Argua - Half-Orc Barbarian (251 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (250 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Unarmed Martial Artist (250 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (252 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (250 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (187 points)
Zephyra - Half-Elf Wizard (250 points)
NPCs:
Emrich "The Lawbringer" - Human Cleric of Erathis, goddess of law and civilization (??? points)
Isabelle of Thrace - Human Holy Warrior of Erathis, goddess of law and civilization (??? points)
New Characters
While in Isserno, Elana heard about the wolf-headed men cropping up in the wilderness, and ran into Grükuk and Lucas during her investigations. The pair told her that the likely source was in Shadowmantle Manor, and that she could join up with their compatriots there. Along the way, she met Vaelcor and his bear companion, Jahn, who decided to join her.
Amothius 9th, 2546
The party decided to rest in the altar room after finishing off the golem, and while they did, Elana, Vaelcor, and Jahn showed up. Both sides introduced themselves, and Elana and Vaelcor were brought up to speed on the situation and cut in on any profits from here on. Once they were done resting, Puddin' was sent to scout the blasted out hole (using her Dark Vision to maintain stealth) ahead of the rest of the party, who followed far behind.
The hole was roughly cut, but mostly straight, and even from extreme distance, Puddin' could see the party's Continual Lights clearly. Further down the tunnel, Puddin' noticed a dull green light, and continued on to find that it was emitting from the cracks on all sides of the blasted stone tunnel; she also noticed that there was a large group of wolf-headed zombies wielding hatchets and sickles, and a pair of rat ogres standing at the end of the tunnel, beside a crude wooden door built into the rock on their left, with a half-dozen fleshy "doors" on either side leading up to them.
Puddin' retreated back to the rest of the party, whose bright light could surely be seen by the enemies below. They moved forward to the edge of the green light, and Zephyra cast Shape Earth to wall off part of the tunnel and force the enemies to charge directly into strongest defender, and then they waited for the zombies and rat ogres to come to them. But they didn't.
Puddin' went forwards a bit and took a shot at a wolf zombie with her pistol crossbows, but its torso bent 90 degrees to the left and out of the way; Zephyra realized that this and three others were more of the out-of-phase, demon-possessed zombies they had fought earlier. The party argued about what to do next for a bit, until three wolf-headed "zombies" emerged from some of the flesh-walls and Isabelle declared this to be pointless. She charged forwards towards the enemies, followed closely by Jahn, Argua and Masha.
Zephyra cast Create Fire on one of the meat walls, and Puddin' ducked behind the stone wall to try to disappear, but failed. Elana ran up to the closest flesh wall and ruptured it with her spear, sending thick green ooze and a baby-sized, malformed wolf-headed zombie out onto the stone floor; it also revealed the small chamber beyond, which contained another pair of even smaller proto-zombies. Masha and Vaelcor both followed suit and kicked another flesh wall to pieces.
The zombies charged out to meet the attackers, but all missed their Move and Attacks, and Argua and Jahn took out a zombie each, while Emrich stepped forward and called out to Erathis to slay these servants of chaos, though nothing happened yet. The lines fully closed, but the rest of the zombie horde proved to be equally unskilled with their crude weapons, and nobody was hurt.
Masha kicked a zombie in half but missed two more, before retreating to the side and backing into one of the meat walls. Jahn took a hatchet to his flank, but shrugged it off and smashed the offending zombie into the side of the tunnel. The rat ogres arrived at the front, crushing their own allies in their haste; one slammed a meaty fist into Argua, and the other went for Masha but missed.
The wall she had first created fire on popped, so Zephyra dropped her old spells up and cast Create Fire, filling the entire cave except for the areas her allies were in, badly burning the normal zombies, though the demonic ones and rat ogres seemed mostly immune. Strikes from Argua and Elana were both dodged by one of the demonic zombies, though Jahn managed to take out another normal one, and Emrich's ability finally went off.
Again, divine light and golden chains swept out from him and disintegrated a large cluster of zombies, though this only wounded the demonics and left the rat ogres untouched. Masha missed two kicks at a demonic, but the third crit for max (27) crushing damage and knocked it back, dead, into a flesh wall, splattering it like a human missile. A different demonic zombie slipped through the formation and All-Out Attacked Zephyra, but missed, and a second was knocked off-balance by a critical dodged by Masha.
Masha ducked under another massive fist from a rat ogre, but the other one bashed Argua twice with an All-Out Attack; first in her right hand hard enough to cripple it, and then in the leg; fortunately she could still (barely) wield her great axe one-handed. Masha finished off the off-balance demon zombie, while Elana struck at the defenseless rat ogre's leg and torso with a pair of Rapid Strikes which knocked it prone.
