Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 10).
Bradley Weatherby (Human Dervish Dancer 10/Knife Master Rogue 7/Duelist 3). - MISSING PLAYER
"Jake" aka Alex, the actual character name but I refuse to go back and edit the old entries (Human Wizard/Rogue 10).
Astar Luno (NG Human Kata Master, Many of Many Styles Monk 10/Sacred Fist War Priest 10). Astar came in with the recent batch of Crusaders and is known by and affiliated with the group, but is not officially a member. This has not stopped the Usurer from gouging him like the rest of the Crusade though. He came to the Desolation to spread freedom and good and such and is now looking for a group to join up with. He heard of all of the members of the party from different people and realized these people were the rising stars of adventuring groups in the Camp and decided joining up with them would be awesome as they must be good people fighting the good fight against evil. What an idiot.
BW's rep grinding pays off as Astar mostly hears good things about him. Beltin and Jake come off as feared and respected, but also generally seen as fair.
Dorf Fortress I - Drunk and Surly, Session 12.2 - 9/6/14
Day 19
The party walks down the road. The wind whistles eerily across the godforsaken plains as usual and some screams seem to carry on the wind, also as per protocol. At one point a blood curdling scream comes from somewhere in the Ashen Wastes to the right before being suddenly cut off. No one but Astar seems concerned and asks if they should investigate, but the rest say that whatever happened is already over or will be by the time they get there. Ain't their problem.
After a while they cut off road into the dry and cracked hardpan of the Dead Fields. The air seems particularly clear today and way off in the distance the party can make out the city of Tsar; from such a distance it looks completely deserted and abandoned. They walk on.
They have heard of two ancient but still standing strongholds in this region of the Desolation, and the party reasons if there is an army about they may be using them. The names of the places have of course been lost to time. One of the strongholds is farther north, closer to Tsar, and one resides in the southeast quadrant of the Dead Fields. That is the one they plan to investigate first.
After a few hours the party notices some figures moving in the distance, going north parallel to the road. They seem to be moving with purpose, but are clearly undead. The party watches them, debates following, but decide to ignore them. One random encounter that is a non-issue for the party averted.
A few more times the party notice things that could be threats a ways off and avoid them, but over time another threat slowly began to build above them. Birds. First they came slowly and now they come streaming, forming a massive flock circling above the party. Beltin notes that they are not the usual carrion birds seen in the Desolation, and the party begins to worry that they are somehow intentionally marking them out on the plain.
Finally Jake has had enough. He fireballs them. The fried birds make a whole in the formation above and fall down toward the party, but then suddenly the rest of the swirling mass breaks apart as well and then dives toward the party. They were more densely packed then the party assumed. They are legion. And coming down.
Initiative is rolled! As the birds get close it is clear that their eyes glow red and with some sort of malevolent intelligence. They are also rotting. They are 5 undead raven swarms.
The party mostly wins init and gets ready to engage as the birds as they come down around them. Beltin casts greater invisibility and moves away from the main group. The undead and Astar take some pecking, but Astar shrugs off the more debilitating effects of the ravenous attacks.
Jake uses emergency force sphere and makes the DM regret giving it to him: Immediate action sphere, standard action to Damnation Stride out of it, blinking multiple times exploding among the birds and cutting them down, before returning to the inside of his sphere with his final teleport. Holy shit was it effective.
The birds are almost finished and have done minimal damage, but then scent Beltin. They move toward him and attempt to get one kill at least at the behest of their unknown master. Beltin was the perfect mark: He may only take 3 damage because of his new DR 5 Magic armor, but then he fails all his saves.
Distraction? Check. Eye Rake? Check. Disease? Check. Awesome!
That turns out to be the last action for the final set of birds. They get punched to death by Astar: He hits a couple out of the air, kicks a few more, and then head butts one of the remaining few into the last handful and all fall into piles of rotting meat and feathers.
Above a handful of specks still circle, but now all but one fly off in different directions. They are too high to engage. The bird menace seems defeated though. For now. Beltin heal checks his eyes and the party continues on.
As it nears dusk the party sees a small hill with some sort of fortified structure on top of it. They can see movement around the bottom of the hill and from what they can tell, it appears to be people. Living people. Very interesting.
As the party approaches and are still about half a mile out, the figures appear to move back up a winding path on the hill and head into the structure. Jake tells the party to wait and he will investigate. Greater invisibility and dimension door away!
Jake blinks closer and sees a gigantic pit excavated at the bottom of the hill. Beyond that, almost against the hill side is more freshly tilled ground and about 20-30 roughly made crosses sticking out of the dirt. Near one edge of the pit is a path that runs around the hill, as otherwise it would be too steep to traverse.
Along the path are wooden barricades and spikes pointing outward, defenses against some unknown foe that may attempt to follow the path en mass. About 40 feet up is the crest of the hill and stone walls surround the top. At the end of the path is an opening in the wall, now blocked by heavily damaged looking set of doors.
There is movement on the walls above the gate and two dwarves stand outside the gate wielding crossbows. Jake relaxes as they are dwarves as opposed to something that needs killing on site. He teleports up the hill and calls out invisibly to the dwarves on the ground, saying he is friendly.
Out of surprise, the dwarves both turn toward the sound and fire. One bolt hits Jake, but he stays calm and repeats himself. The dwarves ask if he is with the group on the plain about half a mile away. He says he is and they are looking for shelter against the night.
They ask about the undead they see with them, obviously distrustful, but Jake tells them that they have a man who controls the undead and uses them to fight the evil of the Desolation. One of the dwarves on the wall, mutters about how it would be nice to have some of those things not trying to kill them for a change.
Eventually, perhaps aided by the rapidly setting sun, the dwarves quickly agree to let the party in. Jake goes back and gets them and they all approach. The gates (barely holding together and they look like they have been repaired often lately, even having to be reattached) are opened and the party comes in and the two dwarves on the ground follow.
The party hears one mutter something about the ones outside are probably never coming back.
Inside the walls is a moderately sized courtyard with several dwarves sleeping or resting on the ground, obviously ill at ease though from the newcomers or the coming night is unclear, while more dwarves stand on the walls watching, waiting.
Beltin is instructed to line his undead up against a wall and leave them. Some dwarves eye them suspiciously but the undead of course do as commanded and then stand impassively.
The party is then led into what must have been the keep, though the building is now only a single story. It looks as though in some distant past something sheared the upper levels off somehow.
This, the battered gate, the barricades, and the grim, expectant expressions of the dwarves outside somehow combine to give the party the impression that tonight may be a night to remember.
To be continued...
