Research (1-11 Ready'reat 586 OY, 10/18/99 RL) After a day of stocking up on supplies, Axel, Camen, and Fingle hike out to the ruined "tower" of the wizard-sage. After defeating a feisty plant growing at its base, they settled into the tower. Axel set up a basic wizard's laboratory inside the tower's "cellar." Fingle set about trying to weld a stone upper story onto the tower, with little success. Camen practiced his archery.

Back in town, Shinshi disguised himself and tried to cheat some lumberjacks at cards. One got suspicious and ran after him, but Shinshi got away on rooftops near the town wall. When the lumberjack caught up, running down the wall's catwalk, Shinshi cast sleep, looted his pockets, and got away. The next day he and Jos hiked out to the tower.

Meanwhile, Axel was making uneven progress in his efforts to develop a Fireball spell. At one point he was despondent over lack of progress, when out of the corner of his eye a few stars seemed to flash and twinkle, and a pot of spell components exploded with a BANG. Normally this would be a bad thing, but he was researching a spell that causes explosions, so it turned out that he was on the right path. With renewed enthusiasm he worked even harder, staying up late into the long nights.

At dawn one day, Fingle received a mysterious telepathic message that the undead had left the cavern. He warned the others that something was amiss on Miraburg, but it was not clear just what.

After about a week and a half in their rustic camp, Camen and Jos returned to town. As they hoped, a trading ship was docked and unloading supplies. Camen secured the 4 barrels of beer that they had been promised. Viola boarded the ship, declaring her boredom with Miraburg. The ship also took a letter from the tinker gnomes addressed to any gnomish vessel, which the PCs had earlier taken from the gnomes to the dock keeper. Camen hired a wagon and took one barrel up to Kaiketsu, who gratefully took it and declared that Camen had passed the first exam to become a student. He then assigned the second exam: to catch, without harming, Kaiketsu's giant black squirrel.

Camen decided to put off this task, and returned to town to hold a party at the Sea Lion boarding house, open to all and featuring two of the beer barrels. During this he was reintroduced to Stokast, priest of Ralishaz. The other priest, Brightlash, showed up to berate Camen for backsliding. Despite this, much merriment ensued.

Then a lumberjack stumbled in out of the rain, bleeding from a head wound, saying that the town was under attack! He said that skeletons were tearing through the outer tents, taking all in their path. Camen roused his fellow partiers and led them out the gate past another small mob trying to get inside the walls. Outside the walls, Camen saw a pair of skeletal forms silhouetted against a burning tent, dragging a limp human form. As he moved towards them, a solid figure brandishing a shiny broadsword stepped out of the shadows to intercept. Camen attacked the ghoul with his spear, and Stokast smashed two earthen mugs on the thing's face. Then two more skeletons ran up, and their arrival allowed the ghoul to withdraw and escape. Those two skeletons were easily dispatched, but the remainder escaped.

In the aftermath, it turned out that about a dozen lumberjacks were missing, including some who had disappeared a day earlier while on a hunting trip. Mayor Silver convened a meeting with Jos, Camen, and the guard captain, but they agreed to wait until morning to take substantial action.
 
Last modified: Wed Jul 21 17:03:54 MDT