# Sky's story: The Lost Souls



## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

Hi everyone! Welcome to my thread. This is about the ongoing 3.5 D&D campaign in which I DM for 3-5 players. The campaign occurs in my homebrew world.

I'm not going to provide an event-by-event continuous story here. Rather, after the initial overview, i'll be jumping right into the frey to tell you about what i found to be some exciting game sessions that we had.

I might come back later to post about the initial stages of the campaign. I don't think it's necessary to understand everything. Still, i'll leave myself an editable post just in case   

I hope you enjoy the story!

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

*General Overview*

The adventures take place in a world called Perin. About 2500 years ago, a 
terrible battle shook the world that ended with The Lord of Darkness (a 
creature beyond the gods' control incarnating all that is vile and evil) and 
the Surpeme Being (a creature also beyond the gods, that was formed when the 
5 holders of the Swords of Destiny were merged into this Supreme Creature, 
essentially incarnating all that is life, including hope itself) met in a 
final combat that ended by the destruction of both creatures.

(That was my previous campaign, and that was also 10 years of role playing 
summarized into a single sentence there  ).

Anyway, my new campaign takes place 2500 years later after that. However, 
the battle between the Lord of Darkness and the Supreme Being had 
repercutions on the world. Indeed, during that fateful confrontation between 
the Lord of Darkness and the Supreme Being, all creatures throughout the 
worlds, the multiverses and all planes, had their eyes and attention on that 
supernatural confrontation (they saw it through their hearts). In seeing the 
essence of Life and Evil in their purest form, all these beings for a 
moment - short as a breath but might have been as long as eternity - forgot 
about everything, their entire minds were absorbed by the two beings and the 
battle of the essence of reality itself. They even forgot about the gods' 
existence. And consequently, like a living being suddenly deprived of 
oxygen, the gods deprived of faith and prayers, of belief, ceased to exist.

The Supreme Creature did not think it could defeat the Lord of Darkness, so 
it killed itself at a chosen moment, freeing a tremendous amount of positive 
energy that he channelled towards the Lord of Darkness. The latter, 
understanding it was doomed, managed to also commit suicide, but he died on 
his own terms. Indeed, in doing so he exploded, sending 66 shards of 
darkness on the world, the dead remnants of his former self. Thus were 
created the 66 Axis Stones, that constituted his vengeance in the form of 
portals from the mortal realm to many realms that are evil or chaotic: the 
Abyss, Hell, etc... The Supreme Creature, however, seeing the creation of 
these Axis Stones, countered the move by creating 8 Axis Keys, that could 
lock and control the Axis Stones, thus closing the portals and preventing 
the millions and millions of immortal creatures from the evil and chaotic 
outer planes from flooding the prime material plane. Of course, all of this 
took place in a fraction of a second, in what would be a fraction of a 
thought for a mortal being - since these Supreme Creature and Lord of 
Darkness dudes are not your regular creatures. Zap! All was done. I'll skip 
the devastation that occurred when those two creatures killed each other, 
but i'll say that there remained a region in the world that came to be 
called the Zone, in which all 66 Axis Stones landed.

The Zone is an elongated valley about 200 miles long by 75 miles wide, a 
warm sandy area with small trees and tough underbrush that can live under 
the hot sun.

Fast forwardig a number of years: there followed a period of chaos in the 
world for the next millenium, as the absence of the old gods left a 
spiritual emptiness. Some para-religious groups appeared, including one that 
survived through it all to remain rather powerful, although a bit freaky: 
the Zealots. None of these groups had clerics able to channel divine magic.

Also, the Zone where the 66 Axis Stones remained, showed weird and evil 
transformations over the years. Indeed, although the portals were closed, 
they weren't exactly evil-tight, pardon my language. Some of the essence of 
the evil and chaotic outer planes seeped through the portals. No creature 
could pass, but the essence of evil and chaos transformed the area near the 
portals, and thus many plants and animals living in the area were 
transformed into evil versions of themselves (dire and/or fiendish animals 
for the purpose of the game - as for plants, well there are the acid fungus, 
poisonous vines, and so on). 2500 years later, the Axis Stones' origin is 
unknown by most.

About 1000 years after the old gods disappeared, there appeared new gods 
(about half the pantheon provided in the PHB), formed by the essence of 
thoughts itself, i.e. the people's despair combined with the magical 
capacity of the world, formed gods, beings that are made of a combination of 
the thoughts and faiths, that are incarnations of ideals and morales, that 
are truly the sum of their believers, past and present. These gods were 
created at an event now referred to as Zaccharia's sacrifice, a powerful 
Zealot that managed to open a channel to the outer planes to allow divine 
energy to cross over.

However, unbeknownst to most, these new gods are becoming corrupted by the 
corrupted nature of mortal beings... but i won't get into that now. Also 
unbeknownst to most, some of the old gods have survived in a greatly 
enfeebled stated, in the plane of the Gruths. Some of old groups such as the 
Zealots refuse to recognize the new gods, and their fanatical approach 
towards the situation is quite extremist - but they're not entirely wrong 
either.

The campaign begins as the PCs are thrown into a battle between two opposing 
groups that both try to put their hands on the Axis Keys - the very 
existence of which being otherwise mostly unknown throughout the world.

The first of these groups are dark elves (leading other meanies). Now this 
strikes everyone confronted to them has truly out of the ordinary, because 
the dark elves are but myths, a legendary race that is believed to never 
have existed by half, and to be extinct and long dead by the other half. The 
truth of the matter is that they were working for the Lord of Darkness 2500 
years ago, and they were expelled from the prime material plane to a prison 
in Hell when the Axis Stones were created. They believe (falsely) that the 
other "good" mortal races and/or the Supreme Creature (their creation) are 
responsible for this, when in fact their intricate tie to the Lord of 
Darkness is what banned them from the Prime.

The second of these groups is a cult called the Lost Souls. The background 
of this cult relies on the fact that, when the gods disappeared and the 
outer planes were locked up, mortals souls from dead mortals were no longer 
allowed to reach the outer planes, and were in fact stranded on the Astral 
plane. At first, the souls simply wandered aimlessly, until eventually these 
lifeless beings began to have some form of consciouness. Long story short: 
in their irrational minds incapable of understanding what happened, they're 
pissed off at mortals who they deem responsible for their condition, and 
they want something else than eternal wandering in an empty plane for 
themselves. They believe that they can take control of the Prime and possess 
bodies, that every Lost Soul can find and conquer a host for itself, 
essentially taking control of it and killing the recipient soul. When the 
host body dies, the Lost Soul can finally find eternal rest in its proper 
plane. This belief stems from a happenstance: at one point, through a 
momentaneous magical planar rift that occurred between the Astral and Prime 
planes, one lost soul managed to travel back to the prime and possess a 
mortal. Then, through its bond with other lost souls, this possessed mortal 
found a way to get some other souls to possess other mortals. However, the 
possession process is very long and tedious, and after a while, some mortals 
became aware of this. The cult of the Lost Souls is consequently led by 
mortals possessed by the Lost Souls, although it includes also (and mainly) 
non-possessed mortals that believe these lost souls to be linked to the 
ancient gods.

One of the first and few organizations that became aware of the possession 
were the dark elves, in their hellish prison, where a few of their own were 
successfully possessed. Being where they are, they are very alert to 
anything supernatural and the term "unbelievable" has disappeared from their 
vocabulary generations ago. By studying the possessed individuals through 
magical means, they also became aware that travelling back to the Prime was 
possible if control of the Axis Keys was gained. So they decided to send a 
party there, to take control of the Axis Keys to (1) let all the dark elves 
out of their hellish prison, and (2) prevent the Lost Souls from possessing 
all mortals (including the dark elves). Moving their entire society would 
lead to them attracting the attention of powerful devils, so they instead 
sent out 12 groups each comprising 20 of their strongest warriors, clerics, 
mages, rogues, monks, to find a way through the planes, and back to the 
material plane, to take control of the Axis Keys, control the Axis Stones to 
open a portal to their hellish prison, and get them out of there. (Note: the 
dark elves are not a large society anymore, but they have been strengthened 
through millenia surviving in a hostile plane where evil immortals rule - so 
we're talking about tough SOBs here. Additional abilities are added to the 
basic dark elf template as far as game mechanics are concerned, in the form 
of arcane tatoos on the elves' bodies that provide increased attributes, 
toughness feat, SR (i like the SR to be explained) and a few other things on 
top). Also, through obligation of survival, they've become a race capable of 
relying on itself a lot, a lot less inclined towards back-stabbing, albeit 
much more ruthless.

