Session 05: Familiar Frustrations

Game Date: July 19, 2008
In-Game Date: Mansday, Grimander 10 – Wainsday, Grimander 12, mid-morning.

Following the impromptu interrogation, the party sends a nearby street urchin to fetch the watch. Meanwhile, Aiden opens the bag of holding and tries to stuff the painting inside. As he brings the painting close to the opening of the bag, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he feels a sense of eldritch unease come over him. Suddenly the strings of Althea's lute sing out of their own accord. Althea gasps in shock and horror: when a bard's instrument plays of its own accord it is always a portent of the most dire proportions.

Aiden freezes, and takes the painting away from the bag. The sense of unease fades. Althea's lute remains silent now. Unsure of what is going on, the party decides not to put the painting in the bag. Aiden almost remembers something about things that really shouldn’t be put into a bag of holding, but can’t quite place the memory, as he thinks he might have slept through that lecture.

The Watch arrives, and they escort the party, along with the surviving Jeredrake, to the nearest watch house. Brovann meets them there, and tells them that he’ll let them know if he learns anything fro interrogating the subject.

The party has little time to solve the mystery presented by the painting, as they have a dinner with the Baroness Tarmikos and her consort to attend. However, when they arrive they are informed that the Baroness has been regrettably called away, and will be unable to dine together. The butler does not ( or cannot) say where the Baroness has gone. Puzzled and slightly suspicious, the party heads back to the Silverthorne Inn and eats a dinner of much more meager fare than they were expecting.

Gathering in Rowan’s room, they attempt to unravel the mystery of the painting. Lumi says something that causes Aiden to remember the factoid he was trying to come up with earlier. Portable holes can’t be placed within bags of holding, or vice versa, or else one gets rips in the fabric of space that tend to severely inconvenience anyone who happens to be nearby, usually by pulling their bodies through a hole the size of a grapefruit.

A closer examination of the painting reveals that the fabric on the back side of the painting is of a different material than the canvas on which the portrait is painted. Aiden breaks the painting apart, revealing a folded square of a heavy material. Everyone gathers around as Aiden unfolds it, revealing a strange glyph that has been inscribed on the fabric. With the suddenness of thought, there is a white flash. Rowan sees stars for a few seconds, and when they clear, her companions are all lying flat on the floor, having fallen where they stood when the flash went off.

A quick and panicked check reveals that they are all breathing, but try as she might, she can't rouse them. The glyph is still glowing slightly. Rowan grabs the cloth and begins to unfold it. A wind begins to blow around the room, blowing out two candles and causing the lamps to flicker. The wind continues to increase in strength, so Rowan closes the fabric up once more, and the wind dies off. Confused, she takes the fabric, leaves the inn and heads for the Royal Church at a dead run. There she requests an audience with the High Priestess. Daratris greets Rowan warmly, but with concern in her expression. Rowan, trying to make herself and her companions not seem like complete idiots, explains the situation. Daratris tells Rowan that the effect was most likely that of a symbol of sleep, and the effects normally wear off in a matter of minutes, half an hour at most. Rowan, realizing her friends have probably awoken by now and are freaking out because she has vanished along with the portable hole, heads back to the inn as quickly as she can.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party has awoken and is freaking out because Rowan has vanished along with the portable hole. After a minute the party realizes what probably happened, and so they settle down to wait until Rowan shows back up a few minutes later.

Seeing that no lasting ill effects have been suffered (aside from Lumi being wet from when Rowan threw water on her to wake her up), they try reopening the portable hole again. The glyph, its power now gone, has crumbled into powder that is easily dusted off the fabric. As they open up the hole and lay it flat on the floor of Rowan's room, the wind picks uponce more, whipping around their clothes and hair. Aiden reaches into the hole, and feels something try to grab at him! He stumbles back with a cry. Nothing can be seen, the hole remains a circle of inky blackness. Caspian tries reaching in, and is grabbed, but he pulls free. Curious and determined, he tries again, but this time Rowan, Lumi and Aiden hold onto him. Caspian grabs the thing in the hole and they pull upwards.

Out of the hole shoots a humanoid figure. Except for a pair of glowing pale eyes, the thing is translucent, seemingly composed of rushing winds. It looks at them without making a sound for a moment. But when Caspian draws his sword the thing attacks. As soon as the party engages the creature, a second one pops out of the hole and joins its companion in the fray.

The creatures may look made of air, but the blows from their fists land like sledgehammers. Althea gets cornered by one of them and takes a double-fisted blow that snaps ribs and punctures a lung. She activates her invisibility cape and tumbles to the side out of harm's way. The creatures are tall but wickedly fast, dodging both spells and blows with equal ease. Rowan and Caspian quickly find that even their best blows seem to do little damage. But the creatures are not invulnerable. Althea recovers enough to begin singing her haunting melody. The elementals are indeed affected by her song, and the air elementals begin to miss with their oversized fists more often. Lumi, having healed Rowan from some hard blows, turns and attacks as well. Eventually, Rowan’s frost blade, Caspian’s sword-delivered spells and Aiden’s fire magic take their toll, and the creatures dissipate back into the air from which they were summoned.

Panting and bruised, the party once more investigates the portable hole. Poking their heads in side and casting a few light spells, they see a bare hole, perhaps ten feet deep and some six feet in diameter. At the bottom of the hole is a book, and nothing else.

Retrieving the book, they find it in good shape. Bound in leather and metal and perhaps 200 pages thick, it appears written in a language that none of them can read. The handwriting is so precise and regular, had the printing press existed, they would have sworn it was typeset, not written by hand. The book is not magical, as Caspian discovers with a spell. Lumi casts comprehend languages to let them understand the writing; she finds that the cover of the book reads simply, “The Book of the Artificer”

Although the spell allows them to understand the language the book is written in, gibberish is still gibberish. Not exactly gibberish, but the words are highly technical, and make little to no sense to the reader. There are also many complicated and heavily labeled diagrams interspersed throughout the book. They seem to depict the construction of armor, but the level of intricacy rivals, if not exceeds, what the best gnomish engineers can perform. In the middle of the book, where the diagrams are heaviest, some 30 pages have been torn from the book. There’s no way to tell if the pages were missing before Colwyn found it, or afterwards. It’s possible even that the Jeredrakes have the missing pages, and they had come back for the book once they learned where it was.

Lastly, there is a paragraph at the end of the book that is written in plain language. It translates as: “This is the complete knowledge of the Artificer. Use the knowledge herein wisely, and with all due reverence for the forces with which you work. Once more we have taken fire from the gods and used it to warm ourselves. Be careful the fire does not burn out of control. I implore the reader one last time to be judicious in taking the gift that should be the gods’ alone.

“Signed; Caduceus, the last Artificer.”

Confused and disheartened, the party heads to bed.

