The Feast of the Gobbler Witch

(a version of the playthrough of the Goodman Games' adventure)

Nine months ago on the island of Alviz when you joined a fanatical religious sect led by the charismatic Captain Bradford and his second-in-command, Parris. The two preached the teachings of Klazath, God of War, and convinced the congregation they needed to travel to the remote land of Lys to introduce the Lysian copper miners to life under the yoke of Klazath’s banner.

Three weeks into your month-long sea voyage, the congregation was waylaid when Captain Bradford was swept overboard during a sudden freak storm. Without the captain, the ship crashed onto a reef on a remote uncharted island, cutting the journey short.

As second-in-command, Parris was declared magistrate. Magistrate Parris convinced you and the other the colonists the shipwreck was divine providence, demonstrating Klazath’s will to settle “New Crimson” here on this remote island. Almost immediately, hardships began to befall the settlerment. Klazath is, after all, a god of conquest, and as the island was uninhabited, there was no conquest to be had. Not long thereafter, you found yourselves facing starvation when the crops began to rot in the fields, and infighting soon followed. Paranoia escalated when some of the other starving colonists began exhibiting erratic behavior. Magistrate Parris decreed that the colony’s enduring hardships were the result of some within their ranks becoming tainted by the foul Malotoch, the Carrion Crow Goddess of Death! Parris worked with New Crimson’s only cleric, Acolyte Harker, to organize a series of trials, and those accused of coming under Malotoch’s influence were condemned as “witches”. “Witch mania” swept through the fledgling colony, and many soon found themselves sentenced to a slow and grisly execution on Danver’s Green. You stand shackled together with several of your emaciated colleagues. A crowd of your friends, families, and neighbors have gathered on Danver’s Green. Their voices call out in unison as they point up to the platform where your starving and emaciated bodies have been detained: “Burn the witches!”

Magistrate Parris, champion of Klazath and newly appointed leader of your small community, looks out upon your jurors’ fury-filled faces. He is joined by Acolyte Harker, New Crimson’s only cleric. In his right hand, Harker holds a torn crimson banner emblazoned with a bloodied battleaxe—the war banner of Klazath, God of Conquest. And in his left hand, he brings to heel a leashed shug monkey, a vicious dog/monkey hybrid. Parris’ voice booms out, “Which of you faithful servants of Klazath will offer testimony as to the crimes and sinful associations of the accused?” You hear the thirst for vengeance in their cries as accusations quickly fly forth: “I witnessed him eating worms and cawing into the sky!” “She grows a beak at night!” “I saw him riding a broom at midnight!” “That one sprouted black feathers from her arms!” “I dreamt that one coupled with Malotoch Herself!” The fervent accusations agitate the shug monkeys who pull at their chains and snarl, baring their yellow teeth. Magistrate Parris looks towards your group gravely. “The evidence is overwhelming! Our colony is not yet free of Malotoch’s influence. The demon witch Abutit has infected these unworthy ones before her escape. Klazath demands these tainted ones be scourged with purifying flame, and have the sin crushed out of them with stout stones!” As you are led away to your execution, Parris nods towards hisassistant and adds, “Acolyte Harker is confident that once these tainted ones are put down, Klazath will grant him the strength to manifest Klazath’s divine rations and finally put our hunger to an end!” Harker, a vacant look on his face, nods numbly.

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