Prologue
Durvish City, upon the eve of a celebration and the market has wound down but excitement is in the air and the city is abuzz. The inns are full with visitors for the upcoming festivities.
There is a small inn in the south of the city, not one of the nicer inns, but not a complete dump. At the bar, the innkeeper argues with a tiefling bard regarding payment and performance. The bard argues that he should be allowed to perform and, as recompense for his services, that he should be allowed to stay for the night on the house. The barkeep argues that he has to make a living and he never actually invited the bard to play — he just turned up and assumed. He also wonders why the bard has a rabbit with him wearing a backpack and asks exactly how much hair the rabbit is planning to leave all over the place.
During the argument, the door bursts open to reveal a towering figure in armour, a human female with a claymore strapped to her back. She is clearly agitated; every inn in the city has turned her away and she has to stoop to places like this. She approaches the barkeep and inquires about a room. He asks for 5 gold pieces, seeing that she is evidently well-off and rooms are at a premium at this time. She becomes incensed and seizes him by his collar. The bard warns her that the barkeep is a cheapskate.
Outside the inn, the ruckus draws the attention of a half-elf warlock who was on his way out of the city to avoid the bustle. Curiosity piqued, he enters surreptitiously and sees the altercation. Suspecting the barkeep of being a charlatan, as the bard suggests, he nevertheless feels sorry for him going up against a berserk fighter, walks up to the bar and asks casually if he can have a drink when they’re finished.
The situation pauses and then the innkeepers wife rushes downstairs shrieking at her husband about his utter stupidity in allowing Necromancers to stay in the inn. All participants turn to her. It seems that the poor besieged barkeep is having a particularly bad day. The wife looks at the assembled three and asks them to please go upstairs and sort out the mess that has been left behind in one of the rooms. Brief negotiations lead to the house offering free room and board for three nights for each of them if they can rid the inn of its uninvited guests.
Upstairs, they look through the keyhole and see nothing but blackness. The half-elf, Theren, informs the others that this is not natural darkness. Standing aside and giving a sharp whistle, he summons a pseudodragon, Runcible, who shimmers emerald green and enters via an open casement. Flinging open the door, he sends Runcible into the room. A telepathic report comes back that there is something unnatural in the room. Using Runcible’s senses as a targeting aid, Theren attacks with his magic. The blackness dissipates and reveals two spectres haunting the room. Lavender, the fighter, rushes in but is too hasty in her attack, missing with a broad sweep of her claymore. The bard, Temerity, also enters the room and begins mocking the spectres whilst simultaneously providing moral support to Lavender, who is injured by the spectres. Several more magical blasts from Theren outside the room and some lucky strikes within and the spectres are defeated. As the last one shrieks and explodes, there is a momentary, melancholic sense of the person who the spectre once was. Lavender realises that she recognises something — she knows the magic user who cast this spell! She’s sure of it! But she can’t recall who it is…
Temerity heals Lavender and they investigate the room. Setting his rabbit down on the floor, Temerity speaks to it and asks it what it can smell. The rabbit, Korako, hops up to a swirl of dissipating magic and informs Temerity that the magic smells like Lavender.
Theren, meanwhile, has gone downstairs and has his dagger pressed to the barkeep’s throat demanding to know who rented that room. The barkeep says that he knows nothing other than it was a young-sounding man in a black, hooded cloak. He never saw a face, nor heard a name. A large pouch of gold was presented and no questions were asked. The barkeep offers information regarding the upcoming wedding — the reason for the festivities. Lady Bromelia is to be wed to Lord Requiem of Avalon, a major city to the north. He is of the Avalonian royal family. Frustrated, Theren takes a flier about the wedding and returns upstairs. The party shares their findings, at which point Lavender reveals that she knows, or rather, knew the Lady Bromelia many years ago. The part then seeks out the wife. She, unfortunately, knows no more than her husband but informs them that the client left at about ten o’clock that morning.
The free room and board is again offered as recompense for their assistance. Theren accepts and retires. Lavender pays for three nights’ stay. Temerity also pays, but for one night at a time. Before retiring, they go outside the inn on Temerity’ suggestion, searching for a rat. Temerity speaks to it and asks if it saw a black-cloaked man leaving the inn that morning. The rat bargains for a thimble of ale and some cheese. They agree and the rat tells them that he saw the person they are seeking and that he headed towards the south gate of the city. He then passes out, drunk. Temerity stashes him in his satchel. The two adventurers retire for the night.
Day 1
The following morning, all three rise and breakfast. Theren is informed of last night’s proceedings. They show him the rat. He christens it Guido. They agree to investigate the south gate and Lavender pays for a cart to take them there, which they keep on retainer.
Upon arrival, they are met by two half-orc guards with the combined intelligence of a dead flea. Lavender assumes the role of guard captain upon an inspection. Temerity introduces her and they question the guard about the man they are seeking. Unfortunately, the guard is so colossally stupid that they can get nothing pertinent from him. Temerity uses his bardic skills to temporarily accentuate the guard’s intelligence, after which they discover that a man matching their description did come through here four times — twice in and twice leaving. Each time, he carried a large bag with him.
