In Search of New Armour (Part 4)

Life is just too busy!

We last left our intrepid adventurers following the scrape marks of a stone coffin left behind in the aging cobblestones.

“Scrape marks?”, I hear you say.

Yes, scrape marks!

The who, what, why and how is not currently evident to the PCs; they are as befuddled as you. What I can tell you now, without having to threaten your life, is that the PCs believe the coffin of the Paladin of Eissa has been removed for some devious purpose. Poor young Cavell has no hope in finding his promised armour if he doesn’t first find the entombed Paladin of Eissa. The High Priestess of Eissa told him the armour is in the paladin’s tomb, but when they had found the mausoleum of the interned paladin, the coffin was missing. What they did find was a hole in the ground with very obvious drag marks in the soil. Mind you, Rikku isn’t complaining because he has the opportunity to find more treasure and it is anybody’s guess as to the dark thoughts of the Sorcerer, Asmodeus, but I bet your bottom dollar, that he too is looking forward to finding a nice hoard of treasures along the way.

On with the game…

Kodos continues using his tracking skills, following the scrape marks to a large tomb. Examining the tomb reveals a large hole in its side with a tunnel extending into the subsurface. The drag marks lead into the hole and the soil has a deep groove carved into it. This is the place!

Before going into the tunnel a Minor Skeleton reveals his/her/its presence when Hanu pokes her polearm (it’s a glaive) into the hole to see if there is anything inside. The abomination is deftly taken care of via the administrations of violence, first by Kodos, then Hanu, who destroyed what was left.

The tunnel is steep but manageable and the PCs quickly move inside, being lead by the now-very-useful Kodos. Inside the tunnel they come up to a fork in their path. Scanning the soil, Kodos noticed the drag marks lead in both directions but that the most recent path leads to the right.

Following the path, they are lead in a circle returning back to the intersection in the tunnel. Damn! The tunnels look more like rabbit burrows than tunnels. The coffin has come and gone. The only good thing they found is a large pile of coffin debris, which, after a thorough search, was found to be empty of treasure. No luck there Rikku!

Leaving the burrows, Kodos and Hanu relocate the marks of the moving coffin, first in the side of a tree as a very old scar and then further south as more scratches in the cobblestones. The party is lead to a rusty iron fence surrounding a section of the graveyard. The marks they are following lead along the fence, turning south at the corner and into a great big hole in the ground.

The feeling of déjà vu ripples through the party members as they enter the burrow and once again come up to an intersection with the groove marks left behind by the coffin forking left and right. Again, to the right is the direction of the most recent marks. As the PCs head deeper into the burrow they use their sources of light. Xera bringing up the rear position with her lantern; Kodos leading the group with his Projected Light spell (essentially a torchlight effect from the palm of his hand); Cavell, producing a soft light from the aura he has cast about himself.

Kodos, Hanu, Cavell, and Rikku head around the bend in the tunnel while Xera and Asmodeus stay closer to the burrow entrance. Shuffling sounds can be heard coming from the darkness ahead of them. Shining his light into the large opening Kodos spots movement in the darkness. He does a thorough scan of the cave and identifies several unlife approaching his position. Fear grips the hearts of the four PCs who can see these abominations. As GM I ask the four players to roll their dice for a Resistance Roll (RR) against Fear. Kodos is the only one to fail, not by very much; a Minor Fail as they call it in Rolemaster and so he suffers –25 to all his actions for eight rounds (240 seconds).

[Aside: The Unlife in the Shadow World campaign system is a pervading evil “force of will”. If a character heads down the dark path essentially it will control their destiny (yes it does sound a bit like it comes from Star Wars). A character may be “evil” and still not be controlled by the Unlife, however, if left unchecked, a player’s character who chooses to follow the principles of the Unlife will eventually be controlled by the GM, representing the total abandonment of “self” in place of Unlife mentality. The GM will make the character perform actions inline with Unlife “philosophy”.]

007 Kodos, shaken, not stirred, tarries not, drawing his broadsword and charging into the mass of undead, while Hanu follows closely and positions herself beside him. Due to space restrictions, Cavell is unable to get into melee with the undead now recognised as Ghouls (Lesser Ghouls in fact). Five such horrors show their ugly faces (what’s left of their faces anyway) in this cave; they are quickly dispatched but not before a few rounds of slashing into air by Kodos.

Predictably, Cavell was getting antsy until he managed to get into contact with the Ghouls when room became available. Rikku eventually gets around behind the enemy while Kodos backs off and heads to the southern passage to reveal another two Greater Ghouls coming towards the party’s position. Kodos backs off a second time to allow Cavell to take on these new arrivals. Another Fear RR is made by Hanu and Cavell who are within the 10 foot radius of effect, each player rolls successfully.

Meanwhile Asmodeus, who is in the middle of preparing a spell, decides to follow the left fork in the tunnel (slowly, because he can only move 10% = 5 feet per round while preparing) and haplessly moves into two more Ghouls. Jokes quickly sprout that this is the only way Asmodeus’ can get a Ghoul-friend (sic) - two as it so happens! Deciding not to embrace these new opportunities, Asmodeus releases his spell and suffers a Spell Failure that stuns him for 3 rounds. Another Ghoul appears behind the first two so he moves back to allow Xera access to the Ghouls. As she passes him, she casts a stun removal spell, then she opens up her attack with a thrust of her rapier. She does little damage but eventually the Ghouls are defeated as Rikku comes around behind them.

Cavell moves into the five foot wide tunnel so that he can fight the two Greater Ghouls one at a time. He easily dispatches them and the party members sigh in relief. Treasure springs to Rikku’s mind and after a search by a number of players except Hanu, items are found along with some coin. The paladin’s coffin Cavell is seeking is not present, nor is the armour.

