Angels of Death
Urgent: Calling on Spiritually Resilient Fighters
We, the Shepherds of the Temple of Muertos, seek the revival of Muertos, God of Lost Souls, meanwhile guiding the restless to peace on his behalf until his long anticipated return. We can finally feel he is slowly awakening, and have doubled our efforts.
Therefore, despite local superstitions, we further rejoiced upon hearing one of his Angels had reappeared, only, something is very wrong. It… consumed one of our Shepherds. Now, we live in fear and this call is our last chance at hope to return our Brother, ensure we have not been led astray by the old writings, and rid the land of such an abomination.
- Shepherd Sascha
Recap
A group of Shepherds (Clerics) attempting to revive the God of Lost Souls, Muertos, has had a strange run-in with a reported angel at the abandoned old temple. After losing one of their own to its blinding light, they reach out for help. Zuni, Merrick, and Nyra answer the call and after some prodding, figure out it is likely some form of corrupted angel, one of the Clerics was able to draw a clearly deformed figure. The pass through the mountains to the temple was already dangerous on its own, as it is full of Aberrations from the time of the Great Convergence, long long ago. Now, there is some kind of human-eating Angel about?
Before they leave, they note a few things. The architecture of the Temple of Muertos bears significant similarity to the Radiant Hearts Guild. This group of Clerics, calling themselves Shepherds, is dedicated to ensuring Lost Souls, Souls at Unrest, find successful passage into the afterlife, notably not typically dealing with the Undead but moreso Ghosts. The Celestial symbols decorating the Temple seem inspired by those that Caspian typically uses - similar, but not quite the same.
The party takes off. They decide to rest the night in the foothills right before Sorrow’s Pass. This leads to a great debate, as Merrick begins insisting he not only cannot sleep, but he refuses to. Zuni quickly disengages from the argument after he won’t relent, and Nyra tries to reason with him and expresses concern about his mental health. Eventually, they all decide if Merrick won’t sleep, no one will, so that he is not brooding alone in his thoughts. However, as they settle in for the night, two Aberrations get the drop on them with a surprise casting of Hunger of Hadar. The group is in no mood, however, Zuni immediately Dispels it, allowing Nyra and Merrick to quickly cut down their attackers while she maintains control from above. Though the fight is over quickly, Zuni decides it’s worth a good night’s rest. Thankfully, the rest of the night passes uneventfully.
Once at the abandoned temple, they find a few curiosities. Around the burial sites, each has a singular living Cherry Tree, despite the rest of the trees in this area being dead and the region having gotten more and more sparse of life. Upon investigation, the trees seem to have died at some point and become resurrected, powered by an old Divine magic. Meanwhile, Merrick’s Sentinel Axe informs him that an Undead creature is certainly nearby.
Zuni makes a valiant attempt to approach the situation with Clerical tact, knocking and entering, even with gentle words in Celestial, but it does not quell the situation before them. Inside the temple they find a large Angel resting on the Altar of Muertos, only, it is beyond deformed. His wings have been mostly torn off and grafted with fiendish ones, devil-like horns also forcibly grafted onto his head, his ribcage is visible through gashes in his chest, and there are scars all over his body - from claws, fangs, and burn marks from huge chains. His overall appearance bears significant (though not necessarily Familial) resemblance to Caspian, the torn robes appear adjacent in Religious significance, in both its shirtless Fashion and the similar Celestial markings. The same markings can be found all over this Temple, matching the markings of Muertos from the Temple where they first arrived. In its horns are embedded eight Rubies, two of which glow.
The fight is not long, but it is furious, and right before it is finished, Zuni successfully taunts it away from Merrick and Nyra… so it moves to her, spewing hellfire on the entire group and then surrounding her with a crushing force and a bright light, as she vanishes into thin air. As she does, a third gem in its Horns begins glowing. Nyra and Merrick do not stand for this! And quickly brings the fight to final blows. Nyra removes the horns and begins investigating the Rubies as Merrick absolutely destroys the rest of the former-Angel’s body.
Nyra finds the glowing Rubies contain some sort of swimming tadpole-like energy swirling inside it. She further determines she can easily remove and crush the Rubies with her teeth, experimenting first with a non-glowing one. Patiently waiting for Merrick to finish his thrashing, she shows him what she’s found. They decide to try one of the non-Zuni glowing gems first to see what the effect is. Wisely, Nyra does not use her teeth for this but instead her Adamantine sword. As the Gem is crushed, where it had been, the unconscious body of a commoner Dwarf appears. This quickly leads to the release of Zuni and then the consumed Shepherd from the other two Gems, as Fang runs around licking their faces to heal them all.
Zuni is a little perturbed by her experience but that does not stop her from doing a proper investigation of this temple and logging all the data she can find! This includes records of the Celestial markings, identifying ritual Funeral pyres, finding layers of Abyssal tar coating the floor of this temple indicating repeat comings and goings, and determining that this Undead Angel was likely summoned using a ritual of Lich-like nature performed by someone of both Celestial and Fiendish influence… of similar if not identical size and weight, however, the flying abilities of this creature make it difficult to know for sure. That means there is still, perhaps, the Real Angel or some other fiendish problem hanging around somewhere.
The party has to deal with a grumpy Dwarf and an upset Edward, but they eventually get going and camp an hour out from the Pass. As no one interrupts their Long Rest this seems to have been the right choice. However, on their journey the next day, they do note that they are being followed by a Nightmare, clearly acting as some sort of Fiendish scout. Zuni uses her incredible range to take a shot at it while Fang roars fearsomely from the sky. This seems to be enough to at least chase it back into the Ethereal Plane, though with Nyra’s keen sense of smell and there still seeming to be unreliable Planar stability here, it seems to phase in and out in brief moments that enable the party to tell it is still following up until an hour beyond the mountains towards the town.
Back at the Temple, they awaken the Shepherd who called them here, to her great relief. She performs a ritual to try and determine if there was more serious damage done to their souls, and while the tether between body and soul seems weakened, there does not seem to be corruption. Nyra also performs Medical examinations, determining that they were all exposed to a Very Bright Light and incredible crushing force which is most evident by bruised ribcages.
Before they leave, Zuni inquires whether the name Svaro means anything to the Shepherd. It reminds her of some folks tale but can’t quite put her finger on it, but warns that it is a fairly dark tale designed to make children behave and capitalized on the superstition of Angels being dangerous. Her distaste for this is obvious. She indicates that Zuni may be able to find a copy of it at the local library - which she does find. The story can be read here: dorko-memoria
The party is well rewarded from the Temple’s treasury and stash of historical items and records of old technology which they have been esteemed as important enough to keep watch over.