Castle Amber V: The Province of Averoigne
Our four heroes set out for Sylaire. The locals have warned them that the place is haunted, as well as infested with werewolves. However, it is the closest location to the Inn of Bonne Jouissance, and success would provide them with the enchanted sword they need as part of the ritual to summon Stephen Amber's tomb. In all, they require four items: this sword plus a viper-circled mirror, the Ring of Eibon, and a potion of time travel. At least those are the instructions on the scroll they were given by the seeress in Castle Amber's strange internal garden.
It takes the adventurers three days to reach the rough area they pieced together from the rantings of the locals in the inn. They head southeast on the main road, then cut through the forest and across the River Isoile in an easterly direction. In all, it takes them three days, with little to worry them apart from some strange shadows flitting in and around their campfire one evening; Destiny puts paid to whatever they were by demonstrating the power of her magic axe. One of the insubstantial things is dispersed, and the others leave the characters well alone. Disturbingly, however, Destiny finds that they cannot call on their elementals. They seem to have gone dormant because they are now on an ostensibly Lawful plane.
The close forest rather abruptly gives way to an area of rolling heath. There are many barrow mounds here, as well as a central set of ancient standing stones. The only two that remain upright contain a shimmering image of a lovely fairytale castle - obviously a gate to a sub-realm. That must be Sylaire, so the group goes through.
As they approach the castle, they look around the locale. It is a brighter, more vibrant version of the woods they have just been traipsing through, and the main gate opens for them. Entering, they are greeted by a woman who introduces herself as Sephora, Chatelaine of Sylaire. She greets each of the party by name and chats with them about their provenance; they are obviously expected. She also knows why they are here, and offers them the sword if they will do her a favour and kill a werewolf that is stalking her lands; in human form this creature is a powerful sorcerer named Malachie.
In the event, the wanderers inflict an easy defeat. They know what to expect as they advance into a clear night, the sky dominated by a large silver moon, and easily track the werewolf and his pets along a well-frequented trail. Crawling up to the lip of a hill, they see the targets in a group in a hollow below them. Careful not to let the wolves see them, Sir Blanque, Alexia and Destiny set up an ambush. Marion Shadowdances to behind the wolves, which are slightly separated from their leader, and scares them by gutting one of them in a quick motion of her two knives. The three survivors panic and run back up the trail, straight towards the waiting ambuscade. They are easily despatched, and the three compatriots run forward to join Marion. A couple of crits by Sir Blanque takes care of him: proper preparation pays dividends, and a Virtuous legacy broadsword is well suited to the task.
On their return to the castle, Sephora entertains them right royally and presents them with the sword. The next morning, she waves them off quite happily as they head back through the gate to Averoigne. They retrace their steps back to the main road proper and then spend several days travelling to Ximes, the main town in the south of the province. According to their scroll, they need to try to meet with Azedarc; the locals have already told them that he is either a saintly man or a magic-wielding heretic, depending on who is talking at the time. They will need to approach him carefully, though; as Bishop of Ximes he will obviously be an important personage. They decide they will try to gain private audience with him and then parley with a show of strength. They are hoping to acquire a potion of time travel from him, whatever that is.
On the way, they fall in with a travelling minstrel, a charming chap by the name of Gerard de l'Automne. Destiny maintains her disguise as a human, and the well-dressed group openly approaches the gates to the town. They accost the guards and ask directly for immediate entry; sensing an opportunity for gain, the sergeant of the watch invites them into the gatehouse's guest quarters and sends a couple of men to announce their arrival to the bishop.
Word soon comes back that the noble visitors are welcome to meet the bishop, and they are escorted to his palace. A suitably perfumed flunkey ushers them into the bishop's presence, and then draws the doors shut behind him.
