The Church of Kelemvor RP

[None]

The Church of Kelemvor

Kelemvor is interested in having followers who recognize that death is but a part of life. It is not an end but a beginning, not a punishment but a necessity. There is no deceit in death, nothing concealed, nothing chaotic. Death is an orderly process.

The followers of Kelemvor are not out to spread death and destruction in the Realms. Rather, they seek to help others to die with dignity at their appointed time and no sooner. Just as they do not seek to rush death, they also speak out against those who seek to artificially prolong their lives beyond their natural limits, including such magical creations as liches.

The charge of Kelemvor to his novitiates is this: “Death is but part of life: fear it not, evade it not, and view it not as evil. To fear death delivers you into the hands of those who can bring death down upon you. Die with dignity, neither raging nor seeking to embrace undeath. Do honor to the dead, for their strivings in life brought Faerûn to where it is now, an to forget them is to forget also where we are now and why.

The church of Kelemvor believes that seeking out those who are near death is their great duty, for it is the will of Kelemvor that no human dies before their due time. Kelemvor assigns the essences of the dead their proper place in the ongoing cycle of existence, and it must be emphasized to all that he is the Great Guide leads all folk to the afterlife. Death is not a final ending, but the next step in a wondrous, ongoing journey. Let no one die not knowing that Kelemvor awaits them and that he is not to be feared, for he believes in justice and wields mercy.

Holy Days and Ceremonies

Most people experience the rituals of the death clergy in a personal way. As someone dies, a priest or priests of Kelemvor perform the Passing, a simple ceremony of last rites. This ceremony involves a chant of comfort, calling on Kelemvor to be alert for the coming essence of the deceased, who has enriched life in Faerûn in their own way and earned this final salute. The Lament for the Fallen is a larger ceremony of this sort, sung over a battlefield, ruined village or fortress, or other site where many people have recently died.

The clergy of Kelemvor also lead a daily morning ceremony over graves, known as the Remembrance, and a ritual that begins after nightfall, the Daeum. The Remembrance is a dignified rite of songs and prayer, usually attended by the relatives of the deceased. The Daeum, or Thanks to the Guide (Kelemvor), is a celebration of the strength and purpose of the Great Guide and his church, attended only by faithful followers of the god. At the close of this ceremony, the belongings of the dead are distributed to the assembled faithful, and any favors of the god or holy missions are dispensed through manifestations or the orders of senior clergy.

The two major calendar-related holy days of the Church of Kelemvor are Shieldmeet and the Feast of the Moon. During both of these days, priests of the Lord of the Dead recount the Deeds of the Dead so that the greatness and importance of the ancestors of the living will never be forgotten. They also call upon the dead heroes whom Kelemvor believes are needed in the land again, according to the opinions of mortal supplicants. During both of these solemn high holy days, any priest of Kelemvor who casts Speak with Dead may converse freely with the departed for as long as desired, not merely asking yes-or-no questions.

///This thread is open to anyone with Kelemvor roleplay///

[None]

On the early hours of the evening, Elisia can be seen walking through the Baldur's Gate cemetery. The slender robed figure walks slowly and patiently as she carries a warm burning lantern during the cold winter night. She stops by each grave, setting her lantern down for a moment of reverence and prayer. When she is approached by an undead, she moved quickly to cut it down before laying its remains in a nearby grave. Each fallen undead is met with an end, and an additional short prayer.

The robed Kelemvorite spends most of the evening clearing away the undead, and tending to the graves. This can be as simple moving away dead leaves from the headstone, to scrubbing and brushing away moss from the stonework. The young woman is methodical, taking care with each step in the process.

As the night goes on, she makes her way into the crypts. Hours go by as she lays the undead to rest. One by one she dispatches the undeath, and lays the body back to the nearby coffins of the tombs. When the task is done, she finally reaches a long open room with a wall bearing the symbol of Kelemvor. The watcher rests the lantern on the ground before the meager shrine to Kelemvor. With her prayer book open, she quietly recites a prayer of dedication and remembrance. With each prayer, she lights a new candle setting it near the mantle. The prayers continue until morning comes, and she quietly makes her way from the tombs.

