has taken them in and the characters are dreading the rumours circulating around town: "The Phantom Brigade is massing!!".Salazar has been seen travelling throughout the Nentir vale, gathering ghosts to his cause. Fortunately, the town has been able to evacuate many of their townsfolk ahead of the marching army. You have seen fit to stay and face the challenge awaiting the necropolis.
The party has been doing many things in the last two months to help the town prepare for the onslaught: They've been helping bolster the defense, other helping Faldyra in researching the origins of Salazar Vladistone and the Phantom Brigade, others helping refugees settle inside the walls as well as relocating to other communities, and others helping the local militia try to find and learn about Salazars' next course of action.
After preparations are made, Salazar shortly thereafter appears amongst the ghosts approaching the walls just outside of Hammerfast
. The commander of the legion of ghosts takes up a position much closer to the wall than the rest of his army and speaks to the masses of the outpost:"Hammerfast. Your walls spawned the corruption that fouled the grave of my love. Send out your Lady of Gold. Let the High Master pay the price for this transgression."An uncomfortable silence settles on the soldiers stationed on the walls. A dwarven messenger approaches the adventurers and tells them briefly that Faldyra is at the great library and has some important information to convey to the party about the commander of the ghost army. The party leaves and Thora Longhammer yells in dwarven to Salazar: "Go lie with the dead. Leave the living to walk over your grave".
"I have warned you not to defy me.", Salazar states, "I have given you a chance to save yourselves by acceding a simple and justified demand. Still, you refuse me foolishly and with unseemly coarseness. Now, you will all pay the price. I command the ghosts of the Nentir Vale...all of them."
The screams begin...inside the walls of the outpost. The six party members know they cannot defeat the whole army and ignore the cries for help. They attempt to make their way as quickly as possible to the Great Library. rounding the corner into to view of the library, five ghosts phase into the courtyard and set their eyes on the party and attack.
Valenae springs into action and rolls a religion check to see what her foes are. with a 19 she clearly sees that they are local residents of the necropolis and they are not attacking of their own volition. She knows that if she reduces the ghosts to 0 hp, Salazar's control of the spirits will be broken and the spirit can leave the area. Valenae knows that the have the same features as the ghost soldiers from Inverness.
Valenae strikes the dwarf closest to her with her glowing mace and provides a small resistance to Brandis for the hurt he is about to receive. Keira uses Valenae's entrance to dance around to flank the ghost and lands a sneak attack and the ghost is bloodied by her hard hit. One of the orc spirits concentrate on the squishy Jarren, while the other moves in on Belgos. Jarren takes a little damage while the ranger manages to dodge the blow.
Jarren shifts so not to be adjacent to the orc and launches a magic missile at the dwarf who was first damaged by Valenae. Fargrim joins her battle against the one dwarf, finally hitting and doing another good bit of damage. Belgos tries to find a little space and knocks an arrow and hits an orc in the chest. The arrow knocks the spirit to the ground temporarily. Brandis activates his aura and marches between the two orcs and dares them to attack him. He takes a swing at the same orc hit by Belgos and misses.
Valenae takes another swipe at the dwarf ghost and hits giving Brandis another small resistance to all damage for the next round. Keira remains where she is and finishes off the dwarf. As the dwarf dissipates, Keira and valenae hear the ghost thank them. One of the orcs wildly swing their battleaxe and the first connects with Brandins giving him ongoing damage. He seems to reel from the blow. The second orc flanks with his companion and still does not manage to hit him. Jarren send another magic missile at the orc that Belgos has injured and the orc reels a little.
The dwarves attack Valenae and Keira respectively and mange to hit them prying them away from the party. Belgos climbs the statue and launches another arrow hitting the orc again in the chest bloodying him. Fargrim charges one of the dwarf and hits hard. Brandis keeps his aura active and entices the orcs to attack hit again.
After a few more rounds, the dwarves and the orcs dissipate, the dwarves thanking the party for freeing them and the orcs cursing them. Brandis, Jarren, Keira and Valenae come out of the battle bloodied. Since they have no time to rest they make their way quickly to the great library to meet Faldyra. Feeling helpless, the players watch as the ghosts that are normally complacent tearing into the living beings of the town.
They open the doors to the great library....
Good encounter this week. It keeps getting better and leaving my characters at 2nd level seems to be making it a little tougher on them which is great.
How did your encounter go this week? How did your party fare in this one? Drop us a line and tell us how you did!