The quartet of adventurers strides through the streets of Shadowfurst. Word has travelled fast about the fight in the shop district. Passersby avoid eye contact and seem to nervously edge away as they draw near. Every so often they catch a surly glare from a young man lurking in a doorway.

The Church of St. Terragnis is in a small square in the inner city. Mishok, who has spent some time there, is used to the sight of speechmakers standing on soapboxes, and religious adherents pontificating to small groups of citizens. Today, one is railing against the royal guards in town:

“This is suppression of our freedom. What does the Queen do for us overseas in Tethyr? Nothing! They take our tax money and offer no support, except for now these arrogant guards are left here to keep us unruly Provincial types in line!”

Near the steps of the church is a woman in a white robe. She too preaches to the crowd, “Lawlessness! That’s what we have in our streets! Lawlessness and godlessness! A man – one of our own – imperfect, but just a man was brutally cut down on a street corner, and his friend, come to his aid was butchered as well! For what? A simple fisticuffs altercation, escalated to wanton murder! And what do our city guards do? Nothing! We need the Royal Army more than ever! We should be grateful for these guests from the Royal garrison! We have scant few standing forces of our own. Poorly-trained militias of country bumpkins with pitchforks. You’ve all heard about the demon roaming the hills – who’s going to protect this city when a real threat rears its ugly head!?”

At that moment, Brother Tibault Throgsden opens the wooden double doors of the Church of St. Terragnis, and beckons the party inside. He leads them up the stone stairs, through the doors, and into the church. Lamps and candles fill the church with a flickering yellow glow. Seven or eight acolytes bustle about preparing for services, lighting candles, placing prayer books on pews, sweeping floors, and so forth. The aroma of incense floats in the air.

Tibault welcomes the group, but speaks most directly to Mishok. He is glad to see them, because he needs their help. He has not seen Father Baird in a couple of days. He tells them that some days ago Baird had gone down the well in undercroft of the church to investigate the fouling of their water supply. He had seemed rather “off” since then. And now he has gone missing. He is worried that he perhaps went back down the well and met some kind of misfortune. He does not know what to do without Father Baird, but he is doing his best to keep things running and keep the other acolytes from worrying. Sartan thinks he hears a muffled crash… it is unclear from where. Tibault leads them down the center aisle towards a door to the right of the altar, when the door suddenly bursts open. Ghouls and ghasts with glinting blue-green eyes pour into the room. The acolytes are mostly frozen with terror, and a couple of the ghouls immediately set upon them. Two acolytes are brought down by the the ferocious creatures. The adventurers spring into action and meet the assailants in combat. The undead horrors carry with them a reek of death and rot that is nearly unbearable. One of the large ghasts lunges for Davros, raking his skin with its diseased claws. He falls to the ground, stricken with paralysis. Cycek casts a cloud of fog in one corner of the room, leaving many of the ghouls blinded and confused. Mishok casts a “bane” spell upon a number of them, and then channels the divinity of Divoc, driving more of the ghasts away from him, and into the fog cloud. Concentrating the enemy in the fog allows Sartan and Cycek to slay several of the other foul creatures who are loose in the church, but not before another acolyte is savaged by a terrible ghast. These creatures prove to be possessed of an unholy strength, and the warriors have to hack and slash before the monsters are finally felled. Cycek leaps from pew to pew, and shoves one of the creature away, knocking it and its nearest ally to the floor. Eventually, all the creatures who had been driven from Mishok stagger, hidden by fog, out the door from whence they came. By the time the last of the guttural cries from the horrific undead throats have diminished into the distance, Brother Tibault and the four adventurers have moved into rescue mode. Davros uses his healers kit to bring one of the acolytes from the brink of death. To Tibault’s dismay, however, he finds that one has been killed, and another dragged away. The surviving acolytes are traumatized, but Tibault instructs them to attend to the dead. He then leads the others in pursuit of the retreating ghouls and the taken acolyte. He leads them through Father Baird’s sleeping quarters, through a storeroom, and down a spiral stairway to the undercroft. There, he takes his leave, bidding the companions to be careful, to bring back the abducted acolyte, and to discover the fate of Father Baird. He must go and attend to his flock in their time of fear and grief.

There in the dark undercroft is a well leading down into darkness. Very obvious fresh tracks and drag marks lead to the well. Mishok casts a “light” spell on Fuzzidong, and they lower the weasel down the well. In the glow of the magical light, they can see that about 40 feet down, the shaft opens into a larger chamber before reaching the pool of dirty water below. They pull Fuzzidong back up and discuss their next move. Cycek is eager to pursue their quarry.