Crypts and Things: End Game. Ragnor's Horde Attacks

The adventurers just barely managed to return to the city with the necessary artifacts for the ritual to summon the Angel of Oblivion:  The Angel’s Wings and the Angel’s Sword.  Also arriving were the barbarian tribes of Motard’s people.  Meanwhile, the denizens of the city had not been idle while the party had been out retrieving the artifacts.

Under the direction of Zardoz, the white magician Yazd had surrounded the city with walls of thorns that would at the very least slow down the taking masses of fanatics and undead.  The recently hired mercenaries had taken up strategic positions in the thorns where a small number of men could hold of a large number of the horde for a considerable amount of time.  As the city itself had no wall except for in the central area, barricades had been setup in the streets and every able bodied man and woman had been armed to defend the city.  With their defenses in place, the city waited for the invaders to arrive.   The city did not have to wait for long.
Over the hill came horde of Ragnor:  Human fanatics and zombie hordes were in the vanguard with necromancers and the vile priests of Ragnor as their commanders.  Worse still were the demons and undead monstrosities that were the heart of Ragnor’s army.   Colossal self-driven siege engines made up the corpses of Ragnor’s victims that could plow through the city’s defenses, undead creating plague demons, crypt fiends and even vampires were among Ragnor’s cohorts.  Even the most hardened of the city’s mercenaries trembled in fear.  It was at this point that Zardoz decided to do the last thing that Ragnor would expect them to do:  Attack!

At night, only part of Ragnor’s army had campfires going:  These areas had to be were the living members of the horde were encamped.  It would be there that they would attack and it would be there where furry of the Bull God would do the most damage….

Zardoz and his henchmen, Torvir, Nivhaca, and Motard rode through the pickets of Ragnor’s horde and attacked the encampment of his fanatical cult followers, his necromancers and his priests.  While the mounted horsemen cut down zombies and cultists, Torvir rode past the defending wall of zombies and blew the Horn of the Bull God several times, unleashing a horde of minotaurs that tore into the Ragnor’s obscene army.  In addition to the slaughter of hundreds of cultists and zombies, many of Ragnor’s priests and necromancers were also killed.

Leaving the City

First encounter of Ragnor's Pickets

Definitely the B-Squad

Have you heard of Wall of Voodoo?  Well, here is a Wall of Zombies

Evil Priests and Necromancers

Hiding behind a Zombie Wall

Evil Priests before Motard

Evil Priests after Motard 

After dealing the blow, the party rode back to the city to the cheers of the city’s guards and soldiers.  Ragnor and his horde were far from defeated but the attack certainly hurt his forces and it gave hope to the city’s defenders.  Tomorrow, the battle would begin in earnest and Zardoz, and Nivhaca would Yazd in his attempt to summon the Angel of Oblivion.

Early the next morning, the army of Ragnor attacked.  The massive undead siege engines tore through the wall of thorns, opening the way for Ragnor’s remaining zombies and cultists to move in to the streets of the city.  Then reports came of portals being opened and demons began to pour into the city.  The defenses had been breached.  The only hope was for the ritual to succeed.

Zardoz’s henchmen, Motard and his barbarian tribesmen and Torvir gathered around Yazd, Zardoz and Nivhaca as they began the ritual.  Suddenly, one of Zardoz’s trusted henchmen attacked Yazd.  Yazd held his concentration despite being struck.  Zardoz’s other henchmen and Motard immediately got between the attacker and Yazd.  He was immune to normal weapons but Motard, who has always been able to harm demons despite not having a magical weapon, killed the would-be assassin with his axe.  As the henchman fell to the ground dead, his true form was reveled:  a Face Stealer, a demon from the Other Worlds. Yazd continued the ritual along with Zardoz and Nivhaca.  Then one of the portals that they had heard about opened in the courtyard where they were conducting the ritual.

Out of the portal stepped a Nkarth: a corpse animating demon, the same kind that they party had fought during the Red Plague.  Along with it came more zombies.  The demon was defeated only to be replaced by a Crypt Thing that immediately killed most of the henchmen and re-animated them as zombies. After the Crypt thing had been dispatched, two more forms stepped through the portal.  Darius Kos and the living God himself, Ragnor, his eyes growing with an unholy light.

