- after the guards attacked the party, Brume becomes more worried about the safety of Udo and Willemina.
- So even though Zack Justwelm is with them on their way to the Wachterhaus, Brume sets off after to help protect them.
- Father Lucian isn’t really happy that Paloma killed a guard at Saint Andral’s Church, but grudgingly accepts her rationale for it. He refuses for the guards (living or dead) to be hidden in the church, however, so the party drag the bodies back behind the church and leave them laying in the graveyard
- Ismark has had enough of playing the innocent and letting others dictate his and Ireena‘s safety. He takes some weapons and armor off of the guards and arms himself, with plans to arm Ireena as well.
- when the party ask if he knows how to use a blade, he demonstrates some remarkable competence; he’s more than capable of holding his own.
- Ireena finally comes to, and Father Lucian decides she’s been drugged in some manner. She went from straight knocked out to awake and lucid with far too little transition to be anything like a concussion.
- at this time Paloma and Sophie hear what sounds like pebbles being thrown against the church windows.
- they go outside to investigate. Paloma’s hawk, Santa Muerte is clearly focused on something flying away, and Paloma sees that it’s a small flock of ravens
- the ravens fly away toward the center of town before anyone can make out a better location for them
- there is a group of pebbles tied in a small net, and that is tied to a letter. this is what hit the church window
- letter reads: “Night and Day war amongst themselves within ”/wikis/vallaki" class=“wiki-page-link”> Vallaki. Light appears at the top of the burgomaster’s house at night, and darkness gathers in the day at the basement of the Wachterhaus. But what happens when dark and light are both equally bad?"
- the bottom of the leader has a small stamp on it that looks like this:
- The party, after much debate of what to do, decides to go snoop around the Wachterhaus.
- They avoid main roads, hoping to avoid the notice of any guards that might be looking for them
- taking small alleys and crossing through some wooded and open lands, they arrive to Wachterhaus sight unseen
- Paloma scouts around and sees a door to presumably a cellar on the side of the house. There are some windows nearby. She watches and sees people pass by inside, but none pay attention to outside
- the party approaches the cellar doors together. The blood hawk Santa Muerte stays outside in a tree, but the rest start to proceed inside one-by-one
- a soft dirty floor houses two sets of stairs and four cots, but otherwise the room seems fairly empty. the floor is crossed by obvious footprints going from stair to stair, and oddly enough one set walk straight up to an empty wall
- Paloma crosses the floor with intents on seeing what lies up the second staircase, but eight skeletons claw their way out of the dirt floor and start attacking
- a hunter of undead, Paloma knows that the skeletons don’t have any special resistances against her axes and bows, and starts attacking. the rest of the party rushes in to help
- Bogdan’s attacks are especially powerful against the skeletons, with his bludgeoning blows shattering ribcages and exploding bones around him.
- Ismark, unleashing some pent-up frustration, yells a huge war-cry. (Paloma winces, as they’re now fighting and yelling while literally under the house of Lady Fiona Wachter, whom they’re supposed to meet again in a few hours).
- Ismark starts cleaving through skeletons, dual-wielding a longsword and shortsword and chopping down two at a time
- Ireena tries to run into combat as well but isn’t nearly as effective as her brother
- Half of the skeletons rain arrows down upon the party as the rest close the distance and swing deadly swords.
- the wall to the side, where footprints end on the floor, suddenly spins on a central point and four cultists come dashing out to join in the fray
- Sophie lights up the place with her Flaming Sphere, burning the asses (literally) of a couple of cultists
- The cultists lob arcs of black fire at the party, chased by a smell of brimstone
- Bogdan takes the bulk of the damage and receives a Cure Wounds by Paloma
- The party downs all the skeletons and kills three of the four cultists when the last living one tries to flee
- He invokes a spell that causes Sophie to be frozen in place on the stairs as he dashes past her and out of the cellar. The party tries to give chase but is delayed with Sophie blocking the entrance for a precious few seconds
- as he flees, the last cultist desperately asks “Why did you forsake us of the Four Quarters?!?!”
- Santa Muerte, however, was having none of it. By the time Bogdan got back up the stairs and outside, the hawk was sitting on the dead man’s chest with obvious claw marks around the guy’s face. Bogdan wasn’t sure but he thought he knew what smugness looked like on a hawk now.
- Bogdan chances a quick peak into a window to see how noticed they might be. He hears a servant yelling for Lady Wachter to go to safety and that the servant would check out the commotion in the basement, but Lady Wachter sternly yelled ‘No! Don’t go down there’.
- Bogdan then went back into the cellar
- Paloma and Sophie were inspecting the hidden room. It has a pentagram on the floor
- Sophie tries to burn the pentagram away with her Flaming Sphere
- a deep voice suddenly shouts ‘WHO ARE YOU TO DISRUPT MY SUMMONING?!’ to Sophie, and then Sophie hears something like bat wings flapping around her head
- Sophie, feeling scared and confused, freaks out and backs away
- The party think maybe it’s a bluff and try to destroy more of the pentagram. it becomes clear that it’s black paint on a stone floor
- the voice continues to yell ‘YOU, MOON CLERIC, SHALL SEE YOUR PRECIOUS MOON SHATTERED AND MOTHER NIGHT DESTROYED. KNOW IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT!"
- it then talks to Paloma, saying “VISTANA CHILD, YOU KNOW OF CHOICE. DO YOU CHOOSE LOYALTY AND REWARD OR BETRAYAL AND CURSES?”
- while saying ’loyalty and reward’, a pile of coins shower onto the remnants of the pentagram
- the entire party hears the wings this time and then it’s gone
- Sophie and Bogdan both relate what they know about the ‘Four Quarters’. There was an infamous diabolist named Devostas who had mastered black magics. He was captured, and sentenced to death by being drawn and quartered. Depsite being ripped apart by the horses, he fell magic was so strong he didn’t die. He gained a cult-like following in the years since his refusal to die, although there’s confusion as to what happened with Devostas himself afterward.

Inspiration
- Sophie, for freaking the hell out when the voice started talking about destroying her very religion

Treasure
- 60g (20g that mysteriously appeared at Paloma’s feet, 40g on cultists persons). was this kept by party??