The Tower of the Black Prince

The Friday night Krevborna campaign continued, this time with a special guest joining for the evening.

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

Johanna, lycan bard and fallen noble 

Routh, cauldronborn servant of the Graymalks

 

Events

The Charnel Hounds arrived in Hemlock Hollow after weeks of traveling. They found the Graymalk's sprawling, city-block sized house easily; after knocking on the door, they were ushered into a conference with Vandra Graymalk, a witch with a particular focus on herbalism. She offered terms for treating the hideous plant growths that had taken root in Anastasia and Morwenna: she would cure one of them now and other later, and in return the Hounds would retrieve an item lost in the Hellwar that the Graymalks wanted. Vandra also planned to send her cauldronborn servant Routh with them to keep the group on task. (And to facilitate her plan to betray the group, but of course they didn't know that.)

After accepting her terms, the group was led into the labyrinthine basements of the Graymalk house until Vandra unlocked an iron-bound door that opened into utter darkness. The item they were meant to retrieve, which she would not name, was hidden somewhere in the Tower of the Black Prince's Corruption...in Hell. 

By stepping through the portal, they literally entered Hell.

They walked across a red plateau until they saw a strange tower in the distance. The tower proved to be made entirely of flesh--scabby, puss-leaking flesh. Morwenna flew to the top of the tower and spotted a wound large enough to enter, so she ferried each Hound up to the top one by one. 

The tower's internal wounds acted as tunnels leading downward through the mass of flesh. They encountered pools of blood and puss, as well as a stained glass window depicting an angel in flight embedded into the "skin" of one room. They also encountered demons trying to fish a dead Graymalk witch from a vast puddle of bodily fluids--they charged in, defeated the devils, and looted the witch's purse as their prize. In another "chamber," they surprised a number of shovel and pickaxe-wielding demons hard at work digging tunnels into the flesh below their feet. After fighting the vulture-like overseer, they let the demons creep off as they clearly weren't looking for a fight once their leader was dispatched.

In one of the tunnels heading deeper into the tower, they saw something large and reptilian scuttling in the shadows. They choose another tunnel that eventually brought them to a large brass door. A sentient man mad of shadow lurked nearby. Morwenna approached him--and he proved to be the shadow of the Black Prince, the first necromancer the world had ever known. Contrary to their suspicion that he was there to prevent them from opening the door, he wanted  them to do it--it would allow him to slip out of Hell to pursue his terrible goals in the Mortal World once more. 

Opening the brass door suddenly didn't sound like a good idea. However, he also assured the group that the item they sought was beyond the door. The only catch was that someone had to speak the Enothian words etched on the door as it was opened, and the Black Prince was unable to say such holy words. Seeing no other way forward, they group did what was necessary and--

--found themselves in an uncanny approximation of Creedhall, the color palette reduced to red-on-red and the twisted street they were on leading up a hill to where a dark mansion sat. From one of the skeletal trees flanking the manse, they could see a bag made of human skin hanging from a branch--and they knew that was the mysterious item Vandra had sent them for. Unfortunately, as they made their way up the hill the doors of the mansion opened and a veritable army of the undead trooped out to meet them. In the lead was their commander--a lizard-headed woman missing an arm.

The battle to gain the bag was fierce. Routh was nearly killed by the army's leader, and when Anastasia ran to heal Routh she was cut down in turn. Only quick strategizing (and the initiative cards falling in their favor) prevented a death in the party. Morwenna swooped in and grabbed the bag; rather than fight until every last foe was defeated, they ran for it.

Strangely, when they again crossed through the brass door it did not lead them back to the Tower of the Black Prince's Corruption. Instead, they realized they were inside a large tent with a campfire burning at its center. The tent's occupant introduced herself as Cassie Mabcrowe. Cassie was the friend that Serafina contacted on their behalf because they wanted information on Yavor Mikalek and the otherworldly entity known as Krusikal.

Cassie was happy to provide the information they sought, but she had a deal of her own she wanted to strike with the Charnel Hounds. She explained that the Graymalks planned to kill them as soon as they handed the bag over to them, and that Routh would be commanded to aid in the betrayal. Cassie offered them better terms--she would heal the remaining Hound afflicted with the unnatural plant, free Routh from the Graymalks and bestow him with free will, and give them the name of someone who could help them find Yavor. All in return for what was in the bag, of course.

Knowing a bargain when they saw one, the characters accepted. 

Dragonwyck

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 95: Dragonwyck

Anya Seton is a grande dame of historical fiction, a reputation earned by novels like Dragonwyck, her 1944 gothic romance. Join Jack and Kate as they explore the dark corridors and even darker history of a 19th Century Hudson Valley manor home.

What are some warning signs that you’re in for a rough ride with a romance protagonist? How many times will our hosts mispronounce Ms. Seton’s name? Does breast size (once again) hold the key to understanding this book’s female characters? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of the podcast. 

Cauldronborn

Since these guys have popped up a few times in the current Krevborna campaign, I thought I should add them to the world-building blog posts. If it wasn't obvious from what follows, the cauldronborn are Krevborna's answer to the idea of "orcs."

 

Cauldronborn

As a last-ditch tactic in their war to push mankind out of their territory, the aelvani submerged their human prisoners of war in magical cauldrons gifted to them by Baba Vasaga, the Hag-Queen of the Autumn Court. When these captives emerged, they were the first of the cauldronborn—a race of transmogrified warriors who were stronger and more savage than the raw material that created them. When it was obvious that they had lost the war against humanity, the aelvani freed the cauldronborn from servitude. Only small pockets of cauldronborn remain in Krevborna.

Cauldronborn are hulking and brutish in appearance; they often possess gray or greenish skin, sloping foreheads, and jutting teeth. They tend to be physically imposing, strong, and resilient.

 

Suggested Stats: I just use the orc stats from the Fantasy Companion for cauldronborn. 

Ornamental Women Bookmarks

Ornamental Women, my debut Gothic Fantasy novel, has been out for just about two months now, so I'd like to offer a little something to everyone who bought a print copy: a silly bookmark drawn by yours truly. (If you bought an ebook copy, I still love you, but you won't need a physical bookmark for that, right?) Anyway, here's the bookmark:

 

The bookmark is a doodle depicting Serafina, the "Angel of the Graves," main character of Ornamental Women. Since Sera is a dangerous grave robber, she's shown with dagger and shovel in hand.

