Before play begins in earnest, tell the players that their characters have been traveling together for more than a week on a dreary camel caravan from the town of Solku to an unknown location in the northern scrublands of Katapesh. The man who hired them is Garavel, the no-nonsense major-domo of a merchant princess awaiting them at their destination. In the distant haze to the west, the PCs can just make out the immense outline of Pale Mountain looming over the mid-evening horizon like a tombstone. Give each player a chance to describe his character, what he looks like, how he acts and so forth. Everyone has had a few days to get to know one another, and this is a good way to engage the players from the very start.
Once each player has had a chance to talk a bit about his character, tell the players that they are nearing their destination. As soon as the craggy tree appears over the next hill, it becomes obvious why it is called the Sultan’s Claw. With five immense, mostly leafless branches, the growth looks more like a giant skeletal talon than a thing of living wood.
As the PCs top the last rise, a caravan of a half-dozen wagons and a large tent clustered around the distinctive tree comes into view. Camels in a nearby pen prance in agitation, and a clutch of confused goats and livestock wander the grounds around the wagons. Perhaps a dozen men and women rush around the campsite, chasing down an animal or hastening toward the center of the cluster, near the Sultan’s Claw, with pails of water in their hands. One of the wagons is on fire!
Lush orange and red flames engulf an elaborate wooden wagon emblazoned with painted moons and stars. A gout of smoke pours from an open door, and as you approach an ill wind blows a number of colorful fortune-telling Harrow cards from inside the wagon. Pick one of the PCs—the one who in your estimation is the most mystical. One of these singed cards blows directly at that PC, catching against his chest in a burst of orange cinders. It is the Cyclone, signifying a force that tears through whatever it meets at the behest of an intelligent being. The card portends war, arson, and destructive plans. As the PCs’ eyes shift their focus from the Cyclone back to the wagon, the whole of the Sultan’s Claw erupts into brilliant flame.
The central flap of an elaborate tent flies open and a regal woman who can only be Almah steps out into the firelit night. “Douse that flame!” she shouts to the men surrounding the wagon before turning in your direction. “Ah, Garavel!” she says. “And just a moment later than the nick of time, as usual.” Looking specifically past her major domo and directly at the PCs, Almah barks out a simple order before running off toward the fire: “Find some way to help!”
Faced with an immediate crisis, the PCs have an opportunity to assist in a number of skill-based challenges that serve to get the dice rolling right away and to introduce key members of Almah’s party. The players will get to know these characters a lot better in the scenes to come, but right now dealing with the fire is everybody’s first priority.
Give each PC the opportunity to help in one of the following ways:
Put Out the Fire: Almah, Garavel, and four soldiers dressed in the distinctive red chitin-plate armor of the Pactmaster Guard run back and forth between the burning fortune teller’s wagon and an uncovered wagon about 20 feet away. The latter contains a huge barrel holding enough drinking water to serve the entire campsite for a week. At present, it will take the six NPCs 10 rounds to quench the fire using the pail-by-pail method. There are more buckets to be grabbed by the player characters, and each PC assisting in this manner reduces the number of rounds it takes to put out the fire by 1. A DC 20 Strength check allows a character to carry the entire water barrel over to douse the fire, which puts it out in a single round.
PCs who assist Almah, Garavel, and the guards impress these NPCs enough to shift their starting attitude from indifferent to friendly in future encounters. Those who destroy the party’s water supply receive grudging thanks for putting out the fire, but NPCs who closely witnessed their act of brave stupidity will be unfriendly to them in future encounters.
Pull Wagon Out of the Way: Four burly mercenaries struggle with an enclosed wooden wagon within feet of the burning wagon, hoping to move it to safety before an errant spark causes it too to burst into flame. This will occur 6 rounds after the PCs arrive unless they successfully haul it out of the way. Moving the unhitched wagon requires a DC 26 Strength check. The four mercenaries each attempt a DC 10 Strength check (each mercenary has a +1 bonus to this check) to aid a PC attempting to move the wagon, potentially adding as much as +8 to the check. Assuming the wagon is rescued in time, the mercenaries thereafter are friendly toward and PCs who helped them.