In the morning the party sells some of the loot they’ve accrued, and buys some needed adventuring gear with the proceeds. They run into trouble when they try to sell Lanarg’s magic breastplate when the shopkeeper, having used a wand of analyze dweomer, realizes that the item is evil, and will curse any good person that attempts to wear it. The shopkeeper tells them that the sale or purchase of magical items of an evil nature is strictly forbidden and the punishments are severe.

The proprietor’s only reluctant suggestion is that the thieves guild might be interested in buying it. Rowan, Lumi and Althea take the breastplate in hopes of selling it to some thieves with less scruples about evil items. Caspian and Aiden continue shopping alone. Caspian has some specific things on his list that prove difficult to come by. The two eventually wind up in a strange cluttered shop run by a small, exceedingly strange hooded old woman who calls herself Tenoctris. She is able to find the boots that Caspian wanted, though she doesn’t have the energy crystal he was seeking. Tenoctris suggests that they try finding the black market. The guys there can usually obtain hard-to-find items, for a fee. It also, she says, might take some time.

Meanwhile, Rowan, Lumi and Althea head back to the tavern that Colwyn’s elf-ladyfriend worked at. They ask as politely and subtly as possible if Colwyn ever gave her pages from the book. She relies with a confused negative. Scratch that possibility.

At the thieves guild, the three ladies make a spectacularly mediocre impression with the guards at the door. Finally in exasperation, the door guard gives them directions to a out-of-the way arms dealer in the warehouse district by the docks, and gives the a passphrase to use so he knows they’ve been sent by the guild.

The girls make their way into the seedier part of the city, eventually finding a small shop nestled into the back of a warehouse. The owner of the shop is gruff and hostile, even after the correct pass-phrase has been given. He offers Rowan a ridiculously low price for the item, trying to convince her that no one else will buy it, so she can either sell it for less than she hoped, or not sell it at all. Underneath all his bluster and rudeness, he seems afraid of both the Jeredrakes and the city watch. After some haggling, Rowan and the other two leave. They’ve only gone a short way when they are accosted by two cloaked figures, a human female and male halfling, by their look. These two direct the ladies to a stairwell leading down to a dingy basement door. Not without some trepidation, the three descend and pass through the door. They enter a mostly bare room, with a desk with a lamp on it providing the room’s only illumination. The only other exit from the room is a door opposite the one they entered. It opens, and a massive figure comes out, ducking to get under the doorframe. He introduces himself as Otter. By all appearances, he’s a bugbear. Rowan surreptitiously activates her headband’s true seeing ability. Otter is exactly what he appears to be, but in Rowan’s eyes, the walls disappear, and instead she sees shelves and shelves of random items of all kinds (think Wall-E’s collection). The shelves stretch off into the gloom beyond the range of her vision. Rowan realizes that they have probably found the black market in Fallo. Otter is a friendly sort, and deals honestly with them, and is the first person to give them a remotely fair deal on the breastplate. He also gives them a deal on a new and slightly better bag of holding.

On the way back from the black market, the hairs on the back of Rowan’s head prick up. She gets a strange but undeniable feeling: someone is watching her. She turns, but sees no one unusual. The feeling persists most of the way back to the inn. She tells the others about it, but none of them can spot anything out of the ordinary.

Everyone gathers back at the inn, and in a few hours it’s time for the banquet in their honor. A carriage delivers them to the palace, and they are shown through lavishly appointed halls into the banquet hall. A courtier announces each of them in turn, with their full names and titles. Only Rowan gets a reaction from those assembled when the announcer calls out “Rowan Liadon, daughter of Laren Liadon!” The Blood Eagles nearest the door clash their hobnailed boots together as they snap to attention and salute her as she passes by.

They are seated just below the royal family and the High Priestess and her daughter. After a few moments, everyone rises for the royal family. The king, as expected, is incredibly charismatic, and is far more handsome than his portraits around the city indicate. The dinner goes smoothly, King Lucan asks the party of their adventures. He knows Aiden’s father from long ago, and also surprises Lumi by knowing Father Tilok! He tells Rowan that her father was in the city briefly less than a week ago, but couldn’t stay long. For a brief moment the King’s smile falters, as if remembering something unpleasant. But the look is gone as quickly as it came, and the king moves smoothly on to another topic.

Before the meal is served, the High Priestess stands, and with a nod from the King, presents each of the party with a silver medallion, The Silver Star of Fall. The palm-sized medal is in the shape of a seven-pointed star, one side for each of the grand dukes. In the center of the star is a stylized eagle in front of crown. She pins the medal upon the breast of each adventurer and kisses them on both cheeks. When she finishes, the king stands and applauds them, and the rest of those assembled quickly jump to their feet and follow their king’s lead. Sitting back down, the king calls for the feast to begin.

There is a small murmur of surprise from the table as Althea stands up a while later and takes her place on the small stage for the performers. Adjusting a tuning peg (all musicians everywhere are required by the laws of the universe to do this), she sits on an intricately carved stool and begins to play. She sings an older but still well-known ballad. She plays the first verse and chorus as an instrumental, then begins to hum along with the second verse. By the third, she sings the notes wordlessly, and on the fourth verse, she begins to sing the words. By this point her fingers are dancing across the strings, pulling a complicated but achingly beautiful harmony to her singing. Althea lets each note she sings hover in the air without any embellishments, using simplicity to enhance the natural beauty of her voice. One by one, the conversations about the table die off as they are drawn in by her singing.

When at last she finishes, she simply stands and bows to her stunned audience, then returns to her seat. The queen smiles, complimenting her on her performance, then asks without preamble if it was her mother or her grandmother who had the celestial blood. Althea smiles and replies that it was indeed her grandmother who was a celestial. Since the beginning of Althea’s song, Anadan, the crown prince, has been unable to take his eyes from Althea. Those with an eye to see also notice that Kitala has eyes for Aiden, though she quickly looks away when he glances towards her, and only stares at her plate when he talks to her. The younger of the two princes, Aellan has noticed this, and looks at Aiden with a cold jealousy.

After a while the king and queen stand and excuse themselves. By custom, the meal is over when the king leaves, but by unofficial custom, there is usually a much less formal gathering with food and drink in a nearby hall where courtiers can continue eating and drinking. Tonight is no exception, and the party heads into a smaller but still richly appointed chamber. A buffet of food is spread against one wall and servants bustle about fetching drinks. Aiden strolls up to Kitala, who is listening to Prince Aellan. Aellan turns and while paying polite homage to one of the honored guests of the hour, he makes his disdain clear. The two young men trade thinly veiled barbs at each other until Kitala, looking like a mouse trapped by a snake, bolts across the room to the relative safety of her mother’s side.

Aellan looks at Aiden angrily for a moment, then sighs heavily. “You know she’s betrothed, right?” he asks, then walks away without waiting for a response. Prince Anadan, meanwhile, is talking to Althea about the possibility of seeing her again before she leaves the city, perhaps for a noonday meal. Althea replies that she’d be honored. Rowan is introduced to Lord Attaper, the commander of the Blood Eagles, and the king’s principal bodyguard. He tells Rowan that he is honored to meet the daughter of Laren Liadon, and if there is ever anything she needs, she has only to ask the Blood Eagles, and they will do it if it lies within their power to do. And the Blood Eagles are fairly powerful.