Want one? Here's how to get it: send a pic of your print copy of Ornamental Women to me at totgad AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address and I'll get one out to you. (Or a copy of your receipt or order history or whatever--I do not need to see your credit card details, obviously!)

If you haven't bought a copy yet--there's still time! I made a bunch of these, so while supplies won't last forever I should have enough if you want to purchase a copy soon. Consider that your incentive! 

The Bad Seeds

More fun with nuns in the latest Krevborna adventure!

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest 

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

Johanna, lycan bard

 

Events

We last left the Charnel Hounds investigating the Convent of St. Nostalia of the Bladed Mercy because they suspected the nuns were connected to the strange, plant-infected sisters who had attacked Braelin hours before. The Hounds hadn't made a great impression on the nuns after breaking into the convent, leveling guns at them, and announcing their allegiance to heretical saints. 

Things didn't improve much after one of the nuns, Sister Evangeline, offered to take them on a tour of the convent to show that nothing nefarious was going on and they just stood there dickering about it for quite some time. Their behavior toward the nuns effectively cut off any negotiation or the possibility of deceiving them--it was clear they weren't there in good faith.

When they finally decided to let themselves be escorted by three of the nuns (Sister Bronwyn stayed behind in the chapel to finish her prayers), they were shown that nothing was amiss in the laundry. Sister Evangeline was adamant that the strangers could NOT interrupt the rest of any of their sick and dying patients. They were also shown the kitchen, where again nothing was amiss.

Ulu and Varro left the convent to investigate the adjoining cemetery, after promising not to disturb the dead. Again, nothing was amiss...until they searched the nearby bake house. It was evident that the ovens had not been fired in some time, which made them suspect that the nuns weren't actually eating. Also strange was the covered cauldron they found that contained more of the Borcheza perfume they had smelled earlier, and a ladder leading down into tunnels--tunnels where they could hear water rushing.

Back in the kitchen, Dario and Johanna were led down into the basement larder by Sister Petra. The nun beckoned them into the reaches of the larder--then blew out her candelabra. At the same moment, Sister Evangelina kicked the trapdoor leading into the larder shut. A sudden rush of perfumed scent assailed Anastasia and Morwenna, knocking them both out. 

Down in the darkness, Johanna and Dario found themselves attacked by thorny tendrils--things immediately went poorly for them as they were savaged by a surprise attack. They attempted to fight back, but the absence of any light made it impossible. When they finally got a lantern lit, they saw that Sister Petra was no longer standing on two feet; she had sprouted a number of vine-like tendrils from her back that allowed her to scuttle around. The battle in the larder was a very near thing; both Johanna and Dario emerged wounded.

Morwenna and Anastasia awoke blindfolded, gagged, and bound. They felt a small blade cutting each of their ankles, then felt the pain of a walnut-sized seed being pushed into their flesh. 

Varro and Ulu returned to the convent proper and now found the front door barred from within. A window was broken so that Varro could crawl inside and unbar it. They then met up with Dario and Johanna, and the group discovered Morwenna and Anastasia face down and bound in one of the nun's cells. Anastasia determined that trying to remove the seeds from their ankles would cause catastrophic damage, as the seeds had already started sending roots throughout their legs--if not further into their flesh.

Ulu explained about the tunnel system they had found, so it was decided that the best bet was to explore that and hope to find the nuns and perhaps uncover a way to remove the growing seeds from Morwenna and Anastasia. Disconcertingly, as they traversed the tunnels, they found the nuns' discarded habits...and then the nuns' discarded skins.

Further in the tunnels, they faced their most dangerous foe yet: a rushing underground river. Ulu, the strongest and largest of the group, attempted to ford it first--and was promptly swept away by the current. Varro jumped in after her, but was also swept away. Luckily, Morwenna had just enough room to fly and follow them to where they washed up in a little debris-strewn alcove. Clearing away the detritus allowed them to find a passage that circled around to the other side of the underground river, and also netted them a bottle imp to the bargain. With two strong members of the party on the other side of the river, using a rope to help everyone else ford became a much safer prospect.

However, they may have wished they hadn't forded the river when they stumbled upon the three remaining "nuns" (who were now fully plant creatures made of writhing thorny tendrils) caught in the act of merging to form a larger, deadlier creature. Battle was joined and it did not go well. An attempt was made to douse the creature with oil and set it alight, but the thrown torch missed the mark entirely. 

Any initial momentum squandered, the Hounds faced a barrage of attacks that left them all badly wounded and already wrong-footed. Their attempts to rally met with minimal success--ill luck seemed to dog them: guns jammed, attacks missed, and the creature shrugged off some powerful blows. Ultimately, though they were teetering on the brink of defeat, the cavern resounded with the sound of wood cracking as Ulu tore the creature in half. 

With no obvious solution to the problem of the seeds in sight, the Hounds made their way back to Braelin. Raenessa, their alchemist, analyzed the perfume and concluded that it was probably meant to poison the town's water supplies to make everyone transform into plant creatures. Unfortunately, Raenessa had no way to stop the seeds' progress.

Aivra Williams was rounded up from the schoolhouse, since it now occurred to the group that it was strange that she had been targeted by the mutated nuns--they hoped that her blood possessed some sort of anti-plant property--and she was taken to Dr. Ilsa's office. Dr. Ilsa had no way of removing the seeds either, but when questioned Aivra closed the office's door and made all within swear a blood oath not to share what she was about to tell them. She then took down her bun of auburn hair and revealed that she was actually Ivara Graymalk, the eldest sister of the infamous witch clan of Hemlock Hollow. 

She had no way to affect a cure either, but she insisted that her family might be able to help. To that end, she gave them a sealed letter of introduction and urged them to make their way to Hemlock Hollow. The clock was ticking for Anastasia and Morwenna. 

Ornamental Women Playlist

Now, I know exactly what you're thinking: I would buy and read Ornamental Women, Jack's Gothic Fantasy novel, if only it had an official playlist...

Well, friend, you're in luck: here's the official Spotify playlist for Ornamental Women. And here's your link to buy a copy of the novel.

