Plateau Events Season 3: sessions 13-21
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Session 13: A Vampire Hunt (16th Pramon
787 to 17th Pramon 787)
Thousands have gathered in Grimhold to take the city up on the offer of clearing land of undead. Among those are Harris and Tuco, come from Icefia. The mayor and Mr. Gneon announce that they will address the crowd as sunrise on the next day. The address announces the rules and times of the when the people can begin to claim and hold the land. Over 3,000 square miles exist in the former lands of the skull lord. Harris does not like the rules and begins to demand answers after the announcement. Gnevil confronts the mayor and yells at him for misleading the crowd in his opinion.
Gneon finds Harris and Tuco, has says because he is looking for some of the 10,000 that have arrived to help with a more specific mission. The two have notable magical items, which is what lead him to them. He offers them a large plot of land if they succeed in helping members of the town eliminate a specific threat. They agree to hear him out and go with him to the Lame Duck, and inn that has become busy since the arrival of the undead hunters. There, Gneon assembles Harrick, Sly, Gnevil, and Marston and introduces them all. He tells them that the vampire Gnoah needs to be dealt with in order for the mission to continue. They all agree.
The newly formed group head out the next day for the home of the Vampire Gnoah. After several hours travel, his ranch is in sight. They approach the barn first and detect fifteen undead inside. Gnevil lights the barn on fire and moments later, undead horses and chickens come rushing out of the barn. The group unleashes a hail of fire and hammer blows and taking little damage destroy many of the skeletal creatures. With only a few remaining, Harrick takes control of them. He begins to put them to use, but Gnevil will have none of it and destroys them.
The group moves towards the house, which is shuttered but otherwise in a fine state. Once he gets near enough, Harris smashes one of the shutters. The house shifts and begins to 'stand up'. Stone, wood, bone, and gears are all seen moving as the house turns into a massive undead construct. Tuco flees. Sly moves away. Harrick hides. The others attack. The thing slowly takes form, allowing the group to hack away. Marston gets hit and a shot echoes out through the area. Moments later, he is hit again and must crawl to cover. The group sees an area of shadow in the distance and believe the shots are coming from there. While the others hide, Gnevil and Harris continue to battle the house, taking fire from the sniper.
Harrick summons spells to harm the thing while Sly enchants his allies to help them. Harrick heals Harris and is shot, forcing him to take cover. Harris get hit several times, and goes into a fury. Gnevil tries to capture the undead creature and after partially succeeding is crushed by it, killed by the massive attack. Marston's rifle fails him and he is forced to stay in cover. Harris finally breaks the legs of the creature and it topples. He collapses behind the remains and everyone remains hidden from the sniper.
Session 14: A Vampire Hunt Continues (17th Pramon 787 to 23rd Pramon 787)
The group recovers from the explosion, with Tocu gathering everyone and telling them what happened, since he was out of the blast radius. Gnevil is gone, and it appears as if the house dragged itself away in the intervening minutes. They are not able to awaken Harris. They all feel terrible, but Marston insists on tracking the construct. Harrick returns to the city, with Harris on the bone chair behind him. The others follow Marston. They soon find the moving construct and fire at it dozens of time until it stop shambling. Marston then lights it on fire and they leave.
Harrick reaches Grimhold and tells what has happened. Soon after, Gneon sets off in the airship to find the others. The ship finds them and gets them on board and back to Grimhold. The group recovers from the attack and also from the death of Gnevil. Gneon introduces them to a halfling cleric of Habastly, who has come to help with the settlement of the lands. He agrees to join the group, who is now short a deceased Gnevil and a comatose Harris. Marston fixes his rifle, which was damaged in the assault on the construct. Finn, the cleric, is able to scrye the vampire. Harrick constructs a new undead horse. Services are held for Gnevil on the forth day. On the fifth day, the group meets and plans to find the vampire, Gnoah. The next day, they set out to the place they found it before.
