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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverName" data-source="post: 1338102" data-attributes="member: 2591">Adventure 22The Silence of the DonkeysContinuing the Journal of Gudlaug Hamarson (Jon Hanna)We were enjoying our rest in Vacomagus.  It had been about a month since we had killed Galavesh, and everyone seemed to be relishing the down time.  Queen Nighean had loaned us the use of a house in her city, and it was quite comfortable.  On the evening in question, I was in my room on the first floor discussing the day’s events with my rat friend Hal.“So Hal, what did you do today?  And please don’t tell me you hung out down at the docks again.  You’ll get a reputation that way.”“Nah,” Hal chattered between bites of a moldy crust of bread I had given him, “ The docks aren’t as exciting as they were now that Big Bertha got the claw.”  Big Bertha was a wharf rat Hal had been seeing on the side.  Unfortunately, a mangy cat got the drop on her a few days previous.  Hal continued, “I’ve been hanging out with the pack down at the palace.  Those guys are in dire straits.  There’s no leadership at all.  They all just kinda mill around listlessly.  There’s nothing sadder than a bunch of listless rats, let me tell you.  I’ve been thinking of getting’em organized, you know, into a cohesive group.  Then they can get things done.”  He popped another glob of mold into his mouth.“What type of things.”  I nervously asked“Oh, you know, the usual stuff.  An organized pack of rats can get their point across, in the big picture.  For instance, when you’re in the kitchen at night, and you want to get into the lard tub, 20 rats is much more likely to score than one or two.  Also, they can stand up to the man better.”“Which man?”“The cook, and those nefarious dogs of his.  Some kind of rat terriers.”  Hal shook his head in disgust.  “If I have my way, the man won’t be loosing his dogs on us much longer.  I have a plan.”  Hal leaned in closer.  “First, you need to get a ball of string, a single hair from the queen’s pillow, and a greased weasel…”    At this point, our discussion was cut short by shouts coming from above.  I distinctly heard Dario telling Andreas to stand away from the wall, and Andreas shouting at the top of his lungs for help.  I bolted from the room and headed up stairs.  I arrived at the top of the stairs to see Copoc moving towards the room that Andreas and Dario shared.  As I moved closer, suddenly, a horrible apparition shot forth from the wall and attacked Copoc.  It appeared to be some sort of horrible wraith-like creature.  It had the visage of a Rolgulkan, and was carrying ghostly slaver’s chains with neck irons.  There seemed to be a neck iron for each of us.  The creature struck at Copoc, missed, and then quickly disappeared through the wall again.  We were all jabbering excitedly and looking around, not knowing where the thing would appear next.  I prepared to cast a Heal spell on it if it got close enough to me, knowing that if I were successful, it would grievously injure an undead creature.  I heard Dario and Andreas yell again from their room.  It was attacking.  Dario got in the way of the Shade and blocked an attack aimed at Andreas.  Copoc started chanting to his spirits, imploring the spirit of some Sun-god worshipper to heed his call.  When the Wraith appeared again, he tried to Turn it, as a cleric would, but was not successful.“Skink droppingsss!”  Copoc cursed.  “That was my best shot at thisss thing!”“Enough!”  Andreas shouted from his room.  “Everyone to me.  We are leaving!”  Copoc and I hurried into the room as the Wraith appeared again.  Just in time, Andreas teleported the lot of us down to our boat.  Cezar, our boat, was startled, and his Dragonlike head turned to eye us.  “Quite an entrance.”  He murmured.“What, by all that’s natural, was that?  I asked Andreas.“Some type of Wraith, but not a type that I have heard of before.  It was fast.  And it seemed very intelligent.  It knew who we were, and mocked us.”  He looked at Dario.  “Dario was hit by it, and it seemed to drain the very life out of him.”Dario did look haggard.  Copoc moved to him and began to cast a spell.“Describe this wraith.”  White dragon was looking queerly at Andreas.“It was Rolgulkan, and it bore slaving chains.”White Dragon sighed.  “I know this dread wraith.  It works for the Three Mothers. It was once an ogre magi named Lord Andrej -- a foul creature that sold his own family into slavery. A priestess of Nyag fed him to another wraith two centuries ago, but Andrej has grown even more malevolent in undeath.”  We all were shocked.  None of us had heard of a wraith that moved about that readily, much less hired itself out in a mercenary fashion.“What doesss it take for payment?”  Copoc asked“40 lives.” We were all silent for a moment.  Braying and shouting coming from the city broke the silence.  “I know that Bray!”  I shouted.  “Gertrude!”  I turned into a hawk and flew straight towards the commotion.  Gertrude was my mule, and my animal companion.  I found her cornered by a group of town’s people.  She was kicking and snapping her teeth at anyone who got too close, braying loudly all along.  I changed from hawk form to dwarf form, and moved towards her.“Everyone please back away from the mule.”  I told the crowd as I walked up.  They were startled by my appearance, and started talking at once, eyeing me suspiciously.“That mule was running down the street, being chased by some type of flying shadow!”  A Cimbri man said.  I looked at Gertrude.  Now I could plainly see that she did have the same drained look that Dario had, after having been touched by the creature.“What happened?”  I asked Gertrude, using my druidical abilities of animal speech.She was still not calm, and her eyes rolled as she bared her teeth at me.  Finally she said, “A nasty thing came out of the wall at me in my stall!  It hurt!  It hurt!”  