Cemetery of the Fallen [VIII]

[GRWelsh]

Last Saturday, we had our Halloween themed game. I used the "Ruins of Lastwall: Cemetary of the Fallen" miniatures terrain which is a really nice set of tombstones, pillars, fencing, a gate and a mausoleum. I also used a sculpted cliff face Wes made for one of the 40k games. So, I was able to place the cemetary at the base of the cliff of a rocky hill where the ruins of a castle were. It was pretty epic for a one-shot, and I should have taken photos! I'll write more details later. Hopefully, we're back into regular play every other Saturday. I placed the local dungeon a day's ride from Gorna and called it Lastwall (i.e. local multilevel dungeon characters can explore if nothing else is planned or the party is down some players and just wants to dungeon delve). I know Lastwall is a Pathfinder thing, but my players and I don't know anything about that setting, and I like the minis terrain so much that I just swiped the names as well! The Dungeons of Castle Lastwall has a nice ring to it! I've also developed some of my own history for Geoff and Keoland since I don't much like everything I read online...

[GRWelsh]

Goodmonth 11: Back in Gorna, the party delivered the material components to the Green Wizard: rock crystals, bat guano and bat fur, and essence of moving mushrooms. Master Gall meanwhile had been identifying some of their magic items and confirmed Aeray's hammer was a 'hammer of the holy' created for crusaders to use in a time when there were undead hordes. It was a magical warhammer that did extra damage against the undead. The Green Wizard also confirmed that the two golden rings Balul the dwarf put on had cursed him (penalty on all saves, automatic fail to save against all fear-type spells), but would be a boon for orcs or half-orcs. So, Balul gave the rings to Brakazar the half-orc fighter (bonus to saves, immunity to fear-type spells). Balul then paid the Green Wizard to cast remove curse on him. The party grumbled a bit about the cost, and Dain the cleric still refused to pay to have his staff of striking recharged. "This is highway robbery!" Dain exclaimed. "It's the opposite of robbery.. It's a business transaction!" Master Gall corrected him [Eric started referring to Ganter Gall as the 'Money Green Wizard']. The Green Wizard did however put three charges in the staff, just to confirm he could do it, and gave it back to Dain. "Let me know if you change your mind and want to pay for it to be fully charged." With all of the grumbling the party was doing about money ("That was party money!" Krak the dwarf fighter complained and "I wanted to get some money to spend!" Brakazar grumbled), the Green Wizard made a suggestion: there was a ruins a day's ride east of Gorna, and for the past several generations adventurers had gone there, some not returning but some coming back laden with treasure. Also, there were recent rumors of figures seen moving around in the cemetery next to the ruins... The characters decided to try their luck there and set out the next morning.

[GRWelsh]

Goodmonth 12: The party set out in the morning taking their horses, pack animals and wagon. This slowed their progress as they headed southeast from Gorna up into the Stark Mounds where the ruins of Castle Lastwall were said to be. At one point there was a trail marked by a stone pillar diverging to the south from the main road. The trail wound through the hills and climbed higher and finally they came around a bend to see a rocky hill with a sheer cliff around it, and on top rubble and weeds, all that remained of a once strong castle. At the base of the hill and behind the castle was a cemetery with iron gate, fencing, and stone pillars. Inside were several tombstones as well as a mausoleum that was flush against the cliff. The party arrived just as the sun was going down... ["Just in time for a night time Halloween adventure" I thought]. The party decided they did not want to explore the cemetery at night, and they camped along the cliff face some hundreds of yards away. Spending the night nearby the cemetery was creepy for those on the watch, but they had no encounters.

Goodmonth 13: Just after dawn when it was still a bit foggy, they approached the front gate of the cemetery. Balul examined it for traps but didn't find any. Krak used his spear to lift the bar, and then went to push open the gate... He set off a glyph of warding and took a blast of cold ice to the face! As they entered the cemetery, they noticed that eight graves had been dug up. They also heard some chanting from within the mausoleum. Suddenly, all was black, and a gutteral voice said, "Now you are in the gloom of Tarterus, the land of the dead!" The characters could not see, and knew they were being attacked by weapons. They started to panic!

[GRWelsh]

Goodmonth 13 [continued]: All was in darkness. Balul the dwarf crouched low to the ground. Dain the cleric retreated along the outside of the mausoleum, using his hand on it to guide him. Aeray, Brakazar and Krak backed out of the cemetary. They realized they had been in a darkness spell and once outside of its radius, they could see again. Skeletons with rusty weapons pursued them. Dain turned several that were attacking him, and the fighters struck some down into piles of broken bones. Dain cast a light spell to dispel the darkness. As Balul the dwarf was fighting skeletons with his back against the mausoleum gate, black fingers crept through the bars trying to touch his shoulder, but he avoided them. From inside the mausoleum, a shadowy figure could dimly be seen... It wore a rusty black cloak and cowl and held a scythe topped with a human skull. It pointed a black finger at Dain... "This is the Finger of Death... Die!" Dain made his saving throw. As the party burst open the mausoleum gate, the cloaked figure spoke into an open sarcophagus. "Rise, my darling, and make short work of these mortals!" Bony hands with blackened fingernails reached up out of the sarcohpagus, and out climbed a gaunt corpse with ragged hair... It leapt upon the characters, biting and clawing! They backed up, and struck at it just as it jumped at Brakazar's neck. It paralyzed him with its claws at the same time their weapons cut it down... Brakazar lay paralyzed, with the dead ghoul on top of him... Dain cast hold person on the cloaked figure, and it was held. They pulled it outside in the sunlight and could see he was a human but with black dye on his hands and face. Dain deduced he was a priest of Nerull, the god of death, sometimes referred to as the Reaper. The death priest seemed insane due to choosing to live among the dead and his ravings about the land being covered in gloom and the end of the world coming. They killed him and took his valuables which included a pouch of gems and coins, a gold arm ring shaped like a snake with rubies for eyes, and a gold ring -- which Balul later paid to have identified... It was a ring of spell turning. After searching around and in the mausoleum for secret doors and not finding any -- Brakazar even moved the sarcophagus to check underneath to find only stone -- the party decided to return back to Gorna.

[P. S. That was our Halloween 2022 adventure, and I enjoyed making it seem worse than it was and keeping the players guessing. Today I also added Roman Numerals to the subject lines of all of my Game Night campaign entries, for reference. I should probably consolidate them into one thread, but for now to keep them easier to read in order, I added the numbers.]