"Tiron, I told you not to grab another stone!" Delf yells as he tackles the surprised cleric. "Not only do you grab it while we're all in the room, but then you follow us, and almost fry us when you breathed that blue fire!"
"Hey! No harm done!" Tiron replies. "Let me up!" Delf does so, reluctantly.
"Let's get out of here before Tiron does something to kill us all," quips Brau'ni, and the party heads back to the entrance of the tower.
Upon reaching the entrance, an eighty-foot high chute, the party discovers the rope which they had dangled from above is no longer there. Raven turns herself invisible, then casts levitate and ascends up the chute to investigate. "The rope's been cut!" she yells down after observing a three-foot piece of rope with a cleanly cut end still attached to the rock to which the party had tied it. She descends back down to the party and begins the process of ferrying the party to the top of the tower. Once everyone is up, Brau'ni tries to open the door. "It's stuck!" Grunting, Brau'ni uses all of his prodigious strength on the door. "No good!" he says. "Something's on the other side blocking it!"
"I'll stone shape an exit in the opposite wall," Tiron offers. " Raven, scout out the area as soon as I've opened it up." And so Tiron creates an exit out of the tower's entrance room. Raven's surveillance reveals nothing, and the party exits the tower without incident. They are immediately soaked by a chilling rain which they will have to endure for the next five days.
The party decides not to exit Myth Drannor the way that they entered it, to avoid the creatures guarding the bridge. They decide to travel to the north, keeping the river on their right, until a safe spot is found to cross it.
After only a few minutes, Brau'ni spots a figure laying in the road just ahead. He cautiously approaches, and discovers a barely conscious woman, battered and bruised. A closer inspection of her face reveals the upswept eyebrows, fine features, and the pointed ears of an elf. "Tiron, get over here!" Brau'ni motions. The cleric kneels down beside the elf and heals her back to full consciousness.
"Thank you!" the woman responds gratefully. "My name is Serenity. I was ambushed and left for dead by a woman and three horrible creatures."
"Yeah, we've run into them before," Brau'ni notes sourly. "You're welcome to come with us. Is there a way out of here besides the bridge behind us?" he asks, helping her to her feet.
"Yes, there is," Serenity replies. "I'll help you get of here. We have to follow the river a ways until we come to a path I've blazed through the forest. The path heads southwest to the Moonsea Ride, to an inn northeast of Ashabenford."
As the party enters the forest, they are ambushed by ten orogs, similar to, but more powerful than, orcs. The party is able to dispatch the orogs after taking only minimal damage, however.
That night and the next three days are uneventful, though wet, as the heavy rain continues unabated. The party camps on the fourth night, but their sleep is interrupted as Tiron awakes in a cold sweat, as if from a terrible nightmare.
"I received a vision from Corellon," Tiron stammers.
"Can you be any more vague?" Delf replies sarcastically.
"The forces of evil are voicing their anger at the party!" Tiron exclaims.
"Yes, he can," Raven nods to Delf.
"Beware!" Tiron yells.
"Tell us something we don't know," Delf sighs.
"I guess we're not out the woods yet," Brau'ni mumbles and goes back to sleep.
The next day, the party quickens their pace, trying to get out of the woods and to the warmth of the inn as quickly as possible. They are all soaked to the bone, and some of the party have felt the heavy hand of fatigue upon them.
Around midday, they pass by an ancient manor in the distance. Four hours later, a puff of smoke is seen through the trees. "That has to be the inn!" Serenity yelps excitedly, and the party quickens their pace even more.
The Channelwood Inn is a welcome sight as the party exits the woods after five drenching days and nights in the forest. They enter the inn and while they are making arrangements with the innkeeper overhear two men arguing at a nearby table.
"I need the money now!" "I told you, I have it, I just have to find it!" "Bah! There's no treasure in the manor, Blaine! You're the only one who believes that!" "I tell you, it's there!" "There or not, if your taxes aren't paid, you lose the manor!" And he stomps out of the inn, pulling his cloak up against the rain, leaving Blaine alone at the table, his head in his hands.
While the rest of the party warms up by the fireplace, Tiron and Raven sit down next to the forlorn man. "We couldn't help but overhearing," Tiron starts. "What's this about a manor... is it the one just north of here, in the woods?"
"Yes, I'm the rightful heir to Mistmoor Manor, but owe taxes on it and stand to lose it unless I can pay them in the next day or so."
"What's this about a treasure?" Raven asks.
"The manor's last occupants, two hundred years ago, were quite wealthy," Blaine explains. "Their wealth was never found, though, as there was a grisly murder-suicide there."
"Really..." Tiron says, his interest piqued.
