October 30th, 2016
An Official Summons and a Noble Mission (for once)
In
this week's Halloween episode, which will take less than six
real-time months to complete unlike last year's did (well, six months
to escape. The other party still isn't high enough level to complete
it...), we have gathered once again in the Dungeon of the Powers for
the night's adventure.
From
left to right:
Chris
playing Valandil, the usually undamaged elven spellsword,
Sarai
playing Desorna, the randomly rained-upon elven fighter,
Nilo
playing Arden, the judiciously spending his spell points halfling
cleric,
Nick
playing Merrick, the trying to keep his mood swings stable human
fighter,
Zack
playing Ahri of the Nine Spells, the power hungry elven magic-user,
and,
playing without playing, Catherine's mercenary half-elven thief Ydee
being played by the (reputedly confirmed but strenuously disputed)
incomparably evil DM
The
party returned from the Hidden Stronghold to Twinlake Vale after the
last adventure there and were met by a group of town guards soon
after entering town. "Come with us." was the gist of their
message, though one guard that Merrick was familiar with told him that
Officer Carrick wanted to see them, so they went along without
complaint. For once.
The guards took them to where they met Officer Carrick, who told them of a disturbance in the cemetery and a guard patrol that had entered but had never come out again. Carrick pointed out that he had thought of the group as this would be a way that they could do a mission for the town that would both get them some money and improve their reputations. Seeing the advantage of this idea, and since it was a crescent moon waning and they had time before they could travel to the Castle in the Sky, the adventurers decided to accept the mission.
They entered the high stone walled graveyard through the heavy iron-bound wooden gates. A small cobblestone plaza was just inside in the northwest corner where they were with two gravel and dirt cart roads that led further into the graveyard to the east and south. The party looked around at the trees, shrubs, tombstones, and mausoleums and decided that one direction was as good as another and headed east.
After a while of heading east, Desorna saw something moving off to the southeast through the graveyard. Leaving the road they angled off to intercept it and found that it was a scrap of a guard uniform. Merrick determined that the wind was blowing from the southwest, so they headed in that direction to see if they could find the place the uniform had come from.
A quick travel led them to a place where it seemed a battle had taken place. A guard spear was found along with some blood, though the blood seemed very old. Some further searching found some drag tracks that led off to the southeast. The infrequent drag marks were followed until they came to an end at the southern road through the graveyard. A quick look around showed a group of four mausoleums on the south side of the road on the slope up towards the wall. The party went to investigate.
The first mausoleum showed no signs of having been tampered with, so Valandil marked it with a check made with chalk and they moved on to the second mausoleum. This one has a broken seal on it, and upon pushing it open Desorna was clawed by a hand from inside. She was successfully attacked again by the ghoul inside before the party could kill it dead. Once it was dead and decapitated, the party looked inside the tomb.
The mausoleum had three biers in it, each with the lids already half off. Checking inside the party found intact skeletons still in their grave clothes; a single person in the first and third and a couple side by side in the second. The party replaced the lids on the biers and left, closing the door and marking it for consecration and resealing. Valandil used one of the candles the party had to create a wax seal that would at least identify if the tomb was reopened after they had checked it.
The third mausoleum seemed intact, though there seemed to be a hole in the back roof of the mausoleum. Merrick busted through the sealed door while Valandil checked out the roof. The roof had only been damaged, not breached, and there was no way in. However, as Merrick broke open the door a nasty mist came out and made him vomit violently. As the fighter stumbled back a foul spectral mist flowed out to the attack. With a solid hit from Merrick's silver bastard sword and a pair of magic missiles from Ahri it was defeated. The party then moved in to further explore the area.
There was only one casket in here, and the corpse in it looked desiccated but still intact. Arden got the feeling that it was the source of the spectral mist, and so when the mausoleum was closed up again a sign was made on the door to note that a clerical visit was needed in this area.
The fourth mausoleum was intact and unopened, so the party passed it by and headed east along the road with the intent of getting to the northeast corner of the cemetery and spreading out slightly to walk through and see if they could find signs of the missing guards. The northeast corner and along the east wall were somewhat marshy from that side being right next to the larger lake. The ground was soft and there were quite a few small stones scattered here and there in the area. As the party walked through the area there was a sudden eruption around them as a dozen forms, divided evenly between skeletons and zombies erupted from shallow graves surrounding the party.
