Vordakai catches Aristu's fiery blast on his magical shield, deflecting it off into the sky. It then lashes out, touching all around it with its unholy grip!
negative damage plus paralyzing touch
negative damage plus paralyzing touch
negative damage plus paralyzing touch
STATUS
VORDAKAI - 53 damage, Immobilized (Arrow), Frightened 1 (3 rds.)
Mikhail - 49/124 hp, wounded 1
Kernithar - 21/114 hp
Aristu - 57/80 hp, Fly
Piotr - 17/89 hp
...Living Landslide - 6/90 hp (AC 21)
Alister - 3/107 hp
Mikhail fights off the paralysis and then attacks the undead monster!
Alister feels his body lock up at the touch of the lich.
Kern takes aim and continues to pin cushion the undead lich and calls out to Mikail. "Stand strong and aim for the tendons!" He shouts.
The elemental attempts to withstand the unholy magic.
The grizzly bear launches an attack on the undead wizard.
+ Grab
Piotr releases the elemental since it is now paralyzed. In its place, he summons a grizzly bear.
Aristu wraps himself in an enchantment of speed while hovering below the ledge.
Alister and the elemental freeze up at Vordakai's touch. Piotr dismisses the elmental and summons a grizzly which attacks, but can't land a blow against the cyclops lich. Mikhail likewise battles Vordakai, but the god-king dodges, parries and blocks every blow while Kern's arrows whizz harmlessly past.
Aristu flies more swiftly, preparing to run.
Vordakai arrogantly ignores your agonies and tries but fails to pull free Kern's arrow, finally raising a shield spell.
STATUS
VORDAKAI - 53 damage, Immobilized (Arrow), Frightened 1 (2 rds.), shield spell
Mikhail - 49/124 hp, wounded 1
Kernithar - 21/114 hp
Aristu - 57/80 hp, Fly
Piotr - 17/89 hp
...Living Landslide - 6/90 hp (AC 21)
Alister - 3/107 hp
Milkhail attacks the undead creature!
Mikhail lays into the lich with abandon, is sword Civility crashing down like a flail at harvest time, rocking the cyclops back!
STATUS
VORDAKAI - 85 damage, Immobilized (Arrow), Frightened 1 (2 rds.), shield spell, flatfooted until the start of Mikhail's turn.
Mikhail - 49/124 hp, wounded 1
Kernithar - 21/114 hp
Aristu - 57/80 hp, Fly
Piotr - 17/89 hp
...Living Landslide - 6/90 hp (AC 21)
Alister - 3/107 hp
Alister breaks out of his momentary paralysis to rush towards the others side of the cliff. "Give it everything you've got!" He tries to summon more healing energy to help Mikhail.
Aristu rises up above the ledge, the vast fey energy he holds visible as a shimmering green aura. He funnels that energy into a summoning, and a large black bear - crowned with a rack of black antlers - appears between the lich and Alister. With a roar, the symbol of House Medvyed attacks that which threatens Medvyed's sons.
plus grab on a hit.
plus grab on a hit.
Piotr keeps the bear in place before summoning a ball of flame that he hurls at the lich.
The bear continues to attack the lich.
Alister heals Mikhail slightly.
The two bears fail to scratch the lich, even when it is flat-footed from Mikhail's heavy blow. Piotr aims a gout of fire at Vordakai, but the lich once again easily counteracts the spell with one of its own from the staff.
STATUS
VORDAKAI - 85 damage, Frightened 1 (1 rds.), shield spell, flatfooted until the start of Mikhail's turn.
Mikhail - 69/124 hp, wounded 1
Kernithar - 21/114 hp
Aristu - 57/80 hp, Fly
...Polar Bear
Piotr - 17/89 hp
...Bear
Alister - 3/107 hp
Kern takes aim at the off-balanced lich and sends a flurry of arrows.
Kern manages to slightly scratch the ancient lich!
Ignoring the bears and Mikhail, Vordaka wrenches the arrow from its foot, then flings magic missiles at Alister and Piotr. The Baron of the Sword Marches takes en eldritch bolt to the chest and falls, dying! Mikhail lashes out, but barely scratches the cyclops god-king.
STATUS
VORDAKAI - 92 damage, Frightened 1 (1 rds.), flatfooted until the start of Mikhail's turn.
Mikhail - 69/124 hp, wounded 1
Kernithar - 21/114 hp
Aristu - 57/80 hp, Fly
...Polar Bear
Piotr - 3/89 hp
...Bear
Alister - 0/107 hp, Dying 1
Aristu sees the lich's spell send his brother sprawling to the ground and he feels a jolt of fear, then a surge of anger. He levitates upward with a furious roar which is echoed by the Medvyed Bear. He spurs the bear to fight on, then gathers power to fuel his own attack. More holy light lances towards Vordakai.
The bear tears into the ancient cyclops lich, ripping chunks from its body. Fueled by fury at his brother's apparent demise, Aristu hurls a bolt of fiery energy that blasts straight through the monster's chest! Vordakai looks down at the ragged hole in its chest, says "But... and collapses into a pile of ash! Only the strange red gem that was its eye survives to roll gently across the floor to Alister's side.
COMBAT OVER!
Aristu flies straight to Alister's side and tries to keep him alive.
. if Nature check was a critical success,
Alister's eyes flutter open.
