Episode 3: "Sticks and Bones"

Game date: 12/17/2014

Quest Information

 * Date: 18th of Tammuz, 837
 * Title: Help! My Little Girl is Missing!
 * Level: 2
 * Location: Ag-Rakade in Kassithe

Primary Cast (PCs)

 * Ket-Ramat, human rogue
 * Lugal, human wizard
 * Shoklen, human ranger

Supporting Cast (NPCs)

 * Yethniri, Ag-Rakade commoner, and her daughter, Annibelle
 * Creepy necromancer
 * Townspeople
 * Low-level clerics
 * Militia members

Summary
Shoklen, Ket-Ramat, and Lugal have been working with Ibbi-Adad, going over the information obtained through searches of Attil'Kusu's house. Suddenly, they hear a tremendous caterwauling keening through the air. The temple's guardians have awoken: someone is defiling the village crypts!

Rushing across the village to the cemetery, they encounter a frazzled Yethniri. Her 9-year-old daughter, Annibelle, likes to play in the cemetery, but she would never defile the crypts! She's scared to death her daughter is in danger! "Please rescue her", she pleads. "She's all I have!!"

The party enters the cemetery, a crowd of bystanders having assembled to see what the ruckus is about. The crypt for the family of Chief Matriarch Entara is open. It appears to be true: someone is defiling the crypt! The party approaches, and is set upon by two brush golems, part of the cemetery's protections put in place by the village clerics. The party dispatches those with ease, enters the crypt, and sees some skeletal monsters, clawing at the inner door. These undead creatures turn and attack the party, believing them to be defilers of the Entara family crypt. One of them (a mysterious, skeletal snake with a fanged, human skull) manages to bite & paralyze Ket before Shoklen and Lugal finish it off.

After a bit of a tough fight, the party clears the room and works to force the door to the inner crypt open. Inside is a strange woman. Tangled masses of unkempt hair, ragged robes,, and a maniacal expression, she quickly casts a spell and covers the doorway and floor in magical, sticky webs. Shoklen, in the lead, deftly avoids being trapped and manages to get in some blows, disrupting her spell, before she manages to cast another, which blinds him. Ket and Lugal rush to assist, and are promptly put to sleep by yet another spell cast by the bizarre necromancer. She manages to escape the crypt, stepping over the sleeping Ket and Lugal and bypassing the blind Shoklen.

The party gives chase, and Shoklen manages to slay her with a well-placed arrow (to the horror of the assembled crowd). Having neutralized the threat, the party reenters the crypt and finds the crying Annibelle. She went into the cemetery, as she always does, and found the door open. She walked in, and found the inner door open! She never saw the inner crypt before, so she sneaks in. Then she sees the "creepy lady", who opens up a coffin, and the alarm goes off! The little girl quickly hides behind a knee wall, while the Creepy Lady quickly shuts the door. She was trapped with the Creepy Lady until the party rescued her!

Further investigation reveals yes, one of the crypts has been open and, even worse, the necromancer has stolen a fingerbone! The party replaces the crypt covering, which silences the alarm. They do, indeed, find the fingerbone amongst the belongings of the slain wizard. They also find some tools, a red signet ring and, in her horse's saddlebags, her spell book, written in a nearly undecipherable script. The party delivers the fingerbone to the temple functionaries so they can consecrate it and return it to the crypt, and sets forth trying to determine exactly what is going on with this crazy necromancer.

Outcome

 * Annibelle is saved, to the gratitude of her mother Yethniri
 * The creepy necromancer is slain, the party has her belongings
 * The crypts are returned to their normal state
 * The temple clerics are grateful for the assistance

Party Rewards

 * The creepy necromancer's equipment: prybar, archaelogical tools, traveling gear
 * 65 gp
 * Red garnet ring, a symbol of the School of Necromancy
 * A masterwork dagger[game terms: +1 to hit but due to high quality, not magic] and three throwing darts
 * A spellbook written in a nearly illegible script

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