Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

It’s been 5 years since the events of the Island of Taskar where they fought the lich. Killing him caused the others on the island to be run off the island by the undead. Unfortunately both Galen and Gaffer got separated in the confusion, beaching up on land over on the eastern side. Not bothering to return to Camarook for their land holdings, they continue east for some reason, wandering for five years as some . Now they’re staying in a small village mostly populated by halflings in an inn run by Fatma Oakbottom and her husband, Markatos.

Gaffer and Galen are aware of strange occurrences of the past two weeks, of bodies missing from ossuaries and several people having been killed by possible bandits.

Brazhul is walking along a road, towards Kiliad, having been awake for several months in a strange time. Entering the tavern, he decides to intimidate the crowd with his entrance. There’s not a lot of people that are in there, but apparently the food even tantalizes his undead senses. Approaching the bar, he speaks with the innkeeper asking about rumors, looking for information but unfortunately he scares the bartender too much to get anything useful from them except for a jug of wine.

The Laughing Frog

Sir Brazhul, Gaffer, and Galen Fallowhide
Emene (First Month), 3rd, 986 F.R., 2nd Hour of the Moon (8:00 pm)
Valenjoy, Illituse County, Abolethe (“The Span”)

Galen tries to befriend the man, listening to his tale of being tasked to find dealers of darkness and stop his machinations. Something that he’s been trying to do on his own for the past few months with no help. They introduce themselves, with Bra-zuul asking not to mind the armor as his face scares small children and women. Brahzul seems perking up at the news of zombies off on an island, though it doesn’t seem to sound like what Brahzul is searching for. Some hearing rolls later and they hear that there’s bodies washing up on the shore of a river and coming back to life.

This news causes Brahzul to stand up and ask where this river was. The men try to convince Brahzul to not go as it’s dangerous, especially at night. Even the rest of the bar tries to convince him that there’s danger happening. Finally telling them that he’s not going to go until morning.

Brahzul lies.

He returns to Galen, asking if they’d be up for the adventure which Galen agrees to. Brahzul steps outside and sorts through his gear, trying to lighten his load for the fight ahead.

The Tasharii River

Sir Brazhul, Gaffer, and Galen Fallowhide
Emene (First Month), 3rd, 986 F.R., 3rd Hour of the Moon(9:00 pm)
Valenjoy, Illituse County, Abolethe (“The Span”)

With gear set, Brahzul stakes on in the wrong direction with Galen having to point him in the right direction. Finding the river, they find a dead body that Galen diagnoses with nom-atosis, missing a few chunks of flesh from serious locations, looking a lot like swiss cheese with maker mark on the chest. The flow of the river comes from the north, which Brahzul follows after beheading the corpse. About two hours of walking and they come across a waterfall at the head of the river, a quick check shows a cave behind it.

The cave slopes downwards at a rather steep angle, almost 60 degrees of damp death. Everyone manages to make it down alright to a location where it’s almost up to Brahzul’s knees and everyone else’s waists. Brahzul notices something coming into the light of Galen’s torch. Brahzul charges forwards, drawing his blade, while Galen activates his dancing shield for protection before wading forwards. Gaffer, in the meantime, sticks to the ceiling with his rope.

Two zombies come forwards and attacks Brahzul who defends and then count attacks, slashing into the torso of one of the zombies. Gaffer plants an arrow into one of the zombie’s faces which does nothing much though Brahzul finishes off one and Galen slashes through the neck of the remaining one. Yaaay. More zombies move forwards with Brahzul hacking the zombie that Galen soon cuts the head off of.

Brahzul slogs forwards with his shield which whizzes by the ear of one of the zombies, soon followed by Galen’s dancing shield. Gaffer just takes the time to move into position while Brahzul just hacks at their torsos and Galen’s shield bashes into one of them. Gaffer’s crossbow finally takes one down while more approach. A few more slashes from Brahzul kills another (doing 25, 19, and 18 points of cutting damage) while Galen’s shield goes past. Brahzul gets attacked and then counter attacks as more come in, slicing down two of them.

One zombie comes in for Galen, whose shield is currently off line from bashing, forcing the halfling to dodge. Brahzul slices at their legs, chopping down one and killing another. Galen slices into the one with a crippled leg. More zombies shamble forwards, forcing Galen to have to use his dancing shield to block. Zombie parts go flying as Brahzul takes down another doing 25 and 19 points of cutting damage. Gaffer continues to contribute basically nothing while Brahzul defends and counter attacks, missing with all his attacks. Galen’s duck and slash misses while Gaffer continues to decide what to do next.

Brahzul gets swarmed by four zombies, defending against their blows while one attempts to hit Gaffer like a pinata but just can’t reach (he’s up almost 6 yards straight up thanks to his magic rope). Brahzul attempts to make mincemeat of another zombie  which gets hit once before Brahzul’s weapon turns in his hand (the zombie rolled 4 on Dodge). Galen goes on the offensive, slicing through one of their arms and dismembering it. Gaffer continues his crusade against zombie faces, hitting the one below him. Four zombies swarm into Brahzul again, getting hit by one in the left arm doing 8 points of cutting damage that doesn’t get through his armor but he does manage to knock a weapon from one of their hands with his shield thanks to the 5 he rolled on his Block.

