Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 10).
Bradley Weatherby (Human Dervish Dancer 10/Knife Master Rogue 7/Duelist 3).
"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).
Dorf Fortress III - The Downward Spiral?, Session 13 - 9/13/14
Day 20, day
The T-Rex skeletons are defeated (and enslaved in one case) and there is much rejoicing by the dwarves. With that out of the way, the digging continues and the party ponders their next move.
Ideally it would be better if they could find and kill this necromancer before he attacks and along those lines their only lead is the crossroads, which according to the ghost, he was at last night. After much debate, including whether or not they should hang around til midnight for a wish that will totally help them out (the DM approves of this strategy, though the players don't), they teleport to the crossroads, leaving the undead behind as they have to due to the limits of the spell.
They see no sign of anything living or undead, but they do notice something about those crucified bodies around the square. They and their crosses are burned and at the ground below each is an intricate set of symbols, now hard to decipher due to a night open to the elements. Knowledge checks are made, and though no one can figure out the specifics of what it means, the general meaning is clear.
Beltin knows that the way people die can influence their undeath and that powerful suffering in death tends to equal power in undeath. Someone (the party wonders who it could have been) used that to their advantage and performed some kind of necromantic ritual with the crucified bodies. Given how the actual bodies are still on the crosses, though badly burned, whatever was called here is most likely not corporeal.
Awesome, thinks the party. They look forward to facing whatever it is, and the DM looks forward to using it.
They look around for any tracks of any kind and find a set leading back into the Dead Lands, but then quickly lose them. It's hard pan after all and it's not like any of them are particularly good trackers. They teleport back to the dwarves.
The party discusses their next move and BW and Beltin have an innuendo filled conversation while Astar listens obliviously and thinks they are speaking literally and joins in as such. The DM loves you Astar; it's a shame about what happens to you later. Dun dun foreshadowing.
BW throws out the idea that they could finish off the dwarves themselves and perhaps use that as leverage to come to terms with the necromancer. Beltin is iffy and is not sure he is the kind of guy they can negotiate with. BW sees his point and suggests that maybe they could abandon them all to die and then come back later to see what they can find. Astar agrees they are having lovely weather today. He is ignored. Beltin says BW has a point, but they might as well stay for now and see what happens. They can always teleport out if things get too bad.
And so it is decided: The party will stay and help the dwarves as long as it doesn't get too bad, in which case they are leaving those fuckers to die. Astar and the dwarves are not aware of the second part of that plan.
Beltin Makes Whole the heavily damaged wooden gate and BW spends some time getting to know the dwarves and raising their morale, though he secretly has no confidence at all in them. And then they sit down and wait.
The birds circle overhead and there is a feeling of impending doom in the air regardless of BW's morale boosters. It seems that tonight will be the night...
Day 20, night
As darkness approaches, clouds begin to move in. It promises to be an especially dark night. Astar lights and places torches 50-100 feet out from the walls in all directions around the fort, hoping it will give them time to see the enemy coming.
The dwarves mostly take to the walls and some stay near the doors on the inside, next to many of the undead who were given the same job. Gorrak and Fenris, both with Air Walk, patrol around, giving encouragement and orders. Time passes and darkness settles in.
Around 2 a.m. it happens. With the help of the torches the defenders see some sort of black bubbling substance quietly appear on the ground a hundred or so feet away from the fort... in every direction. Soon is coalesces into solid forms, ranks of silent undead, hundreds. And then they begin to all shamble toward the fortress. The torches are trampled and they are lost to sight, but not for long.
Initiative is rolled.
Beltin commands his hydra to cling to walls of the fortress above the path leading toward the gate. His archers begin to fire into the horde, and though each arrow brings down an individual member of the undead horde, another just steps in to take his place. Jake fireballs, with similar effect.
BW, counting on the fact that his AC is so high and not realizing the horde works like a swarm, parkours his way down the wall (and air as he has Air Walk), and jumps into the horde to start wrecking things. He slices and dices, but there are always more. The horde advances and BW finds himself overwhelmed but holds his ground and brings down more undead, but not enough. He decides this was a poor choice and air walks himself up above the zombies.
The dwarves fire into the undead along with Fenris, but Gorrak air walks above the horde, not far from BW, and channels energy. Astar does the same. Undead fall, but more come. And then through the horde below those above see movement going against the grain, moving toward them. 3 Mohrgs push themselves on top of the horde, crowd surfing almost, and lash out with their tongues!
