The Calming of Carowyn Manor

• Characters: Alrak, Belton Stoutshield, Crulamin, Domollo Blue
• NPCs: Lord Carowyn
• Synopsis: After searching what remains of Jocylina, the group discovers a hand-scrawled letter addressed to one Rolth. Piecing the text of blood together, the letter requests Rolth’s return after having taken several of her ‘guests’ from the party, including a minstrel. The words also incriminate the gray maidens, followers of Eliosa Arabasi, in the introduction and spread of the Blood Veil. With the bloodied axe, Barl and Zaos leave Carowyn Manor with the damning letter with intents on delivering it to the priest of Torm Eshtani Doctry. With only have of the manor explored, the group continues the room-to-room search after Domollo hears flitterings of movement in an adjacent room. Two zombies are preparing a garnished human for the main course in the kitchen. The sight of the depravity is sickening as the group harshly deals with the would-be chefs. Exploring the exterior of the ground floor, the group moves through the lavish and scenic back yard to the guest house. The winter wonderland is captivating in its peacefulness. That is until Crulamin spots the broken glass and unmistakable foot dragings of the zombies that fearfully exited the manor via the second story windows. Finding the guest house free of the undead, the group ventures to the cellar below, discovering a hidden crawl space that leads back to beneath the manor. A well-stocked wine cellar is also home to a locked room. Crulamin and Alrak blast the door to smithereens, which is more effective than Domollo’s efforts to gain entry. The adventurers find a cowering man who identifies himself as Lord Carowyn. Rambling about his missing wife Domollo calms him enough to drag out additional facts of the party gone horribly wrong. Lord Carowyn depicts the party as any normal gathering of the elite, until the crazed harlequin-dressed elf crashed it. The intruder began firing her crossbow into the guests. Evidently tainted with the Blood Veil, the wounded began succumbing rapidly to the effects of the disease. In the chaos he escaped to the cellar and locked himself in. Domollo assures that help is in route as their comrades have left with the evidence to the Temple of Torm. Lord Carowyn is instructed to remain in his niche until all remnants of Jocylina’s doing are extinguished. After securing the battered door as best as possible, the group returns to the second floor of the manor following the layout as described by the distraught head of the house. In the master bedroom they interrupt one zombie dressing another in a ruined gown. The description provided by Lord Carowyn matches one of the zombies; it is, or was, his wife. Belton looses an impressive array of electrical sparks, catching the two zombies. Alrak and Crulamin converge on the monsters delivering the killing blows. With the extermination of all uninvited guests the adventurers return to Lord Carowyn to give him the horrid news of his wife’s passing. They began extricating the man to bring to Eshtani as he is now a material witness of the crime that is the Blood Veil.
• Encounters: two zombie chefs, Lord Carowyn, zombie debutante, zombie noble
• Achievements: cleared the Carowyn Manor of undead, discovered incriminating evidence linking Jocylina to the Gray Maidens of Eliosa Arabasi, a member of the ruling merchant council, and secured the eye witness Lord Carowyn that Jocylina was spreading the Blood Veil disease.