Heedless they..

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GM
Martin
Party
  1. Aryan
  2. Galland
  3. Jade
  4. Mary-M
  5. Pennlucien
  6. Silken
  7. Everan
Mission
Silken and a troop of the Dukes guards have gone missing near Slippery Rock, party dispatched to investigate.

Tracking the missing troops led to night mists on the road outside of town that transported us to shadow-Alusias.

Village where the majority of the guards were on stakes in the town square.

Powerful vampire in castle on hilltop.

Lured to dinner by a charmed Silken, drugged, captured, enslaved using a magical artefact that separated our head from bodies - Headless they...

Broke free, reunited with our heads, lured vampire (in Bat flock form) into an inn, trapped him inside and burned it down around him.

Scribe Notes

Searching for Silken

Day One – 1st of Thaw 799 Party gathered after guild meeting

  • Jade (Party Leader) – human, fighter, ranger, thief, warrior
  • Pennlucien (Scribe) – elf, republican, healer, fighter, budding Banisher
  • Mary M – Namer, hobbit, healer
  • Aryan (Military Leader) – human, fighter, weaponsmith, ranger, thief
  • Galland – Elf, Illusionist, small time healer
  • Everan - scholar
Mission
The Duke of Seagate would like us to find out what happened to 20 of his personal cavalry who disappeared on the way to Slippery Rock (one day’s ride from Seagate) while on their way to investigate disappearances in the vicinity of Slippery Rock (ironic really) –oh yes, and Silken was accompanying them. Silken was working out her “fine’ for deserting her last party. The mission is to find out what happened to the troops (and Silken) and rescue them if possible.
Payment
the initial offer from the Duke was: 20,000sp (for the party) for the investigation, 10,000 for the recovery of the lieutenant, and salvage minus 25% Seagate tax. Jade, with a bit of help from Galland, managed to negotiate it up to 30,000sp for the investigation, plus the ransom for the lieutenant, plus reasonable expenses, plus no Seagate tax, plus tax paid to the Guild is to be paid back to us in Guild services (that’s for finding Silken). On the basis of this success Jade is considering becoming a merchant.
Information
nothing very comforting (or particularly useful). Disappearances in Slippery Rock happened about 7 years ago but stopped after a Guild party went in to investigate. Of the 7 who set out only 5 returned alive and most of those have subsequently given up adventuring. Rafael (not the archangel chappie) came back as a jawbone and a pile of ash – he was beaten to death (by a party member) with a silver mattock after becoming a nightgaunt. Another character called Hum disappeared in an asylum connected to a vampire’s castle and was never seen again. Thoric is the only one of the party still around but we didn’t want to waste time doing anything useful like finding him and questioning him, so that’s all we know. Rothgar was also in this party. The place they ended up in seemed to be run by werewolves, and he got bitten, so spent most of his time unconscious or a werewolf. They fled to an insane asylum run by a vampire where they lost another party member. Then they ended up with the werewolf who ran the place who sent them home. Rothgar doesn’t remember why the werewolf sent them back, but he said something like he wouldn’t open the gate between his world and Alusia again.


Astrology Reading

Question: Where will we find the Duke’s Soldiers... and Silken?

The first in barren garden lie,
Where bloody roses bloom.

The second rest in native earth,
Dreaming against the dawn.

In ancient lands the third toil,
Building their Lord’s tomb.

The fourth lies scattered, rent and torn,
By Luna’s mad children.

The fifth and last with ravens dwell,
In land both far and near,
Heedless they in time’s mirrored realms, When Darkness seeks revenge.


Day Two – 2nd of Thaw

Got some horses for those who didn’t have their own and set off towards Slippery Rock. The day passed completely uneventfully until dusk when suddenly all the rangers noticed that even though neither the scenery nor the direction of the road had changed we were no longer travelling east. Suddenly we were heading south. As we stopped to explore this phenomenon. A mist started rising slowly from the ground. We mounted up and proceeded to ride back along the road. Someone DA’d the mist and found it to be a mist of dimensional weaving (well colour me surprised). The mist had a visibility of about 10’ and soon rose over our heads. We detected a foul stench (ie rotting bodies) and heard some wailing.

