Death & Rebirth, Chapter 5

General Summary

The undead attack the group, two zombies joined later by a ghoul. At the start of the fight, Relentless moves towards the zombies to engage them with spells, while Havine turns to Beauregarde and casts Hold Person to paralyze him. Tally remains in the tree, shooting while hiding in the branches, while the others engage the undead. Kitrick decapitates one of the zombies after jumping on its back. After making a save against the Hold Person spell, Father Beauregarde helps the party, and uses a Guiding Bolt to destroy the ghoul while the others try to deal with the last zombie.
After the ghoul dies, Beauregarde attempts to escape, but Havine manages to tackle and grapple him.
The party continues to try and kill the last zombie, but it clings stubbornly to undeath. While still grappling Beauregarde, Havine turns and does a Sacred Flame at the zombie, finally killing it with her radiant fire.
With all the undead gone, a thin, high-pitched scream breaks through the silence, from the direction of the temple. Worried, Havine ties up Beauregarde and gags him, intent on finding out what’s going on. She asks him if he’s going to come with them willingly, and he reluctantly nods. Relentless, still able to read his thoughts, probes into what he’s thinking. Relentless stops Havine, and tells her that Beauregarde is thinking that they’re all going to die if they go to the temple. And that they cannot defeat him (referring to Chogrim).
Frustrated, Havine pulls the gag from Beauregarde’s mouth and demands that he tell her what’s going on. He tells her that Chogrim has started putting his plan --killing villagers, creating undead-- into place. Tells her that if they go in there, there must be undead crawling the temple, and they’ll die if they go in. Havine says they can’t just leave everyone to die. That if he did all this in the first place to ‘protect’ Stonebend, then what’s their alternative? She asks why Chogrim is doing this now. Beauregarde says he’s been getting impatient, and when he saw Havine and the others coming, he sped up his plans. Relentless asks if they’ve ever met Chogrim. Beauregarde says that none of the party know him, but he knows them, Havine in particular.
Havine asks Beauregarde if Chogrim killed her parents when he arrived twenty-seven years ago, around the time that they died. Beauregarde doesn’t answer, looking terrified. She grabs the front of his clothes and pulls him close, and says, “You answer me,” in an attempt to intimidate him. Going pale he tells her that he ‘had to’ that ‘he would kill everyone’ if he didn’t. He goes quiet when Havine interrupts him, stunned and angry, demanding to know if Beauregarde really was the one who killed them and not Chogrim. During this, Tally drops from the tree and draws her bow on Beauregarde. He doesn’t say anything, but stares at her, terrified. Furious, Havine decks him across the face, knocking him into the dirt, and turns and walks away to the other side of the old oak tree as he apologizes over and over again.
Relentless follows her, going to speak with her and offer a plan to handle the situation at the temple, to use Beauregarde as a distraction. They briefly discuss some possible ideas, but Havine is ultimately too distraught to think of anything. Relentless reassures her that he promised her he would help her find her parents, and that he’s going to help her with this situation. Havine insists that they just need to stop Chogrim. She admits she has no idea what she’s doing anymore, that all she knows how to do is help people and that’s all she’s ever done. He tells her that that’s what they should do then, comforting her, and she agrees, taking his hand and returning to the group and getting back to business.
Havine questions Beauregarde some more. He tells her that Chogrim is the one who manipulated Olivar’s mind before they got there. The meeting wasn’t originally an ambush, but Chogrim found out about it and turned it into an ambush, using Havine’s trust of Beauregarde against her. He also tells her that he begged Chogrim to spare her, and that he raised her in order to free Stonebend and fight against the necromancer. Everything he did was to make her strong enough to lead the town. He says the reason her parents had to die was because Chogrim found out that her mother was a powerful adventurer and he didn’t want any threats to his plan. Relentless also questions him, asking about his partnership with Chogrim. They discuss the fact that the necromancer used Beauregarde’s influence over the town to control them, including encouraging the rebellion for his own ends. He also tells them about Chogrim speaking of a ‘higher power’ that he serves. Chogrim has been living secretly in the temple, and they’re told where.