Heal Wounded Firefighters: An aged human alchemist, Father Zastoran, kneels next to two severely burned mercenaries who tried to enter the burning wagon. Father Zastoran is tending to a badly wounded mercenary called Trevvis, but he is unable to focus on his second patient, a female sworder named Kallien, who lies near death from terrible burns and smoke inhalation. Any magical healing is sufficient to stabilize Kallien, who is currently at – 6 hit points and counting. A DC 15 Heal check is also sufficient to stop Kallien’s decline. In future encounters with Father Zastoran, Trevvis, and Kallien, these NPCs have an initial attitude of friendly to any PCs who successfully kept Kallien from dying.
Deal with Frightened Animals: A modest collection of pigs, goats, and sheep accompanies Almah’s party on the journey to Kelmarane. The flaming wagon has unsettled these creatures, which somehow escaped from their pen in the confusion surrounding the fire’s outbreak. The middle- aged human camel driver and his wife do their best to wrangle the panicking animals, but their efforts are quickly being overrun by the chaos of the situation.
Five animals must be calmed in order to keep them out of danger and out of the way. Calming a panicked animal requires a DC 20 Handle Animal or wild empathy check. If the PCs manage to make 5 successful checks before the fire is quenched, the camel driver and his wife have a friendly attitude toward them in future encounters. Despite a completely successful outcome, the camel driver is for the moment completely distraught, as his favorite goat, Rombard, has gone missing in the chaos.
Ad Hoc Experience Award: If the PCs manage to stop the fire before it spreads, award them experience as if they had defeated a CR 1 creature.
The group of people Almah has gathered to aid her in retaking the village includes the PCs and (now that the astrologer Eloais is dead) 16 other characters—Almah’s major domo Garavel, an expert on gnolls named Dashki, a cleric of Nethys named Zastoran, four soldiers, six mercenaries, a pair of camel drivers, and Almah herself. Full stat blocks for most of these NPCs are not provided, but their class, race, and level are given in the event you wish to develop them into characters more likely to fight at the PCs’ side.
Almah Roveshki (LN Female human expert 4/fighter 1/rogue 1): Almah is a beautiful young merchant princess, the latest in a long line of wealthy agents of the Pactmasters of Katapesh. Her family, originally from Varisia far to the north, has dwelt in Katapesh for several generations now. Unfortunately, her family has been down on its luck for most of those generations as a result of bad investments and the economic intrigues of rival merchant princes, but Almah is ready to steady the ship and rebuild her family legacy. One way to do that is to rescue the village of Kelmarane, which used to be in the charge of her family ages ago. The Pactmasters want it back, so they have sent Almah to make it so.
Almah is a canny competitor who knows that she will not get a second chance to impress her mysterious superiors. Thus she has thrown everything into this expedition. She still manages to maintain the luxury of her position (perfumed accommodations, the finest silks, well-paid mercenaries), but the strains are starting to show, and the hint of desperation has begun to drive her decision-making. While she projects an outward atmosphere of control, she is more willing than ever to trust the counsel of outsiders. This has, unwittingly, made her something of an easy pawn of Dashki and his secret allies. Dashki’s encouragement brings Almah closer to achieving economic stability and the salvation of her family name, so she is blind to the scout’s many failings.
If the PCs ask Almah about Kelmarane, she replies, “Long ago, the village was one of several in the Uwaga Highlands of the Brazen Peaks situated around a battle market, a huge arcade that attracted merchants, gladiators, actors, musicians, and customers from throughout Katapesh and neighboring Osirion. Then, about 20 years ago… it fell, and the Pactmasters abandoned it to ruin. Rumors of plagues and evil curses abound, but in truth no one really seems to know why the village died. About 2 years ago, a pack of gnolls called the Kulldis tribe inhabited the battle market and claimed Kelmarane as its own. The Pactmasters want the village back, and it’s up to us to deliver it to them.” A DC 20 Sense Motive check is enough for a PC to get a hunch that Almah may know more about the doom that came to Kelmarane, but for now, she doesn’t wish to speak on the subject. She’ll have more to say once the PCs have liberated most of the city, as detailed in Part Five.
