When last we left off, we had found a door that looked like the abode of the Necromancer – if only because it was guarded by a special monster. Heidel and Vaeva checked if there was a back entrance to that abode, but circled around a long way fruitlessly, or almost so: They found a secret shortcut to the area with the howler and the shrooms.

During this time, Darion waited obediently by the door, and listened on it. He was rewarded by hearing the mewling of a cat.

And Heidel and Vaeva heard the voice of an old man saying ”We’ve got to be quick!”

What?

They chose to keep quiet and hurried back to the others to tell them about this voice. We decided to investigate and went around the corner to look for that oldster — and ran right into a batch of zombies coming our way, directed by their Master.

Plot Twist: The old man was the Dark Master, the necromancer we were looking for – and he was not behind that door after all. He was right behind us.

And behind a unit of zombies intent on clobbering us down with blunt instruments.
Both sides were surprised to run into this close quarter encounter, right at the bend from one corridor into another. Chaos ensued.

“Vaeva! Shoot him!” cried Darion, and threw himself into melee. Vaeva shot, but was also fast harassed by zombies.

Meanwhile, the Master called upon the Forces of Magic and dumped a spell on us: a sleep spell, which downed Vaeva, Darion, and Rovan!

Rulebook to the rescue: While in B/X this would have worked and taken out half of our party, in BFRPG the Necromancer and Vaeva had been acting in the same round and therefore her shot at him — even though a miss! — had interrupted the spell, and spoiled it.

Different from B/X:

where that missing arrow would have made the spell a success, and wiped us off the board.
Whew!!

Now all joined the fight, and things got crowded.

Once more the Necromancer looses the spell. Sleep! This time we don’t manage to interrupt him, but again BFRPG aids us: We get a saving throw. Vaeva and Rovan resist Morpheus’ embrace. Only Darion and Apoqulis sink down onto the ground.

Heidel storms in and fumbles, falls, and lands on the ground.

Vaeva swings a sword, also fumbles … and it breaks!

As the gods of Rules-Lawyering favour us, the goddess of Luck rejects our advances.

But we have the power of teamwork: Rovan grabs Darion and slaps him awake with some sharp smacks even as the zombies swarm him.

But no! They do not! They leave him be. Instead, the Necromancer lays a spell on him: Hold Person! He wants this talented young mage alive and unharmed. We may shudder at the plans he might have for the wizard.

“Stop fighting!” yells the necromancer: “I am trying to help you!”

Yeah, sure.

Yelling, struggling, Vaeva trying to get shots off – and fumbles again!

Darion is up again and slices a zombie down, and also kicks Apoqulis in the shins with smack, to get him back up and running.

“Get the necro!” yells Darion: “Get the necro!”

But that is easier said than done with zombies blocking the way.

But finally Apoqulis manages to get up in the lee of Darion’s and Heidel’s close combat efforts… and he Turns Undead.

Success! Zombies turn and run, and suddenly there is an open corridor all the way to the back, to the Necromancer.

“Wait!” shouts the master in a curious mix of fury and disappointment. “Cretins! Stay here, you dumb creatures!!”

Apoqulis storms forward to attack – and discovers that the master is a zombie himself! That explains the miniscule effects of Vaevas arrows. But a zombie with a will. Our necromancer is a lich-in-waiting.

“You won’t get out of here,” cackles the necromancer menacingly, as our heroes finally make their way towards him but fail to hit with their first round of attacks.

THEN THE HIT!

Finally! Darion’s orc-axe “Slasher” connects, and scores solid damage: The necromancer is cut in half, and his glowing red eyes go out. Even his flesh starts to dissolve.

Time for a breather.

Our heroes gathered, bound up their wounds, and went to look at that door from earlier. Opening it, they met a cat: Hezeroth, it was called.

We know this because it told us: the cat could talk in our language. It told us that it wasn’t really a cat; it was taken from another dimension and enslaved. But it would help us if we did it a good deed.

“Sure”, says Darion, “if it is in our power and nothing untoward?”

It isn’t: Hezeroth wants to travel east to some settlement we don’t know.

“Not a problem.”

Now Hezeroth led us to a secret room, hidden behind a cleverly concealed door. In that room we finally found Gwylain, alas, too late: The once-beautiful daughter of the trader was turned, a dead body with a vacant stare, and with a hunger for killing us.

Alone, though, she was no match for us. Sad, but resolved, we cut her down and packed her up to return at least her body to the village – and Saril. The sad, but lucky girl. Sometimes it is an advantage to be eternally overlooked.

On our way out we saw that the orcs were packing: They left this evil place to seek a better home deeper in the forests. Fantastic.

The cat came with us, pretending to be a normal cat when in polite company.

Our quest was done, and some of us earned enough through this mission to level up.
We were finally, and truly, heroes.

The story so far