Date
I'd barely had time to put the pen down from my last entry, get a few drinks to loosen up for the night when once again I was needed. I was getting ready to turn in for the night, when I heard the scream of the barmaid, Caroline, who had left just a few minutes earlier to go home for the night. I rushed outside, joined by a surprising amount of others, to find her halfway to her home, her heart missing from her chest, and seemingly aged 50 years. My first instinct was perhaps a ghost, but they don't take hearts from the victims they kill. It was a mystery to solve. There were no tracks around her, but I did find part of a note, detailing that a ritual should be performed in ruins or somewhere else out of the way.
Also, Fleer made a friend… Caroline's sister said she liked to pet and feed a small kitten on her way home. Fleer has taken upon herself to adopt it.
The city watch showed up shortly thereafter, informing us it was the fourth such death, though the first at night and within the city walls. We gathered what information we could between the watch and Father Matthias, waking him from his slumber, and found there were four locations nearby that could match the requirements of the note.
We went to the cemetery first, as it was closest. Inside we found a disturbed grave belonging to a long dead horse thief who hung for his crimes. We salted and burned what was left of his bones, his skull missing, but no manifestation appeared. No apparent foot traffic near the grave, which appeared to have been dug up a week ago. Having trouble locating a creature that may use these forms of death and desecration… more research needed.
The next place we went to, travelling on through the dead of night, was the abandoned cathedral to the south west, north of the lake. We found a few items of interest before finding a hidden reliquary below the cathedral. Varadiel, impatient with waiting for everyone, took the skeleton key we found to unlock the entrance and followed a smooth, melodic song that emanated from below. His travels, with us following behind, took him to a locked iron door, as he readied to unlock it, an armored figure materialized between him and the rest of us, it's axe taking him in the back with luckily just a grazing blow. The combat was a blur, the armor falling to pieces in short order, not being worthwhile to pick up as they were decorative only and in poor condition… especially after a nasty blow from Fleer and Bob… the elf. I assume it's a traditional name I'm unfamiliar with. Past the door was a large room with some chests in the middle, and the music coming from an alcove to one side. There, Varadiel found an Exorcism Stone and an Undead slaying spike. He took the spike, whilst I pocketed the stone.
Dawn neared, so we returned to the tavern to sleep. Fleer, suspicious, had watches raised while we rested. So, while I watched, I read as well, discovering a demonic summoning ritual to summon of the Demon Lords, though, thankfully, it did not give the inscription or other pertinent details, but it did give the requisite materials for such a ritual. Five red candles, a sprig of nightshade, a spring of deathwatch, 6 human hearts and 6… bottles of preserved essences. I later figured out preserved essences was a colloquialism for souls. Each murder victim looks aged, so I assumed, correctly, that the perpetrator of these foul deeds collected both at the same time.
We asked around for descriptions of anyone needing red candles or the herbs in question. The herbs are not gathered by the local apothecary, and are apparently easily gathered in the Northern Woods. Those woods supposedly held another ruins we had yet to visit… though they were the domain of Lady Valdoran, the baroness mentioned in Commander Kresh's journal. Fleer came back with information about a supposed witch turning her husband into a Carp or some such and eating him decades ago and wanted to go find her. I decided it would be best to venture north and find the ruins as my information seemed a bit more pertinent to the problem at hand.
We entered the woods and travelled for some time on horseback when we saw we were slowly being surrounded by skeletal archers, and to the north, a pack of… something. I hid myself from the eyes of undead to prepare for the imminent arrival of the pack of what I quickly saw were ghouls while the others dispatched the archers. I stepped behind the lead ghoul as it attacked Viktor, striking it's spine, but not cutting cleanly through, making Viktor have to finish it off.
