Mission

You have received an urgent request from Sir Richard of the Nations Guard.
In his absence he has dispatched a regiment to detain an Arturas Shadowghast of the Shadowghast clan. The regiment Captain has sent word that Arturas has barricaded himself within the old Shadowghast Manor, being exhausted and ill equipped to take the manor, he has requested aid.

You are commissioned to finish the job and bring Arturas Shadowghast out of the manor, dead or alive.

Background

The name of the Shadowghast clan was once revered. Now it is reviled.
The Shadowghast family members had included the noblest warriors and paladins.
Over a hundred years ago, young Orobius, who lacked the physical prowess of his more acclaimed siblings, made a pact with fiendish entities to obtain, through sorcery, the prestige that he could not gain through swordsmanship.

Orobius became the hero of his dreams, and he was even knighted for his arcane service to the land. However, as he grew dependent on his dark abilities, his devilish patrons changed the terms of the pact.
To retain his powers, Orobius had to deceive and corrupt his other Shadowghast family members into serving evil.
He succeeded.

Orobius spent his final years in misery. When he died, the last virtuous members of the family interred his body in the crypts, and then, nearly destitute, they left their home and faded into obscurity.
Shadowgbast Manor has been unoccupied since, and haunting reports of ghosts and shadowy creatures have guaranteed that only the foolish ever venture near it.

Now, the clan’s current standard bearer in matters of corruption is Arturas Shadowghast, a charismatic blackguard in the service of Asmodeus.
After tormenting the neighboring region for years with daring attacks on temples and arcane libraries, Arturas and his small band came under assault from the militia. So, he led a retreat to his long abandoned ancestral home. His weary pursuers have tracked Arturas to Shadowghast Manor, yet they lack the strength to engage his band in a frontal assault.

Synopsis

Much of the manor’s second floor has disintegrated, either from age or the fiery attacks of bitter Townspeople. The main floor’s northeastern entrance, through which Arturas’s group violently entered, has been boarded up, as have most of the windows. The invaders haven’t yet barricaded the southwestern entrance, largely because some of Arturas’s lackeys have been using it for access.
An iron fence 6 feet high extends around the property, about 20 feet away from the building, but it’s broken and twisted in so many places that it offers little hindrance. The only possible cover between the fence and the manor is around a couple of small trees near the southeastern corner. Beyond the fence are gently rolling hills.

The Adventurers arrive at the pursuing faction’s encampment just within sight of the gates of Shadowghast Manor. Local eyewitnesses claim that Artums Shadowghast entered the manor the previous day with his allies: a few human mercenaries, a human or half-elf female dressed in robes, and several duergar.
They had with them a heavily laden wagon.