As you all wind down from the fight and tend to post-battle duties: cleaning and bandaging wounds, using magical cantrips to clean the thick glops of blood and gore from your skin, hair, clothing and armor, and doing your best to clean up the bodies of the Harriet's former companions, Krackle and Lumen do a search of the bodies and the room.
Krackle finds that none of the zombie people had any coin or valuables on them. It's likely that anything of value the might have carried would have been taken by the goblins. Meanwhile, Lumen enters the library and scavenges through the littered piles of books and parchment inside the small chamber. He finds that most of the tomes are quite deteriorated and mostly unreadable, however he finds one book that's partially intact, titled The Nightsinger.
Flipping through it, he sees that it tells the story of Shar, goddess of the night, and her ongoing rivalry with her sister, Selûne, goddess of the moon. The story is similar to the images you saw portrayed on the tiled mosaic in that little nook near the banquet room.
He also finds what appears to be an intact spell scroll lying half buried among the ash-covered floor.
Lumen
Surprisingly, you can read the archaic calligraphy on the scroll. It contains a single spell: Bane.
Lumen shows the scroll and the book to the others.
“Well-fought everyone. This place is all cleared out, except for the fiend in the pool. Are we sure it will stay inside while we go back to Melton? I still don’t know why a temple to Shar has a fiend living in its pool, and why there are zombies. Or if that has anything to do with the constable with the goblin mask. We have more questions than when we started this adventure. It’s not like the stories. I’ll need more answers if I’m going to turn this into a singable saga.”
"Well, no one here's got answers, that's fer sure," Chrys says. "I think our best bet's to go back to Yartar an' ask someone knowledgeable. Someone like Master Dundragon." In the meanwhile, Chrys will spend her time scratching GREE AKJHA with her dagger at regular intervals on the walls and floor as the group exits the cave. It's not much, but she hopes it might be able to scare the goblins away from resettling in the temple and spreading the corruption.
(Yeah, I'd make a few trips to do that. And either bury or pyre them outside of the temple. Chrys wouldn't want their last place of rest to be a temple of Shar)
It does take a short while to bring all four bodies out of the temple and up into the forest, where Ellywick and Harriet are waiting. She's feeling much better after her very long rest, and has quite a bit more energy today.
However, upon seeing you carrying out the bodies of her fallen companions, she breaks down in tears, especially when she sees them up close. As she crouches down and closely inspects each of the four twisted, mutilated zombie corpses that used to be her friends, the poor halfling wails with cries of sadness and obvious emotional pain, which is probably compounded by the physical toll that she underwent during her period of captitvity.
Ellywick does her best to console the poor girl and offer her comfort, even though she's clearly horrified with sadness at the sight.
"So much sadness... so much terrible evil...." She says, but beyond that, the gnome just seems lost for words.
"I think that heading back to Yartar would be wise; whatever it is that lives within that pool, we are clearly a bit out of our depth in this place and how to deal with it. Not to mention, the constable's involvement is bound to come as a shock to some of those who live here. But how do we assure that more goblins simply don't move back in or that something worse doesn't take advantage of this cave? Shouldn't we at least assure that we can block the entrance or something? Otherwise, this cave could just as easily become a residence for anything such as an ogre or an owlbear."
Lumen places a supportive hand on Harriet's shoulder. "I am sorry for your loss. It is hard. I hope you can make something of the time you now have. Earn it. Don't forget them, but make use of your time. Let's get you back to Melton and a warm bed and a good meal. We know a good inn."
He nods at Kess' suggestion, and looks around for some heavy rocks that might work to roll in front of the entrance to block it until they return, hoping it might deter others.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
"Mm. 'S gonna be difficult gettin' back in here to take care o' that fiend once an' fer all, but I don't feel right leavin' that cave out in the open either,"she says, agreeing with Lumen.
She deferrs to Harriet's wishes in interring the bodies - a burial or a funeral pyre - and does her best to say a few prayers for the dead, in the name of the Duin. "They deserved better in life... but with this, I'm hopin' their souls will find rest in the next."