Leaving the gate, they travel now to the main temple. The festivities are in full swing. Theren sends Runcible to scout the area from above, but no new information is revealed. He tries to enter the temple but a cleric spots him and shoos him back outside. Instead, Runcible is sent to watch the north gate and to follow the procession of Lord Requiem once it arrives. He will alert the part to any shenanigans that occur en route to the temple. Temerity, meanwhile, has disguised himself as a noble to try and gain entry for the party into the ceremony. Upon reaching the door, he tries to bluff the herald and get inside but fails to be convincing enough. However, the herald recognises Lavender and informs the party that they may enter, as Lady Lavender Locke is on the invitation list. All of the party are surprised by this.
Upon entering the temple, Temerity attempts to investigate the interior, but a perspicacious cleric intercepts him and begins whittering on a symbology until they are forced to take their pew. Lord Requiem’s carriage arrives. Runcible settles onto the roof of the temple and informs Theren that no issues occurred. Lord Requiem is clearly disliked but is welcomed nevertheless — he is royalty, after all.
Lady Bromelia then enters with her wedding party. She clearly does not want to be there and her domineering mother is ordering everyone about. However, the ceremony begins and the grand cleric speaks to the congregation. No sooner had the ceremony begun than it was interrupted. A figure in a black robe and hood appears magically at the altar. Inside his hood, it is just visible that he has a half-masked face. His skin beneath is pale, almost blue like a moon elf. He seizes Lady Bromelia and instantly vanishes. Upon doing so, his disappearance launches a wave of thunder energy at the congregation, wounding and maiming the guests. Outside the temple, a griffin takes off from behind the temple, bearing the man in black and the Lady Bromelia. It soars into the air and flies off to the north. Theren instructs Runcible to follow it for along as he can to try and see where it lands and then return immediately with the intel. In the chaotic aftermath inside the temple, the party tries to leave hastily, but guards are immediately posted at all entrances and exits. The cleric begin healing the injured. The main doors open and Lady Arran, captain of the city guard, enters. The party immediately approaches her and informs her that they are investigating necromantic goings-on in the area and they believe it is related to the occurrence in the temple. Lady Lavender, who is known to the captain, asks her leave to exit the temple and continue their investigation. The captain assents but not before pointing out that there are additional guards around on the walls at the moment, so no-one should be able to get through unnoticed. She also makes the party promise not to leave the city before evening.
Leaving the temple, the party investigates around the temple and discovers indentations in the grass where the griffin clearly stood. The tracks are incomplete, however, suggesting that the griffin either landed in the middle of the city in broad daylight — presumably invisible — or was summoned into the city. Either option would require significant magic. They agree to investigate the north gate, where the griffin was last heading. However, upon reaching the north gate, they discover that the half-orc guard on duty has been subjected to a confoundment spell and he doesn’t recall anything. Frustrated, the party returns to Captain Arran and asks her for help. She provides a guard seal of authentication and tells the party to go to the Mage’s Tower (Durvish City); there should be someone there who can assist.
Travelling to the mage’s tower, they speak with an arrogant mage who is too busy with his cartography to bother with them. He dismissively suggests that they speak to Ismay. Ismay is short, plump, scatty and gregarious. She agrees at once to help them. They travel to the north gate and she unconfounds the guard before promptly teleporting back to the mage’s tower. They interview the guard. He does recall a griffin flying overhead but then someone struck him from behind and he remembers nothing more. Temerity tries again to uplevel his intelligence, but the motion backfires, sending the guard shooting off in a frenzy of rabbit-focused devotion. Upon inspecting the wall, however, no additional guards can be seen. Theren reruns through Runcible’s memories of observing Lord Requiem’s journey and notices that there were never any additional guards on the wall. The part suspects Captain Arran might be involved in whatever is happening. None of the party can detect anything else of use and so they agree that, given that it is now evening and they have fulfilled their bargain with the captain, duplicitous though she may be, they should leave the city and head north towards Avalon on the trail of the “invisible” griffin.
After a considerable while, night has fallen and without warning, Theren and Lavender receive a sharp smack on the head. Turning, the group discovers trees behind them where there were no trees before. Two of the trees are recognised as dryads. Theren moves back beyond them and launches a necromantic attack on them both, causing significant damage. The dryads begin to attack Lavender and Teremity and vice versa, but with limited effect. A third dryad appears behind Lavender and charms her instantly. Lavender, under the dryad’s spell, attacks Temerity, severely wounding him. To try and take the heat off Temerity, Theren casts hideous laughter on Lavender and incapacitates her, while the injured Temerity notices that the new dryad keeps talking to Korako for some unknown purpose. Theren takes out one of the dryads and the injured Temerity retreats to a safe distance. The third dryad rushes up close the Theren and attacks. Temerity heals Theren, but Lavender is no longer incapacitated. Theren takes out the second dryad as she moves to protect her mistress. The final dryad, who is quite injured by now, sees an opportunity to be healed by Temerity is she can capture his allegiance. He is too far from her, but Korako is not. She removes her charm from Lavender and instead charms Korako, who leaps into the dryad’s arms. Temerity, charmed by extension, rushes to protect the dryad but is too late. Lavender, incensed by being violated, cleaves the dryad’s head from its shoulders.
