00 Return of Uchly Namen

[netjiro]

session 11:

The heroic trio; Mandak, Anomali, and Datarian start the day with some light shopping, before setting out towards the Dark Tower of Ho-bliz Wayze. The trip is uneventful and takes about three days.
When they reach the tower they see a fast hooded figure fighting with a white haired wizard. The colourful light and strange sounds of Fireballs and chock fields fill the battle ground.

The hooded man wounds the white haired wizard and disappears into the tower. The heroes pursue. The next ten rounds of fast combat takes them into the tower in pursuit of the hood, and makes them realize that he is both very fast and very competent, and that he has no serious intentions of killing them. He is here for something else.

They try to help the white haired wizard, but he dies from his wounds, gurgling blood and curses: "Sneexious, that greedy idiot, she will never have the stone!" Then he promptly dies, and the heroes are left to fight their way through waves of the wizards shadow servants as they search through the tower. At each level of the tower they find the hooded man, going through the wizards things, searching for something. But, as fast as they show up, he continues up to the next level. At the last level he quickly jumps through a window to escape them.

When they have fought the last of the strange shadow servants in the tower they start a methodical top down search of the place. They find many valuable objects and strange artifacts, as well as the BlueStone, hidden away in a dusty old corner, together with a yellowing notebook of significant antiquity. Unfortunately they cannot read, yet, awaiting more XP and session change to train the necessary skills...

[netjiro]

session 12:

Maras Blackhammer and Nostromo joins the fray early in the session, but Nostromo encounter a dinner emergency and has to disappear almost immediately. Datarian Blood takes up arms instead.

All the riches of the wizard's tower seems to be theirs for the taking, the question is what to take, since they have a shortage of bags and ruck sacks. They take the Banor's Gate at least, and Maras runs through the tower selecting the most valuable stuff to cram down the already bulging loot sacks.

Unfortunately he is a bit careless in his searching for riches, and suddenly ha has awoken a small horde of shadow servants, emerging from the wall in a dusty storage room.

Maras and Datarian fight for their very lives through some 50 rounds of intense close quarter combat and rediculous kiting re-grouping actions. After much hassle, pain, and bloodshed, they finally manages to diminish the overwhelming numbers and devise a working strategy to destroy the last remaining shadow servants.

After this they quickly grab their loot, check a few details in the tower, then return towards Sleepy Cove.
On the way they stop for a day in Castle Conq village and sell their loot, shop some gear, and spend some XP, before continuing on towards their employer.

They enter Sleepy Cove late in the night, and immediately hand over the BlueStone to Dyslexia Marigt, who is ever so grateful. She pays the reward, but they almost forget about the double pay for all three stones. Dyslexia doesn't have all the money here yet. She has sent for more funds from Trade Town, but the boat is a few days late. She'll have their gold soon though, as soon as the boat arrives.

They decide to stay in Sleepy Cove until the ship arrives.

[netjiro]

Sessions 13 -14

Nostromo and Datarian Blood sit in the Sleep with the Fishes inn drinking beer when Sam Slick walks in. Datarian recognizes him as the hooded figure from the Wizard's Tower. Sam and Datarian exchange some acidic but slightly friendly remarks about towers, loot, and life in general. Sam offers to sell the Heroes some important information for 5gp. Datarian says no.
Sam Slick then goes to talk to the bard for a while. When he passes Bling Swordslash he gives a disapproving nod. Bling looks disgusted and nods back. It is evident that they don't like each other much at all.
Bling is a bit tipsy sidles up to Datarian. He says: "I wouldn't trust Slick" etc. Then he goes back to his harem of willing women.
Sam gets up to leave, but before he goes out the door he says to the Heroes: "5gp, might save your life." And he also tells them that Bling SwordSlash's "high moral values" tends to kill people left and right. Then he leaves into the night.

The next day Datarian and Nostromo decide to take revenge on the villains in Eisenkrafs. They pack their provisions and set out north. After a couple of days they reach the horrible little mining village and proceed to march into the mining yard office. There is Gebbhardt Goebbels, who is not too pleased at seeing the Heroes alive and well. They summarily chop him into two pieces before help arrives, but not before he sounds the alarm. Soon enough several ruffians come charging at the office from two fronts.
A lot of killing and maiming ensues. They manage to kill off half the ruffians before the rest flee. Then they loot the office, finding a few silver. But! Datarian has the bright idea to break into Goebbel's house to search for more loot.

