Difference between revisions of "Nightfall"

Revision as of 05:14, 10 September 2006

Nightfall

Gamemaster: Kelne

Relevant Characters

Nezetta
Alonso
Kali Rodriguez
Kilraianjja
Hakaril Silvar
Kamos Mazuo
Curate
Tristan Laevens

Logs

Echoes: Kelne You Should Title This
Echoes: Do this one, too.

Summary

Having been alerted to suspicious behaviour from the buyer of a strange censer, Tristan, Nezetta and Kamos tracked the elf to a warehouse in Doma. After a bit of breaking and entering, the group discovered that said elf was in the middle of some kind of ritual sacrifice involving, naturally, the censer. Bad luck thwarted Tristan's attempt at a surprise attack, and magical barrages from Kamos and Nezetta proved largely ineffective. Seeing his skeletal minions were generally outclassed, the elf shattered a lamp, igniting a summoning circle sketched out in oil.

A huge undead behemoth emerged from the flames, and the fight was on in earnest. Tristan was able to cut the elf's arm off, disrupting the illusion upon him and revealing him to be a drow lich. The lich's retaliation left him on his last legs, but he was still able to delay the behemoth by cutting off a leg before it fell on him. Nezetta and Kamos had a frustrating time trying to kill the lich, but Nezetta was finally able to kick its head off. Kamos subsequently killed the behemoth.

The censer was subsequently locked away for study, and the ring Kamos looted from his body eventually turned over to him.

Although the lich's plans had been thwarted, with his phylactery intact, it was certain that he would be back. Thus, an elite team was assembled to hunt him down. Nezetta, Kamos, Curate, Alonso and Kilra volunteered for this mission, no doubt motivated by the large bounty on the lich's head. The presence of an orc skeleton among the lich's minions suggested that a tribe to the east might know something, and there was also the possibility of consulting the drow of Isil.

It didn't take Kamos and Nezetta long to aggravate one another, and the journey was a tense affair. By contrast, the meeting with the orcs went rather well, with the orcs proving quite friendly and actually acting in the defense of law and order (in the name of a good scrap and some loot, of course). With the sites of some burial cairns the lich might have raided now in hand, the party split up, Kilra and Curate checking out one cairn, while Alonso and Nezetta checked the other. Kamos flew ahead to Enchufa, intending to purchase a few nasty surprises to fight the lich with.

Despite some run-ins with bandits and a hungry troll, the group reached Enchufa in good time, but found that Kamos had gone ahead to check out some rumoured disappearances which might be the work of their foe. Opting not to wait for him, they met up with their contact in Enchufa, who promised to arrange a meeting with the local drow after dark.

Unfortunately, the meeting didn't go smoothly, the group finding themselves the targets of a renegade faction of drow intent upon stirring up trouble between Isil and Enchufa. A short but vicious fight left them triumphant, thanks to the timely treachery of a spy amongst the enemy ranks. From this spy, a drow named Lanat, and a captive, they learned that the rebels had foreign backing from the settlement of Traishe, and it sounded very much as if the lich was involved behind the scenes. After a good night's rest, it was off to Traishe, the group hoping to outrun word of their coming by travelling above ground.

By acting like her sister, Kilra was able to muster the hauteur to get the group into Traishe, posing as a daughter hiding out from her mother's wrath with a brother and slaves in tow. After asking questions in the right places, the group were able to get the lay of the land, gaining directions to the lich's stronghold, while managing to avoid being drawn into local politics. Given a choice between marching in the front door, sneaking through an undead dragon's lair, or sneaking past some nagas at the surface entrance, they opted to use the less-guarded surface entrance, while Curate created a distraction at the main entrance, drawing of some of the undead troops.

Despite some trouble overcoming the naga guardians, the group gained access to the lich's stronghold, unfortunately raising the alarm in the process. Thankfully, undead guards are none too bright, and the group were able to reach the throne room by a roundabout route. The lich himself was defeated in short order, the combination of white magic and fighting skill laying him low. Unfortunately, his lieutennants, a psionist and a fighter, were not so easily dealt with.

With Nezetta out of this fight due to manaburn, and the psionist using low trickery to hamstring Kilra and Curate, it fell to Alonso to turn the tide of battle, disarming the fighter and then cutting off his hand when he fell back on magic. Now severely outnumbered, the psionist unsuccessfully attempted to beat a retreat. Bargaining his freedom for information, the fighter, one Zorek, revealed the location of the lich's phylactery. Nezetta did the honours, smashing it under her heel. The group returned in triumph (or at least not disgrace) to Doma City, and disbanded thereafter.

Meanwhile, study was being undertaken on the censer at the heart of the lich's ritual. Despite an initial lack of success, owing to a bunch of stick-in-the-muds not wanting to blindly activate it and see what happened, the Church of Falis seemed to believe they might be able to shed some light on it. There was only one problem - In the interim, the artifact had been stolen, apparently by one of the very mages assigned to study it.