Saberstrath Campaign, Session 8: Nuclear Option

November 28-December 9, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

While elaborate base preparations began at the base of the mountain, the party dispatched high altitude dragon-bombing runs with magically miniaturized blocks from the mountain dig-out. A handful of the blocks, enchanted to return to full size during descent, soon created a cratered lanscape in the glacial rift, smashing ice and a couple giants and destroying the peculiar ice dome at the sound end.

This strategy wasn't without risks, as the giants soon learned to anticipate aerial assault and to use their great horns as a general alarm to summon a dragon of their own -- a huge creature that dwarfed Viserion in size. Still, the annoyance of a local threat was at least good for setting bait into the trap being constructed several thousand feet below.

Within a few days the giants were ready to retaliate. Scouts witness a massive column of giants ascending out of the rift, primarily frost but with a few allied giants from stone and fire clans, a squad of ogre-mages with ogre guards, and even a cloud giant (head and shoulders above the rest). Huntmasters among the frost giants were leading teams of winter wolves, snow leopards, and huge white cave bears. The ancient white dragon circled them from the air, to ward off bombing runs. In principle, the force could probably have leveled a small city.

In practice, the giants really would have been better off facing a city. Instead, they first met a host of Herrohnin's skeleton suicide bombers carrying miniature blocks from the hollowed tunnels, activiated with magical proximity fuses. As the insane skeletons hit the front of the line, the blocks (several dozen of them) all returned to full 10'-cube size, erupting into a massive cascade of stone ejecta comparable to an orbital asteroid strike. The front of the column was buried by highly accelerated multi-ton stone projectiles, and a fountain of launched blocks rained down over the next few seconds, slamming down on the majority of the ogre mages and squashing them flat. (A stroke of good luck, as it turned out, given their potent lightning bolts.)

Still, over two dozen giants remained, and they crashed angrily into the outer walls of the party's makeshift stronghold, smashing past the gate and occupying the courtyard. The party had long since retreated through the tunnels (or a secret back entrance) into the panic room at the end of their newly-excavated tunnel complex behind the battlements.

Giants began pounding into the tunnels in single file. The first batch of giants walked directly between a skeletal pike ambush screen, taking modest damage, and then charged forward to engage them... directly through the trapped far entrance.

After clearing away the ambush and licking their wounds, the giants advanced to the first tunnel intersection, where the next portion of the trap was already in motion. Skeletons from all three sides, this time in heavy armor, began charging down the halls bristling with polearms. Even smashing them as fast as possible was little use, as additional ranks stepped forward to replace them.

Meanwhile, Zelmar and Oin advanced through the rubble from the rear, having circled around from out of the hidden back entrance (and narrowly dodged the dragon) -- right into the collection of oversized beasts. The winter wolves unleashed a volley of frost breath, badly injuring the attackers and forcing them back into the tunnel. Oin was knocked unconscious, and one of the ogres (fleeing the disaster in the tunnels ahead) stuffed him into a sack on the way out. Unforunately, the ogre plowed right through a trap, injuring himself but brutally maiming the unconscious Oin.

Archery-based attempts to stop the escaping ogres by Sir Robin merely alerted the dragon, who swept down to seize the elf in his talons. Only some last-minute heroics with a remaining miniaturized block prevented him from escaping with his prey.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th-level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th-level bladedancer
• Adoniram Hewer, 3rd-level mage
• Frigodria, 5th-level paladin
• Viserion, 4th-level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th-level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th-level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner

=> 6 surviving PCs + 2 henchmen = 7 shares

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Thorvald, 5th level spy
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Oin Orinson, stuffed into a sack by a giant and then dragged through his own lethal trap. When you're a sapper, it's only a matter of time before you end up hoist on your own petard.

Treasure

None. That's the drawback of letting the giants come to you.

Total gold per member: 0 gp

Experience

Killed: 1 cloud giant [1200], 4 fire giants [4x1000=4000], 10 frost giants [10x850=8500], 4 stone giants [4x700=2800], 4 hill giants [4x600=2400], 6 ogre magi [6x570=3420], 14 ogres [14x140=1960], 4 cave bears [4x320=1280], 6 winter wolves [6x570=3420], 13 snow leopards [13x80=1040]
Total:  30020 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 30020 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 30020 xp
Total experience per member: 4289 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 7: Cold War Escalation

November 11-27, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

The delivery from Durnovar took a couple weeks to arrive. In the meantime, the party divided attention between multiple projects. Herrohnin devoted several dozen disguised skeletons to housing construction, hoping to curry favor with the peasantry. Viserion and Sir Robin waited outside the city in the wilderness.

After a week or so, another patrol of giants arrived. This time there were four of them and they came with a company of dwarves. The party lured them to the location of several newly constructed huts and shelters -- full of traps and hidden skeletons! Two of the giants went down quickly, toppling into pits created with sapper magic. The other two pounded forward toward a fortified rampart atop one of the buildings, and began slamming the skeleton archers at the top. Meanwhile, the dwarves picked their way through the other buildings, discovering traps and skeleton ambushes led by heavily armored skeletons with darkness-enchanted helms.

Ice Giant (by chevsky)

After the fall of the giants, the dwarves quickly found themselves surrounded and badly handled by the skeleton horde. With their numbers reduced to only a couple dozen, their officers elected to surrender, ending what might otherwise have been a lengthy standoff between opposing lines of heavily armored foes shrouded in fields of magical darkness.

The dwarves agreed to accompany the party on an expedition to the frost giant stronghold, in exchange for being allowed to live. After arming more skeletons with the new shipments of gear, the party advanced to within 20 miles of the mountain spur and created a base camp in the temperate foothills below, using more sapper tunneling spells to create an underground complex of their own.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th-level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th-level bladedancer
• Adoniram Hewer, 3rd-level mage
• Frigodria, 5th-level paladin
• Viserion, 4th-level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th-level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th-level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner

=> 6 PCs + 2 henchmen = 7 shares

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Thorvald, 5th level spy
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

A few skeletons that will be back in a day

Treasure

None (unless you count surrendered dwarves as treasure)

Total gold per member: 0 gp

Note: I'm still giving experience credit for the gold the dwarves were carrying, as though you "won" it by defeating them and then immediately paid it back to them to "hire" them.

Experience

Killed: 4 frost giants [4x850=3400], 81 fire dwarves [81x10=810]
Captured: Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord [1300], 4 5th-level vaultguards [4x350=1400], 3 4th-level vaultguards [3x135=405], 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds [2x65=130], 2nd-level vaultguard [29], 18 fire dwarves [18x10=180]
Total:  7654 xp

Total experience from treasure: 9600 xp (captured dwarves)
Total experience from kills: 7654 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 17,254 xp
Total experience per member: 2465 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 6: Not In My House!

