D&D: The City of Shaldra~Zin

[Grimsvald]

An older voice chimes in. "We didn't make these things and we don't know why they are happening. One day our dead just started getting up and walking about. They don't seem to be hurting anyone, but it's terrible for business so you can see why we deny they exist. Especially in a city like this....do you really think you can help us?"


The younger voice came back, "Help us descreatly and NOT destroy our shop?"


Kelter sheathed his greatsword and bowed. "Kelter Rowe, paladin of Pelor from Shaldra-Zin. I promise to treat your shop with the upmost respect."


There is a click and the metal door creeks open slowly to reveal a young man and his even younger wife. They clear a path so that the party may enter. As they step in the wife grabs Jaks by his shoulder, "Please, don't let them hurt the undead. They are peacful, misunderstood creatures. I know the kind of blind justice paladin's can hunt with. Talk to these creatures before those brutes slaughter them. "


The building layout before them is a long hallway with 2 doors on each side. The first door on the right is marked 'Coffins' the second room on the right is marked 'Council'. Both doors on the left are marked 'Grieving'. At the end of the hall there is a single door marked 'Staff Only'

 

[Redsirrah]

"These undead may respond differently than the ones we encountered." He looked at the family and explained. "We encountered undead similar to these, only ours inhabited empty suits of armor and were filled with blind rage. They couldn't be reasoned with at all and slaughtered many. It was truly horrifying." He gripped his mace. "Whats behind these doors?"

 

[Grimsvald]

"So it's not just us..?" The husband lowly questioned to himself. "I cannot understand the purpose of them, but they have never harmed us. They act like frightened refugees. Some even clean." He walked down the hall deep in worried thought.


His wife let go of Jaks to walk and answer Jameak. "The coffin room is where we display different burial options. It is also the window display. The council room is were we talk about payment and advise the grieving. Its a small office. Both rooms on the other side of the halls are viewing rooms where the grieving may come and see the departed before they are brought to the catacombs, burial or cremation."


The husband reached the end of the hall and spoke over his wife. "This room is where we clean up the dead. Removing insides, closing them and adding make up so that they are presentable for the customer. In this room is a staircase down into our temporary catacombs. Where we keep the dead until their ceremony. That is where they tend to....rise again. That is where they return to each night. That's where you will find them now."


The wife returned to Jaks, "Please make sure these holy men remember mercy." Kelter stood at the end of the hall. His eyes on the staff only door. He could hear the will of Pelor in his mind 'drive back the darkness. Drive it back with your light.'

 

[Yesman]

The rogue followed amazed that of how differently these undead were described here than they were in Shaldra-Zin. Still he was wary, casting a look over his group's host and their surrounding. Whether or not he stopped Kelter from trashing this place depended on how he felt about it. Until then, though, Jaks gave a reassuring pat on Kelter's shoulder.


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[Grimsvald]

From what Jaks can tell the young man and his wife are telling the truth. The man doesn't seem to care much if the creatures live or die as long as it doesnt affect business. The wife on the other hand seems to have a soft spot in her heart for the undeaths. And she seems to have a fear of holy men becoming zealots.


His inspection of the hallway doesnt tell him anything new. It only confirms what thr couple tells them.


Kelter heads into the next room. It is a large white overly clean room with two tables to prepare corpses on. Smaller tables have tools, bowls and make up on them. In the corner there are stacks of folded black cloaks much like the dead wear. At the opposite end of the room is a wooden door. That must be the stairs down.

 

[Yesman]

Jaks finally sheathed his rapier, letting everyone know that he felt safe here. Still, why was the woman so scared about the cleric and paladin? Sure, Kelter had just ran a great sword into an undead earlier but at least Jameak was trying to help. The rogue turned back to Kelter and followed his gaze.


"What is behind this door?" inquired Jaks as he slowly approached the staff only door. He knew that the woman had asked him to help Kelter and Jameak remember mercy, though the cleric didn't seem to need any reminder (who besides the absolute pacifist would negotiates with bandits?).

