Session Summary #26

Started by Nathan Sherman, August 17, 2020, 09:33:16 PM

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Nathan Sherman

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Tykor, very old half elven innkeeper that has forgotten he used to go by Illanor, an arch mage of the Conclave of Freedom - NPC
Nikos, friend of Tykor and entertainment manager for the Inn of the Broken Staff - NPC


The party decides to burn the ten bodies that they dragged out of the mansion and then rest until the next morning to make another attempt on it.

The next morning, after much debate, the party decides that they should split the party (always a good idea) and have Otep, Lutheo and his ridding dog Cato go in by themselves while Akronos, Theron and Ceress support them by sitting outside while maintaining concentration on the Protection from Evil and Silent spells cast on them.

The plan is that Otep and Lutheo you will go in and retrieve any bodies they kill and bring them out for permanent destruction. If they need assistance they will use hand signals, assuming they are fighting within view of the front door like in the entry way or main hall again.

Otep and Lutheo go into the mansion buffed by the other party members and they start exploring.

The find blood and gore upon the floor of the entryway and main hall where they battled, killed and left many zombie bodies but none of those bodies are still there.

They explore much of the first level of the mansion but don't find any enemies.

They decide to venture upstairs, separated off from the rest of the party and under their silence spell. Instead of taking the grand staircase to the second floor, they go back through the dining room to the servants staircase that they had seen two days prior on the first venture into the mansion.

When they get to the top of the staircase they find two zombies in the small room housing the stairs on the second floor.

They make short work of those two zombies, deploy the snatch pit, roll the bodies into it and pick it back up. So far, everything is going according to plan.

They open the one door leading out of that room and venture into the hallway. There are multiple doors in this hallway and they pick the one across the hall from the stairs, open it and enter. This appears to be a nicely appointed bedroom that happens to have two more zombies with glowing blue eyes. They quickly engage them in combat but before they can finish them off more zombies have come out of other rooms off the hallway and joined in the combat, cutting off their easy retreat.

After cutting down the first two zombies, Otep turns to fight the zombies coming from the hall while Lutheo and his massive dog work on rolling the two dead ones into the snatch pit.

The wispy apparition joins in the combat from the hallway, using its powers to sling Lutheo backwards across the bedroom, silently slamming into the far wall. It then slipped out of view before Lutheo and Otep could retaliate.

Lutheo and Otep push their way into the hallway battling the zombies, dropping a couple more but more have come from rooms further away to join the battle. Even worse, the apparition is joined by whatever has been causing the whispers of madness that torments their minds, despite the silence they have around them. Apparently it is directly effecting their minds and the lack of sound hasn't protected them from this attack.

Being outnumbered and already hurting, Lutheo uses his Sumerac shield to protect him and Otep from more zombies attacking, with just one caught in the force field with them. Unfortunately, it doesn't protect him from the telekinetic attacks and he is again thrown backwards by the apparitions force, slamming him to the other side of the force field. Otep is struck by the whispers of madness and suffers a feeling of suffocating and crushing death and he turns on Lutheo and viciously attacks him before regaining control of himself.

The battle has quickly turned on our intrepid heroes as they have become badly wounded and are still outnumbered by zombies, the apparition and cause of the disturbing whispers in their minds.

They fight a hasty retreat, barely hanging on to life as they scramble back down the stairs and out of the house.

Theren has been waited right at the front door and lends some healing as they come barreling out of the house. Otep and Lutheo stop a little ways outside the house, panting for breath, still bleeding badly with the rest of the party still near the front door.

The party starts to asks them what happened but then the force grabs Theren who was closest to the from door and it hurls him back into the house, slamming him up against a wall in the great hall.

Both Otep and Lutheo are still badly hurt despite a little healing but Ceress rushes in to rescue Theren. Unfortunately, the evil spirit floats over and attacks Ceress, possessing him. Theren casts Protection from Evil on Ceress to help with future saving saves agains the possession, but it doesn't immediately break him out of it. Ceress reaches out and attacks Theren, withering his skin where he hits him and then the possessed Ceress runs deeper into the mansion, headed up the grand stairs.

Akronos, Otep and Tykor followed by Nikos come into the mansion to help retrieve the possessed Ceress. Tykor gets excited with all of the activity and hurls off a spell, targeting Otep who is just ahead of him. Otep resists the spell, not knowing what it is or that he just resisted being polymorphed in to a rhinoceros.

Akronos hears the footsteps of more zombies coming from a back passage and lobs a fireball down there, whipping out two and greatly injuring the third.

Otep chases the possessed Ceress up the stairs and starts hitting him with his maul, trying to knock him unconscious instead of killing him. Theren works to head off the possessed Ceress by using his arachnid cape and climbing up the walls to the second story balcony.

Tykor is getting into the spirit of helping out and casts a wall of force at the top of the stairs, blocking Ceress's retreat, but since it is invisible and Ceress is at a full run he slams into it with full force, knocking him on his ass.

The one zombie that survived Akronos's fireball makes it to the grand hall and the only targets are Tykor and Nikos. It runs up and slashes Tykor with its sword but misses him with its raking claw attack. Before Nikos can respond to protect his friend, Tykor response with a single word and a green line of glowing energy stretches out from his hand and vaporizes the zombie leaving little flakes of ash floating where it was. Tykor reaches out and catches one ash flake then brings it to his tongue, tastes it and shrugs.

Otep finally beats Ceress unconscious and the ghost leaves the limp body then floats through the nearest wall, escaping further attacks.

Otep hauls the 350 pound, unconscious saurian up and starts moving down the stairs to get him out of the mansion. Akronos provides some healing so the Ceress can run on his own and the whole party retreats from the mansion once again.

When they are all outside they shut the front doors and move far away from the mansion to recover and lick their wounds.

They pull the four bodies out of the snatch pit, make sure that none of them are the sixth member of the conclave that they are looking for and then check them for magic items. Some of these bodies were past adventures that died long ago trying to free the mansion from the haunting spirits and they still have some magic items. The party realize that they hadn't checked the ten other bodies that they recovered so they check them and discover some additional magic items that survived the bonfire. The collection consists of a magical rope, bracers, a small metal tube and three potions.

This is where the session ends. Splitting the party almost caused two members to joining the ranks of the grisly mansions defenders. They have seen what an addled arch mage can do when excited and they almost lost Ceress to the possession of the ghost. All in all, it was a wild session.

tanis

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Nathan Sherman

I'm sure that there will be plenty of opportunity for more entertainment with a senile arch mage following the party into the ruins of his old stronghold.

I look forward to the havoc that somewhat randomized spells up to 8th level can produce. Cast Feeblemind or Magic Missile in the final battle, we shall see...