lose initia-
  tive). (See Appendix A)
  E2. Main Chamber 
  The interior of the great windmill has been stripped of 
  furnishings and floors to accommodate a singular construction 
  — a cyst of iron, a vast metal cocoon that gives off a nimbus of 
  heat and the smell of hot iron — which dominates the space. 
  This cyclopean object is suspended from great timber beams 
  high above by a single iron chain and has heavy doors sealed 
  at its base, where it hangs just above the floor. Several large 
  scars and dents mar the iron plating of the construction as 
  if something powerful within had tried to escape in the past. 
  Piles of coal and several wheelbarrows lie nearby, ready to 
  feed the inferno within. What were once the upper floors of 
  the mill are now little more than a single balcony connected 
  by a rickety ladder. Most disturbing of all though is the noise 
  — the steady hateful roar of something within the object itself.
  The entire area is sweltering from proximity to the crucible. Characters 
  immediately begin to sweat and must make a saving throw once every 10 
  minutes (cumulative –1 penalty for each previous save) or take 1d4 points 
  of damage. Characters in heavy clothing or armor of any sort take a –4 
  penalty on this save. The occupants of the room have grown acclimated 
  to these effects.
  The coal piles are used to feed the elemental within the crucible. Lying 
  amongst them is a heavy cloth the gargoyles use to open the door levers 
  to ensure they do not take damage while doing so (see Area E3 below). 
  The ladder is safe, and the floor above creaks but is solid enough. The 
  mechanism that holds the mill’s great sails is a rusting mass of iron 60ft 
  above the floor.
  The Artificer spends her every waking hour attending the thing she has 
  created, and is now nurturing it with the intention of drawing off a large 
  number of ragefire spawn. With these, she intends to attack shipping far out 
  to sea where there will be no witnesses and no way for her elementals to 
  escape after the carnage. She is helped in her task by 2 quasit thralls and 
  a small wing of 3 gargoyles that fear and respect her ever since she killed 
  their four-armed patriarch and fed several more dissenters to the crucible. 
  While most of the remaining gargoyles are now loyal to the Artificer, they 
  are petty, treacherous and vindictive creatures and remain ready to exploit 
  any perceived weakness. One in particular, the old matriarch, is waiting 
  for an opportunity that the characters are likely to create.
  The Artificer is busy tending her beloved elemental; however, it is 
  getting angrier and angrier. She’s managed to quell it over the last few 
  days with use of her wand of cold, but knows the thing wants to escape. 
  The outer shell of the crucible is already scored with unnaturally large 
  punch marks from within. Unfortunately, the gargoyles, sick of the 
  beatings they get and extremely amused by what may happen if the thing 
  within is freed, have already plotted to help it (see “Tactics” below for 
  more details). The Artificer is obsessive about her prisoner, and knows it 
  is her way to fortune and power. She’ll never give it up.
  When first seen, the Artificer is almost shocking in her near nakedness. 
  She’s lithe and oily and dirty, and has grown accustomed to working in 
  the intense heat of the windmill. She wears hefty boots and a cloak that 
  barely covers her body. A leather belt from which dangle a few pouches 
  and tools hangs at her waist.
  The Artificer (Female MU11): HP 38; AC 5[14] or 2[17] (missile) 
  and 4[15] (melee) from shield spell; Atk dagger (1d4); Move 
  12; Save 3 (ring, cloak); AL C; CL/XP 12/2000; Special: spells 
  (4/4/4/3/3), +2 save (spells, wands, staves).
  Spells: 1st—magic missile (x2), read languages, shield; 
  2nd—invisibility, mirror image, pyrotechnics, strength; 
  3rd—fireball, fly, haste, lightning bolt; 4th—dimension 
  door, fear, ice storm; 5th—conjuration of elementals 
  (x2), feeblemind. 
  Equipment: cloak of protection +2, dagger, decanter 
  of endless water, ring of protection +2, 3 quartz flasks 
  containing ragefire spawns, ring of fire resistance, 
  wand of cold (20 charges).
  Note: This is the Artificer’s only chance of power; she’s 
  been wretched before and knows how hard that is in 
  this city of all places. She’ll die before abandoning her 
  plans at the windmill.
  Suffer and Grieve (Quasits) (2): HD 3; HP 21, 19; AC 2[17]; Atk 
  2 claws (1d2 plus non-lethal poison), bite (1d3); Move 14; 
  Save 14; AL C; CL/XP 7/600; Special: magic resistance (25%), 
  non-lethal poison (save or cumulative –1 to hit and dam-
  age), regenerate (1hp/round), spell-like abilities.
  Spell-like abilities: at will—invisibility, polymorph self; 1/
  day—fear.
  Gargoyles (3): HD 4; HP 30, 28, 24; AC 5[14]; Atk 2 claws 
  (1d3), bite (1d4), horn (1d6); Move 9 (flying 15); Save 13; AL 
  C; CL/XP 6/400; Special: +1 or better magical weapon to hit.
  Ragefire Spawn (3): HD 2; HP 14, 13, 10; AC 5[14]; Atk attach 
  (1d3); Move 15; Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 2/30; Special: vulnera-
  ble to water (extinguished). (See Appendix A)
  Tactics: Each of the gargoyles (including the one attending the bellows 
  at Area E3) agrees that it would be highly amusing to see the elemental 
  in action. They know how to fully open the crucible, and the arrival of 
  any sword- and spell-wielding foes grants them cover to see their plan to 
  fruition. One (or all) of them move toward the main opening lever and pull 
  it, releasing the ragefire elemental (see Area E3 below) and then scatter to 
  watch the ensuing chaos. They regroup at the Perch (Area E4) to watch. 
  They leave this position only if attacked, in which case they attack as a 
  quartet, fleeing if any one of their group is slain.
