An Evening with the Unholy

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Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Anne
Season: Spring 821 WK
Night: Wednesday
Location: Online
Level: High

Party
  1. Thorn - Played by Helen
  2. Sooty - Played by Bernard
  3. Rayne - Played by Annuskha
  4. Flamis - Played by Jacqui
  5. Phaeton - Played by Keith
  6. Ben - Played by Ian
Employer

The Eshery Church of Raphael, on the plane of Cercotis

Mission

To find out why an old Knight keeps rising and put a stop to it.

Pay

12 Waters of Healing down payment and 50,000sp in Weird Magic Items each upon completion.

Scribe Notes

Session 1

Our party employer this session turned out to be a Raphaelite priestess, Sister Bethany, who was requesting assistance with an undead knight. Each New Moon, he would rise from his crypt and go on a killing spree. They had tried putting him back down themselves but those that they sent had been killed. The curious thing about this case was that the knight's body had been laid to rest in consecrated ground which meant this sort of thing should not be happening. So I signed up.

We were conducted to Meeting Room #4. Meeting Room #1 was still under cleaning because of an alchemical 'accident' caused during a seminar yesterday. I know. I was there. Anyway we were told that she had come from the Plane of Cerritos and had been sent by the High Priest to fetch us. A previous Guild Party had been to this plane but, because we were going to a different location, they had punched their own portal through the Veil. There were no limits on it's use except maybe to anyone pacted to evil demons. Since that applied to none of us, we were sure we would be fine. The down payment for this job was a dozen Waters of Healing potions each. Rank 15s she believed. Also they would provide our Greater Enchantments.

The recently deceased knight, Sir Gordon, had been buried at the Crown Temple and had killed two priestesses (one per New Moon) until they had cottoned on. The third rise had caused the destruction of the force sent to put him down so, everyone who had actually seen him had been killed - so far. Also the slain couldn't be resurrected because their souls had gone, presumably claimed. He had been buried in ceremonial garb including cold iron full plate. Where we were going was the town of Eshery, which was about the size of the whole of Seagate. The Crown Temple itself is just outside of Eshery and all the dead had been buried on the hill.

Fortunately their moon cycle is the same as ours, which made the maths easy. The location of this end was 250 miles up the Sweetwater.

After dealing to the usual stuff required for departing parties, our Air Mage conjured up a cloud and we, along with Sister Bethany, flew towards the portal location. Partway there, we all realised that is Sister Bethany had an escort on her trip to Seagate, we had left them behind - and we hadn't checked first. Ooops!

  Sooty - Aren't you only allowed to heal the Worthy?
  Phaeton - Isn't being cute worthy? 

After a few hours of flight, just before dusk. we spotted their camp. Down below we could see a ring of stones, each marked by a rune. Upon landing we were conducted to the largest tent which had been set up as a Temple to Raphael including the ground being consecrated. As far as I could tell, there was nothing wrong with the ritual.

The Head Priest, Father Wesley gave us more details of the situation. Yes, they had checked the consecration there and could find nothing wrong with it. However, Sir Gordon was not a devote Raphaelite, which shouldn't make any difference as far as I was aware. He had died of natural causes and was certainly dead when interred.

However, before we were to sort out that problem, they wanted proof of our ability. I felt slightly insulted by this but, I presume they wanted to see what they were paying for. There was a non-consecrated crypt nearby that had been infested by ghouls. It was located a 14 hour walk from the temple and was marked with a red X on the door. They wanted evidence that the crypt had been cleaned out but no, they didn't want us to drag a ghoul back as evidence. To complicate things, the last group sent in to clean it out had also been turned into ghouls so there was at least a dozen in there.

We got our Greaters, Rank 20, all four areas, which would last until the bearer managed to annoy Raphael. The ritual took an hour and was done in silence until at the end, there was an implosion of magic centred on the bearer. The portal was then activated and se stepped through emerging in a city on the other side which was LOUD. This is why I don't live in cities. Somehow this prompted the following exchange:

  Sooty - "I live in a tree"
  Phaeton - "I live in the country"
  Thorn - "I have my own castle".

Maybe it was just as well I didn't mention that this rural cottage was outside Brastor and under a really clear dark sky as it was highly likely some other party members would be making more comments.