Astar and BW avoid being paralyzed, but Gorrak, the level 9 cleric with access to 5th level spells that he didn't use yet, rolls a 3 and the Mohrg, making a rattling sound that must have been laughter, begins to pull him down into the horde!
And then Beltin uses an ability the DM had not forseen. Darkness Domain. He turns on his level 8 ability and treats darkness like it wasn't even there and begins to look for someone commanding the undead. Above he sees a massive flock of swirling darkness; birds. But beyond the ranks of the 60 feet deep horde, he sees two figures moving with purpose and intelligence, making hand movements that the horde then seems to react to.
As the horde reaches the walls and begins to turn and walk up the slope toward the gate (with the help of the intelligent people in the back) or if not on the gate side of the fort, begins to dog pile on top of one another to eventually, inevitably reach the top of the wall (60 feet up total; 40 foot hill that steep enough to be almost vertical, plus 20 feet high walls), Beltin calls out the location of the figures he sees.
Jake teleports to Astar, then BW, ignores Gorrak in distress, and then blinks all three around one of the figures, surrounding it. As they land next to it they see what would appear to be a man in black armor, except the extreme paleness, glowing red eyes, and fangs reveal him for what he is. Vampire.
The three attack him simultaneously and he is now a dead vampire. Astar punches him in the lower back and feels his spine begin to give way under his fist and then the body breaks down into ash. They turn and look over and see another vampire, this one a woman in black robes. She is wearing an expression that is a clear mix of "oh what the fuck" and obvious concern. She looks up toward the sky and makes a "what the hell is this" expression.
Beltin sees this and looks up into the swirling mass above. Aha, so that's where you are hiding, necromancer!
The vampire looks between the three of the people who just ganked her ally and considers which one to Dominate when it occurs to her she has a better idea: Dimensional Anchor on Jake and Quicken Invisibility. Jake is pissed now. And unfortunately for her he has permanent see invisibility. He watches her fly up and she sees his stare. She doesn't like where this is going.
The Mohrg reeling in Gorrak finishes and he disappears into the horde. The horde has work to do and continues on, but the other two Mohrgs come back and try unsuccessfully to ranged touch tongue paralyze some of the party. Fucking stupid high touch ACs.
Jake charges into the air and attacks the vampire, telling her "bitch, drop the dimensional anchor," with the implication that he may spare her if she does. She doesn't buy it and for the next several rounds they play a game. In this game she tries to Dominate Jake, touch him, or do just about anything to him only for her to fail. And Jake slashes at her, hitting almost every time, but has issues breaking her DR 10 and her fast healing 5. As she is slowly but surely losing health, the vampire eventually gets tired of this shit and just starts running up while Jake chases.
Not far into Jake's dance with the vampire sorceress, the vampire's shrug to the heavens in answered and three ghostly figures descend from the flock of birds. Each appears to be still nailed to a cross, though no cross itself is visible. Beltin sees them and it clicks this time: Crucifixion Spirits. Well then.
Two float down and hang above the horde, but well above the party, and another hovers above the top of the keep. Fenris gets his soul crucified. BW manages to dodge the effect, but Astar is not so lucky and his soul is ripped out above him as Mohrgs close in. BW steps over him and defends him, and soon only the Mohrg in the ground is there. And then he approaches with his new fast zombie, Gorrak.
Gorrak coup de graces Astar! DC 25 to not die. And Astar gets 26! And then on his turn his soul escapes its torment and returns to his body. BW fights on above him and more soul crucify attempts come at the party, but that fucking high touch AC. Gorrak is taken down and Astar gets back to his feet.
Beltin doesn't like this at all and goes Greater Invisible. His archers start picking at one of the Crucifixion Spirits as the dwarves can't due to their lack of magical weapons. The hydra keeps snapping at undead but they continue on up the hill. The gates are being battered and are nearly gone, but dwarves repair them desperately and the larger undead wait to embrace the horde should they get in. The dog piles of undead are nearing the top of the walls. Beltin Flame Strikes and obliterates who knows how many and the tower collapses down again on one side at least.
Then using another ability the DM had forgotten about, he begins his Dance of the Dead performance, and the fallen undead at the foot of the path leading to the gate rise up to battle their once undead compatriots! The flow of undead to the gate has been severed!