In the valley, the group searches. Coming to the spot where Harrick's cats exploded, Finn determines that the ground has been dug into as well as having been exploded. The halfling sends elementals into the ground to search out the vampire's path. Just before disappearing, they show the group where they found it, under the original location of its house. The group decides to go down, but before they can Finn spends an hour preparing a burrowing blessing for them all. They head down into the ground and Marston finds a stone wall. Tocu finds it as well and the two begin to search around for a way into the room they assume is there. The other gets to the stone, but wait.
After several rounds, Marston finds the group and pulls them towards an entrance he has found. Tuco finds the entrance and goes into the room, where he sees the vampire. The creature turns on a massive fan and Tuco throws holy water at it. It then attacks him. Moments later, the other come crashing into the room. The vampire rakes several of them, draining their life. Marston fires in holy shot gun and harms the vampire, but in the process deafens everyone in the room. The creature grabs and drains Marston of blood. Harrick unleashes holy spells and lightning at it, and get shot terribly for his action. Tocu throws more holy water. Finn tries to turn the creature. Marston turns off the fan, which was beginning to suffocate them. Sly traps him with illusion. The creature then turns into mist and is sucked through the fan and away.
Session 15: The Vampire Hunt Comes to Grimhold (23rd Pramon 787 to 30th Pramon 787)
The group searches the workshop. Finn digs a hole out to allow air in and give them time. For several hours, they search and collect. Finally, with daylight running short, they destroy what remains and collapse the room, burying it under tons of earth. They make their way to Grimhold, heavy with items. For the next several days, they recover. Tuco and Sly take longer than the others to heal. Harris recovers from his injuries and the group begins to plan for their next move to find the vampire. During their time planning and recovering, they identify and sell or divvy out the items.
They meet again with Gneon and discuss what is going on with the settlers. No other significant undead have been found. Finn is able to scrye the vampire again and they begin to track it. They see him kill a female and turn a male during the creatures activates. The four, Harris, Harrick, Finn, and Marston finally reach the creature and get ahead of it. Finn shrouds it in flame so they can see it. Harrick unleashes holy spells at it as it scurries around. Harris and Marston give chase over and around a building. They finally trap it in an ally where it pleads to survive. They take no pity and destroy the creature.
Gneon tells the group that a new report of a powerful undead has come in and that their services are needed.
Session 16: Possessed Earth (1st Wavery 787 to 4th Wavery 787)
The next undead
that have been found are about 20 miles into the lands of the Skull Lord. An area has been marked by settlers. They found earth mixed with bones that animated and attacked but did not give
chase.After stepping into the area, the ground comes alive and attacks. Arms of dirt slam the group. Whirlpools of dirt try to drag them into the ground. Sprays of stone, bone, dirt, and metal pick away at them. Each time, the group survives and destroys the creation, but shortly after it returns.
A short time later, horses are heard and the Yellowians return.
Session 17: Investigating the Grand Illusion (4th Wavery 787 to 11th Wavery 787)
Finn tries to communicate with the plants to gain information, but gets little. After thorough investigation of the land around the grave, the group settles in for the night. The Yellowians set up a nice tent and are well prepared for staying in the wilderness.
After discussion, and the group decides that Harris and Harrick will wait for the pick up of the digging machine while the others spend the day looking around the area. Tuco and the Yellowians head back to Grimhold, leaving plenty of food for the others. The three find trees and some other vegetation, but nothing else before returning. The airship comes and picks up the machine. When the others return, they all get on board and head back to Grimhold. They set a meeting for the next day with Gneon.
Before meeting with Gneon, they see a crowd gathered in the new city and investigate. A round gnome in an off white outfit is on top of a huge wagon conducting an auction. After seeing him auction off a dancing girl, Harris and Harrick get in his business. He tells them to leave and when they don't he ends the auction. Harrick gets booed and mocked for causing it. Harris has a deputy run to get Marston and questions the gnome, named Hognus. They argue and debate and nearly come to blows before another deputy steps in and tells Harris and Harrick to back off and wait. Marston arrives and they find all of Hognus' paperwork is in order. The group leaves to meet Gneon.