[None]

Deep in the north a pilgrimage was made. The dark clad Kelemvorite wandered past the city accompanied by a tall red haired woman. The two spoke quietly throughout the trip, while they passed through forests and fields until they arrived to a tall sculpture of a suit of armor holding a sword with a tall banner of tempus behind it. This shrine was a dedication to those lost in a battle long ago, and had weathered the elements in an open field for nearly a decade. Before prayers could be offered, Elisia knelt before the shrine and retrieved her bag of supplies. With a series of brushes and tools the smaller Kelevorite spend hours scraping and cleaning the memorial. When the plaque was cleaned and the shrine maintained, Elisia stood up and began a prayer of remembrance for those lost in the distant battle. The prayer took most of the day, as the young watcher stood head bowed in reverence.

Tendays later on a dark rainy night, Elisia traveled to the graveyard where she encountered a local young man by the name of Alan. The two spoke briefly, where the Watcher asked him about poetry. The young knightly dressed man, said he knew several poems. Kindly she asked if he would join her in the graveyard where he could perhaps offer a poem to some of the dead. The two moved grave to grave, stopping at one where a little girl is said to be buried. There at the gravestone Alan began a lullaby for the long passed child. The two stood in the rain under the comfort of his umbrella as the song filled the empty spaces of the night.

When the dedication was complete, the two visited some of the other graves in the graveyard. Elisia and Alan walked up through the slick muddy hills, looking for a set of graves said to be that of two lovers. Little is known about those buried there, but the two followed the distant tale and offered what remembrance they could. The young bard stood over the grave sheltering the Kelemvorite of the same height before the two weathered gravestones. He began to recite a poem he had written prior as the night poured on. Few words could be heard in the drowning rain, and when it finished the clouds cleared just enough for the moon to shine through over the headstones.

[SlipperyCatfish]

A man in simple, road-worn grey cloth and half-plate arrived in the farmland's adjacent graveyard one eve, witnessed by the few souls there at nascent dusk with a head shrouded in turban and metal mask shaped to be a true mimicry of a life. This man spoke little at all, walking between the stones, reading each name and lingering upon those whose etchings had long faded or chipped away. For these unfortunate souls, the living set a hand upon them, meaningless mumbling barely heard from afar. With a tiny tool, he scratched and scuffed away the lichen that crept up a few, making notes, it seemed, of those whose paint or etchings had worn badly. Come the fall of night, the man had left; scattered collections of bones and silenced groans amidst the peaceful rest an unusual but welcome reprieve. A word was passed between the folk visiting that eve, started off as rumours do from a man who asserted with perhaps too much confidence his knowledge of so-called new faiths...

"Doomguide."

[None]

Through the winter storm, two figures walked slowly through the local cemetery. Their footprints leave a trail of a larger and smaller woman. While difficult to navigate in the frigid winter snow, the two remained undeterred. The familiar Kelemvorite carried a billowing lantern of burning angelica and sage. The two would be seen stopping at each of the snowy graves, the darker robed figure speaking a prayer over the whipping winds of the furious storm. Those undead who rose to disrupt the tribute were answered swiftly by the swing of a warhammer. When each of the graves were visited and paid tribute, the practice of remembrance ended with a prayer to Kelemvor deep in the depths of the mausoleum.

[None]

With a chaotic few Tendays, the hooded Kelemvorite is seen each day in the graveyard. While her eyes wore the weight of several restless nights, she made certain to pray at each of the graves and the break of dawn, and end the day further in the crypts at the Wall of Remembrance.

In the passing tenday, Elisia along with Afendaria could be seen speaking to a man and a woman. While the lady wore the symbol of Kelemvor, the other did not. The dark haired man with a long draped mustache, begrudgingly spoke while the two familiar faces of the cemetery regarded him with caution. The four of them further went on to pay respect to each of the graves before again venturing below to the wall of remembrance to pay tribute to the Dauem.

Each of them spent time defeating the wandering undead, and returning their bodies from the graves they were animated from. The process took time, and while the unmarked man complained, each of them took their time to ensure the dignity of those who had been done the sin of undeath.

