Racing out the back of the Harwick house, the group hurried to the tree line and decided rather than follow the directions to the farmhouse of Darien, Wyndham wanted to look for the town hall/militia to see if his mentor, Kor Yeznia, was hiding there. As they snuck towards the center of the village, the bone dust in the air grew thicker and the constant shuffling of the undead filled the mist beyond their vision. The town hall building had two leveled buildings connected by a ten foot high breezeway. The large barn doors on the closest part of the building seemed sealed from the inside although Edhas could hear noises from inside.
They slinked around the side of the building and noted no other ways into the barn part of the building. A bulkhead behind the building was also locked. Dora's Ghost Sound power led to a ghoul howling for backup in the other direction, but they quickly realized that hungry undead were now approaching their location. Some quick thinking by Wyndham had the group clikmbing the side of the barn with his grappling hook and rope. Once above, they observed an unfortunate woman who suddenly fled across the town center only to be ravaged and disembowled by a horde of hungry zombies. Not wasting anytime, they crossed the roof of the breezeway to a blocked window in the main part of the building.
Unable to push the wood blocking the window, Thorm began hacking at it with his axe until he could reach through and begin moving things away from the window. Suddenly a dagger flashed across the space cutting his arm open. The inhabitants kept insisted they leave, that they lacked food and didn't have any more space for others, but clever bargaining by Thorm convinced them to relent. Once inside, they learned that 15 "militia" men were holed up here with some older weapons. One identified himself as Kira's sister and, after discovering they had left her in the Chapel, was determined to go rescue her. Secret word is Retarded - text me the word and 5 potions of vitality to your cahracter sheet. They also learned that this group of men had killed and eaten the mayor, whose body was salted and hanged in one of the rooms. They also had no knowledge of Kor Yeznia but confirmed that Darien's farmhouse was further south - where the bone dust was even thicker.
After a brief rest, they decided to all fan out simultaneously and the party would head towards Darien's. Hopefully they could put a stop to whatever was causing this undead horde to linger here.
The large farm estate appeared deserted until Edhas entered the front foyer to find a female ghoul (likely Darien's sister) hunched over a wide assortment of papers while she mumbled to herself frantically shuffling through them. Staring in disbelief at a talking ghoul, she was surrounded by other undead that stormed into the room. She stood her ground, going toe to toe with the female ghoul, while receiving back up from the rest of hte group. After defeating them, they looked through the papers and noticed the writings on the papers were actually frantic scribbling of the words "Asmodeous Walks".
Determined to find Darien and hopefully Kor, they made their way through the farmhouse estate, taking what was valuable and finally approaching the back gardens. In the back, a freshly rotting ghoul was frantically building some sort of topiary out of twigs and yard debris, mumbling all the while. Recognizing him as Kor, Wyndham approached to try and reason with him but his undead nature took control and he attacked his former charge. While Wyndham and Dora dealt with Kor, Thorm, Sir Loin and Edhas found themselves nearly overmatched by a large ghoul that could only be Darien himself and a series of ravenous undead minions. Pushed to the brink of defeat, the party mourned the loss of Wyndham's mentor.
He carried a note sealed with wax addressed to Wyndham. The note said that they should not return to their hometown of Stonehallow. In fact, Wyndham fled after taking something of importance from an unnamed person. That prize, he claimed, was now hidden in the temple of St. Lucius. It instructed them to take the item to Winterhaven and seek out Valthrun the Prescient. The group quickly cracked a code embedded in his writing: Danitus. Wyndham's knowledge of Stonehallow allowed him to recall the name Danitus. Kaius Danitus a prominent political figure on the ruling council of Stonehallow. Kor also carried a hand-drawn map that appeared to be several locations :Stonehallow, Sarthel and Banethal and a large Capital M. All of the locations had a drawn circle that connected them. The word "iron" was written on the outside of the circle.
They returned to the temple, noting that affter Darien's destruction, the curse seemed lifted, the ghouls scattered and the bone dust gone from the air. Inside the temple some hard digging uncovered an item wrapped in fabric and tied with rope. Although the item emitted strong levels of arcane chaos magic, they opened it to discover a simple card with the word "balance" on it.
I don't remember finding the card with word balance on it?
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