Campaign Date: Vay 16, MD 1,323 to Vay 18, MD 1,323

Characters:
Jack Mlegzabounce, human monk-12, LN Toby Miller
Corian the Awakened, human cleric-13, LG Chuck Tillinghast
   The Shrew, human rogue-4 wizard-7, NG cohort
Dathiest the Vain, elf fighter-12, CN Justin Fernandez
   Titus the Songster, elf bard-7, N cohort
Gabriel, halfling rogue-11/ranger-1/fighter-1, CG Mike Miller
   Zeitgeist, faerie dragon sorcerer-10, CG cohort

Log:

On the return trip to the Light Keep to meet the other time travellers, Dathiest visits a nearby stream to collect water before the party camps for the night nearby a low hill in the Melvek Wilds. The sun is setting and the spring air has a crisp chill to it. Just then, Dathiest smells it. Honey, wet fur, and urine. He hears a swoop, and looks up just in time to see a huge beast diving out of the air at him. It looks like a huge lion, with the face of an old woman, the wings of a dragon, and the tail of a giant scorpion. The beast slaps at Dathiest with her paw crying out, "Give me the horn! The horn!". Dathiest counter attacks and with the help of the others the monster is quickly dispatched.

The next morning, the party is greeted by the invisible voice of Zeitgeist the faerie dragon questioning Corian's alignment. At the request of Ostler, Master of the Inquisition Gabriel has managed to track the man he believes is the one responsible for slaying the Archbishop of Vekmar. However, not only was Corian not responsible but he now no longer serves the Unnamed One but instead the bright and noble Justicefather. After some initial misunderstanding, Gabriel manages to form a little truce with Corian in order to investigate his motives and methods and confirm that he has made a change of heart.

As the newly joined group continues on toward the Keep, they are attacked by the monsters again. This time, the faces are of a younger woman and an older man. Throughout the battle, the beasts continually challenge the PCs and ask to take back "the horn" in exchange for their lives. The characters dispatch these beasts with little difficulty due to Dathiest's scathing attacks, Corian's searing spells, Jack's flying fists, and Gabriel's backstabbing ability.

Toward dusk, the group encounters a boy who has worked to find the party. Apparently, he has heard a rumor that they are healers and can help his village to the North. Apparently, a necromancer has been performing experiments on the citizenry in exchange for life-saving healing to counter a disasterous plague-like illness that swept through the community. The experiments range from odd to hideous. The boy, named Khandar, shows a scar along his left side where a lung has been removed by necromancy for use in some experiment. Corian is disgusted by this black magic. He makes the boy whole and pledges to rid the town of this "helpful" necromancer.

That night, the group is attacked by a group of shadows who hunger to draw the life force from them. A magic circle against evil keeps the hungry undead at bay long enough for Corian to turn the beasts from the campsite.

The boy leads the party to the village the next morning. Just as he described, about a third of the 500 inhabitants have some sort of alien disfigurement given to them by a necromancer who claimed to have experimented on them in exchange for saving their lives from the clutches of the horrible plague. Corian uses his healing spells to make many of these poor wretches right, and promises to return to return the entire village to health after he has slain the necromancer. The village people point the party toward the necromancer who is said to live by the black hills where powerful elven wizards clashed milennium ago.

As the heroes approach the hills, a whispering wind tells them the necromancer's story. He says that his name is Turgek and that he only wants to heal, and improve his ability to heal the sick and maimed. However, necromancy is a limited magic at best to be used to do these things so he works to make his magic more powerful. His own wife lays dead, and he wishes to see her returned to life. In exchange for Ambitrax's Horn of Life which was recovered from the Light Keep, he would gladly leave the villagers in peace and let the party live.

The party discusses the morality of the situation. Should they just heal the man's dead wife? Is he completely guiltless in this situation? Should he pay? The party approaches the necromancer, surrounded by a globe of magical darkness, several golems of his own making, and two more manticore-beasts. As the party starts to talk, the necromancer attacks.

Titus and The Shrew died almost immediately, and Dathiest and Jack did their best to hold off the onslaught of the manticore-beasts. Corian raised the Shrew, only to be just about struck down himself. Only the holy power of Corian's magic staff manages to fend off death permanently. Gabriel deals more death-dealing backstab attacks using his magical shortswords. Jack dimension doors to attack the necromancer within his protective darkness only to be backstabbed himself by an undead protector. Zeitgeist does his best to harm the manticores and necromancer with his attack spells.

Eventually, the battle turns against Turgek and he is forced to retreat. The party finishes destroying his constructs made of bone and flesh and follows him down into his lair below the black hills. Inside, they find the lair of a man who has truly descended into the darkness of his own soul. The man lives in his own filth, and allows discarded body parts to stand decomposing in piles. Many of his experiments that went awry lie suspended in fluid. Books, papers, blood, urine, feces, and tools are scattered around the compound in puddles and piles. The group finally moves to the last room, where Turgek stands in a thurmagic circle facing a beautiful human woman suspended in a glass case as though sleeping. As the heroes attack, the necromancer turns toward them. His robe parts to expose a body wracked by experiments that he had performed on himself. Thick outcroppings of bone added a layer of natural armor that the necromancer used to protect himself, and his exposed ribcage housed a writing mass of tendrils instead of organs. He had truly become an alien himself. The heroes end his miserable life, and he wispers aloud with his last breath, "Tell her that I loved her."

Corian and the others spend the next month or so curing the damage that the necromancer had done to the village and burning the various experiments that Turgek had performed in his lair.