Episode 49: The Lich's Treasure

## Episode summary

After having Angel search for traps, the party enter the Pelor temple. Black takes the door, while Little One searing charges through the window and Draven hangs back to fire through said window. Daggerface is instructed to sit out the battle because, y'know, lich. They like him alive.

Inside the temple are rows of stone pews, leading up to an altar with the remains of what was once a golden statue. Sitting on the altar are two hooded humanoids, slumped forward. In each corner are heaps of silver coins interspersed with random weapons and armour. Finally, stained-glass windows high in the walls on both sides fill the room with a green light, especially the particularly large and intricate one above the dais.

Everything fades to black, as the party experience their final illusion. In this one, the lich brings a massive zombie army (almost a square mile) to assault Swayne's fortress of Hydelide Castle, along with some Giants that are apparently native to the eastern mountains of the Shadowfel. The giants attempt to bash down the doors with boulders while the Lich's undead horde keeps Swayne's horde from interfering.

Suddenly, an invisible force begins to move through the army, felling one giant after another and spraying their blood up into the air. However, the Lich was prepared for this. As Swayne cleaves through a row of zombies, slimes that had been hiding inside adhere to him. This slows him down enough for the Lich to hit him with a solar orb that expands to a 60 ft sphere on contact. However, this is not enough to stop a Vampire King. The Lich summons a mithril lance and flings it at Swayne's heart, but he easily catches it and instead uses it to kill the Lich. The whole time, he looks bored. As if destroying this pitiful challenger is just another chore.

Back in the temple, Black checks on the two hooded figures. One is Zaheer, while the other is ... William Gabriel Black. Black's father. He's emaciated and unaware of his surroundings, but still alive. Black begins to carry him outside, but then a bundle of armour scraps and tattered scrolls begins to rise from a pile of coins. The Lich isn't a Lich anymore. He's a Grisgol.

Little One charges the Grisgol, but is foiled by a mirror image spell. Mora opens fire with her crossbow and Angel does likewise, dropping all but one illusion. Draven hits the real Grisgol twice, but both shots bounce off his AC. He also hits the final illusion, destroying it. The Grisgol moves away with dimension door (he has the Greater Dimension Door buff) and counterattakcs with a custom spell that is effectively a level nine version of Evard's Black Tentacles. Black makes it through the tentacles' grapple attempt, but Draven doesn't, which with his low strength means that he'll be grappled for the foreseeable future, massively limiting his spellcasting options, especially with his poor concentration. Little One is also grappled. Black retaliates with his Figurine of Wondrous Power, while also running across to the door. He then hands his father off to Daggerface, who takes him outside to (relative) safety.

Draven escapes with his Armour of Etherealness (which he simulates with an artificing effect cast daily), passing through both the tentacles and the wall of the cathedral. He also activates his shiny new Belt of Battle, but none of his shots beat the Grisgol's DC. However, from analysing the exact effects of the bolts (i.e. rolling an arcana check), he works out that the undead bane isn't having any effect, because the Grisgol is in fact construct, not undead.

The Grisgol begins attacking with a Lightning Ring. Little One breaks out of the grapple with a natural 20 and gets a Disrupting Blow in (at this point he has +26 to hit). As is so often the case, the construct fails its save, because this is perhaps the only construct-affecting ability that *has* a willsave, allowing the party to wail on him for the rest of the fight. Black casts Divine Transformation and joins the scrum around the Grisgol. Working together, the party drop the Grisgol fairly quickly. Its last words are "Kill him. Kill Swayne".

All of the green glowing windows shatter, except for the big one, which merely fades from green to pale yellow. They shove the Grisgol's corpse into Dravens's portable hole and bury it under mounds of silver coins and magic items. LittleOne stops to inspect one of the coins and finds that it's of Drow provenance, which is odd as silver coins are normally produced by Pelor's worshippers, who saw gold as holy. Coupled with the fact that this used to be a temple of Pelor, there is a strong implication that there were once Pelor-worshipping Drow.

Outside the temple, the prisoners slowly come to. William has particular trouble believing that the constant tormenting visions are truly over, but Black eventually manages to convince him. The party congregate in the temple and Draven whips out his senchara stone, shattering the large window, which was also a spirit shackle. The released spirit is ... an aardvark. It promises them a boon in the future, but also insists that it must go home at once. Moving slowly at first, it accelerates almost exponentially and by the time it reaches the door it's supersonic. However, Lady Hazemura's hologram soon shows up to warn them that "the situation has worsened in the last month" and that they need to get out ASAP, but the transmission is then disrupted, which is never a good sign.

The after-credits scene shows a Mindhunter retrieving the Lich's phylactery from the giant worm creature seen last episode. This likewise is never a good sign.

## Trivia

* This was the first video to contain music from an artist other than Demonac, specifically Benjamin Bublitz's Ancient and Forgotten.