Session 82

* Nyarduke's Inn
* Goldie's Family Home
* Tower of the Unchained

**Previously...**

## And Now...

### Plagues and Preparations

After discerning that the Hunting Lodge is teeming with plague, Goldie burns it down to prevent its spread. An examination of the adjoining buildings - woodshed, storage barn and stables - shows no sign of infection and the horses seem to be clear of it. Following this, Goldie runs several tests and it's determined that, of the party, only they and Dandy have contracted it, with the rest being able to stave it off so far. While conducting these tests, it's discovered that a side-effect of the plague is a vulnerability to Necromantic magic.

Leshrac attempts to counter this magical side-effect and is partly successful. He is able to remove the magical vulnerability, but is unable to heal the disease. Goldie attempts to treat the disease with newly-learned Verse magic, and is successful to a degree, treating the symptoms, but not being able to clear the infection.

With that done, the party settles down for the night in the warmth of the blazing house and sleeps until morning. At daybreak, everyone heads into town.

### Stranger and Stranger...

As the group begin to near the town, they see caravans of people fleeing en masse. At the outskirts, rough, hastily-made signs have been erected, warning potential visitors of the dangers.

In the wake of the plague, Strangehaven has grown even stranger. Many of the citizens, seeing in the plague something of the old curse, have erected rudimentary barricades, re-sealing Old Town, into which they'd begun dumping plague-bearers, suspected plague-bearers, and the occasional plague-free citizen who can be accused of having plague so you can take over his home or business. *(I missed a lot of the details here. Hopefully someone kept notes)*

### Old, Familiar Faces

Passing through the eerily quiet streets, the party approach the Inn owned by Leshrac and overseen by Nyarduke. It is filled with people, and Nyarduke appears to have refitted it, expanding into several adjoining houses abandoned by their previous occupants. The inn has become a sanctuary of sorts, offering shelter to anyone in town who needs it.

Everyone enters, except Dandy, who knows she's still infectious and waits outside, disconsolately nomming pocket bacon. Inside, Goldie notices a small number of the people inside are showing symptoms. Using ingredients from the kitchen, they manage to successfully create a concoction which cures both themselves and Dandy, and helps to bolster the immunity of the afflicted people within the tavern.

This causes the crowd to become agitated as they begin swarming in, each one demanding a cure. It looks like it's about to turn nasty, when Goldie pulls a fast one and "blesses" the communal stewpot, calming the crowd and reassuring them that there will be enough for everyone. Nyarduke offers up his thanks for calming the crowd and begins leading the crowd in a prayer to Luminous, as the rest of the group take the opportunity to continue on their way.

### Old Town Blues

The crew returns to Goldie's family home in Old Town, evading the barricades by means of old secret ways known to Goldie. Once again, the group is surprised to find the place inhabited *(See Session 47)*. Instead of Goldie's worthless cousin, Dulan though, it's their father, Thanden Goldsunder, who would appear to be somewhat the worse for wear. The cause of this distress can be guessed based upon the large quantity of empty liquor bottles strewn about almost every surface (The Alchemical Lab, oddly enough, is undisturbed).

The group make certain that he's not in immediate danger and head off to the Unchained Tower to see the Vampires. Goldie offers to remain behind to try and get their father back on his feet. Dandy offers to help with that but, after several less than successful attempts to "jolly him" back into sobriety, is content with cleaning up the empty bottles (keeping several of the more decorative ones for later examination).

At the Unchained Tower, the rest of the group seek entrance. Initially, this is ignored, but their persistence pays off when the door is finally opened and one of the wretched wizards peers out. When his peevish denials are rendered insufficient, he presents a series of arguments to try and persuade the group to leave. These arguments, though, are no match for Gar's punch in the face. On entry, the group present their case, that they desire a meeting with the new Ruling Council of the Tower. A vampire attendant bars the way to the upper tower and claims the Council will be unable to see visitors until after sundown. The party agrees to return then.

### Be It Ever So Humble...

Returning to Goldie's home, Gar, Azrah and Leshrac find Thanden somewhat more together, albeit still bitterly hung over. He explains that he and his wife had been on an expedition into the Mistlands, to the Valdari Marsh. There, they had hoped to discover a rare herb capable of clearing the ancient malaise from Old Town. During this expedition, Thanden and his wife had become separated in, as yet undetailed, circumstances, and Thanden had contracted some sort of swamp fever. Wandering feverish and hallucinating for an unknown period of time, he'd finally managed to return home, where, thanks to rest and some of his wife's alchemical curatives, he'd been able to shake off the fever.

