Adventure 10

Death's Ride



Session One - The Barony of Twolakes Vale


It was a mere few months since the war for Norwold had ended, and it was now nearing autumn. The baronies were still recovering from the effects of the war. In all that time, one of the outlying baronies, the Barony of Twolakes Vale, had not been heard from.This barony was quite remote, located far to the west and at the northern end of what used to be the realm of Denagoth. Bhakragh told Lithanor and his companions how he had fought and vanquished the Shadow Lord several years ago. This Shadow Lord was the self proclaimed ruler of this realm, and had been raising an army to conquer the Kingdom of Wendar to the south. Although the Shadow Lord had been defeated, and his armies dispersed, Bhakragh felt that some evil presence still haunted the lands there.

News soon reached the barons of Norwold that a great black cloud was hovering over the lands far to the west,particularly over where the barony of Twolakes Vale was located. Mazaramus had pinpointed the location of the barony on his maps and discovered that this could well be the epicentre of the location of one of the seven portals created by the Ancient Ones that he was in the process of locating and closing down. His theory was that the portal was now being used as a gate to the Sphere of Entropy.

The six heroes agreed to once more leave the running of their baronies to their seneschals, and headed out once more on a good old epic adventure. By late Sviftmont (the 10th month on the Mystaran calendar) they arrived at the barony of Twolakes Vale. The barony was located in the mountains to the north of Denagoth. The black cloud hung low over the mountains, and it was found to have detrimental effects, slowly draining the life out of those who flew into the cloud. Fortunately, Bhakragh had told them of a hidden pass that would take them to the southern end of the barony, where Skullheim Castle stood vigilantly guarding the entrance to the realm.

The castle stood on a small island where a river running southwards out of the vale split and rejoined again on the southern side. No bridge of any kind led to the castle, but they found several small boats and rafts tied to a ferry point. They had no need of these themselves of course. They had a broom of flying and a flying carpet, and Lithanor had recently completed construction of his drolem. They were now beneath the strange black cloud that hung very low, perhaps a few hundred feet, no more, above the ground. They could barely tell that it was even daytime. Everywhere seemed to be in a perpetual twilight. Moreover, not a soul could be seen at the ferry or within the outer walls of the castle. Sneaky scouted ahead invisibly and flying as high as she dare above the castle without coming too close to the black cloud. Morgan meanwhile strode boldly ahead towards the main gates, which, like everywhere else, seemed deserted and unmanned.

Barely in time did Sneaky spot  the hill giants hiding behind the battlements, and lying in wait to each side of the walls were numerous manscorpions. Hearing Sneaky's warning , Morgan ran for the cover of the walls. Several boulders came flying over the walls, but thanks to his boots of speed he was able to evade them and reach the walls.

Mazaramus now flew up, hurling fire balls at the manscorpions, and Lithanor descended, swooping in on his drolem, which breathed a poisonous cloud into the waiting giants. Sneaky herself felled many of the giants on the battlements, while Gandi, Klaus and Morgan fought the remaining manscorpions. Having fought these before, they were wary of their poisonous stingers. Soon, those that had lain in wait to ambush them were all slain.

Inside the main gates now, they saw ahead the main keep, wherein was the Great Hall of Baron Maltus Fharo, ruler of the dominion of Twolakes Vale. Within they found, much to their surprise, the Baron seated at the head of the great table, with his personal bodyguard also seated around the table. Lithanor and Gandi entered first, sensing that something wasn't quite right. The baron stood and stared blankly as his bodyguards stood and turned to face the party. There was no life in their faces,  and lifeless eyes stared at them. They lumbered forward and advanced on the party. Gandi interceded, brandishing his axes. The guards lunged at him, not even drawing their swords, and amorphous translucent tendrils issued forth from their bodies, wrapping about the dwarf. Gandi was barely able to slice off the strange undead creature, and he and Lithanor backed out of the room. As they held off the advancing guards, Mazaramus cast a fire ball into the room. Most of the undead guards were incinerated, but the baron seemed totally unscathed. Morgan, Gandi and Lithanor fought off the remaining guards as they too seemed to burst open as their tendrils wrapped about them. With the guards slain, Klaus cast a speak with the dead spell. The baron spoke in a hollow voice "Join us! Join us now in the realm of death!" He also heard a second voice, but seeming dissociated, as though from somewhere in the room itself, begging to be released. The baron laughed mockingly at Klaus. Klaus responded by casting a raise dead fully on the baron. The baron's head snapped back, and he fell to the floor. At the same instant, a strange white light issued forth from the baron's body. What Klaus saw was some ghostly form, and the cleric aged centuries in a matter of seconds.

