Who Let The Undead Out

Scribe Notes

Summary

Header

Adventure: Who Let The Undead Out
GM: Keith
Season: Autumn 812 WK
Night: Thursdays
Level: Medium
Employer: The Pasifikan Adventurer's Guild

Party

1. Starflower - played by Jacqui
2. Thorn - played by Helen
3. Sooty - played by Bernard
4. Menolly - played by Karen
5. Torihito - played by Scott

Borrowed Healers

1. Phaeton
2. Father Rowan
3. Grendel
4. Lizette

Mission Summary

A strange disease has struck the Pasifikan Plateau. It is believed to originate somewhere in the northern tip but it is unknown whether it was something left behind by the sahuagin in their abandoned city or something had been unearthed in the ruins of Atlantis. The incubation period is variable, the minimum being a few days. Symptoms only appear after that being dizziness then the victim collapses into what appears to be death. A short time later the victim then rises again to become a lurching zombie with the intent of biting anything they come across, thereby passing on the infection. So far the outbreak has been confined to the northern area of Pasifika but it is feared that it will get through the blockade and infect the entire plateau to create a zombie apocalypse. A cure disease seems to cure anyone that has been bitten if it is administered before symptoms set in but, after that, the only thing that is believed to fix it, is a resurrection followed by a regeneration of the brain. Because of this, a request has been made to borrow as many high ranked healers as possible to help study this outbreak and find a cure or a vaccine.

Another thing that has been noticed that many of the bodies of the dead sahuagin that were killed on the battlefields are missing. Could they also be carriers of the disease or is something else going on?

The only lead to a cure at the moment is an astrology reading that seems to indicate finding life that lives in extreme conditions. Fire and Ice and the land to the south were also mentioned. This may indicate Zeylandia.

Scribe Notes

The Party

Thorn - Human warrior and part-time Mind mage - Party Leader

Starflower - Elven Mind mage and part-time Drake - Military Scientist

Sooty - Elven Ash mage - Scribe

Torihito - Human Earth mage

Duesday 1 Fruit

We met in Guild Meeting Two to the sounds of an argument in the next room between Lisette and Father Rowan. The employers decided to take Phaeton instead.

  Starflower: Yes, it's convenient. They have this tendency to store clues in old libraries.

The employers tell us they have an infestation of zombies in Pasifika that they hope they have contained. It starts with people being bitten - is it ghouls? Bodies are missing - including those of Sahuagin. They want the zombies cured... Our job is to seek out the cure. They have an astrology reading that told them to seek out extremophiles in the lands to the south.

At Sooty's request we delayed for a week while he prepares some items for us, and Tori learns some more weapon skills.

Duesday 8 Fruit

We reached the portals in the Sea of Grass without incident, and decided to go straight through after checking it was okay with limited precog. There was just this moaning sound. We buffed and went through the portal to bright noon in Pasifika. The moaning turned to be zombies who attempted to mob us, but Sooty set fire to them, while Thorn and I shredded them. Further down the road, two people took off on Star wings, and a wall of starlight appeared. After we got rid of the ones actually on us, we took off and let the fires do the hard work for us. We'd learned one thing - these zombies weren't entities.

  Sooty to Starflower: You can't go grabbing party members at random. They'll think you've gone feral and are going to eat them. 

After barbequing the piles of walking corpses, we clean up the library room the various scholars had holed up in, and then head off down to town, clearing up one or two animal corpses by burning on the way to town. Getting to town we organise a room in case it's needed, and then catch up with Phaeton. We get some information, and organise to get our boat ready & off to Waiheke to chase down some priests of Pele & the weather/wind God, and maybe also a priest who is familiar with Rangi & Papa.
Heading off mid afternoon we sail out calmly into the afternoon. With a water mage & favourable wind powering us, we make very fast time and arrive at Waiheke shortly after the sun sets.

9th of Fruit.

