**
Connects to: 15.13 and 16.16.03.
Shotwick is known through Thring as a village with unusually reliable harvests and hearty peasants. The folk of Shotwick seem so healthy that they are even spared from the ravages of plague. Many believe these peasants are of a naturally stronger stock, a belief that the villagers take great pride in adopting.
The truth is that the village and its farms are completely without rats - the vermin responsible for devouring grain and spreading disease in the rest of the duchy. A semi-intelligent living idol in the basement of Shotwick Manor keeps them at bay. Its visage is a great snarling rat clutching a crooked staff. It is crudely chiseled from stone and, judging by its weathered features, ancient. A coven of wererats that include the steward, innkeeper, miller and the local prior satisfies its needs. Every month, the idol demands the blood of a human sacrifice. It has lived this way for nearly a century, and a missed feeding sends it into fits of idiotic rage. The villagers hear these occasional outbursts, but merely believe that the manor is haunted.
Appeasing the idol used to involve dangerous undertakings such as kidnapping or dealing with bugbears. But last year, the coven has found a “supplier” based on the sketchy west bank of Castle Terangrael (16.16.03).
Connection:
- Inhabitants of a neighboring village, Archet, (15.13) have grown suspicious of Shotwick.
Hooks:
- The village’s new sheriff, an outsider, investigated disappearances in the farmland last year and came up empty. He believes the steward is involved in a cover-up, but can’t find any evidence. What will he do next?
- Who is the coven’s supplier? Where does he or she get the sacrifices?
- Where did the living idol come from?