We headed off for the temple. Upon arrival we met up with a priest, Brother Ray, and two priestesses who told us where to go and how to get to the crypt. Flamis noticed the temple cat and gave it a pet and a treat, at which point another one showed up demanding it's turn. I requested a set of their star charts for later divinations (and for study) and it was decided we would use Wildfires to get their quickly. Half an hour later, and I felt like I had done my quota of exercise for the day, we finally arrived. Rayne detected two dozen greaterish undead inside with at least three in close proximity. Great. We weren't dealing with standard ghouls.

So it was coruscades all around before we carefully entered. It was discovered that the outer and all the inner doors had Durability magic. The first room we found contained preserved crates but the one next to it was set up as some sort of shrine with three ghouls in it, and blasting them with fire was out of the question as there were a few valuable looking parchment scrolls in there. So, we started doing this the hard way.

  Phaeton - "This is silly - why am I stabbing a ghoul?"

We soon discovered that these ghouls explode when killed, spreading a poison cloud and, would you know it, all three of them exploded at the same time. They also preferred to go into close. Flamis ended up being infected.

Session 2

The shrine looked like one to Raphael. Flamis used her Cleansing Light to fix herself before we split up and descended the stairs on each side of the corridor. I went with Flamis, Thorn and Ben. The stairs spiralled down to a landing with a door off it. Flamis opened it but all that was inside was piles of rags and bones. Down another spiral and we found a corridor that joined up to the bottom of the stairs the other half of the party were descending. They were currently in a nearby side room dealing with three more ghouls.

Halfway down this cross corridor was a set of double doors. Once we all met up again, we opened them up and inside was a statue of Raphael with a removable magical kite shield. The floor was also consecrated. A couple of sarcophagi were also in this room and we thought there were undead inside them as Thorn's sword was reacting to the presence of undead nearby. They turned out to be in the room behind the door in the western room, and the consecration didn't stop them from entering the room where we were. Somehow Flamis and I ended up in the front line - again, which should NOT be happening. There were five of them this time and both of us were getting mauled. I was reduced to unconsciousness at the lest. Fortunately Rayne's Vapour Breathing saved us from the poison gas when they exploded.

  Phaeton - "This is getting ridiculous"

On the eastern side of this room is a pair of double doors warded with a Rank 15 Whitefire, the only place left to go.

Session 3

So we went through the door, and the whitefire ward, and encountered 12 ghouls and a wight. All but the back 3 ghouls and the wight charged at us. Ben and Thorn went in to meet them. Flamis threw in a fireball - a very effective one. The wight returned fire with a Solar Flare, a Rank 16 plus one according to my math. However there was something odd about it, being more silvery than fiery as per usual.

Flamis's next fireball was even more effective although someone should remind that woman that there is no such thing as 'friendly fire' as the fireball enveloped Ben Thorn and Sooty as well. Still, that did imply that there were going to be a lot of explosions in the near future. We also discovered that the wight's Solar Flare just barely tickled us. Actually it was more like a Lunar Flare, using Moonlight instead of Sunlight. Fascinating.

I followed up with my Holy Light before Sooty went in to beat up the wraith. I then backed off to enjoy all the ghoul explosions from a safe distance. Only one was left standing after that and it didn't last long.

There was a coffin at the other end of the room. It seemed to be infused into the floor but did have a separate aura, mostly Preservation and Durability. Where the lid rested was what looked like tiny holes where the lid would be pushed to get it off. Certainly a trap.

I also wish to note that Flamis should NOT be allowed to cast Cleansing Flame on other party members without permission. I prefer to remove infections without causing needless pain an suffering to the patient, even if it is quicker, thank you very much. She then decided to cast it on herself to remove her infection while I started on the slower method for myself. I guess she's into self-medication.

The name on the plaque, fastened to the coffin reads 'Durlan Windraft High Merchant of Eshery' According to the date engraved, he died 15 years ago. Sooty used Ask the Dead to politely ask if we may loot his coffin and we are given permission. We were also told that the coffin needed to be opened with a non-living entity. As Flamis and Thorn pushed on the coffin lid, the surrounding 10 ft around the coffin erupted in fire. Name of spell - Holy Fire - it looked like a multi-target Hellfire. As well as that, needle thin iron spikes came out with little flames on the points.

