Like all of those casters that are full of themselves and think they can take on the world on their own without some meat shields this wannabe lich learns the errors of his ways in a painful matter. Undead or not, casters are still squishy and can't take a full assault of a paladin.
The leader of this operation of the Whispering Way crumbles to pieces. Leaving a stack of magical gear, bones and dust.
Among that is an empty vial with fine engravings depicting the 'resurrection' of the Whispering Tyrant.
Spugnoir pants and looks at the remains. So..Is it over? It seemed like we were chasing after people with no idea who they really are. I don't know if this one is really the end.
"We tried so hard, and got so far... but in the end, does it even matter?"
Abomentolor looks around. "No place to go further."
"I admit, I expected the spooky stuff to stop and the sky to clear." Abomentolor casts a spell and the skillfully crafted door into Abomentolor's magnificient mansion appears out of nowhere.
The gnome drags himself inside. "Let's call it a day."
Spugnoir drags himself inside. So was that the Whispering Tyrant? I agree with Abo and wonder why things didn't improve. Of course with our luck, the whole tower would collapse.
Grergof joins the others after quickly gathering the stuff from the fallen mage.
Then he heads into the doorway.
I think the Whispering Tyrant is under the seal. Legends within the church says we could not defeat him, but only sealed him away.
I doubt that what we killed was the tyrant. But maybe if this flask is correct, it was something that was trying to free the tyrant?
Mr Spugnor, do you want to check to see if anything was in this flask?
Spugnoir use shis awesome Alchemy to examine!
Spugnoir's expertise on potions is unparalleled. From the remaining drop he can analyze that it contained the spirit of the Head Warden, Lyvar Hawkran, the heart of the Wolf-Lord and Skull Fragments formed into a skull. It obviously - to Spugnoir at least - is the Carrion Crown Elixir that should have transformed Galdana into a lich as a shell to house the spirit of the Whispering Tyrant.
Spugnoir passes along this information. So something either went wrong and it failed, or we got here in the nick of time to prevent the Tyrant from escaping in a new body.
"We can check on that Galdana guy. If he is still alive then it wasn't him. From the rotten look of that lich it's hard to tell."
Abomentolor takes a seat at the dinner table. "From what we've seen today I conclude that the guardians of this prison did a lousy job. And why did they imprison that Whispering Guy anyway instead of killing him properly?"
That..is something we might have to ask the Gods, or check out historical records. As for this place, perhaps we can secure as best we can. Place wards and traps. Clear it out and make a garrison for paladins, isn't there a group that is supposed to keep an eye on these lands?
"I can shed some light on that." Darius offers. "You saw the liches regrow their bodies in Renchurch. According to lore the phylactery of the Whispering Tyrant is hidden by Urgathoa, the goddess of undead herself. Without the possibility to destroy his phylactery, every attempt to destroy him is futile. So imprisoning him was the best that could be done."
That matches some of what I remember of the lore from my order as well. The sad truth is, that there were paladins and angels left here, but from what we saw they got corrupted over time.
The Knights that were here, I believe founded Lastwall and as the ages past other dangers arose that were more critical. Mainly the Orcs of Belkzen these days.
"From those teleporting screw up bone gates to the undead that live in every hole here it all looks heavily in the favor of that Whispering Way. Do we have to clean up that mess, or is there someone we can call to fix all that?" Abomentolor wonders while filling his plate with some of the delicious goods on the table.
Spugnoir munches on some chicken. Hmm..Well with so many wandering undead, it doesn't really look like we can kill a significant amount. But if say we get the area around the tower cleared and secured. Maybe consecrated, we can do something. Perhaps tinker with the gates so undead can't use them and we can shift forces from say Lastwall to reinforce.
That sounds suspiciously like politics. I seriously doubt the rulers of Ustalav are going to take kindly to a whole military force coming in, even if they say it is to clean up the undead.
So someone would have to negotiate with them, then talk to the kingdom of Last wall, then deal with the orcs to give them space... There is a bunch more work to do here to really set this area right.
Plus there is still the undead dragon flying around. So without very powerful cover then cleaning up this area will be hard.
And even if the tyrant didn't get free, do we know if the thing we killed managed to become a lich? We are guessing we stopped this, but can we be sure? If we are wrong will just come back in a couple days?
Perhaps Darius knows? We were kinda in a rush so we didn't have time to think what kind of licht hat was.
"It was all stormy and stuff, I didn't get a look at it before Grergof smashed it to pieces."
"It's magic, but I'm not sure the food will stay hot forever." Abomentolor reminds his companions of the important things.
Spugnoir eats! Figure out the details later.
After an opulent dinner everyone can retreat into a room of their own. The servants around take care of cleaning everything they are asked to. But the biggest boon is, that in the midst of a sky swirling with ghosts and other flying undead no one will disturb the rest.
