The party returned to the Yammary after defeating the were-rats and defending that touched girl. I have no idea what her issue was with the mountain folk (Dwarves), I’m just glad to be done with that business. Upon our return we noticed a mark of warning in the second story window and a little cautious observation revealed a new guard at the post. Fallon disguised himself as an old animal caregiver and approached solo to get information as to what was going on. The disguise worked rather well as he was approached by the guard who was satisfied after watching Fallon tend to some of the animals. Hanrick conveyed to Fallon that the farm was still on high alert and the party would have to sneak to the barn and could only stay the night. We were happy to see an old comrade back at the farm Khesh digging and filling the same hole doing his best to look like he belonged there.
That night Hanrick and Khesh met the party behind the barn. Hanrick warned that the Yammary might be risky for some time and to use caution. He did have some info if we were interested in checking it out. He had heard from an operative in Hallorn about a man that had found a secret passage in the root cellar of the Bearded Clam. The Bearded Clam was an Inn that the party could remember from one of our earlier engagements in Harlon. The man entered a door in this passage and found a man that had the markings of the Shieldlands in a cell or room. This man was in bad condition from the sounds of it and the operative himself died of some strange skin condition.
The Shieldlands are no friends of Iuz and we have had some interaction with some of them. The party agrees to investigate and Khesh rejoins the party. Thag stays behind to fill in for Khesh and the party moves out before first light with the usual “official looking” travel papers that Bing provides. After a few days of uneventful travel we arrived at Harllorn and walked right through the gates with little effort thanks to Viktis’s slick tongue and Bings papers.
Within Harllorn we come across wanted posters that describe a few members of our party most of which can change their appearance. Ah, the Bearded Clam what can I say but it must have been a lot more grand before Iuz but it’s still trying. Its claim apparently is maid service with its rooms. We split into two groups entering separately and do our best at gathering info. Fallon rents a room and gets serviced at least once. I mean maid service. The maid did not have any useful info but I have a feeling he might keep trying if we let him and his gold doesn’t run out. Khesh asks the proprietor for work and she actually gives him room and board. Bing noticed this tactic and joined in on the second day and they befriended a halfling in the kitchen that seems willing to help but really has no info. Khesh finds the secret entrance in the root cellar and we form a plan to enter that night with a distraction from the Halfling.
That night the party moved quietly to the root cellar and entered without alerting the bouncer that was distracted thanks to the Halfling. In a possible stroke of genius and what forever will be known as “spudding it” decides to block the door from closing with a potato. There was some possible discussion of using a carrot but we recognized the possible flaws, what if slipped, what if it snapped, what if a rodent carried it off? No doubt about it, a spud was the best choice for this mission. The Party moved down the hallway with Garn guarding the rear. We did find the door and also the other end of the passage which had suffered a cave in.
When this door was opened the hallway was filled instantly with a gas that made most of the party start violently vomiting. The gas was so thick you could not see in front of your face and we found that with the gas were some wights that needed to be fought off. After clearing the rear of the party Garn went back to the door with the spud and could hear a commotion outside. With quick thinking and a quick kick the spud was moved and the door was closed. In the room the party found a Ghast tied to a bed with its entrails hanging out emitting the gas. For some reason Bing wanted the nasty robes from this Ghast and they are now in the bag of holding (most likely stinking up everything else).
Moving to the next door we found a room filled with small continual flames and a lot of corpses. Here we had to fight a couple of desiccated looking zombies that were covered in some kind of brown mold. These Zombies emanated a cold that burned anyone standing close to them. We almost lost Bing in this room but (I think it was granny Po) poured a flask of healing down his throat and we moved on. Khesh opened the door on the far side of the room with the party avoiding the corpses of the now dispatched Zombies.
This room was completely dark but Viktis was able to guide us through. The party stayed together, which was a good thing because we were attacked by some small humanoid type creatures that apparently came out of pits on the floor. This was our toughest fight with most of the party fighting blind and Viktis able to guide Khesh and Garn’s attacks. We did almost lose Viktis in this battle but with a quick heal from Bing and a healing circle or something we prevailed.
We prepared to search the remaining chambers for the documents we hoped to locate, when suddenly Viktis went unnaturally rigid, facing the entrance and snapping his right arm up to point to a blank spot on the wall. We could see him straining against his armor but it held him firm until we all started moving in that direction. We found a concealed door right where he had pointed.
Entering the door we found a burial chamber with some venerated coffin/bier with a lot f weapons arraigned around in handles inboard, like in respect. Of course some damn trap went off and clobbered us with necrotic energy but right after that the strangest thing happened. The wight or ghost possessing Viktis’ armor from Steelbone Meadows came right out of the armor, knelt in homage to the bier, and then drew and lay down a shadow sword with the rest of the weapons. It withdrew back into the armor leaving us shocked.
Of course we opened the coffin but inside was only a statue of a man with stone belongings. We tried this and that and about gave up when someone tried to pick up the shadow blade, probably as loot. Turns out it was a pasty, oily semisolid with flecks in it. We rubbed it on the statue in the end and ended up returning the whole lot to flesh and normalcy. It was a large badly wounded man with some raging poison or infection that Viktis and Bing were able to cure. Khesh startled a bit and called out that this was Guardian General Hok, former ruler of the Warfields. Khesh spoke up for him as a determined and principled leader.
Well, we got Hok out of there and into hiding while he made some contacts. He was generous to us in gratitude and immediately sought to recruit us in an army of liberation. We said “maybe later” and set off to get the papers back to Hanrick as soon as possible.