At Goebbel's house they find a lot of lootable items, at reasonable value, and they also find a trap door leading down into an old basement. The basement is very old, and looks more like a Tomb. The architecture looks very similar to the old altars they found in the natural cave. below mine shaft 5-1. They start to get a baaad feeling about this.
Nostromo the blind immediately steps into a trap, and two ghostly sentinel warriors appear on either side of him.

Their immaterial swords slice through his shield and armour inflicting wounds as they go, and they don't seem to take any damage from Nostromos axe either. Maras Blackhammer quickly climbs down to assist his friend.
The black bolt magic that Maras throws at the ghost sentinels seem to have the desired effect though, and one of the ghosts disappears as he is struck. The last ghost strikes Nostromo a couple of times more before it bows and disappears.
They find money, sealed sentinel stone discs, and a masterly crafted sword in the chests.

Then they move out into the village in search of a donkey to load the loot from the house onto. However, the miners have gathered lots of people around the house to stop them. They fight a loosing battle for a while until they have managed to kill off all the ruffian leaders, then Datarian manages to calm the rest of the crowd down, and they agree to stop fighting.
In the end the people of the village sells them an old donkey, and allow them safe passage out of the village if they go quickly.

Quickly seems to be a problematic word, and the Heroes take a trip down the basement again to pry open the sealed sarcophagus. And they wake a horribly powerful mummy. Nostromo immediately flees, screaming like a little girl. He is soon joined by Datarian and Maras as the mummy screams a powerful fearsome battle cry.

[netjiro]

Session 15:

Datarian Blood and Maras Blackhammer stand in Goebbels' house, around a large heap of furniture. Nostromo is away tinkering with his car, and this gives the heroes pause and much debate over how to proceed. Below all the furniture is the trap door that leads to the basement, ... and the mummy!
Should they go down there just the two of them, or should they try to recruit other fighters? In the end they decide to try recruiting from the village. Datarian puts on his most charismatic smile and goes out the door to speak with the ad hoc leader of the village mob, Jerker.

Jerker is a bit annoyed that they are still in the village. He wants them gone and out of Eisenkrafs. They have proven to be very violent. However, Datarian is a smooth talker and starts convincing him that they really must stay a little longer, for the good of the village. Seeing as there is a mummy on the loose in Goebbels' basement, and a rampaging mummy is really bad for the real estate value of the village.
Maras has taken the time to read some of the papers they have found, and has managed to figure out that Goebbels was organizing a complex scheme of theft, embezzlement, and betrayal between several parties. He seems to be in league with a group of merchants to swindle the village and Baron Conq of a significant fraction of the mine's production output. He betrays the merchants by giving information to a local bandit gang, and he thus manage to also sell mediation and protection services to other merchants and traveling parties. All in all a rather convoluted, clever, and sinister tangle.
Maras explaines a bit of this to Jerker, and gives him the evidence. Jerker has already sent a messager to Castle Conq asking for the Baron and a Law man to tell them what to do about the murder of Goebbels, and the future management of the village.

Since it seems that Goebbels was much worse than everyone already knew, Jerker becomes more accommodating to the Heroes. He says there are two solid orc fighters in the village. They are in the mine at the moment, but they'll stop by Goebbels' house when their shift is done. Jerker is also asking about the money Goebbels must have stowed away from his scheming, but the trustworthy Heroes explain that they have found nothing much in the way of money or valuables yet.
Finally Jerker tells them they can stay the night in the village to fight the zombie tomorrow, but he will have the village mob standing by outside the house if they try any more violence.

Later that evening the orcs Grishnach and Merchar knock down the door and present themselves for mummy fighting detail. They want 5 silver each to fight, and they do look imposing. Datarian and Maras agree, and the orcs should return in the morning. After that the Heroes try to sleep for the night, but are interrupted repeatedly by icy screams from the basement, and rattling furniture on top of the trap door.

In the morning they wake, not quite as rested as they would have wanted, but fit for fight. The orcs have armed themselves just fine, and are ready to protect their village and make a lot of money in the process.

