As the bones of the Dracolich
crumbled to dust, Bucknard turned and silently thanked the Dogs for
freeing him, as the spirit began to fade, he infused each of the Dogs
with a small part of his power. As the others searched through the
Dragon’s hoard, Katahrr brought Dench and Tomas back to life after
which Saskia teleported them back to Magepoint. The Dogs urgently
sought a meeting with Tenser and were ushered without ceremony into the
mage’s study. Tenser was sitting with Agath and Celeste, and all three
looked weary and drawn. Tenser stood and greeted them enthusiastically
congratulating them on defeating Dragotha and freeing the spirit of his
old friend Bucknard. The mage informed them that things were dire
indeed in Alhaster. Tzeech’s completion of the pyramid – the New Spire
of Long Shadows - had unleashed a tide of undeath (and the ubiquitous
worms) on the town and the people were in great peril, their leadership
as they had caused the catastrophe were doing little to help.
Tenser also told them that he and the
others had been trying to do what they could, but they were now in a
position where Kyuss could no longer be contained but had to be
destroyed. The vast armies of worm-infested undead that Dragotha had
assembled in the Wormcrawl Fissure, although lacking direction with the
death of their general, was still swarming out across the countryside
in uncounted numbers drawn towards the divine presence of their god
beginning to manifest. To deal with this Tenser, along with Elegios and
Agath, would plane-shift to the ethereal and cast great spell round the
city to keep the undead armies out - leaving the Dogs to deal
with whatever was inside – including the worm-god himself, who was now
gathering his divine power and gradually manifesting on this
plane. Tenser warned them that they could maintain the circle of
protection for a week at most, but by then Kyuss would be able to fully
manifest and it would be useless anyway. Tenser also told them that
massive amounts of negative energy, powering the Spire and aiding
Kyuss’ return, was being generated from beneath The Boneyard.
Before he departed Tenser returned to
the party some of the artifacts they had left in his keeping to aid
them in their final battle.Tharvel was given the part of the Rod of
Seven Parts they’d recovered joined with another. Dench was given the
Horn of Kazgoroth – Tenser affixing it to his head which gave him some
of the qualities of the long-dead balor. Eric was given the Swords of
the Wind-dukes which in combination with the Ring of the Wind-dukes and
the Circlet of Zosiel would prove potent weapons against Kyuss. Saskia
was told there was a sphere of annihilation in the Tomb of Horrors and
given the means to get there. Katahrr was given a small crystal
hourglass, an artifact of Cyndor, which she was told if she smashed it
would reverse time by six seconds. Tenser even offered to return the
Hand of Vecna but no-one took him up on the offer! After farewells were
said, the Dogs returned to the Inn of the All Seeing Eye - via the
local magic emporium!
After a night’s rest they debated
where best to teleport . After considering The Traitor’s Graves as a
likely target, they eventually decided on The Boneyard. Arriving in the
streets just outside the cemetery, they discovered a very different
city to the one they’d left. Dark roiling clouds covered the sky,
shielding the sun; ominous pools of green mist hung everywhere.
Buildings in the area were wrecked, and the restless dead could be seen
prowling the graveyard – the Temple of Wee Jas’s spells failing in the
onslaught of Kyuss’ return. Almost immediately, they were attacked by
two overworms bursting from a nearby building- Esmeralda and Eric
suffering the brunt of the attack.
Eric, fearless as ever charged in to
attack only to fall almost immediately to a combined vicious assault.
The other Dogs rallied, Tharvel, Dench charging in blades flashing,
Esmeralda, pausing only to apply silversheen to her blade, tumbled into
battle. Tomas unleashed a flurry of arrows; le Saskia cast several Arc of lightning spells while Katahrr dashed in to cast Revivify
on Eric. Esmeralda took a vicious bite and collapsed in a a heap -
fortunately next to the now conscious Eric who was able to stabilise
her with her lay on hands. Unabated, the battle continued to it's brutal conclusion , but eventually the Dogs prevailed.
A Clerical Dispute
As the Dogs tended to their wounds
from the confrontation with the Overworms, they were startled as the
sound of bells pealing rang out across the mist-shrouded gloom of the
stricken city. They quickly headed east towards the sound - which was
coming from the temple of Kord – they saw fearful people emerging from
the nearby houses and heading that way. As they arrived at the open
area in front of the temple a few hundred people had gathered. Their
friend, Lanthis Vhax, the high priest of Kord, emerged and standing on
the steps began to try to rally the crowd and arrange for a mass exodus
of the city.
