The One Where Furus D*I*E*S

Deciding to go back to Stoneblood Manor and regroup, they make their way carefullly through the dungeon and back to the cellar. When they go upstairs, no one seems to be about the castle. With all of the traps and strange preversions of religions, it is decided that James must be confronted.

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They travel through town to the Red Pony Tavern, hoping to catch James still drinking at the bar. Talia greets them and lets them know that he isn't there, he was pretty drunk and left saying he was "going to visit family". She explains this is a little odd because he only has his dad and Blitherby, but since Baron Hanburn is dead, she assumes he meant he was going to visit the crypts. An offhand comment reveals that Blitherby is almost like family to the Glasserunes, but he is very cold, and she doesn't like him because he does not tip well. They ask if she has seen Blitherby instead. She hadn't seen him but said it wouldn't be hard to find him as he acts quite haughty while out an about.

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After some debate, it is decided that going to the crypts would be the best place to start as the town is large and wandering to find Blitherby in the festival crowds may not be fruitful. As they approach, a dense unnatural fog blankets the area. When they step through the wall of fog, two skeletons appear and begin to attack. The battle is tense and the group struggles to coordinate attacks as they are all tired from the previous encounters.

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At one point Furus moves closer to attack with his whip, but accidentally draws too much attention, and the skeleton drives his blade through Furus' side. He is knocked unconcious and lays dying. Juniper rushes to drag him to safety at the call of Galia, and Nira prays for divine intervention as she rushes to cure him. Oure answers and allows her to bring Furus back from death by giving up some of her own life essence. Rallying around the fear of losing their new friend, the fighters gather together and finish the skeletons with just a few blows.

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Exhausted, they catch their breath as the fog dissolves and the cemetery becomes clear. They see the Glasserune Mausoleum and begin to enter, but Midna and a few others see two shadows fleeing towards a different crypt, so they call out and follow. A woman who is grey and pale with red eyes and a blood spattered face spins around and hisses at them, demanding to know why they are following her. Midna asks if she knows the Glasserunes and if she has seen anything suspicious, perhaps someone with a sword? Clearly agitated, the woman claimed this was her area and that she "didn’t know of any swords she would give to people who killed her guards". Nira asks for clarification that the skeletons were her guards? She confirms this and says she needs them to keep people out of her territory.



The woman is becoming more upset and beings shouting that the group needs to leave. A male appeared, similar to the woman, very pale, red eyes, blood splashed face, and tried to persuade the group to leave them alone. He calls the woman Blethela, but they don't get his name. The discussion was obviously amusing to him as he continued to be evasive, and the woman seethed silently glaring at the group from behind him. The group tried explaining they needed to be there to prevent something worse than the group from invading Blethela's space. He replied cooly, “There is nothing worse than us.” Nira asked “Aren’t you afraid of vampires?”



It was at that point the group noticed the fangs poking into his large bottom lip and the Blethela’s fangs drawing blood to let it bleed down her chin. He chuckled and said, “No, we aren’t afraid of vampires.”

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They asked if they were worried about someone turning others into vampires and they assured the group that only they could turn people and it would only be with their “blessing” which sounded very ominous. Blethela and her companion were very insistent that there were no others in the area who could turn someone in to a vampire, and that it was not something they did without careful selection.



The vampires were specifically antagonistic towards Nira and her deity. Venus implied that the group could tell the fey that the vampires were invading, and the fey wouldn’t like it since they were here first. The vampires laughed and said she needed to look at the history books as the fey were not the original inhabitants of the area. With that cryptic warning, the two vanished and the group was again alone in the cemetery.

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Fairly certain that the second crypt was not actually abandoned but inhabited by the vampires, and weakened from their battles, the group decided to go to the Glasserune Crypt and attempt to uncover any clues they could about the sword. Now that the area was clear, the large sundial in the center of the cemetery was visible. Furus noticed it was not the same as it usually was. The sundial in the center was linked to the festivals. There used to be two sticks in the center but only one was there, as Furus examined it, it was clear that this was not a wood native to the area and not a wood that he has ever seen on this continent. It was a snake with an open mouth and it pointed towards the symbol for this festival. Making a mental note to check back later, they decided to leave the staff where it was.

