DD Chapter 11: Cold Revenge

Opening

The morning after his second effective-death experience, Darkjaw goes on the hunt, as he must follow the trail to where these mammodons came from so he can execute them all. Nolya disagrees, as they have to wait for their zombies to arrive before they make a move like that. “Especially since they literally just died against a hunting party, who knows what more they can do?”. Darkjaw doesn’t disagree, and is confident that despite the trail going cold (pun intended), he can find their tribe whenever. To kill time, Darkjaw trains and studies his Draconic Energy Projection book, successfully understanding it well enough to apply any of the Draconic essences he has learned to any arrow he creates or updates. He spends the rest of his downtime doing so, turning 10 of his arrows into 2 poison/2 fire/2 lightning/2 cold/2 acid.
As they eat down their remaining morsels, the zombies arrive in a couple days. Darkjaw leads Jaw Company into the arctic wild, successfully tracking a faint trail that the mammodons took to the trap site. After walking an hour longer in a light snow storm, they see a tribal settlement up ahead; forged of ice and boulders, clearly by the strong. Darkjaw orders the men to form a perimeter while he scouts out the grounds for a good entrance. Darkjaw embraces true stealth, allowing the moon’s light to wash over him as night falls and transform him into a saber-tooth tiger, prowling in the snow. He does decent scouting work, finding that there is no perimeter guard and the front entrance is the only one. Nolya reaches out telepathically, as if she knows he’s completed his work.
“The men are in position my love, should I have them close in?” Nolya asks.
“On my signal, my queen.” Darkjaw whispers as he enters his sabor-tooth Werecat hybrid form. He does not find a lookout nest for the village guard above the tribal gate, so Darkjaw does the next best thing; he fires a dual Explosive Arrow at the door (both hit), blowing a hole in the icy structure. With that, he unleashes a mighty, sabor-tooth tiger roar as his zombie forces run from the snow storm, beginning his invasion.

Combat: Jaw Company vs. Mammodon Village

Initiative

• Darkjaw: 22
• Nolya: 14
• Dead Platoon (46/50): 8
• Mammodon Guards: 7
• Mammodon Villagers: 2
• Mammodon Druid: 6
• Mammodon Chieftan: 13

Round 1

• Darkjaw: runs through the hole and dives into the neck of a Mammodon guard, killing them with fiery claws. The savage warlord leaps to the next guard for a sabor-tooth bite to the throat, ripping it out and ending the loyal soldier. Darkjaw looks to his prey, ready to unleash Bloodfire when they dare to stand against him.
• Nolya: “Do not worry my children, I will save your souls from the Underworld’s cruel grasp.” Casts Soul Vine (2nd level), utilizing the souls of the recently slaughtered guards as a component. She grabs the 3rd guard with the vine and necroticallly corrodes his flesh, killing him and adding his soul to the vine.
• Dead Platoon: On orders of Lord Darkjaw, the zombies charge into the village to feast until their victims are dead, savoring every bite and making it as excrutiating as possible. However, Darkjaw wants bodies in some bit of intact. As such, two zombies swarm the last guard and eat him in two terrible spots: the face and the dick. The rest of Dead Platoon (48) swarms the villagers, dealing 25 piercing and killing two villagers with throat rips.
• Mammodon Chieftan: Speaks a curse in Loxodon, then casts Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm (2nd level) on Darkjaw & Nolya. They dodge it and only take 4 damage (Nolya) & 2 damage (Darkjaw).
• Mammodon Druid: Casts Call Lightning on the zombie horde, managing to avoid the villagers. Druid deals 14 Lightning damage to an entire square of zombies, dealing 126 lightning damage and incinerating 4 of them.
• Mammodon Villagers: fight back against their zombie predators, dealing 21 damage and killing another