  Treasure: The Artificer’s gear is scattered across the chamber, including 
  her formulae book and an unlocked iron chest containing 2500gp and 
  copies of various shipping ledgers that detail voyages that the Company 
  of Honourable Seamen are due to make in the next 2 months. Three of 
  these voyages are circled, with the words “spice,” “silk,” and “brandy” 
  scribbled beside them, and the word “valuable” written and underlined 
  beside them. These are the first ships the Artificer plans to attack and rob 
  as soon as they sail.  
  
  43
  The Crucible
  E3. The Crucible
  A vast construct of riveted iron plates fills the interior of the 
  windmill like a great metal child inside its womb. A great chain 
  holds it to the beams high above, while below it is so close to 
  the ground it can barely be crawled under. At the base, three 
  5-foot-wide doors are shut fast, levers at their sides, while a 
  curious brass tap protrudes just below. To one side, a set of 
  bellows can be pumped to keep the fires within roaring. The 
  entire contraption gives off an intense heat, while something 
  inside growls angrily.
  This vast construction is the crucible. A furnace lies within the base of 
  the crucible; the three iron doors allow access, only one of which can be 
  open at a time. Two doors are used to feed the furnace, and the third is 
  used to open the crucible and feed its prisoner. Iron valves permit fumes 
  to escape but keep the creature trapped within. The tap is used to draw 
  off essences of the ragefire as ragefire spawn with a command word 
  known by the Artificer. The iron chain at its top is 6in thick (90 points 
  of damage causes the chain to snap under the weight of the crucible), 
  and the beams from which it hangs are 2ft thick (120 points of damage 
  causes the beam to snap under the weight of the crucible). If the chain or 
  beams can be severed or fail, the furnace falls and ruptures, allowing the 
  elemental to escape and filling the ground floor with burning coals to a 
  depth of 5ft (exposure to which inflicts 10d6 points of damage per round). 
  Characters making a saving throw manage to dive out the door or leap 
  onto an exposed beam fragment (Referee’s discretion) and take only half 
  damage; how those who make their escape manage to stay away from the 
  coals, which burn for another hour unless extinguished, is between them 
  and the Referee. If the coals are dumped, the building also catches fire (see 
  the Fire and Water sidebox above). 
  The gargoyle matriarch attends the bellows that power the furnace 
  and feeds it fuel. This gargoyle, Shlarch, is drenched in sweat and filth. 
  She is the old matriarch of the wing who still burns with anger at the 
  Artificer for slaying her mate. Shlarch has been working the crucible for 
  the Artificer, observing, biding her time and plotting with her gargoyle 
  followers. Not only has she overheard and memorized the command word 
  to make the tap work, but she has also overheard the Artificer describing 
  some of the functions of the crucible to the Organ Grinder, including how 
  the bound creature can be released. When the characters enter the mill 
  and confront the Artificer, Shlarch realizes that her opportunity has come. 
  Anyone touching the metal shell of the crucible or one of the levers takes 
  2d6 points of fire damage unless they are suitable protected (for example, 
  by using the cloth lying in the coal heap in Area E2). Anyone entering the 
  crucible takes 10d6 points of fire damage each round.
  Shlarch (Maggog Gargoyle): HD 5+1; HP 38; AC 4[15]; Atk 2 
  claws (1d6) and sting (1d8); Move 12 (flying 18); Save 12; AL 
  C; CL/XP 7/600; Special: spells (4/2/1). (Monstrosities 186)
  Spells: 1st—charm person, magic missile (x2), sleep; 
  2nd—darkness 15ft radius, mirror image; 3rd—lightning 
  bolt.  
  Development: When combat starts in the room, a gargoyle opens the tap 
  to release the elemental. The ragefire elemental starts to pour out through 
  these doors at the base of the crucible like liquid flame and pools beneath. 
  At this stage, a character can try to close the tap. Those attempting this 
  take 6d6 points of fire damage as the elemental and contents boil outward. 
  If the elemental is not stopped, 3 rounds later, an 8HD ragefire elemental 
  emerges from the pool and joins the fray (see Event 4 below). When this 
  occurs, the other gargoyles retreat from the fight to watch, with glee, what 
  happens.
  E4. The Perch
  A larger fragment of the windmill’s flooring stands virtually 
  intact near the roof. Through a hole in the floor can be seen 
  the beams supporting the great behemoth in the room below. 
  The shimmer of super-heated air rises up through this hole 
  and makes this room uncomfortably warm.
  This room is considered to be severe heat like the rest of the tower 
  due to the vast crucible below. A narrow balcony has been made by the 
  gargoyles to allow their frequent raids into the city to collect carrion, steal 
  trophies to line their lair, abduct beggars and vagabonds to feed on, or to 
  find insects and small birds and mammals to slowly pull apart.
  Treasure: The gargoyles have kept various objects from victims fed into 
  the furnace, including a scorched wooden clog; a silver monocle set with 
  carved swans and angels that functions as lenses of charming; a glove-
  puppet two-headed crow bearing a minor illusion that occasionally shouts 
  out cuss-words for no discernible reason; a silver stirrup cup shaped like a 
  fox eating a dove worth 500gp; a large bloody and soot-damaged smock; 
  a desiccated human hand; and a fine pinafore dress set with obsidians 
  worth 200gp and, again, stained with blood (the value increases to 400gp 
  if properly cleaned and restored). 
