Day 8 continued and we took a short rest Luna identifies the remain of Alana’s parents Val and Sophia
by the locket of hair and signet ring. We check out a passage to the north where the skeletons came
from earlier. There are lots of smashed bones from a previous attack. All of the skeletons are very tall and thankfully dead…All
of the sarcophaguses have been disturbed except for one to the far east. We force open the lid and discover another skeleton with lots
of gold jewelry. We loot the sarcophagus, Lothar crushes the skull with the
hilt of his sword for good measure. We don’t want the undead after us later. We
find assorted jewelry worth 24 gold pieces. We continue to wander around, as we do the bas-relief
sculptures get more ornate. We go down a set of stairs and find another massive
sarcophagus fit for a king. There are
bas-relief queens or concubines decorating the walls with additional sarcophaguses
under each sculpture. We feel a sense of dread emanating from the central sarcophagus,
that of the king. “This is exactly what Alana’s parents were trying to find when
they died”, Luna says with a tremble in her voice. The lid slides over and a figure with a great war helm
rises. The figure is clearly emaciated and mummified. It looks like “green
death”. It is an 8 foot tall undead wight. The wight attacks Lothar with a SWEEPING ATTACK. Lothar
manages to parry the blow and delivers a blow with his shield. The rest of the party join the fight as Luna backs away. The wight attacks Lothar again, this time smashing Lothar’s
shield. The wight now goes after Severos with a HAND OF DEAD attack.
This attack allows the wight to telekinetically throw Severos 2 meters across
the room and he is now prone. Severos manages to get up. He and Lothar both hit the wight
doing very little damage, mearly a flesh wound. The wight attacks back with his SWEEPING ATTACK. Lothar is
barely scratched but Severos is down and dying. Jir-El had hidden herself behind one of the concubines’ sarcophaguses.
She manages a sneak attack with her magical bow. The wight cries out in agony
and looks fiercely at Jir-El. Jir-El manages to go again, this time with a double shot.
Unfortunately only one hit. The good news is that the wight is now badly wounded. Lothar joins the attack but the wight parries his blow. Severos is starting to bleed out. The wight glares at Lothar with his CRITICAL GAZE trying to
daze him to no avail. Luna manages to rally Severos by beginning him to get up. The part members can hear the wight speaking in their mind, “your
heros are dead!” The wight attacks Lothar yet again. Lothar parries the blow
but his sword is shattered. It is a good thing he kept his magical sword on his
belt for later. The wight now goes after Jir-El who is again hiding. The
wight gets to her and grabs her by the throat. She feels a chill of death. She
tries to dodge but critically fails and is now under the effect of crippling
cold. Lothar runs over to help but can’t manage to hit the wight. Severos is up but nearly dead. He manages to get to the
wigth, raises his mighty axe and splits the wight in two. The wight is no more.
Severos collapses and everyone gathers around him to try to help stabilise him. Everyone tries and fails to stabilise Severos. Just as it
looked as if he might die, Jir-El managed to bind the wound and Severos wakes
up, nearly dead but stable. The party loots the wight’s body to find: a helm of the
death dealer (Lothar takes it), a periapt of proof against fear (Jir-El takes
it), and a masterworked 2 handed axe (Severos takes it). There are other treasures including 90 copper, a gold amulet
worth 20GP, and gold coins worth 6GP Luna finds a scroll of an ancient history written by a very
old prince. She is very excited as it will greatly help her academic credentials
and career. The party leave the mountain, carrying the bones of Alana’s
parents), leave the campo, leave the swamp and are able to set up camp later,
high in the mountains. Luna manages to read the scroll, which says: The Ragged King and the Maiden’s Fall By Luap Krik, the Younger, Prince of the Royal
Blood It was in my father’s father’s time, when the Kings
of Mighty Kuth found our lands under attack by a barbarian horde from far eastern lands.
These invaders, the Sheng, conquered all in their path. None, it seemed, could
stand against them and their relentless advance. It was said that they were led
by a Demon of the Outer Darkness, so hideous and alien in appearance that he
was forced to take human form to lead his armies. It was whispered that the
mere sight of his true form would drive men beyond the brink of their sanity. The Demonic entity appeared to its followers as a
small, shaven-headed, man wearing a crown of black iron and clad in tattered
yellow robes such as those worn by the priests in Taikang. He was known as 'The
Ragged King' and under his guidance, the victories of the Sheng were beyond the
counting. He led his troops in person, mounted on a huge demonic steed with a
spiked tail, a leonine mane and huge tusks. The northernmost city of the Kingdom of Kuth was
then Akharon, 'the Maiden City'. The stronghold of King Ekhramun, it was a mighty
citadel whose defences had never been breached. For three turnings of the moon the city stood firm
against the Ragged King's horde. Finally though, it's mighty walls were torn
down and its population destroyed in an orgy of rapine and slaughter. The
Maiden city was a maiden no longer. Ekhramun was taken captive and executed,
bloodily, in his own throne room. Surrounded by the severed heads and impaled
corpses of the royal family and their bodyguards, the Ragged King held court in
the devastation that was Akharon, and dispatched emissaries to deliver his
missives and threats to the other Kings of Kuth. But he had not reckoned with our mystical might! We
Kuthans could not hope to prevail upon the field of battle against such numbers as
the Sheng could muster, but Ekhramun's dogged defence of Akharon bought the
much needed time for the Royal Sorcerous Cabals to join together and together
wreak destruction upon the Ragged King's horde.The city of Akharon, The Ragged
King and the Sheng horde were swallowed up by a great deluge of desert sand,
save for a handful who were subsequently slaughtered by our slave warriors… The party manage to get a long rest, heal their wounds and
various conditions. Day 9: Our motley crew go down the mountains. Late in the day we
come across a familiar pass where we were nearly ambushed. “You must have been successful” they hear coming from the
bandit they had paid earlier for crossing the pass. “You can now afford the new price of 10GP each” Jir-El tries to negotiate and manages to talk the bandit
into coming to them, instead of the other way around. He crosses the stream an
gets closer to the party. They feel less in danger as a result. Jir-El offers our amulet and 5GP. The bandit does not agree.
Finally Severos offers the 10GP difference and they strike a deal. The bandit asks Severos’ name. “You are a gentleman. Tell
everyone you are a friend of Ahkmed if you ever have trouble in these parts. Ahkmed tries to negotiate to buy Jir-El. She is so offended
that she start yelling obscenities at Ahkemd. The obviously excites Ahkmed and
he tries his best to flirt with Jir-El to convince her to marry him. Jir-El was not having any part of this. Sevros managed to break things up and Ahkmed responds
“Have a safe and pleasant journey” 5 days later…our gang of adventurers finally return to the city. Princess Alana is overjoyed as they present
her with the remains of her parents. Later, there is a great feast attended by her uncle. The
uncle addresses our group and awards each of us with a ring worth 100GP. After the festivities the party go on a much needed selling
and shopping spree. We sold off most of
our loot and purchased a lot of healing supplies. One week later, we are invited to a party by the princess,
to commemorate the interring of her parents’ bones. Princess Alana introduces us to Haram Baal who greets us and
says he would be most honoured if we would take him up on an offer to join his
elite guards. Alana gives Lothar permission to join if he would like. The mission will be a trip to Zul Bazir, a 2 week journey
through the desert with a stop at the Yirlat Oasis. “It is a quite pleasant
oasis…an entrancing place”. Our party agree to join when he is ready.
In the meantime, Lothar fancies Roshana and wants get her out of her
job on the kitchens. He trains her up and is quite successful flirting with
her. So much so that she say she will now “Folllow you to the gates of hell…”
