Gotcha.  That makes perfect sense. 

I wonder if anyone (Kithran?) will remove the man's purse.  Seems disrespectful, but he doesn't need the coin anymore...

Makes sense to me. Coin is coin, after all, and leaving it to smelt away in a pyre seems wasteful. To that end, I'd say, too, that any useful gear and sundries (rations, blades, etc) should be salvaged and Atharis can be sent to his gods with his robes and his staff.

I think that makes sense even for the pious. There's no sense in wasting. Everything that the group can assess as "of value" from the mage's remains will be collected before the body is turned over to those collecting the dead. Thanks for that tender mercy reminder, Olan. 

Gib would, potentially, insist that the money or some of the items that can be sold, be used to pay for a proper burial, though.

That all makes sense.  If I was an adventurer, I would want my gear to be used, not burned for nothing. 

I figured the reminder was in order.  Despite my reputation, I don't kill off THAT many PCs (this game is likely an exception, as all have been warned). 

I have Atharis as worshipping Jusarin, god of knowledge... so he'd want his spellbook preserved, even if nobody in the group could use it.  His religion isn't overly fussed with burial rites; to be honest, cremation is likely fine (though let's not pretend that lamp oil and a stack of corpses is real cremation). 

Midge will insist that Atharis' necklance (a plain gold band on a plain silver chain, with his initials engraved within) be retained.  It is his mark as a Circle mage, and should be returned to his order if at all possible. 

...and perhaps some small bit to Mort and Nya considering the damage done to the Shill? Not that that was our fault, really, but Mort did come to Ch'dau's defense when the party arrived and seeded some small bit of hope in the kazari where finding others of his kind on these foreign shores go. Just a thought, not a demand by any means.

Also, where in the heck did Davena and her man go? Suspicious that there was no sign of them in the Shill when the attack commenced, nor was there a trace of them in the streets or amongst the dead (unless I missed something)... Should time permit, their fate might bear a bit of investigation, yes?

I plan to post a response tonight.

Looking forward to it BV!

I'm playing out Gib's notion of services for Atharis as the same for individuals lost in battle where their bodies are irretrievable. Atharis was killed by a giggler as was at least one or two of the pilgrims... oh, look! There's one of those pilgrims come back to life as a giggler. Ergo, Gib deduces that there's a real significant chance Atharis' body could come back as a giggler. Ergo, fire.

Not that I really needed to explain any of that but I thought it would help establish the cleric's frame of mind as he turns his friend's body over to the watch.

Now... about the charity Ch'dau would suggest. As a priest, and an ex-military man for the kingdom, Gib will not argue offering what help the party can to the repairs. He'd be fine with all of Atharis' coin going towards that fund.

And believe you me, Davena and her bodyguard have not escaped Gib's mind. Until the immediate threat is resolved, the warrior priest sees no point in spending the mental energy to investigate.

I figure Gib will suggest the party resolve the zombie threat, make sure that the gate is secured while offering whatever assistance the party can to increase security there, help the citizens deal with the corpses in a sanitary and final manner, seek out Atharis' Circle friend, and then look into the disappearance of Davena. 

In light of this, Gib will also readily offer up his thoughts on the woman and her bodyguard. They are obviously conjecture, but that's all we have right now. 

First, there's a chance that Davena isn't who she claimed to be and actually orchestrated the whole thing. Motive aside, Gib feels he would be remiss if he didn't consider this possibility. Especially with their sudden and opportune absence.

Two, there's also a chance that Davena's man spirited her away to safety somewhere. If this is the case, they will likely turn up, or be discovered in hiding, when a thorough search of the town for any straggling undead is made.

Three, the whole attack was a distraction while someone swept in and kidnapped Davena. She's of some importance if I remember correctly, and this close to Sendria the involvement of a necromancer in a plot isn't entirely impossible.

That the undead would attack the inn specifically would indicate that either the party of adventurers were the target, or one of the other patrons were. Obviously, there's the third possibility... that the inn is just where the majority of people would be gathered at one time and the ghouls could just sense that. But, Gib isn't buying that. His money is on one of the other patrons and to his knowledge, Davena is the only one worth grabbing. Why not the party, you ask? He'll respond that the undead didn't attack the party outside of the city, they attacked the pilgrims. Why when they could have just attacked the party if the group of adventurers was in fact, the targets? 

Anyway, some musings.

Ch'dau would implicitly agree with all of this! ^^^

Aside from the day-to-day life-or-death attitude of the Kazari, I think, their next most important precept is honor. The "honorable" thing to do, in this case, is to see to it that all of the zombies in Crandel are exterminated. Anything and everything (minus Kith's safety) is secondary at best. He'll trust the town watch to do as he's instructedd (especially considering the "bribe" that was hafted earlier) and that Atharis' body will be appropriately and "respectfully" looted, per the Circle and individual attitudes, of course.

He's paid his respects and borne his companions' blood as tribute; the kazari is still in bloodlust mode, as far as I'm concerned, and, to him, hunting down and mincing the stragglers sounds really, really good!

bvberry asked if the latest giggler was a pilgrim that was killed in the road attack, or one that was left alive.

It's hard to say.  You would have recognized the bearded fellow (the leader), as you had more interaction with him.   The others?  Not so much.  The conversion to undeath distorts the body, changes the features.  They sprout fangs and claws, the eyes turn yellow, the skin color changes, the bone structure is just a bit... off.

Two pilgrims died at the claws of the gigglers on the road.  You've now seen two gigglers dressed in those robes.  Of course, they mentioned other losses, so it's entirely possible that there could be quite a few more pilgrims in this state.  And yes, it is possible that the rest have been killed.  You just have no way to know for sure. 

I'm out until Tuesday... Monday if I'm lucky. NPC away, Olan. The spellbook and gold chain for sure... Midge would probably turn out the fellow mage's pockets to see what other interesting things the human carried and "re-purpose" as much of it as possible.

Well Cedric didn't want to mention it but maybe we should somehow prevent Atharis from rising again. Seems harsh but better to have your body desecrated than to return as the living dead. At least that is how Solanis would look at it.

Noted, Ayrn.

bvberry - yep, that's why Eol and Bromern are discussing burning Atharis' body. 

My post is up.

So I saw!  That only leaves PrincessAli, I'll reach out and see if she plans to post soon.  My won post will follow before long.

Lov the characterization, Blackthorn - that's such a realistic reaction, especially since Aranwen was already blaming himself for the pilgrims.