My D&D campaign

[Alex]

The Tale of the Band of the Hand. Part 51.

Determined to show the besieging force who was boss and punish them for their brazenness both Colesta and Zolis started firing off spells into the horde, killing dozens and destroying siege implements. However, the attackers too had their own magic and sent fireballs and lightning bolts in return. A massively fat, two-headed Ogre was matching them spell for spell. Glimit shouted orders to the Duergar in a tongue unknown to the rest. As one they fired their crossbows into the thronging masses.

Zolis fired a spell directly at the enemy caster, but found his spell crackled harmlessly into the ground at his feet, protected by some unknown barrier or device. Orders were shouted and the army organised itself for an attack.

Colesta summoned a dark cloud in the middle of one of the enemy regiments, which then went rolling through the enemy camp. Where it passed, weak creatures died and stronger ones found themselves weakened. Despite the carnage being wrought, the enemy came onwards and the temporary wooden gate that had been constructed over the moat was soon buckling under a powerful assault. Mary screamed at the Duergar to follow her and ran to the drawbridge where she prepared to make her stand.

Oh if only the Duergar spoke the same language as her they might have joined her. Zolis summoned a wall of flame behind the battered gate. Anything wanting to enter the castle would have to survive running through his magical fire.

[Alex]

The wooden gate gave way under the assault of a dozen Ogres and other lesser creatures and headless of Zolis's flame barrier they plunged through. Overhead, trebuchets launched rocks the size of carts at the castle walls, seeking to batter them down. A few exploded around the defenders crushing many and sending sharp splinters of rock to wound those around.

Most of the creatures who plunged into the flames died screaming in them, but the Ogres were tough enough to survive and broke through the barrier hair and clothes aflame. Mary met them with her blades, but more and more of them were breaking through leaving her more and more under pressure. More than one died on her blade, but more of them filled the ranks of the fallen and a series of blows felled Mary. The breath of her life left her body. Zolis cast spells, allowing himself to fly and turn invisible. He sought out the mutated spell caster and fired a barrage of spells. Many failed to penetrate the mystical barrier around the Ogre, but enough got through and by the time Zolis had finished, the giant creature had been turned into an unliving stone statue. With the death of this strange creature the horde's will to fight broke and they scattered, routing to the four winds. As the broke, another army entered the field. Heavily armoured knights on horseback charged into the already panicked horde running them down by the dozen. The riders fought under a white banner that bore the device of a purple dragon.

Being from the same country, Zolis recognised this as the royal standard of Cormyr.

The defenders were rallied inside the castle and were about to be led outside at a charge when it occured to the group that Duergar were not the most popular of creatures, being largely known for their cruel practises and evil gods. Not wishing to see another battle break out, Colesta shouted to Glimit to get his people safely back within the mountain. He nodded and shouted in the harsh language of the underdark. His troops orderly quit the battlements and headed inside to the safety of their own fortiifications.

Zolis dropped his firewall and the others charged outside, adding their swords to the carnage outside.

[Alex]

The rout became a bloody slaughter. Those who fled south would run into the Cormyrian infantry, while those who fled west would find shelter of a sort in The Vast, a swamp of dire reputation. Wither or not they would survive its hospitality was an entirely different matter.

