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PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 44 - Searching the Lodge
The Owlbear League is searching the crypts of Phylund Lodge for more answers to why the Red Wizards of Thay have interest in the place and are seeding havok across the Sword Coast. They have just defeated the skeletons of the crypt, continuing their search in unexplored rooms to the southwest.
They search the rooms for secret passages, but find none, so they double back to the southern, western passage.
A stained bronze brazier sits in the northeastern corner of this chamber, opposite two stone benches on the west wall. On the benches are several clay plates, bowls, and urns.
The League is fearful of the urns, which in the past have been trapped, but they appear to be normal urns, and nothing inside but ashes.
While the party looks over the room, Immeral peeks around the corner to the south and listens at the door, hearing running water from beyond.
The floor of this circular room is split into two sections by a shallow depression full of clear running water. On the circling wall, bas-reliefs represent various hunts, from a boar hunt to an owlbear hunt. At the southern end of the room, standing on a 3-foot-high stone pedestal, is the statue of a helmeted warrior in battered plate mail. The figure’s hands rest on the haft of a notched battleaxe. In the center of the room, on the other side of the stream are six armored warriors – they look desiccated – undead, like zombie warriors, they stare with white unblinking eyes that take a moment, but detect your life and their heads turn to you. They move to attack!
Nowhere rushes to meet the threat and swings Icerazor, but it clanks of the shield of the approaching dread warrior and she fumbles into her own attack, slicing her leg.
Seraphina rushes in wielding Lightbringer, swinging an a second undead, but its armor protects it.
Orryn strikes with his War Pick, swinging the pole-arm at another warrior, which also fails due to the armor of their opponent.
Atlas runs up to one and unleashes a flurry of blows enhanced with her gauntlets of ogre power, ending with a devastating punch that sends it back slightly, but it still stands.
From the doorway, Immeral uses a fire bolt cantrip to burn one of the undead, charring its undead flesh.
Worried they have not taken out any of the warriors yet, K'ronk yells to his companions to back away, and as they do, he unleashes a powerful fireball against the far wall above the statue, which blasts five of the six warriors in a ball of fire, with one just one the edge of the blast. Some fall, some stumble, all are burned, but none are dead.
Dain releases a war-cry of rage and swings his great axe at the closest smoldering warrior. His first swing misses, and he swings wildly and he stumbles, failing to hit.
The first dread warrior swings at Nowhere, but misses.
The second brutally slashes Seraphina slicing open her arm and she grabs her wounded arm and backpedals.
The third undead slashes at Orryn, but he dodges out of the way.
The forth one swings at Atlas, but she blocks the blow.
The fifth attacks Dain, but he blocks with his shield.
The last drives towards the door and swings at K'ronk, but he avoids the blow, noticing as the monster attacks that his fireball has blown apart the statue on the other side of the room and destroyed a secret door, which now hangs broken in the stone wall, revealing a small room beyond.
Nowhere attacks again with her icy sword and hits one of the dread warriors, finally destroying one. She turns to the one facing Seraphina and swings at it, but her attack clanks off the armor.
Orryn draws his rapier and skewers one of the undead, nearly cutting it down.
Atlas launches another fist attack against her opponent, and she beats it apart and it falls unmoving. She turns to another and launches some kicks against it, battering it, but fails to knock it down.
Immeral casts chill touch against the one Seraphina is fighting and the ghostly spectral hand of her spell crushes the creature - destroying it.
K'ronk turns to another and casts fire bolt and misses the undead. Frustrated, he wildly swings the goat staff and falls prone, vulnerable to the undead.
Dain screams again and swinging wildly he clanks off their armor with wild attacks, but fails to connect.
The first remaining warrior swings at Orryn and connects with a mild slash the gnome fails to dodge.
The second attacks Dain, missing the raging dwarf barbarian.
The third attacks the prone K'ronk but he scrambles out of the way.
Nowhere misses the one fighting Orryn.
Seraphina swings Lightbringer at the same, but its armor protects it.
Orryn strikes back, swinging ferociously, but pulls a shoulder with the over-powered swing, making him grimace in pain.
Atlas goes after Orryn's attacker, and although the first attack is absorbed by the armor, she strikes its weak points on the second attack and she destroys the warrior.
Immeral casts ray of frost at another dread warrior, freezing the monster, causing its frozen limbs to breaking off and killing it.
K'ronk casts fire bolt and sends a blazing mote of fire into the last undead.
Seraphina starts searching the bodies of the undead fighters, and discovers a fine sword that bears the Phylund family crest and hums with magical energy. Not being a sword-wielder she considers who could benefit from the sword the most, but now is now seems not the time.
Dain stands over the broken statue which was clearly the two warhorses supporting Tempus the god of war, a popular deity across Faerun, especially among those who have military professions.