November 8-10, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Returning triumphantly to Hemmelmark the following day with a fine collection of ancient crypt treasures, the party quickly realized that the whole city of Hemmemark was in a state of disarray. Guards had left their posts, and the crowds that had previous lined the streets to gawk at the adventurers were instead hurrying along in a state of anxious panic. Accosting a random passerby revealed that the central keep had been invaded by assassins making an attempt on Duke Johann's life!

The party arrived in the bailey courtyard to find a ring of guards surrounding the keep. The assassins were holed up inside with hostages, after blowing their cover. Scrying on the visitor's hall revealed several ruffians threatening a group of captured keep staff, including a young girl at knifepoint. Duke Johann, arriving in animated conference with the court magician, revealed that his own daughter was a prisoner of the invaders, and implored the party to do whatever they could to spare her life. Meanwhile, Sir Robin and Viserion peaked through the upper windows to try to identify the location of other assassins.

Zelmar and Thorvald teleported directly into the chamber to catch the hostage-takers by surprise. The rest of the party flew up to the roof and battered down the access door to the upper floor. Fortunately the guards by the hostages were weaker, allowing the room to be secured before the leaders could return from patrolling the hall outside.

The actual fight itself ended quickly once reinforcements arrived to support the initial strike team -- though just in the nick of time, as Zelmar had been paralyzed and Thorvald was surrounded. Fighting went man-to-man, and then vicious dragon attacks from Viserion cleaned out the survivors.


The Duke expressed his gratitude, and gave the party full permission to seek out the source of the assassins -- he suspect the Burrgrave of Hochgrube, Ristovarius of House Wittigis, one of his longtime rivals. He warned the party that Hochgrube was a slaver city that had taken prisoner many of the citizens of the northern Timberlands, so that it would not do to merely burn the place to the ground.

After that, the party continued preparations for an assault on the frost giant fortress in the high saddle glaciers of Mount Isigbar to the southwest. A few party members traveled to neighboring Hainburg to look for magical items, but with little success beyond a few minor trinkets. They did hire a single mage, Adoniram Hewer, a graduate of the nearby Hedgecliff, a tower of high sorcery several leagues southwest along the coast. The tower is tall enough to be visible from Hainburg, shining in the seeing sun; here, many wizards have pooled their apprentices to create an enhanced educational environment. (Adoniram describes himself as "Grifflepaw prefect three-year nonconsecutive with honors", which sounds like it's probably a good thing to be, at least so far as anyone can tell.)

"A tower of high sorcery several leagues southwest along the coast" (Art by Andreas Rocha)

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th level bladedancer
• Frigodria, 5th level paladin
• Viserion, 4th level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner
• Thorvald, 5th level spy

=> 7 PCs + 2 henchmen = 8 shares

Not appearing in this adventure:

• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, who is off monitoring the frost giants

Casualties

Lots of skeletons and spirit dwarves

Treasure

Coins: 12,400 gp

Magical items:

• cloak of protection +1
• 9 bolts +1 
• 3 arrows +1
• Nightblade spellbook: read magic, choking grip, stinking cloud

Total gold per member: 1550 gp

Experience

Killed: 8th level nightblade [1600 xp], 8th level witch [1100 xp], 8th level thief [1100 xp], 7th level gladiator [790 xp], 5th level thief [350 xp], 5th level ruinguard [350 xp], 4th level thief [135 xp], 2nd level barbarian [29 xp], 1st level antipaladin [13 xp]
Total:  5467 xp

Total experience from treasure: 12,400 xp
Total experience from kills: 5467 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 17867 xp
Total experience per member: 2233 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 5: Pay No Attention To The Mummy Behind The Curtain

November 7-8, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Anatolia, mystic oracle

The party overheard a tavern rumor about a hidden tomb in a great chasm somewhere in the forest. After paying a nominal fee for the exact location, a few interested members of the party formed up into a small group of the living (and a larger group of the dead) to investigate. Zelmar had been hunting for a henchman, and after he turned up an oracle from the Niobraran deserts to the southwest, the party waited an extra day to allow her to complete a prophetic vision before setting out. The chasm was incredibly narrow, more like a rift that had opened during some sort of cataclysm, rather than a canyon formed by natural erosion.

The hidden mummy lord

The location proved to be the site of a tomb that had been carved into the cliff wall centuries in the past. Descending down the wall on ropes (several hundred feet of joined rope!), the found a pillared terrace with a single entrance. The entrance led into a twisting passage with unnaturally cut walls, warded by eternal silence. The passage was deserted as it led past ancient tableaux showing the preparation of corpses for preservation. Disturbingly, the corpses did not appear to be very human, but instead looked like hunched and neckless creatures with broad mouths and no noses -- not human, and not any of the more common sorts of beastmen either. The party progressed in the middle of a long column of skeletons and dwarves.

In the next room, the party encountered walls of skeleton sentries that clattered into action, barring further passage. As the first waves of skeletons clashed with one another, the party heard the report of scraping sarcophagus lids in the room beyond. The battle was soon joined by four mummies and the foul chanting of an unseen fifth. As the battle with the mummies progressed, strange magics began to emerge from the doorway: a cloudkill spell, a summoned cave kraken, and a massive earth golem that scraped huge gouges in the ceiling.

After clearing a path to the burial chamber, the mummy lord was discovered and dispatched. The chamber was mostly empty, but a bit of searching turned up a door hidden in the corner -- a secret treasure hoard!

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th level bladedancer
• Viserion, 4th level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner

Not appearing in this adventure:

• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
• Frigodria, 5th level paladin
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, who is off monitoring the frost giants

Casualties

Lots of skeletons and spirit dwarves

Treasure
4000 ep
4000 gp
1000 pp

Crown: 30,000 gp
Mask: 8000 gp
Fan: 6000 gp
Ceremonial dagger: 6000 gp

Total value: 66,000 gp

Note: This stuff is hard to sell, so you don't actually have this much gold until you find a buyer. This value is just a claim against the share of treasure.