  Event 4: The Ragefire Freed 
  As the ragefire elemental has fed, it has grown and with this increase 
  in size has come an increase in its cunning. It wants nothing less than to 
  destroy its prison, kill the Artificer, and wreak havoc. It is about to get its 
  chance …
  Elemental, Ragefire (8HD): HD 8; HP 57; AC 2[17]; Atk strike 
  (3d8); Move 12; Save 8; AL C; CL/XP 10/1400; Special: feed (5% 
  cumulative chance per victim incinerated of becoming 12HD 
  
  44
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  elemental), immune to fire, +1 or better magic weapons to hit, 
  vulnerable to cold and water (200%). (See Appendix A)
  Tactics: The ragefire elemental and the ragefire spawn set the mill 
  alight. The walls, ladders, upper floors, and structural beams of the 
  structure are all made of wood that is very ready to burn. Any interior 
  surface that is adjacent to an elemental begins to burn. Refer to the Fire 
  and Water sidebox for rules on determining the speed with which the fire 
  spreads. Rules for tracking the effects of the fire as it spreads throughout 
  the mill follow. All effects are cumulative.
  Squares 
  Affected
  Effect
  1–10
  The building is on fire and anyone inside expe-
  riences severe heat; embers and smoke begin 
  to fill the interior. If the crucible ruptures, refer 
  to Area E3 for additional effects.
  11–20
  The flames spread, and anyone inside the mill 
  experiences extreme heat; smoke fills the room 
  and obscures vision, giving concealment (20% 
  miss chance) to anyone within it.
  21–30
  Over half the building is now on fire, and the 
  smoke has become too thick to breathe with-
  out effort; anyone inside must make a saving 
  throw (–1 per previous attempt) at the begin-
  ning of their turn each round or spend that 
  round choking and coughing. A character 
  who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 
  points of damage.
  31–40 
  Most of the building is now aflame; breathing 
  air in these temperatures deals 1d6 points of 
  fire damage per round (no save); the charac-
  ters also take 1d6 points of damage from the 
  smoke effects (no save) but must make a save 
  each round to avoid coughing and choking 
  due to the smoke. 
  41+
  The building is now completely engulfed in fire, 
  and anyone within (regardless of what square 
  they’re in) catches on fire. After 10 rounds of 
  burning at this intensity, debris begins to fall, 
  and anyone within must make a saving throw 
  each round or be struck for 1d6 points of dam-
  age. Anyone injured by falling debris has a 50% 
  chance of being knocked prone. If knocked 
  down, a character has a 50% chance of being 
  pinned. A pinned character takes an addi-
  tional 1d6 points of fire damage each round 
  (regardless of other damage being taken) 
  because of the burning wood that pins them. 
  A pinned character can escape by making an 
  Open Doors check. After 15 minutes of burning 
  at this intensity, the roof of the great windmill 
  collapses, taking the structural beams with it. 
  The windmill collapse covers the entire surface 
  of the isle. Anyone upon the island when this 
  occurs takes 8d6 points of damage (save for 
  half). Characters take 1d6 points of fire dam-
  age per round while buried.
  Development: Once the windmill collapses, and the Artificer is dead, 
  the ragefire elemental seeks to escape the island. If Mean’s Mob are 
  waiting (see Event 5 below), they flee from the elemental rather than 
  engage it. If the elemental is not fleeing, it attempts to kill them. Ten 
  minutes into combat, a caravel (the Filthy Drake) approaches the isle’s 
  jetty, eager to help save anyone from the fire. The ship comes to within 
  25ft of the isle in this case. The elemental leaps onto the ship, killing any 
  of the crew who don’t immediately leap overboard (whom the slop-sharks 
  rapidly take care of), and the burning ship begins drifting toward the city. 
  If the elemental is not destroyed, in 20 minutes the fragments of burning 
  caravel draws close enough to a shore and the elemental leaps off and 
  onto the city docks. A large fire then breaks out in the city as the elemental 
  begins killing everyone in sight. If it is not destroyed swiftly, the number 
  of lives it may claim could transform it into a 16HD ragefire elemental. 
  These developments are dealt with in the Conclusion below.
  Event 5: An Unexpected Complicaiton
  If Uriah Mean was able to have the party followed (see Chapter 3), 5 
  minutes after the characters reach the island, Mean’s Mob arrives on the 
  jetty behind them. They scuttle any other boats at the jetty with heavy 
  spikes driven through the hull and, if a fight has already started within the 
  windmill, wait outside to deal with the victor and take the spoils. If a fight 
  has not yet broken out, they enter the windmill and start one. They flee to 
  the jetty if the windmill catches fire and depart entirely on their boat if it 
  becomes fully engulfed in flame and in danger of collapse.
  Mean’s Mob
  Uriah Mean keeps strange company, and has particular associates within 
  the lower echelons of the Family. He is particularly close to the Krabs, a 
  quartet of wererats of the little known Pensil Fair. The Krabs are, in turn, 
  close friends with Mister Mackerel, an ogre mage who wanders the town 
  as a tall fisherman who wears a long waxed coat.
  Mister Mackerel (Ogre Mage): HD 5+4; HP 40; AC 4[15]; Atk 
  +1 longsword (1d12+1) or longbow x2 (1d6); Move 12 (flying 
  18); Save 12; AL C; CL/XP 7/600; Special: cone of frost (60ft 
  cone, 8d6 damage, save for half), regenerate (1hp/round), 
  spells-like abilities.
  Spell-like abilities: 1/day—charm person, darkness 15ft 
  radius, invisibility, polymorph self, sleep.
  Equipment: +1 longsword, longbow with 20 arrows
  The Krabs (Wererats) (4): HD 3; HP 23, 21, 20, 18; AC 6[13]; 
  Atk bite (1d3), 2 short swords (1d6) or light crossbow (1d4+1); 
  Move 12; Save 14; AL C; CL/XP 4/120; Special: control rats, 
  lycanthropy, silver or +1 or better weapons to hit.
  Equipment: 2 short swords, light crossbow with 10 bolts, 
  1d6sp.
