This one-shot was played in Jan 2022. It focused on a mysterious song that made people go insane, quarantined within the city of Tromden. A group of people including first-time-appearing Blackreyne Brotherhood members investigated the mystery and saved the city from High Priestess Altia Blitzgott.
The characters were:
Voriak Wolfheart Vunakakanu - F Goliath Werewolf Lycan Blood Hunter (Aaron)
John / Joanna the Baptist - F Variant Human Battlemaster Fighter (Devaanshu)
Wulfgang Khalische - M Fire Genasi Beast Barbarian (Jinee)
Fieldor Torstol - M Winter Eladrin Gloomstalker Ranger (Sam)
They were also accompanied by NPC Ethera Blackreyne, an astral elf tempest cleric.
Wulfgang and Fieldor were traveling via carriage through the foggy forest around Tromden, which had been in lockdown due to some plague. Wulfgang was mean to the driver, who stopped to check something on the road. Fieldor stepped down to check, and saw the driver talking to two people walking on the road ahead- Voriak and Ethera. The four decided to travel ahead on foot as the carriage wheel was busted. The driver stayed behind to fix it. Voriak said that Wulfgang was a bit of a beacon, and the driver was gonna die. Later ahead, as Wulfgang flirted with Ethera (who shut him down by mentioning her husband) they saw another figure sitting ahead by a campfire- John, the Baptist. The figure had been lost in the forest for days, sent from Tromden to get help. He forced Voriak to reveal her face before partnering up with them, leading them back towards the city. They heard opera-like singing along the way, which faded. Soon enough, they encountedr a group of people who asked them about "Mother's song" and to serve her. As Fieldor and John lied to them, they caught their lie and proceeded to attack. Everyone made quick work of them, before Wulfgang and John started arguing at gunpoint until Fieldor defused the situation.
They heard the song again, coming from a winged source. The corpses telekinetically floated up and their biomass transformed into weird monsters. After dealing with the beasts, they quickly ran towards the city, and talked about their reasons for going there while they ran. They reached Tromden. John talked to a knight he knew, as well as the right hand of the church, Lawrence Brightburn, who explained the plague origins and let them in after he'd heard about all that they witnessed. They had some conjecture that the song controled the infected. They headed towards the chapel through the alleyways to stay out of sight, dodging and sneaking through various routes. They got to the church's back entrance, but the knights on the roof shot at John and Voriak thinking that they were infected, until John ran up to stop them. In the church, Voriak headed up to the altar to talk directly to the High Priestess, but then Wulfgang started making a ruckus about her necklace and her mother that he believed the church had killed. Lawrence kicked down Wulfgang after Fieldor failed to calm him down. Head Priestess Altia Blitzgott recognised them as hunters (and animals), but recognised Fieldor as a far traveler. She explained that a year back, a ship crashed on the dock with an insane crew, and a caged monster. She brought it in, and experimented on it- until it broke out three days ago and began spreading the plague. She believed that she had a breakthrough to fix this, but they needed to hunt the creature down. John ripped off his mask, revealing himself to be a woman, Joanna. Wulfgang apologied to Joanna, and demanded reward money in addition to the pendant for completing this. They rested at the church for the night.
They headed towards the city square, and started to follow the singing, findind a freshly turned horde. They retreated to the square, Joanna thinking that Wulfgang biting everything would've infected him, but there were no immediate symptoms and Ethera casted a warding spell on him. They heard the song towards the dock, and ran at full sprint as Fieldor and John tracked it down. Joanna shot at the creature, who shrieked and started flying. They chased it to the northern city gates, but the knights there claimed that they didn't see anything. Fieldor thought that they might be infected, as Voriak saw the creature's tracks and tracked it down by the riverside, heading into a cave around late night. They found a smaller and slashed version of the creature, dead in the river. Fieldor recognised it as an aberration reported to him. It had flexible stony skin and black-ish blood leaking into the river- Likely the source of the plague. Ethera channeled everyone's magical energy into herself to purify the river. However, they were followed by the big one- The Mother. Voriak headed up the stairs, looking back at Ethera and transforming into a werewolf. Ethira explained to everyone that she could control it, and not to worry. They started to fight the creature, Voriak headpatting Wulfgang for his successful javelin hit to start her lightning crimson rite on her claws. Ethera helped by calling lightning. The Mother summoned more creatures to help her, but Voriak fended them off as Joanna, Wolfgang, and Fieldor (with his hail of thorns) took the Mother down- not killing her but knocking her out and tying her up. They headed back with the creature.