The mist cleared and we found ourselves in a cobbled town square. In the square were poles (46 – jade counted), each holding an impaled person. All seemed to be dead except one old woman. Marym and Penni raced over to try to help her leaving the more practical stuff up to Jade. She discovered that 10 of those impaled were wearing the colours of the Seagate Cavalry and that neither the lieutenant nor Silken were there. The two healers were intent on saving the dying woman so Galland kept a lookout while Aryan commenced chopping down the pole with his great axe (this was very noisy!) and Jade took to the rooftops to look for a suitable bolt hole. They woman asked for her daughter who was on another pole dead and then asked Aryan to take her wedding ring to her husband Mathias in the labourers quarter. Our soft hearted healers then had Aryan get the daughter off her pole too. Jade spotted a patrol and managed to get everybody (including the horses and the dead bodies (the old woman had died by now) into a rather small house).

While in hiding Marym cast telepathy. The patrol (there were 6 of them) was not particularly wary until they noticed that two of the poles were empty. They spent some time figuring out who was missing and decided Mathias must have come for them and that they would deal to him in the morning. Marym found that there was some level of compel or binding will influencing them. We estimated that the patrol was not a particularly well disciplined group but rather a loosely organised bunch of rather unpleasant thugs.

About this time we noticed the two occupants of the house at the top of the stairs trembling in fear. Jade reassured them that we would be off and asked for directions to an inn. Through their fear Marym detected a teeny spark of hope as we were obviously hiding from the patrol. Apparently there is some sort of curfew and no one is allowed out at night.

We sneaked off to the inn were we stabled our houses and ourselves (we didn’t go in to the inn). Marym resurrected the girl but failed on the mother. There were quite big minuses on the resurrection attempts due to the severity of the injuries and the nature of the place itself, which seems to be vaguely death aspected. We managed to get some directed to Mathias’ house from the girl and Jade and one other will set out to get him and bring him back to the stables.

Jade and Galand locate Matthias and bring him back, with his twin sons. Mary M resurrects the old woman. Everan, a Guild Member and scholar who has apparently been sent to help us joins us. Matthias has an arm missing. The twins are about 9, introduced as Tobias & Joshua. Matthias lost his arm because he makes swords slowly for Lord Vlad Dracov. We are in Falcovnia, in the town of Lickar (the capital). Lord Dracov is the one who puts people on stakes. He has been in charge for always.

We have a drink and Matthias tells us the story. Lord Dracov is an evil man and the Talons serve him. They are the guards we avoided on our way in here. They are basically bully boys – Aryan would fit in well. It is said that “Lord Dracov demands that one person a day, at least, be impaled to accompany his supper.” About 6 days ago, there was a big fight and a whole lot of Seagate guards ‘invaded’, were killed and staked. Many Talons were killed and no Seagate guards were taken alive. The remainder (10?) fled. The fleeing guards may have headed for Stragingrad. Lord Dracov sells the food that this realm produces to other realms so that he can buy mercenaries. Mordia is across the river. All the scholars here were cowards, and have long since fled. There are some old wizards living in the Radiant Tower who throw rocks at passersby. Matthias remembers a time many years ago when Lord Dracov had many of the wizards impaled as he feared many of them. They had never seen elves here – they had either fled or were made slaves. All those not human born are slaves and are branded. Matthias is grateful to us and will now have to flee. I successfully have a go at removing the brands from the kids’ heads. This way he’s not stealing the property of the state.

Lord Dracov’s physical description: long black hair, droopy mustarsh, beard, 40-ish, tall, broad and stout.

We sleep. Aryan gets masterful (read “bossy”) when he’s tired. What a good indicator of tiredness for us – we’ll have to watch out in case he throws a tantrum – he looks the type. We need to help Matthias and family escape. They have no skills and abilities and knowledge of the outside of the town.

Day 3 - 3rd of Thaw

Our cunning plan: Matthias and family are leaving through the West Gate, disguised with suppurating sores. We are leaving through the East Gate with some stealth. Aryan offers me a disguise item – it will disguise me as an elf!!! We decide it’s not worth the bother.

It’s spring – people are ploughing and about to plant. Very fertile ground. We head east. Deep forests, road and cultivated land. Find a place to hole up for a couple of hours and finish resting up. We stop briefly at a church by a hamlet – it has been desecrated. Mary M and Everan go into the village to see if anyone has seen an angel flying overhead and some Seagate guards. Mary M has some of them on telepathy, and they think a word “cargat”, which means “spies and assassins from Darkon”. Apparently the Seagate guards and the angel (9 in total) went through here a week ago. Three came back three days later and went south. Seems like the lieutenant, one of his men and Silken. Silver is death apparently!!! Their lord takes all of the silver for his war!!! Dah dah dah dah!! Werewolves says Aryan. I mind the horses. Everan has quite a nice horse, a good size and probably up to his weight.

