ADVENTURE 100: UNDEAD DREAMS
PC Roster:
Game Session Date: 21 June 2025
- - -
"So, are we ready to do this?" asked Zander. His pseudodragon familiar, Petey, was inside the extradimensional space of Hesperna's lamp, sleeping it off after a very busy night sending worrisome, telepathic messages to the vampires of the Forbidden Lands that the Conclave of Skulls did not have their best interests at heart. Now, fully rested and with a full complement of spells, the five heroes from Armaturia were ready to stop the planet-threatening scheme the Conclave was about ready to put into motion.
"Prep spells," suggested Wakuren, and the group started increasing their combat effectiveness as they walked down the corridor towards the Temple of Akari. The half-orc mummy covered himself in the spells displacement, entropic shield, shield of faith, magic vestment, and magic circle against evil, then cast the spells air walk and protection from evil on Xandro and five freedom of movement spells, one on each hero. With the fly spell in his shield of Cal, he was ready for whatever the Conclave might throw at him.
Alewyth, for her part, cast the spells entropic shield, magic vestment, magic circle against evil, and spell resistance on herself, then covered the entire group in a bless spell. Zander cast his normal mage armor spell on himself, added a displacement spell for good measure, used a charge from Thurloe's wand of shield, and then cast a haste spell on the group. Thurloe cast his own displacement spell and used his wand to shield himself, then cast two Randor's telepathic bond spells, overlapping them so he could get all five heroes connected in the mental communications link. Xandro cast heroism spells on Thurloe and Wakuren (saving his final casting free in case he suddenly found himself in desperate need of healing), then used his ring of invisibility to slip from sight. "I'm ready," came his unseen voice, as Wakuren opened the temple door and strode inside.
He expected to see Mother Bones there, but in her place stood only the skeleton servitor she kept on hand. "We need to report to the Conclave," Wakuren announced, and the skeleton merely bowed and walked over to the door, unlocking it with the key Mother Bones usually wore on a chain around her neck. Then it opened the door and stood aside to let the five new undead members of the Forbidden Lands pass. Just to be sure, Thurloe cast a command undead spell upon it, instructing it to wait there in the temple and not to mention to Mother Bones that the five of them had been granted entry. The skeleton nodded its understanding and the five heroes stepped through the open doorway. The skeleton closed and locked the door behind them.
There was no apparent change in the area, but Wakuren cast a detect magic spell just in case. The runes on the ceiling were still ready to blast disintegration spells on any living thing in the area, and the single spiderstone golem still gave off an aura of transmutation magic in abeyance; no changes since their last visit, then. They walked through the corridor between the golem platforms - one of them still empty, so the other golem still had Andrea under interrogation with the Conclave around the corner - and then Zander put his magic staff to good use.
Two castings of the passwall spell, one to go 10 feet into the solid wall and another to make a left-hand turn for another 25 feet until it opened up into an existing passageway beyond the secret door in full view of the Conclave - and the group was safely inside solid stone where they could not be seen. The elf necropolitan deactivated the first casting of the spell, so the opening in the stone corridor just past the spiderstone golem sentry was no more, and there was now no way for anyone to know of their intrusion.
Zander stuck his head into the pre-existing corridor to which his passwall spell had connected, and looked around the corner. It was pitch black, but his necropolitan form provided perfect darkvision, so he had no trouble noting the chamber to his right had a 40-foot ceiling - compared to the 10-foot ceiling in the passageway - or that there was another statue standing on a raised platform in the back of the room. This was no spiderstone golem, however; it was vaguely humanoid in build, but the proportions were all wrong: the overly large head sat heavily on a pair of wide shoulders without the added inconvenience of a neck, and while it was also carved of stone, this looked to be hewn from a solid slab of jade. It stood a good 35 feet tall, and its eyes stared back at the elf necropolitan, but with complete disinterest.
<We've got another golem, I think,> Zander told the others behind him. <A jade colossus, if memory serves.>
<What's that?> asked Alewyth. <I've never heard of it.>
Zander tried to recall what he'd heard about jade colossi. <I think it's immune to most spells, but disintegrate slows it up, I believe."
<Is it active?> asked Xandro.
<Nope, just standing there. Probably only activates when someone steps into the room.>
<Let's test that theory,> suggested Alewyth, activating her butterfly brooch and fluttering into the room, with Sjondra out and at the ready. Her experiment prompted a response, and she learned one didn't need to step into the room for the jade colossus to activate; as soon as she passed through the doorway into the taller chamber, the jade statue lurched into motion, stepping forward and slamming a massive fist in the dwarf vampire's direction. Alewyth was unable to dodge in time, for it moved much quicker than one would imagine of something that size.
Since the guardian was already active, Thurloe stepped into the entry corridor and backed up all the way to the secret door - which, from this side, was no secret at all. But he cast a Mhaurgh's acid arrow spell at the jade colossus, believing it to be one of the handful of spells that would actually affect it. In that he was correct, as bubbles formed on the statue's torso where the spell struck.
Xandro, still invisible and air walking a few inches above the floor so as to not cause any vibrations, raced forward between the legs of the colossus and then spun about, running up the air until he was about level with its kidneys (this was mere force of habit, as the human necropolitan realized it had no internal organs to pierce). He had his adamantine rapier out, knowing it would likely do more against a golem than Deathwhisper. Wakuren then raced into the room, casting a righteous might spell upon himself as he did so - and got walloped by a massive jade fist for his troubles. But the half-orc mummy and all of his gear were now twice their normal dimensions, and his shield of Cal would inflict a bit more damage at this increased size.
Knowing all of the heroes were enhanced with freedom of movement spells, Zander cast an Elobar's black tentacles beneath the jade colossus's feet. Writhing, ebon tentacles rose up from the floor, trying to entwine around the massive jade sculpture. (They tried wrapping around the heroes as well, but their protective spells kept them safe.) Alewyth took the opportunity to smash Sjondra directly into the jade colossus's carved face, sending chips of green stone flying in all directions. But she paid dearly for her attack, for it smashed her again with a backhanded slap that sent her reeling.
The acid from Thurloe's spell was still eating its way through the statue's body, and the death knight spellsword cast another spell at the jade form from his own position of safety as far back in the corridor as he could stand. He opted for a disintegrate spell, and Zander's earlier recollection had been spot on, for the jade colossus moved noticeably slower once the spell took effect.
Xandro popped back into the visible spectrum when he sent his adamantine rapier slashing across the jade colossus's back, scoring a groove in the stone as Wakuren slammed the statue with his oversize shield. Zander looked back at Thurloe in front of the secret door, and cast a wall of force diagonally across the back wall, blocking the secret door from being opened. <You don't need to guard the secret door,> he told Thurloe over the mental link, although that hadn't been what the spellsword was doing; he was just in a place of maximum safety, where he liked it.
Alewyth fluttered back up to the jade colossus and struck again with her dwarven warhammer, as it had its attention focused on slamming a fist at Wakuren, who was the easiest target of the five, being double everyone else's size. Its torso still blistered from the acid, but Thurloe cast an enervation spell at Alewyth, who looked like her vampiric body could use an infusion of negative energy to heal up. Wakuren cast a harm spell on himself for the same reason: he was getting pummeled badly by this big, neckless statue! Xandro continued his attacks from behind the jade colossus, but it barely seemed to notice.
