Session 2 (Legends of the Lost): Giving a Zombie a Piggyback Ride

The heroes reluctantly agreed to Feng's proposal to help him escape with "Uncle Jo", but they asked  Feng to drink from the waters of the Pool of Radiance first. Feng readily agreed and drank from the waters, which leaked out of his torso from several gaping holes. However, it was enough for the chaotic magic of the pool to infuse Feng with a permanent boon to his constitution. 

The party soon proceeded to the rickety rope bridge. Grandalf attempted to scout using his owl familiar, but it was quickly killed by Stirges that dive-bombed him from above. Undeterred, Jack gave Feng a piggy-back ride across the bridge with Klaszi and Logen. While they crossed the bridge the Stirges eyed them hungrily, but the presence of the inedible Feng and his worm, Chon, kept them at bay. 

While the party was still crossing, Logen entered the next room and was immediately ambushed by two Night Horrors shaped as horrific spider creatures. One of them wrapped itself around Logen's head and sank his fangs into his skull, sucking some of the cerebrospinal fluid from his brain. However, due to Logen's unnaturally thick skull and smooth brain the damage wasn't mortal. 

While Logen was getting his brain slowly sucked out, Grandalf -- who wisely decided that giving a piggy-back ride to a zombie was a bad idea -- guided Uncle Jo across the bridge from a distance. However, Uncle Jo was ungainly with only three toes spread across two feet slipped and fell soundlessly thirty feet into the murky water below. He was set upon immediately by several monstrous looking fish with huge jaws before he slipped forever under the water. Uncle Feng yelled out for Uncle Jo half-heartedly and then quickly forgot about him a few minutes later. 

In the next room Klaszi and Jack joined Logen in battle. Logen managed to pull the Night Horror from his head, while Jack, who was fighting blindly, lashed out wildly with his rapiers. The party soon dispatched the horrors with Jack scoring the final death blow against the nightmarish creatures, even though he was blind. 

Sensing freedom was close, the party headed up a long stair-case to the exit. During the ascent Farmak nearly stepped on a slippery green mold-like substance that could have sent him tumbling down the long staircase, but Klaszi noticed and stopped him from stepping on it. The party asked Arboreta, a druid, what the mold was, but she lacked knowledge of plants and animals. 

After breaking down the door to the exit they arrived before a village under an alien night sky and surmised they were not on their home-world of Toril anymore. 

Feeling weary from their adventure in the Tomb they walked towards the village in search of Ale and rest. They saw that most of the buildings were surrounded by a multitude of demon-like creatures intent on dining on the villagers. The protective runes on the dwelling seemed to protect the villagers, but the party was not as protected and the creatures spun around and charged at them intent on eating them. 

Fortunately, the party was near the home of Rerkia Delamere, a famer, who called out to them from his 2nd story window to seek refuge in his home and rushed downstairs to open a back-door. The heroes heeded his advise and rushed inside evading the monsters. 

The heroes spent the night and learned from Rerkia that they Night Horrors come at night to destroy all of the civilized and not-so-civilized races of the world and that it isn't safe to be outside at night unless you are in a warded building. His wife, Vosa, also told the party about their daughter, Bynda, who was missing for the past week and is feared dead. She was last seen near the Apple Orchard and there is a reward if the party can find out what happened to her. She was wearing a silver necklace with an emblem of Ghedra the Protector on it. 

The party, feeling more experienced after their long rest, headed to the town center and provisioned themselves from the various merchants. One of them in particular, Min Zhen, was a descendant of Feng Zhen and told the party the tragic tale of her family and how they fell on hard times after the Red Wasting and went into debt to the New World Associates, a crime family based out of New Port. She's the only member of the family in Sarton, and asked the party if they would retrieve Uncle Zin's Amulet from the Eastern Crypts in the Tomb the party just left. If they agree she'll give them a key to open the door to the crypts and give them two potions of ability for their trouble.

During this time Alluin, who was relieved to be out of danger, took her leave from the heroes and said she would stay in Sarton and try to research the Pools of Radiance to see if she could find a way back to Faerun. 

