Wherein Castle Defiant is Officially Reclaimed…

Thorn’dil’s imbued light goes out, leaving him and Yusuf in darkness an instant after having witnessed the Elder Thing. Arn approaches them, however, armed with a stone he has cast continual light upon, but they discover that the abomination has vanished! The other explorers join them, have a very brief discussion regarding their next actions, and set out to hunt the Elder Thing down.

A tense cat-and-mouse game ensues, with the explorers attempting to maximize their fields of awareness – no easy task given the level of damage done to the castle – while the abomination sneaks about and utilizes its far superior mobility to strike from ambush. Dropping down from a hole in the roof from with lightning speed, the Elder Thing snatches at Arn who manages to blink away, then the abomination vanishes back up through the hole. Finn weaves a spell upon a rock so it emits light, then hurls it upstairs, hoping to illuminate the creature, but it is already gone; his weave is not entirely solid and the light pulses on and off rather than simply illuminating. Thorn creeps up the stairs until he can no longer see anything although he can certainly hear something up here; he retreats back down the stairs. Haruki shifts position and then, locks eyes with the Elder Thing through another hole in the ceiling, though it promptly shifts out of sight once more. Again, the explorers argue over the best way to deal with this creature.

Haruki, frustrated at this inaction, opts for the direct approach and charges up the stairs where he promptly trips and falls prone; the torch he was carrying skitters from his hands and slides across the floor to illuminate the Elder Thing which hisses and charges him! A fierce fight ensues, the noise of which draws the other explorers up the stairs – Thorn is the closest and uses Haruki’s great mass as cover to stab and thrust at the Elder Thing, though he quickly finds that his best efforts are barely penetrating the abomination’s thick hide. Yusuf joins the fray and attempts to dazzle the abomination with his cloak to no avail, and Ilanna quickly discovers that her bow is nearly useless against it. Zistral squeezes through the tight spaces of the stairwell and thrusts his spear into the creature but soon learns that it has an unnatural anatomy. When Arn and Finn enter the fray, they are forced to concentrate on the sudden appearance of three young trolls and thus, never even engage the Elder Thing. In the end, it is mostly Haruki who deals the killing blow despite being grappled by the abomination’s tentacles; with a Herculean effort, the Sahudi warrior thrusts his tetsubo into the creature’s beak, clearly breaking something which is too much for it as it passes out from pain. Haruki then breaks free and smashes the Elder Thing’s unconscious body into paste. As for the trolls, well, they don’t make good showings of themselves and are easily dispatched.

With the threat removed, the explorers spend some a little time regaining their breath, then search the Elder Thing’s would-be lair where they discover several valuable (and magical) items that will be put to good use in the near future. Having taken the time to clear out the upper levels of the castle, the explorers then turn toward what appears to be a basement which once had stairs but now has rubble. Climbing down is no fun for some of them – especially Zistral – but the moment they are down, skeletons begin standing up and charge them!

Another fierce battle ensues, with the living fighting the swarm of undead that seem to come out of nowhere. Finn and Yusuf are both badly injured but managed to struggle on while the others hold their own quite well. An ominous moan that sounds like thousands of plaintive souls crying out in misery echoes from the nearby room which intensifies the aggression of the skeletons still upright; on the bright side, it also means they attack with wild abandon, leaving themselves wide open for brutal counter-attacks which the explorers take great advantage of. Haruki especially is smashing apart his foes with mighty blows, though Ilanna is discovering that her newfound magical bow is quite deadly against armor.

With the first wave of undead downed, the explorers re-orient themselves to face the impending second wave and a zombie encased in heavy mail emerges from the nearby room – at his appearance, Ilanna looses a readied shot which punches through the undead creature’s shield and nails him in the head … though this does not seem to slow him too terribly. Two additional skeletons lurch out of the room behind the zombie and flank it in a shield wall. They display a surprising level of tactical competence in this, no doubt due to the zombie’s presence. Finn, having memorized all of his father’s stories about Castle Defiant as well as having learned a great deal from his primary martial instructor who was also from this place, recognizes that the zombie can only be Captain Ethrin, one of the last defenders of the castle who led a last-stand against the attackers.

The ensuing melee is fierce and fast, with the living explorers maneuvering for better position while the undead creatures strike quickly but seek to maintain their shield wall. Arn and Finn both hurl blasts of flame at the zombie captain, though the latter misses entirely and the former’s ball of fire is blocked by the undead creature’s shield. Arn, Thorn and Yusuf concentrate on one wing of the shield wall, eventually dropping that skeleton, while Haruki concentrates on trying to draw the zombie out of position so Zistral can get a clear shot at him. Eventually, this tactic sort of works – with a mighty blow, Haruki strikes the zombie so hard he is knocked forward and prone which gives the centaur an opportunity to drive his spear through the captain’s skull, ending his Unlife forever. The last skeleton is felled almost at the same time when Finn hurls his last prepared sunbolt to engulf it in flames and Haruki smashes it into pieces with another mighty blow from behind. The battle is over…

Following the battle, the explorers spend several long minutes simply recovering. Finn weaves a quick minor healing on Yusuf, then re-assembles the collapsed stairwell long enough for him and his allies to climb back into the castle’s courtyard. Having completed their mission, they exit the castle environs where they meet Ser Malfoy and his men who have completed their own sweep of the surrounding area. He listens to Finn’s brief description of the threats faced within the castle with a surprised (and perhaps briefly impressed) expression, then escorts them back to the caravan camp where they report to Ser Dane.

That evening, for the first time in forty-one years, a Caithness flag flies over Castle Defiant once more…

Player Notes:

• This recap covers two sessions since both were basically two big fights. 1.05 was mostly just the fight with the madness sphere, while 1.06 was entirely the skeleton & zombie fight. Both fights were a lot more tense than my shoddy recap implies – Haruki was a few bad rolls away from getting his brains eaten by the Elder Thing in 1.05, and both Finn & Yusuf were very close to being dropped in 1.06 due to injuries taken; the former was down to 4 HP at one point and the latter ended the fight at 2 HP. Interestingly, the skeletons were more of a big threat in 1.06 than the badass zombie.
• In the wake of the big fight in 1.05, the GM had us roll Search checks for loots and the four successful rolls then used Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables to determine what we found. Three of these rolled really, really well – a scroll with a couple of spells on it; a dwarven light shield that has dancing shield on it; and a dwarven bow that has Armor Penetration (10) on arrows loosed – and the last roll ended up with a crowbar.
• Haruki’s fall on the stairs in 1.05 was entirely the player’s decision since the character is Impulsive and a Klutz.
• Fantasy Grounds was especially erratic with regards to dice rolling during 1.06 – the GM could not miss and, if the players connected with an attack, they did minimum damage more often than not.