Afterwards, she assists in the effort to block up the cave entrance, trying to use her Stonecunning to determine the best way to collapse the entrance to the ancient temple.
(Stonecunning history? for collapsing the entrance: 10 Athletics for pushing rocks around: 20 )
Chrys does her best to try and collapse the entrance of the cavern, and she does manage to knock a few stones out of the ceiling of the cave entrance, but the carved obsidian blocks inside are just too hard to break free. However, there are plenty of rocks and boulders on the small surrounding hillside that you can dig free and carry/roll/transport over to the entrance. It takes the group at least 4 hours to collect enough rocks and pile them up in front of the entrance, effective blocking it off.
It's certainly not an expert job, as Chrys would attest, and it's certainly not a permanent solution, but the barrier seems like it will at least keep out most opportunists from wandering inside the temple. If a strong, sentient creature wanted to take the time to tunnel through, they could, but it would take quite a bit of effort to clear a usable opening. And combined with Chrys's scratched message on the stone in front of the entrance, it seems about as good a job as you could hope for, given the circumstances.
Regarding the bodies of her companions, Harriet says that she prefers a funeral pyre, especially since they had been tuned into undead creatures. Burning them seems like it would be the best, and easiest way to deal with the corpses and properly send them into the next life. It doesn't take along to collect enough wood for a fire, and so after laying them together and saying your prayers and words of peace, you douse the wood with a few splashes of oil, light the pile and watch as it grows into a blaze.
Looking over at Harriet, you an see that she's trying to be stoic about the whole thing, but she can't stop the tears from streaming down her face. Ellywick stands with his arm around her shoulder in a tender embrace as Harriet nuzzles against her.
"I'm real sorry ya had ta suffer like this... but it's best ya recoup a bit in Melton, get yer feet back under ya. I'm sure yer friends would want ya to keep on movin' forward despite all this misfortune." Chrys feels a deep, burning anger at Frida, even though the woman had already passed -- even if it was merely greed that had motivated her, good people still died as a result of her machinations. She puts a comforting hand on Harriet's shoulder. "If ya wanna come back with us ta Yartar, it's where we're headin' to figure out what ta do 'bout the rest o' that temple. Or ye can try and get yerself together in Melton, if ya prefer. We'll be with ya back to Melton no matter what ya decide."
"Should you even desire, Yartar is relatively close to Triboar... if you wish to make your way further south, Triboar would put you right on the road to Waterdeep." Kess couldn't help but look at poor Harriet with sympathy as the pyre blazed, trying her best to ignore the stench of burning flesh and hair from bothering her; what this woman had been put through over past few recent days was unspeakable, and in no small part thanks to the machinations of Frida and the goblins. "In whatever you decide, we'll gladly help you."
Krackle would take the time to cast mold earth and quickly dig graves for each of the dead prisoners. Once the goodbyes were said and the bodies dropped into the holes he would quickly cover them up. When the group began to block off the tunnel, he would also collect dirt from nearby and cover the newly moved stones with a thick deep layer of fresh dirt to assist in preventing access to the tunnel.
"I'm ready to go... that was scarier than I thought it would be..." Krackle would say while still wearing his mask. He would pull out his small coin pouch and count some of the newly collected coins as he prepares to head back to town.
"You were very brave, Krackle," Kess would say with an encouraging smile, kneeling down to give the little kobold a hug. "Braver than you ever had to be. So... are you ready to head back to Yartar?"
Lumen is ready to go. He carries the lockbox, which, for reference, contains: 1100 sp, 150gp, 10 pp, 4 bloodstones and some miscellaneous items of jewelry.
Thats 220sp, 30 gp, 2pp if we split it 5 ways.
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Vesper casts prestidigitation on the bodies.
Xenophon: Topaz Dragonborn Fighter (ixi's Dragon of Icespire Peak)
More
Ha I also meant to clean the gore off all of us :)
She'd get us too.
