13th Age Campaign Session V: That is not Dead Which can Eternal lie

13 Age Campaign Session V -- That is not Dead Which can Eternal lie

When we last left our heroes, a priest of Dagon had just plunged his ensorcelled blade deep into his chest.

You fools! Dagon will not be denied this night! She will not be denied!

Something was coming.



The group didn't have long to wait. With a horrible scream, a hideous demon burst from the priest’s chest. It was made up largely from his internal organs, and so had two tentacle arms made of his intestines. Everyone in the group was momentarily taken back, but it was worse for Dragur who could somehow see into the crack between the worlds where this creature had come from.

Yep, I based this creature on some of the nastier parts of the Re-animator. It's a shame that the group never really spoke with Herbert, the temple's high priest.

The group fell on it. It was a gruesome battle with lots of ichor, but in a short order it was dead. Dragur’s magic had held off the largest share of the chaotic energy, making the demon weaker than it would have been. The priest was also not the chosen one for the ritual, and so it was even weaker.

That said, this was a pretty rough battle for Alarendel. He had fallen into the role of keeping the rest of the group from harm, and so took the brunt of the battle.

After the battle, the group was covered in gore and body parts. It was gruesome work, being an adventurer!

Once again, the group had been stretched to their limits, but come through things alive. Although they didn't understand exactly what they had done, it was clear that a major plot in the city had been foiled. Kalia had been saved, and the Diabolist’s cult had been destroyed.

Still, this didn't seem to match up with the undead attack and the strange visions that had started everything. The group vowed to get to the bottom of what was going on with Landon and the Halls of the Dead.

Dead Tired

The group emerged from the warehouse to find that Kalia had run off, which bothered Alarendel but the group had decided they need to press on for the moment.

They continued to make use of Dragur’s S-Pass and headed through the Saddle and up to Temples. It was late at night at this point, but the Temple district was well lit and the group even ran into a patrol of the Silver Shields. There wasn't any conflict however, once Alarendel explained they were looking for healing at the temple (pretty convincing, since everyone was covered in blood) and word about Auric’s large form seemed to have gotten around at this point. Perhaps it was as much that the group didn't seemed to be in the mood to be messed with, or the desire to not get dirty that made the 'Shields let them go by.

The Halls of the Dead was an imposing structure, and had stood on this spot for hundreds of years. Impressive statues to each of the different gods in the pantheon of Light stood watch over the entrance, with smaller (but still unobjectionable) gods from lesser pantheons on display as well. It was obvious that this was a multi-denominational site, welcome to all who worshiped in the Light.

What was also immediately obvious was that the structure was warded against the undead. Molechai knew that his dog would be blasted to ash should he attempt to enter the premises, and Molechai himself was … unsure … what would happen to him.

“Not a problem! I’ll find another way in!” and with that, the gnome was off.

Molechai’s player wasn't present for this session, so I got rid of him this way. Don’t worry; he’ll be back for next session!

Even at a late hour, there were people coming and going from the Halls, and Alarenedel quickly found a young initiate he had seen previously standing watch.

“Thomas? Yes, that was your name. We have extremely important business, and even though the hour is late, we must see your lady, Odessa Rilantes tonight. The matter is urgent.”

Thomas was a young man who had just taken his vows. He was unsure of what to do, but Alarendel quickly persuaded him that, yes the matter was urgent, and yes, waiting on it would actually be worse than delaying the group until tomorrow morning.

Alarendel is in his element in the church, and Paladins are very persuasive. It also helped that Thomas had actually seen Alarendel with Odessa and saw that he was wearing the cloak of a hero of the Lady of Light. Good guys have to get some breaks sometimes.

Here’s how I envisioned Thomas by the way:

No, I can't say that I know anything about a wolf
or a hawk your lordship.

Odessa, on the other hand, was in her early 50s, but had an aura of determination about her that said she would not be fooled or intimidated easily. Auric, ever the diplomat, took the lead.

“One of your people, Landon, is raising the dead. He’s likely behind the recent attack by the zombies.” Auric is nothing if not direct.

The group lets Auric take the lead sometimes with these situations. I have no idea why.

Odessa was not impressed. “I find that immensely hard to believe. You have come here, looking like you have just come from a day working at the slaughterhouse, and tell me this? Alarendel, what is going on?”

“Lady, we have come from a terrible situation: there is (err, was) a temple to the Diabolist in the city and we have come directly from destroying it. We found evidence of trafficking in the undead there by one of your priests…”

“Priestess preserve us! Yet, child, the Diab … that person … traffics in lies, be careful that you are not deceived in your zeal…”

“Beg pardon, my lady, but this is the second time we have heard this man’s name: Landon, mentioned as being a servant of the One-eyed Lord.”

Odessa was obviously distressed by this news. “I know Landon, as all of my servants. I do not believe what you are saying, but we are servants of the Light, and it will shine in the dark places and tell us the truth of the situation.

Landen works in the lower levels of the crypts, and is on shift right at this moment. I will have my servant Thomas here fetch him and we shall see the truth of it.”

Thomas seemed worried. It was almost as if he knew that deep in the earth, there would be no help for him if Landon turned out to be a villain. He didn't know Alarendel, but did see that the man was covered. In. Gore. He was rethinking his career choice.

“My lady, we would gladly go with Thomas to sort this matter out, perhaps tomorrow morning?”

“So be it. The truth will be known with the coming of the sun, as always.”

Odessa said she would gladly provide them with rooms, and have their clothing cleaned (such as could be done) for them, and they could meet Thomas in the morning. The group agreed.