  Tactics: Mackerel leads the group with invisibility, attempting to assess 
  the situation, and flies back to report and plan the best ambush. He tries 
  to charm any particularly tough fighters to step out of the way before 
  melee. The Krabs attack as a group, attempting to shift combat quickly 
  by overpowering single opponents and tumbling into position to try to 
  gain advantage from the flanks. If reduced below 20 hp, Mister Mackerel 
  attempts to flee by flying or using darkness 15ft  radius as needed. No 
  heroes, a Krab flees if reduced to 10 hp; if two flee, so do the rest.
  Development: If Mister Mackerel escapes, he may ask his oldest 
  friend, the Bilge Prince (see Conclusion), to help him exact his revenge.
  Conclusion
  Destroying the ragefire elemental and the Artificer ends this adventure. 
  However, the characters may still need to make a quick escape from 
  the burning isle, and may be glad of help from the Filthy Drake, which 
  approaches the isle if it sees flames. Characters offering up the notes 
  from among the Artificer’s possession to the Company of Honourable 
  Seamen receive a 500gp reward and may open up future opportunities for 
  adventure with the Company. 
  If anyone from Mean’s Mob escapes, consider that they return to 
  their master and, if Mean is still around, he becomes an enemy for the 
  characters. Mean is a nasty person to cross, but never likes to openly fight 
  if he can avoid it. He’ll send the occasional trouble the characters’ way by 
  means of his shady connections.
  If the ragefire elemental escapes into the city, a great fire sweeps through 
  
  45
  The Crucible
  the East Ending, a poor district of the city. Many people are killed in the 
  2 days of fire that grips the district. If the characters do not seek it out and 
  slay it, the elemental escapes into the Underneath where, having advanced 
  to become a 16HD ragefire elemental, it hunts the denizens therein to try 
  to raise a brood of ragefire spawn with which to launch another attack. 
  The characters should hear about this and must decide if they are willing 
  to brave the depths of the terrible Underneath to track it and kill it lest it 
  unleash another terrifying inferno on the citizens of the Blight. If they 
  do not, sooner or later a family of dwarves from Choketown (Area U9), 
  who suffer greatly before finally vanquishing the creature, trace back 
  what happened. Elder Bartholomew Rothgrorr Haggrudd Formel 
  Choke instructs a party of dwarves to track down those responsible. The 
  characters soon find themselves hunted by dwarves eager to place blame 
  for their woes. How this develops is left to the Referee.
  Word of the characters’ exploits eventually reaches the ears of the 
  affable Quentin Ruben Sollerman Hubbard, KC* (N male human 
  Rgr12) who has need of associates to gather obscure items from across 
  the known world (see Area F21). He offers the characters a chance to join 
  him on a voyage of discovery into the Unsea, an aspect of Between he is 
  desperate to fish and explore. The pay should be high enough to tempt the 
  characters. How that adventure develops is left to the Referee.
  * Knight of the City, a minor and obscure noble title of Castorhage
  Finally, if Mister Mackeral survives, he may have informed his friend 
  the Bilge Prince of their actions, at the Referee’s discretion. If so, the 
  Bilge Prince takes umbrage at the assault upon his boon companion and 
  seeks vengeance upon the characters at some inopportune time when they 
  are on or near the water. The Bilge Prince is a four-armed mutant sahuagin 
  and can be used as a long-term adversary of the Referees if you choose.
  The Bilge Prince (4-armed Sahuagin): HD 8; HP 57; AC 4[15]; 
  Atk trident (1d8), net (entangle), 4 claws (1d6); Move 12 
  (swimming 18); Save 7 (+1, ring); AL C; CL/XP 9/1100; Spe-
  cial: none. (Monstrosities 407)
  Equipment: trident, net, eel-hide armor, ring of protec-
  tion +1, heavy crossbow, 10 crossbow bolts
  Large Shark (8HD): HD 8; HP 58; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (1d8+4); 
  Move 0 (swimming 24); Save 8; AL N; CL/XP 8/800; Special: 
  feeding frenzy (50% chance 2d6 sharks arrive in 1d6 rounds).
  
  46
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Dog, Blight-Bull  
  (Light Fighting Dog) 
  Hit Dice: 2
  Armor Class: 6 [13]
  Attacks: bite (1d6 plus jawlock)
  Saving Throw: 16
  Special: jawlock
  Move: 15
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1, 2 or 1d10+2 (pack)
  Challenge Level: 3/60
  This vicious-looking dog is heavily muscled and scarred from many 
  battles. They are often outfitted with leather barding. A blight-bull locks 
  its jaws when it bites its prey, doing automatic bite damage each round 
  until it lets loose or is killed. 
  Blight-Bull (Light Fighting Dog): HD 2; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (1d6 
  plus jawlock); Move 15; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: 
  jawlock (automatic bite damage after hit).
  Dog, Pit-Mastiff  
  (Heavy Fighting Dog)
  Hit Dice: 4
  Armor Class: 6 [13]
  Attacks: bite (1d6+2 plus jawlock)
  Saving Throw: 13
  Special: jawlock
  Move: 15
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1, 2 or 1d10+2 (pack)
  Challenge Level: 4/120
  Dogs bred and trained specifically to fight are much tougher than 
  normal breeds. They are typically garbed in light barding and have been 
  taught to lock their jaws to bring opponents down (dealing automatic 
  bite damage). Their training has suppressed some of their natural 
  instincts and rendered them quite specialized; consequently, they aren’t 
  of much use for other activities such as tracking, but continue to fight 
  well past the point when other dogs would no longer be able to continue.
  Pit-Mastiff (Heavy Fighting Dog): HD 4; AC 6[13]; Atk bite 
  (1d6+2 plus jawlock); Move 15; Save 13; AL N; CL/XP 4/120; 
  Special: jawlock (automatic bite damage after hit).
  Copyright Notice
  Author Alistair Rigg, based on material by Richard Pett. 
