Darklight Manor Report
General Summary
On a dark and stormy night, a group of brave adventurers marched through a torch lined mountain pass to answer the call of their mysterious royal summons. The group was headed East towards the Darklight estate, an abandoned manor which was widely known to be cursed, haunted, or worse.
Gabriel the Great, Aralia the Altruist, Metztli the Mad, and Vash the Vicious stopped to meet with a mysterious magical man who had been waiting for them on the foreboding footpath. The young, serious, human introduced himself as Rowan of the Noble house Lonethorne; Rowan explained he is a scholarly wizard in service to the Esker royal court and claimed the summons received by the adventurers was a forgery. Rowan asked the group to assist him in investigating the nature of the false summons, knowing very well it was likely a trap. The group trudged on, followed closely by a shadowy and mysterious dark elf who called themselves Kedar.
At the entrance to the dark and horrible manor, the group met with their finely mustached host for the evening, a gentleman named Marcus. Marcus thanked the warriors for answering the call to adventure and revealed their task is to cleanse the estate of evil.
Inside the elegant, treacherous lair, the gang deftly disabled magical traps, navigated corpse filled chambers, squished several hundred blood sucking spiders, and unlocked an extravagant treasure trove. Tension built between the battletested half breed veteran and the haughty royal scholar after a series of highly ineffective spell casts. The good natured halfling continued to abhor violence and tended to the wounded while showing no fear in the face of pure evil.
In the grand ballroom of the estate, the adventurers stumbled upon a horrible sight; a dark ritual was underway. The Fire Genasi orphan, Ember Brimstone, was suspended in air- his elemental energies being sapped by a radiant orb. As the group moved to recue Ember from this grisly fate, Marcus appeared in the ballroom and revealed himself to be the cursed Vampire Lord. The group of adventurers were just in time to be sacrificed in his blasphemous rite.
A bloody squall broke out. Vash did not hesitate to burry his sword in the bloodthirsty fiend, but the Lord refused to die. The vampire clutched Vash in its deadly claws and went for bite, but Vash was able to break free after Aralia’s well placed fire magic seared the vampire’s pale flesh and revealing his weakness. As the situation began to look grim, Vash’s grating and harsh words echoed in Rowan’s mind: “DO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR ONCE!” Eager to prove his worth to the storied war hero, the young scholar wiped his brow and focused all his remaining energy into summoning a massive orb of fire which he could barely maintain.
The room was suddenly quiet and still. The fireball reduced the Vampire Lord to a smear of dust in an instant. The group stood for a moment, their hearts still racing, the wizards’ knees shook, and he was barely able to stand on his own two feet. The threat was gone, but the ritual remained.
Aralia, ever fearless, reached out and poked the orb with her halfling finger. The orb exploded in a brilliant flash of blinding light. In that moment, Aralia’s crescent sickle, and the fey spirit within, were awakened.
Ember, unconscious, dropped to the ground like a fiery sack of potatoes. The group gathered themselves, and drug Ember out of the manor. Evil had been vanquished.
With Ember’s limp body and a wheelbarrow full of vampire treasure, the team headed east, toward the Esker capital city of Demiluna. They decided to stop at the first inn they stumbled upon in the city outskirts. They counted their coins and tended to their wounds in this cozy cottage. The kind innkeeper noticed the unconscious Genasi and suggested Rowan purchase medicine at the nearby healer’s shack just down the road. Rowan placed Ember in a bed at the inn and headed off alone down the road to seek the medicine man.
As Rowan walked, he sensed an unusual force. It felt as though he was being pulled back toward the inn and his shadow cast further as he went. The force grew stronger and stronger as he proceeded until he was simply unable to walk any further. “This cannot be.” Rowan returned to the inn and explained what had happened to the other adventurers.
After some investigation, Vash, Aralia, Rowan, Gabriel, and Metztli concluded they had been cursed by the Vampire Lord’s ritual- and were magically bound to each other by an unstoppable shadowy force.
-journal of the unseen servant
Rewards Granted
Inert Magical Orb
Lots of gold
some potions
Axe of the Night's Curse
Magical Tattoo Needle
Character(s) interacted with
Moonshadow Inn, Innkeeper Jacinda
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