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.