"I am Heterodyne and this is my companion Althea, we are originally from the city of Lankhmar to the east, but have recently come from Hammerfast. This is where I learned of you Cha'kara. I am an artificer; I am looking to learn how to create more of our kind... I want to study you. May we accompany you on your journey?"
After some questioning looks from Cha'kara and discussion amongst the team, the band decided to allow them to join up. Cha'kara was most intrigued by this encounter of another of his kin... his origin and history getting a new piece added to the puzzle.
The rest of the journey west was uneventful as Janic and Murleck continued to track Traevus trail towards Winterhaven.
As you came around the final bend of your journey, the town of Winterhaven came into full view. Winterhaven’s population had swelled well past its bounds and of late has been a town in flux. New construction is happening daily... the town is on the rise. However, as you come closer to the walls of Winterhaven, you arrive to main entrance only to find the doors barred shut, guards both on the wall tops and standing outside the gate.
“The town closed due to quarantine, no one enters or leaves by order of the mayor” the captain states in a matter of fact voice leaving no room for negotiation or future discussion.”
In her own travels, Althea had heard of Captain Aerco and his reputation as a much laid back and mild mannered captain, so for him to be this brusque and hard lead her to believe something was not
right at all.
"Is there any way we can help?" offered the Eladrin
"Are you corrupt?!" - Murleck asked at almost the same time, drawing a glare from the captain.
“Look, the mayor wants this under wraps, but there’s something grievously wrong with the citizens when the sun sets… um, I really shouldn’t say more, the town is closed…." the Captain whispered to Althea "Leave now" he then said in a much firmer and louder voice.
The party looked at each other inquisitively and then headed back from where they came down the round and around the bend out of view of the town walls. The entire party that is, save Murleck and Heterodyne. The warforged and half-elf slipped quietly around the walls to the far northern wall. After a short while of inspection and a stroke of luck, Murleck discovered there was a bit of wall that looked off from the rest of the wall. The two looked the section up and down and then decided to give it a push. A section of wall about 7 feet tall and 5 feet across slid inward, with relative ease.... and then THUNK! It stopped. About 6 inches in the wall would not budge! Heterodyne quickly tried to use some of her artificer’s tools to get the wall to come back out, but it was to no avail. Slipping back to the party, it was decided that to wall needed to be pushed from the inside. After a quick meal and some further discussion, most of which was centered on Janic and whether or not he was sure Traevus' trail ended here at the gates of Winterhaven, to which Janic was absolutely sure, the party decided to wait for nightfall and try to slip in.
"Does anyone have rope? Maybe we can climb the wall" said Murleck
"CAW! Hello! WINGS!" Roook quickly exclaimed gesturing to his person.
"You can fly??" the party asked in unison
"I can! For a short period of time!" responded the Kenku
So the party patiently waited out the remainder of the day until sunset arrived. Shortly before the sun set over the Cairngorm Peaks the guards posted outside the town quickly opened the gates and all filed inside the towns walls. A quick thinking Heterodyne, Murleck and Althea noticed that for all intents and purposes the people seen inside the walls seemed very normal. There was the bustle of a busy town, everyone looked human and well to their eyes. Soon the gates were closed again and before long the guards with outside posts could be seen on the wall walks joining their comrades.
As the sun sank and the last glints of light disappeared over the saw tooth peaks to the west, suddenly there was a horrifying cacophony of shrieks and screams coming from inside the walls. The guardsmen on the wall-walks mostly stood stock still looking into the town below some quivered but most didn't move a muscle. After what seemed like hours, the screams of terror died down and turned into a low moan. Waiting and watching for another hour or two, the group stealthily made their way toward the towers with the cover of darkness aiding their movements. Soon they were gathered by the northern wall were the strange recess in the wall was.
