We turn back the clock a few days, as we cut back to during downtime. Mikhail notices Dareth Lion'el Griffmane, as he apparently is avoiding him. Mikhail does eventually confront him, and it turns out that Dareth only intends to give Mikhail space. The two have a heart to heart, and then disappear into Dareth's room, and it seems like things are on a good path for them restoring their relationship.
A few days later, after the events of the events of the interviews and the bear trap fight, Mikhail and Sooty return from the Liwilai Adventurer's Guild's HQ at sundown, first meeting Rhaia Spotwind, who started her first shift today. In conversation, she told Mikhail about their two other employees currently being upstairs, and Sooty and Mikhail went on to meet them. First, there was Thalryn Noctis, who left a pretty good impression as he was shown around by Furnando. However, things went a bit differently with Nyaltad Lilovyre, as them telling Mikhail about their status as a Feda-Lide resulted in Mikhail stiffening up a bit in nervous fear; and him running off when they revealed their true appearance. This left Nyaltad a little nervous. Mikhail immediately went towards the bedrooms to go to bed, but came across Philomena Snapdragon and Dareth, and eventually Zora. After some more talks, Mikhail followed Dareth into his room and immediately fell asleep on top of him, like a weighted blanket.
The next day, the Agate Seekers are having breakfast when they hear the familiar chime of the quest board. Volk Lesnoy immediately sprints up, followed by the party. On the quest board, however, only two quests can be found; one in the Kingdom of Hugan, in a town called Retsi, north of Bapesta, requiring an investigation on sightings of a skeletal dragon and a hooded figure in the local graveyard, as well as one in Grehel, near the city of Rissa, regarding the oddly aggressive behavior of the local mountain nymphs. After thinking about it, the party eventually decided on the one in Hugan.
In the Kingdom of Hugan, the party immediately decided to head right to Rissa. And while their first day of travel went relatively smoothly, their first night was a bit of a surprise. During watch, Mikhail heard a familiar voice in the distance, screaming. After waking everyone up, it became clear who exactly it was, as Mr. Cracklebones, or rather Ul'grak, found the party at camp, shouting. It seems like the merchant caravan he was traveling with was beset by other, more aggressive undead; some of which were even intelligent. The party ran their way over and found said caravan, completely destroyed, as the undead were feasting on the corpses. Mihail remembered something he heard; about an empire of cannibalistic undead in The Underdark of some eastern country. It seems like Hugan was said country.
A fight broke out, and the undead got some pretty decent hits in, but the Agate Seekers, with Ul'grak's help, came out victorious. However, Ul'grak was disappointed that he wasn't able to save the caravan in time by getting help; they only recently met, but knew about Ul'grak and accepted him and his "situation". After burying the bodies, Ul'grak decided to reward the party by letting them know about his stock, as well as his usual lucky shot; even if the usual jovialness wasn't there anymore.
The party did acquire some rather useful items; as well as a few duds. However, overall, everyone seemed satisfied. And with that, Ul'grak decided to go his merry way, summoning a phantom steed to pull his carriage.
The next day of travel goes on relatively uneventfully, until the party makes it to Retsi in the middle of the night. With some help from a local, they find the local graveyard to investigate. Some members of the party did find something interesting; while this graveyard is cared for by the clergy of The Raven Queen, some graves seem to have been sponsored by some other clergy. Sooty remembered talks of a growing religion of a goddess of death, beauty and magic, but couldn't recall its name.
That's when the party heard a voice. "Well that's interesting." A hooded figure was staring down on them, sitting on a far away crypt's roof. This figure looked at Volk, asking the party "who is responsible for this creature? This Illusion is also quite strong." Volk, surprised, realized that this figure could see his true form; and the figure was surprised to see Volk speak. However, after looking closer, it said that it did notice Volk's soul, even though it does seem out of reach.
After Dareth confronted the figure about its identity, it transformed in front of the party's eyes; turning into a skeletal, draconic figure which Sooty recognized as an Ankou; a type of divine herald and psychopomp for the gods of death, created from the souls of the first dragons that die at the start of a century. The Ankou then said: "The spirits in this graveyard are quite riled up. But maybe you can help me..."
SESSION END.