Contents
Part 1: The Village of Secomber
The village of Secomber sits with its back against a riverside cliff made of pink granite. The village center is mostly modest cottages and shops, with homes and farms lining the roads out of town and the top of the cliffs overlooking Hark River. Across the water, green hills rise to become the High Moors.
Whatever brings the characters to Secomber, they hear word of Lothar and his party's recent return from the High Moors. Whether he drinks nearby or tells his story out on the street, Lothar brags about how lucky he and his crew are to be alive "after almost being murdered by Red Wizards."
The Mercenaries' Accounts
Lothar Stoutsmark (male human, chaotic neutral, bandit captain) is a forty-year-old braggart who values survival above all else. His "gold" teeth are fake. He and his crew (Gordo, Vic, and Rora) consider themselves adventurers but tend toward sordid work and skullduggery. Lothar is one lean month away from returning to highway robbery, and his allies (all spies) are one bad day from abandoning him, unbeknown to Lothar. Lothar knows the following information about the Red Wizards and their mission:
- "Those Red Wizards are called Morwena and Malivar. He used to be her apprentice and she still puts him in his place, you know? He doesn't like it."
- "Morwena, she said the barrow they were looking for might contain great treasure. She seemed to doubt it was a barrow at all, though. She called it a 'sanctum.'"
- "She maybe meant the Wizard's Barrow, which was used for strange rites for decades—thunder, lightning—but apparently never opened."
- "Anyway, them Red Wizards, they're chasing someone. Another wizard, from a rival group, maybe? Sounded like they wanted him alive."
- "We made good time, crossing the hills. I know good trails. But one night, Morwena told Malivar she didn't think they needed guides anymore. So we left, before they could kill us."
Lothar can point the way to the Wizard's Barrow: it is a mere 6-hour hike into the High Moors, about 18 miles southeast of Secomber.