On Mirtul 7, 1369, while returning to Everlund from an adventure in the foothills, the party almost rescued a halfling who was fleeing some thieves. Unfortunately, he had been struck with poisoned arrows and died a few minutes later. Before he died however, he asked the party to see that his saddlebags get to Rabairnil, a mage who ran one of the three spell component shops on Mystic Avenue in Everlund. The saddlebags held a variety of things, including some preserved beholder parts, a travelling spellbook, a potion and some money. The party reported the incedent to the authorities.

The next day they met with Rabairnil at his shop and passed on the saddlebags. Rabairnil struck them as a pleasant enough person (CHA in low double-digits), if a little quiet and shy. He wore loose, comfortable, almost frumpish clothing and needed spectacles for reading. He was very saddened to learn of the halfling, Micvit Longseeker's death and said he would try to have him raised. He explained that Micvit was part of a party that he employed to gather exotic spell components and the like. He implied that the attack was likely the work of one of his competitors, Arpadelpo. He gave the party a 1000gp pearl as a reward for trying to help Micvit and delivering the saddlebags.

The party left some magic items with Rabairnil to be identified for a fee and also discussed the possibility of doing some item gathering work for him in the future. They picked up the items, which he had identified satisfactorilly, the next day.

The day after that (the 10^th), the party was questioned by the City Watch regarding a mysterious series of grave roberries that had been taking place despite a watch detachment being stationed in the cemetary during the recent robberies. They were initially very suspicious in their questioning, but became friendlier when it became obvious that AFAL had been out of town for several of the robberies. The captain explained that they had consulted a seer regarding the problem and been told what they originally thought was "Awful is your answer." but after hearing of the party from the Micvit incident, they realized another possibility was "AFAL is your answer." The captain liked this interpretation better. Since it seemed unlikely that they were responsible, the captain asked if they would be willing to help the watch investigate (for a small daily rate). While most of the party was training Henkles & Moogh offered to help.

Moogh and Henkles joined the watch detachment at the cemetary each night thereafter. On the nights of the 12^th, 14^th, and 17^th, they fell mysteriously asleep along with all of the watch members around dusk and awoke to find that more robberies had taken place.

The rest of party joined them on the 19^th and on the 26^th some of them stayed awake long enough to defeat a band of ghouls equipped with the Windchimes of Dusk - a set of magical windchimes that when blown by natural wind at dusk would act as a Sleep spell each round on any who heard them. They tried to track the ghouls scent back to it's source and were led to Arpadelpo's basement, where they confronted him. Arpadelpo pretty much embarassed the party with the casual way he defended his home and managed to convince the watch that there was no evidence to be found there. AFAL coaxed their dog to continue and discovered that the ghouls trail had been well obfuscated. The party went home, keeping the chimes.

Later that night Steve and Darius discovered what they eventually learned was one of two makers marks on the chimes - the mage sigil of Rabairnil. Based on their experience with Arpadelpo, the party decided on a bold course of action regarding Rabairnil - they left town a day and a half later and never returned.

As far as the party knew until Uktar 24^th, that was the last they ever heard or Rabairnil. However, a seemingly unrelated incident occured on Flamerule 23^rd that now seems significant. The party had been staking out the ruins of an old temple which they expected to appear on the night of the new moon. They had been away from it briefly but returned to the ruin the evening of the new moon. When they did, they were attacked by a group of animated skeletons that had been painted grey and reinforced with iron bands bolted to their bones, at least one of which had spellcasting ability. At the time they assumed this was the first defense of the Tower of Loss, which appeared as they were cleaning up after the fight.

However, on the night of Eleasias 16^th, Steve and Stewart were attacked by three similar skeletons, which were waiting invisibly on their ceiling, who seemed to be interested in Steve's backpack (which held the Chimes). Later analysys of the remains revealed runes on the underside of the iron plates, not including any makers marks, but including the symbol of the Cult of the Dragon.

That was the last encounter the party had with those strange skeletons until one arrived in their sitting room in Waterdeep on Uktar 24^th and handed over a message relating to the Chimes on a brass plate before blowing itself and much of the room up.

The message demanded that the chimes be placed in a specific urn in the City of the Dead the next night. That night the party tried to set an ambush around the drop site, but ended up in a general melee with some bugbear skeletons that bore the now usual embellishments. The phony chimes that had been left by the party remained in place.

The night after that (the 26^th), the party stopped another bugbear skeleton, this one invisible, from making off with the chimes, but the few people who had stayed home had to fend off an attack from three more. The next few nights after that were uneventful, with the guard posted in the City of the Dead seeing no excitement.

A possibly related development occured on Uktar 29^th. As they were leaving Undermountain, the party learned from patrons of the Yawning Portal that Feldyn Goadolfyn, proprietor of the Old Monster Shop, was offering money for giant humanoid corpses. This was unusual for him and the party investigated. They weren't able to prove a connection with Rabairnil, as Feldyn was uncooperative, but they reported their suspicions to the Watch.

No more undead made appearances near the false chimes after that, the Silent Travellers showed up a few nights later and took the fake chimes. There was no indication that this had any connection to Rabairnil, they seemed to be looking for the party.

A few days after that the party stopped watching the City of the Dead, but on the night of Nightal 3^rd, two hornless minotoxen, probably ones that the party had killed themselves on the 29^th. There was a third, man sized undead, his features hidden by a cloak, waiting in the front yard, possibly directing the skeletons. The party destroyed all three and discovered an Amulet of Turning Resistance that the cloaked figure had been wearing. They also found the rowboat that had been used to get to the sea wall, from which the undead had approached. They turned the boat over to the Watch.

Two days later, the party returned from a dungeon crawl to discover that Fair Winds had been burglarized by a half-orc woman who seemed to have some necromantic abilities. The burglar had taken a rare pistol-crosbow of Henkles's, so Henkles asked around town until he found the weapon and from there the party eventually learned that the theif was associated with a ship, the Endurance, which had recently sailed, but that she was currently staying in a warehouse on Tower Trail in South Ward. On Nightal 12^th they did some reconnaissance of the warehouse and on Nightal 17^th they broke in, killed most of the occupants and searched the place. They saw but didn't catch the burglar, Gorrsurs Erask, who escaped in wraithform. They did confirm that the warehouse was being used as a skeleton-animating facility and that the Endurance, with Rabairnil on board, was due back soon. They hired a thief to watch the harbor for its return.