Shadowfell Keep, Epic Battle I

Summary:

The party now faced a long passageway ending in a large chamber with two sets of double doors. One set had "closed" clumsily scrawled across its barred doors. The other emitted faint light from its bottom crack. Queequeg opened the latter door revealing a massive chamber. A fifteen foot statue stood in the middle holding a similarly proportioned sword. In the far corners, two dragon replicas. Across the room, two smaller statues with arms upraised, holding stone basins.

Orchid crept passed Queequeg while the rest of the party cautiously entered the room. Shava and Taegahn held back, watching events transpire before they stepped over the threshold. When Orchid got withing twenty feet of the giant stature, hidden machinery churned from somewhere deep in the room and it suddenly spun into motion, its sword sweeping 360 degrees and slicing into the darting hafling, knocking her prone. Her quick reflexes saved her from certain death. Gareth charged. His axe hacking off chucks of stone, he lept upon the statue's base, protecting him from its sweeping arc.

The rest of the party began making its way across the room, hugging the wall to avoid the merry-go-round sword of death. Gilic broke away, speeding towards one of the two inanimate dragons. As he approached, the closest suddenly activated and breathed forth magical energy that burned into the dwarf's armor and flesh, pushing him back towards the spinning statue. Gareth meanwhile chopped the statue down, Orchid landing feet first on the run, sprinting across the room toward the basin-holding statues. As she ran past them into a smaller alcove, a shimmering wall suddenly energized behind her. It rippled with crackling power, running flush across the two walls and from floor to ceiling. The statues animated too, fresh water beginning to pour out from the now lowered basins. Orchid was trapped within a tank that was quickly filling.

All the party rushed to the translucent wall, except for Gilic and Gareth, who dispatched the remaining the dragon statues. Orchid wasted no time in attempting to disarm her aquatic trap. Shava and Cedric also applied their arcane knowledge to discern halting the torrent of water and removing the magical barrier. The tank filled all too quickly while they worked to pierce the shimmering wall and puzzle out the cherub basin holders. When the tank reached half-full, a vortex suddenly appeared in the middle and began churning the water into a foamy spiral. Busy trying to disarm a cherub, the funneled water ripped Orchid from the statue, slamming her into the other side of the tank and then back to where she started. Out of sheer desperation, Shava pierced the wall and overcharged a panel she noticed glowing dully through the churning water. Both cherubs reacted instantly, lifting their basins back over their heads, staunching the torrent of water. Orchid applied more work to the panel, the walls flashing brightly before disappearing entirely. Enclosed water burst out, drenching the paniced adventures. Except for Taegahn, who had fled the chamber, sobbing incoherently that he couldn't stomach watching Orchid drown to her death.

Past the cherubs, a muddy pool of water dripped mutely in front of another set of double doors. After a quick breather, the party opened the doors to reveal another large chamber. Shambling figures lumbered into view, the groans that of the ubiquitous zombie. Behind them, a pale, taloned figure darted amongst the rambling undead, hurling itself at the party. Gareth and Gilic met the charge, hewing and chopping as they created a protective front. Shava strode into the room confidently, a slight smile on her face as she called forth divine power. Unearthly light shined out from her, tearing through the undead horde with righteous fury. Taegahn pursued a flying gargoyle trying to flee down a descending stairway. When the room quieted but for the sounds of the party, they rested briefly before descending the staircase to the double doors beyond.

Taegahn and Orchid volunteered to scout the room past the doors. As they skulked its depths, they saw cultist guards surrounding a black pit. Binding chains dangled slack from its sides while multiple streams of blood emptied into it like a river into a ocean. Past the pit, an alter. At the alter, an ornately dressed man chanted foul blessings. Facing the alter, his back to the doors, he seemed utterly consumed with a dark ritual that promised to incarnate evil, if not past the walls of Shadowfell Keep, then surly that very chamber. Blood flowed up and out of the alter from all directions, forming the fountain of streams that wound around the room and finally drained in the grating surrounding the dark pit.