__________________________________________________________________
We're out of combat here. There's a ton to wrap up for this adventure, so I'll let you get to it. As a reminder:
*The red eye gem
*The treasure hoard
*The room with the soul jars
*Vordakai's gear
Kern lowers his bow with a sigh and lopes over to the royal brothers.
"I'm glad he'll live." Kern states. [/b]"We need to free the rest of the villagers."[/b] He looks over to where the woman's burnt corpse lays. "Hopefully their fates are better off than hers."
Kern then moves over to Vordakai's corpse to inspect his effects. "Piotr, can you inspect that eye gem? I'm sure this lich has other magical items we could use."
Piotr looks about, realizing how close this lich came to killing himself and his companions.
He initially examines the red gem, even though the staff is also very intriguing.
THE OCULUS OF ABBADON
Minor Artifact
Unique...Artifact...Divination...Invested...Item 20
The Oculus of Abaddon is a potent artifact rumored to have been created by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as a way to reward those who work as their agents on the Material Plane.
The Oculus of Abaddon appears as a sphere of clear crystal that contains a pinpoint of flickering red light at its center. When held, the Oculus feels warm to the touch and fills the holder with a sudden desire to pluck out an eye and place the oculus within the socket.
Piotr can sense the immense power of the Oculus and knows that setting it within his own eye socket would give him power and insight undreamed of. It was certainly the Oculus that Vordakai used to draw all the people of Varnhold to his will.
Kern eyes Piotr as he's inspecting the gem.
"I can feel the evil emanating off of that thing. We should destroy it." he says.
Alister gets to his feet, giving his brother a short hug. "Thanks. I think you're the Hero of Varnhold!" He glances at Piotr, examining the gem from the lich. "Kern is right. We need to search this place for his sanctuary."
A search of the tomb reveals several things. Piotr and Aristu agree that though once legendarily mighty, Vordakai’s power has atrophied over the millennia to the point where his phylactery could no longer save him. He is well and truly dead.
Searching the tomb reveals much treasure.
On Vordakai’s person:
* potion of invisibility
* scroll of teleport (rare spell)
* staff of fire (greater)
* black pearl aeon stone
* Energy Robe (electricity)
* Oculus of Abbadon
* phylactery (art object worth 350gp)
In the Treasure Hoard:
* 158 pp, 1626 gp, 12,825 sp
* Ring of Counterspells
* Ring of Wizardry, Type II
* Healer’s Gloves (greater)
* Leopard’s Armor
* South Wind’s Scorch Song
In Vordakai’s Laboratory:
* Dozens of stone tablets preserving the knowledge and history of ancient Casmaron - weighing 1,000 lbs in all, but worth 1,000 gp to a scholar.
* The crumbling remains of Vordakai’s once vast spellbook collection. You can recover THE FOLLOWING SPELLS.
In the Dungeon of Souls:
* 41 (previously 42) soul jars containing the souls of Varnhold’s residents.
* Wand of Passwall
"That thing was terrible. We have done a great thing today." Mikhail says as they finish sorting through the tomb.
"I never understood undeath. All natural things must die to feed the cycle. To do otherwise is terrible indeed." Kern agrees. "How do you propose we destroy this evil artifact?"
"Such evil things are notoriously hard to destroy. We would likely need to seek divine guidance on how to destroy it." Mikhail says.
"We were fortunate to encounter it when it was 'weak'," says Piotr.
"I hesitate to think how strong it might have grown, given time to attack more of the realm."
"And I agree ... we need guidance from something to destroy the Oculus."
"If nothing divine might suffice, I can send word back to my Circle in Kyonin for assistance. Many Orders have means and methods for handling ancient evil, but I'm unaware of anything specifically." says Kern.
"Let's go see about those soul jars. If there are more people trapped there, we need to free them." Alister tries to collect the remains of the woman who was killed by Vordakai's blast too, so that he can give her a proper burial in her home.
Aristu helps Alister with the corpse of the unfortunate woman. As they carry her remains towards the soul jar room, he says "And while we are discussing destroying things...regardless of Vordakai's chances of returning, I would feel a whole lot better smashing that phylactery into tiny bits."
"Don't you think the phylactery would decorate the royal fire place mantel nicely?" Kern says with a mischievous dark smile.
Once in the the soul jar room, Kern will help smash each one with his blade.
"We can always melt it down. A few silver coins won't bring him back." Mikhail says with a shrug as he looks at the box that once held a vile soul.
Kern pauses the draw of his bow and considers for a moment.
"Ketephys has come to me. We should carry these jars in our bags of hodling. It will be much easier than herding them across the mountains." Kern says to Alister.
He turns to Piotr "Unless you have some magics for mass teleporation?"
Alister nods. "Ok, let's get them out of here." He begins loading the jars into his bag of holding.
Kern follows suit and loads his bag of holding.
"Let's not forget to load the treasure in here as well. I'm sure we can spare some of it to get Varnhold back on it's feet." Kern suggests to the group.
"No, no teleportation spells," replies Piotr.
"That would be useful, though, as the kingdom gets larger."
How are you going to transport all that loot? Not to mention those stone tablets?
Your Bag of Holding can hold 25 bulk. The jars alone are 41 bulk. The stone tablets are something like 100 bulk. The rest of the loot could all fit easily in the bag, though.