Group decides to town to resupply, and seek out advice from the local clergy in regards to undead.
The highest ranking priest in town introduces himself as Brother Godwinn. When you try to address him by his rank, he waves his hands, and says, “Please, my friends, I am just a simple man – I have given up titles long long ago. Please call me Godwinn, or if you must – Brother Godwinn.” Godwinn’s eyes glaze over as he remembers the past. You can almost see the memories being recalled through his facial expressions. Godwinn apparently was quite a renowned undead hunter. He told stories of his glory years, and offered the party some items and advice to combat the undead. The priest also laid a pretty heavy guilt trip upon the party as the orcs and raiders they killed have been reborn as undead – the party should take responsibility for their actions.
He offered 2 potions (one potion of heroism, one potion of healing), a magical hammer that he used in service many years ago. The war hammer is 1d6, but counts as a magical item, allowing damage to be dealt to creatures that are immune to normal damage. Additionally, once a day, the hammer can cast the spell “spiritual hammer”. He also provided a ring of detect evil (able to used once a day).
He also offered a ring of mirroring. As he placed the ring in the parties hands, he warns that this ring is very powerful but dangerous at the same time.
“When you cast a spell (once a day), you twist the ring as you are casting. After the spell goes off, the next round the ring will repeat the same spell, regardless of the outcome. Level 1 spells have a 90% chance of duplicating, Level 2 spells have a 50% chance of duplicating, Level 3 spells have a 10% chance of duplicating. Be careful, the energy must be directed. If you cast magic missile and wish to trigger the mirror ability, the first missile comes out, the next round, the caster’s turn is consumed as the ring must be directed. A copy of the first spell gets released. The caster can direct the missile at a foe, but if no foe is available, it must be targeted to a similar target. If you magic missile down an orc, and no orcs exist after the first missile, the missile will fizzle and strike the caster if undirected (although the mage may direct it into a nearby fighter, or NPC). Like I said, this can save lives, and sometimes it costs lives…”
He also was able to determine that a ring found during adventuring was a ring of protection +1.
He provided the party with 3 bottles of a special elixir that when added to a fire (when burning corpses) the fire burns at such an extreme temperature the flame turns blue-green and within minutes only ash will remain.
Advice wise, the priest offered the following:
- The undead seem to keep coming back to life, burning their corpses should prevent their unholy resurrection.
- As he was looking over the loot the party brought back, he noticed the silver dagger that was looted. He commented that a fatal blow caused by a silver weapon might prevent their reanimation.
- He proposed that if burning corpses or silver weapons were unable, dipping the weapons in the viscous elixir that causes the fire to burn blue-green might deal the permanent death blow.
During the night, riders from different directions brought back reports of swarms of undead, far more than the party might have been responsible for. To see for themselves, the party ventured out and spotted hundreds of undead moving slowly (very slowly) toward the town.
Unable to defeat such a great number head on, they retreated to town. Great discussions were happening in town, ranging from abandoning the town, sending riders out in every direction begging for assistance, to strengthening the meager defenses the town had. In the end, the town decided to do several strategies: shore up the defenses, and send out riders.
The party rolled up with sleeves to pitch in and was interrupted by an alter boy that said the head priest needed to see them immediately. The high priest had been fasting and praying for many hours and was rewarded with a dream:
“I see a black cave, an ominous feeling of dread as I approached the opening. The darkness has a feeling of thickness to it like thick smoke mixed with very dense fog. I could see in my mind’s eye 3 rooms – to the left, I could see birds’ nests with eggs. To the right, I saw racks of weapons, lined up along the wall. The middle room was so dark I could not peer within, but I could feel true evil. Ice fingers of dread reaching from the darkness sending chills through my soul as my dream ends.”
The high priest shared the dream with the party in hopes that it will be helpful to the defense of the town. This dream resonated with the party. They believed that the cave they saw earlier in the week, matched the dream. The nests & eggs represent the female orcs that are missing, and the weapon racks represent the abandoned barracks.
The party found a hidden wall in the middle room, and decided to venture inside.
Many undead were dispatched within these hidden chambers cut into the cave. During their skirmishes, Saril, the serving girl was rescued from a jail. She was shaken by what she had witnessed and only kept repeating that “he wants to make her his”. Gwan, simple minded as he is, shook Saril trying to knock some sense into her, but that caused her to curl up into a ball. She would trail behind the party, close enough to be protected, but far enough away to avoid fights. Other than her repeating that “he wants to make her his”, she provides no additional clues.
Of note, the party found many rooms of laboratory equipment, and a big black stone altar with a slightly concave top. Searching the altar, the party finds a recessed shelf that had a goblet with a dark red liquid in it, as well as a chain with one manacle attached to it. Adding some of the special “holy fire” elixir to the goblin, turned the liquid from red to clear. The party poured it on the floor and it drained under the altar.
After a few hours of fighting, the party decided to hole up in a room that looks like it hasn’t seen much activity, and rested for a few hours to regain their strength.