Sylvester stood up, dusting himself off and catching a glimpse of three women chasing Red Kirsten out of the underground room they were in. The three men still standing still turned face him as Kurt noisily slipped and fell the last few feet of the chimney.

The first man was quite large, with a potbelly and a deeply receding hairline; the butcher Walton Brand. The next was a tall and gangly man who seemed perfectly crafted to be a foil for Walton; this was the baker Loomis Porton. Finally, there was a short man with a greasy looking mustache and goatee; the chandler Stefan of Walsbury.

All three of them seemed to be only half dressed, with several sets of what looked like fine robes piled on the table next to them. Sylvester ignored them all, however, as he charged out of the room after the women. Kurt and Karrank, who had finally emerged as well, quickly followed him. The other three men cautiously followed them out of the room a few moments after everyone else had left.

When Sylvester caught up to the women, it was within a large, almost trapezoidally shaped room, whose center was dominated by an enormous rectangular pool. The walls of this chamber were filled with relief carvings, showing the process to ritually drown someone, much like the three women were doing to Red Kirsten who thrashed under their cruel grip.

“Stop!” Sylvester shouted at them on seeing what was going on.

All three of the women turned to look at his sudden cry. One, a shy and mousy looking woman, let go of Kirsten and stepped away with a guilty expression. This was Danelle, the Chandler’s wife. Next to her was Meredith Porton, who despite Sylvester’s approach, refused to let go of Kirsten. The last woman, and the most attractive of the three, only spared a glance at him before returning to drowning Kirsten, a vicious look on her face.

Seeing that they were still trying to drown Kirsten, Sylvester began to approach them. Meredith finally relented on seeing his determined approach, but the last woman, Talia Brand, continued to hold down the rapidly weakening Kirsten.

Sylvester stopped at the edge of the pool, hesitant to actually enter the water. His decision was validated when not even a moment later faint runes carved along the edges of the pool began to glow while Kirsten finally ceased her struggling.

The glow spread from the runes and began to turn the water into a glowing milky white that quickly covered all three women with a blinding light. All three of them shrieked in horror and panic as the light overcame them, desperately splashing their way to the edges of the pool. Kurt and Karrank, along with the other men, arrived as the glow began to fade and the women desperately pulled themselves out of the pool.

Miraculously, they were all unharmed and even appeared younger, much to their surprise. While the women and their husbands were marveling over their sudden youth, Sylvester dove into the pool and pulled Kirsten’s body back out of it.

Kurt and Karrank helped pull them both back out of the pool. Despite Red Kirsten’s lack of breath, Sylvester quickly got the others to help prop her up as he worked to force the water out of her lungs.

The druun were an ancient order, and these ruins were a location where they would practice a ritual known as the Three-fold Deaths. Victims would be drowned, revived, hanged, revived, crucified, ritualistically tortured, and then ceremonially slain and interred within the ruins. Each time someone suffered one of the deaths, those who were nearby would reap great benefits from it. For example, the three women and their husbands who had finally moved past the awe of seeing their sudden youth.

“Who are you?!” Talia shrieked at them. “And why are you saving that HARLOT?!”

Sylvester ignored her and worked on forcing the last bits of water from Kirsten’s lungs. And, like magic, she began to breath once more. Sylvester had Kurt support her as he turned to face the three women and their husbands who looked like they didn’t quite know how to react.

“Talia Brand, no matter how justified you feel, you have just murdered someone.” Sylvester snapped at Talia, who had been about to start shouting again. She stuttered on hearing his accusation.

“So, what! The bitch is fine, isn’t she!” She argued, refusing to be talked down to by this child in front of her.

“I am sorry, attempted murder. Which would have been successful if I hadn’t revived her and prevented her corpse from reviving itself and trying to hunt you down.” Sylvester didn’t flinch as he stalked toward her.

“You don’t know what you are talking about! Besides, who would believe someone like you anyway.” She huffed, stepping back as Sylvester approached.

“I think you had better take a step away from my wife, son.” Walton stepped forward to glare at Sylvester, causing Talia to smirk at him.

