998 Rhaan 6th - 22nd

998 Rhaan 6th Fairhaven

Upon arriving at the grounds of Haverhold Sanitarium we decided it would be wise to search the grounds and examine the mansion's exterior. The mansion was in an extremely poor structural condition clearly due to some sort of catastrophic fire. Indeed, it seemed likely that only macabre necromantic energies held the building together. Furthermore the building might very well have collapsed upon us, so we needed to show extreme caution.

While searching the grounds we were assaulted by animated vines and possessed cloth but these threats were easily overcome. In our searches of the mansion grounds, we found a skeleton and we were overcome by a vision wherein a young woman was attempting suicide. After a brief investigation and subsequent debate it became clear that our only effective means of egress was the front door. We also began to suspect that in order to release the spirits we would need to unravel the mystery of the sanitarium’s holocaust.

Just prior to entering the Sanitarium, we heard what sounded like a child weeping. Upon investigation, it seemed that the noise was coming from a small cave set into the face of a steep cliff that formed one of the boundaries of the mansion’s grounds. Against our objections, Zed and Dygoran insisted that this be investigated. Zed lowered Dygoran to the cave. Dygoran made the cave safely thanks to Zed’s tireless golem-like strength. Luckily the ghost-child did not attack Dygoran but neither did the priestess learn anything of value to our mission. However, the ceremony of laying the ghost’s bones to rest seemed to have some sort of a minor earthquake-like effect on the house. To use anthropomorphic imagery, it was analogous to a human’s shudder. Perhaps this brought us one step closer to ending Haverhold’s curse.

When our company finally entered the mansion we found a huge pool of blood that seemed to be fresh to our senses, but this defied logic as we had been told that no one had been in the mansion for some years. Likely the blood was some sort of a manifestation of the sanitarium's curse. There also was an unburned and intact grandfather clock that was stilled at exactly one minute prior to midnight, presumably the time the curse began.

We sent our dwarven scout Vaegar ahead to reconnoiter the mansion protected by one of my spells as this would shield him from the eyes of the mansion's ghosts. While he scouted ahead, Zed and Dygoran located and searched a chapel to the Sovereign Host. Then, in a nearby salon, the two were attacked by figurines possessed of evil spirits. Lady Dygoran employed her Flame sponsored power of exorcism to drive the animating spirits out of the figurines.

The protection provided by my undead blinding spell is not absolute and Vaegar was soon discovered and then assaulted by a pair of shadow ghosts. The eerie cacophony emanating from the two evil spirits caused the stalwart Vaegar to freeze in place until the spirits closed and began to drain his life force. Vaegar managed to escape once woken by pain and he ran for his life. Our dwarven scout made good his escape while we fought the black spirits at close quarters to cover his retreat. The battle was going against us until Dygorian used her Silver Flame granted power and drove off the dark spirits. We were then engaged in a running battle with the two evil shadow spirits, the end result being that we slew one shadow spirit while the other eluded us. After searching the battlefield, we found some small amount of treasure in the bins. For an unknown reason this also caused the mansion to undergo the earthquake-like shudder. It seemed a good time to withdraw given Vaegar’s condition. We retreated to Fairhaven to have our dwarven scout magically restored by the SilverFlame priests.

998 Rhaan 20th Fairhaven

Two weeks later we returned to Haverhold. We were in high spirits, never suspecting the heart rending tragedy that was about to unfold.

Within the first few minutes of this expedition, we found files on patients during our search of the first floor. We kept these as they might later prove of some use in discovering the nature of Havehold’s curse. As we conducted our search of the ruins, we were attackedby a swarm of cat-sized centipede hatchlings and their pony-sized broodmother. Although the creatures were no serious threat they did inflict a debilitating poisonous bite on Dygorian. The poison caused her uncomfortable vertigo and it also seemed slow her defensive reactions in combat. The human priestess seemed to be unable to bring her shield into play during combat. We also encountered a non-aggressive ghost in the library. He was, however, no help to our mission though he was no hindrance either.

Later we encountered another male ghost by the name of Abbey Lias in the cell of one Ikim Vaas, apparently a deranged patient. The vile artwork decorating Ikim’s cell seemed to indicate that Vaas was some sort of a priest of a being known a "Succor Belath". I speculate that this Succor Belath is perhaps one of the Lords of Dust, a devil or rakshasa, or perhaps an aberration from Xoriat, perhaps even a daelkyr. Abbey gave us a silver key and told us to use it in the chapel.

