Session 14 – The Lady and the Heart

Campaign I, session 14. Previous: Session 13. Next: Session 15.

Before heading out of the dome to rest up in the hamlet of Kendra, the PCs started looking for corpses that they might spread around near the defeated cultists to sow confusion. This led to a random encounter with some goblins (in which Casino’s auditory reception module was damaged). Given the initial injuries, the party pulled back and spent a few days healing up in Kendra.

[DM note: during this downtime, The Lady Below found the fallen cultists and began interrogating. She finds from the gnolls that the PCs had claimed they were “moving in” to the complex and had been working with the hobgoblins. She then called down Thethamun, tortured him for info, and killed him. She sent Malyn up to impersonate him and lead the Hobgoblins in his place!]

On their return trip to the dome, they spotted a few roosters in the woods… roosters with serpentine tails! The party cautiously circled around these unnatural creatures, and avoided a confrontation.

Once inside the dome, they quickly made their way back to the altar from previous session. The bodies were no longer around, but nobody had yet attempted to repair the altar. The PCs pressed on to the next hallway and were attacked by an octet of zombies! The dead were quickly dispatched, but the door beyond had been wizard-locked, requiring the party to batter it down.

When they finally broke through the door, the PCs found themselves facing another squamous proto-shoggoth! Fortunately for them, a few solid blows enhanced by Travain’s (PC bard) inspiring words. Unfortunately for them, this tunnel was growing with the same fleshy vines as they had seen in the watery areas earlier, tinging their torchlight with a fleshy pink color! About 30 feet down was another wizard-locked door. After a few failed attempts to batter it down, they resorted to military oil, retreating until the smoke dissipated somewhat.

When they returned to the door, they saw almost two dozen undead, a mix of skeletons and zombies. Behind them was an elven Lady in black-lacquered plate mail, wielding a great axe and uttering an arcane incantation from atop an altar of bone. Beside her, thump-thumping with a sickening rhythm, was the Emerald Heart – a fleshy organ encased in some kind of crystalline substance, impossibly beating… thump-thump… beating… thump-thump… beathing…

This was an awesome fight, with the party using great tactics to choke off the undead and face only a few at a time, exchanging ranged volleys over their head with some skeleton archers in the back. The Lady’s first spell was disrupted by a lucky shot from Travain, but in the following round Travain was charmed! The mages in the party recognized the spell signature, but weren’t sure at first of the target. When Travain tried to use his glamorous aura against the party, Ardingle (hench mage) was able to put him to sleep with a targeted effect.

The zombies were slow to move and slow to fall (2 HD is kind of a lot in low-level ACKS). Tassi (hench Gnome Elementalist) and Casino (PC spellcarved soldier) each conjured a quartet of berserkers, some in the front lines, and some behind enemy lines! The Lady cleaved through a couple in the back, and her skeleton archers switched to claws to finish off the others, saving the party from a few arrows.

The party cycled characters in and out of the front ranks to spread the damage around. Meathead (hench kobold warrior) and his kobold followers, also cycled in where they could to help thin the enemy ranks with their javelins. Two friendly kobolds were downed by skeleton arrows.

Deuce (Casino’s war dog) yelped in anguish as his foot was chewed off by a zombie. Casino, no longer needing to concentrate to control the now-dead berserkers, rushed forward with a spear to defend the fallen pooch. With the undead finally thinned out, the Lady moved into melee, swinging her greataxe into Casino – and confirming it as a magic weapon, for it bypassed Casino’s runes of fortification to strike him down as well! On the other flank, Hugo (hench mage) stepped into a gap and announced his intent to cast a burning hands on the following round (a risky play in ACKS, as spellcasting prevents movement and he could easily be disrupted!)

Nevu (hench orcblooded warlock), having failed at an early control undead attempt, flew into a savage fury. “YOU KILLED OUR DOG!” she shouted, striking a devastating blow against the lady. The return strike severed Nevu’s foot, sending her into shock and out of the combat. Hugo’s burning hands destroyed 3 of 4 remaining skeletons, and he was barely scratched by the return arrow from the final undead.

In the penultimate round, the Lady announces her intent to withdraw at the beginning of the round. She tactically delays until King (Casino’s white ape) takes his turn, striking her twice in the face and leaving her with a broken, bloody nose [finally below half health]. Then she retreats to the altar and grabs the Emerald Heart, preparing to flee down a side tunnel.

The party mops up the last skeleton, Singil (PC orcblooded shaman) attends to the injured, and the characters still standing make ready to chase down the Lady as she retreats. King strikes her with a thrown rock, and Alwyn (PC thief) hits with a crossbow bolt. On her turn, the Lady flees down a tunnel, but finally, Hugo runs forward and says “screw it, why not” throwing a dart for the first time this combat…

…And strikes the Lady for her final HP of damage! A thud in the back of her neck, she stumbles forward and collapses, the thump-thumping Heart tumbling a few feet away.

This was an awesome fight, with a lot of back and forth. There were a lot of HP to chew through on the baddy side. The PCs did a good job with their tactics both in setting up choke points and cycling out their front line to minimize losses. In the aftermath, only one character (Nevu) is at risk of potentially dying (she’s at 0 HP and needs to be restored to 1 within 1 day). One kobold’s vocal cords were severed. Deuce will be retired from adventuring life (but kept well and remembered for the Good Boy that he truly is!). Casino has lost a finger on one hand. There were a couple of points where I was worried about the fight balance (in each direction), but it worked out fine with no fudging (except where I made errors and had to decide whether to correct them).

In the Lady’s bedchamber the PCs found a locked chest with her spellbook, a decent amount of coinage, and an unfinished letter to a “Queen in the North”. The PCs have wrapped the Emerald Heart in her bedsheets and stuffed it into the chest to muffle it (and protect themselves from as much corruption as possible). Next session they’ll be making their escape from the dome and (presumably) heading back to Teryk to heal up and figure out what to do next.