Session 55: The city of the dead.... Report

General Summary

Now in Korth (Capital of Karrnath), the group gathers and secure rooms at the Plush Pillows Inn, near the Demesne of Motion (Bardic College). There they change to 'fit in' with more formal attire, with Trajan going to buy himself something to wear. The rooms are only 5sp per night for singles, or 8sp per night for couples.
They then head straight to the Castle, after validating a bit of information about their surroundings (other inns, such as the port's Jumping Swordfish Inn, or the more business, high end Royal Foam Inn; the stone and metal esthetic of the city, the libraries (there are 3, one for history/geography, one for arcane and magic technology, and one for social sciences and the likes - no fantasy here - there is art but it's traditional and portraits). At the castle, a place where rooms are too large for what seems to be no reason, they find withers, the old receptionist and under-butler to the king, and gets them an audience within 5 mins (they were expected as they announced their travel). The king had a conversation and explained that the war had them use an army of undead. They don't talk of it to denizen, but they couldn't just destroy it, as it is too big. So they 'stored' it below the castle, in the Vault of the dead. He himself doesn't have all the details, but informed them that the necromancers of the times were mostly retired, but some tried to continued and were arrested and put into the dungeons. They have green light to question them.
The core of the issue, you see, is that the pit in which the tens of thousands of mindless undead seems to have a crack, or something somewhere, because some of the undead have been "leaking" and were found roaming the streets and sea. He needs the group to go in teh Vault of the Dead, find the problem and fix it. Guards remain near the entrance and can also provide more information (the guards prevent undead from escaping the main route, and people from just walking in). Eavaan stays behind and asks a few questions (this is done in private, OOCly).
In the dungeons below, they find the necromancy in the aisle of dangerous criminals, including scary hobgoblins and the likes. They talk to him, and of course, Astara gets excited. Darisk "the Great" explains that he used to create the undead. They didn't lack corpses and most were just brought back, but some were higher in the chain. Also explains that if you have only parts of corpses, there are techniques to mash them together and make something else. He tries to get Astara to turn on Withers, take his keys, get him out in exchange for knowledge, training and power, but she doesn't fall for this. Trajan also asks a few things and learns that the natural cave the Vaults digs into, was there before: they found it and build on it. It used to go all the way down to Khyber.
Another prisoner deep in the cells yells and ask to be let out, a pretty woman with bright blue eyes, tan skin and white hair, but withers warns that they don't have permission to go there. Instead, they try to question another witch, but she's bonkers and makes no sense. She does drop the name "Carmichael" though, a corporal in the war who died 40 years ago while fighting the Cyre armies.
Senra tries to get information about the hells in the library but rolls poorly. Still, she discovers that there are Baator and Mabar (planes of fiends, and hells) manifests zones near Fort Bones (where more sentient undead dwell) and deeper in Karnath.
They go to the Vault next. There, with Merta in front, they explore. They find 3 guards who warn them of Will-o-wisps, spiders and a dangerous undead they locked up but lost the key. This gets everyone curious and they head there, but not before finding a book on Flesh Golems, which gives Astara a nasty head-bleed from psychic damage, as the information is too advanced for her. Hearing scuffling behind walls, and Astara's staff sending warnings, Trajan picks the locked door, and upon opening it, initiate battle against zombies, skeletons and something else undead.
We do 2 rounds, where Merta decimates the small undead with some help of the rest of the group, but then Senra casts a full fire ball on the armored undead and barely dents it in damage (though he did succeed his save roll). We pause the battle there, until next session.....

Notes

Nina absent from today's game

Quick Infos

Campaign

Eberron Adventurers Campaign

Protagonists

Sheika-Aoibheann Darragh

Neutral Good Kalashtar (Urchin)
Bard 3

33 / 33 HP

STR
8

DEX
12

CON
10

INT
10

WIS
16

CHA
16

Astara

wood Elf ()
Druid 5

38 / 39 HP

STR
10

DEX
14

CON
16

INT
10

WIS
17

CHA
10

Nina

None High Elf (Eberron Orphan)
Artificer 1

11 / 11 HP

STR
8

DEX
14

CON
16

INT
17

WIS
10

CHA
8

Report Date

14 Jan 2024

Related Characters

• Astara
• Sheika-Aoibheann Darragh

Date: Vult 5-6, 1011 YK