Zander followed Thurloe's lead and cast an enervation spell of his own at Alewyth, who greatly appreciated having others heal her up so she could continue her attacks with Sjondra. But she took a moment from her attacks to cast a mass inflict critical wounds spell, healing up all of the heroes who had been injured in the fight thus far.
The jade colossus slammed a fist into Alewyth's side as she was concentrating on her spellcasting. Thurloe, worrying that the sounds of the fight might make it through the diagonal wall with the secret door and become detectable by the Conclave of Skulls just beyond, activated his ring of silence to prevent any sounds from making it that far (plus, it was an excellent reason to stay in the far back while the others took on the jade colossus). And attack they did, Xandro stabbing with his adamantine rapier, Alewyth striking with Sjondra, and Wakuren slamming with his shield of Cal. Zander, however, realized the jade colossus was a guardian and he imagined, since the room looked to be otherwise empty, it had to be guarding another secret door where the real threat to the planet was located. He couldn't see anything from where he stood, so he cast a detect magic spell and looked about to see if there was anything worth noting. Nope, but it had been worth a shot.
Alewyth chipped another divot out of the jade statue's face with Sjondra while it slammed Wakuren. Seeing his first such spell had run its course, Thurloe sent another Mhaurgh's acid arrow striking the jade colossus, his ring of silence allowing him to cast the spell without any problem despite being in the middle of a zone where no sounds emanated. Xandro continued carving away at the jade statue's back. Finally, Wakuren brought the thing down with a final swing of his shield of Cal which caused cracks to form along its waistline, and it crumbled into two pieces, bisected such that its top half fell forwards while its lower piece fell backwards. It cracked into further chunks upon impact, and Wakuren was momentarily distracted at the thought that all that jade was valuable, but then Alewyth set him back on the task at hand - they could always go collect up the jade chunks after they'd saved the planet!
After the elf necropolitan dismissed the tentacles - which were greedily wrapping around the pieces of the shattered jade colossus now that it was immobile - Alewyth and Zander went exploring all around the chamber, using their enhanced senses to determine the location of the secret door they reasoned had to be there somewhere. And they were correct: along the north wall, about halfway down the chamber, they found the mechanism that opened a section of wall into the room beyond. As Zander worked the mechanism, Alewyth began casting inflict spells on those who needed them after the beatdown from the massive jade statue.
The room beyond was back to a ceiling height of 10 feet, and there were five magic circles along the west, north, and east walls, arranged in an arc. <Teleportation circles,> announced Xandro after giving them a close-up examination. <And the markings are slightly different on each: they go to five different places.>
<Four around the planet, forming the base of the pyramid,> deduced Wakuren. <The fifth one is no doubt the top of the pyramid.>
<Which is which, do you think?> asked Thurloe.
<No idea,> admitted Xandro, as Wakuren used his shield to fly directly above the third one, without touching the floor. <Hovering above it does nothing,> he observed. <Looks like you need to step into the circle, on the floor.>
<Go ahead,> prompted Thurloe.
<Hang on,> interrupted Xandro. Activating his ring, he said, <How about I step into one while invisible, take a look around, and come back and tell you what I saw?>
<You won't need to come back to let us know," Thurloe reminded him. <The telepathic bond spells don't have a range limit, as long as we're all on the same plane of existence.>
<Better yet,> agreed Xandro, as he stepped into the second circle - it was the one closest to where he'd been standing. Immediately, the view all around him changed: he was now standing on a solid, black chunk of rock, in the teleportation circle at the other end of the instantaneous-transport tunnel. A metal scaffolding rose up from the rock a short distance away, and standing next to it was a drow necropolitan, wearing chain mail and wielding a greatsword. His posture and expression showed him to be ready for danger, but he apparently couldn't pierce Xandro's invisibility. Stars blazed all around overhead, while below them hung the planet of Erthe, a vast sphere of oceans and continents covered in drifting clouds. The sun blazed off to Xandro's left, burning whiter than it seemed back on the ground.
<Change of plans,> Xandro advised his partners as he crept silently around the satellite, until he was behind the unwitting necropolitan fighter. He noted there was no noise being made at all in the vacuum of space, and he also saw a gem of some type, embedded in the metal scaffold, was giving off a solid yellowish glow. But then he stabbed Deathwhisper into the drow necropolitan's back, and the dream-power being channeled by the Princess of Dreams into his rapier empowered it to deal as much damage to undead foes as he could normally do to the living, by choosing the most effect place to place his sword to inflict the most damage. One stab and the startled guardian was dead, impaled on Xandro's sword. He pulled the blade back out and tossed his dead foe aside, and was quite surprised to see him go flying sideways, away from the black stone on which he stood. He continued floating away at a steady speed. <Weird,> Xandro commented to himself, and then filled the others in on what he'd experienced.
<Describe the metal scaffold,> commanded Wakuren. The group decided this was probably some sort of antenna, functioning like a lightning rod, but more than likely built to channel negative energy broadcast from a chunk of black rock above the top of the planet. They weren't sure what the glowing gem was all about; some sort of indicator light, but as to what they had no idea. <Come on back,> the half-orc mummy suggested.
<How about I just keep this up?> suggested Xandro. Thurloe was all for it, recalling the tactic had worked well when they'd been rescuing the djinn daughters from their evil drow masters. Xandro reactivated his ring of invisibility, stepped into the first teleportation circle, and was gone.
He found himself on another black rock orbiting the planet around the equator, with only a few differences: the drow necropolitan standing ahead of him beside another antenna, was dressed in leather armor and wielded a pair of short swords, and the sun was now directly overhead, where before it had been off to his left. And there was a third difference: when Xandro went to stab him from behind with Deathwhisper, the rogue spun at the last moment, warned by some sort of inner sense, and the blade, while it cut deep into his side, failed to slay him outright. <He's still alive!> Xandro warned. <Help!>
Wakuren, who had been hovering with his shield of Cal still in hand (and providing him a fly spell), landed in the middle of the first teleportation circle and ended up watching the two struggling necropolitans battle it out in absolute silence. He leaped forward and slammed the undead drow with the side of his shield, but the rogue was still up and fighting.
Zander, worried their enemies might have a Randor's telepathic bond spell (or something similar) active, decided they needed to take out the other guardians as soon as possible. Letting them know his thoughts over the link, he stepped into the fifth teleportation circle and ended up on a different satellite, facing another drow necropolitan, armed and armored like the one Xandro had taken out first. He cast a Borgodast's crushing hand spell, sending a floating hand as large as the foe it grabbed up in its digits. The fighter struggled, but he couldn't extricate himself from the grip of the monstrous-sized hand. Zander moved up, noting there was a gem on this antenna scaffold as well but this one was unlit - and then he turned around and saw Mother Bones scowling down at him from on top of an undead beholder. A beam of telekinetic energy was being beamed out of one of its rotting eyestalks, moving the satellite of black rock into position.
