Oooh, Ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming.

Furus met back up with the group. He said that he met a young boy name Tobias Jenkins and his grandma, Melody. They were very nice. Tobias wants to be a wizard and was a young, excitable boy of about 10-13 years old. He wanted the skull for spell components and wanted to talk Furus’s ear off about all of the places he has been and the magic he has seen. Furus awkwardly indulged his questions for a time until he told him that he really needed to go, but that he would say hi if he stopped back in town.

Realizing their ranger map could not transport this many people, Adalia decided to test out her mark of the star of the forest and ask a tree for help. She hugged a large tree, “Oh great mighty tree, if you can find it in your heart to grant us passage to Balvonier I would appreciate it. I know you have a heart". The earth shook and rumbled and the tree split into an arch just large enough for them to slip through one at a time, they could see the edge of the town through the archway. They stepped through quickly and led the group to the Inn.

Outside the Inn they saw Declan and what appeared to be the other parents as well as a few other people. One that they recognized was a small older halfling woman, Matilda, the cook from Iron Key House. They realized she must have been the healer that Declan mentioned knowing the Abbots who would be able to sit with Hannah. They led the group to the Jade Tree Palace. The large hall had been turned into a makeshift hospital. The children were still in fairly rough condition. Not worse, just struggling to heal. Parents rushed to their children and there were many tears and one-sided hugs as most of the children were still unconscious or barely conscious.
Elentiya spoke to the group, “ I can do some pretty high level healing spells, but the issue is I don’t believe I will have enough energy to both heal the children and handle your friend on the same day, I will need to rest in between. Which is more important to you? I think that the children should be priority, but it depends on how well your friend is contained.”
The group panicked a little realizing they didn’t leave any sort of guard with Onyx, but decided that they would trust in the candle of truth and his response that he couldn’t get out of the cage. They told Elentiya to heal the children.
Instead of the blinding bright white light that was typically used, her light was a soft blue light, it didn’t create darkness so much as quietly fill the child until they were able to blink their eyes open and let the light in.
Belladonna asked how long Galia’s family would let the parents and children stay here. Galia said that as long as they needed a place it would be fine, they weren’t really using the space.
Nira rolled her eyes, “Fucking rich people.”
Galia tried to explain that they weren’t rich and people were just really nice to them and gave them things. Belladonna gave a deadpan uh-huh.
They decided to leave the families at Jade Tree House together overnight and to travel to Iron Key House to have their first night’s rest in a long time where they didn’t need to keep watch. Before they left, Elentiya asked Nira if she would like her to give her the first tattoo and that if she trusted her, she would make the tattoo with the feather as she thought it might help. She held her hand up to her scarf, which was similar to the scarf her mentor wore and other older clerics of the same order wore, and instead of reaching into the folds, when she held her hand up, tiny shadowy hands formed from the cloak and handed her a black ink bottle. Nira asked when she would get on one of those and Elentiya laughed, promising to give her one tomorrow. The rest of the group shuddered a bit at the eerie sight. Nira gave her right hand to Elentiya and she used the feather to create a stick and poke tattoo on her hand. It burned and stung, but she assured Nira it would heal and be functional the next day.

As they were leaving, the king and queen (Galia’s parents), stopped them in the hallway. Nira stepped up next to Galia protectively. Galia leaned into her for a second, then righted herself. “We see that you have reunited the families and we cannot express how proud we are of you. We will let the children rest tonight and we will have a feast for everyone tomorrow evening.
“We have unpleasant business to attend to tomorrow, but if that is done in time…” Adalia tried to smooth things over with the monarchs she had come to know fairly well through her friendship with Galia and Furus.
They turned their gaze onto Galia and stared, pinning her down, “We expect you to be on time. Good evening.”
Nira half heartedly grumbled after them, “Always a pleasure.”
Adalia looked at Galia, “You know they have always been really nice to me but sometimes they can really use a smack upside the head.”
“Or the sticks out of the asses.” Nira agreed.
“They are good, but nothing I do matters because I am so far down the line for the throne, but I still have to follow all the rules.”
“Yeah, sticks.” Nira reiterated, “Is it weird when they told us that they were proud, I felt like it was to everyone but you?”
“Oh no, that was 1000% what they meant. It’s fine.” Galia tried to brush it off.
“It’s not fine, but ok.” Adalia said, patting her shoulder.
“Welcome to your found family.” Nira said.

