Early evening in Stromdorf, and the adventurers visit the townhouse of Klaus Von Rothstein, to return the ring of Florian Wechsler and collect their payment. They are shown into a study by a butler, and after waiting some minutes, Von Rothstein appears, dressed in a somewhat frilly, brightly colored tent of a dressing gown. He greets the adventurers with delight and enquires after the progress of their search.
The adventurers wish to discuss the question of remuneration however, and attempt to increase the agreed-upon sum of 20 silver per man to a total of 100 silver. Von Rothstein baulks at this at first, even when confronted by the charm and guile of Torus, but a veiled threat from the taciturn Grudge eventually makes him come around, and the adventurers are paid. Grudge then offers to send him a young girl to be trained for a position in his household—no doubt thinking of the young Holtz girl, and Von Rothstein agrees to have his butler take care of it.
The adventurers then repair to the Thunderwater Inn, where they find the taproom packed with patrons taking shelter from the rain outside. Standing at the bar, they talk with Sebastien Brenner, the gruff, scowling owner of the Inn, who offers them a free drink and introduces them to the inn patrons as the group who discovered the Holtzes and brought them to justics. There are general cheers and back-slapping, and Torus decides to shout everyone a drink, which is very well received indeed.
After a dinner of lark pie and gravy with vegetables and several pints of Thunderwater Ale, the adventurers repair to their room upstairs. On their way they knock on the door of Niklas Schulmann, who after a short delay opens the door. He is a strange and imposing figure, dressed in midnight-blue robes, a high cowl and skullcap, and holding a staff capped with a clockwork device—the garb of a Celestial wizard. He seems little interested in what has been going on in town, but does seem interesting in talk of a stone that attracts lightning. It is decided to meet for breakfast and more talk in the taproom.
After a rejuvenating sleep, the adventurers meet Schulmann for breakfast before going to the town hall for the Holtz trial. Schulmann reveals he is actually on a mission from the Celestial College, who have him seeking a number of strange stones, supposedly in the area, that are said to have the ability to attract lightning. He asks the adventurers to let him know if they discover any such stones, as there will be a reward for their retrieval.
Afterwards, Grudge goes off by himself to the town hall to try and talk with Holtz, the young girl, but Kessler refuses to let anyone see the prisoners before the trial. Grudge does not attend the trial or the subsequent executions.
When the trial begins, the town hall itself is packed and people stand outside in the rain crowding the front steps. After a damning prosecution by Kessler, who accuses the Holtzes of everything from witchcraft to consorting with Chaos, Torus steps up to state the facts on behalf of the party. Marie Holtz breaks down when the mysterious figure near the hag tree is mentioned, revealing—shockingly—that he was her son. All present are horrified, and despite a half-hearted attempt by Torus to assert the relative innocence of the Holtzes—or at least the younger members of the clan—the outcome is never in doubt. The town elder summarises the case, and the Holtzes are immediately marched out to the Field of Verena just outside of the Reikland Gate, and the entire family strung up, struggling, on the town gibbet tree. Their bodies swing in the cold rain as the townspeople slowly shuffle back through the gates.
The adventurers decide to visit the Temple of Sigmar, and after a brief conversation with an initiate, meet Lector Magnus Gottschalk, a huge, bull-necked veteran warrior priest who reveals he has been experiencing visions and dreams sent by Sigmar. The adventurers ask him to accompany them on their next adventure, and he readily agrees, seeing a last chance to serve Sigmar in combat against His enemies.
That night, Torus is woken from sleep by the sound of somewhat shouting. As he wakes the other adventurers, they hear the front door splintering under the weight of heavy blows and Brenner and his sons running for the stairs. Reaching the landing, they see to their horror that the reanimated corpses of the Holtzes, along with two badly decomposed bodies and a watchmen, are shuffling into the inn, arms outstretched, eyes white, cracked lips moving as they moan softly. Brenner reaches for his blunderbuss behind the bar and blows off the head of the watchman zombie, as his sons freeze with terror. The adventurers step forward and to will take care of the situation. Grudge and Yuri rush forward into combat, fighting off the onlaught of zombies, while Torus and Immolatus stand behind them and higher up the stairs to shoot arrows and employ spells. Dead Holtz children mindlessly repeated “Mam-a” as they chew on ankles; corpses catching on fire after being hit by a flameblast by Immolatus; the taproom of the inn is a true scene of nightmare, but eventually the adventurers prevail.
