15 Kythorn 1491

Session 3 cont., 10/23/2021

The next morning the group met in the common room to have breakfast. Jerry Beard related that he had had another disturbing dream the night before. This time he saw a dark room with a solitary male figure in it. The figure was staring at a locket. The locket had the picture of the woman from his previous dream.

A discussion was had about the next steps to take. It ended up becoming a discussion on Ysildea‘s actions at the Shadehill Asylum. Her position was that it was an act of mercy. Jerry Beard seemed unhappy with what happened, but willing to believe Ysildea when she said it had to be done. Lormin and Sylrel were much more unhappy with her actions. Arguing that if something horrible was being done to the woman, then they should have tried to save her, not murder her. They questioned Ysildea actions in the one day since they had met and did not seem ready to trust her.

In the end, the group decided to proceed to the library and investigate the documents that Lorien Yost had sent there to be stored.

Upon arriving at the Town Library they noticed that there seemed to be many more guards than one would expect at a library. They approached a librarian and asked for access to the documents from the church. They were told that due to the disturbances in the basement, the area was off limits and they were out of luck. The group convinced the librarian that they would be capable of handling anything in the basement and offered to try and put the issue to rest for the library.

The group spread out and searched the basement. While searching a blob of energy formed from one of the bookshelves and attacked Jerry Beard and Evelios Liriel. The group did battle. After several rounds a second creature showed up. It was an undead humanoid of some sort. Jerry Beard went down and the blob creature retreated to the book. The group then focused on the second creature. Lormin went down next.

While he was disabled, Lormin received a vision. He saw a beautiful elven woman dressed in white. She apologized for attacking the group, but claimed that the only way she could communicate with anyone was while they were near death. She said that the group needed to defeat the blob creature in the book. After, they would need to speak to Marrik Fordham who is currently being held prisoner in the basement of the vampire castle. He would have information on what was done to Ravenna and how to cure her.

Sylrel revived Lormin and he moved to destroy the creature in the books. He was able to identify what books the creature was hiding in and what pages appeared affected. He ripped the pages from the book, causing the creature to reappear. Evelios Liriel shot and destroyed the creature.

The second creature had fled and a search of the basement could not find it. The group decided that the creature must have only attacked to deliver the message and then fled.

Session 4, 10/30/2021

The group decided to take a short break and search the documents that the energy creature had been destroying. While doing so Ysildea mysteriously disappeared. Someone, perhaps Jerry Beard, said he had last seen her muttering about her bunions and that she would catch up later.

The search of the documents revealed that a number of them had been defaced to the point of being illegible or at least, certain passages on those pages had been. It was apparent that something was being covered up. Most importantly, amongst the official documents was a partial scrap of a personal letter that looked as if it had been included by mistake. Most of it could not be read, but the passage “Yost is willing to accept the terms they have offered to correct the mistake they have made” could be made out. Clearly something is not right with Lorien Yost and the Larondell Temple of Tyr. Ysildea appears to have been correct to be so suspicious of him.

The group decided to take the letter and all of the other defaced documents with them in case they could find a way to restore them and to head to the Roc’s Nest for a rest.

Upon return to the Roc’s Nest the party took their usual seats in the common room. At that point, Lormin suggested we ask Khira about the wound on her arm. She had previously been wearing a bandage and it was gone to reveal a still healing cut. Khira explained that it was only a minor wound caused by a broken plate while doing the dishes. Nothing to worry about.

The party members each took a turn investigating the wound in hopes of being able to offer some assistance, but everybody was shocked by the apparent condition of Khira‘s arm and could do nothing for her but wish her the best of luck with her recovery. They were quite convinced she would be loosing the arm sometime soon. This made Khira increasingly more uncomfortable, but she handled the unwanted attention well, even if the party apparently had no experience with minor wounds.

After that, Evelios Liriel overhead a local farmer leaving the Roc’s Nest and muttering to himself about his gambling losses and how he would not be able to feed his family. Evelios Liriel offered the man 5 silver pieces to help him care for his family. The man thanked him profusely and then said that with this money he could surely win back his previous losses. This enraged Evelios Liriel and the yelled at the man to think of his family and not waste the gift. The man quickly left and Evelios Liriel went to confront Maranda Khul.

