The Monastery of the New Dawn

Religious event

The party arrives at the Monastery of the New Dawn, but the path is unexpectedly fraught with undead.

The party travels through the hills toward the mountains. The evening they make camp, they are ambushed by several banshees. After slaying them, Reginald uses Divine Sense and finds that the entire area is desecrated. They decide to press on closer to the mountains, but everywhere seems to be desecrated. They find one small patch of land that is not desecrated and make camp for the evening.   The next day, the party heads up the mountain and after a few hours runs into another undead ambush. They are attacked by several wights, as well as a wraith and a sword wraith commander. It's odd for undead to attack in broad daylight, and especially odd for some so powerful. The party manages to overcome their latest ambush and fell the foul beasts.   They continue towards the monastery and finally arrive just as night is about to fall. They are all cautious save Valamin as they arrive, much of the party expecting the monks to be dead or worse. They are welcomed by Valamin's mentor, Nelin, and he gives them a large hall to sleep in as well as rest for their horses. Nelin tells them that they have not been able to perform their annual cleansing ritual due to a lack of reagents, and that the undead are rising.   In the time before the feast, Seeker sneaks around the monastery looking for anything suspicious or out of place, but finds nothing. Marri'Elle and Reginald wander the place looking at the sights. Valamin visits with his friends. Reginald uses thaumaturgy to shout "ECHO" into the mountain valley and hear it reverberate. Valamin, embarrassed by his friend, rushes out to chastise him.   At the feast, Valamin and Nelin discuss the events of his past and reconcile. Afterwards, Nelin tasks the party with retrieving the necessary herbs from a town called Myrrholm near the Vast Swamp.   Very early the next morning, the monastery still under darkness. After Seeker awakes from his trance, he notices that Marri'Elle has gone. There's no note but no sign of struggle either. Seeker writes a note in her place saying she has left and is probably dead.   Suspicious of the monks, Seeker decides to stalk around the monastery in the early hours and look for anyone or anything suspicious. He finds one monk that acts suspiciously while writing what appears to be a secret letter. Seeker puts him to sleep, and reads the note: "Maybe we should have told him sooner, is there anywhere else we can get the herb?"   Meanwhile, Reginald and Valamin ponder why Marri'Elle would have left so suddenly without telling them. Reginald is much more worried than Valamin, but Valamin trusts that Marri'Elle can take care of herself and she must have had her reasons. A few undead wouldn't be too much trouble for her.   They bring their concerns to Nelin over breakfast, but he seems untroubled citing that it would be near impossible for an evil force to enter the monastery. Skeptical, Reginald uses Divine Sense and discovers that Nelin is some sort of celestial. When he discretely brings this up, Nelin hints that he has been blessed by Lathander. Nelin offers to help search for Marri'Elle once the mountain is cleansed.   Nelin gives the party more detail on their mission in Myrrholm: they are looking for a gnome alchemist named Castor and they are to procure a special flower called a dragon lily. They should also ask if he has any corpsebloom as it is a powerful herb with many uses. He gives them the quickest route and says it should take about 10 days to reach. He gives them their last charms from Lathander that should protect them from the desecrated undead on their way down the mountain.   As Reginald readies to leave the monastery, Seeker tells Valamin to stall him so Seeker can follow the suspicious monk a little longer. For some reason, instead of telling him the truth, Valamin tries to distract Reginald by getting him to meditate in silence. Valamin agrees that if Reginald can meditate for 10 minutes, Valamin will yell loudly into the mountains. After an unsuccessful attempt, Reginald does manage to stay quite for 10 minutes against every fiber of his being.   Seeker continues to track the monk until he is alone. Seeker creates a telepathic connection with him and whispers into his head about the note. He continues to intimidate and pry information from the monk. He figures out that the monk and a woman named Zira back in Hluthvar were running a side operation buying herbs from Castor and reselling them. He noticed Castor stopped coming to Hluthvar awhile ago and knew that he wouldn't make it to deliver the dragon lily needed for the ritual, but instead of telling Nelin and getting caught, he and Zira decided to keep it a secret. He says that he doesn't know why Castor didn't show. Seeker scares him in to confessing to Nelin. As the party decides to leave, Reginald calls his bet on Valamin and asks him to yell at the top of his lungs into the mountain.