When they returned to report to the Baron, he immediately strutted back up to Bjorn. He’d been practicing – refining his technique – and he wanted a rematch! He gave a strong accounting – Bjorn definitely felt it – but once again the Baron was forced to yield. He rubbed feeling back into his hand with a wry grin, and then sent a servant for a gift. He presented Bjorn with a Maul he had had specially made a long time ago… a Maul with the Baron’s own face on the business end of the hammer. He professed mild embarassment at how drunk he had been when he put in the order, but swore it was highly effective despite its dubious appearance. Bjorn accepted the gift in the spirit with which it was offered.
They reported their findings from the outpost, and the Baron expressed great concern at exactly what the Jade Scars were up to. For now he would assign a unit of scouts to investigate. In the meantime, there were rumblings of activity at the old Rimefall Mine. A place with a sordid history replete with rumors of curses, disappearing miners, and regularly changing hands as new groups tried their luck at harvesting its resources. The primary assignment was simply to see what was going on, and whether there was, in fact, anything of substance to the rumors and history.
Next they checked in with Tibald, and confirmed that the dwarven clothing they had found had indeed belonged to Osgar. Now Tibald was overwhelmed with guilt, thinking he had abandoned his brother by not accompanying him. They assured him that refusing to ransack the home of a grieving widow was hardly a character defect, but that’s not quite the way he saw it. He wanted them to help him search one more time – to make sense of his brother’s disappearance, the Widow’s absence, and the “Pale Man”. He insisted on going to check out the place himself first, although he agreed not to actually enter the Manor proper before they arrived.
Finally they decided to follow up on the note they had found on the bandits at the crossroads. They date of the proposed meeting was near, which meant it was likely the “guild contact” was in town. They had made themselves reasonably familiar with the city at this point, but there was once place they had not explored which seemed a likely spot for a hideout. The sewer tunnels under the slums in the old city. An unpleasant location generally avoided, but providing ample space for the less scrupulous to take shelter.
Sure enough, the sewers – though long out of use – were an unpleasant location. But they soon enough found signs of recent occupation.
This lead to a pitched battle with an array of thugs, a sorcerer with pet ghouls, and an assassin named Ridley. Fortunately once the sorcerer was disposed of the thugs were no match for them.
However they found a curious note in searching the makeshift camp, noting a recent change in “the Old Man”. It said that a year ago he was angry if they so much as “nicked a merchant’s neck” in the course of a heist. But now “he’s explicitly asking them to butcher people and paying extra for it”. They took this information straight to the Guard Captain. But the only other clue they could find was a strange, sweet smell to the note. A strong fragrance. She would assign as many guards as she could afford to canvassing for clues, but she suspected that the smell would be meaningful…
Travelling back to the Widow’s Manor, they found Tibald waiting impatiently. He claimed to have seen a face in one of the windows, and recent movement – particularly at night… So they waited and prepared until nightfall, and then re-entered the manor.
They were soon confronted with quite an unwelcome sight. The widow had apparently turned to Necromancy, and her daughter had returned as a Vampire! And they had built up a small force of ghoul servants as well!
The vampire girl attempted the common vampire tactic of enveloping them in darkness and attacking while they were blind. Unfortunately for her, Tiana’s training explicitly included fighting blindfolded. And so the fledgling vampire found herself facing an aware and prepared foe rather than helpless prey…
Meanwhile Bjorn and Shea dealt with the ghouls while Marcus dueled the necromancer widow.
After the battle, they searched the area carefully, and found a hidden trapdoor that they had not discovered in their last visit. Underneath they found a foreboding mausoleum, with the unfortunate Osgar’s body laid out on a dais. But before Tibald could mourn they found themselves under attack again. Apparently the true evil behind this place was the widow’s “dead” husband, who had resorted to Necromancy and Demonology in an attempt to restore both his daughter’s life and his wife’s sanity. And fledgling vampire and minor demons flocked to his aid.
But they didn’t wait for him to finish his monologue and gloat. Bjorn threw an axe between his eyes before he had time to react, and the others put down the leaderless undead ruthlessly.
Tibald insisted on staying behind to tend to his brother’s remains, and asked them to tell Kadne what had happened. Back at the Inn Kadne was saddened… but appeared unsurprised. She knew it had only been a matter of time before Osgar’s dark nature caught up to him, and thanked them for helping Tibald start finding his way away from the same path.
Finally they travelled to the Mine the Baron had asked them to investigate. Gunthik and a few guards had already set up a makeshift camp in an abandoned inn – to provide them a safehouse from which to explore the area.
At first they only found wolves and horned yeti – frightening enough for Miners, but hardly un-natural. But investigating further they found a number of securely blocked doors, and a locked-but-not-impassable-to-Shea door leading deeper. That door led to an old stone tunnel lined with eerily glowing statues, and eventually to a dais and ornate door looking almost identical to the one they had seen in Bhorn’s tomb. It would not open, but upon disturbing it they heard… sounds and voices in the tunnel back behind them. Preparing for ambush they readied themselves… only to encounter a force of demons awaiting them at the way back to the mine tunnels!
Fortunately they were at a natural chokepoint – and Amaryllis and Marcus immediately set about making it as difficult as possible for demons to reach their front lines.
An Incubus with a pair Vrocklings flew over/through their blockade, but despite the Incubus’ attempts to mentally control first Tiana and then Marcus it found neither of them an easy mark. And with Bjorn holding back the demons attempting to force their way through the magic barriers the others made quick work of the Incubus and his henchmen.
Then Bjorn and Tiana beat down the demons as they straggled through, with support from Shea and Marcus as needed.
They had no sooner congratulated themselves for overcoming this obstacle, when they found they upper level occupied as well – with a Minotaur-like Hell Knight and a band of hellhounds, backed up with another Incubus.
This proved even more challenging than the previous battle, as they had not had an opportunity rest and recover in between. Amaryllis’ entangling vines once again helped slow the tide, while Bjorn did his best to hold back the Hell Knight while the others dealt with the Hell Hounds.
Once they were able to focus on the Hell Knight properly Bjorn nearly smashed in its skull with the Baron’s Maul. Ugly indeed.
When they made they way back to Gunthik he was deeply concerned by the appearance of demons. He suggested they immediately return to the Baron, apprise him of the situation, and then recruit Penelo to more urgently investigate the doors now that they had found two identical copies in two disparate locations – one associated with an uncharacteristic infestation of undead and the other with the appearance of actual demons! Even Marcus had begun to wonder just what they had gotten themselves in to…
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