Round 2

• Darkjaw: Runs up to the Chieftan for a pounce, missing spectacularly. The Chieftan scoffs at his failure before Darkjaw swings back with a slash from his claw, scoring a deep blow for 14 damage. Darkjaw roars at his prey, forgoing Bloodfire for a personal feast. His roar also signals his new orders; feast.
• Nolya: Conjures her Soul Vine into a tether to bring herself up to the druid, then slash her across the face with the remains of the vine for 6 necrotic damage.
• Mammodon Chieftan: Swings his Greatsword at Darkjaw, cutting across the werecat for 8 slashing. Brings it back for a beautiful miss.
• Mammodon Druid: Having held her spell, the druid moves her Call Lightning spell over and fires up Nolya, dealing 14 lightning damage.
• Dead Platoon: Continues their feast, with the two zombies eating the guard complete their kill and join. Everybody gets a bite, dealing 270 and slaughtering the villagers with screams of agony as they are devoured, ripped apart & mashed into gory pieces.

Round 3

• Darkjaw: Pulls out his own Greatsword and swings it at the Chieftan, dealing 16 damage. He then rears forward with a fleshy bite, sinking in for another 13 (29 total). The Chieftan resists the lycanthropy curse. Roars to order his men to stop feasting, then uses his bonus action to transform into a werephant hybrid (mammodon).
• Nolya: Casts Insect Plague (5th level) on the druid, but she kills many of the bugs in the cold and only takes 6 piercing. Unimpressed, Nolya draws her spear and casts Shillelagh, readying herself for violence.
• Mammodon Chieftan: Casts Elemental Weapon (3rd level) and swings in anger at Darkjaw’s perversion of their flesh, but clashes twice with Darkjaw’s sword.
• Mammodon Druid: Drops Call Lightning and casts Cone of Cold (5th level) in Nolya’s face, dealing 38 cold damage.
• Dead Platoon: Stops feasting on Darkjaw’s orders, then watches their masters fight. They take notice to their queen.

Round 4

• Darkjaw: Grabs the Chieftan with his trunk and Tusks him, dealing 13 damage but not afflicting the Chieftan with the curse. Darkjaw deals another 11 with his sword (24 total).
• Nolya: Stabs the druid with the spear for 13 damage as she casts Create Willing/Unwilling Undead. Since it is not being cast in its normal ritual, the druid makes a Wisdom saving throw to resist the transformation, but fails and begins her transformation into the undead. Satisfied, Nolya draws her spear from the druid and looks on to her lover’s battle, walking over to the bloody mess of bodies where the villagers once were
• Mammodon Chieftan: Still enraged with Darkjaw, the Mammodon swings twice more, dealing 9 damage. Swings again for 12 damage. After this, he looks up and sees the predicament he is in
• Dead Platoon: Surrounds the fight

Round 5

• Darkjaw: Gives an overly dramatic speech that lauds his power over the chieftan, transforms into a werebear, and sinks in for a bite of 21 damage. The chieftan resists the curse, but not Darkjaw’s backhand of claw for 21 damage (42 total).
• Nolya: Orders the zombie druid over to her as she approaches the chieftan, mounting him after Darkjaw throws him prone. Nolya casts Soul Swap (5th level) draws the magic & dark energy from the zombie druid and transfers it into the chieftan by sinking her bark teeth into his face. Darkjaw looks on with so much love, as seeing his life partner perform dark acts brings pure happiness to his heart. Eventually, the magics are transferred and the next Captain Deadnok is born, while the druid zombie collapses in a rotten husk.
• Mammodon Chieftan: dies and is reborn as Captain Deadnok of Jaw Company, the royal couple’s right hand & commander of the finest undead troops Gaion has to offer.
• Dead Platoon: Gets aquatinted with their new commander.

Aftermath

Lord Darkjaw & Queen Nolya claim this village for their own, the first territory within their northern empire. Darkjaw has the troops reinforce the hole he broke and remain on guard duty atop the walls constantly. Darkjaw & Nolya still have quite the quest ahead of them, but at least they have a temporary home base. Nolya replaces Bone Wall (1st level) with Soul Swap (5th level), and between this and the next chapter, Darkjaw and Nolya level up to 13. Nolya also reanimates 10 Mammodon zombies.