The following days there was a new unfamiliar face in the graveyard. A knight who approached wearing the skeletal scales of the Great Guide. He stood guard watching over the smaller watcher as she prayed over the graves and consecrated the ground below. One by one the undeath of the forsaken cemetery poured over them and stood defeated by the faithful soldier.

When the prayers were complete, they worked again to lay the bodies of the undead to rest back in their coffins. They continued one by one until each were laid to rest in the dignity promised by the Lord of the Dead.

[Afendaria]

14 Ches 1361

Stanrick the Paladin of Kelemvor was surprised to see Afendaria away from the Shrine of Suffering where he had often seen her performing penance under the watch of Ilmater's adherents. Knowing that the ex-Aurilite often took part in the ceremonies and rituals involving Kelemvor's faithful, Stanrick invited Afendaria to pray to Kelemvor during Daeum, which she happily and gleefully agreed to do. Afendaria had started praying to the Judge of the Dead back even when she was an Aurilite, so she was no stranger to the types of prayers spoken during Daeum.





After prayers were sent to the Great Guide in the Mausoleum's shrine dedicated to Kelemvor, the two began to discuss the cause and the source of undeath within the cemetery of Baldur's Gate. Stanrick wished to investigate further and the pair ventured deeper into the Graveyard's Mausoleum where they found undead cultists and a strange altar. The two tried to determine if said cultists were the source of necromancy, but after a quick investigation of the place, it was uncertain. All that they found were strange paintings, destroyed books and records, and a pair of skulls. The Kelemvorite Stanrick took the skulls and made sure the remains of the dead were honored and dignified by finding a proper place to put them to rest.

[Afendaria]

30 Ches 1361

"In Faerûn, death is as constant as the turning of the planes—whether by blade, spell, the creeping of age or the whim of the gods, no soul lingered untouched by its shadow... Though now death, once a shade, has been illuminated - all thanks to the Great Guide!" - an ex-Aurilite to a stranger.

Afendaria, once a servant of the Frost Maiden, had slowly come to accept and practice the beliefs and teachings of Kelemvor, the latest God over the Dead. Having experienced, dealt and seen myriad examples of death herself in the Sword Coast she had, even once as an Aurilite, already been on the path of conversion. She had joined in the prayers and songs at Daeum and Remembrance, assisted with burials and rites, and even swore in Kelemvor's name that she would deal with the undead foes she came across. It was sometime towards the end of Ches in 1361 DR that Afendaria during an evening's Daeum realized that she, faithless for a short time, was no longer without a patron. She was now a servant of Death through Kelemvor and His dogma.

As a new lay member of the faith there was much for her, as well as others outside the faith, to do for the still new Church of Kelemvor. Beyond assisting in cleaning and digging graves, visiting tombs, and praying she had been exploring the mysterious curse of undeath that haunted the Baldur's Gate Graveyard with the other Kelemvorites and the likes of Alan Copperchime and Layla Zaisis. She had already explored a fair amount of the Mausoleum with Elisia and Stanrick but now with Alan and Layla she had delved further into the depths of the largest tomb in Baldur's Gate. There they explored hallways full of strange constructs, machines, and other oddities. More (And even fairly recent) works of art were found hanging on the walls of the seemingly ancient passageways beneath the graveyard, suggesting that someone or something was still making use of the halls down there. The three however were not able to discover any further clues that linked the place to the curse of undeath in the graveyard above.

"I'm older than this painting!" - Alan Copperchime

Working for the church, however, requires Kelemvorites to do more than remain within Faerun's graveyards or mausoleums. Afendaria with Elisia had lit multiple lanterns and prayed for those that had met an early end at the hands of demons at Ulgoth's Beard. The two women had also been fighting the forces of undeath wherever they had ventured. Zombies, skeletons, vampires, wraiths, and all sorts of other cadaverous undead beings met their end at the hands of these Kelemvorites, but the hordes of undeath cursing the realms seemed forever present. Still, they did what they could to put any to rest that they found.

[None]

There in the Eastern District of Baldur’s Gate, a stand is set up and tended by a familiar dark robed Kelemvorite. Among the stand lies a tall stack of parchment, an assortment of lanterns, and the skeletal scales of the Great Guide. The Kelemvorite stands behind the meager booth folding book pages into paper boats. Each time the hooded young woman becomes a little better at it.

The stand itself has signs posted in several different languages from Chondathan to Alzhedo. Each of the signs describe an upcoming commemoration for those lost in Ulgoths Beard. The writing encourages anyone who had lost a loved one during the demonic invasion of the rift to write a letter to them. The letter will then be folded into a boat and sealed with wax, where finally a candle will rest on top. Each of these burning small tributes will be released upon the prayer and commemoration of the dead in a tribute of remembrance for those lost.

The patient Kelemvorite remains at the stand for most of the day and throughout the tenday. For those unable to read the sign, they are answered by an explanation from the pale woman. She walks them through what to expect and the ceremony to come. For those unable to write, she offers to transcribe the letter for them in one of the many languages she understands.

The tired Kelemvorite remains at the stand as the days go on collecting as many writings, stories, and letters as she can gather between her prayers in the local cemetery.

[None]

The Journaling of Naighon

Today began the third day of the burials. Working alongside with Afendaria and the local mill worker, the hours have stretched into days. It's not looking as if we will return home any time soon. A good deal of the villagers remain scattered. While we were able to gather the most of them, I am told by one of the few survivors, there are missing members in the families. We're trying to collect everyone, so that they may rest in Kelemvor's promise beside their loved ones. The festering diseases have long made identification difficult, while the hungry crawlers from the ground have made recovery impossible. I feel a great sense of discontent for Talona and any of those that would consider this acceptable. It's difficult to witness, but it mustn't discourage us from providing what dignity comes from the one true Lord of the Dead. I will not get lost in the melancholy of all of it, rather I will focus and write about the stories of this lost community.

~Erland Thalsbury~

We woke up this morning after a long night of looking for your sister. Sorting through relics of your life in the rubble left behind, we knew you never left the village. These farmlands were your home, and you seemed to have found everything you needed here. Your Sister, your wife, and the empty room just past the door on the porch. I wonder who used to stay there. Perhaps it was a spare room you kept for visiting friends? The letters nearly entirely burnt in your desk suggests you spent your free time writing to them. Your selection of books were light hearted, which led me to imagine the sounds of laughter once upon a time. Or, perhaps it was somebody who used to live there, a child grown now who moved away from the life of a farmer? I suppose it could be nothing more than an empty room for storage.

When we left the home we continued the search into most of the day. It has been some time since I have suffered the sting of sunburn, but we soon found relief by night fall. When the lanterns burnt out, we kept looking. I knew you wouldn't have given up on her, so we didn't either. After some time of wandering, we found her before daybreak. There in the field, under a wagon.

We didn't sleep that night, and the work continued in the morning. Each of the graves were visited in the morning and granted a prayer of Remembrance. I'm sorry if we kept you waiting. By the afternoon, you were reunited with your family. Side by side you were treated by the rites of the Great Guide. We wished your path to the Crystal Spire a gentle one, where you will stand before the Judge, and then we spoke our farewell. Your headstone was marked with the family crest, so that all of those that loved you could find you in the end.

[None]

On the last day, the two Kelemvorites finished the burials just before daylight in Naighon. The accomplishment of the task remained uncelebrated as they stood at the foot of the final grave. The shorter Kelemvorite looked on over the gravestone and it's freshly carved name. Elisia's long white hair blew in the warm spring air, as she laid a simple kitchen knife with a wooden handle at the base of the ceremonial stonework. What a sight it was to see so many headstones, marked with the same end date. "Is this how catastrophe reads?" The finality of all of it sunk through her tired shoulders, and bent her knees. The day had ended, the rites were completed, and she kept her promise. Every last one of them would be delivered to Crystal Spire with the dignity in death that came with the Great Guide.

When the sun began to peak over the horizon, blades of grass and desiccated crops began to glow with the brilliant morning hues of gold and crimson. The ritual of remembrance was set to begin.

"Once more..", Elisia said, opening the thick leather tome from her belt. Her distant pale eyes drew halos of aquamarine as they reflected the image of the name on the headstone.

