The pale moonlight casts long shadows on the path up to the hillock as the adventurers set off to investigate the abandoned ruins.
Not long into the hike, Mick E. Faus begins to mutter and appears deranged. When Mother Nirvea seeks to comfort him, he pushes her away and yells, “Not again! I won’t suffer this again. You must leave the undead alone if you cannot control them!”
The necromancer then turns and disappears into the night before anyone can stop him. Nirvea says she hopes that the disfigured mystic makes it safely back to town.
The druid looks at the warriors before her and says solemnly, “He’s not wrong, you know. The restless dead are not to be trifled with. Investigating these ruins will not be easy. It is not shameful to turn back.”
Jabbles, the goblin, responds, “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”
With that, the wolf rider turns his mount and leads the party up the hillside. The tiny goblin peers deep into the dark woods and safely keeps the group on the path, and avoid any rambling ghouls.
While marching briskly, Kristov hums a powerful tune that he hopes calms his wolfkin mercenary. The melody soothes the bloodlust rising in the warrior, keeping the wolfkin in control.
The wolfkin’s keen senses enable the party to come upon the ruins unmolested by the undead. When they arrive in the clearing, it is midnight, and the moon’s light pours through a hole in the obelisk, providing them a path they hope leads to the crypt they seek.
Unfortunately, the adventurers find the crypt’s clearing beset by the undead. Jabbles impulsively throws a pebble at the closest skeletal warrior, and it responds with a raspy roar that goads its fellows to battle.
Mother Nirvea turns and implores the warriors, “Normally our people venerate the restless dead, but it is not dishonorable to help them to their final slumber. These warriors have been made angry with unholy magic. We have to end them.”
Hearing that, Jabari unleashes his rage and plunges toward the lead skeleton, and cleaves it in two. “Were you going for that one?” he says with a grin toward Jabbles.
With the battle joined, Kristov runs up and knocks another ghastly warrior prone. Jabbles and his wolf mount, Jango, pounce on another ghoul and runs it through with his “Princess Pokey” lance.
Meanwhile, Mother Nirvea pulls forth a holy symbol of her goddess and calls down a rain of magical power, hoping to purge the undead. However, she is surrounded and wounded before Jabbles rescues her.
“It is my honor to protect you,” the young goblin says to the druid. She nods respectfully in return but is exhausted from her wounds.
The hulking wolfkin is a sight to behold in battle. He dances between two skeletons that slash at him with swords, but he parries both blows and rends one into a pile of bones.
Kristov remarks that Jabari is “dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight” as he wrestles with the mob of ghouls before him.
As Jabbles uses his prized lance, he calls out to Jabari and says, “Look! I already got two of them!”
The wolfkin grins and says slyly, “Then you’re one behind me, little warrior.”
Kristov rushes over to Mother Nirvea to apply bandages and a headling poultice. She breathlessly mouths, “Thank you, old one,” before returning to her feet. The druid then holds her holy symbol aloft once more, and her arcane power arcs out to blast another skeleton.
Seeing that the party is hampered by the darkness, Kristov lights another torch and tosses it toward what he believes to be the crypt’s entrance. Luckily, it lands in an old stone fire pit. The torch catches the remaining kindling and logs alight, and the pit bursts into a roaring flame, illuminating the clearing. Using the massive fire, Jabari shoves a ghoul into the pit and screams as the flames render it to ash.
“Let’s make a break for it,” Kristov yells as he races to the spot the moonlight left on the clearing. Passing the fire and reaching the slight cliff, he notices a stone slab built into the hillside. Pounding the ancient slab with his hammer, the peddler furiously breaks through the stone wall just as more undead pour into the clearing.
The stone gives way to a dark tunnel that Kristov hopes ends at the crypt. “It’s time to go before the undead overtake us!” he implores the group.
