On Undead and Why They Like To Stay That Way

Having spent a reasonable amount of time in the astral plane researching all sorts of life, death and purely coincidental subjects, Gurrik had learned a decent amount about the undead species. Most, obviously, are about at clever as a rock to the skull, but occasionally powerful wizards, sorcerers, gods or other fools bent on evil will come up with a good one. But one thing he was fairly certain of was that a paladin-turned-undead-blackguard was probably not something the poor guy really intended on becoming.

Ordinarily the plight of others wouldn't much interest Gurrik, less involvement with some sort of intellectual pursuit, but as his cadre made their way through the abandoned towers of Moil, he realized more and more that a paladin would be of more use here than a blackguard. Sure, the blackguards new-found ability to control undead had come in handy, but it simply couldn't compare to the power of holy devotion when it came to dealing with undead.

Gurrik thought long and hard about the situation while the vampires flitted about, exploring the towers. The unfortunate part about becoming an undead is that even the most powerful resurrection spells will not bring you back to life. This would be a major stumbling block in transforming the paladin back to his original self. However, once slain, an undead can be brought back to life. Following this, a simple spell of atonement, an appeal to the paladin's god, should restore his powers -- even here in Acerak's demi-plane. The trick, Gurrik believed, would be the pitch.

Having come up with a plan to save (and Gurrik used this word loosely) the paladin, another problem came to mind. No self-respecting paladin of any righteous god is going to be okay with walking around with a bunch of animate corpses. The paladin could be saved, but now the vampires, extremely useful thus far, had become the problem.

But as all geniuses must, Gurrik put all the pieces together and knew what must be done. The loss of the undead powers the vampires possessed would not be a minor setback, but the abilities the paladin would possess outweighed the loss of a mist form and addiction to blood. The vampires would understand after the fact. Probably.

Caleb, the paladin-turned-blackguard was quite receptive to the idea. It turns out that when you break a paladin in such a manner, they have some serious issues dealing with their past and present selves. The internal struggle interested Gurrik but unfortunately Moil was neither the time nor place to get into it.

The plan was simple: Gurrik and the blackguard would wait for an opportune moment, trap the vampires in a room, and use the wand they had found previously to disintegrate them. Gurrik was fairly certain this would work even on the dimension dooring mage. The thief and warrior should be no trouble at all.

After the vampires had been dealt with, Gurrik would slay the blackguard with a single spell. Following the "death" of his entire party, he would then use the most powerful spell in his arsenal to call upon the most mighty and knowing Vecna for divine intervention in restoring the entire party to their former, living selves. He had faith in Vecna, but he also knew that his god desired the knowledge of Acerak's location, if not destruction. Vecna would answer his prayers.

Now that the plan had been agreed upon, Gurrik and Caleb only need wait for the right moment. With any luck, and Gurrik didn't believe in luck, he'd be adventuring with his not-so-evil and much-more-sane party again shortly.