and Si�lara explains that she draws her power from the living force of nature that suffuses the world. She further explains that her people, the Jade Elves, believe in a matriarch named Murchs�s the Hunter, a progenitor of sorts who is the �mother� or �guardian� of her people. In a rare display of openness, Uso � after finishing casting a spell to unlock the double doors � chimes in that his people, the Gold Elves, also have a matriarch of their own, named Marrem, known as �the Queen�.
This discussion is halted when Sebastian trips an unseen trap attached to the double doors. A powerful blast of life-draining energy saps Sebastian to near unconsciousness. As he falls to the ground in pain, he begins to writhe as his face elongates into a snout, and his body bursts from his clothing sprouting tufts of hair. In less a minute, he rears onto hide legs and roars at the party � a werewolf. Si�lara senses that this transformation is wholly unnatural, and the Company recalls the battle they had with werewolves outside the grounds of the Bhindum family almost exactly one cycle of the moon past. Not wishing to kill their companion, the Company takes great pains to merely subdue him � Jeremi calls upon �ton to paralyze Sebastian in place, Cirend hits Sebastian with the flat of his halberd, and Sebastian falls to the ground again... this time, completely unconscious.
That is when the Company has its second revelation about Sebastian that day. As Sebastian reverts to human form � stripped of the clothing torn asunder by the transformation into a werewolf � the Company sees that Sebastian is not a man at all, but a woman. After Jeremi heals Sebastian and hands her clothes to cover herself, the Company inquires and Sebastian explains that she was born Viola, a woman, but was raised by her father as a man in order to secrete her away from her mother, who had fallen in league with evil magick users. Sebastian asked the Company not to reveal her secret, to protect her from the reach of any working in concert with her mother.
Calling upon their knowledge of things archaic and arcane, Uso and Jeremi realize that there is but one way to cure Sebastian of lycanthropy. They must cleanse Sebastian with divine magick while the moon is still full, and do all that they can to bolster Sebastian�s susceptibility to being cured. Because the moon begins to wane that night, the Company chooses to heal Sebastian rather than continue their exploration of the Banevault. They return to the surface. Jeremi visits High Priestess Mara, and asks her for two scrolls that will enable him to call upon �ton to heal Sebastian. Jeremi also asks what more Mara and her colleagues in the faith have been doing to seal the Banevault. Mara then reveals that she has sent a second group of people, all Holy Warriors of �ton, into the Banevault in search of the Sword of Lies. She has not heard from them since sending them into the Banevault, and she fears the worst. Jeremi asks to see the text that Mara spoke of explaining how the Sword of Lies would be revealed as the Sword of Truth, but Mara declines, saying she would consult with those within her Sect that have access to the text.
With the magical scrolls in his possession, Jeremi meets up with the Company in a tavern and together they secure Sebastian with a magic rope. After emboldening him with spells, Jeremi calls upon �ton to remove the lycanthropic affliction. Although Sebastian fights off the first attempt, he succumbs to the spell when Jeremi casts it again, and is cured from the curse, as far as the Company knows.
Uso identifies the items the Company found locked in the crude box in the Banevault: a magical mace with extra powers against undead, a ring the grants protection against evil magick, a pearl that positively affects the use of holy spells, and 5 crossbow bolts, made of adamantine that are infused with holy power and were crafted specifically to harm unnatural aberrations. The items look like those that would have been used by a priest, and the Company wonders if they were formerly in the possession of The Betrayed, or perhaps even Danar himself. However, the Company does not explore the issue any further, and they decide to rest above ground before returning to the Banevault the next morning.
The 24th of Darkel
The next morning, the Company rises early and returns deep into the Banevault, back to the doors of silver and gold. Despite his best efforts, Sebastian again trips the trap protecting those doors, and again takes heavy damage. Jeremi heals him, however, and Company passes through the doors to find a single chamber. At the back of the chamber are two doors, magically locked, but Uso has already used his magick for the day to unlock the Gold & Silver
doors. The Company vow to return later after Uso has rested and recovered his ability to magically unlock the doors.
Looking to explore further, the Company backtracks to a doorway near the entrance to the Inner Vault. They enter a series of chambers and Uso uses his understanding of enginering