Pulling his sleeves up to his shoulders and giving a bit of a flourish of his feathered arms, Roook flew quickly and quietly to the top of the wall. Quickly making sure no guards were near he peered into the town below. The town spread out before him with a mixture of small one story homes and shops to newer looking 3 and 4 story buildings. Everything seemed to orbit the center tower, a large 15 story square spire riding up in the middle of the town... its highest floors still being constructed. Down below however, he saw nothing in the way of movement and light, no signs of life at all. As he scanned the streets he suddenly spotted the avenue lamp posts, baskets full of wood as if ready to be lit for the evening’s street light, but all sitting in the dark, not a single branch set aflame. It seemed as if someone had prepared for the evenings need of light, but when the time came to do their job, the task was left undone...
Seeing the opportunity to move, Roook quickly dropped over a rope to allow his fellows to join him in the town. Then the thought stuck him to push the wall out and make entry a tad easier. After a moments debate within as to if he should push a guardsmen in or jump down himself to test if whatever had gripped these people wasn't something that affected things close to the earth, Roook resolved to jump himself and with a quick leap he glided down to the ground. Checking his person for any sign of change and being content that he was still his merry black feathered self, he pushed out on the shifted wall. As it was when pushed in, the wall swung easily outward allowing for the entire party to enter the wall.
One by one the party filed in, Janie and Wolf, Heterodyne, Althea and Cha'kara taking up the rear... Murleck however was half way up the wall when he watched the secret door swing outward. With a muffled curse and swear dropped back down to the ground. Giving it a moment’s thought and preferring to have their entry a little more secretive, he pushed the door shut and scurried back up the rope and down the other side.
The party, together again, then quietly surveyed the area around them. Windows were black as night, not a soul moved in and around the streets close by... but then they heard in the distance the sounds of moaning and walking and monosyllabic words being groaned out, words like "eaaaat" and "braaaaains..." Thankfully due to the heavy construction in the town, scaffolding was everywhere and after a suggestion by Althea that perhaps it would be better above than below, the party climbed back up the nearest scaffolding and started to move about the town several stories above the street level. Moving ever closer to east side of town where they heard the nearest sounds the party came upon a pavilion. Looking into the pavilion there was a group of citizens two dozen strong shambling around the stone pavilion... most were in their days clothing, though their skin color
was the color of slate and parts of their face and arms showed the beginnings of rot and decay.
Suddenly Roook decided to drop down to the pavilion and see how these "people" reacted to his presence and with that was gliding back down to the ground. At first his arrival went completely unnoticed... but after a few moments, one by one, the zombified citizens turned and saw something different and something fresh was there to be eaten...
"braaaaaains!" "fleeeeeesssssh" and "eaaaaat" could be heard amid the moans and grunts as the zombies moved at a much more rapid pace towards Roook, but then suddenly his avian ears heard other words mixed in...
"heeeeeelp" and "saaaaave" could be heard from some of the horde.
"Some of them know!" thought the Kenku and quickly started to march around the pavilion drawing the shamblers to follow him like a pied piper, the nearest one a good 15 feet away. Rather enjoying himself while the rest of the party looked down almost in confusion, Roook then noticed that the gap between him and the nearest zombie was closing. Not wishing to been food just yet, he found the lowest scaffold and climbed back up to the heights. The zombie horde, not well over 300 strong, all attracted to the sounds of the "hunt" gathered around the base of the scaffold and made vain attempts at climbing and when that didn't work, they shook the structure until it collapsed into a pile of debris. With the loud crash of the scaffolding and the increased aggressiveness of the horde, the guards had quickly drawn over to the eastern wall, peering down below with lanterns and torches, clearly unnerved that, to their knowledge, the zombies were now trying to climb up!"
Back over more north east of the pavilion the group gathered in the shadows of a large awning...
"Not a one of them is even hurt or deterred by that crash!" noted Janic as he watched the horde grow even larger.
"Some of them asked for help, they remember or are trying to remember who they are" commented Roook
"A curse perhaps?" wondered Heterodyne
"So what's next, do we heard towards that tower in the middle of the town, that's usually a good place to be a source" chimed in Murleck
"I think maybe we should seek out the Captain and the guards... he did seem like he wanted help though could not say for some reason or another" answered Althea.
