Embedded Files
Shalendra's Confession
The Owlbear League, while investigating the disturbance at the Floshin Estate, are searching the central courtyard for survivors, specifically Shalendra Floshin - sister of Lord Darfin Floshin, when a powerful earth elemental erupts from the ground before them. The battle has commenced and The League has thrown a round of attacks at the creature, seeming to little effect, but they have avoided being hit by the elemental guardian.
Nowhere dives towards the stonelike creature, but with the ground moving, misses and she bashes her face against a rocklike appendage. Her second attack clangs off it.
From the rear, Seraphina orders the dread warrior under her command "Bob" to retreat to her. She then casts toll the dead at the creature and the magical sound of sorrowful bells resonates against the rock creature, fracturing it with black necrotic energy.
Atlas moves in with a flurry of blows, but even with her gauntlets of ogre power, the monk can't land a solid blow.
Dain rushes in with his great axe Bloodstorm, and swings at the monster, hitting and breaking off part of its rocky exterior. He tries a second swing but misses from the jerking beast.
K'ronk launches a fire bolt which hits soundly and has parts of the elemental's exterior glowing and fragmenting.
Immeral casts chill touch again and the spectral hand smashes into their opponent breaking off even more bits of the rocky creature, and it stumbles slightly.
Orryn stabs at the legs of the creature with a sneak attack using his magical dagger of venom and it pierces the rocky hide of the creature and it howls a dry earthy moan. The legs gives out and it tumbles, and as it hits the ground the elemental explodes into a thousand pieces.
The team looks around, besides the rubble there is little more than grass and cold air in the small open courtyard.
They return to the stairway (15), deciding to go up to the 2nd floor before, when they hear some laughter from down below, then a door closing. They follow the sound and go down.
Here the circular stairwell of the great stairs meets another landing decorated with four old suits of decorative elven plate armor, which stand against the northern and eastern walls between windows. One window has a view of a small waterfall across a stream outside. To the west and south are wooden doors, while a larger, sturdier door is set in the southwestern part of the landing.
As the team piles into the landing, they see four dread warriors to the south, and having themselves been seen, the undead warriors charge towards the stairs and The League.
Seraphina activates her ring of command undead and manages to take control of all four of the undead along with her existing undead, "Bob". "Stop!" she commands.
Behind them, at the bottom of the stairs, out into the crossways of the corridor to the south, steps a red wizard. Looking up and to the north he sees the dread warriors and the party and frowns.
Nowhere yells "Your tattoos are ugly."
Seeing that the dread warriors are not attacking, realizing that he is facing a fearsome enemy, he casts circle of death at The League, but as he is casting, Immeral casts counterspell, and even though the necromancer is quite powerful, Immeral's spell is successful and as the black necromantic energy leaps out towards the party, the spell dissipates and disappears.
Seraphina commands the "stolen" dread warriors - "attack the red wizard" pointing to the south, and they turn and start running back down the stairs.
She also casts toll the dead at the red wizard, but he manages to shake off the effects.
Nowhere races down the stairs following the dread warriors.
K'ronk launches a fire bolt over his allies from the top of the stairs, and hits the necromancer as he starts to race west, setting his cloak ablaze and making him stumble in pain.
Atlas runs down the stairs too, but the dread warriors slow her up, so she throws a pair of combat darts, striking the leg and the side of the necromancer, and he cries out.
Dain is blocked too, so he throws a javelin at the wizard, striking a glancing blow that rips across his cloak and sends a rivulet of blood down his arm, and fear starts to show on the wizard's face.
Orryn fires his short bow and hits the wizard with an arrow too, landing in his shoulder.
Immeral presses the attack and casts witch bolt which sends beam of crackling, blue energy lancing out toward the necromancer, forming a sustained arc of lightning between him and his enemy.
The Thayan wizard screams, casts a spell, turns invisible, and races to the west. The energy of Immeral's spell follows him for a moment, but then cuts off as he gets out of sight and range.Seraphina telepathically commands the dread warriors to block the corridors to the east and south, leaving the path to the wizard open to the rest of her team. She dashes down the stairs on her short halfling legs.