Back in the teleportation circle chamber, Alewyth heard the sounds of pounding coming from behind her - apparently word had gotten out the satellites were under attack: Zander must have been right about their likewise having been connected by a Randor's telepathic bond spell. She knew by the way Zander had placed his wall of force spell the reinforcements wouldn't be able to open the secret door until the spell expired, but she decided she needed to do something to further slow them down, especially since, as a vampire, heading out to the satellites (and the direct sunlight in which at least three of them sat) would be a quick death for her. Closing the secret door they'd entered from the jade colossus's chamber, she cast a wall of stone spell that blocked it off. And unlike wall of force, once a wall of stone spell was cast, the solid wall thus formed was no longer magical, and thus couldn't be dispelled. That ought to hold them for a while!
Thurloe, warned of Zander's predicament by his frantic calls for help over the link, stepped into the fifth teleportation circle and ended up on Equatorial Satellite 4, seeing Zander and the hand-grappled necropolitan before him. Spinning about, he cast a solid fog spell centered on the death tyrant - who, he was glad to see, had its central eye glazed over with a whitish film; had its anti-magic cone still been active, the spellsword's solid fog scheme wouldn't have lasted but a moment. But it had worked well in the Dreamlands against that red dragon, so he saw no reason it wouldn't work now. They'd now have to slowly push their way through the solid fog, giving the others plenty of time to throw attack spells their way.
And it probably would have worked out that way, had Mother Bones not had a miracle spell on hand. She used it to duplicate the effects of a greater teleport spell, and all of a sudden, she and the death tyrant she stood upon were directly above the satellite - and Thurloe. The undead beholder shot a ray at Zander, which would have slowed the elf necropolitan had he not been able to shrug off its effects. The death tyrant also sent its telekinesis ray at Thurloe, hoping to toss him off the satellite and out into space, but the death knight spellsword managed to dodge out of the way in time.
Back on Equatorial Satellite 1, the drow necropolitan rogue stabbed at Xandro with his swords, but then Wakuren brought him down with an overhead bash with the lower edge of the shield of Cal. He nodded at Xandro, then stepped back into the teleportation circle and ended up back in the room with Alewyth. He ran across the room and went directly to Equatorial Satellite 4, with Thurloe and Zander, facing against Mother Bones and the death tyrant. But before he could attack it, Xandro was there, air walking up to the death tyrant and killing it with a stabbing stroke of Deathwhisper, piercing its blinded central eye and impaling its brain. He flung it to the side, toppling Mother Bones from her perch and leaving her floating helplessly above the satellite.
Zander cast a prismatic spray at the female lich, catching her with a green ray (dousing her with poison, to which she was immune) and a blue one (which likewise would have turned her to stone were she not undead, and thus immune to petrification).
Alewyth, by this time, had figured out the sun was visible on the three satellites the others had visited thus far, and thus it seemed likely the only remaining one in orbit around the equator was probably shielded from by the sun by the planet itself. Testing her theory (with the knowledge she could always return at once if she were wrong), she stepped into the fourth teleportation circle and onto Equatorial Satellite 3. This one was guarded by another drow necropolitan rogue, and the gem on the antenna at his side was glowing yellow - which must indicate it was in position and ready for the ritual to begin. She stepped forward and slammed Sjondra into the undead drow's side before he could react to her sudden presence. It was only then she realized she'd guessed right, for the entire satellite was in the shadow of the planet, with no part of the sun visible; she'd be safe there for a bit, anyway!
Thurloe activated his torc of the titans and flew up to Mother Bones, attacking her with his bastard sword Spellslicer. He wished the vacuum of space allowed him to tell her off, but apparently that was out of the question; he was just glad that undead spellcasters had no difficulty casting their spells out in space when they couldn't hear the words they spoke aloud. The lich took the sword-blow in the ribs, then retaliated with a fire storm spell engulfing Thurloe, Wakuren, Xandro, and Zander. Thurloe immediately changed his views on undead being able to cast spells in space, and took his frustrations out with another swing of Spellslicer into Mother Bones' hardened bones.
Below them all, the drow necropolitan still tried to wriggle out of the Borgodast's crushing hand spell effect, to no avail. Xandro air walked over to Mother Bones and stabbed at her with Deathwhisper, and when Wakuren flew up (after casting a holy word spell), she was surrounded on four sides by the male heroes from Armaturia. Thurloe stabbed at her with his bastard sword, Wakuren with his shield, and Xandro with his rapier, and when Mother Bones tried healing herself with a harm spell, they all pummeled her to death with their weapons of choice.
Over on Equatorial Satellite 3, Alewyth was trading blows with the necropolitan rogue, but it was a forgone conclusion that he was hopelessly outmatched by his dwarven vampire foe. She finally crushed in his skull with a blow from Sjondra, and then that was that. Shortly thereafter, the other necropolitan finally succumbed to the crushing from the Borgodast's hand spell, and the guards of the four equatorial satellites had been taken down for good. Zander dismissed his spell and the group all met back up in the teleportation circle room, where Alewyth and Wakuren dealt out necromantic healing spells to those who needed them.
<That was a pretty odd-looking rock,> Zander said over the link. <I've never seen anything quite as dark!>
<It's probably calcimortum,> surmised Wakuren. <It's solidified stone found only on the Negative Energy Plane - perfect for the ritual the Conclave was planning on performing.>
<Oh yeah?" asked Zander. <I'll be right back!> And he went to each of the equatorial satellites in turn, casting polymorph any object spells to permanently transform the calcimortum to harmless granite. It was good being a sorcerer, with all of that spellcasting power!
<We still have the top satellite to take care of,> Xandro reminded them, easing back into invisibility and stepping into the third teleportation circle - the only one they hadn't used yet. He found himself on another chunk of black calcimortum, this one positioned directly above the northern pole of the planet. Of the five, it was the lumpiest, with a sort of winding spiral hill on the top, where the expected antenna array was positioned. However, this one was also different than those on the equatorial satellites, for it was much taller and four projections jutted out towards the top, perpendicular from the main shaft in all four cardinal directions. It also had not one but four gemstones along its base, three of which were glowing, the other one dark. And standing alongside the antenna was not a necropolitan but a full lich. All of this Xandro took in as he silently approached the undead spellcaster, recognizing as he did so the antenna array was the modified immovable rod they'd helped Pendlebrook recover from Hell. That at least explained how the floating chunk of calcimortum remained in place atop the zenith of the planet below.
Xandro made it directly behind the unaware lich when Wakuren said over the link, <Hang on, I'll be a distraction for you!> and suddenly materialized inside the teleportation circle, a 12-foot-tall half-orc mummy wearing the accoutrements indicating his dedication to Cal, the God of the Air and Healing. That certainly drew the lich's attention, enough so Xandro slid Deathwhisper through his ribs from behind, surprising the spellcaster as he saw the rapier's blade suddenly extend through his robes from his chest. Then Thurloe appeared in the teleportation circle below, flying up beside Wakuren to attack the lich with his bastard sword. It staggered from the blow, and raised a skeletal arm to ward of a slam from Wakuren's shield, allowing Xandro to slay him with another well-placed stab of his dream-power-enhanced rapier. The lich died without being able to raise a spell in his own defense.