Next the party went to the Fiery Lass -- still early in the morning -- to eat Breakfast and drink Ale. They learned from the girl tending the bar and making them eggs, Breen Ashdown, that her home was nearly destroyed by Night Horrors 10-days ago. She saw her father die horribly, but her brother and mother ran to the basement. 

Everyone in the village thinks her family is dead, but she thinks they might still be alive in the basement. However, she heard strange noises coming there and is too afraid to enter the basement -- along with the rest of the village -- and has offered the party 250 gold if they will find out what happened to the rest of her family and clear out the basement. 

She also mentioned that her home isn't the only one that's been attacked by the Night Horrors. Several other families have met similar fates over the past 3-months. She says these are caused by a group of unknown terrorists who deface the wards on their homes making them susceptible to Night Horror attacks. The villagers call them the Defacers and suggested the party talk to the magistrate for more information and a reward for stopping them. 

The drunk party agreed to help Breen and headed straight to the basement intent on destroying Night Horrors and lining their pockets with gold. They discovered nothing of note above the basement, but when they descended it looked as if the basement was completely ransacked with smashed jars, boxes, and various debris covering the floor. They also noticed a strange tar-like material on the floor, which made navigating the basement laborious. 

They next entered a northern room where Klaszi cast Sacred Flame on the tar-like substance, which caused a black, ooze-like creature -- some type of Night Horror no doubt -- to coalesce from the tar and attack the party. The heroes quickly dispatched the creature, but not before Logen was mentally assaulted by the ooze. 

Undeterred the party continued their investigation of the basement and soon found a nest of Night Horrors, who attacked the party. The winged daemons teleported behind the heroes and attacked Aboreta, but she turned into a ferocious dinosaur and easily defeated them. In the front line Farmak dealt an especially wicked blow to a large demonic Night Horror, and nearly slew it with a single blow. During the combat hapless Jack, who was blind and couldn't see anything around him, was repeatedly repositioned by the tactically minded -- although still drunk -- Grandalf, who laid into the horrors with Toll the Dead.

The party soon dispatched the creatures with Logen somehow slaying an ooze with a savage head-butt. Afterward the heroes were painted in a colorful mix of reds, browns, and blacks from the blood and viscera of their enemies and their own wounds. Logen lamented the lack of his kilt, which made defecating on his enemies problematic. 

For their heroism the party found the Ashdown's family treasure and collected their reward of 250 gold. They also found a Moon Sickle, which Farmak took, although it was not part of the formal agreement with Breen.

Session 1 (Legends of the Lost): Beware the Red Fungus

Our story began on the morning of Uktar (November) 14, 1492 DR. Our heroes, after having agreed to protect Alluin Eladan as she explored the caverns under Valjevo castle for a Pool of Radiance, were transported to a mysterious tomb after having found the pool and somehow triggered it's chaotic magic.

They appeared next to a pool of magical energy in an unfamiliar room and were immediately attacked by five zombies, who were digging at the walls of the cavern. The heroes soundly defeated the undead taking only light damage. One of the undead proved particularly troublesome for the party -- especially Captain Jack, who couldn't seem to hurt it with his rapiers.

After the battle Logen dedicated the pool to his god, Herne. While he was giving a rousing battlecry in his honor, Grandalf greedily looted the gold signet rings from the undead while Farmak took their nearly worthless chain mail, which was heavily degraded and reeked of death.

Unsure where to go the party headed Southwest and found an ominous Red light shining at the end of a passage. Unbeknownst to our heroes, a sinister Red Devil Fungus plant resided in this part of the cavern. It had been unearthed by four zombies who had accidentally dug into it's chamber and were quickly consumed by the fungus and whose bones lay scatted through the cavern.

Logen, feeling brave, moved towards the light. However, the light was dim and Logen missed the drag marks on the ground and exposed himself to the Fungus, which grabbed him with one of his tentacles and tried to pull him into it's gaping maw.

The party charged in to assist Logen and a battle ensued against the tentacled monstrosity. Most of the party became restrained by the tentacles of the creature, who also seemed to be resistant to their attacks and healed quickly from its wounds.

