Second Session - March 24, 2013
The party heads back to Ruhd to recover from the battle with the gargoyles. As night falls, the sky to the north is glowing red (in the direction of the temple... that we never reached). A terrible storm is seen to be brewing to the northwest and heading our way. Tunnely looks to the sky and says, "Yep. This is how it all went down before."
Preparing for an evening of undead goodliness, the party builds a stout fire in the cooking pit of the abandoned house in which we are staying for the night. We set up patrols in shifts; Solara does the same with her men.
Near sundown, the storm hits, and it's a doozy. In the middle of the night, Swifty takes his shift on watch duty, patrolling the perimeter of the house. Lightning flashes are common enough to provide sporadic views of the fields surrounding the house. Midway through Swifty's shift, he spots a humanoid figure standing with arms outstretched by the well, 50 feet behind the house. A lightning bolt strikes the staff that is being held by the person by the well, who then strikes the ground with the staff. A dull gray-blue light is seen to emit from the end of the staff and spread across and into the ground in all directions.
Swifty yells out, "We've got a wizard by the well." The rest of the party rises from sleep, along with Solara's men. Tunnely comes running out of the house, sword and shield in hand, and yells, "They're here!" He rushes the figure by the well. Swifty runs to the well and notices that the figure is a tall emaciated human. He has all the earmarks of a necromancer. Tunnely bowls into him and melee begins. The necromancer casts Fear; Swifty and Scar wet themselves and start running away.
About this time, hundreds (not making this up here) of skeletons begin to rise up out of the ground in a 100-foot radius surrounding the necromancer. Baldemar and Jax go back-to-back outside the house, joining Solara and the rest of her men at the house, who have formed a phalanx just outside the front door.
After recovering from the fear spell, Swifty turns back to head back to the necromancer; Scar runs to the stables along with Leif to help out Solara's men there.
There are only five of Solara's men left standing in the stables by the time Leif and Scar arrive. Scar decides that the best plan of action is to mount a (spooked) horse. After fitzle-futzing around with a horse for a few melee rounds, he decides to get back onto the ground and help out Solara's men who are knee-deep in kimchee at this time, having their hands full with skeletons.
Swifty clears a path back to the necromancer, turning skeletons every round along the way. Tunnely and the necromancer duke it out one-on-one. Tunnely holds his own pretty well for a halfling. Leif, back at the stables, noticed that the troops stationed there were slow to rise and refused to leave the stable to help out with the main fighting, claiming that they are going to set up and hold their defensive in the stable.
After several rounds of fighting, the battle starts to swing in the favor of the party. At this time, the necromancer puts a big hurt on Tunnely, knocking him down. He has also summoned a dust-devil by this time, which doesn't help matters. After Tunnely slowly regains his feet, the necromancer backs away from the fight, heading north into the forest. The skeletons that are still intact also break off from the fight at this time and slowly make their way north as well.
The party decides to let the necromancer and the skeletons go, and regroup to lick our wounds. It turns out that the town of Ruhd is built on top of where a great battle was once fought. This would explain the plethora of skeletons in the area, ripe for being animated. The killed skeletons all bear the Chessarian crest, which is one of the two armies involved in the big battle.
After the excitement dies down, Leif pulls Solara aside and informs her that Guydean (her second in command) dropped the ball concerning how he handled his men in the stables. We rifle through the destroyed skeletons and find a whopping 9 silver pieces and 36 copper pieces.
Swifty recalls that the necromancer had a skull (human-sized) mounted to his staff. The party also recalls that the pile of villager bodies found two days prior were all beheaded. Given the casting ritual that the necromancer used to raise the dead, we deduce that he requires human skulls to cast the mass raise dead spell.
Thinking that we need to find a way to consecrate the ground in this village in order to thwart future dead raisings, Jax climbs down the well to see what it looks like down there (maybe we could bless a large quantity of ground water). It turns out that the well opens up onto a subterranean river in a natural underground cave. However, the cave doesn't lead anywhere.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
That's Ruhd
First Session
Cast of characters
Scar – swarf (Kathy, what the hell's a "swarf"?)
Swifty – Cleric
Jax – fighter
Valdemar – monk
Leif – druid
Some recent history
There was a recent challenge to Hyrannustar, a council member. Lordship battle is a big deal. Ciran vs. Krytow – rumored that the dispute was that Krytow came to power in an undeserved manner.
We begin in the city of Sard. Jax, Scar and Swifty stay at a local temple. There's a big commotion out in the street. We run out to see a horse and cart charging down the town, almost trampling a family. Swifty stops the horse. Inside the cart is a mummified knight and an urn, wooden shield, long sword and helmet in a hidden compartment. A priest from the temple runs out to stop us. We bring the cart and horse into the temple.
We find out that two priests from Ruhd were bringing this cart to Krom's temple. The urn contains a special potion. Priest’s story: His counterpart (Theodoric) in Ruhd was behaving strangely and began to cast out followers. Most people took refuge in Sard. He was having some people bring back the urn, which contains the Elixir of Life, and the body of this lord.
Someone must have jumped the two who were bringing the cart back, spooking the horse. The priest offers us 750 in gold and services and the protection of Krom to go find Theodoric.
The party leaves town, heading southeast with the cart and horse, two mules, and a local who knows how to handle a team of horses. We make it to the next town – Brie. Scar talks to a thief at the bar. He was roughed up in the town of Ruhd by a mob of skeletons who were wearing strange armor.