The weary, injured and subdued party makes their way to the nearby village of Towally. Temerity is severely wounded, having used up all of his healing, and Lavender is still shaken by her experiences, so Theren flicks a gold coin at the innkeeper for three rooms for the night. They all retire to dwell on their experiences, with Temerity providing some parting words of comfort to Lady Lavender.
Day 2
The next morning, they rise and breakfast in silence. Lavender is still clearly not fully recovered psychologically from what has happened, so Temerity speaks to the innkeeper about where they might inquire about information, since he seems to have none himself. He suggests that they speak to Mavis in the market square.
Theren and Temerity enter the market. Theren heads straight to the potions stall and asks the kindly lady about the prices of her healing potions. Temerity begins asking her questions about anything unusual that might have happened yesterday. She comments that a man in a black cloak with his hood up bought all four of her greater healing potions yesterday, which was strange because she didn’t see anyone with him, although she assumed he must have been with a party. She didn’t see a griffin flying overhead, but she did notice a hawk circling a nearby wheat field, which she thought was a spectacular sight. It transpires that this is, indeed, Mavis. She also comments that she’s heard reports of increased fey activity in the area and that travellers should be cautious. Temerity thanks her for the information and buys three moderate healing potions. She generously throws in a minor one too.
Temerity concocts a peculiar plan to capture the hawk that Mavis mentioned in order to question it about what it might have seen. The venture is risky, but a bird of prey’s visual acuity is far superior to any humanoid, so they decide to take the risk. With Theren’s help, they adapt Korako’s harness for Guido, who is still gorging himself on cheese in Temerity’s pack. They then bride Guido with ale, spiked with absinthe. Once Guido is unconscious, they stake him out next to the wheat field. Theren has hunted a young deer to obtain meat for the hawk once they catch it, otherwise it might try to rip into Guido. Using Guido as bait, they wait for the hawk to return. When it does, after several hours, it swoops down onto poor Guido. Temerity lunges and grabs the hawk, but not before it inflicts grievous wounds on Guido. They’re free minor healing potion sorts him out and he sleeps through the entire incident, none the wiser. Meanwhile, Temerity speaks to the hawk and Theren feeds it strips of venison to keep it talking. The hawk saw men in black robes pass through, but it can’t count how many. It also saw a griffin fly over with people on it. They all went north towards Avalon. It also noticed that the griffin flew down several times to the ground, presumably to meet up with the walkers.
After releasing the hawk and stashing the snoring Guido back in Temerity’s satchel, they return to the inn to find that Lavender has risen. She is impressed with the information they have obtained, but not with the ludicrous scheme used to get it. Theren turns the rest of his deer carcass into venison jerky for the journey and they all agree to head north up the road to Avalon, as they have several more hours of daylight left.
On the road north, each of them reflects. Theren recalls his isolation as a youngster and his father’s kind attempts to support him. He considers how unusual it is to be amongst others and not feel like an outsider. Lady Lavender recalls her uncle training her a few years ago and she considers her desire to protect others. Temerity, strolling and stroking Korako, recalls the first time he charmed another animal — also a rabbit — and he reflects on his bond with Korako. They pause when Runcible returns. He tracked the griffin as far as he could. It crossed Avalon and continued due north into the mountains, which is where he lost it. He doesn’t recall seeing anyone on the ground following along, however. Theren discusses the option of trying to bargain with the fey. Lavender is unconvinced but Temerity thinks it is worth the risk. Tying a rope to Theren, he enters the woods and calls out in Sylvan, but hears nothing back. They try again and this time a voice replies. Will o’ the wisps appear and lead deeper into the forest. A fairy circle is visible in the distance. Theren sends Runcible to investigate. It can detect a humanoid shape there but can’t discern anything further. The disembodied voice wants to play a game. Theren tries to engage it in a game to get some information from it, but the voice is resistant to his attempts. Realising that the situation is becoming dangerous and that something isn’t right, he recalls Runcible and leaves the forest. The voice follows him out. He instructs his comrades to run as a figure bursts from the forest right behind him. Temerity identifies it as a hag. Lavender immediately follows the instruction and flees immediately. Temerity pauses only to provide what assistance he can to Theren, who is dangerously close to the hag, before he too escapes. Theren turns and casts hideous laughter on the hag, who falls to the ground in a fit of hysterics, allowing him to make his escape unscathed. They arrive at the gates of Avalon and quickly find an inn for the night.