  Dog, Terrier
  Hit Dice: 1 
  Armor Class: 7 [12]
  Attacks: bite (1d3 plus death shake)
  Saving Throw: 17
  Special: death shake
  Move: 15 
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1, 2, or 3d4 (pack) 
  Challenge Level: 1/15
  This small dog’s legs are long for its size, and its coat is shaggy and 
  rough. It has a short muzzle and small ears that flop forward. If a terrier 
  makes a successful bite attack against an opponent of its size or smaller, it 
  can make a grapple check against the opponent. If it succeeds, the terrier 
  immediately shakes its head violently in an attempt to break the neck or 
  back of its opponent. This attack deals 2d3 points of damage. 
  Frequently kept as pets by both the impoverished and well-to-do of 
  Castorhage, these small dogs were originally bred to hunt the rats and 
  other vermin so commonly found in the Blight. They are intelligent and 
  extremely loyal, working well as both trained hunters and family pets. 
  They stand up to 16in tall and usually weigh around 14 lbs.
  Dog, Terrier: HD 1; AC 7[12]; Atk bite (1d3 plus death 
  shake); Move 15; Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 1/15; Special: 
  death shake (grapple after bite, additional 2d3 dam-
  age).
  Copyright Notice
  Author Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by 
  Richard Pett.
  Appendix A:
  New Monsters
  
  47
  The Crucible
  Elemental, Ragefire
  Hit Dice: 8, 12, or 16
  Armor Class: 2 [17]
  Attacks: strike (3d8)
  Saving Throw: 8, 3, or 3
  Special: feed, immune to fire, +1 or better magical weapons 
  to hit, vulnerable to cold and water
  Move: 12
  Alignment: Chaos
  Number Encountered: 1, 2 or 1d6+2 (inferno)
  Challenge Level: 8 HD (10/1400), 12 HD (14/2600), or 16 HD 
  (18/3800) 
  Ragefire elementals embody the chaos and evil of their Abyssal 
  heritage, manifesting in demonic forms of living flame, smoke, ash, and 
  cinders. They exist to incinerate life and, in so 
  doing, grow stronger 
  and more destructive.
  A ragefire elemental can incinerate 
  any creature it kills to increase 
  its mass. Every time a ragefire 
  elemental incinerates a victim, it has 
  a 5% cumulative chance of growing 
  into a more powerful elemental (an 
  8HD elemental becomes a 12HD 
  monster, while a 12HD turns into a 16HD 
  monstrosity). A 16HD ragefire elemental 
  does not advance in this way, but instead 
  regenerates 1d8 hp per creature it incinerates. 
  A ragefire elemental cannot enter water or any 
  other nonflammable liquid. A body of water is an 
  impassible barrier unless the ragefire elemental 
  can step or jump over it, or if the water is covered with 
  a flammable material (such as a layer of oil). Water and 
  cold attacks deal double damage to ragefire elementals. 
  They are immune to fire and can only be hit by +1 or better 
  magical weapons.
  Elemental, Ragefire (8HD): HD 8; AC 2[17]; 
  Atk strike (3d8); Move 12; Save 8; AL C; CL/XP 
  10/1400; Special: feed (5% cumulative chance 
  per victim incinerated of becoming 12HD el-
  emental), immune to fire, +1 or better magic 
  weapons to hit, vulnerable to cold and water 
  (200%).
  Elemental, Ragefire (12HD): HD 12; AC 2[17]; 
  Atk strike (3d8); Move 12; Save 3; AL C; CL/XP 
  14/2600; Special: feed (5% cumulative chance 
  per victim incinerated of becoming 16HD ele-
  mental), immune to fire, +1 or better magic weap-
  ons to hit, vulnerable to cold and water (200%).
  Elemental, Ragefire (16HD): HD 16; AC 2[17]; 
  Atk strike (3d8); Move 12; Save 3; AL C; CL/XP 
  18/3800; Special: feed (regenerate 1d8hp per 
  victim incinerated), immune to fire, +1 or better 
  magic weapons to hit, vulnerable to cold and wa-
  ter (200%).
  Ragefire Spawn
  Hit Dice: 2
  Armor Class: 5 [14]
  Attacks: attach (1d3)
  Saving Throw: 16
  Special: vulnerable to water
  Move: 15
  Alignment: Chaos
  Number Encountered: 1
  Challenge Level: 2/30
  A ragefire spawn is a tiny fragment of elemental fire that attacks and 
  latches onto a victim to burn them to death. If a ragefire spawn hits a 
  creature, the target must make a saving throw or the spawn latches on and 
  begins burning the target for 1d3 points of damage each round. Dousing 
  the target in a large amount of water (Referee’s discretion) extinguishes 
  the ragefire spawn. If the spawn kills the target it is latched onto, it feeds 
  off the creature’s body to become an 8HD ragefire elemental.
  Ragefire Spawn: HD 2; AC 5[14]; Atk attach (1d3); Move 15; 
  Save 16; AL C; CL/XP 2/30; Special: vulnerable to water (ex-
  tinguished).
  Copyright Notice
  Author Alistair Rigg, based on material by Richard Pett.
  
  48
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Lyme Angler 
  (Slop-Shark)
  Hit Dice: 6
  Armor Class: 6 [13]
  Attacks: bite (2d6 plus disease)
  Saving Throw: 11
  Special: disease, lantern lure
  Move: 12 (swimming)
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1, 2 or 1d4+2 (school)
  Challenge Level: 8/800
  A lyme angler is a bloated fish with a glowing, 
  fleshy protrusion that extends from the top 
  of its skull and dangles in front of a wide 
  mouth filled with needlelike fangs. The 
  bite of a lyme angler carries the risk 
  of contracting brine misery (save 
  resists), which causes an extremely 
  irritating itching at the point of the wound (–1 to hit, saves and damage 
  until healed). 
