The journey to the cemetery takes the party several hours and it is mid afternoon by the time they arrive
- The cemetery itself is surrounded by a 10ft brass fence which is now broken in several places
- The gates have fallen
- Several body parts have been impaled on the fence post, some are still wriggling
- At the centre is a chapel glowing with a fetid purple radiance
- Across the cemetery they see hundreds of animated corpses (some still, some shambling)
- Vigil mentions that the chapel has an ossuary below it and it is likely where the duke would have gone
Strum watches the undead to see if/how they interact with the world around them
- They don’t seem to be reacting to anything
- Strum uses his magic to project a sound near a group of them
- Most don’t even notice and others only react slowly
- The party therefore decides to try and navigate their way around the undead to the chapel
The chapel itself has seen better days, the stained glass windows are smashed in
- There’s no sound from inside
- Strum attempts to blow the purple haze away but is unsuccessful
- Marco determines that its the effect of strong necromantic magic
At the front of the chapel are several statues that Vigil knows are of Elturel’s heroes/high clerics
- He notices that something seems wrong about them, incorrect poses or missing items
- He informs the others and asks if they can spot any illusion
- Marco spots something moving in one of them and draws his rapier before approaching
- Vigil pings them with his divine sense and identifies something hiding in several of the statues
- Marco walks up to a statue and pokes it with his rapier
- It clicks off the stone but as he leans in a blazing purple skull with white eyes lunges out of the statue and leers at him
- Marco lashes out and starts up his bladesong
- Eliseo throws his sword, it passes through the skull, dispersing it
- Strum rushes up and thunderclaps another statue blasting a shadowy form out of it
- Several other shadows and spectres emerge from the statues as the team take up positions
- One of the spectres rushes away around the side of the building
- Hayate blasts a shadow before being enveloped by another which latches onto his face and starts to suck the life from him
- The shadows and spectres fall quickly to the party’s attacks especially to Hayate’s blasts of radiant magic
- The one that rushed away returns but is killed off without issue
- Hayate feels weakened by the shadow’s attack
With the enemy dead, the party has a look through the broken windows into the chapel
- It’s pitch black but with the night vision goggles Eliseo spots several huge skeletal minotaurs wielding massive axes
Vigil and Reya kick in the double doors and are immediately charged by a pair of the undead minotaurs
- The hellriders hold the undead at the door as the party fires spells over their heads
- A combination of Thunder wave and cloud of daggers helps to kill off the two at the door as two more squeeze their way out of the windows
- The party rotates to meet them and the undead are unable to get a hit on Marco or Vigil allowing the group to destroy them without taking any injuries
They advance into the chapel and, pushing aside a curtain they find two bearded devils flanking a man wearing priestly robes
- He has glowing red eyes, withered skin and sharp fangs
- He introduces himself as Gideon and claims that this is his cemetery
- An ex-priest of Dauphus
- He claims that a group passed through here down into the ossuary and that since then demons have been coming up from below
- He claims to serve Zariel and that Zariel’s actions against the demons are all that protect the mortal world
- Vigil argues with him that there are other ways to do this and that it does not make her actions right
- Gideon is making an army of the undead for Zariel and her war
- Vigil tells the cleric ‘you may find the companion’s light is out, but you’ll find the sun still burns’ before lighting up the axe and charging Gideon down
The party rushes into combat with Eliseo and Hayate engaging one Bearded Devil and Strum and Marco the other
- Vigil smashes Gideon with a flurry of blows, each exploding with light
- The vampire recoils from the radiance
- Charging up from the staircase comes a giant scorpion and a group of dretches which rush at the devils
- Hayate summons his spiritual weapon as he and Eliseo trade blows with the devil
- Vigil smashes the priest again, pouring some of his life force into the axe as it burns Gideon from inside, destroying him for good
- The three-way melee continues, the demons and devils ignoring the party member’s presence and focusing almost entirely on each other
- Strum is poisoned by one of the dretches before they are cut down by the group
- Marco and Eliseo finish off the scorpion
With the battle over Eliseo checks out the rest of this floor of the chapel
- He finds a stained glass window depicting Dauphus the god of death walking a field of dead bodies as their souls leave and follow him
- There are three corpses here including an Almogovar
- Eliseo removes his badge to return to Deslaur
- One of them is dressed in a fine suit of leather studded with green jewelled flowers
- Around his neck is a pendant of a raven, the symbol of Dauphus
- Eliseo shamelessly loots the armour which appears to be enchanted
- Marco sketches Gideon’s remains
- Hayate opens a door at the rear of the chapel
- Outside is a hole in the ground filled with the purple haze
- As he looks on an undead Almogovar climbs out and wanders off
- Beyond there is another, smaller building