Lithanor and Mazaramus bombarded the ghostly light with magic missiles, which had no effect. Gandi slashed at the light, which was slowly spreading outwards and filling most of the room. Morgan too leapt into the fray, swinging his claymore, and even Sneaky and Mazaramus resorted to hacking away at the light with their magical weapons, which seemed to be the only way of combating it. Gandi was surrounded by wisps emanating from the light, and felt himself being pulled, not physically, but to some place beyond the material world as he knew it. Sneaky slashed again with her daggers, and it finally seemed to dissipate before vanishing into nothing. The undead presence was vanquished, but Klaus, a man in his thirties, now looked to be over 50 years old, and the baron lay dead on the floor. Klaus cast another raise dead on the baron and slowly his eyes opened and he began to recover. He stared at Klaus and the rest of the party, with a look of bewilderment at first and then recognition.

He thanked Klaus for saving him, then explained what had happened. First the sky began to darken, as the death cloud began to cover the lands, then the castle was attacked by a horde of undead. Also in the attack were the giants and manscorpions that the party had fought/ The attackers were aided by powerful magic from a spare of spellcasters, one a cleric and the other a magic-user, as well as a large blue dragon that blasted parts of the castle, breaching its defences. All the baron remembers after this was making a last stand in this very room before being overrun. As to whether their were any other survivors from the attack he did not know.

The party members resolved to search the rest of the keep, but the baron himself was too weak to be of any further assistance to the party.


Session Two - The Clearing of Skullheim Castle


Searching the remainder of the keep, the party found little more than scenes of carnage and destruction, along with some residual undead creatures still roaming around. In one room they encountered a cockatrice, oddly out of place given that the castle had been overrun by undead. The cockatrice was swiftly decapitated by Gandi, and transformed into a young woman, much to Gandi's horror. Fortunately, Klaus' magic was strong enough to resurrect her (and reattach her severed head).

The woman was named Ammylar, and she was the baron's steward. Like the baron, she had witnessed the attack and could provide the party with some more details. She had been transformed into a cockatrice by Wazor, the powerful wizard that had led the assault. Whilst transformed, she could do little, but remembered the conversations between the wizard and the cleric, who was named Ulslime. From them she learnt that they sought to destroy an item called the Hammer of Life, the only thing that could destroy the Deathstone that had been used to activate the Gate to the Sphere of Entropy from which the deathcloud had issued forth. The Deathstone itself was guarded now by Korbundar, the blue dragon that was aiding them.

Based on her descriptions, Mazarumus used his crystal ball to try to scry for the three that were leading the undead. The dragon was seen flying up from an island and into the deathcloud. Wazor was obviously protected from scying, as Mazaramus got nothing. The cleric, Ulslime, was seen in some large circular chamber chanting before a great opening wherein a swirling blackness spewed forth black, wispy tendrils of smoke that rose up towards the deathcloud. Upon hearing that the dragon had left its lair, Lithanor surmised that it could be headed back to attack them, having learnt of their arrival. He therefore went outside and patrolled the area on his drolem, waiting for the dragon to arrive.

On the second level of the keep, they found more carnage, though the baron's chamber itself seemed remarkably intact. The baron's magist's laboratory was particularly badly damaged, though they did find a couple of scraps of paper. One had some notes that Maryan, the magist, had scribbled, that seemed to have a warning about the deathcloud that was intended for the baron, but was unfortunately now mostly unintelligible. Klaus looked at the other parchment, which had a symbol of fear inscribed upon it. Klaus fled from the room and ran out of the keep. Lithanor saw the cleric run from the building and went to catch him. Klaus turned and stared in abject horror, pointing and yelling "DRAGON!" Lithanor thought that the cleric, in his deranged state, was indicating his drolem, but then realised that he was pointing behind him. He turned just in time to see a large blue dragon swooping out of the black cloud, lightning streaking forth from its maw and hitting both Lithanor and Klaus. Lithanor recovered form the blast, sparks still dancing about his armour and the drolem and drew his sword ready to fight the dragon. Korbundar was too fast. He banked upwards, uttering draconic tones as he did so and two mirror images of the dragon appeared. Within moments the dragon was out of range of the elf and flew back into the deathcloud. Lithanor considered pursuing, but Mazaramus had already warned that the deathcloud seemed to have a life draining effect (of which the dragon apparently had some immunity). Also, the dragon had been travelling at amazing speed, and Lithanor didn't have a chance of catching it even if he could find him in the black cloud.

Klaus soon recovered from the effect of the fear symbol and came to his senses. He found running in plate mail to be more difficult and tiring than he was used to, with the unnatural aging that had afflicted him. He knew that Mazaramus carried a potion of longevity somewhere in his bag of holding and insisted that the wizard allow him to take one to reverse at least some of the aging.

