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Recap 33 - May 8, 2010

An Undead Army - Imagine the Stench


You Can't See Me! I'm Invisible!

By the time the Crew makes it out of Togo Ridge Pass, it's night and raining. They can hear fighting up ahead, but it's too dark to see, and the rain makes infravision useless. A sudden crash of lightning lights up the ground, revealing an enormous hoard of undead. To the east, a group of rangers are engaged in a fierce battle with the undead. Except for this pocket of violence, there is no fighting. A group can be seen moving toward South Luka. Another going west, likely towards the fort built by the Knights of Phantar along the coast. The remainder of the hoard is busy setting up camp, loading ballistas, and digging trenches.

Knowing they didn't stand a chance against the entire undead army, the group decides to head towards the embattled rangers. Perhaps they would have an exit strategy, being familiar with the surrounding area. Josy casts a spell on Malouf to make him invisible to undead. Being the fastest runner, Malouf carries the mirror with everyone in it past the undead army to the rangers.

The rangers are surrounded. They form a circle, creating a line of defense to protect a chanting cleric and a halfling.

As Malouf approaches the group of rangers, he notices a skeleton standing on a hill. Unlike the other undead creatures he had passed, this skeleton appears to be tracking Malouf's movements. It raises a finger, pointing at Malouf. Dropping the mirror near the rangers, Malouf changes directions and heads towards the skeleton. Malouf attempts to attack the skeleton, but it fades as Malouf's axe comes down, materializing behind the barbarian.

Meanwhile, Snow leaps out of the mirror, landing a devastating flying kick on 2 skeletons, and slamming a fist into a third. She positions herself near an injured ranger laying on the ground with a spear in his leg. It's Venetto!

Josy runs out, heading to the cleric. She holds out her holy symbol and, with Yondalla's blessing, destroys 10 skeletons and a zombie. Lieralyn, Flerm, and the 4 monks rush out of the mirror to aid the rangers, positioning themselves strategically around the ring of rangers. Alana guards the mirror while firing off arrows, and Phantar guards her rear flank.

Oliver uses his magic ring, knocking down skeletons and zombies in a 5ft radius. The skeleton mage on the hill is caught in this force push and knocked through Malouf. Taking this opportunity to land a back attack, Malouf connects with something solid this time, killing the skeleton.

     Rangers: "We must hold this ground! It's a strategic location!"


Consecrated Ground

As the group rallies, more undead appear. The whisper of arrows being loosed is heard a fraction of a second before they rain down on the group. Everyone except Snow is hit.

     Venetto: "Qikko!"
     Qikko (the halfling): "One more minute! One more minute!"

Water springs from the ground in the center of the circle, forming a river that flows towards South Luka. Speaking to Qikko, Josy learns that the chanting cleric Thornfriend is attempting to consecrate the spring and immediately lends her prayers to the act in order to speed the process. The rest concentrate on holding off the undead.

Qikko throws a stone on the ground, creating a shield that surrounds the entire party. The Motley Crew do a fine job of holding their ground - lightning, fire arrows, web, brute force, and distance death - killing off skeletons, zombies, and mummies one after the other.

A grumbling howl is heard to the west as 6 wights approach. Turning to them, Brecaryn destroys them with a fireball.

     Phantar: "Brecaryn, I know wights strike fear into the hearts of adventurers, but we must conserve our resources."
     Brecaryn: "..."
     Alana: (rolls eyes)

Another volley of arrows rain down on the group, hitting the invisible barrier. It shimmers briefly, casting a blue aura.

     Qikko: "The shield holds!"
     Group: "Huzzah!"

As Thornfriend's and Josy's chanting comes to a climax, a sense of peace washes over everyone. A wall of thorns springs up around the party. Two shrubs grow near the spring - one in the form of a halfling, the other a wispy humanoid.

     Thornfriend: "Let this land forever be consecrated by Yondalla and Uller."

Thornfriend and Josy proceed to bless the well.

The undead stop approaching. In this lull, the rangers explain what they were doing. The spring feeds fresh water to South Luka. The undead had poisoned it as their first attack against the city. The South Lukans realized that by consecrating the ground, they could protect the spring forever.

Just then, three vampires appear. They speak to the group, their tone defiant. However, none of the party understand their southern dialect. Flerm takes this opportunity to mock their way of speaking until they leave.


What's in His Pants?

Except Venetto, the rangers plan on remaining to ensure the security of the spring. Malouf once again straps the mirror onto his back while the remainder of the party get in the mirror. As the blessed water flows from the spring towards South Luka, it clears a path free of undead. He grabs Josy as she and Thornfriend complete the spell and use this opportunity to get to through the undead army to the city.

