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• Anathema Haniel – Tiefling Paladin (Oath of Redemption)
• Grace Obadiah – Aasimar Cleric (Twilight)
• Kasumi Makaio Iolani – Goliath Monk (Way of the Four Elements)
• Skrizz – Tabaxi Rogue (Soul Knife)

• With the mysterious blue robed wizard having escaped with the tome, the party gets back into their wagon and begins to ride back towards the Ivory Coast to report to Ginny what they’d discovered
• Grace has difficulty – again – managing the horses, and what should have only been about an hour ride back to the Ivory Coast is nearly two hours as the horses pull this way and that way, to eat from the grass or bite off leaves from some of the bushes
• As the wagon pulls into town, Ginny (Gineva Bavara), the cleric of Jaris asks if the business with Farmer Marius Vren and his problems were taken care of; and the party explains that it has been.
• Ginny seems excited, because she then explains that something else has come up. She explains that the grave keeper, Ergus Arkthorn, is reporting unusual activity in the graveyards; explaining that Necromancer came to the graveyard to raise the dead, that things have been unsettling. Ginny explains that between a cleric and a paladin, they should be able to take care of whatever might be going on. Ginny explains that Ergus has a house just outside of the graveyard where he can be located.
• Kasumi heads towards a shop and purchases a glaive for 20 gold
• As they ride towards the graveyard, Grace picks up the sound of Whistling Leaf; she finds a large field, but in an attempt to harvest twelve of them, she only manages to get two of them, and accidentally destroying the other ten in an effort to harvest them
• They arrive at the graveyard and are welcomed by Ergus, who scolds them, “About time you got here! I was wondering if I was going to have to take care of this myself!”
• Ergus explains that a blue robed wizard teleported in the center of the graveyard – and cast some dark magic that raised a small “army” of about thirty people as undead – more tried to rise but got caught in some half way point and ceased rising as this wizard marched north with the small army.
• He goes on to say there’s weird animals that have been attracted by the scent of death; some of the “half undead” who were trapped in the grave, are still animated; and they’re being feasted on by animals – namely, a large worm – I tried to chase; and these poor bodies don’t deserve this treatment.
• As he describes the creature – it looks something like this:

• He adds that there’s a woman, a crying woman, a spirit he believes, in the north west corner, that terrifies him when she cries. He explains he glimpsed this transparent woman who did not walk through the graveyard, but rather seemed to float/glide across the ground, pacing in a small area.
• Anathema mentions to muffle the sound of the weeping ghost, they could use melted wax from their candles to put in their ears. Skrizz adds he can use his Psionic ability to establish a connection with two of them – the third, he can’t. He chooses to connect with Anathema and Kasumi, since they’re likely the ones going forward while Grace hangs back.
• Ergus yells, “If you want to attract the blasted worm, you can dig up a grave, as much as I hate it; as long as you can kill the worm before it eats another body.”
  • DM Note: I mentioned with the wax in the ears, they would have disadvantage on any form of Perception check that required hearing since they all opted to put the wax in their ears.
• Anathema and Kasumi dig up a grave and open it; pulling the corpse within barely out of the grave
• Anathema closes her eyes and extends her hand using her Divine Sense – and reality seems to melt away as she sees a man; tall, proud, strong; adorned in beautiful metallic armor, the symbol of Florasena on his chest; he’s speaking to a woman, beautiful, blond, tall. Anathema hears him say, “I must find her and destroy her.” The woman, looking desperate and fearful says, “It’s dangerous, Aric. She has aligned herself with orcs.” He looks at her and shakes his head, “That can not and will not stop me, Lyrisa, my love.” Reality suddenly comes back to Anathema as she ponders what she just witnessed – a vision of the future? A vision of the past? Connected to someone who now sleeps in these graves? Anathema suddenly feels a deep sadness to the north west of the graveyard; exactly where Ergus had said.
• Skrizz climbs a tree to keep an eye out; Kasumi hides behind another tree; Anathema uses her Earth-tone brown blanket she purchased (See Session 4) – Skrizz immediately notices that the blanket matches the surrounding area – hiding Anathema in an illusion!
• Skrizz positioned in the tree – hears something – and looks and sees the Carrion Crawler, climbing over the wall, closest to Grace
• The others leap into action, ambushing the Carrion Crawler, and after a bit of a struggle, the Carrion Crawler lies dead at their feet.
• “Now for the lady to the North West,” Anathema adds. She explains the vision she had when she’d used her Divine Sense.
• Moving to the north west section of the graveyard, the temperature drops significantly.
• A ghostly visage of a woman appears

