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The eastern road out of Theodoptra will be heavily guarded, the northern roads less so. They will be able to find a safe haven at Paulas Loderra's estate, and he will freely admit that he arranged their escape from the dungeon and the gallows. From there, and with his help, they can begin to piece together the information they will need to clear their names of the crimes. In addition to lodging and intelligence support, Paulas will be able to offer the characters two Potions of Extra-Healing and one Neutralize Poison vial (3 doses).
Of course, the skills of the adventurers, augmented by a little help from Paulas Loderra, have thwarted Saarthos' plans for the mean time. Saarthos will not learn about the escape for several days, as sending a rider to the Stronghold of the Ebon Blade was not considered the most important action by the members of the Ebon Blade living in Theodoptra. The capture and death of the adventurers is now their primary goal.
The characters have several choices. They can attempt to find the witnesses who testified against them, but aside from the two farmers and the gypsy woman, all of the 'witnesses' live in Theodoptra and are secretly agents for the Ebon Blade. It will be very difficult for the characters to contact any of them, and none of them know the truth of the story, anyway. If the players do insist on seeking them out, they have nothing to offer as far as information except that they were contacted by their superiors through the usual means (messages left in secret places) and told to appear in the courthouse that day and give specific testimony.
If the characters seek out the farmers or the gypsies, they will be told how black riders threatened them or kidnapped their family members to ensure the proper testimony in the trial. The witnesses will be very sorry for what happened to the characters, especially in light of the aid the characters game them. Unfortunately, they will give conflicting stories about the directions that the riders came from. However, they will all be certain that the black riders headed away in the direction of the Rowanwood Estate. The second farmer, Hopus, will also inform the characters that even though he did what they asked, his sixteen year old son, Lathan, was not returned to him. He will ask them to help his son if they should encounter him and will give them a description (6' tall, dark skin, dark eyes, black hair, and a small scar on his chin from where he fell out of the hay loft when he was a boy).
The house will be dark, but a number of lights flicker in the family graveyard. As the characters approach, they will see that several tall torches have been thrust into the ground in the graveyard. Far more horrible, however, is the figure affixed to the gates of the graveyard. A skeleton draped in rags is shackled across the gates of the graveyard, as if it had been crucified there and is now serving to keep the gates closed. Any attempts to open the gates will require that the skeleton be freed first. The skeleton is the remains of one of Lord Rowanwood's servants who was tortured by Saarthos and used in a rite to consecrate the graveyard to Salsmen to facilitate the animation of the dead within.
There are a number of new graves in the family graveyard (all unmarked, but enough to contain all of the servants the characters might have met). Most of these new graves, as well as the older ones, look as if they've recently been dug up or as if something has pushed its way up from beneath. The smell of corruption and fresh earth is very strong here.
If the characters climb the hill of the megalithic circle, they will notice a very bitter smell in the air and find that the eight rowan trees are gone. Blasted stumps are all that remain of the once thriving trees and all ten of the graves have been excavated. In fact, the ground along the entire top of the hill has been reduced to bare earth with all vegetation killed. Everything at the top of the hill died when Saarthos poisoned the trees because he saw them as a threat to his use of the circle. Allowing bare skin to contact the soil here requires a save vs. poison or begin losing hit points at a rate of one per hour until the poison is negated. The eight original skeletons, as well as Lord Rowanwood and Allendar, are now serving Saarthos as undead guardians.
When the characters approach the house itself, they will see that most of the windows have been boarded up or smashed. The front doors have been blasted off their hinges and hang crazily from broken hinges. However, the characters will think they see a flicker of movement past a broken window, a flash of light in an upstairs bedroom, or pairs of glowing red eyes gazing balefully out at them.
Two of the original decorative stone gargoyles have been replaced by living gargoyles (AC 5; MV 9, Fl 15 (C); HD 4+4; hp 25, 29; THAC0 15; #Att 4; Dmg 1d3/1d3/1d6/1d4; Ml 11; XP 420) bound to the will of Saarthos and perch along the roof line of the house. They will not attack the characters until they are leaving, making sure to swoop down and attack them from the rear (hoping that the characters will be weakened by those waiting within the house). If hard pressed, one of the gargoyles will fight to the death allowing the second one to escape and fly to the southeast to warn Saarthos that the characters are still alive and that they are investigating. If they manage to disable both gargoyles before one can escape, the defenses of the Ebon Blade stronghold will be less alert.
If the characters enter the house, they will find a a considerable number of undead and a contingent of black riders waiting for them. The black riders will all fight to the death and will take their own lives before giving the adventurers any information.