Arising in the morning, we do our morning rituals and then head in the direction of breakfast, then priest. He redirects us to the Wise Woman of the Island, located on the mountain. The advice is to walk when heading to see her. As she's a Wise Woman of the God of Winds, this seems sensible, invisible things watch us as we travel, possibly wind spirits or sprites of some kind as they don't have any real sense of mind on telepathy, and vanish when someone attempts to look at them.
After a while walking along the path, we come across a hut in a perfect clearing. After approaching a woman becomes visible sitting there, who appears to be our wise woman. She gives us some information, that we will need a Priest of Pele, a Priest of Taphera, also a priest of Rangi & Papa. The last she believes are only found in the lost tribe that went east.
The vision she has of the island is of an island on it's own, far out to sea, with large stone statues, accompanied by death. "Seek the ancient one, she who does not die, who dwells under the island". The Island would appear to be named Moai.
Our crew is reluctant to travel to the Island, declaring it's Tapu, even if someone finds it to begin with. However they agree to take us to near the island, leaving us to swim/etc ashore ourselves if we wish to land. After stocking up on provisions we set off early afternoon towards the island of the Peleians (Karlu Kona), Starflower brewing up tea, which turns to not be to the Pacificans taste.
Arriving late afternoon we get challenged by a warrior, and after our guide see's us through the challenge, have a dinner, and are questioned by an elder about our purpose. After we inform them of our travel plans, they spread the word, and a priestess volunteers to join us. Starflower plays with her teapot again and produces some Hallucinogenic drugs, which I then use in my rituals that night communing with the Volcano, discovering that the volcano is Pele's home on the Alusian plane.

10th of Fruit.

In the morning we set off for Puka Puka, island of the priests on the wind/weather god. The sailors tell us this will be a full day & night till we arrive. Near midnight a severe storm blows up, we proceed to drive straight through it under the water mages current. Reaching the island somewhere shortly before dawn we come into a calmer region, with a voice signing reaching out over the water to us. We anchor in the lagoon till dawn, when we land and seek out our priest of wind (Taphiri).

11th of Fruit

That morning they row out to meet us, and we speak to them about our aims, receiving another priestess, they seem to go in for priestesses more than priests around here, though we do meet a few male priests also. The two priestesses vanish off for a while, before returning, and we stock up on provisions for the boat again. Sadly we leave Torihito here, as he appears to have come down with a magical malady of some kind, affecting & possibly warping his magical abilities, which can't be cured except by rest. If he recovers in time we have made arrangements for a second boat to seek us out in Zeyland to catch him up with us, otherwise we will collect him on return to the guild for him to rest in a safer environment.

12th of Fruit.

We leave early in the morning and head South East towards the Island of Death Heads. They tell us it's going to be near a couple of days.

15th of Fruit.

Early in the evening we get within eyesight of the island. Taking Water Walking we head onto the island and we discover the area appears to be a place of death, Place of power for Necromancers even.
Moving inland a bit we get attacked by seven Pacifican wights. They animate one of the large stone heads with a chant, probably some kind of tribal defence they control. Starflower takes a nasty shot to the groin, Thorn an abdominal wound, and the Peleian priestess falls when she charges into their midst, however all the wights go down.
We heal up, leaving the Spec Grevs for now as they aren't crippling anyone, and continue inland, following the instructions of the wind spirits, through our priestesses. After an hours travel, we come to a circle of stone heads, dense enough you can't see past them into the circle, though still with room to pass. We consult with the wind spirits to be sure we are invited, and pass into the circle. The death aura here is stronger, and a toll of fatigue is paid by all as we enter the circle.
Inside the circle we are greeted by what appears to be an old elder, though on a GTN check he's actually a lich. We get a bit of history about how the island came to be this way, discovering that they cursed themselves by mistreating the land, and now the spirits wander fighting eternally. They are bound to the land, so killing them normally simply dissipates them for a while, a bit like a ghost. Then we move onto discussing the ritual to free the Djinni & Efreeti, discovering that our priestesses will be replacing them in the staff. After a quick check to make sure their actually doing this of their own free will, we proceed with the ritual, making the required sacrifices and release the entities, beginning negotiations with them.
We successfully make our deals, acquiring our travel & investigation magic, as well as sorting out the possibility for pilgrimages to the island by the shamans of Pasifika. Swimming back out to the boat we start our trek to Zeyland. We pass the time ranking the new spells & talents. Slightly risky, but none of us end up with dribbling brains. Menolly also does some training on fish assassination techniques. Just over a week later the sea shallows out.

25th Fruit.

While still in open water a large long necked sea creature approaches. After it passes under the boat I have a brief chat to it. It tells us we are on track, and then heads off no longer curious. Starflower & Menolly DA it and it seems to be a Water Mage of some kind also.

28th Fruit.

We land intending to re-provision at a local fort, however from the water we can see that it is overgrown now. We land anyway, to get fresh water from the stream here & take a look while we are at it. It appears that the village was overrun by an enemy tribe a couple of months ago, who had access to defensive type magic which gave them the advantage during the attack. We strip what we can from the village ruins, especially wood, and head on.

30th Fruit.

We travel down between the main island, & a second island all covered in spider webs. On the main island there appears to be a large wood fort, with hostile natives. We back out, and continue south along the island. Near evening we toss a few crystals of visions around trying to find a smoking mountain, rather than any old volcano. We don't really find any at this point.