"What do you lot want?" asks the perceptive Azedarc. "You are obviously not from this plane of existence. And, yes, before you ask, I am a practitioner of what these superstitious fools call the dark arts. I am also their bishop, so please don't try anything funny. I am hundreds of years old, and I haven't survived this long without taking appropriate precautions." The characters reveal themselves for who they really are, and Marion brings out the Runestaff. The upshot is that the group doesn't want any trouble either; they tell Azedarc that they just want a potion of time travel. He counters by asking for a trade, and after a bit of haggling he settles for some powerful poison brewed from a rare fungus that they picked up on their travels. Azedarc smiles wistfully: "This stuff reminds of something I did in my youth." The transfer is made, and Azedarc tells the group he never wants to see them again, which suits them just fine. They leave Ximes immediately.
Instead of travelling along the main highway, which they suspect Azedarc will assume they will do, they go to the west along the trail that leads through the woods to Perigon and then curves northwards to Vyones, the capital of Averoigne. They want to be circumspect about their mission, and they certainly do not trust the pseudo-bishop to let them depart in peace.
After a couple of days' travel, they hear some noise from off to their right. It is now evening, and someone or, perhaps something, is moving through the underbrush to the side of the road, heading straight towards them. A woman's voice cries "Hail, strangers. Would you like some company around your campfire this evening?" At least she is not even remotely trying to be sneaky, so they say yes, and meet a woman who introduces herself as Moriamis. Intriguingly, this is one of the names on the scroll whose clues they have been following, so they start to introduce themselves. She interrupts politely, and describes each of them in advance, names and origins included. "I am much older than I appear," she says. "I have been engaged in a centuries-old struggle with Azedarc and others who practise the darker side of the magic arts. I have a gift for you, bearers of the Runestaff: the formula for what you think is a potion of time travel. It is in fact an immortality drug, something I learned from the Eldren. I have obviously used it on myself." She also knows about one of the items the party is seeking, and tells them that the Ring of Eibon is an heirloom belonging to Luc le Chaudronnier, a friend of hers who lives in Perigon; she warns them to be careful, though, because Perigon is being terrorised by a mysterious creature known as the Beast of Averoigne, a creature that appears on the nights when a blood-red comet streaks across the sky. It rips people and animals alike to pieces so that it can eat the marrow from their bones. After their cheerful supper, she waves goodbye, steps into the forest and then vanishes completely. This place just keeps getting wierder...
As the group arrives at the gates of Perigon, dusk is falling, heralded by the appearance of the comet Moriamis warned them about; it hovers over the town, casting a lurid scarlet light on its shuttered and barred doors and windows. The guards quickly usher them into the town, and slam the gates closed with an abundance of locks, bars and traps spread liberally on the ground. As they move into the town itself, they hear a commotion from the far end of an alley to their left. Sprinting, they come upon a scene of devastation; the bodies of various soldiers are scattered on the ground, together with their leader, whose finger has been bitten off completely; he is the only one still alive, albeit shocked. Marion and Sir Blanque notice a very large snaky figure writhing its blood-dark way up a tower that seems to be part of some sort of abbey complex.
The man gasps; "The Beast took my ring! Thank goodness you intervened; it must have heard you coming because it left in a hurry rather than finish me off, unlike my poor retainers here." The mess is indeed impressive; that thing is not to be trifled with. Marion puts two and two together - "A ring, you say? You must be Luc le Chaudronnier; Moriamis has advised us to ask you for the Ring of Eibon." He nods weakly, saying "You may have it if you can defeat the Beast." Luc shouts out to the Abbey, ordering the Brothers of the order to open the doors and let him and his friends in. "We saw the Beast enter your Abbey!" he shouts. "You are all in terrible danger!"
The gates squeal open, revealing a trio of terrified monks, or whatever they are called on this plane of existence. Luc points his remaining good hand towards the tower; "It went up there!" One of the monks gasps. "Those are the chambers of our Abbot. The Beast must want to kill him!" The characters exchange glances; they reckon the Abbot probably is the Beast, but best not to say that just yet. Luc implores them to kill the thing before it escapes, and is then led off by the brethren before he collapses from shock and blood loss.
The band of four bounds up the stairs, only to be confronted by a large, locked door at the top. They pound on it, and the Abbot comes to let them in. "What's all this noise, then?" The entire top floor of the tower is a single, well-appointed living area, but there is no sign of the Beast. There are, though, some tell-tale marks of blood, and lying on the floor near the Abbot's bed is a severed finger, albeit without the Ring of Eibon.