Like the others, each of the riders is a 4th level fighter, AC 4, hp 43, specialized with the long sword (+3 to damage with spec. and STR bonuses), THACO 15. The blades of the black riders are coated with a poison manufactured by priests of Vllnn which causes any wounds made by the sword to burn painfully, reducing DEX by one if a successful save vs. poison at -3 is not made. If a character's DEX is reduced to 1, they will be unable to fight and will collapse in agonizing convulsions. The painful effects of the poison wear off naturally, restoring one point of DEX per hour with the first point restored immediately after the battle. Bathing poisoned wounds in fresh water can triple the return of DEX points. Each black rider bears a black runic marking at their temples; this mark has the effect of removing normal fear and raising their morale to Fearless (19-20). Additionally, the runes gives them a +4 save to all fear-related spells.
As they are totally unaffected by the revulsion most men would feel in the presence of walking rotting corpses, they are able to coordinate their attacks with the undead, especially the ju-ju zombies. They will be particularly vicious to anyone attempting to turn the undead, going so far as to attempt called shots to knock holy symbols out of their hands.
As the characters search the house, in addition to the attacks of black riders and undead, they will encounter a considerable number of strange and eerie occurrences. Though a pervading odor of corruption and fresh earth lingers in nearly every room, these other encounters include the following:
Lord Rowanwood has been brought back by Saarthos' magic as a wight (AC 5; MV 12; HD 4+3; hp 19; THAC0 15; #Att 1; Dmg 1d4; Ml 14; XP 1400), who guards the (now empty) arsenal. The undead Lord Rowanwood will viciously and mindlessly attack anyone who enters the arsenal; he will not remember the characters nor will he attempt to communicate in any way save to scream, "Get out! Get out!!"
In addition, Saarthos has created two greater skeletons (AC 5; MV 12; HD 5+5; hp 35, 36; THAC0 15; #Att 2; Dmg 2x1d8; Ml special; XP 65) in the library. Crafted from the bones of at least five normal skeletons, the greater skeletons are eight feet tall and considerably stronger, fighting reasonably well with a pair of longswords. They are turned as Ghasts. It is clear from the makeup of these skeletons, that some of the bones are actually from the skeletons which were originally buried in the stone circle.
Saarthos' final command to the undead was to attack anyone but himself and the contingent of black riders who remained. Most of the zombies will be going about the tasks which they performed in life. Undead chambermaids move listlessly through the house dusting furniture which is no longer there. Cooks and kitchen workers prepare food which doesn't exist. The skeletons mostly stand in place throughout the house waiting for something they don't recognize which they can attack. The ju-ju zombies prowl the house in packs of three or four, actively searching for someone to attack. Occasionally, they attempt to threaten the black riders, but the black riders are immune to the fear such events would have upon normal soldiers because of the fear-banishing runes at their temples. The greater skeletons merely stand in the library.
House Rowanwood has been thoroughly pillaged; all of the finery has been either taken or despoiled. Even the mounted green dragon is gone! As before, the black riders carry no treasure. However, several of the men have a number of colored metal chips with the words "The Wizard's Dice" printed on them.
If the characters identify him as an agent, and manage to capture him, he will offer information for his life. He will inform the characters that Lady Rowanwood, her children, and the knight are still alive and prisoners in a black riders' stronghold. He does not know the location, but a mage in Theodoptra, named Thanras, does. Thanras is Grenore's contact and the only other member of the Ebon Blade that he knows. He sends and receives messages to Thanras by writing them on a piece of parchment and placing them in a magical box. When he opens the box, again, the parchment is usually turned to ashes. Sometimes, he finds a new piece of parchment in the box which is a message from Thanras. Grenore does not know if Thanras receives them the same way, but suspects that he does. Grenore does not know where Thanras lives, exactly, but knows that his house is on the more opulent western side of Theodoptra.
If the characters want to have any chance of finding the Ebon Blade stronghold, they will have to figure out a way to get to Thanras. Any number of methods can be employed, but the easiest involve having Paulas Loderra contact his underworld allies and get a sewer-map into the Thanras house. Of course, the characters can attempt the sewers themselves or even use disguises of other types.
There are numerous ways the characters can find the house of Thanras, most of which involve covertly entering the city. However, the easiest would be to petition Paulas Loderra to make contact with the Evening Fog (the Thieves Guild of Theodoptra) and arrange for a map to lead the way through the sewers in much the same manner as they were guided in their escape from the Theodoptran prison. The representative of the Evening Fog will agree to provide a map in exchange for a 'fair price to be negotiated at a later date'.
When they eventually find the Ebon Blade Stronghold, they will discover it to be a massively fortified structure and nearly hopeless to assault. If they spend a few days watching, however, they will see several groups of priests, acolytes and what can only be victims heading northeast. Following these priests will enable the adventurers to discover the canyons used by the priests as a training ground for their evil ways.
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