"Sneak up on tense, scared guards in the night, sounds like a good plan to me!" replied Janic sarcastically.
and so the debate went round and round for a while before it was finally agreed upon that seeking out the guards would be the better course of action considering the party did not want to have to kill any of the people down below should they encounter anyone on their way to the tower. So quickly and quietly, waiting for a gap in the patrol, they made their way over scaffold and roof top towards the wall-walk on the north east end. Finding the north eastern tower vacated they headed to the eastern wall, lighting torches of their own to make their presence known. As they approached the gathering of shocked guardsmen, all still completely focused on the activity below, they stopped as if to announce themselves. Janic however continued walking towards the group, never breaking stride and slid up next to the nearest guard and started looking over the wall with them. After a moment, the nearest guard realized there was someone who wasn’t a guard standing next to them and jumped back in fright!
“Who… who are you! Stay back!” he said, drawing his sword.
“We are here to help” the group all said together while putting on their most winning smiles!
Suddenly all the guards turned to focus on the party, swords and spears being brought up to bear “Stay where you are! How’d you get in here! GET THE CAPTAIN!” one of the guards shouted.
“Why thank you, that’s who we’re looking for” squawked Roook.
Soon the captain of the guard, Captain Aerco returned along the wall, despite the commotion and new comers, he walked with a steady gate.
“You lot. I thought I told you the town was closed. How did you get in here?”
“Um… WINGS!” Roook cawed at the captain, frustrated by this oversight.
“Very well, that explains you birdman, but what about your companions?” the captain asked
“We all climbed up and over with this rope” replied Murleck with a cheeky grin.
“Well, I can’t keep you here” he said while gesturing to the commotion below, which had started to dissipate back into the town. “You said you could help?”
“We’d like to try.” replied Althea with concern.
“Well what do you need from me?” asked the captain “stand down men” he then ordered almost as an afterthought.
“Well first, we’ve been tracking a man and his trail ended here; have you seen a man by the name of Traevus? He’s a merchant, or at least parades around as one, of average height and build, black hair and a think black mustache.”
“Yes, a man arrived in town but two nights ago, that’s when all this madness began.” Quickly replied the captain. “Only problem is, we haven’t seen him since, he may have been killed by the creatures, er… towns folk, Bahamut save me, but if he was we haven’t accounted for the body. Bill, what inn did that stranger check into?”
“Sir, the Whispering Swan Inn, sir” replied the cadet.
“I have a query” started the Artificer Heterodyne “If the folk below transform into zombies... how is it that you all are unaffected? Did you do anything differently than they did?”
“The only thing we can figure is that we all had wall duty that day and were up here. Even so, we lost 5 of our men, the mayor’s personal guard. They turned that very first night.” answered the captain.
“And what of the mayor?” queried Heterodyne.
“Is he corrupt?” interjected Murleck, a wry grin crossing his face.
“How dare you besmirch our mayor’s name!” burst one of the guards standing next to the captain “Corrupt!? He’s been worried sick about the people, wants something done to resolve it quick. Didn’t want anyone else affected so he had the gate shut barring anyone else from entering the town! Didn’t want any of the people leavin’ either in case they might be killed at night for bein'… well for bein’ whatever it is they turn into!”
“Stand down lieutenant” ordered Aerco “The lad is right though, Mayor Conti has been meeting with council around the clock… trying to fix this problem.”
“So the mayor hasn’t turned?” asked Althea.
“Well at first he didn’t, but last night he turned, he’s been staying in his room so as to not wander the streets.” replied the captain.
“Well how do you know he turned, did you see him turn?” asked Murleck
“Well no, but… um” answered the captain, now unsure.
“Where does the mayor live?” Cha’kara wondered aloud.
“In the tower of course” Aerco responded.
“Tell us more about that tower” asked Janic.
“Well, the tower is the oldest building in the town… dating back about 500 years. It was a watch tower back then and the town grew up around it. It was originally 5 stories tall, but it’s been added on to since then. The mayor is adding on 5 more floors himself which are still under construction. It’ll be 15 stories tall upon completion. It’s the oldest thing in town, well unless the crypt turns out to be older. Construction workers discovered it not three weeks back.”
