The Bellwether Vanishings
The Bellwether Vanishings
“Something beneath Bellwether is hungry, and it has learned how to open a latch.”
— Hook · Mystery
“For three nights, animals have vanished from locked pens without a struggle, a footprint, or a drop of blood. The village reeve asks you to investigate before fear turns neighbor against neighbor and winter stores begin to run short. Your first clue is a faint metallic knocking beneath the northern pasture.”
— Hook · Mystery
The reeve gathers the party beside a darkened livestock pen. The lock is still fastened, the fence is intact, and a single cow-sized impression marks the mud beneath a loose iron grate. From somewhere underground comes a slow metallic rhythm: knock, hiss, knock, hiss.
Mara Venn
Mara Venn approaches the party in the village square after hearing they have dealt with unusual dangers before. She offers a modest payment, free lodging, and the gratitude of the village if they can solve the disappearances discreetly.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01A cow was heard mooing from beneath the ground after it vanished.
- 02The old clock in the village square stopped for exactly one minute on the night of the first disappearance.
- 03Joss Fen's brother was seen carrying brass pipes toward the north pasture.
- 04Some villagers claim the old rail tunnels are haunted by workers who died in a boiler accident.
- 05Tilda Brasswick says the knocking sound has a rhythm, as if someone is operating a machine by hand.
If the disappearances continue, Bellwether will lose its breeding stock before the next planting season. If the experimental engine is completed, it may provide extraordinary power, but it will consume living creatures and eventually threaten the entire village.
Background Lore
The village of Bellwether rests beside old imperial rail lines and a network of abandoned steamworks. For generations, its people have lived quietly among windmills, copper pipes, and rune-fired farm machinery. Recently, livestock has vanished from locked pens without blood, broken fences, or tracks. The disappearances are connected to a buried maintenance engine beneath the village, where a desperate inventor has been using stolen animals to power an experimental device.
Bellwether is a peaceful farming village surrounded by old imperial infrastructure. Livestock has begun disappearing from locked pens at night, and the villagers fear a predator, thief, or supernatural creature. The party has been asked to investigate the disappearances, find the missing animals, and restore safety before the village's food stores are threatened.
