Unholy Night

Seglun opened the door at the top of the outside staircase.  She was surprised when behind the door was open sky.  Looking right she saw the old keep with its two towers rising into the sky.  But there was no curtain wall nor keep behind the door, in fact it was two stories down to the muddy ground.

Shutting the door Seglun told the rest of the party behind her on the stairs that they had shifted time once again and seem to be present in the oldest time frame when the Minstrel was the Lord.  Ralom exited the bottom of the stairs into the courtyard, which was just an open area before the keep.  He did not see the staircase going up only when he stuck his head into the doorway could he see his fellow adventurers.  He motioned everyone out and asked their opinion on a new course of action. Ralom tested the groups ability to leave the area by heading north.  He found that at a place where the curtain wall would be build he could not move further to the north.  Drovic found the same at the west side of the courtyard area.
Arvien immediately wanted to head to the kitchen for some food, she also suggested finding a servant and determining the time until a solstice or equinox here, "Maybe the time of year is the same" she finished hopefully.  So off to the main keep they headed and found the main door, carved with a mailed fist holding a feather, to be barred or bolted.  Arvien knocked and when a servant arrived she stated that the party was ordered to pull "weeds" from the courtyard.  The servant retired to find the main gardener, who quickly returned.  Under question he revealed that they didn't need more help just now, the pruning had been done.  The Summer Solstice was 62 days away much to the party's consternation.  He also told them that the "weeds" were always burned and the ashed shoved over the cliff at the north side of the keep.  He invited them into the keep to stay for some time if they wished.
"Well this certainly is a disappointment," moaned Arvien, but she was headed to the kitchen for some food.
After collecting their food the party decided to head up in the keep to the room that they slept in once before but as they moved in that direction they again heard the massive storm of "Donner and Blitzen" outside with a massive amount of rain coming down.  At this point the party decided to investigate the tunnels in the curtain wall.  Moving through the tunnel they came to the first tower where the stairs led up and down.  Going up they found a secret door leading east and a tunnel leading west.  As they continued to wander the sturm and drang ceased and the group ended in the old main entry tower with the portcullis areas bricked up.  The heroes decided to camp here for a while as Grunyar started to hammer away at the interior brick wall.  Ralom did the same on the outside wall.   Peering into the courtyard the party did not see any Goblyns active but kept a close watch for them.  As night fell the party settled down for the night, but were wary watching for Goblyns and maybe the Horrid Ghost.  As suspected the Horrid Ghost made and appearance attacking Baru.  The Ghost had a new attack as some party members found the gaze of the creature to be debilitating.  Seglun, Drovic and Varrid ran into the courtyard putting as much distance between themselves and the creature.  Attacks continued and Arvien dropped to the ground.  Grunyar was playing hide and seek with the Ghost.  Drovic and Varrid made it to the Goblyn forge before turning to look at the battle area.  The Ghost made its way through the wall into the curtain wall as Ralom and Baru cared for Arvien. 
Drovic headed back toward the party along the curtain wall and then the Ghost surprised him with the dreaded touch attack.  Drovic hit he ground as this occurred.  The party waited to see if the attack was over before Ralom and Varrid moved to treat Drovic.  When the entire party was back to some level of health the party camped again in the round tower.
Morning found no change in their condition, no saplings were visible and random Goblyns trudged across the courtyard.  Arvien sat eating most of the day as the party waited the day out.  When night fell Seglun and Ralom decided to sleep outside the walls as the rest of the party stayed inside the tower.  The night brought no new attacks or interruptions.
The Vernal Equinox dawned rainy and cold but as Grunyar looked out on the courtyard he saw saplings growing rapidly from the ground.  Many saplings, hundreds it seemed.  The party swarmed the courtyard prepared to defend the saplings from the Goblyn pruners but all was quiet in the courtyard.  No Goblyns seemed to be stirring anywhere.  "Maybe today is the Lord's day of slumber," surmised Ralom as he surrounded several saplings.  Seglun dug one up and planted it anew under the nighty oak.  Everyone was on the lookout for Goblyns or even Tristen, the vampire.  The day continued dark and dreary with rain falling continuously.  All the heroes dug up a sapling and held it close, even caressing them slightly.  Failing any change Arvien sat down to breakfast.
