The
following morning, the party assembled in the Great Hall and made
their way upstairs to where the funeral was to be held in the Great
Chapel of the Deep Umber.
Once
the service got under way, Jhessa March moved the proceedings along
smoothly. As the sun rose, morning light illuminated the large
stained glass windows, signaling Jhessa to give the final prayer.
She then bent over and kissed Astrid’s forehead. With the
conclusion of the rites, she invited members of the gathering to come
forward and give their remembrances while the high priestess would go
to the crypt to complete preparations.
Abby
was the last to speak, as was tradition, and as she gave her eulogy,
Dame Astrid’s body suddenly rose up from where it lay! The
knight’s body moaned in anguish and moved to attack Abby! The
party leapt to action, and as general mayhem ensued, the fleeing
congregants were met at the lone exit by a hoard of encroaching
zombies. March Manor was under assault by the undead!
The
adventurers barred to doors and managed to dispatch the mummy-Astrid
before she could injure Dame Abby. After rallying the panicked
crowd, the party fought and dodged their way through the zombie
hoard, delivering several of the important personages safely to their
quarters and clearing the zombie menace.
In
the aftermath, the adventurers received notes from each of Annah
Taskerhill, one from Naissa Mirian, and one from Torren Skiff, all asking to further discuss the evetns of the last few days. Each
note requested a meeting with the party to discuss various matters.
The
group split up to meet with Annah and Naissa, and deferred meeting
with Torren. As they made their way to the meetings, Naissa and
Emune were set upon by an assassin later identified by the paladin as
a member of the Zsoldos gypsy clan (using the assassin’s bat tattoo
as a telltale sign of affiliation). Both women had been badly
poisoned by the assassin’s attacks, though Emune still fought on to
protect her dying lover. As the party converged on the scene, they
overwhelmed to killer and the pries was able to bring Naissa back
from the brink.
As
they contemplated the presence and purpose of the assassin, they
realized they had not heard nor seen anything from Jhessa, who had
gone off to the crypt earlier. They returned to Dame Abby, and
reported their concern that Jhessa had somehow been involved the
events of the past few hours.
The
group set out for the crypt with Abby in the lead. When they
arrived, they found Jhessa wounded and slumped against the doors of
the crypt. The priestess claimed to have been attacked by undead and
was too injured to return to the manor house.
Sensing
that her story did not add up, the party moved to confront her. She
leapt up and cursed them for interlopers and Abby as unworthy of her
inheritance. At Jhessa’s command several skeletons and zombies
crawled up out of the surrounding graves and attacked. Jhessa also
pulled back the doors of the crypt, and several powerful undead
champions burst forth to join in the fight.
A
lengthy battle ensued, but in the end, the combined skill and might
of the party was too much for Jhessa and her minions. As they
finally brought the priestess down, she cursed them one final time,
swearing that Abby’s rule over House March would be marked by its
brevity and misfortune.
Upon
the defeat of the renegade priestess, efforts were undertaken in the
following days to re-inter the remains of those who had been torn
from their rest, and Dame Astrid was, at last, laid to rest with her
ancestors.
After
being rewarded by Abby for their efforts, she asked them if they
would be willing to safeguard her interests in Hillsreach as she
worked to put the affairs of House March back into order in Logash.
Having agreed to the request, and before they could depart, the
adventurers received another, seperate request to meet Lemminkainen Meade, the lord
of the town of Logash, who had just returned from business dealings
in the capitol and who found himself in need of assistance with a
significant problem within the town walls.
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