Defeat the Desecration

General Summary

Kythorn 24, Year of Rogue Dragons

The stench… Oh the stench… The substructure of the city is a series of reinforced arches with channeled floors leading rainwater and sewage to separate (hopefully) cisterns and run outs… We are blessed to have a guide like Jinx with us… If I was impressed with his woodcraft his ability to track down here is down right amazing… Like I don’t know how he doesn’t vomit when he touches something then licks and sniffs his goo encrusted digits… I always thought elves had a slight Constitution but maybe the man blood mixed in his veins gives him the chops to handle this sewer…

After an hour or so avoiding dangerous oozes and slimes and possible monstrous sewer denizens, the Magnificent Seven follow the barely perceptible trail of armor scrapes and obfuscated trail sign to a boarded up section of sewer… We determine the new construction fits our timeline and the large grey skinned warrior takes a crowbar to the wall and quickly demolished a portion he can get through and the rest follow in… This portion of the sewer clearly has seen little to no traffic in long time and presents a clear trail… After a short travel, one section of wall seems to give the impression of a concealed door and a brief investigation yields a hidden niche that accepts the Knight’s ring…

The wall slides away and reveals a small corridor behind it… Almost instantly several phantasmal warriors appeared and the leading apparition threatens the wrath of the Witch-King Zhengyi… Combat ensures… The ghostly nature of the warriors present a unique strategy problem but luckily the rain of radiant bolts from the hands of our mighty Hin martial artist Reed Goodbarrel never waned… Coupled with Reed’s bombardment the eldritch blastings of Brother Xenos whittled away the phantasmal warriors while Jinx, Pagu, and Tai harried them in melee…

The large Rageborn staggers for second and shakes his head groggily and informs his companions the revealed hallway and chambers ahead have a unhallowed desecration that tingles the divine oath of vengeance at the heart of Pagu’s power… Tingling in a way that normally requires concentration and line of sight… Overbearing almost… With the greatest evil pulsing from a bearing beyond the walls and door’s of this hallway…

Maybe not in the smartest way Pagu breaches the first door in the direction of the great evil… The room reveals an old bedroom… Upon the light shining in from the light spell on Reed several shadows coalesce into demonic forms and race off through the walls… In a vain attempt the Rageborn sprints down the hallway in an attempt to cut off the shadowy demons flight… The Seven spread haphazardly as a few follow Pagu past the other doors in the hallway in an attempt to get around the corner while others stay back near the first room to investigate…

Rounding the corner reveals a larger complex with other hallways and stairs… Thinking the demons got away the Seven regroup and start clearing rooms… The first one reveals a small shrine of penance decided to the Triad, Helm, and Tempus… It feels unspoiled and a speared from the desecration around… The next chamber reveals the ruined bedroom of a female elven knight… Not being wary enough in the room, Pagu is mere feet away from the sudden manifestation of an ghostly form and the banshee’s wail crumples the warrior and he falls dying… After her surprise wail the fragile elf spirit falls under the barrage of attacks from the Magnificent Seven… Brother Xenos rushes in to magically heal and administer some first aid to Pagu and gets the massive warrior back on his feet… Treating this redoubt like one of our dungeon crawls we continue to clear rooms, though in hindsight we might be making a mistake to treat this like one… The next chamber is breached and reveals another menace… Some nightmarish wight of a knight with foul undead hounds launches to the attack… Pagu, Reed, and Jinx counterattack and battle is joined… The large Rageborn warrior goes right at the wight hound master and lands several mighty blows that would have savaged most mortal men but the evil wight shook off those blows and hammered home viscous hacks of its own… The hounds delivered viscous gut ripping bites into Reed and Jinx doing so much damage it forces the heroes out of the fight and into a fighting retreat… The bad turns to the good as once into the hallways the ranged attacks of Halorin, Tai, Xenos, Jinx, and Reed are brought to bear on the hounds and they are destroyed one by one… The fight between Pagu and the hound master rages… The hound master lands a thrust that pierced Pagu’s plate armor and lances trough him coming out the back… The wights eyes flares with anticipation of draining the soul of this warrior slain in combat but with a mighty yell the Rageborn is not ready to die this day and pulls himself off the blade and delivers two mighty divine smites of his own both crackling with radiant energy that destroys the wight…

In dire shape the Magnificent Seven fall back to the Shrine that remains unspoiled in this desecration… The company debate their next move while they tend to wounds, catch their breath, and regenerate any magical powers that can be… The idea that the shadow demons went to warn others outside this complex and some haste in exploration carries the debate… Thinking we should use the resources we have on the greatest for we decided to attack what seems to be the source of this desecration…

We avoided the temptation to open every door and search every hallway and make our way to the part of the complex Pagu’s divine senses located the heart of the evil here…

Beyond the door lay a small temple to the Triad, Helm, and Tempus… The temple is befouled and filled with bones over half a foot deep… Rising from the bones in the back of the temple is a Deathlock of some sort… Striking is the fact it has three faces… Also rising from the layer of bone first are several skeletons warriors skittering to the front and secondly a bone colossal lumbering to back them up with fell fire burning in it’s ribs… The Seven waste no time and move into battle! Brother Xenos blessed the warriors, Magus Tai magically hastes Pagu, and Pagu abjures himself with protection wards from evil… While that part of the Seven prepares to fight the evil the two Hin dart to the front… Reed flies into the middle of the skeletons and lashes out with staff, fist, and foot… Halorin conjures a globe of magical silence in most of the temple forcing the Deathlock to have to come to the doorway to cast its normal magic… The tiny monk holds the line against the skeletal onslaught… Giving out much more than he was taking from the many foes… The Deathlock is briefly able to get out of the silence and cast a wall of fire down the hallway scorching the party members lurking in the back… The giant skeletal colossus pulls the bale fire from it’s chest and hurls it down the corridor and detonates it into the party’s rear again… Pagu is eventually able to get into the fray in the bone filled room… He ignores the few skeletons in the front and channels a divine oath of enmity to this Lord of Bones and lays down two mighty smites and many other vicious blows into the Deathlock… Wrecked by the attacks The Deathlock defensively melds into the bone floor retreating for a moment… Fear maybe creeping into the undead monsters psyche for the first time in it’s existence… Unfortunately Reed falls to the combined blows of the remaining skeletons and freshly risen bone colossal with a new balefire growing in it’s ribcage… The companions in the rear maintain the magical augments and pop out with spells and arrows when they are able… Pagu smashes a path to Reed and lays his hands and channels divine healing into Reed bringing him back from deaths door… The Deathlock rises from the bones in anticipation of striking Pagu from behind but the foul beast didn’t realize Tai’s magical haste allowed Pagu to spring back and deliver a blow… The strike was a critical blow of smiting radiant damage that disintegrates the Bone Lord and spread throughout the temple blasting all the bones into dust… The mighty Rageborn paladin roars so loud that the citizens would hear it in the city above if not were it for the magical silence it all happens in…

The Magnificent Seven stand wearily triumphant in and around the desecrated temple as the desecration seems palpably less with the destruction of the Deathlock Bone Lord…

Notes

While relating our travails to Battleguard Hekrit, he explained that the creature we had just faced was a Skull Lord, considered an undead lord over lesser undead.

Report Date

03 Feb 2018