What's on there? Glad you asked:

1. Tristania, Deadlocked

2. Theatres des Vampires, The Gates of Hades

3. Paradise Lost, Joys of the Emptiness

4. Katatonia, My Twin

5. Moonspell, Abyssmo

6. Sirenia, Sister Nightfall

7. Theatre of Tragedy, Cassandra

8. Nightwish, Sleeping Sun

9. Draconian, Bloodflower

10. Therion, The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah

11. The Gathering, In Motion #1

12. Lacuna Coil, My Wings

13. The Sins of Thy Beloved, All Alone

14. My Dying Bride, For You

15. Lacrimas Profundere, I Know and Will Forever Know 

Bladed Mercy

We picked up from the level-up session, and a new adventure began in the current Krevborna campaign!

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange things about blood

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, harpy devotee of St. Vionka

 

Events

After the duel between Varro and Embrelle last session, Varro invited his opponent, her friends Serafina and Alejandra, and their daughter Constance to dinner at the Kaul House. Beaumont D'orleac was glad to see that the party was mixing socially, but since they planned for the dinner to be a seafood boil eaten outside, he left most of the preparations in the hands of Irenya. 

After dinner, they asked Serafina inside to their new library so that she could tell them what she knew of Yavor and Krusikal. Serafina hesitated on the threshold when she saw D'orleac, and when asked to explain her reaction to the butler, she said, "I'm not an expert on the occult, but I know a ghost when I see one."

Serafina was able to shed some light on Yavor and Krusikal: she had a "friend" who sometimes taught at the Malcovat, the school of black magic hidden high in the Karthax Mountains. Yavor was also an instructor at the school, but he turned away from diabolism and embraced the alien magic of the Outer Dark instead--and cheated Hell of an entire cohort of witches and warlocks. Serafina knew that Yavor was a disciple of Krusikal--also known as Kusikal the Unvanquished and Krusikal the Heartless. That last name was especially important because Krusikal had removed his "heart" and sundered it in two so that he could not be slain. Serafina didn't know what the heart was, but she related that her friend considered each half to be a particularly fell weapon. She further promised to contact her friend on their behalf to see if she could provide further aid.

The evening was interrupted with the arrival of a young man who came to tell them that the schoolhouse in Braelin was under attack. Alejandra, Serafina, and Constance sheltered with Raenessa and Irenya in the alchemist's lab; Embrelle borrowed Raenessa's husband's sword to accompany the group to see what the trouble was. 

The schoolhouse was, in fact, under attack--by women with greenish tinted skin wearing nun's habits. They had the schoolhouse surrounded and were banging on the doors and windows with their fists. When talking to them failed, a big battle ensued--and it was big, as there were thirteen of the nuns in total. It quickly became apparent that the nuns were not normal--flowering blooms and thorn-studded tendrils erupted from their flesh. Eventually, the Hounds were joined by Pandora and Morrigan Rue, which helped even the odds. 

(Morrigan was highly proficient with the two swords they always saw her carrying, and Pandora was able to conjure creatures made of shadow.) 

They were also aided by a mysterious gunshot that took the head off of one of the marauding nuns.  

Once the dust settled, the nuns were searched--one of them had a bottle of expensive perfume from the Borcheza company on her person. Curious, that.

Dario also knocked on the door of Crispin Telimov, the tailor who lives across from the school, and detected the smell of gunpowder on him. Did he fire the helpful shot that took out a nun?

The Rues reported that other areas of Braelin had also come under attack, but had been repelled. The Rue sisters agreed to supply the Hounds with horses if they wanted to venture to the Convent of St. Nostalia of the Bladed Mercy up in the hills to see if it had any connection to the attack. 

It was night when the group reached the convent. Anastasia came through the doors into the chapel with guns drawn, disturbing  a nun with scars on her hands during her prayers. The nun was not intimidated by Anastasia or the group in the least, and denied the convent's involvement with the attack on Braelin. Morwenna tried to smooth things over, but mentioning that she was an acolyte of a heretical saint didn't improve matters. 

Things appeared to be in a stalemate when a group of three more nuns arrived, one bearing a lit candelabra. Another, her eyes a bright blue that reflected the candlelight, proposed they talk through whatever issue brought the group to St. Nostalia's convent.

We'll see how well that works next time. 

Total Skull: June, 2026

Things that brought me delight in June, 2026.

 

Johanna van Veen, Bone of My Bone

I enjoyed Johanna van Veen's haunting novel My Darling Dreadful Thing, but I really enjoyed Bone of My Bone. Bone of My Bone centers on a Catholic nun and a Protestant peasant girl who are carting around the skull of a saint that wants to be reunited with its body, but a necromancer and his mercenary thrall are in hot pursuit across the bloody landscape of the Thirty Years' War. The novel is fast moving, grim when it needs to be, but with its eye on the possibility of redemption. Fans of Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires and Robert Eggers's films should lap this up. Highly recommended; it's one of the best things I've read this year.

 

Evanescence, Sanctuary and Synthesis

It's kind of crazy that Evanescence dropped one of their best, most cohesive albums in June, 2026. There's a level of refinement here that comes with experience, but at the same time there is also a passionate fire to these tracks that you don't often get with a band commanding this much popularity and longevity. It's certainly welcome to hear, that's for sure. Sanctuary is plenty heavy, and Amy Lee still knows her way around a piano ballad.

I also got into Synthesis, an album in which Evanescence revisits past glories via new orchestral and electronic versions.

 

When Nothing Remains, Echoes of Eternal Night

I could have sworn that When Nothing Remains had called it a day and broken up, but if so they got back together and released a new album that I only just heard about in June. Though not as well known as My Dying Bride or Draconian, When Nothing Remains toils in the same funereal garden of doom metal. The riffs are slow and heavy, the vocals veer between death growls and clean singing, and melancholy piano elements add a certain gravitas to the proceedings. The spoken word bits on Echoes of Eternal Night won't be to everyone's taste, but overall I thought this was a great slab of dark storytelling from practiced hands in the melodic death doom genre. 

 

Devil May Cry, Season Two 

The second season of Devil May Cry isn't perfect; it's often hard to discern what anyone's actual scheme is, and the show relies way too much on flashbacks. That said, when it hits it really hits. And it really hits when some awful anthemic nu-metal song kicks in right before a big action sequence. That's the stuff right there. Apparently we're getting one last season of this--which feels about right to me. Kudos to the team for not wearing out their welcome on this absolutely ridiculous animated series.

 

Jessica Alexander, Agnes, We're Not Murderers!

