This encounter, divided into three sections, focuses on using skill challenges to deal with undead haunting a crematorium in the city. This is Part III, here is Part I and II.
Putting the Spirits to Rest
It is possible for adventurers to temporarily destroy the spirits, however the three incorporeal undead reform with in 1d4 weeks. Resolving the grievances that keep the unhappy spirits bound to the living world allows them to pass on. Each of the three spirits possesses its own personality and wishes.
Speaking with the Dead
This skill challenge comprises the PC’s attempts to learn information from the three angry and dangerous spirits.
Encounter Level 13 (800 XP)
Complexity: Nine successes before five failures, though the PCS gain information even if they fail this challenge.
Primary Skills: Diplomacy, Insight, Perception
Diplomacy: The PCs may use Diplomacy to convince Kradets and/or Weltschmerz of their honorable intentions. They succeed with a DC 20 skill check.
Insight: The PCs may use Insight to learn the three spirits will not be laid to rest until they are avenged of the cause of wrongs suffered. They succeed with a DC 18 skill check.
Perception: The PCs may use Perception to realize all three spirits show signs of being burnt and that conversations with Kradets and Weltschmerz are possible. They succeed with a DC 18 skill check.
Others Skills: Bluff, Intimidate
Bluff: Any character with ulterior motives may use Bluff in place of Diplomacy in an attempt to convince the spirits that their intentions are honorable.
Intimidate: The spirits may only be Intimated if they have been previously been defeated and dissipated by the characters attempting to Intimidate them. In this case, a successful use of Intimidate results in a +2 bonus to all other skill checks in this challenge. If the PCs have succeeded on a Religion check with the Pilgrim, they have a +3 bonus to intimidate the Pilgrim if they invoke the name of the mad wraith’s patron deity and religious order. The PCs succeed with a DC 20 skill check.
Conclusion:
The PCs receive information based on the total number of successes achieved. These undead will only be able to find rest if the PCs are able to take the proper actions, which is only possible if the PCs learn something useful from the ghosts.
Rewards: If the PCs attain nine success before five failures, the spirits disclose as much as they may of their situation, how it came to be and how it might be resolved.
Failure: If the PCs earn five failures before nine successes, determine their total number of successes up to that point, because they will gain nothing else from the undead. The Pilgrim and Kradets will only attack the PCs in the future after five failures, while Weltschmerz is too depressed to attack except in self defense.
Rewards
1-3 Successes: The leaders of the city’s excessively ruthless thieves’ guild eliminated Kradets, a pick pocket popular with the rogues, for expressing a desire to move to another city.
4-6 Successes: Ubietsi murdered Weltschmerz, an eldarin, to fulfill a lucrative necroamcer’s contract for the ashes of an eldarin hero.
7-8 Successes: Sinister elements in the city government found the Pilgrim, a cleric of a lawful deity who decried government corruption to be a nuisance, and arranged for his elimination at the hands of Ubietsi. Thinking the kidnappers had killed the cleric when they had only knocked the holy man unconscious; Ubietsi placed him in an oven. The Pilgrim awoke in the oven and Ubietsi burned him to death.
9 or more Successes: Ubietsi lies at the root of the grievances of all three ghosts. However, Ubietsi also enjoys the patronage of powerful friends in both the city government and the thieves’ guild.
Resolution
Simply learning Ubietsi is a murder is not enough to resolve the situation; permanently dealing with the ghosts requires permanently dealing with the dwarf. However, there are issues the GM needs to consider.
Vondal Ubietsi (Level 10 Fighter)
Medium natural humanoid XP 500
Initiative +4
Senses Perception +8; low-light vision
HP 78; Bloodied 39
AC 23; Fortitude 18, Reflex 15, Will 17
Saving Throws +5, against poison effects
Speed 5 (Moves normally through difficult terrain)
Traits
Power Attack
When making a melee attack, Ubietsi may take a –2 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, he gains a +2 bonus to the damage roll.
Stand Your Ground
When an effect forces a dwarf to move—through a pull, push, or a slide—the dwarf moves 1 square less than the effect specifies. When an attack would knock the dwarf prone, the dwarf may roll a saving throw to avoid falling prone.
Standard
[MW] Sure Strike (Martial, Weapon) • At-Will
Attack: +10 vs. AC
1d11 damage (warhammer), melee, one target
[MW] Tide of Iron (Martial, Weapon) • At-Will
Attack: +8 vs. AC
1d10+4 damage and Ubietsi pushes the target 1 square if it is his size, smaller than him, or one size category larger. Ubietsi may shift into the space that the target occupied, melee, one target
[M] Crushing Blow (Martial, Weapon) • Encounter
Attack: +8 vs. AC
2d10+7 damage, melee, one target
[M] Sudden Surge (Martial, Weapon) • Encounter
Attack: +8 vs. AC
2d10+4 damage, he moves 1 square, melee, one target
[M] Brute Strike (Weapon) • Daily
Attack: +8 vs. AC
3d10+4 damage, melee, one target
[Close Burst] Shift the Battlefield (Martial, Weapon) • Daily
Attack: +8 vs. AC
2d10+4 damage and he slides the target 1 square, melee, one target
Alignment Evil
Languages Common, Dwarven
Skills Athletics +13, Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Endurance +13, Perception +8, Streetwise +11.
Str 16 (+8) Dex 10 (+5) Wis 14 (+7)
Con 16 (+8) Int 11 (+5) Cha 12 (+6)
Equipment plate armor, heavy shield, warhammer, three throwing hammers
Vondal Ubietsi is an adept liar and a member of the thieves’ guild, but is such a rotter that most of the other reprobates cross the street to avoid him. Ubietsi is a body snatcher – he steals remains and sells them to necromancers, evil cults of death and similar buyers. He is willing to rob grave, but usually just steals remains from the crematorium, which he operates, supplying the relatives with simple wood ash and the evil and deranged with the remains.
Ubietsi:
Once he realizes the PCs are learning about his role in the situation, Ubietsi will attempt to murder them. Either by attacking them himself, trapping them in an oven or enticing the ghosts to attack the party. Failing that, he will attempt to flee the city. If he escapes the city, the PCs might have to track him down and bring him back.
The Government and the Thieves’ Guild:
Ubietsi makes himself useful to the city’s thieves’ guild and dark elements in the city’s government. Neither group wants their secrets revealed. They are willing to see Ubietsi killed, but would rather retain the dwarf in his current position so they might continue to use him to dispose of problems. Both groups will make it difficult to prosecute Ubietsi in court.
Edited by Cassey Toi