Nowhere races down the hallway to the west, presumably closing the distance to the wizard, but he remains unseen.
K'ronk moves to the bottom of the stairs, considers a wall of ice for a moment, but is unsure where to place it. He instead launches a fire bolt and it flies down the hall but hits nothing but the western wall.
Atlas stretches out her arms while running down the corridor to try to brush against the invisible wizard, just managing to turn the corridor. Right at the turn, she brushes against the wizard and moves to grapple the enemy, enhanced by the strength of her gauntlets of ogre power, and she yells out at her companions. "I have him!"
The necromancer tries to pull away, but fails. Dain races down the corridor to catch the wizard too, and he gets right next to them.
Immeral runs down the hall too, debating where to wait.
Orryn dashes to the corner as well, not quite at the turn on his shorter legs.
Just as he arrives, the wizard turns visible and is finishing the last drop of a potion which turns his body and all his possessions into a misty cloud and starts moving to the south.
While this is going on, off the landing, the northern door opens from the noise, and six bugbear emerge (34).
Not knowing exactly what to do, Atlas wonders if the mist could be burned, but struggles what to do as it slips through her grip.
Nowhere gets to the turn in hall quick enough to see the cloud and casts hunter's mark on it, to potentially help find her enemy later.
A sound comes back from north of the circular stair landing. Peeking across the floor of the landing, there are bugbears coming out of the northern door, climbing the stairs to the landing.
Thinking they might be fighting enemies at the front and rear, K'ronk uses his staff of frost to build a wall of ice at the top of his stairs on the south side of the circular room (25). It appears, and shortly thereafter banging can be heard on the ice.
Atlas tries to find a way to contain the red wizard who is now turned into a vapor, thinking about a small chest in her pack, or her pickle jar! She tosses her pickles on the ground and tries to scoop some of the gaseous form into the jar, but it oozes around the lid. It moves like living smoke and the pickles are wasted.
Dain tries splashing an oil flask on the cloud, but it falls through the misty enemy.
Orryn finally catches up and tries to move ahead of the cloud, stopping between two opposing doors in the hallway (31 and 32), and he turns to see the mist continuing forward towards him.
Immeral moves further west, away from K'ronk's ice wall and potential enemies.
Seraphina wants to run to her friends, but needs to stay near the dread warriors to maintain control, so waits in the hallway with K'ronk.
GET QUOTE - 1:12:30
Nowhere watches the wizard cloud proceed south, and moves ahead of the slow-moving gaseous form. She says "Your gross little potions won't keep you safe forever, I'm coming for you."
A misty middle-finger emerges silently from the wizard as he continues to make his way to the southwestern door in the hallway (31).
The adventurers continue to follow the cloud, at a loss how to harm the cloud-like wizard.
Orryn swings his magic dagger of venom at the wizard, but it just passes through the cloud as it seeps under the western door.
Nowhere opens the door to reveal a storeroom (31). The floor of this room is partly occupied by a large stack of firewood in the southwest corner, and by piles of dry timber along the north wall, along with several leather slings for carrying wood.
The misty wizard heads towards a ventilation shaft in the southern wall as the party looks on helplessly.
Nowhere yells at the mist. "We will let Baazka know of your failure." and the mist seems to pause a moment, but continues on, and slips out the vent.
Atlas adds "Come back you little bitch, or I will kill your family and everyone you know."
Orryn tries to stab with the magic dagger one last time, but the mist spreads around the grasp.
The rest of the party gathers together and decides to explore the door across the hall. It is another storeroom (32). On the many shelves mounted in this room are various household items, such as candles, oil, soap, and sacks. In the northwest corner, brass rungs lead up to the ceiling where there is a closed hatch.
Nowhere climbs the rungs and peeks her head through. She casts a rug aside and realizes they have been in the room before, it is the first floor servant's lounge, with the dead bodies of a pair of estate servants. Nowhere comes back down the ladder and tells the group where it goes, but they decide to explore a bit more while the ice wall has them protected in this area.
They head down a corridor to the west, ending in a door that is slightly ajar (30).
