Day 28 of the Dancing Moon, Year 433
More and more frequently we find ourselves facing hordes of undead in greater numbers with increasing powers. This is the second time recently that those undead were seemingly defending a fresh grave topped with a magic rune. However, this time we arrived in time to interrupt the ceremony and encountered the one preparing to perform his dark magic....
A dark figure is seen near Mirith's Cemetery before the ground erupts with undead. The young boy came running into the Mirith bank where I was preparing my daggers for the evening hunt. The boy must have raced to town as fast as he could run, and was so panicked that he hardly managed to catch a breath before stammering out his message, his voice shaking with fear.
A dark figure and the ground erupting with undead? This was serious, and nobody was around!! I quickly summoned the bank guard and bid him to send his fastest messengers throughout Mirith and into the surrounding forests. We needed help - and as much of it as they could find. I had been involved in fighting some recent uprisings of undead at the Lerilin cemetery, and the boy's description of what he had just witnessed sounded eerily similar to what I remembered of those events. I smelled blood in the air and shivered.
I reached in the bank vault for my silver dagger and heard Amor, Crom, Angelica and Anx come running in and start grabbing their supplies as well. I sighed in relief and told them what the messenger had described to me. We knew we didn't have enough people to last long, but had to at least keep the growing numbers of undead from overflowing into the forest. We could only hope that the messengers from Mirith would manage to find us reinforcements before we got overrun.
As we approached the cemetery, I saw some zombies approaching from behind in an attempted ambush. As I stabbed the first one in the back, a bolt finished it off. There was my guild mate Siegal, right on time as always. We quickly finished the other zombies off and joined up with the others again. The battle began outside the gates of the cemetery, as the inside was filled wall to wall with undead. It was fierce and exhausting work, but this group had fought together before and instinctively fell into place, combining our skills to best effect. Even so, we were getting exhausted fast and were very happy when Sophina, Memna and Alva Eir appeared like angels and seamlessly joined our ranks.
Our relief was short lived, however. I saw Crom go down on one side of me, and more Bone Mages coming to the front line of the battle. From behind them I heard a voice yelling "Get away! Die!". Looking over I wondered how anyone could be alive in that mess, and if so, how could I reach them to help. I was mistaken though, for shortly after, a man appeared behind the Bone Mages and howled out an order "Take their souls!!!!". Oh dear, this one didn't need my help - he needed killing. And if he was ordering the Bone Mages, then who and what was he? I managed to get close enough unseen to get a good look, and suddenly realized that I was looking at a Crazed Acolyte! An Acolyte who was not only crazed, but had powerful magic too, as I discovered when he saw me attempting to avoid his notice and caused a great fireball to fill my vision.....until all went gray.
Fortunately the grayness didn't last long, and I was out of the battle for only a couple of minutes - thank you Angie. Crom was also back on his feet and we regrouped and moved inside the cemetery to take care of this business. With the Crazed Acolyte summoning Bone Mages to his aid, things got really crazy really fast. At some point Ikabi joined our dear clerics and Rael and Divad came to assist in the battle as well.
After saying to us "You all may have disrupted the ceremony but I will continue my plans!", the Acolyte announced it's intent to escape, and sent another wave of undead at us. That wave included 5 bone mages who lined up in a row to attack. Much to my shock, they all had the same target, and that target was me!!! Despite everyone's best efforts to distract them, they would not be swayed. With disorientation making me out of reach of clerics, I drank potions like a fish, but that much magic was just too much for this rogue to handle. So I died. I said hello to the ghosts of Rael and Divad who were nearby, and was then resurrected again to rejoin the fight.
As I came back to life, the presence of the Acolyte faded away...he did manage his escape after all. He also left a final wave of undead to keep us from pursuing him, and it worked. We ended the battle by defeating the undead, but the Crazed Acolyte had vanished into the night. What we discovered then was perhaps more disturbing than anything yet. There was a fresh grave with a magic rune on it, as well as a note. That note had been scribbled hastily said only said: "Should this work, use the items in the chest and find me".
Well, this was interesting, but puzzling as well. The items in the chest were:
Carving knife, GM Dagger of Speed, Silver Glaive, Long Bow of Speed, Spear of Speed, Flaming Sword, Battle Axe of Power, 2 Silver Hand Axes, Black RoP, 3 Black RoR's, and a Brown RoP.
The only things that I could see as clues were the carving knife and the flaming sword - they didn't fit in with the rest. But I am hoping that someone may be able to see something in this that I don't.
I am sure this is not the last we will see of the Crazed Acolyte. There are questions we must get answers to if we are going to stop him. If anyone has any thoughts or answers on these topics, please leave them on the attached parchment and I will come and collect any replies regularly.
~ Who is he devoted to?
~ Could Marthonis be involved?
~ Was the recent sacrifice and uprising in Lerilin related to this one? The graves and runes were the same - I saw them both.
~ What is he actually attempting accomplish with his dark magic, using these runes and sacrifices?
~ Who wrote the note and how could the chest items be used to find them?
~ Also, there was an incident recently in Lerilin Cemetery where a note was left. I was not able to make it there, and all I heard was that it mentioned a crown. Was that a reference to Mirith and a foreshadowing of this event? If so, what else might we have missed?
Any information that anyone has would be appreciated. We must prepare for what is to come, and a clue as to where this might happen next would be the most help.
In all urgency,
Shayde, Shadowalker
A Cavalier Knight
|
