23 Kythorn 1491

Session 14 cont., 1/22/2021

The next morning we met in the dinner room as was our custom. The mood was quite grim to say the least. I myself remarked on the seemingly impossible odds at this point. There was a Lich in the cemetery, a Boneclaw roaming town at night killing the children, a mass murder on the loose who was not only deadly with his knife but could teleport and now, we had encountered a shade in the basement of the asylum who could kill with a single hit and was seeming unconcerned by our attacks upon him.

We were quite lost as to how we would be able to move forward in helping the town in general and Ravenna in particular. During our discussions we realized that the group had at one point been pointed in the direction of the vampire castle on the edge of town. There was a prisoner there who should be able to help tell us what exactly had happened to Ravenna and how to help her.

Now, to be fair, two members of the group have died since we received that info and a third has mysteriously vanished. So, maybe we can be forgiven our oversight.

The Professor, always looking to gather as much info as possible to be prepared, sought out Gharrus Khorvin to see what she knew. Running the inn, she would surely be caught up on all the going ons and town gossip.

She related to us that since Yost’s adventuring group had killed the vampire, no one else had moved into the castle. Some townsfolk may have visited to look for loot, and even more claimed that they had (of course, they were happy to sell you their trinkets they had supposedly found). But it was still abandoned and had the appearance of still having some sort of evil presence.

She also commented what a shame it was, what had happened to the members of the adventuring group. Lorien and Jensen seemed to be doing ok, although both had turned into recluses since. But the elf lady, Mira Gorman had taken her own life. And they fourth member, Marrik Fordham, had not been seen since.

Those names sounded familiar and digging into the journal notes deeper, things started to make a bit more sense. When the group had first come to town, on the second day or so, they had gone to the town library to read through some of the older records from the Church of Tyr.

While there they had fought and killed a spectral worm of some sort that had been destroying the very documents they wanted to examine. They also fought a spirit who had struck Lormin down.

When he came to, he told of a vision/encounter he had. The spirit was actually the ghost of a beautiful elven lady. She said that what they had done to Ravenna was horrible and that she had not been able to live with it. But Marrik Fordham was being held in the basement of the castle and he knew what had been done and how to undo it.

This matched up perfectly with what the inn keeper related and seemed to a sign that maybe we needed to re-focus our investigation on our original reason for coming to town. At least for the time being.

We decided that, since we had nothing else to do for the day, we would head straight out to the castle. That way we could visit it in daylight. We could do some scouting, and if things seemed too dangerous, we could back off and come back with a better plan, maybe after visiting Jennsen Windmeer.

The approach to the castle was as one would expect. The grounds were overgrown and filled with graves and crypts. After our experiences in the graveyard, the group gave the crypts a wide berth. We approached the door and found it to be open, so proceeded in. In the first hall we came to, there was a stair case leading both upwards and down. We headed down, since we had been told Marrik would be in a cell in the basement.

Coming to the bottom of the stairs, we walked directly into a group of 2 wights As soon as the fight started, a third came out of a doorway and a fourth came around from a corner. Finally, something we had a chance to actually defeat. It was a drawn out battle, but we slowly whittled them down. Just as we killed the third, the fourth and final wight took off down a hallway running.

Not wanting to loose it and hoping to stop it before it alerted anyone else, we quickly followed. The path lead though a few chambers and a number of doors. Then we came to a partially submerged hallway. There was only a few feet of water in the hallway, so I, being in the lead, continue to head down the hallway. There were niches on both sides of the wall with caskets in them, but we ignored them in our haste. Sadly, I was not being particularly careful and I walked straight into a trap.

There was a hole in the floor under the water opening up into a small submerged chamber. Chained to the floor was a vampire. The vampire was not as strong as I would have expected, perhaps it was young or weakened in some way. Evelios jumped in after me and The Professor and Sylrel stayed out of the hole, but could see down into the room. The battler was fairly short and decisive and we quickly defeated the creature and climbed up out of the hole.

Session 15, 2/5/2021

After climbing out of that hole, we were still stuck in a hallway filled with several feet of water. We decided to press forward. Either we could catch up with the wight before it got much further or we might find a dry safe location to take a break.