We hole up for the night in a copse of trees with an alarming ward. There are wolves howling in the distance which make sleeping difficult, especially when they come quite close. About 8‘ tall, a man/wolf half-breed thing sniffing at us. Everan gives it some rotten meat, and another one appears. They fight. Jade and I look after horses, others do magic stuff and Aryan prepares to fight. Mary M’s DA reveals that it is a Greater Werewolf, with highest ranked skill Tracking.

Day 4 - 4th Thaw

Heading towards a town. Believe we are still in Drakov land. Still has the same feel as Lickar. Circle the town. It closes up at night. At the time we get around to the far side of the town, we lose the sense of “death” that Lickar and surrounds had. Lights ahead of us in a southerly direction – could be a small hamlet? Continue on towards this light. A fog rises (about knee height) which is planar in nature and of the college of dimensional weaving. REMIND EVERAN: the mist is a defence and he would like it to be divinated. Now on a plane called Borovia. We head towards the town – about a mile from the edge of the mist. It’s not walled, and there appears to be cheerful light and noise from an inn called “Blood on the Vine”. The name of the local Lord is the Devil Straad.

A woman matching Silken’s description was here 3 days ago. We hear a musical jingling outside and the locals say “the Lord” in tones of fear? Unease? There is a coach outside – beautiful, ornate and has no occupants and no driver. Way weird. Locals looking very shifty!!! Coach only appears when the Lord wants to see someone and no good’ll come of it mumble, mumble, mumble, dire prognostications. Alright then, not so dire really, but no good will come of it!

Whilst riding to the castle it occurs to Orion that the port Orion offers Everan is drinking in Lord Straad’s carriage may be a love potion. He immediately then offers to “take up the rear”. We discover the college of Everan and that he doesn’t use weapons at all. Squeaking doors, hunchbacks, foretellings, blah, blah. O so sinister (we’re trembling). Straad is a baron. He is tall and slender with quite long, white hair, maybe in his 50s with a distinguished look, quite gaunt. Seems to be living. His name is Baron Manfred von Silbiner and not Straad at all. He says Silken is upstairs dressing for dinner – makes a change really!! He has had long conversations with Silken he says.

Dinner is apparently served. Mary M DAs the Baron and it reflects her own aura. I manage to DA the image in a mirror and get GTN human, college Mind and something else (possibly Illusion??) and he is apparently 10 years old. Nice dinner. Silken catches us up on her travels. Manfred says that Strad was the baron before him – he says the place was deserted and isn’t it odd that the locals still seem to think he’s Strad von Zaravic. Manfred’s title is from a place called Valorchan which lies to the west. Silken suggests that Jade is having a bad hair day and offers her some tips. I suggest that perhaps the Baron might like to hire some home help for his servant Yagor who has to do all the cooking and cleaning himself.

We all have our own rooms. We reconvene in Jade’s bathroom to discuss our situation. Mary M divinates Silken and apparently there is no magic on her at all. Everan says there is something nasty, strong (maybe the ex-owner of this place) but fortunately dormant in the basement. On mine and Mary M’s watch, we both fall asleep – suddenly and suspiciously! In fact only Everan, Jade and Galland are still awake. Then Everan goes down to a Mental Attack. Jade and Galland smash mirrors. Then they go invisible. Jade disappears. Galland tries to go and find whatever is causing our problems, but gets knocked out. Everan comes to and sees Silken and Lars’ bodies breaking into shards of glass. He then gets knocked out also.

We wake up. Our toes and fingers feel tingly but we can’t move them. We are possibly in a tower room at the castle, confined in coffins or boxes which are standing up. It seems that we have been beheaded and confined to a work bench. Empathy reveals that we still seem to be alive, blood is still flowing etc., but we have no bodies. DA reveals that the magic that has occurred is Mind and Mirror magics.

Manfred appears – smug and revolting. There is something called a skiver behind us which moves us around so that we can see each other and him.

