The Loup Garou was ferocious, tearing through the party in the courtyard of the Clearwater Lumberyard. They stood tall in the onslaught, but things were looking grim till Nod called on the Skull of Jim Darkmagic’s Clone to cast Moonbeam causing the werewolf to revert to human form, which the party were surprised to discover the lycanthrope was Avyrll’s twin sister — Amelie Celeste.
Despite her sister’s protests, Amelie fled, clamoring over a stack of logs to hide, but Kari, needing the werewolf to die to release him from the curse, chased her down and ended her life with a javelin.
Kari carried Amelie’s corpse to the bunkhouse while Elrian examined the Monster Hunting Manual, looking for a means to remove the curse from them both, intent on resurrecting Amelie. Devising a plan, they constructed a potion to cure Amelie, then brought her back with the Scale and Soul Stone. She then reverted to wolf form, but they were able to force the cure onto her and she was saved.
With her alive, Kari was still under threat of change. The manual had mentioned a silver torc that would prevent the curse from manifesting. Amelie told them the torc was in the possession of the Clearwater Harbormaster, Silver John Longfellow. They also learned that the progenitor of the curse was the Ferrant Potentate, Gaston Delacourt.
Setting out for the village, the party was confronted by three vampires. Peron severely crippled one, while Elrian erected a Wall of Fire around them, the wounded bloodsucker dying in the resulting flames. The other two raced forward and Nodnal made short work of them with a blade flourish.
In the Harbor Village they found the rotted remains of townsfolk and warriors strewn about, with drag marks hauling off many more. The corpses that remained had been clawed and bitten. Seeing smoke coming from The Sea Wench tavern, they attempted to gain entry, but it was barred and barricaded from inside.
Nod used Mistystep, using a crack in the boarded up window to see a spot to manifest within, but a wizard within sealed him inside a Wall of Stone. Attempting to Dimension Door out, his spell went awry and he ended up in an underground cave.
Not knowing any of this, Elrian cast Passwall and Kari raced inside, beheading the wizard (and dispelling the Wall of Stone) and bisecting a female fighter. Peron slew the swashbuckler with a barrage of arrows, while the fourth person inside fled, with Elrian and Kari giving chase.
Peron clipped the runner in the knee, not wanting to kill him, and Kari, who dropped his magic axe off the pier when he tried to use it to bludgeon the man, grappled him instead.
They learned the man was a part of a crew that had come ashore, delivering smuggled cargo to the harbormaster. When the carnage began during the Lost Son Celebration, he and his crewmates, that survived the initial assault, hid inside the Sea Wench.
Peron healed the man and apologized for them killing his compatriots. The man leapt from the pier and swam to a nearby island. Meanwhile, Kari swam down and retrieved his axe and Nod returned by swimming up from the underwater cave.
Reunited, they tracked the drug bodies to the harbormaster’s bungalow. Inside, the continued on, following the trail down a trapdoor and twenty feet down a ladder into a cave complex. There they discovered a mound of rotted corpses and something creeping about invisibly.
They calmed to figure, convincing him to reveal himself. Removing his Ring of Invisibility, they were introduced to a halfling named Tuhng Waggins, cousin to Chuck Waggins, current proprietor of the Highwayman’s Loot. They learned that the ousting of Gillen Grenadier was maneuvered by none other than Gaston Delacourt.
The Lute knew the location of Redmon’s Reliquary, and Delacourt wanted access to the ruin. Grenadier refused, so Delacourt convinced Ralpartha and Waggins to launch a coup. Tuhng was against this, and was exiled when Delacourt and the Lute made their escape by sea when the slaughter of the village began. He had been hiding underground ever sense.
He informed the party that the Harbormaster, Longfellow, was in his smuggler’s hideout deeper into the cavern complex but he had found a way in, bypassing the vampires who had been preying on the village.
The party, utilizing Waterbreathing potions, made their way to the hideout, finding two pirates guarding the way. Nod used suggestion, luring the sentries away. Moving into the Smuggler’s Lair, they found Longfellow, wearing the silver torc, tending to a woman, his wife.
Boldly stating they had come for the torc, Longfellow stood in defiance. He removed the torc and dropped it to the fround. “Come and get it,” he said as he transformed into a Loup Garou before them. His wife rose to her feet and bared her fangs, revealing herself to have been turned by vampires during their assault on the village…
to be continued
Bordermen Games 