When the group gathered, we were short three players: Rick, Joseph, and Nathan, but we welcomed two new players: Adam, who played a Dragonborn Sorcerer named Medrash, and Michael, who played a Dwarf Cleric named Eric.
Dragonborn are a race of dragon-descended humanoids added in 4e. They get bonuses to Charisma and Strength and have breath weapons based on their draconic heritage. They are similar to, but not evil or as magically powerful as draconians from the Dragonlance setting.
So we back-tracked a bit to insert the new characters. Varis, Hos Kadeem and Eric opted to hang back and act as a rear guard while the rest went into Tricklerock Cave. There, they found Eric and Medrash already looking for treasure. T hen the stirges attacked. Unfortunately, my dice had it in for the poor cleric that day, so two striges managed to drop the party's healer on their first turn. The rest had less success. The original encounter called for 4 stirges, but at d4 hit points each, I figured they would have one turn to act, so I upped the total to equal part size +1 (in the case 7).
I was correct in my estimation: one their turns, the players managed to drop the stirges rapidly and Ander stabilized and healed Eric using the Paladin's Lay on Hands feature.
Once the characters defeated the monsters, they had a chance to comb the cave for treasure, and found none. A group Insight check revealed that the PCs had been duped and sent on a fool's errand. They returned to town, arriving late in the evening, so they had no opportunities to investigate until the next day. Still, the innkeeper suggested they investigate the plague, and even offered a reward if they did so.
The opted to speak with Minnie Mhandyvver the poulterer. She confided that yes, Mhelliko the stoneworker and Waelvur might be dangerous, and mentioned a group called the believers. However, she suggested the PCs investigate the "plague" out at Lance Rock first to further earn the trust of the townsfolk. They accepted with trepidation.
They arrived at Lance Rock, a slab of gray granite dropped by a dragon in the region in the distant past. The found a sign warning of a plague at the head of a trail. The sign claimed to be written by "the Lord of Lance Rock." So Intelligence (history) checks revealed that the rock itself was featured in nothing more than usual local folktales. So they followed the trail to a cave.
Inside the cave, they found a corpse on the floor. Eric investigated it using Wisdom (medicine), and was able to determine that it was in fact dead, but had been affected by necromantic magic. Kerial decided to slit its throat, causing the corpse to animate and reveal itself as a zombie.
In this edition zombies have a nasty little feature called undead resistance. When brought down to zero hit points by anything other than radiant damage or damage from a critical hit, they make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken. If they succeed, they go to 1 hit point instead. The party quickly dropped it down to 1 hit point, and its attack bonus was low enough that it wasn't having much affect, but it took a lot of attacks to bring it down. Once again, my dice had it in for poor Eric. The zombie needed to roll a 15 or better to dodge his sacred flame with a Dexterity save. I rolled an 18. Finally, Skomba rolled a critical hit and decapitated it with his axe.
It was break time, and the party now realized that a necromancer had taken up residence in this cave.
Next week my buddy Joseph will be running the game since I'll be in the hospital recovering from a colonostomy. He'll probably be running for at least the week after that as well.
One last thing before I close, faithful readers: this surgery and the illness preceding it are taking some tolls. Please visit my GoFundMe and donate. If you're unable to donate, then please spread the word. Every small step helps.
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