Having cleared the upper levels of the keep, the party ventured into the dungeon beneath the keep. There in the cells, a trap had been prepared for them. The cells each contained some nasty monster, waiting to attack the party, and covered by an illusion to appear as a mound of treasure in each cell. Mazaramus was immediately dubious and dispelled the illusions. Mazaramus found a manscorpion in the first cell, which he merely sealed into the cell using his runes to reshape the stone. Two of the other cells contained carrion crawlers and insect swarms respectively, and the fourth, which Sneaky investigated,  a basilisk. Sneaky avoided the petrifying gaze of the lizard, though Klaus had become parlayzsed when he got too close to one of the carrion crawlers,  though the party soon dealt with the monsters using magic or swords.

The final section of the dungeon was a large chamber seemingly under construction. A number of zombies were digging away or swinging picks at the west wall. Gandi thought this would be too easy, and ran in axes swinging, Morgan followed close behind to hack at the zombies with his claymore. Sneaky stood at the entrance to the chamber, staring in horror as she sensed some other unnatural presence in the chamber....


Session Three - Lair of the Blue Dragon


Gandi and Morgan hacked through the zombies with ease. It was then that they realised themselves that their was something more than just zombies in the chamber. The tools scattered about the place rose up and flew at them. Sneaky used her blade's ability to detect invisible, and could make out two strange forms,weird lights with tendrils lashing about in all directions, some of which were picking up and hurling the mining tools. Lithanor and Mazaramus found their magic to be ineffective. Guided by Sneaky, Gandi and Morgan hacked at where she indicated the creatures to be. Fortunately, their magical weapons struck home. Sneaky too waded in with her dagger-like blades and managed between them to vanquish the strange creatures. Once Klaus recovered from his paralysis, he was able to tell them that these were poltergeists, having done some research about the more powerful undead creatures.

The keep was clear, and they returned to Baron Fharo to ponder their next move. Seeking the Hammer of Life that Ammylar had told them about was one option. They could also seek out either the archmage Wazor, Ulslime the cleric of chaos and the blue dragon Korbundar. The baron provided them with a map of Twolakes Vale. Studying it, they chose to go to some of the villages first. Besides, the closest village, Alicor  was just a few miles along the road from Skullheim Castle.

As they neared Alicor, what few villagers they could see swiftly ran inside ta the sight of the party. Once it was apparent that they were here to help, an old man motioned them towards his home. He told the party that the villagers were loathe to stray far from the village. Farming was impossible due to the roving bands of undead. Worse still, a large dragon had been seen flying about the lands, and seemed to come from an island in the centre of Westlake, which Alicor was on the southern shore of.
Lithanor told the villagers that they would fly to this island and deal with this dragon. The villagers took little comfort in this, fearing that these brave adventurers would meet their end on the island.

As they neared the island, Sneaky and Lithanor flew ahead to scout the island. They found a huge rock mound with a wide stairway leading up to an archway, beyond which was some dark cave. Sneaky jumped down from Lithanor's drolem and went to investigate the archway. Pairs of statues stood beside the wide stairway, jade at the bottom, then gold, and finally marble at the top. Sneaky eyed these statues suspiciously, suspecting that they might animate at any moment. Turning her attention back to the archway, she spotted a rune marked on the entranceway. Just seeing it, however, activated its power, for this was a rune of discord causing the rogue to draw her weapons and turn to fight Lithanor.

Lithanor himself head been forced to land when several flying hydrae, that had been disguised with illusion magic as trees, attacked him. He had managed to cast a fire ball slaying three of the hydrae, but was now separated from his drolem, which now dumbly obeyed its last command to wait until called again.

To make matters worse, the statues that had been stood to either side of the stairway did indeed animate, and all closed in to attack Sneaky. They had evidently been ordered to attack anyone on the stairway. Sneaky had been hidden by invisibility at first and Lithanor had not approached the stairway.

Mazaramus, Morgan, Klaus and Gandi saw the melee on the island and hastened to the aid of their comrades. Sneaky was beset by the statues, but was only intent on attacking Lithanor. Lithanor finally managed to hack down the last of the hydrae, and the warriors moved in to smash the statues. Lithanor then cast a dispel magic and managed to not only undo the effects of the magical rune, but to permanently dispel the rune itself, making it safe to cross the archway.

Klaus used his healing magic on both Sneaky and Lithanor, and they resumed investigating the opening beyond the archway. Mazaramus threw some continual light stones into the cave, revealing a pile of treasure some way in. As yet, there was no sign of the dragon, but several side passages led off from the cave. Moving into the cave, they were beset from a side passage by a mass of undead as they neared the pile of treasure. Amongst them were several skeletons, which Mazaramus used a rune of control on. Even with this small advantage, they still had quite a battle dealing with the numerous ghouls and more of the strange zombie-like creatures that oozed forth slimy pseudopods to engulf them. Klaus tried to turn these strange undead, but they resisted his holy power. Morgan succumbed to the paralyzing attacks of the ghouls, and Lithanor had to fight off those trying to eat him. Finally though, they managed to defeat all of the undead, with Mazaramus once again saving the day by himself transforming into a hydra, though chomping on the undead creatures left an unsavoury taste in his mouth.

