When the group comes out of the passageway they enter a room that feels cold and ancient. A complete suit of armor is hanging in a corner with a big layer of dust over it. They see a clean fireplace. A table with a wooden box and a chest. On the wall is a mural painted of a man in the same armor that is hanging in the room. Dagar finds an uncanny resemblance between Mitch and the man in the mural. When they step outside the room everything remains dark. Ashera and Dagar don’t have a problem with it, but Mitch is left in the dark so they decide to head back and prepare for a return. Back in the village Dagar is taken up by his job as mayor. Ashera goes back to her house to speak with Holand. And Mitch gets to fix the stable door after a botched burglary. Luckily the perpetrator is taken into custody.

At dinner Kat and Cyra bond with the the group and stories of what happened in the last days are told. Kat and Cyra promise to help them.

Then it is time to see the prisoner who is no other than the ‘pigeon’ man. Baraskur tells Dagar that they found a note and some coin on him. The note is a garble of letters. When they interrogate him, pigeon man refuses to cooperate. He behaves smug and teases Dagar and Ashera. To scare him a bit Dagar uses a spell. Slowly he starts to whisper his enchantment. He sees the prisoner struggle and trying to get away. Then he stops moving and to the horror of everyone, blood starts flowing out of his ears. Mitch looks at Dagar and then runs out of the barracks, where the prison is, to his house. Locking the door and taking Kat away from the windows. He scares Kat who asks what happened. The only thing that comes out of Mitch mouth is ‘Dagar is a witch!’. Kat tries to calm him down.

When Dagar and Ashera are standing at his door Mitch refuses to let them in. Kat opens the door and together with Ashera and a little bit of Dagar’s help they calm Mitch down. When Cyra arrives and Mitch accuses Dagar of witchcraft again, Cyra tells Mitch she already knows and that it is not a big deal. Leaving a stunned Dagar standing. Mitch slowly lets go of his angst. With some food and drink on the table they make new plans how to get rid of the dead pigeon man. At the darkest hour they wrap the body in a blanket. Mitch saddles some horses and helps them out of the village. Mitch returns home to get lamps and supplies to explore the cellar and then wait with Kat for their return. Dagar, Ashera and Cyra head to the forest to bury the body. At the edge of the forest they begin digging a grave when they notice a swarm of Blood Hawks sitting in trees nearby. Now in a hurry they bury the body in a shallow grave and leave the pigeon man’s horse. When the exit the forest the hear the horse they left behind whinny in a death struggle. The birds have a good meal.

When they get back in the village the horses are silently stabled again. While Kat and Cyra remove the blood stains in the prison, Mitch opens the cellar and they head off again.

Back in the room Dagar opens the box on the table to find a diary. The diary is written by General Boggnar and tells of the days of the war. One by one Dagar copies the pages so that the text remains even if the old parchment crumbles to dust. In the chest they find a banner. On the banner is a symbol of a mountain with in the middle a heart and on top an eye.

Now with lamps they explore the rest of the cellar. They discover two other rooms: one that belonged to Captain Thorolf and one to Captain Thursill. In both rooms they find the armor of the captains and a mural with their portrait on it. Now it is Mitch who sees a uncanny resemblance with the man who is named captain Thorolf, and Dagar. In this room Ashera finds two identical rings. The mural of Captain Thursill if that of an orc. In the rest of the complex they find several empty rooms. A room that was once a library, where Dagar finds a crumbled letter. Ashera and Mitch explore two new rooms. The biggest room has wood paneling and a big massive wooden conference table in the centre. The room next to it seems to be some kind of office. In the wall behind a desk is the same symbol of the mountain masterfully carved into the wall. Remembering the cryptic message Boggnar left in his dairy, Mitch puts his necklace key into a slot in the heart of the mountain. Lines around the symbol appear and a vault opens, revealing a wheel. When Mitch turns the wheel, light starts to shine in all the rooms and comfortable warm air floods the room.

The mountain awakens.

 

DM note: The Thorolf and the Kleijn families are on bad footing with each other. The diary contains information that came as a shock. If you like to find out: Boggnar’s 11 page diary is available. Go to the Contact page, Leave your name, your email address and in the subject box the text ‘Boggnar’s Dairy’, and I will send a copy to you.

 

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