Lair of the Lakesla
Darrowmar
In which the party finds the last homely hill of the former Alshekal, complete with necromantic welcome mats!
The party winds through the Darromar countryside by following rough directions and making a few wrong turns and backtracks. On two mornings they arise to see a couple of ragged Forazze members on the road behind them, simply keeping watch. When approached, they flee. On the third day the party approaches the (supposedly haunted) hill where the former Alshekal, calling themselves the Lakesla, made their home in the year before their purported deaths. It is lightly forested, with a wooden-walled enclosure at the top and a small spire sporting a watchtower off to one side.
Ramach uses a clairvoyance spell to peak into the enclosure, and sees five small cabins surrounding a large central fire pit. On the rim of the pit sits a warrior with the pale skin and deep shadows of the necrobinds, a sword across his lap.
Knowing what awaits them, they climb the slope. But soon, about halfway up, the party sees a double-line of pikes holding human skulls across their path. Orosh approaches, and screeching translucent apparitions appear near the closest three pikes. They swoop through Orosh, causing damage, but do not seem to be effected by normal _or_ magical weapons. The party scatters and tries to engage them, to little effect. Koros hits on the idea of targeting the skulls, and when the first one breaks one of the spirits vanishes. The party makes quick work of the nearest skulls, and free of wailing ghosts they walk past the pike line. As they make their way up the hill they note that the ground is covered in old remains, skeletal forms grown over by weeds.
At the top of the hill Ramach uses mage hand to lift the inner bar on the gate, and the party jumps into the enclosure and fans out to approach the necrobind.
The creature stands, and tells the party that they need to leave. He says it is his service to defend this place and evict all interlopers. They try to reason with him, and even ask to speak to his "master", who they know to be The Mordrin from the Anaxar's entourage. He refuses, and asks the party to leave again. When they refuse, he swings his sword around, says, "So be it," and attacks.
His hits pack a wallop, and inflict necrotic damage as well. He wades into the party, and they find that their counterattacks sink into hardened flesh that does not bleed. He is cornered near a wall of the enclosure, but fights his way out and returns to his starting position near the firepit. The back and forth continues, and although the party lands solid blows the necrobind withers very slowly, and returns those blows with devastating effect. He then raises a hand and speaks a word, and several animated skeletons come climbing over the wall of the compound. The party splits to deal with this new menace.
With several party members flagging, Doran begins casting, and reveals himself as a proficient and prolific wielder of healing magics, Angel Touched. As the necrobind and his skeletons bring people near to collapse, Doran mass heals and brings people back to fighting form. When the first skeletons are nearly all destroyed, the necrobind summons a second group, and the fight continues.
Finally, Ramach casts levitate on the necrobind, and his attacks are neutralized while the party shoots him and hacks away at his legs and feet. With a few cutting and severing blows, the necrobind falls limp, drops his sword, and his skeletons dis-animate and fall to the ground. While Doran spreads the healing, a form coalesces out of dusty mist on the other side of the firepit.
There stands The Mordrin, frowning at the fallen necrobind. She opens her hands in a "I come in peace" gesture, and asks if she can collect the body. When the party cautiously assents, she begins picking up pieces of the creature and putting them in a small shoulder bag. When the party asks her what this was about, she says that she and the Lekesla traded favors while they were here, and one of her debts was providing protection for this hilltop in their absence. She adds that they stayed in the same place for too long, and attracted the attention of the wrong clan. When they ask her who, she says it would be dangerous even now, where they stand, to say a name out loud. She then tilts her head as if listening, and offers that they party should likely move on as well. The Forraze, she says, are not far behind, and the answers the party seeks are all ashes now. She then throws the bulk of the necrobind over her shoulder, and de-coalesces back into a dusty mist, which floats off on the breeze.
The party searches the cabins and, other than some small personal touches with which they can identify who lived in which cabin, find them empty. Akissi gets an idea from the last words of The Mordin and begins to search the pile of ashes in the firepit. In it she finds a carved skull that the party knows can house a spirit of intellect. This one is larger than the others they have found, and when cleaned of ash the crystal lattice-work inside has a pink hue, indicating an SOI for Morran that Koros's coin might activate. Before trying, the party relocates to the watchtower on the spire nearby, the better to keep a lookout. They find it also abandoned, and then Koros puts his coin into the skull.
A giant bear of a man appears in the middle of the party, translucent still but far more solid than any spirit of intellect the party has yet encountered. Spirit Morran looks around, and quickly turns somber. He speaks, saying, "Ah. I know what this must mean. We are all gone, eh?"
He then turns to Doran (who was curiously nonplussed at the skull or Moran's appearance) and says, "Greetings cousin. I suppose you were sent to find me. Well. I may have things to say to these folks that uncle may not want you to know. Can you....?" To which Doran says, "Of course. Let me know when you are done," and wanders away from the party, down the path a ways.
Morran then looks around at the party. "The inheritors, I see." With a keen stare at Paetro, he says, "Yes, you have the look of Thalina." Turning to Ramach he says, "And you are surely of Enelach's brood. And you," to Akissi, "must be Chaywa's mother. Greetings, elder." Turning to Orosh, Morran continues, "You are no doubt Nyana's barbarian."
He then settles his gaze on Koros, and says, "So then who the fuck are you?"