One of the zombies seemed to have an unearthly glow and was much smaller than the rest. As Desorna moved to attack it she was struck immobile by something about it, while the rest of the party attacked the other undead. Arden's holy aura spell destroyed most of the skeletons and wounded many of the zombies, including the unusual one. Merrick moved to attack it and was also struck immobile, though he recognized it as Dorni, the gnome thief, their dead former companion. The rest of the party managed to destroy the rest of the undead, and while Arden made his save against the dread zombie effect, he couldn't hit it. Finally Ydee came up and killed Dorni. Dorni dead again. With all the undead re-dead, the party looked around. Arden had the intense feeling of being watched, so the party headed into the graveyard toward an enclosed gazebo to see if being under cover helped any. It didn't seem to help much, so the party continued on in a widely spaced line for better searching of the area while still staying in sight of each other, and remaining ever more wary.
After a short while longer there was an "Oh hells." from the thief who was on the far western end of the line. She pointed to a large skeletal figure, maybe 20 feet high, that loomed over the landscape to the west. The party prepared to face it with Merrick charging straight ahead and Valandil circling around to attack from the side. After receiving a healing spell Desorna approached the melee and the battle raged. The skeleton delivered a lot of damage when it hit with the potential to knock unconscious or possibly kill most of the party in a single hit. Luckily it did not do enough damage to drop anyone before it was destroyed, exploding into shards of bone that scattered everywhere. Since this skeleton had been made from dozens of other skeletons fused into one, the party was now certain that there was a necromancer working somewhere in the graveyard.
Following the trail the skeletal colossus left behind, the party found their way to a fountain in the center of the graveyard. Though the fountain looked normal at first glance, there were obvious differences visible to further explorations. The 'water' in the fountain was thicker, almost gelatinous, and gave off a bad feeling to those near it. In the name of Science, God of Bad Things Happening In The Name Of Higher Learning, Valandil returned for the headless corpse of the ghoul and threw it into the fountain. The waters of the fountain acted oddly upon it, making it seem to swell and become more muscular before it lurched to its feet and, even though it was headless, it began attacking the party. It did some significant damage before it was felled again, and it collapsed backwards into the fountain before Desorna said, "Oh, hells no." and pulled it out, burning herself on the negative energy flowing through the 'waters' of the fountain.
Valandil went off to collect a bag of the remaining bone shards from the skeletal colossus to toss into the fountain. Meanwhile, while searching around, Arden found an access hatch which led down a ladder to a place under the fountain. Carefully they descended and advanced down the narrow hallway toward the underside of the fountain. Once there they came in through an archway into a central room where the figure of a magic-user was looking into a glowing globe.
The party moved to attack him and he turned and fired off some magic missiles into Merrick dealing serious damage. Merrick swung at the mage and it vanished, revealing itself to be an illusion, but an identical magic-user was standing against the far wall and the party charged on. At this point an armored cleric wielding a war hammer appeared from the north wall and charged into combat, occupying much of the party's attention while Merrick charged at the mage. Arden decided that destroying the glowing globe in the center of the room would help, and did so with a single well-placed sling bullet, shattering it and damaging those close to the globe. The mage cast a charm person spell and Merrick failed his saving throw. His new BFF told him "distract the rest of them" so the mage could escape, and Merrick trundled off to do so. The next round the mage vanished as Ahri and Valandil closed with him. Frustrated, Merrick somewhat twisted the mage's intent by presenting a reasonable option for him to be able to attack the evil cleric, doing so and hurting him. The cleric cast a heal serious wounds on himself and kept fighting. Desorna had been knocked below zero and had been stabilized by Arden with a healing spell when the mage reappeared in the archway where the party entered and dropped Ydee to zero with a magic missile spell. Taking a handoff from Merrick of a healing potion, Arden rushed over and got Ydee back on her feet with the potion and demanded payment from the mercenary half-elf who deferred to a time when not in combat. Ydee and Arden got ready to attack the mage when the mage vanished. Arden ran to where the mage had been, swinging his flail wildly in a faint hope of hitting the mage somehow. Ydee, figuring that the mage was fleeing, ran and threw a dagger blindly down the hallway towards the ladder to the surface. One natural 20 on the die later, the mage was dead and the charm on Merrick was ended. Ydee looked at Arden and said, "Debt PAID." and returned to battle against the evil cleric. Several round later, the evil cleric was dead and the party was ready to return to the surface with their downed comrade Desorna and to rest and heal with their well-earned rewards.