They open the trap door and look down, ... clear. They quickly climb down, and spread out in a very organized attack pattern. Of course the mummy just emits one of his horrible fearsome screams and everyone but Maras quickly disappear up the ladder in panic.

Fighting the mummy is problematic. They spend some 30 rounds and several attempts followed by scared to death paniced flight up the ladder, then gathering and climbing down again to try anew. Datarian is close to death at one point, but in the end they prevail against the undead horror. They take the loot, and pay the orcs another 5 silver each as a bonus.

Afterwards they pack their donkey and leave Eisenkrafs. Early the next day, at the foot hills of the mountains they feel something is wrong, but cannot quite put their finger on it... There is trouble afoot...

[netjiro]

Session 16:

Since the Heroic few dawdled in Eisenkrafs for soo long, it was a simple task for the Eisenkrafs Bandits to track them down when they left, and set up an ambush.
The Bandit Boss, two axe men, and two archers attack Datarian and Maras as they lead their loot laden donkey southward.

The battle is fierce and difficult. For thirteen rounds they fight for their very lives. In the end the heroes prevail, seriously bloodied and wounded. They have slain the boss and one of the axe men, and taken the other prisoner. The archers fled unfortunately.

The good natured heroes gladly torture their prisoner. Under significant bloodletting, leaving him at the brink of death, he tells them about the hidden bandit camp about an hour or so east of Eisenkrafs. He also explains the deal they had with Goebbels, where he would tell the bandits of all coming and going shipments, numbers, guards, etc, then split the loot 50/50.

[netjiro]

Session 17:

The Heroic band get sidetracked from their bandit hunting by GM lack of memory. Since the GM has simply forgotten to finish the Eisenkrafs Bandit Camp the heroes instead take a side interest in the main quest arch again.

After thoroughly questioning the captured bandit, to the brink of death, Datarian and Maras travel via Castle Conq to drop him off for justice to be served, and get a small reward. Then they continue to sell loot from their Eisenkrafs Revenge Expedition, before finally going back to Sleepy Cove.

In the "Sleep with the Fishes" they meet Farsalos, a curious rookie, who they drag with them for their next adventure. They stash some loot in their room, and then go to find Dyslexia Marigt, only to find that she is no longer in her cabin. All her belongings are gone. They ask the neighbors who tell them that she left earlier in the day towards the east. She had waited for the heroes for quite some time, then finally given up and left.

Back at the inn the generous Maras happily offers John Allbeard five coppers a day to help them track down Dyslexia Marigt. He accepts and they are all ready to travel, when all of a sudden the door bursts open. Farmer Smallbeard runs in and shouts "Where's my daughter? Has anyone seen her? She is gone!". Bling Swordslash offers to help him find her for 20 gold, but the poor farmer has only two gold in total. The Generous Heroes however are happy to help him for two gold and the promise of an old donkey.
Farmer Smallbeard explains that he heard a scream from the barn, and when he went out to look he saw a red cloaked man disappear into the forrest with a large bundle over his shoulder. The man was too fast and disappeared into the woods with his beloved daughter before he could catch up.

Datarian Blood, Maras Blackhammer, and Farsalos the rookie load up on provisions, and together with John Allbeard set off towards the east in pursuit of Dyslexia Marigt, and just hope that it was her RedGuard who took the daughter.

They journey towards the old Ashen Lakebed. Which according to John Allbeard is a site of unspeakable evil, where once in antiquity a horrible monster was summoned to the ruin of all the lands.

Once there they notice some far away chanting and sneak up towards a raised dais. Dyslexia Marigt is performing some kind of ritual, the RedGuard is watching over her, and they can also hear the sobbing cries of the kidnapped girl.
As they advance the Redguard notices them and tells them to stop. But they don't of course, and finally Dyslexia Marigt orders him to kill them, and proceeds with casting a "slow" spell on Datarian and Farsalos.


The fight is very uneven as the fast RedGuard easily keeps the slowed Datarian and Farsalos at bay and even seems able to fight them off, despite Maras artillery support of heavy BlackBolt spells.
In the northern ash field an ominous booom is heard and a cloud of black silt is thrown into the air. Farsalos get very scared and chooses to go to bed for the night.