Orchid and Taegahn returned to the party to report what they had found. Orchid and Shava moved to the left, Taeghan to the right, and the rest of the party up the middle. A thin skin curtain blocked the middle pathway. Gilic and Gareth burst through it and the battle was on. Undead lumbered into view, surrounding the middle adventurers. Shava made her way far to the left towards the alter. The priest halted his ritual, pivoting on a heel to survey who dared disrupt his good work. He reiterated a call to attack, but he need not; his minions already performed his bidding in earnest. Grinning manically, he joined the battle, attacking and felling a beleaguered Queequeg.

When Shava reached the alter, she called upon the power of her deity to stop the flow. Her god favored her well and the blood ceased to spurt from the evil shrine. The rest of the party continued cutting down the cultist and undead minions around them until on the priest remained. Surrounded, the adventurers showed no mercy in cutting him down. As he drew his final breath, the priest proclaimed everlasting devotion to Shar. The foul Deity channeled dark energy into his dying follower, who lashed out at Gilic and cut him down just as he fell dead in a thickening pool of congealing blood.

Attending to Gilic, the party searched the bodies of the fallen and then rested.

TO BE CONTINUED

Phat Lewt:

Bag of Holding - Taegahn, with eyes slots cut out of it so he can wear it over his misshapen head and spare fellow companions his stomach-churning visage.

Line(s) of the Night:

"The best part of waking up is Orchid in your cup." Blake, singing the famous Folgers coffee jingle in reference to Orchid drowning in sprung water trap.

"And now, Taegahn has some role-playing he'd like to do." Craig, introducing Blake.

A Portcullis Pickle

Summary:

The party rested briefly before continuing their exploration of Shadowfell Keep's second level. Before pressing on, Taegahn and Queequeg pitched the hobgoblin and spider corpses down the initial room's well. The sound of bodies hitting a splashy bottom satisfied Taegahn greatly as he envisioned hobgoblin soldier's drinking water tainted by their very own dead.

The party didn't go far before they happened upon a turn in the passageway, double doors straight ahead of them. After Orchid scanned the doors for traps and confirmed them clean and unlocked, Gilic and Gareth burst through, surprising a hobgoblin soldier whose head peaked around a corner. The party unloaded, chasing the hobgoblin down a hallway that opened into a barracks, badly maintained tables and beds strewn haphazardly all about. Another set of double doors barred an entrance nearly directly across from the first. Gareth and Gilic pursued the fleeing hobgoblin down the narrow hallway only to be met by three of his companions. With the majority of the party crammed into the hallway, one behind the other, a hobgoblin warcaster stepped forward and bellowed forth a force pulse the ripped through the adventures, pummeling them with compressed air and knocking them back and prone. Even Gilic, the stalwart dwarf, was knocked to the floor.

Meanwhile, Orchid detected movement from somewhere deeper in the barracks. She spied the double doors and deduced reinforcement were on their way to reinforce and engage hobgoblins and flank the party. She yelled her thoughts aloud and threw herself in the fray, shurikens thudding soundly into hobgoblin flesh. Cedric watched the double doors, reading himself to unleash arcane horror upon whatever burst through. Gareth and Gilic held the line against the group of hobgoblins, a pitched battle where blows were traded for blows, a hobgoblin archer hanging in the back harassing the party with a stream of arrows. Shava blessed the party and provided supplementary fire. Taegahn took aim upon the covered archer, flushing him out first and then peppering him with a barrage of arrows, sending him sprawling into the back wall dead.

The double doors finally broke open, five hobgoblin grunts and warriors running through trying to plow into the party's side and back end. Cedric cast immediately, laying an icy sheet in front of the opening that froze all but one of the hobgoblins. Breaking the flanking charge proved the end of the battle as Gareth, Gilic, and Queequeg chopped through the initial front line. Foes vanquished, the party searched the dirty barracks but found only sour beer and crude armaments. They secured the room, barricaded the front double doors and rested for the remainder of the day.

At dawn, the party moved on. They traveled only a few yards when Orchid stopped the party, pointing to the ceiling: a raised portcullis. She examined the gateway carefully, exposing and disabling a trigger release. Nodding the all clear, Taegahn sprinted forward, entering a room with doors opposite and to the left. He strode confidently to the left door, crouching against it to press the side of his head to listen. The door suddenly opened, three growling hobgoblins attacking. At the same time, the portcullis slammed down. Only Gareth had stepped forward, the rest of the party cut-off. Orchid wasted little time. Wrapping her tiny hands around two parallel bars, she heaved. Sinewy muscles bulging, the corroded metal seemed to give, but not enough to provide an opening. Gareth tried to assist, but failed. Hearing reinforcing hobgoblins streaming out of the far doorway, he abandoned the portcullis to meet the newly arrived horde. Gilic and Shava both attempted to pull the set of bars open, but couldn't. Finally, Queequeg stepped forward. Massive in girth, scaled muscle and sinew took hold of the weakened bars, prying an opening large enough for the party to squeeze through.

