Dresil's Tomb of the Damned

[Dresil]

I'd just like to say, for Gary. I hope I can come within a shadow of his talent during this game.

You have all traveled long and far to reach the point where you stand. The rewards for returning with the destroyed shards of the Lich Acererak's phylactery are almost beyond measure... the king has allowed you to name your own rewards if this task is completed.

The dead evening air carries with it the subtle stench of decay, and with good reason: the graveyard that sits about 150 feet in front of you. Dead trees grasp desperately at the dusk sky, almost as if they were trying to reach into the sky and pull their rotten roots into better soil somewhere more hallowed than this desolate place. Far off, a distant peal of thunder rolls and the sky looks like rain will come in about an hour, when true night comes in. It looks like fate won't even grant you the luxury of a moon this night.

After working up the courage to walk towards the locked gate of the cemetery, a bright crimson flame blossoms on the well traveled road about twenty feet from you. Emerging from it is something that appearsto be human, but your gut tells you otherwise. His red irises burn with an unholy light and an inhuman grin almost convinces your last meal to up and leave from your stomach. "Please, don't mind me, he speaks, a low and slithering voice. "You mortals seem to have taken a liking to this place, and while it is really quite entertaining to watch down below, I have been given permission to help you out so to speak."

He disappears in a puff of smoke and reappears standing on what appears to be a very sharp iron spike of the fence that separates you from the dead. "These too were adventurers who tried and failed to destroy the Lich Acererak, but they never got too far in, sadly. What I offer you is this. If you so happen to find yourself on the other side of mortality, I may be able to give you another chance. That is, if your body isn't in too small pieces. I offer you my services, humbly. If you wish a friend to be Resurrected or Truly Resurrected, all you need to do is call out S'ystliak, we cannot go on without <name>! Simply please keep in mind that I will take a little extra life force with me as payment for this emergency miracle. Just keep it in mind, I'm just a scream away... Eheheehehe!!!"

The demon vanishes with a whiff of brimstone and a puff of smoke. You all know now the weights of his deal as it rings in your heads, filled with this knowledge you are ready to press into the Tomb of the Damned.

Demon's Deal

Spoiler

Show

Casting Resuurection on a dead party member includes all effects in the spell description, as well as a loss of an extra 1d6 Max HP, or -1 to AC and saves.

Casting True Resurrection on a dead party member includes all effects in the spell description, as well as a loss of 1 point in any 2 random abilities.

Both spells are cast as a full round action after the fallen member has died.

For a payment of 1d3 Max HP, spellcasters can get 3d4 spells re-memorized immediately, and other characters can have a +4 vile bonus to hit and damage for 24 hours.

DM Notes: Night 1
[Spoiler]
1200[/Spoiler

[Chambers]

Journe

"Pfah!" Journe says. "Damn demon mists tastes....well, like demons, I suppose." He shrugs and coughs a few times. Taking his greatsword off his back he rechecks the wand is safely inside it's chamber. "Allright, that's all my preparations." He says smiling. He makes the sign of Pelor with one hand and half-closes his eyes, mumbling some words under his breath. "I'll trust in Pelor to save me, not the demon."

[Toptomcat]

Hmmmm. He's an oily one. And, it seems, given to making deals. I can use this.

Just before the unsettling demon seems poised to disappear, William steps in, his face all smiles and reasonableness, his tone light and airy, and one finger raised into the air.

"Now wait just one minute, Mister S'ystliak. I don't believe you. You could very easily be just another one of the lich's tricks- it would easily within his power to bind a demon to his service or key a powerful illusion to the approach of adventurers, don't you agree? For all we know, that key phrase will summon a horde of iron golems to stomp us into gory paste. If we are to use your 'services' and you are to get your life force, I think we need to see a little demonstration of your good faith. That's reasonable, isn't it? And I have just the thing. These unfortunate colleagues of ours that we see here-" he gestures expansively to the headstones "-who have so entertained you...tell us how to best vanquish or bypass an early hazard that's been responsible for killing a great number of them. That costs you nothing, but should be sufficient to create the trust we need to do business."

[Dresil]

The demon after hearing this, still disappears in a puff of smoke, but after ten seconds, he reappears holding a squirming a pair of kobold youths in his claws.

