(Retconned slightly for the introduction of a new player-character: Shim, male half-elf investigator.)
As the two scouting parties had joined and were about to return to the paladin camp, they spied a stranger approaching from the general direction they had passed on their way to Drezen. Though the person appeared to be alone, everyone tensed warily. Then as the approaching individual drew near enough to be seen more clearly, Aron suddenly exclaimed, "Shim! What are you doing here?"
The rest of the group saw a tall, slender, dark-haired man wearing a long coat and carrying a sturdy pack. He appeared human at first sight, but closer inspection of his features hinted at elven ancestry. Aron explained that he had previously met Shim through Sosiel, which allayed their suspicions that Shim might be an enemy. As the group made their way back to camp and introduced themselves, Shim explained that while he had been many places on Golarion, he had last visited Kenabres, where the leaders of the Crusade there had asked him to follow the paladin army to Drezen to lend his aid. He had met with Cennami's barbarian clan there, including meeting with Zosta's parents and with her adopted brother Rhino, the demon converted to the side of good. When he told Zosta that Rhino had sent a package with him to give to her, she lost interest in hearing about the rest of Shim's adventures.
Once they arrived in camp, Shim also explained that he'd had a vision telling him to go to Kenabres and seek out the rest of the Crusader group. He had been visited by a tortoise-like entity, which Jiro immediately recognized when Shim described him: it was another of Jiro's illustrious ancestor spirits. It was this spirit, along with encouragement from the goddess Desna, that had set Shim on the road to Drezen.
Shim was greeted by Sosiel, and introduced to Irabeth and Aravashnial. He reported that he had seen the signs of all the work the army had done on the journey toward Drezen. He had even glimpsed the terrifying giant gorupi in the distance. The others shared with him their experience with that awful creature, and with Xiao Pi, the young gnome air mage they had encountered the previous day. Then the army leaders settled down to work out a plan of attack on the community surrounding Citadel Drezen, which they would have to secure before they could take on the citadel itself.
During their scouting mission, the four companions had observed that only four of the citadel's watchtowers appeared to be manned. One of the three bridges across the dry riverbeds flanking two sides of the citadel had been destroyed, but the other two were still intact and the Crusader army would have to take control of them. The discussion turned to whether the army should try first to eliminate the threat of ghouls from the cemetery, rescue the prisoners being held on Paradise Hill, or reclaim the captured Crusader equipment being guarded by schir demons. They hoped that at least some of the prisoners would be capable of aiding in the fight for the citadel if armed, and that the captured equipment would hold arms and armor the new recruits could use. But if they didn't get rid of the ghouls the paladins might spend too much of their effort holding off he undead and the army would risk attrition to ghoul fever. It was this concern that finally led to the decision that they would attack the cemetery first, to destroy the ghouls and find out what it was that seemed to be haunting the perpetually shadowed mortuary vault.
Before the Crusader Knights retreated to their tents to rest, Asami expended a little of her power to restore a few charges to her wand. She and her friends discussed the schir demons they would eventually face, refreshing their memories about the abilities and defenses of such creatures. Shim was impressed by their knowledge of demonology.
The following morning Zosta woke later than she usually did to find Bohgong sitting on her chest, reaching toward her throat. She reacted instinctively, tossing the monkey across her tent. Unperturbed, Bohgong showed her that he had merely been fastening a cloak clasp around her neck. He had opened the parcel from Rhino that Shim had brought. Zosta chased the monkey out of her tent and went out to join him at their daily practice, which drew a crowd as usual. Then Asami emerged from her tent, followed by a white cat as she always was - but this cat was larger, and differently colored than Kirara. As her friends gaped, Asami affirmed that this creature was still Kirara, but the little white cat had undergone a transformation. She was no longer an earthly cat, but a feline creature from the realm of Elysium. Shim was awed by both the talking monkey introduced to him as Jiro's Uncle and by Asami's otherworldly companion.
After practice Zosta went back to her tent to examine the gifts from Rhino. She found that in addition to to the cloak Bohgong had shown her, the package held four more identical cloaks, all of them emblazoned with the sigil of Zosta's clan. There was also a pair of lightweight boots with the same symbol on them. But Rhino hadn't included a note to explain what these gifts could do. Zosta took them to Asami, who determined that the cloaks all held the same protective enchantment, while the boots could impart extra nimbleness to the wearer. Zosta immediately presented her friends with the cloaks, which the other Knights accepted gratefully as a sign that they had been adopted by her clan. The extra cloak had been meant for Aegronius, who had disappeared back to Kenabres while they were on the road to Drezen. But Rhino had already sent the cloaks out before Aegronius returned there, so Zosta gave the last cloak to Shim.
When everyone was prepared, the army set out for the cemetery. Aron had scouted the area during the night and found that even the demons and their allies avoided the place. The ghouls also roamed beyond the cemetery at night, posing a danger to the few ordinary citizens who had remained in Drezen after the demons took control. The Crusaders worried that whatever was occupying the vault was also creating the ghouls.
