SESSION 27 – January 8, 2017
We manage to defeat the giant zombie with spells, missile fire, and close combat. Our only injuries being from a fall Otiben took trying to do a leaping back stab.
We went and checked on Alfbrand and his wife Eliana whom Puk said he saw. They were undead facing each other longingly with their hearts in their hands. Zho Ni was offended by their undeath and destroyed both their hearts, which ended their plight. We left them hanging there until we return from facing Voragen.
We enter the tomb and make our way to the room with the shadows. Zho Ni easily turned all but 3 of them. they managed to wound and weaken Batukhan, but we quickly defeated them.
Zho Ni smashed one of the butler skeletons, but Otiben called the other off, after Otiben had directed them to polish Zho Ni’s armor. Zho Ni is much more forceful in his dislike of undead.
We checked the NE lower level, which is not on the map from the librarian, and it was newish construction, very rough. It housed cells and held a dwarf who had been fed on by the vampire, and the elf noblewoman, Lady Isaria, who was “dead” with a stake through her heart. We secured the stack and locked her in a cell, with an urgent desire to face Voragen.
Since Lady Istaria was captured by Ogres, this is evidence that the Ogres must have been supplying Voragen with “food”, in return for Voragen supplying them with weapons. This steeled our resolve to end Voragen, and further weaken the ogres.
We went the rest of the way unhindered to where we faced the adventurers under thrall or Voragen. We searched two rooms, one with 4 chests 1 of pelts, 1 ivory, and 2 with gold and gems.
We went down the stairs and were faced with a large room with 16 zombies, Zho Ni turned most of them, and we quickly dispatched the unturned ones and finished off the rest. Moving into the room we had one elf and one dwarf fall into pits each with a ghoul. Zho Ni turned the ghouls making them easy to slay. the pattern of the pits helped us find two more, which we quickly cleared of their residents.
We moved forward and soon found Voragen in the rooms of the high priest. He charmed Otiben who tried to hit Zho Ni until Zho Ni dispelled the charm on him.
Batukhan and Otiben charged Voragen, but two glyphs of warding blinded each of them. They soldiered on swinging at Voragen, occasionally hitting. Soon more of us entered the fray. Zho Ni silenced the room and we fought in silence, finally driving Voragen back into his room and “killing” his body. He turned to a gaseous form and was limited to his coffin. As it was now dark, we carried it out to the stream and that was the end of him. We then retrieved Lady Istaria and immersed her in the stream also, to ensure she caused no one grief.
We retrieved items from Voragen of great evil, including a staff. We thought it might be the object of power, but the shadow butler said no, and Otiben had it lead us to the temple sanctuary. This room emanated great evil. It was very had to enter this place without fear, or being entranced and lured forward.
A great cauldron of blood dripped into a pit. Otiben managed to make it into the room, and closed the stopper on the cauldron and found the drops of blood fell into a sphere of inky blackness. He threw a vial of holy water into the sphere and it released a shadow. Zho ni easily turned it. Otiben threw another vial into the blood, with only minimal reaction. Otiben threw more vials into the sphere, each releasing a shadow.
The druid said he could bring down the roof and bury the place, but needed time to rest and re-learn spells. Urman agreed. We left off preparing to rest and set watches so we can seal this place and prevent its evil from aiding the ogres.
