Cyclops: 9/22/18

The 36th Chamber of Ras N’si, by Mark Kung
Bourdekin | Drips | Fiego | Karash

On a dark and stormy night in Waterdeep, our heroes were called together by Glenin for another job. He introduced them to the Chultan emissary, Wakanga, and his charges, the haughty Princess Mwaxanare and young Prince Na. The wizard explained that there were increasing incursions by the undead and that, due to internecine strife, an outside force was more trustworthy at the moment to deal with it. So to that end Glenin asked the rakish bard, Fiego, the sewer dwelling druid, Drips, and the inimitable archer, Karash, along with his wolf companion, Fidorash. They were joined by the morbid doctor, Bourdekin, Prince Na’s mentor and personal physician.   In order to reach the land of Chult, far to the south, the wizard Wakanga utilized the Lightning Bird, a powerful conjuration artifact, to transport the group instantly there. The trip did not go as planned, however. The group woke up from the effects of the spell to find themselves in a stone dungeon, absent the Chultan dignitaries and their weapons.   After they spent a moment to orient themselves they were addressed by a beggar that Bourdekin recognized as Papa Bowo, her erstwhile tour guide. He offered to give them the key to the cell for the ‘modest’ price of ten gold. The group all looked at Fiego, the noble, who produced the funds.   As they explored the dungeon in search of their missing weapons, our heroes discovered what appeared to be a facility to mass produce the shambling dead, seemingly automated by reanimated priests. This angered Bourdekin, a cleric of death, and she insisted that the abominations be put down. The fight was slow, but certain, as the zombies didn’t put up much of a fight, but had a frustrating tendency to endure in the face of all but Bourdekin’s clerical magic, however. After they destroyed the undead, the group set fire to the stockpile of corpses to prevent them from being raised.   Leaving the dungeon, the group found their weapons and explored a rotting castle peopled with more reanimated corpse servants that went about their business in a parody of life. Drips scouted the route for the group in the form of a rat, unnoticed amongst all the other vermin. The group noticed that, while they were in Chult, the architecture seemed notably northern.   When they finally heard voices of the living, Fiego summoned a noble demeanor and marched in to confront the denizens of this mysterious castle. It turned out to be Prince Na and an armed guard. Bourdekin demanded that he release the little Prince into her care, but the man replied that the Prince and Princess were now in the rightful custody of the Ras N’si, his Master. Fiego convinced the armsman, Baraka, to take the group to the master of the castle, while Drips and Karash noticed a decidedly predatory air about the man.   Baraka led the group through a better maintained part of the castle into the throne room of the Ras N’si. It was a macabre scene with undead courtiers dancing attendance to their necromancer master. The Ras greeted them politely and informed them in no uncertain terms that he was the last remaining relative of the Prince and Princess, Ras of the great kingdom of Mezzro, and that he would see to their care from now on. Bourdekin was angrily insistent upon the return of the Prince, but Fiego diplomatically negotiated for the group to be able to see Mwaxanare, Na, and Wakanga before they left.   Our heroes were escorted by Baraka to see the Princess, who was being attended to by a horrid hag. Fiego slipped her a note to ready herself to take advantage of the distraction that the slow burning pile of corpses would soon cause.   Next, they were taken up to a study in a high tower, where Wakanga was under a magical compulsion to record all his research on rocketry for N’si. Given a moment of privacy, Wakanga explained to them that Ras N’si was the brother of the last king of Mezzro, thought long dead centuries prior. How he survived was a mystery, but his history was known and he was reputed to be a man of great cruelty. He has also a wizard of great power, having created many an artifact, like the Lightning Bird. The group concocted a plan to steal the Lightning Bird from the Ras’ temporary quarters, and abscond with the Prince and Princess.   They found the artifact in the Ras’ quarters, but were discovered by Baraka. On high alert, Fiego whipped around and flung a curse toward the armsman and battle was joined. Surmising correctly that the man was a shapeshifter, Drips summoned a beam of moonlight to burn him and trap him in his true form. Fiego interposed himself in front of the scrawny druid and dodged Baraka’s attacks, his curses making the man clumsy and slow. Karash fired accurate and deadly arrows into the man, their magical nature piercing his natural resilience. Bourdekin called down sacred flame to burn the lycanthrope. Cursed and deprived of his shapeshifting, Baraka soon fell to the spells and arrows of our heroes, unable to even escape effectively. Upon death, his corpse transformed into a dead tiger.   Grabbing the Lightning Bird and some other magical artifacts, the group hurried to rescue the Princess. Drips once again transformed himself, this time into the shape of a spider to enter the room where Mwaxanare was being kept and found her being attended by undead handmaids, but the hag was nowhere in sight. Despite being in the form of a spider, he was discovered and surprised himself by the hag behind a veil if invisibility. Crying out a warning to the group, he shifted back into his elven form and once again summoned a beam of moonlight to burn her. Karash rushed in at Drips’ signal and started filling the witch with arrows while Fidorash attempted to knock her from where she was clinging to the ceiling. Fiego rushed to the defense of the princess, engaging all four of the zombie handmaidens. Bourdekin summoned a flying obsidian sword to attack the hag and struck the final blow with spell of poison, though the witch was able to escape in defeat. The Princess was rather less than grateful, having expected to be rescued earlier.   As the group cleaned up the zombies, the fire they set was finally being noticed. They rushed up to Wakanga to activate the Lightning Bird. As the made their escape, they were finally able to witness the grim magnificence of the Castle of Ras N’si, borne on the backs of dozens of gargantuan undead tortoises, which explained the slow rocking they had felt earlier.