On the way to the chapel we were again attacked by a yet another pair of the dark ghosts. Lady Dygoran was able to drive them away again and we used this distraction to destroy them. Eventually we arrived at the chapel and we employed the silver key (supplied by the ghost Abbey Lias) and this opened the hidden compartment in the altar. Inside the compartment we found a warhammer with a translucent insubstantial-seeming appearance. Upon grasping it, the war hammer proved instead to be very solid and functional. My knowledge of arcane weapons led me to suspect that this was a weapon designed to be wielded against undead of the intangible variety.

The discovery of the enchanted war hammer, and its presumed prowess against insubstantial undead, was likely a contributing factor in the tragedy that would shortly unfold. We were clearly guilty of hubris, and an unbecoming lack of caution, given the danger we were facing. First of all we were marching in two ranks as opposed to our more typical single file order. This was, along with our own lack of caution, the primary cause of the events that unfolded. The above lack of caution also caused us to fail to notice that the floor on this particular section of the hall was weakened and unsafe. Zed and Dygoran were in the first rank and their combined weight caused the floor to disintegrate precipitating their fall more than thirty feet to the sub-basement. They both managed to survive the fall thanks to my wand’s spell that empathically linked us together for mutual protection.

As I was preparing to heal myself of the empathic shock caused by the spell, the scorched bonefield covering the floor of the sub-basement animated and attacked! First the undead boneyard used its many scorched skulls to breathe fire upon our small company. Everyone received serious burns except the agile Vaegar who was able to dodge the incoming flames. Between the burns we received from the skulls firing at us, and the empathic pain caused by protecting our compatriots, Dygoran and I nearly swooned from the agony. Fearing for my life, I immediately healed myself with the combination of a powerful spell and a healing potion. Then I quickly dropped prone so the flaming boneyard would not be able to get a clear shot at me. Nearby Elarin drew his longbow and began desperately firing on the flaming bonefield but it seemed to have little effect. Since Vaegar believed himself safe due to his ability to dodge the creature's flaming breath, he boldly leapt down to the subbasement to rescue Zed and Dygoran. Vaegar charged the bone-pyre and engaged it in hand-to-hand combat. Zed drew his ghost-hammer and the two companions distracted the amalgamate undead in order to enable Dyagoran to retreat and heal herself. Zed was having difficulty striking the boneyard creature as the ghostly warhammer became caught in the thing's bone matrix.

Unbeknownst to us fire was not the undead's only weapon. It animated its manyskulls and used them as though they were tentacles to crush and tear at my three companions. Zed survived the first assault of the bone pseudopods but was seriously wounded. At this point Dygoran severed the wand's protective chain to save her own life. Therefore Vaegar was totally unprotected when six of the bone pseudopods sought his life. The overwhelming force of the powerful blows tore the hapless Vaegar limb from limb and left no piece so large that it would not fit in common backpack.

At this point I only held back the tide of emotional shock by force of will alone. The grief I felt at losing my friend Vaegar was matched by despair in the certainty that I would lose my other two companions. Throwing caution to the wind, I leapt up and began firing my pathetic force missiles while simultaneously protecting Dygoran with the same magic with which she failed to protect Vaegar. Zed finally rallied and smote the area weakened by the force missiles. The warforged warrior dealt the undead mass a series of punishing blows. Zed inflicted so much damage to the vulnerable core of the bone yard that it negated the necromantic magic that bound the bones together and the creature de-animated.

It was, however, a hollow pyrrhic victory with our close friend so horribly slain. Such was our grief that, after gatheringVaegar's fragments, we retreated to Fairhaven to bury our dead and mourn. Zed and Dygoran owe their lives to Vaegar but have no means to repay the debt. Truly the saying in Sovereign Host canon is true; no greater love has any man than that he will lay down his life for a friend. I cannot, in truth, say that I have the courage to do what Vaegar did. But I suppose that is what makes Vaegar a true hero and me a simple librarian.

998 Rhaan 22nd Fairhaven

After mourning our dear friend Vaegar's passing, we reorganized and planned for our next assault on the haunted asylum of Haverhold. I felt we were severely lessened both spiritually and materially with the loss ofVaegar. I even posted a few hand bills offering employment to adventurers that would serve us as scout. No one came forward perhaps because our exploits (misadventures?) in haunted Haverhold were being carried by the Korranesburg Chronicle, penned by a fellow gnome, one Rensio Erris. Therefore we were forced to return to Haverhold as a party of four and lacking an all important scout.