The thief, a halfling named Tunnely, is heavily armed and agrees to join our party. During the conversation, we spot someone eavesdropping in on Scar's and Tunnely's conversation: a shabbily dressed human eating a decent meal (nice flavor text, Kathy). Swifty engages him in conversation. He scoffs at Tunnely's story, says it's spreading rumors. When he leaves, Scar follows him. He goes to a hidden gate on the south side and talks to the gatekeeper. Scar hears him say, "There's a party of 6 and they are headed to Ruhd."
Heading to Ruhd, we travel the next day without incident, arriving at Comb on day two. Comb is a much smaller town. It's across the river. We stay at an inn. News is: Ruhd is a bit dire – nothing has come into Comb. Night passes uneventfully.
We enter Ruhd the next day. We see no smoke coming from the town; it's as if the town is deserted. As we hit the town limits, a group of 20 meet us with a woman at the lead. They are flying a flag, a yellow triangular bit of cloth with a riding red sun. The woman introduces herself as Solaras, the leader of the Singing Dawn. She carries a shield, spear and bow. She's a 5'6” blonde with a very athletic build (much like a linebacker... think female dwarf, but without the beard). She is following up on reports that armies from the Chesarian empire have been seen marching toward Ruhd. The Chesarian, however, have been dead for years.
Solaras and company have only been in town two days. They say it has been abandoned. We find fresh tracks, about 1-2 days old that lead to the east, and look like troops. After tracking them into the woods, we come to the conclusion that whoever passed through Ruhd two days ago were a heavily armored group.
Tunnely's tale: Four nights ago, there was a huge storm in Ruhd. Skeletons rose up from the floor. He ran to check other homes and found them empty, although he had heard screams, and a sound like the beating of wings. He was assaulted by skeletons on his way out of town.
We follow the tracks into the woods and find a mass slaughter – all the townspeople dead. All of their heads are missing. Odd, that.
On our way to Theodoric's we are attacked by winged creatures, much like ugly flying monkeys – gargoyles. We take a beating. We go back, and get Solaras, who has some magical arrows. We kill one gargoyle but the second one flees. The party licks its victorious wounds.
Cast of characters
Scar – swarf (Kathy, what the hell's a "swarf"?)
Swifty – Cleric
Jax – fighter
Valdemar – monk
Leif – druid
Some recent history
There was a recent challenge to Hyrannustar, a council member. Lordship battle is a big deal. Ciran vs. Krytow – rumored that the dispute was that Krytow came to power in an undeserved manner.
We begin in the city of Sard. Jax, Scar and Swifty stay at a local temple. There's a big commotion out in the street. We run out to see a horse and cart charging down the town, almost trampling a family. Swifty stops the horse. Inside the cart is a mummified knight and an urn, wooden shield, long sword and helmet in a hidden compartment. A priest from the temple runs out to stop us. We bring the cart and horse into the temple.
We find out that two priests from Ruhd were bringing this cart to Krom's temple. The urn contains a special potion. Priest’s story: His counterpart (Theodoric) in Ruhd was behaving strangely and began to cast out followers. Most people took refuge in Sard. He was having some people bring back the urn, which contains the Elixir of Life, and the body of this lord.
Someone must have jumped the two who were bringing the cart back, spooking the horse. The priest offers us 750 in gold and services and the protection of Krom to go find Theodoric.
The party leaves town, heading southeast with the cart and horse, two mules, and a local who knows how to handle a team of horses. We make it to the next town – Brie. Scar talks to a thief at the bar. He was roughed up in the town of Ruhd by a mob of skeletons who were wearing strange armor.
The thief, a halfling named Tunnely, is heavily armed and agrees to join our party. During the conversation, we spot someone eavesdropping in on Scar's and Tunnely's conversation: a shabbily dressed human eating a decent meal (nice flavor text, Kathy). Swifty engages him in conversation. He scoffs at Tunnely's story, says it's spreading rumors. When he leaves, Scar follows him. He goes to a hidden gate on the south side and talks to the gatekeeper. Scar hears him say, "There's a party of 6 and they are headed to Ruhd."
Heading to Ruhd, we travel the next day without incident, arriving at Comb on day two. Comb is a much smaller town. It's across the river. We stay at an inn. News is: Ruhd is a bit dire – nothing has come into Comb. Night passes uneventfully.
We enter Ruhd the next day. We see no smoke coming from the town; it's as if the town is deserted. As we hit the town limits, a group of 20 meet us with a woman at the lead. They are flying a flag, a yellow triangular bit of cloth with a riding red sun. The woman introduces herself as Solaras, the leader of the Singing Dawn. She carries a shield, spear and bow. She's a 5'6” blonde with a very athletic build (much like a linebacker... think female dwarf, but without the beard). She is following up on reports that armies from the Chesarian empire have been seen marching toward Ruhd. The Chesarian, however, have been dead for years.
Solaras and company have only been in town two days. They say it has been abandoned. We find fresh tracks, about 1-2 days old that lead to the east, and look like troops. After tracking them into the woods, we come to the conclusion that whoever passed through Ruhd two days ago were a heavily armored group.
Tunnely's tale: Four nights ago, there was a huge storm in Ruhd. Skeletons rose up from the floor. He ran to check other homes and found them empty, although he had heard screams, and a sound like the beating of wings. He was assaulted by skeletons on his way out of town.
We follow the tracks into the woods and find a mass slaughter – all the townspeople dead. All of their heads are missing. Odd, that.
On our way to Theodoric's we are attacked by winged creatures, much like ugly flying monkeys – gargoyles. We take a beating. We go back, and get Solaras, who has some magical arrows. We kill one gargoyle but the second one flees. The party licks its victorious wounds.
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