After a nine day stint of observing the fort and surroundings, the group thinks they are ready to have a go at it. Under the cover of darkness, flying party members proceed to approach the fortified manor house. They are fairly certain the fort commander is here with servants, and possibly a cleric. They enter under cover of a silence spell and surprise the lord of the manor while he is carrying a plate of snacks out of the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning. They slay him swiftly, then fan out to kill all the servants – men, women and children – before plundering the easily identifiable goods from the upstairs bedroom and study. No cleric is found, and it is not clear where such a cleric would be housed in any event. That seems odd, but there is no time to waste.
They return to the courtyard, slay some guards near the postern, then go about locking all the tower doors so each silo of soldiers is cut off from the rest. The next forty five minutes are an orgy of slaughter. The flying party eliminates the ballista guards, then descends (again under cover of silence spells) into the interior of the tower, entering the barracks and slaying all the sleeping occupants. The dead are inoculated with the spores of the bone collective and the party moves on. Those that are not asleep are quickly dealt with, their cries for help unheard. These scenes play out two more times, and it is only towards the end of the bloodletting that any serious attempts at defense are mounted. Massed enemies are exactly what fireball spells were made for, and soon the soldiers are slain. There is a brief encounter with a doppleganger in a low building near the southern gates that is dangerous and prompts a fair bit of head scratching.
Well – all in a good night’s work, but it is time to go, They deploy flying abilities and wing it into the countryside. When the sun rises, the party is several miles away, headed back out into the wilderness. They retrace their journey through the hinterlands, finding little activity along the route they take – presumably because they killed everyone they met on the way out. They draw near to the ruins where they met the undead general and have a brief moment of discussion about how this might play out. Is there treasure or treachery in the cards?
Maneuvering through the ruins and into the underground complex brings them to the general’s office. They enter and are congratulated for a job well done. They are just the kind of people the general wants running his future enterprise and this is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor. With that, he pulls his blade and sets about trying to kill the entire group. At the same time, scores of undead begin attacking from all sides, while undead crossbowmen try to puncture anyone they can see. The team of Digin and Fingers rally magnificently, but the knight clearly bears a magical blade that twists and turns, deflecting several deadly blows all the while inflicting terrible damage on Digin and Fingers. Zaal pelts it with magic missiles and the clerics shroud themselves in sanctuary spells. A leathery flesh golem attacks the group as well and its resistance to magic alarms the mage. The undead are mostly not a threat, but the leathery dude and the general are a problem. Zaal keeps firing away with magic missiles and for a moment it seems like things could turn their way. It is at this moment that the general gestures and all the healing that was poured into Digin is sucked out of him and transferred to the general. Digin falls lifelessly to the ground. Ruh roh Raggy!
This prompts a wholesale retreat – nay, a rout – and the group flees as fast as they can to put as much distance between them and these terrible halls as possible. There is monetary debate about how to kill that evil mofo, but in the end the decision is made to journey to a distant frontier city to see if they might be able to scare up any additional leads. A journey of about forty days awaits them, so off they go into the wilderness.
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