They walked home and Adalia fell behind the group a little bit to collect some honey from a beehive for Buttons, the Iron Key House brownie. Belladonna wanted to keep an eye out to see if they were followed, but she was so ready to sleep in a real bed after having spent way too many nights on a cave floor that she barely noticed anything. They took some time to prepare their weapons and magic, then all went to sleep.

In the morning, a wonderful feast was prepared with all of their favorite foods. Galia had an enormous stack of french toast, there are oats, berries, and wildflower honey for Belladonna, a traditional coastal dish from Alcyonacia for Adalia, and spiced meats for Midna, etc. Furus grabbed a plate and eyed all of the food excitedly, Adalia pushing her plate over so he could take some. Belladonna asked Midna for some meat for Scamander, and it was a lovely morning.

They met Elentiya in town and travelled to the Abbot house, discussing ways they could heal him. They went into the house and travelled to the attic. Galia crept along the edge of the room and climbed on a crate, holding Juniper in her lap. The rest of the group ringed the room. Onyx was leaning against the bars, crouched in a corner, with his arms crossed and his head down in his arms. Nira checked to see if he was alive, and he did appear to be as alive as an undead creature can be. Belladonna says that they did hurt him, though he deserved it.
Furus tried to rile him up by saying that he was hurting all the kids and didn’t make any friends. Elentiya nodded, “Oh, I see. Well, sometimes we just need a little help to get better.” She walked up to the cage and peered in at Onyx. She saw him peek one eye open to look at her, but he was holding unnatural;y still-that undead stillness that brought about the phrase still as the grave.

She asked the group how they opened the cage. Adalia said she found one of the bars linked to the water god and it opened for her. Elentiya nodded, deep in thought. She explained that she knows what the collar is--it is called the collar of the unforgiving master--but that she thinks she needs more information on who placed it there, such as their name. Belladonna explained that they believe it is a male vampire that they met a while ago. Elentiya raised her brows in surprise, saying there aren’t many undead in the area, so maybe he will be easier to find. Adalia told her they knew of at least two vampires, but that they were not friendly. Nira pointed at Onyx, “They’re responsible for that.” Adalia nodded, “We think.”
“You think there is a male?”
“Yes, one is a male. We think the other is a female.”
“Do you know their names? The male is the only one who can beget an offspring.”
“Her name is Blethela Stoneblood, her family ruled the area long ago.” Belladonna explained.

Midna and Venus noticed that Onyx started getting agitated and began to stir as they mention the vampires. He leaned back into the bars and winced, then scooted to the center of the cage, no longer trying to feign sleep. The group sees tears sliding down his face at the mention of Blethela Stoneblood’s name, he looks so sad, like a lost kid in a store. He puts his head down to hide his face and his shoulders gently shake as he cries silently. It is a bizarre disconnect between this evil horror and this childlike mind.

Belladonna whispers, “Poor little demon child who could kill us and is the scion of evil.”

Belladonna crouches down and asks him if he knows Blethela, he nods, so she asks who Blethela is to him and tries to speak, but the spikes dig into his neck and blood trickles down. He stares at her hopefully and motions with his hands in a peak over his head.

“Home?” Adalia asked.

He nods.

“They gave you a home. The other vampire we saw?”

He repeated the motion.

“He raised you, too?”

He nodded.

“Are they the ones who placed this on you?” Belladonna asked.

“Why?” asked Adalia.

He straightened, with a serious tone, “It’s for me.”

Midna saw the flash in his eyes, there was something inside Onyx below the surface. She was used to seeing shifters and those who have a dual nature. She quietly asked the group to take a step away from the cage and explained that something else was inside Onyx, something wasn’t right, but she didn’t want him to know they were suspicious.

“Yeah, eldritch horror. He;s possessed.”

“Hes not in control, even more reason to help him.”

“Can you do an exorcism with your holy hand?”

“No, and elentiya needs to know the name and relation of who put the collar on him.”

“ It would be easiest if i had something of his.”

“We have a bunch of rings.” Nira suggested.