This chamber has a large washbasin with running water spanning the entire west wall. A narrow work table, a cupboard, and shelves make up the rest of the furniture. A human body, with a javelin through his back lays slumped over the washbasin, top half underwater, clearly murdered.
Dain says "Nice javelin work." Taking the weapon. "Let's go kill the rest of them."
The League heads back to the stairs south of the round landing room (25), blocked by K'ronk's ice wall. They put two dread warriors under Seraphina's command at the front of the double line, Nowhere and Atlas, Dain and Orryn behind, Kronk and Immeral behind them, and Seraphina at the rear with three more dread warriors she captured.
K'ronk magically dispels the ice wall he had created earlier and the wall disappears, revealing three bugbears standing in the landing.
Immediately Seraphina commands the dread warriors to attack and they rush into the round room, engaging the hairy goblinoids.
Orryn uses his short bow, striking one of the bugbears in the leg.
Immeral casts ray of frost at the same bugbear and hits with the icy beam, sending the bugbear's teeth chattering and doing freezing damage to him.
Dain rushes in and hits another bugbear with his axe Bloodstorm, cutting into one of the enemies, but it still fights on.
Atlas runs up to one attempting a flurry of blows, and although her first attacks are fended off, she presses the attack and batters a bugbear, severely pummeling it and knocking it prone.
K'ronk moves up the stairs and launches a fire bolt, but it misses the target bugbear.
Seraphina mentally commands two of the dread warriors to attack the bugbears, but the bugbears fend off the attacks.
Nowhere charges up the stairs and swinging Icerazor, she misses on the first attack, but hits on the second, slicing the arms of one of her enemies. She even gets a final short attack in and knocks the first bugbear unconscious.
One of the bugbears hits Atlas with a morningstar, sending the halfling monk reeling and bleeding.
Two more bugbears race up the stairs from the north to enter the fray.
One bugbear sees Atlas hurt from the previous attack on her and strikes at her, catching her unaware and knocking her unconscious.
Orryn attacks the one who took down Atlas, but misses.
Immeral moves halfway up the stairs, standing behind K'ronk, and casts chill touch, knocking another bugbear unconscious. Two are still attacking Atlas, and two attacking Nowhere and Orryn.
Dain jumps over unconscious Atlas, and although he misses on his first swing, his second connects, but it is only a glancing blow.
K'ronk moves in to defend Atlas, standing over her unconscious form, launching a firebolt which hits and sets a bugbear's fur on fire. He also swings his goat staff and hits the same, sending rivulets of necromantic energy into the enemy. It turns a bit gray, but still stands to fight.
Nowhere swings Icerazor again, this time connecting, driving a bugbear back, slicing into her enemy, but not yet striking the killing blow.
Seraphina brings two more of the dread warriors forward from the southern hallway, but just has them block the way south in case the red wizard returns.
Not being able to reach Atlas immediately, Seraphina casts toll the dead on a bugbear, and it claps his hand to his ear as the magical sorrowful bells rack its mind. It manages to keep its feet.
One of the bugbears swings a morningstar at Orryn and bashes the gnome in the side, which hurts, but he shakes it off to fight on.
Another goes after one of the dread warriors, but misses the undead fighter.
A third goes after Dain who fends off the blows easily with his shield.
The fourth dives at K'ronk and hits as K'ronk tries to backpedal.
Orryn stabs one of the bugbears with his dagger of venom, using it without its power, but doing surprising damage coming from around one of his companions.
Immeral casts ray of frost at one of Atlas' attackers and blasts it with a freezing ray that knocks the creature out, while Dain swings at his opponent and gets in a slash with his blood axe which fells his opponent.
K'ronk kneels down and feeds Atlas a healing potion, which revives her for the last bit of the battle.
Nowhere swings Icerazor at a bugbear and slashes into him multiple times, his wounds bleeding out, but it still stands.
Seraphina casts another toll the dead spell, knocking a different one out as she sends the dread warriors after the final bugbear, but it misses.
The bugbear backpedals from the undead and yells as it slashes at it, but the blows glance of the undead's armor.