Of the 12 dark elf groups, a single one made it back all the way through, 
travelling through different planes over years of displacement, with all its 
members surviving. All other groups perished in their attempts. Once on 
Perin, initially accompanied by a large pack of hell hounds, several subdued 
dragons and devils (who have, unsurprisingly, their own agenda...) , worked 
to find some local allies on this soft world, and managed to rekindle some 
of the old alliances, especially from races that had fallen to a very low 
status pursuant to the Lord of Darkness' defeat - orcs and lizard folk on 
top of that list.

That's the gist of my campaign's situation as it stood when the campaign 
started. The PCs happened to all be at the wrong place at the right time  : 
Hamlyn, one of the towns that is part of the Crown of the Zone, the region 
that is located around the valley of the Zone and protects the world from 
it, got attacked burnt down in part by a highly organized raid led by the 
dark elves, and comprising lizard folk and minotaurs. The PCs were all 
captured and were given to the lizard folk as payment for their services 
(i.e. they were intended to become slaves). They managed to escape their 
captors and started investigating what had happened at the village, to find 
out that one large mehnir-like stone (an axis key) had been recuperated in 
the village. Following some initially far-from-obvious leads, they went on 
the trail of the dark elves and found out about the Lost Souls. And some 
other groups that have learned about the Axis Stones and Keys too.

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

*Initial campaign stage*

To be posted later.   

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

*Finding the first axis stone*

The PCs were in an area of the world that is called the Zone, which is essentially a cursed valley where animals and plants are distorted into maligned versions of themselves and where survival is difficult in itself. The Zone is a semi-desert, with some smallish trees (15-20 feet) and the occasional underbrush.

So the PCs are (level 4):

Thorak: male dwarf fighter
Yorrick: male human rogue
Iaroslav: male human cleric
Krapounia: female human barbarian/sorceress
Levainthel: female elven fighter/ranger/rogue

Two NPC allies are with them:
Olaf: male human fighter
Volchenkov: male human fighter/wizard

They had had all sorts of warnings from numerous NPCs that crossing the Zone was not recommendable, but at one point they decided to cross it nonetheless [Smile] .  It was not their first trip in the Zone, so they figured that if they had been able to handle it a first time, a second time should not be too problematic.  However, they never stayed for more than a day or two, whereas their actual trip was going to take at least a a week and half, and take them beyond the fringe of the Zone, deep into its heart.

So they journey through the Zone, starting on the fringe and gradually going deeper into the valley, fighting strange warped animals having bone horns protruding through their fur at odd places, going around a large (200+) troop of zombies walking towards an unknown destination, surviving the difficulties of the terrain such as quicksand, acidic moss, poisonous flowers, animated vines, scorpions, burrowing monsters, and so on.

After a few days of this, they're starting to realize that they might have a bit more than they signed up for, but they still want to plow on.  At one point, after having left the fringe of the Zone, they find a large stony field without any vegetation, but having numerous large stones everywhere that allow you to walk between each.  There, they get ambushed by two ettins that give them a hard time and they need rest after that battle.

The PCs decide to put up camp right there and then.  The sorceress sends her silver raven familiar to scout around, and obtains information from him that the stony field forms a circle at the center of which there is a region where the sand is black, which is devoid of any stones but a tall one standing a the center of the blackened area.  Their curiosity gets the better of them, and they decide to investigate.  Well, actually, the curiosity of two of the five of them only.  (They had specifically told themselves that they would not split up, but as in any good horror movie... they split up! Oh well...) Anyway, the sorceress and the elven ranger decide to follow the raven back to the blackened area, and they indeed find a circle of blackened sand devoid of any stones, save for a central perfectly rectangular upright black stone jutting out from the sand.  The stone is about 6 inches thick, with runes on its periphery, but with its two large surfaces being flat and completely bare.  Looking at them, they're so smooth that they're almost like mirrors and you would expect to see your reflection even from afar, but they give away no image.  But the most unsettling fact about the stones is that they shed their shadow *towards* the sun, instead of on the opposite side of it.

The sorceress and the ranger realize that this is probably a so-called axis stone (and they're right), which is a portal to other planes that was closed off thousands of years ago.  Many think that the corruption in the Zone originates from these axes stones (which is also true).

The sorceress and the ranger thus decide that, since they're here, they'll check out the axis stone closer up, and take out a parchment and some ink to copy the runes.  They walk up to the stone, write down the simple runes, and as they put their paper back into their pockets, gruesome tentacles made of decaying flesh suddenly sprout from the ground to try to grab them and their horses.  The tentacles are not long, but as they fight them off and try to move towards the periphery of the circle and out of it, more tentacles sprout from the ground to attack them.  (To this day, the players believe that the tentacles belonged to an underground creature, when in fact they were inanimate plant-like hellish things that existed close to the axis stone due to the corruption that seeps from one layer of hell onto the material plane through the not-quite perfectly closed portal. )  Anyway, they're rapidly in over their heads, since the tentacles are very hard to fight considering that once they wrap around your legs, they become real hard to hack at. They deal small amounts of damage only however.

Realizing that their situation might be complex early on, the sorceress sends her raven to call for help from their friends who stayed at the camp, and by the time they arrive, all of them except Olaf the NPC who stayed at the camp to guard their stuff, the ranger is close to getting out of the circle with her horse, but the sorceress' horse has been constricted to death by the tentacles and drawn underground and the barbarian-sorceress is pinned to the ground as she tries to fight off the damn things.  Her only weapon, a greatsword, is obviously unwieldy in such a sitution, which doesn't help.  The rogue goes in to help the sorceress with his horse, but his horse gets grabbed by tentacles too.

So everyone starts to try to help those that are stuck inside, shooting arrows, but no one else wants to step on the dark sand (with reason).  This is where one of the PCs' ennemies, a bearded devil named Archibald, dashes into combat against the heros located outside the dark circle.  He had been defeated by the PCs in an underground lair just before they entered deeply into the Zone, teleporting away before they could kill him, and he had followed them since, waiting for the right moment to attack.  They had even spotted him from afar, not realizing that it was him, but never managing to actually draw him into a trap and eventually just letting him be.  So in comes Archibald, with his long Guisarme that he wields with the proficiency of one who has done so for thousands of years.  The weapon's shaft looks almost to be an extension of his arms, and he rotates it around him and back and forth and slashes up and down in a spectacular flurry of blows that each deal significant damage.  Of course, everyone outside the circle, namely the cleric, the dwarf fighther and the NPC fighter/wizard, all stop helping those inside the circle to concentrate on Archibald, as they are perfectly aware that he is mighty indeed.

The thing about the devil Archibald is that his cursed weapon deals wounding damage, which means that anyone hit by it starts bleeding profusely until the wound is taken care of.  So he rapidly hits all three heros standing outside the circle to have his wounding damage do its job, and then goes on to work on the two fighters and more specicically on the dwarf who he knows to be the stronger of the three.  The fight is going his way, partly due to his surprise attack, partly due to his wounding damage, partly due to his few other special abilities (such as damage reduction which kept him in relatively good shape), and partly due to good rolls including a critical hit on the dwarf that expended the cleric's last cure spell above level 1.  The PCs in the circle are having a lot of trouble dealing with the tentacles, and the sorceress is losing her battle as she is now severely wounded by the grappling tentacles. The rogue's horse gets killed, and the rogue now has to contend with the tentacles himself.

They're all starting to feel like they're not going to get out of this situation alive.  And i'm thinking the same thing. My first TPK as a DM! I'm not happy about this at all.

This is where the dwarf fighter calls for and rolls a critical hit with his might dwarven waraxe!  It was really intense as all players and myself were really into the fight, and as anyone rolled each round to see what happened, all the others were super attentive to the results as everyone fate depended on them.  So when the dwarf's player took his die and (for the first time) said "i need a crit" and got it, the room erupted under the five players' cheers!  Not only that, but the dwarf rolled near maximum damage, which is very signficant since his waraxe deals tripple damage on crits.  So the tide turned as the devil was suddenly reduced to about 40% of his hit points (they did't know that of course, but they saw that the last wound was important).