Inside is a very charred body which wasn't done recently. The blackened and charred corpse, wore a jewel encrusted necklace, other jewel bits. Also inside was 2 potion vials, both of which contained sight enhancing magic. Also checked over to determine the Nature of Magic on them were: Bracelet: Protection, Necklace: Healing, Ring: Travel, Ring: Protection. The effect of taking ring out of the coffin: Possession - as if you own it now.

Sooty claimed that he had flown off Alusia on his own flight spell. Of course he had to solve the problem of breathing ..... sigh I guess I'd have to do some math on that. Transit times must have been very long. Sooty replied the flight speed is different in the void - have to be much faster. A couple of hours to the moon. Took me three days in the Endeavor.

On the way out, Sooty asked the statue of Raphael whether or not he can have the shield. He got a warm feeling so he took it. A chest in an upstairs room had durability on it.

Back in the shrine room we found six magical scrolls, three of Animal Growth, the other three of Avian Growth. A magical dagger was discovered that had been enhanced with a poisoning effect. The contents of many of the chests, which was food and supplies had had putrescence magic cast on them.

Finally we got out of there. I was looking forward to telling that head priest that we had done the job. Thorn put up her tower and we rested under a nice clear dark sky with the moon just setting. I stargazed for an hour or so. before resting before it was time for my dawn watch and purification.

Session 4

The next day was spent in Thorn's tower sorting out spec grevs etc.

Eight am the following morning we fire ran back to the temple. Sooty pointed out, upon arrival, that we hadn't found the militia which led to the distinct possibility that they were still out there creating more zombied. High Priest Wesley had also arrived there so we informed him on the details of what we had found in the crypt.

  Flamis - "Please state the nature of the necromantic emergency"

Once that was done, I received the star charts I had requested and they had a map showing the location of Sir Gordon's tomb, thirty miles away. The map would self-destruct if taken more than 100 miles from it's origin point, here.

After another run, we reached a large ornate building with a stained glass window that depicted Raphael in all his glory. The gate was currently shut and the wall around the building in 15ft tall. A sign on the metal gate said 'Crown's Temple'. The gate also had an aura on it with the Nature being Consecration. It was also wedged shut on the other side which we discovered when we tried to open it so Sooty climbed over and removed the wedges so the gate could open freely.

When we entered the cathedral, it was obvious that someone ... or something ... had scattered the pews all over the place, and there were areas of dark red blood stains. Along the back wall, near where the stairs went down into the crypt, written in blood was the word "Gordon"

A Mindspeech was set up and we got to work analysing the 'crime scene'. I was sorting out which bloodstain was which. The First and second death was in the same place by the candles, By the altar was the mixture from the demon hunter, his assistant and the priest. One of those three was used to write the name on the wall. So I collected scrapings then used Mana sight and DAs on the consecration. It was consecrated to Raphael but there were flashes of someone else. Malthus according to Ben. Meanwhile Rayne saw the spirit of a young woman with her head nearly severed.

After putting our collective minds together, we recalled that Malthus the Earl of Death and Havoc and usually turns up as a large filthy buzzard. The Consecration was laid down the weekend after Gordon's death and Illusion magic was interwoven in it to hide the extra name but it was apparent that bit was wearing off. It was supposed to last a year. It was laid at a time when the The old consecration was due to run out. anyway. The Rank of the Illusionary Aura was determined to be 20 but something had been interfering with it. After further searching we found a painting of Raphael fighting a buzzard with a plaque on it saying Raphael fighting Malthus - do not read this out loud.

Finally we Worked our way down a spiral staircase into the crypt. Down at the bottom is a Forbiddance Wall with the GTN of Human. A Singed piece of cloth was found between the Forbiddance and the door. Formally living, NoM No answer. It had been singed nine days ago i.e. at the last New Moon. It turned out of a bit of a green garment.

Further on, the consecration ended 15 ft after the door. Beyond the door was a long corridor with two arches on each side. The floor beyond had been consecrated at a higher Rank but, that too needed renewing.

First arch to the right was labelled for Sir Gordon. He was interred a month later after he died. The door was made of Darkoak and a warped wood spell had been cast on it again, nine days ago. The door on the other side was labelled 'Lord Falco' and his door had been warped wooded a long time ago - just after he died. Thorn checked the next two doors and their warp wooding lined up with the dates of internment - same with Lord Falco.

