```col-mdflexGrow=2.5===# OutlineWhen players arrive at the [[landmark/city-of-the-dead]], read this text to them: > [!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > You approach the south end of the [[landmark/city-of-the-dead]], and Haven's biggest public park looks calm and peaceful. As you make your way along the fence up [[landmark/studio-lane]] to the main gate at Ware St, you see driftglobes lighting flower beds, trees, beautiful statues, and private mausoleums. The singing of nightbirds pleases your ears and the soft wind brings the smell of flowers.# City Watch Post The post is situated just inside the cemetery gate at Ware St. It's a small, single-story building with a traditional yellow-green lantern burning outside of it, lit by a continual flame spell. The post is normally manned by a sergeant from Noble's Way Station. **Brel Skilren** is the sergeant on duty when the party arrives. He is a tall, darkhaired, middle-aged man. After starting as a regular guard in the Dock Ward he got promoted and assigned to this post. Content with his new job at first, he now understands that maintaining peace in the cemetery can be hard work. **What Brel knows:** - Three members of the Jackals gang were brutally murdered in the cemetery. Their corpses are currently held in the morgue in the cellar of the guard post.- Their names are Kin Simorsk, Indra Glide, Tornus Icebringer - tiefling, human, and dwarf respectively.- It wasn't useful to use * **speak with dead** * on the corpses for interrogation because their jaws were completely destroyed.- The gang presumably has two more members, because witnesses reported seeing five people skulking about. Theymight still be at the park somewhere because Jackals always work together.## Morgue Characters who want to inspect the bodies can make a ==DC 15 Intelligence (Medicine) check== to ascertain that the dwarf and tiefling died from the human's sword. He destroyed their jaws with his bare hands, then did the same to himself. After finishing this horrible job, he stabbed himself with the sword.Alternatively, they can defer to [[person/thom]] who will come running in shortly after they get to the morgue. She was also summoned by Lyza but came separate location. She will shoo people aside while she performs her examination. [anchor|lodge]# Ambrose Everdawn's Lodge This small, one-story lodge is situated in the middle of the [[landmark/city-of-the-dead]]. Ambrose, an old man in his fifties, lives and works here. During the daytime, he usually can be found in the lodge, reading a book, or sleeping. During the night, he patrols the cemetery and watches for threats and intruders. **What Ambrose knows:** - Last night something murdered three members of the Jackals gang, whom Ambrose wants to catch for quite some time. They were trying to run from the park.- All three bodies were found near the three family mausoleums: Tenley, Savonna, and Phylund.- Their wounds indicate that one of them killed two others and then committed suicide. This can be the work of some undead entity.Ambrose provides PCs with directions to the exact spot where he found all three bodies.[anchor|battle]# Murder Site Battle Approximately 100 feet from the mausoleum entrance, there is a spot on the grass still red with blood. The whole location has a gloomy unsettling mood. Once characters arrive here, read to them:> [!read-aloud] **Read Aloud** > > > Shadows grow longer at the cemetery, as sunset approaches. Hundreds of shining driftglobes make their way through the front gates and gather at the different parts of the [[landmark/city-of-the-dead]]. You see a small glade a bit off the walkway, grass still red with blood, and understand that you reached the place Ambrose mentioned.Three driftglobes, that are nearest to the characters, are vile **will-o-wisps** . After facing brutal death by Nesan's hand, three Jackals have risen as these angry undead spirits. One of the “driftglobes” picks a character who is furthest from others and starts flickering and moving away, trying to lure the character to come after him into the dangerous razorvine. Once the character steps into a trap, will-o-wisp attacks with his shock ability and initiates combat. During it, will-o-wisps quietly whisper names of surviving gang members - Rani and Haral.The character who sees the wisp can discern it from the driftglobe with a successful ==DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check== .## Map Use provided battle map for this encounter. The razorvine is situated in the northern part of the map, forming a fence around an old statue of a knight. **Razorvine:** Razorvine is a plant that grows in wild tangles and hedges. It also clings to the sides of buildings and other surfaces as ivy does. A 10-foot-high, 10-footwide, 5-foot-thick wall or hedge of razorvine has **AC 11** , **25 hp** , and ==immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and psychic damage== . When a creature comes into direct contact with razorvine for the first time on a turn, the creature must succeed on a ==DC 10 Dexterity saving throw== or take 5 1d10 slashing damage from the razorvine's bladelike thorns. ## Will-o-Wisp Tactics While one of them lures the character into a trap, others attack with their shock ability from the invisibility on the second round of combat.[anchor|mausoleum]# Reaching the Mausoleum Characters must succeed on ==DC 12 Wisdom (Survival) check== to follow the blood trail and find their way to the Phylund mausoleum entrance.If they fail and decide to inspect three mausoleums mentioned by Ambrose one-by-one, they discover that only one of them has its door opened - Phylund mausoleum.``````col-md![[plots/sins-of-the-past/table-of-contents]]```