Beyond the Rerisen Tower(DM Iron Sky, Judge: renau1g)

[Iron Sky]

Eithal sprints like mad to get out of the Labyrinth, making it out with a helping hand from Cale.

Together, the group makes it out of the warrens as the mountain collapses in on itself, managing to snag a small chest of gold, a pair of heavy bracers, and sheet of parchment with two tattoos on it that will imprint them on the skin of whomever uses it.

In the ruins of the ancient city on the plateau outside, some of the dead simply collapsed, others went berserk, and still others wander about aimlessly.

The group makes their way through carefully, especially in the growing dark. Pushing hard, the group finds their way back to the tower, pushing out of the forest bloody, battered, and exhausted at nearly dawn.

For a moment, it looks as though the tower is deserted, the door hanging open with no lights on, like something from the journal's that Kaz read. Then the mason runs out with what's left of the militia following her.

"You're alive!" she shouts as the group is mobbed to pats on the back, cheers, and not a bit of awe that the group came back alive.

She takes in Cale quickly and looks back to the forest grimly. "Where's Livia... wait, actually, what in the hells happened? There was an earthquake last night and now I see that the mountain you were heading to has partially collapsed..."

[sblock=Eithal's roll]Athletics: 1d20+14=Nat 1. Using the extra reroll floating around: 1d20+14=23. Takes 4 damage.[/sblock]

[sblock=Loot found]500gp
3x100gp gems

Iron Armbands of Power(Level 6) Fredrock
Strongheart Tattoo OR Ironheart Tattoo(Level 8) Eithal
Note - everyone's gotten roughly the same number of magic items, so I rolled randomly to see who got these last two.[/sblock]

 

[H.M.Gimlord]

OOC: Eithal will grab the Strongheart Tattoo. I'm back. Thanks for keeping the old (well, OK not so old) girl going.

 

[Luinnar]

Livia-chan is with Mireva now. Kaz says sadly. We found her in the grasps of a dark blasphemous creature, the same one that attacked us earlier. We freed her, but the avatar killed her with its last strength and this one could nothing to save her. This one has failed his friend... Kaz says. Memories flood back of how he failed to save the people of Ordagami in the Kingdom of Jade from the Aku Oni tribe, just like with Livia. At least he was able to avenge Livia and help kill the dark creature.

 

[Dekana]

We freed her, but the avatar killed her with its last strength and this one could nothing to save her. This one has failed his friend... Kaz says. Memories flood back of how he failed to save the people of Ordagami in the Kingdom of Jade from the Aku Oni tribe, just like with Livia. At least he was able to avenge Livia and help kill the dark creature.

"N-no, don't say that." Toeto thinks back to the dark plague affecting her own people, unaware of how similar their plight may be to the Ordagamians. "You saved her from... from..." She trails off quietly and waits for someone else to relate the story.

 

[Mewness]

Scarmiglione asks politely for something hot to drink, and upon being provided with a large cup of tea, drinks it in his birdlike manner, sticking his beak in and then tilting his head sharply back so that the liquid trickles down his throat.

“After leaving you at the tower, we traveled into the mountains,” he begins softly, although his voice carries well enough for everyone to hear. “We were quickly surrounded by a strange, unnaturally cold mist, and had trouble finding our way. We could hear the dead pursuing us, but we were not able to avoid them.... They came upon us very suddenly, almost out of nowhere: more of those unpleasant flying globules, and creatures that, despite their enormous size, seemed to vanish into the mist without effort. I confess I do not know how we survived—those of us who did. Salgyn and Yishim were struck down and turned into walking dead, like your confederates”—he nods at a militia man—“and I was struck down myself. When I came awake again, I saw those little flying things—so many of them! They had drained us all, and their numbers grew and grew—but they were channeling their power, trying to cause one of the large creatures to rise again, and it was somehow beyond them: one by one they faded, spent.” Scarmiglione shakes his head gently, still bemused by the events he is relating. “Those of us still standing tried to capture the things that Salgyn and Yishim had become. We could not bring ourselves to destroy them, though more dead were coming, and there was little time. The body of Salgyn escaped us, and we struggled on with Yishim. I could hardly walk. I was sure the end was near—I had a restorative concoction in my bag, but I could not swallow, could not drink it.

“You will doubt the next part of the story, perhaps—with good reason, as I doubt it myself. I was, as I say, barely conscious. Kaz said that he could see a golden light, and one way or another, we abandoned our former course and made our way towards it. The path led us through a narrow ravine, and our pursuers were gaining on us, exhausted as we were, and dragging a walking corpse who fought us at every step—in the light of dawn, the picture is an amusing one, no?” Scarmiglione chuckles. “I vaguely remember singing the Song for the Dead to him—to it, rather—in an attempt to calm it down. Whether I did or not, whether or not it worked, I cannot precisely recollect. Perhaps I dreamed it. It is a famous aria—you have heard it, not doubt.” And he sings a good part of it, briefly filling the room with the poignant, haunting tune, before breaking the mood with a sudden full-throated laugh at the idea of himself singing to amuse a zombie.