<Everything okay?> Alewyth called over the link, knowing she couldn't enter onto the northern satellite without exposing her vampiric form to direct sunlight. Xandro replied they'd taken out the only guardian, and the entire network was now under their control. Zander informed them he was finished turning the last of the equatorial satellites to granite, and that he'd be there shortly to do the same to the final one. Wakuren bent down and chipped off a chunk of the black rock for his own use, as of the five heroes, he was only one planning to remain undead for a bit, and a chunk of solidified negative energy could come in handy....
Zander joined the others and began examining the modified immovable rod with great interest.
<Okay, so how do we make sure the Conclave doesn't just start over with their stupid plan?> asked Thurloe. <They managed to get these five rocks into the Material Plane - they can do it again, if we let them.>
<We need to take them all out, permanently,> agreed Wakuren. <But I don't think we can win a fight against what, 200 demiliches?>
<And it's fainter through a solid, stone wall and a wall of force,> Alewyth added, <but I can hear they're still sending in troops to try to get through.> She wasn't aware of it, but besides pounding on the secret door, they had already sent a pair of vampires in gaseous form through the cracks in the first secret door, but they'd been unable to make it past Zander's wall of solid force energy...although that spell had a definite duration which continued to wind down....
But Zander had been furiously studying the antenna array, specifically the area by the gemstones. <Guys,> he said. <You know how Mother Bones was using that undead beholder to put the fourth satellite directly into position? This one doesn't need that - it can be steered directly!> He demonstrated by moving a lever that popped out from the antenna, sending the entire chunk of calcimortum shooting off to the right, then moved another lever and sent it moving higher in elevation. <Furthermore,> he said, <it can be sent to whatever location directed. I can have it go straight to the Forbidden Lands at full speed, like a falling meteor!>
<I thought the whole place was shielded,> Thurloe argued.
<They'd have turned off the shields in preparation for their ritual,> Zander counterargued. <Are you kidding? Waves of negative energy encompassing the entire northern hemisphere? They wouldn't want to shield themselves from that much power!>
<Do it,> directed Wakuren. <Only, maybe turn the rock into granite, first. I don't want a chunk of calcimortum hitting the planet - no telling what it might do.> He had yet to make the connection, but the reason there was a fallen city in the middle of Armaturia populated only by undead was a much smaller chunk of calcimortum had dropped from the skies decades ago, in the Forbidden Lands' initial experimentation with orbital mechanics as it applied to chunks of solidified negative energy.
Zander bent down, touched the calcimortum below him, and cast his final polymorph any object of the night. Then he set the coordinates on the modified immovable rod, went back with Wakuren to the teleportation circle room, had Alewyth enter the extradimensional space inside Hesperna's lamp, and then returned to the northern locus satellite with his mummified companion, now back to his normal size.
<Ready to activate,> he told the others. Wakuren nodded for him to do so, and the satellite started picking up speed on its trajectory right towards the center of the Forbidden Lands. <I can cast a greater teleport to get us anywhere we want to go,> he told the others. <Where to?>
<How about Chu'curan?> Xandro offered. <That's where I'm going to meet up with Robin.>
<No!> cried Wakuren. <Take us to the wood colossus! I want to rescue it from the blast radius!> Zander shrugged and cast a greater teleport spell, sending them all onto the desert sands, between the sphinx colossus that was the conduit from the outside world to the Forbidden Lands, and the wood colossus who stood right where the half-orc had left it. "Everyone inside!" Wakuren called, flying up with his shield of Cal through the attic window that led to the control room in the construct's "head." The others followed suit, flying or air walking as appropriate. Thurloe and Zander settled themselves on the palanquin platform that had been erected there as a lookout station, while Xandro joined Wakuren in the control room.
Once at the console, Wakuren sent the wood colossus fleeing across the desert sands at its top speed, while Xandro entered the lamp and told Alewyth it was safe to come out; the skies overhead were the full black of midnight. She joined the others back in the Material Plane.
"There it is!" cried Thurloe, pointing to a streak of light in the skies above that was getting bigger and brighter as it approached. When the Northern Locus Satellite, now just a chunk of granite falling at terminal velocity, struck the Forbidden Lands on the other side of the cliffside, there was a massive explosion that sent the wood colossus staggering forward, as the sands of the desert went flying up into the air from the shock waves and the cliffs collapsed, burying the sphinx colossus in layers of rubble. They were all confident that the impact would have collapsed all of the subterranean levels of the undead community, including the Conclave of Skulls.
"What about Andrea?" Alewyth asked, suddenly recalling she'd been left behind to be destroyed with all the other undead.
"Acceptable loss," Thurloe remarked, and Alewyth wasn't sure if his comment was based on a firm belief that her death was a price worth paying to see the rest of the Forbidden Lands destroyed, or if the fact he was the sole beneficiary of her estate had anything to do with it.
"I'll cast a true resurrection to restore her to life when we get back to Armaturia," she promised the death knight. "But in the meantime, can we get back to the living ourselves? I was seriously giving thought as to what Petey's blood would taste like, there inside the lamp." She was the first one to cast her wish spell, and Azagaard the noble djinn appeared when she called out his name. "I wish to be restored to my normal, living, dwarven form," she told him, and she felt blood once again pumping through her system, and the warmth of living flesh never felt so good! She hadn't realized until just now how cold she'd been as a vampire.
One by one, Zander, Thurloe, and Xandro repeated their wishes and were restored back to their normal, living forms. Then Azagaard turned querying to Wakuren.
"If you don't mind," he said, "I'm going to save my wish for a little while more." He explained that the wood colossus was too big to teleport to Armaturia, so he intended to stay in its control room as it walked across the continent of Talonia (retracing the way they'd come), then across the ocean floor as it walked its way back to the island continent of Armaturia. "Obviously, I can do that better if I'm still undead. So I'll return to my living form once we're both back home."
"Very well," agreed Azagaard, and returned to the Elemental Plane of Air in a puff of white smoke.
"So now what?" asked Zander.
"Chu'curan!" replied Xandro. "I want to go pick up Robin!"
"You guys go on ahead," Wakuren offered. "I'll catch up to you once I get back to Armaturia."
"If you're sure," Zander replied. And with the mummified half-orc's reassurances, Zander cast a greater teleport spell that sent the other four to the drow city of Chu'curan, where Robin awaited an eventual reunion with Xandro.
Alone with his wood colossus, Wakuren mused about the future as the construct lumbered on through the desert sands, heading back east.
- - -
And that's how we closed out the "Dreams of Erthe" campaign, about five years after we started it up. I asked around the table about what the players imagined their PCs would do next, and this is the consensus:
- - -
T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" shirt, as the PCs finished this campaign out as undead creatures.
PC Roster:
Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf vampire priestess of Aerik 20
Thurloe Pulver, human death knight fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10/eldritch knight 4
Wakuren, half-orc mummy cleric of Cal 10/paladin 10
Xandro Silverstrings, human necropolitan bard 6/rogue 14
Zander Quilson, elf necropolitan sorcerer 20
Game Session Date: 21 June 2025
- - -
"So, are we ready to do this?" asked Zander. His pseudodragon familiar, Petey, was inside the extradimensional space of Hesperna's lamp, sleeping it off after a very busy night sending worrisome, telepathic messages to the vampires of the Forbidden Lands that the Conclave of Skulls did not have their best interests at heart. Now, fully rested and with a full complement of spells, the five heroes from Armaturia were ready to stop the planet-threatening scheme the Conclave was about ready to put into motion.