For some reason, I thought Agnes, We're Not Murderers! was going to be a bit more like Victorian Psycho, which I loved. Instead, I found something entirely different to love instead. Agnes, We're Not Murderers! is a Gothic novel made from the interconnected raw material drawn from some of the Gothic's foundational texts. Astute readers will note the borrowings from Northanger Abbey, Wieland, Frankenstein, and Carmilla. But more than that--there's an intertextual element here, with footnotes and phrases bolded in red ink to act as both a roadmap through the complexities of this short book and to tell a different, but related, story as a counterpoint to the main tale.

 

Cloak, The Venomous Depths, The Burning Dawn, and Black Flames Eternal

As proof of the absolute abundance we live in, consider that it's still possible to find a band you've never heard and then discover that they have an entire discography of treasures to explore. Such was the case for me with Cloak, whose albums The Venomous Depths, The Burning Dawn, and Black Flames Eternal I delved into in June. Cloak deal in Gothic black metal; they offer a wide sonic palette, working in eerie passages, all-out tremolo assaults, and some straight-ahead riff fests too. If you are as unfamiliar as I was, their work is definitely worth spending some time with. 

  

The Dreadful

I enjoyed Natasha Kermani's Abraham's Boys, though I thought it was a little slow and perhaps based on a short story that didn't have enough meat on its bones for a full-fledged movie. The Dreadful is similarly slow moving, but the atmosphere of manic fear it exudes is pretty potent. In The Dreadful, a woman lives with her mother-in-law during the Wars of the Roses; both await his return from the war. When his childhood best friend mysteriously returns instead, and the woman realizes that her mother-in-law is up to some bloodthirsty stuff, things begin to spiral out of control--and then a nightmarish knight shows up.

 

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Summoned to visit her dying gangster father, a pious child finds herself menaced by an imperious vampiress with a thirst for children. Although it's never really explained--and little in this movie is--there is a war going on between two factions of vampires, too. There is a dreamlike quality to Lemora that makes for a compelling experience. In my opinion, Lemora would make an excellent double feature with Valerie and Her Week of Wonders as both of them focus on pubescent women learning to navigate the desires of all the potentially predatory adults around them.

 

Cynthia Gomez, Muneca

This is a very fun little Gothic novella. In Cynthia Gomez's Muneca, the protagonist takes a job as the caretaker to a non-communicative, paralyzed woman she believes is actually afflicted by a witch's hex. By inserting herself into the household, she's putting herself in grave danger--and positioning herself so that she must confront the dark history of her own family, as well as her identity as a lesbian woman. This one has some really tense sequences, an interesting main character, and--okay, the doll stuff! The blurb on the cover is right about the doll stuff--that brings a nice dose of unique weirdness into play.

 

How Like a Winter, self-titled

We were talking about the band The Foreshadowing (terrible name, I know) on the Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque Discord, and one of my pals mentioned How Like a Winter, an older band fronted by The Foreshadowing's singer. That set me on the path of checking out How Like a Winter, a band from the mid-1990s specializing in Gothic doom metal. Their record is refreshing in its rawness--remember when not everything had to polished? The beauty is in the imperfections. 

The Sentinel

The Sentinel is a movie I've been meaning to watch for a long time, and I finally got the chance to sit down with it in June. In The Sentinel, a young model moves into a brownstone apartment and meets a pack of "quirky" neighbors who quickly prove to be far more sinister than they first appear. The cast is absolutely stacked with great performers, even in the minor roles, and the film makes extremely effective use of red herrings. I wasn't entirely sure how all the narrative pieces fit together until the end, but when the climax came it felt entirely earned. 

 

Daniel Corrick (ed), Ghosts and Robbers: An Anthology of German Gothic Fiction

I badly needed a palate cleanser after a particularly inept novel experience toward the end of the month, and I found my solace in Ghosts and Robbers: An Anthology of German Gothic Fiction. This anthology is full of classic stuff: a man elopes with a spectral nun, diabolic wishes (via a bottle imp!) grant you get more than you bargained for, being dared to spend the night in a haunted chamber should always be answered in the negative, etc. All that, plus one of the first vampire stories to be committed to prose! You really can't go wrong with this collection if, like me, you're addicted to cruising the dark entries of obscure Gothic fiction.

Second Novice Advance

The characters in the current Krevborna campaign recently earned their second advance in the Novice tier. Here's what everyone grabbed:

Dario: the Feint edge

Johanna: the Savagery edge

Anastasia: the Two-Gun Kid edge

Varro: increased Spirit to d6

Ulu: the Martial Artist edge

Morwenna: gained the Spellcasting edge at d4 and increased Common Knowledge to d6

The group also got to upgrade the Kaul house: they've chosen to add a Library.

We also made time to let the characters interact more with the various NPCs they've encountered so far:

Dario met with Beaumont D'Orleac to get a better sense of how the Kaul household is being managed. D'Orleac explained that Raenessa has not been receiving a wage for her labor as the Hounds' alchemist-in-residence, but D'Orleac has been providing funds from the household account to supply her with ingredients she can't forage from the local countryside. Irenya, on the other hand, is employed by D'Orleac directly. Rather than drawing a wage from the household itself, D'Orleac pays her from his own personal account. Why he does that has not yet been fully broached.

Varro ventured to the Wolf & Rose to see Embrelle and set up a time for their duel. Since Embrelle had friends coming into town to visit on the weekend, they decided that was the perfect time for the fight. They planned to rope off part of the lot behind the tavern, get the Nokoviks to set up a food cart, and have Johanna play the after party--you know, really make an EVENT out of it for the town.

Ulu wanted to meet with the Rue sisters, but she only found Morrigan Rue, the icier of the two sisters, having tea at the Blue Room. Ulu hesitantly asked for the Rues' patronage to help fund her experiments as an artificer, which Morrigan agreed to. The only catch was that, from time to time, the Rues might have a request for Ulu to craft something for them to further their own mysterious ends. Ulu also went to the Nokoviks' shop to buy paints and get their bun recipe; she was told to expect her trees within the next few weeks.

Anastasia and Dario paid a visit to the Honey Pot to see if Doctor Ilsa knew anything about Krucikal or Yavor. She did, in fact, know of Yavor--she referred to him as an occultist particularly interested in the eldritch entities of the Outer Dark.

