Second AD&D game, second puddle of blood

[telerib]

Graveyard
The casket was empty, except for some still-sticky blood and tissue bits. Bloody handprints were visible on both sides of the lid, and one of the bare footprints was pressed darkly into the soil alongside. The occupant had been interred about three weeks ago. (Herring alert: blood still sticky mostly for atmospheric affect; chalk it up to damp climate and mostly-closed casket. Not a clue.) The tissue bits seemed to be skin.

Grath spoke to the fellow working on the mausoleum, who seemed pretty working-class. He was alarmed at the news that the casket was empty and, when asked, supposed that perhaps Wild Men had come to make it a zombi.

Inns
Elianne thought she'd look for Montore's room among the inns near Kal Urde, the temple to Amudu, reasoning that he'd stay near the thing he was studying. Posing as his niece, she made a very good impression on one landlady, but didn't find anything out.

Kal Urde
The rest of the party asked Bellamy Gringon if flayed corpses or the walking dead had any ties to her faith. Quite upset at the implied allegation, she told them no.

Toriad Lostfinder
Regrouping in the street, Elianne was pointing to the next inn she wanted to try when they saw Professor Montore ducking down an alleyway. Encouraged, Nicolette and Grath charged ahead, calling the professor's name. More cautiously, Elianne and Rinwald hung behind.

Montore gave no sign that he'd heard them; he was shuffling down the alley when a man, armed with a board with a nail through it, charged in roaring and smacked him upside the head. Nicolette charged and tackled him; he staggered but kept his feet. Grath gave him a whack with the hammer, and Elianne put a dagger in him. Montore even struck back, hands curved into wicked claws that seemed pretty darn effective.

Board-guy continued to whack, though, until Montore went down with the nail in his head. Rinwald cast a sleep spell on him, which seemed to work - the fellow staggered back, eyes glazed, and slumped to one side. The group tied him up before examining Montore.

The body was cold. There was little enough in the way of personal effects on him - some coins, some notes, a shiny key stamped: "MBBH: NW" on one side and "4" on the other. More significantly, there were odd scars or seams running along the skin. One of these was cut open. The skin came up easily enough, revealing flesh and blood underneath. Holy water had no effect.

Board-guy - a sort of hobo-looking sort, wearing a few scraps of armor, ratty, dirty clothes, and an unkempt beard - came around. He didn't struggle or fight; more distant or resigned than anything else. He claimed to not remember what happened, or why he attacked Montore, or really anything much at all from the very recent past. He said that he just blacks out sometimes. The blackouts were somehow connected to the Wild Men, a betrayal, and possibly some item called the Sapphire Skull, which the man - Toriad Lostfinder - had been tracking. He was wearing a holy symbol of the human goddess of magic, Mystra, which he said he "probably shouldn't" have on. When asked, he remembered quite clearly when he got that - at his knighting, at the hand of a high priestess of Mystra. The party took the poor soul back to their inn, the Feathered Slipper, to keep an eye on him.

MBBH
As they left, Elianne glanced at the inn she'd been about to try before being so rudely interrupted: Miss Betsy's Boarding House. Miss Betsy's... MBBH! The next day (I think, since it was around noon and the PCs went to bed early after the alley incident) Rinwald and Nicolette tried the straightforward approach of going in the front door. They were quickly intercepted by a thin, balding man who wanted to know what their business was. They asked after Montore, and were informed that he hadn't been around. Rinwald said something about being supposed to see some papers, but the man didn't offer to open the room for him. Asking that word be sent if Montore should show up, they left.

Elianne went back that evening. Unable to open the kitchen door, she scaled the wall to try an easier target - a window. No problem! Inside, she took which belongings of Montore's looked most promising and quickly left.

Montore's Notes
Nothing in the notes seemed related to skinless zombies or his impending doom. The closest thing was a record of some complaints of the Kal Urde congregation against the northern Chauntean missionaries. The missionaries were claiming that, in days of old, the Amudans used to sponsor human sacrifices. The Amudans consider this a great insult and a deliberate attempt to throw suspicion on their current practices as well.

Wild Men
The small men of the swamp had come up twice now. The investigators resolved that the Wild ghetto in New Babylon should be the next stop on their tour.