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• Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
• Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock / Druid
• Baldur – Human, Pack Chain Warlock (Spear) / Paladin
  • Hellina Kaitlyn Deramu – Human NPC, Wererat

The party stares further down the cave, where Kavium sensed something sinister, and Baldur was able to confirm sensing undead… everyone is uneasy as the whispering voice of a dead spirit named Elisa, has warned Aros to be cautious of the “fluttering”…

The party moves down the cavern slowly – when the sensation gets worse. Baldur turns to Galiena, “Can you do that light trick you did with Aros’ arrow earlier with my shield?” Galiena touches his shield and they see that they’re literally standing in a pool of blood on the floor.

Aros asks for Galiena to tear off a piece of his shirt – but she’s not able to – and just ties it around his mouth.

The party examines the blood, and thankfully – it seems to be that of animals that have entered the cavern – probably through the same hole that Aros had originally climbed through. However, the uncomfortable feeling is – what feed on these animals to leave such a large pool of blood here? Usually if there is a predator, they devour their kills in different locations – this seems oddly specific. The odor of the blood and the scent of copper is dominating in the cave. They urge to keep moving forward – and just ahead they hear fluttering and come to a quick pause.

Each of them look up and see Stirges… a large nest of them. Thinking back to the blood pool they’d left behind, it doesn’t seem like it would have been made by stirges, unless these stirges had nested above the blood pool and moved over – each of them knows that stirges feed on the blood of living creatures, whether it be human or animal, even sometimes attacking their own kind.

As they are passing the pool of blood, Galiena grabs Baldur’s arm and points to the footsteps exiting the pool of blood. “Those look fresh,” Galiena points out.

“Are you sure those aren’t our steps?” Baldur asks.

Galiena pauses, but then notices that the footprints are smaller – more along the size of being slightly larger than Aros’ feet. Aros wonders if it’s his – but realize, he has boots on his feet – and the footprints through the blood are barefoot.

“Did you take off your shoes at any point?” Baldur asks, as he yanks Aros towards – causing Aros to slip and collapse into the pool of blood, soaking his mouth covering piece as he struggles to take it off – and forgets its still attached to his shirt and begins pulling it off, but Baldur calms him down and helps Aros get the mouth piece off.

They extinguish the light on the shield and proceed to move past the Stirges – but then they hear a much louder fluttering sound. And without warning, several werebats descend from the high cavern ceiling upon the party!

The werebats begin attacking the party – as Darko’s skull illuminates them as they descend, and the party realizes these creatures look like goblins – and their feet match the same foot prints seen at the edge of the blood pool. These creatures were the ones who gathered around to feast on animals the same way scavengers feast on corpses.

In the confusion, one of the werebats sinks their teeth deep into Galiena’s neck and she feels a tingling sensation in her neck – one she’d felt before (Galiena had been bitten by Kaitlyn all the way back in Session 2 and had been infected with wererat lycanthropy) but she shoves it away (using Inspiration to pass) before the infection can be passed into her body. The party manages to kill the wererats that attack while the other return to the ceiling.

Just then another voice from just beyond growls, “So, Dalamon sends fools to do his errand… I should have known… I was once foolish… I once believed in Dalamon, but he left us here… to rot… and to die… where was our god? I didn’t need him, I found a tome, now long destroyed over time trapped in these caverns with me.”

Darko growls, “Son of a she-wolf.”

“We were forced to feed on those filthy creatures… goblins whose cavern came into ours, and were infected with the same illness that has swept through the entire island,” the man sneers. “We were forced to feed on their flesh, drink their blood, and their diseased passed into us… making us like them… and so many succumbed to the blood lust and began attacking one another… killing… feeding, to be stronger… but none were stronger than me, because of the magic I found. I ascended beyond them. Beyond even Dalamon who I taunt by devouring his food.”

“That’s Sarith Harkmoon,” Elisa’s voice whispers in Aros’ mind. (See the diary entries from the previous session)

His body takes the form into mist, with blood veins pulsating and he lunges forward to feed.

It lunges at Aros, and wraps around him – but Aros manages to avoid being retrained in the mist. “It’s trying to drink my blood,” Aros panics.

It is a bloody battle – but the party manages to defeat Sarith. Taking pages from the diary and mining some ore and iron from the mines for several hours, pushing their bodies beyond exhaustion before bringing it to the cart and heading back down into Kaltore, where they meet with Zedvar and explain that the mist was Sarith – and show them the diary and doll. Aros notices he can’t hear any voices from the needle anymore. Zedvar says, “She is with us now, halfling,” as if reading his mind.

“I can see her,” Darko confirms.

Behind the treant, the party briefly sees an unusual woman who quickly dashes away, disappearing into the darkness.

The party returns to the fort where they’d met Alyson Rainscribe, climbing to the top. Aros holds out the necklace, “We have your necklace.”

“Place it on my body,” the spirit whispers.

Aros hands it to Baldur, feeling uneasy. Baldur sets it on the ‘tree’ corpse and notices the spirit is set free – and the branch blooms, and roots grow, and the branches extend down the fort.

“I think we just expanded the species,” Baldur whispers.

TO BE CONTINUED!