Chapter 1: Murder at The King's Coin

The year is 1779. The story begins in a room above Ori's Dwarven Bakery in the merchant district of Dragonwatch. This is the home and place of business of Insifinius, a black dragonborn death cleric and student of the beyond. Until recently, Insifinius had spent much of his time alone studying the many facets of death and the power of magic over it. During his studies into death and the beyond, he discovered a rod of orcish design (bearing ancient elven runes of death) that allows him to speak with the dead once a day, though each use of it risks turning the corpse into a violent zombie when the spell ends. Some time ago, he hired an orcish scout named Dura to help him investigate murders for the constabulary, including the recent death of a goliath warrior who washed up on the avron banks. After using the rod, the goliath named Aros mysteriously became an awakened undead and joined him, lending his considerable fighting skills to the group. He was also joined by the warlock Vonzorn and the warrior Kor'Gath, who also came to town around the same time as Aros' death.
On a brisk wednesday morning on September the 27th, investigator Aberdeen of the constabulary delivered a fresh corpse to Insifinius. They had found her washed up on the banks of the Avron, having been "cut open" and dumped into the river. As Insifinius and the group began their investigation, they discovered she was wearing an apron stained with blood and what appeared to be ale. She had been dissected, her organs removed and then re-attached. Elven death runes similar to those on the Rod of Arawn had been carved into the organs as well. Having discovered all they could discover without speaking to the victim, Insifinius put the rod to use and awakened her. She startled awake, answering their questions with a largely calm and composed demeanor. They decided to tie her up in case she became violent after the last question, and prepared to slay her if she did. They discovered that her name was Aelswith, and that she worked at the King's Coin Alehouse in the merchant district. An altogether vile man named Bernard frequently harassed her and pinched her behind, though she wished another man named Aelfred were the one to be doing it. She saw a green flash of light as she fetched ale from the basement right before her death, but didn't see her killer. With the last question answered, she suddenly went stiff again but her eyes turned inky black before she began to flail at them and try to bite them. They dispatched her quickly as she screamed at them in a deep, throatal voice that she'd "be right with them" and warned them to "keep their hands to themselves." She seemed to have been echoing things she might've said in life...
After cleaning up the examination room, they set out into the city to visit the king's coin alehouse. Along the way, they encountered a group of inquisitors in the midst of burning three "heretics" alive. Though they strongly opposed the display, they focused on their task and moved on to the alehouse. When they arrived, they found the proprietors overwhelmed with their business. The halfling couple "Otto" and "Lilly" Stoutgrass could barely keep up without the help of their ale girl. Insifinius ordered an expensive whiskey blend and Vonzorn began interrogating the barman Otto. He proved to be highly agitated and dodged his questions, which seemed to make him ever more nervous. When Vonzorn pressed him about the girl, he lied and said she was visiting family. Frustrated by the man's resistance, Vonzorn grabbed his shirt and slammed him into the bar. The threat was not immediately effective, however, and only resulted in Otto calling for someone to fetch the guards. Dura and Insifinius helped to diffuse the situation, and Vonzorn offered coin for the man's truth. He agreed, and they went into the basement to discuss.
Otto revealed that the last three barmaids he hired had gone missing in the last 3 months. He reported the first one, but the constables did nothing and he worried about the attention this would bring his establishment. After some investigating, the group discovered a hidden passage in the basement. They left Otto behind and ventured down the tunnel, which led down into ancient dwarven ruins beneath the city. They encountered a group of human thugs hanging about, and after a brief battle they slew the thugs. Contracts on their person revealed they had been hired as "curators" to "procure" specimens for study at the rate of 5 silver per specimen. They deduced the employer must have been paying them for bodies to perform experiments on.

Venturing further, they found a room with two cells. In one cell were two zombies, who violently thrashed against the bars. In the next cell was a terrified man who revealed himself to be "Bernard." He had come down into the basement looking for Aelswith, but didn't find her. Instead, the tunnel opened up and two men attacked him with clubs and knocked him out. He woke up in the cell, with two men in the neighboring cell. They were taken away, and when they returned they soon after turned into zombies. The group decided to kill the zombies and leave bernard so they could fetch him as a witness later. After dispatching the zombies, they delved deeper.

As they explored, they found storage rooms and a study guarded by two skeletons. In the study, they found a potion and a key hidden beneath some papers. They pressed on, discovering a room with a trapped door that shocked Dura as soon as she opened it. Inside, they found scaffolding as if the room had been under construction leading to a dead end. But Dura spotted that the masonry there was newer and mismatched, and deduced it must have been walled up more recently. As she made her discovery, two living shadows appeared out of the darkness and attacked them.

The shadows proved a mighty challenge for the group, but in the end they prevailed. They broke through the masonry to find a hidden chamber guarded by a minotaur skeleton, but chose not to go further. As they explored the rest of the crypt, they encountered some gray oozes among a mass of abandoned effects (likely belonging to victims). Finally, they reached the necromancer's study and unlocked the door with the key found in a previous room. Inside, they found the necromancer (a young human, nearly a boy) guarded by a skeleton and a savage ghoul. The necromancer fell quickly to their combined attack, but the ghoul proved far more dangerous as the skeleton rained arrows upon them. Despite the challenge, they were victorious and defeated the undead. In the necromancer's study, they found an operating table and various alchemical reagents. It was here that he had raised his undead minions from his victims, discarding the failures in the underground river that passed through the crypt. Kor'Gath kept the necromancer's spellbook.
Before leaving, they cleared out the crypt and encountered some swarms of rats in the sewage area as well as a large gemstone inside one of the grates. Kor'Gath managed to befriend one of the swarms and brought it back to the surface with him.
The group left the crypt and returned to Inspector Aberdeen, revealing the truth of the matter and receiving their payment for a job well done. They told him about Bernard and the hidden room with the minotaur skeleton so that his constables could retrieve him without encountering the dangerous room. They then visited the Arcanatorium to ask about the necromancer, who seemed to have been a student there. Though alarmed that one of their students had turned to necromancy, they didn't seem to care about his final fate. The group sold the spellbook to the school's library and left after a tense encounter with a gnomish librarian....

Related Historical Events

• 1779
  The Investigators gather