Days 40 - 44: Reapingday 10-14, 595 CY

Feldon's journal picks up our story once again . . .

The Ebon Aspect was destroyed and the Tribe was ready for a nice long rest. After crawling from the mine we headed into the town of Iron Lake, our base of operations. A few weeks ago it was a bustling mining town where rough and tumble was the standard. Since the attack of the owl bears, apes and evil cultists (most of which were town members) it is almost deserted.

We trudged down to the home of Alustan the Great - our secret in-town resource. Alustan had been helping us solve some local mysteries. One involved some special zombie-types that we had destroyed, along with a necromancer named Filge.

Alustan's not-being-home did not prevent him from being a good host. We made ourselves comfortable and did our best to clean out the larder. It was only a few days before Alustan showed up with the bad news.

Alustan arrived back in Iron Lake in a rush. During the past few days he had traveled north to the village of Aldernook. He had recived a summons from the local Hand of Heaven, a priest of Obad-Hai named Master Jarek Xian. The priest and his local flock had been experiencing strange happenings regarding a recent funeral - a burial that refused to stay buried. So, Allustan had packed up a few things and gone to Aldernook on the double. When he arrived at the tiny remote hamlet nessled at the edge of a pine forest, he found the place deserted. Doors stood open leading into dark and empty houses, fields were unattended and not a soul wandered the single street that headed through the village to the local Church of Obad-Hai. Upon entering the church, Alustan spied the priest slumped over a small table near a dias. The priest had been scribing a number of scrolls before he, apparently, had simply fallen over - dead. Just as Alustan had picked up a number of the scrolls for closer examination, there was movement at the doorway to the church. Zombies with green worms crawling over their bodies had appeared by the dozens and were slowly shambling into the building - heading straight for Allustan. The body of Jarek Xian also chose that moment to animate - a ball of green worms oozing from his empty eye sockets. Allustan had not waited around. He let lose a single fireball within the church then leapt through a nearby stained-glass window. He found his terrified horse outside and rode the beast at full gallop out of the village. He looked back just once to see two dozen zombies, some of them still burning from his fireball spell, making a slow and fruitless chase after him. That night by his campfire, Allustan studied the scrolls with the hope that the priest had recorded some clues or information about what had happened to the village of Aldernook. What he discovered was that each scroll was a hastily scribed spell scroll which could be used to cure disease. Allustan decided this information must reach his good friend and collegue, Marzena. Marzena and he had been students at the University in Iguanna Shores before it was shut down by Balthazar Rhett. Allustan's tenure at the Univeristy had come to an abrupt end even before the school's closure when he and the head master had come to a major disagreement about the use of magic. The other students and instructors had either sided with the Head Master or remained silent on the issue. Only Marzena had agreed with Allustan and she had kept in contact with him throughout the years. Currently, she was serving as battle-mage for an Imperial outpost in the Great Mist Marsh, but Allustan's last letter had gone unanswered.

The magess that was his expert in undead had not replied to his messages. This was our cue to take a little trip to the swamp. We prepared our supplies and tried to purchase mounts. There were no horses to be found due to the mass exodus of townsfolk so we ended up walking.

Badger took off for the Twilight Monestary to check on his folks. He ended up having quite the little adventure. Read about it here!

LINKS

Badger's Tale

PICS