After recovering from their adventures in the Great Swamp, our heroes decided to make a sound tactical decision and split the party in half. The monk, bard, and druid returned to Hadler’s Gap to seek treatment for Fischer’s lost arm as well as Reliff’s recently cured case of the Blight.
Solus, Trog, and Keaton continued onward towards Garland’s Fork in an effort to locate the cultist’s base of operations. The plan was for the entire party to regroup on the road between Hadler’s Gap and Garland’s Fork. On their way, they passed through numerous calm pastoral settings and eventually found themselves passing through a town identified by a sign as Blessings Be. Strangely, the town appeared deserted when they arrived with many of the windows being shuttered and nobody in sight.
It didn’t take long for the townsfolk to determine that the heroes represented no threat to them and emerge from their hiding places. In fact, they were greeted with great excitement and a small amount of confusion. Apparently the town had sent messengers to Hadler’s Gap in search of help. Recently the town’s marshall, having heard about much of the violence and evil in neighboring areas, decided to enter the Sanctuary of Blessings Be (a crypt and destination for pilgrims who worship the deity Honorus) and remove a powerful magic sword so that he could protect the town. He never returned from his task and ever since the town had been plauged with disappearances and sightings of strange creatures in the woods.
The heroes found their way to the tomb along a well traveled pathway and found the entrance to be eerily quiet. They proceeded from the statue-lined entry chamber to a small prayer area consisting of a pool and a statue of Arden Brightheart. As they investigated the poul, a pair of ghouls lunged at them from the water and a fight ensued. An opportunistic darkmantle joined the fray as well, but the monsters were all slain.
Continuing their investigation of the pool, they discovered a ledge hidden under the water that led around to the back of the pool and then out to the statue. Rotating the statue resulted in a secret door opened at the back of the chamber. Within that room they found a spirit that introduced himself as Jarson Tender, the former caretaker of this shrine. He explained that the marshall had attempted to remove the sword and a great evil was awoken as a result. Jarson locked himself in the secret chamber after being chased by the ghouls and starved to death before help could arrive.
Moving further into the sanctuary, the party passed by a door that sounded like it contained some sort of raging beast. In another nearby room they found several of the missing locals, all diligently working at modifying the murals on the wall. They appeared to be under the effects of some sort of enchantment as they modified the murals to depict far more gruesome scenes. Rather than disturb them and risk having to fight them, the heroes left them and continued onward.
They soon reached the chapel where more of the missing peasants worked at scrubbing the place with unholy water. In this room they also found an ancient corpse pinned to the wall by a sword. This appeared to be the corpse of the Dread Watcher, but provided little explanation for the recent evils that had clearly been unleashed here. The sword detected as magical from a distance, but again the party chose not to disturb the brainwashed peasants and continued onward.
Finally the group reached the area containing the tombs. Inside they found a throne upon which sat the presumed remains of Arden Brightheart, dressed in once-gleaming platemail. Keaton immediately saw through this simple ruse and the battle with Dread Watcher began. The enemy proved to be a formidable spellcaster, flinging several powerful attack spells at the party as they were attacked by animated statues. At the same time, the brainwashed peasants led by a wraith attacked them from the rear.
It was a chaotic battle that nearly ended badly for the heroes. Just as it seemed all might be lost, the ghost of Jarson Tender occupied one of the statues and came to the party’s aid. Keaton and Solus both lost consciousness at one point leaving only Trog to face down the Dread Watcher. Solus in particular turned quite pale and appeared to be knocking loudly at death’s door. Despite using several tricks to magically jump from place to place within the tombs, Trog relentlessly tracked down the Watcher and finished him off.
The unconcious members of the party were all revived and a small amount of searching revealed Arden Brightheart’s sword. It was placed back into the Watcher’s body which was then hidden in the secret room discovered earlier. Oddly, Jarson’s ghost was nowhere to be found after the fight.
With the evil dispatched, the party headed back to Blessings Be in hopes of meeting up with their other companions.
Dungeon Left 