Lani goes back to her crystal magic research. Zim devotes his time to learning many, many spells. Grey rules, and gets people to research the artifact he's interested in.
Grey receives a letter from one of his minor nobles, Dharma Ranjan. His son has gone missing, and was last seen going to a village in Glantri, for his health. Since that time an incurable plague occurred - the village has since been abandoned, but his son has not returned. He has sent adventurers to find his son, but they, too, have not returned. He wants Grey to send someone to find his son.
The party decides to check it out themselves. Safranna, Roland, Zim, Grey, Lani, and Rohir go to investigate.
The village where the plague is is the village of Sirecchia. It's just over the border from Sind. It's one of the few villages to survive the destruction caused by the meteor. However, it didn't mind its new isolation. It had some hot springs that had some healing properties - however, it turned out it also had some secret sect of clerics. The people in Sind believe it was the clerics who were responsible for the healing, not the springs.
It was meant to be quite a luxurious destination for a holiday and relaxation.
According to the letter, the village has now been abandoned.
We teleport to Raneshwar, a sindhi town on the way to Glantri (for us, anyway). On arriving we see tents - refugees. They flee the plague. Fortunately, the plague does not seem to have followed them. No-one here seems to have any signs of plague. However, people are clearly fearful.
We go to speak to one of the clerics, a Glantrian, to see what they know of this plague. One Edvards Ringolds. He says it is a very, very strange plague. It's called the stone plague. People get tired, then they turn to stone. They could be turned back to flesh, but they were dead. He doesn't know how long it took before they were turned to stone. Some were turned to stone in hours. It seemed to effect family groups.
It's unclear how many people were effected in the end.
No-one has died of it since they came here. It's clearly some kind of magic plague.
The plague also affected animals.
He asks around to see if anyone has seen the Sindhi noble we're looking for. He is not here, but was seen at the village. He was probably left behind. As expected, there was also another adventuring group who went looking for him, but they have yet to return.
It seems as though there are fewer older and younger people here, a result of the plague. Zim speaks to one elderly lady, who says she got sick, but recovered.
The nearest landmark of any interest to Sirecchia is the ruins of a town that used to be called Lizzieni, but now commonly known as Tombstone.
We teleport directly to the town. We hear nothing. Not a bird, not an insect, nothing. We look around, and find a stone squirrel, and a stone bee. No magic is to be detected nearby.
We circle the town. Safranna finds no recent tracks.
It is a small town, with only several buildings. The gatehouse is three stories tall. there is a distinct mineral scent in the air. In one of the guard towers is a statue of a young man. There are statues at the top of the guard towers (two on each tower, for a total of four), garish ones of monsters (bat winged somethings). One has a magic sword, one has a magic belt, one has a magic ring, and one has magic eyes. Lani has a look at them. When looking at the hand of one, it attacks.
They're gargoyles. We retaliate, and combat ensues. In short order one is dancing irresistibly, and another is dominated by Lani. Zim horrid wilts another, although it still stands. After it sees its buddy killed by Grey and Safranna, it flees. Lani casts hold monster on it, and it falls to its death. We kill the dancing one.
Lani gets the dominated one to tell us information. It says the soft skinned ones are killed in a way that is pleasing to Krekulphyr, their leader. He is not here, he is in the sanatorium. There were 12 of them, plus Krekulphyr. They were sentries, posted here to report what they saw.
Krekulphyr uses religious rituals to make the soft skins die in the way they have been. Krekulphyr told the gargoyles there would be much loot here. And there would be fun killing soft skins.
They ambushed the party of adventurers that were sent here before.
Krekulphyr is a powerful priest. He threatens the other gargoyles into complying, and gives them treasure when they do. He is a priest of Nyx. He performs his rituals under the Sanatorium.
Zim casts prying eyes, and sends them into the town to all buildings other than the sanatorium. There are four gargoyles on top of the Sanatorium, guarding it.
We explore those buildings that we can. We find many people that have been turned to stone. Leather and meat goods have also been turned to stone. Some of the houses have been stripped before they left. Others are completely intact - the inhabitants probably died before they could leave.
We also explore a mill. On the second floor is what probably is the miller. He has a quill in hand. Next to him are two books. The first is a ledger, the second is a diary. He says in the diary that people fall ill and turn to stone in a day. He suspects that the spring has been poisoned.
In the graveyard, all of the graves are above ground, which is very odd. The mausoleum is reserved for the "local healers".
Zim sneaks into the Sanatorium, and we teleport in to join him. We find a clerics journal. This person believes the deity Nyx was involved, as they had a vision after a gargoyle arrived and landed on the roof.
On the top floor, we find a place with tools for cutting flesh. Not quite a surgery. It has cages for animals. Some are occupied by stone animals. One has a bandage. Odd.
We buff, and go down. Below is a storage area. At some point, we open a door, only to find a wall hanging covered in glyphs. We get blasted. Sonic, cold. There is then a small burst of fire, the wall hanging burns up, and the second wall hanging is revealed. Four symbols are revealed: Symbol of stunning, weakness, insanity, and death. Somehow, we survive (CPs are spent).
We get rid of the symbols. Behind the second tapestry is a natural cavern. Nearby is a skeletal stone golem. Further in is a cloaked hooded figure. It dramatically throws off its cloak, revealing a gargoyle.
Zim casts stone to flesh on the gargoyle.
The golem makes a mournful cry. It sounds like a dirge. It advances on Grey and attacks.
Roland and Safranna attack the gargoyle. He puts up a bit of a fight, and then dies.
Rohir runs away, subject to insanity from one of the symbols.
Lani places the golem in temporal stasis.
Zim chases after Rohir. Rohir attacks Zim by casting destruction on him. Zim casts greater dispelling, and dismisses the effect.
We regroup. Lani examines the golem. It appears to have been designed to house a particular type of undead creature. A grave crawler. An unusual type of undead. They like to hang around graveyards, absorbing memories. People like to talk to these, as it has the memories of the dead. It is not inimical to the living (people in fact like having them in their graveyard). However, they somehow draw sustenance from the living by turning people to stone, so one should not stand too close to the grave crawler when speaking to it.
These creatures are also called ancestor worms. They are hated by necromancers and corpse devouring creatures. The grave crawlers would rather be venerated than fought.
We free it.
Upstairs we find the stone form of Dharma Ranjan's son. Via the grave crawler, he gives a message for his father.
The grave crawler came here because of the graveyard. But then he was captured by the gargoyle. The grave crawler was not pleased at being used in the way it was.
We discover that the locals put the graves above ground due to the hot springs underneath (it could be disconcerting when dead bodies were thrust to the surface by the underwater pressures).
The grave crawler thanks us again. It really is very civil, particularly for a worm.
We scare off the other gargoyles. We don't bother to kill them. It seems pointless to do so.
We rest to regain spells.
We teleport to the refugee camp. We tell them what happened.
Incidentally, the "surgery" room was some sort of acupuncture room.
We then teleport to the Sindhi nobles place, and tell him what happened. He's obviously unhappy, but he and his wife will make a pilgrimage to Glantri to speak to their son, via the grave crawler.
Zim finds out (after a week) that the Glantrian priests follow Chardastes, a minor healing deity from Karameikos.
We divvy the loot.