Session 22, 2008-05-09: Shooting at the Darkness

Session 22: wherein Master Michael's gravesite is the site of another death

Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine

The party camped a short distance down the road. In the morning, Nate again disguised himself and Jakob as oxen, Lotus as a pack donkey, and Ike and Flynn as merchants. The party continued down the mountain, passing several holes that looked as though they'd been carved by more nightcrawlers. There was a wagon overturned next to one of the holes, and Lotus spotted the wagon's former Westlayan owners had been turned into zombies. Ike fired four arrows with his "50 cal" longbow, dropping both zombies and a squirrel. Lotus walked up the hill and spotted a third zombie inside the overturned wagon, so she blasted it with a bolt of lightning. Nate fired his crossbow at that part of the canvas, and Jakob ran up the hill and punched a hole in the wagon, slaying the zombie. Lotus sent some daylight to the bottom of the nightcrawler's hole, where she spotted a wraith and some money, so she let another lightning bolt fly. Jakob jumped down the hole and attacked the wraith with a divine surge, killing it. He tossed the box of money and several boxes of spices out of the hole, and as Flynn approached with a rope, Jakob climbed back out and asked "what's that rope for?" Ike identified the most valuable spices and added them to the wagon, marking the remnants as "spices, free for the taking, this crate worth 800gp" and placing them along the side of the road.

The party continued onward until about 5 in the evening, when they reached the "unlit pass" -- an old dwarven tunnel through the mountain of shadow. Nate cast daylight on a stick and hung it off the edge of the wagon, and the party could see the tunnel had numerous recently-carved side tunnels inside it. Jakob, invisible in the darkness, scouted out in front, while Lotus used Stoneshape to create tracks for the wagon to pass over one of the nightcrawler tunnels. Jakob noticed a pair of giant-sized clubs just barely visible in the two side hallways, so he snuck around behind one while Nate placed an illusory mercenary in the tunnel with the other. As the fake mercenary's armor clanged, Jakob got into position behind a giant zombie and a bodak, killing the bodak in a flurry. He called out "bodaks and zombies! Beware the death gaze!" Flynn started singing a song about dying zombies. One zombie tried to attack Jakob, but couldn't pinpoint his location. A pair of bodaks stepped out, one unsuccessfully using its death gaze on the illusion, and the other unsuccessfully gazing at Ike. The remaining giant zombie recognized there was something funny about the illusory mercenary (natural 20), so he walked right past.

Ike fired a series of holy arrows, killing one bodak and leaving the other nearly dead. Nate tried to finish the job with his crossbow, but the giant zombie's leg interfered with the shot. Lotus' Vortex of Teeth chewed the bodak up. Jakob's fists turned to flame as he pounded on the zombie in front of him. Flynn hasted Ike, Lotus, and Nate. One of the zombies again failed to locate Jakob, but the other charged and attacked Lotus. Ike fired five shots from his 50-cal longbow (158 damage.) Nate laid down some grease under the zombie's feet, but it stayed up (same zombie, second natural 20.) Lotus' flamestrike lit up the grease and the zombie, and Jakob's blinding strike took out the other zombie.

The party headed down the far side of the mountain, where they located a cave that was familiar to Jakob. There, alongside the cave, were the year-old graves of Master Michael and his final victim. Jakob told the tale of his fight with Michael's wraith, and then stopped to meditate over the grave. Lotus planted some flowers, and Nate asked Ike for his squirrel jerky recipie, mostly to keep Ike from defacing the gravesite. The party set up camp for the night, and Nate disguised himself as a zombie. During the third watch, Lotus noticed some of the stars blinking out, as if a shadowy bat was passing over them. Lotus yelled to awaken the rest of the party and then cast True Seeing to try to track the incoming nightwing. Ike used his headband to trigger the same effect. The nightwing approached and cast finger of death on Lotus, killing her in spite of the luck Nate tried to send her way (roll: 4. Reroll: 4.) Jakob ran and leapt over the wagon, grabbing the nightwing and trying to drag it downward. Flynn woke up and started singing an inspiring song about sleep deprivation and dying shadow-things. Nate tried to make the nightwing unlucky, but it resisted his magic. He also took cover inside the cave, hoping not to become its next victim.

Lotus' soul, now free from her body, wandered around saying "BOO!" and trying to scare people, and checked to see if Nate wore Depends. Ike fired a holy arrow that had little effect on the nightwing, so he followed it up with a series of force arrows that were more effective. Jakob and the nightwing continued to struggle against each other. Flynn poured an oil of Lingering Soul on Lotus' body, and her soul suddenly became very interested in her body's glow. Nate finally managed to ruin the nightwing's luck, and again found a nice hiding spot inside the cave. Ike blasted it with a few more arrows, sending it crashing to the ground, where Jakob tumbled off and made a dramatic landing.

Nate sent word to Minellin that Lotus had been killed, and that the pass most definitely wasn't safe for lesser travelers. Shortly thereafter, a pair of kingsmen arrived, including a cleric who revived Lotus. Jakob started asking her all sorts of philosophical questions about death -- what it's like, and so on. Lotus pulled a leaf from her hair and asked "have you ever smoked this stuff? It's kinda like that."