~Millowyn Haspers~

"We found what pieces we could of your life.. The cruelties of your fate afforded us little to bury, but.. The makers mark on the bottom of your boot led us to the cobbler. There in the ruins, we found what little we could: Notes.. Journals, and writings of completed orders. One of which, matched your boots down to the laces. "Free without charge", was written, with a note of admiration.. Millowyn Haspers, was your name.

You came to Naighon in your younger years from Waterdeep. We knew, from the books you kept on your shelf.. Each of them taken from the library there, but never returned.. Many of them about merchant services, while a few of them mentioned irrigation. You must have thought about moving for some time.. You made a decent living somewhere in Waterdeep, but you had hoped to find somewhere more quiet. As we wandered through what was left of the second floor of your humble quarters, we found a simple knife with a chipped wooden handle.. I wondered why you would keep this on your mantle..? What life did it tell all those years ago? It didn't take long to make sense of it.. You were loved, in life... Through the rubble, chaos, and broken pieces we found scattered fragments.. Mentions of your name.

Naighon was a dangerous place, even when you first arrived.. Through the pains and pricks of banditry and currency allocated to "protection"... Many of the others lived very poor, and could afford little of their own.. It was said nobody could stand up to them, until one day an outsider began to gather the people.. The blacksmith sharpened farm tools... The cobbler.. Fashioned cheap leather cuirasses.. Naighon was proud.. It stood on it's own.. And when the Bandit's protested their position in the village, they came to back down.. Threatened by an unlikely outsider, a proud.. strong woman.. With a kitchen knife.

It.. Was difficult to think of where to bury you.. We know you liked the quiet.. And yet, all of the others were better for knowing you. When the time came, we buried you by the water's edge of the quiet pond.. The boot prints with the maker's mark told, this was your favorite places to visit. It's spring now... You would have liked the calls of the ducks this morning.."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Elisia closed the book, and watched over the grave beside the taller fiery haired Kelemvorite. The pale woman's facial markings remained smeared from the long days. When it came time to part ways with the village, they stopped to gift the surviving mill worker what gold she had to help in the reconstruction. There wouldn't be many returning citizens, they were all there that day.

Leaving the village, they walked through the vacant streets once lined with the remains of the towns folk. They stepped over the rubble and debris and stood in the town square where a tall tainted obelisk had long crumbled. There they stood while long morning shadows stretched across the uneven cobble stones of the former market.

"We should leave..." Elisia said, before the both of them began the walk back to the wagons set for the return to Baldur's Gate

The taller woman didn't make it but a few steps, before crumbling to the spring grass. Elisia quickly came to her side and offered to help her up, but soon found the extent to her exhaustion. After a short walk to the mill worker, she returned with some help. The two of them carefully lifted Afendaria with the familiar practiced motions of a pallbearer, and placed the woman in the wagon finally claimed by rest. The wagon ride back was a long one, rocking and bouncing in her seat beside silently watching on the small town grow smaller and smaller into the distance, until.. It was gone.

[Afendaria]

14 Tarsakh 1361

Soon following the events of Naighon and after a few day's respite, Afendaria found herself heading north again. She had been dwelling in Candlekeep and the area for a time where she had claimed she was recovering after witnessing the devastating effects from the plague ridden village of Naighon. After dealing with a few personal matters she found herself in Baldur's Gate and was due north, where she would go off to deal with matters of her faith as well as some other issues.

Before she departed, however, she happened across a humble Doomguide, a newcomer to the city. After they exchanged pleasantries, the Doomguide, known as Evendur, asked if Afendaria would guide him around and introduce him to the city. It was nearly evening and Afendaria had wanted to pray at Daeum before she departed so she agreed to show the priest around. She showed him the various temples and structures that littered the Manorborn and Temple's district before eventually she took the Doomguide to the Gate's cemetery.



There in the graveyard she showed Evendur the state of things - they spoke about the graves, the problems with the undead, coffins were mentioned, old and ruined as they floated in the murky waters of the Mausoleum, and finally spoke on the work that would need to be done to restore the place to give proper dignity to the dead. Eventually, the pair would find their way to the Wall of Remembrance where the Doomguide lead in prayer.

