The Orchard Guard Mausoleum, cont.
At nightfall, Toth met us at the entrance to the cemetery. Waiting until Shar had settled over the city, the only noises in this part of town spilling out of taverns, we entered the cemetery and prepared our plan. I lit the lantern, setting it on the broken arm of the statue. Kazir spoke the words on the scroll, and was joined by four illusory captives. I drank the potion and (apparently, for I had no mirror) took on the likeness of a bugbear. We waited, poised for anything to emerge from the mausoleum. The only noises were Toth’s ponderous breathing and the crunching of snow under our boots.
At last, the inner door of the mausoleum opened. I could not see what lurked in the darkness, but Toth whispered, “goblins,” and I readied my crossbow. Soon enough, the gate of the mausoleum opened, and several green-skinned goblins emerged. Speaking in goblin, they appeared agitated. Toth replied after a hesitation, and I could only hope our trust in him was well placed. These goblins looked especially tough, clad in armor and carrying a variety of cruel-looking weapons. Toth whispered none-too-subtly that we were to move the captives forward. Sensing the opportunity, I motioned for Kazir to strike. He unleashed a spell on the unsuspecting goblins while I took the opportunity to sneak attack one with my crossbow. Several fell from the spell, and another was wounded by my bolt. Toth charged, felling one with a mighty blow. In moments, all of the goblins were incapacitated, either dead or sleeping. We quickly tied up the one goblin still living, and decided to use what surprise we had to raid the mausoleum.
Descending into its depths, we found ourselves in a chamber where the goblins had apparently been living. Their refuse was strewn about, and they had looted the graves of the dead. Seeing no enemies here, and finding another stairwell leading down, we decided to keep rolling with whatever surprise we had. Begeth was first down the stairs, and quickly backpedaled in surprise. Looking around his massive girth, I saw the cause of his concern. Several of the wretched undead, those horrible creatures responsible for Riley’s death, lunged forward to attack him. My anger rose in a paean to my god. “May the light of Deneir’s wisdom blast you back into the Abyss!” I cried, and seeing my holy wrath, most of the undead turned and fled. Taking a few hits from a zombie, Toth took down some of the remaining ones. Again I unleashed my wrath on the undead, and was pleased to see more flee from Deneir’s might. Finishing them off now was trivial. I stood in the center of the chamber, brandishing the Glyph of my Lord, while Kazir and Toth dispatched the cowering undead.
This chamber held another set of sarcophagi, somewhat similar to the chamber above. I surmised this was likely where the officers of the Orchard Guard were lain to rest. More interestingly, however, the center of the chamber was occupied by a large circle, similar to a summoning circle, but slightly different. I advised Toth to avoid disturbing its unholy center, and we moved on to another stairwell.
This time we descended without incident. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Begeth drew back a curtain revealing a short run of hallway to another door. Cowering in the hallway were two humans, a middle aged couple who cowered in terror at our appearance. “Please,” cried the man, “don’t hurt us! We’ve done nothing!” Their terror was genuine, and we saw that they were likely soon to become victims of the vile master of this place. We calmed them, letting them know we were there to rescue them. Kazir escorted them past the bodies to the surface, and asked them to go fetch the guard.
Back in the crypt, we examined this lowest chamber. It appeared empty, except for a single undisturbed sarcophagus in the center of the room. Obviously this was the final resting place of Lord Klivan Redshields. We did not disturb his rest out of respect, but proceeded to examine the rest of the chamber. On several pedestals along the walls flanking the sarcophagus were brass bas-relief books, each open to a page describing the exploits of Lord Redshields and his Orchard Guard. I was attempting to scribe their contents for posterity when Kazir called out. He had found a secret door on the far wall.
Kazir opened the door, and we found another stairwell leading down into darkness. We were discussing what to do when he appeared, a wild-eyed man in robes, his black hair greasy and tangled, smoke rising out of his nostrils. He unleashed a gout of flame onto Begeth from his mouth, and parried a set of blows from Kazir and Begeth before fleeing back down the stairwell before we could pursue. Deciding what to do, I called upon Deneir’s strength to bless us. While Begeth and Kazir maneuvered at the top of the stairs, I moved to heal Begeth. Again the mage appeared, and again he let forth a gout of fire from the bottom of the stairs. Again Begeth took the brunt of the attack, and again I healed him. But not before Kazir was able to get off a shot from his wand, dropping the mage into a deep sleep.
Victorious for the moment, we descended into the crypt and bound the necromancer. We found a number of items, including some fine leather armor that I promptly donned. We also found a tome that reeked of evil. Glancing at it, I saw it contained the rites to raise and control numerous undead. We gathered our spoils and Begeth raised the sleeping and bound necromancer onto his shoulder. We had not found Opulio, but I assumed one of the bodies of the undead to be his.
Approaching the surface, we found that the guard had finally arrived. As we emerged from the crypt in their company, I realized that a small crowd had gathered outside the mausoleum in the falling snow. Bagulf was there, as were the couple we had rescued. They all regarded us with suspicion, and none more than the officer of the guard who stepped forward to question us.
“I am Sir Lucius, Captain of Lord Winslot’s Black Boar Guard. You have exactly one minute to explain yourselves before I put you in irons and march you to the jail for disturbing the peace of the city.”
Dear journal, I could not correctly describe the words that I spoke. But inspired by my Lord’s grace and His aid in helping us defeat the undead, I spoke pure poetry. I described our heroics against the goblins and the undead, how we were seeking the lost son of one of Harren’s most helpless inhabitants, and how we had come to capture the foul necromancer in the heart of the Old City Ward. The crowd was speechless for a moment, and then erupted into applause. “Three cheers for Tryn!” they cried.
Sir Lucius did not look pleased.
Fortunately for us, he also did not look willing to upset the mob, most of whom were probably drunk. “Very well. It seems you have indeed performed us a service. I therefore drop the fines that would normally be imposed for such acts. Be advised that in the future you should alert the guard before you decide to go around slaughtering monsters such as these inside the walls of Harren. Be gone, you… and be gone, you rabble!”
Rather pleased with myself, I looked at my companions. Kazir grinned at me, apparently pleased I had shown up the guardsman. Even Toth begrudgingly nodded in my direction. I simply shrugged sheepishly, and turned to the couple we had rescued.
“We cannot thank you enough,” said the man, as his wife simply sobbed and wrapped each of us in a hug, even the half-orc. “I am Jonas Whittlethorp, and this is my wife, Madge. We had been celebrating our twentieth anniversary when we were kidnapped, and if it were not for you, it surely would have been our last. I cannot thank you enough.”
“Please,” I said, humbly bowing my head. “Were our roles reversed, I am sure you would have done the same. I am simply glad you escaped relatively unscathed. Do you require any further aid? Do you have a place to stay?”
“Thank you – we cannot thank you enough,” he said, close to tears. “We will be fine now that we are free. We… we don’t have much, but we do have a manor outside of Harren. We are childless, and our halls are often empty. If you ever find yourselves in the area, please stop by and keep us company. We would love to have you stay, as long as you would like.”
We thanked the Whittlethorps for their kindness, and, moving through the crowds, went on our way.
“Tryn,” Kazir said, grabbing my arm. “Zazu is overhead. He tells me that Chardin is in the crowd, heading away from us.”
“Well, what can we do about it? Let’s head for some rest. He should have no quarrel with us yet.”
