The Golden Mask
The team find a Pharaonic death mask being smuggled through Eschbach.
Plot points/Scenes
The team chances upon a wooden box. Marked for delivery to the de Rais in Orleans it has been sent by a Noble in the Bulgarian Khanagate called Atanas rapBahCNH (Immortal CrowSon), a local Khan living in the Carpathian Mountain range. Rumoured to have links to a hidden occlt school called the Scholoamnce in his territory, he specialises in exotic magic items keeping what he wants and selling many on when finished with most of the others. This he has chosen to sell on. Unfortunately more than the de Rais are after it.
It arrived at the messenger service in town and has recently been moved on. It is likely one or more of the team will witness this. it may even be Rukk.
After a while the messenger service is broken into.
The marks for the de Rais are on the outside of the box, and they think it might be someone working against them. At the same time it is revealed that a beautiful red-headed woman was seen in the building then leaving shortly after. She was chased out by the staff, and heavily covered in a heavy cloak. She had a foreign accent.
Later a goblin from Goblintown arrives in town to say that they had waylaid a delivery heading to Orleans and had noticed a box for the de Rais family. So, having a problem with the de Rais they kept it.
No other tracks are or clues are found though the box has been resealed, and maybe hidden somewhere else.
If so then the storage area is broken into as well with similar clues. Anybody seeing anything will see the woman trying one way in or out, and the other is a stiffly moving individual wrapped in bandages. The box will have left by this time (the night before).
The woman is a Baobhan Sith and it will turn out she is hunting it for her people. The other is a mummy looking the Pharaonic death mask of Prince Ahmose (means Born of Iah). Both are hiding separately in the woodland around Goblintown and looking for the chance to get the box's contents. A goblin has already been strangled to death by the mummy, and the Baobhan Sith has drained the blood of two goblins. The goblin boss says that the three were on duty at one time or another during the night defending Goblintown's treasury when killed. The single goblin was found to the east, and the other two found in the west.
Even the five wolves that they keep for their 'cavalry' seemed to play up during that night.
The team can track down one or the other and find their hideouts in dense vegitation or a small cave.
There is an inscription in the box that is wrote in ancient Egyptian. It says that Prince Amose's Death Mask can see the fiends that torment the blessed dead of the Afterlife. If removed from the tomb then the servants of Prince Amose & Thoth will seek out the mask killing anyone who touches the mask.
Further, there is a warning that it is not to fall into the hands of the Three (of the sea, of the land, and of the spirit). The Three can be identified by their hatred of magic users not of their kind, from the City of the Great Grandmother originally, and now spread far & wide, to the northwest beside the sea, to the to the fertile Wilds, and the leader to the forests of the northern east of the youngest empires of the white barbarians.
Ther ethey will lay in wait until the time is right to start working for their people to return in force.
If followed up there is an entry found in a dusty old tome saying that by sending the death mask back will prevent them or their allies getting a powerful mask & dusrupt their plans.
The mask can be studied or kept on holy ground too at least temporarily before being returned as it will temporarily block evil seeing the mask.
The team eventually arrives back at the house and finds that someone has bypassed the safeguards of the house and murdered Rukk's cousin. His strung up body os eviserated & tied to the tree. Only clue remaining is a shadow the quickly fades beside the body. When desxcribed they find someone came from the Shadowfell and killed him. They seem to have been looking for something, leaving behind a blade with the family crest of Hope's family on it, attached to a Bag of Holding.
Also, they seem to have targeted Arne's items as if looking for something specific. Any notes etc that he had concerning his background or where he is from seems to be tampered with. They seem to have wrote on a set of blank pages taking notes. It will appear that they are hunting for a place were Black Elves had a city in the Scandes near where his village was. It contained something referred to as the Cloak of Darkest Night.
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