"Great Guide, I have arrived at your shrine. I was lead by your faithful, Afendaria. Great Guide, do not look at our sins, but, Master of Scales, measure the worth of your most greateful dead. There are many in these lands who need your comfort, your guiding hand. Guide us, as we try to guide the living and those departing, to stand before you."

With the shrine consecrated through the Doomguide and Daeum finished, Afendaria remained briefly with Evendur to ask a few questions and learn of a task the Doomguide had for the local faithful of Kelemvor, something that would be revealed to all later. Soon after Afendaria left the Doomguide behind at the shrine, and with Kelemvor's blessings she began to embark on her journey north.

Before leaving, however, she had returned some of the corpses in the Graveyard that had come out of the earth as lesser undead back to their graves. Some of the local families caught word of her doings and together pooled a sum of five hundred gold coins and donated it to the Church of Kelemvor in thanks to her and Evendur's work for returning their deceased relatives back to their resting places.

//Thank you DM Faith for the event!

[Afendaria]

With some personal issue fully addressed, Afendaria found herself in the north within the Far Hills. Feeling the need to honor the dead in the name of the newest god of death, Kelemvor, Afendaria decided to risk praying over some of the graves in the Darkhold Vale's graveyard during a morning's Remembrance. There in the cemetery on an altar still sat a statuette of Cyric alongside one of Jergal. Cyric's image irked her there in the graveyard, but she tried to ignore it and remained to pray over individual tombs.

No threats came from her God's enemy Cyric or his followers, however. Instead, a threat came from an unexpected source. Sometime during a silent prayer, a kobold dressed in a bandana suddenly emerged over top of the graveyard wall, but quickly fell backwards out of sight after screaming something in what might have been the Draconic language. Afendaria scaled the top of the graveyard's wall to investigate and discovered that for whatever reason, the kobold had set up multiple barrels of explosives lined together with flammable sludge. It looked like the creature wanted to blow up the graveyard's outer wall.

The kobold had vanished, so in caution and haste, Afendaria quickly started moving the barrels of explosives away from the wall, almost setting one off in the process. When she had finally moved all the barrels to a safer location and had discovered a flask of alchemist fire had been set to begin the fireworks, the grass within the graveyard suddenly burst into flame. She wasn't sure if the kobold had snuck in when she was outside the walls and started the fires, but she knew she had to stop them and save the cemetery.

Using her command over the Jotun language, she barked orders at a nearby Dark Vale Hillgiant and a Mine worker who both assisted her in fighting the fires. Together the three were able to beat back the flames that had started eating away at the graveyard's grasses by smothering the flames using water, dirt, shovels, other objects, and sheer dumb luck.



After a long battle, the flames were defeated and the plans that the bandana wearing kobold had hatched seemed to have been foiled. The graveyard had been saved. Afendaria soon destroyed the alchemist fire flask and the other explosives she had found and then began cleaning up the graveyard.


//Thank you for the event DM Verjigorm

[None]

A shadow marked figure returned to the Baldur's Gate cemetery after a few days of absence. The Kelemvorite moved slowly between each grave, wearing a thicker long hooded coat over her usual black and grey robes to protect her from the rain. Her holy symbol slowly swung with each step, only tumbling and thrashing when she was approached by one of the many undead in the forsaken lands. One by one, she struck down the undead with a blessed staff. She took long breaks between the fighting, and sat beside the headstones to light a candle in the many lanterns set out to pay tribute to the dead. After each lingering rest, she stood up and used the stone walls and iron gates to carry herself to the next prayer. When she finally reached the mausoleum doors, she rested herself against the tall wooden doors to catch her breath. It had only been a short while ago since she left the Shrine of Suffering, but the white crowned Kelemvorite did not allow her faith to be regarded as something that could be set aside or come back to. She pressed on through the aches to the Wall of Remembrance, and laid candles from her bag below the skeletal scales of the Great Guide. One after the next, she lit the candles with a thin burning stick until the shelf glowed and the scales casted bright halos of amber across the stone crypt walls. She bowed her head and prayed quietly, alone in the silent room. When the whispered words came to an end, the frail tired shepherd looked to the stairs up. They hadn't seemed so insurmountable days before, but on that day she decided to have a seat on the bench. Just a little while longer, and she could make the walk back. With her prayer book open across her lap, she closed her eyes. "Just a few minutes," she whispered, before succumbing to exhaustion—sitting upright in quiet reverence before the shrine.

