Slain by Elf

We have been accused of theft. This is news to us but being assaulted in the market gets our attention. We head up to the house where the master of our accuser lives.

'You approach the house and see that the door... is open!'

'Is that unusual?'

'Not especially. You enter and quickly realise that the house... is silent!'

'...is that unusual?'

'Not really. You call out for Left Hand or his daughter but you get no reply.'

'...'

'That is peculiar.'

When the various levels of normality have been established we perform a rudimentary search of the building. A chest is found open, its lock clearly broken, and we realise that some books have been removed from it. At least we now know what we've been accused of and can work to clear our names.

A fight breaks out in the market. We are defending ourselves from the man accusing us of theft, and his henchman. Fung Xe is able to close with Tong, the leader, and trap his weapon. Tong is unable to attack when pinned like this, so chooses to 'escape the trapped weapon by taking an action to release my weapon'.

'Yes, that's what I did', says Kwai Chen Tai, 'I chose to release my weapon when I was wrapped in the awning'. It's curious, because at the time it rather looked like he tried to cut through the awning as two henchman enveloped Kwai in it, but fumbled his weapon and got thoroughly tangled as a result.

Other henchman are attacking me and Cheng Nenfa, with Yuen Shu-Lin sneaking around to launch a surprise attack on Tong. Three henchman engage me and although I am able to deflect most of their blows I get a knock and become bruised, luckily only superficially for now. Cheng sees the minor wound and mocks the henchmen, 'I don't think you can even harm me!' That sounds like an invitation.

A pair of henchman strike at the confident spearman, feeling invulnerable in his leather armour, and find their yin and yang in harmony. A double-eight result hits Cheng's armour with a mighty blow, one of their weapons thumping in to his side and most certainly harming him. 'Ow. They aren't pulling their blows.'

Indeed, even Tong is striking without fear of causing injury, whilst we are trying to be careful lest the initial misunderstanding becomes more serious. Fung Xe is hit by Tong and is wounded, putting his breath of life in to the 'bruised' box. 'Now I'll put him in to a wooden box', he retorts.

But before we can get too serious the sound of the town guard quick-marching to the market square can be heard, scattering the henchman and leaving us to face the music.

We are mingling around the market square when a rather angry looking gentleman storms up to us and starts accusing us of stealing something from him. 'I know you've taken these things from me', he says, almost yelling in our faces, as a small gang of his followers looks on, 'and I want them back!'

Kwai Chen Tai uses his keen perceptive abilities to sense this chap's true motivation and intention. He succeeds in his skill check and is told that 'you know he thinks you've taken things from him and that he is angry about it'.

Learning information we already know is strangely familiar. It's good to know that skills work similarly across different gaming systems.

'Your journey takes you to the river where you pilot a boat downstream, before crossing the pass to finally get to the village.'

'How long did it take?'

'A week.'

'So, 21 days.'

'Um, what?'

'...since I last smoked opium. It was 14 days before we started, so now it has been 21 days. Did no one listen to my back-story?'

Only Kalarel remains before us. Once defeated, our mission will be nearly complete. Adran moves to strike what is hoped the final blow and Adoni-zedek assists, granting big bonuses for each of Adran's attacks. Getting a +35 bonus for his main weapon and +33 for the off-hand Adran can hardly miss. But he tries his hardest, rolling a 2 and a 3. Never the less, both attacks hit the exarch of Orcus and slice deep past his defences, looking to slay him.

My instincts kick in and a necrotic shield, that is in no measure owing to making a deal with evil god-slaying Nightbringer, deflects half the damage inflicted back to our ranger. And in a moment of perverse glory Adran is knocked unconscious and dying, minor revenge for the many times he has taken glee in accidentally or otherwise assaulting my characters near to death, not that I keep track. Kalarel survives a few seconds longer, until my own puny attack defeats him.

The exarch defeated, an aspect of Orcus appears, as does Nightbringer itself. Orcus shows displeasure at Adran's failure and tosses his crumpled body across the room in to a wall. Ignoring our surroundings briefly, accusations fly.

'I didn't make a deal with Orcus!' Adran insists.

'No, you only agreed to perform a task for him in exchange for material gain and a promise of personal power', says the GM, clearing up our confusion.

