While the zombies move stiffly around organizing themselves the group debates what their next action will be. Vall uses a bit of illusion and disguises himself as one of the guards and steps out into the main entrance hall. There he sees dozens of men moving about. More than one rushes excitedly about and approach a large barrel-chested man standing shirtless in the bitter cold of the room. Behind him is a robed figure but Vall is able to catch the glint of a metal mask the figure is wearing over his face. This is very much like the metal masks that he has heard some of The Order talk of near the time of the Splitting Of The Order. The guard tells them something that Vall can just barely catch.
Vall suspects that the faction of defectors forom The Order, calling themselves, The Order Of Wend, have discovered that either the guard watch contingency and/or the prisoners have gone missing. He quietly returns to the room to tell the others. The prisoners are told to take cover which they do under the dead bodies. The group decides to use the zombie hoard that Vall has amassed to cover their exit of the room. Vall sends them out and spreads them in a circle which they can slip into the center of.This massive exodus of zombies out of the cold room doesn't go unnoticed by the large shirtless man. He orders that the guards send the zombies to where they should be and calls for someone to find out who is responsible for making so many zombies at once. This is not the way it should be done.
As the guards approach they grab and try to man-handle the zombies but the zombies resist. They are confused but persist. One guard though figures it out. He shouts back to his leader, "Aion, these are not our zombies!"
Zombie On Zombie Action
9, 000 XP
From that moment on there is no more subterfuge. It is all out battle.
Vall stands in the middle of his zombie army and uses them to attack the guards and uses his own spells to scorch the surrounding guards.
Taelis moves out to stand among the group to boost their attacks and puts up a Wall Of Radiant Fire to protect them against more guards coming in. It crosses the room and keeps most of the guards on the opposite side from them.
Araxie begins her barbarian rage and strides out into the middle of the fray.
H, already in the middle of the zombie circle no longer hesitates, worry his gun blasts will alert the army within the ancient keep. It would seem they know they're here.
H watches as Aion, the shirtless, puffs out his chest and breaths out a swirl of cold misty breath and strides right through the wall of radiant fire without any damage at all. H tries to surprise him by reaching out through the wall of zombies in front of him and grabs at Aion. But Aion is stronger. He instead grabs H and brings his greatsword down on H.
Araxie rushes towards Aion and throws her iron net, shouts the command word and the net turns into a cage, capturing the large man inside. H shoots at Aion several times. Seeing that the man obviously can withstand a lot of damage, H shoots at the greatsword, making Aion drop it.
Aion calls for his guards.
The guards dutifully rush to his aid. Crossing through the wall of radiant fire they are terribly damaged but they run over to the cage and begin hammering away at it with their swords. Soon enough the cage collapses back into a net and they now have to deal with Aion and more guards.
They guards are able to chew through zombies but for the most part the group is protected by the massive amounts of zombies still coming out of the room. This though is now matched with the sounds of more zombies and guards approaching from both the north and south entrances.
New Zombies, Now with Ooze!
As H is able to fend of and eventually kill Aion, Araxie runs to the southern entrance to help Brynn fend off the new set of zombies that have approached. Brynn's wound where one of the dripping zombies touched her has quickly begun to fester and turn black. The black spreads up her arm towards her neck. Soon Araxie bears a similar wound from these dripping zombies.
Vall's zombie army is soon greatly reduced to just a handful of zombies and still his ghouls. They finish off the remaining guards. While Araxie becomes a zombie killing machine moving from zombie to zombie disemboweling them with her trident.
The entrance hall goes quiet and all that remains is the adventurers and a smattering of zombies under Vall's control. They return to the room and check in on the prisoners. Orson calls out a muffled cry for assistance as he is covered in an avalanche of bodies which he cannot escape from. Araxie moves to him and with one arm grabs him and pulls him free. She walks away without trying to disguise her disgust. Stool asks if they are going home now. Orson tells them that of course they must return them back to Baldur's Gate. He tries to convince them all the while they scavenge what was their fallen comrades bodies for loot.
DM Note:
- Araxie finds a ring which gives her good luck (aka +1 to saving throws) which she pierces through her ear
- Vall finds armor like his own but it is completely silent. (No roll needed)
- H finds a ring of rough iron with a glowing ember inside which gives him the ability to restrain someone from a distance.
An Odd Ally
The group is wounded and out of many of their powers. The would like to not encounter anything or anyone until they have properly rested. They debate while resting at least an hour. Not long after they hear large footstep upon the stones out in the main room. They peek out to see the large troll, Jabir, enter the room.
Jabir loudly whispers for the group to see if they are still there. Seeing their friendly troll companion they exit the room.
Jabir explains to them that whatever agreement they had with his mother, his brothers are no longer abiding by it. It has either expired or is just no longer convenient. He tells them that some are outside awaiting their exit.
H appeals to Jabirs naivety and offers Jabir a position within The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger, that is if he helps them. It is an odd offer to make especially since H does, himself, not belong to The Order. But promises of wonderful weapons and respect quickly convince the troll. He will show them a secret way out.
The Secret Passage
He leads them through the feast hall, littered with food and drink and past rooms with bedrolls upon the floor to a section of the keep with a collapsed wall. Rubble blocks the way but the strong troll makes quick work of moving boulders until a passage way into a further area is made.
On the other side are unfinished natural tunnels through the mountain. They move through darkness for quite sometime having to be careful to avoid falling into thick cracks in the stone floors. They eventually come to an opening back into the keep. Jabir whispers, quite loudly, that they should be quiet as they are approaching where Ondine usually is.
An eerie glow emanates from down a passageway and grows stronger. A glowing spectral figure smoothly slides forward approaching Jabir, while the others hide further back. The figure speaks in a voice only the undead have and challenges Jabir, why he is here.
The group decides it would be better to rest before possibly encountering Ondine and his undead protectors. They retreat further back down the tunnels to rest and don their new found magical items.
They hope that upon waking that they will be better able to face either trolls or the undead leader of this keep. That is as long as no one finds them here in the tunnel.
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