They investigated the pile of treasure in the centre of the cave. It seemed evident that, although substantial, it was hardly the hoard of a dragon. Given how it seemed to be somewhat scattered baout, was more like the leftovers and cheaper treasure that the dragon didn't want. Two other tunnels lead from the cave, a narrow one near the rear on the left side of the cave, and a somewhat larger one to the right. Lithanor judged that only the right hand tunnel would be wide enough for a dragon, so he snuck along this, using his elven cloak to stay hidden, or so he thought. He soon came face to face with the dragon, and once again received a blast of lightning, barely dodging the brunt of the blast at the last instant.

Back in the entrance cave, they saw the crackle of blue light and heard the cry of the elf. Mazarmaus downed a potion of luck and jumped onto his broom of flying. Hurtling down the tunnel, he soon saw the large dragon about to lash at the elf, who was still struggling to his feet. Mazaramus prepared a particularly powerful rune, one he had as yet been unsuccessful at activating. However, with his potion in effect, the rune was good, and he now controlled the gravity in the area where the dragon was. The dragon tried to fly up and out of the area, but Mazaramus simply slammed the dragon into the wall. By now, Gandi came running up, having himself consumed a potion of speed, and with a flurry of his axes slew the dragon before it could recover from the effects of Mazaramus' rune. Lithanor was finally on his feet, somewhat blackened and singed but still alive. Scorbane was in his hand, but this time he deferred to his comrades for the glory of the kill. Beyond the dragon was the true hoard of the dragon, which would take some ingenuity to transport from the island, even with all of their bags of holding.

They investigated the narrower tunnel. This eventually wound round and ended at a small cave, in the centre of which was a large black rock. Suspecting that this was the deathstone and undoubtedly guarded by powerful magic, Mazaramus cautioned the rest of the party to stay back. Lithanor though accompanied the wizard in case anything went awry. The rock was quite large and heavy, and Mazaramus suspected that telekinesis spells would be insufficient to move it. Lithanor, who was wearing a girdle of giant strength, gave it a shove to see of it would move. It rocked slightly, exposing a symbol of death. Fortunately, both the elf and the wizard were able to resist its effects. Mazaramus dispelled the rune then examined the stone further. It soon became obvious that there was nothing special about this rock, looking like a huge chunk of coal.

The searched the walls of the room and found a secret opening leading to yet another cave. In this they found another large rock, similar to the one they had already found. However, they now felt a chilling numbness which seemed to emanate from the rock itself. Mazaramus then suddenly had a sense of some dark horror lunging straight at him, and it seemed for an instant that his heart might stop, so terrifying was this presence. He could not see clearly what assailed him, and even Lithanor had difficulty making out the strange presence. Infravision showed an utterly cold man-like being, and it seemed to be slashing at Mazaramus with an equally cold and black knife. Lithanor himself overcame the urge to run in panic, and against what might seem better judgement, cast magic missile at the darkness. Mazaramus swung his staff of striking partly to parry the thrusts of the black dagger, and partly to strike back at his foe. Again and again the black form struck, but Mazaramus fought back just as hard and eventually dealt a blow to the black form that sent to back to whatever dark place it came from.

The black rock did indeed seem to be the deathstone. There was no way they would be able to take it out of the cave, unless they used a bag of holding. Given its very nature, they had no way of telling what this would do to such a magic item, and could possibly drain it of all power. They instead decided that they would have to leave the deathstone where it was and search instead for the Hammer of Life. It was likely that their foes would soon learn that Korbundar the blue dragon had been slain, and that they would undoubtedly be seeking their revenge.


Session Four - The Hammer of Life


The party returned to Alicor to recuperate and consider their next move. Journeying to Bol proved to be fruitless. The villagers there were in as dire circumstances as those at Alicor. It also became evident that time was not on their side. The longer they delayed, the more the deathcloud grew and more and more undead roamed the land. A horde of wights, led by some mummies, advanced on Alicor, but were promptly dealt with by a fire ball from Mazaramus. After this, they decied to journey northwards to see what  they would find at Conna, which was situated on the north-western side of an area of small lakes linked by a network of rivers.

It was whilst journeying northwards that they encountered another powerful undead creature. At first they thought it to be some hapless soul so filled with despair that he decided to walk into the lake that the road they were following skirted. As they flew closer, they saw that it was some ghastly creature of hideous visage, with soulless eyes peering out of an almost skull-like face, yet seeming insubstantial and not wholly real. Klaus was so filled with horror that he attempted to flee from the back of the drolem that he was riding on, and Lithanor had to struggle to hold him to prevent him from falling.

