| As the party (Dominic, Ignatius, and Jack with Drusila, Yarol and the Mechanical Man) rested, an old woman with Rigg in tow burst into the room. Rigg told them that the battle with the goblins and giants in Umbria is going badly. The old woman, Sarah as she called herself, was the same one, which told Jack about the treasure of Sikak. She seemed to be part of the mesh of conflicting conspiracies, claiming to support freedom and good. As the party discussed how to get back, she mentioned she was owed a favor by an airship captain. After gathering some priests of Automita, the party boarded the dirigible Sky Lion. It was small but sturdy craft, captained by Ferdinando Gallo, a wizard. His crew consisted of Mano a burly human and Simon, a distrustful gnome. The voyage was uneventful until they reached the desert when a series of sandstorms encircled the airship. With no other option, they hunkered down in a stone building created by Dominic. As the storm howled they heard the sound of splintering wood from outside. Fernando realizing the danger to his ship rushed out and was blasted by the skeletal bats ripping his ship apart. From their shelter, the party could see the grim reaper destroy the ship�s anchor chain with a single grasp. The ship flew off into the night crashing miles away. Several hours later the stranded group dug their way out and headed west to Umbria, while the gnome, Simon, started to complain of how they were cursed. They soon reached the edge of the badlands. The day was clear and cool as the party treks across the shallow rock strewn canyons. At the opening of a canyon they came upon three corpses impaled on spikes, wafting gently in the breeze. Using a speak with dead spell, Dominic was able to learn that an undead creature and the grim reaper had killed them. As they puzzled over this during lunch, one of their clerics suffered a heart attack and died. Simon again began to complain and blame the PCs for the deaths. As they pushed on, they came upon a new scene of death. A hanging tree with three withered corpses hung ahead of them and one had the features of Jack�s father. As Jack cut him down, his father animated and attacked. As his father fought he shouted out, �Son why? Why did you leave us? Why did you leave us to this pain? They took my soul!!�. Once the abominations were destroyed, they took one of the skulls to interrogate later. As it fell in Jack�s hands, it cackled harshly, �Jack, we will have our vengeance. Hurry or you�ll miss your mothers death. Ha ha-ha-ha�� Simon again grumbled about curses and doom. Moving with all possible speed, the party made it to the edge of a vast graveyard by sunset. Thousands of simple wood and stone headstones lay mixed with a few distinguished if simple crypts. This was Camlann, site of the final battle of the Umbrian forces after the burning of Avalon. Here over twenty thousand men died during a brutal three day battle, the Umbrians preferring death to capture. The only friendly looking structure was a simple peasant hut a little ways from the cemetery. In it, they found a simple human peasant girl, named Avrona. She claimed she and her grandmother were the caretakers of this graveyard, but �grandmom� was late from gathering herbs in the woods. After Dominic used detect undead, the youthful vampire fled into the nearby woods, the party in hot pursuit. The forest was a vile place of confining twisted trees and low-lying mist. Ignatius and Jack soon captured the creature in a web, but as they and the other debated how to defeat her, the nearby trees began to animated and attack. A fierce battle erupted as each tree that fell was replaced by a fresh tree. Eventually the evil treant behind this was found but by that time all of the airship crew and clerics of Automita were slain except for Simon who fled into the night screaming about cursed lands. Also night had fallen and the party desperately needed to make camp. As they headed away from the cemetery, the thick fog melted away revealing a wall of zombies and other lesser undead. After a quick struggle the party obliterated the undead, unharmed but running low on spell power. Then they began to hear screams from the graveyard. As they neared the source, they made out a set of graves being dug by several skeletons. Four of them were already finished and had markers: �Ignatius Nainodel�, �Jack�, �Dominic Terazine�, and �Nathaniel Edwards Mordekienan� (which was already filled in). The gnome was tied to a nearby tree, bleeding from torture. At this point the fog cleared and a withered goblin with stitched on fingers appeared with the grim reaper nearby. The small figure was dressed in blood soaked robes still dripping water. His voice dripped with hatred as he recounted his murder by their hands. A massive battle erupted, the goblin was quickly disposed of but his ghost continued the fight while Death attacked. Death was all but invulnerable until his scythe was finally stolen away by Yarol. The mechanical Man then attempted to kill the grim reaper with it but it was stolen back. Death finally fell to a hail of spells and blows, revealed as a powerful fake. The ghost, however unleash many horrible spells, returning Dominic�s flame strike and breaking bones. In the end he was battered by Ignatius�s force blasts and defeated. In his final attack he sent forth a mighty claw of dark energy, which ripped through Drusila killing her instantly. Defeated he muttered that this was but the first battle before crumbling into nothingness, leaving the victors to weep over the fallen. |
| Seeker of Revenge |