Quickly, Jabbles and Jango race into the tunnel to lead the way. Nirvea looks disappointed as she leaves the fray, no doubt feeling as though her work is left undone. Jabari cleaves another ghoul in two before charging down the tunnel, picking up the druid for her own safety. Lastly, Kristov piles some broken stone into a makeshift barricade to keep the ghouls from entering.
Finding themselves in a dimly lit crypt, the party sees a ghostly green glow at the far end and hear the soft crying of a woman. Soon, the figure of a supernatural human female comes into view.
“Will you accompany me to find out what restless spirit this is?” Kristov says to Jabari. Undeterred, the wolfkin looks curiously at Mother Nirvea and asks, “Why are you crying?”
“It is clear you confuse me with the ghostly presence ahead of us you muscle-bound wolf,” she says dryly.
Drawing closer, Kristov and Nirvea listen to the ghost’s ravings before they can discern her dialect. They agree the ghost appears to speak an ancient form of Ailander. The pair inform the wolfkin and goblin that the spirit speaks of her family’s betrayal at the hands of a “Zygofer.”
Eventually, Kristov speaks up to the ghost and says, “We have come to your tomb to find what you are seeking. This town has many troubles and spirits. We wish to be of service to you. I have brought a midwife. She is sympathetic to your suffering.”
The spirit turns, revealing a ghostly visage, and fades and comes back with the changing green flames. She laughs softly to herself before saying, “I am Countess Ursula. If you wish to help
me. Then leave this play and slay Zygofer. Slay him and his daughter, and that damned bard Merrigall. They are the ones that did this to my son and me.”
With more prodding, she explains how her husband, Count Nepola, and entombed their whole family alive after the count refused to take sides in the wizard’s war with the Ailander king.
Quickly doing some math and astounded from her tale, Jabbles exclaims, “You’ve been entombed for 300 years! Do you even know of the Blood Mist?”
The countess says, “That sounds like something Zygofer would do if he was truly desperate. You want to help? Go kill Zygofer and free us from this curse.”
Jabari growls, “I already rid the world of one demon. How many more do I have to kill?”
Pulling the peddler aside, Jabari says to Kristov, “Can’t you just use that silver tongue of yours and convince her this wizard is dead?”
Kristov chuckles and says, “Let’s put a pin in that, but maybe I’ll be able to do so in the future.
Nirvea and Kristov prod the countess for more information, but all she can remember is that she believes Zygofer had a fortress at the “Shadowgate Pass.”
“If what you say is true, this wizard is a being of immense power,” Jabbles says. “No offense, but I do not wish to join you in this unholy slumber.”
Ursula responds, “You hail from the Raven Lands, do you not? Is it not unnatural for us to be bound so. Are you not outraged at the killing of an innocent child?! That alone should be enough to cause you to take up arms.”
Her words move the young goblin, and he affirms himself to her demand to kill the demon wizard. Hearing her plight, Jabari steps forward as he is keen to prove himself in battle.
The massive wolfkin gets down on one knee, pulls his sword out, and says, “On my honor as a wolfkin, I will slay this demon for you. So says Jabari!”
Beaming with pride, the countess waves her hand and says, “Then by my authority, arise, Sir Jabari of the Hollows, and kill Zygofer. Bring an end to this torture we have been cursed with.”
Turning, she looks at Jabbles and says, “Good young squire, may you serve your knight well on this quest.”
Uncertain with how to proceed, Kristov asks Nirvea if she has any magic to end the curse. The druid affirms that she does, but before she can utter her spell, the countess shrieks.
“No!” She screams. “I will not have you cast more unholy magic in here. Do not desecrate my family further. Leave now!”
Not wishing to push their luck again with a ghost, Kristov pulls everyone to the tunnel before making sure the path is clear. Once more, Jabbles leads the adventurers down the hill toward town safely.
However, once at the hillock base, the group sees flames from the riverfront and smells smoke. It seems as though the battle between Yawim and Pollmer has just begun…
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