Vorel Has Left the Building

“Vorel Has Left the Building”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 35
Date	2009
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Foxglove's Secrets" "Return to Magnimar"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter the heroes exorcise the spirit of Vorel Foxglove.

Vorel Has Left the Building

We thought about everything we had learned. Vorel had tried to become a lich and failed. The mold in cellar was probably what was left of him. We decided that we would try to exorcise him.

To be able to exorcise him we had to know more so Velicia stayed in the arcane laboratory to study as much as she could from the books falling apart there. I and Nathaniel returned down to the cellar to tell the others. When we got there I nearly threw up. I still couldn't get used to the stench. I and Nathaniel decided to start burying the remains and brought what we could carry upstairs.

As we exited the house we saw almost a hundred ravens gathering in the fog outside. We walked towards the ruins when some took off and looked to prepare for an attack. We retreated back and choose to bury the corpses under a tree close to the house. I started digging, while Nathaniel went down to bring up the rest of the bones and corpses I took out the last of the food I brought. It had been a long time since last I ate, but I still wasn't very hungry. It didn't help being closely watched by the undead ravens. I ate it anyway and started digging again just in time to see Nathaniel bringing the next load of bones. He said that was all and took over the pick and started digging. He was a lot better than me at digging so I carved a sign to put on the grave. I was quite pleased with the outcome and Nathaniel was impressed.

Late afternoon, not long before sunset Velicia completed her studies. She said that she didn't know if it would work, but there were no more to be learned from the soggy books and we returned down.

Velicia drew strange things on the walls around the cave with a chalk and then stood in the middle. She nodded to me and I started talking to the dark mold. I felt a little stupid, but in the stench of rotten flesh it was easy to keep a straight face and when I realized that the mold understood and reacted to my persuasions it was frightening rather than stupid to talk to my grandfather in this way. Velicia lifted her sword and pointed at her drawings. The magic started and was fought by spores pouring out of the humanoid shape on the wall. Nathaniel tried to burn the spores with his sword, but I got a deep breath of them and coughed violently. I tried to talk to Vorel again. This time I told him not to fight the ritual. I told him it was trying was to correct and complete his transformation to lich. The spores eased up on me but the damage was already done. I saw the same dots on my skin that Dorothea and Velicia had talked about earlier. I could vaguely see Velicia trying to burn mold and then returning to her magic, but she was distracted by the spores. Nathaniel used the pick again and hacked down the wall where the shape was and then burned the last remains of moss and mold he could find, ending it. We succeeded!

We returned upstairs and started gathering all the valuables, but realized that we could not bring it all. We only took what we could carry and left the rest for now. The ravens had left when we exited the house. We left on foot, carrying heavy burdens of loot.

It was getting dark when we arrived at the bridge where Orik waited with the horses. As we saddled up for leaving I hesitated. I really didn't want to infect Creampuff too. I took my bedroll from the pack and covered him before mounting up.

When we arrived the sanatorium it was already night and the guards hailed us. We told them who we were and were let through. Nathaniel told dr. Habe that I, Velicia and Dorothea wasn't infected by ghoulrot but something called Vorels phage and that it was caused by spores from some dark moldy moss. I went to bed hugging my old teddycat. That was when it all hit me.
My grandfather tried to become a lich. My grandmother was killed by him. My father killed my mother and probably himself too. My brother killed his wife and murdered several other people. Now we had killed him. I mourned the family I never knew. I couldn't stop crying but drifted off to sleep still sobbing.