Adventure 8: Hunting Undead
Session 1
Towards the end of their training, the party are once again met by Magnus Elberman. Once more there is that feeling of deja-vu, but none of the friends can recall where they've met before. Magnus has some new information about the goings on with the Valtannarin Ennethdor, and he wants to share his findings with the party. They have no new information to give him - they've not found any of the Ennethdor's guild facilities in the region, and have made no progress in locating the body of the Vampire. Magnus tells them that events are moving on at a pace. Wimlow, a small village away to the north of the city has reported undead activity in its graveyard; Elberman believes this to be the work of the Ennethdor. This has happened before, the party recall, at a place just outside of the city. Elberman thinks that this time whoever is handling these undead may still be there. All it would take, he tells them, is a strong team willing to go there and confront the wizards. The party are very keen - they too see the opportunity to directly confront members of the Ennethdor. Elberman warns the party that they'll probably be dealing with some pretty tough undead, but they should keep matters quiet. If the Kings Guard heard what was taking place, it'd make further investigations on this case extremely hard to carry out. The guard are not the most discrete of organisations, and there is likely to be panic in the town if news of this got out. They decide to head out as soon as they can, and begin with a shopping trip to buy up essential, anti-undead supplies.
While preparing for this new mission, the party are met by a messenger from the elves whom they met recently on their journey back from Derren's tomb. The messenger is a pleasant druid, who has journeyed to human lands to experience their culture for himself. He knows that human society has druids, and wants to experience this too. He brought a message as he was journeying to these lands anyway.
A couple of days after the party left the elven lands, they were visited by an armoured group of anti-paladins. The elves immediately took a dislike to these men, and told them nothing of the presence of the party or thier method of travel away from the lands. They denied the humans and dwarves had ever been in the place, but they seemed far from convinced. The elves tracked these men back to the road and watched them head off in the direction of human civilisation in Ticetia.
Fax (the name the elf messenger uses) relates how he volunteered to bring this message in the hope of warning the party of these dangers, and maybe becoming involved in some adventure of his own. The party invited him to join them on their trip to deal with Undead in the graveyard; druids are well known for their dislike of undead, and so it was felt he might be able to help.
Trying to get garlic in town seems to be very difficult at the moment. The single bulb that Jim could root out from the traders in the market showes how scarce it has become. He spent a gold piece on a single bulb, this seems to be turning into a luxury item to rival caviar.
They leave for the graveyard in the early afternoon sunshine the day after their meeting with Elberman. They know it will take a couple of hours to walk to the village of Wimlow, and ideally want to arrive at dusk when any undead activity will be at its highest. Right on cue they arrive at the gates of the cemetary as the sun is setting, and a spooky asmosphere descends. The gates are locked with a chain, which rattles noisily in the dim light; Jim finds this particular lock beyond his skills. An alternative entrance is sought - and the rickety fence away to the left round the side of the graveyard provides just the opportunity to enter. The bars can be lifed out easily, and put back to disguise the hole behind them. It is becoming dark as they slip inside the graveyard.
Stumbling around in the rapidly falling light allows the party to be caught off guard. They're suprised by a group of undead, what appear to be skeletons and a wraith, but these are not like the ordinary undead they've met before. Before they get a chance to react, Formil and Insorce are both attacked and paralysed, as is Randy. Jim and Fax are left facing the fearsome undead with no help from their companions.
Session 2
The emphasis for the fight now changes for the party, Jim and Fax are the last standing members of the team; they know the others are only paralysed, and do try to give the others time. Fax casts his Entangle spell to slow the undead movement in the area, and they begin to back off. Fax is hit, and suffers the same fate as his new comrades, he is paralysed. Jim starts to back off, trying to lead the undead away from the region. This he does with some success, but is suffering badly with the assault. He almost made it, but fell before any of the others were freed from the paralysis. The undead turn and slowly make their way back towards the remaining party. They all come under attack. Jim is slowly dying, and Fax and Randy fall to their blows too. Just in time, Insorce comes free from his paralysis, he turns the undead next to Randy and Fax, and they flee as well as they can through the entangling plants that are still around. Jim finally dies, there is nothing Insorce could do, he was too far from the rogue, and couldn't close the distance through the brambles and thorns growing from the ground. Instead he turned around and, brandishing his holy symbol more boldly, sends the other undead fleeing too. He quickly heals both Fax and Randy, then stays watching until Formil too is free of his paralysis only a moment later. Formil also requires help - not just healing, but restoration, which Insorce is prepared for. They grab the body of Jim, and slowly make their way back to their makeshift entrance to the graveyard.