Our heroes carved their way through a group of Hobgoblins and Orcs attempting to make a stand. A rider in plate armour that appeared to be made from brass and mounted on a magnificent white stallion. The animal reared up and its rider pulled it to a halt, in an attempt not to trample Val.  As the warhorse was calmed down the rider raised her visor, revealing a not unattractive youngish woman. In a voice used to command, she declared herself to be the Princess Regent Alusair, and demanded an immediate meeting with the rulers of the castle. Her army was directed to pursue the fleeing tribes and ensure it would be a long time before any humanoids were able to threaten the region again. The party escorted her and her bodyguard to the throne room accompanied by various others (basically pretty much any named character in the castle). Once they were ensconced within, she pulled a manuscript from her belt. "I received this missive informing us that our great aunt, the Lady Aurielle has been married seventy years ago to the then lord of Iril thus formally completing the joining of Irilian to Cormyr and that since then this land should rightly belong to our crown. When we travelled to the city to press our claim the ruling citizens of Irilian chose to deny us our rightful claim. The city was then put under a thankfully short siege and the Counseil have all been arrested and await trial for treason. Which brings me to you. As the Regent I have the right, should I wish to remove you from this castle. The Counseil never had the authority to grant lands or title and it is well within my rights to install whom so ever I please as castellan of this place. Make no mistake we will shortly be at war with the Thayan alliance. Sooner or later they are going to cross the Dragons Reach and there are no mountains ranges, no vast oceans or powerful kingdoms between us and them to stop them. I have been building an alliance of western nations in the hope that together we can stand against this vast army. If you can help me with that then I am mindful to let you keep this castle. By the gods I'll even make one of you a Duke. If you stand in my way, you'll find yourself under the headsman axe before you know what is happening. If you wish you can clear out of here, take to the road and be forgotten, you can stand with me on the battlefield and take your chances that we will win or you can try standing against me. Which is it to be?"

Without much delay the party decided to accept her offer and remain as lords of the realm. They were next asked a series of questions about their background and pedigree. She expressed disappointment that none of them were noble-born, or native-born citizens of Irilian. Since none of them were, the Princess Regent decided that the next best thing was to grand land and title to the only native citizen of Cormyr.

Yup, she made Zolis the Duke of Irilian.

The rest of the party made rumblings about wanting to cut Zolis's throat at this point. Especially Val when it was pointed out to her that she would have to refer to him from now on as "Your Grace."

A feast was announced to celebrate (which the party struggled to supply food for given the state of the castle and its stores). Luckily the fully stocked wine celler came in handy. There was much toasting and dancing, but mid-way through the night Val and Zolis spotted a hooded figure lurking at the edge of the banquet hall and who beckoned them. The pair looked at each other and then quietly slipped out of the hall. They followed the mysterious figure to a quiet part of their castle where it removed its hood revealing a face long lost to the group.

And with that the session ended for the night.

[Alex]

The Tale of the Band of the Icky Hand.Part 52.

No less a personage than Kano stood before Val and Duke Zolis. The side of his face was heavily scarred now, but there was no mistaking him. "I have a proposition for you," he told them. "I know of the location of five more masks but they are too well guarded for me to get to alone. If you help me get them, you can keep two of them and I'll take the other three."

Val tried to bargain, pointing out that since there were more of them than there was of Kano and they'd presumably be doing more of the work then surely they should get the three masks. Snorting derisively Kano pointed out that they had already broken their word to him, killed his horse and left him for dead in a shallow grave and besides, he only needed some extra people. He did not specifically need the party, he could just as easily hire others and besides, he knew the location and they didn't and the price for finding out was 3 masks.

They told him they'd need to speak with the rest of the group and he left saying he'd be back in touch. Val and the Duke then returned to the feast where he managed not to create any diplomatic incidents, much to everyones surprise.

[Alex]

The next day the party met with the Princess Regent in her magnificent pavilion. She welcomed them, told them that as she had a country to run she would be leaving the next morning and introduced the party to her castellan. She told them that Thay was expected to cross the Dragon's Reach come the spring and she intended to be there to meet them on the shores of Cormanthor. To this end, she was building an alliance of western countries to stand against the Red Wizards. The meeting would be held at Irilwatch in a month and it was the Duke's responsibility to have the castle in a fit state for the meeting. She would also require Irilian to contribute to the war effort by building an army. Again, this responsibility fell on Zolis's shoulders. She would however be leaving a contingent of 50 guardsmen to help with training new troops and guarding the castle (and to make sure the party remains loyal to her).

Basically, the players were being given a choice. Do they want to play at being lords and ladies, or did they want to get back out adventuring?

If the Duke or his retainers required any help they should speak with the Castellan, Lord Arian. They humbly thanked the Princess and retired to the library at the top of the castle to debate their next move. It was decided that they should employ someone to run the castle for them. Various names were suggested, Longeron the engineer (a man who while highly skilled in his own profession has no idea about running a castle), Timis (an alcoholic werewolf), or their head guard who to be fair to the man is a caravan guard who has already expressed concern that he is out of his depth. In the end though the best candidate they could think of was Timur. They determined to speak to Lord Arian and see if they could arrange some sort of clemency for the man in return for his service.

