Special: Vault of the Warlord

Characters:

Finrod, elf 1
Black Phalaros, necromancer 1
Clif, elementalist 1
Kelci Hind, spy 1 (Lost an arm. Demoted to NPC after the adventure)
Jan, cleric 1 (NPC)
Machado, fighter 1 (NPC)
Tafari, cleric 1 (NPC)

In the distant east, halfway to the City-State of the Invincible overlord, a group of adventurers gathered at a remote lake. At the bidding of a priestess of the dragon-god Bahamut, they were on an expedition into an ancient tomb. Their goal: to find the legendary Black Blade, a cursed sword once wielded by a long-forgotten warlord.

The tomb turned out to be infested with zombies, a sleeping vampire, a zombie crocodile, another vampire, living statues, a ghoul, & a gigantic slime monster!

Machado the fighter carried a Lawful magic sword, and managed to stay alive through wave after wave of zombie attacks, and far worse.

Clif's elementines were tremendously useful, keeping zombies at bay and solving problems throughout the dungeon.

Finrod the elf had his ribs broken by a zombie and had to sit out the rest of the adventure, recuperating back at camp.

Black Phalaros the necromancer was able to animate plenty of corpses in the dungeon (including with a handy scroll he found), and used the skeletons & zombies in clever ways to deal with the dungeon's many monsters & obstacles. 

The group sent a sleeping vampire to his final rest, and confiscated his magic weapons. Both were curved blades of ancient & exotic make, one larger and one smaller. Their full properties are unknown.

[DM NOTE - these swords prompted me to double-check the magic weapon rules. Some of these might not be usable by the same characters, but nobody will take damage from them when play resumes -- we will assume that the proper character has been handling them. Their alignments are posted below. No more oopsies on this matter will occur!]

Jan the cleric was killed after reading an enchanted book in the library - his brain just melted!

Kelci Hind stabbed a vampiress in the back, dealing a powerful blow, but for his troubles he had his arm torn clean off and barely survived! Only clever magical preparations on Clif's part saved the whole group from certain doom in that battle. 

Black Phalaros: "If you like, I could re-animate your hand for you..."

Tafari the cleric of Asmodeus was helpful, healing the group whenever possible, but didn't really say much - was it natural reticence, or something more? We don't know yet.

The group found many strange & deadly traps and illusions. Clif touched an embroidered green carpet and was assaulted by a spectral horror only he could see! Clutching his chest, he managed to survive the almost heart-stopping horror...

Clif: "I saw the price tag, guys!"

They found The Singularity, a strange illusionary man who berated and confounded them with illusions - its only purpose seemingly to waste their time. It was guarding a vault of trade bars! The party loaded 115 gold bars out of the dungeon with the help of their zombie servants, a massive hoard! Unfortunately they learned too late that that the gold was all cursed...

They disturbed a gigantic purplish-black puddle of slime, which chased them out of the dungeon completely! When they returned, the slime had eaten all the organic matter in sight. Dead bodies, wooden shelves, leftover books, everything else. From then on, they had to keep watch for the giant slime-puddle and occasionally run away from it, or have one character lead it on a chase away from their goals.

The party found several preserved body-parts throughout the dungeon. A softly mumbling severed head on a shelf, a petrified arm in a basilisk's lair, a set of legs inside the stomach of a zombie crocodile. Slowly they assembled the pieces, which had not decayed at all, into an intact man. When they used a Stone to Flesh scroll on the petrified portion, the man returned to life. He was confused and helpless, but led them to the Warlord's final resting place.

In the extra-dimensional space where the Warlord was buried, four pillars held his final ghoulish lieutenants. These were destroyed one at a time by the group, and the black coffin fell open: inside was only a pile of dust, and the Black Blade. This cursed weapon was secured safely (thank goodness) and transported swiftly back to High Priestess Annavalaxia at the church of Bahamut. She rewarded the party with 1,200 gold pieces, and promised to destroy this weapon of evil before it could fall into the wrong hands.

The confused man was recognized at the church, and Annavalaxia brought forth a book about his legendary life: he was St. Nolan, a powerful Patriarch who lived over a century ago, lost without a trace on his adventures.

St. Nolan wished to rejoin his church in Viridistan, and asked the group to accompany him. As they had spent some of their cursed gold before anyone realized its ominous properties, the locals were only too eager to see them gone!