The beds in the Halls of the Dead were designed for function rather than comfort, but the group was tired enough that none of them cared. They fell asleep, with Auric watching over them.

At this point I had consulted with the group, and decided that it would be a good time to level them to second level. They had accomplished a lot, and it seemed right. The adventure is designed for first level characters, so I would have to adjust it a little bit for the rest of the session, but the combats in this later part of things are going to be pretty challenging anyway, so it didn’t seem like a bad idea. 

So far in the adventure they had done a lot of Big Damn Hero stuff, so who was I to argue? The group spent some time finishing up their characters.

Dead Man Walking

Bright and early the next morning (a little too early for Dragur, actually) the group was woken by Thomas, who had a staff with light crystals in it that he said would help them navigate the depths of the Halls’ catacombs.

Man, have I mentioned those light crystals enough yet? Chekov would be mad at me if there isn't something behind them.

Thomas told them that these catacombs had been used to bury the city’s dead for over a thousand years, and were a maze of twisty passageways, especially down where Landon worked.

He also told them the reason Odessa was sure there were no undead to be found down there: the entire Halls had a series of magical wards that prevented undead from rising, and would burn them to ashes in short order. The group descended into the depths.

They found themselves traveling for several hours. The upper floors of the catacombs were large, broad passages, but they got smaller, and twistier as the group went. Thomas seemed to know the route pretty well, but referred to a map from time to time.

After a couple hours of walking, the group came to a storage area that served as a resting spot and rallying point for the priests. They encountered a group of Thomas’ fellow priests who were friendly and pointed out that there had been some shifting of the earth further down, and to take care.

When asked about it, Thomas said it had happened last year, and a team of dwarves had come in and done some work strengthening the structure. Thomas said they were nasty to deal with and were constantly grumbling about the poor quality of the human workmanship.

After another hour or so, the group came upon the area where the damage had been repaired. Dragur noticed that curiously enough, the wards inscribed in this section of the catacombs had been damaged by the accident, and strangely never repaired. Uh oh.

This made Thomas extremely nervous, who soon told them how that should absolutely have been done as a part of the work by the dwarves. He was almost concerned enough to turn around but Dragur and Auric convinced him that everything would be alright.

(Yeah, those two were telling him not to worry...)

After another half hour of travelling, the group came to an old section of the catacombs that had been used to lay to rest students from the Academy who died from a plague about a hundred years ago.

“Great,” said Dragur, “plague wizard skeletons.”

Thomas gulped.

The group continued on for another ten minutes or so when Dragur had them stop. He noticed a magical ward in front of them that would serve as an alarm. He was able to determine that this was an arcane ritual, something that he could do himself. It was odd that the ward was magical rather than divine in origin. After a short consultation, he was able to dismiss it without signaling whoever had placed it. The group continued on.

I'm not sure if you've picked up on it yet, but I love it when my players ask me about things like "what kind of magic is behind this?" Fortunately they are good at figuring this stuff out... I like it when I can tell them what's really going on.

Eventually they saw some faint lights ahead, and stopped to investigate. They were sure that if they continued, they would attract attention with their lantern. With some work, Alarendel managed to scout ahead and see what was in store for them.

Yes, the group has no scout, so it's the paladin's job. Imagine Bill Paxton's voice saying "yeah, man, Alarendel should do it."

A Bone to Pick

Up ahead were animated skeletons with glowing red eyes. It was this feature that the group had seen. They were in the process of removing bodies from a series of crypts, and some of those bodies had eyes that burned with blue light. Uh oh!

Alarendel turned to quietly head back to the group, but stepped on a loose rock. He stopped. Maybe the skeletons hadn’t noticed.

But they had. The eyes of the creatures blazed brightly. Death was in those eyes.

Maybe they didn't notice? Yeah, send the paladin ahead to scout.

The rest of the group hurried forward, with Dragur and Thomas in the rear. The group readied itself for a fight.

Suddenly, the skeletons all paused, and a man’s voice could be heard from behind them:

Fools! Always thinking you were so safe, and that your Priestess and her rituals would protect you. Well, the One-eyed Lord will have his day, and then you and your kind will bow before us. 

The voice paused.

Well, not you, actually. It’s your time to die!

And with that, it was on!

We only had one battle in this session and this was it. Here are the highlights:

• The mysterious voice, who the group quickly decided must be Landon, kept taunting them throughout the fight. When it did this, there was a dark magical energy channeled that kept the Escalation Die from advancing. Dragur, true to his role as a protector against dark magic, was able to reduce the effect with his own magic.
• The wizard skeletons were everyone’s least favorite opponent, as they had the ability to raise the bodies of the fallen warriors with their magic, in addition to being wizards themselves. The group had horrible Diablo flashbacks.
• Auric and Alarendel managed to shine a little more here, since moving to second level had greatly improved their combat abilities.
• The group really stepped up and managed to keep Thomas alive. He served a very important purpose as the only person with light! I was surprised that for all of their anti-hero antics they seem to care about the people they come across.

After a fierce battle, the group heard the sound of footsteps running away. Landon was running! With a crash, the last skeleton fell to the ground, and the group took off after him.

And that was where we called it. This was a shorter session due in large part to dealing with levelling.

I soon found that level two is a bit of a sweet spot for low level 13th Age adventures, since fighting characters do twice as much damage with their attacks. The wizards got a modest bump (more spells) but it seemed like it was the martial types who enjoyed it the most.