Tairn

Play date: August 4th, 2009

1533.2.12 - In the Lair of the Cult - Sometime after Dark - “Flee!” 

An ogre zombie pounds at Banic. Banic five foot steps away attacking it with a bludgeoning weapon and then divine power; he hurt it but didn’t kill it. Everyone retreated up the stairs. Back at the statue of Malperder, Serk pushes it a little before realizing it is so heavy he will certainly tip it over. Banic embiggened himself and carried his cousin slowly up the stairs and out into the night before un-embiggening. Banic and Serk lugged the statue painfully for 500 feet before it was decided Keddick would create them a safe refuge to watch over Malperder while the other three moved back to Lysoria to warn the King. Serk hears a group of sixty moving some ways off heading vaguely north, but no one investigates.
Keddick, Jack and Varende arrive at The Palace, turn the two prisoners over to the guard, and report to Attalus. Attalus says he can get some Hands and Priests to go back with them in the morning and that Mistress Orain, High Transmuter should be able to help Malperder tomorrow. Keddick mentions he can turn  Malperder into a small statue (which come to think of it actually should have fizzled since it reads as “one non-magical item”; on the other hand, I don’t think his armor and clothes and things should have turned to stone - hmmm) with a clothlike texture for easy movement. Attalus offers Palace hospitality for the night
As the three are in their chambers, an alarm bell can be heard. Varende emerges to see men running here and there and finds that undead have overrun Malverin. Jack decides to go back to sleep as does Keddick, but the heroic elf goes with a group to Malverin.
Varende and the group of soldiers he is with encounter some small amount of undead resistance and dispatch the skeletons and zombies without death among them, but hundreds have been killed by the zombies and skeletons; there is even a story about one walking dead that was paralyzing people, and some of the soldiers that fought against it did die. Priests of Andreja are roaming the town helping the injured. Varende stays for several hours and eventually finds an empty Market Inn, picks a lock, and trances before watching by the lake point for his companions at dawn.

1533.2.13 - Orain saves Malperder
Keddick and Jack eventually discover that no party can be spared to help retrieve Malperder right now; the Priests and Hands are exhausted from the night’s labor.  Keddick grumbles a bit. They head south and find Varende waiting.
Meanwhile, Banic and Serk have an uneventful night and start lugging the statue in the morning. Eventually all meet up about 100 feet from where they were and return Malperder to Lysoria.
Mistress Orain takes charge of Malperder while the others eat lunch. Malperder returns hale and hearty and eats while everyone catches him up on what happened.
Everyone goes back to the site via the path of 60+ undead moving through the forest. Serk follows it easily. They find the entrance stone shaped away. Banic opens it and they enter. It seems deserted including the corpses of those killed yesterday.
The big room that Banic fled from is also empty now but still stinks; crossing its 80 feet leads to an exit and some stairs down to…
A large circular room with a stone altar in the middle, the inner sanctum of the cult, is dominated by an  altar with  the symbol of Talinoman in it. The floor is a stone grate and there are oil patches here and there. The stone is sooty and burned. Banic stoneshapes the altar away with several spells. The place “feels” evil and Keddick says the room has been magically “desecrated” to enhance the powers of undead and evil rituals within in. Serk searches a room above and turns a bed and wardrobe to kindling; Banic stoneshapes in the secret hall behind another wardrobe and finds a passage leading to a secret door in an alcove by the small staircase down to the other sleeping chambers. Varende searches some areas thoroughly but discovers nothing else. Everyone returns to Lysoria.

1533.2.13 - Interogating the Prisoners
Malperder is keen to find out what the prisoners revealed. In the panic of the evening in Malverin, no one has paid any attention to them. They are jailed in the dungeon below. The party is led below to a small room, and one of the prisoners is brought to them. Serk hits him a few times when he isn’t forthcoming enough and Banic heals him. He says he was just hired to guard and doesn’t know anything about any cult. He has been there a couple of months, but others were there longer he thinks. Their leader had ordered them to kill them. He seems a bit intimidated, but Serk’s attempts at fist-enhanced diplomacy don’t go well. Malperder threatens him a couple of times. <We stopped before the second prisoner was “de-briefed”>