Timberlands Campaign, Session 7: Deathwish Gambit

January 15 - February 13, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

The party marched north toward Hemmelmark with their mercenaries, kobolds, and skeletons, followed by the larger army of Rictovarius a few days behind. The weather remained frigid and violent, but the skeletons bearing their large branches sheltered the warparty from the worst of the winds. Fortunately, the rich slave-labor-stocked storehouses of Hochgrube had allowed everyone to provision amply before departing with something like a year's worth of food. (I can only assumed that the downtrodden citizens of Hochgrube were watching mournfully as they saw their imagined deliverers allying with their oppressors into a massive army of necromancers, undead minions, man-eating beastmen, wyvern riders, and whip-wielding slavedrivers.)

At this point, who DOESN'T have one?

As they approached the lands of Duke Johann Zaiser, emissaries from Burgrave (nee Baron) Rictovarius requested a war council, and Jeeves was happy to lead a small delegation in attendance at the great tent of the Hochgrube leadership. The grandmaster of the Necromancers of Sutekh was there, crazy as ever, along with several Hochgrube lieutenants: Rictovarius' second-in-command, the aviator-goggled Obrist Maximillian, a spiky whip-cradling warmistress named Onyx, and a few other armor-clad goons. They all seemed very eager for the fight -- or more precisely, eager to let their beastmen vassals start smashing things up while they watched.

Initially, the plan was to set the beastmen to looting the ruins of Hemmelmark, and take control of the castle from Duke Johann. The eventual consensus (after a bit of persuasive speaking) was that the instead the beastment should help with the assault on the underground crypt seen in Shayna's vision, while Herrobin's undead led the occupation liberation of Hemmelmark. This resulted in the party being split up, with most of the party joining the assault on the crypt, but Frigodria joining Herrobin.

The battle outside the crypt quickly locked into a stalemate of powerful undead and beastment. (Well, aside from the hapless kobolds.) The necromancers at once set to work controlling the undead and setting them against one another, but with a long like of reinforcements to the northeast and west, it seemed impossible to truly kill them all. In the confusion, a few members of the party (including Viserion, Shayna, and Aureon) made a rush for the crypt entrance, finding it apparently unguarded, the walls and floor coated with a thick covering ice.

Several passages led away from the entrance chamber, one through large doors, one through a smaller door, and one past rubble down a rough tunnel into the lower levels. Passage into the deeper portions was blocked by a magical shield of force, which yielded and dissipated to a dispel magic. The chamber below was a hideous preparation room lined with wall-shackles binding frozen naked corpses (former inhabitants of the local villages), along with dirty piles of their discarded clothing.

Even deeper, the strike group of adventurers found a treasure chamber filled to the brim with minor valuables, mostly silver and copper coins looted from the villages. The zombies must have been working like ants for weeks, hauling it all back and forth in long caravan lines! Shayna was mentally assaulted by some kind of voice, cursing her with blindness -- fortunately the curse was of the normal sort, and could be dispelled with prayers.

In the deepest portion of the caves was a huge control center. A great sphere of crystalline ice showed an array of scenes from the surface world across its surface, while a team of five powerful undead overlords monitored and directed their progress: the vampire ruinguard they had met before, a lich, some kind of undead greater lizardman, a mummy lord, and some other unfamiliar creature vaguely like a wight. They recognized the lich's crown -- the Iron Crown of the Sorcerer-Kings, an artifact granting immortality to its wearer. Using the advantage of surprise and a Rod of Cancellation, the ice crystal ball was abruptly shattered into shards, and the intruders found themselves facing an angry cabal of powerful undead.

In the ensuing frenzy, the vampire was blasted by light, the Thrassian found himself very surprised to actually take a punch, and the Iron Crown was knocked skidding across the floor, only to be snagged at the end of a pole by Aureon.

(And then security walked in and kicked us out of the building. To be continued...)

Roster

• Edward Sir Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Herrobin, 6th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Aureon Thallanir, 4th-level nightblade (Sion)
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Mysterious Lizard-y Stranger (Austin)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (200+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign
• Around 150 very greedy kobolds, recent converts to the worship of Viserion.

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Zelmar (injured, retiring maybe?)
• Anatolia (at chapel with Zelmar)
• Sir Robin (badly injured)
• Zalgesh
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston... was he here? I don't remember him there.)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Kobolds. Pretty much all of them. But they're used to it.

And that's just so far. The to-be-continued fight is against some of the worst stuff yet encountered...