Chapter 3.4: Morton's Odyssey

Not very far away, in the Dim Forest to the west of the village of Orlane, lay two adventurers who'd been overcome by walking corpses. Their bodies splayed in the thick leaf litter of the forest floor, they were an unlikely couple: Arya the human cleric of Pelor, god of light and the sun; and Morton, the half-elven warlock of Demogorgon, demon lord of domination and madness. But they were alike in their motivation to free the town of Orlane from the cult that seemed to be taking over the community, and they'd been heading back to the safety of Hochoch to train and equip themselves for the larger battle that saving the village will entail. Then the bodies of other poor souls who'd fallen in the forest had risen in death and attacked them, drawn by Arya's Light. They'd managed to destroy the magic binding one of the corpses into a gross parody of life, but the other had overcome them both. As they lay dying, the zombie had been drawn away by some night creature: further living prey for it to destroy.

There they lay, dying. Or so it seemed at first. But then they each managed to fall into a restful sleep, and as an hour passed, they recovered some of their energy and woke again, aching and blood-caked.
Arya revives with 6 HP!

On waking, Arya sees the state that Morton is in, and draws upon the power of Pelor to heal him.
Morton is fully healed back to 9 HP.Then she agrees with the warlock's suggestion. "We can return in the daylight, when there will be no abominations roaming in the darkness. Let's go."

The two heroes retrace their steps through the woods along the riverbank. Enough time has passed that the searchers have either given up or moved on to other parts of the village. Out from under the trees, Arya is able to navigate by moonlight again, and the pair quickly move through the night streets. The land is flat, so the temple atop the hill above town is easy to spot from every place in the village. They arrive at the base of the hill.

It is still an hour before dawn; the moon is low on the horizon now, but still shedding a fairly bright light so that Morton doesn't have to lead Arya by the hand. As they look around, they don't see the rest of the group at the base of the hill. Perhaps they met at the top of the hill, by the temple wall?

Go ahead and roll an INT (Nature) check to see how quickly Morton finds their tracks.

Arya first and then Morton eventually see one set of footprints leading up the northern side of the hill. At the top, that person joined or was joined by several other people; tracks come up from the west side of the hill and meet under the trees near the southwest corner of the 8-pace high Temple wall.

The adventure continues in Chapter 3.5: The Temple of Merikka.