The Justice League of Scowling..

Friday, July 22, 2011

Part Ten: Maelbrathyr, the Ruined City

After coming around a quick bend in the dirty, carved passageway, the party found themselves at the top of some underground steppes. The large path below zig-zagged back and forth, and at the bottom they saw the crude entryway into some ruins of an old, sprawled city that disappeared into a dark horizon. Masses of shambling undead wandered the ruins, all slowly headed to the sound of cannon fire on the far end of the city. Near the center it all was a glowing, hovering figure swathed in robes and pulled the deceased souls up from the ground, rabidly adding to his undead army.

Sevah also noticed something else disturbing among the ruins. Four hulking dog like creatures appearing to be patrolling the ruins, stopping only to sniff the air and then return to their affairs.

The party descended down the steppes following the dirt pathway, when they noticed a group of skeletons marching up to meet them. Having the high ground, the party easily cut a path through small patrol, and soon found themselves at the entrance to the ruined city. They took a moment to discuss their plan of action. They soon realized the cannons firing were aimed at the hovering figure it's newly created undead army. There were too many skeletons inhabiting the collapsed city, and they decided to pick some side streets and stay on the move. As they were hunkered down behind the entrance walls, Riardon realized that some of the locals had spotted them and were shuffling slowly towards the party.

Quinn led the charge and gathered up the skeletons. As he demanded undead's attention he barked at the rest of the group to fall back to the streets as they planned. The party started to move and the paladin pulled the undead scourge with him. As the lifeless bones collapsed to the dirt, the party noticed even more skeletons lumbering towards them. Brother Japeth called upon the powers of light to try and decimate his foes, inflicting the undead with radiant damage.

Upon doing that, the large undead canines slowly inhaled some of the air about them. Then they quickly reared their heads, and started to plod their way towards source of the radiant light. Quinn and Brother Japeth realized that any radiant damage would draw the immediate attention of the undead, dog like guardians, hindering the progress of fighting the massive undead army.

The party pushed on through the ruins, fighting group after group of skeletons, and finally got close enough to the center to witness the robed figure pulling undead from the ground. The cannons firing was being delivered by a group of dwarves from behind some crudely made metal fortifications in front of a carved cave mouth. While the cannons were effective at destroying the undead menace, the party could tell it was just a matter of time before they would be overwhelmed. Sevah deftly sprinted ahead towards the heavy barricade while the rest of the party concentrated on more of the skeleton groups and the necromancer.

Suddenly, one of the undead canines that had been tracking the party appeared nearby and charged. The beast was enormous and Riardon noticed the creature had no eyes, just empty sockets, and also on it's back were two bat like useless wings that were tapered with rotting holes. Taking a seemingly long time to kill, the canine howled and finally collapsed. The party decided it was for the best not to draw the attention of any more of the hound like creatures, as three on them together would certainly mean instant death.

Their attention turned back to the necromancer and the skeletons as they hurried up to join Sevah and the dwarven cannons. With guns blazing, arrows finding their mark, and magic bolts searing forth, the undead army finally fell, along with it's creator. The large canines seemed to lose their focus as well and dissipated into piles of smouldering ash.

The dwarves thanked the party for their assistance and asked what they were doing so far into the Underdark. The mage stated they were looking for one of the torture dens of Torog, but had been unable to locate it. The dwarves knew the location, and offered to either take them to the den or make their way back to Forgehome, further on down into the cave. Eagerly wanting to find the torture den and it's treasures, the party asked to be escorted to it's whereabouts.

A small band of three dwarven scouts led them and they backtracked across the now barren city, up the steppes and though the drow jails. Back near the fallen beholder zombie corpse was a small crop of fallen rocks, and with the help of the dwarves and their mining picks, they made short work of the collapsed area, and formed a new entrance.

Further down the newly made cavern pathway, a thrumming bright glow lit up the room ahead.

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