The Lord of the Morning

 

Chapter 3
The City of The Ancients

Part 1: Plinth
22 Aurel 1317

  The party entered Plinth during the late hours of the afternoon in high spirits. It was dusk by the time the party had finished gathering information about Plinth and how to best navigate the Elven Forest. At this time, a young man of about 18 rushed into the center of Plinth proclaiming that he had seen a ghost in Plinth's graveyard. A graveyard that was magically sealed to keep restless spirits in and graverobbers out. Only members of the Gravediggers Guild could enter to inter bodies. This young gravedigger had claimed that the seals and wards on the oldest of the burial tombs had been broken and an evil spirit had been released. The wards needed to be released and the spirit either dealt with or trapped inside by sunrise. When asked by the town elders, the party volunteered. It was Maddox Barrett who first offered his services, and the others reluctantly followed.

  The party set out through the woods along the worn path to the graveyard. They passed through its gates just as the sun was setting. As they made their way to the main tomb, a large complex built into the hill at the center of the graveyard, they were attacked by the graveyard's wards and guardians. Four statues of weeping mourners surrounded the party and a melee ensued. One statue had a particular affection for Rhodian. The two were involved in a duel of stone versus arrow. As Rhodian retreated the statue pressed on. Luckily, in its haste, it broke one of its arms. Ranald stood toe to toe and slew his statue with little grace. Olwyn pressed his attack while Maddox called lightning from the sky down upon the weepers. Mr. Whiskers did his best to occupy and annoy the weepers, but what could teeth do to stone? Bodkin was forced into close range combat and opted to reduce a weeper to rubble through fire and magic. In all the confusion both Maddox and Rhodian fell to the weepers. Bodkin and Owlwyn dashed to their rescue and were able to stop the bleeding before it was fatal.

  After regrouping, the party decided the best thing to do was to recouperate inside the graveyard rather than outside of its protective boundary. Luckily, a few hours passed without drawing the attention of more weepers. The party made its way through the graveyard to the main tomb. Its doors stood slightly ajar. The party entered the main foyer only to find it protected by another set of wards. Four stone statues generated undead skeletal worgs which immediately attacked. The party slew them only to find four more reappeared. As the rest of the party stood its ground and continued to fight, Bodkin felt the best course of action was to leave the room. He ran to the other side of the room, opened a pair of doors, and entered a room piled with 20 or so bodies. The worgs did not follow him. After this wake-up call, the rest of the party followed with the brave Ranald bringing up the rear and covering their backs. Once inside this new room they were safe from the worgs, as they did not follow and they turned to dust once Ranald had left.

  The party took some time to search the bodies and the room. Most of the time they completely ignored all of the descriptions given to them about the rooms or any clues. Bored after the first sentence, Maddox decided to take action and open one the doors leading out of the room. Unfortunately, it opened to a pile of rubble because that part of the tomb had collapsed long ago. Even worse was the large black pudding living in the crevasse, and alerted to the party's presence, it attacked. Before Mr. Whiskers could attack, the pudding engulfed him and via some digestive acids, reduced Mr. Whiskers down to his base components. After a brief interlude to discuss the effects of grief in the D&D world, Maddox decided to attack the pudding rather than withdraw. He missed. On the other side of the room, the party stood dumbfounded. One minute Mr. Whiskers was there, the next he was pudding.

  Seeing Maddox's plight the brave Ranald charged the pudding. He swung his mighty sword down upon it only to find it simply seperated out of the way, into two puddings. Bodkin immediately scorched one of the puddings with fire. Maddox stood his ground, Rhodian fired an arrow into the frey, while Olwyn did what he does best, stand there. As Olwyn pondered how best to be ineffectual, General Ranald Stallworth was engulfed by a pudding and struck down. Maddox finally decided to run and Bodkin and Rhodian finished off the pudding that was consuming Ranald. Now the party was at one end of the room and the last pudding and Ranald's body was at the other. The pudding was poised to consume what was left of Ranald. Finally, Olwyn decided to act. Rather than running to Ranald's rescue and presenting the pudding with a live target he chose to pick up a dead body and hurl it 40 feet through the air towards the pudding. Strength was checked, numbers were generated, and an excellent chance for success was determined. Of course, Owlyn failed and the pudding consumed the hapless General Ranald Stallworth in what will go down as the best character death to date. The party, enraged by his death, made short work of the pudding.