He tosses one a good thirty feet until the young kobold was impaled on one of the black iron spikes of the fence. There is no doubt about it, that the yound lizard is dead, but then S'ystilak kneels down and releases the other kobold, looking him in the face. "His name was Tikker."

The live kobold seems to be shaking in fear as he says "S'ystilak.... w-w-we cannot go on w-without Tikker!"

A bolt of blue energy laced with blackness pours from the demons hand, and as it lances out to the young kobold, all can see he is gently pried off of the spike, and in between one breath and the next, is brought back to the living, with apparently no signs of stress, save for a faint scar where the iron rended into his chest, like it happened years ago.

The demon then turns back and says, "There is your proof. As for a clue on the early traps, I shall give thee two.

Be thou prepared when thine boots cross to unhallowed, because some of Acererak's enemies sleep quite shallow. Not is all that it may seem, who knows what vision is just a dream?

You should do to remember well, one is two and two is three, mind the big rocks or crush'd ye shall be! Pay attention to warriors pure, but no matter what they are dead for sure. Some traps will not let you come back from hell!"

His words echo in your minds as he and the two kobolds disappear.

[whoiam]

Alexis

"Yay, riddles."

Alexis seems less than impressed at the Demon's offer, despite the fact it could prove useful... especially as she was pretty certain resurrection was not something she or her allies could do by themselves.

Mainly, though, that was because she was less than impressed with the demon. Trusting on one to keep his word was about as stupid as entering this place without an army.

....That was probably not a great way for her to reassure herself.

"So, shall we press on? Or would you rather debate his words a while?"

[neoseph7]

Zeek Flarnock Jr.
The Gnome looks around, focusing on the graveyard around him. He pays especially close attention to the magic the Demon uses, hoping to verify that it is more than Illusions and Figments.

Spoiler

Show

Detect Magic

Well. This is an odd introduction to hell. I expected something less... merciful. I concur on the whole "pressing on" bit.

Zeek will spread his leathery bat wings out and fly on ahead with the rest of the party (paying attention to magic auras and looking out for invisible foes).

Spoiler

Show

Active Effects:
Beguiling Influence (bonus to chatty skills)
Fell Flight (Good Manueverability 20ft Fly speed)
See the Unseen (See Invisibilty and Darkvision 60ft)

[Toptomcat]

"What's to debate? Watch out for enemies coming up from the floor- presumably undead within the area of active unhallow spells- be on alert for illusions, watch out for falling rocks, remember that any warriors we meet in the tomb are dead no matter how they look, and some traps here will mutilate a body past the possibility of ordinary resurrection.
The only potentially confusing bit was the stuff about one being two and two being three, and I suspect that falls into the category of infuriatingly cryptic things that won't be deciphered until after the fact. Which is par for the course when dealing with demons. I'm rather relieved there wasn't more of it, really."

William peers through the gate into the cemetary.

"Any objections to my sending an elemental through the gates before we go ourselves to see if it gets ambushed by undead or trips a trap or three?"

[Dresil]

Zeek

Spoiler

Show

The aura of the magic you witness was indeed Conjuration, and a powerful source at that. You were overcome with the strangest sensations of both Good and Evil coming from the same source.

You also sense a dome shaped passive Evocation spell hovering about five feet from the top of the iron fence. It is old magic, and likely Pemanancied.

A low hill rests at the back of the cemetary, as the night begins to fully awaken, a wolf howls somewhere in the distance. There appears to be a rusty chain and padlock on the gates to the cemetary.

Getting close enough to inspect the gate shows a small bronze plaque reading 'Those who rest beyond these gates all share equal fates. In life they swore against the lich and wished to become strong and rich. Now that they live no more, the Mighty Acererak honors the oath they swore.

MAP

Spoiler

Show

{table] |A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y |Z
1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
2| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|G|G|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
4| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
5| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
6| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
7| | |T| | |T| | | | | | | | | | | | | |T| | |T| | | |
8| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
9| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
10| | |T| | |T| | | | | | | | | | | | | |T| | |T| | | |
11| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
12| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
13| | |T|T| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |T|T| | | | |
14| | |T|T| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |T|T| | | | |
15| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
16| |H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H| | |[/table]


Key: (G) - Gate
(-) - Iron Fence
(H) - Hill

[Scoot]

Affe

Disturbed by the strange red man, Affe grunts,

Not care what we do, just keep man away

And then, as if his words somehow banished any fears in his skull, he grins and shifts his hammer,

We follow wing man?

