Session 10
November 06 2019
The night of death and murder! During the night after the Efreet encounter, we were awakened by the sound of moaning, and we saw hordes of zombies emerging from the sewers and shuffling through the streets. Penub of the Yulan, who specializes in fighting the undead, identified the zombies and determined that they were being controlled by a necromancer. We killed all the zombies around our tavern and made our way into the sewers in hopes of tracking down the necromancer.
Following the zombies’ tracks, we found a set of iron bars that had once kept the sewers separate from a natural cavern, but the bars had been broken and bent from the cavern side into the sewer side. Further inspection of the bars revealed that they were filthy with zombie ichor. Following the zombies’ trail into the cavern, we found a pair of large, metal doors depicting (the unholy symbols of?) Bhaal, the God of Murder, and Myrkul, the dead God of Death. However, the door was neither locked nor trapped, so we ignored all ominous warnings and proceeded.
Beyond the doors, we found a robed man chanting at an altar of Bhaal behind a magical barrier. As soon as we entered the room, we were attacked by zombies and other undead creatures, and a few fruitless attacks indicated that the magical barrier would shield the necromancer from all attacks until the undead were defeated. Penub was in his element, but he was also made the target of many of the undead creatures’ attacks. Notably, a shadowy creature drained almost all of the life out of him, and an undead hand clawed at him, dropping him to 0HP. Fortunately, Penub succeeded on all his death saving throws, so he survived.
Meanwhile, Burke noticed that the magical barrier protecting the necromancer seemed to flicker and weaken whenever an undead creature was defeated, so he readied himself to attack the necromancer as soon as the barrier fell. Eventually, he got his chance. After a tough fight against a pair of red specters, all the undead were defeated, the barrier vanished, and Burke went in for the kill.
As he killed the necromancer, Burke saw a vision of Bhaal, the God of Murder, holding a crown the contained the soul of Myrkul, the dead God of Death. Bhaal was, evidently, just about to crown the necromancer the new God of Death when Burke interrupted the ritual by killing the necromancer. Bhaal was furious at Burke until Burke shouted “Murder!” which reminded the God of Murder that killing people (including necromancers) was completely within Bhaal’s idea of acceptable behavior. In light of this one-word argument, Bhaal offered Burke the crown, but Burke said that he wasn’t quite ready for that, and asked if he could get back to Bhaal on that offer. Bhaal nodded, and the vision ended.
Now we have defeated the necromancer, and the zombies remaining on the surface should just wander around aimlessly until the city guards finish them off. This threat has ended, but several other issues remain, including Rhogar’s child labor construction company, the occasional clockwork animal attack, and possibly an ongoing issue with animated pumpkins. We will continue to deal with Athkatla’s many problems and hope that our franchise will get due recognition for doing so.