Circling the wagons

The Nkarth arrives

Fighting their own dead!

Torvir wanted to run.  He was injured and near collapsing.  Motard said “Run if you want.  I am going to Valhalla!” and he gripped his axe and attacked.  Torvir took heart and stood his ground.  When Motard’s axe struck Ragnor, the demigod screamed in pain and shock as the axe bit into his flesh, inflicting a ghastly wound.  The brand on Motard’s shoulder, the one left so long ago when he was kidnapped by demon worshipers and nearly scarified to the outer beings, began to glow.  For the first time since he had acquired immortality, Ragnor knew fear.

The Angel of Oblivion has Arrived!

The only ones standing are Motard and the Angel

It was then that the ritual was completed and the Angel of Oblivion appeared. A wave of destructive energy went out from the Angel, killing the remaining henchmen and barbarian tribesmen.   Darius stuck down Torvir.  The Angel moved forth and Ragnor fought desperately.  The Sword of the Angel bit into the flesh of Ragnor drew more of his divine blood.  Then Ragnor stuck Ragnor’s head from his body and the entity known as Nyogtha spewed from his body in a pillar of sickening green, returning to the nightmarish plane that he had come from.  His task complete, the Angel of Oblivion flew off into the stars.

I just killed a God!  I am going to the brothel!

With Ragnor slain, his demons returned to their home planes and the undead collapsed in the streets. Ragnor’s cultists, sensing that their god was dead, fled the city.  Darius Kos collapsed as the power that had trapped his soul and held him to his un-life was gone but his torment was not over.  Zardoz had long wanted to examine the magic that had held Darius to this life and had prepared a specific magic jar spell.  Zardoz cast the spell and Darius Kos’ soul was now trapped by the gem that Zardoz had prepared.  His torment would now continue.

Motard stood over the god he had just slain.  The exhausted and wounded Barbarian took in his well-earned victory and said one of the best lines of the campaign:  “I’m going to the brothel.”
This was the end of my Crypts and Things campaign.  Zardoz was now the “benevolent dictator” of the city and Motard, the slayer of a god, was his right hand man.  All in all it was great and satisfying way to wrap up the campaign and everyone had fun.

This all went down about four months ago and I really do miss this game.  I did run part of the Crypts and Things adventure the Spear of the Necromancers but we never did get to finish it as I got injured in March and everything pretty well feel apart.  Hopefully I can run something like this again but it sadly it will be without Zardoz as Sam, his player, moved back to Austin Texas.  Nevertheless, I loved running Crypts and Things and I hope that the people that have visited this this blog enjoyed reading about it.

Kickstarter for Ingenium Second Edition - Epic Fantasy RPG

There is a Kickstarter for the Ingenium Second Edition from Silver Gryphon games.  I am a backer and I own the 1st Edition rules.  It is is a pretty cool system but time is running out for the second edition to get funded.  I just wanted to do my part to promote it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/38245749/ingenium-second-edition-epic-fantasy-rpg

Crypts and Things: The Angel's Wings and the Angel's Sword.

It has been a long time since I posted anything and it has been even longer than that since this group played this.  I don’t think that anyone really follows this blog but if there are a few people that do, I do apologize for my long absence.  I can’t really remember specifics but I can still put together a general overview of what happened.

The Setup

Exploring the caverns of the Valley of the Forgotten Gods

Our not so noble band of adventurers and henchmen descended into the Valley of the Forgotten Gods.  In the center of the valley were a number of stone pillars in a circular formation.  Among the stone pillars were more of the dreaded Golgoth .  The party engaged the demon knights and defeated them.  From there, they explored the caves.  In the caves they found two pairs of keys, battled a mummy that nearly killed Torvir, a portal that a hydra stepped out from (they ran) and an altar with two key holes.  While battling the mummy, Torvir was nearly killed and infected with mummy rot.  It didn’t help that Motard the some of the men at arms set him on fire with Molotov cocktails.  Granted, they were aiming for the mummy but he wasn’t exactly pleased.  Luckily for Torvir, Zardoz had memorized remove disease on him to get the mummy rot off of him. Torvir really become the party punching bag while they explored the caverns of the Valley.  It was he that got “volunteered” to go back into the cave with the summoned hydra.

