With the wererat threat repelled (for now), the party began planning the relief effort.

Warden took his place as Renaulton’s newly elected ruler and the character has been retired. A new cleric and former palace guard named Nedraw has joined the party in his stead.

When the party returned to the palace Diego was gone but had left a note.

“Friends, I have fulfilled my objective. I have a deep inner satisfaction at the events that have transpired. I have avenged my father… and a new and just ruler has been chosen by the people. I have no doubts Warden that you will usher in a new era of hope for the great populace, the down-trodden and hale alike. The masked legion will be disbanded and I will now be going on a quest to find some much needed rest. Sincerest gratitude, Diego”

Betamax also received a private note from Cassandra, a female fighter from the Masked Legion who Betamax had a budding relationship with.

“Dearest Betamax, I miss you and hope to see you again soon. However, I’m deeply concerned about one of your friends. Please be wary of Fizban. He is a follower of a dark god, and there will be no redemption for his soul. His thirst for death will never be sated. It would be most wise to kill him now while his powers are still immature. We can help. If you can, persuade him to go somewhere alone and remote and we will ambush him. Sincerely, Cassandra”

After this, the party went out into the city to get a read on the situation. Mobs of people were attacking those who had been bitten by the wererats. Also, with so many bitten, the city alchemist was completely sold out of Cure Disease potion. The alchemist pleaded for the party to find him some wolfsbane so that he could produce some more potions and he would pay them well for the ingredient. He also requested some ash moss for use in Potions of Fire Resistance. Luckily the party had a ranger (Mortaugian) who knew were these ingredients could be found.

When the party left the shop, Fizban fixated on a small beetle. The beetle communicated a message to Fizban

“You have killed a daughter of Entomon. To regain our dark lord’s favour and serve your penance, you must slay five innocents or you will suffer.”

Fizban, taking heed to the message, convinced the party that he had some business to attend to before they set off on their ingredient gathering mission.

The party went to the city church and Fizban entered alone while the group remained outside. While inside, he murdered the bishop, and 4 patients suffering the early effects of lycanthropic infection. However, it didn’t go entirely smoothly as two of the acolytes fled by crashing through the stained glass windows.

While the rest of the party maintained a willful ignorance, this act did not sit well with our good-aligned Betamax and gave him further push to follow through with the letter from Cassandra.

The party entered the forest where they fought some gump’s and flying stirges. They found a supply of wolfsbane which they harvested. Mortaugian also found a half buried sword that could speak! It called for Mort to pick it up and wield it.. the sword had an extreme thirst for blood and glory and simply asked that it not be sheathed.

From here, the party could see the smoke from the volcano Mt. Hellysium. There were demonic imp like figures flying around it. But the party pressed on towards it so that they could collect some ash moss before returning to Renaulton.

As they came closer to the volcano, the could see an ominous tower like structure had been erected in the distance. The party suspected this tower may have a role in the presence of these evil creatures. They considered investigating, but then wisely chose to head back to Renaulton first and sell their ingredients.

They were attacked by a single demonic imp! The imp infected Betamax with a deadly poison and he was quickly rendered unconcious and near death.

The party slayed the imp and healed up Betamax as best they could. They decided to make camp in the forest for the night.

In the middle of the night, Betamax silently got up. He received a signal from the forest that the ambushers were in place. He woke Nedraw and Mortaugian. He tried to convince them that there was a plan in place to deal with evil Fizban and that they had to leave now. The convincing took longer than anticipated but he did finally get them to agree to abandon Fizban to his fate.

The prolonged conversations woke Fizban from his sleep. He awoke to Cassandra and three other Masked Legion warriors enclosing in on him. The bad news? He was badly injured and had only 2 HP left…

TO BE CONTINUED