Chapter 2 - The Dead Can Dance
General Summary
One of the rats bites Cilly's hand as she tries to withdraw it from the sack, while the others turn on Eddi and Franz. Franz steps back, but suddenly, Cilly crumples over in front of him for no apparent reason. The rats begin to rush out, so he does to work with his long sword. Soon, a blanket of smaller rats emerges from the pantry, and rushes out into the kitchen. Reinhard climbs upon a counter and somehow begins to target the rats with an arcane power before attending to Cilly and reviving her. She rises to her feet, but a welt forming on her back makes it difficult for her to move. Eddi and the rest help dispatch the rest of the vermin, and proceed into the pantry.
After collecting various foodstuffs - fruit, grain, jars of pickles and preserves, the group decides to open a trap door underneath one of the sacks. Climbing down a ladder attached to the underside, they find themselves in an unlit cellar, where various perishables - meat, cheese, sausages, and dairy products are kept. Heaps of these are also collected. Reinhard returns upstairs, to make sure no more rats emerge from any hidey holes. Meanwhile, Dietmar of Hauswald, with assistance from others, begins to search the walls to see if there might be a hidden exit out of this room. He locates one on the east wall - a small crack in the stones is concealed behind some shelving. Eddi pries it open, and the group sees an unlit crypt. An open coffin lies on a table, surrounded by five unlit braziers. Franz steps closer and sees that the shrouded body inside the coffin is certainly that of Ruprecht the Sexton, looking several days dead, and bearing signs of having been touched by the Plague. It wears a skull necklace with two precious stones inside the eye sockets.
Franz reaches in to try to inspect the body, but as he does, it suddenly levitates out of the coffin, and begins to cackle, taunting the visitors. The braziers light up and move to confront the party, lashing them with metal appendages that suddenly grow out of their trunks, and aiming to burn them with the fire. Two hang back, trying to keep the levitating body from harm, though the body suddenly becomes four, spinning around the room, and heads rotating on necks. Franz strikes at the body, and one of the four disappears, as the sexton continues to laugh. Cilly aims her crossbow at him, but the pain in her back makes aiming difficult. The braziers prove difficult to handle - they are hard to hurt, and the fire they bear threatens to set everyone ablaze. One hits Franz particularly hard, but he manages to stay on his feet. Having seen enough, Dietmar steps in and presents his cross, hoping to rebuke reverse the witchery here with the light of Gaal. But the sexton and his minions appear to be on home turf - "Your God has no power here!", he whispers. As Eddi tries to aim her bow and Cilly throws some dissolving liquid toward the sexton, Franz unstops one of the vials taken from the reliquary upstairs, and flings the contents at Ruprecht. The liquid fails to find purchase, but in flying over one of the braziers, manages to put it out. Basil steps up to help with his staff, but the braziers are still pummeling everyone in sight. After being struck by Ruprecht's evil energy, Eddi drinks the second vial - of holy water - and instantly feeling better, continues to bring the fight to the enemy. But Ruprecht is somehow able to extinguish all light. The companions fear they cannot continue, and some begin to flee back to the cellar to regroup. Dietmar is the last remaining in the darkness, and as he tries to make his way out, he trips over a brazier, and falls chest forward on it, knocking himself out. Basil manages to pull him out, and his companions close the hidden door as Ruprecht beckons them to return. Dietmar is revived, but he is having trouble breathing - the fall succeeded in cracking several ribs.
Upstairs, Reinhard is yelling that he hears movement upstairs, and as the party members emerge back into the kitchen, they see the bodies of Ruprecht's assistants descending. The group has had enough - they smash through the kitchen window and climb out. As they do, another large rat, seeming to flash a grin, throws an abandoned candle at Dietmar.
The walking corpses endanger the whole neighborhood, so a quick decision is made to set the house ablaze using some cooking oil and the contents of the thurible taken from the reliquary. The corpses rush out the front door anyway, and begin to terrorize neighbors and passers-by. Franz, Cilly and Basil chase two of them into a house. The monsters prove tough to kill - they feel no pain, and one of them succeeds in pummeling Cilly hard in the thigh, and taking her down for a second time. Franz finally dispatches the corpse, and rushes over to attend to his fallen companion. His hands shake, but she comes to on her own accord, but finds it hard to clamber to her feet - her left leg is badly bruised, and she can only limp along. Outside the house - multiple structures are burning - they fire spread much quicker than they expected. The companions join a rush of local people toward the city gates.
In the meantime, their three comrades have already gone into the city. Eddi rushed over the the Rathaus and found Wolff, telling him about the body in the basement, the murdered assistants, who have risen and escaped, and the conflagration that is beginning to engulf Westweg. Wolff summons the militia and the fire brigades, and sends them outside the walls to keep the situation from getting worse. Dietmar, for his part, is helped by some locals to the cathedral, where he locates Bishop Udo. The friar explains what happened inside, and shows the bishop the wax doll the group found in a chest upstairs, saying they fear it was used to hurt the prelate himself. Udo inspects it, and explains that a while back, he refused to approve Ruprecht's request for ordination, because he was a drunk and untrustworthy - turning to the dark powers was probably the sexton's attempt at revenge. Dietmar also hands over the contents of the reliquary, but the bishop explains that as the highest-ranking official of the Order of the Leather Belt now in town, Dietmar will be able to recover the relics once the priory is cleansed and rebuilt. The bishop then rushes to the walls, and calling upon God's aid, extinguishes some of the fires as rain falls from the heavens and drenches them.
Badly shaken, hurt, and exhausted, the companions accept Franz's invitation to spend the night at his house, and, after gifting his parents the food taken from the priory, they all settle in for the night.
Missions/Quests Completed
- A swarm of rats in the pantry defeated
- Ruprecht's resting place discovered
- Two animated corpses defeated
- Local populace helped to prevent Westweg from burning down completely
Character(s) interacted with
- Ruprecht the Sexton
- Wolff the Miller
- Udo of Plewa, Bishop of Wunschau
- various local residents in Westweg, town militia, Franz's parents and siblings, etc.
Report Date
29 Sep 2020
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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