Torvir getting his ass beat

Retreat and use fire!

Debacle 

  Armed with arrows tipped with scorpion poison, Torvir entered the cave and drew the hydra out.  Fortunately for him, the hydra died with one of the first arrows.  As soon the hydra had been dispatched, Zardoz dispelled the mass invisibility spell that he had running to reveal that the entire party had been there to back him up all along (Although no one had bothered to help out at all.  Motard could have thrown an axe or the henchmen could have fired their bows or Zardoz could have used his sling but I guess that Zardoz had to enjoy his petty torments.Hell, I enjoyed them too.)  With the hydra dead, the party was free to explore the rest of the cave.  In the room where the hydra had first appeared, they found a large pair of feathered wings…..

The last cave

I found the hydra guys!

I'm bad!  Hell yeah!

With the wings now collected, the party decided to use the two keys that they found on the altar.  Upon doing so, the far wall disappeared, revealing a long corridor which ended at an ornate door.  Cautiously, the group approached the door and eventually opened it.  Behind the door was a red stone room.  Motard and Torvir entered to find the sword….

The Door of Death and Doom!

Suddenly, a beast of myth and legend appeared:  A dragon.  Zardoz stuck with spells, the men at arms fired their bows and Motard and Torvir attacked with axe and sword.  The dragon unleashed a cone of fiery death down the hall.  Torvir and all of the men at arms screamed and died.

Oh sh*t!  

Everyone but Motard and Zardoz are toast

Both Zardoz and Motard were seriously injured.  Zardoz fled.  Motard, in a desperate moved, grabbed the Sword of the Green dragon from the charred hand of Torvir, hopping that the swords deadly poison would help him slay the beast even though the poison was a threat to him as well.  Motard struck a mighty blow with both hands.  The sword wound and the poison was enough to put down the beast.

As the dragon died, its body disappeared in a puff of smoke and Motard was shocked as Torvir and the men at arms started to get up, their wounds from the dragon’s breath.  Zardoz determined that the dragon, and the damage that it had inflicted, had been the result of powerful illusion.  (OK.  I know it was kind of a cop out to bring Torvir and the henchmen back but there was only one adventure left in the campaign and believe me, I was not going to hold back in that.  I just seemed pointless to have Torvir roll up a new character for one last game.  Some purists may call me on it but I wanted story continuity.)

It was just an illusion.

In  the center of the room, there was a large sword:  The Sword of the Angel.  Our band of anti-heroes now had everything that they needed for the white wizard Yazd to summon the Angel of Oblivion in the coming battle with Ragnor the demi-god and his undead and demonic horde.  Now if they could just get back to City of Zul-Bazzir in time….

Next time, the final chapter and the end of the campaign:  The battle of Zul-Bazzir as our “heroes” battle Ragnor and his monstrous horde.

Crypts and Things: Chimera attack and Motard the Barbarian's Homecoming.

Zardoz, Torvir, Nivhaca and Fenngar and their retainers headed to the the mountains to seek the Valley of the Forgotten Gods were supposedly the artifacts that were necessary to summon the Angel of Oblivion could be found.  Along the way, their expedition was attacked by a Chimera.

The Chimera swoops in to attack!

The beast is slain but at a cost.

The beast was slain but not before it killed one of the men at arms.  

Later on the trip, the expedition was attacked by mysterious warrior decked out in ornate plate mail, wielding two handed swords.  At first, the warriors appeared to be human, but up close, their glowing red eyes, fangs, horns and green skin showed that they were not.  Zardoz recognized them as outsider race called the Golgoth, also know as Demon Knights. Fighting together as a group, the Demon Knights were defeated.

The Demon Knights attack!

The Battle wraps up.

In the mean time, Motard arrived at his home village to find his tribe in turmoil.  The Chieftain of Bear Clan tribe had fallen under the sway of strangers and the tribal champion had been slain and new champion, one in league with the newly arrived outlanders, had been crowned.  Moreover, the Chieftain now wanted to have Motard’s tribe attack the city of Zul-Bazzir and to join forces with the monstrous army of Ragnor, the living god.  Motard left his parent’s yurt and made his way to the Chieftain’s Hall.