  The party was worn, beaten, and almost cut in half. But they decided to press on and find the ghost. After quickly searching the rest of the tomb, again ignoring any clues or descriptions, some while talking to dead people, the party found a room that contained an altar with a black bundle on top of it. Maddox rushed to see what it could be. The rest of the party did what they do best, thought about their own individual agendas. Maddox removed the black cloth and his eyes gleemed with joy. He had uncovered a magic longsword. He did not even hear the faint ringing of bells that were attached to the cloth.

  At this point Rhodian and Bodkin were outside of the room and Olwyn and Maddox inside. It was Bodkin who saw it first, a whispy form with glowing red eyes approaching him from behind. In such a cramped tomb Bodkin had nowhere to go and the wraith attacked. It struck Bodkin and he felt his health and strength start to slip away. Maddox did nothing, Olwyn did nothing, Rhodian moved away. The wraith pressed its attack on Bodkin, knowing that Bodkin was the most powerful and wanting to eliminate him first. Bodkin fired back with magic missles but the wraith struck him again. Maddox did nothing, Rhodian did nothing, and Owlyn made a feeble attempt to turn it. At this point Bodkin was losing fast but the rest of the party just seemed pleased with its "better him than me" attitude and decided it was best to avoid engaging the wraith completely. Things would naturally get better once Bodkin was dead. Well, the last of Bodkin's strength was sapped from his body and things did not get better, they got decidely worse. At this point the party went their seperate ways. It was every man for himself. Rhodian and Maddox started to flee. The wraith turned its attention to Olwyn. After about 3 rounds, the spirit of Bodkin returned as a wraith and hunted down Rhodian. Finding his way blocked by Bodkin and the fleeing Rhodian, Maddox decided to try and help Olwyn. Rhodian was able to escape the clutches of Bodkin. Olwyn finally had a good idea, and he cast sanctuary on himself and luckily became immune to the master wraith's attack. He decided to leave as well, leaving Maddox to his own devices. Both were able to escape the tomb, running like ginger bread men.

 

Part 2: Return to the Graveyard
23 Aurel 1317

  After fleeing through the woods Olwyn and Rhodian returned to the town at dawn. Tired, out of breath, and missing some companions they decided to regroup at the small temple of Vesta located in town. There Rhodian suggested that Olwyn get some vials of holy water, which were readily available. Rhodian had wished to purchase some equipment, but the town merchants had yet to open. Given the time of day and the nights events, Olwyn suggested that they rest in the temple. The local priest was on the town council, and after hearing their tale, said that he would immediately inform the other council members while the party rested.

  After spending a solid 8 hours resting in the temple, the two companions awakened to a clamor outside. The priest was at the temple door. He turned to Rhodian and Olwyn and looked concerned. After informing the town council of the events at the graveyard, they held a public meeting on what to do. Harkin was pretty insistent on them returning to the graveyard to finish off the wraith before dusk. It was late afternoon, and outside the townsfolk had gathered, and while they were not acting violent there was a level of tension that could be felt. It seemed the people felt somehow cheated or afraid of the consequences that may occur from the failed incursion into the tomb.

  Rhodian emerged from the temple to speak. "Good citizens of Plinth, I beg of you your forgivness. For no one feels as badly about the unfortunate turn of events as we," as he gestured to himself and Owlyn. "Even though you may deem it ludicrous of me to even consider asking for a favor at this time, I will do so... with great humility." He bowed deeply. "I ask you kind and gentle folk to grant me and my companion, Olwyn, the title of Gravedigger, and allow us membership to your stately guild so that we may pass unmolested beyond the wards of the graveyard to the tomb of the evil wraith in order to vanquish the ghastly incorporeal and complete our mission." Again he bowed and uttered, "Thank you for your kind hospitality and your renowned understanding."

  At that moment a well-armed dwarf made his way through the crowd towards Olwyn and Rhodian, and shouted. "I am Gr Vog of the city of Merilon. I offer my axe to your cause. Together we defeat the undead menace and shall return your sorcerer companion to the world of the living."

  Soon after, Maddox emerged from the forest and rejoined his companions, and they were off to the graveyard to finish what they had started.

  The party entered the tomb within the depths of the graveyard to rescue the wraith of Bodkin, and quickly they encountered him along with countless undead. Gr shouted, "Olwyn, lead the way to his corpse!", but it seemed no one heard. Instead, the party engaged the wraith of Bodkin, while Gr managed to hold off the undead. Olwyn eventually called to Vesta to turn the foul undead creatures and succeeded, and the wraith form of Bodkin was slain. Gr was immediately concerned that slaying the wraith of Bodkin had released his soul to the Gods, and was not sure that it could be called back to Aelor.