The skeletons and ghouls were finished off quickly, though a Rider sat up ahead, watching and gauging our battle before riding off. From the south, we heard the pealing of the town's bell… damn, another murder. Best not head back while we had a lead here. We healed up some and tracked the rider, an easy task as he rode upon an armored horse and was well armored himself. Tracking the rider for nearly an hour, we came across a ruined building… another chapel from the shape. We were going to head inside, but Varadiel wanted to check around the outside of the building for alternate entrances. I wanted to wait for his scouting, but Fleer heading inside with Bob hot on her heels. As much as I hated it, I entered as well, not wanting to leave them alone. We got to the midpoint of the building and heard Varadiel cry out at the rear of the building, the wall was crumbled on the left so we started heading there to get to him. Marcus, however decided to make his own door with a grenade, making a hole and covered the skewered body of Varadiel in the rubble of the makeshift entrance. His attacker was nowhere to be seen. We healed him to the best of our abilities, but the earlier fight had drained too much of our resources, especially with the warpriest, Seraphim, being so violently ill at the tavern. We retreated for the night and licked our wounds.
The next day we healed up, found that the slain was the blacksmith's son, Tomas. All the deaths had been young men and women in their early 20's. The first three outside the walls, and these two within, at night. We had the city guards round every female matching the age group, as it would seem that it would be 3 women, 3 men sacrificed for the ritual, and get them to a single secure location. The only person missing was Caroline's sister, Yvette. Damn it, we had her in the guard's custody. They are so damned incompetent. We asked what happened to her and they told me they had one of their guardsmen escort her home to get some of her things. We raced to her home and found only a discarded guard uniform.
We took what guards they could spare and went back to the norther ruins, the guards to take care of any skeletons and leave the real fight to us. We easily found the trapdoor we didn't see before and entered as quietly as we could. I pinned the door open with a nail so as to not easily be trapped without forewarning, but my precaution was misplaced. We went no further than 30 feet down the dark stairwell when the door slammed above us, the nail falling down the steps. I picked it up and we resumed, coming out to a room with pillars and a large, imposing figure, heavily armored, incanting a ritual to sacrifice Yvette. I hid myself from undead sight while Marcus stepped around the pillar and placed a cold iron slug right between his eyes and he fell to the stones with a loud clatter. Bob ran forward to free the poor woman, but six dark, leather-clad figures stepped out from behind other pillars, surrounding her and cutting her quickly down, leaving her to bleed out on the floor as they faced us. Behind us, on the stairs, Fleer was impaled by a sword, similarly to Varadiel the other day while he turned to face the thing that nearly killed him the day before. The battle was brutal and took far longer than it should, Marcus firing at the Juju Zombies while Viktor stepped up to take their attention, one stepping into the armored man's place to continue the ritual. I snuck in close while they were distracted, the chanting zombie grunting as a bullet impacted it's flesh, but not messing up its ritual chanting. I stepped in beside it, nearly taking its head off with my silent attack, but exposing myself to their view once more.
Viktor was holding his own against four of the creatures, though he bled profusely while I took on another. From the sounds of the battle on the stairs, Varadiel was not doing well. We were in dire straits indeed. Between Marcus, Viktor and myself, we took all but one zombie down in the main chamber. Varadiel ended up setting his on fire, tossing the body of Fleer to Marcus to took to the stairs to help. I stopped Bob from bleeding out, seeing the last zombie step behind a pillar and use a smoke bomb to try to hide, it climbed quickly up the pillar, out of view of everyone else. It did not know I still watched it, so I loaded a barbed bolt with my silken line to my crossbow, sinking it into its chest. It dropped down onto Viktor before I could pull it down, striking him. Varadiel entered the room and tugged on the rope, but his feet slipped in ichor, only succeeding at pulling the rope taut. I cast light upon the rope, letting it point the way to the zombie in the smoke. It cut the line, stepping away but not before Viktor found it and attacked. I moved up again, determined to not let it hide and get away, making its vest shine with the soft light of a torch. It tried running, but was quickly cut down.
We freed Yvette and woke our friends, though ran out of what healing magicks we possessed. I really wish Seraphim would recover quickly. We hobbled out of there, but not before finding a tunnel and ruining every sigil within the ruins.
