Callie’s Journal
GM’s note: NOT FINALIZED
As we enter the church, the feeling of wrongness and desecration increases. I thought the Soulbound Rest was the worst, but THIS is the worst! Is there any bottom to this barrel? Vondal closes the door behind us, so we are locked in here, but at least all the ghosts are out there, I guess.
Okay, most of the ghosts are outside. A swarm of ghosts appears at the opposite end of the church. Freki has the impression that they’re here for some reason, maybe to protect something. Looking around, Bec and I wonder if this may have been a church of Peylor at one time, though it’s hard to tell. Its original purpose has been corrupted. Vondal feels that something happened to pull this place partly out of reality.
It is extremely quiet here. Weirdly silent. Vondal creates a wall of light between us and the ghost swarm that also illuminates the whole place. There’s a sarcophagus at the altar of the church, behind the ghosts. The Death Tyrant is there, with withered tentacles that are still moving. There are three stained glass windows. A goddess is depicted in two of them, but her face is obscured in a creepy way. The final window depicts…something other than what it originally did. It looks like the vision that we saw a while ago of the Brucolac, as well as the Necronomicon that we destroyed. That’s surprising, since Goratrix told us that vampires were forbidden from entering here. This place is supposed to be ruled by the Spirit. Bec speculates that maybe our cleansing of the Necronomicon might have done something to the Brucolac too, but we don’t really know.
Hauntedness increases as we approach the sarcophagus. We’re all at at top stealth mode and ghosts don’t make any noise, so everything is still eerily silent, but it does seem like they’re investigating us. Bec goes around the far side of the pews and moves closer to the wall.
I move closer to the wall and cast spiritual weapon. This may have been ill-advised, as it attracts the attention of the ghosts, who also move closer to the wall and start reaching for me. Guh! I know they can’t go through the light wall, but it’s still ooky.
Tentacles burst out of the walls! Everybody who had moved to the side now has to get back to the middle of the room. Bec casts a cube around the beholder with some kind of dazzlement. Sophie summons duplicates and they all run around, but unfortunately the real one seems to have gotten snared by Bec’s trap.
Freki…uh…lightly shoots Sophie in the back, just to jostle her out of the illusion. It works!
It’s time for me to be a CLERICAL BADASS. I channel Avandra to Turn Undead and the ghosts flee before me. Then I use my Spiritual Weapon to strike at the remaining ghosts, and they dissipate. Hahaha!
But then, the Death Tyrant faces us and it is HUMONGOUS. It’s like six times as tall as me. It’s like a house. A really gross house! It says: “Serve me and be liberated. Oppose me and die.” Then it shoots a blast at Bec and Sophie, knocking Sophie back. Bec reflects it and the tyrant charms himself, hahahahaha. I guess this is the way to charm a terminal narcissist, huh?
Bec freaking vaults over the pews, like since when can she do that??
Sophie looks like she can’t decide between Xaryu and Oz. He becomes strangely glamorous for a minute and she casts Haste on him, so I guess he won.
Freki shoots a lightning arrow. ZAP!
Vondal tries really hard to shoot some sort of beam really far. Three eyestalks with heads of Roger (the manor ghost) pop out of Vondal. He is in some way entangled with Xaryu now. I feel like this is one of the top three weirdest things Vondal has done? Maybe top five.
I Bless myself, Murky, and Freki. Then I move toward Xaryu and the rest of our party and attack a single ghost with Spiritual Weapon.
An enormous hand reaches out of the sarcophagus. No! Get back in there! DEAD MEANS DEAD!