Week 6: "Necromancy and a Flight of Stairs"

This week, our heroes had tracked down Verminhide, a vile Kobold Necromancer, to his base of operations inside the infamous Catacombs of Chivil!

They entered into a dimly-lit antechamber, its walls and vaulted ceilings cobbled with generations upon generations of humanoid bones; the remnants of citizens who wanted a coveted place in the exalted catacombs! Pretty dangerous place for a Necromancer to hide out, if you ask me...

Before venturing further into the dark tomb, Cysero stumbled upon a secret, hidden Thieves Guild outpost. Just in time for his character to (reluctantly) pay his guild fees!

By passing the four Blood Trials of the guild (members of the Thieves Guild pay their dues in skill, not gold!), Cysero's character was welcomed back to the organization... but with an unexpected price! It's now Erwise's turn to assume the role of "Baron Andre," the "ringleader" of the Thieves Guild! Ever democratic (and ever cautious), the Thieve's Guild passes leadership every month, and now it's time for Cysero to call the shots!

Venturing into the catacombs, the party comes across a large burial chamber, pocketed with a honeycomb structure of stone sarcophagi, and flanked by a large parapet structure for religious rites. Suddenly, the party is ambushed by zombies, as flaming skeletons rain fire down from the parapet above! The zombies are dispatched quickly and easily, but the skeletons are still causing trouble. Artix charges up the stairs and takes a swing, but loses his balance and falls right back down! Dumoose also suffers a serious blunder, his bow twanging backwards, hitting himself in the face! Determined to reconcile these failures, the party rallies together and storms the parapet, lead by Rolith and Cysero. Ai No Miko follows, and with the wave of her hand, casts Turn Undead on one of the flaming skeletons, who crumbles into dust at the display of holy power! The other skeletons are swiftly vanquished by the unrelenting assault.

With an enchanted portcullis impeding the party's progress, Alac discovered a subterranean chapel devoted to the sun god Pelor, which had been defiled by foul necromancy! She is spotted by three henchmen of Verminhide:

Darkskull, a flaming black skull imbued with Necrotic magic.

Femurpile, a swirling, cyclonic cloud of razor-sharp bone fragments.

Marrowshard, a skeletal Dragonborn grafted with rusted metal shards.

Alac ran back and warned everyone else, who took defensive positions in the burial chamber (Rolith elected to “strategically” hide himself in a sarcophagus, and had to be goaded out by Artix). The henchmen bided their time, determined to strike all at once. With a sickening shriek, they rushed forward, with Femurpile charging through Rolith and Artix at incredible speed, Marrowshard stabbing at Rolith with rusty spikes, and Darkskull trapping Artix within a writhing, ghostly prison. Not to be denied victory, Dumoose scored a keen critical strike with one of his most powerful skills, instantly vanquishing the swirling Femurpile, and severely wounding the stout Marrowshard, who was quickly finished off by the other party members. Darkskull’s plan, now thoroughly foiled, tried to turn invisible and escape, but was backed into a corner and vanquished, unlocking the magic rune on the nearby portcullis.

A long, dusty hallway now stretched before our heroes, a gauntlet of swinging pendulum traps and masses of zombies ready to slow their advance. At the other end of hall was Verminhide, cackling madly as he summoned two flaming skeletons to fling flaming orbs at the party while they navigated the trap-filled hallway. It was a treacherous advance, with zombies continuously rising to grab the heroes, but Cysero was able to spot MOST of the traps. However, the final pendulum blade snagged a few of the party members who foolishly stumbled into its path. Still, through perseverance, the party succeeded in pushing through the gauntlet.

Our heroes exit the gauntlet and enter Verminhide's Library.

With nowhere left to run, Verminhide made a final stand in his library. Flanked by four zombie minions and surrounded by an unholy aura of green vapors from his fuming censer, he engaged the party, determined to make them his slaves in undeath! Rolith, showing uncanny bravery, lead the assault, and challenged Verminhide in combat! The foul Necromancer chose to slink away, and left Rolith at the mercy of his four zombie bodyguards. Ai No Miko tried to invoke her holy powers, but the Necromancer’s aura must have been too strong for her for her character, as her dice rolls were not at all favorable. Artix was the next to approach Verminhide, and the rest of the party elected to free Rolith from the grasping claws of the zombies. Finally, Alac struck at the Necromancer with a magic missile, and he in return afflicted her with a terrible illness which hindered her spellcasting!

Verminhide, seeing that he was surrounded, cackled madly. He swung his censer furiously, as the fumes shifted from green to pitch black. Artix, Rolith, and Cysero were violently choked (literally!) by the living fumes, leaving Rolith and Cysero gravely wounded and Artix on death’s door, with only 3 HP left! Artix, still choking, tried to heal himself, but was stifled by the evil fumes, reducing his healing to measly one point! Meanwhile, the rest of the party continued to hammer away at Verminhide and the remaining zombies, but they did so with the upmost caution; Verminhide was worth much more to the authorities alive than dead. This caution must have thrown off Ai No Miko, who critically failed on her Lance of Faith ability, sending it spiraling into Rolith!

Dumoose, in an act of unmatched heroism, chose to forgo attacking during his turn, and instead drug Artix out of the necrotic fumes, just barely saving his life! With Artix safe and healed, he rejoined the fight, but his character must have been traumatized from the harrowing experience, rolling a 1 (critical fail!) on his Warlord Strike! Then on his next turn, he rolled ANOTHER critical fail on his most powerful ability, inspiring Verminhide to continue fighting! Finally, on what would have been a deathblow for Rolith, Artix finally snapped out of his malaise, cutting deep into Verminhide and saving Rolith’s life! However, the hastiness of Artix’s brave actions proved to be too much to simply render the necromancer unconscious, and he fell to the ground, dead from his wounds.

Truly, it was night of both a series of hilarious (for me, at least) blunders on the characters’ part, but also a night of emboldening (for them, at least) self-sacrifice and heroic rescues. And so, with the necrotic scourge dealt with once and for all, our heroes (now level 6!) stand in the Necromancer’s former base of operations, ready to learn of the secrets he held during his former life…