Malouf reaches the city wall and starts to climb as Josy clings onto him with her one arm. As he lands on the other side, he's greeted by drawn swords. Luckily, they notice he is not undead before they stab him to death. He is taken to Battleaxe Harold, the captain of the guard ,for questioning. Malouf begins mentioning Venetto and his party members. Battleaxe Harold looks at him puzzled, wondering where all these people supposedly are.

     Malouf: "You're going to be impressed is all I'm saying."

Realizing he's going to need some help with this one, Battleaxe Harold brings in Soulwind, a wizard.

     Battleaxe Harold: "He says he's got people in his pants, and he wants to bring them out."
     Soulwind: (makes a shield)

Malouf signals to those in the mirror. The group exit, carrying Venetto. Josy heals him enough that he regains consciousness, and he vouches for them.


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**Now back to our tale**


I Am the Brute Squad!

Venetto takes them to meet Lord Miles, lord of the Southern territories. Phantar knows him and lets the Crew know it would be best if Lord Miles remained unaware of his presence.

With Venetto's assurances to Lord Miles that they could be trusted, the group manages to convince Lord Miles to pursue an alliance with the Knights of Phantar. Phantar (now called Tarian) will go with Lord Miles' messengers to the Knights of Phantar west of the Lukan Sea.

Of the 4 monks accompanying the party, Cloud and Moon will go to North Luka to get reinforcements to assist in holding the eastern flank. If the eastern flank is breached, the undead army will have access to the entire continent. Wind and Rain will remain behind to scout out the enemy camp. Snow instructs Cloud and Moon to deliver messages to various groups - the Broken Bone Orcs, the elves, and the halflings - in the hopes of gathering reinforcements against the Oblivion King's army. A stop at the temple in Betaya for more monks to act as messengers will hasten this mission. If nothing else, these others deserve to be warned of the invasion.

Brecaryn heads to the mages guild to do some research. Qikko had also told Brecaryn he had documents waiting for her at the guild from the last time she was in South Luka. While there, Brecaryn searches for any references to the Oblivion King and information on liches and golems.

The documents left by Qikko are a transcription of an interview given by Beeblebrox that mentions the existence of a Lich in the Southern Desert. This is a clear reference to the Oblivion King. Beeblebrox knew about this danger. According to the documents, the lich's soul is hidden somewhere in a leather box. Finding that box and destroying the soul would kill the lich. Killing it without destroying its soul would only kill it's physical body. It would still be able to inhabit another and live on. But where to look for this leather box?

While Brecaryn is researching, Flerm gets his cursed sword removed at the Temple of Tyr, then heads to the Mage's Guild, as well, to get another sword identified.

     Female Mage: "It will cost 50gp unless you plan on donating that sword to the war effort.
     Flerm: "But, I am the war effort!"

Hearing the commotion and recognizing his voice, Brecaryn sighs as she gets up from studying the documents and walks over to Flerm. She identifies Flerm's sword for free.

Meeting back up with the rest of the party, they see that Phantar has been restored to his full vigor. His visit to the Temple of Tyr apparently went very well.


Defend the City

While Snow, Wind, and Rain scout out the vampire camp, the remaining party members stay behind to help defend the city against the nightly attacks. During one of the battles, Flerm decides that having successfully commanded the guardians at the burial grounds of Nizwah, he ought to see if there are any other perks to sporting that nifty symbol of Anubis on his forehead. Sitting down against the battlement, he closes his eyes in concentration.

     Keygon: "What do you think you're doing?"
     Flerm: "You shut the hell up!"

The rest of the group is puzzled by the city defenders' strategy. Instead of attacking the skeleton champion with their ballistas, they consistently attack the mummies. To the Crew's point of view, skeleton champions are much tougher opponents and can do much more damage with each attack, so they ought to be taken out first. The shambling mummies should be left for clean up at the end.

     Alana: "Hit the skeleton champion or get off the tower."
     Ballista operator: "Mummies can do damage to the walls if they get to them. The skeletons can't."
     Alana: "Oh."

In the end, they are able to repel the attack. Seeing his troops' defeat, the skeleton champion walks off the field.

Snow is able to learn that the vampires are camped near the center on a hill. At the top of the hill is a pavillion housing the 3 vampires that appeared at the spring. The hill is surrounded by more vampires as well as skeleton wizards, champions, and flaming skeletons. She gathers Wind and Rain and returns to the city with this information.



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