”That sounds terrible. Are you ok Sir Grungy? No injuries?”
The group arrives at the kitchen. The old monk looks saddened at the sight. ”Oh Wei, oh you poor thing. I told you to just redouble your efforts. You could have retried the kiss. At least you are at peace now.”
He moves over to the halfling and readies to grab him, ”Could one of you all cut him down while I collect the body?”
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Halai cuts down Wei's corpse with the kama on her chain-weapon.
"We avoided injury here, friend. But the zombies almost killed us. It took a lot of healing wand charges to patch us up."
As she works - showing care and deference to the deceased - Halali adds "Strikes me as odd - no, as wrong - that a peaceful god would expect his worshippers to do violence to themselves. Yet that's what you've done with your 'kiss', and that's what Wei did here, albeit at the urging of an evil spirit.
Even Gozreh, whom nobody thinks of as kindly, does not compel her devotees to self-mutilation."
Halali strokes the scar on her face. My own divine 'kiss'. Am I truly Gozreh's Chosen? Or am I suffering trials no different than these Koradans?
The sight of such a small frail lifeless body being carried into the dining hall would bring sadness to almost anyone. Fortunately the pathfinding dwarves are not just anyone. Their only emotional setting is righteous anger, rawr!
The old monk gently lays Wei on the empty table and wraps him up in the tablecloth, then leaves to tell the family. A wail of sadness erupts from the living quarters nearby and eventually everyone in the temple learns the news and comes to pay their respects.
Most of them eye the pathfinders with understandable suspicion but none say anything. The old monk does not remark to Halali’s comments with anything but a shrug and the comment, ”I know only what I have learned here. This life works for most of us.”
The dwarves stand there like the rocks they were hewn from.
The newly made widow, sobbing heavily, looks at Ander with disgust. She walks over to him and smacks him hard across the face, ”How dare you?!? How DARE you sully his memory with your words. He lived a life of peace and meditation, constantly striving for enlightenment. And you say it was all fake? FAKE?!? His death, FOR NOTHING?!? Get out!”
She retreats to the body, sobbing on top of it while clutching her children tightly.
The others seem… torn. They are upset, obviously. But also not stupid. A couple look interested in hearing more and follow the dwarves out of the room.
Tolvaj feels very strongly that jumping out of a wall and yelling ‘boo’ would be a terrible idea.
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I did not mean to sully his name or his devotion...what in the... Ander says, trying to find the words.'
Now as for proof, let's show you the "purity test"...follow me... he says as he decides actions might hold sway where words might not.
[There is a switch here... he says as he shows them the trigger.
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Kaz's comment isn't really that hard to pull off because the second the dwarves lead the monks into the garden they clearly see two sets of destroyed doors and at least one hideous rotting zombie corpse. And a lot of blood. Dwarf blood, though to be fair blood just looks like blood.
They gasp, "WHAT HAPPENED HERE?!? What are those things?"
The dwarves explain their side of what happened. Probably. I don't know, they don't talk that much, but have talked a bit more lately.
Anyway, the monks nod along about the story, not entirely convinced about the undead being related to their priest being evil but not disbelieving what occurred.
As they check out the 'test of purity' Ander explains the trap and how it could be bypassed and that Gastidem was intentionally hurting people for his enjoyment. And also that Gastidem had approval for doing such from the priest.
The monks follow along mostly but are quite suspicious of the last parts, especially since Gastidem isn't around.
The monks are calm but confused, "Take action? You mean like... fight you? Hah! Do you see weapons? We are peaceful worshippers, unlike you all. Even if we wished to defend ourselves against your agressions, none of us have any training. Other than Dakang's guards, of course. But good thing they are here, otherwise I'm pretty sure you all would have murdered the priest during his sermon. Hopefully through all this you all will see the way of peace is better than the way of the sword. Maybe he is bad. Maybe not. Maybe the things you all are so sure about are explainable. Maybe your minds aren't as open as they should be."
They stay back as the dwarves head to confront the probably evil Dakang.
They do recall from earlier the way was blocked by the Asimars, hopefully this time things will go better. The group arrives at the door leading to Dakang's room.
The Asimar don’t seem impressed.
The three Asimar glare at the last dwarven outburst and put their hands on their weapons, ”It is not plain as day and we will not abide by another disruption. Leave now, or we will make you leave.”
The front guard leans in slightly with a pleading look and speaks quietly, ”Come on now, don’t make us hurt you all.”
The dwarves make both the smart and ethical choice, deciding not to slaughter these folks guarding their home. Even if the home is run by a very bad man.