He needs us to get him something. He’s after an item which is not here now but was some time ago and would be grateful if we would fetch it for him. He doesn’t think we need our bodies to do it. He wants to swap this item for our bodies. Possibly also some money. The item is a silver symbol or an icon which is an heraldic representation of the sun. It is apparently in the other Borovia (the one on Aleusia) – or was some time ago. I’m not happy about going back in time again. Apparently it’s about 800 years ago and we need to get it off Strad von Zaravic. The only other thing that we can think of that happened that long ago is the founding of the Baronies.

Silken christens Everan Everwrong, a name which I suspect will stick!!! He suddenly starts talking in dog!!!

We appear in what we think might be the dining room. The atmosphere is happy and pleasant and there is much happy chatter. None of us know who the others are, but after some time and shenanigans, the following emerge as members of our group:

The deerhound is Everwrong. Mary M is a tall blonde human, who was on the arm of a huge (tall and round) man wearing a bearskin. Silken appears to be a nun. Jade appears to be a young girl of about 16. Galland is an old man with lots of rings, a staff and so on. Aryan is a young boy dressed in page’s clothes. I appear to be a matronly woman of middle years, slightly overweight and with a child (less than one year) on my hip. We are aware of the other minds in our bodies.

We find the symbol in the chapel but still haven’t found the container which we’re supposed to put the symbol into! Jade, Silken and Everwrong notice that someone has died – a young chap. We’re here for a wedding between Sergei von Zaravic and Tatiana. What’s the bet that the dead guy is Sergei (he’s apparently Strad’s brother and it’s apparently suicide). Silken sees the bride arguing with a man (perhaps not so keen on this wedding). She (the bride, not Silken) throws herself off a ledge. The sky darkens, the symbol disappears from the wall.

A flash of lightening strikes the man outside. Everwrong sees that he has turned into a being with red eyes and long sharp pointy teeth! He heads for the chapel. Jade has also gone invisible and is trying to steal the symbol. We can’t find the receptacle, and are beginning to think that the now-screaming baby might be the receptacle.

The vampire bursts his way through the stained glass window, kills the priest and begins to go for the congregation. Lots of killing going on. Jade has some success with the symbol burning him but it all looks bad. The symbol goes flying. I have to abandon the baby and go for the symbol. I get the symbol and have to go back for the baby. Jade and Silken are both dead. Mary M heads for the holy water. Galland tries to get off flash of light but fails. Everwrong gets garlic from the kitchen and comes back (very surprised cooks!). Mary M dies. Everwrong does his best to kill the vampire by getting wet in the font and biting him a lot! Oops. The dog is dead.

Galland and I regroup back into the dining room. Nothing there is magical. The screams are getting nearer. Aryan joins it. The baby is hungry and upset. We go back to the chapel and think of the bearskin cloak. It works. We get sucked back to the boxes. It occurs to me that the baby is going to die because it probably did, but at least it will be with its mother (also must have died).

Manfred returns. He takes the shield, says “Vunderbar. See you later”. Silken does a great job of attempting to talk the skiver into helping us. Apparently the purply head thing on the top of Galland’s body is called a moulnk. Aryan goads the skiver into showing us some of the stuff he can do. Jade’s body comes back up the stairs. Aryan and Silken work together to try and get the skiver to do something towards getting our bodies back together. Oops – it seems the plan has failed as a brain worm heads towards Aryan. No, wait, Silken manipulates him again, and the brain worm goes away. All the bodies come up the stairs. Skiver is eventually talked into going to get the magic powder needed for the transfer. Unfortunately, he doesn’t come back – it sounds like he has triggered a guardian of some sort!!! We manage to get control of the bodies. Some experiments with heads ensue. Jade and I have to use some considerable force to separate Aryan’s mulnk. Oh well, never mind.

We go upstairs to get magical powder. Something comes out of the table. Mary M attacks it. Aryan attacks it. I cast banishment on myself and counterspell the snake thing. It goes away!!! Yahoo! Some of this magic stuff works. Another couple of snakes appear which Mary M gets rid of. I figure out they must have come from somewhere, locate the magical jar and Everwrong puts the lid on it. No more snakes. Phew. Wow – two good ideas. We check out the jars on the shelves in the room.

  1. transport
  2. entrapment (maze)
  3. reflection
  4. dissolves or dissipates mirror magic
  5. entrapment but different from #3

We use powder number 4 and all get our heads back on. Silken keeping a watch on the corridors through some magical stuff.

Three mirrors in a library room.

  1. Scrying outwards.
  2. Transport. Goes to anther mirror. Currently deactivated needs a command word to activate.
  3. Transport, but a different kind.