No more mortal enemies are around and Lughar, Adoni-zedek and myself are surveying the scene from within the healing zone of snowflakes Lughar has cast. 'Orcus is fighting Nightbringer, I'm glad we're healing 7 points a round.' Adoni-zedek's sarcasm makes us consider our current position, and we drag Adran's body through the snowflakes so that he regains consciousness and make a dash for the ziggurat's exit, as the stone walls begin to crumble and collapse around us.

Fearing the undead army is waiting for us outside, having been alerted to Nightbringer bursting through the structure, we are relieved to be alone. But then we remember that the undead army was marching to the portal, through which we have to pass to return to the drow city. Luckily, we have a portal spell on a scroll and there is a stone circle nearby that we can use to complete the ritual.

Like idiots, we dash back in to the crumbling ziggurat to use the stone circle inside, jumping through the created portal to briefly appear next to the undead army waiting at the portal to the drow city. Without stopping, as we are prepared for this meeting, we pop out of one portal and jump through the other, once more finding ourselves in the drow city. We call for the portal we just used to be closed, which it quickly is, having been kept open by the drow only at our request whilst we destroyed Kalarel.

Now we only need to return to the dwarf city, where surely Nightbringer won't turn up to crash our heroes' welcome by enslaving the world.

The final ghoul serving Kalarel bites in to me, causing me to stiffen and become immobilised. It is a queer form of immoblisation, as I can still do jumping jacks if I so desire, but not being able to move voluntarily from my position supposedly makes the exarch's next attack more potent, even if I can dodge and parry his attacks as normal. Kalarel ignores my 4th Edition strict interpretation of immobilisation and presumes instead a more traditional definition, easily biting in to my motionless throat, his power seeping in through my veins to dominate me.

At the start of my turn my warden class ability lets me make a saving throw against one ongoing effect a save can end, the only one being the immobilisation. I fail the throw, remaining stuck in my square but dancing the running man.

'You're dominated. Feel free to charge your ally Lughar and make a basic standard attack against him.'

'I'm immobilised.' Indeed, you just asked me to make a saving throw, which I failed.

'Oh, right.' The only character I can attack is the ghoul who immobilised me, my allies not being adjacent and even the exarch moving away after attacking. I think we have revealed a fundamental problem with only being able to dominate a character when he's immobilised. My melee-based attacks make me useless to the exarch and I forgo my turn, wishing again that I'd brought a book to read, and switch to the hustle whilst I wait for the next turn to end.

Our final battle with the exarch of Orcus continues. His minions have been whittled down a little but he is still protected by a leech (or lich, his accent is unclear) and an immoleth. I have got myself next to exarch Kalarel, hoping to draw his attacks away from the more vulnerable Adoni-zedek who he has picked on until now. Kalarel indeed chooses me as his next victim, striking with his sword and following with a choke attack. 'Kalarel attacks you, hitting an armour class of 32.' That's a hit. 'Oh, he stands up first, if that changes anything.' It makes him look a little more threatening, but it's still a hit.

'The exarch's weapon deals necrotic damage', to which I am immune. 'It also starts an ongoing damage effect, save ends.' My weapon's Nightbringer enchantment lets me make an immediate saving throw against any effect an undead creature inflicts upon me, and I succeed in negating the ongoing damage before it can even begin. 'And his choke deals necrotic damage', to which I am still immune, 'and does an ongoing effect, save ends', which Nightbringer lets me successfully save.

It is tempting to say that this fight will be easy, but I started the fight shrugging off several attacks in much the same way only to be beaten near to unconsciousness, and my allies also dropping to the ground a couple of times. I think I'll just be grateful that I survive the exarch's two attacks.

The leech returns to the fight, having disappeared briefly to recover from its wounds. 'The leech raises a finger and points it at the vampire minion, saying 'it is your turn', and it crumbles in to dust.'

'...his finger crumbles to dust?' No, the minion, apparently, restoring life force to the leech from the vampire. We ought to try to destroy the leech before the exarch, particularly after it strikes with shadowy force against most of us at once, sucking more life force from us to heal itself.

Adran combines his efforts with some beneficial spells from Lughar and Adoni-zedek, teleporting himself in to range of the leech to unleash a devastating attack. The first attack is an automatic critical, thanks to our deva's power, the second 'hits an armour class of 29'.

'Are you adding your +2?' He is. 'Then it's a hit.' We're not quite sure what the result would have been had he forgotten to add the extra two to the die roll, and encourage a quick roll of the damage dice to shake off the confusion. The critical hit and secondary normal hit obliterates the leech, leaving us little more to deal with than the exarch himself.

