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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikeawmids" data-source="post: 7850951" data-attributes="member: 6776411">[Savaged] Rise of the Runelords / Sins of the Saviours / Week 7 / Part 1 (24/11/2017)Beyond the portcullis, a narrow stone bridge spans a dark chasm. The air is thick with bloated, buzzing flies and the rank stench of rotting meat rises from the pit. Karrack crossed the bridge (using his spear and superior agility to maintain his balance in adverse conditions) and prised open the heavy stone door at the other end. The room beyond had once been a crypt, now repurposed as a makeshift laboratory. Upturned sarcophagi were being utilized as worktops, where alchemical apparatus now bubbled and brewed. Several hooded figures laboured industriously at their workstations, while others struggled to attach a flaccid tentacle arm to the torso of a hulking corpse golem. Karrack’s patience snapped like a cheap, plastic ruler. Why couldn’t any of these dungeons be nice?!Rast and Grogg stepped onto the bridge together. Neither of them possessed Karrack’s natural grace, but they were doing well until a fly the size of a pig’s bladder collided with the side of Rast’s head and sent him stumbling over the edge. Grogg lunged to grab the falling dwarf, pulling out a handful of his magnificent beard but failing to arrest his descent. Rast plunged 30ft and landed atop a great pile of mutilated, partially dismembered bodies. As though his predicament was not already grim enough, Rast did not think he was alone in the darkness. The pile of corpses shifted beneath him and several rotting arms extended from the main mass to grasp at his legs! Slapping away the groping claws, Rast withdrew a stoppered vial from his pack, where it had been hidden since he concocted it in secret. His discretion had been necessary, if Asha discovered he was dabbling in necromancy, she would surely have some stern words to share. Breaking the wax seal around the neck of the bottle, Rast poured the potion of zombie control over the gelatinous mass of decomposing limbs. The mass writhed as the macabre elixir took effect, then succumbed to the dwarf’s will.Meanwhile, the rest of the party burst into the crypt/laboratory of the lich Azaven. Cursing the interruption, Azaven commanded his corpse golem to attack! Spilling glassware across the ground, the golem lifted one of the heavy stone sarcophagi and hurled it across the room! Asha rolled to one side, but Grogg was trapped beneath the weighty stone. Not to be upstaged by a slab of decomposing muscle, Grogg lifted the sarcophagus and flipped it over to crush two of Azaven’s ghoulish assistants. Displeased by this cavalier treatment of his beloved underlings, Azaven raised his crystal-tipped staff and sucked up all of the shadows in the room. With an artisan’s care, the lich moulded the raw shadowstuff into a disc of perfect darkness. He cast the disc onto the floor at the party’s feet and they immediately begin to sink as though stranded in quick sand. Grogg pulled himself free and Karrack hopped up onto another sarcophagus, out of reach of the sucking shadow surface. Only Asha remained trapped in the black mire, her shapely legs and lower torso already absorbed into the floor!Suddenly, a human centipede of dismembered corpses snaked into the room, grabbed Asha and pulled her free of the shadow sink! Having commanded his new zombie thrall to deposit him back on the bridge, Rast observed the paladin’s plight and dispatched his undead minion to enact a last minute rescue. Asha is conflicted! She has devoted her life to destroying the undead and now she owes her life to one! She detects a crisis of faith (and possibly a side-quest) in her immediate future!Karrack kills the corpse golem (which falls into the shadowstuff and slowly sinks) and advances on Azaven. The lich cackles and extends a withered fist that crackles with life-draining, necrotic energy. Karrack sidesteps the attack, swings his spear up to sever the arm at the elbow then pirouettes and drives the point through the lich’s eye! Azaven shrieks, smokes and crumbles into a sad little pile of grey dust! His Staff of Hungry Shadows clatters to the ground and rolls to a stop at Andor’s feet. The human mercenary raises his boot and stomps down on the dark crystal, shattering it and returning the stolen shadows to their proper place. Karrack digs through Azaven’s remains but does not find any Ithilliom. Searching the crypt, the party discover a hidden vault opened by the lich’s (broken) staff. It contains a third Ithillion shard and a pair of pale, lacy gloves that make the wearer’s hands intangible.“Now I can punch ghosts!” Grogg declares.To be continued….</blockquote>

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