The characters are at
Gregory's Farm outside of the walls of the city. They're inside Hrothgar's Earth Sled, which is parked there over at the farm.
Before the incantation can proceed, alchemical concoctions are needed, Rufus and some of the other character travel to Iyn's
Alchemy to purchase the reagents that they need...
Rufus, Horatio, Lucy, Karen, Kratos, Banjo, and Lars travel back inside the city to the shop, via Lars's horse and carriage. At the front of the building, the PCs see a pair of stone gargoyle statues at each side of the entrance. Horatio becomes alarmed, immediately sensing that these statues are animated via
animate object and
permanency (successful
Spellcraft skill check) spells. He advises Rufus and the others to tread very carefully...
The chamber that they enter has some glass cases with various bottles and vials...made of glass, leather, and clay. The characters see a distinguished-looking, gray-haired gentleman, whom they soon discover to be Iyn. He is professional and polite. They briefly chat with him, and provide him with a list of alchemical reagents that they need.
He presents them with a box contains all the necessary alchemical concoctions (verified by Horatio), and pay him 6,000 gp. Then they depart.
The characters return to Gregory's Farm, and begin the incantation, using the various multi-colored potions...
Hrothgar and Horatio perform the lion's share of the incantation, but gain assistance from Rufus, Dante, and Max...
....and successfully complete the incantation.
Karen lives.
She blinks, and her eyes open fully. Though weakened, she is back amongst the land of the living. However, there's a problem. Meaty's hackles rise, and he starts growling...
The PCs have no idea what the Hell is going on. He growls something about seeing a ghost near the ceiling of the room, and he then flings open the door and runs outside, while barking and growling. Kratos follows him.
Kratos: "Meaty, what is it? What do you see?"
Meaty: "Don't know. It's leaving. I see a person...or ghost, flyin' away from us, towards the city..."
Meaty just sits there, staring off into the distance..
The characters discuss this...
Horatio: "Could we have accidentally summoned something?"
Hrothgar: "Not possible. We performed the incantation
perfectly. It doesn't make any sense. If it went wrong, then Karen wouldn't be here now. Instead, we'd be fighting an undead monster in her place.."
Some of the characters are exhausted from the incantation, so they plan to rest. Jocelyn has earlier explained to the PCs, that she has the ability to examine and enter dreams, and even potentially divine the future from them. Since they're resting now, this seems like a good time to proceed, so as the PCs rest, Jocelyn enters the dreams of Rufus, Horatio, and Max...
To be continued..