We took a turn south and then one to the east. At this point, it was starting to look a bit like a maze, but before we could reconsider our choice, skeletons sprung out of the caskets we were so blindly ignoring. It seems likely the wight headed this way purposely just to lead us into this chain of traps.

As soon as the fight started we could tell the skeletons were not very strong individually, but there was a serious chance of us being overwhelmed. Sylrel, who was in the back, was particularly worried, but then she was surprised to see a figure dart out of the shadows and join in the the fight. With the help of the surprise reinforcements we were able to slowly whittle down the horde. The tight corridor was in our favor for sure.

After defeating all the undead, we cautiously approached the stranger. While we were glad for the assistance, it was a strange place indeed to meet someone wandering on their own. The Professor was especially nervous given the circumstances. The stranger introduced himself as Lim and said he has been tracking us for several days. He had heard we maybe have information on the whereabouts of Merron Kharga. When The Professor pushed for details on why he would be looking for him, he became very combative and evasive. I suggested we continue on until we came to a dry place, and then we could try the introductions again.

A bit of the way down the hallway we found a right turn that lead up several steps and into a small chamber. There were three sarcophagi in the chamber, but it was otherwise empty. A good place to take a rest. But, we warned each other, no one touches the crypts. No one. We know what can happen.

While we rested we started over with the introductions. I introduced myself, Evelios Liriel, Sylrel and The Professor. The stranger introduced himself as Lim and said, again, that he was tracking us because he was looking for Merron Kharga and had heard we might have information on how to find him. When pressed on why he would be looking for Merron, a psychopathic serial killer, Lim would only say that Merron had information about Lim’s past. What role did Merron play in his past or what details he hoped to discover he refused to say. The Professor went on a half our presentation of the past details of his life in hopes to convince Lim to open up, but it was to no avail. In the end, the decision was made that Lim would accompany us and maybe with time the trust would build.

After the break, it was decided we would investigate the sarcophagi in the room we were in before moving on. We did a visual inspection, but saw nothing of note. So Evelios and myself went to open the first one in the row. As mentioned earlier, we knew better than to touch one of these, but we did it anyway.

I was the first to touch the sarcophagus and as soon as I did the was a flash of white light. When I could see again, saw that I was no longer with the group. Apparently I had been teleported into a small prison cell. It was a small chamber, but enough room to get up and pace around a bit. There was a solid metal door with a slot in it, but both door and slot we tightly fastened. There was another occupant chained in one corner, but they had been here some time as there was nothing but bones left. After failing to find a way out or being able to move the door what so ever, I took a seat in the corner and decided I would have a snack and wait it out.

Of course, being separated from the group, I have no first hand knowledge of what the did next, but from what Sylrel related to me the remainder of the group went into an immediate panic. They were afraid to touch the sarcophagus themselves, but started an immediate search. From my understanding they took off racing through the halls looking for any sign.

At one point they entered a room with a number of statues in it and some sort of device. Thinking it may be related to my disappearance, they did something to the device (maybe only touching it) and the statues came to life to attack. Not wanting to waste time in a battle, the group fled instead of fighting the stone guardians. Luckily for them, once they left the room, the statues reset and went back to their original positions.

Eventually they ended back in the small chamber with the 3 stone sarcophagi. With no other ideas as that point, Lim volunteered to touch the sarcophagus. When he did, he too disappeared in a flash of light. He was teleported into the same cell as myself, but I was no longer there.

While I had been waiting for the group to find me, I had heard a voice calling out from behind the cell door. The voice said they were there to free me. I just need to stand back from the door and promise not to attack. I readied a spell in case, but called out that I was away from the door and they could open it.

The door then opened and in stepped a pretty normal looking human male. Well, normal looking except that his eyes were softly glowing. The man introduced himself as Luther. He said that he was the major-domo of the castle and he had been sent by the mistress of the castle to retrieve me and the rest of the group. The mistress was wanting to speak with us.

