Drûr 4-7, 652 DR: Tarawyn meets the servants of Drāūn dark magic. Alcèrra finds perverted necromancy within Kry Moradem and seeks right an ancient wrong. Jak joins battle with an ancient priestess and pays with years of his life. Alcèrra appeals to the courtyard dead and raises an army for the Fisher of Souls, fueled by centuries of unfulfilled promise. Kelzerak pays for her deceit at the hands of misdeeds centuries passed. The return to Eldarkar.

Continued from Wings of Kelzerak.

Amdor, 4 Drûr 652

Jak returned to Alcèrra’s camp with an older man in cautious tow. The man stopped short of entering the area as the rotting bat creatures bounded toward Jak with claws flailing at the air, their teeth chattering madly. The priestess commanded the creatures to withdraw from the travelers before the bounding zombies intercepted upon the intruders. Jak introduced his companion as Tarawyn, Kaithah’s teacher when she’d lived in Eldarkar. Nervously, the older man agreed to stay at the camp for the day’s remainder and Alcèrra kept her rotting minions at a distance.

Wōdìndor, 5 Drûr 652

In the morning the group awakened and headed toward the ruined keep of Kry Moradem. Tarawyn was able to show the group a shortcut to the ruins though he claimed he’d never been to the keep himself. Once inside the structure, Tarawyn called to Jak. The perimeter of the keep grew into a writhing tangle of moving thorned vines. Someone knew they were here. Alcèrra began the lengthy ritual of commanding skeletons to rise from the keep’s courtyard. The lore-master explained that there had been a massacre here in 2nd century HK where the followers of the Ættràkari priestess Kelzerak had been slain in order to feed some dark ritual. The place had been avoided since and was believed cursed by those who lived nearby.

The group wandered into the main building and again pushed their way into the ancient chapel. Jak poked his head into the upper room but saw only guano and covered shapes. Seeing movement, he quickly withdrew down the stairs and regrouped with the others in the empty gallery. Soon, they could see shapes moving through the chapel, and an old female voice filled the walls of the keep demanding that the intruders “Bring me the other eye”. Stopping in the doorway, the mummified creature looked at the assembled adventurers with a large bronze eye set into the fractured socket of her skull. She was dressed in faded tatters and held an ancient device in her withered hands. Seeing that no treasures were forthcoming, the Dnurū coughed “Then there is no further use for you.” With some arcane words the room a magical darkness burned through the room, devouring the light in every corner. Alcèrra managed to cancel the shadows, parting the magical darkness to reveal her undead Heedar struggling through the gallery archway. Jak circled through a side door and attacked the creature from behind. Plunging his spear into her back, Jak was dismayed to find that its tip barely scratched her ancient flesh. The mummified priestess turned, raised her handgonne and fired. The explosion echoed through the keep. Casting the weapon aside, she raised her claw-like fingers and advanced on the spear-man. With each bony touch Jak’s body screamed and twisted. He fought back, cutting savagely with Punishment, but the trusted spear did not seem to mark the creature’s flesh. As the fight continued, Jak pushed the hair from his eyes, and adjusted his grip on the spear-shaft though his fingernails were growing long. Before he could retreat back into the gallery, sixteen years had been pulled from him. Alcèrra’s Heedar-zombies bounded in after Jak withdrew.

The priestess of death then turned her attentions to the bone-strewn courtyard. She had never tried to raise so many, but felt inspired by Tarawyn’s story to allow these souls their revenge. Standing at the gallery doorway, Alcèrra prayed allowed to her dread goddess as the courtyard dirt shifted and crumbled through the keep. Astonished, Tarawyn scrambled atop a fallen stone to avoid the skeletons rising from the courtyard ground. After 1781 years, the dead rose from their uneasy rest. As Alcèrra continued her prayers, she realized that her prayers were only the spark for this event, and that powers much older and stronger than hers were at work. Once risen, the skeletons pressed into the chapel in numbers that nothing could escape.

Dammon, Mishara, and Tressta appeared among the gathering skeleton legion. Dammon’s familiar skittered along the walls to a chapel window to observe the progress of the undead press. The familiar entered and returned with some of Dammon’s possessions, claiming that it did not think that Kelzerak would be a further threat. The skeletal command had piled themselves atop the Dnurū, pinning it to the chapel flagstones. Tarawyn, climbing down from his perch, begrudgingly agreed to enter through a high window and retrieve what he could from the upper room of the chapel. He first retrieved a guano covered bundle of Tressta’s cloak, a shield, and four large books. Next, he retrieved the remainder of the party’s clothes and items. After some healing, Alcèrra returned her attention to the chapel. Commanding the skeletons to part a path toward the pinned Dnurū, Alcèrra and Jak made their way into the crowded chapel and found the ancient priestess pinned to the stones as the familiar had reported. Though prone, Kelzerak the Dnurū was defiant, demanding the return of her book. After some argument,Jak maneuvered his spear through the pile of writhing bones and stabbed at the mummified creature. Her screams filled Kry Moradem as Jak repeatedly stabbed the point of his weapon into her undead flesh. The screams continued and continued. All in the keep stood by silently, listening to her horrible wailing, wondering how long it could last. Eventually, the unearthly wailing grew weaker and weaker, until a final plea which was ignored. The courtyard was finally quiet. Kelzerak, priestess of Ættràkar the Artificer was dead.

Over the next watches, the thorny barrier that had grown around the keep withered, crumbled, and blew away on the cool autumn winds. While the group was making plans, Alcèrra explained that there was much more work still remaining at Kry Moradem. The final command to her skeletal legion was for each to scrape a grave for their final rest. Thus, the courtyard was filled with the thousands of bony fingers clawing the dirt and stone, seeking to return to the earth from which they had risen.

Iyldor, 6 Drûr 652

The night was spent in the empty keep armory, with a cadre of undead to guard against the Heedar that lived throughout the walls of the place. In the morning, Alcèrra spent many watches walking through the courtyard and giving the ancient victims their last rites, blessing each with the grace and protection of Drāūn. The ashes from Kelzerak’s burned body were gone on the night’s winds. No ashes remained. The group covered the shallow graves before leaving at mid-day, heading back again toward the Village of Eldarkar. Arriving in the small town, Tarawyn invited all to stay in his empty home where he’d lived these past ten years. Most were happy to sleep in a warm home, while Jak and Dammon talked late into the night with the bard about the mysteries of the lands of Oð. Their conversations touched upon many things and places that neither had ever heard of, and some that they’d only heard in passing.

Irídor, 7 Drûr 652

By dawn it was time to leave again. Dammon winced at the rising sun, still weakened from his adventures. The small puncture wounds that covered his body were still fresh and unhealed. His eyes turned to the priestess. She’d passed him over in her rounds of healing these past couple days, and now she possessed his “Eye”. What was her quarrel with him? What had he done to cross her? What had he done to any of them to deserve this treatment? “In time,” he thought, “they will need me, and then they will learn their error.”

Continued in Troubles in Morén Burdrul.

Characters

• Alcèrra Nàdrelan
• Dammon Shroudson
• Jak of Cænden
• Kaithah Argentale: dead
• Mishara Mythdaras
• Tressta Drynsval
• Familiar
• Kelzerak: destroyed
• Tarawyn Mistvale
• Uul: dead

Played: 14 Nov 1998