PrP: Sanctuary Cleansing
Two days ago, a Cleric of Gilead posted up a help wanted sign, of sorts in the explorer's guild. The whole sign was quite brief, but the point of it was quite clear, he was expecting trouble. At the appointed time, outside of the Explorer's guild, a bald man with a long beard and green vestments is seen pacing back and forth in front of the hall, hands behind his back in worry....hoping people will show up.
Zalara is always one to answer a help wanted sign. The small red headed comes up to the Cleric with a copy of the wanted sign in her hand, "Hello! You are the Cleric of Gilead yes? I'm Zalara, Artificer and Adventurer. I'm here to help." She smiles brightly as she holds up the sign to show that she's here for his job.
Melbert shows up a little early to the Explorers' Guild, so he's ready when the cleric arrives. He heads directly over and stands respectfully, bowing his head for a moment, then introducing himself. "Good day, sir. I'm Mel. If you're the one who posted the sign, I'm here about that." Not smooth or polished, but earnest. He smiles over to Zalara as she arrives, too, but then seems tongue-tied. "I'm not really specialized in anything, but I'll try to help out."
Zalara smiles at Melbert, "It's nice to meet you Mel. You are here for the job too? Oh what do you do than?" She asks curiously as she looks him over trying to figure out where he might fit into a group. "Can you heal or are you sneaky?"
The elderly man nods to them both and smiles a weary smile. "Thank you both. Come, Come. There is much to tell and we have a long journey ahead of us." He says turning his head towards the east....where the mountains are. "We head for there." He says pointing towards one of the cliffs of the Red Ridge mountains. "I have plenty of provisions for us, but I shall have to tell you the rest along the way. He says before turning and heading off into the streets, picking up a rather large backpack....
Melbert looks vaguely nervous at Zalara's direct question, and says after a moment, "I can cook? Um, other than that, I guess I'm sort of generally useful." He's dressed as a sort of auxiliary combatabt sort, including his war-surplus sword and armor. He looks surprised about walking all the way to the mountains, but falls into step quickly and says, "Lead on, sir."
Zalara smiles brightly, "You are welcome." She starts to follow along after the cleric and she looks over at Melbert, "Really? You can cook? Can you teach me how to cook? I promise I won't blow up anything." She starts to walk along with the two other men.
Melbert ehs about cooking, but nods slowly. "I learned to cook ... er, when I was younger, yeah. There's not a lot to teach, really. Mostly you just put food in the pot, set it to boil, and watch to make sure it doesn't burn. Mainly you just develop an eye for things," he insists. "You just throw in whatever you have, really. Or at least that's how we did it."
As they exit the city, the old man explains that there was a small sanctuary way up in the mountains that was owned by an old man. He then proceeds to explain that while the old man was alive, he would tend to sick animals and even the occasional egalrin who had crashed or was caught out during a freak blizzard. In time, this house would be known as a place of peace for all followers of nature. It's quite a lovely tale of this old man, and how he helped the Egalrin out for his many years. Even the Eaglefolk built nests near his home to keep him company.
Unfortunately, Not only did Gilead and Dana notice.....but so did Thul, or so the saying goes. One night, during a cold night, and where he could barely move, he had agents move in to paralyze and kill the old man, and defile this one wonderous sanctuary into one of corruption and filth. The rumors of the god's noticing is anyone's guess, but at the middle of the second day, even the wonderful cooking of the elderly man and Melbert can be felt to turn in your stomachs as you reach some unseen border. Even the faithless can tell the corruption is there.....
Melbert follows the old man up to the sanctuary, grumbling about the fate of the old man. "It's a shame that noone was there to help him. I guess we're here to help clean up the defilement and such?" he wonders. "If there's anyone lingering there .. uh." He seems less sure of himself, here, but then says, "Well, we've got weapons, we can try and drive them off."
Zalara listens as she walks along. "So you just throw it all into a pot and boil it?" She asks as they walk and she follows along listening to the story. She looks around as she sees the corruption that's taken place. "I just hope we can. It's a shame what happened to him."
GAME: Melbert rolls perception: (8)+9: 17 GAME: Zalara rolls perception: (12)+9: 21
Melbert nods about the cooking. "More or less. You develop an eye for how much pepper or salt is too much, or you use what you have, if you have any. Salt is good for keeping meat, and pepper if things might be a little off, so you don't notice it so much." Squinting into the distance, he points forward. "Do you see that tree there? It looks twisted."
Zalara hmms as she puts cups her hands over her eyes so she can see better. She squints, "Hey I think I see a spot where the corruption hasn't touched." She than looks down, "Uh oh...looks like we aren't the only ones that are here." She looks over to Melbert and she nods.
