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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 1202896" data-attributes="member: 11">session #46 (part II)Isilem, 16th of Prem – 565 H.E.A night of rest, if it were truly night above for they had not seen the sun in four days, became an extra day of rest as Ratchis and Kazrack doled out more divine healing, and Martin spent more time reading.  Jeremy watched jealously as Blodnath and Baervard played a dice game, which Kirla and Helrahd joined in on.  However, even if they had invited him, he could not read the dwarven runes on the eight-sided stone die they sometimes spin on one point, and he could not follow the complicated rules, as they shoved stacked of copper coins at each other, alternately laughing and cursing.  As usual, Baervard never spoke a word.When Jeremy grew tired of watching, he got Derek to spot him as he did handstands against the shaft’s curved wall.   Beorth poured over his own leaves of paper, where he had written down lists of the things the party had found out on their adventures.  However, lists that included names of places, objects and people meant little to him now, as he could not place them or put them together, except with the tenuous strings that had been provided by Jana. But now she had been dead weeks and weeks, and no one else took the time to try to bring him up to speed.  Frustrated, he put the papers away, deciding to just concentrate on the problem at hand.  There were abominations to be destroyed.  He would have to rely on his faith to bring him through this darkness of memory.Belear tried and failed to dispel the magic on one of the two remain books.  Captain Adalar went through prayer recitations with the triplets while showing them combat maneuvers.Osilem, 17th of Prem – 565 H.E.“Though the power of my gods is infinite, the strength of my faith is flawed,” Belear said, sweat beading on his wrinkled brow. “I cannot break the spell upon either of these books.”  He handed it back to Martin, who nodded.“Then we have delayed enough,” said Kazrack.  “We must see to the evil that is happening in the lower levels and see if we can destroy it.”It was decided that Jeremy, Derek, Martin and Belear would remain in the small lower chamber and keep it clear of zombies, while Ratchis, Kazrack, Beorth, Kirla and Captain Adalar would try to deal with the statue of the demoness and the raising of zombies.--------------------------Ratchis wiped sweat from his brow, with each step he could feel the tension in his body rising.  While his unwavering faith in Nephthys kept fear at bay (1), there was just some naturally unnerving about walking albeit unnoticed through lines of shambling zombies. Cloaked in the invisibility to undead spell, he crept toward the towering statues of the four-breasted, four-armed winged demoness.    Lines of zombies, some naked and some in the tattered remains of worker clothing, and leather aprons, some clearly made from tanned human hide ambled past him.  The hulking half-orc halted to let one go by.  It’s stench filled his nostrils as it nearly brushed his cloak.  Ratchis had to quash the urge to simply strike it down.  He risked a few hurried steps to avoid three more that walked blindly right towards him.Up at the shafts that opened at the top of the supporting ziggurat Kazrack made a sharp intake of breath.  He gritted his teeth with anxiety, certain that one of the zombies would bump into him.   Ratchis had been sent across first to find the easiest path and to see how tough it really was, and in a way as bait for any intelligent undead that might notice him. (2)  The way was clear and he began to hustle towards the stone platform the statue stood on.  He was only about twenty feet away when from the corner of his eye he saw a figure move too quickly to be a zombie, and with a determined hustle in his direction.  Ratchis jerked his head up and saw a figure in a gray long coat smeared with mud and covered in dust.  The undead thing’s face was torn away on one side, but the whole thing was covered in fine black soot.  It had bush of greasy black hair atop his graying scalp.“Stop the living one!” It croaked, pointing towards Ratchis and hustling towards him.Ratchis was startled, but did not hesitate, he immediately changed directions and moved back towards the stairs.  “Oh no. He may be in trouble,” Kazrack said to the others, and ignoring Kirla’s protest he stepped out of the tunnel on the top the stairs.  “He may need our help. Stand ready.”Ratchis had to gulp back a roar of frustration as he saw Kazrack step out of the tunnel.  From all directions zombies once walking in their habitual lines turned in his direction, and moaning shambled towards the dwarf.  He began to wave his arms to motion the dwarf back.Captain Adalar stepped out as well, but stayed near the entrance.  Beorth leaned out as well, long sword in one hand.“Fall back to the other room!” Kazrack yelled turning back to the openings.   And began to make his way back to an unoccupied opening.Ratchis took the steps two by two hurrying past the zombies that were closing in on the place he was heading.   A few took slow swings at him with their calcified fists, but he easily dodged them.  “I am bringing an intelligent undead,” Ratchis said, breathlessly as he reached Kazrack.A zombie reached Captain Adalar, who jerked back.  Kirla crawled back as commanded and Beorth followed.Kazrack leapt up into the opening Adalar had come out of and turning cried out, “Natan-Ahb! Send these things from your sight!”  The braziers about the statue flared up angrily.  And while quite a few zombies paused, only five turned their blackened slave of a spirit harrowed by the release of the divine power.  However, even more zombies from more distant lines now seemed to know what was going on and were attracted by the sound and the smell of life. “Damn it!” Ratchis slowed having risked a look over his shoulder and seeing the undead thing closing. He drew his long sword, “Nephthys, bless my blade against these horrid creatures!”He spun around, but it was too late.  He felt the cold black claw of the former foreman, and the soul-wrenching sensation of his lifeforce being drained.“You will join us!” the creature hissed, its common strangely accented.  “You will lead us!”“Adalar, fall back,” Beorth said to the dwarven captain, as he came back out of the tunnel, but the dwarf was pulling his axe out of a zombie’s shoulder and hollering in the joy of battle, his god’s name on his lips.Kirla, not to be left out, climbed back out the shaft, flail in hand.Sighing, Kazrack climbed back out as well and calling to his gods, made five more zombies that were approaching the opposite direction flee.“Is Ratchis coming?” Beorth asked impatiently, looking down at Ratchis trying to keep the willed undead at bay with his divinely enchanted sword.  The half-orc sliced deeply into its leg, but it did not fall, laughing as black blood dribbled weakly from a major artery.  It continued reaching for him, but the sword kept a distance between them.“A-ha!” cried Captain Adalar slicing his great axe right into the zombie’s right side.  It collapsed weakly throwing fists at the dwarf.  Kzrack ran down to where Ratchis fought and stood by his side, he brought in his halberd and thrust taking the thing slightly by surprise.  It growled and hissed and leapt to the right, momentarily distracted. Ratchis grabbed his sword in both hands and flicked the sword with a sharp blow from the wrists and followed through.  The things head went flying into the head, spinning wildly and the body collapsed, collapsing as years of decay caught up with it.“Your evil ends now,” Ratchis said, and spit on the pile of clothing.Another zombie reached them, but it had a lame leg and tripped as it came up the stairs falling on its face.  Something about the thing flopping on the ground in such a vulnerable way reminded Ratchis of their former humanity and they seemed more repellant and pitiable at once.Again, Kazrack turned undead and more fled.“Re-cast the invisibility spell,” Kazrack said to Ratchis.“Adalar!  Kazrack!” Ratchis cried to his companions, moving backwards up the broad steps of the ziggurat.  “Move back into the passage.  I’ll try to destroy the ones closest to us before we re-group.”Adalar stepped over and chopped into the back of the prone zombie and then hurried back to the entrances with Kazrack.“I think they’re safe,” Beorth said to Kirla.  The two of them moved back into the passage.  “We should go back to the small room and help the others hold that room, more zombies are bound to come.”“Beorth, wait!” Kazrack called, arriving at the opening.  “We cannot risk this wight or whatever it was being replaced while we re-group, we should attack now while the iron is hot!”“We’ll regroup in the tunnel,” Ratchis said, reaching them and pushed the dwarves in and followed.  