1st Harvest.

We travel down the coast, around a sticky out part, and into a huge bay. Late evening doing our crystals we spot a smoking mountain far inland. We make some plans to back track the Canoe, and park it in a small sheltered cove up a stream where they can defend themselves from the local giant spiders & natives.

2nd Harvest.

Checking for natives in the morning, we see none near on a crystal of vision. So we leave the canoe. About half an hour into the flight, the cloud above us does a massive shift, halving in size and extending a psuedopod towards us. Menolly and I sensibly land; Thorn plays the hero and stays in the air, though close to the ground. Starflower gets distracted and talks to herself in the air. Menolly & I discuss if the ritual on the island happened to be a blood sacrifice. We're not really sure, as it was a life sacrifice like a binding ritual, but may not have had a magical impact. After some time talking to herself, Starflower lands, and tells us of a conversation with an Air spirit, and how we need to help it. We discuss this a bit, pointing out how the requests it's made were worded exactly the way a Demon would, and question the necessity of helping the Air spirit. Divinations fail to produce any conclusive results about how truthful it was, so we make a decision to seek out the Chronomancer who lives in the Western Mountain to attempt to get to the bottom of the stories, since if the Air spirit was telling the truth, it's help will be advantageous in a quick search for the cures we seek. We fly all day, stopping to recast a few time arriving near the base of the Mountain at nightfall.

3rd Harvest.

We head up the mountain finding a path part way up that seems to be taking us to where Thorn remembers. Following it for a couple of hours of walking we get to the peak she remembers, the terrain would be difficult for someone not experienced. It's empty when we get up there, so we settle to wait, before being greeted by the Green Chronomancer. She confirms the Air Spirit was the guardian of the area, and that the streak we saw last night was a Void Cruiser of some competition of the Calamar. Relating to what we are looking at, we may find something in a Volcano on the island south, the Glaciers even further south, the Fiords right at the south of the islands, the Thermal area to the North East we passed over, and a cave north which is close to where the Void Cruiser came to land. The spiders are apparently here because some crystal they use for power fell from the void, so they came after it and have yet to work out how to get it back into the void. The Void Cruiser isn't Calamar, but some other similar horror, though exact power levels are unknown, so possibly well within our abilities, a Void Cruiser isn't unassailable depending on its crew. Consultations with the Air Spirit we think it could surround the Spiders crystal with air, so they could survive in the void with it. With wings we/they may also be able to fly it into the void. So we make a thought of this then head to the Thermal lakes to search.

4th Harvest.

We begin the searching today for odd life in this area. Mid morning we find a decent looking spot with a couple of small ponds, and some dangerous hot spots. A precog indicates that approaching the area we may be attacked by imps of some kind, so we prepare carefully, and then enter the area. The imp thingies are invisible above one of the ponds with playful minds so we talk to them first, and convince them to play with us rather than attack us. The others complete searching the area and take what we need. After an hour or so we head back to the tower, pack it up, and then head back to the canoe leaving the stuff with them. We also make a few temporary amphoras for storing things in.

5th Harvest.

We fly 300 miles back up the coast, and land 25 miles short of the webs, setting up a small dark camp 25 miles south of the web on a hot beach. We camp in between two hot spots so that we can't be spotted on infravision overnight.

6th Harvest.

Early in the morning some pygmy elves that were watching us are attacked by a tiger sized spider, it does pretty well against them, probably would have taken them down or driven them off if we hadn't intervened. We capture the spider with some fast healing, as well as four elven guests who needed healing. The Elves DA as Elves, but react as if they are allergic to Cold Iron. The Spider DA's as Spider, Short Lived Sentient. After an hour, the Spider teleports away, apparently it has a Teleportation ritual. We discuss a little bit with the elves, then fly/teleport to the elven village, about 60 miles further south of here. We're greeted by one of their 'Elders' and start talking. Some information is exchanged, and they offer to guide us to one of the caves, where creatures that glow within mimic the night sky in some astrological conjunction. Later that morning we head off to the 'star caves' that lie a day west. Mid afternoon we encounter three levitating round metallic golem creatures. They are all Long Lived Sentient, GTN: Dahlek, Primary college Necromancy, Greatest Weakness is cracking the outer shell, POO; Skarro, Profession: Assassin, No answer to trapped/warded/cursed. Obviously they are some kind of living metal beetle, with access to some mind magic as well as their necromancy magic. Possibly other sorts of magic as well. About midday we arrive at a sinkhole in the forest. It's a sheer drop down, so we jump, and move into the cave, collecting some things along the way. Our 'Elder' reads the night sky inside the caves, and we pass out the other side. As it's early evening we camp the night at the near shore exit.