“I don’t want her to touch those.” Belladonna thought back to the curse taking over her mind.

“Where did you meet him?” Elentiya tried to find out more.

“The cemetery, we could go there.” Nira suggested.
They worried about seeing the vampires, but decided to leave Onyx and go search for clues as it was daytime and hopefully they would be gone. They discussed leaving Carindina to watch him, but Furus worried that was the start to a horror story and Nira worried about leaving the strongest party member if we got into a fight. Furus convinced Belladonna that he would handle it and got her to go outside. He told the rest of the group that we should ask Sundrop (the Abbot House brownie) to come get them if Onyx escapes. They thought about leaving one of the Jade pendants but realized that they would be too far. Adalia told Aquilla to stay and act as messenger if needed, and Galia told Juniper to stay as well. Belladonna scooped Scamander up and put him on her back, not ready to trust him on his own yet.

They walked to the cemetery together and explored outside for a few minutes to see if anything had changed. There was less cobwebbing around both of the large mausoleums than previously, the Glasserune Mausoleum and the Whiskvale Crypts. They saw footprints leading in and out of both places. The crypt had two sets of recent footprints from the past 2-3 days and there were two or three different sets of prints near the Mausoleum that were much more recent. They decided to enter through the Glasserune crypt and forgo the evil fleshy pit that they had to cross to get through the Whiskvale crypts.

They crept carefully in, past the hallway with spikes that nearly killed them, then towards the red temple to K’rah K’halle. As they passed through the ancient hallway and skirted around the pit, they could hear laughing ans screams emanating from the dark hole. Furus tried to use magic to look down the hole. He felt his vision go down, sucked deep into the earth and as his mind fell through the hole, he saw faces pressing out of the earthen walls, open mouths screaming and bubbling up and down on the surface, reaching out with gasping breaths to keep him there. His vision snapped back up to his body and he shook his head to clear the vision. He recounted his vision and Adalia shuddered, explaining that this pit appears to have been fed souls that have died horribly throughout the centuries, most likely related to the sacrificial altar in the other room. This wasn’t just a dumping ground for the bodies, this was a sacrificial pit to feed something malevolent and powerball.

They carefully moved around the pit into the other room. Nira remembered the knife she had picked up out of curiosity the last time they were in the room, she pulled it out and showed it to Elentiya, but Elentiya didn’t know who was using this, but said that this was a blade that is used to sever someone’s soul from their body. Nira asked if she thought they were feeding the bodies to the pit and Elentiya said that was the best probability. Elentiya said that she thought they should head out so as not to run into the vampires, especially if they were being fed with souls.

They thought about taking the cursed crowns off of the man and woman inside the crypts. Nira thought that maybe the skeletons were the vampires the group had met but reincarnated now. Belladonna said that if they died they may come back as lich or something, but wouldn’t come back as a vampire. While those skeletons didn’t appear to be fully human, but didn’t seem to be vampires. The group discussed this at length, and remembered that the Stonebloods had vampiric lineage and that Blethela fled because her parents were murdered. The honors given to those skeletons had been pretty high, but they also wore iron manacles and had a stake driven through the heart, so maybe they were her parents. They tried to figure out if the male vampire was another relative, but were unsure.

They wandered to find names, but stopped as they noticed the blood on the ground was fairly fresh. Belladonna calls out that they should have set a lookout. Furus volunteers to sit near the entrance and Nira took off to check out other crypts. The group split and searched, staying in touch through the pendants. Adalia went back to the torture chamber they had seen. The blood wasn’t fresh, but she could see markings on the table under the blood. She shot a large spray of water at the table to clean it. She saw nail gouges on the side and though it took her a second, she recognized the large symbol carved on the table was the kraken they had been seeing pop up.

Belladonna stopped in the bedroom they had seen earlier, where Nira had deduced there had been a very bloody childbirth. Belladonna found a leather book, bound in a very old, strange leather. She carefully opened the book and there were locks of hair carefully sewn to each page. There were names under each lock of hair. Belladonna gasped and set the book down, whispering I don’t think I want to touch this anymore. Nira walked back to see what she was looking at and picked the book up. She had a macabre smile, “It’s bound in human skin.” She flipped through the pages and eventually they found a page that said Blethela on it. Nira noticed that the name was written in a much better writing, more like calligraphy, and a nicer thread has sewn the lock of hair together. She looked through the pages and saw some sort of ranking or grading system notated near the names of certain women. Belladonna did not know what the system was referencing either. She agreed to carry it for the group.