“Do you have a building plan for tower?” asked Roook
“Well sure, but we can’t get to it now, it’s down there.” The captain said, pointing down below. “I can tell you the layout though. First floor is the main hall, second floor is the kitchens and larders, third floor is the mayor’s apartments, fourth floor is where the mayor and his cabinet do their politicking, and the remaining floors are guest rooms and storage…. Oh! There’s the basement too, but no one’s
been down there in ages. Mayor keeps it locked and off limits”
“Crazy zombie transformations running rampant through the town and no one bothered to check the spooky locked basement?!” snarked Murleck, shaking his head in disbelief. Captain Aerco began to give a retort but the words died on his lips. Dejectedly he looked to the ground, not having an answer as to why his men didn’t search the basement.
The party and the town guard discussed the events of the last two days for another hour before deciding to sit out the remainder of the evening atop the town walls and wait for sunrise before going down to
inspect the Whispering Swan Inn. Being the brother of a necromancer and having tried to kill the party once already, gave more than enough credence to investigate that lead a little further. The hours
ticked by as the group made more small talk, Roook, Althea and Heterodyne continued to query about the history of Winterhaven, while Janic, Cha’kara and Murleck talked amongst themselves......
“I have a query” started the Artificer Heterodyne “If the folk below transform into zombies... how is it that you all are unaffected? Did you do anything differently than they did?”
“The only thing we can figure is that we all had wall duty that day and were up here. Even so, we lost 5 of our men, the mayor’s personal guard. They turned that very first night.” answered the captain.
“And what of the mayor?” queried Heterodyne.
“Is he corrupt?” interjected Murleck, a wry grin crossing his face.
“How dare you besmirch our mayor’s name!” burst one of the guards standing next to the captain “Corrupt!? He’s been worried sick about the people, wants something done to resolve it quick. Didn’t want anyone else affected so he had the gate shut barring anyone else from entering the town! Didn’t want any of the people leavin’ either in case they might be killed at night for bein'… well for bein’ whatever it is they turn into!”
“Stand down lieutenant” ordered Aerco “The lad is right though, Mayor Conti has been meeting with council around the clock… trying to fix this problem.”
“So the mayor hasn’t turned?” asked Althea.
“Well at first he didn’t, but last night he turned, he’s been staying in his room so as to not wander the streets.” replied the captain.
“Well how do you know he turned, did you see him turn?” asked Murleck
“Well no, but… um” answered the captain, now unsure.
“Where does the mayor live?” Cha’kara wondered aloud.
“In the tower of course” Aerco responded.
“Tell us more about that tower” asked Janic.
“Well, the tower is the oldest building in the town… dating back about 500 years. It was a watch tower back then and the town grew up around it. It was originally 5 stories tall, but it’s been added on to since then. The mayor is adding on 5 more floors himself which are still under construction. It’ll be 15 stories tall upon completion. It’s the oldest thing in town, well unless the crypt turns out to be older. Construction workers discovered it not three weeks back.”
“Do you have a building plan for tower?” asked Roook
“Well sure, but we can’t get to it now, it’s down there.” The captain said, pointing down below. “I can tell you the layout though. First floor is the main hall, second floor is the kitchens and larders, third floor is the mayor’s apartments, fourth floor is where the mayor and his cabinet do their politicking, and the remaining floors are guest rooms and storage…. Oh! There’s the basement too, but no one’s
been down there in ages. Mayor keeps it locked and off limits”
“Crazy zombie transformations running rampant through the town and no one bothered to check the spooky locked basement?!” snarked Murleck, shaking his head in disbelief. Captain Aerco began to give a retort but the words died on his lips. Dejectedly he looked to the ground, not having an answer as to why his men didn’t search the basement.
The party and the town guard discussed the events of the last two days for another hour before deciding to sit out the remainder of the evening atop the town walls and wait for sunrise before going down to
inspect the Whispering Swan Inn. Being the brother of a necromancer and having tried to kill the party once already, gave more than enough credence to investigate that lead a little further. The hours
ticked by as the group made more small talk, Roook, Althea and Heterodyne continued to query about the history of Winterhaven, while Janic, Cha’kara and Murleck talked amongst themselves......
