Session 43: A fight of ups and downs

Scouting the battlegrounds

Different plans are discussed. Going downhill through the smoother slope to reach a thicket of trees, flanking around the hill to set an ambush near Kiznack and trying to bargain with Morova's notes for a calmer resolution. Yet the one the party decides on is an assault from the high ground they find themselves in.

Glunnn separates from the group attempting to figure out a good way for the party to approach from the top of the hill unseen. In the process of doing so he notices that a group of 8 ballistae wielding undead are hidden in the rocky outcroppings above the entrance. Furthermore the shambling undead reveal themselves to be zombies of the seemingly mundane variety.

He returns to the party and prepared, they attempt a stealthy approach.

## The battle itself

Enemy roster:

- 8 Crossbow wielding wights (lightly armored)

- 8 zombies

- 2 mummies (imbued with a cast of life transference)

- Surven

- Karrix

A messy battle begins in the rocky slopes of the hill, Eppa takes a fall whilst Glunnn and Kristoffer take advantage of the distraction to begin attacking the wights.

The first rounds of combat seem to involve only the crossbowmen, with the other undead seemingly in disarray, yet unbeknownst to the party Karrix and Surven were approaching them, hidden with an invisibility spell. They attempt to separate Eppa from the group by creating a gravity sinkhole that pulls him down the cliff. Kristoffer rushes to his ally - who is slowly being surrounded by a horde, in an attempt to run interference whilst Glunnn takes care of the last crossbowmen.

Karrix reveals himself to be quite slippery, dodging Eppa as he attempts and succeeds to burn all undead in the vicinity to a crisp. Furthermore the party realizes that, much like Vrisko warned them, their opponents would know how to counter them as the two wizards cover for each other's weaknesses.

The final stretch of the fight is a timeline of close calls as Karrix focuses on killing Kristoffer, his knife progressively grows stronger as the bard's lifeblood covers it, whilst Surven attempts to out damage the heals Eppa uses to keep everyone on their feet. Eppa stops him in his tracts by stealing his casting implement.

Surven perishes under Eppa's divine dragonfire whilst Karrix flees into the Tomb, seemingly a problem for later. The party attempt to follow, only to find his and the remains of multiple undead that tried to come to the wizards' aid, slain by the drastically reduced amount of bone burned skeletons, seemingly Vrisko's attempt to help the party.

Loot from the combat added here.

## Aftermath

A tired group reconvenes in Vrisko's lab as the woman seems hard at work to decipher Morova's journal's. She mentions that she has an initial solution to their problem, although it will prove difficult. It seems an essential body part of what Morova dubbed a "Necrarch classed undead" could be used as a host for her soul, although that theory is just that so far, as this does not seem to be the way Morova decided to go about things.

A problem for later.

The party decides to go share the good news with Kiznack, as well as the presence of the friendly mummy that will probably be their neighbor for the foreseeable future. But before they do any of that, they first have to determine what Ixxy's fate was.

Kristoffer knows she is alive, yet unresponsive and so they follow the trail of destruction created by the giant that chased her away. On the way they find destroyed undead corpses on trees, arrows and arrowshafts scattered around, but also, worryingly, a large amount of green blood.

They all reach the end of the Isle, with no signs of life around them. Noticeably, the ground just before the edge seems to have recently collapsed. probably under the weight of the giant. Under all that, yet more green blood can be spotted. A conveniently cast fly spell, lets Eppa check under the isle, whilst his companions secure ropes to get him or Ixxy back up in a safer fashion.

Eppa finds her, a broken husk of what she was, lying in a pool of her own green blood and unresponsive. She will need more than healing spells to make a recovery, but a quick magical heal renders her stable, at least for some hours.

Finally, the party reaches Kiznack.