The Maximals gear up, and calibrate their scanning equipment, ready to start their adventure and fly into Vertoss.
Scythe operates the scanners by using a sample of King Lorimar's DNA to try to scan for a sibling match. He comes up empty…until he tries to scan inside the ship. Oddly enough, there is a possible match, though he has a hard time narrowing down the search. Paladyne thinks Scythe's readings may be off, but, nevertheless, he inspects the adventuring party. Estrella is a half-elf, so the only human female on board is Nikki the thief. He notices that she does seem to be the same size and shape as the lady the Maximals are looking for...but isn't really sure that she might be the countess until she confesses to him and the others. When Shadowraith inspects her, he confirms the truth, as her scent matches that of the missing countess. The actual abductee, as Nikki explains, is not the real countless Nicollette, but one of her ladies in waiting; a paladin from the kingdom who was kidnapped by mistake. Nicollette was opposed to rescuing her, as it would ruin both her new identity and the kingdom's false peace. Just as she is telling the real story to her human companions, the Maximal ship begins to pick up a strange reading...a Predacon signature!
Rushing to inspect the signal, Clockwork homes in on it at last, somewhere in the swamps the ship now passes over. The signal is coming from a tiny mosquito, traveling in a swarm of others. The Maximal ship rushes to the location, but can't fix a target among all the insects, despite Scythe's attempts. Paladyne, Shadowraith, and their adventuring companions leave the ship and search the area. As they descend into the swamp, they realize that they must be dealing with the plague-bearing goddess Morynth. A round of attacks from assaulting zombies confirms their suspicions. However, the Predacon seems to have gone into hiding, and the ship no longer picks up her signature.
Feldspar detects evil to the north, and the Maximals search, eventually finding a pavilion and an altar. The altar is very old, and predates the Predacon arrival by hundreds of years. Still dedicated to that dark goddess, it appears to have been used in recent rituals. Traveling onward, the Maximals find a cemetery on the edge of the swamplands. There is enough clear land to land the ship, and they explore, finding the place largely overgrown and out of use except for one mausoleum. Scythe does a seismic scan of the area, and discovers that the crypt has a secret entrance that leads to a tunnel under a statue in the graveyard. Though the building is locked up tight, and from the inside, the secret tunnel seems to be in recent use.
Paladyne and Shadowraith waste no time in entering the crypt, using the barred entrance in the front. Inside, they find the entombed and arranged bodies of Vertossian nobles. Hawthorne, following Paladyne with the torch, confirms that some of these knights, in the service of Morynth, were only recently buried. They easily locate the secret passage to the surface, while Shadowraith prevents Nikki and Brash from raiding the jewelry off the dead bodies in the tombs. Scythe and Rift join up with the rest of the group, and they continue into the underground. A second level of the crypt yields more entombed knights.
When the Maximals reach the last room, they find a single coffin, under the sign of the withered hand, an ancient symbol for the goddess of disease. Paladyne, suspecting the goddess herself may be inside, knocks on the coffin. However, what rests inside is an undead knight, who attacks him with a stunning spell and tries to destroy the Maximal group. From the hallway nearby, ten other knights animate and attack, fighting the humans, elf, half-elf, and dwarf. The combat is challenging for many of the adventurers and several of them are injured. The undead knight proves a unique challenge, as he seems to regenerate damage dealt by Shadowraith's whip. However, Paladyne challenges him, and defeats him, while Rift, Shadowraith, Scythe and Hulk save the more fragile adventurers by helping to defeat the undead hordes.