7th Harvest.

We wake up, check for spiders on the beach and discover none, then locate their lair. It appears to be in the side of a new volcano on the plains. Then we head off to our canoe. On arrival we chat for a bit, then they get around to mentioning they saw giant spiders, so we send them off to get a new island. Menolly backfires herself, and needs a remove curse so we spend the rest of the day in our campsite. That night we camp out, and have some natives and a couple of spiders attack us. The natives are sent packing and one spider goes down to a phantasm. In the morning we head to the volcano, and execute plan burn. We can't tunnel the lava into their tunnels, but we can build a dyke to channel it instead. We then assault the queen spiders' lair, which was off on the side, and take her out with swords, grabbing the giant mana crystal and running for our lives into the void from the daleks chasing us.

14th Harvest.

As we get near to where we want to release the crystal, we see a sparkly spot moving towards us. As it approaches it appears to be a Galleon under sail. At about 300 feet they open their broadside to us, and open fire with flaming crossbows. We engage them in a pincer movement, starflower clearing the area repeatedly with TK rages & Thorn cutting their Captain apart. A vicious fight later we have a Galleon and a pile of loot. We also have a Helm with a Helmer to run it. So we make him into a crew member to take us home.

18th Harvest.

We return to Zeyland, landing the boat with our natives to look after. We leave the Helm with them also, and will let the Helmer go once we get to the Pacifican trading post. We also restock our provisions.

19th Harvest.

We take off in the morning for the south, looking for some glaciers. About the middle of the day we get to the gap between the islands, landing for lunch for a change. We head through the straits to the west side of the island where the mountain range we are looking for starts, and start down it finding a landing site soon after we get over land.

20th Harvest.

We fly south again today, travelling on the west side of the mountain range, over a narrow lip of land between them and the sea, near evening we think we are about where the Glacier was indicated to be that we wanted to look at.

21st Harvest.

We head inland a bit, to take a closer look at the mountains today to find a glacier suitable for what we are looking for. As we scan the area we spot a 'short elf' heading towards us. It warns us about some kind of flying Ice Dragon in the area, which appears to be lairing on a glacier known as the River of Ice. This sounds like the sort of place we want to go. She also invites us to visit her village, and introduces herself as Arora. We head off towards the glacier. Heading into the base of the glacier we spot a dwarf being chased by 5 Yeti things. We head in, deciding on the way to engage the yeti's as they catch the dwarf. We are then assaulted by two elementals who take to the air, and don't feel like talking. We put a hurt into the Yeti's. As we finish off the Yeti's a large Ice Elemental appears and grabs the dwarf, running back towards the cave. As I land in front of it to block it, the Dragon owner appears & negotiates. We reach an agreement and return the Dragons map to it, after memorising it and the locations of the Mithril & other valuable metals on it. We also spend a day swapping knowledge & providing the Dragon with maps of the greater area as far up as Pacifica. As part of this, it magically imparts (in the usual dragon way) how to interpret symbols, as well as the recipe for the cure.

22nd Harvest.

We take off for our boat again, flying all through the night to land with our boat in the morning.

23rd Harvest.

We reach our boat early after dawn, and embark fast, sailing the Galleon.

3rd Vintage.

Early morning we come within range of Starflowers crystal of vision that allows mind speech, and we use it to get an idea what is going on. Apparently they are under siege by the zombies including merfolk in the harbour, & Grendel asks us for a location to target a teleport objects to send us some of the ingredients. We also prepare the boat for running into the harbour. As we run the gauntlet Starflower TK rages to keep them off the boat, we ground ourselves with unseemly haste, and then teleport the entire crew through into the town, taking the cure in with us into the fortifications to distribute it through all the defenders. A bunch of casts later we succeed in all this and reach 'safety'. Engaging in some siege warfare, we use Transmutation & creation magics to create a massive supply of ammunition, and an elemental to help deal with any breaches, we work on the 'zombie' strong points, turning them into piles of normal dead bodies. A number of breaches occur which Menolly does well containing with volleys of darts. Thorn & Starflower work on the walls, keeping the locals on the walls from running, and reinforcing any breached points. By the end of the day we appear to have contained the issue, though there are still a number of stragglers outside. I grab the local Gardener to make sure everyone gets a decent amount of sleep overnight, and he seems to have some grasp of authority & command, even if some people still disregard his orders.

4th Vintage.

In the morning we destroy a body in a fire to gain some information. It appears that this curse/plague was released from the North Sahuagin city by a bunch of explorers/adventurers attempting to search the ruins in search of value. We make some notes on this for someone else (possibly us later) to go and find the tablet/artefact they found and fix it.

