Session 53

After getting a night's rest at the Temple of Lys, the party awakes to a commotion coming from the pulpit and finds that Merith is speaking with Lorrim, who has a drained look on his face. Merith calls the party over and informs them that Talindra should be arriving tomorrow with the powder kegs and she had gone to the statehouse yesterday to find the party so they could begin preparations, but was told by Garrett that the party was taking stock of the undead in the city and told her that the party had been spending some time at the temple, so she set off to the temple at sunset. Along the way, she heard the horrible screeching sound coming from the statehouse and went back to investigate. The Pale Rider had paid a visit and severely damaged the walls and gatehouse to the statehouse, and then single-handedly killed two dozen Enforcers and all but a handful of the 300+ refugees camped outside the statehouse. Unfortunately, in the conflict, Garrett Kincade was killed, leaving Eldar in charge again. The party tells a worried Merith about what they learned about Eldar's role, or lack thereof, in the city's politics, which came as a relief. Merith also commented that she has noticed a change in the undead's behavior over the last two days, and that the less intelligent undead, like zombies, have begun to ignore the commands of the more intelligent undead, like the Graycrawlers, and they seem to just wander aimlessly unless they find something living or hear a sound. Dain surmises that this has to do with the ritual circle that they found in Aubron's home and destroyed.

Merith asks the party what resources they have to route the undead to the city square tomorrow, and Lorrim and the Dawnstar scouts offer to cover the Market, Aristocratic, and Human districts, while the party would have to cover the Residential district. This left the Trade district. After some thought, Dain contacts Chandira at Fort Elden using his Sending Stone and asks for an assist. Unfortunately, Chandira did not have the means to simply teleport there, but after some thinking, retrieved a Scroll of Teleportation from her portable shop. She lamented about how rare such a scroll is and commented that Dain would owe her for this, as this was going to be worth a pretty gold coin or two. She asked Dain and Lorrim to clear out the pulpit for a few hours so that she would have a safe destination to travel to. After doing so, the party set out with Merith for the city square to begin preparing the staging area for the powder kegs.

The party safely arrives at the staging area and begins searching the area for materials to use to set up the powder keg chain and to disguise them so the more intelligent undead would be none the wiser. After having found a good amount of material, they find that the rope wasn't quite enough and came up short enough that lighting the fuse would be hazardous, but it would have to do, and maybe they could light it remotely. Afterwards, the party heads back to the Temple of Lys.

Upon arrival, the party finds Chandira has arrived and is cross with Dain for not being there upon her arrival and making her wait after making her use one of her most valuable scrolls. Lorrim asks the party how they will signal for the other groups to begin routing the undead, and Dain says that he has a spell that will allow him to write a message in the sky for the other groups to watch out for. They then begin preparations to set off for the districts they will individually handle, and the party sets off with Merith to the Dead Goose Inn to wait for Talindra's arrival. As the party travels across the city, they are noticed by some less intelligent undead, and a battle ensues where Dain is tackled to the ground by a group of skeletons and Grim becomes large and grabs the skeletons and suplexes them. Afterwards, the party continues to the Dead Goose Inn, where they "enjoy" a dinner of flatbread that Icarus prepared and some old cheese.

In the morning, the party makes some last minute preparations before awaiting Talindra, who arrives shortly after noon. The Emerald Company disguises the powder kegs with cloths draped over them in case the more intelligent undead were to spot them so they can't warn the Pale Rider. They set off along the streets and are surprisingly fortunate, only coming across a single Graycrawler on the roof that doesn't spot the oncoming caravan, whom Summer expertly dispatches by burying her dagger in its head. The party arrives at the city square a couple hours later and begins staging the powder kegs and disguising them before extending the fuse with some rope borrowed from Icarus' kitchen. The Emerald Company remains to guard the square as Dain, Grim, and Eskall set out to route the undead from the Residential district.

The three manage to start rounding up the undead, as Dain barely keeps pace to outrun the undead (cue joke about Dwarves being wasted on cross-country travel and Dwarves being natural sprinters). It's then that Dain remembers to signal the other groups with his sky message, and the party races back to the city square. The party decides to have everyone hide to avoid a fight while they wait for the other groups to arrive. Talindra makes a suggestion and hands out some satchels of reserved black powder that the party can use to keep the undead in the square by making noise. The party uses these to create bangs above the undead in the square to keep them in place until the other groups one-by-one begin arriving. Chandira, Lorrim and his priests, and the Dawnstar scouts arrive, trailing a couple thousand undead. It is then that the party notices the Pale Rider charging towards the city square. Once everyone is safely on the roofs, Talindra dashes out to the street and strikes the stone with her sword to light the fuse, and attempts to outrun the blast. Unfortunately, the Pale Rider manages to catch her with a bolt of black energy, which causes her to stumble. The blasts begin going off, sending zombies and parts flying everywhere. The Pale Rider is caught in a blast, and Icarus uses the Sunbeam from the Bow of Sunlight to keep the Pale Rider at bay while Talindra tries to limp away. Unfortunately, a blast sends Talindra flying about 30 ft. and she lands unconscious before Dain uses vortex warp to rescue her.

Once the dust begins to settle and their ears stop ringing, the party searches the blast area for the Pale Rider. They find his horse dead, but no sign of him, and after using Detect Magic, Dain sees no trace of him. The party sets out to the statehouse to alert the survivors that the undead have been promoted to dead. This is welcome news to the refugees and Eldar, who congratulate the party, and the refugees begin holding a celebration, breaking out the good wine and food.