The first adventure after the big bad of the campaign world was killed by the players went pretty well. I used Advanced Adventures Module #2, The Red Mausoleum by James C. Boney published by Expeditious Retreat Press. I made some changes to the maps, and the descriptions to fit my campaign but for the most part, I ran it as written. The big finish was a Lich named Gaheris and it worked okay but was not quite as challenging as I had hoped. He did get away so there is an opportunity for a return.
Singular boss monsters just feel right. Likely because that is how it is done in the movies, but I think multiple monsters work best. Maybe I need a group of evil adventurers.
After this adventure, the players are off on some world-hopping adventures. One thing I have learned is that with high-level adventuring you do need to expand their reach. Every bad guy cannot show up in the 40-mile radius around their home base.
Session 127: Gaheris
Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Thistle Walker (human ranger NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC), Ian of Darkhollow (human cavalier NPC).
The adventurers are somewhere deep in the earth searching the Red Mausoleum for Lich Gaheris, the source of the undead hordes attacking Edgerton. After closing the portal to the negative material plane, they entered a hallway that should lead to the lich’s lair.
“Fenris check that door for traps,” Lakima tells the thief.
Before Fenris can comply, Eathwund notices a slight disturbance in the hallway and feels a chill in the hallway. He turns and shouts a warning to all in the hallway just as some invisible force clamps a mouth down on Aldus’ shield arm. Aldus cries out but manages to push it back. Immediately, Alrix casts faerie fire on the area and a faerie glow outlines the shape of a humanoid creature slightly taller than Eathwund. Eathwund strikes it with his sword and Alrix fires two arrows into its mid-section. The creature falls to the stone floor. Aldus stamps on it once to be sure it does not move.
“Are we sure it is clear now?” Fenris asks.
He then moves up and checks the door declaring it unlocked and not trapped. Fenris immediately drops back behind the fighters. Aldus looks to Eathwund and the latter shrugs and points at the door. At that moment the hallway is again flooded with the sound of the screaming, moaning undead in the pit. The door to the pit chamber flies inward. Two skeleton warriors stride into the hallway. They are clad in ancient metal armor and hold glowing longswords. They fall immediately upon Alrix and Lakima and attack. Lakima is slashed by one of the skeletons but Alrix leaps back and avoids the attack. Lakima grips his staff of power in bloodied hands and casts telekinesis on the skeleton that attacked him hurling it far off into the darkness of the pit chamber. The squire Ian and Thistle the ranger come to the aid of Lakima and Alrix and attacks the remaining skeleton. Alrix fires arrows into the skeleton. Then Domago races up and strikes it with his mace. Finally, it is Alrix who finishes the creature with a swarm of magic missiles. Lakima tells Thistle to close the door again and to emphasize the closure he casts a wall of ice over it blocking the corridor. Thistle picks up the glowing sword of the skeleton and immediately tosses it down. He tells everyone that it contains the essence of a vampire who tried to enforce its will over his mind.
Eathwund forces the door open and they find the hall goes only another ten feet before ending in a wall of magical darkness. A male human voice speaks loudly in a language they do not understand.
“It is the speech of Mor,” Domago says, “he says welcome my newest servants. Come in and join my army.”
Both Alrix and Lakima shout angry retorts and the disembodied voice. The voice chuckles and continues to taunt them. Lakima casts dispel magic and the globe of magical darkness vanishes. They see a chamber cluttered with tables and shelves, stools, and workbenches. A stone throne faces them from the far wall. Standing beside it is a jovial-looking man clad in the outdated finery of a merchant of the age of the Three Cities. He waves them forward. Eathwund charges toward the man and a 10-foot-square pit trap opens up under his feet. Just as he feels the ground beneath his feet begin to drop away, he leaps forward and grasps the far end of the pit, and pulls himself up.
Fenris fires a crossbow bolt striking the man in the shoulder. Immediately the illusion of his visage changes. They see a skeletal figure in tattered rags. Green glowing orbs shine from hollow eye-sockets.
