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Investigations into the Appearance of Undead to the West of Arend
The party has been dealing with Vainegal, whom they would normally
consider a terrible enemy, but presently he appears to have chosen to assist them on their mission to defeat a demon prince's plots,
Titalus. This is a demon prince which has subjegated the belief of a presently
defunct god called Qo, hoping to use resevoirs of belief energy left behind by that deity for itself. Vainegal's part in the campaign
is a complex one. They aren't so much joining forces with Vainegal, as they receive aid and information from him. Vainegal is one of
the Three of Shadow who served Saulos in ancient times. Vainegal is something of an anti-hero. They accidently released him back around
5th level, from his imprisonment and torpor, since then he's kinda kept a watchful eye upon them. Recently, Vainegal voluntarily, without
their asking, helped the group with monetary support to complete items they commissioned in preparation for entering the dead lands of
Saul, untraversable without means of protecting one's soul from corruption and wasting.
In between adventures the party decided to travel off to a village, Jette, which they had visited several times
before, but which had been ravaged by undead not too long after they awoke Vainegal. It had been a couple of years since then. This time
they found that the Kingdom of Arend had since built a fortress there to guard the area. Upon arriving in Jette, Guards there pointed them
to the northwest where undead appeared to be coming from.
So they went that way, fought some undead things. Most of the undead they encountered they could crush
without a second thought. Surprisingly, at one point, the corpse of an undead body spoke to them, asking, "why are you causing my
minions so much trouble?" They did not consent to answer. Al-Rathis
severed the corpses head from its body and punted it deep into the forest. There were a couple dangerous undead that gave them a bit
of pause, such as a colossal undead scorpion which they fought alongside a elfin military detachment which had also been investigating
the area. From these elfin rangers they learned of some towers that had been built in the mountains and which seemed to be the same
place the undead were coming from. The rangers also told curious reports of undead fighting against demonkind up in the same mountains.
They already know that there is an open planar gate deep in the earth of the mountains to the north, but until this point they may have
presumed that the two evils were on the same side as each other.
One of the elfin rangers agreed to lead them towards the towers. So, they traveled towards the mountainous
towers, hoping to figure out what was really going on. On the way they began to see signs of a unexpectedly intelligent approach that
undead might take to staking out their territory, some actual patrols and the like, and skulls hanging from trees with glowing eyes as
though they were sentries. The elfin guide left them at this point, saying that it was too dangerous to go on. Of course, the party
decided to continue.
They penetrated some old dwarven ruins that were nearby, this is where a terrible groaning began to raise
up the dead all around them. Hundreds of minor undead clawed their way out of the earth, mostly skeletons, zombies and the like. Creatures
of such pathetic caliber would have been no problem except for one thing. Suddenly the supernatural and magical powers ceased to work.
Without any of that, suddenly, the prospect of being surrounded by hundreds of even minor undead was a dire situation.
Sasha, the druid, had a minor artifact which
was powerful enough to still function in the antimagic area. She used it to escape from her companions plight. Rising above the hordes of
undead, her blindsight bat-echolocation vision allowed her to spot a beholder
floating above the undead. She decided to attack it, which was when she discovered that an undead beholder has powers somewhat different
from a living one, making them a bit more dangerous. She failed a Will save against a feeblemind effect, was enervated a
couple times, struck with a disease that ravaged her Constitution. At that point her ability to withstand a finger of death effect
was severely curtailed; thus it slew her. To her credit, she did get in some significant damage, but not enough to save herself.
Mike, who plays Sasha, panicked when Sasha died because at the time she was wildshaped as an Elemental. He
feared that since he was an air elemental and all his possessions were subsumed into his body, that he would lose them all, with no
body to recover. I think his words were, "Crap, I just hosed my 20th level druid!" Fortunately, wildshape doesn't change your type
and she returned to her native form upon death. So it was just a brief, but amusing to watch, heart attack for Mike.
