Burrito's [Darryl] special-needs brother Nut had taken a turn for the worst, so Martha Campana (Burrito's mother) asked Burrito to return home to tend the poor boy, while she did her day-job as a seamstress. Argile[Richard] was marmalading.
It was an hour before dark.
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| Madagascar Gauloise |
Esme, the party's NPC secretary, came into the Budgie Smuggler's secret lair and told the group that they had another potential member.
About an hour after dark, Esme happened to glance out the window onto the gloomy street.
"What's that?" she squeaked.
The group looked out. There were two creatures there, moving with unnatural speed ... just like the ghouls of the other night.
So, as loyal Scabport citizens, they went out and fought them.
With the help of Lammy's [Kevin] Light spell, and Madagascar's Magic Missile, and Grey Wacke's [Jeff] combat Lead Group Action, they were dropped.
When the fight was over, a patrol of leather-armoured soldiers arrived. These identified themselves as TGP (Thieves' Guild Police) and their commander was Sergeant Staines, a half-elf. He questioned the group, and then told them that the TGP was helping protect the city. And that all the undead here was because of the "invasion" of the Graveyard by the forces of REAL. It was affecting all districts this side of the river. The Knives were barricading the five bridges across the Scab river, so no undead had got across to the other side - yet.
When Staines found out that this group was the Budgie Smugglers, yes, he had heard of that name, and of some of their exploits, and HEAT.
After the patrol had gone, the group put the two ghoul bodies onto Carte Blanche, took them down the street to the wharves and the river, and chucked them in.
There were other suspicious creatures swimming in the river too. The group didn't tarry too long.
When the group got back to the blind alley that lead to the secret entrance door of their lair, there were four skeletons down that alley, wandering around like lost souls. These were soon dispatched by the group; another Lead Group Action by Grey Wacke. Mention in dispatches to Ronnie [Deacon] and Ampersand [Shane].
Later on that night, firmly ensconced in their lair, Huilam [Jamie] glanced out the spy-hole on the secret door. It was completely black - unnaturally black. Since the iron door was well-barred, no-one was brave enough to open it.
They settled down to the rest of the night.
A couple of hours later, Tylin [Ian] glanced out the window and, down the street a stone's throw away, he could see a heat-source fighting something (with no body heat). He roused the group, and the fighty ones went out to help. But, when the iron door was opened, something came in.
Imagine a man standing in the doorway, with a street-light high above casting his shadow into the threshold. Now, imagine the street-light lowered quickly, so that his shadow would slide across the floor. Well, this shadow looked like that, but there was no street-light and no figure to cast it.
The hackles rose on everyone's necks and the room went cold.
Grey Wacke chopped at the shadow and ... as you would expect, smashed a chair with his sword, and cut the floor. Ronnie loosed an arrow into it, and ... put an arrow in the wall, then one into the china cabinet.
Madagascar tried a Magic Missile. That seemed to work, and there was a high-pitched scream, like fingernails on black-board. It didn't like Lammy's Light either.
Grey Wacke landed a tremendous blow with his sword, right through the shadow, and cut a magnificent gash through the lathe and plaster wall, through the dwangs and wall studs, right into the bunk room on the other side. But it didn't seem to affect the shadow. In fact, it jumped at him with another scream, but he managed to deflect it with his shield.
Madagascar hit it with another Magic Missile again, and it just vanished, as if it was not even there.
After that little fight, when the plaster dust had settled, Tylin looked at the window at the figure on the street. He was there, but lying still, and slowly cooling.
"We better stay eenside," he whispered.
All was quiet for an hour or two. Then there was a skittering on the outside wall, followed by a scratching on the roof (like an opossum on corrugated iron). They all tensed for a break-in, but nothing happened.
Later, eight skeletons marched past in the street in perfect two-by-four formation and in perfect time.
No-one was brave enough to go out.
In the morning, after light, they rested [ and did a Downtime to recover stress ].
Then they all headed to see Lieutenant Anton Chung at the Council/Knives offices. The Knives Receptionist seemed to be expecting them, and motioned them over to Chung's office immediately.
