Demon Skull

The adventurers finished off the Saga of the Witch Queen adventure. It was touch and go as it took them a while to figure out that the Demon Skull was the source of the Blight. Once back in town, I still had a few hours of the game session remaining. The characters needed to stay in town for a week, waiting for their comrade Ian of Darkhollow to recover from a near-death experience.

Luckily, I had a short adventure in an abandoned Manor House I had written for the adventurers ' town several weeks earlier. I had not yet found a time to drop it into the campaign. I made a few minor changes on the spot and used it to keep the characters busy while they waited in this frontier town.

Session 164: The Demon Skull

Lakima (human magic user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier), Domago (human cleric NPC), Luna (charmed Human Fighter NPC).

The Company of the Black Dragon has headed north again into the Black Marsh, intent on ending the magical Blight killing people in Solene. The Cloudstealer makes its way through the thick mists until those onboard hear sounds from below.

Lakima lowers the Cloudstealer until everyone on the ship can discern the marsh below. They see a wagon pulled by a pair of horses and several orcs. The orcs are guarding a bridge and feeding the horses.

“Let’s surprise them,” Lakima says.

Lakima signals to everyone, and a barrage of missiles peppers the surprised orcs: darts, arrows, and even sling bullets. Two orcs fall dead, one crawls under the wagon, another hides under a dread tree, and a third runs off into the mists. Eathwund slides down a rope to the ground and kills the two orcs still in the area. From nearby, they hear a horn blowing, sounding an alarm. Within moments, they listen to shouts from orcs coming from all around. Lakima urges everyone back into the flying ship, and they ascend as silently as they had come. The ship continues flying through the mists until they reach the demon rock.

The company enters the Lizardman caves, leaving the crew behind to guard the ship. Lakima uses the Luminous Bridge spell again to get them over the flooded tunnel. In the first hall, they are ambushed by Lizardmen hiding behind a screen of woven reeds. The fight goes poorly for the lizardmen, and all of them are killed. Moving deeper into the dungeon, the group stops and notices runes carved above a door for the first time.

“We were in too much of a hurry to read these last time,” Lakima says. He then asks Domago to translate them. The runes tell the story that this is the tomb of a barbarian king who slew a demon. The final rune shows the king rising from the dead, holding a lightning bolt. The group also stops to check nearby doors that they bypassed last time. One door opens into a room with an unstable ceiling. A dead lizardman lies under a pile of rubble. Another door is covered with thin sheets of copper. The copper is stamped with runes depicting a battle with a creature resembling an owlbear. The final runes show the barbarian humans worshipping the beast. The door proves to be sealed tight, so Luna is asked to use her knock spell ability. Once the door opens, they see a full-sized diorama. A giant owlbear surrounded by straw dummies representing human warriors. The warriors were positioned with silver-bladed spears as if attacking the owlbear.

Aldus steps into the chamber, and the owlbear instantly animates. Ignoring the adventurers who rush into the chamber, the owlbear vents its anger on the straw men, hurling them all into the walls. The adventurers attack and the owlbear turns its attention to them. Their attacks strike a thick undead hide, and no blood flows where they penetrate the owlbear. Lakima ends the fight by disintegrating the undead creature with a spell. A harmless ash is all that remains of it. A determined search of the chamber does not find any treasure.

Deeper in the barbarian tomb, the adventurers come to the Great Hall, where they fought Lizardmen and a giant serpent earlier. The corpse of the great serpent still lies in the hall. From an opening in the wall, a group of lizardmen warriors wait, threatening the adventurers should they advance, but the lizardmen do not attack.

“Let’s check over there first,” Lakima says, pointing at a small alcove housing a tomb. Above the arched entryway, a single rune has been inscribed. Domago warns that he believes it is a trap, so Lakima casts dispel magic on it. A stone coffin and a pair of mummified giant wolves are in the tomb. Once they enter the chamber, the wolves animate and attack. Domago uses turn undead to chase the undead wolves from the chamber. The wolves run down the length of the Great Hall and hide in another tomb. Eathwund lifts the stone lid off the coffin, and they find it empty. But inside is a narrow shaft just big enough for a man descending into another chamber. The shaft walls are covered in metal needles, all pointed upward.

“We can’t get down that way,” Eathwund says. Lakima suggests using the oil of slipperiness, but no one else thinks it will work. Eathwund decides to investigate alone by using his armor of etherealness. He enters the ethereal plane and drifts down the shaft, arriving in a barbarian treasure chamber. Water pours into the chamber and flows out under a door from a broken section of the ceiling. The contents of the chamber are covered in a black-green slime. He sees broken wooden carts, furniture, chairs, and bits of bronze treasure. He also sees a giant skull, the only object not covered in slime. The skull is large with six eye-sockets, each filled with red rubies that pulse with light.