Instead, it is now sitting on the Abbot's ring finger, and as they advance more fully into the chamber, the Ring gives off a red ambience that attracts the light of the comet. The Abbot changes into the Beast, a a black semi-serpentine thing wreathed in writhing red and black mist. The fight is on, but outnumbered as it is by superior combatants, it falls to a flurry of blows. Fortunately for the characters, it fails to drag any of them inside the mist to whatever horrible fate is waiting for them in there. Once dead, the Beast changes back to the mangled form of the Abbot, and the group decides to tell the monks that they dispelled the Beast after it killed him, fortunately just before it despoiled his remains.
They spend a sombre night in the town and leave at dawn, with Luc's thanks ringing in their ears. He reckons it will take them at least a week to reach Vyones, which is where Gaspard du Nord lives; Luc has told them he is another magus, and owns the mirror they need to complete the full set for the ritual. However, their journey is shortened when they meet a group of rather suspicious-looking peasants heading off from one of the larger villages into the woods. The characters nod hello, and then decide to follow them. Destiny reckons that they are doing something they are not supposed to do, although she isn't quite sure it's evil as such. She is right; a strong figure in ragged clothing hails them as "Strangers, not of this place! You are welcome to partake of the bounty of the forest!" This guy is leading the peasants they saw earlier in what looks like a timeless ritual in some mossy old standing stones reminiscent of the ones they saw at Sylaire. "We honour the spirits in the ancient manner," he says, and introduces himself as a 'druid'. He offers to guide the characters to Vyones via the old routes, which he says will shave five days off their journey. "Just don't tell anyone, though," says the druid; "The Christians really don't like those of the Land."
The druid is true to his word, and there are no more incidents as the group makes it to Vyones in record time through the woods. Their guide leaves them "Before we reach civilisation" and they go straight through the town gates. These are strangely deserted, and there is a huge amount of noise coming from a crowd gathered in the central town square. Nobody notices them as they join the fringes; all eyes are on a man standing on a cart haranguing the people. It looks as though the entire town is here.
It turns out that this is the Archbishop of the province, and he is warning the people against a terrible threat. The evil black magician Nathaire is returning to take vengeance on the people for driving him out of their town. The Archbishop gestures towards another man standing near him. "This is Gaspard du Nord. He worked for Nathaire, but he is the one responsible for turning him in to the authorities. Please, Gaspard, tell the people what you know."
Gaspard holds a hand up for silence; he also glances enquiringly at the newly arrived players. "People of Vyones! I used to be a manservant to Nathaire, but by chance I discovered that he is a terrible necromancer. I immediately came to the Archbishop to tell him my tale, and that is why Nathaire was forced out of Vyones. His Grace asked me to take care of Nathaire's possessions, which include an enchanted mirror. In the mirror, the Archbishop and myself have seen Nathaire preparing a giant blasphemy, an enormous figure composed from many bodies. He is even now leading it towards our fair town, bent on revenge and our destruction. But do not fear. In his notes I have discovered the formula for a preparation that will destroy his creation; I am now going to make this special powder. It must, though, be cast into the face of the creature. You must choose some brave souls to do this!"
There is immediate uproar, and Gaspard slips off to what presumably used to be Nathaire's house to whip up his concoction. The characters follow him, leaving behind the poor old Archbishop trying to calm the citizenry. Gaspard sees them, and welcomes them into what is now his house. He sighs, "You seem to be people of breeding and, I suspect, great knowledge. Before you ask, yes, I was Nathaire's apprentice. But I swear that I had no inkling of his true nature, at least not at first. I am telling the truth about his creature and also the powder that will kill it." Sir Blanque replies, "Not to worry, we will destroy the thing. All we ask in return is the mirror." He then explains why they need it, and Gaspard's face lights up; "To return Stephen Amber is a worthy quest! I will help you," he says decisively.
