Death & Rebirth, Chapter 6

General Summary

Prior to the start of the session, the group takes a moment during their brief rest to examine the golden pearl given to them by the celestial lion. After taking some time to identify it, Relentless is able to deduce that it can only be used by someone of draconic blood, and so the party turns to Medericus (quite literally). Taking the orb in his hands, he discovers (and subsequently annoys) Troannaxia, one of the ancient gold wyrms that serve Bahamut, also known as ‘The Presence’. Or ‘Presents’, as Medericus likes to call her. She demands to be taken back to her master, and the party decides that they only thing they can do is take her back to the Metalhearts.
The group then heads upstairs. The area is near Havine’s room and the bath, and the party spots one of the temple cats which seems unfazed by the lion. Havine spots some blood to the north, and hears some noise behind the door leading to the balcony over the central chamber. She uses Detect Evil and Good again to scout for undead, and goes to check her room and the bathroom to look for people hiding, but doesn’t find anyone. (Relentless tries to pet the cat, but is snubbed.)
Approaching the door to the balcony, Havine senses two undead presences where the sounds are coming from. Tally and Kitrick decide to throw holy water at the undead, and prepare to burst through the doors. Havine shoves open the door and they see Issak, wounded and trapped by the edge of the balcony. Kitrick and Tally both hit their respective skeletons, and begin the fight.
Medericus attacks a skeleton with his hammer and it falls apart, destroyed, then turns to the other and uses Vicious Mockery (repeating his bad bone pun for the second time). Havine charges the remaining skeleton and misses with her mace and Sacred Flame, but makes sure to put herself between it and Issak. Beauregarde uses Sacred Flame and kills the skeleton.
With the fight over, Havine turns to Issak and he tells her he needs to show her something. She uses Cure Wounds on him and he leads the group back towards where they saw the blood by the north wall. He says that a man disappeared near there after ordering skeletons after him. Havine tells him to go find anyone else who might still be in the temple and to get somewhere safe. Before he goes she’s sure to give him a hug.
After he leaves, they go to inspect the wall to try and discover the secret passage that Beauregarde told them about beforehand and Issak gave them a hint about. Relentless and Medericus both spot that one of the sconces looks suspicious, and Tally steps in to check it for traps. It isn’t trapped, and they open the door. The lion is too big to follow them inside, and has to remain in the temple. He nuzzles Havine and restores her spells slots, and she thanks him.
Havine asks Beauregarde if he’s ever been inside, and he says no. He only knew that it existed, but wasn’t allowed in. She pushes him ahead of her into the tunnel. Havine casts Light on her holy symbol so that they can see, partially blocking it with her shield to sort of disguise it. The tunnel is carved into the stone of the mountain, and widens as they progress. There is a gate ahead of them, they can feel air, and Havine opens the gate, leading them into a large chamber with a vaulted ceiling and columns. There’s an oppressive, dark, eerie feeling that envelops the group. There are raised platforms and bridges in the center of the room, and bones litter the ground. Chogrim is lurking in the darkness, watching them approach.
Skeletons rise from the piles of bones, and Chogrim waits on top of one of the platforms as the battle begins.
Tally sneaks towards the platform that Chogrim is on, critically shooting him and beginning to climb up the ladder. A skeletal horse charges Havine and attacks her with its hooves. Chogrim, looking for the source of the arrow that hit him, casts Confusion on the party (except Tally), which only affects Beauregarde. He then turns to Relentless and uses Gain Insight. Affected by the confusion, Beauregarde turns and hits Kitrick with his mace. Medericus tries to slap the confusion out of Beauregarde (assisting with his saving throw against the confusion) but it doesn’t work. He attacks the skeletal horse with his hammer and the blunt end of his dagger, shattering part of its leg and slowing its movement speed. Then uses a Healing Word on Havine. Havine lashes out at the horse, using her last Luck to hit with her mace and destroying it. Circling around the fallen pillar, she moves further into the room and senses more undead, choosing to ignore the sight of Chogrim to pursue them on the ground. As she moves she triggers a spike trap that wounds her. She then uses Shield of Faith on herself to increase her defenses. As Havine passed by where Chogrim was, Kitrick spots where the necromancer is and rushes up, drinking a Potion of Fire Breath on the way and exhaling it towards him and burning him and catching the bridge behind him on fire. One of the skeletons approaches Havine and hits her. The second skeleton moves to one of the other platforms, taking an attack of opportunity from Havine as it turns away. It then shoots at Medericus and hits him in the back. Relentless moves to follow after Havine, activating another spike trap and failing his save, even with his Fault Lie and Havine’s Helpful ability. He then does more fire damage to the already burning bridge, and uses Dissonant Whispers against Chogrim, which sends him fleeing from Relentless across the flaming bridge. Kitrick tries to take an attack of opportunity against him but misses.
Tally continues the rest of the way up the ladder and shoots at Chogrim with her arrow dipped in holy oil, striking him. Chogrim moves further away from the group and Relentless sees him jump over part of the floor (avoiding a trap). He casts a spell and something dark and shimmering clings to his body and he casts Chill Touch on Relentless. Beauregarde frees himself from his confusion and sees that Havine is wounded, ignoring Relentless and casting Cure Wounds on Havine. He then attacks the skeleton on the ground with Sacred Flame, but misses. Medericus attempts to climb over the fallen pillar but falls prone on the other side. He eats one of his sweet rolls from Frostshore, and ends up using up his Albion’s Blessing to protect himself from poisoning himself and healing slightly from the un-poisoned sweet roll. Havine uses Cure Wounds on Relentless, then creates a Spiritual Weapon to attack the skeleton in front of her, destroying one of its legs. Kitrick attempts to cross a rope connecting two of the platforms but falls off, successfully landing on the skeleton and killing it. He rushes over to the other platform, using the ladder, and attacks the archer skeleton but misses. The skeleton then attacks Kit with its short sword, hitting him. Relentless uses Dissonant Whispers again against Chogrim, forcing him further away from the group and out of line of sight. He then uses Chill Touch against the remaining skeleton and moves further up the room.