However as he began to get their
attention, there was a disturbance at the back as Vieras Spatlepate
(the high priest of Hextor) arrived , accompanied by a squad of temple
troops. He began haranguing the crowd, exhorting them not to
listen but to come to the Temple of Hextor as Tzeech himself would be
at the temple, seeking the intervention of Alhaster’s patron deity.
Things got even more unsettled when Almerah Kosen ( the high priestess
of Wee Jas) arrived and began urging the people too seek sanctuary with
her goddess ( for an appropriate donation of course) who as a goddess
of undeath would be better able to protect them!
The mood of the people in the crowd
began to worsen. They began to argue amongst themselves, come to blows
frequently as the competing views of their religious leaders clashed in
their ears! Seeing things turn ugly, Dench pushed his way through the
crowd, and stood next to the Lanthis to protect him. Eric, with some
special effects provided by Tharvel and vociferous support from
Esmeralda and Saskia, strode forward through the crowd, attempting to
influence it with the force of her personality. Standing next to the
elderly cleric of Kord, she addressed the crowd with an impassioned
plea to follow his advice, and evacuate the city. Despite increasingly
desperate interventions from the other clerics she began to get the
crowd’s attention. An even more forceful intervention by Spatlepate and
his temple troops was forestalled when Tomas rose into the air and
covered him with his longbow. Eventually Eric managed to sway the crowd
and persuaded them that evacuation was the best option. The crowd began
to disperse in an orderly fashion,reassured by the Paladin's
authoratative tone they headed to collect what belongings they could
carry before returning to be escorted out by the priests of Kord to
protect them from undead. Suddenly there was a sound of panicked
screams from the crowd to the north.
Drawn by the mass of living humanity,
a group of kyuss knights had arrived, the large worms that peered out
from their empty eye sockets gazing hungrily over the crowd.. Taking to
the air The Dogs moved swiftly to intercept the knights as they began
to hew their way through the edge of the crowd sowing yet more panic
and despair to feed their worm-ridden master. Tomas launched
volley of arrows from the air as Dench and Esmeralda began weaving
their way through the crowd. Saskia cast mass fly and Eric and Tharvel charged, flying over the heads of the crowd, to strike the worm-ridden undead. Katahrr began cast mass cure moderate wounds healing the wounded in the crowd and damaging the kyuss knights. Saskia flitted about casting scorching ray and maximised disrupt undead spells
as the others continued the melee. In the combat that ensued,
Esmeralda, Tharvel and Eric all suffered intelligence drain as
the loathsome eye-worms of the kyuss knights bit at them – but
eventually the Dogs were victorious.
As the battle ended Eric swiftly
re-established her command over the crowd - noting that Spatlepate and
Kosen, with their hard-core followers had taken advantage of the
distraction to disappeared. She urged the crowd to hurry before more of
the undead arrived. The Dogs then headed back to Casa Diamante,
retrieving their staff and escorting them with the crowd to the city
gates, where a squad of the hobgoblin guard were holding the gate
against the marauding undead. As he left Lanthis urged the Dogs to seek
out and free any of the other citizens of Alhaster who might be trapped
in their houses by the pools of green mist than hung over parts of the
city.
Recalling seeing several of the pools
of mist hanging over the area of the graveyard, they headed back
in that direction. Dench also suggested they check out Lashonna’s
mansion - now they were aware of her treachery.
Boneyard Bash
Skirting round the pools of
unwholesome green mist that hovered over the streets, the Dogs made
their way towards the Boneyard. The Temple of Wee Jas nearby looked
closed-up and the gate to the cemetery was locked as the restless dead
within prowled – animated by the pulses of negative energy. Esmeralda
quickly picked the padlock on the gate and the Dogs, led by Dench,
moved into the graveyard, picking their way carefully across the
disturbed earth and gaping graves. The skeletons ignored them however
as they crossed, three bodaks erupted from the ground and attacked.
Dench smashed one, Tharvel another and Eric and Esmeralda dealt with
the last.
