The young kingdom of Emmisthein has been a peaceful, ordered realm for several generations. Close to its northern borders the village of Birchstead has been a quiet and productive part of that kingdom for as long as most of its inhabitants can remember. But things are not always placid…

The friends met on Friday night at the Goat as usual. The atmosphere was subdued and they traced the cause to a missing local ranger, Immin, and his son, Hast. Apparently he occasionally took his son off for days on end in the wilderness, but had been missing for over two weeks now and people were concerned. Some locals thought he had travelled North towards the mountains in the area of “the old asylum”.

Some research was conducted amongst the local notables and Lareracan the bard proved very knowledgeable. He explained that a group known as the Coven used to run the asylum until about 80 years ago when their evil ways were discovered and Lord Aldo’s father gathered his troops and ousted them. During the purge the asylum was razed to the ground and has been in ruins ever since, although the area surrounding it is still believed by some to be a place of evil.

With the bard’s directions to help them the party headed towards the old ruins, but when nearing their destination they were ambushed by a pack of starving wolves, desperate for a meal. Despite Rhen’s efforts to save at least a handful with dried meat from his rations the whole pack, mad with starvation, were rapidly killed by the party.

The druid went off in a sulk and devoted much time to burying then burning the wolf corpses. The party camped close to the ruins and had a cold, uneventful night. In the morning the group searched carefully around and an iron trapdoor was found in the otherwise ruined remains of the central tower, hidden in the trees on the hilltop. The trapdoor and lock were definitely not 80 years old…

Everyone except Rhen decided to explore the basement (and tunnel and room complex) below the tower. Rhen in the meantime completed his burning of the wolves, a task hampered by the lashing rain and his general state of feeling sorry for himself. As the party descended the staircase into darkness chittering sounds could be heard behind the brick walls, but this did not cause any concern until half a dozen weird bat-like blood-sucking creatures flew out and attacked.

These were quickly and easily dealt with and the party soon reached a large door that appeared to have been sealed with tar from the other side. Knocker was able to clean some of the stuff from the lock and get the door open but as Coran passed through something sloughed onto him. It was some acidic goo that seemed to have been hiding in the tar but once scraped off it didn’t seem to have done any permanent damage.

Progress was blocked by some makeshift barriers behind which could be seen some pale-skinned elves, who when challenged cried out “back, surface-dwellers” in deranged voices and started throwing spears. A careful tactical battle ensued but as the elves were pushed back a pair of fierce undead dogs rose up in the midst of the party from amongst the debris that made up the barriers. Eventually the foes were all slain without loss of life for the good guys.

Rhen completed the funeral pyre and went to find his friends. In the remains of a library an unusual blank-paged book was found that had not suffered the ravages of time. When taken from the room it caused a ghostly figure to appear and was thus considered valuable. Despite not seeming to do a great deal of damage the ghost was nevertheless relentless and impervious to the group’s weapons but the druid enchanted a handful of stones that were able to damage the spirit. Under bombardment from the magic stones it was eventually dispatched to the nether-world before it could drain anyone’s life force and the book was added to the kitty.

Down another corridor was a torture room occupied by a mean-looking hobgoblin armed with a red-hot poker and tongs. He taunted the party and dared them to attack him but his arrogant confidence was misplaced – despite his evil weapons and his skill with them he was no match for superior numbers.

Choosing between several possible routes the party next found themselves outside a door; sounds of ‘shuffling and mumbling in elvish’ were noted behind it and a foul stench wafted beneath it …