And there the Halloween adventure ended, just in time for Halloween.
The guards took them to where they met Officer Carrick, who told them of a disturbance in the cemetery and a guard patrol that had entered but had never come out again. Carrick pointed out that he had thought of the group as this would be a way that they could do a mission for the town that would both get them some money and improve their reputations. Seeing the advantage of this idea, and since it was a crescent moon waning and they had time before they could travel to the Castle in the Sky, the adventurers decided to accept the mission.
They entered the high stone walled graveyard through the heavy iron-bound wooden gates. A small cobblestone plaza was just inside in the northwest corner where they were with two gravel and dirt cart roads that led further into the graveyard to the east and south. The party looked around at the trees, shrubs, tombstones, and mausoleums and decided that one direction was as good as another and headed east.
After a while of heading east, Desorna saw something moving off to the southeast through the graveyard. Leaving the road they angled off to intercept it and found that it was a scrap of a guard uniform. Merrick determined that the wind was blowing from the southwest, so they headed in that direction to see if they could find the place the uniform had come from.
A quick travel led them to a place where it seemed a battle had taken place. A guard spear was found along with some blood, though the blood seemed very old. Some further searching found some drag tracks that led off to the southeast. The infrequent drag marks were followed until they came to an end at the southern road through the graveyard. A quick look around showed a group of four mausoleums on the south side of the road on the slope up towards the wall. The party went to investigate.
The first mausoleum showed no signs of having been tampered with, so Valandil marked it with a check made with chalk and they moved on to the second mausoleum. This one has a broken seal on it, and upon pushing it open Desorna was clawed by a hand from inside. She was successfully attacked again by the ghoul inside before the party could kill it dead. Once it was dead and decapitated, the party looked inside the tomb.
The mausoleum had three biers in it, each with the lids already half off. Checking inside the party found intact skeletons still in their grave clothes; a single person in the first and third and a couple side by side in the second. The party replaced the lids on the biers and left, closing the door and marking it for consecration and resealing. Valandil used one of the candles the party had to create a wax seal that would at least identify if the tomb was reopened after they had checked it.
The third mausoleum seemed intact, though there seemed to be a hole in the back roof of the mausoleum. Merrick busted through the sealed door while Valandil checked out the roof. The roof had only been damaged, not breached, and there was no way in. However, as Merrick broke open the door a nasty mist came out and made him vomit violently. As the fighter stumbled back a foul spectral mist flowed out to the attack. With a solid hit from Merrick's silver bastard sword and a pair of magic missiles from Ahri it was defeated. The party then moved in to further explore the area.
There was only one casket in here, and the corpse in it looked desiccated but still intact. Arden got the feeling that it was the source of the spectral mist, and so when the mausoleum was closed up again a sign was made on the door to note that a clerical visit was needed in this area.
The fourth mausoleum was intact and unopened, so the party passed it by and headed east along the road with the intent of getting to the northeast corner of the cemetery and spreading out slightly to walk through and see if they could find signs of the missing guards. The northeast corner and along the east wall were somewhat marshy from that side being right next to the larger lake. The ground was soft and there were quite a few small stones scattered here and there in the area. As the party walked through the area there was a sudden eruption around them as a dozen forms, divided evenly between skeletons and zombies erupted from shallow graves surrounding the party.
