"Ugh, this camping is not good for me," whined Wido. He had the sniffles again and was feeling very sorry for himself. That did not stop him tucking into his breakfast with gusto though.
Lysanthir managed to find a dose of Ironshield Root, which Wido promptly ate to offset his sniffles. Sir Thiebault's hunting expedition failed to find any game at all. All else sorted, the Thrappled Lemmings girded their loins, pulled up their socks and put their best foot forward in the direction of the next level of the Temple.
Fulrad led the way in and quickly announced that this level was, like the last one, likely to be replete with treasure.
Once more the scouting roll resulted in the placement of additional exploration markers. As long as they are not traps or hazards, this is a good thing.
As Fulrad pushed on, followed by the others, he quickly saw a group of gravewalkers just as they spotted him. One of their number was clearly less rotten than the rest and its eye sockets glowed with eldritch blue light. Fulrad fired his bow at the undead captain but it was deflected by its armour. The others moved up to join the fray. Wido found himself unable to get past the captain's defences, but Sir Thiebault quickly slew one of the lesser undead that accompanied the captain.
"Forward, lads. Keep your guard up and work together," yelled Lysanthir from behind the others. He then moved into position and cast Meekness on the captain.
"That should take the sting out of your blows," he gloated.
The spell had the right effect. As Wido moved to attack the captain, it seemed slower and weaker. Wido landed two mighty blows on the creature and it crumbled to dust before his eyes. Drogo and Sir Thiebault then moved in to finish off the last of the group of undead, but the Lemmings could hear even more approaching.
The cavern they stood in was filling up with gravewalkers now and the fight was on as both sides stumbled over the rocky, uneven floor. The Thrappled Lemmings settled in for a hard slog.
Onesipe sighted carefully and fired. The skull of the gravewalker lieutenant shattered and the monster turned to dust. The rest of them swarmed the Lemmings and the fight swung back and forward with neither side gaining any advantage. Lysanthir took the opportunity to cast Mobility on Wido who suddenly found himself adapted to the rocky floor and able to move normally.
"Why the Hel did you not do that before?"grumbled Wido.
Then there was an earth-shattering roar as the distant chanting of a deranged cultist reached a new pitch. The delve shook and a sound like rocks grinding against each other joined the other noises of the battle.
"Ah, crap!" swore Lysanthir, "That sounds like that cursed cultist has summoned an earth elemental. better carve these gravewalkers up real quick because we are in for a hard fight."
The fight was long and hard, and more gravewalkers joined the fray as it went on. The Thrappled Lemmings slowly whittled the undead down, but there was a nasty moment when Sir Thiebault fell to the floor. Fortunately, he had just stumbled and the gravewalker's blow passed through where his head had been moments before. Wido was badly wounded, but a Heal spell from Lysanthir patched him up. The party prepared to move on. This time they would get that cultist and stop her summoning more evil elementals.
As the Lemmings advanced up the narrow corridors, more gravewalkers appeared. Drogo was in the lead and was hard pressed to stand against them. Worse yet, there was no room for manoeuvre. He would have to stand until he fell, and then the others would have to step over him to take them on. Drogo swung his axe for all he was worth. Bone flew from the gravewalkers and he received cuts in turn. After an age, he managed to cleave the skull on one of them and it crumbled to the ground. He damaged another but he was exhausted. A slight slip led to him leaving himself open and the gravewalker's blow felled him. The others would have to take up the fight now.
Fulrad was next in the firing line. He was fresher than Drogo and quickly slew the remaining gravewalkers. The party moved on. Fulrad was advancing into a cavern when a sudden loud howling blasted through the cavers. He had triggered an alarm that would surely draw more gravewalkers to it!
As the party advanced further into the caverns, they encountered more gravewalkers and found the site of the deranged cultist's summoning. Unfortunately, they also encountered the result of that summoning. Just as Wido and Sir Thiebault dealt with two more gravewalkers, an earth elemental squeezed through the passage into the cavern they were in. There was just time to bandage their wounds before they returned to the fight.
The elemental roared a challenge and charged at Wido, who fended it off, but could not find a weakness in its armour. Sir Thiebault roared a challenge in return and charged. His sword found a weak spot between two stone plates and the beast howled in fury at the pain Sir Thiebault had inflicted. Molten magma flowed from the opened wound. Inspired, Wido raced in and opened the wound further with his spear. The monster was slowing now. But not enough. As Wido and Sir Thiebault worked to kill it, it lashed out at Sir Thiebault and sent him flying 30 paces through the air to smack into the wall of the cavern. The only thing that saved him was his armour but he was still badly hurt though not out of the fight yet. Despite being badly wounded, he raced back into the fight. His blow struck true and the elemental collapsed into a pile of rubble.
The others raced for the summoning chamber and got there just in time to see the deranged cultist fleeing the scene, demoralised by the death of her monster.
She shrieked the words, "I'll get you next time, Lemmings!" as she fled.
The Thrappled Lemmings checked on Drogo, who was groggy and bleeding, but would be fine with a little rest. The subsequent search of the caverns revealed a pile of loot, but Wido was ambushed by a gravewalker as he searched. Fortunately, he was able to fight it off and carry on. With the cavern looted of everything moveable, the party returned to their camp on the surface and counted their booty. It was a good haul. Most of the items were bits of armour from previous delvers, but a bejewelled belt and a sword with more decoration stood out from the rest. Lysanthir examined them.
"This belt is a Belt of the True Warrior," he announced, "It will aid a warrior who is separated from the rest of the party. The shimmering runes on this sword tell me that it's name is Soul Render, and that it was owned by the the legendary hero Ulfbright Grimsson."
"Oh, don't think I have heard of him. When did he live?" Onesipe was always one for picking up little snippets of history to drop into conversations in a bid to sound intelligent. He continued, "Hey, wasn't there a guy in the tavern the other week called Ulfbright? Left suddenly without paying his bill."
"Yes, I think this so-called legendary hero lived until about Thursday last week, judging by the state of his remains. Doesn't hurt to advertise a bit, I guess, assuming you live long enough for the advertising to work."
The Thrappled Lemmings pondered the fate of this erstwhile hero and Sir Thiebault laid claim to Soul Render before anyone could protest and gave the belt to Drogo because he seemed to need it most.
That was a tough scenario and took longer than any of the other ones I have played. It cost me a bunch of story points to keep the Lemmings in the fight, and the only reason that Drogo is alive is because I spent a story point on him to keep him that way. If this keeps up, I shall be out of story points before halfway through the next scenario.
The gravewalkers have a combat bonus that gives them parity with the party, so much of the fight came down to the heroes rolling better than the gravewalkers and having the counterattack ability. Having better armour, especially the two characters with Harness of Vengeance which inflicts wounds on the enemy if they wound you, really helped.
Thematically, it was really cool that the cultist failed her morale check and ran away after the elemental died. She will be back next level.
Earth Elemental
- Speed: 5"
- Combat: +1
- Damage: +2/+2
- Armour: 4
- Toughness: 6
- MP: 4
- RR: 2
- Traits: Charge, Knock Back
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