Gandi alighted from the flying carpet and charged at the horror. He swung with his axes and hit nothing. Lithanor had managed to land his drolem, at which Klaus managed to flee, running southwards, Morgan gave chase on foot using his boots of speed. The strange apparition now struck back at Gandi, seeming to become more solid as it did so. This now meant that the apparition had crossed over fully into the physical world, and could be harmed by their weapons. Lithanor, Gandi and Sneaky managed to defeat the creature, which faded into nothing once it was slain. Klaus meanwhile, had to be guided around the area where they had seen the apparition, being totally unwilling ot approach even with the creature vanquished.

They reached the area where the rivers and lakes should have been, but instead found it to be a murky swamp filled area. A chilling mist hung over the entire area. They ventured on, flying low above the ground lest they inadvertently discover any of the rivers hidden beneath the wet lands. Whenever they did have to land, Gandi went ahead wearing his ring of water walking, whilst the others probed the ground ahead.

Finally they reached Conna. The village was deserted and lifeless. On the side of one building, scrawled in blood they found the message "The Destroyer that Preserves lies apart in No Land". Mazaramus surmised that this referred to the Hammer of Life that they were seeking. As to what '...in No Land.' meant, that could mean anything. Klaus cast a spell to summon an aerial servant and gave it the simple instruction to find and return with the Hammer of Life. Meanwhile, the party agreed to press on through the swamp to see what they could discover.

They soon saw strange large shapes ahead, and heard a mysterious, eerie clacking sound. Sneaky went ahead to investigate, closely followed by the rest of the party. She discovered several manscorpions, one lying slain and the other standing around their fallen comrade. About the neck of one of the manscorpions, who seemed to be the leader, she saw the curious symbol of the demonic face surrounded by wispy tendrils. It became evident that these had been recently in a fight, most likely Klaus' aeriel servant, and with the aid of the leader's clerical magic, were able to vanquish it. Mazaramus hurled a fire ball at the group, and Lithanor followed up by breathing dragon fire at them. Still, they were quite numerous and several escaped the blasts, but were soon slain by the heroes. Searching the leader, they found what seemed at first to be a scroll tube, but actually contained a short rod. Mazaramus guessed (correctly) that this was the haft of the Hammer of Life. All they had to do now was find the head and the pommel.

They now carried out a sweep of the swamplands. Mazaramus insisted that the cryptic clue meant that the parts of the Hammer of Life were in the swamp. He was quite certain now that '...No Land' meant the swamp. It wasn't quite land after all, and they had already found one part here. Again, his guess was proved right. The pommel was recovered when they slew two gorgons, creatures that they had heard about but had as yet never encountered, armour plated bulls that breathed a gas that petrified those caught within it..The third piece, the head was embedded in the back of a strange icy crab-like creature that was actually a creature from the Elemental Plane of Water. Fire-based spells merely fizzled out without affecting it in the slightest. Klaus was entangled in a web of icy crystals when he investigated its lair between some leafless trees, and even with his amber golem, found it difficult to break free. After a tough battle, they were finally victorious. The creature vanished back to its elemental plane, and the air even seemed to warm slightly without its icy influence.

The assembled the hammer, and all agreed that they should fly at once back to the isle where they had found the deathstone. Finding the cave again, Lithanor took the hammer and brought it down hard on the stone. There was a blinding flash, and both the Hammer of Life and the Death Stone were destroyed. All that remained was a 3" black opal. Mazaramus took this, but found that as soon as he did so, he felt a aprt of his life essence drained from him. Putting the opal down, he found that his life essence once again returned to him. Unsure as to whether this opal might be of any use later, he had one of his wood golems take it (even it was affected, seeming to wither whilst holding it) and remain with it inside his bag of holding.

They flew now northwards from Westlake to the village of Dubla. There they learnt that the village elders had travelled northwards into the mountains to Highpass Tower two months ago to get help from the garrison there. No word had been heard of them since, and the villagers were fearful of what might have happened. The arrival of the party and news of the destruction of the death stone and the slaying of Korbundar did little to allay their fears. There were still two of the main architects behind the arrival of the death cloud to be hunted down, namely the cleric Ulslime and the mage Wazor, and despite the destruction of the death stone, the death cloud still loomed as black and oppressive as ever over the Barony of Twolakes Vale.


Session Five - Highpass Tower


They sighted the tower some miles to the north,. So tall was the tower that it's upper battlements extended into the death cloud. They chose not to approach the main entrance, but to fly to a parapet higher up the tower. They were someway up when a fire ball came hurtling down from somewhere near the top of the tower. Too late, they tried to take cover. Although the heroes managed to escape most of the blast, Klaus's amber golem and two of Lithanor;s drolemites were destroyed.

