Bone Dust and a Farmhouse

Backing away from the Ghouls, the group used clever tactics to prevent the ravenous ghouls from feasting on any single hero.  After destroying the last of the ghouls, the group piled them together while searching through the remains.  Dora, while looking inside the tent, discovered a handful of gems, most of which she secretly pocketed, and a potion of healing.  After deciding to move forward, the group headed back onto the road and reached the edge of the forest by dusk. The

When the tree line opened up, the walking path became lined with chest high crops on either side instead of trees.  Further up the hill, the horizon was dominated by a two story farmhouse, boarded up from the inside.  After coming out of the trees, the whole area was covered with a dense white fog, which Wyndham and Dora identified as not actually fog but pulverized bone dust!  The entire air polluted with bone dust! To Thorm's surprise, he recalled training in the Temple of Moradin about Doresain, the Exarch of Orcus and King of the Ghouls whose White Kingdom was similarly filled with this bone dust.  Informing the rest of the group of the connection, they realized all may not be fine in the small town of Hampstead. Rather than strike ahead to the town, they decided to cut through the crops directly for the farmhouse to check it out.  Unwilling to try the front door, they entered a nearby crop storage building.  Although it appeared empty but for a small number of harvested crops, there was a chute about twenty feet up that appeared to connect to the main building.  Although the ladder was broken, Dora performed a Make Whole ritual and repaired the ladder, which the group used to climb to the chute and crawl through.  Hailing the whispering voices on the other side and identifying themselves as allies, they were ushered into the building.  While a middle aged man identified himself as Byron Westfield, his father Ollin and wife, Alissa and two daughters, Gwen and Salla, shouts from downstairs that the group was followed interrupted their conversation!  Byron explained that a younger man, Nik Harwick, was downstairs keeping watch. Password for a

The group rushed downstairs to see a twenty-something man holding back the door as forces rushed against it.  Although the windows were also boarded up in the furniture cluttered farmhouse, they could hear creatures scurrying all around the house.  While Leucis went to help force the door closed, the group spread out to watch the other entrances.  Ghouls crashed through the front door, but Dora dropped a illusory zone over the area outside of the door.  This area constantly knocked the ghouls prone, while she pelted them with Phantom Bolts and Riswynn supported her with blasts of Sacred Flame from his Holy Symbol. Seventh level item is Although they were successfully holding off ghouls from the front entrance, they were surprised to see them breaking through windows and screams from upstairs indicated some had climbed the farmhouse and broken through the upstairs windows.  Wyndham ran up the stairs and began striking the ghouls with lightening until he effectively destroyed this second wave of undead creatures.  Meanwhile, Leucis and Thorm held off the advances of more ghouls downstairs.  As it seemed the battle was ended, the group tended to their wounds and began to question the family about their situation and the fate of Hampstead. Metallica

Dealing with Stonefang and Beyond

While atop the Citadel, Dora took a few minutes to glance through the writings of Rogvir.  She decided it would take some time to fully translate and determine the meaning of the writings.  Rather than investigate the opening in the mountain, the group told Duggin they had the last piece of Stonefang and agreed to move down to the lower levels and deal with the Titan threat.  When they returned to the pit room, the Dwarves were busy binding Stonefang with the two pieces of the Titan already, but without the final two pieces, Stonefang was emerging from the pit.  Jumping into the battle, the group pounded away at Stonefang but quickly realized the most effective strategy was to conduct the ritual of binding with the other two pieces of the Titan.  After some harrying moments, the group was able to fully bind it.  After resting momentarily, they took the time to inspect the writings more fully.  It wrote that the final piece of the Staff was buried with Lord Evard the Black.  Unaware of who this person was, the group decided to return to Fellstar where they had left the other two pieces of the Staff with Uthor, High Priest of Pelor.

On the road to Fellstar, they came upon a slaver caravan and confronted the slavers, doing battle and killing them.  The slaves told them that they were taken from a nearby town called Kirin and being taken to the Borderkeep.  Unwilling to travel to either location, the group simply set the slaves free and continued on their journey.

They arrived in Fellstar, met with Uthor and he informed them he would need some time to work with the scrolls and determine who Lord Evard the Black was as well as his connection to the Staff.  A rider approached the group with a message from Wyndham's benefactor, Kor Yeznia, from Stonehallow.  The message indicates that he is in danger and has fled to Hampstead and needs them to come and find him.

Deciding to give Uthor the time to look into the scrolls, they headed out towards Uthor and encountered a tribe of Lizardfolk along the way. After defeating them, they noticed they were watched by a large black dragon, which flew off after the battle.  Three days later, the dragon was spotted again.  Outside the area of Hampstead, thay caught sight of a camp, followed a trail of blood into the camp clearing and found a disemboweled body inside the tent.  Coming out of the tent to alert the rest of the group, Edhas the bard was surprised by a ravenous undead ghoul.