The devil, being an immortal not totally devoid of intelligence, decides that the time is ripe to get out of there and seek vengeance later.  Indeed, he might be able to take out one of the remaining three opponents, maybe two, but he would probably go down before all three were dead.  So he decides that the risk is useless and decides to flee.  Like he did once before, when he had almost killed the sorceress before teleporting his butt out of there. But the thing is, to teleport without chancing attacks of opportunity against him that might disrupt the magic, he needs to move out from between the two fighters that he is engaged against.  So he does that, he moves away, and that provokes attacks of opportunity, but he figures that he's largely strong enough to resist these attacks, the important thing is that his teleport not be disrupted because two round of combat might prove fatal.  The fighter/wizard NPC swings and misses.

Now all the players know, for having seen him flee once before, that the devil's plan is to teleport away.  And they know that it means he'll be back, attacking them when they're vulnerable, like he did just now.  So they don't like him going away one bit.

And the dwarf 's player does it again.  He calls for a second critical hit in a row, rolls, and sure enough, gets a 20 on his 20-sided die!  He confirms his crit, rolls damage, and again deals close to the maximum amount he could get (over 40 points of damage, which is a very important amount at their level).  And it's just enough to kill Archibald.  Again, the players roar their pleasure as the hellish beast crumbles to the ground, mortally wounded.

The cleric then thinks to use one of his granted clerical powers (from the "travel" domain) to walk through the tentacles unhindered, and it works!  So with help from him who cures her, the sorceress manages to reach the outer periphery of the circle, and the rogue manages to get out also.

Close call, and everyone lets out a long breath of relief as they were pretty sure that their end had arrived.

The ranger takes the skin of the devil (all his interiors have disolved into a brownish goo that flowed out of his skin), and puts it in his packsack in hope of using it to scare off lizard men later on.  (I had decided that the devil would die in this way.) At this point, no one knows that he has the devil skin but him.

They then discuss the matter, and realize that they won't be able to cross the Zone completely, they're not powerful enough.  They continue their journey by backtracking (more or less) to leave the Zone.  But the creatures of this cursed place smell the blood and the fear, and the attacks against them increase in frequency!  That following night, they are being attacked so much that they can't get a good night's sleep.  With no spells left, they drink the few healing potions that they have, but they prove insufficient as one, then another of the heros fall unconscious, but not dead, to the repeated attacks.  A fiendish bat swarm, then dire rats, then other stronger beasts attack them, relentlessly.  Finally, when morning comes, they've not
rested enough to gain their spells, and they're pretty much fed up with the entire situation.  Three out of seven (the two NPCs and the rogue) are out cold, but stable and living... for the moment.

At first light, the ranger announces that she's taken the devil's skin in her packsack as they discuss this and that.  Hearing this news, the other PCs come to think that the skin might be the reason for the increased frequency of attacks.  The barbarian-sorceress in particular gets it into her head to rid the party of the skin.  She's a strong one, the sorceress, the strongest of the group.  So she forces her way to the ranger's packsack and takes out the skin.  As everyone's on edge due to the recent events, the ranger takes offense at this, and starts threatening the sorceress and tells her to let go of her packsack, but she won't.  So the ranger takes out her rapier and starts moving towards the sorceress, but the dwarf interposes himself between the two, as he also thinks that getting rid of the useless skin can't do any wrong. But now the ranger is seeing red, and she hits the dwarf with the flat of her blade.  The dwarf doesn't like this at all, draws his axe and hits the ranger back, but he doesn't use the flat of his blade.  A short combat ensues, but the dwarf has so few hit points left that a single hit knocks him unconscious, close to death.  Seeing that, the sorceress draws her greatsword and attacks the ranger, finally killing her right there and then!

Woa!  Now that was an unexpected turn of events!  They survive the creatures of the Zone, Archibald the devil, but kill each other off!

In the end, the dwarf was stabilized on death's doorstep (-9), and by resting for the entire day the cleric got his spells back (they were attacked a single time during daytime) and cured everyone back to relative health, except the dead ranger of course (there are no resurrection spells in my campaign, but the cleric would have been too low-level to cast one even if there had been some).  They then managed to get out of the Zone, after being attacked some more over the next couple of days.

That was one intense event in our playing time.  The craziness of the entire thing was so unreal, but so incredible!  The players appeared to be in almost as much stress as their tired and wounded PCs (well, maybe not as much, but *some* stress), and the actions that resulted therefrom and the fight between the PCs was something else!  When everyone's going crazy, things like that occur, and it was incredible that the mood around the table somehow reflected in part how the PCs must have been feeling.  It was one hell of an outcome.

For those who wonder, the devil's skin had nothing to do with the attacks. But it doesn't matter, really. All players were amazed at the intensity of the game session, including the dead ranger's player (who was the most stubborn IMO in not letting go of the devil's skin).

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

*Freeing allies*

The PCs wanted to free some prisoners emprisoned in a small castle in the middle of nowhere.  So they set out to go there, the same group as before plus one and minus one, namely:

The PCs (level 6):
Thorak: male dwarf fighter (with one level of barbarian)
Yorrick: male human rogue (with one level of fighter)
Iaroslav: male human cleric
Krapounia: female human barbarian 3/sorceress 3

Three NPC allies:
Olaf: male human fighter 5
Volchenkov: male human fighter 3/wizard 3
Eben: female human druid 4

They leave their horses in the forest nearby, together with the druid's trained wolf animal companion (not too close to the horses), and decide to infiltrate the castle at night.  It is presumably very lightly guarded for reasons i won't go into, so they figure that they can handle whoever will be in there.  Their group is now a bit stronger than before, and they feel confident [Smile]

So they leave heavy armor with the horses and cross the sandy field that surrounds the castle, spotting a guard on the walkway of the surrounding wall as they approach under a starry sky, making their way when when the sentry has disappeared on the other side.  They arrive at the moat, cross it swimming, and then the cleric casts the spell "stone shape" to make a hole in the wall through which they can crawl into the castle's courtyard.  There, they walk all the way around the castle, and climb up on a balcony overlooking the courtyard, but are spotted in the process by an elf guard that has low-light vision and can see at night.  So as they are scramling onto the balcony, one then two bells start ringing as the alarm is raised.

Since they're already there, they figure they'll just head inside and see what happens.

So they hack at the door of the balcony until it's destroyed in short order, and they run inside the room.  One of the PCs casts a light spell, and they find themselves into a richly decorated living room from which stairs go up (they thought there wasn't anything higher), and a pair of doors are also present in the room.  One leads into a closet and they find a trap door in the floor, and block the other door with a very heavy wooden table.  They then go down into the closet trap door.

They move around the castle through secondary passages, which allows them to go down a couple of storeys without hindrance.  They figure the prisons must be either underground (which is where they are) or in the large dungeon tower.  They decide to try to find underground prisons first since this is where the passages lead them.

The castle includes at its center a great hall that spans three storeys with a massive wooden staircase that leads from one floor to the other in a central hole made in the second and third floors.  So there is essentially a ground floor and two rectancular balconies that overlook the ground floor, with the staircase in the middle. Anyway, i'll come back to this later, but they cross this important area of the castle as they make their way and eventually find a temple.  There, they decide to take the time to loot (tempting, isn't it? [Smile] ), which gives time to their opponents to gather in the castle and organize their search of the PCs.

While they're in the temple, a couple of guards find them.  They're easily killed, but not before they shout that they've found the intruders!

So the PCs leave the temple and find the prisons that were not so far off on the same floor.  The lone night prison guard surrenders and the PCs make their way to the prison cells, but find their occupants drugged and unable to walk.  Bummer.  So they decide to take the castle by force.  Hehe [Smile]

Out of the prisons section, they're back on the ground floor in the central hall with the staircase and balconies, but they have to retreat from there because they're under fire from crossbowmen and an expert archer from above, that they can barely see in the dark.  Plus, there are apparently a couple of spell casters there too.

They retreat back towards the temple portion of the castle, thinking they can go back up through the secondary helical staircase they arrived from, but find a group of opponents guarding it too.  They manage to kill this small group, and go up those stairs.

