3.3 The Blooming Necropolis

This recap covers Biggles, Vrinill, and Lyca's undead-killing and party-planning activities in the Blooming Necropolis, a massive underground burial chamber utilized by the five largest halfling clans of history.  

The Halfling Clans

For this arc, SKRUNGUS and CLAMS have teamed up once more alongside the leaders of the halfling clans Su, Chun, Nae, Ganbo, and Ong. Here is a handy dandy list to summarize these leaders and their respective clans.

• Master Su heads the Su clan, which is the most prestigious clan and generally accepted as the most influential and powerful of the halfling clans. Master Su's personality fits the clan's vibe to a T - pompous, prodigious, and punchable.
• Krystya Chun is the elfling (it's not just the humans that can interbreed) head of the Chun clan and is almost always stressed out, especially when attending to her duties as a arcano-botanical specialist.
• Nae Bimin is a far cry from the other leaders personailty-wise, as she is plucky and extremely passionate about music. She and her flute lead the Nae clan, and the party never strays too far from their headquarters.
• Mokhoka Ganbo is the kind-hearted half-orc who runs the most open, most charitable, and most popular clan Ganbo. Famed all across Fengqi (or at least, his part of Fengqi) for his scrumptious sticky rice dumplings, this man is simply too pure.
• Petchranaphiyamarao (Petchra) Ong can always be seen turning a look in garments made by hers truly. The loxodon sports oversized glasses and an oversized personality to match, but is a master of her craft. She is the perfect fit as the leader of the guild-like Ong clan.

All five clans played an important role in traditional halfling rites, and as soon as CLAMS reported undead roaming about the halfling capital of Chimyeong, the leaders assembled an expedition as quick as they could. As the Chaos seemed to create dangers that were specific and particular to a region/culture, it would only make sense that the death obsessed halflings would have to deal with Chaos-corrupted undead. According to tradition, the five clan leaders would have to work together to ensure the proper funerary rites were given to these tormented undead.    Their destination, then, would be the Blooming Necropolis in Chimyeong. It was the largest piece of death architecture in the world, and would most likely be the where the Chaos would be centered. So off the party went as escorts and bodyguards.   When the group arrived just outside the ruined city, CLAMS intel proved to be worryingly accurate. It was indeed swarmed with undead. Undead plants and undead people. Getting each and every person to the Blooming Necropolis without any casualties proved to be a formidable challenge. In the end though, the expedition prevailed, and the underground Necropolis awaited.

Pity Party

As the five clan leaders placed their heirloom rings onto the entrance door, every person waited with bated breath. Weapons were drawn and spells were readied as the dozen or so of them entered the tombs. However, no such monsters greeted them. In fact, no one greeted them. The only thing that could be perceived within the seemingly empty necropolis was the distant sounds of chatter and music.    Carefully, the group made their way towards the Grand Pavillion where a party was indeed being held. Except the living were not the main attendees. This was a ghost party. And as the group filed into the room, they were quickly hailed as saviors and miracles. These ghosts were trapped in limbo, essentially, and their Guide was...well...not doing much of anything. Our characters met Jesa, the halfling god who ritually led the deceased towards the afterlife, sat on a table by himself and sobbing profusely.   Of all the Chaos-corrupted gods and legends SKRUNGUS has encountered so far, Jesa was the most pathetic. Pitiable as the spectral halfling was, everyone quickly learned that cheering this guy up was the key to aiding all these ghosts and cleansing the undead (at least, getting the process started). With the help of Su Yunglee, the previous Su clan leader, SKRUNGUS and company knew exactly what their next goals were. They had to unlock all the magically sealed rooms within the necropolis and prepare it for a ritual. Essentially, this meant it was time to explore and do some deep cleaning!   Biggles, Vrinill, and Lyca doled out tasks and drafted schedules for each person. Though the expedition had a decent amount of time to get the necropolis ready, there was one major inconvenience that made scheduling an absolute must. The Groundskeeper. At night, this creepy ghost lady agressively protected the tombs from intruders, unable to differentiate the innocent from the insidious. She had an important job to do, and destroying her was out of the question. Unfortunately, so was sleeping anywhere outside the Necropolis, as the undead were still skulking about.   This left the expedition with no choice but to sleep in the cramped antechamber and staircase that comprised the entrance to the Blooming Necropolis. By far, figuring out this sleeping situation was the most challenging task of all. Except for Bonzo and APPRENTICE (yup they're here too) whose not-quite-living statuses made them immune to the undeads' aggression.    During the day were puzzles and cleaning galore. And at night was discomfort, anxiety, and sleep deprivation. For almost a week, this was the new routine, until it was finally time to plan the actual ritual.  

The Jovial Jamboree

In halfling tradition, death was cause for a celebration of the deceased's life. Laughter and dancing were common in many funerals. However, with hundreds of deceased and one sad god, a normal party simply wasn't going to cut it.   After Lyca managed to do some expert scrying, she was able to find where plans were kept for a legendary party known as the Jovial Jamboree. Behind the final locked puzzle door were the instructions for how to host such a party. I won't get into the exact details of this ritual, but essentially everyone living needed to wear certain clothes and complete certain actions in order to give the dead a proper sendoff into the afterlife. Additionally, this ritual was the one that appointed Jesa as the Guide for the Dead, so in this particular instance, the torch would be passed down to another.   Now that the Necropolis was completely open with no inaccessible rooms, I must spotlight two important events that transpired during the preparation period for the Jovial Jamboree. First, in dealing with one of the puzzles, a statue of the Auspicious of the Court of Heaven, also known as the halfling Mijiyon, came to life and interrogated the party for details on the whereabouts of Jesa's divine soul. After confirming with Jesa himself, it seemed that his divine soul was not in the Court's possession, in contrast to that of Munaan or Duo Zhuwei.    The second event was more personal, but still a major character moment for Biggles and - dare I say - Lyca. The sasquatch remained the focus as he had naively agreed to do a magical "23andMe" test of ancestry and, to the surprise of no one but the bard, found out that he was in fact, not a halfling. Which, yes, Biggles himself did not know. So yeah, he spiraled into a bit of a depression. Vrinill obviously offered his support, but Lyca opened her heart and soul for the first time since she descended, and she shared a piece of tender advice for the hurt man.   Skipping ahead to party time, the Jovial Jamboree was a rousing success! Everyone got dressed up, Bonzo and APPRENTICE got friend-married, and Yunglee was appointed to be the new guide replacing Jesa. As the ghosts drifted off into the afterlife, Jesa decided that he would join the party. He didn't quite have a body, so he settled for residing in his pipa Reverance which he graciously bestowed upon Biggles. The sasquatch may have had his whole life turned upside down by one revelation, but at least he had a magical talking instrument. Jokes aside, Reverence was a powerful magical focus with its own abilities that were unlocked after Biggles experienced various powerful emotions, including love and grief.    Before the expedition came to a close, one final task remained. The cleansing of the undead would be kickstarted by Biggles taking Reverence and using it to calm one of the larger undead in Chimyeong. With the strum of a pipa, this chapter came to a tender close.