The rest of the party charged into the fray. The battle was a frenzy, with adventurers and hobgoblins alike hopping on and off a central table both from necessity and for tactical advantage. Cedric belched forth a scorching torrent of fire that singed foe and ally alike, though Gareth and Queequeg were spared the brunt of it. Taking a page out of Cedric's playbook, Queequeg stepped back and breathed cracking sparks of brilliant turquoise lightning, felling two hobgoblins and narrowly missing Gareth.

After the battle, the party searched the corpses and room. They found some quality mundane armaments and a magic short blade perfectly suited for the compact rogue, Orchid.

TO BE CONTINUED

Phat Lewt:

+1 Vicious Shortsword - Orchid

Line(s) of the Night:

"Am I the only one who role plays here?" Simon, said beseechingly, with arms upraised towards God.

"You're just trying to get me to go down on James." Megan responding to Simon's request to pick up a dropped die that fell nowhere near James.

Aecris Rising

Summary:

After the ever-spawning undead threat had been neutralized, the brave adventurers continued their bid to clear the first floor of Shadowfell Keep. They made their way to a previously unexplored passage that ended with an ornate door, inlaid in platinum, gems, and jewels. Orchid expertly picked the lock, revealing an evenly proportioned cross-shaped room, a sarcophagus resting in the far alcove. When approached, the casket cover exploded into dust and a skeleton clad in plate and wielding a magnificent longsword emerged.





Sir Keegan, newly risen from his dusty crypt, challenged the party. He demanded to know why they prowled the halls of Shadowfell Keep and what their intentions were regarding the opened Rift. The party smooth-talked their way past Keegan, Cedric and Orchid doubling up to tag-team a good cop/bad cop explanation for the adventurer' past and future actions in Shadowfell. Sir Keegan ultimately proved convinced. Before bursting into dust himself, he charged the party to seek Selune's boon and close the Rift. He offered his longsword, Aecris, as a tool to aid the party in ridding the evil from Shadowfell Keep. And then he was gone, smoking ash piling like sand in an hourglass.


The party conferred and agreed Queequeg most suited to wield Aecris, which he did proudly. They next backtracked their way through the keep, back towards the entrance and a side passage long neglected. The adventurers ignored another side passage shielded by a secret door; the scratching and squeaking sounds emanating from it bode ill. The occasional slurping sound didn't sweeten the deal any. So the party continued down the hallway, bringing them to an expansive chamber full of mining goblins and guard drakes. The goblins had excavated up to ten feet of the chambers stone floor, leaving islands of flooring connected by rickety boards for bridges and creaking ladders for vertical egress.


Taking advantage the element of surprise, Gareth led the party's charge. Leaping down into the excavation, he smote a sweaty goblin who responded with shrieks of pain and surprise. In turn, goblin sharpshooters from across the chamber opened fire, felling Gareth. Gilic, Shava, and Queequeg joined forces to bring the fighter back from the brink of death. The goblins and drakes were quickly dispatched from there.


One, however, was spared. He revealed himself to be Splug, at first hiding the fact that he spoke broken common. After being threatened with immediate execution for knowing nothing and being a treacherous goblin, Splug pleaded for his life. He offered to cook for the party but no one found that particularly appealing. Shifting gears, Splug instead offered to take over leadership of the young party. Howling laughter greeted his generous offer, forcing Splug to lower his head in shame. While the adventurers rested outside the keep, Taegahn traveled back to Winterhaven and fetched food and a guard escort.