From outside they hear a voice crying “it’s alive, it’s alive”, and they rush out to encounter an old man in purple robes hobbling down the street. Once calmed, he reveals his name is Hieronymous Köpfchen, and leads the adventurers to his house, where they find a medical skeleton suspended from the ceiling of his study, flailing about, its teeth chattering. They destroy the skeleton, and accept a rejuvenating cup of tea from the Professor, who is a specialist in history and linguistics.
Returning to the inn, they find Arno Kessler and his men clearing away the bodies. Kessler seems genuinely furious with the situation, and blames necromancy, mentioning one Lazarus Mourne, who was tried and burnt on the Field of Verena for that very crime a year go. It appears that even the incessant rain ceased while the mysteriously silent Mourne burned. The adventurers ask what the burgomeister is doing during these important events, and while Kessler seems to defend the man, he concedes that something must be done, and eventually says he will speak with him, and that the adventurers should meet him on the steps of the town hall in the morning.
After a restless night, the adventurers keep their appointment outside the Town Hall with Kessler, who informs them that the Burgomeister, somewhat surprisingly, has agreed to see them. They enter Burgomesiter Adler’s office and find the man sitting behind his desk, staring with red-rimmed eyes at a small portrait. He is gaunt and unkempt, and smells unwashed. After quietly eferring to the woman in the portrait my “his dear Madriga”—Torus overhears this—he puts down the portrait and tells the adventurers of a terrible dream he had; a visit from her decaying corpse, asking him to save her. He asks them to visit the Garden of Morr outside of town and fetch Brother Grabbe the priest, who can hopefully tell him the meaning behind his terrible dream.
They leave the office. Kessler quietly tells the adventurers that Madriga was Sebastien Brenner’s wife, and several months ago she went mad and drowned herself in the town well.
Accompanied by Lector Gotschalk, the adventurers leave the town by the Reikland Gate and head south along a coffin track. Just before leaving the gate they bump into Schulmann again, who reminds them that if they should encounter the lightning phenomenon again to keep an eye out for the mysterious marble stones. Walking along the track, they spy movment in a corn field tracking them, and Grudge walks into the field to discover a small simpleton of a man with bulging eyes and stinking of fish. This turns out to be one Waltrout Glöckner, who explains that he is a friend of Brother Grabbe’s, whom he is going to visit.
Before visiting the graveyard, the adventurers decide to continue on to the local landmark known as Tempest Knap, a hill some one hundred and fifty feet high and surmounted by mysterious—and some say haunted—ruins. Glöckner will not approach the ruins and waits for them at the turn-off to the river. They scramble up the muddy hillside, and examining the ruins, Torus hears ghostly voices on the wind, from which he recognises a few words of arcane Elvish. Briefly excavating in the wet soil, the adventurers discover small pieces of what could be the marble that the lightning stone is made of, with traces of carving on them.
Returning to the track and meeting up again with Glöckner, the group continues until they reach the River Tranig. A bell hangs on a post and a raft is tied to a willow tree on the other side of the river. Glöckner rings the bell but is upset when Brother Grabbe doesn’t answer. Grudge ties a rope around himself and swims across the river quite successfully, though he is bitten by one of the Reikland eels that live in the river as he does so.
Before long all are on the opposite bank and facing the imposing walls of the Garden of Morr. They enter the gate and a dark tunnel. Immolatus conjures a magical flame to guide the party. At the end of the tunnel they enter a dark room—perhaps a mortuary of some sort. Behind curtains are six alcolves, and in three of these, corpses reposing under shrouds sit up, moaning—the dead come to life! One, an old man, attacks Yuri; a small boy, calling mindlessly for his mother, lunges for Grudge; and as Torus watchs, he is grabbed from behind by the corpse of a fat middle-aged woman, who begins to try to drag him back into the alcove to feast upon his flesh—or perhaps for something worse! As Torus struggles, Immolatus fires magic darts at the abomination, whose fatty flesh sizzles at the impact; Lector Gottschalk strikes it down with his hammer in the name of Sigmar. Grudge and Yuri quickly deal with their repulsive assailants.
A black door leads out of the room.