And with that, the session ended for the night.

This was an interesting session. Most of it was spent with the group roleplaying with each other, with me only providing minimal input and playing the odd NPC as required. It was good to see.

PS Oh, I forgot to mention, the group used their staff of healing to ressurect Mary. This however is the last time her god will let Mary be brought back from the dead.

[Alex]

So why does Ross's characters keep dying?

You may have noticed that Ross dies a lot. Sometimes this is because of sheer bad luck, like when his paladin died the first time. He was in his very first dice roll of his first combat and took a critical hit, which rolled maximum damage. I can to a degree mitigate this. However Ross also likes to do what is called mini maxing which is where you try and make a character as powerful as possible while negating his disadvantages. He likes to take abilities from books that can be game breaking.

Mary for example has an insanely high armour class which in normal combat makes her hard to hit. Which in theory is great, but as I warned him when he told me what he was going to do with his character, this means I have to put in creatures that are capable of getting past an armour class that high, and things that can roll that high, tend to also hit very hard. I do have other options. I can put in ghost like creatures who can get through armour with other abilities, but most of the fights are going to be against things that can get past high armour 33 to 50% of the time. When that happens you then have to be able to take a lot of damage. Mary is like a fragile glass inside a heavy iron safe. Everything is great until someone strong enough to move the safe comes along and your glass gets smashed. And no matter how high your armour class is, sooner or later someone is going to roll a natural '20' against you on an attack roll and it gets through your defences. At that point you need to be able to take a hit. As Ross took a couple of levels in wizard and through in an option rule, changing out having a familiar for the ability to increase his stats, which is great but also means you are only getting d4 hit points per level, when a fighter should be getting d10. I can put him against a horde of creatures who individually have no chance against him, but even then every one in twenty is going to get through and slowly wear him down. Where he thinks he is a strong character, he has just super specialised in one area that has left him weak in many others and he can't quite understand why he isn't more powerful in game.

[Alex]

The Tale of the Band of the Icky Hand. Part 53

In the morning the party was invited by her herald to join the Princess Regent for breakfast. They were taken to a tent even larger than her private pavilion. They were given a filling pheasant breakfast and an invitation to speak to her privately afterwards. The party were seated close to the Princess, but not by her side.

This was just to say to the party, hey you might be in power, but you still have a way to go.

Afterwards in her tent, she told the party her advisor had told them of their wish to leniency for Tirouv and Joul (the gnome who had rescued them). She made them work for it a little but in the end, said she was inclined to agree with their request. They were given a warning though. They were accepting responsibility for the pair, and any further crimes committed by them would be on their heads, including the death penalty if so justified. With that, the Princess dismissed them and left with he vanguard, leaving the infantry and baggage trains to catch up with them.

[ER]

Ever looked at a way cool site called Chaotic Shiny? I love that place.

[Alex]

The party decided to wait for a couple of hours before heading to Irilian to order supplies, free Tirouv and start building an army to face the Red Wizards in the spring not to mention getting the castle ready to host an international conference of the western powers. Zolis decided to wait in the castle and start making some magical items. Seeing this as a relatively safe trip, the others decided it would be fine to travel without him. They passed the poor bloody infantry marching along the road. The journey was too long, however, to complete in a single night so Colesta summoned an extra-dimensional space for them to hole up in for the night.

Had they not the party would have been ambushed by one of the assassins of the Dark Reflection.

The next day they reached the city. Evidently the conquest of Irilian had not been that much of a fight as the walls showed no signs of major damage. They entered the city, but whereas before they were greeted as heroes and saviours this time they found only a sullen silence. People spat on the ground as they passed or jeered at them. Unsure what to make of this, they headed to the jail where a young lieutenant in the colours of Cormyr seemed to be in command. The guardsmen were still those of Irilian, but the men in charge were Irilan still. They secured the release of the two counseilmen whose services they had planned on obtaining. Jules looked broken, as if he had lost everything he ever valued in the world (he has), while Tirouv shot them a momentary look of purest hatred before masking it behind his normally placid elvish features.