The Lich spits a curse at Fenris.
“Sorry about that,” Fenris mutters.
Aldus leaps across the pit and joins Eathwund followed by Domago. Alrix waits on the other side and fires a pair of arrows at the Lich striking him. The Lich casts another spell with no apparent effect until Aldus and Eathwund realize they can move but not toward the Lich. The Lich grins at their bewilderment.
“It’s a repulsion spell!” both Lakima and Alrix shout at the same time.
Lakima moves to the edge of the pit and casts a lightning bolt at the Lich. The lich dodges out of the main path of the lightning but is still injured. He moves back out of the chamber toward the entrance to another chamber. Unable to get closer, Eathwund hurls his javelin of piercing at the lich but it misses. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and three berserk fighters appear near the Lich, but they also cannot approach
.
The Lich then summons a Red Wraith which appears near Aldus and Eathwund. The lich then moves further away out of sight of Lakima and Alrix. The berserkers immediately attack the wraith as do Eathwund and Aldus. Two of the berserkers are killed. Unable to see the lich anymore, Domago uses the Prayer Book of St. Waldan on the Wraith and destroys it. Lakima and Alrix leap over the pit and move until they gain sight of the lich. They cannot move any closer. Alrix transforms into his true form and uses his lightning breath blasting a bolt of lightning at the lich. The lich again proves surprisingly nimble but it cannot escape the full force of the blast.
“Let’s talk, parlay!” the lich tells them.
Lakima speaks to the Lich and it tells them it is Gaheris the architect of the crypt. It offers to bribe them with gold and leave the area. Lakima accepts on a few conditions and the lich immediately drops out of sight around a corner. They see a flash of light. Lakima, Eathwund, and Aldus advance into the chamber around the corner and find a few pieces of furniture, an iron lockbox, and a mystical circle inscribed into the stone floor easily 20 feet in diameter.
“We have to follow it”, Lakima says and motions everyone in the company into the circle.
Nothing happens. Thistle examines the runes and tells everyone that he thinks it is a summoning circle. The group turns to examine the contents of the lich’s lair. Fenris checks the lockbox and tells them it is magically trapped. Lakima uses the Staff to cast telekinesis and lift the box into a bag of holding. They also take several books and scrolls from the bookcases.
Eathwund and then Lakima leap back across the pit. Just as they do the wall of ice at the end of the corridor shatters and the skeletal warrior that Lakima earlier tossed with telekinesis enters the hallway followed by a horde of zombies, skeletons, and mummies. Lakima motions Eathwund back and he immediately leaps the pit. Lakima takes out a potion of slipperiness and pours it across the floor in front of the pit. He then also leaps across the pit.
The skeleton warrior loses his balance and slides into the pit, this is followed by several zombies, skeletons, and a few skeletons. Looking down then see a 40-foot-deep pit with a pile of corpses at the bottom. More undead continue to join the pile for the next hour. Eventually, the undead stopped entering the hallway.
Since they are tired and out of spells, they decide to rest for eight hours to recover. During the first watch, a few more undead add to the pile in the pit. Then everything gets quieter. Even the noise from the cradle of unlife is quieter.
Once everyone has rested, they pass over the pit one by one. The oil of slipperiness has now evaporated. As they near the end of the hallway, four mummies step out from cover and move to attack but Domago presents his holy symbol and drives them back out of the hallway. The heroes enter the chamber with the pit of death and move along the ledge, Domago in the lead driving undead before him. They find a doorway leading to a crypt with two open stone coffins. One coffin contains a crown and a clay jug (which detects as magical) and the other holds a magical shield and a phylactery. The items go into the bag of holding.
