While in town, the Storm Peace Keepers joined up with Sophia and provided guard duty for her for a few days. She was glad to see the group, as they had become friends after the incident at the ballroom and the harvest festival. She had been busy studying with Brianna, practicing on her lute when her father might overhear and working hard on her bard abilities when her father was not around. She relayed that her father continued to disappear and that she was handling more of the management of the estate, with the help of old family retainers. She has also been visiting with Koya Mvashti, a cleric of Desna and older resident of Cillamar. Darsus was interested in meeting Koya, another cleric and made time to visit with her while the group was in town. Darsus made a connection, and is pleased to have another resource in town for advice and information about the challenges of being a cleric. Danicia also renewed an acquaintance with Sandru Vosk, a sometimes rival for rogue abilities. While it was pleasant to be back in town after a few days in the depths of Castle Whiterock, the group was also ready to go looking for adventure before too much time had passed. They were definitely interested in Brian's story about people and animals that disappeared from caravans and agreed to go and look around to see if they could find the cause of the problem. Sandru Vosk happened to be the caravan leader where the latest disappearance had taken place.
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The group joined Sandru Vosk in the morning in order to follow him out to the area where the disappearances had occurred. After walking for a couple of miles, they came to an area where many caravans stopped before entering Cillamar through the King's Gate. He pointed out the direction the tracks had taken and while searching, the group found a path leading into a swamp where the foot prints continued. Sandru had given a history of the disappearances over the last year and that all of them had occurred within an area around the campground. In all cases, foot prints had been found leading out of the caravan, into the swamp before the tracks were lost. People and animals had been lost with no sign found. Since the disappearances had occurred with different caravans, it was only in the last few weeks that someone had noticed that all of the disappearances had occurred in the same area.
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The group followed the foot prints and the path while Sandru accompanied them for a short distance. When they reached a bridge crossing a small stream, Sandru bid the group good bye and head back into town now that they knew what they needed to follow. The Storm Peace Keepers moved forward cautiously, their vision somewhat obscured by the vegetation in the swamp. As they neared a fork, they detected some motion but couldn't quite tell what was hidden in the forest.
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Sheliak and Danicia moved forward when a shambler came out and moved towards the group. The party moved together, with Danicia moving for a flank. As the party moved into place, another shambler came through and attacked Danicia. The rest of the group attacked the first shambler while Danicia moved out of harms way. After another round or two, the first shambler was dropped but not before calling in some help. A third shambler arrived, but the party had taken their measure and quickly took down the rest of the monsters. With Cendrine chopping away, Darsus calling upon his god for healing and aid along with Sheliak and Danicia adding their damage, the shamblers were quickly taken out.
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The party recovered and followed along the path, Sheliak's keen eye still finding more tracks. As they moved forward, Danicia spotted a figure in the woods, so the group halted while she went to check it out. She found a statue and then other statues, frozen in very realistic poses. There were also parts of statues on the ground that had been broken apart, only three statues were visible as full people. The group remembered that some monsters could freeze people as statues and moved even more cautiously, thinking of ways to fight while not looking at the creature. While moving forward, they were attacked from above by a dracolisk. The group moved to separate and make ranged attacks but the dracolisk did not cooperate and flew back and forth before finally landing on the ground. The group finally figured out how to fight while not looking at the creature but two of the party had been turned into statues by the end of the battle.
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Fortunately, someone remembered that the blood of a creature could be used to restore those turned to stone. There was just enough blood to restore the two party members and one of the statues. They chose to restore a fighting man to help them out as they continued to explore. While searching the area they found a small house that was rotting away in the swamp. The house sat by a cavern and the tracks of the dracolisk led into the cave. A search of the house revealed bones that had been crushed. Danicia also found a pit trap and evidence of alchemical experiments but nothing of value.
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The group then continued to the cavern where they found a cavern with skeletons scattered about. As they approached a large chest in the middle of this room, the skeleton on top of the chest became active, along with the skeletons scattered on the floor. The group found itself under attack, including the warrior they had rescued from the statues. After some clever maneuvering, the group surrounded the skeletons and took them all out. A search of the chest revealed many treasures and there were weapons and armor salvaged from the skeletons they had destroyed. The large sword from the main skeleton was magical and appeared of a foreign make, similar to a short sword, but different in how the blade and handle were shaped.
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As Danicia was examining the sword taken from the skeleton by the chest, she found the hilt was broken. As she moved the handle she found a secret hollow in the handle that contained a piece of fine parchment. The parchment had writing but it was nothing that anyone in the party recognized. The party gathered up the chest, and then returned to get the statues to take back to Cillamar. The group returned to Cillimar and did some selling and shopping of items. The session ended here.
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