The vault was in shadow even in daylight, though of course the daylight of the Worldwound was not bright sunlight. Jiro extended his pole lantern toward the heavy bronze doors to dispel the darkness. Shim examined the doors for traps and found none though they were locked quite securely. Shim was able to pick the lock. Zosta pulled them open. They admitted the group into a foyer, with another set of double doors on the opposite side. The foyer was strewn with bones.
Zosta and Shim approached the second set of doors, followed by Jiro and Runa, while Asami, Aron, and Sosiel waited outside. Jiro examined the bones while Shim checked the doors. The second pair of doors were neither trapped nor locked. As soon as those doors were opened, a creature inside the vault demanded, "What are you doing in my house?" Jiro stepped forward. "We are purifying it," he replied. He recognized that the winged creature inside the vault was not a demon but a kind of undead creature called a berbalang. It lacked the defenses of a demon, but would require special weapons to harm it. Jiro asked the berbalang, "What are you doing here?" as the rest of the group entered the burial chamber.
"I have an agreement with the Citadel," the berbalang said. It occurred to Jiro that perhaps the demons had been allowing some prisoners to 'escape' to feed the creature, hence the bones in the foyer. Shim asked the berbalang, "Do you have a name?" The undead creature replied, "I've forgotten it," to which Runa remarked, "Dead is a good name."
The berbalang began to gesture as though casting a spell. It murmured something to Zosta, who suddenly stepped in front of the berbalang and took up a defensive position. Shim swallowed some liquid from a vial he carried and drew his elven curveblade. Sosiel cast a protective spell on Aron. Asami recognized the spell and realized that its effect could overcome the magic that had made Zosta see the berbalang as a friend. She reached out to touch Zosta with the same magic. Zosta glared angrily at the berbalang and stepped away from as she became aware of what it had done to her.
Runa stepped up to attack the berbalang with her sword. In response the creature touched her and her friends saw her sag as if she had suddenly been struck by some wasting disease. Zosta kicked the creature's legs out from under it and tried to stomp it, but her blow seemed to have little effect. Sosiel directed divine energy at the berbalang to harm it but that too appeared less effective than it might have been. At the same moment Jiro and Runa both recognized that something inside the vault was hampering them from harming the creature.
Asami had drawn her wand before entering the vault and she now sent three beads of force at the berbalang. The missiles all struck it and seemed to injure it. Jiro spoke, telling his comrades that weapons blessed with the power of good or made of silver would do it the most harm and that the vault must have been unhallowed which was making their attacks less effective. Runa called out for Iomedae's blessing to aid them. Jiro summoned a tetsubo of force to attack the berbalang. Though the creature looked solid, blows directed against it made it seem insubstantial. The berbalang touched Runa a second time, weakening her even further. Zosta dealt it a pounding blow and it abruptly vanished.
From a side chamber of the vault emerged a second berbalang, though some of the attackers realized that it seemed to have the same wounds as the creature that had just disappeared. Asami wondered if the creature had used some magic to transport itself a short distance away. Before she could ponder that further the berbalang clawed her and she was immobilized. She felt herself being lifted as Shim grasped her from behind and shifted her out of range of the creature's claws. Sosiel channeled Shelyn's divine energy to heal some of the injury its claws had done to her.
Jiro summoned the spirit of one of his ancestors and the figure of an old white-haired man bearing a katana appeared, slashing with his blade at the berbalang. The berbalang managed to claw Zosta as it had Asami and she too froze in place. Shim took the same action to move her away that he had taken for Asami. Sosiel and Aron moved in to flank the creature with the aid of Jiro's spirit, but their attacks were still ineffective. The berbalang began to shriek. Asami felt something rummaging in her pack as she recalled that the silver dragon scale she carried could grant a weapon the power of good, but she couldn't tell anyone. She was still unable to move. The berbalang scratched Shim and left him frozen just like her.
As Sosiel cast a spell on his glaive and prepared to attack, Asami felt her rigid muscles relax. She brought her wand to bear on the berbalang again. Runa murmured a blessing over her sword and filled herself with religious fervor to move in on the still screeching berbalang. It had paralyzed Sosiel now, but Zosta like Asami had recovered from paralysis and slammed her fists into the undead creature. Asami expended one more charge from her wand into the berbalang and it collapsed, its scream silenced.
Zosta punched the berbalang a few more times to be certain it was truly dead, then went to look outside the vault to see if its cries had summoned the ghouls. She found that the paladins were engaged in mopping up the last of the ghouls and went gleefully out to help them. While she enjoyed herself outside, the other Knights examined the interior of the vault. The vault had once been the burial place of generals of the first Crusade, but their funerary urns had all been smashed.
Sosiel and Runa cast spells on her to restore some of the strength she had lost to the berbalang. Jiro thought carefully and determined that he knew a spell to counter the effect in the vault. As the last of the ghouls died they watched as ghostly figures entered the vault, each gliding up to one of the niches and vanishing into it. In the cemetery more spirits flowed into the grave sites as the last of the ghouls were destroyed. Everyone present felt a sense of hope return to the area.
Next: part 30, Taking the Bridge
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