This is where the main group of opponents, the heads of the castle, are waiting, since this portion connects to the central staircase portion.  There are three ways out of the temple part of the castle where the PCs are: through the main castle door where a first group of ennemies is located; through the central hall where the archers are; and through the helical staircase, then back towards the luxurious living room they arrived in.  So they opt for the latter option, figuring they know the way and won't suffer the archers (they already have a bit).

Up they go, and start to fight in close quarters in a narrow corridor where one of the ennemy groups awaited them in ambush.  The PCs saw them, and decided to take the fight to them.  It rapidly becomes very complex, as the narrow corridor makes it very difficult to manoeuvre for everyone.  The biggest problem being that their cleric has a hard time moving to heal the frontline dwarf fighter who's fighting a number of opponents, including a tough old warrior with long grey-white hair that fights with a big warhammer and large shield.

To make things worse, they get caught from behind as the expert archer from the central staircase and a powerful cleric (also from the same spot) with a couple of soldiers hit their rear line, while a female wizard joins the old warrior up front with soldiers there too.  They know the archer well as he's been a recurring vilain to some extent, likewise with the cleric.  The wizard is the baronness and head of the ennemies, and also the daughter of a now-dead baron killed by the PCs.  Almost a family reunion.

The fight does not turn out well for them at all, caught in a trap between the ennemies that had time to organize themselves.  Olaf the human fighter dies at the rear guard, and the druid and fighter-wizard retreat to find the others putting down their weapons as they yield before a stronger opponent. The dwarf is unconsious but not dead.

The human rogue and the druid both manage to escape, while the others are put into the prison cells.

However, the battle took its toll on the castle troops, that now number only slightly more than a dozen, counting every fighting body. That's about half their initial number.  They figure they might have some visit from the escapees, so they increase the guard a bit, but a castle is a big construction for 15 people to guard day and night.

Sure enough, the next night the rogue and the druid come back to rescue their comrades.  They find the sorceress and the dwarf in the prison cells, but the others are drugged (the two former resisted the drug up to now). When they try to get out, however, they're spotted by the ennemy archer that is walking around, guarding the place (he's an elvish ranger/rogue with a wolf companion).  The archer attacks them in the central hall, from an overlooking balcony, and his first full attack brings down and kills the cleric (who's drugs have been neutralized by a spell from the druid).  He then continues to rain arrows down on his ennemies, that try to find cover as best they can.  The archer's wolf also engages them in melee.

The dwarf and sorceress take care of the wolf and one guard to escape through the door, while the druid (now played as a PC by an invited friend) throws a number of oil flasks that she had arranged before entering the castle into a sort of cocktail molotov.  Her throw strikes next ot the archer, but he's splashed by some burning oil and the baclony is set afire.  Most importantly, his retreat option through a nearby door is cut off.  He still manages to continue sniping from where he is , gradually moving away from the fire and eventually killing the druid PC/NPC too. However, the fire did its damage, and the archer eventually decides that it's time to flee as he is now weak and he sees his ennemies fleeing on their own side and doesn't want to run after them.  However, the rogue sees him fleeing and decides to let his comrades run. With his spider climb potion active, he moves up the main staircase super silently along a support column, hiding in the dimly litted corners, and manages to kill the fleeing archer with a devastating, sneaky point blank shot from his short composite bow as the archer was going to leave through another door.

The dwarf, the sorceress and the rogue then ran out of the castle while the fire inside was dealt with by its occupants.  They also managed to carry out one of the ten other prisoners found in the castle prisons, a female rogue NPC.  However, the price to pay was heavy indeed: two of the NPCs that have been allies of the PCs from the start are dead, and one PC too.

That entire game sequence (three game sessions overall) was quite something.

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

*Revenge is sweet*

So... the PCs fled a castle from which they managed to free a few friends, although leaving behind some other (non-player character) friends there too.

Bolstered by their success (?) against their enemies and by their recent kill of the expert ranger-rogue archer that they've been hearing about and even crossing for a while, they figure that entering the castle again and freeing the last prisoners will be easy.  Man, those players 

Before they set out in yet another trek through the castle grounds, they wisely decide that they need rest to cure their wounds and prepare some spells and re-arm themselves.  Indeed, most of their weapons have been confiscated by their enemies and are presumably still inside the castle. They do have a few spare weapons on their horses however, so the newly freed prisoners take up arms again, and they let the remainder of the night pass, and during the day they continue to rest, setting up some sentries to check what's going on around the castle from afar.  The sentries saw a few persons leaving (i was surprised that they didn't try to catch up on them), and then a few hours later several wagons and mounted soldiers too.  The enemy was leaving the castle! (Insufficient manpower to efficiently guard the place.)

The PCs decide to follow the group from afar, and wait until the evening, at which point they realize that a storm is brewing.  Not any type of storm, but a sand storm!  (They're near a desert, and i've pre-rolled on which days sand storms occur.)  They decide to take "advantage" of the sand storm to attack the enemy encampment.

I was almost forgetting to summarize the group composition. The PC group consist of (level 6):
Thorak: male dwarf fighter (with one level of barbarian)
Krapounia: female human sorceress 3-barbarian 3
Yorrick: male human rogue (with one level of fighter)
Milfin: male halfling cleric (new character for the player who lost the previous cleric)

And one NPC:
Veonia: female halfling rogue 6 (freed from the castle prisons)

Their enemies, seeing the storm coming, halted their procession and tied up their horses, protecting their heads with air-permeable bags, and then put up their tents.  The PCs start out as the storm is beating down on them.

At this point, it's already dark outside since the sun has just set.  Add in the sand storm, the PCs cannot see the tip of their nose, apart from the dwarf who has darkvision and who can see 5 feet away and somewhat guess what's ahead 10 feet away sometimes.  They cast magic light spells that allow some indistinct vision up to 10 feet away, although everything is under partial concealment for everyone.  Every PC tries to cover his face to minimize the effects of the sandstorm, but it has little real effect.  It is not easy to move, see, fight, talk, cast, or do anything in those conditions!

So they set out against the encampment, and almost miss it as they accidentally walk by it. However, they finally manage to move back at 120° at the last minute, and come up against the other side of the camp, not knowing what it looks like. The camp is in fact composed of five carts (two larger covered ones with prisoners inside and two guards in each, and three with equipment) and four tents (two for soldiers, one for the heads, and one for the cooks and maids and servants). The horses are tethered in the middle of it all.

The PCs randomly fall upon the serving staff first, and even blindly kill two of them before they realize what's going on. They then leave the other serving staff alone and continue searching for more important foes.  As they slowly make their way to the wagons, one of the cooks sets out to warn the wizard baronness and her bodyguards of what's happening.

Meanwhile, the PCs find the wagons with the prisoners, and throw smoke sticks inside, getting the guards to jump out, to their quick deaths at the hands of the ambushing PCs. They then move towards the other wagons until they find another tent. (Their movement is really random as they do not see far enough.)

Eventually, it's among the horses and the tents that two combats occur - the PCs having separated along the way. The dwarf and the barbarian-sorceress engage a few captains of the guards and some soldiers, while the halfling cleric, the halfling rogue and the human rogue engage the enemy cleric with some soldiers (he's a second one of their recurring enemies).  The baronness, her strong old fighter bodyguard and a couple of other soldiers are searching elsewhere for the PCs but they don't see anything either so they're out of it for a while, until they join up against the dwarf and the sorceress.

The combat that then ensues is really chaotic due to the sandstorm.  Anyone moving 10 feet away from an opponent essentially disappears from his vision. Those that don't have a light source simply can't see anything. There are two casters on each side (the sorceress and the halfling cleric for the PCs, and the enemy cleric and wizard baronness on the other side) that have cast light spells on themselves, and the dwarf can see in the dark, but otherwise... complete darkness.  Then, anyone trying to cast a spell has to successfully roll a concentration check, or else the spell fails. Most casters have invested in the concentration skill, apart from the sorceress who relies mostly on her barbarian combat skills during melee anyway.  And everyone, with sand blowing in their eyes and strong winds making even movement difficult, his hindered in whatever physical action they try to undertake.  Movement is made at half speed, no running is possible, charging is out of the question, penalties are present on all attack and skill rolls... the combat becomes a missing theater!  The PCs also decide to partly unhook the tents before attacking their occupants, so two tents are flapping wildly around them as they are trying to combat their opponents, further increasing the chaos.