Tally crosses the rope that Kit previously fell from, trying to get a better sight on Chogrim, using a dash to make it possible. She also spots the little undead girl hidden away in the corner. She attacks, hitting him with one last arrow and dropping him to the ground. The girl and the last skeleton both collapse to the ground as his magic connection to them severs.
Relentless turns to make sure that Havine is okay, Havine suggests to Kitrick to destroy the fallen skeleton to make sure that it can’t come back. Tally goes to tie Chogrim up and Relentless warns the group of the trap that Chogrim avoided earlier. Havine finds some of the other hidden traps, warning the others so they can continue to avoid them. She checks the little girl with her magic, and finds that she’s no longer undead, now just a corpse.
While the others are occupied, Relentless goes to speak to the little girl. He asks her who she is, where she’d like to go, and what happened to her. She says her name is Elizabeth, and that she wants to go to her mom, and that she remembers being in the woods and being hurt by some strange people.
Tally searches Chogrim’s body, and Relentless is sure to take his spellbook. Havine uses a Cure Wounds on Kitrick, who was severely wounded, and eyes Beauregarde, who is standing off to the side and staying quiet.
The group finds a small study to the north, leaving Kitrick to watch Chogrim with his remaining uses of Fire Breath. Relentless is sure to nudge Beauregarde along with them into the study. Tally confronts Beauregarde for a moment, mocking him for insisting that Chogrim would ‘kill them all’. Cowed, Beauregarde says that it’s fortunate that they were all there, and Havine shoots him a look but doesn’t say anything. Relentless squints at him, but also remains silent. Kitrick flips him off. Tally says that he could have just asked for help, but didn’t. Relentless has been very sure to make it clear to Beauregarde that he is there for Havine, putting his arm around her shoulders and making his presence well known.
Tally checks for traps within the study, but doesn’t find anything. Inside the room they find a nondescript bag, several books (an artifact lover’s guide, potion maker’s notebook, and other small books), a satchel of uncut diamonds, a gold bracelet with bloodstones (non-magical), two potions, an alchemist’s kit, and a coin purse. Havine picks up the bag and finds inside a circlet, a pair of gauntlets, a set of studded leather armor, an amulet, and a silver-colored ring.
Havine is also careful to ask the group to check for any papers or notes within the study. Medericus finds a sketch of a five-headed dragon and papers detailing gruesome anatomy of people and animals, and necromantic study.
While the others are gone, Kitrick removes Tally’s arrow from Chogrim’s body and he regains consciousness as everyone returns. Tally draws her bow on him as they gather around to speak with him. Havine asks him who he’s been working for. He says he doesn’t work for anyone anymore. He looks at Havine and recognizes her. She glares at him as he grins and tells her he wanted to kill her, gesturing to Beauregarde and telling her that he begged him to save her. Chogrim tells them it doesn’t matter who he works for, because he betrayed ‘her’. Havine asks if he means Tiamat, and he pauses and comments on her being a ‘smart one’. He tells them that he was to take over Stonebend because there is an artifact somewhere that he hasn’t been able to find. Havine asks if he’s part of a group, he says he’s not sure if they even exist. They ask about Olivar, and he says he only gave him a ‘little suggestion’. Havine tells him it won’t matter once Chogrim’s dead.
The group discusses what to do with Chogrim and Beauregarde. They decide to not trust Chogrim to corroborate Beauregarde’s story and Havine insists he needs to die. While she hesitates over who should kill him, Kitrick gestures that he’d be fine doing it. Havine gathers up the body of the little girl and nods at Kitrick, who then grabs Chogrim and breathes fire directly into his mouth. He then uses the last use of his potion to completely destroy the necromancer’s body at Havine’s request.
As he’s burning, Havine turns to Beauregarde and asks him if he’s planning on telling the town the truth. Medericus casts Detect Thoughts. Beauregarde stutters and wrings his hands, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Medericus, reading his thoughts, tells the group that Beauregarde doesn’t want to tell them. That he’s afraid of the townspeople. Havine, hesitating and feeling a bit conflicted, tells him, “We could easily kill you, and no one would know you just didn’t survive this fight.” Beauregarde cowers, terrified, and nods, clearly having no choice. Medericus says he’s still thinking about running. That he’d rather die now instead of having a slow, dishonorable death at the hands of the town. At the mention of him thinking about running, Havine and Relentless instantly move towards him to keep him caged in, Havine grabbing him and tying him back up.
Medericus turns to Beauregarde and tells him he has two choices. He can tell the town, and not die now. Or he dies now, and ‘he’ will tell the town the truth, with himself disguised as Beauregarde. Tally says that he could always spend the rest of his life trying to make up for what he did. She tells him that dying is easy, and he gets out of everything if he just gets to die. And he owes it to those people to try and make up for what he did. But none of this seems to get through to Beauregarde. Havine expresses her concerns about Medericus’s plan is if the townsfolk try to take him disguised as Beauregarde, because she doesn’t want him to get hurt. Relentless steps in to suggest they just give him over to the town, that as a leadership figure a proper transfer of power needs to happen. He thinks killing Beauregarde now would leave the town in a bad spot without any leadership.
The group leaves the temple to check on the rest of Stonebend, to decide on Beauregarde’s fate after finding Olivar and others from the temple.

Report Date

12 Feb 2017