Chapter II: The Bluetops

Our heroes had vanquished and released the specter from it's earthy torment by burning the bodies of its children. Opening the final wall of the manor's basement they find a pillar with prongs that seem to hold something and a makeshift study area complete with books and notes strewn about. Those of them who looked through the lens see the same shadowy figure from before taking a stone from the prong and entering a portal on the far side of the room. They see a teleportation circle though none of them know what it is. They find a book of Unseen Servant, a book titled 'The Cycle: A History of Magic on Etea", a potion of healing, and a small amount of copper.   Knocking is heard upstairs. When the party goes to open the front door they find Ellis and a group of people gathered outside the front gate to the manor. She inquires about what happened and that the city folk had been hearing strange noises coming from inside. Informed of the horrors the party had seen she is shocked and not entirely convinced. Skeletons don't move and ghosts don't exist. The party sends her in with the lens where she runs out screaming and tells them they need to talk to the Ritter Casar Bruhns. They head to the inn where she provides them with food and a place to stay where she can retrieve the Ritter in the morning.   They wake and find Ellis and the Ritter talking at a table where she introduces them. He says Ellis told him the details of their venture into the archaeologists manor and though still slightly skeptical believes Ellis and therefor believes them. He see's they are capable and asks a favor of them. The nearby village of Stanmore send word they were being attacked by strange red creatures and needed help to fend them off. With no military regiments passing through recently, another adventuring group calling themselves the Bluetops came through a few weeks ago and he tasks them with helping the village. He has not heard word from the village nor the adventuring party since. He asks our Heroes if they could check up on them and see what has happened.   The party makes down the road on a 2 day journey to Stanmore. Along the way they encounter Herve LeRue, a renowned painter who is creating a new work in the area near the river. He tells them for a sum of 35 gold pieces he would be willing to paint them as they are a strange and interesting looking bunch and they would be in possession of a LeRue original. The party passes and moves on. On the second night our dragonborn has a nightmare where he sees the shadow from the manor transform in front of him and attack. Shen runs away, Bink gets killed horrifically, and both Air and Xar get taken down where Xar wakes up to realize all is fine. He gives the lens to Bink for safekeeping as he no longer wants to be its keeper. Along the way Bink reads the books found in the manor where he comes across a name of an Archmage Daxius who they believe to be some type of Elf.   Reaching the town they find it mostly burn to the ground. Decaying bodies of the small handful of guards and many villagers. A few building remain intact with the church to Xor the god of beginnings being almost untouched. Xar peeks inside to the pews pushed to the sides and mounds of bodies filling their place. Walking to the door in the back they hear bantering and inside they find two of the four Bluetop party members standing over a body on a table with a couple scrolls next to them and another smaller pile of bodies next to that. They quickly realize that they had taken advantage of the town in need of help and pillaged it instead. They seemed to be experimenting with the body. The party attacks and quickly dispatches one of the Bluetops where the leader brings a body on the table to life then one from the pile. She was badly wounded and wanted to exchange info for her life though Xar was adamant she die. Attempting to flee, Xar impales her in the back killing her. The party after taking care of the zombies opens the door in the room to find eight villagers bound and gagged. They are informed that the other two went in search of someone named Daxius and that's all thehy know. They decide to escort them back to Idreah but not before Shen terrifies them by showing his magical abilities.   On their journey back to Idreah Aire finds 3 of the villagers attempting to escape claiming that Shen is evil and they would rather take their chances on the road than be murdered by a witch. Shen talks them down and the next night they arrive in Idreah where they find Ellis who gives the refugees rooms and food. In the morning Ellis brings the Ritter back to the party where he thanks them for helping these people though he is scared about recent events and what they mean. They ask if he knows an elven Archmage names Daxius and he says he thought magic to be fiction but if they are looking for a well known or higher up elf they should try the great elven city of Galren. It's 625 miles to the east around the lake of Chey. It would be about 25 days or more by foot though he supplies them with a logging carriage drawn by two horses as a sign of his gratitude so the journey should take about 12.5 days instead. He also tells them when the Bluetops came through they mentioned that they had just come from an adventure in a place called the Fractured Barrows. The party decides to venture to the Elven city and thank the Ritter.