Nightmares and Jackals

As they emerged from the sewers Ralom was still looking around for Peg and Shelly but to no avail.  The poor house was directly across from the entrance/exit they emerged from, quite a ways south of the Bloodhaven Estate.  Grunyar wished to examine the sewers from where the group had last entered them, so they marched northward again.

Down into the sewers they once again climbed headed for what they thought was the Bloodhaven Estate above.  The sewer led to a grate on the east side of the estate.  This grate blocked the passage as others they had seen.  Seglun and Drovic looked for secret doors but had no luck finding one.  The grate was immovable just as all the others.  Having determined that they had not searched the far side of the sewer tunnel beyond the grate, the group climbed out, then back down at another entry, around the estate and found the far side of the grate.  Again Seglun, Drovic and Varrid searched for hidden doors but none was to be found. 
It was getting early in the morning and the party required some rest so back to the Twilight Yawn they went.  As Arvien fell asleep, fitfully, she found herself in Renee's boarding house, her companions along side in the lobby.  Outside the fog rolled in, then the screams started, initially far off, then closer and louder as time passed.  Other noises filled the air; ripping sounds and the crackle of fire, high pitched shrieks, chittering, and strange sound of far away music.  Renee appears at the large window accusing the heroes of failing the village.  A huge ettercap appeared and attacked Renee before their eyes.  Ralom shattered the window and Baru leaped out to attack.  Seglun opened the door leading out and leaped into the fray.  Varrid followed quickly, while Arvien moved up to the window whereupon Grunyar threw her out the window onto the dead Renee.  Drovic was firing lightning into the battle.  Weapons seemed to be of little use, unless they were silver or maybe good, Ralom recalled.  He cast a bless weapon on Baru's sword which immediately worked to greater effect.  Seglun's silvered weapon was also effective.  The battle was short even as Grunyar was trying to determine how to kill Arvien to get the party out of the dream.  The ettercap fell and the scene shifted.
The party was standing alongside a road that wound its way through the forest near Introsia.  They had seen this play before, maybe.  The sound of pounding hooves and the rumble of turning wheels was heard in the distance.  A carriage drawn by two black stallions rushed toward the heroes.  This was different, it certainly wasn't a cart drove by Jamis.  Standing between Arvien and Ralom was a large man in a fine suit.  He had a thick beard and thick spectacles, and was more than a little overweight.  He turned his head to look at Arvien, then shouted to be hear over the approaching carriage.  "I'm Doctor Illhousen," the man said in a friendly, albeit loud, voice.  "I understand you have my journal.  Please return it to me as soon as you are able."
The carriage rumbled pas the heroes at this point.  It was a huge conveyance with a dark interior, drawn by to giant black horses.  Inside the wagon, barely visible through the small windows, shadow shapes writhe and crawl.  A bald monk in simple robes sat atop the carriage, handling the reins and whipping the horses with wild abandon.  His arms were covered by vines and twisting roots that seemed to grow right out of his pale flesh..  The noise produced by the extreme closeness of the horses and the carriage was deafening and frightening, but after a brief moment it disappeared down the road.
Ralom asked who had the Journal, but as he looked around, Doctor Illhousen was gone and the party found themselves in a area of total darkness.  Even darkvision did not allow sight in this inky blackness.  The party felt the disturbing light touch of cobwebs brushing against their faces, arms, and heads.  They felt heavy burlap sacks beneath them, small hard creatures? shifting around inside the sacks.  Each hero was bound hand and foot with ropes.  Ralom, Baru and Drovic loosened the ropes to escape and started to release the others.  The others felt revulsion as thousands of tiny spiders dropped on them and crawled into their clothing, their mouths and their ears.  When all the party was released the scene again shifted to the long hall of the boarding house, doors lining each side.  Terrible noises emerged from behind the doors, pitiful scratches, a child crying, Renee begging for her life as an ettercap laughed chitteringly.  Arvien rushed to this door, opened it and woke up in the inn.
All the party ate a noon meal in the Inn and tried to determine where to go for the day.  Finally they determined to seek out Mrs. Ellsworth to learn about the Bloodhaven gathering.  At the Ellsworth mansion, not nearly as extravagant as Bloodhaven, they were greeted by the butler who accepted the torn invitation and assured them that the Ellsworths would be safe this evening as they would leave the party early.  They were elderly and could not stay out as late as they used to.  The coachman assured the group that the Ellsworths would be safe, he would wait at the Estate for them to leave.  Most carriages left while the party was ongoing but he would wait the hour or so that the Ellsworths would stay.  Grunyar was examining the carriage to see if he could hitch a ride underneath.  Mrs. Ellsworth met with the group for a short period, Ralom was detecting evil everywhere he could but found no foul aura there.  She told the party that the Bloodworth's themed parties, every room decorated differently, was the hit of the season. 
Drovic bought a copy of the Newbill and found the society page which indicated that van Straat, Bloodsworth and Smythe families were having soirees this evening.  So off to the Paridon guard headquarters where Nayth told the party that his men would be watching the Smythe and van Straat mansions.  If the party could monitor the Bloodhaven Estate that would be of great help.  Baru wanted to get passes into the estate but Nayth indicated that this was not allowed, Sir Edmund had his own guard patrol, but the heroes could watch from outside the walls.
Off to the Estate before night fell the group wandered outside the main gate, no carriages were entering the estate as yet.  Grunyar still wanted to hide under a carriage, Drovic was thinking of turning into a rat, cat, or something to be able to look inside.  Suddenly a high pitched yip, like that of a dog whose tail had been stepped on, pierced the dusk.   It was soon joined by another -- and another and another.  The chorus of shrill barks came closer and closer.  A pack of Jackals started to appear on three sides, even inside the main gate.  The snarling jackals surrounded the party, except on the side that led to the rear of the estate.  Any alley way or street that the group turned down otherwise was filled with Jackals and possibly a handful of Jackalweres.  Down Theobald's Road the Jackals herded the party.  The two story Carriage house solidified out of the fog.  Piercing the two story building was the yawning archway.  Previously the opening was blocked by a portcullis, but through the fog, it appeared that the portcullis was raised.
A window above the archway was lit.  Revealed in the lantern light was the old man who had been with the murderer last night.  Before the party's eyes his form shifted and melted until it became a hauntingly familiar bearded figure, who was at the scene the first night.  He doffed his black top hat and donned a green hunter's cap.  An evil grin split his face and the lantern was extinguished and he moved away from the window. 
The Jackals bound out of the mists and drove the group into the coach house where Drovic slammed the mechanism to lower the portcullis.  Baru quickly moved to the large door at the south end of the tunnel.  He could not budge the door.  Varrid tried picking the lock, successfully she thought, but the door would not budge.  It seemed to be barred from within or on the far side.  Arvien moved into the stables, where two coal black horses were housed, hay stacked in the corner.  Seglun, Grunyar and Drovic opened the opposing door into a kitchen area.  The room had a wood burning stove, firewood, cooking pots and utensils, spice rack, pantry.  The pantry door was flanked by another door and a stairway headed up.  In the icebox Seglun found a pair of hands and various other body parts and organs.  Ralom opened the other door into a dining room.  A long dining table was set in the center of the room and a door was in the south wall.  Grunyar swiftly moved to the exit door but found that it would not budge either.
Stretched out on the table, a corpse lay on a bed of leafy green garnish.  Its throat was a mangled mess, and there was dried blood all over the body.  Its left arm was partially gnawed, but otherwise the corpse was intact.

DMs Notes:  The party earned 500 XP for the nights adventures and now have 20456 XP needing 2544 more XP to reach 5th level.