Finally the Heroes manage to turn the tide, and the RedGuard goes on the defensive, just to have Dyslexia Marigt enter the fray and throw a massive BlackBolt at Maras. It is evident they have to change tactics. Suddenly they also hear a shout from the eastern cliff, and see Sam Slick appear, offering his services to the highest bidder. Dyslexia takes him on, but Datarian raises the bid.
Maras keep the RedGuard busy while Datarian charge the duplicitous old lady. Datarian quickly kills Dyslexia Marigt, just in time to see an enormous green monster with glowing eyes, fangs and huge horns approach from the northern ash fields.

Maras ignore the RedGuard and dash towards the dais to help save the girl. Sam Slick flees with a comment about that beast not being worth the 15 gold he was offered. The RedGuard quickly flees as well once the beast approaches


They manage to free the girl and run away as fast as they can, with the demon in a half hearted pursuit.

Back with John Allbeard they immediately start tracking down the fleeing RedGuard, and follow him for the rest of the day and a bit into the night. Finally, in the darkness of night they come upon the Old Eastern Tower Ruins.

[netjiro]

session 18:

Datarian Blood and Maras Blackhammer got bitten by the gaming bug and ordered up an extra session. So, in the dead of night they sneak through the deep forest towards the Old Eastern Tower Ruin, following their wounded RedGuard. Well, I say sneak, but in truth none of them can sneak, so they get noticed very quickly.

They manage to see the RedGuard talking with a grey haired, pale, thin man. Then the RedGuard finds them and sounds the alarm. They engage the RedGuard and the grey haired man just outside the entrance to the ruin. The RedGuard immediately shoves the man into the ruins and shouts "Trymore, protect the Baron!", then he engages the Heroic Duo.

Datarian and Maras hold their own for a short while against the RedGuard, but when two more RedGuards emerge to join the fight the outlook is bleak indeed. The Heroes fight for a few more rounds before making a controlled retreat.

They rest for the night to regain strength. Then in the morning they send in John Allbeard to scout the terrain. He returns quickly saying that the Baron and his guards disappeared west during the night, and the skinny man and one guard have travelled east on foot. The heroes immediately pursue Trymore and his RedGuard.

Late in the evening they intercept them, on a hill looking out over the Merna village and valley. They fight Trymore and his RedGuard by a dangerous exchange of blackbolt spells. As Datarian manages to land a hard blow on Trymore he teleports away on the brink of death, bringing his RedGuard with him.
Datarian and Maras assume he has teleported back to the eastern tower ruins.

They decide to rest for the night and make camp on the hill. As the sun sets they see the huge lumbering shape of Uchly Namen in the distance, moving north towards the village.
As the monster reaches the village he starts razing houses and eating things, spreading chaos and destruction in his wake. Some 15 minutes later he marches on towards the north east, and the terrified townsfolk can return to try to put out the fires of the last few houses still standing.

The next day the Heroes travel back to the Old Eastern Tower Ruins, where they find Trymore and the RedGuard. After a very difficult fight, where they are balancing on the edge of death they manage to kill Trymore and take the RedGuard captive.
The RedGuard has yielded and offers up some information on the horrible plot. In essence: Baron Conq has hired both Sneexious (Dyslexia Marigt) and Trymore John to raise the demon Uchly Namen to attack baron Pawa. Evilnius Conq seems to think the old ideas are the best, since he obviously tries a two hundred year old trick.

The two Heroes now have the necklace Dyslexia Marigt built with the three stones they gathered for her. The RedGuard thinks it has something to do with controlling the Demon. Too bad they killed Trymore John, as he might have known more about it...

[netjiro]

Session 19:

The brand new Hero Wannabe Farsalos joins Maras Blackhammer and Datarian Blood in the Old Eastern Tower Ruins. Then they camp there for the night before setting out towards Castle Pawa in the morning. By the day's end they have reached the ruined village of Merna, where the townsfolk are slowly starting to rebuild. They generously spend way too much silver purchasing a map of the region and a new bow for Farsalos.

A couple of days later they reach Castle Pawa, and see from afar the thick black smoke rising from the town. When they enter the town they see the broken battlements, the large pools of blood still colouring the ground, the smoking ruins of many of the buildings. Wounded soldiers and hollow eyed townsfolk stand around talking about the horrors of the previous night's attack.

