This session saw the heroes partaking in a masquerade banquets, held for them in honor of clearing out the barrow. Aradon's Journal tell us the story;

'After giving up our weapons and armour, we changed into our formal clothes and entered the main hallway. It was impressively garnished with party dressings and fine cutlery, and almost seemed too large for the town of Loudwater. Nobles were gathered around eating and chatting, until we strolled in and their attention changed. After a brief smattering of applause, the Nobels formed an orderly queue as they were quite keen to meet the adventurers that had cleared the near by goblin barrow.

I thought it quite rude of Athon and Belgarath to sit down and tuck into the nearest selection of snacks, as the rest of us were more concerned with embarrassing our selves in front of the towns folk. Fortunately Delamor was the perfect gentlemen, even covering up the moment that Gregg managed to trip and spill his drink over one of the ladies dresses! Needless to say we finished our greetings quickly, and accompanied by Lady Moonfire proceeded to sit down to eat.

The sheer array of implements placed infront of us were the main reason some of us just forgot how to eat completely. Luckily Delamor was able to keep it together and calmly ate whilst chatting with the Lady, whilst some of us resorted to using our hands. After the main course, the other members around the table suggested we told them the story of how we cleared out the Barrow. Step up Delamor to the plate ones more who regaled the crowd with an impressive and gripping recollection of out journey. Sound effect and the lot, ensured that the both ourselves and the nobles enjoyed the tale.

During the after dinner chatter, we were asked by Lady Moonfire if she would be able to accompany us on a trip, to investigate a tower to the north she had always wanted to see. When we replied with interest, she suggested that we join her on a hunt the next day, so that we may spend some more time getting acquainted. In agreement Delamor suggested to the Lady Moonfire of his and our interest of the extorion racket rumor that had been going around town. She suggested that if we were to deal with any issue, we wouldn't be held accountable for any inconvenience this may cause.

Before we could decide on the next course of action, the tables were being moved to the side of the room, as it was time for the traditional after dinner dance. Giving his excuses to Zyanne, Delamor proceeded to take the Lady towards the dance floor so i decided to cut in and made her a similar offer. Only the Wizard didn't partake in the merriment, but i feel that was more out of caution than stubbornness. After the food and the wine, much of our party were relaxed enough to dance, and dance well, bar the odd trodden on toe.

We quickly decided to take our leave and say i goodbye to the kind hosts, we even had to pry Gregg away from some fair maiden that he had been talking to. The reason being we wanted to investigate the mysterious house that Delamor and Gregg had found the day before. Gathering up our things we hastily made our way to the other side of town and entered the building after a nice lock pick job by Zyanne. As we pressed further, we were about to enter into the next room when Gregg disappeared into the floor. It appeared as though someone didn't want us to snoop around as he found himself in a pit trap filled with corrosive liquid.

After a short amount of time, i was able to jump to the other side, barley missing the trap myself. Zyanne was able to disable the trap after a few of us shimmied across on a rope, which allowed the remaining members to come across two. We heard faint voices on the other side of the door and decided to burst in. Zyanne thought she saw a portrait of someone in a mirror on the wall opposite, but it disappeared as we startled the occupants of the room and were quickly set upon. As the other group tried to go toe to toe with a strong Tiefling and a nimble woman, i decided to chase down the archer at the rear of the room. As Athon and Belgarath had recognised the woman as the leader and were thinking of a suitable way to dispatch her, Gregg flew into a furious rage and landed a fatal blow.

The earth seemed to shake as suddenly the others we plunged into blackness as the woman literally exploded into a cloud of black particles. We soon realise we had defeated the Lady of Shadows, and had to struggle on to finish off the others.

Once they were all dead, we had a look around and found evidence that the protection racket was part of a grander scheme. Unfortunately we were not able to ascertain how the man had appeared in the mirror on the wall, and in our annoyance and extortion missed a vital piece of information on the note we had found. The Lady of Shadow's had been instructed to send 'creature' to 'take care' of Lady Moonfire if she started to become a problem. But after a mixture of extortion and pride in our victory we all decided to lay our heads down in the now cleared out den and get some much needed rest.

In the morning, we gathered our things and headed out to visit the Lady for our hunt, only to be greeted by the alarm ringing from her house. We broke into a sprint and tried to gain access to the building unfortunately Gregg was pretty tired and couldn't break down the door. After the town guards did the job, we ploughed in. Everything happened so fast but the short version is that the Lady and her family were attacked by something that i saw fly off into the sky. Luckily through a combination of myself and Delamor we were able to stabilise the injured, but there was something else.

Each of those that had been attacked were stricken with some kind of vexxing poison that no one was able to ascertain it's origin. We had to wait for the wizard we had spoken to the night before to have a look at their wounds. After showing him the note we found he was able to tell us that there might be some regents we can gather to aid the inflicted. But that they only grew far too the north. With that and the guilty knowledge that we should have warned the house about the threat last night. We quickly asked the captain of the guard for some horses and made haste in our task to find these regents.

I hope we won't be too late.'

Aradon Thrall


Memorable moments this session:

B*Witched (don't ask!)
Glenn breaking out the 20's during the dinner party.
All the characters in the party can body pop!
Everyone at the table talking about how best to deal with the Lady of the Shadows, while Travi's character pretty much cuts her in half.