When the guard and a brow-beaten Splug were gone from view, the party turned their attention back to Shadowfell Keep. They made their way to a short hallway that descended into stairs, not far from the concealed door that earlier had hidden a zombie ambush. Taegahn and Orchid led the way, spilling torch light from either walls thwarting their efforts to conceal. At the bottom of the stairway, a pair of stalwart hobgoblins guarded the opening of two consecutive rooms, the first with a well in its middle, the second containing a barred cage. Two more hobgoblins flanked the cage, inside a slobbering giant spider that hurled itself against the metal bars when the party came into view.


At the room entrance one of the hobgoblins eyed the party knowingly and barked the first part of a password phrase: "Shadow seeks shadow." The party didn't hesitate to respond with the words scribed on a recently captured note: "From the ground some magic was found." In response, the hobgoblins sprung into action, shouting, "Tell Kalarel his agents within the town have been overthrown!" The two guards formed a phalanx while the back ones hit a lever that raised the cage, barking commands in goblin that seemed directed at the spider. The party responded in kind, charging the front line, with Taegahn flanking right. The spider didn't hesitate to do its master's bidding. It scurried up walls and across ceiling to ultimately position itself immediately in front of Taegahn. The elven ranger unloaded point blank, retreating back to the party. Meanwhile, the rest of the party dealt with the hobgoblins even as a half-dozen more joined the fray. Gareth cleaved multiple slows with a single powerful stroke; Queequeg breathed deep and unleashed an electric charge that dropped rippled through multiple foes simultaneously; Gilic, maul firmly in hand, marked a hobgoblin who paid dearly for it later when he slammed into Queequeg.

Further back, the giant spider continued to scurry and harass the party. With uncanny dexterity, it rapidly made its way back and forth from floor to ceiling in order to position itself to drop down upon unsuspecting heroes. Death from above indeed. Shava paid dearly from such an attack, a poison agent sending searing death straight into her bloodstream. Cedric gave her a passing glance as he turned his attention back to a close knit gaggle of hobgoblins. His spell fizzled however. Shava beamed forth healing light to herself and a recently felled Gareth, who made quick work of his attackers. After the last hobgoblin was felled, the party took stock, searched the bodies, and rested.

TO BE CONTINUED

Phat Lewtz:

Aecris - +1 longsword - Queequeg
Selune holy symbol - Shava

Line(s) of the Night:

I'd make a much better master [than Queequeg]. Sean to Simon

Simon gets a bonus to his or her attack rolls. - Megan, rightly confused about Gilic's gender.

Brilliant Insight of the Night: Blake, while sampling one of Megan's home baked cookies between piles of pepper beef, commented that the chocolate chip treat had a strong vanilla flavor to it. Actually, Megan hadn't added any vanilla. Not even a drop.

Ground Floor of Shadowfell Keep

Summary:

Immediately following their victory at the Winterhaven boneyard, the party ventured back to the small town battle weary but pleased at the evil they had thwarted. The local inn opened its doors wide and the adventurers drank for free that night, some more than their fair share. They slept uneventfully that night.

The next morning, the party awakened early and made their way directly to Shadowfell Keep. They had explored a good portion of the first floor except for a hallway and an unopened double door. They chose the door which led to a series of hallways and small chambers that housed numerous zombies and skeletons. After disposing of the first group of walking dead, most of the party rested while Orchid and Taegahn explored further down the hallway. They stopped at a glowing rune etched into the stone floor. Taegahn backtracked and dragged a slain zombie, sliding it over the rune. Its energy stream broken, the rune released a howling alarm and zapped Taegahn into a necromantic fear. Gilic pointed and laughed as Taegahn went running by.

The alarm summoned a second sortie of zombies. The party made short work of them. Ever observant, Taegahn noticed an irregularity in a nearby wall and drew the rest of the party to it. A bit of careful study revealed a hidden lock to a concealed door. Unable to pick the lock, Gareth repositioned his weapon and broke it down. The door led to a small room, a shimmering wall opposite. Some careful testing confirmed it as illusionary. Gareth and Queequeg stepped through only to be ambushed on either side by viscious, brain-slurping zombies. The ensuing battle was pitched with Gilic, Orchid, and Queequeg receiving terrific wounds. Only when Shava stepped into the room and unleased a holy radiant energy did the last of the zombies explode into blessed rapture. The zombies guarded a riddled treasure (reputation) of magical black scale and dwarven chain mail. Gareth and Shava made best use of the armor respectively.