  The party moved into the tomb to search for the fallen form of their companion, in hopes they could retrieve it in time. They soon came upon the twisted body of their halfling friend. Olwyn immediately began to recite the ritual that would hopefully bring his soul back to its body. The monks in town had offered to give Olwyn the power to bring Bodkin's soul back, and it had cost the party 2 of their magic items. Gr had advised the party to take the body to town before performing the ritual, but Olwyn had begun and had to finish or the power would be lost.

  For close to ten minutes Olwyn chanted and prayed to his patron to give his fallen comrade another chance at life. He was close to finishing when the master wraith came upon them, along with a golem-like undead creature and a wizard. Gr immediately engaged the golem-like creature, taking blow after blow. The rest of the party managed to kill the rest of the foes, and Rhodian felled the golem-like creature after Gr had critically damaged it, although the wraith still remained. Rhodian, in a stroke of brilliance, pulled out a tanglefoot bag and managed to get it on the wraith and lassoed a rope around it to drag it out into the sunlight. Gr waited to insure Olwyn and Bodkin were safe, then quickly followed Rhodian and slew the wraith. The party then gathered themselves up and made for Plinth.

 

Part 3: Return to Plinth
23 Aurel 1317

  When they got back to town they realized the gates were barred, and heard strange noises inside the town. Maddox asked a bird what he saw in the town, and the bird told him, "Claw & fang." To further determine what was going on, Gr used his silk rope and grappling hook to climb up and peek over the wall. When Gr was satisfied that it was safe, he hopped down and opened the gates for the rest of the party. Rhodian snuck ahead to scout while the rest waited behind. While waiting for Rhodian the party was suddenly attacked by a group of wolves and werewolves, but with one amazing fireball Bodkin killed them all. After a while of waiting with no word from Rhodian, they approached the center of town. They found a giant lord werewolf holding Rhodian hostage, with numerous wolves and werewolves about, and the townspeople were being attacked and killed. The giant werewolf told them to surrender or Rhodian would die, and he was holding him by the neck.

  It was Gr who had the opportunity to act first, but he remained by the side of the arcane, waiting for Bodkin to act. The party held their breath, but Bodkin acted and launched a fireball. Gr now knew the wishes of the sorcerer, so he planned to attack as well. However, the wolves surrounded the party, and tripped Bodkin who was soon engaged with four or five wolves and werewolves. Expecting Gr to attack the werewolf lord and save Rhodian, the party was amazed to see Gr pick up Bodkin and carry him out of the center of the battle. For a moment the party did not know what to do, but while being carried Bodkin managed to fire another fireball that killed many wolves and werewolves, while barely damaging Olwyn and Maddox. Gr then put Bodkin down, and stood his ground against the onslaught of of werewolves that began to attack him, keeping himself between them and Bodkin. The werewolf lord handed Rhodian over to three werewolves, then joined the battle and things began to look very grim.

  Gr told Bodkin to run and get out of the battle to safety. Knowing that he could not outrun the werewolves, Gr instead occupied four of them, as he felt this was the best chance for Bodkin to ecape to a safe position. Bodkin retreated, but stayed at a distance where he could cast some helpful spells. Soon Olwyn fell unconscious, and Maddox had to turn into a hawk and flee to avoid certain death. Gr was left facing three werewolves. With Bodkin's final spell, one of them fell, which left only two werewolves facing Gr. Rhodian had managed to use his escape artist skills to break free earlier in the fight, and by then had hid from pursuing werewolves, who turned their attention to Gr. With five werewolves around him, Gr felt the battle was soon to claim him.

  Rhodian then stepped out from hiding about 80 feet away and shot an arrow, felling a werewolf. For almost the entire battle, Gr had remained in the exact same spot on the battlefield soaking up attacks. Olwyn had been carried off by the werewolf lord, Maddox was in hawk form tracking where he was being taken, Bodkin had run out of offense spells, Rhodian was safe at a distance, and Gr was surrounded by 4 werewolves that began to relentlessly attack him. Doing the only thing he could, he began to weave a defensive stance with his axe. Round after round the werewolves tried to penetrate his defense, with little success, as Gr's armor and defensive skills protected him. Rhodian killed another werewolf with his arrows. Realizing that they were getting nowhere attacking Gr, a werewolf moved to attack Rhodian and another went after Bodkin.

  At that time, Maddox had flown back and tried to use his flaming sphere and his arrows, but they had no effect. Rhodian managed to kill the werewolf attacking him, and Gr felled the one on him. Bodkin had run from the werewolf who tried to attack him, but he ran towards Gr and Rhodian, and they finished him off.

  The battle was won, but Olwyn had been taken by the werewolf lord. Although, thanks to Maddox, the party had some idea where he was.