"You got any bruises left?" Darius asks and heals everyone who needs it before calling it a day.
"I'm fine, thanks."
Extract prepared
1.Shield,CLW,Shield,Targeted Bomb,True Strike,Enlarge Person,Increased Awareness
2.See Invisible,Cure Moderate Wounds,Lesser Restore,Barkskin,Lesser Restore,Ironskin
3.Haste,Heroism,Cure Serious Wounds,Resist Energy-Communal,Displacement
4.Restoration,Death Ward,Death Ward,Restoration
5.Communal Stoneskin,Freedom of Movement
Grergof greets the others and gets ready to go.
Once more into the breach my friends...
"We want to use some of the dead guy's stuff?" Abomentolor asks, while taking a look at the magical properties. "That's interesting." He tells the stuff that he can identify.
Darius checks on the stuff Abomentolor doesn't identify. "That's a cloak of resistance." he points out about the one thing he can tell.
Outside the manor is the same dreary outlook as before. A lightning storm carrying undead whirling around the tower. The fake landscape illusion is gone. The way to move away would lead down the stair of bones.
Most likely the Haunt is back. Do you want to take us down?
Spugnoir drinks his heroism extract. Well wouldn't that be temporary? I seem to recall that haunts have a special requirement or they will come back.
"All the way I down? Or even further away?" On confirmation Abomentolor dimdoors the group to the desired destination.
Darius hits everyone with a death word from the wand again.
The further away option it is to investigate the cages hanging in the vincinity of the tower. Cruel shafts of rusted iron protrude from the crumbling arches of old estate windows. The end of each hooked pole supports a huge, bladed cage stuffed with bodies. Faint moaning and sobs are heard from there.
Out of nowhere the huge bone dragon comes into sight as it grabs Grergof.
Darius casts a spell defensively, but fails.
Abomentolor moves out of reach of the dragon and casts command undead on it.
Abomentolor now has an undead dragon pet to do with as he pleases. Therefore the dragon does nothing currently and awaits the gnome's command.
"Release the paladin and sit." Abomentolor orders the soon to be dead creature.
Spugnoir was about to reach for a bomb, but his jaw opens and closes and he is really really confused.
"In case someone wonders, this is a ravener, specifically a former red dragon. No special precautions need to be taken, it can be simply destroyed." Darius tells as he sees Grergof hesitate.
The dragon follows Abomentolor's command, leaves Grergof alone, sits down and wags it's tail.
"Aren't dragons rich? Let's ride it to it's lair." Abomentolor suggests, cast fly on himself just in case and mounts the bone dragon.
A short ride through the air later the dragon lands in front of a ruin. This once-noble estate has all but collapsed in on itself. The ruins form a tunnel yawning with darkness, from which the stench of foul necromancy issues forth like rancid breath.
Marrowgarth’s hoard lies deep within the collapsed estate she has claimed as her lair, its fallen walls forming a 20-foot-wide tunnel 80 feet deep. The undead dragon’s hoard consists of a belt of physical perfection +2, a pair of boots of striding and springing, a periapt of wound closure, a ring of delayed doom with 3 garnets remaining, 1,200 pp, 14,650 gp, and 18,607 sp. In addition, a huge iron key weighing 3 pounds hides among the loot.
Darius starts to get nervous. "Shouldn't we get rid of the dragon now? That thing is an abomination and should be destroyed and not used."
"Finding it's hoard can be argued to be for the greater good, but I believe with that, all good that can come from that thing is used up."
That is acceptable to me. Are there any special things we need to do? Such as making sure it doesn't return?
"No. Once destroyed it is gone." Darius repeats.
Grergof calls down a blessing on his mace Then when everyone else is ready and the dragon is in a spot he can't easliy fly away,
He quickly declares the dragon his smite target and Smashes at it.
[ooc]Suprise Round]
Then if he gets to go again Grergof activates his boots and smacks at the dragon as quickly as possible.
Haste Attack
Grergof gifts the dragon with a swift death. But it doesn't crumble like an ordinary undead, but explodes in a burst of sickly green energy.
After all valuables are packed Abomentolor spends a trip back to the cages. Even though they moan not unlike zombies, it shows that they are Varisian travellers that are still if only barely alive. The oversized key from the dragon lair fits the lock and the people can be freed from the cage and let down with a rope.
Although glad to be released and freed from the terror, that the bone dragon was they have no clue what to do. Their wagons were destroyed in the attack of the dragon and they have nowhere to go.
From all four cages there are about 50 people.
Unsuccessfully trying to dodge the blast Abomentolor curses "S@%@ty undead dragon. I could have done without this parting gift."
"They won't all fit into a bag of holding, woould they?"
Lets get these innocents out of the area. Then we can talk about what to do next.
Grergof does everything he can to give the others cover as he takes them out of the doomscape.