The party backtracked to the other unexplored hallway. It led to a room shaped like a cross, the long shaft flanked on either side by granite sarcophagi. Upon stepping into the middle of the room, a thunderous clap echoed forth and undead skeletons and zombies popped out from the crypts. The party began to make quick work of them. However, the sarcophagi continued producing undead! Cedric, schooled in the arcane arts, studied one between undead births and determined that a holy blessing could halt production. As the party continued fighting the undead, Shava blessed a sarcophagus and shut it down. Meanwhile, Taegahn slipped his way past the undead front line into the shorter shaft of the cross-shaped room. He spied crypts on either side, bathed in a calming blue light. On the side of one crypt, some verse along with a kneeling figure. On bended knee, Taegahn read the verse out loud. The undead down the hallway stopped their attack and crawled back into the magical sarcophagi.

TO BE CONTINUED

Phat Lewtz:

+1 Black Scale - Gareth

(Gareth in turn gave his +1 Dwarven chain to Shava)

Line(s) of the Night:

Hahahahaha! You suck! - Shawn referring to Blake's bad damage rolls.

You constantly remind me why I hate you. - Blake referring to Shawn.

He's a Keebler elf! - Jeff referring to Blake.
I'm a hero, dammit. - Blake, defending himself.

Morning of the Living Dead

Summary:

Newly arrived at Winterhaven, Gilic and Queequeg are politely but firmly escorted to the master of the small town, a Lord Padreg. He confirms that a priest was sent to elicit aid for the town and frowns upon hearing that the messenger was waylaid by street toughs. Lord Padreg thanks for the dynamic duo for coming to Winterhaven's aid and proceeds to lead them to a room full of peer adventures, freshly returned from nearby Shadowfell Keep. It seems the Cult of Shar works some evil scheme from within those walls, menace and ill-fortune that beats upon Winterhaven and the surrounding lands like tide on a beach. The adventures introduce themselves cordially, if not a bit warily.

Sister Linora enters the room not long after. She speaks to the party, though Gilic and Queequeg follow little of it. Weapons are nearly drawn and blood spilt when a wizened old man suddenly materializes before the roomful. He apologizes for working magic to make himself unseen; he comes off as paranoid and prophetic, reminding the party of a dark missive that described shipment of food and supplies to nourish a necromantic ritual.

Valrum the Prescient also recounted the tale of Jerold Qeegan, an aristocrat who lived in Shadowfell Keep thousands of years ago. Jerold hunted dragons for sport and managed to corner the shadow dragon Shardrexyl and occupy him long enough to conduct a ritual that (NOT SURE WHAT IT DID). Shardrexyl had the last laugh though. The shadow dragon managed to by-pass the ritual and trick Jerold into thinking his family conspired against him. The knight went mad with rage and systematically murdered every member of his family. The Keep has remained cursed ever since.

A guard suddenly barrels into the room, winded and pale. "Dead. Walking again. Graveyard, just outside of town."

Lord Padreg appeals to the adventurers to confront the newly emerged evil. The party debates not at all, striding confidently to the outskirts of town. A horrific sight greets them: the town's ancestors, newly risen for certain grisly boon. The party wastes little time confronting the enemy, a mixture of bow-wielding zombies and rabid hell hounds. Ninaran peeks out from atop a crypt and begins showering arrows upon the party as well. The adventures give what they take. After the undead are slain and Ninaran shot down, the party looks to rest.

It's not to be. A foul necromancer bursts out of the ground. As exploding rotted earth showers around him, he raises a limp wrist around the graveyard and more undead come hurling from long dormant graves. The party goes to work again, cutting and bashing the new arrivals with a zeal equal to the first wave they faced. They quickly focused in on the controlling necromancer and the glowing rune that pulsated with almost tangible evil. After the last zombie was dispatched and the necromancer permanently silenced, the rune was nullified so that its eerie glow slowly faded.

From the corpse of Ninaran, a scroll was found. It said "From the ground some magic was found," hinting access to a new level of ShadowFell Keep.

TO BE CONTINUED

Phat Lewt:

32.5 gold per

Line(s) of the Night:

Come here boy and swing from these - Craig, referring to his man breasts

Strike, Gilic, my little tator tot! - A reference to Blake mishearing James