“Well, as much as you think no one would believe me, that doesn’t matter,” Sylvester announced, stepping away from the group. “Since I have the victim, alive and well with me to tell her story. Besides, the local church won’t let Talia go now that she has been cursed, no matter if they think she did the deed or not.”

All three of the women instantly went pale as they realized their new youth might come with some strings attached.

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“What do you mean she’s been cursed?” Meredith demanded while Walton tried to calm his panicking wife.

“I mean, that anyone in the pool when the ritual is completed is blessed both with several years of youth as well as an overriding desire to study the secrets of the druun, provided their wills are weak enough.” Sylvester explained.

“What a load of rubbish!” Meredith dismissed his claims. “I couldn’t give a rats ass about these druun or whoever you are talking about!”

Danelle meekly nodded in agreement to this, but when she turned to see Talia’s denial, she found her still as pale and horrified as before.

“So, what happens now?” Walton asked, still holding tightly to his wife. “You going to turn us in?”

“Eventually. For now, Kurt and Karrank are going to keep an eye on you while I grab everything I can.” Sylvester answered, causing everyone’s eyes to widen in surprise.

“You can’t just claim this!” Stefan shouted, his mustache quivering with outrage.

“We were the ones to find it, it’s ours!” Talia broke back into the conversation, a desperate look in her eyes. “But we can give it to you if you keep quiet about this and break the curse.”

The three men had unpleasant looks on their faces hearing that, but they didn’t object. Sylvester, however, doubled over laughing.

“Now that is rich, coming from you!” He chuckled, reigning in his laughter. “You are all right that things are in a legal grey zone since we haven’t been hired to hunt down the monster murdering people in whiteoak, but we can just leave if things get bad enough.”

Even Kurt and Karrank were surprised to hear such blatant disregard for the law coming from the mouth of their leader.

“And for your curse, Talia, it can’t be broken. Not by mortal men at least.” Sylvester continued.

Talia slipped to the floor, crying, while the rest were in a stunned silence. Sylvester took the opportunity to head back to the hall of feasts where his group had first entered the ruins.

Once there, he set about stacking up the serving plates that were laid out on the table. Each piece was a work of art, sculpted in bronze and inlaid with glittering gems. He also collected the three robes the men had left behind and used them to wrap up the whole pile. Then, he went back to the corner of the room and pulled out a dusty old cask. He nodded at it and handed it off to Kurt to carry.

“I get the dining set, but what’s in the cask?” Karrank asked while keeping an eye on the men and their wives.

“Several doses of a potion of astral projection. Pulls your soul right out of your body, so that it can go explore. Horrifically dangerous, but also unbelievably valuable.” Sylvester explained.

Sylvester then led the group through a different hallway, going clockwise this time, past a room full of stone crucifixes, and into the hall of treasure. The room was filled with various treasures, all piled around a large wooden throne with a withered corpse sitting upon it. Its ancient chain armor glittered in the lights the group brought with them, causing Kurt and Karrank to reach for their weapons.

“Don’t worry,” Sylvester reassured them. “This one is properly dead and won’t be attacking us.”

As they cautiously returned their weapons to their sides, Sylvester took a few moments to look over the assorted treasure before he spotted the thing he was looking for: a large chest.

“Karrank, see if you can’t get that chest open. It’s the single most valuable thing in here and it should be able to hold most of the other items.” Sylvester directed. Karrank nodded and swapped with Sylvester, making his way over to the chest.

In only a few moments, the crafty gnoll had the chest opening with a satisfying click, causing it to reveal a large pile of coins within it. Sylvester quickly stuffed in the serving dishes, along with three more robes, identical to the ones he had found in the hall of feasts.

It took some searching, but Sylvester also managed to fit in three sickles and a variety of jewelry from around the hoard. On his way out of the room, he also picked up a spear before leading everyone into a room with large gallows and into the hall of lore. The walls, still filled with white roots, also sported a variety of alcoves with various skulls, bones, and other grisly treasures neatly lined up within.