They had a somewhat loud argument. Maranda Khul was calm, but adamant that what she really enjoyed was the time spent with the people she played with, but no matter what, it was not her fault or concern what the players did with their money. It was their choice after all. Evelios Liriel was angry that she preyed off the simpler and poorer members of town and insisted she could find players better able to afford the losses.

In the end, they resolved nothing, but somehow decided to play a game for “secrets” instead of coins. The game began in Evelios Liriel‘s favor, but went down hill as it progressed and he eventually lost. Upon loosing he leaned in close to Maranda Khul and whispered something in her ear before returning to the groups table. Presumably he shared something valuable enough to satisfy his debt.

Lormin had observed the game and tried to detect if there was any cheating or underhandedness, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Shortly after the game wrapped up, Maranda Khul left for the evening.

While Evelios Liriel and Lormin were busy, Jerry Beard and Sylrel overheard another local who was deep in his cups talking about another child who had disappeared. He said he had seen a group of kids around dusk but that one of the kids had separated from the group. Something large and dark had come out of an alley and snatched the child and quickly melted back into the shadows.

The party decided they would once more escort Kevin Drayer home and then investigate the location of this most recent disappearance. The group updated Kevin Drayer on the state of their investigation while walking him home. That they had indeed visited the Shadehill Asylum and they agreed that Kohren Vhost would need to be dealt with, but that had not yet been done. Kevin Drayer was glad to hear that his request had been taken seriously and was excited to tell his mom that his dad would be returning home soon. No one had the heart to tell him that his dad may have already been lost.

After dropping Kevin Drayer off at home, the group headed to the location of the last disappearance. Along the way, in a small open plaza, they say an apparition. It appeared to be one of the Ladies in White that the group had heard of. The group approached the ghostly form and Lormin attempted to communicate. He questioned the ghost to try and find out who the ghost had been and if they could help. The lady said her name was Dara and that she had closed up at the Inn and was on her way home when she was attacked and killed. She said “he is in the shadows” and that he would come, that they were all in danger and they should leave.

The group stayed and searched the area, all the while continuing to offer help and question the ghost on what had happened. The lady became more and more agitated as time passed. Eventually, either from frustration or for reason’s beyond her control, she transformed from a comely young woman to a creature with the visage of death. Lormin was terrified and unable to move. The creature attacked Evelios Liriel and attached itself to his back and began to suck out his life force. The group did battle with the apparition and eventually drove it away.

A fiurther search of the area revealed nothing unusual, so the group decided to continue on it’s way to the site of the latest disappearance. Upon arriving there the group looked around and Evelios Liriel identified the likely location of the attack. In the mouth of the alley he found a small collection of papers. The papers appeared to be a child’s school work and had the name “Thorston” written upon them. They also seemed to be completed for a teacher named Fulram Madheart. This was the second time the group had heard this name.

The group returned to the Roc’s Nest at this point. When they arrived, Professor Jervis Mirrakle was in the common room as he frequently is. They approached him about the Ladies in White they had seen. They had heard the rumor about them from him, but he had said they were not a threat. He explained, that yes, there were stories of them attacking people if agitated, but that the locals ignored them and left them alone.

He also told the group that the Ladies in White were all victims of the notorious serial killer Merron Kharga. Merron Kharga had killed a large number of people in the area until he was eventually caught and imprisoned in the Shadehill Asylum. He is rumored to still be there to this day, locked in a cell in the basement.

Lormin then questioned Professor Jervis Mirrakle about the possibility of him acquiring an enchanted weapon for him. They seemed to be encountering many undead creatures and were struggling with how to damage them. Professor Jervis Mirrakle said that he had indeed had some luck acquiring such things in the past for local people, but that it would likely take several months before he could do so. Lormin was clearly unimpressed as he hoped to have things wrapped up well before then, but thanked him and asked him to keep his eye out for something.

At this point, the party went to their separate rooms and turned in for the night.