Aboretta, having ventured too close into the chamber got seized by one of the tentacles and pulled towards the creature. Grandalf, who had fantasized about this very moment, used his magic to pull the halfling into his arms and giggled excitedly.

Aboretta dodged Grandalf and ran back to assist her companions. However, the creature wrapped a tentacle around Aboretta's neck and pulled the small halfing into it's maw and bit into her flesh nearly extinguishing her life, but it spat her out quickly to engage the rest of the party.

The heroes were feeling that they might have underestimated the creature, who next focused on Logen, who took a ferocious bite from the creature that nearly knocked him unconscious, but he managed to stay on his feat. With Aboretta bleeding out from her grievous wound, Klaszi had a terrible decision to make. Should she try to heal Arboretta, who was in danger of dying, or should she attack the creature instead? She gambled and attacked the creature, but fortunately, Arboreta didn't die at that moment.

The determined party continued to fight and wore the creature down until Grandalf killed finally killed it with a well-placed Magic Missile spell. For their trouble the party found some coins and a magical dagger with the hilt of a Lion head.

Feeling exhausted by the fight they party rested in the Red Fungus cavern and then continued to explore the cavern.

They next came upon a barrier of crudely placed rocks and debris that blocked further exploration to the South. It appeared to be easily displaced with time and effort, but the party decided to hold off further action until they explored the caverns more.

Farmak became separated from the party and ventured down a side cavern and encountered an undead woman clad in decaying chain mail. Feeling confident he engaged the foul creature. However, the monster was possessed of tremendous strength and knocked Farmak unconscious with a single blow and reached hungrily for his head, intent on cracking open his brain-case and slurping up his slightly atrophied brain, but Farmak's heroic companions destroyed the creature before she could kill him.

After a short respite, the party headed North through the caverns and found a tomb and, surprisingly, a sentient zombie named Feng Zhen and his formidable pet Corpse Worm called Thon. He told the party how his family were prosperous merchants in Sarton village, which lies above the tomb. He relayed that everyone who dies will rise as a Soulless and that they are usually incinerated immediately after death (perhaps in a few cases even earlier). However, due to the Zhen family power and influence they built the tomb to house their family since it's considered a show of power and prestige to avoid being incinerated like a common peasant in death. He also mentioned that Soulless came into being when the precursors tried to stop the Night Horrors, who come out at night to destroy humanoids, but something went terribly wrong. 

It's very rare for undead to retain their intelligence when they rise according to Feng, and he's bored and wants to leave the tomb after residing in it for 80-years. He asked the party for help crossing the rickety rope bridge to the South, which was put in place to help stop the zombies from escaping the tomb. He says he has a key that will open the door on the far side and will help the party escape with him.

During the discussion screams and a battering sound began on the Eastern door of the room. In his 80-years of residing in the Tomb Feng claimed he never heard it until now. Perhaps something has detected the party? He said the party should heed the warning on the sign that says not to enter, but he reluctantly agreed to help after Klaszi persuaded him. However, the door was locked and the party couldn't find a way to enter.

During this exchange Grandalf explored the room for treasure, and came before a small altar and a Frescoe to the North of the room, dedicated to Ghedra the Protector, a goddess nobody in the party has ever heard of before. Grandalf was able to detect her presence and communicated with her. She blessed him and told him that if he (or anyone in the party) destroyed all of the monsters in the tomb (including the foul undead) and made it safe to the inhabitants of Sarton that she would show them favor and accept them as worshippers 

session 26: The Boot of Kord

"Here's a note I took off a Vrock I slew" said Zandalf, unrolling a parchment on the bar. "Not a bad likeness."

