With the catacombs cleared out, the party plans their next move
- They decide to head to the cemetery, via the barracks, to see what happened to the Archduke
- They retrieve the driftglobe and Pipes of the Sewers before heading out of the hand, through the cathedral and out into the city
- Eliseo, following Vigil’s directions, navigates them through the streets and helps avoid some hazards (such as a fallen-in well) on the short trip to the barracks
The barracks, once a small fortress within the city, has been razed
- There is a breach in the curtain wall and a fire set amongst the keep and other buildings
- Several siege weapons litter the surrounding area
- Smoke hangs over the fort but there is no movement from within
- Vigil is a little shaken by the destruction but suggests they should hurry to the chapel
The chapel has lost its roof and as the party approaches they realise they are walking through a black, tarry sludge, the remains of dead devils
- The sludge is dripping down the steps from the chapel and pooling at the foot
- The door has been hacked apart
- They head inside, a defaced statue of one of the former Hellrider captains is in the foyer
- More of the sludge covers the floor
- The door to the main chapel has been knocked off its hinges but propped back up
- Inside the pews are hewn and the windows smashed
- Statues have been defiled and abyssal graffiti covers the walls
- At the far end behind the altar is a fresco showing an angel leading a troop of cavalry through a burning portal
There is one undamaged statue, a horse with flaming hooves
- At its base, the body of a red-headed woman, covered in wounds and studded with arrows
- She’s holding onto an axe, its head embedded in a pile of sludge
- Vigil recognises this as the body of the unknown martyr
- She has no pulse but doesn’t seem to be undergoing rigor mortis
- Marco starts sketching as Vigil explains who it is and questions how she got here
- Vigil picks up the body and goes to place it on a casket
Strum notices ripples beginning to form in the sludge in several places and shouts out a warning
- The sludge seems to be getting thicker
- Eliseo leaps onto a pew and draws his sword
- Marco casts haste and starts his blade-song
- Strum notes that several clumps are starting to coalesce
- Hayate also gets on a pew and casts bless
- Vigil puts the body safely out of the way
- Strum investigates the sludge with a mage hand as a vaguely humanoid mass starts to rise from the floor
Four of the creatures rise up and start to attack
- They seem to be acidic, as one attacks Marco some flecks of moisture hit his silk shirt causing parts of it to dissolve
- Vigil smashes the one nearest to him with a smite, blasting a large hole in its body
- Acid splashback from the blow starts to corrode his armour
- Eliseo quickly finishes it off with a throw of his boomerang blade, slicing off its head with the return pass
- Marco booming blades the creature near the altar and retreats quickly across the sludge
- Hayate and Strum bring down another of the creatures, but the acid is starting to corrode Hayate’s armour
Vigil spots more forms starting to coalesce, worried that they might get overwhelmed he rushes over to the fresco mentioned by Frieda
- He recites the Hellrider words from memory
“To Hell, we ride forth, righteousness our shield, fury our lance, fiends our foes, heroes our company and glory our spoils. To hell, we ride forth.”
- The statue of the horse moves and part of the stone plinth next to the martyr’s body moves, revealing a trapdoor
- He shouts that he’ll get what they came for and that the rest should get out
The rest of the party continues their fight against the creatures
- Marco and Hayate killing one and Strum and Eliseo the other
- As they do so several more creatures rise up from the sludge, one blocking the doorway out
Down the stairs is a small room with an altar, on which is a huge, metal bound book and a small bottle
- Vigil grabs both and returns to the surface
- He picks up the martyr’s body and throws her out the broken window
- Shouts at the party to evacuate
- Reya, Hayate and and Eliseo climb out the windows
- Strum uses a blast of thunder to throw himself across the room and out the window, crashing into the ground outside
- Once the team exits, Marco throws down some alchemist’s fire and follows
Outside the party regroups
- They head to the ruined dormitory to take a short rest
- Not wanting to leave the martyr’s body but also not having the time to return to the cathedral they decide to put it inside the bag of holding
- Reya is not impressed, considering it a desecration
- The book is also put in the bag of holding
- Hayate hunts through the bodies, looking unsuccessfully for his Ishi who he had been informed had fallen in battle here
- Hayate also attempts to mend the damage to his and Vigil’s armour but is unsuccessful
- Vigil recovers some personal effects from his kit chest and attunes to the martyr’s axe
- Strum takes the shield and apparently has a chat with it
- He keeps it afterwards