5th - 11th Vintage.

We resurrect the ones we can, getting around 3,000 of them back, but about another 6,000 bodies that weren't able to be resurrected get burnt in a mass ceremony of all the religions, Father Rowan taking a turn in amongst the middle of the local shamans.

12th Vintage.

We start our trip back on boat, taking a well deserved rest.

Treasure

Everyone

• Wings of the Phoenix (StarWings that look like fire)
• Namer DA talent.
• Aerial Affinity.
• Interpret Runes & Symbols.
• Potential masterworks(?)
• Assorted sundries from Galleon.

Stuff for the Seagate Times

Quote "Father Rowan is a bit of a loose canon" -SF. "Actually he's a Bishop .... oh .. I see what you mean" - Phaeton

Extracts from Phaeton's Notes

Extract 1

It is quickly obvious that these are not ordinary zombies. Unlike most zombies that are raised by necromancers, these ones are the result of a disease that affects the brain. They do not DA as formally living, but as objects, which seems to imply that they are more like animated constructs. Nor is there any unlife energy powering them which means that the usual techniques for dealing with zombies such as Holy Water, or my Sunray does not have any effect. All they do is wander about until a sentient creature is detected. Once this occurs, the zombie will head towards that creature until it it reaches it, or is completely destroyed. Hacking bits off has no effect, they do not tire, nor do they give up. Their only objective is to reach their victim and feed on them. If a victim is bitten, and manages to get away, they too will become a zombie. The only way to be sure of permanently stopping them is to destroy the brain.

We are not sure exactly how we managed to get into the situation that caused us to have to barricade ourselves in the library, but it is known that someone brought a body into the city, someone who had complained of dizziness then collapsed. Suddenly, the corpse had risen and, before it could be stopped, had managed to bite and infect several other people who also rose as zombies over the cause of the next few hours. Lizette was lucky that she managed to escape unscathed, but, fairly soon, the streets were swarming with them. Fortunately they were distracted by newcomers who managed to dispatch the immediate threat with fire.

Extract 2

I am not sure why, but a pink Bolt of Starfire seems to be the most effective weapon against them, especially if it is a head shot - which will bring it down immediately. Pink Walls of Starlight also appear to cause them more difficulty than any other colour. Invesgigations of the ancient scrolls in the Great Library of Pasifika lead us to believe that the actual cure will consist of a mixture of extracts from life that exists in places that life would not be expected to exist - extremaphiles someone has called them. Hence adventurers have been sent off in all directions in order to obtain some, such as the black smokers to the north, Zeyland and the Zeylandia Plateau to the south, and the volcanos of Rangiwhero and Kalua Kona. Deputations have also been sent to the fae of North Rangiwhero, Khoras, Perelandra and Malachandra to see what can be found there that may be of use. I also plan to send an expedition to investigate the origin of this epidemic.

Extract 3

Patient Zero has been traced to a survey party who was investigating the city that the sahuagin had built near the old city of Atlantis at the northern edge of the Pasifikan Plateau. They were investigating a building and stumbled into an alchemical laboratory where the sahuagan had been experimenting with other life forms. From what we could deduce from the notes left behind, and the evidence, that they had created this plague in order to wipe out other sentient life on the plateau, allowing them to easily move in and wipe out the survivours. Also, the disease has supposed to burn itself out after time, leaving the resulting corpses ideal as a food source.

Extract 4

What I have feared has come to pass. We are no longer able to contain this outbreak. Somehow the quarantine was broken and cases of the zombie plaque have broken out all over the plateau. I have sent out instructions to initiate the lockdown plan. Survivours are to gather in various places and protect themselves from the growing zombie hordes. There are now too many infected for us to be able to save them all even if a cure is achieved now. I have not heard from the Guild party in Zeyland for sometime now, despite several messages being sent. I can only conclude they have not been able to find a way to reply as other magics are telling me that they are still alive and out there. However, I may be forced to recall them soon even if they have not yet found what we require.

Extract 5

We are now basically barricaded in the Rangiwhero Settlement town. Already the zombie horde is clamouring at the palisade to get in. Zombies currently have free reign of the rest of Rangiwhero and much of the plateau. Other survivours have holding out in various places that can be reinforced and defended. We know that these zombies are infected corpses, and we know that they can be cured and raised but there are now too many. It is with regret that I have had to give the instructions to destroy the hordes if you have to in order to preserve the living, even though it is the logical thing to do. Hopefully the returning Zeyland expedition can get here with the remaining samples for the cure soon.