Session 10

Riversedge (Part II)
Prepared for the horrors to come, the adventurers spread out through the town, patiently waiting for their enemies. The newly-trained villagers positioned themselves on the other side of the Azure River, bows in hand. They held their breaths as the sun set over Riversedge. Almost instantly, a group of zombies appeared from just beyond the treeline and ambled toward the Shrine of Avandra. The villagers began to fire a volley of arrows at the monsters, weakening them slightly for the adventurers to finish them off. Taargus and Caraga were the closest to the shrine, and they were the first to attack. Taargus smashed one of the creature to bits with his maul, and Caraga crushed the head of one of her fallen foes with the heel of her boot, ensuring it would not get up again. Fausto warned Taargus to duck, and pierced a zombie's brain with an arrow at long distance before deciding to take a nap amongst the cover of the trees. Cora, who had been waiting near the cliff, hoping to draw the creatures towards her so they would be crushed under the boulders, caught up with the rest of the gang and beheaded the remaining zombies. Twitch, meanwhile, and been exploring the forest, and found a pair of boots of spider climbing in a hollowed-out rock. Wearing the boots, he climbed a tree to get a better view, and saw the next wave of zombies approaching. The rusty cogs in his brain began to mesh, and he formulated a plan.

As the zombies drew closer, he retrieved the capture net that Cora had taken from Finnian's storeroom earlier that day and brought it back up the tree with him. The group spent much time debating how best to net the un-dead creatures, and tried to lure the large group to the tree. In the end though, Twitch's plan proved fruitless, as the zombies easily fell when the group used the tried-but-true "attack with weapons" approach instead. As soon as the second wave was down, a third group of zombies appeared. This group was the most formidable yet, with gravehounds and flying zombies as well. Taargus being their closest opponent, the zombies seemed to hone in on him, and he received several terrible gravehound bites. The rotwing zombies swooped down over the napping Fausto, jolting him awake and bringing him into the action. Eventually, this wave too was put down, and the night was silent. Exhausted, the adventurers breathed a quick sigh of relief, but knew their task wasn't over yet.

Using their superior tracking skills, Fausto and Cora lead the rest of the group to a cave deep in the woods. The cave was dark, and the adventurers could see no more than a few steps in front of themselves. Coming across a fork in the road, the group split up, with Cora and Taargus taking the right branch, and Fausto and Caraga taking the left. The right branch of the cave was covered with a thick layer of cave slime, which neither Cora or Taargus noticed in time, and both ended up slipping and falling. Twitch, unwilling to help his colleagues up, made a daring leap and jumped over both the slime and the prone bodies of his companions. He landed on the other side of the pool of slime and discovered a corpse, which had apparently been in the cave for quite some time. He looted some valuables from the corpse and, finding nothing else useful in what was obviously a dead end, he headed back to the cave slime. By this time, Cora and Taargus had gotten up, and both ignored Twitch as he failed to repeat his first spectacular jump, landing face down in the slime. Meanwhile, Fausto had ventured deep into the cave, taking care to avoid stalagmites as well as the alarming amount of skeletons on the floor. He sensed an eerie presence, the feeling getting stronger the farther into the cave he went. Eventually, everyone but Twitch had caught up to Fausto, and it was at this point that the group was addressed.

"Hello, Taargus," an inhuman voice whispered from somewhere in the dark. The dragonborn, being the closest, was the first to spot the Lich in the center of the cave. "I was waiting for everyone to show up, but I suppose this will do." An uneasy feeling settled over the adventurers, and they demanded to know who the Lich was, why he was there, and how he knew about them.



"I've been waiting for you...the prophecy told me you would arrive here. I know you've been doing Elric's bidding - I can smell his stench all over you. That fool couldn't undo what has been done, and neither can you. He should have known better than to bargain with an imp!" The Lich in no uncertain terms told the group that they were to hand over the items that had been left to them in Elric's will and to stop searching for answers, or they would not be allowed to leave the cave. The valiant protagonists refused, angering the undead spellcaster. A flash of light, and the Lich was gone, leaving a fog of choke frost where he had been. Also left behind were the skeletons on the floor, which began to shake and rattle as they rose from the ground. But the adventurers were not deterred, and soon the skeletons were just piles of bones. The choke frost faded once all the enemies had been dispatched, revealing a small sack. Fausto was the first to approach it, and within he found a circlet of authority and a ritual scroll.

The sun now peeking over the horizon, the weary group made their way back to the town. The citizens of Riversedge, knowing the threat had passed, cheered at the sight of their returning heroes. They scrounged up as much money as they could to reward the adventurers, thanking them profusely for saving their village. The adventurers accepted the halflings' hospitality, and spent the rest of the day getting some much-deserved rest.

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