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Zeke

Eldoran Spy • Killer of Marion and Robert Cross • At Large

Overview​

Zeke was a spy for the Eldoran Empire living in a cottage in the woods near Milstrom. His own journal shows that he murdered Marion and Robert Cross, the adoptive parents of Red, by poisoning the well water at their home so that their deaths would look like illness. The party found out in Session 13, but Zeke had already fled along the Gold Road, apparently heading for Eldoran. He has not been seen since, and as of Session 63 he is still at large.

Background​

In Session 11, Red read his mother Marion Cross's journal. It said the Twilight Company had placed the Crosses in hiding to protect Red, whose real name is Thurnok Skyhammer, from the Empire, and that they had probably been murdered rather than taken by illness as the town claimed.

The Investigation​

Acting on Roscoe's tip about the Crosses' deaths, the party visited Magnolia, an elderly halfling who lived nearby. She said she saw Zeke leaving the Crosses' house the night they died, after an argument, and then heard the couple saying that "Zeke knows too much" and "maybe they will take care of him." She believed the deaths were a murder-suicide. Magnolia regularly drinks a mildly psychoactive tea that affects her memory, and the recap treats her account as unreliable.

The party then broke into Zeke's empty cottage. Silas disarmed a needle trap on the lock. Zeke's journal showed that he:

  • was a spy for the Eldoran Empire;
  • poisoned the Crosses' well water to disguise their murder as illness;
  • had been watching Red and tracking Goliath movements in the mountains;
  • had recently been preparing to leave town.

While the party was searching, a grease fire started when they tried to put out his cooking pot with water, and the cottage burned down. They got out with the journal and a bag of the same herbs Magnolia uses in her tea. Silas tracked Zeke to the Gold Road, where he had met riders with horses. Purple wisps led toward the horizon, and his head start was too great to catch him on foot. The Session 14 recap says Zeke "burned down his own house", which contradicts the fuller Session 13 account used here. No transcripts exist for these sessions.

Aftermath​

At Grimvar's Spine in Session 17, the Skyhammer Clan was saddened to hear that the Crosses had been murdered, since the clan had lost contact with them.

Session History​

  • Session 13 — Magnolia names Zeke; his journal shows he is an Eldoran spy who poisoned the Crosses' well, and the party burns down his cottage by accident and tracks him to the Gold Road, too late to catch him.