Orryn chases after it, but misses.
Immeral casts fire bolt, threading between his companions, striking the bugbear and killing the final one. They make sure all the bugbears are dead.
The party decides to make sure there are no enemies coming from unexplored directions, so they head down the stairs to the west to investigate.
After descending the stairs, the hallway T's here with a corridor to the north, and one leading east to west. There is a closed door to the north and an open one to the west. Where the corridors meet (26), there is a 7-foot-tall fountain, adorned with the statue of a jumping dolphin, occupying the south section of the wall at this junction. Water spurts out of the dolphin’s mouth into 3-foot-diameter basin, then drains through the bottom of the basin.
Nowhere passes a hand through the cool water, but does not drink. They continue to the west, through an open door, finding a kitchen.
This wide kitchen (27) has two large wooden tables, two other smaller tables near the walls, two large barrels, and many chairs and stools. Two large stone fireplaces—a huge one on the east wall and a smaller one in the northeast corner—are blackened and sooty. An L-shaped washbasin with three faucets is in the southwest corner. The room has four small round windows near the ceiling. Various shelves and cupboards hold implements for cooking.
A stout human male in a white apron, cleaver still in hand, lays dead on the floor. His neck is splashed open and blood is pooled beneath him. Nearby is the dead body of a bugbear. The League nods of the body of the human who obviously put up a fight. They search for secret passages but find nothing of interest.
The League and their commanded undead heads back to the fountain (26) and heads north to the closed door. They listen, and hearing nothing, open it, finding a pantry (33). This room contains a simple table with stools, several barrels, and large shelves. A central pillar supports the ceiling. Many preserved foods are stored here. A narrow barred window is placed high on the western wall.
CAPTURE 53:00
The party searches the room and K'ronk finds barrel that when moved, opens a secret passage of pivoting stone in the northeastern corner of the wall heading east. It is a narrow hallway, and The League enter and travel the short twenty feet to the back of what appears to be another secret passage. They enter and find a barracks (34).
This room contains six double bunk beds with matching chests, a table with chairs, and a rack of weapons and armor. An iron grill with a set of spits is fitted into the fireplace in the southeast corner. A door is set into each of the south, east, and north walls.
Immeral and K'ronk tell the others not to touch the chests until they detect magic, worrying one or more may be magically warded. None are, but their attention turns to a beautiful set of elven female armor which seems to have been tossed haphazardly to the side of the weapon rack.
Immeral recognizes it as elven chain mail, rare and valuable, and K'ronk wonders if he could somehow have it reworked to wear himself. In it's current state, it is small and in a female form, so it cannot be worn, except maybe for Seraphina, who seems uninterested much to K'ronk's frustration. "I want it, but it won't fit, and it's a lot to carry."
Seraphina says "Bob can carry it." K'ronk nods and the diminutive cleric orders her undead minion to bear the elven chain.
The rack holds long elven bows, quivers of high-quality arrows, decorated spears, elven-made javelins, and two elegant elven longswords. Out of place among the elven weapons is a roughly used greataxe. A steel pot helm and a suit of worn scale armor has been tossed beside the rack next to the elven chainmail.
There is a chest that glows with the soft light of magic to K'ronk and Immeral's eyes. They lead Nowhere over to the chest and she finds three potions of healing. Nowhere hands one to Atlas who quickly imbibes one of them to heal her wounds, and she feels strengthened, but not 100 percent.
The League then checks the door to the east, where a key hangs on a hook just outside the room. They take the key, and find it unlocks the door and they enter. In this area (35) are two cells closed by sturdy steel gates. Each cell contains a decent cot and a small table. A pale corpse lies in the eastern cell. In the western cell is a sobbing sun elf with what looks to be an imp familiar. The elf has a scar beneath her right eye. It is Shalendra Floshin.
Atlas says "Shalendra, we are here to save you."
She looks up with her imp and startled, says "Who are you?"
"We're the Owlbear League." Altas replies
Immeral adds "your brother sent us." as she comes over to the bars. "Oh thank the gods!"