The enemy cleric ends up being the tougher foe in this case.  His high concentration skill modifier added to lucky rolls allow him to successfully cast most of his spells (i think he had time to cast about 12-15 spells in the combat, and all but one or two were successful). One of the most dangerous spells cast was Summon Monster IV, which allowed him to conjure a Dire Wolf, quite a challenge in itself when combined with allies for three six level PCs! (It almost killed the NPC halfling rogue who tumbled away.)

Meanwhile, the wizard baronness was not so lucky, having her stronger lightning bolt and empowered magic missile spells disrupted as she didn't manage to keep her concentration in the storm. That was fatal and the dwarf fighter killed her rather easily.  Her strong old fighter bodyguard eventually found himself against the wounded dwarf and sorceress, and decided to flee when the latter cast a darkness spell around them, preventing him from seeing anything.

Everyone finally ganged up on the evil cleric, and they killed him.

They then freed the prisoners, waited for the storm to die down and took all the wagons and horses (minus those that managed to break their tethers during the storm) back to the now abandonned castle, that they decided to make their own (ownership issues to be addressed later).  The old fighter finally joined them - he was a weak link among the enemies, the wizard baronness had been possessed into a Lost Sould and he did not like at all what she had become.

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Feb 7, 2007)

*The Axis Crystal artifact*

After having defeated their enemies in the encampment during the sand storm, 
the party was joined by the old tough fighter that used to work for their 
enemies. Since said enemies had been possessed by evil souls (of an origin 
yet unknown to the players), the (soul-wise independent) fighter had been 
forced to accomplish acts that went against his morals for some time. 
Joining a group that had shown valor in battle against him and fidelity 
towards their friends, was a relief for him, although the loss of his 
long-standing employers was a shock. Markus is his name, and hitting people 
with his large warhammer is his game  He also has a slight tendency on the 
bottle... aggravated by the recent events.

This being said, the adventurers returned to the castle of Behröd that they 
had recently attacked, took it for their own until someone else tries to 
claim it, and there they discussed with the now recovering prisoners. With 
about 20 people about, they set up a plan and decided to split the group. A 
first group would remain at the castle, hire some soldiers, and try to 
gather scattered survivors from their home town that was attacked at the 
very beginning of the campaign. A second group including their long-standing 
friend Volchenkov the fighter-wizard and their new ally Veonia the hobbit 
rogue, would go to the large city of Muluk in the desert, where the 
existence of the Cult of the Lost Souls is known to them. And a third group 
formed of the party of adventurers themselves together with Markus, would 
leave for the castle of Krak Al'Niraan to try to recover an artifact that 
would apparently be used by the Lost Souls to possess other creatures 
against their will.

A short recap of the party of adventurers:

Thorak: male dwarf fighter 5 - barbarian 1 - cleric 1
Krapounia: female human sorceress 4 - barbarian 3
Yorrick: male human rogue 6 - fighter 1
Milfin: male halfling cleric 6

And the non-player character Markus, who's a 6th level fighter.

So to Krak Al'Niraan they go, where they plan to infiltrate the castle as 
guests since Markus is known to the castle occupants. However, they decide 
to split up because they're afraid that Krapounia the stunningly beautiful 
black-skinned and silver-haired woman, and Thorak the dwarf, might be 
recognized by someone. They also decide to set up an ambush: the three that 
will infiltrate the castle will ask the occupants for help against fictional 
enemies that are presumably attacking their other castle Behröd, and will 
bring back hopefully a handful of enemies that they'll all gang up on at a 
given location along the road. They heard that most of the garrison of 
castle Krak Al'Niraan has left, so they figure that after killing a few of 
them, taking the castle should be manageable. (Ah, those players  )

Yorrick, Milfin and Markus are received relatively courteously at Krak 
Al'Niraan, well sorta. The castle castellan who manages the place in the 
absence of the big boss the Duchess of Nideriam, is a huge brute of an 
half-orc paladin who acts nothing like a paladin (he's possessed). But the 
surprise lies somewhere else: the castle still has over a hundred soldiers 
guarding it! They'll never manage to take it as they had hoped. This 
garrison is on its teeth however, due to the presence of a camp of Zealots 
nearby. The latter are a group of para-religious extremists that refuse the 
existence of the gods (the kingdoms are controlled by the clergies) that 
have the reputation of being loose canons.

Anyway, the plan being already set in motion, and with their two friends 
waiting outside, they plow ahead and meet with the half-orc paladin who they 
convince to help them (well, to help their dead enemies in reality, who are 
the paladin's allies). In fact, the half-orc decides to send one of his 
opponents within the castle to help the party, namely an elf wizard who 
strives to take his place as the castellan. She'll be accompanied by a dozen 
soldiers led by a seasoned captain, Jamel. The half-orc paladin is satisfied 
with his decision, not caring if she lives or dies.

In the castle where they remain for the night, they meet with a bunch of 
other people, including another guest named Elisa of Mehdi, a baronness 
who's cousin to a hero of the region. They learn a few things and tie a 
superficial, albeit useful, alliance with her.

The rogue was hoping to explore the castle nightly, but the half-orc paladin 
doesn't trust them even if they're accompanied by Markus, and he sets a 
sentry at their door.

So they bide their time, but during the night, there is some action in the 
corridor outside of their room, and when they open the door, their sentry is 
dead and a dark elf is standing at the window! He sees them, and jumps out, 
using a rope to skilfully climb the wall of the inner courtyard. As soon as 
he's out the window, more guards storm into the corridor, obviously looking 
for the dark elf intruder. The adventurers tell them that he's gone for the 
roof, and the guards pursue.

And the sentry is dead...

The rogue is outta there. Taking only his essential gear, he starts 
exploring the castle. Going down, he finds the prisons, then a temple (both 
of them guarded, he doesn't push his luck to explore either), and finally 
climbs up a spiral staircase which appears like any other that he's explored 
in this large castle, but in mid-ascension, he realizes (through a lucky die 
roll) that he's probably skipped a storey. Might be nothing... but he 
decides to search for secret doors, and he finds one! And the right one too: 
therein lies a secret library within which he finds a host of super relevant 
information. Indeed, Krak Al'Niraan is the center of operations for the cult 
of the Lost Souls, and here is where they keep their plans.

The rogue realizes that he's found something important without having read 
everything, but he's pretty darn nervous about being found here. So he takes 
what he considers to be the most relevant notes, and sets fire to the 
library!  He leaves hurriedly, and returns to his room. They hear more 
commotion as the castle guards find and fight the fire. They're not aware of 
it, but a druid lives in this castle. He conjures a water elemental, and 
together with create water spells from the several clerics that also live 
here, the fire is rapidly extinguished. Not before most of the library was 
destroyed however. The castle occupants are not sure who set fire to the 
library, but figure it is probably the dark elf they saw.

Next morning, after more social activities (they briefly meet the druid, a 
psychotic weirdo with a plumed cape and big tatooed bird wings on his back 
and arms that everyone calls "the Shaman"), they leave Krak Al'Niraan with 
their escort of a dozen or so. They had not anticipated the escort to be so 
numerous, and they start to be pretty nervous about how the ambush is going 
to unfold.

When they arrive at the ambush spot, Krapounia the sorceress-barbarian 
starts the hostilities by casting a fireball from a scroll she found. The 
dwarf enlarges himself to giant-size and attacks, and the other three party 
members attack from behind. The chaos and surprise serve them well, as the 
entire group of soldiers is completely disorganized at the outset. Jamel the 
captain of the guard is taken down in short order, the adventurers cleave 
through the soldiers and when seeing that the situation is lost, the Lost 
Sould elven wizard decides to flee to save her own life.

However, the rogue adventurer intelligently takes his horse and returns at a 
position near castle Krak Al'Niraan where he's see her if she returns to the 
castle (there are hills and a cliff nearby that prevent easy access from 
most directions). When he indeed spots her, the closes in, and shoots her 
down with his longbow. No survivors. On her, he finds what he'll find out 
later to be a skeleton key that opens all doors in the castle.

