Nemesis stops briefling at the tracks, he notices that they go off to the north and shakes his head. "Not falling for that this time." He continues heading east.
Other than a few small changes in weather, nothing of interest happens for a few more days.
Day 15: You stumble in to a spider web and get a nasty bite.
Day 16: You finally arrive a a mighty river running from north to south. The river is easily 400 feet across, and runs rapidly. You can see across the river is open grasslands.
Nemesis continues on his journey and he narrowly avoids stepping into a spider web. He chuckles at his near obliviousness and decides to pay more attention to the area around him.
Upon hitting the river, he sits upon a rock and contemplates to himself. He then decides to follow the riverbank south to see if he notices anything of interest.
The river affords you easy picking, and you are able to collect 4 more days of food.
After travelling south along the river for another day, you come upon a rather strange sight. There is an island in the middle of the river with about 100' of water on each side. On the island there is a large wall, about 20' high, and beyond the wall you can see 1 tower sticking up, and just the top of what appears to be a shingled roof. There is no readily apparent way to get across the river and over to the island.
Nemesis stops upon finding the island. He considers swimming across, but 100 feet could be tricky. He decides to sit and wait, by the shore line in good view of the island, but hides himself and Hatred. He will wait a day to see if anything or anyone appears from the island before attempting to swim out to it.
After many hours of watching, you don't see any evidence of activity on the island. No denizens, no smoke in the chimney, nothing.
Nemesis thinks for a long moment and then decides to search the shore intently, looking for any form of a raft, or anything that will help float him out to the island. Not being a good swimmer himself, he doesn't want to chance drowing to get out to the island.
Upon closer inspection, you can see that it would be suicide to try to swim, even for a skilled swimmer. The water already moves very quickly, and the narrowness of the channels around the island makes it even quicker. Now that you are closer, however, you can see that there is a door in the wall, made to look like the surrounding stone. There is still no indication of a path across, though.
Nemesis thinks for a moment and then snaps his fingers with an idea. He takes off he armor and all his heavy equipment and piles it around Hatred. He takes out the rope from withing his pack and ties it around Hatred.
"That should weight you down so you don't float away. Your going to walk from here to the island. You don't need to breathe, so you just walk right under the water. Once you are on the other end, tie the rope to something and I can use the rope to lead me across without getting sweeped away"
Hatred, burdened down his his bundles, begins to walk down under the water towards the island.
Hatred slogs through the river, which must have been quite deep, too, judging by the amount of time it took to get across. He makes it to the other side in one piece and braces himself to prepare for Nemesis to come across.
Nemesis waits for Hatred to secure the rope upon something. He takes the other end and ties it to a tree by the shoreline. He wades into the water and shimies across, pulling on the rope hand over hand until he is upon the opposite shore.
You are able to pull yourself across the river fairly easily, and arrive at the other side in safety.
As soon as you touch the door, a shimmering white, humanoid shape appears next to you. It isn't solid, but rather made of constantly shifting runes and designs. It appears to be wearing a black robe with a key motif on the front, but the robe is also made of the same substance as the figure itself. It starts to put out its hand to Nemesis, but stop sharply when it notices Hatred. It begins to back up and starts to glow more brightly.
Nemesis unfurls his cowl and snarls at the being, showing off his fangs. He holds up a hand in front of him and points to the ghost like creature."Identify yourself!
The figure doesn't speak, but rather emanates a wave of energy that washes over you and Hatred.
Nemesis looks at the individual with a curious look, wondering what the feeling was while he was tying his shoe. "Identify yourself, I will not ask again!"
With that, the figure puts out his hand and you feel a tug of despair in the back of your mind.
Nemesis feels that he may never achieve his goals of becoming a lich and that Hatred will rise up against him. He shakes his head and steels himself from those thoughts. He growls at the apparition and curses at it.
Nemesis smiles broadly
The figure flinches at the burst of energy.
It moves to strike at Nemesis with its bare fist, but instead of a physical strike, it seems to attack with electrical force.
>>
Hatred moves in to bash the creature with his mace while his master takes a five foot step backwards.
Nemesis snarls as he dodges backwards from the attack. He moves back as Hatred steps in to protect its master.
Nemesis curses at the creature again.
The creature smashes against Hatred now with it's fists. >>
[ooc]You can apply the DR to the electrical damage, but not the 1d3-1. It's a slam attack. So, this round, Hatred takes 1 damage.
Hatred stares at the creature with its mouth hanging ajar, not moving to attack, just standing there.
Nemesis looks to his minion with confusion and tries to yell at him to attack. He turns back to the creature and tries to move around to the other side of the creature from Nemesis (avoiding AoO if I can). This time steps forward and holds out his hand.
You connect your spell with the creature's substance, but it resists your assault. It smashes Hatred again, and then dissipates into the air.
>>
Nemesis takes a quick look around, not letting his guard down. He waits for a good couple of minutes to see if the creature comes back. If nothing happens. He tries to open the door leading into the tiny fort.
Nothing happens after the figure disappears. When you try the door, you find that it is locked tight.
Nemesis thinks for a long moment and decides to camp out for the night on the island. He moves away from the door and sets Hatred to guard for the night. He sleeps and prepares his spells for the next day.
The night passes without incident.
Nemesis gets up, refreshed for the day. He nods to Hatred, "Come my friend, lets see if we can get into this place. I want to know what mystery it holds"
Nemesis gets hatred to bash open the door.
After several minutes of bashing, the door finally gives way. Inside the wall, there is an impressive manor, two stories high, with a tower in the NW corner. The front door to the manor is at the end of a stone path leading from the door. The door has a large motif of a silver key on it.
Nemesis laughs, "I appear to have stumbled upon a theme." He decides to try the manor first and approaches the door. He waits for anything to happen before trying to open the door.
Nothing happens at the door.
Nemesis opens it and heads on inside. He takes a quick look around making sure there are no ambushes.
Inside the door you find yourself in a large foyer with two alcoves in the corners. There is a mural on the west wall depicting several men and women wearing the key motif combating zombies, some with swords, some with magic, and others, strangely enough, seen to be wielding silver bells. There is a door to the right of the mural.
Nemesis examines the mural, "First proof of some undeath, although they seem to be battling it, where as I prefer to control it, right Hatred?" Nemesis laughs with a dry cough.
After examining the mural, he takes the door on the right
The next room is some sort of antechamber. There are two exits, one open and one closed, both with magnificent stone arches bearing the key motif. In the center of the room is a cookfire with some sort of tea, judging by the smell. Asleep next to the fire is a lone ogre. When you enter the room, he awakens, somewhat confused, and begins to stagger to his feet.
Nemesis laughs when he sees the ogre, he got lucky before, but an Ogre is another thing completly. He turns and runs for the door, he makes sure that Hatred is running with him and he doesn't stop, even uses the rope to head back over the river.
"I'm going to need lackies for this. Might as well head back to town for help to clear this thing out."
If he gets away from the Ogre, he continues to head back to town.
You easily escape the ogre, who doesn't even follow you out the front door, and retrace your steps to town.