AD&D 2e Play Report: Session 19

We played the 19th session of our AD&D 2e campaign last night. The play report for our last session is here. 

To recap, the party was locked in battle with powerful aquatic zombies - we had started the fight the previous session, so this was a continuation of that. Corym Vadercast was unconscious, and the party was trying to extract him. They slugged it out and eventually won the day, but not before their thief henchman, Sheyla, was killed while attempting to retreat. The party cut their losses and decided to return to town to regroup. Along the way, they encountered some friendly wood elves, and agreed to return with them to their settlement. They recuperated there, recruited seven elf hirelings, and returned to the tomb.

There, Karven Stone scouted ahead and found the heretical priest, Themar, guarded by ten zombies, with another eight zombies excavating a pocket of necrotic energy to the south, across the river. The party set an ambush. Karven backstabbed the priest. Bernhardt Dalton turned the majority of the larger group of zombies. Corym, Orlina, and Yinvalur Sparkguard charged in to deal with the stragglers. Haymond Baler, Yuliana, and the elves launched a volley of ranged attacks from the south. That's where we ended the session.

Party Roster

• Bernhardt Dalton, NG human cleric 4
• Magicheart, NG pseudodragon
• Orlina, CN human cleric 1
• Yinvalur Sparkguard, NG elf fighter 3
• Corym Vadercast, NG elf fighter 3/mage 3
• Haymond Baler, LG human fighter 4
• Yuliana, NG human cleric 2
• Karven Stone, LE dwarf thief 5

This should be a pretty brief play report, since most the session was spent in combat, and I'm not going to do much play-by-play. We started the session by rolling initiative. 

Bernhardt continued turning the undead, who fled in the opposite direction and into the river, getting swept downstream (zombies are not smart). As the current dragged the zombies past, the elves fired their bows, killing the zombies over the next several rounds. 

The zombies in the pit climbed out and pressed through the narrow corridor towards Haymond and Yuliana. Haymond held them at bay while Yuliana turned a few. They were eventually overwhelmed, and Yuliana was badly injured (she had 1 hit point remaining) and had to retreat to heal herself. A few of the elves drew their swords and moved to reinforce Haymond, while the others rushed across the river to where the rest of the party fought.

Corym, Orlina, and Yinvalur battled the sole remaining unturned zombie on the north side of the river. Orlina was also badly wounded (she also had 1 hit point remaining) and had to retreat to heal. 

Karven went toe-to-toe with Themar. Themar is a zombie lord. Zombie lords can target living creatures with an animate dead spell, killing them instantly and turning them into zombies unless they save vs death. I tried to unleash this powerful ability on Karven, but Karven struck Themar with his sword before the spell could go off, so it was lost. Corym and Yinvalur had killed the last remaining unturned zombie on their side, so they and a few of the elves rushed to aid Karven.

Zombie lords also have an extremely potent stench:

The odor of death surrounding the zombie lord is so potent it causes horrible effects in those who breathe it. On the first round a character comes within 30 yards, he must save vs. poison or be affected in some way. The following results are possible:

1d6 Roll    Effect

1               Weakness (as the spell).

2               Cause disease (as the spell).

3               -1 point of Constitution.

4               Contagion (as the spell).

5               Character unable to act for 1d4 rounds due to nausea and vomiting.

6               Character dies instantly and becomes a zombie under control of the zombie lord.

When I prepped this dungeon, I rolled a 6. Uh oh.

The fact that this has a 30-yard range and affects anyone who simply catches wind of it was a bit extreme for my tastes. Looking at the map of the dungeon, this effect had a chance to instantly kill anyone who exited the entrance chamber. I instead decided that it was a special attack the zombie lord could utilize on his turn, and that it only affected people he could see. Now that Themar was being attacked by Corym, Karven, and Yinvalur, I decided to unleash this power.

Dark tendrils of necrotic energy began to exude out of the heretical priest. His vestments billowed, and the characters could see that his body was rotting beneath, infested with maggots and flies. The tendrils lashed out at those surrounding Themar - Corym, Karven, and Yinvalur would need to save vs poison.