Johanna and Morwenna trekked up to see Wyatt at Fort Onataiga, which they discovered was extremely dilapidated. Wyatt was his typical sad-sack self, but he did have a book that mentioned Krucikal. Krucikal was an abomination from the eldritch dark, also know as Krucikal the Unvanquished. Something something eating of souls and whatnot.

 

The Fight

A large crowd gathered for the Varro versus Embrelle fight, including town luminaries such as Doctor Ilsa and Aivra Williams. Embrelle's friends were also in attendance: a leggy blonde with crazy green eyes, a pale, black-clad woman, and their unruly-haired child. 

The rules for the duel were simple: the combatants were going to strike with the flats of their blades, full armor was allowed, and they'd fight until one of them couldn't fight any longer.

The fight began! Varro took a massive hit just trying to close the gap to get to Embrelle. When she gave him the death stare and tried to walk him down, though, he stayed resolute and didn't flinch. Somewhat miraculously, he was able to rally toward the end--essentially evening the score between them, but he couldn't quite put her down. Ultimately, she took him out--sending him ass over heels--but then she hoisted him back up in celebration of what a close fight they had. Even if he was unsteady on his feet, she was determined to show that they both fought well and were comrades in arms. The outcome was certain, but in a way it was a shared victory.

Things got wild during the after party, with Dario disappearing to get up to who knows what, Morwenna eating rats, and Johanna getting a massive tip from Alejandra, Embrelle's blonde friend. Alejandra also took a turn playing for the locals so Johanna could get in a dance with Wyatt. Varro, still punch drunk, was peer-pressured into drinking some beer--until Raenessa cut him off. In the late hours of the morning, they stumbled back into the Kaul house. Luckily, Raenessa had already brewed some hangover remedies for them.

The Burning Ghost

The current Krevborna campaign continued with an adventure adapted from the old Ravenloft scenario book Chilling Tales.

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange things about blood

Johanna Albrecht, a lycan bard with a particularly keen nose

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword


Events

The Charnel Hounds arrived back at Kaul House to the annoyance of finding that they were once again hosting a party of uninvited visitors. This time, it was both of the Rue sisters, Crispin Telimov, and Aivra Williams--the latter being two-thirds of Braelin's town council. They had come to ask the Hounds to act as an impartial third party to decide a matter of seemingly little importance: a farmer had a sheep killed by another farmer's hound; the hound was killed in revenge. Aivra thought the matter should be at an end, and that the two parties should swear a blood oath to let the matter lie; Crispin figured that the dog was worth more than a single sheep. Ultimately, the group agreed with Aivra. Morrigan ushered Aivra and Crispin out of the house, but Pandora Rue remained behind to broach another issue.

Pandora explained that she had another matter she wanted the Hounds to involve themselves in. She explained that two years prior, the house of local businessman Tilney Raab burned to the ground, and that the fire claimed the life of Thomas Aldritch, his valet. The house was rebuilt, but had since been plagued by strange phenomena: dresses and paperwork burst into flames, the sound of clanking chains was heard, and Patricia, the daughter, was plagued by horrible nightmares. Pandora wanted the group to investigate the haunting and put an end to it. She also stressed that this was a test, of sorts: she believed that the characters were up to the delicate task, but Morrigan thought them blunt instruments who were ill-suited to the kind of jobs the Rues could occasionally offer.

The group accepted, and Pandora told them to venture to the Raab house in the morning. The Raabs would be expecting them. 

Before heading to the Raab house, they stopped in to see Sister Eliza at the St. Vionka shrine. Eliza told them that one of Thomas's leg bones was missing at the time of his burial. 

At the house, the Hounds met all three members of the Raab family. When asked if he had any enemies who might have been responsible for the house fire, Tilney Raab listed four people he had some enmity with: Embrelle Fairchild (because he didn't buy the alcohol for a party he threw from her), Kole the blacksmith (because Kole had been telling people he was never paid for work he did for Tilney), Aivra Williams (because she was not invited to Patricia's birthday party), and Crispin Telimov (because Tilney demanded his money back after not finding the garment the tailor had made him pleasing enough). Before the interview concluded, Tilney mentioned that they had a guest at the house: the famous artist Belladonna Pietra Sangino.

After the family left the sitting room, Dario and Anastasia interviewed a maid named Nelly because they had heard that she was involved with Thomas. Nelly couldn't name anymore who had it out for Thomas, but she admitted to their love affair. She also mentioned that she was not present the day of the house fire because she was sent to attend to Angel and Patricia Raab as they visited family elsewhere.

Varro wanted to see the items that had burst into flames for himself, and he got the young, attractive, and flirtatious Patricia as his tour guide. (Not that he noticed any of those qualities.) She showed him the burn holes in some of her party dresses. While in her room, Varro noticed a strange man approaching the house; he was dressed like a man of means, but from his rough looks and demeanor Varro guessed that his origins were from among the lower orders. Varro rushed downstairs to listen at the door while the newcomer, whose name was Colstan, met with Tilney in his office. What he overheard sounded suspiciously like Colstan demanded more blackmail money from Tilney over an unnamed and nefarious act. 

Varro also asked Patricia if she had been sleeping with Thomas, which earned him a slap across the face.

Johanna and Ulu went to find Belladonna; she was busy working up a background for one of her paintings on the south lawn. Johanna had seen Belladonna before because the artist had painted her father when she was a child; oddly, Belladonna didn't look a day older than Johanna remembered her from years ago. During their conversation, it became clear that Belladonna was excited to paint the ghost. She also gave Ulu a little instruction on how to paint trees, letting her also work on the same canvas.

Anastasia made a quick run into town to pick up her order of silver bullets from Kole, who proved to be one of the cauldronborn. When asked what work Tilney had commissioned, Kole said that Tilney had him fashion an iron manacle--but hadn't paid him for it. Tilney had ordered the manacle right before the house fire.

When the group reconvened, they traded information and came up with a hypothesis: Thomas was sleeping with either Angel or Patricia, so Tilney and Colstan conspired to chain the valet to something within the house and then burned him alive within it.

To confirm their hypothesis, Ulu, Anastasia, and Johanna interviewed Angel while Dario and Varro went in search of Colstan. Angel claimed she hadn't had an affair with Thomas, but she also painted a sad picture of her marriage--it was clear she had very little economic freedom and was entirely dependent on her husband. As the party pondered why the family didn't just move from their haunted house, they settled on the idea that maybe the family couldn't actually afford to--despite their wealthy pretensions. 

