Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 10).
Bradley Weatherby (Human Dervish Dancer 10/Knife Master Rogue 7/Duelist 3).
"Jake" (Human Wizard/Rogue 10).
Meeting with Death, Session 11.1 - 08/23/14
Day 15
Beltin and BW each separately make their way to the Usurer before carrying on their daily business to commission some magic gear: They wipe out their in-store credit accounts (25k each) and are told come back in a few days. Yay, enforced down time!
Everyone is doing their own thing that afternoon before meeting up:
Bradley Weatherby
BW goes to the market, now filled with plenty of new shops and plenty of disgruntled townies who don't like the competition with their new goods. He is looking to start a new business, "adventurer's insurance," where adventurers can insure their gear and get resurrected if their remains are returned. Low monthly fees.
It's a scam. Really they pay money, list their valuables for BW to perhaps murder them for later, and then they go off and die and are forgotten. BW negotiates stall rental with one of the townies who knows a good scam when he sees one, Otto of "Otto's Only Dropped Once Discount Emporium." They settle on Otto getting 30% of the take and not getting his throat cut for his share.
BW gets some business from naive low level adventurers and makes note of one mark who looks good to hit and finds out he is staying at the newly opened Bender Bro Inn, of which is now a part owner; too bad they sealed the secret doors to the rooms off. Perhaps they should look into reinstating that business strategy...
Jake
Jake goes to the market too and is on the look out for some spells. He finds a man dressed as a stereotypical wizard, selling "hand enchanted scrolls for the adventurer with exquisite taste." Jake finds the many mostly has common scrolls of common spells and when pressed it becomes clear the man is not a wizard, but simply selling wares someone else made.
He does have the scrolls of Emergency Force Sphere and Teleport Jake needs for his spell book and after negotiating for a bit, Jake casts Dominate Person, which the man fails, and then he takes the scrolls he wanted and walks away, commanding the man to get back to work.
Beltin
Beltin goes to the Sip of Blood and finds it mostly empty except for some old timers. He talks to Lucky and finds him distraught and worried as many of his customers are at the Dancing Bear. They have high quality alcohol and high quality whores, so it's understandable, but he's sure people will get tired of it and come back to the Sip for the local flair... he says this with the air of a man desperately wanting to believe his own words, but really not.
Speaking of whores, he asks if Beltin had seen BW's girl around. She ran off the other day and hasn't been back yet, which happens with her from time to time, but Lucky's starting to get a little worried because he's never been gone this long and "a piece of fine ass like that might help to draw some people back."
Beltin has not seen her and says so, but tells Lucky he will keep his eyes open for any "fine pieces of ass" to send the Sip's way for employment.
All together now
Eventually the three meet up and Beltin explains about the letter he received from Father Death; they were all invited, so they all decide to go meet him. They approach the church of Nerull and find it to be a fairly ramshackle building like many in the camp, but very well made and maintained by Camp standards. Outside the doors they see some carvings.
Intricate carvings. Depicting men, women, children, all screaming, blood rushing from open eyes, mouths, and wounds. They are all dwarfed by a massive figure looming above, a laughing skeleton in a black hooded robe wielding a scythe.
BW starts to have a bad feeling about this, but they enter. They find themselves in what would almost appear to be a normal church. There are rows of empty pews with a pulpit (as opposed to a ball pit) at the end and they see a man in black hooded robes with his back to them as he intently cleans and shines a ceremonial silver chalice set in a place of honor near the pulpit.
He doesn't notice them, but another acolyte does. He smiles, at he seems to be a rather excitable sort, and beckons them to join him at a shrine he was tending off to the side of the door. An actual human skeleton in black robes hangs from the ceiling by wires above the shrine and in its arms is a ceremonial looking scythe.
The shrine is elaborate with various carvings depiciting Nerull. There is a dark wooden box for monetary donations. Various other items left as offerings clutter the top of the shrine, and Jake spies a bottle of a fine wine. A bowl holding some sort of black sticky looking substance with a paint brush in it sits off to one side next to scraps of parchment and writing materials.
Sitting on the back of the shrine are three large but thin stone slabs set up in a sort of trifold position, covered almost completely with scraps of paper and crude drawings of people. All of the scraps of paper bear names, and BW and Beltin immediately notice quite a few they recognize, including their own, the Usurers, the crusader leader they murdered at the cemetery, and some prominent people in Bard's Gate. BW sees his name several times, one complete with a rather lifelike charcoal portrait.
The meaning is obvious ("death shrine like the cousins had in Breaking Bad, right?"), but the acolyte, who introduces himself as Augustine, tells the party people come to pray for deaths and leave offerings: Nerull favors those who come bearing gifts.
BW is amused by this and asks who has the most death requests. Austine tells him that at the moment that honor belongs to him, but the crusader leader Caepio had many before Nerull heard the pleas of faithful and claimed him. BW acts proud but silently begins to wonder if this is a good thing. His disquiet deepens.