They continue through the ruined city, gathering tales of the horrible demon's destructive prowess. Uchly Namen went through the city in a few hours, picking up people and screaming at people in long complex battle cries before tossing them away or eating their heads.
In the end he smashed through the strong defensive tower where Baron Pawa and his wife were hiding, and killed them both. Then he rested for a bit on the ruins of the northern gate, before heading out and away.

The Heroes meet the Captain of the Guard and get a more consistent tale of the previous night's events. The Captain says they hit the demon several times with siege weapons, and managed to give it some serious wounds, but normal weapons were almost useless. The Captain seems to think the Baron was the target of the attack. The monster seemed to be looking for something for most of the time it was wrecking the city.
The captured RedGuard tells his tale and it is clear that Baron Conq wants to strike at the Pawa family.

Maras convinces the guard that they are demon hunters, tracking Uchly Namen to slay him, and that there is a spear and a shield stored somewhere in the city. Magical weapons created to fight the Demon. Since Maras haven't been able to decipher more than a little bit of Honorbliz' Blue Stone journal he asks the well educated Captain to read more.
They manage to figure out that is was during the reign of Massa Pawa, some 200 years ago, that the spear and shield were returned to the keep. The Captain knows which of the many heirloom weapons they mean.
He leads them to the foyer of the main keep and take down a strange looking greenish lance spear and a similarly odd tall narrow shield. Upon the word of their honour Maras Blackhammer is allowed to borrow the weapons to slay the Demon Uchly Namen, then return them. The captain also says that the new Baron in absence, Heirling Pawa, will probably reward them when he returns from his long travels.

The Heroes rest for the night, then set out the next day towards Honorbliz' tower to search for a ritual to close the gate forever. On the way they get ambushed by a pack of Grey Stalkers. The fight is vicious, with the odd reality blinking of the demonic foes giving Datarian great trouble in slaying them. Maras and Farsalos do significant damage with their ranged weapons though.

In the end, after 14 rounds of frenzied combat they manage to slay all but one of the stalkers. Farsalos is nearly dead, Maras is almost out of mana, and Datarian is pissed off. The last stalker runs away, fast, into the forest and disappears.

[netjiro]

Session 20

They continue their journey towards Honorbliz Wize's tower. As they arrive they see the tower grounds are cordoned off with miles of red tape, and wagons full of traveling lawyers have put the area under siege. They walk up to one of the bald men, representing the firm of Wasterich, Goldburn, Takesilver, and Sidethorn, and ask him about what is going on. The well dressed legal representative responds by a lengthy tirade of strange words, slowly conveying the fact that the wizard, being hundreds of years old, had many, many, and even more children, most of whom are now fighting it out over the inheritance. However, the assembled army of lawyers have run into a problem with the wizard's servants. The strange shadowy creatures don't respect the letter of the law and have already killed two aggressive litigators. They have sent for a wizard to help them, but in the mean time they are waiting, and billing their clients of course.

Datarian and Maras quickly suggest that they will clean out the problem for a mere five gold. Farsalos is still newbie enough to gladly agree without further thought to the problem.
During the evening the Heroic trio hack their way through the hordes of shadow servants that have infested the -- now very clean -- wizard's tower. After a lengthy but boring battle they finally manage to barricade the closet from which the servants spew forth, and start going through the old journals stored in the many book shelves, looking for the gate closing ritual mentioned in the old book they found with the Blue Stone. At the break of dawn, after much red-eyed and murderously slow reading, Datarian manage to pick the correct journal from a shelf, and they can leave this horribly tidy place.
But of course, they manage to stuff their back packs a bit with some extra loot before they leave.
The lawyers pay them for a job well done, and when asked about news of the Demon Uchly Namen reports that a monster has been sighted moving around in the forest, towards Sleepy Cove.

The next few days the Heroes travel towards Sleepy Cove, via the market place at Castle Conq where they sell some loot.

At Sleepy Cove the situation is a bit tense. Sightings of a large monster have been made in the vicinity, and the beast is heading towards the village. "It could be here any day" says one of the hunters.
And, as on que, the beast wanders into town.

