The Stalker

## Recap

#### The Barfight

As the party enjoys a night off at the Giant Elk Tavern, you notice a bit of a commotion developing at one of the other tables. It seems that two groups, at adjacent tables, have been arguing and are getting increasingly heated with their insults. You're not sure what specific incident set them off, but driving the confrontation seems to be an underlying hostility between Divinists and Arcanists. As both forms of magic are legal in Ravenstead, disputes like this are not uncommon, but usually can be settled without escalating to violence. As you look over and consider intervening, the barkeep comes out and manages to calm things down, possibly with some magical assistance. Eventually most of the Divinists make their way out, leaving only a surly old dwarf whom Rosa and Raimondo try unsuccessfully to engage in conversation.

With tempers diffused, conversation at the tavern returns to normal as Raimondo tries to buy a drink for his new dwarven friend. The main door blows open, seemingly on its own, and conversation briefly pauses before resuming as the nearest patron goes to close it again. Suddenly this unlucky bystander is lifted up in the air by some invisible force, held suspended before being tossed up to the ceiling and falling back down to the floor with a sickening crack. Everyone freezes for a moment before a panicked rush ensues, everyone trying to escape to the back door, the windows, or just out of the way. The only people who are not fleeing are those at the arcanist table, who look just as terrified as the rest of the crowd, but trying to prepare for what is coming rather than flee.

#### The Stalker

As the party searches for the seemingly invisible threat, it makes its way directly towards the arcanist table, tossing aside anyone and anything in its way. Skosgreat tries tossing drinks to find it, Netty tries to intimidate her unseen foe, and Murry tries some magical attacks, but nobody can find the elemental until it tosses Rosa across the room and approaches its target. At the last moment, an unknown figure forces his way into the room past the mass of fleeing customers, urges the Stalker's apparent target to flee, and tosses a flask of alchemist's fire to drive the thing back. Now covered in glowing flames, the Stalker is finally visible enough for the party to land a few blows, but you follow this rescuer and his charges out the back before the Stalker can recover and resume its attack.

The newcomer introduces himself by his codename "Sav", and leads those he came to rescue to a cart nearby. The party follows at his invitation, and after a brief conversation and promise of further explanation, you get on the back of the cart along with the human from the bar, Isaac. As the cart begins to move, Raimondo notices movement at the far end of the alley as the Stalker is continuing its pursuit, but the horse-drawn cart is able to gain some distance as it rattles down the late night streets towards the city gate.

#### The Flight

Sav leads the party out of Ravenstead and into the countryside, following the main road for a considerable distance. As you travel, Sav gives a bit more information about the organization he works for, the Underground. They operate in secret, rescuing Arcanists from Divinist lands where their magic and their very existence is proscribed by law. The Underground will help anyone fleeing Divinist persecution, but they focus in particular on helping "birthweavers," those of sorcerous blood who wield magic by virtue of their birth rather than practice or study. Sav is reluctant to say too much about how the Underground operates or about the particulars of Isaac's situation, but Isaac himself is much more willing to share his tale.

Isaac grew up in Bredagia, a large Divinist duchy east of Ravenstead. He was born out of wedlock, but was acknowledged by his father, a powerful Church official in Bredagia. He was given a fairly good education, and upon reaching adulthood was secured a low-level position within the Church administration. He wasn't going to ascend to any positions of power himself, but through his father's influence he was secure in a job that would support himself and his family for life.

As a young adult, Isaac discovered that he had some small magic ability that allowed him to manipulate flames. Having been raised in a proper Divinist education, he knew that this sort of inherent ability was considered heretical by the church, and he hid his ability from everyone. He made some quiet contacts with the local Arcanist community, which existed only in the shadows as Arcanist magic was strictly forbidden in Bredagia, but he always portrayed himself as a vaguely sympathetic supporter, not a practitioner himself. All that changed, however, when through sheer bad luck Isaac found himself outside of a building that had caught fire, and he heard a cry for help coming from inside. Without thinking, Isaac raced in, and used his magical ability to help save a child that had become trapped by the fire. Isaac was hailed as a hero, but rumors quickly started to spread about how he had managed to save the child with the flames spreading so quickly through the building. He knew that it was only a matter of time before his father heard whispers of his bastard son wielding arcane magic, and Isaac fled Bredagia with the help of the Underground.

Sav helped Isaac get across the border into Vraiburg, but even this Arcanist duchy wasn't safe for a refugee fleeing Divinist lands, as Vraiburg has signed the Fugitive Mages Treaty promising to return any such exiles. They stopped for a few days in Ravenstead, hoping to be safe in a neutral free city before arranging to get Isaac across the border into Grapdenn, but their plans were upended when the Stalker appeared. Stalkers are a weapon of the Church, sent after dangerous criminals who cannot be allowed to escape; Isaac can only imagine what sort of strings his father must have pulled to deploy such a deadly weapon against him.

