As the Misfits made their way eastward towards the ruins the missing adventuring party was last supposed to be, their journey wasn't that eventful. Thanks to excellent tracking by Thorne and Caius, they were able to save themselves two days off their journey. They came across the forest, lush and green, and began to make their way through. They came across a beautiful sight - a young maiden with long silken black hair bathing in a small pond and stream. Thorne volunteered to greet the young lady, in a very calm and gentle nature, not wanting to scare her. The young lady wasn't startled at all, but was very welcoming to Thorne, and invited him to join her in the water. Beguiled by her charm, Thorne quickly disrobed and began making his way into the water. Caius, seeing this and feeling that something was off, dashed out to grab the young fairy. Caius quickly became charmed by the young maiden, and slowly started to make his way into the water, carrying a naked Thorne.
From a vantage point, Swipe saw all of this going on and took a shot at the young maiden. The shot hit, and she quickly disappeared into the water, only to come back up, showing her drowned, undead form. Two other ghouls arose from the water. A battle ensued, and the Misfits were able to put the undead back into the ground. The Misfits continued forward, keeping an even more vigilant eye out. They eventually came across the entrance to the Ruins that they were looking for. Unfortunately, the entrance was crawling with various undead.
With some skillful planning, the Misfits were able to wipe out the undead in front of the Ruins. Taking a small break, some of the Misfits decided to investigate around the entrance. Flint was able to discover some very old religious markings, and with Seraf's help, was able to come to the conclusion that these Ruins are in fact an old, ancient temple that was dedicated to the Lady of Poison, the Mistress of Disease: Talona. They also discovered that there were three entrances / tunnels into the Temple from where they were. With this knowledge and looking at the options ahead of them, they chose to go in through the right entrance.
There was undead waiting for them inside, but to their surprise, there were more slain undead throughout the halls than those that were still moving. The Misfits explored the halls a bit, discovering some of the long-forgotten treasure that had laid dormant in these halls has already been claimed. Swipe however, through his cunning and quick thinking, discovered a missing treasure hidden inside the top of a chest. The Misfits found the way to the lower floors, where upon reaching the 2nd floor, they could hear the groans and shuffling of undead, but was very hard to see due to the lack of natural light. They made a decision to go a certain direction, and found a few more zombies. They slew them, and came across a barred up door. They heard a voice coming from inside, and after a quick confirmation that The Misfits were indeed NOT undead, they were let in by one of the surviving adventurers: Rei.
Rei, a young human-looking woman with Racoon ears and tail, was relieved to see something else living. The Misfits explained that they were sent here to find and bring Rei and her group back. Rei told them what has been happening in the Temple, and that she is the only one left alive. The Misfits agreed to help Rei recover her fallen comrade's guild emblems, and any other mementos that they could find. After only a few moments, The Misfits, Rei, and Connor began to be easily overcome by the horde of various undead: zombies, armored skeletons, zombie ogres, and other unusual creatures like Mylings and Boneless mounds of flesh! The group made a tactical retreat, and made it out of the ruined temple. Outside, the Misfits decided to find some secluded shelter, and camp for the night.
At this time, the Misfits were feeling very unsure of themselves as a party of adventurers. Is this the life that they want? They found Rei... is that all that is to be done? Is there anything else that they need to do here? Are they really equipped to handle anything else here? Many of these thoughts went through their minds as many of them slept.
During that night, Seraf talked and comforted Rei, losing all of her adventuring party, and being the only one to survive; and Connor, for he has never experienced anything like this in his young life. Seraf also helped Connor go through some of his notes; half-scribbles and quickly jotted down words, and discovered that the people that had gave Connor the information about the magically sealed gate described a place that didn't exactly match the outside of the Temple Ruins here, but that of another!
In the morning, after a brief meal and some discussion, the entire group decided to try and find this other way into the Temple, and see if they can try once more to stop / stem the undead threat.