Austine mentions that a few days back three men came in the night with there faces hidden and left a rather large offering as well as the portrait of BW and a slip for Beltin. People tend to come in at night and hidden to leave offerings and names.
It seems that Clantock's assassins were affiliated with the church. BW asks and gets a confirmation, but is told that quite a few people were involved in the "normal services" as they were the only church in town. But Clantock's assassins had a more vested interest, as did one of those gnome brothers who tended the inn, remembers Augustine.
Austine goes on to explain he is the one with the artistic talent and gestures to the carvings on the shrine and throughout the church and tells Beltin he is excited to finally meet him (and his friends too...) after hearing so much about him and hoped they could work together sometime. He leads them back to a door behind the pulpit and knocks. As he walks away, Jake tries to pocket the bottle of wine, but Beltin slaps his hand.
Father Death opens the door and at first the party thinks they are looking at something undead, until they realize it is just an incredibly old, incredibly thin hobgoblin with skull tattooed on his face. He welcomes them warmly and invites them into his office. The room is surprisingly normal looking. He expresses his warmest greetings (and they are, but mostly toward Beltin) and they make small talk. He mentions the commissioned jail and Beltin agrees to help.
It soon becomes clear this is not the main reason Father Death asked to see them. He lays it out. There has always been rumors and legends of an undead army in the Desolation that rises to defend it from invading forces when necessary and some adventurers have returned with news of seeing legions of organized undead out in the Dead Lands.
Father Death wants to know if the rumors are true. He makes it clear that everyone in the Camp dying by undead hordes swarming the town would be a good thing, but so would they all dying horrible slow deaths in the Desolation. Really, he just wants to know how everyone will die. They will of course be rewarded for their efforts. He has heard that they have many enemies, hell, he's seen it on the board.
He offers this: He knows where Clantock's assassins have made fled to, where they make their plans for revenge. He will reveal it to them if they investigate for him. Quest accepted.
They make to leave and Father Death asks Beltin to stay behind. He does and Father Death explains how he admires him and how the church could use one such as him among its ranks. As a true member, not one who simply partakes in the common services. He asks him to take true communion with him and be baptized into the church of Nerull.
BW's make a religion check and knows that actual rites to dark gods can get messy, but agrees anyway. Father Death is delighted. He tells him that the ceremony will take place in two days time at midnight and that he should come to the church then. Alone.
Outside in the church proper, BW and Jake wait and Jake steals the bottle of wine off the altar as Augustine prattles on about the church. Augustine is not a terribly perceptive fellow, but is so enthusiastic that it would be hard to dislike him if his topic of interest wasn't people dying horribly. BW doesn't like the zeal he sees and Jake ignores the acolyte, but then Beltin comes out and BW and Jake have an excuse to leave and do their own things. They aren't sad to be gone from the church.
BW and Jake head off to the Sip of Blood to recover, but Beltin and Augustine have work to do. Augustine tells Beltin he may need his undead, so they get them and Augustine leads the way to the location for the new jail.
They approach an area marked off by paint on the ground, but find that the area is filled with hovels. The people in their homes see the two men and the undead army approach and are confused. And then angry when Austine explains the Usurer has decreed this is the site for the jail. Really, Augustine goes on, it's been clearly marked for about 8 hours now and now they are here to renovate. If the people had concerns they should have brought them up before, but now that time is over. Eminent domain!
Some look like they want to argue that they just woke up to find their homes slated for demolition, but they decide not to argue withe point with the undead. They have 15 minutes to get their shit and get out, and they do. The undead demolish the homes and move away the garbage and Augustine happily suggests to Beltin how great it would be if the displaced people died of exposure.
With the ground clear, Augustine has Beltin hold onto a piece of specially prepared wire, with him holding the other end. He explains that the magic Beltin produces will instead be channeled into him and he will be able to shape it to the Usurer's specifications. Beltin expends the magic, quite a bit of it, and Augustine holds it in his mind, shaping, carving, creating. The ritual lasts about an hour after which suddenly appears a government building worthy of any wealthy city.
The jail is fairly large and decorated with intricate carvings of justice being carried out and is complete with faux-pillars. Inside are several cells, a reception area with a built in stone desk, and on the second floor are some personal rooms for the new sheriff. It a masterpiece of both form and function. The Usurer and sheriff will be pleased. Great success!
Augustine thanks Beltin for his help and mentions that he should stop by any time and departs. The refugees look at the new building with a bit of wonder as well as hate. The hate extends to Beltin.
Showing that he is not so bad after all, Beltin tells the people to follow him, and they do for fear for the undead. He leads them away from thoroughfare of the Camp and then creates for them each a new stone home, free of charge. The people have to admit its better conditions then they had and they begrudgingly thank him and stop wishing him death. Yay, less death wishes against the party!
To be continued...