Upon arriving at the Chieftain’s Hall, Motard found his tribal leader with a glassy look in his eyes as one of the robed fanatic priests of Ragnor held sway over him.  Along with the priest, a mysterious cloaked figure was alongside the Chieftain.   The cloaked figure was identified to Motard and Fenngar as the new champion.  Motard immediately challenged him.  The priest hissed that the challenge was accepted.  A circle was formed and the fight was to begin.  The cloaked figure removed his cloak to reveal the identity of the new champion:  Darius Khas!

Motard and Darius Khas square off in fight to the death.

 With the pained look of madness in his eyes, Darius drew his twin longswords and moved to attack.  Motard let out a battle cry and charged.  Eying the priest, Fenngar moved to take out the foul priest.

Motard and Darius Khas clash once again.

Although Motard was seriously injured, he managed to defeat Darius Khas, unlike the last time where Darius would have killed Motard had it not been for the assistance of Motard’s companions.  Once again, Darius' body dissolves into the mist. Motard is sure that he has not seen the last of Darius Khas.  During the fight, Fenngar moved in and slew the priest of Ragnor, breaking the spell that the priest had placed over Motard’s Chieftain.

Motard defeats Darius Khas while Fenngar avoids the Chieftain's body guard and kills the priest of Ragnor 

With Motard as the new tribal champion and the Chieftain happy to be free from the spell of the followers of Ragnor and being hungry for revenge, it was agreed  that the Bear clan tribe would move south with their allies to defend the City of Zul-Bazzir.  As the tribes made ready for war, Motard and Fenngar rode south to the Valley of the Forgotten Gods to join up with Zardoz and his expedition.   Sadly, Fenngar got lost in the wilderness, never to be seen again but Motard arrived just in time to join Zardoz and the others as they entered the Valley of the Forgotten Gods.

Next time, the quest for the Angel's Wings and the Angel's Sword.

Crypts and Things: Minotaurs in the Street! An Invading Army! A New Quest!

Zardoz was in the thick of the fight when he stuck by arrow and fell the ground unconscious for the arrow had been laced with a strong sleep poison.  When he came to, he found himself in the caverns beneath the city surrounded by serpent men and Aetius.

Aetius informed Zardoz that he had nothing to fear from them…for now.  The Serpent men did not want the city of Zul-Bazzir destroyed any more than he did.   He warned Zardoz that Ragnor, the living god, would now strike against the city, now that it had been devastated by the Red Zombie Plague.  Zardoz noticed that Aetius still worn the crown that he had seen in the drawings in the temple of the serpent god.  Aetius explained to him that the crown had transformed him from a human to a serpent man over a period of years.  He also told him that he and his serpent brethren would be waiting in the shadows.  Suddenly a gas cloud appeared around Zardoz and he once again found himself in darkness.  He awoke to find himself back in the streets of the city.  He quickly went forth to find his companions.

Zardoz told the other party members of his meeting with the now serpent man Aetius.  He also contacted the now awake Yazd and consulted with him conducting the ceremony for summoning the Angel of Oblivion if the forces of Ragnor the living god should breach the wall.  Yazd also began to create walls of thorns around the city to make it harder for Ragnor’s land forces to reach the city.  Everyone else began organizing the defense of the city with Thayne Blackblade and them men still under his command.  Zardoz then decided that it was time to unlock the mysteries of the Horn of Bull God to find out if it would be of any use in the coming conflict.

Zardoz, Motard, Torvir, Fenngar, the vile and evil female sorcerer Nivhaca, along with Zardoz’s henchmen, found an abandoned section of the city and got on a roof top and blew the horn.  There as a brief flash and the street below was filled with Minotaurs.  The Minotaurs attacked immediately.

The battle was relatively brief and the Minotaurs were dispatched (one was actually polymorphed into a horse by Nivhaca) but there was one thing that Zardoz noticed: The Minotaurs would not attack Torvir, who wore a Bull God ring and was a member of the Cult of the Bull God….

Through experimentation in the catacombs beneath the city, Zardoz determined that wearing the ring was not enough:  The Minotaurs that were summoned by the Horn would not attack someone if they wore one of the rings of the Bull God and if they had gone through the initiation ceremony to become full members of the Cult of the Bull God.  The experiments resulted in the deaths of a number of slaves and also introduced a large number of Minotaurs to the environment of the city’s catacombs.  Dealing with them would have to wait for now for a small army was spotted heading towards the city.

