As the group return to Wyr from Fort Melville they are greeted by what appears to be construction of a large building. The new construction is going up beside the old decrepit church of Pelor. As the group gets closer, a loud female shriek is heard and Skrag is tackled by a middle aged woman. We all eventually recognize her as Joan the baker. After a few drinks and a change of clothes the group heads out to help with the construction of the new bakery, especially Skrag who is almost giddy with excitement.
The group also gets some time to catch up with what has gone on in Wyr since they left. It would seem that not all has been well since they left. Greg one of the local farmers was found dead by farmer Sam the day the group left town. Farmer Jim found farmer Kenneth dead this very morning. Both it would seem had some strange marks on them.
Myo, Kit and Z’Ella go to check out Kenneths body and find a strange symbol on his left arm. After some researching, they found that both men had the strange symbol on them. Greg had been found in a field outside his home, and Kenneth had been found on his front porch. The town is visible upset about the circumstances of two of their friends’ unexpected demise. The group agrees to keep an eye out for anything suspicious and try to find the reason for the farmers deaths.
Later that day a large group of horses arrive in town. As the horses approach the town is in awe of the sight before them. It is a group of 12 dragonborn with flags flying the standard of Aundale (the regions capital city). The warriors are surrounding an enclosed carriage and are all dressed in ceremonial armor. The one warrior stands out as the leader, as he seems to be the most serious, and has a large plume on his helmet. The phalanx stops outside the Inn and form a protective circle around the old man that steps down from the carriage. The old man is clutching a leather satchel tightly to his chest as he speaks to Mayor Hodge. The group is an emissary from Queen Alanna and is transporting treaties to the western lands. The emissary requests rooms for the evening, and take over the Inn for the night. Mayor Hodge informs Skrag that the groups rooms have been given up for the evening, and officially states that the group has free access to the old Witch’s cottage for the inconvenience.
The party learns from the emissary and his protectors about some rumors around Aundale, and a little more of the history of the kingdoms. All in all it was a peaceful night, and the emissary was on his way west early the next day. The sight of 12 Dragonborn in ceremonial armor will be the talk of the town for days to come.
The group head to the cottage, finding it clear of webs, with Jared looking very comfortably at home. They take care of some business of the horse barding, diamond fencing and some other tasks before heading back to town.
The next day the group is solemnly greeted by Sam riding his cart into town. Sam explains that he found farmer Frank dead outside his home this morning. Frank also has the mysterious mark on him. The party agrees to go to Farmer Jim’s house to see if they can find out what is going on. The group spends the evening with Jim and his family, Trinnie is found in the corner of the living room reading the family’s collection of books. As night falls, the family gets ready for bed and the group gets ready for a long night of keeping watch. Less than an hour later the group starts to hear strange sounds coming from the wheat fields, sounding like rustling, or someone stumbling around in the dark. The group prepares for whatever is going to come next. The noises get closer and the group agrees it is time for action, Skrag cracks his sunrod as the group finally sees what is coming towards them. Z’Ella instantly recognizes the zombies, but the rest of the group is disgusted by seeing that the zombies look familiar to them. In fact two of the zombies are Farmer Kenneth and Farmer Greg. Kit springs into full speed to appease her deity and vanquish the vile undead as the group easily returns their friends to a state of rest. The bodies are burnt to keep them from rising yet again. As the group head back to town, Trinnie imparts some information to the group that she read in one of the books. It would seem that there is an old cemetery to the east of town, over 100 years old and might be a link to the current problem. The group agrees it is worth checking out, but not before taking care of Farmer Frank. The group takes the body of Farmer Frank and creates a funeral pyre to keep him from the fate of Kenneth and Greg.
Myo, Skrag, Kit, Trinnie and Z’Ella head towards the old cemetery. It is surrounded by an 8’ stone wall, and has a black onyx obelisk in the center. Upon opening the gate the party sees around 20 zombies wandering around between the grave stones. Kit again goes wild vanquishing the undead. After finishing off the vile zombies, the group finds themselves investigating the obelisk. They find writing around the base of it, in a strange language. Trinnie reads the passage aloud, and a large area of dirt sinks into the ground behind them. It was lucky to find the opening, but Myo was the first to investigate as he was standing on the area when it opened. Kit pushes people out of the way to be the first to charge down the tunnel into the unknown.
The group finds themselves in a large underground room with many tunnels leading from the main room. The base of the obelisk fills the middle of the room. (see map last page). The room is not unoccupied. Two large winged undead creatures see the group and swoop in for the kill. They all seem to be drawn to Trinnie, in retrospect so did all the zombies from the cemetery above…another mystery to be solved. The group dispatches the creepy undead things, and starts to investigate the area more, finding another group of the undead winged creatures. This time there are 3 of them, and the party is winded after the fight. Convincing Kit that it would be okay to take a short breather almost took longer than the quick rest. The party found another group of 3 large winged undead creatures and once again needed a quick rest before going on. They decide to wait for a short break. Kit is very frustrated at this point and decides to go back out into the cemetery to double check if all the zombies were dead. The group agreed to continue further into the last unexplored tunnel, knowing Kit would return when her temper cooled. The find themselves in another large room, this one filled with several sarcophagi, 5 undead creatures and what appears to be a formidable wizard. The creatures Z’Ella calls out are 2 skeletons, 2 chillborn zombies and 1 zombie hulk. The band of adventurers appears to be outmatched, but manage to get most of the undead creatures taken care of. They once again have a preference to attacking Trinnie. Trinnie taking more than her share of love from these creatures eventually falls in the course of the battle. It happens about the same time as the large zombie hulk that had fallen a few hits ago stood back up and started clawing at Skrag. The party was shocked when the wizard drew hits to pillage through the downed Halflings backpack, like he was looking for something specific. The group finishes off all the undead, but the wizard manages to get away. It was then that the group noticed it was too late to save the little Halfling. Myo went crazy and chased after the wizard for almost a day before eventually returning to the cottage. Skrag and Z’Ella clear out the coffin room before leaving the cemetery. Skrag carries Trinnies body back to the cottage and Z’Ella says a few religious prayers over the body as they bury her beneath a tree next to the cottage.
When Myo returns the group discusses the previous events and they remember that the wizard was wearing a strange necklace with a demon symbol on it.
The party realizes that the wizard was probably part of a long forgotten cult to the demon Orcus. Orcus being the Demon lord of the undead.
Myo imparts that he found a camp the wizard stayed at. Myo also found a summoning circle in the camp that contained the symbol found on the zombie corpses. The party is not excited by finding this news. Kit who had eventually returned from her little adventure was filled in on the outcome of the prior events decided it was time for her to head to Aundale and seek the counsel of her church for help hunting down and destroying the evil cult. She then packed up her belongings and bid her farewells to her group.
It was a somber day for the group, having just buried one of their own and said goodbye to another. Skrag decided he would head to town and sit at his favorite table and drink a little to clear the “demons” from his mind. To his somewhat disgust it was impossible to do. He walked into the inn and there was a Tiefling sitting at his table. Skrag grumbled under his breath about the luck of trying to forget demons only to find a half demon in his way. He critically inspects the tiefling and begrudgingly questions the odd creature. He also checks with a few other people in town and Jared checks with his contacts. Skrag deems that Larissa would do for a replacement for now, but that still leaves them down one member.
The snows start to fall as news that a travelling carnival would be in town in the next couple of days. Perhaps they might find one of the carnies to find the other empty void in the party.
Only time will tell. I will keep you posted, so keep checking in.