Their task at this moment seems a little too tough for them to manage; bad luck and a lack of protection seems to have conspired against them. Formil points out that they still have some equipment they took from the owners of the book they recovered which they've not even looked at. They decide that a trip back to town and a good long look at this gear would be helpful. They also decide that they need Jim; he's a useful member of the team, and his work during that last fight makes him a hero.
The slow trudge back to the city is over in the early hours of the morning. They manage to hire low quality rooms in the suburban sprawl outside of Eversham's city wall, and head into the city as the gates open at first light. They go first to the church of Danethrae, and pay the fees for a Raise Dead - 750 gold pieces for the spell, but even the 5000 gold pieces worth of diamonds for the spell's material component is a price they are keen to pay. Jim is sluggish at first, but is alive.
Resting for a day allows Fax, Randy and Jim to recover fully from their wounds. Then Randy spends a day in their suite at the inn, finding out what the new magical equipment is. There are several magic weapons (longswords and morning stars), magical protection cloaks and bracers, a ring that will provide it's wearer with sustenance, and magical wand of Fireballs. This equipment would have been extremely useful in the last fight - the protection of the bracers would have really helped. The party's resolve is now refreshed, and they decide that a return to the graveyard is now high on the agenda.
Session 3
The party have a bloody nose from their first encounter with these tough undead, and take decisive action. This time, however, they decide to go in prepared. They divide their new magical protection around the party as well as they can. It is essential that keep from being hit by the undead - Formil is particularly vulnerable to the paralysis attacks, and he is the one expected to go hand to hand with the terrible monsters. The remaining equipment is sold on the open market through Randy's guild, and it fetches a good price. The party are now rich. They bank their cash with various guilds (credit notes are much easier to carry), and leave to visit the village graveyard.
They arrive at Wimlow by late afternoon, and immediately find somewhere to stay. Wimlow's village inn isn't up to the standard the party are used to, but this village is not on the main trade routes into Eversham, and so the facilities are not geared up for wealthy traders. It's a good job the team aren't planning to spend much time here. They head off to the graveyard as dusk is falling, where Jim expertly but noisily removes the lock and chain from the entrance gate. It's fully dark as they head up the gentle rise of the hill. The pathway becomes harder to pick out the higher they go, and the vegetation seems to be taking over in this place.
As they move up the hillside, they see movement ahead of them in the darkess, by the light of Randy's lantern. This is the undead that they've come to deal with. As they prepare to advance, they realise that the undead are descending the slope quickly and are already upon them. The fight breaks out; these are tough opponents, and it takes time to deal with them, but despite Randy's bleating and worrying, they take little physical damage. The real damage fell to Jim, who was paralysed by the effects of the zombie-like undead, and Insorce who suffered energy draining a the hands of the wraith-like incorporeal undead.
Session 4
The party decide that since they suffered some energy draining, a temporary retreat to their hotel would be a good idea to recover as well as they can followed by a good nights sleep. They can then return to the graveyard the following day. Their next problem is a what to do with the bodies of the undead they've just defeated. A short discussion ensues - they're supposed to be keeping things low-key, they do not want bodies scattered about the graveyard, that might cause questions to be asked among the locals, which might lead to the militia (or even the Kings Guard) getting involved. They use Randy's Floating Disk spell to carry the bodies and Jim quickly finds a low, overgrown hedgerow and they decide to hide the bodies underneath that as well as they can.
As they're pulling the last of the foliage over the bodies, they see some more undead moving in towards them. These are different to those they met in the last fight, but it's not until they get up close that the party recognise Vampires. As the undead close, Insorce turns the weaker ones, who flee, but the two stronger ones keep coming. Randy's 'Pale Flame' spell doesn't stop them, and the undead charge in against the cleric and the sorcerer. Despite Randy's panic, the undead are easily defeated - they have been weakened by the magic, and Jim was nimble enough to help Insorce fight his. Formil entered the fight with Randy, who killed the last one with his Magic Missile spell; nobody had been hurt by these new undead.
