| Following the party�s (Dominic, Ignatius, and Jack with Drusila and Yarol) occupation of the haunted citadel, they recruited a small army of servants, workers, and guards for their stronghold. They had a short conference with the town leaders about who should be the town leader, deciding to make Hank wartime leader for the time being. They set their followers on the task of cleaning the castle while they went to save Jack�s mom. At Amberton, Jack scouted out the area. The town itself was abandoned and a continuous droning could be heard from the graveyard. Upon poking his head over the wall, Jack was spotted by an undead ettin and shot with magic missiles. Getting the others, Jack returned to the graveyard. Despite vastly greater fire power, the party�s poor planning allowed a small swarm of shadows to get the drop on them, while the weakened undead giant fled underground. After turning the shadows, the party destroyed the other minor undead digging up the graveyard. They hurried below and found Jack�s mom, catatonic from weeks of torture. As they left the necromantic center they fell into a trap set by the undead they failed to kill earlier. The shadows managed to severely sap the party�s strength. They hurried south attempting to put as much distance between them and the undead as possible. Unfortunately this did not stop an attack by an armored figure and a band of wights. Dominic hit him with searing light though, forcing him to teleport away after blasting them with an unholy fireball. The wights were soon crushed. Once back in town, the party began to deal with their stronghold as well as help the town in their own ways. Ignatius entertained the town�s children, while Dominic involved himself in various construction projects. Jack concerned himself with organizing scouting patrols and maintaining the citadel. They got the old forges started and cleaned the old torture chamber of a fiendish visitor. Then a goblin riding a worg arrived bearing a white flag. He claimed that the giant leader, Prince Udrek, wanted to meet for peace talks in the confines of Red Forest. None of the party or town leaders believed this though and they convinced the messenger to ask Udrek for change of location. As the goblin left, the party set out to hallow the citadel. It was in the midst of this ceremony that the ghost, Czet, attacked along with a horde of kobold skeletons. After striking down Dominic with a heart attack, he did battle with the rest of the party using the walls to his advantage. Eventually running low on spells he possessed Drusila and the party had to subdue her to force him out. Then Dominic, reinvigorated, took the fight to him outside the tower and incinerated the ghost with searing light, sending him straight to hell. Soon after hallowing the area, a new goblin messenger arrived (the old one was beaten against a wall until his arm fell off). This messenger informed them that the giant still has a captive from last battle and after some wrangling they decided to meet in plains. The group headed to the plain and under a storm they met two trolls and a hill giant. The giant claimed Udrek was on his way, but in reality he was stalling until four goblins riding dire bats attacked the party from above. The fighting was fierce and the party was badly hurt, but with Ignatius�s spells and Dominic�s summoned dire bats they emerged victorious. But the goblin riders managed to escape and worse yet, Dominic received a sending that the dwarven mines of Silver Hold had been breached by the goblins. |
| Goblins and Ghosts |