The crew of The Demon's Mercy took some well-earned shore leave at Second Chance, as they contemplated their next move. Having decided to sell the ship captured from The Dreadsails, they were flush with cash; they spent a few weeks tracking down magical items that would be useful to them, with their evenings spent in The Bottomless Mermaid. Sacha Cresswell (who had appointed himself the only knight in the pirate town), El Graeve and Kuven all noticed that the ale had been watered down; Amos Black continued happily to drink rum instead. The ale-drinkers summoned over Talice, the owner of the inn, whom they had met before (see ST03. Towers and Wererats). She admitted that she had been watering down the ale, as this month's shipment from Conningsby Brewery had failed to arrive; she was therefore watering down the stock that she had. She asked if the party could help; while she couldn't pay them, she did say that she would tell everyone if they made sure that supply runs resumed, which would earn them the gratitude of every ale-drinker on the island. It would also mean that they could leverage their popularity to never pay for drinks at the tavern again.
They set sail the following morning for the location that Talice told them about; the journey itself was uneventful. On reaching the brewery, the party were immediately struck by the damage sustained by the buildings; giant rocks could be seen where the barley fields should be, and the buildings looked heavily damaged. Next to the dock was a capsized ship. Kuven volunteered to dive down and have a look, and Sacha Cresswell lent him his Cape of the Manta Ray to assist. Kuven saw that the ship was called the Sea Bitch, and was heavily damaged, but could not find any evidence of cargo or what might have happened. After returning to the surface, Kuven joined the others in making their way across the precarious structure of the pier, before reaching land. Adjacent to them was a storage yard that had almost-entirely collapsed, but the remains of several kegs could be seen within it. Unable to do anything about obtaining the ale within, the party decided to take the left path, and head up to the mill and the brewery.
First, they reached the mill, which was also heavily damaged; proceeding in, the group found a quartet of owlbears nesting in the ruins. The owlbears sprung to defend their home, with Kuven stepping forward to distract the animals, while Sacha Cresswell charged around on his spectral steed. The first two owlbears fell quickly, but a surprise was in store for the adventurers. Out of the skulls of each of the two owlbear corpses a brain on four legs crawled out; the mobile brains then proceeded to psychically attack Kuven and El Graeve, draining them of their intelligence and rendering them stunned. Amos Black and Sacha Cresswell quickly took the two brains out of action, before being much more careful in killing the two remaining owlbears, knowing now what threat lay within them. The other two brains were killed immediately after appearing from the owlbear corpses, allowing Amos Black and Sacha Cresswell to avoid having to suffer the same fate as Kuven and El Graeve. With the battle completed, Sacha Cresswell was able to heal both of his stunned colleagues, and they continued their exploration.
They continued onto the brewery. There, they found a dozen casks of ale, and several complete sets of brewing equipment. The damage to the building had also exposed a trapdoor hidden under some planks, heading down, the party found a strange shrine. Contained within was a candle, a broken mirror, a dagger with dried blood on it, a stack of paper with the words "beauty" and "rebirth" written on them over and over again in multiple languages, and a strange whip made of muscle with a stinger at one end. Kuven decided to equip the whip, and found that it bonded to his wrist, with him unable to drop it. With more questions than answers, the party decided to leave, and head out to the other buildings. Along the way, Sacha Cresswell rode his horse to the top of a hill, and was able to see that the rocks in the centre of the barley fields actually had an opening in them.
The party passed an animal shed, and heard noises inside. Kuven managed to make himself an eyehole in the wooden structure, and was able to see that there were three Threehorns inside; the walls also had several harnesses sized for them hung up, leading him to suspect that the strange creatures from the Talenta Plains were actually working animals. They decided not to unbar the wooden doors on the animal shed, and instead proceed to the staff quarters. There, they found a large number of bodies, but they were not able to discern what had killed them. Sacha Cresswell searched through the remains of the dormitories; in the largest and nicest room, he found a box with the hippogriff sigil of House Vadalis embossed on it. Amos Black was unable to pick the lock, but did manage to crowbar it open; inside, was a signet ring with the same hippogriff symbol, and a wax sealing kit. Clearly, this was for a member of House Vadalis to use to send sealed letters. Sacha Cresswell put on the ring; it immediately started pulsing with a red light, which he surmised was a way of making sure that only a legitimate member of House Vadalis would put on the ring. However El Graeve used Dispel Magic to remove the effect; still, Sacha Cresswell found himself unable to remove the ring.
They continued on to the farmhouse, but along the way they were waylaid by two strange dryad-like creatures, perhaps corrupted by the extensive damage done to the trees that surrounded the path. The fight did not last long, however; and with the path open to them again, the quartet came to the farmhouse. Inside, they found an extensive amount of blood, but no bodies. They also found a Conningsby Diary that gave them some insight into what had happened; earthquakes had pushed the rocks up from deep underground, and something had emerged from within them. They therefore decided to climb up to the top of the rocks in the centre of the fields, and head down through the tunnel, to find out what had emerged from the depths of Khyber...