Magical items: sword +1, flametongue, short sword +2, short sword +1, sword +1

Total gold per member: 11,000 gp

Experience

Killed: mummy lord [5400 xp], earth elemental [3300 xp], cave kraken [1560 xp], 4 mummies [4x460 = 1840 xp], 14 skeletons [14x13 = 182 xp]
Total: 12282 xp

Total experience from treasure: 66,000 xp
Total experience from kills: 12,282 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 78,282 xp
Total experience per member: 13,047 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 4: Twenty Minute Defrost Setting

November 4-6, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

While moving through the settlements around the fortress of Hemmelmark, the party began to attract unusual interest from the local peasants. Even without the dismissed skeletal army, the presence of two modestly sized dragons of a usually chaotic alignment was not a routine occurrence, and guards eyed the weary caravan warily. As the caravan pushed up the road toward the gates of Hemmelmark, guards detained the party members for more information, allowing the carts of hungry refugees to proceed on ahead.

As a moderately sized city with tens of thousands of inhabitants, the local markets were better equipped than the village to handle mundane requests like food, but still not well supplied with magical items beyond simple potions. Additional supplies beyond the stores of Hemmelmark were requested by dispatch to the mainland along with official notification of the "angry drow situation", and should arrive in the usual 3-4 weeks shipping time.

The leader of Hemmelmark, Duke Johann Zaiser (who seems to be either ZEYE-zer or Zeye-ZAIR

depending on my mood, though the former probably makes more sense for a place called Hemmelmark!) requested an audience. His keep was a well-fortified four-level structure, a "dungeon" in the classical sense of having rectangular construction. Upon their arrival in the receiving room on the third floor, the duke demanded a full account of all the recent adventures, complicated by the fact that many members of the party were recent additions and many of the older ones had recently departed. He then made his own petition for aid against invading giants who typically timed their arrival with the first snows of winter (frost giants, naturally).

The party spent the next day shopping, but it didn't take much longer before they were called into action as expected. A party of goblins led by two giants and an ettin were rampaging through the countryside, smashing buildings and looting granaries and stables. The party brought along the archers for some initial volleys, but the north wind had risen the point where archery was nearly impossible. The dragons unloaded frost attacks on the goblins, until a barrage of enormous stones from the giants grounded them. Fortunately, the giants fared horribly in melee, missing almost everyone while the goblins succumbed quickly to sweeping sword strikes.

After reporting back to the Duke, the party was authorized to track the giants back to their lair. The Duke had little money to offer, but promised them substantial land holdings and a patent of lesser nobility in exchange for success.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Viserion, 4th level white dragon
• The very young white dragon, Namazu
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th level dwarven sapper
• Frigodria, 5th level paladin
• Sir Robin Silverblade Silverfall, 5th level spellsword

Off talking to the local trees or something like that:

• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

And featuring a special guest appearance by Zach's mom, as a spy with a vorpal blade!

Casualties

None, aside from summoned dwarves. Namazu dropped with a direct hit from a giant boulder but walked away without a scratch.

Treasure

2 barrels of preserved fish, each worth 5 gp and weighing 8 stone.
8 ingots of common metal, each worth 1 gp and weighing 1/2 stone.
10 thousand copper pieces.
A piece of jewelry constructed from fine wood worth 500 GP.
A piece of jewelry constructed from bone worth 27 GP.

Total value: 645 gp

Total gold per member: 92 gp

Experience

Killed: 2 frost giants [2x 850 xp = 1700], ettin [850 xp], goblin sub-chief [15 xp], 10 goblin champions [10x10 = 100 xp], 50 goblins [50x5 = 250 xp], 15 dire wolves [15x140 = 2100 xp]
Total: 2915 xp

Total experience from treasure: 645 xp
Total experience from kills: 5015 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 5660 xp
Total experience per member: 808 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 3: The Hell Out O' Dodge

October 24 - November 4, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

The party decided the flee the valley. Everyone back at the tower formed into a giant caravan and set off for the tunnel. At the tunnel, the occupying skeleton crew constructed traps to slow down any pursuing drow.

The caravan descended through the mountains, avoiding encounters and keeping to the path, in the interest of getting to civilization before everyone starved to death. Reaching the forest beyond, they parlayed with a group of novice adventurers to learn the locations of the nearest village and city. They went to the village of Mitterfels first, to get some emergency rations, and then moved on to the fortified city of Hemmelmark.

Along the way they beat up some chimeras and a ton of ogres. Actually about 10 tons of ogres, if I'm estimating their mass correctly.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Viserion, 3rd level (4 HD) white dragon
• The very young white dragon, Namazu
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th level dwarven sapper
• Frigodria, 5th level paladin
• Sir Robin Silverblade, 5th level spellsword
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Note: The "old" characters (including Conan, Zeggzinu, D, etc) are officially along as well in an emeritus capacity, but didn't participate in battles and won't get a share of treasure/experience. At this point I'm assuming they'll return to civilization and make their own way in the world.

Casualties

No party members, although a number of the NPC civilians rescued from the pirates did starve to death

Treasure
Ogre sacks containing 18,300 gold pieces

Seriously, wandering ogres have massive amounts of gold. The rules state that every ogre carries a sack with 1d6x100 gp at all times.

They're like mobile atms. That smell terrible.
Total gold per member: 2614 gp

Experience

Killed: 3 chimeras [3x1300 xp = 3900], ogre chieftain [600 xp], 4 ogre sub-chiefs [4x380 = 1520 xp], 7 ogre champions [7x260 = 1820 xp], 33 ogres [33x140 = 4230 xp]
Total: 12,070 xp

Explored: 84 miles [84x11.5 = 966 xp]

Total experience from treasure: 18,300 xp
Total experience from kills: 12,070
Total experience from exploration: 966 xp
Bonus experience for rescuing 117/195 civilians: 585 xp
Total experience: 31,921 xp
Total experience per member: 4560 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 2: Any Port

October 23-24, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
After checking out the eastern entrance of the High Pass tunnel (rune-encircled as well), the party backtracked through the tunnel in search of the intimidated Drow sentry-post, hoping to leave no survivors. The post was abandoned, apparently with great haste -- and presumably through the west entrance from which the party had originally arrived.

Just before rushing out in pursuit, the front rank noticed that the light filtering in from the valley had turned a pale orange. A test skeleton sent into the entrance erupted in a plume of fire, the apparent victim of activated ware runes.

Falling back, the party cleared out of the eastern entrance nervously into an unfamiliar country, encountering an odd woodland observer watching them from the trees -- a spriggan. The spriggan provided a bit of advice about the comings and goings of caravans in the area, and offered to stay with the party.

Meanwhile, the flying members of the party -- the two dragons and Zelmar -- took to the skies to fly over the mountain pass and attempt to eliminate the ward runes from the outside. A few attempts at reading or guessing the password proved fruitless.

