Leaving aside the tempting trapdoor and the stairs beyond, the group sets about spending the stipend and trying to blend into the uppermost crust. None of them are any good at it. However, their notoriety does afford them a bit of celebrity status, and the helpful hints of the house butler do head off the most egregious faux-pas.
The group goes out shopping and seeing how the top tier lives. Is very nice. Very very niiiiice. It is also quite expensive and the stipend is dwindling at an alarming rate. While the furniture is delivered and the barbarians settle into the routine of guarding the villa, the group starts to receive the first invitations to parties and the like. Now, the real tests begin. The test of patience, primarily.
A birthday party here, a luncheon there and a whole lot of minding of the Ps and Qs. Kegdrain enrolls in the local music academy to study an instrument and to mingle with some crustier folk. Bayge takes the barbarians to mingle in the local brothel, earning him a lot of admiration and good will on the behalf of all involved parties. Money is spread around and before too long they are all invited to a Shard Party, hosted by the mysterious owners of The Shard – the purple floating fortress that hovers over the Noble Quarter. Some connections are made and some inquiries launched.
Bayga and Co, take a ride to the Oldtown library for news regarding the owners of the villa to see if they can find out anything about the occupants of the crypts below their dining room table. Some information about the Everston family is gleaned but there are still questions. Eventually Digin and Fingers descend the stairs to investigate further. The next door opened reveals an inscribed sarcophagus. Laying eyes upon it compels them to try and liberate the occupant, but entering the chamber triggers a trap that slays Fingers.
Digin flees and attempts to get help from Lord Everston lying on the slab in the crypt across the way. Once roused, the lord tells Digin not to raise the sarcophagus occupant under any circumstances, then flees up the stairs. Although the group tries to stop him with violence, the lord turns invisible and successfully evades capture. Digin barely clings to life as the group has a quick dither before Kegdrain lulls him to sleep and slits his throat.
Thus begins a saga of looking for a temple with a cleric willing to restore life to Fingers, Digin and a hapless guard that apparently tried to prevent the deceased Lord Everston from leaving the premises. The Noble Quarter is abuzz with wild speculation as the party negotiates unsuccessfully with two high priests of two distinctly different agendas. The dead are still dead and adding more days to their time spent dead only increases the difficulty of restoring them.
So it is when one of the earlier inquiries bears fruit. The group is contacted by a member of the Inverted Pyramid and tasked with a mission to investigate an apparent breach in a protective shield that guards something under the ground.
Life is restored to the fallen and they soon embark on their newest quest. They travel to a manor house in Oldtown and descend into the cellar where a newly carved tunnel stretches away into the darkness…
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