“But to continue: the dead were catching up. We passed through an especially narrow bottleneck, and Fredrock declared he would stay and defend it while the rest of us escaped. As to whether any of us tried to dissuade him I cannot say. In any case we left him behind. Then our progress was blocked by a barrier of golden light.” He fishes around in his pockets for the statuette of the goddess. “But the barrier seemed to recognize this little bauble I had found, and we were admitted into a sort of grotto, with a glowing golden pool. You will correct me if I am wrong,” he says, turning to his companions, “for I do not trust my own recollections. A woman’s voice spoke—I believe it was the little statue speaking. She offered to save Fredrock’s life in exchange for one of our lives. Well, I cannot say what happened, exactly. Somehow Fredrock’s life was saved, and we were all alive ourselves at the end of it. Even Yishim was restored to life. Rather than taking one person’s life, it appears that she took a little something from each of us.” One of his hands goes unconsciously to the golden feathers at his throat and picks at them.

“I should like to identify our benefactor, but she would not reveal her name. She mentioned something of history of the area. There was once a city here, inhabited by people she referred to as the Hungerers; thoroughly unpleasant folk apparently, practitioners of necromancy and worshipers of the raven gods—the very ones causing all the trouble here. They had taken over the mind of a powerful sorceress, the very one who had been sending the dead to attack us.

“Well. We were much refreshed after spending some time in the golden grotto—it is no exaggeration to say that we had been brought back from the brink of death—and so we continued up to the plateau, where we did indeed find the ruins of a city. I cannot accurately describe it; the entire plateau was shrouded in that same clammy mist.... The dead were there in vast numbers, but we eluded them—by quite a clever bit of deception, really. I was leading some of them off and happened upon an old library, and had the good fortune to see some maps of the place, so getting through the city proved not at all difficult.

“Our information suggested that the center of the raven gods’ power was in a vast underground labyrinth. We encountered more dead on our way through. Truly hideous, creatures that it would hardly be decent to describe, not to mention the mushrooms that seemed to move in response to spilled blood—well, it does not bear talking of, does it? One cannot forget such things too quickly. I don’t know how long it took us to get through the labyrinth—it is truly vast, and we saw only a fraction of it—but after many ascents and descents, and what seemed to be an endless series of tunnels, we found the main temple.

“This was a large hall, decorated with images of the raven gods, and your friends were there—I mean you and your friend Livia, of course,” he says, glancing at Cale. “But they were most hideously changed. And there was a third person, the sorceress, the one who had been tormenting us all along. And she spoke to us, in two voices at once, so it seems to me—one voice the servant of the raven gods, taunting us, and the other the person she had been before, pleading in our minds.... Because of her, we knew how to destroy them—we had to break the statues of the gods and disrupt the magic that would bring them back.

“You and Livia”—he again addresses Cale—“were controlled by the ravens and fought us. Every time we killed you, the statues brought you back. When the statues were destroyed, you became your human selves again—but you both had the terrible wounds that we had inflicted. Livia was so badly injured that she could not survive the sorceress’s attack.” Scarmiglione drains his cup and pours himself some more. “This is marvelous; the very thing,” he comments—rather unfeelingly, given that he is in the middle of relating the circumstances of Livia’s death.

“All that remained was to disrupt the magic and destroy the sorceress—as she herself had requested. I cannot say it was a simple matter. I don’t know the first thing about magical rituals, and frankly, I should not have supposed that I knew much about killing undead sorceresses, either. Fortunately, there are some among us with expertise in these delicate matters. It is done, and, fortune willing, over with.”

 

[Xeterog]

Fredrock listens intently to Scarmiglione's tale, he is too sad and tired to add anything, tho the tale seems complete. After the tale is done, he raises his ale and says, sadly, To Livia, then drains the mug dry in one long gulp.

 

[Luinnar]

To Livia-chan, Kaz says, raising his cup of tea.

OOC: I can't give you xp, but great post Mewness!

 

[Iron Sky]

Mason and militia listen in silence to Scarm's story. When he finishes, Mason nods and gives the kenku a big hug. When she sits back down, she smiles at the group.

"At least you guys made it back at all! I think with you guys back. I think it's time for use to leave. As much as it pains me to leave the tower again after all we've done to take it, I don't think we have enough of us here to fight off a pack of wolves, much less some free-roaming dead meandering out of the ruins in the mountains. Captain Boundling leaves tomorrow morning."

---

The next morning, the group boards the Illest Omen just after dawn. A thick mist reflects the somber mood of the group as they sail away back to Daunton. It might be a figment of your imagination, but did you see a raven landing on the tower battlements just before it passed out of sight?

---

The three days go by quickly, though nightmares of being hunted in dark woods, of seeing old friends rising from the dead with rotting skin and burning eyes, of ravens sitting on tree limbs and fence posts in silent villages.

