Father and Daughter Reunited (Erastus [VII] 2nd, 4707 AR)

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Sir Rekkart Cole's shadow sapped the strength of Aranthor and Patrissa. The shadow eventually wailed and retreated through the wall.

The last toy continued attacking Aranthor and Zemurin. It fought until destroyed.

Clues: The heroes found the knitting needle from Aranthor's vision under the bed, still crusted with dried blood.

The keys to the iron door in the Great Hall were on a hook by the door. Additionally, a pouch behind the headboard of the bed contained 10 gp and 30 sp. Ten Varisian silk scarves, matching those from the Barrister's Offices, still hung from a rack next to the bed (worth 5 gp each).


The heroes then continued their exploration of the courthouse. After they returned to the Great Hall, four lumbering cadavers, three human and one halfling, stumbled into view, moaning piteously as they came. Each one wore a rotting noose around its twisted broken neck. Madge suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked at the halfling zombie in the lead. Tears glistened in her eyes and her lips trembled. “Daddy?” She then rushed forward toward the hungry dead with her arms stretched wide to embrace the moldering halfling.

Among the zombies was Madge Blossomheart’s father. The middle-aged halfling, shredded by worm-maw and rot, shambled toward his daughter. The rest of the zombies reached out to strangle the heroes with cold grasping hands.

Madge rushed to her long-dead father's embrace. She cried tears of joy even as her father calmly gripped her head and twisted it until the echo of her neck snapping resounded off the walls. She moaned out her love for “Daddy” as he wrenched her head free of her body with a wet ripping of sinew and tearing skin.

Madge's father approached Madge and coup de graced her, then battled the closest hero. He fought until destroyed.

The rest of the zombies charged the heroes, stopping them from reaching Madge's father until he murdered his daughter. The rest of the zombies fought until destroyed.

Madge’s body went missing afterwards as well.

Holding Cells

Several rusted iron cages took up most of this area. The barred doors were open and a few swung eerily, although no wind blew down here in the dark. In the lane stretching between these cages lay a headless skeleton, one arm folded beneath it awkwardly, the other outstretched from its side.

After his corpse went mysteriously missing, Halgrak turned up down here in the dark. He had risen again as a disgusting ghoul. Halgrak was hidden under the bunk in one of the cells.

Halgrak tried unsuccessfully to infect the heroes. He fought until destroyed.

Clue: Carved into the underside of one of the wooden bunks in one of the cells was an epitaph:

"I have served as an angel of justice my entire life. I shall have mine. Even if it be in death, justice shall be mine. Sveth, my only friend, you will find this when you clean the cell. You are my avenging angel now. Bring those liars and fools back to me after I swing, so that I might have my justice. Ten years to the day, then they will pay, my soul shall stay until ten years to the day. When the true murderer of my beloved Malene and my boy Gabe swings from my gallows as I did, on the tenth anniversary of my hanging, then at long last I shall be free.

J.M."

Vision: As soon as Jule saw the headless skeleton, she experienced a vision again, with even more detail:

Once more the image of Sashrala’s freshly severed head invaded Jule's senses. As the burly man slowly turned around and moved out of the cell, Jule noticed a shadow on the wall that she missed before. A mysterious cloaked figure watched the proceedings impassively. As Jule whirled to face it, a cold hand grasped her throat. She could feel its fingers crushing her windpipe as she struggled to breathe. White spots seemed to dance before her eyes, and then everything went black.

Judge's Chambers

This lavish room of cold marble was festooned with a large but mangy polar bear-skin rug and an ornate desk of darkwood carved with an odd motif of cherubs grappling with vipers. Behind the desk in a high-backed leather chair rested a skeleton in judge’s regalia, a long white beard still draped down the front of his robes. A rusted iron spiked chain still dangled from around the neck of the skeleton. Near the desk lay the desiccated skeleton of a large dog, a few of its ribs broken and its skull cracked.

The wolf-hound did not rest easy. The dog’s soul remained. Its skeleton animated to attack Aranthor when he approached the judge's skeleton.

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