Mysterious Missives

Seglun headed down the middle hallway to a sitting area under two windows that overlooked the oak tree.  The servant girl was sitting there knitting a scarf.  She did not respond to the arrival of Seglun.  Drovic looked into another door, which led once again to a small servants quarters.  Ralom headed down the north-south hallway to a door on the west which led to a stairway headed down.  Calling Baru and Seglun forward the party headed down the rickety stairway.

Below was a sitting room, armchairs and footstools drawn up before a fireplace.  A thick wool rug was rolled up and shoved to the south wall.  Baru and Ralom set about unrolling the rug.  It bore the design of two reclining lovers. A door led to the east, where Seglun immediately headed.  Beyond the door was a north/south hallway and a door immediately across.  Seglun checked this door which was securely locked.  He called for Varrid to unlock it, and moved north to a door on the west. 
Inside was a table and two chairs, thickly covered with dust.  On the floor were shards of broken glass and a disc of some sort under the table.  Baru move to another door on the west wall of this private dining room.  Seglun pick up the disc which was a silver plate adorned with a feather held by a mailed fist.  While Varrid was attempting to pick the lock on the first locked door, Baru moved further in by entering a large bedroom.  The furnishing were covered with dust and cobwebs abounded.  The windows in the west wall were broken and gobs of rain poured into the room.  The carpets were waterlogged, stained and moldy.  A large four poster bed was at the center of the room along with two wardrobes, a vanity, arm chairs and a writing desk.  At the desk in the northern part of the room was the ghostly figure of a woman.  She scribbled on a piece of paper, rolled it up and placed it in a drawer, without even opening it first.  She rose from the desk, seemingly oblivious to Baru and headed out another door which led to the hallway.  Arvien had moved into the hall from the sitting room, but now seeing this incorporeal vision heading her way she retreated swiftly to the sitting room.  Varrid and Ralom backed up in the hall to the led the ghostly presence past them.  The woman entered the sitting room and climbed the stairway.  Arvien followed a few paces behind.   At the top of the stairs the ghostly woman moved to a spiral staircase in a turret, climbed the stairs and disappeared through the trap door at the ceiling.  Arvien again followed and opening the trap door she saw the woman throw herself off of the balcony, dissolving into mist as she fell.
At this Arvien returned to the party convinced she had just witnessed Isolt's death.  Ralom looked outside where it was storming with gobs of rain falling into the courtyard.  "It appears we are in Marc's time again," he stated.  Baru had moved toward the writing desk where he found several open and locked drawers.  Varrid had no luck with the door to the east so she tried her hand at the desk drawers.  Inside one was a rolled paper tied with a ribbon.

Thus proof of Arvien's speculation.  Baru headed for the last door in the chamber, which led to the privy, decorated with ornate black marble floor and shelf.  The bowl and pitcher seemed to be missing.
Grunyar had set to work with his warhammer on the locked door and broke through into the south tower.  In addition to the spiral staircase this room held many instruments -- woodwinds of every description, a harpsichord, bagpipes, drums, an upright harp, and a variety of stringed instruments.  The room was clean and well maintained.  When the rest of the party joined Grunyar, Ralom found a magical set of bagpipes.  Arvien identified them as Bagpipes of Haunting.  The stairs down were blocked by a trap door, easily opened from this side, Ralom recalled not being able to open it from below.  So up the stairs headed the crew.
On the next level was a room that contained a great many books and scrolls, stacked on shelves that encircled  the room.  The stairway continued up to a locked trap door, the door to the west was also locked.  To the east a Varrid found a door that led to a balcony circling the tower.  The room was clean with only a thin layer of dust.  Arvien and Drovic set to looking through the books and scrolls.  Several leather bound books held information about undead and how to damage them.  On textbook titled "The Purification of Corrupt Flesh"  caught Arvien's eyes.  It was written in 1737 by a cleric of Diancecht and held the passage:

Holy water as tonic, how curious thought Ralom, trying to determine how this affect manifested itself.  He had a goodly collection of holy water that he steeled his mind to protect at all costs.  Varrid was attempting to open to trap door leading up, and even with Seglun assistance was unsuccessful.  Seglun noted that she felt slightly off, her dexterity was curiously inefficient but she proceeded without delay.  Drovic cast cat's grace on Varrid and feeling more apt she finally was able to open the trap door. 
Above was another clean room, decorated with a large desk set between two turrets, two armchairs and a number of cabinets.  The desk was stocked with writing paper, inkwells, and quill pens.  In the cabinets were papers with notes about Druids of Forlorn who were wot be found and eliminated.  Others held tales of the lands surrounding Forlorn, attributed to random guests of Castle Tristenoira.  One book was of particular interest "The Clan ApBlanc" listed numerous families and some notable members of the clan ApBlanc.  The dates accompanying the names ranged from 1502 to 1920.  Of particular interest.

• Flora ApBlanc, born in 1573 to Lord Keegan and Lady Eileen ApBlanc.  Died in 1594.  The cause of death is listed as "suffocation."
• Briony ApFittle, born in 1600, named lady of the land in 1637, when Lord Keegan and Lady Eileen died heir-less.  Died in 1661.
• Herrold ApKie, born in 1901.  No date of death.
• Andrew ApFittle, born in 1894, named lord of the land in 1929, upon the death of Lord Patrick ApFittle.
• Nellie ApFittle, twin of Andrew, born 1894.  A subsequent entry notes that Nellie was "lost to the druids" in 1914.

The spiral stairs ended above in a trap door.  Seglun and Baru led the way up into a chamber with windows tightly shuttered.  Inside were boxes and chests of every shape, size and kind, many secured with padlocks.  The room also contained portraits, tapestries and other mementos.  A child size suit of armor stood amid the clutter.  Ralom detected the armor as magical, along with something in a locked box.  Varrid had found keys below in the desk of the Study.  She used them to open chests and boxes revealing silverware, heirloom jewelry, a few gold pieces, a sword and a letter dated spring 1594.

Ah, thought Arvien the hero returned from war, where he was infected.  The child must be Tristen/Marc/Minstrel, who is now 500 years old!  What a monster but how can we kill this powerful creature.  Where does that ghostly figure that we can't even seem to harm fit in? 
Ralom looked at the blood stained sword, which was missing a shard of metal.  He pulled out the shard found earlier and it matched exactly.  Baru warned that the sword radiated evil more powerful than he had ever seen before.  Baru suggested breaking the evil artifact at once.  Ralom, Baru and Seglun grabbed the blade and tried to snap it.  Just as the blade broke Seglun's hand slid along the blade and she took severe damage to her palms.  Ralom broke out some holy water and poured it on the wound as fast as he could.  Seglun howled in pain as the the water burned the wound.  Varrid suggested that Seglun should drink some holy water to prevent any further corruption, which Seglun did quickly.  The wound started to scab over as Seglun rested against a wall while Baru, Grunyar and Drovic broke open the shutters on two windows letting in torrents of rain and wind.
Meanwhile Arvien was thinking about all the party had learned.  Tristen/Marc/Minstrel were all one, the group had defeated Marc(?), did they need to dispatch the others?  What are the holy days and where can we get a sapling.  After ruminating on this, Arvien suggested trying to talk with Shelaugh or Maeve to learn the information and get saplings.  Ralom suggested just leaving the Castle and finding the druids in any time frame while Arvien argued that no one knew the party in the past times.  How do we get to our "normal" time period though, it sure seems random, doesn't happen when we sleep, so it has to be tied to movement.  But where and when. 
The party headed down to the second floor where rough tables and benches were scattered about.  Seglun, obsessed with the dungeons wanted to go back down to the second level of cells to see if any more ApFittles were jailed.  Varrid was adamant about not going down there again.  Baru was backing Arvien's plan but had no way of changing times.  Drovic questioned whether they could leave the Castle at all.  Ralom said lets walk the curtain wall, we have the north tower to search still.  Seglun was bored and headed out to the top of the curtain wall and tried to clamber over to the outside of the Castle.  She was prevented by an invisible force that did not allow her to even extend and arm or leg over the crenelations.

DM's Notes:  The party earned 500 XP for the night and now have 53500 XP.