Xenophon: Topaz Dragonborn Fighter (ixi's Dragon of Icespire Peak)
More
As you all wind down from the fight and tend to post-battle duties: cleaning and bandaging wounds, using magical cantrips to clean the thick glops of blood and gore from your skin, hair, clothing and armor, and doing your best to clean up the bodies of the Harriet's former companions, Krackle and Lumen do a search of the bodies and the room.
Krackle finds that none of the zombie people had any coin or valuables on them. It's likely that anything of value the might have carried would have been taken by the goblins. Meanwhile, Lumen enters the library and scavenges through the littered piles of books and parchment inside the small chamber. He finds that most of the tomes are quite deteriorated and mostly unreadable, however he finds one book that's partially intact, titled The Nightsinger.
Flipping through it, he sees that it tells the story of Shar, goddess of the night, and her ongoing rivalry with her sister, Selûne, goddess of the moon. The story is similar to the images you saw portrayed on the tiled mosaic in that little nook near the banquet room.
He also finds what appears to be an intact spell scroll lying half buried among the ash-covered floor.
Lumen
Surprisingly, you can read the archaic calligraphy on the scroll. It contains a single spell: Bane.
Lumen shows the scroll and the book to the others.
“Well-fought everyone. This place is all cleared out, except for the fiend in the pool. Are we sure it will stay inside while we go back to Melton? I still don’t know why a temple to Shar has a fiend living in its pool, and why there are zombies. Or if that has anything to do with the constable with the goblin mask. We have more questions than when we started this adventure. It’s not like the stories. I’ll need more answers if I’m going to turn this into a singable saga.”
"Well, no one here's got answers, that's fer sure," Chrys says. "I think our best bet's to go back to Yartar an' ask someone knowledgeable. Someone like Master Dundragon." In the meanwhile, Chrys will spend her time scratching GREE AKJHA with her dagger at regular intervals on the walls and floor as the group exits the cave. It's not much, but she hopes it might be able to scare the goblins away from resettling in the temple and spreading the corruption.
"Agreed. I'm sure that he'll know all about the mask and everything else in this cave."
Xenophon: Topaz Dragonborn Fighter (ixi's Dragon of Icespire Peak)
More
Lumen gathers the book and the scroll and offers to help anyone else to the exit (are we bringing the zombie bodies out to bury them?).
(Yeah, I'd make a few trips to do that. And either bury or pyre them outside of the temple. Chrys wouldn't want their last place of rest to be a temple of Shar)
Lumen helps carry the now-clean (??) bodies to the front and defers to Chrys about what should be done...
It does take a short while to bring all four bodies out of the temple and up into the forest, where Ellywick and Harriet are waiting. She's feeling much better after her very long rest, and has quite a bit more energy today.
However, upon seeing you carrying out the bodies of her fallen companions, she breaks down in tears, especially when she sees them up close. As she crouches down and closely inspects each of the four twisted, mutilated zombie corpses that used to be her friends, the poor halfling wails with cries of sadness and obvious emotional pain, which is probably compounded by the physical toll that she underwent during her period of captitvity.
Ellywick does her best to console the poor girl and offer her comfort, even though she's clearly horrified with sadness at the sight.
"So much sadness... so much terrible evil...." She says, but beyond that, the gnome just seems lost for words.
"I think that heading back to Yartar would be wise; whatever it is that lives within that pool, we are clearly a bit out of our depth in this place and how to deal with it. Not to mention, the constable's involvement is bound to come as a shock to some of those who live here. But how do we assure that more goblins simply don't move back in or that something worse doesn't take advantage of this cave? Shouldn't we at least assure that we can block the entrance or something? Otherwise, this cave could just as easily become a residence for anything such as an ogre or an owlbear."
Lumen places a supportive hand on Harriet's shoulder. "I am sorry for your loss. It is hard. I hope you can make something of the time you now have. Earn it. Don't forget them, but make use of your time. Let's get you back to Melton and a warm bed and a good meal. We know a good inn."
He nods at Kess' suggestion, and looks around for some heavy rocks that might work to roll in front of the entrance to block it until they return, hoping it might deter others.
Investigation: 11
Athletics: 17
"Mm. 'S gonna be difficult gettin' back in here to take care o' that fiend once an' fer all, but I don't feel right leavin' that cave out in the open either," she says, agreeing with Lumen.