The final fight is before us. There are large bonescythes, ghasts being stinky, zombies dragging cauldrons, and fel vampire minions spewing from a side room. There is also a lich or a leech, we're not quite sure, but it probably wants us to bleed either way. And even though the boss hasn't turned up yet it apparently still isn't a big enough fight, as a zombie 'opens the door and a blast of heat radiates from the room' beyond, as an immoleth joins the fray.

'Does it radiate, or convect?' Thermofluid mechanics doesn't matter too much here, as I feel hot however the heat reaches me. Luckily, my nifty magical weapon, stolen from some corpse or other, lets me make an immediate saving throw to negate any effect a save can end if the originating creature is undead. The immoleth's fiery hit only deals ongoing damage, and my saving throw is successful, negating the start-of-turn effect before it even deals damage.

My increasingly powerful weapon is also now granting me immunity to necrotic damage, not merely resistance, so the damping effect in the main chamber isn't affecting me, neither are the undead creatures' special attacks. I have been the target of several attacks in the first round of combat and suffered no damage. If only the rest of the fight were to be quite so straightforward.

I am sadly not immune to other types of damage, notably physical, and I am clawed and sycthed. My companions are suffering from heat and necrotic damage as well as the physical. Exploding undead and a leech blinding us aren't helping either. Adoni-zedek is teleported to the boss's side and immobilised, taking plenty of bites and blood draining damage. We are knocked down. Lughar is able to restore Adran to consciousness, and Adoni-zedek follows a couple of times.

Eventually, the battle of attrition wears down the enemy more than us, the numbers whittled down to more manageable levels. If only we could find that leech's phylactery to remove his threat permanently. And we still have the boss to defeat. So far only we have only weakened his attacks, not his body.

It's the zombie apocalypse! We have slain Gyldra the butcher and her pets are revolting, and not just because they are rotting animated corpses. The zombie pens break under the weight of the surging undead, and the two goristro helpers we killed come back to life, all to avenge their fallen 'mother'. But we have our secret weapon. Adoni-zedek, invoker champion of holy area attacks, has at last been revived after fainting during a tattoo application and is ready to dish out the damage.

But first he mocks 4th Edition's notion of a single damage roll for multiple-target attacks speeding up combat. With a grand gesture Adoni uses a daily power and a burst of holy energy emanates from his position, engulfing every zombie. There are 29 enemies, each one caught in the burst, and each one requiring a separate attack roll to see if the power hits. Luckily, with the exception of the goristros, they are all minions and have identical stats, so most of the attack rolls are against the same defence value. And although a single damage roll would normally speed up the effects of the attack it doesn't here, partly because they are minions and any damage would kill them, but mostly because the power does no damage.

Instead of damaging the enemies our invoker's power dazes each of them and applies an additional effect. The beauty of this attack is that the dazed effect remains until the target makes a successful saving throw. Adoni hits every zombie, dazing each one, forcing the GM to make 29 separate saving throws on his turn, which is next.

It feels like half-an-hour by the time we get to the second PC's action, and we have already found out that although these minions drop if taking any damage they don't die as such. A successful skill check notes that they regenerate, and will continue to do so unless damaged with fire or holy attacks. Only Adoni-zedek can do this type of damage at will, leaving the rest of us to knock the zombies around like Weebles.

It takes a couple of rounds for us to get fully organised. Lughar creates a zone of snowflakes that heals us for a small amount each round, Adoni a second zone that grants temporary hit points each round. The zombies have no way to move us out of these zones, and the bonuses we are getting negate the damage the minions can inflict. Seeing this, and that three of us are simply standing lazily in the zones whilst Adoni casts one radiant at-will power each turn, the GM lets us skip to the end and sweeps the zombies away.

Victory is ours! Our confidence rises and an extended rest sees us ready to enter the ziggurat. We have the complete ritual needed to break the seal to the ziggurat, all that's left to do now is confront and defeat Orcus's exarch. I'm sure it will be easy enough.

The Hag is not susceptible to helping our plan to overthrow Kalarel and tries to send a warning with a tiny construct. I stomp it in to pieces which pretty much guarantees repercussions.

Even without the construct that was running away from us, we are faced with the hag and her two minions, a large goristro, which is huge, and a small goristro, actually large. Adran is feeling pessimistic, 'something tells me we're badly outnumbered here'.

'What, three against three?'