"One of the daughters of the owner of the manor up and killed everyone in the place, then took her own life. Regine's ghost still haunts the manor today!" Blaine relays, his voice trembling slightly. "Three separate parties have ventured into the manor to try and find the treasure. The first two were never heard from again, and of the third, only one man returned, scared senseless, and screaming of ghosts!" Blaine stops for a moment to compose himself. "I have to find that treasure, or else I lose everything! You have to help me!"
"Let's discuss this with the rest of the party, Raven," Tiron says, and he and Raven return to the party, leaving the distressed Blaine alone with his thoughts.
The party agrees to help Blaine, and he agrees to give them five thousand gold pieces and any magical items they find in the manor. The party retires for the night. Delf and Cel, together in their own room, and in each others' arms, are startled by a sudden lightning crash.
"Ow!" Delf yells as Cel's fingernails dig into his back. "What was that for?"
"I... I thought I saw a black skull outside, illuminated by the lightning."
"It was probably just in your mind, Cel," Delf says soothingly.
"It... it looked so real," Cel replies nervously.
"Never mind that, Cel," Delf purrs.
The next morning, Delf and Cel are reluctant to accompany the party to the manor.
"Why do you want to stay here?" Tiron asks.
"For one thing, it's still raining, Tiron," Delf replies.
"Well, what are you going to do here all day?"
"I have an idea..." Delf grins knowingly at Cel, who blushes bright red.
The party is finally able to convince Delf and Cel to go with them to the manor, and they arrive there almost exactly a day after they had passed by it.
The grounds consist of the manor itself, a stable, and a fence bounding a courtyard adjacent to both the manor and the stable. The courtyard contains a chapel, mausoleum, and a fountain.
The party enters the manor, an impressive two-story building. Proceeding through the foyer, the party enters a great room, a balcony running fifteen feet off its floor along three of its walls. Glancing up at the western balcony, Delf sees a girl with black hair dressed in clothes hundreds of years old. Delf yells up a greeting and the girl retreats out of sight. Running up the stairs, Delf sees no sign of the girl, but does see paintings splattered with blood on the north and east walls. The paintings appear to be of members of the family. There are three paintings on the west wall. Two are badly shredded, the other completely intact. It's the intact painting that Delf stares at incredulously. The painting looks just like the girl he saw! Did he just see a two-hundred year old ghost?
Blaine has joined him. "That's Regine, the girl who murdered the family and then took her own life!"
"I just saw her!" Delf exclaims. Gathering himself, Delf says, "Let's go!"
The party continues to explore the manor. Upon entering the dining room, they see tracks in the dust. At the end of the tracks is a message, scrawled in blood: "Soon, dear cousin, I come for you!" Blaine takes a huge gulp of air and tries to steady himself.
The party presses onward, eventually descending a flight of stairs. Delf opens the door at their base, and quickly slams it shut. "There's a black dragon sitting on a mound of treasure in there!" he yells. Thinking furiously, he at last says, "Cel, I'm going to crack the door. Peek in and see if it's really there."
"It's real," Cel relays. "My part of the Arm of Valor would have seen through any illusion." She pauses. "It never moved, though."
"What position was it in?" Delf asks suspiciously.
"Reared back, ready to breathe," Cel answers.
"Same here," Delf replies and opens the door.
The dragon turns out to be stuffed, incredibly lifelike, but stuffed nonetheless. The mound of treasure turns out to consist of mostly copper pieces.
"Brau'ni," Raphael whispers, sidling up to him. "There's someone in the stairwell, hiding in the shadows. I'm going after her." Raphael suddenly turns and bolts for the stairwell, Brau'ni on his heels. They manage to catch the shadowy figure and bring her back to the dragon room.
"Hey, Delf, meet Regine!" Brau'ni laughs, holding the struggling woman in his unbreakable grip. "Talk!" he yells at her.
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" the woman grimaces. Brau'ni growls but lets her go. "My name is Psyche. I've been looking for the treasure myself. I've been scaring people off, pretending to be the ghost of Regine!"
"Any luck finding the treasure?" asks Raphael.
"No. Would I still be here if I had?" sneers Psyche.
"Listen, we could help each other," Blaine interjects. "She obviously knows the building and we have the people to face whatever we may run into."
The party and Psyche reluctantly agree to work together.
"I'll give you a hand tomorrow," says Psyche. "It's late and I need my beauty rest!" She lies down in a corner and falls fast asleep.
"Let's press on," Raphael says. "Time is of the essence!"
The party decides to split up into three groups to accelerate the search. Delf, Raven, and Blaine enter a room and see Regine, with a raven perched on her shoulder, sitting on a chair. "Psyche!" Delf yells. "Stop screwing around!" Suddenly the raven swoops at Delf, narrowly missing him as he ducks under its path. When he gets back to his feet, there's no sign of the raven or Regine!
"Oh, no!" stutters Blaine. "That was the real Regine, wasn't it?"
