GoCorral

This session was attended by Avery, Trajan, Will, and Ben. It was held on Google Hangouts with the camera pointed at my battleboard during combats.

Lich Switch

The party walked into the next room after obtaining the goose water. The room was quite dark, but upon reaching the edge of the room the darkness lifted. Hidden within the murk was the lich’s laboratory and library. Rows and rows of bookshelves stood at the back of the long room along with another door out. In front of the bookshelves a variety of lab equipment and specimens were littered about the room. Most notably were two unmoving undead looking zombies strapped to examination tables. Due to the party’s extensive knowledge of undead most people identified the strapped down undead as some new creation the lich must’ve been working on. At the center of the room was the lich along with a fearsome giant spider companion.

The party became immediately suspicious that this was not the true lich. This opponent wore half-plate armor and held a holy symbol which he soon used to cast spells on the heroes. The lich they’d heard of in stories was a spellcaster for sure, but no further info was given on him. However, the party had discovered that the Bane may be an elven wizard called Sahamathrian who constructed the Tomb of Kruk-Ma-Kali. The lich in front of them, if it even was a lich, did not match that description.

The party started things off with a dispel magic on the lich. That got rid of its spider guardian as well as a few protection spells. The lich started a combo of casting spiritual weapon and then silence on the spiritual weapon. Amalius was able to dispel that as psionic powers get around silence. The lich cast a few other spells, but nothing of consequence. It fell soon afterwards.

The True Sanctum

The party proceeded to ransack the lich’s room. Shoving all the books into the portable holes they had (Along with the silver pieces from before, the holes were just about full).

Tabling investigation of the rest of the lab equipment for another time the party moved on to the next room. This one was a large bedroom that the lich inhabited. The find the path spell directed Eathirilu to a large glass case with various weapons, maps, armor pieces, jewels, and scrolls on display. Hektor cast detect magic and found that a crystal ball within the case was magic. Aldarian was sent in to to detect normal traps. Aldarian began to act a bit evasive when asked if he found any traps. The reason became all too clear soon.

Aldarian looked for traps and found none, but he did find a secret door at the back of the bedroom by the glass case. Upon noticing it he heard a voice in his head, “Say anything and I assure you, the last one to die will be you.”
Aldarian puzzled over what to do before shouting, “Be on your guard! Something is about to come through this wall!” The party sprung into action. The mages prepared to blast whatever came out and Torin animated all the furniture in the room to block the secret door.

All their precautions were for naught. An explosion ripped through the room and poisonous gas followed instantly afterward. The secret door stood wide open, but no one had time to look inside for the true lich blocked the only physical way out to the surface. Great and terrible with arcane energy dripping from his fingertips, The Bane floated in midair between the party and his ransacked library. Magical items of all sorts covered his skeletal body and he held a mighty staff in his right hand. The words, “You should have listened,” came out of his tongueless mouth.

Shrieking like wounded birds, the party threw a few spells at the Bane, before realizing combat was a hopeless endeavor after spending so many of their resources getting this far in the tomb. Torin thought quickly and teleported everyone to the entrance of the tomb.

And The Bane teleported right behind them. With only one spell left, he turned Amalius into a toad. Torin shrieked and teleported to Dalleer. The Bane did not follow a second time.

Sanctuary at Dalleer

The party explained the situation to Bjorn at Dalleer. They all thought the Bane would soon come after them to reclaim his library and wreck vengeance for the damage done to his servants in the Lich Shade. Amalius was given some medical care and returned to human form. The party sat down and tried to think of what they could do to stop the Bane’s coming attack. After formulating a plan they rested for the night and prepared spells in the morning.

The party was having breakfast with the Bjorn in the morning and wondering where the Bane was. They had prepared spells, why hadn’t he? What was he waiting for? Eventually Amalius gave in and used divination to see when the Bane would attack. His answer was, “The time is soon. The time is now! The Bane’s attack will soon be found!”

Scrambling to prepare the party cast a few death wards. The Bane materialized outside the breakfast room window along with three giant wraiths. The Bane started things off by turning Amalius into a toad again. Fortunately, Amalius could still cast spells in toad form. Eathirilu gave everyone protection from fire. His pet raptor, Jack, ran in fear from the unnatural wraiths. The Bjorn turned into a shadow and disappeared. Everyone else threw their magical might at the Bane. The most crucial spell was a dispel magic which popped the Bane’s spell resistance spell, making the rest of the fight a lot easier for the casters, and the dispel caught the Bane’s iron flask before he had a chance to open it himself. This released the pit fiend inside with a burning desire for revenge on its captor. The pit fiend cast meteor swarm and a quickened fireball which nuked the house, but dealt almost no damage to the combatants as everyone had protection from fire. Amalius noticed the pit fiend’s hatred of the Bane and offered it an alliance, but the demon soon had problems of its own.

The wraiths ganged up on the pit fiend causing it to teleport away in fear. Torin did his best to blast the Bane or keep everyone else alive for the rest of the fight. The Bane turned invisible and created an illusion of himself which fooled the party for two rounds. Eathirilu cast true seeing and pinpointed the real Bane. The Bane didn’t let that last long and dispelled the true seeing. Eathirilu wild shaped into a dinosaur with scent and found the nasty dead smelling lich anyways. Unfortunately, he’d also lost his death ward and began losing out to the wraith attacks. Torin renewed the ward.

Meanwhile the Bane had cast a Bigby’s grasping hand to mess with whatever casters were around. The hand chased Hektor to the edges of the fight. Amalius jumped into Aldarian’s pocket and skirted the edge of the fight, blasting the Bane. The fight continued in this way and eventually the sheer amount of punishment defeated the Bane before he could slay a single party member. His body turned to dust as he said, “I shall return and keep my promises, mortals.” Upon his death the wraiths immediately fled into the Bjorn’s burning house.

A Thankful Tartarean

The party quickly called the police. The Bjorn said his pet dinosaur had caused the fire and the explosions with his hideous farts. He’d also farted up some nasty wraiths. The clerics of the town were called in to find and destroy the wraiths. A few create water spells put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the town as well. A glorious victory for the party!

After snatching up the Bane’s equipment all the party members heard a demonic voice in their heads, “Thank you for freeing me from that wretched prison. I too wish the Lich’s doom. His phylactery is contained within the pillar of the Lich Shade itself. I hope you find it soon for he will return at full strength in a few days. I am not ungrateful for what you have done for me. I shall find you all again in one year and grant you whatever you desire. Until then I bid you goodbye.”