Nightal 8

Nightal 8, 1369:
    High = 50, Low = 30
    Moderate precipitation (1" of sleet) starting @ 6:30pm
    Calm.
    Partly cloudy most of the day.

    Mrs. A. passes on that there were two more warehouse explosions,
    one on the 6th in Castle Ward and one on the 7th in Dock Ward.
    Apparently the reward for
    catching or killing the smugglers is up to 25,000gp.

    During an evening sleet storm, Gulkker reported that there was a
    young lady standing on the porch of Fair Winds.  When confronted,
    she apologized and explained that she was just trying to stay dry
    and took shelter on the porch, whereapon everyone invited her to
    come in (she had an 18 Charisma, after all).  She introduced
    herself as Arcturagana, a ranger in the city to visit an old
    friend, and chatted politely with everyone about AFAL's exploits
    for a while.  She seemed very taken with Maanamere.  Dexter
    eventually managed to take his eyes off her long enough to excuse
    himself and cast Know Alignment, but after he left the room, she
    announced that the sleet had died down some and she had imposed on
    your hospitality long enough.  She left before Dexter returned to
    the room (with a verdict of CE).

    As soon as she was gone, Denyae came downstairs yelling "Who
    invited that Vampire into the house?" (Technically, it was Moogh,
    but I think he was just the one who spoke first.)  Afterwards she
    explained that her party had once stumbled across The Magnificent
    Pickaxe of Dumathoin, a powerful artifact which would allow you to
    strip-mine an entire valley in a few hours (although it would then
    be forever lost to that user). With the wisdom that comes of being
    a 2nd level party that lucked into a major artifact, they decided
    to use it to expose the underground lair of this powerful Vampire
    Lord, Dread William of the South Moors at noon for gobs of free
    XPs.  They wiped out most of William's "familly" but missed the
    big guy himself.  Since then he's been hunting them down and
    killing them, sometimes through Arcturagana, one of his most
    powerful surviving lieutenants.  Apparently more than half of the
    original party was already gone when they had their last stand in
    Undermountain.  Denyae had been under the (perhaps correct)
    impression that they had managed to lose William and Company in
    Mirabar months before they first entered Undermountain.

    Darius observed that it seems likely that it was Denyae's
    association with AFAL and their new-found notoriety that put
    Arcturagana back on the trail.