Everlife Noble District
In the morning, we see from the top of the Spire that the Dragonscale Gang have burned someone at the stake in their holdings, for an unknown reason. We also see that the undead tend to avoid two specific parts of the Necropolis, but otherwise are milling about slowly. There are a sizeable amount of undead in the Necropolis, but not nearly as many as there are in the poor District in the city. The area that is being avoided is the Pauper’s graves, and the graves of the various priesthoods.
We head to the gates of the noble Quarter, past the Tiger Claws and Bear Paws Gang holdings. Both gangs watch us from concealment, but do not attack.
We travel quickly through the gates and past the merchant Quarter, into the Poor Quarter.
Everlife Poor District
We stop at a guard post and investigate. While we are at the guard post we find out that the Prison is still occupied, there’s fires coming from the prison chimneys. It is uncertain who is still in the prison. Something to follow up on later.
The logbook at the guard post says that 2 weeks before the wall fell, a bunch of guards were called to the front gate. Not certain why. Another note says that the Lord’s second cousin, who was a ranking guard member, failed to show up that day.
The Necropolis
We move to the Necropolis, to the Pauper’s graves. Each set of graves are fenced off, and roads divide the different sections of the Necropolis. The undead have not entered into this section of the graveyard, due to the hundreds of carved symbols of Pelor the mourning placed upon the graves. The faith of the poor kept the undead out.
The Pauper’s graves are a safe haven, but patrolling the roads beyond are a group of zombies, one of which is an ogre zombie. Ogres weren’t buried in the Necropolis, so that means that the Ogre was brought in by whoever caused this to happen. Given that the Flame of Pelor protected the Necropolis, it has to be someone living – a Necromancer.
The Mausoleum of the Flame of Pelor
We wait until the patrol has passed, and then climb over the wall to the oldest section of the Necropolis, the Mausoleum of the Flame of Pelor. It is surrounded by a large group of zombies. The battle is hard, but we are victorious.
Within the Mausoleum is a gargoyle, and several animated severed hands called Crawling Claws. They fight us and we again barely defeat them.
We finally get into the inner sanctum of the Mausoleum, and see that the Flame of Pelor is missing. In its place is a hideous statuette on the Altar, radiating unsettling evil. Guarding the inner sanctum is a Spectator, who introduces itself as Xenth’r. Codex understands Spectators as not evil, but often used by wizards to guard locations, and often they go insane from loneliness and boredom. They also follow the letter of their instructions.
Xenth’r, after some discussion, lets us know that “the Master” is a human male, and is a Wizard. He tells us he was ordered to guard the room, and attack anything that entered into the room. This includes snow and rain from the rooftop skylight, that Xenth’r has not enjoyed. We offer to build a roof over top of the hole in the rooftop, to keep him dry and prevent things from falling into the room, and Xenth’r is happy about that.
We talk to Xenth’r about what it eats, and it tells us it likes sandwiches, summoning a sandwich on a plate and a glass of … something liquid. It then eats the sandwich, which is the best moment of all time.
Once Codex realizes that the Wizard is likely to have a spellbook containing necromantic spells, he Casts a Locate object spell, attempting to find the nearest necromantic spellbook within 1000 Feet. It points to the Northeast, which is where the gravedigger’s house is. It makes sense for the Necromancer to take up residence there, as he is still living, he would need a place to keep warm, to eat, to sleep.
Now that Xenth’r is happy with us, we talk him into a loophole. They cannot allow anyone inside of the room, but that doesn’t mean they can’t throw anything out. So Xenth’r throws out the statuette and we have it!
Codex tries to identify the Statuette and quickly regrets it. His soul is transported to a cold, dead, terrible place, before a mummified corpse missing his eye and hand. The Dark God of Secrets, Vecna. Vecna refers to Codex as “a Supplicant” and asks what I wish to know, it offers control over the undead, the ability of the Statuette to control large numbers of undead within a specific area.
There’s a moment of temptation, a bloom of evil within codex, but ultimately he refuses and Vecna tries to take his soul for defying him. Codex escapes with the help of Ioun, and imparts the knowledge that Simon’s divine Smite will destroy the Statuette and rob it of its power.
Codex comes to and tells everyone about seeing Vecna and the power of the Statuette. Simon gets everyone to leave the immediate area and smashes the statuette, channeling St. Cuthbert’s divinity of retribution. The resulting explosion almost kills Simon, but the statuette is destroyed. All the undead are then freed of the control that the statuette had on them. The necromancer can no longer control the horde, but now no one can. This doesn’t change the situation too much, but it prevents an organized army of the dead. Now we have a disorganized army of the dead.
After slaying a pair of devil dogs, we are able to rest in the Mausoleum, with our new friend Xenth’r watching over us. He still cannot leave the Mausoleum, and we cannot enter into the inner sanctum, but if we kill the Necromancer, they will be free.
The Flame of Pelor is not in the inner sanctum, but we can see a spot where a body once knelt. It is possible the necromancer took the body away. Our next stop is the Necromancer, to kill him for what he has done.