Guessing that the fire ball had been cast by Wazor, they flew up to where they estimated it had been cast from. They found a number of arrow slits, evenly spaced around the tower, through which such a spell could have easily been cast. The arrow slits were too narrow to climb through, so Mazaramus cast a pass-wall, allowing them to get into the tower, They found themselves in what was evidently a laboratory. There was no sign of the wizard, however, and Mazaramus was intent on finding the wizard before he could do any more harm to the party, As they looked about, they saw that there were trapodoors leading both up and down. As they pondered which way to go, two fiery beings began to form on the room. Within moments, they took on the appearance of red-skinned, horned and fanged men, over 12' tall. Mazaramus recognised them instantly as efreet. Gandi and Morgan lunged at them with their weapons, but the efreet disappeared as soon as they were struck....illusions!

Lithanor ascended to the trap door leading to the top of the tower. Above was a murky blackness. Nevertheless, Lithanor climbed through, followed by the rest if the party. Immediately they felt a numbing chill and it seemed as though their very lifeforce was slowly being drawn out of them by the blackness. They could just make out two fiery forms in the blackness, the actual efreet that had summoned the illusions. Gandi and Morgan again leapt at them with their weapons, as did Lithanor. Despite the numbing chill, and being barely able to see their foes, their skill at arms saw the elemental creatures vanquished. They swiftly returned to the laboratory before the death cloud could harm them any further.

Mazaramus, Lithanor, Morgan and Gandi descended to the lower levels. Klaus and Sneaky chose to remain in the laboratory to search for more clues as to Wazor's intentions and any possible means of dealing with the death cloud. In the level immediately below, they found Wazor's watchdogs, a number of hellhounds. Gandi had consumed a potion of speed and slew all of the beasts in quick succession.

They continued down. The next level was a storage area, but a door led out onto a larger parapet. Gandi, Morgan and Mazaramus continued on via the stairwell to the level below. Lithanor went out onto the battlements, seeking to join up with his drolem and re-enter the tower via the main doors at the bottom, hos intention being to come up behind whoever was waiting in the tower's lower levels and maybe catch Wazor unawares and by surprise.

The level below was occupied by Wazor's guards and a guard captain. To either side of the large room was a life-like statue of a robed figure. Mazaramus suspected that these were some kind of illusion designed to confuse the intruders. Morgan challenged the guard captain. Gandi was about to leap into the fray when he heard mystical words, and suddenly found himself in a maze in some mysterious black void.

Mazaramus cast a fire ball at the warriors, immolating them before Morgan's challenge even had chance to be answered. The two statues suddenly came to life, their stony appearance fading as the flesh and robes returned to their normal state. One of the robed figures cast a magic missile at Mazaramus, but the spell was directed back by Mazaramus; ring of spell turning. The other brandished a wand, and a cone of icy frost blasted Morgan and Mazaramus. Mazaramus attention however, was on a third robed figure on the opposite side of the room. This one had an aura of power about him, distinguishing him from hos two apprentices. Mazaramus transformed into a hydra, havong earlier cast a polymorph self spell. He lunged at the wizard, but the wizard spoke a single word and vanished. Mazaramus now found himself under attack by two invisible stalkers that Wazor had summoned to cover his retreat.

One of the apprentices was slain. The other was about to launch another cone of cold at Morgan, but the warrior grabbed his arm, wrested the wand from him, and knocked him out with a punch. At that moment, Gandi reappeared, having navigated his way through the astral maze that Wazor had sent him to.

At the base of the tower, Lithanor was about to wrench the main gates open when there was a great rumbling. The tower before him began to lift itself out of its very foundations. Lithanor climbed ontop his drolem and flew up to the parapet to rejoin his friends on the level above. He had gotten through the door, having to leave his drolem outside, and found Mazaramus, Morgan and Gandi running towards him. All four had by now realised that the tower was lifting up and ascending into the death cloud. If they didn't leave soon, they could be trapped in the tower. Lithanor remained for a moment while Morgan, Gandi and Mazaramus fled on their flying devices. He considered running to the upper levels to find Klaus and Sneaky, but heard the footsteps of many large creatures coming from the lowest level, and decided to follow on his drolem.

Klaus and Sneaky had taken what they deemed to be the most valuable and useful equipment from the laboratory. Neither were familiar with what exactly would be deemed useful in a wizard;s laboratory, but with the use of a detect magic from Sneaky's semi-sentient blade they managed to make the best guess that they could. When they felt the tower rising, they made a mad dash for the lower levels to join their comrades. By the time they reached the lower chambers, they found that there friends had already departed. Several guards lay dead about the chamber, blackened and scorched, but now several hill giants were guarding the room. Sneaky told Klaus to jump into her bag of holding as she had an idea how to get down to the ground safely. Klaus declined, not fully trusting her plan. The giants closed in on them. Klaus held them off while Sneaky ran out onto the parapet and leaped over the side. Klaus turned to follow, but was sent sprawling by a swing from one of the giants clubs. By the time he got back to his feet, Sneaky was gone. He ran for the edge of the parapet and jumped, hoping against hope that one of his flying companions would save him.

