Campaign Chronicles-10-The Cake is a Lie
View the previous chapter of the chronicles: Campaign Chronicles-9-Touring and Adventuring in Aspenwood
Chapter 10. The Cake is a Lie
After attending an intriguing service at the Wee Jas temple, Pengarond met back up with the rest of the party at The Dukes Chalice to grab lunch. Afterward they went to the baker (who had delicious pastries!) and the smith (apart from some standard equipment there's nothing to see here people).
The group then returned to the tailor to pick up Pengarond's new cloak, and decided they would like to attend the evening service at the Scarlet Monastery together. Upon arriving at the cathedral, though, they were greeted by the priestess Gertrude, a severe and faithful follower of Wee Jas who would allow no one to besmirch her goddess. The sermon consisted of a great many references to serving the Ruby Goddess in life, and later on in death as one of the undead. The party kept their cool during this time, but were becoming suspicious of the church's true intentions. After the sermon they were approached by Gertrude, who now wanted to invite them to a midnight meeting in the cemetery out of the western gate of the city. With a slight reluctance, the party agreed.
At midnight the party headed out the western gate, noting the absence of any guards in the watchtower. The cemetery was a standard human setup, with a few larger mausoleums for the more well-to-do, and plots of closely-spaced tombstones for everyone else. Some trees and a bridge over a hill provided some landscape to break up the monotony of the corpse garden.
The priestess Gertrude greeted the party, and requested they each enter one of the mausoleums for cake. Suspecting a trap, they declined, which only seemed to perturb her. She called upon the dark powers of her faith, and the party was soon beset upon by several flaming skeletons, some large zombie-like creatures with large muscular arms covered in grave dirt, and a swarm of diminutive rat skeletons. Not to be outdone, Pengarond prayed to his own god for assistance, and Corellon Larethian delivered - first a few, but then most, of the undead monsters fled before the might of his god's radiance. He was too late to save the wizard Drakom, though, for one of the muscular undead monsters pounded the wizard straight into the ground before anyone could do anything about it. While he was focusing on defending the team in melee, the druid Syrin took to the sky in owl form and began shooting down bolts of lightning from the skies to electrocute their foes while the dwarf Astronom wailed on any skeletons he could corner with his powerful warhammer of legend, Ironfist's Vengeance.
Once it became clear that she was losing, Gertrude climbed atop the wall surrounding the cemetery and began casting vile spells at the party, but thanks to Alderick's arcane abjurations, her attacks were dispelled before she even had a chance. After sending the muscular undead back into their graves, Pengarond charged her and quickly slice-and-diced her to death. The party then pulled Drakom out of the ground and took a short break before deciding what to do next...
Continue on to the next chapter of the chronicles: Campaign Chronicles-11-An Empty Guardtower and The Secret Catacombs
