CHAPTER 8: ThE STYES
SERIES OF MYSTERIOUS MURDERS SHAKES THE
downtrodden folk of the Styes- a decaying
port fallen on hard times and slowly being
reclaimed by the sea. Even after the so-called
Lantern Ghost killer is caught and executed,
some in the district believe that the true kille r
is still out there. It's left to the adventurers to
follow the clues that the local militia ignores.
exposing corruption, the clandestine activities of a
dark cult-and the alien presence whose evil lurks be-
neath it a ll.
The Styes is an adventure designed for four to six
11th-level characters.
Background
There exists an underwater abyss known as the Endless
Nadir- a haunted place shunned by the aquatic races
oft he region, for this realm is the site of a submerged
city of aboleths. For the most part, the alien denizens of
this city are content to plot and lurk in the depths of the
ocean trench. But a few of them are cursed with curi-
osity. One such creature is Sgothgah, a scholar, crafter,
and explorer-and an outcast among its kind.
Sgothgah's life changed forever when it encoun-
tered and consumed a cult of lunatics who worshiped
Tharizdun, an ancient deity of darkness. As it read the
minds of its victims as it devoured them, some of what it
gleaned of Tharizdun- between their screams and their
unheeded pleas for mercy- found purchase in Sgoth-
gah's mind. For centuries. the aboleth mulled over the
concept ofTharizdun in idle moments, and evencually
those thoughts flowered into something alien and repul-
sive to most aboleths: religious faith.
THE MARK OF THARIZDUN
To hide its burgeoning devotion to a non-abolethic e ntity
from the prying telepathic abilities of its kind. Sgothgah
relocated its lair to the edge of the Endless Nadir. There,
in the solitude of the inky deep, the aboleth made a sec-
ond astounding discovery: a juvenile kraken with an un-
likely, circular scar on its head, a wound earned in battle
against a giant s hark years ago. Even such a strange
scar would normally be little more than a curiosity, but
Sgothgah saw a pattern in this one that evoked thoughts
ofTharizdun's dark madness. The aboleth took this
event as a sign that Tharizdun had gifted it with the task
of nurturing the kraken until it was fully grown.
Sgothgah knew the kraken could never be raised co
maturity in the Endless Nadir- even in Sgothgah's re-
mote corner of it- without risking discovery by the other
aboleths. So Sgothgah fled the abyss. taking with it the
juvenile kraken and a number of loyal aquatic minions.
It headed for coastal waters that the aboleths avoided
because of the humanoids that dwelled there, trusting
that other aboleths wouldn't follow it or even care that
it had left.Purely by chance, the oceanic immigrants came to a
stretch of water where the once-notable port district of a
minor city had fallen into decay and corruption. Known
as the Styes. the district was only a wretched shadow of
what it had once been. But the aboleth found a perfect
location to hide the krake n-a sunken temple to the west
of the district, known to the locals as Landgrave's Folly.
Sgothgah quickly established mind control over a local
cadre of fishers and sailors, sending them to infiltrate
every corner of the ruined district. And to the aboleth's
surprise and unnatural delight. it discovered an active
cult ofTharizdun in the Styes.
Led secretly by one of the Styes' own ruling coun-
cillors-an inhuman creature that calls itself "Mr.
Dory"- this cult ofTharizdun has thrived in the decay
of the Styes for decades. Through enslavement and
telepathy, Sgothgah forged an alliance with the cultists,
always taking care to conceal its true identity. The cult-
ists knew Sgothgah only as "the Whisperer," and they
quickly came to regard their hidden ally as a powerful
messenger of Tharizdun. To this day. only Mr. Dory sus-
pects the truth.THE LANTER N GHOST MURDERS
To feed the growing kraken's ravenous hunger, Sgoth-
gah has coerced its cultist allies into supplying the beast
with beggars, drunks, urchins, and other sweepings
from the alleys of the Styes that no one will miss. At the
same time, the aboleth transformed the underwater pit
where the kraken rests into a conduit for dark magic.
fashioned to capture the plentiful negative emotions
of the residents of the Styes. For months now, all their
fear, sadness, despair, hatred. and anger has been
focused into the pit to enhance and accelerate the krak-
en's growth.
To maximize the effect of that emotional darkness,
the aboleth chose a local human fisher named jarme
Loveage to be an instrument of murder and fear. Sgoth-
gah enslaved the young man and has compelled him to
commit brutal murders, fueling dread in the district.
jarme carries a lantern on all his grisly nocturnal har-
vests, and his horrible work has long been attributed to
a faceless terror called ''the Lantern Ghost."
As the killings mounted, residents of the Styes grew
increasingly frightened. jarme retained little knowledge
of his foul work. He awoke exhausted, haunted by vague
memories of horrible nightmares, but hasn't connected
the vague horrors of his sleep with the very real hor-
ror occurring in the shadowy, mist-drenched alleys
of bis home.
Seven days ago,Jarme was captured by a nighttime
patrol with a bloody knife in his hands. The confused
fisher professed his innocence. but his dreams became
suddenly clear. In his mind. he saw ravenous, tentacled
creatures devouring the Styes and the city beyond, and
he scrawled these images onto the walls of his cell inC. ~ \ i'l l R Ii l HI ~ l \ f S t6'i