The Mordrin's Minions
Darrowmar
In which the party fights their way into an oversized ossuary, grapples with the dead and undead minions of The Mordrin, and retrieves the body of Morran for, um, proper burial. A recent enemy makes an encore appearance.
The party returns to the vicinity of the Darrowmar Traverton and sets up a wilderness camp. The stealthy types make their way to the location that The Mordrin surreptitiously provided. It is a karst column with a cave mouth at its base, guarded by three high platforms on the face of the column and a small pavilion next to the cave mouth. Manning the platforms and pavilion are grey-robed people with the sallow complexion the party has come to associate with the Mordrin clan. They are clearly on watch, and change shifts randomly every few hours.
Koros sneaks into the cave and runs into a purple field of energy that withers his arm and blackens his nails. Koros retreats, and Ramach scries the passage of the guards through the barrier - they seem to hold up a medallion or trinket worn around their necks to pass through.
The party waits until late in the night, and - assured by The Mordrin's implicit assertion that "things do get stolen from me" - sneaks up on two of the three platforms. Paetro pokes a sword into one watchman's back and growls a warning to be still, but Koros ganks the other in the kidneys without so much as a how-do-you-do. The Mordrin clan member falls dead, and a sphere of sickly blue energy billows out from his body and attenuates into the night, causing pain and damage to those nearby. Paetro, suddenly worried that his guard might throw himself onto Paetro's sword to effect the same end, kicks his captive off the platform. The man lands with an ugly thunk, but begins to stand up, only to be put to sleep by Ramach.
The other guards, alerted to danger, form a group near the cave mouth, and begin firing bolts of sickly energy at the advancing invaders. The party makes quick work of them from afar, avoiding the blue explosion that seems to accompany their deaths, and leaves two of them alive and tied up. They steal 5 blue-purple crystals worn by each guard, and with that protection they enter the cave and pass through the barrier.
The inside of the passage opens up to a wide cavern with a floor of jumbled bones, the decaying remains of hundreds and perhaps thousands of people. Skulls shift and bones crack as the party makes a wobbling entrance, trying to find their footing. A few more Mordrin guards are in the cavern, and are quickly taken down. The cavern has two exits, one blocked by a second purple energy barrier and one open. The party looks through the translucent barrier and sees many shifting, rambling human shapes on the other side, and they elect to go through the open passage instead.
Inside is another wide cavern, this one with platforms placed over the jumbled bone floor. The platforms look to have beds and desks on them, and five more Mordrin clan members begin frantically firing necromantic energy at the party. They use the beds and platforms for cover, but the party again charges and quickly takes them down or knocks them out, only sometimes avoiding their blue death-explosions. This cavern has another exit passage. The resistance has been soft thus far, so the party lines up and marches down it.
At the other end is cavern with four large black tables, three of them holding corpses in various states of "repair". Needle, thread, leather patches, metal clamps, and other tools are scattered on the tables and hang on the walls. One table holds Morran's corpse, looking like he died yesterday and not a year ago. Another holds half-attached pieces of a corpse unknown to the party. But a third holds the body of the Necrobind the party fought in the Lakesla fort, now bound back together but evidently not yet re-animated. The party surmises that this lair is where the Mordrin make their Necrobinds. A frouth table is empty, but strewn with tools and scraps that indicate it was recently used. At the other end of the cavern is a passage with a third purple energy field blocking the way.
In the middle of the cavern stands a grey-robed, hunch-backed old man, looking at the party and whispering into his hands. He releases them, and a ball of blue energy shoots from his lips off to the roof of the cave and vanishes. The party opens fire and charges him, and taking bolts and hits he sinks to one knee, then two knees, then curls in on himself and slumps sideways. His only action for the duration of the attacks is to hold up and crush a small purple crystal in his hand. Orosh notices, and upon checking so does the rest of the party, that the little crystal trinkets they took from the clan members have cracked and broken, falling to shards and dust.
The barrier at the end of the room is also translucent and also half-hides shambling human forms on the other side, so the party investigates the room, picks up Morran's body, and prepares to leave. From the passage they entered from come five Mordrin clan members....5 they had recently killed, but here now back on their feet and coordinating necromantic energy attacks. Ramach takes several bolts in the face, others take a bolt or two, and then the party mows them down (again). Before any other reanimation hijinks can catch them off guard, the party hustles back down the passage, through the bunk room, and to the aperture to the fist main cavern...
...where several more on-their-feet Mordrin are joined by a host of skeletons and more substantial corpse-creatures, and in the middle of it all a gigantic Necrobind with puckered welts where his eyes should be. Akissi recognizes the Necrobind as Little Grapak, the bullish Viprathi Clan leader who they defeated when they first arrived on Darromar, now patched, covered in black leather, and lumbering towards the party across a floor of bones.
The party sets up in the doorway as a bottleneck, and Necrobind Grapak obliges by stepping right up tp the other side. The party knows to use more magical weapons this time, and equips themselves appropriately. Akissi is front and center, and gets grappled by the Necrobind and thrown back into the main cavern, where she is quickly surrounded by the more fleshy corpse creatures. As Orosh and Koros try to avodn being grappled themselves, Ramach uses a fireball to cut down on the crowd around Akiisi. She is nonetheless overcome by the remainder and goes down.
Orosh is grappled by Necrobind Grapak, but continues to stab away with a dagger. Koros jabs its sides and hacks away at leather bindings and flesh. Paetro shoots him in the eye-holes. Doran is able to heal Akissi from afar, and she rushes the Necrobind and brings her angelic radiant damage to bear. Sooner than the previous Necrobind the party fought, Little Grapak is reduced to badly folded limbs and hacked away flesh. He falls, dead again or de-animated or whatever happens to Necrobinds.
The fleshy corpse creatures fill the gap, and Koros is paralyzed and hit many times. More Mordorn clan enter the back of the bunk cavern, and Paetro and Ramach engage them. However, now that the large threat is gone, and although outnumbered, the party gradually runs through the rest of the necromantic parade. Ghasts and ghouls and skeletons and on-their-feet clan members are put to their rest, and the party makes a puzzle out of getting through the purple barrier in the exit passage by passing an amulet with necromantic protection back and forth. Carrying Morran's body, they exit the cave.
It is morning, and in the dawn thet see a lone figure atop a nearby karst column, robes flowing in a slight wind. Koros recognizes the garb as similar to those worn by the Arcanist "troubleshooters" the party ran into on Wisp. The figure seems to be looking their way, but soon backs off out of sight.
The party quickly hustles back to their wilderness camp to rest. It is 15 days until the Gate opens to Morayel.