[Afendaria]

26 Tarshakh 1361

Only days after recovering the remains of Grandma Betty and handing them over to the Ilmater Shrine of Suffering in Baldur's Gate, Afendaria found herself in the company of two other Kelemvorites, Elisia and Stanrick. Together the three of them patrolled and tended to the Baldur's Gate cemetery during the evening where they cleaned graves, set tombstones straight, dealt with wandering undead, and prayed over some of the graves.




Soon the three would find themselves heading down into depths of the Mausoleum, making their way towards the Wall of Remembrance where they normally prayed during Daeum. Upon arriving, however, they came across the newest Doomguide to have arrived in the Gate; Evendur had already consecrated the shrine and was waiting for them to arrive, knowing that they would come.



The kind and welcoming Doomguide had the three sit about the Shrine where Elisia and Stanrick introduced themselves to Evendur. Soon after, the Doomguide who had heard about Afendaria's penance from the Revered Mother at the Shrine of Suffering had Afendaria describe in short detail all that she had been through involving the slaying of Grandma Betty, her eventual guilt over the matter, her going to the Shrine of Suffering to perform acts of penance, her conversion from Aurilite to Kelemvorite and finally, her quest to travel back into the mountains to recover the bones of Grandma Betty. Clearly being touched by this tale of redemption and relating to it through his own sketchy history, the Doomguide decided that the ex-Aurilite had proven herself worthy of redeeming herself and joining the Clergy of Kelemvor.



Evendur had Afendaria and Stanrick stand before him, while Elisia prepared incense and set it to burn around the shrine. Afendaria bowed her head low as Stanrick first began the ritual into joining the clergy with a short prayer to Kelemvor. Bestow upon her the ferocity to stand against undeath, the courage to defend life, the humility to comfort the dying, and the compassion to counsel those in mourning.

The Doomguide Evendur continued on with his own prayer and Afendaria swore she would continue on the path of atonement, work hard against her past and current sins, and follow the teachings and will of Kelevmor, Lord of the Dead. Kelemvor, Great Guide, Afendaria saw the falseness in her path, as I did before, and turned her gaze to your mercy. When I arrived, I sensed the remorse and regret in her, the guilt. She decided to commit to a path of redemption, a harsh path. Accept her, as you one did accept me.

Following hours of continued prayers and chants, and the coming of Layla Zaisis, who sat at the side of the shrine to observe the rest of the procedure, the Doomguide lifted a hand over the ex-Aurilite's head, and golden, divine energy travelled into Afendaria. The divine gifts of Kelemvor passed through the Doomguide and into the woman, and filled her soul with Kelemvor's will and purpose.

In that moment, Afendaria was no longer a fallen Blackguard that had once served the Frost Maiden. The darkness in her heart melted away and was replaced with something new, something stronger than she had ever felt before. Gone were her dark blessings and evil commitments. She was now a divine servant of her new god, the Judge of the Damned. She was no Doomguide, nor could she claim to be a full fledged priestess, but she would do as she promised as a new clergy member of the faith. She would strive to uphold and keep the dogma of Kelemvor and honor the Grateful Dead, serve the dying and the mourning, and do battle against undead foes wherever they appeared.

After the ritual was complete, tears of joy were shed and a few present embraced Afendaria, welcoming her into the faith now as clergy, and not just a lay person. From Evendur Afendaria received a book of rites and rituals as well as a holy, silver symbol of Kelemvor - a silver pendant crafted into the shape of a bony hand and arm holding up a pair of balanced scales. A feast and celebration were planned, but each present decided to postpone the event, as they all felt their duties should come first and that Afendaria would need some time to adjust and set herself straight on her new path. There would be much for her to still learn in the new Faith of Kelemvor, and she would need to commit herself to learning more so now that she was a divine servant.

//Special thanks to DM Faith for running the event!