They convince Beauregarde to willingly come with them and help fight. They then head to the temple. Before they leave, Havine uses Aid on Kitrick, Medericus, and herself. Inside they find Susanna (a fellow cleric), wounded, with a young girl with her. The group approaches them, with Relentless sticking very close to Havine near-constantly. Susanna tells them there are undead in the temple, and that Issak is still in there somewhere. Kitrick helps Havine check Susanna, and he uses some healing herbs to stop her bleeding. Relentless uses a minor illusion of a rabbit to calm the little girl. Havine tells Susanna to take the little girl and get somewhere safe.
Tally suggests going upstairs by herself to scope things out, Havine expresses reluctance at putting her in danger alone, but Tally insists that they’re all in danger right now. Havine then insists that she doesn’t care about being stealthy, that they need to destroy every single undead in the temple. Before going upstairs they investigate the altar. As she gets close, Tally’s amulet starts to pulse, and when she looks through it all she sees is bright, blinding light. The others find some holy oil (HOIL) to use. Kitrick and Medericus coat their daggers in the holy oil for later, Tally applies it to one of her special steel tipped arrows. They also find some holy water.
The group tries to figure out what’s going on with Jasttor’s amulet, but they’re not sure. The closer she gets to the altar the more it pulses and the brighter the light gets. She places it on the altar and it starts vibrating, and she realizes it has something to do with the daylight orb. Tally decides to touch the amulet to the orb. When that happens the glass shatters, and all the light emerges from the orb and coalesces into a huge lion, which are associated with Pelor. Havine approaches the lion, and sees that it’s holding something in its mouth. She holds her hands out, and it places a large golden pearl into her hands that’s warm to the touch. The lion turns as Havine watches, in awe, and leaps over to the left side of the temple, heading towards the stairs.
Beauregarde, instead of feeling the awe Havine is, looks terrified by the lion and the presence of Pelor. Havine tries to speak to the lion, but it can’t speak, and she reaches out to touch its mane, which feels warm like sun-warmed fur. Kitrick tries to climb onto the lion’s back, but it tosses him off and pins him with a paw with a growl to get him to stop.
Havine tries to check the pearl, which feels alive, and she knows that it’s not of Pelor, but she also doesn’t feel evil. She tries to ask the lion about it, and it tilts its head and sort of gestures at her bag to put it away. Havine and Tally discuss who should keep the orb, Havine being uncertain if Tally should take it since it reacted to her amulet, but the others feel it might be more useful in the hands of a cleric. She puts it away in her bag for now.
Heading to the left side passageway, they stop at the door to listen for what’s on the other side. Havine uses Detect Evil and Good to sense the undead, and discovers that the lion is a celestial creature. As she approaches the door, she senses two undead. Havine asks the lion to help them fight, but instead it begins to emit a light granting them advantage against necrotic damage. The group then rushes through the door to attack the undead.
Havine attacks the more intelligent undead to the left of the door with her mace and Sacred Flame. Relentless uses Dissonant Whispers and Chill Touch. Medericus shoots the skeleton to the right with his crossbow but misses, then uses Vicious Mockery (“Hey, looks like you’ve got a bone to pick with me!”) which rattles angrily and hurts itself. Beauregarde uses Sanctuary on Tally to protect her from attack. Kitrick runs up to trip the skeleton and tries to stomp on it but misses. Tally shoots at the ghoul, but misses, then ducks behind the wall to hide (ghouls have trouble with object permanence). The lion moves forward to keep everyone in its aura.
Medericus smacks the skeleton with his hammer and the pommel of his dagger, critting and destroying it. Then he turns to Viciously Mock the ghoul, which doesn’t affect it. Relentless uses Shatter against the ghoul, and Eldritch Blast which misses. Havine attacks the ghoul with her mace, using a Luck in order to hit, killing it.
The moment the undead are destroyed, Havine heads towards the classroom and goes inside, looking for anyone who might be hiding, but finds no one. The lion lays in the hallway, and begins emitting an inviting, restful aura. Havine then goes to check the store room, which is also empty. The party gathers by the lion, which heals and restores spell slots to everyone (except Beauregarde). After a moment with the lion, Havine goes to check the study with Relentless following her.
In the study Relentless finds a book called ‘Travel and Trade: Trade Routes’, some wine, and an herbalist kit he immediately takes. Kitrick takes three vials of holy water from a nearby font. Medericus goes to check out the classroom, leaves a note inside a notebook and takes a bottle of ink. Havine quickly goes back to the store room and takes some cooking spices, along with some dried herbs she gives to Kitrick.
The group then prepares to head upstairs.

Report Date

05 Feb 2017