The group could not understand what they could have done to invoke such hatred. They would find out soon enough.

Taking the newly released prisoners to the high-class inn that Tirouv favoured for his meetings, The Stormridden the group found themselves being pelted with stones and odure en-route. The maitre'd had to be bribed to let them in, and even then it had to be to a private room where no other customers could see them. Although Tirouv was in no mood for chit chat, they did manage to find out that they were being blamed for the city being under Cormyrian rule. Word had gotten out that the confirmation that the lands belonged to the Cormyrian crown had came from the castle. When the city had been attacked, the party had been nowhere to be found when it came to defending it.

Val remembered how uncomfortable Timis had looked when they had been gathered in the throne room and suddenly put it all together. Tirouv was fairly hostile to the group, but given the choice between facing a trial and most likely the hangman's noose or working with the party he agreed to work for them. An offer was made to Joul who also accepted, but he seemed to have little interest in living or dying. Colesta started to have serious doubts about employing either of them.

And they thought they'd ride in, save the day and be treated as heroes.

Tirouv mockingly suggested while they were in the city they might want to check their wine glasses for broken glass. When they started worrying someone might try and poison them again he reminded them that in order to have someone killed, you had to publically announce that you wanted someone killed, then the local guild would get in touch. It let the potential target know they had angered someone enough to have them killed and would give them a chance to either flee the city or to try and make recompense. Just at that point, there was a knock on the room door. They nervously asked who it was and were told it was their supper (meals were included in the cost of the room). Val opened the door to be confronted with two men dressed in black and pointing spears in her direction.

And with that the session ended for the night.

[Alex]

The Tale of the Band of the Icky Hand. Part 54

Val found both spears plunged into her body, one catching her thigh, the other through her gut. She stumbled under their assault and tried to move out the way but the shock was too much and she failed to dodge out the way. Mary was unable to get past Val's body to attack the would-be assassins. Colesta's magic however was easily able to find its way past her comrades and incinerated both black-clad assailants. The bodies lay smoking on the ground. A quick search revealed they had no items of note, no handily signed contracts or suchlike. Just a couple of crudely made spears and black rags. The bodies were chucked out of a nearby window and the party settled down for the night, five bodies crowded into one double bed.

Meanwhile, back in the castle an impatient Kano confronted Zolis and demanded to know if the party was going to accompany him, or would he be looking for other assistance. He would be leaving in three days and wanted an answer the next morning. Zolis tried explaining they had other matters to attend to, but Kano was determined he would be moving on in accordance with his deadline. He returned the next morning for his answer and a flustered mage agreed to accompany him.

He just hoped the rest of the party returned in time.

The next day was spent negotiating with merchants for the supplies required. It had been estimated that they would need food to feed around 500 people for a week, not to mention their mounts. Entertainment would also have to be sorted, accommodation and a myriad of lesser details. Eventually, the party did figure out they had employed two people to do this kind of thing for them (Tirouv and Juels) and did not have to engage in roleplaying it all out themselves.

I am rather thankful for this. It is not really interesting to roleplay shopping for food and drink.

They then went to the paladins to try and mend some fences with them and recruit them to be the core of the army they are assembling. A 'bribe' of 1,000 gold along with promises of future donations was made as well as a suit of magical plate armour. The Grand Marshal (rather coldly) accepted the gifts and said he would consider the offer. He would pray on the matter and send his response to the castle. Another night was spent in Irilian, everyone crowded into the one room and taking turns to keep watch. The next day mounts were bought for Tirouv and Juels before they headed back to the castle.

It was a peaceful enough journey back, and they arrived in time to be told by Zolis in his usual breathless fashion that they had to leave the castle for a couple of weeks and accompany Kano as he was not willing to wait any longer for them and certainly not the month they would require. Besides, they should be back in time for the conference. They have minions to take care of the details for them. As long as nothing happens that delays them, then they should be fine.

The rest of the night was spent going over their inventory, setting up a treasury of 50,000 gold the new Castellans could use without going into the main treasury and deciding what items to take with them. I told them weight could be an important factor in the next part of the adventure so they have to list what they are taking with them and what they are leaving behind).