She deferrs to Harriet's wishes in interring the bodies - a burial or a funeral pyre - and does her best to say a few prayers for the dead, in the name of the Duin. "They deserved better in life... but with this, I'm hopin' their souls will find rest in the next."
Afterwards, she assists in the effort to block up the cave entrance, trying to use her Stonecunning to determine the best way to collapse the entrance to the ancient temple.
(Stonecunning history? for collapsing the entrance: 10
Athletics for pushing rocks around: 20 )
Chrys does her best to try and collapse the entrance of the cavern, and she does manage to knock a few stones out of the ceiling of the cave entrance, but the carved obsidian blocks inside are just too hard to break free. However, there are plenty of rocks and boulders on the small surrounding hillside that you can dig free and carry/roll/transport over to the entrance. It takes the group at least 4 hours to collect enough rocks and pile them up in front of the entrance, effective blocking it off.
It's certainly not an expert job, as Chrys would attest, and it's certainly not a permanent solution, but the barrier seems like it will at least keep out most opportunists from wandering inside the temple. If a strong, sentient creature wanted to take the time to tunnel through, they could, but it would take quite a bit of effort to clear a usable opening. And combined with Chrys's scratched message on the stone in front of the entrance, it seems about as good a job as you could hope for, given the circumstances.
Regarding the bodies of her companions, Harriet says that she prefers a funeral pyre, especially since they had been tuned into undead creatures. Burning them seems like it would be the best, and easiest way to deal with the corpses and properly send them into the next life. It doesn't take along to collect enough wood for a fire, and so after laying them together and saying your prayers and words of peace, you douse the wood with a few splashes of oil, light the pile and watch as it grows into a blaze.
Looking over at Harriet, you an see that she's trying to be stoic about the whole thing, but she can't stop the tears from streaming down her face. Ellywick stands with his arm around her shoulder in a tender embrace as Harriet nuzzles against her.
"I'm real sorry ya had ta suffer like this... but it's best ya recoup a bit in Melton, get yer feet back under ya. I'm sure yer friends would want ya to keep on movin' forward despite all this misfortune." Chrys feels a deep, burning anger at Frida, even though the woman had already passed -- even if it was merely greed that had motivated her, good people still died as a result of her machinations. She puts a comforting hand on Harriet's shoulder. "If ya wanna come back with us ta Yartar, it's where we're headin' to figure out what ta do 'bout the rest o' that temple. Or ye can try and get yerself together in Melton, if ya prefer. We'll be with ya back to Melton no matter what ya decide."
"Should you even desire, Yartar is relatively close to Triboar... if you wish to make your way further south, Triboar would put you right on the road to Waterdeep." Kess couldn't help but look at poor Harriet with sympathy as the pyre blazed, trying her best to ignore the stench of burning flesh and hair from bothering her; what this woman had been put through over past few recent days was unspeakable, and in no small part thanks to the machinations of Frida and the goblins. "In whatever you decide, we'll gladly help you."
Krackle would take the time to cast mold earth and quickly dig graves for each of the dead prisoners. Once the goodbyes were said and the bodies dropped into the holes he would quickly cover them up. When the group began to block off the tunnel, he would also collect dirt from nearby and cover the newly moved stones with a thick deep layer of fresh dirt to assist in preventing access to the tunnel.
"I'm ready to go... that was scarier than I thought it would be..." Krackle would say while still wearing his mask. He would pull out his small coin pouch and count some of the newly collected coins as he prepares to head back to town.
"You were very brave, Krackle," Kess would say with an encouraging smile, kneeling down to give the little kobold a hug. "Braver than you ever had to be. So... are you ready to head back to Yartar?"
(I think we did a pyre per Harriet’s wishes?)
Lumen is ready to go. He carries the lockbox, which, for reference, contains: 1100 sp, 150gp, 10 pp, 4 bloodstones and some miscellaneous items of jewelry.
Thats 220sp, 30 gp, 2pp if we split it 5 ways.