2000-08-23: Ghost Haunts Kire Estate
Once again, word of strange happenings at the farm of Beechel Kire led me to that quaint place and its bedeviled owner. The farmhouse is nestled slightly east and just below the mountain range that runs north-south to the west of Britain. Woodlands border the farmhouse to its north, and Kire’s immense field lies on the other side of it. Across the field to the south, quite within view, stands the Brazen Monkey Tavern, which has served miners in the area for some time and which, I am told, is run by one Telos Gralia. This all, of course, is within the confines of chaotic Felucca.
I had the good fortune of meeting a Healer along the way to the farm named Enrico, a rather humble, quiet, man as most of his kind are, who knew something of the events at the Kire estate. He was quite tight-lipped and it took all my arts as an experienced inquirer of newsworthy events to draw any information out of him at all. That, and what I gleaned from Beechel himself, only adds more mystery to this supremely tragic affair.
It seems that a Ghost appeared at the Kire house, moaning and wailing to such a degree that the family was entirely unnerved. Whether summoned by the ghost, or drawn in by its loud moans, no one knows why, a few malicious spirits appeared also. Luckily, the summoned guards were able to dispatch them quickly and little harm was done to anyone. Though the Ghost attacked no one, its movements and gestures led Beechel, and two passersby, one being Telos Gralia, to determine its name, Eric, and that it wanted some kind of favor of them.
They ascertained something was buried in the field, and after a short bit of digging found a bloody pack containing the mummified remains of six people, four of them appearing to be children. When asked about the bodies, Beechel said he knew absolutely nothing of them, and if he lies, he does so very well. He only added that the peat used as fertilizer in his field over the course of many years had evidently preserved them almost intact. The age of the bodies remains a mystery, but the cause of death does not. Although I did not see them, Enrico having buried them privately long before I arrived, he confirmed the testimony of Beechel that they had all been brutally murdered, hacked to pieces, most probably by human hands since Orcs and their ilk do not bother burying or hiding the bodies of their victims. Once the bodies were given to the Healer, and buried, the Ghost of Eric vanished and has not been back, so I am told. Nevertheless, Beechel has decided to move his family out of the house at least for a while so they can get some rest and forget their troubles there.
It may be impossible to ever identify the remains of the six unfortunate souls. Possibly one of them was Eric. Who killed them, and why, may also remain a mystery, but I have, with Beechel, gone over records of families living in that area over the last generation and plan to continue to do so. Thus far, however, we have found nothing. Beechel has moved with his family to a relative's farm in Yew this week, but has asked me to continue my research into it, and my vigil of his farmhouse in his absence, which I am glad to do. I wonder if this is not the reason for the series of Kire's misfortunes, or just another sad episode underlining it?