The end of the session saw them heading off to bed, ready for the next days adventuring.

And with that, the session ended for the night.

Oh and due to Tina writing a brooch down as brioche, the party now had a magical loaf of bread.

[Alex]

The Tale of the Band of the Icky Hand. Part 55.

The party finished off their final checks on their gear and set off following Kano out of the castle of their castle. Rather than following the road south to Irilian, he turned off and went cross country, skirting the eastern edge of the Vast, the swamp of ill-repute that marked the unoffical border between Sembia and Cormyr. Eventually they reached the road reaching along the coast, known as the Manticore Way where they turned west. After four days travelling with nothing much happening, Kano took a northern fork. His replies were short and while he told the truth, he didn't really give them anything useful to go on. Where are we going would be answered with "North west" for example.

They were due to spend the night in Arabel. Normally Kano had insisted on camping away from towns and villages and they'd had to rough it in the field. Since Zolis comes from nearby he suggested that they stop in and see his family whose estate was perhaps an hours ride outside of the city. The party picked up a few supplies and continued on to the estate. The wizard was visably... excited as they drew nearer and he admitted he was somewhat concerned about how his family would adjust to his new body, him having been human when he last saw them and now being a half orc. As they got closer and passed many of the estate workers they noticed they were staring open mouthed and pointing at the group.

Well, more specifically they were pointing at Zolis. Colesta asked if half orcs were outlawed in Cormyr or anything, but Zolis knew of no predjudice against them. The main farmhouse building lay on the leeward side of a large hill in the middle of the estate. To one side the hill sloped downwards towards a lake. This was where the best of the grape crops grew, catching the sun all day long.

Please note, I know nothing about viticulture and if this isn't the best way to grow grapes I neither know or care. Its just a bit of background detail. Anyway, many sessions ago the party found a Deck of Many Things in Irilswatch. Many things happened as a result of this, one of which was that Zolis gained a small keep. He gave vague directions as to where the keep should be located. This is worth bearing in mind.

Only now, where rows of carefully planted grapes there stood a shuffing great castle. Well, not a huge one. More of a small keep, but it was large enough to have destroyed the majority of this years crop. It was a squat construction, no where near as grand as Irilswatch, but solid and defencable enough. From the four towers and the walls fluttered purple silken banners, each embroidered with the familiar features of Zolis the half orc.

The first words from his mouth were "Oh crap."

Followed by "So that is why they were staring at me."

It was decided to investigate the keep first off, and then go and try explain things to his family.

[Alex]

The keep itself was plain and as yet undecorated. It looked secure and functional enough though. Zolis decided it was time to face the music though and headed off to his family home. Word of strangers had reached the farmhouse though and his father and younger brother were riding towards them.

It took some convincing the old man that the huge, tusked half-orc was in fact his eldest child. He was unimpressed though with his tales, even when he told him how he was now a Duke receiving instead a highly unimpressed "Well whoop-tee-f**king-doo. Do I bow or do I curtsy?"

Back at the old homestead, the party met the rest of Zolis's family, his mother and younger sister. At no point did he bother introducing the party to his family though.. His mother recognised Zolis right away, claiming that she could never mistake his eyes for anyone else. She was baking bread and told him his room had been untouched since he was last in it.

This turned out to be very literally true. As soon as they opened the door the smell of stale sweat and unwashed clothes hit them. A small cloud of flies buzzed about the room. Zolis decided to close the door and carefully go back downstairs.

The subject of the keep came up and how much it would cost to buy some extra land nearby. The hefty sum of 10,000 gold was reached, to cover debts, buy the land, pay workers and so on. Looking through their bags the group managed to come up with this amount (saving the family from bankruptcy although this was not directly mentioned during the session).

Zolis's family (the Pegasun's if anyone is curious), didn't have enough guest rooms for everyone, but they made up beds for people where they could and everyone spent a safe and comfortable night sleeping in one of the outer buildings. In the morning a breakfast and packed lunch was prepared for everyone. Zolis's father took his eldest son to one side and in a serious voice spoke to his boy. "Look son, I've heard to stories of the war in the east. I am guessing somehow you are going to be all caught up in this with your castle and lands. Just try not to... make the entire Cormyrian army vanish in a puff of smoke or anything eh."
And with that he gave his boy a hug. Goodbyes were said and the group got back on the road. Or on the cross country as it happened.