Flamis opened Sir Gorden's door. Since nothing leapt out at us, I let my prepared spell dissipate. Four standing suits of armour, two on each side, lined the walls, standing guard. At the end was the coffin. The suits of armour had no aura but they have green tabard with a golden eagle on it however someone or something, has been trying to tear the eagles off. Next to the coffin were two chests. The Floor also showed traces of consecration plus there was a Bound Speech on the coffin. Closer examination of the tabards told me that it looked like a person had tried to pull the eagle patch off. The edges were blackened as if charred but not by fire .... or any alchemical process. No magic either so no necromancy. Plus the coffin isn't trapped but sealed. and it was opened 9 days ago.

When the coffin was touched, a dark shadowy shimmer appeared on the coffin and formed a dark cloaked figure that looked at Thorn "You poor fools. Your eagle of light is now my buzzard of death, have fun with this little trinket." A ring then appeared on the coffin where the apparition was. Ring: Nature of Trap, Ward or Curse: Binding. NoM other than Binding - Enhancement. Spell name: Communication. College: No answer. Also it seemed that the burning on the patches was caused by unholy magic tainting the Eagle.

Flamis and Thorn used crowbars to lever the coffin lid off which didn't re-trigger the Bound Speech - and the seal had been resealed correctly. Inside was a well preserved man in his late sixties wearing a green tabard. The tabard had been burnt and the eagle was unrecognizable. He had been buried with a good estoc. There was no obvious sign of decay. NoM on the corpse: Preservation. NoM other than Preservation: Curse. Time since animation 9 days. MA of Curse 30. Flamis's quick divination told us that the MA had risen at each New Moons, risen by 1 per each soul taken, so that the last peak was three times higher than the first two. Nature of Magic on the sword: No answer.

We checked out the other rooms. None of the other coffins are warded, no bound speech. The other knight has a Scarlet Lion and that's intact. None of the other corpses are cursed etc.

Sooty decided that we should take everything out. We tried, but when we tried to take the bodies out, there was a white flash - and all the bodies returned to their coffins. The other bodies are resurrectable. The other knight, Sir Nicholas, had been dead for 4 years.

So Thorn and I attempted to resurrect Sir Nicholas. Unexpectedly we got fuzzy vision before finding ourselves on a grassy plane, speaking to Raphael. A pegasus was nearby. The conversation was pleasant but the gist of it was, no .. we can't have them back as things would get very messy, and most likely violent. When we returned only five minutes had passed.

Curse had been bound to Sir Gordon about 15 years ago and read "Cursed to rise on every new moon and slaughter innocents" The MA originally was 25 and it can only be removed when he is active or killed with his own sword. There was a book in the crypt detailing his deeds. Sooty was able to drops the curse's MA by 3 to 27.

According to the book, that's NOT his sword with him. His working sword was an eagle hilted estoc. Plus, what with the mention of 30ft wings as well. we were sure that wasn't his working arour he was interred with. The book mentioned a Great Deed. He was the Hero of the War in the Mountains. During a moonless night, he slaughtered an entire camp of orcs with three chiefs. Two were killed and the third was brought as a captive to end the war. His personal fighting gear was displayed in the Hall of Heroes.

Session 5

Flamis divinated the ring that the shadowy entity left behind. What she got was the following: The ring cannot be removed from a sentient entity's finger without removing the finger. It allowed the Earl to claim the wearer's soul, also allowed the wearer to get a truthful answer about necromantic matters. As an additional bonus it provided extra resistance versus necromancy magic.

Meanwhile I used the planetarium to do a Reading the Night Sky Ritual in order to determine when and where are the undead army going to attack. I got "At the moon's darkest, when one man rises, thousands will fall in the Fields of Eshury."

Later we discovered that the Hall of Heroes is located in his Lord's Manor, being Lord Lars Teglar. It was also decided we needed to have a word with Sir Tobius, the Lord's current knight. So a letter was drafted to the Lordship requesting a meeting over dinner. It was interesting that the script thy used was the Kingdom script, common among the Western Kingdoms. After that, we brainstormed what questions we should be asking for more divinations etc.

