Slain by Elf

'Don't kill the NPC monk! He's integral to this part of the campaign.'

After a hard day's fighting, we look for somewhere to rest for the night so we can recover and tend to our wounds. A cave presents itself nearby, which would provide some shelter, but is it safe?

We move up to the cave and enter, and are greeted by a white wolf. Actually greeted by it, mind you, as it speaks, welcoming us in to the cave and inviting us for dinner. 'Hello', says Nerrick cheerfully, 'I'm Nerrick. What's your name?'

'Hello, Nerrick. I'm... uh... Wolf #1.'

As this is clearly an innocent encounter with an intelligent wolf, and certainly not a prelude to combat, we gladly follow Wolf #1 deeper in to the cave.

In our first encounter against this cleric, she cast Hold Person against Pasha. Pasha then failed his saving throw every round until we were forced, from being unconscious and bleeding quite heavily, to surrender.

We encounter the cleric again, and again she casts Hold Person on Pasha. Pasha fails his saving throw again, and again, and again. Even when he uses his Lucky ability to reroll, he fails again. And even when some Inspiration comes from another member of the party, granting him advantage on the roll, Pasha fails again.

But, finally, the Hold Person is gone! Pasha is in control of his body once more! Did Pasha finally show the will to shrug off the thrall of the cleric? Nope, he used the Call of Cthulhu method of picking locks, and simply waited long enough. The rest of us finally slay the cleric, just before we all die from the massive lack of magical support, destroying the spells effects.

With some careful manoeuvring, and more than a little luck, we destroy most of a caravan with an uncontrolled avalance, and get in to a position where a magic fog cloud prevents the enemy from immediately overwhelming us.

Of course, this relatively comfortable situation cannot last. Fed up with us defeating her minions as they are sent to us one-by-one, kung-fu style, a spell is wasted to remove the fog cloud. As the last wisps of ethereal water vapour fade away, a cry can be heard from behind the caravan. 'Attack! Everyone attack!'

'Careful lads, we may be dealing with a master tactician.'

Our third expedition in to the encampment goes better than planned. We had hoped to charge in, find Pasha and Nerrick's gear, and rush out again, as unharmed as possible. Naturally, we end up fighting the whole camp, but, thanks to some good coordination, we are victorious. We even find most of our gear.

We don't find everything we were carrying, though. Missing are some of the magic items and, somewhat importantly, the artefact that we had recovered from the wraith, the one that could be vital in preventing an ancient god from being summoned. We should probably get that back.

'Before you head off', says Florian, 'destroy the furnaces here.' Ah yes, the original reason why we came here.

'Okay. Let's set fire to them and be on our way.'

'My spell is still in effect. I'm inethereal.'

'...corporeal?'

'I prefer 'inethereal'.'

Rescuing Nerrick and Pasha mostly worked, but they were inconveniently stripped off all their stuff whilst captured. The fiends! Gone are Nerrick's armour and magic weapons, gone is Pasha's spellbook. Do we need them? Well, maybe. We formulate a plan to go back and get them.

The plan is to run in to the encampment, find our stuff, grab it, and run out again. Hopefully they won't expect us to come back a third time. Naturally, they kinda are more prepared now for a night-time skirmish than before. Weird that.

A bit of fog on a snowy night gives us some decent cover to get close, which lets Pasha consider his utility spells. 'I was just thinking, if I deafen these two guards, they won't be able to raise the alarm.'

And so we came to fight the whole encampment.

Pasha, Nerrick and Herbivore have been captured. This aggression will not stand. Thankfully, a couple of ally scouts have been sent to find out what we're up to, and are willing to help rescue my colleagues.

An enemy scout, killed in the earlier melee, is dug out of the snow and his uniform taken, which, coupled with my skills in disguise, should let me get close to the camp. We go at night, and I head in to see the situation. Pasha and Nerrick are caged in the open, whilst Herbie is elsewhere, not having a good time, by the sounds of it.

I use a bit of magic to pick the lock of the cage from a distance, and deliver something sharp so that Nerrick and Pasha can cut through their ropes. The only problem is that Nerrick is barely conscious, leaving Pasha to be the one to get them both free. This really is a problem.

'What's the plan?', asks the GM.

'I'll get my arms free, then legs, remove my gag...'

'Maybe remove your blindfold first', I suggest, using my Message spell.

Pasha checks that he is indeed blindfolded, and amends his plan. 'Okay, blindfold, arms, legs... yes, that'll work.'

To be fair, I maybe didn't phrase my suggestion clearly enough.

'You hear a screech above, and looking up you see a creature that is half-eagle, half-horse flying down towards you. The odd thing is that there's a woman riding it.'

'Mmm, I don't think that's the odd thing about this.'

A decrepit door is nearly our downfall, as our dexterity-based party is nearly turned around when pushing with all our might does nothing. Only by happening to pull a strong creature out of Pasha's Bag of Tricks do we get past this obstinate obstacle.

Inside the ancient tower we find the resting place of the wraith's physical form, under a trapdoor in what is obviously, thanks to watching Labyrinth a few too many times, an oubliette. But it is upwards where we find the wraith itself.

We don't so much find the wraith as bump in to him. With a staircase to a mezzanine level rotten and crumbling, the whole party is struggling to climb up to the next level. I am the lucky one to be first over the ledge, right in to the waiting wraith.

'Ah. About that deal you mentioned earlier, to become death knights and rule the world by your side. Please don't attack me, because that's clearly what I've come to talk to you about.'

'All you have to do is kill your unwilling friend.'

'Pasha? It's a deal! But let's not shake on it.'