Reluctant Hunter

Discovery, Exploration

The yet-to-be-named Sapphire oath delve into the deeper history of the barony, discover a deeper layer behind both the heads of church and state, a descend into darkness to retrieve a lost relic from a mine.

On the morrow, the adventurers boarded the murdered man's ferry and Beatle took charge in conveying the adventurer's, constable, and Sparky to isle upon Lumley Lake. You approach caused Sparky disdain as you approached it's quarry. Entering into the baron's manor, you all were brought into a side chamber to Lady Louisa Prescott for hosting an entertainment while the Baron was fetched. The young Lady Prescott was being mentored as a replacement for the Harewell's rule of Craven. The Harwells had remained in isolation since the current Baron's father had fought a criticized political war followed by a mining disaster eight years later. The son had spent his entire rule behind closed doors and a fresh face was needed. Polite conversation and music with Lady Prescott was broken by Sparky seeking to move onward into the library.
  Upon opening the door, Sparky bayed onward towards an interior study. Lady Prescott and Constable Turner spoke out at this. When your pleas for continued pressing met the wall of loyal authority, relations turned sour. Beatle attempted to lullaby both Lady and Constable asleep but only Prescott fell. The Constable drew his sword against you lot, proving far more formidable than you expected. Though at the beginning of retirement years, the skills of a long military tenure proved formidable. The party did not want to hurt the man, knowing he wasn't the enemy and could still be valuable. Marduk and Ravel pried their way into the study while through multiple tense moments, Beatle and Lord Sapphire wove magic in his direction until the man eventually fell undersway, Beatle's magic dulling the mind for Lord Sapphire to ensnare.
  The charm fought against the constable's existing intentions. With Beatle waking Lady Prescott in good faith, Turner lead the bard to the study by the end of his sword. Inside, our investigators found a worn journal within the baron's private desk and carpet marks on the ground denoting a hidden passage. Before these could be acted on, the Butler returned to inquire on the racket. The constable took the opportunity to get everyone out of the house through a patio door blaming the unruly hound. Outside, he demanded immediate answers. Opening the journal to the page the book spine had been broken too, a seemingly religious series of versus were read. While the immediate purpose of the words were not known, this is what they read:
  The light of the world
Shows upon the pure
The warmth of the rays
Brings peace and succor
  Where once you could
You no longer can
No longer of the life
That walks upon Land
  To eat of the fields
Gathered by the masses
Stretched tall in the dales
Plump full of juices
  Where once you could
You no longer can
No brethren, no table
From society banned
  The Life that was lived
Cast out from the Day
The Storm of the Night
Allay, Belay, Dismay
  Looking to see if the butler and Lady Prescott were still in the room, a new presence was perceived. Beatle attempted to slip into the study but the Baron called out asking if the person entering was the constable. Beatles impersonation skill was a bit rusty which lead to everyone piling back in with the constable to salvage the situation. Ravel's bright and cheery, super forward introduction overoad the sound of Beatle and the shadow hound entering into the study's broken door. Lord Sapphire's presence enamored Baron Harewell keeping the attention. As Beatle crept his way down stairs, the rest of the troupe found themselves within the manor's audience chamber.
  Lord Harewell sat upon his central chair, Lady Prescott standing ready to the side. The Baron's interest in Lord Sapphire quickly turned to suspicion and bordered on aggression as they proved efficient in describing the party's purpose before presenting the pilfered journal seeking answers. Lord Sapphire felt the Baron's influence wash over themselves but fought off the influence. The two locked into a standstill, both hands aggressively on the journal in tension.
  Downstair, Beatle struggled with his own realizations. Upon his decent through the hidden cobwebbed staircase in the study, he found a more recently quartered off section of the wine cellar. Within it, a coffin, empty except for pressed soil where a body had lain, the soil still frigid with death. The Bard tied off the shadow hound sparky and scrawled though a magically illusory writing. Entering back through the study and library, Beatle entered the audience chamber making his personal excuses for delay. The bard then began to present a song in honor of the Baron, though to his companions and the constable the sheet music read as message of the baron's vampirism. Beatle's song then played out in a facade of differing details as to what he suspected of the Baron's life to have been with a poignant ending to moral character. Beatle's cunning bought the party level ground once again for Marduk to press straight in for all cards on the table, blatantly asking his questions of baron's having claws and if Harewell was a vampire.
  The next moments were ones of vitriol and disdain. Baron Powell Harewell was not dead, but acting in the place of his son Soren. The elder age of Soren shown as the butler in the room. Lady Prescott stood firmly at attention in preparation as the next figurehead for Powell's cursed reign. The ruling Harewell spoke of a hatred for the servants of Sol, explaining that the journaled verses were the last decree he had heard from a priest (Sol's Curse to the Blasphemous). Powell Harewell's war to claim Craven for a different County had brought ire from resident priest Samuel Joubert. After the mine disaster less than a decade later, Joubert called down the worst punishment he could, banishing the baron from Sol's domain. No one knew that it would lead to this.
  Baron Harewell had since spent his time in study, attempting solve his conundrum. He fed upon the beasts of the Hunting Grounds at night, resisting the pulls to feed on man. None knew of his condition except those present. Despite his desire for peace, the vampire promised that if the word of his affliction was said outside these walls, he would slaughter the entire village. If our heroes wanted to solve the problems of Craven, they would have to take that up with the Shrine of Sol. Harewell made his research available to the party before their returned across Lumley Lake to the village.
  In the half day that the constable and our heroes had been at the manor, a jailbreak had occurred. Beatle located stray, long gray hairs in line with Theophania. A notice on the shrine stated that she was at the faulted mine for ceremonies despite having just done that a day or two ago. Leading the constable astray, our heroes set off after her on their own. It took the remainer of the day, but our heroes arrived at dusk to the collapsed mine. Here, the pair of footsteps became a trio heading from the mine into the Hillands. interactions with a found Theophania eventually grew into a small party as the party also found Jerome as well as an elder man show elvish lineage in his blood. He wore distressed robes and comfortably held the tome that Theophania usually hugged. Samuel Joubert.
  Airing out skeletons, the party dictated everything as nonjudgmentally as they could but Joubert took those burdens on as they were laid out. He admitted to acting rashly without understanding. He apologized and wished for better futures. Though he had not the power to solve this issue, he did have a magical artifact capable of aiding the party. An orb able to conjure sunlight, it would be instrumental in either fighting off a vampire or useful in any ritual to save soul or body. Joubert had taken it long ago when he fled Sol's shrine as a means for self protection. Now, however, it was lost to him again. As the years had gone on after the mine faulted, other creatures began to find their way through the broken tunnels. The home Joubert had made down there was now overun by digestive, amoeboid creatures.
  For the sake of making everything right, our heroes descended into the mine, following instructions of how to find the general area of the forsaken home. The oozes within converged on the party to feed. While the little ones could be slowly whittled away, the largest one proved more dangerous, digesting anything that hit it, even weapons. When slashed at, rather than take damage, it simply split into separate parts. The party rushed into the home, located the artifact, and fought their way out once more. Not all fights are for extermination, and this one proved that point. Exiting the mine once more as night falls on the hillands, our heroes began their rest after a very long day.