Corym and Karven barely made their saves (i.e., they rolled the exact minimum number they needed to pass - Karven was helped by the fact that dwarves get a bonus to saving throws vs poison tied to their Constitution, or else he'd have failed). Yinvalur was not so lucky. The party watched in horror as their chad elf henchman - who had been with them since session 1 and bailed them out of several dicey battles - was struck dead. The next round, he rose as a zombie under Themar's control.

This was the players' first real encounter with a save or die effect. They had battled giant spiders with save or die poison, but none of their characters or henchmen had been bitten in that encounter. Some of them were a bit shocked. "He just dies?" Yep.

The rest of the fight was rather pedestrian. Themar had used his big dangerous abilities, and the rest of the zombies to the south were held at a chokepoint. Karven cut down one of the curtains partitioning Themar's vestibule, then worked with one of the elves to toss it over the priest's head. Themar protested the indignity while trying to crush his enemies with his fists, but he was no match for the player characters and elves surrounding him. He was slain. The remaining zombies, no longer under his sway, stood slack jawed. 

This combat was a bit of a slog once the bulk of the zombies were turned, Themar had used his powers, and the injured henchmen had managed to get out of danger. Still, the death of Yinvalur made a big impression, so the victory had a grave cost. Two other henchmen very nearly died, so it was tense for a few rounds. It was not quite as white-knuckled as the ogre fight from a few sessions ago.

Karven looted Themar's body and found a pouch of 30 gems. He skimmed a few off the top and shared the rest with the party. Bernhardt found Themar's journal, which was in Elvish, so he asked Corym to decipher it. 

Essentially, Themar had been corrupted by the evil god Malyk, who revealed to him the presence of a pocket of magical energy. Themar and his acolytes excavated the pocket, and the dark energy turned Themar into a zombie lord. He had his zombie acolytes continue to dig, and was planning to bring more elves to the tomb to be made into zombie lords like himself. They would then raise an undead army and lay siege to the lands of humankind, restoring elf supremacy in the region, albeit at the cost of all the elves being undead abominations. Typical evil zombie elf cleric stuff.

The party discussed what to do with Yinvalur's zombie, which was still "alive". Could they bring him back? Raise dead, apparently, doesn't work on elves:

When the priest casts a raise dead spell, he can restore life to a dwarf, gnome, half-elf, halfling, or human (other creatures may be allowed, at the DM's option).

 The omission of elves didn't even occur to me until I read the description of resurrection:

The priest is able to restore life and complete strength to any living creature, including elves, by bestowing the resurrection spell.

Resurrection is a 7th-level spell, meaning a priest must be 14th-level or more in order to cast it. I reasoned that powerful priests such as this could be found in the city, however, the DMG list of costs for NPC spellcasting doesn't even include resurrection, and states of raise dead, "This spell is normally cast only for those of similar faith or belief. Even then a payment or service may be requested." 

Resurrection is more powerful than raise dead, and casting it causes the caster to age three years, so one would imagine that this service would come at high cost. I told the players to imagine that they were able to find a 14th- to 20th-level priest in the city who would cast the spell for them. I then asked them to imagine what such a high-level priest would ask of a party in return, and whether or not their 4th- to 5th-level characters would be up to the task. They concluded, probably correctly, that they would not be able to procure this service. Teary eyed, the party put down the Yinvalur zombie, most likely for good.

The good news is, the party still had at least 140 years to bring Yinvalur back at a later date:

The creature can have been dead up to 10 years per level of the priest casting the spell. Thus, a 19th-level priest can resurrect the bones of a creature dead up to 190 years.

The party planned to escort the elf hirelings back to their settlement, then return to Mythshire. We ended the session there.

Bernhardt leveled up. He is now 5th-level, gains a d8 hit die, and a 2nd- and 3rd-level spell slot. Yuliana also leveled up. She is now 3rd-level, gains a d8 hit die, a 2nd-level spell slot, and a nonweapon proficiency.