"Prep spells," suggested Wakuren, and the group started increasing their combat effectiveness as they walked down the corridor towards the Temple of Akari. The half-orc mummy covered himself in the spells displacement, entropic shield, shield of faith, magic vestment, and magic circle against evil, then cast the spells air walk and protection from evil on Xandro and five freedom of movement spells, one on each hero. With the fly spell in his shield of Cal, he was ready for whatever the Conclave might throw at him.
Alewyth, for her part, cast the spells entropic shield, magic vestment, magic circle against evil, and spell resistance on herself, then covered the entire group in a bless spell. Zander cast his normal mage armor spell on himself, added a displacement spell for good measure, used a charge from Thurloe's wand of shield, and then cast a haste spell on the group. Thurloe cast his own displacement spell and used his wand to shield himself, then cast two Randor's telepathic bond spells, overlapping them so he could get all five heroes connected in the mental communications link. Xandro cast heroism spells on Thurloe and Wakuren (saving his final casting free in case he suddenly found himself in desperate need of healing), then used his ring of invisibility to slip from sight. "I'm ready," came his unseen voice, as Wakuren opened the temple door and strode inside.
He expected to see Mother Bones there, but in her place stood only the skeleton servitor she kept on hand. "We need to report to the Conclave," Wakuren announced, and the skeleton merely bowed and walked over to the door, unlocking it with the key Mother Bones usually wore on a chain around her neck. Then it opened the door and stood aside to let the five new undead members of the Forbidden Lands pass. Just to be sure, Thurloe cast a command undead spell upon it, instructing it to wait there in the temple and not to mention to Mother Bones that the five of them had been granted entry. The skeleton nodded its understanding and the five heroes stepped through the open doorway. The skeleton closed and locked the door behind them.
There was no apparent change in the area, but Wakuren cast a detect magic spell just in case. The runes on the ceiling were still ready to blast disintegration spells on any living thing in the area, and the single spiderstone golem still gave off an aura of transmutation magic in abeyance; no changes since their last visit, then. They walked through the corridor between the golem platforms - one of them still empty, so the other golem still had Andrea under interrogation with the Conclave around the corner - and then Zander put his magic staff to good use.
Two castings of the passwall spell, one to go 10 feet into the solid wall and another to make a left-hand turn for another 25 feet until it opened up into an existing passageway beyond the secret door in full view of the Conclave - and the group was safely inside solid stone where they could not be seen. The elf necropolitan deactivated the first casting of the spell, so the opening in the stone corridor just past the spiderstone golem sentry was no more, and there was now no way for anyone to know of their intrusion.
Zander stuck his head into the pre-existing corridor to which his passwall spell had connected, and looked around the corner. It was pitch black, but his necropolitan form provided perfect darkvision, so he had no trouble noting the chamber to his right had a 40-foot ceiling - compared to the 10-foot ceiling in the passageway - or that there was another statue standing on a raised platform in the back of the room. This was no spiderstone golem, however; it was vaguely humanoid in build, but the proportions were all wrong: the overly large head sat heavily on a pair of wide shoulders without the added inconvenience of a neck, and while it was also carved of stone, this looked to be hewn from a solid slab of jade. It stood a good 35 feet tall, and its eyes stared back at the elf necropolitan, but with complete disinterest.
<We've got another golem, I think,> Zander told the others behind him. <A jade colossus, if memory serves.>
<What's that?> asked Alewyth. <I've never heard of it.>
Zander tried to recall what he'd heard about jade colossi. <I think it's immune to most spells, but disintegrate slows it up, I believe."
<Is it active?> asked Xandro.
<Nope, just standing there. Probably only activates when someone steps into the room.>
<Let's test that theory,> suggested Alewyth, activating her butterfly brooch and fluttering into the room, with Sjondra out and at the ready. Her experiment prompted a response, and she learned one didn't need to step into the room for the jade colossus to activate; as soon as she passed through the doorway into the taller chamber, the jade statue lurched into motion, stepping forward and slamming a massive fist in the dwarf vampire's direction. Alewyth was unable to dodge in time, for it moved much quicker than one would imagine of something that size.
Since the guardian was already active, Thurloe stepped into the entry corridor and backed up all the way to the secret door - which, from this side, was no secret at all. But he cast a Mhaurgh's acid arrow spell at the jade colossus, believing it to be one of the handful of spells that would actually affect it. In that he was correct, as bubbles formed on the statue's torso where the spell struck.
Xandro, still invisible and air walking a few inches above the floor so as to not cause any vibrations, raced forward between the legs of the colossus and then spun about, running up the air until he was about level with its kidneys (this was mere force of habit, as the human necropolitan realized it had no internal organs to pierce). He had his adamantine rapier out, knowing it would likely do more against a golem than Deathwhisper. Wakuren then raced into the room, casting a righteous might spell upon himself as he did so - and got walloped by a massive jade fist for his troubles. But the half-orc mummy and all of his gear were now twice their normal dimensions, and his shield of Cal would inflict a bit more damage at this increased size.
Knowing all of the heroes were enhanced with freedom of movement spells, Zander cast an Elobar's black tentacles beneath the jade colossus's feet. Writhing, ebon tentacles rose up from the floor, trying to entwine around the massive jade sculpture. (They tried wrapping around the heroes as well, but their protective spells kept them safe.) Alewyth took the opportunity to smash Sjondra directly into the jade colossus's carved face, sending chips of green stone flying in all directions. But she paid dearly for her attack, for it smashed her again with a backhanded slap that sent her reeling.
The acid from Thurloe's spell was still eating its way through the statue's body, and the death knight spellsword cast another spell at the jade form from his own position of safety as far back in the corridor as he could stand. He opted for a disintegrate spell, and Zander's earlier recollection had been spot on, for the jade colossus moved noticeably slower once the spell took effect.
Xandro popped back into the visible spectrum when he sent his adamantine rapier slashing across the jade colossus's back, scoring a groove in the stone as Wakuren slammed the statue with his oversize shield. Zander looked back at Thurloe in front of the secret door, and cast a wall of force diagonally across the back wall, blocking the secret door from being opened. <You don't need to guard the secret door,> he told Thurloe over the mental link, although that hadn't been what the spellsword was doing; he was just in a place of maximum safety, where he liked it.
Alewyth fluttered back up to the jade colossus and struck again with her dwarven warhammer, as it had its attention focused on slamming a fist at Wakuren, who was the easiest target of the five, being double everyone else's size. Its torso still blistered from the acid, but Thurloe cast an enervation spell at Alewyth, who looked like her vampiric body could use an infusion of negative energy to heal up. Wakuren cast a harm spell on himself for the same reason: he was getting pummeled badly by this big, neckless statue! Xandro continued his attacks from behind the jade colossus, but it barely seemed to notice.
Zander followed Thurloe's lead and cast an enervation spell of his own at Alewyth, who greatly appreciated having others heal her up so she could continue her attacks with Sjondra. But she took a moment from her attacks to cast a mass inflict critical wounds spell, healing up all of the heroes who had been injured in the fight thus far.