Sylvester fearlessly walked up to the walls and began scanning the alcoves. In short order, he had grabbed a mummified hand, a large scroll, and several eyes that had been floating in a bowl.

Kurt, the men, and all the women except Talia all looked slightly ill after seeing what Sylvester was grabbing. Talia, in contrast, was looking at the chamber and the runes that covered its walls with something approaching awe in her eyes.

Sylvester, however, was finally satisfied with the group’s haul and had Karrank lock the chest before he began to lead everyone out of the ruins. Instead of going through the fireplace once again, Sylvester led everyone through a long hallway that hadn’t collapsed and ended in a door that led into the basement of what appeared to be a butcher’s shop.

This was Walton’s basement, something he appeared to regret as Sylvester led everyone outside and set up outside the front doors of the butcher shop.

“Kurt, go grab the guards, they should be around. This early… Bredon and Lorrence should be on duty.” He directed, causing all three of them men to sigh in defeat as they took seats on the dirty cobblestones of the street.

Kurt quickly returned with the two watchmen in tow. One, a grizzled looking veteran, looked at the whole group with suspicion as he arrived.

“I came because I heard there was something for the watch to be informed of?” He asked suspiciously.

“Yes, I called you here to report a murder, or an attempted one at least.” Sylvester explained, causing the older man to carefully appraise him.

“I see. Any reason you decided to go swimming with the harlot before reporting this?” He asked, waiting for a more complete explanation.

“Beneath Walton’s shop are some ancient druun ruins. He, Loomis, and Stefan here had been playing around down there when their wives found out. In a fit of rage, they tried drowning Kirsten. I stepped in and saved her life while also preventing them from trying anything else.” Sylvester explained.

“This true?” the old watchman turned to the rest. Kurt and Karrank both nodded, and as Kirsten opened her voice to speak her part, Talia interrupted.

“Not a lick of it! These four broke into our house when we were having a get together and announced that they were going to kill us if we didn’t follow them!” Talia declared, her husband nodding in frightened agreement as she elbowed him. “Why, that one is sitting on our chest full of valuables right now!”

“We broke in?! You tried to murder me because your husband would rather spend time away from you!” Kirsten shouted in response, causing Talia’s eyes to flare with rage. The watchmen quickly stepped in to separate the two women.

“Alright, that is enough of all this!” The other watchman, a larger man who had finally lost the jovial smile on his face, shouted. “Since you are both so insistent on accusing each other, we can just haul all of you off to jail!”

“That won’t be necessary.” Sylvester announced, causing the watchmen to both turn to him.

“Oh? And why wouldn’t it?” The elder growled in annoyance.

“Because we have someone not here who can agree with our story. Father Nial is in the church right now waiting for us, and I am sure he will agree with me when I say that it is strange indeed for us to be able to break into someone’s house by going down the church’s fireplace.” Sylvester declared, causing Talia and the other women’s expressions to crumble as their hasty lie came undone.

“Lorrence, go check to see if Father Nial is willing to comment on this whole situation.” The elder watchman rolled his eyes while directing his companion.

Lorrence quickly made his way over to the church, conveniently located across the square, and quickly returned with Father Nial and Val.

While Val poked fun at Sylvester and the rest for getting into so much trouble so quickly, Father Nial quickly confirmed what Sylvester had said, even adding that Red Kirsten hadn’t been with them when they went down the fireplace anyway.

“Why can’t anything ever be simple.” The older watchman grumbled while pinching the bridge of his nose. “Lorrence, go ahead and get started chaining up those six. As for the rest of you, this whole situation is a complete mess. We won’t be arresting you, but you will be coming down to the station tomorrow morning to have a long chat with Sister Brimbal about exactly what happened tonight.”

“Of course.” Sylvester agreed with a smile on his face.

The watchman huffed before turning to help his companion finish chaining up the rest of the group.

Sylvester, satisfied with the results of tonight’s adventure, led the group back to Shoehaven Manor for a well-earned night of rest.