Before we can depart, the priest comes back with a visitor. He introduces us to Frédéric Ducard, a “dabbler” in the occult who can help us with the current mission. He is wearing a large black coat, a black hat, has a crossbow slung over his shoulder and a pistol holstered at his hip. Initially we are skeptical since he looks strange, but after a few pointed questions from Goodwin and a once-over by Slate, we decide that he is legit.

Ducard is able to produce a drawing of the hammer from one of his books, and says that he has a list of inquisitors who carried the hammer before Wachenheimer. During all of this, Slate realizes that if there are records of the people who had the hammer before Wachenheimer, but not after, and where he was last seen with it, then what prevented people from obtaining it? He theorizes that there must be a “force” preventing people from getting it, or killing them as they tried.

We pack up the truck and move out towards the Black Forest. From his writings we roughly guess where he entered from the church, and head to that area. We start looking around; presently Ducard finds some sort of a marker or waypoint made out of wood. The rest of us see fairly fresh barefoot footprints all over the area. Further up we see that the tracks split into two directions, one going north and one to the east. Ducard thinks that we should head to the east as indicated by the marker; Maiura says that the fresher tracks are this way, so we should take care. We go to the east, and after a good distance we come upon an area with fallen trees. Looking around, we see that the spaces underneath the logs are large enough for a human to crawl in, underneath which is a crudely made cover to a manhole of sorts.

As we are looking at this, Slate notices a billow of smoke coming out of the ground about a hundred meters to the north. We surmise that it must be from this underground lair. While trying to come up with a strategy, Wolff simply moves ahead and goes down the tunnel. The rest of us follow. Shortly after descending and moving forward, we hear a cry of “Intruders!”

We are attacked by several large German men wearing rags. They have glazed eyes, indicating that they may be controlled by another person. They go down, but Slate is hurt. Goodwin heals him while the others fend off several more enemies who wander in to the area we’re in. Afterwards we continue on through the tunnel and come to a large cavern with a fire pit in the center. Around it are more of the enthralled men and a man in a red tabard carrying the hammer. He seems to be more than under the influence of someone; he seems to actually be undead. There is also a woman, an old crone, in the room.

Moving to attack, we are making progress when suddenly Goodwin’s spinning machete (which he is wielding using telekinesis) slices into Maiura. Ducard looks back at him, shocked, and he shrugs and says “My bad!” He is apparently in the woman’s thrall. Wolff manages to take down the guy with the hammer and grabs it from him, feeling how powerful it is. The crone suddenly casts a fear spell on everyone, making Goodwin run away in terror. After a protracted battle we finally take them down, including the old crone.