Brahzul readies his weapon as Galen moves to slice off another arm. The weapon drops thanks to the 17 the zombie rolled on a parry followed shortly by the zombie arm. Gaffer shoots into a zombie’s face again, doing little. More zombies attack Brahzul and Galen, doing little against them. Brahzul counters with leg attacks slicing through legs like they were butter with 25 and 26 points of cutting damage. Gaffer finally takes down the one trying to smack him like a pinata while an armless zombie smacks against the back of Brahzul’s armor doing a mere 2 points of crushing damage.

Brahzul counters again with more leg attacks, slicing through two legs thanks to a natural 4 on his roll, 19 points of cutting damage to the leg, and a successful skill roll to dismember the leg and doing another 18 points of cutting damage. Galen slashes against the lone standing zombie, the knife going past while Gaffer fires off an ineffectual shot at the standing zombie. The standing zombie attacks the halfling who blocks with his dancing shield. Brahzul turns and slashes through the zombie three times. There is no real problem after that with Brahzul finally beheading the last two that were floating downstream.

In The Ossuary

Sir Brazhul, Gaffer, and Galen Fallowhide
Emene (First Month), 3rd, 986 F.R., 3rd Hour of the Moon(9:00 pm)
Valenjoy, Illituse County, Abolethe (“The Span”)

They head downstream towards a crossroads where Galen can hear the sound of dogs growling to the east. Following the noise, they find sigils carved into the walls and desecrated tombs. Glowing sigils on the ground looks like a one way trap against demons and undead. On the other side, they can see hellhounds prowling around behind the lines, probably the source of the dog sounds that Galen heard.

Heading further east, they hear a twang and then a clang as an arrow falls off of Brahzul’s armor. They’ve encountered skeletons. The first one heads in attempting to disarm the knight, but it’s parried. Two attack Galen, one missing while the halfling blocks the other with his dancing shield. Arrows whiz through the air, missing their targets as Brahzul steps forwards and dual weapon attacks the skeletons in front of him. Bashing one of them into dust (critical roll of 5 on shield bash) while the other manages to parry the sword slash. Galen cuts into their cartilage, missing with one while the other gets blocked.

Galen and Brahzul defend against blows, arrows bouncing off of shields and swords sweeping through the water. Brahzul attempts to shield bash one into oblivion, but it dodged both attempts. Gaffer spends some time swapping magazines to blunt arrows. The skeletons dogpile onto Galen, forcing him to block and parry against their blows, getting hit with the final swipe, taking 4 points of damage to his forearm taking a major wound and crippling his left arm. Meanwhile four archers attack Brahzul, two managing to score hits which the knight blocks.

Moving, Brahzul blows through two skeletons by bashing them to death (doing 15 points of crushing damage each hit) while Galen backs away from the skeletons by creeping through the bone dust only to get attacked, which he blocks with his shield. Four arrows whiz by, one striking the knight but only bouncing off the armor. Brahzul strikes down another skeleton while Galen hides behind the knight again for defense. Another triple shield bash on the skeleton with only one connecting blow blowing the skeleton away for another 15 points of crushing damage. With his ammunition changed, Gaffer can finally fight, managing to blow away one of the archer’s right legs.

It doesn’t change too much as another four arrows whiz towards Brahzul who blocks it and then shield rushes one of the skeletons into oblivion doing another 15 points of crushing damage. Gaffer’s next shot manages to destroy the same archer’s left foot. Brahzul continues his charge and blows away another skeleton doing another 15 points of crushing damage. One aimed shot onto the archer and the skeleton’s skull turns to dust while Galen finally remembers how to perform percussive maintenance on his arm, bringing it back to usable as another shot bounces off of Brahzul’s armor.

Aftermath

Not amused, Brahzul counters back with four shield bashes, connecting with one. Smashing several times even as the skeleton archer retreats and gets blasted back into the wall as he scores a critical hit and deals  maximum normal damage of 18 crushing damage. After the fight, Brahzul prays for the disturbed undead, while the other PCs look around to make sure nothing else is waiting to attack them.

After Action Report (GM)

This was another good session as I dipped my GMing toes back into Aersalus. C-Team did a decent job and so did B-Team. I wanted the dark atmosphere of the Span to be prevalent right at the beginning of the game and I think I accomplished that. The 12-zombie fight was kind of one-sided and brutal, but it took a while to game out. Ditto for the skeletons who fought more tactically and had high Dodge scores enabling them to pull a staffos knight (look it up if you don’t know what it is).

The PCs left the encountered hell hounds where they were instead of charging in and that was probably the best plan considering the nasty trap I left there. No, it’s not a mimic, but it will be amusing when/if they go back.

Other Notes

None