Gargoyles
Synopsis
Eleria, the duchess at Killsburrough Castle, has always been a fan of Gargoyles, so she hired the greatest architects in the land to modify her castle to have them placed everywhere (from door knockers to the tops of the towers, to even her bedposts.) But simple stone was not good enough for her, so Eleria sought out the Amulet of Earthen Rune, a piece of jewelry that has the power to animate stone, and give the bearer the ability to turn flesh into sculpted stone. She used this amulet to turn her gargoyles into flying and walking beasts to capture local townsfolk and turn them into gargoyles as well.
The gargoyles at Killsburrough are nothing like the "Natural" gargoyles in Gurth, these ones an unnaturally formed, and posses skills and character traits that would never be common in the standard rural gargoyle. Most notable, Eleria's gargoyles tend to be less lazy, stronger, and more intelligent than the average gargoyle (some even posses magical resistance.)
Our hero's will be sent into Killsburrough Castle to retrieve the amulet and return it to the Iron Circle. As a secondary mission, Eleria's gargoyles should be freed, and if possible, returned to their natural state (either stone, or a village person.) The council of the Iron Circle recommends that Eleria's fate be to spend the rest of her days as a gargoyle herself from the powers of the Amulet of Earthen Rune... a fitting end to such a tyrant; though she may be useful in achieving the secondary objective, so don't act too hastily.
After being teleported to the beach a mile away from the castle, the party made an ice canoe and traveled the mile across the sea to the castle island. Halfway there, two gargoyles drop rocks on the passengers, knocking Tara unconscious. Amanda then staved off two with fireballs.
After seeing a small child, Eleria's daughter, the company entered in a window of the castle. With the child's caregiver, Nana, retching due to a quick spell, the company moved to the courtyard, where they took out several gargoyles until Amanda was dive-bombed almost out of existence. After turning her ring, Amanda was sent back to the Iron Circle to be healed. Going up the central spire, the company ran into Eleria and a swarm of gargoyles. With Tara blending through the gargoyle teams, and everyone else blowling or freezing things along the way, all the gargoyles are defeated. Eleria is set on fire to be subdued, then quenched, she was unconscious. The party props her up on the fountain in the courtyard and turn her into stone:
