Post by David on Nov 1, 2012 23:22:36 GMT -5
It was a quiet late Autumn day. A pair of adventurers were walking by Inn of the Scarlet Skeleton in Dronabar. A local man in his mid-40s (missing part of a finger) approaches Bobby, the hobbit archer, and Cyric, the illusionist, asking for help with his missing wife and children. The took the family cart from the village to a larger town (Gesau) for market. Wife’s name: Dagmar. Children: Ingrid, Randolph, Brigitta.
The pair heads off through the woods in search of the family. They hear the sound of a wolf howling in agony or pain (?). They think they also hears screams in the distance and rush off to investigate.
Meantime, Anasta is also wandering the woods and hears the commotion. She also rushes over in wolf form.
All three arrive to find a tall blonde woman accompanied by two HUGE wolves, fighting zombies. The woman is tending two girls collapsed on the ground, one blonde and the other with raven-black hair. One zombie is caught in an entangle spell while two more are each dealing with a dire wolf. Two small children (a blond boy and red-haired girl) are fighting the unengaged zombie. The heroes charge to the attack.
They notice that the zombies appear to be striking to subdue, carefully using their clawed hands as clubs. That said, the dark-haired girl on the ground clearly bears claw slashes. The heroes also notice a track left by a bunch of zombies leading away from the site. Cyric finds out that the woman’s son, Hawthorn, was taken and determines he was probably dragged off along that track.
As the heroes continue fighting the zombies, Cyric sneaks off down the path in search.
The woman casts a spell on one of the downed girls while the heroes, wolves, and children finish off the remaining undead shortly thereafter. The woman announces that she’s used the last of her healing spells, but has stabilized both Lily and Willow as well as the downed wolf. She asks the party to go after her son, Hawthorn. The little boy, Dante, also says they have to go after his brother. The woman pulls off a pair of rings and pouch full of goodberries for the blond boy. Anasta sniffs around and detects some humans down the track. Everyone heads off down the path. One of the wolves accompanies them and starts tracking.
Anasta realizes that the boy has been given a ring that seems to charm her as a wolf.
They come upon an overturned cart with a pair of mules nearby, caught in the harness. It’s a potato cart. Emerging from the wolves behind the cart are three more zombie. Fortunately, Cyric was able to warn them. He had noticed that their “prey” had about a minute lead. They split up, with Cyric and Anasta continuing to pursue, while the rest engage the zombies.
At that moment, an elf steps out of the woods. Namuhni attempts to turn the zombies. It fails, and instead, two turn to run at him. And they are quick! Rose, the young girl, and the remaining dire wolf attempt to intercept, but the undead swarm the hapless elf.
The party finishes off the zombies and they all run off to continue the search. Anasta has meanwhile lost the scent, so the rest are able to catch up. They finally pick up the trail several minutes later. They continue tracking about a half hour (the sun is starting to set). The tracks lead to the stone archway of an old graveyard but don’t seem to continue to the other side. But it’s obvious that a large number of tracks came from the archway.
As they approach the archway, they notice that the sky looks a lot darker through the arch, and they also see the tracks through the archway. As they step through, they find it is the middle of the night, and the sky is very dark and cloudy. Anasta realizes that they are on the Plane of Shadow, having just been there recently. The graveyard is now gigantic, with gravestones extending as far as they can see. They have the distinct feeling they are being watched.
Anasta returns to human form after a few tries. The group believes she is a werewolf and don’t react very well. She tells them that they are on the demi-plane of shadow. They notice the moon is blood-red, and there are very few stars with very weak light, like the stars had died. The children pull out continual light stones, but the light doesn’t seem very strong.
The wolf picks up the scent again and they continue the search. Cyric catches motion out of the corner of his eye. They “catch” a statue moving. They hear a strange voice say, “Where are they going to and where are they from?” “Whats do they want to know?” “I haven’t seen me an elf in here for a very long time. And those must be children.”
The voice identifies itself as Rath’Sorem. After extorting 100gp from them, the creature informs the group that a boy came through the gate a few minutes ago in the clutches of a zombie. A fat woman accompanied with many children came through before that, just when the gate first opened. A half-orc priest of Orcus has need of sacrifices to dedicate a temple. The gate only works about an hour before sunrise and sunset, and only when the suns and moons are in sync between the two worlds. They have two days to save the children. He points the way to the temple but warns of monsters along the path. “Welcome to Shadowsfall, where ideas go to die.” He then leaps away, surrounded by flies.
They follow the path through the forest of lifeless, gnarled trees. Anasta growls, because she senses creatures around. Then they hear two shadow mastiffs caterwaul. The wolf bolts in panic. They manage to defeat the mastiffs, but four have been knocked unconscious. They bring up Anasta and Rose but have to leave Dante and his wolf unconscious. They decide to have Cyric carry Dante back to Oerth to safety.
About this time, coming through the gate are a young kenku and a young human witch. They had run into the druidess Thyme, who sent them to help out. They are Meep (the kenku) and Esmeralda. The party explains the situation and continues on their way.
They come to a structure lit by torches inside. It is a crumbling edifice that resembles very ancient temple. It is covered with black runes. There are three humanoid shapes guarding the main structure. The see a breach in the wall along one wing. So they bypass the guards and head there. There are two zombies guarding the hole.
As they attack the zombies, Rose yells out a warning, and some see a shadow demon on the roof. “My lord will not let you enter.” Esmeralda faerie fires a zombie and the shadow demon. The shadow demon attempts to possess Rose, but the ring she’s wearing protects her. The demon gets stunned by the backlash. Meep takes out one zombie. He then flies up to engage the shadow demon. Anasta gets taken out by the remaining zombie.
The badly-beaten shadow demon invokes its fear power, and Esmeralda and Meep get caught and flee. Rose lands the killing blow on the zombie. The shadow demon bounds away and escapes. After Meep returns, he goes off and kills the shadow demon...typical kenku...
They enter the building and sees a lot of very nice murals of the harvest that have been viciously vandalized. As they move through the temple, they hear the sound of chanting. They move in that direction. They come to a priest guarded by four zombies. There are five people laid out as sacrifices.
Esmeralda faerie fires the priest and one zombie. Bobby hits the priest in the back with an arrow, interrupting his ritual. He and Namuhni continue to fire arrows at the priest. Meep hurls a vial of acid at the priest, hitting him square in the chest. The priest finally orders the zombies to attack. Bobby takes out the priest as the zombies engage the heroes! Unfortunately, the battle doesn’t go well for them, as four of the heroes go down, leaving just Anasta and Esmeralda.
Anasta leads three of the zombies away, and the remaining one heads back to guard the body of the fallen priest. That leaves Bobby, who hears a voice from Esmeralda’s body say that she has a healing potion. It’s her snake familiar. He gives her the potion, and she gets up to cast cure wound on Meep.
They continue to attack the last zombie, finally killing it. But Meep went down. The free the victims and search the priest. They find:
Goat-headed mask with horns
Dagger
Incandescent blue sphere
Shield
Chain mail
Holy symbol
Mace
16 cp
12 sp
9 pp
One of the wounded zombies is waiting for them as they leave. They take it out with arrow fire, but not before it takes out Rose.
They meet Rath’Sorem on the way out and have to give him nine platinum pieces for “safe passage.” He also tells them that Anasta went the wrong way, followed by zombies. They leave the victims and Rose at the gate and go back to find Anasta.
Meantime, Anasta has made it back to the temple and saw they left. But they all eventually make it back to each other and leave. The cross through the gate.
EEPS
1st portion: 887 each (includes Cyric and Dante)
2nd portion: 1000 each (includes Meep and Esmeralda)
Mission accomplished—
Namuhni 300
Rose 400
Bobby & Anasta 250
The gate stops working just as they pop back out to Oerth. They return to the village and hear reports of zombie attacks in the woods. They meet up with the wife of the farmer to retrieve their friends from their house.
The pair heads off through the woods in search of the family. They hear the sound of a wolf howling in agony or pain (?). They think they also hears screams in the distance and rush off to investigate.
Meantime, Anasta is also wandering the woods and hears the commotion. She also rushes over in wolf form.
All three arrive to find a tall blonde woman accompanied by two HUGE wolves, fighting zombies. The woman is tending two girls collapsed on the ground, one blonde and the other with raven-black hair. One zombie is caught in an entangle spell while two more are each dealing with a dire wolf. Two small children (a blond boy and red-haired girl) are fighting the unengaged zombie. The heroes charge to the attack.
They notice that the zombies appear to be striking to subdue, carefully using their clawed hands as clubs. That said, the dark-haired girl on the ground clearly bears claw slashes. The heroes also notice a track left by a bunch of zombies leading away from the site. Cyric finds out that the woman’s son, Hawthorn, was taken and determines he was probably dragged off along that track.
As the heroes continue fighting the zombies, Cyric sneaks off down the path in search.
The woman casts a spell on one of the downed girls while the heroes, wolves, and children finish off the remaining undead shortly thereafter. The woman announces that she’s used the last of her healing spells, but has stabilized both Lily and Willow as well as the downed wolf. She asks the party to go after her son, Hawthorn. The little boy, Dante, also says they have to go after his brother. The woman pulls off a pair of rings and pouch full of goodberries for the blond boy. Anasta sniffs around and detects some humans down the track. Everyone heads off down the path. One of the wolves accompanies them and starts tracking.
Anasta realizes that the boy has been given a ring that seems to charm her as a wolf.
They come upon an overturned cart with a pair of mules nearby, caught in the harness. It’s a potato cart. Emerging from the wolves behind the cart are three more zombie. Fortunately, Cyric was able to warn them. He had noticed that their “prey” had about a minute lead. They split up, with Cyric and Anasta continuing to pursue, while the rest engage the zombies.
At that moment, an elf steps out of the woods. Namuhni attempts to turn the zombies. It fails, and instead, two turn to run at him. And they are quick! Rose, the young girl, and the remaining dire wolf attempt to intercept, but the undead swarm the hapless elf.
The party finishes off the zombies and they all run off to continue the search. Anasta has meanwhile lost the scent, so the rest are able to catch up. They finally pick up the trail several minutes later. They continue tracking about a half hour (the sun is starting to set). The tracks lead to the stone archway of an old graveyard but don’t seem to continue to the other side. But it’s obvious that a large number of tracks came from the archway.
As they approach the archway, they notice that the sky looks a lot darker through the arch, and they also see the tracks through the archway. As they step through, they find it is the middle of the night, and the sky is very dark and cloudy. Anasta realizes that they are on the Plane of Shadow, having just been there recently. The graveyard is now gigantic, with gravestones extending as far as they can see. They have the distinct feeling they are being watched.
Anasta returns to human form after a few tries. The group believes she is a werewolf and don’t react very well. She tells them that they are on the demi-plane of shadow. They notice the moon is blood-red, and there are very few stars with very weak light, like the stars had died. The children pull out continual light stones, but the light doesn’t seem very strong.
The wolf picks up the scent again and they continue the search. Cyric catches motion out of the corner of his eye. They “catch” a statue moving. They hear a strange voice say, “Where are they going to and where are they from?” “Whats do they want to know?” “I haven’t seen me an elf in here for a very long time. And those must be children.”
The voice identifies itself as Rath’Sorem. After extorting 100gp from them, the creature informs the group that a boy came through the gate a few minutes ago in the clutches of a zombie. A fat woman accompanied with many children came through before that, just when the gate first opened. A half-orc priest of Orcus has need of sacrifices to dedicate a temple. The gate only works about an hour before sunrise and sunset, and only when the suns and moons are in sync between the two worlds. They have two days to save the children. He points the way to the temple but warns of monsters along the path. “Welcome to Shadowsfall, where ideas go to die.” He then leaps away, surrounded by flies.
They follow the path through the forest of lifeless, gnarled trees. Anasta growls, because she senses creatures around. Then they hear two shadow mastiffs caterwaul. The wolf bolts in panic. They manage to defeat the mastiffs, but four have been knocked unconscious. They bring up Anasta and Rose but have to leave Dante and his wolf unconscious. They decide to have Cyric carry Dante back to Oerth to safety.
About this time, coming through the gate are a young kenku and a young human witch. They had run into the druidess Thyme, who sent them to help out. They are Meep (the kenku) and Esmeralda. The party explains the situation and continues on their way.
They come to a structure lit by torches inside. It is a crumbling edifice that resembles very ancient temple. It is covered with black runes. There are three humanoid shapes guarding the main structure. The see a breach in the wall along one wing. So they bypass the guards and head there. There are two zombies guarding the hole.
As they attack the zombies, Rose yells out a warning, and some see a shadow demon on the roof. “My lord will not let you enter.” Esmeralda faerie fires a zombie and the shadow demon. The shadow demon attempts to possess Rose, but the ring she’s wearing protects her. The demon gets stunned by the backlash. Meep takes out one zombie. He then flies up to engage the shadow demon. Anasta gets taken out by the remaining zombie.
The badly-beaten shadow demon invokes its fear power, and Esmeralda and Meep get caught and flee. Rose lands the killing blow on the zombie. The shadow demon bounds away and escapes. After Meep returns, he goes off and kills the shadow demon...typical kenku...
They enter the building and sees a lot of very nice murals of the harvest that have been viciously vandalized. As they move through the temple, they hear the sound of chanting. They move in that direction. They come to a priest guarded by four zombies. There are five people laid out as sacrifices.
Esmeralda faerie fires the priest and one zombie. Bobby hits the priest in the back with an arrow, interrupting his ritual. He and Namuhni continue to fire arrows at the priest. Meep hurls a vial of acid at the priest, hitting him square in the chest. The priest finally orders the zombies to attack. Bobby takes out the priest as the zombies engage the heroes! Unfortunately, the battle doesn’t go well for them, as four of the heroes go down, leaving just Anasta and Esmeralda.
Anasta leads three of the zombies away, and the remaining one heads back to guard the body of the fallen priest. That leaves Bobby, who hears a voice from Esmeralda’s body say that she has a healing potion. It’s her snake familiar. He gives her the potion, and she gets up to cast cure wound on Meep.
They continue to attack the last zombie, finally killing it. But Meep went down. The free the victims and search the priest. They find:
Goat-headed mask with horns
Dagger
Incandescent blue sphere
Shield
Chain mail
Holy symbol
Mace
16 cp
12 sp
9 pp
One of the wounded zombies is waiting for them as they leave. They take it out with arrow fire, but not before it takes out Rose.
They meet Rath’Sorem on the way out and have to give him nine platinum pieces for “safe passage.” He also tells them that Anasta went the wrong way, followed by zombies. They leave the victims and Rose at the gate and go back to find Anasta.
Meantime, Anasta has made it back to the temple and saw they left. But they all eventually make it back to each other and leave. The cross through the gate.
EEPS
1st portion: 887 each (includes Cyric and Dante)
2nd portion: 1000 each (includes Meep and Esmeralda)
Mission accomplished—
Namuhni 300
Rose 400
Bobby & Anasta 250
The gate stops working just as they pop back out to Oerth. They return to the village and hear reports of zombie attacks in the woods. They meet up with the wife of the farmer to retrieve their friends from their house.
