No Rest for the Weary

Grunyar swore as the coachman turned a corner in the alley and faded into the fog.  Seglun stopped following the escaping creature and returned to the group with the torn piece of the cloak she removed from the fence post.  Inspector Logan was rousting the council members from their meeting.  None had heard any noise from the steps as they were raucously discussing the situation.  Meanwhile Arvien was finding it hard to believe that Baru and Varrid were actually gone.  Were they dead?  Or had the doppelgangers merely replaced them?

Presently two guards appeared and Logan ordered them to transport the body to the Morton Funeral Home.  Felicia was still lamenting the loss of her friend Sandra Bartello.  Logan told the party, or what was left of the party, to be ready for more action tomorrow.  At this the diminished group headed for the Twilight Yawn, and a hopeful night of "rest".
Arvien lay her head down on the pillow and fell into a deep sleep.  She "awoke" to find herself again standing in the front room to Renee's boarding house.  A rolling fog again filled the village street and as Arvien looked around the room her friends appeared, all of them, including Varrid and Baru.  Arvien questioned Varrid as to where she was.  Varrid responded that it was dark and clammy, water dripping and smelled of excrement.  Baru concurred with Varrid's assessment.  Then a hooded figure appeared at the window.  The hood fell open as the screams in the night became louder, and other ripping and crackling noises echoed in the fog.  The face in the hood was Renee but the beautiful Renee but a face that was badly burned. "Why didn't you kill them all?"  Renee asked as her cloak burst into flame, "Why did you let them do this to us again?"  A huge Ettercap emerged from the fog and attacked Renee in front of the heroes.  Seglun through open the door and moved to attack the Ettercap, Baru and Ralom followed while Grunyar angled to shoot arrows.   Arvien cast magic missle out the window and Drovic and Varrid followed outside surrounding the Ettercap.  The battle was concluded swiftly as the heroes overcame the lone Ettercap.  Just as it fell the scene shifted.  The heroes found themselves in a long hall of the boarding house whose ends were cloaked in darkness.  Doors lined each side of the hall which seemed to stretch infinitely.  Seglun and Drovic started to attempt to open the doors as they walked down the hallway.  Every attempt failed.  From behind the doors the adventurers heard terrible noises.  At one door, something scratched pitifully at the door.  At another a child cried piteously, at a third the screams of the villagers from outside Renee's boarding house cut to the heart.  At one door Arvien heard Renee begging for her life as an ettercap laughed its chittering laugh.  Grunyar soon sat in a corner, head between his knees trying to cover his ears.  Baru tried bashing a door to no effect, kicking or attacking with a weapon was of no use.
Finally Arvien was so aggrieved at Renee's plight that she tried to fling open a door.  Surprised it opened and with a earthquake feel the scene shifted again.
 The group found themselves in bedroom of the boarding house, in fact the room that Arvien had stayed in.  A wall of fire raged outside the windows, wisps of dark smoke crawled in under the door.  An ancient dwarf sat calmly on the bed as the room grew hotter and hotter.  Ignoring the heroes he hummed a and old dwarven war tune and polished his warhammer.  He's wearing battered plate mail, it is Irronauchs and the warhammer is the same one that Grunyar carried.  Seglun touched the door, but pulled her had away quickly as the blisters started to appear on her skin.  Drovic attempted to open a window, but found the wood frame starting to flame up.  The heroes found that it was hard to just stay on their feet as the heat and super heated air they breathed began to inflict damage.  Arvien tried to talk to Irronauchs but he ignored her and continued to polish his hammer.
After a few minutes, Irronauchs finally looked up and smiled.  "I can't let the fire kill you," he assured them as he stood.  "That's an honor I want for myself."  With that he rushed at Arvien, his warhammer held high.  "For Renee!" he shouted.  "For Introsia!"  This battle was more difficult than the previous, Irronauchs warhammer inflicted major damage on the party and the smoke and heat was debilitating.  But the nightmare Irronauchs was again no match for the party and making his last stand fell to their onslaught.  As he did the scene again shifted.
The ruined abbey looked the same but eerier as the party arrived just as dusk spread across the land.  A huge spider web stretched across the interior of the main abbey room.  Caught in the center of the web was Renee, who appeared as beautiful as the day the heroes first set eyes upon her.
"Hel me," Renee called, struggling against the thick, sticky web.   "Don't fail me again."  Before the heroes could move they spotted the monster, a huge spider more than ten feet around, with thick black legs and a hairy black body.  Its head is the head and torso of a huge ettercap, and it looked as evil as it did intelligent.  The spider was soon set upon by the party, swords flashed, arrows were shot, magic missiles flew.  Seglun had to quaff a potion just to remain upright.  Suddenly the spider seemed to phase out and appear behind Arvien, who it killed with a vicious bite and piercing her body with two sharp-clawed legs.  Arvien fell to the floor of the Abbey and rose with a start out of her bed in the inn.  The rest of the party, Varrid and Baru, excluded also awoke at the inn.  Arvien saw her life flash before her eyes and felt a twinge of pain in her heart as she rose to the rising sun.
Seglun headed for the common room and hopefully a meal.  In the common room were two locals, a fighter and a shady looking character.  They moved forward and introduced themselves as Angus Blackhand, a blacksmith by trade and Ozzie Rasputen, a young rogue.  They both professed admiration for the party and asked if they could join in the hunt for "Bloody Jack."  When the rest of the heroes showed their faces, all agreed that they could use some help, especially with Varrid and Baru missing.  Arvien sat not caring one whit whether these two joined the group or not.
Seglun showed the talior's mark on the cloth to Ozzie who identified it as belonging to the Winking Eye Stitchery.
After breakfast Ralom wanted to search for Varrid and Baru, maybe around the last places they were known to be, Bloodhaven Estate and a church of The Divine form.  Arvien, breaking out of her malaise suggested to head for the Winking Eye Stitchery first to get a lead on some suspects.  So the newly formed party headed to the shop of Ire McMoran.  At her shop Seglun produced the piece of cloth and asked about who may have purchased a cloak of this style.   Ire stated that this cloak was a common style, therefore the list of customers would be extensive.  She demanded a payment of 100 pounds to produce the list.  Grunyar started lightly tapping his hammer on the spools of thread as Ozzie began to whittle the price down.  Finally they agreed on a 10 pound payment and Ire produced a list of customers.

Arvien began to scour the list and soon found Sir Edmund Bloodsworth and, surprise, Inspector Logan.  Some of the party wished to engage Logan with this new list and evidence but Arvien was cautious, "With the doppelgangers, anyone could be compromised.  We don't know who is who."

Dm's Notes:  The party earned 714 XP for the nights adventures and now have 16556 XP needing 6444 additional to reach 5th level.