It is hard to believe that a simple week long celebration culminated in a night of vicious attacks and terror.
The final night of the Harvest Festival in Stonekeep was anything but family friendly.
The night began with the Remembrance of the Fallen ceremonies at the local graveyard. It was here that some unknown party struck first. A simple ceremony and candlelight vigil turned into a battle against the risen dead. The city guard held the cemetery gates and our intrepid party ventured in to battle the various skeleton and zombies that were walking about attacking the civilian bystanders.
Inside the cemetery they discovered a set of four urns that were spewing forth a noxious green fog that was raising the dead. The party fought their way through an unrelenting tide of the undead and closed the urns, stopping the spread of this fog. You knows what would have happened if the entire cemetery was covered by this odious stuff?
They then sped off to check the travelling circus to see if there were any issues there. There was a feeling that this was only one of many possible locations for a terror attack.
They were right in this regard. As they arrived and started investigating the ring master’s voice rang out and his eyes began to glow green. He then went into a speech about how everyone was warned that “they” had told them to keep away. His speech was cut short by the javelin that struck him center mass. The barbarian had heard enough and jumped into action!
It was then that the various circus performers began to unleash the trained animals on the crowd. Three crowd members began to morph and change into large slavering fanged and clawed dog monsters. They then set upon the panicked crowd.
The one ring big top became a charnel house. Trained dire wolves and wolfmen attacked the innocent. The ring master and his cronies attacked the party members. A dancing bear was unleashed to sow chaos. Eventually, this attack was quelled (an just before Trunky the elephant was set loose on the town) but not before the damage was done to the locals.
The city was erupting in chaos, panic and mayhem. Mobs were forming to loot or to hunt those responsible. The city guard was at half strength during the celebration and was trying to regroup and respond.
The adventuring party had now discovered that the Black Watch druids looked to be behind the circus attack and the urns found at the cemetery had markings on them tying them to the Alchemy Guild. They rushed off to interrogate the alchemists, but found their guild building completely abandoned. While searching for clues the city alarm bells began ringing! There was trouble a brewing again.
This time Jaymes Park was attacking the city. Yes, several plants had animated and were assaulting the city guard and civilians. The party ran off to help, and arrived to a giant battle of man vs. plant. Even stranger was the fact that the old oak found in the center of the park was actually orchestrating the assault! A Treant in the midst of town this whole time and no one had been aware, until tonight. The battle that ensued almost claimed went down to the wire and almost claimed the life of the party’s rouge. A giant walking tree is no slouch in combat. Still the party survived and ended this final threat to the town.
It appears that the truce between Stonekeep and the Black Watch druids has ended. It was still a mystery as to why this was happening, until the city guard noticed a glowing light on the southern horizon. The southern forest, the home to many of the druidic order and a holy place for them, was a flame. The reason behind the attack on the town was now clear. What was not known is to what extent the alchemy guild played in this attack.
As the party stood on the town wall looking south, they notice four ravens staring at them. The eyes of the birds quickly flashed green as they let out a series of claws few off into the approaching dawn.
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