Vaelcor swung his axe and took a leg off the demon-zombie attacking Zephyra, sending both the zombie and a stream of black ichor onto the floor. Jahn the bear roared in frustration because he was walled in by fire and all adjacent enemies had been killed, and Emrich finished off the legless demon-zombie with his flail. Up close, they noticed that the possessed zombies still vibrated slightly after death.
Isabelle blocked an attack from the still-standing rat ogre, and Zephyra lowered the field of fire to allow the party to move, but Argua passed out when she tried to step back. Jahn, now able to move, happily leapt forward, bit the rat ogre that had been attacking Isabelle, and forced it to the ground. Masha took a hatchet to the torso but shrugged it off, kicked one zombie in half and into another one, knocking it prone, and followed up with a second kick to the kneeling rat ogre, though it took the blow and regained its feet.
The other rat ogre tried to free itself from Jahn but his mighty jaws held it in place, and the rest of the zombies, normal and demonic, were finished off. Masha tried another flurry of kicks, and the rat ogre parried one, but the other two got through and caved its ribcage in, killing it. Elana landed a spear blow to the eye on the other rat ogre, which finished it off, and they finished off the rest of the flesh walls and slit throats/smashed skulls.
The party settled in to rest for a while, with Vaelcor healing Argua and Jahn back to full; thankfully, Argua's hand recovered from crippling properly. Zephyra argued that they should go back to town because she had expended her power item, but everybody else turned her down. Puddin' checked out the wooden door and found it to be crudely attached to the natural cavern, though no hinges were visible, with the gaps around the side plugged with burlap.
Vaelcor cast Sense Life and registered two life signs on the other side of the door, though the party did note that the wolf-headed zombies probably wouldn't register. The party waited some more to recover more spellcaster FP, and then set up around the door, while Zephyra did the math on how much it would cost to "collapse" the doorframe with Shape Earth.
Argua kicked open the door, revealing a wide chamber containing a bunch of zombies, a pair of Demons from Between the Stars, and a 6' glowing purple dome containing a rat ogre and a humanoid figure kneeling away from them and chanting softly to a pair of black stone pillars about 8' high. A thin fog was flowing from between the pillars, and lightning crackled along their length. Elana tried to improvise a plan with Tactics, but critically failed and gave the enemies a combat reroll instead.
Argua and Masha moved in cautiously, followed by Elana and Isabelle, and one of the Demons yelled out "Hold!" in a commanding voice, though nobody felt any magical effect. Jahn charged in recklessly, which caused the zombies to counter-charge, partially surrounding him, and ate three attacks from the zombies, though his thick fur prevented much actual injury. The charge resulted in lines closing with the rest of the party as well, though nobody else was injured.
When Emrich entered the room, the foes outside the dome all turned to look at him for a moment before returning to the fray, and Masha narrowly dodged a Demon's spectral claw. Elana and Isabelle both activated their Holy Might, but Elana's spear turned in her hand at the start of a combo of Rapid Strikes, denying her several turns of attacks. Jahn started ripping out the throats of zombies with a (max damage) crit, and Isabelle managed to land only one solid blow with her sick triple Rapid Strike.
Puddin' was still back out in the hallway, trying and failing to disappear repeatedly (on an effective Stealth of 11), while Emrich cast Protection from Chaos on Masha, which immediately helped shield her from a Demon's soul-stealing claws. Zephyra tried to cast Smoke inside the dome, but the spell fizzled as the dome blocked it. The other Demon moved through the party's lines and tried to claw at Emrich, but he dodged out of the way and the Demon ate counterattacks from Emrich, Isabelle, and Vaelcor.
The caster inside the dome's chanting grew louder, and a sickly black tear in the fabric of reality opened in front of him, spewing out more thick fog; the spell, whatever it was, was nearing completion. Masha knocked one of the Demons to the floor with a thunderous kick, though it wasn't hit quite hard enough to dissipate. Puddin' finally just crit-failed her Stealth check, and, figuring that she now must be in "stealth mode", entered the room.
Argua critically missed the Demon attacking Masha and hit her own arm with her great axe (somehow...) for 8 cutting, thankfully not enough to cripple it, and Jahn took out another pair of zombies. Isabelle landed a blow to the "skull" of the Demon on Emrich, but inflicted only a single point of damage. Elana was able to finish it off with a solid stab and it disintegrated in a flash of white light.
Zephyra finished casting Dispel Magic on the dome, but it proved too resilient. All but the last zombie were finished off, though Jahn struggled to land a claw and finish it off. Things looked good for a second, until the necromancer finished his spell and the doorway to another dimension fully opened. Almost instantly, a pair of giant (7' wide) wolf-headed spiders scuttled through from what looked to be a thick, steaming swamp, and one, somewhat surprisingly, spoke to the necromancer.