GAME: Melbert rolls perception: (18)+9: 27 GAME: Zalara rolls perception: (9)+9: 18
"The Corruption has spread. We must be getting close." The elderly man says to them both as he points down along the road. "That direction, I believe." He says to them as they continue to walk. The only problem at this point, is that in the old man's hands, his best weapon is a frying pan. It's clear he's never lifted a weapon in his life, and his hand shake profusely. This obviously scares him to no end.
At the slow pace and catious pace they are going, it takes a while for them to find where they are going, however, Melbert will see plume of smoke, like that coming from a home with a fire, not far ahead. However, the closer you get to the source of the smoke, the weirder the trees begin to look, twisted, mangled and misshapen trees dot the landscape....
The sound of something loping can be heard before the tiny little figure on a dog appears. It is a large dog, a sturdy brown mastiff. The halfling on the back? Brown leather with various red silky touches--like tied in her hair and around her waist. A holy symbol of Ceinara hangs from her neck. She's checking a piece of paper and squinting at the figures ahead. "EXCUSE ME." Her voice--so high! "Is this the Melbert/Zalara party? I have been sent as a cleric accompaniest."
Melbert acks at the news that they're not alone, head turning left and right, searching for cover. Or trying to locate whatever's out there. "Ah, crap," he mumbles when he sees the smoke. "Yeah, it looks like someone's moved in." He'll pull the buckler shield from his pack and fix it on his arm, drawing a javelin and advancing, though he looks fairly nervous, himself. "I should say this," he begins quietly. "I'm not much good in a fight by myself."
Zalara follows after the old man and she has her death ray out and in her hands. She is gently fiddling with it as they move along. "There that should do it." She turns her head as she hears her name, "Oh Hello there. You are the cleric that was riding Wonderpony at the Career day. Yes this is the party that's helping the cleric." She smiles brightly, "Please come join us." She looks towards Mel, "Really someone's moved in. I hope they are nice." She looks back towards the two trees, "Are we going to find out about those trees or meet the new inhabitant?"
Melbert acks as Jessa rides up from behind, and he quickly Shhhhhhh's the halfling. "Yes, that's us," he says just above a whisper. His eyes bulge at Zalara, though it's hard to say whether it's from the death ray or because of her casual assumption that the people in the hut are friendly. "Um," he begins. Then tries again. "If bad people defiled the place, it might be them that moved in. Good people wouldn't want to live here, I think. Or ... they could be cleaning up. But ... we probably should stay quiet until we can tell if they're good people or bad people. We can look at trees afterwards, I think."
"The Magical Princess Pony did a wonderful job. I bought him about five pints last night as a reward." But Jessa is an experienced cleric and lowers her voice, smiling at the other two as she does. "Jessa Hartose, Priestess of Ceinara." And then she's listening, patting the neck of her dog as she does. "Right."
"They clearly aren't nice! Have you seen the landscape?" The Old man whispers, but jumps at the sound of the shrill voice calling to them. He runs over towards the halfling and claps a hand over her mouth. "SSSSSSHHHHHH! You don't want them to know we're here do you?" The mand is clearly scared out of his mind at this point, but only marginally relaxes upon seeing the symbol of Ceinara. "You three can see if you can clear out the corruption within.....I shall.....hang back a little." Those that can sense motives will be able to tell he's fightened out of his mind at this point.
Zalara looks over at the others and she shrugs, "Well let's at least check it out. I don't want to hurt someone who's innocent." She looks at the cleric, "I see the landscape, don't worry we'll check it out." She looks around, "I guess we'll go check out the house."
Melbert blinks at the mention of Magical Princess Pony, but shrugs that off as not relevant just now. He pats the old man on the shoulder as firmly as he dares, "Don't worry, sir, we'll ... er, do what we can." His opinion is firmly on the side of the old man as far as who's in the building. "I can try and sneak forward to have a look?" he offers. "I can move pretty quietly," he claims. "From when I was in the War, I mean ... we sometimes had to..."
Giving the giant a furious look, Jessa tosses her hair. "You stand over there, cowardly freak giant." Then she dismounts. She is TINY. The dog is sent to watch over the man. "-Stay-." She sighs. "You do not want me scouting. I am many things but -not- a scout."
The elderly man is sitting upon a rock at this point. However, As Melbert goes towards the house, he finds that it is DARK inside of that house. And that the only way to see anything is to go inside. "If you're going to go in...." The Elderly man says. "do not go in alone....."
