It had been about a month since our visit to the Oracle.  I'd been 
running a few errands for the Duke, as had some of the others.  I 
had spoken to Lia a few times.  She said she was mostly resting.  
One day, her sword Claidan Solius "woke up" and told her that she 
needed to go to a place, find a person, and help that person find 
something.  It was literally that vague.  Vel was with her at the 
time, and they started contacting the rest of us, letting us know 
that something was going on.

Max was away, administering his border keep.  Apparently, he needed 
to explain to some of the creatures there, that people aren't meant 
for eating.  Explaining with some sharp bits of steel, no doubt.  
Hill and Viola were off as part of a trade delagation, and couldn't 
break away either.

We gathered at the Red Griffen, which had recently re-opened after 
the plague.  It seems Aric had been meditating for the past month, 
but was getting a little restless.  Aedean had run through much of 
his money, spending it liberally on wine, women, and gambling.  As 
much as he gambled, he didn't lose much, except when taking crazy 
bets.  Vel had been helping out Viola set up the trading house for a 
while, and just enjoying the benefits of living in a big city.  I 
didn't ask her what all that meant.  Miss Thistle had been spending 
a fair amount of time reading and studying, but she was a little 
restless too.

As we were catching up, a courier from the Duke said that he wanted 
us to meet him for lunch.  We hadn't been seeing much of him lately, 
as he had been overseeing the plague cure distribution, as well as 
just taking over Dessit.  He had been in a lot of meetings with the 
nobility (what remained of it) and the merchant and trade guilds.  
Offering carrots to some, and sticks to others.

We met him the next day at a manor house on the south side of 
Dessit.  Apparently it was abandoned early on, and he and his staff 
just moved in.  It seems they were all business; as all the finery 
was shoved into corners, to make room for scribes, tables covered 
with maps, and such.  Couriers to-ing and fro-ing were a constant sight.

The Duke himself was looking a bit worn, as if he hadn't been 
getting enough sleep.  New lines of worry were etched into his 
face.  There was only one servant, so we helped ourselves to the 
wine.  The Duke wasn't normally a light drinker, but this time he 
watered down his own wine considerably.  I decided to limit myself 
to just a glass or two.
 
I half expected him to get right down to business, but mostly we 
chatted on light topics throughout most of the meal.  As dessert was 
to be served, he sat up straighter, and gathered our attention.  The 
Duke hadn't been able to contact one of the nobles of the Dessit 
area, a friend of his.  

When the plague broke out, people left the area as quickly as 
possible.  As soon as they arrived, the Duke's forces worked quickly 
to encircle the area, to prevent the plague from spreading beyond 
Dessit.  So people locked themselves up in their homes as best they could.  

For whatever reason the Constantine family stayed at their home, 
instead of fleeing the area.  Their home was actually a small 
castle, so I guess it was well suited for such a 'siege' of 
illness.  No one had heard from since the initial outbreak, which 
wasn't unusual, as they had locked up the front gate.  However, the 

Duke's forces had been through the area, inoculating everyone 
earlier that week.  They tried to contact the residents of the 
castle, but no one answered.  Since the troops had more important 
things to do, they just passed it by.  The castle had been quiet as 
a tomb, and no one had ever been seen on the battlements.  The Duke
sensed that something was seriously amiss.

The Duke asked us to check things out.  He must of have thought the 
mission as very important, as he was loaning us the flying carpets.  
We were to check out the place, and see if anyone survived the plague.  
The Duke's suspects something very bad has happened to Count 
d'Constantine and his family.  If d'Constantine was there, we were to
help him out with anything he might need.  Else, kill whatever 
'lives' there now.

The Duke recommended we explore the castle during the day, in case 
there were undead lurking about, as there still were in some parts 
of Dessit.  At that point, I was thinking I was so looking forward to
dealing with more undead.

A young, competent looking young man came into the room.  The Duke
introduced him as 'Jack', and said he was a member of a special
investigation service.  It seemed like the kind of situation where
'Jack' probably wasn't his real name, and it would better not to ask
about it, even though we were also the Duke's confidants.

