Session XV - Prisoners (2001-09-18)

After the fight Radagast cut the beak off, and the party continued their search. They did not find anything special, and set camp for the night.

Drik saw a dream again that night. In the morning he explained his dream, and Radagast thought the head of House Wechseler was in danger, and one of his sons was corrupted by evil. The dream gave four days of time before the assassination attempt of the head of the house, so the party decided to continue their search for the day and aim for the city gates at nightfall.

The early spring weather provided the grounds for a nice outing, even by Radagast's standards.

Around midday the party spotted three wolves feasting on the remains of a man and a horse. Radagast scared the beasts off. Galen and Radagast determined that the man and a horse were probably killed by the wolves. Drik found the man had been a messenger, carrying a letter from Bishop Theoden of Dhunraven. Drik broke the seal and read the long letter, which was addressed to Archbishop Basil Theomund. Theoden was concerned about Alayn, who in the bishop's opinion was using too forceful methods in his quest of ridding Dhunraven of the followers of Vecna. Theoden even suggested the church should support Lord Bjoric or a bastard of the late Lord Khulven if such a person could be found.

Drik and Radagast had a fight of what would be the appropriate action. Drik wanted to return the letter to the bishop, and support the bishop in his actions. Radagast wanted to keep the letter, and be loyal to Alayn. Galen didn't really know Alayn, but based on what he had heard he preferred to support Alayn.

Before moving on, Drik also found five gold on the messenger and a dagger, which he picked up.

The day was turning into afternoon, when the party run into trouble. All around them skeletons appeared from the bushes. And not only skeletons - there was a mummy among the dozen skeletons, and a woman riding a horse as well! They had found, or rather they had been found, the undead patrol...

Radagast figured it would be best to go invisible and cast a few protective spells before engaging in melee. Galen also moved away from Drik and Garwolf. The mummy and skeletons surrounded Drik and Garwolf, and a couple skeletons closed in on Galen as well. The woman was staying back, guiding her minions.

Radagast was casting Mage Armor and Shield, and preparing a charge against the woman. Drik called for the powers of his god, but the evil cleric had bolstered her minions - only two skeletons fleeded from Drik. Garwolf dispatched of one skeleton, but his horse was getting attacked as well. The mummy did not stand still, and an aura of palpable fear emanated from it: Drik and Garwolf were paralyzed by the fear! As they were helpless, the unholy creatures leashed their full fury on them. It did not look good.

Galen started to sing, hoping he could lift the spirits of his companions. The woman responded by sending a blast of loud sound at Galen, nearly knocking him out.

Radagast had finally his protective spells up, and decided to charge the woman. His surpise attack worked well, and he gored a good hit. The woman did not take that lightly, and cast an unholy spell that would almost certainly kill Radagast if she managed to touch him. Radagast tried his best to dodge her attempts, but it was proving difficult, especially since her warhorse was also trying to kick him dead.

Aftrer Galen managed to kill one of his opponents, radagast yelled for him to come and help fight the evil cleric. Galen charged, and stuck his rapier into the woman. She did not like the attention, obviously.

Drik and Garwolf finally shrugged off the fear, and Drik had to concentrate on keeping himself alive. He managed to cast the Spiritual Weapon at one instance, finally letting him give some hits back.

Galen and Radagast tried to flank the woman, but Galen got unlucku: first the horse kicked him and then the woman's hit sent him unconscious. The woman had also pulled some of the skeletons away from Drik and Garwolf, and Radagast realized he faced an enemy too powerful all by himself. He tumbled nimbly past the skeletons closest to him, next to Drik, where they could fight back to back. Garwolf had finally finished the mummy, but eventually succumbed to the onslaught of the skeletons: both he and his horse were buried under bony corpses. The evil cleric was trying to cast Hold Person spells, but every time they were shrugged off. Finally Drik also went unconscious, at which point Radagast decided to try for a run. He was completely surrounded by skeletons, so he tried to tumble past them. Unfortunately one of the skeletons got lucky, and Radagast, being already badly wounded, felt the world turn into darkness...

Darkness.

"Is this death?" Radagast wondered. "Ouch! It hurts. Can't be. At least I hope this isn't." He could feel that he was badly hurt, and lying on hard ground. There was no light. He could hear groans around him - Drik and Galen were there as well. Everyone was in so bad shape they felt if they tried moving they would pass out. Galen said he had some healing magic left, and healed himself. Then he healed Drik, who in turn healed Radagast. Galen also provided a little light, and they could see they were probably in an underground cellar, behind a bolted door. Galen wanted to try and attemp to break free right away, but Drik and Radagast convinced him it would be best to sleep a good nights sleep first, and try to escape after that: it would provide best changes because Drik and Radagast would be able to recoved some spells that way.

After waking up, Drik healed everyone best he could. Radagast cast Mage Armor on himself, and beefed up his strength. He also cast a Light spell. With Galen helping him he crashed the door open. There was a slighty larger room behind, with a trapdoor in the ceiling. The ceiling was about 10 feet high.

Galen was lifted up to the room above, but he came quickly down as the skeletons that occupied the room tried to separate his head from his body. As the group had no weapons besides Radagast's Magic Missile they had to figure out a plan to deal with the skeletons. All their useful equipment had been taken.

Galen got an idea to make a temporary holy symbol for Drik from the wood splinters from the crashed door. Of course they did not have any physical means to carve the symbol, but a little cantrip can sometimes save the day. Armed with the ad hoc holy symbol Drik was lifted upstairs. He raised his symbol boldly, and a flash of light from the symbol destroyed all the skeletons. Galen and Radagast could only hear tumps and clinks as pieces of armor and weapon dropped to the floor above, and a cloud of bone dust drifted from the trapdoor.

Radagast lifted Galen up, then jumped up himself, pointing out how small a jump it really was if you knew what to do...

Armed, and at least little protected, their spirits were already a little higher, although the situation was still pretty much the same as when Drik and Radagast met. Galen carefully scouted first, and seeing nothing suspicious motioned for Drik and Radagast to come up as well.

They found they were in the middle of a forest. Their prison had been the cellar of a ruined house. Radagast, being painfully aware how pitiful he would be without a spellbook, started searching for their gear in the ruins. Galen tried to hide in case they would be surprised during the search.

The search turned out to be a bad idea. After about an hour, they saw the woman returning with her horse and a few skeletons. This time the fight was going more evenly, though. She was still bolstering her minions, so Drik only managed to turn a couple of them. However, there wasn't nearly as many of them and there was no mummy anymore. Radagast killed a couple of them. One skeleton had grabbed Drik, and raked him with the skeletal claws until Drik got rid of it with the turning attempt. Galen was being brave, and attacked the woman. He was quickly outnumbered as the woman called two of her skeletons to protedct her. Galen had a bit of luck his way though, as he shrugged off a Holdf Person spell. But too much is too much, and Galen finally fell unconscious. Radagast also attacked the woman, but she casted Darkness which made it nearly impossible for him to find her. He retreated back to the ruins, now badly wounded, and found that Drik had gone into the darkness to try and save Galen. Drik had to play hide and seek with the one remaining skeleton and the woman, while trying to find Galen. Finally he succeeded, and brought Galen back to consciousness. Radagast yelled for them to come towards him at the ruins.

Continue...