  Also known as slop-sharks along the River Lyme, the lyme angler can 
  also illuminate the dangling lure on its forehead with a phosphorescent 
  glow equal to a candle. Any creature seeing the lighted lure must make a 
  saving throw or become mesmerized by the bobbing glow. Mesmerized 
  creatures automatically lose initiative when the lyme angler strikes. One 
  of the most notorious man-eaters of the river, the immense Lyme angler 
  can reach lengths of more than 20ft and weigh up to 5000 lbs. 
  Lyme Angler (Slop-Shark): HD 6; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (2d6 plus 
  disease); Move 12 (swimming); Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 8/800; 
  Special: disease (brine misery, save or extreme itching, –1 to 
  hit, saves and damage until healed), lantern lure (save or 
  mesmerized, automatically lose initiative).
  Copyright Notice
  Author Jeffrey Swank, based on material by Richard Pett.
  
  49
  The Crucible
  Sough-Eel
  Hit Dice: 8
  Armor Class: 5 [14]
  Attack: bite (2d6 plus disease)
  Saving Throw: 8
  Special: disease, grab, swallow whole
  Move: 6 (swimming 15)
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1, 2 or 1d6+2 (school)
  Challenge Level/XP: 10/1400
  A sough-eel is nearly 20ft long with a pale hide almost translucent like 
  a fish’s belly but marred by great areas of sloughing flesh that hang loose 
  in rotten folds. It is eyeless, with a row of small black nodules extending 
  back from its snout. Several small vestigial fins grow sporadically along 
  the length of its body. Its mouth, however, is the most noticeable feature, 
  occupying nearly a quarter of its length, and splayed wide with a crowd 
  of jagged fangs.
  These vile predators are found exclusively in the dark, filthy waters 
  of the Great Lyme River and Fetid Sea in the vicinity of the City-State 
  of Castorhage. Some have speculated that they were 
  once a temperate water variety of moray eel that 
  was indigenous to the area until the Lyme was 
  tainted by the noxious effluvia from the metropolis 
  known colloquially as The Blight. Unlike most 
  aquatic species that were unable to survive the 
  poisoning of the waters, the sough-eel population 
  managed to endure the deadly waters but were changed 
  in the process. Their hide is in a constant state 
  of dying and sloughing off in large swaths 
  and layers. 
  If a sough-eel bites a victim, it grabs 
  hold and automatically inflicts 1d8 points 
  of damage from a second set of jaws in 
  its throat that aid in swallowing. After a 
  sough-eel bites with its second jaws, it has 
  a 2-in-6 chance of swallowing the victim on 
  the next round. Any victim swallowed takes 
  4d6 points of damage from the acids in the e e l ’ s 
  stomach.
  The creature’s bite also causes a victim’s flesh to rot, dealing 
  1d4 points of damage and a loss of 1d2 charisma each round until 
  the victim makes a saving throw.
  Sough-Eel: HD 8; AC 5[14]; Melee bite (2d6 plus disease); 
  Move 6 (swim 15); Save 8; AL N; CL/XP 10/1400; Special: 
  disease (1d4 damage plus 1d2 charisma until successful 
  save), grab (automatic 1d8 damage after bite), 
  swallow whole (2-in-6 chance after 
  grab and bite, 4d6 damage).
  Copyright Notice
  Author Greg A. Vaughan, based on 
  material by Richard Pett.
  
  50
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Spider, Gable
  Hit Dice: 1, 3, 5
  Armor Class: 8 [11] (1HD); 6 [13] (3HD); or 4 [15] (5HD)
  Attacks: 1HD: bite (1d4 plus lethal poison); 3HD: bite (1d6+1 
  plus lethal poison); 5HD: bite (1d6+2 plus lethal poison) 
  Saving Throw: 17, 14, or 12
  Special: poison, sticky globule
  Move: 9/6 (climbing)
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1, 2 or 1d8+2 (colony)
  Challenge Level: 1HD: 2/30; 3HD: 4/120; or 5HD: 6/400 
  Gable spiders are different from other varieties of giant spiders, and 
  it is for this reason that the whole of the city isn’t shrouded in endless 
  sheets of webbing. Gable spiders are not web spinners. The size of an 
  alley cat, they are still agile climbers like normal spiders and still live in 
  web-like structures, but they lack spinnerets of their own. Rather, they 
  are instinctively master builders when it comes to stringing together the 
  detritus found in the city’s dumps and alleys: frayed ropes, sail cordage, 
  clotheslines, lengths of twisted rags, curtains, sailcloth, and more. Even 
  lengths of chain and bits of lumber construction can be found in the web-
  like contrivances that the gable spiders build. They combine these myriad 
  materials in twisting, knotted mazes of suspended lines that can shame 
  the largest of spider webs for complexity. They knot and anchor these 
  mismatched lines among the rooftops and with each other to create these 
  swaying-but-stable webs of junk.
  However, just because they are not web spinners does not mean the 
  gable spiders are not masters of their domain. Rather than spinnerets, 
  gable spiders have large swollen glands that secrete a sticky fluid they use 
  to coat their rope and cloth constructions to provide the same benefits of 
  a natural web. Creatures stuck within their depths become easy prey for 
  the gable spiders who are able to move in and among these artificial webs 
  with great agility and speed. Any creature falling into a gable spider’s 
  web must make an Open Doors check to escape before the agile spider 
  descends to feed.
  The bite of the gable spider delivers a lethal venom.
  Once every other round, a gable spider can project a globule of the 
  substance it uses to coat its webs. The spider can project this globule up to 
  30ft to hit targets. Any creature struck must make a saving throw or find 
  itself covered in the sticky web fluid and slowed to half speed.