Unfortunately, with his recovery came the memory of his wife lost, and presumed dead, somewhere in the Mistlands and his inability to rescue her. This bitter realization had led to his rueful drinking binge. While relating this, he recognized Dandy and the group discovered that he had been friends with Chance. Remorsefully, he offered to accompany us back into the Mists to rescue him. Dandy reassured him that we'd probably also be able to rescue his wife, too (and that we'd triumphed against more unlikely odds before), but he seemed skeptical.

### Mixing Up The Medicine

Our heroes begin preparations for their meeting with the Vampire Council. Pooling their resources, they are able to prepare a Vial of Liquid Sunlight, a substantial Compendium of Notes on Vampires and, with help from Thanden, a bag of five runes designed to ward against Necromantic Magic. At this point, a messenger arrives, sent by Nyarduke. The messenger explains that Nyarduke has received a vision from Luminous that if we attempt to confront the Ancient Enemy directly, we will be instantly killed.

Up until this point, we were considering the possibility of trying to rally the Unchained Tower, hoping that we can convince them with the old "the enemy of our enemy" bit. That would appear to have gone out the window. Leshrac and Azrah decide to combine their powers to get more information on Waiqir's assistant, who she is and what motivates her.

While they do that, Goldie heads into the lab to see if they're not capable of concocting a more effective potion against the plague. Dandy consults the Tome of Secrets in order to discover any helpful information. Between the various factors, Goldie and Gar's knowledge, the extensive laboratory and the information from the Tome, they are able to brew up a substantial amount of concoction which will give people a substantially increased immunity to the Plague. While waiting to see the results of Leshrac and Azrah's work, Goldie, Gar, Dandy and Thanden fill as many vessels as possible with the curative draft.

### The Face of the Enemy

Leshrac and Azrah, meanwhile, conjure up a vision of the Ancient Past, when the Elves were battling against vast swarms of Ynfernael Forces swarming across the land. The vision finally settled upon an ancient Elven warrior named Alanthea. Alanthea was a revered and dedicated warrior and hero, who made huge advances, driving back the forces of darkness. Eventually, though, evil was able to worm its way past her defenses as the fire of dedication was fanned into the inferno of fanaticism. As Alanthea grew older, she began to sense that she would eventually perish before every trace of the Ynfernael could be extinguished forever.

Driven by this realization and her now-insane hatred, she did the unthinkable and took Waiqir's pact when it was offered. Alanthea would never die, and she would be permitted to remain alive so that she could continue fighting and killing, but her unbreakable will had been bent to the cause of Waiqir. Following this, Leshrac and Azrah had two further visions. In the first, Alanthea strode forth over a teeming battlefield, choked with soldiers. In a moment, her powers lashed out, sweeping the plain and mowing down all in her path, strewing the field with corpses. Another moment, and her powers lashed out again, causing the corpses to rise again in the service of Waiqir. In the second vision, Alanthea's army of the dead were somewhere in the Mistlands, excavating an ancient crypt, long-sealed and long-forgotten by all save the incredibly ancient Elven warrior. When the stone doors cracked open, the Plague emerged, sweeping across the countryside in a frightful miasma.

Her purpose was laid out now. With Tovric's death, rulership of the undead is once more available. Alanthea has been placed under a geas by Waiqir to swell the ranks of undead forces at his command. Those who cannot be co-opted by threats or slain in battle will simply succumb as the plague spreads across the realm.

### What Now?

Now that we have a better idea of what we're going up against, we try and come up with some sort of plan. If Alanthea is trying to recruit vampires for Waiqir's army, then the only thing we can do at this stage is make it as difficult as possible for her. According to Leshrac's earlier vision, she pretty much effortlessly lays waste to the Vampire Council of the Unchained Tower, and according to Nyarduke's vision, we won't make any difference in that at all. Our old plans are in the wind.

Our new plan, such as it is, is to alert the Vampire Council of their almost certain doom and advise them to flee with all speed. Tell them the circumstances of Leshrac's vision and try and get a timeline of how far behind us Alanthea is. At this point, our best bet is to scatter any enclaves of vampires we know about and send them into hiding to try and make Alanthea's missing as difficult as possible and delay her as long as we can. Hopefully, while she's rushing here and there, picking off new recruits in ones and twos, we'll have the time to get into the Mistlands and recover Chance and Goldie's mother.

We don't really know any Vampire enclaves except the Tower, so we'll start there, warn them, and then get in contact with as many people as we can and see what they know.

The session ends with us arriving at the Tower of the Unchained shortly after sunset.