Desecrated church? Ya... expect undead...

Our adventurers remain vigilant after the battle with the black dragon, helping the emancipated halflings out of the sunken tower and aiding them in regaining enough energy for them to make it back to their distant village. Wit gratitude the halfings tell the band of a tower on the southern edge of the marshland. A tower that once belonged to a pair of adventurers like themselves.

.

Realizing that Treona didn't specify where the tower was in the marsh, just that there was a tower, our adventurers head out once again, trudging through the much and mud as fast as they could. Which by the beginning of dusk left them somewhere in the center of the Witchlight fens, surrounded by unknown dangers.

Quick-witted Elric came through in the end pointing out a slight beaten down trail to the west. Having scoured though the maps in Treona's tower he remembered something about a church dedicated to the Goddess, Erathis, having been erected decades ago in the marshland.

The team made their way as quick as the wagon would go, arriving at the decrepit skeleton of a church a little before night fall.

The central hall was the only hospitable place to safely store the wagon, horses and themselves for the night. but a cursory inspection of the building told a demoralizing story. Not too soon after is construction the church fell into the control of followers of the prince of undead: Orcus. The wall had been stripped of their elegance and replaced with depictions of hellish torture and the walking dead. Where once stood a grand statue of Erathis, the monstrous figure that is the image of Orcus resides.

The discovery of the High Priest's rectory beneath the hall was no less depressing. A nearly mummified form still knelt beside the brimstone altar of Orcus, and four corpses, of what appeared to be simple travelers, laid lifelessly on the floor, chunks of their flesh having been ripped from their bones.

The room suddenly filled with a purple light, emanating from a stone dangling about the neck of the mummified corpse, filling the room with an unholy light and a feeling of dread.

Within the span of a few short breaths all five corpses rose to their feet, their hollow, lifeless eyes alight with the same glow that the stone pendant emanated.