The Duke said he trusted our judgement, and asked if we needed any
supplies.  We didn't think we did.  Since we still had a fair amount
of day left, we collected the carpets, and flew off to the 
mini-castle.  It was about a 20 minute flight.  We could see that 
many parts of Dessit were returning to normal.  However there were 
sections of the city that seemed in ruins and abandoned.  No one knew
exactly how many people had died.  Or what caused the plague either.
I supposed it was possible that there is some old, old elf somewhere
who is a carrier of the disease, never sick, but never cured.
However, with the activity on the docks, the plague outbreak seemed
more intentional.

We approached the castle.  As the city grew around the area, the
d'Constantines maintained some greenspace around their home.  Circling
the area, we saw the remains of tents and plague victim pyres.  The
refugees who were camped here had already left for their homes
apparently.

We overflew the castle itself a few times.  The courtyard inside was
unkempt and weedy.  There was nothing moving about; it looked
completely abandoned.  We looked about for magical auras or anything
else that might indicate what was still there.  There was strong magic
still emanating from the bailey, but we couldn't tell much more than
that.

We debated where to land.  At first we thought we'd just land in the
courtyard.  But military wisdom prevailed, and we wanted some
assurance we wouldn't be attacked from above.  So we landed in the
northeast corner tower.

The tower itself was a simple design, typical of fortifications build
100 years ago.  Seemed like a good place to wait out the plague.
There was a trap door on top, which we landed next to.
Vel checked the door, and there were no traps or locks.  The door opened
on to a spiral staircase.  We started down, with Lia and Vel in the
lead.  We checked the rooms and guard barracks as we descended, but
everything was abandoned, with a light layer of dust everywhere.

We reached the ground floor without incident.  Here the bailey was
abutted the north wall of the castle.  So we carefully and quietly
walked towards the front door, which we saw was on the south wall of
the bailey.

A wide gravel path lead from the main (only) gate to the main doors of
the bailey, with a small gravel path running west around the corner.
We presumed this was to the servant's entrance, and we followed the 
path around the west wall to a small door.

Vel checked this door for traps also, but there was nothing nasty.
Instead of being locked, however, it was barred from the inside.
However, with a couple of her special tools and a light touch, she
opened it anyway.

We peered upon what was a pantry.  Stacks of flour, chests, and such.
Nothing too exciting or valuable (which is exciting to Vel and Aedean).
There was a support pillar to the side of the room, with stairs
leading upwards, a door to the south, and a corridor to the southeast.
Since we didn't hear anything, we crept in further, and saw a stove
and another door.  This was the main kitchen area, and there was
another set of stairs, this time leading downward.

Lia opened the door to the south, which was the entrance to the main
reception hall.  There was nothing of note, other than another spiral
staircase at the east end of the hall.  The eastern door of the
kitchen also opened up into this area.  Vel checked an alcove, but
didn't find anything.  There was a lot of dust everywhere, it didn't
seem anything has been touched in at least a couple weeks.  We all
found this kind of worrisome.

Since there seemed to be more to explore above us than below, we
decided to check the basement first.  Vel was first down again, 
showing off her ability to turn herself invisible.  She was back in a
moment, saying it was safe to come down.

It was also dusty here; apparently abandoned.  Wooden partitions
sectioned off little rooms.  Vel checks the first one to the west, it
was a little bedroom.  Aric sniffs around.  I had a bad feeling 
about all of this, like a really heavy feeling in my stomach.  I 
couldn't put my finger on it, but something was definitely wrong here.

Aedean started poking through the rubble, but it appeared to be
leftover from the construction.  There area also some crates of bulk
items, like cheap cloth.

Vel finds a little office to the east of the stairs.  It seemed to 
be the office for the household manager.  Most of the papers were 
receipts, invoices and such.  None of the papers were less than a 
month old by their dates.  After careful searching, Vel turned up a 
flask of Alchemists' fire, and a couple bows.

We continued to poke around the basement, checking around the crates 
and the other rooms.  We didn't find any bodies or anything.  It was
as if everyone had picked up and left a month ago.

Aric checked what appeared to be a dorm area in the southern part of
the basement.  All of a sudden, he was surrounded by shadows.  His
ears were filled with terrible whisperings, as they tried to suck out
his strength.  Fending off the icy fingers of death, he slides
skillfully past them, under the curtain, and rejoins the group, 
shouting a warning.

