After having found Ned Sodsome tied up and a forgotten prisoner in a remote corner of the mansion, our heroes give him a cloak and longsword and ask him to stay with the party for his safety.

At the end of the hall on the second floor the encounter a ghostly apparition, the spirit of the wife of Captain Silvos, who is looking for a new body so she can continue her eternal vigil, awaiting his return.

Slowly, the heroes use magic and sheer determination (and good saving throw rolls to prevent the spirit from possessing their bodies) they eventually destroy the spirit on this plane of existence. But not without a terrible cost to themselves. Her horrible visage and tortured screaming aged two of our adventurers decades! Edward Firebrand is now around 49, and Trull is now 36 years old!

Covered in horrible black ichor that exploded from the ghost as it was laid to rest our adventurers search the room for clues to the fate of the family Silvos.

Into the attic, where they discover a small collection of children’s dolls dressed up like sailors and are attacked by stirges (mosquito/bat creatures) with Trull using the ThunderWave spell to great effect.

Here’s where the DM missed something important in this combat, the condition of the mansion. This spell should have destroyed a good portion of the house when Trull used it, the floor had already broken apart and dropped as she walked across it, and would’ve destroyed a lot of the house in its effective range. This would’ve dropped Trull through the floor, and to the main floor 30′ below. Dangit. I love it when characters bring about their own misfortune but missed this one! Next time Trull, next time.:

Having thought that their job was done, Ned asks if they were going to do anything about the terrible family graveyard at the edge of the property?

Our adventurers head there, in the drizzle as a storm approaches from the sea, determined to make this land safe again.

The cawing of the crows from the forest intensifies as they search the old grave markers, learning much about the family Silvos in the process. As they approach Captain Ron Silvos’s headstone, they see the markers of his children as well, none of which have a date of death, being lost at sea. Abruptly, all the crows stop their cawing and air becomes still.

Suddenly, a great wind whips up and a cacophony of screeching crows can be heard from the forest, a horrible noise, and a great swirling ball of undead crows fly over the treetops and head to the party, their eyes glowing green. The Murder of Crows attacks for entering the cemetery. This horrible swarm of undead swoops low and swarms everything in its path, seemingly unharmed by the arrows and firebolts the party hurls at it. In the melee, Ned is given a crossbow to wield, but being unfamiliar with the weapon, causes more harm to the party than to the Murder of Crows, hitting a party member in the back.

As the crows circle back around, Zita and Trull quickly try burying the children’s dolls they found earlier at their grave markers to see if that would remove the evil that plagues this place, but to no avail. Lucien, seeing what the other characters have in mind remembers some important clues that he has seen on the Fishmonger and in the mansion. As the bearer of the cursed family Silvos ring that has plagued him with nightmares and left him exhausted for weeks, he ascertains that the ring contains the soul of Captain Silvos, and plunges his fist deep into the dirt in front of the captain’s grave marker.

Instantly, a blast of energy radiates out from the grave marker and ring, knocking everyone to the ground as the soul of Captain Ron is finally, permanently, laid to rest. The crows, the necrotic energy leaving them, drop to the ground, dead and unmoving. The wind drops, and only the sound of light rain hitting the gravestones breaks the silence.

Ned is nowhere to be found, lost in the chaos of the battle.

Searching the small mausoleum at the edge of the graveyard, our heroes discover the ancient corpse of the great-great-grandfather of the Silvos family, the original shipbuilder who built the family fortune and the mansion. They find a bag of rats (sooo many rats, so far, 140 have poured out of it), a curious gold coin in the dusty intestines of the corpse, and a magical fine silver dagger to end the evening and our Halloween-themed night in the Silvos mansion uncovering many of the Sinister Secrets of Sartmarsh.