Session 149 Report

General Summary

Titta Morco and Pyzar Zim stepped up and engage the flesh golems near the entrance while Auren Sylynn dashed past to take on the ghouls. Enhanced by Selia Roselyn Maxwell’s Haste spell, the party dealt with the enemy easy enough. They took a moment to regroup after combat before continuing farther into the keep. Beyond the foyer, there was a darkened hallway. Their light sources barely cut through the unnatural darkness that permeated the keep. They could see four doors on the left side of the corridor, while there was only one on the right. The doors on the left each opened into a room that spelled of death. They were each devoid of furniture, but bones and other detritus littered the floors. The door on the right side of the corridor opened into a dining room. In contract to the doors across the hall, this room was clean and organized. There were long dining tables and benches for seating. At one end of the dining hall, there was s door leading to the kitchen. The kitchen was neat and tidy, showing evidence of recent use. The pantry shelves contained food and drink fit for humanoid consumption. A staircase at the end of the kitchen led down to a cellar. It was cool, containing the more perishable food items as well as water and wine barrels. When they were done exporing, the party returned to the central hall and found a door on the opposite end. They readied themselves and opened the door. The corridor widened and opened into a room containing a spiral staircase in the center. Surrounding the staircase were several doors. As the party entered the area, each of the doors opened revealing several skeletons wielding swords and shields and wearing armor. Auren attacked the closest one in the nearest doorway. The skeletons rushed out of their rooms and began surrounding the party’s front line. Pyzar attacked the skeletons, cutting through three of them. Then a pair of dread wraiths came through the walls at the back of the party to attack Mogi Delvin and Traegandar. The wraiths’ cold touch dealt some damage, but they were all protected from the draining effect by Mass Death Ward, thanks to Kyrie Eleison Thatcher-Stone. As the party began engaging the undead, Kyrie cast Holy Word. Her spell destroyed the remaining skeletons. The wraiths were left, but one of them was blinded by her magic. With Greater True Death Crystals on their swords, Mogi and Titta cut through them easily. They checked the surrounding rooms from where the skeletons had come out. They were each empty. The party recast some of the spells that were expiring and prepared to move on. There was a trap door at the bottom of the stairs, but they decided to go up first, expecting the Black Requiem to be waiting for them in an underground complex below. They wanted to explore the upper levels of the keep first. When they reached the second floor, they were assailed by more ghouls and a pair of winged and decaying undead. Around them an aura of decay filled the air. Thankfully, the Mass Death Ward protected the party from this aura. The closest of the ghouls attacked Pyzar, blocking his exit from the staircase. One of the ghouls managed to grab him, trying to pin him as it attempted to latch on with its long, blackened tongue. Pyzar struggled and kept the creature’s tongue from finding purchase. Titta flew up and engaged the closest of the decaying, winged undead. Auren ran up the stiars and managed to deftly squeeze beyond the undead, attacking the ones on Pyzar from behind. Pyzar then cut through the one holding him with his greatsword and attacked the next closest ghoul. Ladigo Farthon moved up the stairs as far as he could before teleporting as a blink dog to one end of the landing. He cast Fire Storm, catching several of the undead, while also setting fire to the wooden floor. The ghouls moved out of the fire and a couple of them moved towards Ladigo. Selia then cast Benign Transposition, switching Ladigo and Titta. When the undead were defeated, Titta pulled the Decanter of Endless Water out of the Bag of Holding and put out the fires. While she did this, the rest of the party checked the surrounding rooms. In each of these rooms were five beds, each with a chest or footlocker nearby. Apart from the furniture and some personal effects, these rooms were empty. They left the door at the end of the landing for last. There was a black gemstone on the door, emanating a darkness that seemed to consume the nearby light. A Detect Magic spell revealed it to be an item of overwhelming aura. Selia used the Artificer’s Monocle to identify it as a Shadow Stone, the source of the darkness in the keep. It was an artifact of great power, presumably related to Umbra, Goddess of Shadow, who the Black Requiem worshipped. After a brief discussion, Selia cast Disintegrate destroying the Shadow Stone. Their light sources then shined brightly immediately thereafter. They opened the door and revealed a wide corridor. Several skeletons and ghouls rushed at them from the opposite end. The party engaged them, Kyrie turning undead, destroying the closest of the skeletons to make way. The rest of the undead did not take long to defeat after this. With the battle over, they searched the doors on either side of the hallway first. There were more bedrooms. Each of these contained three beds and footlockers. At the end of the hall was a small gallery. There were some paintings and statuettes on stands in the room. A large statue of Umbra dominated the center of the gallery. When they were done there, the party returned to the spiral staircase and wne up to the top floor. There were five doors surrounding the landing. They opened each in turn, finding a bedroom, a shrine to Umbra, a sitting room, a private study, and a wizard’s lab. In the study, they found some maps of West Andaria showing notes on guard precense and movement. They also found a book entitled A Lich’s Tale. This detailed the Black Requiem’s activities since becoming a lich. From it, they learned how he was gifted Shadow Stones by Umbra, which he planned to use to spread darkness throughout West Andaria. He was also enhancing his troops, both undead and shapechangers, to create Shadow-Touched versions of them, which would be enhanced in the darkness. Once his army was large enough, he would unleash them on the city. In the wizard’s lab, they found notes on the wards the Black Requiem had around his Shadow Keep. The wards would notify him of any intruders. He was expecting Haymin’s Heroes would find him eventually, and he had a special surprise waiting for them, one they would not be expecting. Before returning downstairs, they decided to throroughly search this floor. They split up, a party member or two taking each room Auren searched the bedroom. He started with the armoire, finding a hidden compartment at the bottom. Within this compartment was a black box. The box was locked, but he picked the lock easily and opened it. It contained a note which read: I knocked, but they said you were not home. So I invited myself in and told them not to get up. They no longer can… Auren brought this to the party’s attention. They feared the worst. The Black Requiem went to Heroes for Hire. The party gathered and Selia cast Greater Teleport, taking them to the basement of the guildhall. When they arrived, they found it shrouded in darkness, a sign that their worst fears were correct. They went upstairs and approached the entry hall from two sides. They found Jenivar Albyn, Haymin Stone, Belpher Burrows, Patch, Astri, and Thessalni, all strewn about the floor, their bodies pale and unmoving. Several men were in the hall, a couple of them up the stairs. Kyrie and Selia saw them as doppelgangers with their True Seeing. From the front of the hall, Mogi and Traegandar could see the Black Requiem on the upstairs walkway, looking down at them while holding the crying Hannah, unsuccessfully trying to console her. The Black Requiem and the two spellcasters on the stairs were under the effect of a Mirrow Image, sporting several duplicates each. Haymin’s Heroes, full of rage, immediately moved to attack. The Black Requiem smiled and said, “What, no banter?”

Campaign

The Heart of Embril

Protagonists