We cast spells in preparation of the battle.  The shadows (too many to
count) swarmed us.  Lia killed one right off the bat, and wounded 
another.  Aedean shouted 'begone' and three of the shadows fleed.  
Several of them surrounded me, coldness struck me, and despair 
seized my heart.  My equipment suddenly felt so heavy I nearly 
collasped on the spot.  

Aric pressed his attack on one next to Lia, and destroyed it.  
Shottamip magically (how else?) slowed down some of shadows, and 
Aedean somehow vaporized some more.  Next, one of the shadows actually
took my rapier away from me.  I'd have been embarassed, if I wasn't
about to die.  The rest of us continued to slice away at them, while I
just stood there, and tried to encourage them.  Miss Thistle zapped a
couple shadows, and then flicked across the room.

Aedean called down some fire from the heavens (which was pretty wierd,
considering we were underground at the time).  Lia continued to
slicing through the undead creatures, reaping death (sort of).  Aric
felt the icy touch as well, but kept fighting.  Aedean then 
destroyed the rest of them attacking us, by channeling the power of 
his god.

During the attack, Shottamip felt perhaps the shadows were
communicating with someone.  She suspected a controlling influence,
which did not bode well for us.  Meanwhile, Lia was feeling a growing
sense of urgency from her sword, but there was nothing specific she
could tell us.

Vel check out the rest of the basement.  She found a few more shadows
in the dorm area, and Aedean dispached them.  We discussed leaving the
castle, getting our strength restored.  However Claidan Solius really
didn't like that idea.  Aedean didn't have the right spells prepared
to restore us himself.

After much debate, we decided to camp out temporarily on the top of
one of the towers.  I had to be carried, or course.  Aedean and I 
would then fly to visit some local clerics, and buy magical scrolls (1800
gp worth) to restore our strength.  This would also give some of us 
a chance to rest and regain some magical ability.

After everyone (except Miss Thistle) was feeling back up to snuff, we
re-entered the bailey via the side door.  It was just after dusk, and
things were getting even more creepy than they were.  Vel started
checking the 2nd floor.  She found more shadows, and quickly reported
this back to us.  After much discussion, we decided to go up as a 
group, and have Aedean destroy them, while we protected him.

The shadows where acting strangely, Vel said.  It was as if they 
didn't know they were dead, and still trying to do their jobs.  She 
also mentioned a party at her place later that night, as she had 
scored a significant quantity of booze.  We approached a group 
around a table, as if they were playing cards.  Aedean destroys them 
before they had a chance to do anything.  Checking the other rooms, we
backed up Aedean as he cleared the rest out.

We had a bit of a close call, when a couple snuck up on us, but we
dispatched them relatively easily.  Aedean was weakened, however.

We discovered what appeared to be a small armory.  The only thing of
note was some magical armor, which would fetch more than a few gold
pieces when sold.  Vel also turned up some other silverware.



Found guy on 3rd floor, laying in bed. got an amulet, and a shield
guardian.

Ark investigates with gaseous form.

Sword knows something.  Screams get in the room now.

guardian casts dimension door. Shot tries to counter, but fails.
guardian and dead guy disappear.

Shot has seen this before, robots.  programmed responses.

sun sword
bastard sword, blade made of flame.

golem in trap door.  down.


350 for the most recent batch of shadows.

750 per for the golem

250 per for the trap

1000 for general plot XP


+2850 total for the night.


On the former bearer:
	ring of protection +2
	caster's shield, +1 wooden shield with some wierdness
	magic plate armor.


Quotes:

[referring to Lia's quest (go to a place, find a person, help that 
person find a thing)] The person is Velkyna, the place is the 
casino, the thing is the cash box.

[referring to the castle]  ... it has become overgrown and weedy.  
Kind of like Aric.

Aric should get the smell-o-scope.

... through a variation on the credit-card trick...  Dragonmastercard?

Brian: this is like a real RPG, we walk into someone's house uninvited
and steal their stuff.  Mike: real RPG?  I am so offended.

Brian: [referring to shadows pretending to be engineering types] You
know, this would be adorable if they weren't, you know, EVIL UNDEAD.