The rest of the party eventually fought their way to the wall of the ruins, recovered Sasha's body, shot
the beholder with some arrows to slay it the rest of the way. Sasha had really kicked its butt pretty severely, so there wasn't much
left to do to fell the vile creature. Sasha is pretty anti-religious, so no resurrection would bring her back to life, and the party
knew this. She would have to be reincarnated when there was time to perform the ritual. Later, when the reincarnation was performed
she came back to life as a Tenerthor elf of good-aligned
persuasion. On the bright side, this will make it a lot harder for her evil family to hunt her down since she is in a new body and all.
Anyway, they entered the ruins to see what had been making that groaning sound which raised the undead
about them. There they found a disgusting giants head which had swollen to the size of a large hut with the putrescence that infected
it. The head gurgled mostly, its entrails twisting through the carnage and bodies that filled the floor of the room it rested in, and
in a way it introduced itself as an interested servant of someone more powerful. Strangely, the adventurers actually listened to what it
had to say. Maybe they were too shocked and grossed out to attack it straight off. Perhaps they reasoned that as immobile as it was,
that it wasn't going anywhere and they could come back and deal with it after 'crushing' its master. The creature invited them to meet
its master, which they accepted, and it summoned a shadow to show them the way to its master's lair.
They traveled to just above and behind the ruins, to an ancient tower, where strange gate was opened.
Though the sun rose, the shadow remained, which perplexed them a bit since normally such creatures flee from sunlight. This was the point
which the party decided they should rest up and get Sasha reincarnated. This took a couple of days to make arrangements for. Then she
needed to be re-oriented, secured in her new body, use to her changes in personality and so forth. In some ways she's the same, in
others she's different. She tends to remember events as though she'd always been a Tenerthor elf, which is a bit amusing and disturbing
to the party.
A few days later they teleported back to the tower top and went through the portal. They found themselves
in the old throne room of Agod who had been slain and possessed by Vainegal. Et voila,
there's Vainegal, who happens to be behind most of the recent undead problems. He tells them that he sent warning to Arend that his
minions would be searching in the area and that they should be left alone, but that Arend decided to attack them anyway. Thus, his
minions are only returning aggression against the Kingdom of Arend, not initiating attacks against the human population there. He
also tells them his minions are searching for one of the Keys of Divinity. These are large stone discs covered with magical symbols.
They hold the latent resevoirs of belief energy which Qo's followers, or more accurately Saulos,
had crafted. These are the same artifacts which Titalus seeks to obtain and thus gain a foothold on godhood with. Vainegal explained
how his minions battle against the demons in the north because, in his sleep, a minion of Titalus stole the password to the Anvil Gate
(the gate where the demons are coming from) and used it to reopen the thing. Now, Titalus' minions are flooding through to wreck their
fiendish will on the world and hasten Titalus' plans.
They figure out at this point that they mystery funding for their rings which will protect them from the
soul draining powers of the dead lands of Saul, came from Vainegal, who wants them to go there and hopefully deal with the other two
of The Three of Shadow along the way, Aoran and
Kaug.
So, Vainegal's minions are searching the area for the Key of Divinity that was in Vainegal's keeping. He doesn't
know where it is since it was moved while he was in torpor and the device cannot be scryed upon since it is too powerful and has numerous
safeguards to prevent that very thing from happening. Further, when the keys were made, numerous decoys were also made to help obscure
their location. So Vainegal has lost this item which is most important to him and which Titalus, enemy to the adventurers, dearly desires.
Thus Vainegal's undead are seeking out the item to recover it before Titalus does. The adventurers think they prefer this situation to the
greater evil of Titalus recovering it. Of course they rather they had the keys and both these evil beings were eradicated, but they are a
bit cautious about attacking someone like Vainegal, who's obviously managed to survive this many millenia already, and who is presently
assisting them with the arguably more dangerous threat posed by Titalus.
We left off with Vainegal offering to send them, by magic, to wherever they desire. From here the adventurers
decide to travel to the Lost Aken Halls, in search of legendary Dunnal Krannok.
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