A little before midnight, the adventurers leave the palace grounds, on foot this time. They head back to the inn and change clothes, then head for the graveyard to discover if the corpse of Colwyn Daystar actually resides there. The graveyard lies outside the city walls, but only a quarter-mile away. A single small cottage stands against the outer fence around the graveyard. A light from within the house leads the party to believe that there is still someone awake within. While Aiden and Caspian stand guard, Rowan, Lumi and Althea sneak in, split up, and begin searching the cemetery. They find a large plot of ground towards the north end of the graveyard where rows of unmarked graves have been made. Seeing as how it’s likely that this is where executed criminals are buried, they realize they have precious little chance of finding Daystar’s body without assistance from the grave-keeper. Then they discover that the graveyard, while not guarded by killer statues at night, is guarded by large, mean-looking dogs. Growling the dogs advance towards the three women. Rowan steps forward and calms the animals with the ease of a professional animal handler. The dogs take to the half-elf even more when she tosses them some jerky from her pack.

Unfortunately the dogs take to her a little too much, and when she goes to leave, they bark at her in disappointment. This draws some shouting from the cottage, and the girls bolt back over the cemetery gate and into the safety of the shadows. The party decides to try and obtain some manner of warrant from the city watch to search the graveyard in the morning.

Again discouraged, the party trudges back to the inn. Once more Rowan gets the sensation that she’s being watched. Even with the rest of the party helping her look around the well-lit streets, they can see no one around. After a few more blocks Rowan sees a furtive figure behind them slip into a dark alley. She follows and corners the figure, only to find it’s a poor beggar man who just happened to be skulking in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sighing, Rowan and the others head back to the inn. The word “Jeredrakes” is on everyone’s mind, though no one says anything until they reach the inn. Once there, they all gather in Rowan’s large suite. Aiden magically booby-traps the door and windows against intrusion; anyone trying to surprise them in the night will get a fiery surprise of their own. Even though they’re all on edge now, the adventurers drop off to sleep one by one.

Althea dreams of a cat she had when she was young. It always curled up on her chest when she would lay down, and nuzzle her head against Althea’s chin. Althea awakes with the first light of dawn to find something actually is sitting on her chest! Though it is cat-sized, the thing is no cat. It looks for all the world like a miniature red dragon with an impressive stinger on the end of it’s scaly tail. It’s eyes are closed as it rubs against Althea’s chin, and it rumbles softly to itself as if purring.

Althea wakes Caspian next to her with a quiet but frantic whisper. Caspian wakes Aiden up, who blearily looks at Althea, mutters, “Oh, for gods sake, it’s just a pesudodragon. Go back to sleep.” Then Aiden rolls over and begins snoring.

In short order everyone is woken up. Althea slowly sits up, and the pseudodragon, with a look of disdain on its face, clambers off her and sits on the bed, staring at them. Aiden, finally awake, asks it a question in draconic, which the creature seems not to understand. Rowan finally casts speak with animals and has a brief but enlightening conversation with the thing. Firstly, this creature is called Bartleby, and is the magical familiar of Colwyn Daystar. This confirms that Colwyn is alive, since a familiar whose wizard dies returns to the wild. They learn that it has been following them ever since they took the portable hole in the painting the day before yesterday. While Bartleby doesn’t know where the missing pages are, he does know that his master ripped them out to begin with. The pseudodragon also doesn’t know where Colwyn is now. But the pseudodragon agrees to remain with the party for the time being; he seems to have taken quite a liking to Althea.

Even though they have proof that Colwyn is alive, the party believes there may be useful information to be had from questioning the corpse that was buried in the belief that it was Colwyn. They head to the central watchhouse of the city and find Brovann. They explain some of the situation to him. Brovann smacks one huge sinewy fist into a palm in grim pleasure. He tells them that the whole situation had never sat well with him, that his instincts told him that there was wrong. He happily gives them written permission to have the corpse exhumed and to perform whatever magics they saw fit to question it. The party wonders if perhaps a local witness would be a good thing to have along, such as a few guards, to verify their findings. Brovann thinks for a moment, then advises them to get a priest instead. Someone trustworthy, but who wouldn’t be as freaked out about speaking to a corpse.

So the group heads to the Royal Temple once more and takes Kitala along. She spies the pseudodragon nestled in Altheas hair and squeaks at it. Bartleby squeaks back animatedly.

“You can speak its language?” a surprised Rowan asks the priestess.

“Well, it’s not really a language, more of a pidgin form of draconic, but yes, I can talk to him.”

Pleased, the party carries on to the graveyard. The gravekeeper, a hunched older man named Earnst, quickly locates the corpse they want.

They unravel some of the wrappings on the corpse’s shroud to find several things. First, the hair on the corpse has been dyed, probably less than a day before his death, to be the same color as Colwyns. It looks like the skin was rubbed with pigment to darken it as well. Lastly, the corpses arm bears a tattoo of a serpent devouring itself, the mark of the Mages of the White Hand. Colwyn had such a tattoo, Bartleby tells them.

They question the corpse. It doesn’t know much, but it tells of being kidnapped, drugged, and disguised to look like Colwyn by men matching the description of the Jeredrakes’ uniform. They were the ones who gave him the tattoo, then used magic to heal the skin around it. He was taken by men who wore the uniform of prison guards into a prison, where they left him in a cell and took a man who looked like him away. Then someone forced his jaws shut while someone else held out his tongue. After a few attempts, the corpse says, his tongue was bitten through, and the last thing it remembers is blood pouring all down his chest.

The corpse lapses back into stillness. The gravekeeper wants to bury the elf’s body, but Kitala steps in. Looking and sounding every inch a noble, she orders the grave-keeper to go fetch pallbearers and a coffin to place this man’s remains in, and have them taken to the royal temple, where they will be interred with dignity and ceremony, so perhaps the poor victim’s spirit may have some peace. As Earnst shuffles off to do her bidding, she blushes and looks down at the ground, mumbling to the adventurers that it just didn’t seem right for an innocent man to have to lie for eternity in a criminal’s grave.

The group makes to leave the cemetery. Aiden remarks that they’ll escort Kitala back to the protection of the temple and then decide what to do next. At this, Kitala’s eyes narrow into gold-flecked slits. She steps towards Aiden and with a speed impressive even to a group of veteran adventurers, pulls Aiden’s sword from its sheath and brings the point within an inch of his eye. Everyone freezes, not knowing quite what the hell just happened. Kitala hands the sword back to Aiden, and with tears forming at the corners of her eyes, she says “I’m not fragile, you know. I am capable of taking care of myself.”

Aiden replies that in light of the attacks by the Jeredrakes, he doubts the truth of her statement.

