The surprise of seeing the two gunslinging wraiths, Billy the Wight and Calamabanshee Jane playing poker, was short-lived.
The wraiths, casually playing poker as the heroes entered, suddenly got up from their poker game and bolted in different directions pulling their pistols from the holsters.
The shootout at the Unlucky Horseshoe was on!
DM note, if you want the mechanics behind running this shootout, please check out this article.
The party was taken aback by the sudden moves of the Pistol Wraiths, but recovered quickly and started running for cover from the nasty bullets flying around the saloon.
And what made matters worse, the noise from the fight attacted the undeads outside in the center square.
Pestilence kept his distance using the range of his spells to target the Pistol Wraiths…. oddly much to their approval. It was clear the undead gunslingers enjoyed the shootout.
What they didn’t enjoy was when Thorga and Kaari got up close and personal.
“That ain’t fair! this is a shootout fella. Use dem guns!” they exclaimed while turning ethereal as the heroes weapons passed through them causing no harm.
But Pestilence had a plan. He stepped into the Ethereal plane himself much to the surprise of the Wraiths and as they materialised back in the material plane, Pestilence stayed in the Ethereal plane preparing some magical hurt for the Wraiths should they return.
Kaari and Thorga understood the plan as Pestilence did not appeared back in the material plan and they attacked the Pistol Wraiths in close quarters forcing them to shift back into the Ethereal Plane only to face the force of Pestilence’s spells.
The experienced Hellbenders worked together and in the end the managed to finally down Billy the Wight, who dramatically fell behind the bar counter:
“They got me partner. They got me good. It’s getting dark. Dark and cold so cold. Make sure you bring the sheep home to the farm!”, he coughed before collapsing.
With the Billy gone, Calamabanshee Jane was soon cornered behind the statues of King Thaddeus and Queen Adelyn Rostak.
In the end she capitulated with a big grin on her skinless face. And to the heroes surprise, Billy got up from behind the counter and the Wraiths and the heroes sat down for some shots of whiskeys and a talk.
The aftermath
Once again the heroes where advised to stay clear of the Knight of the Bell. And again they heard how the Knight of the Bell would on odd occasions go to The Welcome to wait for his son to return, which he never did.
After the whiskeys were downed, the heroes said goodbye to the lethal gunslingers and walked confidently out in the circular plaza as the Pistol Wraiths had assured them that nobody would look at them with hostility as A) they were inside the walls now and B) they had just left the Unlucky Horseshoe as friends… or at least acquaintances, of the Wraiths.
The Library
At the library, the heroes met the odd librarian Yao Sun The Whisperer of Secrets who they weren’t sure was the man in front of them of the odd hand, formed by ectoplasmic smoke, that seems to speak to them as the sentient part of the whole.
While searching the library for maps of the castle, Pestilence contacted Belial her patron for advice on fighting the Iron Lich.
Belial was mildly annoyed about being interrupted in whatever he was doing, but he offered that all Liches are unique, but they all share two common traits:
- They keep their life force in a phylactery making them immortal. This the party already knew as they had destroyed the phylactory of Thaddeus Rostak at the first encounter with the Iron Lich.
- All Liches ruled by fear. The closer their subordinates is to a Lich, the tighter this grip of fear is to hold them in servitute.
Suddenly it dawned on our heroes that the son of the Knight of the Bell most be held captive somewhere in the castle.
Belial then gave Pestilence an important order: The Iron Lich has a book so evil that most mortals go hopelessly insane just seeing it. The book is called The Book of Vile Darkness.
Pestilence’s order was to bring the book to Belial. If successful, Belial would release Pestilence from his service. However, should Pestilence fail, Belial would cash in the contract and Pestilence would be bound to serve him in hell for all eternity.