Klaus plummeted to the ground, Mazaramus saw him fall, as did Sneaky, who had used her rod of inertia to prevent her fall. Sneaky reached the ground and ran over to the cleric's prone body. Desperately, she tried to force a potion of super-healing down his throat, but to little avail. The cleric was still and lifeless, yet she hoped that enough of the potion got into his system to keep him at death's door.

Lithanor, Mazarams, Morgan and Gandi reached them. There was little they could do now except carry Klaus to one of the other villages. At Eando, on the north-eastern shore of Eastlake, they found sympathetic villagers, but they could do nothing except offer them rest. They journeyed on southwards to Fraggi. There they learnt that Gollim village was under siege by hordes of undead. Some of the baron's troops led by the baron's seneschal were holding out against the undead. It was believed that the chaplain of Skullheim Castle had escaped the devastation there and was aiding the beleaguered defenders.

They continued on. It was a few hours before nightfall (if they could even tell with the oppressive death cloud above) when they reached Gollim village. Almost exhausted, they flew over the barricade that had been erected and landed in the centre of the stockade. They were met by Sir Guy of Brad, seneschal to Baron Maltus Fharo, who upon seeing Klaus body, immediately gave orders he be taken at once to Father Jared, the chaplain of Twolakes Vale.


Session Six - The Defence of Gollim Village


Father Jared was a highly capable cleric, and was one of the reasons that Gollim Village had not been as yet overrun. The other was that, under the direction of Sir Guy, barricades had been set up to fortify the village. A small contingent of soldiers, some that had already been stationed at Gollim, and others that had escaped the assault on Skullheim Castle. Father Jared used his healing magic to bring Klaus back to life with a raise dead fully spell.

They learnt that Sir Guy had a map showing the location of the Temple of the Stars, which was believed to be the source of the death cloud. Unfortunately, the map was in a tower on the other side of the village and had been overrun by undead. Sir Guy had been forced to flee when a vision assaulted the tower, leaving the map behind.

There were still a couple of hours left until the total darkness of the night. If they were to assail the tower, it had to be now, while their was still some time left. Otherwise they would have to wait until morning. The undead must have predicted their foray, because it was just as they were about to set off that they launched another attack. They were beaten off without too much difficulty however, and they were able to resume their flight to the tower.

Approaching the tower, Mazaramus created an opening in the stone wall. Lithanor was taking no chance though, and breathed dragonfire into the tower. Scores of bats and rats were incinerated, as was most of the wooden furniture in the room inside. When the smoke cleared, they saw standing there the ghostly figures of slain warriors, moaning wistfully. Morgan was overcome with despair and sorrow for the lost souls and fell to his knees. Klaus stepped forward, presenting his holy symbol, and banished the vision. The undead were driven off (and unseen, two wisps of smoke that were vampires caught by Lithanor's fiery blast drifted off). Unfortunately, the item they had come to retrieve, the mpa showing the location ot the Temple of the Stars, had been in a drawer in a desk that now lay in burnt cinders, and of the map all that was left was a small unburnt fragment. They returned to the village. Their journey had been in vain, driving off the undead that inhabited the tower was largely inconsequential.

Somewhat at a loss now, Klaus decided that they should take some rest and he would attempt a find the path spell in the morning. Father Jared for some reason had been unsuccessful in this endeavour, perhaps due to some curse put upon him by the vision that had assailed the tower.

It was in the early hours of the morning, just after midnight, that the undead launched a major assault on the village. A band of hill giants attacked the western side, drawing out the adventurers, whilst the rest of the undead army, including some manscorpions, breached the defences further to the east. Having dealt with the hill giants, they hastened back to the main village to help the beleaguered defenders. Father Jared was severely weakened, having been attacked by numerous spectres. Gandi, Morgan and Lithanor joined Sir Guy in rallying the troops. Mazaramus transformed into a hydra, and attacked with ferocious speed. Klaus dispatched many undead with his turning, but was suddenly surprised when a zombie leapt several feet through the air and raked at him with vicious claws. Sneaky came to Klaus' aid, and it was apparent that this was no mere zombie. Even his magical mace, which was specially enchanted against undead, failed to take it down despite inflicting severe damage. Lithanor fought his way to assist Klaus, and finally the cleric was able to slay this powerful undead creature...a revenant!

With the revenant slain, the remainder of the undead army soon fell apart, and the defenders of Gollim village found that they had won a reprieve from the endless assaults. The following morning, Klaus cast his find the path spell, and was indeed able to determine the way to the Temple of the Stars. Furthermore, among the items that Klaus and Sneaky had recovered from Wazor's laboratory was a scroll containing the spell close gate. Recovered from their combat throughout the night, they set out on what they hoped would be the final sojourn that would put an end to the evil in Twolakes Vale.