Ralom was still ruminating on the notes they received, "Disappeared when a ghost appeared," he repeatedly spoke.  He even went over to Isolt's tomb and tried screaming to raise the dead but to no affect.  The party sat around waiting as the hours passed. 
In the afternoon they were visited by the ghost of Morholt, who was still trying to right himself with the Gods. When Arvien suggested that he was dead, he was aghast and set off to the keep in a huff.  Gilan approached Seglun and wanted to play hide and seek.  Ralom warned Seglun that Gilan was very good at that game.  Varrid was confused, "Ghosts were here but nothing seemed to happen." 
"Does it have to be a specific ghost," wondered Drovic.  Baru was napping when Arvien suggested planting the saplings while speaking Flora's name, but even this had no affect.  Night began to fall as the party waited in the courtyard, no Goblyns had been seen all day long.  As midnight approached the party once again saw a ghostly figure run through the keep to the base of the oak tree.  Seeing Seglun, Flora gave her bundle to Seglun wailing "Please! Hide my child!  They mean to kill--"
Suddenly the heroes found themselves in a grove of trees, a large oak in front of them.   The moon shone in the night sky, the lights of a village could be seen in the distance.  Far off in the village below, they saw a group of flickering torches moving in the streets.  They surrounded the largest building in the town.  The sound of angry voices floated up to the heroes on the wind.
The torches disappeared into the building, but then quickly flooded back out and flowed out of the village in the direction of the grove.  It would take some minutes for the them to get close to the heroes but they seemed to be headed to the grove.  The sounds of a mob rose before the torches.
Arvien concluded that this was the night Flora was hanged and her baby given to Rual for safekeeping.  "Sound we kill the child?" asked Grunyar without any hesitation.  "It is a vampire or something evil!"  Baru cautioned against killing an "innocent" babe but Grunyar was adamant.  Arvien looked around and saw a young Rual come out of the forest of trees.  "What is happening?" Rual asked innocently.   Arvien explained the situation which kind of shocked Rual, along with the heroes appearance and foreknowledge.  Arvien's plan was to hide Flora and Tristen with an invisibility spell, and have Rual watch over them.    The heroes would direct the mob in the opposite direction hopefully distracting them until the heated bloodlust cooled.
Just then, a lone figure crashed through the trees -- it was a young woman with a bundle in her arms, sobbing as she ran.  She spotted the adventurers, and at first she was taken aback.  The question was clear on her face -- were the heroes part of the mob?
Seeing Rual she pressed the bundle to her saying "Save my child!  They mean to kill him."  Arvien moved toward the pair and explained the future to the frightened young woman.  "We know of Rivalin.  We can save you, please let us help"  Flora stopped her sobbing and slumped against Rual as Arvien laid out the plan.  Flora quickly agreed to the plan and allowed herself and the child to be made invisible.  Rual led them to the north in the woods.
When the mob arrived the Ralom explained that the woman holding an bundle had fled to the south.  The angry mob moved forward as if to attack the heroes, but a fair haired young man stepped forward and said "She would never have left the grove.  This is sacred ground, Flora would make her last stand here.  Tell us where she is!"
When Ralom and Arvien continued their plea that the young woman was not there the young man became more and more agitated.  Grunyar moved up to stare him down, but all for naught as he signaled the mob to attack.  One quick blow from Grunyar's hammer laid him out, bleeding on the ground.  As Ralom moved forward to see if the townsman could be saved Drovic cast entanglement on the mob.  As the grass began to grow and engulf the mob their spirit was broken and they fled, casting down their pitchforks and clubs.  When the townsfolk had fled, Arvien went in search of Rual and Flora and returned with them.  Flora was insistent that Tristen be given to Rual, to be raised by the Druids.
Ralom, recalling some note regarding holy water, suggested that the babe be bathed or sprinkled with holy water,  Seglun said what about drinking it.  Arvien was not sure the pure holy water would be tranquil enough for a babe saying "Maybe the water should be mixed with mother's milk."  Ralom decided to sprinkle the young Tristen with the holy water.  As the water struck the baby's skin it sizzled and burned, the young Tristen started to howl in pain.
Flora, hearing the plight of her child looked accusingly at the heroes and proclaimed "I curse thee heathens from the depths of my soul!"

