Attempted Capture of Quarlos Esponito Summary

## Atlin Stormtwister Summary of Events

After our first encounter with Quarlos Esponito, I, Orryn Ironfist, and Syldre Moonweaver (?) took on the difficult task of attempting to track him down and bringing him back to Travencal alive. He had reportedly been seen at a city Northwest of Travencal known as El Pueblo Que Lora ("The Town that Cries"), to attend a festival referred to as the Festival of the Wailing Dead.

The road to the town did not seem to have too many dangers, the road was laid out, though there were several thugs laying in wait to ambush any groups, we unfortunately were too far behind to save a group of young adults who seemed to be heading to the festival, but we were able to dispose of the thugs shortly afterwards.

We decided after realizing there might be more thugs on the road to travel with one of the other civilian groups heading in the same direction as us. We made friends with a small family who seemed to be farmers. They were all human, I do not recall all of their names, but the father was Richard, the mother was Veronica, one of the young teenage boys was David, and one of the younger girls was Suzy (Richard did not seem to have a loving relationship with his daughter Suzy, truly shameful). They were heading to a village near El Pueblo Que Lora, known as Rivendale, which we have heard to be a small farming community.

We arrived at the festival in the afternoon, where it seemed the people were still preparing for the festival that evening. We had inquired with the individual preparing the fireworks if he had seen anyone similar to Quarlos. He pointed out that there was a cave nearby that shady figures had been seen close by. We decided to investigate and quickly learned that we were outmatched, as we walked into the cave, several skeletons were immediately reanimated and attacked us. We expended a lot of our resources to get fight and get out of there, as they were perpetually coming back to life. As we exited the cave, the skeletons followed and immediately turned back to broken bone, we know now that there was some sort of enchantment on the front of the cave, which was the extent of where the skeletons could reach.

We went back to the festival in an attempt to hopefully find resources and gather assistance, as we were certain Quarlos would attack in some way at the festival that evening. We met a man selling mead that was quite revitalizing, our wounds seemed to close from the beverage, he referred to himself as the Mead Maker (fitting name).

I began searching for assistance from the locals, hoping that someone here might also be strong like us and perhaps could assist us in the wake of an attack. While Orryn and Syldre were keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, I met a man who claimed to be a professional fight with the coliseum back in Travencal, known as Elron Davidson (I refer to him as LDS). He seemed like a promising individual, but seemed to have his own matters to attend to, he took me to a more private location nearby where it seemed we might be able to negotiate how we could be of assistance to each other. He did not seem to be receptive to helping the situation, but was adamant about me assisting him in some way, that's when he quickly explained he would like my body to stop living. LDS assaulted me and I attempted to run, but to no avail, this sticky, black, ichor was hitting me and pulling me towards him and I went unconscious.

Orryn and Syldre relayed to me that during this incident, Quarlos showed himself at the festival, he was disguised as a member of the mariachi band, and also showed that the guitarist was the resurrected corpse of our companion Yelren. Quarlos quickly explained that he is hoping to find more members for his band, before chuckling and running off while Orryn and Syldre gave chase, to no avail.

After losing him, Orryn and Syldre found me, unconscious and covered in the black ichor. We decided to rest and go back to the cave the next day hopefully to capture Quarlos. We were able to identify that at the end of the cave opening there was a glyph that seemed to be connected to the resurrected skeletons, which when blasted or hit in some way, dissipated. More of these were placed throughout the cave (we managed to see 3, only destroying 2). We became overrun and needed to flee again, hopefully to regain our strength again, and then we could finish this.

That evening, while I was on watch, I noticed a figure who seemed to be creating the glyphs again, I quickly woke our group and we rushed in, as we assumed it to be Quarlos himself. The figure ran, and more skeletons rose, forcing us to rush away. The last thing I remember is myself taking a hit and going unconscious.

The next thing I remember, my arms were restrained to a natural stone wall, no light around me, and I was by myself. As time passed, and I tried to speak out, I was eventually told to be quiet as an individual ran up to me, dressed in rags, she quickly unlocked my restraints. She seemed to be in a hurry, yet very quiet. She told me that she managed to get away and that we are the only captives here and that we needed to leave.

As quietly as we could, we managed to sneak into an area with my equipment, to which I quickly grabbed. Luckily, at this point we had not seen any creatures in the area, but we could hear something nearby, that hadn't seemed to see us yet.

We tried to duck away from the creature still in this area that now seemed to be a heavily ruined structure underground at this point. We continued this game of cat and mouse for a while, desperately trying to find our way out. Unfortunately, we did not account for faulty sections of the ground, as we continued to move, the ground underneath the woman gave out, almost taking her with it and seeming to alert whatever creature was here. I managed to hold onto her and pull her up, but not quick enough, as now the creature had found us. What we saw a jet-black humanoid creature, its body was amorphous and seemed to bubble constantly (truly disgusting and unlike anything I have ever seen).

The woman thought attempting to run was futile and rushed to meet this creature head on. I tried staying back and casting spells as much as I could, since I still had a few at my disposal. The woman was quickly consumed by the creature, but with quick thinking, I was able to identify a more worn portion of the underground structure, that happened to be on the ceiling in this area, and ahead of the creature. It moved towards me and I was able to bring down that faulty structure onto the head of the creature, ending its movement towards me, and upon further investigation, creature was dead and not moving amongst the rubble I had created.

Victoriously and tired, I emerged from the small cave that this creature was residing in, safe at last. I found I was still close to the road that we took to El Pueblo Que Lora, and I decided it would be best to just head back to Travencal. I soon discovered after arriving that Quarlos was not captured by my comrades, and is still at large. I fear we may need a larger group for a mission like this.