It takes Gaspard a few hours to complete his preparations. He hands Destiny a small glass flask. "Smash this against the face of the colossus" he says, "and it will be destroyed." He obviously recognises that the blonde woman knows a thing or two about magic. He continues, "Nathaire is approaching from the forest northeast of Vyones, I think from the terrible ruins of Malinbois. If you can meet him before he reaches our town, you should be able to stop him."
The four companions move into the woods to head off Gaspard's beast. As well as being heavily wooded, the ground here undulates quite significantly, so Destiny takes up position part way up a hilltop tree that should give her a chance to throw the powder at the gigantic zombie thing. They can already feel the ground starting to shake with its approach, so the others hide in the underbrush. Destiny does indeed manage to hit the thing in the face, but the vial fails to break, and everyone is alarmed as the fragile container falls towards the ground - if it shatters, they may have no way of stopping their enormous opponent. Fortunately, the day is saved as Sir Blanque's excellent reflexes come to the rescue. He pulls the falling vial out of the air and rolls off to one side of the advancing monstrosity.
Looking up, the Filkharian nobleman sees something completely unexpected - the gigantic zombie has a backpack! Sir Blanque realises that it is large enough to contain whatever is guiding the creature, so he hands the vial to Marion, who has considerable skills as an acrobat. She jumps up onto the thing's back, climbs over the backpack and smacks the vial into the face of the colossus. This time it does smash, and the whole thing starts to sink into the ground, disintegrating as it goes. Marion neatly rolls off and lands perfectly safely.
After the zombie ceases to exist, Sir Blanque investigates. He slices open the backpack, and sure enough, Nathaire the necromancer is inside. The group surrounds him, and he realises that he will be dead meat himself if he isn't careful. "We can't just kill him in cold blood now that we have destroyed his friend here," opines Sir Blanque. "Why not?" asks Destiny. Marion provides a solution: "Swear on the Runestaff that you will leave this place in peace and never practise necromancy again." Nathaire's eyes bulge in shock; he has obviously heard of the staff. However, realising that this is the only way out of the situation with his skin intact, he reluctantly does so.
The players return to the town with the good news, and are gifted with the mirror; they now have all of the component elements for the ritual.
It takes the adventurers three days to reach the rough area they pieced together from the rantings of the locals in the inn. They head southeast on the main road, then cut through the forest and across the River Isoile in an easterly direction. In all, it takes them three days, with little to worry them apart from some strange shadows flitting in and around their campfire one evening; Destiny puts paid to whatever they were by demonstrating the power of her magic axe. One of the insubstantial things is dispersed, and the others leave the characters well alone. Disturbingly, however, Destiny finds that they cannot call on their elementals. They seem to have gone dormant because they are now on an ostensibly Lawful plane.
The close forest rather abruptly gives way to an area of rolling heath. There are many barrow mounds here, as well as a central set of ancient standing stones. The only two that remain upright contain a shimmering image of a lovely fairytale castle - obviously a gate to a sub-realm. That must be Sylaire, so the group goes through.
As they approach the castle, they look around the locale. It is a brighter, more vibrant version of the woods they have just been traipsing through, and the main gate opens for them. Entering, they are greeted by a woman who introduces herself as Sephora, Chatelaine of Sylaire. She greets each of the party by name and chats with them about their provenance; they are obviously expected. She also knows why they are here, and offers them the sword if they will do her a favour and kill a werewolf that is stalking her lands; in human form this creature is a powerful sorcerer named Malachie.
Confronting the werewolf and his pets: a picture from the module. Obviously our Stormbringer party doesn't look like this, but it is a nice image of a D&D party in action: Dwarven fighter; human cleric; and, presumably, an Elven fighter/Magic-user, although maybe she's a rogue with rapier and main gauche. She seems rather well dressed, though.
