"In fact, I think it would be a dereliction of our investigative duty if we stood by and left our responsibilities to you. We insist on helping you determine the reason for the presence of the undead here at the cathedral."
Abridan pauses for a moment, then he nods. "Very well. Wait here. Let me clear the mourners from the hall so that we may conduct our investigation without interference." He leaves the meeting room and closes the door behind him.
"So how long do we wait before we assume that he's actively working against us," the sprite says, continuing to stare at the closed door. "And should we wait at all?"
"I've got a bad feeling about this whole situation," Remy says, cracking her knuckles. "I'll follow your lead."
As you decide what to do next, you feel stronger from your recent experiences...
Dewdrop shakes her head. "Edric? Would you be so kind as to open the door so that we may accompany the good priest? I feel that he may be ... misguided ... about our intentions."
The door is not locked. You emerge into the foyer, and from there, head into the cathedral's grand hall. The hall soars with a vaulted ceiling supported by tall marble columns. White drapery covers the looming stained glass windows along the eastern and western walls. To the south, a fifteen-foot-wide hallway leads south under a wooden catwalk that connects to a choir loft to the southeast overlooking the worship space. Pews that normally line the hall are pushed aside, forming a wide avenue toward the east, where a polished redwood casket sits atop an iron frame, sticks of incense burning from various points around the entire macabre display.
Abridan and four other priests are here, gently but urgently trying to usher several mourners out of the room. An impassive-looking human guard clad in plate armor stands nearby.
Abridan frowns at you. "You're an impatient lot. I told you to wait in the meeting room," he says.
"Queen Nicoleta is not known for her sufferance of time wasters," Dewdrop replies, her eyes taking in the interior of the church. "Our goal, while being as unobtrusive as possible, is still to solve the short-term mystery of undead in a temple of Pharasma as well as the longer term problem."
Dewdrop doesn't notice anything particularly odd about the room. She can sense the strongest aura of magic is the necromancy aura around Abridan's staff.
Abridan doesn't say anything until the other priests have left with the mourners. Then he lets out a long sigh. "I can see that I will not be able to dissuade you from your current course. I apologize for what must happen next. Tungort!"
The armored guard grins, then his form wavers as he drops his illusory disguise! Revealed is an enormous, four-armed demon with huge pincers and a pair of smaller humanoid arms sprouting from its chest!
Edric and Remy let loose battle cries that fail to inspire dread!
"The last time I checked, demons weren't regular patrons of the Gray Lady, hmm?" Dewdrop comments before sending a blast of blinding light towards the unmasked fiend.
The demon howls with fury as Dewdrop's beam of holy light scorches it. It casts a spell, surrounding itself with mirror images as it prepares for battle.
Abridan pulls out a scroll and tries to activate it, but nothing happens.
"Ah, leaving the demon to me, I see," Dewdrop observes dryly as Edric charges off after the 'priest'. "Well, must needs must," she says with a shake of her head. Gesturing with her staff, she raises a shield of force next to her before blasting the demon with another ray of light.
"Don't worry, I got it!" Remy says to Dewdrop. She smirks as she immediately enters her dragon stance and rushes the fiend. Taking a moment to glimpse its vulnerability, she lashes out with a pair of heavy kicks!
The attacks destroy two of its mirror images.
Dewdrop's searing light destroys the glabrezu's last mirror image. Edric scores a critical hit on Abridan, causing him to cry out in pain!
Once more, Abridan fails to get his scroll to work. He moves to flee the room, but Edric proves there is no escape, immediately following the priest! "We're under attack! Come and help!" Abridan shouts.
Meanwhile, the glabrezu snaps its pincers shut around Remy! It lifts the monk up off the ground and rakes at her belly with its smaller claws!
Remy lets out a fierce roar, instilling dread in the glabrezu's heart. She kicks at it hard!
Running out of energy to continue blasting rays at the demon, Dewdrop casts a spell that she usually reserves for the most vile of enemies.
As blisters begin forming on the fiend's skin, the sprite gestures for one of them to burst, avoiding Remy in the foul, acidic spray.
Remy's dragon roar rocks the glabrezu on its heels, though it resists her attempt to stun it. Dewdrop causes two blisters to grow on the demon. One bursts, searing the demon with acid! Edric hacks at Abridan, leaving the priest critically wounded!
Abridan desperately waves his staff around, finally managing to make it work! Healing magic soothes his injuries.