As they reached the mud gate by dawn, Voriak turned back to normal, as Wulfgang attempted to flirt with her as well. They didn't see any guards on patrol, but heard marching. They saw the infected and the beasts marching towards the city square - following them to find Altia sitting on top of a pile of bodies. She laughed and begins to explain her breakthrough, as Joanna refuses to believe that she's bad. She revealed that she could control the infected and beasts perfectly. She seemed to want to be the new queen of the city and land, spreading this plague across Aurial to bring 'peace'. Joanna wanted to be on her side but Wulfgang held her back for a bit. Wulfgang was still concerned with her pendant, but Voriak had a vow to take down people who misused blood curses and monstrous curses like this, and transformed into a werewolf. Fieldor was only concerned about taking the aberration home, but realized that Altia is becoming one herself. As the four stood against Altia, Voriak warned Joanna that she stood with them or against them. Lawrence yelled at Joanna to bring some sense into her.
She realized that this isn't Vertum's will, and shot Altia, beginning the fight as Lawrence called on the knights to help. Altia summoned more beasts to help her, as Voriak starts her lightning crimson rite on the zweihänder. They all started to fight Altia, as she used radiant bard spells against them. She managed to control Voriak using the dominate person spell, and Voriak turned around to stab through Joanna. Eventually Fieldor breaked Altia's concentration, snapping Voriak out of it. Altia took to the sky with her aasimar transformation. She shot down at Wulfgang with her radiant arrows, as one of the beasts almost killed Ethera. Voriak jumped to the beast to save Ethera, killing it and using the blood curse of the fallen puppet to cause it to walk to its ally beast and attack it with a deadly attack. Fieldor and Joanna continued to shoot her down, as Wulfgang took a deadly necrotic blight attack. Ethera healed him on the condition of him not flirting with her again, as Wulfgang attacked the beast next to him. Voriak ran and jumped up, coming down and taking Altia back down to the ground with a zweihander attack, as Joanna took advantage of it and got the killing blows on Altia. The infected returned to sanity, while the full beasts were lost. After many losses in the city, it was saved.
Later in the church, Lawrence said a few words and tried to take over the church, when Wulfgang convinced him to make Joanna the new matriarch of the church. Duke Lorentz showed up to apologize about failing as a leader. Lawrence gave the pendant back to Wulfgang, who dropped to his knees and broke down, sobering up. Ethera thought that she had froze up and wasn't that useful, but the rest build her up. She invited Fieldor and Wulfgang to join her and Voriak as Blackreyne hunters, as Wulfgang's fighting prowess and Fieldor's research into aberrations would be incredibly useful. Voriak explained about all the sins she committed before controlling her werewolf form, and that she had a similar vow of preventing power-mad maniacs much like him. Fieldor accepted, joining the hunters. Ethera thanked Voriak for being the best partner she's had, as she patted her head. Wulfgang was conflicted between sticking with the hunters or helping the church, as Joanna made him sure that nothing would happen between them. Regardless, Wulfgang opted to stick around in Tromden and join the army there. Duke Lorentz led them outside, as the townspeople cheered for the heroes. As they talked about the losses, Voriak said that the humans would overpopulate within two generations- to which Joanna sadistically said that she would not let that happen. Ethera led Voriak and Fieldor deep into the mountains, to Night's End.
The events of this one-shot directly caused House Lorentz to lose the Duchy of Tromden, and the ascension of House Rennwald to the duchy. Ethera would later become Archhuntress of the Blackreyne Brotherhood, and adopt a daughter named Viera Blackreyne before her own untimely death.