The Plot Thickens
The group returns to Sual's and meets up with Lorelei. They recount their mission to find The Necromancer and how they ran into another vampire spawn. The Necromancer confirmed that vampires are incredibly rare as they are native to the Shadowfell and would need someone or something to bring them into this plane. Seeing two spawn so close together is concerning.
Lorelei tells them about her reconnaissance mission for Baz. She was able to "bump into" Lucas Taggert, the son of a Treascair noble who is in town courting Leanna Marshall. She learned that he isn't interested in marrying and that he was only here at his father's insistence. It seems his father had a private conversation with the King Regent of Treascair and since then has been pushing for this marriage which is very uncharacteristic.
Having filled each other in, the group set out to the Fit Club to meet with Baz and give him the intel. Lorelei's information seemed to confirm some of Baz's suspicions, though he still doesn't understand why the King Regent would care. He also confessed concern about the vampire spawn as it is too much of a coincidence to be ignored. His takeaway is that there is something larger going on but there are still too many unknowns at this point. He lets the group know he'll have a job for them soon.
Friends In Need
When the group returns to Sual's, Scian is waiting and asks to speak with Amérre. He asks for her help as a friend of his is in trouble. Unfortunately, this will require crossing the border back into Treascair. Amérre agrees to help but Arbin and Lorelei don't think it is a good idea to re-enter Treascair given the way they left. After Amérre departs, Lorelei receives a sending from Flynn Devlin. It seems Fergal has gone missing and Flynn asks her to come north to a town called Seiche to help look for him. Lorelei and Arbin agree to go help Flynn. Myrnin agrees to join them after discussing the situation with Baz who confirms he would like to keep tabs on this group so Myrnin should stay close to them.
What's That Smell
The group departs early in the morning, heading north through Cladach and on toward Seiche. As they are about halfway between the two towns they are attacked by a Rot Troll. While it is a challenging adversary, the group is able to vanquish it without any casualties.
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
Upon arriving in Seiche they meet with Flynn who tells them that Fergal went out hunting as he often does and didn't return home as expected. He's attempted to locate him magically but something is blocking him. After a quick rest at Flynn's, the group heads back into the town to attempt to find a lead. They talk to a fisherman who tells them he saw a group of armored folk traveling off the road. He got a bad feeling about them and left before they noticed him. The group hires the man to show them where this happened. They are then able to follow a set of tracks arriving at a road that travels north to south.
Myrnin flies up to get a better vantage on the road and notes a group that could be the group they are tracking down the road traveling south. The group pursues, attempting to gain on them. As they get closer, Myrnin scouts up ahead and sees the group stop on the side of the road to rest. He's able to stealth close enough to note there are four armored men that have the look of mercenaries, due to their mismatched armor. Leading the group is a man in very fine, heavy armor. This man is casting a spell of some kind on a sixth man. This man wears no armor and carries no weapons. He matches the description of Fergal that the group gave Myrnin.
The group catches up and sees that the sixth man is, in fact, Fergal. He appears to be under some sort of enchantment. They decide to take this band of warriors by surprise and are able to, as a group, stealth up to them. However, a failed spell by Myrnin on the leader kicks off a confrontation. There is a pitched battle with the two sides pretty evenly matched. The leader marks himself as a cleric when he summons a celestial into the battle. During the fight Lorelei notices his shield bears the symbol of Katergaris, the Paralian goddess of Light.
As the tide of the battle turns and the group is able to get the upper hand on their foes, the cleric casts a spell and disappears leaving behind only ash. The group manages to finish off the mercenaries and rescue Fergal. Flynn is able to dispel the enchantment on him. The weapons and clothes of the mercenaries mark them as being from Treascair. Fergal confirms that they were attempting to bring him back to the King Regent. This doesn't, however, explain why a Paralian cleric is involved.
Flynn confirms that the spell the cleric cast could have been plane shift and given the ashes left behind it is likely the plane he went to is the Shadowfell. This is unsettling to the group as The Necromancer told them that vampires are from the Shadowfell. Yet another coincidence that only leads to more questions.
The Party Reaches Level Six
The party reaches level six.