"We were headed back to the old Dwarven ruins to see what further treasures we might find when we came to a bridge.  'HOLD,' I said, 'EVIL IS AFOOT'.  Probably saved a few lives right there did old Zandalf the Herald.  No sooner had I spoken than did this foul creature fly up from the chasm.  A demon rising from the depths!"  Zandalf glanced over at the barmaid.  "How'd you like to see my demon rise?  eh?  EH?" Getting no interest he went on.  "Anyway, under my orders we spread out in attack formation and began peppering the the beast with ranged attacks.  It shrugged most of them off with little damage, but seemed susceptible to Leena's fire bolt.  I had everyone back away from the edge to lure it into hand to hand range.  When it came in to bite and claw at us we fell upon it with axe and sword.  It was a hard fought battle but in the end it couldn't hope to stand before my might.  It did a bit of damage to some of the others with its shrieks and spores but Zandalf the Hardy was still ready for action.  I'm always ready, you know what I'm saying?"

"We headed back to our campsite outside the dwarven ruins and some of the lesser members of the party nursed their wounds for a time before we went back in.  Once everyone was done being a baby we returned to the large door on the second level that the others had failed to open previously.  This time, though, I took a greater part in the proceedings and under my expert guidance Amos was able to pick the lock.  Beyond the door, stairs descended to a small chamber with 3 statues of dwarfs holding axes.  Seeing gouges on the ground in front of the 2 obvious exits I sensed a trap and set the team to searching the room.  Zandalf's first option is ALWAYS the backdoor, you know what I mean?  Zandalf the Probing!  Sure enough, behind one of the statues we found a secret door, and used that to exit the room." 

"The door opened into a large throne room, occupied by three duergar who rudely threatened us.  No sooner do we step into the room than these guys turn invisible and charge at us.  One by one they pop back into existence as they chuck javelins.  Vanekas turns into a big ass spider and scuttles up a pillar, shooting a web like 30 feet onto the guy closest to us.  Let me know if you want to stage a reenactment in my room later, heheh.  So anyway, the fellas just walk up and hack this trapped dwarf to death, which he had coming.  The other two didn't fare much better, trying to hide behind pillars.  Gimmelstob and Dis just started walking up and chopping away.  Amos is sneaking around shooting guys and Vanekas actually bit one."

"Once those three were dealt with we decided to head south where we could hear a loud, rhythmic clanging.  We open these big double doors and there's 3 more of these mean little guys across a river looking like they're making a sword or something.  Figuring these guys are as shitty as the ones we just handled we decide to just open fire on them unannounced.  We peppered one guy but he didn't go down.  Maybe if we'd bought him dinner first, eh?  Hehe.  So 2 of the guys turn invisible again and you can hear them coming across the bridges.  The other guy starts slinging spells at us, 'shatter' and the like.  Gimmelstob charges across the bridge and goes after the wizard with Vanekas who is creeping across the ceiling.  Dis, Amos and Leena stay on the near side of the river and soon enough the 2 missing duergar show up and start going after Leena.  Amos and Leena are concentrating on this one guy and Dis turns to the guy standing on the bridge and just plants the boot of Kord right in his chest, sends him into the river and over the falls to his doom.  The two remaining guys didn't last long, unlike me, Zandalf the Vigorous.  I couldn't tell, but I think Vanekas was biting this guy too.  Real oral fixation, that guy."

"After sorting out those last duergar we searched the room and found some more treasure hidden in an old furnace.  There were a couple storerooms to the south but didn't seem to be anything going on there.  To the east was a big waterfall, the one the duergar went over.  There's a bit of a ledge that goes along the northern wall of the pit and you can just make out a ladder over there, going down to who knows where.  Still plenty of doors still to open on this level before we go further down."

Session 25 (Main): Norik's Skull

Our heroes descended into the ominous Temple of Myrkul, Pog barring the double-doors behind them.  The team edged forward slowly, checking for traps and waiting for Blumpkin to catch up. 

At the end of a long hallway, they discovered a huge skull stained with a bloody handprint.  Its eye sockets contained precious gems, the sight of which filled Silde with glee.  Choosing caution over avarice, the team opted to leave the gems be and followed a bloody trail of footprints heading east.

They came upon another hallway to the north with 5 doors.  Our heroes formed up in battle stances as each door was opened, finding nothing but a set of bedrooms with rugs that really tied each room together man.  Signs of fighting marked each of the bedrooms.  Silde abruptly checked his timepiece, declaring it was "naptime" and slinking off to one of the bedrooms.  The fifth and final door remained; an ominous pool of blood marking its threshold.