The rogue returns to his friends, who have concealed the corpses. They take 
the rest of the day to read the notes from castle Krak Al'Niraan and learn 
all sorts of relevant stuff, and next morning decide to return to Krak 
Al'Niraan because they now know that the Axis Crystal (the artifact that i 
talked about earlier, that allows creature possession by Lost Souls) is 
indeed at castle Krak Al'Niraan. Several plans are made to infiltrate the 
castle again.

At Krak Al'Niraan their plans go up in smoke however, since they find that 
the castle is besieged! More than that, the main gate has been opened, and 
fighting is going on inside the castle grounds, on the watch towers, and so 
on. The Zealots have attacked!

They decide to take advantage of this situation, and find their way into the 
castle after having fought a group of guards on top of the castle and a 
group of Zealots in the castle grounds. Inside, they follow a spiral 
staircase along the main dungeon tower, on top of which they found a strange 
apparatus that they had initiall thought of as a warmachine of some kind 
when looking from afar. On closer inspection, it's rather a static object, 
that looks like some strange 20-foot metallic fork. In the tower runs a tube 
that links this apparatus to something else down below, the tube filled with 
silvery-colored liquid. (They smashed the tube.)

Following the tower, they end up in a lower chamber filled with fog. 
Strange. The cleric thinks quickly and believes this might be a spell: using 
his knowledge skills, he identifies it indeed as a spell known to him: 
there's a spellcaster around! The cleric tries to dispel the fog, but 
doesn't succeed since the spell proves too powerful (he does dispel two 
other buffing effects on creatures that lie within however, without even 
knowing it!) Just after this spell is cast, they are all engulfed in a 
pillar of flame that hits them right on. Ouch! They're all injured, except 
the rogue who successfully escapes the pillar of fire due to his evasion 
ability. They heard the spell being cast inside the fog-filled room before 
it detonated, so they decide to enter and find the spellcaster.

As the dward moves forward, a large dire ape falls on them from above and 
starts battling the dwarf. The dire ape is a very large ape with long hair 
all over its body, and bony protrusions at his elbows, knees and shoulders. 
And he hits hard. The dwarf still kills it with the help of some others. 
They also find the spellcaster: it's the crazed Shaman, mouth drooling and 
glazed red eyes, who conjures up a fire elemental to help him fight the 
intruders and sends a few other spells flying their way. One of the last 
spells that he'll cast, before being cornered and killed, is another flame 
strike, repeating the pillar of flame from before, that will prove to be 
fatal to the dward who's been damaged too much in this combat! He falls to 
the ground, dead, as he misses his saving throw against the incendiary spell 
of the Shaman.

It is with a heavy heart that the adventurers realize that one of the main 
characters of the group has been killed. Everyone throws in a good word and 
an emotional thought for the dwarf, including a poem by the hobbit cleric 
(emails were exchanged in-between gaming sessions).

The adventurers decide to continue their quest nonetheless, knowing the 
importance of it. Indeed, the notes they found suggest that the Lost Souls 
are trying to possess an important number of creatures by taking control of 
the Axis Keys, large stone-like dolmens that can apparently open up the Axis 
Stones, doorways to other dimensions.

The Shaman's room yields information relating to the fact that he was 
responsible for using the power generated by sand storms in the Zone (a 
nearby magical area of the world) to channel this energy and use it to 
provoke the possession ritual with the Axis Crystal (the artifact). The 
silvery liquid would appear to be a conveyor of some kind for the sand storm 
energy.

In this room, they also meet with a half-orc - no, not the paladin, but 
rather a fighter 3 -cleric 3 named Rogan (a.k.a. the new player's character) 
who has business of his own at castle Krak Al'Niraan that i won't go into. 
Rogan is an honorable chap, very strong, wielding a spiked chain and 
sporting heavy full plate armor. After a brief discussion and a few 
divination spells, they join up as if they had been best friends all their 
lives 

They continue exploring the castle and end up at the temple, after a few 
turns and some directions from the rogue from his previous nightly 
exploration. They hear combats here and there, but apart from the ones they 
had outside, no other fights for them for the time being.

The temple is guarded by a few soldiers and an ogre. The latter wields a 
huge morningstar, and quickly appears to be the most idiotic creature 
capable of speach that they've ever seen. They spy on the guards for a while 
before laying the smack on them. The combat goes well, even if the strong 
ogre does land a few hard blows.

The temple doesn't contain anything important on a more thorough search, and 
they refrain from looting it since that was part of their problems at the 
former castle Behröd.

However, they do use a few divination spells, and find the temple to be 
good-aligned as could be expected from this god, but however a large brazier 
with burning incense therein, located at the center of the temple near the 
altar, irradiates a strong evil aura. They wonder what this might mean. The 
half-orc fighter-cleric, Rogan, decides to take the brazier out of the 
temple, without touching it - he uses a rope. But he's not quite satisfied, 
and he decides to throw some holy water into the burning incense. This 
provokes a strong reaction as smoke starts to emanate from the brazier in 
large quantities, and when they hear a screaching scream from a distant 
place, although it comes from the brazier right next to them, they knock it 
over and start to run! As well they might, since they know from their spells 
that this brazier uses conjuration magic, the kind that brings creatures 
from elsewhere...

They run and run, and end up near the prisons. They wait for a while, and 
realize that no one is apparently pursuing them. Before going to the 
prisons, they investigate a suspicious fire wall (which is, arguably, 
suspicious in its very essence) that ends up being illusionary. Behind, 
after dispatching a flesh golem guardian, they find a room where the 
possession ritual occurred, but the Axis Crystal is not there! Damn! (Hehe 
 ).

They go to the prison, where the guards are more numerous and ready to 
resist intrusion: the hobbit opens the door, is greeted by a few crossbow 
bolts that injure him badly, and closes the door! After some healing and 
more preparation, they charge in. There, two ogres are supported by 3-4 
soldiers, but the adventurers take them out in good order in the large main 
prison block room. They're not even finished with the soldiers that a group 
of Zealots shows up, martial art specialist apostles supported by fighter 
initiates. But the adventurers prevail against them too.

They then hear more sound from behind the closed door from where they came, 
as armored creatures are noisily approaching. They plant themselves in 
front, and as soon as the door opens a few of them intend to hit whatever 
shows up. One can't even hold his greatsword and hits directly into Elisa of 
Mehdi, the baroness who was a guest of castle Krak Al'Niraan the night 
before! The combat is prevented however, and she and her gnome cleric ally 
barge in, frantically telling the adventurers to get ready for "something 
horrible coming this way". She screams towards the corridor for her 
bodyguard to catch up, but when he shows up, he's screaming in agony as 
unnatural plants are literally sprouting through his skin! He dies on the 
floor, covered with icky vine-like plants all over him, in a final scream of 
pain.

The adventurers have an idea of what that "something horrible" might be. 
It's... whatever was called in when they threw holy water on the evil 
brazier from the temple.

The corridor to the prisons is the only way out of this huge room, so the 
adventurers quickly heal themselves in the few seconds that they have, and 
close the door. The fighters position themselves around the door to gang up 
on anyone that would enter, the rogue prepares his bow, spellcasters cast a 
buff spell - it's all they have time for.

Then, a horrible screaching scream from behind the door. Two seconds of 
silence. And before the bewildered eyes of the adventurers, the door is torn 
off its hinges and propelled fifty feet into the room as they feel a wave of 
raw magical energy move into the large prison block room from the corridor. 
And there, twenty feet behind the empty door opening, stands a 10-foot tall 
bipedal bird-like creature with a large hooked beak, feathery wings, bird 
claws at the extremities of his long, thin arms and legs, grey oily feathers 
partly covering its body over dark scales. The creature shifts its 
concentration from the wave of energy it let off to remove the door to the 
people inside the room, its malicious dark eyes set upon all that are there, 
dark pools of evil promising death and worse things still. They feel the 
hair rising on their arms and cold sweat coming down their spine at the very 
sight of this otherworldly creature.

It's a Vrock demon.

The rogue reacts quickly with his bow at the ready, and hits the creature 
with a couple of arrows, but realizes that his arrows barely injure the 
creature! The creature itself protects itself with magic, casting a spell 
that creates 5 illusionary images of itself that shift around it all the 
time, preventing the onlooker from actually differentiating the real from 
the illusions.

