RC Tyrot: Duels and Undead

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After talking with the thugs, the PCs decided to drop them off at the local guard. Byron, the tonw captain, agreed to take them in, and was surprised that the party allowed him to keep the thugs' chainmail. In return, Byron offered to give an old masterwork dwarven waraxe that had been sitting in the armory, collecting dust.

Cugaer decided to drop by Narra's, but instead found a man named Provus, a druid, as well as a friend of the woman. Cugaer talked to him about his friend's affliction, and Provus explained that the druids might be able to help. However, he asked that the Cugaer work with them first against the Feryites. The druid asked Cugaer to travel up to Avenshire, and he would meet Cugaer there to lead them to the druid grove.

Ratchett, however, was suspicious of the druids, telling a story about an old friend named Cedric, whom he had worked with back on the mainland. In the past, he and Cedric went to the docks to meet a new contact. Cedric was killed, and from that, Ratchett said, he wouldn't blindly trust other folk just by their words.

Still, the party headed north toward Avenshire, but still for unknown reasons; exactly why the druids had asked for their help was unclear. The travel from Yuethel to the next town, Verl, was uneventful. However, a hobgoblin lingering about the area challenged Yrinnyn to a duel. After a bout of insults, the hobgoblin thrust with his sword, and dodged away. The paladin of Solran, however, was kept safe by his full plate armor, and drew first blood. Yrinnyn won ten gold pieces from the duel.

Then the hobgoblin challenged Melvin to another duel, calling him a "half-man". Melvin agreed, but before either could draw blood, Cugaer stepped in on the scene of the duel. Angered by this fighting for coin, he quickly cass Darkness, stopping the duel. The hobgoblin cursed at Cugaer, and left. The rest of the party, including several townsfolk, got into a heated argument. Tanari took the 10 gp at stake, and gave it to a young girl, who described the hobgoblin as "Mr. Earcutter."

Melvin sulked off, but eventually met up with the party. They set camp outside of town, when a local stopped to chat with them. Times were getting harsher in Tyrot, and evil spirits were lurking about during the night. Also, the hobgoblin had been challenging people to duels for weeks, for some unknown reason. There was also rumors of a kobold lurking about in town.

Regardless, the party set up camp. Melvin took first watch, Tanari and Cugaer slept up in a tree, talking. Ratchett and Yrinnyn shared a keg of ale together in their tent, making toasts to the future.

Up in the morning, the local's words proved true. Before the sun was up, and before any guard kept watch, a ghoul and a ghast attacked the party. Cugaer quickly blew his whistle, awakening the rest of the party. Yrinnyn called upon the power of his god, and made the ghoul flee. The ghast however, attacked Cugaer, then Melvin, and then Yrinnyn. Eventually, however, Yrinnyn slew it with his sword, and Cugaer and Tanari chased the down, the elf's lightning bolt destroying the undead.

The party examined the ghast. Strangely enough, the ghast resembled an elf.

The party found 143 gold pieces, four flasks of holy water, a scroll of blindness/deafness, True Strike, and another unidentified scroll.

All characters received 220 XP. Yrinnyn receives 10 XP for winning the duel.

[ September 20, 2003, 02:56: Message edited by: Oaz ]

 

(ooc: what time is it?)
Shaking himself down Cugaer ties his Sling around his waist. Walking back to the beach, where he dropped his staff, he picks it up.

Walking back to where is friends are Cugaer says,
"Let's quickely get away from this place. I can't stand this smell much longer."

Cugaer quickely starts packing away his tent before suggesting that they tell the town gaurd about the undead.

 

It's very early in the morning - right before dawn (about 4:30 AM). Although it's difficult to see, the hills and beaches are misty, and the sky is overcast with a blank gray. The air feels moist; it is almost certain that it will rain today.

 

Tanari looks scrutinizing upon the sky.
"We should head for cover in some forest once it's unleashed, seems my prediction was right.. I pity this creature however, perhaps we could bury or burn it here?"
He looks hopefully at the others, then crawls up his tree to get his remaining gear, and comes back down. As he stands stuffing his blanket into his backpack, he looks around the ground where the destroyed ghast is.

 

Ratchett looks at the remains. "Whatever we do, let us do it quick. The stench of death shouldna' be allowed to linger."