Flamis communed with her Other Selves asking the following questions:
1) What is known about the necromancer who raised the ghouls in the crypt? - "Late descendant of one of the orc chiefs"
2) What is known about the orcish priest who consecrated the temple to the Earl? - "They are one and the same."
3) What special powers does this necromancer have? - "He sees himself chosen by Malthus and Malthus has gifted him appropriately. He is just as weak as any mere mortal."
4) What is the Earl planning? - "A foothold in this plane."
5) What is the best way to foil the Earl's plans? - "Prevent the foothold"
6) What allies does he had? - "Beings between Life and Death."

Eshery was thirty miles away from where we were to the west. Sooty did some calculations and determined it would take 10 days to ward the entire city wall with Walls of Fire. If Flamis help, it could be cut down to five. He also requested that a fireplace in this cathedral be set up so he could teleport in and out of it.

Later that day, we received a reply from Lord Teglar, saying that we could have a dinner meeting tonight. So it was off to the city for proper formal wear for those who didn't have it. The place we ended up was a high end tailors in the Med Walk district. It was run by an elf.

I would the first to admit that I have no fashion sense what so ever so I was relying on Ben's input. I finally went for a sunrise motif.

By 6pm that evening we were at the Lord's manor and announced with our titles. not to be left out, I went with Professor Phaeton. When we met Lord Telgar he wanted us to address him as 'Lars'. Sir Tobius was also there and he looked to be in his forties and currently bore the title of 'The Silver Fox'. DAs on him told me he was a long lived sentient with GTN of human. Nature of curse, control, or binding - reanimation. Entity pacted to: No answer. We also discovered that he had an ability to get out of close automatically. Lord Telgar wasn't cursed. Given those results, Sooty requested that all the senior knights be divinated.

I asked about the fate of the third chief and discovered that once he had 'served his purpose' was imprisoned for life. Their clan were known worshipers of the Earl of death and Havoc and had been broken up. Some of the orcs had reformed and were allowed to reside in the city states while the remainder took on a tribal and nomadic existence.

We were told that the city walls were warded against certain ... things flying over them that the other city states had. Griffons, Haast Eagles, Pegasi. i.e. fantastical beasts, usually. I suggested that they should probably add Undead, Demons and Devils to the list next time they needed renewing.

After dinner, we went to have a look at the Hall of Heroes. To access Sir Gorden's equipment we had to get through a Rank 15 Mage lock. On the other side was a glass case with the estoc in it. The armour next to it was true silver plate tinted green.The estoc had multiple layers of magic on it while the armour had flight magic consisting of wings.

While Sooty did the Curse Removal on Sir Tobias, Flamis started divining stuff.

Session 6

Finally the time of the New Moon arrived. Lots of oil was transported into the crypt in order to fill the area ankle deep in flammable liquid. It was going to be lit when the ghouls came in. To make it more interesting, I was making Holy Water traps for the undead to step on, which of course led to more 'Master Assassin jokes'. If they only knew. We also obtained a Potion of Midnight at the Winter Solstice which Sooty was going to drink to bolster the Curse Removal Ritual he was going to do. That was going to start 18 hours before the undead were expected so it would conclude just before Sir Gordon was due to rise i.e. Moonset, being roughly the same time as Sunset, The door upstairs was warded with a Wall of Radiance. Sir Gordon's corpse was also surrounded in a metal cage.

I was watching using the planetarium, to track the moon's position. When it reached the point that the horizon bisected the moon, there was a noise outside. They're Heeeeerrrrrreeeeeee ...........

The door bursts open and a bunch of spectres, bipedal ghouls, and ghoul bears came down the stairs. They are met with thunderclaps, sunrays and dragonflames. The two spectres respond with blackfire while the ghouls advance into the Wall of Radiance. Turned out that the bears also had the explosive quality. More spectres come phasing out of the walls. By now the oil was lit so the entire crypt was in flames. Fairly soon, it's reduced to just spectres.

So We hew our way through spectres as another wave turned up followed by a black buzzard. At the same time, another wave came through the wall at the other end of the corridor. A Lunar Flare formed and I stepped out of the way. Just then Noxious Vapours was cast, and as well as blocking vision (except for those who had ways of counteracting that, which didn't include me) it smothered the fire. I blind cased a Meteor Shower, as does Ben. Rayne was putting up a Wall of Something, probably Bone but that was soon battered down. Because all I could see what vapour, I ducked into a safish corner as a wave of necrotic energy shot down the corridor.