In the event, the wanderers inflict an easy defeat. They know what to expect as they advance into a clear night, the sky dominated by a large silver moon, and easily track the werewolf and his pets along a well-frequented trail. Crawling up to the lip of a hill, they see the targets in a group in a hollow below them. Careful not to let the wolves see them, Sir Blanque, Alexia and Destiny set up an ambush. Marion Shadowdances to behind the wolves, which are slightly separated from their leader, and scares them by gutting one of them in a quick motion of her two knives. The three survivors panic and run back up the trail, straight towards the waiting ambuscade. They are easily despatched, and the three compatriots run forward to join Marion. A couple of crits by Sir Blanque takes care of him: proper preparation pays dividends, and a Virtuous legacy broadsword is well suited to the task.
On their return to the castle, Sephora entertains them right royally and presents them with the sword. The next morning, she waves them off quite happily as they head back through the gate to Averoigne. They retrace their steps back to the main road proper and then spend several days travelling to Ximes, the main town in the south of the province. According to their scroll, they need to try to meet with Azedarc; the locals have already told them that he is either a saintly man or a magic-wielding heretic, depending on who is talking at the time. They will need to approach him carefully, though; as Bishop of Ximes he will obviously be an important personage. They decide they will try to gain private audience with him and then parley with a show of strength. They are hoping to acquire a potion of time travel from him, whatever that is.
On the way, they fall in with a travelling minstrel, a charming chap by the name of Gerard de l'Automne. Destiny maintains her disguise as a human, and the well-dressed group openly approaches the gates to the town. They accost the guards and ask directly for immediate entry; sensing an opportunity for gain, the sergeant of the watch invites them into the gatehouse's guest quarters and sends a couple of men to announce their arrival to the bishop.
Word soon comes back that the noble visitors are welcome to meet the bishop, and they are escorted to his palace. A suitably perfumed flunkey ushers them into the bishop's presence, and then draws the doors shut behind him.
"What do you lot want?" asks the perceptive Azedarc. "You are obviously not from this plane of existence. And, yes, before you ask, I am a practitioner of what these superstitious fools call the dark arts. I am also their bishop, so please don't try anything funny. I am hundreds of years old, and I haven't survived this long without taking appropriate precautions." The characters reveal themselves for who they really are, and Marion brings out the Runestaff. The upshot is that the group doesn't want any trouble either; they tell Azedarc that they just want a potion of time travel. He counters by asking for a trade, and after a bit of haggling he settles for some powerful poison brewed from a rare fungus that they picked up on their travels. Azedarc smiles wistfully: "This stuff reminds of something I did in my youth." The transfer is made, and Azedarc tells the group he never wants to see them again, which suits them just fine. They leave Ximes immediately.
Instead of travelling along the main highway, which they suspect Azedarc will assume they will do, they go to the west along the trail that leads through the woods to Perigon and then curves northwards to Vyones, the capital of Averoigne. They want to be circumspect about their mission, and they certainly do not trust the pseudo-bishop to let them depart in peace.
After a couple of days' travel, they hear some noise from off to their right. It is now evening, and someone or, perhaps something, is moving through the underbrush to the side of the road, heading straight towards them. A woman's voice cries "Hail, strangers. Would you like some company around your campfire this evening?" At least she is not even remotely trying to be sneaky, so they say yes, and meet a woman who introduces herself as Moriamis. Intriguingly, this is one of the names on the scroll whose clues they have been following, so they start to introduce themselves. She interrupts politely, and describes each of them in advance, names and origins included. "I am much older than I appear," she says. "I have been engaged in a centuries-old struggle with Azedarc and others who practise the darker side of the magic arts. I have a gift for you, bearers of the Runestaff: the formula for what you think is a potion of time travel. It is in fact an immortality drug, something I learned from the Eldren. I have obviously used it on myself." She also knows about one of the items the party is seeking, and tells them that the Ring of Eibon is an heirloom belonging to Luc le Chaudronnier, a friend of hers who lives in Perigon; she warns them to be careful, though, because Perigon is being terrorised by a mysterious creature known as the Beast of Averoigne, a creature that appears on the nights when a blood-red comet streaks across the sky. It rips people and animals alike to pieces so that it can eat the marrow from their bones. After their cheerful supper, she waves goodbye, steps into the forest and then vanishes completely. This place just keeps getting wierder...
