Well, well, well…
As the party wakes the next morning, having rested in whatever beds they were given by the kindness of the inhabitants of Chasten Crossing, they meet at Pearl’s. After having a simple breakfast, they decide to go check out the farmstead first, looking for clues of what might have happened. Passing by Vicky Sheldons house, they overhear the workers, who spent the night plugging up the tunnel where the creatures entered the crypt, speak about the wailings of a ghost that haunts the crypts. They don’t appear to know that ghosts are real, and would be very happy if the party manages to exorcise it.
Getting closer to the farm, they can tell that it has been left in disarray. Overgrown grass, a run down barn, generally just abandoned. Seems like the rest of the town has tended to the fields, as they still need the food. Penny approaches a couple of cats sitting outside, but they haven’t seen anyone enter the abandoned home. They decide to enter and see what they can find inside.
Dandelion, using her skills of perception, deduces that the place looks untouched for the entire period since they died. Remains of their breakfast still on the plates, molded and dusty. It also seems like the beds were still being used up until their disappearance. Curiously though, they find what seems to be the bucket from the well inside. They go to check it out.
Fie casts Spider-climb on Dandelion, and she lowers herself to the bottom of the well. As she gets to the bottom, near the water, she can tell that something is in the water. It seems to be a layer of something over it, and using whatever light she has, she can see what appears to be a figure below. Poking a hole in the layer on the water, the stench overtakes her, and she ascends to the top again. Penny animates a rope that Fie and Kal finds in the run down barn, and uses it to drag the corpse's head out. Kal puts it on top of the bucket, and uses Speak with Dead to ask it about who they are. Seems like they found Tim. The head tells Kal that he was beaten to death by his three “friends” whose skin turned gray and their eyes hollow and white. Seems like there are more doppelgangers abound.
Fie uses one of the bedsheets and they order the rope to get the rest of the body from the bottom of the well. As it reaches the top, it needs a final pull, because of a large rock that seemingly held Tim down. The party, and the rope does their best to clean the bones of the decayed, bloated flesh that has been decomposing for half a year, and bury the remains in the field, bringing the bones back to town, hoping to lay it to rest in the crypt.
Grave News
As they return, they talk about what the motivations for the doppelgangers must be, considering they seem to have a poor sense of coordination, all imitating the same person. Kal theorizes that these might be a group of less intelligent or just lazy doppelgangers.
Returning to Vicky, they give her the bad news, and ask if she can think of anyone else who might know something, as well as who to give the bones to. She tells them to talk to Conrad Huxley, a dapper young man, whom Vicky describes as “handsome”. The bones could be given to John, the local handyman who also takes care of the crypt.
The party comes over to John, an old, hunchbacked man, bad of hearing. They have a hard time getting through to him, so Kal uses lesser restoration to cure his deafness. Suddenly, communication becomes a lot easier. He takes the bones, and tells the group to meet him at the crypt, while they go talk to Conrad.
Spotting the sheriff is not a difficult task, with such a distinctive mustache. He tells them that they searched for the young boy for about a week, before the father called it off. The mother was inconsolable, but Conrad didn’t see her after the search was cancelled. He also doesn’t give the party a very good impression, as he seems brash, condescending and down right rude at times. He tells them that he has much more important business to take care off, and leaves the party.
The Tragedy of A Lost Child
John has just about reached the crypt when the group catches up to him. They descend together, and they can see that the locals have already started to clean the mess after the disturbing creatures. They are led to the south of the crypt, and enter the double doors where the people are buried. They don’t have to go far before they reach the parents, laying peacefully side by side in a side passage. John Damp starts putting together the skeleton as best as he can, while Kal speaks to the father, Davin, first. It becomes clear that he killed himself, and the mother apparently, as Tim returned, but he could sense that something had taken over the body of his son. He wanted to spare his wife Miri from the truth.
John is quite shook by the whole ordeal, having managed to correctly place the limbs, with the torso remaining. He gladly takes the groups suggestion of just going back outside, and scuttles through the crypts, shouting back that he will be waiting in the tavern. They give him a few coppers. Kal finishes off the remaining bones for Tim, managing to lay him to rest next to his parents. While this is happening however, they can hear the wailing of the supposed “ghost”. They debate talking to the mother now, but decide to check out the undead first.
The Haunting of Chasten Crypt
Trying to follow exactly where the wailing is coming from is not easy, and they descend deeper into the crypt. It seems like it could go on forever, with countless graves. Seems like this had been used for quite some time by a large population. They suspect it must be from before the betrayal. Eventually, after they have gone down a few levels, both Dandelion and Penny can sense the area where the wailing is coming from. As they get closer they can hear words. “GET ME OUT OF HERE” in an ancient common dialect. It is coming from inside one of the tombs. Seems to have been sealed for 2000 years or so.
They won’t let out the entity inside at first, fearing it might be a trick. The voice wants to be let out, and when asked how they got stuck in there, they say it’s embarrassing, but it will tell them when they let it out. Kal decides to use her lightbringer to smash open it, being helped by Penny and Dandelion. The door shatters, with stone flying everywhere. Inside they can see a very, VERY bald head, with the entity tumbling out; A skeleton.
It introduces itself as Hesti, but they can call him Chester if they would like. He gives Kal a great hug, thanking her for releasing him, but screaming in horror as he can see his body now in the light. It seems he wasn’t expecting to be a skeleton himself. He tells the party that he was a citizen of “Hazdit”, and old city that fell during the betrayal. He was a follower of Roshan, and is very sad to hear of her passing. At one point, he found an old lamp, with a genie inside. He got one wish, and wished to be immortal, which the genie granted, but it didn’t stop his aging. Some time after he had been alive for 200 years, he fell asleep. The rest of his friends must have though he finally had died, and buried him, and he woke up in the tomb. He also talks about magic storms which used to be common in his time, but seems to be less common now. He has no idea about anything that happened after his “problem”.