Then, as everyone waits for the creature to charge into the room, the 
impetuous Krapounia the barbarian sorceress decides to charge it outside in 
the corridor. But the creature is much too strong for her to take on alone, 
and before anyone can even react, they witness in horror as spores erupt 
from the demon and ugly vines start sprouting from Krapounia; and 
simultaneously, the demon launches a deadly series of attacks, its powerful 
claws and beak tearing into the unarmored Krapounia inexorably until she 
falls down on the floor, dead.

The adventurers quickly regain their composure after the death of their 
comrade, however, since their own lives are at stake. They continue to throw 
missile weapons at the demon, successful hits mostly eliminating illusionary 
images of the demon. As the last image disappears, the demon suddenly 
teleports into the room, behind everyone, near the scared gnome cleric. It 
was barely injured. This battle was not going well.

Melee combat against the Vrock ensued, furious. The demon has a high damage 
reduction ability against mundane weapons, and only on very hard hits did 
the adventurers and their allies manage to injure the powerful Vrock in any 
significant way. The rogue set up a flanking position, allowing him to deal 
more damage due to his sneak attack ability. But the turning point came from 
Markus (before he was beaten down to unconsciousness) and Elisa, as I rolled 
in front of everyone two powerful critical hits by them, which killed the 
demon.

So... Krapounia... Another player character death. Against the most powerful 
foe they had had to deal with up to now. That was a hard blow to the group, 
and to our campaign too. Indeed, four of the five initial player characters 
are now dead.

Everyone recovered, and the player who had Krapounia as a character was 
really stunned by her death. This had been a favorite character for him, and 
he took some time before finally announcing that he would not make another 
character, but rather take on the role of Markus the old fighter. Fair 
enough.

After freeing the prisoners that Elisa and her gnome ally decided to try to 
escort out of the castle, their group was down to:

Yorrick, male human rogue 6 - fighter 1 (single initial player character 
still alive)
Markus, male human fighter 6
Rogan, male half-orc fighter 3 - cleric 3
Milfin, male gnome cleric 6

The cleric player left the country then, so his character is not really 
controlled by a player anymore but remains with the group.

Taking a couple of prisoners among the soldiers that guarded the prisons, 
the adventurers continued on their quest after gaining some very relevant 
information on where the artifact might be kept (the soldier knew nothing of 
the artifact, but knew where in the castle was kept the treasure). They 
changed location to another underground portion of the castle, behind 
another illusionary firewall, where they found the always pleasurable 
treasure room. After dispatching its undead guards and a few wards and 
traps, after finding a few secret doors and illusionary walls, and after 
taking a few pieces of gold and platinum along the way, they found what they 
were looking for: the sceptre-like Axis Crystal.

Out of the treasure room, surprise! They were ambushed by a pair of drow, 
dark elves come for the artifact also! That combat almost turned sour. The 
surprise wasn't complete however, as a few dead corpses lead the adventurers 
to the conclusion that combat had recently occurred here.

There were only two drow, a female rogue and a male ranger, but they 
initiated combat by throwing a web from a wand they had, towards the group 
of adventurers. Two of them would be caught in its sticky strands for the 
entire combat, namely Markus the fighter and Miflin the cleric.

Meanwhile, Yorrick the rogue escaped the web and started throwing arrows 
against the two drow. Rogan the fighter-cleric closed in for melee, and hit 
the drow rogue hard on his first attack, almost killing her on the spot. 
(The two drow were already injured from previous battles.) The ranger ran in 
to help her, summersaults and flips galore, and landed one then other attack 
from a flurry of sword strokes and brought Rogan down to... 1 hit points! 
The drow rogue backed off from Rogan, using her ally for cover, and tried 
finishing Rogan off with another wand of hers that emits a ray of fire, but 
the spell fizzled without effect as she missed her use magic device skill. 
Can't get'em all! Yorrick finished the drow ranger off with an arrow, and 
the drow rogue escaped, casting another web to help her in the process.

The adventurers then managed to flee the castle, manoeuvring around a few 
opponents including a towering half-ogre/half-fiend who had his hands full 
killing a bunch of Zealots. Still, it appeared like the latter were in 
control of most of the castle grounds.

The trek to castle Krak Al'Niraan is now a thing of the past. The 
adventurers have the artifact named the Crystal Axis, but they've lost two 
more of their allies: Thorak the dwarven fighter and Krapounia the human 
sorceress-barbarian. May their souls rest in peace, the price was high.

And now? Who knows... Perhaps back south to castle Behröd among friends, to 
heal their wounds and plan what to do. Perhaps up north towards Kal'Ferra to 
the Pilate school, where some ancient lore and knowledge might be found to 
answer some of the questions that remain. Or perhaps out west towards the 
far-away capital city of Belial, where the Lost Souls, dark elves and other 
groups (oh, yes, many other groups!) are all converging for an important 
reason: the last Axis Key is to be set in that city. Depending on who sets 
it, it might open the Axis Stone portals to the millions of Lost Souls that 
would possess just about every sentient living being, to the dark elves that 
were banished in millennia past in Hell for having tried to control the 
world, to the demons that would simply destroy everything and everyone in 
their wake... Decisions will have to be taken, fast!

Sky


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## Skyscraper (Dec 21, 2007)

*Let's get outta here!*

After their attack on Krak Al'Niraan, the group of adventurers is joined by a human wizard (played by a new player) named Rituk. He was specifically looking for them, coming from Hamelyn, the town that was attacked early in the campaign to set everything in motion. Rituk is looking for the Lost Souls also, result of a background story that intermeshes with that of the other adventurers. Ah, coincidences 

The group of adventurers is now composed of the following:

Yorrick, male human rogue 7 - fighter 1
Markus, male human fighter 7 (NPC)
Rogan, male half-orc fighter 4 - cleric 3
Milfin, male gnome cleric 7 (NPC)
Rituk, male human wizard 7

After leaving Krak Al'Niraan, they flee to a nearby half-abandoned village to buy horses. In that village, they learn that the Zealots have taken control of the castle, and that a group of them is actively looking for the adventurers. Crap! They buy horses and flee cross-country. They manage to loose the pursuit.

They head towards an abandoned windmill where an important prisoner is apparently being kept by the lost souls. They found this information in the secret library of castle Krak Al'Niraan.

They arrive near the windmill which stands on the edge of a deep ravine. Its wind arms are partly tattered or broken and lazily and unsteadily turn: it has obviously not been used for years.

The adventurers apparently feel courageous or are simply unconscious. They walk up towards the windmill in the bright light of the afternoon, not trying to hide in any way. They are greeted by arrows. They pick up a fight against the few opponents that are there: dwarves, all of them! This is surprising, as dwarves are very infrequent. They find half a dozen seasoned warriors, including three fighters, one paladin mounted on a hippogriff (a flying horse of sorts), one cleric and one rogue.

Combat is violent but goes rather well for the adventurers. The dwarf paladin on his flying mount, a couple of fighters and eventually the rogue even move outside to land some blows, but eventually retreat inside the windmill. There the big rotating crushing stone wheels of the windmill prove to be somewhat of a hindrance during combat, but no one gets hampered by them significantly. It comes down to a single dwarf fighter who puts his back to a corner on the second storey of the windmill and challenges the PCs to fight him. Which they do. But a few holes in the ground make things complicated to get at him and they have to take him on one at a time. Rogan the big half-orc cleric decides to cast a spell on himself and enlarges to giant size – which is a large giant as far as he's concerned. He weighs 280 pounds in normal circumstances, not counting his full plate mail, and now he's up to about eight times that! Rogan climbs up a window from outside, squeezes into the windmill and walks towards the dwarf, decided to finish this once and for all. However, the old windmill floor can't take that much weight and the half-orc falls through the floor! The dwarf fighter is finally taken care of and the adventurers rescue the prisoner: a young dwarven boy.

This is no ordinary boy however. This is the dwarven prince of a far-away kingdom! The adventurers learn that the dwarves, reputed to have locked themselves up in their underground city centuries ago, have in fact migrated to another kingdom, the existence of which was unknown to everyone (well, almost everyone). It appears that his bodyguards, the now dead dwarves that guarded him, had turned on him and kidnapped him. The Lost Souls (who were behind this scheme) used the prince to have the dwarves follow the orcs across the seas and battle them. Short background: the orcs are allied with the dark elves, and both the latter and the Lost Souls are trying to control the Axis Keys to control the crossing from other planes of existence for their own nefarious reasons. The dark elves/orcs and the Lost Souls are on opposite sides.

