24 Checkmate

The guard looked sullen and tired, and even drew steel as we approached. That was unusual - but in the dead area of the cemetery no one else walked, and the guard clearly expected trouble.

"Halt there," he called, his voice weary. "State your business here."

We stopped, showing we meant no harm, and he looked relieved, the point of his sword lowering towards the ground.  Drai decided that this was something he could take care of, and we happily let him. Apparently men with swords and beings with scales and wings have a lot of history in common, so it was time for bonding.

Drai moved forth slightly, his clawed hands moving a bit, and mumbled arcane words, the scales of his body taking on a charming glint. The full brunt of the effect hit the weary guard, and he looked, most of all, relieved. He put his sword away and smiled, watching Drai with affection. The two started talking, and the rest of us let them, and listened.

What we learned was that a member of the Ravenloft merchant family, Ser Anthuang Ravenloft, had perished some months back, and been buried at the family mausoleum. Soon after rumors had began to circulate that a significant part of the family fortune was unaccounted for. The Ravenloft heirs had hired adventurers and detectives to find what they considered rightfully theirs, but nothing was found in the family estate or the book keeping, nor by investigating those who had searched the estate and the books. As the amount of wealth missing was in five or six figures, leaving the family temporarily in debt, they were highly motivated to find it.Soon there were others as well who aspired to find it for themselves-

One of these aspirants was a group of thieves who thought it a possibility that Ser Anthuang had taken the treasure to the grave with him. Since the mausoleum was largely unguarded.. and small.. four of them took on themselves to search it. They remained in the grave for some weeks, and later reappeared in the town sewers where they had made themselves a nest. From that place, with the knowledge they had had of the town architecture, they launched nocturnal raids against unsuspecting people, carting them away to be devoured or converted into more of their kind. Dozens died before with considerable effort the city watch, the temple, and adventurers managed to root them out and stop the epidemic.

It is still not known if the city watch was completely successful in removing all of the living dead as there is no census of the population of the poorer parts of the city. Deaths and disappearances still take place as they have before, but no longer on grand scale. To prevent that from happening again, the city watch has kept a watch on the Ravenloft crypt to make sure no one else causes the trouble to start all over again. The new head of the Ravenloft family, Lady Hebkya Ravenloft, has used her influence to keep the city from violating the grave further, obviously to keep the Ravenloft fortune from falling into others' hands, should it happen to be there.

The guard told all that to Drai willingly, and invited him to share drinks with him at the Fattened Pig, a high-price pub favored by the city watch, after the end of his watch. Drai happily accepted, and offered to play chess with the guard to pass the time until then. Soon the two had pieces out and started playing, Drai winning most games and the guard not minding at all, while the rest of us started exploring.