Session Twenty

***The two guards pass out of sight, and the road just outside of the stockyard is now empty aside from your group, and a lone raven circling in the sky not far overhead. It dives, settling atop the stockyard's sign, and Ismark's gaze jumps upward, nervously following after the sudden movement. The raven caws loudly and, after a moment, is joined by another two ravens. Ismark turns his attention back to you, waiting for any sign or signal for what he should do, holding the end of his scarf in a white-knuckled grip.***

 The Party

* Alyssandra, the Human Paladin/Warlock.
* Dakira, the Dragonborn Bard.
* Devi, the Drow Paladin.
* Tansy, the Tiefling Light Cleric.

## Escalation

Ismark asked the party what they thought they should do, and the consensus was that they all wished to get Ismark out of town, though Alyssandra said she wanted to help the church as well, especially as they now had the location of the bones and only needed to return them. Ismark agreed, saying he wanted to leave Vallaki as well and that they had more reasons to leave than to stay, besides the promise to return to the inn after checking on the winery, but added that the coffin maker was an old man and his shop was only so big, so finding a whole skeleton worth of bones should be simple enough, and he at least wanted to help Milivoj and Yeska. The others accepted this, and the idea of leaving as soon as they were done, and the party walked back to the coffin shop.

They found it just as they'd left it, quiet and dark. Alyssandra knocked on the door, but Henrik shouted drunkenly about being closed, telling them to go away. The conversation through the door ended when Devi, already having a bad day, grew tired of his antics and bashed the door in, sending it slamming open and knocking Henrik to the floor. This, combined with Devi channeling her emotions into a dark aura around herself, left the man terrified and skittering away on his hands and knees to the opposite end of the room as the party filed into the now-open shop.

### Answers

On the floor, wedged between a chair and the clutter beneath one of his workbenches, Henrik shook with fear and demanded to know why the party was here, threatening to go to the guards with what they were doing. Once more, Alyssandra asked him what he had done with the bones, but he only claimed that the only bones he knew of were the ones people buried in his coffins. Frustrated, Ismark said that they were the bones of Saint Andral that had been stolen from the church, and Dakira added that they knew he had paid Milivoj to steal them for him, and threatened that he should tell them before they ran out of patience.

As Dakira advanced on him, Henrik snapped out that they were upstairs. Before the others could leave to search, Alyssandra told them to wait, saying that Merletta had heard something moving upstairs, and demanded to know if there was anyone else here. Amid his nervous, drunken ramblings to himself, Henrik swore there was no living soul there besides him, and that no one ever came to his shop, and that it was always business, business, business. The party questioned him, asking if he was sure, that there was no one else inside the store and if there were *unliving* souls inside the store. Henrik was barely capable of acknowledging them, his speech slurred by fear and alcohol as he mumbled to himself, though when Devi approached again he shouted that they could take the bones and bury themselves with them, before muttering again how he should go to the guards.

Alyssandra relented, saying she doubted they would be getting anything else out of him. After asking him which way led upstairs, the party discussed who should go, and all but Alyssandra decided to go upstairs, while Alyssandra stayed behind with Henrik. Entering through the coffin storage room, Devi wondered if they should check these coffins, in case the man was lying. Tansy said they could check later, if they didn't find them upstairs, wanting to leave and not spend more time here than she had to. Devi accepted this, and the party began to make their way upstairs.

A floor below, Alyssandra sent Merletta after them to keep an eye on them - startling Ismark as the raven landed on him - while she helped Henrik off the floor, apologizing for their actions but insisting that finding and returning the bones was important. Henrik sat down in the chair he had been clinging to on the floor and said they were just bones, how important could they be, but Alyssandra said she had a feeling otherwise given the circumstances. As the rest of the party trekked upstairs, Alyssandra asked him why he had taken the bones in the first place, and while still Henrik answered her with a shrug, saying that nobleman named "von Holtz" had offered him "good business" if Henrik followed his instructions, which included stealing the bones.

The party, meanwhile, also heard the strange shuffling sound as they climbed the stairs, but were unable to tell which of the two doors would lead to the shuffling, noting only that it came from the north. Deciding to investigate, they chose a door at random, and Devi led the way into what appeared to be a storage room. As the party ventured in further, they discovered the shuffling as coming from this room, as well as the source, as a vampire spawn burst out of one of the crates, followed quickly by several others, leaving the party facing down six of the undead.

Hearing the cacophony above and sensing alarm through her bond with Merletta, Alyssandra demanded to know what that noise was. Henrik only flatly repeated himself: "good business." Alyssandra left the man and went to help the rest of the party.

### A Feast

The six vampire spawn - the remains of four humans, a dwarf, and a gnome - readied to attack the party, though one became distracted by the sight of people walking the streets of Vallaki and leapt out the nearby window to chase them down. Seeing this, the vampire spawn who had emerged nearby joined the first in attacking the town rather than the party. Shortly after, the party began to hear screaming filtering in from outside, and Devi shouted for Merletta to tell Alyssandra that some of them had escaped, but while Alyssandra heard this message she decided that it would take too long to leave the shop and reach them as opposed to those still inside the shop, so left those two to the guards as she rushed upstairs.

As they fought, another pair of vampire spawn fled the room through the window under the influence of Tansy's ability to turn undead, leaving the party to face only the dwarf and one of the humans as the town was menaced by the other four. The battle was fierce, with the vampire spawn's ability to regenerate contested only by the divine magic that Tansy, Devi, and Alyssandra held, and the two undead seeming to shrug off the blows from Devi's mundane weapons. The vampire spawn were slain, with Merletta as the only loss, though much of the party had been injured during the confrontation.

## Things Gained

* More incentive to leave Vallaki.
* Further information on the exact location of the bones.
* Wounds.

## Developments

The party has confronted Henrik van der Voort.

The party has learned of the general location of the bones within the shop.

The party has found the six vampire spawn within the shop.

The party has survived finding the six vampire spawn within the shop.

Tansy achieved the final blow on the dwarven vampire spawn.

Alyssandra achieved the final blow on the human vampire spawn.

The vampire spawn are loose in the town, causing havok.