The Bleating Lamb
SocialArea T1 — The Bleating Lamb
The common room is dark and smells of stale ale and damp wood. Chairs and tables have been dragged into rough barricades. The moment anyone steps inside, a crossbow bolt snaps overhead and buries itself in a wall.
The innkeeper, Grist Mallow (CN male human innkeeper 3), is frightened nearly beyond reason. He has not slept properly in days. Every night, just before midnight, the echo of his wife crosses the kitchen floor exactly as she did on the evening she died. It never speaks. It never notices him. He hides in the cellar until it passes.
Unless the party gives him a reason to think otherwise, Grist assumes they're just one more nightmare walking through his door.
- Diplomacy (DC 20): Convince Grist the party can help end the haunting. Reduce the DC to 18 if the heroes mention Sister Mirela by name.
- Religion (DC 18): Promise to perform proper funeral rites for his wife once the village is safe.
- Intimidation (DC 22): Grist cooperates out of fear, but he never truly trusts the party and looks for the first opportunity to betray them if he believes it will save his own life.
If the heroes earn his trust, Grist opens the cellar to them, shares everything he knows about the village's recent troubles, and reluctantly parts with a lesser potion of healing he has been saving for "the day things get worse."
Grist Mallow, Innkeeper
Appearance: Unshaven, bloodshot eyes, smells of stale beer and fear.
What he knows:
- The haunting started three weeks ago.
- The church bells ring every night on their own.
- Sister Mirela hasn't left the church in ten days.
- Old Varla says "something's eating the boundary."
- Three villagers walked into the cemetery and never came back—their bodies were found at dawn, smiling.
What he wants: His wife's echo to stop walking through his kitchen. He doesn't care how.