Delta Company steps into the cave by way of the concealed door in the cliff face. A terrifying prehistoric sound fills the cave; Xalver, talking through the stone of farspeech tucked in Max’s pants pocket, announces he is sending Gamble and Ivor through the Minandrinal portal to rejoin the party.
Smooth talking Gamble conveys himself and his “bodyguard” Ivor swiftly through town and out the east gate still manned by Stran. Tracking Delta by tracking the bloody tracks, they get ambushed by one wolf. Hoping to avoid unnecessary delay, Gamble prestidigitates a big cat growl startling Ivor instead of the wolf. The glitchy wolf is quickly dispatched. Gamble and Ivor locate and rejoin their company in the cave. Andrakis recaps the day’s mission particulars.
Tanagra, at Ivor’s suggestion, checks the tracked blood which tests as elven, maybe human, not sheep. Southward into the cave seems most promising for locating the source of bloody footprints. Tambourine flits up to the edge of a steep drop in the path. A hiding will-o’-wisp ambushes her with a shock attack. She bashes it to death with her morningstar.
Tanagra drops down the eight feet to the path below and uncovers another will-o’-wisp sheltering along the ledge. This one is hit by Ivor’s death toll and Andrakis’s firebolt. Chainmailed Max crashes down on the will-o’-wisp from above as arcs of retributive electricity dance over his armor. Although difficult to hit, the second will-o’-wisp eventually succumbs to Andrakis’s firebolts.
Continuing south by west, Tanagra finds the third will-o’-wisp and immediately beats the charged snot out of it.
The path wends around to a chamber with a couple of large cages and a writing table up on a ladder accessible ledge. Tambourine finds will-o’-wisp number four which proves to be immune to its own terrible luck trying to launch its shock attack. Tanagra beats it all but lifeless. Gamble, still bruised in face and ego from an unfortunate nosedive down the rocky drop-off, kill-steals the will-o’-wisp with a firebolt and declares himself a hero while playing a charmingly ironic lick on his radical lute. Ivor appreciates the humor with a couple of curative pats on the back.
The levity is short lived as darkvisioned Andrakis notices the door has been torn away from the second cage, and torch bearing Max notices a vampire hunched in the open cage. Max hucks the torch into the vampire and draws his longsword. Tambourine, Tanagra, and Ivor charge past flat-footed Max to attack the vampire. Tambourine asks the vampire’s name even while hitting her with a morningstar, but the vampire does not answer that her name is Gertrude Mullinger. The vampire generally seems muddled, confused, even pitiable. Even in all the confusion of the melee it is obvious that she has turned to stone around her joints and face. But Gertrude remains potent enough to bite a chunk out of Tambourine’s life and blight Max nearly unconscious. Andrakis hurls in his returnable shadow blade. Gamble snaps out his eldritch blasts and inspires Max with a power chord. Ivor strikes with his spear butt. Relentless Tanagra action surges a fatal greatsword blow.
Tanagra and Tambourine have a look at a closed, locked door going east. Ivor examines a pool of blood on the floor just outside Gertrude’s cage, most likely where Vageiros Swiftlight met his demise at Gertrude’s stony hands. Max pokes through Gertrude’s decrepit mariner’s clothing for personal effects. Andrakis and Gamble examine the writing table upon the ledge. Andrakis picks up a key from the table and hurls it across the chamber to Tanagra who snags it out of the air without even looking. Tanagra hands the key off to Tambourine to open the door into a laboratory. Andrakis and Gamble pore over Vageiros’s journal documenting his final efforts to cure a mysterious stone disease from his dear friend Zinfiel and her companion Gertrude using vampirism, a controversial solution that The August Order of Mages would find objectionable to say the least. Just as it occurs to Andrakis and Gamble that there is likely a second vampire nearby, Ivor announces from the laboratory that he found a blind vampire inquiring about April and Vageiros. Should kill vampire now yes?
Andrakis slides down the ladder and sprints through the cage room and laboratory to intercede for Zinfiel. Gamble grabs the journal and warns against attacking Zinfiel just yet. Friendly Tanagra plucks the cork out of a keg of blood and inquires, without a trace of judgement, whether this is Zinfiel’s supper. Andrakis, catching his breath, debriefs Zinfiel.
Zinfiel and Gertrude were working aboard a merchant ship when the crew began exhibiting the stone disease. By the time they got to shore all the other crew were dead. Vageiros risked all to innovate his radical solution of vampirism here in Willowlight Cave and, at least in Zinfiel’s case, with good success. Andrakis breaks the news to Zinfiel that Gertrude’s outcome was considerably less successful, that Gertrude apparently got free and beat Vageiros to death, and that April seemed intent on protecting Vageiros’s legacy by accepting blame for his death.
The party kicks around some ideas on how to proceed from here, ultimately agreeing that all evidence of the experiments should be removed including Zinfiel. That means leaving April unjustly on the hook for murder in accordance with her own desire, but she cannot be relied upon to support the truth where it imperils Vageiros’s legacy nor the ruse that Gamble proposes to exonerate April, liberate Zinfiel, and extoll Vageiros’s legacy as righteous protector of Minandrinal from evil vampire Gertrude.
Quietreach assets are deployed in the early morning hours to sanitize Willowlight Cave and extract Zinfiel to Quietreach for evaluation and treatment.
The investigators return to the magistrate’s office. Neni helps arrange a private final debrief for Andrakis with April. He convinces April that he is hip to the whole sad story and can still offer her a way out. She declines. Her desire to accept the blame and punishment will be honored. Andrakis assures her that Zinfiel and her husband’s legacy have already been safeguarded.
The magistrate, Neni, and May return to hear the conclusion of the independent investigation: April absolutely did the murder of her husband, no doubt. May is incredulous, and Andrakis dreads the inevitable conversation when May learns of the deception. The vindicated magistrate passes sentence: extradition. Everyone expected much worse. Furthermore, the magistrate decrees a reward upon the investigators of 350 gp and a fireball necklace. What a strange town.