|
|
|
After the battle with the girallon and when the misfits are all healed they are summoned to the arch-cleric Amatrea. With the death of the prince and Lawrence, She is inconsolable. There is a brief burial ceremony for the deceased, but just before Lawrence’s remains are about to be put to rest the coffin is claimed by a bunch of arrogant people in black! But there are a lot of them, they seem powerful and they seem to have honourable intentions for the contents of the coffin of their fellow ... Glantrian! The party decided to leave at sun fall and head to Glantri with the remains of Lawrence for the burial.
Back in Amatrea’s temple, the party is introduced to 3 tall, handsome, glowing paladins. 2 of them end up "protecting" the party as their lives are in grave danger (surprise, surprise!)
After leaving a message with the still praying Breylec (!) the party + 2 paladins heads for the borders of the Wendarian capital to meet the dark ppl who are taking L’s coffin to Wendar. They are however fashionably late. Late enough to miss the dark convoy by about 2 hours. They follow on horse back speedily. Relying on the excellent tracking skills of Thanodel they make good time and catch the coffin up. Only it is empty and no sign of the ppl who took it! If it was not for the fact that another 8 ppl jump out at them from the undergrowth, the Misfits would be furious! The 2 paladins "leap into action". Sir Cronan cleaves them into shreds with ease. While Sir Lance attempts to protect Jutiapa he fails miserably and is soon put into his place! G manages to dodge … Thanodel’s arrows and in-between attacking a baddy or two. Although the Misfits are doing fine on their own the return of one of the original people who took the coffin makes the attackers flee (or try to!). Jutiapa’s foul magic and an even fouler sword bring the strange man (a spell caster himself) dead, to the ground very quickly. What’s more it is non other’s than Sir Lance’s sword that deals the sneaky final blow! Sir Cronan manages to save 3 poor misguided souls. 3 of our attackers’ that did not flee, are spared and join the Misfits also!!! The body of the mage is searched thoroughly by Izual and Jutiapa. Soon afterwards they set off in the direction of Wendar once more.
The Misfits +2 paladins + 3 yobs gallop away and soon come to something truly fascinating and mysterious! The horse tracks they were following seem to double in number! They were 8 to start off with and now 8 continue straight on and 8 veer to the left out of thin air! Thanks to Thanodel’s superb tracking skills we follow what we think are the real ones and ignore the decoy. They veer off to the left and eventually see a grand mansion off to one side. The horse tracks continue on and the party pauses to admire the ghastly, grim, dark, mansion. It is boarded up but seem well maintained! So once more the Misfits tweak the nose of fear and opt for the wise move to investigate the house! With Lawrence’s corpse well and truly lost the party looks else where for entertainment! Stealthily the spell casters and the monk close in on the house. It is late. It is chilly and it is VERY quiet. Thanodel and Sir Cronan join them just as they manage to pry open a back entrance to the house.
To their horror they realise that Sir Lance is left behind with all their supplies and horses! So the keen tracker Thanodel heads back! The intercommunication and cohesion in the party is completely non existent! Grasshopper, keen to leave this stinking horrid house with the gigantic cats living in it, accompanies Thanodel back to where the horses were. Emphasis on "were". Sir Lance, the horses and the 3 attackers are nowhere to be found! Thanodel discerns their direction as following the horse track we were originally.
Meanwhile IN the house, Jutiapa attacks the cat that swiftly flees, and then they open and close a few doors to reveal darkness and death and evil beyond imagination. Despite, Grasshopper’s supreme wisdom they head back to the house where they are reunited with the still alive Izual, Jutiapa and Sir Cronan.
As a complete sun set is grimly noted, and although it is never spoken each one is placing bets on who will die first in this house, and if anyone will walk out of there again alive…
In Brief:
The party (with a few additions and abscences) leave from Wendar. Their enemies have grown in number and power. Both the thieves and an evil bunch of Ninjas (!?) seem to be on their case. Heading back to the familiar grounds of Glantri the party tries to come to terms with another death. That of Lawrence. The party looses Lawrence’s coffin however and soon get side tracked by yet another dark and ominous house…