The Haunted House of Willowbank and the Philosopher's Stone

After a night of gambling in the **Ravenraptor Inn**, **Olhana** approached the now fully formed adventuring company with a series of contracts that she has gotten from around town. Grabbing Sofia (gnome samurai), Bruno (minotaur valor bard), \*Bird Noise\* (kenku inquisitor rouge), Nessa (Savannah), and Joanna (Luke) she set them to patrolling the area around Willowbank to assist the spread thin town’s guard and to check in with the mining operation headed off by the dwarven councilmember **Manistrad Copperlocks**. Olhana had Wolfgang (goblin medic) remain at the Ravenraptor, all set to render medical assistance to the party members.

Talking to the remaining party members she told them of the haunted house of Willowbank. Four miles north of town lay a house, supposedly lived in by an old wizard and alchemist, after their death the house would be periodically illuminated by strange lights and those who got close would hear strange laughing and horrified screaming. With a band of adventurers in town the town council would like to once and for all get to the bottom of this matter.

**Throgen** (Jimmy), **Murgen** (Shawn), **Shaw** (Nate), and **Alvok** (Kobold beastmaster ranger) set out to explore the house while the remaining party members stayed at the inn to act as a quick response team. The group set out to the seaside manor battling two snakes they had disturbed while throwing rocks down a well. Doing a quick sweep around the house they elected to go straight down to the cellar where they expected to find the most resistance. In the cellar they found a closed off wine cellar and a badly bludgeoned knight in dinged up but serviceable **plate armor**. While Shaw found an **expensive bottle of wine** of the shelves, Murgen found a secret door as the fireplace rotated, revealing a hidden back room.

However before they could cross the door they were accosted by three brigands armed with scimitars, and one with a **musket**. Felling the bandits they continued exploring this hidden barracks. They found a private chamber with some freshly extinguished candles, a **hooded lantern**, a piece of **parchment** for how to use the lantern to signal *The Sea Ghos*t a naval almanac listing tide times around the area, a book translating common and goblin, and a fully illustrated volume of erotic poetry. In the next room they were met in the darkness by six decepit, skeletons that rose from their positions ever so slowly. They were quickly dealt with but upon completion a blue light filled the room and the wall slid back revealing the laboratory of the skeletal alchemist. As thin blue wisps formed a beard around their face bubbles of acid dripped from their fingers and as it issued an ominous warning it assailed the four. Badly bloodied, the party defeated the Alchemist as Shaw lobbed the creature’s head off. They looted the room finding a book entitled ***Ye Secrets of Ye Philosopher's Stone***, which promised to teach the reader how to craft a stone allowing them to turn mundane abouts into gold. Throgen also found a polished **stone** in the skeleton’s robe.

With the cellar and its secret room looted and a clue for the party found the pair returned to the inn to report their findings and tend their wounds.