Beorth kept moving down the shaft, ducked awkwardly.  Kirla and Adalar followed.“Wait, another of those foremen could come while we are gone, we should deal with the statue now,” Kazrack reasoned.Beorth ignored the dwarf and made his comments to Ratchis as if appealing to the former’s reason was wasted effort, “We need to hold the room so we can all get out alive.” “We need to just fall back some and hope it calms down out there and then go back and check the statue,” Ratchis said.Beorth paused, “We don’t know what is going on in that room.  There could be zombies overwhelming them from the other side. We have to check.”“Why don’t you go back and warn them, and we will stay here and do what we have to do?” Kazrack suggested.  He sighed and turned to Ratchis.  “You should have led that creature into one of the tunnels and we could have taken care of it in here away from the notice of the lines of zombies.”Ratchis’ hand curled into a blood-pounding fist and he gritted his crooked and yellowed teeth.  “That is what I was trying to do, but you stepped out and drew their attention.  We had no plan.”Beorth did not respond and continued down the tunnel towards the others.  Kirla was blocking his way and looked to Captain Adalar, who pointed after the paladin. She turned and the three of them made their way back down the shaft.  Ratchis’ anger at Kazrack swelled in his head and in a second decided that Beorth’s was likely the better idea.  He gestured for Kazrack to follow as well.The young rune-thrower shrugged and followed.Ratchis took up the rear, and looking back he saw the silhouettes of zombies climbing in after them.  “I guess Beorth was right,” he thought and called for the others to hurry.---------------------------------- “I hear zombies coming,” Derek said, standing by the entrances to the shafts the other group had crawled down.“Why are they coming this way?” Jeremy mused.  “What does that mean about the others?”Derek shrugged his shoulders and lift his axe and stepping over chopped a zombie’s head in half as it emerged.  It was still animate, it’s brain dangled from the socket of its cleaved skull by the spinal cord.”Lower me down,” Martin said to Blodnath and Helrahd who were guarding the upper chamber with him.  “They may need my help.”Belear was already down there, and calmly listened at the opening at the other side of the lower chamber while Jeremy and Derek did what they did best.Jeremy stood a few feet away from another of the shafts and just let one of the zombies tumbled out.  It scrambled to its feet, but Jeremy chopped it down.  It fell onto the dirt floor and stopped moving.  Jeremy stepped forward and thrust his sword at the one Derek, fought, but it had barely made it two its feet, its brain dangling on its shoulder, when Derek ended the horror of it.Another zombie began to emerge from the shaft on the other side of him, so Derek spun around and cleaved open its head as well.  This one stopped moving, but then started moving again as a zombie behind it began to try to push past it.As zombies spilled out, Martin made his way down and Belear kept watch on the other side.  Derek and Jeremy mechanically chopped them to bits as the emerged staying clear of any wounds.  Martin grabbed a torch from one of the sconces and made ready to set any zombies alight that came through the tunnels.“Zombies are coming!  Zombies are coming!” Kirla’s voice was heard to echo from down the tunnel all the way to the left, from which no zombies had yet emerged.Jeremy and Derek let out deep breaths of encroaching exhaustion and relief, but Derek recovered first and pointed to the tunnel before them.“There are more coming from this tunnel,” Derek said, happy for his keen ears.  “Take care of them, I will go help Kirla.”Soon the Kirla emerged followed by Beorth and then the others, as streams of zombies came from behind them and the adjacent tunnels. However, a few turn attempts from Belear and the party’s increasing skill at taking out zombies in this room and the fight was soon over, with another near two dozen corpses in the room and clogging the tunnels.“We need to go back and try to destroy that statue,” Kazrack said. End of Session #46--------------------------------------Notes(1) DM’s Note: Friars of Nephthys gain immunity to fear as one of their granted powers.(2) DM’s Note: Intelligent dead gain a saving throw to see those cloaked by this spell.</blockquote>

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