In the second short adventure this afternoon, the PCs:
Running both of these short adventures only took us about three hours, after which time everyone upgraded their PCs to 20th level. That leaves only five more adventures in this campaign!
Johnathan
- Were brought to a barracks and locked in overnight under guard of two necropolitan fighters
- Decided to "play by the rules" and not try to sneak out and go exploring on their own; had the elf sorcerer's pseudodragon familiar and his jade cooshee figurine of wondrous power stand guard duty while they slept
- Went with Pendlebrook the next morning to a cave opening that led down to a multilevel set of tunnels in the Forbidden Lands
- On the first level, saw a vampire nest with six coffins
- On the second level, saw a necropolitan lab where they were experimenting with a soul receptacle that would serve them much in the same way as a lich's phylactery (but they still had a lot of work to do to perfect it)
- On the third level, saw a long hallway with far-apart doors sporadically throughout - lich labs, each an immense suite of rooms, allowing for centuries of magical research; Pendlebrook (wisely) opted not to interrupt any of them during the tour
- One the fourth level, were brought to the Temple of Akari, God of Death and Undeath, where they were met by a grumpy (and mistrusting) Mother Bones
- In the temple, saw a statue of Akari and a small gallery of smaller statues depicting famous undead and scenes from drow history (most of the undead are drow)
- Examined closely an odd statue of a human with arms raised in triumph, flanked by an orc and an elf, with dead gnomes scattered at his feet; the statue was entitled "Birth of the Deathborn" - and Pendlebrook explained that humans had been created by the drow liches as a magical merging of orc and elf (which is why they can mate with either, whereas orcs and elves cannot interbreed), and they breathe out a magical virus that is lethal to gnomes (the gnomes had been violently opposed to undead, and this was the liches' way to deal with the problem)
- Were shown a locked door in the back of the temple (Mother Bones has the only key) leading to the Conclave of Skulls, the leadership of the Forbidden Lands, and warned that any living beings passing through the door would be instantly slain - only undead can pass
- Were then taken to a classroom by Pendlebrook, where he passed out questionnaires each PC had to fill out explaining their views on the undead, what type of undead they'd like to become, why, and what role they saw themselves performing for the Forbidden Lands
Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf cleric: vampire
Thurloe Pulver, human fighter/wizard/spellsword/eldritch knight: death knight
Wakuren, half-orc cleric/paladin: mummy
Xandro Silverstrings, human bard/rogue: necropolitan
Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer: necropolitan
Running both of these short adventures only took us about three hours, after which time everyone upgraded their PCs to 20th level. That leaves only five more adventures in this campaign!
Johnathan