As the team opened the door it was greeted by a slumped figure in full armor with shield and covered with grievous cranial wounds.  Suddenly the creature stirred, asking the party if they were sent by Arlew.  Pog replied in the affirmative, and for a brief moment the team thought it had an ally in its quest to clear the temple.  That was until Norik moaned "Braaaaains...", clearly ignoring Blumpkin but staring greedily at the rest of the party.

Eschewing his cowardly ways, Velocitor charged headfirst at the evil foe.  Norik moved with blinding speed, however, and reached out to blast Velocitor with a withering strike of necrotic damage.  Velocitor, unaccustomed to the rigors of melee combat, went flying into a nearby wall and slumped down unconscious.  One by one, our heroes streamed into the room to enter the fray, each time surprised by the speed of Norik's reactions.  Pog also fell victim to a withering strike, though his hardy Barbarian shirtlessness allowed him to largely shrug off the damage.

As the team assailed Norik from all sides, they discovered him to be quite an implacable enemy.  Attacks bounced off his armor and shield, and attempts to blast him with spells were ignored.  The only hero able to consistently damage Norik seemed to be Blumpkin, peppering the zombie with a barrage of arrows.  Eventually, the team was able to collectively wear down their enemy until he fell for the last time.  Blumpkin gently cradled the defeated zombie's skull in his hands and pronounced, "Alas, poor Norik! I knew him, Typhus, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!"  Then Blumpkin began softly sobbing while Merkin ground Norik's skull into dust.  The party discovered a magical necklace, a stone of opening, and a shield emblazoned with the symbol of Myrkul which Stevil quickly modified with chalk to showcase the mightier and superior god Kord.

The party headed west back through the trail of blood.  An ominous, periodic thudding could be heard coming from the barred entrance, which the team surmised was due to someone's attempts to ram through the double doors.  Merkin judged that the party still had a few hours before the doors were breached so they continued west toward the "lab" which would have more accurately been described as a slaughterhouse.  Mangled body parts lay strewn across multiple examination tables along with journals describing the sickening experiments of Myrkul's disciples.  One of the experiments lay encased in a glass cylinder in the northwest corner:  an ectoplasmic ooze designed to absorb negative energy.  As the party continued their search they unlocked a cabinet that contained a mysterious tarp-covered object.  Pog wisely decided to remove the tarp from a distance... but it was not far enough.  Every party member lay in the blast radius of a psychic assault by none other than Charlton Heston's brain in a jar!  Pog began wailing about his second amendment rights... Velocitor rummaged through the room looking for soylent green... Merkin decried his medieval weaponry, longing for an AR-15... Blumpkin was largely unaffected.  Before he had a chance to act, Stevil was mentally commanded to flee toward the barred door.  Only Typhus had the wits required to take decisive action!  Typhus... our hero of the moment!  Typhus... the champion of champions!  Typhus... our fate is in your hands!  Typhus cast a phantasmal illusion... at a being with no eyes.



Luckily, the party quickly recovered from their psychic damage to make short work of Ben-Hur's brain.  They searched through the adjoining room without finding anything of interest other than more body parts.

It was time to face down their true enemy.  The party veered north into the bowels of the temple but before they could proceed they were presented with a challenge.  The floor was littered with runes and ominous, scythe-wielding statues on both sides.  Everyone recognized the runes as matching those in the stone of opening.  Typhus bravely volunteered to be the first to attempt a sequence.  After safely passing through the first set of runes he was suddenly zapped with glowing fire beams from the eye sockets of the statues.  Undaunted, he attempted another sequence with similar results.  After some debate, Blumpkin was voluntold as the next hero to venture forth on the tiles.  He attempted a slightly different sequence and, alas, was also burned.  A disembodied, somewhat staccato voice was heard by the party members echoing in the chamber, reminding them of a hint given by Arlew.  Using a numbered sequence provided in Arlew's clue, Blumpkin and Typhus were able to safely pass through the tiles with no further damage.  The party followed, steeling themselves to confront the evil that awaited them in the next chamber...