She angrily replies that she’s not saying that she can take on an evil group of assassins or whatever by herself, she just doesn’t want Aiden to treat her like some fragile hothouse flower of some noble house.

With that she turns and heads towards the cemetery gates, her head bowed and her arms folded tightly across her chest.

Session 4: Gather Information

Game Date: Jun 14, 2008
In-Game Date: Mansday, Grimander 10

After breakfast the next morning, the party heads into the center of the city to the Royal Temple for their reward from DuVrok. A priest shows them to the chambers of the high priestess, the Marchioness Dalatris Silvenrede. With her is DuVrok, who presents them with a tidy sum of gold. Dalatris kisses them all, telling them that they have her undying gratitude for saving her daughter. Furthermore, the royal family itself wishes to thank the adventurers as well, and a banquet is being given in their honor tomorrow night.

DuVrok and Kitala show the party around the temple, explaining that the Royal Church was created as a religious institution that favored no one deity over another, but merely venerated good in and of itself. Outwardly this was done to eliminate religious tension within the kingdom, but also served to weaken the royal power base, as the King would no longer have any paladins or other holy warriors to command.

After the tour, the party heads to the nearest station of the City Watch on the advice of DuVrok. The desk sergeant there doesn’t know Colwyn Daystar by name, but it does sound familiar to him. He tells the party that he will look through the missing persons lists from a month and a half ago and let the party know if they find anything.

Disgruntled, the party visits the Adventuring Guild next, where they hope to find a possible lead on Colwyn Daystar. Aiden and Caspian are interested in joining after hearing the pitch given by one of the Guild overseers, a one-handed half-orc bard named Karak (mostly due to the discounts at certain establishments that sell magical arms and armor). Karak asks the two to return later in the day for some evaluation exercises. Unfortunately, Karak has neither heard of Colwyn Daystar, nor does the guild have anyone by that name on their rolls.

Their next stop is the Sleeping Dragon Arms and Armor, a locally famous seller and trader of magical items. Rowan bristles at the store’s policy that no items with offensive capabilities are allowed in the store itself, and remains in the anteroom with Althea and the party’s gear while Caspian, Aiden and Lumi head inside.

After selling their spoils for a tidy sum of gold, the party takes a working lunch in the Elven quarter of the city. After getting their food, Rowan approaches the bartender and asks about Colwyn Daystar.

“Sure I’ve heard of him,” says the bartender. “Anytime an elf is arrested for a capital crime, it’s bad news for all of us with Elven blood in the city.”

Rowan asks for further details. The bartender tells her that an elf male named Colwyn Daystar was arrested for the murder of a minor nobleman. If convicted, he would be executed, but the bartender hasn't heard much of anything since.

Rowan returns to the table and informs the rest of the group what she's just learned. The group decides to split up and dig for more information. Althea heads to the Performer's Guild, Caspian and Aiden want to return to the Adventurer's Guild, leaving Rowan and Lumi to explore on their own.

Aiden and Caspian are walking past a tavern when they hear a scream and a crash. A man tumbles out of the doorway, blood streaming from his shattered nose. He crashes into Aiden and grabs hold of him. Looking at the two, he pulls out a sizeable money purse and tells then that it's theirs if they protect him.

When Aiden and Caspian ask who he needs protecting from, a low, rumbling voice comes from the dark awning of the tavern. “From me.”

Out steps a minotaur clad in chain mail. He demands the two soldiers step back from the bleeding man. Things get tense for a moment, but Caspian and Aiden are told that the minotaur is actually the Captain of the City watch, and the bleeding man is wanted for murdering children. Aiden keeps the man from escaping as he tries to shove past the warlock, and the minotaur “subdues” his quarry by slamming the man into the tavern wall with one hand. Aiden asks the minotaur, Brovann, about Colwyn Daystar. Brovann remembers the arrest, there was no direct evidence linking Colwyn to the crime, but there was a significant amount of circumstantial evidence. The butler of the nobleman heard Colwyn and the noble arguing bitterly and loudly. Colwyn left in a rage, and then the butler found his master dead, having been stabbed in the chest an hour later. A tip from an unnamed citizen led the watch to Colwyn's apartment, where they found him packing as if to leave. They found a knife that matched up with the wounds from the noble's body in his apartment, and arrested him. Three days later, the jail wardens came to Colwyn's cell to find him dead, having bitten through his tongue and bled to death. It was assumed that committing suicide was an admission of guilt, albeit of an extreme sort. Brovann is very helpful, even giving the two the address of the apartment Colwyn was living in when he was arrested.

Disheartened, Aiden and Caspian continue to the Adventurer's Guild. Karak puts the two through a battery of tests and challenges, assessing their power levels and abilities. He seems fairly impressed by their prowess. After paying the entry fee, the two are indicted into the guild.

Althea arrives at the performer's guild, where they have not heard of Colwn Daystar either. Althea presents her letter of recommendation from Bruge, and it granted honerary guild member status for a period of one month, or for the duration of her stay in the city, whichever is shorter. She attends a master class, and signs up to be part of the entertainment at the banquet being held by the High Priestess.

Rowan and Lumi meander through the city. They visit another elven establishment, and find a woman who claims she was romantically involved with Colwyn. She was crushed to find of his arrest, and insists that Colwyn couldn't have murdered anyone. He was seeking to purchase a rare book from the private collection of the nobleman he was accused of murdering. They are accosted by a fortune teller, an older human gypsy. She and her clan were driven out of the Vaniri Empire and have made their home here. She reads the two women's palms, and gives frighteningly accurate readings of their pasts. For their futures, she reads a deck of intricate cards. She tells them that the man they seek is to the South. She also tells them that their employer is more than she appears to be. Lastly, she says the cards tell her that their actions and this mission may plunge the nations into war.

The party regroups at the inn and shares what they've learned. They decide to check out the apartment before it gets any later in the day, figuring they have time to give the place a quick once over before heading to the dinner at The Baroness Tarmikos' manor.

At the apartments, they gain access to the apartment from the landlord by claiming to be interested in the property. Rowan uses her magic goggles to try and detect any hidden doors, while Lumi and Althea try and detect magic.

On the top floor, where the master bedroom is, they find a faint magical aura coming from a plain old painting of the King. They ask the confused landlord if they can buy the painting from him. (Confusing since almost every dwelling in the city has a cheap painting or woodcut like this one in the bedroom. It used to be a law to have one, but now it's just a tradition.)

The landlord goes downstairs as the party “talks about the property among themselves” (I.e., tries to figure out what the hell is up with the painting).

There is a yell from downstairs. Rushing to the stairwell, the party meets Lanarg and several more of his evil rangers. Lanarg seems desperate to get the painting, and charges recklessly up the stairs at the party. He deals a few solid blows, mostly to Caspian, but Caspian finally stabs Lanarg through the heart. The other two rangers are taken alive, but unconscious.

