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<blockquote data-quote="Galfridus" data-source="post: 130224" data-attributes="member: 119"><p><strong>Episode 20: "Don't Fear the Reaper"</strong></p><p></p><p>The entire session (3 hours or so) was taken up with a 20+ round combat, so this story entry may be a little short. Apologies to the two or three people who seem to be reading this, and feel free to post comments if there's something you'd like to see changed, or if you have questions about the campaign.</p><p></p><p><strong>Lonnenham farm, March 7, LE 654</strong></p><p></p><p>As the woman's blood spills onto the ground, the party quickly prepares to enter the tunnel beneath the trap door. Tiesa, invisible, flits down the shaft and back up again. She reports a silent, brick-lined passage leading ten or so paces north to a sturdy wooden door.</p><p></p><p>The party climbs down the ladder: Jonetello, Magnimiliar, Alamar, Thorald, and lastly Tiesa (still invisible, drifting down the shaft). The rungs are well crafted, making nary a sound even as four people place their weight upon them. Jonetello's rapier casts a blue glow over the flagstones and brickwork of the low-ceilinged passageway. He approaches with caution and tries the door, which is locked. He and Magnimiliar listen, but can hear nothing from beyond the door. They pick the lock together, then slide a pair of narrow metal strips around the door, one to each side, to lift and disengage the bar holding the door closed. It clatters to the ground on the other side, drawing a few winces from those assembled in the hallway. Everyone readies themselves for battle; Jonetello gives a curt nod, then kicks the door open.</p><p></p><p>Beyond the doorway is a room, thirty feet by twenty, with a low brick ceiling that arches very slightly toward the center. Two other doors lead from the room: one on the west wall, barred from the inside; and a second on the north wall, unbarred. Jonetello observes this in passing, but his attention is drawn rather quickly to the five figures who are advancing on him. They appear humanoid, but their dark gray cloaks and shadowed hoods make further identification difficult. Pale hands, the only skin visible, clutch gnarled staves that they brandish as they rush to the attack. Jonetello has time to adopt a defensive stance, using his skill and expertise to fend them off from the doorway. </p><p></p><p>His choice of tactics is fortunate. As they close to combat range, the staves begin to writhe, dissolving into grey smoke that maintains a staff-like shape. At one end of each staff, a dull scythe-like blade forms, more solid than the rest of the staff, but still insubstantial. The creatures attack in tandem, two feinting so that the third, directly in front of Jonetello, can strike with more accuracy. Jonetello nearly loses his composure as the scythe sweeps right through his rapier - but his reflexes hold true, and he dodges away from the attack. He ripostes, and breathes a sigh of relief as his rapier seems to wound the creature.</p><p></p><p>From the back ranks, Alamar calls upon the power of Ehlonna. For a moment, the cold dank air of the room grows warm and fresh, as with the promise of the coming spring. Two of the reapers shudder and turn away, retreating to a corner of the room. Magnimiliar follows with a volley of <em>Magic Missiles</em>; the reaper attacking Jonetello hisses as the bolts strike it. Thorald strikes with <em>Concussion</em>, causing the creature to stagger back; but still it does not fall. Behind him, Tiesa waits, casting nervous glances upward.</p><p></p><p>Jonetello is kept busy fending off the spectral blades. "Some help would be nice!" he calls, as he manages a feeble thrust that the reaper, even in its weakened state, easily dodges. They attack in tandem again, and again his defense holds. Alamar channels more energy from Ehlonna, but this time it fails to pierce the sorceries that bind the creatures to this world. Magnimiliar and Thorald repeat their magical attacks, and are relieved when the already wounded creature collapses into a pile of smoking robes. The blade of its scythe melts away, leaving an old, gnarled stick that clatters to the ground. </p><p></p><p>Through the cold smoke and the whirl of blades, Jonetello sees the door opposite him open. The two reapers in the corner swiftly flee through the doorway; after they have gone, a human-looking figure pokes its head into the room, looks swiftly around, then ducks back. The two remaining reapers attack Jonetello, but again they cannot penetrate his agile defense. His strike misses as well. "Help, please!" he calls.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly, Magnimiliar slaps a hand against his forehead. "I have it!" Ignoring the curious glances from his comrades, he produces a scroll and reads it: but nothing seems to happen. "Invisibility to Undead," he proclaims, and tumbles forward into the room. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, this was Mags' first acquaintance with the spell. One of the reapers pierces the veil of the spell and swings at Magnimiliar. As the scythe passes through his chest, Magnimiliar feels a strange coldness tugging at his spirit; as if his soul was being severed from his body. He screams, but there is little he can do. The others press the attack, doing some damage to the remaining reapers; but seconds later, the two which Alamar had turned come rushing through the doorway. They attack Magnimiliar, and one blade strikes home. This time, the cut into his soul goes much deeper; Magnimiliar can feel the link to his spellcasting abilities being stripped away. </p><p></p><p>The rest of the party rushes into the room to help Magnimiliar. Jonetello lowers his defenses and lands several telling blows; however, the reaper blades strike him twice, and the same coldness slices at his soul. Jonetello's psionic abilities are unaffected, but for the first time in his life his natural confidence abandons him. He fights on, fearing that the next strike would sever his soul entirely. Fortunately, he does not have to find out: the reapers fall to the party's weapons moments later.</p><p></p><p>As the robes of the last reaper slide to the ground, Alamar hears faint chanting from the open door, down another narrow passage leading away from the room. A cloud of black, cloying gas fills the room. Though it vanishes in an instant, its foulness burns at the lungs and throat. Magnimiliar in particular is left with a lingering nausea. Alamar dashes to the doorway and sees a closed door at the other end, about twenty-five feet distant. Light shines through a small peephole in the center of the door. Alamar advances about ten feet down the hall and casts Silence, targeting a point about fifteen feet beyond the doorway. "Cast through that," he mutters in satisfaction, then turns around, ready to start healing the wounded.</p><p></p><p>Magnimiliar wants a go at the people behind that door. Able to cast only the simplest spells, he decides to advance down the passage. As he takes a step past Alamar, he hears a "click" - and the floor opens up beneath him. He nimbly backsteps just in time to avoid falling into a twenty-foot deep pit. "That was close!"</p><p></p><p>As the words leave his lips, a crossbow looses from behind the peephole. A tiny bolt strikes Magnimiliar - who cannot dodge as the shaft strikes him in the gut. He struggles to stay on his feet, near death from the well-aimed strike. Alamar considers a moment, then begins <em>Conjuring</em> a celestial bear to assist. Magnimiliar retreats into the room, ducking away from the peephole. Jonetello steps into the corridor, preparing to advance on the doorway. </p><p></p><p>In a rainbow of light, Alamar's celestial bear appears at his side. Alamar speaks the final word of the spell, sending the creature a mental command to bash down the door and attack those who lie beyond. The bear crouches at the lip of the pit, easily leaps the five-foot gap - and promptly falls into a second pit, placed just beyond the first one. Alamar curses, then retreats into the room to heal the wounded. Moments later, the sticky strands of a Web appear in the corridor, trapping the bear and Jonetello. Thorald and Tiesa step forward and begin burning through the web to reach Jonetello. The bear has no trouble breaking free and climbing up pit to the doorway; but as it approaches, a voice from beyond the door speaks fell words of power, and a hand dripping with dark energy reaches through and touches the bear. With a roar of pain, it perishes, returning to the outer planes. Thorald decides to simply <em>Dispel</em> the web, freeing Jonetello. </p><p></p><p>Just as he does, the smell of death and decay wafts into the room, followed by a range of guttural snarls and howls. Before anyone can react, a horde of ghouls and ghasts rushes into the room, bursting through the one unopened door and the passage that the party had come from. Already wounded, the party is cast into another deadly fight. Tiesa and Thorald are swiftly paralyzed. Alamar calls on Ehlonna, turning several of the ghasts, but several remain. Then, a field of magical <em>Silence</em> covers the room. Alamar is unable to use his healing spells within the field, and he falls back to a narrow strip next to the pit where he can speak and cast spells. He debates leaping over the pit, but before he can decide, Magnimiliar rushes past him, seeking the safest place he can find: at the base of the door, out of sight of the peephole. There, he readies his <em>Horn of Fog</em>. With a quick movement, he places it against the peephole and blows, filling the room and a bit of the passageway with thick fog. Alamar makes the dangerous jump over to assist, but the job is done; the people beyond the door can no longer interfere with the combat.</p><p></p><p>With that done, Alamar turns most of the remaining ghouls, feeling drained as the last of Ehlonna's power issues forth from him. Jonetello finishes off one remaining ghast that had begun a feast of Thorald's living entrails. He tosses a tanglefoot bag to Magnimiliar, who hurls it through the fog against the peephole. "That should hold them," he mutters, as the trio gather up the rigid bodies of Thorald and Tiesa and make for the exit. </p><p></p><p>"Where do we stop?" gasps Alamar as they reach the top of the shaft.