We send a squirrel through mirror number 2. The squirrel appears in the chapel below and comes back again. The 3rd mirror goes somewhere which is a long way away. We have a small dispute about dissension and bickering in the ranks and slow decision making. We then decide to go through mirror #2. I hold up proceedings by suggesting we use the scrying mirror to check on Manfred’s whereabouts. I think I’ve been doing too much magic stuff because I’m starting to think of magic things now. We see Manfred in a crystal coffin, crystal skulls on poles, an hourglass with darkness dripping through it, and red eyes lurking in the mist. The sun symbol is on the top of the hourglass.

We head down to the chapel through the mirror to the sound of a bell tolling from the tower above. Everwrong and Jade notice that something has changed in the scrying mirror and loses part of her boot, so they are turning off the magics. Silken’s wizard’s eye has been blinded. I guess they know we’re coming.

We find some stairs going down at one end of the chapel. There are 6 mirrors on the wall of the chapel which all seem to be some type of transportation (slightly different magics). We head downstairs, DAing as we go. The stairs are blocked off. We go back to the chapel and check out the altar. No luck. We head to the stables to get Jade’s sword. There are some groups of lesser undead lurking. Could be trouble.

Apparently, it’s

Day 6 - 6th Thaw

Crossing the courtyard and hear a growling sound (wolf, werewolf, dog, hellhound sort of thing). They are demon dogs in fact and aren’t banishable. Galland casts a flash of light which blinds a whole lot of them. Silken casts a quickness on most of the party (excluding me). We have a hack at the dogs, and they flame us a bit. Then Everwrong casts an agony – BUMMER!!!! Although we aren’t agonied, we are slowed (some of us even further) and it’s all very bad. Nevertheless we get rid of them.

Quotable quote
Galland: “Are necromancers born or dug up? Penni: “Raised”.

We encounter some zombies! Everwrong controls some and they fight each other, so we don’t have to. We find some stairs in the dining room. Hoorah! There’s a chilly wind which sends shivers down our spines. Aryan, Mary M, Jade, Everwrong, Galland, Silken, Penni is the order going down the stairs.

Quotable quotes
Galland: “I think Penni and Silken went to the same college – the Bimbo one”.

We get to the bottom of the stairs and come across a ring in the wall. Unable to tell what will happen if we pull it. Our thieves investigate it. We decide against pulling the cord. We go to a door instead and find Jagor! Galland sets a venomous squirrel on Jagor’s shoulder to guard him. He doesn’t appear to be threatened but agrees to show us the way. There’s something nasty and dark behind a door. Jagor doesn’t want to go there. Jagor tells us about the book-keeper, called Luthien. We decide to detour quickly as he can turn all the dark wardings off. We go in something called the Rising Room, which is like a food lift but big enough for people. There’s a disturbing thought!

We go into an audience room, or something like it. Would have been quite nice if the windows weren’t smashed and the furnishings weren’t mouldy. The room beyond that looks like a library, also has a desk and a high stool. Chain running across the floor and is attached to a small scrawny being who is apparently a human non-mage. There are a collection of heads which include a chap called Rajiv who summoned the shadow snakes and the shadow demon which is in the room which Jagor doesn’t like.

We go to the proper library. There are rows and rows of heads. We negotiate with Rajiv – Silken does a really good job of getting the point across. He agrees to help us but will only talk to the men. Hmmpph! We take his head and go back to the dark and nasty room which Jagor still doesn’t like. We get some miscellaneous information including that the shadow demon was summoned to protect Rajiv from Manfred and that Manfred had trapped the demon in a mirror. A fight ensues and eventually we banish the demon after Silken slows it. We find a hidden door in the room with a triggering mechanism.

Aryan opens the door. It leads down some steps. He steps on the first one and gets skewered. Everan turns Aryan into a snake and we help him slither off. Jade then manages to deactivate the trap. We come to a room with two golems and four doors. One of the doors leads out to a small balcony which overlooks a room with brackish water in it. It has a dark tunnel leading to cells and another set of stairs going up. The other doors lead to a spiral staircase going up and a straight staircase going up. We mill for a while trying to decide which way to go. Silken’s wizard’s eye helps a little, but not with the pit trap which we narrowly escape. Everwrong sensed a place of death, so we headed that way. Door checked for traps, DA’d etc. Nothing dangerous about the door itself, just the thing behind it…<play sinister music here>

There are some undead who may be guarding the big undead! We open the door and find a mausoleum – lots of small crypts/ coffins scattered around. There’s some mist and we think some vampyre bats in the ceiling. There’s a light coming from the right hand side.