They use the key to unlock her cell and she steps out.
"I've done some terrible wrongs, and I've been possessed by an evil spirit that takes over me. There is a terrible threat coming to the Sword Coast..."
Suddenly Shalendra's head jerks to the side and her eyes roll back in her head. A deep voice springs from her mouth, a voice with the burning smoke of hell like they have heard before at Harpshield. "Naughty, naughty Shalendra! We don't want to give away any more secrets, do we? You heroes should have taken the deal, there is no time left, the invasion has begun! Your lives and the lives of everyone on the Sword Coast are forfeit. I will see you in hell!" Shalendra starts bashing her head against the wall.
Atlas tries to stop her, but to no avail and Seraphina casts hold person which freezes the sun elf in place.
Atlas ties her up with the rope of climbing, ensuring she cannot break free.
Her eyes roll back, blood dripping past them from a fresh head wound as she cries "The devil has gone, he's left me."
She continues "There is a devil in the area, a pit fiend named Baazka. The monster entered my mind and forced me to do its will. I wanted to stop when I realized I was being used, but the fiend kept me on this accursed path. Baazka works with the Red Wizards of Thay. They plan an invasion by an undead army through the Ardeep Forest and I gave them the way to invade!"
Atlas says "It's alright m'lady."
Shalendra continues "It's not! Deep in the Ardeep is a place known as the House of Long Silences. It was entrusted to the care of my father Elfindor centuries ago. It has a teleportation portal within it that he spent his life protecting. When he died, my brother Darfin took over as guardian of the Ardeep. He thought the Portals were unusable, but they were not. I restored them and opened a passage to Thay. There are wards to warn Darfin and protect the House, but since I was blood of the Floshin line, I was immune from them. I studied the magic of the wards, I knew there was a blind spot, they only sensed the living and would not sense the undead. Right now as we speak, and army of undead comes through the portal one by one. There must be hundreds of undead amassing in the Ardeep forest by now.
When enough are through, they will send through their living generals and commanders to lead the invasion. We have a couple days at most, and the alarms will be too late."
K'ronk, misunderstanding Shalendra's confession states "Whatever happened before was not you, it was the power of Baazka, not you! Put on your armor we need to get out of here."
"This invasion wasn't what I wanted, and I don't know how to make it right." Shalendra replies.
Nowhere says "We will figure that out once we are out of here."
Shalendra says "There is a teleportation circle a few rooms away which leads to the House of Long Silences. I was going to go back and stop the invasion, but the red wizard said it was guarded by undead."
Dain asks "Where is the red wizard?"
Shalendra says "I don't know."
Seraphina says "There are some dread warriors under my command in the next room (34), do not be afraid." and Shalendra nods
Nowhere asks "Which way is the teleportation circle?" and Shalendra points north.
They open the door to find a long hallway ending in a door. They put three dread warriors under Seraphina's command to the front, keeping Bob to the rear just in case.
They march to the door at the end and open it, revealing a circular room of white marble, bright magical light, and a statue in the middle. Standing around the statue are four dread warriors and two other undead creatures with fearsome swords and glowing red eyes.
The dread warriors under Seraphina's command press forward, but the enemy attacks and blocks the door, allowing only single-file attacks.
The enemy dread warrior attacks their commanded one, but the commanded one blocks the attack and the doorway.
Seraphina commands her undead to move to the side as Dain tries to javelin the enemy, and indeed strikes their warrior blocking the doorway.
Nowhere tries her sling and hits the front enemy.
Atlas tries a combat dart and hits the same, the dart sticking out of its chest, but it still stands and fights.
Seraphina casts toll the dead and her spell rattles multiple enemies, but none fall.
K'ronk, Orryn and Immeral worry about hitting their own in the close quarters, so hold back on any attacks.
The enemy at the doorway tries again, but Seraphina's controlled undead blocks the attack and fights to a standstill. The two powerful undead in the room shoot arrows into the hallway, hitting Dain with one arrow, but missing all with the second.
Seraphina's undead at the front fights again to a standstill.
Dain throws another javelin and misses the front enemy.