The new leaders of the city of Zul-Bazzir approached the oncoming army, surrounded by as many heavily armed warriors as they could find.  As it turned out, this was a group of mercenaries that had fled the city of blank in disgust, no longer willing to work for Ragnor, the self-proclaimed living god for any price.  A price was quickly negotiated and terms were reached and the mercenary army joined in the defense of the city.  It was at this time that Zardoz noticed that a number of the mercenaries, including their commander, wore the same ring as Torvir did.  If anything were to happen to Torvir, there would be others that also blow the Horn of the Bull God.

After the negotiations with the mercenaries were complete, Yazd informed Zardoz the in order to complete the ritual to summon the Angel of Oblivion, they would need two artifacts:  The Angel’s Wings and the Sword of the Angel.  In his research with an ancient book, Yazd had found a map that marked the location of an abandoned temple in the mountains know as Valley of the Forgotten Gods.  If the map and the ancient manuscript were to believed, both the Wings and the Sword would be found there.

Despite the addition of the mercenaries, the city was still lacking numbers for an effective defense of the city.  Motard agreed to travel north to attempt to recruit some of the rugged tribes of his homeland.  Fenngar went with him as well.  They left the city on the fastest horses that they could find.  After attempting to recruit more allies, they would join up with Zardoz and his expedition at the abandoned temple.  With Motard and Fenngar on their own quest, Zardoz, Torvir, and Nivhaca sent out to find the artifacts that were necessary to summon the Angel of Oblivion.

Crypts and Things: Red Plague

Outside the city, Zardoz quickly organized a group of the city guards and a number of the city’s more capable refuges, joining them to his two members of the Eagle Claw clan of nomads and went back into the city with the purpose of re-claiming it from the hordes of undead, cultists, necromancers and wizard priests in the service of Ragnor, the demi-god ruler of the other city that had invaded his home.  Motard, Torvir, Fenngar, a warrior that fought with two short swords and a witch joined them.  The first place that Zardoz targeted was the home of the Slave master Aetius who had apparently betrayed the party by vouching for Belcore who turned out to be a disguised serpent man and who attempted to offer of the “heroes” as sacrifices to the ancient Serpent god Yigthrahotep.

Zombies!

Fighting zombie in the street

Taking the streets back

After fighting their way through the streets, Zardoz’s small army came upon the mansion of Aetius.  The mansion had been turned into a fortress by Aetius’s right hand man, a warrior known as Thayne Blackblade, a man armed with a magical sword made of black steel who had a reputation as the most deadly swordsman in the city. The mansion was one of the few areas of the city to hold out against the undead onslaught.  After a brief discussion, Zardoz and the characters, along with a number of their henchmen and nomad allies, entered the mansion.

Thayne informed the party that Aetius had been missing for over two weeks.  He also admitted that his long time employer and friend had been acting strangely for even longer.   With Aetius out of the picture, Thayne opened Aetius’ vault of magical items and handed over the sword of the green dragon to the party which Torvir wielded.  His intent was to use all means necessary to cleanse the city of its undead infestation.  Thayne warned Torvir character that the magical blade, much like the black steel blade that he wielded, almost certainly carried a heavy price.  Torvir would find out later…

The small army, now re-enforced by guards from Aetius’s mansion, now set out back in the city. Their first target was Zardoz’s whorehouse in the foreign district.  Zardoz wanted to make sure that his investment was intact and they would clear out any undead that found along the way.

By nightfall, the combined adventurer\nomad\guard army reached the brothel, killing and burning any zombie that they came across.  Zardoz’s brothel had weathered the undead plague rather well.  Many of the clientele were hardy adventurer types that had quickly barricaded the brothel, turning it into a heavily armed fortress that also acted as a place of safety in a city overrun by zombies.  A large defensive parameter was setup for the night and the many of the party took advantage of the “gifts” offered by the brothel’s grateful employees.   In the morning, a number of the patrons joined the small army and joined the effort to reclaim the city.
The party then made their way to home of Yazd, the white mage and healer.  There were rumors that his home had held out against the hordes of zombies that were wandering around the city.  Upon approaching the home of Yazd., the group observed that the undead did not even appear to approach the house, as if an invisible barrier had been set up.  After destroying all of the zombies in immediate vicinity, the party knocked on the door.

