The Curious Case of the Missing Patrol

> "*Following the tunnel leading from the second cavern, you come to the largest of the rooms. A spacious cavern wherein stands a large creature with its back to you. You assume this to be the **Lord of Ash**. He wears an armour the likes of which you have never seen before, it is blackened and bruised in places, but mostly the colour of ash; a dark and disconcerting grey. Upon his head is a circular helm with a trail of writhing fire working its way down from the top to his shoulders. Currently his hands are placed on each side of a guard’s face as the guard is hoarsely screaming and begging him to stop."*
>
>

The Curious Case of the Missing Patrol is the second ever case to be documented by the Split Shields. It concerns itself with a patrol that mysteriously disappeared as they were out patrolling the perimeter of the Taylon Woods near Port Ral'Endas. After a week of searching and coming up with no answers, the town's guard turned to the Split Shields and their leader Allia Darrow for aid. Allia placed a notice requesting help on the Split Shield's noticeboard, which was fortunately answered only a few hours later by a small group of adventurers who had come to the port seeking out work from the Split Shields in their home tower.

## Characters Involved

The following PCs were involved in this adventure:

* Dragath (Half-Orc / Fighter)
* Stali (Half-Orc / Fighter)
* Lucia Garren (Human / Rogue)
* Hakkon Direfrost (Goliath / Barbarian)
* Sgt. Artus Lockscale (Human / Sorcerer)

## Plot

The party arrived at the Split Shields Tower in Port Ral'Endas, where they immediately met with Klombroth FireFire. Klombroth took them to the noticeboard and allowed to select which of the several calls for help they wanted to tackle. After some deliberation the group decided to help search for a missing patrol of guards that had reportedly disappeared while on patrol a week earlier. After selecting this case, they were taken to see Allia Darrow in her office at the tower for more information and to get started.

Allia informed them on everything the Split Shields had been told, that four guards (all know to be wearing the black and gold tabards of the usual guard uniform) were patrolling near the Taylon Woods for any bandit behaviour, they were due to call in on the next morning but never reported back. Several guards were sent to look for them, but they found no tracks or traces of where these guards may have gone. They've been missing for a week now and the town's guards are growing desperate, they've turned to the Split Shields to see if a new perspective might help in retrieving these missing guards. Allia suggests that the party should seek out the campsite the guards were known to be at, and continues to describe the four missing guards as:

* Christopher Booney (the youngest guard with blonde hair and a baby face).
* Alexander Grahams (the patrol leader, a burly fighter with a broken nose).
* Devoy Winters (a scruffy looking guard who's always reportedly picking crumbs from his beard).
* Alice Takkara (a blonde haired woman with her hair always tied back in a long braide).

The party arrive at the campsite a few hours later, as the day is beginning to turn to night, and find no clues or tracks as to where these missing guards may have gone. They do find something unusual though, the trees around the clearing have all been charred on the sides leaning towards where the fire would have been. The party decide to rest here for the night and light a fire, hoping that better daylight might help illuminate hidden tracks or clues. In the middle of the night though, as Lucia was on watch, a figure came stumbling through the forest and into the clearing. The man was haggard and clearly exhausted, and he was covered in a fine layer of ash. The man was revealed to be Christopher Booney, one of the guards that had disappeared, and once the party had given him water and food he explained what had happened.

According to Christopher Booney, he and the other guards had been abducted by a terrifying figure calling themselves the Lord of Ash. This figure took the four guards to a cave in order to torture them into revealing secrets about Port Ral'Endas; secrets concerning the town's defences and capabilities. It's also revealed that the Lord of Ash used an unusual and unknown technique to torture the guards, he would **burn their memories**. Christopher says that the guards weren't shackled, but they were kept in line with fear, he had a moment of courage and managed to run off as the Lord of Ash was torturing another guard. He ran for hours and followed the trail of smoke that led to this camp and the rest of the party.

After some convincing, the party manage to get Christopher to take them to the cave where he was being held prisoner, in order to rescue the remaining guards. Christopher agrees to take them but states clearly that he will not enter the cave under any circumstances. The party follow the guard for a few hours before they are ambushed by several strange figures. The creatures, who are referred to only as the ashmen, are strange abominations constructed out of what appears to be firewood. They attacked the party but the party was quick in subduing them and continued towards the cave. Christopher theorised that the ashmen had been sent specifically to retrieve him and were minions of the Lord of Ash.

After another hour of walking they finally managed to find the cave. Christopher waited outside while the rest of the party proceeded to enter. As the moved through the tunnels they quickly encountered a room filled, from floor to ceiling, with a searing black smoke that made it impossible to see the interior of the room. Dragath managed to be the first to navigate his way to the other side and find an exit, and allowed the party to also find their way by making a clinking noise against the stone. After the party were through the black smoke, they decided to allow Lucia to scout ahead to see what possible dangers awaited them further on.

Lucia came to another room wherein she found two more guards be guarded three more ashmen. The guards appeared to be blind and she noticed large burn marks over their eyes. The party decided to bullrush these ashmen to rescue the guards, and after a rousing speech from Artus Lockscale, they swiftly dispatched these ashmen. Upon rescuing the guards they found out that the Lord of Ash had blinded them to stop them from escaping, and he was currently interrogating Alexander Grahams further on in the cave. The party decided that the best option was for Lucia to help these two guards find the exit, while they rescued the remaining guard.

The party descended into the last tunnel and came to the last room where they found the Lord of Ash torturing Alexander Grahams. After making their presence known, most of the party (with the exception of Artus Lockscale) surrendered to a deep feeling of despair within the Lord of Ash's presence. Artus, who had managed to keep their wits, fired an arrow at the knight but was shocked to find that it did nothing. The Lord of Ash swatted them aside before leaving the cave and escaping after turning into a cloud of smoke, leaving the party to tend to a now deceased Alexander Grahams.

The party return the guards home, with much thanks for the community who are quick to see the guards to the local temple. Christopher thanks the party personally and even gifts them with a **ring of protection** for the aid they gave him. After speaking to Allia Darrow and promising to answer the call, should the Split Shields need them again, they were paid for their heroism and told that the Split Shields would keep an eye out for the Lord of Ash and what it is he wanted with Port Ral'Endas. They were also gifted with shield tokens at the promise as well.

## Rewards

These were the rewards offered the party earned over the course of their adventure:

* 300 gold (from the Split Shields)
* Ring of Protection (from Christopher Booney)

## Aftermath

The Lord of Ash escaped and his intentions are still not clear.