Nowhere slings a rock and it bounces off of the undead's armor.
Atlas throws a combat dart and kills the dread warrior blocking the doorway of the room. She tries again at the closing undead, but the dart goes wide.
Seraphina casts toll the dead again and wounds the next undead in the room with necromantic energy.
Orryn decides to try a bow shot and hits the front undead, wounding it, but it still fights on.
Immeral and K'ronk continue to hold the rear.
The dread warriors clash at the front to little effect.
The two battle wights in the room launch arrows into the hallway that miss or deflect off their targets.
Dain holds to try to get into the room.
Nowhere slings a bullet into the room and hits the lead dread warrior, taking it down and they push into the room a bit before another dread warrior blocks their way.
Atlas throws dart after dart, striking the next dread warrior both times, wounding it but it still attacks with the darts sticking out of its torso.
Seraphina casts toll the dead, but the spell misses her target.
Orryn shoots an arrow into the dread warrior and it lands in the undead's leg, but it still fights on, limping.
K'ronk uses his staff of frost to casts ice wall which creates a dome of ice that captures the battle wights towards the far side of the round room.
K'ronk's ice wall kills the remaining dread warriors in the room, and The League strolls into the room with their undead companions and Shalendra.
The League takes in their surroundings as they wait. This circular room is lined with fine slabs of white marble, engraved with glowing organic designs, including most prominently, the crescent moon.
Nowhere gives Atlas and Dain each a healing potion to reduce some of their wounds as they wait for the magic ice wall to disappear. At the end of ten minutes it does, and K'ronk immediately casts blindness/deafness upon the wights and they are struck senseless.
The first blinded wight swings wildly at the Owlbear League, but does not hit. The second blindly attacks one of Seraphina's dread warriors and the attack is fended off.
Immeral takes a star from his robe of stars and launches it as an array of magic missiles which fly to the wights, knocking the first one out and wounding the second.
Orryn sneaks up behind his ally dread warriors and stabs second wight, killing it with a twist of his dagger of venom.
The battle is over.
They can now take in the middle of the room (36). On a low pedestal, stands the statue of a male elf in elegant warrior’s robes and chain mail. He has a wise look and a simple coronet, and he leans on the pommel of a magnificent longsword. The statue has been splashed with blood.
Below the statue, in an elegant alabaster tray are an array of crystals. Shalendra walks over to them "This is how I was able to break the wards on the estate and keep Darfin repelled. Shall I remove them?"
"Yes" says Immeral, and she does.
"It is done, although I do not know what Darfin will do to me." Shalendra says.
"It was not you, it was the devil, Baazka." Immeral says to comfort her.
"You don't understand. I made the deal with the devil. I wanted them to invade. I thought I would be able to stop them. I thought if I let part of the invasion force through, it would drive humans from this land" she replies.
Immeral realizes what is going on and says "You are part of Eldreth Veluuthara?" and she nods. Immeral turns to the others and clarifies "they are known as "The Blade of the People", a secretive group of elves dedicated to the removal of all humans from Faerûn.
Atlas asks "So are half-elves to be murdered in your plan too?"
Shalendra replies "You are not a true elf. I despise any who would occupy elven lands and push us out."
Immeral steps over to her and his voice rises "You were willing to make deals with devils and red wizards and murder countless innocents for a land disagreement?"
K'ronk adds "You're a monster."
Shalendra defends herself. "The elves of this land once ruled a great kingdom, it is not their fault it is gone, it is the intrusion of man who forced elves to flee to live in peace. At least true elves."
Immeral replies, "Elves anywhere can find happiness and peace and friendship without having to destroy those who would share the land with them. The land doesn't matter, it is the people that matter, and your people are together, and yet you seek to murder others for simply living peaceful lives together out of racial isolation."
K'ronk reinforces his friend "You would become a murderer simply to stand on the land your ancestors chose to leave."
Shalendra sobs and says "I see that now. In the next room is the portal. Maybe we can use it to stop the invasion."
Immeral continues "You destroyed Julkoun, you destroyed Firehammer Hold, you destroyed people of Daggerford, you destroyed the servants of your own home! You will have to stand trial for your crimes."