 

[Grimsvald]

Beyond the staff only door lay the clean up room where Kelter had walked. It is a large clean white room with two tables for bodies to lay while they are prepared for their viewing. Smaller mobile tables sit next to the prep tables. These have surgical tools and make up on them.


At this time the tables sit empty. The only other thing in this room is a pile of black cloaks like the ones the dead had been wearing. The most eye catching thing in this room is the door on the other side. A wooden door that leads down into the catacombs. This is where the undead would be found.


Kelter was itching to get down the stairs. He didnt believe the story of peaceful undead for a second. He had only known the dead to return for unfinished business or the will of a necromancer. This reasons have always ended in violence. His sword still sat sheathed on his back. He waited for Jameak and Jaks before opening the door to the stairs.


When the door to the stairs opened a cold draft rolled into the room. The iron hinges creaked, slightly rusted from underground moisture. It revealed a dark spiraling stair case of stone cut into the earth. It wasn't steep, probably didn't go too far beneath the building. Small holes are randomly cut into the wall where candles are placed, but none are lit.


"Here you may want this." The man says pulled a touch off the wall and lighting it. He holds it out for someone to grab.

 

[Yesman]

Jaks took the torch and motioned that he would lead. He lit every candle placed on the wall, shining a little bit more light on the way down. The descent was slow, first, because the draft and the moisture made lighting candles quite difficult and, second, because the cold air didn't make Jaks want to move very fast anyway. While lighting a candle for the second time, Jaks decided to start a conversation just to pass time.


"You seem to a little on edge, Kelter," he said to the paladin. "Is it something wrong or are you just excited to kill some undead?"

 

[Redsirrah]

Jameak grunted. "Hey now, don't get chippy on our way down a mysterious dark staircase." He peered into the darkness. "Lets keep our cool, anything could be down here."

 

[Grimsvald]

Kelter brushed his fingures through his grey beard. "You know I've made a lot of friends in my years. Worked along side a lot of great men, men who fed the poor and sheltered the homeless. Fathers, sons and brothers that I saw born into this world. Now, thanks to these creatures I have seen all of those great men die. Last night everyone I loved was stolen from me. Now I feel very alone in this world and I am clinging to two people who, I feel, share my fate."


Kelter crosses his arms and exhales dramatically, "Excited?...yes, that may be a good word for it. I owe it to the fallen to seek vengeance. But I will not become the blindly killing monster that my enemy is. As much as I crave to kill these things, I crave closure more. Who are they...why did that do it?"


The old paladin rambled so long they had reached the bottom of the stairs. The floor plan was simple. A square of hall ways with a cross of hallways in the center of it. The stair case lead them down into the top right corner of the square. They had the choice of going straight or right.


All the walls were made of stone. These hall ways were simply carved into the earth. Within the walls deep holes are cut where corpses are slid in. None of the corpses are more than a month old. Before a month time is up these bodies are moved to a more perminent resting place chosen by the family. It is even darker down here. There are less openings for candles.

 

[Yesman]

Jaks scanned the room before handing the torch to Kelter. His hand moved to the hilt of his rapier but he did not draw it. He moved claser to the corpses to see if any of them had recently been disturbed.

 

[Grimsvald]

Kelter takes the torch in both hands, doing his best to light the way for his companions. Jaks can see that most of these bodies have remained where they were places. Some have more recently returned and some have more recently left. Three slowly shuffle down the hall to your right and around the corner.


"There they go! Let's get our answers." Kelter says before quickly walking off. As they progress down the hall the sounds of a woman quietly weeping begins. "Did they take a captive with them?" The paladin openly thinks the worse.


When they get around the corner Kelter stops. He can see only half the hallsway away there is a woman in a black cloak sitting on the ground. She quietly cries and seems to scream behind a closed mouth. Her hands claw at her face. With a sharp stone broken off the catacomb wall she cuts at her mouth. The rogue and cleric notice Kelter very slowly reaching for his sword while he sneaks forward.

 

[Yesman]

Quickly placing a hand on Kelter's shoulder, Jaks attempted to pull the paladin back. "Don't startle the witch," he urgently said in a hushed voice. "Not that she is a witch, she might just be an ordinary woman. I was referencing to- oh, never mind." He turned back to Jameak without letting Kelter go. "Hey cleric, do you want to try and talk to this one or should we just kill it now?"