A sandstorm rises while they are in the windmill, resting from the recent fight. The wind gushes at high speed outside and they know the local storms well enough to remain indoors until the storm passes. However, the storm triggers the artefact that they now own, the Axis Crystal. A portal made of light is opened in the chaos of the ongoing storm and they are sucked in through the portal.

They find themselves in a world very similar to the one they know, but somehow slightly different. No sun shines in the sky, but pale light surrounds them. They reach the village where they came from, but there is not a single inhabitant to be seen. In fact, no creature except for themselves appears to be there! There is only an eerie silence. Except... they sometimes glimpse a subtle movement at the corner of their eye, as if something or someone had moved, but when they look carefully they find nothing there.

After some exploring, they end up moving towards castle Krak Al'Niraan where they believe that the key to leaving this place might lie. In fact, it will lie pretty much wherever they think it lies – they are in the Dreamworld where reality and dream coexist. This is also the world where the ancient gods were born and where they now lie after their deaths, almost powerless but still conscious. And this is a world where the Lost Souls have managed to travel. They now appear as mere shadows of what they were before. But they have some control over this plane.

Moving towards the castle, they face the challenge of wind, earth, water and fire, in the form of elementals that unleash their fury on them at different steps towards their goal. The plane itself has decided to thus settle the opposing forces of the Lost Souls that wanted to kill and expel the adventurers, and Thor the old god that wanted to talk to them. They battled an air elements in the middle of a windstorm that knocked almost everyone to the ground (the halfling was in fact blown away); a pair of earth elements burrowing through the ground to pop up in the middle of the group; a water elemental in a gushing river that threatened to carry them away, the water having suddenly flooded a corridor of the castle; and a huge, very powerful fire elemental that guarded their goal.
This last proved to be too strong for them, but they ran from it while some of them sacrificed themselves for the others, and reached their goal before he could take them all out.

After having successfully passed the four tests, although almost failing in the end against the huge fire elemental when only two of them "lived" (no one really dies on this plane), they briefly talked to Thor before leaving the plane. Thor provided the adventurers with some insight on the purpose of the Lost Souls, telling them that they want to be set free in the material plane to possess all living beings. He also told them that the Lost Souls will be coming in through "their gaze". They were confused as to what this means, but then thought that the logo of the Lost Souls includes something alike the outline of a bat without a head with an eye in the middle. Related to their gaze? Unknown.

They are thereafter expelled from the Dreamworld.

Back on the material plane, everyone is there and in good shape. Anyone who had died in the Dreamworld lives here still.

They decide to leave the windmill, bringing the young prince with them, and move north to Kal'Ferra, a large city where they can leave the kingdom by boat towards the city of Belial, capital of the neighboring kingdom of Is. Belial is where Lost Souls and dark elves and several other groups appear to be converging to put their hands on the last Axis Key before it is set.

Of note, the young prince has a despicable character, always complaining and expecting everyone to jump when he says jump. It has provided some amusing role-playing moments 

In Kal'Ferra, they find a ship that sails towards Belial and that accepts to take them there for a fee. While waiting for the ship's departure in a few days, they go out to accomplish a few tasks, the most notable of which is to visit Pilate, Kal'Ferra's great library. There, they find a lot of relevant background information on the Lost Souls cult, among other things that it is an old cult that has existed on several occasions over the last few thousand years. The premise of this cult is that during the Infidel Era when there were no gods, the souls of the living found no solace in the outer planes after death of the body, but rather drifted in the nothingness of the Astral plane for eternity. This is the reason why the Lost Souls want out: to be able to rest (and live in the meantime while they possess another body).

The adventurers thwart a plan by another to rob the artefact that they own while they are at their inn. They capture the thief who ends up being a Lost Soul himself. Through threat and spell, he reveals some useful information on the Lost Souls and their purpose. The adventurers are starting to have a clear picture of what's going on.

They also meet with a weird young woman named Blue, who has blue hair and travels with a falcon on her shoulder. (This is another new player of the group.) The group now comprises:

Yorrick, male human rogue 7 - fighter 1 (single initial player character still alive)
Markus, male human fighter 7 (NPC)
Rogan, male half-orc fighter 4 - cleric 3
Milfin, male gnome cleric 7 (NPC)
Rituk, male human wizard 7
Blue, female human sorcerer 7
Dragosh, young dwarf prince (NPC)

Blue has had experiences with a sect linked to the Lost Souls and the latter are essentially looking for her. They end up joining forces (surprise!).

The boat finally takes off and sails towards Belial. It is a relatively large boat, hosting a dozen passengers but mostly being a cargo ship. A crew of over twenty mans it. The captain Erha is a woman who appears to follow her insight a lot, sometimes against the counsel of her gruff second-in-command, the old Rheor. The latter used to be a pirate but took up service on his niece's ship one day, leaving his illegal business behind him for good.

The adventurers are pretty paranoid at this point. They start investigating the other passengers and even check their belongings when they're not there, looking for clues as to who might be a drow-in-disguise or who might be a Lost Soul.

The adventurers are also contacted by an imp one night, on the boat. The imp presents himself as Wart. He is a small winged devil with an overdimensioned nose that sports an impressive wart, thus his (presumably unofficial) name. He proposes a pact with the adventurers: in short, money, magic and much more, for the artefact. They refuse, but go at it with diplomacy, hoping to stall the imp's master Belgoliath. They know the latter to be one who attacked Hamelyn during the initial killing spree that started off this campaign. However, Wart tells them that Belgoliath acted on a contract back then. Now, the devils only want to prevent the demons from flooding the planes, which would be bad for everyone and would lead to the end of existence as we know it.

A few days after they've left Kal'Ferra, the adventurers realize that their boat is being pursued by a pair of smaller yet faster ships. They send their flying familiars to investigate, namely Blue's falcon and Rituk's pseudodragon. Both creatures come back with information on boats loaded with military men wearing the colors of the Marquise de Nideriam, the most notorious Lost Soul that owns, among other things, castle Krak Al'Niraan where the adventurers recuperated the artefact they now have.

They end up first sending fireballs on the boats when they're getting too close. The sails are protected however so the damage is not as important as they would have wanted. Still, it slows down one of the boats significantly. The other boat then continues its progression, but from farther away, waiting that the first boat replaces its sail.

They decide that it's the right time to attack the lone boat before the other is up and running. First, they lay their cards down in front of Erha the boat's captain and convince her that they are indeed trying to save the world. Outstanding diplomacy checks prove invaluable in this case because rarely will you see anyone falling for something like that. But Erha is predisposed to this type of argument, being someone who decides stuff based on her gut feelings. She accepts. Having seen the fireballs helps convince he that the adventurers are powerful and may be capable of winning this fight.

They then send the rogue and the sorceress, invisible and flying, to lay some havoc on the boat. However, they only have time for minimal damage as a pair of griffons takes off from the boat, directed by expert griffon riders! The sorceress is almost killed by a powerful attack from one of the riders, and she finally teleports back to her own boat in a puff of smoke, by means of a magic item that allows her some limited teleportation ability.

Erha's boat then turns around a full turn and takes the other pursuing boat head on! They finally come side to side and both boats throw their grappling hooks for boarding manoeuvers.

The occupants of Erha's boat are the ones that do the boarding. Half of their opponents, the Lost Souls, in fact remained hidden until combat started, to then come out and surprise their opponents. (They were scared that other fireballs would fly, but none were left.) Between some of the creatures present flying, others jumping between the boats, some firing arrows, some conjuring creatures and illusions (including the illusion of a Balor demon that had quite an effect for 30 seconds before someone realized it was just an illusion  ), spells flying in all directions, enlarged clerics and fighters, and a 15 vs 25 fights, it was quite epic indeed. In the end, the adventurers saved the day being by far the better combatants out there except for a few of their opponents who managed some noteworthy opposition. They took out all the enemy leaders plus most of the soldiers, and the remaining ones put down their arms. Everyone in Erha's boat then cheered them for the heroes that they had just been!

That's it for now. Next: continuing the trip towards Belial. We'll see if they keep both ships or not, if they decide to attack the other ship which is now done changing its sail; and of course, if they manage to withstand the other surprises that the trip will bring...


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