As the group arrives at the gates of Perigon, dusk is falling, heralded by the appearance of the comet Moriamis warned them about; it hovers over the town, casting a lurid scarlet light on its shuttered and barred doors and windows. The guards quickly usher them into the town, and slam the gates closed with an abundance of locks, bars and traps spread liberally on the ground. As they move into the town itself, they hear a commotion from the far end of an alley to their left. Sprinting, they come upon a scene of devastation; the bodies of various soldiers are scattered on the ground, together with their leader, whose finger has been bitten off completely; he is the only one still alive, albeit shocked. Marion and Sir Blanque notice a very large snaky figure writhing its blood-dark way up a tower that seems to be part of some sort of abbey complex.
The man gasps; "The Beast took my ring! Thank goodness you intervened; it must have heard you coming because it left in a hurry rather than finish me off, unlike my poor retainers here." The mess is indeed impressive; that thing is not to be trifled with. Marion puts two and two together - "A ring, you say? You must be Luc le Chaudronnier; Moriamis has advised us to ask you for the Ring of Eibon." He nods weakly, saying "You may have it if you can defeat the Beast." Luc shouts out to the Abbey, ordering the Brothers of the order to open the doors and let him and his friends in. "We saw the Beast enter your Abbey!" he shouts. "You are all in terrible danger!"
The gates squeal open, revealing a trio of terrified monks, or whatever they are called on this plane of existence. Luc points his remaining good hand towards the tower; "It went up there!" One of the monks gasps. "Those are the chambers of our Abbot. The Beast must want to kill him!" The characters exchange glances; they reckon the Abbot probably is the Beast, but best not to say that just yet. Luc implores them to kill the thing before it escapes, and is then led off by the brethren before he collapses from shock and blood loss.
The band of four bounds up the stairs, only to be confronted by a large, locked door at the top. They pound on it, and the Abbot comes to let them in. "What's all this noise, then?" The entire top floor of the tower is a single, well-appointed living area, but there is no sign of the Beast. There are, though, some tell-tale marks of blood, and lying on the floor near the Abbot's bed is a severed finger, albeit without the Ring of Eibon.
Instead, it is now sitting on the Abbot's ring finger, and as they advance more fully into the chamber, the Ring gives off a red ambience that attracts the light of the comet. The Abbot changes into the Beast, a a black semi-serpentine thing wreathed in writhing red and black mist. The fight is on, but outnumbered as it is by superior combatants, it falls to a flurry of blows. Fortunately for the characters, it fails to drag any of them inside the mist to whatever horrible fate is waiting for them in there. Once dead, the Beast changes back to the mangled form of the Abbot, and the group decides to tell the monks that they dispelled the Beast after it killed him, fortunately just before it despoiled his remains.
They spend a sombre night in the town and leave at dawn, with Luc's thanks ringing in their ears. He reckons it will take them at least a week to reach Vyones, which is where Gaspard du Nord lives; Luc has told them he is another magus, and owns the mirror they need to complete the full set for the ritual. However, their journey is shortened when they meet a group of rather suspicious-looking peasants heading off from one of the larger villages into the woods. The characters nod hello, and then decide to follow them. Destiny reckons that they are doing something they are not supposed to do, although she isn't quite sure it's evil as such. She is right; a strong figure in ragged clothing hails them as "Strangers, not of this place! You are welcome to partake of the bounty of the forest!" This guy is leading the peasants they saw earlier in what looks like a timeless ritual in some mossy old standing stones reminiscent of the ones they saw at Sylaire. "We honour the spirits in the ancient manner," he says, and introduces himself as a 'druid'. He offers to guide the characters to Vyones via the old routes, which he says will shave five days off their journey. "Just don't tell anyone, though," says the druid; "The Christians really don't like those of the Land."
The druid is true to his word, and there are no more incidents as the group makes it to Vyones in record time through the woods. Their guide leaves them "Before we reach civilisation" and they go straight through the town gates. These are strangely deserted, and there is a huge amount of noise coming from a crowd gathered in the central town square. Nobody notices them as they join the fringes; all eyes are on a man standing on a cart haranguing the people. It looks as though the entire town is here.