 

[Redsirrah]

Jameak tried to get anything he could from his senses to tell him about the thing in front of him. If it wasn't evil, Jameak wanted to help it, but if it was, someone could get seriously hurt. Jameak whispered to Kelter "What do your paladin senses tell you? Do you detect anything?"


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[Grimsvald]

When Jaks suggested killing the girl now as an option she crawled backward in fear. She continued to cut at her mouth with the broken stone. There was a sickening wet slicing sound.


Kelter looked the creature over, sniffed the air and felt the energy radiating through the halls. "Evil or good, what creature in its right mind would act this way?" He questioned. "There is sadness and anger in abundance here, but who could expect different within a hall of the dead. I do not sence true evil here. I sence a misguided danger. Something frightening and harmful looms over us." He holds the torch out in front of him so that they can examine the girl more clearly. His other hand stays at his sword hilt.


Jameak sees more now that this torch light covers her. She is a beautiful young girl, dead far too early. Her make up is done and her skin is cleaned. She had already been preped for her wake like all the other bodies down here. The cleric can now see that she is not madly disfiguring herself. She is attempting to cut open her mouth which has been sown shut for the service.


When they lean in to examine her she makes a final cut and screams. The frayed threads snap and her mouth rips open. "Wait!...please...wait" she curls up against the wall crying heavily. "We just want to live...one day having peace like we did in Ashligneous."

 

[Redsirrah]

Jameak gripped his necklace and uttered a prayer, creating an area around him (Zone of Truth). He approached the creature, knelt down, and asked. "What are you? How did you come to be here? Tell me everything you know."

 

[Yesman]

"Ash-a-what now?" asked the rogue. His took his hand off his rapier hilt and scratched his head. "Sorry I fell asleep during zombie history and undead geography." He let Jameak approach the girl before he spoke again. "That's no way to start a conversation with a girl, cleric. Though knowing you holy men and your 'thou shalt be boring', I'm not surprised." He looked back at the girl. "Sorry, all three of us had a long night involving murderous undeads trying to kill us in our sleep. Here, let's start with this, what's your name?"

 

[Grimsvald]

The girl had her eyes on the cleric. Just as she moved to answer his questions the rogue interupted. She looked to Jaks. "My name is Gilda and I'm not as young as I look..or as human as I look....or as dead as I look." She sobbed for a moment then collected herself again. "Sorry, it's all been so dramatic. I was an elf of Ashligneous. It was a beautiful white wood city in another plane of existance parallel to this one. That is, until the terrorist actions of Blackwood and their leader Shaldra-Zin killed everyone."


Kelter unsheathed his sword, "You watch your tongue girl! Shaldra-Zin is a hero of my land and from where I stand it is your people who are terrorists!" Shuffling noises begin in the darkness. It seems this girl is not as helpless as she lead on. Kelter lowers his blade. It looks like he is yeilding, but really his weapon is just difficult to hold in one hand. "Explain your accusations."


The girl tried to scurry back but realized she had no where to go. "Our city was one of piece! We hadnt fought anyone since the savages before my life time. One day it bagan to rain gold coins, blood and wax. Then a man on fire fell from the sky. We looked up to see someone elses stars in our sky. Your world, at the end of a vortex."


"Then the city of Blackwood manifested where our city already stood. People were ripped apart. Walls formed where people stood and suddenly they were just a face sticking out of stone with lifeless eyes. Our spirits were torn from our bodies and sucked up into the vortex over head. An entire city of people lost in the void between worlds."


" We did not know the way so we wondered for years. Maybe centuries. It became so hard to tell. Yesterday we finally emerged in this world. We were spit out of the void into your city of Shaldra-Zin...the city you built where Blackwood once stood. Blackwood the city which crushed my people."


"Some of our people took up arms in anger. They put their souls into your armors and attacked for vengeance of what your people had done to us. The rest of us fled here to live in peace. To find a better body to live in and feel normal again. These corpses are the best we could do. When we poses the freshly dead they no longer decay. Its flesh becomes our flesh. We don't see any harm in this and if we don't do this we will soon fade away. Please....help the rest of us through the portal and give us your corpses for corporeal form."


