Fane of the Witch King [3.5 D&D] (Inactive)

Game Master Stiehle

Player’s Map

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Rounds 1 & 2 – PC/NPC Health & Initiative Order:

Tranen– 49/49
Ferah – 86/91
Addiz – 11/45
Elissif – 42/66
Demon Spider (Red) – Wounded (-22 HP) **10’ above the floor within the webbing that hides the ceiling**
Demon Spider (Blue) – Unwounded **10’ above the floor within the webbing that hides the ceiling**
Tomak – 54/54

[dice=Addiz’ Initiative Roll]1d20+5[/dice]
[dice=Ferah’s Initiative Roll]1d20+3[/dice]
[dice=Elissif’s Initiative Roll]1d20+3[/dice]
[dice=Tomak’s Initiative Roll]1d20[/dice]
[dice=Tranen’s Initiative Roll]1d20+1[/dice]

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Character Notes

Tranen is holding an ‘Everburning’ torch.

Tomak has a readied shield (shedding Light for 65 minutes).

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Marching Order

10' corridor:

Elissif....Ferah
Tranen.....Sol
......Addiz

5' corridor:
Elissif
Ferah
Tranen
Sol
Addiz

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Treasure List

Unclaimed items to be sold, gems and coins - Carried in Addiz' Handy Haversack
Magical Greatsword +1 [8.0 lb.]
Magical Warhammer +1 (L) [10.0 lb.]
Magical Morning Star +1 (Broken Condition) [6.0 lb.]

4 Bloodstone Gems (80gp value each) [0.0 lb.]
Signet Ring w/ spider encased in dark amber (50gp value) [0.0 lb.]
Platinum ring with inset emerald (3,500gp value) [0.0 lb.]
Onyx brooch, decorated with silver skull that has small rubies in eye sockets (2,600gp value) [0.0 lb.]
Ornate hair comb crafted of gold and inset with ten pearl settings [3 pearls have been removed, dropping the value from 1,200gp to 800gp) [0.0 lb.]
Platinum necklace with five inset rubies (15,000gp value) [0.0 lb.]
189pp, 2757gp

Special Items (items with no apparent intrinsic worth but might be valuable in other ways) - Carried in Addiz' Handy Haversack

Mallachar's Journal:

Writings in an ancient script of a powerful vampire centaur that served the Witch King Osenkej millennia ago when the city of Krezzel Dul was at its peak. The city, also known the City of Skull & Shadow, was the most powerful bastion of a vast kingdom ruled by Osenkej, a powerful and twisted fiend prince born of an unholy union between a balor and an ancient red wyrm. The journal details the centuries of horror when the Witch King ruled his kingdom through the terror of dark rituals and awful sacrifices too terrible to dwell upon, carried out by his devoted army called the Brotherhood of the Black Sun. Eventually though, the armies of celestials, accompanied by dragons and powerful adventurers led by the Gods of Good, did war upon the evil kingdom and piece by piece the Witch King's lands began to fall. As well, the City of Skull & Shadow was torn from within by internal strife when a small, militant group of monks called the Veiled Ones began to act in secret against the Brotherhood even before the armies of Light began their invasion. And as Osenkej's kingdom started to crumble, The Veiled Ones launched a full revolt upon the leadership of the Witch King. Outraged by the rebellion, Osenkej released a horde of fiends upon the city, and in less than a day the demonic armies, combined with the necromantic magic of the Brotherhood and the Witch King, had reduced the city to a true reflection of its name, its inhabitants become a vast army of twisted, undead monstrosities.

When the armies of good finally came against the city of Krezzel Dul itself, they found it to be more formidable than ever imagined. Eventually, calling upon the combined power of their deities, the army was able to wipe the black city out in an enormous maelstrom of holy power. Only one structure survived that final devastation, the most holy of Osenkej's temples called the Ebon Fane, Mallachar wrote - and many of his entries afterward are the crazed rants and ravings of an servant cursed with an eternal half-life being trapped in those halls and chambers for an eternity, with precious little on which to feed save for the occasional adventurer who somehow managed to stumble into the place. Though the arrival of the dwarves some centuries ago at least provided a short-lived time of respite to that eternal hunger. Within those ramblings though are a few kernels of further interest to the party. There are several references to the Black Vault, which contains several relics and weapons considered most holy to the Brotherhood of the Black Sun. Mentioned specifically - though only two of which are described even briefly - are the Hungerstone, the Blood Grail (an item that supposedly grants the powers of undeath without an actual undead state), the Bone Cross (a powerful weapon against those of celestial blood) and the Soulflame. Mallachar also writes of a gate, called the Kiss of Doom, which opens a direct portal to a region of the Abyss once (and perhaps still) ruled by the Witch King. It is this gate that was opened by Osenkej during the open rebellion of the Veiled Ones, though the portal was sealed upon the destruction of Krezzel Dul. Still, the key to that awful gate still lies somewhere within the Black Vault, according to Mallachar, and he also believes that there must have been some sort of power struggle involving the denizens of the Abyss and Osenkej's remaining allies that survived following the fall of the Krezzel Dul, when the Kothian dwarves eventually broke into the Fane when they were excavating their weapon vaults. But Mallachar and his own undead servants were too busy finding and feeding upon the blood of the dwarves to think of such things. The last bit of interesting information to be found in the vampire's journal is in regards to a pair of powerful demons that supposedly guard the entrance of the Black Vault, enemies of the Witch King though their evil is no less than that of Osenkej or his allies, who Mallachar believes might be imprisoned within or beyond the Black Vault. In any case, the dwarves eventually re-sealed the Fane (losing many of their warriors and priests in their efforts) and so, unable to free the allies of his master, the vampire centaur is doomed to spend his centuries of immortality trapped within the Ebon Fane.