Instead they continued pursuit of the missing Drow, scrying them through a crystal ball to discover them in a wooden building. The only wooden buildings within a days walk were at the pirate camp, so this seemed like a plausible destination. The pirates greeted them warmly if a bit suspiciously, and after a bit of internal deliberation they seemed receptive to the offer to betray the dark elves; admittedly, pirates don't need much coaxing to attempt acts of treachery.

Alas, the formidable reputation of dark elven magic and the fury of House Eilserv's promised retribution led to a stand-off situation. The pirates were unwilling to risk their lives entering the building, a death-trap of heavily armored elves. The elves, for their part, had little interest in exiting to fight under the sun. Eventually Zelmar had to land personally and request permission to smoke them out by setting fire to the building, with his usual charm. The elves waited until the last possible moment to storm out and mount a fierce defense, plugging a sleep bolt into Zelmar, downing Namazu with blades, and chasing the dwarven sapper underground. Finally, they were beaten into submission as the pirates cheered at the spectacle (without offering much assistance).

Pirates being pirates, there was another shorter stand-off after the battle, as the dastardly Captain Slaughterbucket (don't ask!) pondered the option of eliminating the weakened party with his crossbowmen. After a bluff by Zelmar ("dwarven skeletons, burrowing under the walls even now!"), they laughed off the brief tensions as a joke.

Meanwhile, the remaining party members on the far side of the mountain enjoyed a non-restful night, as a bask of basilisks stormed into the camp and produced dozens of skeleton statues before finally being put down.

Art: Goran Josic

Roster

East-gate team:

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Viserion, 3rd level (4 HD) white dragon
• The very young white dragon, Namazu
• <new Dwarven sapper>

West-gate team:

• Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner
• Sir Robin Silverblade, 5th level spellsword
• Kilor Graniteback, 5th level machinist
• <new spriggan>

Casualties

Kilor Graniteback and a gazillion skeletons, turned to stone by a basilisk

Treasure

None, aside from some drow bedclothes and linens

Experience

East-gate team (Zelmar, Viserion, Namazu, dwarven sapper):
Killed: 7th-level drow priestess [1490 xp], 5th-level drow fighter [500 xp], 8 3rd-level drow fighters [8x80 = 640 xp]
Total: 2630 xp

West-gate team (Herrohnin, Robin, Kilor):
Killed: 6 basilisks [6x980=5880 xp]
Total:  5880 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 2630 xp or 5800 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 2630 xp
Total experience per member (East): 750 xp
Total experience per member (West): 1680 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 1: And Then We Come To.... The Tunnel!

Note: Namazu the white dragon is a 4 HD dragon, not a 6 HD dragon, which explains why she has a low pool of health. This ended up being a lucky mistake for the party, since dragon breath bypasses magic resistance.

October 20-23, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
After some deliberations over strategies and priorities, the party decided to begin by opening the tunnel to the western timberlands beyond the Great Barrier Range. The choice between the High Pass Tunnel and the Deeps was resolved somewhat trivially when none of the liberated prisoners could recall anything about the Deeps -- including where to find the entrance. Conan the Librarian, now functioning as the notional lord of the newly captured tower and thus under its protection, offered to follow as far as the tunnel, but no farther.

On the first day of journey, the party encountered several giant beetles, which scuttled away from the unnatural column of marching skeletons. The following night was more eventful; a huge warband of close to 60 goblins encircled the camp, threatening to raid out of the darkness. Parlay with the goblins revealed their weakness for greed, and the party was able to buy them off for a few gold pieces each, throwing 250 or so into the forest to be scooped up by the greedy hands of the would-be ambushers. Conan instructed the goblins to scout the path and report back, if they wanted any more gold. The few goblins too slow to claim a share of the treasure promptly began squabbling and tussling with the others, and the threat was neutralized.

The entrance to the tunnel was itself unguarded except by a few odd inscriptions around the perimeter, but the party had been given advance warning of multiple checkposts inside. Illusion spells cloaked the frontline in the guise of a dark elven hunting party, with Boudicca's spider glamoured to appear as a drider. Sure enough, within the first ten minutes the party found a sign advising preparation for a customs inspection. Confident in the quality of the illusion, the party marched forward through the checkpoint, speaking imperiously to the watchpost captain on duty. As the party marched forward, the guards increasingly stared in confusion at the endless array of skeletons (not so unusual), the pair of young white dragons (more unusual), and the saurian gladiators. At the sight of D they snarled, and one of them remembered thedwarf and lizard fighting team from the arena of Emru-Marol -- the one shortly before the great clone-invasion slaughter at the fall Spider Festival. But the display of force left them suspicious but unwilling to throw away their lives.

Midway through the tunnel, the party encountered a drow noble patrol of three priestesses of House Aleval and two arcanists, along with their bodyguards. While equally deceived by the illusion, they were far less intimidated. Indeed, the impudence of drow from a rival house seemed to inflame them. When the party refused to stand down, they turned back to lodge a complaint with the west-end watchpost at a crisp march. When they realized the party was matching pace, they began to break into a run.

At this point, Zelmar teleported directly in front of them, initiating a battle. Fortunately the party managed to flood the tunnel with dragon breath before they could volley off any spells of their own. Zelmar cut down the sole surviving elf-at-arms.

The violence in the tunnel alerted the far end to the possibility trouble. As the party stepped forward, Shiek the assassin spotted some irregularities in the floor and and ceiling -- a complicated multi-part trap. No one could disarm the magical trigger mechanism, so Herrohnin sent ahead a skeleton to set off the trap. A portcullis gate slammed down on top of the skeleton and multiple large rocks from the ceiling dropped just behind it, into a hidden pit revealing itself beneath the paving as floor suddenly gave way.

By this time, the guard post was on full alert. Herrohnin sent a squad of skeletons to move the rubble evenly into the pit. As they were finishing their work, a nervous bolt came whistling past one of the skeletons on work detail. The party barked a challenge at the drow, who gave no response. As they stepped forward (Zegzinu bashing down the heavy gate) everyone was totally unsurprised to encounter an ambush in waiting, on both sides of the tunnel: a priestess and arcanist on each side, and lots of guards with crossbows at the ready.

Skeletons charged up to tied down the guards, and both dragons moved into the intersection to lay down frost clouds. The south alcove went down quickly, but the north alcove had more than sufficient time to bathe the tunnel in pyrotechnics. Both dragons and a lizard went down hard, and it took a dedicated second wave of advance into the side tunnel to root out the defiant drow.