The villagers call for a Hero to come forth and slay the beast, but since Bling Swordslash demands 200 gold for the job they simply can't afford him. The Heroic trio of Datarian, Maras, and Farsalos ask for 50 gold and the villagers counter with something around 20+, whatever they can find in their meager savings.
Datarin takes up the Spear lance and Shield, and feel the weapons wakening as the Dread Demon closed in.

Then they engage the Ancient Evil. Bling stand to the side, offering a few helpful and acidic remarks on how it should be done, and Datarian flying through the air back and forth as the Demon lands devastating blows on the shield.
It is obvious that the monster is hurt from the devastating battle of Castle Pawa, and Datarian manage to land a lance thrust with the spear which cuts a deep hole in the side of the demon. Then he get swatted away, again, sailing several yards before he strikes the ground just behind Bling, who supplies a helpful "That's not the way to slay a demon".

[netjiro]

session 21:

Farsalos, Maras Blackhammer, and Datarian Blood continue their lethal battle against the Horrible Demon Uchly Namen. They have retreated continually along the main street of Sleepy Cove as the Demon advances. Datarian has spent more time in the air than on the ground, and is feeling the effect of the many heavy blows from the mighty fists of the monster, despite the protection of the magical shield.
The battle rages on, until Maras digs through their pack bags on the donkey, fishing out the necklace with the three stones they retrieved. Uchly Namen quickly zeroes in on Maras and starts chasing him through the village, running down trees and outhouses as he steams by like a lumbering out of control locomotive. Just before the Demon is able to reach Maras and stomp him into a wet puddle Maras manages to pass the necklace onto Farsalos in a relay switch worthy of a professional athlete. Farsalos puts the long legs ahead and runs out of the village, kiting the furious Demon a few steps behind him.

They continue a bit south of the village, then it becomes evident that the demon will catch up with him sooner or later as Farsalos runs out of stamina. In a desperate attempt to avoid liquification Farsalos winds the necklace around an arrow and shoots it far out into the ocean. Uchly Namen stops, roars a long harangue of ancient foulness, then dives into the ocean to retrieve the jewelry. The Heroes retreat towards the village again.

It takes some time before the monster appears again, walking out of the waves. He stops on the beach, Angry, wet, and wounded. Raising a fist he roars towards the village then stomps on to the east and disappears into a copse of trees.

The Heroic Three tells the relieved townspeople to have their 50 gold payment ready in five days, then bring John Allbeard along to track down the Demon.

Two days later they stand outside Castle Conq, where the Demon have razed a section of the wall before retreating. They talk with a few of the towns people and find out that the monster came out of the south forest, charged the south wall and brought it down before retreating. The Conq guards had massive siege weapons ready and waiting when the monster appeared. Since the beast was already quite wounded he retreated quickly.

They follow the trail south down to the summoning site. There they find that the tracks vanish in the middle of the ashen lakebed. The Demon did not leave the spot, and vanished into thin air.

Maras wants to try to seal the gate with his new found ritual book, but after the last few days of studying it is evident he will need to increase his magic skills significantly before being able to do so. Or, they can try to hire another wizard to do the job for them. The major hurdle though is that the ritual requires the necklace... Did Uchly Namen bring that with him when he disappeared? After a fruitless day's searching they give up and return to the village to claim their reward.

A few days later they are resting at the Sleep with the Fishes inn. The poor townsfolk have gathered every last coin they have saved to pay the 50 gold reward. The starving children, and coming winter, etc, etc, does not deter the Benevolent Heroic Three from pocketing the money and spending a day or two at the inn.

Later on they have travelled to Castle Pawa, where they meet the Captain again and return the Magical Lance Spear and the narrow Shield. They have to be careful since Baron Evilnius Conq have installed himself as Ruler and Saviour until the next Pawa youngling can return to claim his birthright. The Captain says that he thinks Heirling Pawa is somewhere to the east, travelling the world. But that is another story...

[netjiro]

This brings an end to the Return of Uchly Namen.
The campaign, documents, maps, tokens, campaign files, etc, will be released on the gallery site later on.
The full set of original files is also available, but is a fair bit larger, and will have to be uploaded somewhere else I think.

The adventures of Nostromo, Mandak, Datarian, Anomali, Maras, and Farsalos will continue ...