Fight Like You Live

This adventure takes place some two months before the events of Dungeon Siege.

It is the dead of night, and the residents of the Church of St. Cuthbert are all sleeping. Billet Anson is away on official business with a handful of other priests, leaving a half-orc fighter in charge of keeping the church safe during the night, and Bartholemew and his 'sidekick' during the day. The tranquillity is shattered by a flash and snap from within the church, bright enough that a passing Wizard on her way home from a night's heavy drinking in an adjacent inn spots something's up - and heads into the church with the Fighter to see if everything is all right.

While Bart dons his armour, Forenrond skulks up to the source of the noise - the church's undercroft - and spies one of the priests tramping up the stairs with a burnt-out scroll in his hands. This is George Swan, one of the 'Stars' of the church, and after a little probing, he reveals that he had been carrying out a consecration ceremony that's performed twice a year in the dead of night. The scroll used is normally fashioned by the church staff, but on this particular occasion, was bought at short notice from a shady, passing merchant Wizard.

The investigation is cut short as a gaunt figure enters through the ajar door, moaning out in a bardic stereotype "Braaaiiinnsss!" as it advanced towards the group of adventurers. Sue is the first to react, the hired muscle pulling his heavy crossbow out to plug the zombie's face with a crossbow bolt. Bart, Forenrond and Sue soon cleave the zombie in two, and George gets a few more questions asked of him.

The assembled group get to work illuminating the damp, dark hall by lighting a pair of braziers either side of the room, upon which statues stand. Buried nobility, clergy members and slain warriors of old rise from their tombs and advance on the party. Impromptu slashing weapons (knives from the church's kitchen) are employed against the fresher corpses, and St Cuthbert's billets wielded in combat against the bony skeletal remains of others.

The undercroft's main hall features two large statues facing inwards and a mural at the far end.

Through a narrow passageway from two of the tomb rooms is another large hall. There is a great stone statue larger than the two that were seen in the main chamber behind the tomb. It appears to be two elven men dressed in scale mail fighting off an Owlbear using great-swords of intricate design. The swords themselves are real, clutched in stone fingers, but have long since begun to rust in the damp, dingy burial chamber.” The central tomb carries an inscription on its lid, chiselled in to the surface. “Here lyeth the remains of brave men who fought and fell against the vanquished beast Jamallorenc”

The party retreat at this point and set up a perimeter while they rest and heal, and set up an early-warning system composed of pots and pans tied to rope spanning possible exits. Refreshed, the party return to the last chamber and approach the last tomb - only for it to burst open with an eight foot tall owlbear skeleton. The elves that "defeated" it lay here too, their bodies still trapped in pieces within its ribcage. Combat is fierce, but soon the beast is lain to rest again, before its bones are pummelled to powder - just in case.

Sue is paid his wage, Crystal receives a small compensatory sum along with a complementary club and (I think) a child's toy. Predictably Bart and Forenrond gain nothing apart from a small congratulatory allowance.

=Trivia=

West Statue
The statue appears to be that of a chainmail clad figure holding a warhammer in his hands, with the head of the hammer against his chest. At his feet are a pile of skulls made of stone, and a few actual skulls that had been piled high for effect.

This statue is of local legend Leonard the Bold, who protected Orhedge in the battle of Orllyn Barrow some two-hundred years ago. He fended off a group of barbarians single-handedly who wished to loot the barrows and steal the possessions of three elven nobles that were buried there. He killed six, maimed eight, and drove off the remaining two.

East Statue
The statue appears to be a halfling dressed in the traditional garb of St. Cuthbert, a real flat brimmed hat and cloak are pinned to the stone statue. He carries a gnarled club and a shield, and also wears a cravat in his tunic.

This is a statue of the brave halfling fighter Ponto Wainwright, who lead a defence against an army of kobolds attacking from the forest to the north of Orhedge, The Whispering Thicket. The defence lasted three weeks before the kobold host were diminished enough to push them back towards the nearby River Darkdell.

Murals
The mural on the far end of the hall plays out the building of Orllyn look, a tower to the West of Orhedge that overlooks the local area. It may seem like an odd place to have a mural, but the founders of the tower were held in great regard, and that some of them are buried in the undercroft.

On the floor in front of the mural is a large mosaic of the Star of St. Cuthbert.

The remaining walls are covered in scenes of battle from ages past, and seem to tell the story of the founding of Orhedge, with a tall figure in plate armour at the head of the battle. The figure at the front of the battle is Orr, whom the town is named after. He fought in a great crusade alongside his two brothers to help clean the land of marauding beasts and set up new townships.