At the Lame Duck, the group tells Gneon about what they found in the field. They begin to negotiate a price, but can't settle on an amount for the service and decide to hold it over until after the next incident. They group asks to use the airship to go and check out ruins that Sly spotted in hopes it offers some clues to the illusion. Gneon agrees, but it will take three days. The group agrees and leaves. After three days they return and board the airship to set out towards the ruins.
The trip does not go smoothly, as near the end of the first day they run into a storm which delays them for the rest of that day. The next morning, they reach the site and go down to investigate. The ship will stay for one hour, in case they don't find anything of use and want to leave. They find that there is a well with bats and undead bats in it. The ruins are empty and have been long looted. There are only five buildings, and one that had been burned completely.
Session 18: Escape from the Wraiths (11th Wavery 787 to 14th Wavery 787)
The group investigates the well. After some investigation, they decide to stay and the airship leaves. They prepare blessings and spells so that they can go into the well. Marston goes down first, senses many undead and unleashes clicking bombs to try and destroy them all. He doesn't, but the explosion shows them that there are many wraiths above the water at the bottom of the well near the underground lake. They ready to go down and destroy the undead.
Before they descend, Finn lowers the water so that they can all move freely. Once at the bottom, the wraiths hide. The group searches but finds nothing of interest. Finally, as their spells as about to run out, they begin to ascend. Finn is able to destroy a few wraiths that pop out after they leave. Once on the surface, the group realizes it must quickly flee before nightfall. For eight hours the race west before finally making camp. They set a watch and light fires. Several hours after the sun sets, they hear the screech of the wraiths and realize they are in trouble.
Seeing no other way to outrun or fight off the wraiths, the group buries themselves in an underground burrow that they dig for themselves. Before they do, Sly creates an illusion of a help arrow in the night sky. They close themselves in the burrow and wait. In Grimhold, spotters see the sign and a group assembles to go find them. The group includes newly arrived Saron and the Yellowians as well as the crew of the airship. When the ship nears the spot, the wraiths charge the ship. The Yellowians and Saron drop off the ship and find the group. Everyone heads back to Grimhold.
Session 19: End of the Wraiths (14th Wavery 787 to 23rd Wavery 787)
After a day of rest, the group meets with Gneon to discuss what need to be done about the wraiths.
The group reaches the ruins just before sunrise and sets about their preparations. Spells are cast and everyone is set in position. Timothy the Yellowian casts a few spells and then takes the horses to a safe distance. Marsha and Christopher will stay at a shorter distance where they can aid with ranged attacks. The others move up to the well with Jac the Yellowian. Once ready, the draw out the wraiths. With Harris enchanted and ready at the opening of the well, they undead come streaming out to meet his hammer. For what seems an eternity, the wraiths pour from the well. Spells, arrows, and everything assault them as they do, dwindling their number. The plan works, but after a short time, there are still dozens of wraiths with three larger ones that descend to attack.
The larger ones unleash cold, dispels, and enervations. The other claw away but are prevented by the magical defenses from draining the life of the group. Harris is scarred stiff. Finn is nearly killed and forced to save himself with light that hinders him from getting at the wraiths. The Yellowians are chased away and forced to retreat. Marston, Jac and Saren continue their fight as Sly does what he can to chip in to the battle. They finally destroy the largest wraith, and with its defeat, the group withstands the rest of the wraiths
The sun rises and the group recovers and searches the area.
Session 20: The Return of Artmeus (23rd Wavery 787 to 5th Trest 787)
Afteiths.
Session 21: The Most Unexpected Battle (5th Trest 787 to 15th Trest 787)
The crusaders begin their march north with Artemus. It will take them a week to get to the fortress of the Skull Lord. While they march, Harris and most of the other investigate ruins Harris has found to the south where he wants to build a keep. After days of investigation, the site is deemed safe. However, Saren is concerned by intermittent sensations of evil that he is detecting. Sly and Marston return to Grimhold, the others remain at the site with several of Gneon's builders who have arrived to plan.
When the group finds Harrick again, he has changed. They later find that he has found a new deity. Artemus returns with some of the clerics. The mission is going well, but they are in need of many supplies that they weren't expecting to need. Artemus and others were sent back to collect those supplies. It will take several days to collect them and then march back.
