Bring out your Undead

Each of us arrived at the home of Blood Lord Berline Haldoli separately, answering a summons they had received. They were told to wait for everyone to arrive by a Ghoul at the gates. The 1st to arrive was Vincent, a Dhampir Champion of Asmodeus. Next to arrive was Orome, a Garundi Witch, with her familiar (a brown Bat) on her shoulder. Soon after this, Alazar arrived. He was a Skeleton man, a cleric of Zyphus. Last, arriving from separate parts of the city was a Human (Mawangi) man, Rubin. He practiced the skills of the Inventor. Last was a Goblin Zombie, Tumtum, an Alchemist. He slowly shambled forward, greeting Alazar & Rubin with a simple nod & "Oh, hi...". Once we had all arrived, the Ghoul led us inside the compound. There were many mindless Zombies working the fields as we passed. As we neared the house one of the Zombies turned towards the group and gnashed it's teeth. Blood Lord Berline appeared from inside, summoning someone to deal with the mindless Zombie. She apologized to the group and led them inside, with a smile and a personal greeting for each of us. Once inside she presented a feast of great proportions, for both the living and the Undead. She then took some time to speak to each person. After some small talk she got to the point. Old Ergagh's farm missed a few shipments, but the workers sent to investigate could not get too close. There were Zombies roaming everywhere. She wanted us to find out what happened & speak to Bradek. He was a distant cousin to her. He had bare feet and red hair. The new group of people got directions and started heading that way. She also told us to watch out for the Zombie Cow, Mosghuta. On the way out of the city the Undead were given a comfortable room to wait, while the meatbags were questioned about who they were and what they were doing.
It took them a whole day to reach the farm, some 16 miles outside the city. Arriving just after dusk, the meatbags decided they needed to rest. Alazar and Tumtum allowed it. It was uneventful. The following morning the group headed for a nearby gate. As they approached 2 dead workers on the inside of the gate turned out to be Zombies. They animated and rose to attack, one swinging the gate open purely through happenstance. They were quickly defeated. As we looked across the farm we saw several spots with Zombies, including a Zombie Horse, along with the Zombie Cow, Mosghuta. We decided to make our way to the other gate into the compound to see if it was a better way to get in safely. When we got round to the side gate we found a corpse stuck in a sprung trap on the gate. Orome found a tattered red cloak with a white bandaged hand missing it's pinky finger. She also found some paste that appeared to be designed to make creatures ill & 1 vial of Antiplague, Lesser. After we got past the gate we moved in until we encountered 3 Zombi Dogs & a Zombie Horse. This fight went a bit rougher, with Vincent being mauled by the horse before we defeated the Zombies.
After the fight, Rubin found a spot where a group of strangers fought with a group of charge hands. The charge hands were defeated, then the other group split off into separate directions. Orome attempted to heal Vincent, but was not successful. Tumtum gave him another elixir to help heal him up. Orome then tracked the people who had split off after defeating the charge hands. Most had left the compound, but she was able to follow some tracks to the NE, back towards the 1st gate we had found. As we approached a partially collapsed building we saw a small figure impaled into a wall by a very large cow horn. Pulling the hood on it's cloak we were able to tell that this was likely Bradek, Berline's cousin. Clutched in his hand was a piece of torn red cloth. We took this along. We then chose to backtrack, using the buildings for cover from the Zombie Cow. We found a cave opening in the hills at the SW corner of the compound. It was dark inside, so the meatbags needed to cast light to see. This, of course, drew the attention of the Zombies inside the cave. They were quickly dispatched. After the fight, Tumtum was able to point out that the crates and boxes stuffed into an opening to the north formed some sort of barricade. Rubin thought of grabbing a glowing purple torch from the wall to the south, giving it to Orome. He then searched the bed nearby where the torch was, finding nothing of interest. In a large room to the west we found a banquet table, but not much else. We then turned to move the stacked crates. In a room past them we found a mostly empty room with a well in the center. There was one intelligent Zombie here. He explained that the compound had been attacked. He did not think the intruders were there to fight, but when discovered, they did indeed fight. This Zombie tried to calm the other Zombies, but when all seemed lost he retreated here & barricaded himself in. He said the intruders were near the silos. We left him to barricade himself in again, while we skirted the property to the south. Rubin opened the door into the first building we came to, finding 3 Zombies standing within. They immediately attacked. This was another easy fight.
We then took some time to gather evidence at the grain silos. We found more of the powder we had found earlier. We then decided we should deal with the Undead Cow. After quite some time trying to think of ways to deal with it, Alazar strode forward, waving his arms at it. Once it started chasing him, he ran behind the group and the fight was on! Meatbag Vincent was down almost immediately! Luckily, Tumtum, Orome and his own healing were able to keep him on his feet after that. It was a quick, but vicious fight with the group emerging victorious! We then turned to searching the rest of the farmstead. There was not much more to find, but it being early in the day, we did turn to repairing and fixing the farm in many ways. While the meatbags worked at repairing things, Tumtum & Alazar rounded up any of the stray workforce of Zombies they could. They rested for the evening, before heading back the next morning to report in with Berline. We travelled for the day. It was uneventful. Arriving back at Graydirge, we requested to see Berline. She allowed us in and asked for a report. We gave her one, informing of all we had done. When we showed her the symbols we had found, she said she would have to do some digging to find out more. She asked that we also continue looking. She would appreciate our help.
In the end she pulled out a legal pad and signed over ownership of a mansion to our group. She told us there were rumours of others squatting in the mansion. We would have to clear them out. She allowed us to stay at her estate for the night, before we headed out to the mansion in the morning. She also gave us a Walking Cauldron.
The following morning we made our way to the mansion. Unlocking the door, we headed inside the windowless mansion. We were almost immediately attacked by a swarm of rats. They quickly over-ran Vincent and Rubin. Tumtum threw an Alchemist's Fire at them, toasting them all! An animated hand, that could somehow talk , then approached them introducing itself as Arghun the Annihilator. He lived here and asked if we were the new owners. We said yes, then asked if there were any other threats we needed to take care of. He insisted we impress him first. Orome told him about our recent mission to Old Ergagh's farm, impressing him. He told us of a body that had been left in a secret room in the basement for several years and that there were more rats around. We took some healing up, then began exploring the main floor. We found several bedrooms, a pantry, a sitting area, a dining area, a shrine & stairs down. In the shrine we found a paper sealed in wax that turned out to be a note saying "I bequeath my home to my loyal companion Smoke, whom I have entombed below.". After exploring the first floor, we headed down the stairs. We were immediately assailed by some Undead creatures at the bottom of the stairs. Orome recognized these as Otovites. She told us they had a great many immunities. They were a pain, but we handled them easily. We then took some time upstairs to heal up our front liners. Returning to the basement we continued exploring. We found a room with 4 empty sarcophagi. The next room held 3 empty and one closed sarcophagi. Opening the 4th one we found a Scrambling Ribcage, as identified by Orome. The meatbags could not hit it, but Tumtum showed them how to do it, charging in to beat it to death with his tiny fists! After the fight we found an Onyx statuette of a Jackal. Alazar identified it as Smoke, the creature we had heard referred to in a paper we found in the shrine room above.