The undead horde is still massive, but clearly thinning! But wait, is that more liquid blackness on the ground further out, beginning to summon anew? And then BW sees something else of concern. The clouds have broken and moonlight lights the scene, and from the Desolation he sees some massive metal... thing blowing up dust around it. Moving quickly towards them. Is that a battering ram on the front? It is. (For anyone with the Slumbering Tsar book: It is the Battle Hulk, the remnant of the war that wanders the Dead Fields, now forcefully conscripted.)
So now a tank is rushing toward the fray, and what's that? BW sees figures clinging to the back. 4 ghasts and another vampire, this one wearing a conductor's hat. There is a look of wild happiness on his face as his ride zooms closer and closer and he raises his hand outward. A Wall of Stone ramp appears, crushing many undead beneath it, making a straight shot for the battle hulk up to the gate.
Oh shit, thinks the party, but BW has an idea.
He asks Astar if he is ok and Astar says yes. And then he promptly fails against paralysis and falls at the feet of the Mohrg. BW says cool and runs away, leaving him. Astar gets coup de graced for the second time this encounter, but this time fails! BW doesn't have time for that though.
BW acrobatics out in front of the steadily approaching battle hulk and out comes the Immovable Rod. Click!
The battle hulk slams into it and nearly shattered the rod, but it holds after being forced forward 10 feet. The creatures on the back of the tank look down at BW as he tries to unsuccessfully attack the hulk. At this point fast zombie Astar charges and pounces over the tank, landing on BW! BW gets slashed, but forces him back, now in front of the tank. And then he un-clicks it.
The tank immediately rumbles forward again and Astar's zombie body is obliterated under its treads, but now it is Jake's turn. He turns his attention away from the tedious task of vampire hunting and does something that breaks the DM's heart: Spiked Pit. The battle hulk begins its final rush toward the gate only to find it cut short as it fails the reflex save. It tumbles down into the pit, crushing the ghasts and almost pounding the vampire riding it into dust as well.
Inside the fort Fenris's soul finally dissipates into nothing as it dies. The dog-piling undead have begun to enter the fort. With the death of both leaders, some dwarves break down, morale broken, and flee the walls, but other dwarves take command get them back up... only to get soul crucified for their troubles. Regardless, the defenders fight again and with the help of Beltin's undead beat down the forces that made it over the walls. Soon it is clear that the horde has been thinned to the extent that they no longer have enough to dog pile high enough.
The undead in front of the gate are getting smashed and Beltin's dance of death still holds off the rest from the ramp. The undead archers take down one of the Crucifixion Spirits! It seems victory may be at hand!
Suddenly the swarms of birds descend and crash into Beltin and his dancing minion. He gets eye raked, but manages to fly out of the swarm. The birds turn the tables and now the horde begins again to move up the ramp, but their hive mind seems to be weakening, with some merely hitting against the wall instead of turning up the slope to head for the gate.
Silhouetted against the moon, the party (barring Beltin) and the dwarves can see a short stocky figure wearing ancient armor and a crown, bearing some sort of scepter. He has a long, white beard and in one eye socket rests a glowing red gem. It is a dwarf. A dwarf lich, the necromancer. It is the lost ancestor the dwarves sought, King Kroma of the Shalemace clan.
Out of game there is nothing but groans. Astar's player hears this and just throws up his hands and walks away. "Those fucking dwarves," is the general consensus. Much lulz are had by the DM.
BW considers fleeing the fight at this point and almost invisibly slips away. If it wasn't for the fact that he realized he would be running away alone into the Desolation, he probably would have. Let these fucking dwarves deal with their own mess, is now the general mentality.
But yet the party stays, mostly because Beltin wants that scepter, the one seemingly conjuring this endless mass of undead. He wants it badly. BW begins to move up, Air Walking and invisible. Jake finally just Dispels Magic on himself to get rid of the Dimensional Anchor. The two vampires and the two remaining Crucifixion Spirits rise up, seemingly at Kroma's unsaid command and they begin to revolve around him, making a defensive perimeter. The two vampires seem ready to cast spells and also float nearby.
And the lich himself just stares down and watches as the party readies to engage. The bubbling blackness on the ground, his reinforcements for the siege, begin to take form, but he doesn't seem to notice. He knows who the real threat is here and it isn't his kin huddles behind their defenses.
Here will be the final battle he has sought.
End of session. 1 casualty. Astar, soul crucified then paralyzed, he survived one coup de grace only to fail on a second after BW left his paralyzed body on the ground to fend for itself... though to be fair BW probably couldn't have saved him anyway.
