Session XXIII: The City of the Dead Report

General Summary

The Road to Gildin

Meeting an unknown orc relative

After spending the night in the Shire of Sloniz, the adventurers decide to continue their journey to the city of Gildin. Around nightfall at the jungle's edge, they are met by an orc hiding in a tree. He reveals himself to be Lothrok, brother of Azaroth, who asks what the Resourceful Ones are doing in these parts. After a bit of chatting, they reveal to Lothrok Azaroth and the Black Hands have fallen in Ban Grond, though not before Azaroth could make his escape. This brings a spark of hope to Lothrok's eyes, who wishes to make a bargain with the adventurers. Both parties will not turn to combat and Lothrok will share the knowledge he gained on Gildin while scouting the ruins for Azaroth. They agree on the terms, but do insist that this is a onetime bargain. Lothrok's information on Gildin is roughly summarized as following:

• The main points of interest of the city are its cathedral, its Grand Archives, formerly also serving as the royal palace, and the bridge crossing the Gildar.
  • The cathedral is the necromancer's lair from where he commands the spawn of the death
  • The Grand Archives hold great amounts of knowledge of ancient times and is surrounded by a fortified wall
  • The dwarven bridge is the only means of crossing the Gildar still standing in Gildin, other than a boat
• The city is governed by the dreaded lich Thorlok, one of the few sentient undead remaining in the city. While the city is overrun with skeletons and zombies, only the skeleton mages are to be feared as they possess the means to signal Thorlok of an intruder's presence. As such, skeleton mages should be the prime target for any who are discovered in the perimeters of the city.
• Thorlok likes to play with his victims before striking, measuring their abilities along the way. Lothrok tells of a time when he entered the city, dealing with multiple undead. In this encounter he was unable to prevent the mage from signalling Thorlok of his presence. Thorlok first sent a group of wights to pin the orc ranger and deal with him, but they were unsuccessful. While Lothrok was celebrating his victory, he was surprised by a humongous creature wrapped in chains. Lothrok barely made it out alive of the city that time and stayed away from the perimeter for a while.
• Lothrok utilizes a rowing boat to travel to the city, which the adventures can take from a nearby beach if they desire. The upside to this is the undead's fear for water.

Gildin

Open full size

A map of the ruined city of Gildin, now inhabited by the dead.

Overview of Gildin as drawn by Lothrok
The adventurers share ask a few more questions to Lothrok, even causing him to mumble some words in orcish, but he eventually gathers his supplies after sharing a meal with the adventurers. The adventurers decide to spend the night at his old campsite. During their watches they remark on the absence of animals in the area, but are ultimately not dissuaded from venturing onwards.

The shiny shell beach

Continuing their journey, they reach the aforementioned beach and Lothrok's rowing boat in the afternoon. To their surprise they discover huge shells decorated with light deflecting shinies. John Doe decides to investigate and sneaks toward the shell. Upon further inspection, he finds the inside of the shell is turned toward the sandy beach while the light deflecting shinies turn out to possess a faint blue taint. John informs the remainder of the party, who argue on their plan of action. They discuss whether they should just sneak over the beach and hop in the boat, do the same but with John loosening an arrow on the shell (which Nalan really doesn't like as his heavy armor is not made for water combat), or just attack the shell on their terms. In the end the latter option is chosen.
While Balin Thornbow hides at a further away rock, Oswald Fleetfeet and Nalan accompany John, with Nalan standing on the grass. John loosens an arrow on the shell with a 22 to hit, penetrating the shell and causing a load scream to envelop as combat ensues.
In the first six seconds of the engagement, another shrimp appears from beneath the sand to ambush Nalan. He luckily felt the tremors in the sand, allowing him to battle the new foe face on. During the combat the Lightning Shrimps manage to let Nalan make multiple Dexterity Saving Throws to resist their sparkly effects. In the end one of the shrimps is killed by an overdose of penetrating arrows and bolts, while the other succumbs to an arrow of John while Nalan grapples the desperately burrowing shrimp.

Overview of the Gildin Beach
Having dealt with the shrimps, they decide to remove the sparklies from the corpses' shells to discover the sparklies are actually a crystallized form of Aria (see Materials & Craftings). Oswald uses his Detect Magic to discover the recovered grams of dust and the thumb-sized gem do not hold any magical power anymore. The adventurers wonder what allowed these shrimps to grow the crystallized Aria on their back, discussing the possibility of them drinking it from a nearby source.

Rowing to the City of Dread

On the way to the north side of Gildin, the adventurers pass the Cathedral of Trinity, one of the few buildings in the city still being maintained. The cathedral's roof is characterized by yellow tiles, similar to the church in Ban Grond's Temple Quarters. They find the Cathedral to be surrounded by a wall, thinking of ways they may use the sewers to their advantage in infiltrating the landmark.
Looking up the river Gildar, the adventurers sight the mighty dwarven bridge, embellished with large dwarven statues. In addition, they near the Gildin's Grand Archives, hearing the regular opening of a portcullis. On further inspection they can't reveal a time-related pattern in the opening and closing of the portcullis. They go ashore at the city's north side beach and continue their journey to a fallen tower.

The City of Dread

A Failure at Stealth

Although the adventurers attempt to pass through the city unnoticed, their low efforts in stealth ensures only John is not noticed by a nearby group of zombies. They make short work of the zombies and continue their travels to the tower, to be met by a group of skeletal fellows. Among them are three Skeleton Warriors, a Wight and a Skeleton Mage. Combat ensues and although Oswald successfully casts Slow on the mage and wight, the mage manages to escape inside into a nearby building. While the undead are being made short work of, they fail to halt the mage from casting a bright pillar of light into the air. The mage is then destroyed by an arrow to the head from John and the adventurers decide to hasten toward the tower.

The Sanguine Messenger

Before reaching the tower, the adventurers are met by a sanguine emanating humanoid, held together by necromancy. The entity reveals itself to be a messenger from Thorlok, asking the adventurers what they seek in Gildin. After a bit of evading the question, they reveal they came seeking knowledge on the island. The messenger offers to give them information on the island, as Thorlok is more ancient then anything they will likely have encountered on the island until now. The adventurers asks what Thorlok would desire in return, causing the Messenger to cast Detect Magic. After a short pause, the messenger says their Sanguine's Rose will do fine to barter for information.
The adventurers are firstly undecided on a course of action. Nalan decides to use his Divine Sense (combined with a Charisma Check) to discover the necromantic magic is not of a divine origin, rather an arcane one. In the end, the adventurers agree that following the messenger to his master's lair would be foolish, as they would likely be murdered on the spot anyway. As such, the adventurers decide to make a run for the tower, but not before the messenger erupts in an explosion of acid blood, causing necrotic damage to the party.

Thorlok's Sanguine Messenger

Rewards Granted

• 5 g of crystallized Aria dust
• 1 thumb-sized crystallized Aria gem

Notes

As this is the first time the party really travels into a den of danger, they were given a fair warning on the challenges ahead. While dealing with Thorlok is certainly possible, it is far from easy and will require the adventurers' A-game.

Campaign

The Island of Runaar

Protagonists

Nalan

Oswald Fleetfeet

TN halfling(gnome) (cloistered scholar)
wizard 5

26 / 26 HP

STR
8

DEX
15

CON
13

INT
19

WIS
16

CHA
10

John Doe

Lawful Neutral Wood Elf (Inheritor)
Ranger 6

63 / 63 HP

STR
9

DEX
18

CON
14

INT
18

WIS
16

CHA
13

Report Date

20 Apr 2021

Primary Location

Gildin