[Alex]

Another couple of days on the road passed. The party did discover their destination was somewhere in the Desertmouth Mountains, a high ridge of mountains that separated the fertile lands of Cormyr from the desert land of the Anauroch and the dangers those destroyed lands contain.

North of Arabel lay the city of Tilverton. Kano indicated they would be going nowhere near that place. To much had happened there he hinted darkly. Zolis agreed with the strange bounty hunter and the rest of t the party did not ask questions. The mountains were in sight and the group spent another couple of days travelling northwards, the ground now tilting upwards as they slowly began the trip to the base of the mountain range. Settlements were non-existent on the cross country ride, however, they did reach a crude road running east-west which Kano had them follow for a while. On a boulder at the roadside, they saw a gaily dressed man sitting, playing a lute. He hailed the group in a friendly manner as they approached. ‘Hello, there my friends. I hope this fine morning finds you well and that at the days end it finds you equally well. That of course, depends entirely on what you do next. You see, a small army of my fellow ruffians even now have you in their sights and are prepared to rein down an arrow filled death on you all. This is a fate that is in your power to avoid. All you have to do is hand over all your wealth, goods, weapons, armour and so forth.’

The group decided to reply by opening a can of whup-ass. As it turned out, this was a fairly small can, and it was the diet variety. Despite spells, arrows and swords the man appeared wounded, but unconcerned. Undeterred the party continued unleashing all manner of attacks but failed to kill the stranger. Meanwhile, crossbow bolts came flying out of the foliage to the north and south. The fire was fairly inaccurate, but it was slowly whittling down the group's health. Every so often the stranger would drink a potion and not just his wounds, but also the damage to his clothing would be instantly repaired/healed. After a while, Colesta started to get suspicious that something wasn't quite right (about 6 or 7 combat rounds in), so she cast a spell designed to detect the threads of magic. The longer she concentrated, the more information she would find out. She and her companions fairly reeked of magic between their spells and magic items, but the stranger too, he also was wrapped in magic. Colesta extended her magical sense out, following the threads of magic woven around him until she saw the nature of the enchantment around him.

"ITS AN ILLUSION!" She cried out. "ZOLIS, BURN THE BUSHES!"

Zolis for his part summoned a mighty fireball and sent the huge ball of arcane fire hurtling towards the shrubbery to the north. Unfortunately, the rest of the party stood between him and his target. Instead of engulfing the enemy in a ball of flame, his allies found themselves hit by the 30-foot inferno.

On the plus side, the radius was large enough to hit the guys hiding in the plants as well. Three-quarters of them were incinerated instantly and the survivors found themselves badly injured and without cover. Val managed to jump into cover, and Kano, still on horseback got out the way, but everyone else was caught in the explosion found themselves nearly dead. Colesta and Zolis saw a man, the double of the illusionary figure running away. A hail of missile fire and a lightning bolt dropped him though, with no fakery to pretend he was someone else this time. The other ambushers fled, badly wounded but alive.

It was time for the party to take stock of the damage they had suffered though. The fireball was hot enough to melt certain metals, like lead, gold or silver. Their stash of money was now a 27lb slag heap. Non-magical weapons and clothing had been ruining by the firey holocaust.

Oh and their horses were so much BBQ. They still had a few days travel ahead of them, and many days travel back and were stuck in the middle of nowhere with civilisation at least 4 days walking behind them.

And with that the session ended for the night.

[Alex]

The Ballad of the Band of the Icky Hand. Part 56.

The group stood around, still somewhat shocked and in a couple of cases completely naked. The hair had been singed from the heads of everyone, bar Kano and Val. Luckily, Val still had her ballroom gown in her bag of holding and Colesta was at least able to cover her blushes. Mary, however, had no such luck and demanded that Zolis stop staring at her.

Kano cursed the stupidity of his companions. He would not make his planned timeline now and he knew of nowhere in this desolate land where they might get replacement mounts. He had travelled rarely in this region. There was nothing else for it but to trudge on, on foot. He insisted the group make what headway they could. Lacking shoes it would not be a pleasant walk for Colesta or Mary.