Finally the party reached the west entrance. Conan, Zegzinu, and D turned back to defend the tower, and the remaining party members exited out into a high twisting road that led back down through the mountains into the uncharted timberlands below.

Roster

• Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner
• Zegzinu, 5th level gladiator 
• the last henchlizard
• Sir Robin Silverblade, 5th level spellsword
• Kilor Graniteback, 5th level machinist
• Shiek, 4th level assassin (custom Thrassian class)
• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Viserion, 3rd level (4 HD) white dragon
• Boudicca and her spider familiar
• Conan the Librarian
• D
• The very young white dragon, Namazu

Casualties

• Shiek, lame in both legs
• Zegzinu's final henchlizard

Both dragons went down to fireballs, but recovered without a scratch!

Treasure
All the usual drow stuff that fades away in light: priestesses come with a +3 set of chain, shield, and mace, and most other drow have +2 versions.

Experience

Intimidated: 6 giant stag beetles
Deceived with illusion: 7th-level drow priestess [1490 xp], 5th-level drow fighter [500 xp], 8 3rd-level drow fighters [8x80 = 640 xp]
Bribed: ~50 goblins [50x5 = 250 xp]
Killed: 7th-level drow priestess [1490 xp], 4 6th-level drow priestesses [4x1070 = 4280 xp], 3 6th-level drow arcanists [3x1320 = 3960 xp], 5 5th-level drow fighters [5x500 = 2500 xp], 7 3rd-level drow fighters [7x80 = 560 xp]
Total:  15,670 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 15,670 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 15,670 xp
Total experience per member: 1306 xp

Starting the Saberstrath Campaign

This Saturday is the first day of the summer RPG campaign at my house (700 Oakdale).

At the end of last summer's campaign, the South Group party had (1) escaped from the dark elves in the Underdark into the Saberstrath, (2) captured a small stone beacon-tower containing an intricate clockwork mechanism, and (3) allied with one camp of pirates (the Styxx) in order to eliminate the camps of all their various rivals and liberate several hundred of their prisoners.

This is a great time for new players to jump in, or for old players to roll up a fresh character. Of course, anyone with an existing character from last summer will be eligible to continue. New starting characters will be at the "Adventurer" tier of power, with 20,000 experience points and 16,000 gold pieces of wealth, which may be exchanged for starting equipment or a henchman in accordance with the ACKS rules. Only your first character of the campaign gets starting wealth; if that character dies, then you'll have to leave an inheritance yourself to provide for the next one! However, any new characters will get the full 20,000 xp.

If you already have a copy of the rules, feel free to roll up a character in advance. As usual, the method is the strict "roll 3d6 in order", but you can generate 5 sets of stats and pick your favorite. You can also trade stats at 2:1 to adjust your prime requisite stat upward. The Autarch set will quickly roll new sets of five stats for you at this link and then email them to you.


The Current Situation
It's the middle of October, and the Saberstrath Valley is deep into autumn. The air has grown cold, and the few deciduous trees among the evergeens have shed their leaves. You are camping at the old clockwork watchtower located at the top of the great cliff that overlooks the valley road to the south and west, a superbly defensible position of great tactical value.

Unfortunately, the hundreds of men you've liberated from the pirates are unable to all live inside the tower. You now have a small domain of conquered territory north of the road and south of the river, such as it is, and with that comes responsibility. Daily and hourly, the men come to you with concerns and fears about their safety and the winter ahead.

Here are some of the most pressing concerns:

• You have managed to deeply offend most of the Great Houses of the dark elves in Emru-Marol, both by disrupting the Spider Festival and by slaying many of their pirate allies. They will not quickly forgive the wrongs you have done them. While a substantial blow was dealt to the City of Spiders itself, there is a vast underdark domain that will repopulate its losses and seek to avenge them!
• The Styxx crew's pirate camp to the west is well-fortified, and still runs a steady stream of slaver caravans along the road. Thus far they are greatly pleased with your elimination of their rivals. But pirates are treacherous by reputation.
• The men have thus far managed to subsist on foraged and plundered foods, but in the winter ahead, this will be more difficult. Unless a reliable trade route can be opened to purchase consumables, they fear starvation. A rich assortment of plunder from the pirate camps is packed away in crates and barrels, but it does little good this far in the wilderness unless it can be transported by caravan to somewhere more populated for sale or trade. (The Styxx pirates would happily take it, but only at absurdly unfair prices, knowing full well your desperation.)
• Even foragers are now reporting that the area around the tower is insufficiently pacified, and that various monster lairs are still present within a few miles of the tower and need to be exterminated.
• The young white dragon you rescued, Namazu, continues to eagerly seek knowledge and has been angling to learn any spells offered by mages in the party. Yet her heart is ever dragonish and she has begun to lust after treasure as well. She is willing to perform some light reconnaissance and to help defend the tower during her visits, but any greater services will require compensation. She is also ever-hungry for fresh meat.
• The pirate captives you liberated from slavery are mostly men, and they report that their families have been taken onward into the Underdark -- either to be sold to the dark elves or to be carried onward into the Undying Lands beyond. There is much grief over their possible fate given the ill reputation of the City of Spiders and its ever-hungry brood of sacred giant arachnids. Rumors of dread arcane experiments and the sacrificial rites of necromancers have set no one's hearts at ease. Morale is low, and some of the petitioners are demanding that you send a team back into the city to rescue their wives and children -- if they yet live. Barring this, the men would at least find satisfaction in any grim revenge you might exact for their loss.
• Opening a path out of the Saberstrath would serve many purposes: Diplomacy and trade with the Savage Reaches to the west (if there are any non-monstrous inhabitants to be found there), and the ability to communicate with the seat of human civilization in Durnovar. This, however, requires one of two things: (1) Capture of the high mountain pass held by the dark elves, or (2) locating the deep passage under the mountains. The captive men you liberated tell grim stories about the fortifications and defenses of the former, and will barely speak about the latter out of a lingering sense of terror. "The darkness -- weeks of darkness, and the mad dreams within" is all the details you can pry from them.
• The return of the dread lords of Nerigos, the Dead City of sand-deluged Hyperborea, is never far from your minds. Lord Varghoulis, awakened by Piper from the barrows of Balewood, is marshaling long-interred armies out of forgotten tombs to conquer the Undying Lands. In time his attention will begin to pass through the mountains to your small domain, and then to the fragile civilizations beyond. Even now already, you have heard rumors that creatures who fall in battle will rise again of their own accord and continue the fight beyond natural life.

Green Pass Campaign IV, Session 4: Deus Ex Machinist

October 29, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Lizard sidekick not shown.

