Session IX, Part I

For the last session, I credit the PCs with experience for one major achievement:

• solving the mystery of the Baroness' disappearance.

In my campaigns, Player Characters exist in a quantum state, based on Player availability.  Consequently, since D couldn't make Session IX but K could, Lorenzo simply disappears and Zakalwe pops up.  As a lazy DM, I don't bother with an explanation.

The exploding jar of Greek Fire fills half the room with flames as a horde of ghouls rush in!

Drawing the Sword of Glory, Sister Aleena charges forward to meet the wave of undead, as does Brock Samson.  Despite their valiant efforts, three ghouls break past the defensive perimeter and run toward the PCs!


Blind Nausicaä notices that Lieutenant Trần has let go of her hand and Zakalwe sees the young officer draw his sword, as the PCs realize that the revenant, freed from the possessed magic-user, is now mind controlling the Gouverneur's son!

[OOC] K says, "Gee, we might accidentally extinct the Gouverneur's entire bloodline."


Zakalwe yells to Nausicaä to hit the deck as he runs to intercept the three ghouls, who are focused on  charging the sightless magic-user.

Lieutenant Trần prepares to gut Nausicaä… and rolls a critical failure, dropping his sword!

Zakalwe cuts down a ghoul, taking a couple hits in return but makes his Save versus Magic.

Ghoul #1 is slain!


[OOC] S says, "Can I use the wand to try to banish the revenant?"

[As DM] I say, "Yes, but remember that you're blind, the wand is flammable and half the room is on fire."


Nausicaä doesn't connect with the wand but doesn't burn it either.  Meanwhile, Zakalwe dispatches another ghoul without being paralyzed.

Ghoul #2 is slain!


Retrieving his sword, Lieutenant Trần laughs evilly… and crit fails twice in a row, dropping his weapon again!  In the same round, Zakalwe decapitates the third ghoul.

Ghoul #3 is slain!


Thereafter, banishing the revenant is fairly straightforward.  Immediately, the PCs begin looting the place, finding some Dust of Disappearance.

[As DM] I say to S, "I also came up with a custom magic item for you, the Rod of Sex Panther!"

[OOC] S says, "*WHAT*?!?"

[OOC] K says to S, "He's been watching a lot of Anchorman lately."

Also among the sarcophagi in the room, the party finds the Baroness, though they regret freeing her as she's supremely ungrateful and immediate begins getting on their nerves.  They manage to resist the temptation to murder her.  Barely.


Upon returning to Buôn Ma Thuột, Nausicaä visits Ye Olde Magick Shoppe and trades the Rod of Sex Panther for a Wand of Empathy (another custom magic item I make up on the spot) and Potions of Spider Climb and Underwater Breathing.

More importantly, the PCs send a raven to Gouverneur Trần, who's on the border staring down the Khmer army but the Gouverneur keeps her word and writes back, giving her approval for building the coliseum.  Thus, Papa Midnite agrees to not murder the PCs.

[OOC] K says, "Well, at least one less person is trying to kill us."


When the party drops off Brock Samson at the insane asylum, they think that they catch a glimpse of a wiry guy in a velvet suit:

[OOC] K says, "Wait a minute!  I've seen that guy before, right?"

[As DM] I say, "… maybe?"


A few days later, the police request that the PCs come down to headquarters.  Someone has brutally beaten the District Attorney to death!