Spirits in the group did rise somewhat when they spotted a small village up ahead, but when they got closer it was merely a burned-out shell of a village. Kano's keen tracking skills told him that the village had been hit months ago. Riders had come in from the north and left the same way. Slavers, the group guessed. Still, while they were there it was reasoned they could search the buildings for any clothing that had survived and perhaps stop Mary from suffering from hypothermia. The two ladies headed off to a nearby building while the others prepared a camp. They managed to find some clothing. Not in the best of conditions perhaps, but serviceable enough and certainly better than being totally nude, or tromping around the wilds in a ballgown. As they rooted through the clothing though, the angry spirits of the former owners were called back from the grave. Three mist like figures vague and insubstantial formed around a fourth that while the others were grey and faint was a sickly green glowing colour. They drifted over the ground to attack those who had disturbed their rest. The green one touched Val, its insubstantial hand drifting straight through the rogues armour. It felt like an icy cold hand had just gripped her heart and was crushing it. She felt a portion of her life energy drain from her body, and the green glow from the creature grew stronger. Her and Colesta fought back against the strange ghostlike creatures but found they were outmatched and shouted for help. The others came running and lent their spells and swords to the fray. Every time one of the wraths touched them, they felt not just the physical damage, but a spiritual one too as their life force was drained from them and made their attackers more powerful. The green one concentrated on Val, who realising she was losing the fight. She attempted to use her training and meld with the shadows, but the wraith, chill with the touch of the grave was attracted to the heat of the living and could sense her. Once again it touched her and Val felt her body weaken. She could no longer stand upright as more and more of her life force was drained to feed the insatiable hunger of this monster.

The rest of the party saw Val fall, but none of them could get to her. The Dread Wraith drained the last of her vital energies and left her a lifeless corpse on the rubble. Seeing this was a fight they could not seem to win, at least not like this Colesta stepped back and ran out of the building to where Zolis stood. The mage had been firing spell after spell at the creatures, but having learned his lesson from the earlier encounter was afraid to unleash his more powerful magics for fear of hitting his companions. She shouted to the others to get out of the house. Kano fought a fighting retreat, moving back slowly while Mary turned her back and fled outside while Colesta called down a storm of icy death whose magic weakened the undead, not to mention hitting Kano a bit too. Another spirit started to coalesce out of the air, this time over Val's spirit as the Dread Wraith called the spirit of one it had slain to rise up and serve it.

Things were looking grim for the band of heroes.

[Alex]

Now the fighting was out in the street Zolis was able to unleash some of his more powerful spells and sent a couple of lightning bolts which incinerated the lesser spirits and left the most powerful one in a badly weakened state. Mary could easily have finished it off, only feeling weak and dizzy, her blades failed the hit the twisted etherial creature. Zolis could still save the day, but his spells now missed its target. It would come down to Colesta, and who else but a priest would you want to trust with a hail Mary? She called on a Phantasmal Killer, but the Dread Wraith easily fought off the phantoms of the mind that it created. Desperate to cling on to its unhallowed life the Wraith stuck out at the closest target and its insubstantial claws sunk deep into Mary's body. Weakened by its repeated draining attacks she had no more resistance against the spirit as her soul was sucked from her body and into the Wraiths. It waxed powerful once more on stolen life energy. It was to no avail though. Incensed by the loss of another companion the remaining adventurers redoubled their efforts and managed by spell and magic weapon to end its unhallowed existence.

But at what cost?

The others saw to their wounds while Colesta went to return the bodies of their dead friends to life. As she did so though another creature formed, rising up from the body of Mary. This however was a weak, newborn spirit and was quickly dispatched. She called on the power of her healing staff and sent magical energies questing forth to call her friends back from beyond the veil, but nothing happened. Confused she tried again, but still the bodies lay still. Their souls had been destroyed by the Wraiths and had not passed on to the etheric realms to dwell with their gods. There would be no coming back from this death, not without much more powerful magics than the group currently possessed.

Kano grunted and said "Going to need reinforcements now."

And with that, the session ended for the night.