The curtain opened on a classic paladin-vs-demon tableau, at least if your version of the image also includes a helpful lizardman. Things looked to be going ill for Smaug and Sir Pal, as the massive avatar of Orcus dueled both of them at once with his mace, poisonous serpent tale, and an occasional lightning bolt or two. Smaug went down first to poison, and Sir Pal was left barely standing after taking a few million volts to the face. Meanwhile, the oozes slowly worked their way out into the open to engage the cheering cultists... only to come face to face with a pack of greater hellhounds, who proceeded to incinerate the black puddings (and, with much less effectiveness, the grey oozes). The remainder of the party charged through the worm-blocked tunnel to catch up, although it appeared that they would arrive too late to intervene on behalf of the valiants in melee.

And at this point, a 40-ton dwarven war mech dropped out of the sky.

hatamoto_chi_by_shimmering_sword

The pilot, a dwarven machinist named Bjorn Lindholm, had been cruising the area for trouble. [Editor's note: I can't blame Andrew for this, since it's not even a custom class. Giant dwarven war mechs are totally already a thing in the Companion rules.] The shock wave from the automaton's impact scattered cultists in every direction, crushing over a dozen of them on the spot. The primary armaments on the automaton -- a giant sword, a projectile cannon, and brute force applications of a giant metal fist -- quickly went to work pounding Orcus from the back. The result was a rapid reversal of fortunes. Avila Tressa, the priestess, quickly got Smaug back on his feet. Everyone else arrived just in time to see the last few desperate attempts to trigger the annihilation effect of the Wand of Orcus, and then the demon vanished back into the Abyss with a flash. The remaining cultists ran to the four corners of the compass, as gargoyles swept down to carry them off to safety.

Meanwhile, the party pondered how to deactivate the orange sky beam. Bjorn helpfully recommended an aerial suicide strike with his automaton, and rose dramatically into an arc headed toward the upper floor of the barracks. Immediately after ejecting, the automaton's chassis crashed into the building, setting off a kaleidescope of multicolored runes. The beam flickered and went out, as the swirling above the city began to ebb and fade.

And the moral of the story is this: I don't care who in the Pits of Hell you think you are, do NOT mess with master engineers. Because they will wreck you so fast.

The heroes made a post-victory sweep of the city of Centerpost to attempt to locate the vampire's coffin (or the lich's phylactery), but with the entire city already radiating evil out of virtually every crack and crevice, detection spells were of little use. Eventually, weeks later, the removal of rubble would reveal several additional giant wormholes running to both the barracks and the cathedral -- suggesting an exit strategy that exceeded the pace of cleanup.

The city had been saved, at the cost of nearly complete demolition. From this crew, we'd expect nothing less.

Green Pass Campaign IV, Session 4: The Worm Conquerors

October 29, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
Tunneling further into the middle of Centerpost with the surving slimes and oozes took only a few hours. The party huddled in the makeshift tunnel after dispatching April through an upward shaft to examine the city center, as well as the cultist throng outside the barracks -- which now included a massive horned figure with wings and two gargantuan worm-like monstrosities. The central plaza was heavily patrolled from the air by gargoyles. Streaks of discolored lightning fell from the skies on the central plaza squares, periodically reigniting the dull glow of summoning circle runes traced on the ground. The perimeter was lined with upright spikes and poles that had plainly functioned to impale victims of the recent invasion.

The party split into two groups. One group (including Sir Pal, Thorin the sapper, Smaug, and the ooze-summoner Spinal Pyrope) pressed forward extending the tunnel toward the far side of the city, seeking to infiltrate the barracks. The other group (including April Dawnbow, Criptus the skinscribe, the mage Qaldor Nim, and a few others) elected to branch off to investigate the plaza and town hall. Some other members of the party, including the craftlord Darrin, retreated outside the city to guard the entrance.

The group tunneling to the town hall stopped beneath the plaza, dumping a summoned hydra as a distraction and then magically sealing the summoning portals closed as a temporary measure. The hydra managed to drop several gargoyles before being fully swarmed. Meanwhile, the party surfaced into the clerks' office area of the town hall, finding the desks and files in a state of disarray. Pushing around the corner in the hall revealed a nearby room of identical construction, this time full of crouching feral ghoul-zombies and a cultist prelate shuffling through papers. Most of the contents of the room were noted to be highly flammable; the party dumped a fireball through the door onto the inhabitants and then shut it again while the fire raged through the offices.

At this point, there were two options: pressing upstairs into the mayoral suites, or moving back toward the lobby area. The path to the lobby followed a discrete hidden passage, and just beyond the lobby was a receiving room for dignitaries. The party searched the room and found a hidden vault just beyond it guarded by a heavy blast door. The vault was full of carefully cataloged treasures of the city.

Just beyond the lobby, a hall lead deeper into the darkness, toward an apparent storage area with a barred door. The party was horrified to find that the current stored contents of the room were dozens of bodies stacked like cordwood, in various states of decay and yet somehow twitching as if slightly animated. Moving forward for a closer look revealed the source of the animation; not undeath, but swarms of feasting rotgrubs that required immediate fiery termination. The party doused the room in combustible oil and then set fire to it as the maggots shrieked and writhed.

Image by Jean-Francious Beaulieu

Recognizing that portions of the building were now burning merrily, the party split, with several members staying to dump the treasure into bags of holding while the others left to check out some disquieting noises from the upstairs. The upstairs door was shut, and behind it was a general buzzing and humming. The moment it opened, the explanation became clear -- a snake-demon (marilith) surrounded by a cloud of several dozen giant flies. The flies and marilith gave quick pursuit, quickly smothering some summoned berserkers that the party used to buy time for an expeditious retreat. Everyone (including those from the treasure room) made a fast dash for the tunnel, then collapsed the exit to prevent the flies from following.

Meanwhile, the barracks group was facing its own complications. To distract the guardian worms, which were presumably hunting by acoustic vibrations, the party enchanted the tunnel behind them to reverberate with the noise of a celestial choir. Within a few dozen yards the barracks, the tunnel in back of the party suddenly exploded into a rushing mass of shadowy bulk -- a worm at least 60 feet long, plowing through the enchanted locus of the choir chant! Thorin dropped a disintegration trap to cover the mouth of the tunnel behind them, preventing pursuit. Sure enough, a few moments later, a pack of hell hounds charged down the newly formed side tunnel, baying for the hunt. The hell hounds came around the corner, and promptly charged into the disintegration barrier. After the first few hounds were vaporized, the remainder cringed and retreated back into the side tunnel.