  Spider, Gable (Small): HD 1; AC 8[11]; Atk bite (1d4 plus le-
  thal poison); Move 9 (climbing 6); Save 17; AL N; CL/XP 2/30; 
  Special: poison (save or die), sticky globule (30ft range, save 
  or movement halved).
  Spider, Gable (Medium): HD 3; AC 6[13]; Atk bite (1d6+1 plus 
  lethal poison); Move 9 (climbing 6); Save 14; AL N; CL/XP 
  4/120; Special: poison (save or die, +1 to save), sticky glob-
  ule (30ft range, save or movement halved).
  Spider, Gable (Large): HD 5; AC 4[15]; Atk bite (1d6+2 plus 
  lethal poison); Move 9 (climbing 6); Save 12; AL N; CL/XP 
  6/400; Special: poison (save or die, +2 to save), sticky glob-
  ule (30ft range, save or movement halved).
  Copyright Notice
  Author John Ling, based on material by Richard Pett.
  
  51
  The Crucible
  Wallow-Whale
  Hit Dice: 15
  Armor Class: 3 [16]
  Attacks: bite (2d8 plus disease)
  Saving Throw: 3
  Special: capsize, disease, swallow whole
  Move: 15 (swimming)
  Alignment: Neutrality
  Number Encountered: 1 or 2
  Challenge Level: 16/3200
  Originally found only in the Unsea of Between before some of these 
  great cetaceans somehow escaped and began reproducing in the mundane 
  world’s oceans, wallow-whales are now the terror of the Fetid Sea 
  and one of the primary threats for which the Castorhage 
  Navy diligently patrols those waters. Wallow-whales 
  are offal, carrion, husks, leavings, and scum given 
  life. Stirges are frequently seen circling them 
  when they surface to launch a spume of oily 
  brine, purulence, and clotted fluids from their 
  blowholes, and oozes capable of surviving 
  in the acidic environment can sometimes 
  be found infesting their cathedral-like 
  stomachs. Wallow-whales aren’t afraid to 
  venture close to the city to feed upon the 
  excrement, rot, and flotsam that seethes like 
  a gyre around its foundations. Yet despite 
  their foul body habitus, the ambergris of a 
  wallow-whale is a thing both rare and highly 
  valuable, selling for as much as 100gp/pound. 
  Daring or foolhardy whalers armed with cold-
  iron harpoons hunt these beasts upon the 
  oceans, and in some cases upon the Unsea, 
  with specimens typically yielding 1d6x10 
  lbs. of the substance, while some have 
  reported whales yielding 3d6x10 lbs.
  If a wallow-whale rolls a 15 or above on its bite attack, it grasps a 
  victim in its maw and swallows the creature whole during the next round. 
  A creature swallowed whole automatically takes 3d6 points of damage 
  each round. Anyone bitten or swallowed by a wallow-whale must also 
  make a saving throw or contract a wasting disease from the myriad 
  infections loosed on its body. This disease breaks down the victim’s 
  body, doing 2d6 points of damage every hour until cured.
  A wallow-whale can rise its massive body below ships 
  to capsize them.
  Wallow-Whale: HD 15; AC 3[16]; 
  Atk bite (2d8 plus disease); 
  Move 15 (swimming); Save 
  3; AL C; CL/XP 16/3200; 
  Special: capsize, disease 
  (2d6 damage/hour), 
  swallow whole (15 or 
  above to hit, automatic 
  bite damage and 3d6 
  damage each round).
  Copyright Notice
  Author Alistair Rigg, based on 
  material by Richard Pett.
  
  52
  The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City
  Ring
  Between Ring
  This plain, unadorned ring is typically made of iron or some other 
  common metal and bears signs of tarnish, rust, or some flaw that cannot 
  be polished away or repaired. It also includes something of the tainted 
  essence of Between in its composition, giving it a slightly greasy feel to 
  the touch. When a Between ring is worn, the wearer must make a saving 
  throw or be unable to voluntarily remove it. It never fits well: sometimes it 
  feels too loose (though it never falls off), and sometimes it squeezes much 
  too tightly, causing pain and a discolouration in the finger. Each day there 
  is a 1-in-20 chance that it tightens, causing 1 point of damage from the 
  constriction. If a Between ring ever constricts for 5 days in a row without 
  the wearer receiving any magical healing, the finger it is worn on dies and 
  becomes necrotic, eventually falling off in 1d4+4 days. The loss of this 
  finger deals 2d4 points of damage but is one way for a wearer who has 
  failed his saving throw to remove the ring.
  A wearer of a Between ring gains a +2 AC bonus against any creature 
  from Between. In addition, the wearer can make an unarmed attack against 
  such a creature with the hand that is wearing the ring, dealing 1d6 points 
  of damage and having a chance of being a lethal hit three times per day if 
  the attacker rolls a natural 20. The target can make a saving throw to avoid 
  being instantly killed, but still take 3d6 points of damage from the strike.  
  Appendix B: New Magic Items
  
  53
  The Crucible
  Legal Appendix
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  in section 1(e) of the Open Game License: Any and all material or content that could be claimed as Product 
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  previously released Open Game Content, material required to be Open Game Content under the terms of the 
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  15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0a © 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  System Reference Document © 2000. Wizards of the Coast, Inc; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip 
  Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
  Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, Copyright 2008, Matthew J. Finch
  Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules, Copyright 2010, Matthew J. Finch
  Swords & Wizardry Monstrosities, Copyright 2013, Matthew J. Finch
  Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material 
  by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  The Book of Experimental Might © 2008, Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.
  Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by 
  Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Jason 
  Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, 
  James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick 
  Renie, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and Greg A. 
  Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 3, © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Jesse Benner, Jason 
  Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, James Jacobs, Michael Kenway, Rob McCreary, Patrick Renie, Chris Sims, F. 