Melbert erms to Jessa, "I'm saying that I can try and scout." To the old man, "I'm not going in, I'm just going to look around." To the group, he says quietly, "If you all hang back, and I'll see if I can tell what's up. If I scream horribly, you should probably run back to the city and get help." All full of confidence. But ... there's not much to see from the outside, and he quickly comes back to report, "The house is all closed up, and it's really dark inside. Maybe they've got something to block the light? Anyhow, I couldn't see anything, apart from it looking really suspicious. Maybe we can rush in and catch whoever it is by surprise?" Melbert conveniently suggests Zalara stay back and guard the old man, "In case we're overwhelmed, you can get him away."
"Well. Honestly. Rushing tends to end badly." Jessa mulls that over for a moment, her hands on her hips. "Look. We'll go in and I'll be ready to heal you. If it gets really bad? Then we'll get the hell out as quick as possible. But you can go first." She gives Zalara an encouraging smile then rubs her hands together, beaming up at Melbert.
Current Initiative Order ====
18 Ghoul3
14 Ghoul1
12 Ghoul2
7 Jessa
7 Melbert
A few seconds after the door opens, a fire suddenly flares to life in the fireplace, and shedding enough light to show three people in the room. They begin to turn around, and it becomes QUITE clear they are not alive anymore. Part of their limbs or faces are falling off and they moan loudly, looking at you both with dead, lifeless eyes. All three of them begin to rush you....but they don't QUITE reach you.
GAME: Jessa casts Bless.
"Well! This is going to prove to be quite the exciting little adventure!" Oh god, so smelly. Jessa wrinkles her nose then raises a tiny hand in the air, calling out, "Ceinara, I beseech thee as your not-so-humble servant to inspire myself and my companion to destroy these ridiculously smelly creatures!" At least the prayer nets results, unorthodox as it is, a wash of holy energy hitting both the Priestess and her companion.
GAME: Melbert rolls bluff: (9)+7: 16
Melbert moves into the doorway to block the ghouls from escaping. He drops his javelin on the way, drawing his shortsword and trying furiously to remember the training he got one rainy day in the spring of his first year on campaign. 'If you want to hurt someone, you make them give you an opening. Go one way, then hit him from the other side when he moves to react.' That's what his sarge had said. So that's what Mel does, leading off like he's going to swing from a wide backhand.
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (12)+1: 13 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (10)+1: 11
Melbert clearly fakes the face off of the first undead, but the other two aren't deterred at all. They moan and shuffle over towards Melbert and try to claw him with one hand each. However, as they attack, they only scratch at his armor......
GAME: Jessa rolls 1d6: (3): 3 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (17)+4: 21 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (1)+4: 5 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (17)+4: 21
vs DC 14
Holding up that holy symbol over her head, Jessa takes a deep breath in and starts to shout. "FOUL AND HORRIBLE CREATURES. THE DEAD SHOULD NOT WALK THIS EARTH. LET THE POWER OF CEINARA WASH OVER YOU." The halfling REALLY believes in her goddess. REALLY. A wave of holy energy sweeps from her, golden with scarlet touches--two of the ghouls seem partially damaged, the third more intensely so.
GAME: Melbert rolls 1d20+5: (12)+5: 17 GAME: Melbert rolls 3d6+2: (6)+2: 8
Melbert hadn't actually expected his feint to work, and his follow-through is lackluster as he pulls his blade back rather than hacking, then thrusts forward, under where a normal opponent would have raised their guard. Well, perhaps he did get the creature a stronger hit than he would have, otherwise? But it's hardly the mighty hacks that he sees real warriors doing when he watches them train. Still, he holds his buckler bravely and stands his ground.
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (10)+1: 11 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (6)+1: 7 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (6)+1: 7
The first monster isn't looking so great, but still has to shamble closer a good distance to get to Melbert. The other two sizzle with holy energy, but continue to focus upon Melbert, since he is the more obvious threat, but their claws do no better than before....
GAME: Jessa rolls 1d6: (3): 3
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (5)+4: 9 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (8)+4: 12 vs DC 14
"FEAR THE WRATH OF IMAGINATION!" Jessa gets over-enthusiastic. Oh god yes. But it /works/. The next wave of holy energy radiates out from the little priestess and, coupled wtih the strike that Melbert inflicts, causes one of the ghouls to crumple to the ground, destroyed. The other two aren't looking too hot either at this point.
GAME: Melbert rolls bluff: (19)+7: 26
Melbert is finding his pace, it seems, or else has found the trick to how these monsters react. He keeps his shield up, keeping their claws away, batting them aside as he can. When he finds an opening, he tries the same trick as before with one of the two ghouls he's facing, raising his blade up for a fierce chop very convincingly before dropping back to deliver a thrust.
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (10)+1: 11 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (19)+1: 20
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d6+1: (6)+1: 7
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d4+1: (1)+1: 2
The other two monsters aren't looking all that great, but they continue their attacks upon Melbert. One of them actually gets a scratch upon his neck, rooting him to the spot for the moment.
