Adventures in Beast World - Session 24 - The Church of the Black Rose

Session Date: 2024-05-14
10 Saattaa 1365
Zeke has just dropped Charon to his knees, and the party has found itself in combat with a high priest of the Order of the Black Rose. Fynn has a moment of scattered thoughts as he understands the meaning of what is about to happen from his position in the back of the church. While less contemplative about the situation, Stacy also finds herself slightly outside the initial threat radius as things start to go sideways.
Sam has managed to get off some magic from the mirror blade and a collection of reflected Sams surround Zeke. Charon is able to also use command to set Zeke back for a moment. However Zeke retaliates with some powerful psychic magic taking a big hit on Charon. However Charon comes back with some quick tactical thinking and places a sphere of silence around everyone at the altar. Making nearly all spellcasting impossible, both enemies and allies must resort to melee combat.
Zeke summons a spiritual weapon and starts swinging at Sams. Everyone else in the sphere also just starts swinging whatever they have. Stace manages to get out of the silence to be able to use some magic, Though she does draw some attacks. Weapons fly, blood is spilt, some suffer more grievous injuries than others, but eventually the priest of the Black Rose is defeated.
The crew takes some time to investigate the church. A ritual knife is picked up from the alter. A hidden compartment is found in the lecturn that has some papers that seem to indicate a plot to assassinate the town lord/mayor. The investigation also turns up a hidden trap door that leads down into a secret basement office type space. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a trace of the children here. However, strewn across a desk are papers that mention the names of the missing children (Ghemli, Harley, Silvan, Ami, Lucille, and more). Ami and Poppy both heavily circled. In the same desk a secret compartment is discovered and broken into, where the crew discovers some gold and the Cloak of the Forgotten.
Once the crew has searched through everything in the church, they decide to head back towards the inn and their wagon. The day is drawing to a close and there seems to be far less activity in town than the night before. As the crew gets closer to the center of town they start to hear a strange melodic whistling. It is clearly not natural, though they cannot seem to find a source. They spot some shadowy figure around the florist shop and decide that maybe an investigation is in order.