Session Seven - The Temple of the Stars


Klaus' find the path spell revealed a hidden trail leading away from the main road near the village of Fraggi, which they had passed the previous day. They now found themselves doubling back on the route that they had taken in order to find the trail. Mysterious and powerful magicks had caused the trail to remain unseen, until Klaus' own clerical magic showed them the way. Travelling along the trail and into the mountains on the eastern fringe of Twolakes Vale, they came to what was evidently theTemple of the Stars after a few hours travel. It seemed to be a dome-shaped depression in the rock of a mountain, with marble pillars within supporting the dome's roof and leading towards what seemed to be some kind of great throne. Beyond this hung a black curtain,  and the scene looked familiar to Mazaramus, who had already scried it using his crystal ball.

As they approached the dome, a huge dragon-like creature, looking uncannily like Korbundar, emerged from a nearby fissure in the rocky floor of the mountainous terrain off to their right. At the same time, they heard a screech from their left and saw another dragon swooping towards them, though this one was significantly smaller, being barely 30' long. Lithanor sent his drolem to fight the larger creature. At once he realised that this beast was not Korbundar (how could it be?), but another drolem constructed to appear similar to the blue dragon.

Morgan cast a spell of haste on the party using his ring of spell storing, Mazaramus polymorphed himself into a hydra, and Klaus added his own magic to aid them in combat. It was that instant that they heard chanting from the rocks beyond the smaller dragon, and all of their magic was dispelled. They could now see a man-sized figure near the rock wall facing the temple. Evidently this was Ulslime the Chaosar, the cleric that had opened up the gate to the Sphere of Entropy that was causing the death cloud.

Lithanor went to the assistance of his own drolem, which was already severely damaged and badly in need of repair. In a one-on-one fight, his own damaged drolem would have easily been overcome by the one created bu Ulslime.

Morgan and Gandi fought the smaller dragon, flying up on the flying carpet to combat it, and slew it without too much difficulty. Mazaramus, Klaus and Sneaky converged on the cleric. Ulslime had been holding a strange rod, but threw it down to the ground once the smaller dragon was slain. The rod dissolved in a bubbling mass of acid. Seeing Mazaramus and Klaus approaching, Ulsime held up a scroll. A hole appeared in the rock wall behind him, which he stepped into, and the hole disappeared again. Mazaramus flew around a rocky projection and found the cleric on the other side.

Ulslime was aware that Mazaramus had protection against his spells, and so lunged at him with a swing of his mace, dealing a hefty blow to the wizard and knocking him from his broom. By now, Lithanor had joined Klaus, having defeated the drolem, and used his own pass-wall spell to create an opening in the rock wall so that they could join the fray with the enemy cleric. Klaus was the first to reach Ulslime. Mazaramus was somewhat stunned and regaining his breath. Sneaky too had come to the assistance of the wizard, dealing a series of deadly blows, though not enough to fell the powerful cleric. To make matters worse, a number of strange floating eyes of death had come to the evil cleric's aid. These were drujs, a particular malevolent and powerful form of undead spirit. Gandi, Morgan and Lithanor fought off these strange undead eyes while Klaus battled with Ulslime. Eventually, Klaus felled the evil cleric, bringing his full wrath to bear, and bringing his own mace smashing down on his foe.

With Ulslime slain, they proceeded towards the Temple of the Stars itself. Another druj, this one in the form of a skull guarded the gate. As they approached, it divided into four skulls. Klaus called upon his holy power to drive the undead creature back, forcing it to reform as a single entity. The evil spirit still advanced on the party, emanating its aura of death. The warriors fought to drive it back, having sufficient protections against its death magic. Klaus stood forth once again, calling upon his holy powers, and sending the druj fleeing back into the gate to whence it came.

The black curtains had been concealing the gate to the Sphere of Entropy. A strange blackness, seeming to swirl and send forth unnatural tendrils that issued upwards, adding to the death cloud. Mazaramus drew forth the scroll they had found and uttered the arcane words inscribed on it. At once, the blackness dissipated and shrank, until there was nothing but the rock wall where the gate of blackness had been.

The death cloud still hung in the air, but there was a sense of the passing of the oppressiveness that had pervaded the realm. A freshness to the air that had not been present for some time. As they journyed back to Gollim village and then to Skullheim Castle, they saw in the distance, between the mountains and the black cloud above, a thin slither of grey light. Eventually, the death cloud would dissipate. The evil was ended, and with it, one of the seven portals that Mazaramus was seeking had been closed and sealed. No doubt many powerful undead creatures that had come through the gate yet remained, and may wreak havoc in other parts of Norwold and the surrounding realms. Furthermore, the wizard Wazor, who seemed to have some insight into the party's abilities, was still at large. The heroes contented themselves that they had dealt with this particular evil and had saved the Barony of Twolakes Vale.

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