The State of Things:

- The party is traveling to Viridistan, accompanying St. Nolan as he returns to the temple of Seker.
- They have their gold bars & other treasures loaded on a cart & team of horses.
- Finrod is recovering from his injuries, but we will assume that when the group gets to Viridistan and are available to play, he will be fully healed.
- Everyone except Finrod (he wasn't there when it was taken from the dungeon) is has been cursed by the gold bars, and suffers -4 on attacks/saves, and possibly other effects, until this curse is removed. Note that unless the curse is removed from the gold itself, it will fall on any person who accepts even a single bar.

Monsters Defeated:

Zombies (many)
Sleeping Vampire (no XP though)
Blinded Vampiress
Living Statue
Ghoul
Zombie Crocodile
Warlord's Guardians

Treasure Obtained:

*** please note who is carrying what if you haven't already ***

Drum set
4 dangerous magical books (used & sold)
magic scimitar - Manhunter (Chaotic)
magic great scimitar - Aeon Blade (stats as greatsword) (Neutral)
scroll of wizard lock
scroll of stone to flesh (used)
metal scroll case
scroll of fly
scroll of remove curse (used)
assortment of potions (healing & some others unidentified)
some silver coins (already distributed)
wand of fireballs (1 charge remaining)
ring of spell storing (M-U)
dagger +1
chainmail +1
immovable rod
staff of healing (given back to St. Nolan)

115 cursed gold trade bars
(6 bars spent, 109 bars remaining - 54,500 silver pieces total value!)

Treasure Sold & Shares:

glowing topaz (500 sp)
chest of wizard's books, non-magical (1000 sp)
silver brooch w/ emeralds (3000 sp)
sapphire (1000 sp)

1,200 gold piece reward for finding the Black Blade
(split 6 ways is 200 gp each)

Cost-of-living and the cost of identifying some magic items has already been deducted.

Finrod: 193 sp + 200 gp
Clif: 1185 sp + 200 gp 
Kelci: 1185 sp + 200 gp
Black Phalaros: 858 sp + 200 gp
Machado: 526 sp + 200 gp
Tafari: 526 sp + 200 gp

Experience:

Black Phalaros, Machado and Tafari reached level 2!!
Clif and Kelci have reached level 3!!!
Finrod is still at level 1... such is the struggle of elves in this decadent age.

Machado & Tafari can be upgraded to PCs, or come on adventures as hirelings, but because they have classes & levels they'll get their own shares of XP automatically.

Session 35

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

Thistleburn 5, 4433
A few hours passed during the session.

Characters:

Gorr, ranger 5
Robert the Swift, fighter 5
Daqqa-Jin, barbarian 4
Salzige Brauen, necromancer 2
Xénos, spy 2
Lord Fesgate, fighter 4 (NPC)

The party continued their talk with the Carrion King. It explained a few more details about the moon-headed giant Kucmalog & discoursed on his magical items. A flaming sword and a magical mirror, apparently one of many that exist in the kingdom. Then it gave a dire warning about a dangerous location in the moonlit zone. The creature also offered to trade any one of his magic items in exchange for Salzige's hideous, nightmare-inducing idol.

The group moved on, following the Carrion King's directions. They came upon a guardpost with moon-gnolls who were willing to negotiate and were interested in the group's plan to open up the prisons. The leader of the gnolls agreed to take the party to the prison towers in exchange for eating anybody they found inside!

Gnarg the gnoll and five of his troops accompanied the group, with one needlebeak. They ran into another gnoll patrol at a circle of standing stones, and there was a standoff. A few of these gnolls joined the group looking for easy food, but the others wouldn't come along - they declined to attack their comrades, letting the group leave after a tense moment.

The Prison Towers

After Gnarg helpfully relieved the gnoll patrol that was circling the towers,  the group had the run of the place. The front doors could be easily opened, but the group used the Four Winds Bar to fly up to the floating mini-tower. 

They saw a symbol & altar of Uthummaos and an investigated an old stone coffin, decapitating a corpse in there and taking some treasure. Then they were accosted by a terrible wraith, demanding they swear fealty to King Wakelinus and Lord Uthummaos! Gorr was having none of that, and struck the altar with a mace.

Gorr: "Fuck Uthummaos and fuck You!"

For his defiance, the ranger was blasted by yellow laser-beams from the sinister wall carvings!

As the guardian spirit attacked, Daqqa-Jin spoke the command word "Azerix" to activate another power of the Four Winds Bar, unleashing a blast of deadly lightning in every direction! It did terrible damage to the insubstantial creature but harmed the group as well: Xénos, Salzige and Lord Fesgate were all knocked flat! Gorr managed to grit his teeth through the pain (and pass his WIS check, keeping a tight hold on sanity for the moment) enough to splash the monster with holy water.