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Outside the Glasserune crypt were two sarcophagi. They were the same stone and a similar age as the two that held the king and queen inside the evil temple with goblins. The nameplates read that they were the first Baron and Baroness of Glasserune. They went into the glasserune crypt. The marble coffin for the baron was there, but empty. They explored and there was an eternal flame that would be normal for the god of light (Shinze). There was a statue of Baroness Jocelyn Glasserune, who judging by the age of the statue, died more or less recently. Adding up the clues, she was likely James’ mother, and followed Liguaquide. Galia explained that they tried to have the baron and baroness be one Shinze and one Liguaquide so that no one religion would be overbearing and it is why their banner is split yellow and blue. it has been that way forever in Balvonier.

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Near the statue of Baroness Jocelyn, There was a silver chest, Furus opened it and there was a false bottom, on opening the false bottom, there was a deep well of extremely pure holy water and a glass sheath/scabbard for a sword submerged in the water. After examination it was determined that those who are good would be safe to touch this water but it is so pure and holy that anyone neutral or evil would be hurt. It is also tightly bound and would not easily mix into a pitcher of water or wine. Two small bottles of the holy water were taken very carefully with oversight by Adalia to ensure the sacred water was respected.

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There was an eternal flame, a common finding in Shinze cypts, and small statues with offerings to Liguaquide, Zeleantho, Aiaila, Oure but distinctly NOT K’rah K’halle. While investigating the small chapel area, a boulder that had not been moved in centuries from this side stood out as an odd break in the chapel, as if part of the crypts had been walled off long ago in some haste. With a stroke of luck, they found a crevice they could slip through and it ended up leading them back to the underground caverns under Stoneblood Manor. They explored a bit to make sure they truly were connected back to those original tunnels, then looked at this new area.

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There was a strange series of rooms that opened onto each other, with something barely visible at the end of the hallway-like effect of the rooms. There was a marshy, swampy, mossy floor with pipes draining what appeared to be the same acid goo that they found in other rooms. Adalia tried to cross the floor and narrowly escaped a spike trap. Working together, they used some crowbars and other tools to trigger more traps in the rooms. Furus was able to throw his grappling hook over a beam and they took turns swinging through the dangerous rooms to the final room at the end. Midna was able to fly across and pick up their trap-triggering "equipment" along the way.

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In the final room, there was a strange cobbled wall with a black, ritually burned box that appeared to have been used in a rite related to the fire god from the goblin temple. Instead of a keyhole, there was a sharp spike sticking out that pulsed with the desire for blood. Furus drained blood from his shirt, still soaked after his brush with death, onto the spike and the silver cracks in the chest began to glow red as the blood flowed outwards over the box. The spike wasn’t quite full of blood and it was clear the door wouldn’t open without more, so Carindrina carefully cut her arm and gave the rest of the blood.



The door opened and beyond the entryway it sounded like the squelching fleshy pit of bones, blood, and tissue outside the evil temple that Adalia and Carindrina had seen. Adalia flew across, as she did, bones gurgled up and appeared. Using mage hand, Venus searched through the roiling much until she felt something burning hot. She pulled it from the muck and it was a glass sword that was wreathed in flames. She brought it to her side, but was unsure how to proceed. Getting across the traps again would be much harder while trying to focus on holding the sword, even with her spell, but the pit in front of them was unnerving. Unsure of whether or not they could walk across, they tried the same trick by throwing the crowbar onto the pit. It was able to float/undualte on top of the mass, so they sprinted across to safety and stumbled into a dark crypt, then back out into the graveyard. They were shocked to see that they had come out of the "abandoned" crypt where they had encountered the vampires.

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Worried about the ability to conceal the sword as they traveled through town, and now very mistrusting of James, they returned the sword to the holy water in the Glasserune crypt. As it slid in, a hiss of steam went off and the sword, water, and chest vanished from sight. Returning to the cemetery, Adalia noticed a fresh grave and a grave with a broken lid. The broken grave was very old but recently broken into, and the other grave had dirt that was too wet and fresh for her to get a good idea of what it was. Adding another clue to the pile of clues that they couldn't pin to the mysteries at hand, they decided to head back to town, regroup and make a new plan.