ADVENTURE 47 - DEAD AND BURIED
PC Roster:
Akari, elven paladin of Hieroneous
Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord
Feron Dru, half-elf druid
Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian
NPC Roster:
Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter
Remember back in adventure #6, "The Mad God's Key," when I had the idea that the two clerics of Vecna who had been slain by Akari (in his blinded "Zatoichi" mode, no less) might come back as unusual undead, given that the pages of the stolen book detailing strange new forms of undead had not been recovered? This is the adventure where I finally got around to tying up that plot hook - and yes, as a result, none of the players even remotely remembered those two guys.
Still, I had some new D&D Miniatures I wanted to use in an adventure, and this was written specifically to use them. I had received the Beholder boxed set as a Christmas gift, so I knew I wanted a beholder in the adventure somewhere. I also had a Gargantuan white dragon that was far too tough a challenge for the PCs' current level, but I thought there might be a way to tone down the CR somewhat. I also had purchased an Iron Golem Juggernaut that I was itching to use, and Logan had amassed three hammerer automatons which I thought I might finally have found a use for. (I ended up buying three more for myself, so we'd have a total of six.) And the D&D Minis line had just come out with a brain in a jar in their latest set, which I purchased as well for this adventure.
- - -
"This is what we know at present," began Altamaic. "Some of the clerics of my Order are cataloguing various sections of the Cairn Hills to the north. We have a team out in the field that has failed to check in for three days now. If possible, I’d like you to go up there and check out the situation. I can provide you a map of the sections they were cataloguing, and show you where they were when they last checked in. Will you help me?"
"Sure," replied Akari, eager to assist the young cleric of Boccob who had recently pointed them to the Crypt of Joniah the Avenger, where he had unearthed his magical hammer,
Deathstriker. "What can you tell us of the group?"
"There are four of them, each a cleric of Boccob, and each with at least several months of field experience. The leader is
Madraskan the Learned, a human in his 60s, and occasionally a bit forgetful. It’s possible that he’s gotten caught up in an earnest investigation of something worthwhile he discovered out in the Cairn Hills and has simply forgotten to check in with the Order – it wouldn’t be the first time such a thing has happened.
"The second in command is
Phyllianna Goldenleaf," Altamaic continued. "Her elven heritage should be well-suited for the outdoor environment that the team would be facing, and she’s familiar with the local wildlife.
"The other two team members are
Holden and Helga Bookbinder, a brother and sister. While relatively new to the Order, they have each been to the field several times before. This was their first trip to the Cairn Hills, however.
"Normal protocol calls for an end-of-day report via the
sending spell back to the Church of Boccob. The first day, when a
sending was never sent, the cleric in charge of receiving the report wasn’t particularly concerned, assuming that it was merely another case of Madraskan’s forgetfulness. On the second day without a report from the field, though, he mentioned it to his superior, who sent a
sending to Madraskan asking about his team’s status. No response was heard. Additional
sending spells were sent, in turn, to Phyllianna, Holden, and Helga, with no response.
"While their deaths is certainly one explanation for the failure of the team to report in (or answer the
sending spells sent their way), it’s by no means the only explanation. The Cairn Hills are home to pockets of strange magical effects; it’s possible that they’re currently in an
anti-magic field, either knowingly or unknowingly, or accidentally activated a portal that sent them to a different plane of existence, or set off a trap and are being held in magical stasis, or any of a hundred different possibilities. Still, it would probably be best to check the situation out as soon as possible."
"We'll gear up and be on our way," replied Akari, and Altamaic breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he'd soon have an answer one way or another. He passed the map he had mentioned over to the elf, pointing out the locations where Madraskan's team had been when they last checked in with the Order of Boccob. Akari looked it over, memorized the location, rolled it up, and stored it in a scroll case for safe keeping. Then, with a nod and a reassuring smile to Altamaic, he headed back to Guild Headquarters to gather up a team of his own.
- - -
The first several hours of the trip were uneventful. Then, as the group rode up over the crest of a large hill, they spotted a horse up ahead. The horse was limping, favoring its front right foot. A rope dangled from its harness.
"I got it," remarked Galrich, trotting his horse up and leaning over to grab up the dangling rope. Aerik grimaced, his every instinct to stay close to his liege, but he relented and let the half-orc ride up alone, confident that he would be able to spot any approaching danger before it threatened Galrich. The limping horse, however, shied away from the mounted half-orc's approach, no doubt smelling the scent of Fang the dire wolf, who had stayed back with the rest of the mounted adventurers on Galrich's instructions.
"Let me try," replied Feron, jumping down from her own horse and approaching the frightened and wounded beast slowly, making shooshing noises as she came nearer. The horse allowed the half-elf to approach him, and nuzzled her shoulder as she patted the side of his head. Feron noted there were several rake marks along the creature's right side, as well as what looked like bite marks, seemingly from a human or humanlike creature.
"There, there, now," she said, saying the words to a
speak with animals spell. "What's your name, sweetie?"
"
Zephyr," replied the horse.
"Do you have someone who takes care of you?" Feron asked.
"Zephyr's mistress is Phyllianna."
"Where is she now?" asked Feron.
"Zephyr doesn't know. Several nights ago, many bad ugly men came to the camp and tried to kill and eat the horses and the people."
"And you got away from the bad ugly men?"
"Yes. Helga cut Zephyr free from the tree with a knife. Helga is good. Sometimes Helga gives Zephyr apples."
"And when you were free from the tree, you ran away?"
"Yes. Zephyr was scared. Zephyr ran away from the bad ugly men."
"Could you take me to where the bad ugly men attacked you, so we can find Helga and Phyllianna?"
"Yes," replied Zephyr, leading the way. Feron walked along the horse's flank, pulling the reins of her own mount and casting a few healing spells upon Zephyr as they walked. That taken care of, she passed on what she had learned from the horse to the others.
"Could be zombies," remarked Cal.
"Could be zombies, could be orcs, could be bugbears," snorted Galrich. "'Bad ugly men' could be just about anything. Couldn't it be a bit more specific?"
"He's a horse!" argued Feron. "I doubt they bother to differentiate between humanoid species."
"Ask it if they smelled like they were dead," prompted Galrich.
"Ask him yourself. My spell's ended, and that was the only
speak with animals I prepared this morning." Galrich snorted in disgust, seeing this as further proof of the limited usefulness of magic.
The group approached what was apparently the last campsite of Madraskan's team, which showed signs of a recent struggle. The tents were half-collapsed, bedrolls and blankets were cast about in all directions, and, most damning, a leather tube containing hand-drawn maps of the local area - the results of the team's efforts in the area thus far, no doubt - lay abandoned near the cold remains of a campfire. There were numerous footprints in the dirt, all of them human-sized, and all but one of them barefoot. The one set of non-barefoot prints looked to be from someone wearing a pair of boots; judging from the size of the boots, likely a woman. Several of the human-sized footprints bore impressions indicating ragged, clawlike toenails. The group split up and searched the campsite for clues.
Feron and Akari checked inside the tents. One tent contained an elven chain shirt obviously cut for a woman, still positioned on a wooden stand, although the stand was tipped over; this was no doubt Phyllianna's tent, and she had apparently been resting in the tent when they were attacked.
Galrich spotted numerous hoof prints over by a large tree not far from the campsite; this was likely where the horses had been tied for the night. One rope was still attached to a branch – it was apparently cut by a bladed weapon. A bunch of the bare, clawed footprints converged near the tree and followed one of the sets of hoof prints as the horse sped away from the tree. "I'll be right back!" Galrich called to the others, mounting his horse. "I'm going to see where these lead!" Fang dutifully trotted off after his master, and Aerik spurred on his own mount, eager to keep up with the impulsive half-orc it was his job to keep alive.
Cal, meanwhile, was investigating two piles of an odd, grayish dust over on one edge of the campsite. Each vaguely held the shape of a human lying down on his or her back with arms outspread. He nodded to himself, certain he knew what that foretold.
Galrich returned to the campsite and jumped down from his horse. "The trail goes on for about half a mile," he said. "There's a horse’s remains, mostly skeletal - it was picked clean by about a dozen of those 'bad ugly men.'"
"So what are we dealing with?" asked Feron.
"Corporeal undead," replied Cal, pointing to the patterns of gray ash. "Something taking up the general physical space of a man - not skeletons, but maybe well-preserved zombies, ghouls, or wights."
"Not zombies," remarked Galrich. "Zombies shuffle. These things
ran."
"So what happened to the group?" asked Akari. "Are they likely to be dead?"
"Not necessarily," replied Cal. "Let's assume it was night, the horses were tied to the tree, and everyone else was asleep. We'll say it was Helga on guard duty; she'd be the one still wearing her boots. A group of undead shows up and attacks the campsite. Helga screams out a warning to wake the others, and runs to free the horses. She can't get Zephyr's reins untied in time, so she cuts him loose from the tree. The others come out of their respective tents, and one of them manages to turn two of the undead, blasting them to ashes, before the group is overwhelmed. A bunch of the undead chase down one of the horses and devour it, but we don't see any such skeletal remains from our group of Boccobian clerics here. That means either they were overcome and turned to undead themselves, or perhaps - if we're lucky - taken alive, for whatever reason. Galrich? Can you track the group from where they left the horse skeleton?"
"Sure can - let's go!"
The tracking was fairly easy at first for the half-orc barbarian, but as the terrain became more and more rocky it became more difficult to find the spoor. The group was encouraged by the drops of blood that accompanied the trail, for that could be an indicator that the clerics were at least still alive when they had been taken this way. Eventually, though, the trail gave out to hard stone, and the group had no choice but to keep heading in the same general direction as the trail had been going, and hope that the undead horde hadn't switched directions on them.
The assumed trail led to a gully. Rocks rose up on either side of the group, boxing them in. Ahead, there were rock slopes separated into various layers, with several overhangs that could hide cave entrances. A few scant scrub-brushes were the only signs of plant life in the area. The group separated to search the area for cave openings, Old Clem taking the reins of the horses and leading them to what plant life was available for nibbling. Galrich scampered up a rock face, hoping that the higher ground would allow him to see something that might not be visible at ground level. Aerik dutifully followed him up the precipice.
"There's a narrow cave opening over here!" called out Feron.
"I got something up here, too!" called back Galrich. "Ah, crap, it's just writing!"
Feron's cave opening was at ground level, and only wide enough to permit a single person to enter at a time. That seemed the logical way to go, but the group decided to check out the carved words that Galrich had found before they entered any passageways. Aerik called down the carved passage exactly as written. The caption was as follows:
REMEMBERING PASSWORDS CAN BE HELL
KNOW THE TRICK, AND ALL IS WELL
ABADDON
"Any idea what it means?" called back Cal.
"Maybe 'Abaddon' is a password," mused Feron. She flew up to Galrich and Slayer in eagle form, then resumed her half-elf form and tried calling out "Abaddon!" but nothing happened. Then she decided to fast-forward to the answer, and cast a
stone tell spell on the rock face near the carved words.
"What is the password?" she asked the cliff face.
"What's a password?" asked the cliff face in return.
"It's something that's said to allow safe passage, or to open a secret door," replied the half-elf. "Is there a word or phrase that people have said here that allowed them to enter a secret passage around here?"
"Yes," replied the cliff.
"What did they say?" she pressed.
"'Webweddon,'" replied the cliff. Feron puzzled over this for a moment, then a smile lit up her face. "Very clever!" she admitted. "'All' is 'well' indeed!"
"So what's going on up there?" asked Cal from below.
"I've got the password to a secret passage," she called back, then said "Webweddon." A shimmering area, some 40 feet to a side and centered around the carved message, suddenly became translucent. Feron put her hand through the rock face experimentally and was not the least bit surprised to see that it went right through the once-solid rock. "There's a really big passageway up here!" she called down to the others. However, after some discussion, the group consensus was that it was more likely that a band of savage undead would have used the narrow passageway at ground level than climb up here and activate magical doorways, so Feron, Galrich, and Aerik climbed back down and the group readied themselves to enter the passageway single file. Before doing so, Akari called forth his griffon, Tsukitora, from the celestial realms and bade him stay with Old Clem and the horses, to help Fang protect them from any danger in this area believed to be home to ravenous undead. Then the paladin activated a sun rod and led the way down into darkness.
The narrow passageway wound back and forth as it descended deeper into the earth, and before long a noxious stench foretold that this was a nest of ghouls the group was entering. The discovery came mere seconds before the first of the ghouls was upon Akari, who easily dealt with it, swinging
Hoardmaster deep into its shoulder and nearly cutting it in twain. Fortunately, the tunnels widened a bit here, and Cal was able to squeeze up to the front line and blast a group of the ghouls - and ghasts, as it turned out - with the might of his faith in Kord.
The battle in the ghoul caverns was short-lived, for the ravenous undead were no match for the experienced adventurers, but two mysteries had been solved: not only the type of undead, but also the fate of the Boccobian clerics, for four of the undead horde wore blue robes identical to those of their friend Altamaic. Madraskan, Phyllianna, Helga, and Holden - all had been turned into ghasts or ghouls and added to the numbers of the undead who laired here in the dark recesses of the earth. There was nothing to be done for them but to put them out of their misery, so their souls could pass on to the afterlife, or be returned to life here if that's what the Order of Boccob wished to do.
After the undead had been dealt with, the group decided to check out the rest of the caverns. After all, there was some indication, judging from the magical doorway up above, that something was lairing here a bit more advanced than a cluster of ghasts and ghouls. In looking for an exit from the ghoul warrens, Akari found, among the remains of previous meals, a ceramic drinking vessel marked “VIRULENCE.” Nobody was eager to try it out, but they did store it away in the
Heward's handy haversack that the elf paladin wore.
Eventually the group found a passageway that led into an enormous, natural cavern, easily over 100 feet wide and perhaps almost half that high, with an enormous opening and a standard, doorway-sized opening at the far end of the chamber showing that someone had made extensive modifications to the natural cavern. Stalactites hung from the cavern's ceiling, but any stalagmites that might have been formed on the stone floor had been destroyed by the massive bulk of the creature that faced them in the center of the room: a gargantuan white dragon, half rotted away but just as ambulatory as the ghouls had been. The sound of an enormous bellows was heard throughout the chamber; belatedly, Cal realized it was the zombie dragon's still-present lungs filling up with air as it inhaled. And that could only mean one thing--
"Run!" called Cal, as a blast of frigid cold encompassed the entire group, still bunched together from exiting the ghoul warrens.
In the meantime, the cavern started raining skeletal bats. Great hordes of the things dropped down in waves from the ceiling every few seconds; while they were ineffectual in combat, Cal learned to his chagrin that they served to "soak up" the power of his turning attempts, such that he couldn't seem to affect the massive dragon. Each time he channeled positive energy through his holy symbol, dozens of skeletal bats exploded into dust but the dragon corpse ambled on, snapping at the group with a set of massive teeth while its bellows-like lungs started noisily filling up with air again.
That suited Akari just fine; he danced his way in between the dragon's legs and stabbed up at the beast with his magical longsword. It was about this time that the group became aware of another group entering the fray: all along the natural cavern was a ledge, about 30 feet up, and spreading out along this ledge was a small group of four archers.
Feron wanted nothing to do with the undead abomination to the natural order, and decided to leave the dragon zombie to the guys, who were all trying to be the one to drop the beast. She, meanwhile, took on the form of an eagle and flew up to the ledge; once there, she reverted to her normal form and blasted the first of the archers with a
call lightning spell. This close, she was able to discern that the archers were undead as well; vampires or their unholy spawn, judging from the fangs protruding from their mouths and the hungry way they stared at her neck as they shot arrows at her. They didn't last long under her initial spell barrage; vampire spawn, then.
By the time the zombie dragon had been destroyed, Feron had taken care of the vampire spawn archers, but the combat had been heard by the spawn's sire, a vampiric cleric of Vecna named
Luciern Dalbago. The two traded spell blasts while the guys scrambled to find a way up to the higher ledge from the massive cavern below. Once he had climbed up, Galrich raged and ran straight towards the vampire, while Aerik, still climbing up the steep wall, cursed at his liege's recklessness. Fortunately, the dwarf was able to make it to the top of the ledge and race over to protect his kingdom's future ruler.
By that time, the others were up on the ledge and Luciern decided he didn't like the five-to-one odds so much anymore, since he had been greatly wounded by the adventurers' various attacks. He shrunk down to bat form and flew across the cavern, but Cal caught him up in a cylindrical
wind wall from which he couldn't escape in either bat or gaseous mist form. To add insult to injury, Cal then dropped a
blade barrier around the
wind wall to keep him from walking out in human form, and then Feron dropped down bolts from her
call lightning spell until he had been fried to a crisp.
The group discovered several chambers nestled along the ledge overlooking the central chamber, including a temple to Vecna, God of Secrets; the coffins of Luciern and his vampire spawn; an alchemical lab (in which a batch of what the group assumed was "virulence," a red, frothy liquid, was being distilled by Luciern); and a clump of five cells. Two cells were occupied, the center one by
Marlanna, a young woman who sat staring blankly ahead at nothing, her neck a series of bruises and clotted blood; and the farthest one by
Galen, a poor unfortunate whose mind must have snapped long ago, for he cowered on his filthy bed and repeated, over and over, "Not the blood, not the blood, keep it away, not the blood...." Not wanting to bring these two with them, Cal promised that they'd be back to free them once they had cleared the area of undead. He asked them not to tell anyone of the group's presence, but Marlanna just stared right through him and Galen continued his babbling. The group moved on.
The next room they encountered had two combatants going at it in mock combat, using maces and shields. They wore greatcoats over their armor, and despite normal-looking bare heads they seemed incredibly emaciated. One of them,
Veltargo, recognized Feron (his actual words being "Hey, it's that elf bitch from the group that killed us!") when the group entered, and the two moved to attack. Aerik swung his dwarven greataxe at the other combatant,
Isalnarr, and heard an unexpected metal-on-metal sound when the axe struck the evil cleric's arm. Over the course of the battle, the group discovered that the only parts of Veltargo and Isalnarr that were still alive were their heads, which had been impaled on metal skeletons with a spike in place of a neck. These constructs provided the undead heads mobility, but, as Cal learned when he channeled positive energy at Veltargo's head and watched it disintegrate into dust before him, the metal skeletons were able to fight on their own without a head guiding them. The two metal-framed constructs gave the group a bit of a fight, but in the end they were eventually destroyed.
Akari discovered a large, octagonal shaft rising vertically back down to the lower level and up to the ground level above; no doubt, had the group opted to go through the magical "webweddon" door on the surface they'd have ended up here. Testing showed that if this had a
feather fall effect like Nakariah's "magic elevator" in the Crypt of the Avenger it wasn't automatic like that one had been. Lacking a means of figuring out any command words, Feron stabilized herself at the top with her
boots of spider climbing and the others climbed down, one at a time, from the rope she held for them, then she climbed down herself.
On the lower level, the group found a construct lab manned by "unattended" impalers and overseen by two bedraggled-looking humans. The impalers were assembling more of their own kind, plus several black spheres. The reactions of the two human overseers was at odds with each other: the younger one, a teenaged girl, called out "Have you come to rescue us?" while the older one, a man in his forties with the build of a blacksmith, snarled "Don't waste your time,
Natalya - if they've made it this far they're no fools!" and shot off a
lightning bolt at the heroes clustered in the doorway. A pitched battle ensued in the cramped confines, with the two wizards backing into the room beyond while the impalers tried to hold the heroes at bay. The room they had backed into was a storage facility for another type of construct: hammerer automatons, seeming designed for mining operations. The wizards tried activating the constructs to aid them in battle against the heroes, but they were cut down before they were able to do so. And then it got weirder, for as each slain wizard began oozing blood from every orifice, and the blood pooled together to form two distinct entities, which chased after the heroes in an attempt to take over their bodies from the inside. Feron gagged and choked as one of the blood puddings crawled up her body and started oozing into her nose and mouth, but Cal, assuming that she'd easily forgive him for the peripheral damage, blasted her with a
flame strike to ensure he destroyed the undead ooze. It worked, and the other ooze was similarly blasted with ranged spells until it too was dead.
There were only two other rooms of note in these back caverns. The first was some sort of large, octagonal raised platform of unknown purpose, set in the "elbow" of a bending passageway that led to the final room of the complex. In this final room was an unusual sight: another octagonal room, this one 40 feet in diameter, in the center of which was an octagonal platform, upon which stood a sealed glass jar containing a pulsing brain immersed in bubbling fluids. The platform was flanked at four corners by four small pillars which each spouted white steam into the room. As soon as the doors to this room opened, there was a brief flicker of energy from the four pillars, as a force barrier snapped into place, protecting the disembodied brain.
"It-seems-we-have-visitors," boomed a mechanical-sounding voice from the direction of the brain’s jar. "Activate-defenses!" With that, a floating black sphere emerged from each column of steam. The four spheres paired up, as black lightning arced between each of the two pairs, which levitated through the air towards the heroes. Anyone caught between the arcs of black lightning felt a leeching of energy as their life essences were drained away. Cal threw a
death ward spell upon himself, and, thus protected, concentrated on smashing the necrospheres with his mace.
In the meantime, the floor had opened up beneath the brain in a jar, and it was slowly lowered to a chamber beneath. Akari tried forcing his way through the
walls of force, to no avail. Half a minute later, the force barriers snapped off, and it was fortunate that the heroes had dispatched the other three necrospheres by then, for rising up from the floor was the brain in a jar again - only now, it was encased inside the chest of a huge iron golem equipped with a massive sword.
"None-dare-intrude-upon-the-lair-of-
Doctor-Praemortus-without-dire-consequences!" called out the embedded brain, lights on either side flashing with each word it spoke. The golem swung its sword, and Aerik jumped into its path to protect Galrich from a vicious cut. "Not-even-my-natural-death-could-stop-me-from-my-labors!" cried the undead brain inside the mechanical construct. "My-work-will-go-on!" And it demonstrated that it was not limited to physical attacks, as an arc of electricity jumped from the golem's chest to strike Feron, sending her spinning away in a heap.
However, it was up against five seasoned adventurers, and although it could dish out significant amounts of damage, Cal's healing spells kept the heroes in the fight, and it was unable to quickly heal itself of similar damage. The clincher was when Feron cast a
rusting grasp spell upon the construct, eating away at a good chunk of its left leg. Doctor Praemortis decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and staggered out of the room, down the hall, and onto the raised octagonal platform. "By-the-will-of-Doctor-Praemortis!" he intoned, and disappeared from view.
Fortunately, the others were right behind him and not only saw what he had done but heard the command phrase. They all piled onto the platform and Akari repeated the phrase. In an instant, they were elsewhere.