There’s a chill wind howling through the room. Rajiv can talk to the bats. Some threats fly back and forth. Silken seems to think that she has all the power over Rajiv, but I think she’s forgotten that he could get the bats to attack us. Everwrong senses about 100’ away the big bad undead who is more awake now than before. Also 13 night gaunts about 60’ away. Also a whole lot of dormant undead in the mausoleum. There are still only 7 of us (plus a head). Doesn’t sound like good odds. We move into the room, and all of a sudden the lights go out!!! A whole lot of night gaunts drop from amongst the bats. Jade berserks, Everwrong flames, Mary M attacks from behind, Aryan hacks, Silken sashays, Galland blinds and gets hit and I whack one into the next life and keep another one busy.

Rajiv activates a ward and is turned into water. We head to the top of the stairs. The stairs are magically and mechanically trapped. We manage to make it to the bottom and see:

50’ x 20’ room. Stained glass windows. In the cliff? Large glass coffin with a glass skull at each corner. The hourglass is at one end of the coffin and the disk we brought back is on the top of the hourglass. Jade sees the coffin and goes berserk. Uh oh. Mind counter on her – hope it helps. She and Aryan head into the room. Everan thinks that Aryan has had a good idea. Jade attacks the coffin and Aryan gets zapped out of here. The rest of us are doing magic stuff. I give up on the magic stuff and start smashing crystal skulls. Silken levitates the sun disk. I ram it into Manfred’s chest. He sits up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Red eyes etc. Oh shit. Jade carries on tonking it! I use the disk and think I separated the dark stuff from the body. The dark stuff roils around and starts to coalesce into a humanoid shape with red eyes. Jade punts it, Mary M punts it and then the world goes dark.

Mary M wakes first. Everything seems to be in shades of grey. Everyone else except me has turned into whytes- yes, that’s right, undead!!!!! For some reason (the disk?) I am not undead. Stupid Everan stupidly summons the spirit of the castle. He is an utter idiot because of course it’s Strad!!! Some abuse ensues. I attempt to herd him back to the hourglass but he just disperses. Mary M‘s hit spectral sword drives him away temporarily. Undead begin to attack, but they’re held off by Silken’s heroic web. Mary M comes back to life, and begins again to divinate the hourglass. We have no idea what to do next, hope that the hourglass reveals something.

HOURGLASS
powerful magic item. Magic primarily containment. Protection is some kind of healing, strengthening, fortifying type magic. The containment is more of the flavour of holding something together. We figure that Strad fled to here to regroup, so we don’t really want him back in it. Created by a deity sometime in the last two decades.

We destroy the hourglass, and remove one of the stained glass windows. We use an Everan invested and fly out. There is a spectral figure on the battlements, who we think is the dead bride. Future ally? We head out to a safe spot and tie Jade to a tree and manage to resurrect her. Then we do the same to Aryan. Everan locates Silken’s horse (Widowmaker) and Jade’s (Mouse). Silken spends some time talking to Widowmaker and then gets on him and they fly off – Widowmaker is NOT using Shadow wings to do this. Oh, and both the horses are undead!!!! Everan and Silken go talk to the figure, who it turns out is not the dead bride but a ban sidhe. She says that we are in the Realm of Borovia. “The Master was nearly destroyed but the Dark Lord (who has no name) brought him here”. Her name is Irene and she remembers being sad. We get Galland back, but have some trouble with Everan.

Everan, Jade and Silken head off to have a go at the heart while the rest of us recover a little. They go down the stairs with Irene and come to a room where a black heart hangs suspended from the ceiling. The heart is about 10’ in diameter and has cords and connections coming out from it and going into the walls of the tower. Further down the stairs, there are a couple of suits of armour. Silken and Everan are sped, suits of armour armed with glaives are coming up stairs, Silken attempting to slash open the connections. Jade joins them (she was previously circling at a safe distance) with the sword which hits spectral things. Everan restrains one of the suits of armour with a Spectral Hand. Jade heroically leaps from the stairs onto the heart and slices it viciously! Then she pours a naptha grenade over it! It writhes, it burns, it bleeds. A dark shape appears from the depths of the tower. Jade drops the short sword and Silken picks it up. Silken has a couple of attacks at both the heart and the wafting shape with red eyes. They decide to bug out. The ban sidhe yells at Jade and makes her deaf. Everan uses a control item and controls masses of the bats. He sends them down to feed off the undead heart. Lots of bats head down the stairs. The three heroes rejoin our party.