Later the characters learned that each of them had heard differing words, but still a curse, at this event but that was after they found themselves standing alongside a river lined with trees.  The rest of the landscape was filled with grassy plains, the sky was clear but the moon was different.  The characters felt the weight of the curse as weakness, foggy thought, and slow reactions afflicted their bodies.  All felt exhausted and decided to lay down for a much needed sleep.

As they slept Varrid was beset with a nightmare.  She stood in a dungeon corridor.  Darkly stained stones on the walls and ceiling pressed down on her, making everything feel claustrophobic.  Torches spaced every few feet along the walls provided light, but the place still had a cold, dark atmosphere.   Though she didn't notice it earlier, now she saw that the walls were lined with doors.  Arms and hands reached through the barred windows in each door, trying to grab her.
At the end of the hall, a nurse who was partially hidden in shadows tended to a patient on a wheeled bed.  She was strapping the patient down, trying to keep him from injuring himself.  She recognized the patient.  He was the man they had seen weeks ago on a forest road, a man who was in another one of her dreams.   The man wasn't neat and clean this time however.  He appeared ragged and half-crazed with fear.
"I'm Dr. Illhousen!"  the patient screamed.  "You can't do this to me!  I'm not crazy!"  The nurse ignored the patient's protestations with the same indifference she showed Varrid.  The patient looked at Varrid , and his eyes grew even wilder.
"No!" he shouted.  "Run!  Don't let her get you too!  You can't help me if Mandalain gets you!  Run!"
His words made no sense, but the hairs on the back of Varrid's neck rose anyway.  The the nurse looked up, and Varrid saw what had frightened the doctor so.  The nurse had no eyes, just shadowy pools of darkness.  Her hair was wild and streaked with white.  Worse yet, her hands didn't end in fingers -- they ended in razor-sharp scalpels.  She smiled a dead and humorless smile.  The nurse made no sound, but her scalpel-fingers scraped together as she raised her hands toward Varrid...
Varrid woke in a cold sweat, her heart beating like a stampede of wild horses.

Feeling weakness afflict them several party members requested Seglun to carry items in her Haversack.  This prompted Seglun to try and retrieve some slippery gold coins from the bag of holding.  As she stuck her arm in the bag it constricted and grabbed the appendage.  Seglun felt herself being pulled quickly into the bag.  At Seglun's squeal for help, Ralom, Baru and Drovic headed her way and successfully removed the bag from Seglun's arm.  "It appears to be a bag of devouring," concluded Drovic. Seglun shook the bag out, nothing was left in it. As the rest of the party awoke they saw a great grassy plain, interrupted with standing stones, falling away in all directions.  Far to the southeast ware plumes of smoke on the air.  This was downstream on the river so the party headed in that direction.   After a time they came upon a farmstead, a set of stone buildings around which a stone walled field stood.  Rye grew in the field as a man hoed the weeds and picked up even more stone from the rocky ground.
"Hail, farmer," stated Varrid as the party trudged down the roadway.  At the party's beckon the farmer related that the land was Nova Vaasa, the town ahead was Egertus and yes there was a clinic in Egertus.  He related that they could probably reach the town by nightfall. 
Varrid related her dream to the party as they headed farther down the road.  "I suppose we will have to see the Doctor," stated Arvien.  "Perhaps he can help with our curse, if he isn't a patient himself!"  Along the way the party saw several areas of abandoned farmsteads, and small villages some with merely foundations of buildings remaining.  In the distance they saw horses galloping across the grasslands and sounds of fauna along the forested riverbanks.  The skies grew ominously darker as the city became clearer.
They reached the outskirts of Egertus just as the first drops of rain tumbled from the sky.  Thunder rumbled overhead and a few jagged bolts of lightning illuminated the sky.  Night hadn't completely claimed the world, but the thick clouds made it much darker that would otherwise be the case at this time of day.  The party met a town guard at the gate.
"Welcome to Egertus, travelers," the guard said as he took a good look with a penetrating glance.  "Have you come to our town on business of for pleasure?"
Seglun asked where the Clinic could be found before Arvien could shut her up.  "Yes, we are looking for Dr. Illhousen," said Arvien.  The guard gave directions to the Clinic for the Mentally Distressed before Baru asked about an inn.  The guard also told them of the Palomino inn and how to get there.
"You'd better get out of this storm," he cautioned them.  "And be careful.  It's almost night, and you don't want to be on the streets after dark."
"What is so dangerous on the streets?" inquired Ralom. 
"We had an escape from the clinic.  A dangerous madman is on the loose.  Don't worry.  We'll catch him.  But until we do, I'd advise a bit of caution.  Watch your backs, friends."  He then opened the gates to let the heroes into the city.

DM's Notes:  The party did not earn any XP for the nights work.