#### The Highwaymen

A few hours on a good road allow you to put some distance between yourselves and the relentless Stalker, but after a time Sav grimly notes that you will have to turn off the major road and onto a much smaller track through the woods. There is no way that you will be able to get Isaac safely across the border where the Stalker won't follow, so instead you are making your way to a sympathetic parish priest who can cast a spell of Nondetection to protect Isaac from the Stalker's tracking. Turning onto the forest path, it immediately becomes clear why Sav wanted to get as much distance as he could between you and the Stalker, as your pace has slowed considerably and the road twists and turns through thick trees.

After another hour like this, you come around a bend in the road only to find a makeshift wooden barrier in place, seemingly a pile of debris thrown together to block the road. Two ruffians come out from behind the barrier, demanding to inspect your cargo and assess a proper toll before you can be allowed to continue. A skinny fellow with beady eyes appears to be in charge, and Netty steps up to begin negotiating your passage, while a rounder man with flushed skin and a glazed look circles around the other side of the cart. Sav has slipped off of the cart into the woods, noticed only by Skosgreat and Netty, and he begins to circle around behind the robbers towards their roadblock. As Skosgreat tries to distract the portly bandit with an offering of Gorgon's Kiss and the skinny bandit starts to realize that the cart is transporting not goods but people, a rabbitfolk archer comes flying out of the woods, killed and thrown by some unseen force.

As everyone tries to figure out what's going on, Murry lunges to grab and inflict wounds on the heavy bandit while the skinny one ducks behind the cart and tries to stab at Skosgreat. A still unseen archer hits Netty with a crossbow bolt, causing her to duck behind the horses for cover, and Skosgreat dumps the remainder of his Gorgon's Kiss on the bandit who stabbed him so Rosa can set him on fire with a fire bolt. Murry and Raimondo kill the one bandit, leaving Murry covered in gore, but the bandit leader shifts to wererat form and knocks Rosa unconscious with a stab and bite. The second harengon sniper meets the same end as the first, tossed against the rock face, but Sav manages to clear the road and the party takes off. Some quick healing from Murry brings Rosa back to consciousness, and she starts downing goodberries provided by Skosgreat as the cart rattles away, with the Stalker in close pursuit.

#### The Burning Mine

You race along the path, shooting arrows back as the Stalker continues to close. Sav, realizing that you aren't going to make it to the priest, takes a sharp turn towards a path labeled "DANGER! WASAT MINE! ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!" As you approach a dilapidated palisade, Sav quickly explains that this mine was the site of a major battle during the Thirty Years' War that left it consumed with flames. Seams of coal within the mine caught fire, turning the entire mine into a superheated maze of thick smoke, and after early attempts to extinguish the flames failed the mine was abandoned. Sav leads you through a gap in the palisade, which is on the verge of collapse, and the smoke inundating the area lets you see the Stalker approaching just behind you.

Sav leads Isaac back towards the flaming mine entrance as Netty and Murry try to cut the ropes holding the palisade up, but the Stalker pushes its way through before they can do so. A desperate fight ensues as everyone tries to hit the now fully visible Stalker, but the elemental ignores everyone and everything now that its quarry is in sight. Hammer blows fall, rapier stabs find their mark, arrows and spells fly in, but still the Stalker pursues Isaac to the face of the mountain, mere steps from the inferno. Blows from the elemental start raining down on Isaac's head, but just as he is about to collapse one final arrow streaks in from Skosgreat, lodging in a crystal embedded within the Stalker. Turning finally towards its attackers, the Stalker exposes its back to Isaac, who reaches up and drives the arrow deeper, shattering the crystal and dispersing the magical energies that powered and bound the elemental.

#### The Aftermath

With the Stalker finally defeated, you all take a moment to catch your breath and take stock of your surroundings. The flames from the mine make the area uncomfortable, but don't represent an immediate danger, and a quick check of the surroundings doesn't show any other threats. Skosgreat and Sav share the last of the Gorgon's Kiss to clear their heads, while Netty tries to process the adrenaline-filled chaos that you have all just been through. You continue on with Sav and Isaac to the next town, about an hour down the road, where you rest for the night (and well into the morning). Sav leaves the cart and horses in your care, to return to Ravenstead, while he and Isaac continue on to their destination (which Sav keeps under wraps, but Isaac reveals is gnomish Grapdenn to the south).

Before you part, Raimondo pledges his assistance if Isaac ever intends to return to Bredagia and face his persecutors, but Isaac says that he does not think he will ever return to the Empire. The party as a whole also indicates to Sav that you sympathize with the goals of the Underground, and you would perhaps like to be of service to the organization in the future. Sav says that he will let the other agents of the Underground know that you are willing to help, and gives you the necessary code phrases to put you in touch with a sympathetic merchant in Ravenstead named Fymzok. The merchant will give you what reward he can for helping Sav.