Green Pass Campaign II, Session 6: Stalling For Time

This session consisted of everyone standing around trying to figure out what to do next. Eventually Sherlock noticed that ESP is totally broken, and used it to render the whole encounter trivial. This impudence will not go unpunished!

No treasure or experience, since there wasn't much in the way of treasure or exploration. I'll roll it over into the results of the next session.

June 25, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
Everyone enjoyed a good night's rest, as the arrival of a crew of new adventurers from Centerpost at the end put the tavern in good spirits. Naturally this would not last, as the next morning's weather featured unusual atmospheric disturbances of a necromantic sort. Everyone piled out to gawk at the portent of doom, while the keep's upper echelon of officials moved into the upper bailey to hold an emergency town hall meeting. Helga the wonderworker went into another prophetic trance and had a vision of the shadow spreading out from the Hyperborean Desert's ruined cities of Nerigos and Thule hundreds of miles to the east, and eventually dominating the continent -- but not before a great deal of infighting between various chaotic factions.

After a good deal of deliberation about the best direction to run away, the elf Terra Daystar finally suggested that it might be polite to at least give the castellan some notice before abandoning ship. The party had little difficulty convincing the guards they could be useful as participants in the meeting and arrived in media res, as everyone was discussing the source and nature of the present crisis. The chapel curate had already brought up the mosaic showing the Black Legion parading as it once was in life, and the idea of facing an elite fighting corps of the ancient world sworn to the service of a dark god of chaos wasn't welcome news.

A good deal of speculation arose about the next course of action that might be taken by Lord Varghoulis. After a great deal of discussion, the following conclusions were tentatively drawn:

• The newly raised forces loyal to Nergal would face local opposition from other factions already raising undead in the catacombs, and would probably need to consolidate power before marching to assault Balewood Keep.
• As knight-captain of the Black Legion, the death knight Varghoulis would probably have limited necromantic skills himself, and need to make an alliance with some more powerful necromancer in the area to augment his forces and seize control of the free-willed undead in the area.
• He'd probably want to raise some kind of undead mount, swift enough to travel the long path to the ruined temples of his masters in the east. The castellan's elvish advisor speculated he might try to seek the grave of a long-dead black dragon, to animate the skeleton.

The visiting priest recommended seeking out one of the rival chaotic cults in the catacombs, to see if they could join in an alliance of convenience against the forces of Nergal. This suggestion horrified enough of the party to cast suspicion on the priest's motives. The castellan suggested the possibility of a infiltrator already at the meeting, with the result that the mage Malcolm Hawk elected to interrogate the entire room simultaneously with an ESP spell. The visiting priest was immediately revealed as a servant of the cult of the Horned One, but without solid proof, this was only good for a severe case of Cassandra syndrome.

Everyone adjourned while Finkle scouted the high moors from the air, mounted on Helga's baby roc. (He would eventually return to report that the Legion had gone underground already, apparently through the main barrow entrance.) Petitioned by Malcolm in private audience, the castellan seemed deeply suspicious of the accusation against such a well-liked member of the community, but still approved of pursuing it to the point of investigation. Once the meeting went into recess, a single well-placed sleep spell -- by a mysterious newly-arrived paladin named Wulfhere who shouldn't have been able to cast arcane spells in the first place! -- immobilized the priest and his two acolytes and they were unceremoniously hauled off to the dungeon.

At this point, everyone in the party went a little psycho-crazy. The acolytes were murdered in cold blood, and their bodies burned and crushed into powder ("so they can't be raised as undead"). The priest himself was stripped down, and bound with chains on every limb. The sweet and innocent elfchild Terra made of point of permanently mutilating his tongue with a knife, then shaving his head and checking "his inner thighs" for evil runic tattoos. (It's always the shy ones who are into that stuff, eh?) So much for a fair trial with witnesses and evidence and all that.

Meanwhile, the saurian Zigzinu was dispatched back into the swamp to parley with the local lizardmen tribe. Because there just hasn't been enough talking already today, apparently.

At the end of the session, the party had just about settled on forming an expedition to the catacombs, looking for additional volunteers to accompany them from among the local adventurers...

Coming soon: A roster of everyone of local interest, for sake of reference.