Now the party head back quickly, carefully locking the graveyard behind them. As they arrive in the inn, the common room is buzzing with talk of flashing lights and undead movement in the graveyard up on the hill. The party carefully sidestep any questions and retire to their room. Choosing not to have any watch, the party get some early sleep, but are awoken in the middle of the night. Jim happens to be awake when he sees a grey mist float in through the window of their room and begin to take on corporeal form. He begins shouting, waking everyone up - the party are quickly at the ready, and a fight ensues. The Vampires do not last long in the melee, but Randy is energy drained when he tries to hit one of the undead with his Magic Missile spell again. He's too close to his opponent, and the Vampire swipes at him while casting disrupting the spell. The fight ends with two dead Vampires on the floor of the party's room.
Session 5
The fighting in the party's room has raised a bit of a commotion. Several of the guests have been woken up and innkeeper is knocking at the door to find out what the noise is about. Formil quickly throws the undead bodies underneath the beds, while Jim gets the door and tries to talk the innkeeper round to leaving them alone. While talking to him, he notices parts of one of the bodies sticking out from under the bed, and he leaves immediately to fetch the Guard. In Wimlow, however, there is no Guard station - this is not a main trade route, so all he can do is bring the two village militiamen to investigate. Eventually, Jim makes them see sense about the need to deal with the graveyard problems quietly; he achieves this with a mix of diplomacy and bribery. The militia give him one week to solve the problems before they raise the alarm.
Needing 'Restoration' spells, the party head back towards Eversham. Insorce is one of those who has been energy drained, so is now struggling with the amount of clerical magic he can use. They manage to get hold of some more material components (expensive diamond dust) and some help from a senior cleric before they get to the city, so return to Wimlow by nightfall. They head off straight away to the graveyard under cover of darkness.
The first few undead they meet are no longer a challenge after Insorce turns the weaker two, who flee into the darkness. Jim and Formil tidy the rest up, and they press further up the hillside towards the overgrown mausoleums at the top of the hill. The first building they reach is open, inside they can see undead milling around, and they head up for the attack. Randy's 'Pale Flame' spell is misplaced, it hits the door on the outside instead of going into the building, and several of the party (including himself) are caught in the blast. As the vampires come out from the building to attack the party, the others that were turned earlier arrive to swell the ranks of the enemy. The fight is slow at first, with Formil back to the wall, Randy and Jim making little impact on the undead. Eventually Formil manoeuvers himself into the midst of the enemy and swings his huge axe. Fight over.
In the melee Randy is badly hurt, but is saved by Fax's healing magic. Formil and Jim are not scratched, but Randy's injuries have left him wounded and in need of rest.
Session 6
With Randy being so badly hurt, it is clear the party cannot continue the mission with him tagging along. So they decide to dump him back at the inn, where they rest the night. They head back to the graveyard for some more fun with undead in the morning. On their way, they meet an old woman who tells them that she saw several carts leaving the graveyard during the previous night, she thought it quite odd. Upon their return, they resume the fighting where they left off - they clear out another mausoleum with only a little annoyance from the skeletal undead's paralysis attack, before moving on to a third. In here the enemy seems a little tougher - Formil is paralysed in the doorway to the small building, but the others pull him away to safety before Insorce replaces him. The fighting continues, the heavy armour of the cleric keeps the undead largely at bay while the party wait for the paralysis to wear off on Formil. Eventually the fight is won, but the party are now feeling the effects of all the fighting they've had to do.
Session 7
At the graveyard, more heavy fighting takes place. The party make a rush visit to Eversham to grab some more Restoration material components, and return as quickly as possible to the graveyard. By mid-afternoon, the place is cleared, and they can find no more undead. As they're mopping up the pieces, the Kings Guard arrive to secure the area - they've been summoned by several of the locals in response to the fighting that's been going on. The party help them tidy up, and hand the site over to their protection before returning to the inn where they rest and help Randy to recover. After this, they take an easy ride to Eversham, where they arrive mid afternoon on 23rd Abanacon. This has been a big mission in terms of kills, and the party begin training immediately.