I was a bit taken back by that. Our understanding was that the castle was empty since the vampire had been defeated by Lorien Yost and his group. I questioned Luther a bit and he gladly admitted the last master of the keep had been the vampire and that he had server him as well. I definitely got the impression that Luther was more attached to the keep itself than it’s occupant.

I considered either attacking Luther or simply running for it and searching out my companions. But I had no idea where they were or where I was. But I did know that they place was dangerous and full of undead. Luther assured me that if I went with him the rest of the group would meet us, so with no other good idea, I decided to accompany him.

We had only gotten several 100 yards down the hallway, and we about to head up some stairs when Luther stopped and said that it appears someone else was now in the dungeon. He asked me to wait and he disappeared back the way we had come from. He returned a few minutes later with Lim in tow. I filled Lim in on what had happened and he agreed we should accompany Luther, so we set off again. We had not gotten far, when once again Luther called a halt and said someone else had appeared.

This arrival was accompanied with the sounds of screaming followed by a large slamming noise followed by the appearance of the Professor rounding the corner at a run. Apparently the Professor had teleported into a different cell, one that had a very unhappy occupant in it. The Professor had used a spell to reduce the size of the door and was making a run for it. He pulled up short when he say Lim and I waiting with Luther.

Again, a explanation on what had happened and where Luther was taking us. And assurances that the remainder of the group would join us soon. So, the Professor agreed to accompany us as well.

Luther, finally, led us up the stairs and back into the large entry hall we had originally come in through. We then continued on our way a short distance and came to a large lounge/dinning area. There were several human servants there. Luther left us in their care and said he would return when the entire group was assembled. About 10 minutes later another servant showed up leading Sylrel and Evelios. They said the servant had found them in the catacombs and convinced them to follow.

Luther returned shortly after and said the mistress was ready to meet us, so we headed up to her room in the tower. The room was sizable, with plenty of plush seating and artwork. The was also a small gaming table in the center of the room with the board setup ready to play.

Although it seemed chance were high that the mistress would be some sort of undead or other nefarious creature, we were pretty clearly in her care, so we approached her as one might a woman of distinction or power, politely and with some deference.

The mistress inquired as to who we are and why we were intruding on her domain. We assured her that it was our understanding that the castle was no longer inhabited and we had not meant to intrude. She admitted that she had not been in residence long and had not advertised her presence as of yet, so she was not surprised.

After all, she said, she had just recently entered the ranks of the undead herself and was a fairly recently turned into a vampire. At our expressed dismay, she said it was an improvement upon her previous situation. Finding that odd, and realizing we had not yet heard her name, The Professor asked and she readily told us that her name was Ravenna.

I must of gasped out loud before I exclaimed that we were looking for her and had been sent to locate and help her. To undue what had been done to her.

She raised her voice at this and appeared to get agitated and asked who had sent us. Before I could answer, The Professor, sensing that it was perhaps better not to admit our association with the church as this point signaled behind his back for me not to answer.

The Professor then tried to distract her by convincing her to play a round of the game set up. They did so and exchanged pleasantries while the rest of us watched on. The Professor played skill fully and tried to steer the conversation in a helpful direction, but ultimately was not able to discover much more details.
Ravenna had made the transition to being a vampire as a way to improve her condition. She was also looking for revenge and had already currently put her plot into action. I believe she saw her status as a vampire as a help in her future plans.

In the end, we parted on seemingly amicable terms. Ravenna said we could contact her again if needed, but it was best if we sent a messenger first. But under no circumstances were we to be wandering around the keep uninvited or invading her privacy.

We left to return to the inn and began a spirited discussion. What were we to do now? The person we were sent to help had turned into a vampire willingly and was plotting her revenge. But, we still did not know what was done to her, but whatever it was, being an undead monster had seemed like an improvement to her.

Should we warn Yost and those that had originally harmed her that she was coming for them? Do we assist her in some way? Can you un-vampire someone? And even if you could, would that change her plans? Or is she so far down the dark path there is no longer any hope for her?

On top of all that, we realized when we got back to the inn that Lim was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared on the streets as quickly as he had appeared in the catacombs. Will we see him again or ever learn what his connection to Merron Kharga was?