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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 6285561" data-attributes="member: 6668292">So, another Saturday night passed, and another 4e session. This one only lasted 4 hours, which is our shortest session so far. Still, we got some fun in before calling it a night. On to the session:[sblock]So, we started with the PCs having made it through the Warwood, the blessing from Sisten Naenia warding off any undead along the way. They continued on their way to Hampstead, a city of a few thousand people, where they hoped to hire a ship to take them (and the remains of the dwarven prince) across the sea.The PCs made it to within a day of Hampstead without event. Upon getting close to the city, they spotted a campsite, including a dead guy in a pool of blood. They were all on edge, and checked it out. A Heal check determined that he died due to a bite on his back, and that it happened less than an hour ago. While checking the site, the Wilden Scout noticed two trails where people had been dragged off *that direction*... and as soon as he pointed it out, ghouls jumped out from tall grass, attacking them.The fight was pretty straightforward, but it was moderately tense. The ghouls had a melee basic that allowed them to attack and grab a target (which made deciding whether or not to provoke OAs from them a hard call), and a move action that allowed them to drag a grabbed target up to half their speed. The ghouls would grab targets and begin to pull them away, isolating them and splitting the party. The Warpriest had to use both of his Healing Words on the Scout, and he used his healing mace's daily power on their new party member, the Sorceress. (They were also extremely impressed with her; 1d12+17 damage + slide all targets adjacent as a basic attack that gave one ally +5 THP made all three players think she was higher level than she is; jokes of her being a dragon in disguise popped up a couple of times. They also liked that she could slide to break grabs from the ghouls.) On round 3, the dead man also rose as a ghoul, throwing a bit more unpredictability into the fight, which I felt was a nice touch.After defeating all four ghouls, they searched the area (and commented that the blessing from Sister Naenia must've worn off). The PCs didn't find anything other than the partially broken tents, which made them suspicious; there were no money pouches, no documents, no personal effects, or anything else that people generally carried with them. They burned the remains of the ghouls, continuing on, hoping to get behind safe walls in Hampstead.As they approached the farmland surrounding the city, they noticed a light fog settling around the city. This put the Warpriest on edge. When they entered the fog, the party identified it as finely ground bone. A Hard Religion check from the Warpriest also informed them of the realm of Doresain, the Exarch of Orcus and King of Ghouls, who rules over the White Kingdom that is perpetually covered in a fog of bone. The party now theorized that Doresain might reside within the city, and that made them not want to get closer.At this point, the Scout noticed a bit of movement from a farm 100 feet away, where something was waving a flag through a doorway. The dwarven Knight decided to check it out, while the other PCs waited 50 feet away (within range of the Scout's bow, the Sorceress' magic, and a move action from the Warpriest's undead horse [which he had acquired from the Sleeper's cult]). The Knight talked to a man who identified himself as Byron (who was wearing a leather breastplate and had a sword), and he claimed to be guarding his son's family (his daughter-in-law, his grandson, and his granddaughter). He started to ask who they were, but recognized them as "the ones having dealt with the dragon", and asked excitedly if they were here to help. The dwarf went to retrieve the others when Byron urged them inside, out of sight of other ghouls. The PCs placed the mule/wagon with the coffin in the stable, and placed the Sleeper's horse there as well.Inside, Byron told them what he knew. He was guarding his son's family, and his son had left a couple of days ago to look for help or a way out, and had not returned. Byron assumed the worst (this made the wife react, but she seemed to be holding up well). The undead problem (he didn't know they were ghouls until the PCs told him) started about three weeks ago, but he didn't know how. He'd heard the occasional howl or wail from the city, followed by dozens more, then screams, so he speculated that were survivors inside that we being hunted. He said that there were two places he thought might be safe in the city: Cristoph's mansion (who the Sorceress identified as a Wizard colleague of hers), which might have magical protections, and St. Lucian's (the Warpriest identified it as a temple of Pelor, which made him grimace). Once the PCs told him that ghouls might devour or turn others, Byron speculated that there might be hundreds if not thousands of ghouls, then, since Hampstead held 3,000 people in it.The PCs said that they didn't think they could kill that many ghouls, and were debating what to do. It was at this point that I gave them a major quest to solve the ghoul crisis in Hampstead, producing groans. I told them that major quests weren't binding, just bonus XP if they did it, and that they could ignore it if they wanted to. The players quickly assured me they planned to do it. As they began to plan, they heard a wail from outside. The Scout was keeping an eye through some shutters, and saw three ghouls approaching. He heard two more howls, but none came from the ghouls, indicating that more were on their way. He warned the others, and they braced as ghouls attacked the farm.This combat was interesting. It was basically all inside the house, meaning walls, doors, and house layout played a large part. They were attacked by three standard ghouls and nine minions, and also had to deal with the family inside the house. The Warpriest made no attempt to protect the family (they weren't marked for life or death by the Raven Queen, but his allies