The Black Knight of Arabel: 26 Mirtul 1479 DR 2

The Order of the Red Circle consists of:
Donaar, a Dragonborn Paladin of Kelemvor,
Travok, a Dwarvin Cleric of Kelemvor,
Scapin the Sly, a Halfling Rogue &
myself - En'Kethradath, an Eladrin War Wizard.

Continued from Part 1.

We traverse the city to the Book Emporium, Brainard’s Emporium of Books and Birds. The Emporium is a tall building with a large windowed atrium and it is raining ... inside. There were books everywhere, and birds pooping on books, everywhere. Ms. Brainard is an old woman and it turns out that she is the person that sent the letter to the King, after she watched Burgomeister Mort stuff all of the letters that she wrote about Dark Skull and the shadow creatures somewhere in her shop. Searching takes a while, but eventually I find the reports. Reading them we notice a pattern, very few put Dark Skull at the actual scene of the attacks, and none prove his guilt. In fact, the shadow creatures started attacking before Dark Skull first appeared. Ms. Brainard also reported on the activities of a cult of Shar in the area, but she doesn’t know who are the cultists. From this evidence we gather that Mort is incompetent and not doing his job very well. It’s time to pay a visit to the Burgomeister.

We are greeted at the door by a manservant to whom Donaar shows the King’s writ and tells him that we are here on the King’s business. The manservant says that he has been expecting us and leads us inside. While the outside of the house is what one would expect of the home of the Burgomeister, the inside is eccentric in its décor. There is a jar of yellow liquid on a bookcase next to a half-stuffed cat, and beakers and other objects of alchemical persuasion litter the area, but all have been placed and mixed and left about in a way that makes them worthless for their original purposes. We were shortly met by the Burgomeister himself, a middle-aged man with a disheveled look and grey colored hair that can only be described as crazy-looking. We told him why we were there and he gave us a spiel about wanting to make Arabel prosperous. Donaar intimidates Mort into crying. He is clearly incompetent and doesn’t know what to do about the troubles plaguing the city. He confesses to us that his name is Morton, and that he likes coffee cake.

As we prepare to leave there is a frantic banging at the front door and a high pitched terrified voice begging to be let in. The manservant makes for the door at a snail’s pace and Donaar pushes past him to open it. A little boy, breathless and crying, tells us that he is afraid because Dark Skull is going to at him. He speaks quickly and it is hard to understand him as he is so scared, but we gather from him that he was in the forest just outside of town and that there were some trees there painted white with skeletons hanging from them, and it was there that he saw Dark Skull. We left him at Mort’s as it would probably be safe enough for him to wait there.

On our way to the south gate, we passed by the Old Theatre, just to make sure that there was still nothing happening there. After exiting out the south gate we headed west to see the trees that the child spoke of. In the grove there were no skeletons, but there were bones hanging from several trees painted white and there was Dark Skull, waiting for us on a rise in the center of the grove.

We ask Dark Skull why he is attacking the people of Arabel with shadow creatures and discover an interesting truth. Dark Skull is in fact one Sir Severen, a knight falsely accused of treason and banned from the king’s court two months past by Lord Ezred. They were both courting the same woman, a Lady Lofern. Sir Severen returned to his home of Arabel, and spoke with his father Jaral, who cursed him to Shar. There is a cult of Shar and Jaral is obviously a part of it. Part of the curse requires him to wear a skull mask, and when he takes it off, which he can only do for short periods of time, he looks like an ordinary man. The white painted trees help to keep the people out of the countryside where the shadow creatures can attack them. He has been trying to protect the people of Arabel in the only way he was able. We tell him that we were sent by the King to take out the Shadow creatures and ask why he stood by when we were attacked. He believed that we had been sent by Lord Ezred to kill him. He is willing to help us in exchange for helping him to gain an appeal in court. We agree to his terms.

Just then, the moon casts a red light down upon us, and it is the start of a lunar eclipse. Knowing now, exactly what the scroll meant, we race back to the Old Theatre. We bust in and find the cult of Shar chanting. The door in the roof allows the moonlight to shine down directly on the alter on the stage. The chanting cult plans to sacrifice an infant child, and we discover that the leader is Jaral and the infant is his own infant son. Jaral addresses the rest of the cultist/townspeople and we interrupt him, showing the audience our evidence, that Jaral has been calling forth the shadow creatures and cursed his own son, and that the worship of Shar is not the way. Jaral has been tricking them, and some of them throw down their robes in disgust and leave and we let them. Jaral yells at his disciples to attack us and from the shadows come forth five shadow motes, three shadow seekers, and two shadow hulks. Jaral himself turns out to be a Knight Cloak of the Dark Eclipse. At one point in the battle Travok is surrounded by motes and seekers, but he crushes them with his mighty hammer. It is a long hard battle, but eventually we kill everything ending the eclipse and the shadowy darkness over the town dissipates. Jaral transforms in his death throws before us into a grey-skinned, white haired Shadar-kai. The braiziers collapse in the fighting and the Old Theatre burns to the ground.

Heading to the Goblin’s Grotto with Sir Severen, we find the real Jaral and his wife tied up in the basement. We return their infant unharmed to them and find a log book with the names of all the cultist of Shar in Arabel, who will be arrested on the King’s Order.