The glabrezu keeps Remy in its pincers as it rakes at her with its smaller claws.
From deeper into the cathedral, a trio of shadowy undead come running! Like the ones you faced in the graveyard, the shadows coalesce around their claws as they hiss and pounce on Edric! Two of them grab a hold of the barbarian.
With a quick gesture, Dewdrop causes the remaining blister on the fiend to burst.
She then turns her attention towards the new arrivals, sending a blast of ice and cold towards them.
Remy calls upon her wholeness of body to heal herself, then lashes out ineffectually against the demon.
Edric strikes Abridan twice, then Dewdrop unleashes her cone of cold! The blast takes Abridan down and badly wounds one of the shadowy undead, but the other two resist it.
The undead clinging to Edric claw at him and try to sink their fangs into him, but his scaly hide turns aside their attempts.
The third undead rushes up to Dewdrop, slashing the sprite and grabbing her in its claws!
"Oh no. You are not playing 'Pull The Wings Off The Sprite' today!" Dewdrop snaps and growls through the words of a spell.
Her tiny shape shifts and transforms in the creatures grasp. In a couple blinks of one's eye the sprite has been replaced by a much larger figure - a unicorn.
She then stabs her captor with her horn.
Once more, Remy struggles ineffectually against the demon. She heals herself again, but it's starting to look grim. "I could use a little help here!" she cries.
Edric struggles in vain to fight off the undead grabbing him. Dewrdop grows into a unicorn, breaking the grasp of the creature holding her and stabbing it with her horn!
The glabrezu rips and claws at Remy, badly wounding the monk!
Edric takes a hit as the undead fail to drain his essence again.
The third undead attacks Dewdrop, but the mighty unicorn avoids its attacks!
"I'm a little occupied!" Dewdrop yells out, but manages to send magical healing in Remy's direction.
She then stabs and stomps the undead assaulting her.
With Edric coming to her aid, Remy finally lands a good hit, kicking the demon in the face!
Remy's kick and Edric's slice finally bring down the mighty glabrezu! Meanwhile, Dewdrop heals the monk while stabbing and kicking the undead attacking her. It's enough to take out the badly wounded creature.
As it falls, the other two undead leap on the unicorn, trying to claw her apart!
"Fine! Gang up on the fey. I see it now!" Dewdrop banters to avoid succumbing the encroaching panic.
All three of you focus your attacks on one of the undead, taking it down. The last one fights back for a few more moments before you annihilate it as well!
The cathedral falls quiet again as the fighting comes to an end. You look down at Abridan's body, which rapidly decays before your eyes! It looks like he has been dead for a week or more, his skin drawn and withered.
After a few more moments, the unicorn shrinks back down to the diminutive sprite.
"I hope that was all of them because I'm about tapped out," she declares as she readjusts her spectacles. She gathers up the scrolls and looks over the human-sized staff.
She flinches as Edric pushes open another door. "I hope you're planning on handling any more surprises yourself."
You spend several minutes to rest, heal, and refocus. Once you are ready, you move to examine Bishop Keppira d'Bear's body. A close examination reveals something not quite right about the corpse. Indeed, it doesn't seem like the bishop is fully dead...
Suddenly, the woman's eyes open! She hisses as she rises up out of her coffin, shadows lengthening around her fingers to form claws! Keppira's eyes turn black, and you can see the sharp points of fangs in her mouth!
Edric and Remy let loose battle cries, momentarily setting Keppira back!
Keppira shrieks in pain as Edric hacks into her. She retaliates with a quick claw strike, then she unleashes a blasphemous invocation. Shadows twist, writhe, and animate around her before lashing out!
Success: The creature takes 5d6 negative damage.
Failure: The creature takes 10d6 negative damage and is slowed 1 as their own shadows animate and pull against them.
Critical Failure: The creature takes 20d6 negative damage and is slowed 2 as their won shadows animate and pull against them.
Edric's attacks cut Bishop d'Bear down! Keppira falls, her bloodless body bisected.
Dewdrop - who was caught flat-footed for the entire battle - flutters forward to examine the woman's remains.
The bishop appears to be some sort of vampire, but unlike any that Dewdrop has ever encountered. Fang marks on her neck seem to indicate that she was bitten and drained by a creature similar to the other undead you've been fighting all this time.