She started bucking again, and I tried to calm her.  “I charged the stable door,” She continued,  “I kicked it open and ran.  It followed me and snapped at my tail as I ran.”A man came pushing through the crowd, and stepped forward.  I recognized him as a human priest of Logos.  I recognized him as someone I had seen Andreas with.  “Father,” I said  “May I speak to you in private?”  He nodded.  I turned to the crowd.  “Please go back to your homes.  There is danger out tonight and you should be home with your families.”“There was a ghost chasing a mule!  A bad omen!”  A man shouted.  He held a cage with a dead chicken in it.  “My bird died when it flew past!  Evil times! Evil!”  He shook the cage and a few feathers fell out.“My dog ran into the wall of my house and knocked itself out!”  A woman yelled.  She held up a limp cur and shook it at me, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.“Fine,” I said.  “Go tend to your dog, and you go eat your chicken.  Just go home!”  The crowd began to mumble, but it did disperse.  I turned to the priest.  “I am a friend of Andreas.  I believe I have seen you with him?”“Yes.  My name is Christobel.  I am a priest of St. Attalus.  Tell me what has happened.”I told Christobel of the attack at our house, and that the Wraith was different than others I had heard of.  He told me that wraiths could have an effect on animals and insects, and that the presence of a wraith drove living things away and caused great unnatural fear.  I took Gertrude and led  Christobel down towards the docks, where we met up with the others.  Andreas talked to the priest, and it was decided that we should stay at the small church of Attalus for the rest of the night.  We all walked to the building, warily watching around us for shadows.The next day we went to the court of Queen Nighean.  We thought we should tell her personally of the events of the night before, and I was curious to see if a weapon I had asked for was ready.  Queen Nighean had given each of us a boon for our parts in killing the demon Galavesh.  I had asked for a hammer to be forged that would be of use against undead.  I wanted to be better prepared when I fought against the necromancer again, and I figured that sooner or later we would be fighting the Three Mothers, who seemed to employ such creatures.  She sent word to fetch the Hammer, which was enchanted with a Disruption effect. Queen Nighean was most disturbed to hear of the wraith in her city.  She seemed quite keen on us hunting and destroying the thing before it could hurt any more of her people.  Apparently two of her guards had been killed two nights previously, by means unknown.  They were found shriveled and lifeless.  She had their bodies brought to us, and indeed, it was apparent that they were victims of the wraith.  While we were talking, a messenger ran in and we learned that a druid of Sativola’s grove had also been found dead, that morning.  On his chest was scratched a message to me!  “Gudlaug.”  It read, “Come out and play.”  The wraith was mocking us.Sativola and Nighean were very angry.  She gave Andreas a potion of Undead detection, and gave us permission to travel on the Ley, the magical road that allowed fast travel through the city.  “You will find this creature and destroy it.”  She told us in no uncertain terms.We traveled outside of the city, to the west, and waited until dusk.  The three dead bodies had been found on this side of town, and it seemed like as good a place to look as any.  When the sun went down, Andreas drank the potion of undead detection.  He headed deeper into the woods, and we followed.  We came to some ruins from the fist Cimbri city in this area -- the original Vacomagus.“The wraith is near.”  Andreas said.  “Be wary”“What elssse would we be?”  Copoc mumbledUnfortunately Christobel had been unable to accompany us, but we were all as prepared as we were going to be for fighting undead.  I had taken many high level healing spells, and also had my new hammer.Suddenly, the wraith appeared from what looked like an old stone stairwell, that now lead to nothing, and attacked me.  The pain was horrible as its unearthly hand passed through my chest.  I felt my life essence flowing out of me into its fist and my strength fade from my arms. As quickly as it attacked, it moved back.  Unfortunately for it, Andreas cast a spell that captured it in a cage of force.  It was trapped!The wraith shrieked in rage as it found it was unable to escape the trap.  Andreas then cast his acid fog spell, but converted the acid to fire.  The wraith howled.  I joined in with a flamestrike, and Copoc again tried to turn the creature, to no effect. Unfortunately, the force cage and the now flaming fog hid him from our view – only its unholy scream revealed that he was still bound.“To me my slaves! Kill the wizard!”  The wraith hissed.  Two wraiths in city guard uniforms rose up from the ground and attacked us.  They were no match for us, however.  I did learn the power of my new weapon, however.  The satisfying shriek of the undead as they are destroyed by a hammer of disruption is particularly lovely.  The wraith of the druid also attacked, but was also easily dealt with.The Lord Andrej in the cage began to plead with us.  “I will leave, and never threaten you again, if you release me! I will tell you where to find Ophia, your enemy.”  It begged.  We were, of course, not interested in dealing with it.  It continued to take damage from the fiery fog for over a minute - though it seemed longer.Unfortunately, our luck ran out.  Just as the wraith seemed to be on its last gasp, the force cage disappeared!  The wraith glared at us with malevolence, and sank into the ground.  We cursed ourselves for not being able to finish the thing off when we had the chance.  We knew that if we were attacked by it again, it would not be so easily captured.  “Skink droppingsss!”  Copoc cursed.</blockquote>

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