Benefits of the Buddy System

In the morning, Deirdre come down for breakfast, and finds a messenger there, who tells her that the High Priestess asked for her to come later in the day. Over breakfast, Maudit tells them about his friend's sister, who is missing.

They head to the blacksmith, and find Parker, talking to a figure with very long ears and short black hair. Deirdre overhears them mention Charlie. They try to sneak closer to hear more, but the person talking to Parker turns to see them, and Maudit quickly moves in to give him a hug, and asks to speak to him alone for a minute.

Maudit asks him about Charlie, and Parker says that Valwyn is looking for her too. He motions to the other person, who comes over, and he tells them both the last place he knew of Charlie being. Since they're both looking for Charlie, Maudit introduces Val to the rest of his friends. Leona uses her hat of disguise to change her appearance, and Maudit offer to buy a dagger off of Parker, but he just gives it to him.

The group heads off to check out the lead that Parker gave them. The house looks pretty abandoned, and Kesra volunteers to stay outside and keep lookout while everyone else goes in. Deirdre knocks on a nearby house and tell them they're there to do a survey. He tells them that there's a tall wizard they've seen around, and there was an explosion a while back.

They go up to the house Parker told them about and knock, but nobody answers, so Valwyn disappears and appears inside. She gets attacked by a severed hand, but let the others in. The place looks pretty gross, and they head downstairs, with Marshall leading the way and getting caught by a bunch of daggers falling from the ceiling on him.

As they continue to press on, two mummies launches themselves off the wall at them. The mummies get in some nasty blows, particularly to Leona, but the party quickly destroys them. Leona messages Kesra, but Marshall quickly assures her that all the attackers are dead.

They continue forward, and find a room where it seems like mummies are made, including two more mummies, which they quickly destroy.

Back up on the street, a halfling approaches Kesra as she keeps watch, and starts talking to her. She feels a shiver crawl up her neck, and as she starts looking around to try to figure out where it's coming from, the world starts getting much bigger around her, as she shrinks and the halfling puts her in a gem.

In the house, they find Charlie, lying unconscious, with a number of skeletons around. Before they can see them, Val drags her quietly out. As they start to check her out, the halfling comes into the house, but is no longer a halfling. He tells them they should just leave the girl, but they refuse, launching into battle again.

After they defeat the necromancer, they turn back to Charlie again, and find her dead and frozen solid. Deirdre gives Marshall some diamonds, and he casts revivify to bring her back. They check the necromancer's body, finding a gem with a tiny person inside it. As they stare at it, they realize that it's Kesra. Leona checks and realizes that the gem has had a 9th-level spell cast on it.

Val asks who they all are with their powerful magics, and if they're with the Divine Covenant. They tell her to ask about it later, and Leona contacts Xytharia to see if she knows what to do if someone got imprisoned in a gem. Xytharia tells them to go ahead and come to the temple of the Raven Queen, which they do. Xytharia tells them some baby stories about Kesra, and then dispels the magic.

Maudit tells Xytharia about the house they found, and the undead, and she sends some people to check it out. They make they way out of the temple and Kesra does some sparring with Val to let off some steam. They head back to the tavern, and Leona pulls out a love potion that she found in the mage's house, showing it to Aureo and pouring it out, not wanting anyone to ever be controlled like she was.

Back inside, Deirdre explains to Val what she's heard about the Divine Gate and the Divine Covenant. As they're talking, the conversation turns to Roman Kentigern, and they show Val what he looks like and what a bad guy he is. She asks what else they've been fighting lately, and Marshall tells her they've been dealing with devils. Kesra gets furious about how much they're sharing with this new person.