Stormbringer Wolves Upon the Coast Session 10

I was very tired when I ran this and was very tired when I wrote this. So, I made many lenient mistakes, and it didn’t go down too badly.

The party was defending themselves against the enraged Praetorians and it was a tough fight, much back and forth was had with the javelins doing nasty work in the first round and the constant chips of damage, fumbles, parries and critical hits stacking up against both party and Legionnaires. Praetorians were getting hit so often that I decided to implement a 2-hit rule. Should their ancient armor be penetrated twice, it falls off. That sped things up massively.
The players will need to take their armor in for repairs in the next port to be fair.

Althrow Tam’s salamander in the helmet proved useful with it’s 2d10 fire blast. Though they were careful after it told them it could only do it 3 times an hour or perish.

After the fight they wanted to rest, and the rest of the players arrived. The barnacle encrusted door frightened them in their low state, fearing the ultimate evil beneath the isle was behind it. Yerstor, or Yerstar as the player reminded me (suffered a head injury that scrambled their name) wanted to explore a nearby chamber since the map was only direct. He and Hrafnkel went into the chamber and saw a glass cuboid. Against the best wishes of everyone, he broke it and obtained the horn. Over the fervent desires of everyone, he blew it.

The party decided to rest. Rather than roll for encounters, I abstracted it with the Sea-Things attacking and the Gelt-Promised and such arriving to pay homage and defend them. First 4 and eventually 28 in total loyal undead. A roll was made to see how many dead survived the fight (being 1 HD vs 2 HD) with Sigmar contributing assistance with a combat roll. Althorw Tams continue to sleep on the flagstone and with a Sorcerer’s POW, Phantasm was learned.

In the end 28 dead remained, allowing the party to finish their rest. Struggling to hear the rotting and salt-dried voices of the Gelt-Promised, they realized they will serve the horn-blower for a time. And the Virtue of Reason wondered if it affected all dead. So, they went up to floor 3, the Legionaries defensive but not automatically hostile with their leadership dead and blew the horn again, assembling the dead of both brothers. Marching them down, they were confronted by some Sea-Things coming out of 3A, and even though the Legionnaires dealt with them, they decided to end it.

There was some confusion about if the breaching tube, bladder-lined Room 4 or the disturbing umbilical cord (Door) beyond was the real connecting point. Sending in two Vinegar-Drinkers to tear up the bladder while they dislodged the breach tube just provoked more Sea-Things who destroyed them. So Sigmar squeezed her wings through and assisted, with more undead coaxed to follow her and lay waste to the umbilical and bladder before the room began shaking as the breaching tube became dislodged. Sigmar returned and with the Sea Things separated, the horde moved on.

With more than 50 undead warriors, I had to convince them to use them to destroy the enemy and not fight it themselves, as I was worried the evil below would be a long fight. We negotiated for only a few undead to be destroyed fighting the Deep minds in the room with the giant barnacle, which the players were interested to find out there was a door beyond and it wasn’t the ultimate evil.

Heading below they smelt dirt and saw the ghostly white shoots and realised something was up. Weird growth had to be linked to the dead king and princes ramblings about a druid down here. The saw the arc-druid through the film and wondered if the horns were real or part of a headpiece. Wary of the film being permeable only one way, they sent a bonded dead, one of Fionna’s warriors, through with instructions to walk in and back. They were right as the skeleton stopped at the oily barrier as the arc-druid looked up at the intrusion. He grabbed and tore off the skeleton’s arm and sword and began to scrap at the door with it, trying to cut away at the binding plates that kept him in check. Seeing the skeleton not respond to commands and the arc-druid attempting an escape, the dead were ordered forward thorugh the film. And the party followed behind.

The arc-druid was surprised but not stunned by what came before him and while he worked, he exchanged some muttered banter with the party. They asked him his name, which he had forgotten. Theya sked him his goal, to escape and re-establish the primacy of the druids, overturning all the Invader had done and burning their built cities. I rolled on the 12-round power up table and got him increasing in size, swelling as he chopped at the door.

That disturbed the party and knowing that this was the source of all the deeper corruption on the island, order the undead to attack. This was a bit of a boon for me, as I didn’t need to run combat with all the summoned animals and they didn’t need to account for the 50+ undead warriors, they cancelled each other out.

I did forget to roll more than one attack for him a round though, meaning his massive Attack/Parry and 2d4 + d6 damage merely hurt them and didn’t paste them. But for some it was a close fight, the fists dealing critical hits and smashing through armour. The second-round power was the rushing seawater which amped up the tension. On the third round it was bark-like growth in the skin, giving 4 AP to his 1d10+2 already. When Althrow Tams burned with the salamander’s fire, it cauterized his wounds and when not, the undead were reduced by d6 from the animals.

And yet it was the luck of the dice that got him. On the fourth round, Hrankel dealt a critical hit after the rest wore him down, severing the head with a round to spare for the water. The undead were ordered to clear a path and there were many tricky footsteps to get through the gauntlet of traps, mostly resolved by stepping on the bone and flesh of the dead who were pushing through the traps in reverse. 16 dead followed them from victory. Hrafnkell began carving the flesh from the arc-druids head to make a trophy.

Now out, it was a matter of marching back with the dead to collect the treasures of Dainéal as he was quickly dispatched by forces, he craved and the treasure looted. The dead on level 1 brought them up to 23 warriors. The monks provide a more uneasy bunch, very grateful for removing the vague horror that they had spent their lives around with understanding, but not keen on letting the undead up the rope. With the head of the arc-druid thrown down and stepped through, unpleasantly squelching, Sigmar flew up on her healed wings, no longer covered to Orate at the monks. She did not speak their language but rolled a Critical, so they got the gist. And when a warrior angel whop slays evil demands the pagan dead get off holy ground, the monks were very accommodating so long as they got off the island as soon as possible.

Sigmar flew down while the party and dead were climbing a rope to scrape the rapidly decaying skull of the arc-druid into a box, as she did not trust the dust itself. Some 5500 hacksilver was the treasure along with the goodwill of the monks. The crew were quite unhappy about the undead but the party are monster-slaying heroes after all.

The party debated using the dead to row or getting a new ship, buying cloaks to conceal the undead nature of that crew. After the session the players realised the dead could walk underwater.

Hranfkel wanted some reward but not magic for doing such a deed and Scarsabad came from underneath a rock to honour it. The deal was that Scarsabad would imbued/transformed into Hrafnkel’s axe, making it a Demon Weapon. Hrafnkel did not share with the party if he took the deal or not. Scarsabad said the Powers that be were impressed by how they slew such a local planar power and should they so desire it, the alternative of killing the Deathless was now just as valid as serving and enticing him. For if he was dead, so would most of the opposition to the plane being brought into alignment.