[Toptomcat]

"Not yet, Affe. Wait, please."
William gets as close as he can to the gate, then focuses intently for a moment- not bothering with so much as a mumbled word or a quick gesture. An amorphous, quickly-shifting cloud appears on the other side and immediately rises up into the air, moving to and fro as if searching for something before making a low moan- as of the wind when it catches the trees just right- that almost sounds like language. He repeats the performance with a little walking mound that burrows into the ground and surfaces shortly thereafter to give its report, then a mass of ambulatory flame that scorches across the grass.
If nothing happens, he repeats the entire procedure at several points along the gate, then finally reports his findings.

If Zeek reports his findings:
"Hmmm. Possibly something keyed to the gate's opening. I don't care to find out what, but I don't want to expend a spell to try to dispel it either. Shall we cut our way through the fence instead?"

Spoiler

Show

The areas of the map from 4 to 8 are all explored by teams of elementals as discussed in the OOC thread, with William staying at the nearest possible point on 2 to give his teams the greatest possible range.

[Dresil]

Zeek

Spoiler

Show

Your elementals can not find anything strange in the 30' they can reach. Your earth elemental counted four wooden boxes in the ground with a rotten smell about them.

[Toptomcat]

"Nothing strange in the area my elementals can roam in. The coffins of the graves are still intact, so if these fallen adventurers burst out of their graves every time someone intrudes here, Acererak is at least polite enough to neatly rebury them each time. Which strikes me as unlikely. We're clear to go: through the gate or through the fence?"

[neoseph7]

Zeek Flarnock Jr.

Spoiler

Show

In general, anything Zeek discovers, he will report to the party

Zeek Hovers 15 ft off the ground while watching the elementals do their thing. While waiting, he will fly up to 30ft and fire an Eldritch Blast (Brimestone, Spear) at far off stationary targets beyond the gate for practice (250ft).

Spoiler

Show

Blast, Blast, Blast, Blast anything I can find!

Attack Roll: (Against Diminuitive non-stationary object AC of 11?)
(1d20+11)[14]
Damage: (5d6+2)[18] Fire Damage

William. My blast is set to flame, and would not damage your burning summon. If it finds something I should blast at, I can probably blast right through it, or at the least not damage it. Up to you of course. I have better manners than to randomly attack the magical manifestations of my allies and friends. Well, ok, that's a lie, but for the time being I can pretend to have such manners.

[Dresil]

Nothing seems to happen after the lance of flame sizzles out of existence. Everything is as still as a crypt.

[Archdeacon GX]

Isaiah

The quiet man in the dark leather coat remains silent for now, observing the goings-on around him with a watchful eye. He stares at the Demon as his speech is given, and watches gives the very slightest flinch as the young kobold is slain upon the fence. Evil little creatures or not, there was just something unsettling about everything this S'ystilak did.

The others were saying that they needed a way into the gate, as if simply opening the door and walking through would not work. This made sense; if the Lich Acererak was so terrible as the tales suggested, it couldn't possibly be so easy. But having no knowledge of magic beyond the enchantments of his own equipment, the marksman can offer no real insight as to a course of action. Thus, he refrains from speaking, instead drawing out a sheet of paper and a pen, scrawling a few notes.

[Toptomcat]

William

"Thanks for the offer, Zeek. I'll keep it in mind- sounds like a neat trick- but the elementals aren't my primary combat summon- they're a little parlor trick that I can whip up without much effort. Use 'em mostly for scouting. You'll know it when I start actually calling up the big stuff- demon wolves the size of a horse, crazed great apes with blood-red eyes...
Anyway, could you try melting through a section of fence for us? I didn't bring a hacksaw."

[Scoot]

Affe

Affe begins to impatiently dig his foot into the ground as he watches the tiny creatures float around past the gate.

At the mention of action, however, he perks up his ears,

If fire not work, Affe has hammer!

[neoseph7]

Zeek Flarnock Jr.

At hearing Willam's request, Zeek focuses on a section of the gate and starts a hot burn with his eldritch blast to attempt to melt through a bar.

Fire? Hammer? All we need is duct tape and we'll be good to go.