• She looks at the party and asks if they’ve come to watch her, cursed, to forever mourn the loss of her husband, for a second time
• The party asks who she is and she explains she is Lyrisa Lightsoul, devote follower of Florasena, wife to the Paladin of Florasena, Aric Lightsoul.
• When the party asks what she means about losing her husband again, she explains that they had originally come from the continent of Tawaim; they’d been in pursuit of a female necromancer named “Jacqueline.”
• Her husband, when they arrived at the Ivory Coast, was ambushed and killed the Orc Chieftan, Olith, and murdered – his body was left hung, as a warning to anyone who would come after them or Jacqueline.
• Lyrisa was so furious and grief stricken, she ignored the warning of others, how this seemed like a trap – she tracked Jacqueline to an area known as The Great Hills.

• The Great Hills, she explains are north of the graveyard. It was there, she’d been ambushed by several orcs and brought before Jacqueline, who took great pleasure in murdering her. Her body too, was left as a warning just outside the Ivory Coast. She explains that both her and her husband were then buried in the graveyard.
• They were at peace, when suddenly the Necromancer, who recently summoned the dead (different than the one they’d been pursuing) causes the spirits to become restless. Even those who did not join; found their spirits pulled back.
• One of those spirits, was her husband, who rose from his grave, taking only his weapon, and swore to go after Jacqueline first, then swore to take down the Orc Chieftan, Olith
• Lyrisa explains that her husband, rose as an undead, but regained control of himself – and is unaware that he isn’t alive – his memory has been scrambled – he is, in truth, something known as a Wight – and has a single mind to hunt down Jacqueline.
• Lyrisa explains while this might seem like a fine idea, the longer that her husband remains in his undead state, the more fractured his spirit and mind will become and he will become an increasing danger to anyone.
• Lyrisa asks the party to seek out her husband and defeat him, and bring him back to the graveyard to be buried back in the mausoleum that she and her husband share
• Touched by the story, Anathema leaves her holy symbol on Lyrisa’s grave, promising they will put Aric to rest and bring his body back so that he can have the peace he deserves
• Lyrisa in kind tells Anathema to take up her husband’s shield. Anathema does so and the shield begins to glow! (Shield +1)

• Returning to Ergus, they explain the Carrion Crawler (worm thing) is taken care of; but the wailing woman hasn’t been – but that’s because her husband got animated and is after a different necromancer than the one that “awakened” him – so they have to go after her husband, who is headed for the Great Hills, north of the graveyard.
• Ergus warns that “weird people” hangout at the Great Hills and do all kinds of weird sacrifices there.
  • (DM Note: The Great Hills is a nod to a local San Diego urban legend that takes place in an area known as Proctor Valley, specifically Proctor Valley Road that was pretty popular, especially back in the 80s)
• As the heroes leap onto their wagon and give chase, knowing that the undead have no need to rest or eat, and that Aric has a head start, they urge the horses forward. They begin cutting through the woods when they hear a cry for help – a cry that sounds like it’s coming from a young boy.
• Just as they pull the wagon to a slow stop, a man emerges from the brush, and apologizes to the party, explaining that his son was concerned that they’d gotten lost in the woods – but thankfully with the sound of the wagon – they now know the road is much closer. He explains he will back track to his wife and son and tell them how close the road is.
• During this time, Skrizz slips off the wagon and sneaks into the woods – and discovers a man holding down a gnome, hand over his mouth. Skrizz tries to knock the man out, but misses – alerting the man. The man releases the gnome and turns to face Skrizz – and when he turns – his appearance has changed!

• At the same time, the man out by the wagon, with the others, also changes his form …
• Into Wererats!

To Be Continued.