Misgivings, Part 1 (Thursday-Friday, Neth (XI) 2, 4707 AR)

The next day saw the murder of Titus Scarnetti, a high-profile murder victim. It was also the day sheriff Hemlock was under orders to arrest Bruthien. The heroes had to engineer his escape from the Rusty Dragon while Ameiko delayed the sheriff, and Shalelu led him to a grove in the Whisperwood.

The results of this murder were similar to those the heroes saw at the mill, including a new clue. The sheriff found a bloody, obviously clawed handprint on a wall. And he found a new note penned for Bruthien, a note with an invitation to "become one with the pack". The heroes all met up in Whisperwood with the intent of exploring Foxglove Manor.

The Misgivings was the local name for Foxglove Manor, a region shunned by locals for years as a place of shadowy menace, bad luck, and haunts. No one traveled the road to the Misgivings today. Lord Foxglove made attempts to rebuild and reclaim the place, but found few willing to work in the region due to its ill history.

The route leading out to Foxglove Manor was a 3-mile hike along a narrow path that followed the Foxglove River from the covered bridge where it flowed under the Lost Coast Road to the dark sea cliffs overlooking the Varisian Gulf. Here, wild sea birds called out to a roaring ocean that churned hundreds of feet below. As the heroes neared Foxglove Manor, it almost seemed as if nature herself had become sick and twisted. Nettles and thorns grew more prominent, trees were leafless and bent, and the wind seemed unnaturally cold and shrill as it whistled through the cliffside crags. The path slowly rose, bending around a steep corner in the cliffs, and the Foxglove Manor loomed at the end of the world.

The strangely cold sea wind rose to a keening shriek as Foxglove Manor came into view. The place had earned its local nickname of the "Misgivings" well, for it almost appeared to loath its perch high above the ocean, as if the entire house were poised for a suicide leap. The roof sagged in many places, and mold and mildew caked the crumbling walls. Vines of diseased-looking gray wisteria strangled the structure in several places, hanging down over the precipitous cliff edge like tangled braids of hair. The house was crooked, its gables angling sharply and breached in at least three places, hastily repaired by planks of sodden wood. Chimneys rose from various points among the rooftops, leaning like old men in a storm, and grinning gargoyle faces leered form under the eaves.

Foxglove Manor Lore

Once the heroes realized that Foxglove Manor might be behind the murders and the ghoul problems in the farmlands, they wisely did a bit of research. Foxglove Manor is over 80 years old, and has been the seat of the Foxglove family the whole time. Some sort of tragedy struck the family a few decades ago, and no one's lived there since. Common rumor holds that the place is haunted.

Foxglove Manor is known as the "Misgivings" by some locals, particularly by Varisians. It certainly has a bad reputation - sightings of strange lights in the attic windows, muffled sounds of screaming from above and below, and even rumors of a huge bat-winged devil living in the caves below the manor are but a few of the tales told about the place. The Foxglove family lived there as recently as 2 decades ago, but then a fire burned down the servants' building, Cyralie Foxglove was found dead - burnt and dashed on the rocks below the cliffs behind the house - and Traver Foxglove was found in his bedroom, dead by his own hand. The children, including young Aldern Foxglove, were sent away to be raised in Korvosa by distant relations.

Aldern Foxglove recently returned to live in the manor, but he had a hell of a time hiring locals to aid him in the reconstruction and repair of the old building. Until Aldern moved back in, the place was cared for by a man named Rogors Craesby (a retired innkeeper who lost an ear in a bar fight many years ago) who came in 3 days a week from Sandpoint to air the place out, check for squatters, and make minor repairs.

Foxglove Manor was built decades ago by Vorel Foxglove, a merchant prince from Magnimar. He and his family lived there for 20 years before the entire family perished from disease. The surviving Foxgloves of Magnimar shunned the place for 40 years, until Traver Foxglove moved back in.

The Foxgloves have traditionally been associated with the Brothers of the Seven, a secretive gentlemen's club based in Magnimar and consisting of merchants or thieves, depending on whom you talk to. Members of the society periodically visited Foxglove Manor at night during the years the manor went unlived-in, perhaps to check up on the building and make minor repairs - or perhaps for more sinister pursuits.

Foxglove Manor

Decay abounded inside Foxglove Manor. Ceilings sagged, plaster swelled, and timbers rotted. Inside, doors were often wedged shut by dampness and rot, requiring muscle and physical power to open. Mold and stains marred the walls and floors, often in strangely unsettling patterns. Rooms were unlit. Areas in Foxglove Manor had the pervasive smell of decaying wood and an overall air of ancient neglect, and little things like the periodic groaning of the house's jolts reacting to unaccustomed movement within. Small events enhanced the unpleasant feeling inside the house, little more than tricks of the light and vague feelings of unease.

There were two obvious entrances into Foxglove Manor, the front doors (which lead into the entrance hall) and the side doors. The front doors were locked; they were opened by the key carried by Rogors Craesby. Numerous windows could provide entrance into the manor as well; the unbroken, grime-encrusted panes of glass in their frames spoke not only of the Foxglove family's wealth being able to afford such an extravagance, but also of the manor's notorious reputation - no vandals had dared break them. The windows themselves were curtained from the inside, but it looked like it would be a relatively simple matter to break most of them and climb into the room beyond. Clambering up onto an upper story or the roof also looked possible - there were numerous handholds, but many were rotten.

Ruined Servants' Quarters. It was impossible to tell how many floors the outbuilding that stood here once had, for all that remained were the sooty, scorched stones of its foundation. To the east, a four-foot-wide stone well sat, partially collapsed, in the corner of the ruins. The well dropped even further than Thurden's darkvision.

When the heroes passed by this area, a few sickly looking ravens were perched atop the foundation stones; they flew clumsily away once approached.

Entrance Hall. The sound of the house straining and creaking gave this long, high-ceilinged room an additional sense of age and decay. The place smelled damp, the unpleasant tinge of mold lacing the air as surely as it stained the wooden floors, walls, and furniture in pallid patches. Moldering trophies hung on the wall to the northeast: a boar, a bear, a firepelt cougar, and a stag, yet they paled in comparison to the monster on display in the center of the room. Here crouched a twelve-foot-long creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail fitted with dozens of razor barbs, huge batlike wings, and a deformed humanoid face.

As the heroes entered this room, they briefly heard what sounded like sobs coming from somewhere upstairs. Fen also caught a momentary whiff of burning hair and flesh in this area. The heroes decided to look for the source of the sobbing upstairs.

Bedroom. This bedroom featured a child-sized bed, a chair next to a toy box, and a looming stone fireplace big enough for a child to get lost in. While the heroes searched the room, Bruthien approached the western area of the room surrounding the bed. He then suddenly became convinced that his parents were trying to kill each other, and that whichever of them survived would be coming to kill him next; he had a vision of his mother, wielding a torch, and his father, festering with tumors and wielding a long knife, both struggling to kill each other. The vision passed as fast as it occurred, at which point Bruthien's rational thoughts suffered from the mind-numbing terror of the sight.