Spoiler

Show

Lining up the eldritch blast and spending multiple rounds on the blasting. Average damage is 19.5 fire with only natural 1's missing and no crits, so 18.525 fire damage per 6 seconds. Don't know what the HP on the bars are, or if they are affected by magical fire at all, but Zeek will continue the melting until he gets bored or it is called for that he stop.

[Dresil]

After about half a minute, you burn one bar away. Another three minutes of burning flame clears a 5 foot section for you to pass through at I3.

MAP

Spoiler

Show

{table] |A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y |Z
1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
2| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| |-|-|-|G|G|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
4| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
5| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
6| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
7| | |T| | |T| | | | | | | | | | | | | |T| | |T| | | |
8| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
9| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
10| | |T| | |T| | | | | | | | | | | | | |T| | |T| | | |
11| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
12| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
13| | |T|T| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |T|T| | | | |
14| | |T|T| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |T|T| | | | |
15| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
16| |H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H| | |[/table]

[neoseph7]

Zeek Flarnock Jr.

Having gotten bored with blasting at the iron bars, Zeek will fly over the metal barrier at R3 towards the crypt.

Enough beating around the bush. Victory favors the bold! Let's go.

[Dresil]

After flying above the wall of iron fencing, you slam into what feels like an invisible brick wall, falling to the ground. Reflex save DC 16 or take (1d4)[3] damage from the spikes, also (1d6)[4] falling damage.

[Chambers]

Journe

"Zeek!" Journe shouts, rushing over to the fallen gnome. "Here, take it easy." He says, helping him up. "Don't be so hasty." He says, smiling as channels the energy of the sheathed wand to heal Zeek. "There, feeling better?"

"Let's walk where we can see..." He says and walks through the burned hole in the fence.

Spoiler

Show

1 charge from the CMW wand [49 remaining]
(2d8+1)[10]

[neoseph7]

Zeek Flarnock Jr.

Reflex Save:

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+9)[21]

Assuming a 21 Reflex is enough that he can stop and hover instead of falling.

Zeek is able to regain his flight away from the wall without landing on anything dangerous.

I wall there's a think here. He says clumsily

[Toptomcat]

William Judge
William eyes the spiked fence.
"Yikes. That could have been pretty ugly. Glad you're okay, Zeek."
He reaches into his pack, pulls out a long, wooden pole that seems far too long to have been reasonably stored in it, and begins tapping it ahead of him, trying to find out if there's a similarly invisible wall at ground level or if it's just in the air.

[Dresil]

It seems that the invisible wall starts about three feet above the top of the fence.

Journe, you need not use a charge on your wand.

As one of your fellow party members enters the cemetery, a light mist begins to pick up on the far bank of the enclosure. Somewhere, a raven squawks his lonely cry.

I ask now when you move to tell me what space you are moving to.

[Dresil]

After moving into the cemetery, the first thing that everyone notices is the fog thickens to the point that seeing past row 12 is impossible. Journe hears a faint noise, that sounds like scrabbling and scraping coming from the ground itself. A grayish, decayed arm bursts forth and a body soon follows, clawing its way from the earth itself.

"Unnh...." the pitiful moan of a zombie reaches your ears, as the rusty chainmail clings to his body.

Initiative please, Zombie is on the ground and Flat Footed first round.

Spoiler

Show

|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y |Z
1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
2| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| |-|-|-|G|G|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
4| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
5| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
6| | | | | |Z| |J| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
7| | |T| | |T| | | | | | | | | | | | | |T| | |T| | | |
8| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
9| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
10| | |T| | |T| | | | | | | | | | | | | |T| | |T| | | |
11| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
12| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
13| | |T|T| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |T|T| | | | |
14| | |T|T| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |T|T| | | | |
15| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
16| |H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H|H| | |[/table]

Z- Zombie
T- Tombstone
G- Gate
-- Fence
J- Journe De La Crux

[Dresil]

(1d20)[14]
(1d20+7)[9]

[Scoot]

Affe

Rolls:

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+3)[11]
I'll save any comments for my turn.

[Toptomcat]

William Judge
Initiative: (1d20+2)[17]
Suggestion: as a time-saving PbP measure, next combat roll initiative for all participants in your own post.

[Archdeacon GX]

Isaiah

Initiative: (1d20+5)[25]

EDIT:

Spoiler

Show

Wow. Not the best check to get a nat 20 on, but I'm not complaining.