The party interrogates first one ranger, then the other. They finally cast zone of truth on the ranger, and trick him into revealing at least the name of his society: the Jeredrakes. He hints about a powerful “Master” that will kill him for his failure, but will kill the party for their interference. He also lets slip that the Jeredrakes were the ones who framed Colwyn for the murder of the noble. Finally, the ranger refuses to say anything more, and Aiden knocks him senseless again.

Now at least the party can put a name to their foes, but the mystery of the painting and why the Jeredrakes want it so badly remains...

Session Three: "The Roadblock"

Game Date: May 31, 2008
In-Game Dates: Mansday, Grimander 3rd - Sunday, Grimander 9th, night

Following the tracks back along the broad road to the town of Night Falls, no one in the party is really all that surprised when the tracks lead to a shed behind the mansion of the Funerary Guild. A peek into the shed reveals nothing out of the ordinary, just gardening supplies and a floor full of footprints that match those of the recently un-functioning flesh golem.
The group proceeds around to the front of the mansion and knocks on the door. A manservant answers and ushers them in while he fetches Elder Harken. Harken betrays no surprise at seeing the adventurers, and doesn't even bat an eye when Aiden makes the offhand comment: "Yeah, two of us almost died in that battle with the wraith." Althea, as subtly as possible, casts detect thoughts on Harken while she's relating the details of their discoveries of someone's involvement in attempting to set the wraith free. She gets the mental image of Harken painstakingly breaking up the stones on the floor under the whispered bidding of Arathex's wraith. She makes a magical whisper to the rest of the party informing them of Harken's culpability.
After their tale is done, Harken bids them get some rest at their inn; he offers to carry the good news of their victory to the waiting council members. The suspicious party declines, graciously offering to deliver the good news themselves. Harken is stuck. Daring not to protest too strongly, he leads them from the funerary mansion down the streets to the town hall.
A crowd of citizens has gathered around the council hall. While not quite an angry mob, it's obvious from the noise that emotions are tense as dawn approaches in the East. As the crowd spots the adventurers with Elder Harken, a hush falls over them. Althea and Rowan smile and wave at the crowd, giving them the thumbs-up. A cheer goes up as Harken leads them inside.
The seven other council elders of Night Falls sit around a long wooden table. Chief Elder Genning smiles as the adventurers as they enter. "I take it from the noise outside that you were successful?"
The party assures them that the wraith will not trouble anyone ever again. They tell their story to the council, but this time they mention the note they found, and make their suspicions plain (though Althea does not tell the council of the thoughts she saw in Harken's mind. She hands the scrap of parchment to Genning, who reads it and passes it down the table to each of the elders in turn.
Turning his eyes upon a trembling Harken, Genning asks, "What have you to say for yourself, Elder Harkin?"
Harkin breaks down sobbing, telling them that the wraith forced him to help free the angry spirit by afflicting his daughter with a mysterious illness and threatening to kill his entire family if Harken did not cooperate. Several of the council elders seem swayed by the tearful apology and story, but the party and Genning seem largely unmoved.
"Do you know," speaks Genning after Harken lapses into silence, "what the crowd outside would do to you if they were told you hade placed all their families in such dire peril?" Harken goes pale. "However," continues Genning, "I can also vividly imagine what would happen to the economy of this town if the head of the Funerary Guild was outed as the basest of villains. A decline in the funeral trade could ruin us. Justice will be done, and you, Elder Harken, will pay for your crimes. But in this case, justice must be tempered with prudence."
Genning turns to the party with a grave look on his face. "You have performed far above our hopes and expectations. Yet one more thing will I now ask of you all: will you swear not to tell others of the involvement of Elder Harken in this... madness without the approval of the town council?"
The party agrees, aided in part by the promise of double the original payment for the task. Everyone wearily trudges back to the inn, except for Lumi. Elder Olaf rises from his chair; he is the head of the temple of Pelor in the town. He takes the gnome to the temple, where he casts restoration on her from a scroll. Her complexion returns to normal, and she feels strength flow back into her bones and muscles. She breathes a deep sigh of relief, then staggers as she realizes how tired she really is. Olaf helps her back to the inn, and the party falls in to a deep, restful slumber.
Rising around noon, the party heads downstairs and is greeted with a victory feast. Genning approaches them with their payment and the thanks of the town. When the party asks about the "resolution" of things, Genning, with a glance at all the celebrating citizens around him, merely states that there will be a permanent restructuring in the leadership of the funerary guild. "We obviously need someone better suited to the task of maintaining the graveyard," he says, "someone who will not fail in the execution of his duties."
More loudly he states that this ordeal has taken a great toll on the mind of poor Elder Harken, and the man has suffered a collapse. He is being tended to, but unfortunately, Elder Olaf says that Harken may not be long for this world. Truly, this casts a dark shadow over what should be a great day for the town. And with that, he leaves the party to their feasting.
The party makes it out of town in the early afternoon and heads south, following the well-maintained road towards the royal city of Fallo.
The next day on the road, the skies turn leaden and a thin, cold rain begins to fall. As the day goes on, the wind picks up along with the rain, driving cold water straight into the faces of the party and their mounts. Everyone is cold and miserable. They pass several caravans and a column of soldiers marching eastward, but with the rain and wind, no one does more than glance at the others in passing. The day after that follows much like the same, as do the next three days beyond that. The party is not making any kind of good time along the road with the bitter wind from the South. Lumi makes frequent checks on the party and their mounts, keeping everyone healthy. At least with Aiden's skill with fire magic, the party never has trouble making a fire when they finally set up camp for the night. Still, everything gets wet and soggy, and the road turns from mud to soup under the hooves of their mounts, sucking at their feet with every step. Olly's underside is completely caked with mud. Lumi cleans him up as best she can in the evenings, and curls up next to him at night for warmth.
The next day, Sunday, dawns with the same gray skies, but no rain. The party finds themselves on the outskirts of Fallo, passing farm after farm along the road. Around mid-day the road re-enters a wood that stretches for some miles. Around a sharp bend in the road, the party finds the road blocked by the trunk of a large fallen tree. The party has passed innumerable branches of varying sizes along the road, blown down by the high winds of the past few days, so the tree is greeted by no more than a few groans of irritation.
Rowan, however, notices after a closer look that the tree hasn't been blown down; someone or several someones dropped it across the road purposefully. She alerts her comrades and scans the forest around her, alert for bandits. She thinks she sees something on one side of the road off in the trees, but isn't sure. Peering into the brush on the other side, she sees the figure of a man. He is difficult to spot at first, but it isn't as though he was actively hiding. However, once he sees Rowan spot him, he steps forward from the forest and to the side of the road.
He is human, tall and lean, with stern features and black hair. A longsword and a shortsword hang at his waist, and his hands hover near their hilts, but aren't actually touching them. He demands the party identify themselves, telling them that he is Lanarg, head of the Rangers that guard the wilderness around the royal city. It becomes quickly clear that he suspects them of downing the tree. He tells them his rangers have been scouring the nearby woods in search of bandits. The party convinces Lanarg that they are innocent travelers, and they're just trying to get to Fallo. The sound of a distant carriage approaching reaches their ears, and Lanarg heaves a sigh. He helps the party get their mounts over the fallen trunk and on their way, muttering about not knowing how he's going to get a carriage through this mess. The party re-mounts their steeds and continues down the road, quickly rounding a second bend and are out of sight of the fallen log and the surly Ranger.
Perhaps a minute goes by when they hear a shout behind them. Althea's ears pick up a few of the words, something about protecting a lady, but can't catch the name. She relays what she hears to the party. Someone suggests that there could be a little bit of money involved in aiding some noble in reaching the city safely, and the party turns around and heads back up the way they came.
