Session 12-6-08

Alindor 5, 23CR

Borne swiftly over the burning Thornwaste by their giant owl mounts, the four friends make their way back north towards the great mesa and the Ghostlord's stone lion fortress. A violet and orange hued sunset to the west reveals two specks on the darkening horizon, betraying the presence of the two black dragon zombies that chased them southward earlier in the day.  Jack and Kaelin fly in the front rank while Ayotunde and Altaer fly behind for protection.  As they approach the great mesa, the adventurers choose to dismount about a mile from the stone lion edifice rather than risk their owls' lives in battle with the Ghostlord.  They know a fierce combat approaches, and so prepare blessings and enhancements as befits their power.

Sure enough, as they near the great stone lion a familiar silhouette emerges from the shadowed side of the massive structure, its serpentine form dark against the sunset sky.  Varanthian, the great behir who died at their hands in service to Ulwai Stormcaller, lives again in undeath as a juju zombie!  She hisses in anticipation of the feast to come, as Urikel Zarl himself levitates downward from atop the lion's head.  He lifts his withered, bony arms ceremoniously, and as they drop to his sides, the entire lion rumbles and begins to collapse in upon itself, causing the earth to shake and huge clouds of stone and grave dust to spill forth.

With a gesture and a few words - "Blight Guards, rise!" - he calls forth from the  two large equine skeletons, armored in half-plate and armed with pulsing, necrotically-charged glaives.  His two zombie dragons wheel about and come into a combat dive, heading towards the party.  The four brace for violence.  The Ghostlord coughs and wheezes in a strange imitation of life, though his lungs long ago shrivelled and cracked into dust.  "I... sensed its destruction at your hand, Jack Dunstan," he cries.  "I think... you will destroy me this day.  But I cannot stop.  I must spread the blight ere I am able, to the last speck of my will.  That is... the price," Zarl's voice grows more shrill and aggressive, and he concludes hungrily, "You returned my phylactery to me only to destroy it, you 'heroes,' do you exist only to torment me?  Well so be it, I will make flesh-and-bone puppets of all your bodies when you are shrivelled and DEAD!"  He orders his undead into battle after casting haste, and targets  a fell necromantic curse on Ayotunde, who resists its effect with her strong will and Shandae's blessing.  Zarl seems protected by numerous spells, including mirror image and displacement.

Eager to try out her new crusader combat techniques, Kaelin wades into the fray armed with her electrified blade and nigh-unbreakable shield.  She engages the blight guards, using her White Raven combat poetry to inspire courage while dealing blows with the strength of Stone Dragon and the ferocity of her Devoted Spirit.  Though she is bloodied by the equine guardians' attacks, Kaelin soon crushes one beneath her blade.  Ayotunde burns one of the zombie dragons to ash with a well-placed flame strike, while Altaer concentrates on weakening the huge Varanthian zombie with his searing fire spells.  Jack fights alongside Kaelin, helping to destroy the other blight guard and sniping at the other dragon zombie with his eldritch blast opportunistically.  

Soon both zombie dragons are destroyed (the second one caught by Altaer's flame magic and sent spinning and tumbling in a flaming heap off the side of the mesa) and the group faces off against the Ghostlord directly, with only the badly damaged Varanthian to protect him.  The behir zombie's eyes glow with specks of malevolent red radiance, and its electrical nature is clearly intact as it vomits a storm of lightning through the party's ranks.  Urikel Zarl follows up with a cometfall upon Ayo, cratering her with full impact and knocking her past unconcious to death's door, lying bleeding and out.  The three remaining heroes redouble their efforts against Varanthian, with Jack and Kaelin flanking the reanimated behir and laying into her deeply, allowing Altaer to finish her off with a rapid-fire series of molten, searing scorching rays.  Varanthian's body goes down in a flaming heap of burning flesh and scorched, melting bone. 

Jack and Kaelin charge towards the Ghostlord while Altaer prepares another fiery assault.  Jack interrupts the blight-lich's casting with a deadly swing of his scythe, while Kaelin brings the power of the mountain hammer with an electrified bastard sword blow.  Altaer concludes the Ghostlord's unlife with another white-hot assault of scorching ray, first burning and then melting Urikel Zarl's shrivelled bones.  "Aaaagh!" screams the lich hoarsely as it feels its end coming.  "I do not want to go! I do not want to die, I am afraid! I will spread the blight!  Noo...I must die!  I must die!"  At last, the Ghostlord is no more.  Jack looks back to see Ayotunde stir, and quickly returns to her to administer a healing potion.  A few moments later, Ayo returns to consciousness and hefts the rest of the potion, gasping from the tingling cold sensation as her wounds close.  The party stands victorious among the dusty ruins of the Ghostlord's lair.  Zarl collapsed his home rather than have it fall into their hands, destroying and burying all his secrets and choosing to face his destiny head on.  Perhaps at the end he knew that he had to be stopped, but his fear of a final death kept him clinging to a pitiful undead existence.  The Ghostlord's reign over the Thornwaste has ended, and the proud lions of the thorny savannah will once again run free and thrive.  It is for these lions that the Lions of Brindol - the honor guard for the recently beseiged city of Brindol in the Elsir Vale - are named, and therefore fitting that the heroes of the Brindol siege were the ones to free them from the blighted yoke of Urikel Zarl.

With the completion of this grim but necessary task, the four companions heal their wounds, walk back to their owls and take flight for Dunstan.  They arrive by early morning, before dawn on Alindor 6.

The Threefold Sundering