Just after midnight whilst Thrumir Bhakdram is on watch, an eerie blue glow begins to play over the water and the wind moans mournfully. From outside of the circle of huge standing stones around Devil's Bowl a shimmering blue form begins to approach the stones. At the same time, a wind whips up from nowhere and blows across your camp, sending dust everywhere and blocking his vision.
Everyone is woken by the breeze and when the dust clears, you can see a torn and tattered female figure outlined with a blue light. Obviously translucent, and moving without touching the ground, the figure has gaping wounds in her side, but no blood flows from them.
Everyone, other than Corrobreth is rooted to the spot in fear as the ghost speaks. In a strange, wheezing voice she pleads.”He-elp meee, please help me. Lay my bones to rest, for I have walked these hills a long long time. Follow and see... follow and see...” The figure then turns and heads in a south east direction.
Mahgnim Rib and Rutger Weiss regain their composure first and with Corrobreth, follow the ghost. Ravenclaw Darkwood and Thrumir Bhakdram fel they are able to follow after a few more minutes.
The ghost leads you for a couple of miles through the darsk, across the Barren Hills. Eventually, you arrive at a group of withered and twisted boughs of some trees with vaguely, yet disconcertingly human shape. She leads you past the trees and into a cavern where the hump of a shallow grave can be seen with a few whitening bones pop through the top of the mound.
“Please,” she asks, “restore my grave, so I can rest”
Rutger asks exactly what it is the ghost wants, afraid that if they get it wrong the ghost will exact vengence upon them. The ghost tells them a story:
“Many, many, many years ago, I was hired, along with four of my colleagues, by the wizard Dagmar von Wittgenstein to escort him on an expedition. We set out from his observatory, a tower on the banks of the Reik, near Grunberg, and came to this place in search of a meteorite. After some searching we found it. But exposure to the meteorite made him evil and he murdered us in the night”
By this time, Ravenclaw and Thrumir have arrived and together you bury the bones properly. The ghost says:
“You must reclaim the meteorite as it is a source of great evil! The others of our expedition are in the cavern round the corner along with that which you would need” With that, she sighs and as a breeze blows through the cavern her shape starts to fade and within a few seconds she is gone.”
Around the corner you can see the cave ceiling has collapsed and the way is blocked with rocks. Looks like you’ll need to clear that to move forward.
After a couple of hours, you’ve cleared a man-sized hole. You hear a rattling sound from the other side and a skeleton in tattered chainmal armour lurches through the gap.
Rutger who is still not comfortable with the undead freezes as the skeleton swings it's sword at Ravenclaw. "Please, kill me!" the skeleton rattles as it fumbles it's attack. Ravenclaw strikes the skeleton with her bastard sword and it collapses in a heap. 3 more skeletons emerge, one at a time, all begging to be destroyed, but unable to stop fighting. Ravenclaw dispatches each one quickly.
When the last skeleton is down, Thrumir enters the cave and finds some rotten backpacks and other items of equipment.
There is a total of 100 GC 34/- and a small silver flask. You find a familiar looking object among the debris- a cylinder which looks exactly the same as the 6" cylinders carried by the zombies underneath the signalling device. There is also a map which upon examination covers a similar area to the rough map of the empire you found on the dead horse, with the same areas circled.
As you go to leave the cave, Corrobreth stops and holds up a hand. “Hush! Listen!” he hisses. From outside the cave you can hear the sound of squeaking voices. A few seconds later a large Skavenappears in the entrance passage, sword in hand. Behind him are two more Skaven, with swords drawn. The Skaven speaks in a high pitched, squeaky version of Old Worlder:
“You man-things!. Not move, not move!”
The lead Skaven ells you to put down your weapons, but Mahgnim has had enough and charges one of the Skaven at the back of the cave, but fails to land a blow. Immeditaly Mahgnim regrets his bravado.
The Skaven leader starts attacking Thrumir, and Rutger charges into one of the other Skaven in the cave entrance. Corrobreth summons a blast of wind which buffets Mahgnim and the two Skaven nearest him, protecting him from damage. Ravenclaw gets attacked by another Skaven.
Fleck also leaps to attack the Skaven fighting Ravenclaw and as the Skaven turns to flee, Fleck ferociously bites straight through it's neck. Another Skaven runs through the corner and strikes Fleck a cruel blow, causing him serious damage. Enraged Fleck grabs the Skaven's arm between his teeth and rips it off, causing the Skaven to collapse and die.
Meanwhile, Mahgnim and his opponent are still caught in the Corrobreth's wind blast and are unable to land a blow. The other Skaven caught in the wind blast has managed to get clear and though wounded by Ravenclaw, attacks Corrobreth, disrupting his concentration and ending the spell. At the mouth of the cave, the Skaven leader manages to wound the dwarf, something that has not happened in a long time. Rutger is also trading blows with his opponent.
The wounded Skaven attacking Corrobreth manages to get another blow in past his parry and slices, into his abdomen. Luckily the blow doesn't hit any vital organs, but Corrobreth slumps to the ground in front of the triumphant Skaven. Fleck bravely jumps into combat to protect Corrobreth as Ravenclaw lands a blow from behind. Before the Skaven can land a killing blow on Corrobreth, Mahgnim, who had just dispatched his last opponent, sneaks in and kills the Skaven.
As Rutger finishes of his opponent, the Skaven leader, who is mostly unhurt, decides to retreat and, evading Thrumir's final blow, escapes into the night.
After some rest Corrobreth is able to stand, but he looks in a bad shape. He thanks you for saving his life, in paticularly Fleck. He pulls a sprig of mistletoe from a pouch and says a quiet invocation. The mistletoe shines and vanishes and Corrobreth places his hands on Fleck. Flecks wounds magically begin to heal.
Unfortunately Corrobreth isn't able to help himself, but Thrumir suggests he tries some of the contents of the silver flask he found in the cave. Cautios as to what it might be, Corrobreth takes a small sip which rejuvenates him and allows him to walk.
When day breaks you make your way back to the camp in the lee of the stones.
After a few hours rest you search for signs of Etelka Herzen and her party. About halfway around the Devil's Bowl you find the remains of a campfire that seem to suggest to Thrumir that people and horses were here a few days ago.
You follow the trail and it leads you past the cavern and for a few miles it takes you towards another tributary of the Narn. Along the bank Thrumir finds another trail indicating the people came and went the same way. You follow the tributary and eventualy you arrive at the waterfall where you left your canoes yesterday. Deciding that Corrobreth needs more help than he could get in Unterbaum, you plan to take him back to Kemperbad to see a doctor.
You get into the canoes and slowly let the current take you downstream. With Corrobreth's injuries, the pace isn't as quick as you might have wanted.