One of the zombies seemed to have an unearthly glow and was much smaller than the rest. As Desorna moved to attack it she was struck immobile by something about it, while the rest of the party attacked the other undead. Arden's holy aura spell destroyed most of the skeletons and wounded many of the zombies, including the unusual one. Merrick moved to attack it and was also struck immobile, though he recognized it as Dorni, the gnome thief, their dead former companion. The rest of the party managed to destroy the rest of the undead, and while Arden made his save against the dread zombie effect, he couldn't hit it. Finally Ydee came up and killed Dorni. Dorni dead again. With all the undead re-dead, the party looked around. Arden had the intense feeling of being watched, so the party headed into the graveyard toward an enclosed gazebo to see if being under cover helped any. It didn't seem to help much, so the party continued on in a widely spaced line for better searching of the area while still staying in sight of each other, and remaining ever more wary.
After a short while longer there was an "Oh hells." from the thief who was on the far western end of the line. She pointed to a large skeletal figure, maybe 20 feet high, that loomed over the landscape to the west. The party prepared to face it with Merrick charging straight ahead and Valandil circling around to attack from the side. After receiving a healing spell Desorna approached the melee and the battle raged. The skeleton delivered a lot of damage when it hit with the potential to knock unconscious or possibly kill most of the party in a single hit. Luckily it did not do enough damage to drop anyone before it was destroyed, exploding into shards of bone that scattered everywhere. Since this skeleton had been made from dozens of other skeletons fused into one, the party was now certain that there was a necromancer working somewhere in the graveyard.
Following the trail the skeletal colossus left behind, the party found their way to a fountain in the center of the graveyard. Though the fountain looked normal at first glance, there were obvious differences visible to further explorations. The 'water' in the fountain was thicker, almost gelatinous, and gave off a bad feeling to those near it. In the name of Science, God of Bad Things Happening In The Name Of Higher Learning, Valandil returned for the headless corpse of the ghoul and threw it into the fountain. The waters of the fountain acted oddly upon it, making it seem to swell and become more muscular before it lurched to its feet and, even though it was headless, it began attacking the party. It did some significant damage before it was felled again, and it collapsed backwards into the fountain before Desorna said, "Oh, hells no." and pulled it out, burning herself on the negative energy flowing through the 'waters' of the fountain.
Valandil went off to collect a bag of the remaining bone shards from the skeletal colossus to toss into the fountain. Meanwhile, while searching around, Arden found an access hatch which led down a ladder to a place under the fountain. Carefully they descended and advanced down the narrow hallway toward the underside of the fountain. Once there they came in through an archway into a central room where the figure of a magic-user was looking into a glowing globe.
The party moved to attack him and he turned and fired off some magic missiles into Merrick dealing serious damage. Merrick swung at the mage and it vanished, revealing itself to be an illusion, but an identical magic-user was standing against the far wall and the party charged on. At this point an armored cleric wielding a war hammer appeared from the north wall and charged into combat, occupying much of the party's attention while Merrick charged at the mage. Arden decided that destroying the glowing globe in the center of the room would help, and did so with a single well-placed sling bullet, shattering it and damaging those close to the globe. The mage cast a charm person spell and Merrick failed his saving throw. His new BFF told him "distract the rest of them" so the mage could escape, and Merrick trundled off to do so. The next round the mage vanished as Ahri and Valandil closed with him. Frustrated, Merrick somewhat twisted the mage's intent by presenting a reasonable option for him to be able to attack the evil cleric, doing so and hurting him. The cleric cast a heal serious wounds on himself and kept fighting. Desorna had been knocked below zero and had been stabilized by Arden with a healing spell when the mage reappeared in the archway where the party entered and dropped Ydee to zero with a magic missile spell. Taking a handoff from Merrick of a healing potion, Arden rushed over and got Ydee back on her feet with the potion and demanded payment from the mercenary half-elf who deferred to a time when not in combat. Ydee and Arden got ready to attack the mage when the mage vanished. Arden ran to where the mage had been, swinging his flail wildly in a faint hope of hitting the mage somehow. Ydee, figuring that the mage was fleeing, ran and threw a dagger blindly down the hallway towards the ladder to the surface. One natural 20 on the die later, the mage was dead and the charm on Merrick was ended. Ydee looked at Arden and said, "Debt PAID." and returned to battle against the evil cleric. Several round later, the evil cleric was dead and the party was ready to return to the surface with their downed comrade Desorna and to rest and heal with their well-earned rewards.
And there the Halloween adventure ended, just in time for Halloween.
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