About this time, Sooty finished his Curse Removal ritual and the undead portion of Sir Gordon faded from existence. A second, more powerful, burst of necrotic energy flew along the corridor taking Flamis out. Sooty then charged the buzzard and managed to take it out. The buzzard turned into an orc.

Finally it was all over. I started resurrecting Flamis and reflected on the fact that the fight only took seventy seconds from start to finish - the longest 70 seconds of my life.

Session 7

After resurrecting Flamis we quickly rebuffed before using the fireplace portal to teleport to the city. After arriving in the central portal where the guarded briefed us. Basically the attack is taking place along the northern half of the wall and it looks like much of that area is about to collapse. The attackers are again: ghouls; ghoul bears; and spectres. In addition there are some mortal mages - orcs I presumed.

So, after receiving fiery Wings from Thorn and Coruscades from Ben. we portalled over to the portal nearest the Eastern Gate. (Sooty had already set up portals just inside and evenly spaced around the city walls as well as the main central portal) We discovered a smegload of ghouls here. The Walls of Fire wards had dropped about a minute ago. When we arrived, the ghouls were outside the 50ft wall and the gate was closed. I' estimated nearly 30 in that group plus 4 ghoul bears. Most of them assaulted the gate. while the rest went for the wall. Even with the burning oil and tar that was poured on them, it looked like the ghouls have some sort of fireproofing.

We assaulted them with spells from the top of the wall and well as behind it. Suddenly three falling stars were spotting falling for the gate. Rayne somehow blocked two of them with her dragonshield but the one got through obliterated the gate. Sooty put up a Wall of Iron but he has to be on the wrong side of it as some ghouls and ghoul bears had already got through the gap. We watched as a lot of explosions and gas clouds appeared down there as the ghouls exploded.

Rayne blocked the next volley of meteors, one of which looked like it was aimed at me. Some of the ghouls got to the top of the wall and one of the squires got slaughtered in front of us but the rest seem to be hanging in there. So Thorn and I destroyed the remaining ghouls on the wall, saving the rest of squires. I blast them and Thorn TK Rages them off the wall to explode at a safe distance. Rayne blocked two more meteors but the remaining one crashed into the wall next to me and I fell in the resulting hole. I then blasted off into the air as another meteor crashed where I had been.

Session 8

Basically we hopped from breach to breach trying to slow them down. By the time we got to the last few breaches the situation was getting more chaotic. Clusters of black robe mages, most likely necromancers, were congregating outside the walls casting meteor showers, and with each group was a grey robed one who seemed to be casting every pulse, most likely a Namer.

Sooty starts taunting the buzzard demon and he turned up, along with 8 spectres, 6 dark robed mages and one of those neutral grey ones, all flying. So, of course, an aerial spellcasting battle started. They're try to drop our wings but we have several layers of those, The spectres fire Bolts of Starfire at us and I respond with Rainbow Sprays along with Flamis's fireballs and Rayne's Thunderclaps. The necromancers are firing necrosis and it began to be apparent that we were not the only ones with ablative armour.

While we provided covering fire, Sooty, Thorn and Ben charged in to engage Malphus and the back line of mages. Sooty went straight for Malphus and after dealing massive damage, the buzzard popped out, hopefully whimpering back to its home plane. Meanwhile those necrosis were chewing through my ablative armour and fatigue so I was at the stage of having to drink our Waters of Healing to keep casting.

Sooty polecharged a necromancer with a spear, killed it, and it fell out of the sky. A cheer erupted from below from below. More mages fall out of the sky. Unfortunately another round of necrosis later, Sooty fell out of the sky so I triggered his Willow Healing so he was able to survive it. I triggered everyone else's as well just in case.

Unfortunately another round of necrosis took me out.

Session 9

After I got resurrected, when I was about to be checkmated by Raphael in 6 moves, we renewed our buffs with the short time we had before a second wave of ghouls charged over the fields. I also discovered that my Robes of Winter were ruined (*sigh*). Once those were dealt to we headed for the Hall of the Hall of Heros as Thorn had earlier had a precognition that showed her in bad shape, Ben and Sooty dead and a Black Knight standing over her. When we got there, we started looking at suits of armour - especially black ones. They were behind glass display cases but I was unable to DA the contents. It transpired there was a Mana Shield on the glass which worked as a two way shield. Interesting. The stone floors were also bound.