The jade colossus slammed a fist into Alewyth's side as she was concentrating on her spellcasting. Thurloe, worrying that the sounds of the fight might make it through the diagonal wall with the secret door and become detectable by the Conclave of Skulls just beyond, activated his ring of silence to prevent any sounds from making it that far (plus, it was an excellent reason to stay in the far back while the others took on the jade colossus). And attack they did, Xandro stabbing with his adamantine rapier, Alewyth striking with Sjondra, and Wakuren slamming with his shield of Cal. Zander, however, realized the jade colossus was a guardian and he imagined, since the room looked to be otherwise empty, it had to be guarding another secret door where the real threat to the planet was located. He couldn't see anything from where he stood, so he cast a detect magic spell and looked about to see if there was anything worth noting. Nope, but it had been worth a shot.
Alewyth chipped another divot out of the jade statue's face with Sjondra while it slammed Wakuren. Seeing his first such spell had run its course, Thurloe sent another Mhaurgh's acid arrow striking the jade colossus, his ring of silence allowing him to cast the spell without any problem despite being in the middle of a zone where no sounds emanated. Xandro continued carving away at the jade statue's back. Finally, Wakuren brought the thing down with a final swing of his shield of Cal which caused cracks to form along its waistline, and it crumbled into two pieces, bisected such that its top half fell forwards while its lower piece fell backwards. It cracked into further chunks upon impact, and Wakuren was momentarily distracted at the thought that all that jade was valuable, but then Alewyth set him back on the task at hand - they could always go collect up the jade chunks after they'd saved the planet!
After the elf necropolitan dismissed the tentacles - which were greedily wrapping around the pieces of the shattered jade colossus now that it was immobile - Alewyth and Zander went exploring all around the chamber, using their enhanced senses to determine the location of the secret door they reasoned had to be there somewhere. And they were correct: along the north wall, about halfway down the chamber, they found the mechanism that opened a section of wall into the room beyond. As Zander worked the mechanism, Alewyth began casting inflict spells on those who needed them after the beatdown from the massive jade statue.
The room beyond was back to a ceiling height of 10 feet, and there were five magic circles along the west, north, and east walls, arranged in an arc. <Teleportation circles,> announced Xandro after giving them a close-up examination. <And the markings are slightly different on each: they go to five different places.>
<Four around the planet, forming the base of the pyramid,> deduced Wakuren. <The fifth one is no doubt the top of the pyramid.>
<Which is which, do you think?> asked Thurloe.
<No idea,> admitted Xandro, as Wakuren used his shield to fly directly above the third one, without touching the floor. <Hovering above it does nothing,> he observed. <Looks like you need to step into the circle, on the floor.>
<Go ahead,> prompted Thurloe.
<Hang on,> interrupted Xandro. Activating his ring, he said, <How about I step into one while invisible, take a look around, and come back and tell you what I saw?>
<You won't need to come back to let us know," Thurloe reminded him. <The telepathic bond spells don't have a range limit, as long as we're all on the same plane of existence.>
<Better yet,> agreed Xandro, as he stepped into the second circle - it was the one closest to where he'd been standing. Immediately, the view all around him changed: he was now standing on a solid, black chunk of rock, in the teleportation circle at the other end of the instantaneous-transport tunnel. A metal scaffolding rose up from the rock a short distance away, and standing next to it was a drow necropolitan, wearing chain mail and wielding a greatsword. His posture and expression showed him to be ready for danger, but he apparently couldn't pierce Xandro's invisibility. Stars blazed all around overhead, while below them hung the planet of Erthe, a vast sphere of oceans and continents covered in drifting clouds. The sun blazed off to Xandro's left, burning whiter than it seemed back on the ground.
<Change of plans,> Xandro advised his partners as he crept silently around the satellite, until he was behind the unwitting necropolitan fighter. He noted there was no noise being made at all in the vacuum of space, and he also saw a gem of some type, embedded in the metal scaffold, was giving off a solid yellowish glow. But then he stabbed Deathwhisper into the drow necropolitan's back, and the dream-power being channeled by the Princess of Dreams into his rapier empowered it to deal as much damage to undead foes as he could normally do to the living, by choosing the most effect place to place his sword to inflict the most damage. One stab and the startled guardian was dead, impaled on Xandro's sword. He pulled the blade back out and tossed his dead foe aside, and was quite surprised to see him go flying sideways, away from the black stone on which he stood. He continued floating away at a steady speed. <Weird,> Xandro commented to himself, and then filled the others in on what he'd experienced.
<Describe the metal scaffold,> commanded Wakuren. The group decided this was probably some sort of antenna, functioning like a lightning rod, but more than likely built to channel negative energy broadcast from a chunk of black rock above the top of the planet. They weren't sure what the glowing gem was all about; some sort of indicator light, but as to what they had no idea. <Come on back,> the half-orc mummy suggested.
<How about I just keep this up?> suggested Xandro. Thurloe was all for it, recalling the tactic had worked well when they'd been rescuing the djinn daughters from their evil drow masters. Xandro reactivated his ring of invisibility, stepped into the first teleportation circle, and was gone.
He found himself on another black rock orbiting the planet around the equator, with only a few differences: the drow necropolitan standing ahead of him beside another antenna, was dressed in leather armor and wielded a pair of short swords, and the sun was now directly overhead, where before it had been off to his left. And there was a third difference: when Xandro went to stab him from behind with Deathwhisper, the rogue spun at the last moment, warned by some sort of inner sense, and the blade, while it cut deep into his side, failed to slay him outright. <He's still alive!> Xandro warned. <Help!>
Wakuren, who had been hovering with his shield of Cal still in hand (and providing him a fly spell), landed in the middle of the first teleportation circle and ended up watching the two struggling necropolitans battle it out in absolute silence. He leaped forward and slammed the undead drow with the side of his shield, but the rogue was still up and fighting.
Zander, worried their enemies might have a Randor's telepathic bond spell (or something similar) active, decided they needed to take out the other guardians as soon as possible. Letting them know his thoughts over the link, he stepped into the fifth teleportation circle and ended up on a different satellite, facing another drow necropolitan, armed and armored like the one Xandro had taken out first. He cast a Borgodast's crushing hand spell, sending a floating hand as large as the foe it grabbed up in its digits. The fighter struggled, but he couldn't extricate himself from the grip of the monstrous-sized hand. Zander moved up, noting there was a gem on this antenna scaffold as well but this one was unlit - and then he turned around and saw Mother Bones scowling down at him from on top of an undead beholder. A beam of telekinetic energy was being beamed out of one of its rotting eyestalks, moving the satellite of black rock into position.
Back in the teleportation circle chamber, Alewyth heard the sounds of pounding coming from behind her - apparently word had gotten out the satellites were under attack: Zander must have been right about their likewise having been connected by a Randor's telepathic bond spell. She knew by the way Zander had placed his wall of force spell the reinforcements wouldn't be able to open the secret door until the spell expired, but she decided she needed to do something to further slow them down, especially since, as a vampire, heading out to the satellites (and the direct sunlight in which at least three of them sat) would be a quick death for her. Closing the secret door they'd entered from the jade colossus's chamber, she cast a wall of stone spell that blocked it off. And unlike wall of force, once a wall of stone spell was cast, the solid wall thus formed was no longer magical, and thus couldn't be dispelled. That ought to hold them for a while!