K'ronk adds "And likely be executed."
A voice calls out from the stairs. "Shalendra! Owlbear League!" it is the voice of Darfin Floshin.
"Down here." Nowhere yells.
Immeral says "Tell him now." and K'ronk adds "Tell him everything."
They walk the sobbing sun-elf out to the stairway and Sir Floshin descends the stairs.
He looks frightened at the dread warriors that follow The League, but when he sees Shalendra, he rushes over to hug her "I'm so glad you're all right. We've hardly gotten to know each other and I thought I lost you." She starts crying again.
Immeral waits a few moments and says "Are you going to explain what you've done?"
"I don't know if I can." Shalendra responds.
Lord Floshin steps back and looks on quizzically.
Once the story starts coming out of her, it pours out like a fountain. She tells her brother that when she was in Evermeet, the home island of the elves, she joined Eldreth Veluuthara and formed a plan to use the portal in the Ardeep Forest under his protection to let in the forces of Thay to invade, and that the invasion has begun. One by one an undead army is teleporting to the House of Long Silences from Thay.
"We have to stop this." Lord Floshin responds, and the Owlbear League agrees. "We will take the Pedestal portal there and Shalendra, you will come with us and make things right." She nods and they walk back through the barracks, the statue room, and finally reach another circular room with a design on the floor that is obviously a magical portal (37).
Darfin turns to her. "Where are the crystals?"
She replies "I don't know, the red wizard Taltos must have taken them."
Darfin turns to The League, "without the Eloun crystals we cannot teleport to The House of Long Silences."
Shalendra says "I don't know how we would stop them anyway, the House would be teeming with undead by now."
Darfin says "There is a weapon that can destroy them. A magic of terrible might hidden in Reluraun's Tomb."
Immeral says, "This document speaks of it." and holds out the document they found upstairs.
"Yes" Darfin replies. "I do not know its nature exactly, but the guardians of it will let us in as heirs of House Floshin. Will come come and see this to the end with us?"
Immeral states "Whatever we can do, we will." and the other League members nod.
"We will leave in the morning, we should get a few hours rest, but I have friends to bury." The sun elf looks at his sister Shalendra, and she sobs. "May Shalendra have her armor back?" he asks, "the road tomorrow may not be easy" and K'ronk painfully agrees, stating "until she meets justice." and Lord Floshin nods.
Seraphina asks, "Can we guard her door from escape?" nodding at Shalendra.
Lord Floshin agrees, and Seraphina's "companions" are commanded to guard Shalendra's door. The cleric adds "We will come for you in the morning."
Shalendra swears "I will do everything I can to make amends for letting this happen."
He then leads the League to guest rooms which appear undefiled, and the League gets a long rest before the morning comes.
The sun and the League rise together, and they find Lord Floshin has gathered the bodies of his servants on a wagon pulled into the gatehouse of the estate, tastefully covered with fine sheets now mottled with blood. He looks tired and worn. Shalendra looks rested, but emotionally wrought, and starts helping him gather the final servants. There are many in the wagon.
Darfin says "I have communicated with Sir Isteval. He is sending help but we are a day's travel ahead of them. We cannot wait. Others will come and bury our servants. The horses are dead, so we walk."
The party steps into the morning light as Darfin thanks the party for their help and their willingness to let Shalendra atone for her actions before Daggerford's justice or that of their swords.
A sound can be heard, a strange flutter of the wind, and a red blur streaks down from above. Diving out of the sky and crashing down upon Lord Floshin with a thud that shakes the earth, is a twelve foot tall devil. Darfin lays dead, his skull cracked open by the fiend's mace, his guts spilled from its clawed feet and an additional bash of its tail massive tail. Shalendra screams.
What chance does the Owlbear League have against the pit fiend Baazka? How will they open the Tomb of Relauran without Lord Floshin? What will they do with Shalendra? Can they somehow still stop the invasion by the undead hordes of Thay?
NEXT - CAMPAIGN JOURNAL 58 - THE TOMB OF RELURAUN
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