Masha Deathfoot - Human One-Handed Martial Artist (250+12 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (252+6 points)
Zephyra - Half-Elf Wizard (250+9 points)
Amothius 8th, 2546, Isserno
The party sold their potion of flight and the silver flask with a demon inside, recharged power items, renewed Continual Light on Masha, paid to have Grükuk's arm and Masha's hand Regenerated, and then set out down the road to Haverbrook on their way back to the manor. They made it to the Bloody Raven inn slightly before nightfall, checked in with Jeeves, who apparently lived there, and noticed a pair of hooded travellers sitting in a corner; one an armoured woman, the other a cherubic young man.
Zephyra bought them some drinks and tried to be friendly, but the woman broke off conversation as quickly as possible, claiming that they were traders (odd, given they had no merchandise, and there were no animals in the stable). By midnight, all but Argua and the travellers retired to their rooms, the former drinking heavily and the latter having only purchased access to the common room for the night, when a robed man trailed by two men in hoods entered the Bloody Raven.
Argua's keen nose recognized the familiar scent of rot and she turned to see that two of the men had pallid, deathly skin. The leader started to shout "You will d-", but was interrupted by the barbarian, who cleft him nearly in twain with her great axe, taking the whole room by surprise. He shouted out "KILL THEM!", and the two others leapt forward, their hoods coming off and revealing them to be more of the wolf-headed zombies, their poor weapons bouncing off of Argua's thick hide.
The armoured woman drew a sword and charged into the fray, while Argua beheaded the leader, his body disintegrating into ash. There was a great crash, loud enough to wake Puddin', who went to rouse the others, as part of the inn's wall was torn open and a truly gigantic, suture-covered bipedal rat charged towards the fray, followed closely by more of the wolf-zombies. The cherubic man uttered a quick prayer, and a flash of light filled the room, badly scorching the zombies, though not the rat ogre, which slammed into Argua, knocking her over.
Argua regained her feet while dodging a massive fist, and landed a heavy strike to the neck, which only sent the rat ogre into a berserk rage. The armoured woman held her own against the zombies, and downed them almost as quickly as they flooded through the front door, and the man drew a large crossbow, which he fired at the rat ogre, injuring, but not killing, it. Puddin' and the others finally came down the staircase, just in time to see Argua behead the rat ogre with a single massive blow (double damage crit to the neck doing 44 damage and taking it to -5xHP), and help finish off the last two zombies.
While the others were still getting up to speed, the armoured woman started rifling through the robes and ash of the leader before announcing "It's not here" to her compatriot, who responded with a pained "Ugh, not again". At Puddin's prompting, she then gathered up the rest of the leader's possessions (a wand and a glowing blue gemstone), and gave them to the innkeeper, who had emerged from his hiding place and exclaimed "What happened to me wall!?", to pay for the repairs. With that, the party got to questioning the strangers about what the hell was going on.
With some reluctance, they introduced themselves as Emrich and Isabelle, and explained that the guy in the robes belonged to a group that had been chasing them, though Emrich remarked that he thought they'd finally lost them. When asked how the party knew that they weren't secretly the bad guys, Isabelle pointed to the multiple zombies and rat ogre, which prompted Zephyra to rant about how necromancers are unfairly portrayed by the media.
Emrich then elaborated that the leader and his group wanted something they were carrying with them, and that they were hoping their attacker might have had a particular magic item they were looking for. It wouldn't do for necromancers to be walking around with an artifact that powerful. Argua went back to her tankard to finish off her ale, and the rest of the party explained that they had fought these kind of zombies before in a manor they had inherited, and they were welcome to come with them if they thought it would help.
Emrich and Isabelle broke off to talk privately, but Puddin' did her best to eavesdrop, and overheard them say "the rod segment might be there, it's worth checking out". The pair agreed to accompany the party on their journey, and with some prodding ("Hey, we might have sold the thing you were looking for") confirmed that what they were looking for was a strange wand with a metal bit on the end. The next morning, the party set out back to the manor.
Amothius 9th, 2546, Shadowmantle Manor
The party headed back to the dungeon through the crypt's revolving door, using the ol' "copper on a string" trick to get in without paying the death's head's toll, and Puddin' scouted ahead to the room where they had fought the Demons from Beyond the Stars. With her Dark Vision, she was able to easily see a large group of wolf-headed zombies, along with two others that had strange amorphous blobs trailing tentacles instead of hands that seemed to shimmer slightly.