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Important Events

Tranen’s Vision:

Your fingers reach out to touch the girl's skin, and Tranen feels the barest whisper of soft, warm flesh beneath his fingers before the pain strikes. No, not pain exactly... It is... unlike anything he's ever experienced. Magic flares through his mind and he no longer sees the room around him, nor the pale elvish girl within her gilded cage, nor his friends, nor the strange mist-shrouded trees and the dark figures that flit just beyond his sight. Images burn into his mind...

A chamber of horrors... blood-filled mouths burst forth from stone walls in an enormous room that is dominated by several cavernous pits erupting a bluish-black smoke. An altar sits upon a platform in the center of the chamber, a crude construction of bone and razor wire mesh. Before the altar stands a centaur as pale as death, a gleaming sword gripped in both hands and his white hair hangs limply about his head, his eyes are dead but the bloody slash of his mouth is grinning...

A man dressed in fine clothes with iron-grey hair tied back with a leather cord into a long ponytail. He wields strong magic and his left eye is covered with a patch. His friends fight against this powerful mage, and beside him is a beautiful creature terrible to behold. Female and lovely in every aspect, revealed by her scanty, nearly transparent clothing that serve to enhance her sexual nature. Bat-like wings spread out to either side of her body, and her eyes burn red with raw desire and unbridled passion...

Another chamber, its walls covered with a sticky, oozing substance like pulsating flesh. Humanoid forms writhe horrifically just beneath the surface, which is covered with shallow orifices resmbling open sores and blisters. Five immense pillars of black stone are clustered tightly together in the center of the chamber and a cold black flame burns atop the central column. A pair of spider-like demons lurk among giant webs that coat the upper walls of the chamber. Several creatures hang from the webs, and Tranen sees that several are the bodies of his friends, their eyes lifeless and their bodies drained of every last drop of fluid...

Even as the most recent vision begins to fade, Tranen is vaguely aware of voices - though they sound very far away. Another vision rises in his mind. A great monster clad in dark breeches and possessed of blood-red eyes and six muscular arms fights the party with the finesse and grace of a well-trained monk. A huge cross, crafted of dark bone, dominates one side of the chamber and Tranen sees himself standing before it as the fight rages behind him. His own eyes are filled with a terrible power and madness as he casts a spell that the sorcerer does not recognize. Suddenly, the bone cross disappears and a portal opens, looking out upon a landscape of insanity and terror.

An island of old, yellowed bone, layered with pulpy fields of oozing flesh, floats in a wide, endless sea of boiling blood. Dark clouds roam the skies like angry predators, and all across the sea and the island itself is a thick layer of crimson fog. Within those vapors can be seen the twisted images of human faces, writhing in anger or pain or a combination of both. A great horde of demons erupt from a sloped pit that descends down into the island, the creatures ranging in size from gnome-like to the largest of any giant. In moments, the demons surge through the open portal, rending the survivors of the battle between the adventurers and the six-armed monster with tooth, claw and fearsome weapons. All lie dead within a span of seconds, and the demons howl with glee as they are loosed upon an unsuspecting world...

Suddenly, the vision is gone and Tranen finds himself on his back, looking up at the looming Zhanar, who appears to be squared off against the beautiful, nude elf girl. The seeress is slumped against the bars of her cage, one arm extended outward toward the sorcerer. Tranen feels unharmed, save for a sharp pain in his backside, where he had apparently fallen mere seconds ago. The visions are still sharp and clear in his mind, though he does not know what happened to him during that time. How long had it been? Seconds? Minutes? Longer? Impossible to tell...