Thurloe, warned of Zander's predicament by his frantic calls for help over the link, stepped into the fifth teleportation circle and ended up on Equatorial Satellite 4, seeing Zander and the hand-grappled necropolitan before him. Spinning about, he cast a solid fog spell centered on the death tyrant - who, he was glad to see, had its central eye glazed over with a whitish film; had its anti-magic cone still been active, the spellsword's solid fog scheme wouldn't have lasted but a moment. But it had worked well in the Dreamlands against that red dragon, so he saw no reason it wouldn't work now. They'd now have to slowly push their way through the solid fog, giving the others plenty of time to throw attack spells their way.
And it probably would have worked out that way, had Mother Bones not had a miracle spell on hand. She used it to duplicate the effects of a greater teleport spell, and all of a sudden, she and the death tyrant she stood upon were directly above the satellite - and Thurloe. The undead beholder shot a ray at Zander, which would have slowed the elf necropolitan had he not been able to shrug off its effects. The death tyrant also sent its telekinesis ray at Thurloe, hoping to toss him off the satellite and out into space, but the death knight spellsword managed to dodge out of the way in time.
Back on Equatorial Satellite 1, the drow necropolitan rogue stabbed at Xandro with his swords, but then Wakuren brought him down with an overhead bash with the lower edge of the shield of Cal. He nodded at Xandro, then stepped back into the teleportation circle and ended up back in the room with Alewyth. He ran across the room and went directly to Equatorial Satellite 4, with Thurloe and Zander, facing against Mother Bones and the death tyrant. But before he could attack it, Xandro was there, air walking up to the death tyrant and killing it with a stabbing stroke of Deathwhisper, piercing its blinded central eye and impaling its brain. He flung it to the side, toppling Mother Bones from her perch and leaving her floating helplessly above the satellite.
Zander cast a prismatic spray at the female lich, catching her with a green ray (dousing her with poison, to which she was immune) and a blue one (which likewise would have turned her to stone were she not undead, and thus immune to petrification).
Alewyth, by this time, had figured out the sun was visible on the three satellites the others had visited thus far, and thus it seemed likely the only remaining one in orbit around the equator was probably shielded from by the sun by the planet itself. Testing her theory (with the knowledge she could always return at once if she were wrong), she stepped into the fourth teleportation circle and onto Equatorial Satellite 3. This one was guarded by another drow necropolitan rogue, and the gem on the antenna at his side was glowing yellow - which must indicate it was in position and ready for the ritual to begin. She stepped forward and slammed Sjondra into the undead drow's side before he could react to her sudden presence. It was only then she realized she'd guessed right, for the entire satellite was in the shadow of the planet, with no part of the sun visible; she'd be safe there for a bit, anyway!
Thurloe activated his torc of the titans and flew up to Mother Bones, attacking her with his bastard sword Spellslicer. He wished the vacuum of space allowed him to tell her off, but apparently that was out of the question; he was just glad that undead spellcasters had no difficulty casting their spells out in space when they couldn't hear the words they spoke aloud. The lich took the sword-blow in the ribs, then retaliated with a fire storm spell engulfing Thurloe, Wakuren, Xandro, and Zander. Thurloe immediately changed his views on undead being able to cast spells in space, and took his frustrations out with another swing of Spellslicer into Mother Bones' hardened bones.
Below them all, the drow necropolitan still tried to wriggle out of the Borgodast's crushing hand spell effect, to no avail. Xandro air walked over to Mother Bones and stabbed at her with Deathwhisper, and when Wakuren flew up (after casting a holy word spell), she was surrounded on four sides by the male heroes from Armaturia. Thurloe stabbed at her with his bastard sword, Wakuren with his shield, and Xandro with his rapier, and when Mother Bones tried healing herself with a harm spell, they all pummeled her to death with their weapons of choice.
Over on Equatorial Satellite 3, Alewyth was trading blows with the necropolitan rogue, but it was a forgone conclusion that he was hopelessly outmatched by his dwarven vampire foe. She finally crushed in his skull with a blow from Sjondra, and then that was that. Shortly thereafter, the other necropolitan finally succumbed to the crushing from the Borgodast's hand spell, and the guards of the four equatorial satellites had been taken down for good. Zander dismissed his spell and the group all met back up in the teleportation circle room, where Alewyth and Wakuren dealt out necromantic healing spells to those who needed them.
<That was a pretty odd-looking rock,> Zander said over the link. <I've never seen anything quite as dark!>
<It's probably calcimortum,> surmised Wakuren. <It's solidified stone found only on the Negative Energy Plane - perfect for the ritual the Conclave was planning on performing.>
<Oh yeah?" asked Zander. <I'll be right back!> And he went to each of the equatorial satellites in turn, casting polymorph any object spells to permanently transform the calcimortum to harmless granite. It was good being a sorcerer, with all of that spellcasting power!
<We still have the top satellite to take care of,> Xandro reminded them, easing back into invisibility and stepping into the third teleportation circle - the only one they hadn't used yet. He found himself on another chunk of black calcimortum, this one positioned directly above the northern pole of the planet. Of the five, it was the lumpiest, with a sort of winding spiral hill on the top, where the expected antenna array was positioned. However, this one was also different than those on the equatorial satellites, for it was much taller and four projections jutted out towards the top, perpendicular from the main shaft in all four cardinal directions. It also had not one but four gemstones along its base, three of which were glowing, the other one dark. And standing alongside the antenna was not a necropolitan but a full lich. All of this Xandro took in as he silently approached the undead spellcaster, recognizing as he did so the antenna array was the modified immovable rod they'd helped Pendlebrook recover from Hell. That at least explained how the floating chunk of calcimortum remained in place atop the zenith of the planet below.
Xandro made it directly behind the unaware lich when Wakuren said over the link, <Hang on, I'll be a distraction for you!> and suddenly materialized inside the teleportation circle, a 12-foot-tall half-orc mummy wearing the accoutrements indicating his dedication to Cal, the God of the Air and Healing. That certainly drew the lich's attention, enough so Xandro slid Deathwhisper through his ribs from behind, surprising the spellcaster as he saw the rapier's blade suddenly extend through his robes from his chest. Then Thurloe appeared in the teleportation circle below, flying up beside Wakuren to attack the lich with his bastard sword. It staggered from the blow, and raised a skeletal arm to ward of a slam from Wakuren's shield, allowing Xandro to slay him with another well-placed stab of his dream-power-enhanced rapier. The lich died without being able to raise a spell in his own defense.
<Everything okay?> Alewyth called over the link, knowing she couldn't enter onto the northern satellite without exposing her vampiric form to direct sunlight. Xandro replied they'd taken out the only guardian, and the entire network was now under their control. Zander informed them he was finished turning the last of the equatorial satellites to granite, and that he'd be there shortly to do the same to the final one. Wakuren bent down and chipped off a chunk of the black rock for his own use, as of the five heroes, he was only one planning to remain undead for a bit, and a chunk of solidified negative energy could come in handy....
Zander joined the others and began examining the modified immovable rod with great interest.