Fortunately, the nightmares remain just that and before anyone would have thought possible, the teeming docks of Daunton are in sight, then underfoot. Mason gives everyone a hug in turn, then leads the militia back to the barracks to report.

Here ends Beyond the Rerisen Tower.

GM: Thanks for playing guys, I had alot of fun running this adventure and you guys were a great bunch of players. Nice work on the story at the end Mewness, bonus xps!

[sblock=Treasure]1450gp
16 treasures/art (250gp each) = 4000gp
11 gems (100gp each) = 1100gp
2 Healing Potions(already distributed)
3 Lesser Radiant Orbs(already distributed)
Gp Total: 6550

Orb of Insurmountable Power +2(Level 8) Yishim
Iron Armbands of Power(Level 6) Kaz
Cloak of the Walking Wounded +2(Level 9) Fredrock
Accurate Staff of Ruin +2(Level 9) Scarm
Imposters +2 Finemail(Level 6) Toeto
Cloak of the Walking Wounded +2(Level 9) Eithal
Iron Armbands of Power(Level 6) Fredrock
Strongheart Tattoo(Level 8) Eithal

Time GP
February 1st to March 20th = 48 days

Level 4: (48 / 365) * 2100gp = 277gp
Level 5: (48 / 365) * 2330gp = 307gp
Level 6: (48 / 365) * 3756gp = 494gp

Toeto: 277gp
Kaz, Scarm, Fredrock, Yishim: 307gp
Eithal: 494gp

Grand Totals
Toeto: 1915gp, Imposters +2 Finemail(Level 6)
Kaz: 1945gp, Iron Armbands of Power(Level 6)
Scarm: 1945gp, Accurate Staff of Ruin +2(Level 9)
Fredrock: 307gp, Cloak of the Walking Wounded +2(Level 9), Iron Armbands of Power(Level 6)
Yishim: 1945gp, Orb of Insurmountable Power +2(Level 8)
Eithal: 494gp, Cloak of the Walking Wounded +2(Level 9), Strongheart Tattoo(Level 8)

Note: Since Fredrock and Eithal each got an extra item, I distributed the other gold evenly amongst everyone else.[/sblock]

[sblock=XP]Skill Challenges:

Infiltrating the Warrens(Level 5, 3 round Composite Skill Challenge): 50xp x 6 PCs x 3 rounds = 900xp
Twisting Tunnels(Level 5, 3 round Composite Skill Challenge): 50xp x 6 PCs x 3 rounds = 900xp
Escape!(Level 5, 1 round Composite Skill Challenge): 50xp x 6 PCs x 1 round = 300xp

Skill Challenge Total: 2100xp x 2 = 4200xp.


Combats:

Warrens Ambush:
2 x Rerisen Dead Mob(Level 5 Elite Brute, 400xp) = 800xp
2 x Rerisen Hungerer(Level 4 Brute Swarm, 175xp) = 350xp
11 x Burrow Worms(Level 4 Minion Skirmisher, 44xp) = 484xp
7 x Rerisen Dead(Level 1 Minion Brute, 25xp) = 175xp
Total: 1809xp

The Dark Temple:
1 x Avatar of Ravens(Level 5 Solo Artillery, 500xp) = 500xp
1 x Ravenchanged Cale(Level 5 Soldier(Leader), 200xp) = 200xp
1 x Ravenchanged Livia(Level 5 Artillery), 200xp) = 200xp
Total: 900xp

Combat Total: 2709xp x 2 = 5418xp

Quests:

Infiltrate the Dark Temple(Level 5, Minor, 300xp) = 300xp
Destroy the Avatar's Crystals(Level 5, Minor, 300xp) = 300xp
Destroy the Raven Gods(Level 5, Major, 1200xp) = 1200xp
Disrupt the Ritual(Level 5, Minor, 300xp) = 300xp
Rescue Cale(Level 5, Minor, 300xp) = 300xp

Quest Total: 2400xp x 2 = 4800xp

Scarm: Bonus XP(story): 50xp x 2 = 100xp

Adventure Total: 14418xp / 6 PCs = 2403xp

Time XP
Level 4: (48 / 365) * 1752xp = 231xp
Level 5: (48 / 365) * 2004p = 264xp
Level 6: (48 / 365) * 2502gp = 330xp

Grand Total:
Toeto: 2634xp
Kaz, Fredrock, Yishim: 2667xp
Scarm: 2767xp
Eithal: 2730xp[/sblock]

[sblock=DM Credits]48 days = 1.5 months = 3 DM Credits.[/sblock]

 

[Luinnar]

OOC: Thanks for the great adventure! If you ever need a character for one of your adventures, please let me know! One question, did you double the xp we get? I don't see that in your calculations

 

[Iron Sky]

Thanks for the great adventure! If you ever need a character for one of your adventures, please let me know!

One question, did you double the xp we get? I don't see that in your calculations

GM: Oh yeah, x2 xp. I'll fix that. I also was using the old (incorrectly figured) multipliers for my Composite system, all fixed above.