Timberlands Campaign, Session 8: Sorry, We'll Show Ourselves Out

February 13-20, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

Having no interest in fighting an entire room of elite enemies with a divided party, the crypt infiltrators (E Sir Winsley, Jeeves, Setanta, Viserion, and Shayna) decided to make a break for the exits. The furious lich attempted a disintegrate spell on Setanta (unsuccessfully) as revenge for the theft of his artifact, and then a hold person spell on everyone in sight. The other undead leaders (a mummy lord, a deathbound wraith, and some kind of Thrassian deathchanter) made a hard rush at the escaping thieves.

Shayna held behind to cover the escape before shifting to crow form, giving her time to witness the arrival of the Grandmaster of the Necromancers of Sutekh, tunneling up from below on a giant mummified purple worm. Rather to his dismay, he found himself fighting (and perishing) alone as his erstwhile hero champions fled on foot, ignoring his demands for the crown. Meanwhile, the rest of the party encountered a solid wall of mummies and vampires opposing their exit, and pushed their way through to the surface, pursued by the angry wraith lord.

For a moment, it seemed like they were doomed. The mummies intercepted the escape of the party at the main entrance, and the wraith managed to seize the iron crown. But the ensuing contest of strength resolved in favor of Viserion, who reclaimed the crown and flew away with it, leaving the mummies to fall and the wraith to retreat back down into the crypt to lick his wounds (note: he survived with 2 hp, so he won't even need to spend 1d10 nights with his binding object to recover).

Meanwhile, Herrobrin's skeleton army liberated Hemmelmark, giving the party time to counsel Duke Johann to organize an evacuation before the wyvern riders from Rictovarius' forces could arrive to take control of the ducal keep. While the primary forces from Hochgrube moved into the looted and ravaged city of Hemmelmark, their necromancer allies slowly converted the now-disorganized undead, swelling the ranks of Hochgrube even further. The crypt entrance was placed under constant surveillance by Baron Burgrave Duke-elect Rictovarius, who strongly encouraged the party to go down into the crypt and finish off his dirty work -- but balked at the invitation to attempt a similar operation himself!

The magical cold snap gradually subsided into normal winter conditions and the skies cleared a bit, though clearly destroying the control sphere was not sufficient to undo the presence of the undead itself. Meanwhile, Shayna flew around to the neighboring cities in raven-form, seeking the aid of scholars at the White Tower Academy (who told her to come back on the following Tuesday) and confirming that the undead infestation was fairly widespread (covering most of the western half of the Timberlands, for a hundred miles or more to the north -- but not yet as far as the coastal cities.

Roster

• Edw...ina(?) Sir Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Herrobrin, 6th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Setanta, 5th-level runemaker (Sion)
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (400+ 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

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Slarus (Austin)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Zelmar (injured)
• Anatolia (at chapel with Zelmar)
• Sir Robin (badly injured)

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Setanta, pinned down and mauled while trying to escape

Magical Items

The Iron Crown of the Sorcerer-Kings, snagged by Viserion before he flew off

Valuables

None (it's all still piled up in there in a giant heap)

Experience

Everyone entering the crypt
Killed: Malphus, ruinguard vampire [6600 xp], 4 mummies [1840 xp]
Total: 8440 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 8440 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 8440 xp
Total experience per member: 1688 xp

Total experience per henchman: 844 xp

Herrobrin/Frigodria (platoon-scale battle, fast resolution)
Killed: 10 skeleton platoons [3900], 5 skeletal archer platoons [1950], 4 hoarflesh platoons [9600], 4 vampires [7360]
Total: 22,810 * 50% = 11,405 xp (mass combat share to leaders)

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 11,405 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 11,405 xp
Total experience per member: 5703 xp