WARNING: spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell abound in this post. Stop reading now if you plan to play this module.
Having cleared the second level of the dungeons under the ruins of Shadowfell Keep the heroes pressed onward. Delving deeper into the passages below they found a room with curious statues: a massive stone man wearing plate armor and wielding a greatsword, two dragons and four cherubs decorated an otherwise empty room. Venturing in they quickly triggered the traps! The great swordsman statue swung its weapon in a massive arc and knocked Berro to the ground. The rest of the party more cautiously charted a path around the statue and pelted it from range. A final shot from Moob dashed the statue into rubble on the floor.
In the deep south of the room Kahlashtar triggered the next trap in wide alcove cornered by the four cherub statues. A wall of force sprung up blocking him into the alcove as the cherubs began to pour water into the place. Once it reached about five feet deep it began to swirl in a great counterclockwise motion slamming the paladin into the statues. As this happened Moob used mage hand and great deal of direction from Rik to disable two of the statues. Kahlashtar managed to get a grip on one of the statues and topple it to the floor. The wall of force vanished and the water rushed out into the larger room, pushing the heroes across the way. Berro, again the target of a trap, fell too close to one of the dragon statues which blasted him with a wave for force and knocked him across the room.
The heroes licked their wounds and moved onward. In the next chamber they encounterd a horde of undead. Moob's blasts of fire, massive strikes from Kahlashtar, cleaving strikes from Berro and a well timed prayer on the part of Stadir felled the evil creatures, but not before the small clay construct that lurked in the place made a mad dash for a still deeper level.
Thinking it unwise to wander into the lower level with an enemy sentry ahead of them, the heroes checked one last passage on the second level that they had thus far avoided. It was nearly their undoing. A large gelatinous cube swept up more than half of the party and nearly destroyed them, but Kahlashtar's sword, Rik's dagger and a mighty blast of fire from Moob destroyed the thing. In the meantime, two creeping zombies ambushed Stadir. He managed to turn them and the heroes pursued and laid them low. Collecting their breath the heroes decided to call it a day and return on the morrow. They made the trek back to Ford uneventfully.
In Ford they learned from Lord Paedrig that the dead were walking in the nearby graveyard. A quick sweep of the place cleared it of the weak zombies and netted a bonus: they killed the elf ranger, Ninaran, who appears to have been a spy for a leader of the cult worshiping Orcus. The leader, Kalarel, was at work on some ritual beneath the ruins of Shadowfell Keep. The heroes determined to put a stop to his evil once and for all.
Setting out the next day they quickly entered the keep and made their way to the lower levels. Beneath the rotting room of undead they had dispatched the day before they found a temple with great streams of blood and a mass of enemies. The adventurers laid into the priest and his underlings with abandon. There was a mighty struggle for a bit as the evil priest landed wicked blows of necrotic energy and his minions fought with an unimagined bloodlust, but the heroes won the day . . . or did they? As the evil priest fell the sole remaining enemy, a creature of shadow, vanished from their midst with a cry, "I must warn the master!."
Having mistaken the underpriest for the true leader, the heroes bravely pressed onward. In the center of the temple was a pit into which streams of blood flowed. Chains slick with gore descended into the depths below. The heroes plunged downwards, some literally, who slipped on the chains and fell into a deep pool of blood.
The priest of Orcus, Kalarel, and his underlings launched an immediate attack. Two skeletal warriors and the priest laid Khalashtar low while a dark wight immobilized Mizz. The heroes moved to Khalashtar's aid, got him on his feet and began the counter attack. Things seemed to be going quite well. The evil priest, bloodied and fleeing, made his way towards the dark portal in the north of the room. Stadir called on the power of his diety to turn the skeletons away while the warriors knocked Karlarel to the ground a surrounded him. That was when things turned.
The dark wight, no longer content with pelting the heroes from a distance raced across the room with unholy speed and revealed its horrid visage. Terrified of this evil being the heroes dropped their guard and fled away from it. That was the chance that Kalarel needed. Leaping to his feet he raced to the unholy circle in front of the portal to the Shadowfell where his defenses were stronger and the unholy energy infused him and his followers with power. The skeletal warriors, recovered from the power unleashed by Stadir pressed foward. The heroes made their way to the unholy circle of power.
Again the dark wight faced the heroes and its twisted, demonic heritage struck them with terror. They raced away . . . towards the dark portal. A great groping hand lashed out and seized Kahlashtar, pulling him into the void. The skeletons, the wight and the priest then concentrated their efforts on single enemies until each fell or was forced through the portal to feed the hungry beast that waited beyond.
Finally, only Moob and Stadir standing, they turned to flee. The skeletal warriors flanked Stadir and cut him down in the pool of blood. Moob managed to make it to the chains and begin his ascent, but a final bolt of dark energy from the evil priest struck him down and he fell to his doom.
The heroes failed to stop the dark priest of Orcus in his unholy rite. What evil will he unleash on the world? What will become of Ford and the surrounding area? The Oshland Empire has long since crumbled, and no army awaits the undead that will surely flow from the Shadowfell this time. Who will avenge the fallen heroes and right these wrongs? Who will defend the people?
Who indeed . . .
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5 comments:
A TPK? That's brutal. Do you think the encounter was too difficult for the group, or was it generally just bad luck/rolls?
Not bad rolls. Some miscalculations and bad luck maybe. but not bad rolling. Also its a clever encounter, hard but not over hard. I was tha paladin.
Well, I wouldn't say it was all bad luck and not bad rolling . . .
1. Because there were six PCs instead of five I increased the BBG's hit points by 1/6 to 217. This is the only change I made to the encounter. At one point the PCs had him down to 209/217 hp gone. So, he would have been dead if I hadn't changed the hp.
2. Most of the PCs blew their daily powers and their action points on the previous encounter thinking it was the final encounter . . . oops!
3. I rolled successful recharge on the wight's fear power two turns in a row, meaning he used that power three turns in a row. Again, oops for the PCs.
4. There were a handful of bad rolls, but not more than the usual for a long combat.
5. I'm a rat-bastard DM. I played the bad guys to their fullest ability, I roll in the open and I don't fudge the dice. I figured this was "the big fight" and they had to earn it. I may have gone a little overboard.
However, they were using the pregen PCs and we knew ahead of time that this was the last session with these characters. Everyone was already going to make a new character for the "real" campaign this week anyway, so I don't feel too bad about it.
Now that you've finished KOTS, will you continue to post your real campaign?
Yes, I will. Hopefully we'll get some posts from the players as well.
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