GAME: Jessa rolls 1d6: (4): 4 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (15)+4: 19 GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+4: (11)+4: 15 vs DC 14
"Yeah, so, not good! Can you do anything? Hello person whose name I cannot remember from my paperwork?" So Jessa raises her arm and shouts up at the skies, "Ceinara, I call on you to help me return these poor unfortunates to the dead state they belong in!" Not as effective, no, but at least the energy does some damage.
GAME: Melbert rolls fort: (10)+3: 13
GAME: Melbert rolls 1d20+5: (13)+5: 18 GAME: Melbert rolls 3d6+2: (8)+2: 10
Melbert is frozen for a moment as one of the ghouls scratches him, but he realizes it's his own terror and not the horrible claws! He gets over it as fast as he can and and thrusts forward, driving his blade through the chest of the attacking ghoul with a gasp of triumph mixed with panic. He yanks his blade back out with a whipsaw motion, cutting through the chest further as he flings the thing down to the ground, where it lays motionless.
GAME: Moonshadow rolls 1d20+1: (12)+1: 13
The final monster continues to attack Melbert, however, it's too dumb to realize that it's still only scratching at leather armor!
GAME: Jessa casts Command. GAME: Jessa rolls 1d8+2: (8)+2: 10
"Ceinara, I ask that you heal my boon companion so that we may better strike down our foes and defend against the forces of death and foul odor." A rush of warm healing energy fills Melbert, healing the wounds he has.
GAME: Melbert rolls 1d20+6: (17)+6: 23 GAME: Melbert rolls 1d6+2: (1)+2: 3
Melbert hadn't even realized he'd been scratched! In the heat of panic - er, fighting - he'd reverted to the way he'd been sort of trained, and he didn't really even notice that he'd been injured until Jessa's magic actually eases the adrenaline rush and he's able to take stock of the situation. With only one enemy now, he's more easily able to keep his shield interposed, and he waits for his chance to hack at the creature. He takes advantage of a wide opening as it claws at his buckler, and a quick hack to the neck disposes of the weakened ghoul with a wet sort of splatting sound. "Ah, ah," he gasps, still panting as the thing falls. "Is that all of them?"
Jessa looks around, peering around one of his hips. "It looks like it? It is very dark here, of course. You did that very well! Congratulations on having fighting skill!"
Right after Melbert kills the last ghoul, the sickening feeling lifts partly from the house. The old man, after a few minutes finally comes in, looking a little better. "Thank you so much, Jessa, Melbert." He says before he goes to the middle of the room, and SMASHES something on one of the pillars, which makes something unholy scream out in anger, then stop suddenly. A couple of minutes later, he's scratching the bow and arrow symbol onto the pillar, and casts another spell that makes the filthy death feeling go away completely. However, the house, now has a nice warm feeling to it.
Melbert bows his head to the halfling, "Thank you very much for the healing. And for using Ceinara's power on those monsters." He looks extremely surprised at Jessa's comment. "Fighting skill?" He shakes his head, laughing it off. "Me, no. That was what anyone in a corner would have done, and pretty lucky at that." He examines a tear in his clothes where his chain shirt didn't protect him from the ghoul's scratch. "I've seen the guys in the Arena fighting, I'm not in that class. They're scary!" He looks around the room, now that the fireplace is lit and he can see a bit. He steps aside for the old man to do his thing, and breathes a sigh of relief when it's done. "Is that it, then? Is it ... ah, cleansed? Or whatever the right word is?"
Jessa watches the man's actions intently, closing her eyes when she feels the change in the air. "That was neatly done. Yes, it appears that it is done. So, old giant, it appears that what needed doing has been finished. Are you satisfied? And will you sign the paperwork that explains that you are indeed satisfied with our work?" So they can get /paid/.
Melbert nods quickly about getting paid! "Yes, right. I'm not used to these extended outings, so much. But as long as we get paid when we get back to the city, I'm good with it," he says smoothly. To Jessa, he says, "I've been with the Explorers' Guild for a while. They're not always fast with payments, but they're not as bad as the army. And they pay a lot better, too." And now, he's got a rag and he's cleaning the ghoul bits off his shortsword before he puts it back in the scabbard. And looking around for where he dropped his javelin.
"I shall make sure you get paid, little one. Do not fret yourself. As soon as this GIlead's faithful come to relieve me here, I shall reutrn sign off the paperwork for you to get paid. Do not worry. I have already sent word, and they shan't be long. However, you may return if you wish. I will be consecrating this place every day until they arrive. Thank you so much.
Upon your return, you will find that the paperwork has already been signed and sent by a messenger.