Oldschool Session 28 was played on Friday, Novemberr 30, 2013 using ACKS
Summary
After recovering from our previous outing and getting our collective asses kicked by a few hobgoblins and some big ass rats we knew that we needed vengeance. Well that and the whole, evil dark cleric who gets hobgoblins to sacrifice people for him, kinda needed investigating. Having been to their dilapidated tower a couple of times we headed back out, Gildenbough, Tarsus, Cord, and our Halfling friend Artharil, tracking back along our path. We were traveling along a familiar path. We were taking our time crossing a stream with Cord ahead while the rest of were covering his passage through the waters. Our party was well hidden and quiet, we thought we were alone. The only sound was our beating hearts.
Which made it a complete surprise when a skeleton crawled out of the bushes and assaulted Gildenbough. Within second we all found our selves surrounded by hordes of shambling bone skeletons carrying a variety of weapons. Even worse than their grinning skulls were the zombies that accompanied them. Artharil and Tarsus took refuge on the top of broken chunks of walls while Cord tried to stay hidden in on a low spit of land in the creek. Tarsus and Artharil fended off a few of the dead who could only come at them a few at a time. Cord managed to loose a number of arrows from his hidden position before being spotted and surrounded.
The dire nature of our situation was made deadly apparent to our little band when Gildenbough fell before an onslaught of blows. It was hard to tell in the furious fighting but it appeared that he never even landed a blow. We feared for his life and thought the worst was on us when Cord fell at almost the same time. Artharil was able to dispatch the creatures that surrounded him and remain hidden while Tarsus was forced to retreat off his wall when a zombie came up behind him. Luckily both surviving members managed to leave some of the dead re-dead before they retreated. Tarsus bolted up a sturdy tree and dumped his remaining oil down on the pack of dead that swarmed the base of his tree. Luckily it had been a misty morning and the tree wasn't dead, dry wood so the burning oil didn't spread. The conflagration spread to a few neighboring zombies and skeletons which fell in charred heaps. Meanwhile Artharil slowly moved towards our fallen friends while picking off stragglers who were occupied by the thief in the tree. A few of the dead wandered off after it was clear that they couldn't get up the tree but the rest fell before the combined arrows of Artharil and Tarsus.
The Halfling tended the wounds of our fallen friends. We thought all was lost when Gildenbough opened his eyes. We wiped his face clean of debris and blood and were shocked to find three massive scars stretching across his face and upper body. He seemed a little unsteady on his feet and clearly needed rest. Cord seemed too far gone to help although we had to try. When he opened his eyes we all took a deep sigh of relief. His eyes were a little cloudy and he seemed to be disoriented. We assumed he took a hard blow to his head but we'd later find that it seemed to be a semi-permanent condition. We'd counsel with Jophar when we returned to the keep for advice. While returning to the keep we stumbled across a few shallow graves and Artharil managed to find a gilded hand axe but not before more rustling was heard coming towards our position. We ran like the dead were chasing us to get back to the keep.
After returning and resting for a week we wanted to check out the area for more graves to inspect. While searching the area where the battle had taken place we found the opening to a water logged cave/tunnel complex. Lowering ourselves down into the hole we found ourselves in what appeared to be an old building from an ancient civilization. The roof was made of dirt and tree branches and water from the nearby river stagnated on the floor. We examined a few branches of the tunnels/building. One stopped in a room lined with skeletons and sarcophagi. Given our previous experiences we decided to come back for that room later. Following the tunnels we found one ended in a large mausoleum. Burial tombs bored into the walls, some of which were stuffed to capacity with various bones while others contained just a single body. There appeared to be some items worth looting but we wanted to make sure we were alone before spending the time to get it out. Following the last tunnel led to a room with a giant pile of bones in the center. Lurking on top was a ghoulish figure who immediately spotted Tarsus leading the way. We slowly backed up as more and more of the ghouls came into dim view, backed up by skeletons. Tarsus fought bravely but fell paralyzed from the ghouls bite. Cord pulled him out of the way while Gildenbough stood toe to toe with the vile demons. It was a miracle of timing but Cord was able to drag Tarsus back to the opening, tie the rope around his paralyzed body, climb up, and then pull Tarsus after him. All the while Gildenbough bravely fought the dead, standing tall in his full plate mail, when he heard Cord's call he ran for the entrance and made it up the rope while the ghouls lurked in the darkness below.
We will be back.
Total Treasure, Items, and Experience
Outing 1
Expedition Roster:
Principles: Gildenbough the elf, Tarsus the thief, Cord the thief, Artharil the halfling
Skeletons x13 = 169xp
Zombies x6 = 174xp
Total Encounter XP = 343 XP
Total treasure = 450 GP (loot included: gold arm bands x2, assorted copper jewelry, and an ornate (non magical) sword)
magic hand axe- keep sage was unable to identify, dug up by Artharil in the bottom of a shallow grave
Total Expedition XP = 793 XP**
198 XP to each PC
112.5 GP to each PC.
Outing 2
//Expedition Roster:
Principles: Gildenbough the elf, Tarsus the thief, Cord the thief
Ghoul x1 = 29xp
Total Encounter XP= 29 XP
Total treasure = none taken out of catacombs
Total Expedition XP = 29 XP
10 XP to each PC