The creature was defeated, but at serious cost: Lord Fesgate got knocked unconscious but was alright with a bit of healing. Xénos barely survived a lightining-induced heart failure, and would be near-useless in a fight from now on. And Salzige lay in a coma, totally unresponsive...

The party unlocked the nearby cells, rescuing many shades from the time-prisons. They met a nobleman Lord Almery IV and his entourage: Hamon, Ranulph and their quarry, Reymund the Pale! They had to battle some giant snake-creatures called Jaculi to rescue some of the rebels, who suffered a handful of casualties. They threw down the Jaculi's corpses for Gnarg and his friends to eat.

Lord Almery was overjoyed at the rescue. He suggested they clear the tower in case more rebels were imprisoned further below.

Inside the smaller tower, Daqqa-Jin destroyed mounds of crystal with his horn of blasting, which shivered and broke apart from the stress. From the remnants of the crystal formations crystal golems emerged, blasting at the barbarian with scintillating energy beams. The whole group retreated back up the stairs, pouring lamp oil to cover the retreat. 

The situation as it stands:

7 crystalline men inside the tower are chasing after Daqqa-Jin
8 gnolls and 1 needlebeak led by Gnarg wait on the ground for more food
a handful of rebel troops have weapons, the rest are unarmed

Rebels Rescued:

40 rebel soldiers (5 died)
Hamon, the Unbreakable
Ranulph, the Silent
Lord Almery IV
Reymund, the Pale

Monsters Defeated:

13 Jaculi (247 xp)
1 Uthummaos' guardian (300 xp)
9 giant moths (342 xp)

Treasure Obtained:

2 topaz "eye" gems
robes embroidered with gold thread
ornate mace of strange aspect

Session 34

I SURVIVED A MOONLIT ZONE...

Thistleburn 5, 4433

7 subjective days passed inside the Forest of Dreams

Characters:

Gorr, ranger 5

Daqqa-Jin, barbarian 4

Robert the Hard Pressed, fighter 5

Salzige Brauen, necromancer 2

Xénos, spy 2

The party fled from the disastrous attack on Fort Behringer [last session], pursued through the moonlit zone by a pack of gnolls led by a half headed moon-giant! After several gambits and tricks including some airborne hijinks with the Four Winds Bar, the group escaped the gnolls' pursuit and reunited with the lake men and the bandit Rauffe, who was sad to hear of Eric's demise.

They returned to the Forgotten Village, where things seem to have declined. Arlen the magistrate was slowly degenerating, Baran the guard-captain was nowhere around and Lauriel the paladin had fallen in combat. Shandril the priestess of Solaris was the de facto leader of the village now. 

They held a sad funeral ceremony for Eric Withakay. The last original member of the party, the silver-tongued orator (or maybe he just got lucky) who had rallied the citizens of Drydale against the witches [yep, all the way back in session 1, three years ago] was dead. A crusader for good who had sworn his oath to a deity from this strange realm and championed its people. After being poisoned in Issachar Dimorites' mansion months ago, death held no mystery for him anymore. At the end of the ceremony, a blinding light flared from the Crucible of Solaris, and Eric's body was gone - transported to the arms of Solaris for his final repose.

After reuniting with their shifty pistol-wielding ally Xénos, the group rested, re-supplied and turned right around towards the moonlit zone, not even stopping to chat in the Night Wolf Inn.

They entered the forest through a different route, passing over a swift-flowing river of fog. They fought some giant carnivorous flies, and progressed towards a ruined tower nearby.

Outside the ruined tower, they spoke to a strange sickly-looking bird with a glowing white aura, like the ones the moon-gnolls kept caged. It called itself Ip-Ip, asking for food. It explained that the tower was the domain of the Carrion King, who lived there with a swarm of giant flies. The party fed it more and told it where to find some giant fly carcasses to feed on further, and it hopped along.

Daqqa-Jin entered the tower, and met the Carrion King himself.

This bizarre and unsightly creature was friendly & civil, eager to talk and bargain. He offered to trade with the party for gems, magic items, living captives, or secrets. The group traded him two secrets:

1 - The story of the magical book Pheldrazash, carried by their old friend Lothos who is being unduly influenced. Lothos is now a member of the Gloaming Tower.

2 - The story of Magrometh the Piper, and how the group released the horde of undead on top of the sacred mountain above the dwarven village Mishell.

For these secrets, the Carrion King told the party where to find Reymund the Pale in a nearby prison, and began a discourse on the kingdom's moonlit zones...

Monsters Defeated:

3 giant flies (87 xp)

Treasure Obtained:

none