</p><p></p><p>"Miles away!" yells Jonetello, looking around for his horse.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Galfridus, post: 130224, member: 119"] [b]Episode 20: "Don't Fear the Reaper"[/b] The entire session (3 hours or so) was taken up with a 20+ round combat, so this story entry may be a little short. Apologies to the two or three people who seem to be reading this, and feel free to post comments if there's something you'd like to see changed, or if you have questions about the campaign. [b]Lonnenham farm, March 7, LE 654[/b] As the woman's blood spills onto the ground, the party quickly prepares to enter the tunnel beneath the trap door. Tiesa, invisible, flits down the shaft and back up again. She reports a silent, brick-lined passage leading ten or so paces north to a sturdy wooden door. The party climbs down the ladder: Jonetello, Magnimiliar, Alamar, Thorald, and lastly Tiesa (still invisible, drifting down the shaft). The rungs are well crafted, making nary a sound even as four people place their weight upon them. Jonetello's rapier casts a blue glow over the flagstones and brickwork of the low-ceilinged passageway. He approaches with caution and tries the door, which is locked. He and Magnimiliar listen, but can hear nothing from beyond the door. They pick the lock together, then slide a pair of narrow metal strips around the door, one to each side, to lift and disengage the bar holding the door closed. It clatters to the ground on the other side, drawing a few winces from those assembled in the hallway. Everyone readies themselves for battle; Jonetello gives a curt nod, then kicks the door open. Beyond the doorway is a room, thirty feet by twenty, with a low brick ceiling that arches very slightly toward the center. Two other doors lead from the room: one on the west wall, barred from the inside; and a second on the north wall, unbarred. Jonetello observes this in passing, but his attention is drawn rather quickly to the five figures who are advancing on him. They appear humanoid, but their dark gray cloaks and shadowed hoods make further identification difficult. Pale hands, the only skin visible, clutch gnarled staves that they brandish as they rush to the attack. Jonetello has time to adopt a defensive stance, using his skill and expertise to fend them off from the doorway. His choice of tactics is fortunate. As they close to combat range, the staves begin to writhe, dissolving into grey smoke that maintains a staff-like shape. At one end of each staff, a dull scythe-like blade forms, more solid than the rest of the staff, but still insubstantial. The creatures attack in tandem, two feinting so that the third, directly in front of Jonetello, can strike with more accuracy. Jonetello nearly loses his composure as the scythe sweeps right through his rapier - but his reflexes hold true, and he dodges away from the attack. He ripostes, and breathes a sigh of relief as his rapier seems to wound the creature. From the back ranks, Alamar calls upon the power of Ehlonna. For a moment, the cold dank air of the room grows warm and fresh, as with the promise of the coming spring. Two of the reapers shudder and turn away, retreating to a corner of the room. Magnimiliar follows with a volley of [i]Magic Missiles[/i]; the reaper attacking Jonetello hisses as the bolts strike it. Thorald strikes with [i]Concussion[/i], causing the creature to stagger back; but still it does not fall. Behind him, Tiesa waits, casting nervous glances upward. Jonetello is kept busy fending off the spectral blades. "Some help would be nice!" he calls, as he manages a feeble thrust that the reaper, even in its weakened state, easily dodges. They attack in tandem again, and again his defense holds. Alamar channels more energy from Ehlonna, but this time it fails to pierce the sorceries that bind the creatures to this world. Magnimiliar and Thorald repeat their magical attacks, and are relieved when the already wounded creature collapses into a pile of smoking robes. The blade of its scythe melts away, leaving an old, gnarled stick that clatters to the ground. Through the cold smoke and the whirl of blades, Jonetello sees the door opposite him open. The two reapers in the corner swiftly flee through the doorway; after they have gone, a human-looking figure pokes its head into the room, looks swiftly around, then ducks back. The two remaining reapers attack Jonetello, but again they cannot penetrate his agile defense. His strike misses as well. "Help, please!" he calls. Suddenly, Magnimiliar slaps a hand against his forehead. "I have it!" Ignoring the curious glances from his comrades, he produces a scroll and reads it: but nothing seems to happen. "Invisibility to Undead," he proclaims, and tumbles forward into the room. Unfortunately, this was Mags' first acquaintance with the spell. One of the reapers pierces the veil of the spell and swings at Magnimiliar. As the scythe passes through his chest, Magnimiliar feels a strange coldness tugging at his spirit; as if his soul was being