Before they've gone ten yards the horrible sound of horses screaming in pain tears through the air. Alarmed, everyone spurs their mounts forward at top speed, galloping back towards the fallen tree. Over the sound of pounding hooves, they can hear another scream, this time from a human throat. The sound of metal clashing on metal reaches their ears as well as they round the bend in the road.
Just past the log, a decent sized carriage stands in the middle of the road. The driver, armed and armored, is slumped over in his seat, several feathered shafts sticking out of him. The horses drawing the carriage have collapsed to the ground and lie still. Four men in bright steel armor, some on horseback, some on foot, are fighting several rangers wielding long and short swords. As the party nears the roadblock, arrows sail out from the treeline and take down one of the armored men. Another volley kills the horse under a rider, who falls heavily to the ground. He struggles to regain his feet as more arrows fall around him.
Rowan, her eyes narrowing, casts a spell designed for passing easily through heavily forested areas. As she advances, the treeline magically moves back away from her, eventually exposing the archers who had been hiding in the trees as well as another man clad in the same garb as the rangers, but bearing no weapons. He fires of a spell that strikes the leader of the men defending the carriage. The party notices that the arrows striking the defenders begin to smoke nastily when they strike their targets. Grimly, the party scrambles over the log to the aid of the men and the carriage. Aiden fires off a few searing rays that all but incinerate the enemy mage. From within the treeline bellows the voice of Lanarg, "Kill that magic user!"
The next volley of arrows comes sailing in Aiden's direction, but the warmage activates a magical force shield that deflects almost all the projectiles coming his way. Still, one arrow gets through, penetrating his armor. Aiden gasps in pain as acid begins to dissolve both flesh and armor around the wound.
Althea goes invisible and begins singing a haunting melody, that, while chilling the flesh of her allies, completely un-nerves several of the rangers near her. They fight much less effectively while the eerie music lasts. Lumi enlarges herself to a towering six and a half feet in height, her oversized mace growing in size with her. She takes on the closest Ranger to her, absorbing quite a few blows before finally cracking the skull of her opponent. Rowan concentrates on keeping the archers exposed with the use of her spell. As Caspian rounds the trunk of the tree to take on the nearest foe, Lanarg suddenly emerges from the treeline. He fires his longbow one last time and then draws his own two weapons, a shortsword and a longsword. Caspian charges in and the two of them begin trading blows. Aiden tries to aid Caspian, firing off spell after spell at Lanarg. Lanarg proves a capable warrior, absorbing punishment that would have dropped most fighters and continues to attack Caspian savagely, his two blades hissing as they spew acid into the wounds they create. Caspian, bleeding and smoking from his wounds, activates the magic of his buckler which unleashes a storm of electricity into Lanarg. Caspian then becomes invisible, but before he can press his advantage, Lanarg goes invisible as well. Caspian yells to his allies as he sees branches in the treeline bend and snap as Lanarg's invisible form crashes through them. Rowan, seeing this, uses her headband that let's her see invisible creatures and heads in the direction Lanarg took.
Althea, in the meantime, comes to the aid of the leader of the men protecting the carriage. The hardy warrior has taken multiple arrow hits to his body and limbs, but continues to attack his assailants. Yet as Althea nears him, a black-feathered shaft finds the knight's heart, and he finally succumbs to his wounds in mid-charge. Althea, invisible herself, slices the archer across the back, becoming visible as she does so. As the ranger turns to deal with this new threat, Caspian runs the man through with his sword. Aiden spurs his mount forward after Rowan, and Rowan, still magically pushing back the forest foliage around her, swings gracefully and easily up behind the warmage.
Lumi, Caspian and Althea survey the wreckage and carnage around them. Lumi realizes that the lead knight still has the slightest bit of life in him, and bends over him, healing magic coursing through her hands into the kinght's broken body.
Caspian calls to the occupants of the carriage, telling them that everything is all right. A young woman's voice asks fearfully but authoritatively for someone named DuVroc. The knight Lumi has just healed struggles to his feet, affirming that danger seems to have passed for the moment. A second later, the carriage door opens and a girl of perhaps nineteen summers steps out, surveying the scene with wide eyes. She is honey-haired and beautiful, moving with a self-possessed grace as she steps down. Her gold-flecked eyes shine with unshed tears as she looks at the bodies of her slain protectors. Blinking hard, she introduces herself as the Marchioness Kitala Silvenrede, and her bodyguard is Sir Jallon DuVroc.
Duvroc asks the party to escort them both to the royal city, offering payment for such services. The irony that this is just what they had turned around to do before the attack is not lost on the three of them. Aiden and Rowan return having failed to find Lanarg. Rowan can track Lanarg's footsteps, but hearing that the group wants to escort DuVroc and Kitala to Fallo, she reluctantly abandons the idea of tracking the evil ranger, knowing that there's precious little chance of her taking him on alone.
DuVroc removes a curious signet ring from one of the fallen rangers. The swords of the fallen rangers all have the same emblem as well: A dragon, wings unfurled and mouth open in a roar, curled around a vertical spear. Althea wracks her brain for any tale she might have heard of such a device, but can't think of anything. All of the weapons the rangers used have the same magical property of dealing acid damage. Collecting their armor and weapons as both evidence and spoil, the party moves on with the two newcomers (as well as Kitala's lady-in-waiting, Sara). They reach Fallo without further incident. Aiden is obviously smitten by Kitala, and the young beauty casts a few hesitant but genuine smiles at him. The party learns Kitala is headed to Fallo to see her mother, Daratris Silvenrede. Althea has heard the name before but can't place it. Kitala hasn't seen her mother since she was a very little girl, and was nervous enough about coming here from her previous home in the Elven lands of the Silverleaf Foresthome. The attack has not helped calm her nerves.
At the gates of the city, DuVroc, Kitala and Sara part ways with the adventurers. DuVroc tells them to come to the great temple tomorrow and ask for him, and he will pay them, as promised. With that (and one last glance from Kitala at Aiden), the trio head off into the city. Tired and sore, the party finds a decent inn with luxurious suites to stay in. They wolf down some food while Althea plies her trade as a bard, giving a performance that would be fit for a royal hall. Everything from drinks to employment to marriage is offered the dark-haired beauty between songs. Rowan and Lumi sit and talk, listening to Althea sing while Aiden and Caspian decide to take in the sights of the city.
The two of them end up in walking through a posh neighborhood and recognize one of the names engraved above a stone archway. Kartharine had told the party before they left Brindinsford that should they need assistance, help could be found in the house of Baroness Brelowe Tarmikos. The two soldiers introduce themselves to the baroness and her consort, Sir Ian Shortcloak. The four of them have a pleasant introductory conversation over some brandy, and the two Cardinian soldiers learn several things worth filing away for future reference. One is that Sir Ian seems to know the name of the elf they seek, but can't think of why he knows it. Apparently the surname "Daystar" is extremely common among elves. Another thing is that apparantly Kartherine has something of a reputation for sending adventurers on extremely perilous tasks. Granted, peril is stock in trade of the adventurer's lifestyle, but Ian says that this Daystar fellow won't have been the first person to just disappear while trying to recover things for Kartharine. Or the fifth. Or the tenth.
The baroness agrees to help the party as much as she can, and invites them and the rest of the party to a dinner the following evening.
Heading back to their inn, the Silverthorn, Caspian and Aiden notice that while there are a fair number of guards on patrol around the city, they don't seem to be bothered by heavily armed and heavily armored types. By the time they return to the inn, Rowan is very drunk. Lumi has made some innocent comments about Miel, and Rowan finally bursts into tears. Lumi takes the half-elf upstairs and the two of them have a long talk, mostly about Potter Holm.
One by one, the adventurers drift off to sleep in their separate rooms, each wondering what the following day will bring...