<Okay, so how do we make sure the Conclave doesn't just start over with their stupid plan?> asked Thurloe. <They managed to get these five rocks into the Material Plane - they can do it again, if we let them.>
<We need to take them all out, permanently,> agreed Wakuren. <But I don't think we can win a fight against what, 200 demiliches?>
<And it's fainter through a solid, stone wall and a wall of force,> Alewyth added, <but I can hear they're still sending in troops to try to get through.> She wasn't aware of it, but besides pounding on the secret door, they had already sent a pair of vampires in gaseous form through the cracks in the first secret door, but they'd been unable to make it past Zander's wall of solid force energy...although that spell had a definite duration which continued to wind down....
But Zander had been furiously studying the antenna array, specifically the area by the gemstones. <Guys,> he said. <You know how Mother Bones was using that undead beholder to put the fourth satellite directly into position? This one doesn't need that - it can be steered directly!> He demonstrated by moving a lever that popped out from the antenna, sending the entire chunk of calcimortum shooting off to the right, then moved another lever and sent it moving higher in elevation. <Furthermore,> he said, <it can be sent to whatever location directed. I can have it go straight to the Forbidden Lands at full speed, like a falling meteor!>
<I thought the whole place was shielded,> Thurloe argued.
<They'd have turned off the shields in preparation for their ritual,> Zander counterargued. <Are you kidding? Waves of negative energy encompassing the entire northern hemisphere? They wouldn't want to shield themselves from that much power!>
<Do it,> directed Wakuren. <Only, maybe turn the rock into granite, first. I don't want a chunk of calcimortum hitting the planet - no telling what it might do.> He had yet to make the connection, but the reason there was a fallen city in the middle of Armaturia populated only by undead was a much smaller chunk of calcimortum had dropped from the skies decades ago, in the Forbidden Lands' initial experimentation with orbital mechanics as it applied to chunks of solidified negative energy.
Zander bent down, touched the calcimortum below him, and cast his final polymorph any object of the night. Then he set the coordinates on the modified immovable rod, went back with Wakuren to the teleportation circle room, had Alewyth enter the extradimensional space inside Hesperna's lamp, and then returned to the northern locus satellite with his mummified companion, now back to his normal size.
<Ready to activate,> he told the others. Wakuren nodded for him to do so, and the satellite started picking up speed on its trajectory right towards the center of the Forbidden Lands. <I can cast a greater teleport to get us anywhere we want to go,> he told the others. <Where to?>
<How about Chu'curan?> Xandro offered. <That's where I'm going to meet up with Robin.>
<No!> cried Wakuren. <Take us to the wood colossus! I want to rescue it from the blast radius!> Zander shrugged and cast a greater teleport spell, sending them all onto the desert sands, between the sphinx colossus that was the conduit from the outside world to the Forbidden Lands, and the wood colossus who stood right where the half-orc had left it. "Everyone inside!" Wakuren called, flying up with his shield of Cal through the attic window that led to the control room in the construct's "head." The others followed suit, flying or air walking as appropriate. Thurloe and Zander settled themselves on the palanquin platform that had been erected there as a lookout station, while Xandro joined Wakuren in the control room.
Once at the console, Wakuren sent the wood colossus fleeing across the desert sands at its top speed, while Xandro entered the lamp and told Alewyth it was safe to come out; the skies overhead were the full black of midnight. She joined the others back in the Material Plane.
"There it is!" cried Thurloe, pointing to a streak of light in the skies above that was getting bigger and brighter as it approached. When the Northern Locus Satellite, now just a chunk of granite falling at terminal velocity, struck the Forbidden Lands on the other side of the cliffside, there was a massive explosion that sent the wood colossus staggering forward, as the sands of the desert went flying up into the air from the shock waves and the cliffs collapsed, burying the sphinx colossus in layers of rubble. They were all confident that the impact would have collapsed all of the subterranean levels of the undead community, including the Conclave of Skulls.
"What about Andrea?" Alewyth asked, suddenly recalling she'd been left behind to be destroyed with all the other undead.
"Acceptable loss," Thurloe remarked, and Alewyth wasn't sure if his comment was based on a firm belief that her death was a price worth paying to see the rest of the Forbidden Lands destroyed, or if the fact he was the sole beneficiary of her estate had anything to do with it.
"I'll cast a true resurrection to restore her to life when we get back to Armaturia," she promised the death knight. "But in the meantime, can we get back to the living ourselves? I was seriously giving thought as to what Petey's blood would taste like, there inside the lamp." She was the first one to cast her wish spell, and Azagaard the noble djinn appeared when she called out his name. "I wish to be restored to my normal, living, dwarven form," she told him, and she felt blood once again pumping through her system, and the warmth of living flesh never felt so good! She hadn't realized until just now how cold she'd been as a vampire.
One by one, Zander, Thurloe, and Xandro repeated their wishes and were restored back to their normal, living forms. Then Azagaard turned querying to Wakuren.
"If you don't mind," he said, "I'm going to save my wish for a little while more." He explained that the wood colossus was too big to teleport to Armaturia, so he intended to stay in its control room as it walked across the continent of Talonia (retracing the way they'd come), then across the ocean floor as it walked its way back to the island continent of Armaturia. "Obviously, I can do that better if I'm still undead. So I'll return to my living form once we're both back home."
"Very well," agreed Azagaard, and returned to the Elemental Plane of Air in a puff of white smoke.
"So now what?" asked Zander.
"Chu'curan!" replied Xandro. "I want to go pick up Robin!"
"You guys go on ahead," Wakuren offered. "I'll catch up to you once I get back to Armaturia."
"If you're sure," Zander replied. And with the mummified half-orc's reassurances, Zander cast a greater teleport spell that sent the other four to the drow city of Chu'curan, where Robin awaited an eventual reunion with Xandro.
Alone with his wood colossus, Wakuren mused about the future as the construct lumbered on through the desert sands, heading back east.
- - -
And that's how we closed out the "Dreams of Erthe" campaign, about five years after we started it up. I asked around the table about what the players imagined their PCs would do next, and this is the consensus:
- Alewyth Putterpye planned to return to her Underdark birth city, where she'd be the head of the temple of Aerik for a century or two, but eventually, she planned to serve the Princess of Dreams as a Counselor on a permanent basis, after having put her living body in a permanent magical coma via the bite of a hypnalis viper, in the same manner as Princess Caroline.
- Thurloe Pulver threatened to keep the courts of Port Duralia tied up in litigation over Andrea Jandoval's estate, but he finally decided he'd just be a wealthy bigwig in the port town, enjoying his amassed riches.
- Wakuren intended to walk his wood colossus to Armaturia, where he'd head to the city overrun by undead in the middle of the island continent. He'd remain in mummy form while he did that (as it gave him spellcasting advantages through an enhanced Wisdom score), but after that he'd use his wish to become a living half-orc again.
- Xandro Silverstrings decided he'd wed Robin the Balladeer, and then accompany her as she traveled Armaturia, singing in the local inns and taverns. He said he might even provide background vocals and a second lute to her routines.
- Zander Quilson stated he'd return to his birth family in the Sylvanholme Forest, to visit relatives and maybe find a good-looking elf lass to settle down with.
- - -
T-shirt worn: My white "Walking Dead" shirt, as the PCs finished this campaign out as undead creatures.
Last edited:
