First Act

The brothers Uther and Petrus Darkbane started off on the road on their way home from their initiation ceremony in the capitol city, Caris, in the kingdom of Tycosia. They had just been initiated into the paladin and cleric orders respectively and had been given a  task to finish their initiation and prove their worth. They were to seek out the Archdruid of the Flaming Sanctuary to the east to receive their mission. On the way, they stopped by their hometown of Dolurn and met up with Blaith, the nearsighted oracle who, after a conversation of their religions, Blaith, for his own reasons, asks to accompany them which they agree to.

On their way to the Sanctuary, the three encountered a few threats, one being a band of hobgoblins which, after the Darkbane brothers came back to explore a bit later on, they learned had been forced to flee their homeland to the north due to it being taken over by "them", an entity that they did not name. The group arrives in Redbough Forrest and makes their way to the Flaming Sanctuary where they meet the Archdruid Vesta Flamethorn, the only elf that any of them had ever seen. After some feasting, the brothers ask the druid about their mission to which she explains she has changed what she wants them to do due to recent circumstances. The Crimson Barrow which holds deceased clerics and important figure of Obad-Hai and had two druids for guards had gone silent and when she attempted to scry it, could see nothing but a large black cloud covering the area. Thus, the party decides to go and investigate. Before they do, the Archdruid introduces them to Temnir, a sorcerer with a foul mood who is wrapped from head to toe in black strips of cloth and wears a black cloak with the hood always up. He seems reluctant to come along but seems to do as the druid commands of him, accompanying the party to the barrows.

When they arrive at the barrow, they cross a small stream and enter a thick fog where all natural sounds seem muffled and distant and no animals seem to come near. Through a harrowing dungeon crawl, the group finds that a group of necromancers had defiled the place, placing strong corrupting magics in the earth and raising the inhabitants as undead minions. After defeating the two skeletal champions who seemed to be inhabited by a red and a blue entity, they converge on the final chamber to find the two entities merged into a single skeletal warrior with the two druid guards now as undead servants. The group heroically defeats them and makes their way back to the sanctuary after performing some rites to help cleanse the barrows.

The group returns to the sanctuary and celebrates their success and the summer solstice with a festival of feasting, singing, and dancing and meet Vargus, the mountain of a man barbarian who seems to have some ties to Temnir. It is later found out that the two of them had been traveling south and were attacked by the band of hobgoblins and barely made it out with their lives. Temnir had been knocked unconscious and Vargus had carried him to safety before dropping into a coma-like state for almost a week. The brothers send a report back to their orders to give word of their success and are replied to with a new mission. It seems that there have been other reports of unusual undead activity in the south and west and the brothers have been tasked with investigating. The rest of the group decided to accompany them as the two wanders are heading that direction already and Blaith is content to travel with his new found companions, having no real destination but forward.

The next leg of their journey is through the rest of the forest and into a swamp where they struggle with wildlife and help out an indigenous tribe of Lizardmen with their Bogart problem. It seems they too have fled from their native homelands to the west and taken up residence in this swamp, harassing the lizard men with raids. After a daring raid on the bogart fort, of which they end up setting a large portion of the swamp on fire, they kill the leader and capture a bogart messenger who, when they let him go, takes a few bounds away, looks to them, cackles in an uncharacteristically non-bogart way wishes them congratulations, and slips away via what looks like a slip in space. The party is befuddled by this but decides to move forward.

During their trip through the marsh, Blaith has a vision which he shares with Uther, and later the rest of them in which he sees a door in the distance, further away than he can normally see, and as he runs it it, it begins to fade, so he runs faster when suddenly a pair of piercing blue eyes appear before him that radiate malice and a bit of insanity, causing him to wake in a sweat.

They eventually make it out of the swamp and make their way north-west through a savannah-like area to the coast where they find a fort which turns out to be one of the well-known Dwarven trading outposts. The group spends the night there and learns that the leader of the fort, Karthass, was the one who sent their order the missive about the undead activity. Apparently undead had been coming out of the desert to the south; nothing they could't handle but it was happening with increasing frequency. The next day, the party decides to head south, reprovisioned and in possession of a map of the trade route that they use to traverse the harsh environment. On their way to the desert, they run across an undead merchant and later on, an undead horse which is pulling a cart that looks like an enormous bite had been taken out of it. They dispatch of the first and put the second out of its misery on their way to the desert.

The desert is a very unforgiving place, requiring the entire group to keep up Endure Elements until the sun falls. After a couple of days of wandering, the group spies an enormous cyclone of sand moving in their general direction. They hunker down and watch as it seems to strike out at a large red figure on the ground. It is at this point that they can spy a figure in the eye of the storm. After a few minutes of this, the red figure disappears and the cyclone stops, revealing the figure as it turns to them and begins to float towards them. It turns out to be the Vizier of the Djinn tribe of genies who was fighting off one of the Efreeti genies, their mortal enemies. He zephyrs them back to his camp where they also meet the Jann genies. The caravan wanders the northern desert helping the traders when they are in need. They learn from them that the Efreeti apparently have been causing more trouble than usual to the south and that they too have noticed the increase in undead. He bestows to them a quest to ind out what the Efreeti are planning and to stop them if they can, which they accept. He gives them a tarp to help cover themselves from sandstorms along the way, which there are many, and a small stone that has a needle which points in the direction of what you are searching for. It points them to the south when they think of their mission so they head off the following day.

One challenge they face on their journey south is an enormous black scorpion, the size of a couple large elephants, which they are forced to flee and hide from, lest it throw them in the air and impale them as it did the unlucky camels they watched him hunt. They later learn from Jatzee that this scorpion has been nicknamed Ebon by the locals and is known for his terrible temper and how he rages constantly in search of food, never sleeping; only waiting.

On the way, they find a man collapsed on the ground to which they attempt to rescue and give water to. He thanks them but then holds a knife to Petrus's throat as camels and riders appear from under sand-covered tarps and surround the group. The man introduces himself as Jatzee, the very arrogant but charismatic leader of the Bandits of the Dunes; a group of men who were driven out of their oasis home by the Efreeti and are forced to pillage food, water, and goods to supply the women and children they leave behind. They try to negotiate a trade for goods for their lives but the party declines and attacks, killing a few of their members before Jatzee calls a halt to the fighting. He explains that he doesn't want any violence and the only reason he's doing this in the first place is for the reasons above. The group realizes this is probably related to their missions so they talk Jatzee into leading them to his abandoned home in exchange for their help in reclaiming it for him. He agrees and they make their way there.

When they come to the top of the dunes that shelter the oasis, Blaith falls to his knees as the vision of the door returns, this time, placing itself in his vision where the other party members describe is the opposite dune face. After some searching and digging, they find a doorway that leads down into the ruins of a temple. Jatzee's people are quite superstitious of monsters and have no knowledge of this place being here so he opts to wait outside and retrieve the rest of his people if they should need help.

The stairway down ends in a large hole that drops down into a lower level though there is a door across the chasm that they are unable to get to. They drop down and begin the Burning Sand Temple dungeon. After fighting through sand creatures, a hydra, and a myriad of insects, the group makes it to a winding ramp that leads into the room they were unable to reach. When the enter they find the Efreeti genie talking with a man cloaked in black and red tattered robes and wielding a very intricate looking stave. When they enter, he turns to them and they see the cold blue eyes that Blaith had his vision about. He orders the Efreeti to take care of them, and vanishes into a slip in space identical to the one they saw in the swamp. The Efreeti feels like he is too powerful to deal with the likes of the party and so sicks a mummy and a group of burning skeletons on the group, dealing heavy damage although they are victorious. They open the door to the south to find it is indeed the way out but continue in deeper to find a sizable catacomb of skeletons, burning and otherwise, as well as two undead Jann genies which nearly fell Vargus. After defeating them, they solve a puzzle to open a spiral staircase that leads down many stories to a large room where the Efreeti is waiting for them. There is some trickery and magic involved and the group takes some damage but through their preparedness and tactics, they are victorious.

After exiting the dungeon, they finish their business with Jatzee and return to the genies and receive their reward; 3 wishes. When they start discussing their next course of action, the stone compass jerks towards the east, an obvious reference to their mission from the church. Before they leave, the Vizier warns them about the mountains to the north, they contain monsters that have grown to incredible size and are immensely powerful. The group takes his advice and returns to the dwarven outpost.

From there, Uther and Petrus board a ship to reconvene with their leaders in the Grand Basilica of Pelor in Caris and Blaith, Temnir, and Vargus spend a couple of weeks enjoying dwarven ale, stories, and the comfort of a bed to sleep in. Uther is rededicated as a Warrior of the Holy Light and Petrus meets with his leader and has an encounter with a Solar Angel of Pelor, changing his alignment and giving him the speech of the divine. They learn that the Kingdom of Derevaan has stopped sending trade ships and that Tycosia's eyes and ears in the region have gone quiet all at once. They fear war or worse so they send the brothers back on their mission with an addendum to report the situation in Derevaan to them as soon as they know anything. Back at the outpost, the remaining three members board a ship to take them to Anvilfall Outpost, the sister outpost to Hammerfast, on the other side of the desert. Both groups arrive there within the same day only to see that a thick column of smoke is rising from the horizon in the direction of the Outpost.