The man that opened the door looked like a younger version of Yazd, as well as a number of children and refugees that had sought shelter in the home of the white mage.  The young man introduced himself as Yazd’s son.  Most of the children where the Yazd’s grandchildren.  He told them that his father had cast a protection spell around the home but the task had been a tasking one and it had left Yazd in coma that for once, was no induced by his opium habit.   Realizing that Yazd would be of no help at this point, they party moved on to their home, the House of the Dragon.

As the party approached the House of the Dragon, the party was attacked by three deadly insect swarms.  These insect swarms were demonic in nature and three henchmen died horribly as they were torn to pieces. Despite the loss, the swarms were defeated and the group of adventurers entered the once grand mansion.
All of the guards that had been left behind to guard the mansion had been slain but not by zombies.  They had been killed by someone wielding a sword.  Whoever had killed the guards that he had left behind had also opened his basement laboratory.  Apparently, something large had used the zombie corpse of the captured necromancer that Zardoz had experimented as an anchor to gate in the basement.  From the basement of the House of the Dragon, the plague Red Plague of undeath was unleashed upon the city.
According to reports, the zombies had taken over ruling palace at the center of the city.  There were also reports of other things, things far worse than zombies that had taken the palace.  With most of the city retaken, and believing that Ragnor himself was currently at the central palace, Zardoz commanded his small army to attack the palace.  Zardoz would command the Eagle Claw nomads while Motard, Torvir and Fenngar would attack on the opposite of the wall.

Upon climbing the wall, Motard and company, including fifteen henchmen, encountered zombies, necromancers, priests of Ragnor and a large demon.

Taking the wall

The Plague Demon and his Zombies

Demon with Wizard Priest of Ragnor!

Motard fighting to get to the Demon

The Demon Falls

Fireball!

Swords flashed, arrows were fired, and fireballs cast.  In the end, all fifteen of the henchmen were killed as the fireballs cast by the priests of Ragnor inflicted heavy losses upon the player character’s forces.  Motard, due to the mark of the dark elder gods that was placed upon him all though years ago when the attempt to sacrifice him as a infant was stopped by his father and other members of his tribe, was able to harm the demon.   Torvir was also able to harm the demon with the blade of the Green Dragon but when he used it, he found the side effect of using the blade: Every blow he struck would release a cloud of poisonous gas in twenty foot radius.  While the demon was immune to the poison, neither he nor Motard were and both men were lucky to survive the encounter. Despite the poisonous cloud, the demon was slain but the remaining characters were exhausted and wounded.  Suddenly, a winged being appeared above the party and everyone was healed.  Apparently Yazd had woken from his comma.


The characters then spotted a covered litter being carried by zombies.  Over twenty Eagle nomads charged it but a blast of greenish energy slew them all. Despite the danger, Motard, Torvir and Fenngar all attacked. What they found in the litter was a Crypt Fiend a deadly and powerful undead monstrosity.

What is hiding in the Litter

Crypt Fiend raises the fallen henchmen as zombies!

The Crypt Fiend Falls!

The three warriors managed to slay it and with that, the rest of the resistance fell apart.  That battle was won but at a heavy cost.  Most of the rulers of the city were dead, among them Grey Eyes whose zombized corpse had been put down.  Of the two hundred Eagle Claw nomads, only around fifty remained.  The city would be ripe for invasion.  Also, Zardoz was missing…..

God, I want to run another Beasts and Barbarians game

Last Saturday, I was at my monthly Pathfinder game where we playing the Carrion Crown Adventure Path. Not that it is remotely relevant to this blog but I play a Paladin named Vors.  Anyway, two of the players in the group, Chris and Amy, are a married couple that were in my Beasts and Barbarians game.  I was talking to Amy and we both agreed that we both missed her character Hawk, the Amazon warrior that slew the only man that she felt was worthy of sharing her bed.  It got me reading the Beasts and Barbarians supplement Beasts of the Dominions.  Good stuff.  Hopefully, in the not to distant future, I can return the land of the Dread Domains and I write of the adventures of Hawk and Sylyph once again.