Varro and Dario got Dr. Ilsa's permission to break Colstan's legs, if need be, but it didn't come to that. (Colstan used to be one of her ruffians, but had left her employ after coming into some money two years ago.) They found Colstan drinking at the Wolf & Rose. Dario approached him and successfully greased the man's palm to find out where the manacle had gotten to. Colstan gave them the location: it was buried in the Raab's stables. 

That night, the Hounds made the Raab family and all of the servants leave the house so they could try to communicate with Thomas's ghost. Ulu and Dario dug up the manacle, which had fused to Thomas's missing leg bone. At the same time, the rest of the group had a confrontation with Thomas in the music room. The burning ghost lit the piano's keys aflame, they made Varro's clothes combust. Belladonna Pietra Sangino sketched Varron on fire with great glee. When they were able to reason with Thomas's unquiet spirit, he told them they must shackle Tilney with the manacle.

They didn't even need to go in search of him: the Rue sisters were waiting in the entryway with a cowering Tilney, who now sported a black eye. He begged for his life, but the group chained him as requested. Tilney immediately burst into flames and was incinerated. Then the ghost departed, satisfied.

It turned out that the Rue sisters were already well aware of Tilney's guilt--this was all just a test to see how the group would handle themselves. 

Ulu had a few words with Belladonna before leaving the Raab house. She requested the sketch of Varro on fire, as well as a painting of Varro. Belladonna also gave Ulu the finished painting they had both worked on. The treeline was still there, but Belladonna had added Ulu sat before the easel, painting. 

Anastasia found Angel and Patricia Raab; she didn't tell them everything, but she did let them know that they were now free to live their own lives now that Tilney was dead. She also paid a visit to Ulysses, the town's sheriff, to drop a dime on Colstan over his involvement in Thomas's death. However, the next day Ulysses paid the group a visit at the Kaul House. He told them that when he found Colstan, the man had been drained of blood and had puncture wounds at each wrist. The Hounds now suspect that the Rue sisters are vampires. 

Authors Who Influenced Ornamental Women

The other day, someone asked me if there were any specific authors that influenced the way I wrote Ornamental Women. 

(What, you don't have a copy of Ornamental Women, my Gothic Fantasy novel, that is available in print and ebook? Well, you can remedy that here.)

These are some of the authors whose influence I see at work under the skin of Ornamental Women; they are all people whose work has inspired me, so I list them with all possible gratitude:

 

Anna Smith Spark 

When I started working on Ornamental Women in earnest, I was reading Anna Smith Spark's Empires of Dust trilogy. Dissecting how she wrote about acts of violence was instrumental in giving me the vocabulary for the bloodshed in Ornamental Women, both in terms of word choice and how violence can be used to set pacing in a scene. And I like to think there's some fairly grimdark, horrific violence in Ornamental Women, so you can judge for yourself how successful I was. This particular influence is perhaps most visible in the chapters where Serafina has her back to the wall, grits her teeth, and lets her knives do their dark work.

 

Alexis Flower

Readers might notice--hell, might even object to--my use of deliberate anachronism in Ornamental Women. Nightsong is the most obvious example; it's patently ridiculous to have a bardic subculture inspired by black metal and to have its foremost practitioner speak with an outrageous Valley Girl accent, but Alexis Flower's beautiful, pornographic fantasy comic I Roved Out gave me the courage to throw that stuff in and never look back. If IRO can have characters in gimp masks among all the fantasy questing elements--well, then the field is wide open. If you're familiar with both IRO and OW, it's pretty obvious that Nightsong would party HARD with Maeryll and Cinder. 

Also, Nightsong's Traitor's Argent was heavily inspired by Becky the "psycho Rooster" in IRO, albeit with a weird, biblical bent.

 

Tamsyn Muir 

What I learned from Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tombs series is pretty simple, but it was crucial to the tone of Ornamental Women: you can combine incredibly dark subject matter with characters who are sometimes funny and honestly a little over-the-top. Plus, I could totally see Serafina and Nightsong dressing as Harrow and Gideon for Halloween.

 

Michael Moorcock and Andrzej Sapkowski

Taken together, Michael Moorcock and Andrzej Sapkowski form the two most traditional fantasy inspirations I was working from. Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone was the first fantasy novel I really fell in love with as a teenager, so that's not too surprising. The character Cassie Mabcrowe is a bit of a tribute to Moorcock's hero Corum, who has the alien Eye of Rhynn and the six-fingered Hand of Kwll, but she's the "lady version, who is also power-hungry and a little evil" of that. 

Wayland is a character cast from the mold of Andrzej Sapkowski's Geralt of Rivia or at least descended from that archetypal style of laconic monster hunter. This is probably most evident in Wayland's encounter with the noknitsa, though I think that plot line ends in a far darker way than the Witcher books would ever offer.

Charles Dickens 

One of the biggest influences on my writing style and plot structuring in Ornamental Women was an author it often feels like you're not supposed to admit to enjoying anymore: Charles Dickens. I'll make no bones about it--I love Dickens. 

Dickens was especially inspirational in the way he often sets a weird group of disparate characters wandering in a sprawling setting, with the same set of characters running into each other and intersecting in interesting ways. It probably pushes the bounds of credulity that Serafina crosses paths with Wayland, Nightsong, and Cassie in Piskaro--and that Nightsong separately meets up with Wayland and Cassie--but letting happenstance have a role in the overall structure of the book really appealed to me. 

Also, wherever my sentences got long, and bristled with asides, that's a little bit of Dickens creeping in. I'm not sorry.

Ornamental Women Podcast Episode

Bad Books for Bad People, Episode 94: Ornamental Women

We’re celebrating the release of cohost Jack Guignol’s debut novel Ornamental Women with a conversation that touches on inspiration, process, and motivation. Settle in for a wide-ranging chat about the novel, a dark gothic fantasy about the intersecting lives of three strange–and sometimes magical–women who want to solve the mystery of a disappearing corpse.

How do you square conflicting feedback from test readers? What are some of the challenges that come with translating subculture influences into a fantasy milieu? Do “bad” characters deserve love? All these questions and more will be answered in this episode. 

Buy a copy here! 

