Editing The Third Eye (section)

====Nangrath====
Of the two remaining torcs, they only had a solid lead on one, so they marched nine days south to the dwarven town of Nangrath. As they approached, they saw a section of the wall had been partially disassembled, and a dwarf was struggling to lead a mule towards it as four gargoyles swooped down towards him with lances and nets. They killed two of the gargoyles and the other two fled, but on inspecting the bodies they found that the gargoyles were wearing wreaths of blood-red flowers around their necks, that emitted a sickly-sweet smell. Ilara identified them as bloodstain lilacs, the scent of which was an intoxicant that exhausts those who breathe it in. The dwarf, Brungor, thanked them for the rescue and urged the to get inside somewhere safe, as Nangrath was doubly plagued: by day, gargoyles swooped down from the air, and by night, folks just... disappeared. When they pressed for more information, he told them to talk to Lord Arenbar. He spoke to some of the guards, who escorted the players towards Nangrath Bastion, repaired using the materials taken from the wall, to meet with the lord. Though they tried asking about the torcs, Lord Arenbar Nangrath cut them off and reiterated that the town was beset on two fronts: gargoyles attacked by day and carried people off, and something else was mysteriously abducting people at night. If the heroes could deal with the gargoyles, he would be willing to help them out. Until then, however, he refused to say anything more. They accepted, so he gave them directions to Fort Blackbell, from whence the gargoyles had been coming since the curse began. It was constructed centuries ago against the goliath and barbarian tribes of the mountains, but since the king made peace with them, it has long been abandoned.

The fort looked largely intact, including the gate, and a few gargoyles were visible on the walls, so Sylas blasted one, and a group of them swooped down wielding lances, allowing them to remain just out of reach. Sylas was afflicted by the lilacs, but with the help of Leon calling down more lightning they eventually destroyed the gargoyles. Ilara shoved on the gates until the rusted bar latching them shut snapped, and once inside Leon called down more lightning on a gargoyle he spotted on the tall central tower. This brought even more gargoyles down upon them, including a big one who seemed to be their leader, who told them they had "come to be transformed by the beast." Ililen ended up drained by the lilacs as well, but they handily dispatched the gargoyles and Leon cleansed the lilies' poison from his companions. The first building they entered was a charnel house. There were a few starving prisoners in cages, everything was covered in blood, and the gargoyles had shoved the inedible remains of their past victims in one corner and a polished stack of trophy skulls into another. The prisoners confirmed that others imprisoned with them had been eaten, but they didn't know if there were any others, having only seen the inside of this room. The second building was where their leader seemed to have made her nest, and featured the mauled remains of the gargoyles' former leader. The third was partially collapsed; in one corner grew a massive bush of bloodstain lilacs, the smell of which was keeping another group of prisoners barely on the edge of consciousness. These prisoners - a burly dwarf soldier, a bugbear, an orc, and a tabaxi - were noticeably healthier than the others. Ilara dragged them out and moved all the prisoners into the second building before Leon called down the last of his lightning to incinerate the bush. The door to the central tower, meanwhile, had been blocked by a pile of rubble. Ilara started clearing it, but when she had removed most of the rocks, a gorgon crashed through and nearly trampled her. She resisted its petrifying breath, and they killed it. Inside the tower were a bunch of mangled trampled corpses, smashed furniture, and an enormous black bell that had fallen from the top and was badly cracked. Though magical, it was clear that the magic required the bell to be repaired - and as it weighed over a ton and would require a proper smithy to fix, they decided to leave it.

Once back in Nangrath, everyone slept off the lingering effects of the lilacs. And in the morning, Ililen packed up his things. He had been hoping that traveling with them would allow him to find vengeance upon someone who had wronged him, but over time realized that being away from home for so long was causing him to lose himself. And so, now that they were near the forest where his village was, he had decided to return home. He wished them luck, told them to visit when the kingdom was saved, and departed. After Ililen's departure, the others went to see Lord Nangrath. He thanked them for dealing with the gargoyles, taking a great deal of pressure off the town, and as promised gave them the information they asked for about the stone torc. As he'd mentioned before, along with the gargoyles, after the curse began something also began abducting people at night. One of the first victims was his own son, Yarik Nangrath. About a week later his older son, Odryk Nangrath, returned home from the capital with his lover, Premil Ronul. When Odryk heard about his brother's disappearance, he gathered a group of soldiers and asked his father to let them go in search of Yarik. Lord Nangrath eventually agreed, giving him the stone torc of the tower for protection before he left. Ten days ago he received a message that Odryk had found a trail leading to the Darkstone Mine. Since then... Nothing. Lord Nangrath told the Third Eye that in exchange for bringing back his sons, if they yet lived, and eliminating the threat, he would gladly give them the torc. He explained that Darkstone was once an onyx mine, but was abandoned after it ran dry centuries ago, and cautioned them that he didn't know what might have come up from the [[Underdark]] to claim it since then. As they exited the keep, they found the tabaxi they'd rescued from Fort Blackbell waiting for them outside. She understood they were looking for help, and vaguely suggested that their interests aligned. They pressed her, suspicious of her motives, and while she didn't reveal everything she did confirm that she wanted to save the kingdom from whatever had befallen it, which the party deemed sufficient, so they invited her along and she introduced herself as [[Leaf on the Water]]. 

As they traveled they got to know each other more, and Leaf showed off her skill with a bow and told them she was also handy with a pair of daggers. Their conversation was interrupted when Leon noticed a boot sticking out from under a boulder. Ilara rolled it aside to find the body of a young, pale dwarf in fine clothing, with the Nangrath crest on his shirt and the monogram YN: Yarik Nangrath. However, closer investigation revealed that he had been drained of blood, not crushed to death, as well as two tiny bite marks on his neck. Sylas immediately called out that their foe was a vampire. They rolled the boulder back over him to protect the body from scavengers as they continued on, and Ilara gave Leaf a magic rapier she'd picked up back in the Shadowfell.  Once they found the mine entrance, the tunnel descended a mile into the earth before opening up in a large cavern containing a building of strong dwarven make and a pair of guard towers. Dead bodies were scattered all over,  in varying states of decay. Atop the closest guard tower was a large ballista, with a seat surrounded by a box that gave the operator cover. The answer of whether it was functional was answered when said operator shot Ilara. Sylas, incapacitating the ballista operator with a hypnotic pattern, while the party surrounded the guard tower and Ilara ran to the top to find a duergar in the seat. When she hit him, he called for reinforcements, and three more came out of the nearby building and enlarged themselves. During the long fight which ensued, they realized that these were duergar vampires when they started grabbing and biting them. Leaf, realizing that they were resistant to her non-magical bow, switched to the rapier and killed two of them, while Ilara dispatched the other two. They discovered that the duergar leader also had the stone torc around his neck. Searching deeper in, they found only three surviving prisoners, two of which were, fortunately, Odryk and Premil. The third was the owner of Nangrath's magic shop, and he offered a discount if they could find his wares that the vampires had stolen. After finding a hidden room containing the vampires' coffins, they found the remaining magic items piled in one of them as well as an ominous statuette of a demonic drow woman with bat wings and fangs, a mysterious rune painted on it in fresh blood. They returned to Nangrath, collecting Yarik's body on the way, and while both Odryk and Lord Arenbar were saddened at his death, they could at least rest easy knowing that Odryk yet lived and the threat had passed. Arenbar allowed them to keep the stone torc, as promised, and while he did not know the whereabouts of the adamantine torc, or its bearer, he suggested they travel south to the Lodge of Wanderlust, as it was a favored destination for travelers and adventurers and she may have passed through there recently.