Nowhere peers into the pool of water in the middle of the room, but sees nothing of interest, looking into the narrow passages where the water travels to and from, deciding against travel through the chilly stream.
Nowhere notices that Orryn is not looking his best, and employs cure light wounds to heal her companion, which perks him up greatly, and he gives thanks.
Seraphina follows suit on herself, praying to the Raven Queen for healing as the others peek into the small secret room revealed by the fireball blast. They creep into the empty space, and listening at the revealed door, K'ronk hears more gurgling of water. Orryn asks to open the door since he is the most stealthy of the group.
He sees a 30'x30' square room with a water-filled channel running east to west, 10 feet wide. The walls are rough hewn stone. Opposite the doorway Orryn hides behind, across the water, is a stone altar dark with old stains. An amulet can barely be seen in a shallow depression. Orryn peeks back and informs them of the situation.
K'ronk offers to use mage hand to grab the object, and casts the spell. The spectral hand travels across the room and picks up the amulet, carrying it back to the peeking K'ronk. He brings it in the doorway and casts identify, learning it is an amulet of the dead. K'ronk communicates what he learns, it was created by a Malar cleric ages past to communicate with the long-departed. If used on a Malar alter with the sacrifice of a human or humanoid, it allows the creation of a dread warrior, a powerful undead fighter.
The others look on in wonder, a tinge of trepidation creeping in. K'ronk puts on the amulet, worrying it might be cursed in some way he did not detect, but nothing happens. Wanting to investigate the altar further, Orryn and K'ronk step into the room, activating a pit trap! Suddenly they start to fall and Orryn dives to the side as K'ronk casts feather fall on himself. He slowly descends towards spikes on the bottom of the pit, but Orryn manages to reach out and grab him before he reaches that far.
Orryn looks around for more traps, but sees nothing else, so they leap over the stream and examine the altar.
The altar has a basin in it, carved into the center of a bestial hand with long talons. Imbued with the knowledge of his identify spell, K'ronk is aware that the symbol is that of Malar, a deity dedicated to the savage aspects of the hunt. From the basin, a channel is carved from the altar into the floor, leading to the water that flows east to west. Stains on the altar are most prominent in and around the basin, as well as in the channel. Close inspection reveals they are bloodstains.
Nowhere and the other members of The League come into the room and note that the water flowing to the east is only human waist-deep. The tunnel to the east get lower and lower to the water, not looking very accommodating. The tunnel to west has more headroom, so easily traversable, but there is a ledge along the southern stream, and they decide to take it.
The party heads west, and if not for their darkvision, they would be utterly blind in the inky blackness of the caves. Despite having the ability to see the darkness in shades of gray, Seraphina activates lightbringer just to ensure they can see everything clearly. They pass a split in the stream that heads northwest, but they figure it meets the stream they have seen in the round room. They continue west along the ledge some sixty feet until they find another split northwest, just before the path opens into a cave. They are thinking of jumping down off the ledge and trying the westward flowing waterway when K'ronk ominously says "Water can build up downstream." They don't have much time to react, because the light of Seraphina's weapon attracts a squad of six dread warriors from the west.
Dain stands closest to the threat, followed by Seraphina, Nowhere, Atlas, Orryn, K'ronk and Immeral.
The first dread warrior swings a sword at Dain, but he parries with his spiked shield.
The second warrior struggles to move around the first and get to a target, and it hops into the water, moving upstream, also swinging at Dain, but it misses.
The remaining four undead all follow the first, jumping into the river to get at the living. The water is a bit above human-waist deep, so they move quickly up the slow-moving stream, and swing swords at The League members on the ledge, who have the high-ground advantage.
Undead swing their weapons at Atlas, K'ronk and Immeral, but fail to hit any of them, but Orryn is hit in the leg, drawing significant blood as he scrambles back.
Dain faces off against the one dry warrior, swinging his great axe, cleaving into the undead, but it still moves with anti-life.
K'ronk tries a fire bolt, but misses and the mote extinguishes in the water. He swings his goat staff, but also misses.
Immeral casts shocking grasp, but the energy of the attack is literally watered-down, barely affecting his target, but spreading to its neighbors for some shared damage.
Atlas unleashes a flurry of kicks and bashes in the head of one of the undead, knocking its helm into the stream, but it dodges a second attack.
Orryn uses his wand of magic missiles and sprays all of the dread warriors, each receiving a bolt of magical energy, with two beams hammering the one closest to him. Undead flesh is scorched and damaged, but they are still moving.
Seraphina swings down one of them with Lightbringer, bashing it in the head and dealing extra radiant damage to the horror which flashes in the dark, stream-filled cave.
Nowhere swings Icerazor and cleaves the arm off her opponent, but it still growls at her, so she swings again cutting deeply across its chest, but it remains moving.
The first warrior strikes Dain and he laughs the slash off like a scratch.
