Fencig, February 10th, AE 420
Jovah takes the gemstone, and a vision flashes before his eyes of an island wooded with pine trees, and a beach of sandy gravel. He smiles, and stashes the diamond in a pouch. “I think I know what to do with that,” he thinks to himself.
Janketh leaves, walking down the street and vanishing into a eerie bank of mist, and the moment Jovah closes the door, the sounds of the street outside return. Sir Brennen enters the room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“So when are you going to do that divination?”
“Hoo boy,” Jovah says, and starts explaining what just happened. As everyone hears the story, they begin asking questions.
“So what is in the Egg?” Gavin asks. “Elf-boy didn’t want to tell anyone, but what do we think?”
Jovah answers carefully, “He wouldn’t say exactly, but the few things he did say gave away quite a bit. The Egg was hidden for over two millenia; it contains unspeakable evil; and we know it was hidden away by the first Emperor of Ralt Gaither.”
“The first Emperor of Ralt Gaither was the ruler of that area immediately after Kelanen’s ascension,” Brennen picks up. “Kelanen died just before Vecna was overthrown. Just over two millenia ago.”
“I don’t like where this is heading,” Reana says. “Could it be the Eye?”
“No,” Jovah says. “Various people have gotten ahold of that in the past two thousand years. It must be something else related to Vecna, something unknown. Maybe even another part of him. His phylactery maybe? Janketh said it was only a part…”
“It doesn’t really matter what it is,” says Brennen. “We have to get it secreted away.”
The party makes their preperations and folds to Hawk’s Roost, which is the nearest town to where the entrance to the Druidic Burialgrounds is. They are prepared for a fight as they enter the caverns, but find their way down to the Portal without incident. Arriving at the Portal, they find evidence that someone has been here – recently. A ring of stones for a campfire sits about twenty feet from the Gate itself, but no one is here.
Brennen steps up to the Gate, which is utterly black. He sticks his hand through, and it feels like he’s pushing it through a syrupy, black oil. He holds his breath, and pushes all the way through, followed by Gavin, Reana, Jvah, and Jalea.
They find themselves in a crumbling, old mausoleum, with cobwebs all around, and numerous stone sarcophagi. As they begin to explore they are set upon by a pack of ghouls, and dispose of them fairly easily, except for one who taunts them from a balcony and flings a couple of javelins of lighting down on them. Brennen manages to climb up to him and take him out as well, and they begin checking the exit.
Looking out of the Mausoleum, they see what appears to be an immense, old, elaborate cemetary. They are in a low point between two hills, and when Jalea comes back from scouting out the top of one hill, he reports that the cemetary seems to stretch out in three directions for as far as he can see. In the fourth direction, apparently west (since the sun appears to have just recently set, leaving a reddish tinge to the clouds in that direction) is a large gate, and beyond it, a town. From all appearances, an ordinary town, as torches light the streets, and sounds of people can be heard in that direction.
They make for that gate, only to find that their side of it is heaped high with garbage of all sorts. Foul-smelling, rotting garbage. The party is wary of nasty creatures that live in filth, so they decide to look around for another way out. As they make their way to one side of the gate, Jalea stops them. He scouts up ahead, and reports back.
“There’s a guy up there digging graves. He’s got three or four bodies that he’s burying. They’re in canvas bags.”
“Burying people?” Jovah asks. “That sounds positive.”
They move up on that position cautiously. They watch the gravedigger for a while, as he finishes one grave, dumps a body in, and starts work on the next grave. Jovah’s eyes go wide suddenly, as he sees a hand reach up out of that first grave, and begin to climb out, reaching towards the gravedigger!
But before he can yell out in warning, the gravedigger casually turns his head, sees the approaching undead, and whacks it over the head with his shovel, sending it reeling back into the open grave.
“I said stay down, you idiot creature!” he yells, sounding more like he’s scolding a bad puppy than rebuking the undying.
The party isn’t quite sure how to take this. They decide to make themselves known, in hopes that this fellow isn’t all bad.
The gravedigger takes their approach in stride. He seems to not be much disturbed by anything. He introduces himself as Briggs, the caretaker of this section of The Boneyard, as he calls it.
“Umm, those are undead,” Brennen points out, indicating the bodies.
“They’re all undead,” Briggs says, indicating the cemetary with a sweeping gesture.
“Isn’t it dangerous being out here at night?” Gavin asks, getting a uncomprehending look in return.
“Uh Gavin,” Jovah says, “I’ve been watching that sunset. We’ve been here for around an hour, and the light hasn’t changed at all.”
“S’always like that,” Briggs says, starting his third grave. “But the dead don’t bother folk much ‘round the gates. Still, someone needs to come here and bury them, or else they’d overrun the place.”
“What do you mean?” asks Reana.
“This is no place like your world,” Briggs says. “It’s The Boneyard. All the dead from the material plane who aren’t buried properly, or left out to die, come here. If they’re not buried properly here, they rise as walking dead. New ‘uns show up all the time, and someone’s got to bury them. Not a great job, but it’s a job. Good jobs ain’t easy to find ‘round these parts,” he adds with a conspiratorial whisper.
“We need to figure out where a group of people might be, Drow vampires who are working with a Shadow Dragon named Sharat,” Jalea says. “Do you know?”
Briggs shakes his head. “Sorry, I don’t know much about any of the chiefs in the Boneyard. There’s a whole bunch of ‘em, this place goes on for miles and miles. Different folk run different parts of it, maybe you could find something out in Mortimus.”
“Mortimus?” Jalea asks.
“Mortimus is the town yonder,” Briggs says, pointing to the town beyond the gate. “I’ll be heading that way in a minute, you’ll be wanting to follow me – don’t go by that gate or the otyugh will get you.”
“Otyugh… I knew it,” Jovah says. “Ewww.”