The Dogs made short work of the
bodaks and avoiding the pools of mist congregating in the far end of
the graveyard, clambered over the back wall. Across the street they
could see Mistwell Manor, looking much as it had the last time they had
visited Lashonna. Making their way across the empty street, Esmeralda
quickly picked the lock, disabling the trap with ease, and they made
their way across the exquisitely manicured lawn. The lock on the door
(and the trap protecting it) was swiftly dealt with and the Dogs began
searching the manor. It quickly became apparent that no-one was home.
In fact it looked like no-one had been home for some time!
Running out of places to search in
the manor, Esmeralda located the door to the cellar – unfortunately she
neglected to search for traps and reeled as the effects of a Harm
spell coursed through her body. Heading down there they found a dusty
wine cellar and some stored old furniture, however after a thorough
search of the area they located a secret door, which lead to a
passageway leading further down and to the east.
The passage ended in a large room –
standing in the centre of which a large, vaguely familiar, figure
stood. Seeing them, the man drew a bastard sword and raised it in
challenge. Though Dench didn’t like the look of the fellow, he and
Tharvel stepped forward. The figure charged forward sweeping his
orc-bane weapon at the half-orc. As he did so he slammed the orc with
his off-hand draining energy and grinned - baring elongated fangs – he
was a vampire.
As the Dogs reacted this, three more
vampires launched themselves from the shadows, their slam-attacks
draining further levels from Tharvel and Dench. Esmeralda moved in to
confront one, who immediately scamper up a wall and hung on the
ceiling. Dench and Tharvel traded blows with the lead vampire, as one
of the others sank his fangs into the half-orc’s neck. As the battle
raged, Esmeralda and Eric also sufferd from the vampires energy draing
attacks until Katahrr stepped in and cast mass Death Ward.
With this protection, Dench and Tharvel finally managed to put the lead
vampire down – Eric then stepped forward and began turning the other
vampires. Once turned they were easy prey for the Dogs to finish off!
A Fiendish Contraption.
After dispatching the vampire guards, Esmeralda
followed their gaseous forms back to the win cellar where they seeped down
through a crack in the floor. Moving on through a secret door spotted by Eric,
the descended a spiral staircase to a room with a large metal drain set in the
floor. The reek of the charnel house wafted from the drain, and as the Dogs
gathered two vaporous creates emerged and began attacking - Crimson Deaths.
After these monstrosities were despatched they moved deeper into the complex,
emerging into a huge cavernous room that obviously some kind of statuary
workshop. Somewhat incongruously six liches were working on creating monstrous
statues and in the centre a massive representation of the worm-god
himself.
Dench charged into the room, swiftly followed by Tharvel, the liches
retaliated – casting a couple of spells that had no discernable effect, except
one who cast a web spell in the doorway – blocking the way. Dench swiftly
smashed the first of the liches into a bloodless pulp while Tharvel engaged the
others. After tossing a few fireball and lightning bolt spells, the remaining
liches fled, either by running or teleporting away. The web spell was swiftly
dispelled by Saskia and the remaining members of the party deployed into the
room.
Following
the liches they found them clustered inside a glowing magic circle in a
nearby room – Dench and Tharvel tried charging them but was unable to
get near them as they were protected by an anti-life shell . Eric and
the others arrived and the battle resumed at range the liches casting a
series of cone of cold and other spells – to limited effect, while the
Dogs retaliated at range. The stalemate went on for some time. Katahrr
tried dispelling the effect, but only succeeding in despelling the
magical glow surrounding the area. The liches tried using summon monster,
summoning a colossal centipede which proved but a minor distraction that
Esmeralda dealt with. As his fellows cast a series of spells that were
ineffective against the Dogs protections, one of their number, in a lull in the
battle, took the opportunity to flee again – presumably to get help. Eventually,
tiring of the confrontation Saskia and Katahrr unlimbered their big gun spells
and blasted the remaining liches to oblivion.
The Dogs began a thorough
search of the area – finding a room with a complicated machine was surmounted by
a swirling vortex of negative energy. Ignoring this for the moment they went on
into the complex – finding another room where some off the monstrous statues
where apparently stored.
Heading back through the room where the statues were
created, they found a strangely alien-looking room. However, when Dench looked in, he
went a bit strange, and so they decided to leave that room alone!
Finally
Esmeralda located another door which led to a corridor decorated with strange
worm-themed mosaics.