severed from his body. He screams, but there is little he can do. The others press the attack, doing some damage to the remaining reapers; but seconds later, the two which Alamar had turned come rushing through the doorway. They attack Magnimiliar, and one blade strikes home. This time, the cut into his soul goes much deeper; Magnimiliar can feel the link to his spellcasting abilities being stripped away. The rest of the party rushes into the room to help Magnimiliar. Jonetello lowers his defenses and lands several telling blows; however, the reaper blades strike him twice, and the same coldness slices at his soul. Jonetello's psionic abilities are unaffected, but for the first time in his life his natural confidence abandons him. He fights on, fearing that the next strike would sever his soul entirely. Fortunately, he does not have to find out: the reapers fall to the party's weapons moments later. As the robes of the last reaper slide to the ground, Alamar hears faint chanting from the open door, down another narrow passage leading away from the room. A cloud of black, cloying gas fills the room. Though it vanishes in an instant, its foulness burns at the lungs and throat. Magnimiliar in particular is left with a lingering nausea. Alamar dashes to the doorway and sees a closed door at the other end, about twenty-five feet distant. Light shines through a small peephole in the center of the door. Alamar advances about ten feet down the hall and casts Silence, targeting a point about fifteen feet beyond the doorway. "Cast through that," he mutters in satisfaction, then turns around, ready to start healing the wounded. Magnimiliar wants a go at the people behind that door. Able to cast only the simplest spells, he decides to advance down the passage. As he takes a step past Alamar, he hears a "click" - and the floor opens up beneath him. He nimbly backsteps just in time to avoid falling into a twenty-foot deep pit. "That was close!" As the words leave his lips, a crossbow looses from behind the peephole. A tiny bolt strikes Magnimiliar - who cannot dodge as the shaft strikes him in the gut. He struggles to stay on his feet, near death from the well-aimed strike. Alamar considers a moment, then begins [i]Conjuring[/i] a celestial bear to assist. Magnimiliar retreats into the room, ducking away from the peephole. Jonetello steps into the corridor, preparing to advance on the doorway. In a rainbow of light, Alamar's celestial bear appears at his side. Alamar speaks the final word of the spell, sending the creature a mental command to bash down the door and attack those who lie beyond. The bear crouches at the lip of the pit, easily leaps the five-foot gap - and promptly falls into a second pit, placed just beyond the first one. Alamar curses, then retreats into the room to heal the wounded. Moments later, the sticky strands of a Web appear in the corridor, trapping the bear and Jonetello. Thorald and Tiesa step forward and begin burning through the web to reach Jonetello. The bear has no trouble breaking free and climbing up pit to the doorway; but as it approaches, a voice from beyond the door speaks fell words of power, and a hand dripping with dark energy reaches through and touches the bear. With a roar of pain, it perishes, returning to the outer planes. Thorald decides to simply [i]Dispel[/i] the web, freeing Jonetello. Just as he does, the smell of death and decay wafts into the room, followed by a range of guttural snarls and howls. Before anyone can react, a horde of ghouls and ghasts rushes into the room, bursting through the one unopened door and the passage that the party had come from. Already wounded, the party is cast into another deadly fight. Tiesa and Thorald are swiftly paralyzed. Alamar calls on Ehlonna, turning several of the ghasts, but several remain. Then, a field of magical [i]Silence[/i] covers the room. Alamar is unable to use his healing spells within the field, and he falls back to a narrow strip next to the pit where he can speak and cast spells. He debates leaping over the pit, but before he can decide, Magnimiliar rushes past him, seeking the safest place he can find: at the base of the door, out of sight of the peephole. There, he readies his [i]Horn of Fog[/i]. With a quick movement, he places it against the peephole and blows, filling the room and a bit of the passageway with thick fog. Alamar makes the dangerous jump over to assist, but the job is done; the people beyond the door can no longer interfere with the combat. With that done, Alamar turns most of the remaining ghouls, feeling drained as the last of Ehlonna's power issues forth from him. Jonetello finishes off one remaining ghast that had begun a feast of Thorald's living entrails. He tosses a tanglefoot bag to Magnimiliar, who hurls it through the fog against the peephole. "That should hold them," he mutters, as the trio gather up the rigid bodies of Thorald and Tiesa and make for the exit. "Where do we stop?" gasps Alamar as they reach the top of the shaft. "Miles away!" yells Jonetello, looking around for his horse. [/QUOTE]
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