The splashing and slashing monstrosities try to get Atlas, Orryn and Immeral, but they all avoid the damage.
K'ronk is hit, suffering a gash on his hip. Nowhere's opponent swings at her and hits, wounding her leg.
Dain fights back, driving the undead into the cave, but he misses with two attacks.
K'ronk uses fire bolt again, roasting the warrior trying to kill him, but it still is trying to kill him, and a swing of his goat staff misses.
Immeral casts ray of frost and blasts his opponent with icy magical energy that freezes it in place and sends it bobbing and tumbling downstream like a zombie iceberg.
Atlas dives down to hammer her undead with a flurry of blows, pounding the foe over and over and nearly destroying its skull, but it reaches out to kill her.
Orryn uses his wand of magic missiles again to send eight darts of green magical energy,= flying out to hit all of the dread warriors, one each to the remaining five undead plus two to the one fighting Atlas. The magic nearly kills the creature, it visibly slumps into the water, but then rises again with undead fortitude. The final bolt hits Nowhere's opponent, nearly knocking it out, but it recovers too and goes to swing again.
Nowhere swings Icerazor again, lopping the head off of the creature and it slips beneath the surface.
She sees Atlas is being attacked again, so she swings a desperate stab at the warrior, cutting into its sword arm, and it looks nearly ready to falter, but straightens up and fights on.
Seraphina thinks about her ring of command undead, but instead kicks at the skull of the dread undead, but misses.
The one battling Dain tries to get around his shield, but the shield master blocks every move.
Atlas dodges out of the way of the one she is fighting, frustrated it has not yet died.
A third slashes at Nowhere and hits, scoring a blow and drawing a gout of blood. Nowhere cries out in anger.
The last dives at Immeral and stabs him in the shin, wounding the wizard.
Dain swings a furious blow with his great axe, tearing into the flesh of the zombie-like warrior.
K'ronk aims a fire bolt at the one Atlas is fighting, but misses. He swings his goat staff and hits the one fighting Atlas, bashing its skull and also releasing a spray of twisted black and purple necromantic energy which sends the dread warrior to its watery grave, but it grabs onto the ledge and pulls itself up with unhuman will.
Immeral tries a ray of frost again, but this time the beam misses the scrambling undead and accomplishes nothing besides a small iceberg that floats downriver away from the battle.
Atlas tries to finish her opponent with a flurry of blows, battering its face and arms. Once again the undead hangs on to its un-life and remains standing and fighting. Atlas howls in frustration at the undying enemy.
Orryn again releases a third blast from his wand of magic missiles sending the green arrows of energy flying to each of the remaining dread warriors. Atlas's opponent is struck with several bolts and finally falls beneath the stream, but amazingly rises again out of the waves and growls a gurgly growl and comes after them again. Dain's undead attacker takes some damage, but still remains a threat. Orryn's opponent falls, but then splashes up out of the water again.
Nowhere swings Lightbringer and her swing stikes true and she chops the head off Atlas' opponent which goes floating down the river. She then swings at the one battling Orryn, and she also takes that one down.
Seraphina moves to defend Immeral with her mace Lightbringer, but she misses her opponent. The monster swings back at Seraphina, but the nimble halfling dodges the attack.
Dain manages to push back the undead he is fighting, and knocks it prone. He swings his great axe again, but the undead scrambles out of the way.
K'ronk tries a fire bolt at the one Seraphina has missed, and the fiery motes kill the creature, sending it floating downstream. He turns to try to help Dain, but the dwarf, whose back is to him, is blocking the way.
Immeral, seeing their last opponent scrambling after Dain, casts chill touch, but misses due to the limited view and distance.
Atlas looks around for some help, but can't get past Dain to get into the fight, so she looks to her companions for help, not wanting to risk the stream just yet.
Orryn pulls out his bow, but sees he risks hitting Dain, nevertheless he lets the arrow fly. He misses the dread warrior and just barely misses Dain. Dain glances back, but turns quickly back to the undead.
Nowhere leaps into the water and rushes downstream, trying to get in a position to attack Dain's opponent. She gets just within range and swings with Icerazor and cleaves off one of the undead's arms. It still is moving to get to its feet and attack Dain. Nowhere swings again but misses.
Finally Seraphina at the back of the pack looks over, seeing Dain and Nowhere in battle, and thinking for a moment of diving into the dark waters of the stream, she instead decides to cast sacred flame, and the dread warrior growls as the bright spectral flames descend over the undead, finally killing it.
It falls, and the battle is over, The League is victorious, but they have only won a breather and for Nowhere a moment to dry off in the dark caverns in the bowels of Phylund lodge. Will they find the other Red Wizard, or figure out why they are here in the first place? Only further exploration will reveal the secrets of Phylund.
NEXT - Campaign Journal 46 - Following Jekk
This adventure used material from the D&D Module "Scourge of the Sword Coast".
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