  Wesley Schneider, James L. Sutter, and Russ Taylor, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and 
  Skip Williams.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4, © 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Dennis Baker, Jesse 
  Benner, Savannah Broadway, Ross Byers, Adam Daigle, Tim Hitchcock, Tracy Hurley, James Jacobs, Matt 
  James, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reynolds, F. 
  Wesley Schneider, Tork Shaw, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Magic. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Jason Bulmahn, 
  Tim Hitchcock, Colin McComb, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reyn-
  olds, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Combat. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Jason Bulmahn, 
  Tim Hitchcock, Colin McComb, Rob McCreary, Jason Nelson, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Sean K Reyn-
  olds, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Equipment © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Dennis Baker, 
  Jesse Benner, Benjamin Bruck, Ross Byers, Brian J. Cortijo, Ryan Costello, Mike Ferguson, Matt Goetz, Jim 
  Groves, Tracy Hurley, Matt James, Jonathan H. Keith, Michael Kenway, Hal MacLean, Jason Nelson, Tork 
  Shaw, Owen KC Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide. Copyright 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: 
  Jason Bulmahn.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Race Guide. Copyright 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: 
  Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Benjamin Bruck, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Jim Groves, Tim Hitchcock, 
  Hal MacLean, Jason Nelson, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Owen K.C. Stephens, Todd Stewart, and Russ 
  Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Class Guide. Copyright 2014, Paizo Inc.; Authors: Dennis Baker, 
  Ross Byers, Jesse Benner, Savannah Broadway, Jason Bulmahn, Jim Groves, Tim Hitchcock, Tracy Hurley, 
  Jonathan H. Keith, Will McCardell, Dale C. McCoy, Jr., Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas 
  M. Reid, Sean K Reynolds, Tork Shaw, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Russ Taylor.
  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GameMastery Guide, © 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Cam Banks, 
  Wolfgang Baur, Jason Buhlman, Jim Butler, Eric Cagle, Graeme Davis, Adam Daigle, Jashua J. Frost, James 
  Jacobs, Kenneth Hite, Steven Kenson, Robin Laws, Tito Leati, Rob McCreart, Hal Maclean, Colin McComb, 
  Jason Nelson, David Noonan, Richard Pett, Rich Redman, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Amber 
  Scott, Doug Seacat, Mike Selinker, Lisa Stevens, James L Sutter, Russ Taylor, Penny Williams, Teeuwynn 
  Woodruff.
  Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Keith 
  Baker, Wolfgang Baur, Clinton J. Boomer, Jason Bulmahn, Joshua J. Frost, Ed Greenwood, Stephen S. Greer, 
  Jeff Grubb, James Jacobs, Michael Kortes, Tito Leati, Mike McArtor, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Eric 
  Nelson, Jeff Quick, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Leandra Christine Schneider, David Schwartz, 
  Amber E. Scott, Stan!, Owen K.C. Stephens, Todd Stewart, James L. Sutter, Greg A. Vaughan, Jeremy 
  Walker, and JD Wiker.
  Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Magnimar, City of Monuments. © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: 
  Adam Daigle and James Jacobs.
  Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Rival Guide. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Brian Cortijo, Adam 
  Daigle, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, Colin McComb, Jason Nelson, Amber Scott, Neil Spicer, and Todd 
  Stewart.
  Pathfinder Player Companion: Animal Archive © 2013, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Amanda Hamon, 
  Philip Minchin, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Christine Stiles.
  Pathfinder Companion: Cheliax, Empire of Devils © 20009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Jonathan H. 
  Keith, Colin McComb, Steven E. Schend, Leandra Christine Schneider, and Amber E. Scott.
  Pathfinder Companion: Gnomes of Golarion. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Hal Maclean, Colin 
  McComb, Mark Moreland, Jeff Quick, Sean K Reynolds, Steven Schend, and Owen K.C. Stephens.  
  Pathfinder Adventure Path #48: Shadows of Gallowspire. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Brandon 
  Hodge.
  The Blight: Richard Pett’s Crooked City, © 2016, Frog God Games, LLC; Authors Richard Pett, Pete Pollard, 
  Alistair Rigg, and Greg A. Vaughan.
  The Book of Lost Spells, © 2015, Frog God Games, LLC
  The Tome of Horrors Complete, © 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God 
  Games; Author Scott Green.
  The Tome of Blighted Horrors, © 2016, Frog God Games, LLC; Authors John Ling, Authors Richard Pett, 
  Pete Pollard, Alistair Rigg, Jeffrey Swank, and Greg A. Vaughan.
  TB4: The Crucible, © 2016, Frog God Games, LLC; Author: Richard Pett.
  
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  Player Map
  
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  GM Map
  
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  GM Map
  Don’t go to sleep. Some say dreams of fire  
  are haunting the night, and that if you dream  
  of burning, you awaken on fire.
  People in the Blight begin to awaken at night burning with an all-too-real fire.  
  Most of them die horribly, spouses or lovers staring in shocked horror at their sudden  
  death throes in the grip of consuming flames. A few of the truly unlucky actually manage 
  to survive — if living in such a state can be called survival. There seems to be no rhyme 
  or reason in the victims of these incinerating dreams, as those among the high and low fall 
  victim to its touch, and the locals each pray that he or she will not be next.
  Now no one dares to sleep.
  The Crucible is a stand-alone adventure set in The Blight for 4–6 6th-level characters.
  TB4: The Crucible
  TB4: The Crucible
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Richard Pett’s Crooked City
  Frog God 
  Games
  ISBN 978-1-62283-335-1
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Swords & Wizardry/SW Adventures & Settings/Lost Lands (SW)/Lost Lands The Blight (SW)/The Blight Adventures (SW)/TB4 The Blight The Crucible (SW).pdf