The party discusses what to do with Chester, as he can’t just walk around, considering necromancy is highly frowned upon, and even though he might just be cursed, people might not understand. They give him some clothes, and offer him to live in the bag of holding until they can find something more permanent. They talk about maybe showing him to Bertram Honeypot, when they reach Ravenforge. Chester gets to look at the maps, and notes that some areas look quite different, barren, when it used to be lush. He does remember Tempervale though, as it was around in his time as well. In either case, he jumps into the bag of holding, waiting for the party to finish doing their business.
As the group returns to the parents of Tim, they speak with Miri, Tim’s mother. It seems she either was in denial or couldn’t tell that Tim wasn’t Tim. She did however note that Tim spoke about seeing the world after he returned. They deduce that there might have been an attempt by the doppelgangers to set up a situation where people would not look for Tim anymore, but something went wrong when the father saw through them.
A Name Revealed
As they exit the crypt, they talk about Penny’s creation powers. Penny tries to make a book about their journey so far. It seems to be a retelling of the journey from her perspective. Dandelion quickly skims through the book, trying to find something. After looking for a bit, she found it; Penny’s point of view when she read what was on The Key. She reads the name; Vuthul. The name of the Forgotten One. She shows this to the rest of the group. Vuthul doesn’t seem angry at Penny, but disappointed that they ruined the surprise, and warns Penny that the party is now in more danger than they were before. He does not elaborate. They decide to give the book to Chester, so he has something to read.
As they return to the town, Fie takes charge to tell the town what they deduce happened to Tim. They decide to leave out the doppelgangers, but give a plausible explanation of the events, and tell them that the “ghost” have been taken care of. It being early in the day, and having done what they stopped to do, they decide to take their leave, after helping cure most of the villagers' plagues and disabilities with lesser restoration.. As they exit the town to the north, they can see Conrad leaving the house of Vicky and her husband.
Traveling On
The next day, they decide to cast Detect Evil and Good, to see what Chester actually is. He doesn’t register as an Undead, confirming at least parts of his story. Penny gives him her old cloak, to help hide him better. Chester also found out that he can remove parts of himself, without ill effects, and put them back later. Kal suggests that Chester removes his head so that he can pose as a magic item, letting him see the world that has long since forgotten him.
Three and a half days after leaving Chasten Crossing, they reach Bridgevault. A quiet little walled city, next to the big river leading into the ocean, not much to be seen really. Penny goes to the local Shrine of Death, promising to find Morgan, and leaves a gold piece in the offering plate, being blessed for doing this. She also spends some time focusing on the key again, this time telling her to go north-east.
Three days out of Bridgevault, Kal notices the tree from her dream, leading south towards The Golden Ridge. She tells the party that she has to take a detour, as Udall led her this way. They leave their horses in a local hamlet, and venture south into the pass.
A Quick Detour
After about a day’s travel, they sneak through, and notice four voices talking about ambushing them. Kal, misreading the sizes of the assailants, walks straight out and proclaims that they are a bunch of idiots. She soon realizes that it was two ettins, each with two heads, discussing their plans. They quickly attack the party, being shocked by their sudden appearance. Kal bamfs out her wings, frightening the pair (pairs?), but they pack a mean punch, managing to knock Kal unconscious more than once, thanks to the Rings of the True Companions. They try to steal her away, but the party manages to hold them off, before Kal wakes and casts down an ice storm on them, bashing in all their heads with giant hails, killing them off. Going through their stuff, they find the remains and belongings of several wanderers who were unlucky enough to meet the ettins. Dandelion casts detect magic, and finds an Amulet of Wits, a one use item, which they pocket. They also find a ring and some silver cups, which they bring with them.
A bit later, after they have set camp in a rocky area, Fie, having first watch, notices movement in the stones. He tells this to Dandelion, who can hear the sound of “liquid” stone moving outside of their hut. She panics, trying to wake Fie again, who can’t hear her. She fears that this might be Earth Elementals, and they might be in their turf. On Penny’s watch, she can’t see anything, but she notices something moving her foot. Looking down, she sees nothing. Kal also can’t see anything, but Penny’s mad rambling about earth things doesn’t really help. As daylight dawns, they did not seem to be attacked, but they can sense the presence of these elementals, watching them. They quickly eat their breakfast and take their leave, with the elementals watching carefully. Seems like they weren’t hostile at least.
Reaching the Peak
The rest of the journey to the peak goes surprisingly smoothly, with Dandelion becoming an eagle to scout the path ahead, and the rest of the party flying past the difficult obstacles, they quickly reach the base of the peak, where they can see a storm circling the summit. At night, Fie notices blue and green energy shifting in the storm, which he points out to the rest. They also notice a weak hum, vibration, in the ground. Kal can see that lightning is striking the top, but is blocked by something. Seems like Udall has difficulties penetrating the area.
The next morning, they use whatever magic they have to avoid the perilous climb, flying to the top. As they land, they can see the shrine of Udall, with a big obelisk in the center, bursting with energy, but being contained by magical green chains. They also the the symbol of the Forgotten One, Vuthul, carved over Udall’s symbol. A mysterious woman, turns around to meet the party, being surrounded by cultists wearing robes. “Ah, more people to join our cause?”