"More vampires?" the sprite growls. "That probably means that there's a head blood-sucker around here somewhere." She sighs. "So the question is; Is it related? Or is it just a coincidence?"
She looks around for anything else of note and then scans the area for magical auras.
"So do we keep going and hope to find the boss vamp? Or do we fall back, recover resources, and pass along what we've found so far to Her Majesty?"
"Let's press on before the rest of the vampires can regroup," Remy says confidently.
The northern wing of the church contains the refectory. The furnishings include a long table, comfortable chairs, several shelves of well-worn books, and, in a large triangular alcove to the south, several crates, barrels, and storage containers. The books on the shelves are mundane religious texts, but a search of the storage containers to the south with reveals a floor tile subtly marked with Pharasma’s spiral. Under the tile is a cache of healing materials that was hidden for emergencies. Within the cache are 3 greater healing potions, a set of marvelous medicines in a sleek black bag, a scroll of raise dead heightened to 7th level, and a panacea.
Also here are the priest's cells, currently empty as the priests escorted the mourners outside. The sacrity contains a moderate thurible of revelation that hangs among many similar non-magical tools. A ritual dagger is a fancy-looking, standard-grade silver dagger. Bowls of rare incenses are suitable for ritual magic and worth 800 gp in all.
Southwest of the grand hall are the bishop's quarters. This living space is large and borders on luxurious. Plush blue carpet softens the floor, while a small shrine to Pharasma stands along the northern wall next to a door. A heavy door secured with a rough oak bar leads south. Three chairs surround a broad desk strewn with several piles of paperwork. Standing screens offer privacy to a bed, broad armoire, and small washstand.
A search of the large stack of notes that Abridan was researching reveals most of them are mundane documents regarding the running of the cathedral. These documents include some worn religious texts that contain everything needed to learn the following rituals: atone, call spirit, commune, consecrate, rest eternal, and resurrect.
An oversized leather document case seems out of place among these notes, its front emblazoned with the Korvosan coat of arms. Inside this case are documents stolen from Longacre Building, including a copy of Queen Ileosa’s infernal contract. Several documents contain recent notes in Thassilonian in the margins.
Dewdrop looks over the stolen documents with interest, repeatedly returning to the Thassilonian notes - first with her spectacles and then without as if it will make a difference. To no one's surprise, it doesn't.
"See? Now I wish I had taken a class or two in Ancient Thassilonian," she says in frustration. "We need to find someone to translate these. I might know someone at the university that can help us."
She stows the leather case and it's materials in her bag and turns to the others.
"Did we miss anything?" she asks. "I mean other than the location of our lost Gray Maiden."
"There are a few more rooms this way," Remy says, pointing to a door. Beyond it is a hall of relics. Four displays stand along the southern alcove of this wide, windowless hall, each featuring an engraved silver plaque. The first plaque sits below a heavy-looking tome, its cover bound in platinum. The next plaque is mounted on the wall above a waist-high column, atop which sits a glass case displaying a human skull. The third plaque adorns a glass case that holds a length of worn linen, while the final plaque sits below a weapon display upon which rests a dagger.
The first display is labeled “The Bones Land in a Spiral.” This religious text was brought here hundreds of years ago from a Pharasmin church in Cheliax that has long since burned down. The book is worth 500 gp on the illicit market, but selling it would invite retaliation from the church.
The second display is labeled “Skull of Saint Ilsynor, First Pharasmin of Korvosa.” Dewrop notes the skull looks much fresher than one that should be hundreds of years old.
The third plaque reads “Swaddling Cloth of Tothalus.” Dewdrop recognizes the name as that of a local champion of Pharasma who gained fame as an adventurer a century ago.
The final plaque identifies the dagger in the case as the “Dagger of the Faithful Defense.” Dewdrop recalls legends of this magic dagger, a blade said to be able to strike devastating blows against undead. However, the dagger on display is a fine weapon worth 30 gp for its artistry but is not magical.
A final hall leads to an antechamber in the church's southeast corner. A carved spiral adorns the floor of this antechamber, its tail touching a spiral staircase leading down through the stone floor.
However, the sound of a soft footfall indicates that you are not alone!
Edric and Remy instincively release battlecries, moments before a towering, two-headed fiend appears in front of the staircase! The feminine feline fiend spouts forth a powerful litany of evil!
Dewdrop resists the vile words and then sends a sizzling bolt of acid towards the fiend.