On entering Havehold we came upon an exotic looking humanoid creature that was clearly not any sort of undead. On first glance he might have passed for a yellow-beige hobgoblin or a tentacle-less and sighted dolgaunt but a closer look proved him to be something else entirely. After a brief conversation the creature revealed (in strongly accented common) that it belonged to a race known as the githzerai. He told us his name was Paz. I realized that I had read of these creatures while working at the Korranesburg Library. The githzerai were bred by the illthids as slaves from either human or hobgoblin base stock (or perhaps both). Since the gith were denied weapons by their illthid masters, they devised uncanny weaponless combat skills to a level far beyond that of other races. I offered this githzerai, Paz, a place in our company and he readily accepted, likely he was homeless and had no place in this human dominated world.

After Paz joined our party we encountered the ghost of a small girl. Again this ghost was non-aggressive and seemingly waiting for release. It seems to be in the nature of Haverhold's curse that the transparent ghosts are the victims that require release and the dark shadows spirits are the evil perpetrators of the holocaust (and perhaps the prior inhumanity committed at the institution before its destruction). After this we began exploring the second floor. Upstairs Zed fought a one sided, and almost comical, battle with an animate door.

Later we came upon sanitarium's "treatment" room and fought a brief skirmish with a pair of babbling shadows. Dygoran called upon the Silver Flame and drove the dark spirits away yet once again . My companions destroyed them while they were thus distracted. After the shadow spirits were eliminated, Dygoran released some sort of ooze spirit by opening a cabinet. Although the ooze spirit did manage to knockDygoran out, it could not withstand our combined might. After searching this room, we found another key in the ashes of a burned body.

In another room, we were attacked by some sort of a scorched zombie that employed an animated table as a mount, almost reminiscent of a mounted knight. This creature was a deadly opponent but it still was as nothing compared to the flaming boneyard we already defeated. Alone it could not hope to stand against our combined might. Next we came upon came upon the ghost of a patient that had been cruelly imprisoned in a coffin-like restraint device. His name was Vam Doabson and we were able to free his spirit by bringing him the skeleton of his beloved pet mouse. The ghost Vam told us the story of Haverhold's destruction, much of which we had already surmised.

As we had already suspected, the ghost told us of twin boys born to the founder of Haverhold Sanitarium. Mark Stethenfield became a caring physician like his father but his identical twin Luec was quite mad with a penchant for cruelty and became one of the patients. By some diabolically clever ploy, Luec managed to switch places with Mark. There after the asylum was became a place of horrific torture, that is, until the fire brought about the present curse.

After telling the story Doabson disappeared, seemingly headed for the peaceful amnesia of Dolurruh. The house again shuddered and we again took this as a sign that we were creeping ever closer to our goal of ending the curse. Next we came upon the stairs to the belfry. This was a key destination for our party after our explorations of the grounds at the beginning of our quest. Therefore we strongly desired to investigate. The stairs did not appear to be safe for our combined weight so we sent the two members of our company that were the most powerful and versatile, pound for pound, that is Elarin and Lady Dygoran. We were later told that our two comrades came upon another of the translucent ghosts, this of the young woman whose body we had discovered on our explorations of the mansion's grounds. Her name was Leena Dunshae and she was the wife of the head doctor Mark Stethenfield. As we had suspected all along, Leena told us that Dr. Stethenfield's evil twin Luec had escaped and switched places with him. Leena's suicide was due to the guilt she felt at betraying her husband with his twin. Elarin and Dygoran's intervention prevented the ghost of Eleena from reenacting her suicide and this caused her to be sent in peace to Dolurruh. Again the house shook with a shudder-like motion so we knew we were getting close to ending the curse.

After a brief search of the second floor we managed to locate the haunted lair of diabolical Ikim Vaas. He also had undergone a cursed transformed into one of the dark shadow spirits, though he was significantly more powerful than the others of his type. In fact it quickly became apparent that Ikim's dark spirit could, perhaps, destroy all of us. Ikim must have been far more intelligent than the other spirits because he employed a deadly combat strategy heretofore unseen. Ikim would fly at us, sink his vile black fingers in us to draw out our life force, and then retreat through a wall to prevent our counter attacks. We were struck a couple of times with no ability to retaliate until I thought up a desperate stratagem. I called for a strategic retreat into the nearest large room and there we made our stand. I advised my comrades to hold their attacks until the dark spirit passed through a wall and showed himself. I told my friends they should then strike with everything they had. This stratagem quickly began to turn the battle to our favor. Vaas could not so easily attack us and retreat through awall, with the walls so far away. We all struck at the babbling shadow and were able to weaken it. Then Elarin dealt the dark ghost a powerful blast of fire and Vaas was reeling. I followed up Elarin's powerful flaming attack with a force missile spell and Vaas was destroyed. So many of us were seriously weakened by Ikim Vaas's death touch so we decided to retreat to Fairhaven once again to recuperate and also become better acquainted with our strange new companion.