They exit and also find an old armory. Domago continues to destroy undead hordes with the force of his god. The group finally leaves the chamber the way they originally came and they close and spike shut the double doors. They continue along to the sunken hallway. Domago uses the Book of Water breathing to cast the spell over the group. One by one they walk down into the water. Soon the water is over their heads. In the gloom, they spot three ghouls swimming toward them but Domago is able to destroy them with the force of his beliefs. The tunnel leads up to a cave and outside into the moors. They emerge a few hundred feet from the red platform in the moors. About them they see a few undead stumbling about aimlessly. The sun has just started to rise on a new day but the moors are still covered in mist.
“I will lead you to the village of Hamlin,” Thistle tells them. “Then we shall part ways.”
The ranger leads them unerringly across the moors to the wood path across the stream. He then leads them west. Around noon they see flashes of light in the distance and the bang of explosions. Running toward the sound and light they rescue four adventurers surrounded by zombies and skeletons. The adventurers are led by Kenrae one of the missing teachers from the School of Magic. The group gratefully accepts the protection of the group as they continue on to Hamlin. In Hamlin, they find the village deserted. There are signs of Loxley the halfling and Multen in the inn (half-eaten food and jugs of ale) but the pair of adventurers have apparently moved on. Thistle the ranger says goodbye to the group in Hamlin. He tells them he will continue patrolling the moors slaying undead and looking for any clues as to where Gaheris fled.
The group continues on to Edgerton arriving in the early afternoon. They say goodbye to the four adventurers they rescued. Kenrae pays the mercenaries he hired (Suten and Thora) and then he and Ludella return to the Mages Guild. Lakima leads the rest of the group over to the Church of St. Cuthbert. They find Abbot Marta conversing with a parishioner in the nave. Lakima tells Marta about their most recent adventure and Marta agrees to commune with St. Cuthbert on the location of Gaheris. After a long, silent prayer before the altar, Marta comes back to them and says that he had a vision that Gaheris has teleported to the former capital of Mor far to the east in Calwell. He is still a threat to Dolmvay but no longer to Edgerton. He counsels that they should go after the lich as there are no others powerful enough to face it. But for now, there is no immediate threat.
The group heads over to the Manor House. Shortly after entering the main hall, they are greeted by the excited shouts of Nissa (the wayward apprentice they met in Dolmvay). She rushes to Aldus and Eathwund and hugs them and tells them that she needs their help finding her teacher Windmaster Bryan Sturlaker. A moment later Alayna appears with Ezmeralden, the custodian of the bridgeway. In the private meeting area, Ezmeralden tells them of the few secret rods of the bridgeway device that open portals to bridges located on other worlds. Windmaster Sturlaker had gained Ezmeralden’s confidence enough to show him some of these realms. The Windmaster was intrigued by the thrill of exploration and would occasionally send wizards of the Council of Winds through these portals accompanied by mercenaries. One such party went through to a desolate dimension with a red sun. They never returned. After 2 months of waiting, the Windmaster went through himself accompanied by the second senior mage of the Council. He left Nissa in the company of Ezmeralden promising to return in a week. Two weeks passed with no news. Ezmeralden contacted the Council but they had no other mages with the skills needed to search for the Windmaster. Ezmeralden suggested he reach out to a company of adventurers.
He had arrived in Egerton earlier in the day. Ezmeralden asks if they would go through the portal and look for the Windmaster. He does not what dangers might exist in this strange desolate dimension. He has not observed any life other than scrub plants. Lakima tells Ezmeralden that he is busy with a commission for the Merchant Adventurers Guild that will take a few weeks. Ezmeralden tells them that he understands. They will have to wait. Nissa is not so understanding but Ezmeralden quiets her. Lakima does promise to see if he can expedite matters. To that end, he goes over to see Malyn and asks if he can complete the commission for the Merchants (to enchant a ship to fly). Malyn shakes his head and tells Lakima that he does not have that kind of power. Only Lakima is powerful enough to enchant the ship.
Lakima returns and tells Ezmeralden to stay as their guest and he will try to complete the commission for the Merchant Adventurer’s Guild as soon as possible. Rasmus Orbin of the guild is contacted and they learn that the guild has a ship ready for the enchantment.
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