Part 1

Tarn Tavern is dimly lit. The scent of spilled beer, spiced wine and old wood is thick in the air. Outside, rain pattered against the windows, casting shifting shadows across the worn stone walls. Four figures sat around a corner table, their faces lined with the years, their eyes carrying the weight of a shared past.

It had been thirty-three years since they fled the halls of Wightlych Academy– not as students, but as test subjects. The memories were fractured, blurred by time and whatever alchemical horrors had been done to them. But some things never faded: the searing heat of the kitchen fire they set as a distraction, the blood boiled dash through Wightgate, the cold night air hitting their faces as they ran for their lives.

They had sworn -staring into each others black and fearful eyes- never to return.

And yet, here they were.

Each of them had received a letter in Krhaal’s unmistakable hand, scrawled in urgent, cryptic words. Pleas for help. Warnings. References to things they had tried to forget. But one letter, more recent than the others, was different.

“They are coming for us.”

It was all the confirmation they needed. The hunt had resumed.

One of Krhaal’s messages spoke of something deeper, something worse. Mentions of a hunger that gnawed at him. Of a voice that whispered in his dreams. Of changes that he would be powerless to stop.

Part 2

What none of them knew—what none of them could have guessed—was that Krhaal had already been taken. Not by those who had hunted them before, but by something older, colder, and patient beyond reckoning.

Somewhere in the shadows, beyond the veil of the living, Dajius Wightlych (the Master) had claimed him. Krhaal was no longer the man they had known. His body had rotted, his soul withered, his mind hollowed to serve another’s will. He was a drone now, a puppet of the powerful undead necromancer who had orchestrated this from the very beginning.

And worst of all, Wightlych Academy had never truly let them go.

Their escape had been an illusion. A controlled variable in a grander experiment. They were still subjects. Still watched. Their lives, their choices—everything they had believed to be their own—were nothing more than data in a decades-long study.

And now, the next phase was beginning.

Part 3

The Next Phase: The Fading

The party is already marked—they just don’t know it yet. The moment they entered Tarn Tavern, the next phase began. Over the next thirty days, their bodies will slowly wither, their souls unraveling as the magic that has sustained them for decades begins to fail.

Krhaal was just the first.

The Truth They Had Forgotten

For thirty years, they believed they had escaped Wightlych Academy. That their daring flight through Wight Gate, the fire they set as a distraction, and the cold night air on their faces was the moment they won their freedom.

But the truth is far worse.

They did not die in that fire. They were already dead.

The children who fled Wightlych Academy that night were not human—they were undead experiments, raised and shaped by the Master in his desperate attempt to create life from death. His goal was never to command mindless hordes or spread corruption. He wanted to restore what was lost—to bring the dead back not as monsters, but as people.

And with them, he succeeded.

When they crossed the boundary of the Academy’s cursed grounds, something impossible happened: they became human. Flesh and blood. True life, not just an imitation. They had escaped—not just from the Academy, but from death itself.

For 30 years, they have lived normal lives. They have been real.

But now, that miracle is failing.

Signs of the Fading

As the spell unravels, the party begins to experience terrifying changes:

1. Memories from the Hive Mind – At first, they assume they are suffering from hallucinations. But the memories are real—fragments of their time at Wightlych Academy, seen not just through their own eyes but through the eyes of every other lost soul who was raised before them. The memories of those who never escaped. The ones who never became human.
2. Fading Warmth – Their skin grows cold, their heartbeat slows, and their breath comes in shallow gasps.
3. The Smell of Decay – Food becomes tasteless, but the scent of rot and old bones fills them with an odd sense of nostalgia, as if their bodies are finally remembering what they truly are.
4. Voices in the Dark – At night, they hear whispers. Not just Krhaal’s, but others. The voices of the dead who were left behind. The ones the Master never got to save.
5. Unnatural Strength… and Decay – As their bodies weaken, their unnatural abilities grow. They move faster, their wounds close too quickly—but their reflections in mirrors show glimpses of what they used to be. Their true forms, clawing back through the cracks in the spell.

Part 4

The Master’s Dilemma

The Master was never their enemy.

For years, he has struggled to perfect the magic that gave them life. He believed he had finally succeeded with them, that they would be the first of a new kind of existence—undead, made human, given real souls and real lives.

But now, the spell is failing.

Krhaal’s transformation into a mindless drone was his first failure. But it will not be the last. If the party does nothing, they will follow. Not into death, but into something worse—a state of mindless existence, no will, no self, just hollow remnants of who they once were.

And the Master doesn’t know how to stop it.

The Party’s Choices

They have only 30 days before the spell collapses completely. Their options are few:

1. Let the Spell Fade – Accept their fate. They were never meant to exist like this, and perhaps it is time to let go. But what if there is something beyond death? What if they are meant for something more?
2. Help the Master Find a Cure – If anyone knows how to save them, it is him. But even he is unsure if the spell can be stabilized. And if he fails, they may become something worse than undead.
3. Take Control of the Magic – The Master created them, but what if they can change their own fate? They have spent 30 years living as free-willed beings—perhaps they can reshape the spell from the inside. But tampering with such powerful magic could have unimaginable consequences.

The clock is ticking.

And Krhaal is already waiting for them… on the other side.