Then the worm came back, this time slower and more deliberate in motion -- showing a keen intelligence that refused to be deceived by any more choirs. Horribly it crawled directly through the trap, ignoring the magical wards.... until it reached roughly the midpoint, and its magic resistance suddenly failed. The trap suddenly sprang back into function, neatly guillotining the worm into two thrashing segments. One worm down.

Image from George RR Martin's In the House of the Worm

The party broke into the lower floor of the barracks, into a recreation room full of hunting trophies. After a bit of poking about, they found a passage out through a storage area into a larger training room where soldiers met to spar and practice. From there, they advanced to the next floor up, at the ground level.

The ground level was quiet and dark, with no signs of activity. A secret door lead into a large open room, presumably once the location of the sleeping quarters, but with all the bunks removed and replaced by flat sleeping rolls on the floor. Several men reclined on the floor, but sprang at once into alertness as the door swung open. Taking one look at the party, they fled around the corner with Sir Pal and Smaug in hot pursuit. (The slower oozes opted for a shortcut directly through the wall.)

The chase ended at a short side- hall that dead-ended into a doorway. The door opened and out burst a tall figure in spiked black armor, bearing a greatsword. After the predictable bellowing about wanting to know about the meaning of this particular disturbance, everything erupted in violence. The melee fighters pushed forward to handle the commander while everyone else mopped up the underlings (who turned out to be werewolves, not that it did them much good).

Everything was going relatively well until another giant worm crashed up through the floor from the level below. It made a quick grab for Thorin, swallowing him down in a gulp. Thorin, reasoning that he wanted to be as indigestible as possible, proceeded to uncork all of his potions into the worm's belly, giving it a terrible case of indigestion. It managed to avoid losing its lunch, and instead sank back through the floor to rest off the effects of consuming an ill-flavored dwarf.

As the dark-armored commander looked nearly beaten and began to scream of treachery, the armor suddenly clattered to the floor, empty. A ghostly form ascended out of the armor -- the gaseous form of a vampire that fled back through the door and out the window, into the night.

After a moment of peace, the wall itself began to crack and shudder. A huge mace covered in petrified skulls crashed through the wooden frame -- the Wand of Death, the favored weapon of the Demon Prince of Undeath when manifested in his material avatar.

Ladies and gentlemen, Orcus has entered the building.

Green Pass Campaign IV: Yet Another Interlude

I assume this applies to April Dawnbow as well as anyone else who elects to scout the surface with a side tunnel.

You emerge just north of the city square. To the south you can see the rain of lightning from above as before, but it seems less frequent as the green bolts have vanished. Only the orange bolts fall, and where each strikes, you can hear a wail rise like the sudden opening of a torture chamber. There seem to be a number of sharpened stakes around the perimeter of the square, some of them bearing impaled bodies, and not all the bodies are entirely lifeless. The roiling purple clouds above seem to have grown paler and now have a peculiar neon tint to them, as if they are struggling to smother light from the sun above.

To the east you can see a great throng. Even hundreds of yards away, you can easily make out several figures rising high above the crowd. The first is a shaggy winged monstrosity with curled horns, waving what looks like an enormous maul (though it seems but a small scepter in his hands). Its girth must be around 50 times that of a man, with wings up to 25 feet in the air.

What appears to be a wave of stretching rippling arches of shadow stretch out of the ground all around him, large enough to frame his body, constantly fading and reforming in new locations as if drawn by an artist's charcoal and smudged away. With extended observation, you realize that the "arches" are actually portions of the serpentine bodies of some great subterranean creature of shadow. No more than two new arches appear at any one time, so you surmise there must be two of them. A host of smaller human-sized figures surround the tremendous shadow worms, cheering in excitement.

They are all standing in front of the old barracks building, the evident location of the orange beam, and seem rather determined to protect it.

Green Pass Campaign IV, Session 3: Undermined

October 29, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
The party ascended to the stairs to discover that the chapel had become a cathedral of horrors. Evil signs and markings covered the walls and floor, and all things of beauty had been vandalized or ruined. The old altar was broken, and instead there were five rough hewn stones of some necromantic origin, all of them pumping up various foul energies to the ceiling. Four of them were surrounded by undead: 3 soul-draining spectres, 6 armored black skeletons, 24 orange-eyed funeral pyre zombies, and 4 of the nine-skeleton polearm phalanxes, with each group distributed to a different corner. The center of the room just below the green sky-beam was shrouded by magically-animated fumes and debris, but clearly someone was chanting near the center. The ceiling above had been shattered where the beam had torn a huge hole.

Nothing in the room seemed interested in attacking, with only some slight defensive repositioning to protect the various evil altars. From outside the chapel, a mocking voice announced a challenge to come forth and meet the new rulers of Centerpost.

Instead, the mage Qaldor flew to the vestible and wizard locked the doors. The the party carefully arranged themselves around the apse and waited for the underground team of slimes and oozes to finish tunneling a level below.

Whack-a-mole on hard mode

On the ready mark, the party unloaded a volley of powerful magics at the spectres and zombies. The slimes then collapsed the floor below the enchanted stones, sinking them by ten feet into the floor (taking along the unfortunate prelate in the center). The horde outside banged on the doors while the party slowly mopped up the survivors, summoning in an earth elemental to smash apart any of the ritual stones that the oozes found indigestible.

At this point, April Dawnbow, who was watching out the window from the rafters, announced an incoming wave of gargoyle bogies (margoyles, actually) led by a balrog and another vrock. The squadron smashed through the large stained windows just as the party was retreating back into the tunnels, with Sir Pal, his pet bear, and the hydra covering their evacuation.

The hydra and balrog savaged one another as the vrock and gargoyles beat down the bear and began to surround Sir Pal. Meanwhile, the ooze patrol began to gnaw apart the foundations of four pillars in the center of the chapel which everyone agreed looked plausibly load-bearing.

After a couple rounds of getting clawed by dozens of gargoyle arms, Sir Pal announced a fighting withdrawal, and jumped into the central hole (with the vrock in hot pursuit). At that moment, the ceiling came down on the rest of the margoyle swarms.

Having eliminated one Ominous Sky Beam (tm), the party continued boring east across the city toward the second, while the previously frustrated occupiers above erupted in an unexpected wave of celebration...

Green Pass Campaign IV: Another Interlude

Following a short rest, you elect to advance up the spiral stairway from the mausoleum level into the chapel above. The stone of the steps is wet and slippery, perhaps from the unnatural fog that previously filled the valley. You can feel a low vibratory hum through the ground and walls, like a hive of bees, that grows stronger as the stairs wind upward.

