Session 9

The party continued to search the palace of the  for the remaining two emblems that they believed were needed to open the control room. Along the way they fought through the Prince's legion of undead knights and servant ghosts. Some of the fights were particularly taxing, but they fought on despite some serious wounds. Eventually they found their way into the Prince's bride's room, where she was 'asleep.' After taking the emblem she was holding, they explored the rooms around her and found a 'ghost party room.' These ghosts did not seem to know that the party were intruders and celebrated with them.  succeeded in the legendary task of seducing a ghost. The party took the next opportunity to rest and nurse their wounds, while Skarl took the opportunity to try with a ghost what no other mortal man has tried before.

After their rest the party went on the hunt for the remaining emblem. They came to dining hall packed full of zombies, munching away on delicious looking food.  snuck into the room to get a better look and became overcome with the powerful smells of the food. He stole some type of bread from the table and starting devouring it, unable to resist.  tried to see what it was that Aravo was doing, but too became overcome by the smells. Before he had a chance to fulfill his desire for the food  lunged a fireball into the room. The surviving zombies attacked but were quickly dispatched by the party.

The party entered the kitchen in the back of the dining hall and met a zombie chef. The chef didn't realize they were intruders, he was too absorbed with trying to find a new recipe to serve the prince. "After several hundred years, he has gotten bored with every dish I have been able to come up with," he complained. Zathras used his divining powers to come up with a native dish of Vesta lands, to which the chef was grateful. He asked the party for one last favor: to deliver his latest dish to his master, the prince. He gave them the dishes and the last emblem they would need to access the throne room.

After preparing themselves for a tough fight the party entered the emblems into the door blocking the throne room. They passed through a hall filled with death knights, who to their surprise gave them a knightly salute instead of attacking them. They entered the throne room and there met their target: The Red Prince himself.

The Red Prince did not believe for a second that they were servants there to deliver food, but he said he was impressed enough at the party having fought their way through his palace and that they had his attention. He gave the party a chance to explain their presence. They explained they were after the demon artifact that was in his possession that he used to control the undead, and the threat that would be posed if the demon worshipers got their hands on the artifact. The prince explained that he couldn't give up the artifact because it was the only thing sustaining his life, in addition to the fact that it was holding together his entire kingdom under the sea. He also stated no fear of the demon worshipers, and brought out two worshipers he had slain and raised in his service as proof.

 He offered his own compromise: his undead army would vow service to their cause if they helped him raise his city to the surface. He reasoned that if the war with the demons, that the party claimed was inevitable, was truly to happen, they would need numbers, which he could provide. He had thousands of undead in the underwater kingdom who would follow him into battle against the demons if the party helped him in the long project of raising his city from the ocean.

 The party took some time to debate this course of action. Fariman liked the idea, thinking it was only practical to make use of such power as was being offered. Zathras thought it was a terrible idea that would only cause chaos when the other nations see a kingdom of undead. Skarl was uncomfortable with working with the undead. Aravo was in favor of the deal, figuring that they could just betray the prince once the threat of the demons had passed. The party debated for almost an hour while the prince awaited thier decision.

 Finally, they decided on something. To help stall the Red Prince they would agree to help him raise his city. As they did what he needed to prepare his city for raising, Aravo worked a stone to give off fake magical energy. They hoped to convince the Prince that this stone would work to maintain his life and kingdom without the artifact. Unfortunetly the trick didn't work and through the party's help the city did raise. Now the party was stuck on what to do. The Prince had agreed to become thier ally, but Zathras and Skarl were still unwilling to leave the Prince's undead kingdom in tact and the artifact in his possession. Paris sensed the city after it raised and teleported in to meet thier new ally. He was excited by the prospect of the Red Prince joining the fight against the demons. However, he saw the discontent of the party over him trying to assert his authority to make the decision and decided the party had more uses than the Prince and told them that it was up to them what to do with the Prince before teleporting away.

They came to the conclusion that the Prince would die instantly without the artifact. Aravo tried to make a sneaky grab of the artifact but failed, invoking the Prince and his knights to draw thier swords. It looked like a fight they couldn't win, but Fariman succeeded in cutting off the cloak of the Prince which held the artifact. The moment the cloak was severed the Prince collapsed into dust and the entire kingdom once again began crumbling into the sea. The party barely escaped the collapsing city with thier lives and the artifact.