Suddenly, Eathwund feels a demonic presence in his mind. He falls to his knees in the muck and tries to fight off the attacks of a presence.

“I am Sozzan; your will is meaningless against my might,” Eathwund hears. Despite the demon’s confidence, Eathwund manages to fight the demon and drive it from his head.

“Ahhh!” Eathwund yells and stumbles to his feet.

“Are you okay down there!” Aldus calls out. Lakima casts a projected image spell and joins Eathwund in the chamber in spirit. He also sends the glow minion down to join Eathwund.

“You’ve found the demon skull,” Lakima says, “Send it up to Domago and the others.” A rope is lowered down the shaft to Eathwund, and the demon skull is hauled out. The glow minion picks up a few items from the hall that Lakima points out as magical. The minion washes them off in the waterfall and then carries them up the shaft.

Back up in the Great Hall, they are confronted by the Lizardman Shaman, who curses them in draconic. Lakima, who can understand draconic, tells the Lizardmen to back off they are leaving.

“Liars, Humans are all liars,” the shaman yells, “You promised never to return if I showed you the dragon’s lair!”

“We just forgot one item,” Lakima says, “We are on our way!”

The shaman continues to hurl curses at them, but the lizardmen are too scared of the adventurers to attack them. The adventurers make it back out of the tomb and board the ship.

“Back to Irllendom!” Lakima says.

“No! We have to destroy the skull by hurling it into the maw!” Domago yells.

“Fine, I want to look for the apprentice's spellbook while we are there,” Lakima says.

Lakima brings the Cloudstealer over to the Marsh Witch's fortress. Below, they see many orcs milling about, but there is no sign of goblins or hobgoblins. Once they are positioned over the maw, an open hole in the earth, Lakima tells Eathwund to hurl the skull over the side. Eathwund tosses the skull into the pit, and they hear it shatter on the rocks below. There is a loud, unholy scream that rises from out of the maw.

Scratch one Demon

“Now, let's check out the keep of the Witch,” Lakima says. The ship turns and heads toward the keep. They see the Witch Queen before the keep surrounded by orc guards. The ground begins to shake, and as they watch, they see the sides of the maw collapsing into the pit. The sacrificial stone tumbles into the pit. Orcs fall into the pit and watch towers crumble. The keep crumbles into the marsh. Boiling waters rush into the area, filling all of the holes. After the earthquake, there was no sign of the maw.

“Well, I guess the keep is gone,” Lakima says. I wanted to check for the spellbook, but there is no point anymore.” The ship sets out for Irllendom.

Back in Irllendom, the adventurers check on Ian, who is recovering under the care of the priests of St. Johan. They are told they need to give Ian a week to recover before it is safe for him to travel. Lakima is impatient, but they realize there is nothing to do but wait. Lady Tyra invites them to dinner on the second night they are in the town. Lakima tells her that the adventurers have put an end to the blight. Lady Tyra is concerned to hear that the orcs of the Mountain King have been seen in the Marsh. Tired of sleeping on the ship, they rent rooms in a home. Aldus, Lakima, and Eathwund spend time in the Leaky Barrel Inn.

One night, they encounter a carefree halfling who gives his name as Lucky. Lucky insists on paying for everyone’s drinks in the Inn. Lucky tells them he has just completed a well-paying job and wants to share his good fortune. The halfling asks only that they entertain him with stories of their adventures. Lakima is not interested in story-telling and returns to check on the ship. Eathwund is not much of a storyteller, so it falls to Aldus to entertain the halfling. Aldus tells Lucky about several of their adventures late into the night. Lakima returns and begins to question Lucky. Lucky then announces his departure.

The following day, the adventurers discover Aldus no longer remembers his encounter with the Death Knight. He has forgotten a few of his adventures. Lakima and Domago examine Aldus and do not find he is under a curse or a spell. He just has forgotten. Returning to the Inn, they learn from the Innkeeper that another man who was there the day before had forgotten his craft. Just then, Lucky enters the Inn, sees the adventurers, and turns and runs away. Eathwund chases after the halfling, and Lucky scrambles up a building like a spider. They trap the halfling on a rooftop when Lakima casts stun on him. Eathwund and Lakima go to the rooftop using the rope trick spell. Under questioning, Lucky tries to convince them that he is suffering under a curse cast on him by the witch of Black Marsh. Lucky turns into a giant spider and escapes into a nearby building. Terrified townspeople who see the giant spider light brands and threaten to burn down the building. The guards arrive and disperse the crowd. They enter the abandoned building but soon come running back out, claiming they were chased by hordes of giant spiders.

The guard leader asks Lakima, Eathwund, and Aldus if they can investigate. The adventurers agree and search the abandoned manor. Inside, they are attacked by various giant spiders before finding the fey creature they are chasing in the cellar. The spider is killed, and they find treasure from a few spider victims. Lakima advises the guards that they should burn down the building.