Princes of the Apocalypse Session 4

The party returned from their ghost wedding bandit ordeal to find Deliverance had finished communing with Ilmater and had been told by Kayless that there was rumor of a plague near Lance Rock. Quaff on the other hand was still a little tired from his blood loss and decided to take a day to recover. 

While the party all has particular tasks set out for them, Lance Rock is closest to town, so Deliverance, Romero, and Uthal set out to investigate the plague. 

The short trek there was uneventful, and after scouting around a bit they found a path leading down into dense undergrowth with a sign that read "plague, stay out." Deliverance called out, but received no response, so the party followed the path down to a cave which had another sign out front with a similar warning. 

After calling out again and getting no response the party entered the cave, almost immediately sporting the body of a human lying down in a passage way. Deliverance was unable to tell cause of death from just a causal observation so he asked Uthal to prod it a bit with his quarter staff.

Somewhat surprisingly the body rose up revealing it to be a zombie. Deliverance, hating the undead immediately turned undead. However before the zombie even had a chance to flee Uthal and Romero took out the zombie. 

(Courtesy of Deliverance's player)

The party walked further in finding a trio of zombies in costume performing what appeared to be a play. The zombies must have been an acting troupe turned into zombies, but the party could not figure out what play they were performing or if it had any significance. 

They decided to try to skirt around the zombies to see if they were so involved in the play they would not notice them. However immediately the zombies looked up and began attacking. The party made short work of them, Uthal attacking, protected by Deliverance's shield of faith, and Romero casting lightning at the zombies. 

The party then moved on to the south trying to find the cause of the zombie infestation. And while doing so walked into a room with a human standing in the back, with 4 skeletons guarding him in front, and a zombie looking like he was trying to stitch something together. 

The party began fighting, Uthal using his bow and Romero also using ranged attacks, however as the zombie charged them they found what he had been working on was a group of 5 disembodied hands, formed into grotesque claws that came skittering toward them attacking. Uthal was able to fight them off, however he took heavy damage that not even a cure from Deliverance could completely heal. All the while the skeletons rained arrows from long bows onto them, and the human slipped out an exit to the rear. 

Deliverance healed Romero as well as he took damage, but Romero continued his assault on the skeletons, while Uthal dispatched the claws and zombie. It came down to the party and three skeletons. One skeleton wounded seriously, but all of the party suffering damage. The skeletons then got off a round of incredible shots piercing Uthal, dropping him unconscious. Deliverance made his way up to him and stabilized him while Romero continued attacking from behind a table. 

Deliverance joined Romero, throwing his hand axe and missing quite badly. Romero finished off one of the zombies and was able to destroy a second, while Deliverance fished a second hand axe out of his pack, and threw it missing equally as badly as the first. Finally the skeleton hit Romero solidly with an arrow, causing him to fall unconscious as well. 

Deliverance, fueled by his hate of the undead, and the fact he promised the party he would protect them, grabbed Romero's dagger and charged the remaining skeleton.

In what can only be described as Deliverance's finest moment to date, he shrugged off attacks from the skeleton and was able to destroy the undead with the dagger. He then used his divinity to get the entire party back to half health. They then used what healing they had to recover additional health and go after the remaining human.

Upon entering a chamber that was much nicer furnished than the rest of the cave they saw no one, but did notice a suspicious lump behind a tapestry. Readying for battle they were then assaulted by a nercomancer. He unleashed a series of magic missiles at them, damaging the party badly, but not enough to take them down. 

Deliverance asked the human to throw down his weapons and surrender or else his life would be forfeit. The head man replied that should he die his body would return to the earth and be reborn through the earth. Romero didn't like the sound of that and the party finished him off. 

Feeling like they escaped another close call the party made their way back to town, with a bit more coin and a wand of magic missile that is sure to come in handy. 

Princes of the Apocalypse, Session 3

After un-earth-ing the cult beneath Red Larch, and returning Braeden to his father, the team turned in for a well earned night's sleep. They decided avoiding town would be the best strategy, so they followed up on a set of rumors that a girl had seen a ghost. Minthra introduced them to her daughter Pell, an inquisitive seven-year old who was able to guide the party to the haunted tomb. There, they found many statues of dwarves and a door that had been rusted shut. Upon touching the door, a ghost appeared, warning them to not disturb his master. The party, led by Romero, agreed, and offered to help the ghost enter into the afterlife if they could.

They next looked at their map of the valley, and saw a vale marked on the map that sounded intriguing. After a long hike, and a treacherous climb up a steep switchback, they found [the abbey]. Upon entering, they came into a courtyard dominated by a large statue of a dwarven woman, her arms open in welcome. Below the statue was a group of dwarves, who said they were part of a wedding ceremony, and the party should join. But on approaching, the dwarves attacked! Romero had noticed the wedding group was wearing chain mail, so they were not surprised, but they quickly took a beating, and began to fear for their lives after the officiant revealed herself to be an oni! They beat a hasty retreat, dashing down the steep path back into the valley.

Wounded and weary, they made their way back to Red Larch, where they spent the night. The next morning, they were awakened by a visit from Baragustas, one of the town elders. He seemed friendly enough, and suggested the party investigate a cave with bandits and their treasure, as a favor to the town. They went there, and were attacked by stirges. After defeating the foul creatures, and Quaff lost more blood than he was comfortable with, they explored the cave. However, there was no treasure to be found, so they went back to town. On the way back to town, they were ambushed by bandits, but the party made short work of them.