Upon arriving at the at the burning outpost, the group finds the corpses of dwarves and skeletons alike littering the ground as well as a handful of skeletal figures wearing what look like ceremonial robes. They hear the noise of battle still going and rush in to find a lone dwarf standing high atop a pile of bodies and rubble from a nearby collapsed building fighting off the continual advance of a few dozen of the undead. After a quick fight, the dwarf, Arudal Stonewall introduces himself to them and joins the party as he is also only a bystander at the outpost, on his way to Derevaan on clan business. According to him, a group of clerics, regular traders as he had come to know, came with a caravan of wagons to resupply when they suddenly attacked and skeletons came pouring out of the wagons, slaughtering all in their path. As they bury the bodies, Temnir identifies the robes as belonging to clerics of St. Cuthbert. Arudal relays that their monastery is not far from there in the woods towards Derevaan. The group sets out, deciding to stop by the monastery, thinking it might have something to do with their mission.

When the come into the clearing that the monastery is located in, there are signs of fighting; large scorch marks dotting the field as well as the doors to the building being slightly unhinged and burnt. As they approach and enter, they find a circle of black robed figures congregating over a pile of bones before they turn and attack the party. during the fight, the necromancers employ all types of magics as well as one who raises a group of undead from the pile of bones to attack Temnir. After the battle, they find that the effigy of St. Cuthbert on the altar has been replaced with a pitch black, vile effigy of Nerul, god of death. While searching the bodies, the group finds a badly burned piece of paper which through a mending spell is barely decipherable. The party learns that there are orders to finish their work here, then move to a town in Derevann to assist with operations there that Arudal figures out referrers to Heldenberg, and then to report to the citadel.

While discussing their next course of action, Petrus has had enough of Temnir's foul mood and questionable nature and confronts him in a bit of a spectacle ending with what looks like the party possibly splitting down the middle as allegiances are formed; the brothers and Arudal on one side, Temnir, Vargus and Blaith on the other. Temnir storms out of the monastery, flinging a lightning bolt which blasts the doors off their frames and into a thousand pieces. Petrus goes to talk to him to find Temnir working with some of the strips of cloth that had been damaged in the fray. Petrus sees that Temnir's body is quite disfigured with a scarcely any normal flesh left, instead a large pulsing dark purple wound across his torso and a large scar across his lower face. With tensions diffused a little, he explains that the St. Cuthbert clerics aren't very prone to kindness for those of opposing faiths and beliefs and displayed that by giving him some of the wounds he sports. He mentions something about Nerul having something to do with it too though he doesn't say what.

As the two reenter the monastery, Blaith's curiosity gets the best of him and he touches the effigy of Nerul and bends backwards in pain, unable to break contact with the idol. The flesh and muscle on his finger begin to flay as Temnir flies into action and slams his ring hand into the idol and though showing considerable pain, perseveres but gets blown back from the effigy like a rocket, landing hard on the floor and falling unconscious, as does Blaith though he merely drops to the ground where he stood.

During the event, Blaith had another vision of the blue-eyed man reaching out and his index finger meeting Blaiths on the idol. When Temnir struck the idol, he turned his attention to him and whether through luck, skill, or both, Temnir was able to push him back, seemingly wounding him in the process. He shares this with the party after he wakes up the following morning. He also finds that though his entire finger has been stripped to the bone, he is still able to move it. The group infers that this effigy is what allows them to create skeletons so quickly. Temnir also awakens and Blaith thanks him for saving his life and he is in part redeemed to Petrus. They do, however, ask him what his goals really are to which he answers that he has business in Derevaan and that he will allow them to know what it is though he would rather just let them see it with their own eyes than have him explain it to which they agree. As they leave the monastery, the come upon its' graveyard, an enormous thing, dating back generations. The problem is that every headstone has an empty hole in front of it and many more of the black effigies are scattered around as well as wagon trails leading west into the forest. Thus the chase begins.

As they chase the necromancers through the forest, they are hindered multiple times by vicious, living plant life, the least of which is an enormous Quickwood which it seems their quarry had a small interaction with as well. After they dealing with the threat, the group find themselves on a hill overlooking the siege of Heldenberg. An army of undead and necromancers is laying waste to the wall as a last stand of guards and champions fight at the gate to the town. The group charges down the slope and between the battle prowess of the fighters and a wave of potent destructive magic from Temnir, the town is saved for the moment. The group meets Van'Duun Stormhammer, Merka Talvanar, and Iris who seem to be stuck in the town helping them defend against the undead. As they recount their experience to their new friends, the idea of seeking out the spawning point of the undead army comes up and the group sets out under the cover of night to try and thwart the cultists. Upon reaching the mines where the townspeople said they might find the cult, a cave in occurs during a fight with a pair of necromancers and buries Temnir.

The contingency spell seeming to take effect, Temnir finds himself spinning through the ether and suddenly in a hot, dry, familiar location as the desert sun beats down on him, causing him discomfort in addition to his dizzy and nauseated state. Separated from his allies, and uncertain their fate, the first act of the adventure comes to a close as Temnir attempts to make his way out of the desert...

Second Act

Coming soon!
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:27, Wed 04 Apr 2012.