The Moyle Mines

We had to skip a week due to gallery stuff and internet issues, but we were finally able to conclude the Krevborna group's delve in the Moyle Mines.

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange thing about blood

Johanna Albrecht, a lycan bard with a particularly keen nose

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, a carrion-eating harpy  

Events

When we last left the Charnel Hounds, they had just defeated three demons in the depths of the Moyle Mines. After the fight, they carried on exploring. They found a pool fed by a natural spring; the water was strangely warm, and deep down in the pool they saw a glimmer of light. Ulu dove into the pool and swam down to retrieve the glowing object. When she resurfaced, she held a glass-fronted wooden case. Inside was a yellowed human skull with a golden laurel wreath at its brow--the light was coming from the wreath.

The group narrowly missed blundering into a cavern with a flammable gas leak--which their lantern would have surely ignited--but Dario noticed that their lantern's flame flared and grew bigger as they headed in that direction. 

They doubled back and found the rest of the skull's skeleton in a large glass case. After placing the skull onto the rest of the skeleton, it animated. The Charnel Hounds were now in the presence of St. Anderlecht. The saint could sense the presence of demons within the caves, and so announced that he must retrieve his sword before dealing with them. The group followed him to a rubbish pit where he rummaged for his blade.

As St. Anderlecht searched, the group noticed the sound of heavy breathing coming from a crack in the cave wall. Ulu reached in and extracted Stavran Moyle, a former commander of the Hounds who had betrayed them, even though he tried to stab her with the dagger he clutched in his hand. Stavran was in bad shape; his leg was broken so badly than bone protruded from his skin and the group could smell that rot had set in. Stavran was tied up and gagged--they planned to deal with him after the demoness in the mines was dealt with. 

After following St. Anderlecht to a chamber with a large pit in the center, Varro and Ulu leaned over the hole to see what was down there--and were surprised to see the demoness and her minions climbing over the lip. Lerhmassa had the lower body of a great golden worm and the upper torso of a human woman. Well, if a human woman had spiraling golden horns and metal plates all over her body. Her minions were mutated miners; sharp bits of gilded metal erupted from their skin in random patches. 

The ensuing battle was difficult. Anastasia discovered that mundane weapons couldn't hurt Lerhmassa, but luckily the group had Varro's magical sword and Ulu still had the potion from Raenessa that enchanted her claws and fangs. Morwenna kept the enemy at bay with her scissor blades, softening them up for other members of the party to get kills. Dario, Anastasia, and Johanna set to work clearing the minions. When Johanna was hit in the melee, she entered a berserk rage and assumed her wolfen form--she bisected her foe in retaliation and sent him tumbling down into the pit in two halves.

During the battle, Lerhmassa seemed to recognized the Hounds, saying, "Ah, you are the ones hunted by Krusikal!" The name Krusikal meant nothing to them. 

Speaking of the pit, after taken some heavy wounds, Ulu charged Lerhmassa and fell into the pit as well--landing on a pile of gold coins and trinkets. During the fight, both Ulu and Varro found themselves near death, but Anastasia's healing magic and the timely delivery of a healing potion from an airborne Morwenna kept the group from taking any casualties. In the end, the minions were dispatched and Ulu took Lerhmassa in her powerful jaws, shaking her decisively to break her neck. 

What was St. Anderlecht doing during the combat? He was busy sharpening his sword with a whetstone. And when he did join the battle, he missed with every swing. When he tried to take credit for the victory after the fact, Ulu knocked his skull back off his skeletal body, rendering him inert again. Johanna took St. Anderlecht's sword and Ulu pried the golden laurels from his skull.

The cave system was thoroughly looted of gold (though the group would later leave the town's trinkets on the doorstep of the church) and they found a tome called The Book of the Seven Carrion Winds on a corpse underneath a mining cart. 

Johanna interrogated Stavran Moyle. They learned that he had betrayed the Charnel Hounds into an ambush by the Fist of Arjal at the behest of a man named Yavor Mikalek. Mikalek paid Stavran, of course, but he also had Stavran's youngest brother hostage. Yavor didn't know the full reason why Yavor wanted the Hounds done away with, but it had something to do with "half a weapon" that Yavor didn't want in circulation. And why lead all of the Hounds into the trap? It was to make sure it didn't look like a single person bearing that weapon had been targeted. 

Once Johanna was satisfied with the information she had, she tore out Stavran's throat. However, a strange thing happened. Purple energy poured from Stavran's eyes, his corpse sat up, said a few words in a different voice, and then he collapsed--dead again, but his eyes and tongue had been burned out. Morwenna then consumed his flesh.

When the group returned home to the Kaul House in Braelin, they found that they had visitors again: Pandora and Morrigan Rue were there, as were Crispin Telimov, the tailor, and the Aivra Williams, the schoolteacher. We'll find out what they want next time.

The Doomed Yee-Haw Roundup

We've been doing group watches of Weird Westerns over on the Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque Discord server. To keep it varied, I've tried to run the gamut--from eerie psychological horror on the prairie and movies heavy on the brutality to mean-spirited revenge tragedies and the weirdest Spaghetti Western known to man. Here's what we've feasted our eyes on (in case you want some solid recommendations or wish to recreate our film series):

The Wind

Bone Tomahawk

The Salvation

Django Kill, If You Live...Shoot!

Grey Knight (aka The Killing Box aka The Ghost Brigade)

 

The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

Dinner and Delving

After the previous session's downtime, the group was resolved to take the Nokoviks up on their invitation to dinner, then head to the village of Goranstad in pursuit of the commander who had betrayed their mercenary band.

 

Characters

Dario Diego Durant, swashbuckling swordsman

Doctor Anastasia Nadya Strahov, a gun-priest who says strange thing about blood

Johanna Albrecht, a lycan bard with a particularly keen nose

Ulu, the party's urska mom

Varro, a young snow elf bearing a magical sword

Morwenna, a carrion-eating harpy 

Events

The group assembled (along with with Raenessa and Irenya) and made their way to the Nokoviks' place for dinner. (Beaumont D'Orleac stayed behind, saying that someone must watch the house while they're out.) The party was greeted warmly by Yungfang, but a little less so by Mei-Lin, which was par for the course. Still, the Nokoviks clearly believed in hospitality, offering salad greens dressed with ginger and mustard, steamed rice, and a chicken and vegetables dish fried in a spicy chili sauce. For dessert, they were given buns filled with sweet bean paste.