Session Two: A Touch of Death

Game Date: May 17, 2008
In-Game Dates: Godsday, Grimander 2^nd, night – Mansday, Grimander 3^rd, pre-dawn

Here, corpses in various states of decay are strewn across the floor. Off this room is a shrine to the God of death, Wee Jas, and some collapsed storage chambers. Unfortunately, out of the collapsed rubble comes a huge black ooze. Realizing that the powerful acids secreted by the ooze will dissolve their clothes, armor and weapons if they're not extremely careful, the party dispatches the thing as quickly as possible.
The only other door leads deeper into the tomb. Past the door is the ward room. The stones of the floor were once laid in magical intricate patterns that bound the dangerous spirit inside the tomb. Now the heavy stones lay all over the floor, evidence of a great deal of manual labor. Bent and ruined crowbars are in evidence, as well as a bedroll and the remains of many meals.
In one of the adjoining rooms, the party finds a note among old and moldering parchments. It reads:

“. . . to ensure that the wards may never be restored, at least two heroes must breathe their last upon
their broken remains. This act breaks any hold the light may ever have over this place and frees the
darkness forever. My master craves true freedom. Once he has it, his secrets will be mine. . . .”

The party files the mysterious note fragment away for future reference and venture further into the tomb. Finally, they find the room containing the remains of Arathex himself. Upon a raised stone lies a corpse dressed in once-fine raiment that now hangs in tatters. Clutched in its bony hands is a rod decorated with arcane runes. Scrolls and books are piled around the body, but the smell of mildew from the moldy pages reveals that they are unlikely to be readable. The cold of the room intensifies as two bright red points of light form on the far wall. A shadowy, humanoid form takes shape around the glowing pinpoints of light, which now seem to be eyes burning with hate for all life.
The adventurers attack, but the wraith evades most of their blows, striking out with his ghostly claws at Lumi, leaving her shaking, cold and weak. The wraith strikes using hit-and-run tactics, making good use of his ability to pass through walls. Finally, though, the wraith hesitates a second too long before vanishing into the walls, and Aiden fires a fire spell made even more powerful by a rod found on the corpse of Arathex. The wraith screams as the fire consumes him, and finally there is nothing left but a humanoid-shaped scorch-mark on the stone walls of the tomb.
The party also finds the treasure chamber of the wraith, and find a magical sword that probably would have been helpful had they found it before the fight with the wraith.
Venturing back outside the tomb, they see a large, lumbering shape shambling off into the darkness away from them. Fighting their exhaustion and wounds, the party gives chase, and finally catch up to thing on the road back to the town.
It is some kind of flesh golem, and while it appears to be trying more to run than fight, the party manages to bring it to the ground and kill it. Now the party stands on the road back to town, with perhaps two hours left before dawn...

Session One: “Tales from the Crypt”

Game Date: May 17, 2008
In-Game Dates: Kingsday, Disander 25th – Godsday, Grimander 2^nd, night