"Afraid so, Blaine," answers Raven. "Come on, let's go." She grabs the frightened man's arm and they press on.
They find nothing of interest in several more rooms. Raven opens the door to the next room, steps inside, and vanishes! Delf hears a distant splash. "Raven!" Delf yells and peers into the room. Delf runs over to a hole in the floor, peering down. A stench of old human waste assaults him as he gazes at the bottom of the privy hole, fifty feet below. "Raven!" No answer. "Where did the 'splash' come from?" Delf wonders. "There's no water down there! Blaine, get the others!" As Blaine assembles the rest of the party, Delf drops a coin down into the hole, and sees it travel the whole fifty feet down the hole, thudding on the waste below.
After the rest of the party arrives and Delf explains the situation, Tiron suggests that maybe whatever it was didn't activate for the coin because it was too light. With that, he pushes poor Fugnus into the hole!
Fugnus hits the ground below with a sickening splat, but soon gets up, only slightly hurt. "Tiron!" he screams up at the apologetic cleric.
"What? It looked like to me you were losing your balance, and I only tried to catch you!" Tiron explains, as he helps haul up the exasperated dwarf.
"Yeah, thanks for nothing!" Fugnus snarls as he hurls a handful of slop at Tiron, hitting the surprised cleric.
"Okay, that's enough!" Delf yells. "This isn't helping us find Raven!"
Brau'ni, meanwhile, has wandered down to the bathroom a few doors down. The large bathtub inside is filled with putrid water which he pokes at with his staff. Suddenly, fifteen skeletons erupt from the murky water, grabbing at his legs, trying to drag him under! "Help!" Brau'ni screams and manages to stay above the water, at least for the moment.
Raphael arrives at the door, surveys the scene, and yells "Banana!" An illusionary fireball erupts in the room. The skeletons, however, are impervious to illusion, and suffer no damage. Brau'ni, with a burst of strength, finally manages to drag himself out of the tub, giving Raphael the opening he needs. A carefully placed lightning bolt takes out nine of the skeletons and Tiron, having just arrived, is able to turn and destroy the remaining six.
Further prodding in the bathtub's water reveals nothing. The party is about to head back to the other room, when suddenly Raven appears out of thin air!
"I found myself in a container filled entirely of water," Raven explains. "I swam to what I thought was the top, but couldn't find a way out. Running out of air, I desperately felt around again and this time found a way out! With my last ounce of strength, I pulled myself out and lay on the ground, gasping for air. I was somehow in a cell! I saw a man rolling up a piece of cloth, then he left."
"A portable hole!" Delf exclaims. "He must have filled it with water, then put it underneath the trap door in the other room..."
"Anyway, I was able to go to wraith form and get back here."
"Can you retrace your 'steps'?" Fugnus asks.
"Sure can. Let's go!"
Raven leads the party down to the dragon room. "It's right there," she says, pointing to a part of the far wall.
"Oh," Psyche says sleepily, "you found it."
"When were you going to tell us?" Brau'ni asks angrily.
"Oops," Psyche replies and bolts up, making a break for the door.
"Not so fast," Delf snarls, catching her arm. "Brau'ni, get some rope over here!" They tie and gag her.
Raven leads them through the secret door to a cellblock containing a dozen cages. In one of them lies a young man, who introduces himself as Joshua, an adventurer who had come in search of the treasure, but instead had been captured by the portable hole as Raven had been and dumped into his cell. The party frees Joshua, then points at the bound and gagged form of Psyche. "She's one of the pair that captured me! She and some man named Brock." With that, he grabs her, tosses her into the cell, and slams the door shut.
Tiron, in the rear of the group, suddenly hears beautiful violin music. Intrigued, he follows the sound up to the great room. Upon entering the room, the music suddenly stops and Tiron sees an ethereal girl doing a three-step waltz. As the girl notices Tiron, a huge smile breaks out on her face. "She could be Regine's sister," Tiron thinks.
"Tommy! Tommy!" the ghostly vision exclaims happily. "Tommy, come and dance with me." The ghost approaches Tiron, who backs away. "Tommy, what's wrong with you?" the ghost says sadly, turns away, and disappears.
"I should probably get Blaine up here," Tiron thinks. "But I might as well have a little fun doing it!"
"Blaine, get up here!" Tiron shouts.
"Who was that?" Blaine answers nervously.
Cupping his hands over his mouth, Tiron calls out in his best undead voice, "Blaine, dear cousin, I have come for you!"
"That's it! I'm staying down here!"
Chuckling to himself, Tiron rejoins the party, walks up to Blaine, cups his hands as before and once again intones, "Blaine, dear cousin, I have come for you!"
"Moron!" Blaine stammers as the party gets a good laugh at his expense.
"Tiron, you're loud enough to wake the dead!" Raven laughs.
