Every year the village of Garanton hosts a weeklong festival
honoring the legendary hero for which it was named. In keeping with Garan’s reputation as a
heroic knight, young warrior from far and wide gather to prove their mettle in
tests of strength, horse-riding competitions, and feats-of-arms. The contenders and the gathered assembly
feast together every evening and at the end of the festival, the champion is
presented with Garan’s Mantle at a ceremony in front of Garan’s tomb.
This year has attracted several impressive new contenders
including Sir Henry de la Reine Blanche, Vlad of Matopher Orchard, and Roquelle
of Hommelet. Each of them acquitted him- or her- self well in the initial
competitions. Their companions Mark,
McDowell, Dumitru, and Mihir cheered them on.
And yet, they and their friends have noticed something
strange going on at this year’s festival.
Mark the Magician, though he had arrived in Garanton after a long
journey from with southlands in the company of Sir Henry and Vlad, had no personal
interest in martial endeavors. He was
not the only one. Many were there for
commercial reasons, or for the revelry, or, like the traveling minstrels, for
some combination of the two. But Mark
noted one or two others whose dour demeanor masked what purpose they had in
spectating at an event that seemed to give them no enjoyment.
One man who more than compensated for his lack of warriorly
virtue with enthusiasm for the event and for Garan himself, was a local
sculptor named Brant Arwell who had carved a monumental frieze of Garan’s face
into the cliffs overlooking Garanton. He
was now looking for a new project and approached Sir Miles to request that he
and his companions sit for a formal portrait.
They agreed and made plans to meet at the abbey the next day.
Strangely, Brant was nowhere to be found on the second
day. Friar Ulric, the head of the abbey
explained that Brant had gone the previous evening to put the finishing touches
on his sculpture and had probably overslept.
His most immediate concern was the killing of livestock at a local
homestead, presumably by wild animals.
The party visited the homestead.
Oddly, it appeared that whatever had killed the cattle had not eaten
much of them
The Friar encouraged the party—or the competing warriors at
least—to focus on the day’s completion which involved crossing the nearby
Barrow Creek by jumping from log to another.
Roquelle made the first crossing, but in the second crossing, not only
fell off the log, but hit her head and became so disoriented that the creek’s
current began to carry her away. When
she swam to safety on the marshy side of the creek opposite Garanton, she got a
glimpse of a pig-faced creature in the reeds who snarled at her and then ran
away.
After the completion, the party decided to go and look for
the sculptor. At the top of the cliff,
above the carving, they found some ruins, and also an intact stone arch. Some of the writing on the arch could be deciphered
enough that Mark understood that it made reference to the light of the
moon.
Sure enough, when they returned that night when the moon was
up, the arch was glowing—and they could hear a voice coming out of it. Roquelle boldly walked through the archway
hoping that she might be transported somewhere.
Nothing extraordinary happened to her, but McDowell noticed shadows
emerging from the glowing surface of the arch itself.
When these shadows took the form of fanged,
flying monsters, the party attacked with arrows, hurled stones, and from the
fingertips of Mark the Magician, “bolts of pure energy.” One of these monsters descended on Roquelle,
knocking her to the ground, and slashing her badly. A second attacked Vlad, but was repelled by
his armor. A third was killed by
missiles, and the fourth swooped down from the cliff, over the village and out
of sight. Sir Henry rushed to assist
Roquelle while Vlad and his cousin Dumetru teamed up on the other shadow
monster. They were strange
opponents—when Roquelle slashed one with her sword, it seemed to tear like
fabric, its shadowy form becoming semi-transparent. They were also fast and vicious. When Vlad pinned one to the ground with his
foot and raised his sword to slay it, the monster lashed him with its tail,
raked his leg with its claw and flew back into the air—only to swoop down once
more, fangs pointed at his face. But the
heroes prevailed and destroyed their
enemies.
Mihir tended to his companion’s
wounds—especially Roquelle who had been clawed and bitten multiple times. There was a short debate on whether they
should enter the arch, but the party decided instead to return to the village
to warn the friars that at least one shadow monster was still on the loose.
The next morning, the party learned that more livestock had
been killed and this time the farmers had seen the fiend responsible, a
shadowy, fanged, flying creature. The party
of course was able to help the witnesses complete their description.