A little more than a week has passed since the cataclysmic events in the city of Brindinsford. The great temple is beign rebuilt, the demons prowling around the woods near the city have been hunted down and slain. And a statue of the five heroes is being erected in the town square. Of those heroes, one is resting and recovering in the house of master harpers Bruge and Chlyra Corbett. The other has, with great ceremony, been interred in the catacombs beneath the temple of Pelor, and his holy symbol now rests upon the main altar in the sanctuary. The others have set off separately for lands both known and unknown on missions of their own.
Rowan's father checks on her often, but today she is walking around the city, and meets her father where he organizing his troops to move out. Moonflower, the druidess of the grove outside the city, offered Rowan the position of leader of the rangers in the area, but Rowan would rather not. Her father tells her of a mission for Kartharine, the head of the Librarium at the Grey University. He doesn't know much in the way of details. He does know that two of his men, a young, brash (but competent) warmage and a hardy duskblade will be volunteering for the mission.
Meanwhile, a young gnome cleric of Pelor, assigned by Father Tilok from Miel to help with the restoration of the temple in Brindinsford is approached by the newly appointed head priest. Since her work is nearly finished, the head priest asks her if she would like to join an adventuring party who will be in need of a cleric.
Also, Chlyra and Bruge have offered their young protege, a bard named Althea, a position on this party.
(There were actually several others that were invited to join the party. Alaine, the Paladin of Heironeous, a wizard from the University, and a rogue from the Gold Tabard Trading Company. Obviously, they decided to pass on the adventure.)
The five souls who decided to accept show up, one by one, to the library in the early morning. They spend a few minutes introducing themselves to each other, then Kartharine appears and greets them.
After introducing herself to them all, she tells them of the mission she needs them to undertake. Kartharine has an associate, an elf male named Colwyn Daystar, who was on an information-gathering mission for her. He had contacted her well over a month ago saying that he had successfully acquired what she was looking for. That was the last time she heard from him; and the journey from where he was to Brindinsford should have taken no more than three weeks. She has attempted every scrying spell she had access to with no success. Even if Colwyn had been slain, the spells should have shown him his remains, or the place he'd been killed. But all her spells simply fail, which leads her to believe there is some kind of magical interference going on. So it falls to the party to find Daystar. If they can free him, that would be desired, but of paramount important is the retrieval and delivery of the information.
Kartharine is vague about what this information is, mostly due to the fact that she's not entirely sure what form it is in. Her hunch is that it is a book of some kind. At any rate, the last place he was seen was Fallo, the royal city of the Kingdom of Fall. She provides them with a detailed description of Colwyn, from his looks down to the family sigil on the ring he wears. However, she advises them, he can and does use magic to disguise himself if necessary.
The next day, the party leaves the city on a river barge. The River Brindin heads roughly South, taking them more than halfway to the royal city by water. The party is able to get to know each other somewhat during the largely boring week on the river.
The party debarks at a city called Night Falls. Though the River Brindin joins the River Elegy, which flows past the royal city, several stretches of white water and a few waterfalls make traveling the entire way by boat unfeasible.
Night Falls is a strange city. The town of Night Falls was founded a short distance from a place called the Tomb Steppe. According to legend, the Tomb Steppe was created as a place where the remains of powerful undead and evil necromancers could be interred safely. Occupying more than two square miles of land, and protected by both physical and magical means, the Tomb Steppe was maintained by a human priest named Arathex. He aided many adventurers who fought the undead and those who sought to control the undead. As the story went a party of heroes found Arathex's body in the graveyard one day, evidently slain by the forces he spent so long protecting the world against. The heroes used the massive mausoleum near the north end of the graveyard, and buried Arathex with great ceremony.
After Arathex died, tales of dark and evil creatures marauding the area made the area no longer a preferred site for disposing of dangerous remains. But as time passed, incidents and sightings declined, and became nothing more than local legend. As the nearby village grew due to increase in river trade, Night Falls became a thriving trade center and farming community.
Realizing that the Tomb Steppe was safe enough during the day, the citizens began burying their dead there rather than building new crypts on pristine farmland. Because this method of interment was cheap and easy, people from many surrounding communities brought their dead to the town as well. The business of burial brought new prosperity to Night Falls, and a guild called the Funerary House sprang up to control the trade. It became something of a fad to be buried there, and many lower noble families and wealthy merchant families began using the Tomb Steppe as well.
From the Funerary House Guild, with its sigil rune of crossed shovels, to the Gravedigger’s Tavern and the mourners-for-hire on every street corner, the entire town seems geared to profit from death.
And the profits have obviously been good—the town’s wealth is evident in its well-lit streets, liveried town guards, and well-maintained buildings. But despite the dour nature of its chief business, Night Falls seems a happy, prosperous place, and its people seem content.
As much of the day is already gone by the time they get off the barge, the party rents a few rooms for the night at the largest inn, the Gentle Repose, planning to start out first thing in the morning.
Most of the party, half out of curiosity, half out of desire to walk around after being on the boat for so long, venture to the graveyard and look around.
They find the area surrounding the Tomb Steppe is flat, with no rises, dips, or vales to break up its monotony. Grave markers litter the ground, and names and holy symbols seem to be carved into every surface. In the center of this desolate area is a hill studded with hundreds of mausoleums, some of which jut forth from the hill itself. A sturdy fence surrounds the hill. A thin mist clings to the ground, its gray monotony masking all but occasional weeds and bits of wild scrub that reach up through it. No straight road leads through the tombs; the well-kept paths wind through mausoleums, trees, and statuary. The steppe is unnaturally quiet—even the normal chirping noises of night insects are absent.
Despite the creepy atmosphere, the groundskeepers seem fairly normal, and Lumi, the cleric of Pelor feels no evil there. The party returns to town in time for dinner, looking forward to beds that don't sway back and forth.
Just when the sun is close to setting, a young man runs into town, waving his arms wildly. “The Great Mausoleum!” he yells. “The Skull Tomb is open! The ghost is free!”
A crowd quickly gathers around the young man as he tells his tale. The adventurers make their way to the center of the crowd as well. The boy, named Felix, explains what happened:
“I know I had no business going there alone,” confesses the young man to the gathering crowd. “But the other gravediggers said I was a wimp who was too scared go to the Tomb Steppe. So I decided to go there alone, to prove myself. I went all the way to the Great Mausoleum, figuring that I’d chalk my name on the doors to prove I was there. I couldn’t just say so, after all—I needed proof.
“But the doors were open when I got there. I wondered if some grave robbers had made it past the wards, so I decided to check. I went in and saw several bodies, all decomposing, in the main tomb area. Above the pile floated a wispy ghostlike thing with glowing red eyes. I felt it's hatred for me in my very bones, and I turned and ran the whole way back here!”
The townsfolk are alarmed by this news, and a general uproar arises as they speculate about what might have happened. Finally, Chief Elder Genning, head of the city council, calls for the most knowledgeable person on the subject of the tomb, the head of the Funerary Guild, a man named Mior Harken.
A thin human in late middle age, wearing expensive clothing embroidered with the crossed shovels symbol, steps forward. “Thank you for summoning me, Elder Genning,” he says. “As head of the Funerary Guild, I can attest that the doors on the Great Mausoleum have been shut for decades. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever gone inside, since doing so would break the old seals on the doors. Certainly no one would be foolish enough to do that.”
“But Harken,” says Genning with a worried expression, “if the ghost is in the main room, then the inner wards are broken. That means the ghost that once troubled this whole region is free to roam again. Isn’t that right?”
“According to myth,” says Harken, “the ghost cannot leave its tomb unless a new dawn breaks while the seals are broken. An experienced group, acting quickly, could reach the tomb and reseal the wards tonight, before the creature can leave.
“Unfortunately, the guardians of the graveyard are active at night, and none of our local priests are up to the task of evading or confronting the guardians.” He scans the crowd with a discerning eye. “Who here is willing to undertake such a task?”
The party confers for a moment, then offer their services to the town. Genning offers them 5,000 in gold for the task.
The five heroes mounts their horses (or Great Dane, in Lumi's case) and heads for the Tomb Steppe. Winding their way through the graveyard, they encounter the guardians: animated statues that by day stand motionless atop low pedestals placed around the perimeter of the graveyard. Four of these statues, carved in the form of cloaked mourners, attack the party with huge stone fists. The party is holding their own, then the statues being to wail, a heart-wrenching, keening sound that literally deafens the adventurers. Althea manages to sing out a countersong that nullifies some of the effects of the wailing while Lumi keeps the fighters on their feet with her healing magics.
When the last of the statues has crumbled, the group quickly makes their way to the great mausoleum. The entrance, carved in the shape of a skull with a wide open mouth, beckons. The first chamber contains four statues of snarling dogs, one in each corner of the room. As the party reaches the center of the room, the eyes of the statues light up, and rays of black light shoot out and form pools of shadow form on the floor. Out of those shadows come huge skeletal canines that attack the party. For each one they kill, another springs out of the shadows to take it's place. While not particularly difficult foes, the skeletons just keep coming. Finally the party attack the statues themselves, knocking off the heads and smashing them. Breathing heavily, the party proceeds into the next chamber, wondering if they'll have the strength left to combat the wraith and restore the wards if these attacks keep up...