Chung was there in the conversation pit next to big map of the city festooned with pins and labelled blocks of wood. He was with four bully boys, an older man, and a young woman both in chain-mail. He looked up.
"And here're the bastards who started this," he growled.
He surveyed the group a moment with a calculating eye, gestured to the bully boys, and pointed at Ronnie.
"The pretty boy."
The bully boys yanked the hapless Ronnie from the group, threw him onto the sawdust-covered floor, and then laid into him with iron-shod clubs.
Grey Wacke watched with keen interest.
"Can I join in too?" he asked, eyes shining.
Chung didn't look up, but pointed to a rack of staves on the wall.
"Help yourself."
Grey Wacke gleefully grabbed an iron-bound staff, and then laid into Ronnie too. 
The regular and wet thwack thwack noise, like a tenderizing hammer into meat, the occasional crunch of a bone or rib, and Ronnie's pitiful whimpers drowned out any murmurings from Chung and the other two as they discussed the tactical map.
Dee Dee [Steven] was not very happy. She approached Chung.
"This isn't fair," she exclaimed. "The undead attacked first."
"Shut up, gnome!" snarled Chung. And he punched her in the face hard enough to send her flying across the room.
After Ronnie had stopped moving, Chung waved the bully boys to stop. Grey Wacke managed to sneak in another blow onto Ronnie's broken backwards-facing knee before Chung stopped him with a glare, and then a puzzled "why are you beating your own man?" look. The party picked up the bleeding, beaten and unconscious Ronnie.
"You lot go see the REALs," Chung snapped. "See if your whore friend can talk some sense into them. They won't talk to us at the moment."
"'Whore friend'?" said Huilam.
"That REAL bitch. Rita."
"I would not call 'er an 'ore..." He was silenced by a deathly glance from Chung.
"She scorned ME!" Chung thundered.
Huilam stammered hurriedly: "... but we weel do our best, Lieutenant."
They headed to the REAL temple. It was a hive of activity. REAL guards had formed a cordon around the entrance and were stopping any townsfolk from entering, but Rita was in the courtyard, and when she saw the group, waved them through, and into a side room.
Rita tended to the broken Ronnie and cured some of his minor damage.
"I can't fix this all," she said. "Our main healers are resting after last night."
The party explained the Knives' point of view.
While Rita agreed with them, she didn't have any ideas. The top priest of REAL, Most-High Priest Igor Lightmouth, was dead keen on this purge, and he didn't want to stop until the Wraith King was destroyed. The upper-tier priests, including Rita's mentor Priestess Colleen, agreed with him.
However, more concerning to Rita, was that the Most-High Priest said he had prayed with REAL and that REAL had commanded this undead scourge be purged. All REAL priests know the open secret that both the Primal gods REAL and IMAG can not communicate with their priests, and that doing any direct deity communications spell (like Commune, Augury, etc) results in insanity.
So, they left Rita, and went back to the Knives base again with some ideas.
As they approached Chung's office, a black sphere emerged from the room, and walked past them in the hallway; an IMAG priest.
It was a few hours since they had last been there. Chung was still there, but with just with two bully boys this time. On his desk were four of the black arrows (like what Charles had offered the group last time).
Chung looked up, pondered, and pointed at Moonlight [Chris].
"That one."
Moonlight was hauled to the sawdust. One bully boy managed to get a solid hit into Moonlight's sagging gut, and one to his collar bone, before Huilam interrupted.
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| Wraith King |
"We can stop ze war," said Huilam.
Chung gestured to the bully boys to pause, as Moonlight knelt in the sawdust, coughing blood.
"Ha!" said Chung. "If you can do that, 25 COIN. But I don't believe you."
.
"We can negotiate with the Lich King," said Grey Wacke. "Very 'daring'."
"'Wraith King'," corrected Chung.
"...but it will be more than 25," muttered Madagascar.
"I am not authorized to pay more than 25," said Chung. He nodded to the bully boys and they landed two more blows into Moonlight. "But tell me your idea."
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