They slink away and realize that all this crap today has tired them out. Better find a place to crash, tomorrow is another day.
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As they walk away from the guards, "How about checking for any good food in the kitchen? Not that dirt flavored crap that they serve. Didn't look like it has been used in a long time but there might be something edible there. If not, we can heat up our rations. I've got enough for me for two days....
An earlier search of the pantry revealed empty tins, unsealed bottles and jars holding only remnants of their former contents, hole-filled burlap sacks, and mildewed barrels bereft of food or drink within.
But the dwarves are pretty sure even if they keep making fools of themselves, the monks will let them share food at the table each day at mealtime. I'm sure they will eventually get used to the dusty burned flavor.
Dran at least also has the water situation solved. But it seems like rations for dinner, at least today. Good thing the dwarves came prepared for a long mission! Right? RIGHT?!?
Halali and the bird volunteer for first watch and suggest going away from the temple. Though the presence of a monster in the temple certainly puts her knowledge of the tapestry to question.
With no opposition to Halali’s plan, the dwarves slink out of the monastery and head into the hills. They find a decent spot to camp out and set up tents or bedrolls or… just lay on the ground, probably. Rations don’t go down super well, but hungry stomachs make it taste pretty good. Assuming someone loans the two dwarves a ration, no one goes to bed hungry. Bilos’s spirit pops out of existence, heading home for the night when his master falls asleep.
For a while, just the sound of bugs fills the night, but eventually larger things move around. Perhaps this is an actual ecosystem? And perhaps there may be something to hunt or forage tomorrow. If the dwarves care to do so.
Four hours into the watch Halali yawns huge and pokes…
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I got ye, lass....sit down and I'll boil us all up some coffee the rifledwarf says as he gets out his pack of food and hands Halali a wrapped bundle.
Pretty sure it's salted pork and travel bread, but it's better than nothing... he says as he grabs a bunch of sticks and lights it with a pinch of gunpowder. and sets his kettle to boil.
Grunigon and Ander take the second watch. In the distance they hear a successful predator’s hunt as prey shrieks and then goes silent. A few moments later the normal night sounds resume.
The rest of their shift is fine. The two dwarves wake up Bilos, Dran and Kaztor for shift three. Nothing happens during their watch either. Morning comes, what do the dwarves do?
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"I can speak with the dead" Halali offers. "Well, they speak to me. I'm assuming the spirits are dead anyway. Plenty of them complain that things aren't as good as they used to be.
I'm not sure the dead halfling's family would let me at the cadaver though. And if they did, Dakang would just label me a necromancer...
I have another idea. We've been stone-headed thus far. Let us be like the wind and the waves - adaptable, fluid. We'll approach peaceably. Say we've reflected, meditated on our experience. Ask the aasimar guards if they've also reflected and meditated on the evidence that we presented. Wait for an answer.
Whatever spell Dakang has worked, he's not turned any of his followers to violence except against themselves. I'm counting on their true natures to win out; whilst we've been away they'll have been talking, questioning.
If you lead Kaz, I've got a blessing up my sleeve for you. And if they still don't see the truth, I'll knock 'em out with a Colour Spray spell and we can disarm them before we barge in on Dakang."
Halali communes with the spirits. When she is done she seems smaller than before, but her eyes sparkle with starlight.
Halali seems to be possessed with a different spirit, one that comes up with good tactical plans.
Bilos brings out his incorporeal friend again.
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"I like everything about that but the color spray. If it falls apart to that level I think we've failed. but I really don't think we should be hurting the guards. They're not evil are they? Just the boss if I see things right. And I wouldn't want to be hurting folk for doing their jobs...."
"Let's keep the weapons out of our hands until we face Dakang."
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"'I'm just doing my job' isn't a defence. If you do evil because someone else told you to, you still did evil.
I'd rather deal with the guards without violence yes, and Colour Spray doesn't do any permanent harm. It should knock them out, we can disarm them, nobody gets hurt. But if it doesn't work, and they draw steel on me, I'll respond in kind.
I suppose there's a third way. Unlikely, but you never know. Our mission says nothing about tangling with evil cults. We just need to survey the monastery. If we're allowed to do that, we can be on our way. Kaz wouldn't like leaving an evil priest in charge here, but we could just ask for permission to catalogue the library and take rubbings in the crypt, I think that's all that's needed. The crypt was off-limits though, and I really expect that if we go in asking for that then the guards will lose any sympathy they might have."
A lively discussion breaks out!