Kelter looks to Jameak with distrust and anger in his expression.

 

[Redsirrah]

Jameak looked at Kelter. "I'm sorry Kelter. As far as she knows, everything she said is true. For now, no one in this area can knowingly and deliberately tell a lie." Jameak looked down to the girl. "And I'm sorry for what you and you're people had to go through. It doesn't change or justify the murder of innocents, but it does explain the rage I felt from that armor." Jameak pondered his knowledge of history, seeking the far reaches of his scholarly experience, and then asked. "Why were your lips sewn together?"


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[Grimsvald]

The girl has no idea why their mouths are sewns shut. But Jameak may begin to recal the information himself. Lips are sewn shut as part of the funeral process. If you don't, the mouth fully opens and stiffens to make the dead look like they are screaming.


"Does this mean...you'll help me?" She questions still huffing and getting her breath after the crying.


Kelter stepped back a few paces taking his hand off his weapon. He braces himself on the wall. It difficult for him to see Shaldra-Zin in a villinous light. He spent his entire life looking up to this hero figure. Living in a town named after the man. He has trouble believing it and tries to think of a way the girl may be working past Jameaks magic. The paladin is convinced something in her words conseal her lies from the spell.

 

[Yesman]

Jaks clicked his tongue and shook his head, still dwelling on Gilda's story. "Tch, raining gold coins before destroying an entire city? What a waste. If the burning man was the one who dropped them, he deserved to burn," he muttered to himself. His attention snapped back to the girl. "If helping you guys mean being able to sleep without having to fear one of you crawling into armor and murdering all of us, sure, we'll help." He looked over to the paladin. "Or at least I'll help."

 

[Grimsvald]

The girl had no comment to the waste of gold. " I cannot speak for those who posessed the armors. We may be from the same city, but that doesn't mean we are like minded. I just ask that you give us a chance. Don't judge the fate of many off the actions of few.." the girl slowly stood to her feet and stopped her sobbing. She looked to each of them individually for hope. Her eyes begged harder than her words. The paladin returned a gaze of mistrust but he would follow what ever choice the party made as a whole.


"If you're going to help us, we will also need the help of the misses here. Though she doesnt know it, she has a strong natural bond to the arcane. We can use that bond to hold open the gate way and let through the last refugees."

 

[Yesman]

"Wait," said Jaks. "'Let through'? I don't have any problem freeing elf ghosts from...wherever they are but we're going to have to plan a little further than 'letting through'. For example, where will we put all of them?"


Jaks looked into the shadows and attempted to spot any of the girl's corpse possessing friends. "By the way, do any of your friends need help with their stitches?" He drew vertical lines over his lips with his finger to indicate what he meant.

 

[Grimsvald]

When Jaks offered to help with the stitches two men walked from the shadows and presented their tightly closed mouths. Their eyes were sad and afraid. In total these were the undead who had fled from the street. No more and no less.


"We haven't had much time to plan things out." The girl begins to explain. "We have only been here for one day and some of our more talented minds were not the first to make it across. There isn't much time to form a plan. The portal is closing quickly and we need to act. It's already too small to cross over and we need innate magic ability to wedge open the portal. If we wait till tomorrow it will be too late. All of my people will be lost forever in a void...The vestals we need are all around you." She put out her hands as if to display the catacombs. "The dead are enough for us. We aren't picky we just want to live out the years we were robbed of."


If the rogue had to guess there are about 200-260 bodies still unmoved in this room. The rogue and the cleric can both see that the girl is getting rather nervous and panicked, her anxiety emphasized the urgency of her situation.

 

[Redsirrah]

Jameak stood. "I see. Then lets act. We must attend the summit. There we can not only ask for help for the city of Shaldra-Zin, but we can also find a solution to this problem. With the combined minds and effort of the summit we should be able to quickly find peace for your people." Jameak rubbed his shoulders. "Also, I have a delivery to make, so lets get moving while we still have time."