AAAdventureAdventure Scenarios From Alanik Ray’s unearthunearthedededed archives A MATTER OF FAITH by J.W. Mangrum The adventure is set in Il Aluk, but if you’re playing in an up-to-date version of RL (i.e. Il Aluk is no more), it could probably fit just as well in any of Richemulot’s cities. One of the PC’s either has connections to an established church, or needs the ministrations of a powerful cleric. In the case of my campaign, a PC wanted someone to cast Regeneration for him (he had lost an arm and his face had been mauled). If the PC needs a favor, the cost for the requested spell is jaw-dropping. (In my campaign, Il Aluk was home to a cathedral to St. Cuthbert. Although pretty much a Good faith, the priests didn’t care for “back-sliders” whining for miracles when so many other people could use, and deserved, the priests’ time so much more. The clergy set the price at 50.000 gp, which knocked a few players off their feet.) In lieu of monetary donation, the clergy are willing to work out a deal: you see, they need a favor... If one of the PCs in the party is affiliated with the cathedral in question, they are simply called upon to perform a mission for their church. There are five cathedrals in Il Aluk; two of them have lain in ruin for as long as anyone can remember. The other three have to maintain a precarious balancing act to keep their parishioners. You see, most of the upper classes support their faith with donations only because it shows a certain prosperity and generosity on their part. Like most denizens of RL, they really only think about the church when they plan a wedding or a funeral. In other words, they don’t really have much faith, but supporting the church puts them in good social standing. Most parishoners cannot afford to give the cathedral more than a few coppers a year; the cathedrals depend heavily on the donations of their finicky upper-class patrons. And some of those patrons are going missing. So far, five patrons have disappeared. Each wealthy patron vanished within a day or two of making donations to the cathedral, the only thing they seem to have in common. Typically, these patrons live on spacious estates well outside the city, and were staying in inns in town at the time they disappeared. If the church’s patrons make the connection that donating to the Cathedral of St. Cuthbert puts them on some madman’s short list, they’ll abandon the Cathedral as fast as rats flee a sinking ship. Without their support, the Cathedral will have to close its doors. The PCs need to quietly discover the person(s) behind the abductions and put a stop to it. A young couple from two wealthy families are to be wed in the Cathedral in a little under two weeks. If the party can prove that they’ve ended the threat before the wedding, they get their reward. As a note, the three faiths I placed in (pre-Grim Harvest’s release) Il Aluk were: St. Cuthbert: one of RL’s most powerful priests is an elder here. His faith is strong, but all else is weak. He is aged and blind. Azalin let this powerful priest live only because his frailty renders him as little threat. The priests work for good, but also believe in hard work, a quality Azalin likes to see in his peasants. The Cathedral of Labor: dedicated to a handful of gods (Zilchus, Bralm, and Shinare) is dedicated to a day’s work for a day’s pay. In other words, they worship the almighty dollar, and do not believe in charity. Azalin ignores them; they pose no threat, and are popular among wealthy merchants. With the information in Grim Harvest, I might replace this Cathedral with a toned-down version of the Temple of the Eternal Order. The Cathedral of Traladara: this faith comes from Karameikos, on Mystara. In my campaign, I decided that clergy in RL (arguably like the real world) can count on never getting any direct guidance from their dieties. Thus, left in the hands of mere mortals, philosophies can stray from what the gods actually intended. In Mystara, the Traladaran faith uses the concept of confession cleansing the soul. In Il Aluk, that has somehow mutated into the philosophy that one can find absolution no matter what the offense; it’s just a matter of penance. This is a popular faith for those with guilty conciences, and there are a lot of guilty conciences in Darkon. Thus, the Cathedral of Traladara has full coffers, but its priests have largely been abandoned by the gods (they are very low level). Azalin ignores this faith, recognizing its impotence. There are also the two abandoned cathedrals, both falling to ruin. The average Il Aluk resident would be hard-pressed to identify (or even care) what faiths might have once been worshipped here. In addition to all this, there a probably a few dozen lone priests, all victims of Darkon’s memory-rewriting quality. These lost souls are typically low level and struggling just to get more followers than they can count on one hand. The Cathedral already sent one of their own to investigate this when they first noticed the problem: a fledgling priest who, before joining the clergy, had served on the city militia and was quite eager to investigate the matter. This priest has been missing for several days. Although he kept his suspicions to himself, he did keep a few notes. These are given to the PCs, although the reveal little. The PCs start with the names of the missing patrons, and the inns each was staying at when they disappeared. You can make up details for these patrons and places as you like. At each location, if the PCs give the “scene of the crime” a thorough inspection, they find some puzzling clues. For example, under a bed in one inn, a PC might find a large (2”- 3”) worm, shriveled, dried out, and quite dead. I had another inn cater to dwarves; thus is had no windows and sturdy stone walls. There had been signs of a struggle; one of the PCs finds a feather, half-embedded in a solid stone wall (someone used Stone Shape to come and go through this wall; when they left, they closed the wall behind them, accidentally catching some of the scattered pillows’ stuffing). Etc. So what’s going on? Some of my players’ initial suspicions included: Other Cathedrals trying to eliminate the competition. A thieves’ guild rolling these wealthy folk. Both wrong: here’s the truth. Years ago, a young, idealistic priest of Sune was travelling along, perhaps with an adventuring party. I named the priest Senshock, after the priest in the Temple of Elemental Evil, but only because coming up with names gives me headaches. Senshock was a dashingly handsome young man (beautiful as all clergy of Sune must be), in love with his faith. Senshock and his party came across an abandoned temple, and entered its catacombs. There, they encountered some sort of undead horror, a walking corpse. Disgusting, translucent worms oozed in and out of the nooks and crannies of the creature’s wormy skull. Although the thing was physically unable to escape the catacombs, that didn’t stop it from slaughtering everyone in the party, save for Senshock. Senshock fled, wounded but alive, unable to destroy the creature. Soon, Senshock discovered that he had contracted some sort of horrid, leprous disease from the unholy thing’s touch. Months went by before he was able to find someone with enough power to cure him of his ailment. By that time, his entire body was covered in open, weeping sores, and these never really healed. Worst of all, his fickle goddess Sune abandoned him. Senshock was a physical and spiritual ruin (I picture Robert the Bruce’s father from Braveheart), and he disappeared from public view. Something deep inside him had curdled even more horribly than his flesh. Now, Senshock is back. His hatred for his former faith has brought him to to cult of Nerull, Oerth’s evil death god. He is now also a fairly powerful priest (I made him 9th level.) He’s been busy. Senshock spent his years studying yellowed tomes to discover the secrets of the undead creature which had destroyed him, and eventually he found it: the Sons of Kyuss. More powerful now, Senshock returned to the forgotten catacomb, and was able to bring the shambling horror (still wandering those halls) under his control. Meanwhile, he has gathered a small cult to Nerull in Il Aluk. Besides himself, there are two other priests, and five followers. Priest(ess) #2 is named Lucretia. “Lucy” has worked in the University of Il Aluk’s library for more than two decades; her access to the University’s older, more restricted tomes aided Senshock’s researches to no end. I made her 6th level. The third priest I named Renog; he is a greasy-haired fanatic. The followers are a mixture of Il Aluk people who see nothing wrong with using a little death to reach their own goals. The cult is centered in one of the two ruined cathedrals, although only Senshock actually stays at that location. Senshock also keeps the Sons of Kyuss trapped in the ruined catacombs when they aren’t being used. Senshock is dedicated to toppling the “hypocritical” faiths of the city, and is starting with the strongest to strike the fiercest blow to all.