Everything goes quiet. The earth starts to rumble and rock and convulse. The ground cracks open, trees fall into crevasses, castle begins to look a bit unsteady on the promontory. Everything stops. Rumbling starts again. Castle starts to fall off the side of the promontory. Everan is sensing a huge undead presence – about the same as he was before though. Mary M names our party “a sadistic bunch of morons”. Rumbling stops with the castle in moderate ruins. The tower with the heart in it is still standing. Everan can’t help himself and has to land on the tower. He leaves again quickly as a swarm of bats with red eyes coalesce into a form which has the shape of death and a scythe. We bug out again as the swarm heads towards the village. Everan heads back to the tower to see what happened there. Silken is getting hungry. Everan performs some unseemly acts on local sheep. Silken snogs some locals much to their dismay.

Day 7 - 7th Thaw

Everan and Silken flap off and the party decide to return to the castle. The bat swarm consumes the church. We are going to try and kill the remaining bit of the heart (which has shrunk, but is still there and alive). Everan says that he is in control of himself. Mary M has someone helping her to fly – I have a bad feeling as to who it might be, and will attempt to restrain myself. Moon is high. The land is still. Behind us in the distance we hear the occasional little “aieee”. We decide that Mary M and I should go into the tower and do our best.

We go into the tower and do our best. Not much response until Mary M starts using the sun disk. Then everything gets very bright – apparently the castle goes kabloey along with the heart!!! We head off with me blinded towards the village. We think we’ve destroyed the heart of the castle, but not the heart of the vampire. We batten down the hatches of the pub where the bats are all lurking, and set fire to it. We block off the chimney with the sun disk and a Mary M who gets a bit crisped.

Silken can’t help with the dampening down the roof, because she’s concentrating on the wizard’s eye. Jade comments that it’s hard to use one of those just standing up. Galland: that’ll be why Silken spends so much time lying on her back.

Mary M: it’s been ages since a Guild Party has burnt down a pub. Jade: and I don’t remember the last time it was deliberate!

The hills have disappeared!!! We head for the border, or what’s left of it. It’s shrinking fast.

We’re all thinking of home as we head into the mists. We turn up at Slippery Rock. Galland and Aryan go in search of a healer. I have some porridge and begin to resurrect Everan. We get both Silken and Everan back to life, but don’t have much luck with the horses or the night gaunt Pikachu.

Galland and Aryan return with a member of a local coven, who tells us that Bozo was looking for us and has now disappeared. We stable the undead horses, and Jade feeds them a stray dog. We plan on what to do. Mary M and I rest for a while – I got badly drained when restoring Everan.

Quotable quotes
Mary M: “to restore the horses to life we may have to do an exorcism”. Silken: “Surely you mean an ex-horse-ism”.

Aryan and Silken return to the Guild and barter for some services, potions etc. Mary M and Jade manage to knock out Widowmaker and restore him to life. They also try and restore the Pikachu.

We have a restful day. Jade pops back to the Guild and checks Bozo’s movements (in terms of astrology readings etc., rather than bodily functions). Renegotiates our contract to include some useful stuff.

Mary M and Aryan talk to the coven about Aunt Agatha (the witch who disappeared) who is a toad specialist (that is to say she turns people into them). She’s also a herbalist and cooks a mean curry. They also get some restoratives.

Happily, Bozo turns up and we don’t need to rescue him after all. Back at the Guild, some Urielites want our sun symbol. They say we stole it. Apparently it went missing 5 years ago from Newcourt. We explain that we took it 800 years ago. They guardedly apologise to us. Silken seems to be doing some playacting – she’s dressed as a nun and being very pious. Jade and I get sick of theological discussions and go and have a pint.

The Church is prepared to offer us treasure for the sun disk, so we go for it. Turns out that it’s part of the chariot that has been missing for centuries, so didn’t come from the chariot that was stolen 5 years ago at all.

Turns out the Church wants us to find the rest of the chariot that the sun symbol is part of (apparently it’s the standard or banner). Jade and I beg off, but I believe Silken is going to arrange a party to do the job.

Here endeth the scribe notes of the Search for Silken.