Strange Aeons / The Rushton Terror pt. 9/ Eire the 11th, 3592 CE / 8-25-20

Esp Platyrhynchos is deep in mediation when her thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door of the small cottage she and her companions are borrowing from the Church of Accuris. It is Winter, the cleric of Accuris who is acting as the church's interim priestess while the party investigates the disappearance of Priestess Maeve Trelawney, one of many citizens who have gone missing from the small fishing village of Rushton. Winter informs Esp that she has tasked the rest of her companions with traveling to Fort Hailstorm to attempt to gain an audience with the constable or local magistrate. Winter is concerned about Lady Romana, a member of Carthia's Blackguard, who originally tasked Winter with investigating the strange occurrences in Rushton and at Stonebriar Asylum. Lady Romana and her retinue had planned a journey to Fort Hailstorm at about the same time that Winter had traveled to Stonebriar Asylum, and the cleric has learned that none of them have been seen since. She worries that she may have sent Hemlock, Garrok, Sigvald, and Gleorn into danger, and asks Esp to assist them. The psychic agrees, but not before securing Winter's promise that she will look over the comatose druid, Darla. When Esp reaches Fort Hailstorm, she finds her companions have already broken down the front door and are engaged in battle with the fort's mercenary guards, who she realizes with dawning horror have been transformed into undead monsters. Though the battle is vicious, the party manages to drive back and destroy the guardsman, though not before one sounds an unearthly alarm. As one by one the guards fall, the party rallies, hoping the stop the last zombie before more guards are called down upon them.