Dinner conversation turned a bit fraught when Yungfang was a little too open when asked why he and his sister had come to the Vespermark from the Khanlands. Yungfang explained, to his sister's consternation, that their village was preyed upon by a vampire lord and that they had led an uprising against the undead. They managed to slay the vampire, but when the vampire's kin arrived seeking revenge they had to flee the country of their birth. Mei-Lin was adamant that telling the story made them vulnerable; she was clearly concerned that they could be hunted down, even so far away from home.

In the morning, the group headed south from Braelin to Goranstad. They found Goranstad to be little more than a shanty town of miners' tents, with only one permanent building: Goranstad's church. However, they arrived in the midst of a flurry of excitement--there was to be a hanging in Goranstad that very night! The condemned was a man named Vatroslav, a former laborer at the Moyle mine, who was caught in possession of a number of stolen gold and silver items. 

Asking around about the Moyle Mines unveiled some interesting facts: the Moyle mine had run dry years prior, but some of the miners still loitered around it; other miners claimed that the Moyle mine was either haunted or cursed; Stavran Moyle, the party's quarry, was seen heading to the Moyle mine to talk to his brother, but hadn't been seen since.

The group managed to convince the guards standing watch over Vatroslav to let them have a word with him before his execution. The man seemed stark, raving mad--speaking of the glory of gold, the shining beauty of golden fruit from the golden tree, and the ascendance of an entity called Lerhmassa. The Hounds recognized the name Lerhmassa--she was a demoness of greed thought long banished beneath the earth. Their interrogation was interrupted by the arrival of the priest and his men, who led Vatroslav to a hastily erected gallows where he was hanged without incident.

Deciding that the Moyle mine should be their next stop, the group was able to bluff their way past the menacing-looking miners guarding the entrance by pretending to be new recruits to the cult of Lerhmassa. They took the birdcage elevator down to the last-known operational mine shaft and began to explore. There were cart rails laid to transport ore and even a few carts still on the tracks. They passed over a carving on the stone floor--a large tree bearing heavy apples. They found a space with spare mining equipment--and discovered an explosive. (They took that with them, of course.) 

The also found a small office area, but all of the survey maps and documents had been effaced with ink to make them illegible. However, when the desk in this room was touched, they perceived a flash of golden light coming from back the way they had come. Heading back in that direction, they saw that a number of demons had been summoned from the symbol on the floor they noticed earlier. The demons had gilded horns and hooves, and carried golden blades with serrated teeth. The group charged the devils. Although the demons were resistant to their mundane weapons, they were still able to best them in combat. Once dead, the demons dissolved into molten pools of gold.

And that's where we ended for the night. Next time they will delve deeper into the mine. 

First Advance

We're trying something new in the current Krevborna campaign: we're actually meeting on a shared video call to do advances as the characters grow in skill and power. Previously, I thought people would consider that a waste of time, but I think they actually had a good time just hanging out and talking about where they want to take their characters.

The session also gave us the opportunity to play through a little "downtime" in the town of Braelin. No dice were rolled, but the characters got a chance to talk with the NPCs more, further their relationships in town, and learn more about their new home. 

 

Downtime 

Ulu paid a visit to the Nokoviks' store. Yungfang wasn't around, but his sister Mei-Lin was. Ulu restocked on rations for the group and bought a bunch of daggers. She asked about any art they might have for sale, and Mei-Lin gave her one of her brother's paintings for free; apparently, Mei-Lin has a low opinion of her brother's art. Ulu also left with an invitation for the group to have dinner with the Nokoviks. On the way back to the Kaul house, Ulu stopped in at the gaol and had a conversation with Ulysses, the town's necromancer sheriff. He compared necromancy to baked goods, which was perplexing.

Dario availed himself of the amenities at the Blue Room, including a brutal massage from Naomi, the woman who runs the place. Later on, he met up with Johanna and Varro to check out the Wolf & Rose tavern--where they met Embrelle, the cambion who owns it. Like the Charnel Hounds, Embrelle was once a soldier, having served in the Hellwar. She and Varro compared greatswords, and made a tentative plan to spar at some point. Johanna asked if they ever had live music, which got her an open invitation to perform on the Wolf & Rose's small stage. They also made the acquaintance of Wyatt Hothstaedder, the Knight Labyrinthian keeping watch on the mountains from Fort Onataiga. Furthermore, they saw some local shifty toughs with small rag dolls tied to their biceps; they explained that they worked for Doctor Ilsa aka Ragdoll Ilsa. They weren't shy in letting the group know that Doctor Ilsa peddles alchemical intoxicants, as well as serving as the local doctor and brothel owner.

More importantly, the group learned that the two men who had been asking around town after them were soldiers from the Fist of Arjal--the very army that had destroyed the Charnel Hounds. No one knew where the soldiers were currently, but Embrelle doubted that they had left Braelin. They seemed very determined to find the last of the Hounds. 

Anastasia and Morwenna took a little side trip to scout out what was going on over at the Children of Eternal Penance compound. They were, obviously, a cult--one lead by a mysterious Brother Jacob. They weren't let inside the walled compound, but were given a printed tract called The Many Sins of Mankind and Cure Above All Cures, which explained that Brother Jacob was "spiritually married" to every member of his flock. It was somewhat obvious that these spiritual marriages also give him conjugal rights, but the less said about that the better. It was also said that Brother Jacob could perform miracles.

When the group reconvened in Kaul House, they found visitors awaiting their return--the two soldiers from the Fist of Arjal were sipping tea in their parlor. Their butler, Beaumont D'Orleac, had made the "guests" comfortable, but Irenya, the maid, was prepared to make them less so--the two soldiers couldn't see it, but she had a pistol trained on them.

The soldiers were there on an errand of conscience: they had found out that the Hounds had been betrayed into a trap in Trevania. As such, they could not stomach being part of a treachery. They had sought out the last of the Charnel Hounds to return a battle standard that had been taken as spoils of war. Before departing, they told the group that one of the men who betrayed them--a commander named Stavran Moyle--was currently in a mining town to the south called Goranstad. That would be the party's next stop. 

Advances

Ulu raised her Intimidation skill

Johanna raised her Survival skill

Morwenna raised her Smarts

Anastasia took the Ambidextrous edge

Varro took the Trademark Weapon edge

Dario took the Attractive edge