Visiting Keth

This is a Low Fantasy campaign set in the Geb River Delta (Map #11).

The starting location will be the boomtown of Keth, a small village that has grown up out of the sand a day’s hard ride to the northeast of Osiris, where the sands of the desert meet the fading green of the delta, and largely the village thrives from spring-fed vineyards of grapes, the wine they produce, some black lotus sales, and the archaeological dig site.

Character Creation

From Fantasy book:
In low fantasy, and in fantasy based on folklore and fairy tales, point values below 100 often work well. An ordinary man thrown into adventure can be a 50-point character. In higher fantasy, characters built on 100-200 points work better; the added points can represent the Rank, Status, and Wealth of aristocrats, or the skills of veteran adventurers such as the heroes of sword and sorcery. In a dark fantasy setting, PCs may need the added points just for survival!

Characters in this session will all need to either be working with/for Damus of Osiris or be from Keth and have some functional and amicable relation to the village holy man Nigel. If you wish to be something other than a human in this campaign, it's totally doable although you will have to have a good back-story and a -15 pt Unusual Background.

Characters should have diverse but believable skill sets. Likely characters will be some sort of adventurer, mercenary, or have an interest in the archaeological dig in Keth. being a merchant, archer, scout, shield-baring warrior, caravan guard, Black Lotus peddler or addict, fine wine connoisseur or anything else that we can make fit could all be possibilities.

Characters will have 110 points to start with and up to -35 points in disadvantages but these must be a tangible part of your back story and your character during role-play.
Characters will be semi-literate by default(B p24) in the Common tongue, literate will cost 3 pts.

Equipment

• Characters will start with the TL3 starting wealth of $300.00 which in Gurth recently has been three-hundred silver pieces. This can be modified by choosing the Wealth advantage or disadvantage with story backing accordingly. Clothing, weapons, armor and gear should be purchased at base cost in the Characters book from starting wealth. If you have $300.00, you have nothing and are naked walking the harsh stones of the hills. A gold piece is ten silver pieces.

Specialized adventure gear and magical items from Dungeon Fantasy - Adventurers are fine. Magic items must be purchased with character points, at a cost of 1 point per $1000 cost.
* You may buy power stone(s) by spending 3 character points per power level, with a maximum of 10 power level total in all stones/items. Spending 30 points gets you a single 10 point powerstone, or two 5-point stones, etc.

Party

Oak Darkshield played by Lord Wedding

Nigel played by brantdanger

Jimmy the Shank played by Anthonius

Bartholomew Figgis played by Blyzka

What Happened

Lurking Shadows

After Oak loaned Jimmy enough coin to rent a horse from Osiris, which Oak ensured was the slower and weaker of the two steeds, Oak and Jimmy rode to Keth.

Jimmy took his leave to "take care of some business," Oak shrugged and asked around about a holy man. He learned of the Elders who meet around the fire ring Thursday evenings east of town, the westerner in the remodeled school building, and the old defunct temple down by the river, where only a few destitute camp out and hope the old gods bring them boon. He found the western holy-man Nigel and learned briefly of the power of Nuada. After a brief meeting and Oak describing his employ with Damus, Nigel agreed to help obtain some Oreech and possibly wealth from Damus as even servants of the all-powerful nuada need financing. They agreed to meet up the next day after Nigel tapped some contacts and Oak found his compatriot.

Oak then found the Sandy Hole Inn where he obtained stable for his noble steed and a room for his weary bones. He "befriended" some locals briefly and learned some of the dig site and its cruel taskmasters in red. Nigel visited a member of his flock who seemed well-informed, Tallas the Moneylender. Tallas told Nigel that anything of perceived value from the site goes via wagon to Osiris and from there via boat back to the Royal University in Cormire.

The following morning, Nigel orates about the need for bringing any Oreech in to the church for blessing by Nuada to his flock, while Oak joins weary diggers to their work-site where he met Quarf the half-orc task-master and pretended to need employ briefly, not finding any due the combination of his sudden fear of the dark and being nocturnal.

At the end of Nigel's sermon Vigneron Violetip the vineyard owner approached, concerned about Raul, his elderly volunteer worker whom Nigel had healed two days past. Nigel agreed to accompany Vingeron to the old man's apartment to look for him. Enroute, they crossed paths with Oak who was returning to the church to find Nigel. After kicking in the door to Raul's apartment they found nothing but his meager possessions, rags, dust and old uncomfortable furniture in a small one-room apartment. From there they returned to Vigneron's estate thinking maybe the old man had been again afflicted with the mental daze and mumbling which Nigel had healed previously.

Oak and Nigel found the old man at the far end of the rows of grapes, scrabbling in the dirt. Upon closer inspection he was unearthing a long buried corpse and had apparently already removed another from the earth. They hauled him back to the estate and tied him up much to the dismay of Vigneron. However, tying him was simply so Nigel could bestow divine healing upon the old man while Oak chanted "Nuada, Get it done!" without Raul wandering off in a stupor. Once his senses were regained, they took old man and vigneron out to inspect the dig site where they learned that the corpses were Raul's perished wife, Ophelia, (missing) and brother, Rassum, now short a finger. The old man broke down, Vig threw up and all agreed to keep Raul at the estate and surveille for evil or other funny business over the night. However, as it was just past lunch, Nigel and Oak returned to town proper for the afternoon.

Oak returned to the Sandy Hole Inn and found Jimmy sulking in a corner. Nigel returned to his church to pay homage to Nuada by beating his wood with his silver-clad fist.

