Session 26: Death's Downfall

General Summary

Surrounded by undead enemies, Heiwa and Ushrir kept on fighting. Heiwa, still in the shape of a rhinoceros, sat on a skeleton until it became a crushed pile of dust. Meanwhile Ushrir carved through the undead like a dwarf possessed, Wraithbreaker singing as it swung through the air. At the same time, Thomas and Nacklenook tried their best to slow down Lazarus, who fell upon the gunslinger with great force. Despite taking what should have been critical injuries, the vampire once more struck Thomas with his flaming sword. The gunslinger fell to the ground, his magical doublet doing its best to keep him conscious.

Nacklenook who had been using his whispering cloak to, at least visibly, disappear now sprung to the aid of his comrade. But he was stopped in his tracks by more undead. The only thing he could bring himself to do was to keep firing at the now floating Lazarus. In the meantime Himmler had managed to rejoin the fray, but now he aimed his warhammer at Heiwa. His unblinking gaze stared at her with hatred, but to Mikum, it wasn’t Heiwa standing in front of him.

In Himmler’s mind he had just been awoken in his own bed in Morheim. He had grabbed his weapons and ran upstairs to be met by the sight of his guards fighting undead invaders. A large undead monstrosity stood before him and he had to strike it down, which he did. Heiwa was forced back into her normal form, and quickly transformed again, this time into a giant snake. That’s when Lazarus unleashed a powerful blood curse on them all. Heiwa and Nacklenook managed to shake it off, but Thomas and Ushrir became afflicted. The already weakened Thomas could take no more. With a dramatic sigh, he let out his final breath. Seeing their friend die, the rest of the party gathered up to protect his body and the shard he had held. Heiwa charged the vampire who retreated up a wall.

Himmler followed them, despite several attempts to snap him out of the trance, he simply saw a giant undead wurm crawl around his house and charge his old colleague, whom he had thought dead. He kept striking the beast, trying to get its attention. The vampire took advantage of this and let out a few strikes of its own, forcing Heiwa back into her regular avian self. All of them had taken plenty of stray hits from the undead during the fight and were all running low on steam. They couldn’t keep this up. In the meantime Lazarus’ wounds seemed to close up on their own as he struck them and drained their blood. In a desperate attempt to stave off the Vampire, Heiwa once again used her magic to summon a source of true daylight in the room. Then they all quickly weighed their options, which they were slowly running out of.

In the meantime, Thomas had found himself in a realm of complete darkness. Or almost complete, but for a single table with two chairs lit by candlelight. Walking up to it he saw a contract, signed by himself. As he looked back up his gaze met Jal’Brom, the Rakshasa. The tiger-headed being expressed his regret for how snubbed he now was, as their contract had not contained a clause about Thomas having to be alive for their deal to come through. And Jal’Brom was not keen on having a lackey in the outer planes. Thus he offered a deal, he would give Thomas a new chance at life, but the gunslinger would be his eternal servant henceforth. Thomas had been hesitant, but thinking of his companions he accepted on the condition that Jal’Brom helped them out of their current predicament. As he signed his name, he woke up in theTower of Dresden.

Finding himself in a clearly bright room, Thomas grabbed Judgement and looked over at Lazarus. The vampire seemed confused and lightheaded. He began to stumble. Taking his chance, Thomas let his shots fly. Striking true the bullets knocked the vampire off balance and he fell to the floor, his wounds refusing to close. Mikum, who suddenly found himself in the tower again, with a vampire close by, realised his folly and struck at the undead to free himself. Feeling his power drain, Lazarus fell into some shadows and appeared thirty feet away. He crawled, trying to escape through the holes in the floor, but Ushrir caught up to him. He smashed Wraithbreaker into the vampire’s back, crushing bones as it passed all the way through to the floor. With its light flooding the vampire with radiant energy, the undead crumbled, until only a charred skeleton remained. Lazarus was dead.

The group gathered around the vampire and began to inspect the magical shard-infused items. That’s when they noticed that the magical vortex in the centre of the room was beginning to devolve. Thomas noticed that a figure in the magical mirror seemed to be activating some magical device that set the vortex free. As he shot at the mirror, the light revealed that the caster was none other than Grimold Dark, the necromancer that they left to die in a fire in Hexenberg. As he let the vortex loose they heard him say: “A fire for a fire.” The vortex then devolved into black flames that spread unnaturally quickly. The party grabbed the shards and the unconscious dwarves that had been working for Lazarus under the sceptre’s influence, and jumped back aboard the Mourningstar. Leaving the Tower of Dresden to burn down to the ground.

Campaign

Shards of Power

Protagonists