Someone spotted a cloak disappearing around a corner so it was decided to follow it to see what was on the other end of it. It turned out to belong to an E&E who disappeared behind a set of double doors at the end of the corridor. Special and General E&E Counters were thrown under the door while I was getting heaps about my lack of stealth ability. Even Thorn, in plate mail, is more stealthy.

So we advanced to those doors and Ben pushed them open to see a ninety square foot room with display cases lining the walls ... and an invisible person. Long lived sentient, not pacted. The display case he was interested in is a collection of gemstones and other valuable trinkets. This entity was a young elf, platinum blond hair, wearing leather armour being the same ashy grey colour as his cloak. He seemed rather surprised to see a black shadow cat especially when it said "halfsies?"

DAs told us that picking the lock of a display case would produce a Spectral Knight, one per case. A Greater Sumnmoner Counter spell would be required to prevent that. Inside each case was: 1. Gems and Wands & Staves 2. Scrolls and Books 3. Assorted magical Rings 4. Death Stone - the Black Stone of Demon Summoning - Effect on picking up the Death Stone: Dread 5, Life Stone - the complete opposite. 6: Bunch of folded tunics. 7: Potions 8: More Gems Staves and Wands.

Session 10

We returned to the Wall and no more undead incursions occurred during the night. Looks like we had managed to avoid Thorn's precog.

Dawn arrived accompanied by the small of burning corpses. Townsfolk were milling about and whispering to each other.

It took a bit of convincing by Thorn and Sooty but somehow I found my self wearing ten point truesilver armour for the rest of the adventure.

We then met up with High Priest Wesley to discuss our payments and appropriate items were given to us. Before we returned to Alusia we spent a week in Eshery, just in case something else happened.

Finally on the morning of the 28th, we went to the Church, where a nice stone circle had been laid. We walked through and came out in the same forest we had left from. A few people were still here including the priestess we first met. We then clouded to the Guild where we went through the standard procedures for returning adventurers. Total payment at the end was 264,000sp before items after tax.

Week in Eshery

  • Sooty - Remove Curse + Warding
  • Flamis - Warding
  • Rayne - Making Healing items (Salves, maybe potions)
  • Dragon - Gain the love of the people and start a hoard.
  • Phaeton - Stargazing and studying

Mil-Sci

Daily pattern

How much time does the party spend sleeping, eating, traveling, doing rituals, etc each day

Travel Magics

What travel magic options does the party have, how far per cast/or per day if duration is longer than usual travel time. Can the party eat/sleep/etc on the mode of transport.

  • Cloud (Rayne) Speed: 34 mph Duration: 50 Hours Daily distance: 816 miles per day - assumes overnight travel
  • Wings (Ben) Speed: 39 mph Duration: 5 Hours Daily distance: 195 miles per cast
  • Wings (Phaeton) Speed: 42mph Duration: 6.5 hours. Daily Distance: 273 miles per cast.
  • Wildfires (Flamis) Speed: 44 mph Duration: 260 Minutes Daily distance: 191 miles per cast
  • Wildfires (Ben) Speed: 50 mph Duration: 320 Minutes Daily distance: 266 miles per cast
  • Wing of the Phoenix (Thorn): 41 mph, 6 hours, 246 miles, 7 Targets per cast.
  • Shadow Bridge 15 Mile range per cast

Watch Order

Day Watch. Used when stationary, or on a larger transport such as a ship
First - ??
Second - ??
Third - ??

Night watch
First - Flamis / Thorn
Second - Sooty / Ben
Third - Dragon / Phaeton / Rayne

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Double File Single File

Buffs

General Buff Notes

Buffs listed in the table don't need to be detailed, other buffs not on the table must be mentioned at the time they are cast.
Y means always on, N/- means never on, 'Sit.' means when the party has time for buffs before a fight.
Weapon Spells which weapon/s it is going on normally should be noted also

  • A Rank 15 Enhance Enchant will be available for morning buffs on Duration.

