The Son rises

General Summary

Watching from afar, the Brownbottles watched in horror as a demon arose from the pile of rubble, circled by multiple blood elementals. Knowing time was no longer on their side to protect any of the remaining people from the impending doom they immediately rushed the hill to the collapsed temple. Clorinda threw a fireball at the center of the circle with all her might. Lars Seigmeyer, and Farstrider immediately rushing the hill to get to a range to attack the monsters. Clarinda moving to stay within spell range throws another fireball while Welby rushed as fast as his legs will carry him. The demon, seeing the group approaching throws a magical spear at Lars but misses while the distances close.
Suddenly a new portal near the summoning alter opens. From it jumps Eleana, daggers drawn and immediately works to cut down a nearby blood elemental. With the distances closed, Lars, and Seigmeyer work to smite the demons with everything they have left to muster while receiving the full brunt of the demon's massive sword. With their spells running out and their health low, suddenly Eleana makes a slice through a blood elemental and follows up with a perfect slice across the back of the blood soaked demon, dropping it to the ground in a pool of blood.
The group is happy to see Eleana, and quickly ask about her adventures and where she was. Eleana fillS the group in on how she left the party to investigate the ruins, but was ambushed and requested by a group of vampires to infiltrate a lair to recover a scepter, and was asked to follow up to infiltrate another lair to retrieve a crown. Eleana shows Clorinda some of the gold she retrieved from the lair where the scepter was retrieved and explains it to be a massive place with piles of gold and simple, but sometimes elaborate kobold traps. The group moves to regroup and rest aboard the ship in the harbor in the case any monsters are still prowling the island. During their night watch, they only witness a single lantern light moving along the shore line, indicating at least 1 possible survivor.
In the morning, after resting and healing from their battle with the demons and blood golumns from the day before, the group returns to shore to speak to any survivors and possibly investigate the town. Upon arriving at shore, they find the harbor to be empty of any life, save a few seagulls swarming. They enter a couple of the buildings along the harbor but find them to be empty, save an old merchant house where they can hear a child talking, seemingly to himself. After entering the building, they find a young boy, about 10 years of age sitting in the corner of the shop on a small flat with a lit lantern. The boy seems to be having a conversation with himself, speaking about being alone, scared, and this wasn't what he wished for. Clorinda, trying to be the most helpful makes herself known and asks the boy what he is doing, or who he is talking to. The boy, looking wildly at the group asks if they are real, are their voices real and can they hear them too?

Are you real? Can you hear the voices? He speaks to me and wants to play. I wished for someone to believe me that they could hear them. Do you want to see where I hear him?

Farstrider, from the land of Zakhara and ever wary of trickery immediately cast detect magic. He attempted to cast as a ritual, but upon the ritual was interrupted by the boy suddenly acting as though trying to play with Farstrider. This immediately caught Farstrider as an odd action and cast the spell immediately. He sensed the lantern the boy was playing with had a strong presence of abjuration, illusion and necromancy spell, while the boy himself had a slight glow of necromancy and enchantment. Wary, he began to question anew and guide Clorinda's questions to what may not be as it seems. The boy quickly thanked the group for believing he may indeed be hearing voices. Lars asked if he could inspect the lantern, however the boy seemed slightly hesitant to show him, as he did not want to lose the light. Lars recognized the lantern, almost immediately as he had seen one before, hanging from a tree outside the ruin of Pembroke in a barren ancient crossroad, or to say, he had seen many hanging from the tree.
The boy, eager to introduce his new friends to those whose voice he heard, as if he hoped they may hear the voice too, begged for the group to follow him to his secret hiding spot. Hesitant and weary of tricks, the group cautiously followed. The boy led them up to the old city center. The old port town seemed eirily abandoned, as though it had undergone a large calamity years before and had just never fully recovered. Building lay in ruins, but not from the recent chaos, but from years before, with toppled towers and large scars and scratches along buildings with fractured stones with old burn marks, long forgotten as the city just moved on around it. 
Soon the boy came upon a small secluded doorway entrnace, one marked with ancient runes, long weathered from the wind and rain to almost be illegible. The boy twisted the handle and dissapeared down a dark staircase, eagerly beakoning the group to quickly follow 'He will be so happy you believe!' and down he went. The group, was not so eager to follow down a dark staircase. It was daylight outside, but down the stairs all sorts of dark creepy things lurk. They quickly lit some torches, which Welby miraculously remembered he had over a dozen in his bag. So they lit their way and cautiously proceeded down the stairs. Down the stairs, they entered an old room which appeared to be of an ancient religous building, with small relic and prayer kneelboards. Following the boy he warned of small traps in the area and showed the group where they were and indicated to follow where he stepped. The group decided to split up after a short bit and the boy proceeded down another hallway, with the remaining group to just 'follow behind'.
As the first group (Lars, Elaina, Clorinda) began to slowly advance down the corridor to follow the boy, the second group stood at the main foyar of the ancient temple. Sig, curious as to what diety the temple may have been for began to investigate the nearby room. Upon entering the room he could make out old dusty frescos and 2 standing armour suits. Before being able to investigate though, Sig caught a glimpse of a shimmer as a strange ghostly image arose from the armor, Sig quickly decided this was not a place to hang out and rejoined his comrads and ushered them along down the corridor to follow the boy. 
As the first group followed the boy, he led them down another dark staircase. The group following, lighting old torches as they went. Soon they came to the bottom, where a small chamber with a fresco mural on the far end wall and old elaborate tapestries hung from the sides, with a small 4' diameter dias sat in the middle.  The boy quickly went to the middle of the room, stood on the dias and excitedly exclaimed they had arrived,  asking eagerly if the party could hear his friend, claiming that his friend was happy they had come. 
Elaina, ever so cautious of the boy from the statements her vampire colleagues had told her earlier, exclaimed for the boy to return back and step away, to come back outside. The boy, looked at her with a concern, 'No, my friend, he has been here ever since everyone has left me! I cannot leave him here!' With that, Elaina decided to take things into her own hands and drew her bow, and fire an arrow at the boy as he seemed to be having a conversation with himself over the merits of leaving and staying.
Elaina, the White Ghost, hit her mark true. with a twang, her arrow left and thudded into the chest of the small boy. His look of surprise in his eyes seeing the arrow protruding from his chest, as he softly said "I'll join them now". With that he fell to the floor, his blood running out from the arrow through his heart. As Elaina breathed a sad sigh, which suddenly turned to terror as she noticed the blood from the boy begin to glow as it ran out of his body and filled ancient runes and carvings that had been hidden on the floor in the dust on the dias.
Childish laughter filled the air, "I return! My mother cannot keep me out! I shall return and feast! Bow and be my servants!" Lars, not one for bowing to undead things, decided it best to just throw his hammer at this child size creature, and soon a battle began. As the group began fighting, the childish monster would disappear and reappear through the room, the second group began sprinting down the stairs as they heard the battle sounds and yelling.  After a brief but hard faught battle, the childish monster lay dead again, and Elaina and Clorinda along with the Paladins made certain to destroy the vampire and any remains of it with fire and holy water.  Not ones to hang around vampire chambers, the group immediately left to return to the Sea Ghost to rest, and plan their next adventure, be it continue to Westphal, continue chasing the

Rewards Granted

The group picked up the lantern as the Vampire died. It seems to have lost its glow and does not have the strong magical energy it had prior.

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Report Date

26 Mar 2023

Primary Location

Silveryhead Isle