Not wanting to touch the book, Belladonna continued looking around the room. She found a small gold ring with filigree and the word gardsvair engraved on the inside of the ring. She called out through the pendants and asked if anyone knew what that meant. Elentiya paused, “That is a very old name from a very old children’s tale. He was more or less the bogey man. He would snatch you away if you were bad.” Belladonna asked if this could be the man who put the collar on Onyx, and Nira asked if that could be who is inside Onyx. Elentiya explained that the story went that he would take you away if you were a bad child or if you were promiscuous and he would keep you on Scath Mountain, but that this is thousands of years old.

Adalia wandered down to the small areas near the K’rah K’halle temple. There was a fleshy, writhing mass that appeared to be the leftover body parts that the soul pit didn’t need. She turned to leave and saw a grate, then called Midna down to look at the grate with her. She could hear the water, but also another noise being drowned out by the water, almost similar to what they could hear near the pit. She tried to pray to the water spirit and bring some water through the grate. The water resisted heavily, but a few small orbs came through. The majority of the water was so toxic and so contaminated that she couldn’t get it to respond to her. Furus had wandered over to help and said that they could have Nira drink the water. Nira, listening on the pendant laughed, “I did do that, didn’t I?” Adalia let the water fall back through the grate, “You DID, and you aren’t doing it again.”

The group, realizing how much time they had spent, decided to high tail it out of the crypts and cemetery and run to the Jade Tree Palace so that they were not late for the formal party. They arrive and one of the sisters meets her outside and is very annoyed, “I know that you were going to be late, so I got all your stuff ready for you. You better hurry up or mom is going to be pissed, and I’m not dealing with it.” She shoved a large pile of clothes into Galia’s arms.

Adalia helped lead the group back upstairs to Galia’s rooms and told everyone it was easier to just give in. They all got dressed and several Kitsune girls came in to help them clean up and quickly braided their hair. After being trussed up like chickens, they made their way outside and through another building to a large garden with several small hot spring ponds. There is a pavilion where music is playing and a singer went on in Sylvan. There was food and drinks being passed around and on tables, and the childrens’ families, the kitsune, the rangers, and some select fey guests milling about.

Adalia asked Galia what the song was, as she didn’t speak Sylvan.

Galia sheepishly dropped her ears down, “I do know what it is, buuuut you’re not going to like it.”

“GALIA…” Adalia reprimanded.

“Well, this is the prophecy that made the fey gather us all together and they love drama and being fancy, so they turned it into a song. But the problem is that seers can’t see everything, and sometimes things changed after they have a prophecy. But they thought it sounded pretty, and turned it into a song, so here we are…”

Nira laughed, “This song slaps!”

Galia translated the song as it was sung, then gave the group time to think as the song ended. Adalia tried to wander and check on the children without being intrusive. These families that have been living with fear and sadness are finally seeing some happiness, and were unable to even express their gratitude, many breaking into tears. The group gathered again, picking up some plates of food and sitting with their feet in the hot springs near the pavilion where the musicians were. Everyone seemed to be rejoicing except the fey.

Belladonna and Adalia quietly listened to the fey’s conversation as they passed. They were talking about how no one has bothered to check on the queen, no one has seen her since she opened the portal, and if these people were supposed to save them but hadn’t bothered to check on the queen, how were they supposed to save the fey? And they didn’t even know about the dryads. Adalia asked Belladonna if they were supposed to know anything about dryads. Belladonna said that one of the children was part dryad, but that is it. Nira, close by, said that she thought the fey were talking about the group. Adalia nodded, “They were, but I didn’t sign up to help the fey, I agreed to help the kids, and they can be as snippety as they want about that.” Nira nodded and went back to enjoying the music.

They heard a rustling in the trees around them, then a horrible high pitched scream of pure agony like something was dying. A streak of blue flew in, and Sweet Shimmer crashed at Midna’s feet covered in blood. She looked up at her and cried, “I’m so sorry…”