Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

As we last left off, the trio had just finished off a group of skeletons. Brazhul continues forwards and towards the southern hallways with Gaffer on the ceiling and Galen coming in with their light from behind. While stomping around in his heavy armor, Brazhul triggers a trap that launches an enchanted chain around his neck that slowly starts to constrict. Pulling it off, a closer look shows it to be almost like a metallic clockwork snake golem. Deciding to hold onto it, they see things to the west.

In The Ossuary, Part II

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”)

Demons around a desecrated shrine seemingly trapped by the same sigils that held the hellhounds at bay. A quick discussion of team priorities and positions come into play with Brazhul commenting that it’s their responsibility to destroy evil things before they defile things more. Gaffer questions why since the sigils are holding them back. Not exactly happy with the response, Brazhul stabs past the sigils into one of the demons which makes them charge against the sigils, the air taking on an almost visible shaking. Striking and killing a demon splashes blood against the sigil which causes it to fail.

Gaffer, thinking quick, improvises some Liquid Ice potions for his crossbow bolts and striking into the water freezing several of them into a 2 yard ice block. The unfrozen demons charge and attack Brazhul who shrugs off most of the damage until one manages to get through with an All-Out-Attack (Strong), dealing some glancing damage against the knight. In return, Brazhul stabs through the demon. Galen charges forwards and slashes at a demon’s neck but misses as it dodges. Gaffer shoots another Liquid Ice bolt into the water, freezing the rest of them into place while Galen gets attacked by the one whose neck he tried to slash, but his dancing shield protects him. The rest struggle to get free from the ice and fail, wasting their attempts.

Brazhul stabs forwards twice, killing another demon while Galen’s dancing shield bashes into a demon for a sad amount of damage (a mere 3 crushing). Gaffer fires a liquid ice bolt into a demon’s face, missing and hitting the arm of the demon behind it, causing it to explode like a terminator in a metal foundry. Out of them all, only one demon manages to free itself from the ice which Brazhul immediately moves to kill by thrusting his sword into them, killing it instantly. Galen moves to slash off another extremity, the demon’s head. Gaffer gives one of them an injection in the face with Liquid Ice, knocking it on its bum.

Brazhul attacks the one that Gaffer knocked down and kills it easily as Galen carefully climbs past the ice and around the corner. Gaffer fires an arrow into a demon’s face (rolling 11 burning with (5) divisor) and knocks it on its butt as well. Another prys itself free while Brazhul steps gingerly onto the ice and stabs another demon to death while Galen charges forwards and Gaffer knocks the remaining one to the ground with a regular bolt to the face this time. Brazhul moves forwards, stabbing another but the last one manages to dodge the blow with a roll of 4, causing Brazhul to drop his weapon. Galen comes up from behind slicing off the last demon’s head.

Crawling forwards after slipping on the ice, Brazhul retrieves his weapon and crawls off the ice to inspect the shrine. It either has to be destroyed or sanctified, and no one has the ability to do the latter. Gaffer instead draws out a large bag of 124 acid grenades and hands them off to his teammates before butchering the demons for loot. As the last grenade falls, one of the sigil walls falls.

In comes a large group of zombies followed by a necromancer. Brazhul attempts to intimidate the necromancer but fails, deciding instead to shield rush one of the zombies instead, but it’s dodged and Brazhul moves past them to get surrounded by zombies. Gaffer fires a bolt into a zombie’s face, knocking it for a loop by doing 7 impaling damage, while Galen moves forwards and slashes one of them. The necromancer throws a wild bolt of energy that goes wide while zombies surround the small halfling, getting through his defenses with several strikes, one barely glancing off the spine while his legs and arms get torn by zombies with broadswords. More zombies surround Brazhul, one getting him in the chest with a critical hit (roll of 5, does maximum normal damage) while the rest can’t get past his defenses.

Brazhul steps back and slashes at two zombies, crippling the legs of two zombies. Gaffer, not having much better to do, pulls out a secret weapon of Magebane and lands a syringe bolt straight into the necromancer’s face as Galen does a bar slide across the ice that is still formed, the necromancer is confused by his new facial piercing and his inability to actually cast any spells while zombies surround and attack Brazhul which doesn’t get past his defenses.

With several zombies around him, Brazhul pulls out the big guns and does a Whirlwind Attack, cutting off the legs of the first zombie with a critical hit roll of 5 that does maximum normal damage of 30 cutting, the second one gets sliced through the chest killing it, the third gets slashed in the chest while the forth gets slashed in the location 11 killing it, the fifth dodges a slash at his hand joint while the sixth gets slashed in the groin with a critical hit of 5 (causing it to drop anything it’s holding) and killing it, the seventh one gets slashed in the eyes killing it, the last one gets its arm crippled.

With Gaffer up, he saves his cleric by firing a crossbow bolt through the back of the zombie’s skull. Encouraged by this development, Galen moves to the edge of the ice and shield bashes the zombies while Brazhul fends off the attacks of the zombies that can’t get past his armor. Brazhul does some rapid strikes killing off the remaining zombies. With the necromancer having pulled out a wand, Gaffer moves to the corner of the room and Galen crawls off the ice, drawing a throwing knife and throwing it at the necromancer. The necromancer retaliates with death bolt to Galen who burns through luck in dodging it. Brazhul charges forwards, impaling the necromancer’s shin with his sword, causing him to fall unconscious from the pain of his crippled leg. They’ve now got a prisoner.

They strip the prisoner, finding him full of scarified runes and magical gear. As Gaffer ties him up, the rest recuperate from the fight. They march back to town, about 90 minutes away, the necromancer waking up on the way there. An interrogation gives little to no information about things, just his name: Zaranthus Ioe Kheem, and that he’s there to help revive the Dark Lord. . . The Warlock Lord. Dragging him the rest of the way to the town, they turn him over to the local authorities to be hanged in the morning.

Aftermath

Going through the necromancer’s belongings, they find a map and a coded note, the map leads the way about 5-6 days up a mountain. Casting magical healing on Brazhul leads to an interesting event where Galen manages to crit fail several times and critically succeed on his physician stabilizing skill, burning the rest of his luck. As the necromancer is hung, he proclaims that death will not stop him, unfortunately his last words are spoiled by the long strangulation when his neck fails to break.

After Action Report (GM)

The bleeder demons along with the zombies and the necromancer at the end provided a bit more of a challenge than I thought. The zombies especially because they surrounded delvers and really laid the hurt on them. It was quite a surprise really. I also ported some rules over from GURPS Supers for Gaffer’s clever use of ice grenades on the ankle-deep water. I ruled that each grenade froze about 2 yards of water and gave a binding with a ST of 10. The bleeders high ST (15) meant nothing due to the fact that I couldn’t roll below 14 for them and rolled 8 or less for the ice binding. It was a clever bit. The magebane dust in the face likewise made the necromancer less of a danger than he otherwise could have been. Overall, a good start. The PCs have a destination and the party is beginning to gel and that’s always a good thing.

Other Notes

None