The Keys of Telku / The Final Key pt. 5 / Kith the 12th through the 13th, 3593 CE / 1-30-22

The Adventurers have just defeated the wereboar guards who attempted to betray them on the road to Pandona. The guards serve House Argaine of Amarath, and the party had joined their caravan, disguised as guards themselves, in order to avoid scrutiny on their journey from any still seeking to collect a reward for the warrant put out on them by Tarrus the One-Eyed. The party is now faced with a dilemma; should they hurry on to Pandona, where their companion Night has told them they must warn the Overlord of Pandona of Tarrus's schemes before the Lord of Liem requisitions some of Night's fellow Amita K'un ninjas to fetch the final Key of Telku? Or do they need to return to Castle Argaine to further investigate how Anubhak-worshipping lycanthropes had insinuated their way into the Argaine staff, whether Lord Rickard Argaine, the head of the House, was in on the scheme, and check on the safety of the two companions they left behind at the keep, Shadolok and Sultar. In the end, friendship wins out, and the party decides they must be loyal to those who shed blood with them. Night, insisting that she cannot betray her duty to the Overlord with any delays in warning him of the threat from Tarrus, night departs for Pandona, leaving the rest of the party to turn the caravan around and return to Castle Argaine, but not before John decides to consume the liver of one of the dead wereboars, quite possibly infecting himself with their lycanthropy. The party takes the two surviving guards with them, but that night, as the party is camped, Marrow executes them, despite the attempted intervention of John and Baijao. The next day they return to Castle Argaine, and find it eerily quiet and abandoned, with none of the signs of life or activity from the servants and staff that they observed on their last visit. As they drive their wagon into the courtyard, the party is ambushed by the same bugbear cultists of Anubhak that they fought previously on the road from Lidea to Castle Argaine. After a heated battle, the bugbears are defeated and the party is left to continue their investigation of Castle Argaine.