Sarenith 12, 4709 AR
Falcon’s Hollow

The three of us managed to cross the river in my makeshift raft. We walked on a ways through the woods till we were tired, then made camp. We never saw any signs of Biff or Keth, but we did hear something crashing through the woods nearby a few hours before we broke camp. Upon investigation, we found those same goat-like prints on the ground and the broken branches, as if something large had passed through— something we were unable to see.

We made our way out of the forest to a road that would lead back to town, and found what a burned down orphanage with scattered and broken toys and a charred frame. We poked around and I found a trap door. The lock was melted, but Thorab was able to break through it easily. We found steps leading down to a horrible sight that included a chipped, bloody table, shackles, and in the middle of the area, a rotting corpse of a woman in a robe. Suddenly, Liake cast a spell— a large (and now dead) spider dropped to the floor. I bent over the body of the woman, as I thought I saw movement. I did— hundreds of spiders erupted from her mouth and through the robe. We left quickly, tossing a torch in after to finish what the original fire had not.

The rest of the journey to Falcon’s Hollow was by road and was, thankfully, uneventful. When we got to the town, the guard on duty said we had missed Keth, who had been to the gate and departed already, though it sounds like his transformation was nearly complete. We also found that forty people had died from the illness since we’d left. We rushed to Laurel’s to give her the ingredients to cure the rest of the townspeople, though I feel we were too late to do as much as we could have. Still, she was grateful, and, after telling her of our encounter with the undead that had drained Thorab and me, she produced a scroll so at least one of us could be healed. I was going to use it on my dwarven friend immediately, but ironically, my weakened state prevented me from doing so. We found another cleric in town that was willing to cast the spell for him.

If this town is now safe from plague, we may stay here for a much-needed break.