Continuing the plot summary of the Graveyard Shift now on the new blog for it!
If you want to read what happened previously, here are parts 1 and 2, along with a link to the masterpost!
Picking up from Yikes and Azule waking up from the nightmare, there's a collective panic as those who were in the nightmare ensure that their friends and coworkers are who they say they are. Frizzle (one of the NPCs from the first arc and was in the dream) confronts Todd, and Yikes and Azule confront Husk. Thankfully, no one's actually been replaced, and they hurry to finish traveling to Dradow.
While Yikes was recovering from the 4 levels of exhaustion from the werewolf bite and the dream, there was a bit of downtime. During this, Yikes and Husk talked to Anzor and confronted him about various suspicious things that he had noticed him doing. It culminated in them both asking if Anzor was undead, which Anzor unhappily confirmed, showing what was under the bandages covering his body: mostly dead flesh with ever-open wounds slowly oozing blackened blood, and an open, exposed torso devoid of all organs except for a glowing red stone replacing his heart.
BACKSTORY TIME: He was used as an experiment for a necromancer looking to unlock the secrets of lichdom by tying a soul back to a dead body to live in undeath. While the necromancer succeeded with Anzor, he wasn't able to figure it out for himself before paladins of Kelemvor burst in and arrested him. Anzor was almost killed, but one paladin stuck up for him, saying he was clearly sentient, a person with a soul, and deserved a chance at life. Being taken in by the temple (although unable to enter it due to Hallow), he studied and prayed for hours and days to Kelemvor, hoping for an answer to help him. Kelemvor responded in a vision, bestowing powers, an oath, and an enchanted pendant that would ease his suffering and cover the fact he was undead. He entered the temple for the first time and was officially a paladin to Kelemvor.
With downtime mostly over, Yikes had the party meet up with a contact of his named Bramble, a hyena shifter and bardic professor at the local college. Dradow is a city known for its two colleges of magic, one for wizards called Clockworth’s Academy of Abjuration, and one for bards called Autumnrun’s College for Debators, Orators, and all things Eloquent, which Bramble works at. He's been working on a book for the last 10 years about shapechanging, the races associated with it, and the myths about them. Yikes was interviewed for the book years ago, and now he's taking Husk to meet him to get more information on changelings. During this cheerful reunion, a student comes in and asks if Bramble has seen a friend of hers, Falthrax, an older dwarf who's also a student. After searching where he'd been previously, the party found a seemingly sentient book called The Price of Beauty (yes it's the module from Candlekeep Mysteries). Telling it their problems caused it to open a portal to a dirt path lined by stone lilies in the middle of a jungle. The trees are recognized by Husk as this is part of the same jungle they lived on the other continent in the country of Llaethpotel. The party venture in, assuming this is where the missing dwarf went, and Bramble promises them he will help on the other side. And with that, the portal closes, and they are on a different continent.
Following the path, they find the Temple of the Restful Lily, one dedicated to the god Sune. They are greeted by Saeth, a human man who IMMEDIATELY drew the suspicion of the party. This suspicion increased after Yikes attempted to charm him, and he attempted to charm Yikes right back. They rested in the sauna for a little, where they met Zevi, a veteran from the bordering empire of Ascopia and sent here to recover from a leg wound. Yikes was able to determine the sauna was filled with fey magic and noticed very slight movement in the water. After pushing Zevi out of the room, Yikes and Husk were able to coax the naiad that lived in the pool out of hiding by showing they were fey as well. She introduced herself as Cyrena, and she told the party the temple had been taken over by a coven of hags, and her friend and founder of the temple, Sylvarie, had been missing for a decade, presumed dead.
With a day of investigating, they discovered Falthrax and another victim of the hags in what used to be Sylvarie's tower which the hags use as their home now. They also uncovered cursed paintings that seemingly tied a hag curse to these victims. With the break in noticed by a gargoyle, the party was on a time limit to get these victims out. Zevi stepped up, additionally distracting the hags, and after ordering Bramble to open up the portal using sending, they got the victims through and a fight began. The party killed the hags, but when faced by Saeth, revealing himself to be a cambian all along, Todd was able to persuade a negotiation instead, for a trade of information: the hags' recipe for the cursed paintings for Saeth, and information about the fey and changelings for the party. Saeth reveals there used to be a changeling settlement deep within the forest, which was destroyed 3 decades ago, making Husk question why their archfey, Nonna, who lives in the forest, didn't tell them about that. Saeth leaves with the hags' recipe content, and the party returns to the temple to discover a massacre. The hags and Saeth had killed the other visitors of the temple before chasing the party to leave no witnesses.
It's a somber moment to mourn the dead, but their work isn't over. They find Slyvarie in the basement of the abandoned shrine of Sune, who has been transformed into a medusa and petrified Yikes and Todd. However, Cyrena was brought along per her request, and she quickly convinced Slyvarie everything was ok, and she would finally be safe. A few professors from the bardic college were sent for to un-petrify the characters, and they finally headed back to Dradow.
They received an award from the headmaster of the college for their excellent work saving their missing student and were allowed to keep the Price of Beauty. The party now has a fairly easy way to travel to a base of operations outside of the continent if they ever find themselves in trouble.
And with that, unfortunately, Azule and Todd leave the game here. Azule was almost outed as a necromancer and left the circus, and Todd, with a deadline to fulfill a deal to their warlock patron looming, decided to leave as well.
The party does add one new member to their ranks: the NPC Frizzle! She had been given the ability to not sleep by her patron after the nightmare as a show of good will, and she decided to stop being so scared and stand up for herself and her friends. With that, Yikes and Husk invited her to join them to try to take down Margylia, and while she is still terrified, she agreed.