 

"I think we should," Melvin says as he glances to the ghast beside him, "whatever they are now, it seems they were once elven rangers if these flasks of Holy Water are to be believed."

"If so, they deserve a decent burial."

 

"Why can't we pour the Holywater on them? That would cleans what every evil magic was on these... people," Cugaer suggests.

 

"We need to bury the bodies. Either actually bury them or burn them, so that they surely won't 'wake up' again."

"Who should lead the ceremony? Cugaer is a cleric, but Tanari is an elven ranger as they were... Oh well, let's just bury them using the holy water they had can be used to sanctify the land for graves, all pray for them to whom we pray and leave this place. Only... Cugaer, will it be all right for you and your faith to conduct a little ceremony in Adeln's honour for those poor bodies?"

 

ooc: When does the sun rise?

 

Cugaer will have to wait for about 2 hours for the sun to rise (and thus gain his spells).

(And just for the record, destroyed undead don't rise again.)

 

ooc: I know they don't, as a rule. But these ones are strange. They even had holy water on them and holy symbols, they were elven, probably rangers, they weren't normal by any means, probably magic kept them going

"So, are we finished now and can move on so soon as Cugaer gets his spells? For some strange reason I'd rather be moving or at least do something useful here. Just a feeling."

 

"Let's make a minor pyre then.."
Tanari walks silently away to gather different forms of branches for a fire, then starts to build a small pyre under and around the ghast.
"Anyone got some fire?" he looks up at the other companions.

 

Melvin smacks his forehead with his hand, "I knew there was something I'd forgotten in Yuethel!". He look sheepishly at his elven friend; "Erm.. I've got a few torches and a candle?"

 

Ratchett digs in his pack. "I've got a tinderbox here. And a couple of vials of lamp-oil jes' so ye can be completely sure they're burnt... These things trouble me. Bearin' the holy water as they do, I'd guess they'd be recently animated...an' that means we might have a necromancer on our tail. We never did get that friend of yours back in the village, did we Yrinnyn?"

 

"Well, why? We didn't catch up on him, indeed, but then why should we."

"Anyway, if anyone needs it, I have an everburning torch here."

 

(They didn't have holy symbols on them. Asides from that, the holy water wasn't in contact with their flesh. Also, everburning torches generate light, but no heat.)

(Removing one tindertwing and one pint of oil from Ratchett's inventory.)

 

As the flames start to lick and burn the wood, Tanari finds a spear resembling stick. His eyes dwell on the abominable face of the ghast, trying to display the horrors of such a fate it must be to assumedly have been an elf and end like this, this monstrosity. A teardrop runs down his cheek, and he walks up the fire, holding up the stick above the fire pointing at the sky. Then starts a solemn sylvan chant-like prayer.

"Mother of earth, protector of the kin. Hear a brother's prayer for the fallen! Embrace this child of yours, and let once again the spirit roam freely in the wilds.."

He finishes with a waving gesture across the fire, gritting his teeth from the pain of flame as he puts the stick to lie next to the corpse. Stepping back, he sits down and folds his arms around his knees, staring as if hypnotized into the dancing flames.
A single phrase entered his mind, from a song of the elf wars, And thus we became fewer..

 

Melvin, sombre and quiet, stares into the flames, their crimson bite licking his eye's reflection. For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Two elven rangers, much like the elven ranger he considered his friend, had died. Not only died once, but died twice; though in effect they had already been dead - their bodies defiled by the most unspeakable evil.

A tear trickled down Melvin's face, not a tear of sadness, but a tear of anger aimed at the sheer cruelty of the world. He asked quietly, speaking the thought they were all thinking:

"We should leave this place."

 

"I agree. We should leave this place. But first we should bless this place, using the holywater. Melvin, I believe you still have the flasks?"

 

At first, the burning twigs and leaves, combined with dead and rotting flesh, make a horrible smell, reminiscent of a dead battlefield or a pillaged town. Eventually, as the fire burns out, and the undead corpse burns to a crisp, the salty and half-calm ocean breeze returns. A flask of holy water is poured upon the fire, and the stench of the slain ghast fades away.

(Taking away one flask of holy water from inventory.)