The Undead of Velen

A trip to Velen with an important purpose

• After the tragic deaths of Morrigan and Wilhelm, the Guild inquire about any local clerics who may be able to revive them.
• Albert Oakham hears tales of people returning from the dead in Velen, a fishing port to the south of Gull Bay.
• There are many temples and shrines in Velen; Helm, Torm, Lathander & Umberlee.
• Outside of the town is a Temple of Kelemvor (the god of the dead).
• The clerics speak of the local area having a thin veil to the Ethereal plane.
• Here the Head Cleric agrees to raise the deceased Guild members if they fetch a particular skull for him.

The quest for the skull

• The group travel to a nearby island, where they find a shrine to Myrkul, god of the undead.
• They fight skeletons, zombies and the Spawn of Kyuss (which infects others using burrowing worms). They collect it's skull.

Betrayal in the temple

• At the temple of Kelemvor, the heroes become suspicious of the ritual being performed.
• They do not act quick enough, as the Head Cleric (actually a necromancer) has animated Wilhelm as a Zombie.
• They prevent Morrigan from being turned, but it is too late for Wilhelm.
• The necromancer escapes.
• They find the real Head Cleric imprisoned in a dungeon.
• The true Head Cleric (Brother Fergal) is the brother of the necromancer (Master Bertrand).
• Bertrand placed a cursed collar on Fergal which drains his energy for his nefarious benefit.
• Brother Fergal resurrects Morrigan.

Return to Velen with unfinished business

• The Protectors travel to Velen to seek out the necromancer, Master Bertrand.
• Speaking with ghosts in the Dragon's Head tavern, they learn of suspiscious groups gathering in the woods to the south.
• At the Temple of Kelemvor, Sebastian (a senior cleric) informs them that Brother Fergal is getting weaker by the day and probably dying.
• Sebastian informs the group that Fergal and Bertrand are actually triplets, with the other brother Theo dying of Fen Pox when they were 15 years old.
• After Theo's death Fergal and Bertrand both turned to Kelemvor and became acolytes. At the time when Fergal became a Cleric, Bertrand turned to Myrkul (the god of the undead). They argued and Bertrand left.

Cultists in Chatterwood

• Chatterwood is the location of a great battle between the settlers of Velen and the Orcs of Muranndin.
• The party encountered a group of cultists that on being disturbed awoke a swarm of giant skeletons.
• Most of the cultists were actually zombies, a couple infested with the Kyuss worms, another two inflicted with blue fungus.
• They kept the one human cultist alive and obtained from him a list of locations in Velen (Dragon Road Temple, Greyrock Island, Blue Scourge, Chatterwood, and Eastlea). The last entry on the list had question marks.
• The cusltist is held prisoner and taken to the watch station in Velen.
• The Captain of the watch informs the group that ther Dragon Road Temple is the Temple of Kelemvor. Greyrock Island is the location of the worm infested Spawn of Kyuss. Blue Scourge is a sunken cursed vessel. Chatterwood is the ancient skeleton strewn battlefield you have just come from. And Eastlea is a small village in a valley to the east, with a large graveyard.

A ritual in the Graveyard

• Approaching the mist covered graveyard, the party saw a large procession of torch wielding cultists, with Master Bertrand at the centre.
• Erlon informed the others that Bertrand is now undead. You concluded that he has become a Lich.
• The cultists performed rituals to summon Devourers, huge twisted creatures, pieced together from rotting flesh and bone.
• Devourers entomb unconscious or recenty deceased people inside their ribcages, entangled in their rotting intestines, and moments later expel them as a newly converted zombie.
• Bertrand took one of the newly birthed zombies, proclaimed he had the last of his components, and disappeared into a writhing portal.
• After previously speaking with the cultist prisoner and reading the list he was carrying, you now know that Bertrand has all 5 components he requires.

Search for the necromancer's lair and phylactery

• Speaking again with the now deceased cultist prisoner (who had taken his own life), you learn that the lair is underground but not the actual location.
• The Captain of the watch suggests it could be an old pirate hideout, but there are many along the coast.
• You check out the basement of the Dragon Road Temple, just to be sure, but it is simply a cellar.
• Sebastian informs you that the triplets grew up at Rushmire Estate in the east.
• The manor house is abandoned and there is nothing of interest inside, or in the cellars.
• The family graves include one for Theo, which you exhume.
• The coffin is empty. However, there was a silvered inscription (in abyssal) engraved on the inside of the lid…

3 souls forged in the same hearth. To the unfortunate soul I give the gift of disease, to seed my plague across the land. To the tainted soul I give the gift of power, to carry my vision to the people. To the guiding soul I give the gift of completion, to finish what I have started.

• You confirm that the coffin is a powerful necrotic vessel, Bertrand's phylactery.
• Still needing to find the necromancer's lair, you find out the location of the Blue Scourge from the Velen harbour master.
• Visiting the site of the wreck, you see that the vessel has gone, with a gouge in the seabed leading towards the Velen coast.
• In the same direction you see fog starting to pour from the cliffside.
• Once at the top of the cliff (after defeating some Blue Rot zombies) you find a secret door in a massive oak tree.

The Plague of Myrkul

• The necromancer's lair contains many types of undead.
• When Master Bertrand revealed himself you saw that he was now a towering undead being with rotting flesh hanging off his cursed bones. Each arm was mutated with massive bone claws grasping from each end. Furthermore, his fetid shoulders bore 3 heads. The central head was clearly Bertrand, half collapsed as the bloodsoaked zombie flesh dripped from it. The left head was riddled with Kyuss worms and fungal Blue Rot, and the right head was a putrid skull enshrouded in the ghostly form of Fergal.
• He announced himself as the Plague Monarch.
• After you defeated him, with his last breath he gloated about how he’d sent the Blue Scourge, loaded with plague zombies, to Sowport.
• If enough people were to succumb to the Plague of Myrkul, the Bone Lord's destroyer, the demon lord Orcus, would be summoned.
• You intercepted and destroyed the Blue Scourge.
• Following his defeat you took the Fetid Carrion Amulet, the god amulet of Myrkul.
• You still needed to destroy his phylactery to prevent him from returning, and having discussed it with Brother Fergal he realised what he must do. The dead bodies of Bertrand, Fergal and Theo need to be buried in the coffin together.
• You returned to Rushmire and completed the funeral.