The Dead of Night
Late evening on the fifth of High Sun, 1493
As Enid raced ahead, perched precariously on the mighty neck of the giant carthorse, clutching handfuls of its mane, Featherfew urged her to wait, fearing that the pale rider was too dangerous an opponent for her to face alone. The party resolved to stick together and investigate the sounds of broken glass that they heard from the west.
On the way, they checked in at the Groomsman’s Rest, confirming that Harley Buck, Linny Stringfellow, Burt Wilton, Robbie Pallabar, Elma Welgemoed, and Evelyn Farlight, were all still safe and unharmed. The patrons were huddled under tables, aware of the menace that had unfolded outside. Someone, it seemed, had warned them to stay put and seek shelter.
The party carried on toward the west, discovering that the gates of Moorcraft Manor had been torn from the encircling high stone wall and strewn on the path up to the palatial dwelling. Axel Moorcraft’s abode was one of the oldest and by far the most opulent dwelling in Devlin’s Dower. Fashioned not from timber, but quarried stone, its balconies were supported by marble columns and stone lions sat on either side of the steps leading up to its immense and elaborately carved oaken front doors. The timber of the front door was splintered, as though something had forced itself inside.
The party ventured in, arriving in a majestic entrance hall, with a high vaulted ceiling and a wide staircase leading to an upper floor. Following sounds of commotion coming from the door to the east, the party entered Moorcraft’s study to discover the money-lender imperilled by a hulking Bugbear zombie. The creature had disproportionally long arms, and was covered all over in mottled, thinning fur; once perhaps rust coloured in life, the creature’s pelt was now a dusky grey, faded by death and coated with the fine dust of the barrow. Though it loomed over him, it did not appear to have harmed Moorcraft.
The room had once been a cosy study, with book-lined walls, armchairs and a wide hearth; now it was a ruin. The monster had crashed through the windows on the eastern wall, scattering debris across the floor. To the south, a single shattered pane had strewn broken glass across a desk covered in papers.
Enid hurled a javelin at the creature, while Den raced in to pepper it with punches. Pebbles produced a piece of bacon rind from his pocket, and magically coated the floor of Moorcraft’s study in grease, sending the bugbear clattering to the ground. Burley seized his chance, stepping in to deal a brutal blow to the prone creature. Pebbles raced north, seeking to investigate the rest of the house, deducing that if this monstrous zombie had entered through the eastern windows, then something else must have come through the front door. Illyad followed, releasing a volley of sorcerous fire as she passed. Featherfew also struck at the creature, his staff transforming in his hand, becoming a knotty, twisted shillelagh of dense wood.
The zombie flailed wildly at Burley, but the young game warden dodged deftly out of its grasp. Moorcraft seized his chance to flee, racing around the skirmish, but Den caught his eyes straying avariciously to the scattered papers on his desk. As Enid leapt into the room, vaulting on to the tabletop, Den moved quickly to sweep the contents of Moorcraft’s desk into his satchel. The banker was incensed, demanding that Den return his property immediately, and calling him a thief.
Meanwhile, Pebbles dashed forward heedlessly, bursting through an ajar door in the warren-like servants’ quarters at the back of the house. There, he saw a gruesome scene: two skeletons looming over a blood-spattered bed from beneath the covers of which hung a limp pale hand. A copper coin, much like the one Linny Stringfellow had been toying with at the Groomsman’s Rest had fallen from the grip of the now dead servant Lobelia.
Burley, Featherfew, and Enid continued to struggle with zombie, while Illyad followed Pebbles toward the back of the house. Den struggled with Moorcraft, who attempted to wrest back his property. Featherfew dealt a blow that should have felled the undead monstrosity, but it lumbered on, seemingly impervious to even the most devastating wounds, until Den punched the thing in the face, knocking its rotten jaw from its face, causing it to collapse on the floor.
The party then sped away, responding to the sounds of battle coming from Pebbles and Illyad. Den snaked his way down the tight corridor, boxing in the skeletons, while Featherfew transformed into a giant venomous snake, much to the horror of some of his companions. The undead were swiftly despatched, but Illyad wondered whether their dropped loot might not attract more undead warriors.
Burley restrained Moorcraft in his study until the rest of the party rejoined him. The money-lender demanded that Den return his papers, claiming that their theft was entirely unjustified. Den demanded some gratitude for saving his life, and implied that Moorcraft’s desire to retain his property was suspicious. The argument became increasingly heated, as the caperer demanded that the banker forgive the debts of Harley Buck, the miller, in return for the party’s services. Moorcraft rudely scoffed at the idea, and it took Pebbles’ intervention to calm the fracas. As the documents were returned, Featherfew recognised a scrap of parchment that resembled the missing corner of his treasure map, while Den could only glimpse at a list of debtors.
Departing from Moorcraft Manor, the friends used a magically conjured hand to transport the undead remains out of the house and onto the front lawn. They then travelled quickly to Ma Marigold’s house, thumping on the front door to rouse the sleeping town elder. Ma failed to see the party’s side of the story when it came to the altercation with Moorcraft, and scolded them for waking Verity, her new foundling charge. Enid was nettled by the name of the girl who had supplanted her, feeling it as an unintentioned barb that struck straight at her own propensity for untruth. As the party explained to Ma what had occurred, she helped them decode Illyad’s vision. The ‘scales’ had referred not to justice, but the fishes’ scales that adorned the skin of Carp Barlow; the ‘smoke’ alluded to the name of Gurgis Smolk; and the ‘turning wheels’ indicated the name of Axel Moorcraft. The party realised that Robbie had been right about one thing: a murder had taken place. One of the living had used the undead like a weapon, manipulating them into Moorcraft’s house with the intent of seeing him dead. Lobelia, the servant girl, was the unintended victim of their scheme. The party deliberated on the last part of the vision: ‘red wings’. And as one, they realised the fourth predestined victim of the undead warriors: Caris Flyte, the Bailiff of Devlin’s Dower.