After returning the inventions to the gnome inventor the party began thier track back through the Stolle Forests. On thier way they met some wood elf rangers trying to get control of a forest fire that had begun to get out of control. They told the party that some kind of large boar was breathing flames all over the forest. They went after the boar, following its easily distinguishable path of destruction. They encountered the enraged boar, covered in flames, and slain it.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">Shortly after, they encounter the Solon mage Martin. He was using water spells in a desperate attempt to put out the fires caused by the boar. The party questioned him and learned he was in charge of experiments in the forest that led to the creation of the fire boar. He forgot to feed it one day and it escaped in a range. Now he was desperately trying to clean up his mess. The party got the location of the Solon research facility where Martin's experiments were being conducted. Upon questioning the other scientists there they learned that Martin was actually the new Dragon Speaker in training under Li'liok, Fariman's replacement. When they were convinced that there was no further threat to the forest from the lab they left before Li'liok arrived for his status update.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">They returned to Auria without any further incidents. They decided they needed to find a way to destroy the artifact before they reported in to Paris. Lacking the power to do so themselves, they sought the stength of the most powerful man they knewn in the city: The Golden Knight. He was nobility so they had to get into the palace in order to meet with him. They located Raven and used him to get an audience. When presented with the situation the Golden Knight was more than happy to help in trying to destroy the artifact. Unfortunetly the task proved to be too great for his sword and it shattered on strike. Figuring he needed a blade capable of taking such power without shattering, he suggested that the local weapons enchanter had been working on a project to forge an Overlimit Blade, a sword that broke the normal understood limits on the amount of magic that any weapon can be enchanted with before being destroyed. They found the project was indeed underway, however the weapon couldn't be maintained for more than few minutes. They asked to use it anyway. The Knight stabbed the artifact with the sword and both the sword and artifact exploded, taking the enchanter's shop with them. The enchanter was distraught, but the party and the knight were satisfied that good had been done.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">The party then reported to Paris and Lancaster. As they approached the Church which hid thier headquarters they met Pierson Grey, who had recovered from the assault on his mind and was on his way out. He told them that he had resigned his position as hunter and was leaving to search for General Rover and the rest of the leadership of the Royal Hunter's Guild. The party tried to convince him to stay and help the Scioni, but Grey was convinced that his mission was also of the upmost importantce.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">Paris was dissapointed that they had lost thier chance at an undead army and that the artifact was destroyed, but Lancaster was quite pleased. They were told that the next artifact had already been located so they would need to rest and get ready to move out as quickly as possible. A dwarf mining village in the Mithros Mountains had recently been slaughtered by trolls and Paris detected demonic influence behind the attack and was convinced there was an artifact involved.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">The party found the village in just as ravaged a state as they were worned. Signs of struggle were everywhere though there were no dwarven bodies. They found the entrance to the mines and climbed down. Inside they fought the trolls that had slaughtered the village. The trolls were digging, going deeper into the earth than the dwarves had been. They were uncovering some long buried building, some ancient city that had sunken into the earth long ago. The party explored the ancient city, killing trolls along the way. They found other trolls already dead, and it appeared to them that these trolls had worked themselves to death toiling to dig out this city.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">They came to a 'kitchen' where the dwarves had been dragged to and eaten. They found a single surviving dwarf, Dour'khan. He was unconsious and horribly injured but Skarl managed to stabalize. They decided the dwarf could use some rest, as could they after all thier troll slaying, so they returned to the surface. Dour'khan told them about the attack and about his lost friends and family. He spent most of the night getting off-his-ass drunk. In the morning, still drunk, he insisted that he be allowed to join the party in clearing the rest of the mines of trolls. They accepted with no problems.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">With Dour'khan leading the charge against the trolls in the most violent way possible the party made quick work of the remaining trolls. Even the troll's shaman in the ancient city's central chamber, Orca, was killed with little difficulty. With all the trolls dead they could now search for the artifact.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">As they searched the central chamber a figure appeared before them. He introduced himself as Beil, one of the three Demon Lords. He was here to check up on the project of his younger brother, Levithin, only to find all the trolls slaughtered. He was more impressed than angry and asked the party for introductions. Aravo gave the name Marcus Hildebrand, but Skarl introduced himself by name to show he had no fear of him. Beil offered them a position of power within his dominion should they bow down to him now but every member of the party refused without hesistation. He told them they had made a terrible mistake and a powerful enemy this day, but the party just mocked him before his image dissapeared.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.36in; border: none; padding: 0in; line-height: 0.24in">They finally found the artifact they were looking for by solving an ancient puzzle on the seat Orca had been using as a throne. Mission accomplished, they prepared to return to Auria.