5: The Bell Was Rung

As I said, our rest was short-lived. As we were on our haunches, a mass of rotting corpses ambled toward us. 

Zombies...I hate zombies.

We all gathered ourselves and hoisted each other to our feet. Carrick and Miresta headed toward the sea of undead and the rest of us followed. We were in no rush to start splaying body parts on the pavement. But it was inevitable. 

We set to work, pinching off the mindless creatures one by one. As hammers swung and blades cut, a reverie of precision came over us. Sabel, the obvious leader had unleashed these hellish creatures upon us. She was leading the charge, an attempt to put us in our place. We were making some headway when she retreated into the hallway, leaving us to deal with her horde of undead. Until the bell was rung. 

A loud, gonging bell filled the air. A timer. An indicator that something had begun for which we were not fully prepared. We worked our way to a large room with a platform in the center. As we rounded the corner we saw ourselves face to face with monstrosities that we'd never seen the likes of. Their stinking clouds and looming postures gave an air of death and rot. They were like the zombies, undead, but much more formidable. Sable, standing behind them, smiled and readied her fighting stance. 

They were blocking our path to the far end of the room, where Orvik stood at an altar over Roderic's unconcious body chanting in the tongues of old. We had to get to him fast. To stop him from whatever foul thing he was bringing forth. 

While we occupied the hulking masses of rot, Sable retreated to Orvik, binding him in some sort of protective shield. Bhodi broke from the group and followed, using every bit of his monk pliability to dodge the obstacles that stood in his way. I exercises my small size and stature to slide through the legs of the hulking masses and hoist myself onto the center platform of the room where I pulled out my crossbow and targeted Orvik. The rest of the party was embroiled in a brutal battle with the Ghast and Ghouls that were clawing at us. 

With a few well placed punches, Bhodi dropped Orvik and ended the ritual before it could be completed. Eyes wide with fear, Sable retreated into a hallway behind the altar. She knew escape was her only choice. But Bhodi was having none of it. He chased after her, bent on destroying her before she could cause any further problems.

The rest of the party, myself included, turned our attention back to the severely wounded undead, methodically following a predetermined instinct without fear or pain of death. I worked my hammers over their heads while Carrick and Miresta flanked and slashed. Damaia wove in and out, working her blades wherever she could. In the end, they fell unceremoniously but left us exhausted and with wounds that needed tending.

I went to find Bhodi, who hadn't been seen since he gave chase to Sable. As I rounded the corner in the hallway, I saw him standing over her body, breathing heavily and grumbling to himself. At his feet, a simple chest with the lid open revealed a cache of treasure which we collected. 

We rejoined the group to find that Norah had revived Roderic and was getting information from him. He explained to the group that Maravak was responsible for the ambush on his convoy and that he feared he was going to die. We told him of the other castellan that had been placed in his seat and how it seemed Maravak was puppeting the day-to-day affairs. We agreed to disguise Roderic for his own safety and get him into the city and back to our apartments until we could verify that the coast was clear. Our intent, to confront Maravak and have him pay for his crimes.

We did one final sweep of the compound. In a room behind the sanctuary we were standing in, we found an army of inanimate simulacrums which appeared to be vessels for necromancy. Among them, poor Lhodis and his family. Not leaving anything to chance we lit the unmoving bodies on fire and burned them to ashes. We'd learned from our last mistake that leaving a dead body for these people to use was dangerous for us.

After that we found Orvik's chambers. We ransacked it, tossing his belongings here and there until we came across a magic satchel. In it, Carrick found letters to Orvik that were from Maravak (or appeared that way at least) and an ominous book bound in the hide of some sort of devil. He opened the book and found a strange symbol that he was able to decipher as the symbol of Orcas. It matched, he realized, exactly with the symbol on the altar that Orvik had bound Roderic to. Carric hurriedly went to the alter and desecrated it with his own symbol, the symbol of Levistus.

We stumbled onto an exit in which Lhodis's wagon and goods had been stowed. It was the perfect vehicle to transport Roderic in with little suspicion. We hitched Lhodis's wagon and made our way back to town with Roderic in full disguise. The ruse worked. We were able to get him through the gates without issue. Miresta and Norah decided to break off from the group and find Atros to bring him back to our apartments. 

They were able to track down Atros and brought him to our apartments. A visible sigh of relief came over him as soon as he laid eyes on his castellan. Thus began the conversation about what happened and what needed to happen to restore order to the keep. We showed Roderic a sample of the handwriting from the satchel, and he confirmed that the letters were written by Marevak. We readied ourselves to break into Maravak's office and search it for more clues on his whereabouts.

The party made their way to Marevak's office to confront him only to find he wasn't there. His attendant told us that he'd left hurriedly but wasn't sure where he'd gone. Something about an envoy in another city. We weren't buying it. The attendant was more than willing to open the office for us to inspect it. So we went in. Though Bhodi and I wanted to steal something from his office, retaliation for his racist attitude towards me and the half elf, the attendant was watching us like a hawk which made it impossible. 

We did find another magical satchel in the office. It matched exactly to the one that we found in Orvik's chambers. So we opened it. Inside we found a letter, a response to Orvik's communications. Clearly, these magical bags were some sort of way to send messages back and forth. This solidified Maravak's involvement in trying to overthrow the castellan. But something wasn't sitting right  for me. He was up to something bigger, involving undead. Involving Orcas. We had to find him.

Exhaustion had begun to set in. We were rummaging around in that office in the wee hours of the morning. None of us were thinking clearly at that moment so we decided it was time to retire for the evening and pick up our planning over breakfast.