The party decides to spend the night in the prison cell. Brau'ni, Fugnus, and Raphael take the first watch. Tiron casts Wyvern Watch on the two entrances to the prison block and falls asleep quickly on Brock's very comfortable bed.
Tiron half wakes up, having heard something. He glances over and sees Brau'ni, Fugnus, and Raphael prone on the ground, decapitated! Their heads rest on the ground, a pool of blood soaking into the cold stone floor. Tiron sits bolt upright in bed, lips clenched together to stifle the scream he knows he cannot hold back. Movement off to the side distracts him from the grisly sight of his beheaded friends. A skeleton wearing a hooded robe and carrying a large scythe materializes and hovers over Cel. With a sickening whoosh-thump sound, it cleanly slices her head off. Tiron screams, waking those still alive up. "What's the matter, Tiron?" Raven asks moments before a black skeleton appears in front of her and thrusts one of its dark fingers directly into her chest. Raven doubles over in pain, screaming loudly. A sound from one of the entrances jerks Tiron's head around. Regine has appeared in front of Rolonda. "You don't belong here!" snarls the girl as, before Rolonda's horrified eyes, she transforms into an old hag, and starts choking her. "Rolonda!" Tiron yells and rushes up to help her. A garrote suddenly slips down around Tiron's neck from above, cutting into his flesh. Moments before his windpipe is severed, Tiron screams...
And sits up screaming in his bed.
"Tiron?" Brau'ni asks. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, Corellon, the nightmare I just had." Tiron wakes the sleeping members of the party up and describes his dream. Cel blanches upon hearing of the black skeleton which attacked Raven.
"That's just like the skull I saw in the lightning back at the inn," Cel says, frightened. Delf puts an arm around her.
"Listen, I know you and Tiron are spooked, but it was just a dream, all right? Let's just try to get some sleep."
The party gradually drifts off to sleep, but during the course of the night each person is afflicted by intense nightmares. When the morning finally, agonizingly, comes, no one is rested at all.
"Let's try to get some sleep now," Raphael says haggardly. "Maybe the nightmares won't come during the daytime."
Raphael's theory proves true, and the party is finally able to get to some much-needed sleep.
The party decides to begin the day by searching the courtyard, its buildings, and the stable. Approaching the fountain, they see Regine, frantically scrubbing her blood encrusted hands. "It won't come off! Won't come off!" She suddenly looks up at the party, runs towards the manor, and vanishes into its outer wall.
The fountain is filled with brackish water, but nothing of interest is found there. The party enters the stone chapel. Inside is a small altar, draped with an altar cloth and with a candelabra on each end. Delf finds a small compartment in the altar containing a scroll. The scroll has three spells on it: Find the Path, Regeneration, and Speak with Dead. Tiron takes the scroll.
The party leaves the chapel and approaches the mausoleum. Its gothic architecture includes two gargoyles framing an ornate iron door. A search of the mausoleum reveals nothing, as does a search of the stable. The party heads back into the manor.
Upstairs, the party enters what appears to be the master bedroom. A large painting of a beautiful black-haired woman is centered on one of its walls. The woman in the painting looks to be Regine's mother. Delf peers behind the painting and spies a mirror behind it. He and Brau'ni carefully take the painting down to reveal the large mirror. Tiron stares into the mirror, tilting his head. His reflection tilts his head the wrong way, smiles, and leaps out of the mirror, brandishing a long sword! Mirror Tiron swings at Tiron, barely missing him. Tiron casts Dispel Magic and Command Word: Sleep on his counterpart, to no avail. Brau'ni and Delf, seeing a dream of theirs come true, attack Mirror Tiron, hurting it. Fugnus tries to break the mirror, but cannot. Mirror Tiron finally hits Tiron, but soon after Raphael magic missiles him, causing his immediate disappearance.
"Raphael, you killed the duplicate Tiron!"
"He was a duplicate?"
"Nobody look at the mirror!" Delf yells. "Let's get this painting back up!"
Other rooms searched reveal Elven chain mail, which Delf dons, four potions (Healing, Elixir of Health, and two Arcane Comprehensions), and a man's skull staring at a blood-stained mirror.
Tiron takes out the scroll found in the chapel and chants the Speak with Dead spell. The skull suddenly animates.
"Where is the treasure?" Tiron asks.
"It is hidden in the vault," the skull responds.
"Where is the vault?"
"The vault is protected by the image reflected in the mirror and those that gaze upon it."
"How can we open the vault?"
"Say the word 'medusa' to unlock it."
"Is the vault protected in any other way?"
"You must speak the word 'Perseus' to escape the mirror."
"Can we help Regine escape her fate?"
"Regine? My daughter? Regine."
"Who is Tommy?"
"Tommy was Rebecca's boyfriend."
With that, the skull returns to its inanimate state. The party rushes out into the hallway, then into the master bedroom.