The platform they now stood upon was the same, but everything else was different. They appeared to be standing in the cargo hold of a large ship of some sort, but none of the group had any time for looking around much, as their immediate attention was focused on the fact that they were all being drained of life energy. Seeing that everything in view, themselves included, was in black and white, Cal was the first to recognize that they were once again on the Negative Energy Plane, and he scrambled for the scroll of
attune form he had purchased shortly after Telgrane and Delphyne had learned the arcane version of the spell from the grateful professors at Graymalkin Academy. As Cal read the words of the scroll, the five adventurers felt themselves being attuned to the lifeless plane of negative energy, and the draining of their life essences stopped immediately.
None too soon, either, for they had other things to worry about. A ten-foot-wide ramp lowered down from the cargo bay floor to the surface of the ground below, and hovering up the ramp was the familiar form of a beholder. This one was pasty-white in color, but the group knew that wasn't necessarily its true coloration, merely what they could see on this gray plane. It didn't seem as tough as a normal beholder, though, for its central eye and half of the orbs in its eyestalks were milky-white and filmy, and it seemed somewhat sluggish as it floated up towards them. This first impression showed itself to be false, however, as a beam of arcane energy shot from one of its five remaining eyestalks, hitting Aerik in the chest and immediately petrifying him. Galrich, standing behind the stone dwarf, realized that he would have been petrified had his bodyguard not once again stepped in front of him to save his life.
That got Galrich mad. He allowed the rage to build inside of him, then leapt from behind Aerik's calcified form and attacked the death tyrant with his greatsword. Akari rushed in with
Hoardmaster from the other side, and Cal and Feron used what attack spells they had remaining upon the floating menace. Between the four of them, they soon destroyed the undead beholder, and moved on down the ramp to confront Praemortis in his iron golem body.
Outside the vessel, the group could see that it had the appearance of a great metal insect; in fact, the name
"Flea" could be seen on its prow. The
Flea was perched on a chunk of rock adrift in the vast emptiness of the Negative Energy Plane, and a diagonal hole into the ground showed that there was a mining operation going on in this forbidden realm. Doctor Praemortis called for assistance from the mines, and soon a small group of hammerer automatons, accompanied by a half dozen human skeletons with pickaxes, scurried up out of the mine entrance. Cal used another turning attempt to destroy all of the skeletons in one fell swoop, while Galrich took on the hammerers and the other two concentrated on taking down Praemortis. Before too long, Feron and Akari had crippled the iron golem, leaving the whimpering brain of Doctor Praemortis begging for his undead life from inside his jar. "I-have-so-much-yet-to-accomplish!" he whined.
"Sorry - time's up!" snarled Akari, as he smashed the glass jar, allowing the spongy brain to fall to the ground amid a rapidly-expanding puddle of preservative fluids. Then, just to be sure, he ground the brain under the heel of his boot.
After that, it wasn't long before the hammerers had been destroyed as well. The group entered the mines just to be sure, but no other servants - undead or construct - remained. Re-entering the
Flea, the group had only to deal with the ship's captain, a deathlok sorcerer named
Wilhelmina Darkblossom, but she wasn't able to put up much of a fight. Looking through the ship's records, the group determined that they were mining a mineral called "calcimortum," which was used to channel negative energy through construct frames - in fact, it was vital ingredient in the construction of both impalers and necrospheres. Doctor Praemortis, an avid student of both necromancy and automation, had invented both devices, as well as the unnatural process to keep his intellect alive after his own death by old age.
The group struggled to lug Aerik's petrified form over to the octagonal platform, but they managed to do so, and activated the command word to return back to the Prime Material Plane. After that, it was a simple matter to rescue the two humans from their cells and lead them to safety. They left Aerik behind for the moment, being unable to restore him to flesh without resting up for a day and preparing the appropriate spells. Galrich opted to stay behind and look over the petrified form of his faithful bodyguard, not wanting to take the chance that there might be some undead monstrosity that had been away from the lair during their recent explorations, something that might take its rage and frustration out on a helpless, petrified Aerik. But Cal returned the next day, Aerik was returned to the flesh, and the trio mounted their horses and rode back to meet with the others.