Shortly, Jimmy and Oak met Shale Daru, a self-proclaimed novice seer under the employ of the Royal University. He claimed it was his job to save the diggers from themselves by scrying magically, drawing out maps and advising so the dig goes safely and without incident, but for the last couple of weeks the taskmasters haven't listened to him and they keep digging into the fallen obelisk. He's warned them that there is some great darkness looming within, but he has been unable to ascertain it's nature. Through some of Jimmy's fast-talking, they convince Shale to sober up so they can go into the obelisk, against his better judgement, to find the darkness and at least identify it if not conquer it so he earns the respect of the taskmasters and perhaps a promotion from the University.

Oak informs Nigel of the changed plans which vexes Nigel who sees clear evidence of undead shenanigans at the vineyard, but now seems to have to choose winey undead or ancient darkness.

The session was left with Nigel praying to Nuada for guidance.

A Raid in the Dark

- Party met in the the Sandy Hole; somehow Barth was introduced

- Nigel and Oak went to retrieve Raul so he could be watched while they dragged him along. They found him dead with a missing dead brother. No sign of Violetip, although the search was scant and his house was left open and less two silver fancy candel lanterns.

- Nigel went to church and geared up

- The Shiv calmed Shale's frayed nerves and bolstered his confidence to go into the dangerous darkness

- Party ventured to dig site and while entering at the side furthest from town, the Shiv bumbled and toppled a lean-to over an administrative desk. A taskmaster came through the darkness with his lantern and 4 torch-wielding workers to investigate. Shiv and Oak fled with Shale in tow. They ran back past the sandstone half-wall segment the others hid behind and up the hill around the backside of the dig site. - Nigel watched the inspection crew approach as Figgus cast an illusion of a shadowy bandit fleeing the broken lean-to into the darkness toward town. They followed.

- Nigel and Barth jogged into the torchlit dig site trying to stick to the shadows, then eventually grabbing tiki torch-like lights. As they did the city emergency gong began to ring. they doused their lights and relied on one of Figgis' spells for navigation.

- the Shiv and oak were about to drop a rope in and climb down into the dig site as the gong began ringing and Shale cried out from the darkness behind them. Oak grabbed him and followed the Shiv over the edge, all tumbling into the darkness below. Jimmy's catlike nimbleness landed him unscathed. Oak had to toss Shale aside to tumble down the steep slope uninjured. This resulted in Shale's ankle being badly sprained. the three moved toward where Jimmy had seen two tiki torches moving into the site, then blink out as many other lights moved toward the city.

- Shale made magical light at Oak and Jimmy's recommendation once they felt at risk of being lost in the dark site.

- Figgis read heiroglyphs on the fallen tower - something about a home to the dead, where they are made to serve again

- the party met up and squoze through a nearby crack in the tower where they were in a toppled and upturned building of an ancient time despite bad footing and the incessant warnings of Shale, they pushed on at the divine guidance of Nigel's all-powerful god-guide.

- They crossed a broken and Escher-ish stairwell, where Figgis almost lost and broke his glasses.

- They found a hastily boarded up aperture and Oak began breaking off the sandy dry boards

- Something howled a bone-chilling and fear-inducing tone from in the darkness just as Oak peered in

- a boney desicated arm reached out through the small hole and was pierced through by Jimmy's crossbow bolt

- the party rallied after Shale or the shiv tossed a magically lit stone into the darkness, Shale fainted at another terror-induced howl from beyond. Oak is about to smash down the remaining few boards of the barricade

Putting the Dead to Rest

- Oak battered down the hastily constructed barrier and kicked his way into the room through the last boards

- Jimmy took aim on the Dark Howler beyond

- Oak stepped into battle with zombies inside the sideways room, cleaving ribs and sternum before being stunned by a spine-chilling howl

- Nigel began chanting to Nuada to help him banish the souless corpses that surrounded Oak

- Jimmy shot a bolt through the black skull of the 7 ft tall menacing jackal-man which then drew twin dark Oreech Kopeshes and dashed to Oak

- Figgis battered and attempted to alight a zombie with his torch before it countered and the two began a melee trading blows back into the entry chamber

- Nigel banished most of the zombies and Oak dashed a bottle of holy water against the dark menaces chest before it again howled and sent a telepathic message to the party amidst a whirling and unearthly chilling dust storm, "'Only the dead truly serve without motive. You shall all serve'"

- It then slashed open Oak's chest with a brutal wound

- Nigel circled around it's back as Figgis finally felled his oppressor

- Nigel dealt a punishing blow to the spine of the beast with his Silver Fist of Nuada, knocking it to its knees

- After a flurry of blows from Oak's fists, Nigel's mace and Barthalamew's staff, the monster fell

- Room was looted, healing was done and Barthalamew studied the sarcophogus - Jimmy got his hand crippled by poison, the monster's magical red-gemed neck-piece and blades as well as some small black-stoned medallions off of the zombies, and a small secreted poison-trapped chest from the sarcophogus with 14 ancient silver rectangular coins, Oak and Nigel made of with jewel encrusted Oreech oil/incense burning spires and Barthalamew with a small white-stoned medallion

- Barthalamew learned by reading the Heiroglyphs the sarcophogus held an ancient priest (Sarkhol Temmet) who had summoned this being (the Dark howler) from the nether realms to raise and force the dead to serve, as unquestioning minions for both combat and creation as the ancient civilization grew

- the party awoke Shale and went back into the dark quiet dig site