The stairs exit into the northwestern transept of the chapel. Even looking into the room from the archway of the stairs, you can sense that this space has undergone some horrific recent alterations. All the decorations -- tinted windows depicting the lives of saints, statues of winged angels, plaques bearing the holy words of the scriptures -- have been not simply destroyed but desecrated, vandalized to show unwholesome images and blasphemous words. Some of the angels have been decapitated, and their heads replaced by the rotting heads of farm beasts. You can see chains suspended from the walls that probably suspended the bodies of the chapel's priests and acolytes, though what few bodies remain are mostly mangled and unrecognizable. This is now clearly a sinkhole of great evil.

In the four corners of the chapel, along the front and back of each aisle, are enormous altars of formless unshaped stone, heavy enough that they have shattered the floor tiling. Above each of the four altars is a small plume of rising plasma, in small imitation of the two massive spires of energy outside. One is white, and its altar is surrounded by several dozen white-boned skeletons. One is black, and its altar is surrounded by a half-dozen black skeletons. One is deep violet, and it is veiled by what appear to be three ethereal apparitions. The last is a crimson smoking vortex, and is surrounded by several squads of the same fiery-eyed zombies that burst into flames below. The four plumes hit the ceiling and create lightning-like channels across the ceiling, blending their colors toward the middle.

The center of the nave is shrouded in a huge cloud. The outer edge of the cloud is covered in spinning jagged bone fragments. They spin within a hazy purple fog, and within the fog you can see thick black smoke, and behind it, a wall of solid flame. None of it looks especially conducive to health. From the center of the cloud you can see the crackling green sky-beam plummeting upward, like a waterfall inverted. It appears to have broken a rough hole directly through the chapel's roof.

From inside the cloud you can hear chanting in some foul language (perhaps understandable to anyone who speaks Zaharan). But just as some of the nearest undead become aware of your intrusion and turn to interpose themselves between you and their stone altar, the chanting suddenly pauses.

"Foolish intruders! Do you suppose you can hold back the Phlegethon Deluge? Stay here and witness the End as my guests, or pass through to perish to the Scepter of the Horned One, when Zur has fully summoned him. I have my orders, and they do not involve you." The vile chanting resumes, and the green sky-beam swells in diameter.

From the colossal doors at the far end of the chapel you can hear raucous laughter outside. "Yes, come out, and leave this most holy place in peace. We have such a warm reception waiting for you!"

Green Pass Campaign IV: Lich, Please

GM Note: This adventure will have a single experience-point award at the conclusion of the expedition, to be divided among the survivors (if any).

October 29, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

After advancing on the ruins of Centerpost, the party elected to send out a scouting party of stealthy types, along with the invisible skinscribe Scriptus and his hidden wife. Following one of the farm-to-market roads, the scouts soon spotted a herd of bizarre herd of thirteen gaunt creatures (demon swine, or Gehenna-goats) unlike any natural livestock, being herded by a vrock (vulture demon). The Gehenna-goats easily penetrated the invisibility spell with their otherwordly senses, and moved in hungrily to graze on delectable mortal souls.

Recognizing that the demons had them outnumbered, the scouting party quickly created warded themselves with a protection spell. The furious fiends danced around the perimeter, gnashing their jaws and waiting for an opportunity to strike. The vrock goatherd attempted to attack across the barrier, but succumbed to the ward's holy power and felt his weapon arm melt away into the void. Shrieking in terror, he flew away into the night, as the party slaughtered his charges with magic and steel.

The scouts advanced as far as the wall, scaling it to peer over the side. The landscape below was laid to waste and ruin, and devoid of life... but also bereft of corpses despite other traces of battle. In the distance, strokes of green and orange lightning fell on the city square a half-mile away, descending from the cyclonic vortex in the sky above, and a swarm of circling dots filled the air above. The location of the nearest sky-beam (the one green in color) seemed to be the Centerpost chapel, close to the west wall. Everyone knows that giant glowing sky-beams are always bad news!

Shut it down, quick, before the world ends!

After the return and report of the scouts, the party deliberated over the best vector of attack -- eventually settling on the strategy of tunneling rapidly under the walls using High Jellomancer Spinel Pyrope's gloopy army of slimes and puddings. After several hours of rapid rock removal, the tunnel connected with a tomb vault in the the crypts below the chapel. Even after slamming open the stone

vault door, the crypts seemed empty and silent... until the part rounded the corner and found a host of undead waiting for them: a mummy, four spectres, four dark-skinned zombies, eight zombies with glowing orange eyes, and four skeletons -- not naked, but with their burnished black bones clad in full armor. Behind them stood a frail and withered woman, her skin rotted away at the joints, waving a gnarled staff of ironwood root -- a lich!

The party divided into three groups to flank around the two great central pillars in the center of the chamber that housed the most important tombs. The specters to the north went down first as a priority target, before they could bring their energy draining attacks into play, thanks to the work of a couple henchlizards. The south flank, however, made the unwelcome discovery that their zombies were somehow ensorcelled with fire, exploding into a raging pyre after each strike that burned all those adjacent. Even worse, the central group's slimes discovered that the pillar crypt tombs in the center of the room contained a pair of tight-formation skeletons with spears, ready to crush the casters from behind with bristling phalanxed spearpoints. Some of the skeletons were black, and others were unarmored but had strange gems set into their skulls. Warriors and slimes moved to block the ambush.

Ambushed from out of the the walls!

The zombie guards around the lich fell quickly, in a great inferno of flames, and she was quickly surrounded. Before she could be slain, she cursed the intruders and shattered her staff, consuming the entire northeastern corner of the crypts in a tremendous fireball. Most of the slimes were instantly vaporized, and the saurian vanguard was terribly scorched with the blast, at the cost of one henchman.

The spirit of the lich fled her smoldering body, shrieking through the ceiling into the troubled skies above. The remaining skeletons in the alcoves quickly collapsed back into bone, no longer bound by the will of their disembodied mistress.

The party gathered its wits and nursed their wounds, resting for about an hour, before exploring the stairway into the chapel above.

Experimental undead types discovered: 

• Funeral pyre zombies - These zombies are otherwise typical but burst into flame when struck, burning all those around them.
• Juju zombies - These sturdy zombies are durable and move with alarming speed, with even the ability to scale walls.
• Black skeletons - These skeletons are armored and enormously durable.
• Skeletal phalanxes - Ordinary skeletons, but organized to stand in a virtual wall of bone, bursting with spears at anyone who comes too close.
• ?? - Skeletons with a curious blue gem set into their skull.