Puddin' returned to the group, and Emrich told them what he knew about the enemies: the wolf-headed zombies were just normal zombies, but with a better bite, and not really a problem. The shimmering tentacle ones, however, were zombies possessed by demons, and could phase through weapons and armour, making them dangerous and very annoying to kill.
The party decided to charge in, as the staircase and short hallway were quite narrow, and lines were joined as the zombies ran towards them, snarling and swinging crude hatchets and picks, though none managed to inflict any injury. Masha and Argua started blending zombies as they came into reach, and were joined by Isabelle, as Puddin' moved to flank and Emrich and Zephyra slowly made their way into the room.
The zombies continued to swarm, but were easily held at bay, and neither of the demon-zombies managed to land any hits. A hurricane kick from Masha kicked one of the demon-zombies in half, and then caved in the torso of a normal zombie, while Puddin' flanked behind the other demon (using the rarely-seen Committed Attack) and stabbed it in side with her shortsword, actually inflicting damage!
Zephyra cast a 3d Flame Jet, and Argua and Isabelle took out another zombie each, though Emrich missed a strike at the remaining demon-zombie with his flail. As he did, it turned to face him and hissed "Die, Lawbringer!" before raking him with its phasing tentacles. Masha finished off the rest of the zombies with a flurry of rapid kicks, leaving only the demon zombie, which was immediately decapitated by Argua.
The party settled in to rest for 15 minutes, while Puddin' searched the bodies. She found nothing of note, though it was noted that some were fully nude and had no genitals (full Ken-doll), and then went forward to scout the hallway past the copper door of screaming faces. The door to the golem-armour swordsman was open, and the stone in front of it had been shaped away. To the west, in the room where they had fought the peshkali, the golem-armour swordsman was standing guard, its sword pointed into the ground.
With the memories of their prior fight with the golem fresh in their minds, the party came up with a plan, rather than rushing in with no way to deal with it. First they rejected Argua's idea of "Puddin' gets it to chase her, leads it back into its room, and then she locks the door again", and decided on something less dangerous. Argua would use the Phial of the Mad Alchemist to create a Strength Potion to boost her damage, Emrich would use his abilities to bind the golem with chains, and Zephyra would then try to use Shape Earth to open a hole underneath it. While this happened, the others would flood its defenses with attacks.
Argua and Masha charged in, followed shortly by Isabelle and Puddin'. They somehow managed to catch it by surprise, though they didn't hurt it before it recovered, but their luck held as an amazing damage roll from Masha managed to kick its sword arm to pieces, leaving the golem mostly harmless. The front-liners continued to frantically bash it, while Emrich muttered a prayer and glowing golden chains surrounded the golem. Zephyra cast Shape Earth to open up a pit, but it managed to straddle it perfectly (thanks to a crit), and then broke free, shattering the chains.
Puddin' fired a pistol crossbow at the golem, which it didn't even bother to block. Thanks to Masha and Isabelle's attacks, the golem's defenses were overloaded and Argua was able to land a telling blow to the neck, which sent the armour spilling around the floor. With the golem finally dealt with, the party turned to the blasted hole and prepared to embark into the darkness.
Notes:
I have instituted a houserule for Regenerate, where costs are reduced for extremities and eyes compared to limbs.
I hadn't expected Argua to go as aggressive as she did, but damn if it didn't work.
Hilariously, both Puddin' and the demon-wolf-zombies crit their checks to sneak and spot, respectively, though Puddin' won because she got about 15 MoS.
Puddin' bought two levels of the Huge Weapons perk, allowing her to use SM0 weapons and then... forgot to get new SM0 weapons.
Argua got the Reach Mastery perk, which is pretty sweet with a great axe.
Somewhat amusingly, the demon-zombies succeeded at only two Dodge rolls, despite having Dodge 15. In addition, the strikes they dodged were from Isabelle, who hits the lightest out of the three front-liners.
Argua and Masha's player has
XP was 2, MVP was Argua for killing the leader, the rat ogre, and the golem-armour swordsman.
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