Priest
"Surfing Dude" on his Undine
Resume of (short) game on 30-4-95
Details
The PCs spent a couple of days hiding at Newtling Island, getting to know the newtlings better whilst waiting for the undead presence to leave the castle.
Sark, the Newtling spokesthing, questioned them on the Carmanian attitudes to Newtlings, other religions, undead, etc. and about the people likely to move into Northmarch soon. (Praxos vs. Antigonus). He mentioned that some of [Antigonus'] soldiers had skirmished with his people when they occupied the castle last year. He was also curious as to how the PCs had penetrated the vampiric search cordons to reach the Lake...
At length the PCs saw the Elders, three huge toad-like creatures which really look like a different species. These spoke Rathori / Tradetalk and unlike the smaller adults, seemed to have a sense of humour. The PCs got on well with them and were presented with a bottle of green 'firewater' liqueur as a present.
It was agreed that Sark and a couple of other newtlings would go to the Magister's house & negotiate with his grandson, Lord Arin, in 1-2 weeks after polling around the Swamp to find out the local newtlings' grievances.
Next day the PCs were invited out to check out the castle with the newtlings, as no activity had been seen there for over a day. They got on the roll-on, roll-over turtle and were ferried over to the lake shore (spot of 'turbulence' on the way) where they accompanied 12 newtling warriors through the semi-submerged Moranus (a zombie in a hut was quickly dealt with) and thus up to the castle.
The outer gate was open but the inner tower's door was sturdy and barred from the inside. Newtling Detect Undead spells registered targets inside and the lizards were anxious to enter, but couldn't get in; Marcus began scaling the walls to reach the top with a rope whilst the others puzzled below. But finally, a newtling who'd left earlier reappeared from the lake - surfing on his shield atop a rushing wave! It poured uphill and into the fort, then seeped under the tower door to lift the bar off inside.
Priest
"Surfing Dude" on his Undine
Meanwhile...Marcus had almost reached the top when a zombie's rotted face peered over the edge with that cheerful grin you have when your jaw's missing. Marcus' weak SAN cracked, and he began laughing uncontrollably. It emptied a barrel of liquid on the milling crowd below, who recoiled at first but then realised it was innocuous: neither oil nor acid.Marcus recovered his marbles after a short time, scaled the battlements and managed to throw the zombie over the edge, to hurtle to its doom below.
Meanwhile.... the others had followed the zombie inside, and a rather one-sided fight ensued against a half dozen zombies left inside the tower. Gelert got carried away by the excitement and led the charge up the spiral stairs getting way ahead of the more cautious others. He was bushwhacked by a zombie from a side door. This tussle continued until the zombie was left twitching & jerking spasmodically ("a bit like Mark's dancing", to quote someone who'd like to remain anonymous).
Meanwhile....Pan and Priest Surfing Dude led the remainder up the stairs in a considered manner.... eventually passing the still fighting Gelert....until a strange zombie all wrapped in bandages appeared, armed with two maces. This held them both off (and took quite a while to put down even with the help of spells from the priest, the Standing Wave, and Marcus striking from behind with Axe no. 1). The fight ended finally for Pan when the critter fought off the Wave - which lost its cohesion and reverted to normal water, thundering down the stairs - and crushed his leg. Pan toppled over and tobogganed noisily down the stairs in his plate armour. Hurtling to his doom, Pan approached Gelert's position.
Meanwhile.....Gelert was having a pretty tough time of it. He'd just been enveloped by a blob of Night and had become terrified; then a wall of water roared down the stairs, drenching him; and now some bugger careered into him with a great clanking and knocked them both out of the Shade, so its Fearshock activated again as they passed through to the outside again. Pan and Gelert were both shocked unconcious, so fortunately they never felt their final impact at the foot of the stairs. Pan regained conciousness a few minutes later, but Gelert seemed in deep shock and was only revived when the others, desperate, eventually laid him at the foot of an old oak tree on Newtling Island and worshipped it, asking it to intercede for him.
Before they returned home, Pan persuaded the others that they ought to go see the glacier as they were in the area. He explained that a map he'd seen showed a path over the Grey Mountains and a bridge (Alysbridge) over the ice, and he'd like to see this. It sounded interesting so they all headed north, albeit cautiously as the Newtlings suspected that some undead had headed that way a day or two before..
Landing on the lake shore everyone was seized by a sense of foreboding again, but carried on anyway.
There was indeed an old road into the mountains. It took a whole day to travel uphill to the bridge...
On the way, they came to an unusual ice-covered rock face:
It was a bit like a frozen waterfall, 30' high but there was no source for the water. There seemed to be a crevice at the side, where you could squeeze behind. Doing this, the PCs found themselves in a cave, brightly lit by the ice window and oddly, not cold.......??
What happens next?:... what is the cave?....why isn't it cold?....will our intrepid few make it up the mountain to the legendary ice-bridge?