Long duration buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Thorn Sooty Rayne Flamis Phaeton Ben Dragon Other Pet?
Primordial Armour (So) 20 125 points ablative vs magical damage 36 Hours Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Eleutherian Ward (So) 15 Immune to loss of actions, reduces AG penalties for armour/enc 15.5 Hours Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y
Mind Shield (Th) 12 No mind reading, +34 vs mental attack 25 Hours Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Shadow Form (BG) 20 42 def 18 Hours ? ? - ? Y ? Y ?
Iron Shield (So) 20 +42% defence if shield prepared, +21% otherwise 18 Hours ? Y Y ? - Y - ?
Witchsight (Ph) 12 See Invis etc 6.5 Hours Sit T y ? Y Y y ?
Greater Heart Rune (Ph) 8 Heals 7 EN 9 Days Y Y Y ? Y Y Y ?
Strength of Darkness (BG) 20 +11 ST 7 Hours Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ?
Fires Grace (BG) 15 23 def/+8iv /half poison after other prot 16 Hours Y Y Y ? ? Y Y ?
Vapour Breathing (Ra) 9 Ignore gases etc. 10 Hours Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ?
Healer Fortify Other (Ra) 8 +12 Ft / +12 En ablative vs damage ? Hours Y Y Y Y Y Y Y -
Healer Fortify vs Undead So) ## +15 Ft / +15 En ablative vs drain ? Hours Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Short duration buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Thorn Sooty Rayne Flamis Phaeton Ben Dragon Other Pet?
Mind Speech (Th) 10 Mental communication & visual images, Range 330 ft 110 Mins Sit (P) S S S S S S ?
Force Shield 20 +25 to def (10 targets/cast) 210 Mins Y - - ? Y ? - ?
Weapon of Radiance (Flamis) 15 +15 to SC +7 DAM (+15 versus undead & creatures of darkness) ? Mins Y Sit Stored Y ? ? - ?
Light Sword (Phaeton) 6 +7 SC +2 D (extra 3 to those of opposing alignment light/dark) 11 mins ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Dark Sword(BG) 20 +21 SC +5 DM/+10dm v light 25 Mins ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Personal & Weird buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Thorn Sooty Rayne Flamis Phaeton Ben Dragon Other Pet?
Sense Danger N/A ???? N/A 180% ? ? NA ? ? ? ?
Sixth Sense N/A Stop before walking into trap/ward or detection when in stealth. N/A ? 131% ? 116% ? ? ? ?
Drain Resistance N/A Amount resisted per drain / has magic resist vs drain N/A 0 / Res 6 / Res 3 / Res 0 / Res 0 / Res 5 / Res 0 / Res ?
See Invisible N/A Highest rank see invisible effect N/A 20 20 5 20 ## 12 0 ?
Ranger Detect Ambush N/A Ranger chance of detecting outdoor ambush or trap / favoured terrain N/A 128% / Woods 143% / Damned terrain 76% / Coastal 126% / Wastes ##% / ?? 95% / Rural - ?
Find Traps N/A Thief style find traps. N/A ? 106% ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Name (??) ## ???? ? Hours ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Loot and Expenses

SP & other cash value loot

Significant Items

Gifts

50,000sp in Weird Magic Items each.

Purchases

Minor Items

12 Waters of Healing down payment each.

  • - 4 Rayne
  • - 8 Sooty
  • - 6 Phaeton
  • - 2 Ben

Expenses

Sooty

  • 1 Guild Healing Potion
  • 4 Restorative Rk 8
  • 1 WoH Rk 14
  • 1 Emerald Moss

Flamis

  • 1 Emerald Moss
  • ?? Restorative ??

Calendar

Spring

Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Candlemansa
Thaw (10)
  1 Guild Meeting, Crypt 2 Healing 3 Tomb - Cathedral 4   5 The Carzalan Generals Ball 6  
7   8   9   10 Finished warding city. 11   12   13  
14   15   16   17   18   19   20  
21   New Moon - Expected next appearance. 22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30    
Seedtime (11)
  1   2   3   4  
5   6   7   8 Rites of Thunor 9   10   11  
12   13   14   15 Equinox 16   17 Eostre 18 The Seagate Spring Ball
19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30    
Blossom (12)
  1   2  
3   4   5   6   7   8   9  
10   11   12   13   14   15   16  
17   18   19   20   21 Floralia 22   23  
24   25   26   27   28   29   30 Walpurgisnacht