Before proceeding I inform Kodos and Xera that they will need to do a disease RR roll because they were hit by the Ghouls’ hands. Both of them fail and so now they suffer the disease known as Ghoul Rot. Ghoul Rot essentially causes the loss of 1D5 hits per day and prevents healing, either magical or otherwise. The only way to heal a character of Ghoul Rot is through the use of a Remove Disease or Remove Curse spell. Cavell has neither of these and so decides to cast a spell that will halt the effects of the disease without actually removing it from them.

Leaving the Ghoul burrow, as these tunnels are now recognised, the party search the ground looking for clues as to where the coffin has been moved. Nothing is found at first but it is noticed that the barbs of the old iron fence are bent as if a heavy weight was on top. More searching reveals deep scratches in the rusted iron and the barbs all bend in a southerly direction. Following the clues the PCs find a large indentation in the ground at the southern end of the fence. More searching indicated the coffin was dragged into the mausoleum to the south west. Suspicious that it is another waste of time the PCs enter the mausoleum.

Six sarcophagi are found inside the structure and each one is opened by the party. Cavell dispenses with returning the tombs back to their original condition they were found due to the fact that the entire graveyard appears to be tainted by evil. One lone Rotting Corpse is found in one of the tombs along with some treasure. Nine scrolls were found; three each of Remove Curse and Cure Disease as well as three full healing scrolls. Again, no armour is found.

A small intermission is held and players are given the ExP they have been gaining over the last few fights.

Getting tired of this the PCs once again look for clues on the ground - none. But the fence barbs are again bent, pointing in a westerly direction. Another depression in the ground and the group follow the tracks to another tomb that has a large opening in its side. Not wanting to waste their time again, a thorough search of the ground is made just to make sure the scrape marks are not leading somewhere else, none are found on the ground… Into the breach once more dear friends!

Kodos leads the single line formation down into the Ghoul burrow. This is getting ridiculous! This is another identical Ghoul burrow. At the intersection Kodos notices that the grooves that were left behind in the soil from the dragging of the coffin continue only in one direction. This looks promising.

Heading deeper into the burrow, the darkness grows. Using his own light source, Kodos follows the trail and is lead to a stone door - more good news. The tunnel turns left, going north and so before they open the stone door, the PCs investigate. Two Greater Ghouls are found in the cave ahead and so Kodos, who passes his fear RR, moves back so they can ambush the closing enemy. As the Ghouls come in range, Cavell and Hanu pass their own fear RRs and easily remove the threat. Now to opening the stone door…

Not locked, but simply heavy, the party open the door and find a large stone coffin at the end of the scrape marks. A partially destroyed relief in the coffin lid is identified to be that of Eissa. This is definitely what the group have been trying to find!

Concentrating their efforts on lifting the lid the PCs put the stone slab off to the side. Looking inside they see the ghastly visage of a dark, shadowy human wearing raiment of plate armour. An image on the shield is burnt black but the PCs identify it to be the same as the relief on the coffin lid.

This is not the armour that Cavell has been looking for, not unless he wants to be seen dead wearing it!

Xera examines the form lying in front of her and identifies it; she informs the party that it is a Wight. Cavell quickly panics and goes to put the lid back on the coffin, but before he moves the eyes open revealing faint lights. Should they run for it now while they have a chance? The PCs back off slightly as the Wight arises. A low mumbling sound can be heard – it is a spell – too late!

Casting a fear spell at the PCs, the Wight hopes to remove most of his enemies in front of him. Everyone within 60 feet have to roll a fear RR – they all pass the test except Asmodeus. Choosing to stay and fight, Xera, Cavell, Rikku and Hanu surround the evil creature. Doing a minimal 4 hit points of damage to the Wight, it replies in kind. Xera is in its sights and it swings a mighty broadsword.

Wham! Xera takes heavy damage; a shock of cold grips her body as the sword bites into her flesh. She takes an ‘E’ Slash critical in the process, however, this attack is different; it also has a Cold critical of the same severity applying. Badly hurt, Xera backs away out of the door, bleeding at 5 hits per round - she is presently only on 25 hits. That is not long to live.

Determined not to let their friend Xera die, first Rikku, then Hanu and finally the usually slow Cavell, hurl attack after attack on the undead creature. It is quickly brought down in two rounds (20 seconds) of combat. Luckily for them it was too slow to attack in the second round and it was defeated before it could retaliate

Cavell moves to Xera’s side to get the healing process underway. The bleeding is stopped via the use of herbs and Cavell casts a number of healing spells to stabilise her condition while they took effect. Every one is then checked and healed of any major injuries/depleted hit points.

Not happy to see Rikku pick up the magical sword used by the Wight, Cavell continues to heal Xera. (Rikku always gets the magical items.) Rikku tries to attune to the sword and fails. He decides to pass it on to Cavell who attunes to it, finding out that it is a Blade Of Warning. This broadsword gives +15 OB when attacking Orcs, Trolls and other creatures of darkness. It also allows the user to cast Detect Enemies I, a Paladin-base spell once per day.

Rikku searches the coffin and finds another magical, +20 broadsword with no other bonuses. Other treasure was found, but I can’t remember what it was and by the way, the armour was not found either.

Even more frustrated, but happy that they have picked up some nice treasure, the indications of the coffin’s passage through this area are slowly uncovered 20 feet away. Once again the PCs are lead to a large gash in the side of a tomb and a burrow is evident. This time, however, the trackers determine that the scrape marks do not go into the tunnel and that they keep going northwest. The map so far...

Do the party members risk further confrontation with the unlife or do they continue northwest? Come back another time for the next instalment of Destiny Awaits.

Don't forget to visit SkeletonKey Games for the fantastic gaming tiles I use in the pictures above. I have used the Graveyard and Ghoul Burrow products here.