It belittled him for his incompetence, but promised a quick and painless death, for his foolish actions had inadvertently brought the "rod-bearer" into their clutches. Emrich was able to identify the giant spiders as spider-fiends, and warned everybody that they were resistant to lightning and fire, and that their poison was incredibly deadly. The last Demon ran around the party's line (and past Puddin', confirming further that she was definitely in stealth mode) to claw at Emrich, but missed.
Elana plunged her spear into the Demon from the side, though Emrich still had to beat it with his flail to finish it off, and the necromancer took down the dome, letting the rat ogre and spider-fiends charge. Now that he was facing them, Argua was able to notice that the necromancer was identical to the man she'd cut down in the Bloody Raven Inn back in Haverbrook, except for his eyes which were now glowing with a baleful red energy.
The necromancer raised a slender wand of white bone and a bolt of black fire shot towards Zephyra, who only barely managed to dodge by falling to the floor. The rat ogre charged into Argua, slamming its shoulder into her for 12 damage, though it missed the second. Masha jumped across the pile of corpses that had formed during the fight to flank, but missed a kick on the rat ogre. The spiders-fiends moved forward, one barely missing Masha with its enormous fangs.
Zephyra cast Shape Earth to erect a wall between herself and the necromancer, and the rat ogre switched to Masha, who nimbly retreated out of its reach. Vaelcor told Jahn to ignore the zombie, so he clawed at the spider instead, taking a chunk out of it. With Zephyra out of sight, the necromancer fired another blast of black flame at Argua, which she, and Elana behind her, dodged, and the spider that Jahn had swiped at turned and bit deep into his side, injecting its poison.
Masha made an amazing feint (-8) on one of the spiders with a crit, and then dodged a pair of All-Out Attacks from the rat ogre. Argua brought her great axe down on it twice, though it still wasn't enough to bring the beast down, and Puddin' helped Zephyra into a crouch. The necromancer critically hit Argua with a gout of black flame, burning her badly, and Masha missed an attack on the spider she had feinted, wasting it.
Jahn struggled to break free from the spider, but tied the quick contest and stayed grappled. The rat ogre bashed Argua with its fist, and she retaliated with a heavy blow of her own, though both stayed standing and alive. Elana moved to attack one of the spiders, but it dodged out of the way, and Vaelcor healed Jahn for 24HP, bringing him out of the negatives. Jahn then bit the spider right back, and the two continued to tear at each other for the rest of the fight, while the last zombie occasionally hit Jahn with its hatchet from behind.
Emrich prayed to Erathis to heal Argua, but, due to his many other prayers that day, it went unanswered. Isabelle flanked around to charge the necromancer, but he ignored her to shoot at Emrich instead, who managed to block. Masha kicked the spider near her, only for it to step over her and the rest of the party to bite at Emrich, who failed to dodge and was bitten through his mail shirt.
Puddin' tried to stab the spider biting Emrich, but, despite rolling max damage (4), her attack merely bounced off of its chitin. The rat ogre was knocked off-balance by a crit-fail, but Argua missed one of her two retaliatory strikes, and didn't bring it down. Elana stabbed into the spider biting Emrich, and Vaelcor tried to heal Jahn again, but failed.
Emrich fell unconscious in the maw of the mega-spider, and was mortally wounded on his first death check. The necromancer took another shot with his wand, this time at Isabelle, and scorched her normally bright armour, though she still continued the charge.
Notes:
Druids now have access to healing spells, and Plant Spells, to hopefully make them slightly less shit.
Jahn the bear is an upgraded version of the one in Allies, which for some reason doesn't have No Fine Manipulators. Of particular note, he has 35HP, Hard to Kill 2, Hard to Subdue 2, High Pain Threshold, Fit, Recovery, and Brawling-18. He's a pretty good bear.
The out-of-phase zombies continued their trend of failing to dodge at 15 almost every time.
Some houserules we're going to try out going forward:
-Telegraphic Attack no longer exists
-You can defend at -10 from attacks from behind, though not if wearing a full helm/greathelm; surprise attacks still offer no defense
-Missile spells can be fired the first turn they are cast
-Weapon Master damage caps at +2
We realized at almost the end of the session that Vaelcor had a large shield instead of a medium; rather than taking the -2 to attacks he should have had, he's just downgrading.
The necromancer would normally not have been able to summon/create so many reinforcements, but they rested for like 30-40 minutes right outside the door after a loud combat.
I used a d6 as a timer in this fight for the spider summoning spell, and it was fun to watch the players try to stop it. Zephyra actually only lost the Dispel Magic quick contest by 2, so it was very close.
Zephyra argued that the necromancer should have logically stopped serving the spider-fiends when they said he would be killed, but nobody in the party ever even tried to talk to him.
XP was 2 for the first fight, MVP still needs to be voted on.
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