were marked to live, making his choice easy), but the Scout specifically went after ghouls attacking them. The Knight and the Elementalist were concerned with fighting off the most dangerous ghouls first, then saving the family if possible. The grandson, granddaughter, and Byron were all hurt (Byron was front-line fighting and even killed a minion and damaged another ghoul until the Sorceress slid him back and the Knight took his square), and the granddaughter was only saved when the Scout snatched her out of the grab of a ghoul and stepped into her place (natural 20 on his Acrobatics check).Eventually, the ghouls fell, and everyone had survived. Byron said that the family had to leave now, as their farm had finally been found, and the PCs agreed. The Warpriest told the family to travel through the Warwood, following the signs to the temple of the Raven Queen. He wrote a quick note explaining what was happening, and told him to get it to Sister Naenia as quickly as possible. Byron swore he'd see it done. The Warpriest wasn't sure that the NPCs would make it with the undead-infested woods, so he gave his spare holy symbol to Byron, and made a Hard Religion check, renewing Sister Naenia's blessing through the Warwood for the family. Byron said that the Raven Queen had a new follower this day, and the Warpriest saw a mark of life on him come into being. The PCs decided to make a distraction while the family escaped, and then sneak into the city. They grabbed their mule and mount (leaving the coffin for now), and went outside.This was a skill challenge (Distract The Ghouls / Enter The City), 10/3. I told them that at 4 successes, the family would escape successfully, and at 10 they'd make it into the city to one of their destinations (they chose to check out the Wizard's house first). Due to some very early bad rolls, the party ended up at 2 successes and 2 failures early on (everyone lost 1 or 3 healing surge, and the PCs were split). A third success and a use of one advantage (of three) put them at 4 successes, meaning the family escaped. Two more natural 1s, and the PCs had wasted the last of their advantages trying to erase failures (which would've united the party and restored their healing surges). Then the good rolls came. The PCs made their way closer to the city through various checks. The Warpriest used Religion at one point to predict the movement of the ghouls, which was actually quite informative; they were working under some sort of command, but while it was similar to Doresain's, they weren't acting like they were under his rule. The Warpriest assumed this meant it was a general of Doresain and not the big guy himself, which was comforting. At any rate, a natural 20 (for two successes) and a couple of good rolls later, and they rallied to beat the skill challenge (10 successes and 2 failures). The player of the Warpriest called it the second-most-tense skill challenge yet (in a good way), right after the "close the portal" skill challenge from the first session. All three players really enjoyed it (once it was over, that is!).The PCs arrived outside of Cristoph's mansion, having stealthily moved through the city. They passed a lot of ghouls along the way, mostly loners, sifting through the rubble of the devastated town. The mansion had the upstairs windows broken out, and the front door was partially kicked in, the arcane protection rune having been broken. They went in cautiously to an obliterated house; the walls were mostly torn down, and the upstairs had mostly collapsed to the ground floor. The closed and barricaded the door, exploring. They identified arcane marks from attacks in the house, and found a blood pool upstairs near a window (not tainted by undeath like other blood in the house, and enough to be fatal to a humanoid). They found a magical block box upstairs, but didn't know what it did (but figured out how to activate it). They also found two rituals (the Portal ritual and the Transfer Enchantment ritual, which the Sorceress is planning on learning; the Scout wants the Sorceress to transfer his Battle Harness enchantment over to the hide armor he made of the white dragon), a flameburst bow (the Scout took it), and a pair of gauntlets (dwarven throwers, letting the Knight throw his hammer if he needs to).After a short rest (they hadn't had one since the ghouls had attacked the family), they activated the magical box. It was a recording device, and it played (extremely loudly) a recording of Cristoph: "Monsen brought a case to me today. It seems a young man named Dorian, Darien, or something like that, has been suffering from terrible nightmares that Monsen believes to be prophetic. I don't know how he reached that conclusion, but the boy will be stopping by tomorrow, so I'll have a chat with him... Clearly these nightmares are growing in both their intensity and horror. The boy never stops going on about meat, and blood, and bones. I don't blame the boy for falling apart. I hope the protections at the temple continue to keep him safe from whatever this is... My auguries detected some form of extraplanar emanations. I'd have to say it's from the Chaos, most like the Abyss, what with those oily edgings. Gods, I hope Monsen is wrong about these nightmares."The PCs recognized the name Darien: when they killed Volkanth (the leader of the Sleeper cult), they found a crumpled note from him from someone named Darien who claimed to be having terrible visions, and who pleaded for help from the cult. The recording also made the PCs want to check out the temple of Pelor, as it was referenced.Predictably, of course, ghouls howled from outside, and the PCs spotted them climbing up the walls towards the broken windows. We called it here, and will pick up with a combat next session.[/sblock]We didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped, but the PCs got just enough experience to hit level 7. So, we have a couple weeks to deal with that, and then we'll pick up next session on the 19th. Looking forward to it, as I plan to see how far I can press them without an extended rest.</blockquote>

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