Garavel (LN Male human fighter 3): With a lantern jaw and short black hair, the dashing Garavel looks more like a swordsman than an accountant and business expert, yet it is he who oversees much of Almah’s personal business. A strange metal bolt protrudes from the left side of his skull, a sign of his direct servitude to the Pactmasters and a magical method of keeping his emotions in check while he engages in important business matters on their behalf. He often hides this bolt by wearing a plain white keffiyeh over the head—this metal bolt is a Pactmaster’s favor, and apart from ensuring loyalty and preventing emotional outbursts, the device grants Garavel a +4 resistance bonus on saving throws against mind- affecting effects (but at the cost of never being able to gain the benefits of a morale bonus of any sort). A DC 15 Spot check is enough to notice the bolt while he wears his keffiyeh.
Occasionally, Almah uses Garavel to do “dirty” work involving swordplay and skullduggery, always managing to keep herself removed from the lowest of her own dealings. Garavel’s years of service to Almah have instilled a noble sort of love for her—an emotion he is forbidden from expressing thanks to the spirit-hampering influence of the magical bolt. He and Almah share quarters, but there can be nothing sexual about their relationship.
Dashki (Gnoll Expert): Many members of Almah’s party suspect that Dashki may have set the fire. He has drawn attention to himself with his generally rude attitude, his obvious attraction to the merchant princess (who considers him so far below her league that she hasn’t noticed, even if everyone else has), and his rough-hewn, almost feral manners.
Almah hired the mangy, dart-eyed Dashki weeks ago in Solku, while investigating the land granted to her by the Pactmasters. Since Kelmarane was said to be under the control of gnolls, she needed an expert who could explain what she was up against and provide an edge in any possible negotiations with the creatures. Largely due to Dashki’s animated first-hand accounts of gnoll savagery, Almah has given up on the idea of diplomacy, but she keeps him around because she trusts his advice, despite his eccentricities.
Anyone who spends any time with Dashki immediately notices that his powerful body odor betrays a man with a very loose relationship with hygiene. He dresses in filthy rags and walks with a slight limp due to an old injury (a gnoll once tried to chew off his left leg at the thigh), propping himself up with a gnarled wooden staff. A DC 10 Spot check during mealtime reveals that the gnoll expert ravenously shoves food into his mouth with his grubby hands, an animalistic display that grossly offends anyone of culture or refinement.
If the PCs can make Dashki at least friendly, he’ll share his story with them (see sidebar). His story is true up to the bit about his escape.In fact, the gnolls who killed and devoured his father adopted the young Dashki into their hunting tribe and raised him, after a fashion, as one of their own. Nonetheless, Dashki suffered years of cruel abuse at the hands of his new family in the Three Jaws tribe. He was a frequent target of humiliating (often violent) practical jokes, and retreated into a stage of savagery to preserve himself. Eventually, the impersonation became the truth, and Dashki became a gnoll in all but physical form.
Then, a few years ago, Dashki’s chieftain decided to turn the young human into a spy operating from within his old town of Solku. They cast him out of the tribe until he learned to become a human again. Seeking to regain the trust and companionship of his pack-mates, Dashki attempted to regain his humanity. When the gnolls did not respond—indeed almost disappeared into the mountains—he turned against them, siding with the only person in life he could ever trust: himself. In revenge he acted as a regional scout, leading teams of hunters and government men into the wilds to reclaim lands lost to gnoll incursions. That’s how he met Almah, working from a stall in the markets of Solku, eager for coin on the edge of desperation.
Three weeks ago, Dashki’s eldest gnoll “brother” from the old tribe appeared from the foothills. He slew Dashki’s clients—a pair of wealthy hunters from Avistan looking for an eccentric pelt to add to the collection—and welcomed him, at long last, back into the tribe. The chieftain had heard rumors about the Pactmasters’ increased interest in the gnoll-lost lands. His particular interest, Kelmarane, was currently under the control of Kulldis tribe, but would make an excellent addition to the holdings of the Three Jaws. The gnolls encouraged Dashki to stay with Almah and await further instructions.
Father Zastoran (N Male old human cleric of Nethys 3): Zastoran hails from the coastal capital of Katapesh. A cleric of Nethys, the god of magic, Zastoran joined up with Almah years ago when she was just starting out in business, and has been her personal physician and spiritual advisor ever since. Zastoran is a friendly, chatty chap who misses the comforts of his home city and who naturally gravitates toward good conversationalists with interest in culture and the arts.
Zastoran’s small wagon contains an enormous chest that holds dozens and dozens of potions, an entire stock of medicinal supplements and magical aids meant to protect Almah’s band and the early settlers who will flock to Kelmarane once it has been liberated of gnoll influence. Despite this, he is loath to give out his potions and treats the loss of each as more serious than the injuries that they heal. In such cases Father Zastoran is full of patronizing advice about how the PCs can be more careful to avoid injuries in the future. Because of his collection and obsession with alchemy, Zastoran is quick to befriend any PC with similar interests.
Zastoran is particularly adept at avoiding combat— but then, he’s not included in this adventure to give the PCs a direct hand. His role is to provide healing in the form of spells and potions. He can cast 2 cure moderate wounds, 3 cure light wounds, and 4 cure minor wounds in a day, and does so at no charge as the PCs require. His potion collection is large but limited to potions of cure light wounds, cure moderate wounds, delay poison, lesser restoration, and nonmagical holy water. At Almah’s urging, he only charges the PCs half price for the potions (but does so begrudgingly)—it’s fine to simply assume he always has enough on hand to sell to the PCs what they can afford if you don’t want to set a hard limit to his resources.
Caravan Guards (Human warrior 2): Two catagories of guards are part of Almah’s party—loyal personal guards assigned to protect her by the Pactmasters themselves, and mercenaries she hired at Solku to bolster her group’s strength. All of these guards are second-level human warriors, but the two groups are quite different in personality.
The four personal guards are named Fixx, Keldon, Podarn, and Vodrave. Like Garavel, they serve the Pactmasters of Katapesh. It just so happens that they have been assigned to protect Almah, but she does not have direct control over them. The vigilant guards have little sense of humor, are not particularly communicative, and never really treat the player characters as anything other than a potential threat to Almah.
There are six mercenaries—three men (Trevvis [the nominal leader], Utarchus, and Dullen) and three women (Kallien, Brotis, and Yesper). They are a disreputable lot, thick with soiled armor and greasy hair, a distinct contrast to the well-mannered, meticulously attired soldiers who guard Almah at all times. Although they act the part, the mercenaries are nowhere near as tough as they appear or portray themselves to be. At the beginning of the adventure their bluster is fairly intimidating, but as the PCs defeat more and more monsters the mercenaries begin to appear like the middling battlefield pawns that they are. All the while, however, the mercenaries firmly believe themselves to be the PCs’ superiors, treating them accordingly.
Camel Drivers (LN human commoner 2): This friendly, late middle-aged human couple tends the dozen-or-so animals kept by Almah’s band as food or transportation. The merchant princess hired them from the nearby town of Solku. Everyone seems to like the man, Hadrod, and his wife, Hadrah, who also help cook the camp’s meals and take care of many additional menial tasks. Both are tremendous gossips and make a game of keeping tabs on everyone in the camp. The arrival of a new group excites both of them almost more than the recent commotion, and Hadrod and Hadrah pepper the PCs with questions about their backgrounds, clothes, and interests while they attempt to conduct their interview, making it somewhat unclear who is running the interrogation.
Investigating the Fire
Immediate crisis aside, Almah shows remarkably little concern over the fate of her astrologer, treating it more as a loss of resources than a personal tragedy. She asks Garavel to lead an investigation into whether or not the fire might have been set by someone in her camp. Since the PCs also were not around when the fire broke out (and are thus unlikely potential arsonists in her eyes), she asks them to help her major domo determine if there is a mystery afoot, and if so, to solve it. Garavel tells the PCs that the destroyed wagon belonged to Almah’s personal fortuneteller Eloais, a handsome man from Almah’s distant homeland of Varisia. Eloais’s specialty was a divinatory deck of cards known as Harrow, a few cards of which litter the ground outside the burned-out wagon.
Physical examination of the ruined wagon reveals sooty ashes, a few broken bottles or potion vials, a cracked nonmagical crystal ball, and several pools of melted wax where candles must once have stood. Eloais’s charred skeletal form remains near the center of the wagon. A DC 20 Search check reveals no signs of struggle or violence, suggesting that the fortune-teller was killed by the fire itself or from inhaling the smoke the fire caused. Sneaky characters searching the wreckage can harvest 55 gp in assorted blackened coins. Searching characters may make a DC 16 Spot check to notice the gnoll expert Dashki lurking a short distance away, watching them from behind the corner of a nearby wagon.
Interviews
An obvious place to investigate the fire, and one both Almah and Garavel suggest if the PCs don’t think of it, is to speak with everyone else in the party. Not only is this good advice, but it works very well to introduce the PCs to the NPCs they’ll be spending their time with during this adventure. Of the NPCs, only Garavel knows the PCs. The other NPCs have starting attitudes of indifferent to the PCs (save Dashki, who starts as unfriendly); these starting attitudes may have been adjusted depending on the actions the PCs took during the fire. Each NPC is willing to give the PCs a certain amount of information, but only if they’re made friendly do they divulge the information listed at the end of the following sections.
When playing out these interviews, use the NPCs’ descriptions on the preceeding pages to liven things up; the players should ask their questions, not just roll Diplomacy checks and wait for you to feed them a few lines of information, after all.
Almah: Almah hired Eloais in Solku about a month ago to read his cards for her—she hasn’t visited the land of her ancestors, but having a harrower at her side felt “right.” She’s hesitant to reveal what his readings told her. She isn’t convinced the fire was arson, but if it was, she hopes the PCs find out who started the fire quickly. She does seem somewhat distraught at Eloais’s death—if asked, she bitterly asks the PC how they would feel if one of their friends burned to death. Almah doesn’t realize that Dashki is obsessed with her, but if told about it, she grows thoughtful. She admits that Eloais and she didn’t have a romantic relationship, but she did spend a lot of time with the Varisian—time that could well have made Dashki jealous. (Friendly: Almah tells the PCs that Eloais’s readings had grown increasingly grim, and that his last reading centered on an auspicious card, the Cyclone, portending death by fire and schemes by powerful evil. When Almah asked if that indicated something about Kelmarane, he said, “Yes, but the village is only a small part of something much larger, something he called the Legacy of Fire.” Almah isn’t sure what he meant by “Legacy of Fire,” alas. With as little information as the PCs have at this point, no further Knowledge checks can reveal anything more, aside from the fact that no “Legacy of Fire” figures in prominent tales or legends.)
Garavel: Almah’s major-domo has strong suspicions of how the fire started, but does not believe it would be proper for him to voice them at this time. The Lady Almah has asked for an unbiased investigation, after all. (Friendly: Garavel sighs, then indicates that he has never trusted Dashki, and if anyone in the group were to be revealed as an arsonist and murderer, Dashki would be the least surprising to him.)
Caravan Guards: Almah’s personal guard were all standing guard at her tent when the fire started—none of them saw anything suspicious at the astrologer’s wagon, but one did catch a glimpse of Dashki trying to hide behind a tree nearby; “It was clear that he was trying to get a look into Almah’s tent. That boy is obsessed with her.” This places Dashki quite some distance from the wagon when the fire started, evidence in favor of his innocence. (Friendly: no additional information.)
The mercenaries were enjoying themselves around the feast-fire, finishing off dinner with a sturdy drink. They weren’t too fond of Eloais and thought of him as a weakling. If they ask about Dashki, the guards confirm that he wasn’t at the feast-fire with them, and one muses that he was probably spying on Almah—his obsession with the merchant princess is something of an open secret, with only Almah seemingly being oblivious to his attentions. None of the mercenaries has a high opinion of Dashki. (Friendly: The mercenaries make a few lewd and suggestive comments about the relationship they suspect Eloais had with Almah, and wonder if Dashki might have burned the astrologer’s wagon to “get rid of the competition.”)
Zastoran: The cleric was reading a book by the fire-pit, but the mercenaries were being too loud for him and he’d just stood up to return to his wagon when the fire started. He can attest that all six of the mercenaries were at the fire-pit and nowhere near the astrologer’s wagon when the fire broke out, and that Dashki was not. He thought Eloais was a charlatan and that Almah is better off now without his attention, but admits she did seem quite fond of him. He finds Dashki to be unsettling, and his obsession with Almah somewhat disturbing; “No one with healthy desires skulks around a pretty woman the way he does; who knows what a scoundrel like him is capable of?” (Friendly: Zastoran admits that while he thought Eloais was a fake, he did appreciate his conversation; “Not a one of these others here can discuss the poetry of Bellianais or the music of far-off Absalom. Eloais was well traveled and intelligent. I will miss him.”)
Camel Drivers: The camel drivers are excitable and prone to finishing each other’s sentences. Hadrah was the first to notice the fire, but she and her husband were distracted by trying to get their animals under control soon thereafter. Hadrod in particular seems on the verge of tears—his favorite goat Rombard went missing during the chaos, and he fears the worst. The two thought that Eloais was “nice enough for a foreigner,” but didn’t really understand his talk of “Cyclones and Fiends and Uprisings.” But Lady Almah’s trust in the astrologer was good enough for them to know he was a good man. Asked about Dashki, their expressions darken but they refuse to say more. (Friendly: In a conspiratational tone, Hadrah whispers, “We knew Dashki a bit from back Solku-way. Used to take rich folk into the scrublands to hunt up gnolls like trophies. Most people here don’t trust him, especially the way he leers at Lady Almah with his mouth all watering like at the smell of a fresh steak. Maybe he done it to Eloais, to remove a rival for Lady Almah’s attention?”)
Dashki: The strange gnoll expert should quickly become the prime suspect, but even though he seems suspicious, he is innocent of this particular crime. If accused of arson and murder, he loudly proclaims his innocence—perhaps a bit too loudly, but he is innocent all the same. He claims to have been finishing up dinner by the campfire when the wagon went up, but in fact he was spying on Almah at the time—Dashki has become obsessed with the beautiful woman, and it is this secret that makes him nervous during the interview process. As the interview progresses, he grows more and more frustrated, crying out, “No! I had nothing to do with the fire! How do we even know the fire was set? That idiot burned a hundred candles in his wagon. Perhaps he just got unlucky. We’re in gnoll country. It was probably pugwampis.”
If asked about pugwampis, Dashki is grateful for the change of subject and says, “Terrible critters what crawled up from the Darklands below the earth. ‘Jackal rats,’ some folks call ’em, on account of their pointed little heads. They worship gnolls as gods and infest their communities like rats. Wherever pugwampis go, bad luck is sure to follow. The gnolls hate pugwampis because of it, and try to kill them all the time. But they always come back. Perhaps their bad luck caused the fortune-man’s candles to start a fire? Yes, pugwampis. I am certain it was pugwampis.”
No PC has ever heard of pugwampis, and nor has any member of Almah’s party. Unfortunately, all of them will become quite familiar with them in the very near future. (Friendly: Dashki breaks down and admits that he may be “a bit too fond” of Almah, but continues to plead his innocence regarding the fire.)
Concluding the Investigation
After Garavel has introduced the PCs to every member of Almah’s party and they have had a chance to examine Eloais’s wagon and the animal pen (which gains them nothing), the major domo takes them back to Almah’s tent for them to render their final judgment. The circumstances and attitudes of the others seem to damn Dashki, but Almah is unwilling to convict the gnoll expert without more concrete evidence.
No one at the camp, including the PCs, have ever heard of the “pugwampis” that are central to Dashki’s theory of what may have transpired, and a few members of the camp (if asked) suggest that the whole thing may be a lie. Almah, on the other hand, is a bit more trusting.
“If my expert is correct,” she says, “the hills around here should be crawling with these pugwampis, or at least some sign of their passage. If what Dashki says is true, it should be easy for him to find one and bring it back to me.”
The merchant princess turns to the PCs. “As he is, however, our best suspect in this affair, it would not do to send him out into the darkness alone. I’m afraid that your investigation is not yet at and end. Go out into the desert with Dashki and find me one of these pugwampis.”
Pugwampi Hunt (EL 1)
Setting out into the scrubland hills north of the Sultan’s Claw, the PCs search about in darkness for signs of the pugwampis. Despite the outlandishness of Dashki’s tale, he is in fact telling the truth. The mischievous gremlins have left plenty of evidence of their passing. Almah will accept nothing short of a captured pugwampi or its carcass, however, so the investigation eventually leads more than 100 yards from the encampment at the Sultan’s Claw.
This scene works best when the GM ratchets up the creepiness even while setting up what is bound to be one of the most humorous encounters in the adventure. The hunt takes place in the rugged hills at night. In order to negotiate the rocky terrain and its many painful cacti, PCs must rely upon darkvision or a light source such as a torch. As the hunters proceed into the wilderness, play up the uneven shadows cast by torches. Phantom creatures haunt the underbrush—or at least seem to until closer inspection reveals nocturnal birds or rodents. Dashki tells the PCs that they’re looking for a little humanoid creature that’s much smaller than a halfling, with light fur, dirty claws, and a tiny jackal head.
A DC 15 Search check in this area reveals dozens of small footprints leading to and from the camp at the Sultan’s Claw, finally retreating into the darkness of hill country. Sure enough, a character with the Track feat can also detect the hesitant tread of the camel driver’s missing goat, which appears to have been pulled away against its will to the northwest. If no PC has this ability, Dashki himself points out the tracks, which soon become obvious to even unskilled investigators.
After following the trail for several hundred feet, explain to the players that each character feels an inexplicable rise in the natural tension of the environment, as if they expect something terrible to happen even though nothing about the terrain has changed. Soon thereafter, a sound not unlike the brief cry of a human child comes out of the darkness ahead. A DC 10 Knowledge (nature) check determines that the sound must be coming from the lost goat, though the timbre of the cry makes it sound as if the creature is in pain. As the PCs progress toward the sound, the local cacti grow more and more intense, until the hunters find themselves at the edge of a dense thicket of the prickly plants. The sound of the bleating goat is now obvious to everyone—and it seems to be coming from somewhere deep within the cacti.
The cactus forest, though very wide, is not so terribly deep. Only 25 feet separate the PCs from the trapped goat, but the thickness of the growth requires 3 rounds of careful maneuvering before a PC makes it to the other side.
With a DC 12 Search check, a PC whose light source or vision can reach that far can spot Rombard the goat, tethered to a scrub bush by a hairy, knotted length of rope. If the PCs carry light sources or are particularly noisy, the goat’s tiny bleats erupt into full-fledged brays of fear as it tugs in vain at the rope around its neck. Movement through the cactus thicket requires a DC 15 Balance check to avoid the large spines that fill the area. Failure indicates that the character takes a point of damage from the quills. Remember that characters who attempt to move at full speed while balancing take a –5 penalty on their checks. A character that simply barrels through the field at full speed without trying to avoid the cacti takes 1 point of damage per 5 feet traveled.
Unfortunately for the PCs, the entire area is within the unluck radius of a hidden pugwampi, meaning their jaunt into the pointy cacti will be a lot more difficult than they think. Once the first Balance check is made, ask the exploring character to roll another d20, and use the lowest result. Play up failed Balance checks by describing the character’s plunge into sticky quills as a series of extremely unlucky events—stepped-on shoelaces, helmet visors slipping down at inopportune moments, robes or dresses getting snagged on foliage, etc. Be sure to say “Oh, how unlucky!” with each mishap. By the end of “Howl of the Carrion King,” the PCs will grow to hate the pugwampis, and this is the all-important scene that sows the seeds of that hatred to come. Play it up for all it is worth.
Once the cactus patch has been navigated, the PCs emerge on a thin strip of open land at the edge of a 15-foot- wide ravine. A casual glance down the edge reveals a huge multi-armed, wickedly barbed cactus dominating the ground 10 feet below the ledge, almost directly below where the sad little goat Rombard has been lazily tied to a scrub bush. He’s covered with cactus quills and has only 3 hit points. Rombard doesn’t stay still, making it difficult to free the goat. Untying the squirming goat requires a DC 15 Use Rope check. A failed check means that the goat begins racing around the character in circles, entangling him in the rope. The character must immediately make a DC 15 Balance check to avoid losing his balance and tumbling over the ravine and into the arms of the enormous cactus below, a fall that causes 1d6+2 points of damage. Alternately, a slashing weapon can be used to cut the rope, and while the goat’s frantic movements make the rope a tough target (AC 15), any hit on it with a slashing weapon cuts the goat free. Of course, both of these checks are also subject to the unluck aura of the nearby pugwampi. If Rombard is cut loose, he immediately bolts for the Sultan’s Claw, but in his panicked flight through the cacti he’s certain to take enough damage to fall unconscious. A DC 15 Handle Animal or wild empathy check is enough to calm the goat so that he can be freed with ease.
Creature: The pugwampi itself hides behind a rock 5 feet from the goat; a successful Spot check (against the pugwampi’s Hide check) reveals the creature’s hiding spot. It wields a rusty dagger even though it has a crude bow strapped across its back, and has spent the last several minutes using speak with animals to tell Rombard all sorts of horrific things it’s planning to do to the goat before cooking him for dinner. If the pugwampi is spotted, or as soon as Rombard is freed, the creature emits a shrill yell of outrage and attacks.
Development: Back at the Sultan’s Claw, Almah awaits word from the PCs. Bringing back the corpse of the pugwampi is enough to clear Dashki’s name, and the successful conclusion of the investigation shifts Almah’s attitude toward the PCs from indifferent to friendly. Under no circumstances does Almah allow a living pugwampi to survive in her camp. After studying such a creature for a few minutes, she orders Garavel to put it out of its misery. Dashki lays claim to the pugwampi corpse and fashions a tiny noose for it to hang from the end of his staff. Almah muses that there must be more of the creatures living nearby, and comments that the Sultan’s Claw is obviously too exposed a location. She knows that a monastery to Sarenrae stood near the village of Kelmarane, and that the ruined building would make a much better base of operations for the coming battle for the gnoll-held village—yet chances are good that the monastery is far from abandoned.
In any event, the matter solved, Almah is open to discussing the terms of the PCs’ employment. She offers them 200 gp each, and while that may seem like a bargain at the beginning of the adventure, some PCs might try to sweeten the deal. A successful DC 20 Diplomacy check is sufficient to get Almah to increase the per-person reward to 500 gp. Failure on this check by more than 10 or repeated attempts to increase the amount automatically result in Almah’s attitude toward the tight-wad decreasing by one step.
Ad Hoc Experience Award: For solving the mystery of the fire, award the PCs XP as if they had defeated a CR 2 creature. If they also manage to return Rombard alive to the camel drivers, award them additional experience as if they had defeated a CR 1 creature.