It turns out that this is the Archbishop of the province, and he is warning the people against a terrible threat. The evil black magician Nathaire is returning to take vengeance on the people for driving him out of their town. The Archbishop gestures towards another man standing near him. "This is Gaspard du Nord. He worked for Nathaire, but he is the one responsible for turning him in to the authorities. Please, Gaspard, tell the people what you know."
Gaspard holds a hand up for silence; he also glances enquiringly at the newly arrived players. "People of Vyones! I used to be a manservant to Nathaire, but by chance I discovered that he is a terrible necromancer. I immediately came to the Archbishop to tell him my tale, and that is why Nathaire was forced out of Vyones. His Grace asked me to take care of Nathaire's possessions, which include an enchanted mirror. In the mirror, the Archbishop and myself have seen Nathaire preparing a giant blasphemy, an enormous figure composed from many bodies. He is even now leading it towards our fair town, bent on revenge and our destruction. But do not fear. In his notes I have discovered the formula for a preparation that will destroy his creation; I am now going to make this special powder. It must, though, be cast into the face of the creature. You must choose some brave souls to do this!"
There is immediate uproar, and Gaspard slips off to what presumably used to be Nathaire's house to whip up his concoction. The characters follow him, leaving behind the poor old Archbishop trying to calm the citizenry. Gaspard sees them, and welcomes them into what is now his house. He sighs, "You seem to be people of breeding and, I suspect, great knowledge. Before you ask, yes, I was Nathaire's apprentice. But I swear that I had no inkling of his true nature, at least not at first. I am telling the truth about his creature and also the powder that will kill it." Sir Blanque replies, "Not to worry, we will destroy the thing. All we ask in return is the mirror." He then explains why they need it, and Gaspard's face lights up; "To return Stephen Amber is a worthy quest! I will help you," he says decisively.
It takes Gaspard a few hours to complete his preparations. He hands Destiny a small glass flask. "Smash this against the face of the colossus" he says, "and it will be destroyed." He obviously recognises that the blonde woman knows a thing or two about magic. He continues, "Nathaire is approaching from the forest northeast of Vyones, I think from the terrible ruins of Malinbois. If you can meet him before he reaches our town, you should be able to stop him."
The four companions move into the woods to head off Gaspard's beast. As well as being heavily wooded, the ground here undulates quite significantly, so Destiny takes up position part way up a hilltop tree that should give her a chance to throw the powder at the gigantic zombie thing. They can already feel the ground starting to shake with its approach, so the others hide in the underbrush. Destiny does indeed manage to hit the thing in the face, but the vial fails to break, and everyone is alarmed as the fragile container falls towards the ground - if it shatters, they may have no way of stopping their enormous opponent. Fortunately, the day is saved as Sir Blanque's excellent reflexes come to the rescue. He pulls the falling vial out of the air and rolls off to one side of the advancing monstrosity.
Looking up, the Filkharian nobleman sees something completely unexpected - the gigantic zombie has a backpack! Sir Blanque realises that it is large enough to contain whatever is guiding the creature, so he hands the vial to Marion, who has considerable skills as an acrobat. She jumps up onto the thing's back, climbs over the backpack and smacks the vial into the face of the colossus. This time it does smash, and the whole thing starts to sink into the ground, disintegrating as it goes. Marion neatly rolls off and lands perfectly safely.
After the zombie ceases to exist, Sir Blanque investigates. He slices open the backpack, and sure enough, Nathaire the necromancer is inside. The group surrounds him, and he realises that he will be dead meat himself if he isn't careful. "We can't just kill him in cold blood now that we have destroyed his friend here," opines Sir Blanque. "Why not?" asks Destiny. Marion provides a solution: "Swear on the Runestaff that you will leave this place in peace and never practise necromancy again." Nathaire's eyes bulge in shock; he has obviously heard of the staff. However, realising that this is the only way out of the situation with his skin intact, he reluctantly does so.
The players return to the town with the good news, and are gifted with the mirror; they now have all of the component elements for the ritual.
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