Panic in Savengad

The townsfolk of Savengad, a village of about 350 in the northern province of Stirland, are uneasy and are bordering on panic. It all began several months ago when a farm at the edge of the Winterbole was burned down and a family lost in the flames. Shortly thereafter, woodsmen began to report large cloven, bi-pedal tracks in the woods. Shadowy figures were spied outside the village after dark, and rumors spread of a menacing Black Knight upon a charger seen riding at the edge of the dark taiga. Pitiless White Elves from the north have occasionally been spotted in the dark reaches of the pines. And babies have been heard in the mining camp outside of town, crying in the distance at night, although no families are known to have settled there and no babies have gone missing from the village. A number of villeins who pay their taxes to Lord Eckhardt by working in the camp have stopped attending to their obligations out of fear.

And now, although it is summer time, snow is in the air. The elders in the village say that they have never seen anything like it and the farmers are afraid that they will lose their crops. The prospect of starvation is thus beginning to haunt Savengad.

Most fear that diabolical forces are gathering around the village, and it’s a witch--specifically, the herbalist Frayda Ostig--behind these ominous events. An angry mob would have burned her at the stake by now were it not for Father Bastian, the village priest of Vorn, who says there's no proof at all that Frayda's a witch. Father Bastian has offered a fat reward for any who can track down the demonic beast in the woods that, he maintains, is the likeliest source of the village's troubles.

Others are convinced that the terrible druids of the north have emerged from their redoubts deep in the Winterbole to destroy Savengad. The bestial tracks and the strange, early frosts, they fear, auguries a coming war to destroy all human civilization in the north.

Some say that the enigmatic "Hated Pretender" from the feared tower south of Savengad has broken out of his prison and is wreaking havoc upon the land.

Whatever is going on, many suspect that the legendary Bear Knight--Sir Gallan Darnan, a known heretic with a fractious relationship Lord Eckhardt--is somehow mixed up in this. Everyone knows that his small hold in New Jarlswald, a few miles south of Savengad, is a hotbed of sedition and heresy against the church. The cool and level-headed town Reeve--Rudolf Ganz--has offered of a rich reward for any who bring the great knight in for questioning and, perhaps, trial and justice. Ganz's summonses to Bear Knight have gone unanswered.

While a few dismiss the panic as unwarranted hysteria, something is undeniably going on. Unfortunately, Savengad is on it's own with no well-trained soldiers to investigate matters. Lord Eckhardt, you see, holds his castle a few hours north of the village, and last year he removed the handful of watchmen from the village in order to economize on expenses. Calling for the Lord's aid is a last resort, as Eckhardt's knights tend to enforce order harshly and indiscriminately; a cure that could prove worse than the disease. You and your fiends, for now, are Savengad's best hope.