Servants of the Wizard – 01

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  • Aros – Lightfoot Halfling, Rogue
  • Galiena Erenaeth – Half Elf, Celestial Warlock
  • Baldur – Human, Pack Chain Warlock (Spear)

Everyone is a servant of an evil wizard on Tawaim by the name of Mordak, who has a massive tower. He has been collecting endless tomes of wizardry magic – and has enslaved a number of people seeking knowledge. He uses powerful magic to mark his servants – and uses his magic to summon them back to his side.

Galiena gained knowledge of a Unicorn Patron that she bound with, while Baldur found a magic spear that had sentience in it – and bound to him – absorbing its magic properties into himself.

Aros was a thief, who had hoped to steal from Mordak – but was caught by the Wizard, who was going to kill him – but decided to use his skills and marked Aros with the same magic to summon him when needed.

The party came together and realized that there may be magic from these “Broken Lands” where Mordak is getting these items that may be able to break the “Chain” that binds them to Mordak. Aros using his forgery, forged documents (needing to hide that they were going to the Broken Lands from Mordak) and got them aboard The Sundial and headed for the Ivory Coast.

However, along the way – the party’s documents are discovered to be forgeries – and the party quickly makes their way to the top of the deck – and Aros and Baldur manage to get in the boat while Galiena tries to do a fancy flip – and misses the boat as it swayed from Aros and Baldur leaping into it – Galiena plunged into the water below.

Aros and Baldur manage to synchronize their efforts to lower the escape boat quietly and without tipping it over and Galiena climbs into the boat, complaining that they took their sweet time lowering the boat.

The party rows ashore (arriving an hour or so after escaping the boat), in the dark of night and finds a log to put into the ground, and then tie the boat to the log. Baldur and Galiena spot a camp fire on a small hill, just 60 feet up from the shore.

Close to what I had envisioned… if the camp was more up on the ledge.

Aros decides to shout ahead in the dark of night – and manages to get close to the campfire – and sees four figures sitting around a campfire – he listens but can’t determine their language. A quick glance reveals green skin, pointed ears, and humanoids his size – and he quickly catches their scent and knows them to be goblins.

He attempts to stealth back – but manages to bang his toe (halflings don’t always wear shoes!) and lets out a yelp and hits the dirt and remains still. The goblins stand up, hearing it and begin scanning the dark area of the beach. Aros crawls on his elbows and gets close enough to whisper, “Goblins.”

The party decides to create a mouse trap – Baldur flips the boat over while Galiena ties the rope. The party then hides in the dunes of the beach while Baldur uses Minor Illusion to create an illusion of glistening gold. This catches the attention of the goblins and two go down to see what’s going on. Baldur pulls the rope (Natural 20!) and springs the trap and renders the two goblins unconscious. The party then moves up to the other two goblins and tries to communicate with them – the goblins speak broken Common and make no move to attack.

The party discovers – just up from the beach ridge is an old plantation type mansion, covered in rotted trees and dying gardens – the goblins explain that they were patrolling the area, saw the manor – which appears to be unoccupied – and thought there was a good chance of gold inside. However, none of them volunteered to go in until Jauhk the Goblin decided he’d go in. The party asked how long it’d been since Jauhk had gone in and the leader of the goblin party, Kra’krar explains that it’d been about… a day. The party goes back and forth with the goblins who refuse to go in – and so the party goes to investigate the run down plantation manor. They arrive at the iron gates, which are rusted and broken apart and quickly notice the massive front yard also serves as a massive graveyard – with tombstones, looking old and ancient, broken, are scattered throughout. The party proceeds with caution – however, a zombie emerges. Galiena explains that she’d heard that throwing salt prevents the undead from rising so Baldur throws down some salted rations – the zombie, however doesn’t respond and combat begins!

The party was dead wrong if they thought they’d just walk up to the door!

Aros runs up and takes his first stab with his short sword which passes through the undead’s lifeless abdomen, without doing damage – but manages to hit with his off hand dagger and do some damage. Baldur runs up next and hits the zombie as well. The zombie however, having been hit last by Baldur swings his clutched fist and strikes Baldur hard (Natural 20!) doing almost maximum damage. Galiena swings next hitting with her quarterstaff. Aros then runs up the zombie’s leg, kicks it in – then kicks out the other knee, forcing the zombie to buckle slightly – and Aros delivers the killing blow – stabbing the undead zombie in its lifeless brain. The zombie collapses over.

After ensuring there were no other zombies the party moves up to the door. Aros examines the door and notices the hinges are rusty and uses oil to oil them down (Natural 20!) so that they sound brand new. Aros then checks for traps and spots none and enters the manor – and instantly fights off a sensation of sadness. He tells the others what he feels and they enter and also fight off the sadness – but then Aros sees Baldur’s throat being slit by invisible hands and blood pouring from his neck wound and freaks out – but Galiena doesn’t see it and Baldur seems to be fine. Baldur tries to calm Aros down by using the Minor Illusion on Galiena to show it’s an illusion which only freaks out Aros more.

Aros is about to turn and leave – when the appearance of a female ghost, whose neck is cut from ear to ear, and nearly falling off, standing in the door way whispers over and over, “Find my killer…”

Find my killer…

(And we stopped there for tonight!)